I SUPPOSE I am just an old cynic but the story of the Christmas truce and football matches does make me feel uncomfortable.

How can people exchange presents, shake hands and play a game of football and then go and try to kill each other the next day? It is somehow deeply incongruous and rather absurd.

War is not a game.

How much better it might have been if the participants had agreed at the end of the game to go back and stop the fighting and killing altogether.

If it was supposed to be an example of humanity, then I’m afraid it failed.

NICK PRITCHARD, Southampton.