8 January 2014 Harrogate

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. Heather has taken up with Pertwee and someone has sabotarged Troutbridge’s floggle toggle box. Priceless.

Mary to Harrogate the books shops moved! I get my feet done

Scrabbletoday Mary wins and gets just over300, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Robert Boscawen, who has died aged 90, was a member of a distinguished Cornish family and served as Conservative MP for Wells, the constituency later renamed Somerset and Frome, from 1970 to 1992. Known for his robust Right-wing views, he was a Government Whip from 1979 to 1988.

Robert Thomas Boscawen was born on March 17 1923, the fourth son of the 8th Viscount Falmouth and Mary Margaret Meynell, who was a descendant of Lord Grey of the Reform Bill. Their family roots ran deep in Cornwall, and the name of an 18th-century ancestor, Admiral Sir Edward Boscawen, who was the Member for Truro, is enshrined in the Records of the House of Commons, noting the unanimous vote of thanks accorded him for destroying the French fleet at Lagos Bay in 1759.

Bob grew up at Tregothnan, near Truro, sailing and quickly becoming an excellent shot. He was educated at Eton before, in 1941, within two weeks of leaving school, he joined up at his local recruiting office, in Redruth. He joined the Royal Engineers, which sent him for nine months to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read Engineering. He then applied to join the Coldstream Guards, with which members of his family had served since 1769 (his eldest brother, Evelyn, had been killed while serving with the 2nd Coldstream Guards Battalion in the withdrawal from Dunkirk).

Bob Boscawen joined the 1st Armoured Battalion of the Guards in 1942 and landed in France shortly after D-Day, when he was troop commander of four Sherman tanks. The fighting was intense, and on several occasions Boscawen, then just 21, was involved in bitter and lengthy exchanges of fire, often witnessing the tanks of comrades bursting into flames.

He was involved in the liberation of Brussels, where he bought a shotgun and (as the partridge season had opened) set out to supplement rations with game birds, all washed down with champagne recovered from the Wehrmacht.

Then on October 2, while supporting the 231st Infantry Brigade of 50th Tyne and Tees Division south of Arnhem, Boscawen’s tanks came under heavy fire. With little support, they stood their ground during a night of intense bombardment, “firing at every muzzle flash”. When dawn broke, it illuminated a scene, as he later wrote, “of scattered death and bits of debris”. He was awarded an MC.

They crossed the Rhine on March 30 1945. Two days later, on Easter Day, his tanks were attempting to capture a bridge over a canal near Enschede. As he later noted in his battle diary, which was published in 2001 as Armoured Guardsman: “I found myself looking down the barrels of four [105mm heavy flak] guns beside the bridge, the place seething with Germans… I saw the shots flying up at me. There was a whoof and the turret was engulfed from below in a whirlwind of flame. I eventually broke free from the flames and stumbled back for some 200 yards to safety. The rest were either trapped or shot down…” His troop had set out after D-Day with 19 men. With casualties duly replaced, 13 of its men were killed and nine wounded before V-E Day.

Almost three years and much surgery in the hands of the celebrated Archibald McIndoe passed before Boscawen could return to anything like normal life. His first step came in 1947, when he volunteered for the British Red Cross Civilian Relief Organisation in Germany, helping to run a rehabilitation centre for the war-wounded and assisting East European refugees.

From 1948 he spent two years with Shell Petroleum as a management trainee before joining the family-owned Cornish china clay business, Goonveen, at Rostowrack. He became a Lloyd’s Underwriter in 1952.

He had joined the Conservative Party while still in the Army and in the Fifties began to take an increasingly active role, winning a reputation as a hard-working and effective campaigner, much in demand as a speaker. He contested Falmouth and Camborne in 1964 and 1966, but was ousted as a candidate a year later after a series of acrimonious rows among his constituency activists over his support for the extreme Right-wing Monday Club. His opponents believed it damaged the Party’s prospects in a seat with a radical tradition.

He spent two years searching for a new seat to contest. He had hoped to continue the family tradition in Cornwall, but had to move to Wells in Somerset for both a safe seat and more sympathetic political ears. There he supported the restoration of capital punishment and drastic cuts in the welfare state and student grants. He was against abortion. But it was the pace of decolonisation that most concerned him, and he became a leading supporter of Ian Smith after Rhodesian UDI. He voted against the imposition of sanctions in defiance of the Party Whip.

He did, however, “reluctantly overcome” his anti-Common Market prejudices, being persuaded by the economic arguments in favour of British entry. While he cautioned pro-marketeers against regarding it as a panacea for Britain’s ills, he warned opponents against being prejudiced by memories of the war: “Parliament should not be guided by the distrust, suspicions and hatreds of past years for decisions affecting our future generations.”

In 1976 Boscawen launched a vituperative attack on plans to increase MPs’ pay, describing the debate as “a disagreeable, disgraceful and miserable occasion”; doing so at a time of economic stringency “brought ignominy” on the whole House, while the inclusion of a notional increase to count towards pension rights was “not just nonsense, but bloody nonsense, immoral and wrong”. He took a particular interest in the National Health Service and sat on its London Executive Council from 1954 to 1965. As an MP he was on the backbenchers’ Health Services Committee and vice-chairman from 1974 to 1979.

In 1979 Boscawen was appointed an assistant Whip and promoted to Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in 1981, then to the two senior Whips offices, Vice Chamberlain of Her Majesty’s Household (1983-86) and Comptroller of the Royal Household until 1988.

When he retired from the Whips office in 1988, Mrs Thatcher paid a glowing tribute to his “truly magnificent service to the country, the government and the Parliamentary party”.

The Trappist life of the Whips office had denied Boscawen the opportunity for eight years to display his skill as an orator and his mastery of invective, but did not interfere with his ceaseless work for his constituents. A much appreciated success was to persuade British Rail to stop London express trains at Castle Cary for the first time for many years. Nor did he forget the interests of his Cornish homeland, and was the driving force behind the creation of the Cornwall Industrial Development Group.

Robert Boscawen was a keen rower and expert yachtsman. He stroked the Trinity boat and rowed in the University trial eights. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and regularly sailed in international races, including the Fastnet. On one occasion in the 1950s he was joined on the race by an American journalist who recorded how, in a Force Nine gale in the Irish Sea, many of the crew were “too tired to go on” but found that they would “rather drop in our tracks than admit such feelings to Boscawen himself. Such is the stuff of leadership”.

Bob Boscawen married Mary Alice Codrington in 1949. She died last year, and he is survived by their two daughters, and by a son who followed him into the Coldstream Guards.

Robert Boscawen, born March 17 1923, died December 28 2013

Guardian:

Like so many other Guardian readers, I wanted to express sadness at Simon Hoggart’s untimely death (Original, waspish and witty to the last, 7 January 2014). His parliamentary sketches were beautifully crafted and, in my view, worth the cover the price of the Guardian alone. His humour was always gentle and added to his readers’ understanding of Westminster politics. If ever a journalist encapsulated the values and beliefs of your newspaper, Simon Hoggart was the one.
Matthew Ryder
Buckden St Neots, Cambridgeshire

Michael Gove holds up the show Oh What a Lovely War as an example of a leftwing attempt to peddle unpatriotic myths, and the education department’s defence of its boss implies that this universally acclaimed show “denigrates the patriotism, humour and courage demonstrated by ordinary British soldiers in the first world war” (Baldrick – Your country needs you, G2, 7 January).

The dysfunctional UK housing sector causes serious economic and social problems (The silent scandal, Money, 4 January). We face a supply shortage resulting in a property bubble, exploitation of renters, and overcrowding and homelessness in parts of the country. Property owning is increasingly out of reach for many and there is a huge intergenerational wealth transfer from younger to older generations. But, as your editorial (4 January) rightly states, this is a problem that can be fixed. Three direct interventions are needed urgently: targeted rent controls, to control rents and price rises caused by buy-to-let investment; a tough consumer protection regime to protect renters; and a major housing investment programme.

One of the perceived problems is how to fund a housing programme on the necessary scale. But, there are a number of viable collective funding models. For example, the government could launch a social housing government bond (gilt) to fund local authority building or renovation programmes. Collective funding models are more cost-effective for society than encouraging private financial institutions which demand a significant risk premium for funding major infrastructure projects – in other words, they charge more and still demand the state (taxpayers) underwrites much of the long-term risk involved.

Collective bonds could also offer a higher interest rate to savers hurt by low rates currently available in the market – a win-win for society.
Mick McAteer
Director, Financial Inclusion Centre

• Your focus on the soaring cost of rent reflects the accounts I’ve heard around Britain about how households are being left in impossible circumstances by the cost of simply putting a roof over their heads. And as you rightly highlight, far too many of those privately rented homes are cold, draughty and poorly maintained.

But you are wrong to say that rent control is not on the national agenda: the London assembly housing committee has recommended it and the Green party’s conference last September overwhelmingly supported a motion calling for “smart” rent controls, which would restrict rises for sitting tenants and be linked to significant increases in security for sitting tenants. We need to build much more council housing, to restore the stocks decimated by right to buy. And we need to ensure private landlords provide houses fit for living in. But above all we need to regard houses as homes, a basic right, not a financial cash cow for the few.
Natalie Bennett
Green party leader

• It is timely to see the article focusing on tenants and rents instead of house prices. There is no widely quoted index showing the increase in private rents over the last 30 years. Clearly neoliberal economics has failed the housing market when 30 years of rapidly rising prices have not generated a consequent increase in the supply of housing. Instead rising house prices have proved to be an efficient engine of inequality, rewarding owners of expensive houses with substantial unmerited windfall gain, while penalising tenants with rent increases. Governments need to intervene to provide a satisfactory supply of new housing and to use controls to limit the rise in house prices to protect tenants not merely to avoid housing bubbles.
Nick Vosper

Ed Pilkington (Obama’s bubble continues to deflate, 20 December) and many other commentators express disappointment at Barack Obama’s inability to achieve a swag of reforms in the US and imply, if not state outright, that this indicates indecisiveness at best and weakness or insincerity at worst on his part.

Democratic institutions such as those in the US and most western political systems are designed to prevent maverick leaders from exercising untrammelled power through the checks and balances of the parliamentary system. As long as the parliament does its job properly, this works OK, but if it becomes dysfunctional or corrupted, there is no way that the leader can override it. If subsequent elections fail to produce a government that works any better, radicalisation often occurs and the most extreme form of this is a military coup. This usually leads to even worse consequences, as we have seen in Chile, Greece, Egypt and others over the last century; in fact, the only beneficial military coup in this period was that led by Ataturk almost 100 years ago.

Most of the blame for our current woes is being directed at the leaders in both Australia and US, but I suggest that both our parliamentary systems are in very poor shape and should carry the major responsibility for our problems. Evolution works through both gradual adaptation and through traumatic cataclysm.

Let’s hope we have the sense to develop our institutions of government through the former rather than have to suffer the latter.
David Barker
Bunbury, Western Australia

Dangers of surveillance

Alan Rusbridger’s missive Inside the surveillance state (20 December) fills one with despair for the English-speaking Christian countries that comprise the total surveillance states: namely, the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It took 800 years from the date of the Magna Carta to the present for democratic principles based on the freedom of the individual to grow and mature among the same people.

It is a great irony that the creators of democracy have become its executioners. Until the collapse of the Soviet Union, visitors to that country came back with scare stories of how the KGB was following them continuously, watching and noting down their utterances and activities. Now our governments have CCTV cameras, telephones, internet and emails to do the same job with meticulous efficiency, without causing us any concern or pain.

When a country loses its self-confidence, no matter how powerful it may be, it resorts to total surveillance, as with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the past. Who thought that surveillance was the harbinger of destruction for those political systems at their height of power?

The total surveillance state that our political leaders have created with the intention of safeguarding our freedom and security brings to mind a verse from the Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita: I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.
Bill Mathew
Melbourne, Australia

Tensions in east Asia

Your coverage of the current situation in the East China Sea (Escalating tensions leave Japan depending on US support more than ever, 6 December, and Unapologetic Japan squares up to China, 13 December) downplays a few important points that may affect the outcome.

First, it is worth remembering that the current escalation really began when Shintaro Ishihara, then governor of Tokyo, now co-leader of the Japan Restoration party, bounced the previous government into buying the Senkakus from their private owner. As such, the current situation is as much down to the behaviour of the slow-witted nationalists now running Japan as it is to Chinese “aggression”.

Second, when China established its Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ), all airlines in the region complied with the Chinese demand to file flight plans and to identify all aircraft to Chinese military air traffic control. A week after the ADIZ was imposed, the Japanese government instructed Japan’s major carriers to cease filing flight plans and to tell their pilots to cease identifying their flights to the Chinese authorities. Given the tensions in this region, such action represents the height of irresponsibility, as airline passengers may be used as guinea pigs to test Chinese intentions.

The real risk factor here is conflict starting by accident. The danger is the hot-shot Chinese fighter pilot, a little hung-over, having a bad day, and then sent to intercept an “unidentified” aircraft leaving Japanese airspace. Should such a tragedy befall a Japanese commercial flight in the present era of tension, I have little faith in the Japanese government’s ability, or even intention, to contain the situation.
David Layfield
Okinawa, Japan

Hungarians are not extremists

If András Schiff is that worried about the imminent resurgence of fascism in Hungary (20 December) why doesn’t he come home and get his hands dirty? The answer perhaps, is that there is no prospect of one actually occurring. Yes, there is Jobbik, recently down from 16% to 13% in the Tarki poll, and yes, Jobbik thugs occasionally do nasty, stupid things in public. But one wonders what public soul-searching of the kind Schiff proposes would actually achieve – apart from giving a heady dash of oxygen to the fascists. In fact one could argue that Viktor Orbán’s current policy of letting them self-combust is actually proving quite successful.

Hungary has its problems: near-starvation in some rural areas, little prospect of a quick escape from its economic straitjacket and the absence of a credible opposition. But its long-suffering people are resigned and, some might say, overly tolerant, not extremist.
David North
Nagykovácsi, Hungary

The dilemma of austerity

Austerity is never a popular word and stimulating an economy in recession with easy monetary policy and fiscal deficits is usually good economic policy (US takes a welcome step away from austerity, 20 December). Unfortunately, the resulting increase in the public debt is not always possible because, in many cases, this debt is already considered to be too high by the financial sector. As a result, further borrowing may become impossible or so costly that it becomes too much of a burden, as Greece, Italy and a few other countries have discovered.

Many governments face a dilemma between increasing their deficits to stimulate growth and reducing their debt to avoid the dangerous risk of insolvency. Harry Stein is mistaken when he suggests that the choice is between austerity and economic growth. The reality is that some countries have no choice but to follow austerity.

Stein is right to suggest that tax changes would have been better than sequestration to reduce both government expenses and the public debt, but his claim that sequestration caused terrible damage in 2013 is exaggerated, at least at the global level. The reality is that the US economy has performed better than the year before and unemployment has declined. Admittedly, the recovery has been weaker than in previous cases but the recession was also sharper. In fact, the real surprise has been the very limited impact of these blunt austerity measures on the global US economy in 2013.
Francois P Jeanjean
Ottawa, Canada

Tensions in Singapore

Your report on rioting arising from tension between Singaporeans and migrant workers in the city’s Little India district is a reminder that we need to understand the way in which class and ethnicity interact with one another as part of the social dynamic making Singapore what it is today (13 December).

Beneath the surface of Singapore’s authoritarian democracy is, and always has been, a measure of social tension, which came to the surface [through race riots] in 1964 and which, like the current disturbance, had a class as well as a communal dimension.

It is in large measure in response to this mostly subterranean tension that Singapore’s national unity has always relied on a high degree of state coercion to hold its society together.

That tension, and the state coercion that holds it in check, is reflected in the city’s ill-fated Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park. That spacious and very well-organised speaking venue, modelled on the London equivalent in Hyde Park, has no speakers because its potential orators are too afraid of arrest.

Class and race are, in effect, among the proscribed topics for discussion at this venue because they are, perhaps understandably given what happened in 1964, considered too destabilising.
Terry Hewton
Adelaide, South Australia

Briefly

• The “newly discovered gas” that is more than “7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth” (Dispatches, 20 December) certainly deserves to be monitored closely. It becomes a little less scary, though, when you consider that it is actually a liquid, not a gas: Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) has a boiling point of 178C at atmospheric pressure, which should make it relatively easy to contain the substance in a closed system.

Moreover, a rough estimate based on the figure of 7,000 and established chemical calculations leads me to conclude that one gram of PFTBA released into the atmosphere is equivalent in destructive potential to the carbon dioxide that results from burning around 250ml of petrol – or from driving an average car for about 8km.
Egbert von Steuber
Lingen, Germany

• That Claire Armitstead should have characterised Dogmatix as “evil-tempered” may be a bit unfair to the cuddly and mild-mannered mascot (3 January). Only under the influence of a wee drop of potion does he transmogrify to unleash his inner beserker – reminiscent of the Hulk’s rage. And like the latter he swells his girth (or maybe just puffs himself up) and rampages in dogged pursuit of Roman popinjays.
R M Fransson
Denver, Colorado, US

• I enjoyed Ian Jack’s article on the coverage of the (undoubtedly great) man’s death (20 December). I was totally Mandela-ed out of it within 36 hours of his demise, as were quite a few people I commented to on the matter.
Muiris de Bhulbh
Leixlip, Ireland

Independent:

Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove wants us all to rewrite the history of the First World War. It was a great patriotic war where noble Englishmen fought for the liberal ideals of Britain against the rapacious and evil German expansionist regime.

Of course, these were the liberal ideals where women didn’t get the vote until 1918 (and then only if they were over 30), Irish people were considered as subhuman and black people even worse.

No, it was a war that threw multitudes of misled and desperate young men from all over the world into a mechanised hell of death-machines and mutilation. A politician or historian who tries to rewrite this horror as a victory for anyone is at best misguided, and at worst a psychopath with no empathy for human suffering.

Ronan Breslin

Glasgow

Michael Gove has suggested the centenary of 1914 should be an occasion for recognising the necessary and honourable part Britain played in resisting German militarism. He has been immediately assailed by the Labour Party and the British left in general, as well as the SNP, who are determined to make an ideological argument out of the First World War.

But in spite of the carnage it is difficult to see how we could responsibly or safely have stayed neutral while Germany secured hegemony over the Continent. Britain may have had little sympathy for Serbia or Russia, but the Germans’ decision to implement their vast war plan by invading neutral Belgium was a game-changer.

The idea that Hitler was very bad but the Kaiser a cuddly old duffer is undermined by the harsh terms imposed on a defeated Russia; similar terms were planned for the West. It is argued that German victory would have resulted in a proto-EU, but their 1914 plans show that, save for the Jewish genocide, it would have resembled the Second World War occupation.

Dr John Cameron

St Andrews

While according the greatest respect to everyone who fought in the First World War, in whatever service and for whatever nation, I cannot help feeling that Nigel Farage’s statistic of 47 British divisional generals killed in action during that conflict tends to reinforce rather than mitigate the popular conception of the incompetence of the British leadership.

Surely it is the job of divisional generals to lead their divisions by planning, disposing and commanding. This is not served by placing themselves in situations where they are likely to be killed.

John Kempster

Basildon, Essex

Michael Gove writes an article suggesting that the First World War tactics of blundering ever forwards into the mire, while sustaining massive damage and needless casualties, weren’t all that bad, really. Two days later, George Osborne announces his intention of continuing his economic tactics of blundering ever forwards into the mire, while sustaining massive damage and needless casualties. Are these facts related?

Steve Rudd

Huddersfield,  West Yorkshire

Power failures after the floods

I have just come back from St Lucia where, on Christmas Eve, severe floods took several lives, washed away bridges and destroyed the homes of people who possess very little. It was therefore interesting to see people’s reaction here to a rather lesser flooding crisis.

Following extensive storm damage it is surely unreasonable to expect power supplies to be restored in one or two days. The power companies should be honest about the likely timetable, and in the meantime pay more generous compensation of perhaps £50 to £100 a day.

Simon Garratt

Hertford

The record levels of profit and the ownership structure of UK Power Networks and similar transnational companies expose the utter futility of the free-marketeers’ insistence that an unregulated economy is the answer to all ills.

The Government continues blindly to sanction the decades-long policy of creating cash cows for the elite out of once-public assets, with no discernible benefit accruing to the nation, its wealth or its workers.

You don’t have to be an ardent leftie to recognise that for a party self-described as conservative this lot conserve very little indeed.

There is now ample reason for a return to a degree of statutory oversight and regulation, particularly in regard to the mix of shell companies, artificially induced debt, profit extraction and asset-stripping that masquerades as modern management.

Christopher Dawes

London W11

Tories prefer cuts to fair taxes

Given that Mr Osborne has declared the need to save £25bn, why is he making so little effort to increase the tax-take from Google, Apple, Starbucks and the rest? The tax not paid by these transnational companies could go a long way to sorting out our problems. I suspect there is a so far undiscussed reason why he won’t initiate the necessary reforms.

A fair tax-take from these and others like them could be achieved by a concerted effort across the whole EU and enforced by the EU. The EU is big enough to scare the pants off these avoiders with threats of punitive damages for non-compliance. Thus they could be brought to the table and made to pay fair taxes. The supposed threat that they could “go elsewhere” is a bit thin, since these companies need Europe just as much as Europe needs them.

Tragically, Mr Osborne’s prejudice, which can’t accept just how useful the EU could be, doesn’t allow such a plan to be considered. Or maybe he just loves these avoiders too much.

Tim Brook

Bristol

When discussing benefit reforms, we need to remember that the £24bn we pay out in housing benefit doesn’t help tenants at all – the money goes straight from their bank accounts to those of their landlords. Maybe we should stop calling it housing benefit and rename it landlord subsidy.

In the 1980s there were very few private landlords, not because rents were low (though they were) but because landlords stood little chance of ever regaining possession of their properties if they let them. The much-needed Assured Shorthold Tenancy legislation changed that, and we now have many small private landlords renting houses out. Tenants can’t afford the high rents demanded, but instead of letting the market set the rents, we give them housing benefit.

But we don’t have to keep rents artificially high with housing benefit. We could agree it is not right for landlords to receive a sum equivalent to a fifth of the total cost of the NHS, and start to think hard about rent controls. Or at least withdraw housing benefit and make the rental market a free market.

Of course estate agents and landlords will protest at the idea – they’d lose money – but there must be a better way to make sure people have a roof over their heads.

Ruth Harrison

Norwich

Where Harris tweed comes from

Professor Guy Woolley chastised Andy McSmith (letter, 28 December) for missing out Hawick as a centre for Harris Tweed production. However, with the Harris Tweed Act 1993, establishing the Harris Tweed Authority as the successor to the Harris Tweed Association, the following definition of genuine Harris Tweed became statutory:

“Harris Tweed means a tweed which has been hand woven by the islanders at their homes in the Outer Hebrides, finished in the islands of Harris, Lewis, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist and Barra and their several purtenances (The Outer Hebrides) and made from pure virgin wool dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides.”

Malcolm Macdonald

Stornoway, Isle of Lewis

Martin Amis’s stepmother dies

I wish to add my protest to that of Louisa Young (Letter, 6 January) concerning your headline at the news of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s death: “Writer who inspired Martin Amis dies.”

It is astounding that someone of Howard’s stature should be described in a modern liberal newspaper largely in terms of what men she was married to, slept with or was related to, and by her looks rather than her considerable achievements as a novelist. Perhaps your staff is too preoccupied with the events of 1914?

Amanda Craig

London NW1

A cut above  the rest

I am glad to see that appropriate recognition has at last been given to the contribution of the noble hairdressing profession by way of the New Year Honours list (“Cameron’s hairdresser is appointed MBE”, 7 January). Can I, through your good offices, make an early plea for the inclusion of my own barber –  George, of George’s Barber Shop, Sydenham – in the list for next year? Thanking you in anticipation.

John Cooper

Times:

Sir, As a graduate engineer working on the Crossrail Project, I agree that the time is right to market the dream of modern engineering to young people (Letters Jan 6).

Telegraph:

SIR – With the changes taking place at English Heritage, is it not now time to consider placing our medieval churches in its care?

SIR – Charles Moore’s wake-up call in defence of the United Kingdom will have struck a chord with supporters of the Union, whether or not they are entitled to vote.

SIR – David Cameron expects us to believe that he will protect the state pension with his “triple lock”. But the Government has been manipulating interest rates, and quantitative easing has reduced the current pension’s value by half. The inflation figure is in reality much higher, rather than the 2 to 3 per cent spouted by the Establishment.

Irish Times:

Sir, – Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte is quoted in Steven Carroll’s report (“Rabbitte accepts consultation over pylon concerns not good enough”, Front Page, January 4th) as criticising both Eirgrid and the Government for failing to consult properly the local communities about the grid-link project to erect pylons and thus ruin our landscape. Mr Rabbitte went on to say that “it is incumbent on those of us involved to . . . get as much community acceptance as we can”.

Does this not imply that instead of placing the concerns of those directly exposed to the implications of such a project as his priority, Mr Rabbitte is in fact approving the scheme on condition that the Government and Eirgrid get as much acceptance from the community “as possible”?

Regardless of whether that level of acceptance is even close to a public majority of the local communities in question? – Yours, etc,

LUKE FitzHERBERT,

Killanne,

Enniscorthy,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – I found your report on the anti-pylon folk a bit distressing. Some heat but no light. The generation and distribution of electricity is a highly technical engineering matter. As is, of course, the exploitation of natural gas resources. Both require highly trained engineers to achieve the desired objectives in a practical and safe manner. A little knowledge acquired on the internet is not enough but is, in fact, more than a little dangerous.

Alison Healy’s report (“Opponents of pylons and wind turbines come together to highlight their concerns”, Home News, January 6th) notes a protest banner with the message “Bury the cable, not the people”. The protesters’ slogan implies that overhead transmission lines kill people: where has this happened? The facts ignored are that buried cables are vastly more expensive than overhead lines and are wildly uneconomic. Why do these people not tell us which countries have pursued their “policies”? As far as I know there is not one noteworthy country which has a 100 per cent cable policy for high-voltage transmission. Not one. – Your, etc,

MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM,

Wyckham Place,

Dundrum,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – After over two decades of exhaustive research in Ireland and elsewhere there is no evidence whatsoever, even at the lowest level, to prove, suggest or imply that pylons damage the health of those living nearby. That the argument around pylons continues, and at such a hysterical, irrational, frivolous and unfounded level, is disappointing. By now people should know better. – Yours, etc,

CHRISTIAN MORRIS,

Claremont Road,

Howth,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – There is one way to solve our need to criss-cross the country with electricity pylons. We could stop flood-lighting our sheds, yards, gardens and the entrances to our houses, and we could stop putting dozens of spotlights on the roofs of our kitchens or sitting rooms. The gnomes in my garden have never once asked to be flood-lit at night. – Yours, etc,

KEN BUGGY,

Ballydubh Upper,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – If the Government’s “staunch anti-nuclear stance” (“Government contributing to nuclear fusion reactor development”, Front Page, January 6th) extends to nuclear fusion, then the sun itself is Ireland’s enemy.

Your report is possibly trying to generate a little frisson by blurring the lines between fusion and fission. It is perfectly consistent to be anti-Sellafield and pro-fusion. – Yours, etc,

GERRY CHRISTIE,

Monalee,

Tralee,

Co Kerry.

Sir, – I accept that the development of fusion reactors, which will produce electricity on a commercial scale, involves some as yet not fully resolved challenges and that the time lines for meeting these challenges remains uncertain. However nuclear fusion reactors when they become a commercial reality will be intrinsically safer and cheaper to operate primarily because:

1. The fuel they burn (normally a mixture of two isotopes of hydrogen) is intrinsically safer to handle than uranium and of no interest to terrorists;

2. The quantities and types of radioactive wastes they produce are much smaller in quantity and much less hazardous than those associated with fission reactors;

3. The fusion reaction, which involves the fusion of atoms rather than their fission, is very easily controlled – switching off the electric current that supplies the large magnets that confine the ionised atoms in the fusion process stops the reaction in its tracks.

For this reason most scientists and governments, including, I believe, the Irish Government, are supportive of nuclear fusion research as is being undertaken in Cadarache in France.

Turning briefly to the role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while it certainly true that this includes promoting the peaceful development of nuclear energy, it also plays a pivotal role in the inspection of nuclear weapons and potential nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities.

Perhaps less widely known is the role of the IAEA in the safe use of radiation in a wide range of applications, for example in agriculture, industry and medicine and also in upgrading radiation protection standards in these areas, especially in developing countries. I have worked for the IAEA on its radiation protection programme and so consider myself well placed to point this out.

The Government’s contribution to both nuclear fusion research and to the IAEA reflect a maturity and ability to think beyond the Sellafield issue. – Yours, etc,

CHRISTOPHER HONE,

Green Isle Road,

Clondalkin,

Dublin 22.

Sir, – I think Daniel Griffin is unduly harsh on Enda Kenny when he asks in his recent letter (January 4th), “How can a Taoiseach who identified many of the flaws of the Seanad during the campaign now preside over that same flawed institution?” In fairness to Mr Kenny, we have to recognise that the man is still reeling following the rejection by the electorate of his proposal to abolish the Seanad. Furthermore, the recently published report of the Referendum Commission on the October ballot has effectively demolished the excuse put forward by the Government for its failure to win a majority in favour of the abolition of the Upper House. Prior to the release of the commission’s report, Ministers and their spokespeople maintained in a series of non-attributable briefings that voters were bewildered by the fact that they were asked to vote on a counter-intuitive basis, ie, vote Yes to abolish the Senate, vote No to retain the Upper House.

It is clear, however, that voter confusion served to depress artificially the majority in favour of the retention of the Seanad. The Referendum’s Commission’s report states that “13% of declared Yes voters actually wanted the Seanad to be retained . . . However 6% who voted No said they actually wanted the Seanad to be abolished”. If the percentages quoted in the previous sentence were applied to the total No vote (634,437) and Yes vote (591,937) recorded in the referendum, we would see a net increase of 38,886 in the number in favour of retaining the Senate. When the latter figure is added to the actual majority of 42,500 recorded on polling day as being in favour of retention, that majority increases to 81,386. It is also worth noting that the total number of votes spoiled on polling day (14,355) clearly had no material impact on the final result.

Adding to Mr Kenny’s post-referendum difficulties, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald was reported in a recent edition of your newspaper (Front Page, December 27th) as saying that the campaign to abolish the Senate was “demeaning” and that there was “absolutely no need, ever” to “rubbish” the Upper House and its members, past or present. Your report of December 27th also states that, during the referendum campaign, Ms Fitzgerald, along with other Fine Gael Ministers, backed Mr Kenny’s position that there would be no reform of the Seanad if it was retained. That particular article then goes on to point out that Ms Fitzgerald “now says her position was that there should be reform”.

I am sure that the Taoiseach is, like me, still trying to resolve the difficulty posed by the comments from his Minister for Children.

Precisely how can a member of the Government be against reform of the Upper House in advance of the referendum and in favour of reform afterwards? In addition, did it really take Ms Fitzgerald almost three months from the date on which the referendum was held before she realised that the campaign was “demeaning”? – Yours, etc,

PAUL GULLY,

St Lawrence’s Road,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – Reading of our Taoiseach’s trade mission to Riyadh (“An Irish troika offers words of advice to Kenny on Saudi trip” Home News, January 6th), and the promotion of Ireland by a member of the trade delegation as “not that different” to Saudi Arabia, made my stomach turn.

How much better to highlight the great differences between our countries! Such as the fact that our people can express dissent without fear for their safety. That Irish women do not need male permission to drive, go to school, travel or work. That we are free to protest, assemble and express public dissent at government decisions and policy. That we do not have public executions or punishments.

If we don’t stand for such minimum principles in our business dealings as gender equality, free speech and human rights, then we don’t stand for much. – Yours, etc,

JOANNE DOYLE,

Sallymount Avenue,

Ranelagh,

Sir, – The arts community in Limerick quite reasonably imagined that an event called “Limerick City of Culture” would be a celebration of their city through art and culture. What they failed to understand was that, for the board of the event, this was really a “rebranding” exercise, with a few auld plays and jugglers thrown in to take the hard look off it. Provided they didn’t want much of the budget, of course. – Yours, etc,

GERARD LEE ,

St Agnes Park,

Crumlin,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – In light of the recent debacle surrounding the City of Culture, the “Curse of Saint Munchin” comes to mind. The story goes that the workmen employed on the building of the ancient church of St Munchin were one day striving to raise a very heavy block of stone to a certain part of the work. The saint was standing by and called on some of the citizens to help the men to put the stone in the desired position. These citizens refused to lend their aid, and the saint appealed to some strangers who were passing, who readily lent their assistance, whereupon St Munchin fervently thanked them and prayed that the strangers might always prosper in Limerick and the natives be unfortunate and unsuccessful. – Yours, etc,

NOEL NAUGHTON,

Quarry Road,

Thomondgate,

Limerick.

A chara, – Richard Irvine (“An inclusive Ireland can surely find a place for the union flag”, Opinion, January 3rd) makes some unfortunate errors. To suggest that Sinn Féin, and nationalists generally, only started to object to Orange parades and associated symbols in the 1990s is patently ridiculous.

These coat-trailing exercises have been a source of contention since they began.

Current opposition is merely a resurgent nationalist population finding its voice in rejecting situations which have been foisted upon them from since before the Act of Union but especially in the six counties from 1922 to 1972.

I find it interesting that rather than pressing for unionists to accept nationalist parades in majority unionist areas (which would be a true compromise), Mr Irvine suggests that, as usual, it is up to nationalists to capitulate.

His solution regarding flags on public buildings again urges nationalists to yield. It is worth pointing out that the measure to fly the British flag for “only” 18 days a year was simply to bring the North in line with the rest of the UK.

Why not, in the spirit of the Belfast Agreement, fly both flags over public buildings in the North? This is surely the only equitable solution, particularly in Belfast, which is a majority nationalist city! – Is mise,

PAUL LINEHAN,

Thormanby Road,

Howth,

Sir, – Prof Pat O’Connor raised the serious omission of a gender profile of those in senior academic and administrative reports (January 2nd) in a recent evaluative report produced by the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

The HEA response (January 4th) is very disappointing – in fact somewhat insulting – given that in the late 1980s the HEA itself under the direction of Michael Gleeson commissioned and published a report on women in academia (or rather the lack of women in higher positions in academia). It does not augur well that after 30 years the HEA has not managed to count the number of men and women in each senior position in all the third-level colleges under its direction.

This is not a new issue for the HEA nor indeed is it “rocket science”, as their response suggests. – Yours, etc,

EVELYN MAHON, FTCD

School of Social Work

and Social Policy,

Trinity College Du

Sir, – Peadar Mac Maghnais (December 27th) raises an interesting point about our Army’s own usage of its correct and historic title, Óglaigh na hÉireann.

For many years the Department of Defence in collaboration with the officer corps, or in defiance of them, has been busy branding every unit in English.

Soldiers wear jackets bearing the word “Army”. The big drum of the Aer Corps is emblazoned “Irish Air Corps Pipe Band”.

I have seen photos of naval personnel with “Navy” on their baseball-type caps. Most recently, An Fórsa Cosanta Áitiúl (FCA) became the “Army Reserve” and at the same time An Slua Muirí was converted to the “Naval Reserve”.

The present Minister for Defence and the officers of Óglaigh na hÉireann can easily reverse the situation and create a force as proud of its Irish name, in all of its branches, as is An Garda Síochána. – Yours, etc,

PÁDRAIG Ó MATHÚNA,

Baile an Teampaill,

Sir, – James A Quinn says that the whistle was not blown on the reckless abandon of the Celtic Tiger boom because “a culture is almost always stronger than any individual within it”(January 2nd).

John Fagan says that anyone who did attempt to point out that the boom was unsustainable was promptly accused of failing to “put on the green jersey” and told to “stop talking down the economy” (Letters, January 4th).

Is blaming the ordinary individual for being intimidated and not confronting the conventional wisdom of the boom time – that all in the garden was rosy – not missing the point?

Surely the people of influence, who had the information and resources to form and lead public opinion, were the people who should have challenged those in the green jersey brigade?

Surely those who were in positions of power needed to be challenged by those in media and academia who were in a position to do so when the reckless abandon was getting out of hand? – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

Sutton, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Pensions were invented in the time of Bismarck, when the average life expectancy was 58. Thus, very few people were ever expected to qualify for a pension at 65.

In the meantime, average life expectancies keep growing and are currently at 76 for men and 81 for women. Thus, keeping the original differential, men should currently qualify for a pension at 83 and women at 88! – Yours, etc,

CORNELIUS MOLONEY ,

Chelmsford,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Any chance that the Teaching Council might tackle underperforming pupils? – Yours, etc,

AILEEN HOOPER,

Norseman Place,

Stoneybatter, Dublin 7.

Irish Independent:

* There have been a number of letters lamenting the fact that Christmas drags on, and what would tourists make of this, with shops closed and businesses all locked up.

Also in this section

Why Pope is the only hope to save church

Editorial: Pylon problem could be real headache for Kenny

Letters: Why I’ll always regret buying a shotgun

But with everyone so busy the rest of the year, is it so bad to take a break?

Being from Germany originally and neither “foreigner” nor a tourist, I don’t see the point of these letters.

I find it not only nice but necessary to have some days to contemplate and hang out with friends and family after another “Christmas Hyper” this year.

Obviously these authors have a problem and do not feel the same as I. Not to go back to work on December 27 can be, but does not have to be, based on religious motifs.

One letter refers to Dev’s Ireland, which must have been way before my time here. I have worked and lived happily in Co Dublin for 18 years.

It is simply a human thing to chill out.

It seems to me like an unnecessary kind of jealousy to call people “lazy” for taking a rest after Christmas, regardless of working for the public service or private business. I enjoyed the great time off anyway, and will hopefully do the same next year again.

MARKUS LAUER

LUCAN, CO DUBLIN

TURNING VEGETARIAN

* For about six months I had endeavoured to keep to a vegetarian diet. However, at Christmas, I gave way to temptation. On entering a supermarket I saw a package labelled ‘Traditional Irish Ham’. On opening the package at home, I found the ham looked, felt and tasted like rubber.

Perhaps this was a sign that not just I, but my fellow citizens, should make a New Year’s resolution to endeavour to become vegetarians?

TONY MORIARTY

HAROLD’S CROSS, DUBLIN

RABBITS AND HARES

* Barry Clifford’s letter (Irish Independent, January 6) set me thinking about those strange Connemara rabbits who stand up on their hind legs.

I would wager the price of a box of No 4 cartridges that the animal in question was, in fact, a hare.

BERNARD LARKIN

BALLINASLOE, CO GALWAY

RYANAIR’S GOODWILL

* I recently booked return flights to Birmingham with Ryanair at a cost of €70. Moments later, I found out that I should have, in fact, booked return flights to Liverpool. When I requested a change of flights, to my horror the cost of travel increased to €255. Imagine my further dismay when I priced new flights to Liverpool and realised that I could have gotten the same for €60 while leaving my seats on the Birmingham flights empty.

I emailed Ryanair and got a reply stating that they would fully refund €160 to my account in light of my two unfortunate errors of judgment. A huge relief for me and a great show of goodwill on their part.

I recently read in your paper that their charity calendar for this year has so far raised over €100,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

They are not the big, bad wolf that everyone makes them out to be and I think that this story proves that.

SEAN OG WHELAN

GOREY, CO WEXFORD

CHRIST AT CHRISTMAS

* Michael Brennan and John Downing ponder whether President Higgins should have mentioned Christ at Christmas (Irish Independent, January 6) since he already took the oath under the Constitution. There’s not much to ponder.

The preamble to that Constitution observes the important position of Jesus Christ — and for a very good reason. In Ireland’s continuing need for a “moral compass”, who else but Christ can provide a better one?

DAVID WILSON

NATIONAL TEAM LEADER, AGAPE

CLARINDA PARK NORTH, DUN LAOGHAIRE

SAUDI ARABIA CONCERNS

* The recent visit of An Taoiseach to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is, in this letter writer’s humble opinion, an affront to anyone who has concerns regarding basic human rights, democracy and the independence of sovereign nations to conduct their own affairs without outside interference. In November 2013, Amnesty International‘s Middle East and North African director Philip Luther said: “The crackdown on freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia is widening with at least a dozen human rights activists sentenced in 2013 alone.”

PAUL DORAN

DUBLIN 22

WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES?

* Less than a week before Christmas, Taoiseach Enda Kenny had sharply disagreed with Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore’s claim that same-sex marriage was the “civil rights issue of the generation”. Nevertheless, the Taoiseach went on to say he would canvass in support of Mr Gilmore’s proposal to hold a referendum on the issue. And that was despite admitting that the burning issue of the day for him was job creation. Where in heaven’s name lie our priorities?

At least we know now, the Taoiseach was honourable in his intentions. He has since been on a five-day trade mission in the Middle East involving more than 80 Irish companies. Hopefully the trip will have a fruitful outcome for potential employment or lay the foundation for future jobs.

JAMES GLEESON

THURLES, CO TIPPERARY

COWEN PORTRAIT

* I have found a solution for Enda Kenny and the Department of the Taoiseach, which has yet to commission an official portrait of former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, something that tradition demands. Why not resurrect the portrait of Mr Cowen that mysteriously appeared on a wall in the National Gallery a few years back? To my eye, it seemed a magnificent piece of work.

JOHN BELLEW

PAUGHANSTOWN, DUNLEER, CO LOUTH

FLOODING SOLUTION

* Not wanting to sound callous but flooding is a perennial issue; could someone not go to Holland and study flood prevention and provide a solution to the problem?

MARK LONERGAN

GLASNEVIN, DUBLIN 11

PYLON PROPOSALS

* Minister Pat Rabbitte’s recent comments that the wind turbine issue and electric pylons are not linked is disingenuous. The massive pylon infrastructure proposed by EirGrid is to facilitate an increase in wind power on to the grid — 70pc of all power on the grid according to gridlink manager John Lowry.

ANDREW DUNCAN

MULLINGAR, CO WESTMEATH

* With our green hills under attack, the following lines came to me:

A Lament

Not far from Yeats’ last Earthly rest

Near beautiful Glencarr

The desecration of hilly crest

Windmills ugly scar

No Yeats to voice a fisted curse

Against this crass betrayal

By those in Power who plead no choice

And squirm in their denial

When we allowed these Philistines

To wave their moneyed hand

They know the price of everything

But not this valued land

How can we lift our heads again

And sing of Ireland’s name

When our poet’s dead and lies beneath

A land of ravished shame.

JOHN-PATRICK BELL

MANORHAMILTON, CO LEITRIM

Irish Independent

9 January 2014 Tumble Dryer

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. The crew of Troutbridge are being tested to see if they can detect a spy in their midst. Priceless.

Tunble dryer repaired and quote for windows and insulation decisions decisions

Scrabbletoday I winand gets just over300, Perhaps Marywill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Marina Ginestà, who has died aged 94, was believed to have been the last surviving French veteran of the Spanish Civil War. As a 17-year-old member of Spain’s Unified Socialist Youth she was immortalised in a photograph taken on the roof of the Hotel Colón in Barcelona in the first flames of the conflict; it was to become one of the most famous photographs of the war.

At the end of the war Marina Ginestà was wounded and, as Spain’s short-lived Second Republic collapsed, she was evacuated to Montpellier to recover. She later fled the city when the Germans invaded France, settling in the Dominican Republic. Further persecution, this time by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, caused her to leave in 1946, and in 1952 she returned to Barcelona. By the time she was discovered by Efe she was living in Paris as a translator for a Spanish psychoanalyst.

“They say that in the Colón photo I have a captivating look,” she acknowledged in an interview given in her late eighties. “It’s possible, because we were immersed both in the mysticism of the proletarian revolution and the images of Hollywood, of Greta Garbo and Gary Cooper.”

Marina Ginestà married twice, latterly in 1952 to a Belgian diplomat.

Marina Ginestà, born January 29 1919, died January 6 2014

Guardian:

County councils in the Tory heartlands are slashing subsidies to many bus services. Here in North Yorkshire, vital bus services for the elderly and infirm are under threat. Many passengers say if they lose this vital service they’ll vote Ukip at the election. If you want a real vote winner, Mr Cameron, reinstate half fares for those with passes. This would solve all the problems, no one would object. After all, what good is a bus pass without a bus
Paul Swain
Malton, North Yorkshire

Rather than being caused by the limitations of the education system, or the absence of role models, the large increase in youth joblessness highlighted by Christina Patterson (Comment, 4 January) is the product of major changes in the economy and occupational structure – changes that have been greatly accentuated by the recession. Just as serious is the situation where, rather than lacking skills, many more young people now find they are underemployed, having ended up in jobs for which they are overqualified, with around 40% of university leavers ending up in non-graduate jobs.

Your report (Spend more to ease flood misery, says climate chief, 6 January)underestimates what has to be done. In 2013 there were 60 railway landslips a day in February, four times the previous rate of coastal cliff falls, a 5% degradation of agricultural output through unseasonable weather, thousands of homes inundated with sewage and left without electricity for days, damage to business running into millions, coastal and localised flooding, and a colliery spoil tip slid into a railway line, the first such significant failure since Aberfan.

Independent:

Times:

Telegraph:

SIR – Every film and television portrayal of Sherlock Holmes repeats the same mistake in having the number 221B on the front door of the detective’s house.

SIR – Today the public learns of the deplorable practices that were instrumental in the Government’s decision to reverse its commitment to save thousands of lives through implementing a minimum unit price for alcohol. An investigation conducted by the British Medical Journal shows that ministers met drinks industry representatives to discuss alternative measures to minimum pricing at a time when the principle of this policy was not up for public debate.

SIR – Decreasing the motorway speed limit to 60mph in some areas will make long journeys even longer and more tiring. It is also harder to maintain alertness and concentration if driving at a lower speed than is necessary. These two factors will increase the likelihood of road accidents.

Irish Times:

Sir, – Pat Rabbitte says that the pylon consultations need to improve. Of course he’s right. Now he and the rest of the Government need to do something about it. The Grid Link consultation process only allows “the public” and “stakeholders” to make submissions to EirGrid to help the company to “identify a least-constrained corridor option” that will be one kilometre wide for overhead cables and pylons. Let’s have proper consultations, not just meetings with gridline company consultants.

This “consultation” is just a means of getting soundings from the public about whether they want the gridline over our land, his land, her land or their land. Not in my back yard is the natural response. It’s the proposed method, not the means, that’s creating the problems. There is no consultation on the method. Why not put the cables underground? Why not consider this for at least some of the area? Will the existing electrical gridlines be eliminated and removed when the new ones are installed?

It is the responsibility of our democratically elected Government to take care of public health and to allay people’s fears about proposed national projects. Dismissive statements repeating the EirGrid comments about creating platforms for future jobs are not enough. A €500 million investment covering such a large area is not a very large amount of money. Anglo Irish Bank created much larger jobs platforms for much bigger investors in the Celtic Tiger days.

The people of Ireland are generally interested in “renewable energy” and won’t object to a “secure electricity supply” nor to any suppliers of “platforms for jobs” in the regions. They may even be interested in an electricity “link between either Britain or France”. The public – the people of Ireland – are interested in their health. They are also interested in their families, their future and their environment. These topics were not included for consultation. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL FINAN,

Glencar,

Co Sligo.

A chara, – At a meeting, many years ago,  to discuss widening of the Dublin to Waterford road at Jerpoint Abbey, the difficulties were listed. With the river in front and the railway line behind, what was to be done? “Knock th’abbey”, suggested some wag. Proposals to criss-cross the country with electricity pylons sound very much like another “knock th’abbey” moment.   – Is mise,

MARY DOYLE,

Jerpoint West,

Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – The Taoiseach’s comments on the necessity of an extensive pylon construction programme are an insult to those who oppose this attempt to destroy the pristine beauty of rural Ireland. Implicitly labelling the said objectors as opponents of job creation is a cynical ploy.

These pylons are an affront to Ireland, a country which has always traded on its clean, green image. For every job the pylons bring, two more will be lost in the tourism and agriculture sector, both of which will be directly affected by their construction. Rural Ireland is not the German Ruhr. It is about time that the perpetrators of such idiotic schemes realised that. – Yours, etc,

MARIAN CONDREN,

The Swan,

Athy,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – What utter fools we would be to rush to deface our exquisite landscape with pylons and wind turbines. When our world collapsed around us it was the beauty of our country which continued to attract income in the form of tourism and to sustain us as individuals with the eternal reassurance of nature. If we ruin it, we have nothing. Our unique and fragile landscape can yield a wholesome and sustainable prosperity; we must treasure and protect it above all. – Yours, etc,

GIA GRIFFITHS,

Salthill,

Galway.

Sir, – Mobile phone masts, wind turbines, nuclear power, oil and gas exploration, incinerators, electricity pylons, etc, etc. Thank God the railways are already here! – Yours, etc,

KEITH NOLAN,

Caldra House,

Carrick-on-Shannon,

Co Leitrim.

Sir, – Does Alan Dukes take us all for amadáns? He tells us that people on the IBRC list of “politically exposed” or “high-profile” persons “were treated in the same way as any other bank customer” (“No special deals for listed Anglo borrowers, says Dukes”, Front Page, January 7th ).

We are asked to believe these people were treated differently in order to ensure they were not treated differently. Indeed “any suggestion to the contrary is without foundation”.

Your correspondent then reported, “The board of the IBRC was updated on politically exposed persons at every board meeting and the Minister was notified of any decision that had a public interest dimension”.

There was no mention of even a raised eyebrow. – Yours, etc,

PAT MURPHY,

Rathdown Park,

Greystones,

Sir, – Some additions to Jennifer O’Connell’s list of annoying phrases to be avoided in 2014 (“Ten phrases we could live without”, Life, January 8th): “Lessons will be learned”, “Optics”, “The Exit” and “The Gathering”. – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY,

Cnoc an Stollaire,

Gaoth Dobhair,

Co Donegal.

Sir, – Allow me to augment Jennifer O’Connell’s list: “the spend” (beloved of Government Ministers); “A disconnect between” (beloved of talking heads); “a rebranding exercise” (beloved of PR people and perhaps some within the Limerick City of Culture board and committee). – Yours, etc,

OLIVER McGRANE,

Marley Avenue,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – “Look-back exercise” (a review); “learnings” (lessons or conclusions); “period of negative growth” (a recession); “significant challenge” (an unmitigated fiasco). – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Stamer Street,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Hey, Jennifer, “lighten up”. “Just saying”, like. – Yours, etc,

ANNE O’CALLAGHAN,

Cathal Brugha Street,

Dublin 1.

Sir, – If politicians and bureaucrats wish to use artists – people of creativity, originality and vision – as tools in some fatuous “rebranding” exercise, may I respectfully suggest that they stick to dead ones? – Yours, etc,

MAEVE KENNEDY,

Rathgar Avenue,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole’s response to the Limerick City of Culture controversy is a good illustration of the type of ivory tower arrogance that often surrounds controversies in the arts world (“Artists insulted in Limerick debacle”, Opinion & Analysis, January 7th).

He says that linking art and culture to branding the place from which they originate is “deeply misconceived” and “an insult to artists”. He goes on to say that artists “question, transform, challenge, disturb, mock, make strange” but do not have “the slightest interest in taking part in a positive branding exercise”.

Pardon me, Mr O’Toole, but if €6 million of public money is to be spent on this project, then we have a right to expect that there is some dividend for the people of Limerick and not just the local arts “luvvies”. It is extraordinarily arrogant of him to suggest that the project should be organised and run by artists, solely for the benefit of these same artists.

If either Mr O’Toole or the artists of Limerick want to keep the world of arts and culture entirely to themselves, then I would respectfully suggest that they seek private sources of funding to do so. – Yours, etc,

THOMAS RYAN, BL

Mount Tallant Avenue,

Harold’s Cross,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – We should resist the temptation of raining on other people’s parade. This is Limerick’s year and perhaps the parochial Irish media would serve us better by dispatching correspondents to the City of Culture for a year rather than viewing the present juicy spectacle from a distance and with rarefied disdain.

Perhaps Fintan O’Toole should come to Limerick and see what is going on at ground level.

I think his article requires a follow-up from the author, based not on preconceived attitudes and cynicism, but on experiencing the events themselves, rather than damning the project from a safe distance of 120 miles. – Yours, etc,

NEIL O’BRIEN,

Affick,

Tulla ,

Co Clare.

Sir, – Una Mullally’s article on the quality of modern buildings in Dublin (“Slamming the door on decent design”, Opinion & Analysis, January 6th) cannot go without some response from an architect. As one who has been involved in designing buildings for 50 years, particularly housing, I feel the need for a riposte.

Before the last two decades, architects had a limited role in designing housing in the capital, as speculative builders, with a few exceptions, did not employ architects. Liam Carroll of Zoe Developments did not employ one until the late-1990s.

The public sector did employ architects and this was reflected in the fact that the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland’s housing silver medal was for many years awarded to public housing projects, and from the 1970s Dublin City Council built many attractive schemes of terrace housing in the inner city, following the pattern of previous generations. It was only in the boom years that three private projects in the Dublin Docklands have been awarded successive medals.

It must be admitted that many architects until recent years had not been involved in large-scale housing, which is the most difficult design task for an architect.

This, combined with the lack of experience across the construction industry, resulted in a high percentage of poor design and construction during the boom.

However, there have been some benefits from the boom. Some good projects have been completed and statutory standards have been raised well above those in the UK.

Incidentally, the next phase at Clancy Barracks is all about the preservation and adaptation of the historic buildings.– Yours, etc,

JAMES PIKE, FRIAI,

O’Mahony Pike Architects,

Milltown, Dublin 6.

Sir, – Una Mullally spoke the beams and bolts of my own long-held views regarding the torrent of disastrous builds and deconstructions of the past 60 years in our cities and towns. She rightly pointed out the professional ire to which mere plebs find themselves subjected when daring to discuss building design. If the non-versed (architecturally speaking) can recognise the ugly, poorly crafted and cheap nature of nearly all current builds, then surely our design elite should too. I do not wish to plead for a return to Georgian or even Edwardian pomposity, merely that current public and commercial buildings not stand in sheer defiance of their neighbours’ and ancestors’ charms.

We may well lament the lost architecture and beautification projects, well documented on the excellent Archiseek website, or even the joined-up thinking that our cities’ leaders were once afforded, in an age where the only link between different schemes seems to be either “eclectic” or “incarceratory”, at best. I grant that the some excellent schemes have been initiated, Opera Lane in Cork being a personal favourite. The new quayside Courts of Justice in the capital also deserves an honourable mention. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN BEHAN,

Cahirdown,

Listowel,

Co Kerry.

A chara, – Contrary to your editorial (January 7th), teachers are subject to oversight of their work and face sanctions for non-performance of their duties or for professional misconduct. There is an established legislative basis for this in section 24 of the Education Act, which includes sanctions up to and including dismissal. In 2009 the publication of these revised procedures was reported in your newspaper.

Your editorial says the Department of Education’s chief inspector admitted that under current procedures only two cases had been taken to deal with underperforming teachers. The chief inspector’s most recent report states that disciplinary procedures provide for a staged process whereby boards dissatisfied with a teacher’s work or behaviour can require him or her to bring about improvement. Only if a board remains dissatisfied with the teacher’s work is a review of the teacher’s work by the inspectorate sought, as has happened on two occasions. The procedures are meant to resolve most cases at school level and it is clear this is what happens.

The Teaching Council will soon get from the Minister for Education full legal powers to conduct inquiries into the fitness to teach of any registered teacher and the power to remove teachers from the register and hence from eligibility for employment as a teacher in Ireland. What Ruairí Quinn did last week was simply agree to provide additional but proportionate sanctions to the Teaching Council, something the council itself had requested of him two years ago.

The question your editorial should have addressed is why it took two years to progress such a relatively straightforward request. – Is mise,

SHEILA NUNAN,

General Secretary,

Sir, – I welcome Sean O’Sullivan’s letter (January 7th) concerning fitness-to-practise inquiries for nurses and midwives.

I am appalled that disciplinary hearings in respect of nurses and doctors have, by law, to be held in public. The mere fact of such an inquiry in respect of a nurse or doctor puts that person in the role of an accused in the public mind and, irrespective of an inquiry’s findings, compromises their professional and personal reputation.

The law underpinning this state of affairs is, to my mind, constitutionally suspect, in that it reeks of unfairness and highlights a lack of natural justice. A nurse or doctor refusing to appear before a disciplinary hearing, unless it were conducted other than in public, might well have such a refusal upheld by the courts, and with unsavoury consequences for the disciplinary body.

The legislation needs to be amended accordingly, and with urgency. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL REYNOLDS,

Watersville,

Castlebar,

Sir, — I refer to David Walsh’s letter (January 3rd) in which he asserts that the TEEU has some questions to answer in relation to our support for the Turn Off the Red Light Campaign and whether we consulted our members on the issue.

The TEEU delegates to the March 2010 Women’s Conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) held in Belfast put forward a motion “that the trade union movement should redouble its efforts in winning support for this important campaign, as the human trafficking and the exploitation of adults and children in the sex industry . . . is contrary to basic human rights and is in contravention of ILO [International Labour Organisation] conventions”. The motion was debated and adopted.

The TEEU policy conference held later that year adopted a similar motion, the text of which was circulated in advance to 200 delegates from all facets of Irish society. It was debated in workshops to maximise delegate input.

The TEEU then joined other unions and civil society organisations to seek new laws in Ireland to protect such vulnerable people.

There are currently 66 such organisations affiliated to the Turn Off the Red Light campaign, such as the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Macra na Feirme and the Union of Students in Ireland. These can hardly be described as either radical feminist or religious fundamentalist organisations, as characterised by Mr Walsh. – Yours, etc,

EAMON DEVOY,

General Secretary,

TEEU,

Gardiner Row,

Sir, – Joanne Doyle (January 8th) criticises the Irish trade mission to Saudi Arabia in a similar manner to previous correspondents critical of Irish connections with Bahrain.

The fact is that we live in a world where others have different values and ways of life.

We are faced with a choice when we don’t agree with others – negotiate with them and try to find common ground or cast them out and refuse to do business with them. – Yours, etc,

SEAN O’SULLIVAN,

Crossabeg,

Co Wexford.

Irish Independent:

I wonder where your correspondent S O’Rourke has been for the last 30 years (Letters, January 6). He must have never spoken to any members of the farming community or had to drive from Dublin to Galway before the motorways were completed.

Also in this section

The case for eternal Christmas

Editorial: Pylon problem could be real headache for Kenny

Why Pope is the only hope to save church

This journey can now be completed in two hours –prior to the motorway it could take a half day. Surely he would have seen the signs all over the place stating that this project was being funded by the European Union.

Being members of the EU has made farming viable and sustainable for a large section of the population. It has also been a key factor in our foreign direct investment programme. Irish students can now benefit from the Erasmus programme which gives them a wonderful opportunity to acquire another language and cultural enrichment.

This latter point would obviously not be of much importance to S O’Rourke, given his assertion that he felt more British than European and that English was good enough for him.

Mainly because of this attitude, the possibilities for our unemployed are now largely limited to the Anglo sphere. Irish emigrants, because of our appalling foreign language deficit, must now seek work in Australia or America, thousands of kilometres away, whereas if they had even a modicum of another European language they could find work on the European mainland, which is on average just a two-hour flight away.

Given the almost weekly revelations of scandals in various bodies here, I believe what this country needs is more stringent oversight from Europe, not less.

The departure of the troika was treated with glee in some quarters which I believe to be premature. Already there is an attempt to create or talk up another property boom in some quarters.

This proves that nothing has been learnt.

Directing anger towards Jose Manuel Barroso, like S O’Rourke and other Irish people are doing, is a misplaced reaction to our self-inflicted woes. Nobody was forced by Europe to borrow any money, this borrowing was fuelled by greed.

PAUL CONNOLLY

CO KILDARE

LEADING THE FIELD

* In his football days Jimmy Deenihan was a tight-marking corner back who won five All-Ireland senior medals with his native Kerry. He was also an astute reader of the game who could deliver an effective pass to a team-mate.

In his more recent career as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, it’s clear Jimmy has lost none of his renowned football skills. First we had news of the resignation of Coimisineir Teanga Sean O Cuirreain, and now we have the resignations of Karl Wallace and Patricia Ryan in the Limerick City of Culture debacle.

Junior minister Dinny McGinley has taken most of the flak for the coimisineir’s departure, while Pat Cox has been the man in the eye of the storm over the Limerick resignations.

The corner back from Kerry, meanwhile, has escaped pretty much unscathed — a lesson here perhaps for more high-profile outfielders on the cabinet team, like Phil Hogan and James O’Reilly?

JOHN GLENNON

CO WICKLOW

RIGHTS OF MAN — AND APE

* Of course it seems like a loaded question, but can a great ape be classed as a legal person? Considering that his closest cousin is the chimpanzee, and we are the closest cousins to them both, there are plans to do just that. In New York (I know, where else?) a group of activists have filed lawsuits to grant them the “right to bodily liberty”.

They also hope the judges will recognise that chimps have a basic legal right not to be imprisoned. Their beef is the imprisonment of four of them in cages across New York state.

The activists also claim that not too long ago slaves were not classed as people but as property, so why not a chimp?

Because they can’t argue for their rights like children, they need representation. This is a very strong point indeed. Spain saw it that way too and passed a resolution in 2008 that deemed the great ape to be considered a legal person.

Of course, there is a deeper issue going on and that is stopping the abuse of all animals. The activists want the chimps restored to a more natural habitat and what we would consider to be a more humane existence.

Animals everywhere have little or no rights, and the sentences handed out to those that abuse them only encourage the abusers.

BARRY CLIFFORD

OUGHTERARD, GALWAY

PROBLEM OF INFALLIBILITY

* Infallibility? Officially, it is an article of Catholic faith that the pope is infallible. My personal faith tells me there are many problems with this.

Most of us do not know what the term ‘infallibility ‘ actually means. I cannot find, in either scripture or tradition, any real proof of it. Christ promised to be with His church till the end of time. Is that not enough for us?

Papal infallibility was forced through the first Vatican Council by a political faction in 1870 — the pope is infallible because Pius IX said so.

My reading of church history tells me that Roman ‘infallibility’ has caused untold dissension and faction-fighting among Christians. Our petty quarrels have scandalised the human race for nearly 2000 years. Surely Christ wants us all to be Christians of one mind and one heart, not just a chosen few self-righteous ‘know-it-alls’. What does Pope Francis think of papal infallibility?

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

A REPUBLIC IN NAME ONLY

* I refer to the ongoing discussion regarding the President’s omission of ‘Christ’ or ‘Christianity’ in his Christmas message, the resultant disapproval of the head chaplain of the Defence Forces and the subsequent apology to the President from the new Defence Forces Chief of Staff. We were then advised that the President’s spokesperson said it would be inappropriate to ask if he is an atheist, “even though he had to swear a religious oath upon taking office” (Irish Independent, January 6).

I completely understand that the President’s personal beliefs are a source of interest for people, but to pitch his omission of a reference to Christ from his Christmas message as some form of hypocrisy in light of the presidential oath he took back in 2011 is to miss the point.

The main point here is the retention of the incongruities that are the constitutional requirements for presidential, Council of State and judicial candidates to swear oaths “in the presence of Almighty God” in Bunreacht na hEireann.

We cannot in good conscience claim to live in a republic whilst maintaining such overtly religious, exclusionary references in our Constitution. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of (including from) religion are recognised fundamental rights under Bunreacht na hEireann and cornerstones of any true republic. Yet in order to become President, a member of the Council of State or a judge, candidates who do not have religious beliefs are constitutionally required to perjure themselves.

These requirements are systematic bugs in our constitutional operating system. These anachronisms not only create difficulties for atheists and agnostics, but also for citizens with non-Catholic religious beliefs as well.

If you think the Constitution should be left as is, don’t try to tell me we live in a real Republic.

ROB SADLIER

RATHFARNHAM, DUBLIN 16

Irish Independent

10 January 2014 Drilling
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. The crew of Troutbridge are being selected to pick up a spy escaped from Russia.  Priceless.
Drill hole for cable break cable, shareview and 5l liquid soap.
Scrabble today I win    and gets  just  over   300,   Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:
Joan Thirsk, who has died aged 91, was the leading agricultural historian of her generation and had a huge impact on her field in terms of methodology and research.
Her greatest achievement was to explore and define regional differences in agricultural practice through the careful analysis of documentary sources, in particular probate inventories which provide evidence for crops, animals and equipment. This allowed different farming systems and local social hierarchies to be identified.
She also edited and wrote much of the fourth volume of The Agrarian History of England and Wales series, devoted to the period 1500 to 1640 . In 1974 she was appointed general editor of the series, which she brought to a successful conclusion.
She ranged widely, publishing studies of the introduction of new crops such as woad, saffron, tobacco and liquorice in which she stressed the importance of the English gentry as receptors of new ideas and agents of change. Yet despite her eminence, agricultural history was not her first choice of subject.
Born Irene Joan Watkins on June 19 1922, she grew up in north London. From Camden School for Girls she went up to Westfield College, London, where she read German and French. She was in Switzerland when war was declared, and went on to serve in the ATS in the Intelligence Corps at Bletchley Park, where she was a subaltern. There her interests turned to history. Deciphering codes, as she later explained, was the best possible training for the reading and interpretation of historical documents.
After the war she embarked on a doctorate under the great economic historian RH Tawney, a major influence on her work, on the sales of sequestered Royalist land in the south-east during the Interregnum. After a year at the London School of Economics as an assistant lecturer in Sociology, in 1951 she was appointed Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English Local History at the University of Leicester. There she became a founder member of the British Agricultural History Society and, in 1953, published her influential Fenland Farming in the Sixteenth Century and an important article on the Isle of Axholme .
In these works she outlined many of the methods, approaches and sources which were to have such influence on her profession. In her account, the Lincolnshire fenlands, pre-Vermuyden’s drainage schemes, were shown to have been “poor respecting money, but very happy respecting their mode of existence”. While traditional farming systems may not have been the most economically productive, she argued, they possessed considerable social rationale.
In 1957 she published English Peasant Farming: The Agrarian History of Lincolnshire from Tudor to Recent Times, about a county where she had been briefly evacuated during the war. Later she edited several volumes in the History of Lincolnshire series. The Lincolnshire study was followed by Suffolk Farming in the Nineteenth Century.
Joan Thirsk was a founding member of the journal Past and Present and it was there that she published, among other papers, her researches into The Common Fields (1964) and The Origins of the Common Fields (1966), a reassessment of the rationale of English medieval field systems, showing them to be far more complex and locally varied than previously recognised.
In 1965 she succeeded WH Hoskins as Reader in Economic History at Oxford. She was a Fellow of St Hilda’s College until 1983, when she took early retirement, unhappy with cuts to university research budgets.
Her most influential essays, published in 1984 as The Rural Economy of England, included studies of the family unit, inheritance, rural industry, regional specialisation, Tudor enclosures and the introduction and diffusion of new crops. She was also joint editor of Seventeenth-Century Economic Documents (1972), a collection made originally for her special subject students.
In her introduction to The Rural Economy of England, Joan Thirsk observed that the study of the story of people and communities in local landscapes was one which appealed particularly to women. This perspective was also apparent in her Ford Lectures, published in 1978 as Economic Policy and Projects: The development of a consumer society in Early Modern England, and in articles such as The Fantastical Follies of Fashion (1973). In this she united her own interest in knitting with her rural studies, challenging the notion that knitting did not develop until the 16th century by pointing out that the chain mail of medieval armour was “in fact, a knitted garter stitch”.
She continued to write and research well into her retirement. In 1997 she published Alternative Agriculture: A History from the Black Death to the Present Day, an account of agricultural innovation inspired by a 17th-century inventory which included, in addition to “brass cooking pots, cambric, gold and silver thread, hats, knives, lace, poldaves, ribbons, ruffs, soap and tape”, no fewer than five references to woad. One reviewer described it as “a firebrand of a book”.
Joan Thirsk combined scholarship with a love of domesticity, often treating her students and colleagues to bread and cakes she had baked herself, and sending hand-knitted garments for their newly-born offspring. One of her last projects was research into the history of food and diet.
Joan Thirsk was a fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society. She was appointed CBE in 1994.
Her standing was reflected in the publication of two festshrifts in her honour: English Rural Society (1990), edited by John Chartres and David Hey, and People, Landscape and Alternative Agriculture (2004), edited by RW Hoyle, her last research student at Oxford.
She married, in 1945, James Thirsk, whom she had met at Bletchley Park. They had a son and a daughter.
Joan Thirsk, born June 19 1922, died October 3 2013

Guardian:

I was horrified to read the reaction of Richard Howitt MEP to the helicopter crash at Cley (Report, 9 January). The Cley bird reserve is one of the key sites on the north Norfolk coast; one of Europe’s most important sites for the wintering of migrant birds. We should not allow such a sensitive area to be used for military training, particularly in January, when it will have its greatest population of migrant birds from the Arctic.
Ian Dunn
Beckenham, Kent
• Why is it necessary for a US helicopter to carry live ammunition while on a training flight in the UK?
Hilary Morris
Rugby, Warwickshire
• A question for your numerically literate readers. Dr Martin Allen (Letters, 9 January) makes the point that 40% of university graduates are in non-graduate jobs. Meanwhile, Sally Hunt points out (Letters, 9 January) that 40% of students will never pay their loans back. If we are talking about the same 40%, does this mean that universities are offering 66% more places than they should be? Discuss.
George Benn
Romsey, Hampshire
• It may come as a surprise to Guardian readers (US hit by ‘life-threatening’ Arctic weather, 7 January) to learn that there is a country north of the 49th parallel. It’s called Canada and it also has weather.
Dianne Norton
London
• Surfers from Hawaii flying to Spain (Surfer’s 20,000-mile trip – for two waves, 8 January) to sample record waves is an example of “positive feedback”. More carbon dioxide emission from aircraft fuel increases climate change, which increases extreme events, which increases their fun and our distress. Next time they should sail.
Professor John Twidell
Horninghold, Leicestershire
• After being acclaimed as the porn capital of Britain (Pass notes, G2, 9 January), I propose that it be re-named Hardware.
Anthony Tasgal
London

Harry Goldstein’s assertion (Letters, 7 January) that the Palestinians were “offered [a state] in 1947 and refused, preferring to make war on Israel”, must be challenged. The Palestinians were told that 56% of their existing state of Palestine was to be taken away and made into a Jewish state, even though half of the population of the “Jewish” area was Arab. Since the Jews made it clear they wanted even more than the 56% and would take it by force, the Arab armies, far smaller in number and less well-armed than the Jews, moved up to the border of the Jewish state, in an attempt to protect the remaining territory they had been allocated, and stop Israel taking those areas by force. They failed either to stop the Jewish armies or to prevent them expelling Palestinian Arabs from a land in which they had once formed 90% of the population.
Karl Sabbagh
Author of Palestine: A Personal History
• Peaceful co-existence between the Jewish and Palestinian people was never on the agenda of Israel’s early leaders: Ben-Gurion in 1948 was an advocate of what he euphemistically called “compulsory transfer” of Palestinians from their homeland. Little seems to have changed under the current leadership: as if the ethnic cleansing of the 40s and 50s was not sufficient, the separation wall now snakes its way through the occupied territories, severing Palestinian communities from their places of work and their land. It is difficult to imagine how a peace process can survive the insidious effect of continued land confiscation, bypass roads linking settlements, checkpoints, house demolitions. How ironic seem to us today the key words of “co-ordination” and “co-operation” which echo through the Oslo accords of 1993 and 1995.
Charles Milne
Hereford
• The Palestine National Council formally accepted a two-state settlement in 1988, and in 1993 the PLO recognised “the right of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security” within its pre-1967 borders.
Leon Rosselson
London

Fatima Khan’s account of her son Abbas’s torture and death in a Syrian prison (G2, 8 January) made almost unbearable reading, not just for the unimaginable suffering this courageous young doctor endured at the hands of the Syrian regime but also because of the questions it raised about our MPs’ failure to support the Khan family during their terrifying ordeal.
The failure of William Hague to contact the family directly after Abbas’s sudden disappearance in Syria is a terrible obfuscation of duty, but Sayeeda Warsi’s telephone call to his mother in which she asserts that Fatima should be happy that she had returned her call but there was nothing the government could do is staggering in its lack of humanity. It adds grievous insult to injury that a mother going through the turmoil that Fatima was experiencing should have to listen to this response. I feel utterly ashamed of Britain’s handling of this and extend heartfelt condolences to the Khan family.
Cass Witcombe
London

The Electoral Commission report on voting fraud is a cop-out (Voter proof of identity should be mandatory – election watchdog, 8 January). Postal voting is inherently insecure, as the Victorians recognised when they brought in secret voting with the 1872 Ballot Act. Absent voting fraud is more widespread than they or the political establishment are prepared to admit. While it is most prevalent in communities of south Asian origin, it is not confined to them. Stopping party workers from handling postal votes is right, but it will not stop the fraud – who can define which members of extended families or friends of candidates are “party workers”? How many staff in old people’s homes are “party workers”? At the very least, postal votes should again be restricted to people who have sound reasons for not being able to go to the polling station, and proxy votes should be restricted to people who are likely to be out of the country on polling day.What is happening now in too many places (including where I live in east Lancashire) is a travesty of democracy and the proposals by the Electoral Commission do no more than play around the edges.
Tony Greaves
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• Your leader (8 January) highlights some of the challenges to democracy arising in a changing and transient society. Even if all the issues surrounding non-registration (especially among the under-25s) and ID were resolved, there remains an underlying question: who should be on the roll in the first place? The validity of the electoral register is fundamental to the integrity of our democratic system, so it is vital that the rationale underpinning its composition is sound.
Currently, citizens of the former empire are entitled to vote in a general election if resident in the UK. This quaint legislation excludes approximately 1.5 million recent economic migrants from the EU, who also, coincidentally, tend to be in the younger age group. Such discrimination would be unacceptable in any other sphere of European influence. Above all, by disenfranchising certain categories in our society, we are limiting that direct accountability which would inhibit the government from continuing to target the least settled and most impoverished in the UK.
Dr Mark Ellis
Huddersfield
• Fraud exists in all electoral systems and the easier it is made to let people vote, the easier does fraud become and, paradoxically, the less fraud is likely to affect the result. The converse also applies. Dealing with this problem by the route of voter ID is technically complex and politically explosive, even with a national ID system, which we do not have. The likely impact is to deter people from voting and so to weaken democracy, as the fewer people vote, the less legitimate is the outcome and the easier it is to fix results, which is what the EC is trying to avoid by suggesting voter ID. Ironic, really. As with many measures to prevent fraud, this one is likely to burden the innocent without touching the corrupt.
The real problem seems to be voter disillusionment with the political parties and the process of government. It is the restoration of faith in our politics that is needed, so that people turn out to vote, thereby reducing the impact of fraud, rather than tinkering about with voter ID which will only tend to make the problem worse.
Roy Boffy
Walsall, West Midlands
• Do you think that by the 2020s, we might decide to abandon marking pieces of paper with a pencil on a string?
Phil Woodford
Twickenham, Middlesex

David Lammy is right to be concerned about police accountability (Suspicion will continue, 8 January). The death of Mark Duggan is one of a number of fatal shootings by police that have raised profound concerns about operational planning and intelligence failings in firearms operations, where the use of lethal force has been disproportionate to the risks posed and where the safety of the public was put at risk. Despite a pattern of cases raising similar issues, the police have hidden behind protracted legal processes, done the bare minimum to co-operate with investigations and refused to admit wrongdoing.
There is widespread frustration, anger and high levels of community consciousness about the lack of accountability after deaths following contact with the police. The misinformation, lies and mistreatment of the Duggan family, and the perception that the police can act with impunity, were at the root of the widespread disturbances around the country that followed his death. Public confidence in the justice system can only be restored if the law is seen to apply equally to all.
Despite more than 1,000 deaths in police custody, or as a result of police shootings, since 1990, and 10 unlawful killing rulings in inquiries or inquests, there have been no successful prosecutions of police officers of which we are aware, either at an individual or corporate level. This finding calls into question whether or not families of those who die following the use of force will ever find justice and accountability in the current system.
Deborah Coles and Helen Shaw
Co-directors, Inquest
• Assistant commissioner Mark Rowley says the officer who killed Mark Duggan had “an honest and reasonable belief” that Duggan was holding a gun when he shot him. The officer may well have had such an honest belief, but it is not so clear that the belief was a reasonable one in the circumstances, and this may explain some of the incomprehension that the verdict has caused. The law in relation to rape was changed 10 years ago to require defendants to establish that their belief in the victim’s consent was held both honestly and reasonably. The law in relation to self-defence in cases of homicide seems in similar need of reform.
In circumstances like the Duggan case, where an officer may have acted on an honest, but not necessarily a reasonable belief, this would mean that the options available would include a verdict of unlawful killing on grounds of manslaughter. That option should be open in cases that raise such public disquiet, where the current verdict of lawful killing appears instead to be provocative.
Peter Gore
Wigan
• You question in your leader (9 January) whether, after numerous failures, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is up to its task of delivering proper accountability of the conduct of the police. You may well be right but, if anyone is to achieve it, there is surely no one better qualified than its present chair, Anne Owers, who has been in post for less than two years. She has an unrivalled reputation for independence of mind, having had a distinguished career across the board in running a string of public organisations central to the role of the IPCC – the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants followed by the independent human rights body Justice and then as our chief inspector of prisons. She should be charged by the government with recommending the reforms, legislative and otherwise, that she considers are needed to ensure that the public can have complete confidence in the body she chairs.
Benedict Birnberg
London
• As well as very serious issues about policing, Tottenham also has the highest unemployment in London and increasing numbers of people using food banks and night shelters. There is a lack of economic and social justice, and people feel that their voice is not heard. That is one reason why people have rioted, but there are other ways of making the point which have a more lasting impact.
Before Christmas cleaners at Tottenham College, members of the GMB union, won their campaign for the London living wage. Investment in decently paid jobs is one way that the powers that be can show respect for the area and allow people to regain their dignity which, as the shooting of Mark Duggan underlined, too few in high places have given a damn about.
Keith Flett
Secretary, Haringey Trades Union Council
• The verdict in the Mark Duggan inquest illustrates the two-tribes nature of modern Britain. Although a mixed-race jury was expected to show impartiality, the coroner’s instructions so confused it that a perverse contradictory verdict was returned, ie that an unarmed man could somehow be lawfully killed. Meanwhile, mainly white police forces have failed to enforce the law impartially despite several high-profile inquiries which found discriminatory policing following the Brixton and Broadwater Farm riots and the botched Stephen Lawrence investigation. Until the police reform these failures, black and Asian people will continue to suffer second-class human rights.
Bruce Whitehead
South Queensferry, West Lothian
• This week saw the outcome of the inquest into the suicide of David Rathband (Report, 9 January), a police officer who was shot while on duty by Raoul Moat. The lives of David and of his family and friends had been turned upside down. On Wednesday, a jury returned a verdict of lawful killing by a police officer of Mark Duggan. Whether or not a gun was in his hand at the time of being shot, if Duggan possessed an illegal firearm then it wasn’t with the intention of playing Santa Claus. The behaviour of his family and friends on learning the verdict was in stark contrast to the quiet dignity and grace of Doreen Lawrence. Our police force don’t always get it right but the majority of the general public are grateful for the service which they give to us.
Caroline Edwardson
Newcastle upon Tyne
• So anyone suspected of carrying a gun may be shot and killed by armed police? When was this law passed?
Bridget Craig
Ashurst, Hampshire
• In the light of the Mark Duggan inquest verdict, it could be instructive to compare that fatal event to another, more recent London police shooting: the wounding and arrest of the two assailants of Lee Rigby. In both cases, the police had some warning and time to prepare – in the Duggan case hours or maybe even days; in the Rigby case less than half an hour. In the Duggan case there was a single target, compared to two with the Rigby attack, but there were twice as many police at the former than the latter. When confronted by police, Duggan got out of a taxi and stepped onto the pavement, may be armed. In the Rigby case, at least one of the assailants ran full tilt at the police, carrying a gun and a knife while the other was holding a machete. In the Duggan case, police fired twice, hitting Duggan in the arm and chest. In the Rigby case, police fired five or six times, hitting the two assailants in the legs. Any further inquiry by the IPCC or others should concentrate, among other things, on why these two police responses were so significantly different.
John Holme
London
• Whatever the jury’s conclusions in the Mark Duggan inquest, there remains a significant question mark over the training of the gun specialists in the police force. On several occasions in recent years we have seen unarmed people who were shot simply because the officers were informed that, whatever the truth, the person was “armed and dangerous”. This leads to a fear within the wider community that the mere suggestion that somebody has a weapon becomes a de-facto death sentence; the officers involved always being able to claim they were in fear of their life. Do we have to wait until the police find themselves being recruited as accidental assassins in gang turf wars before they reform a “shoot-first, ask-questions-later” training regime obviously more suited to a war zone than a civilian policing situation?
Helen Waldie
Brentwood, Essex
• It is catastrophic that an inquest jury has accepted the “honest belief” defence of the police in the killing of Mr Duggan in 2011. The honest belief defence would not be available to members of the public and the consequence now is that a different law applies to the police and to the rest of us. That is bad for us and for the police, and the government needs to pass legislation quickly to remove the possibility of the honest belief defence being available again to the police.
Stirling Smith
Bolton
• I find it incomprehensible how many people are willing to blindly support the police following this decision. The decision is predicated on the belief that the police are fundamentally honest despite, time after time, being proven to be consummate liars and particularly expert at abusing their power to manipulate the legal and complaints process and otherwise “institutionally corrupt” supported by a “dysfunctional and corrupt” complaints system. I refer people to, inter alia, the findings of parliament’s public administration and home affairs select committees.
The only result of numerous miscarriages of justice and the exposing of systemic and systematic corruption in the police is the police’s ability to be media conscious while becoming more unscrupulous, more deceitful and more corrupt.
Mark Bill
Liverpool

Naomi Wilkinson was a brilliant and individual talent. I first worked with her in 2007, having always remembered her extraordinary design for Happy Birthday, Mister Deka D for Told By an Idiot at the Traverse in Edinburgh in 1999. In the many shows we worked on together, she had a strong sense of needing to create a striking but deceptively simple space for the play; always wanting to support and enhance the text and its messages. This aesthetic and way of working served her well as she moved more into creating designs for contemporary dance.
Her designs for sets and costumes were often bold and provocative – I loved the work she did with Wayne Jordan at the Abbey in Dublin – and she often forced me to think differently and bravely about how a design could work – whether it was a shallow pool full of floating books for Nasty, Brutish and Short at the Traverse in 2008 or the giant staircase that was the backdrop to her design for Peer Gynt at Dundee and the Barbican for the National Theatre of Scotland.
She was inspired by art, experimental artists, sculpture and photography. She was endlessly curious about theatre and the visual arts. She had a huge knowledge of European theatre-makers and was always off to the Barbican to watch shows or to art or photography galleries. Her studio was a beautiful, minimal, calm white space where we spent many hours hunched over model boxes.
Naomi had a strong sense of who she was and what she wanted to do as a designer. She worked only on what she believed in and on projects to which she thought she could bring something. She was an artist, a collaborator, a wonderful friend, and a witty and modest person.

Independent:

Like the riots that followed his shooting, this week’s Mark Duggan verdict has exposed Britain’s deep racial fault lines. While many white people find the level of black fury startling, many in the black population find this incomprehension still more infuriating.
The crux of the Duggan inquest focused on legalistic definitions of “lawful killing” but the anger felt on the streets of Tottenham and beyond flows from a deep sense of injustice fuelled by black Britons’ experience of discrimination.
Stefan Simanowitz
London NW3
Mob rule is never a pleasant sight. It was not pleasant when we saw it on our TV screens in the summer of 2011 and I guess it wasn’t very agreeable for the court staff in the Duggan case .
Anarchy in any society lies just below the surface. All that protects the ordinary citizen are the forces of law and order. These of course include the police and the courts.
For this reason everyone can and should be expected to co-operate with them and offer proper respect. If misdemeanours by these bodies are suspected, they should be properly investigated. Clearly in this case they were, and that, subject to any proper appeal, should be the end of the matter.
Andrew McLuskey
Staines, Middlesex
The Mayor of London has said: “Londoners should feel assured that the police do an incredible job keeping this city safe.”
If one’s safety is dependent on the law sanctioning extra-judicial killings, then how safe are Londoners in reality? How safe were the people of Berlin while being policed by the Gestapo or the Stasi? I would suggest that one’s safety in all those cases is a secondary concern, outweighed by the right not to be killed in cold blood by an unaccountable arm of the state.
Paul Tyler
Canvey Island, Essex
A way to beat climate change
Let’s hope that your article on climate (8 January) doesn’t condemn geo-engineering in principle. Putting reflective particles into the atmosphere is just one idea; there are many others, as described in the Royal Society’s 2009 publication Geo-engineering the Climate.
Probably the best idea is to extract carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, just as trees and other green plants, do naturally. The fundamental cause of global warming (which in turn is increasing the incidence of violent weather) is the steady accumulation of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere, caused primarily by burning fossil fuels. But if carbon dioxide can be extracted from the atmosphere faster than it is put it, then the quantity in the atmosphere reduces. This will then stabilise the climate.
Developing the technologies for “artificial trees”, and then deploying the results on the required scale, presents a prodigious scientific and engineering challenge. But not an impossible one. It’s just a matter of resourcing and organisation. Do we need even more devastating floods to put this at the top of the Government’s scientific agenda?
Dennis Sherwood
Exton, Rutland
Your report that the Government and shale gas firms are considering increasing payments to communities living near fracking sites (9 January) indicates that the industry is losing the battle at the local level.
People are rightly concerned about the impacts of fracking, while the benefits of shale gas have been greatly exaggerated and experts warn that it won’t lead to cheaper UK fuel bills.
With the urgent need to decarbonise the UK economy, ministers should be investing in clean power and energy efficiency, not dangling financial sweeteners in front of communities to persuade them to accept a risky technology that will keep the nation hooked on climate-changing fossil fuels.
Tony Bosworth
Energy Campaigner
Friends of the Earth
London N1
French day of glory in 1918
Nigel Farage considers that it was the British, led by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, “that defeated the Germans in 1918”, in contrast to the French, who “showed little innovation and made repeated and costly mistakes” (6 January). The supreme allied commander, Generalissimo Ferdinand Foch, is not even deemed worthy of mention. Farage might have been acquitted of chauvinism for this, if it accorded with the facts; but it does not.
The tide of the First World War turned in the second half of July 1918, when hundreds of Renault light tanks, with futuristic swivel turrets, spearheaded a counter attack against the last German offensive near Soissons, at their recently taken Marne bridgehead. The tanks were supported by infantry divisions from Yorkshire, the Scottish Highlands, and the US, who had been seconded to French command, to make good the appalling French losses. Before the battle, it looked like the Germans were about to drive a wedge between the British and French armies and advance on Paris. Afterwards, they never had a victorious day.
David Hamilton
Leith, Edinburgh

Michael Gove should look again at the propaganda posters which appeared everywhere in the early days of the First World War, attempting to shame men into volunteering, and which led to men who were not in uniform being vilified.
Maybe it was the poster “Women of Britain say -GO” which led my young, uneducated, apparently flirtatious, working-class aunt to go up to a man in the street and give him that symbol of cowardice, a white feather. When I asked her years afterwards why she had done it she said that they didn’t know what they were sending men to. After her oldest brother, “Our Jim”, was killed, she certainly did.
And how many children by the end of the  war were unable  to ask the question posed by the little girl in the poster sitting on her father’s knee: “Daddy what did YOU do in the Great War?”
Gillian Spencer
Bolton, Greater Manchester

I’ve no great love for Michael Gove, but views expressed by some of your readers (and Robert Fisk) don’t deserve much respect either. Long on rant and condemnation and very short on what the writers would have done if they’d found themselves in one of the hot seats at the time.
All I can infer from them is that in 1914 they’d have urged the Belgians and French just to hand over their countries promptly to Germany to save all the bother. It would have saved a lot of lives, but do they stand by the consequences?
How easy to jeer and be wise 100 years after the event.
John Tippler
Spalding, Lincolnshire
Having read lots of articles, comments and letters, I’m afraid I still don’t quite understand why Britain so determinedly wants to celebrate the beginning of a world war, and not the end of this particular occasion of death, misery and destruction.
Sonja Karl
Bangor, Gwynedd
Flood of misused language
Why do rivers “burst their banks”?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the main meaning of the verb “to burst” is “to break suddenly, snap, crack, under violent pressure, strain, or concussion. Chiefly said of things possessing considerable capacity for resistance and breaking with loud noise.” This in no sense describes what happens when a river floods its banks, which is in my view a far better description than “burst”.
If rivers had been bursting at the rate claimed over the past few weeks, surely there would be mud, debris, rubble and the remains of many sheep and cattle splattered all over the West Country towns close to the Severn.
Chris Sexton
Crowthorne, Berkshire
Parts of the Close in Salisbury are flooded, so the Conservative candidate in today’s ward by-election left a pile of his leaflets in the Portaloos.
Ron Johnston
Salisbury
Siren voice from the left
As a Tory voter, I am becoming increasingly alarmed at my constant agreement with the views of Owen Jones. This time it was his criticism of the TV programme Benefits Street. Before that it was Uruguay’s drugs policy. And so on.
Can’t you find a right-wing columnist as articulate as Mr Jones who can persuade me not to question my voting habits? Just, you know, for balance.
Mike Park
London SE9
Cameron crazy about Mandarin
David Cameron comes out with a crackpot idea, children to learn Mandarin (which at the time was politically adroit), and you embellish it (“Pupils set the pace with a love for Mandarin”, 27 December). Are our streets not filled with scores of English-speaking Chinese? And as for denigrating French and German, their literature is far more interesting for the western mind.
Dr E Nigel Wardle

Times:

Sir, There are other factors to support Danny Finkelstein’s call for a separate NHS tax (Opinion, Jan 8). We should use the national insurance system to begin negotiating a new tax contract with voters. Welfare and health bills will increase for the reasons Finkelstein lists. Taxpayers are rightly wary of government taking even more of their earnings and spending the results as it wishes. Hence the need for a new tax contract.
I set out how this might be done in Working Welfare: Contributory Benefits, the Moral Economy and the New Politics (Politeia 2013). Here the main aspects of welfare are given over to a newly created mutual whose boards would set the levels of benefits only after winning approval from members to set the contribution levels.
A similar discipline should be introduced by establishing a NHS mutual. Each year’s negotiations would bring home forcibly that improvements in the health service must be won by increasing productivity, but also, probably, by increasing contributions. The mutual would therefore introduce what is lacking at the moment, namely, a clear link between services provided and the level of contributions required.
Of course Finkelstein is right in outlining Treasury opposition, but it is time we moved beyond this. A mutualisation of welfare would allow a transition to take place from the old command economy, which we have at present, to a new welfare state where the contributors are very much in charge. It would also signal a movement from a something for nothing welfare state, which is increasingly opposed by voters, to one where entitlement is based on past contributions, a clear residency test, and by the functions individuals undertake which the community wishes to reward by membership.
Frank Field, MP
House of Commons
Sir, Danny Finkelstein’s proposal to contain NHS costs repeats a number of myths and overlooks the complexity of health care funding. The claim by Liam Fox that the idea of increasing NHS funding has been tested to destruction cannot be reconciled with the observation that, even now, we still spend much less on health care than many other countries or with our finding that the increased spending by the last government after 1999 was associated with a clear acceleration in the reduction in deaths amenable to health care, the government’s measure of performance. The claim that productivity fell has been rebutted, noting numerous data problems and a failure to include intangible elements of care. Our research shows that judicious health spending can increase economic growth, putting money in pockets of low paid staff.
However, it is the call for a hypothecated tax that is most problematic. The Treasury has long rejected such measures for good reasons. Health spending is counter-cyclical, with need increasing in a downturn just as tax revenues are also falling. And on what should this tax be levied? Will it be income, spending, capital gains, import duties or something else? Will it be levied on individuals or families? Will contribution be linked to entitlement? All of these questions raise major distributional issues. If it was so easy, perhaps this idea might have been implemented before.
Professor Martin Mckee
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Sir, Charles Pugh reports “aggressive and frequently baseless attempts to upgrade walking routes to bridleways” (letter, Jan 6) My experience over 40 years in the north, south and east of England has been very different, and I know of no tribunal against owners in contravention of law.
The maps drawn up after the 1949 Act omitted, or entered as only footpath, many bridleways and old lanes which had been public. We now have only a few more years to try to get the record right. We don’t win them all, but getting a case to public inquiry involves laborious research into use, history and law and we do not waste time on ill-founded claims or routes with no useful purpose.
Once a route is established there is no reason why some element of diversion should not be agreed. I am also a landowner, have kept suckler cattle on land crossed by rights of way and would have been glad of a temporary diversion. And I would willingly agree any reasonable diversion out of farmyards and private gardens, but it is important that the appropriate users are consulted. What I am unwilling to accept is barring of the public from the little old lanes which define the English landscape and connect us with our history.
Elizabeth Kirk
Trustee, Byways and Bridleways Trust, York
Sir, Farmers maintaining footpaths (letter Jan 7)? My experience of well over 40 years is that farmers do the opposite: ploughed footpaths, barbed wire, cattle troughs across paths, bulls frightening walkers, intimidating behaviour. The list is endless.
Peter Barrett
London SW19

Sir, So, NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence advises men with low and medium-risk prostate cancer to wait . . . and sweat (“Men told to wait before prostate treatment”, Jan 8).
Surely it is time for people to be told the likely benefits of a small daily dose of aspirin upon cancer. Over the past seven years evidence of a reduction in incident cancer by low-dose aspirin has accumulated, together with evidence that patients with certain cancers who take aspirin show a reduction in metastatic spread and an increase in survival.
Consistent evidence from long-term follow-up studies of subjects who had been randomly allocated daily aspirin show about a 30 per cent reduction in the total incidence of cancer. This evidence is convincing for all cancer.
In observational studies of patients with cancer who take aspirin additional to conventional therapy, there is evidence of a small reduction in metastatic spread, together with an increase in survival. While evidence on these benefits from randomised trials is awaited, the present evidence is highly suggestive for several of the more common cancers.
Professor Peter Elwood
Cochrane Institute, Cardiff University
Sir, You report on new guidance by NICE concerning more “active surveillance” for prostate cancer. Last year I was successfully treated for this condition. Doctors told me I was at an “intermediate” stage in this disease; neither clearly malignant nor benign cancer. I opted for “active surveillance” and not treatment. However, I found the stress of knowing I had cancer but not having it sorted intolerable. Being told that many people have prostate cancer but will not die of it was entirely unhelpful. So I finally opted for intervention. This was successful and with few side effects. The advice from NICE should not ignore the important element of patient choice and well being. The need for constant tests and the anxiety that it causes should not be underestimated.
Until we get more research and better treatments (well done to The Times for the Christmas appeal for Prostate Cancer UK), a policy of encouraging more “active surveillance” rather than treatment will not work.
Sir Stephen Bubb
London N1

Sir, You reported (“Amid a knot of red tape, the great potash rush is on”, Dec 28) that there is a presumption against development in National Parks. In fact 90 per cent of planning applications in the North York Moors National Park are approved. Really big developments are different and are subject, rightly, to closer scrutiny.
There are considerable technical issues involved in proposing the world’s largest potash mine in an area which supplies drinking water, has narrow country roads, hosts protected wildlife and is also stunningly beautiful. If the National Park is to determine this application we will assess it objectively, on its merits (which are potentially considerable) and with the help of experts.
Jim Bailey
North York Moors National Park Authority

Sir, Apropos the letter from Iain MacMaster (Jan 8), my great-uncle, Maj-Gen Edward Feetham, of the Berkshire Regiment, was one of those 48 generals who perished on the front line in the Great War. His portrait hangs in this house. Soon after he was killed, his widow, Beatrix, wrote to her brother-in-law: “He was very brave in that last horrible attack. To have in fact been leading his men himself and wearing his red cap so that they should see him and they did and his Division saved a very serious situation.”
This is presumably the official version that was given to the family. The records at the Imperial War Museum reveals that “he was hit in the neck and killed by a shell fragment while walking up the main st. of Demuin with his G.S.O.”
Is it fair to ask how accurate is the information that may be given to bereaved families in scenarios of modern warfare and what is best, overall, for society?
Dr Alan Lloyd-Smith
Wittersham, Kent

Telegraph:

SIR – I recently rode through Transylvania dressed as Dracula, on a Ural motorbike with a sidecar made of a real coffin. It seems absurd for Britain to fear a mass influx of benefit scroungers.
Romanians are friendly, hard-working people who seem happy to be living in their beautiful country.
Some of the young people I met expressed an interest in working in Britain to perfect their English and gain career experience, but they were graduates and would benefit any business that took them on.
The Roma represent 3.3 per cent of the population. Those we encountered were friendly and nothing like the pickpocketing Roma plaguing London’s tourist hotspots.
Nick Cunningham
London W3

SIR – Philip Johnston points out how our adversarial justice system can prove brutal for witnesses.
A “Continental inquisitorial approach” would reduce and probably remove the potential for victims of sexual offences to be berated in the witness box by defence counsel. This could have two beneficial effects. First, it could encourage more victims to report these crimes to the police, as they will know that they will not face aggressive cross-examination where their behaviour and character is put under scrutiny rather than that of the accused. Second, it may help raise the woefully low conviction rate for this type of offence.
Niall Garvie
Bromley, Kent
Televised debates
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09 Jan 2014
No wonder Romanians haven’t rushed to Britain
09 Jan 2014
SIR – A televised election debate in 2015 would be no more appropriate than it was in 2010. Voters would much rather go along to a hustings of their candidates for Parliament and then make up their minds.
We are a parliamentary democracy, not a presidential system. One can’t be prime minister without being an MP. That equalising element is crucial to British parliamentary democracy.
John Barstow
Fittleworth, West Sussex
SIR – David Cameron must regret agreeing to the three-party election debates in 2010 – especially the “I agree with Nick” one. This probably contributed to the Conservatives’ failure to gain an outright victory.
However, the public will expect a televised debate in 2015 and this should include the leader of Ukip.
Edward Huxley
Thorpe, Surrey
Minimum unit pricing
SIR – Raising the price of alcohol to reduce consumption will affect those who drink responsibly, but will not stop binge drinkers, who will cut budgets elsewhere to sustain their habits.
The solution lies in restoring responsibility to the individual by making him or her pay for A&E and hospital visits, or treatments associated with excessive drinking.
James A Paton
Billericay, Essex
Orwellian SNP
SIR – The Scottish National Party is proposing that every child in Scotland has a state-appointed “guardian” to monitor their “wellbeing” up to the age of 18. Quite what “wellbeing” may be is a subjective matter and may run contrary to what the child’s parents understand by the term.
As the SNP controls every committee in the Scottish Parliament and has an overall majority, this terrifyingly Orwellian Bill is certain to become law.
Is it not time that the House of Lords became involved in reviewing Acts passed by the Scottish Parliament?
A H N Gray
Edinburgh
Cutting prices
SIR – I was shocked by the news that the Prime Minister’s hairdresser has received an MBE, particularly when I heard that he charged £90.
In upmarket Bramhall I get my hair cut for under £10 (pensioners’ rate), while receiving a thorough overview of the world situation and how to solve its problems.
Sid Davies
Bramhall, Cheshire
First World War causes
SIR – Wars do not happen by accident. Someone has to order armies to mobilise and fight. Hence my sympathy with Boris Johnson’s attitude that “Germany started the Great War”.
On the other hand, historical research has undermined his view. Austria-Hungary was determined to start a war (even a world war) and would not accept any compromise with Serbia. Germany did offer her complete support but probably believed that hostilities could be localised, especially if Austria acted quickly. This proved impossible and, in the meantime, Russia decided to back Serbia and mobilised her forces (at first in collusion with the French), thus forcing the Germans to unleash the Schlieffen Plan.
From this point all the worst elements in German militarism became visible. The British who, thanks to the Tories, would have joined the war anyway (whether Belgium had been invaded or not), were arguably deceived by their French and Russian allies. The regicide regime in Serbia had in any case set the whole catastrophe in motion by murdering a peace-loving archduke.
So how do we distribute blame? Had Germany refused Austria support, there would have been no war. Had Austria taken a more level-headed view of her own interests, there would have been no war. Had Russia refused to back Serbia, there might only have been a Balkan war. Had France not backed Russia, there would have been no war. Had the Tories not backed Asquith and Grey, Liberal Britain might have stayed out.
In the end, it looks a little bit like Murder on the Orient Express: everyone contributed to starting the war or making it a world war. Every power rationalised its own interests – and all of them, arguably, got it wrong.
Professor Alan Sked
London School of Economics
Mnemonic myth
SIR – Cabal may well be a useful mnemonic for the names of a council of intriguers who were politically active between 1667-1673, but it is time to lay to rest the hoary myth that the word cabal is derived from this source.
Cabal was a term often applied in the 17th century to describe a group of the king’s closest advisers. It comes from the Hebrew cabbala and, although the coincidence was noted at the time, the initial letters of the surnames concerned did not give rise to the word itself.
Nicholas Young
Ealing, Middlesex
How to quench your thirst during Dry January
SIR – May I suggest to Sandra Woods, who is from the lovely spa town of Harrogate, that during her Dry January she sticks to what the French call Château-la-Pompe, or tap water? After all, Harrogate water is bottled and sold all over the country. How lucky she is to get it free.
Jane O’Nions
Sevenoaks, Kent
SIR – Sandra Woods should try some green tea with her meal. It refreshes the palate in similar fashion to the tannins in wine.
Note that green tea should be made with water at around 85C to prevent bitterness. I prefer a pinch of a loose green tea (such as gunpowder) to a teabag, since teabags contain too much tea for my liking. A splash of cold water added just after boiling helps achieve the right temperature.
Jim Makin
Petersfield, Hampshire
SIR – A squeeze of fresh lime and a few drops of Angostura bitters in a cocktail glass filled with sparkling water on the rocks is a remarkably satisfying alternative when the cravings set in.
Elizabeth Sharp
Faversham, Kent
SIR – Big Tom spiced tomato juice is a splendid replacement for a regular glass of wine with dinner: neither sweet nor fizzy.
Patricia Calder
Carbis Bay, Cornwall
SIR – Ms Woods should try beetroot juice. It looks just like a good red wine in the glass and has health benefits.
Ann Baker
Wilcove, Cornwall
SIR – There is no substitute for wine. Ditch Dry January and sign up to being half-dry forever, simply by not drinking between midnight and midday every day. It works for me.
Nigel Johnson-Hill
South Harting, West Sussex

SIR – Prof David MacKay assumes that everyone knows how to fix a fridge, freezer, microwave, or car. But these pieces of equipment are very sophisticated and, in some cases, require some knowledge of computers. With regard to fridges and freezers, one has to know about coolants, never mind circuitry. My garage has to plug my car into a computer before carrying out mechanical repairs.
David Samuel-Camps
Eastleigh, Hampshire
SIR – Where can we find the experts to repair electrical appliances these days?
I look in vain among the advertisements for plumbers, decorators and other trades.Electricians seem to deal with wiring of premises but not repair of appliances.
Mervyn Bowley
Chester
SIR – My washing machine needs a new bearing, which should cost less than £50 to replace, but the machine is made so that the whole washing drum has to be replaced, costing £180. A new machine, with warranty, costs about £220. Where is the logic in getting my old machine fixed?
Ian Tyler
Marston, Lincolnshire
SIR – Most white goods are designed to last the length of their respective warranties, then to fail. Some appliances are designed not to be taken apart to allow for repair. We, the public, are advised not to attempt to repair electrical or gas appliances.
Ivan Rowland
Belper, Derbyshire
SIR – Over the past 12 months I have been told that my six-year-old washing machine could not be repaired, and neither could my three-month-old combination microwave. What can one do but invest in new equipment?
Pat Sanson
Elton, Cambridgeshire
SIR – Those educated before 1960 were taught how to understand mechanical appliances and how to use tools. Many in those days repaired or rebuilt old cars. The demise of that ethos came when education reduced practical lessons in woodwork and metalwork, and manufacturers built in redundancy to appliances and made DIY repairs difficult and spares expensive.
People under 30 have grown up with a disposable mentality and lack the skills to attempt repairs.
Keith Taylor
Peterchurch, Herefordshire
SIR – We have a 40-year-old freezer, a 35-year-old fridge, a 35-year-old tumble drier, a 30-year-old washing machine and a 30-year-old oven – all in daily use.
They have required little attention and when they have, most spare parts have been available. They do not make them like that today.
Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire

Irish Times:

Sir, – We are just a week into 2014 and already here we have the next assault on the disabled (and now to include elderly people with mobility problems) from this Coalition. You were kind enough to publish my letter (April 12th, 2013) detailing the disgraceful cutting of the overall fund for housing adaptation from €54 million to €35 million for 2013 as announced by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan at that time. This morning on national radio I heard a Labour Minister of State, Jan O’Sullivan, attempting to spin the allocation of €38 million to the same fund for 2014 as an “increase” in spending in her defence of the latest moving of the goalposts for disabled Irish citizens attempting to access those services which should be theirs as a civil right.
If Ms O’Sullivan thinks that those Irish citizens and voters who are disabled, or care for the disabled or, indeed, who are elderly or have an elderly relative with mobility issues, are naive enough to fall for this kind of crude political guff, she has another think coming. A cut from an already inadequate €53 million to €35 million and then to €38 million is a cut, and a massive cut, pure and simple, and no amount of spin can alter that fact. I suggest all those affected, related to those affected or sympathetic to those affected, make their feelings on this matter clear in the coming local and European elections this year and, indeed, in the national elections in 2016. – Yours, etc,
JONATHAN SHANKEY,
Saint Mary’s Crescent,
Walkinstown,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – I am writing in response to the latest cutbacks to the elderly and disabled (“Grant cuts to make it ‘harder’ for elderly to live at home”, Front Page, January 9th). The cutbacks in funding to local authority housing grants have been announced without any debate and will mean more people being forced against their wishes to access nursing home and hospital accommodation.
This flies in the face of the Government’s desire that people access the health service through primary care services and will end up costing far more money than supporting the elderly and disabled to live in their own homes.
These latest cutbacks follow on from a five-fold increase in medical card charges, cutbacks to home-help support and cutbacks to the medical card scheme itself.
Leaving aside the financial cutbacks, the increased bureaucracy to access State supports such as these is another burden that is becoming even more complicated and difficult to handle. Furthermore, form-filling does not deal adequately with complicated cases, especially family situations.
What is badly needed is the proper planning of resources, so that those that need them most can access them easily. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD MacMANUS,
White’s Road,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – I was surprised to read that the grant for housing aid for older people has been cut. I thought, as per Wexford County Council’s website, such grants had been suspended “indefinitely”. – Yours, etc,
DEBRA JAMES,
Cummerduff,
Gorey, Co Wexford.
Sir, – I sincerely hope that the wails of the elderly and disabled are not drowned out by the sound of appreciative applause on foot of “Ireland’s successful re-entry into global capital markets”. – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan Road,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.

Sir, – The current controversy generated by ex-president Mary McAleese’s comments on her unhappiness at the attitude of “her” church towards homosexual people is being viewed and analysed from the wrong perspective (“McAleese criticises church’s stance on gays”, Front Page, January 8th).
Reasonable and rational people who wish to worship a god may very easily do so without guidance or direction from the Roman Catholic or any other established church.
So rather than expressing displeasure, disappointment or opposition to the teachings and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, Mrs McAleese and all thinking people who disagree with it should just leave and live and worship in their own way. If enough people do this then the negative and offensive views of that church will quickly become even more irrelevant than they are already, – Yours, etc,
HUGH PIERCE,
Newtown Road,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – I was heartened to read Mary McAleese’s comments on the church’s stance on gays. We have made such strides lately on many fronts to come out of the dark ages.
Mrs McAleese was a great president and her stance on this issue is important and welcome. – Yours, etc,
PAT BURKE WALSH,
Ballymoney,
Co Wexford.
Sir, – Mary McAleese’s criticisms of the Catholic Church’s “attitude” towards gay people are misplaced. The church’s attitude towards gay people is the same as its attitude towards all people: they are children of God, blessed with an inherent dignity beyond all measure, and, if they will it, an eternal destiny abiding in God’s love. That is a remarkably affirmative attitude to have of any person (gay or straight) and one, I suggest, unparalleled by any materialist philosophy or secularist ideology.
Our former president also takes exception to the church’s teaching that gay people are “sinners”. Yet sinning is not the preserve of straight people only, the imperfect human condition is a universal reality. The real focus of debate should instead be on specific church teaching concerning sexual ethics. This teaching, only one limb of an entire corpus of ethics on human affairs, judges the morality of various actions and does not distinguish between the dignity of various persons.
Neither gay nor straight persons are predetermined to act with or against any particular aspect of the church’s moral teaching, including sexual ethics.
Whether the church’s sexual (or any other) ethics are reasonable is a distinct matter from the simple fact that it, almost uniquely, teaches as true the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings. The reasonableness or otherwise of the church’s sexual ethics is an important point of debate. But this debate is ill-served by raising extraneous issues such as the number of Catholic clergy who have a homosexual orientation, majority opinion on the matter, or, lest the debate succumb to the fallacy of naturalism, whether homosexual orientation is a matter of genetic predetermination or predisposition. – Yours, etc,
THOMAS FINEGAN,
Willowbrook Park
Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Sir, – Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte has stated that putting transmission lines underground would cause bills to rise by up to 3 per cent.
On my current electricity bill, the actual cost of electricity is €54.88. But the additional charges (standing charge, public service obligation levy and VAT at 13.5 per cent) add a whopping €37.45, or 69 per cent , to my bill.
In order to alleviate the suggested 3 per cent increase claimed to be necessary to put the transmission lines underground, Mr Rabbitte and all the other Government Ministers and backbenchers should be knocking their heads together to find ways to reduce the current excessive additional charges instead of simply acting as spokesmen for industry. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN
Royal Oak Road,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
A chara, – There are precedents supporting the routing of electricity transmission underground. The Murraylink is an Australian 180km high-voltage electricity transmission link between Berri in South Australia and Red Cliffs in Victoria which, for environmental protection reasons, is completely underground.
Routing electricity using pylons is quicker and cheaper, but there are no new skills learned in doing so, and environment and scenery are blighted. Whereas there are geological, engineering and cost challenges in routing electricity underground, there are longer-term payoffs in terms of consequently learned engineering expertise which could be marketed abroad, and obviously reduced impacts on environment and scenery.
The question is whether the Government and EirGrid are willing to do what is required to achieve the longer-term payoffs. – Is mise,
NIALL O’DONOGHUE,
Lempaala,
Tampere,
Finland.
Sir, – Ireland has signed and ratified the Aarhus  Convention. Fundamental to this convention is the right of citizens to information and participation in matters relating to their environment. It in the interests of environmental democracy and justice that the plans for the EirGrid system are examined properly with the participation of the local community. – Yours, etc,
JOE MURRAY,
Beggars Bush Court,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Sir, – The Bileog page provides a great service for struggling Irish speakers like myself who are trying to keep our school knowledge of Irish from rusting over completely.
I was struck by the reference in Deaglán de Bréadún’s article to the Teachers’ Union of Ireland boycott of Israeli academia (“Bagairt an bhaghcait”, Bileog, January 8th).
It seems ironic that the teachers in a country that has struggled for 90 years and largely failed to revive its native language should want to boycott the teachers in a country which has successfully revived its language in the same period.
At the turn of the last century, Hebrew was pretty much a dead language, with its few fluent speakers scattered among the Jewish diaspora and a few in Palestine. But within two generations it had been revived to become the lingua franca of everyday life in Israel.
I am sure the Israeli teachers cannot take all the credit for its revival, no more than the Irish teaching profession should be blamed for the demise of Irish, but I am equally sure that our teachers have a lot to learn from the Israeli experience. Sadly, it now seems that, whatever the secret sauce is, it will remain a mystery to us through our teachers’ boycott. Could our teachers’ union not have found a better way to lend support to the Palestinians? – Yours, etc,
PAUL MILNE,
Dublin Road,
Sutton, Dublin 13.

Sir, – The recent decision to grant planning permission for an enlarged Irish Jewish Museum in the existing small building is as regrettable as it is misguided (“Plans for enlarged Irish Jewish Museum approved”, Home News, December 30th).
This area was the home of Dublin’s Jewish community, but the project, sadly, is not about enhancing what should be a cherished memory. It is a planning debacle that shows exceptional disregard for the local community.
Both Jewish and non-Jewish people, Irish and non-Irish, Dublin and non-Dublin born people have lived together here and shared this part of Dublin 8 for many decades, making it a vibrant part of the city. With suitable larger sites available in the area, there is a dreadful cynicism about the decision to go ahead with such a destructive plan.
Demolishing an old synagogue and most of a terrace, increasing the area six-fold and digging 20 feet into the bedrock of this tiny street shows contempt for both the residents and for the city’s architecture.
To have a Jewish museum of international dimensions in Dublin would be wonderful. It would be a major step forward in recognising and in celebrating Jewish identity in Ireland.
Surely this can be done without destroying a real, living community and tearing apart its streets? – Yours, etc,
Dr JEANNE RIOU,
School of Languages
& Literatur
Sir, – Why all the euphoria about the National Treasury Management Agency’s €3.75 billion bond sale (Front Page, January 8th)? EU banks can borrow from the ECB at 1 per cent and reinvest in Irish government bonds at more than 3 per cent. The fact that the Irish offering was oversubscribed may well be an indicator that the premium was too generous and it was sold too cheaply. We need to get away from misrepresenting our dealings with money lenders as a cause for self-congratulation. These bondholders are much the same cast of kindly characters that we were obliged to repay for their profligate lending to our reckless banks and poorly regulated financial institutions. We have just added another €3.75 billion to the debt burden that our children will be forced to carry. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ANDERSON,
Moyclare Close,
Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Dermot Dix in his interview as headmaster of Headfort School (Business, January 8th) states that school facilities include a science lab and that Headfort is thus “one of the few primary schools in Ireland where children do practical science”. In national schools up and down the country children from infants to sixth class are regularly engaging in practical science investigations – mini-beasts are observed, working lighthouses and rockets are constructed, wind speed is recorded, the strength of eggshells is tested. Endless adventures in scientific discovery are organised by energetic and enthusiastic teachers without a lab in sight. This is how young scientists are made. – Yours, etc,
CLARE SHERIDAN,
Ardmore Park,

Sir, – I note that Anglo/IBRC set up lists of certain customers “to ensure that the State-owned bank did not offer nor could be perceived to have offered any of them special treatment” (“No special deals for listed Anglo borrowers, says Dukes”, Front Page, January 7th). However, by setting up the lists, the bank has implicitly given these people special treatment.
There is still a market for the trappings of influence, and people would probably pay for the cachet of being on a list of HPPs (high-profile persons), as certified by a State institution. – Yours, etc,
MIKE NORRIS,
Cabinteely Green,
Dublin 18.

Sir, – It is rare that I agree with views expressed by Gerry Adams TD but his argument that the Oireachtas should abide by normal licensing hours seems irrefutable (“Adams repeats call for Dáil bar regulation”, Home News, January 9th).
Should not those who make the laws also be bound by them?
One could go further and ask why our legislators need access to a steady supply of alcohol in their workplace. Teachers, doctors, dentists, pilots and air traffic controllers, among others, do not have access to alcoholic support during long and arduous working hours.
Admittedly, it may be said that the work of TDs does not involve life-and-death decisions to the same extent as these professions, but can even that argument hold water in the context of, to give one example, the recently debated abortion legislation? – Yours, etc,
EDWARD
MOXON-BROWNE,
Clonfadda,
Killaloe,
Co Clare.

Sir, – I’m afraid Jennifer O’Connell (“Ten phrases we could live without”, Life, January 8th) missed the worst of all: “You know what”. – Yours, etc,
TOM REARDON,
Silverwood Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – “Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki”. – Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE,
Marley Avenue,
Rathfarnham,

Sir, – In relation to articles on maternal sepsis published on January 6th, I wish to clarify that the Rotunda Hospital collects and monitors information and data on maternal and neonatal sepsis. Over the period 2004 to the end of 2012 there were 71 cases of life-threatening maternal sepsis requiring admission to the hospital’s high dependency unit. Data on this topic and others is available in the hospital’s annual clinical report. – Yours, etc,
Dr SAM COULTER-SMITH,
Master,
Rotunda Hospital,
Dublin 1.

Sir, – I see that the criteria for competing to be the next city of culture include an emphasis on a “bottom-up approach which seeks to unite cultural and socio-economic stakeholders” (“Next City of Culture to be ‘informed’ by Limerick experience”, Home News, January 9th). “Bottoms up” to the lucky city in 2018 and whatever you’re havin’ yourself! – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough, Dublin 7.

Irish Independent:

* I write in response to Paul Connolly’s letter (January 9) on the benefits of Europe over the last 30 years. Firstly Ireland joined the EEC on May 10, 1972, which is actually nigh-on 42 years ago.
Also in this section
European project is key to our future
The case for eternal Christmas
Editorial: Pylon problem could be real headache for Kenny
Mr Connolly points to Europe being good for farming. In 1974 the price of cattle completely collapsed and there was no sign of Europe. He contends that farming is now viable for a large section of the population, despite the fact that the number of farmers has nearly halved since the 1970s.
Mr Connolly also points to an Erasmus programme, yet he bemoans the fact that we don’t learn European languages. What is the percentage of all third-level students who have gone on Erasmus?
Emigration? Since we joined the EU we have seen two major phases of emigration in Ireland — the ’80s and now. Yes, the Irish emigrate to the Anglo sphere. What does Mr Connolly suggest; that we emigrate to Spain for work where 350,000 people have emigrated? Should we move to Greece and milk goats? Should we head to Germany, where there’s no minimum wage? Should we emigrate to Portugal, where the markets — apparently the one true barometer in fiscal measurement — say that Ireland’s bonds are a better bet than in Jose Manuel Barroso’s home country?
The rhetoric of Europe is that it provides peace and that war will not break out again within its confines. Where were these great peacemakers during the Troubles?
Where is Europe when it comes to respecting our neutrality with soldiers stationed in Uganda with no UN mandate?
Finally, Mr Connolly points to the Dublin-Galway motorway as a project funded by Europe.
If Mr Connolly took off what may have been his rose-tinted glasses, he may have seen that it was part-funded by Europe.
Mr Connolly might do well to listen to the rhetoric coming out of Europe that claims that the EU is an organisation that is in existence for 40 years.
It couldn’t be, for the Berlin Wall stood for the first 20 of those 40 years.
DERMOT RYAN
ATHENRY, CO GALWAY
ARMY SHOWS COWARDICE
* President Higgins’s Christ-less Christmas address is just one more in a steady stream of his meaningless/ value-free diatribes, as if written by a big brother-inspired committee of PC UN apparatchiks. George Orwell wrote prophetically about such a world in his book ’1984′.
The one redeeming feature of the episode was the initial courage of the Army chaplain in pointing out the absurdity of the speech, undermined by the cowardice of the Defence Forces under fire in issuing a craven apology.
Some secularists are attempting to defend the speech on a spurious appeal to Republican ethics. Nonsense — a republic is defined as a form of government in which power is explicitly vested in the people.
It has nothing to do with imposing secularist dogma, particularly as the majority of the Irish people, 92pc, are Christian. A simple recognition of this in the speech was all that was required, basic good manners really.
ERIC CONWAY
NAVAN, CO MEATH
HIV PUTS LAWS IN CONTEXT
* In the media coverage of Uganda’s new draconian anti-homosexuality laws there has been no mention of the massive and growing HIV/AIDs problem in that country.
Recently, Uganda’s President Museveni publicly took a HIV test to raise awareness of the epidemic among the population. Currently, there are 1.5 million people with HIV in Uganda and one million children orphaned because of AIDs. In all, 7pc of the adult Uganda population are living with HIV.
Like all other African countries, Uganda’s HIV/AIDs epidemic is steadily growing.
How these statistics interplay with the Uganda government’s new laws is a matter for further discussion, but it should at least be addressed as part of the context in which the new legislation is being brought forward.
MARGARET HICKEY
BLARNEY, CO CORK
LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
* Rob Sadlier is missing something when he says that “we cannot… claim to live in a republic whilst maintaining… overtly religious… references in our Constitution” (Letters, January 9).
Fundamental to a democratic republic is the principle that all citizens are equal. That ideal arises from the religious ethic of love of neighbour. So religious references in our constitution may not be the “incongruities” that Rob Sadlier says.
A LEAVY
SUTTON, DUBLIN 13
FANTASTIC COMPLIMENTS
* All too often it is the hard word that is heard. The following is a brief compilation of some memorable compliments:
“He was my brother; not by blood, but by choice” — Frank Sinatra talking about Dean Martin.
“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it” — Winston Churchill on meeting Roosevelt.
“He was the best ballad singer I ever heard in my life” — Bob Dylan on Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.
“Irish signatures are on our founding documents. Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities.
Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humour and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Regan, O’Neill and Moynihan.
So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue behind the American flag” — President Barack O’Bama on the Irish.
BARRY CLIFFORD
CONNEMARA, CO GALWAY
POPE WOULD DISAGREE
* I would like to ask Paddy Power to give odds on whether or not Pope Francis would agree with the ideas in Philip O’Neill’s letter (January 7).
The first big mistake is in thinking that all change comes from the top. I’m sure Pope Francis would be embarrassed to think he was the only hope for the church.
The idea that “all expressions of faith have been taken off course” isn’t based on any evidence whatsoever. Mr O’Neill says, “the country has been in the grip of a very fallible church”, which confuses the doctrine of infallibility. Infallibility doesn’t mean moral perfection, it means guidance in correct teaching, ie doctrine, though I would agree that living according to objective moral norms helps in the reception of faith.
“Christ’s purpose,” he claims with no authoritative sayings of Jesus to back his argument, “was not to create an institution with subservience of its adherents, but to breathe life into the world we all inhabit, releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity.”
I searched Google and I would argue that Mr O’Neill’s reference to Christianity being about “releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity” isn’t mentioned once in scripture or tradition.
Rather Christians are called to faith, which goes beyond reason, but is not and never can be opposed to truth.
Mr O’Neill’s claim that Catholicism could do fine without a “centrally controlling body” is central in his argument.
He even asks why this would not be the case. Nobody would recommend that the State jettisons the Supreme Court and allow each citizen to “thrive on imagination” whilst interpreting the Constitution on an individual basis. It was for similar reasons that Christ started the church, so that it can guide us into the truth.
KEITH KAVANAGH
KNOCK, CO MAYO
Irish Independent

11 January 2014 NS&I
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. The crew of Troutbridge are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Admiral Troutbridge..  Priceless.
Sell Premium bonds to pay for insulation website goes mad and will send me a new password
Scrabble today Mary wins     and gets  well   over   400, nearly 500 in fact   Perhaps I will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Viktor Sarianidi , who has died aged 84, was a Russian archaeologist who found himself starring in his own Indiana Jones adventure when he unearthed six burial mounds at Tillya Tepe on the plains north of the Turkmenistan mountains in the historical region of Bactria, northern Afghanistan.
The graves — of five women and one man — contained almost 22,000 gold artefacts which had remained undisturbed for more than 2,000 years. Sarianidi made his discovery in 1978 when he was looking for sites from the much earlier Bronze Age.
The identity of the graves’ occupants is disputed. Possibly they were Sakas, a nomadic steppe people known to the ancient Greeks as Scythians, who roamed across huge swathes of Central Asia and had overthrown the Greco-Bactrian empire in the second century BC. In any case, the grave goods testify to the richness of a culture, straddling the Silk Route, which borrowed from the civilisations with which it came into contact, from the Chinese and Indians to the Parthian civilisation of Iran and Greece.
The year 1978 was not the most auspicious for an archaeologist, let alone a Russian archaeologist, to make such a discovery in Afghanistan. The country was sliding towards a civil war sparked by a Soviet-backed communist coup the previous year. In 1979 the Soviet Union would send troops into Afghanistan, initiating a war against the Western-backed Mujahideen which lasted for nine brutal years.
Sarianidi recalled that in the days before the first items were uncovered in late 1978, he and his Afghan workmen had been surprised by a group of armed tribesmen charging towards them on horseback “like sand devils off the desert”. The workmen begged him not to reveal what they had been doing, fearing they might be shot.
Two days later one of the workmen uncovered the 2,000-year-old skeleton of a woman, surrounded by the wealth she was meant to carry with her to the afterlife — crowns, belts, exquisitely moulded robe ornaments, rings and coins. All the artefacts were made of gold, and some were inlaid with precious onyx, turquoise, garnets and lapis lazuli.
In February 1979, as the security situation deteriorated, Sarianidi was forced to leave Afghanistan — but not before he had discovered another five graves containing a staggering quantity of objects, ranging from Parthian coins to clasps decorated with cupids riding dolphins; pendants depicting scenes of war; a statue of the goddess Aphrodite; and, most magnificent of all, a diadem made of five linked trees of gold sheet, hung with dozens of small pendants that shimmered at the slightest vibration.
The objects were placed in paper bags and hastily transferred to the National Museum in Kabul. Sarianidi returned briefly in 1982 to photograph some of them, and in 1985 published a lavishly illustrated book, The Golden Hoard of Bactria. But it was to be another two decades before he saw the treasure again. Meanwhile, a seventh tomb, which he had been forced to abandon, was pillaged.
The discovery made the headlines, but wonder soon gave way to despair as Afghanistan succumbed to Soviet occupation and insurgency, followed by the civil war which ended in the takeover by the Taliban.
During the Soviet occupation, Kabul avoided the destruction unleashed in the countryside, and the treasure remained secure, if rarely seen. But around the time the Russians withdrew in 1988, it disappeared completely from view. There were rumours that it had been spirited away to Moscow, or dispersed and sold by corrupt officials to international art dealers. If any remained, it was later assumed, it had gone the way of other priceless cultural artefacts: destroyed as idolatrous by the Taliban.
The truth was even more extraordinary.
In 1988 staff at the museum decided to transfer much of the collection to the safe-keeping of the then President, Mohammed Najibullah, inside the old royal palace, the Arg (now the Presidential Palace). There it was placed in locked strongboxes and hidden in vaults belonging to Afghanistan’s Central Bank. The multiple keys required to access the vaults and boxes were dispersed among anonymous officials designated as “key-holders”. All agreed to remain silent.
It was not long before Kabul became engulfed in a hurricane of destruction. In 1992 the Najibullah government fell, and an Islamic State of Afghanistan was declared. Kabul became a battlefield, divided between competing militia groups. In 1994 the museum was hit by rocket fire and almost completely destroyed. About 70 per cent of its collections disappeared through looting or destruction.
In 1996 the Taliban took over, and in the years that followed many of the museum staff dispersed, and had to find odd jobs to survive. One senior official sold potatoes in the market. Others fled abroad. There were reports that objects from the museum’s collections were on sale in the souk.
In 2001, following the infamous destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, Taliban soldiers ransacked what remained of the museum and its storerooms, smashing anything they considered idolatrous, including 2,500 statues. But there was no sign of the Bactrian gold.
The Taliban made several unsuccessful attempts to penetrate the vault in the Arg palace, but were fobbed off. Remarkably, the key holders kept the secret at great personal risk, even at a time when revealing the whereabouts of the treasure could have bought safe passage for them and their families out of the country. But their silence meant that even after the Taliban were driven from Kabul it seemed to many — Sarianidi included — that the treasure was lost for good.
In 2003, however, President Hamid Karzai announced that several locked museum boxes had been found in a bank vault under the Arg. “We had to go down three elevators under the palace and along a tunnel set with booby traps, then through a door with seven or eight codes all held by different people,” he explained.
Thinking that the boxes might contain the treasure, Fredrik Hiebert, a former student of Sarianidi’s, persuaded National Geographic magazine to send him to Kabul on the off-chance.
There he met the museum’s director, Omara Khan Masoudi, who confirmed that the boxes had been located, though he added that he could not see what was inside as the keys had been lost. But, Masoudi suggested, if Hiebert would agree to prepare a proper inventory of their contents, then he would arrange for the boxes to be opened.
In 2004 Hiebert returned to Kabul with Sarianidi, who had been flown in from Turkmenistan, to watch as a locksmith, armed with a blowtorch and a circular saw, cut open the boxes. The keys had indeed been lost — probably deliberately — but the treasure, still in their bags, appeared to be intact. As the first bag was unwrapped Sarianidi recognised one piece which he had repaired himself a quarter of a century earlier. Afterwards he took Hiebert aside and told him that he had already made an inventory of 22,000 items, in 1978. Now it was Hiebert’s turn. It took a few months; not one item was missing.
After its recovery much of the Bactrian gold circulated the world as part of an extended museum tour. It featured in the British Museum exhibition “Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World” in 2011, with a share of the proceeds going to the beleaguered National Museum of Kabul.
Viktor Sarianidi was born in Tashkent (now the capital of Uzbekistan) on September 23 1929 to parents of Greek extraction and educated at the state university. He later enrolled at the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow, where he took a Master’s degree in 1961 and later a doctorate. He worked at the Institute throughout his career.
A striking figure who sometimes sported a walrus moustache, Sarianidi worked on many sites in Soviet Central Asia, returning to Moscow only to record his findings and write his books.
In particular he played a major role in broadening understanding of what has become known as the “Oxus Civilisation”, a Bronze Age culture dating to around the time of Stonehenge. His excavations of a series of circular fortified sites in the Dashli area of the Oxus valley revealed that irrigated orchards and fields of barley and wheat had once flourished alongside neatly laid-out towns, revealing a high level of sophistication.
At Gonur Tepe, a Bronze Age site in Turkmenistan, he discovered a palace and temples with fire altars along with evidence of a cult (apparently related to Zoroastrianism) using a drug potion made from poppy, hemp and ephedra.
Viktor Sarianidi’s marriage was dissolved. He is survived by three daughters.
Viktor Sarianidi, born September 23 1929, died December 23 2013

Guardian:
I was glad to see Anne Karpf giving us a positive view of old age, and delighted to see a picture of Maggie Kuhn (Embrace your years, 4 January). I was fortunate to share a house with Maggie, who was an inspiration to me. She had the idea of house-sharing, which should be more widely adopted here. Old people with spare rooms rent them to younger people at a low rate in return for some help with household tasks, which enables them to live independently. It works both ways and young and old learn from each other. My favourite memory of my time with Maggie was going to a piano recital by Mieczyslaw Horzsowski, who was 13 years her senior. It turned out to be his final performance, at the age of 99. If anyone needed proof of the vitality and creativity of old age, that was it.
Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi
Birmingham
• 3D printing is now available in over 200 materials, including sugar (boo) and chocolate (hurrah), and now pasta (The shape of things to come, 10 January). While the mind may boggle, think also of the possibilities – school dinners printed with texts, models or formulae for the afternoon lessons, spy thrillers (eat this information), pasta landscapes and mazes to roll the peas round. Perhaps readers can suggest more pasta shapes for special occasions or professions?
Richard Hall
Nottingham
• A country that is prepared to accept “le parking” and “le weekend” for lack of its own terminology, is still compelled by the ancient rules of the Académie to describe the humble spud as “the apple of the earth” (In praise of … the Académie Française, 9 January). Hardly the mark of a sophisticated academy, one might perhaps think.
Colin Newlands
West Malling, Kent
• Does Boris Johnson’s hairdresser deserve a knighthood or an asbo (Michael White’s sketch, 9 January)?
John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
• Felicity Cloake neglects to mention the Irish version of tattie scones (G2, 9 January): potato bread, aka fadge, a staple of the Irish/Ulster fry. Also delicious filled with apple and called potato apple.
Sharman Finlay
Ballyclare, County Antrim

“It’s a myth that they turned over” (How we made … the Reliant Robin, G2, 7 January). Really? My two-year love affair with a Reliant Robin ended dramatically on a leafy country road in Berkshire one cold winter’s afternoon at the turn of the 1970s when my “plastic pig” suddenly aqua-planed at about 30mph, then somersaulted, ending up in a ditch with me underneath.
My humiliation was complete when another car quickly stopped and I heard the voice of what sounded like a very old lady asking if she could help. More embarrassed than actually injured, I replied “thank you”, at which point she single-handedly managed to flip the three-wheeler back the right way up. When I returned to retrieve the car after briefly popping in for a reviving cuppa with friends nearby, its three wheels had all been nicked.
Quentin Falk
Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire

Emma Freud broaches a topic most of us would rather ignore (How to do a funeral, 4 January). Her guide gives readers some helpful tips on navigating the disorientating reality of funeral planning. For many people, making a funeral meaningful and affordable is one of the most difficult times of their lives. Yet it is made far more traumatic by the cost. At Quaker Social Action our Down to Earth project supports people in funeral poverty who are being plunged into financial difficulty and debt following a death. The severe rise in the cost of dying and the widening gap between costs and available social benefits urgently need addressing. Until then, funeral poverty is set to get far worse.
Heather Kennedy
Funeral poverty officer, Quaker Social Action
• Whether a family is looking for a religious service or a secular ceremony, the role of the minister/officiant is of critical importance. Funeral directors clearly have their role in making practical arrangements, but much more depends on how the minister/officiant liaises with the family over the content of the order of service and conducts it. Few people are confident or emotionally resilient enough to write and deliver a eulogy; they usually need help not only with this, but with other aspects of the service as well. Above all, they instinctively need confidence in someone else who can hold the whole thing together for them.
Rev John Swarbrick
Harrow, Middlesex
• If Emma Freud’s piece had been published a year ago, I would have thought of covering my mother’s coffin with copies of the Guardian. This was the one thing that remained constant in her ever-contracting life: she spent every day reading the paper from cover to cover. But Ms Freud failed to say that you can opt for a funeral with no one officiating, no guests, no eulogy, no programme, just your family remembering whoever has died, for an hour on your own. Emotionally overwhelming, but simple and almost stress-free.
Joanie Speers
London
• There is a DIY option. We organised the funeral of our brother (-in-law) by dealing with the morgue ourselves, buying a cardboard coffin online and decorating it ourselves with our children, writing and printing the order of service, choosing the music on CDs, booking a slot at the crematorium, driving the corpse to the crematorium in our estate car, running the service and, a month later, scattering the ashes and hosting a pub lunch for friends and relatives. It was easier than organising a wedding, and everyone felt involved in giving him an appropriate send-off.
Julia and Stephen Bostock
Crewe, Cheshire

We welcome the announcement of the government’s determination to keep its Care not Custody promise (Hopes mental health nurses in courts will cut reoffending rates, 4 January). However, we note that the initial commitment for delivery of national liaison and diversion services by 2014 will not now be met. For too long people with a mental health need or learning disability, who should be diverted from police stations and courts into treatment or social care, have ended up in prison as a default option, while others are left without the support they need as they continue through the justice process.
High numbers of people in prison have mental health needs, and nearly half of all women in prison and over a fifth of men have attempted suicide at some point in their lives compared with 6% of the general population. The Care not Custody initiative was inspired by the tragic suicide of a young man with schizophrenia in Manchester prison, the son of a WI member.
The Care not Custody Coalition, representing up to 2 million people across the health, social care and justice sectors and wider civic society, was convened in 2011 to support the government in keeping its promise and to hold it to account for effective delivery. While the commitment to fund an extension of liaison and diversion trial sites in police stations and courts and a firm plan to roll out national services by 2017 gives a good foundation for change, this revised timeframe must now be kept.
Marylyn Haines-Evans Public affairs chair, National Federation of Women’s Institutes
Juliet Lyon Director, Prison Reform Trust
Steve Williams Chair, Police Federation of England and Wales
Dr Peter Carter Chief executive and general secretary, Royal College of Nursing
Nicholas Fluck President, The Law Society of England and Wales
Sue Bailey President, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Eoin McLennan-Murray President, Prison Governors Association
Peter McParlin National chairman, Prison Officers Association
Sue Hall Chair, Probation Chiefs Association
Javed Khan Chief executive, Victim Support
Paul Farmer Chief executive, Mind
Laurie Clarke Chief Executive, British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy
Paul Jenkins Chief executive, Rethink Mental Illness
Sean Duggan Chief executive, Centre for Mental Health
Nigel Lithman Chairman, Criminal Bar Association
Vicki Helyar-Caldwell Director, Criminal Justice Alliance
Sarah Clarke Vice-chair, Training and Accreditation Committee, Advocacy Training Council
Karyn Kirkpatrick Chief executive, Keyring Living Support Network
John Graham Director, Police Foundation
Jackie Russell Director, Women’s Breakout
Chris Bath Chief executive, National Appropriate Adult Network
Rachel Halford Director, Women in Prison
Can modern Britain survive (Comment, 9 January)? The conclusive answer must be no. We are winding up the welfare state, because we have been running the country at a loss for the last 40 years. We cannot produce goods to trade for the commodities we need, so we have been selling off the country to support our standard of living. London is no longer part of Britain. It is increasingly owned by rich foreigners and inhabited by poor foreigners. The overhead of carrying London means our base costs are too high to facilitate balanced trade. London prices Britain out of world markets. The creative energy of England is more concerned with hanging onto its inheritance, than in creating a viable economic environment.
Britain’s politicians just want to get elected, then repeat the trick at the next election. Regional politicians are more concerned with engineering a power base detached from England or London or both, than in running a sustainable economy. English politicians are concerned with driving the inconvenient poor somewhere north of Chipping Norton and forgetting all about them. We haven’t got the will to revive our nation, because so few people want to know. If I’m wrong, where is the motive force pulling the country together?
Martin London
Henllan, Denbighshire
• Martin Kettle says of JB Priestley’s 1934 book English Journey, “someone with real talent should make [the journey] afresh in 2014″. In fact, Beryl Bainbridge made it afresh for BBC Bristol in 1984, to mark the half centenary – with real talent indeed, noting the decay and disparities of the first Thatcher recession. The resulting book is subtitled The Road to Milton Keynes, which Priestley had somehow missed (Beatrix Campbell was doing something similar in 1984, with Wigan Pier Revisited.)
Seven years later Patrick Wright did something similar in A Journey Through Ruins, on the decay and disparities mostly, but not entirely, within London. In 2010 Owen Hatherley produced A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, focused more on architecture, but using it to illustrate the continuing inequalities. You see a theme of titles emerging here. Hatherley’s is the first to cross the borders to Glasgow and Cardiff.
Priestley wondered: “Had we exiled Lancashire and the north-east coast?” A year or so ago newly released government papers showed that simply cutting Liverpool off – to sink or swim – had indeed been suggested in the 1980s. It’s impossible to know whether any of this influenced the 1997 election. It doesn’t seem to have influenced New Labour’s policy-making to any great extent, as they left regeneration to developers and corporations, and even to casinos and 24-hour licenced premises.
It seems New Labour has taken the wind out of the left’s sails. Meanwhile the inequalities grow and are set to be locked in place by perma-austerity. Perhaps a revised English Journey would be a good place to start to acknowledge past failures and to present a radical future manifesto.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hampshire
• Martin Kettle is one of several southern British commentators who have entered the discussion on the Scottish referendum. He identifies London’s parochial ignorance and lack of interest in any other part of the UK. This gladdens the Yes campaigners in Scotland who can speak of England as that island state within the M25. It suits them to display ignorance of the true nature of Britain. You can only sympathise with those geographically in between who are excluded from the debate. Devolution has worked well in Scotland and Wales. It has given those countries a sense that those who run our education, health, social services etc are closer both physically and emotionally with those to whom the services are provided.
Westminster government is broke and it is time to fix it for all of the UK. Devolution should be offered to all regions in England. After all, federalism works in Germany and the US . Maybe what is needed is a folk group to write a song persuading Northumbrians that “we can still rise now and be a nation again”; and the same again for Wessex and Mercia.
Jerry Williams
Edinburgh

Independent:
The level of misreporting in relation to the UK ISPs’ default on filters is reaching staggering proportions. What a pity it seems the Lib Dems have been taken in by it (“Lib Dems risk ‘pro porn’ label as they oppose internet filters”, 10 January).
Parents like filters, but many found the whole business of setting them up too complicated, so they abandoned the attempt. The new way makes it easier. Thus ISPs are giving parents a real choice, not a theoretical one. It seems to me to be entirely disingenuous for anyone to say they don’t mind parents using filters as long as it’s not too easy for them. If you don’t want to use the filters you can say so with a click of a mouse. What could be simpler?
Last October Ofcom released data showing that 37 per cent of three- to four-year-olds are going online. After the Christmas splurge on new, inexpensive internet-enabled tablets, my guess is that number will be nudging nearer to 50 per cent, and this time next year it will be moving towards the high 80s or 90s. When the Lib Dems say they do not want ISPs to make it easier to use filters, what are they saying to parents? Finger-wagging about always sitting with your child when he or she goes online won’t work. Filters are not perfect but they can help busy parents keep some of the most awful stuff away from their children’s machines. As long as any discovered errors can be quickly rectified, and they can, I don’t see the problem.
The ISPs are planning to spend £25m on a public awareness campaign which, among other things, will explain exactly what filters can do and what they can’t. Everyone should take a breath, and let’s see how this experiment pans out.
John Carr, London NW3, (The writer is a member of the executive board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety)
Great war generals had to attack
I have little truck with Michael Gove’s comments on the First World War, but feel that many of your letter writers have no real knowledge of the subject. As one of the dwindling number whose fathers fought in that war, I have read much about it.
One correspondent tells us of her aunt “not realising what they were sending men to”; in the first six months, neither did the generals, as the warfare in the trenches was something they had never experienced. Perhaps they should have learnt lessons sooner, but after the slaughter on the Somme they did develop new tactics – tanks, ground-strafing aeroplanes and avoiding mass frontal assaults.
The problem was that the Germans very rarely attacked but sat securely in well-developed defensive positions which we had to attack – otherwise the war would have dragged on indefinitely, with half of France and Belgium occupied and the UK suffering more and more from the U-boat blockade. There was no option but to attack.
If our troops were so badly led, why did they not mutiny like the French and Russians? It was because they were much better treated, with regular periods out of the front line. When America came into the war their generals ignored the lessons ours had learnt and carried out frontal assaults with heavy losses.
Terry Hancock, Cherry Willingham, Lincolnshire
Sean O‘Grady (“Who was to blame for the First World War?” 8 January) is harsh on Sir Edward Grey. It wasn’t him who declared war on Serbia, mobilised armies of millions, or invaded Belgium and France.
If one man can be blamed, look no further than Count Conrad von Hötzendorf, chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff, who had been desperate to find an excuse to attack Serbia, and who had been assured of German support if Russia came to the aid of her  Serbian client.
Barry Mellor, London N7
TV view of life on benefits
Did Owen Jones actually watch Benefits Street before he wrote his piece (9 January)? The programme he described seemed very unlike the one I watched.
As someone still working in their sixties, I have paid taxes to support the benefits system for over 40 years. Nothing I saw on Benefits Street made me, or seemed designed to make me, regret this use of my money. The inhabitants were not demonised, but were shown as a collection of people with different characters, different lives, different needs. Some were attractive (the man with his 50p business); some were not (the aggressive young shoplifter); but all clearly needed some form of  benefit support.
The “controversy” over the programme seems to have arisen from Twitter and the intervention of smart young journalists down from Oxford and looking for a cause.
Helen Hancock, Birmingham
Wouldn’t it have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in the production meeting for Benefits Street? “OK, we need fighting dogs, people smoking, watching Sky on enormous widescreen televisions” etc, etc.
I can just about remember when Channel 4 made thought-provoking, hard-hitting, intelligent programmes, as was its initial remit. Iain Duncan Smith and friends must be jumping with joy, at such a free party political broadcast for the Conservative Party.
Chris Allcock, Wirksworth, Derbyshire
Owen Jones is absolutely right. The approach of TV to pensioners is more subtle but just as poisonous. Whenever the question of winter fuel allowances or travel passes comes up we get a shot of a group of well-heeled “pensioners” playing golf or bowls before sitting down to refreshments in the clubhouse. Not exactly representative of the average pensioner.
B J Cairns, London N22
Alarming advice for visitors
Last night I was in the departure lounge at Benito Juarez airport waiting for a BA flight to Heathrow when a Mexican on his way by Lufthansa to a Frankfurt trade fair introduced himself. His immediate comment when I said we lived in London was: “How are you dealing with the Muzzies?”
I said mildly that London is perhaps the most cosmopolitan and diverse city in the world, that its many different cultural groups seem to get on pretty well with each other, and that my Muslim acquaintances include a neighbour who is fully involved in mainstream three-party politics.
My new Mexican “friend” then observed that when he was in London a few months ago a policeman took him for an American and advised him very strongly not to visit any of half a dozen named areas in London where he was likely to be killed on the spot, if identified.
Do you suppose Boris, or Theresa, or  Commissioner Hogan-Howe, or even the Border Agency, is responsible for disseminating this kind of helpful advice to selected overseas visitors?
John Mann, London NW2
Celebrity MP in a swimsuit
Your article entitled “MP makes waves with part in Splash!” (9 January) claims that Penny Mordaunt MP is “facing criticism after announcing that she is to strip to her swimsuit and take part in the ITV celebrity diving show”, with the clear implication that she is being criticised for sexualising herself. The report also refers to her (three-year-old) status as “sexiest female parliamentarian”.
However, the only criticism quoted is for allegedly neglecting her constituency by “appearing in an entertainment show”.
Ms Mordaunt is far from being the only female politician to be forced to wear her sexuality like an albatross around her neck, as every single time that Mara Carfagna is mentioned in your paper her name is prefaced with the description “former topless model”.
Eoghan Lavery, Norwich
Met’s history of sick leave
Your report exposing “endemic corruption” at Scotland Yard (10 January) could explain why the Met adopted such an obviously lax approach to the management of sick leave during the 1980s and 1990s.
This failure to control such a drain on resources camouflaged the significant number of flawed officers who should have faced disciplinary charges or more but were allowed to retire on ill-health pensions which entailed lengthy periods of sick leave prior to the retirement.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner in his 1986 annual report boasted that the 15 days average annual sick leave taken by his officers compared favourably with that of  other forces.
When I recently used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the latest statistic I was told it was now down to about seven days. The management tools used to achieve this remarkable reduction could probably have been used 20 years ago.
John Kenny, Acle,  Norfolk
A cut above the rest
Does Boris Johnson’s hairdresser deserve a knighthood or an Asbo?
John Doherty, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Times:

Sir, The Health Secretary, when confronted with today’s epidemic of obesity (Jan 7), suggests that the solution is that individuals should engage in “national soul searching” and take more responsibility for their diet. This response is reminiscent of statements made by his former colleagues in relation to tobacco — that if people simply stopped smoking cigarettes then the health-related problems associated with tobacco would go away.
There are many similarities between tobacco consumption and diets characterised by an increase in energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods, high in saturated fat, salt and sugars. Essentially, both have been intensively promoted and marketed by international companies whose goals are profit rather than health. In the case of the food industry, advertising campaigns, many directed at the most vulnerable members of our society — our children and those economically deprived — aim to promote these products, often misguidedly, as healthy (breakfast cereals are a classic example). And their association with national and international sporting events (in the case of sugar-containing drinks and sports supplements) is designed to give these products a health credibility which they do not have.
We can place the responsibility for change in diet and lifestyle on the individual; we can invite the food industry to participate in discussions to improve the content of its processed and packaged foods, which now constitute the major proportion of our diet, and we can invite it to reduce the sugar content of carbonated drinks which has contributed to the obesity epidemic worldwide.
However, the marketing campaigns of the “Big Food” multinational corporations were learnt from the tobacco industry and have been very successful. The obesity epidemic is now spreading rapidly in the low and middle economies, largely as a consequence of “Big Food” increasing its focus on new outlets in the developing world — further extending the huge problems to health and the economy it has caused in Europe and North America.
It has taken 50 years to realise that the only way to control the tobacco industry is legislation over the content and marketing of its products. Will we wait another half century before we legislate over the food industry and its high-pressure marketing of poor-quality nutritional products to our community which, when combined with lack of exercise, is the cause of the worldwide epidemic of obesity and its health and economic consequences?
Professor Peter Sever
Imperial College London

Sir, After your report and letters (Jan 2) it is time to stand back and look at what we may be allowing to be done to this country in the name of development and its presumed role as the solution to our economic woes.
Those aiming to surround Old Oswestry hillfort with a housing development offer the feeble excuse that they are not building on the hill fort itself, while at the same time ignoring the impact on views both to and from the monument. The people of Bath are facing plans to amend green belt land around the city with housing, roads and commercial development which will severely compromise the setting of the best surviving part of the western Wansdyke, another Scheduled Ancient Monument and landscape-scale earthwork.
Against growing threats like these, the number of people employed to examine the impact of development on our heritage is diminishing as local governments cut their conservation, archaeological and museum staff, leaving some regions without cover at all, while those who are left have overwhelming workloads.
At the same time changes to English Heritage appear likely to reduce its influence. As we are only on the edge of economic growth, what other ancient monuments will be threatened as the pace of development picks up?
We need to call a halt and reinstate the ground rules for protection of our Historic Monuments (and greenbelt land) before it’s too late and we need to fight for the jobs of those whose task it is to mitigate the negative effects of economic development.
Our national heritage is not a luxury; in 2013 alone heritage tourism contributed some £26.4 billion to the British economy. Of what lasting value is recovery if we lose some of our most evocative and irreplaceable heritage in the process?
Dr Chris Cumberpatch
Vice-chair, Rescue – The British Archaeological Trust

Sir, Your report (Jan 8) on the behaviour of parents who drive their children to school was very familiar. I have long ceased to be astonished at such parents’ lack of courtesy towards others, and the degree to which they are prepared to endanger others, including their own children.
I work in the London Borough of Barnet, on a road with five schools, three private, within half a mile of each other. At drop-off and pick-up times the road becomes an obstacle course. Traffic jams are frequent, often because the buses which use the road cannot get through. Everyone, school user or not, is inconvenienced. Road traffic act violations are countable in their dozens along the half-mile stretch every day. Two years ago I wrote to the head teachers of all five schools, asking them to take action. None replied, and the chaos continues.
Alec Gallagher
Potton, Beds
Sir, I worry about where my children are, but I do not want to fit them with a GPS tracker (“New smartwatch will let you track your children from afar”, Jan 9). I have just released a film about children’s disappearance from the wild, and a campaign, the Wild Network, to try to reintroduce them. Children’s independent mobility in the UK is vanishing. Twice as many under-11s are accompanied to school by their parents than were 30 years ago. But rather than allowing children new freedoms, the new smartwatch lures parents into a mentality where they must police the ever-shrinking limits of their children’s local geography.
One parent’s wayward child is another’s adventurer in the making.
David Bond
London SE14

Sir, We write to express our utmost concern over the conflict in South Sudan, with over 1,000 people killed and 200,000 displaced. This is in addition to the 228,000 people already living as refugees in South Sudan, having fled from conflict in the Republic of Sudan. There is an urgent need for an end to fighting to prevent further displacement and suffering.
We are encouraged that the two sides to the conflict are meeting in Addis Ababa. However, we are particularly worried that while these events occur in South Sudan, in the Republic of Sudan a systematic campaign of bombardments and other atrocities continues, committed by the government in Khartoum against civilians in South Kordofan, Blue Nile state and Darfur. As the rest of the world turns its attention to South Sudan, the suffering of these people will be forgotten and aid will be diverted or denied.
We are also concerned that the current conflict has been wrongly caricatured as primarily an ethnic dispute between the two main tribal groups, the Dinka and the Nuer. Although tribal identity has been a historic basis for conflict and continues to be a factor in recent violence, the current fighting is not simply based on ethnicity — for example, the General Chief of Staff, who remains loyal to the Dinka President of South Sudan, is a Nuer.
We are concerned that Government of South Sudan parliamentarians have been arrested and although some have been released, others are still in jail.
We therefore strongly urge the immediate release of all politicians not involved in any criminal actions who are currently detained. All parties to the conflict must allow immediate, unhindered access of humanitarian aid to all in need. The leader of the rebellion, Riek Machar, must agree to demobilise all child soldiers who have been fighting alongside his forces, including those in the so-called White Army; all parties must address immediately reports of the use of child soldiers; and the international community must do all in its power to facilitate dialogue and constructive ways forward.
The cessation of hostilities without a comprehensive political solution, and without resolving the root causes of the fratricidal violence and carnage, only sets the stage for an inevitable resumption of fighting with the belligerent forces rested, better organised and better equipped.
We strongly support the peace talks led by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development to secure an immediate cessation of hostilities. But we also underline that the UK and its partners played a critical role in supporting IGAD to mediate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the devastating war between Sudan and then-SPLM rebels; without this massive international diplomatic support, political progress would not have been possible. We therefore urge the Prime Minister David Cameron to add his strong support to the ongoing IGAD negotiations.
It would be an unmitigated tragedy for the people of South Sudan if the current violence continues.
Baroness Cox, Lord Alton of Liverpool, Lord Avebury, Sir Peter Bottomley, MP; Lord Chidgey; Nic Dakin, MP; Jeffrey Donaldson, MP; Baroness Kinnock; Lord Lea of Crondall; John Mann, MP; Stephen Mosley, MP; the Earl of Sandwich

Sir, The immigration debate caused me to consider what the immigrant population has contributed to my life directly.
My family has been treated by doctors and nurses from India, Pakistan and the Philippines. I was taken to school by a Jamaican bus driver, have enjoyed food from Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Nepalese restaurants, and had dental treatment from a Russian Jew. Our car has recently been valeted by immigrants from Syria and Albania. Italian café owners have served me coffee and ice cream, and their cousins cut my hair.
All of these immigrants have been hard workers and they have enhanced the life of the South Wales valleys in which they have chosen to settle, as indeed they have nationally.
Roger Bowen
Blaenavon, Gwent

Telegraph:

SIR – Professor Alan Sked summarises the linked, cumulative events that led up to the Great War. The Schlieffen Plan he mentions was developed in 1905 as a means of invading France through Belgium and bypassing the heavily fortified Franco-German border, over which the Prussians invaded in the Franco-Prussian war of 1871.
Schlieffen’s idea was that, by invading far to the west and wheeling south-west of Paris, the right wing of the German army would envelop Paris and bring the war to a speedy conclusion. Apparently Count Schlieffen’s last words on his death-bed in 1913 were: “Keep the right wing strong”.
In the event, the German 1st Army turned eastwards early in support of the 2nd Army, the advance of which was stalled by the French. The exposed German flank gave the French an opportunity to counterattack with British support. The Battle of the Marne brought the German invasion to a halt and led to four years of trench warfare.
The Schlieffen Plan was instrumental in bringing Britain into the war. Had the plan been implemented as intended, it might well have led to the early capitulation of France, as happened more than 25 years later.
Terry Lloyd
Darley Abbey, Derbyshire

SIR – The new director of the Wellcome Trust, Jeremy Farrar, is right to highlight the perils we face if we ignore the emerging public health problem of antibiotic resistance.
Making new medicines is an expensive and risky business. The days of the blockbuster drug are over, and costs of development are escalating. So if we are to continue with a market-driven approach to developing new drugs, investors need a more persuasive investment proposition.
This means that we must either accept higher prices for drugs or re-evaluate our approach to patent protection. A longer patent lifetime would allow investors to generate a return over a longer period and give an incentive to pharmaceutical companies to develop new antibiotics.
Perhaps even more importantly, it could safeguard the pipeline of new affordable medicines for many diseases and establish Britain as the destination of choice for the next generation of drug hunters.
Professor Stephen Caddick
University College London
London WC1
Related Articles
How Britain was drawn into the First World War
10 Jan 2014
Traffic, speed and air
SIR – What the Government is doing is increasing capacity on the M1 by 33 per cent. As part of these improvements we are consulting on introducing a 60mph speed limit on a 35-mile section of the M1, which will enable traffic to run more smoothly.
We have been using variable speed limits to improve traffic flow for many years. They are also an option on the rare occasion that the respiratory health of local people is at risk.
No decision has been taken yet, but it is our responsibility to ensure that air quality standards are met. This consultation will help us establish if variable speed limits are the best way to protect the health of communities near the motorway.
A specific improvement we are making may carry some risks in terms of air quality and if so, we will need to manage them.
Even if it were a completely clear road, a reduction from 70mph to 60mph would add only five minutes to the journey. However, this section is heavily congested and our improvements will dramatically reduce journey times.
Robert Goodwill MP (Con)
Transport Minister
London SW1
Posting nail varnish
SIR – The Civil Aviation Authority and Royal Mail have agreed new procedures that mean customers can post to UK addresses small quantities of toiletry and medicinal aerosols, nail varnishes, perfumes and aftershaves and alcoholic beverages that were previously prohibited in the mail.
Batteries can also be sent in the post but the sender must comply with certain packaging requirements.
David Davies
Head of Protective & Aviation Security, Royal Mail
London EC4
Snips and snippets
SIR – As the owner of a hairdressing salon and leader of a London council, I can claim to hold the keys to both the salon and the top office at the town hall.
The salon is an unrivalled place to hear what residents actually think about issues of the day. You don’t just get hot air under the dryers.
Cllr Susan Hall
Leader, Harrow Council
Harrow, Middlesex
Sino-Japanese relations
SIR – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni shrine may not change Japan’s commitment to peace, but Keiichi Hayashi, Japan’s ambassador to Britain, is wrong to assume that all is rosy with Japan’s democracy.
The spat between China and Japan is about Mr Abe’s devious effort to get rid of Japan’s post-war “Peace Constitution”.
Mr Hayashi says Mr Abe firmly upholds Japan’s responsibility for the slaughter that befell Asia and that “the government of Japan has consistently made clear that it squarely faces this history, and expresses deep remorse and heartfelt apology” for it.
In my 22 years in Japan, anything said about the evil done to Asia was grudging and minimal. Japan has been offered many opportunities in the past 40 years to apologise; only one resulted in any true apology, and this extraction was painful.
William Hardwick
Sherborne, Dorset
SIR – Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, justifies his country’s sabre-rattling in the East China Sea by citing Japan’s failure to acknowledge its war record.
Mr Liu does not mention China’s own appalling post-war human rights record, nor the invasion and continuing brutal occupation of Tibet.
He also does not seem to appreciate the similarity of Japan’s honouring war criminals to China’s celebrating Mao as a national hero, for example by featuring his picture on the country’s bank notes.
John Apperley
St Albans, Hertfordshire
SIR – If Mr Liu wishes China to safeguard regional stability and world peace, a good start would be to advocate the referral of the Diaoyu, or Senkaku, islands dispute to the arbitration of the International Court of Justice, rather than attempting to put daylight between Britain and America, current guarantor of stability in Asia.
Tom Hill
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Hippocratic imperative
SIR – In Hippocrates’ Regimen in Health, he recommends that in winter one should “eat as much as possible… and drink should be wine as undiluted as possible”, since it is important to warm the body. In summer, “drinks should be diluted and as copious as possible”, and meat “boiled”, in order to cool the body. January is not the time for abstinence.
Penny Clive
Swanmore, Hampshire
Memorable names of the 10 little hairy pigs
SIR – Adrian Waller has forgotten what the mnemonic “Very Many Little Hairy Pigs Live In The Torrid Argentine” stands for. It is an aide-memoire for: Valine, Methionine, Lysine, Histidine, Phenylalanine, Leucine, Isoleucine, Threonine, Tryptophan and Arginine. I would not have thought anyone would need a mnemonic for that.
Ron Hunt
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Memorable names of the ten little hairy pigs
SIR – Navigators use mnemonics for help in converting magnetic to true bearings (and vice versa), to ensure the correct sequence of applying corrections for deviation (errors caused by local magnetic forces) and variation (the angular difference between the true and magnetic poles).
From compass reading to true, one corrects as follows: compass deviation magnetic variation true, or CDMVT. This translates: Can Dead Men Vote Twice?
Going from true to magnetic is more interesting: True Virgins Make Dull Companions.
Jim Meacham
Witham-on-the-Hill, Lincolnshire
SIR – At King Edward VII Nautical College in 1950, we were taught: Timid Virgins Make Dull Companions. In the Sixties, I learnt to fly at Suffolk Aero Club in a mixed-sex class, and we concentrated on the unexceptionable mnemonic: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Very Tasty.
Captain David Ingham
Bentley, Suffolk

SIR – Until I sat on a jury a couple of years ago, I had not appreciated the true value of our jury processes.
The jury members at the Mark Duggan inquest did not ask to be there, but were selected at random. We must assume that, as independent people, the jurors considered the evidence, along with the guidance they would have been given, in a diligent, fair and honest manner. The conclusions and decisions they reached were what they truly believed to be the right ones.
How do those jurors now feel, as pressure groups express disgust at the “awful” conclusions?
We must support those jurors and vigorously defend the jury system that has served our country so well for centuries.
Peter Howard
Norton Lindsey, Warwickshire
SIR – Like the riots that immediately followed his shooting, this week’s inquest verdict on Mark Duggan has exposed Britain’s deep racial fault lines. While many white people find the level of black fury startling, many in the black population find this incomprehension still more infuriating.
The inquest might have focused on legalistic definitions of “lawful killing” but the anger felt on the streets of Tottenham and beyond flows from a deep sense of injustice fuelled by black Britons’ experience of discrimination.
Stefan Simanowitz
London NW3
SIR – Mark Duggan’s aunt claims that the public supports the Duggan family. Count me out, please. The sight of the screeching members of the Duggan family and friends after the jury delivered its verdict was enough to turn anyone’s stomach.
J M T Shaw
Knutsford, Cheshire
SIR – Mob rule is never a pleasant sight. It was not pleasant when we saw it on our television screens in the summer of 2011 and I guess it wasn’t very agreeable for the court staff in the Duggan case on Wednesday.
Anarchy in any society lies just below the surface. All that protects the ordinary citizen from rape, robbery and the rest are the forces of law and order. These of course include the police and the courts.
For this reason everyone can and should be expected to cooperate with them and offer proper respect. If misdemeanours by the forces of law and order are suspected they should be properly investigated. Clearly in this case they were, and that, subject to any proper appeal, should be the end of the matter.
Andrew McLuskey
Stanwell, Middlesex
SIR – Has Mark Duggan’s family given thought to the lives lost as a result of drug dealing?
John Lavender
Port Erin, Isle of Man

Irish Times:

Sir, – We are just a week into 2014 and already here we have the next assault on the disabled (and now to include elderly people with mobility problems) from this Coalition. You were kind enough to publish my letter (April 12th, 2013) detailing the disgraceful cutting of the overall fund for housing adaptation from €54 million to €35 million for 2013 as announced by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan at that time. This morning on national radio I heard a Labour Minister of State, Jan O’Sullivan, attempting to spin the allocation of €38 million to the same fund for 2014 as an “increase” in spending in her defence of the latest moving of the goalposts for disabled Irish citizens attempting to access those services which should be theirs as a civil right.
If Ms O’Sullivan thinks that those Irish citizens and voters who are disabled, or care for the disabled or, indeed, who are elderly or have an elderly relative with mobility issues, are naive enough to fall for this kind of crude political guff, she has another think coming. A cut from an already inadequate €53 million to €35 million and then to €38 million is a cut, and a massive cut, pure and simple, and no amount of spin can alter that fact. I suggest all those affected, related to those affected or sympathetic to those affected, make their feelings on this matter clear in the coming local and European elections this year and, indeed, in the national elections in 2016. – Yours, etc,
JONATHAN SHANKEY,
Saint Mary’s Crescent,
Walkinstown,
Dublin 12.
Sir, – I am writing in response to the latest cutbacks to the elderly and disabled (“Grant cuts to make it ‘harder’ for elderly to live at home”, Front Page, January 9th). The cutbacks in funding to local authority housing grants have been announced without any debate and will mean more people being forced against their wishes to access nursing home and hospital accommodation.
This flies in the face of the Government’s desire that people access the health service through primary care services and will end up costing far more money than supporting the elderly and disabled to live in their own homes.
These latest cutbacks follow on from a five-fold increase in medical card charges, cutbacks to home-help support and cutbacks to the medical card scheme itself.
Leaving aside the financial cutbacks, the increased bureaucracy to access State supports such as these is another burden that is becoming even more complicated and difficult to handle. Furthermore, form-filling does not deal adequately with complicated cases, especially family situations.
What is badly needed is the proper planning of resources, so that those that need them most can access them easily. – Yours, etc,
EDWARD MacMANUS,
White’s Road,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – I was surprised to read that the grant for housing aid for older people has been cut. I thought, as per Wexford County Council’s website, such grants had been suspended “indefinitely”. – Yours, etc,
DEBRA JAMES,
Cummerduff,
Gorey, Co Wexford.
Sir, – I sincerely hope that the wails of the elderly and disabled are not drowned out by the sound of appreciative applause on foot of “Ireland’s successful re-entry into global capital markets”. – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN,
Stillorgan Road,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.

Sir, – The current controversy generated by ex-president Mary McAleese’s comments on her unhappiness at the attitude of “her” church towards homosexual people is being viewed and analysed from the wrong perspective (“McAleese criticises church’s stance on gays”, Front Page, January 8th).
Reasonable and rational people who wish to worship a god may very easily do so without guidance or direction from the Roman Catholic or any other established church.
So rather than expressing displeasure, disappointment or opposition to the teachings and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, Mrs McAleese and all thinking people who disagree with it should just leave and live and worship in their own way. If enough people do this then the negative and offensive views of that church will quickly become even more irrelevant than they are already, – Yours, etc,
HUGH PIERCE,
Newtown Road,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – I was heartened to read Mary McAleese’s comments on the church’s stance on gays. We have made such strides lately on many fronts to come out of the dark ages.
Mrs McAleese was a great president and her stance on this issue is important and welcome. – Yours, etc,
PAT BURKE WALSH,
Ballymoney,
Co Wexford.
Sir, – Mary McAleese’s criticisms of the Catholic Church’s “attitude” towards gay people are misplaced. The church’s attitude towards gay people is the same as its attitude towards all people: they are children of God, blessed with an inherent dignity beyond all measure, and, if they will it, an eternal destiny abiding in God’s love. That is a remarkably affirmative attitude to have of any person (gay or straight) and one, I suggest, unparalleled by any materialist philosophy or secularist ideology.
Our former president also takes exception to the church’s teaching that gay people are “sinners”. Yet sinning is not the preserve of straight people only, the imperfect human condition is a universal reality. The real focus of debate should instead be on specific church teaching concerning sexual ethics. This teaching, only one limb of an entire corpus of ethics on human affairs, judges the morality of various actions and does not distinguish between the dignity of various persons.
Neither gay nor straight persons are predetermined to act with or against any particular aspect of the church’s moral teaching, including sexual ethics.
Whether the church’s sexual (or any other) ethics are reasonable is a distinct matter from the simple fact that it, almost uniquely, teaches as true the equal and inherent dignity of all human beings. The reasonableness or otherwise of the church’s sexual ethics is an important point of debate. But this debate is ill-served by raising extraneous issues such as the number of Catholic clergy who have a homosexual orientation, majority opinion on the matter, or, lest the debate succumb to the fallacy of naturalism, whether homosexual orientation is a matter of genetic predetermination or predisposition. – Yours, etc,
THOMAS FINEGAN,
Willowbrook Park
Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Sir, – Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte has stated that putting transmission lines underground would cause bills to rise by up to 3 per cent.
On my current electricity bill, the actual cost of electricity is €54.88. But the additional charges (standing charge, public service obligation levy and VAT at 13.5 per cent) add a whopping €37.45, or 69 per cent , to my bill.
In order to alleviate the suggested 3 per cent increase claimed to be necessary to put the transmission lines underground, Mr Rabbitte and all the other Government Ministers and backbenchers should be knocking their heads together to find ways to reduce the current excessive additional charges instead of simply acting as spokesmen for industry. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN
Royal Oak Road,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
A chara, – There are precedents supporting the routing of electricity transmission underground. The Murraylink is an Australian 180km high-voltage electricity transmission link between Berri in South Australia and Red Cliffs in Victoria which, for environmental protection reasons, is completely underground.
Routing electricity using pylons is quicker and cheaper, but there are no new skills learned in doing so, and environment and scenery are blighted. Whereas there are geological, engineering and cost challenges in routing electricity underground, there are longer-term payoffs in terms of consequently learned engineering expertise which could be marketed abroad, and obviously reduced impacts on environment and scenery.
The question is whether the Government and EirGrid are willing to do what is required to achieve the longer-term payoffs. – Is mise,
NIALL O’DONOGHUE,
Lempaala,
Tampere,
Finland.
Sir, – Ireland has signed and ratified the Aarhus  Convention. Fundamental to this convention is the right of citizens to information and participation in matters relating to their environment. It in the interests of environmental democracy and justice that the plans for the EirGrid system are examined properly with the participation of the local community. – Yours, etc,
JOE MURRAY,
Beggars Bush Court,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Sir, – The Bileog page provides a great service for struggling Irish speakers like myself who are trying to keep our school knowledge of Irish from rusting over completely.
I was struck by the reference in Deaglán de Bréadún’s article to the Teachers’ Union of Ireland boycott of Israeli academia (“Bagairt an bhaghcait”, Bileog, January 8th).
It seems ironic that the teachers in a country that has struggled for 90 years and largely failed to revive its native language should want to boycott the teachers in a country which has successfully revived its language in the same period.
At the turn of the last century, Hebrew was pretty much a dead language, with its few fluent speakers scattered among the Jewish diaspora and a few in Palestine. But within two generations it had been revived to become the lingua franca of everyday life in Israel.
I am sure the Israeli teachers cannot take all the credit for its revival, no more than the Irish teaching profession should be blamed for the demise of Irish, but I am equally sure that our teachers have a lot to learn from the Israeli experience. Sadly, it now seems that, whatever the secret sauce is, it will remain a mystery to us through our teachers’ boycott. Could our teachers’ union not have found a better way to lend support to the Palestinians? – Yours, etc,
PAUL MILNE,
Dublin Road,
Sutton, Dublin 13.

Sir, – The recent decision to grant planning permission for an enlarged Irish Jewish Museum in the existing small building is as regrettable as it is misguided (“Plans for enlarged Irish Jewish Museum approved”, Home News, December 30th).
This area was the home of Dublin’s Jewish community, but the project, sadly, is not about enhancing what should be a cherished memory. It is a planning debacle that shows exceptional disregard for the local community.
Both Jewish and non-Jewish people, Irish and non-Irish, Dublin and non-Dublin born people have lived together here and shared this part of Dublin 8 for many decades, making it a vibrant part of the city. With suitable larger sites available in the area, there is a dreadful cynicism about the decision to go ahead with such a destructive plan.
Demolishing an old synagogue and most of a terrace, increasing the area six-fold and digging 20 feet into the bedrock of this tiny street shows contempt for both the residents and for the city’s architecture.
To have a Jewish museum of international dimensions in Dublin would be wonderful. It would be a major step forward in recognising and in celebrating Jewish identity in Ireland.
Surely this can be done without destroying a real, living community and tearing apart its streets? – Yours, etc,
Dr JEANNE RIOU,
School of Languages
& Literatures,
UCD,
Belfield,
Dublin 4
Sir, – Why all the euphoria about the National Treasury Management Agency’s €3.75 billion bond sale (Front Page, January 8th)? EU banks can borrow from the ECB at 1 per cent and reinvest in Irish government bonds at more than 3 per cent. The fact that the Irish offering was oversubscribed may well be an indicator that the premium was too generous and it was sold too cheaply. We need to get away from misrepresenting our dealings with money lenders as a cause for self-congratulation. These bondholders are much the same cast of kindly characters that we were obliged to repay for their profligate lending to our reckless banks and poorly regulated financial institutions. We have just added another €3.75 billion to the debt burden that our children will be forced to carry. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ANDERSON,
Moyclare Close,
Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Dermot Dix in his interview as headmaster of Headfort School (Business, January 8th) states that school facilities include a science lab and that Headfort is thus “one of the few primary schools in Ireland where children do practical science”. In national schools up and down the country children from infants to sixth class are regularly engaging in practical science investigations – mini-beasts are observed, working lighthouses and rockets are constructed, wind speed is recorded, the strength of eggshells is tested. Endless adventures in scientific discovery are organised by energetic and enthusiastic teachers without a lab in sight. This is how young scientists are made. – Yours, etc,
CLARE SHERIDAN,
Ardmore Park,
Bray,

Sir, – I note that Anglo/IBRC set up lists of certain customers “to ensure that the State-owned bank did not offer nor could be perceived to have offered any of them special treatment” (“No special deals for listed Anglo borrowers, says Dukes”, Front Page, January 7th). However, by setting up the lists, the bank has implicitly given these people special treatment.
There is still a market for the trappings of influence, and people would probably pay for the cachet of being on a list of HPPs (high-profile persons), as certified by a State institution. – Yours, etc,
MIKE NORRIS,
Cabinteely Green,
Dublin 18.

Sir, – It is rare that I agree with views expressed by Gerry Adams TD but his argument that the Oireachtas should abide by normal licensing hours seems irrefutable (“Adams repeats call for Dáil bar regulation”, Home News, January 9th).
Should not those who make the laws also be bound by them?
One could go further and ask why our legislators need access to a steady supply of alcohol in their workplace. Teachers, doctors, dentists, pilots and air traffic controllers, among others, do not have access to alcoholic support during long and arduous working hours.
Admittedly, it may be said that the work of TDs does not involve life-and-death decisions to the same extent as these professions, but can even that argument hold water in the context of, to give one example, the recently debated abortion legislation? – Yours, etc,
EDWARD
MOXON-BROWNE,
Clonfadda,
Killaloe,

Sir, – I’m afraid Jennifer O’Connell (“Ten phrases we could live without”, Life, January 8th) missed the worst of all: “You know what”. – Yours, etc,
TOM REARDON,
Silverwood Road,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – “Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki”. – Yours, etc,
OLIVER McGRANE,
Marley Avenue,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.

Sir, – In relation to articles on maternal sepsis published on January 6th, I wish to clarify that the Rotunda Hospital collects and monitors information and data on maternal and neonatal sepsis. Over the period 2004 to the end of 2012 there were 71 cases of life-threatening maternal sepsis requiring admission to the hospital’s high dependency unit. Data on this topic and others is available in the hospital’s annual clinical report. – Yours, etc,
Dr SAM COULTER-SMITH,
Master,
Rotunda Hospital,
Dublin 1.
Sir, – I see that the criteria for competing to be the next city of culture include an emphasis on a “bottom-up approach which seeks to unite cultural and socio-economic stakeholders” (“Next City of Culture to be ‘informed’ by Limerick experience”, Home News, January 9th). “Bottoms up” to the lucky city in 2018 and whatever you’re havin’ yourself! – Yours, etc,
PATRICK O’BYRNE,
Shandon Crescent,
Phibsborough, Dublin 7.

Irish Independent:

* I write in response to Paul Connolly’s letter (January 9) on the benefits of Europe over the last 30 years. Firstly Ireland joined the EEC on May 10, 1972, which is actually nigh-on 42 years ago.
Also in this section
Letters: To thine own selfie be true
European project is key to our future
The case for eternal Christmas
Mr Connolly points to Europe being good for farming. In 1974 the price of cattle completely collapsed and there was no sign of Europe. He contends that farming is now viable for a large section of the population, despite the fact that the number of farmers has nearly halved since the 1970s.
Mr Connolly also points to an Erasmus programme, yet he bemoans the fact that we don’t learn European languages. What is the percentage of all third-level students who have gone on Erasmus?
Emigration? Since we joined the EU we have seen two major phases of emigration in Ireland — the ’80s and now. Yes, the Irish emigrate to the Anglo sphere. What does Mr Connolly suggest; that we emigrate to Spain for work where 350,000 people have emigrated? Should we move to Greece and milk goats? Should we head to Germany, where there’s no minimum wage? Should we emigrate to Portugal, where the markets — apparently the one true barometer in fiscal measurement — say that Ireland’s bonds are a better bet than in Jose Manuel Barroso’s home country?
The rhetoric of Europe is that it provides peace and that war will not break out again within its confines. Where were these great peacemakers during the Troubles?
Where is Europe when it comes to respecting our neutrality with soldiers stationed in Uganda with no UN mandate?
Finally, Mr Connolly points to the Dublin-Galway motorway as a project funded by Europe.
If Mr Connolly took off what may have been his rose-tinted glasses, he may have seen that it was part-funded by Europe.
Mr Connolly might do well to listen to the rhetoric coming out of Europe that claims that the EU is an organisation that is in existence for 40 years.
It couldn’t be, for the Berlin Wall stood for the first 20 of those 40 years.
DERMOT RYAN
ATHENRY, CO GALWAY
ARMY SHOWS COWARDICE
* President Higgins’s Christ-less Christmas address is just one more in a steady stream of his meaningless/ value-free diatribes, as if written by a big brother-inspired committee of PC UN apparatchiks. George Orwell wrote prophetically about such a world in his book ’1984′.
The one redeeming feature of the episode was the initial courage of the Army chaplain in pointing out the absurdity of the speech, undermined by the cowardice of the Defence Forces under fire in issuing a craven apology.
Some secularists are attempting to defend the speech on a spurious appeal to Republican ethics. Nonsense — a republic is defined as a form of government in which power is explicitly vested in the people.
It has nothing to do with imposing secularist dogma, particularly as the majority of the Irish people, 92pc, are Christian. A simple recognition of this in the speech was all that was required, basic good manners really.
ERIC CONWAY
NAVAN, CO MEATH
HIV PUTS LAWS IN CONTEXT
* In the media coverage of Uganda’s new draconian anti-homosexuality laws there has been no mention of the massive and growing HIV/AIDs problem in that country.
Recently, Uganda’s President Museveni publicly took a HIV test to raise awareness of the epidemic among the population. Currently, there are 1.5 million people with HIV in Uganda and one million children orphaned because of AIDs. In all, 7pc of the adult Uganda population are living with HIV.
Like all other African countries, Uganda’s HIV/AIDs epidemic is steadily growing.
How these statistics interplay with the Uganda government’s new laws is a matter for further discussion, but it should at least be addressed as part of the context in which the new legislation is being brought forward.
MARGARET HICKEY
BLARNEY, CO CORK
LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
* Rob Sadlier is missing something when he says that “we cannot… claim to live in a republic whilst maintaining… overtly religious… references in our Constitution” (Letters, January 9).
Fundamental to a democratic republic is the principle that all citizens are equal. That ideal arises from the religious ethic of love of neighbour. So religious references in our constitution may not be the “incongruities” that Rob Sadlier says.
A LEAVY
SUTTON, DUBLIN 13
FANTASTIC COMPLIMENTS
* All too often it is the hard word that is heard. The following is a brief compilation of some memorable compliments:
“He was my brother; not by blood, but by choice” — Frank Sinatra talking about Dean Martin.
“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it” — Winston Churchill on meeting Roosevelt.
“He was the best ballad singer I ever heard in my life” — Bob Dylan on Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.
“Irish signatures are on our founding documents. Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities.
Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humour and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Regan, O’Neill and Moynihan.
So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue behind the American flag” — President Barack O’Bama on the Irish.
BARRY CLIFFORD
CONNEMARA, CO GALWAY
POPE WOULD DISAGREE
* I would like to ask Paddy Power to give odds on whether or not Pope Francis would agree with the ideas in Philip O’Neill’s letter (January 7).
The first big mistake is in thinking that all change comes from the top. I’m sure Pope Francis would be embarrassed to think he was the only hope for the church.
The idea that “all expressions of faith have been taken off course” isn’t based on any evidence whatsoever. Mr O’Neill says, “the country has been in the grip of a very fallible church”, which confuses the doctrine of infallibility. Infallibility doesn’t mean moral perfection, it means guidance in correct teaching, ie doctrine, though I would agree that living according to objective moral norms helps in the reception of faith.
“Christ’s purpose,” he claims with no authoritative sayings of Jesus to back his argument, “was not to create an institution with subservience of its adherents, but to breathe life into the world we all inhabit, releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity.”
I searched Google and I would argue that Mr O’Neill’s reference to Christianity being about “releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity” isn’t mentioned once in scripture or tradition.
Rather Christians are called to faith, which goes beyond reason, but is not and never can be opposed to truth.
Mr O’Neill’s claim that Catholicism could do fine without a “centrally controlling body” is central in his argument.
He even asks why this would not be the case. Nobody would recommend that the State jettisons the Supreme Court and allow each citizen to “thrive on imagination” whilst interpreting the Constitution on an individual basis. It was for similar reasons that Christ started the church, so that it can guide us into the truth.
KEITH KAVANAGH
KNOCK, CO MAYO
Irish Independent

12 January 2014 Shantoi

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. The crew of Troutbridge are celebrating and Mrs Povey want Henry to be promted to Admiral. Priceless.

Shanti pops round for coffee

Scrabbletoday Mary wins and gets well over300, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Cecile Nobrega, who has died aged 94, was the driving force behind the first statue of a black woman to go on permanent display in England.

₎

Cecile Elise Doreen Burgan was born in Guyana (then a British colony) on June 1 1919 to Canon William Burgan and his wife Imelda; in 1949 the Canon would become the first black man to preach at Westminster Abbey.

At Bishops High School in Guyana, Cecile showed herself a gifted child — she had composed classical music and written poetry from an early age, and later produced a choral work called Twilight which was performed by national choirs in Guyana and Cuba.

In Guyana, she started two schools — a kindergarten and a vocational school for teenage girls. She also wrote plays, one of which, Stabroek Fantasy (also known as Carib Gold), was particularly successful.

In 1969, however, she found herself professionally at odds with the Guyana government and emigrated to Britain, where she retrained as a specialist teacher, working in Hertfordshire and Brent. She was active in the National Union of Teachers and in the Adult Literacy Programme, and campaigned for children with severe learning difficulties.

Her work with the International Alliance of Women (IAW) and the Commonwealth Countries League gave her the opportunity to travel, and it was at IAW conferences in New York, Kenya, Greece, Japan and India that she began to shape the idea for her sculpture The Bronze Woman.

A resident of Lambeth, south London, for her last 22 years, Cecile Nobrega slowed down towards the end of her life, giving up driving, her computer, and playing the piano; but she remained active in her local pensioners’ group and in t’ai chi classes.

Her husband of 52 years, Romeo Nobrega, an accountant, died in 1994, and she is survived by their two sons and one daughter.

Cecile Nobrega, born June 1 1919, died November 19 2013

Guardian:

I have taught English in several state comprehensives, to students of many different abilities and nationalities, for more than 30 years. The most compelling texts were invariably those which emphasised the horror and futility of the first world war. The literature of endurance, heroism and despair has captured the imaginations of students from all cultures and ranges of ability. (“Using history for politicking is tawdry, Mr Gove“, Tristram Hunt, Comment).

The lobbying bill, which is reaching the final stages of debate in parliament, represents a threat to democracy and would limit the right of charities and campaigning organisations to speak out on some of the most important issues facing the country and planet ahead of elections.

Independent

Ed Miliband’s proposal to interfere in Britain’s labour market is deceptive and dangerous (“We’re too reliant on low-wage labour”, 5 January).

The thrust of his suggestion is that Britain should sign up fully to the European Union’s Agency Workers Directive. He assumes this would create highly-paid jobs for British workers. In truth it would mean fewer jobs all round and a handbrake jammed on our economic recovery.

A flexible and responsive labour market is one of the reasons that we have seen 1.4 million jobs created since May 2010. Imposing the Agency Workers Directive on business, especially small enterprises and seasonal industries, would stop plans for growth and recruitment. A quarter of UK businesses use agency workers and, under Mr Miliband’s plans, a typical small enterprise would have to pay an extra £2,493 a year.

Since the 2008 directive, the EU’s European vacancy monitor has shown a collapse in temporary posts in those countries that adopted it. In France, Germany and the Netherlands, substantial growth in temporary vacancies turned into a fall of one-fifth. In France, vacancies in leading temporary-work agency Randstad fell by more than 20 per cent over two months.

Mr Miliband would take us down the same road for the sake of a quick headline and a wish to appear tough on immigrants.

Anthea McIntyre, MEP

Conservative employment spokesman

Ross-on-Wye

What “skills” is Ed Miliband talking about? The last Labour government aimed to push 50 per cent of the workforce through university and increased spending on secondary education by a huge amount. The result is that there is both under-employment and a skill shortage. Doesn’t this suggest that governments are incompetent at gauging the demands of the labour market?

James Paton

Billericay, Essex

Ed Miliband continues to repeat myths that immigration is a key factor in bringing down standards of living. Have migrants caused the housing bubble that creates sky-high rents and prices out all but the most well-off? Are they responsible for the devastating effects of the government’s austerity policies?

There are millions of us who feel migrants have made a phenomenal contribution to this country, and we are all the worse for the toxic rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies that we see from successive governments.

With the three largest parties manoeuvring to occupy Farage’s anti-immigrant bunker who is going to be left in the fresh air untainted by this dangerous and divisive electoral game?

Jim Jepps

London NW1

I too felt saddened at the story of Father Joseph Williams whose body was found in his car in a supermarket carpark (Janet Street-Porter, 5 January).

But, while I would not wish to deny Janet the opportunity of slagging off the Anglican Church, I understand that Fr Joseph was a Roman Catholic, as is the Bishop (not Archbishop) of Northampton. Neither of them are Anglicans, “namby pamby” or not.

Roger Clarke

Perranarworthal, Truro

Noel Howard-Jones is correct in saying that he had no contact with Anthony Summers concerning Stephen Ward (Letters 29 December). However, as the co-author I did receive a letter in 1987 from Mr Howard-Jones declining to be interviewed. The communication was noted in the 1989 edition of our book, Honeytrap, on page 331.

Stephen Dorril

Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

I enjoyed DJ Taylor’s article about Top of the Pops (5 January). It was a shame therefore that the photo was printed back-to-front, showing the band Slade as being totally left handed.

Peter Henderson

Worthing, West Sussex

Every year is like 1914 somewhere (5 January). We must accept grievances will continue and choose our interventions carefully, rather than fall for that other historical truth beloved by politicians which equates non-intervention in any situation as comparable to the appeasement of Hitler’s ambitions.

Ian McKenzie

Lincoln

Times:

Growing fat on culture of instant gratification

I WORK in the NHS and the alarming trend of increasing patient waistlines has not gone unnoticed by clinical staff or clipboard managers (“Fat is a self-control issue — take it from supersize me”, Comment, last week).

The 1970s Stanford marshmallow experiment that highlights the link between deferred pleasure and higher academic performance and lower levels of aggression could be extrapolated from further. There are many examples where individuals would rather choose quick-fix gains to the detriment of their future. For instance, excessive television-watching, smoking or even our propensity to take out high-interest payday loans.

Perhaps our increased obesity rate is merely a reflection of our emerging culture of instant gratification and consumerism. Unless we address this wider issue, the precious — if not undernourished — NHS budget will continue to be spent on increasing numbers of fat suits and sympathy courses.
Dr David Carruthers Fowey, Cornwall

Big issue
When I recently had an MRI scan I was told the existing machine was being replaced with two much bigger ones (at a cost of £3.1m) as an increasing number of patients were too big to get into the equipment.

Dominic Lawson’s honesty about his chateaubriand and camembert consumption reminds me of my great-aunt Ethel Rudge, who was a cook to many important families and always said: “Show me a fat person and I’ll show you what they eat.” I can’t think fat without thinking Great-Aunt Ethel.
Tim Kenny Cavendish, Suffolk

Sugar caned
Rather belatedly it seems the world’s health professionals have woken up to the fact that sugar is the likely major dietary agent implicated in much chronic disease (“Sweet but deadly”, Focus, December 29). For half a century dental health professionals and scientists have campaigned to mitigate its role in destroying the nation’s teeth through preventive measures and attempts to draw attention to the aggressive promotional activities of the sugar industry.

Fortunately the “magic bullet” of fluoridation of the water supplies and fluoride toothpastes have brought dental caries largely under control except in the most socially deprived communities where the disease is still rife.

Unfortunately no specific intervention therapies are available for the prevention of systemic disorders such as diabetes mellitus.
Martin Downer Emeritus Professor University College London, Shrewsbury

Sweet talk
I am all for reducing obesity and self-inflicted health problems from eating too much sugar, but has any funding been put in to study the side effects of alternative artificial sweeteners that are in thousands of drinks and foods everywhere? I believe there are countries where many sweeteners and flavour enhancers were banned from products years ago.
Felicity Leicester Surbiton, London

School-leavers need to learn basic job skills

WITH regard to Camilla Cavendish’s column “Exams help, but to get a job our youngsters need lessons in grit” (Comment, last week), my own impression from talking to employers is that too many school-leavers lose out because they lack the basics — they do not know how to dress neatly, turn up on time or adopt an appropriate speech register. The question remains why eastern Europeans, among others, so often have the skills and the discipline.
Andrew Hoellering Thorverton, Devon

Starters’ orders
We run the Prince’s Trust team programme and Cavendish’s article will be going up on the wall. Resilience is crucial: many young people we work with give up before they even start. The education system and government agencies are geared around knowledge, with skills in second place and attitude not even on the map, probably because it’s the hardest to measure.
David Wreathall Co-founder, Inner Flame, Swindon

Citizen gain
I took part in a National Citizen Service scheme that helped me through a difficult time. I acquired valuable skills and went on to become an ambassador, with 100 other young people. I gained confidence in following a less conventional route through apprenticeships. Employers have been interested in my development and impressed by my determination to succeed.
Louisa Seers (aged 18)Milton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire

No time to lose in fight for Alzheimer’s funding

IN HIS article on dementia AA Gill is right that “we could start by helping others and making sure no one does it fearfully and alone” (“The best treatment for Alzheimer’s is tenderness”, News Review, last week). But there’s more. The government has said it will double its research funding for the disease to £122m by 2025. That’s 11 years from now.

The cure, in Gill’s words, will “probably not [come] in time for those of us who worry about it”. My mother suffered from this ailment and my own view is that the money should be committed now.
Barry Borman Edgware, London

Early call
The NHS stresses the importance of early diagnosis for dementia when mental competence to make decisions usually still exists. Lord Falconer’s assisted dying bill (to be discussed in the House of Lords later this year) should be amended to provide doctor-assisted suicide as a serious option for those who develop this tragic illness.

In Holland, Belgium and Switzerland this medical procedure is possible for competent individuals in the early stages of dementia. Are we so different from them?
Michael Irwin Cranleigh, Surrey

Not guilty
My mother has advanced Alzheimer’s compounded by total deafness and near- blindness. She lives in a care home and I have absolutely no guilt about this: I know I could not look after her at home. The carers are dedicated, and considering they probably get paid a pittance their care is exemplary.

My only guilt is that the care she receives, together with fortified food, has resulted in extending her life — or rather her existence. I have already lost the loving and intelligent mother I knew, and the longer she survives, the harder it is to remember her.
Pauline Roffe Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Hidden agenda
I worked in dementia care as a charge nurse for 30 years. If psychiatry is the Cinderella service of the NHS, then dementia care is the Cinderella service of psychiatry. For too long the units treating the condition were hidden away from sight, and indeed my own one was condemned to the basement of the hospital. It is only recently that dementia care has become a target for healthcare provision.
Neil Sinclair Edinburgh

Supporting cast
Congratulations to Gill on a sensitive and poignant article — it should be compulsory reading. Unless we give compassion and support to the sufferers and their families how can we regard ourselves as the so-called civilised world?
Mary Waddington Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire

Government’s countryside hypocrisy

I AGREE wholeheartedly with Adam Boulton’s article “The PM’s green pledges ebb away even as floods rise” (Comment, last week). How can we possibly claim to take a lead on climate change and environmental issues when the government plans to destroy the countryside for HS2 and lift planning restrictions on the green belt?

I have voted Conservative in the past but will not consider doing so at the next election. I am 58 but for me the countryside is far more important than pensions. The claim that this is the “greenest ever” government is risible.
Cynthia Purkiss Eltham, London

Storm warning
Surely we must now realise that the recent extreme weather conditions here and abroad prove beyond doubt that climate change is not driven by human intervention.

The sight of our feeble attempts to mitigate the effects of these storms shows how utterly useless mankind is in the face of nature in the raw.
Peter Gardner Hydestile, Surrey

Legal protection for farmland

FARMLAND is a food factory, not a playground for townies (“We’re not all poachers, Mr Darcy”, News Review, last week). Paths are usually overgrown because hardly anyone uses them, so changing their routes slightly should hardly be a problem. People who earn their living from the land deserve some legal protection from crop and livestock damage, not to mention fly-tipping, illegal hare-coursing and vandalism.
Tom Armstrong Wooler, Northumberland

Long walk to freedom
Eleanor Mills urged walkers to fight for their “right to roam”. People will still be able to walk in the countryside but landowners will be able to ask for rights of way to be diverted from their homes. This preserves their right to privacy. If Mills wants to “let freedom reign” she should recognise that people should be free from walkers traipsing past their front doors.
William Urukalo (age 16) Knaresborough, North Yorkshire

Points

York history lesson
Your article “Mutiny on the high fees” (News Review, last week) stated that “undergraduates studying history at York last year, for instance, spent just 8% of their course in lectures, seminars and tutorials”. The claim is based on government figures that refer to 2011-12 and the data was not robust in the first year of existence because there was little standardisation. Many institutions included activities that we do not consider to be face-to-face teaching.

The data for this year is more robust. In The Sunday Times University Guide’s top 10 history departments the average number of contact hours per course is 14.9%. York is on 11%, as is Oxford, with both committed to a small- group teaching ethos. I have received no complaints about low contact hours from current students — quite the reverse, in fact. Students mostly complain that our three-hour seminars are too long and the reading required for them too demanding.
Professor Stuart Carroll Department of History, York University

Fashion victim
For 20-odd years I have managed to get my husband into Marks & Spencer once or twice a year to replenish his wardrobe (“Marks & Swagger man”, News, last week). Having seen its new designer range I fear I will never get him in there again. M&S has managed to lose a sizeable number of middle-aged female customers; is it trying to do the same with the men?
Eleanor London Crowthorne, Berkshire

Well spotted
The animal pictured in “Facebook posturing helps nail Mexico’s young drug barons” (World News, last week) is not a leopard — it is a cheetah.
Jackie Murphy London NW11

Border agent
Before the referendum on Scottish independence, is it possible to move the border a few miles south of Manchester (“The Scottish no campaign must stand up and fight”, Letters, last week)? We have as little in common with London as the Scots and we deserve a voice and a vote.
Paul Rutherford Davenport, Greater Manchester

Accentuate the negative
Negative campaigning can work in referendums (“No way to win”, Letters, last week). The NOtoAV campaign (on the alternative vote) was negative and won a resounding victory. David Cameron would be advised to keep his distance from the Better Together campaign, though. He is unpopular in Scotland, where Alistair Darling is more attuned to native sensibilities.
Simon Baker Hereford

Toast of the town
I have to take issue with AA Gill’s article on alcohol abuse in Cleethorpes (“Yet another one for the road”, Magazine, December 29). Yes, people do go out and unfortunately have too much to drink, and sometimes behave badly — but not just in Lincolnshire. We have the largest port complex, process the majority of the UK’s seafood and are leaders in off-shore renewables.
Councillor Chris Shaw Lincolnshire County Council

From Russia with booze
Gill complains that from London it takes longer to get to Grimsby than to fly to Moscow. This is most relevant, as Moscow already has in place “drunk tanks” (vytrezvitel) or “sobering-up stations”. In fact they were introduced in Russia way back in 1902.
Richard Rawles University College London

Birthdays

Kirstie Alley, actress, 63; Anthony Andrews, actor, 66; Michael Aspel, TV presenter, 81; Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, 50; Melanie Chisholm, singer, 40; Clare Holman, actress, 50; John Lasseter, animator, 57; Pixie Lott, singer, 23; Olivier Martinez, actor, 48; David Mitchell, novelist, 45; Haruki Murakami, novelist, 65; William Nicholson, screenwriter, 66; Des O’Connor, singer, 82

Anniversaries

1866 Royal Aeronautical Society founded; 1895 National Trust founded; 1976 Agatha Christie, novelist, dies; 1991 US Congress authorises use of force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait; 2003 Maurice Gibb, singer, dies; 2004 Queen Mary 2, world’s biggest ocean liner, makes maiden voyage; 2006 more than 340 Islamic pilgrims crushed to death in stampede during a religious ritual in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Corrections and clarifications

Telegraph:

SIR – When will governments learn that by encouraging parents to go back to work, we are creating a generation of children who will have no real attachment? Children need to have a good attachment to a carer, usually a parent. When this is not available, a child’s developmental prospects go astray.

SIR – The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is considering limitation of some medical treatments to those judged “a benefit to wider society”. This seems to mean those who are of working age, and it is discriminatory and immoral.

SIR – Early last year my son-in-law was head-hunted for a job in northern Italy. He moved there with my daughter and grandchildren.

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

* I write in response to Paul Connolly’s letter (January 9) on the benefits of Europe over the last 30 years. Firstly Ireland joined the EEC on May 10, 1972, which is actually nigh-on 42 years ago.

Also in this section

Life is sheer hell at 80

Letters: Broaden debate on suicide

Letters: To thine own selfie be true

Mr Connolly points to Europe being good for farming. In 1974 the price of cattle completely collapsed and there was no sign of Europe. He contends that farming is now viable for a large section of the population, despite the fact that the number of farmers has nearly halved since the 1970s.

Mr Connolly also points to an Erasmus programme, yet he bemoans the fact that we don’t learn European languages. What is the percentage of all third-level students who have gone on Erasmus?

Emigration? Since we joined the EU we have seen two major phases of emigration in Ireland — the ’80s and now. Yes, the Irish emigrate to the Anglo sphere. What does Mr Connolly suggest; that we emigrate to Spain for work where 350,000 people have emigrated? Should we move to Greece and milk goats? Should we head to Germany, where there’s no minimum wage? Should we emigrate to Portugal, where the markets — apparently the one true barometer in fiscal measurement — say that Ireland’s bonds are a better bet than in Jose Manuel Barroso’s home country?

The rhetoric of Europe is that it provides peace and that war will not break out again within its confines. Where were these great peacemakers during the Troubles?

Where is Europe when it comes to respecting our neutrality with soldiers stationed in Uganda with no UN mandate?

Finally, Mr Connolly points to the Dublin-Galway motorway as a project funded by Europe.

If Mr Connolly took off what may have been his rose-tinted glasses, he may have seen that it was part-funded by Europe.

Mr Connolly might do well to listen to the rhetoric coming out of Europe that claims that the EU is an organisation that is in existence for 40 years.

It couldn’t be, for the Berlin Wall stood for the first 20 of those 40 years.

DERMOT RYAN

ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

ARMY SHOWS COWARDICE

* President Higgins’s Christ-less Christmas address is just one more in a steady stream of his meaningless/ value-free diatribes, as if written by a big brother-inspired committee of PC UN apparatchiks. George Orwell wrote prophetically about such a world in his book ’1984′.

The one redeeming feature of the episode was the initial courage of the Army chaplain in pointing out the absurdity of the speech, undermined by the cowardice of the Defence Forces under fire in issuing a craven apology.

Some secularists are attempting to defend the speech on a spurious appeal to Republican ethics. Nonsense — a republic is defined as a form of government in which power is explicitly vested in the people.

It has nothing to do with imposing secularist dogma, particularly as the majority of the Irish people, 92pc, are Christian. A simple recognition of this in the speech was all that was required, basic good manners really.

ERIC CONWAY

NAVAN, CO MEATH

HIV PUTS LAWS IN CONTEXT

* In the media coverage of Uganda’s new draconian anti-homosexuality laws there has been no mention of the massive and growing HIV/AIDs problem in that country.

Recently, Uganda’s President Museveni publicly took a HIV test to raise awareness of the epidemic among the population. Currently, there are 1.5 million people with HIV in Uganda and one million children orphaned because of AIDs. In all, 7pc of the adult Uganda population are living with HIV.

Like all other African countries, Uganda’s HIV/AIDs epidemic is steadily growing.

How these statistics interplay with the Uganda government’s new laws is a matter for further discussion, but it should at least be addressed as part of the context in which the new legislation is being brought forward.

MARGARET HICKEY

BLARNEY, CO CORK

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR

* Rob Sadlier is missing something when he says that “we cannot… claim to live in a republic whilst maintaining… overtly religious… references in our Constitution” (Letters, January 9).

Fundamental to a democratic republic is the principle that all citizens are equal. That ideal arises from the religious ethic of love of neighbour. So religious references in our constitution may not be the “incongruities” that Rob Sadlier says.

A LEAVY

SUTTON, DUBLIN 13

FANTASTIC COMPLIMENTS

* All too often it is the hard word that is heard. The following is a brief compilation of some memorable compliments:

“He was my brother; not by blood, but by choice” — Frank Sinatra talking about Dean Martin.

“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it” — Winston Churchill on meeting Roosevelt.

“He was the best ballad singer I ever heard in my life” — Bob Dylan on Liam Clancy of the Clancy Brothers.

“Irish signatures are on our founding documents. Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities.

Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song; our public life by the humour and heart and dedication of servants with names like Kennedy and Regan, O’Neill and Moynihan.

So you could say there’s always been a little green behind the red, white and blue behind the American flag” — President Barack O’Bama on the Irish.

BARRY CLIFFORD

CONNEMARA, CO GALWAY

POPE WOULD DISAGREE

* I would like to ask Paddy Power to give odds on whether or not Pope Francis would agree with the ideas in Philip O’Neill’s letter (January 7).

The first big mistake is in thinking that all change comes from the top. I’m sure Pope Francis would be embarrassed to think he was the only hope for the church.

The idea that “all expressions of faith have been taken off course” isn’t based on any evidence whatsoever. Mr O’Neill says, “the country has been in the grip of a very fallible church”, which confuses the doctrine of infallibility. Infallibility doesn’t mean moral perfection, it means guidance in correct teaching, ie doctrine, though I would agree that living according to objective moral norms helps in the reception of faith.

“Christ’s purpose,” he claims with no authoritative sayings of Jesus to back his argument, “was not to create an institution with subservience of its adherents, but to breathe life into the world we all inhabit, releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity.”

I searched Google and I would argue that Mr O’Neill’s reference to Christianity being about “releasing the god-given intelligence of humanity” isn’t mentioned once in scripture or tradition.

Rather Christians are called to faith, which goes beyond reason, but is not and never can be opposed to truth.

Mr O’Neill’s claim that Catholicism could do fine without a “centrally controlling body” is central in his argument.

He even asks why this would not be the case. Nobody would recommend that the State jettisons the Supreme Court and allow each citizen to “thrive on imagination” whilst interpreting the Constitution on an individual basis. It was for similar reasons that Christ started the church, so that it can guide us into the truth.

KEITH KAVANAGH

KNOCK, CO MAYO

13 January 2014 Clear out

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to test another secret communications device. Captain Povey knows ther every movement but does he? Priceless.

Clean car for tomorrow and clear out attic for Peter Rice

Scrabbletoday Mary wins and gets well over300, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Sir John Whitehead, who has died aged 81, was Ambassador to Japan from 1986 to 1992; it was his fourth diplomatic posting to the country, and throughout his career he did much to encourage economic ties between Japan and Britain.

Guardian:

Supporters of civil liberties should think twice about lauding plans for police officers to carry body-worn cameras (Not exactly trigger-happy, but police need to work much harder to build trust, 10 January). Even if we accept that footage will be neither lost nor tampered with, we can be far from sure that it will deliver justice. Indeed, rather than supporting justice, the use of filming by UK police forces has led to abuses of power. Increasingly, joint forward intelligence teams are deployed to capture images of legitimate and law-abiding protesters, which are unjustifiably added to databases. It is noticeable, however, that officers tend to be hypersensitive to having their own pictures taken, often spuriously quoting section 23 of the Terrorism Act. It is tempting to suggest that if the Met is in earnest about improving its reputation, it’s not cameras that are needed but mirrors.
Nigel Rayment
London

Independent:

Times:

Telegraph:

SIR – Jeremy Clarkson’s BBC documentary PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (Mandrake, January 5) did not do justice to the subject.

SIR – The continued dumbing down of the once magnificent Radio 3 will not enable it to catch up with Classic FM in audience numbers (Letters, January 5). Classic FM is to be applauded for bringing great music to the awareness of a new listenership.

SIR – John Cridland’s enthusiasm for immigration (Business, January 5) overlooks the fact that one man’s cheap supply of labour is another man’s falling standard of living.

SIR – Pc Keith Wallis’s plea of guilty, in the case affecting Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip (report, January 11), means he cannot be questioned in the dock as to who, if anyone, urged him to lie; or who cooperated with him in this, or why.

Irish Times:

Sir, – The fact that the so-called Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013 has come into effect in the absence of clinical guidelines being issued by the Department of Health is profoundly disturbing from a legal and medical perspective (Home News, January 3rd, 2014).

The purpose of this Act, according to the Government, was to eliminate a supposed lacuna in the law which it wrongly claimed had arisen as a result of the decision in X case.

Ironically, instead of removing a gap in the law which did not exist in the first place, the commencement of the Act in the absence of clinical guidelines has created just such a gap, since a pregnant woman is now entitled by statute to an abortion in certain circumstances but medical professionals have no means of ascertaining exactly what these circumstances are.

The fact that no guidelines have been formulated a full five months after the Act was signed can hardly be of great surprise to anyone.

At the Oireachtas Health Committee hearings on abortion, held one year ago this week, the Government was repeatedly warned about the difficulties that would be faced in formulating guidelines to cover the issue of suicidal ideation. Psychiatrists who attended the hearings were unanimously of the view that an abortion is not a treatment for suicidal ideation in a woman, in any circumstances, and therefore it was bound to prove difficult for the Department of Health to produce a set of guidelines which expected doctors to act as if the very opposite were the case.

Unfortunately the Government chose, for political reasons, to completely ignore the evidence from psychiatrists and the ethical conundrum which would arise for doctors as a result of the Act. It will be interesting to see exactly what medico-legal somersaults the Department of Health will seek to perform in order to overcome these enormous difficulties. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH

Brooklawn,

Sir, – For the record and in response to the letters of Rev Eoin de Bhaldraithe (December 23rd) and Dr Ken Dunn (January 6th), I recognise and understand the injustice of Ne Temere and am also aware that mixed marriages were exempted from Tridentine law (which may well have been to avoid a conflict with civil law). I am also familiar with the McCann case which, as the validity of that marriage was called into question, underpins my argument that Ne Temere was about the validity of all marriages involving Catholics.

That said, I believe that as the same case became heavily politicised it warrants much more robust scholarly research and analysis before any grand claims concerning it can be made. A degree of caution is also required when considering Dr Dunn’s claim that “Ne Temere was applied enthusiastically by both clergy and politicians in Ireland and retrospectively [...] and marriages of long standing were broken up”. For my doctoral research I examined a significant number of lesser-known inter-faith relationship/mixed marriage disputes, many of which came before the Irish courts. I found that Ne Temere was generally not applied retrospectively and that most disputes centred on the issue of the religious upbringing of the children of the marriage rather than on the requirement that a couple should marry before a Catholic priest and two witnesses (Ne Temere). Further, I am not aware of any politicians who applied Ne Temere (the Catholic Church and state were never that close!), though I am aware that many unionist politicians exploited it for political gain particularly in the run-up to the third Home Rule Bill.

Dr Dunn also states that “the upbringing of children was not completely explicit in Ne Temere”. In fact, he should forego the woolly language and acknowledge my fundamental point that there was “no reference in the decree in any shape or form to the religious upbringing of children”.

For anyone interested, my research and analysis of the said inter-faith relationship/mixed marriage disputes will be published in an article entitled “Church and State and Unhappy Marriages” in the scholarly journal New Hibernia Review in 2014. – Yours, etc,

Dr DAVID JAMESON,

York Road,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The extraordinary claims of Dr Ken Dunn, chairman of the  Northern Ireland Mixed Marriage Association, demand explanation and clarification. His claim that the Ne Temere decree “was applied enthusiastically by clergy and politicians in Ireland . . . and marriages of long standing were broken up” is very strange. While there should be no surprise that [Roman Catholic] clergy would apply Ne Temere, there is no comment in favour of Ne Temere in the Dáil record from its creation in 1919 to the present day. Which politicians is he referring to? The only example he gives is from Belfast in 1910 and as far as I remember the British were in charge then. Has he no other example?

His claim that “the net result of [Ne Temere] was the reduction of the Protestant population in the Irish Free State/Republic by 80 per cent” is simply untrue.  As far back as 1973, RE Kennedy showed that the main causes of Protestant decline in Ireland were colonial retreat after independence, economic emigration, war deaths, natural decrease, and of course Ne Temere. – Yours, etc,

BARRY KEANE,

Glendalough Park,

Cork.

Sir, – , Please allow me space to enlighten John Thompson’s understanding of what we “think we are saving” in relation to the planned obliteration of the Moore Street area (January 6th). For a start, according to the National Museum (in a letter to Minister for Arts and Heritage Jimmy Deenihan), “the most important historic site in modern Irish history that if properly and sensitively developed could rank with famous historic sites around the world as Dublin’s historic quarter”.

The only buildings that lie derelict and abandoned are those at 14 to 17 Moore Street designated in 2007 as the 1916 National Monument and under the private ownership of Chartered Land since 2005. All other buildings associated with the retreat from the GPO are occupied and in use today. It is not true to say that they have no architectural features. Numbers 14 to 17 are listed for preservation not only on historical grounds but also because they do contain important 18th-century elements. Incredibly no other building in the area has been internally examined or assessed. The buildings did not simply shelter “some remnants of the rebel’s leadership”. The Moore Street terrace was the last HQ of the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. This was the location where six of the leaders – five of whom were signatories to the Proclamation – spent their last hours of freedom before their execution by firing squad. The terrace is their only extant meeting place that has not been altered or destroyed through redevelopment. For some of us this is sacred ground.

The 1916 Proclamation was not drawn up in Conway’s public house. It was, of course, agreed and signed in 21 Henry Street. Conway’s is the location of the signing of documents of a somewhat different nature in recent times – the brown envelope kind. It is listed for preservation – somebody in authority has, it can be said, at the very least, an ironic sense of humour.

I heartily agree that the best tribute to the rebels would be to see that their vision comes to pass. How to best achieve that is the question? Hardly by a dismissal of the past or the planned demolition of our lasting physical links to the event in our history that led to our independence. These historic locations and buildings are not ours to destroy or hand over for private commercial gain. As part of our history and heritage they are held in trust for future generations. We do not argue for a return to the past – we can however plan our future based on our past – our honourable past, that is. – Yours, etc,

JAMES CONNOLLY

HERON,

Concerned Relatives

of the Signatories to

the 1916 Proclamation,

Oxford Road,

Sir, – The spirit of Pádraig Pearse can be pictured smiling kindly at Richard Irvine pointing out that “an inclusive Ireland must have room for Britishness; it must recognise it, even embrace it . . . and build an Irish identity that can include it,” (Opinion & Analysis, January 3rd). Pearse himself gave de jure status to such an identity, or at least strongly indicated it, when he named Thomas Davis as a father and evangelist of Irish nationality, shortly before the Rising.

In support of O’Connell’s campaign for repeal of the union, Davis put forward his own concept of a new Irish nationality . This was one which “must contain and represent the races of Ireland. It must not be Celtic, it must not be Saxon – it must be Irish.” Of noteworthy significance, especially in relation to the endemic bigoted sectarianism in Northern Ireland, and the unfinished business of the 1916 Rising, is the requirement that it must “not [be] a nationality which would prelude civil war, but [one] which would establish union and external independence”. Does that not imply that creating “internal unions” must be the means to an independent Ireland?

Davis had a dream that internal union might be brought about by love — the only force which, as Martin Luther King later pointed out, “is capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”. Since “cherishing” is akin to “loving”, the resolve that Pearse wrote into the Proclamation for “all the children of the nation” to be cherished equally can be interpreted now as a first step in establishing as de facto the Davis-conceived new inclusive Irish nationality.

What better time to begin that nation-building, and respond to the legacy of Pearse, than this year, 2014, which brings us, on October 24th, the bicentenary of the birth of Thomas Davis. – Yours, etc,

JAMES McGEEVER,

Dublin Road,

Sir, – I wish to add support to your leading article of January 5th calling for action in 2014 on global warming. It is becoming increasingly obvious that we must reduce our carbon emissions by reducing our use of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) by replacing them with renewables and nuclear power.

In the Irish situation there is a misconception that renewables, notably wind, will alone solve all our energy problems. This cannot be the case due to wind’s intermittency and to the necessity of providing back-up fossil fuel electricity generators for when the wind fails.

I am delighted to see that the leader suggests that modern nuclear power be considered for Ireland as this is the aim of our advocacy group BENE (Better Environment with Nuclear Energy: see bene.ie). Many professional bodies such as ESB, Eirgrid, Forfás, ICTU and IBEC have expressed the same opinion.

Nuclear power is the only source of low carbon, clean, base¨-load electricity and, we have shown that, using the new small modular reactors (SMRs) it would be a very considerably cheaper option for Ireland than wind turbines, together with their back-up gas-fired electricity generators and grid extensions.

It should be noted that one nuclear plant is equivalent to 1,000 wind turbines, higher than the 120m Dublin spire, and would have a lifetime of 60 years compared to 20-25 years for wind turbines. A nuclear plant could be sited in the place of an existing fossil plant, use the existing grid, and so would not require all the controversial extra pylons necessary with wind generation.

It is about time that a serious cost-benefit analysis of our future energy supply be done and that this include the nuclear option. – Yours, etc,

PHILIP W WALTON,

(Emeritus Professor

of Physics, NUI Galway),

Uggool,

Sir, – Why the uproar when Irish Water consultancy fees were announced (Front Page, January 10th)? This company was started from scratch and was delivered within a year. There would probably have been financial penalties imposed on the private companies if deadlines were not met. If it were left to the relevant public sector bodies, would the Government be able to impose such fines? Would they have completed the task in a year? Better that private companies were involved so that an efficient organisation could be created. Who knows what inefficient organisation, with long-term increased cost to the taxpayer, would have resulted instead? – Yours, etc,

ORLA GILHOOLY,

Dollymount Park,

Sir, – From a practical perspective, wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree. Wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate any savings in greenhouse gas emissions.

There are also ecological drawbacks to wind turbines, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape.

Wind power in Ireland and Britain is being financed at the cost of consumers, who have not been consulted nor informed about this effective subsidy that is being paid from their taxes and energy bills to support an industry that cannot be cost-efficient. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK L O’BRIEN,

Victoria Cross,

Sir, – Thomas O’Connor assures us that “the people will appease their appetite for change at next year’s local and European elections” (January 7th).

I would not hold my breath if I were him. When given an opportunity to get rid of the expensive talking shop for the elite called the Seanad they turned it down.

That has continued a debate on the Seanad that gets more removed from reality by the day. First we have high-profile people, who supported its retention during the referendum, opposing the “reforms” that were part of the retention campaign.

Then we had a Government Minister, who supported the campaign to abolish it, proposing “reform” of an institution that during the campaign was “irreformable”.

Since it just means electing another Dáil, dominated by the same political parties, the widely canvassed election of Seanad members by universal suffrage does not constitute reform.

The choice for “reform” of the Seanad boils down, therefore, to two options. Turn it into another Dáil or leave it as an expensive, powerless talking shop for the elite and their cronies.– Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

Sir, – Paul Milne repeats a misapprehension that frequently arises in discussions of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) in support of Palestinian rights when he describes it as “ironic that the teachers in a country that has . . . failed to revive its native language should want to boycott the teachers in a country [Israel] which has successfully revived its language” (January 10th ).

Leaving aside the question as to whether the successful revival of Hebrew somehow mitigates the ethnic cleansing and ongoing persecution of Palestinians, the boycott – whether academic, cultural, sporting or economic – is directed at the Israeli state, and not at individuals unless those individuals are explicitly representing that state. Hence, quite simply, nobody advocates a blanket boycott of Israeli teachers. – Yours, etc,

RAYMOND DEANE,

Lower Baggot Street,

Dublin 2 .

Sir, – One can only imagine what the recent storms on the west coast would have done to the massive salmon farm planned for Galway Bay and the ecological damage caused by the escapees interbreeding with local salmon stocks. If ever a timely reminder was needed to show the folly and short-sightedness of such a scheme, this was it. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL WALSH,

Thomastown Road,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Early in the new year, readers of the English press learned that repartition was no solution to the Northern Ireland problem, thanks to the release of previously classified 1984 British documents.

Cabinet minutes showed that the British government had formally considered repartitioning Northern Ireland before rejecting the idea.

Readers of The Irish Times hardly needed to wait to learn this. On September 18th, 1975, it published a lengthy article by myself and Ian McAllister showing why repartition would create enormous refugee flight and violence.

The article is accessible at  http://www.profrose.eu/publications. – Your, etc,

Prof RICHARD ROSE, FBA

Director,

Centre for the Study

of Public Policy,

University of Strathclyde,

Irish Independent:

* It is reported that Irish Water is considering billing water charges in apartment blocks via their owners’ management companies (OMCs), with the OMC then responsible for billing the charges on to individual owners.

Also in this section

Life is sheer hell at 80

Letters: Broaden debate on suicide

Letters: To thine own selfie be true

As a managing agent working on behalf of OMCs that represent almost 8,000 houses and apartments in the greater Dublin area, I would strongly oppose water charges being billed through OMCs.

These companies are effectively co-ops which work on behalf of apartment owners that manage the common areas of a development (roofs, gardens, etc). Involving management companies in the collection of water charges would be bad for them (and their members) for several reasons:

{HTML_BULLET} It fundamentally undermines the relationship between an OMC and its members if an OMC effectively has to take on a tax collection function for the State.

{HTML_BULLET} Increasing the annual service charges billed to property owners, is likely to increase the number of owners who do not (or cannot) pay their charges.

{HTML_BULLET} The charges themselves are contentious and it seems Irish Water believes many apartments will be difficult to meter. Any system of “assessed charge” will involve judgment and will inevitably be perceived as unfair by some. It is simply not the role of the OMC to get involved with such matters.

{HTML_BULLET} Administration of water charges (including waivers for vulnerable groups, various payment methods, reducing pressure for those not paying, etc) will be complicated and onerous.

OMCs (with voluntary boards of directors) will generally have neither the time nor the desire to get involved in this work.

Water charges should not be billed through OMCs.

If they are introduced, water charges should be billed to individual households, with the greatest possible use of meters.

FINBAR MCDONNELL

RF PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, DUBLIN 1

BUSY DOING NOTHING

* Frank Kelly‘s comment, “what is retirement but doing nothing?” reminds me of a quote from the late ‘Naked Gun’ actor Leslie Nielsen: “Doing nothing is difficult, you never know when you’re finished.”

TOM GILSENAN

BEAUMONT, DUBLIN 9

HEADS WE LOSE . . .

* I had understood that the main reason for setting up Irish Water was to protect what we are constantly told is a precious resource.

I was, therefore, astonished to learn from your article (Irish Independent January 10) that we consumers could be penalised by Irish Water if we conserve water too zealously. Heads we lose, tails they win!

P DAVIS

DUBLIN 17

IN DEFENCE OF VATICAN II

* Once again, Fr Tony Flannery misrepresents what the Second Vatican Council actually taught. He claims that it “goes so far as to say that unless a teaching is accepted by the consensus of the faithful it cannot be considered a defined teaching” (Irish Independent, January 11). This is completely bogus.

The council teaches that the Pope may define doctrine completely on his own authority, as indeed may a council in union with him. Furthermore, the council defined “the sense of the faithful” as including the Pope and college of bishops, Fr Flannery defines it as excluding them. The council teaches the lay faithful to be guided by the Pope and bishops in matters of faith and morality, Fr Flannery puts it the other way around.

He grants lay people at any stage of the church’s history an effective veto on church teaching. Surely the church cannot simply jettison teachings that have been universally accepted by Catholics down through the centuries, because a proportion of Catholics have rejected these teachings recently?

JOHN MURRAY, PHD (THEOLOGY)

MATER DEI INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION, DUBLIN

BLACK CARD JUST A START

* The black card recently introduced by the GAA is a good idea, as far as it goes. It takes two to tango. But it will not change the ethos of GAA games. One has only to look at rugby to see the glaring difference. It is the attitude that must change.

For example, why are GAA players allowed to throw the ball away instead of handing it civilly to the opponent for a free? Multiplying rules will not change attitudes. The answer is simple: move the ball forward 10, 20, even 30 metres, for every show of bad manners. Granted, the game was far rougher and dirtier long ago, with far fewer rules. Now it is nastier, with far too many rules. No referee can be expected to get it right until the rules are reduced, and made clearer and simpler.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

WEATHER PREACHING

* I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bulk of your editorial (Irish Independent, January 6) explored the practical ways in which the misery and destruction caused by recent storms could be alleviated.

I would urge you to further explore how best to deal with other weather extremes.

Practical help and advice makes a great deal more sense to me than grandiose preaching on the evils of CO2 and the wickedness of mankind in supposedly causing every extreme weather event under the sun.

The history of science has many examples of the majority being wrong — for instance, the science of plate tectonics/continental drift, which was derided by scientists when it first appeared but is now universally accepted.

RUAIRI WELDON

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

MEANS-TESTING RETIREES

* Re: ‘Secret cuts for OAPs and disabled’ (Irish Independent, January 9) — here’s another little nugget you might want to add. In an earlier article, ‘Retirees turning 65 must wait an extra year for pension’ (Irish Independent, December 21, 2013) we were told that, “People affected from January may be able to get jobseekers’ benefit or jobseekers’ allowance. These payments are €180 a week, less than the state pension of €230 a week.”

What they neglected to let us know was that these payments would be means-tested! I checked this out myself at our local Department of Social Protection office.

What next . . . blood?

S MONAGHAN

KNOCKNAREA, CO SLIGO

MARITIME MEMORIES

* Thirty years ago, Ireland saw the demise of a great shipping company, Irish Shipping Ltd. It was set up in 1941 to bring much-needed supplies to this country during World War II. Its unreliable, leaky old ships battled their way through mountainous waves in the North Atlantic, sometimes in convoy, sometimes on their own, and a few didn’t make it.

Now, a new book has been published about this great shipping firm. Called ‘Irish Shipping Ltd — A Fleet History’, it is written by four proud Wexford men (with input from a ship’s captain) and will be of enormous interest to those who sailed with ISL, or even to those who would have loved to. For more details, contact leocoy61@gmail.com.

GERRY MCGOVERN

DUBLIN 15

TV3 NOT IN THE PINK

* TV3 opposing a UTV Irish licence is akin to a potato planter objecting to Kerr’s Pink!

K NOLAN

CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO LEITRIM

Irish Independent

14 January 2014 Clear out

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to celebrate Admiral Troutbrdge’s anniversary whats happened to the silver tea service? Priceless.

MOT back later in the week, Peter Rice, ipage email

Scrabbletoday Mary wins and gets over400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Alexandra Bastedo, who has died of cancer aged 67, was a British actress and sex symbol of the 1960s and 1970s and won acclaim in her home country as the female lead of ITV’s occult detective series The Champions; but it was in Spain and South America that she had her greatest cult following, known to her fans simply as “la Bastedo”.

Rescued by Tibetan monks following a near-fatal plane crash, Agent Macready and her colleagues Craig Stirling (Stuart Damon) and Richard Barrett (William Gaunt) are bestowed with both precognitive abilities and enhanced physical strength, transforming them, as the introductory voice-over for each episode proclaimed, into “champions of law, order and justice”.

Though critics were largely scornful of everything from the premise to the production values , there was little doubt that Alexandra Bastedo, with her beauty and youthful other-worldliness, was well cast in the role of superheroine. The Champions ran for 30 episodes, and its influence can be detected in the numerous superhero adventures that followed on American television, such as ABC’s The Six Million Dollar Man .

Just 21 years old at the time of her big break, Alexandra Bastedo initially found the media attention that The Champions proved rather daunting. “I’d led a sheltered life and was still quite naive,” she confessed in a 2011 interview. “An American Indian wrote to me saying he’d leave me his tepee in his will, and a sailor asked if I would post a pair of my high-heeled shoes.” As her international audience expanded there came further opportunities, and by the mid-1980s she was fluent in three languages, with 12 Spanish, American and South American film titles to her credit, as well as a role as compère, alongside Peter Marshall, for the Miss World and Miss United Kingdom competitions.

Among her more famous admirers were David Frost, Omar Sharif and Steve McQueen; though she entered briefly into relationships with the Frost and Sharif she was distinctly less impressed with McQueen, whom, she recalled, propositioned her with the line: “My wife doesn’t understand me.” In the case of Omar Sharif the liaison lasted only a few weeks, being curtailed by the actor’s bridge-playing habit, his unruly hours, and his incurable tendency to accept telephone numbers from other women.

The daughter of a Canadian businessman, Alexandra Bastedo was born in East Sussex on March 9 1946 and grew up in Brighton, where her childhood ambition was to become a vet. At 16, however, she entered a “teenage diplomat” competition organised by London Evening News, beating 4, 000 finalists to a role in a comedy thriller, 13 Frightened Girls! (1963) Despite subsequent offers from Hollywood agents – and interest from Alfred Hitchcock – she returned home to finish her education, before the contracts with Shell and ITV intervened to preclude her university career.

Happily married and semi-retired from acting by the close of the 1980s, Alexandra Bastedo moved to Chichester with her husband, the theatrical producer and artistic director Patrick Garland. There she returned to her initial vocation in animal welfare as president of her local branch of the RSPCA, before departing to found the Alexandra Bastedo Champions (ABC) Animal Sanctuary near Pulborough, West Sussex. By the turn of the century the ABC Sanctuary housed over 180 abandoned animals, including pigs, rabbits, ferrets, ducks, hens, geese and turkeys.

In later life she made a brief return to acting as part of her fundraising efforts on the sanctuary’s behalf, with a cameo role in Batman Begins (2005) and a memorable turn in EastEnders and as Penny Caspar-Morse, a former 1960s model known as “the Stick”, alongside Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous.

Her husband, Patrick Garland, whom she married in 1980, predeceased her in May last year.

Alexandra Bastedo, born March 9 1946, died January 12 2014

Guardian:

Ariel Sharon (Obituary, 13 January) was a man of his time, specifically the years of ideological ferment that followed the collapse of Keynesianism in the 1970s. Like Thatcher, he broke the mould and replaced it with one of his own models that is now left to a younger, more financially constrained, generation to clear up. Thatcher unleashed a debt bubble; Sharon gave birth to Likud and the intensification of the settlement project. Thatcher’s iterations were based on the assumption that “there is no such thing as society”; Sharon’s were based on the default that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian”. Incompetent Keynesian elites were replaced with ideologically sound alternative incompetents. Both models are now irrevocably broken and contaminate the political debate in their respective countries, leaving those behind with far reduced strategic depth.
Cathal Rabbitte
Zollikon, Switzerland

Independent:

Anyone who cares about river flooding should be concerned about the Environment Agency’s reported plan (13 January), to cut back even further on lock-keepers and other staff with direct local knowledge of our rivers.

For 20 years we have lived next to a lock on the Thames and in times of floods have repeatedly seen the close co-ordination between lock-keepers working the weirs along their reach, helping each other to manhandle malfunctioning gates and calling in the boat crews to remove trees and boats blocking flow. It’s sobering to see the benefits of extensive dredging or clearing of channels quickly undone by a simple boat or tree blocking a weir.

It is hard to understand how the further reduction of experience, local knowledge and close personal relations will improve flood control.  Neither a regional lock-keeper responsible for several locks nor a firm contracted to manage several sites – both ideas under consideration – will have the knowledge or, crucially, the commitment to “their” reach and community to do what it takes, even if the road conditions allow them to make their rounds.

According to the data kindly provided by the EA’s website, in both the 2007 and January 2014 floods, the local staff took emergency steps which resulted in the quick lowering of the river at and below Oxford.

The EA may be able to automate some of what a lock-keeper does on a sunny day but not what he and his mates do in the middle of a rainy night to temporarily rectify some remote manager’s cock-up.

No matter how much the EA runs down its river staff, a country with so many rivers is going to need a range of river-specific skills. The EA, in conjunction with river users and related businesses, instead ought to be ensuring that training, apprenticeships and qualifications are available so that these skills are preserved. A period of global warming is hardly the time to run down river-related staff, or to disregard the experience of the few who remain.

Andrew Shacknove

Katrina Robinson

Oxford

I write to express my deep concern about the mismanagement of the Somerset Levels by the Environment Agency. This has resulted in the worst floods that the region has experienced in living memory.

We were told last winter that it was a once-in-a-hundred-years event. So why are we experiencing a sombre sense of déjà vu? For two years running valuable agricultural land is unusable, homes and businesses are flooded, a large proportion of the road network is impassable and the community here are feeling increasingly beleaguered, abandoned and frustrated.

 The crux of the problem is the River Parrett. This river, along with the Tone, Axe and Brue, takes all of the water from Somerset out to sea. Since the disbandment of the National Rivers Authority there has been little or no work maintaining this essential infrastructure.

The answer to this problem is clear: admit fault, dredge the river and consult with local farmers and landowners who have the knowledge and experience to help. We did not have this problem when the rivers were dredged.

R Horsington Graham

Westonzoyland, Somerset

Rivers “burst their banks” for the sake of alliteration (letter, 10 January). What I don’t understand is why we “burst into tears”. Tears come out of watery eyes. Is it possible to burst “into” anything?

Emilie Lamplough

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Secrets of the Presidental allure

Why does Yasmin Alibhai-Brown make herself appear so shallow in posing the question, “How does a man who has so few obvious physical attributes become such an object of passionate desire?”, to François Hollande?

She sees a “dull, bespectacled, balding bloke”. But why does she not acknowledge that France’s President may also be intelligent, kind and caring, and that this may be why he is apparently attractive to women. Does he have to be a “demon lover”, or use “new face products”? Surely the professionally brilliant women in his life would see through such a façade in an instant.

Publish a similar article with reversed gender stereotypes, and await the inevitable, and justified, storm of protest!

Roger Blassberg

St Albans, Hertfordshire

Sweeteners for fracking

The effort being put into promoting fracking is yet another example of how the Government can be so easily bamboozled into believing that sourcing energy from fossil fuels is the simple answer to their prayers in aid of keeping the lights on.

The reality is that fracking will lay waste to vast tracts of land and if energy is extracted successfully not only will it not lower our fuel bills by one penny, it will greatly increase our carbon emissions in the longer term.

Although ministers will argue that green energy sources are being researched and promoted, the emphasis being placed on fossil fuel sources, and of late fracking in particular, far outweighs everything else and has stultified any potential strategic initiatives on how the long-term energy needs of the country might be met.

Peter Coghlan

Broadstone, Dorset

The Government now wants to sweet-talk local communities into allowing fracking in their areas. The extent of each well is said to be just two hectares. No mention is made of the access roads.

The Wall Street analyst Deborah Rodgers says that in 2012 Texas received $3.6bn in revenue from on- and off-shore operations, but is expected to need $4bn to repair road damage caused by on-shore extraction alone. Arkansas has received since 2009 $182m and needs $450m to be spent on roads. Pennsylvania in 2012 received $1.3bn and is estimated to need $7bn for repairs. These are knowns which the Government does not want us to know.

Canon Christopher Hall

Deddington, Oxfordshire

It is the blandness of the Government’s fracking bribes to communities that staggers me most. Offering communities the right to keep 100 per cent of the business rates paid by licensed exploiters, in exchange for the pillaging of people’s lives and landscapes, lacks any moral compass.

Our addiction to fossil fuels has to be broken, not nurtured. It damages the present and scars the future, in ways our children will pay heavily for.

Alan Simpson

Nottingham

Child benefit for EU migrants

In the light of the proposals to restrict the right of EU migrants to send child benefit to their home countries, I am reminded of what happened in Germany in the 1970s.

As the recession bit, the government there wished to encourage its non-EU labour migrants, mainly from Turkey, Yugoslavia and southern Europe, to return home. A policy was introduced to pay child benefit only for the children of migrants living with them in Germany.

One consequence was that many migrants  brought their families over to join them.

Professor John Salt

Migration Research Unit

Department of Geography

University College London

Healthy demand for physiotherapists

Nigel Farage’s entertaining account of his physiotherapy (13 January) unfortunately included a misleading statement about the employment prospects for new members of the profession.

For a brief time in the last decade there was a shortage of jobs, but with rising patient demand from an ageing population and increasing numbers of people with long-term conditions, this was urgently addressed. Following extensive campaigning by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the employment record for new graduates is now very good.

In recent years the employment opportunities for physiotherapists have continued to expand in the NHS and in the private and voluntary sectors. This reflects – as Mr Farage’s piece showed – that physiotherapists are playing a key role in getting people back to work and in many cases, preventing the need for any sickness absence in the first place.

We wish him well in his recovery.

Phil Gray

Chief Executive

Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

London WC1

Stay awake at the  back of the class

Thank you for Peter Gray’s excellent piece (13 January) arguing that children need less school, less homework, and more time for unstructured play, in order to grow up psychologically healthy and creative.

For headteachers worried that such an approach would ruin their test scores and prejudice their position in the league tables, the solution is reported elsewhere in the same edition: give every child a double espresso at the end of each lesson. It will boost their memory for what they have learned (and keep them awake in the next lesson).

Nigel Halliday

Liss, Hampshir

Times:

2014

Telegraph:

SIR – We are concerned about Channel 4’s Benefits Street series. It purports to reveal “the reality of a life on benefits”, but ignores the reality that the vast majority of people who need support from benefits do so because they are either working but receiving a low wage, have an illness or disability, or have lost their job.

SIR – George Osborne and Nick Boles will go down in history as the destroyers of beautiful England. Forced planning for housing on irreplaceable countryside (even Areas of Outstanding Beauty and National Parks) and the joining up of urban sprawl all over the Green Belts show that the Government doesn’t listen to the people.

Irish Times:

Sir, – Seventy years ago Jean Giraudoux wrote, “Water, gentlemen, is the only substance from which the earth can conceal nothing. It sucks out its innermost secrets . . .” And, in the case of Irish Water, it refuses to divulge those secrets. – Yours, etc,

MATTIE LENNON,

Lacken, Blessington,

Co Wicklow.

A chara, – The shambles of the €50 million consultancy fees paid out by Irish Water, and the lack of transparency with regard to the details, reminds one of the transfer of waste collection services in Dublin to private business, and the lack of detail that was given to the paying public on that occasion also. – Yours, etc,

SIMON O’CONNOR,

Lismore Road,

Crumlin, Dublin 12.

Sir, – The floodgates are now open on Irish Water and the consultancy fees paid to date. Might this give new meaning to the term “Watergate”? – Yours, etc,

CLARE BALFE,

Innisfallen Parade, Dublin 7.

Sir, – No transparency at Irish Water! An Irish problem to an Irish solution? – Yours, etc,

DERMOT FAGAN,

Llewellyn Grove,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Irish Water urgently needs to act to counter the negative publicity that has surrounded the company in recent weeks. I suggest they hire a top PR consultancy firm to handle the matter. – Yours, etc,

DAVE ROBBIE,

Seafield Crescent,

Booterstown, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Whatever the merits of Irish Water pouring large sums of the public’s money into consultancy firms (who knows, Irish Water may learn something), I am mystified by the knee-jerk mindset of every Irish semi-State body or quango to insist it plonk its corporate headquarters in the most over-crowded centre of the most over-populated location in the country.

Regardless of office rental rates, traffic, travel and parking considerations, nothing would suit Irish Water but Talbot Street (one assumes there was nothing more suitable available in the less unfashionable arrondissements on the southside). Why this obsession with Dublin and its crammed city centre? Presumably, all Irish Water needs as a perfectly suitable headquarters is a location with good telecommunications and internet connections, both of which are readily available in every county in the State. It’s not as if this body needs a prominent storefront to attract its customers: they are going to be driven, willingly or otherwise, into Irish Water’s waiting arms.

Years ago, Fianna Fáil made a dog’s dinner of decentralisation by trying to uproot long-settled families and scattering them to the four corners. Here we have a new organisation that could be easily located in any one of the country’s towns or cities and could recruit its employees either locally or from a pool who knew in advance they were going to work in that location.

But no. Dublin it must be. And the centre of Dublin at that. Cork, Westport or Galway may be perfectly suitable for international corporations such as Pfizer, Allergen and Boston Scientific, but when it comes to any Irish semi-State organisations the default setting is D1 or D2. I would like someone from Irish Water to explain why. – Yours, etc,

LIAM STENSON,

Seacrest,

Knocknacarra, Galway.

Sir, – So, apart from spending €50 million on consultants, the Irish Water management feel relaxed enough about spending public money to provide a gym for themselves (Home News, January 11th). Nice to see they have their priorities right in carving out office space and fitting out a gym at a time when vicious cuts are made in public services to the old, the sick and the needy. No doubt they paid a consultant to advise on the gym.

The other issue here is that local gym owners are now in competition with another gym actually funded by their own taxes. There are plenty of gyms in the centre of Dublin and fees are at an all-time low because gym-owners are under pressure. It’s ridiculous that public money should be used for this purpose.

Finally, the gym issue should make people wonder what else they are lavishing public money on. – Yours, etc,

C CARROLL,

Herbert Lane,

Dublin 2.

Sir, –   I would like to offer my consultancy services to the new Irish Water, for a reduced fee of €5 million. It goes like this:   The ESB has a meter in my house, a meter reader calls, reads the meter, brings it back to the office staff who send me a bill.   Bord Gáis has a meter in my house – a new pilot electronic one – the meter-reader stands outside my house, presses his handheld electronic reader and gets the reading. He returns it to the office staff who send me a bill.

The new Irish Water needs to install a meter in my house (or outside it), hire a meter-reader who will return the reading to his office staff, who should send me a bill.   I still think that my fee of €5 million is too high – for the blindingly obvious task. – Yours, etc,

JIM COOKE,

Marley Avenue,

Rathfarnham Dublin 16.

A chara, – Money down the drain. – Is mise,

CATHAL NUGENT,

The Waterfront,

Loughrea, Co Galway.

Sir, – Might I offer some free consultancy to Irish Water?

It appears Irish Water is to start operations with almost 4,800 staff, 4,300 from the local authorities plus new hires of 500. All to service 1.6 million homes.

Perhaps they should reconsider. Scottish Water, with 2.4 million homes, gets by with 3,400 employees.

Does the management of Irish Water need a consultant to work out that something is wrong? Irish Water is proposing to start life with almost 50 per cent too many employees!

I’m more than happy to prove further consultancy services, but somehow I feel my offer will not be taken up. – Yours, etc,

TONY SMYTH

Upper Newcastle,

Galway.

Sir, – The Government should have introduced an “air-breathing” tax instead of a water usage charge. There would be no need for meters, no need for consultants and no way of avoiding breathing air! – Yours, etc,

PETER LYNCH,

Cremorne,

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Has the Government washed its hands of the taxpayers’ €50 million? – Yours, etc,

OLIVER DUFFY,

Fremont Drive,

Melburn Estate,

Bishopstown, Cork.

A chara, – Runaway train for some, gravy train for others. Nothing has changed! – Yours, etc,

LIAM McGOWAN,

Woodland,

Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

Sir, – It was the will of the troika that we should pay for our water, a commodity we have in abundance. Will they now insist that the Greeks pay for their sunshine which they have in abundance? – Yours, etc,

PETER MOONEY,

Quarry Road, Cabra,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – The importance of the digitisation of Ireland’s Memorial Records of the first World War is somewhat overstated (Home News, January 11th).

The volumes of names have been available for many years on Ancestry’s genealogy website, and on CD from Trinity College’s Eneclann. It can therefore hardly be described as a “new archive” as your article states.

Another issue is the fact that the original 1923 project’s methodology included the assumption that all men in Irish regiments were Irishmen. In reality, especially as the war went on, a huge percentage of “Irish” regiments were made up of non-Irish soldiers. A cursory examination of the “Place of Birth” information in the records will confirm this.

If this is an indication of the level of Government engagement in the commemoration of the Irish dead of the Great War, I am deeply saddened.

This exercise is a cut-and-paste copy of an already flawed set of documents, dressed up and wheeled out to provide a photo opportunity for politicians who have no real interest in investing any money or resources into compiling a properly accurate memorial list of Irishmen who never came home.

Our dead of the Great War deserve better than this. – Yours, etc,

DAVID POWER,

The Drive,

Grange Manor,

Lucan, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Anyone who reads the gospels will see that Jesus Christ loved sinners (Matthew 9:13), spent his time eating and interacting with them (Mark 2:15) and gave his life on their behalf (Romans 5:8).

He commended a man who called himself a sinner (Luke 18:13-14) and instructed his followers to love their enemies and pray for those who persecuted them (Matthew 5:44)

So why do Mary McAleese, and others, have a problem with something Jesus clearly said and did and with the word “sinner” being used?

Perhaps it is because they do not understand how, by having faith, a person is forgiven, can break free from condemnation (Romans 8:1-4), win their struggle with sin (Acts 13:38-39) and have a new life (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Perhaps it’s frustration born out of a lack of hope and a lack of answers. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS O’CALLAGHAN,

Bullock Park,Carlow.

A chara, – Fionola Meredith’s article had me laughing into my chai latte. I hadn’t realised it was open season on other people’s spiritual practices. Spiritual practices are meaningful to practitioners and often baffling and amusing to the outsider.

I would posit cleansing my toxic soul with a dose of Deepak is as effective as sitting in a dark, little box and cleaning my soul by “confessing” to a man who has had a holy spirit invoked into him. What is modern-day Christianity to many practitioners but a pinch of Buddhism here (“Be nice to others!”), some mysticism there (the concept of the Trinity is a bit mystical) and the odd archangel. Let he who is without sin . . . – Is mise,

ÉILIS Ní FHARRACHAIR,

Harold’s Cross Road,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – Fionola Meredith (Opinion, January 13th) notes that December 25th is the birthday of Jesus Christ. If we look at the evidence that’s highly unlikely. Mary and Joseph came to register for a Roman census, which didn’t take place in winter, and the shepherds were guarding their flocks in the fields at night, which would not happen in winter either. Since Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy with John the Baptist when Christ was conceived and Zacharias, was a priest serving in the Jerusalem temple during the course of Abijah, which was mid-June of that year, we can date Christ’s likely date of birth as late September. Pull that zip over your chakras. – Yours, etc,

DAVID WILKINS,

Vevay Road,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Ross Maguire (Opinion, January 11th) correctly highlights Irish difficulties in appreciating the value of failure. Yet while it is certainly true that we have a legacy that breeds conservatism and risk aversion, it is equally true that recent events have prompted worthy scepticism of excessive carefree behaviour.

Where Maguire’s argument falls short is in failing to distinguish between what might be called destructive failure and constructive failure.

Destructive failure is founded upon greed, arrogance, and recklessness of the Celtic tiger ilk. By contrast, constructive failure is a legitimate failure associated with authentic and well-intentioned efforts at value creation. Whereas destructive failures are value dissipating and deserve the full wrath of traditional criticism, constructive failures merit greater recognition and encouragement as the foundations for future success. Ultimately, the true challenge is not simply to appreciate failure, but to learn from it. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN HARNEY,

Business School,

Dublin City University,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – How disheartening it is, as a teacher of 37 years, to see the power of the Teaching Council to discipline under-performing teachers being editorially commented on (January 7th), while the actual performance of teachers in substantially raising literacy and numeracy levels in DEIS schools, as recently measured by the Educational Research Centre, was editorially ignored. – Yours, etc,

DER FITZGIBBON,

Scoil Íosagáin,

Farranree,

A chara, – Prompted by spiralling costs at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Nick Armstrong (January 11th) questions the rationale for investing in nuclear fusion. It should be remembered that we live in an epoch where electromagnetic forces, governing all of chemistry, are much weaker than the more mysterious nuclear force, binding nuclei together.

So, by rejigging the nuclei rather than the electrons in atoms, one stands to get more energy out. Ultimately, nuclear fusion is a smarter way to produce energy; it necessitates less interference by us, ie fewer artificial reactions, and will hopefully lead long-term to a smaller environmental footprint. – Is mise,

Dr EOIN O COLGAIN,

CN Yang Institute for

Theoretical Physics,

State University of New

York, Stony Brook,

Sir, – If anyone else attempts the physical impossibility of “reverting” to me (an unpleasant outcome for both), I will make sure that “in pulverem revertentur”! – Yours, etc,

LIAM McMULLIN,

Donamon, Co Roscommon.

Sir, – Not exactly a phrase, I concede, but has anyone noticed that in the “recent past”, almost everyone interviewed by the media, starts every sentence with “I suppose”. I find it extremely irritating. – Yours, etc,

GERALDINE AHERNE,

Rowan Park Avenue,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Sale time used to be but twice a year. Please, no more “When these half price . . . are gone their definitely gone”. – Yours, etc,

ANGELA NOLAN,

Cedar Park,

The Donahies, Dublin 13.

Sir, – “Various different”. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL O’DWYER,

Rail Park,

Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Sir , – “Personally, this is a humbling moment for me” – as used by newly appointed cardinals, bishops, Oscar starlets, and the like. “Bring it on!” might be more honest. Also, “Yours faithfully” – as used by crawlers who want their silly letters to appear. – Yours, etc,

EDDIE FINNEGAN,

Wightman Road,

London, England.

Sir, – We should absolutely ban the absolute overuse of “absolute”. And that’s the absolute end of this absolutely ridiculous conversation. – Yours, etc,

JOHN ROGERS,

Ballydorey,

Rathowen, Co Westmeath.

Sir, – “Phrases we could live without” is a phrase we could live without. Please do not start a long litany of such phrases in your Letters page as some of these letters could be seen as a cheap shot at getting published. Oops, is that irony raising its smiling head!? Shame on me. – Yours, etc,

Dr JAMES FINNEGAN,

Woodland,

Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

Sir, – In relation to the appalling killing of Tom O’Gorman (Home News, January 13th), I commend your decision not to disclose the more graphic elements of this tragic event.

It is a sad indictment of the society in which we live that other Irish publications failed to follow suit. – Yours, etc,

FRANK BYRNE,

Cormac Terrace,

Terenure,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – Now that young Limerick scientists have shown that horsemeat on the whole is healthier than beef (Home News, January 10th), should we be thanking those who surreptitiously put horsemeat into the food chain for improving the national diet? – Yours, etc,

BRIAN HODKINSON,

Brook Road,

Reboge,

Limerick.

A chara, – No surprise that the first erroneous black card (Sport, January 10th) was given to a Mr White, who also got a yellow, leaving the referee red-faced, the Louth manager feeling blue and the rest of us tickled pink. – Is mise,

LOMAN O LOINGSIGH,

Kiltipper Road,

Dublin 24.

Irish Independent:

One hundred years ago this month, Henry Ford created the consumer society. He had already started to put humanity on wheels and to perfect assembly-line production but his decision to pay Ford workers $5 per day changed the world of economics forever.

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Prior to his revolutionary decision, automotive workers were paid less than $2.50 per day but were still probably the best paid of any industry in the US.

His decision was met with consternation and incredulity in commercial circles; it was thought his impulsive lunacy would destroy industry and the only hope was that he would become bankrupt before the silly idea caught on.

Exactly the opposite happened and his inspired decision turned him into the richest man in industry and created the world of full and plenty we now enjoy.

He turned his workers into customers; workers could aspire to living standards that, until that time, had been the exclusive privilege of the wealthy.

Henry Ford had a pathological dislike and mistrust of accountants, economists and stock speculators. On return from a world trip, he discovered his son Edsel had constructed a building in his absence to accommodate accountants needed by the company to keep its financial affairs in order.

The very next day, Henry began demolition of the accountancy block, and from then until he retired, “bean counters” in Ford dressed as assembly workers, and rushed on to assembly lines whenever Mr Ford walked through the works.

We desperately need a Henry Ford in 2014 to demolish the “bean counter” edifice, which is undoing the consumer society that he created.

Ford’s “assembly line” has achieved perfection; all his ambitions have been spectacularly achieved. Such production power no longer needs or can facilitate “growth”, which is the “holy grail” of the economic hierarchy.

In his absence, “bean counters” have taken over the planet and are undoing the consumer society he initiated.

PADRAIC NEARY

TUBBERCURRY, CO SLIGO

SAYING SORRY

* As I drive past the Church of Christ the King and the Presbyterian Church opposite each other on the Scroggy Road, Limavady, on a regular basis, my mind never fails to recall the courage of the Reverend David Armstrong, who walked across that road on a Christmas morning to wish Catholics a Holy Christmas and got run out of town for doing so.

In many ways, history hasn’t moved on from there, and no amount of selective interviews about the past will address the need to say ‘sorry’ for what was done to fan the flames and prevent genuine reconciliation and lasting peace among our people, Catholic and Protestant.

Rev Armstrong’s call for Dr Paisley to apologise for his role in the past is perfectly understandable given the personal suffering of his family, but it is also understandable because an opportunity was lost to reconcile our communities then, but is still as relevant today as it was in the past.

As one who has had the privilege of getting to know Rev Armstrong and his family, my hope for the future rests with people like him who know from their personal experience that there is no alternative to addressing the wrongs of the past and being prepared to say sorry for the dreadful words and deeds that contributed to the conflict.

There have been so many talks over the years designed to move the political process forward, but the absence of the word ‘sorry’ is sadly missing and, until people have the courage to use it, it seems that there will simply be more talks about talks.

JOHN DALLAT, MLA

KILLREA, CO DERRY

CAUSES OF CRIME

* There is nothing that does more for one’s political credibility than regular declarations of the intention to be tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. The difficulty here is that we can identify cases of crime but the causes of crime systematically elude us.

There is a growing acknowledgement that crime is mainly fuelled by the continued existence of social exclusion.

There is a real tension between criminal justice and social justice. We seem to be trapped in the assumption that poverty is the price we must pay for economic progress.

One of the defining features of our time is the influence of the press on how we think, particularly about crime. Morally, the press has a right to print what it ought to print and we have the right to think what we ought to think.

Sadly, however, there are aspects of the press that leave much to be desired. One tactic used by the tabloids is the amplification of outrage, stirring up some very basic instincts.

This happens most vividly when reporting crimes of violence. The perpetrator becomes a ‘beast’ who is not sent to prison but ‘caged’.

As long as we see the criminal as some kind of aberrant beast and not one of us, we will be less and less inclined to deal with the causes of crime.

PHILIP O’NEILL

EDITH ROAD, OXFORD

ENTREPRENEUR STRATEGY

* According to the Irish Independent (January 13), the latest report commissioned by the Government directed at entrepreneurs ‘to create jobs and attract business’ has been devised by ‘experts’ and is ‘radical’.

It apparently recommends that taxes be slashed and a plethora of other welfare inducements be introduced that are intended, inter alia, ‘to keep wealthy Irish in the country’, in addition to the abundantly generous incentives already available.

The fundamental issue with Irish entrepreneurs, with some notable exceptions, is that they have a large appetite for grants, subsidies and tax breaks, but little capacity to deliver on promises, and they account for only 8pc of the nation’s exports of goods and services.

Public policy is pockmarked by verbosity, plans, policies, press releases and speculation. The core of a strategy published in May 1999, for example, forecast that locally controlled Irish businesses would double their sales over 10 years, from €25bn in 1999 to €51bn in 2009.

This strategy was never fulfilled, despite the State paying over €4bn in grants to local businesses since 1999.

Why should the 2014 report not be treated as just another exercise in sophism that will lead to nothing of fundamental and far-reaching significance?

Have we not reached an era of delivery and self-sufficiency by entrepreneurs, rather than the milestone of one more committee report regurgitating the same themes and issues and demanding more inducements, as if these were a magic potion that actually worked in practice?

MYLES DUFFY

BELLEVUE AVENUE, GLENAGEARY, CO DUBLIN

GOOD HEAVENS

l Billy Keane raises some questions regarding exactly what becomes of the ‘waste’ as toilets are flushed in planes (January 13).

Perhaps those who proclaim: “It’s piddling rain” have the answer?

TOM GILSENAN

BEAUMONT, DUBLIN 9

Irish Independent

15 January 2014 Premium bonds
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. Pertwee has to smuggle a relative back to England from Tangiers, as a Naval officer.  Priceless.
Peter finishes bit of work and I sell my premium bonds
Scrabble today I wins     and gets  just   over   300,  Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:
Peter Geach, who has died aged 97, was a formidable logician and happened to be married to one of the 20th century’s leading English-language philosophers, Elizabeth Anscombe.
In a way this meant he was overshadowed. He did, though, have a strong philosophical life of his own, and without the thousands of hours of discussion that Elizabeth Anscombe had with him, her philosophy would not have attained the eminence it did.
Peter Geach always had sharp teeth in an argument and, the harder the opposition, the harder he bit. His father was a philosopher who never took up a paid position, and, under his influence, Peter admired in his youth JME McTaggart, the Edwardian Hegelian who espoused most positions that Geach came to reject: atheism, reincarnation, determinism, the unreality of time.
Geach admired the “irresistible force of reasoning” that he found in McTaggart. “Under God, I owe my very self to McTaggart,” he once wrote, “for it was knowledge of his philosophy that kept alight in me a longing for the infinite and eternal that was not to be quenched by the noisy winds of the world.”
Even after decades, Geach still thought it important to publish an introduction to McTaggart’s philosophy, Truth, Love, and Immortality (1979). Geach found his own feet while arguing against his master. Thus, in response to McTaggart’s argument that it was impossible to believe in a solitary God, Geach showed how McTaggart’s demands for a deity were fulfilled only by the Holy Trinity of orthodox Christianity.
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In the philosophy of religion, Geach contributed to a better understanding of existence, or the act of being. An important distinction he made was between the ideas “there is a God” and “God is, or lives”. In the latter sense God is identical with his being. Geach’s thinking on this question is touched on in God and the Soul (1969) and Providence and Evil (1977).
In ethics, Elizabeth Anscombe made a celebrated rejection of a kind of utilitarianism that she named consequentialism. Since many modern ethicists rejected a divine system of laws, she proposed a system of morals based on virtues. Some of Geach’s own ideas on virtue ethics were given in The Virtues (1977), based on his Stanton Lectures of 1973.
There were some surprises. “We ought, I think, to judge about Cannabis indica much as we judge about alcohol,” he said in one lecture. “Cannabis indica appears to be less mentally disturbing than alcohol, less productive of damaging accidents like car crashes, and very much less addictive.”
In his paper “Good and Evil”, published in the journal Analysis in 1956, Geach had shown how the meaning of the word “good” depended on the substantive that it qualified: a good apple being very different from a good knife. It was an influential insight, taken up by Philippa Foot among others.
Unlike the dense, unsignposted prose of Anscombe, Geach’s style was a pleasure to read. In their joint volume Three Philosophers (1961), Anscombe contributed a penetrating analysis of Aristotle that was a hard slog for readers, and Geach two sections: one on Aquinas that was both clear and full of new insights, and one on Frege in which the chief obstacle for the general reader was the mathematical language of the philosopher’s logic. It was largely through Geach, whose lectures on Frege were encouraged by Wittgenstein in 1950, that the importance of Frege’s philosophy was realised in Britain.
Geach’s style was described by the philosopher Jenny Teichman as “deliberately outrageous”. Having sharpened his wits on philosophers as formidable as Hume or Russell, he could seem fiercer than an Old Testament prophet and did not fear to give hard knocks to living philosophers. Yet some of Geach’s phrases became the common coin of philosophers, such as a “Cambridge change”. This is the notion suggested by Bertrand Russell’s thought: that Socrates changes if something can be predicated of him that could not be predicated before. Thus if Socrates’s son grows bigger than him, it becomes true to say Socrates is shorter than his son, and so Socrates would have changed. But this is not a real change, only a “Cambridge change”.
Geach’s interest in the thought of both Wittgenstein and Aquinas made him an honorary founder of the philosophical school that called itself “analytical Thomism”. But while Geach was a philosopher and Catholic, his philosophy went wherever the force of logic demanded, rather than being tailored to a religious conclusion. “To me it appears blasphemous to say God is ‘above’ logic,” he wrote. “Logic is not partisan, and knows nothing but to strike straight; but the sword is invincible, bearing the Maker’s name.”
Peter Thomas Geach was born in London on March 29 1916, the son of George Hender Geach, the principal of a training college in India, and Eleonora Sgonina, the daughter of Polish emigrants. He went to live with his Polish grandparents in Cardiff, his mother having separated from his father when he was four.
He was sent to Llandaff Cathedral School, and then Clifton College, before going up to Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a first in Greats in 1938.
He was to spend the years 1945 to 1951 in philosophical research in Cambridge, and the next 15 years at Birmingham University, before being appointed Professor of Logic at Leeds in 1966, retiring in 1981. From 1971 to 1974 he gave the Stanton Lectures in the philosophy of religion at Cambridge.
The year 1938 had seen him received into the Catholic Church. It was also the year he met Elizabeth Anscombe, who had independently become a Catholic. Once she had taken her finals, they married, on Boxing Day 1941, and decided that she should keep her maiden name. With her, Geach had seven children, four of them girls.
Most of the apocryphal stories in academe about the children had some basis in reality: how they would at a tender age cook alarming meals for their parents and guests; how they would appear clothed strangely, or not at all, in the middle of some seminar; how one child, on being told that if her teddy was not in the drawing room it must be in her bedroom, retorted: “But that doesn’t follow.”
The “Geachcombes”, though each sometimes holding a post elsewhere, shuttled between Oxford and Cambridge, where Geach got to know Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein lodged with them (in Oxford) towards the end of his life.
Together, Geach and Anscombe translated Descartes’s Philosophical Writings (1954). In the Fifties, while Elizabeth Anscombe was doing the work that became her dense, short and influential book Intention (1957), Geach also turned his attention to the philosophy of mind in Mental Acts (1957).
Peter Geach listed his recreations as “reading stories of detection, mystery and horror; collecting and annotating old bad logic texts”.
Elizabeth Anscombe died in 2001; Peter Geach is survived by his children.
Peter Geach, born March 29 1916, died December 21 2013

Guardian:

Too often, the debate about “Europe” is based on emotional and ideological arguments, with all sides – from those who want more EU integration and those who want less – trading in hyperbole rather than engaging with substantive issues of policy.
Of course we need to co-operate across borders in Europe. The question, as ever, is how. How do we square the need for cross-border action with democratic accountability? How do we live up to the promise to make decisions as close as possible to citizens? How do we make Europe really work for growth and jobs at a time when global competition is stiffening?
Today, we are joining hundreds of parliamentarians and opinion-formers from across Europe at a unique conference in London organised by the thinktank Open Europe and the Fresh Start Project, dedicated to one question: how can we achieve EU reform? While our proposed solutions may differ, we agree on one thing: the status quo in Europe is not an option. If the EU is to thrive, it needs to embrace a series of bold reforms. Some of these will involve EU action, but where democratic and economic factors so dictate, this may also mean “less Europe”.
We want to replace the emotional point-scoring with a policy-based discussion about how to achieve a Europe that works better for both democracy and growth.
Gustav Blix Swedish MP (Moderate party); ranking member, committee on European Union affairs (Sweden)
Klaus Peter Willsch German MP (CDU); member, committee for economy and energy, Germany; Deputy head of the committtee on education, research and technology (Germany)
Angieszka Pomaska Polish MP (Civic Platform); Chair of the EU affairs committee in the Polish parliament (Poland)
Eva Kjer Hansen Chair of the European affairs committee (Liberal party), Danish parliament (Denmark)
Andrea Leadsom MP for South Northamptonshire (Con); co-founder, Fresh Start Project; member of No 10 policy board (UK)
Dr Reinhold Lopatka Spokesperson for foreign and European affairs, Austrian People’s party (OeVP); former secretary of state for European and international affairs (Austria)

Many will be surprised and alarmed by the warning from the Commons foreign affairs select committee that BBC World Service broadcasting is in danger of suffering creeping commercialisation (Report, 10 January). For more than 70 years, the World Service successfully fought for its credibility with sceptical or openly hostile international audiences by demonstrating its independence from any kind of governmental control. Now that hard-won independence is, it seems, being put at risk by a facile “rush to commercialism”. What is more disturbing is that this policy is being introduced without detailed proposals or any public discussion; that BBC management which undertook to protect World Service independence and integrity when it assumed full financial responsibility for the WS is walking away from that commitment; that what is left of independent World Service management connives at policies that threaten to undermine WS credibility; and that the BBC Trust stands idly by as a precious part of the institution for which it is responsible faces radical undermining. The select committee, having valuably identified the risks and dangers to a major British institution, should now press the case for detailed examination of the future of the BBC World Service before real and irretrievable damage is done.
John Tusa
London

Thanks to Julie Myerson for her article (Death in hospital need not be a medicalised trauma, 13 January). While one reason I buy the Guardian is for its coverage of the NHS, I have for a long time had a sense of disquiet that the stories are so biased towards the bad news (good news is no news?). While we need to shout loud about the problems of the NHS, we also need to continually celebrate its successes. Not doing so seems to me to be, ironically, preparing the country for letting the NHS, depicted as useless and malfunctioning, slip away to open private hands. As someone who works for the NHS, I would also point out that we need to see a reflection of the service we give as worthwhile, even excellent at times, to help us continue to strive to be the best that we can be, especially since our managers seem hellbent on thoroughly demoralising us at times. The NHS will survive only if the public can value what it does well alongside campaigning for better when it does not deliver.
Suzanne McCall
Luton, Bedfordshire
•  I was moved by Julie Myerson’s elegant article about her mother-in-law’s death. I know exactly what she means. In 2007, my mother suffered a cerebral haemorrhage which left her in a coma. The consultant at St Richard’s hospital, Chichester, suggested that we “let nature take its course”, to which we agreed. Unlike Julie’s mother-in-law, my mother was able to die at home, with the hospital arranging everything. She lasted two more weeks, with a team of nurses coming in three times a day and a person sitting with her through the night, allowing members of the family to visit her whenever they wished. My brother and I were with our mother at the moment of death. It was profoundly moving. Sad though it was, it felt like an extraordinary privilege to see someone slip from life to death. Seeing our mother die peacefully in her own home made her dying seem like the natural event it was. I thank the NHS for making that possible.
Emma Dally
London
•  Julie Myerson writes movingly of the natural death of her mother-in-law. The staff communication and decision-making sounded sensitive and experienced. However, non-medical intervention can be an umbrella to hide bad practice under, and that is the danger. My 94-year-old mother was in her local hospital in Scotland, after a fall. They found tumours in her chest and though she expected to get home after pain control, someone somewhere decided she wasn’t worth the bother when she got a bladder infection after three days. No treatment meant that we found her in agony, alone, with no nursing care. The doctor refused to attend as it was a bank holiday and when we begged for help he prescribed morphine by phone until, after hours of pain, the last dose killed her quickly. Apparently this is all acceptable for an old person because someone had decided it was time she was dispatched and she was denied the natural death that Julie’s mother-in-law had.
Allowing nature to take its course where enlightenment and knowledge prevail is the ideal. But where ignorance and callousness prevail it becomes a very distorted and harrowing experience that haunts loved ones evermore.
Andrene Messersmith
Innellan, Argyll
• It was the image used by Julie Myerson that drew my attention. Death is “oddly akin to a birth”. My father John Hughes (Obituary, 2 January) died on 1 November. Previously a principal at Ruskin College, he sadly developed dementia and spent years in an increasingly locked-in state. I had taken a break from his bedside when my sister called. He was on no drugs and the nurses at the nursing home were fine about leaving us alone. We both strangely – or maybe not – seemed to know exactly what to do. We talked gently, stroked his head and hands, told him we loved him but we were ready for him to go. We reminded him of his wonderful contribution to people’s lives and said he deserved a rest now. It came into my mind that I felt like some sort of midwife helping him on. He died so peacefully. It was amazing to be at a “normal” death. I have been at two deathbeds where drugs were quite rightly involved so this was very special. We should talk about death more and enable people to feel they can help people they love die so peacefully.
Katherine Hughes
Oxford

Your superficial but abusive piece on me (Pass notes, G2, 16 December) accused me of likening Mandela to Hitler. I would never dream of comparing a white Austrian fascist with a black African communist. I merely pointed out that Mandela’s legacy (whether intended or not) is a murderous one. The article further accused me of being “extreme rightwing”, when my track record on exposing European fascism, antisemitism and EU corporatist imperialism is a matter of record – praised by, among others, east European socialists, British communists and leading Labour party figures.
Rodney Atkinson
Author, Fascist Europe Rising and Europe’s Full Circle
• If Michele Hanson “forgot the dandelions for Daughter’s tortoise which I had especially … picked” (Still here, G2, 14 Jnauary) I feel seriously concerned for the tortoise. First, surely the creature should be hibernating, and, second, there certainly are no dandelions growing in our garden in winter. Perhaps things are different in the balmy south.
Anne Liddon (@AnneLiddon)
Tynemouth
• O happy days. Dartford station did not have a newsagent for five and a half months, but four short weeks after a letter to the Guardian (17 December 2013) it reopened and I can at last buy the paper on my way to work. More power to the letters page!
Carol Gould
Dartford, Kent
• I have to wonder how the Académie would translate the variety of fadge known as potato apple (Letters, 11 January). I’m sure they’d insist on a ridiculous “pommes de terre de pommes” when “pompom de terre” would be delicious.
Steve Illingworth
Haworth, West Yorkshire
• I see (photo, Page 1, and The sweet scent of success, page 7, 13 January) that Vivienne Westwood was wearing a “pinstripe head wrap”. Round our way we call it a “woolly hat”.
Sally Cheseldine
Edinburgh
• Thank you for restoring sport to a daily pullout section. My wife is very happy. Therefore I am too.
Ron Page
Thursford, Norfolk
Chris Deerin (For us Scots the moral duty is clear: stay British, 14 January), newly repatriated to Scotland, has some way to go, I fear, before his metropolitan mindset is recalibrated. What he characterises as Better Together “identifying the risks associated with independence” is more readily recognised north of Berwick as the self-described “project fear” that has promised all but the killing of the firstborn in a new Scottish state.
I recommend as a primer Aditya Chakrabortty’s G2 column the same day, which explains in dispiriting detail how “Great” Britain squandered its oil bonanza while Norway prudently used its to build up reserves. As Chakrabortty muses, if Scotland had held on to these revenues “the question today would not be how it could manage solo, but how London would fare without its bankrollers north of Hadrian’s Wall”.
But for many of us the arguments for voting yes are not fiscal but moral. To reverse the mean-spirited, devastating impact of Iain Duncan Smith’s “reforms”, to hold fast against the Govification of education, to protect the NHS. To build an economy based on sustainable growth and employment rather than another housing bubble.
And, not least, to protect our European credentials and reject racism thinly disguised as migration control.
As countless small nations have proved, internationalism and social justice are not the sole prerogative of large powers. Recent history would suggest rather the reverse.
Ruth Wishart
Kilcreggan, Argyll
•  If there is a case to be made for the union, Chris Deerin’s is not it. He says that in September we might “choose to leave to set up a separate country”. We are a separate country, it’s just that we have chosen to be in a union with another one. He delights in the number of Scots who have “senior positions” in England (I suspect he really means London) but I am unsure as to how this has ever benefited the people who actually work and live in Scotland. As for Scots having “a moral code conferred on them by history”, this seems to be some quasi-mythical notion that might explain much about the misdeeds of empire, not to mention recent catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq. A large part of the impetus for Scottish independence comes from a desire to break free from the nostalgic, top-down, grandiose vision of many unionists, north and south of the border. Many in the yes camp prefer to look forward to Scotland as a small, social-democratic, progressive north European nation free of any delusion about being a world power.
Tom McFadyen
Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire
•  Speaking as a Scot with a vote in the referendum, I do recognise that I have a “moral role” to play but not the one conferred by Chris Deerin’s magical-thinking tour of Britain’s history. My moral dilemma lies in the thought that voting for independence might leave progressive forces south of the Tweed stuck in the electoral mud. If I vote no, it won’t be to offer moral support to some fantasy retelling of history, it will be because I don’t feel good about deserting my pals south of the border.
Alistair Richardson
Stirling

Commander Neil Basu refers to the “intolerable” delay, for the family and his officers, before the inquest jury reached its conclusion on the death of Mark Duggan (Officer who shot Duggan can return to armed duties, 13 January). There were many reasons for this – not least the complexity of this case, two associated criminal trials and our own finite resources. We agree that such delays add to the stress and anxiety for all concerned.
But a key feature of this investigation was the fact that the firearms officers refused to answer questions at interview. Following a protracted exchange of written questions and answers, it was nearly a year before we were able to get answers to all our questions, and even then we were not able to probe those answers verbally.
The law has now changed and we can compel officers to come in for interview. However, they can and still do refuse to answer questions verbally at interview.
Families and friends of those who die during police contact find it inexplicable that officers present at someone’s death do not fully co-operate with subsequent investigations – so do we. It means that the inquest is the first time they have to account properly for their actions and have their evidence probed and tested.
Following the comments made recently by the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, I hope that Commander Basu’s officers will now not only attend interviews, but also answer questions, if required, in our continuing investigation into Mark Duggan’s death, and any future tragic deaths.
Anne Owers
Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission
• Officer V53 made a catastrophic mistake that resulted in the untimely and unnecessary death of an unarmed man. That mistake must destroy confidence in V53′s competence to carry out armed police duties. Commander Basu’s suggestion that he would welcome V53 back to armed duties is not just an insult to the Duggan family but shows contempt for all Londoners. It elevates strict principle above good management and public safety, and is symptomatic of the Metropolitan police senior management’s inward-looking approach.
Alan Twite
London

One of Simon Hoggart’s typically idiosyncratic comments, when chairing the Guardian’s fringe meeting at Liberal Democratic conferences, was to tell the audience, “Do not switch off your mobile phone – it might be someone important!” It had, of course, the desired effect.

In the late 1960s, the serious media couldn’t get enough of news from the fledgling Child Poverty Action Group – even if it came from branch level. So, if we volunteers in CPAG’s Manchester branch issued a press release of what a visiting speaker was going to say, come Friday evening in a city-centre pub, we’d be disappointed not to see a couple of paragraphs in Saturday’s Guardian.
One evening, though, a cub reporter turned up to hear the speaker, introduced himself as Simon Hoggart, stayed on for a drink and accepted a lift home from me. I doubtless continued to bombard him, en route to south Didsbury, with more details of CPAG’s message, while not passing up the chance to enthuse about The Uses of Literacy and what a fan I was of his dad. But I became a fan for life, that evening, of the son who’d bothered to come to the pub, even though he had our release.
And not just a fan of his Guardian columns. My copy of his America: A User’s Guide is heavily annotated, picking out aphorisms such as the two I’ve so often repeated to US students – his observation that British English has become “a dialect of the principal tongue, American English” and his description of American football as “random violence interrupted by committee meetings”.

Why voters are apathetic
I am now 89 and in my youth I worked first for the Liberals as agent and then as constituency organiser for my local Labour party. I have also been a county council Labour candidate in a very Conservative constituency. I have voted whenever my vote was called for, but I do not think I will vote again.
I am not surprised that Britain’s young are “apathetic and disaffected”; I certainly am (3 January). Our electoral system is so manifestly unfair. In most constituencies more votes are cast against the winning candidate than for. Over the whole country, more votes are cast against the winning party than for it. You don’t have to be a genius to work that out. The second choice, the Alternative Vote, is the next worst option. To say that various forms of proportional representation are too complicated for the average voter would be laughable were it not so insulting.
I also find that many people do not “use” their MPs. If you, want an answer to your burning question or complaint, it is no good writing to the PM or the papers or demonstrating in the streets: you have to write directly to your constituency representative, who has to answer personally. Your MP’s name can easily be found on the internet. I just wish that members of Parliament were swamped by letters complaining about the present state of affairs.
Katherine Du Plat-Taylor
Mold, UK
• In your story about young voters’ apathy, the environment is dismissed as a single issue to substitute for real politics. But the environment is where we live and to ignore its importance is to have no view of the future. This is not just about polar bear preservation or what’s happening to the climate and why. It’s about using things up faster than they can be replaced. Try looking round your house at all the things made of plastic, looking at your fossil-fuel use in the car and at home, looking at how much of your food is bought on international markets, and picture life when these things are unavailable. With a limited supply and growing demand we can’t reasonably expect business as usual.
Until there are commercially viable, renewable substitutes for everything from aluminium to drinking water, or we’ve colonised a couple more planets, our natural resources are surely our priority. Of course other issues matter, but what use is an economic or political plan that ignores our physical environment?
Short-termism is fine for politicians seeking a final term in office or for the Deck Chair Rearranging Committee of the Titanic. For the rest of us, I think it’s reasonable to keep an eye on where we are heading.
David Roman
Newport, UK
Fighting climate change
The feature Tax on meat “will cut methane buildup” (3 January) raises a number of issues, not least the increasing environmental and health consequences of our worldwide dependence on pasture-fed animals.
Australia is a unique position to provide a partial solution: effective kangaroo harvesting. The various species of kangaroo provide a source of protein that is largely ignored. Combined kangaroo populations are estimated as between 15 million and 50 million in currently harvested areas alone. Surely we can learn from the Aboriginal population to manage the almost inexhaustible population of these producers of both meat and a range of other valuable by-products, provided we can overcome our white-fella mindset of exclusive ownership and fencing of pasture.
Kangaroo meat for human consumption, managed and harvested under Federal rather than, as at present, State regulation, can provide us at the very least with a healthy temporary buffer against further global clearance of forests and land degradation, until that happy day arrives, if it ever does, when the majority of the world becomes largely or totally vegetarian.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• Sadly, vegetarian advocacy is not encouraged by the data on the greenhouse gas impacts of cattle and sheep burps. Cheese, milk and yoghurt would surely also be guilty, while eggs, pork, fowl and fish are exonerated.
What would an effective and acceptable anti-greenhouse emissions diet look like? Perhaps:
a) Egg and bacon for breakfast instead of beef sausages.
b) Chicken schnitzel or ham sandwich instead of lamb chops for lunch.
c) Roast turkey instead of roast lamb for dinner.
We could keep roast beef as a special treat for Christmas.
Perhaps this is a case for a technical fix. Preliminary research suggests adding garlic to cattle feed can help. In Argentina they are seeking ways to capture the burped methane to use for fuel.
Constance Lever-Tracy
Eden Hills, South Australia
• Colin Horgan’s column (3 January) on the parallels between Steven Harper’s government in Canada and Tony Abbott’s in Australia increases my alarm for the future of our warming world. However, when Horgan writes that “Abbott’s government killed the Australian carbon tax” he is perhaps not aware that although this was a major item in his policy platform in the recent federal election, Abbott has been unable to implement it because he does not have the numbers in the senate to repeal the legislation at least until July, and possibly not even then.
Abbott is an obscurantist who heads a Jesuit-trained mafia. He has no use for science, and failed to appoint a minister for science. He clearly thinks that God will look after us without our help.
Ted Webber
Buderim, Queensland, Australia
Can we be too clever?
Julian Baggini (3 January) suggests that being too intelligent, or too clever, can be a disadvantage. He gives as examples that of being unable to benefit from cognitive therapy and the suffering resultant on the consequences of a preference for complex rather than simple explanations. Baggini’s hypothesis seems to be but another aspect of Oliver Burkeman’s discussion later in the same paper.
Burkeman argues that such personality characteristics as laziness and lack of willpower are possibly not the fault of the individual possessing them but rather should be seen as analogous to physical limitations such as being born with, or somehow acquiring, poor eyesight.
If this is right, does it mean that any consistently performed behaviour that may lead to the impoverishment of the individual concerned, ought also to be regarded as a form of social or psychological malfunction? Could it be that such traits as honesty, generosity, sympathy and altruism, which frequently have the effect of reducing that individual’s survival resources (and that could be described as irrational behaviours, or even forms of self-harm), should be seen in a different light? Perhaps a case could be made for anyone suffering from these unfortunate tendencies to be acknowledged, shown understanding and kindness and compensated by the society.
David Drury
Driffield, UK
Banning sexism for children
Three cheers: they are taking down the boys and girls signs in some toy departments (Banning toy sexism won’t end stereotypes, 3 January). Now can we please address the majority of children’s books that have male protagonists? I used to change he to she when reading to my sons, sometimes drawing long hair on truck drivers so that they would believe me. Now I have to do it with my granddaughters, but it gets harder when they can read: “That says he, not she”.
Why should boys have all the adventures? It is obvious that male is still the default preferred position. Isn’t this too just acculturation?
I Strewe
Bronte, NSW, Australia
The Bob Geldof of her day
Your report Jenny Lind sings for Royal Infirmary, dated 20th December 1848 (reprinted 20 December) was fulsome about the quality of Miss Lind’s singing and mentioned that about 1,000 people attended, with all the guinea tickets “purchased with marvellous avidity”.
However, the report, or perhaps the excerpt you reprinted, failed to connect with the headline about the Royal Infirmary. Your readers may be interested in a few of the facts about the Schwabes, old friends of Miss Lind, who promoted the concert.
Julia Schwabe, my great-greatgrandmother, could be seen as a precursor of Bob Geldof, mobilising the most popular musicians of the day to raise money for philanthropic causes. It was she, backed by her husband Salis, founder of English Calico and a friend of radicals Richard Cobden and John Bright, who led a major programme of charitable fund-raising for the Manchester Royal Infirmary.
The successful Jenny Lind concert of 20 December is a good example, but perhaps even better known is their concert on 29 August the same year, where Frederick Chopin was the star attraction in a medley of singing and instrumental music. Over 1,200 people attended it, by far the largest concert Chopin ever played for, and the Royal Infirmary was the beneficiary.
Chopin stayed with the Schwabes for around a week at their home just outside Manchester. Their only regret was that they could not persuade him to remain a week longer, since they were expecting the arrival of Jenny Lind, for whom Chopin had great respect.
Nicolas Maclean
London, UK
King William’s Quiz annoys
The annual King William’s College Quiz (20 December) annoys me more with each episode – and the most recent is definitely the worst. The quiz is mostly an obsequious homage to arcane literature and now irrelevant historical events. It comes from the days when cryptic crosswords were full of clues with obscure references to Shakespeare or classical Greek quotations. The Times and Guardian crosswords no longer assume that almost their readers took a first in Greats at Oxford, but the King William’s Quiz remains steadfastly, and ridiculously, embedded in the cigars-and-port world of the English upper class.
The worst feature of the KWQ is that it asks barely a single question whose answer would be important for the modern world. It is a parody of the world of the 19th-century academic, who has no interest in the future of humanity and is only concerned with the trivialities of the past. The KWQ no longer sits comfortably in the Guardian.
Charles Watson
Fremantle, Western Australia
Briefly
So Nelson Mandela was Never a revolutionary (13 December). I doubt that I’m alone in allocating that one to my rewriting history file.
Howard Millbank
Bristol, UK

Independent:

Are your readers aware that from 1 April this year their GP records will be automatically uplifted by NHS England to be made available to agencies such as care planners, drug companies, and private health care providers?
This is under the  care.data programme, and while much of the information will be anonymised, significant levels of it will be “pseudonymised”: data such as sex, date of birth and NHS number will be available, thus rendering that person fairly easily identifiable. Patients have a right to opt out of this, but the default position will see their GP records shared around by NHS England. How much do you trust them with your data?
They have belatedly and begrudgingly set up an information campaign to inform the public. Anybody seen it? Thought not.
GPs have been instructed that they face prosecution if they put a blanket block on their computer systems to deny this access and, bizarrely, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office, also face legal action should a patient complain that they were unaware of the scheme.
While much of this data is extremely valuable in healthcare planning – and the excellent work of Professor Hippisley-Cox and her team in Nottingham illustrates this – I fail to see why the data needs such a high level of identifiability. I have already had a few patients expressing concern and fully sympathise with them.
I would urge patients to make themselves aware of this unauthorised use of their personal data, and GPs to continue to ensure their patients’ confidentiality is suitably protected.
Dr Kevan Tucker, Barrowford, Lancashire

The ‘stony-hearted beast’ is right
Fergus Wilson, referred to by you as a “stony-hearted beast” (11 January), is doing the right thing by terminating the tenancies of tenants in arrears.
As the proportion of his tenants in arrears has increased from 8 per cent to 50 per cent since the Department for Work and Pensions opted to pay benefits to tenants rather than direct to landlords, why should Mr Wilson take the pain from this change? He is completely right not to accept the council’s offer to pay extra to cover the arrears. Whether one agrees or not with the DWP change to Universal Credit, council managers have no right to allocate funds, presumably without consulting ratepayers, to cover a problem arising from a change in government policy.
Also, it’s a pity your reporter did not challenge the statement from the DWP spokesman that “landlords always complain about direct payments”. Really? I’d be a lot happier if all my debtors were backed by an organisation with the resources of the Government.
Michael Garrett, Gringley-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire
Howard Pilott (letter, 13 January) is incorrect in blaming landlord Fergus Wilson and “the unacceptable face of capitalism” for the plight of the 200 tenants at risk of losing their homes. As ever the fault lies with the Government (or possibly even the EU).
Until recently housing benefit could be paid directly to the landlord, thus ensuring security for both parties. Now, unless there are exceptional circumstances, it must be given to the tenants. Inevitably, as many warned, giving large sums of money to people who do not have very much means that sometimes not all of it will reach its intended destination.
If it’s not broken. . . .
Mary Lees, Littlehampton, West Sussex
Fences can save wildlife
It is important to make the distinction between mountain forest fences and those in open wooded savannah when discussing the effectiveness of wildlife fences and protected areas in Kenya (Dr Bill Adams, 11 January).
The place where fences are undoubtedly effective is around mountain forests such as the Aberdares, which is protected by a 400km electrified fence built by Rhino Ark with the support of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Kenya Forest Service and the local communities. There are approximately 2,000 elephants in the Aberdares. The fence has all but eliminated wildlife crop destruction, provided safer living conditions for local communities and greater security for wildlife, increased farmer land values by up to 300 per cent and improved forest cover, as highlighted in an independent study commissioned by Rhino Ark together with the United Nations Environment Programme and others.
This fence, like the two that Rhino Ark is currently building around Mount Kenya and Mau Eburu, is aligned on the border between dense forests and highly populated settlements. Most of the wildlife corridors around the mountain forests were closed long ago by these densely populated areas. The fences do not interfere with wildlife corridors but prevent elephants from marauding in the surrounding farmlands to access crops.
When used properly electrified fences are a vital tool in protecting Kenya’s natural ecosystem and wildlife, including elephants, as well as reducing human-wildlife conflict.
Christian Lambrechts, Executive Director, Rhino Ark Charitable Trust, Nairobi, Blackadder and the futility of war
David Cameron and Boris Johnson both feel they have to come to the rescue of Michael Gove following his pronouncements about Blackadder being used in schools to create a biased view of the First World War. Have any of them actually taught? All excellent teachers will naturally expose their pupils to many different points of view, and by doing this will be giving them a base for unbiased opinion.
By exposing young people to all interpretations you are engaging them to examine all the evidence, search for the truth and make considered judgements.
Blackadder is a parody of what happened and can be likened to the poetry of Sassoon and Owen. The final episode of the programme is very powerful in depicting the futility of the battles, as are the rows and rows of graves in France and Belgium, to which many schools take their pupils to feel the empathy about the losses of the time.
We no longer have a British Empire and should no longer be teaching as if we did. It is about time teachers were allowed to get on with teaching without unfounded criticisms.
Alison Sherratt, President, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, London W14
Only a week into its centenary year, it seems the First World War is “the hottest political issue of the day” (“Who was to blame  for the First World War?” 8 January). Sean O’Grady’s article gives food for thought, and that is what we need, rather than anyone’s propaganda.
The best way to honour the war’s many victims is surely to understand better why and how it happened, with a view to driving future wars off the political agenda.
The last thing we need is left- and right-wing academics, firmly entrenched in their positions, firing destructive salvoes at each other across a barren intellectual no-man’s-land.
Sue Gilmurray, Ely, Cambridgeshire
Prosecuting rape cases
There is no evidence to suggest that the reduction in offices co-located by police and CPS is the reason for the drop in referrals of cases of rape, child abuse and domestic violence (“Closure of joint law offices ‘letting down victims’ ”, 13 January). CPS lawyers still work very closely with police colleagues on these and other serious and complex cases, including face-to-face meetings where these are appropriate.
Dedicated specialist units handling rape and other serious sexual offences have recently been rolled out across all CPS areas in England and Wales, and the specially trained prosecutors within them are able to provide a better service than ever before to the police in terms of expertise and advice.
Peter Lewis, Chief Executive, Crown Prosecution Service, London SE1
President in bike leathers
So Grace Dent (14 January) believes that the crash helmet and biker leathers François Hollande wore when visiting the actress Julie Gayet constitute a “well-established mid-life crisis uniform”?
As a 58-year-old biker I’d like to know what “uniform” Ms Dent suggests I and other male motorcyclists of my generation should wear in order to protect ourselves when dodging motorists?
Oh and crash helmets are compulsory, Grace, regardless of a motorcyclist’s age.
Tom Coleman, Harrow, Middlesex
François Hollande left his partner of more than 30 years, the mother of his children, for Trierweiler. If she had even half a brain you’d think she’d have realised that loyalty is not one of Hollande’s strong points. I have no sympathy for the stupid woman.
Sara Neill, Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Times:

Sir, Changes in smoking behaviour came about more as a result of legislation against it and its promotion and education of children than by pictures of diseased lungs. The sectors of the food industry that produce and promote high-fat and high-sugar foods should be treated in much the same way as the tobacco companies. Both, after all, deal in substances that have very deleterious effects on health. Making these foods very expensive or unavailable, along with education, will have an effect though it will probably take as long as it has taken to reduce smoking. What is needed is an effective strategy not more useless tactics.
John Gaskin
York
Sir, There are no fat children in my school photographs from the 1950s. Everyone in the class has a pinched expression and knobbly knees, though I was never underfed and recall eating plenty of the stodgy foods that these days we are told to avoid: streaky bacon on doorsteps of white bread, pies, fried potatoes and treacle puddings.
Visiting my home village recently, I noticed that the streets no longer echoed to the sound of children walking or cycling to and from school, nor did I hear them playing in the yard at morning and afternoon breaks; the tracks on the common land have returned to grass through lack of use.
Perhaps it needs the cold eye of an actuary to compare the fatalities that would ensue from greater numbers of children walking or cycling to school with those caused by obesity; to set the grazed knees and broken collar bones that would doubtless result from playing British Bulldog and other boisterous, playground games with the long term effects of sitting in classrooms at break times, grazing on crisps and sugary foods.
John Anslow
Walton le Dale, Lancs
Sir, Food producers’ claims that some breakfast goods are beneficial are disingenuous. My supermarket has “healthy cereals” in one aisle and “children’s cereals” in another.
Alison Blenkinsop
Aldershot, Hants
Sir, Once again the food industry is being blamed for obesity. Rarely in the debate is there mention of restaurants or the many televised cooking programmes where copious quantities of “unhealthy” ingredients are used. The media almost ignores the increasingly transparent labelling which helps consumers to make their choices or the simple contribution to reducing overweight — exercise. Everyone wants to reduce obesity so let there be a balanced debate which recognises that everyone has a role to play — manufacturers, retailers, restaurants, schools and parents.
Jeremy Preston
Croughton, Northants
Sir, In order to avoid the deadly impasse that occurred in the battle over smoking, it would be sensible to focus support, governmental and consumer-led, on fresh locally sourced food sold in local markets. As in France, these should be more widespread and frequent than “farmer’s markets” tend to be.
It will be a quicker, more effective way of improving the nation’s health than waiting for governments to dither over legislation in the face of lobbying from the multinational food industry.
Bernard Kingston
Biddenden, Kent

A community pharmacy can be a dispenser of health and a gateway for managing good health. It is part of the solution to our A&E crisis
Sir, The notion of an NHS mutual is gaining momentum (letters, Jan 3, 10). If the NHS is to remain accessible to everyone, everyone must play their part in addressing the unsustainable demand on general practice and A&E departments. We must think and act differently.
A campaign, Dispensing Health, launches today to challenge traditional views of community pharmacy as simply dispensers of medicine. Pharmacy is the third largest health profession after medicine and nursing. 13,000 community pharmacies act as a health hubs on UK high streets, providing rapid access to a health professional. Yet less than half of us know that pharmacists can advise on treating common ailments which costs the NHS £2 billion every year.
We want people, politicians and health professionals to understand that community pharmacy can be a dispenser of health, as well as of medicines; that it is a gateway for managing good health, that it is part of the solution to our A&E crisis, and that it should be actively promoted as the first place of advice and treatment for common ailments. The NHS depends on community pharmacy, and it depends on people changing their behaviours for its very survival.
Professor Rob Darracott, Pharmacy Voice; Dr Charles Alessi, NAPC; Dr Michael Dixon, NHS Alliance; Sue Sharpe, PSNC; Dr Maureen Baker, RCGP; Dr David Branford, Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Let us not be backward thinking. Instead, let 2014 mark the beginning of a creative British involvement in a revivified EU
Sir, Have the disconcerted Conservative MPs (report, Jan 13) grasped, I wonder, that the year 2013 has been a turning point in Britain’s relations with its EU partners?
As a consequence of the stance of the British government, and of the immense width and depth of constructive public discussion in this country, the UK has become de facto the EU’s principal think tank. The mutual benefit which patience and a ready ear can yield in this transformed situation needs no emphasis.
Forget about backward-looking, unilateral withdrawal in a huff. Let 2014 mark the beginning of a creative British involvement in a revivified EU, grounded in the realities of 21st century global interdependence.
Sir Peter Marshall
London W11

Theories that are put forward to explain the death of many historical figures can almost never be validated
Sir, Not another vain attempt to diagnose the cause of death of an historical figure (“Alexander the drunk was just too much of a seasoned campaigner”, Jan 13). Alexander’s symptoms, as reported, would equally fit a death from malaria or septicaemia, and perhaps be more plausible than an obscure form of poisoning. Whatever theories are put forward to explain his death — or indeed any other figure from the past — can almost never be validated; this may explain why Mozart has around 150 causes of death attributed to him.
Such theorising is futile and best avoided.
Professor Tony Waldron
University College London

When talking about living on welfare, it is useful to look at the facts about payments and standards of living
Sir, Philip Collins is right (“Living on benefits has no drama just crisis”, Jan 13). Benefits Street fails to be a programme about welfare. It shows the consequent crises but not the underlying arithmetic. A 55-year-old in Tottenham is receiving £71.70 a week JSA and is looking for work. Haringey Council demanded £24 a week rent for his spare bedroom, and then threatened him with eviction. It then imposed £5 council tax a week, . He is left with £42.70 a week while the Rowntree research tells us he needs £50 a week for a healthy diet. Increases in that meagre JSA are frozen at 1 per cent while the prices of necessities escalate. His position is unsustainable; real scrounging does a lot better than that.
The Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty

Telegraph:

46 Comments
SIR – Dalbor Sudwell wonders whether the week is being de-Christianised because Sunday is not being recognised as the first day of the week.
The etymology of the English names of the days of the week shows that they are named after the moon, the Norse god Tyr, the Germanic god Woden, the Norse gods Thor and Freya, the Roman god Saturn and finally the Sun.
In France, Italy and Spain, the days of the week are named after the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the Sun. Only in Spanish is there a reference to the Sabbath with sabado for Saturday, the Jewish holy day.
Therefore, it is specious to suggest that the week is Christian.
Andrew Holgate
Woodley, Cheshire

SIR – I have experienced many episodes of poor touchline behaviour from parents, and occasionally I have seen coaches try to bully their players into doing what they want them to do.
As a referee and prep school teacher, I used to hold lessons to explain the laws of rugby for parents. It was nearly always mothers who attended. One Saturday, there was a visiting parent who was giving me quite a lot of abuse from the touchline. After half time he went quiet. One of the mothers had explained to him that the law he was yelling about had been changed at the start of the season.
On another occasion, as the team were leaving the field, I overheard a father remark to his son: “Why didn’t you get stuck in and tackle properly?” His son’s reply was: “You can play next week and see if you can do better.”
Young children only need praise and encouragement, and they will achieve.
Tony Carroll
Giggleswick, North Yorkshire
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Doctors saying sorry
SIR – Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, is to be congratulated for his desire for the NHS to say sorry when things go wrong. Perhaps he can show leadership by apologising for his Government’s pointless and expensive management reorganisation of the service.
Dr Robert Walker
Great Clifton, Cumberland
SIR – The Health Secretary wants doctors and nurses to say sorry when things go wrong. He might also encourage the health professionals by saying thank you for the occasions when things go right.
Revd Peter Phillips
Swansea, Glamorgan
Stable relationship
SIR – How very lucky we are in this country to live in a monarchy where our head of state is quite happy to have a string of racehorses, whereas France’s equivalent allegedly has a string of mistresses.
David Scott
Corfe Castle, Dorset
Mouse damage
SIR – Once Penny Elles has had her mouse-gnawed dishwasher repaired, she might consider buying an ultrasonic rodent repeller. They plug into any socket and cost next nothing to run.
Finally, I have no more mice.
Nick Edge
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
SIR – We bought a Zanussi dishwasher in 1977 and after one year a mouse chewed a large hole in the bifurcated hose at the base of the wash chamber.
With the imminent arrival of a German family for a two-week stay, I went to the local garage and bought a motorcycle puncture repair kit, and made what I thought would be a temporary repair. The machine has been trouble-free ever since.
Laurie Walpole
Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire
Potty parents
SIR – The extent of entitlement exercised by parents of toddlers reached a new low yesterday. As I had breakfast in a local cafe, a mother at the next table put her child on a potty – right next to me. Am I alone in thinking that this was really a step too far?
Jacqueline Heywood
Oxted, Surrey
Living on benefits
SIR – At Channel Four, we take criticism seriously, especially from those helping vulnerable and minority communities. However, the letter from various charities criticising Benefits Street is based on one programme, when it is a five-part series made over 12 months.
Different types of claimants live on the street: people suffering drug or alcohol addiction, victims of domestic abuse and people struggling to find work. All are represented in the series. Last night’s episode, focusing on Romanian immigrants, has already attracted sympathetic comments. The series has also already introduced the “50p man”, an entrepreneur who was offered two jobs following transmission, among other locals committed to doing public good.
The series honestly reflects what happened over 12 months. While much is inspiring, some bits are uncomfortable to watch. I dispute that those featured represent “harmful stereotypes”. Living in an area of sustained unemployment, they need “support from benefits” as much as anyone. By watching the whole series, a complex portrait emerges of a community feeling the effects of benefit cuts, but one where neighbourliness and family are key, and where the frustrated appetite for work is as evident as a dependency on benefits.
Nick Mirsky
Head of Documentaries, Channel Four
London SW1
Opening the flood gates
SIR – At the upper reaches of the River Ray, the sluice gates have for once not been closed, reducing flooding and allowing water to flow freely down to the Thames towards Oxford at a much greater rate.
Developers who are appealing against a refusal to build on the marshes and flood plain at the edge of our village must be delighted; those further down the Thames, in Oxford, Reading and Marlow, less so.
Mark Longworth
Ambrosden, Oxfordshire
Password plea
SIR – We need passwords for everything. They are becoming more and more complex, requiring up to eight characters, alphanumeric combinations, or answers to “secret questions” such as the name of one’s primary school (I attended four).
We are told not to use the same password twice, or to write them down. How are we supposed to remember them?
Ann Ball
Lingfield, Surrey
Housing shortage dictates rural planning policy
SIR – I was dismayed to read “not in my back yard” letters about planning in rural areas. House prices have risen out of reach of most young people because of the shortage of houses being built – driven by our invitation to millions of people to migrate to this country.
Not everyone can live on a redeveloped factory site or redundant railway siding. Wokingham, where I live, is doing more than its share. The countryside has to shoulder some of the burden too.
Elizabeth Spooner
Wokingham, Berkshire
SIR – The Liberal Democrats have been criticising the Tories for suppressing a plan to build two new garden cities because it would alienate their supporters.
At least the Tories have finally woken up to the danger. They have already done an immense amount of damage to their mainstay supporters in the “shire” counties with the National Planning Policy Framework and the way it is being interpreted. The offending phrase “the assumption of sustainability” seems to mean that Defra can do what it likes.
Doug Pennifold
Burgess Hill, West Sussex
SIR – There seems to be a tendency in some Government circles to view the countryside as one vast potential building site, rather than as the precious and diminishing resource that it is.
We need to stop the pursuit of endless growth and realise that a rapidly increasing population on an overcrowded island will lead to the destruction of the countryside if allowed to continue unchecked.
The Government should drop its promotion of grandiose schemes such as HS2, another London airport, and the building of new towns and cities, and instead work towards a sustainable economy based on a steady or reducing population.
Peter Graystone
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

SIR – “Reforming the EU will always be a case of working within the limits of the possible” (leading article, January 13).Indeed. Furthermore, no reasonable person expects that it will be easy. However, the Prime Minister’s credibility on the matter is not helped by two facts.
First, his only firm pledge – to renegotiate and then hold a referendum before the end of 2017– is dependent on his being in office after May 2015. How might the game change if, once again, he is forced into coalition with Nick Clegg (or, worse, Vince Cable) as the price for staying in No 10?
Secondly, such negotiations will not happen overnight. The EU doesn’t work that way. So, if Mr Cameron really is sincere, why hasn’t he started the process now? No wonder so many of his own backbenchers, reflecting the mood of many core Tory voters, feel the need to keep the pressure on him.
John Waine
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
SIR – Boris Johnson is correct: other members of the EU will do nothing for Britain until faced with some gunboat diplomacy. Tony Blair thought that with lots of charm he could regain something by giving back part of Britain’s rebate, but got little in return.
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That is why we need an early referendum before the next general election: so that the British government can speak from a position of strength, with the will of the British electorate behind it.
L A Lawrence
Devizes, Wiltshire
SIR – The brouhaha over Europe and sovereignty seems to be gathering pace, yet both commissioners and governments seem less and less inclined to listen to and trust the people. In Britain, the question is not so much “Why trust the people?” but “Why trust the politicians?”
I voted “No” in the 1975 referendum, the result of which has seen four decades of EU federalism. If there is a referendum in 2017, many, like me, will have already voted with their feet.
Chris Watson
Lumut, Perak, Malaysia
SIR – It is not just Ed Miliband, but all our so-called leaders who are terrified of giving the public their say. Everyone knows that renegotiation is impossible without withdrawal; and will a Tory victory actually give us a referendum? Fat chance.
J D Mortimer
Great Harwood, Lancashire
SIR – David Cameron shot himself in the foot by declaring his support for remaining in the EU. He will have no chance of obtaining any favourable concessions unless there is a clear demonstration that the country really is prepared to consider withdrawal if our national sovereignty is not reinstated. A huge Ukip majority in the European elections would achieve this.
Michael Austin
Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Irish Times:

Sir, – Is Fintan O’Toole (Opinion, January 14th) not being rather churlish when he mentions the previous form, displayed by executives in Irish Water, on consultant spending? About €100 million was spent by some of these executives on an incinerator which never materialised, while only €50 million was spent on consultants for water that continues to be delivered. While the incinerator burnt €100 million with no outcome, it is yet to be ascertained if Irish Water allowed €50 million to run down the plug hole. We should live in hope! – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’CONNELL,
Loughnagin,
Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Sir, – One of the sadder aspects of the controversy about consultancy inputs to the fledgling Irish Water is that, apart from anything that Bord Gáis was to bring to the table, the water sector is one area where there is virtually unlimited indigenous professional experience and skill over several generations. The depth of knowledge and experience among central and local authority civil engineers and technicians is impressive enough, but Ireland also has an unequalled international reputation in water engineering through firms like Mahon & McPhillips and Harper & Fay from the 1960s onwards and their successor operations today, as well as control and instrumentation contractors such as Kentz, and metering system suppliers such as CSL. Much of that international effort was pioneered from Kilkenny, Minister for Environment Phil Hogan’s base, and where John Tierney once served in a senior local authority position. Water therefore is one area where you would imagine the creation of a national operating entity would be relatively easy and inexpensive to do. – Yours, etc,
DENIS BERGIN,
Schoolhouse Road,
Mount Pleasant,
South Carolina, US.
Sir, – The recent revelations concerning consultants’ fees paid by Irish Water of €50 million is an interesting one. On the one hand we have local property tax which initially was to go towards funding local authorities, now going almost entirely to capitalise Irish Water. No doubt this will allow this essential public resource then to be sold off to a private consortium in the short term. On the other hand we have local authorities who will now be strapped for cash to do essential repairs and maintenance of the infrastructure to which they are responsible.
The cost of a proper independent building inspectorate for the average house in the UK is €370 per dwelling (£300). This cost is almost self-funding and comes at minimal extra cost to the UK taxpayer. Given the recent figures for house completions in Ireland for 2013 at 7,500 this would suggest that the €50 million spent on consultants by Irish Water would fund 18 years’ worth of inspections by local authorities in a new comprehensive building control regime. That’s 100 per cent independent building control inspections for every house in Ireland for free for nearly two decades. I wonder which is better value?
The recent calls by construction industry stakeholders for postponement and amendment of the Building Control (Amendment) Regulations SI80 appear to be badly timed. Major stakeholder and consumer groups have stressed the industry is not ready and have called for a comprehensive system of local authority (or licensed inspectors) similar to that in the UK. One hundred per cent independent inspections for all buildings completed in the State would give complete consumer protection and finally independently regulate the construction sector.
The Government response has been lack of funds – we don’t have them and we must do more with less. This would not appear to be the case however. – Yours, etc,
MAOILIOSA MEL
REYNOLDS,
Sandycove Road,
Sandycove, Co Dublin.
Sir,  – I’m delighted that the press, radio and TV are on to exposing the outrageous behaviour at Irish Water. In media terms, it’s one of the biggest leaks we’ve ever had.  – Yours, etc,
PADRAIG S DOYLE,
Pine Valley Avenue,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
Sir, – On the one hand it is staggering to think that Ministers of the calibre of Phil Hogan and Fergus O’Dowd, could be so vague and poorly informed about the consultancy costs involved in Irish Water. On the other hand it is not in the least bit surprising. The pressure on Ministers to be present at events, clinics, funerals and local meetings in their constituencies, means that even with competent advisers and staff, they cannot humanly master their briefs. Until there is a distinct separation between the roles and responsibilities of Ministers and TDs, I fear Ireland will continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. Political reform matters and every effort needs to be made to persuade voters and political movements to earnestly usher in a new era of politics.
I am a grassroots priest, who works with, meets and admires the energy, efforts and commitment of politicians. I am pro-politician, but frustrated with our antiquated political structures that foster repeated cycles of mistakes, discourage some excellent people from running for office, exclude impressive talent, and place heavy hurdles in the way of non-typical candidates, diminishing their electoral chances. Political reform is an imperative now. – Yours, etc,
GERRY O’CONNOR,
Elmdale Park,
Cherry Orchard,
Dublin 10.
Sir, – Will Irish Water now hire a consultant to consult on consultants’ consultations? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN DEVITTE,
Mill Street,
Westport, Co Mayo.
Sir, – What I utterly fail to understand is how it comes about that presumably competent people are appointed to various positions in public and semi-public organisations, such as Irish Water, at comfortable salaries, but then, when any decision has to be made or anything specific has to be done, consultants have to be called in, at enormous salaries, to tell them what to do and how to do it. But then what do I know? I am only a professor of Greek. – Yours, etc,
JOHN DILLON,
Thormanby Road,
Baily,
Howth, Co Dublin.
Sir, – Perhaps they’re installing a system that will turn it into wine? –
Yours, etc,
GERARD LEE,
St Agnes Park,

Sir, – We welcome the news and that work on the new Immigration Residence and Protection Bill is at an advanced stage (Home News, January 7th) and the earlier announcement (November 15th, 2013) that new procedures have been introduced to speed up the processing of applications for asylum. The situation up to now, whereby asylum seekers have had to wait for years to have a decision on their applications, has been totally unacceptable.
The direct provision system, originally intended to accommodate asylum-seekers for a maximum of six months, has become in effect an inhumane imprisonment. This, coupled with the fact asylum-seekers may not work or receive training, has been soul- destroying, and there is good evidence that their mental and physical health has suffered. The forced inactivity, together with the complete uncertainty about their future, is cruel, completely undermining and disheartening .
We urge that asylum-seekers, whose waiting period for a decision on their application is longer than six months, should be given the right to work and to receive training, and that provision to this effect should be included in the new Bill. – Yours, etc,
MÁIRE MULCAHY,
On behalf of the Faith in
Action Group,
Dennehys Cross Parish,
Model Farm Road,
Sir, – David Power (January 14th) mentions the question of non-Irish men and women serving in Irish regiments in the first World War.  I wonder if I can mention the other side of the coin, and that is the question of Irishmen and women serving in non-Irish forces?
My father and his brother (my uncle) grew up in Rathmullen, Co Donegal, the sons of the then Church of Ireland Rector, Rev William Battersby Lloyd of Co Roscommon. They both emigrated to Canada as teenagers, and later enlisted with Canadian Regiments.  My uncle was killed near Vimy Ridge in February 1917.  I am not sure how far the digitisation of Ireland’s Memorial Records reflects this. There must be many others in a similar position.
Thanks to Paddy Harte, one time TD in Donegal, my uncle’s name is recorded in a memorial book in that part of the world, and I hope Mr Harte’s good work will be reflected in the latest digitisation.
My father went on to serve in the Home Guard during the second World War. At least 100,000 of his fellow countrymen and women served (and many died) in non-Irish forces in the cause of the freedoms of the governments and people of our two islands. But that’s another story. – Yours, etc,
GAVIN LLOYD,
Merton Road,
Ambrosden,
Bicester,

Sir, – I applaud Mary McAleese (Front page, January 8th) in campaigning for gay rights generally and within the Catholic Church. Like her predecessor Mary Robinson, she is using her post-presidency influence for the good of humanity by trying to influence international human rights towards more evolved human ethical positions, including gay rights. She is uniquely positioned to do so, with her academic legal career preceding her presidency, and also in terms of influencing the church, her continuing attachment to the church while working for change.
The Catholic Church has a huge demographic spread, and is an influential ethical presence for members of the church in many societies that are rampantly homophobic in both policy and in practice. Therefore, the church can be, if it so chooses, an enormous power for good, in the change towards full human rights, including marriage equality and the resulting societal change for gay people around the world.
To her critics, including Breda O’Brien (Opinion, January 11th), I ask, how could this possibly be a bad thing? When government, or faith institutions, lead the way with evolved humane policies, and enforce these policies properly, then societies start to become better places for all members of society to live. Pope Francis has stunned the world with his new approach and concerns for the poor. Those of us who wish him well hope that he will also lead change in these other important areas of human growth. – Yours, etc,
CYNTHIA CARROLL,
Portryan,
Newport,
Co Tipperary.
Sir, – Both Thomas Finegan (January 10th) and Breda O’Brien (Opinion, January 11th) have brought clarity to the issues arising from Mary McAleese’s remarks in Edinburgh, about homosexuality and church teaching.
The church unequivocally proclaims the message of the Gospel to every human being who, though wounded by and infected with sin, is infinitely loved by God. The primary call of the Gospel is to repent, to turn away from the disorder of sin: “for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
We must, therefore, reorder our lives, with the help of Divine Grace, towards the true origin and end of our existence – God our Creator, Who loves and saves us.
The church does not and never will follow the world in defining people as “gay” or “straight”: “Do not copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Human beings, all of us, have an inclination towards selfishness (the essence of sin) and all without exception have the obligation, helped by God, to overcome this disordered inclination and so be brought to Eternal Salvation. When we fail, as everyone does, there is the medicine of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where God’s patience and compassion is inexhaustible.
Mary McAleese, for whom I have the greatest admiration, is very unjust to our Holy Father Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI. She should know better than to take such cheap shots at him.
Furthermore, the scandal given by Cardinal Keith O’Brien was not on account of his perceived sexuality but sexual misconduct, ie abuse of power and position, on his part, with junior clergy including a seminarian (seminarians being young adults, non-ordained, vulnerable in the ecclesiastical system as it was and, hopefully, is no longer). Cardinal O’Brien has admitted that his behaviour “fell far short’ of what is expected of him and subsequently resigned. – Yours, etc,
Fr PATRICK
McCAFFERTY,
Chaplaincy Team, Ulster
Hospital,
Glen Road, ]

Sir, – With reference to Joe Humphreys’s column (Arts & Ideas, January 10th) on the unthinkable great idea that “the mind arises solely from the activity of the brain”, may I suggest this “great” idea is “unthinkable” because it is wrong.
Dr Kevin Mitchell, the interviewee who promotes this great idea, suffers from the narrow vision that seems typical of many brain scientists.
He reminds me of the unfortunate scientist, Dr Hfuhruhurr, played by Steve Martin in the film The Man with Two Brains, who falls in love with a female brain kept “alive” in a jar. The film is labelled as a science fiction comedy, for of course we all appreciate that a brain cannot function in isolation from a living body. Yet Dr Mitchell says “mental states arise from brain states” and that “we don’t actually need anything else in our overall theory of how they emerge except brain states”.
He cites the reality that when the brain dies or is damaged the mind dies or is damaged. This is incontrovertible, but what it tells us is that the brain is necessary to the functioning of the mind, or the processes we call the mind. The brain is necessary but it is not sufficient, many more factors come into play. The mind, and its qualities such as the sense of self and consciousness, emerges from complex interactions of the brain with the body, the material world and the socio-cultural world of relationships and meanings.
Until neuroscientists such as Dr Mitchell realise this and broaden their perspective they will make no progress whatsoever in understanding the mind and they will soon come to a full stop in their understanding of the brain. Much remains to be discovered. The alternative to Dr Mitchell’s brand of neuroscience is not religion or poetry, as the article suggests, but better science. – Yours, etc,
SHEILA GREENE,
Professor Emeritus,
School of Psychology,

Sir, – “A job of work” and “A raft of measures”. – Yours, etc,
MICK FLYNN,
Viewmount Park,
Waterford.
Sir, – Even more irritating than “phrases we can live without” are well-known phrases which seem to have a new meaning. For example? It is almost de rigueur for guests on a TV or radio programme to begin with the phrase “Thank you for having me on”; to which I am tempted to reply, “I’m not having you on, I’m quite serious!” Or Kathryn Thomas urging the audience to “give it up” for Finbarr Furey. The only time I ever gave it up was for Lent. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CASSERLY,
Waterfall, Nr Cork.

Sir, – How disheartening it is to see that a teacher of 37 years (Der Fitzgibbon, January 14th) would expect that teachers performing their job should be the subject of editorial comment. Surely it’s not so uncommon that it needs national recognition? – Yours, etc,
DOMHNALL O’NEILL,
Ardmore Park,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.

Sir, – What a lovely photograph of Pope Francis addressing the ambassadors about war and peace (World News, January 14th). But sadly there is only one woman in the front row. War is obviously men’s talk. – Yours, etc,
COLM HOLMES,
Avoca Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.

Sir, – Fionola Meredith’s merry little romp through some of the wilder shores of New Ageism (Opinion, January 13th) only serves to show one thing: any belief system, reduced to its mechanics, can be made to sound ridiculous. Christianity would be no exception. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH WOOD,
Shamrock Avenue,
Douglas, Cork.

Irish Independent:

Congratulations on your recent award for being the best finance minister in Europe and for exiting the bailout. I wonder did you manage to celebrate somehow? Did you go out for a meal, even a couple of drinks, did your people give you cards and gifts perhaps? Did you as a work team toast yourselves for such huge success?
I wonder because all of the above are the things that are very difficult for me and my family right now. I am a working person with a young family, and I really want to tell you how it is for those of us who have managed to maintain employment throughout the downturn.
Both my husband and I have worked continuously throughout the recession, religiously paying our bills and striving to keep on top of our financial affairs, constantly aware that there was no job security anymore and it could be us on the dole queue just the same as the other unfortunate workers whose jobs were there one minute and gone the next.
And here we are, the recession is apparently officially over, we own our own house, we are both still in employment and we should be comfortable now, shouldn’t we?
We are constantly hearing about the most vulnerable in society, the most disadvantaged and how we all need to take a hit to protect the most vulnerable. However, what your government is not managing to comprehend is that we, the working people, have become the people who find it incredibly difficult to put food on the table, who are being bombarded by bills, taxes, charges, reminders and final reminders, who cannot manage a night out once in a while, who have had to explain to our families that we are having difficulties stretching to buy Christmas presents, who panic when a wedding invitation arrives through the letterbox, and lie that we cannot get out of work commitments on that day rather than admit that attending would mean we could not stretch to feed our young families for the month.
Bills come in expecting immediate payment but with monthly paydays come delays in what you can pay, and when. We simply cannot pay bills with no money.
Minister Noonan, your government expects us to pay water charges for this year, you also expect us to pay double the amount of property tax.
What exactly do you expect us to pay that with?
NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR
FRENCH GROWTH
* This morning (January 14) I was able to start the day with an enormous laugh after hearing one of the presenters on BBC Radio 4′s ‘Today’ programme announce that President Hollande would be giving a press conference later in the afternoon on the state of the French economy, where — according to the presenter — “there is growth, but it is tiny”.
Mon dieu — I just wonder if the women in his life also think the same way. I mean about the economy of course.
IVOR SHORTS
RATHFARNHAM, DUBLIN 16
SLAVE TO THE BIBLE
* Tony Flannery (Irish Independent, January 11) would suggest that in the Catholic community there are two ways of interpreting the Bible, the traditional “word of God” way and interpretation “within the social and cultural milieu of its time . . . and understood through the very different circumstances of each age”.
This latter view, however, suggests that truth is relative. That truth for one age need not be truth for another age.
It must be difficult indeed for people of faith to come to terms with this. One example in particular is that of the condoning of slavery in the Bible. We now accept the enslavement of one human by another to be morally repugnant, yet it is condoned in the Bible, both in the old and new testaments.
Exodus 20:20-21 says: “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.”
Ephesians 6:5 adds: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.”
And Peter 2:18 says: “Slaves, in reverent fear of God, submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.”
Since we know and accept that slavery is immoral now, then slavery was also immoral in the past. There can be no justification for slavery and no matter how the “communities of faith” look at Bible passages condoning slavery — either as the immutable word of God or as a “cultural milieu of its time” — it is wrong.
If their holy book got something as simple as human slavery wrong then that discounts their holy book as a source of truth whichever way you interpret it.
MICHAEL MARTIN
DUBLIN 15
GREAT WAR WAS A FRAUD
* Graham Clifford (Irish Independent January 11) believes the 200,000 Irishmen, of whom 49,000 “died so brutally in the squalor and filth of a most senseless war, deserve to be remembered”.
Dublin Memorials to World War I exceed 200, which includes the 60- acre war memorial gardens at Islandbridge, the scale of which dwarfs any memorial dedicated to the struggle for independence. There are 19 World War I memorials in Cork city and county. In Kerry there are six memorials and there are also now memorials in France and Belgium.
The graves of over 3,000 war dead from World Wars I and II are tended to by the Office of Public Works.
Officially, Britain’s war aims included securing the freedom of small nations. Egged on by certain Irish political leaders, some people foolishly believed this British imperialist war propaganda. But in 1919, Ireland got, not freedom, but the Black and Tans.
The Irish who joined the British army in order to serve their country were cruelly duped by this deliberate imperialist lie, for which no apology has ever been given.
For Ireland, the “Great War” was a great fraud.
PAT MALONEY
ROMAN STREET, CORK CITY
EURO HAS TORN US APART
* As European Central Bank member Yves Mersch unveiled the new €10 bank note he said: “The single currency has helped to bring millions of Europeans together, in all our diversity.”
I would make the case that the single currency has actually driven a wedge between fellow Europeans. Cheap credit that resulted from the introduction of the euro led many countries, like lemmings, over an economic cliff. The resulting solidarity could be seen nightly on our TV screens as Greek and Spanish protesters burned effigies of Angela Merkel, while after a quick perusal of the comments section of almost any German broadsheet you will find less than flattering remarks about the bailout countries.
I would go so far as to say the euro has caused the most divisions in Europe since World War II.
JOHN BELLEW
PAUGHANSTOWN, DUNLEER, CO LOUTH
LEAKY EXPLANATIONS
* A total €50m in one year is €1m per week in round figures. This is €200,000 per working day. With this amount one could employ over 100 top-flight consultants, working full time, flat out, every minute of each working day for a year.
Where did Irish Water unearth so many top consultants?
TED O’KEEFFE
RANELAGH, D6
* Will Irish Water now hire a consultant to consult on consultants’ consultations?
KEVIN DEVITTE
MILL STREET, WESTPORT, CO MAYO
Irish Independent

16 January 2014 Clearing

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. Pertwee has to smuggle a relative back to England from Tangiers, as a Naval officer. But his lover wants him back, or dead. Priceless.

Start to clear out attic for insulation

Scrabbletoday I winand gets just over300, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Dale Mortensen, who has died aged 74, shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics, with Peter Diamond and Christopher Pissarides, for their work on so-called “search markets”, where buyers and sellers have difficulty finding each other, in particular the labour market.

One recent paper has shown that young people choose to live in cities to avoid the “search frictions” of looking for a suitable partner in a rural area. To enjoy the opportunity to meet people of similar educational attainment and interests, young people are willing to pay a premium in terms of higher housing prices. Once married, the benefits from meeting more potential partners vanish and married couples often move out of the city. Attractive single people, they found, benefited most from a dense market and were therefore more likely to move to the city than their less attractive peers.

The son of a forester, Dale Thomas Mortensen was born on February 2 1939 in Enterprise, Oregon, and took a degree in Economics from Willamette University, followed by a doctorate from what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. In 1965 he joined the Economics faculty at Northwestern University, where he became a professor.

Dale Mortensen is survived by his wife, Beverly, and by their son and daughter.

Dale Mortensen, born February 2 1939, died January 9 2014

Guardian:

The government’s gagging bill (Report, 10 January) is a cynical and malicious piece of legislation that must be stopped at all costs. It represents an attempt to stamp out the anti-austerity voice as government cuts continue to make life a struggle for millions in Britain. Yet there is cause for optimism. While the passage of the gagging bill into law would undoubtedly suppress charities and campaigners, it could only do that for so long. Trying to stop campaign activities in the information age is like trying to pin the tail on the donkey blindfold – and without a donkey. Campaigns are fertile, mobile and bottom-up: stamping out one form of action will just see other vibrant and creative forms emerge. This coalition government is not just mean, it’s out of touch.
Jenny Jones
Green, House of Lords

Your story on academy trusts (Revealed: cash bonanza for academy firms, 13 January) failed to make clear that local authority-maintained schools are just as able to enter these kinds of relationships with private firms and always have been. The difference is that academies and academy trusts are far more transparent and subject to far tighter financial controls and scrutiny than local authority schools. Indeed, all this information is publicly available because we require academy trusts’ accounts to be published online and to include any transactions of the sort featured in your article. This is not the case for local authority schools.

Councils struggling, in the face of government cuts, to deal with floods made worse by climate change, will be delighted to hear of sweeteners for fracking, causing more, er, climate change (Cameron dangles cash incentive for councils in push to expand fracking, 14 January).
Professor Andrew Dobson
Keele University

Congratulations on giving George Monbiot a full page to address one of the most important issues of our time (Drowning in money: the pig-headed policies that make flooding inevitable, 14 January). Just when the country is beset with problems of flooding, and fears that they will become more frequent and more intense in the future, an ecological approach to water management is long overdue. Utilising the way that nature moderates rainwater runoff into watercourses, and the natural way those watercourses then carry the water to the sea, is the effective way to avoid flooding when there is “too much rain” and avoid droughts when there is “too little rain”.

Independent:

Times:

Sir, The Prime Minister’s promise of a financial reward for planning authorities that permit fracking is deplorable, regardless of one’s views on fracking (“Lancashire demands bigger cut of fracking profits”, Jan 14). It is nothing less than a bribe, as surely as if (say) Tesco offered the promise of 1 per cent of its annual sales in return for permission for a superstore.

Councillors who sit on planning committees often take unpopular decisions and rarely manage to please everybody. We can function effectively only if we are seen to judge each application solely on its planning merits, fairly and openly, and without threat or inducement to reach a decision. The Prime Minister’s proposal would corrupt the planning process and fatally undermine public confidence in the capacity of planning authorities to reach an unbiased conclusion.

Cllr David Milsted

North Dorset District Council

Sir, It is understandable that councils are wary about government inducements to allow fracking. In the US each well fracked requires about 6 million gallons of water, which has to be tankered in, and produces 3 million gallons of waste which has to be tankered out. The cost of improving and repairing roads is considerable. For example Arkansas has received $182 million in revenues from shale gas extraction since 2009 but needs to spend an extra $450 million to repair its roads. Pennsylvania had $1.3 billion in revenue in 2012 but has a road repair bill of $7 billion. Such costs outweigh government sweeteners.

Dr Robin Russell-Jones

Stoke Poges, Bucks

Sir, The fracking industry has arisen from human ingenuity and our luck in having the natural resource present beneath a large part of the UK. Since the industry requires no artificial subsidies and will, apparently, produce thousands of jobs as well as tens of thousands more in support roles, it also represents the best opportunity to rebalance the economy and remedy the damage of the past 30 years at no cost to the government.

Since the country’s finances will immediately benefit from increased employment taxation and lower unemployment and welfare benefits, it makes no sense for the Treasury to take 62 per cent of revenues in taxation unless George Osborne wishes to kill off the best opportunity to re-engineer the British economy before it is born.

Nick Winstone-Cooper

Laleston, South Wales

Sir, Far from being a “naked attempt by the Government to bribe hard-pressed councils”, as Greenpeace claims (Jan 13), the decision that local authorities will be allowed to keep all of the business rates raised from sites drilling for shale gas is a triumph for localism, for energy security and for evidence-based science.

Dr John Hayward

Barton, Cambs

Sir, So Lancashire is demanding a bigger share of the profits from the shale gas industry. The 1 per cent on offer is no better than the derisory 50p a tonne paid by opencast coal miners as a community bribe for years of noise, pollution and disruption. This often amounts to little more than providing a children’s play area and a few road improvements to allow them to move their lorries. Scant recompense for local residents compared to the profits of the companies and their shareholders.

A 10 per cent share of revenues for local communities is needed for all forms of fossil fuel extraction.

John Gregory

Hilltop Action Group

Old Tupton, Derbyshire

Telegraph:

SIR – Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47, is not the only person to feel guilt about his creation. The dilemma of the arms manufacturer is illustrated in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara, where the dividing line between good and evil is a perennial anxiety.

SIR – David Cameron is offering money to councils that agree to fracking wells in their wards.

SIR – William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, implies that the proposals by the 95 Conservative MPs to veto EU laws are not realistic, while Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, suggests that they are not workable.

Irish Times:

Sir, – I was greatly relieved to learn that Phil Hogan does not micro-manage Irish Water (Home News, January 15th). – Yours, etc,

PAT Mc GLYNN,

Grange Park,

Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

Sir, – It would appear that Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan’s definition of “micro” in terms of project management is under €200 million. It would be interesting to know at what level a project becomes “macro” and attracting of his attention. – Yours, etc,

DONAL MORRISSY,

Ballyvaughan Co Clare.

Sir, – Labels on bottled water proudly declare “0 calories”. As every schoolboy/girl knows, a calorie is a unit of measurement for energy. Why is it that the Energy Regulator is involved in setting a rate for what is currently being called a “scarce resource”? Water is available in vast quantities year round in this country yet, though vital to sustain life, our clowns in Leinster House seem determined to trick the citizens into believing it’s an energy and a scarce one too!

Hands up anyone who’s surprised at the latest round of “let’s fool the people again”! Please, a Thaoisigh, stop this juggernaut of Irish Water immediately before it runs away with us all; give the local authorities the money instead and make them get on with their job of providing the basic necessity for life to our impoverished people. Even juggernauts are capable of executing a U-turn. – Yours, etc,

LAURENCE HOGAN,

Braemor Grove,

Churchtown, Dublin 14.

Sir, – Thank you, Fintan O’Toole (Opinion, January 14th) for making it all clear. The Irish miracle is turning water into, not wine, but gravy. I am tempted to invoke Jesus! – Yours, etc,

DAVID BEST,

Leinster Road West,

Rathmines, Dublin 6.

Sir, – The water meter will be for the greater part redundant once I start collecting the rain water from the roof. With last year’s average rainfall of more than 1200mm it would be unsustainable for this quango Irish Water to exist – if everyone joined the club. – Yours, etc,

IAN HESTER,

Four Mile House,

Roscommon.

Sir, – In view of recent events, could we request that board members of Irish Water are formally prohibited from topping up their tanks? Thanks. – Yours, etc,

JOHN KIRWAN,

Georgian Village,

Castleknock, Dublin 15.

Sir, – The Minister knew the “ballpark” figures but was not aware of the minutiae. €50 million is some minutiae. Oh and poor Fergus O’ Dowd only heard   about the €50 million on the radio. Are they both in need of a consultant? – Yours, etc,

PAUL KAVANAGH,

Croydon Park Avenue,

Marino,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – It seems to be a tradition that each political party in government bequeaths us a bloated, unfit for purpose, money-guzzling quango, stuffed with insiders. Fianna Fáil gave us Fás; the PDs lumbered us with the HSE; and now Fine Gael has contributed An Bórd Uisce – or whatever it’s called – which rather appropriately has begun to soak up the taxpayers’ money even before it came into existence. – Yours, etc,

ADRIAN J ENGLISH,

Kilcolman Court,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The high set-up costs of the so-called “Irish Water”, and the lack of State oversight, are just signs of things to come, if we continue on this route.

This process was initiated as a commitment in the EU-IMF bailout programme. Why did the troika insist on water charges in Ireland? This was not to save water or to save money for the Irish citizens, but to lead to a sell-off to the highest bidder.

Water is an increasingly competitive global business, with a few major players (in particular those based in France, Germany and England). The IMF, ECB and EC were acting in the interests of this “industry”; the IMF has pursued similar water sell-offs around the world.

The start of the process is to condition people into the idea that we should pay for our water through a separate agency. How many TDs have told us recently that “people elsewhere in the EU pay for their water”, while ignoring the fact that we already pay for our water through our taxes?

Also, those European companies where water is already privatised, do not present a good argument for a move away from State control of this national asset. For example, in Britain, privatisation has led to little improvement in infrastructure and no significant decrease in water wastage, but with considerably increased costs for the citizens.

We are now spending a vast amount of our money to sell off our own resource. The same money would be better used to upgrade our infrastructure, for all our benefit. It is time to say stop. – Yours, etc,

ROY PALMER,

Moycullen,

Co Galway.

Sir, – It appears there’s a drip-drip approach to revelations concerning the workings of Irish Water. – Yours, etc,

FIONNUALA WALSH,

St Mary’s Terrace,

Galway.

Sir, – Regarding Phil Hogan’s recent statements: first, micro-managing is getting involved in day-to-day company decisions. Studying and understanding company accounts, investments and major expenditure is not micro-managing but what a responsible majority shareholder does.

Second, regulators have to authorise all expenditure which the regulated companies pass on to their customers. Given that the regulator must be already familiar with Irish Water’s accounts, asking the regulator to examine the expenditure is not a meaningful action by Mr Hogan but buck-passing and procrastinating.

Third, in a radio interview, the only concrete explanation offered by John Tierney for the €50 million spent on consultancy was the need for a customer system and an asset management system. These IT tools are used by utilities all over the developed world since the 1980s or 1990s. Vendors sell their products off the shelf after some customisation to adapt them to the customer’s concrete requirements. The need for any great amount of advance consultancy for this purpose needs a lot more explanation than has been given.

The new practice of privatising companies, heretofore considered natural monopolies, has led to a whole army of regulators and consultants, the result of which has been to push up prices, reduce services, create a new caste of very well paid managers and eliminate political responsibility because ministers can point to regulators as the decision-makers.

Paraphrasing the musical signature of the Dad’s Army series, whom do you think you’re kidding Mr Hogan? – Yours, etc,

JOE MARSÁ,

Sandycove Road,

Sandycove, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Why don’t Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore declare Phil Hogan to be a member of Fianna Fáil so that they, as usual, can say it’s all its fault? – Yours, etc,

DAVID MURNANE,

Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.

Sir, – In relation to Irish Water, Minister of the Environment Phil Hogan states quite correctly that one can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs. But one does not have to shell out €50 million to do so successfully. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN O’DONOGHUE,

Straboe,

Killerig, Carlow.

Sir, – Prof Sheila Greene (January 15th) raises a common objection to the idea that mental experience arises solely from the activity of the brain. That is that such a theory ignores the “complex interactions of the brain with the body, the material world and the socio-cultural world of relationships and meanings”.

Of course it does no such thing – on the contrary, it absolutely embraces the complexity of embodied agents acting and interacting in a dynamic environment.

All that information is necessarily processed by the brain – how else could we know we are having a social interaction? Where else would our memories of past experiences be stored?

At any point, the current play of such interactions is represented in the current state of activity of the brain and interpreted in the context of the history of all such experiences, written in changes to brain circuits accumulated over a lifetime. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN MITCHELL,

Associate Professor of

Genetics and

Sir, – You refer to the recent killing in Castleknock as a “chess murder”, and quote, without comment, a “passerby” as saying that chess is “a very intense game” that “brings out the worst in people”, as if she was somehow an expert on the subject (Home News, January 13th).

No one knows what triggered this horrific event, but it is certain that it could not have been playing chess. Chess is played by millions of people around the world every day, in a friendly and peaceful way. Anybody who isn’t sure of the simple rules (simpler than, say, golf) can look them up on the internet in two seconds, without the need to lose their temper, let alone kill.

Studies have consistently shown that playing chess has a calming effect, and also teaches patience and enhances self-esteem. It has therefore been used beneficially in many countries, including Ireland, in prisons and young offenders’ institutions as a means of rehabilitation. If more people played chess there would be a lot less violence in the world. – Yours, etc,

PETE MORRISS,

Chairperson,

& UNA O’BOYLE, PRO,

The Irish Chess Union

C/o Oughterard,

Sir, – I wish to comment on the issue of the proposed Eirgrid overhead power lines and pylons. I am a founding member of Child, which was established in 1998 to help obtain the best possible treatment for children with leukaemia.

In 2005 a study carried out by the UK National Radiological Protection Board showed that children born close to high voltage overhead power lines, have an increased risk of developing leukaemia. – Yours, etc,

PETER PEARSON EVANS,

Ballymacahara,

Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Ariel Sharon was not the bloodthirsty tyrant suggested (Denis Staunton, Opinion, January 13th). He was the personification of ancient Israel. He might well have stepped straight out of the pages of the Book of Judges, a warrior hero raised up to defend Israel and deliver peace to the land. – Yours, etc,

ENA KEYE,

Wasdale Park,

Sir, – Laurence Cleary vents a tirade against the international Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign in particular (January 11th). He asserts that boycotts of Israel do nothing to achieve a “lasting Middle Eastern settlement”, yet fails to mention anything about a just peace. This is important because the current Israeli government, according to its economy minister Naftali Bennett, will “never accept an agreement based on the 1967 lines”, hence seems to regard military occupation as a “lasting settlement” in itself. This is a view reinforced by the words of Moshe Ya’alon, former chief of staff of the military and current defence minister who in 2012 said, “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a problem with no solution . . . we can live like this for another 100 years”.

Indeed, it appears that at present one of the only things having any effect on this outlook is the BDS campaign – with Israeli politicians including finance minister Yair Lapid, justice minister Tzipi Livni and Jewish Home party chairperson Ayelet Shaked all warning in recent weeks of the growing international movement that aims to help secure Palestinian rights and freedom.

Mr Cleary questions “whether a boycott of Israel is an expression of support for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank”. It is more than this: it is a response to a call for BDS from more than 200 Palestinian civil society groups issued in 2005. As such, it is an entirely separate issue from “a campaign to support Palestinian goods”, the latter being tactic which on its own will do nothing to end Israeli military occupation and apartheid.

Finally, Mr Cleary asserts, “Israeli universities are the most liberal aspect of Israel society”. Even if true, this is not saying much; the same Haifa University Mr Cleary attended for two months recently awarded the Israeli embassy in Ireland a prize for its online propaganda activities. This embassy’s undiplomatic defamation of human rights activists, be they Palestinian, international or even Israeli, has made headlines the world over. In November 2012, when Israel was bombing Gaza, killing over 160 people (including 30 children), the authorities at Haifa banned all protests from campus and declared their support for the Israeli military, but not before allowing a pro-war rally, which was attended by the university president, to take place and at which could be heard chants of “Death to the Arabs.” Liberal indeed. – Yours, etc,

MARTIN QUIGLEY,

Chairperson,

Ireland-Palestine Solidarity

Campaign,

Capel Street,

Sir, – I wish to withdraw my previous arguments against preservation of the 1916 buildings on Moore Street (Letters, January 6th). Having reviewed the plans put forward by the save 16 Moore Street campaign and given the matter further consideration, I find myself persuaded of the rightness of their cause.

Hopefully some compromise can be reached whereby the planned museum can proceed in tandem with the very necessary and long delayed commercial development and renewal of the surrounding area. – Yours, etc,

JOHN THOMPSON,

Shamrock Street,

Phibsboro, Dublin 7.

Sir, – May I remind Fionola Meredith (“New age rubbish posing as an accessible alternative to old-school religion”, Opinion, January 13th) that there has not yet been a new age inquisition, or a new age crusade; new age spirituality has never burned people at the stake in the name of God, and it does not peddle guilt and shame to its practitioners.

Furthermore, it treats men and women as equals and has never posed a threat to the safety of children. For the many people who have who have lost faith and interest in “old-time religion”, it provides a spiritual path which harms no one and provides a sense of connection with spirit and the companionship of like-minded souls.

Fionola Meredith’s notion that spirituality must be hard work is strange in any age. As for intellectual rigor, the response of the church to many valid questions has always been “It’s a mystery!”. If working with angels, crystals, fairies, energy or anything else provides peace of mind and comfort to those who practise it Meredith is hardly in a position to call it “rubbish”. And the angels have often found me a parking place! – Yours, etc,

CARMEL A LARKIN,

Baltyboys,

Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Fr Patrick McCafferty (January 15th) states, “The church unequivocally proclaims the message of the Gospel ” and goes on to quote twice from Romans in support of his argument concerning homosexuality and church teaching. As he is no doubt aware, Romans is not, in fact, a gospel. Why is it that the opponents of gay rights generally quote St Paul rather than Jesus? Could it be because Jesus never actually condemned homosexuality, and indeed healed the centurion’s sick pais (male servant/lover)? – Yours, etc,

FRANK SCHNITTGER,

Red Lane,

Blessington, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I know another phrase we could lose, so I do. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN O’BRIEN,

Rathbeg,

Kinsale, Co Cork.

Sir, – Could people please stop “taking to Twitter”? Likewise, “Facebook” is not a verb, and the concept of something “going viral”  shouldn’t be greeted with enthusiasm. – Yours, etc,

NIALL McARDLE,

Wellington Street,

Eganville, Ontario, Canada.

Irish Independent:

*The meek shall finally inherit the earth. Maybe?

Also in this section

So how do we pay these new bills, Mr Noonan?

Let’s adopt Ford’s attitude to ‘bean counters’

Letters: Building managers and water charges

Let me tell you if I was a dog my tail would be wagging so fast that I could take off.

The reason for my unbounded joy is the news that Jean Claude Trichet has said that the bank guarantee was the right thing to do. Both leaders of the IMF mission to Ireland have come out and said it was wrong. The people of Ireland voted for our current Government when they said it was wrong. So only the ECB claims it was the correct thing to do.

Perhaps Mr Trichet has spent too long in the circles of European banking to understand our laws or, perhaps more importantly, our very fibre. To put it simply for him or any of his many servants that peruse these pages: in Ireland if three men meet on the street and one insists that they all attend a hostelry for the purpose of raising a glass to Diageo, then the man that invites the other two in is left with the bill. And even if he doesn’t have the money on him, the bar-owner will allow him to put it on the tab.

I now look forward expectantly to Mr Trichet graciously finally accepting the tab on behalf of the ECB

As an ardent opponent of the current political system, but not the people, I would like to congratulate all members of the House past and present for sticking to our Irish guns and for not being rude even while a Frenchman tried to run up a tab on us.

Apologies for losing faith — I’m beginning to feel like Doubting Thomas when he was presented with the undeniable truth of a deep wound.

I am also looking forward to the scars of austerity finally disappearing.

Congratulations to all the citizens of Ireland for keeping a cool head when all about them, myself included, were losing theirs.

Will it not be great to get back that which should never have been stolen in the first place: our country, our freedom.

DERMOT RYAN

ATTYMON ATHENRY CO GALWAY

BY ANY OTHER NAME . . .

* Irish households will have a standing charge levied upon them for water charges, whether they use a drop of water or not. Should households attempt to conserve water or minimise usage then Irish Water will apparently have the power to increase the cost of water. Should households overuse water during a long dry period, Irish Water will again have the power to increase charges.

This ridiculous situation exposes the fallacy that water charges would be introduced to encourage the conservation of a scarce resource. I suspect Irish Water is nothing but a vehicle to facilitate the future privatisation of water provision in this country.

SIMON O’CONNOR

DUBLIN 12

DISGUSTING SMOKERS

* Despite all the advertisements about the dangers of smoking, there appears to be as many people as ever indulging in the unhealthy habit.

I recently did a little bit of simple arithmetic and came to the conclusion that smoking 20 cigarettes a day costs around €3,000 a year. Some people obviously spend more on the weed. It is sometimes said that former puffers can be the worst when it comes to criticising smokers but, speaking as one who is over 30 years off them, I find the practice quite disgusting.

I know it can be difficult to give them up and this person holds amusing memories of throwing a packet in the river while out walking the dog in an attempt to kick the habit only to return to the town and purchase 20 more.

This is not meant as a political address, but a lot of people are indebted to Micheal Martin for the initiative of nearly a decade ago.

BILL MCMAHON

NAVAN, CO MEATH

SEANAD REFORM

* Seanad reform might not be the sexiest topic but its abolition would be shortsighted.

However, I find it difficult to understand why advocates of Seanad abolition do not want to strengthen, reconfigure or reform it.

We need to stop focusing on the past; mindlessly focusing on what the Seanad HAS been and start considering what the Seanad COULD be.

The time to act and introduce reforming legislation is now — undeniably the Seanad is broke but it is far from beyond repair.

The Zappone-Quinn Bill provides a workable and tenable draft Seanad Reform Bill, which only requires minor tweaks to radically reform the Seanad.

With the passing of this Bill, the current Seanad will be transformed from an exclusive, anachronistic and unrepresentative House into a dynamic, cost-effective, gender-equal, functional and modern Lower House.

Seanad Reform will enhance the prospects of people with particularly valued expertise being able to make a contribution to the work of Seanad Eireann.

CAROLINE BERGIN CROSS

TREASURER, LAWYERS FOR SEANAD REFORM

SHAMEFUL, NASTY GAA

lThe black cards will not faze the blackguards. Nobody talks about changing attitudes. GAA football is saturated with a shameful nasty, niggling, bad-tempered culture. Why are these childish bully-boy antics tolerated without question? One example out of many — throwing the ball away. Answer: move the ball forward for every misdemeanour. We have too many rules but no manners.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

EENY, MEENY POLITICIANS

* Let’s face it . . .

All those Jews, Christians, Satanists and Muslims can’t all be right; let’s see if we cannot solve the problem once and for all by using a tried and tested algorithm — eeny, meeny, miny, moe etc.

The same simple formula can also be used to sort out the chaff from the wheat in other instances too, including our political parties.

LIAM POWER

SAN PAWL IL-BAHAR, MALTA.

HEALTH RISK FROM PYLONS

* With such widespread and continuous exposure of the population, even small risks to health from the proposed pylons may have a large impact on the population. Children are particularly vulnerable as their nervous and other physiological systems are still developing and they have a longer lifetime exposure. It is therefore of paramount importance that the risks to health are accurately known. It is clear that they are not. There are many methodological problems inherent in identifying adverse health effects from this type of radiation. In particular, there are great difficulties in assessing exposure, and individuals are not generally aware of the levels to which they are exposed. Two straightforward precautionary measures may be proposed.

Firstly, that data on exposure to non-ionizing radiation be included on all new entrants in the National Cancer Register. And a decision on the proposed pylons should be deferred until we know the risks. There is an onus on public health professionals to take the lead.

DR ELIZABETH CULLEN

IRISH DOCTORS’ ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATION

UGLY, USELESS EYESORE

* It is reported that a Dublin City council committee is to discuss the possibility of renaming the Millennium Spire after Nelson Mandela. Considering they wouldn’t or couldn’t name a new Liffey bridge in honour of the late and much deserving Tony Gregory because he wasn’t dead long enough — this is just another futile exercise in political correctness. If they really want to honour Mr Mandela and the citizens of Dublin, they should have this ugly and useless eyesore removed as soon as possible.

K NOLAN

CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO LEITRIM

Irish Independent

17 January 2014 Bone sample

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. Troutbridge is bombed by the mafia but survives because Leslie Zags instead of zigs Priceless.

Start to clear out attic for insulation, Mary bone marrow sample, cart still not ready tomorrow?

Scrabbletoday I winand gets just over300, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Roger Lloyd-Pack, the actor, who has died aged 69, will forever be associated with the slow-witted Peckham road sweeper Trigger, whom he played in the much-loved television series Only Fools and Horses.

The character was involved both in one of the series’ best running jokes, and its greatest slapstick moment. In the latter, he accompanies Del Boy on a mission to pick up a couple of “modern euro-birds”, only for Del Boy to fall through the bar after a waiter, unnoticed, lifts the hatch. In the former, Trigger persistently refers to Rodney as “Dave”. Even on the announcement of Rodney’s engagement, to Cassandra, Trigger raises a glass “to Cassandra and Dave”. When she discloses that she is pregnant, he suggests that the couple call the baby “Rodney, after Dave”.

Born with what he described as “an old man’s face”, Lloyd-Pack had to wait until his 40s to find success as an actor; once he found it with Trigger, however, the role would not leave him be. Such was his identification with the road-sweeper that passers-by, even policemen, would shout out “Wotcher Trig?” at him in the street. In conversation, he said, strangers assumed he was very thick. He described the role as “like an albatross in one way. If something becomes mega, like Fools, you’ve had it. I’ll never escape Trigger, I’ve learnt to live with that.”

But the role (which he nearly abandoned after two series, until his agent told he would be “mad”) provided him with a measure of financial security and also ensured that he did not have to worry about finding work again. Though he never subsequently secured the golden roles of Lear or Shylock, to which he aspired, he was sought after for smaller, plum Shakespearean parts, such as Buckingham (in Richard III) or Sir Andrew Aguecheek (in Twelfth Night).

e Harry Potter franchise. Acting, he said, was “a silly job, in a way, especially when you get older. It’s just dressing up, playing at being someone else. It’s rather lovely, too, but it’s hardly life and death.

Roger Lloyd-Pack was born on February 8 1944 in north London. His father, Charles Pack, had grown up a working-class lad in the East End before turning to acting and, in the 1930s, adding Lloyd to his surname. Roger’s mother, Ulrike, was an Austrian-Jewish emigrée who had fled the Nazis.

Roger was educated at St David’s (“a snobby little prep school run by a sadistic couple”) and Bedales, where he “coasted”. He did not shine at Geography (securing just nine per cent in his O-level), but did begin acting, eventually auditioning for Rada. After training there, however, he found jobs hard to come by.

In part he put this down to his looks. “It took a while for all my features to fall into place,” he said. “I didn’t come into my own as an actor until I was 40. I was not easy to cast.” He found bit parts in series such as The Avengers, The Protectors and Dixon of Dock Green, but spent much of his time drifting in rep – waiting, with increasingly little confidence, for his big break.

In the mid-1970s his career got a boost when the director Bill Gaskill invited him to join the Joint Stock Theatre Company, which pioneered the idea of using collaborative workshops to inspire new material from playwrights such as David Hare and Caryl Churchill. But it was not until 1981, with the advent of Only Fools and Horses, that he secured his future as an actor. He was signed up after being spotted by the series’ producer, Ray Butt, while in a play alongside Billy Murray, who was being considered for the Del Boy role.

The series ran for a decade, with the character of Trigger appearing in nearly every episode and acquiring something approaching cult status, notably for moments of inadvertent wisdom that pierced the fog of idiocy. On one occasion, Trigger prompts a philosophical debate by revealing that he has used the same broom to sweep streets for 20 years. When asked his secret, he reveals that he has lovingly maintained it, replacing the head 17 times and the handle 14 times.

In interviews Lloyd-Pack was frank, sometimes disarmingly so, about the nature of his/Trigger’s rather peculiar brand of celebrity. He was also frank about the travails of his personal life, in particular the mental health difficulties faced by his eldest daughter, Emily.

Emily Lloyd, who was born when Lloyd-Pack was 26, was catapulted to Hollywood stardom while still in her teens after appearing in the film Wish You Were Here (1987). A decade in Hollywood followed, but she was increasingly afflicted by mental health problems. In an interview last year, Lloyd-Pack said that watching his daughter struggle with her condition was “absolutely heart-rending and painful”.

He was also forthright about the possibility that, having left his first marriage, to the actress Sheila Ball, when Emily was only two, he had somehow contributed to his daughter’s later difficulties. “I feel very sad about that,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you can’t have a second chance. Forming good, trusting relationships with your children involves being with them when they’re very small and holding them. You can’t replace it. The thing you most want in your life when you’re little is for both your parents to love each other. If not, it can be the beginning of all your problems.”

Roger Lloyd-Pack, who died of cancer, was also clear-sighted about death, upon which, he said, even before his diagnosis, he reflected every day. A keen cyclist, recycler, and campaigner for Left-wing causes, he revealed he would like to buried in “a cardboard coffin”. As for his obituaries: “I don’t really care what [they] say, so long as they are fair. I know I will be best remembered for Trigger in Only Fools and Horses, but I hope all my other work will be acknowledged, too.”

His television credits included Spyder’s Web; Moving; The Bill; The Old Guys; and The Vicar of Dibley. Film credits included The Naked Civil Servant; 1984; Wilt; Interview with the Vampire; Vanity Fair; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

In 2000 he was appearing in the hit play Art, a three-hander in which his character, after some vacillating, gets married in a ceremony witnessed by the other two characters. During the run Lloyd-Pack decided to marry his partner of 25 years, Jehane Markham, with whom he had three sons. His co-stars, Nigel Havers and Barry Foster, acted as witnesses. Lloyd-Pack said he could not resist the temptation to play a central role as life imitated Art.

Roger Lloyd-Pack, born February 8 1944, died January 15 2014

Guardian:

You are right to highlight how the delay in the inquest on Mark Duggan has put strain on his family and has created anxiety about whether relatives of the many black people who have died while in police custody, or at the hands of the police, have access to justice or even basic information about the circumstances of their loved ones’ death. I would just like to tell your readers about the case of Philmore Mills, who was ill in a hospital lung ward. His behaviour became extremely erratic, nurses in fear called the police who detained him and while he was restrained he died. That happened about 12 weeks after Mark Duggan was shot and yet the inquest is not due until 1 April. The family does not know whether it will get legal aid for representation. One of my Conservative colleagues last month described in the Commons his shame that for the past 30 years we have allowed so many deaths in custody of African Caribbean men to go unaddressed. It’s time to remedy this injustice.
Fiona Mactaggart MP
Lab, Slough

Fergus and Judith Wilson are free with figures about the indebtedness of their buy-to-let empire, and indignant about tenants’ reliance on the state (Why my housing benefit tenants had to go, 11 January). Reading between the lines, I would say that taxpayers, hard-working or not, would be subsidising their mortgage interest tax relief to the tune of somewhere between £2.4m and £4m a year. One hates to spoil a good party, but phasing out this aspect of the private landlords’ welfare state would save £2bn a year, bring house prices within reach of many more buyers, reduce housing benefit spending (removing a double subsidy), reduce personal debt, anxiety and depression, and consequent NHS spending. Rushing this would have a cold turkey effect, with a lot of winners and losers among tenants, so it would have to be managed alongside investment of the savings to increase the provision of genuinely affordable housing, perhaps with the help of some compulsory purchase. I don’t see why private landlords should get off scot free in the midst of a fabricated moral panic about benefit recipients.
Steve Griffiths
Ludlow, Shropshire

Independent:

Times:

Sir, I often ask a pharmacist for advice as it is difficult to book an appointment on my GP’s computerised system (“Seeing the pharmacist not the GP ‘key to survival of health service’ ”, Jan 15). It is simpler to wait at the local walk-in centre until someone is available. This service is excellent. What happened to the simple system of turning up at the GPs, taking a token and waiting one’s turn? It saved frustration and took the stress off harassed staff.

William R. Cowap

Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

Sir, The first attendance of a patient with a new illness is usually for a minor complaint, as serious illnesses tend to be admitted directly to hospital. By carrying out a brief physical examination the GP can often separate the trivial from something more significant. Pharmacists will not be in a position to examine their clients in the same way. Surely it would be better for GPs to continue their traditional role of diagnosis, and for pharmacists to take over some of the routines of preventative medicine (as some already do), which can sometimes distract from the problem that the patient is trying to present to the doctor.

Dr Anthony Daniel

Sevenoaks, Kent

Sir, I am no stranger to the NHS (I had a very public battle for Herceptin some years ago and became a governor for the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS FT) so I was interested in the call for greater use of high street pharmacists for advice and treatment of minor ailments.

The NHS actively promotes visits to pharmacists as a first port of call, but I think there are two reasons for people’s reluctance to consult their pharmacist. There is a certain amount of protectionism by GPs defending their own position, and there is reluctance by pharmacists to engage with customers, except at a superficial level. There is also misunderstanding among patients about free prescriptions versus the cost of over-the-counter remedies.

What is needed is an increased promotion of a service that already exists, and a greater level of public acceptance. Certainly in France the pharmacist is the first port of call, and they offer the bonus of a free mycological identification service.

Linda Piggott-Vijeh

Combe St Nicholas, Somerset

Sir, It is simplistic to suggest that the pressure on GPs will fall if patients call at the pharmacy first. If my experience in ophthalmology is anything to go by, the opposite will happen. NHS hospital eye clinics are inundated with referrals from the optometry practices of patients because they are not seeing the doctors in the first place. One reassuring consultation with a GP can eliminate the need for multiple visits elsewhere.

Nikhil Kaushik

Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon

Wrexham

Sir, One way to reduce the demands on GPs is to abolish the monopoly of allowing only GPs to issue prescriptions. My local chemist is perfectly qualified to issue a prescription for a minor illness without troubling a doctor. This happens to good effect in other countries. Also there is the ludicrous situation with a repeat perscription which has to taken to the surgery to be signed before it can be taken to the pharmacy to be dispensed.

John Crossthwaite

Ramsbottom, Lancs

Telegraph:

SIR – Call the Midwife does more than “spare the blushes” of viewers (report, January 14). It may have helped to inspire an increase of 6,000 students applying for midwifery courses last year.

SIR – Recently, the House of Commons voted against an all-party amendment to introduce a levy on the insurance industry to fund research into mesothelioma, the deadly asbestos-related cancer. This is regrettable and short-sighted.

SIR – Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, asks for middle-class votes, but offers nothing in return (Comment, January 14).

Irish Times:

Sir, – If the 300 staff of Irish Water receive an average bonus of €7,000, or 10 per cent per year (Home News, January 16th) then they will have an average gross wage of €70,000. This compares favourably (for Irish Water staff) with the average wage in Ireland in 2011 of €50,764 according to OECD statistics. From the same statistics source, the average wage in Germany in 2011 was €41,170. – Yours, etc,

NOEL Mc BRIDE

Neckarstrasse,

Karlsruhe, Germany.

Sir, – The Celtic Tiger must be back on its feet when the expending of €86 million on “consultants”, is considered “micro” by the responsible Minister. There must be something in his water! – Yours, etc,

HUGH DOYLE,

Lagore Road,

Dunshaughlin, Co Meath.

Sir, – These people are spending money like water! – Yours, etc,

JOE O’ROURKE,

Woodpark,

Ballinteer, Dublin 16.

Sir, – The only question that needs to be asked in this affair is why were people who did not know what to do appointed to set the company up in the first place? – Yours, etc,

DAVID FITZGERALD,

Kulmakatu,

Iisalmi, Finland.

Sir, – I admit to being a little swamped among the flood of charges flowing against Irish Water. If I had access to its newly purchased geographic information system perhaps I might find my way to safety. Then again, I could contact the Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) for access to the most recent and advanced geographic information system technology. The OSI supplies GIS expertise to Bord Gáis. Why does Irish Water need its own system? As preparation for privatisation or simply because it knew it had the money to spend? – Yours, etc,

ALAN COUNIHAN,

Johnswell,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – In The Irish Times on January 15th: Crisis in secure care provision for children” (Page 5); HSE “cannot afford to meet some priorities” (Page 9); and “Hogan says he did not know how much Irish Water spent” (Front Page).

When is the next election? – Yours, etc,

JENNY Mc GEEVER,

North King Street, Dublin 7.

Sir, – The flat rate fees (Home News, January 6th) for Irish Water in its first year seem high (Home News, January 15th), one can only hope the installation of a money meter will encourage a more economical use of this precious resource. – Yours, etc,

JOJO BOYLE,

Rue Victoria,

Longueuil,

Quebec, Canada.

Sir, – Since the executive and board of Irish Water are confident it was not profligate in its spending to date, perhaps it might invite Comptroller and Auditor General to review all transactions, and thus clear the air? – Yours, etc,

D O’SHEA,

Pinecroft Grange, Cork.

Sir, – I would have to disagree with Fr Patrick McCafferty’s assertion that the primary call of the Gospel is to “repent” (January 15th). He declares every human being is “infected” and that we need to turn away from the “disorder” of sin. This is medieval.

The medicalisation, the pathologising of all human beings as “disordered” is not my understanding of Jesus’s message.

I understand Jesus came on Earth to tell us precisely the opposite: that He loves us all regardless; that his love is boundless, that love matters. To tell us we are all to “love one another” and his concentration on love was exemplified in many situations where he denounced the Pharisees from judgmental ideology. Yes, he talks about sin, but his actions and message were focused on loving, not sin per se.

The Catholic Church’s pathology is the concentration on “the disorder of sin” in all of us, at the expense of concentrating on the love for all of us that God has.

The other pathologies of the Catholic Church are: the judgmental, misogynist and patriarchal clericalism that is so common; and failure to love a large majority of human beings outside its perceived “without sin” cohort of Catholics.

The Pharisees still exist within our clergy and hierarchy, and this is a gross distortion of Jesus’s true call to all of us: love. – Yours, etc,

Dr MARGARET KENNEDY,

Redford Park,

Greystones, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – In a letter dense with biblical citations, Seamus O’Callaghan (January 14th) announces himself as understanding of “sinners”. I have taken his words and sentiments to heart. I in turn wish to announce myself understanding of his sin of defining a sector of society as “sinners” without having provided any argument or justification. Now we can both feel accepting and forbearing while simultaneously retaining our existing beliefs and animadversions. Surely a perfect “win-win” state of affairs? – Yours, etc,

NEIL JOHNSTON

Broomfield Wood,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – As an Irish writer, I would call upon Aosdána, the Irish Writers’ Union and Poetry Ireland to make a statement denouncing the current jailing in Limerick Prison of Aosdána member and playwright, 79-year-old Margaretta D’Arcy (Home News, January 16th).

I am aware that many Irish poets, for instance, have a fondness for Russian poets imprisoned in the old Soviet state for various political reasons and feel certain that they will have no difficulty protesting against the imprisonment of an Irish poet who opposes the use of Shannon Airport by the US military, and the consequent destruction of Irish neutrality. – Yours, etc,

FRED JOHNSTON,

Circular Road, Galway.

Sir, – I am appalled to learn that our Irish “justice” system has seen fit to jail writer, theatrical personality, and well-known anti-war activist Margaretta D’Arcy now in her 80th year and having treatment for cancer. She is a woman of great integrity whose crime was to have trespassed on a runway at Shannon, in protest against Irish government complicity in the devastating wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, not to mention the nefarious rendition flights which are known to have used Shannon.

She was sentenced to three months in jail, but bravely refused to sign an undertaking not to break the law for two years, which would have led to her prison term being quashed.

Margaretta D’Arcy should be nominated for a Nobel and a Lenin Peace Prize for her courageous stand against war and the killing of human beings. What kind of a country have we become? There is certainly something very rotten in the state of Ireland. – Yours, etc,

GEAROID KILGALLEN,

Crosthwaite Park South,

Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

Sir, – The arrest and imprisonment of Margaretta D’Arcy shows just how low our justice system can go and just how in thrall we are to the policies of others. Shame! Shame! Shame! – Yours, etc,

JOHN MacKENNA,

Royal Oak Close,

Royal Oak,

Co Carlow.

Sir, – So Dr Ian Paisley (Home News, January 10th) acknowledges there were breaches of civil rights in Northern Ireland. It is a step further than any unionist leader has ever gone. Mandela did not live and die in vain. – Yours, etc,