SO golfers, cricketers and footballers are to be protected from spitting and the possibility of this spreading Covid-19.

The rest of the population is dispensable (or is this disposable?).

We will have to endure the obnoxious habit of spitting on the pavement or footpath, unless spitting is actively discouraged.

Is this only a Northern habit? Perhaps understandable in former mining communities, but not now.

However, a limerick my father (a Londoner) recited about 70 years ago came to mind; this suggests a more general habit.

“There was a man from Darjeeling

Who travelled by train from London to Ealing;

It said on the door

‘Don’t spit on the floor’ –

So he carefully spat on the ceiling.”

To stop spreading Covid-19 or any virus we are asked to cough or sneeze into a tissue, or into our elbow; could spitting be added to this advice? Or better – change advice to rule.

One thing less walkers will have to avoid on the path. Spit, cough or atishoo into a tissue.

Michael Rudd, Darlington.