Quantcast
Channel:
Viewing all 594 articles
Browse latest View live

Slightly better

$
0
0

9 March 2014 Slightly better

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.Pertwee is innocent just for once Priceless

Cold slightly better Both of us very tired.

Scrabbletoday Marywins but gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Roscoe Howells, who has died aged 94, was an outspoken Welsh historian and author who championed the rich heritage and wild landscape of his beloved Pembrokeshire.

As the “voice of the Welsh countryside”, he wrote impassioned histories, biographies, novels, short stories and newspaper columns, during a career spanning half a century. Although varied in format and genre, each of his books drew on his abiding love for the rocky weather-lashed landscape into which he was born. “I love the area,” he explained. “It’s been my life. I know so many of the people. I know some of the better ones and I’ve met some of the awful ones.”

The “awful ones” would often propel him into action. As a campaigner, Howells was never backward in coming forward. His dedication both to the historical legacy and natural beauty of his pocket of south-west Wales saw him take causes to the Press and befriend other strident Welsh personalities, such as the actor Kenneth Griffith. Outside influences were not, to his mind, a benevolent force to the region: “The second homes and holiday homes. They come in and take over and in 10 minutes they know it all. They tell you what’s wrong with you.”

Roscoe Howells was born at Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire, on October 27 1919, in the depths of a crippling rural depression – a trying start which turned to tragedy when his mother died three weeks after giving birth. One of Roscoe’s earliest memories was of the impact of the 1926 strike, when miners at the colliery at Boneville’s Court were called out. “My father was a builder and I remember men coming to the back door and asking if they could have a week’s work so that they could get a stamp to go on the dole,” he recalled. “Grown men, coming around crying and genuinely so, genuine workmen, not like today’s parasites.”

Aged 12 he helped rescue two people at sea (two others drowned) for which he was awarded the Royal Humane Society certificate for life-saving, at that time the youngest person to hold the award.

Prior to his writing career, he farmed for several years at Cwmbrwyn (between St Clears and Pendine) breeding Guernsey cattle, a career ruined by cases of brucellosis, a bovine disease which causes cows to abort. In the late 1950s he began writing for Welsh Farm News.

In his first book, Cliffs of Freedom (1961), he told the story of Skomer Island and the Codd family, the last remnants of a farming community dating back to the Iron Age. It would be an apt beginning to a publishing output that had lost — or disappearing — worlds at its heart. Over the following five decades, Howells chronicled the ecclesiastical isolation endured by the monks of Caldey Island (Total Community, 1975) and parishioners who emigrated to the American Mid-West (From Amroth to Utah, 2001), along with studies of the changing face of farming and portraits of outlying islands.

 

In 1979 he wrote the novel Heronsmill. “This tale of country folk, their loves and hates, their customs, is like a prescription for our troubled age,” said the renowned Welsh novelist, Alexander Cordell, recommending that readers enjoy it “in a harvest field with your feet up listening to larks”. Cordell was to become a mentor to Howells. The book also received the support of the chairman of Tesco, Ian MacLaurin (later Baron MacLaurin of Knebworth), whose grandmother was born near the story’s setting. He threw a grand launch party, leading Howells’s publisher at Hutchinson to inquire sniffily: “What are we selling, margarine?”

Among other novels, Howells wrote Crickdam (1987) and Roseanna (1991), to make up, alongside Heronsmill, a trilogy spanning two centuries of rural life in the area. “Words are diamonds, jewels, precious gems,” said Howells; but all stories, he believed, were intrinsically linked to real life: “There is no such thing as fiction. Everything comes from something, either your own or other peoples’ experiences.”

His personal experiences would always be recounted with the directness of a no-nonsense countryman. In 1963 he visited London. “A big place, likewise also a very wicked place, or so they tell me,” he wrote. “Certainly very large numbers of people seem very anxious to go there, and I don’t suppose they are all intent on being wicked. In fact some of them are parsons and chapel deacons and such characters who wouldn’t do any harm to anybody.”

Those wishing to harm rural traditions received short shrift. “There can be no national prosperity without a prosperous agriculture,” he wrote to the editor of The Daily Telegraph in 2005. “Look at the state of our once great farming industry and the state of the country now.”

Oral history often lay at the heart of his inquiries. In 2007 he wrote a biography of a man whose unique achievement was, ultimately, impossible to prove. A Pembrokeshire Pioneer: Bill Frost of Saundersfoot, the First Man to Fly (2007) told the hazy local legend of the titular Saundersfoot carpenter who may, or may not, have beaten Orwell Wright to powered flight. When one interviewer tested the validity of the story, Howells retorted: “How did I come to the conclusion? Good God I knew the man, I was there, he showed my father the patent and the pictures.” His last volume, There Tis Then (2009), took its title from the gruff sign-off to his columns in the agricultural press.

Howells was the founding member, vice-president and former chairman of the Pembrokeshire Historical Society. He was also chairman of the old Pembrokeshire Records Society, past President of Pembrokeshire Agricultural Society, past president of St Helen’s Balconiers (the Glamorgan cricket supporters’ society) and a former chairman and president of the Welsh Guernsey Cattle Breeders Association.

When asked, late in life, what he would be remembered for, Howells was uncharacteristically ambivalent. “Me? Being argumentative I suppose,” he said. “I’d like to think that I’d done a bit of good I can’t tell you. How do we know? I’d like to think that I would be remembered for saving things, which might have been forgotten. I could be wrong.”

Roscoe Howells married twice. His first wife, Lucy, predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, Margaret, and a son from his first marriage.

Roscoe Howells, born October 27 1919, died January 13 2014

 

Guardian:

 

 

Catherine Bennett took the opportunity in her Comment column last week to give lawyers another bashing (“Pre-nups are no threat to marriage. They’re good for it“).

Of course there are bad lawyers, rich lawyers, self-serving lawyers, but there are also bad doctors and teachers. No one suggests that we should withdraw funding from the NHS or state education. Yet that’s how the public has been persuaded to accept fundamental changes to the administration of justice in this country. Legal aid has been withdrawn from most civil cases, and criminal legal aid is now in real danger.

The piece mentions that there are increasing numbers of “litigants in person” who cannot afford lawyers. This is the scandal. Pre-nups and post-nups have risks and benefits for those involved. The issue is about whether unfair bargains will be struck that could have an adverse impact on the vulnerable, particularly children. But the fact that the courts are full of unrepresented, confused litigants has not arisen because of horrid lawyers but because we have been cavalier with one of the pillars of our society – access to justice.

Philippa Dolan

Ashfords LLP

London W1

Selling visas is just wrong

I generally agree with Will Hutton, but selling visas to rich immigrants is profoundly immoral (“What’s wrong with selling visas to rich immigrants at £2.5m a pop?“, Comment. As Michael Sandel points out in his thought-provoking book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, selling the right to gain citizenship to rich immigrants perpetuates the growing divide between rich and poor, and conveys the message that the rich are special and deserve precedence over the poor. It was ironic that Will Hutton’s article was alongside a piece by Nick Cohen describing how a US equity group is seeking to deny union rights to Boots pharmacists, another example of the march towards inequality.

Michael Miller

Sheffield

Our huge waste of food

Jay Rayner makes good points but huge food waste occurs in production, too (“How greed became a food security issue“, New Review). Conservation could have been combined with limited production in many areas which were instead cleared for development or cash crops while the opportunity to cut methane emissions from ruminants via feed additives has existed for many years; the opportunity was wasted. I suspect the underlying problems are financial, though.

Feeding the world’s poor is unprofitable by definition while food gluts cause prices to fall more than proportionately, thus depressing farmers’ incomes. Alternative markets or changing land use can avoid this problem, but they absorb gluts and/or remove land from food production. Storage is the answer, but nobody wants the job or the bill. Just to finish matters off, wealthy commodities speculators help ensure hunger in a world of plenty.

Food security needs poverty to be addressed and support for better and sustainable supplies but these mustn’t dig up, chop down, pollute or cook the natural world, nor allow other human activities to do so. The many alternatives available in different areas are good news. The bad news is they require saner policies, cost money, need more vertebrate politicians, and western consumers have to realise they’ve been sold a pup for years. Both “Eat what you want, ignoring its impact” and “Eat what we tell or sell you” are irresponsible, self-serving and completely the wrong way round.

Iain Climie

Whitchurch

Hants

Prescription for a career

I was disappointed to read Nick Cohen’s disparaging views on pharmacy as a career in “‘Homely’ Boots treats its staff like red revolutionaries” (Comment). Far from being something “no child dreams of growing up to become”, I strongly believe pharmacy is a rewarding and clinically challenging profession.

Pharmacists are a vital part of healthcare provision in the UK, helping 1.6 million people every day take care of their medicines and healthcare needs. Pharmacy is an under-utilised resource, which is offering more and more services and access to care such as anti-coagulation services, flu vaccinations and diabetes risk assessments.

Boots UK is committed to the professional development and support of pharmacists, providing more clinical roles and offering a highly competitive package which we continually review. Our pharmacists are consulted with at all levels throughout our business

Steve Banks

Director of professional standards and superintendent pharmacist Boots UK, Nottingham

The simple art of generalising

Your correspondent John Owen (Letters)suggests students will not choose to study difficult stem subjects as these lead to low-paid jobs, when they can “waltz through arts A-levels, go to university, study the same easy options, and get a better, well-paid job on graduation”. In my experience one of the key benefits of an arts education is that it teaches you to think deeply around subjects and not to make sweeping generalisations about things you know very little about.

Helen Walker

West London

 

 

Devolution of itself has not prevented Wales from being so impoverished by the latest round of local government cuts, which devolved austerity outwards from Westminster, that we cannot afford to defend the coastline from flooding, and the same is true for Cornwall and Devon and the north (“‘There is a real danger the rest of the UK is being cut off from London‘”, News)

If we immediately scrapped HS2 and used the £50bn plus for coastal flood defences that would create skilled jobs and real apprenticeships in areas of high unemployment, while protecting tourism where it is crucial to the local economy, but this will not happen while we have a government so largely funded by the City of London. Only a properly funded English assembly elected on proportional representation, so that constituencies band together in regional assemblies, will be an effective counterweight to London becoming a city state within a state. Scotland would not have the same need to break away from a federal system that could more fairly deliver to the regions and to Wales.

Margaret Phelps

Penarth

When asked by Toby Helm if London could be the winner from HS2, Jim O’Neill states: “Of course it could.” In this he just restates what every authoritative report on HS2 has concluded from the transport select committee onwards. All have said that London and the south east will be the major beneficiaries with, for example, roughly 70% of any new jobs created. Equally, it was concluded that if we want regeneration then multiple smaller projects in the regions would be much more effective. Instead of starting HS2 in the Midlands and north as O’Neill suggests, we should scrap it immediately and reallocate the £50bn to many smaller, regional infrastructure projects.

I suggest allocating 25% to flood prevention schemes as these have an excellent rate of return (8 to 1 against HS2′s dodgy 2 to 1) and they will stop a rerun of the misery that people have suffered in recent months. The next 25% should be spent on alleviating commuter overcrowding on our trains. This could be done by extending the length of platforms and adding carriages to the trains.

This will help the vast majority of rail travellers instead of getting a few businessmen to London a few minutes earlier.

We should allocate 10% to road repair. Our roads are a major asset but they are falling apart from neglect. We need a national programme to repair them properly in order to stop the damage being caused to vehicles of all kinds. The remaining 40% should be spent on important road and rail projects in all regions.

There is plenty of scope for improving links between all of the major cities of the Midlands and north not just Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, as HS2 is supposed to do.

All of the above can be started without delay. They can be resourced with British labour and materials and, unlike HS2, won’t need international expertise or foreign rolling stock. They will not be faced with enormous compensation bills either.

We know it makes sense: let’s cancel HS2 now.

Peter Edwards

Hazlemere

Bucks

Asking ex-Goldman Sachs chief Jim O’Neill to head a commission on how cities can thrive is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken run

Goldman Sachs played its own distinctive role in the financial crisis which certainly did not help cities or businesses in the north of England to thrive. O’Neill’s remedies seem to include merging Liverpool with Manchester (“Manpool”), which is hardly likely to succeed, and greater devolution of decision-making, which is already happening, and other banal remedies.

Oh dear, such short memories.

Simon Newton

York

 

 

Independent:

 

Lord Owen describes Ed Miliband’s reforms of the Labour party which include union members having to “opt in” to make party contributions as “brave and bold” (“Miliband reform gains backing from Lord Owen”, 2 March). This will put Labour at a huge disadvantage to the Tories in terms of party funding.

It is now the turn of the Tories to be “brave and bold”. It is surely unacceptable that company shareholders (many from modest backgrounds) should find themselves contributors to the Tory party against their wishes. The Tories should only accept donations where shareholders have opted in to make a donation. This should also apply to banks and insurance companies: a customer who doesn’t want to opt-in to a political contribution should be offered more favourable terms in lieu of this lesser expense to the company.

But what about consumers? Every time Labour or Liberal Democrat voters buy a product from a company that donates to the Tories they are unwittingly contributing to the enemy. The solution is obvious: there should be information on the label stating to which party (if any) the company contributes – in a similar fashion to warnings on cigarettes!

Phil Nicholson

Glasgow

Harriet Walker’s article (New Review, 2 March) on her diversion from Heathrow to Newcastle makes for depressing reading. Comments such as “I’ve no idea where it is” and “It’s basically Scotland” fill me with despair. It is amazing how many Britons are happy to cross half the world to go on holiday but will not explore a different part of their own country. Why are supposedly intelligent and educated people so ignorant?

And is Southern culture really so sophisticated or are we confusing region with social class? I can’t see any difference between Geordie Shore and Towie apart from accent. The extent of regional prejudice in this country borders on racism. Northern people are as fed up with regional ignorance as black people are with racial stereotypes.

Pippa Lewer

Morpeth, Northumberland

There was a time when the United States would support the undemocratic removal of democratically elected heads of state in its own backyard; now it does so in Russia’s backyard – and has the “incredible” audacity to be outraged when Russia responds (“Ukraine crisis”, 2 March).

Peter McKenna

Liverpool

Gavin Plumley is right that Richard Strauss is due a reappraisal in his 150th anniversary year (“The sensitive side of Strauss”, 2 March). It would also be an appropriate time for the classical music channels to make sure his first name is pronounced correctly.

On Radio 3 and Classic FM there is an aversion to pronouncing certain German forenames the German way. Schumann’s Robert and Wagner’s Richard are pronounced as though they were British. Richard Strauss suffers the same fate. The same broadcasters would never pronounce Ravel’s Maurice the English way.

David Head

Navenby, Lincolnshire

Liberal Democrat president Tim Farron’s claim that only two kinds of votes will count in the forthcoming European elections – those for his party and those for Ukip – seems like a rather polarised position to take (“It’s us or Ukip, says Lib Dem contender”, 2 March.

One assumes that the Lib Dems are a party of the political centre. If Mr Farron really does think society is fundamentally split, with little middle ground, and he may be right, there are surely other political parties he could be involved with.

Keith Flett

London N17

Alan Gregory (Letters, 2 March) offers Logan’s Run as a warning against euthanasia. Isn’t it about time that we had a grown-up debate on this subject without recourse to political, religious (and literary) hysteria?

I doubt whether legalised voluntary euthanasia for the terminally failing elderly would leave me in anything like the danger of unwanted death as the apparently readily accepted dangers of venturing upon almost any road, by any means, these motor-crazed days?

Alison Sutherland

Kirkwall, Orkney

 

 

Times:

 

Sochi is a $50bn waste after events in Ukraine

VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russia’s president, spent $50bn (£30bn) or more on the Winter Olympics to showcase his country — that was a waste, wasn’t it? We will remember March and Ukraine and forget February and Sochi (“Putin pushes Ukraine to the brink of war”, News, and “Putin’s playbook leaves the West in a dither”, Editorial, last week).

Russia has weaknesses — particularly its dependence on oil and gas revenues, and a lack of internal non-military manufacturing — that Europe, America and their allies can exploit. It is important we hold firm to the Budapest memorandum that safeguards Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Ted Coffin, Salisbury
Trampling on democracy
Future historians will question why the Russian bear has had all the best arguments in the Ukrainian crisis. How have we got to a situation in which it is Russia that is defending the democratic legitimacy of an elected leader, and a disunited West that is studiously avoiding all discussion of this?

The West’s proponents of what Tony Blair termed “liberal imperialism” in his 1999 speech in Chicago have form in terms of their democratiphobia. This is the second time in a year they have supported and perhaps even actively conspired in the overthrow of a democratically elected leader — the first in Egypt and now in Ukraine.
Terry Daly, London N22
Putin’s plan
Countries don’t go to war by accident but for issues such as spheres of influence, minorities, military rivalry and suchlike. Putin has already shown he regards Ukraine as within the Russian sphere, if not a satellite of Moscow. As Thomas Hobbes said: “Covenants, without the sword, are but words.”
Anthony Piepe, Southsea, Hampshire
Answers, please
Democracy is about waiting for the ballot box, not throwing Molotov cocktails. Viktor Yanukovych’s five-year term of office was scheduled to end next February. The West’s attempt to “liberate” Ukraine raises many other questions.

Why is Russia deemed not to have the right to pursue its national interest in its “near abroad”? Are there any geographical limits to an expanding EU? And will hard-working UK taxpayers consent to bailing out Ukraine?
Yugo Kovach, Winterborne Houghton, Dorset
A vote for Russia
The people of Crimea will have the opportunity to say that they do or do not want to be part of Russia in the referendum to be held on March 16. If you know Crimea, you will know the people are Russian, as are their culture, language, history  and media. They even want to set the clocks by Moscow, not Kiev, time.
Graham Ariss, Gothenburg, Sweden

Ignoring harmful effects of lower age of consent

INDIA KNIGHT suggests that the age of consent should be lowered because of the number of children who already engage in sexual relationships (“If you want to protect children, let them have sex at 15”, Comment, last week). Should the age at which they may purchase tobacco and alcohol be lowered too, on the basis that many already consume these?

The age of consent aims to protect children from behaviour that may cause them harm. It should arguably be raised, not lowered.
Emma Hodgson, Littleover, Derbyshire
Unreliable statistics
To verify that “half of all UK teenagers have had their first sexual experience by the age of 14” and “a third of teenagers had had full intercourse before they were 16” would entail checking on each individual’s 14th or 16th birthday, and even then it is unlikely that all respondents would give a true answer.
Francis Harvey, Bristol
Too much too young
I gave birth to my beloved son when I was 15. I concealed my pregnancy and received no medical care until the last stage of labour. I had no interest in sex when my 18-year-old boyfriend, with whom I was besotted, began pushing me for it. In truth I hated it. To reduce the age of consent would only put more girls at risk of such intimidation and rape.
Name and address withheld
Repeat offender
What was it about the 1970s that created a poisonous alliance between sexual liberation and naive politics? Whatever it was, it is still being repeated.
John Barleycorn, by email

EU confusion

In response to your article “Eurocrats take the gravy train back to their old schools” (World News, February 23), the European Commission claimed: “Our staff do not get ‘two days off work’. Legitimate expenses are paid and they go straight back to work, or, if trips are self-financed, they get an extra day’s leave — without expenses” (“EU school visits no junket”, Letters, last week).

Perhaps it can explain why the European parliament (EP) office, in an email to EU staff, states: “The EP reimburses their agents with two days’ allowance and the participants get a special leave of two days maximum.” The same explanation — for EU officials only — is also on the EP intranet.

Are EU institutions telling one thing to staff and another to the suckered taxpayers?
Paul Nuttall, UKIP Deputy Leader and MEP for North West England

Stunning is not kinder than ritual slaughter

I WAS stunned — no pun intended — by the arrogance in Andrew Wilson’s letter last week (“No religious bar to stunning animals before slaughter”). Veterinary professionals such as Wilson seem to think their evidence is conclusive and fail to mention the pain and distress that pre-stunning can involve. Speed, humanity and low pain levels are central to ritual slaughter as practised in large parts of the world.
Siobhan Breen, London NW3
Killing flaw
We daily inflict violence and death on chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and fish. We also exploit dairy cows and egg-laying hens before they meet the same fate as “meat” animals. Wilson should condemn all types of slaughter, not just the “religious” methods.
Mark Richards, Brighton, East Sussex
God is in the details
The Reverend Ian Williams, a man whose thinking is presumably ruled by religious dogma, accuses Dominic Lawson of a wilful disregard for logic on female genital mutilation and circumcision (“Muddled thinking”, Letters, last week). Kettle calling the pot black?
Ian Hurst, Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire

No exam exemptions for faith schools

IF RELIGIOUS groups wish to deny their young people access to sex education, or knowledge about evolution, this is arguably a matter for the groups themselves (“Faith schools cut exam questions on evolution”, News, last week).

However, the OCR exam board sets nationally accredited public examinations and candidates should all be placed on an equal footing when it comes to assessing their knowledge and skill.

While many aspects of science and science education are properly subjects for debate, picking and choosing which questions to set on the basis of religious doctrine raises the question of whether OCR can retain the required degree of public confidence.
Edgar Jenkins, Emeritus Professor, University of Leeds
Beyond belief
Having taught for many years, and as a member of the Church of England, I believe while faith can enable us to see more meaning in the things around us, it also requires that we do not ignore any aspect of the world. Special treatment for faith schools is contrary to educational principles and would affect social cohesion.
Mike Lynch, Codsall, Wolverhampton

Cancer loses out to fast trains

CANCER patients complain that they aren’t getting treatments they were promised (“‘Cruel’ failure of Cameron’s cancer pledge”, News, last week). The staff who should be administering them complain that NHS cuts prevent them from doing so adequately. An MP complains that the treatment on offer in the UK falls behind the standards of other countries.

Still, as long as a few people can get from Birmingham to London 35 minutes quicker in the future via HS2, that seems the right way to spend our money.
Geoff Hulme, Altrincham Greater Manchester
Radiotherapy boost
Radiotherapy services are in a much better place today than in March last year. However, there is a need for further investment if we are to deliver high-quality advanced radiotherapy services to all who require them.

The Vision for Radiotherapy, a joint report issued last week by NHS England and Cancer Research UK, is a major opportunity to address what still needs to be done. The Radiotherapy Board — a nationwide collaborative of the three main professions (clinical oncologists, therapy radiographers and medical physicists) — stands ready to make the vision a reality across the whole of the UK, not just in England.
Dr Diana Tait, Chairwoman, Radiotherapy Board, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London

Points

Just deserts
David Davis MP (“Weighing the evidence in Plebgate case”, Letters, last week) insists that having “examined every second of the available video evidence of Andrew Mitchell’s interaction with the police”, the “five seconds” that Mitchell’s conversation lasted were insufficient for him to have spoken the 40 words Davis says are at issue. Whether five seconds were enough — indeed whether Mitchell called the police plebs, or plods — is totally irrelevant. The point is that a senior cabinet minister has admitted using the f-word against police officers doing their duty to keep him, his colleagues and therefore our country safe. Mitchell deserved to lose his job.
Anthony Glees, Director, Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, University of Buckingham
Feline of déjà vu
Your report on the cat cafe in east London states that it was the first one in Britain (“The cats that got the cream cake and cappurrcino”, News, last week). This is not so. There has been one in Totnes, Devon, for almost a year.
Kenneth Potter, Paignton, Devon
Lost opportunity
I knew nothing about the service last weekend at Senlis Cathedral, north of Paris, to commemorate the Turkish Airlines crash of March 3, 1974 (“I told her not to worry . . . and so sadly, fate took over”, News Review, last week).

My husband, Leslie Paine, was one of the passengers killed, leaving four children aged between 11 and 18. The service was organised by a detective with Thames Valley police. My name is still the same and I live in the same village as we did in 1974, albeit in a smaller house. I wouldn’t have thought it beyond the wit of a police detective to find me. My regrets are bitter.
Sheila Paine, Blewbury, Oxfordshire
Getting personal
Why did somebody in your brilliant newspaper approve Jeremy Clarkson’s rant against Piers Morgan (“Cheer up, Piers. You can always get a job as my punchbag”, News Review, last week)? I didn’t enjoy a single word of it.
Richard Freeth, Oxford 
Target practice
There was me worrying that honest-to-God vitriol and vindictiveness had been outlawed in our Sunday papers, when Clarkson got his target in his sights and not only gave Morgan both barrels but reloaded frequently and shot accurately. Well done.
John Rogers, Rathowen, Co Westmeath

Corrections and clarifications

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, including online, should be addressed to editor@sunday-times.co.uk or The Editor, The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST. In addition, the Press Complaints Commission (complaints@pcc.org.uk or 020 7831 0022) examines formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines (and their websites)

Birthdays

Bill Beaumont, rugby player, 62; Juliette Binoche, actress, 50; John Cale, musician, 72; Ornette Coleman, jazz musician, 84; André Courrèges, fashion designer, 91; Linda Fiorentino, actress, 54; Martin Fry, singer, 56; Keri Hulme, author, 67; Martin Johnson, rugby player, 44; Juan Sebastian Veron, footballer, 39

Anniversaries

1796 Napoleon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais; 1959 the Barbie doll makes its debut; 1967 Svetlana Alliluyeva — Joseph Stalin’s only daughter — walks into the US embassy in Delhi and asks for political asylum; 1976 42 people die in a cable-car disaster in Cavalese, Italy

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – British governments have promoted referendums in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Gibraltar, which confirmed the wish of their people to remain British. No doubt the verdict of the Scottish people in September will be accepted.

Why, then, is there such objection to a referendum in Crimea, the result of which, if accepted, should help defuse tension in the region?

John Harris
Penrith, Cumberland

SIR – Nikolai Tolstoy of all people should appreciate that Russians (ably assisted by a Georgian) over the past 150 years have caused as much suffering for Russia (and its neighbours) as have its invaders.

Russia has effectively rehabilitated Stalin and has not apologised for his crimes. Vladimir Putin has declared that the demise of the Soviet Union (rather than its birth) was the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the 20th century.

John Birkett

St Andrews, Fife

Migrant magnet

SIR – I employ immigrants. I would prefer, on principle, to employ British people, but they won’t come off the dole to do the work.

The Government pays them this dole, which allows them not to work, by taxing me. If the Government reduced the dole, I might get British applicants. If the dole reduction was passed on to me as a tax reduction, I could afford to pay more.

John Burke
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

VAT by any other name

SIR – Paula Bates (Letters, March 4) is correct that in America “sales tax”, not “VAT”, is shown separately on receipts, raising awareness of taxes.

Such awareness is heightened in America by all prices for goods and services being listed before sales tax. Such a practice would be useful in Britain to highlight the taxes involved in purchases, particularly when filling up the car.

Tony Manning
Barton on Sea, Hampshire

Cost of 101 phone calls

SIR – I live in a rural area where we are encouraged by the police to report unusual sightings. The 101 telephone number is given as a contact for non-urgent information.

Recently I used the number for the first time, to report suspicious activity. The response of the local police was exemplary. They took the trouble to phone me back to tell me what action had been taken.

The use of the 999 number is free. But on my monthly bill I found that I had been charged for the 101. Apparently 101 attracts this charge across the country. Surely this is a triumph of bureaucracy over common sense. I know which option I shall use if the need arises again.

Philip Williams
Ingoe, Northumberland

Comfort coffee

SIR – What’s with all this walking to work carrying steaming cups of coffee? I see it on television coverage from London. Are the metropolitan “elite” so pushed for time that they cannot manage a proper breakfast, or are these drinks a sort of comfort blanket against a hostile world?

To us Northerners it all looks a bit weird.

Brendan Palmer
Nottingham

Magna Carta vs food

SIR – The Bishop of Durham (Letters, March 5), Frank Field MP and others draw attention to the need to feed the hungry.

Churches in this area are among those that give in-date food to the Salisbury Trussell Trust, knowing that this food goes directly to the hungry.

I am a guide in the splendid Salisbury Cathedral, which houses arguably the best copy of Magna Carta in its chapter house. The Cathedral is seeking £500,000 of Heritage Lottery funding to preserve and present better the Magna Carta to the public – an aim I support. The plan is to raise another £200,000 on top of that.

A modest 10 per cent of this latter given to the Trussell Trust would help some families in Salisbury (or Durham) not to go hungry in Lent, or later. The down side is that the Magna Carta planners would have to manage on £680,000.

I agree with the bishop: all hands to the pump.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Joseph Gilbert
Salisbury, Wiltshire

The label of dementia

SIR – The Government’s plans to speed up the diagnosis of dementiato six weeks fail to take into account the immediate and catastrophic consequences to the lives of affected individuals.

Being diagnosed as having dementia makes it impossible to make a legally valid will, sign a contract, sell property, decide where and how to live, or consent to – or refuse – medical treatment. The assets of a person with dementia would be controlled by the Court of Protection, regardless of his or her wishes.

That this loss of the autonomy that we all take for granted could be initiated on a shopping trip by a busybody from a supermarket, or that a decision to move one’s savings from one bank to another could involve a dementia test in the manager’s office, is unacceptable.

Alix Ramage-Hayes
Nash, Buckinghamshire

Award for turning up

SIR – It seemed to me that barely 10 per cent of Members of the House of Commons were in attendance when Theresa May made her announcement relating to a public inquiry into undercover policing.

Half of an MP’s salary should be linked to actual attendance in Parliament.

Michael Fielding
Winchester, Hampshire

Once more unto the dining table

SIR – General James Cowan’s comments on table manners (Letters, March 7) reminded me of a dinner party given for my husband’s staff, where a guest felt the need to scratch the back of his head with his fork before plunging it once more into his chicken.

Jan Wilkinson
Norton Disney, Lincolnshire

SIR – When General Cowan is abroad on Army business, I hope that he does not lecture his hosts in the same pompous manner as he does his officers.

Gray Gilbert
Fovant, Wiltshire

SIR – General Cowan neglects to draw attention to the ghastly modern habit of wearing a wing collar with a dinner jacket.

Group Captain Terry Holloway
Great Wratting, Suffolk

SIR – General James Cowan is not alone in not wishing to sit next to his wife. During a Commonwealth conference I found myself sitting next to my wife for the third night in a row.

I asked the woman opposite, who was in a similar predicament with her husband, and was not unattractive, if she would like to swap places and come and sit by me for a change. The reply was a sharp and short “No thank you”.

My wife and I resorted to discussing the electricity bill for the third night running.

Vyvyan Harmsworth
Challock, Kent

 

SIR – Rev Dr John Strain (Letters, March 3) writes that HM Revenue and Customs unfairly taxes organists who play in his rural churches for “meagre stipends”.

I suggest the organists play for nothing, as I do – especially at the frequency of an hour a month. Whether the organists are Christian or not, it would be a benevolent act at a time when so many churches are struggling to survive financially.

I’d like to think that most rural organists play for the love of it and for the community.

Caroline Mitchell
Maentwrog, Gwynedd

SIR – Church organists aren’t the only ones being targeted by HMRC. I’m the clerk (the only employee) for my local parish council, drawing the princely sum of £600 per year, which has always been taxed through my occupational pension. Last year, however, HMRC decided that all such clerks should be taxed via a PAYE system, irrespective of the size of the council.

Setting up such a system, which has to be done online, proved to be less than simple. Yet I’m still allowed to pay my tax through my pension as long as I create PAYE records showing a nil tax deduction.

Jack Smith
Lindal-in-Furness, Cumbria

 

SIR – Headlines focus on the shrinking number of soldiers (leading article, March 6), but depredations to the other two Services since 1990 have been far worse. In 1990, the Royal Navy had 50 frigates and destroyers, 25 attack submarines and three aircraft carriers, today reduced to only 20, seven and zero (with one “helicopter carrier”) respectively. In 1990 the Royal Air Force had 30 combat squadrons, which by next month will have been reduced to six.

Ministers preach about the enhanced capabilities of the numerically inferior equipment replacing the larger numbers of older units, but a ship or aircraft can only be in one place at one time and allowance must also be made for attrition losses.

Defence contracts take many years to provide a new capability, but existing ones can be removed almost overnight with the stroke of a minister’s pen. The unfolding problems in Ukraine serve as a reminder that conflicts can spring up globally almost overnight and Britain needs to be able to protect its interests. These threats cannot be met solely by large numbers of soldiers, we need capabilities across all three forces.

Phil Mobbs
Wantage, Oxfordshire

Related Articles

SIR – Con Coughlin harks back to the “glory days” of the Royal Navy. It is time to wake up from this dream. For centuries we faced invasion from the sea, and justifiably maintained a huge Navy; this threat has gone. Our reliance on overseas trade, often cited as a reason for military spending, does not depend on force of arms but commercial and technological strength.

I would like to see further down-sizing of our Armed Forces, with money and human resources thus liberated devoted to solving problems at home. With Angela Merkel’s firm guidance and its commercial strength, Germany has become a world leader, but not by a show of military muscle.

Jane Hewitt
Manaton, Devon

SIR – A minority of Army officers cling to the view that only Regular soldiers count in war. The 30 reservists who have died over the past decade in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 70 decorated for gallantry remind us of a precious – and cost-effective – asset.

Reversing years of cancelled training and severe neglect will take time, but the new approach is already bearing fruit in rising morale and esprit de corps – as many flood victims have seen over the past weeks.

As the absurd delays in the recruiting pipeline are progressively unblocked, this great national asset will regenerate.

Julian Brazier MP (Con)
London SW1

SIR – Who does the Government think will want to join a reservist force, having seen how our professional military from all Services have recently been treated, and knowing at the same time that their civilian jobs will be as insecure as their lives.

Richard Waldron
Woolavington, Somerset

 

 

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

Madam – With the advent of the whistleblower controversy, Gerry Adams has called for Garda cold cases to be pursued. What an appealing vista that may open.

Also in this section

Letters: A true centre of excellence

Letters: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Threat to hare is horror story that shames us

If Adams’ memory is rejuvenated, he may recall his membership of the Provisional IRA, become a whistleblower and give the Garda information concerning the murder of Jean McConville and perhaps many such heinous crimes committed by the Provisional IRA.

However, that may cause Sinn Fein to question Adams’ appeal to the electorate and to replace him with Mary Lou McDonald for the next election.

In that event, Eamon O Cuiv may get his wish to see Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein forming the next government become a reality. However, in that event, I would apply for a UK passport as I don’t want to travel at the behest of a government which has supporters of Provisional IRA murderers sitting at the Cabinet table.

Tony Moriarty,

Dublin 6 W

HARD QUESTIONS FOR SF LEADER

Madam – I find Gerry Adams‘ letter, ‘Views on North are blinkered’ (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014), galling to say the least. Many eminent people have tried to study the cause of suicide. There are several and I would list depression as top of the list. Mr Adams and his cohorts are responsible for a lot of pain and depression in this country. How can he blame Unionism or British rule for the high suicide rate? I suppose he’ll blame anybody but himself. He and he alone knows what hurt and pain and depression he has caused.

Then I turn to page 4 to read ‘Adams’ order to take explosives into Britain‘. He denies it all.

Another article tells us how SF scrapped its planned homecoming party for Hyde Park bombing suspect John Downey – just like the one they held for the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe. Adams gives him his full support, saying he is entitled to a party.

Why is Gerry Adams not asked more questions about this kind of thing in the Dail? What sort of country would vote for someone like Gerry Adams?

Una Heaton,

Limerick

HANDCUFFED LADY MYSTERY SOLVED

Madam – Many thanks to Gene Kerrigan for his concise article (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014), which ties up many loose ends on the Garda Whistleblower saga. Finally there is an explanation for a high profile female public servant being handcuffed, arrested and placed in a cell for some time, having committed no crime.

This is the first time anyone has offered a reasonable explanation for this strange occurrence. Until it is faced head-on personally by each of us, we will make no progress as a democratic republic. Hats off also to Maurice McCabe and John Wilson for their courage.

Kate Foley,

Kilkenny

INVEST IN PEOPLE TO SAVE RURAL LIFE

Madam – I was surprised and sad to read ‘The Devastation of Rural Ireland,’ by Donal Lynch. (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014).

Rural Ireland has become a lonelier place to live, with poor public transport, a bus once a week where it used to run once or twice a day.

There is only one answer – investment in the Irish people.

No more post office, garda station, pub or business closures. Enda Kenny said Ireland is the best country in Europe. It’s time to divert money from Nama and Europe to help local towns and villages in Ireland.

Bernard Rafter,

Slough, Berkshire, England.

IRISH WAS PATH TO A JOB FOR LIFE

Madam – I fully agree with the view expressed by Declan Lynch ‘A monument to our national failure’, (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014). No doubt, there were Gaelgoirs who made a career out of being proficient in Irish as it ensured they had a job for life. In the early years of the State’s birth, this was important as the only alternative was the emigrant ship.

There was a man I dealt with regularly over the years in business. In many conversations during our working relationship, he told me he was an enthusiastic Irish speaker as a young man in the early years of the new Irish State. He, like many of his colleagues at that time, went to Irish classes to perfect their native tongue. Years later he met one of his former classmates in town. He greeted him warmly and addressed him by his English name. His former friend told him that he had changed his name years earlier and was now known only by his Irish name. And the cynical reason was that he realised early on in his career that if he became a fully fledged Gaelgoir, he would never be out of a job!

Those who were not cute enough to see the career opportunity took the boat to England. Would it not have been better to teach them good English rather than be seen as the thick Irish when they looked for jobs over there?

Brendan M Redmond,

Terenure, Dublin 6w

LANGUAGE SHAPES OUR VERY THOUGHTS

Madam – Declan Lynch (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014), misses the point. Language matters. It forms our thoughts and shapes our lives.

The Irish language, because of exclusion from public life, has gone from being the majority language in the early 1800s to being a minority language today. This was the greatest social change in Irish history. Imagine had England been conquered and its language replaced by Spanish, French or German.

Imagine an English population unable to read Shakespeare except in translation and cut off from their own history. Imagine the effect this would have on the psyche, confidence and sense of self. Now consider Ireland: an Anglophone State where officialdom uses Irish as an ornament, if even that.

Our English-only mentality costs us export markets and jobs. Our negativity toward speaking Irish saps morale. We need to open our minds to the wider world. Rejection of Irish, no matter how it is presented by Declan, is profoundly negative and shameful, rejecting as it does normal curiosity as to the meaning of place names, common surnames and historical sources.

America and Australia are offshoots of English culture. We are not. Americans promoting English is an affirmation of self. The Danes learnt English without abandoning Danish and have a stronger economy than we have. Small open economies with educated multilingual confident populations do well.

It’s high time to stop being in awe of the Dutch or Finnish multilingual and become Irish multilinguals. Speaking Irish makes Ireland sound and feel like a regular European country. It is the recovery of our intellectual and cultural sovereignty and contributes to an inclusive Irish identity beyond colour or creed.

Dáithí Mac Cárthaigh, BL,

An Leabharlann Dlí,

Baile Átha Cliath 7

NO SHORTAGE OF LAW LIBRARY CHAPS

Madam – After reading Emer O’Kelly’s article (Sunday Independent, March 2, 2014), I found myself reading it again on Monday and I still couldn’t figure out what it was all about.

Ms O’Kelly’s article, under a headline: ‘Refusal of travel expenses for judiciary may be straw that breaks the camel’s back’, certainly caught my eye.

The judiciary in question don’t have a boss – and when it comes to respect, just try chewing a bit of gum next time you’re in court, and watch the downtrodden chap on the bench reminding you, apologetically, of the powers he/she has.

Ms O’Kelly kind of suggests that if these guys don’t get their bus fares paid, that the availability of learned fellows from the Law Library will dry up. But by the time the Law Library chaps start thinking about the bench, they are fairly well heeled.

So the real issue would seem to me to have nothing to do with money, but the power that goes with a job. That and related social aspects would be more than enough to attract an adequate sufficiency of chaps.

RJ Hanly,

Co Wexford

 

 

 



Still Under the Weather

$
0
0

10 March 2014 Still Under the Weather

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.Fatso chucks a Lifeboat collecting box in the sea and the Navy think its a minePriceless

Cold slightly better Both of us very tired.

Scrabbletoday Marywins but gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

James Ellis, who has died aged 82, was an actor who emerged from the theatres of Northern Ireland to became a household name in the early 1960s playing the hot-headed PC Bert Lynch in the BBC Television police series Z Cars. His was to be the only character to appear in every episode of the groundbreaking show.

Set in fictional Newtown (based on Kirkby outside Liverpool), Z Cars was the first television police drama to depict officers warts-and-all. When it launched in 1962, every episode was live, “like a first night in the theatre,” as Ellis recalled.

He played Bert Lynch for 16 years, seeing his character start as an eager, fresh-faced car patrolman and, over the course of some 650 episodes, advance to a detective constable, a cynical, stolid sergeant and finally to a worldly-wise inspector.

Ellis had been a stage actor in his native Belfast since the early 1950s, and by 1960 was running theatre companies there (he was to give a local plasterer called Frank Carson his comedy break in pantomime).

He came to the BBC’s notice a year later when he played a Belfast ship-worker who refused to strike, in the TV drama The Randy Dandy. At the Z Cars audition, he was told his character would be called PC McGinty, but when Ellis pointed out that villains would find the name risible on account of the comic song Paddy McGinty’s Goat, the name was changed to Lynch.

His tenure in Z Cars was not without real-life incident. In 1964 he was cleared of drunken driving, but was back in court 10 years later to admit personal bankruptcy, despite earning £10,000 a year as (by then) Inspector Lynch. He was discharged from bankruptcy in 1980.

Although Z Cars ended in 1978, Ellis continued to be cast in television dramas. In the early 1980s he played the brutal father, Norman Martin, in the acclaimed Billy trilogy by Graham Reid (1982-1984). The Play For Today productions (Too Late to Talk to Billy, A Matter of Choice for Billy and A Coming to Terms for Billy) made a star out of a young Kenneth Branagh as the titular troubled son to Ellis’s bitter Ulster patriarch. The Irish News called Ellis’s achievement “a series of towering performances”.

 

James Ellis was born in Belfast on March 15 1931, the son of a sheet-metal worker at the Harland and Woolff shipyard (who as an apprentice helped build the Titanic). One of 25 Ulster boys to win a scholarship to the Methodist College, Belfast — where he first acted, in The Barretts of Wimpole Street — James Ellis went on a second scholarship to Queen’s University to study English, French and Philosophy, but left at the end of his second year.

After training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, he returned to Belfast in 1952 to act with the Ulster Group Theatre, making appearances as the company’s young male lead in April in Assagh, Is the Priest at Home? (both 1954), The Diary of Anne Frank (as Peter van Daan) and JM Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (both 1957).

As well as working as an actor in the main company, Ellis also ran the group’s summer theatre in the seaside town of Larne, north of Belfast. In 1959, when the group’s governing body ruled that Sam Thompson’s Over the Bridge — portraying sectarianism in a Belfast shipyard — was too inflammatory, he resigned as director of productions to direct the controversial play the following year.

Leaving Northern Ireland for London, Ellis received his first television break in 1961 when he was cast as Dandy Jordan in a production of Stewart Love’s The Randy Dandy, which was deemed so controversial and sexually charged that the BBC gave a warning before transmission that it was “unsuitable for people of a nervous disposition”.

More parts followed, including a role in the BBC production of Stewart Love’s The Sugar Cube (also 1961), before he was cast as Bert Lynch in Z Cars the following year.

His other television credits included parts in Doctor Who, In Sickness and in Health and Nightingales. In the late 1980s he had another success, playing the zookeeper Paddy Reilly in One By One, and later became a regular in Playing The Field and Ballykissangel (as the eccentric Uncle Minto). He also appeared in the films No Surrender and Re-Animator (both 1985).

Ellis was also an industrious writer of poems and prose, and a translator. The BBC broadcast a selection of short stories he adapted from the original French, in 2007. The following year he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen’s University Belfast as part of its centenary celebrations.

James Ellis was twice married. Firstly, in 1956, to Beth (an actress in the 1960s BBC soap Compact), with whom he had two sons and a daughter; and secondly, in 1976, to Robina, with whom he had another son.

His family life, however, was riven by tragedy. In 1988, his eldest son, Adam, was murdered while fishing from a west London towpath. “I went berserk,” stated Ellis later, “I wasn’t in possession of my senses. I kicked open the doors of every pub in the street shouting: ‘Who knows who murdered my son?’” His second son, Luke, committed suicide in 2011, after a long struggle with depression following his brother’s death.

Last year he returned to Belfast to see Billy, Love, a new stage chapter in Graham Reid’s Billy series. “Theatregoers in the city where it is set were anxious to find out what happens next,” said Ellis, “I’m looking forward to finding out, too.”

James Ellis is survived by his wife along with their son and a daughter from his first marriage.

James Ellis, born March 15 1932, died March 8 2014

 

Guardian:

 

 

The final report today from the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, points out the solution to global hunger and poverty is not one that merely focuses on technical fixes, or how to produce more food. It stresses fundamental issues of governance and democracy. Tackling the imbalances of power between small-scale food producers, and corporates and political elites is at the heart of the eradication of hunger and poverty. The role of the state in establishing policy and legislative frameworks, with binding powers, is vital to set public interest before private gain. Now decision-makers must heed the recommendations in the report that contest the pro-corporate agenda, championed by governments and international bodies, and take positive steps to build democratic and sustainable food systems.
Graciela Romero
War on Want

• Despite Sarah Vine’s ignorance over the whereabouts of Cumbria and her state school angst, and Ian Jack’s reassurance that butchers and fishmongers are thriving in Islington (Saturday Guardian, 8 March), I can soften their metropolitan woes by the comforting information that up here both Cockermouth school and Nelson Thomlinson in Wigton are excellent schools loved by their communities and that both towns sport three butchers, a fishmonger and a traditional ironmonger. We don’t need bankers or oligarchs to keep them here.
Janet Mansfield
Aspatria, Cumbria

• In 2004 we had a holiday in Libya. In 2005 and 2008, it was Syria. In 2012, Ukraine, including Kiev and Crimea. Look out, New Zealand.
Peter Day
London

• Re Mike Parker (Letters, 7 March): some character. Font of all knowledge.
Bob Corkey
Wicklow

 

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is about to make what may be the biggest decision on global climate policy of his term. The verdict on whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL pipeline, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, could, at one stroke, confirm or condemn US prospects for climate leadership. This is a policy decision that will have truly global significance. Keystone has been called the “fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the planet”. According to experts, it would end any hope of the US meeting existing international commitments to cutting emissions by 17% by 2020, let alone forge new action.

We call on Mr Kerry to reject the Keystone XL pipeline and open up a pathway to a clean and sustainable energy future. We are not alone. As of today, more than 1.5 million people from the US and across the world have submitted formal comments and are standing with us, responding to Kerry’s call made in Jakarta for individuals and governments to turn up and fight climate change. Keystone XL is his chance to set a correction course on US energy policy and open up a new clean energy future. We hope he does.
Desmond Tutu Archbishop emeritus
Dr James Hansen Former head, Nasa
Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Yeb Saño Climate leader, Philippines
Daryl Hannah Actress
Fernando Meirelles Director
Teresa Ribera Former secretary of state for climate, Spain (current MP)
Rebecca Harms Co-chair, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
Christine Milne Leader, Australian Greens
Caroline Lucas MP Green party, UK
Kristin Bauer Actress
Peter Robinson CEO, David Suzuki Foundation

 

 

 

It is becoming clear that the family of Stephen Lawrence were let down badly by police after the murder of their son. More than that – it seems likely that corruption and spying by undercover officers played a part in the failure to support that family and investigate that crime. If this is true, it is a serious breach of trust and a matter for the courts.

However – as a serving Met officer at the time of the murder and investigation – I have to point out that the vast majority of officers in the Met at that time did not fail the Lawrence family. They did not spy on them nor did they act in a corrupt way, because all these things were done by a minority of officers out of the many thousands in the force at that time.

The headline on your editorial The shaming of the Met (7 March) suggests everyone was to blame. It may be satisfying for the media and others to lump us all together but it is also simplistic and misleading and ultimately damaging to society to blame tens of thousands of people for the behaviour of the few.
Bob Morgan
Thatcham, West Berkshire

•  Having first-hand knowledge of the hard work and sensitivity by officers of all ranks into policing the diverse problems of our capital city, I am sad that the “disclosures” have not been dealt with by the press and politicians in a more even-handed manner. Of course all suggestions of improper behaviour by police have to be rigorously investigated but the current froth of comment impinges upon the integrity of most police officers, regardless of rank, which is unfair and unjustified. It may be that the police service does not communicate with the public it serves enough to explain the dilemmas that have to be faced by a modern police force before problems emerge, but the danger in the present atmosphere is that the service may become defensive and isolated.
Ron Austin
(Former Met chief superintendent) Hadleigh, Suffolk

•  ”The spying was going on literally under the judge’s nose,” your editorial said. It most certainly was, via bugs hidden in the Macpherson commission office at the Elephant and Castle just as the report was being prepared. Your then investigative journalists Laurie Flynn and Michael Sean Gillard were the ones to discover this (Report, 4 March 2000), and later published an account in their book Untouchables: Dirty Cops, Bent Justice and Racism in Scotland Yard.
Nick Jeffrey
London

• In view of recent disclosures (May orders inquiry into police spies, 7 March), readers might be interested to know that, way back in 1817-18, in his Berlin lectures on the philosophy of right, the great German Idealist philosopher GWF Hegel denounced the characteristically British use of “police spies” to control crime. Such practice, he argued, opens the way to “the greatest abyss of corruption”.
Professor Peter Dews
School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex

•  In all the announcements of inquiries into police spies and undercover activities that broke the law there is one notable absence. As we mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1984-05 miners’ strike, there still appears to be no plan to investigate state interference and involvement in that epic dispute. There should be.
Keith Flett
London

•  As one who was married to a policeman for more than 20 years and whose formal education ended at 17, I have often wondered what would be the effect of confining entry to the police service to graduates, including those who have studied the increasingly popular academic field of crime and policing in context. While nothing is certain in life, experience of university today must surely involve students socialising with those of different national, ethnic, class, religious, political, age, physical ability, sexual and sexual orientation backgrounds. Would that experience not better equip the police to be trustworthy and efficient in interacting with the public? Is it not the case that in the armed forces most officer trainees are now expected to be graduates?
Brenda Rubin
Canterbury, Kent

• I thought that the BBC’s excellent Line of Duty was getting a bit far-fetched (Lucy Mangan, 6 March). Until Mark Ellison’s findings proved me wrong.
Stuart Waterworth
Tavistock, Devon

 

Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, hails the record rise in jobs as the “most encouraging of all” (Report, 6 March), alongside the plunging fall in the unemployment rate. But it pays to look behind the figures and the hype. It has long been recognised that falling household incomes, 6% down in real terms since the crash and still falling, are forcing a great many older workers to come out of retirement and forcing many young workers to take any job going on minimum pay and usually zero-hours contracts; and 90% of these very low pay and insecure jobs are only available around London. This is certainly not a sign of strong economic growth, especially when business investment still remains 20% below 2008 levels.

But there is another factor which suggests caution about the continual puff about the recovery. There has been widespread puzzlement about the dramatic fall in the unemployment figures in recent months from 7.8% to 7.1%, which even forced Mark Carney to revise his “forward guidance”. This enigma can now be explained. The government has been excluding from the claimant count all those who have been sanctioned, that is those who have had their JSA removed, even for the most petty infringement like being five minutes late for a job interview. More than 1 million people have been sanctioned, and the total is accelerating monthly. That is 3% or more of the workforce and if they were all included, as they should be as they clearly are seeking work, the unemployment rate would be nearer 8% than 7%. Mrs Thatcher sought to conceal how high unemployment had climbed in the 1980s by reclassifying hundreds of thousands as disabled, from which ironically Atos has been used to declare they are nearly all fit for work to cut expenditure. It now seems today’s government has hit upon another dishonest wheeze to massage the unemployment figures out of all connection with reality.
Michael Meacher MP
Lab, Oldham

 

 

 

Independent:

 

 

 

 

 

If the Care Bill is to successfully reform elderly care, then the issue of underfunding by local authorities when purchasing care places must be addressed.

The Care Bill is being debated in the Commons on 10 March and is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve care – introducing greater equality, affordability and transparency. These principles are supported by professionals from across the care sector.

However, as is well known but seldom discussed, councils frequently pay rates to providers which do not meet the true cost of providing care. This creates a shortfall within the system which limits investment in staff and facilities.

The Care Bill risks exacerbating this problem. Councils will be arranging care for more people, meaning even more care places will be under-funded. Without a system which requires local authorities to pay fair rates for care, care homes will struggle to provide secure, sustainable and quality care. The central tenets of this Bill – transparency, fairness, and quality – are in jeopardy if the local authority funding question goes unanswered.

We hope that MPs will have the fortitude to tackle this issue in the House.

Professor Martin Green, CEO, Care England, London E1

The worrying concerns around service gaps that face Britain’s older people are rightly highlighted by Age UK in its Care in Crisis report. The funding shortfalls underlined in the report are disturbing, given that the need for services will continue to grow alongside our ageing population.

Age UK’s report follows a recent study from Anchor and the International Longevity Centre-UK which revealed that we are not only confronted by a funding shortfall, there is also a workforce deficit that we need to tackle.

One million more care workers will be required by 2025 – a gap which needs to be bridged and funded correctly. Government, care providers and the NHS need to work together to ensure the crisis in social care is averted.

Jane Ashcroft, Chief Executive, Anchor

David Sinclair, International Longevity Centre-UK, London WC2

One of the most unpleasant features of  the old workhouse system was the separation of married couples into male and female sections.

 Recent government legislation for newly built care homes appears to repeating this cruelty by insisting that only single rooms can be installed.

Obviously, towards the end of life, it is better for couples to be together for mutual comfort. My wife (17 years of MS) and I, aged 74, are looking to move from our house into a home, preferably modern rather than some rambling converted vicarage. For medical reasons we have to sleep in separate rooms.

The best we have been offered is two single rooms, sometimes adjacent but with no connecting door. Any call (by intercom?) from my wife at night means leaving my room, going along a corridor and entering her room.

Who dreams up these rules, and why?

Dr Eric V Evans, Dorchester, Dorset

Police response  over Lawrence

We read (8 March) that, following evidence that the family of Stephen Lawrence was spied on, “Commander Richard Walton, head of the Metropolitan counter-terrorism command, has been temporarily transferred to a ‘non-operational role’ ”’

Why hasn’t he been suspended from work? A teacher facing any suspicion of professional misconduct would immediately  be suspended. As would  a doctor.

The police fail to recognise just how seriously damaging all this is to the public’s trust in them.

John Boaler

Calne, Wiltshire

What we need is successful prosecutions of rogue police officers, not inquiries, reports, Royal Commissions and the like (Letter,  8 March).

We have endless shock, hand-wringing and promises to get rid of the bad apples by Home Secretaries and Chief Constables, but who  ends up being found  guilty in court?

There have been over 1400 deaths in police custody since 1990, but  no successful prosecutions of police.

Why should any police officer be deterred from corruption when there is apparently no chance of being found guilty?

Rod Auton, Sheffield

After failed badger cull, a way forward

An independent review of the badger cull has declared that it failed in terms of effectiveness, and humaneness. For those of us following every detail of the culls, this is sadly no surprise. The basic story is that they didn’t kill enough badgers to meet the scientific requirement that would give the cull even a small chance of reducing bovine TB in cattle. And those they did kill, they did badly – with up to 18 per cent of the badgers taking over five minutes to die.

But it’s not the time to dwell on what has been a disastrous policy. We need to look to the future – a future in which farmers need an answer to bTB, which is devastating cattle herds. And a future in which badgers are not scapegoated or slaughtered. There is such a future – in Wales, they chose to vaccinate badgers and bring in tighter farming practices, and in the past year have seen a massive 33 per cent fall  in the number of cattle slaughtered.

Their way is the right way. I have just been appointed CEO of the Badger Trust, in addition to my role at Care for the Wild, and a new President of the National Farmers Union has also been elected. For the sake of all the farmers who desperately need a solution, I will be reaching out to the new NFU President to say “Let’s work together’, as together, farmers and wildlife supporters can beat this disease, without having to beat each other.

Dominic Dyer, Care for the Wild International,  Horsham West Sussex

What Russia fears  in Ukraine

The events in Ukraine have their origin in the final days of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Then the Americans gave a promise to the Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, that Nato would not expand east to Russia’s borders.

This promise was not honoured and Nato drew in 12 former Soviet and Warsaw pact countries. Further, America carried on the Star Wars programme, which the Russians always felt was directed at them. In effect the West carried on the Cold War against Russia, and America financed and backed the 2004 Orange revolution in order to secure an anti-Russia, pro-Nato government in Ukraine.

The Crimea belonged to Russia until 1954 and  60 per cent of its population is Russian. Russia doesn’t want Nato nuclear weapons on its borders any more than Kennedy wanted nukes in Cuba, and this in part explains Putin’s motives.

What Russia has done may be illegal in international law but as yet not a single Ukrainian soldier or civilian has died.

Mark Holt

Liverpool

 

More light in the evening

Paul Dormer (letter, 6 March) is right that nothing involving clocks can make any difference to the length of daylight anywhere, but he should remember that starting his first school lesson in the dark allowed him to kick a ball around in daylight after school ended.

The length of daylight of a place is determined by the time of year and its latitude; its longitude determines the start and end times of daylight, which get later by westward progression. Much of France and almost the whole of mainland Spain lie to the west of the Greenwich meridian. They are on Central European Time (CET), an hour ahead of us. In winter, Britain’s Western European Time (WET) deprives those whose schedule is dictated by the clock of an hour’s daylight in which to play or walk a dog after school or work. Only Ireland and Portugal are sufficiently far west for Western European Time to be appropriate.

To go on to CET in line with the rest of Europe would gain Britain more daylight for outdoor activity after school or work.

Peter Kellett, Kinlochewe, Ross-shire

A slur on  bankers

D J Walker (letter, 7 March) points out that the suggestion  of “whinge” as a collective noun for bankers gives rise to a “most vulgar but appropriate” spoonerism. Vulgar certainly, but is it really appropriate? After all, bankers generally abuse everybody but themselves.

Professor Guy Woolley, Nottingham

Playground in the Great War trenches

It’s good to know that someone has found the trenches from a First World War training camp in Gosport, my home town. If anybody had asked me 60 years ago, I could have given them a guided tour, because it was where I used to play soldiers with my friends. It was pretty good for showing off your skills as a stunt rider on your bike as well.

John Williams, West Wittering, West Sussex

 

 

Times:

 

Sir, I asked the Commissioner of the Met Police to conduct an audit to see if police spies lied in court back in October 2011 at the a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

The public inquiry announced by the Home Secretary is long overdue — undercover policing seems to have been out of control for decades and the amount of possible illegal activities could be extensive.

If this public inquiry is to restore trust in the police, it must give a voice to all the victims of police spies, because this goes beyond the Lawrence family. It must include the women who were deceived into relationships with undercover police and give them the answers they deserve. If the inquiry finds wrongdoing by officers and their superiors, heads must roll. The police must not be allowed to hide behind their policy of “neither confirming nor denying” the identities of officers — the public must see the police held to account for their actions.

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

Green Party Group, London Assembly

Sir, All police? Institutionally corrupt? Probably not. But what is deeply troubling is that every time something is investigated, the police’s reaction is obfuscation, alteration of evidence or a bending of the truth. No wonder so many people report a widespread lack of trust or respect in the police.

Jonathan Walsh

Tincleton, Dorset

Sir, The Commons may well be shocked by these latest Stephen Lawrence revelations, as it should be by its own failures in policing Macpherson’s recommendations which arose in the first place? Independent advisory groups, instigated by Macpherson, received ACPO leadership and guidance. Genuinely participative national conferences hosted by former police authorities, brought together disabled, black and LGBTs, among others, with serving officers. Members used to be asked their opinions by visiting inspectors of constabulary, regaining lost community confidence, often in impossible circumstances.

Not now. Someone, inexplicably, dropped these conferences. HMIC inspectors, much reduced, now construct statistics only they understand, not converse with the local communities they don’t.

David Millar

Independent Advisory Group for Lincolnshire Police

Folkingham, Lincs

Sir, The euphemism of institutional racism and the emerging evidence that the Metropolitan Police Service is thoroughly corrupt belie a more insidious cultural deficiency. An organisation whose existence is predicated on the maintenance of the rule of the law depends upon both public confidence and self-regulation beyond reproach.

The killing of Jean Charles de Menezes covered up by the decoy of health and safety legislation, the killing of Mark Duggan shrouded by the effects of the London riots and the brazen political grubbiness of Plebgate pale into insignificance in comparison with the utter sordidness of the Lawrence affair. Historically and nationally, there are many other injustices, the

Birmingham Six, for example. Now is the time to recognise that the Metropolitan Police is not fit for purpose. It should be disbanded in favour of a wider reform of our police nationally.

Paul Fisher

Durban-Corbières, France

 

 

Britons drink 12 per cent of the beer in the EU but pay 43 per cent of all beer taxes – how can this possibly fair?

Sir, Last year George Osborne was the first Chancellor to cut beer duty since the 1950s. It was a great decision in a difficult economic climate, after the industry argued that a duty freeze, after years of eye-watering tax rises, would help brewers and pubs.

We have seen renewed confidence in this great industry, with almost £400 million invested by brewing and pub companies last year. With 10,000 jobs also secured, all this has been achieved at no loss to the Exchequer. However, UK beer duty remains at extraordinary levels. It will take years to undo the damage caused by the 42 per cent rise under the previous government’s tax escalator policy, during which 7,000 pubs closed and 58,000 jobs were lost.

Britons drink 12 per cent of the beer in the EU but pay 43 per cent of all beer taxes. British duty is still an astonishing 12 times higher than
that in our largest neighbour, Germany.

A return to tax rises this year would rapidly undo the benefits achieved through last year’s historic duty cut. These benefits spread beyond beer and pubs, boosting our largely British supply chain, such as our barley farmers, hop growers and maltsters.

The Chancellor should cut beer duty again in the Budget, or at a minimum he should freeze it. With continued pressure on the cost of living, he should ensure that pubgoers can afford a hard-earned pint.

Jonathan Neame, Chief Executive, Shepherd Neame Ltd & Chairman, British Beer & Pub Association

Brigid Simmonds OBE, Chief Executive, British Beer & Pub Association

Charles Bartholomew, Chairman, Wadworth & Co

Jaclyn Bateman, Marketing Director, George Bateman & Son

Tim Batham, Production Director, Daniel Batham & Son Ltd

Richard Bailey, Chief Executive Officer

Daniel Thwaites PLC

Keith Bott, Managing Director, Titanic Brewery

James Clarke, Managing Director (Brewing), Hook Norton Brewery Co Ltd

Simon Cox, Managing Director, Molson Coors UK & Ireland

Charles Dent, Managing Director, Timothy Taylor & Co Ltd

Hamish Elder and Miles Jenner, Joint Managing Directors, Harvey & Son (Lewes) Ltd

Simon Emeny, Chief Executive; Fuller Smith & Turner plc

David Forde, Managing Director, Heineken UK

Peter Furness-Smith, Managing Director, McMullen & Sons Ltd

Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive, Young & Co’s Brewery plc

Stephen Gould, Managing Director, Everards Brewery Ltd

Gary Haigh, Managing Director, Miller Brands UK

Chris Hopkins, Managing Director, Hydes Brewery

Lesley Humphrys, Managing Director, Weston Castle Ltd

 

Honeyball’s proposals are founded on ideology not evidence and, if enacted in the UK, would seriously harm sex workers

Sir, Contrary to Mary Honeyball’s claim (letter, Mar 6), the Swedish legislative approach to sex work is anything but nuanced. It attempts to impose moral judgment through legislation, is opposed by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and UNAids and has further marginalised and stigmatised sex workers.

Ms Honeyball’s attempts to ignore and silence the voices of the sex workers, human rights advocates and experts who opposed her proposals reached a new low when she emailed her colleagues in the European Parliament on the eve of the debate claiming that the more than 500 organisations were mostly comprised of pimps. Ms Honeyball’s proposals are founded on ideology not evidence and, if enacted in the UK, would seriously harm sex workers.

Alex Bryce

National Ugly Mugs Scheme

 

Compulsory bike tests followed by six months on a scooter for all future car drivers may help increase cyclists’ safety

Sir, I am a cyclist and a motorcyclist and, I believe, a much better car driver for it. Nothing teaches a driver better than experience of the vulnerability one feels on two wheels (“Cyclists take us by surprise, say drivers”,Mar 7).

I am off work with a fractured pelvis — a car did not “see” me approaching and pulled in front of me. My speed at the time was 23mph.

A solution may be a compulsory bike test followed by six months on a scooter for all future car drivers. Our roads would then have more two-wheeled traffic, and the drivers would be more alert to the vulnerable.

Joanne Davis

Clitheroe, Lancs

 

The desire to own property is as strong as ever, but Britons are still being forced to live in rented accommodation

Sir, Your report on Generation Rent (“Buy-to-let boom creates Generation Rent”, Mar 3) was a timely reminder of how out of control and hopelessly unsustainable the housing market has become. As you say, the desire to own property is as strong as ever, but Britons are increasingly being forced to live in rented accommodation.

It’s no surprise fewer and fewer can achieve home ownership when the average first-time buyer now needs a £27,519 deposit to secure a home, and the average deposit represents 75.1 per cent of a first-time buyer’s income. Getting on the housing ladder has never been so difficult.

The problem is particularly bad in London where Mayor Boris Johnson seems hell-bent on building assets for investors rather than homes for ordinary Londoners. The result? House prices now average £441,000 — or 16 times the average local individual income.

The Green Party is calling on the current and future governments to put the need for a home before the desire of investors for profits by building more genuinely affordable housing and introducing greater security of tenure and “smart” rent controls for tenants in private rentals.

Ultimately, we have to go back to regarding houses and homes not as investments, and look to restore investment in productive activities such as manufacturing, the creative industries and food production.

Natalie Bennett

Green Party of England and Wales

 

 

‘The address for Merseyside Police’s Camera Enforcement Unit is “Liverpool, PO Box 1984”. Most apt’

Sir, The address for Merseyside Police’s Camera Enforcement Unit is “Liverpool, PO Box 1984”. Most apt.

Frank Greaney

Formby, Liverpool

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – The piece on composers in Part Seven of your First World War supplement (March 2) left out two significant personalities.

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-1975), Master of the Queen’s Music from 1953, served as an officer in the 13th Royal Fusiliers and then in the Grenadier Guards. He saw action on the Somme, was wounded twice, and gassed. He was mentioned in despatches. One of his brothers was killed in action. These experiences had a lasting influence on his work.

The lesser-known Cecil Coles, a Scottish friend of Gustav Holst, (whose Ode to Death was dedicated to Coles) died of wounds in 1918, aged 29. He left a small body of work which, like George Butterworth’s, suggests what might have followed had he lived. Holst added a dedication to the manuscript of Coles’ suite Behind the Lines which bears blood and mud stains from the trenches. Only the first two movements survive, the rest having been destroyed by shellfire.

Peter McKenzie
Morpeth, Northumberland

SIR – Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, seems willing to support both Victor Yanukovych, the ex-president of Ukraine who amassed a fortune at the expense of his country’s people, and President Assad of Syria, who is content to bomb his own people. What message is he trying to send to the world?

B J Colby
Bristol

SIR – By mobilising his troops, most of whom are in Crimea under agreed terms, President Putin is protecting the Russian-speaking majority in that region, and also his defence investments.

Let us hope that he stands up to Western politicians and keeps his forces in position until the situation calms down and proper elections can take place to install a democratic government that treats all its citizens as equals.

The alternative will be civil war and the division of Ukraine along ethnic lines.

Jeremy Cecil-Wright
Totland, Isle Of Wight
St John Ambulance

SIR – Your report that high salaries are being paid to staff in the St John Ambulance organisation, with four people being paid greater than £100,00 a year and two earning more than £140,000 excluding bonuses, was revealing.

Staff in charities earning these kinds of salaries are on another planet. Their remuneration is far removed from the earnings of ordinary mortals. The losers are those people and communities that such charities are supposed to be helping.

Ron Kirby
Dorchester, Dorset

SIR – This weekend, as every weekend, thousands of St John Ambulance first-aiders will be out in support of their local communities. The need to do more to achieve the charity’s vision – that no one should suffer from the lack of first aid – has been behind the trustees’ thinking over the last few years.

Our reforms are already seeing more people trained in first aid (40 per cent more young people last year), and we intend to support our front line even more in future. Budgeted income this year is 20 per cent higher than before our reforms.

Around 80 per cent of volunteers and staff recently surveyed now feel proud of their work. They far outnumber the small number of vocal dissidents given centre stage in your article.

By contrast, tens of thousands of St John volunteers are demonstrating outstanding leadership and commitment across the country. We can be truly proud of their skills and positive energy which are now focused on increasing the provision of life-saving services to our communities, and reducing unnecessary deaths when first aid could have been the difference.

Rodney Green
Chair of Trustees
St John Ambulance
London EC1

Planning official

SIR – Your report made comments about an individual public servant who is not in a position to respond.

It is wrong to generalise and suggest that Paul Griffiths makes unreasonable judgments about historic assets. Each case turns on its particular circumstances. Indeed, another of his decisions concerning the approach to the setting of a listed building (also affected by a wind farm) was challenged in the High Court and was found to be lawful.

Inspectors are required to exercise professional judgment and interpret conflicting policies and evidence. The Court of Appeal has now clarified the approach to be taken when considering development which would affect the setting of a listed building. The case follows other complex High Court cases on the same legal point.

Your report also refers to allegations that the inspector has ignored local opinion – this is not so. The local communities’ views were carefully considered and balanced against other planning considerations. The inspector’s decision was not criticised by the Court in that regard.

Sir Michael Pitt
Chief Executive, The Planning Inspectorate
Bristol

Coalition politics

SIR – Janet Daley complains about the lack of conviction in David Cameron’s Government.

It is important to remember that our economy remains on life support. Maintaining close-to-zero interest rates has allowed the Government some time to reform public services and patch up its finances, while business has begun again to invest. A failure of the Coalition, with the looming spectre of an Ed Balls economic policy, would be the fastest way to panic the markets, bringing on a currency crisis and a spike in interest rates, ruining our recovery and plunging the public finances into chaos.

The absence of speculation about such things is the reason why we must forgive David Cameron everything. By drinking a little cup of Lib Dem poison every day he has saved the country from a dreadful fate.

David Williams
Dormansland, Surrey

The business of puns

SIR – On punning business names, what about the Liverpudlian white-goods retailer, Sellfridges?

Brian Christley
Abergele, Denbighshire

SIR – There is a cement-delivery company in Hastings called “William the Concreter”.

Sandy Pratt
Lingfield, Surrey

SIR – I once spotted a cesspit-emptying lorry called Suck-cess.

Margaret Pegler
Cambridge

SIR – In the Thirties, when window blinds were the fashion, I often saw a van with the slogan “A blind man drives this van”.

I was puzzled for years.

William Eckhardt
Haxey, Lincolnshire

Immunity for Bloody Sunday is not right

SIR – Peter Hain says a deal with terrorists is the price of peace, that even-handedness requires the same deal for Bloody Sunday soldiers, and that forward-looking leaders ought not to waste time on past crime. He is probably right about the price of peace, but otherwise wrong.

It sounds plausible that if some get off for killing innocents, all get off. But it is not an even bargaining table. Peace requires an unpunished terrorist, not an unpunished soldier. We should minimise the price of allowing further wrongs, and the probity of our country’s institutions requires that we do not use terrorists as our benchmark. In dealing with ill-disciplined soldiers, would the Army want equivalence with the IRA in procedures and personnel? And does Mr Hain’s doctrine of even-handedness stop in Derry or Basra?

If we like utilitarian bargains, it is the greater good of truth that the soldiers should serve. Prison for old soldiers seems pointless, yet in that threat lies hope of ascertaining the responsibility of the officers who put them in this difficult situation, and of the ministers for a policy disaster.

Sadly, the Saville Inquiry’s inquisitiveness drained away as it rose up the hierarchy. Despite Mr Hain’s desire to move on, democratic leaders are accountable, and accountability is inherently backward-looking.

Prof Neil Mitchell
School of Public Policy, UCL
London WC1

SIR – Peter Hain says that he tried to have it agreed during the original negotiations that British troops should not be subject to criminal investigation, but that this was rejected by Sinn Fein.

Why did he and his puppet-master, Tony Blair, allow one side of the negotiations to decide on such an important aspect of them?

Ken Shuttleworth
St Albans, Hertfordshire

Thank you too much

SIR – I concur with Terry Wogan regarding the “extreme effusion” that has taken hold in the media.

A prime example is the weekday BBC 5 Live breakfast programme. The lead presenter is incapable of saying “thank you” without adding “very much indeed”.

G F Kendall
Southwick, West Sussex

Flagging it up

SIR – My local branch of Sainsbury’s is selling off its stock of Union Jack doormats. Mixed message, eh?

Chris Dooley
Woodville, Derbyshire

SIR – Matthew d’Ancona is clutching at straws. The idea that David Cameron has, in the German Chancellor, an ally in his bid to renegotiate Britain’s European Union membership, not least in the key area of immigration, is simply fanciful.

Angela Merkel made it perfectly clear on her recent visit that the free movement of EU citizens is non-negotiable. Most of us know this. No possible eurozone treaty will allow the clawing back of powers embedded by earlier treaties.

On top of this, we are looking at the increased likelihood of Ukrainian accession to the EU, assuming we don’t first end up embroiled in a war with Russia. I certainly don’t recall a Conservative Party manifesto pledging support for this.

Many Conservative voters have a lot more sympathy for Ukip’s unambiguous position than Mr Cameron’s euro-pragmatism.

Richard Elsy
Carlisle, Cumberland

SIR – If David Cameron is really serious about winning concessions from the EU rather than merely hoping to benefit from the political spin associated with his rhetoric, should he not start by initiating the repeal of the European Communities Act 1972? This Act gives legal effect to the rights and responsibilities of EU treaties, and gives primacy to the European Court of Justice in matters relating to EU law.

We have seen how intransigent the European Commission is when the suggestion of change or reform is brought up. Does Mr Cameron really think it will be influenced by his powers of persuasion?

Angus McPherson
Findon, West Sussex

SIR – Liam Fox is right both to warn the Prime Minister of “dangerous complacency” in dismissing the threat to the Conservatives from Ukip and to call for an end to “name calling” and accusations of Ukip activists as being “cranks” and “crackpots”.

The British people need to decide between UK sovereignty and EU subordination. Tory MPs should persuade David Cameron to apologise for insulting Ukip or step down, enabling early negotiations for an electoral constituency pact with Ukip, so that a Conservative majority government can be elected and tested on its promise of an EU referendum.

Brian Sturman
Norwich

SIR – Matthew d’Ancona should acknowledge that it was only pressure from Nigel Farage that forced David Cameron reluctantly to address the issue of EU membership and immigration and to offer a referendum.

EU immigration takes jobs from young Britons and will, if unchecked, change the cultural landscape of this country. Angela Merkel made it clear that free movement was not negotiable. Ukip has raised a fundamental issue that other political parties have failed to address. That may not be courageous but it is essential for the health of a democracy.

Malcolm Williams
Southsea, Hampshire

SIR – Matthew d’Ancona implies (though he does not state it explicitly) that Nigel Farage is motivated by racism when he speaks out against unrestricted immigration.

On the contrary, Mr Farage articulates the feelings of many ordinary people. We are not racists, nor do we oppose immigration per se. However, we feel deeply uncomfortable that our elected governments do not have control of Britain’s borders.

We want to welcome immigrants who have something positive to offer our society; we want to offer shelter to those who seek asylum from oppressive regimes and war zones; but we want our Parliament to be able to specify the criteria for admission.

That is how things are organised in other countries outside the EU, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Why should we not enjoy the same privilege? Britain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. We have more need to control immigration than most.

John Waine
Nuneaton, Warwickshire

 

 

 

 

Irish Times:

 

 

   

Sir, – There is ambiguity as to who is responsible for the safety of critically ill patients who suffer a brain haemorrhage and are denied emergency neurosurgical or endovascular treatment. Beaumont and Cork University Hospitals are the only centres which provide emergency neurosurgical treatment.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is an immediate life-threatening emergency. An estimated 460 to 1,290 people suffer a brain haemorrhage each year. Ten to 15 percent of casualties die before reaching hospital and about half of all patients die within the first six months. In 2012, 238 SAH patients were diagnosed. 138 were treated but 100 were denied treatment.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) claims that it is not responsible and that the Health Service Executive (HSE) is accountable as the statutory agency for managing and monitoring the performance of Beaumont Hospital.

The HSE claims that Beaumont is not responsible because the hospital did not take over the care of the unadmitted SAH patients and therefore would not have information on the outcome for those patients.

The Minister for Health, in response to written parliamentary questions, advised: “as this is a service matter it has been referred to the HSE for direct reply”.

So who is responsible?

When my wife, Nuala, suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage she was denied access to emergency neurosurgical treatment which would have prevented the catastrophic rebleed which caused her death in 2005.

In response to my criticism in The Irish Times on September 29th, 2009, that there were no guidelines, protocols or standards in place to monitor the safety of SAH patients unable to access emergency treatment, Beaumont Hospital said it was “satisfied that appropriate protocols were in place . . . contrary to Mr Lawless’s assertion, bed availability was not a relevant factor”.

In the same article, HIQA said its priority was to “develop generic standards to drive improvement across the whole health system” but confirmed that “a specific standard covering the transfer of cranial haemorrhage patients is not in our immediate plans.”

Later in response to my request to HIQA for a copy of the “appropriate protocols” which Beaumont Hospital claimed were in place, HIQA wrote to the hospital in 2010 seeking assurances that guidelines and protocols were in place. HIQA confirmed: “When it was established that there was not a single consistent guideline in place, the Authority ensured that National guidelines for patients with head injuries and subarachnoid haemorrhages with attendant algorithms were developed and disseminated to every HSE hospital”. These guidelines have not improved access to treatment.

Beaumont has just 10 neurosurgical intensive treatment beds. My assessment of a significant shortage of neurosurgical intensive treatment beds was confirmed by an expert group which reviewed critical care services in Ireland. Towards Excellence in Critical Care assessed the need for 52 intensive treatment and 8 high-dependency beds in 2014.

In a parliamentary question to the Minister for Health, I wanted to know the outcome for SAH patients admitted to various acute hospitals but denied emergency treatment in Beaumont Hospital in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The response through the HSE advised that the information is stored on the hospital’s hard drive system, but the neurosurgical research and development unit does not have the resources to retrospectively review.

The significant shortage of neurosurgical intensive treatment beds is obvious, corporate and clinical governance is poor, as is the assessment of patient safety risks. The lives of several hundred SAH patients in Ireland continue to be put at risk. The level of mortality is unknown because there is no measure of performance to monitor the outcome for untreated SAH patients. In contrast, the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital, London, accepts poor grade SAH patients for treatment and 53 per cent can expect a good recovery.

We need to review the outcome for untreated SAH patients in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and address patient safety risks in the Neurosurgical Centre. HIQA needs to be more proactive by putting in place a robust system to identify potential risks, and not just to react after tragedies have occurred. – Yours, etc,

JIM LAWLESS, MBA

Cypress Downs,

Templeogue,

Dublin 6w.

 

   

Sir, – How true is the old Irish saying “eaten bread is soon forgotten” in relation to a most dedicated group of Irish women and Irish men who served the Irish people with great self-sacrifice and dedication for nearly 200 years.

I refer to the thousands of Irish religious sisters and religious brothers, living and dead. These were the people who provided practically free primary and secondary education for generations of young people in this country and also in the third world countries.

They worked 24/7, as the saying goes, and being fully qualified as teachers their salaries were ploughed into the building and maintenance of excellent schools.

Other categories of sisters built and staffed hospitals and caring centres for young and old throughout Ireland, which again were provided through their salaries.

To the shame of our national media, the focus has in recent times being completely on the failures of a minority of religious working in orphanages and Magdalene homes.

Fair and just analysis of the scenario confronting religious in these far-off days would have taken account of the fact that the State authorities leaned on the goodwill of religious while abrogating their own responsibility to provide social services and then shamefully provided very frugal financial support compared to the generous assistance available in other jurisdictions.

We should also recall that there was a lack of statutory specialised training in bygone years for child care and that today there is intensive and adequate training of child care workers.

We await the day when print and broadcast media outlets will focus on the outstanding work of Irish religious, unprecedented in other countries, which has brought recognition and credit to Ireland internationally. –Yours, etc,

Fr CON McGILLICUDDY,

Sacred Heart Residence,

Sybil Hill Road,

Raheny,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – Allow me to clarify some matters of importance raised by Una Mullally in her otherwise excellent article on Chartered Land’s planned demolition of the Moore Street Paris Bakery (“Development takes Moore Street site from baking dough to making dough”, Opinion & Analysis, February 17th).

While it is correct to say that Dublin City Council did approve demolition in 1989, its policy now is that national monument protection should be extended to all of the buildings along the 1916 terrace of houses in Moore Street (numbers 10 to 25).

Nama’s remit is not confined to numbers 14 to 17.

The entire Dublin Central site is now under the financial control of Nama.

Approval has not been granted by Dublin City Council or An Bord Pleanála for the demolition of numbers 18 & 19 (The Paris Bakery). Approval for their demolition is only now being sought by way of ministerial consent as buildings “in proximity to the national monument” – a requirement of national monument legislation.

While James Connolly did, of course, surrender in Moore Street he did so in agreement with fellow members of the 1916 Provisional Government of the Irish Republic. – Yours, etc,

JAMES CONNOLLY

HERON,

The Save16

Moore Street Committee,

The Pearse Family Home,

Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

 

Sir, – As happens every year or so, the proxy debate over the Irish language rages between those who are “for” it and those “against” it. I say proxy, because the debate is ostensibly between different theories or value judgments about culture or about one sentiment or another in the letter writers.

But only ostensibly. The real issue is not about those different judgments or sentiments of one person or another.

It is about the degree to which the judgments and sentiments of one group in society is imposed on another group through the exercise of State power in the education system.

The whole debate could disappear by the simple action of making Irish a subject of choice in the Leaving Certificate. Then each contesting group could follow their own judgment and sentiment without having to persuade any other group of their infallibility and without having to take exceptional measures to impose their will on others. – Yours, etc,

DONAL FLYNN

Breffni Terrace,

Sandycove, Co Dublin.

A chara, – While Jason Fitzharris (March 5th) may be correct as to the proportion of census forms filled out in Irish, we must ask why the figure is so low. One valid reason is that the choice is not presented to the participant on the spot, suggesting that they are not available. I had to specially request my form. More hassle to me and to the collectors. If, as in Canada, we had an “active offer” of either language giving citizens a real choice, there would be higher uptake. – Is mise,

MAITIÚ de HÁL,

Páirc na Canálach Ríoga,

Baile an Ásaigh,

Baile Átha Cliath 15.

 

Sir, – Hats off to the Irish Dancing Commission for making a move to ban wigs, false tans, make-up and false eyelashes for children under 10 (“Minister says child beauty pageants steal childhood”, Oireachtas Report, March 6th). Also, tiaras off to the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald and Independent Senators Jillian van Turnhout and Mary Louise O’Donnell for taking a strong stand against child beauty pageants in Ireland. The child beauty pageants we see televised today are part of a multimillion dollar industry and are a long way from the “dressing up” games that we played as little girls. Our society is rife with competition, pressure and stress as it is.

Childhood is short, so please let children be children. – Yours, etc,

JAKKI MOORE,

Akershus,

Son,

Norway.

Sir, – On April 2nd, at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin, a service will take place in honour of 222 babies and young children who died in the Bethany Home Orwell Road Dublin, during 1922-1949.

The service will begin at 4pm, and we are delighted that representatives from four of the main Christian denominations will be participating. In addition, we are pleased to be able to announce that following the service, a memorial headstone will be unveiled at the cemetery. We wish to acknowledge that the considerable cost of the headstone has been met by the Department for Justice and sanctioned by Alan Shatter.

For too long, the short lives of these children have been unacknowledged, unnamed and their remains unmarked. It is highly appropriate that at last we can now rectify this situation, and that all of us have the opportunity to pay our respects, and to jointly remember a very sad time in our history.

I extend an invitation to all to join us on a very special day. – Yours, etc,

DEREK LINSTER,

Chairman,

Bethany

Survivors Group,

Southey Road,

Rugby, England

 

 

   

A chara, – Hilary Carr (March 7th) questions the possibility of surfing a wave more than once. This is possible because in surfing parlance the word wave describes both a single physical wave as well as the location at which the wave breaks and there is no record of the wave that breaks at Prowlers having been surfed before 2010. – Is mise,

GREG SCANLON,

Ballycasey Manor,

Shannon,

Co Clare.

 

   

Sir, – Price controls on legal services would quickly make a judicial career financially attractive. – Yours, etc,

EWAN DUFFY,

Castletown,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – It is not for society to judge the motives of former Magdalene sisters; but is a right and a duty of society to judge their actual deeds. Like many in Ireland, Catherine McCann misses the point (“Sisters who ran Magdalene laundries are being treated unjustly”, Opinion & Analysis, March 3rd). Anyone who ever maltreated a child or an unmarried mother has done evil. Anyone who looked on when a child was unreasonably beaten, or an unmarried mother humiliated, has done evil.

To be misled or misguided is no excuse – nuns or not, they were all responsible adults. And the blame doesn’t stop at the gates of the convent – any parent who surrendered an unmarried daughter into such a place was doing evil, as were neighbours who “condemned” unmarried mothers. – Yours, etc,

Dr GERARD

P MONTAGUE,

Immenstadt,

Allgäu,

Germany.

Sir, – Recent correspondence reflects a desire to scapegoat at all costs, which seems unfortunately to be part of our Irish make-up. It demonstrates an all too common rejection of the low-key and factual McAleese report, which mentioned the short stays of many girls in the laundries, frequently used as remand hostels or as merciful alternatives to prison, as well as a longer-term refuge for young women with a variety of difficulties, including physical and intellectual disabilities. We should bear in mind that even today, Irish legislation for the rights of disabled people lags decades behind that in the UK.

Creative workers in residential care require not only high motivation but suitable temperament, and a variety of skills. No training was available then to teach these things , nor was it thought necessary.

The easy assumption was made that “caring” was a simple matter and something all women did naturally. That comfortable belief is still with us today.

Regarding institutions, whatever form any highly structured living takes, there will always be people who love it for its security, a good many who will tolerate it, and a few who hate it utterly and say it caused all their troubles. The latter group is the most likely to be interviewed.

There was a period when the majority of people in Ireland had narrow horizons and limited education, and little official attempt seems to have been made until very recently to remedy this.

There was then almost no attempt at practical welfare, except by individuals and voluntary organisations, mainly the churches. No royal patronage, no generous Irish millionaires! Only the extended family, to which a child with a “blemish” or a “difference” was somebody to hide away lest their presence affect the marriage or career prospects of their siblings !

Don’t let us forget the past. We are no better now, just more forgetful. – Yours, etc,

HELENA

KELLEHER KAHN,

Church Street,

Cloyne,

Co Cork.

 

Sir, – Michael Finan (March 7th) writes of the recently published revised regulations which have come about as a result of the Priory Hall fiasco, in which a firewall, which, by law, should have been capable of withstanding fire for a certain amount of time in order to give residents a chance to evacuate the building, was not, according to media reports, actually a firewall.

Mr Finan complains of numerous flaws with the legislation. It is a pity, if he is correct, that these regulations do not achieve the purpose which they should have been intended to achieve. Namely, that any individual who participates in the construction of a building, from the architect who designed the building right through to the plasterer who finishes it, and all engineers and tradesmen between, are all personally liable for the portion of the work which they carried out.

Obviously, the architect who designed the building can’t be responsible for the actual hands-on construction of that building, nor a bricklayer for the under-specification by the architect of, for example, a structural column.

Rather, if every individual has personally to sign for the work that they have carried out, certifying that the work is built to, at least, the minimum standard as laid down in law, and they understand that they are personally liable with personal sanctions for their portion of the work, it is highly likely that shoddy construction work would disappear overnight, when people realise that they could end up in jail and drummed out of the industry.

The aviation industry uses a similar system. Every job, no matter how small, is signed off by the technician and their supervisor and the records are retained for the lifetime of the aircraft. So the system would be workable. – Yours, etc,

DAVID DORAN,

Royal Oak Road,

Bagenalstown,

Co Carlow.

 

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

Gerard O’Regan has once again missed the point by stating that ‘(John) Kerry has seen the horrors of war up close (which) should uniquely qualify him for his role’.

Also in this section

Letters: Adams could be IRA whistleblower

Letters: A true centre of excellence

Letters: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The post of secretary of state in the US has become designated to those who fail presidential elections, not those who would use their wit and wisdom to avert wars.

The US has gone to war more than any other country on the planet in recent times.

It has dragged itself into two immoral and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with no tangible successes on the horizon.

Both nations are still saddled with desolation and mayhem; their infrastructures are ruined and their people are far from reaching their promised democratic destinations.

On the other hand, as the unfolding crisis in Crimea has demonstrated, not a single shot was fired while Russians tightened their grip on this strategic peninsula on the Black Sea.

The overwhelming populace in Crimea are in favour of joining Mother Russia.

Their cultural, familial and historic ties are bound to soothe this historic transfer.

And while the spectre of financial meltdown is still lurking underneath global financial systems, Russia controls the gas supply to the whole of Europe and is in an influential position to use it as a diplomatic tool to assert its will.

Many commentators see the forthcoming referendum on the future of Crimea on March 16 as an act of desperation.

I view such sentiments as nothing less than a moral turpitude and a blatant departure from the truth.

What Ukrainians and Crimeans need at this juncture is for outsiders to stop meddling in their internal affairs, and to help them rebuild their institutions and be better prepared for future challenges.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London Nw2

TRUE NATURE OF LOVE

* Sean Smith wrote an interesting letter on March 8 in which he states as “a reluctant atheist” he envies Sean McElgunn’s ability to accept the duality of not knowing, yet naming God as the first cause, and knowing that God exists and is love.

The problem innumerable people have with religious dogma is the emphasis that one must believe in God, allied to the threat of a terrible existence, after earthly life, in a place called Hell – something one of the great Irish ninth century philosophers Eriugena, (John Scotus Eriugena) claimed does not exist, “as the universe is one”. Eriugena also disputed predestination, another of the anomalies taught by some religions as being fact, for which he earned a badge of honour with a place on The Index Librorum Prohibitorum – a list of prohibited books banned by the church – for a number of centuries.

Finally Mr Smith states: “I envy the comfort and solace this knowledge must bring. I am, however, cursed with a rational mind that will not settle on a solution to a mystery simply because it is the best it can manage. The mystery rolls on.”

Indeed the “mystery” does roll on, and will continue to do so, as long as humans inherit, and inhabit this most wonderful Earth we now reside on. Eastern philosophy states: “That which we envy in others; we actually possess. It is just we fail to recognise it in ourselves.”

My considered opinion is, we should live with faith, hope and charity. Refrain from deliberately harming any life on Earth: that is love.

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

THE THIN BLUE LINE

* A shortage of biros in a particular garda station (Irish Independent, March 7) means surely that the officers there have difficulty drawing a thin blue line?

Tom Gilsenan

Beaumont, Dublin 9

THE AULD RELIABLE BONO

* Normally, visiting dignitaries are photographed with a pint of the black stuff or flexing a hurley with eyes on a ball. A few have uttered a cupla focail like “Is Feidir Linn”, thus endearing themselves to T-shirt manufacturers .

A new phenomenon, however, has crept into our national lack of confidence. In addition to the above, we now wheel out Bono for many state gigs. Why?

At the recent Conference Centre shindig involving the European People’s Party, Bono waxed lyrical about Ireland, austerity recovery and finance.

Never saw the chancellor of the UK Exchequer wheel out Mick Jagger to drive a point home.

John Cuffe

Co Meath

GETTING TO CORE OF TAXES

* Your report that grandparents who mind their grandchildren are to be forced to fill out tax returns (Irish Independent, March 8) demonstrates the stark discrimination that now exists in our tax code.

On the business pages of the same edition you quote a report from the ‘Australian Financial Review’ newspaper which claims that computer giant Apple had shifted almost $9bn (€6.5bn) in untaxed profits in 10 years from Australia to a “tax haven structure in Ireland”. Unbelievable stuff.

Jim O’Sullivan

Rathedmond, Sligo

HARE-RAISING INCIDENT

* I empathise with John Fitzgerald (Irish Independent, March 6) on his conservation efforts and certainly on his concern for the most timid of all small animals, the hare.

An incident in my early life involving that little creature is something I’ll never forget.

It happened on a bright Sunday afternoon as my mother sat reading her ‘favourite newspaper’. The back door was wide open and lo and behold – like a flash of lightning – in shot this desperate animal, landing straight into my nature-loving mother’s lap. The ears were pricked, heart thumping, eyes of fear popping from the head. This was a hunted hare.

Within seconds the bloodthirsty pack of hounds were howling in the driveway and across the yard. On hearing them my father shot from his chair getting the door shut in the nick of time. I can assure you that frightened hare was nursed like a baby until it was fit to be safely released.

Although that experience was implanted in my mind, we had some greyhounds of our own and the picture gradually faded. Hopefully, not to my shame, I enjoyed many good hare coursing days after that.

Age is possibly the greatest tamer of mankind – now, I would frown on a cat killing a mouse.

James Gleeson,

Thurles, Co Tipperary

IRISH AID TO UGANDA

* Last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry compared the draconian anti-gay legislation passed in the Republic of Uganda in February with oppressive government crackdowns on German Jews in the 1930s and black South Africans during apartheid.

But the secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Public Accounts Committee last week that it would not be appropriate to cut Irish aid to Uganda.

It would appear that Irish taxpayers’ money is allocated unconditionally and that Ireland has little, or no, diplomatic clout with respect to human rights in Uganda.

This contrasts with the position of Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, each of whom promptly cut their aid allocation to Uganda in protest against the outrageous oppression of human rights conferred by the legislation.

Myles Duffy

Glenageary, Co Dublin

Irish Independent

 


Bank

$
0
0

11 March 2014 Bank

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.Pertwee mistakes a a musical cigarette box for a experimental missile aiming device Priceless

Cold slightly better Both of us very tired. Bank tip Co Op

Scrabbletoday Iwins but getover400, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

 

Sir Thomas Chitty, who has died aged 88, wrote, under the name Thomas Hinde, one of the most acclaimed first novels of the 1950s — a debut that saw him hailed as a major new English writer. He also led his family on an epic 2,000-mile journey by foot and donkey in the steps of Hannibal.

Chitty had only been down from Oxford a year when Mr Nicholas was published in 1952. It was a bitter, claustrophobic portrait of a deeply dysfunctional family in stockbroker-belt suburbia. Showered with critical garlands, Chitty was compared to Graham Greene and hailed as his potential successor.

One newspaper rated him the best new English novelist of the decade. Another put Mr Nicholas in the top five novels of the Fifties and named it the first “angry” novel in the movement whose Angry Young Men — Kingsley Amis, John Osborne and others — dominated the middle years of that decade.

It was Chitty’s misfortune that his first proved to be his best. His 15 subsequent novels secured critical respect but never quite the sustained popular acclaim that many of his contemporaries felt he deserved. This was a shame because novels such as For The Good of the Company, The Village, The Day The Call Came and High displayed the same restless intelligence and acute eye for social interaction that had made Chitty’s debut such a huge success. What they lacked, though, was the original anger that fuelled Mr Nicholas, a novel which Chitty was happy to admit was autobiographical. Later he switched to non-fiction, writing several biographies and numerous books on the English countryside, towns and schools.

Thomas Willes Chitty was born on March 2 1926. The baronetcy came from his grandfather, a King’s Counsel and King George V’s Grand Remembrancer who married the poet Henry Newbolt’s sister.

Tom’s education at the ascetic preparatory school run by his father in East Anglia was a ghastly experience, which he chronicled 50 years later in the memoir Sir Henry & Sons, a work that dovetails with Mr Nicholas. Together they present a deeply unflattering portrait of his father. The only positive thing that Tom took from the experience was a certainty that nothing else could ever be as bad.

He went on to Winchester and emerged in 1944 an eccentric young man without clear ambitions. Familial enthusiasm propelled him into a manifestly inappropriate career in the Navy. There he spent two and a half years in the English Channel aboard a motor-torpedo boat commanded by the future journalist Mark Arnold-Forster. After several attempts he succeeded in resigning his commission.

At University College, Oxford, where he read Modern History from 1948, he was remembered as an oddly distinguished presence with a wild head of black hair and a battered Army greatcoat. Ironically, given later comparisons between their styles, Chitty’s first literary success was in a competition run by the New Statesman to write the first 150 words of a Graham Greene novel. Chitty won, while Greene himself admitted that 2nd, 3rd and 4th place were all taken by entries he had submitted under pseudonyms.

In the year he came down, Chitty married Susan Hopkinson. He had proposed on the Big Dipper at Battersea Park funfair – where he was working as brakeman on one of the cars and Susan was tending the park’s llamas. She was the daughter of the notoriously difficult author Antonia White, who had been certified insane at the age of 21, confined in an asylum and never fully recovered her stability of mind.

Antonia White retained an unrelenting hostility to Chitty, dismissing him as “untalented and unwashed”. “I think Mama couldn’t bear to see me establishing any independence,” Susan Chitty said later. “She eventually threw me out of our house, changing the locks and ordering me not to come back.”

Susan Chitty, also an author, frequently found herself subject to press attention during her marriage, usually for her written assaults on the memory of the mother she loathed. These were invariably met by volleys of return fire from her sister, Lyndall, who retained less hostile memories, and by Antonia White’s supporters such as the writer Germaine Greer.

The couple’s early married life was spent in modest circumstances in a Kensington flat where they lived amid innumerable cats and homemade furniture. The income from their considerable written output was supplemented by Tom’s sideline talent as a photographer.

The publication of Mr Nicholas brought renown but no great wealth, and Chitty took a job with Shell, in public relations. It was, unsurprisingly, a rather unsatisfactory partnership, which he subsequently mined for his well-received eighth novel For The Good Of the Company, published a year after he left in 1961.

He infused his books not only with his own experiences, but with his own character. This embraced contradictions, for Hinde was a left-wing Conservative, a titled man-in-the-street, and a gloomy optimist. One contemporary noted that: “His books have a unique quality of being entertaining whilst they relentlessly depress the reader. One feels that Tom Chitty would like to be as mean, as poor, as downtrodden and despairing as his characters, because he is rather ashamed of being so pleasant, so respectable, so nice to everybody.”

In 1964 Chitty was appointed Granata Arts Fellow at York University and a year later moved to America and a well-paid teaching post as resident creative writer at the University of Illinois.

The novel High, which he wrote shortly after his return from America, gives some clue to the impact the counter-culture revolution of the time had had upon him. He admitted that taking LSD was “the most enjoyable thing I’ve done in 20 years”. He tried it, he said, because his most intelligent students recommended it.

With the proceeds from his American sojourn, the Chittys were able to buy the rambling 300 year-old Bow Cottage in West Hoathly, Sussex, which they had previously rented and which would be their home for the rest of their married life. Forever thick with dust, and filled from floor to rafters with books, it was an edifice more or less literally supported by the written word. “We are desperately hard up, you know,” Susan Chitty confessed laughingly in 1997. “We live off droppings from other people’s tables.”

The Chittys maintained unorthodox views, including a deep aversion to television, and an abiding suspicion of central government which saw them become committed to the goal of self-sufficiency. This was partly a matter of principle, and partly because they anticipated an imminent and complete economic collapse, a vision that Chitty committed to print in his penultimate novel Daymare (1980).

Their splendidly practical guide to self-sufficient living, On Next To Nothing, based on their motto “Half-an-Acre and a Goat”, was published in 1976 as a counter to this eventuality. Long before it was fashionable, they were passionate enemies of pesticides, processed food and artificial additives.

A year later, in 1977, the couple and three of their four children left Britain on a 2,000-mile journey by donkey in the footsteps of Hannibal from Spain to Turkey. It took them a year and half and was not short of incident.

Among other adventures, both daughters, aged seven and three, suffered broken arms when the donkeys (named Hannibal and Hamilcar) bolted. The family was also nearly swept away in a flash flood, and drove off wolves in the Macedonian mountains. Perhaps it was no surprise that Iago, the family dog, voted with his paws and abandoned camp one night never to be seen again.

The journey produced two books, one (The Great Donkey Walk) an account of the adventure written with his wife, the other a biography of one of Chitty’s 18th-century forebears, Thomas Chitty of Dagenham and Smyrna, dealer in goat hair and carpets, based on research undertaken in Turkey.

Having abandoned fiction, Thomas Chitty produced 20 further books, including a biography of Capability Brown, several histories of public schools and several books on gardens and the countryside.

Sir Thomas Chitty was a thoroughly gentle man who, with his wife, maintained a wide circle of friends. They were generous hosts and guests to their annual summer parties enjoyed such delicacies as his own potent elderflower wine, and apparently on one occasion a home-produced goats cheese infused with cannabis.

A keen gardener, Chitty spent many years digging what was originally to have been a swimming pool in the garden, but eventually became a lake. He also spent much time landscaping and planting a large wood on land he bought behind his house. Between them the couple wrote nearly 50 books. His last novel was In Time of Plague, published in 2006.

With his wife Sir Thomas Chitty had one son and three daughters.

Sir Thomas Chitty, born March 2 1926, died March 7 2014

Guardian:

 

 

Air travel, and the aircraft noise that accompanies it, have become an integral part of modern life, but perceptions of aircraft noise vary greatly, mainly depending on where it is experienced.

For most people, who do not live near to a major airport, air travel is exclusively defined in terms of the considerable economic or social benefits that it brings. On the other hand, for those who live near major airports, aircraft noise can be an imposition. The time has come to adopt a fresh approach, to restore trust and give people the confidence that their legitimate grievances are being addressed.

We believe that the establishment of an independent aircraft noise ombudsman, set up at arm’s length from government and the industry, could play a fundamental role in further establishing trust and confidence, thus bringing about a fair and reasonable balance between increasing demand for flights and noise control.

Building on the common ground and goodwill built up among the interested parties, the ombudsman would collaborate with all of them to report on noise in an open, transparent and intelligible manner, and to deal with noise limitation problems fairly and sustainably.

We therefore call on the government and politicians of all colours to work collaboratively with all stakeholders on designing, and thereafter the early establishment of, an independent aircraft noise ombudsman to further enhance and protect the welfare of people living near airports.

Stephen Alambritis leader, Merton council
David Amess MP Con, Southend West
Tony Arbour AM Richmond, Kingston and Hounslow
Jennette Arnold AM Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest
Bob Blackman MP Harrow East
Mark Boleat chair, policy and resources committee, City of London Corporation
David Brazier cabinet member for transport and environment, Kent county council
Robert Buckland MP Con, South Swindon
Sir Steve Bullock Mayor of Lewisham
Muhammed Butt Leader, Brent council
Jim Cunningham MP Lab, Coventry South
Tom Copley AM London-wide
Brenda Dean Lab, House of Lords
Andrew Dismore AM, Barnet and Camden
Jim Dobbin MP Lab, Heywood and Middleton
Len Duvall AM leader of Labour group, Greenwich and Lewisham
Roger Evans AM deputy chairman of the London Assembly, Havering and Redbridge
Stephen Fry chief executive, Hounslow Chamber of Commerce
Zac Goldsmith MP Con, Richmond Park
Robert Gray director, Back Heathrow
Rt Hon Sir Alan Haselhurst MP Con, Saffron Walden
Gavin Hayes director, Let Britain Fly
Dr Julian Huppert MP Lib Dem, Cambridge
Darren Johnson AM chair of the London Assembly
Jenny Jones AM leader, Green Group at the London Assembly
Stephen Joseph chief executive, Campaign for Better Transport
David Lammy MP Lab, Tottenham
Mike Langan chair, Hillingdon Chamber of Commerce
Lisa Lavia managing director, Noise Abatement Society
Caroline Lucas MP Green, Brighton Pavilion
Caroline Nokes MP Con, Romsey and Southampton North
Steve O’Connell AM Croydon and Sutton
Lib Peck leader, Lambeth council
Roger Reed deputy leader, South Buckinghamshire district council
Philippa Roe leader, Westminster city council
Ben Rogers, director, Centre for London
Andrew Rosindell MP Con, Romford
Sir Bob Russell MP Lib Dem, Colchester
Dr Onkar Sahota AM Ealing and Hillingdon
Valerie Shawcross AM Lambeth and Southwark
Henry Smith MP Con, Crawley
Nicholas Soames MP Con, Mid Sussex
John Stewart chair, Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise
Jeremy Taylor chief executive, Gatwick Diamond Business
Baroness Valentine chief executive, London First
Joan Walley MP Lab Stoke-on-Trent North
Tim Yeo MP Con, South Suffolk
Professor Xin Zhang professor of aircraft engineering, University of Southampton

 

I am saddened and surprised at the BBC‘s announcement to close BBC3, rather than privatise it (It’s elementary: keeping Sherlock, 8 March). A good privatisation would be to sell the channel off to an overseas partnership company, with BBC Worldwide still holding a stake in the company, in the same way it holds a stake in UKTV group. The new channel could pay the BBC to use its multiplex positions on Freeview; advertising and sponsorship would add to funds and, as planned, the BBC could still make content available first online, as it plans to, via the iPlayer, with the new channel showing the big screen experience at a latter date. The channel would intermix this with overseas content.

Personally, I would ditch the fly-on-the-wall documentary type of programming, which is difficult to sell to an overseas market, and stick with comedy and quality drama, perhaps with edgy in-context current affairs.
Neil Rees
Letchworth, Hertfordshire

•  Like many others, I watch TV on demand via the internet and, as such, I don’t need to buy a TV licence. However, the soundtrack of our life is the BBC and has been when living here or abroad. The children are happy when I choose which educational – and therefore guilt-free for me – CBeebies programme. I iron to the Graham Norton show on a Sunday evening. Such exciting lives we lead …

We are lucky. The past few days have shown what a fundamental service journalists provide, and specifically the BBC. What is happening in Ukraine is also part of our life, and pressure is kept up to help change the fate of these people. Although I may not be able to change the mind of world leaders, I can help fund the service that does, the service that means that the people scared about their future can listen in and know that they are not forgotten.

I may not want to contribute to Jeremy Clarkson’s salary but I do selfishly want more Sherlock. So after initially stopping my TV licence, I have just re-bought it. So should everyone!
Dr Alice Byram
Brighton

•  How does the cost of upgrading broadband coverage to match TV coverage, with high enough speeds to screen HDTV, compare with the cost of maintaining the current over-the-air broadcast (BBC4 could go online too…, 7 March)?
David Barnard
Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire

•  If Tony Hall, the BBC’s director general, wants to save some money, we can only hope that the days of BBC junkets are coming to and end, but with the Football World Cup looming I won’t hold my breath. During the 2012 London Olympics, licence-payers footed hotel bills for dozens of BBC staff who lived within commuting distance of the Games, 100 staff covered Nelson Mandela’s funeral, and almost 100 staff went to Sochi last month.
Geoff Hulme
Altrincham, Cheshire

•  Could the axing of BBC3 mean a well-deserved “promotion” to BBC1 or BBC2 for the funniest comedy series on our screens? Bluestone 42 (Another view, G2, 10 March), of course. And I’m not one of the young people at whom the Beeb seems to be aiming the third channel. I’m 66, and there are a lot of fellow boomers around who love BBC3.
Sandy Baker
Fleet, Hampshire

• The torment by trailer suffered by BBC radio listeners (Editorial, 8 March) is nothing compared with the torture endured by BBC television viewers. Even the most mundane documentary suffers from soaring strings or twanging guitars. The BBC’s stock response is that music is personal and is added to increase viewer enjoyment. The problem is that because music is personal, if it grates with the viewer, it could result in switching off.

The people who suffer the most are those with hearing difficulties. The Royal National Institute for the Deaf has campaigned over many years on behalf of its members but, if anything, the problem has only got worse. I have no problem with music carefully chosen to fit the programme content and played at modest volume but all too often I find myself taking more notice of the noise and less of the commentary. That is the time to switch off.
Tony Bond
Leigh, Lancashire

 

Ofsted’s Michael Cladingbowl asserts that “more children are attending good or outstanding schools now than at any other time, and Ofsted has played an important role in that” (Short visits for inspectors in Ofsted shakeup, 8 March). The implication that Ofsted makes schools better is absurd, insulting to staff and students, and completely unjustifiable. Where schools have improved, it is despite the negative, snapshot and data-driven judgments of inspectors, not because of them.

Imagine if the millions spent on inspections since Ofsted was invented in the early 90s had been spent reducing class size, improving buildings and equipment, and paying teachers a rate commensurate with the high levels of skill, expertise and dedication they display every day. The forthcoming Policy Exchange report into Ofsted’s track record is to be heartily welcomed.
Max Fishel
Bromley

• That “more children are attending good or outstanding schools now than at any other time” depends on your perspective. More young people are suffering mental health problems, more young people are living unhealthy lifestyles, more teachers are dissatisfied with their lot and many employers are still saying that schools are not equipping young people with the skills they need: collaboration, creativity, communication. Until schools are allowed to focus on the needs of the whole child and Ofsted is able to look beyond raw numerical data and test scores, the jury is out on whether young people’s experience of school is improving. Perhaps we should ask them.
Fiona Carnie
European Forum for Freedom in Education

• Before Ofsted, one of HM Inspectorate’s responsibilities was to evaluate the effects of government policy on the system as a whole. That responsibility needs to be exercised in the new dispensation. Only if it is can we be assured of Ofsted’s genuine independence.
Professor Colin Richards
(Former HMI) Spark Bridge, Cumbria

• Rightwing thinktanks cannot have much confidence in free schools and academies if they are questioning whether they should be subject to Ofsted inspections, the only way we can compare standards between local authority schools and this new crop of independent state schools. Will they next propose that we have a separate charity commission to cover the financial benefits to private schools as well?
David Selby
South Wonston, Winchester

• DJ Taylor’s excellent article on John Carey’s autobiography (The back page, Review, 8 March) exposes the frequently overlooked fact that grammar school pupils were old-fashioned meritocrats whose success was built on other children’s failures. As one who attended Shene grammar (1958-66) I recall the markedly superior quality of sports, science and teaching we enjoyed compared with the other secondary state provision in SW14. I was fully aware of the fate that awaited my former primary school friends who failed the 11-plus. It was exactly this dreadful unfairness that motivated Tony Crosland to offer all children a more equal opportunity and proper share of educational funding.
John Vaughan
Salisbury, Wiltshire

 

Today, changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 come into effect that will reduce the length of time for which some individuals are required to disclose any criminal conviction to employers.

Many employers are carrying out checks unlawfully. It will soon also be a criminal offence to require a job applicant or an existing member of staff to obtain, on behalf of their employer, a copy of their police record.

Nacro, the UK’s largest crime reduction charity, works with employers to help them recruit fairly and safely. It is clear that far too few businesses – big and small – are aware of the amendments to the legislation.

Nacro successfully lobbied for changes, which will help to create a more level playing field for those who have put their criminal past behind them and wish to enter the workforce. Any organisation in need of help or advice should contact our employer advice service http://www.nacro.org.uk.
Graham Beech
Acting chief executive, Nacro

 

Professor Thorne is indeed correct to say that the rainbow in Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows requires the sun to be behind the painter (Letters, 6 March), because the anti-solar point (shadow of the observer’s head) must be at the centre of the circle that passes through any part of any arc of a rainbow, as a physics undergraduate text will explain. While full or partial rainbows have nothing to do with it, for they merely indicate where raindrops were present, we agree that the shadows exhibit artistic licence.
Dr David Griffiths
Claygate, Surrey

•  ”Don’t buy the products of apartheid. Don’t invest in apartheid” – the words of Nelson Mandela in London in April 1990. Hardly the embarrassed mutter Simon Jenkins (Helen Suzman deserves her tribute alongside Nelson Mandela, 7 March) claims to have witnessed. Jenkins’ sideswipe at those who “refused an orange” hardly does justice to the hundreds of thousands of people who joined anti-apartheid campaigns worldwide in the 1980s. Or to the activists who kept the Anti-Apartheid Movement going throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Their story is now online at: www.aamarchives.
Christabel Gurney
AAM Archives

• Nils Pratley (8 March) berates Barclays for 72 uses of the vacuous phrase “go-to” in its annual report. But even Mary Beard (Review, 8 March) describes Bernard Williams as “the Labour government’s ‘go-to guy’ on moral policy”. The standfirst on her article uses the phrase in the same way, too. “Go-to” seems to be the “go-to” phrase at the moment.
Dr Alex May
Manchester

•  I think that the time has come to stop publishing the widely held misapprehension that “Much of the Somerset Levels is below sea level” (Report, 7 March). Ordnance survey maps show clearly that the lowest lying land is actually 3 metres above sea level.
Dr Helen Clark
Street, Somerset

• ”Nick Clegg was forced … to make clear that he would remain leader of the Liberal Democrats until 2020″ (Report, 10 March). Don’t the other Lib Dems have some say in that? Not to mention the electors in Sheffield?
Kevin McGrath
Harlow

 

Your editorial on “The quiet death of English justice” (8 March) is timely but fails to make the link between the withdrawal of legal aid and the proposed Stephen Lawrence inquiry and other cases of institutional abuse. A culture of racism, corruption or bullying does not begin with a major event. It springs from a drip-feed process of seemingly trivial incidents – a failure to respond to a neighbour dispute because the caller is black, disproportionate use of stop and search powers, workplace bullying – that are allowed to go unchecked. These are the sort of problems that until now clients have brought to law centres, high street solicitors and similar agencies. With the legal aid cuts and the ending of financial support for advice agencies, such assistance is no longer available and the clients are without any remedy. As a result, the petty abuses will continue and the rotten culture will grow, no matter how many expensive public inquiries are set up. Proper funding of legal advice and assistance at the grass-roots level is key to preventing such abuses escalating.
Andrew Hillier QC
Volunteer, Battersea Law Centre, London

• The most devastating effects on English justice will arise from the combination of legal aid fee reductions and the new requirement for firms to provide a service across a whole county area rather than the local town. The government reckons that this will reduce the number of duty solicitor firms by two thirds. High street criminal law firms will disappear, and those seeking a lawyer will be at the mercy of a few large firms operating at a distance, bent on making a narrow profit from the reduced fee by providing the meanest service they can get away with.

The criminal justice budget has been eaten up by the costs of a few complex cases but it is those who seek justice at the more modest end of the social and legal spectrum who are being made to pay.
Ian Aspden
Waverton, Chester

 

 

 

Independent:

I am from the city of Mykolaiv, which is in the south of Ukraine, near Odessa.

I think it is important  for British people to know what is going on in the south of Ukraine, as it is often presented in the media as being an area that is predominantly pro-Russian.

This is a biased and unfair misrepresentation of the situation. Yes, we’re predominantly Russian-speaking, but the vast majority of us are true patriots of our motherland Ukraine.

Russian-speaking Odessa and Mykolaiv are for a united Ukraine.

Please help spread the truth of what is really going on in our country.

I strongly believe in the professionalism of The Independent’s journalists and your impartial, unbiased reporting of events in Ukraine.

Olesia Makh, Mykolaiv, Ukraine

There are two elephants in the room when Ukraine is discussed. The first is Sebastopol. This has been Russia’s warm-water port in the Med for many, many years. It only became a part of Ukraine because of a couple of administrative errors by different Russian governments, although Russia does have an effective lease on this area.

The Russians are now justifiably nervous about its future. Putin’s losing Sebastopol could be a disaster for him and for Russia.

The second elephant is Russia’s fear of being surrounded. Cast your mind back to the Cuban missile crisis. The resolution was a deal whereby the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles from Cuba in exchange for Nato withdrawing its missiles from Turkey. Putin now fears Nato with its missiles sitting on Russia’s border.

We need to stop always dealing with Russia in an adversarial way and find a way of settling the fears on either side.

Why not divide Ukraine into two countries, East Ukraine with Sebastopol and the principally Russian-speaking part, and West Ukraine, Ukrainian-speaking and leaning towards Europe?

This would create a buffer zone between Europe and Russia and a good possibility of peace.

John Day, Port Solent, Hampshire

 

Alzheimer’s and assisted suicide

Your leader welcoming the news of an early diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s (10 March) fails to mention one aspect of this dreadful disease which could be of great importance to those who have a positive test – the possibility of assisted suicide once the actual symptoms of dementia appear.

Having witnessed my mother’s slow and pitiful passing following four years of dementia, and having seen the inexorable progress of the disease on the residents in the care home where she spent her last years, I am quite certain that, should I ever develop the condition, then I would want to die with dignity while I still could.

The chances of my being able to do so are virtually nil at present, even if Lord Falconer’s “assisted dying” Bill passes into law; this would only apply to those who are terminally ill with six months to live.

Even if you were to seek to travel to a Dignitas clinic, my understanding is that you still need to have psychiatric counselling and would have to be of “sound mind” – if you wait until you have the first symptoms of dementia, then no one is going to sign you off.

Another problem is that in the early stages of dementia some people can still lead reasonably happy lives with support from relatives, and that period will vary from person to person.

With an early diagnosis, it surely should be possible for someone who has a 90 per cent chance of developing Alzheimer’s to make a living will which will provide for their assisted suicide once the disease has reached a certain clinical stage.

If Lord Falconer’s Bill is passed and works satisfactorily, perhaps the time might then be right to look at assisted suicide for Alzheimer’s sufferers.

John E Orton, Portishead, North Somerset

 

Road death target should be zero

In a scathing report on Network Rail’s handling of deaths in level-crossing accidents, the Transport Select Committee said that a target of zero fatalities by 2020 should be aimed for.

But has anybody considered a target of zero fatalities on our roads?

Sweden has one: in the Vision Zero Initiative. It believes that with the right education, engineering and enforcement, road crashes need not be fatal.

In stark contrast to an average 10 people a year being killed at level crossings since 2004, an average of five people a day (20,000 since 2004) are killed on our roads. Why no scathing report? How many dangerous drivers have we?

While Network Rail has closed almost 800 level crossings since 2010, with plans for 500 more by 2019, killer drivers regularly walk free. It was said that Network Rail showed “callous disregard” for the bereaved. Haven’t our courts done much the same in giving killer drivers their licence back – a licence to kill?

With sky-high rail fares and petrol prices, many are forced to travel by bicycle, but with high-speed driving, cycling can be seriously life-threatening.

On average, 150 cyclists a year have been killed since 2004. A survey of 18,000 drivers shows 93 per cent don’t see cyclists. If they’re so blind, why not ban them?

It seems ironic that records show driver error to be responsible for 93 per cent of cycling casualties. Doesn’t this show the driving test and traffic law enforcement to be grossly inadequate?

While Network Rail has been strongly criticised for saying victims had been “trespassing” or “misusing the railway”, more than a few drivers believe cyclists shouldn’t be on the road because they don’t pay “road tax”.

It’s odds-on that over 90 per cent of cyclists would say drivers pass them too close and too fast. Don’t too many drivers gamble (safe from detection, and protected by airbags) with excessive speed?

Why aren’t roads as safe as railways? With cars as fast as express trains, why aren’t car drivers as safe as train drivers?

Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe, Greater Manchester

 

The announcement of an additional £140m for road repairs is welcome, but it’s not the recent bad weather that’s responsible for the damage – it’s decades of cost-cutting and neglect.

When I was a child, it was said that the British drive on the left of the road, now we drive on what’s left of the road.

Julian Self, Wolverton, Milton Keynes

 

Let there be  light mornings

In response to Peter Kellett (letter, 10 March), in a line edited from my original letter I did say it was my personal preference for light mornings as opposed to evenings.

I was never one for kicking a ball about after school, preferring to read a book and, by the time of the British Standard Time experiment, listening to Radio 3 – I was that type of schoolboy.

Still, my memory is that it was already dark by the time I got home from school in the north of England, even with the extra hour in the evening.

Paul Dormer, Guildford

 

After the yes vote, we shall not need to concern ourselves with David Bracey’s Scottish crofters (letter, 5 March). The Scots will be able to set their clocks as they wish – on Glasgow Mean Time?

Richard Harvey, Frating, Essex

 

Octopus has brains  as well as arms

Commenting on a fight between an octopus and a sea lion (“When two species go to war – the 12 most amazing animal battles”, 8 March), your boxing correspondent Steve Bunce said: “The octopus has the reach but does it have the brains to avoid being dinner?” The answer is yes. As the most intelligent invertebrate, the octopus has brainpower comparable to that of a dog.

The problem it had in this encounter is that, despite having eight arms, the octopus doesn’t have a knockout punch against a creature many times larger.

Christopher Hirst, Beckenham,  Kent

 

Use lie detectors on the police

Following further indications of police corruption in the Stephen Lawrence affair and many others, isn’t it now unavoidable that lie detectors be introduced to ascertain the honesty of police officers of all ranks?

Mark Rostron, Woking, Surrey

 

Blame burglars not the booze

You report that “drink is implicated in one in three burglaries” (“Labour pours cold water on plan to curb drinkers”, 9 March).

I often enjoy a drink – or two – and have not to date burgled anyone.

Burglaries are caused by burglars.

Jonathan Bennett, London NW10

 

A fairly quick job to do

“Clegg: ‘Rivals are airbrushing our role in recovery” (10 March). I don’t see this requiring much paint.

Eddie Dougall, Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk

 

 

Times:

 

It is time for a rethink of how the BBC should be funded in order to fulfil its independent public service role

Sir, You report (Mar 8) that enforcement of the television licence fee, which funds the BBC, is to be decriminalised if an all-party campaign by some MPs is successful; the large number of prosecutions clogging magistrates’ courts being the reason.

On the same page you report the potential demise of the DVD due to digital streaming to a multitude of connected devices in British homes helped by faster broadband speeds.

As the world of technology expands, the ability to view content on tablets, mobile phones, televisions and the like enlarges proportionately if not exponentially.

Is it not time for a complete rethink of how the BBC should be funded in order to fulfil its independent public service role as a much loved British institution?

A simple purchase tax on all screens sold, of no matter what size, could easily be a substitution for the licence fee if properly ring-fenced for BBC use. Savings would be made in the present collection system. There would be no more harassment of the public. The magistrates’ courts could get on with their more relevant tasks and the BBC would benefit from a secure source of funding.

Brian East

London W13

Sir, Weekend media reports that BBC3 is to become an online service via the BBC iPlayer and that the TV licence fee is to be replaced by a more expensive BBC subscription service, presumably linked to the internet, only demonstrates how out of touch the BBC is with its audience.

In this village less than 40 miles from London, and in many other areas, the broadband speed is simply too slow to for the iPlayer to be watched as there is constant buffering. BT says that it is not “commercially viable” to upgrade our local telephone exchange.

Access to DAB radio is not much better as Radio 4 is not available although the BBC World Service can be received.

John Cobbett

Hollingbourne, Kent

Sir, You report that Andrew Bridgen, MP, has described the current funding arrangement for the BBC as “a poll tax”. A more accurate description would be a postcode tax. While the relevant law states that a TV licence is required if one or more of certain defined activities is or are carried out, it does not establish a presumption that any such activity is being carried out, but it is on that basis that collection of the TV licence fee is enforced. There are innumerable other licensable activities, yet in no other case is enforcement based on a presumption that the relevant activity is being carried out and that a licence is therefore required. The occupant of any property for which the licensing authority does not have a record of a licence is faced with a barrage of offensive letters threatening investigation, visits and prosecution, in terms that demonstrate contempt for both the public and the judicial system. There should be no place for such a practice in a country governed by the rule of law, a principle of which is the presumption of innocence. What the BBC says, in essence, is: Pay us £145 per annum, or satisfy us that you do not need to do so, or face unlawful harassment. This is not a matter that needs to be put out to consultation or debated endlessly: it should be terminated forthwith.

James O’Neil

Tantobie, Co Durham

 

 

‘It is a retrograde step to abandon AS level which has many advantages, as our leading universities all maintain’

Sir, We should like to repeat our concern about the nature of public exam reform, and the speed proposed for it. With regard to content, it is a retrograde step to abandon AS level which has many advantages, as our leading universities all maintain.

With regard to timetable, the introduction of some new exams has been delayed a year: others have not been delayed. Many specifications, even for the earlier tranche of new exams, remain unclear. At GCSE, for example, the new “Big Maths” is said to involve anything up to double the content of the current exam. Teaching for it will therefore need to begin in year 9: starting this September. The syllabus is not yet written.

Other subjects will presumably be downgraded in terms of curricular time to allow for this change. This will involve potential redundancies in schools; and additionally it is estimated that up to 2,000 new maths teachers will need to be recruited. We are not confident that such a pool of talent exists. That there are to be no pilots of any of these new examinations and grading structures raises further concern for the pupils whose futures will be affected by the qualifications they gain.

We call upon the Secretary of State to listen to the concerns of teaching professionals. All new exams should be delayed until the same start date, enabling simplicity and clarity, and preventing the errors which will undoubtedly ensue if regard is not paid to due diligence.

Timothy Hands, Chairman, the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference; Alice Phillips, President, the Girls’ Schools Association; Richard Palmer, Chairman, the Society of Heads

 

 

I do believe that it is vital for public trust and confidence that the police co-operate fully with those investigations’

Sir, Your report “Scotland Yard keeps quiet about thousands of crimes” (Mar 10), quotes me as saying, “I can’t answer that” in response to a question on how the experience of cases at the IPCC had affected my level of trust in the police. I went on to say that the reason I couldn’t answer was because “We see the worst of policing. We see cases where things either have gone wrong or are said to have gone wrong. We are not in a place to make an overall judgment about policing. It would be quite wrong to make a judgment on the basis of things that seem to have gone wrong.”

But, as I said in the interview, I do believe that it is vital for public trust and confidence that the police co-operate fully with those investigations to get to the truth of what has happened.

Dame Anne Owers

Chair, Independent Police Complaints Commission

‘The Veronese exhibition at the National Gallery highlights the Venetian inquisitor’s interest in a Last Supper painting’

Sir, Your enthusiastic preview (Mar 8), of the Veronese exhibition at the National Gallery highlights the Venetian inquisitor’s interest in a Last Supper painting, and — as often — makes the Inquisition appear frivolous.

The Inquistion tribunal questioned Veronese because the excessive details (including jesters and parrots), contravened the Council of Trent’s recent instructions that such paintings should keep closely to biblical texts.

For Inquisition specialists the key concern, but one the inquisitor would not voice directly, was almost certainly the German-looking soldier drinking wine; was this a coded message advocating communion in two kinds for the laity. After Trent, the wine was not to be offered to the laity (except in certain German areas, at the Emperor’s request). If Veronese so intended, he was open to Inquisition sanction.

Though he acted the simpleton, we should recognise that his patrons and friends included humanists and scholars, some not averse to certain Lutheran ideas.

Professor Christopher Black

University of Glasgow

 

‘It took more than two hours to get out of the airport. One felt one had come back to a Third World country’

Sir, I flew into Heathrow airport on Saturday from India where I had been through Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi airports. They were all excellent and world-class airports. Heathrow, on the other hand, was a shambles. There was a huge queue at EU\UK passport counters. This is because there are now more UK passport holders than ever before. Then came the baggage retrieval (always slow at Heathrow) and hopeless given a couple of planeloads to deal with. It took more than two hours to get out of the airport. One felt one had come back to a Third World country.

Manorama Mathai Moss

London NW3

 

‘Would his correspondents expect senior officers in the army to be referred to as “Lieutenants General” or “Majors General”?’

Sir, Daniel Finkelstein (Notebook, Mar 8) is right. “Attorneys-General” is ridiculous pedantry, up with which he should not put. Would his correspondents expect senior officers in the army to be referred to as “Lieutenants General” or “Majors General”? Or their Warrant Officers as “Sergeants Major”?

Peter Crawford

Banbury, Oxon

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – Mark Hudson’s warning about the death of the West End gets to the heart of an argument I have been making ever since Nick Boles, the Planning Minister, was my West End councillor colleague.

If we do not protect London’s unique neighbourhoods, and turn our traditional streetscape into an airport-style shopping mall, why should anyone visit us rather than stay at home in Singapore, say?

In Soho, locals are so disturbed by the homogenisation created by rising land prices that they recently rode to the defence of red light activities rather than welcome in bulldozers to sanitise the place.

Please, Nick: it is time to stop thinking in terms of pounds-per-square-foot and start preserving the premises that house the skills that will always bring money and life to London.

Cllr Glenys Roberts
London SW1

 

SIR – Not only has care been chronically underfunded, but there is a £135 million shortfall in new money being given to councils to implement the Care Bill, which enters its final stages in Parliament this week. Better Care Fund money earmarked for joint work between health and social care will instead be spent on introducing carers’ assessments, implementing safeguarding boards, and setting new eligibility criteria. Therefore, the legislation could end up being funded from money otherwise used for acute services.

In the period of the current Parliament, local government’s core funding will fall by 40 per cent, so councils have to cut £20 billion in spending. As a result, councils have had to reduce adult social care budgets by £2.68 billion. Although local authorities have limited the impact on the essential care services that people rely on, these services will inevitably suffer.

We urge the Government to support a joint amendment that will give the Care and Support Reform Programme Board – comprised of local government, the care sector and the Department of Health – the opportunity to say whether the money being made available is the right amount to implement the provisions of this Bill.

Cllr Katie Hall
Chairman, Local Government Association’s Community and Wellbeing Board
Sandie Keene
President, ADASS
Richard Hawkes
Chairman, Care and Support Alliance
Dr Jo Farrar
Lead on health and social care, Solace
London, SW1

Ukrainian democracy

SIR – It was with great amusement that I read that Yulia Tymoshenko sent her daughter to Rugby so that she could see “what a free and democratic society was like”. I wonder what the children of ordinary Europeans attending ordinary schools would think of that idea. If the people of Ukraine expect to live like children attending Rugby, they have a sad disappointment awaiting them.

My great-grandfather was the patron of Taras Shevchenko, the writer who is considered the father of the Ukrainian language. I wonder what Shevchenko would think of the way in which the Ukrainian language is being used at the moment as a weapon to boost nationalism.

Tatjana Hine
Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

Royal circle

SIR – You report that a couple gave up their aircraft seats to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (March 7). When my aunt was married in 1939, the family reserved seats at the Theatre Royal, Windsor, for the evening after the wedding. My grandfather was surprised to receive a telephone call from the Castle the day before, asking whether he and the others would mind giving up their seats in the front row of the dress circle, as the King and Queen and their party wished to see the play.

My grandfather agreed to surrender his seats, but on the condition that his family could sit immediately behind the royal party. We still have the photo from the local paper showing our family members just behind the Royal family.

Richard Hough
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

Seal of disapproval

SIR – Has anyone ever successfully resealed a food packet that boasts a resealable tab?

Andrew Sturmey
Wistow, North Yorkshire

Rights and dementia

SIR – Being diagnosed with dementia does not necessarily mean a person lacks capacity to make a will, sign a contract, sell property or make other decisions.

Mental capacity is defined by the Mental Capacity Act, and if a person satisfies the requirements then, despite having had a diagnosis of dementia, they can carry out many tasks. As a solicitor specialising in advising the elderly, it is my job to talk such matters through with elderly clients diagnosed with dementia. It may take a little longer to discuss such decisions with these people, but they can and do put their affairs in order by, at the least, preparing a lasting power of attorney so that the person they want can deal with their affairs.

Jennifer Margrave
Guildford, Surrey

SIR – The Government’s drive for early dementia diagnosis will have two enormous benefits for sufferers.

First, they will be able to have access to the latest treatments, advice and care.

Second, and vitally, before they have lost capacity, they will have an opportunity to “put their affairs in order”.

The myth that dementia sufferers automatically lose their rights over their affairs by having the diagnosis is wrong and endangers the future care of individuals diagnosed with any disease which could affect capacity.

Mary Leigh
London SW1

The price of music

SIR – I’d like to think that organ music and lessons are free Sadly, they’re not. The many hours spent practising this complicated art in order to reach the required standard for church service playing mean that other – paid – jobs may have to be sacrificed.

Sarah Gall
Rochdale, Lancashire

Seasonal migration

SIR – The slow but definite migration of pens in Cornwall indicates that spring is on its way. Pens migrate from the table beside my armchair next to the fire (where they are used to complete the Telegraph crossword) to the table beside my cane chair in the conservatory (where they are used to complete the Telegraph crossword).

Last week: fireside 8, conservatory 2.

This week: fireside 3, conservatory 7.

Shan Hoy
Fowey, Cornwall

Wake up and smell the Londoner’s coffee

SIR – Brendan Palmer wonders why commuters in London walk to the office with steaming cups of coffee and asks whether Southerners cannot manage a proper breakfast. The simple answer is: if we have had breakfast, it is likely to have been two to three hours earlier, and we’re now in need of a top-up.

Bob Foale
Chelmsford, Essex

SIR – I once stayed overnight in Chelsea with my stepson and his partner. As we were all going to be departing in different directions and at different times in the morning – and thus, I assumed, would all be catering for ourselves – I asked them to point me in the direction of the coffee. I was told: “Turn left out of the flat, and right at the end of the road, and you’ll find Starbucks next to the Tube station.”

Jan Ritchie
Torquay, Devon

SIR – Just as perplexing as the “comfort coffee” carried on our city streets are the plastic bottles of water that have long been a de rigeur accessory. Fear of dehydration seems to have become a pathological obsession, fostered by Transport for London, among others. Its widely publicised warnings about the risks of travelling on the Tube without water to hand must have proved a boon to bottled mineral water companies.

Robert Eagle
London W4

SIR – It’s not just the coffee-carrying commuters who amaze me, but the young women who apply full make-up (including eyeliner) on the crowded and jerkily-moving Underground cars during rush hour. Why don’t they get up 20 minutes earlier and so maintain the mystery?

Sandra Carter
Loughton, Essex

 

SIR – I served in the Metropolitan Police from 1980 to 2012, for most of the time as a sergeant. If wrongdoing is uncovered in the latest allegations involving Metropolitan Police officers in the case of Stephen Lawrence, then those individuals should be held to account. However, implying that the whole force is out of control or corrupt is wrong and is immensely hurtful to the vast majority of honest, dedicated officers.

While not condoning the extremely poor behaviour of individual officers, in many other cases such deceitfulness is an unintended consequence of putting pressure on officers to reach unrealistic performance targets and a discipline process that does not encourage officers to admit to mistakes made in good faith for fear of Draconian penalties to follow.

A succession of recent commissioners has failed to address issues of honesty and integrity. It is a great pity that, on behalf of the majority of fine officers who deserve better, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is not up to the job of providing clear leadership for the force.

Clifford Baxter
Wareham, Dorset

SIR – In the mid-Eighties I established the undercover policing unit (SO10) at Scotland Yard that provided officers to senior investigators to gain evidence in cases of serious crime. Undercover policing is one of the most powerful investigative tools the police service possesses. Though the SO10 officers, of all branches of the service, are among the most highly commended by commissioners and judges alike, the officers’ achievements are most often unreported for obvious reasons.

It appears that an undercover SDS officer may have been employed inappropriately and without a proper framework of conduct. This is reprehensible, but this was not and is not representative of the work of all undercover officers.

The Met should welcome the inquiry announced by the Home Secretary and hope that, as well as revealing shortcomings and any misconduct, both by undercover officers and the officers who controlled them, the terms of reference of the inquiry are broad enough to allow the police service to demonstrate to the public the immense contribution undercover policing makes to combating serious and organised crime.

Scotland Yard has suffered a body blow and is reeling, but incompetence and corruption are not, and have never been, endemic in the Met.

Roy A C Ramm
London W1

SIR – In the Thirties there was established at Hendon a police college to train officers for senior appointments. Had this been developed to establish a complete officer level, as Sandhurst does for the Army, perhaps many of the scandals of recent years would not have occurred.

David Damant
Bath, Somerset

 

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – I would like to applaud both Rosita Boland for her article entitled “Changes to adoption law have shattered my hopes of becoming a parent” and Cian Traynor for his article entitled “Adoption feels further away than ever” (Weekend Review, March 8th).

I am lucky to have completed an adoption as an Irish parent last year but it took over seven years, changing my country of choice three times, an enormous volume of paperwork, assessments, emotional and physical stress, patience and determination, most of which I experienced after I received my original declaration of eligibility and suitability to adopt and not during my initial assessment, which is the part of the process that most people would expect to be the toughest.

These two articles describe the current intercountry adoption process in Ireland very well without any exaggerations, and while I believe thorough assessment is necessary, nobody in the world should have to go through the ridiculous steps that are in place after assessment in Ireland to adopt a child. Prospective adoptive parents put so much effort and preparation into becoming good parents and giving children wonderful lives with opportunities they may otherwise not have, but the incompetence of the Adoption Authority of Ireland and their lack of progress in completing agreements with sending countries is preventing these opportunities for so many children in need of loving families.

We urgently need to have agreements put in place with more sending countries and more reasonable mediation agency fees. I hope that the two articles shock someone enough to do something about the process here in Ireland and put it higher up the agenda. – Yours, etc,

JENNIFER PHILLIPS,

Butterfield View,

Athboy,

Co Meath.

Sir, – I read Ms Boland’s article with shock and dismay. I am an Irish citizen living in Brooklyn, New York. My children and I are fortunate to live in a community where many families have been founded and grown through adoption. The adoption approval process in New York is an arduous one. All those involved know it will be so and are accepting of it. The difference, however, is the knowledge that each case will be treated with respect, fairness and timeliness.

Regardless of outcome, each participant has at least the hope there will be a positive conclusion for both prospective parent and child.

I am saddened and frustrated that my fellow citizens and friends in Ireland are not afforded such a process. – Yours, etc,

ELIZABETH RYAN,

Middagh Street,

Brooklyn Heights,

New York.

Sir, – I would like to respond to Rosita Boland and Cian Traynor’s articles. The decision to even try and adopt is long, off-putting and arduous. It turns you inside out. Once you make that decision and start the adoption process, all other attempts at parenthood are put on hold. Technically you cannot foster a child or be engaged in fertility treatment while you are trying to adopt.

 

Once you are in the process, your whole life, and understandably so, is put on hold and under scrutiny. It is difficult to change your relationship status and you hope that your medical and financial situation stays the same. This situation lasts many years and in the meantime we are all getting older.

The Irish adoption process is all consuming and takes over your life. How sad then to think that it has been really a waste of time, life purpose, energy and State resources.

Saddest of all is that children remain in orphanages while this terrible mess remains unresolved. – Yours, etc,

CHRISTINE DELANEY,

Manor Court,

Knocknacara, Galway.

Sir, – May I congratulate Rosita Boland on her very brave exposure of the current status of intercountry adoption in Ireland? Her personal story is a reflection of the situation hundreds of Irish people find themselves in. In fact the numbers are greater, as the families in the process without declarations yet and those who wish to start the process but who are too disheartened to, are not counted. They still are part of the big picture.

The Hague Convention was essentially a mechanism to protect children but in reality it has served to all but stop intercountry adoption in Ireland. The post-Hague declaration figures are horrifyingly stark and speak for themselves. The Adoption Authority’s assertion that its success is not measured by the number of adoptions it processes is of cold comfort to the hundreds of thousands of children languishing in orphanages around the world.

It is of no comfort either to the people holding valid declarations of suitability, after years of costly rigorous assessment, with no real prospect of affecting an intercountry adoption, as things stand. The inertia from the authority and Government is ruining people’s lives in Ireland and children’s lives in orphanages. The only resolution is to effect bilateral agreements with the sending countries, as soon as possible, to meet the needs of these children without families. – Yours, etc,

DEIRDRE O’HALLORAN,

Garnett Hall,

Dunboyne, Co Meath.

Sir, – I would like to commend you on publishing Rosita Boland’s article. There are many sides to the Irish adoption story. In my case my partner and I had tried unsuccessfully to conceive for 10 years – 10 years of hope, frustration and disappointment. Yes, of course there was the option of the adoption route. But we decided not to adopt. Why? As your article clearly shows, the Irish adoption process takes many years. It would have been too difficult to put ourselves through all those years of paperwork, interviews and waiting. There are thousands of people like us. The Irish adoption process deters loving people becoming parents to children in need of their love. – Yours, etc,

DENISE DELANEY,

Mill Street,

Galway.

Sir, – As an adoptive parent I would like to thank Rosita Boland for finally highlighting the failure of the new Adoption Act. I would like to bring to your attention the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s mission statement: “We will work to achieve excellence in adoption and adoption related services, with the best interest of children as our primary concern”. As highlighted in the article, some 3½ years after the Hague Convention, there have been a total of 11 post-Hague adoptions, with 537 declarations of eligibility and suitability to adopt outstanding. In reality this means that a total of 537 children around the world needlessly remain in institutional care. The figures speak for themselves, and there is little to suggest anything excellent or in a child’s best interest having been achieved. It is time for the Adoption Authority to reflect on its achievements to date. “Not fit for purpose” springs to my mind. – Yours, etc,

 

 

DENISE KIRWAN,

Lemonstown,

Kells,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – I had to write to share with you how utterly startling the figures are in relation to post-Hague Convention intercountry adoptions, as essentially they have stopped, and yet the assessments continue and declarations of eligibility and suitability continue to be issued to unsuspecting and ever-hopeful prospective adoptive parents. What is the Adoption Authority of Ireland going to do about this? In fact, what have they been doing at all? Certainly not supporting these people going through the process and certainly not acting in the best interests of children who continue to need loving homes.

The Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald must start walking the walk and light a fire under the authority and get proper arrangements between appropriate countries reopened. The current state of play, in which virtually no adoptions are taking place, is utterly unacceptable and simply wrong. – Yours, etc,

ELLEN Mac NALLY,

Cullenswood Gardens,

Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Sir, – In a truly heartfelt and compelling article Rosita Boland has brought to light how little is being done by the Adoption Authority of Ireland to facilitate intercountry adoptions in Ireland. The authority’s view that “The success of the authority’s work is not measured by the number of adoptions which it processes but rather by the quality and propriety of those adoptions” seems to show a complete absence of any desire to increase the number of adoptions taking place, despite so many people already holding their post-Hague declarations of eligibility. – Yours, etc,

DEARBHLA BROSNAN,

Riverside,

Hanover Quay,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – It took 17 years for Ireland to ratify the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption. Another three years have passed since it became law. And instead of having a fully working system we have an adoption process that has simply broken down. Why? We need less of the rhetoric from the Minister for Children and the Adoption Authority of Ireland and more action. – Yours, etc,

HILARY McDONAGH,

Bird Avenue,

Clonskeagh,

Dublin 14.

 

 

Sir, – Dr Siún O’Flynn of the medical faculty of University College Cork, speaking of the Australian HPAT test used in selection for Irish medical courses, tells us that it is important “that every candidate gets an equal chance”(“Medical entry test under investigation”, Front Page, March 10th).

The Australian company MedEntry charges Irish young people €595 for a two-day course on the “strategies necessary to solve the problems in HPAT”.

Is it the opinion of Irish universities that young people who cannot afford fees such as those charged by MedEntry get an equal chance of selection for medicine? – Yours, etc,

SEÁN McDONAGH,

Bettyglen,

Raheny,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – The medical schools unanimously opposed the introduction of the Health Professions Admission (HPAT). I attended the meeting with the “expert group”. We were told that the then minister wanted the HPAT introduced, irrespective of our views, and if we did not comply then the funding to our schools would be cut. It is clear that one can be coached for an aptitude test, hence the establishment of grind schools in Dublin and elsewhere. As these schools are expensive they act as a further stimulus to excluding students from deprived backgrounds from entering medical school.

May I also stress that the number of medical students is not controlled by the medical profession. The number of medical students in Ireland is strictly controlled by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). In my experience all doctors have pressurised the Government and HEA to increase the numbers of medical students.

Sadly, having helped to enact the Fottrell report and increase the number of medical students in Ireland, we are now in a situation where over 30 per cent of hospital doctors have not received their undergraduate training in an Irish medical school and doctors continue to emigrate at an alarming rate. – Yours, etc,

SHAUN R McCANN, FTCD

Professor Emeritus

of Haematology

and Academic Medicine,

St James’s Hospital

and Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.

 

Sir, – I wish to respond to Frank McDonald’s article “So much for devolution as regional hubs see power and financial clout evaporate”, News Agenda, March 3rd). The Local Government Reform Act 2014 introduces the most radical change to the structure of local government in over a century. The number of local authorities is reducing from 114 to 31 at this year’s local elections and the number of councillors from over 1,600 to 949. This involves the merger of city/county councils in Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford, the dissolution of the 80 town councils, and an overall reduction of over 190 statutory local bodies. The resources that have been absorbed in operating these structures and their associated processes will, in future, be more directly and effectively deployed in improving frontline local services and working to enhance the quality of life in local communities. Far from evaporating, finances will be freed up.

From the title to the end of the article there is a focus on cities and towns which is not reflective of the broad range of the reforms that are actually proposed and which will ensure a more democratic representation of citizens and communities across the country and not just in urban areas. To that end, I would like to point out that while the current system of town councils accounts for 46 per cent of all councillors, it only represents 14 per cent of the population and deals with only 7 per cent of local government activity. Under the new system of municipal districts, all areas – rural and urban – will be equally represented at municipal district and county levels, effectively ending the distortion in representation caused by dual franchise, outdated town boundaries and the anomaly of some small centres having town councils while larger centres do not. This is a reform for a modern Ireland that will ensure that decision-making is devolved to the citizens and communities that it will affect.

Contrary to the assertion in the article, municipal districts will be much more than just ineffectual committees with members deciding a range of issues on a fully devolved basis including local area plans, local bylaws, local charges and programmes of works such as roads, housing and amenities. In fact, the reform programme, and the Local Government Reform Act 2014 in particular, significantly enhance the functions of local authorities at all levels.

For the first time in decades real powers are being devolved to local government, including in the areas of local economic development through the establishment of local enterprise offices, community development and in the ability of authorities to generate their own revenue.

In terms of the latter I note that rather than centralising control of the purse strings the rules for the local property tax will actually allow local government discretion of up to 30 per cent on the level of tax to be charged as local service needs demand and all proceeds from the tax go to funding local government.

By any measure of local government reform, this represents a significant enhancement of local democracy, councillors’ powers and an improvement in the financial independence of local government. – Yours, etc,

PHIL HOGAN TD,

Minister for the

Environment, Community

and Local Government,

Custom House,

Dublin 1.

 

Sir, – I strongly protest your newspaper’s grossly unpatriotic act last Friday by front-paging this corporate tax matter when Dublin was hosting so many European People’s Party leaders, many of whom would have strong views on this vexed and often misinterpreted issue of our corporation tax incentives for both domestic and foreign-owned corporates here (“Apple paid $36 million tax on $7.11 billion profits at Irish unit”, March 7th).

I am all for freedom of information and freedom of the press but with those rights come responsibilities, and I would put it to you that to put these matters on the front page at the end of last week was both irresponsible and gravely unpatriotic in an economic context.

This matter could have just as easily been dealt with in the following day’s edition, insofar as you still considered it a matter meriting such prominent coverage, but to highlight it last Friday was disgraceful and cannot be seen as having been remotely in the national interest. It was not a time-sensitive news item that you had scooped ahead of everyone else. – Yours, etc,

JOHN B DILLON,

Eglinton Road,

Donnybrook,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – It was great to see Bono addressing the European People’s Party congress (“St Bono wows EU leaders”, Home News, March 8th). Perhaps we could follow this up by getting Jedward to address the next congress. – Yours, etc,

TIM O’SULLIVAN,

Maywood Avenue,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – I’m sick of the snide asides and downright derisory comments when Bono speaks on topics important to this country. On March 7th he packed the Convention Centre and, with passion and power, he outlined the sacrifices and the endurance of the Irish in this awful austerity programme. And they hung on his every word.

Bono sees a wrong and tries to right it.

Stop with the denigration, already. He’s our greatest ambassador.

Leave him alone and let him get on with it. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA R MOYNIHAN,

Castlegrange Park,

Castaheany,

Co Dublin.

 

 

Sir, – I loved all the “Dear World, Love Ireland” letters (Weekend Review, March 8th). But please tell Fintan O’Toole that his last “minus” should have been his first “plus”. We are “the best little country in the world”! I am a 71-year-old mother of six and a grandmother of 21, with hundreds of cousins, nieces, nephews – and the “grand” version of all of those – and whenever I get the opportunity, I tell them all how wonderful I believe they are. That is not just flattery, it is a fact. We are a wonderful people! And we must continue to believe it. – Yours, etc,

REGINA BRENNAN,

Wyattville Park,

Loughlinstown,

Dún Laoghaire,

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

 

* A key principle in any organisation, including the churches, is to find out what is wrong with what you are doing before others do. Organisations thrive on honest, transparent evaluation on the assumption that the truth will set us free.

Also in this section

Letters: Outsiders must stop meddling in Ukraine

Letters: Adams could be IRA whistleblower

Letters: A true centre of excellence

We all tend to conspire to allow our whispered discontent and suspicion that all is not right with church or state to fizzle out in a general haze of unease. Instead of harvesting these secret murmurings of disillusion, we collude in silencing them.

I have just returned from six weeks in Myanmar after first paying a visit to the protest encampment in Bangkok where we have the courageous expression of opposition to the culture of corruption that has taken root in Thailand, offering an inspiring model of when and how to exercise our voice.

What I find sad is that opportunities to reinvigorate our commitment to the world around us are often wasted by turning our faces heavenwards while ignoring the realities of everyday life – realities towards which Pope Francis urges us to direct our attention. The Pope has recently reiterated his desire to see an increasing focus on life at the parish level, urging priests to immerse themselves in the lives of those they serve.

The abuse scandal was not so much the cause of discontent in the Irish church but the trigger for the escape of years of repressed anger at the failure to engage the intelligence of our people.

The role of the bishops had become completely dysfunctional and will be difficult to redeem. They have been managers but not leaders.

Thankfully, we have gone beyond the day when we allow religion to morph into various forms of benign dictatorship from which many turn away with angry declarations of disbelief in God or in the church’s capacity to inspire us. The fire of militant atheism is easier to ignite than to extinguish.

The separation of religion from reason eliminates rational debate and promotes idolatrous worship of scientific reasoning, restricting the infinite range of human intelligence and imagination.

PHILIP O’NEILL

EDITH ROAD, OXFORD

MAKE A CHANGE IN EUROPE

* For all the talk about whether Bono’s speech to the European People Party’s (EPP) delegate conference in Dublin last week was patronising or inspiring, or why a group of people who are meant to be serious political activists couldn’t stop themselves wilting in the presence of a singer, the Irish media missed the real purpose of the conference and its outcome.

The purpose of the conference was to choose the EPP candidate for President of the new European Commission that will take office later this year and set the agenda for the EU for the next five years or more – an agenda that should involve tackling chronic EU youth unemployment, falling health standards and the gaping lack of democratic legitimacy, transparency and accountability at every level of the EU decision-making process.

So did the EPP pick a dynamic, youngish person, perhaps a woman, with real-life experience outside the political bubble who offers new policies and a new mentality to that of those who have been at the heart of EU decision-making over the last decade?

No, of course not. The EPP picked Jean Claude Juncker (60), a man who was prime minister of Luxembourg for 20 years until he had to resign in December 2013 after losing a general election. He was also the president of the Eurogroup, the gathering of eurozone finance ministers.

In other words, he is the man who headed the group of politicians who oversaw the application of the policy of ‘light touch’ regulation all across the eurozone’s financial sector, and which was involved in agreeing the policy that saw the ECB force an Irish government to choose between accepting all private sector banking debt in return for access to funding when we were excluded from the markets, or no access to lending and having to balance our budget at the stroke of pen.

It is only a matter of weeks before all EU citizens have the opportunity to cast their vote for who they want to have a part in running the EU. The new EU Parliament has the power to elect the President of the Commission based on the candidate proposed by the European Council, taking into account the result of the EU Parliament elections. So the type of MEPs elected does make a difference to the formation of the new Commission.

DESMOND FITZGERALD

CANARY WHARF, LONDON

 

SINCERE ADMIRATION

* I would like to admit my admiration for the sincerity of Sean Smith in his letter (Saturday, March 8) re: “I can’t believe in God”. He obviously would wish to have the comfort of believing in a God who is Love. I suggest reading a book by Dr Eben Alexander, ‘Proof of Heaven’.

JOE DOWLING

ATHLONE, WESTMEATH

 

SHAKE OFF BAD HABITS

* Your cautionary editorial commentary on the many risks of rushing headlong towards rekindling another “phoney building boom” is well constructed and warrants full attention by all relevant players to the fray (Irish Independent, February 24). It’s absolutely vital to establish ethically sound, prudent planning, to say nothing of basic quality construction regulation enforcement.

The erstwhile indulgence of profit-mongering developers remains a travesty of trust and we are still suffering the ramifications thereof.

The fact that many building workers are now filling the dole queues is indeed debilitating, but perhaps it’s an ideal opportunity to fully and truly upskill that labour force.

What about the formal trade apprenticeships, which were de-rigeur many years ago? Let’s build up again from the sureties of ethically sound, morally decent foundations of trust and honesty, leaving the ‘bad old’ habits of yesteryear in oblivion.

JIM COSGROVE

LISMORE, CO WATERFORD

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

* I’d like to add to the comments of Martina Devlin and your anonymous correspondent (Letters, March 7).

Just because we’re old, does that make us senile, febrile, dumb? Far from it! Life is a sponge and as we progress, we learn; learn what to retain, learn what to discard, to our advantage. But in today’s world, our accumulated and collective knowledge is not wanted.

I spent most of my working life in the movie industry, 50-plus years. At the age of 17, I started at Pinewood Studios as a clapper-loader, rose through the ranks and ended up in Los Angeles as a producer/director. When my wife and I moved to Ireland in 2006, I contacted an institution thinking that my movie-making experience might be able to contribute something .

Some three months later, I received a terse reply, revealing that subsequently I would be contacted by a member of staff to advise of any position that might be open to me. Needless to say, seven years later, that letter of ‘contact’ is yet to arrive.

MICHAEL DRYHURST

FOUR MILE HOUSE, ROSCOMMON

 

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE

* I listened, enthralled, to some French and German politicians on Marian Finucane’s show on March 9, as they debated with her in flawless English.

Can you imagine any of our vaunted representatives being invited on to a French or German chat show, and trying to converse in anything other than a laughable version of ‘Pidgin English’?

No? I couldn’t either.

LIAM POWER

SAN PAWL IL-BAHER, MALTA

Irish Independent

 


Books

$
0
0

12 March  2014 Books
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to test a new weapon will they blow up the flag ship?Priceless
Cold slightly better Both of us very tired. Two books sold
Scrabble today  I wins  but get  under 400, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Bob Crow, who has died aged 52, reportedly of a heart attack, was for more than a decade the uncompromisingly militant leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), and a target of public, media and political anger through his belief in strike action as a first step rather than a last resort.
A bull-necked London docker’s son who gathered around him a cadre of class warriors, Crow came to prominence resisting John Major’s privatisation of the railways. Denouncing it as “vandalism” intended to put money into shareholders’ pockets, he was hard put to explain the unexpected doubling in passenger numbers that followed.
Both before and after his election as the RMT’s general secretary in 2002, Crow dismissed any new government initiative towards the railways as an attack on his members that would maximise profits while putting passengers’ lives at risk. Renationalisation was his panacea, and for a time he sought to bring it about through coordinated strikes, once disrupting seven train operators out of 25 over local grievances.
Crow rated himself a “Communist-Socialist”, belonging in turn to the Communist Party, its hard-line successor based around the Morning Star, his idol Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party and finally no party at all. He opposed the EU and the monarchy (wanting Tony Benn for president as a “true representative of working people”), and believed in the death penalty.
His relationship with Labour was even worse than with the Tories. Crow accused Tony Blair of having “squandered a massive landslide from an electorate hungry for change” and of pouring “billions of public pounds into private pockets and [accelerating] the growing gap between rich and poor”.
He had John Prescott, a former official of the union, expelled for failing to renationalise the railways, then resigned from the board of Transport for London after the exasperated mayor, Ken Livingstone, urged workers to cross the RMT’s latest picket line. In 2004 Labour expelled the RMT from the party.
Crow personified his union’s motto of “Agitate, Educate, Organise”, but also shared with his beloved Millwall FC the unofficial slogan: “Nobody likes us, and we don’t care”. His industrial tactics – learned from Scargill – were crude. Negotiators from other unions would look on in despair as Crow opened a meeting with Network Rail or some other employer by leading his acolytes out before the talking had begun.
Often his first step was a strike ballot, with negotiations only on the eve of disruption, if then. He once told West End retailers who warned that another Tube strike would put them out of business that they would be “casualties of war”.
Yet rail industry managers acknowledged that once Crow had driven a bargain, he kept his word. And on his watch, friction between the RMT and the other two rail unions, Aslef – whose members it had tried to poach – and the Transport Salaried Staff Association, gave way to cooperation.
Despite his public face, Crow was a man of considerable intelligence, and his strategy bore some fruit. Membership of the RMT rose consistently during his years in charge, as the headcount in other unions continued to shrink. Tube train drivers’ pay topped £50,000 a year by 2012, and wages across the industry increased faster than the average. And though the railways were not renationalised, Network Rail did bring track maintenance in-house after a couple of fatal lapses, and a government-backed company took over the East Coast rail franchise after two private operators handed back the keys.
Opening the union’s education centre at Doncaster in 2012, Crow said: “The RMT is sending a warning to both the boss class and the political class that this trade union is building for the future with plans to train up and tool up hundreds of new militant activists who will drive the RMT’s brand of industrial trade unionism deep into workplaces the length and breadth of the land.”

That militancy originated not just with Crow but with a number of others who had infiltrated the industry – and especially London Underground – during the 1980s, the far Left groups they belonged to having concluded that British industry was now too weak for there to be any point in subverting it.
Key lieutenants included Pat Sikorski, a Trotskyist university graduate and Tube guard whose attempted sacking in 1993 brought chaos to the Central Line; and Greg Tucker, secretary of the RMT’s Waterloo branch which in British Rail days had stood almost alone to block the operation of trains without guards.
Crow sought to spread his brand of activism across the entire trade union movement. He consistently backed any group of workers with a local axe to grind in the hope of heightening militancy and creating fresh opportunities for action.
Never possessing a driving licence, Crow travelled everywhere by public transport. He continued to live in his council house at Hainault, north-east London, despite enjoying a six-figure pay package and lavish union entertaining. His lifestyle occasionally made the headlines, notably earlier this year when he was photographed on a luxury winter sun cruise from Barbados to Brazil. Three days after he returned from the three-week jaunt, 10,000 of his union members walked out on strike, causing chaos for commuters in London. The RMT’s appointment of Crow’s wife to run its credit union also caused consternation; he explained that she had been the only applicant.
Robert Crow was born at Shadwell in the East End of London on June 13 1961, the son of George Crow and the former Lillian Hutton. The family moved to Hainault when he was small. He determined to be a footballer, but gave up after having “a really hard time getting into the school team” at Hainault Forest High School.
He left at 16 to join the Underground, whose Central Line depot is the main local employer. He began watering plants in the chairman’s office and making tea for maintenance workers, but by 18 was working on one of the Tube’s track gangs which have traditionally produced rugged and colourful personalities.
When Crow fell out with his foreman, he took his case to a union meeting; before long he was making his name in the National Union of Railwaymen as a compelling speaker and canny organiser of strikes. By 1990 when it merged with the National Union of Seamen, he was on the NUR’s national executive.
In 1994 Crow was elected the RMT’s assistant general secretary, and his influence grew as Jimmy Knapp, the union’s long-serving leader, wound down. It was Crow who in 1996 warned Blair against “interfering” when the Labour leader, with an election nearing, urged Tube drivers to call off a series of strikes.
When Knapp died in harness in 2001, Crow went for the leadership. On New Year’s Eve two men attacked him near his home with an iron bar; he blamed “muscle” sent, he claimed, by the employers.
Crow polled twice as many votes as both his rivals put together, and in February 2002 took office as general secretary, installing busts of Marx and Lenin in his office. He also joined the TUC general council.
He started by ordering an audit of the union’s properties. Discovering that Prescott was just about to purchase his subsidised union flat under “Right to Buy”, Crow vetoed the deal, saying the deputy prime minister could afford the market price.
The RMT halted the Underground four times in three months over drivers’ pay, ending the action only when Livingstone promised arbitration as soon as he was installed as mayor. Within two years, Livingstone had had enough of continuing disruption.
A decade later Boris Johnson, standing for re-election, put up posters warning that if Livingstone came back, so would Crow. Crow sued for libel and lost; Johnson narrowly fought off Livingstone.
In 2009 Crow stood for the European Parliament on the “No2EU” ticket, polling 17,758 votes across London. He was also a patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Controversial to the end, he made his last media appearance the evening before he died, telling Radio 4’s PM programme that MPs deserved a pay rise.
Millwall apart, he was interested in boxing, darts and meteorology.
Bob Crow is survived by his partner, Nicola Hoarau, a son and three daughters.
Bob Crow, born June 13 1961, died March 11 2014

Guardian:

The call by John Blackwell, head of the British Veterinary Association, to ban the religious slaughter of animals is, in fact, in accordance with the recommendation repeatedly made by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (Top vet calls for reform of halal and kosher slaughter practices, 6 March). FAWC’s advice was first set out in 1985 and then reaffirmed in 2003: the “council considers that slaughter without pre-stunning is unacceptable and that the government should repeal the current exemption”. However, both the Thatcher and Blair governments rejected the advice. The reasoning of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs in 2003 was that “the government is committed to respect for the rights of religious groups and accepts that an insistence on a pre-cut or immediate post-cut stun would not be compatible with the requirements of religious slaughter by Jewish and Muslim groups”.
In other words, heightened religious sensitivities, combined with the fear of Jewish and Muslim religious lobbies, have led to successive governments ignoring the advice of their scientific advisers and the pleas of animal welfare organisations. By so doing, they have provided an exemption to the law on animal cruelty, which not even advocates for fox hunting are granted.
It is important to note that a number of other European countries have already outlawed religious slaughter (including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Poland); those countries that take the prevention of cruelty to animals seriously ought to follow suit.
Dr Rumy Hasan
SPRU – Science & Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex
•  As a vegan for more than 30 years I am fascinated by those outraged over halal/kosher slaughter. I sincerely hope they never eat animal flesh or dairy products abroad, as “humane slaughter” (an oxymoron) is not practised in so many parts of the world. Do all those in high dudgeon over this issue ever holiday in destinations like Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Indonesia, Dubai? Do they go vegan while there? My guess is most don’t. Worldwide, 60bn animals a year are intensively bred, fattened and slaughtered, and the meat industry is growing. The livestock industry is a ruthless and brutal one. Animals are a “product”, a “crop” to be “harvested”.
Of course, being squeamish Brits we kid ourselves that the 1bn animals killed in the UK each year had “nice” lives and went to the knife in a “humane” manner. It is a myth.
Sara Starkey
Tonbridge
• The article about Jewish and Muslim animal slaughter (Our slaughter is humane, 7 March) reminded me that, as a junior technician at Liverpool University, I used to have to go to Liverpool’s main abattoir to collect newborn calf blood for research into viral diseases including smallpox, influenza and German measles (rubella). I was an animal lover and a member of the RSPCA when younger. I witnessed at very close quarters the two forms of slaughter, the captive bolt and the Jewish method described in the article. The calves I saw killed by the latter method appeared to die cleanly and almost instantly. If I had to watch animal slaughter again, I would choose to witness this method every time.
Colin Kenny

Zero-hours contracts are worse even than you stated (Report, 10 March), as those on zero-hours (and also short-hours) contracts may be unable to build a state pension. At the moment, if you are on jobseeker’s allowance, you build a state pension. For free. But if you work 30 hours a week at minimum wage, but split between, say, two 15-hour zero- or short-hours jobs, each below the lower earnings level of £5,700 pa, you cannot add the hours together to bring you into national insurance, and you end up with no state pension. Unemployed and you build it. Work 30 or 40 hours a week in several jobs and you don’t. So you are not only exploited during your working life, you may carry the effects of that into your retirement.
Patricia Hollis
Labour, House of Lords
•  I don’t follow football but am the aggrieved mother and grandmother of two avid Sheffield United fans. How dare you back their FA Cup opponents (In praise of… Kingston upon Hull, 11 March)? What happened to your impartiality? I’d have cancelled my subscription, but you redeemed yourselves by employing Sheffield-born Owen Jones (Comment, 10 March), who I hope will also forgive you.
Dorothy Oldale
Sheffield
•  The cryptic crossword was sighted on Saturday in its natural habitat, the weather page. Could it go back there permanently? At present it is usually on the Guardian Offers page – better than when it was on Sport, but still not right. The crossword is soothing, like the shipping forecast – more so when on the same page as the weather, less so when sharing a page with advertisements or men’s legs.
Emma Tristram
Binsted, West Sussex
•  As a Senior Railcard holder for many years, I received a promotional email from a rail ticketing agency encouraging me to purchase a ticket to visit my mum on Mother’s Day. Somehow I can’t locate “heaven” on the drop-down station menu. A Senior (Railcard) moment?
Mary Hare
Felixstowe, Suffolk
• I believe that at Ford family funerals you can wear any colour you like, as long as it’s black (Last surviving grandson of Henry Ford dies, 10 March).
Dave Hulme
Stockport
• Hello, it’s goodbye then is it to the Gilbert O’Sullivan letters (3 March)?
Derek Haselden
Ross-on-Wye

I fear that Chris Huhne’s confidence in the “miracles” of technology and scale provides false reassurance that cheap batteries will revolutionise the renewable energy market (Comment, 10 March). World lithium production would need to double to convert this year’s car production to hybrid battery/combustion engines. Supplying electric cars at the scale he envisions, let alone replacement of a national grid with energy storage at a domestic level, will remain out of reach without huge gains in battery technology, usage and materials recycling. Moreover, the geological concentration of lithium within a few countries may bring geopolitical tensions similar to those arising from fossil fuels.
Yes, we are facing disruptive changes in energy supplies; but it is reckless to pretend that adjustments to the cost of lithium battery packs for high-end cars present the path to a safer global future. These kinds of reassurances need to reflect that “miracle technologies” are the hard-won fruits of investment and talent in energy storage methods and materials.
Dr Eddie Cussen
Department of pure and applied chemistry, University of Strathclyde

ley
You report that the Women’s Library has a new home (10 March), but its removal from London Metropolitan University to the London School of Economics takes place during an intense period of softening up of higher education in readiness for privatisation.
The LSE was the sole bidder for this unique historic collection, one of the largest in Europe, and, from the outset, The LSE declared that it would remove the collection from its purpose-built home in Aldgate. Why? The LSE is part of the global elite, it makes vast surpluses year on year and could easily have set aside a relatively small sum to maintain the Women’s Library at Aldgate. More than £1bn of surplus funds are accumulated in the sector annually.
The move will inevitably mean parts of the collection being integrated into LSE collections, leaving it with fewer independent objective characteristics. As a non-STEM uni, the LSE may also use it as a corporate brand to secure dwindling public research funds. Less privileged post-1992 polys may have to give way.
The Women’s Library is not just a collection of books and artefacts of suffragette history, it is a mechanism through which sexism and oppression can be meaningfully fought in the interests of everyone. It has a long-standing historical link to London’s East End, a fact ignored by your article. Women of the East End were instrumental participants in the class struggles of the early 20th century and most were Irish immigrant labourers ejected from the main suffragette body because their working-class heritage meant they were considered too radical.
The move from Aldgate to Aldwych has removed the collection from its working-class base; I hope it also doesn’t fracture it into class-based narratives, joining it with largely middle-class and conformist strains of feminist thought. Or will the Women’s Library be imprisoned in its new “home” as a housewife confined to her house?
Paul Whitehouse
Unison steward, London School of Economics

Owen Jones is right to call for the Metropolitan police to be abolished (The Met’s problem isn’t bad apples, it’s the whole barrel, 10 March). This is indeed the only solution to the endemic problems of failed accountability and unacceptable practices exposed over many years. There’s a central feature of the Met he does not pick up on, however, that goes to the heart of its problems – its peculiar hybrid character. The Met is a regional/borough police service combined with an ad hoc array of national functions it “hosts” for other forces and the Association of Chief Police Officers, resulting in a vast bureaucracy characterised by astonishing levels of mismanagement and complete absence of management accountability in areas critical to public confidence.
The cultural origins of the Met’s national profile lie in the evolution of provincial English policing from modest municipal roots; but the days when small and rather amateur borough or shire forces had to “call in the Yard” when there was a murder on their patch are long behind us.
The only reform we have had in recent times is (generally ineffectual) reorganisation of civilian oversight of the Met. Yet now, with an elected mayor in place of the Metropolitan Police Authority, what do we hear to reassure the public that recent scandals will not simply be repeated in different guises in years to come?
With the emergence of the National Crime Agency as a quasi-national police force, the time is ripe for rationalising its functions vis-a-vis those of the Met, directing the latter’s future to serve the people of London and strengthening the democratic accountability of both.
John Crawley
Beckermonds, North Yorkshire
•  Owen Jones is right that the Met needs structural reform. However, why wait for a royal commission? As I suggested at my lecture to the Centre for London in November as part of my mayoral campaign, an immediate start can be made by hiving off key national functions such as anti-terrorism and diplomatic protection, so that the organisation’s focus would be solely on London. The Met is simply overloaded and unmanageable, and breaking it up would be an excellent start of the reform process.
Christian Wolmar
(Seeking selection as the Labour candidate for the London mayoral 2016 election)
•  Some of the issues described by Owen Jones could also be applied variously and justifiably to other forces throughout the country; so perhaps his proposed “redesign” should apply nationally. A logical development of this would be to review whether it is either necessary or efficient to maintain 39 separate police forces in England, and a further four in Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland manage with one apiece). The operation areas of these forces are largely defined within historic county or administrative boundaries that are seldom respected by criminals. Perhaps the time has come to explore the feasibility of a single UK constabulary – preferably devoid of the obligatory quasi-militaristic passing-out parade routine.
Peter Halfpenny
Whitstable, Kent
• Bob Morgan (Letters, 10 March) reminds us that not all the Met’s staff were involved in the disgraceful events surrounding the death of Stephen Lawrence and its aftermath.
The problem is that recent disclosures have to be seen in the context of the behaviour of the Met’s management; it is this that has done so much to damage the organisation’s reputation, rather than the behaviour of a few rotten apples.
The failures of management in the Stockwell shooting, both before and, perhaps more importantly, afterwards, when lies were repeated endlessly at senior level, just as after the Duggan shooting, the Tomlinson killing and plebgate; the inappropriate deployment of undercover officers in nonviolent organisations, and subsequent lying, by omission and commission, about their role and behaviour; the commissioner who thought it appropriate to take thousands of pounds worth of free hospitality; the inappropriate closeness of senior management with editors and newspaper proprietors; the failure at senior level to recognise the damage done by racially dictated stop and search and racially disproportionate numbers of deaths in custody; these all add up to a police service whose “leadership” has lost its way.
Michael Griffith Jones
London

Gary Younge asks What is the point of Obama’s presidency? (28 February). The undeniable response would be that it is the ultimate demonstration of the pointlessness of hope in the age of patronage and the wholesale purchase of power by corporations and vested individuals.
His is the reign of ruin that hopefully heralds the end of this sham “democracy”. It is the full stop in the sentence that is political power by party. People of hope and belief have finally confronted the reality that there is no saviour in this system nor will there ever be, that this system is fundamentally stacked against the democratic desire of the people of the nation.
This is the century when an educated, aware and civil society makes the necessary evolution from representation to participation in a real democracy. It is time for the good people of our nations to take up the vote and fight against the insidious influence of unchecked power. There is a purpose greater than shopping, tweeting, status updating or pleasure purchasing in this internet and our media. That purpose is a real-time, 24/7/365 living democracy that converts your thoughts, passions and beliefs into choices.
So it is time to sack the board and replace them with direct shareholder action, a real democracy, based on the rule of law and the inalienable right to vote on every issue. The mechanism of a simple majority is a direct method for decision making; in a world of real democracy there is no “wrong” decision, just the opportunity to make a better one.
Andrew Chambers
Broome, Western Australia
Women in politics
As a man, I was appalled by the disgusting treatment of women in politics and heartened by female politicians’ continuing efforts to achieve gender balance and change attitudes in human governance (Who would be a woman in politics? 28 February). For most of history, fearful males proudly justified the most atrocious behaviour toward the “weaker sex”, from witch-hunting and burning, to rape and mutilation as a means of terror and control.
Based on some of the more primitive suggestions by male politicians from Italy to Afghanistan as to how their female parliamentary colleagues deserve to be treated, it is no wonder their political systems are rife with corruption, inefficiency and stagnation. Such hate-filled remarks suggest deep-seated psychological issues that would render anyone unfit for public office.
In Australia, Julia Gillard endured endless criticism by male parliamentary colleagues, supported by vile slurs in the press. As head of a minority government in difficult economic circumstances, Gillard’s performance was no less competent than that of many recent male leaders, yet the personal vitriol directed at her was unlike anything those men have had to deal with.
Women as leaders will not always be wiser or less prone to failings, but history has given men long enough to live up to their own rhetoric of fair, just and democratic societies with only the most glacial progress to show for it. Women make up roughly half the population on this planet: do the math, man up and get used to more equal representation.
Tor Larsen
Sydney, Australia
• What a great choice the Guardian made in picking Penny Wong to feature in the 28 February article about women in politics. Of the women in Australian politics she stands head and shoulders above the rest (that she slays most of the men almost goes without saying).
She is articulate and intelligent, answers questions without evasion, and is something that no more than half a dozen Australian politicians are: gracious and thoughtful. Always great value on any talk show involving politics, she’s well informed and a pleasure to listen to.
Penny Wong for PM? I wish.
Elizabeth Gordon
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
• It is very good news for humankind and for the world of nations that Helen Clark may be the next secretary general of the United Nations (28 February). As a lifetime citizen of New Zealand, I want to say to the world that her time as prime minister of this country was a high point of governance, democracy and clarity of vision for the future.
Mike Elliot
Auckland, New Zealand
Crisis in the Crimea
Your excellent coverage of the Ukraine crisis is a reminder of, among other things, the crucial importance of warm water ports on the Black Sea and who controls them (West scrambles to contain fallout of weekend uprising, 28 February). It is these ports that give essential alternative sea access to the rest of the world in winter when the ports on the northern European shoreline freeze over.
It’s a point that will clearly not be lost on powers external to Ukraine – western Europe and the US on the one hand, and Russia on the other – as well as those forces within Ukraine contesting each other for control of the country.
The Crimea has long been a contentious prize in international conflict because of its strategic significance, so the current concentration of Russian land and sea forces there is no surprise whatever.
Terry Hewton
Adelaide, South Australia
• After months of civil unrest the Russian military has occupied the Crimea, and threatening to take over Ukraine. This has raised the ire of many leaders in the west, particularly the US president. While the words of condemnation continue, the Russian military keeps pouring troops into the troubled country.
Anyone who has been following the troubles would have to come to the conclusion that it was outside forces that were stirring up strife in Ukraine.
It is no surprise that Russia has taken the action it has. There is no way that Russia will allow Ukraine to join the EU and Nato. Putin is intent on building an Eurasian empire, and will stop at nothing to achieve that goal.
Besides, which country in the last 50 years has invaded more countries, with bombing and slaughtering, than the US?
I think it is hypocritical for the US to be posturing on the high “moral” ground when it has done far worse things.
Jay Nauss
Glen Aplin, Queensland, Australia
• The west’s spineless response to Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 emboldened President Vladimir Putin to take a bigger prize. Wind the calendar back 76 years. Substitute Georgia for Czechoslovakia, Ukraine for Poland and Russia for Germany. Now, what should we do this time?
John Standingford
Adelaide, South Australia
Aren’t homes places to live?
Are homes meant to be investment opportunities or places for people to live? Anyone reading Scandal of EU’s empty homes (28 February) would wonder whose interests Europe’s decision makers are serving.
But if one casts an eye at the west’s tax systems, one can only conclude that we have governments of the speculators, by the speculators and for the speculators. Honest work is frequently hammered by the highest tax rates, whereas those who “reap where they do not sow” are beneficiaries of tax favouritism.
Australia’s sweeping 2010 tax review recommended that properties be encouraged to be put to optimal use by a substantial federal land tax, which is almost impossible to avoid no matter how large one’s battalion of tax lawyers. Why are we not surprised that our system of lobbyocracy soon committed nearly all of these recommendations to oblivion?
Karl Williams
Melbourne, Australia
Intolerance in India
Reading about the pressure from zealous Hindus and Muslims in India to proscribe literature they consider offensive (‘Alternative’ history of Hindus is pulped, 21 February), I couldn’t help calling to mind an incident in Pondicherry, in south India, just a few short years ago, in February 2007. Wandering through a prosperous part of town, I came across an English-language bookshop, and went inside. What met my eyes was a pile of freshly printed copies (in English) of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler. I doubt that this would have been tolerated in most countries in the west. Given such a stirring example of free speech, it is surprising to read of the current intolerance. Or is it sauce for the goose, but not for the gander?
David Stieber
Coppet, Switzerland
Briefly
• Aren’t all these arguments, manoeuvres, threats by David Cameron, José Manuel Barroso and others to “persuade” Scotland not to leave the Union becoming a bit suspicious (21 February)? Scotland should raise the stakes.
Alexandra Tavernier
Marcq-en-Baroeul, France
• In the Guardian Weekly of 28 February, the photo caption at the lower-right of page 25 (“Times Square, New York, as seen from the top of the Chrysler building”) is incorrect. Times Square, on 42nd and Broadway, cannot be seen at such an angle from the Chrysler building, which is several avenues east, on 42nd and Lexington Avenue.
Michael Johnston
Maspeth, New York, US

Independent:

I am delighted to see Nick Clegg standing up for the EU last weekend, in the face of an increasingly vocal Eurosceptic political faction.
He made a very important point: the European elections are the most important in years; they effectively act as a mini-referendum, and we have two choices – in or out,  that is, the Liberal  Democrats or Ukip
Our EU membership  generates jobs for this country. In an increasingly globalised world, we need to stand tall with our European cousins, to protect ourselves from security threats, and protection of  the environment is a huge issue which can only be tackled at the supranational level.
I was also pleased to see the Liberal Democrat leader saying his party were not offering unbridled support to the EU. They recognise that, just like all institutions, the EU needs reform to ensure it moves with the times and continues to work effectively. The Liberals  have always been reformers.
The Liberal Democrats want to steer the European Union into a direction which most benefits Britain, which  can only be done from within, with hard-working British MEPs continually negotiating and settling policy. It cannot be done by those who take a huge salary with the intention of achieving nothing. I refer to those who want us to leave the EU.
Richard Grant , Ringwood, Hampshire
It is clear that if the electorate dislikes or is suspicious of the EU, then the May elections are the time to act.
Such voters cannot possibly vote Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or Green. A vote for any of these parties would actually lend unwitting support to the EU. To a greater or lesser extent, all are Europhile parties which simply cannot be trusted with regard to the imperialistic, federalist agenda of Brussels.
Non-voting should never be an option for anyone – like it or no – in EU elections at least; we have to vote Ukip. There really is no viable alternative.
Les Arnott, Sheffield
It is a measure of senior Tory inhibition about the EU that the Camerons did not automatically think of availing themselves of the benefits of the European Single Market and its inbuilt mobility of labour when hiring a nanny  (“No 10 forced to check how PM’s nanny gained British citizenship”, 8 March).
David Cameron is on a hiding to nothing trying to persuade key EU friends such as Angela Merkel that he is, deep down, a good European when he and his wife consider the obvious solution to the nanny problem a Nepalese one.
David Head, Navenby, Lincolnshire
Fearless union leader will be sorely missed
Winston Churchill was never one to shy away from controversy – or from a good turn of phrase. “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life”.
This quotation well applies to the huge role in British public life played by Bob Crow. The leader of the RMT Union was undoubtedly a divisive figure, but it is precisely that fearlessness in standing up for what he believed in that will be sorely missed.
Although Bob Crow’s reputation was a divisive one, we should also see his passing as a time for us all to remember what the unions have achieved for every single one of us, no matter what our political colour.
Weekends; the eight-hour working day; paid vacations; lunch breaks; ending child labour – the list goes on. Without people like Bob Crow and the unions they represent these basic human rights would never have become the laws that we take for granted today.
Matt Hawkins, London Green Party, London SE23
As a trade unionist and a socialist I was shocked to learn of the death of the RMT’s General Secretary, Bob Crow.He was hated by the transport bosses and their media lickspittles, but he was loved by his members and his class. Where other trade union leaders talked a good fight but sold out the struggle more often than not, Bob Crow walked the walk as well as talking the talk.
He delivered for his members and would not compromise in defence of their terms and conditions. He never sold out.
The best tribute the RMT can pay him is to smash Transport for London’s plans to close all ticket offices on the Tube and 900 jobs with them.
Rest in Peace, Bob Crow, and thank you for reminding us what a real trade union leader is and does.
Sasha Simic, USDAW Shop Steward, C133 branch (PC), London N16
No hiding the horrors of war
There is an issue you do not seem to be aware of in your editorial of 10 March, which deals with whether the full horrors of war should be shown on our television screens.
It is this: any British citizen who supports a war in which the country is directly involved (such as those against Afghanistan and Iraq) must be held personally responsible for all the deaths and injuries, however horrific, which British armed forces (or those of countries directly allied with Britain) have perpetrated  against civilians whether by “accident” or design. Only an opposition to the war communicated to the authorities can acquit  a citizen of this responsibility.
It then becomes essential to bring home to  supporters of the war, whether they like it or not, just what they have consented to. If, say children are dismembered or burnt alive (as they invariably are in modern  war) then there should be no holding back on what is shown on TV or elsewhere.
Since children cannot be held responsible for what their seniors do, the transmissions should be at a time which aims to protect them.
Malcolm Pittock, Bolton, Greater Manchester
Save us from a slow, grim death
I fully agree with John E Orton’s comments (Letter, 11 March) on the subject of Alzheimer’s and assisted suicide. Like him, I witnessed the terrible spectacle of an elderly family member, who was physically and mentally infirm, slowly dying.
Pneumonia and infections, all of which might have brought a dignified end to her life, were pointlessly treated with antibiotics for many weeks until she became a demented skeleton on a hospital bed.
She could make no decisions, and we were powerless to intervene.
This experience has prompted me to make an advance decision, in consultation with my doctor, who wishes that more people would do so. I hope that this will mean that I and my family will never be in such a situation.
Christina Jones, Retford, Nottinghamshire
An unjust tax on family homes
In his insightful article on the mooted, absurdly named, impractical and unjust “mansion tax”, John Walsh (6 March) addresses a number of points that the Labour Party has refused to address in my attempts to communicate with it on the subject.
Thousands of families who have bought homes in London over the past 30 years or more will find themselves subject to an extortionate wealth tax on the market value of an asset which bears no resemblance to the original purchase price and generates no income.
Consequently, thousands of homes will have to be sold by those families who do not have and who may never have had sufficient income to pay such a tax.
Expand and increase council tax bands, impose progressive rates of tax on higher income, even impose a wealth tax on the genuinely asset-rich, but do not force thousands of ordinary families to sell their long-owned family homes to pay an unjust tax.
Nick Eastwell, London SE10
Daylight across the Continent
Peter Kellett (letter, 10 March) misses the point. It is not our longitude that determines which time zone we should be in but rather (as a northern country) our latitude.
Most of France and all of Spain are south of the UK, and Madrid, in the same longitude as Exeter, has 80 minutes more daylight in midwinter, giving them much greater flexibility in arranging their time zone. No amount of clock-fiddling will change this inescapable geographical fact.
Christopher Anton, Birmingham
Let them eat meat
I deplore Ben Williamson’s suggestion that we should tax milk, eggs and meat on health grounds (letter, 7 March).
At a time when real incomes are falling and food prices are rising faster than inflation, such a tax would make it even harder for those on low incomes to eat healthily and enjoyably. The parallel with cigarettes is false; these foods are not unhealthy as part of a balanced diet,
Julian Gardiner, Elstree, Hertfordshire

Times:

Sir, If Caribbean nations were to sue the UK for the harm done by the slave trade (report, Mar 10) it would bring untold wealth to the lawyers employed in such litigation. Cases could go on for years; countries would be bankrupted; generations of claimants would remain unsatisfied — Jarndyce v Jarndyce would seem like a model of swift justice.
For it is not just the Caribbean countries that would sue: the descendants of US slaves could sue the descendants of their former American slave-owners, while African countries would point out that virtually every nation in the world, including some in Africa itself, had exploited their peoples.
And what about Britain’s own claims? It could be argued that the descendants of the Vikings had a case to answer for all that raping and pillaging, which would be interesting since you report (Mar 10) that a million British men (and presumably as many women) are of Viking descent.
David Wilson
Bridell, Pembrokeshire
Sir, I have not found a single race, nation or culture which has not practised slavery in one of its many forms. Against this background, Britain’s leading role in its abolition — at home and wherever the Royal Navy had reach — stands out as the enlightened, trailblazing exception, and surely an act of atonement more significant than meaningless apologies; something of which we ought to be unashamedly proud.
We should of course offer assistance to less wealthy nations and peoples, especially those linked to us by a shared history, but in the same spirit of altruism which put us at the forefront of abolitionism, not because they seek morally to blackmail us into doing so. Better to reject such attempts out of hand and put our blood and treasure into suppressing the slavery which still exists in parts of the world today.
Victor Launert
Matlock Bath, Derbyshire
Sir, I was surprised by your remarks about illiteracy in the Caribbean. In 1949 I went from a school in England to St Mary’s College in St Lucia. The pupils at this school, almost all St Lucians, were far ahead of the standard I had reached in England. It took me two years to catch up. By the 1960s this particular school had produced two Nobel prize-winners. In the 1960s I returned to the West Indies. It was the proud boast of Barbados that its literacy rate, at 98 per cent, was higher than that of the UK. The suggestion that slavery 200 years ago still has an adverse effect on literacy in the Caribbean is ludicrous.
Angus Palmer
Godalming, Surrey
Sir, What sort of justice makes descendants liable for the crimes, or alleged crimes, of their ancestors? Mine were Danish yeomen farmers who had no involvement with slavery or the slave trade; my mother’s ancestors worked out their lives in the Durham coalpits and were likewise guiltless of the sufferings of the slaves.
Britain’s involvement in this form of commerce, a commerce which it successfully brought to an end, lasted less than three centuries while the Arab slave trade is as least as old as the arrival of Islam on the African continent, if not older, and persists to this day. Would the time and efforts of those seeking compensation from British taxpayers not be better spent in putting an end to slavery as it exists in the modern world?
Magnus Nielsen
London NW3
Sir, Most British people abhor slavery and what happened in the sugar plantations. However, if Caribbean governments sue us for slavery, will the descendants of poor mill workers for instance (who existed in near slavery conditions) be able to sue the descendants of wealthy mill owners?
A privileged small section of our society was responsible for the abomination of slavery. Somehow, a fair way of apportioning blame should be found to atone for this terrible legacy, but where does it end? Depressingly there have been atrocities all through history.
Susan Seely
Worsley, Manchester

The root cause of the problem with the Met is the working-class structure of British police forces
Sir, Your letters and Melanie Phillips’ article (“Corruption: the cancer that’s killing the Met”, Mar 10) suggest that many of your readers have a low opinion of the Metropolitan Police. As a former policeman, turned barrister, academic and employment judge, I share some of those views based on personal experience and many years associated with the wider legal process. However, it is easy to criticise without really understanding the reasons for the unprofessional conduct or making constructive suggestions to improve the quality and standing of police officers.
The root cause of the problem is the structure of police forces in the UK. They are overwhelmingly working-class organisations based on a defensive culture inculcated from the day an officer joins. Everyone starts at the bottom where the majority remain. The belief is that policing can only be taught on the job. No other organisation is so structured. The results are inevitable: the majority of those who come from the better educated leave in due course, and those that stay absorb the “canteen culture”. At no stage is a separate professional objective cadre with its fair share of bright talented graduates created. A few do get accelerated promotion. However,the numbers are small and I would argue that the damage is already done. You can take the officer out of the canteen, but not necessarily the canteen out of the officer.
I am not arguing that recruitment at a higher level means that there should be no mixing with the lower ranks or training on the beat.The Armed Forces and all large commercial organisations manage to give their officer/managerial class equivalent experience and indeed regard it as essential.
Unless or until the whole training and attitude of police officers is changed we will continue to have some corruption, widespread gilding the lily in evidence, primitive attitudes towards those who disagree with them and a general disdain towards the public.
Should such reforms, or something similar, not be implemented, and quickly, I would suggest that the perjorative epithet ‘plebs’ might be used with a degree of justification. Now there’s an irony.
Christopher Ash
(Met Police 1966-73; Employment Judge 1989-2011) Norwich

Thirty years ago we thought we had conquered tuberculosis — how wrong we were. There are now more cases in the world than ever
Sir, Matt Ridley (Opinion, Mar 10) is right that TB rates worldwide have been falling for nearly a decade, but the rate of fall is less than 2 per cent a year, roughly the same as in Victorian times. The decline in death rate is to be applauded but 1.3 million deaths from a curable disease, mainly in children and young adults, is still far too high.
He is also right to point to the problem of drug-resistant disease which is getting slowly bigger. Thirty years ago we stopped research into cures and vaccines for TB believing it to be a conquered disease. How wrong we were. By 2004 there were more cases in the world than ever before. We would do well to keep up our guard, finding new drugs and vaccines, until TB is eliminated.
Professor Peter D. O. Davies
TB Alert, Liverpool

For the first five years children need continuity, not a constant succession of nannies, however affectionate
Sir, What a depressing article about nannies (Times2, Mar 11). Much research shows that broken attachments in childhood lead to emotional difficulties in adults. Children need consistent and loving carers and when a strong attachment to someone is abruptly broken, their whole world is broken too. If this is repeated over and over during their formative years, eventually they will become numb or even deadened to other people’s emotions. How sad that Rachel Johnson and others are oblivious to the terrible damage they are inflicting on their children by employing nannies for short periods.
Parents need to give much more thought and care to who is looking after their children and for how long. During the first five years children need the same loving people around them and not a constantly changing stream of people.
Hazel Leventhal
Borehamwood, Herts

A retiring doctor pleads for the NHS to be freed from political interference for the length of at least one parliament
Sir, I have just retired after 28 years as a GP in a delightful Norfolk village. I leave the NHS with much regret because I am increasingly unable to provide my patients with the service they deserve mainly because of interference from governments and the introduction of time-consuming and pointless “reforms”. Of course primary care does need some regulation, but can I issue a plea for politicians to establish a cross-party working group and a moratorium on new reforms for (say) five years. This group should start by listening to patients and healthcare professionals on where the NHS should spend its money to achieve a health service that is once again truly world class.
There are serious problems with the NHS, and until it is isolated from party politics for at least one parliament, I fear none of the main areas of concern will be addressed.
Dr John Harris-Hall
Knapton, Norfolk

Boris Johnson offers a cyclist’s contribution to the HS2 debate — but he forgot about a great 19th-century route
Sir, Boris Johnson need not reinvent the wheel with a new cycle route beside the proposed H2S route (Mar 11). A more scenic route from London to Birmingham already exists — the Grand Union Canal. A cheap towpath upgrade is all that is required.
Dr Steve Rothery
Clitheroe, Lancs

Telegraph:

SIR – Group Captain Terry Holloway is quite wrong to regard the wearing of a wing collar with a dinner jacket as a “modern habit”.
When dinner jackets began to be worn widely as a less formal variant of evening dress in the Thirties, they were worn with the same stiff-fronted shirt and wing collar as men sported with tails.
I suspect that what he (rightly) deplores is the habit of wearing cheap evening shirts with an ersatz wing collar attached, which in fact is nothing of the kind.
They are truly dire.
Richard Parkes QC
Winchester, Hampshire

SIR – Philip Johnston’s article on the country’s preoccupation with gambling refers to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ statement in 2007 about the consequences of the deregulation of gambling. In this, he quotes my comment at the time that the proposed changes were a “recipe for disaster”.
So it is turning out to be, as Nathalie Thomas’s article (Business, March 6) on fixed-odds betting terminals confirms. Bookmakers have attempted to deal with the adverse publicity around this form of casino gaming in their high-street betting shops by “rolling out a new voluntary code” that allows customers to set limits for the amount of time and money they spend.
This is based on the fallacious notion that gambling behaviour is always rational. Even in betting which involves some skill, this is often not the case. In gaming, where the outcome is wholly dependent on random processes, it easily becomes irrational and impulsive.
Those who have set limits and maintain their initial intention to stick to them do not need the proposed messages, whereas those whose gambling has become impulsive will not heed them.
Dr Emanuel Moran
Enfield, Middlesex
Related Articles
The law on assisted suicide must be changed to protect vulnerable people
11 Mar 2014
Calling the police
SIR – Philip Williams finds the charges for 101 calls to the police unacceptable. If he found out his local police force’s non-geographical number with an internet search he could call it for free as part of a standard phone package.
David Askew
Woking, Surrey
SIR – I recently asked Suffolk Constabulary about the cost of 101 calls. They replied that the 15p cost goes to the telephone companies. The police and Government receive no money from calls.
Dr David Rose
Stowupland, Suffolk
A singular snack
SIR – Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is keen to improve the nation’s grammar. Last week, I tried to order a ham and cheese panino. After a moment’s silence, I was told that they only sold paninis (sic). When I said that this was impossible, I discovered that grammatical accuracy does not win you friends.
Charles Janz
London SW14
Missing Malaysian jet
SIR – Is it not possible, with modern technology, to stream the data for a commercial airliner’s black box via a satellite to a ground station? This would mean that investigators would easily be able to access information.
Michael Staples
Seaford, East Sussex
SIR – Passport checks need to be improved. Every passport should be barcoded – then every passport number invalidated by the issue of a replacement could easily be added to the database. Everyone using an invalid passport would then be easily recognised when they present it.
Brian Gilbert
Hampton, Middlesex
BBC’s future
SIR – Surely the time has come for the BBC licence fee to be abolished (leading article, March 10). The BBC is no longer a public service but a self-serving body.
Let it sink or swim on its own merits, rather than allowing it to rely on taxpayers’ money.
Don Roberts
Birkenhead, Cheshire
SIR – I note with interest that after chopping BBC Three, the BBC proposes to cut the niche BBC Four channel. I suggest that they prune out all of the BBC local radio stations instead. The only time people listen to them is at the hairdresser’s.
Geoff Norman
Littledean, Gloucestershire
Feeling the flamenco
SIR – I agree with Bernadette McNulty that flamenco is best seen in intimate surroundings.
Once, in a small bar off the tourist trail in Spain, we witnessed the amazing transformation of the townspeople as they spontaneously took to the floor after a performance of flamenco dancing and music by locals. Men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes took on a proud elegance as they too responded to the guitars.
Walking back to our hotel, my husband, who had never danced in his life, emboldened by the wine, gave an impromptu burst of flamenco in the street – to the applause of several young men who happened to be passing.
Patricia Fletcher
Maplestead, Essex
Sealed with success
SIR – Andrew Sturmey asks about successfully resealing food bags that boast resealable tabs.
An elastic band works every time.
Eleanor Patrick
Elsdon, Northumberland
SIR – I do not share Mr Sturmey’s difficulties with resealable packages.
I am, however, consistently defeated by corner pull-tabs which fail to open the packaging. Typically, the tab comes off, and the pack remains sealed. For this reason, I carry a penknife.
Bob Burgess
Chester
SIR – Resealable tags? What are clothes pegs for?
Jennifer Bell
Lostwithiel, Cornwall
SIR – I wrap my resealable food packet in cling film.
Grant Goodlad
Thornby, Northamptonshire
How processed foods are as dangerous as sugar
SIR – Much has been written about the dangers of sugar recently. But sugar intake is only half the story. Fifty per cent of our diet ought to be carbohydrates to give us the energy we require. However, these must be slow-release or they will produce too much sugar too rapidly, which will be stored as fat, unless used up just as rapidly.
Processed flour is a rapid-release carbohydrate and is found in bread, biscuits, cakes, pastry, pasta and in most processed foods. When sugar is added to a diet containing processed foods, sugar levels can become dangerous over time. Many people are unaware of the dangers of consuming so much processed food and to focus on fats or sugar alone is misleading.
Peter Taylor
Tipton St John, Exeter
SIR – I have a sneaking feeling that this campaign against sugar is the work of the synthetic sweetener industries.
In a hospital waiting room last week, I started a conversation about sweetener with the lady next to me. Surprisingly she knew all about it. Although she didn’t use the word addicted, she did admit she used to drink two to three litres of diet cola a day. She had cut it down to one can a day and had lost about one and a half stone.
But noticeable loss of weight doesn’t always happen when people remove sweetener from their diets. Control of obesity is much more complicated than lowering one’s sugar or calorie intake.
Patience Purdy
Tynemouth, Northumberland
SIR – Hew Goldingham proposes a tax on sugar. But VAT is already levied on chocolate, sweets, carbonated drinks and other “non-food” items.
Christopher R Waite
Ebford, Devon
SIR – Listening to the doom and gloom “experts”, I am reminded of what Kingsley Amis once said: “No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare”.
Keith Moore
Yoxford, Suffolk
SIR – Those who support and those who oppose a change in the law on assisted dying share a desire to protect potentially vulnerable people. The difference lies in whether the law as it stands, which in effect condones amateur compassionate assistance, offers sufficient protection to vulnerable people.
As peers pointed out during the House of Lords debate on the Director of Public Prosecution’s guidelines on assisted suicide, it is difficult to see how an investigation after someone has died, and where the main witness is dead, can be more stringent than a law with up-front safeguards. Checks must be in place to confirm the diagnosis, prognosis and mental competence of the dying patient. Safeguards are also needed to ensure that the patient is aware of all options at the end of their life, including palliative care.
Whether it is a choice we would want for ourselves, or whether we agree with other people’s choices, the fact remains that this is a choice that some dying people will make. The responsibility of Parliament is to make sure that this process is as safe and transparent as possible. This can only be achieved through a change in the law.
Baroness Jay of Paddington (Lab)
London SW1
SIR – A free vote in Parliament on assisted suicide is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. The people most in need of a change in the law are not the terminally ill but those who, although still mentally capable of making an informed judgment and expressing it clearly, have had their quality of life profoundly compromised by conditions leading to paralysis or an inability to talk, swallow or breathe without difficulty.
These patients who deem their lives to be intolerable are dependent on others to accommodate their wish to end them in a painless, effective and dignified manner, in surroundings of their choosing.
The protests by members of Care not Killing are disingenuous. For many medical conditions, there is no cure and no relief for the symptoms in question. Sometimes even the best palliative care is ineffective in relieving pain. What right do they have to prolong these people’s suffering to accommodate their own personal beliefs?
With proper regulation, those who express unequivocally and consistently a wish to die should be allowed to have their wishes granted humanely.
A M S Hutton-Wilson
Evercreech, Somerset
SIR – If politicians make laws that require my profession to get involved in actively killing those in their most vulnerable years, I will resign.
The answer is to invest in excellent palliative care, and all the arguments for assisted suicide will melt away.
Dr Donal Collins
Gosport, Hampshire

Irish Times:

Sir, – Reading Rosita Boland’s brave and moving account of how Ireland’s continued failure to put in place bilateral agreements with Hague Convention-compliant countries has put her own hopes to adopt in serious jeopardy has struck a very deep chord (“Changes to adoption law shattered my hopes of becoming a parent”, Weekend Review, March 8th). Because the system has ground to a virtual standstill since the change in the law, my husband and I are facing the prospect that we will have to leave Ireland if we ever want a family.
This is not an issue about whether those with a sense of entitlement want to flout a law put in place to protect children – this situation means that couples who could provide a loving and stable home for children who desperately need one are unable to do so. Because of the complicated attitude to adoption in this country – linked so strongly in the public mind to various adoption scandals over the years – domestic adoption in Ireland is a rarity. There are thousands of children stuck in orphanages around the world who need and deserve a loving home. No parent would wish to uproot a child from the land they know but for prospective Irish adoptive parents this is what they must do.
We have had many reservations about the adoptive process here since we entered the system six years ago. We learned at our introductory meeting that things would move at a snail’s pace because no additional social workers had been hired in 10 years, despite more couples wishing to adopt. We were dismayed at the costs involved, something that smacked of buying and selling children rather than facilitating what should only be considered as a humanitarian act. We sincerely hoped that the ratification of the Hague Convention would make things better, firstly for the children, but also for us as prospective parents.
In fact, the situation has only become worse. It is impossible to see it as anything other than another example of the Government’s blindness to those who fall outside an extremely narrow definition of family. It is a heartbreaking fact that only the wealthy can afford to remedy their childlessness here if a traditional biological route is not an option.
We do not view parenthood as a right but we know that we can provide a loving and stable home to a child. All we want is the opportunity to be parents, and sadly that opportunity is not open to us in Ireland. – Yours, etc,
ABIGAIL RIELEY
and MICHAEL STAMP,
Oxmantown Road,
Stoneybatter, Dublin 7.
Sir, – I am writing to you regarding Rosita Boland’s article on adoption, which I found shocking but not surprising. I have a number of close friends in the process and they have been so for several years. To me it seems incredible that the Adoption Authority of Ireland seems to lack any urgency. I have witnessed the stress, upset, highs and lows of the prospective adoptive parents as they board the “rollercoaster of the adoption process”, which I can tell you, and as your reporter described in her article, is not for the faint-hearted.
What the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the Minister for Children seem to have lost sight of is the human tragedy that they are letting happen on their watch. Here we have prospective adoptive parents who want nothing more than to provide a lovely and caring environment for a child to grow up in, and where they can reach their full potential. It breaks my heart to think of the thousands of children who have missed out on this start in life already because of the lack of progress. What will become of them, who will hold them, love them, cherish them, and nurse them, where are they now, the lost children that we will never see, who have been denied this opportunity because of a lack of urgency in relation to this matter?
I urge the Minister to make this her number one priority and I thank your reporter for highlighting this tragedy. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE WHELAN,
Scholartown Park,
Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Sir, – I must differ from Fr Con McGillicuddy when he asks us to recall that “there was a lack of statutory specialised training in bygone years for childcare” (March 10th).
It was the practice of the Christian Brothers at Artane to receive organised visits from social science students from University College Dublin in the 1960s. Thus they certainly were aware of the specialised training in social work provided in UCD. I know because I attended one such visit.
In 1969 residential childcare centres and congregations from Ireland and Northern Ireland sent their staff, both religious and lay, to study on special residential childcare courses in London and I was pleased to be one of their lecturers for several years. In 1974 a new specialised course for residential childcare workers was opened under the auspices of the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee at Cathal Brugha Street. I had the good fortune to provide lectures in sociology to them. Education for childcare workers has been available for the last 50 years.
If Fr McGillicuddy wishes to argue that there was no training for childcare workers in the 1940s and 1950s, I might be inclined to agree with him. However, common decency and humanity in the treatment of little children requires no specialised training; it emanates from love and compassion. – Yours, etc,
PAULINE CONROY,
Whitethorn Road,
Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.
A chara, – Might I endorse Fr McGillicudy’s comments? On a recent visit to southeast Asia, I saw at first hand some of the many schools, colleges, hospitals and other precious facilities provided and staffed over the years by Irish missionaries. Although now usually run by civil or other authorities, the valued works of our missionaries are much appreciated locally. It’s time that we did the same. – Is mise,
SEÁN O’CUINN,
Gleann na Smál,
An Charraig Dhubh,
Átha Cliath.

Sir, – It is most unfortunate that a failure by the Department of Health and the HSE to plan for adequate long-term provision should be described as a “demographic time bomb” (“Time to start planning for our demographic time bomb”, Health and Family, March 11th).
Given that we increasingly recognise collective ageing into later life as one of the greatest achievements of the 21st century, bringing a demographic dividend at human, cultural and economic levels, there is no place in public discourse for such negative terminology.
In addition, there is increasing evidence that levels of disability among the oldest old are gradually falling, providing some attenuation of the expected burden of severe disability, and we have seen the introduction of improvements in community care such as the homecare packages.
However, Tadhg Daly is right that present and future generations will regard with dismay the failure of successive Ministers and senior officials in the Department of Health and the HSE to remedy a deficit, widely recognised for many decades, in nursing home places, particularly in urban areas. In addition, the long-advertised failure to upgrade outdated public nursing homes means that many will no longer be compliant with Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) regulations, further aggravating the shortage.
Over the last few decades we have poured hundreds of millions of euro into new hospital developments – the call by Nursing Home Ireland for urgent action should prompt a speedy diversion of such capital spending towards nursing home renewal and development, as well as ready access to funding for nursing home care for those who need it. – Yours, etc,
Prof DESMOND O’NEILL,
Professor in Medical
Gerontology,
Centre for Ageing,
Neuroscience and

Sir, – Recent opinions expressed in the media and in political circles in relation to the leaked recording of the discussions between the Garda confidential recipient and Sgt Maurice McCabe should prompt a public debate on the matter of confidentiality.
It was stated that it was in the public interest to make known the content of “statutorily confidential meetings” between a whistleblower and the confidential recipient. Another opinion expressed was that it would have been remiss of the whistleblower not to take precautions to protect himself by recording the confidential conversation with the confidential recipient.
Based on these opinions the following questions are pertinent, which should be addressed by those holding the above publicly stated views. When might statutory confidentiality be subordinate to the public good? Who decides the public good? What should be the status of Cabinet confidentiality? Where stands the confidentiality between a journalist and a source? – Yours, etc,
MAURICE CURTIN,
Marble Hall Gardens,
Ballinlough Road,
Cork.
Sir, – The recent announcement by the Revenue Commissioners that they intend to pursue those who may have understated the value of their property for local property tax purposes should alert people to a fundamental problem with wealth taxes and one of the reasons why such taxes are not more common.
Any tax based on wealth where that wealth is not absolute (eg, cash in the bank or certain types of bond), but based on market values, means that taxpayers are subject to the vagaries of that market. This is a particular problem where the asset in question does not generate any income.
A taxpayer whose circumstances, including their income, does not change much over a number of years can find himself or herself subject to increasing levels of taxation simply because the market thinks that their house (or that painting that they bought for a few hundred euro from an unknown artist 10 years ago) is now much more valuable than it used to be.
In the light of growing evidence of a scarcity-induced Dublin property boom in the offing, homeowners in the capital should probably gird their loins and start saving now. – Yours, etc,
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Morehampton Terrace,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – In addition to the ridiculous notion that a written test done at 18 years can measure your future ability to communicate and empathise with a patient at the toughest time in their life, the concerns regarding a private coaching company apparently predicting HPAT questions (“Medical entry test under investigation”, Front Page, March 10th) further expose the flawed thinking behind the test, ie that one can test potential solely and not rote learning, or “examsmanship”.
One can be coached to do better at any type of test and it would seem that, while the company in question did not have access to the paper in advance, it certainly has the formula for constructing and answering HPAT questions down to a fine art, which they will share with students fortunate enough to have €595 to hand.
The Leaving Cert-based entry system had its flaws, with private grind schools teaching to a predictable exam. However, at least each school was following the same curriculum – and even if it was not a level playing field at least all the students were playing the same game. In that sense, the HPAT is a new ball game – the rules of which are only available at a price.
How many State schools have the time and resources to cater for the handful of students wishing to take HPAT each year and prepare them for this exam in addition to their Leaving Cert? I have not seen statistics looking at the change in backgrounds of those entering medicine pre- and post-HPAT. However, would anyone doubt that even the perceived advantage of these expensive courses puts talented students of lower-income households at a further disadvantage compared to the pre-HPAT days, when working one’s backside off at the prescribed curriculum paid off, without having to pay €595 for the magic formula to this misguided test? – Yours, etc,
Dr NEIL BARRETT,
Department
of Haematology,
Cambridge Institute
for Medical Research,
Cambridge,
A chara, – The Minister for the Environment and Local Government Phil Hogan (March 11th) presents the Local Government Act 2014 as a significant reform of local democracy and councillors’ powers, and part of his programme of devolving power to local authorities.
Leaving aside the fact that the biggest undermining in recent times of local government was by the same Minister through the transfer of the managing of water services to an unaccountable quango, Irish Water, the new Act does very little to enhance local government powers.
Almost all of the Act, (as with most of the Minister’s letter), deals with the abolition of town councils and changes to local government structures. These moves confer no additional powers on local authorities and will result in no savings.
If the Minister wished to be really radical, he would have given complete control of the “local” property tax to local authorities. Instead, he will continue to control the purse strings by deciding on local government funding levels centrally and permitting councils to debate if they can make a minimal variation.
In sum, the Minister’s policies are rather like asking somebody whether they wish to swallow his bitter tax pill with a pint as opposed to a half litre of water (now supplied by the Minister’s quango). – Is mise,
Cllr MALCOLM BYRNE,
Wexford County Council,
Gorey,

Sir, – I read about the 60,000 target for clampers with a fair amount of annoyance (“Council sets 60,000 target for clampers”, Front Page, March 7th). Dublin City Council says it wants motorists to “park legally” and punishes disproportionately those who do not – or who are unavoidably delayed, sometimes even outside hospitals. Has the council considered that fear of clampers – as well as cheaper rates – may be driving motorists towards private car parks, thus decreasing its regular revenue? In some Dublin streets there are often quite a lot of empty parking spaces. Has the council considered the possibility that the level of illegal parking might simply require fewer clampers? – Yours, etc,
MAIRIDE WOODS,
Del Val Avenue,
Dublin 13.

Sir, – I recently arrived home to find my water brown and black with sediment.
A call to Dublin City Council led to the explanation that there had been a major problem at Marrowbone Lane and water supplies were being redirected throughout many parts of the city. The advice was to leave the water running until it ran clear. All well and good until you remember that shortly the water supply will be privatised (in all but name) and we shall be metered. Then, if we are advised to leave taps running, we will be the ones to pay for system failures.
Is this yet another example of a lack of joined-up-thinking from our current incompetent Coalition? – Yours, etc,
IAN KAVANAGH,
Suir Road,
Kilmainham, Dublin 8.

Sir, – In light of John B Dillon’s comments regarding The Irish Times ’s “unpatriotic act” (March 10th) of revealing Apple’s tax arrangements from 2004 to 2008, I would like to offer my congratulations on your scoop. If only it had been reported in 2004 we might have had an extra €854 million in the exchequer when the global financial crisis of 2008 hit. – Yours, etc,
PAUL McELLIGOTT,
Carrickbrack Heath,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.

Sir, – Frank Flannery (“Flannery may be compelled to attend PAC”, Front Page, March 10th) has now resigned from a number of positions within Fine Gael and the Rehab Group. My question is, why now? Surely the Taoiseach was aware of the various positions that Mr Flannery held and the “odd bit of lobbying” that he did. Did the Taoiseach not question this before and why did he not do something about it? – Yours, etc,
PAUL DORAN,
Monastery Walk,
Clondalkin, Dublin 22.

Sir, – Last Saturday I saw my first short-trousered adult male this year. Is this a record? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL NORRIS,
Kilgobnet,
Dungarvan,
Co Waterford.

Irish Independent:

In the run-up to St Patrick’s Day, an event that sees global recognition of Ireland’s own particular shade of green, why is it acceptable that our great and powerful leader can show to the world what is, in my opinion, a contemptuous shade of bias towards the LGBT community? This is an evocatively dismal example of ignoring an issue and hoping it will go away, all for the sake of the long-held tradition of travelling to the big country for the parade.
Also in this section
Learning when to exercise our voice
Letters: Outsiders must stop meddling in Ukraine
Letters: Adams could be IRA whistleblower
As Enda Kenny struts his stuff, representing our country, brandishing a slip of shamrock resembling lost hope from his lapel, the fact that he is happy to participate in the New York parade implies he is not a true representative of all the people of this island.
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has confirmed he will be boycotting the event over the issue, the first mayor in 20 years to do this. The newly elected mayor showed his support to the LGBT community, and to the watching world by standing alongside our very own Panti Bliss (Rory O’Neill) as they marched in the long-running ‘St Pat’s For All’ parade in Queens last week.
The organisers of the New York St Patrick’s Day parade do not allow gay participants to carry banners, or use anything to identify themselves as gay.
In an interview with Irish Central in New York, Panti alluded to the fact that the Irish St Patrick’s Day parade has been inclusive for over 10 years, and that the option to march among the people of New York and not state your identity was not something to be accepted: “For us, the parade is just an excuse to have a party outdoors regardless of the weather. All parades are gay. If it isn’t a gay parade it’s just an organised march in traffic lanes.”
The message we send out is a simple one: yes, we have gay members of our community; we have gay politicians; we have gay senators, doctors, teachers, artists, builders, bakers, actors, nurses, writers and sports stars, but we will not be supporting their rights if it means the shamrock has to be sent in the post.
This message obliterates all that this island has to offer, from every member regardless of creed, colour or sexual orientation.
ORLA O’DRISCOLL
DUBLIN

SOLUTION IN UKRAINE
I’m not a fan of Henry Kissinger but I have to agree with most of his article in the ‘Washington Post’ on March 5 on Ukraine. Mr Kissinger’s arguments include: “If Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between them . . . Ukraine should not join NATO.”
Mr Kissinger’s solutions to the Ukrainian crisis need closer analysis: “It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to annex Crimea. But . . . Russia would recognise Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections held in the presence of international observers. The process would include removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.”
However, the rules of the existing world order were already broken by the West and cannot easily be put back together again, as the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya can testify. Vladimir Putin seems to have learned some lessons from the NATO intervention in Kosovo.
Mr Kissinger’s good solution is probably a few weeks too late. The delicate sovereign egg of Ukrainian sovereignty has been knocked off the wall, in an East/West tug of war that could lead to civil war in Ukraine and another Cold War in Europe. The effective annexation of Crimea is likely to become de facto.
The real crisis will come either if the West refuses to accept this reality, or if Russia seeks to annex further parts of Ukraine. Peaceful resolution of this crisis under the auspices of the UN and/or the OSCE would be the correct way to go, but the UN is deadlocked and sidelined on the issues and the OSCE may be leaning too much westward. The costs will be borne by the people of Ukraine.
EDWARD HORGAN,
NEWTOWN,
CASTLETROY,
LIMERICK

VIOLENCE AND VICTIMS
I read Mary Kenny’s article (Irish Independent, March 10) with complete and utter disgust. I will keep my reply short. The content of Ms Kenny’s article can be summed up in three main points.
1) Poor judgment on the victim’s part. “No state can or should protect individuals against their own poor judgment in personal relationships.”
2) The victims should have known better. “Before you commit, enquire.”
3) It’s the victim’s own fault. “Adult women have some responsibility for their own free choice of partners.”
Well, Ms Kenny, I challenge you to pay a visit to one of the Women’s Refuges. Do so and you will come away enlightened and you will retract the above comments.
IDE CUSSEN
CELBRIDGE,
CO KILDARE

ENGAGING WITH UNIONS
The recent Fine Gael Ard Fheis adopted the following motion: “That Fine Gael call on the Minister for Education and Skills to reverse his decision to phase out the externally assessed Junior Certificate and engage with education partners to implement reform while not undermining the credibility of the Junior Cycle.”
Now that the senior party in Government lacks faith in Mr Quinn’s proposals, is it time to reconsider their position and engage in real and meaningful dialogue with the unions?
MICHAEL BARRY (ASTI, CEC),
SHANAGARRY,
MIDLETON,
CO CORK

LEGENDS OF RUGBY
We have been inundated over the last few days with tributes from all quarters to the rugby career of Brian O’Driscoll, which is now coming to a close.
O’Driscoll is well deserving of those tributes. His record as a rugby player speaks for itself, and while I think that calling him the greatest ever Irish rugby player is a bit over the top, the list of the injuries that O’Driscoll suffered playing for Ireland entitles him to the utmost respect.
Perhaps his most famous game for Ireland was against France on March 19, 2000, in Paris when he scored three tries, which helped enormously in the 27-25 victory.
What is always forgotten is that David Humphreys scored the winning penalty in the 78th minute.
O’Driscoll would have been on the losing side if Humphreys had missed. Yet Humphreys rarely gets credit for a great kick under even greater pressure.
LIAM COOKE,
DUBLIN 17

APPRECIATE AGEING
Getting older need not be a frightening experience. Now you have the experience of making mistakes, learning from them, and moving on.
With age comes the slowing-down process. Again, not a bad thing, as most people seem to be like headless chickens, running around at 100 miles per hour, and going nowhere. Now you think before you act, and having thought whatever it is through.
Nature takes on a brand new perspective as you realise, in spite of all the power-mad freaks on this earth, it is still a wonderful place to be part of. The dawn chorus of our feathered friends, as they sing their love song to the morning dew. The rising newborn sun each morning telling us we live another day. The flowers opening their buds to embrace mother nature.
Dear friends old and new. The beautiful memories of those who have been called to the other side. Never forgotten, and we keep them alive in our hearts and our minds. We all come in with nothing. And all, rich and poor, depart with nothing. To where? Who knows? Just another journey, as we pass through on our karmic learning curve.
We are pure energy, balls of light, and our poor old bodies merely a vehicle to protect the inner sanctum of our Holy Grails.
ANTHONY WOODS,
ENNIS,
CO CLARE
Irish Independent


Boxes

$
0
0

13 March 2014 Boxes

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to recover from a wardroom party. Priceless

Cold slightly better Boxes arrive all books now in boxes wonderful

Scrabbletoday Marywins but getsunder400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Nigel Groom, who has died aged 89, was an Arabist, historian, author, soldier, spy-catcher and perfume connoisseur. These pursuits saw him fend off a tribal assassination attempt in Aden, uncover a KGB spy embedded in the RAF and explain the association between frankincense and Christ’s divinity.

As a young Political Officer for the Colonial Service, Groom arrived in the British Protectorate of Aden in 1948. He was responsible for the north-eastern area, based in Bayhan, a remote emirate bordering the central Arabian Desert, and accessible only by small RAF aircraft. Two years later he took over the northern area, based in Al Dhali’, regarded at the time as a difficult, ungoverned tribal part of the Protectorate, riven by unrest fuelled by the Imam of Yemen in pursuance of his claims over the whole country.

At Christmas in 1950 the British agent for the western area of the Protectorate, Basil Seager, and his wife arrived to spend the holiday in Al Dhali’, unaware that a plot was afoot to assassinate both Seager and Groom (and their escort of Arab soldiers) at a Christmas Day lunch in a nearby village. However, while out for a walk with armed guards on Christmas Eve, Seager and his wife by chance met the chief assassin, a religious fanatic high on khat, and his party on their way to their assignment. The assassin stabbed Seager with his dagger, causing serious injury, and in the subsequent gunfight several of the escort and several assailants were killed. Groom signalled to Aden for a doctor, who arrived after a five-hour night-time journey over rough tracks, and for a substantial force of Aden Protectorate Levies, to leave early on Christmas morning to help counter a planned tribal uprising.

Nigel Groom commenced his second career in the early Sixties, as an officer in MI5. Posted to D (later K) Branch in 1964, he was to spend his working life in counter-espionage work. In 1965 he was the case officer for an elaborate investigation which uncovered RAF Warrant Officer Douglas Britten as a KGB spy. The evidence unearthed included one-time code pads, short-wave radio schedules, RV instructions, sketch-maps for dead letter boxes and, in a detail worthy of Ian Fleming’s imagination, a document copier disguised as a cigarette case.

Groom combined the drama of his working life with a quiet, inquisitive fascination for all things Arabic, not least its various heady scents. He published three specialist studies in the field of perfume, in which he explained that “incense has had a continuous religious significance throughout the entire expanse of history”.

Nigel St John Groom was born on September 3 1924, and grew up in Devon, where his father, the Reverend RW Groom, was a country rector. Educated at Haileybury and Magdalene College, Cambridge, Nigel joined the Indian Army in 1943 and served with the 3 Gurkha Rifles and, in Burma, with 2 Karen Rifles. Joining the Colonial Service after the war, he was posted to the Western Aden Protectorate.

His first duty was to oversee an operation, using RAF Lincoln bombers flown from Britain for the mission, against a Bedouin desert tribe which had rebelled against the rule of the Sharif of Bayhan . Political influence over heavily-armed tribesmen — racked by blood-feuds — was limited to messages to their leaders sent by runners. There were no roads or vehicles and travel was on horseback or camel or on foot. The area was unmapped and virtually unexplored, and wherever Groom went he would take bearings with a pocket compass for a sketch map of the country. In his account of this period, Sheba Revealed (2002), he described the terrain as “perhaps the roughest land to administer anywhere in the British Empire”.

In 1952 Groom married Lorna Littlewood, the daughter of a British official in the Burma government who had died on the trek to India out of Burma after the wartime Japanese invasion. After their spell in Al Dhali’ the couple moved to the Aden Secretariat handling Protectorate affairs, where Groom worked latterly as Assistant Chief Secretary. In 1958 they left for Nairobi (“like being on leave all the time after Aden”) where he worked first in the Kenya Cabinet Office and later as Defence Secretary in the East Africa High Commission. His secretariat responsibilities included the Royal East African Navy, based in Mombasa, and the running of the East African Intelligence Committee. The job came to an end with the granting of independence to the East African territories.

Groom was recruited by MI5 in 1962. After the Britten case, he joined a small team examining allegations being sponsored by the counterintelligence officer and scientist Peter Wright, and later given publicity by the journalist Chapman Pincher, that Sir Roger Hollis, the service’s former Director-General, had been a Soviet mole. Groom’s investigations showed that, in every one of the leads put to him by the so-called Fluency Committee investigating Hollis, that the evidence was inconclusive.

Subsequently he was ordered to plan and supervise all K Branch surveillance operations against the “legal” Soviet Bloc intelligence community in London; this included the elaborate operations surrounding the defection of the Russian agent Oleg Lyalin and the expulsion, in 1971, of 107 KGB and GRU officers masquerading as Soviet diplomats. Thereafter he returned to investigating espionage leads and was to become head successively of two of the investigating sections. With a record length of continuous service in K Branch, he ended up as one of M15’s most senior and experienced counter-espionage officers, with an unrivalled knowledge of the sophisticated espionage techniques employed by the USSR. Many of the major spy cases of the time passed through his hands.

He was appointed OBE in 1974 .

Nigel Groom never lost his keen interest in the Arab world and especially in its pre-Islamic history, on which he became a noted expert. This was kindled during his early days in Bayhan, where he supported the American archaeologist Wendell Phillips in excavation projects. In 1976 he compiled an archaeological map of south-western Arabia, which was published by the Royal Geographical Society. With A Dictionary of Arabic Topography and Placenames (1983) he provided English definitions of several thousand Arabic words of topographical significance. He contributed regularly to the Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies and other academic journals, one special interest being the interpretation of Ptolemy’s map of Arabia.

His time in Bayhan had also introduced him to the incense trade, a fascination for which infused his study Frankincense and Myrrh (1981). The volume explored the nature and location of incense trees, the harvesting and bartering of crops, and how trade routes opened up to Europe. The book attracted the interest of an Omani company preparing to launch a new perfume; Groom agreed to advise them on the historical background of the natural ingredients they wanted to use. This research led to a dictionary-style reference book, The Perfume Handbook (1992) — revised as The New Perfume Handbook (1997). He was later commissioned to write The Perfume Companion (1999), designed for a wider readership.

Nigel Groom’s wife died in 2009, and he is survived by a son and a daughter.

Nigel Groom, born September 3 1924, died March 5 2014

 

 

Guardian:

Your letter (12 March) about the risks associated with the deep cuts in mental health funding highlighted an issue of increasing concern to me. I am regularly contacted by constituents struggling with mental health issues and it’s become clear that the services they access locally are under acute pressure. Therapies have long waiting lists; crisis teams cannot respond quickly enough; dedicated mental health workers are buckling under increased workloads and either going on long-term sick or seeking other careers. It is heartbreaking to see the pain many of my constituents go through, often because of past traumatic experiences or debilitating illnesses. Their cry for help can come after months or years of suppressed suffering; so when they finally access the services they so desperately need, it is extremely frustrating that they then cannot get the level of help and speed of response they require. I believe our mental health and our emotional wellbeing are key to functioning as decent human beings. When these elements of our being aren’t functioning healthily the impact is on individuals, families, communities, businesses and society as a whole. I see this everyday in my work with victims and on youth justice. It’s time that we, as a society, got our priorities right on mental health.
Dan Jarvis MP
Labour, Barnsley Central

• As nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers, we share the concerns of England’s six leading mental health organisations that a new NHS funding cut will put lives at risk. This represents yet another blow to mental health services, which are already in a critical state. The health and social work professionals our organisations represent are providing incredible support and expert interventions to people with severe and enduring mental health problems in what are difficult times. The government has made a promise to treat mental and physical healthcare equally, but further cuts to mental health services call this commitment into question. Following the Francis report, professionals have a duty to raise concerns to serve and protect their patients. We urge NHS England and the NHS financial regulator, Monitor, to reconsider their decision as a matter of urgency. Failure to is a breach of the principle of parity of esteem for mental and physical health.
Dr Peter Carter Chief executive & General Secretary, , Royal College of Nursing, Jo Cleary Chair, College of Social Work, Faye Wilson Chair, British Association of Social Workers’ mental health forum, Richard Pemberton Chair, British Psychological Society division of clinical psychology, Julia Scott Chief Executive, College of Occupational Therapists

• While I’m glad attention has been drawn to the lack of funding for adult mental health services, it is crucial to note that funding for child and adolescent mental health services is also being cut. Unless children’s mental health services are properly financed the NHS will never be able to intervene early enough in the development of mental disorders to decrease adult psychomorbidity. The costs to individuals and to society of this service shortfall have been shown time and again to be very significant. When will the government refer to the evidence base and introduce some real cost saving measures?
Dr Dinah Morley
London

• There are currently 10 million people in the UK over 65 and this is set to increase substantially. One in five are likely to need mental health services. The funding cuts to mental health services highlighted in the letter by Sean Duggan et al are a disgrace. Older people will be subject to a triple whammy: services for this group are already comparatively underfunded, demand for services is rising and they have more complex needs. Mental health services for older people are likely to collapse if the current situation continues. We urge that parity of esteem is observed not only between physical and mental health outlined in the Health and Social Care Act but also for older people as outlined in the Equality Act.
Dr James Warner (chair)
Dr Nori Graham
Dr Katheryn Milward
Dr Rafi Arif
Dr Deirdre Shields
Dr Rory O’Shea
Dr Ann Boyle
Professor Rob Stewart
Dr Suzanne Joels
Dr Deirdre Bonner
Dr Anand Ramakrishnan
Dr Debbie Brown
Dr Gianetta Rands
Dr Sandra Evans
Dr Mani Krishnan
Dr Amanda Thompsell
Dr Sheena MacKenzie
Dr Wendy Neil
Dr Claire Hilton
Professor Steve Iliffe
Prof George Tadros
Dr Brid Kerrigan
Dr Martin Brown
Executive, Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Full list: gu.com/letters

 

 

For years, clinicians and managers in the NHS have been pleading with politicians not to defend every brick of their local hospital because to do that prevents or delays sensible reorganisation and can seriously damage local healthcare. Yet when the government brings in an amendment to the care bill to help this process along, Polly Toynbee pens an article (11 March) threatening Conservative MPs that supporting this bill “will come back to bite” them. As usual, the left is against any kind of rational progress.
John Horam
Conservative, House of Lords

• Refreshing to see Charlie Mayfield, the John Lewis chairman, taking the same 17% bonus as his staff (Report, 7 March), and note the never knowingly underpaid Marc Bolland’s 85% bonus last year at M&S on top of his £3.9m golden hello in 2010. Seems to me that not only has John Lewis won the battle for the high street, but also the moral high ground.
Malcolm Stewart
Edinburgh

• I am very happy to support your editorial (10 March), which concludes “Leave income tax alone”. I’d have been even happier had you uttered the same sentiment when Gordon Brown, for cheap political and electoral reasons, abolished the 10% rate and simultaneously cut the standard rate from 22% to 20%.
Eric Ogden
Cheadle, Cheshire

• I still blush when I think of the sudden burst of grown-up laughter when, as a child of eight, I arrived late for lunch. “I’m so sorry,” I said confidently, “I was misled about the time.” Except I pronounced it mizzled (G2, 12 March).
Antonia Fraser
London

• It’s surprising that your praise of Hull (11 March) did not mention the poet Andrew Marvell, who was raised in Hull and became its MP. The coalition might care to ponder two of his memorable lines: “The grave’s a fine and private place, / But none, I think, do there embrace.”
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords

• Indeed there is no “heaven” in National Rail’s station menu (Letters, 12 March), but Norway has a station called Hell.
Les Summers
Oxford

 

I was horrified when the Women’s section of G2 decided to alienate a significant portion of the female population (and your readership) by declaring teenage girls apolitical and only interested in social media (Malala, Page 3 and Top Gear, 11 March) – and declaring that, as Malala Yousafzai is not any of those things, she is some freakish exception. This, from the paper that backed Fahma Mohamed’s anti-FGM campaign! I know that at the WoW conference Yousafzai spoke at there were some very political teenage girls present and that there are many, many politicised teenage girls in this country (I am one of them), but that is not the point. The point is that many adult feminists patronise and silence teenage girls for being political, and then call politically ignorant young women stupid in the very next breath. It is not something Malala would appreciate; twisting her words so you can attack teenage girls. I think I can speak for Yousafzai by saying that encouraging solidarity between feminists of all ages is one of the most important things you can do, unless you want to have to win the suffrage back every 50 years.

Then again, all this is not terribly surprising, as the liberal media has exalted Yousafzai purely as an anti-fundamentalist, feminist campaigner, ignoring her actual politics (which is far closer to Marxism than the media wants to admit), which is a essential part of her campaigning. When you aren’t a political teenage girl (which every teenager has a right to be), you are patronised; when you are a political teenage girl, your politics are ignored so the western liberal media can hold you aloft as a figurehead and an exception.
Laura Cooper (16)
Stockport

 

As a Guardian reader, I was surprised to read about myself – one of three girls studying history of art (Not just for posh girls, Education, 4 March). I did not recognise myself as the girl shyly “knocking on the door” of my neighbouring private school. I think of myself as an independent young woman who is happy to take up any opportunity offered to me. Every Thursday I go from one good, well-respected school to another equally good, well-respected school to study a subject not offered at the first. The fact that one of these schools is fee-paying does not make me feel “overawed”. A Van Gogh painting makes me feel overawed. Yes, Godolphin and Latymer is a brilliant school, but I don’t go there every Thursday to stand in the car park in “awe” of it, I’m there to learn. I do not feel that my comprehensive school is second best. Comprehensive schools are the choice of the majority of children. Not because they are free, but because they give a first-rate education.
Aphra Joly de Lotbinière
London

 

As engineers, health professionals, educationists and others who believe in the power of science and engineering as a force for good, we are writing to condemn the continued sponsorship of today’s Big Bang Fair by BAE Systems and other arms companies such as Thales, Selex ES, Doosan, Rolls-Royce and Airbus. It might seem like a joke: the UK’s largest youth science and engineering education event, named the Big Bang Fair, is sponsored by companies who make very big bangs indeed. Except the arms trade isn’t funny. All of these companies have a track record of supplying countries with appalling human rights records. Doosan is involved in cluster bomb manufacture.

The casual and unquestioned way these companies are allowed public relations space at educational events reflects a serious problem at the heart of modern British science. We need programmes which offer young people unbiased spaces to learn about science and engineering as it is currently constituted – including environmental and human rights concerns – and what it could look like.

If the government is serious in its support of science and engineering – not just a few choice companies associated with them – it must invest more fully in education so the Big Bang Fair 2015 need not be reliant on sponsorship which so narrows its scope. We were pleased to learn that several (though not all) of the fossil fuel companies associated with previous fairs have disappeared from the list of sponsors.

Big Bang 2014 is a slightly less dystopian vision of engineering than it has been in the past. Let’s drop the arms trade and do something truly inspirational in the future.
Professor David Colquhoun FRS University College London
Professor Robin A Weiss FRS University College London
Professor David Webb CND
Professor Abbas Edalat Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics, Imperial College
Professor Jonathan Oppenheim Professor of Quantum Theory, University College London
Professor Andy Stirling University of Sussex
Professor Brian Wynne Lancaster University
Professor Gail Davies Professor of Human Geography, Exeter
Professor Richard Ashcroft Queen Mary University of London
Professor Jon Agar Professor of Science and Technology Studies, University College London
Professor Malcolm JW Povey University of Leeds
Professor Mark Blaxter University of Edinburgh
Professor Christopher Norris Cardiff University, Wales
Professor John S Yudkin University College London
Professor Imti Choonara University of Nottingham
Professor Anna Gilmore Bath
Robin Ince Comedian
Andrew Feinstein Former ANC MP, Author, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade
Rev Andrew Willson Imperial College Chaplain
Dr David McCoy Medact
Lucas Wirl International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Dr Simon Lewis
Dr Sarah Bell
Dr Felicity Mellor
Dr Charlotte Sleigh
Dr Lucy Gilliam
Dr Alice Bell
Dr Emma Hughes
Dr Hamza Hamouchene
Dr Emily Dawson
Dr Rebekah Higgit
Dr Vanessa Heggie
Dr Paul Levy Mathematics & Statistics, Lancaster University
Dr Tristram Wyatt Emeritus fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford
Dr Charalampos Tsoumpas University of Leeds
Dr Tim Oxley
Dr Ian Cook University of Exeter
Dr Lorenzo Di Lucia Imperial
Dr Marion Hersh University of Glasgow
Dr Victoria Johnson Cardiff University
Dr Alan Cottey University of East Anglia
Dr Youcef Mehellou
Dr David Harper Reader in clinical psychology, University of East London
David Wearing
Dr Gary Fooks
Dr Keith Baker
Dr RJ Tacon
Dr Tim Dowson
Reiner Braun International association of lawyers against nuclear arms
Emma Sangster Coordinator, ForcesWatch
Stephen Skett
Dr Sunil Bhopal Academic clinical fellow in paediatrics, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dr Charmian Goldwyn Independent Medical Practitioner
Dr Kate Rawles Senior lecturer in outdoor studies
Dr Mandy Meikle Researcher on climate justice
Dr Westley Ingram
Dr Emily Heath Senior teaching associate, Lancaster Environment Centre
Dr Tomasz Pierscionek
Anne Chapman Green House
Gwen Harrison Climate change consultant, Cumbria
Sarah Lou Bailey Clinical research fellow, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Rachel Cottam GP partner, Brighton
Dr Trevor Trueman Retired GP
Brian Beveridge Consultant ophthalmologist (retd)
Dr Rachel Lindley GP lecturer
Ruth Jarman Christian Ecology Link
Maria Olenina Imperial
Dr Phil Kingston Retired lecturer, Bristol University
Dr.Chris Burns-Cox Emeritus consultant physician
Dr Mark Ruddell Consultant liaison sychiatrist
Helen Everett Teacher and trustee, Home-Start Leicester
Dr Rupert Gude Retired GP
Rev Dr Chris Walton Editor, Green Christian Magazine
Dr Sunil Bhopal Academic clinical fellow in Paediatrics, Newcastle upon Tyne
John Furness
Ursula Stubbings
Dr H Grant-Peterkin MRCPsych
Dr Harald Molgaard D Phil (Physics)
Dr Elizabeth Waterston Retired GP
Dr Guinevere Tufnell Consultant child & adolescent psychiatrist, Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists
Dr Taavi Tillmann Specialty registrar in public health medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Ian Fairlie
Dr Leo Garcia Trainee clinical scientist, Velindre Cancer Centre
Justin Pickard Sussex
Laura Perry Nuclear medicine physicist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Geraldine Brennan IC
Dr Eszter Nagy KCL
Dr Judith Burchardt GP
Dr Jeni McAughey GP, Belfast
Dr Christine Range Consultant, ABMU Health Board
Cllr Jillian Creasy Sheffield city council, and GP locum in Sheffield
Dr David Kirby Retired GP
Dr Eva Novotny Cambridge
Lindley Owen Retired consultant in public health
Dr Paul Redgrave Consultant in public health
David Halpin MB BS FRCS
David Polden London region CND
Name Ann King Registered intermediary, Criminal Justice Service
Dr Dominick Jenkins Author, campaigner and philosopher
Brenda Heard Friends of Lebanon
Julie Lloyd Clinical psychologist, NHS
Anna E Livingstone GP, Tower Hamlets
Alison Payne GP
Corinne Moore Retired health care worker
Richard Le Mare Radiographer, NHS
Judith Anderson Consultant psychiatrist
Tony Waterston Retired consultant paediatrician, Newcastle upon Tyne
Joady Brennan Child & adolescent mental health specialist, NHS
Maggie Eisner Retired GP and GP training programme director, Bradford
Penny Walker Workers Education Association, community activist
Dr Lesley Morrison GP
Andrew Manasse Retired GP
Stewart Britten Retired consultant child psychiatrist
Jill Vogler Retired consultant psychiatrist
Sarah Lazenby
Angie Zelter
Noel Hamel Chair, Kingston Peace Council/CND
Dr Jude Towers Statistician
Herbert Eppel Translator
Melanie Strickland
Dr Chloe Baker
Megan Quinlan Research fellow, CEP, Imperial College
Dr Michael Parkinson Former research scientist in neurobiology
Dr Mae-Wan Ho Director, Institute of Science in Society
Jenny Gibson Retired missionary
Jo Abbess

 

 

Independent:

 

Bob Crow was an intelligent, principled and highly effective union leader who believed that all workers should be paid a fair wage and pension for their labours, and be accorded safe and comfortable working conditions. He also believed in the right of workers to withdraw their labour when any of these conditions were lacking.

He therefore quite often threatened (but rarely followed through) strike action, and for this he was hated by right-wing media and politicians alike. Yet what is the bleating excuse of those same right-wing voices for the scandal of multi-million pound bonuses in the City? “We must not interfere with the sacred rituals of the market or these people will just go somewhere else.”

In other words, withdraw their labour. Couple this with the “tax strike” in which the rich have indulged for ages and one realises exactly who are the forces holding the country to ransom.

Steve Edwards, Wivelsfield Green, East Sussex

Though I am no apologist for trades unions, I really must say how moved I was by today’s cartoon (12 March) by Dave Brown on the sudden death of Bob Crow. It was superb – witty, affectionate and wry – and  I’m sure the man himself would have  loved it.

Jenny Adams, Cardiff 

The adulation of Bob Crow seems to have missed the obvious point. Yes, he achieved a lot for his members, especially those working on the London Underground. However, how many of his demands were met because the management had little choice when the alternative was the paralysis of London?

He kept his finger on the industrial equivalent of a nuclear trigger and made sure that everyone knew that he was prepared to use it. He backed this up by showing scant consideration of the consequences to other workers and their employers.

How successful would he have been had his members been employed in an industry where management could resist, or even “walk away”? Could he have delivered so much in a car plant? He picked his battles well, like many generals; perhaps that’s why he won.

Tim Brook, Bristol

Who would you want defending your corner, Bob Crow or Ed Miliband?

Steven Calrow, Liverpool

Lockerbie theory vindicated

The theory put forward in your article “New Lockerbie report says Libyan framed to conceal the real bombers” (12 March) has long been considered the most probable explanation for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, on which my brother Bill Cadman and his girlfriend lost their lives.

You report that there may have been was political interference from Washington and London to protect Syria and Iran. The cover-up, however, grew out of control with the very expensive Camp Zeist trial, and what has always puzzled us is why such a cover-up was necessary. In the vacuum created by false information and manipulation of facts dark fears emerge, and our worst-case scenario remains that the bombing was allowed to happen, and that my brother and the other 278 people on board were offered up as sacrificial victims to appease Iran.

We felt right from the beginning that something was being kept from us: the CIA were out in force on Scottish soil before the work of identifying bodies had been properly undertaken, and the brave Dr David Fieldhouse who worked tirelessly on the night of 21 December finding and labelling bodies, and who gave evidence in the Scottish fatal accident inquiry, was discredited publicly, although he later received an apology.

One theory was that Flight 103 was regularly used in the drugs-for-arms circuit connecting Nicaragua  to Iran, and that the message instructing carriers to  “put suspect packages in the hold” was in some way connected to this. It would have been relatively easy to slip a bomb on to a plane in this context.

My father, Martin Cadman, was haunted by the memory of being told by a member of the American Presidential Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism that our government knew what had happened but that the truth would not come out. He has now lost his memory and it is very bitter to me that now truths that he shouted from the rooftops against the prevailing wind are commonly reported as facts.

Marion Irvine, L’Aquila, Italy

Manipulating the market

The Bank of England’s attempt to clarify any alleged involvement in manipulating the foreign exchange market has to be applauded. However, this issue goes way back before 2006, or even the deregulation of the City in 1986 which many cite as the start of the decline in governance in the financial services sector.

I worked as a junior employee in the foreign exchange dealing room of a major high street bank during the 1976 sterling crisis, which saw the pound under pressure on the foreign exchange markets. I vividly recall the chief officer running into the dealing room and shouting to traders that they were to start big purchases of sterling, in concert with the other British high street banks at the behest of the Bank of England, in order to influence the pound exchange rate.

Steven Walker, Walton on Naze, Essex

Inexcusable cull of senior nurses

Your article “Cull of the matrons: thousands of senior nursing posts axed” (11 March) highlights some very serious problems facing the NHS.

In addition to the loss of experience and skills that senior nurses bring to the wards, there is a knock-on effect on clinical supervision. Senior nurses and matrons play a valuable role in helping to support and guide less-experienced staff. This includes junior doctors, who rely on nurses with experience as they start their new jobs in the summer each year.

A number of the senior nurses the NHS is in danger of “culling” have specialist clinical skills in, for example, cancer and coronary diseases. To “cull” this experience is inexcusable .

This government should make a realistic assessment of the impact of its cuts on the NHS – especially on the staff who are at the sharp end of so much criticism.

Christina McAnea, Head of Health,  UNISON,  London NW1

Birds of prey in the grouse estates’ sights

Your article on grouse shooting (7 March) did not mention the persecution of birds of prey on upland moors in Scotland and North England, where  hen harriers now no  longer breed.

I recently spent a week in the North Pennines in Northumberland, where any bird or mammal that may interfere with the interests of red grouse shooting is classed as vermin and ruthlessly trapped or shot, for the benefit of “rich enthusiasts from around the world” who will climb up the social ladder after bagging a brace of grouse.

Despite a spokesman for the Moorland Association, which represents grouse shooters, saying that “it fuels the local economy in remote areas”, the few people I spoke to in the area did not agree with this view, some in fact detesting the activities of the shooting fraternity.

Although the scarce black grouse are now protected, people seemed to think they are also sometimes shot as they would have an even better price tag on their heads.

Peter Brown, Brighton

Political evolution in the Gulf states 

The article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, “A reminder that the Gulf states are evil empires” (10 March) is thoroughly wrong-headed. The current Arabian Gulf monarchies are not perfect but are evolving in the direction of more representative government, some more rapidly  than others.

Between 1999 and 2009 I had the privilege of working for long periods in Kuwait on technical training programmes. Women and men, young Kuwaiti graduates, were educated together on challenging and complex assignments.

In Kuwait, adult women and men have the vote, are elected to Parliament and are not oppressed. In Kuwait there have been women ministers.

We have seen other monarchies in the Arab world and the Gulf disastrously replaced by very nasty dictatorships (Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, Iran).

Instead let us support the evolutionary not revolutionary politics so well displayed by our natural friends in the kingdoms of the Gulf and in north Africa.

Michael A G Bunter, Conwy

Reporting sex crime allegations

On Tuesday, The Independent carried stories referring to allegations of “gay sex assault” made against Nigel Evans MP, yet somehow neglected to characterise allegations made against Max Clifford as “heterosexual assault”. Would you care to account for the inconsistency?

Iain Barbour, Edinburgh

 

 

Times:

 

Sir, Libby Purves offers a balanced appraisal of the explanation given by Sarah Vine, wife of the Education Minister, Michael Gove, as to why she chose to send her child to a state school. I have to confess my surprise at Vine’s logic which Purves has exposed most eruditely (“The minister should stop his missus sneering”, Mar 10).

I was a head teacher of two state comprehensive schools (Tottenham, London and Bristol) and I sent my children to a state comprehensive. For my wife and I the most important thing was to decide what was the right school for each of our children given all the circumstances at the time. As a believer in choice in a free market I exercised mine and, yes, got brownie points not only from parents of the two schools I led but also from staff, of whom many were readers of The Guardian .

I now have grandchildren living in North London and Bristol. The London contingent attend primary and secondary state schools (one is a state grammar with an academic selection process). Two of the Bristol contingent attend independent schools while a third attends a Church of England primary school. My wife and I have supported strongly the decisions of their parents as they have addressed the question “What is the right school for my child?” and reached a family consensus.

To infer that my Bristol family are snobs “paying for their children to mix with the right kind of kids” is a travesty and I am offended by it.

David Pert

Bristol

Sir, Further to Libby Purves, some might say that the wealthy have a moral obligation to pay for their education, rather than take the places of more deserving families in high-quality state schools.

David Hanson

Independent Association of Prep Schools

Sir, Libby Purves’ response to Sarah Vine’s attack on the evils of private education is welcome.

It is interesting that the primary state school the Goves’ daughter attends has been the school of choice for the offspring of both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education, just as that other state school, the Brompton Oratory, was the choice of both the former Prime Minister and the present Deputy Prime Minister.

As a parent (state educated and a teacher in the state system) who opted for a private school education for her children, I have never been unaware of the importance of parental standards and aspirations in schools. Sarah Vine may not have been influenced by such factors in seeking out both the primary and secondary schools for her daughter but her instincts seem to have served her well.

Jacqueline Downey

London SW1

Sir, Thank you to Libby Purves who highlights the lottery involved in getting ones child into the state school of your choice and the unreasonable gloating exhibited by Sarah Vine; I rather think it is Ms Vine who is still set in the “playground” mentality of showing off their luck which is after all largely good fortune and location and which, I would suggest, is hardly in keeping with the Christian values promoted at Grey Coat Hospital. Hopefully the Goves’ daughter will benefit from the ethics of the school she will be lucky enough to attend.

Atalanta Beaumont

Oxted, Surrey

 

 

The police service is ‘classless’ and ‘meritocratic’, and most senior officers have at least one good degree

Sir, The letter from Christopher Ash (Mar 12) is frankly insulting to both the police service and the working class. If, as it appears, some of his views are based upon his experience of the police in the late 1960s/early 1970s, they are ill informed and do not reflect the modern police service. One only has to look at Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick and her top female team (report, Mar 10) to realise the service is far from Life on Mars.

No, the police is not perfect, and there is a need to continually strive to improve standards in leadership, integrity and service to the public. However, (unlike many large organisations) it is “classless” and meritocratic. Promotion is based solely upon objective qualities and standards. These include intelligence, aptitude, integrity, commitment and proven leadership skills. Senior leadership and promotion in the police is not influenced or governed by an upper-middle-class network based on social background, contacts and favours. Most senior officers and all chief officers will hold at least one good degree. It is one of the few organisations which offers a level playing field for all new recruits in terms of potential advancement to the highest ranks. This position helps to ensure the service has the pick of some of the best and brightest to serve the public in that most important rank: police constable.

Michael Free, QPM

(Metropolitan Police Service
1979-2009)

London W11

 

In a report on the Staffordshire Hoard we confused our geography and our 7th-century warrior tribes

Sir, The Mercians would not have been attacking Saxons in East Anglia and Northumbria (Mar 12). They would have been attacking Angles — Saxons were confined to the southern counties of England.

Jason Dickson

Bretforton, Worcs

 

One reader is concerned to reassure older people with cancer that they will be looked after perfectly well

Sir, I would hate it if your headline “Elderly get raw deal in relation to cancer” (Mar 11) were to worry people unnecessarily. My wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer a year ago, aged 86. She saw the three appropriate consultants in five days; there was no suggestion of ageism; and she chatted to each on an equal basis about courses of action. The decisions about treatments were entirely hers. Over the next ten months her allocated case nurse was always there organising appointments and answering queries, all under the auspices of the NHS

Sadly, she passed away in January, but that was because the symptoms had not been obvious enough for an earlier diagnosis.

Geoff Longlands

Bognor Regis

 

 

There was some confusion over exactly which bit of South London would be home to the new US embassy

Sir, Americans may be more savvy than Justin Webb (Mar 11) says. Their new embassy is in fact in Wandsworth.

Councillor Stuart Thom

London SW11

One UKIP supporter feels that Conservative disdain for his party’s views is reminiscent of the Lady Chatterly trial

Sir, A Cabinet minister says it should become as embarrassing to admit support for UKIP at a dinner party as it would to admit support for the BNP (“They call them fruitcakes in public but Tories still fear the UKIP threat”, Mar 12).

I wonder just how many UKIP supporters give or attend dinner parties? I, for one, do not. It rather reminds me of prosecution counsel’s comment during the Lady Chatterley’s Lover trial, when the jury was asked whether it was the sort of book they would want their servants to read. This latest comment shows just how out of touch senior politicians remain, more than 50 years on.

Alec Gallagher

Potton, Beds

 

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – You report that the latest piece of madness to emanate from Brussels is the possibility that several of our beloved garden plants, such as the rhododendron, will be banned under new European laws. The reasons are that they are “invasive” and “of Union concern”, whatever that means.

Are the likes of Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden in Wisley, Surrey, the Savill Garden, and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, as well as other glorious tourist attractions, expected to undergo a campaign of slash and burn?

Prospective European Union inspectors should be reminded that we gardeners possess a multitude of useful implements such as forks, scythes and sickles with which to defend our personal green spaces.

Rick Emerson
Bagshot, Surrey

SIR – Gordon Brown proposes giving Scotland “devo max”, balancing relations between the countries of the United Kingdom and sharing resources and risks between them.

I would be very much in favour of the sharing part of his proposal if there were to be an equal per capita distribution of government expenditure between the countries, so that the people of Newcastle benefited to the same extent as those in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast.

William Harris
Stockton, Warwickshire

SIR – The former prime minister enters the Scottish independence debate to argue for more devolution and a new constitutional arrangement. England should undergo devolution in the same way as Scotland, as should Wales and Northern Ireland.

English taxpayers have had enough of subsidising Mr Brown’s country.

Steve Bodger
Mayfield, East Sussex

SIR – In Mr Brown’s plan for a fair Union, he proposes Scotland raises 40 per cent of its own spending. I assume he expects England to subsidise Scotland for the remaining 60 per cent. The United Kingdom is still suffering from Mr Brown’s views of fair economics.

Simon Davison
Cardiff

SIR – Mr Brown’s intervention in the Scottish independence debate is unhelpful. He supports the Union for partisan reasons, aware that independence would mean the Labour Party losing its Scottish MPs in Westminster, giving it virtually no chance of governing again.

Steve Willis
Olney, Buckinghamshire

SIR – If Mr Brown is so determined to save the Union by giving further powers to the Scottish Parliament, I would suggest that a fair exchange for England would be the removal of Scottish MPs from the House of Commons. They will surely be too busy running their own country.

David J Dodd
Ingoldsby, Lincolnshire

SIR – What makes Mr Brown think he has any right to pontificate on the future of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after he and his government were instrumental in bringing the country to its knees?

While in government he did nothing to resolve the West Lothian question. He was too busy ruining the economy. Please, no more public announcements from Mr Brown.

John Mason
Southsea, Hampshire

SIR – As a Scot living abroad, I am not entitled to vote in the referendum.

However, the one thing that would make me vote for independence is if Mr Brown were against it.

K A Campbell
Gibraltar

 

 

 

Irish Times:

 

A chara, – I think it is necessary to remind the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn, regarding his plans for the Junior Cycle Student Award programme, that the substantial changes and improvements that have taken place in Irish education over the past 20 years were all implemented and delivered by teachers – the introduction of transition year, the Leaving Certificate vocational programme and the Leaving Certificate applied programme (the last of which is probably the reason that Ireland has the highest student retention rate in Europe).

We have welcomed greater integration of children with special educational needs and learning difficulties into mainstream education, adapting our educational provision and methodologies to their needs. Social, personal and health education (SPHE) and civic, social and political education (CSPE) have come on stream at Junior Cert level. Practical examinations and project work form part of the assessment of almost all practical subjects, and many schools have also introduced the oral Irish exam at Junior Certificate level. All schools have embraced technology in the classroom, and numerous changes to syllabuses, the latest being Project Maths.

All these changes have been embraced by teachers in an effort to improve the suitability and quality of the education we provide on a daily basis to students all over this country.

Teachers are not opposed to change. We welcome it. We are at the coal face of education, seeing the changing needs of our students every day, and yet Mr Quinn refuses to listen to us.

Not a very good example for the children of the country, and nor would their teachers be if we sat back and were bullied into introducing a flawed educational programme rather than standing up to protect the rights of the students in our care. – Is mise,

GEAROIDÍN O’DWYER,

Abberley,

Killiney, Co Dublin.

Sir, – This is a plea to Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to speak to the Welsh minister for education Huw Lewis before he changes the Junior Cert. On Newsnight recently he was asked why Wales had plummeted in international school rankings. The reply – they had changed from state exams to individual school assessments. We need to up our game here, not drop it. – Yours, etc,

MAURA McSWEENEY,

Mount Albany,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

 

 

Sir, – Jim Lawless, who sadly lost his wife to a brain haemorrhage in 2005, deserves our thanks in highlighting a serious issue regarding the treatment of patients who suffer a brain haemorrhage in the community (March 10th).

At present anyone suffering a stroke or brain injury in the community must first be assessed in the nearest hospital (as a brain scan is necessary to differentiate a brain haemorrhage from the more common brain infarction or non-haemorrhagic stroke).

However, even after a diagnosis of brain haemorrhage, patients do not automatically transfer to the neurosurgical “centre of excellence” in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, as one would quite properly expect. The reasons for this are unclear.

Mr Lawless rightly seeks evidence that this management (or lack of) does not adversely affect patient outcomes (that is, has the HSE compared morbidity and mortality rates between the patients who were transferred to Beaumont Hospital and those who were not?). One would think this would be a basic audit target of any new protocol in the management of patients with brain haemorrhage.

However, Mr Lawless indicates that the HSE has not even collated the numbers of patients involved and appears to have no intention of doing so due to a lack of resources. This is simply shocking.

The Phillips report on traumatic brain injury, commissioned by the Department of Health in 2008, specifically recommends a national trauma registry to help structure the provision of services.

The HSE is on record as saying this is not a bed issue. How is the HSE able to say with any certainty that there is an adequate number of beds in Beaumont Hospital if they do not know the number of patients who could possibly need treatment? How does it know it is following what is best for patients if it does not measure outcomes?

Supermarkets do better audits of new products than the HSE appears to be doing for patients with brain haemorrhage (up to 1,290 people per year, we have been informed by Mr Lawless).

I would like to see the HSE take this matter very seriously and move to audit its past and current activity as a matter of urgency and show us the numbers and some clinical evidence. Then and only then can we be assured of what is best practice for patients with brain haemorrhage. – Yours, etc,

Dr STEPHEN MURPHY,

Ashbourne Family Practice,

Ashbourne,

Co Meath.

 

 

Sir, – I sympathise with the anonymous writer of the “To Be Honest” column on school admissions policy (“It’s time to discriminate in favour of non-Catholics”, Education, March 11th), but the answer to discrimination cannot be more of the same.

The writer states “Catholic schools can and do prioritise Catholics; Protestant schools do the same for Protestants and I actually think that’s fair enough.” It is the very opposite of fair enough.

Imagine Dublin Bus allowing Catholics to board first. Imagine HSE hospitals putting Protestants to the top of their waiting lists. Imagine public libraries reserving their most popular books for atheists. We would not accept this, so why do we allow State-funded national schools to discriminate?

The solution is not separate schools for children of different religions or none. This only creates division, and in any case is totally impractical outside of large urban areas.

If schools are oversubscribed, prioritise children by age or distance from the school. Almost anything would be fairer than segregating them on the basis of their parents’ religion. – Yours, etc,

EIMEAR LYNCH,

Meadow Vale,

Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 01:09

First published: Thu, Mar 13, 2014, 01:09

 

Sir, – In the recent and current controversies touching on some of our police and aspects of their policing, the Garda Síochána has been referred to variously as “the Force”, “a force” and even, most memorably, as “my Force”. Words matter, not least in their subliminal effects but also in what they reveal about those who use them.

In 2001 it was significant to many on this island that the Royal Ulster Constabulary was reconstituted as a police service for Northern Ireland – policing as a public service seems to have had both symbolic and practical effects.

However, many commentators in the Republic of Ireland, including ministers and commissioners, seem to overlook section 6 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005: “The police force called the Garda Síochána continues in being under this Act as a police service.”

Perhaps they are forgetful, or perhaps it is a force of habit. – Yours, etc,

PETER OSBORNE,

Strandhill,

 

 

 

 

Sir, – Iarnód Éireann announced that it is to ban electronic cigarettes in all its stations and trains because, they claim, they have had feedback from customers. Apparently these complainers object to inhaling somebody else’s vapour.

Do these people also complain about inhaling diesel fumes from the train itself? Diesel fumes are a designated carcinogen, ie cancer-causing to humans. Do the complainers object to inhaling everything that fellow passengers exhale also? Do they have a problem inhaling the flatulence of other travellers? How do they feel about the germs of others that they inevitably come in contact with? The perfumes and aftershaves of others must surely drive them wild. Perhaps they should demand a carriage all to themselves.

This ban is based on ignorance and intolerance and an unhealthy phobia around tobacco consumption or anything that might look like it. Electronic cigarettes are the single best aid to quitting smoking and it is official policy to “encourage” smokers to quit by whatever means they can. Is Iarnód Éireann attempting to discourage quitters?

Smokers are taxpayers too and help fund the train service. As a dual user of both electronic cigarettes and tobacco, currently on the road to quitting smoking completely, I object strongly to this intrusive move by Iarnód Éireann. It might be instructive for all of us if the complaints were published with names and addresses included, or would that be too intrusive for the intolerant moaners? – Yours, etc,

JOHN MALLON,

Mayfield,

Cork.

Sir, – I hear Iarnród Éireann is banning “vaping” because it makes some people “feel uncomfortable”. Will they also ban groin/armpit scratching, sneezing, arguments, unsightly bare thighs, smelly feet, inappropriate cleavage, bad breath, because these things make some people “feel uncomfortable”? I’m sure your readers can think of many other things that could also be banned, now that they’ve started the ball rolling. – Yours, etc,

TOM FARRELL,

Hawthorn Park,

Swords, Co Dublin.

 

Sir, – Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine, The Irish Times has published several letters questioning the moral authority of the United States being involved in seeking a resolution. American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is usually cited as the reason for their objections.

However, I have yet to read any mention of US participation in the last war that took place on European soil. I am of course referring to the 1990s Balkans war that followed the breakup of Tito’s Yugoslavia.

During the entirety of that conflict, Europe sat on its hands while its Serbian neighbours carried out horrific acts of ethnic cleansing.

After years of bloodshed, it took a US-led Nato bombing campaign of Serbian military positions to bring an abrupt end to the war.

It should be pointed out that the United States had neither strategic nor economic interests in the Balkans. Afterwards Bill Clinton said his only regret was that the US did not intervene earlier.

The perceived rights or wrongs of US participation in previous conflicts should not preclude them from doing what is morally right in the present situation. – Yours, etc,

JOHN BELLEW,

Paughanstown,

Dunleer,

Co Louth.

 

Sir, – As both a parent and a foster parent I see the distress and frustration being expressed by prospective adoptive parents in respect of the Adoption Authority of Ireland (“Changes to adoption law shattered my hopes of becoming a parent”, Weekend Review, March 8th).

As an adopted person, also, I am not surprised that this is the current situation, because Ireland still does not regard or respect, nor has she vindicated, the full human rights of 40,000-plus Irish citizens adopted domestically and 4,000-plus by overseas families, and the many, many thousands who were in State care prior to the Adoption Act of 1952.

Many thousands have waited whole lifetimes to “be let know” their real names.

Many have died without finding their true identity, not to mention having some steps taken to being acknowledged as an equally valid family member parted, sometimes by circumstances not of their own doing, and sometimes by force. – Yours, etc,

MICHELE SAVAGE,

Glendale Park,

Dublin 12.

 

Sir, – As both a parent and a foster parent I see the distress and frustration being expressed by prospective adoptive parents in respect of the Adoption Authority of Ireland (“Changes to adoption law shattered my hopes of becoming a parent”, Weekend Review, March 8th).

As an adopted person, also, I am not surprised that this is the current situation, because Ireland still does not regard or respect, nor has she vindicated, the full human rights of 40,000-plus Irish citizens adopted domestically and 4,000-plus by overseas families, and the many, many thousands who were in State care prior to the Adoption Act of 1952.

Many thousands have waited whole lifetimes to “be let know” their real names.

Many have died without finding their true identity, not to mention having some steps taken to being acknowledged as an equally valid family member parted, sometimes by circumstances not of their own doing, and sometimes by force. – Yours, etc,

MICHELE SAVAGE,

Glendale Park,

Dublin 12.

 

Sir, – I note that Bono, addressing the European People’s Party congress in Dublin, has said that he loves Europe (“Ireland bailed out by Irish people, not troika”, Home News, March 8th). Why wouldn’t he? Doesn’t he have an elaborate corporate structure based in the Netherlands to reduce tax? – Yours, etc,

PADDY CORLEY,

Beechpark,

Ennis,

Co Clare.

Sir, – By all accounts the U2 frontman is a very nice man; but I think his grasp of basic economics leaves a lot to be desired. His “The Irish people bailed out the Irish people” remarks at the European People’s Party conference were naive in the extreme and bordered on the condescending. For his information, “the Irish people” were forced to bail out the banks, the bondholders and the financial power elite.

Of course, our European masters will insist that the imposition of such an intolerable financial burden on the State was pro bono publico (ie, for the good of European fiscal stability). – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

 

Sir, – Even if an Irishman demonstrates inventive genius, even if that man is from Castlebar, why would he be “honoured” by the Taoiseach (“Taoiseach pays graveside tribute to torpedo inventor from Castlebar”, Home News, March 12th) for having developed weapons for the defence of the British Empire ? – Yours, etc,

DOMINIC CARROLL,

Ardfield,

Co Cork.

A chara, – I was intrigued by your report of the Taoiseach’s attendance at the unveiling of a new gravestone to Louis Brennan, inventor of a venerable weapon of mass destruction, the torpedo. This could set an interesting precedent. I am sure with an appropriate application of the Taoiseach’s “why, what and if” formula, we could unearth  an Irish connection somewhere in the development of napalm, germ warfare, phosphorous bombs and depleted uranium shells. It is unfortunate that the “brilliance and resilience” of such entrepreneurial ingenuity is unlikely to be appreciated in the “cold, small and anonymous” places where the myriad victims of such inventions lie. – Is mise,

BRIAN PATTERSON,

Canal Street,

Ballybot,

Newry,

Co Down.

 

 

Sir, – I watched as Minister for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan introduced the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2014, which will extend Seanad voting rights to graduates of over 80 higher-level institutions.

The Bill reflects a decision made by the people in 1979, a time when Jack Lynch was taoiseach and over a million people assembled in the Phoenix Park to see Pope John Paul II.

After 35 years, the Government is legislating for a decision that only acts to institutionalise the much-criticised elitism of the Seanad.

As a result of the Bill, 800,000 graduates will elect six Senators, 753 county councillors will still elect 43 Senators, with the Taoiseach maintaining the power to nominate 11 Senators without any criteria for selection.

This is a throwback to an era where a citizen needed to own property to have a vote and does not reflect a democracy fit for 1979, let alone 2014. – Yours, etc,

DANIEL GRIFFIN,

The Grove,

Dunboyne Castle, Co Meath.

 

Sir, – The report (“Scientists prove link between climate change and malaria”, World News, March 6th) that global warming will allow malaria to “creep up the mountains and spread to new high-altitude areas” in Africa should be put in context.

The World Health Organisation’s World Malaria Report 2013 shows that between 2000 and 2012, malaria deaths fell by half in Africa, where 90 per cent of such deaths occur. This translates into saving three million lives, mostly those of children. While it is of concern that the disease might one day spread to the less than 2 per cent of Africa too high for malarial mosquitoes, millions of lives could be saved now by adequate funding of malaria control in the 100 countries where it is endemic. – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY

Operngasse,

Vienna,

Austria.

 

Sir, – Ian Kavanagh of Suir Road arrived home to find his water brown and black with sediment (March 12th). A solution might be to get the road renamed Clearwater Road. A road by another name might smell sweeter. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,

Shandon Crescent,

Phibsborough,

Dublin 7.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

* Please may I share, once again, the following, beautifully written letter by Anthony Woods of Ennis, with Michael Dryhurst (Letters, March 11, “No country for old men”) and with all in their golden years, who may, at this stage of their lives, feel a little unwanted.

Also in this section

Kenny at centre of green storm over NY parade

Learning when to exercise our voice

Letters: Outsiders must stop meddling in Ukraine

If reading this doesn’t make us feel good about ourselves, nothing will!

“As I’ve aged, I’ve become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world, too soon, before they understood the great freedom that comes with ageing.

“Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4am or sleep until noon?

“I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the ’50s,’60s and ’70s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

“I will walk the beach in a swimsuit that is stretched over a bulging body and I will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They too will get old. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

“Sure, over the years, my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break, when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength, understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile, and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

“I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning grey and to have my youthful laughs forever etched into deep grooves on my face.

“So many have never laughed and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it). I am I!

I am free!”

BRIAN MCDEVITT

GLENTIES, CO DONEGAL

TRIBUTE TO CHRISTINE

* We broke the silence, we learned to embrace the inner child within ourselves in which we were taught to hate

We learned to stop the self-harm, blaming ourselves

We are stars in the sky shining

Christine, your eyes your smile, your tears your laughter.

CON CARROLL

CORK STREET, DUBLIN 8

HAD ENOUGH OF UKRAINE

* With most people hitting saturation point with the relative non-event that is the Ukraine – in relation to Ireland, that is, seeing as it is not even part of the EU – is it not time to ask serious questions about the editorial decisions of RTE?

There were serious protests in Spain, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and elsewhere in the EU and they barely got a fraction of the coverage that the Ukraine is getting.

Furthermore, there is a serious chance that Scotland may be forced out of the EU for establishing its independence and yet it barely gets a mention.

DERMOT RYAN

ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

WE HOPE IN THIS POPE

* I am convinced that very many people who no longer go to Mass regularly have not lost their faith, as some people seem to think. Is it not much more likely, that they have become disillusioned, at the shennanigans and the skulduggery, and two-faced hypocrisy, that has gone on in high places?

This Pope, thank God, has the common touch; like Christ Himself, he goes out to where the sheep are. What a monumental change almost overnight. And it’s only starting.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

BLAMING THE VICTIMS

* I am writing in response to Mary Kenny’s column ‘Why do women with freedom and opportunity choose violent partners?’ (Irish Independent, March 10).

Is this a serious question?

It seems to me that Ms Kenny’s piece is of the “teach girls not to get hit” rather than the “teach boys not to hit” school of thought.

This column is an example of victim-blaming at its worst.

SARA BENNETT

CO DUBLIN

LOSING THEIR WAY

* Charity begins at the boardroom.

K NOLAN

CARRICK-ON-SHANNON, CO LEITRIM

SHOW SOME TOLERANCE

* I heard that Iarnrod Eireann is banning vaping because it makes some people “feel uncomfortable”.

Will they also ban armpit scratching, sneezing, arguments, unsightly bare thighs, smelly feet, inappropriate cleavage, bad breath, because these things make some people “feel uncomfortable”?

I assume that some alcoholics would have felt uncomfortable hurtling along in a confined space with drink sloshing around them before it was banned.

I’m sure your readers can think of many other things that could also be banned, now that they’ve started the ball rolling.

TOM FARRELL

SWORDS, CO DUBLIN

NOT-SO-HOLY TRINITY

* Our national holiday is upon us. Should the shamrock take on a further symbolism with our modern day trinity of Bono, Bob and BOD?

JOSEPH MACKEY

KILKENNY WEST, GLASSON, ATHLONE

OUR APPALLING SIGNAGE

* On a recent drive to Westport, Co Mayo, I passed through Strokestown in Co Roscommon and was aware that it’s home to the Irish National Famine Museum.

Half-tempted to stop off en route and pay a visit, I approached Strokestown from the Dublin side and kept an eye out for signage.

I shouldn’t have bothered as I got to the Mayo side of the town, on to Westport and then back to Meath, still unaware of where the centre is.

What is the point in having an historic centre of such significance when nobody knows where it is due to the chronic Irish disease of poor signposting?

If an Irish person can’t find it at his leisure, how is the proverbial tourist from Tennessee expected to locate the building and get a grasp of what drove their ancestors out of the country in the first place?

Is it any wonder the most consistent gripe of visitors to this country is poor signage?

What a waste.

How can we make the tourist experience a pleasant one when we don’t see Irish life from their perspective, instead of assuming that everyone in this country knows instinctively where to go?

KEN MURRAY

WHITE CROSS, DULEEK, CO MEATH

MASTERS OF LANGUAGE

* Liam Power wrote dismissivelyfrom Malta (Letters, March 11) that Irish politicians were unable “to converse in anything other than a laughable version of pidgin English”. Clearly, Mr Power is unaware that the President of Ireland is trilingual and has forgotten that when Brian Lenihan famously rang the then French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, he conversed in fluent French.

Most top Irish politicians are bilingual and every one of them is fluent in a foreign language called English. Thus, evidentially, if there is such a thing as a “brain drain” it is not flowing in the direction of Malta.

EUGENE JORDAN

BEARNA, CO GALWAY

Irish Independent

 

 


Sharland

$
0
0

14 March  2014 Sharland
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to recover a spy from France  Priceless
Cold slightly better Sharland arrives give her prune.
Scrabble today  I wins  but get  under 400, Perhaps Mary  will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Norman Scarfe, who has died aged 90, was a noted historian of East Anglia, and particularly of his native Suffolk.
Born at Felixstowe on May 1 1923, Norman Scarfe was educated at the town’s grammar school and at King’s School, Canterbury, in 1942 going up to Magdalen College, Oxford. Although his subject was PPE, he was encouraged by the medieval historian Bruce McFarlane to read RH Hodgkin’s History of the Anglo-Saxons; it proved to be a turning-point in his life.
This, initial, spell at Oxford was brief, as Scarfe enlisted as a subaltern in the Royal Artillery, landing on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6 1944 with the Suffolk Regiment; he was promoted captain during the advance through France and into Germany. His experience of war led to his first success as a writer, with the publication in 1947 of Assault Division, an arresting account of the 3rd Division’s role in the campaign .
Returning to Magdalen after being demobbed, he graduated in Medieval History, then became a lecturer at the University of Leicester, where WG Hoskins was pioneering the study of local and regional history and of the English landscape.
Inspired by what Nikolaus Pevsner was doing for the buildings of England, and what Hoskins was doing for their setting, Norman reinterpreted his native county in Suffolk: A Shell Guide (1960) and The Suffolk Landscape (1972). The Shell Guides to the counties of Britain, aimed at the touring motorist, had been launched in 1934 under the aegis of John Betjeman , and Scarfe went on to publish guides to Essex (1968) and Cam­bridgeshire (1983); his illustrators included John and Edward Piper, Angus McBean and Edwin Smith.
In 1963 Scarfe and his partner, Paul Fincham, moved to Shingle Street, on the Suffolk coast, from where Scarfe worked tirelessly for the conservation and preservation of all that is best in East Anglia. He also continued to write and carry out research until he was well into his eighties.
In 1958, alongside Geoffrey Martin, he founded the Suffolk Records Society — among the many projects he oversaw were eight volumes of the letters of the artist John Constable — and in the 1960s he helped to establish the Museum of East Anglian Rural Life. He led more than 100 excursions for the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, and was involved from their earliest days with the Suffolk Preservation Society and the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust .
From 1988 to 2001 Scarfe immersed himself in translating and editing the accounts of Francois de la Rochefoucauld, who with his brother Alexandre and their tutor Lazowski had travelled in Britain on the eve of the French Revolution. Scarfe’s A Frenchman’s Year in Suffolk was followed by Innocent Espionage, and the trilogy was completed with To the Highlands in 1786.
Scarfe’s 70th and 80th birthdays were both marked by Festschrifts. For the second of these 18 historians and archaeologists contributed essays to East Anglia’s History: Studies in Honour of Norman Scarfe (Boydell, 2003).
Scarfe was appointed MBE in 1994 for services to the history and culture of Suffolk. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
An inspiring and generous teacher, he supported a wide circle of East Anglian historians and archaeologists, and served as chairman of the committee of the Centre of East Anglian Studies at the University of East Anglia.
Scarfe’s interests outside his work were broad, taking in art, architecture, music, opera, drama and natural history. With Paul Fincham, who survives him, he was a generous host at their cottage at Woodbridge, where they had lived since 1981.
Norman Scarfe, born May 1 1923, died March 2 2014

Guardian:

Andrew Dickson’s fears (The Norseman cometh, 13 March) that Jon Fosse’s works face an uphill struggle for recognition in this country are well-founded. I can, however, assure him that awareness of this gifted Norwegian dramatist has at least percolated down to the community theatre level. In 2006 Synergy Theatre Company, based in East Sussex, performed Suzannah, his play about Ibsen’s wife – the driving force behind Ibsen’s later dramas that addressed social and gender issues and earned him George Bernard Shaw’s sobriquet of “the father of modern drama”. We reprised the play two years ago, largely in response to reactions that essentially deserved to be called “popular demand”. The reaction the second time was, in anything, even more positive from an audience possibly used to a more traditional community theatre repertoire. We hope to perform Eg er Vinden (I am the Wind) this autumn and are confident of a similar enthusiastic reception.
David Parton
Seaford, East Sussex

It is difficult to believe the level of chaos and dysfunctionality at the Co-op (Co-op chief executive tenders resignation, 12 March). The old adage that “you don’t know what you have got till it’s gone” looks all too likely to be true. The Euan Sutherland’s tantrum – in resigning and possibly destroying the Co-op in the process – demonstrates the all too predictable clash of cultures between his plc origins and the mutual structure of the Co-op. At no time in his brief period of leadership had he expressed unqualified support for the principle of mutualism.
The moribund democratic structures of the Co-op local, regional and national boards are equally deserving of censure. The lack of transparency in their activities means that I (as a member) am not even allowed to know the contact details of individual members, let alone lobby them. In such circumstances it is difficult to know how Paul Myners – who is conducting a review of the governance of the Co-op – intends to consult the members on his proposals. That is, assuming the Co-op is not in the hands of the banks by the time his report emerges.
It will be a tragic loss to our national fabric if the Co-op disappears as a mutual to become a second-rate Asda owned by hedge funds. The Co-op needs a chief executive who believes in the mutualist principle and a board chair who has the experience and skills to guide the organisation through its present difficulties andinto the modern world.
Ian Healey
Brighton
• It should be noted that elected Co-op Group regional representatives, as distinct from main board members, have yet to see Myners’s proposed plan. It is these representatives, alongside main board members and independent co-operative society representatives who collectively have the power to agree necessary constitutional amendments to bring about overdue changes in governance arrangements. To remain registered as a co-operative, members must control the society. The devil will be in the detail. As practical people, co-operators will find a good, timely solution to balancing efficiency and democracy, but we need to avoid being stampeded into arrangements that the society may subsequently regret.
David Smith
Newport
• On the day Co-op Group chief executive Euan Sutherland resigned and Bob Crow sadly died, I was reminded of the bad old days when unions were blamed for all the ills of British industry, when the problem was in fact weak management. As the person who took nine years to find an acceptable political, business and employee solution to the privatisation of public transport in South Yorkshire in the 1980s and 90s, I can’t help but feel the Co-op has done the right thing to say goodbye to Mr Sutherland. Of course it isn’t easy to find solutions in complex organisations where democracy rules, but that’s what management is paid for. If my management team and our union colleagues could find a middle road between socialist South Yorkshire and a Thatcherite Tory government, it is disappointing that Mr Sutherland could not do something similar for the Coop. Is that an indication of the inability of some managers to tackle big challenges, rather than an indictment of the Coop?
Peter Sephton
Sheffield
• When I applied to become a member of the Co-op I ticked a box that affirmed: “I support co-operative values and principles.” Did those people now running the organisation do the same? I certainly don’t remember ticking a box that said: “I support the aims and objectives of unfettered greed.”
Bill Packford
Penzance, Cornwall

In your eulogy to Hull (In praise of… 11 March) you could have mentioned the annual eight-day October fair. Originating in a charter of 1598 as a replacement for a fair granted three centuries earlier, this event is now one of the four or five greatest pleasure fairs in the whole of the United Kingdom. Since 1888 it has been held on a 14-acre site off Walton Streetnext to Hull’s successful football club.
Graham Downie
Chairman, Fairground Association of Great Britain, Studley, Warwickshire
• I don’t understand how showing programmes on BBC iPlayer instead of on BBC3 can save money (BBC’s plans to go extraterrestrial, 11 March). Surely the vast majority of the money is spent on actually making the programmes?.
Akiva Solemani
London
• Bob Crow (Letters, 12 March) worked hard for his members, such as cleaning-staff, who suffer the lowest pay and the worst conditions. These workers, containing disproportionate numbers of women and members of ethnic minorities, may not themselves possess the greatest industrial muscle. But they could always rely on the support of Bob Crow against the private contractors who exploit them.
Francis Prideaux
London
• There may be no station for “heaven” (Letters, 13 March) but there is a waiting room for paradise – by Godmanchester.
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester
• Was glad to see Emma Tristram (Letters, 12 March) complaining about the position of the cryptic crossword. I agree with her that it is distracting to see photographs of people staring at you while trying to think about the clues. Please put it back on the weather page.
Diana Brown
Leeds
• Thank you for pursuing the publication of Charles’s “black spider” letters through the courts and getting the attorney-general’s decision overturned (Block on release of prince’s ‘black spider’ memos unlawful, 13 March). Let’s hope when they are finally published, they’re not redacted to the point where the spiders become long, straight black adders.
David Prothero
Harpenden, Hertfordshire

The government must listen to David Nicholson’s stark warnings that the NHS cannot survive if it is denied “extra cash”, but another top-down reorganisation is not the answer (NHS told to spend billions on reform or face oblivion, 13 March). It cannot sustain services given the combined pressure of rising patient demand and falling resources. Change that puts doctors and patients at the heart of decision making is needed, but centralising hospital services would be an unnecessary restructure that would damage the flexibility to respond to the needs of local communities.
The government must ensure that clinical needs come first, NHS services reflect the local requirements of patients and, as Nicholson says, our health service must have the resources to deliver these services. Patients must receive the best possible care – which centralisation and budget cuts will not provide.
Dr Mark Porter
Chair, British Medical Association
• David Nicholson and others who keep banging the drum for a massive reduction in the number of hospitals to provide funds for care closer to patients’ homes are being disingenuous. It’s not just a question of bricks and mortar, as Nicholson asserts; hospital closures usually mean huge bed reductions, yet even now we have far fewer hospital beds in proportion to population than the OECD average – half as many as France, for example. How can cutting them further be a safe and sustainable strategy with a growing and ageing population?
It cannot be a question of one or the other. As Dr Saleyha Ahsan said in her riveting piece based on direct experience (On the NHS front line there is no quick cure for the crisis, 5 March), improved care in the community is essential “but if more acute beds close, the A&E waits will get longer for sick patients requiring admission”.
Professor Ron Glatter
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
• It’s a little late for the outgoing chief executive to say the NHS requires a multi-billion pound change fund to rationalise hospital services. But his fundamental point, that we need to invest in community services and resources before dismantling hospitals, is sound. Otherwise the public will never believe it is anything other than cost cutting. And it’s why there isn’t much to show yet for shifting care out of hospitals; it just isn’t possible to close services at the same time as opening new ones.
It is interesting that he is using the same language of the mental hospital closures 30 years ago. Thirty years on we will be looking back in astonishment at the way we used to care for the frail and elderly in the last months of their lives, in institutions that are designed for medical treatment rather than the care and compassion we mostly need. This is important. We have done it before in even less promising circumstances – with the additional stigma of mental illness – by developing a massive programme of change and institutional closures. Nicholson’s message aligns entirely with our manifesto for primary care, which launched exactly one year ago. Our message to the incoming NHS chief executive is simple. Please just do it: launch the change fund.
Rick Stern
Chief executive, NHS Alliance
• The interview illustrates Nicholson’s isolation from reality. To instance the provision of care in the community following the closure of long stay psychiatric hospitals in the 1980s as a success is remarkable. He should read Care in the Community Myth or Reality, a study that documents the experiences of 750 former patients of Friern Barnet hospital. Briefly, many showed some progress in their first year, followed by a continuing decline in subsequent years, because of the lack of proper investment in community mental health services. This situation continues and accelerates today, with the closure of psychiatric beds, closure of rehabilitation services and under-provision of suitable supported housing. Support is frequently provided by low-paid, unqualified staff.
The confusing announcements by government of equality of provision for mental health with physical health at the same time as announcing cuts to an already inadequate mental health budget is deeply troubling. We need to be profoundly concerned.
John Holmes
London
• The National Health Action Party has put forward plans to improve value for money in the NHS based on disregarded work done during the last parliament:
Ensure that all treatment is based on evidence of effectiveness and best value. Abolish the expensive market in healthcare and the purchaser/provider split. GPs and hospitals could then work closely together to ensure that only those who cannot be cared for by enhanced community services need admission to hospital. Patients with minor and long-term illnesses should be taught to care for themselves more independently. Tackle obesity, smoking and excessive alcohol intake more effectively.
Of course Sir David Nicholson is correct: money would have to be spent on improving community care before these savings could be made. The result could save the NHS as a publicly provided and funded service for future generations.
Richard Taylor
Co-leader, National Health Action Party
• Yes, we need to be sure that acute services are available in sensible locations. However, the sole criterion must not be based purely on population. It is too easy for a Londoncentric NHS to design services this way; using minimum population as one of the main criteria is taking a sledge hammer to crack a nut. Take vascular surgery. Rurality, transport and road access, age demographics and deprivation should all be calculated when we decide where we provide our acute centres. Without this we will simply be condemning those who are elderly and living in rural areas to a further dimunution of services.
Rik Evans
Truro, Cornwall

Independent:
I continue to note with disapproval the way news about corruption in Nigeria and other parts of the developing world receives liberal and voyeuristic coverage in the western press (“On a mission to clean up Nigeria”, 13 March). What appears to be grossly underreported is the proven presence of Nigeria’s missing billions in the banking and financial institutions of western countries and a few notorious tax havens.
The erstwhile Nigerian President Sani Abacha single-handedly stole up to $5bn and the bulk of these monies are officially acknowledged to still remain in the UK, France, US and Switzerland. Progress in freezing the stolen funds is grindingly slow, and more importantly only about $500m has been returned by Switzerland alone.
Lots more coverage of the harbouring of noxious funds by western banking institutions in our daily newspapers in the UK will go a long way in reducing corruption abroad.
May I offer my thoughts as to where the allegedly missing £12bn in Nigeria reported by Nigeria’s central bank governor may be? I would suggest a thorough look at the records of banks in London, Paris and New York, and of course Switzerland’s notorious secret banks.
Dr Gbenga Oduntan, Senior Lecturer, International Commercial Law, University of Kent, Canterbury
I am sure there will be widespread support for the Caribbean leaders who are collectively demanding compensation from Europe for the ravages of the transportation and enslavement of their forebears. But before the poor old British taxpayer is forced to cough up the billions involved, we can easily identify the people who benefited from slavery, and their descendants to whom those financial benefits have passed down.
In February 2013, excellent work by Dr Nick Draper of University College London revealed that up to 3000 families were compensated from the public purse to the tune of the equivalent of £20bn when the slaves they “owned” were freed in 1833. Thanks to the meticulous records of the 19th-century bureaucrats, we know where that money went – including the families of David Cameron, the Hoggs and Bazalgettes and the Earl of Harewood. We can thus easily get it back and pass it on to the claimants in the West Indies.
Colin Burke, Manchester
Putin speaks for the Russian people
I have a Facebook message from one of Russia’s leading documentary makers, Alexey Pishchulin, who filmed me in 2012 for a biography of my grandfather A F Kerensky, much-abused leader of the Russian Provisional  Government.
He sent me a list of “Ukrainian” cities: Kharkov, founded by Russia, 1630; Dnipropetrovsk, founded by Catherine II, 1776; Kherson, founded 1788 by Catherine II to build the  Russian Navy; Donetesk, founded 1869 by Alexander II; Odessa, founded 1794 by Catherine the Great; Simferopol, founded by Catherine the Great  in 1794; Sevastopol,  founded by Catherine the Great in 1783.
“And so,” he asks, “This is Ukraine?”
Whatever we may think of Vladimir Putin, and in my case the answer is “not very much”, at the moment he is speaking for the Russian people.
Britain has for many years gloried in ignorance of Russia, traditionally referred to as a “barbarous, Asiatic despotism”. Lloyd George sought to play on this insult in conspiring to bring down the Provisional Government in 1917 at the cost of tens of millions of Russian lives.
But now might be a good time to put prejudice to one side and finally show some respect, if only briefly, for the deeply held feeling of the Russian people that they have a legitimate right to show concern for fellow Russians. This new regime in Kiev is by no means showing a smiling democratic face to those Russians who now live in what some people call Ukraine.
If we wish to have good relations with Russia, and encourage Putin to join the fellowship of European nations, then taking an uncomprehending and aggressive stance is not the way to go about it.
Steve Kerensky, Morecambe, Lancashire
A mere billion or two? Let the bankers pay
How disappointing to see Hamish McRae (12 March) fall into the old trap of likening public expenditure to household spending.
Mr McRae is right that £1.9bn – the figure the Labour Party’s innovative job guarantee policy would cost – is a drop in the ocean when the Government spends about £700bn a year. However, he is wrong to argue that Ed Balls’s linking of the spending pledge with the reinstatement of the Bankers’ Bonus Tax is “absurd”.
When the next government (of whatever party) takes office, Britain will be smarting from massive public spending cuts. The idea that ministers should be “bright enough to figure out the ways to save” £1.9bn, as Mr McRae suggests, is what is really absurd. I should think that there is no few billion pounds of unnecessary public spending (except on the Trident weapons system, but that is another matter) left to cut, after half a decade of austerity. There is no fat left to shed.
So I’d rather the Government took a modest contribution from well-off banking executives than remove yet another essential service from those who’ve already paid dearly for regressive austerity measures. Anybody who has witnessed the consequences of spending cuts on our poor, our young and our future should feel the same.
Jack Darrant, London SW2
Farmed salmon pose threat to wild fish
The Scottish salmon-farming industry simply doesn’t add up. You quote Scott Landsburgh of the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) as saying: “The survival rate of farmed salmon in the wild is virtually zero.” (“Sterilise farmed salmon to save wild species, critics say”, 10 March.) So how come a scientific study published last year showed that 25 per cent of wild salmon in Scotland were now contaminated with genes from Norwegian-origin farmed salmon?
So-called “Scottish” salmon farming owes its origins more to Norway than Scotland. Norwegian salmon eggs are imported by the farms operating off the west coast of Scotland and 66 per cent of the Scottish salmon-farming industry is now Norwegian owned.
SSPO also claims that the industry has made “huge efforts” to improve containment. So how come over 2.5 million salmon have escaped from Scotland’s salmon farms in more than 130 separate incidents since 2002, including the escape of 154,569 fish off Shetland in January?
The simple answer is to stop farming salmon in the sea; the risk to native wild salmon stock is clearly too great.
Jenny Scobie, Director, Protect Wild Scotland, Ullapool, Wester Ross
English not just for North Koreans
Further to Ian Burrell’s report on the BBC’s role in teaching English (“News the North Koreans can trust”, 10 March), why restrict this programme of teaching English to North Korea?  Millions of people throughout the world acquired a good working knowledge of our language through the regular broadcasts of “English by Radio”. Then the BBC dropped it.
As the article points out, “American propaganda” through the Voice of America is distrusted, and people prefer to listen to the BBC, as shown by the latter’s superior listening figures. At no extra cost, the World Service should get out the old tapes and get on with it.
William Robert Haines, Shrewsbury
Perils of a walk in the sunshine
Spotted enjoying the unaccustomed sunshine: a tiny girl, coasting at walking pace on a three-wheeled scooter, dutifully holding Mum’s hand. Her small head is dwarfed by a large crash helmet.
Fast forward 20 years: what would I see? Perhaps an anguished agoraphobic, imprisoned by an irrational conviction that danger starts at the front door?
When we surround our children with ever more protection for their physical safety, I feel that their long-term mental wellbeing is not taken into account. Somehow we need to strike a balance between reasonable safety precautions and instilling the idea that a walk in the sunshine is fraught with peril.
Julie Hynds, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Abusing the public trust
Steve Richards (11 March) does an excellent job of laying out the pointlessness of “shaming” in the various public scandals we’ve witnessed recently, and the need for a “sledgehammer” solution, but he stops short of suggesting what such a solution might look like.
Maybe a good start would be to create a new crime of “abusing the public trust”, framed broadly enough to include legislature, judiciary, utilities, transport and finance sectors inter alia, and carrying a mandatory prison term for anyone found guilty.
Gerard Bell, Ascot

Times:

Sir, Christopher Ash argues that policing’s working-class roots are contributing to corruption (letter, Mar 12). I agree that structures in policing need reform, but I would challenge some of his contentions. Serving in two police forces, from the 1970s until recently, I have seen a huge shift in the background and educational standards of those being recruited. It would now not be uncommon to find a bobby on the beat with a good degree, and many will have been educated to A level standard, a point highlighted by Tom Winsor in his recent review, but one which appears to have been largely ignored by most of the media, and some within government.
The perception of a poorly educated, working class workforce persists, and is exacerbated by a structure that fails to identify and promote those suitable for the higher ranks. In England and Wales we retain an antiquated system of policing, with two forces for London — one of which, the Met, has suffered such a bruising of its reputation that I cannot see how it can continue in its present form — and the remainder covered by a creaking county constabulary system. Perhaps the time has come to emulate Scotland and incorporate policing into one national force, which would provide a much more efficient, cost effective and cohesive structure. It would have the added benefit of providing a better platform to effectively select the future leaders of the service.
Corruption is not necessarily linked to the demographic of the recruits, but much more to complacent leadership, both within the police and those other organisations charged with holding the police to account, namely the Home Office, HMIC and the IPCC. A good starting point would be a Royal Commission, and soon.
Dave Cousins
Nottingham
Sir, Mr Ash’s letter invites a couple of easy ripostes, both with equal chance of being as accurate, or not, as his assertions, viz. corruption is not the prerogative of the working class, and the working class is more in need of being kept in order and prosecuting than are the higher echelons of society, so why no class loyalty.
An article published in The British Journal of Criminology in 1999 casts doubt on the effect of a “police canteen sub-culture” concluding, in effect, that the portrayal relies more on the condemnatory potential of the concept than on its explanatory power.
Keith Robinson
Littlewick Green, Berks
Sir, There will be many ex-coppers who will have rolled their eyes to the ceiling as yet more headlines effectively put the Service back another decade. There seems to be one fiasco after another. And at the root of it still lies the inheritance from misconceptions that middle management and above can be drawn from the wily products of street policing. Although Winsor’s recommendations for police management and training will, in due course, produce more than the present trickle of those fit for high office, it will still be some time before the system is cleansed. What a pity that there was so much resistance to the idea of bringing in Bill Bratton (the New York police chief): he would have brought with him the clout to make some rapid changes in style and personnel.
Geoffrey Bourne-Taylor
(former Met Police Officer)
Bridport, Dorset

The country’s chief railway bosses say enough talking — it is time to start realising the benefits of the new network
Sir, It is time to move the debate on from whether HS2 is needed, to maximising its benefits to the country.
Britain’s railway plays a crucial role in keeping the nation competitive in a global economy, and are generating phenomenal growth in passengers and goods moved by rail. The new line is a generational opportunity to deliver the extra services and better connections needed to meet this booming demand, alongside sustained investment in the existing network.
To make the most of HS2, the focus should be to ensure that people and goods can travel seamlessly across the new and existing railway, with extra capacity where needed and spreading the benefits to towns and cities not directly served by the new line.
Good planning will also make the most of the capacity created by HS2. This includes new passenger and freight services for existing lines, new rolling stock and a fares and retail strategy to encourage travel on HS2 and across the network.
With expertise in running the safest and fastest growing major railway in Europe, our industry will play its part in helping to ensure the successful launch of this significant and necessary addition to the national network.
Martin Griffiths, Stagecoach Group; Mark Carne, Network Rail; Alain Thauvette, DB Schenker; Dominic Booth, Abellio UK; David Brown, Go-Ahead Group; Dean Finch, National Express Group; Alistair Gordon, Keolis UK; David Martin, Arriva; Peter Maybury, Freightliner Group; David Stretch, Serco; Doug Sutherland, Directly Operated Railways; Tim O’Toole, FirstGroup;
Michael Roberts, RDG; Paul Plummer, Network Rail — the members of Rail Delivery Group

If Russia has a legitimate claim to Ukraine, based on historical circumstances, then so does Poland …
Sir, While the West’s condemnation of Russia’s aggression to Ukraine, and Crimea in particular, is justified, it is undeniable that Ukraine is a recent, artificial construct. It was integral to the Soviet Union until the 1990s, and a significant area of it, including Lwow (Lviv), belonged to Poland until 1945.
Only as a consequence of the Yalta Conference of February 1945, at which Poland was not represented, were the Eastern Borderlands (Kresy) of the Polish Second Republic incorporated into the Ukrainian Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union — a shameful betrayal of Poland by her wartime allies, Britain and the US. So, if Russia’s historic claim to Crimea is legitimate, as President Putin contends, should not the Polish government re-assert Poland’s historic right to her former Eastern Borderlands? After all, the London-based Polish government-in-exile 1940-90 consistently repudiated the validity of the Yalta decision regarding that region.
Professor Peter Stachura
Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire

Does the cultural divide over methods of slaughter preclude any involvement at all by veterinary scientists?
Sir, Many vets study animal welfare without any anti-Semitic or Islamophobic bias.
The Farm Animal Welfare Council concluded in its 2003 report that “such a massive injury (throat cutting) would result in very serious pain and distress before insensitivity supervenes”, and felt that the practice was “unacceptable”. The more recent EU-funded Dialrel project aiming at encouraging dialogue on issues of religious slaughter, involved partners from 11 countries, surveying over 200 references, and reported that: “It can be stated with the utmost probability that animals feel pain during and after the throat cut without prior stunning . . . because substantial tissue damage is inflicted to areas well supplied with nocioceptors (pain receptors) and subsequent perception of pain is not exclusively related to the quality of the cut . . . pain, suffering and distress during the cut and bleeding are highly likely.”
Is there absolutely no possibility of latitude or compromise over this understandable cultural divide?
Craig Sharp
Birmingham

Some telephone numbers have a sinister ring, especially when you are dealing with complaints against your colleagues
Sir, The Merseyside Police’s Camera Enforcement Unit’s number is apt (March 10). A few years ago I worked for the Bar Council, dealing with complaints against barristers. My phone number was 1348. Naturally, I answered it “Black Death”.
Michael Scott
London W11

Telegraph:

SIR – We have written to George Osborne, the Chancellor, to propose that, in the forthcoming Budget, he extends the pupil premium to help disadvantaged children under five develop their skills.
There is currently funding to help disadvantaged primary and secondary school pupils narrow the attainment gap between themselves and their peers. There is no such help available for children throughout their early years education. This means that disadvantaged children begin school lagging behind others. Extending this premium would help prepare children for school and increase social mobility. It would provide opportunities to increase support for young children being looked after in children’s centres, nurseries and with childminders, with particular focus on vulnerable children.
We urge the Chancellor to consider its inclusion in the 2014 Budget. Many within the Government, including Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, are already publicly backing its inclusion.
Anne Longfield
CEO, 4Children
Jacob Tas
Acting CEO, Action for Children
Peter Brook
Acting CEO, Barnardo’s
Tracking aircraft
SIR – Michael Staples asks why there is not a system in place whereby data are streamed from an airline’s black box to a ground station. Such a system does exist. It is called Acars: Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System. This is a digital datalink system for transmission of short, simple messages between aircraft and ground stations via radio or satellite. It provided a lot of data about the Air France crash in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009.
The system would only stop operating if there was a complete electrical failure, or the aeroplane blew up.
Cedric Flood
Upton, Wirral
Totting up tots
SIR – One reason half of adults cannot do simple sums is the use of electronic devices for adding up. When I was a student working in a pub, I had to add up non-decimal sums in my head, while carrying out a conversation with the customer, and pouring the pint. Now, bar staff can’t tell you the price of a round without recourse to the electronic till.
Diggory Seacome
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Milky way
SIR – Charles Janz’s letter about the problems of using correct Italian when ordering a panino reminded me of a party of English schoolchildren, on a trip to Italy, ordering eight lattes; they were astonished to be presented with eight glasses of milk.
Clare Johnson
Glossop, Derbyshire
SIR – Has Charles Janz considered that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, might be more concerned about improving English grammar rather than Italian?
Ron Mason
East Grinstead, West Sussex
SIR – Telling restaurateurs H W Fowler’s statement: “that Welsh Rabbit is amusing and right; and Welsh Rarebit stupid and wrong” does not result in the better seats, larger portions or ad lib wine that one would think was the appropriate response to such generosity with one’s knowledge.
Lt Cdr Kevin Stagg (retd)
Waterlooville, Hampshire
Broadband in the City
SIR – I was not surprised by your headline: “Cameron stung by Merkel’s broadband jibe”.
The connectivity problems in our rural areas are well known. But here in the City, our 13,000 small and medium enterprises and 8,000 residents have similar problems, despite high-speed fibre optic cables under our streets serving the large companies based here. Astonishingly, none of the main providers has any plans to address this.
If we are unable to roll out high-speed broadband in the City of London quickly, the chances of this happening in the rest of the country by 2017 are bleak.
Graham Packham
Common Councilman, City of London
London EC2
EU referendum fudge
SIR – The Labour Party’s proposal concerning a possible referendum on European Union membership is based on the unlikely event of further powers being ceded to Brussels.
However, what the majority of politicians refuse to recognise is that the British people resent what has already been yielded to Brussels. To recover our right to rule ourselves requires that we leave the EU. This proposal is yet another fudge by those desperate to remain within it.
Colin Bullen
Tonbridge, Kent
Bob Crow’s example
SIR – If this nation had a prime minister half as committed to its people as Bob Crow, the leader of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, was to the interests of his members, we would all be in a better place. Although I disagreed with his politics, even his critics would have to concede that Mr Crow represented his colleagues quite brilliantly.
P A Feltham
Epsom, Surrey
Miranda’s moment
SIR – Anyone who thinks that Miranda Hart is only a charming buffoon is wrong.
In Sunday’s episode of Call the Midwife, she gave a performance of heart-rending and well judged sensitivity, demonstrating that she is a very fine actor.
Likewise, those who think the series is lightweight have missed the many subtle and profound messages in the writing.
Penelope Escombe
Brigstock, Northamptonshire
Tony Crosland showed no signs of homosexuality
SIR – I was not only fascinated by Philip Johnston’s article about Tony Crosland and Roy Jenkins, but also very surprised.
Tony was my tutor at Oxford from 1946 to 1948, and we became good friends. He was charming and very good company, but I did not have the slightest idea that he was homosexual – he certainly was not “openly” so in those years; he had a girlfriend called Hilary Sarson. She found him difficult and asked me once to have coffee with her in the Cadena. She wanted advice on how to handle Tony. I told her, bluntly, to drop him. He was always going to put himself first and she would have a terrible time if she married him. Not surprisingly, perhaps, she ignored my advice and married him. She was unhappy and they divorced after a very few years.
Tony tried to get me interested in politics, indeed he strongly urged me to join the Labour Party. F A Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom had already made a great impression on me and turned me against socialism. But Tony insisted that the Labour Party was not going to be like that. He foresaw a kind of “socialism with a human face”; had he been alive 10 years or so ago, he would surely have been all for the Third Way. He tried to persuade me to go to see his friend Roy Jenkins and talk things over. But I knew it just wasn’t me.
Looking back, it seems a pity that I did not at least go to see Jenkins. But he had already gone down, and it would have meant a visit to London. And I could not bring myself to join the Conservatives, associating them with Hooray Henrys; another missed opportunity as I would have met Margaret Thatcher, whom I admired so much later on.
Guy de Moubray
Knodishall, Suffolk

SIR – Geoff Norman is wrong to suggest that BBC local radio is only heard at the hairdressers. It is, in fact, a valuable resource much appreciated by many, especially those in rural areas.
I worked at BBC Radio Shropshire for many years and know how much the service is enjoyed. During emergencies, such as flooding and heavy snow, BBC local radio provides a lifeline for people who would otherwise be isolated and worried. When there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 2001, which devastated the farming community and the local tourism industry, BBC Radio Shropshire set up a special helpdesk and broadcast regular bulletins keeping farmers who were confined to their own land informed of the latest developments.
Other local radio stations do a similar job.
Jo Garvin
Oswestry, Shropshire
SIR – I adore my local station, BBC Cambridgeshire, and listen to it most days because I work from home.
The presenters have become like friends – they regularly read out my emails, I’ve been interviewed on several occasions, and I have also been a guest on their shows.
It’s local in every sense, and is a wonderful way of debating subjects that interest the people who live in the county.
Gareth Salter
Thorney, Cambridgeshire
SIR – How typical that a BBC spokesman should threaten, if income from the licence free is reduced, to close the children’s channels and BBC Four. These are the only mainstream public service channels that the corporation runs. Why not sell off “commercial” BBC One and Two instead, and raise some money in doing so?
If reducing the licence fee can be used to force the BBC back to its actual remit, the sooner it is cut the better.
Michael Tyce
Waterstock, Oxfordshire
SIR – I was dismayed that BBC Four is being considered for the chop. It shows many exceptional programmes. If this comes to pass there will be little reason to continue watching BBC.
H R Johnson
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
SIR – The reason that British television is a world leader is that the BBC has a guaranteed income. This means it can provide programmes to all sectors of the community without fear that its income might fall. Of course viewing figures are important, but programme-makers should never be solely reliant on raising money from sponsors, advertisers and subscribers.
Indeed, it surprises me that many people do not see that a publically-funded enterprise in a competitive market has great merit. Perhaps banking and utilities would be a good start.
John Lee
Birmingham

Irish Times:

Sir, – Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan’s explanation (“Cabinet agrees to overhaul penalty points regime”, front Page, March 13th) for his use of the term “disgusting” to describe the actions of those he described as “so-called whistleblowers” in his evidence to the Public Accounts Committee is bordering on risible.
Let us recall the commissioner’s actual words, ie it was “quite disgusting” that two people out of a force of 13,000 people were making “extraordinary serious allegations” and there was not “a whisper” from elsewhere in the force of corruption or malpractice.
Mr Callinan now wants us to believe that this use of the term “disgusting” related to a possible technical breach of data protection rules.
As for the commissioner describing the whistle blowers’ allegations as “extraordinary”, the Garda Inspectorate report confirms that those allegations were (a) largely factual and (b) indeed extraordinary, but perhaps not “extraordinary” in the way that the commissioner envisaged.
As for the commissioner claiming that there was “not a whisper” from elsewhere in the force of corruption or malpractice, that arrogant and self-serving statement can now only be treated with the contempt it deserves.
Mr Callinan’s position is untenable and I suspect he knows it. He demonstrated barely concealed anger and contempt for a colleague and a former colleague who did the whole nation a service in bringing to light malpractice that was clearly rife in Garda districts throughout Ireland and that led to quite serious anomalies in the administration of justice, perhaps over a long period of years.
Sgt McCabe and retired garda John Wilson acted selflessly and they deserve a nation’s grateful thanks, something that Enda Kenny should put on the Dáil record without any further delay. – Yours, etc,
FERGAL QUINN,
Eton Place,
London.
Sir, – The report of the Garda Inspectorate on the penalty points controversy comes across as most incisive and unambiguous in its findings. Whatever the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner may say, it is clear that this report vindicates Sgt McCabe and former garda John Wilson, whose honour and integrity have been so grievously impugned by Mr Shatter and Mr Callinan. Not alone should these whistleblowers, who have suffered so much as a result of their patriotic actions, be given public apologies by their detractors, but they should receive some type of reparation from the State for the hurt and distress which they and their families have undoubtedly suffered in doing a great service to their country. The outrageous manner in which they were treated by the Minister and the commissioner was surely “disgusting”. – Yours, etc,
GEAROID KILGALLEN,
Crosthwaite Park South,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – According to the commissioner, only two gardaí complained about malpractice. Thousands did not. Disgusting? – Yours, etc,
PETER KENNY,
Hillside Drive,

Sir, – I was distressed to read of the outcome of a court case concerning a “hit and run” by an uninsured driver which caused the death of a boy of just 14 years (“Addict who fatally injured teenager is sentenced”, Home News, March 13th).
The driver was eventually traced and charged, but the case before the court was on a charge of “careless driving”. Witnesses testified that the speed was excessive, presumably well above 50km/h in the built-up area. Furthermore the driver admitted to not realising he had hit someone, which beggars belief, and that he was hurrying to a drug pick-up.
How, in God’s name, could he be charged only with “careless driving” instead of “dangerous driving”? Leaving all other considerations aside, it must surely be, of itself, dangerous driving merely to drive without insurance. It is poor justice for the young lad’s family that the offender got just 20 months for excessive speed resulting in a death, failing to stop at the scene and driving uninsured.
And what difference is a driving ban of 20 years going to make to someone who admits to a drug habit and driving uninsured?
My sincere sympathy goes to the poor lad’s grieving family in their desolation. – Yours, etc,
EAMONN PURCELL,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 9.

Sir, – The anonymous writer of the “To Be Honest” column (“It’s time to discriminate in favour of non-Catholics”, Education, March 11th) makes a heartfelt and understandable plea for Educate Together to change its enrolment policies to discriminate in favour of non-religious families. The situation that the writer has found himself (herself?) in is one well known to Educate Together schools throughout the country. He has put his child’s name down to attend the school of his choice in what should be good time but has found himself too far down the list to gain entry. As the writer says about his child, “He deserves a place in an Educate Together school”.
The suggested solution, however, is not one that we can consider. To introduce a form of discrimination in our enrolment policies would be to go against everything that Educate Together stands for. Our schools are not only for the children of non-religious parents, they are for all children. The solution to this issue is not for our schools to start to discriminate, the solution is for the State to provide enough Educate Together schools to meet the ever-growing demand from Irish parents. – Yours, etc,
DIARMAID
Mac AONGHUSA,
Chairman,
Educate Together,
Hogan Place, Dublin 2.
Sir, – The “To Be Honest” writer and Eimear Lynch (March 13) highlight, once again, the absurdity that is the archaic system we in Ireland continue to foist on our children in the name of education.
National school teacher salaries are paid by the State, school buildings are provided by the State and the school inspectorate is under the auspices of the State, as is curriculum development and all other related matters.
The European Court of Human Rights has determined that teachers here are ultimately the responsibility of the State. A solution to the problems of discrimination is thus plain to be seen – we should abolish the patronage system altogether and bring all national schools under the direct management of the Department of Education. A fair and balanced system for school place allocation would follow as a matter of course.
There are other benefits to be gained. For one, the so-called “voluntary” contribution that is demanded of many parents in order for them to secure the right of their children to have a primary education would no longer be an issue.
Of course, whatever shortfall that currently gives rise to this would have to be paid, instead, from the exchequer.
It is not too much to claim, however, that any country that cannot properly fund the education of its young does not deserve to consider itself among the developed nations of the world. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Farrenboley Park,
Windy Arbour,
Dublin 14.

Sir, – Colm Keena’s report (“Forum recommended funding for group that recruited Flannery”, Front Page, March 13th) quotes the chief executive of Philanthropy Ireland as claiming that the consultancy work undertaken by Frank Flannery was not paid from any public money received by that organisation.
This explanation will seem implausible to many because the private income of Philanthropy Ireland was not sufficient to cover the salary overhead of the lobby group’s own staff in 2012, according to its audited accounts.
While there has been an intense focus on the potential contribution by Mr Flannery to the deliberations of the Public Accounts Committee, he is merely a service provider in this context, not the principal accounting officer for public funds.
The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government has already committed €2.49 million and has also agreed to fund 50 per cent of the cost of the implementation of the strategy devised by Mr Flannery and intended to increase the annual level of private charitable giving from €500 million in 2011 to €800 million in 2016.
Surely, in the interest of public trust, credibility and transparency, the Public Accounts Committee should demand that the department explain what has been accomplished with this taxpayers’ money at the half-way point of the five-year initiative. – Yours, etc,
MYLES DUFFY,
Bellevue Avenue,
Glenageary,

Sir, – For all the talk about whether Bono’s speech to the European People’s Party (EPP) delegate conference in Dublin last week was patronising or inspiring, or why a group of people who are meant to be serious political activists couldn’t stop themselves wilting in the presence of a singer, as usual the Irish media got distracted by something shiny and missed the real purpose of the conference and its outcome.
The purpose of the conference was to choose the EPP candidate for president of the new European Commission that will take office later this year and set the agenda for the EU for the next five years or more. An agenda that should involve tackling chronic EU youth unemployment, falling health standards and the gaping lack of democratic legitimacy, transparency and accountability at every level of the EU decision-making process.
So did the EPP pick a dynamic, youngish person, perhaps a woman, with real-life experience outside the political bubble who offers new policies and a new mentality to that of those who have been at the heart of EU decision-making over the last decade?
No, of course not. The EPP picked Jean-Claude Juncker, a 60-year-old man, who was prime minister of Luxembourg for 20 years until forced to resign in December 2013 after losing a general election caused by his failure to deal with corruption within the country’s spy service. He was also the president of the Eurogroup, the gathering of euro zone finance ministers that meets in secret, or “in camera” as it likes to say, before the formal meeting the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meetings of the EU, which includes all the other finance ministers of the EU, from 2005 to 2013.
In other words, he is the man who headed the group of politicians that oversaw the application of the policy of “light touch” regulation all across the euro zone’s financial sector, and which was involved in agreeing the policy that saw the ECB force an Irish government to choose between accepting all private sector banking debt in return for access to funding when we were excluded from the markets, or no access to lending and having to balance our budget at the stroke of pen.
How can the personification of the out-of-touch, elitist EU insider possibly be able to implement the scale of reform needed by the EU so it can tackle the issues it will face in the coming decade? – Yours, etc,
DESMOND FitzGERALD,
Canary Wharf,
London.

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole (“Why the Taoiseach should not join the St Patrick’s Day parade”, Opinion & Analysis, March 11th) quotes from my letter to The Irish Times (“Who won’t march in NY parade?”, February 20th), in which I assert that the Catholic character of the New York St Patrick’s Day parade as the grounds for excluding a distinctly gay group from participation. He uses the religious character of the march as grounds why the Taoiseach of a pluralist, non-sectarian, democratic Ireland, should not march.
However, in 2012 Mr O’Toole expressed no objection to the attendance at the closing Mass of the Eucharistic Congress in Croke Park by President Higgins, the Taoiseach, and the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Contemporary Irish liberals in their zest to overcome an unhealthy, but informal, fraternisation between the Irish State and the church, which did harm to both, seem to want to go beyond pluralism toward a confinement of religion as a purely personal matter having no place in the public square.
That is a far cry from the American principle of separation of church and state and seems more akin to the totalitarian exclusion of religion characteristic of former eastern European regimes.
I must acknowledge Mr O’Toole makes a valid note, often unappreciated in Ireland, about the substantial portion of the Irish American population, including many of the presidents, who were Protestant. – Yours, etc,
JOHN P McCARTHY,
Professor Emeritus
of History,
Fordham University,

A chara, – I had the pleasure of attending the Ireland-Italy double-header at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin last Saturday.
Both games featured stunning performances from ruthlessly efficient Irish male and female international teams.
However, while acknowledging the IRFU’s generous act in allowing the stadium to be used for the ladies’ match, I find it baffling that no arrangements were made for the ladies to use the dressing rooms in the stadium. Instead, they had to make the five-minute journey from Lansdowne FC before the match, at half-time and at the game’s close.
Secondly, why was President Michael D Higgins not in situ for the start of the ladies’ match?
Surely having attended the men’s game, it was incumbent upon him to do the same for the ladies? – Is mise,
AMHLAOIBH
Mac GIOLLA,
Oileán Chliara,
Sir, – John Bellew’s choice of the US-led Nato campaign in Yugoslavia in his comments on criticism of the US stance on Ukraine (March 13th) is unfortunate.
He fails to notice how, in that campaign, the US and its allies actively encouraged and assisted those regions of Yugoslavia which sought to break away, whereas in the current Ukrainian crisis, that very same alliance has stated that it will not recognise any breakaway elements, even if supported by a plebiscite.
Double standards . . . again? – Yours, etc,
HARRY McCAULEY,
Maynooth Park,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.

Sir, – I agree with Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn, who is quoted as saying “that the ship has left the harbour” in relation to the new Junior Cycle plans (“27,000 teachers protest over reform”, Home News, March 12th). The only problem is that the teachers are not on board; the ship is without a crew. Bon voyage, Minister. – Yours, etc,
JUNE O’REILLY,
Teachers’ Union of Ireland,
Cork Institute
of Technology.

Sir, – I note that Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen is “fed up” with the Government’s criticism of his party’s time in office (Oireachtas Report, Home News, March 13th). I’m sure he is!
However, as long as the results of that dark period in our history continue to affect us, criticism of that administration seems reasonable and fair. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Loreto Grange,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.

Sir, – May I draw your readers’ attention to the plight of Aldborough House at Dublin’s Five Lamps, completed in 1799 and now in a state of dereliction, stripped bare, its windows open to the elements? I have raised the issue with various bodies, all to no avail, and at this stage I have to ask, does anybody care?– Yours, etc,
DAVID O’BRIEN,
Fitzroy Avenue,
Dublin 3.

Sir, – Regarding the decision by the Sandycove Bathers’ Association to finally admit ladies (“Forty Foot club stops trying to hold back tide and takes women”, Front Page, March 13th), I assume it is only a matter of time until they can no longer be referred to as “members”. – Yours, etc,
FRANK BYRNE,
Maspalomas,
Gran Canaria,
Spain.

Irish Independent:
* The national day is almost upon us. Some time ago I was overseas for March 17 and through the fog of green beer and tinsel shamrocks, I began to wonder about what would make Ireland a better place.
Also in this section
Age shall not wither them in eternal spring
Kenny at centre of green storm over NY parade
Learning when to exercise our voice
As a little fella, I was taught to say hello to everyone; I was told not to look on people as a means to an end, not stepping stones to be jumped on for advancement, but as brothers and sisters in a bigger family.
Naive, wimpish twaddle, many will agree… especially in a world where self-esteem is measured by bank balances, the car you drive or where you live.
But surely when Saint Patrick plucked the shamrock from the ground, and introduced the concept of salvation, love and fellowship, he was laying down the foundations for a spiritual strength that would survive for millennia.
He did so without the trappings of Rome, or institutional dogma. Treating each other with respect and dignity is too big a deal to be entrusted to any one institution.
Many would argue that our values have been banished like the snakes, as we worship the gombeen-beloved golden calf of casino capitalism.
This is a seductive fallacy.
I look around and I see our incredible young people doing the most amazing things, and I see our elderly enduring unjust things with magnificent fortitude.
I lament that we lose so many of our best and brightest to foreign shores but wherever they go they bring their rich heritage with them. They will shine.
This year I am at home and happy to be. There will be no green beer but there will be gratitude for all the kindness and decency that can still be found in an Irish nation that stoically accepted and suffered so much for the sins of the few, yet still finds cause to celebrate.
So stand up Ireland, the cynics and the “fumblers in the greasy till” have not stolen your soul.
Your spirit is still strong, and that is from where the real green shoots of recovery will surely spring.
D O’BRIEN
DALKEY, CO DUBLIN
BITTER TASTE
* Having just read the article in the Irish Independent about TDs consuming 12,000 pints in the Dail last year, I feel it is my civic duty to protest about deputies paying for drinks out of their own pockets! What is Ireland coming to?
Why are these pints not being paid for by the taxpayer? Having lavished millions on the disabled, the elderly, the underprivileged, and the ill, sparing no consideration to their own pockets and pensions, surely they must be entitled to a liquid sensation or two, as guests of the Republic?
FERGUS O’REILLY
MEALISHEEN LEAP, CO CORK
UKRAINE ON THE EDGE
* Dermot Ryan (Letters, March 13) questions why RTE devotes editorials to the “relative non-event that is the Ukraine” while lamenting that “serious protests in Spain, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and elsewhere in the EU … barely got a fraction of the coverage”.
Ukraine, though not a member of the EU is of course a European country which has a common border with four EU members. Perhaps Mr Ryan cannot differentiate between domestic street protests in the EU countries he referred to and the real prospect of a sovereign European country being torn apart with the assistance of insidious outside influence.
The “non-event” he refers to is the greatest threat of a war on European soil since the Balkans war in the 1990s and, previous to that, World War II.
JOHN BELLEW
DUNLEER, CO LOUTH
INFANT DEATH DATA
* I wish to respond to your columnist Colette Browne (Irish Independent, March 12).
The data for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDs) is from a published document from the Institute of Public Health, using official statistics from the Department of Health in both jurisdictions along with data from the Central Statistics office and Northern Ireland Statistics.
The report covers the period 1989-1998 and was published in 2001. This is the only all-Ireland report examining the variation in mortality.
In this comprehensive report, on page 29 and 33, the official figures for SIDs are provided for both geographic regions and a figure of a 310pc increased incidence based on annual standardised rates is provided for the Republic of Ireland compared to Northern Ireland.
Ms Browne claims she has figures to show that the incidence of SIDs in Northern Ireland are higher than the Republic of Ireland. I would like to see this evidence. It would represent a four-fold increase in SIDs in Northern Ireland in recent years, a situation which I would find very difficult to believe without credible scientific facts.
With regard to my interview on RTE radio, I was contacted 30 minutes before the programme and asked to participate without any opportunity to prepare. The literature on fluoridation is vast, I cannot be expected to remember every publication or the name of source material especially for something that was a relatively minor part of my report.
DECLAN WAUGH, DIRECTOR
ENVIRO MANAGEMENT SERVICES, BANDON, CO CORK
CREDIT UNION SQUEEZE
* In relation to an article in the Irish Independent (‘Finance Minister calls on credit unions to lend more’, March 4). Over the past number of years the vast majority of the country’s credit unions have been subject to excessive restrictions on lending, as imposed by the Central Bank. The minister is well aware that these restrictions are in operation so I wonder why he has made such a statement now?
Restrictions on a credit unions ability to lend is further isolating vulnerable groups of people who, having being refused credit by banks and building societies, have nowhere else to go. Credit unions have money to lend and certainly want to lend to their members but they are being restricted from doing so. Why is the minister not talking to the Central Bank about this?
SEAMUS KILGANNON, BOARD MEMBER
IRISH LEAGUE OF CREDIT UNIONS
YOURS FAITHFULLY…
* I thank Joe Dowling for his admiring letter but I think he may be misguided in recommending Dr Eben Alexander’s ‘Proof Of Heaven’ as a tonic for the reluctant atheist. I’m not sure if the near-death experience of a neurosurgeon will do much to ease my malaise – but I will read it nonetheless.
Besides that, my understanding of religious faith is that there is no requirement for external proof; that human reason and the miracle of existence are enough to underpin a firm belief in God.
I could perhaps save myself a lot of head scratching and subscribe to Mark Twain’s definition of faith: “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”
SEAN SMITH
NAVAN, CO MEATH
NEW POLITICS, OLD HAT
* Having just watched Leader’s Questions, I am disgusted by the manner in which Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to concede that the garda whistleblowers deserved an apology for their treatment at the hands of Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan. Indeed he refused to even acknowledge that the whistleblowers had been slighted at all. We’ve heard a lot of talk from the Government about reform, accountability and new politics.
Surely central to any new politics, should be integrity.
SIMON O’CONNOR
DUBLIN 12


Liz and Ken

$
0
0

15 March 2014 Liz and Ken

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to investigate a strange ship Priceless

Cold slightly better Visit Liz and Ken they seem to be allright

Scrabbletoday Iwins but getunder400, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Tony Benn who has died aged 88, was Labour’s most controversial late 20th-century figure, leading the Leftward drive that arguably marginalised the party for a generation.

A boyish enthusiast recognisable by his pipe, tape recorder and outsized mug of tea, he aroused greater emotions than any contemporary bar Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. Yet he rewrote the Constitution by securing Britain’s first referendum and refusing to become the 2nd Viscount Stansgate. Labour’s longest-serving MP (almost exactly 50 years), he won 16 of 17 elections fought, served in three Cabinets and saw his son Hilary enter the Cabinet too.

Benn came from Nonconformist Liberal stock. His grandfather, John Williams Benn MP, founded the family publishing house and led the London County Council. His great-uncle, the Rev Julius Benn, was murdered with a chamber pot by his son, who on release from Broadmoor fathered the actress Margaret Rutherford.

His father, William Wedgwood Benn, a distinguished flier in both Wars, served under Ramsay MacDonald and was Attlee’s Secretary for Air. “Wedgie”, a nickname transferred to his son, was ennobled in 1941. Benn’s mother, Margaret, campaigned for Congregationalism outside the United Reformed Church; Benn considered himself a latter-day Puritan.

Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn was born on April 3 1925, the second son of three. He sat with MacDonald at Trooping the Colour and made his first (non-political) speech aged six at Sir Oswald Mosley’s house. From Westminster School he went in 1942 to New College, Oxford, to read PPE, then followed his brother Michael into the RAF; he was training in Rhodesia when Michael’s death left him heir to the title. Posted to the Middle East, he transferred to the Fleet Air Arm, but Japan surrendered before he could see action.

The young Benn joined the Labour Party in 1943. As president of the Oxford Union in 1947, he debated in America, and after graduating returned there as a Benn Brothers salesman before joining the BBC World Service as a producer.

In 1949, in Cincinnati, Benn married Caroline de Camp, an Ohio lawyer’s daughter; they had met at Oxford, and he proposed only nine days later (on a park bench which he then bought for the garden of their house in Holland Park). Attractive, radical and with a passion for comprehensive education, Caroline Benn became a bête noir for Conservatives who saw her imposing a levelling-down on her adopted country. The Benns’ children went to Holland Park comprehensive, whose governors she chaired.

In November 1950 Benn won the Bristol South-East by-election following the death of Sir Stafford Cripps, and was “baby” of the House for the final months of Attlee’s government. He helped stage Labour’s first television broadcasts, shunned the Bevanite Left (although, like Bevan, he opposed the Suez intervention from the start), and was appointed front-bench RAF spokesman. He became Shadow Transport Minister, won then lost a seat on Labour’s national executive and, unimpressed by Hugh Gaitskell’s “fight, fight and fight again” speech, reluctantly supported Harold Wilson’s leadership challenge.

On November 17 1960 Benn’s father died. The Speaker barred the new Lord Stansgate from the Commons, Buckingham Palace would not take back the Stansgate Letters Patent, and Gaitskell was initially unsympathetic. Some Tories saw an opportunity to return Lords Home and Hailsham to the Commons . The Times insisted on calling him Viscount Stansgate, while The Daily Telegraph stuck to “Anthony Wedgwood Benn”.

The Committee of Privileges ruled against Benn, and on April 13 1961 he stood at the Bar of the House to hear himself expelled. Backed by a mass petition from Bristol, he fought an electrifying by-election. Malcolm Muggeridge and Lord Lambton spoke for him; Sir Winston Churchill gave support. On May 4, Benn defeated the Conservative Malcolm St Clair, himself heir to a title, by 13,044 votes. Again the Speaker barred him, the Electoral Court rejected his arguments and St Clair took the seat in the House.

A Select Committee then recommended allowing hereditary peers to renounce their titles for life. Benn accordingly disclaimed, St Clair sportingly resigned and on August 20 1963 Benn defeated a clutch of independents. Within weeks Harold Macmillan fell ill, and Home and Hailsham charged through the opening to stand for the Commons and seek the Tory succession.

Benn’s youth, his television experience, fascination with technology and lack of ideology endeared him to Harold Wilson, and he wrote many of his leader’s speeches. Then, in October 1964, Labour regained power with a tiny majority. Benn became Postmaster General, preparing the Post Office for independence, launching the Giro and persuading the Queen to overrule officials who deemed Robert Burns unfit to appear on a stamp.

For 17 uneasy months until Wilson won a handsome victory, Benn managed his public relations. He entered the Cabinet in July 1966 when Frank Cousins resigned as Minister of Technology, and threw himself into reinvigorating British industry; Bernard Levin noted “the enthusiasm … of a newly-enrolled Boy Scout demonstrating knot-tying to indulgent parents”.

Much effort went into salvaging the strife-torn shipbuilding industry and merging Leyland with the blighted British Motor Corporation, this fiasco stemming from talks at Benn’s home in 1966. His hi-tech portfolio comprised the RB-211 jet engine, Concorde (a major Bristol employer), a beleaguered computer industry and nuclear projects that were hampered by infighting.

In the 1970 election Benn, no longer Wilson’s confidant, played a backroom role, save for a speech equating Powell’s attacks on immigration with Hitler’s gas chambers; the so-called “Belsen speech” was widely blamed for Labour’s defeat. In opposition, he shadowed Edward Heath’s government through its refusal to back “lame ducks” and the “U-turn” when it nationalised Rolls-Royce.

Benn now metamorphosed into a Left-wing populist. Previously a pro-marketeer, he advocated a referendum on Europe, upsetting both sides before campaigning for a “No” vote. He now joined the Left in the Commons tea room. The Scottish trade union activist Jimmy Reid observed that Benn had enjoyed “more conversions on the road to Damascus than a Syrian long-distance truck driver”; an exasperated Wilson scorned him for “tomfool issues, barmy ideas, a sort of ageing, perennial youth who immatures with age”. But Benn had identified a rising grassroots militancy that would paralyse the party.

As party chairman in 1971-72, Benn declared war on the Establishment. He shortened his name and deleted his public school from Who’s Who, contested the deputy leadership; backed a united Ireland; marched with striking miners; and savaged the media for misrepresenting “the workers”.

His Leftward lurch inspired Labour’s Programme 1973, which offered more nationalisation and a “fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people and their families”. That autumn’s miners’ dispute and subsequent strike precipitated the February 1974 election – and a minority Labour government with Benn as Industry Secretary.

The next 15 months were Benn’s most controversial in government. As he strove to “regenerate” British industry, the press ridiculed “Bennery” while industrialists feared expropriation . Shares plunged as, brandishing commitments to a National Enterprise Board (NEB) and planning agreements, Benn lionised shop stewards and backed new workers’ co-operatives. Cyril Smith indicted him for doing “more to damage British industry than the combined efforts of the Luftwaffe and the U-boats”.

In August 1974 the Cabinet, with Chancellor Denis Healey to the fore, vetoed compulsory planning agreements and unlimited powers for the NEB; Benn acknowledged defeat but targeted aircraft and shipbuilding for nationalisation.

In that October’s election, Benn was Labour’s Achilles’ heel. One tabloid rented a flat opposite his home, another sent 14 reporters to ask if one of his children was in hospital; the Guardian calculated that he had consumed a medically damaging 29,000 gallons of tea. Wilson scrambled to a narrow majority, then threatened to sack Benn for opposing naval exercises with South Africa.

Benn topped the poll for the NEC, as he would for several years, from January 1975 chairing its Home Policy Committee, which became his power base. Then Margaret Thatcher became Tory leader, opening the way for what Benn — who never underestimated her — described as a “real choice”.

That March the Cabinet voted 16-7 for staying in Europe on terms renegotiated by Wilson and James Callaghan, although a special party conference demanded withdrawal. Wilson accepted Benn’s referendum to avert a split; on June 5 1975 Britain voted 2-1 to stay in, and four days later Wilson moved Benn to Energy. He protested, but the challenge of North Sea oil was too big to refuse. Benn launched the British National Oil Corporation against the oil majors’ resistance and involved the miners in policymaking.

After Wilson resigned Benn polled 37 votes for the leadership, but on April 5 1976 Jim Callaghan defeated Michael Foot to move into Downing Street. Benn’s relations with Callaghan were based on a desire to coexist punctuated by threats of the sack. The Prime Minister restored him to the Cabinet economic committee during the IMF crisis in the hope of keeping the party in step.

Benn blocked Labour action against the Militant Tendency, telling Callaghan that Trotskyists were “youngsters who can be won over”. He dismissed Foot as an “extinct volcano”, and after Caroline Benn gave him a copy of the Communist Manifesto, wrote: “Without having read any Communist text, I had come to Marx’s view.”

Threatened with dismissal for opposing the Lib-Lab Pact, Benn reopened the argument over Europe. Up to mid-1978 he still carried weight in Cabinet; then his affability gave way to a driven stridency. He exasperated Callaghan, who was struggling without a majority, by advocating accountability for the security services; Freedom of Information; the cancellation of Harrier sales to China; the rejection of the European Monetary System; and the abolition of the House of Lords. It was as if he felt that time running out, his impatience heightened by grief after his daughter-in-law, Rosalind, died of cancer, aged only 26.

Callaghan’s refusal to call an election in September 1978 angered Benn. Meanwhile, the TUC rebuffed ministers’ appeal for a pay norm, triggering the “Winter of Discontent”. When tanker drivers went on strike, Benn headed off a State of Emergency, settling at a level that triggered strikes by council, NHS and railway workers.

Then, on March 28 1979, Callaghan’s government lost a no-confidence motion by a single vote. Benn put forward one election manifesto and Callaghan another , and when Labour lost, Benn wrote (despite the sight of Mrs Thatcher in Downing Street): “This is probably the beginning of the most creative period of my life.”

He returned to the back benches to “democratise” the party by way of an electoral college, reselection of MPs, and NEC control over the manifesto, setting the stage for the most bitter and disastrous passage in Labour’s history since 1931. Left-wing activists pushed reselection through Labour’s 1979 conference, pillorying its MPs as traitors, and the 1980 conference, at which Benn addressed 17 fringe meetings, backed his calls to quit Europe, abolish the Lords and form an electoral college.

Benn now joined his wife as a nuclear disarmer. Won over by EP Thompson to a nuclear-free zone in Europe, he came out in 1980 against US bases. He got his policy document Peace, Jobs, Freedom through a special party conference; all that was lacking was a leadership that would implement it.

When Callaghan retired, Labour MPs defied the Bennites by electing his successor. Benn reluctantly backed Foot, who in November 1980 defeated Healey. Few envied him: Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers were close to forming the SDP, Benn’s supporters were rampant in the constituencies and only deepening recession gave hope of a return to power.

A special conference in January 1981 adopted a college giving the unions half the vote, with MPs and constituencies having 25 per cent each. Benn hailed “a historic day”; he joined the Tribune Group (having once shunned it as too Left-wing), demanded a “loyalty oath” from the social democrats and supplanted Rodgers when he quit the Shadow Cabinet; but Foot denied him a portfolio.

At 3.30am on April 2, Benn challenged Healey for the deputy leadership, and a six-month struggle ensued for the soul of the party. Benn upped the stakes by urging that the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands be invited to the Commons, claiming that Britain’s presence in Ulster was a “test-bed” for repression at home; he also rebelled on defence.

In June, Benn was admitted to hospital suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome; but by September 27 , when the college met in Brighton, his supporters scented victory. Healey won the first ballot by 44.54 per cent to Benn’s 33.64, with John Silkin third. Then, amid high drama, Healey shaded Benn by 50.46 to 49.54. Nine MPs who backed Healey — more than his majority — then defected. Benn reckoned the outcome “far more successful than I could possibly have dreamed”, but the Right began a fightback and he was voted off the Shadow Cabinet. He then forced Foot to back-pedal on supporting the Falklands task force, enabling Mrs Thatcher to take full credit for victory.

At Labour’s 1982 conference moderates recaptured the NEC, ousting Benn from his Home Policy chair – after he had pushed through a manifesto branded by Gerald Kaufman “the longest suicide note in history”: it advocated withdrawal from Europe, the renunciation of nuclear weapons and more nationalisation. Benn and 35 Tribune MPs formed a rival Campaign Group, and he became its president in 1987.

He now lost his seat after 33 years, as Bristol South-East disappeared in boundary changes. Declining a move to safe Livingston, he lost the Bristol South nomination in 1983 to his old adversary Michael Cocks; he was selected for Bristol East, but was defeated by 1,789 votes.

Benn was out of Parliament at the worst possible time: Labour’s rout sparked a will to unite, and he was ineligible for the leadership when Foot retired. But when Eric Varley accepted a peerage, Benn took his seat at Chesterfield and in March 1984 won his fourth by-election by 6,264 votes. During the campaign, Healey remarked: “Healey and Benn are like Torvill and Dean. I can’t get the bugger off my back.”

Scargill now brought his miners out against pit closures without a ballot, and Benn campaigned fervently for the strikers, marginalising himself further. In 1987 he enjoyed one more parliamentary triumph: persuading backbench Tories their rights were in danger when the Speker prevented MPs seeing a banned BBC documentary about the secret Zircon military satellite.

Benn challenged Kinnock in 1988, being trounced in the electoral college, and could not stop him from abandoning unilateralism. Neither could he prevent John Smith from securing one member, one vote, or Tony Blair from scrapping Clause Four. In 1993, after 31 years, he was voted off the NEC. Following the Labour landslide of 1997, other Left-wingers made the running at Westminster, and Benn retired at the 2001 election, scorning New Labour by saying he could now concentrate on politics.

Despite being diagnosed with leukaemia in 1990, Benn filled halls on a speaking tour, became a visiting professor at LSE, and met Saddam Hussein, becoming president of the Stop the War Coalition after Saddam’s overthrow by US and British forces. At Labour’s 2005 conference he collapsed, and had to be fitted with a pacemaker.

Benn wrote a dozen volumes of polemic, notably Arguments for Socialism (1979, with Chris Mullin). But his masterpiece was his Diaries, published from 1987. The entries — dictated nightly over nearly seven decades — lack Crossman’s insecurity, and unlike Barbara Castle’s were not written for posterity. Their strength lies in their candour; the tone of Days of Hope, covering the war and Benn’s arrival in Parliament, contrasts with the strident End of an Era, recounting his bid for power and eclipse, or the tongue-in-cheek Free at Last. The final volume, A Blaze of Autumn Sunshine, appeared in 2013. Throughout Benn emerges as an endearing family man, unleashing forces whose impact he ignored on behalf of a working class he came to revere but never understood.

Benn’s wife died in 2000, and he is survived by his four children. His eldest son, Stephen Michael Wedgwood Benn, born on August 21 1951, succeeds as the 3rd Viscount Stansgate. A former member of Ilea, Stephen Benn is director of Parliamentary affairs for the Society of Biology; his wife, Nita Clarke, worked for Blair in Downing Street; their son Daniel, born in 1991, becomes heir to the Viscountcy. Tony Benn’s second son, Hilary, is Shadow Communities Secretary, his daughter, Melissa, is a radical feminist author, and his youngest son, Joshua, an IT professional.

Tony Benn, born April 3 1925, died March 14 2014

 

 

Guardian:

I see Simon Jenkins supports the promotion of Manchester as a rival second city to London (Comment, 13 March). He rightly calls for much more investment, for relocation of Whitehall departments and for a major promotion of cultural, media and educational activity. So when can we expect to hear that the Guardian is moving back to its original home?
Colin Struthers
Rawtenstall, Lancashire

• Malcolm Stewart says John Lewis has won the moral high ground in the high street because the chairman takes the same 17% bonus as his staff (Letters, 13 March). In fact, the bonus is paid only to partners. The non-partner cleaners, despite protesting, are paid only the minimum wage by outside contractors. If John Lewis really wants to achieve the moral high ground, it should demand contractors pay the London living wage. Such a move would also put pressure on other retailers to follow suit.
Judith Scott
London

• The crossword is where it should be, at the bottom righthand corner of the back page (Letters, 14 March). And the new position of the weather forecast is good. Please don’t move it back. I feel no guilt using a page of adverts as a scribble pad when solving a crossword, whereas I used to worry about defacing the far more interesting weather section.
Patrick Kivlin
Bideford, Devon

• Godmanchester station (Letters, 14 March) closed in 1959. Paradise station in Norway is also closed. Hell remains.
John Batts
Banbury, Oxfordshire

• And I was surprised to discover a station called Aha in the Black Forest, close to Freiberg.
Bernard Taylor
Billingham, Cleveland

• What is surprising about Euan Sutherland (The Co-op: unco-operative, 12 March) is that this top flight businessman – who thought he was worth an annual salary that would take a shop full of his subordinates a lifetime to earn – didn’t know that working in a co-operative involved co-operation. What do they do on MBAs these days?
Dave Pearce
Bath

 

It is as though a member of the family has died, an uncle or an elderly cousin, someone who did not come to visit that often but whose presence echoed around our community. His sad death leaves us with a feeling of personal loss.

Tony Benn had been like a member of my family ever since he contested the Bristol South East byelection in 1961 and won, although he was by then Viscount Stansgate. [He originally won the seat in 1950, but when his father, Earl Stansgate, died in 1960, he was disbarred from the Commons]. The seat was awarded to Malcolm St Clair, the Conservative and heir to a peerage.

Benn’s next appearance in the family was after the Peerage Act of 1963. The honourable St Clair fulfilled an election promise he made when Bristol South East was “given” to him: that the day Benn became a commoner he would resign the seat, acknowledging the wishes of the Bristol electorate. Benn renounced his peerage 20 minutes after the Peerage Act became law. I always thought that St Clair’s behaviour was one of the most honourable acts I had ever heard of from an MP. I helped fight the byelection that put Benn back into the Commons. I thought that would be the last I saw or heard of of him. Just how wrong can you be.

He had a rare breed of idealism and common sense that he made his own. His words were examined and dissected and invariably the same answer came out … Bugger me, he’s absolutely right – that’s what needs doing. He became a regular member of our household. He still appears many times at breakfast, dinner, tea and coffee stops sitting in the garden, countless times at pub lunches and dinner parties and still appears at Ramblers walks. The marvellous thing is … he will not stop doing all of that, just because he died.
Martin Frampton
Newton Abbot, Devon

 

Maev Kennedy (Report, 10 March) talks about the Women’s Library having lost its building as if it were a hankie it absentmindedly dropped in the street. In reality, it was forcibly ejected by LSE holding a gun to its head. LSE’s message was: “Move into our library in Aldwych or we will withdraw our offer to run you.” While campaigners obviously hope that it will not have to move again, we campaigned vigorously for LSE to continue running the Women’s Library in its existing building.

Our fears about cost effectiveness, loss of expertise and openness if it were forced to move are already coming true. LSE has had to spend much more on building works than anticipated and, once finished, they will in no way match the previous purpose-built, prize-winning facilities.

As for LSE celebrating the Women’s Library’s “opening” by acknowledging its history and connection to the feminist movement, among those not invited to celebrate are nine out of 10 members of the recently formed Feminist and Women’s Libraries and Archives Network, staff who worked at the library for more than 10 years, former academics from London Met who dedicated many hours to support the library, donors of substantial collection materials and other feminist scholars and activists who have supported it in many ways over the years.
Gail Chester
Kathy Parker
Miriam David
Malise Rosbech
Jacky Gruhn
Anna Pigott
Jill Nicholls
Anny Brackx
Una Byrne
Wendy Davis
Annie Fatet
Gemma Aston
Lynda Bennett
Catherine Lockhart
Dorothy Dunn
Irena Fick
Carol Ackroyd
Kate Elander
Helen Bishop
Melissa Friedberg
Katie Hancock
Cloud Taylor
Marion Prince
Dagmar Kattler
Gill Sampson
Amanda Sebestyen
Anne-Marie Brenckle
Mo Hildenbrand
Eve Rubin
Roberta Hunter-Henderson
Lee Comer
Gill Jackson

• When London Metropolitan University announced it could no longer sustain the Women’s Library collection, LSE was not “the sole bidder” to house the collection; it was one of a number of organisations that expressed an interest, and was delighted to have been picked as the new home.

The proposition that maintaining the previous premises would have cost “a relatively small sum” is also false – the previous site would have required at least £500,000 per annum to maintain. One of LSE’s greatest assets is that we are a campus university, located in the centre of London, and throughout the transfer we have been open about keeping all of the library’s collections together in a single location.

I would also challenge the view that the collection has been removed from its “working-class base”. LSE Library has longer opening hours than the Women’s Library at Aldgate, and the Women’s Library reading room will be accessible to the public throughout the year.

LSE is undoubtedly different to previous locations for this collection – we host a vibrant and immensely popular public lecture series alongside our world-renowned taught courses. These differences will be explored to their fullest potential as we bring out the best in this unique collection for a wider audience than ever before.
Elizabeth Chapman
Director, LSE Library

• Paul Whitehouse’s letter (12 March) on The Women’s Library contains many inaccuracies. LSE was not “the sole bidder”; others included the Bodleian Library and Manchester city council, the latter being a frontrunner until government cuts to local authority funding compelled a withdrawal. “A relatively small sum” to maintain the library at its Aldgate site would have been in the region of £500,000 a year; it makes operational sense for libraries to keep all their staff and collections under one roof – as the British Library, which now houses collections as disparate as the Sound Archive and the India Office Library, has demonstrated.

It is absolutely correct to stress that TWL arises out of the political movement for women’s rights; it is also true that LSE was founded by feminists such as Charlotte and Bernard Shaw. Feminists – suffragist and suffragette – were as active in London’s Holborn as they were in the East End and, indeed, all over Britain. And given that LSE has invested large sums in creating a dedicated reading room for TWL and will be opening an exhibition space for its museum artefacts, it is a little premature to state that it will be left “with fewer independent objective characteristics”.

The facilities at Aldgate were not much of a resource for local people; a comparison of the opening hours reveals it is absurd to suggest that TWL will be “imprisoned” in its new home.

Of course all of us who have championed TWL are disappointed to have lost the purpose-built premises which made so many initiatives and conversations possible; but the women’s movement is in rude health and exists independently of bricks and mortar, and presents us with more important things to fight for than Paul Whitehouse offers us.
Dr Anne Summers
Chair, Friends of the Women’s Library,
Research fellow, history, Birkbeck College

 

artial Trezzini/EPA

Tim Berners-Lee‘s call for “a global constitution – a bill of rights” to protect users of the world wide web is both timely and necessary (Report, 12 March). Until recently, he has (rightly) remained largely silent about the web’s evolution, its content and applications. However, increased levels of surveillance of citizens by US and British spy agencies, their undermining of security and encryption tools, together with growing government and corporate influence on the web’s character and content, have prompted his proposal. Hopefully, an “open neutral internet” with a “common statement of principles … supported by public institutions, governments and corporations” will no longer tolerate the existence of harmful websites and forums which prey upon vulnerable individuals. Berners-Lee expresses concern that “our rights are being infringed more and more on every side and the danger is we get used to it”. Time then to “take the web back into our own hands” and ensure that it is safe, sound, and fit for purpose.
Stephen Darbyshire
Nottingham

• With increasing threats and vulnerabilities emerging daily, there is an urgent need to develop a pipeline of qualified and experienced cyber security professionals to safeguard our systems and infrastructure. Research by the IET has highlighted that a significant lack of skilled workers is hampering the UK’s fight against cyber-crime. The measures recently announced by the government will help to fill the shortage of skills in this important area – and put us in a stronger position to combat cyber-crime. The challenge now is to make sure businesses are aware of these initiatives and start to view securing cyber security as a priority.
Hugh Boyes
Institution of Engineering and Technology

 

Your three-page review of the six-volumes of the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard (Review, 8 March) made no mention of Don Bartlett, the translator who has painstakingly made it possible for your readers to have access to the text, and for your reviewer to write about it, with comments about content and style which he might consider nuancing by thinking through the implications of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural transfer. There are plenty of sources to refer to. You should make the public aware that access to foreign text, in everyday news, in literature, in the sciences and in all the other disciplines that this country has depended on for its own advancement, does not happen by magic. No translation, then no foreign literature, news, or anything from other languages and cultures. Some might think it for the better; most I hope would think it for the worse.
Marie-Noelle Guillot
University of East Anglia

 

As one of the people involved in the estimates of women in England and Wales affected by female genital mutilation and the numbers of girls at risk which are being used in the current campaign, I agree with Nadifa Mohamed (Comment, 10 March) that these are now out of date. They were based on the 2001 census and surveys done in FGM-practising countries in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. This is why we have been commissioned to produce new estimates, based on data from the 2011 census and more recent surveys. This work is now under way, with the aim of providing information to make appropriate maternity and gynaecology care available to affected women and child protection services, where needed, for their daughters.

Taken as a whole, the surveys show that in some countries, such as Kenya, the practice has declined, while in others it has not and that in countries where it is most prevalent, lower proportions of women and girls think it should stop. They also show wide differences between geographical areas and social groupings within countries, with more-educated women being much less likely to have been affected. These differences are likely to affect the extent to which the practice is abandoned when women migrate and underline the need to avoid stereotyping individuals. For example, Nadifa Mohamed’s Somali family and other Somali families she knows have abandoned the practice, while community groups tell us that others have not done so.

We have no reliable data for England and Wales. There is no code for FGM in the international classification of diseases, so it is not recorded in national data collection systems, although the Department of Health is now trying to change this. It is reasonable, although not ideal, to use data from migrant women’s countries of origin to estimate the prevalence of FGM among them, but applying these assumptions to their daughters is problematic. This means that, as in our previous report, any estimates we produce will have to be very tentative. We hope they will prompt in-depth research which will involve migrant communities directly and inform the eradication of FGM in this country.
Alison Macfarlane
City University London

• The one action which would curtail this barbaric practice is compulsory examination of children. The public’s growing horror over FGM would surely overtake concerns about civil liberties. In France, where examination is mandatory, there have been over 100 successful prosecutions. In this country, nil, yet FGM has been illegal here since 1985.
Michael Berkeley
House of Lords

 

 

 

Independent:

 

Tony Benn was a great, kind and principled person, his ethical stance only strengthening in later life as he became a vegetarian.

His words echoed far beyond Westminster as he courageously stood up for the poor, the downtrodden and all those in need, hoping to build a better, fairer and truly compassionate society.

His ideas live on.

Susan Jacobs, Sean Prebble, Winchester

Tony Benn was one of those rare politicians who genuinely do make history, when he renounced his peerage in 1963. His diaries are an important historical record, unparalleled in post-1945 British politics.

Part of his legacy should be to inspire politicians to have the same sense of the importance and context  of history as he had. Too few do.

Dr Keith Flett , London Socialist Historians Group, London N1

What a pity that Tony Benn never became Prime Minister instead of Tony Blair.

Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby, Lincolnshire

Great war soldiers who said ‘No’

You report a bid to build a seemingly profit-driven memorial to First World War soldiers who embarked for the Western Front from the Kentish seaside town of Folkestone (11 March). Perhaps the sponsors should balance their project with a memorial to one of the few cases of mass disobedience in the Allied Armies that happened in the same town in January 1919.

Then, 2000 soldiers who had seen years in the trenches were ordered to embark for service abroad at Folkestone. They refused. Instead they marched to Folkestone Town Hall. There they were promised a rapid programme of demobilisation.

Next day, however, new orders arrived summoning a certain number to embark. Again they refused. This time they marched on the harbour. The flood of incoming troops swelled their ranks, and a Soldiers’ Union was formed. New demands were now added to the demand for demobilisation. Food in the local Shorncliffe barracks was a disgrace, sanitation was abominable.

They elected a committee to advance demands including rapid demobilisation; shorter working hours; an end to training; no compulsory church parade; no drafts for Russia; control over messing arrangements; and no victimisation. And they won. The mix of British and Canadian troops were hastily sent home.

They stood out against renewed slaughter, and, for that, deserve recognition.

David Walsh, Skelton, Cleveland

We should be saving all our efforts to commemorate the ending of the First World War instead of its outbreak. Commemoration of the outbreak should be confined to historical commentary on the reasons why such a tragedy occurred.

Chris Elshaw, Headley Down, Hampshire

Cameron ignores Israeli abuses

It’s not unusual for a British prime minister to express unswerving support for the state of Israel, but this should not come at the expense of overlooking serious human right issues. David Cameron’s effusive speech to the Knesset referred to the foundation of Israel in “international law”, yet the less rosy truth is that Israeli soldiers regularly act unlawfully in shooting unarmed protesters in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Last year alone, 22 Palestinian civilians, mostly teenagers or people in their early 20s, were killed by Israel’s forces in the West Bank, with several of the victims shot in the back. In the past three years, an astonishing 8,000 Palestinian civilians, including 1,500 children, have also been seriously wounded by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, many from rubber-coated metal bullets or reckless use of tear gas.

Mr Cameron said nothing about any of this in public, and I fear he said nothing in private either.

Israel has very real security concerns – as the latest barrage of rockets fired from Gaza underlines. But Mr Cameron’s rock-solid commitment to Israel shouldn’t mean ignoring the concrete reality of human rights abuses being committed by Israel’s forces.

Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK, London EC2

Birmingham beats London

“Accuse me of London-centrism,” says Mary Dejevsky, lamenting the move, 20 years ago, of Crufts to Birmingham.  Indeed she is London-centred and very self-centred too, wanting the rest of the UK to travel more miles to get to London.

I was born in London and have spent all my life in the South-east, and I love the Birmingham venue. In the centre of the country and easily reached by motorway, train or plane, it is accessible to everyone. The National Exhibition Centre has huge car parks and regular free buses from car parks to the event entrance and is a well run-venue with good loos (always important).

There is serious breed judging, entertainment with a view to educating the public on responsible dog ownership, and hundreds of stalls for canine shopping. Mary Dejevsky obviously watches Crufts on TV from her sofa, as she complains “Now it’s an entertainment event”. Televised Crufts has to spend time on the entertainment side or no one would watch. Mary Dejevsky should take a trip up the motorway to the NEC next year and see what she is missing.

Jan Cook, South Nutfield, Surrey

What women want from cars

I turned eagerly to David Williams’ report on the Geneva Motor Show (13 March) in the long hunt for the model I need, but closed the paper a sadder, wiser woman.

It left me with the startlingly sexist conclusion that Mr Williams was inspired only by the motorised toys that men like to impress each other with. The multi-tasking woman’s approach to car selection is, I suspect, very different, with all-round practicality a priority and showing-off coming way down the list.

Do please ask your motoring correspondents to look over the fence occasionally.

Yvonne Ruge, London N20

Can I be Scottish  too, please?

Just a thought, but as the BBC is increasingly London-centric and London itself is eccentric, is there any chance, when the Scots vote for independence, that the England boundary could shrink to London and the Home Counties and the rest of us could become Scottish? It would be an honour to do so and rid myself of the arrogant stupidity that being English now means. Och aye.

Steve Cragg, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire

GM crops are not the solution

Arguments for introducing GM crops in Africa, and for the greater involvement of global agribusiness on the continent more broadly, rest on the idea that Africa needs to produce more food. But in the 20 years to 2011, the numbers of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa rose by 40 per cent, despite the fact that food production rose by 10 per cent per person over the same period. People are undernourished because of lack of access to food, not lack of production.

The UK and other G8 governments are pushing African countries to open their agriculture to increased involvement of global seed companies, including the introduction of GM crops. But there is a real risk of increased costs for the small-scale farmers who feed the majority of the continent’s population, as an ever smaller number of multinational seed companies control both prices and the seed varieties available.

Supporting African agriculture and tackling hunger require policies to help small-scale food producers regain control and feed local populations, not initiatives that will further disempower them by handing control to multinational companies.

Nick Dearden, Director, World Development Movement, London SW9

Here we go again. “There is no compelling evidence,” we are told, that GM crops are dangerous. The fact that there is no compelling evidence that something is not safe does not mean that it is safe. Even when there is compelling evidence we are given the same message by government and some of the scientific community.

Even after Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima we are told that there is no compelling evidence that nuclear power stations are not safe.

Before the Iraq war there was, presumably, no compelling evidence that it would result in the death of tens of thousands of innocent people and the ruination of a country.

There is no compelling evidence that using drones to terrorise villagers in Afghanistan and Pakistan creates terrorists.

As many already know, the way to ensure an adequate food supply is to cut down on meat production, stop the growing of biofuels and develop sustainable energy.

Jim McCluskey, Twickenham, Middlesex

 

 

Times:

 

 

 

Without the licence fee television would become much more expensive — without being any better

Sir, Hugo Rifkind says that the BBC licence fee is too high at £145.50 per household (Mar 11). Compared to pay-TV packages it is massively cheaper. Of course, you do not have to buy pay-TV, but that is because there are lots of free-to-air choices, including the BBC. However, a diminished BBC would greatly increase the power of the pay-TV operators with their revenues from advertising and subscription. It is likely that other free-to-air broadcasters, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, would have to start charging subscriptions to remain competitive.

Therefore, it is likely that the cost of watching television would increase. It is a matter of speculation by how much, but I would suggest that all households would be paying a lot more than £145.50 per year.

Michael Constable

London SW18

Sir, I have long felt that the BBC licence fee should be automatically added to one’s local council rates, as happens in France (non-TV owners may opt out), similarly to one’s car tax being collected by the insurance company, as in Switzerland. After all, companies and employers commonly collect other forms of taxation (eg NI, VAT) on the government’s behalf. Just think of the savings.

Neil Kennedy

Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex

Sir, Keith Howard (letter, Mar 13) reminds us that second-property owners have to pay two licences to the BBC. He does not mention that the second licence is charged even if live BBC is not watched at either location.

Geoffrey Tregaskes

Lymington, Hants

Sir, Keith Howard objects to paying for a television licence for his second home. Does he feel that he should have two water supplies for one bill? Should emergency services attend both properties for one payment of income tax?

No tax is perfect, but if ever there was a candidate for a fair and painless tax levied only on those who can easily afford to pay, then it is a charge on those who own more of our tiny island than they occupy, especially within commuting distance of our overcrowded capital where our children can afford nowhere to live.

David Cashman

Middlesbrough

Sir, What we get today is instant access to the world at the touch of a button. We have been watching the Olympic Games in Russia. We watch other countries’ broadcasts. Our news service is second to none and the envy of the world. What more do people want?

I have no connection to any of the broadcasting companies, but I am very grateful to them because without them I — and thousands of others — would not have got a degree through distance learning.

Ronald Roe

London W13

The trauma of repairing flood-damage lives is not helped dealing with local councils’ ingenious accounting techniques

Sir, I feel sorry Louise Salway and the loss of her home and possessions (“After the floods, a legacy of despair”, Mar 13). My road was flooded at Christmas. The damage is less than on the Levels, but families have had to move out and lives have been disrupted. To add insult to injury, our group of houses was identified as being at medium flood risk in 2009; our council installed flood air brick covers and issued us with door flood guards, free of charge.

The council now tells us that despite the fact we flooded and despite the fact this is a new subsidy, we are not eligible for the government’s £5,000 repair and renew grant because the money has in effect already been spent. That is a local issue, but our experience has implications nationally, because the same products which failed us are being recommended as part of the new grant scheme.

Jeremy Hunt, our MP, Waverley Council and the EA have been made aware but have ignored this challenge so I fear for those being given a false sense of security.

Melanie Stanley

Godalming, Surrey

 

It is surprising that UCAS sells the contact details of teenagers to advertisers of energy drinks and mobile phones

Sir, I was appalled by your report that UCAS earned more than £12 million last year by selling the contact details of teenagers and their parents to advertisers of products including mobile phones and energy drinks (“British students go Dutch to avoid paying high tuition fees”, Mar 13).

Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act, and if not it is morally indefensible. Notwithstanding the austere times, we should be able to trust our statutory authorities to behave with propriety.

Anthony H. Ratcliffe

London W1

 

The postal system does not seem a very secure way to keep passports out of the hands of terrorists and villains

Sir, I enjoyed “Passports the big prize in criminal world” (Mar 13). In the post that day I had received a very obviously passport-sized envelope with “Her Majesty’s Passport Office” proudly stamped at the top, and “THIS IS NOT A CIRCULAR — Important Documents enclosed” along the bottom, just in case I might inadvertently bin it.

To make absolutely certain that I — or anyone else who might find the information helpful — knew what the envelope contained, it said on the back: “If incorrectly delivered anywhere in the world outside the UK, please contact your nearest British Diplomatic Mission”.

Since “a FOG (fraudulently obtained genuine) passport is probably the most highly prized document for a serious criminal or a terrorist”, could this be a weak link in the security mechanisms?

Linda Baillie

Oxford

 

 

It is surprising that UCAS sells the contact details of teenagers to advertisers of energy drinks and mobile phones

Sir, I was appalled by your report that UCAS earned more than £12 million last year by selling the contact details of teenagers and their parents to advertisers of products including mobile phones and energy drinks (“British students go Dutch to avoid paying high tuition fees”, Mar 13).

Surely this is a breach of the Data Protection Act, and if not it is morally indefensible. Notwithstanding the austere times, we should be able to trust our statutory authorities to behave with propriety.

Anthony H. Ratcliffe

London W1

 

A law on assisted dying has the backing of the majority, especially those relatives who would have benefited from it

Sir, I disagree with Tim Montgomerie (“Assisted dying will turn into a lethal weapon”, Mar 13) — the majority of the public back assisted dying for people who are terminally ill and mentally competent, rather than euthanasia for all. The public support a right to die well for terminally ill people like my mother. She ended her days in Switzerland in March 2012, earlier than she wanted to die, in order to avoid a potentially torturous death from Huntington’s disease. This is a genetic condition, so I may have to face the same decision myself if this law doesn’t change.

A law very similar to that which Lord Falconer is taking to Parliament this summer has been safely allowing dying patients the choice of a dignified death at home at a time of their choosing for more than 15 years in Oregon, with no sign of loopholes or “convoys of hearses”.

I wonder if people who are flippant about this issue are so because they have had the good fortune to never have to face these issues in reality. My family and I have not enjoyed such good fortune. Far from it: we are experiencing many people’s greatest fears right now — a society where people are forced to die abroad earlier than they would want to, attempt suicide alone or suffer intolerably and against their wishes at the end of life, when there is a workable alternative.

Peter Squires

Leamington Spa, Warks

 

Telegraph:

SIR – Why is it that so many of our town markets seem to be in such a muddle? The setting of many is delightful, but their layout spoils what should be an enjoyable experience. An attractive cheese stall or baker’s is often located next to a clothing or book stall. Fresh fish is for sale next to plants, flowers or even pet food.

Surely it makes more sense – for reasons of aesthetics, hygiene, and ease of shopping – for the food market to be located in a designated area and for the other stalls to be grouped according to their respective wares.

Lt Col Paul French (retd)
Andover, Hampshire

 

 

SIR – I was prescribed statins after I had two stents inserted. A week later, I suffered from extreme vertigo and was unable to walk. I stopped taking them and the symptoms disappeared over a period of days. Then I was prescribed a different statin, which had exactly the same result.

How can it be that a large number of people were given these and nobody experienced any side-effects?

A similar problem occurred when I was prescribed Tamoxifen after a cancer operation. This affected my heart and I had extreme fatigue and sweating attacks.

Drug manufacturers wish their products to work without side-effects, but this is not always the case.

Jean Cochrane
Bourne, Lincolnshire

NI threshold

SIR – Raising the National Insurance threshold could allow some employers to offer more hours to people in the workforce claiming Universal Credit, and thus increase the income of low-paid workers while reducing benefit payments.

The move could also enable employers to make better use of part-time and flexible workers, which would be a significant factor in improving opportunities to work.

Peter Cheese
London SW19

Doing the maths

SIR – We have used Sixth Term Examination Papers (Step) for more than 25 years as a key part of conditional offers for mathematics because our research has found that they are a better predictor of success in the Mathematical Tripos than A-levels alone.

Step is based on material that requires no further knowledge beyond the common core of A-level mathematics, as taught in schools of all types. The questions test qualities that are crucial to success on mathematical courses at Cambridge, like insight, originality, and the ability to use standard techniques in unusual ways. Extensive resources are available online to help candidates prepare. Monitoring shows our admissions decisions are fair: students from different educational backgrounds perform equally well at Cambridge.

Dr Mike Sewell
Director of Admissions for the Cambridge Colleges
Cambridge

Everything must go

SIR – The books filling the shelves of the Long Room in the Old Library, Trinity College, Dublin, make a fine sight. I hope that the Old Library has not been committing the sin of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland by selling off bequeathed books at auction. I recently bought an RCSI copy of An Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama, in Tibet by Captain Samuel Turner.

Roger Croston
Christleton, Cheshire

Banana appeal

SIR – I was four in 1944 when my mother received a letter from my father, serving in North Africa, saying he was sending a case of bananas. A few weeks later, a small wooden box arrived. Inside were what looked like shrivelled black fingers. They tasted much as they appeared. I have never looked a banana in the face since. Hitler has a lot to answer for.

Brian Inns
Chertsey, Surrey

Russia: foe or friend?

SIR – The Prime Minister gave a rousing speech on the importance of international law in relation to Ukraine and the forthcoming Crimean referendum, with threats of sanctions against Russia if it does not comply.

But Russia is hardly going to respect our high-flown wishes after our blatant support for regime-change in Ukraine, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia – all in the name of democracy, but technically in breach of international law. Before taking the moral high ground in our diplomacy, the West should take a look at its own actions.

Russia is culturally European, and it could be in our best interest to understand her position, with the long-term aim of making her our friend, not our enemy.

Mina Bowater
Iwerne Minster, Dorset

UK exit checks

SIR – Normal checks at airports cover 100 per cent of all passports. It is data from the Advance Passenger Information system that is received from only 90 per cent of international flights.

Immigration checks on passengers leaving Britain ceased in 1998. Labour’s immigration minister, Mike O’Brien, described them as “an expensive fiction”. As a former immigration officer, I know they were a useful tool, not least for security (as demonstrated by concerns over the Malaysia Airlines flight). They also acted as a disincentive to overstaying a visa.

The Coalition Agreement included a commitment to reintroduce exit checks by the end of this parliament in 2015.

Elizabeth Edmunds
Hassocks, West Sussex

Explosive opening …

SIR – For attention-getting opening lines, it’s hard to beat: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”

The late Iain Banks opened The Crow Road with those words; the rest of the book did not disappoint.

Antony Thomas
Esher, Surrey

… impossible opening

SIR – Andrew Sturmey asks if anyone has successfully resealed a resealable food packet. Has anyone ever opened a paper packet of Tate & Lyle sugar without spilling any grains?

David Norsworthy
Saltash, Cornwall

The story of England’s only footballing VC

SIR – I was interested to read that the game’s fraternity is about to make a pilgrimage to the Western Front later this month to pay homage to those footballers who died in the Great War.

One grave to be visited is that of Second Lieutenant Donald Bell of my regiment (pictured here), the only professional English footballer to win the Victoria Cross and the first to volunteer. He lies in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Gordon Dump cemetery, close to where he won his VC attacking Horseshoe Trench on July 5 1916, and close to the village of Contalmaison, in the Somme, northern France, where he was killed five days later carrying out a similar act of gallantry.

The Green Howards have erected a beautiful memorial in the village, generously funded by the Professional Footballers’ Association, among others. The Green Howards Regimental Museum has commissioned a bronze statuette of Donald Bell in the act of winning his VC.

During the First World War, some 65,000 men joined the regiment. By the end of the war, 7,500 had died and 24,000 had been wounded, typical of the sacrifice of so many county infantry regiments. Twelve VCs were awarded, eight posthumously; four were awarded during the Battle of the Somme – coincidentally, two recipients were from Harrogate Grammar School, one being Donald Bell, the other Archie White.

Brigadier John Powell (retd)
Late Colonel, The Green Howards
Farnham, Surrey

 

SIR – Pace Peter Oborne, David Cameron’s promise of an in-out referendum on EU membership in 2017, once the terms of a new relationship have been negotiated, is hardly more credible than Ed Miliband’s pledge to give us a referendum should the EU demand that further powers be transferred to Brussels.

The Tories should be asked: “If Brussels and our EU partners are unwilling to adjust our terms of membership by 2017, will we still be given a vote on membership? Can we trust Mr Cameron to deliver a referendum at all?”

Equally, Labour should be asked: “What about all the powers that have already been given away? Why wait for the threat of more sovereignty being lost, before asking the British people for our view?”

Either way, democracy is not well served by either the Conservatives or Labour.

V Hugh R Waine
London SE4

Related Articles

SIR – The UK Independence Party wants us, above all, to leave Europe. By putting up candidates at the general election it will take votes away from the Tories, leaving Labour as outright winners, or in coalition with the Lib Dems. So no referendum, no opportunity to leave Europe.

Thus, to achieve the basic reason for its existence, Ukip should stand down all its candidates, and give the only serious party offering an independence referendum, the Tories, a chance to get back into power.

J Brian Thomas
Derby

SIR – Has enough time now elapsed since Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, told David Cameron that there was no question of renegotiating the EU treaties for him to formulate a policy to replace the one of renegotiating the EU treaties?

John Gordon
Kingsbridge, Devon

SIR – John Humphrys’s welcome admission of BBC pro-EU bias raises more questions that it resolves. He says that the BBC is “out of that now” and “we have changed”. But increased coverage of Ukip does not deliver “accuracy and impartiality”, as the BBC Agreement requires.

To stage debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage does not begin to address the issue of what relationship the United Kingdom should have with our EU partners and how this should be achieved.

Coverage of the stark in-out question does not “inform” the public, in accordance with the BBC Charter, of the facts and arguments about what alternative constitutional or trading relations with our EU partners might be developed.

Most of the Conservative Party favours trade and political co-operation with the EU but does not want to live under the single EU government that is emerging for the eurozone. Most of the public agrees.

The BBC must rise to the challenge of representing the mainstream of the debate.

Bernard Jenkin MP (Con)
London SW1

 

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – Recent events have pointed up significant weaknesses in the operation of An Garda Síochána and the way in which the Garda accounts for the execution of its duties.

We welcome the announcement by Government that the Oireachtas Committee on Justice will examine ways in which the operation and remit of the Garda Ombudsman Commission can be strengthened.

It is important that this review should be comprehensive. The commission plays an important role in examining complaints of wrongdoing against gardaí and is vital that it is, and is seen to be, independent, effective and authoritative.

But the role of GSOC is limited, quite properly, to examining complaints of wrongdoing. We need to do more than look at the operation of GSOC. We need to have a much broader debate about the accountability of the Garda.

Of course, just such a debate has already occurred in Northern Ireland and there is much that we can learn from their experience. As long ago as 1999, Chris Patten, and his colleagues, argued that accountability of the police force to the community is essential not only because it confers legitimacy on a force in which the public invests a great deal of power, but also in order to ensure effective policing.

Patten recommended the establishment of a policing board with significant powers. The Northern Ireland Policing Board sets priorities and targets for the police; it monitors the performance of the police: it holds senior police officers, including the chief constable to account. Much of its work is carried out in public.

By contrast, the Garda Commissioner is accountable only to the Minister for Justice (acting through the secretary general of the Department of Justice). In practice much of this exercise in accountability takes place in private.

Political control of the police is always a delicate issue in democracies. In many countries it is considered wise, if not essential, that the police should be responsible to some body other than just the Minister or the Department of Justice. This acts as a guard against abuse but it also provides an element of transparency and openness which serves the interest of the police and the public.

It is time for us to debate these issues seriously. The establishment of a Garda authority must form part of that debate. Our current system of Garda oversight isn’t working. The gardaí and the public deserve better. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT DOWDS TD,

ANNE FERRIS TD,

SEAN KENNY TD,

GERALD NASH TD,

DEREK NOLAN TD,

Senator IVANA BACIK,

Senator SUSAN O’KEEFE,

Leinster House,

 

Sir, – The International Adoption Association (IAA) welcomes and applauds Rosita Boland on her honest and accurate portrayal of the adoption community in Ireland (“Changes to adoption law shattered my hopes of becoming a parent”, Weekend Review, March 8th).

The IAA fully supports Ireland’s implementation of the Hague Convention and all the protection it affords to children and we recognise that adoption is a service for children and not for prospective adoptive parents.

We understand that Ireland is in a transitional period since the enactment and we support the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s (AAI) practice of ensuring ethical and transparent adoptions. The IAA recognises that there is a dramatic reduction in the number of intercountry adoptions worldwide, with many contributing factors, such as economic growth in sending countries and an increase in domestic adoption.

However, this does not change the fact that 11 post-Hague adoptions into Ireland over a three-year period is still unacceptable. The international social services have reported that there is an improvement on the ground in many sending countries but the truth remains that there are hundreds of thousands of children languishing in institutions worldwide that deserve the opportunity to become part of a family. How is this in the best interests of the child?

Figures released in a Hague-commissioned report indicate that the figure for international adoptions in 2004 was 45,000. By 2011 the figure was 22,000. Country comparisons show the following: Spain saw a 48 per cent reduction from 2004 to 2010; France saw only a 14 per cent reduction in same period; Canada had no reduction from 2004 to 2010; and Italy saw a 21 per cent increase.

In Ireland, intercountry adoption has not fallen, it has collapsed.

The IAA calls upon the Adoption Authority of Ireland, along with all policymakers, to engage urgently with countries where children are available for international adoption; to enter into bilateral agreements with non-Hague countries, as permitted under section 40 of the Adoption Act 2010; and to progress the opportunity for change that is in the best interests of the children. – Yours, etc,

TRISH CONNOLLY,

International Adoption

Association,

Rathfarnham Road,

Terenure, Dublin 6W.

Sir, – It is shocking that prospective parents can be part of an opaque system for six years and more. The Adoption Authority of Ireland seems to be no more accountable than its predecessors.

What really concerns me is that while families scrape together a small fortune to adopt children from overseas, far too many Irish children, who have been abused by their birth parents, and who are never going back to them, are denied a second change of a loving family of their own. These children remain in State care, until they are 18 and are then abandoned to fend for themselves. Far too many end up in our prisons and as service users of mental health programmes.

In the UK, adoptive families are assessed within eight months, and if approved to adopt, most are matched with their child or children within nine months. No money changes hands. Children removed from abusive families have the chance of a second, new family to love them, rather than a series of moves from one foster home to the next. – Yours, etc,

DONAL TRAYNOR,

St Philip’s Avenue,

Eastbourne,

East Sussex, England.

Sir, – Adoption is not an adult right, it is about finding homes for children in extreme circumstances, whose immediate families, close relatives or wider community or fellow citizens cannot care for them.

Under the Hague Convention, adoption is seen as a measure of last resort. If there are fewer children internationally “requiring adoption”, the world should be celebrating because it means these children have a chance to be raised by their natural families. Instead, more often than not, a fall in adoption figures is treated as bad news for prospective adopters, as opposed to good news for the children affected.

The Adoption Rights Alliance supports the Adoption Authority of Ireland’s contention that its work should not be “measured by the number of adoptions which it processes, but rather by the quality and propriety of those adoptions”.

Adoption and infertility should not be treated as related issues. Adoption should always be about finding the best home possible for each child, regardless of fertility, gender, sexuality, marital status or religion; as opposed to the current system which adjudicates what adults are more deserving by (among other things) what fertility choices they have made.

Historically, Ireland’s adoption system put the needs and wants of adults before those of children, resulting in a disturbing culture of entitlement, which is bolstered by a lack of courage on the part of many of our politicians and public figures who bow to calls for the “reopening” of corrupt countries from which we used to adopt. The problems that go ignored while adults’ needs are at the forefront include the serious issue of corruption and the deeply concerning matter of adoptions breaking down and those children ending up in care or homeless, as has been reported to our organisation. We have reported this issue to the Minister for Children, the Adoption Authority of Ireland and others, all to no avail. – Yours, etc,

SUSAN LOHAN,

CLAIRE McGETTRICK,

MARI STEED,

ANGELA MURPHY,

Adoption Rights Alliance,

The Mill House,

Millview Road,

Malahide, Co Dublin.

Sir, – With reference to Rosita Boland’s moving article, during the 1960s and 1970s successive Irish governments did not cover themselves in glory when dealing with adoption in Ireland, preferring to leave the church to play a role that rightfully belonged to the State. Are we saying now that adoption in this country is at a standstill because of bureaucratic apathy? Is this Ireland’s new adoption scandal? – Yours, etc,

J McNAMARA,

Corrig Avenue,

Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

 

 

Sir, – Further to “No evidence to suggest under-reporting of suicide, committee hears”, Oireachtas Report, March 14th), a high burden of proof, beyond all reasonable doubt, is required by a coroner before recording each case of a death by suicide. A total of 507 such suicide cases were recorded in the 2012 CSO report. A further 82 cases were recorded under open or undetermined verdicts, many of these being possible or probable suicide deaths, but not “beyond all reasonable doubt”, and therefore not included in our reported suicide rate. Rather than naively assume the position of “no evidence of under-reporting”, it is unlikely we will detect or uncover any such evidence of under-reporting if we do not look in detail for it. – Yours, etc,

Prof KEVIN MALONE,

School of Medicine

and Medical Science,

University College Dublin,

Elm Park, Dublin 4.

 

Sir, – There is a saying in the Scottish labour movement, “no gods and precious few heroes”. Tony Benn aspired to be neither; his style was always effortlessly courteous and considered, even – perhaps particularly – with people who did not agree with him.

That style was deployed to lead a movement that lacked the coherence and discipline of its opponents.

It is therefore worth noting that Tony Benn has died on exactly the 30th anniversary of the start of the miners strike in Britain in 1984. Since then, almost all the collieries have closed.

The City of London has triumphed, destroying the British financial system in the process, while leaving ordinary people to pick up the bill as bonuses are still paid to the people who created the mess. Wages in Britain have declined faster than at any time in over a century and the gap between top and bottom has opened up exponentially.

Tony Benn was on the losing side – it is worth bearing in mind just what was lost before he is subjected to the appalling condescension of the victors. – Yours, etc,

EOIN DILLON,

Ceannt Fort,

Mount Brown,

 

McNally (“38 reasons we should hate the French (or at least dislike them mildly)”, An Irishman’s Diary, March 14th), was intended to stoke up the Irish squad more than the French team for today’s rugby clash.

I can only presume that he doesn’t hope or plan to holiday in Frankreich anytime soon. However, in that his list did not extend to the “fowl” practice of press-ganging cockerels into attending international rugby matches, there may be some hope for an entente cordiale . – Yours, etc,

MICHELE SAVAGE,

Glendale Park,

Dublin 12.

 

Sir, – If the Minister for Education goes ahead with his plan to abolish the national, externally assessed Junior Cert examination, will another educational chief inspector be needed in 10 years to point out that Ruairí Quinn’s proposed system of school-based, teacher-assessed exams will lead to consistent and widespread breaches of policy, no meaningful evidence of consistent quality management, no training and no clear policy guidelines? Surely it is better to have an exam system based on what you know rather than one based on who you know. Teachers have good reason to be fearful both for themselves and for their students. – Yours, etc,

JOE COY,

Kilbannon,

Tuam,

 

Sir, – If you print this letter, I will undoubtedly be told to “lighten up”, as I was when I objected to the substitution of “Crimbo” for Christmas. I am only marginally less irritated by the use of “Paddy’s Day” for St Patrick’s Day. – Yours, etc,

MARGARET BUTLER,

St Helen’s Road,

Booterstown,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – Regarding the (I hope tongue-in-cheek) claims emanating from the US embassy in Dublin that Americans “invented” St Patrick’s Day (Home News, March 13th), I think our cousins in the next parish west will find that while they may lay claim to some of the more extravagant trappings associated with modern secular celebrations of the day, the day itself predates the founding of their nation by many centuries. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny.

 

 

A chara, – As a dual user of both electronic cigarettes and tobacco, John Mallon (March 13th) now has two things to give up instead of one. – Is mise,

LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH ,

Ellensborough Drive,

Kiltipper Road, Dublin 24.

 

Sir, – Our two greatest Brians – Boru and O’Driscoll. And both of them Clontarf men. – Yours, etc,

JOHN O’BYRNE,

Mount Argus Court,

Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6W.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

* St Patrick’s Day parades will be in many countries and cities. The small Caribbean island of Montserrat is said to be the only country outside of Ireland to have the day as a public holiday. The first St Patrick’s Day observance was held in Boston in 1737 by well-to-do Irish immigrants of the Charitable Irish Society of Boston. They attended a religious service and a special dinner. They didn’t hold the next one until 1794.

Also in this section

The real green shoots of recovery

Age shall not wither them in eternal spring

Kenny at centre of green storm over NY parade

New York, meanwhile, had its first celebration in 1766 by Irish soldiers in the British army in the American colony, and in 1780 during the American War of Independence, General George Washington gave permission to his army, which had men of Irish descent camped in Morristown, New Jersey, to celebrate the holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence”. Morristown still celebrates St Patrick’s Day.

New York is the largest parade in the world, with two million spectators watching a parade of 150,000 marchers on the 1.5-mile route along 5th Avenue, which takes five hours and is led by the 69th Infantry Regiment (New York). When asked, as is tradition, by the commissioner of the parade are they ready, the reply is “The 69th are always ready!”.

Holyoke, Massachusetts, have their parade usually on the Sunday nearest St Patrick’s Day with 25,000 marchers and 300,000 spectators. They hold a 10k road race and other events and give the annual John F Kennedy National Award to an Irish-American who has distinguished himself or herself in their profession.

The award was given to JFK as its first recipient in 1958. He was a member of the House of Representatives for three terms before being elected senator.

Butte, Montana, with their population of 40,000 host their parade to 30,000 spectators and at one stage in the 1870s had the biggest Irish-American population of any city in the US with its mines attracting huge numbers of Irish immigrants, and in Butte’s early years Gaelic was spoken by these new immigrants. Many again later went there from Allihies in west Cork after their own mines closed.

It may not be well-known over here that March, since 1991, has been announced yearly as Irish-American Heritage Month in the US. For a man who came to Ireland in the 5th Century, Patrick had a big impact on our future identity and how it is celebrated and embraced worldwide. The irony is the experts are divided as to Patrick’s birthplace. Scotland, Wales or even France – before it was known as France.

MARY SULLIVAN

COLLEGE ROAD, CORK

POLYGAMY DEBATE

* If we allow same-sex couples to marry, why, some people ask, might we not extend such a right to polygamists? What a red herring. The expected referendum next year will not be about the rights of polygamists.

We will be voting on changing the legal definition of marriage from a contract between a man and a woman to a contract between a man and another man or a woman and another woman – the only difference being the sex of one of the parties, not the number of parties. A crucial difference. If opponents of same-sex marriage argue that such a change is comparable to granting marriage rights to more than two people, it just goes to show how much they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Some 76pc of people in Ireland are not in favour of allowing polygamists to legally marry in Ireland. On this issue, there is no gulf between the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of the people and the law of the land.

There is much evidence to support the proposition that the optimum environment for raising a child is that of loving parents in a committed, low-conflict relationship. I have never heard of a screed of evidence which extends the definition of parents in this context to more than two. Polygamous relationships (assuming one husband and more than one wife) is hardly an arrangement that lends itself to promoting equality and dignity for women.

Polygamy would result in an increase in the amount of unmarried men, which would not be a good thing for society. Male parental involvement would also diminish as men would be free to add to their list of wives.

It would also foster competition among wives, increasing insecurity, jealousy and unhappiness. Not to mention the legal and financial Pandora’s Box that would open up in relation to dealing with the likes of separations, divorces, maintenance and succession rights.

Dragging polygamy into the same-sex marriage debate is nothing more than tilting at windmills.

ROB SADLIER

RATHFARNHAM, DUBLIN 16

TAOISEACH’S FAILURE

* Having just watched leader’s questions, I am disgusted by the manner in which Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to concede that the garda whistleblowers deserved an apology for their treatment at the hands of Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Commissioner Martin Callinan. He refused to even acknowledge that the whistleblowers had been slighted at all.

We have heard a lot of talk from the Government about reform, accountability and new politics. But central to any new politics should be integrity.

There is mounting evidence and reports that exonerate the garda whistleblowers. The description of their behaviour as “disgusting” and the claim that they “didn’t cooperate” with garda investigations no longer hold water.

We deserve better than politicians who put party politics first.

SIMON O’CONNOR

DUBLIN 12

TRAFFIC TROUBLES

* When traffic tickets are issued, there should be no interference or cancellation of tickets allowed. Let us allow judges to judge on the guilt or innocence of the driver who was issued a ticket.

KEVIN DEVITTE

MILL STREET, WESTPORT, CO MAYO

SMOKING AT THE WHEEL

* In 2011, it was suggested that smoking in a car with children could be outlawed, owing to the dangers of second-hand smoke. This does not go far enough in my view, and doesn’t encompass the other dangers of smoking while driving.

If you text and take or make a call on a mobile phone, you will be penalised with penalty points on your license. Why? Well, it is dangerous to have your eyes distracted from the road, and also for having your hands away from the wheel.

With that in mind, picture a smoker on a motorway, or perhaps more dangerously, on a hazardous country road. They lean to pick up their packet of cigarettes, fooster with the plastic and lid, pull one out and light it up, while travelling at speeds of over 80kph. They then hold it to their mouth, take a drag, flail their arm toward the window, tip it out, take a drag, tip it out.

This action is as dangerous as talking on the phone, never mind just the long-term hazard of second-hand smoke for passengers.

When laws surrounding this issue arise, penalties should be introduced for the act of smoking, and not just for the health risk.

JUSTIN KELLY

EDENDERRY, CO OFFALY

HOW TO SAVE CAPITALISM

* Newly found ability to produce everything in abundance with decreasing dependence on human labour could destroy us.

We must generate more jobs from less work or capitalism and society will crumble; shorter hours, longer holidays, earlier retirement.

Everybody’s dream is the only plausible solution for 21st Century economic problems. The choice is simple: more people working less or less people working more. Yet no politician, economist or journalist/broadcaster will discuss it.

PADRAIC NEARY

TUBBERCURRY, CO SLIGO

Irish Independent

 

 


Quiet day

$
0
0

16 March 2014 Quiet day

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to transport a dangerous cargoPriceless

Cold slightly better sort books and things

Scrabbletoday Iwins but getunder400, Perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Lord Ballyedmond, who has died in a helicopter crash aged 70, founded the largest veterinary pharmaceutical company in the world and became one of the richest people in Northern Ireland; he was also variously reported to be either the first or second person ever to have sat in the upper houses of both the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom.

Edward Enda Haughey (no relation of the former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey) was born on January 5 1944 into a Roman Catholic family and grew up on the family smallholding in Kilcurry, north of Dundalk, Co Louth, on the southern side of the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Educated at the Christian Brothers School in Dundalk, Haughey, like many young Irishmen of his generation, emigrated immediately after leaving school, heading for New York where he became a salesman with a pharmaceutical company, working his way up to regional marketing manager.

In the late 1960s, reckoning that Britain and the EEC were about to follow American practice and introduce tougher rules on the manufacturing and dispensing of veterinary antibiotics, he decided to return to Ireland and set up an operation based on these new American norms. In 1968 he duly set up Norbrook Laboratories in Newry, Co Down.

It was the year that Northern Ireland lurched into the headlines with Catholic civil rights marches and Newry was deep in the Province’s turbulent border country. During the ensuing Troubles, Norbrook Laboratories remained a rare beacon of hope in an otherwise gloomy economic scene.

At first Haughey simply imported veterinary products from Holland and relabelled them, but he invested serious money in R&D and the operation expanded swiftly. A major breakthrough came with the patenting of a long-acting antibiotic for animals that offered a cost-saving one-shot therapy — especially welcome for farmers in the United States and Africa with cattle on the prairies.

Over the next 40 years Norbrook Laboratories, which remained family-owned, prospered beyond anything Haughey could have imagined, building a range of drug products which, as he explained, covered “everything from ladies’ poodles to the lion”. The company increased profit margins by making many of its own raw ingredients. It won the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement four times and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2011. Later the company expanded into developing and marketing human medical products, and became heavily involved in HIV/Aids research in Africa. Now worth £660m, it exports more than 80 per cent of its products worldwide.

Haughey was appointed OBE in 1987, and in 2008 was awarded an honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

Haughey maintained a relatively low profile until the Fianna Fail-led government of Albert Reynolds appointed him first chairman of the newly-established Irish Aviation Authority in 1993. The following year, as he was leaving office, Reynolds appointed him to the Irish upper house, the Seanad. He was reappointed by Bertie Ahern in 1997 and, though he rarely spoke in debates, remained a member of the house until 2004.

Lord Ballyedmond outside one of his homes, Corby Castle in Cumbria (CATERS NEWS AGENCY)

In 2001, however, he emerged, along with Sir Paul Getty and spread-betting magnate Stewart Wheeler, as one of three multi-millionaire contributors to the former Tory leader William Hague’s election war chest, thus finding himself in the curious position of being a supporter of both the Fianna Fail brand of republicanism in Ireland and the British Conservative Party.

In fact, Haughey’s views were strongly, if quietly, pro-Unionist. In the late 1990s he played an important behind-the-scenes role in negotiations in the run-up to the signing of the 1998 Belfast Agreement and in 2004 the Ulster Unionists under David Trimble nominated him to the House of Lords, where he took the title of Lord Ballyedmond of Mourne. But he continued to support the Conservative Party and in 2007 he left the UUP to join the Tories.

According to last year’s Sunday Times “Rich List” Lord Ballyedmond was worth £860m. In addition to his pharmaceutical interests, he became involved in the aviation business, founding Haughey Air, a charter helicopter business and, for a time, owning Carlisle Airport. He also invested in sporting estates and luxury homes in Ireland, North and South, in England and Scotland, and further afield, commuting between his various properties in his helicopter or private jet.

Lord Ballyedmond was killed with three other people when a helicopter came down in thick fog in a field in Gillingham, near Beccles, Norfolk, on Thursday evening. It was reported that the helicopter was flying to Northern Ireland from Gillingham Hall, an estate he had bought in 2005 for £2.25 million.

In 1972 he married Mary Gordon Young, a solicitor, who survives him with their daughter and two sons.

Lord Ballyedmond, born January 5 1944, died March 13 2014

 

Guardian:

Andrew Anthony’s Q&A article on Elizabeth Kolbert and her book, The Sixth Extinction (New Review), makes for interesting and sobering reading, but I am saddened by the view that she is “impressed by what zoos are doing”. If this multimillion-pound business and its deluded supporters are all that stand between wild animals and extinction, we are in a sorry state indeed.

Most of their collections do not consist of endangered species and their animals are seldom returned to the wild. Conversely, as recent press coverage has shown, zoos are prone to “culling” their surplus stocks, to make way for baby animals – to bring in paying customers. Zoos and aquariums are, frankly, stains on our collective conscience.

Sue Berry

Bedlington

Northumberland

Not such a papal blessing

I found your sugary adulation of the pope nauseating (Magazine). Is the Observer a mouthpiece of the Vatican, one of the world’s most corrupt and secretive organisations? Why exactly is this pope so special? Because he flashes a white set of teeth frequently? Has he opened up the Vatican accounts? Has he lifted the ban on contraception? Will he negotiate on women priests? Just because Francis is marginally better than his predecessors does not make him so extra special.

Aroup Chatterjee

London E3

Just give a damn

Catherine Bennett on the NHS reminded me of what I define as the red-tray syndrome (“Wouldn’t it be easier to try a little empathy?“, Comment). This is when practitioners introduce something that gives them a sense of wellbeing that is not necessarily felt by the recipient. Faced with the scandal of elderly patients going hungry because they needed help with feeding, managers in one institution proposed the introduction of colour-coded food trays: red for the most needy. You don’t need old suits, fat suits or zoot suits; neither do you need red trays. You just need to give a damn.

Frank West

Uxbridge

English? Nae thanks

Kevin McKenna on immigration (Scotland edition) clearly perceives racism as a nascent problem in Scotland and “the tendrils of this creeping disease” as only recently arrived there. As a native with a Scottish mother and a father born in England to an Irish father and a mother whose family was Welsh, I have always been aware of the anti-English sentiments of many Scots. So normal is this attitude that people routinely express this resentment without any reaction from others. So I was quite unsurprised by McKenna’s description of the verbal abuse suffered by the African street musician in Glasgow. My Devonian husband, an Aberdonian for more than 50 years, recently held the door of a local shop for an elderly man whose reply to my husband’s friendly “Morning!” was: “English bastard.”

So McKenna thinks “Scotland needs more immigration”. He fails to add the blatant nationalistic subtext – just so long as it’s not from England.

Carolyn Kirton

Aberdeen

Unseen effects of epilepsy

Much as I admire Helen Stephens’s courage in publicly putting forward the case for improving epilepsy services, it is a sad indictment of the NHS that this should be necessary (New Reviewk). Chronic diseases managed largely on an outpatient basis, as is the case with epilepsy, have been the innocent victims too often of the evolving commissioning arrangements of the modern NHS.

It is unfortunate that quite rightly it is best for the patient to be treated out of hospital but the hospital will receive more money for an admission. Epilepsy is common, potentially fatal (three deaths per day) but, above all, life-altering. As Helen said, the fits are a relatively minor feature but it is the effect on lifestyle, learning, emotional state and public perception that are so devastating and insufficiently recognised and supported.

Dr John Trounce

Hove

A vision of the future

No one can deny Steve McQueen’s great achievements, but it was the artist Conrad Atkinson and several others who created a fine art world where it was possible to break away from the flat square canvas or the big bronze slab(“Steve McQueen paves way for artists to break the boundaries“, In Focus). Atkinson’s groundbreaking 1970 exhibition, Strike, about women workers in a west Cumbrian thermometer factory (shortly after Dagenham) and shown in his solo show at the ICA in 1972, broke the boundaries. This was the moment the Arts Council recognised that video was an art form that could be funded in the future.

Margaret Harrison

Burgh by Sands

Carlisle

‘Protection’ racket

If, as Vladimir Putin seems to suggest, it is perfectly acceptable to send troops into another country to “protect” people who speak your language, how long before Polish and Italian tanks garrison Bedford near me, while Pakistani and Bangladeshi special forces parachute into Luton just down the road, and our own brave SAS lads “liberate” the Costa del Sol?

Charles Garth

Ampthill, Bedfordshire

 

 

When CEO Bob Diamond was paid £17m just before leaving Barclays, we considered this to be an obscene amount and stopped banking there after 40 years. We moved our money to the Co-op, attracted primarily by its ethical stance and traditional, speculator-free banking. We continued our support throughout the Paul Flowers debacle and welcomed the pledges made by the new management team and embodied in the “charter”.

Now our personal banking history appears to be repeating itself (“New Co-op storm as board awards bosses huge pay and bonus deals“, News), a view further reinforced by the subsequent resignation this week of Euan Sutherland as CEO of the Co-op Group.

Once again, the usual paltry rationales and justifications for excessive and ludicrous remuneration packages have been trotted out: consistent with salaries in comparable organisations, extraordinary challenges to be faced, past experience and track records of the managers, the going rate for global talent etc.

How very disappointing. Where next for our bank account?

Mick and Viv Beeby

Westbury-on-Trym

Bristol

Outrageous pay seems always justified by reference to remuneration committees as though they are somehow independent, authoritative and knowledgeable. In fact, they consist of a cabal of directors sitting on each other’s committees recommending ridiculously high salaries for each other. They are neither transparent nor accountable and need to be strictly regulated.

Trade unions, which support and protect the rights of working people, are rigidly regulated, while those people running big businesses are allowed to drive companies into the ground for their own aggrandisement. The real threats to the economy are left to regulate themselves and, of course, don’t.

C Terry

London SW18

So the Co-op is no longer a sound bank based on sustainable growth, specialising in ethical investments and sharing its profits equitably between its members but a failing cash cow whose parasitic executive management are draining it of its dwindling financial lifeblood to line their own pockets.

Our only hope is for John Lewis to open a bank so we can all flock to it, and to shop at Waitrose, where hopefully they would have bought up all the farms being sold off by the Co-op. Oh, and maybe all the bankers could go to live together somewhere unreal that mirrors their self-worth – such as Dubai.

Pat McKenna

Cardiff

The reason that the Co-op Group is rewarding its board of directors so handsomely is the same reason that Barclays, Lloyds et al are paying their directors large bonuses with seemingly no heed to the profitability of their companies. It is just because they can.

Apart from some vague remonstration, about fairness, which they have decided to ignore, there is no reason why they should curb their excesses and they are not going to do so.

Charles Cronin

London SW11

Anyone who believes they need the kind of grossly enlarged pay given to senior executives is either completely incompetent in managing their own affairs or just greedy. Either way, they are clearly not people who should be entrusted with responsibility.

Co-op members should show the way by bringing pay for their executives down to reasonable levels. Perhaps a generous figure of £100,000 would be appropriate – far more than many people get in much more responsible jobs.

Kevin McGrath

Harlow

Essex

 

 

 

Independent:

I would never normally support the antics of The Sun, but, whatever the validity of some of the points raised by Stella Duffy (“Dear ‘The Sun’, breast cancer isn’t sexy”, 9 March), I am disappointed that the article failed to distinguish between its gripes with The Sun, and a new approach to increasing breast awareness in young women.

For their “Check ‘em Tuesday” campaign, The Sun is working with a group called CoppaFeel!, an extremely successful website (coppafeel.org) and campaign begun by Kristin Hallenga who was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 23. Her aim was to “get the word out there” in language that more younger women are likely to connect with.

Far from sexualising breast cancer, the aim is to talk to all members of the public, from the widest possible range of backgrounds. We and many other charities and patient groups have adopted the same kind of awareness methods with testicular cancer. Health awareness comes in many guises but one size does not fit all. Well done CoppaFeel! for a new approach that is welcomed by many.

Sue Brand

Germ cell clinical nurse specialist and chair of It’s in the Bag, Supporting Men with Testicular Cancer

I’m puzzled that both barristers and solicitors have held their second court walkout over the cuts in legal aid (“Legal aid cuts force more people to represent themselves”, 9 March), but judges have remained silent. Has our judiciary forgotten that its main role is to ensure justice is achieved in every case? How is this possible with people representing themselves?

Kartar Uppal

West Bromwich, West Midlands

Pippa Lewer (Letters, 9 March) rightly deplores the regional prejudice that irks Northerners so much. I was born in Wakefield and raised in Stockton-on-Tees. I’ve lived in London since 1981. Northerners in London and “back home” have assumed that I “must be rich”, that I probably work in the City, that I own a house and a car and that I can spoil myself visiting London’s top attractions and restaurants. None of which is true.

It’s even been insinuated that I’m a traitor for having left the North-east to study and find work. Such provincialism is just as depressing as Southern ignorance and makes the North-South divide even wider.

Rik Ward

London SE13

Your political editor Jane Merrick sets out six very good reasons why the “Better Together” campaign is failing (9 March).

The principal reason is that the three disparate London-based parties are all only interested in Middle England’s vote. What possible hope do Scotland’s 59 (proposed reduction to 52), or 9 per cent of all MPs, have of getting a fair deal for their constituents against the 91 per cent blinkered, middle England parliamentarians, as at present.

The Scots want a democracy and we want parliamentarians with broad varied backgrounds. When Scotland leads, the other regions will follow. The London clique’s days are numbered.

Ron Wynton

Fortrose, Ross-shire

If the Scottish people can vote for independence, then why cannot those in Crimea be given the chance to vote to become Russian? (“Labour urges Cameron to take tougher action against ‘calculating’ Kremlin”, 9 March.) In proposing sanctions against legitimate Russian aspirations, Douglas Alexander is agitating to turn our lights out, which will guarantee that Labour loses the next election.

Malcolm Howard

Banstead, Surrey

The main barrier to flexibility in the workplace (“Free childcare from 12 months should be our aim”, 9 March) isn’t a lack of legislation. The issue is a cultural one. Employers are often concerned that family-friendly working practices will be an administrative burden. Employees, on the other hand, may worry about the impact on their career. The upcoming extension of the right to request flexible working to all – not just those with children – should go some way to taking away the stigma of requesting flexible working.

However, for a real transformation to occur, the attitudes of employers and employees need to change, not just the laws that govern their relationship.

Andrew Crudge

Solicitor, Thomas Eggar LLP

Southampton, Hampshire

 

 

 

 

Times:

 

Let Ukrainian and Tatar voices be heard in Crimea

SO Crimea’s 58% pro-Russian population wants to be part of Russia (“What would the West fight for?” and “Ukraine’s implosion tears families apart”, Focus, last week). Don’t the Ukrainians and Tatars have a say? The former remember the famine orchestrated by Joseph Stalin that killed more than 5m. He then repopulated these lands with Russians. The Tatars also have cause to loathe this tyrant, who deported them to central Asia — many died of disease and starvation.
Ivan Rakiwskyj Leicester

Poll position

The US government says all Ukraine should vote on whether Crimea should secede. However, only the Scots are voting to decide whether to leave the UK.
Rodney Atkinson, Stocksfield, Northumberland

Toeing whose line?

Ukrainians, it seems, have to choose between the Russian boot and the EU one.
Aidan Convery, Kautokeino, Norway

United front

Why should Crimea not be allowed reunification with Russia? It was only transferred as an autonomous republic from the Soviet Union in 1954. Regular demonstrations by the majority of ethnic Russian residents have culminated in the latest clashes.
John McDowell, Co Antrim

Students must learn to act like customers

I HAVE taken degrees in Britain and America, which makes for an interesting comparison between US and UK universities, especially with the introduction of the fee system (“Surge in student complaints about poor-value universities”, News, last week). British universities need to adjust to the idea that when students are paying £9,000 a year they are customers (as in the US system ) and will demand value and efficiency for their money.

UK universities must also toughen up. In America there are no personal tutors, just advisers who assist with more general matters. If you want help with a class it is up to you to contact the professor, lecturer or research assistant. I have little sympathy for the student who says, “I could disappear for good and none of the academic staff would notice.”

There are thousands of undergraduates at a university — if a student wishes to stand out they need to get to know their professors by visiting them in their offices and asking questions during or after class. At US universities the onus is on individuals to seek help and develop relationships with the staff (just as in the real world).
Emma Hodcroft, Edinburgh

Put free meals on every school’s menu

PILOT projects in schools across Newham in east London and Durham have shown universal free school meals lead to a rapid and marked improvement in academic performance, particularly among the poorest pupils. This is partly because well-nourished children concentrate better (only 1% of packed lunches meet current nutritional standards for school food) and partly because of the wider cultural benefits. Pupils and teachers eating and talking together make a dramatic difference to the ethos and atmosphere of a school.

This is why — whatever political gossip you might read — this policy has such broad cross-party support. Originally a Labour idea, it was brought back into play by Michael Gove and has been carried over the finishing line by the Liberal Democrats. From September all infants can eat well for free.

As head teachers, and as professionals working in the sector, we have seen what a difference this policy will make. We understand the logistical challenges involved. But help is available (schoolfoodplan.com). We would urge heads teachers to take advantage of this state- funded support.
Rachel Chahal, The Oval, Birmingham
Richard Dunne, Ashley C of E Primary
Professor Ashley Adamson, Newcastle University
Jeanette Orrey, Food for Life
Carmel McConnell, Magic Breakfast.

Headteachers
Richard Dunne Ashley CE Primary School, Walton
Louise Nichols Kingsmead and Gayhurst Schools
Sarah Rutty Bankside Primary School, Leeds
Gill Harrison St Oswald’s CE VA Infant & Nursery School
Lindsay Vollans St Michaels Primary School, Bishop Middleham
Carmen Palmer St Richard’s CE Primary School, Ham
Ed Vainker Reach Academy, Feltham
Caroline Owen St Laurence CE Primary School, Derbyshire
Kim Dorian-Kemp High View Primary, Plymouth
Helen Colbert East Sheen Primary School
Rachel Chahal The Oval, Birmingham
Jared Brading Sacred Heart Primary School, Battersea
Tim Baker Charlton Manor Primary School
Simon Barber Carshalton Boys Sports College
Calvin Henry St Marks Primary School, Islington
Simon Mower Chaddlewood Primary School, Plymouth
Sally Quartson Chase Side Primary School, Enfield
Catherine Lester Cheam Fields Primary School
Catherine Langham Abbotsmeade Primary School, Peterborough
Mrs Hilton Little Gonerby CE Infant School, Grantham
Claire Platt Collaton St Mary Primary School
Travis Latham The Federation of George Betts and Shireland Hall

Primary Academies
Paula Cummings Cambo First School, Morpeth
John Lynch High Street Primary School, Plymouth
Karen Holmes St Tudy’s CE Primary School, Bodmin

School Food Plan Expert Panel and others
Professor Ashley Adamson, Public Health Nutrition (Newcastle University)
Myles Bremner, Director, School Food Plan
Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food Board
Anne Bull, National Chair, Lead Association for Catering in Education
Linda Cregan, Chief Executive, Children’s Food Trust
Henry Dimbleby, Co-author, School Food Plan
Alison Garnham, Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group
Libby Grundy, Director, Food for Life Partnership
Judy Hargadon, Former Chief Executive, Children’s Food Trust
Christine Lewis, National Officer for Education, Unison
Carmel McConell, Chief Executive, Magic Breakfast
Professor Theresa Marteau, Director, Behaviour and Health Unit, Cambridge University
Dr Michael Nelson, Public Health Nutrition Research
Jeanette Orrey, Ex-school Cook and co-founder, Food for Life
Sarah Owen, School Cook, Stoke Newington School
Sara Jayne Stanes, Chief Executive, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts
John Vincent, Co-Author, School Food Plan
Stephanie Wood, Founder, School Food Matters
Adam Breakwell, Orleton CE Primary, Shropshire
Jim Wallace, College Road Primary, Plymouth
Steven Badcott, Uplowman Primary, Exeter

Mental health dangerously low on NHS list of priorities

I AM a soon-to-retire mental health professional with 42 years’ experience and work for a large county council in northwest England where the number of beds has been drastically reduced, with further reductions in prospect (“Mother’s pain at lost chance to stop suicide”, News, last week).

Earlier this month I assessed and detained a dangerously unwell man with a history of violence. There was not a single NHS bed in the entire county when I approached the bed- finders at 9am. He was eventually admitted at about 10pm to a unit 20 miles from his home but before then he and I were in the outpatient department for many hours.

A very stretched local police force provided two officers to contain his threatening and intimidatory behaviour. This sort of thing happens on a weekly basis in my catchment area, which means staff often do not get home until the early hours.

The lack of beds is a national disgrace that would not be tolerated in any other branch of the health service and is entirely attributable to a misguided and ill-informed drive to cut costs.
Ron Latchford, Liverpool

Turn off taps for flood insurers

ARE insurers set to become the new bankers in the hate league if their small print penalises flood victims (“A quarter of flood claims face risk of rejection”, Money, last week)? Perhaps naming and shaming would lead to thousands of premium-payers boycotting such firms in solidarity with those whose homes have been ruined by flooding (from whatever cause). George Barnes, Maghull, Merseyside

Legal lifeline

In the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, under which the Environment Agency operates, the definition of a flood is all-embracing and it follows that the ordinary meaning of the term “flood” is intended to encompass groundwater flooding. On that basis it may well be worthwhile for those whose claims are rejected to seek legal advice as to whether or not such clauses are indeed unlawful.
Terry Williams, Environmental Law Consultant, Lincoln

In plain sight

Saying exclusions were hidden in small print is a little disingenuous if they are in the booklet that accompanies the policy.
Terry Farrell, Chichester

Iodine supplements vital to nation’s health

WHILE there have been substantial improvements worldwide in iodine nutrition during the past 20 years or so there is evidence that several sections of the UK population are iodine deficient to a mild or moderate degree. In at least four areas of Britain 50% or more of pregnant women lack adequate iodine nutrition.

This is particularly important as insufficient iodine negatively affects aspects of a baby’s brain and nervous system development, with the result that IQ and educational performance are suboptimal.

As with folic acid it is vital that adequate iodine nutrition is established before conception. There is evidence too that 14 to 15-year-old girls are deficient in iodine, and they are among those likely to become pregnant in a few years’ time.

There is also limited availability of iodised salt in UK because no legislation exists to ensure the compulsory sale of it. As less than 5% of salt available in the UK is iodised, we support the use of supplements containing iodine to particular groups, especially pregnant women. We would not wish to have the same time delay for iodine as there was for folic acid.
Professor John Lazarus, Cardiff University and chairman of United Kingdom Iodine Status Strategy Group, Dr Sarah Bath and Professor Margaret Rayman,University of Surrey, Professor Kate Jolly and Dr Shiao Chan, University of Birmingham, Janis Hickey, British Thyroid Foundation, Dr Alex Stewart, Public Health England, Dr Mark Vanderpump, Royal Free Hospital, Professor Graham Williams, British Thyroid Association

Apology is best medicine for school abuse

THE perception that an apology over past sexual abuse in schools will open “a legal can of worms” is as dangerous as it is misguided (“All I wanted was an apology”, Focus, last week). Insurers need to appreciate that a failure or refusal to apologise is the strongest driver pushing people into protracted costly litigation. An appropriately worded apology can show regret for distress suffered without amounting to an admission of liability.
Paul Randolph, Mediation Course Director, Regent’s University London

Tread carefully

I have a worry about the handling of abuse that took place decades ago. If a master who preyed on boys in the 1950s is still alive, and the evidence is compelling, he deserves to be charged. But how can it be right to sue the school? It is correct that a school should express regret, but I do not see that it should accept liability for incidents that took place under governors and headmasters who may no longer be alive.

The potential damage to what today are decent schools might outweigh the good it would do the victim — and I do not minimise the harm such abuse does.
The Reverend Chancellor, Geoffrey Morris, Narberth, Pembrokeshire

Points

Off track

Surely it is not beyond our capabilities to have a GPS transponder device in all aircraft that relays by satellite in one-minute intervals the position of every plane (“Mystery air crash: terrorist fears”, News, last week).
Nick Jones, Mollans-sur-Ouvèze, France

Volume control

The trial of a new air departure route that has brought misery to the residents of Warnham in West Sussex (“Centuries of calm ruined as Gatwick planes take left turn”, News, last week) illustrates the true effect of concentrating flight paths. The aviation industry often states that it is its intention to reduce the numbers of people affected by noise. While some numbers are reduced, others may get even more flights overhead. Those considering future airspace changes must take note of Warnham. The aviation sector should not consider itself unrestrained by the planning restrictions that protect residents from other noisy industries.
Alan Morriss, Nutley, East Sussex

Tell it like it isn’t

Rod Liddle’s remark about the posh pronunciation of Powell being “Pole” (Comment, last week) reminds me of a few others. When did Ralph become Rafe? Recently Niall — or is it Neil? — Ferguson introduced the military historian Hew Strachan as Hew Strawn. Near me is a road named Ballymageogh. If you ask someone where it is, make sure you say Ballet Ma Juck.
Ian Rea, Dundrum, Co Down

Corrections and clarifications

In the article “The Tories have both motive and opportunity to Taser the police” (Comment, last, week) we incorrectly stated that Sir Paul Stephenson resigned as commissioner of the Metropolitan police service “for accepting favours from a former News of the World executive”. We are happy to make this clear.

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, including online, should be addressed to editor@sunday-times.co.uk or The Editor, The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST. In addition, the Press Complaints Commission (complaints@pcc.org.uk or 020 7831 0022) examines formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines (and their websites)

Birthdays

Bernardo Bertolucci, film director, 74; Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, 49; Jenny Eclair, comedian, 54; Erik Estrada, actor, 65; Flavor Flav, rapper, 55; Isabelle Huppert, actress, 61; Jerry Lewis, comedian and actor, 88; Jimmy Nail, singer and actor, 60; Theo Walcott, footballer, 25

Anniversaries

1872 Wanderers FC win first FA Cup; 1912 Lawrence Oates, a member of Scott’s South Pole expedition, leaves his tent to die; 1968 up to 500 Vietnamese villagers killed by US troops at My Lai; 1976 Harold Wilson resigns as PM; 1988 Iraqi planes drop chemical weapons on Kurdish town of Halabja, killing 5,000 people.

 

Telegraph:

 

 

SIR – The unforgettable slogan “A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play” was created by Francis Harmar Brown, my copy group head at Masius and Ferguson. As a junior copywriter then named Peter Pfeffer, I assisted him.

Harmar Brown wrote: “A Mars a day helps you work and play”. I added the word “rest” because Mars Ltd wanted three words in its new slogan to echo its previous one: “Mars feeds you goodness three good ways.”

Peter Phillips
Loudwater, Hertfordshire

SIR – A famous slogan from the Fifties was “You’re never alone with a Strand”, to advertise a brand of cigarettes. The television commercial showed a man in raincoat and trilby, alone in a London street and puffing on a Strand.

Although the slogan was much repeated and often parodied, the cigarettes were withdrawn shortly after their launch because of poor sales. No one, it seemed, wanted to smoke a cigarette that made them appear friendless.

Ian Rufus
Barford, Warwickshire

 

SIR – As a Muslim peer who contributed to a recent debate in the House of Lords on the subject of religious slaughter, I have been alarmed at the sudden and rather aggressive publicity surrounding the issue.

The recent comments from John Blackwell, president-elect of the British Veterinary Association, have led to misunderstandings.

Islam strictly forbids the mistreating of animals; there are numerous references throughout the Koran to substantiate this.

The Muslim method of slaughter, known as zabiha, ensures an extremely quick and near-painless death. A properly trained practitioner will cleanly sever the structures at the front of the neck with such speed and precision that blood empties rapidly, from both the body and the brain, and consciousness is lost immediately. Claims that animals are cut and left to bleed slowly to death are untrue.

In other methods, when stunning is used, the animal is paralysed and unable to display signs of pain. Animals can even regain consciousness before the point of slaughter.

We must pay greater attention to the wider welfare of animals throughout their lives, including the conditions in which they are bred, housed and transported.

Lord Sheikh
London SW1

Statin status quo

SIR – Is it possible that there are vested interests in the research concluding that statins have no side effects? I know only three people who have been on statins – I am one of them – and we all experienced debilitating muscle aches despite trying three different statin formulae. All of us experienced no such aches before treatment, and all have recovered fully having stopped taking the drugs. Can we be alone?

Robert M Hurran
Northwood, Middlesex

Airport security

SIR – We checked in for our British Airways flight from Munich to London only 36 hours after the Air Malaysia flight went missing. We were issued (unnoticed by us) with someone else’s boarding pass. Neither German passport control nor security noticed this, and it was only when we were waiting to board that a member of BA’s staff noticed the mistake. It is easy to criticise the Malaysians, but we should also look at security a little closer to home.

Charlie Holden
London NW1

Footballing heroes

SIR – Brigadier John Powell may be interested to hear that Lt Col Bernard Vann VC, MC and Bar, of the Sherwood Foresters, an ordained clergyman, played professional football for Derby County, having previously played with Northampton Town and Burton FC, before the First World War. He was the only ordained clergyman of the Church of England to earn the Victoria Cross in combat. He was killed in action by a sniper on October 3 1918.

Keith Kenworthy
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire

Show her you care

SIR – Sign outside a shop in Norwich: “Mother’s Day is coming, special knife sharpening and mending service available.”

Amanda Howard
Enfield, Middlesex

Crimean referendum

SIR – Crimea will almost certainly vote to go back to Russia. What then? Will America invade and risk a Third World War? The Ukrainians must be left to sort out their own future without provocative interference from the West.

Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire

Alien rhododendrons

SIR – Rick Emerson of Surrey threatens to defend rhododendrons with the nearest garden implement to hand. I regret to inform him that he will find an army of plant lovers on the other side of the battlefield just as ready to use the pruning shears to cut them down.

Rhododendron ponticum is an invasive species, meaning it drowns out native wildlife. The evergreen leaves and blowsy flowers may make useful borders and brighten up golf courses, but nothing lives under the thick canopy.

The species was first introduced by the Victorian plant hunters as an attractive garden flower and useful game cover. But it has now taken over whole tracts of land, including some of our last wilderness areas in Britain.

The European Union has already spent millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money encouraging landowners, including the National Trust, to clear wild land of the species.

Here in the West Highlands, we have been battling for decades to get rid of it so that Scots pine and pine martens can return. Hundreds of people are currently working hard to cut down even more.

No one is suggesting that the iconic rhododendrons of the Royal Botanic Gardens should be destroyed, but I think you will find that none of these institutions are planting more invasive species.

If puce flowers really are your thing, then you can choose from hundreds of new hybrid rhododendrons that are designed not to run wild in the countryside over the next 150 years. Anyone found planting Rhododendron ponticum should be cut down to size with their own secateurs.

Louise Gray
Torridon, Ross-shire

Virgin territory

SIR – I recently bought a bookpublished in 1862. Many of its pages were still uncut.

I have started to read it. It feels a little like desecration.

Stuart Jamieson
Eccleston, Lancashire

Church organists deserve a professional fee

SIR – Caroline Mitchell suggests that organists should play for nothing as an act of benevolence to the community in which they work.

The fundamental flaw with this is that many of those playing in our churches desperately need an income from this skilled role to top up an existing income or pension.

The Church ought to recognise the considerable training and ability of musicians who enhance its liturgies, and should remunerate them accordingly, whether the tax situation is complex or not.

You wouldn’t expect an accountant to give free advice, so why is the profession of musician, which demands a large amount of time and effort, not understood in a similar business way?

Most organists spend hours each week practising. They plan different repertoires for various seasons and often encourage singers in their churches to participate too.

We professional musicians are frequently expected to play for services, weddings and funerals for virtually nothing, and pay our bills on fresh air.

Elizabeth Stratford
Organist and Master of the Choristers, Arundel Cathedral
Littlehampton, West Sussex

SIR – I am reminded of seeing the vicar, some years ago, paying my aunt for playing the organ at a wedding, and saying that she received more than he did for officiating.

My aunt’s reply was that her fee was a £1 for playing and £2 for knowing how.

John Brooks
Preston, Lancashire

 

 

SIR – As a student of politics, I was in the visitors’ gallery on the day that Tony Benn renounced his peerage in order to be a member of the Commons.

I was young and I didn’t really appreciate the significance of the step. I gained realisation over the following years.

I have never agreed with his political views, but I cannot help admiring his sincerity. When I look at Ed Miliband’s intellectual but superficial outpourings, I realise just what is missing from the current Labour Party.

There are too many shallow career politicians around now. Tony Benn will be missed by people of all persuasions.

Mick Ferrie
Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

SIR – I was an assistant chief constable in Bristol in 1976 and responsible for seating the VIPs in the cathedral for the Lord Mayor’s annual service. Tony Benn was a local MP. As he came down the aisle, unsure of his allocated seat, I took him gently by the elbow and ushered him towards it. At the reception later he sought me out to thank me, saying I was the only person ever to move him “to the right”.

David East
Bingham, Nottinghamshire

SIR – Here it comes, a stream of sanctimonious claptrap about Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the greatest prime minister we never had.

Benn tried to form a communist party within the Labour Party. He wanted Britain to leave Nato.

If Michael Foot had won the election in 1983, he would have been usurped as prime minister within weeks by Benn, and Britain today would be part of the old Soviet Union.

Jeff Best
London N14

SIR – Tony Benn: giant.

Gerard Parke-Hatton
Broughton, Lancashire

SIR – I was one of about 300 to hear Tony Benn speak in Norwich a few years ago.

At the end, he asked all present who supported views other than those of him and the Labour Party to raise their hands. About 5 per cent did so, perhaps wondering what they had let themselves in for.

He thanked them in a sincere manner for attending and for being open to hearing the views of someone they knew they would largely not agree with.

Is not this a lesson today’s politicians should learn?

Brian Rayner
Colchester, Essex

SIR – In most images from his long public life, Tony Benn is enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke from his ever-present pipe.

Oh-so-worthy nanny-groups should note that he reached the great age of 88, despite a lifetime’s exercise of that allegedly fatal addiction.

Graham Hoyle
Baildon, West Yorkshire

 

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

 

Madam – Eoghan Harris (‘Call off carping about Ireland’s Call’, Sunday Independent, March 9, 2014), deserves unstinting commendation for his stalwart defence and praise of Phil Coulter’s alternative all-island anthem Ireland’s Call.

Also in this section

Wake up you ‘Moby Dicks’

Taxing issues for offshore oil firms

Bono in dreamland

This well crafted sporting anthem shines brightly in sharp contrast to the militarist, ultra-nationalist, lugubrious whine of Amhran na bhFiann – blotting out the sunshine and casting its dark shadows of a fascist narrative upon the people. Ireland’s Call, with irresistible epical arousal qualities, soars like an eagle across a clear blue sky, inspiring all decent folk on this island, regardless of which side of the Boyne their ancestors were on, to great heights of passion, valour and belief in the attainment of glory upon the field where the noble game of rugby is played.

Phil Coulter‘s stellar sporting anthem is, of course, profoundly disliked by the dreary fossilised drones (inclusive of the obvious more sinister ones) who hold dear to their sentimental hearts the Fenian nationalist foundation myths in order to imprint legitimacy and meaning upon those shameful years from 1916 to 1923.

How uplifting to watch and listen to men from the Four Provinces of Ireland belt out, with great heart, the infinitely superior chords and lyrics of Ireland’s Call, rather than the few who – in slacked-jawed fashion – attempt to mouth the dispiriting dirge of Amhran na bhFiann.

Well done, Mr Harris, on an inspiring article.

Pierce Martin,

Celbridge, Co Kildare

INCLUSIVENESS OF IRELAND’S CALL

 

Madam – I was interested in Eoghan Harris comments on Ireland’s Call, (Sunday Independent, March 9, 2014).

I am a unionist (small u) and a supporter of all Irish sports teams. Originally when Ireland’s Call appeared, I, like most others, was not emotionally connected. Everything changed when I was lucky enough to coach Ireland’s Men’s Hockey Squad for a period.

At my first international match, standing for Ireland’s Call, when it came to the line ‘the four proud provinces of Ireland,’ I realised I had tears running down my face.

Why? Well, when sung with sincerity, I feel that it shows an acceptance of each other as we are, as people rather than as political identities.

An inclusiveness more meaningful than any type of political unity with no one betraying their beliefs.

David Scott,

Belfast

HISTORY IRELAND LAUNCHED WEBSITE

Madam – Eoghan Harris (Sunday Independent, March 9, 2014), need not be too concerned with any ‘ambivalent’ attitudes on the Decade of Centenaries website.

The site was developed by History Ireland on behalf of the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht as a listings guide and learning resource for the commemorative initiatives relating to the 1912-22 period that will be conducted by the State, cultural and educational institutions, military and local history associations, community groups, and any interested parties in Ireland and abroad (including the authorities and cultural institutions in Britain and Northern Ireland).

Any perusal of the site will see that it is giving due weight to a wide range of traditions in an inclusive and respectful way, and will continue to do so.

We encourage readers to visit http://www.decadeof-centenaries.com.

It may well be of interest.

John Gibney,

History Ireland, Dublin 18

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL OF RURAL WAY OF LIFE

Madam – As an ardent reader of the Sunday Independent, I read your analysis pages over the “devastation of rural Ireland” and Donal Lynch’s facts and figures. A great piece.

I could not refrain from writing to you on the subject and hope you can find space to put it among your valued columns of letters.

Rural Ireland is being intentionally and systematically destroyed with all that goes with it – we must stand and fight for its survival.

We had three very nasty armed robberies within a half mile of me two years ago and as a result, I called a meeting. We packed the hall and balcony with all the councillors at the top table and so started the effective ‘texting’ system of which there are now 60 groups in operation.

But I can see the gardai soon being told to ignore this to frighten us into the cities and out of rural Ireland.

David Thompson,

Cappamore,

Co Limerick

GALLING TO LISTEN TO ADAMS NOW

Madam – Reading the views and sentiments expressed on the incidents of suicide in Ireland prompted by Ruth Dudley Edward’s article (Sunday Independent, February 16, 2014), it occurs to me as rather odd that for a nation that has invested so much in the welfare of others in foreign fields, there isn’t a single word regarding the welfare of the exiles here in Britain.

As I have repeatedly reminded you, they were the ones who took the full brunt of the backlash of Irish republican violence and politics throughout the last century, while left voiceless, defenceless and powerless with nowhere to turn.

I may tell you how enraging and mortifying it felt for one who had to endure 30 years of IRA terrorism to have to listen to Mr Adams announcing at a Sinn Fein conference that: “It’s good to be Irish in Britain now.”

William Barrett,

Surrey, UK

DEMENTED BY TV3 ‘DEBATE’

Madam – Late on Sunday evening last, after exhausting the contents of the Sunday Independent and, as usual, having silently expressed my opinions on the various stories and articles, I turned to the section which I normally consign to the litter bin without as much as a glance.

I speak of the Living supplement.

There on the back page I found a little gem which echoed my sentiments exactly.

To tell the truth, it was Jim Cogan’s comical sketching of the panel for the ‘People’s Debate’, which really caught my eye.

Well, Declan Lynch really described the first edition of the new Vincent Browne show on TV3 as I have described it on numerous times to people who were lucky enough to have missed it.

I will not dare repeat Declan’s description of the programme, as I would only take from his report. But the programme had received such hype in the build-up, weeks prior to the show, and left one anxiously waiting for a real debate with real people.

As the show progressed, even Vincent seemed to run out of directions to look in search of someone resembling a real person.

He stumbled from one self-perpetuating person to the next and appeared to be about to run screaming from the studio long before we were all released from the boredom by his closing few words.

Thank you, Declan, for releasing me from the feeling that I had imagined the whole thing.

Tony Fagan,

Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

DEFEND WOMEN’S SENSITIVITIES

Madam – Reading Carol Hunt’s column (Sunday Independent, March 9, 2014), one would be forgiven for thinking we were living in 1950 as opposed to 2014.

Apparently I, as a man, will need to start calling out misogyny whenever and wherever I see it.

It’s an epidemic, apparently.

Where and who are these men? I’m finding it hard to tell them apart from the “blokes” who are masquerading as lovely guys.

I hope these fathers, brothers, husbands, partners and sons will listen to reason when I inform them that they are behaving in a misogynist manner.

I also hope that I have an attentive and caring nurse to tend to my wounds when I end up in hospital as a result of my role as protector of women’s sensitivities.

Charles McCarthy,

Dooradoyle, Limerick

Sunday Independent

 

 



Another quiet day

$
0
0

17 March 2014 Another Quiet day

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to pick up some stranded admirals Priceless

Cold slightly better sort books and things

Scrabbletoday Marywins but getunder400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Malcolm Tierney, who has died aged 75, was a durable actor with the face of a villain. He was best known for his role in the BBC series Lovejoy as the smartly-dressed antique dealer Charlie Gimbert, who regularly runs rings around Ian McShane’s be-jeaned and leather-jacketed protagonist.

Between its first series in 1986 and his return in 1993 (by which time the programme had become a Sunday evening fixture), Tierney had appeared in Brookside as local gangster Tommy McArdle, and as a boorish rival of Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) in the original House Of Cards (BBC, 1990).

On stage, Tierney commanded a wider variety of parts . At the Royal Court, he was a youthful Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (1968); and in the same year he played Disraeli in Edward Bond’s allegory Early Morning, which had to be shown to critics in a private afternoon performance after its evening show was banned by the Lord Chamberlain. He claimed that while the play was in progress, there were 200 police officers around the Royal Court.

Tierney once shared a flat with the famously larger-than-life Tom Baker, and in real life he resembled his fellow thespian. He shared with the former Dr Who star a sonorous voice; distinctive (latterly white) curly hair; a wide, toothy smile; a wardrobe of long, baggy overcoats and scarves; and a fondness for wine, women and song. In Soho, he was a popular habitué of the Colony Room club and the French House pub, and last year held a private party at his Pimlico home at which all the 100 guests were female.

Malcolm Tierney was born on February 25 1938 in Manchester, the son of a mill girl and a boiler maker who had been awarded the George Medal in the Great War for saving two lives in No-man’s-land. As a boy, Malcolm met several eminent comedians while his father held various jobs at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. After attending St Mary’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Oldham, Tierney won a scholarship to Manchester School of Art, where he started appearing in plays; he later trained at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup .

He was last on the cast list in Red Roses For Me (Mermaid, 1962) by Sean O’Casey, then supported Trevor Howard in Strindberg’s The Father (Piccadilly, 1964), produced by the wayward writer William Donaldson. An early lead on television, and front cover of TV Times, came in Love On The Dole (Granada, 1967).

Cato Street (Young Vic, 1971), by the actor Robert Shaw, concerned a plot to assassinate the Cabinet in 1820, with Tierney, as an agent provocateur, and Bob Hoskins supporting Vanessa Redgrave. Tierney worked with her again in A Touch of the Poet in 1988, and was Agamemnon to her Hecuba for the RSC in 2005.

With Redgrave and her brother Corin, he was part of a failed challenge for Equity’s leadership at the union’s AGM in 1973. Continuing to argue in favour of the closed-shop system of membership, Tierney campaigned for Equity Left Alliance throughout the 1990s. He stood unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1999 and 2000.

Developing a penchant for playing real-life figures from the art world, he was Ford Madox Brown in The Love School (BBC, 1975); had the title role in LS Lowry – A Private View (Granada, 1981); and returned to the same part in Mr Lowry, a one-man play at the Bristol Young Vic, in 1993. He played George Melly in Home Death (Finborough Theatre, 2011), by Nell Dunn.

His films included roles in Star Wars (1977) and Braveheart (1995), in the latter disposing of William Wallace’s wife. Tierney’s final stage performance was as Sorin in The Seagull (Southwark Playhouse, 2012).

From 1979 to 1999 he was married to Andrea Schinko, and their two daughters survive him.

Malcolm Tierney, born February 25 1938, died February 19 2014

 

 

Guardian:

 

 

Your main coverage of the death of Tony Benn (Obituary, 15 March; Michael White, 15 March) was ungenerous, and did little justice to the man who was one of the most loved political figures in Britain today. Millions were inspired by his principles, his commitment and his unswerving support for many campaigns. He was president of the Stop the War Coalition right up to his death and helped initiate the People’s Assembly in opposition to government policies of austerity and inequality. Far from having little influence on politics and change, Tony was in the forefront of opposing wars, apartheid, racism and sexism. In this he was often in advance of establishment opinion, but equally often in agreement with public opinion. He was loved precisely because he did articulate views shared by many outside the corridors of power.

Your tendency to point-scoring about arguments dating back more than 30 years and refusal to seriously address his views perhaps demonstrates that they had more purchase than his opponents care to admit. Those who support trade unions, equality, peace and – dare we say it – socialism have little voice in the media or established politics. They have lost a great champion in Tony Benn. His political legacy will hopefully be measured by their future success.
Lindsey German Convenor, Stop the War Coalition, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Katy Clark MP, Steve Turner Assistant general secretary, Unite the Union, Kevin Courtney Deputy general secretary, NUT, Paul Mackney Former general secretary, UCU, Sam Fairbairn National secretary, People’s Assembly Against Austerity, Romayne Phoenix Co-chair, People’s Assembly Against Austerity, Salma Yaqoob, John Rees Counterfire, John Pilger Journalist and film-maker, Francesca Martinez Comedian and campaigner, Zita Holborne National co-chair, Black Activists Rising Against Cuts, PCS NEC, Kate Hudson General secretary, CND, Chris Nineham Vice-chair, STWC, Andrew Burgin Left Unity, Mark Barrett People’s Assemblies Network and Occupy, Clare Solomon People’s Assembly, Rachel Newton Secretary, Greece Solidarity Campaign, James Meadway Senior economist, NEF, Barbara Jacobson Barnet Alliance for Public Services, Richard Milner Coventry People’s Assembly, Roy Bailey Folk singer, Andrew Murray Deputy president, Stop the War Coalition

• I have never missed the late Simon Hoggart more than in the aftermath of Tony’s Benn’s death. It’s difficult to imagine anyone better to puncture of the bubble of hagiography filling much of Saturday’s coverage (the main obit and Michael White being honourable exceptions).

It’s hard to know whether Simon would have taken more delight pointing out how wrong Benn was on so many issues (nationalisation, the EU, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Mao, Labour‘s election loss in ’83, the miners’ strike and many others) or in reminiscing about how Benn’s extreme vanity blinded him to the damage he did to Labour in the 1980s. Perhaps it would simply have been enough to remember how much Benn hated those (like Simon himself) who saw through the cheap and easy platitudes that characterised his later career.
Dr John McGowan
Lewes, East Sussex

• I was disappointed by the mealy-mouthed obituary of Tony Benn by Professor Brian Brivati. I was surprised you chose him to write such an important political obituary, as he is a member of the misnamed “Progress group” and a friend of leading New Labour so-called liberal international interventionists.

Prof Brivati asserts that from the mid-1970s onwards, Benn had nothing new to say as a political thinker. This is certainly contestable. One example will suffice to demonstrate this inaccuracy.

Tony Benn, who once was responsible for the British nuclear power programme, first when he when he was technology minister in the late 1960s, and later after he was “demoted” (in Brivati’s interpretation), was asked a few years ago by the Times if he had made any political mistakes in his life. He responded: “Nuclear power. I was told, when I was in charge of it, that atomic energy was cheap, safe and peaceful. It isn’t.”

A serious problem for today’s politics is that both coalition ministers and their Labour opponents have not learned from Benn’s conversion on the road to energy sustainability, and support new nuclear.
Dr David Lowry
Environmental policy and research consultant

• Your online report on the death of Tony Benn (14 March) attributed his defeat in the 1981 Labour deputy leadership to a late voting shift by a key union. I presume that this is a reference to NUPE, which in fact followed the clear verdict of a ballot of its members. Had Labour’s largest union, the TGWU, showed similar respect for its members, Denis Healey would have won overwhelmingly.

Benn’s achievements and personality have attracted many tributes, but his campaign in 1981 was one of the most selfish and unprincipled in British political history. Its defeat saved Labour from extinction.
Richard Heller
Chief of staff to Denis Healey 1981-83

• Leaving a CND demo in the early 80s, a Telegraph-reading friend remarked to me: “You know, I used to be against everything Tony Benn stood for, until I heard him speak.”
John Launder
Skipton, North Yorkshire

 

Tony Benn was one of those rare politicians who genuinely did make history, when he renounced his peerage in 1963. His diaries are an important historical record, unparalleled in post-1945 British politics. His legacy, though in part, should be to inspire current and future politicians to have the same sense of the importance and context of history as he had. Too few do.
Dr Keith Flett
London Socialist Historians Group

•  The Speaker should set up an annual Tony Benn lecture in tribute to a great parliamentarian. Its purpose should be to promote the democratic process, accountability and participation, and inspire young and old to engage in their community and in national debates.
Paresh Motla
Thame, Oxfordshire

• Both Brian Brivati (Obituary, 15 March) and Michael White (Loved or loathed, 15 March) repeat the claim that Tony Benn supported the building of Concorde as this would provide jobs for his constituents. Concorde was built at Filton in north Bristol, miles from Benn’s Bristol South East constituency.
Lynda Hall
London

• The idea that you have to be a revolutionary radical to oppose the hydrogen bomb and war, implied in both your editorial (15 March) and obituary on Tony Benn, is depressing and, I hope, mistakes public opinion.
Harry Davis
Thames Ditton, Surrey

• When Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher encounter one another in some celestial corridor, one can only hope that Simon Hoggart is there to record it.
Paul Roper
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire“He encouraged us” is a pretty good epitaph for Tony Benn. He certainly encouraged me, and I only met him once, back in the 1980s. At the House of Commons, after a tedious meeting where I had asked a question, I found myself walking down the stairs beside him and he asked me “What do you do?” – as if I was the most important person in the world. I told him a little about our work on improving US-Soviet relations through youth exchanges and musicals – but how hard it was with Soviet and US bureaucracy. “Keep going!” he said, fixing me with his zealous smile: “Think how many young people believe in peace now that you have touched them…” I did keep going – and, a year later, we brought the first Soviet youth and rock stars to the US. Three years after that, the Berlin Wall came down. Thank you, Tony Benn!
David Woollcombe
Founder and president, Peace Child International

•  Tony Benn was an enthusiastic supporter of the co-operative movement because he believed that unregulated capitalism could never be the basis of a just society. In 1975, as chairman of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement, the national body at that time of employee-owned co-operative businesses, I invited him to be guest speaker at our AGM. He arrived with a bulky tape recorder which he placed prominently on the table. “I am often misquoted by the press,” he said, and I noticed two rather furtive-looking men in belted raincoats at the back of the hall. He gave a rousing speech, but I noticed that the tape was not running. “Oh,” he said, “I never turn it on. Too expensive in batteries. Putting it on the table does the trick.”

I do not think his support for co-operatives would waver because of the current troubles of just one large co-operative. Neither should the rest of us waver.
Roger Sawtell
Northampton

•  None of the tributes to Tony Benn have given attention to his daughter Melissa. She did much of the caring of him during his long illness. Tony had promised a comment on my biography of Keir Hardie but, after an operation, was too ill to read it. So she read the manuscript to him. Melissa – he sent her to comprehensive school – has become a novelist, Guardian writer and opponent of academy schools. Thanks, Tony, for your political life, but also for Melissa.
Bob Holman
Glasgow

 

 

It’s a shame that in an article of over 1,600 words Owen Jones couldn’t bring himself to seriously discuss the political projects that Bob Crow was actually involved in (‘Don’t mourn. Organise’, 15 March). But perhaps that fits a narrative Owen wishes to promote, that there is no future for any electoral politics outside Labour. Bob, however, saw the creation of a new political voice for working people, rooted in the organisations and communities of the working class, as an essential aspect of the struggle against austerity.

For the past four years we had worked together building the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), in a project officially backed by the RMT itself. TUSC will stand hundreds of anti-austerity candidates in this May’s local elections in the biggest left-of-Labour challenge since the second world war.

Despite a number of approaches, Tony Benn didn’t agree with an electoral challenge to Labour (though he did appear in the 2009 electoral broadcast for No2EU).

I think he should have left the Labour party, which had so clearly left him, but unfortunately he disagreed. In his latter years Tony was more a prisoner in New Labour, reduced to smuggling out notes through the bars. The socialist policies he stood for were killed off by successive Labour leaders from Neil Kinnock onwards, but they still exist in new projects, like TUSC and No2EU, co-founded by Bob Crow.
Dave Nellist
National chair, TUSC

• I admire Owen Jones’s optimism about the state of the British left, but cannot share his positive prognosis. After a week that saw the demise of two giants of the labour movement, Bob Crow and Tony Benn, and the hefty clobbering of another, the Co-op, it is hard to see how the left can regroup and fight the seeping market forces and individualism overwhelming this so-called progressive liberal democracy.

All three were/are bastions of core labour principles – solidarity, working people’s rights and collective action. As the vultures descend on the Co-op, the attack on it by a senior Labour party figure (Co-op shambles exposed, 15 March) only underlines the schism within the movement.

For post-Thatcher generations, a skeletal welfare state, zero-hours contracts and dwindling trade union membership are becoming the norm. Where is the vision, the leadership, the passionate Benn-esque oratory promoting the values of social justice, fairness and respect for human rights? Let’s heed Benn’s chosen epitaph, “he encouraged us”, before the right twists it into another nail in the coffin of the left.
Clare Woodford
Manchester

 

 

 

 

Independent:

 

Congratulations to Amol Rajan for his warm and clearly heartfelt personal eulogy to Tony Benn. It was a shame that it was overshadowed by the mean-spirited editorial of the same day (15 March).

It has been crystal clear to the ovine minds of most commentators for three decades now that Benn “got it wrong”. After all, Thatcher won three elections and her dream of market greed and selfishness rules, now and for ever more.

Well, actually no. There has been a shift away from Benn’s vision of compassionate collectivism towards our present world order created to service the whimsical greed of the global plutocracy. However, anyone whose future horizons stretch further than the bridge of their nose will realise that the world continues to change.

The market model of exponential growth and unfettered licence to pillage the biosphere is tearing itself apart by its own excess. Climate change is just one aspect of environmental crisis. We will need environmentalism to survive and environmentalism will need redistributive socialism  in order to work.

In other words, Benn’s compassionate collectivism will become a necessity. Far from a relic of the past, he will be recognised as the prophet of the future and one of the greatest figures of the 20th century.

Steve Edwards, Wivelsfield Green, East Sussex

I cringed as I heard Tony Benn telling the shop-floor workers at BAe Filton that he was about to return to France in an attempt to convince the French to carry on to the next stage of the Concorde project; knowing that it had already been agreed!  When I mentioned this to him later, he said it was good for morale that they knew he was on their side; after which he somehow avoided eye contact.

Brian Christley, Abergele, Conwy

I am sure that Tony Benn would regard as a compliment the malevolence hurled at his memory, because it emanates from those who stand for the greatest possible gap between rich and poor, life governed exclusively by market forces which have no ethics, and constant and interminable growth at the expense of the survival of our planet.

Tony Benn was actually advocating Christian values in politics. I am not talking about churches, though thank God the bishops have taken up the cause of those left hungry in this wealthy country while the rich are cossetted with tax cuts, but about the ethics of Christianity.

I’m sure he didn’t see himself in this light. He was simply talking about justice, equality, making a positive contribution to the world instead of grabbing from it the maximum you can.

Eileen Noakes, Totnes, Devon

Crimea takeover: the US can’t talk

As John Kerry berates the Russian intervention in Crimea, after an unelected government took control of Ukraine, he should be reminded of America’s Monroe Doctrine and the Clark Memorandum.

These policies sanctioned both covert and military US intervention anywhere in the Caribbean basin, where US interests were regarded as being eroded or threatened. The US participated in the overthrow of the Arbenz Regime in Guatemala in 1954, recruited the 1,500 Cuban refugees for the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, trained and supplied the Salvadorean death squads from 1964-84 and in the 1980s supported the Contras in Nicaragua against the elected Sandinista government. In 1983, the US invaded Grenada to overthrow the pro-communist government and in 1989 invaded Panama.

In November 2013 John Kerry announced to the Organization of American States that the Monroe doctrine was now dead, which is, of course, correct because the US has seized upon 9/11 to undertake global intervention,  anywhere that it is in US interests so to do.

Patrick Lavender, Kilkhampton, Cornwall

Steve Kerensky (letter, 14March) is mistaken when he accepts Alexey Pishchulin’s assertion that Donetsk was founded by Alexander II in 1869.

In 1869 the Welsh entrepreneur and steel maker John Hughes chose the site to establish an steel-making complex and industrial settlement that became known as Yuzovka (Hughesovka). The original Welsh settlers left before 1917 but the city Hughes founded became the principal centre of steel-making in the region. The expanding city was renamed Stalino in 1924 and eventually Donetsk in 1961.

The transfer of industrial technology between countries was a well-established practice during the 19th century and resulted in the benefits of the Industrial Revolution being felt across Europe.

David Morgans, Colchester, Essex

Gender-selective abortion

While the case of “Samira” (“I had to terminate my pregnancies because I was carrying girls”, 15 March) is awful in its own right, even more concerning is that it highlights two further problems inherent in some communities all over the world.

The first is the injustice that the power to make such decisions in a marriage should be so greatly biased in the husband’s favour. The second is that “Samira” already has “children”, as opposed to an existing child.

The problem of the burgeoning global population is as great as, if not more so than, the threat to the wellbeing of our planet from the profligate use of fossil fuels.

The solution to all these problems is the global emancipation of women and the granting to them of control over their own fertility. Let’s hope it happens sooner rather  than later.

Liz Pearce, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire

Seabird research runs out of money

I would like to explain the position regarding the guillemot monitoring programme on Skomer Island (Nature Studies, 4 March).

We stepped in to pay for this research six years ago when the funding was under threat and signed a long-term agreement to secure that research. That agreement will come to an end in April.

We informed the University of Sheffield at least a year ago that, due to pressures on public sector budgets, it was highly unlikely that we would be in a position to extend this funding. We also took into consideration that the population of guillemots on the islands had been steadily increasing over  that time.

Since then we have worked with the University and the Wildlife Trust to try and identify another funding stream that would help them with this work.

We continue to fund monitoring of sea birds, including the guillemot, on Skomer and Skokholm, through the Joint Nature Conservation Committee as part of the UK-wide Seabird Monitoring Programme. We are also in the process of consulting on plans to extend the protection for seabirds at key places such as Skomer and Skokholm. This will mean that not only the islands themselves will be protected, but also the seas that surround them.

The storms which hit Wales this winter were the most devastating for decades. Alongside our work to repair the damage to defences, we are now assessing the impact on important wildlife habitats and species. One of our priorities is to make the natural environment more resilient to extreme weather events.

Emyr Roberts, Chief Executive, Natural Resources Wales, Cardiff

A lot of unhealthy policemen

You published on 11 January a letter from me under the heading, “Met’s history of sick leave” which made the serious allegation that the Metropolitan Police Service, during the 1980s and 1990s, deliberately adopted a lax approach to the management of sick leave in order to camouflage the significant number of flawed officers who were allowed to retire on medical grounds which entailed lengthy periods of sick leave prior to the retirement.

Despite its seriousness this letter was greeted with sullen silence by the Scotland Yard hierarchy.

It now transpires that the former Metropolitan Police detective sergeant John Davidson, who has been publicly accused of playing a corrupt role in the investigation into the death of Stephen Lawrence, retired on the grounds of ill-health to run a bar on the Spanish island of Menorca.

The number of officers who have featured in  several high-profile police scandals over the past 20-odd years and who have been pensioned off on medical grounds is beginning to constitute a statistical anomaly which surely merits an in-depth inquiry by the media in the public interest.

John Kenny, Acle, Norfolk

Decadence for all tastes

Commenting on your car reports from the Geneva Motor Show, Yvonne Ruge (letter, 15 March) observes that practicality is an also-ran to showing-off. Likewise the fancy-dress parades that constitute any fashion week, be it Paris, Milan or London. One is reminded of the Roman banquets where the chefs had to devise ever more bizarre concoctions to titillate over-indulged and jaded palates.

S Lawton, Kirklington, Oxfordshire

 

 

Times:

 

 

Sir, On March 13 there was a three-hour debate on the floor of the House of Commons on a motion calling for the ending of the badger cull. A division was called, and the motion was carried against the Government’s wishes by 219 votes to one. Obviously knowing that they would lose the vote, the
government whips had sent their MPs home. Nevertheless, despite the weight of parliamentary opinion clearly being in favour, the Government has made clear that it is ignoring the vote.

This raises a big constitutional issue about the workings of Parliament, especially on such a high-profile matter as the badger cull where the motion clearly reflected the strong and widespread public opposition to it. The Government has simply arbitrarily ruled that it will only be bound by votes lost on its own business, thus negating the whole purpose of motions put forward to give voice to public opinion.

The elected Back-Bench Business Committee (BBBC) was introduced three years ago precisely to allow this. The incoming Conservative Government then sought to marginalise these BBBC debates by allocating time for them on Thursdays, when most MPs have left Westminster (because there were no more government votes). Now, when there is a vote on a BBBC motion and the Government loses, it simply disregards it.

This has now happened about 20 times, including when my own motion calling for an inquiry into the impact of the welfare reforms on poverty was voted on two months ago and the Government lost by 125 votes to two. Again last year the Government lost the vote after a hard-fought Commons debate on a motion calling on it to demand a reduction in the EU budget in Brussels, but then ignored it.

Zac Goldsmith, MP, won a Commons vote on his Bill on the recall of MPs where, on the basis of prescribed criteria, a constituency vote had authorised recall, but again the Government ignored it.

And if the recommendation of a small annual sample of key select committee reports were debated and voted on on the floor of the house — a much-needed reform — that too should not be negated by the Government simply ignoring a positive vote. What is clearly needed now is a new constitutional convention that when the Government loses a Commons vote on non-governmental business, the motion should be referred to the Lords for ratification, and if ratified, the Government should then be required to return to the House within a reasonable period (say three months) with proposals to meet the will of the House — and the public opinion which that represents — as expressed in the vote.

Michael Meacher, MP

Former Minister of the Environment & chairman, parliamentary group on reform of procedure, House of Commons

 

Sir, It’s no surprise that heads are rolling at Russell Group universities (Mar 14). This self-congratulatory body has been resting on its laurels too long, having executed a successful PR campaign, claiming that its universities are better than the rest. In my son’s first year at a RG university, lecturers routinely fail to turn up to teach, to reschedule or even apologise to the students who pay their salaries. The department allows it and does precious little for its students. His friends at other RG universities report the same.

Connie Ball

Hampton, Middx

 

Sir, As business people concerned about the impact that Brussels regulation and red tape has on companies in the UK, we believe it is wrong to suggest that an EU referendum commitment produces “uncertainty” for business.

All the major business groupings, including Business for Britain, are in complete support of the plan to reform the EU to make it more competitive, deregulated, and open for global trade. However, we believe that, going by past efforts to achieve this goal, the Prime Minister’s decision to set a timetable for renegotiation, with an in/out referendum at the end, is the correct approach.

Ruling out the possibility of a referendum unless there is a transfer of powers, while simultaneously trying to avoid any power transfer from Brussels — as Ed Miliband has done — may in fact produce greater uncertainty for business.

With the high likelihood of further economic and political integration in the eurozone in the near future, we believe business would appreciate greater clarity from the Labour leader about the circumstances under which he would call a referendum and his priorities for Britain’s EU membership.

Alan Halsall, Silver Cross; John Mills, JML; Daniel Hodson, LIFFE; Matthew Elliott, TaxPayers’ Alliance; Neville Baxter, RH Development; Harriet Bridgeman, The Bridgeman Art Library; Dr Peter Cruddas, CMC Markets; Robert Hiscox, Hiscox; John Hoerner, Tesco Central European Clothing; Brian Kingham, Reliance Security Group; Jon Moynihan, Ipex Capital

 

Sir, How good it is to hear of a major supermarket correcting its grammar (“Grammar schoolboy gives Tesco a telling off”, Mar 14). However, it still does not correct “10 items or less”.

I must point out, albeit reluctantly, that there is august precedent for the double superlative. Coverdale’s translation of the Psalter in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer gives Ps xiii, 6: “Yea, I will praise the Name of the Lord most Highest.”

Michael Brooks

Bedford

Sir, Slogans and the like would lose a lot in terms of impact if they slavishly obeyed strict grammar rules. And if Shakespeare uses the double superlative, in Mark Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar when he refers to “the most unkindest cut of all” (Pedant, Mar 15), why shouldn’t a supermarket?

Nigel Patterson

Maidenhead, Berks

Sir, When Tesco introduced its “finest” brand some years ago, I was tempted by a gâteau filled with “delicious chocolate mouse” (printed on every side of the package). I observed thrilled grins on the faces of numerous employees, and also “you have made my day” as I rose through the chain of management with my discovery. My pure reward? The “mouse” delicacy disappeared instantly from all stores.

Sandra McCourt

Holme on Swale, N Yorks

 

Sir, It was April 1943, when at my school in Dartford we sang Glorious things of thee are spoken at morning assembly (letters, Mar 14). Shortly after, the headmaster had a visit from the local police sergeant. He was seriously concerned, having been told that the German national anthem had been heard coming from the school, on Hitler’s birthday.

Robert Seaney

Hawkhurst, Kent

Sir, I note with dismay your report (Mar 14) of a holiday company offering to pay the fine incurred by clients who take their children, without permission, out of school for a holiday. This is quite wrong. The charge has been imposed to discourage parents from disrupting their children’s education. Firms encouraging us to break the law should be avoided at all costs.

Sally Pearson

Kingston, Devon

 

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – From The Archive recalls that James Worrell, a witness to John F Kennedy’s assassination, definitely heard four shots, not three as the FBI claimed had been fired.

Three expended shells were found at Lee Harvey Oswald’s sniper’s position. His second or third shot (it is unclear which), entered Kennedy’s neck, exited his throat, then passed through Senator Connally’s body and knee. The final shot, recalled by Worrell as the fourth, entered the back of Kennedy’s head and blew a piece the size of a hand out of the right hand side of his skull, ejecting some of his brain upwards. It could not have been fired from Oswald’s position because he was sited behind, to the right and very high up.

Stanley Eckersley
Pudsey, West Yorkshire

SIR – Last week’s From the Archive quotes one of my reports from Dallas in The Sunday Telegraph in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. I was there covering the trial of Jack Ruby, who had killed Oswald.

During the trial, Ruby, who had pleaded insanity, would pass notes to his defence counsel, Melvin Belli. I still have one of them, given to me by Belli during one of many chats over glasses of whisky in his hotel room. It reads: “Ask the nurse about the flowers.” Belli told me it made no sense and had no relevance to any evidence. He suggested it was a further illustration of Ruby’s mental instability. But the jury took less than three hours to determine that Ruby was sane when he shot Oswald and the sentence was death in the electric chair.

Ruby later won an appeal for a retrial (though not on the issue of insanity) but died in prison before it could be held.

Frank Taylor
London NW6

 

SIR – On June 29 2008, Tony Benn wrote in his diary: “The Sunday Telegraph had a whole page of ‘national treasures’ nominated by their readers. I was chosen as a national treasure for the Magna Carta Award. If I’m a national treasure in the Telegraph, something’s gone wrong.”

Being a modest man, he didn’t understand the huge respect he had from across the party divide. This is because he was not just a socialist; he was a democrat and a libertarian. That is why he opposed the EU and the erosion of civil liberties, working with the Tory MP David Davis to oppose detention without trial. He was appalled by war, having fought in the Second World War, and devoted his political career to the pursuit of peace.

Tony Benn was a conviction politician who argued his corner with honesty, clarity and unfailing courtesy. If he has taught us one thing it is that politicians need to have the courage of their convictions if they are ever to win public trust.

Richard Cotton
London NW1

Benefit of marriage

SIR – We are pleased that the Government has made clear that the 2014 Finance Bill will make provision for transferable allowances for some married couples and, crucially, that they will benefit financially from April 2015.

This comes not a moment too soon. Marriage is a public good with clear benefits both in terms of adult and child wellbeing. However, it is vital to understand that the proposed allowances will not provide, as some have suggested, a fiscal incentive for couples to marry. Instead they will erode the current fiscal incentive for them not to marry. Although the Prime Minister’s proposal falls a long way short of creating a level playing field for those wanting to marry, the partially transferable allowance does represent an important development.

We look forward to seeing delivery of this landmark reform in the Budget but we need to go further. There is an urgent need for the Government to move to a fully transferable allowance for married couples. The benefit of marriage to society does not depend on one’s tax code.

Rt Rev Peter Forster, Bishop of Chester, Lord McColl of Dulwich, Jim Dobbin MP (Lab), John Glen MP (Con), Sir Gerald Howarth MP(Con), Stewart Jackson MP (Con), Jeremy Lefroy MP (Con), Sir Edward Leigh MP (Con), Tim Loughton MP (Con), Jim Shannon MP (Unionist), Fiona Bruce MP (Con), Nola Leach, Dr Samantha Callan, Kathy Gyngell, Harry Benson,Jill Kirby

Inspector Blight

SIR – Sir Michael Pitt’s defence of Paul Griffiths, or “Inspector Blight” was based on the inspector’s professional judgment, his interpretation of policies, and his taking into consideration local opinion. As quantitative evidence and comparisons with other inspectors’ reports show, it is precisely these three points on which Mr Griffiths’ approach to planning appeals is called into question.

Dr Philip Sullivan
Frolesworth, Leicestershire

SIR – In defending the work of planning inspectors, Sir Michael Pitt writes that “the local communities’ views were carefully considered and balanced against other planning considerations”.

In my experience as chairman of planning on Sunningdale Parish Council, this was seldom the case. In two-day hearings, local objectors were allowed five or 10 minutes’ speaking time and were ill-equipped to counter the legal big guns employed by developers eager to get their way.

Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire

Euro vision

SIR – Like Nick Clegg, I am Anglo-Dutch and love Europe – but like many moderate people I believe the EU is increasingly resembling an Orwellian superstate.

Politicians who support the expansion of the EU pretend to command a virtuous higher ground motivated by spreading peace, love and understanding. We should consider that some may be driven by self-interest and rewards within the organisation. The few historically powerful European countries are now outnumbered in the EU by globally insignificant nations possibly harbouring a sense of inferiority. The most aggressive expansionists (the Portuguese José Manuel Barroso, the Belgian Herman Van Rompuy and the Hungarian László Andor) seem determined to subsume their countries into something much grander.

Marc Versloot
London SW18

SIR – Christopher Booker refers to the EU as “an organisation set up to put an end to nationalism”.

Only a nation can have enough internal cohesion for democracy to be a possible form of government. Consequently, if the EU succeeds in abolishing nationalism, democracy goes too. Without democracy, there can be no freedom and without freedom, there will be war.

John Strange
Worthing, West Sussex

Casualty costs

SIR – I was shocked, though not really surprised, to read (report, March 9) that schemes have been tried to give paramedics financial inducements not to send patients to casualty departments.

I remember when the decision was taken by a fully trained doctor in general practice. We were able to make important professional decisions free from any financial consideration.

Dr Brian Wright
Gosport, Hampshire

Coles to Dorchester

SIR – I was pleased to see Cecil Coles remembered as one of the British composers whose life was so tragically cut short by the First World War.

Peter McKenzie mentions Coles’ orchestral work Behind the Lines. This is a very moving piece and it will in fact be performed on May 24 at Dorchester Abbey as part of the annual English Music Festival, in a concert which honours other British composers whose lives were affected by this terrible conflict.

Nick Walker
Chairman, English Music Festival
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire

Diet scaremongers

SIR – When will those who try to scare the living daylights out of us about our diets and lifestyles realise that the more they preach at people, the less notice anybody will take?

Dr Michael Barley
Hove, East Sussex

Immunity for Bloody Sunday soldiers

SIR – Professor Neil Mitchellwrites that “Peace requires an unpunished terrorist, not an unpunished soldier”. I profoundly disagree.

The state has an obligation, underpinned by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to ensure that an effective legislative and administrative framework is in place to protect life. This includes an effective criminal justice system which brings those who commit crimes to justice, thus providing deterrence against threats to life.

If, as seems to have happened, this principle of the first order of importance has been sacrificed in relation to holding terrorists to account – terrorists who killed and maimed civilian and soldier alike – then I can see no reason why we should seek to maintain it against the small number of soldiers who are alleged to have overstepped the mark while deployed to protect society from those same terrorists. To proceed otherwise seems the antithesis of justice and equal treatment before the law.

Andrew Warnock QC
London WC2

SIR – Professor Mitchell states that “prison for old soldiers seems pointless” but claims that prosecuting them may ascertain the responsibility of their superior officers.

Is it realistic to expect clear evidence to come to light in time, given that it will be several more years before prosecutions can be brought against these men who in general are older than the soldiers directly involved? Can it be justifiable to put those soldiers through the trauma of court proceedings and of having their identities revealed?

How will such proceedings be funded and dealt with fairly while the Justice Secretary is decimating the legal aid system? Equivalence and immunity is the fair and sensible course.

Ian Horton
Allestree, Derbyshire

Best puns in Britain?

SIR – Leicestershire probably has the best punning business names of any county: The Codfather, a fish and chip shop; Plankety Plank, carpenters; The Tree Amigoes, tree surgeons; and Mr Bit, window cleaners.

Rutland has Wok This Way, a Chinese Takeaway, and Dentith & Dentith, a dental practice.

Ray C Noble
Leicester

SIR – I recall a builder’s van in the York area displaying the name William Bonney. I am unsure if the tradesman knew that this was an alias of Billy the Kid, the notorious cowboy.

Nigel Mitchell
Strensall, North Yorkshire

 

SIR – You report that Norman Lamb, the care minister, “was now convinced that ‘the state should not stand in the way’ of people determined to end their life, as long as strict safeguards were in place”.

The state has not stood in the way of people wishing to end their own lives for many decades. What the Bill proposes is very different: that the state arbitrates, sanctions and assists in that suicide. The state, most likely via doctors, will act as judge, jury and (literally) executioner for those seeking an early death.

It is doubtful that strict safeguards can be found. In America, there is good evidence that the Death with Dignity Act in the state of Oregon may fail to protect some patients whose choices are influenced by depression, while Vermont has explicitly built diminishing safeguards into its laws. People do not oppose assisted suicide simply to be obstructive, but because it has very serious implications for social attitudes and, crucially, patient safety.

Edward Davies
London SW18

SIR – The theoretical horrors advanced by the lobbyists who argue against assisted suicide and for palliative care do not appear to have materialised in those civilised countries which permit assisted suicide. All we would need to do is adopt those countries’ criteria. Doctors in those countries do not actively get involved in killing patients, they simply ascertain that the criteria have been met. Others then provide the means.

In this country, by contrast, doctors have been actively involved in the deaths of patients: those on the Liverpool Care Pathway. This could involve depriving patients of water so that they die of thirst after much distress in about nine days.

Alex Woods
Liverpool

SIR – The advocates of Lord Falconer’s Bill insist that strict safeguards will apply: namely, two doctors’ signatures. This was the safeguard offered in 1967 regarding abortion. We now have doctors rubber-stamping abortion papers for women they have never seen, and offering abortion for any reason, including gender.

As a disabled person I feel safer under a law that protects my right to life than a law with safeguards that depend on the mood of the moment – which could be discarded once we got used to killing the vulnerable.

Ann Farmer
Woodford Green, Essex

SIR – Terminally ill people who are suffering greatly should have the choice of an assisted death if they so wish. Many people would enjoy their lives more without the fear that in the future they might die a slow and undignified death. Some close relatives say they remain traumatised after seeing their terminally ill loved-ones suffer so much.

Doctors intervene in all stages of life – as with IVF and heart transplants – so why shouldn’t they bring about a peaceful death if that is what a patient requests and the necessary safeguards are in place? This would prevent some terminally ill people committing suicide at an earlier stage because they know they won’t be physically capable of doing it later on.

There are not enough hospices and some people don’t wish to go into one. Many hospitals do not have the expertise in pain relief and end-of-life care that hospices have.

Julie Robinson
London SW6

SIR – You report that “David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both voiced opposition to changing the law.” If such legislation were passed through the provision of government time, as opposed to being left to a Private Member’s Bill, then these two, and the two Coalition parties, would have to take the responsibility for its passage.

This would be particularly dangerous for the Conservative Party. If such a Bill were passed by the Commons on Labour and Lib Dem votes, with more Tory MPs voting against it than for it, then the Conservative Party and its leaders would find themselves in a very difficult position.

J Alan Smith
Epping, Essex

 

 

 

Irish Times:

 

Sir, – Ireland’s overseas aid is among the best in the world in terms of value for money and overall quality. More importantly, our aid is effective.

We have been long recognised as a small but critically important player internationally and our commitment to reaching the UN target of investing 0.7 per cent of national income in overseas development by 2015 had been evidence of that leadership.

The announcement, therefore, that Government has dropped the 2015 deadline was disappointing, although given the scale of cuts to the overseas aid budget since 2008, it was not entirely unexpected.

These are tough economic times and there are tough decisions to make.

However, to ensure the continued credibility of our hard-won reputation, we need now a new date for achieving the long-standing commitment and call on the Minister for Trade and Development to set out how and when Ireland is going to reach the UN target of 0.7 per cent.

Irish overseas aid funding makes a crucial difference to the lives of millions of marginalised people. It is an issue of life and death for people living in extreme poverty across the developing world.

This is why Ireland’s continued commitment is so important. That is why we need a new deadline and a realistic timetable. And by Ireland producing that plan and sticking to it, we encourage others to do the same. We may be a small country but this is an important role that we can and should continue to play on the world stage. – Yours, etc,

ÉAMONN MEEHAN,

Executive Director,

Trócaire,

DOMINIC MacSORLEY,

Chief Executive Officer,

 

 

Sir, – The concerns arising from the Garda Inspectorate penalty points report should be addressed vigorously and speedily by the Government.

Our unarmed gardaí are all that stand between the preservation of a reasonable level of safety and security and a breakdown in law and order and the unspeakable horrors that would entail. The misdeeds of a minority of gardaí should not detract in the slightest from the excellent service the force generally has provided over the decades. We hear of scandals affecting clergy, the legal profession, doctors, property developers, bankers . . . the list is a long one, but just as we can’t condemn all involved in these professions, neither should we taint all gardaí. Let us remember the men who gave their lives fighting crime in our name, and the many male and female gardaí injured in the line of duty.

The whistleblowers deserve great credit for exposing behaviour that must have no place within a force that includes the brave men and women who risk life and limb protecting us from those who would kill, rob, rape, defraud and terrorise other human beings.

Equally deserving of praise are the TDs who went out on a limb to highlight the penalty points issue, especially Clare Daly, who I think is one of the most principled politicians ever to enter Dáil Éireann. I believe she is helping to rescue Irish politics from the swamp of sleaze and cute hoorism it has languished in for far too long.

The Garda Síochána will be the better for extracting the bad apples from within its ranks and ending unacceptable practices that, unfairly, give the entire force a bad name. – Yours, etc,

JOHN FITZGERALD,

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – Am I the only Irish citizen who is bewildered by the indignation and outrage expressed by some of our legislators, supported by a media frenzy, about the abuse of the penalty points system, when surely every dog in the street knew about it and even benefited from such discretion? – Yours, etc,

MG STOREY,

Glencar,

 

Sir, – My grandfather, Dr Séamus Ó Ceallaigh, an obstetrician and early Irish historian, was a close friend of Eoin MacNeill. The meeting to countermand the Easter Rising was held at his house 53 Rathgar Road. His detailed account of that meeting is published in “Gleanings from Ulster History” by Séamus Ó Ceallaigh (Ballinascreen Historical Society, 1994, pp 141-152). This contains details which are not consistent with Michael Parsons’s report “Order cancelling 1916 Rising for auction” (Home News, March 3rd).

That article says that copies of the order were written at Eoin MacNeill’s house “Woodbrook”. In fact it is written on paper headed “Woodtown Park, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin”, which was the house of Eoin MacNeill’s brother, James. It was there, on the morning of Saturday, April 22nd, 1916 (the date of the copy of the order to be auctioned), that MacNeill asked my grandfather if he could “see a couple of people” in his house at 53 Rathgar Road.

It is unclear precisely where all copies of the order were written out. However, my grandfather describes how that evening Arthur Griffith and Eoin MacNeill signed orders in his front room, while a large number of people came and went, “most coming on bicycles, some in cabs, some in motorcars”. These included The O’Rahilly, Thomas MacDonagh, Sean T O’Kelly, as well as the many individuals who were to be the messengers to the counties later on in the night. “There never was a plot or conspiracy attended by more noise or less concealment.”

After midnight, by which time most of the messengers carrying copies of the countermanding orders had left, Eoin MacNeill went into town to get the announcement published in the Sunday Independent . It was then that “he learned that a ship or boat had landed in Kerry and someone on the boat had been captured by the police”.

In other words, contrary to the report, it was only then that the news of Casement’s arrest reached MacNeill, and thus in no way did this inform his decision to countermand the Rising. – Yours, etc,

Dr NIAMH WHITFIELD,

Faroe Road,

London W14.

 

Sir, – The current drive to encourage customers to switch energy supplier to secure lower energy bills has its hidden costs.

Being a business user, I recently switched and did achieve lower prices, but in the process of contacting the various providers for a quotation, one worrying trend emerged – suppliers were asking me to “provide a monetary security deposit” in order to switch.

This deposit has nothing to do with your credit worthiness or credit history, as it an arbitrary cost imposed by the providers on the consumer, since that money sits in their bank accounts and not in yours, for the year.

The regulator, and the Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte, should look at this practice and ask the providers to desist from such an undemocratic and anti-business activity. – Yours, etc,

ACHILLE ORLANDI,

Liberty Square,

Thurles,

 

Sir, – Today, all over the world, people who are Irish, of Irish descent, or who just want to be Irish, are celebrating St Patrick’s Day. We are reminded daily of the more unsavoury elements of ourselves but these should be kept in perspective – there is a bigger picture. We may not enjoy the silly hats, polyester red beards or questionable versions of Danny Boy , but surely on the day that’s in it, we can take time to consider, embrace and enjoy the myriad talents of this blessed nation, past and present. – Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

 

Sir, – I understand that our rural county councils have as their remit the management and maintenance of our hedgerows and ditches for safety and other reasons.

As our visitors step onto this land for St Patrick’s Day, they will see a real mix of management and brutalising of our hedgerows.

As I walk each day in the hills of north Cork, the damage at the root-and-branch level is an eyesore, and it is obvious that whoever drives the large machine is not “preserving the delicate” in our environment.

I wonder if there is any sense of the richness and diverse life that is supported by the flowers, seeds, berries, leaves and branches that provide nourishment for insects, animals, birds and humans alike in these hedgerows and ditches.

How we treat our hedgerows is a good indication of how we value our environment and ourselves and it is obvious to all our visitors this weekend. – Yours, etc,

MARGARET O’CONNOR,

Church Street,

 

Sir, – The once magnificent Aldborough House on Portland Row, Dublin, was built by Edward Stafford, second Earl of Aldborough and Viscount Amiens. He spared no expense on its lavish interior but it is said he never spent a night within its hallowed walls. Instead it became the home of his estranged second wife. According to the writer Jonah Barrington, she had a tongue of steel “which often cut deeply” but “so keen and polished was the edge of her wit that the patient was never mangled”.

One would like to think that if the good lady were alive today she would have a few choice words for Dublin City Council. – Yours, etc,

ANGELA NOLAN,

Cedar Park,

The Donahies,

 

 

 

A chara, – Donal Flynn (March 10th) suggests that “The whole debate could disappear by the simple action of making Irish a subject of choice in the Leaving Certificate.” While it might satisfy those who dislike the idea of compulsory Irish, it would do nothing for those on the other side who dislike the idea of compulsory English.

It is often the case when people try to avail of State services through Irish that they are met with a patronising attitude, that it is one thing to speak it at home or in school, among friends or at cultural events, but that it is carrying things too far to be bothering those employed in areas such as medicine or the law, or even the Department of Education, with it. –Is mise,

ÉILIS NÍ ANLUAIN-QUILL,

An Pháirc Thiar,

Bré,

Co Chill Mhantáin.

 

A chara, – One cannot but be struck by a recurring theme in recent letters to the editor, namely, many contributors feel that nobody is listening.

Teachers question the plans for the junior cycle, GPs have serious reservations regarding the practicalities of the introduction of free care for the under-sixes, medical educators doubt the value of the HPAT and, perhaps most depressingly of all, parents eager to adopt feel helpless.

A basic truism in mental health is, listen and you will know what the problem is. The examples mentioned prompt the questions, Who is being listened to? Why are relevant parties not being listened to? – Is mise,

Dr MACDARA McCAULEY,

Consultant Psychiatrist,

St Brigid’s Hospital,

 

Sir, – Perhaps the time has come for you to appoint a special Irish Times correspondent to report on the financial and business affairs of charities and not-for-profit organisations.

Plenty of financial statements to review and plenty of corporate governance practices to report, all of which might prove very helpful for the soon to be appointed charity regulator. – Yours, etc,

DAVID McCABE,

Waltham Terrace,

Blackrock,

 

 

Sir, – Our newly found ability to produce everything in abundance with decreasing dependence on human labour could destroy us. We must generate more jobs from less work or capitalism and society will crumble; shorter hours, longer holidays, earlier retirement. Everybody’s dream is the only plausible solution for 21st-century economic problems. The choice is simple; more people working less or fewer people working more. Yet no politician will discuss it. – Yours, etc,

PADRAIC NEARY,

Tubbercurry,

Co Sligo.

 

Irish Independent:

* Since the dawn of time countless people have walked upon this earth.

Also in this section

Wake up you ‘Moby Dicks’

Taxing issues for offshore oil firms

Bono in dreamland

Some have been termed great. Others have quietly and diligently served the human family with no recognition whatsoever.

Some have craved fame and fortune. Others preferred to be the power behind the throne.

However, there is one unmistakable fact. We all come in and we all go out the same way.

No one escapes the ferryman. We all must answer to a higher power, no matter what shape or form is implanted in our subconscious.

Economic currency is of no value in this dimension. People will be judged purely on their merits.

Now, atheists will argue this is all poppycock. Maybe so. No one knows for sure. Life is a gambler’s bet.

However, even if death means lights out, and emptiness thereafter, I would rather depart this vibration in time knowing that I did my best to shine a little ray of light into people’s hearts.

I would prefer to depart this life knowing this, rather than feeling that I tried to own the world for my own gain, and thus chanced losing my hypothetical soul.

ANTHONY WOODS

ENNIS, CO CLARESACRE VERT

* They rode the wave, withstood the storm,

The French ferocious, the Irish calm.

The clash was brutal, chaos reigned,

Each bone-crushing tackle, a face rearranged.

And when the smoke cleared,

And the hoarse crowd was spent

All our prayers were Heaven sent.

In BOD we hoped, and when needs must

The lads delivered on a sacred trust.

From the green fields of France, to Athenry,

There was a moistness in each Irish eye,

When to O’Driscoll we waved goodbye.

He battled giants to earn a crust,

Our dreams he salvaged from the dust.

Till hell freezes over, or gods be men,

We’ll scarcely see his like again.

TG GAVIN

DALKEY, CO DUBLIN

ST PATRICK’S LAMENT

* Today is St Patrick’s Day, and as with the last four St Patrick’s Days, it will be the same as any other in our home.

We could face the crowds in the city and experience the colourful jubilation, but then, because we’d get hungry or thirsty and we would be unable to follow the throngs into coffee shops, pubs, take-aways and restaurants, we would venture home feeling deflated.

We could take a trip to the cinema, by sacrificing a few proper meals in the following week. Anything we do to celebrate with others would result in another low point, of which there have been far too many over these years of recessionary living.

Our little family of two have become modern day outcasts and we are two of many, thrown on the scrap heap of despair, facing one austerity cut after another. We are the survivors, and there is not much laughter in our home. Our treat for Monday is a roast from SuperValu (discounted by 50pc, and the cost supplemented with a coupon) and a roast is a very rare treat in our home.

We are lucky to have this home, (for now) but even here is not a safe space as there is never a day that my hands don’t tremble slightly as I visit the post box, which regularly contains threatening letters. I often wonder if the drafters of these frightening letters care that there are people like me out here, now working out how little food a person can survive on.

This way of living is all relatively new to me. I grew up knowing “that money didn’t grow on trees”, but we never wanted for anything and poverty was only something I saw during my my teenage years when volunteering with St Vincent de Paul. I worked hard from a relatively young age and never for a moment thought that poverty would visit my home. Now, here I am bickering over the smallest thing, because in a poor home, there simply cannot be any waste or accidents.

Because I was 38 when this began, my hopes of meeting the right person and having more children have all but slipped away. Living an austerity induced hermit’s life has this effect. Not only has the recession stolen my time, but it has also made me ill. St Vincent’s public hospital became my second home for a few years.

And it is getting worse. There are many unaffected by this recession and it is my experience that not only are those people’s doors not open to those suffering, but their hearts and minds are not open either. We have had an invisible tsunami of debt-induced poverty, suffering and despair here in Ireland. Indeed, if there had been an actual tsunami, solidarity and compassion – vital characteristics needed for recovery – would have kicked in.

I know how to recover, and I am on that steady road. My health conditions have meant that I needed re-training in order to be qualified and ready for work again. I continually smile through it all, but my heart gets weary from the constant battles and Ireland’s apparently new found “survival of the fittest” mentality.

First and foremost, I have been trying to keep our home away from repossession vultures. A quick glance through the rental market is enough to tell me that repossession will mean homelessness. If, or when, the banks take our home, they intend to sell it at a price for which we could afford the repayments.

This is the repossession story across the country and it all makes no economic sense. Profit seems to be the new god. There is no solidarity in our now divided people. People who are naive enough to think that unemployment is a lifestyle choice also seem to think that they will not be the ones who foot the bill for all this social carnage.

Recovery was, and still is, possible, but we must get our priorities right. Inflicting more poverty on those already suffering, on the sick, the vulnerable, the disabled and the disheartened is not the answer. Morality must take its rightful place alongside economics and politics.

Perhaps we need a modern-day St Patrick to influence the hearts and minds of the Irish people – there still seem to be a few snakes around.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

WHERE’S THE PRIDE?

* March 17 should be a day of national pride. Shamrocks and green tinsel hang from every shop door as Ireland showcases our unique culture and heritage. However, this week, a darker element of Irish society also comes to light, one that should quickly wipe the smiles from our faces.

Ireland has many achievements of which we as a nation can be proud. Our drinking culture, though, should not be one of them. As people flock to Ireland to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, pubs everywhere have happily refilled pint after pint, of brands sadly too numerous to mention.

Advertisements on billboards, at bus stops and on cars link this “holy day” with alcohol. What have we become?

Clearly, we are a nation consumed by drink. Pub owners eagerly anticipate this festival as it significantly boosts their annual revenue. This day is used as an excuse, as people ignore the obvious side effects of alcohol.

Alcohol is the biggest killer of teenagers in Ireland. Alcohol affects the lives of over 100,000 children annually. Alcohol costs our Government €1.2bn, one tenth of the health budget, every year. This is money we don’t have. Is this a symbol of our pride? I sincerely hope not.

How quickly our society forgets the ‘neknominations’ and the problems that ensued. As a nation, we watched in horror as bright young individuals sadly lost their lives to alcohol. And yet we still continue to fuel the fire that has killed so many.

I may be just a teenager but in the later part of my 17 years I have become aware of many people sadly staggering during parts of the St Patrick’s Day parade, ruining the festivities and fun for others. Is it too much to ask to enjoy St Patrick’s Day without its alcohol associations?

SARAH FITZPATRICK (17)

RATHFARNHAM, CO DUBLIN

Irish Independent

 

 


Consultant

$
0
0

18 March 2014 Consultant

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to pick up some unexploded depth charges.Priceless

Cold slightly saw Consultant, minor improvement next appointment three weeks!

Scrabbletoday Marywins and gets Over400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Clarissa Dickson Wright, who has died aged 66, sprang to celebrity as the larger of the Two Fat Ladies in the astonishingly popular television series.

Clarissa Dickson Wright was a recovering alcoholic, running a bookshop for cooks in Edinburgh when the producer Patricia Llewellyn was inspired to pair her with the equally eccentric Jennifer Paterson, then a cook and columnist at The Spectator.

The emphasis of the programme was to be on “suets and tipsy cake rather than rocket salad and sun-dried tomatoes”, the producer declared. Hence bombastic tributes to such delights as cream cakes and animal fats were mingled with contemptuous references to “manky little vegetarians”.

Not all the reviews were kind. Victor Lewis Smith in the London Evening Standard referred to the ladies’ “uncompromising physical ugliness” and “thoroughly ugly personalities”. Another critic quipped: “Perhaps handguns shouldn’t be banned after all.” Most, though, became instant addicts and predicted future cult status. By 1996 the programme was attracting 3.5 million viewers.

The Triumph motorbike and sidecar which sped the two fat ladies around the countryside might have appeared contrived (although Paterson was a keen biker), but their kitchen-sink comedy could never have been scripted. Clarissa Dickson Wright would come up with such lines as “look at those charming looking fellows” when describing scallops, and advise businessmen to come home and cook “to relax after the ghastly things they do in the City”.

Not content to confine themselves to the kitchen, the indomitable pair ventured out into the field, gathering mussels in Cornish drizzle — using their motorcycle helmets as pails — and perilously putting out to sea in a sliver of a boat to catch crabs.

Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmeralda Dickson Wright was born on June 24 1947, the youngest of four children. “My parents had great trouble deciding what to call me in the first place,” she explained about her abundant christening, “but then they were so delighted they had finally found a name, they got pissed on the way to the church.” To decide which name should come first, “they blindfolded my mother and turned her loose in the library, where she pulled out a copy of Richardson’s Clarissa”.

Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright, was a brilliant surgeon who was the first to extract a bullet from the spine without leaving the patient paralysed; he also pioneered the operation for stripping varicose veins and his patients included the Queen Mother, Vivien Leigh and the Sultana of Jahore. He had met Clarissa’s mother, Molly, an Australian heiress, while working in Singapore.

Growing up in Little Venice, Clarissa’s first memory was of eating a hard-boiled egg and a cold sausage on a picnic at Wisley at the age of three. Her father, though basically miserly, did not stint on household bills. He had pigeons flown in from Cairo and a fridge permanently full of caviar. From infant trips back to Singapore remembered consuming “deeply unhygienic but delicious” things wrapped in banana leaves.

When her parents entertained, Clarissa read recipes to the illiterate cook, Louise, who in turn would squabble with Clarissa’s mother about what they were going to serve. One day, Louise stood at the top of the stairs: “Madam,” she said, “if you make me cook that I’ll jump.” “If you don’t Louise,” Mrs Dickson Wright retorted, “you might as well.” (Clarissa also had memories from around this time of Cherie Booth “always doing her homework in school uniform in the middle of louche Hampstead parties — she was a swot”. Later she observed the budding union between Booth (“desperately needy”) and Tony Blair (“a poor sad thing with his guitar”). Later still she observed that the “wet, long-haired student” that she had known had been replaced by a man with “psychopath eyes. You know those dead eyes that look at you and try to work out what you want to hear?”)

Clarissa’s father became a progressively violent alcoholic, so that when he came home “one would take cover”. He broke three of her ribs with an umbrella and on another occasion hit her with a red-hot poker. She later confessed to poring over botanical volumes in search of suitable poisons and scouring the woods for lethal mushrooms.

Boarding school proved a wonderful refuge. She then did a Law degree externally at London (her father refused to pay for her to go to Oxford unless she read Medicine) and was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1970. It was while she was at home studying for her Bar final that a letter arrived for her mother while the family was at breakfast. It turned out to be from her father, announcing divorce proceedings. After her father left the house Clarissa Dickson Wright never saw him again.

She was by then a regular pipe smoker, consuming two ounces of Gold Block a week. The first woman to practise at the Admiralty Bar, she received excellent notices from, among others, Lord Denning, and was elected to the Bar Council as a representative of young barristers.

Things started to go awry, though, when her parents died in quick succession in the mid-1970s. Her father left his entire £2 million fortune to his brother, explaining his decision in a caustic rider to his will. Clarissa’s mother, he wrote “never helped me and sought to alienate my children”. Clarissa’s sisters had married men either too old or too young, and her brother’s fault was to be “seeing Heather (one of Clarissa’s sisters) again”. As to his youngest daughter: “I leave no money to Clarissa, who was an afterthought and has twice caused me grievous bodily harm, and of whom I go in fear of my life.” The family contested the will to no avail.

It was Derby Day when Clarissa came home to find her mother dead. “It was a shock I quite simply couldn’t handle,” she recalled. She went to her boyfriend’s house and surprised everybody by pouring herself a large whisky: “I remember thinking ‘Why have I waited so long? I’ve come home.’ I felt this enormous sense of relief.”

Her “habit” soon consisted of two bottles of gin a day, and a bottle of vodka before she got out of bed. “Suddenly it was as if I’d done it,” she remembered of her consequent loss of ambition. “I could hear the eulogies at my memorial service in my head, so what was the point of actually going through the mechanics of doing it.” In 1980 she was charged with professional incompetence and practising without chambers; she was disbarred three years later.

Financially this presented no immediate hardship since her mother had left her a fortune. Yet by the age of 40, Clarissa Dickson Wright had blown it all on “yachts in the Caribbean, yachts in the Aegean, aeroplanes to the races – and drink”.

“If I’d had another £100,000,” she conceded, “I’d have been dead.”

At rock bottom she went to the DSS to ask for somewhere to live, only to be told: “We’re not here for the likes of you, you know. You’re upper class, you’ve got a Law degree.”

She began to cook in other people’s houses. “Of course it’s only the upper classes who will become domestic servants now,” she reflected. “Other people feel it demeans them.” One day, when preparing to cook for a house party, she was on her knees, cleaning the floor. “I looked up,” she remembered, “and said ‘Dear God, if you are up there, please do something.’” The next day she was arrested for refusing a breathalyser. “I was carted down the long drive just as the house party was coming up it. From then on, I was inexorably swept into recovery.” It took place at Robert Lefever’s Promis Recovery Centre at Nonington, not far from Canterbury. She retained an affection for Kent ever after.

Clarissa Dickson Wright owed her proportions to drinking six pints of tonic a day over 12 years, leading to “sticky blood” (a condition normally associated with people taking quinine tablets over a long period) and a very slow metabolism. Of the ungallant nature of the Two Fat Ladies title, she said: “Well there are two of us. I have a problem with ‘Ladies’ as it sounds like a public convenience. But which bit do you object to? Are you saying I’m thin?” Her size did not deter suitors. “I get more offers now than when I was slender,” she said. “Especially from Australians. They’re crazy about me.”

It could also be a formidable weapon. On Two Fat Ladies she was known as “Krakatoa” for her temper, and once put two would-be muggers in intensive care. “I didn’t go around beating people up,” she said, “but if people were aggressive to me, then I hit them.”

A knowledgeable food historian, she argued that the “use of anti-depressants is directly relatable to the decrease in use of animal fat (a stimulant of serotonin).” She did not own a television, but went across the road to watch the rugby. Her choice for Desert Island Discs ranged from The Drinking Song by Verdi to Ra Ra Rasputin by Boney M. The desert island of her imagination was “a Caribbean island during the cool season with lots of shellfish… and perhaps the odd hunky native that one could lure to the sound of music.”

Following the success of Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright was elected a rector of Aberdeen University and opened a restaurant in the grounds of the Duke of Hamilton’s 16th-Century Lennoxlove House.

Then, after Jennifer Paterson died in 1999, Clarissa Dickson Wright presented the One Man And His Dog Christmas Special. She later went on to appear (from 2000 to 2003) in the series Clarissa and the Countryman, with Johnny Scott. It was remarkably un-PC, but the real reason for the fact that the BBC dropped her, she claimed, was that she was too pro-hunting.

Her support for the Countryside Alliance did see her plead guilty to attending a hare coursing event in 2007. She had thought it legal as the greyhounds were muzzled and the magistrate gave her an absolute discharge. “I did not get a criminal record for that,” she said. “I was quite looking forward to going to jail in Yorkshire and writing the prison cookbook. It would have been a rest.” In 2012 she again raised eyebrows when she suggested that badgers shot in any cull should be eaten. Badgers, she noted, were once a popular bar snack: “I would have no objection to eating badgers. I have no objection to eating anything very much, really.”

Her autobiography, Spilling the Beans (in which she claimed, among other things, that she once had sex behind the Speaker’s chair in Parliament) was published in 2007. That and other ventures such as the “engaging county-by-county ramble” Clarissa’s England (2012), and a return to the small screen (filming a three-part series for BBC Four on breakfast, lunch and dinner) saw her finances steadily improve. One supermarket chain offered her an “awful lot of money” to promote it, but she could afford to turn it down. “I don’t regret it. I used to say that all I had left in life was my integrity and my cleavage. Now it’s just my integrity.”

Her faith was less well defined than her views on field sports. “I’m not a very good or compliant Catholic. I reserve my right to disagree. My ancestors fought with Cromwell. Other ancestors went with Guy Fawkes. So we’re bolshie on both sides.” She admitted attending Mass to “give thanks” and enjoyed AA meetings, describing them as “better than television”.

The love of her life was a Lloyd’s underwriter named Clive who died from a virus caught in Madeira. Latterly she said that she had a long-time admirer. “We are very companionable,” she noted. But they did not live together. “Heaven forfend! I don’t mind cooking his meals, but wash his socks? No.”

Clarissa Dickson Wright, born June 24 1947, died March 15 2014

 

Guardian:

 

I would like to congratulate Luke Harding for his balanced and informative article about the makeup of the new Ukrainian government (‘They’re not fascists, they’re peasants’, 14 March), which puts into perspective some of the wild claims from Moscow that Ukraine is in the grip of anarchy, and Russian-speaking citizens are under threat from rampaging gangs of fascists. In fact, its new leaders seem up to now to have shown remarkable restraint in the light of considerable provocation.

There are clearly economic and social tensions in Ukraine, which the international community (including Russia) can help to resolve, with goodwill on all sides. But the last thing Ukraine needs is further military action by Russia on the pretext of “protecting order”. And Russia has enough challenges of its own without getting involved in a bitter and costly trade war with the EU and the US, and an armed conflict with its neighbour.
John Bourn
Gateshead

•  Before the US and EU introduce sanctions against Russia for recognising an illegitimate referendum, they should explain clearly why they regard the new government of Ukraine as legitimate (US and EU expected to announce sanctions against Russia, 17 March).

Treating it as somehow self-evidently so simply will not do, and is particularly provocative in light of the fact that the EU itself brokered and then promptly broke a compromise deal for a unity government.

And the uncompromising stance of the US in particular makes one wonder what role was played in recent events by the money it ploughed into Ukraine to promote the market-friendly policies it so dishonestly calls “democracy”.
Peter McKenna
Liverpool

• The fact that the options presented to the Crimean electorate did not include any “Ukrainian options” (Two options but only one possible outcome, 15 March) means that the referendum is no more or less democratic than our own AV v FPP referendum, in which there were no proportional representation options. As in Crimea, so too in the UK the powers that be have total control over the choice of ballot. Sadly, international rules on the conduct of referendums do not recommend multi-option voting. Hence Crimeans who might have wished to vote for a compromise, or even just the status quo, are not allowed a free choice.
Peter Emerson
The de Borda Institute

•  With its newfound passion for democracy and self-determination, I hope that the Russian Duma will now support referendums in Chechnya and North Ossetia to enable those people to decide whether they want to remain in Russia.
Bashyr Aziz
Pelsall, West Midlands

•  Crimea was part of Russia for centuries. The Russian government has merely reversed Khrushchev’s arbitrary 1954 decision to give Crimea to Ukraine. This is a unique case. Nowhere else has been given away, without its consent, by its government. So there is no need for alarm.
Will Podmore
London

•  Can someone tell me why it was OK to bomb Serbia for not letting go of Kosovo, but to reward Ukraine for not letting go of Crimea? Must be a good reason if only i could think of it.
Bruce Kent
London

 

The letter (15 March) from Gail Chester and 31 others protesting about the relocation of the Women’s Library from London Met to the LSE reads like a list of personal axes to grind. Surely it is time to look at the bigger picture and for all of us who cherish and love the Women’s Library to now support it in its new home. At long last, I dare to hope that this irreplaceable archive will be secure for future generations – academics and the general public – to appreciate. We are where we are, and we owe it to all the women in the past whose struggles are carefully documented in the library to show that we can and will pull together on this issue.
June Purvis
University of Portsmouth

• I was reassured to read Elizabeth Chapman’s account of the place of the Women’s Library at LSE (Letters, 15 March). One advantage offered at the Aldgate site was to mothers who were allowed to study in the reading room with their babies, on condition that the babies did not disturb other readers. This was a wonderful opportunity for mothers who could then study, without needing to find someone else to care for their babies. I wonder whether LSE can offer a similar option.
Naomi Stadlen
London

 

Tristram Hunt (Comment, 13 March) is right that “school inspections must be free of political meddling”, that Michael Gove‘s policy of “forced academisation” is disastrous, and that “we need to disaggregate curriculum from qualifications; question the breadth of provision; and highlight the broader function of schooling in building character and resilience in young people”.

He is also right in his critique of Ofsted – but doesn’t go far enough. Over the years it has often been a ruthless enforcer of government policies with a narrow vision of education that has ignored local circumstances; for many teachers its inspectors are fear-inducing and unsupportive; for headteachers an adverse report may cost their job; and overall it seems to promote a bullying culture in school staffrooms which would not be tolerated in playgrounds. It is time to close down Ofsted – and save £70m of the national schools budget.

Schools aren’t factories and don’t need tick-box inspection: to raise their profile they need dialogue with experienced fellow professionals. That can come from local authority inspectors who understand local problems, from colleagues in neighbouring schools on the basis of school self-evaluation, and from teacher-trainers at the local university. Schools improve from the inside – through collegial discussion of staff, drawing on views of parents, community support, local governors and fellow educators – not from the outside in the form of quick in-and-out visits by Ofsted inspectors.
Professor Michael Bassey
Newark, Nottinghamshire

•  Tristram Hunt’s confirmation that, as secretary of state, he would guarantee the independence of Ofsted and ensure that all schools funded by the taxpayer are open to inspection is welcome. So too is his recognition that there is far more to a good education than can be recorded in tickable boxes. It is now time for him to ask himself whether England should remain the only country in Europe to attempt to manage thousands of schools by means of contracts with an individual government minister. Academy “freedoms” are important but can perfectly well be secured by other means. Contracts are proving unenforceable and ludicrously inefficient. They would remain so even when managed by a more competent secretary of state than the present one.
Peter Newsam
Thornton Dale, North Yorkshire

•  Some of the suggestions made by the Policy Exchange review about the inspection of schools are helpful, but overall they are dangerous to the future of our children and our country (Ofsted needs shorter inspections and better use of data – thinktank, 17 March). Yes, more frequent visits by better-qualified inspectors could be valuable, as would a shift of emphasis towards helping schools to improve their performances – both to make what is being done more effective and to respond to changes in the world in which we live.

However, to rely on test results to judge schools and decide whether and how they should change would be disastrous. Already there is far too little time observing teaching and talking with teachers and children. I know of a six-class school judged on the basis of six lessons being seen. Test results are never perfect. By 13 years of age it was shown that 10% of children were misplaced under the old 11-plus system, and the percentage rose with age. The tests given today are also far too narrow to provide an adequate picture of a school’s performance. Our children need a broadly based education that will enable them to take a positive and effective part in the world about them.

Children’s education needs to proceed from where they are, and so does the development of a school.
Professor Norman Thomas
(Former HMI), St Albans, Hertfordshire

•  The Policy Exchange report on inspection makes many good points but fails to get at the heart of the inspection process. Evaluating a school without observing work in class is akin to reviewing a play or a concert without having seen it performed. It can be done, it probably has been done, but it should not be done.
Professor Colin Richards
(Former HMI), Spark Bridge, Cumbria

• The Kent LEA “Protocol for what happens to a headteacher if/when their school receives a poor Ofsted report” (Headteachers face up to the prospect of being ‘disappeared’, 11 March) should be no surprise. Heads have been losing their jobs in reaction to Ofsted inspections for a long time.

Now, only the most driven individuals would wish to take a job which has to be one of the most vulnerable leadership roles in professional life. When an inspection goes badly, the talent and years of hard work invested often count for nothing. Many headteachers have had their careers tarnished, or wrecked, by the implementation of Ofsted’s approach. In turn this “zero-tolerance” approach is replicated by both local authorities and central government, who fear being seen as weak in their management of schools. Fear and intolerance permeate the system.

The paradox here is that we fete and honour successful headteachers. In psychological language, there is a powerful split at work here, based on our own experiences of having once been schoolchildren ourselves. On the one hand we idealise headteachers (and teachers generally) who are perceived as “good”, but we cannot bear the idea of “failing” school leaders or schools. Our politicians and Ofsted have played into this simplistic formula for too long.

It seems Ofsted may slowly be realising that for schools they approve of, the threat of public exposure and professional punishment for “failure” is not the answer. It is not the answer for schools which are struggling, either.
Dr Phil Goss
(Former headteacher), Kirkby Lonsdale

• Teachers are leading the transformation of English education, and your misleading article (Inside the A* factory, Weekend, 15 March) undermines their enormous efforts. We have given teachers more freedom: the new national curriculum states what children need to know, rather than telling teachers how to teach, and Ofsted has made it clear it will focus on whether children are learning, rather than interfering in how teachers teach. That makes teachers more important. Thanks to them, 250,000 fewer children are now in failing secondary schools, while we have the highest-ever number of children doing subjects like chemistry and physics.

Your article also described a “demoralised” profession working in an “exam factory”. But we have got rid of GCSE modules, and moved to linear A-levels with exams only at the end of the course, hugely reducing the number of tests children sit. Meanwhile we have the best generation of teachers ever. New teachers are half as likely to switch to another career as other graduates. Teach First, which recruits more teachers than ever, is ranked the third-best graduate employer in the country. We have the highest-ever proportion of new teachers with top degrees, and our teachers are paid more, and promoted more quickly, than in most developed countries.

Your failure to report the real story of English education – of a transformed system and brilliant teachers – undermines teachers and the work that they do.
Elizabeth Truss MP
Education minister

One of the attractions of towers for developers (The only way is up…, 13 March) is that they can almost be guaranteed to be free of social rented housing; five such developments at the Elephant and Castle – Tribeca Square, Strata Tower, 360 Tower, Eileen House, One the Elephant – have not a single social rented unit between them. In every instance the developer has successfully argued that the scheme simply would not be financially viable if it had to have social rented housing; as a consequence, while towers sprout up in Southwark its housing list, currently 20,000, just continues to grow.
Jerry Flynn
35 Percent campaign, London

• Ironically, the outcome of your efforts to have Prince Charles’ letters published under the Freedom of Information Act (Report, 13 March) will have the effect of stifling freedom of expression. Who in the future will ever commit their opinions and thoughts to paper in the expectation of privacy when there will be every chance that those opinions and thoughts will be made public one day?
Gaynor Clements
Elsworth, Cambridgeshire

• Terry Eagleton (Molly Bloom without the swear words, Review, 15 March) need not fear: the theologians cracked the Lenten drinking impasse by establishing a league table of days. A national solemnity easily trumps a weekday in Lent, so your St Patrick’s Day pint is perfectly in order. (Alas, finding a way to bless the love of two men or women still eludes us.)
Fr Wealands Bell
London

•  Steve Bell’s cartoon strip (If… flashback, G2, 12 March) refers to the royal eminence as the “Chooky Edinburgh”. As any Scot could advise, the correct phrase is “Chooky Embra”. Ya mug ye.
David Stevenson
York

• Why can’t the remains of Richard III be shared between York and Leicester (Editorial, 15 March)? One foot in each grave…
Tully Potter
Billericay, Essex

• How refreshing to find that nine out of 10 of the young G2 editors (Generation Y takeover, 15 March) are female. Does that mean Fred will make the tea?
Sue Morhall
Chelmsford, Essex

 

 

 

Fifteen years ago on 18 March 1999, the then prime minister’s pledge to end child poverty led to all of the leading parties coming together with a promise that child poverty in the UK would be ended by 2020. This historic move made child poverty a political priority and led to huge progress.

As charities and frontline organisations, we saw what this change meant for struggling families. There was a dramatic rise in investment in childcare, better early-years support through Sure Start, crucial child benefit and child tax credit support, and major improvements in lone-parent employment rates. The fall in UK child poverty in the years leading up to 2008 was the largest of any OECD nation in the world.

Alarmingly, that trend is now in reverse; child poverty is on the rise. The Institute for Fiscal Studies warns that by 2020 – the year by which the government committed to tackle this crisis – nearly one million more children will be in poverty compared to the current official figures. And the government’s consultation on its draft child poverty strategy promises very little that might alter this course.

Effective solutions are possible – the evidence is clear. We need politicians to commit to tackle low pay, put an end to families having to choose between heating and eating, bring down unaffordable rents, and help make work pay by providing more help with the costs of childcare.

Politics is about promises and priorities. Whether it’s when the chancellor stands up to deliver the budget on Wednesday or when parties start to write their manifestos for the next election. It’s time our political leaders kept their promises and made ending child poverty a priority once again.
Alison Garnham Chief executive, Child Poverty Action Group, Neera Sharma Assistant director of policy and research, Barnardo’s, Matthew Reed Chief executive, The Children’s Society, Anne Longfield Chief executive, 4Childre, Fiona Weir Chief executive, Gingerbread, Sol Oyuela Public affairs director, Unicef UK, Dr Hilary Emery Chief executive, National Children’s Bureau, Susanne Rauprich Chief executive, NCVYS, David Holmes Chief executive, Family Action

 

 

Independent:

Extending HS2 Phase One to Crewe, as proposed by Sir David Higgins, is a substantial amendment to the original plans, which have gone out to recent public consultation, and may be seen in some quarters as a distress signal for the entire project.

With the cities of Derby, Sheffield and Stoke all making convincing cases for city-centre stations, and digital technology radically changing the way that business is conducted, is it now time to go back to first principles and design a scheme which meets the aspirations of the UK as a whole?

High Speed Rail and the expansion and modernisation of the existing UK rail system are both excellent objectives, but we need to future-proof them and make them attractive to private investment.

Dr John Disney, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University

The Government’s enthusiasm for HS2 is difficult to comprehend. Apparently, we don’t have the funds to support the disadvantaged in our society. Neither can we afford to carry out basic maintenance work. The national debt stands in excess of £1trn and we know that further massive cutbacks will have to be made following the next general election.

Miraculously, however, we apparently do have in excess of £40bn to spare to fund this rail scheme. Never mind that, by the Government’s own figures, the business case for it is at best flimsy, at worst, non-existent. Apart from being morally outrageous, HS2 appears to be financial madness on an epic scale.

Keith O’Neill, Shrewsbury

Hear, hear for HS2. We invented railways. The UK is small and overcrowded, ideal territory for railways. This will take freight off the roads. Japan has had bullet trains for decades; Europe is well trained.

We should start building it from the north and south now, not least while money is cheap. And there are the jobs – please, priority for UK residents.

Protesters have justifiable worries. As in France, HS2 should be in cuttings, landscaped, tunnelled. The sooner we do it the better.

Ebbsfleet on HS1 is to be developed. HS2 will do the same for the North. It will make for a more united country.

I hope all the political parties will support this endeavour.

Rosanne Bostock, Oxford

Crimea votes to go back to Russia

Isn’t the furore in Western governments about the referendum in Crimea a bit rich? They say the vote is illegal because it took place under conditions of Russian occupation. So does that mean that the elections in Iraq and Afghanistan which took place under Western military occupation where also illegal?

I wonder how Western governments would have liked it if after they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan China and Russia had imposed sanctions on them?

Mark Holt , Liverpool

We all are horrified by the appalling behaviour of the Russians; they have invaded land that is not legally theirs. We have gone to the UN to prove our case. But all the people who have looked at Crimea know the wishes and preferences of the majority of those who live there. However we in the West are now about to impose sanctions to try to reverse their aggression.

But hang on, did not our PM, that principled politician, denounce sanctions against Israel being called for on behalf of a people whose land is being invaded and constantly stolen by that country, or am I missing something?

Peter Downey, Wellow, Somerset

Crimea was part of Russia for centuries. The Russian government has merely reversed Khrushchev’s arbitrary 1954 decision to give Crimea to Ukraine.

This is a unique case. Nowhere else has been given away, without its consent, by its government. There is no need for alarm.

Will Podmore, London E12

From Bath to  Brussels with Ukip

Steve Richards (Voices, 11 March) visited Bath and observed: “The Lib Dems face a daunting challenge at the next election. I spent a few days in Bath last week, a seat currently held by them, and kept on bumping into people who had voted for Clegg’s party last time but who insist they will not do so next year even if that means the constituency elects a Tory MP.”

It is true that the popularity of the Lib Dems has plummeted nationally. They cannot rely on the incumbency factor in Bath because the Lib Dem MP Don Foster will be retiring in 2015. Labour do not have much support in Bath. However it is not at all certain that the Tory candidate would be elected.

Ukip has a local candidate, Julian Deverell, who has plenty of good contacts and roots locally. The Tory candidate has been parachuted in from London, and his campaigning to date has been sporadic. Ukip has an excellent chance of electoral success in Bath.

The first King of all England, Edgar the Peaceable, was crowned in Bath in 973, in the Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church. It would be fitting for a patriotic Englishman to be elected to represent Bath in 2015.

Hugo Jenks, Bathampton, Bath and North east Somerset

Is there any European measure that Ukip would vote for? I ask because, having checked what UK MEPs did in last week’s European Parliament vote on forcing mobile phone manufacturers to all use the same design of charger, I see that Ukip’s MEPs voted against.

Ukip bangs on about supposedly defending Britain from Brussels meddling, but if that meddling means I can recharge my iPhone when I forget to take my charger with me to work, then I am all for it. Ukip seem so blinded by their rejection of anything European they’ll even vote against perfectly sensible measures like this.

Stuart Bonar, London W1

Earworms show a brain in good shape?

Howard Jacobson (15 March) bemoans the presence of the earworm, the tune that lodges in the brain, and suggests that it might be ruinous to our mental health.

But hold on. In an experiment conducted by the teacher of a class of excessively disruptive boys, she found that playing classical music quietly in the background  had a calming effect on their behaviour. She went on to discover that the music of Mozart was more calming than that of any other composer. I am sure Howard Jacobson would understand that.

The theory was then put forward that by composing his ethereal music, Mozart was treating his own Tourette’s syndrome, often associated with the exclamation of obscene words, or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.

In a ward of people suffering from Alzheimer’s, I often found that despite the absence of any memory for the past, they would sing songs in tune and word-perfect, presumably indicating that the part of the brain in which Howard Jacobson’s “earthworm” had burrowed had remained intact. So the ohrwurm is not all bad news.

Dr Nick Maurice, Marlborough, Wiltshire

The case for taxing mansions

Nick Eastwell writes that the “mansion tax” is unjust because some people may never have had enough income to pay, and that they will only be subject to the tax because their house is an asset that bears no resemblance to the original purchase price (letter, 12 March).

In other words they have a substantial potential, but not realised, capital gain. In principle this is analogous to a family who have a child at university and thus have a spare bedroom. The Government expects them to downsize if they have insufficient income to pay council tax. Why should the same not apply to those who live in mansions?

Vaughan Clarke, Colchester, Essex

That dog is a German spy

Spy dogs (Natalie Haynes, Another Voice, 14 March) were apparently taken seriously during the Second World War, when my aunt and uncle and their young son left London to live in Hythe in Kent.

My cousin had always wanted a dog, and became very attached to one belonging to neighbours, which regularly followed him to school. As a newcomer, wanting to impress the other children, he invented a tale about the dog being a German spy, parachuted on to the beach.

My aunt knew nothing of this until two very intimidating policeman arrived at the door, wanting to know where the dog had come from.

Laura F Spira, Oxford

Talking the talk with Tony Benn

I totally get that Tony Benn talked a lot of good left-wing stuff. But can someone please tell me, what did he actually do about it?

Prue Bray, Winnersh,  Berkshire

 

 

Times:

 

 

Many parents want their children’s school to espouse the values that they learn at home

Sir, Further to Philip Collins on faith schools (Opinion, Mar 14), my wife and I thought hard before sending our daughters to a Jewish primary school.

Amid the moral decline in our increasingly secular society, we felt that the values that underpin our lives would not be emphasised in a non-denominational school. The values of the home and the school should not contradict each other.

We are not Charedi Jews like those of Stamford Hill that Philip Collins lived alongside. My children had access to television and points of view that were different to ours. They knew by watching soap operas that there were values being expressed that we opposed. They were able to make their life choices in the knowledge of what was available outside the home and the school. However, the school supplemented the values of the home and meant that they had a solid core of beliefs and practice to use as their yardstick as they entered a multicultural adult life.

Jeremy Michelson

Manchester

Sir, Philip Collins seeks to undermine the sincerely held beliefs of faith communities, focusing much of his attention on my own community and the school of which I am chairman of governors.

He casts us as discriminating against poor families when in fact many of our students come from underprivileged backgrounds.

He misrepresents the value of faith schools. We have never suggested that faith is a “determining factor” for a good school but we do believe that it is right for us.

The State respects our right as a community to make that decision for ourselves and although Mr Collins pours scorn on our arrangement with an examining body which allows us to redact certain questions in accordance with our values, it is precisely that set of values that make us a school that has never had a problem with drugs, crime, underage pregnancies and countless other issues that blight many mainstream schools.

We would never seek to impose our values of Mr Collins; we only ask that he extend us the same courtesy.

Theo Bibelman

Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School

LONDON N16

Sir, Philip Collins fails to distinguish between faith schools and church schools. The former do indeed select pupils on the basis of Christian (let us say) observance, but the latter do not. They accept all comers from their local area, irrespective of faith, or lack of it. They are best seen as the Church’s gift to the community. Yet these schools are often highly successful and popular with parents. Mr Collins should ask himself why this is. The answer lies in the ethos of such schools, which frequently combines the drive for the highest academic standards with outstanding pastoral care. This is based on the Christian values of mutual respect and support, showing compassion towards the needy, cherishing and enriching each individual and demonstrating forgiveness and trust when difficulties occur in relationships.

Mr Collins is, of course, correct to emphasise the importance of the quality of teaching, but it is only when the ethos is right that both teachers and pupils can achieve to the maximum of their potential.

Roy Ludlow

Winsley, Somerset

 

Western doubters about the referendum in Crimea forget that many of its people regard themselves as Russians

Sir, In the 1990s I made frequent calls at the port of Kerch, in eastern Crimea, as master of a merchant ship.

Shipmasters have contact with a number of locals — shipping agents, customs and immigration officials, pilots, dockworkers and the military guarding the port installations. All were ethnic Russians, who formed the large majority in Crimea. None had a good word to say about Crimea’s inclusion in the Ukrainian Republic and all desired reunification with Russia.

Peter Adams

Lambley, Notts

Sir, Crimea was part of Russia for centuries. Russia has merely reversed Khrushchev’s arbitrary 1954 decision to give Crimea to Ukraine.

Will Podmore

London E12

Sir, Mr Putin will succeed in annexing the Crimea but he will be defying international law, and this challenge must be met with an equal determination to support defenceless Ukraine with political and economic sanctions. Ordinary citizens can play a part. Professional people of every kind, athletes, and ordinary tourists should cancel any forthcoming visits to Russia. In response to aggressive state-controlled Russian media foreign journalists should take every opportunity to remind Russia that while it may have a long established interest in Crimea, this does not nullify either the legal rights of Ukraine or the moral rights of the Crimean Tartars. The very name Crimea (Turkish in origin) tells us who has the better claim to this much fought over peninsula. The poor Crimean Tartars were, along with Ukrainians, victims of Stalin’s genocidal policies. Only when Russia officially abandons its deplorable admiration for Stalin and his equally evil predecessor Lenin, will there be any hope for true democracy in Russia.

John Kenrick

Newcastle upon Tyne

 

Women who find it too expensive go back into skilled employment after having children are a loss to the economy

Sir, John McTernan (Thunderer, Mar 15) says childcare is expensive for a few years but then gets relatively cheaper. He fails to appreciate that in those early few years women leave the labour market because it’s too expensive to go back to work.

According to the Resolution Foundation and Mumsnet, two in three mothers say the high cost of childcare is a barrier to work. And as a result, maternal employment rates are poor compared with our economic competitors. Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) analysis shows maternal employment rates for mothers, with their youngest child aged between 3 and 5, lower than the OECD average (58 per cent, compared to 64 per cent); and the gender pay gap is growing for the first time in 15 years.

Not only is this a waste of talent and, in many cases, trained and skilled workers, it’s holding the economy back. So it’s not “hope” that makes Labour determined to tackle this Government’s childcare crunch of rising prices, falling places and cuts to support but necessity. Indeed early work from the IPPR shows that even modest increases in supply-side childcare support would raise £1.5bn in tax receipts and reduced benefits alone. Labour’s plans to extend free childcare for working parents with 3 and 4-year-olds is a fully costed proposal that will help make work pay and break down barriers to the labour market for women.

Lucy Powell, MP

Shadow Minister for Childcare and Children

 

Children suffering stress from overparenting is a sensitive and serious issue which needs careful handling

Sir, Being a mother of three children and living in the aspirational middle England I was interested in High Investment Parenting (HIP) (Weekend, Mar 15). I like to think that I don’t put my children above my marriage and that I achieve a healthy balance in my family life. I don’t need to get my children into any top schools or run them to clubs as a full time hobby. I enjoyed the article very much until I came to do the quiz. I understand that it was tongue in cheek, but I was not able to answer any of the questions. I was neither (a) a HIP parent, (b) a workaholic, (c) or a Peter Pan character.

Children suffering from stress due to over-parenting is a sensitive and serious issue and should be dealt with as such. It is possible to be lighthearted while being meaningful. I would have liked this quiz to be meaningful.

Abigail Macfarlane

Stratford upon Avon

 

Women who find it too expensive go back into skilled employment after having children are a loss to the economy

Sir, John McTernan (Thunderer, Mar 15) says childcare is expensive for a few years but then gets relatively cheaper. He fails to appreciate that in those early few years women leave the labour market because it’s too expensive to go back to work.

According to the Resolution Foundation and Mumsnet, two in three mothers say the high cost of childcare is a barrier to work. And as a result, maternal employment rates are poor compared with our economic competitors. Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) analysis shows maternal employment rates for mothers, with their youngest child aged between 3 and 5, lower than the OECD average (58 per cent, compared to 64 per cent); and the gender pay gap is growing for the first time in 15 years.

Not only is this a waste of talent and, in many cases, trained and skilled workers, it’s holding the economy back. So it’s not “hope” that makes Labour determined to tackle this Government’s childcare crunch of rising prices, falling places and cuts to support but necessity. Indeed early work from the IPPR shows that even modest increases in supply-side childcare support would raise £1.5bn in tax receipts and reduced benefits alone. Labour’s plans to extend free childcare for working parents with 3 and 4-year-olds is a fully costed proposal that will help make work pay and break down barriers to the labour market for women.

Lucy Powell, MP

Shadow Minister for Childcare and Children

 

UK fuel duty is among the highest in the EU — a cut in the Budget would be a shot in the arm for the economy

Sir, British drivers pay the EU’s highest duty for diesel and the second highest for petrol. This is disadvantaging millions of families and businesses, reducing consumer spending power, strangling the UK haulage industry and leading to higher prices all round. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has estimated that a 3p cut in duty would create 70,000 jobs and increase GDP by 0.2 per cent.

We believe that a 3p per litre duty cut for all vehicle fuels in the Budget would be prudent fiscal planning and an essential pillar of the Government’s strategy for economic regeneration based on increased consumer spending.

Quentin Willson

Howard Cox

FairFuelUK Campaign

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – Those of us directly affected, as I was as the father of Flora, murdered at Lockerbie by the terrorist destruction of Pan Am 103 in December 1988, will never forget the short interval during which we were unable to confirm whether our families were known to have died.

Then came September 11 2001, where one of the planes was hijacked only to crash, near Pittsburgh, as a result of brave attempted intervention by the passengers.

The augmented anguish of the families of passengers on flight MH370, caused by the week-long absence of certainty over whether this was structural failure, sabotage or a hijack, must be terminated by discovery of the plane’s fate.

This time the relatives do not even know whether their loved ones are dead or possibly alive in central Asia or even an Indian Ocean island.

We would beg that all the satellites and drones, all the radars, and all the intelligence services of the world, never mind whether Chinese, American or Malaysian, be deployed to their utmost to give certainty to the relatives.

Anything less is to connive in torture of the most hideous kind.

Dr Jim Swire
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

Statins and muscle pain

SIR – I can add myself to the acquaintances of Robert Hurran (Letters, March 15) who experienced agonising muscular pains after being prescribed statins.

I didn’t, initially, realise the cause until, fortunately, I read an article in the Telegraph describing the possible side effects. I spoke to my doctor, who tried me on a different brand, but the problem did not go away.

I decided to cease taking them, of my own volition, and relief was almost immediate, with complete recovery in about seven days. I have since spoken to a number of others who have suffered without knowing the cause.

The medical profession seems loath to warn patients unless questioned directly.

Charles Dobson
Burton in Kendal, Westmorland

SIR – Last year, your columnist Dr James Le Fanu highlighted the issue.

With the support of my GP, who said that one in 200 people is prone to adverse side effects, I stopped taking statins.

Three months later all the muscular symptoms had gone. I reverted to a halved dose and they have half returned.

Who do we believe, and why?

Neil Blake

Ewelme, Oxfordshire

Grains down the drain

SIR – I open all paper bags of sugar (Letters, March 14) by holding them over the sink – less mess. There must be a better way of packaging sugar.

Jeanette Green
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire

SIR – You stand your Tate & Lyle packet inside a Tupperware box. Then and only then do you cut open the packet and pour the sugar into the container. You won’t lose a grain. The same goes for Weetabix.

Rosmarie Hall
Canterbury, Kent

SIR – Captains of industry are well rewarded enough to be able to pay others to open their packets of sugar and breakfast cereals. If they themselves had to open the packets and contend with the spillage, the problems would soon be fixed. I feel this is a strong argument in favour of pay restraint at the top.

Ian Macpherson
Guildford, Surrey

 

 

SIR – During the war, when I was a baby, my mother heard that a local shop had a delivery of bananas (Letters, March 14).

I was pushed there in my pram and parked outside the shop while my mother made her purchase. So delighted was she that it was not until she arrived home that she realised she had the bananas but not the baby.

Hilary Phillips
London W5

SIR – I remember being bitterly disappointed when bananas finally became available because they were not juicy. I’d had the occasional oranges, which were available on children’s ration books during the latter part of the war.

Bananas are still not my favourite fruit. It amazes me, though, that they remain so cheap compared with other fruits.

Jill Forrest
Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire

SIR – The sham referendum in Crimea gives Russia a pretext for annexation. For President Vladimir Putin, demographic change there (with growing Tatar and Ukrainian populations, combined with a younger generation less in sympathy with Russian domination) means that events in Kiev have given him a one-off opportunity, which he intends to take.

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, needs to show his teeth. Britain clearly does not have the appetite to confront Russia militarily, although a limited deployment in Ukraine would still stop Mr Putin in his tracks.

As it is, Mr Putin will continue to roll the dice. That gambling is of grave concern, not just to the rest of Ukraine, but also to our Nato allies in eastern Europe. It will be deeply destabilising.

Unless Mr Cameron does show his teeth, the comparison with Chamberlain will become irresistible.

Martin Potter
Bristol

SIR – On the legality of yesterday’s referendum in international law, it should be recalled that, in 2010, the International Court of Justice issued its advisory opinion that Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia (February 17 2008) did not violate international law. To date, 110 states have recognised Kosovo.

The 1994 Budapest memorandum on security assurances, provided to Ukraine by Britain, the United States and Russia, did not guarantee the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Instead the powers agreed “to respect” Ukraine’s borders. The difference between guaranteeing and respecting is the same in international law as in ordinary language. A guarantee can be cashed; respect is a matter of degree.

The powers agreed to take the matter to the Security Council if Ukraine faced a nuclear threat; in other circumstances they agreed to consult.

Cornelia Navari
Visiting Professor of International Affairs
University of Buckingham

SIR – Mr Putin says that Crimea is more important to Russia than the Falklands to Britain. That may be so, but in drawing this parallel does he not understand that Russia is taking the part of Argentina?

John Pope
Ivybridge, Devon

SIR – It would be bizarre to start military actions against Russia over Crimea, as the people of Crimea welcome the chance to be Russian again.

Corry Lilley
West Wittering, West Sussex

SIR – At least they’ve had an in/out vote.

Maggie Hughes
Gnosall, Staffordshire

SIR – Does the referendum promoted by Russia in Crimea imply that Russia will now be pleased to support such referendums in its own country?

Ralph Bradley
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Garden city jobs

SIR – George Osborne should observe that housing is needed where there is work. Building a city in the middle of nowhere will succeed in inflating the housing bubble but will not solve the problems of people seeking housing near to their jobs.

Dr Robert J Leeming
Balsall Common, Warwickshire

Ball and cross

SIR – Another footballer who won the VC in the First World War (Letters, March 15) was L/Cpl William Angus. He played for Celtic and Enlisted with the Highland Light Infantry as a territorial. His VC was for rescuing his officer under fire at Givenchy.

Phil Angus
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

SIR – Bernard Vann was not the only Church of England clergyman to earn a Victoria Cross. The Rev Theodore Bayley Hardy, chaplain to the Lincolnshire Regiment, won the VC, DSO and MC for a succession of heroic rescues of wounded men under fire, even though he was over 50 years of age when he joined up in 1916.

When George V presented his VC in France, he appointed him one of his chaplains, to save him from further danger. Hardy declined the offer and, three weeks before the armistice, he was killed.

Aidan Tolhurst
London SW14

Badger debating

SIR – Much as I love badgers, I wonder if more important issues might concern Parliament. It wasted much time on fox hunting; they are still being hunted.

Bill Thompson
Frankby, Wirral

Uncommon market

SIR – European Union citizenship is reported to have been bought for £150,000. Where can I sell mine?

A D Gatling
Berwick St James, Wiltshire

Heroic failure

SIR – The Royal Society of Arts (report, March 14) suggests the word fail be excised from educational vocabulary. Would it approve of the report of a friend of mine: “Tries, but useless”?

Mark Solon
London N1

Tony Benn’s no entry sign

SIR – I was brought up to judge a person by what he did rather than what he said. The most conspicuous act of Tony Benn I can remember was to refuse those walking along the Essex coast to pass in front of Stansgate Abbey, his ancestral home. They were told to go round the back, despite their having a legal right to walk along the foreshore.

David Crawford
Llandudno, Conwy

SIR – Evidence of Tony Benn’s economic illiteracy is his remark: “We had full employment when we were killing the Germans. Why can’t we have full employment when we’re building hospitals?” We ended the war bankrupt, and owing vast sums to America.

David Watkins
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

SIR – I am surprised no one has pointed out that Tony Benn was the only British politician to appear in a Superman story. He was prime minister of a Soviet satellite British state in the story “Red Son”.

The storyline is based on Superman having landed in Soviet era Ukraine rather than Kansas. The result is that he helps a form of Stalinism to take over the whole globe (except the United States).

Alan Crerar
Swindon, Wiltshire

SIR – My wife and I once went to see Tony Bennett at the Royal Festival Hall. Tony Benn was appearing next door at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. One man was wandering round looking bemused, having got into the wrong venue.

Les Sharp
Hersham, Surrey

 

 

 

Irish Times:

 

Sir, – Any suggestion that our education system has been “dumbed down” should be viewed in the context of the shift in expectations that has occurred over the last few decades (Dumbing-down will ‘screw up’ economy, Morgan Kelly warns”, Home News, March 10th).

While a good education is a desirable asset perhaps it has all gone too far, as now every child is expected to aspire to reach third-level.

Not only that, but our institutes of technology are hoping to achieve university status, putting further emphasis on the fact that a third-level degree is now a basic requirement for most jobs. Several decades ago it was possible and normal to find employment with just a Leaving Certificate qualification. The Civil Service and companies such as Aer Lingus, RTÉ, and most of the banks were happy to accept employees straight from school who received on-the-job training – and several went on to hold senior positions within those organisations. Only a small number of candidates went to university, where entry requirements varied but in some cases amounted solely to an ability to pay the fees. There was no pressure on students or schools to attain high CAO point levels or the status of degrees.

I am not advocating a return to the situation where only the privileged few could attend university, but many current students are attending university not because they want to be there but because it is expected of them. School league tables and the allocation of places based on the popularity of courses, which dictates the points required, have both contributed to an intense pressure on children to perform.

Students of average ability, the majority in any society, often struggle to reach their target point level while their parents struggle to get additional tuition for them in an attempt to secure their child’s future. It is this madness, rather than a “dumbing down” of exams, that has led to students achieving higher grades in exams. The emergence of a market in grind schools is proof of this.

Children have to wait for their CAO offer to discover what place they have been allocated, and rather than studying something they have an interest in, they often get allocated something they are unsuited to. It is perceived that any degree is better than no degree, and those who leave the education system with just a Leaving Certificate find it difficult to get anything other than low-paid work.

A third-level qualification has become a basic necessity, but worse than that, more and more graduates find themselves having to embark on further studies such as masters degrees and doctorates to stand out from the crowd and get employment in their field. It is therefore inevitable that our universities have many students of average ability registered, but it is not the answer to make exams more difficult and fail them. They have been led to believe that society will judge them based on their academic achievements, and the annual media interest in school results and points levels bears this out.

An alternative would be to reduce the emphasis on school league tables and points by offering a suitable alternative to university degrees for more students. Further investment in post-Leaving Cert courses, where a broader range of courses could be offered in State-run colleges that would confer a qualification acceptable to relevant employers, is an option. The institutes of technology could be used for this purpose rather than upgrading them to university status, and potential employers could be involved in designing modules that would give students required skills. The current range of courses offered in universities could then be modified to avoid competition.

It is time to change the perception that every child has to get a degree and that every college has to be a university to be valued. Then, and only then, can we consider making third-level exams harder. – Yours, etc,

BA KEOGH,

Stonepark Abbey,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – Morgan Kelly warns that “despite the IT revolution”, administration has grown at an alarming rate in the university sector. Surely it is partly because of the IT revolution that this expansion has occurred? All that management software has to be used to justify the expense of both itself and management.

With this IT revolution has come the advancement of the institutes of technology. Paul Hannigan, the chairman of Institutes of Technology Ireland, wants more profiling of the customer, calling for more data to be be collected in the “handshake” between second and third level (“Why colleges need to know their students better, Education, March 11th). This, he asserts, is to help the institutes to “contextualise” academic results, “ease the transition” of students, gain a more “holistic view” of them in order to “enhance services” – all of this designed to better retain the students, to maintain those bums on seats.

This edu-business babble is embarrassing. What next – loyalty cards to gain academic credits?

With the institutes represented as having such an academic wish-list by their spokesman, Prof Kelly must view the institutes of technology on the march to university status “as further evidence that Irish universities are beyond repair”. – Yours, etc,

JUNE O’REILLY,

Lecturer in Communication,

Cork Institute

of Technology.

 

Sir, – Jim Lawless (March 10th) drew attention to deficiencies he perceives in our national approach to the medical catastrophe of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Because interventional radiological and neurosurgical services cannot be provided at local hospital levels, it is incumbent upon providers to ensure timely access to these services at specialist centres.

Appropriate urgent care will predictably improve survival and reduce disability in this clinical scenario.

We, the Council of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland (ICSI), wish to commend Mr Lawless on his motivation to address this matter and indeed on how constructively he has directed his grief following his wife’s tragic death toward better outcomes for others.

Definitive resolution of the problems relating to SAH will require a coordinated and multidisciplinary approach. However, we would emphasise that neurosurgical emergencies are among many acute medical and surgical scenarios which require immediate intensive-care admission. In such circumstances, rapid access to intensive care and its ancillary services is crucial.

The report Toward Excellence in Critical Care , by management consultants Prospectus, commissioned by the HSE in 2008, outlined Ireland’s need for intensive-care unit resources. The standards at the time of publication fell far short of those required.

While some of its broad-reaching findings and recommendations are being addressed, the overarching requirement was for a doubling of intensive-care unit bed capacity by 2020.

Halfway through this timeframe, bed capacity has actually been actively reduced.

We in the ICSI feel obliged to highlight the necessity for an expansion of critical care capacity.

For any patient faced with an acute life-threatening illness, delay in accessing intensive care units demonstrably reduces the prospect of survival.

As regards subarachnoid haemorrhage, whilst more research on outcomes is welcome and essential, the immediate emphasis should be on ensuring timely access to adequate critical care resources for all patients who need them. The case for this can be predicated on existing data. – Yours, etc,

Dr PATRICK SEIGNE,

Dr BRIAN O’BRIEN,

Dr IVAN HAYES,

Dr ROBERT PLANT,

Dr DOROTHY BREEN,

Consultants in

Intensive Care Medicine,

Cork University Hospital;

Dr RORY DWYER,

Consultant in Intensive Care

Medicine,

Beaumont Hospital;

Dr CATHERINE

MOTHERWAY,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine,

Mid-Western Regional

Hospital, Limerick;

Dr EILIS CONDON,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine, James

Connolly Hospital, Dublin;

Dr IAN CONRICK-MARTIN,

Specialist Registrar in

Intensive Care Medicine,

The Mater Misericordiae

University Hospital, Dublin;

Dr MARIA DONNELLY,

Dr ARABELLA FAHY,

Consultants in

Intensive Care Medicine,

Tallaght Hospital;

Dr VIDA HAMILTON,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine,

Waterford Regional

Hospital;

Dr BRIAN MARSH,

Consultant in Intensive Care

Medicine, The Mater,

Dublin.

Dr PATRICK NELIGAN,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine,

University College

Hospital, Galway.

Dr RUTH-AOIBHEANN

O’LEARY,

Specialist Registrar in

Intensive Care Medicine,

The Mater, Dublin;

Dr ELLEN O’SULLIVAN,

Consultant Anaesthetist,

St James’s Hospital, Dublin;

Dr DERMOT PHELAN,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine, The Mater,

Dublin;

Dr DONAL RYAN,

Consultant in Intensive Care

Medicine, St. Vincent’s

University Hospital;

Dr MICHAEL SCULLY,

Consultant in Intensive

Care Medicine, University

College Hospital, Galway ;

Dr ANDREW

WESTBROOK, Consultant

in Intensive Care Medicine,

St Vincent’s University

Hospital;

The Intensive Care

Medicine Society of Ireland,

22 Merrion Square North,

Dublin 2.

 

 

Sir, – There are real educational issues, and there are spurious educational issues. Talk to any primary school teacher who was around in the Celtic Tiger years and you will be told that the extra resources that were made available to schools, during that period, made a huge difference to children with learning difficulties. By the same token, withdrawal of these supports, and increased class sizes, the result of deliberate educational cutbacks by the present Government, will result in more children leaving school unable to read, write or do simple arithmetic. That is a real educational issue.

It is not the issue that is being debated in the media, however. I think that the Government is well aware of this media bias, and cynically uses it to distract attention from the awfulness of some of its educational policies.

Ruairí Quinn (routinely portrayed in the media as a “reforming” Minister for Education) had hardly settled into his job when he announced that he envisioned 50 per cent of schools being removed from Catholic control.

He received a lot of positive media coverage for this. He commissioned a survey of parents – not a random sample, but conducted in areas where demand for non-Catholic schooling was expected to be highest – and discovered that actual demand, for non-denominational schools in these areas, ranged from less than 1 per cent of parents up to a maximum of 8 per cent.

That is, a small number of non-Catholic schools are viable, and will be provided by the State. No one, and certainly not the Catholic Church, has a problem with this. I am sorry that some citizens, in areas where demand for non-denominational education is low, cannot be accommodated, but it seems a bit extreme to infer from this that we are somehow failing as a republic. If the demand is there, this State will provide the bulk of the funding for schools that are non-denominational, faith-based or language-based. Is that not how a liberal democracy should work? – Yours, etc,

JIM STACK,

Lismore,

Co Waterford.

 

 

 

Sir, – It ends where it began for Brian O’Driscoll. Whatever else happens in his life from now on, he’ll always have Paris. – Yours, etc,

JOHN B REID,

Knapton Road,

Monkstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Now that Brian O’Driscoll’s international career is over, can I have my name back please? – Yours, etc,

BRIAN O’DRISCOLL,

Rathangan,

Duncormick,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – In response to John O’Byrne (March 15th), Brian Boru was not a Clontarf man, he was from Thomond. No, I don’t think he ever played in Thomond Park! – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CASSERLY,

Abbeybridge,

Waterfall,

Cork.

A chara, – What deserving champions and wonderful role models for our young people. Forgive me for also hoping that the win will mean the fulfilment of Gordon D’Arcy’s promise to shave his beard. There is a thin line between attractive stubble and wearing a furry creature on your face and the trend amongst Irish men at the moment is to most definitely cross that line! – Is mise,

KAY CHALMERS,

Well Road,

Douglas,

Cork.

Sir, – It appears Fingal’s mayor is determined to block a plebiscite on the alternative of a new directly elected Dublin-wide mayor (“Fingal council set to block referendum on directly elected mayor for Dublin”, Politics, March 14th).

I suppose the mayor deserves credit for at least openly saying he is opposed to giving voters a choice. On the other three Dublin councils many councillors that are opposed to reforming Dublin local government aim to defeat the measure by not turning up for the vote, defeating it on a technicality, while not having to explicitly insult the voters in an election year by voting against it.

I would suggest that on May 23rd, Dublin voters withhold their vote from any councillor who, by either voting no or absenting themselves, denies citizens their say on reform. – Yours, etc,

Dr KEVIN BYRNE,

Schoolhouse Lane,

Dublin 2.

 

Sir, – I have just signed a medical card renewal form for one of my adult patients. He has had significant physical disability and medical problems from birth. He will never be above the income threshold for a medical card. Why do his parents have to go through the stress of submitting the same information again and again to ensure that he doesn’t lose his medical card? Unless he wins the Lotto, he needs a medical card for life. Is there no-one in the Primary Care Reimbursement Service and the HSE with the common sense to see that? – Yours, etc,

Dr ELUNED LAWLOR,

Loughboy Medical Centre,

Kilkenny.

 

 

Sir, – The writer and artist Christy Brown was one of the most extraordinary Dubliners of the 20th century. Tomorrow his personal archive will be sold at the London auction house Bonhams.

The archive, which includes many previously unseen manuscripts, letters, pictures and poems, is expected to fetch up to €50,000.

At the moment that sum is beyond the reach of most Irish museums. If the archive leaves these shores an important part of our cultural heritage will be lost, probably forever.

Is there someone who would like to ensure that Christy Brown is remembered for generations to come here in Dublin, his hometown? I hope so. – Yours, etc,

TREVOR WHITE,

The Little Museum

of Dublin,

St Stephen’s Green,

Dublin 2.

 

 

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole (“The Irish film industry needs belief, strategy, and . . . action”, Weekend, March 15th) writes: “It is not accidental that a country such as Denmark, which has both its own language and its own economy, has the confidence to also develop its own TV and cinema culture.”

A memorable observation but left hanging, I thought, as an obvious mention of TG4 in this context never materialised. – Yours, etc,

GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK,

Gleann na gCaorach,

Co Átha Cliath.

Sir, – The possible ending of the one and two cent coins (“Coppers face axe: are one and two cent coins on the way out?”, Home News, March 15th) prompts the question of what coins do we need for everyday use. A logical step would be to introduce a five-euro coin to replace the five-euro note. A coin can last up to 100 years in circulation (Victorian pennies were still in use in Ireland up to 1971), whereas the less cost-effective €5note lasts less than a year.

The Central Bank has the power to introduce such a coin for use in Ireland, it just would not be legal tender elsewhere in the euro zone. It could also be a decent size – in line with the half-crown or £1 coin.

I suggest 2016 would be the ideal time to launch the first €5 coin for circulation and this could also double as a commemorative coin in honour of the 1916 uprising. Worth considering? – Yours, etc,

GREG CARLEY,

Rock Lodge,

Killiney, Co Dublin.

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

* Minister Phil Hogan referred to the BBC interview with Tom McFeely “as an outrageous waste of free speech” (Irish Independent, March 1). This was not so much a waste of free speech but an abuse of it.

Also in this section

Letters: Keeping a little light alive

Wake up you ‘Moby Dicks’

Taxing issues for offshore oil firms

The right to freedom of expression is invoked regularly without a clear sense of what is involved. Freedom of expression does not stand on its own feet; it is an offshoot of the general notion of freedom.

To say we are all free is not a description of our current state but a prescription about how we ought to be treated.

The principle of freedom runs as follows: we are free to do what we like unless there are relevant reasons for interfering in that freedom. The presumption is in favour of non-interference.

The question of free expression is about the grounds on which we can be prevented from saying or writing what we wish to write.

The right to freedom of expression is not absolute and can only be exercised in the context of rational constraints, not arbitrary ones.

Freedom of expression cannot be elevated above a whole range of other freedoms. Additionally, it has to be set against the principle of equality.

Freedom of expression can only exist where there is equality of access to the means of expression. Mr McFeely has a right to make his case but only if his victims have equivalence of opportunity to make theirs.

For years, the Murdoch press has provided an inordinately influential platform for the voice for one man, excluding the millions of voices of those who think differently.

We have witnessed the regular sickening spectacle of politicians in Britain coming on bended knee to seek Mr Murdoch’s support at election time.

Freedom of expression will always remain an ideal towards which we aspire. It is destined to be continually used and abused.

However, it is the one freedom that defines a democracy.

PHILIP O’NEILL

OXFORD, OX1 4QB

GREAT SHOW, IMELDA

* I have just watched Imelda May’s first show on RTE (March 16). Wow, what a warm, lovely, talented lady she is, and the generosity she showed to her guests is really what makes this lady so special.

I remember seeing her, heavily pregnant, on the 50th anniversary of the ‘Late Late Show’, and her chat and musical performance that night were the highlight of the show.

This lady is, as she said herself, passionate about continuing her new show and promoting all the wonderful musical talent in the country, new and old. So I would very strongly advise RTE, on behalf of the viewing public, not to let this very special lady down.

BRIAN MCDEVITT

GLENTIES, CO DONEGAL

HYPOCRISY ON CRIMEA

* I have to say I’m somewhat astonished by the reaction of the EU and US to the referendum in Crimea. While I’m sure that the Russian government is far from blameless, the belligerent tone from western governments does nothing but exacerbate the situation and increase the risk of conflict.

Throughout this whole crisis, most of the western media coverage has – perhaps unsurprisingly – presented a somewhat one-sided version of events. Yet despite this, it is abundantly clear that the vast majority of those living in Crimea would prefer closer association with Russia, and voted as such.

The US and EU, however, have decided that the will of the people is irrelevant and that they will simply refuse to recognise the result.

The pretence on which they base this position is that the referendum supposedly violates the Ukrainian constitution. In reality, however, the prospect of Crimea returning to Russia would be incompatible with the political ambitions of Brussels and Washington.

Both the US and the EU were happy to support the violent, destructive and lethal protests in Kiev, in order to precipitate a regime change, so for them to reject the overwhelming will of the people in Crimea is the absolute height of hypocrisy.

Now that they have their more ‘amenable’ government installed in Kiev, it appears that they have no intention of allowing their influence to be threatened by something as heinous as a referendum.

SIMON O’CONNOR

CRUMLIN, DUBLIN 12

TIME FOR A SINGSONG

* It used to be that when the last refrain of ‘Amhran na bhFiann’ was blasted out by the fans, either in Lansdowne Road or Croke Park, I always believed they were finishing with “. . . Shovin’ Connie around the field”. (As a child I thought it referred to Bishop Con Lucey of Cork, who was seen at every important GAA match).

I didn’t know the words to the national anthem back then, and I still don’t – but sure what harm?

Things get into our heads and stay there, or they don’t get in at all, but we are no less a patriot because of it.

While I might not be well versed in this song, the air to the anthem is never far from my consciousness, and over the past three years another set of words have crept into my brain, but in another context.

You see, when I am challenged to remember a date or a time in a conversation or filling out a form, I have to sometimes force myself not to sing out or write: “Was it the day Michael Collins was shot?” – by way of an uncertain question or answer.

I’ve put this down to a visit I made to Clonakilty once and saw the statue there of Mr Collins, and my first thought was that he appeared angry, and had his hand out as if to say: “There ye all are, and I’ll bet not one of you remember the date I was shot!”

While the purists can scoff and ridicule my perceived scant attention to a set of words that denotes their own rabid nationalism, as they might see it, there is not a man in this country who has not paid more on-going attention to this anthem than my good self. I deserve a medal for the sweaty strain it becomes not to succumb.

ROBERT SULLIVAN

BANTRY, CO CORK

A UNITED IRELAND

* Although an admirer of the late Margaret Thatcher, I found the late Tony Benn to be a supremely admirable figure, too.

Mr Benn, like me, espoused a united Ireland, and an abolition to the British House of Lords and monarchy. Compared to the UK, the Republic of Ireland has an enviable democracy. I sincerely hope to see, in my lifetime, a united, peaceful Ireland, and an independent republic of England.

DOMINIC SHELMERDINE

LONDON, W8

VOICE FOR PATIENTS

* I was seriously behind and patients were kept waiting. Nearly everyone I saw seemed to have a complex health issue. The only time I caught up was when I saw a child. I actually thought to myself, ‘my job would be so much easier if I saw more children and fewer sick and elderly adults’.

I was stressed as I rushed out to do a house call to an elderly man. He had a bad chest infection. He was incredibly apologetic for having called me out. He said, ‘I hate calling you, you are so busy’. I left his prescription into the pharmacy on my way back and my secretary took it out to him as he had no one to collect it.

He is what we GPs call a ‘heartlift’ patient. He reminds me why I went into general practice. He is one of the many reasons why we need more resourcing of general practice, primary care and community services. He has no political clout. I am his voice.

DR ELUNED LAWLOR

LOUGHBOY MEDICAL CENTRE, KILKENNY

Irish Independent

 

 


Sharland

$
0
0

19 March 2014 Sharland

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.Leslie is determined to resign from the Service and Captain Povey can’t believe his luckPriceless

Cold slightly saw Sharland,

Scrabbletoday Marywins and gets Over400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

Madeline Gins, who has died aged 72, was a poet and painter who, with her creative partner and husband Arakawa, a Japanese-born conceptual artist, set out to achieve everlasting life through architecture, designing structures which – they claimed -would “counteract the usual human destiny of having to die”.

Their work, based loosely on a movement known as “transhumanism,” was premised on the idea that people degenerate and die because they live in surroundings that are too comfortable. The Arakawa-Gins solution was to create homes that leave the occupants feeling disoriented, dizzy, and slightly bilious. “People, particularly old people, shouldn’t relax and sit back to help them decline,” Arakawa explained. “They should be in an environment that stimulates their senses.” In normal homes, with level floors and modern conveniences, he claimed, “our bodies forget how to operate, we become weaker faster and we live shorter lives.”

Their philosophy, which they branded Reversible Destiny, resulted in designs for buildings where floors undulate like sand dunes; where kitchens are positioned at the bottom of steep slopes; where windows are too high, or too low, to look out of; where doors are missing, allowing no privacy; where electric sockets and switches are located in unexpected places on the walls, and where the whole is painted in dozens of clashing colours.

The Reversible Destiny Lofts in Mitaka, Tokyo (GETTY IMAGES)

Their ideas remained largely theoretical until 2005 when they unveiled a small apartment complex in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka, known as the Reversible Destiny Lofts. Painted in lurid blues, pinks, reds and yellows, each apartment features a dining room with a warped floor, making it impossible to install furniture, a sunken kitchen and a study with a concave floor. “You constantly lose balance and gather yourself up, grab onto a column and occasionally trip and fall,” observed one visitor. “Even worse, there’s no closet space.”

But to Gins and Arakawa such inconveniences were precisely the point. “[It] makes you alert and awakens instincts, so you’ll live better, longer and even forever,” explained Arakawa, pointing to studies with mice that had shown that an “enriched” environment that stimulates the body and mind can stave off the effects of ageing. The estate agents’ blurb for the development touted “the discomforts of home”. Some apartments even found tenants.

A subsequent project, Bioscleave House, on Long Island, New York, was similarly unsettling — so much so that for safety reasons it remained off-limits to children, while adults were asked to sign a disclaimer when they entered. “In addition to the floor, which threatens to send the less-sure-footed hurtling into the sunken kitchen at the centre of the house,” wrote a reviewer, “the design features walls painted in about 40 colours; multiple levels meant to induce the sensation of being in two spaces at once… and an open flow of traffic, unhindered by interior doors or privacy.”

Inside the Bioscleave House in East Hampton

The architects felt obliged to produce a training manual for those having difficulty staying upright, featuring such instructions as: “Try to maintain two (or more) separate tentativenesses, that is, two (or more) distinct areas of indeterminacy.” If that did not work they helpfully installed a series of poles from floor to ceiling which could be grabbed in the event of total disorientation. “It may take five hours,” they enthused, “to get from one side of the room to the other.”

Madeline Gins and her husband had ambitious plans for a “reversible destiny town” and a “reversible destiny lower-middle-income housing complex”, which would “not only provide shelter for its residents but actually intervene with the universe on their behalf”. They themselves, they announced on their website, had “decided not to die,” because death was “old-fashioned”.

But their dreams were scuppered in 2008 when they lost their life savings which they had invested with the fraudster Bernard Madoff, architect of the world’s biggest-ever Ponzi scheme. The disaster forced them to close their Manhattan office and lay off five employees. Arakawa died two years later.

Madeline Gins soldiered on alone for four more years, designing two “reversible destiny healing fun houses” along with a “biotopological scale-juggling escalator” for Rei Kawakubo’s Dover Street Market in New York, before succumbing to cancer.

Madeline Helen Gins was born in New York City on November 7 1941, and read Physics and Eastern Philosophy at Barnard College. She later enrolled at Brooklyn Museum Art School where she met Arakawa, a protégé of Marcel Duchamp and already an established conceptual artist. They later married.

Madeline Gins began her working life as a poet and experimental novelist. Her first work, Word Rain (subtitled A Discursive Introduction to the Intimate Philosophical Investigations of G, R, E, T, A, G, A, R, B, O, It Says), was published in 1969.

In 1997 “Reversible Destiny”, the first major exhibition of Madeline Gins’s collaboration with her husband, opened at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York. It featured two pieces of work in progress, The Mechanism of Meaning, a vast installation featuring paintings, collages and “words in painting” (including injunctions such as “Keep the viscosity equal to the deliquescence”) and a section devoted to their later architectural designs.

Their architectural fantasies first achieved physical form in 1995 when an “experience park” consisting of a mountainous “exploratorium” of curved and warped surfaces designed to throw people off balance, opened about 100 miles east of Osaka. Visitors were exhorted to be “more body and less person”, but after two people broke their legs in the first two days, hiking boots were recommended and hard hats provided at the entrance.

Madeline Gins and Arakawa wrote several books, including Reversible Destiny, We Have Decided Not To Die (1997) and Making Dying Illegal (2006). Another book, Architectural Body (2002), was translated into Japanese and printed as both a book and a roll of lavatory paper. Shortly before her death Madeline Gins completed Alive Forever Not If But When, a book which she had begun with her husband.

Madeline Gins, born November 7 1941, died January 8 2014

 

 

 

Guardian:

 

 

Tony Benn famously said there are five questions to ask the powerful (Letters, 17 March). 1) What power do you have? 2) Where did you get it? 3) In whose interests do you exercise it? 4) To whom are you accountable? 5) How can we get rid of you? In view of Charles Windsor’s reluctance to comply with the Freedom of Information Act over his letters to ministers (Editorial, 13 March), perhaps these questions could be put to him.
Barbara Williams
Wantage, Oxfordshire

• Whoever wrote your editorial on supermarkets (14 March) has obviously never visited Aldi or Lidl. Both sell salmon en croute and sea bass fillets with fennel butter, as well as partridge, pheasant, quails, venison, goats’ cheese and other delicacies. All of excellent quality and very reasonably priced.
Jill Adams
Birmingham

• Re the new weather page (Letters, 15 March): I have been wondering why the east of England has been left out in the cold. All eight cities across the top of the page ignore the existence of the half of the country which lies to the east of the Pennines and often experiences weather very different from those featured. How about Leeds, York or even Newcastle as a representative of our area?
Gill Jewell
Leeds

• My understanding was that the Duke of Edinburgh (Letters, 18 March) was known in Scotland as “Auld Greekie”.
Joe Cummings
St Mèdard de Mussidan, France

• In the Czech mountains north of Prague there is an area called Hell (Letters, 15 March), above which there is a restaurant called Heaven (and it is too).
Helen Keating
Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries

• We don’t really need experts to tell us the universe could be expanding again (Waves from the big bang, 18 March). I’ve noticed that, compared to 80 years ago, it takes me longer to reach the floor.
AH Lee
Llanwrda, Camarthenshire

• I’m 31. Generation Y G2 made me feel really old (Letters, 18 March).
Julia Harris
Hastings, East Sussex

 

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts,” said Richard Feynman in the 1960s. But times change. Before about 1970, academics had access to modest funding they could use freely. Industry was similarly enlightened. Their results included the transistor, the maser-laser, the electronics and telecommunications revolutions, nuclear power, biotechnology and medical diagnostics galore that enriched the lives of virtually everyone; they also boosted 20th-century economic growth.

After 1970, politicians substantially expanded academic sectors. Peer review’s uses allowed the rise of priorities, impact etc, and is now virtually unavoidable. Applicants’ proposals must convince their peers that they serve national policies and are the best possible uses of resources. Success rates are about 25%, and strict rules govern resubmissions. Rejected proposals are usually lost. Industry too has lost its taste for the unpredictable. The 500 major discoveries, almost all initiated before about 1970, challenged mainstream science and would probably be vetoed today. Nowadays, fields where understanding is poor are usually neglected because researchers must convince experts that working in them will be beneficial.

However, small changes would keep science healthy. Some are outlined in Donald Braben’s book, Promoting the Planck Club: How Defiant Youth, Irreverent Researchers and Liberated Universities Can Foster Prosperity Indefinitely. But policies are deeply ingrained. Agencies claiming to support blue-skies research use peer review, of course, discouraging open-ended inquiries and serious challenges to prevailing orthodoxies. Mavericks once played an essential role in research. Indeed, their work defined the 20th century. We must relearn how to support them, and provide new options for an unforeseeable future, both social and economic. We need influential allies. Perhaps Guardian readers could help?
Donald W Braben University College London
John F Allen Queen Mary, University of London
William Amos University of Cambridge
Richard Ball University of Edinburgh
Tim Birkhead FRS University of Sheffield
Peter Cameron Queen Mary, University of London
Richard Cogdell FRS University of Glasgow
David Colquhoun FRS University College London
Rod Dowler Industry Forum, London
Irene Engle United States Naval Academy, Annapolis
Felipe Fernández-Armesto University of Notre Dame
Desmond Fitzgerald Materia Medica
Pat Heslop-Harrison University of Leicester
Dudley Herschbach Harvard University, Nobel Laureate
H Jeff Kimble Caltech, US National Academy of Sciences
Sir Harry Kroto FRS Florida State University, Tallahassee, Nobel Laureate
James Ladyman University of Bristol
Nick Lane University College London
Peter Lawrence FRS University of Cambridge
Angus MacIntyre FRS Queen Mary, University of London
John Mattick Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney
Beatrice Pelloni University of Reading
Martyn Poliakoff FRS University of Nottingham
Douglas Randall University of Missouri
David Ray Bio Astral Limited
Sir Richard J Roberts FRS New England Biolabs, Nobel Laureate
Ken Seddon Queen’s University of Belfast
Colin Self University of Newcastle
Harry Swinney University of Texas, US National Academy of Sciences
Claudio Vita-Finzi FBA Natural History Museum

 

 

 

Owen Jones’s piece on the rightwing bias of the BBC is to be welcomed (Comment, 17 March). I’ve lost count of the number of times flagship programmes like Newsnight, for example, frame debates in ways which reflect this bias. On my local BBC news programme, Look North, the rightwing Taxpayers’ Alliance is frequently introduced as an “economics research group” and its “researchers” seem to be called on more often than any other relevant pressure group in the region. Just recently a presenter described a Labour council’s modest increase in council tax as being “in their blood”, while the very next night going soft on a representative of a Tory council that had done the same thing. But impressions won’t do. What we need is robust data. I know there are university media research groups working in this area, but they are few in number. Perhaps they or readers can suggest the easiest and most practical way individuals can collect facts and figures?
John Quicke
Hull

• Owen Jones detects irony in the fact that I am occasionally asked on to the BBC while I continue to argue that it is heavily biased towards the left. He needs a sense of proportion. The corporation’s general sympathy for the moral and cultural left, as acknowledged by (among others) Andrew Marr, John Humphrys and Mark Thompson, is not cancelled out by occasional exceptions, nor by outnumbered appearances on liberal-dominated panels. It is also not much affected by the BBC’s admittedly careful balance in party political matters, especially now that the Tories have joined the cultural and moral revolution.
Peter Hitchens
Mail on Sunday

• I was privileged to work at the corporation during its more halcyon days, when salaries were subdued within a cherished public service ethos, whereby no one expected, nor wanted, incomes equivalent to those in the commercial sector. At that time the myth about its leftwing bias was constantly purveyed by its enemies. I was mystified as to how this originated. My view was that the BBC and most of its employees were conservative, with both a small and a big C.

That has been graphically demonstrated over the past weeks: the 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike – the most seismic labour dispute in the country’s history – has come and gone with scarcely a word or comment from the BBC. It was left to ITV to mark the occasion with an informative, incisive documentary. We are overwhelmed with BBC programmes about the first world war, and yet the traumatic 1984 strike appears to have been airbrushed out of history by the corporation.
Jennifer Sheridan
London

• I was very happy working for the BBC for 28 years, so still fondly regard it as one of the best institutions in Britain. But I agree with Owen Jones that not only its news presentation, but the bias of some programmes, is not up to the standards of the BBC ethos I was trained in. The rot set in with Thatcher’s insertion of John Birt as director general, which crippled the BBC as he didn’t understand the ethos; and, to their eternal shame, New Labour’s bear-baiting has stripped it of its independence of thought, as Owen Jones suggests. As a pro-government mouthpiece it does democracy no favours and I cringe at some of the output.
Janet Whitaker
Former radio drama producer, Burton Bradstock, Dorset

 

As the custodian of the personal data of thousands of students, Ucas takes its data protection responsibilities extremely seriously. We never sell, or disclose, or give access to, the personal data of our applicants for commercial advertising and marketing purposes (Report, 13 March). Our commercial revenue is generated through email campaigns (sent by us), advertising on our websites, running conferences and conventions, and providing analytical services. Our biggest client group by far is universities and colleges. I am intensely proud that we manage a highly regarded national service without any recourse to the taxpayer. We do this by running an efficient operation and by treading a scrupulously careful line in generating additional revenue via our commercial subsidiary, Ucas Media. We operate wholly within the guidelines of the Data Protection Act and all relevant legislation, and apply our own criteria and restrictions to ensure that any commercial messages are suitable for the intended audience. Applicants can opt out of receiving our services at any time and, if they do, will still receive all the information they need to participate fully in the admissions service.
Mary Curnock Cook
Chief executive, Ucas

 

The average UK driver now pays more every year in fuel duty and VAT than for their gas and electricity bills – and that’s just the tax, not the fuel. Having the highest duty for diesel and the second highest for petrol in the EU is disadvantaging millions of families and businesses across the UK and reducing consumer spending power. This Treasury cash cow of a tax impacts on the engine room of our economy, the UK haulage industry, with their predominant business cost ultimately affecting the level of all consumer product prices.

We’ve repeatedly asked the Treasury to challenge findings of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research that a 3p cut in duty would create 70,000 jobs and increase GDP by 0.2%, but they refuse to rebuff these figures. So far the nascent economic recovery has been bankrolled by consumers rather than industry, and having the highest fuel taxation in Europe will reduce any further flows of disposable income into the UK economy.

Over 60% of consumers do essential food shopping by car, and 50% use cars and vans to commute to work. Restricting both of these activities by high fuel taxation threatens future growth and causes misery to millions. A 3p per litre duty cut for all vehicle fuels in the budget isn’t just prudent fiscal planning but should be an essential pillar of the government’s strategy for economic regeneration. Any financial recovery begins through increased consumer spending. The Treasury must not ignore this essential fiscal truth.
Quentin Willson Motoring journalist and FairFuelUK campaigner, Angus MacNeil MP SNP’s Westminster spokesperson on transport, Geoff Dunning Chief executive, Road Haulage Association, Jason McCartney MP Conservative member of transport select committee, Naomi Long MP Deputy leader, Alliance party of Northern Ireland, Nigel Dodds MP Deputy leader, Democratic Unionist party, Paul Sanders Chairman, Association of Pallet Networks, Pete Williams Head of external affairs, RAC, Rob Flello MP Labour, Rob Shuttleworth Chief executive, UKLPG, Sammy Wilson MP DUP parliamentary spokesman on economic and finance matters, Tessa Munt MP Liberal Democrat, PPS to the secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, Theo de Pencier Chief executive, Freight Transport Association, Howard Cox FairFuelUK campaign founder

 

Your 7 March article that discussed the unrest in Xinjiang province in China posed the question, “What does result in the hate from Xinjiang?” Over 20 years ago, my husband and I made the trip across China by train from west to east – a fascinating and interesting experience that opened a whole new world to us.

In the course of one of our stopovers in Xinjiang province, we were going through a market. We had just started to talk to someone who could speak English when a burly policeman rolled up and demanded, ” Is this man annoying you?” We looked a bit startled and began, “No, of course not. We were just …” By now, the man had been taken out of our reach. No further conversation with these subversive foreigners.

Later, we were able to have a brief chat with a native of these parts from whom we began to appreciate that the Uighurs were far from happy. Apparently even then, Han Chinese were being transported to Xinjiang by the thousand by the Chinese government, the aim being to make the Uighurs a minority in their own homeland.

It seems that their aim has been achieved and that the Uighurs have thus been usurped in the management of their own affairs. Nothing in China happens by accident and the treatment of the Uighurs is no different from many other injustices that reign throughout that land.

It should be no puzzle to the man who asked what brought about the hatred in Xinjiang. It is pure and simple: that the natives of those parts, the Uighurs, have been swamped by the official influx of Han Chinese from the east. No wonder there is hatred. It is, indeed, surprising that it has taken so long for the hatred to manifest itself.

We reap the reward of what we sow, whoever we are, wherever we are and whenever it takes place.
Helen Heron
Hong Kong

The crisis in Crimea

The apparent ambition of the Kremlin towards Crimea is remarkably similar to the strategy and rationalisation used by Germany in the 1930s (West scrambles to contain fallout of weekend uprising, 28 February).

In 1936 German troops occupied the Rhineland. On 10 April 1938 Austria ceased to exist and became part of Germany. On 30 September 1938 the Sudetenland was taken from the Czech Republic and annexed by Germany. These takeovers were accomplished without resorting to warfare; however, threats of invasion were formidable. The rationale used by Germany at the time was their concern for the welfare and wellbeing of the pro-German population of these areas.

On 14 June 1940 the Soviets presented an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the arrest of certain key officials and the acceptance of Red Army troops to occupy their country. Lithuania accepted this ultimatum. During the next few days the same terms were agreed to by Estonia and Latvia.

On 26 June 1940 Russia demanded that Romania allow Bessarabia and Bukovina be annexed to Russia. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, in a panic, implored Romania to yield, which it did on 27 June.

Germany was alarmed they might lose their oil supply should Russia occupy the whole of Romania. Germany’s source of oil is now Russia. Deja vu, all over again?
Ed Lien
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

• While Terry Hewton (Reply, 14 March) is right about the past importance of Russia’s Black Sea ports, I believe they will be less so in future.

A couple of years ago I read in these very pages about the increasing volume of shipping using the old Northwest Passage. The arctic ports of Russia should be much more useful in the near future than in the past; maybe more useful than Black Sea ports for extra-Mediterranean trade.

However, I doubt that this increased naval facility will mitigate the angst felt by Russia (the only state with Arctic and Black Sea ports that I’m aware of) over Crimea. As my Greek relatives proverbially advise: only ever acquire property, never relinquish it.
S W Davey
Torrens, ACT, Australia

The joys of solitude

I wholeheartedly agree with the points John Bohnert’s letter (28 February) makes about the joys of solitude, and I would add the joys of writing, music and sculpting. This kind of life can be very satisfying indeed as I know.

The difficulty comes with health problems that can make one unable to cope with some basic physical aspects. Unstable equilibrium, inability to lift or sense things, failing eyesight, hearing, the need for an operation and becoming bedridden – any of these and others would take away one’s independence to a greater or lesser extent.

So far – I am in my 80s – I have been very lucky. I do need some help but am largely able to carry on with my way of life. It is a question of compromise, as far and as long as possible, I suppose.
Marlene Binggeli
Perchtoldsdorf, Austria

Ethical expediency

In your editorial Keeping promises (7 March), you say that Irish parties ought to have the “maturity” to accept that hundreds of IRA murderers should escape prosecution in order to respect “an agreement that has delivered nearly 15 years of peace”. From the perspective of the Basque country where ETA has been forced to stop all activities and a final dissolution is expected, that ethical expediency looks appalling.

Our situation is certainly different, as ETA has been brought to its end by the rule of law. But several self-appointed international “mediators”, some of them British, seem to be trying to prescribe for us an Irish-style closing model so as not to miss “a unique opportunity for peace”, apparently unaware that peace has already been irreversibly achieved.

Some Basque nationalist parties contend that such a solution would help heal the wounds in our society but they are always suspect as historically they have systematically opposed all initiatives that have led to the present situation. I do hope we won’t end up paying your unpalatable price.
Anton Digon
Vitoria, Spain

Problem of empty homes

I read on your 28 February front page that there are 700,000 empty houses in the UK. Later in the same issue I read that there were 122,500 new houses started in England in 2013, less than half of the estimated 250,000 new homes a year needed to meet the demand for housing in England.

I’m at a loss to understand what the housing need or homelessness situation is in England, and I can only surmise that there might be an extremely high number of empty houses in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Peter Johnston
Lasqueti Island, British Columbia, Canada

Kipling’s love of the train

Jonathan Yardley’s heartfelt review of Tom Zoellner’s book Trains (7 March) recalls Rudyard Kipling’s detailed locomotive study .007 (The Day’s Work, 1908). In this piece, the newcomer to the engine shed encounters his seniors in the mechanical world that determined the railroad’s expansion in the American continent of that era. The precision of technical description is lovingly evoked in the personalities of the engines that ruled in the continent’s growth.

The depth of Kipling’s mechanical enthusiasm is perhaps overlooked in criticism of his political attitudes, but the poetry of engineering excels, in this as in other delights of the Victorian steam age.
Jack Palmer
Watson, ACT, Australia

Briefly

• Tim Lewis, in Who wants a male pill? (7 March), states that “in the fifth century Hippocrates had some success with heating a man’s testicles in a hot bath”. I wonder if any correlation has been established between the low fertility rates in Japan and Scandinavian countries and their love of taking extremely hot water or steam-cleaning treatment in, respectively, onsen (hot springs) and sauna cabins.
Alaisdair Raynham
Truro, UK

• Nervy Marina Hyde gives Optic Nerve a poke in the eye by suggesting to watch the watchers (7 March). Drop a spanner in the works. Give budding NSA subcontractors with their posh jobs pause to consider “what the hell am I doing?”
R M Fransson
Denver, Colorado, US

• Holly Baxter tells us of the travails of double entendre place names (Shortcuts, 7 March). Many of my friends are from Newfoundland, where if you visit Come by Chance by way of Dildo you need not visit Conception Bay.
Bob Walsh
Wilton, Connecticut, US

 

 

Independent:

 

Extending HS2 Phase One to Crewe, as proposed by Sir David Higgins, is a substantial amendment to the original plans, which have gone out to recent public consultation, and may be seen in some quarters as a distress signal for the entire project.

With the cities of Derby, Sheffield and Stoke all making convincing cases for city-centre stations, and digital technology radically changing the way that business is conducted, is it now time to go back to first principles and design a scheme which meets the aspirations of the UK as a whole?

High Speed Rail and the expansion and modernisation of the existing UK rail system are both excellent objectives, but we need to future-proof them and make them attractive to private investment.

Dr John Disney, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University

The Government’s enthusiasm for HS2 is difficult to comprehend. Apparently, we don’t have the funds to support the disadvantaged in our society. Neither can we afford to carry out basic maintenance work. The national debt stands in excess of £1trn and we know that further massive cutbacks will have to be made following the next general election.

Miraculously, however, we apparently do have in excess of £40bn to spare to fund this rail scheme. Never mind that, by the Government’s own figures, the business case for it is at best flimsy, at worst, non-existent. Apart from being morally outrageous, HS2 appears to be financial madness on an epic scale.

Keith O’Neill, Shrewsbury

Hear, hear for HS2. We invented railways. The UK is small and overcrowded, ideal territory for railways. This will take freight off the roads. Japan has had bullet trains for decades; Europe is well trained.

We should start building it from the north and south now, not least while money is cheap. And there are the jobs – please, priority for UK residents.

Protesters have justifiable worries. As in France, HS2 should be in cuttings, landscaped, tunnelled. The sooner we do it the better.

Ebbsfleet on HS1 is to be developed. HS2 will do the same for the North. It will make for a more united country.

I hope all the political parties will support this endeavour.

Rosanne Bostock, Oxford

Crimea votes to go back to Russia

Isn’t the furore in Western governments about the referendum in Crimea a bit rich? They say the vote is illegal because it took place under conditions of Russian occupation. So does that mean that the elections in Iraq and Afghanistan which took place under Western military occupation where also illegal?

I wonder how Western governments would have liked it if after they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan China and Russia had imposed sanctions on them?

Mark Holt , Liverpool

We all are horrified by the appalling behaviour of the Russians; they have invaded land that is not legally theirs. We have gone to the UN to prove our case. But all the people who have looked at Crimea know the wishes and preferences of the majority of those who live there. However we in the West are now about to impose sanctions to try to reverse their aggression.

But hang on, did not our PM, that principled politician, denounce sanctions against Israel being called for on behalf of a people whose land is being invaded and constantly stolen by that country, or am I missing something?

Peter Downey, Wellow, Somerset

Crimea was part of Russia for centuries. The Russian government has merely reversed Khrushchev’s arbitrary 1954 decision to give Crimea to Ukraine.

This is a unique case. Nowhere else has been given away, without its consent, by its government. There is no need for alarm.

Will Podmore, London E12

From Bath to  Brussels with Ukip

Steve Richards (Voices, 11 March) visited Bath and observed: “The Lib Dems face a daunting challenge at the next election. I spent a few days in Bath last week, a seat currently held by them, and kept on bumping into people who had voted for Clegg’s party last time but who insist they will not do so next year even if that means the constituency elects a Tory MP.”

It is true that the popularity of the Lib Dems has plummeted nationally. They cannot rely on the incumbency factor in Bath because the Lib Dem MP Don Foster will be retiring in 2015. Labour do not have much support in Bath. However it is not at all certain that the Tory candidate would be elected.

Ukip has a local candidate, Julian Deverell, who has plenty of good contacts and roots locally. The Tory candidate has been parachuted in from London, and his campaigning to date has been sporadic. Ukip has an excellent chance of electoral success in Bath.

The first King of all England, Edgar the Peaceable, was crowned in Bath in 973, in the Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church. It would be fitting for a patriotic Englishman to be elected to represent Bath in 2015.

Hugo Jenks, Bathampton, Bath and North east Somerset

Is there any European measure that Ukip would vote for? I ask because, having checked what UK MEPs did in last week’s European Parliament vote on forcing mobile phone manufacturers to all use the same design of charger, I see that Ukip’s MEPs voted against.

Ukip bangs on about supposedly defending Britain from Brussels meddling, but if that meddling means I can recharge my iPhone when I forget to take my charger with me to work, then I am all for it. Ukip seem so blinded by their rejection of anything European they’ll even vote against perfectly sensible measures like this.

Stuart Bonar, London W1

Earworms show a brain in good shape?

Howard Jacobson (15 March) bemoans the presence of the earworm, the tune that lodges in the brain, and suggests that it might be ruinous to our mental health.

But hold on. In an experiment conducted by the teacher of a class of excessively disruptive boys, she found that playing classical music quietly in the background  had a calming effect on their behaviour. She went on to discover that the music of Mozart was more calming than that of any other composer. I am sure Howard Jacobson would understand that.

The theory was then put forward that by composing his ethereal music, Mozart was treating his own Tourette’s syndrome, often associated with the exclamation of obscene words, or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.

In a ward of people suffering from Alzheimer’s, I often found that despite the absence of any memory for the past, they would sing songs in tune and word-perfect, presumably indicating that the part of the brain in which Howard Jacobson’s “earthworm” had burrowed had remained intact. So the ohrwurm is not all bad news.

Dr Nick Maurice, Marlborough, Wiltshire

The case for taxing mansions

Nick Eastwell writes that the “mansion tax” is unjust because some people may never have had enough income to pay, and that they will only be subject to the tax because their house is an asset that bears no resemblance to the original purchase price (letter, 12 March).

In other words they have a substantial potential, but not realised, capital gain. In principle this is analogous to a family who have a child at university and thus have a spare bedroom. The Government expects them to downsize if they have insufficient income to pay council tax. Why should the same not apply to those who live in mansions?

Vaughan Clarke, Colchester, Essex

That dog is a German spy

Spy dogs (Natalie Haynes, Another Voice, 14 March) were apparently taken seriously during the Second World War, when my aunt and uncle and their young son left London to live in Hythe in Kent.

My cousin had always wanted a dog, and became very attached to one belonging to neighbours, which regularly followed him to school. As a newcomer, wanting to impress the other children, he invented a tale about the dog being a German spy, parachuted on to the beach.

My aunt knew nothing of this until two very intimidating policeman arrived at the door, wanting to know where the dog had come from.

Laura F Spira, Oxford

Talking the talk with Tony Benn

I totally get that Tony Benn talked a lot of good left-wing stuff. But can someone please tell me, what did he actually do about it?

Prue Bray, Winnersh,  Berkshire

 

 

Times:

 

 

Poetry may not be the best way to learn history but it has some supremely valuable lessons

Sir, Further to your excellent coverage of the poets of the First World War (Mar 17), few of us realise that most of these poets, particularly Wilfred Owen, were more or less forgotten, and not discussed in schools, until Benjamin Britten brought them thundering into view with his War Requiem almost 45 years after the events they describe.

As Owen (and Britten) says: “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The poetry is in the Pity. All a poet can do is warn.” That is why poetry is important, and why Jeremy Paxman (‘“Poetry is no way to teach the Great War’”, Mar 14) is wrong.

Tony Palmer

London W3

Sir, Fewer than one in eight of the combatants who died in the war were English-speakers, but all the important poetry of the war seems to have been written in English. Have we and our cultural leaders never heard of Ungaretti, Stramm or Apollinaire, or any of the other poets who wrote of the war in languages other than our own.

Dr A. D. Harvey

London N16

Sir, When I studied the war poets at grammar school in the late 1960s I was struck by two things from Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est . The first was the true awfulness of death by a silent assassin, gas. The second was how Owen had taken a Latin text from Horace meant to extol the virtues of heroic gallantry and used it to warn us that not everything we read in the press should be taken at face value. It would appear that both messages are as true today as they were then.

Ian Cherry

Preston

Sir, May I assure Sir Max Hastings that if I want to find truth I’m infinitely more likely to find it in literature. History merely offers interminable debate that can never be finally settled, while a great poem can offer us humans truth in a sentence. So give me Sassoon or Owen ahead of any historian.

Colin Clayton

Port Erin, Isle of Man

Sir, Another feature on First World War poetry with all the usual suspects, and without a mention of Kipling, who was incomparably a better poet than all of them.

If your readers want the horror of war, try Gethsemane ; if it’s ruthlessness, Tin Fish ; if it’s sorrow, My Boy Jack ; the whole dreadful tangle of feelings is piercingly alive in Epitaphs of the War . Moreover, Kipling was a great poet of the aftermath of the war — the suffering of the survivors, both those who were maimed in body and mind and those who were left to mourn.

Professor Daniel Karlin

University of Bristol

Sir, A key area of study in the First World War is the use of art, language and the media to manipulate public opinion.

A study of propaganda reveals to the student the inherent danger of accepting well-rehearsed arguments at face value.

In believing and disseminating the unsubstantiated and prejudiced argument that the First World War is taught mainly through poetry Jeremy Paxman ironically displays a profound ignorance of history teaching in modern Britain.

Janette Rowley

Libby Purves was wrong about the tax man, technically — but in practice she was absolutely right

Sir, Libby Purves (“Memo to HMRC: we’re not all on the fiddle”, Mar 17) is technically incorrect when she states that the taxpayer cannot claim back fees paid out to correct mistakes which are entirely the fault of HMRC. In fact there used to be a publication by the Inland Revenue entitled Code of Practice 1 – Errors and Mistakes by The Inland Revenue, which showed how aggrieved taxpayers could obtain recompense.

That publication has long since been withdrawn, and reference to this remedy is now hidden in an abstruse form in a “Helpsheet”, not ostensibly relevant to that topic. The average punter would be unlikely to research that particular reference unless prepared to spend a disproportionate amount of his life on the exercise.

If appropriate taxation professional help is sought in order to obtain redress, against the inevitable protestations of HMRC that they were acting in accordance with “normal practice”, then the fees for this assistance (irrecoverable) would usually exceed the amount recovered.

This brings me to the conclusion that although Libby is, as aforesaid, technically wrong, she is pragmatically quite correct.

Les Beckett

(Chartered tax adviser)

Abergavenny. Monmouthshire

Sir, Libby Purves is right. Her article reminds me of the response of a great aunt to a similarly inappropriately phrased observation by a policeman, made in the 1930s: “Young man would you kindly remember that you are a public servant.”

HMRC, please take note.

C. S. B. Williams

Oakham, Leics

 

The gender gap is closing but the class gap is widening — poorer people die younger after shorter retirements

Sir, You say that “the wealthy enjoy an extra 20 years of healthy life” (Mar 15). Indeed. The gender gap is closing, but the class gap is widening. The poorer-off not only work for more years, from the age of 16, but they then have far fewer years of healthy retirement, as well as lower life expectancy overall. Yet we continue to raise the state pension age the same for everyone — and that means the poor get even fewer decent healthy years in retirement. They work longer and die younger, with few years of healthy retirement in between. Unfairness compounded.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham

House of Lords

Sir, I once had an illuminating introduction to how “working class” women manage as best they can’ with childcare (letters Mar 15). I was taken outside a large secondary school adjacent to a social housing estate, and shown groups of young pupils, years 7 to 11, hastening from school to get to the nearest primary school. I was told they would act as carers for the younger children until their mothers returned from 12-hour shifts, often at 8pm. As the mothers had left at 7.30am, the years 7 to 11 pupils also dressed and fed the family to get the children and themselves to school in the morning.

This army of young carers keeps large numbers of women in work to this day, and the families depend on the income generated (and the working tax credits paid to boost the minimum wage).

It does not help them to take part in after-school clubs, or help with homework timetables, but they shore up our economy: shop workers, factory “girls’” and many nurses and carers, depend upon them.

Mike Clegg

Lytham St Annes, Lancs

 

Professor’s evidence to the House of Lords did not touch on the spring 2015 general election

Sir, You say (Mar 17) that “Scots could lose right to vote in general election” if they vote for independence in the referendum. You attributed this proposition to evidence which I gave to the House of Lords Committee on the Constitution. The transcript shows clearly that my evidence did not touch on the 2015 general election, nor did anyone on the committee question the right of Scottish electors to vote in that election, whatever the outcome of the referendum. Independence, if it comes at all, would not be until 2016 at the earliest.

Professor Alan Boyle

University of Edinburgh

 

Britain should look at the history of its own overseas possessions before criticising Russia over Crimea

Sir, The people of Crimea have voted overwhelmingly to be Russian. The Falkland islanders voted powerfully to remain British. The Gibraltarians have made it clear that they do not wish to be a part of Spain. A simplistic observation perhaps, but what is the difference?

Pamela Hart

Watford, Herts

 

 

Telegraph:

 

 

SIR – You report that the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will not be delivering electricity to the grid until 2023, or even later. It was expected to be up and running by 2017 but deadlines have already been missed, and the construction costs have rocketed to £16 billion.

On top of that, the European Commission says that total public subsidies could reach £17 billion, which is more than the cost of the plant itself. What are the benefits of having a private-sector electricity generating industry when high financial returns have to be paid to the shareholders for decades, and the Commission has to be satisfied that the subsidies don’t amount to illegal state aid?

The Central Electricity Generating Board would have built Hinkley Point C, and paid for it out of taxation, with the regulator making sure that the electricity prices charged to the customers were providing a modest rate of return on the capital investment. Was it a mistake to nationalise the electricity, gas and water companies in the Eighties?

James Allan
Hartlepool, Co Durham

Long-standing MPs

SIR – By my calculation, Tony Benn’s death leaves John Freeman, the former Labour politician, broadcaster and diplomat, who was elected in 1945, as the only surviving MP to have served in Parliament under King George VI.

Only three former MPs survive who sat in the House of Commons during Winston Churchill’s final term as prime minister: Lord Healey, Lord Mason of Barnsley and James Ramsden, the last Secretary of State for War, all of whom were elected in by-elections.

Simon Gordon
Faversham, Kent

Bard’s biblical grasp

SIR – Sir Trevor Nunn’s view is his own, but can he argue that the majestical roof of Hamlet, or the cloud-capped towers of The Tempest, reach higher than even the lowlands of Job? There is no zero sum here: Shakespeare’s language and imagery grow from the Bible.

We need both, yet many students know neither. In Kipling’s Proofs of Holy Writ, Shakespeare remarks to Ben Jonson: “If the pillars of the temple fall out, nature, art, and learning come to a stand.”

E G Nisbet
Egham, Surrey

‘Non-stun’ slaughter

SIR – Lord Sheikh states that comments made by our president-elect concerning animal slaughter without pre-stunning have created misunderstandings. He further claims that the method of zabiha slaughter, where the neck is cut without the animal being pre-stunned, renders it immediately unconscious.

The British Veterinary Association’s position on non-stun slaughter has been developed in light of scientific research which demonstrates that slaughter without pre-stunning compromises animal welfare. The EU-funded Dialrel project (2006-10) reviewed all of the evidence and concluded that it was highly probable that animals feel pain during and after the throat being cut without prior stunning.

The BVA’s prime concern is for the welfare of animals and we oppose the practice of non-stun slaughter. It is important to note that around 80 per cent of halal slaughter is pre-stunned.

Robin Hargreaves
President, British Veterinary Association
London W1

Free organ lessons

SIR – Caroline Mitchell writes that most rural organists play for the love of it. Many, like myself, do so in gratitude for the opportunity to learn to play this magnificent instrument. The Presbytery of Perth has a scheme whereby anyone with the requisite keyboard skills is given a year’s tuition paid for by the Presbytery, thus increasing the number of organists available to play for Sunday services. At a time when organists are a scarce commodity in some places, it might be a scheme worth copying more widely.

Doreen Beattie
Errol, Perthshire

SIR – The Organist and Master of the Choristers at Arundel Cathedral mistakenly believes that you wouldn’t expect an accountant to give free advice to a church. I know many professional accountants who do just that, and who also use their “considerable training and ability” to take on the onerous role of honorary church treasurer.

Michael Robinson
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Stonehenge eyesore

SIR – Just outside Oswestry there is a very fine old iron-age fort. There has been a planning application to build houses around it, a construction that I likened to building around Stonehenge. It was therefore of little surprise to read (report, March 13) of a proposal to build in the eyeline of this ancient monument.

Peter Barling
Oswestry, Shropshire

First fruit

SIR – After the Second World War, the Ministry of Food declared a special ration of one banana for each child under 14.

I remember coming down for breakfast to be confronted by a solitary banana on a plate. No knife and fork had been provided, but I was shown how to unpeel it. I took one mouthful and declared that I didn’t like it, whereupon four grateful adults divided it up and shared it between them.

David Griffiths
Bromley, Kent

SIR – I recommend the African banana, much smaller than the West Indian variety but very sweet. They are best eaten directly off the tree.

John G Prescott
Coulsdon, Surrey

The death of British soldiers from our poison gas

SIR – Your report of the Battle of Loos during the First World War, in which Private William McAleer was killed, states, as do other accounts, that a change of wind direction was responsible for blowing the poison gas back towards the British lines, so killing many soldiers.

I have transcribed a report of the battle, written at the time by my husband’s great uncle, who fought at Loos. He describes how the Scottish infantry rushed from their trenches and “reached the German line so quickly that many died from the effects of our own gas”. He tells of seeing “hundreds of dead Scotch [sic] infantry”, many killed by gas in the German trenches.

I wonder whether the accepted version, blaming a change in the wind, or Great-Uncle Henry’s report is correct.

Penny Clive
Swanmore, Hampshire

SIR – My wife and I have just returned from a short trip to Flanders. We visited many graves and cemeteries, including the German cemetery at Langemarck.

Michael Morpurgo, the children’s author, suggests British schoolchildren should visit such German war graves. Everywhere we went there were wreaths, cards and other tributes of reconciliation on the headstones of German soldiers from British pupils. There were no reciprocal messages from their German counterparts.

M J Gibson
Tockington, Gloucestershire

SIR – As a small businessman who organises walking tours in the pretty Cotswold town of Burford, I applaud Geoffrey Lean’s article on David Cameron’s controversial planning reforms. Unfortunately, Bampton, where Downton Abbey was filmed, is only one of several villages that would be adversely affected by new developments.

Until recently, I was a parish councillor in the nearby village of Alvescot. We successfully fought plans by West Oxfordshire District Council to build 1,600 houses – these would have swamped a parish with only 110 properties. But plans are afoot for another development in the village to include 1,000 houses, business premises and a school.

There is little local need for such projects. Despite the presence of RAF Brize Norton, the area has high unemployment. There are similar proposals to enlarge Brize Norton village itself, and now plans to build 250 homes in Burford, thereby increasing the population of that iconic town by some 40 per cent.

These developments would change West Oxfordshire’s towns and villages at a time when the need for new properties is further east. We can have increased tourism, or we can have commuter and semi-retirement estates. We can’t have both.

Roger Bellamy
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

 

SIR – There are two lessons to be learnt from the current situation in Crimea.First, credible armed deterrence would have stopped Russia in its tracks. While it was never likely to be an option for Ukraine alone, it must remain an option for Nato. The “Peace Dividend” – the reduction in defence spending by Western countries after the end of the Cold War for supposed economic benefits – was based on an over-optimistic premise and it has now gone so far as to encourage aggressive states to flex their muscles on our borders. This in turn increases the risk of armed response. As the military strategic balance tilts away from the Western powers so the world grows less safe.

Second, the European Union has to take more care with its expansionist aspirations. Russia, predictably, cites Western interference in Ukrainian affairs as an excuse for the occupation of the Crimea. It should have been clear well in advance that the direction of EU diplomacy was provocative in Russian eyes. Without the advantage of credible deterrence (which excludes sanctions) what has happened was inexcusable but entirely predictable.

Air Vice-Marshal M R Jackson (retd)
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

SIR – There could be a diplomatic solution to the Crimea situation. The Kiev government might be persuaded to recognise the Russian annexation of Crimea by treaty in exchange for full recognition of the new Ukrainian regime by Russia, and a payment by Russia of a very large sum of money as compensation.

Related Articles

Such transactions are not unknown to diplomacy. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States. Russia sold Alaska to the United States. The sum paid by Russia would go some way to solving Ukraine’s economic difficulties. If the Kiev regime accepted such a treaty, the transfer to Russia would be legitimised and could be recognised by the United States, the EU and Britain, so neutralising the whole crisis. The legitimacy of the deal would also, by the terms of the treaty, prevent any further expansion into Ukraine by Russia.

As it is already accepted that the Russian annexation is more or less inevitable, and popular with a majority of the Crimean population, this would be a peaceful way of settling the matter.

Damian Grimes
Llanrwst, Denbighshire

SIR – Duncan Rayner describes the West’s mild interference in Crimea as “provocative”.

The Crimeans may well have voted for Russian control but the presence of 20,000 Russian troops is provocation in the extreme, and distinctly undemocratic.

No account is taken of the legality of the referendum or of the minority Ukrainian or Tatar population who, given Russia’s poor record in dealing with minorities, face a very grim future.

Iain Gordon
Banstead, Surrey

 

 

 

Irish Times:

 

 

Sir, – The concept of the private rental market being subject to rent control, or as Senator Aideen Hayden puts it, “rent certainty” (“It’s time we felt at home with the idea of rent control”, Opinion & Analysis, February 28th), makes as much sense as saying the State should immediately put the money paid for accommodating over 30 per cent of the population into building social housing.

Housing is not built overnight and no-one wants to see ghettos being created to satisfy some spurious ideology, but private landlords are providing an essential service to the community and to their customers, who are their tenants. “Rent certainty” is no more than rent control in another guise. In any event, tenancy agreements and leases already prescribe the rent to be paid during the term of the tenancy or lease.

Landlords are business people who have their own costs to sustain the properties that are homes for some 800,000 people in Ireland – more than at any time in the last 50 to 60 years. These costs include 25 per cent of interest paid on mortgages and loans not being allowable as expenses (which can actually result in being taxed on a loss), local property tax (and the previous household charge and non-principal private residence charge) not being allowable against income, although landlords are charged for services provided to tenants. Other substantial costs include insurance, maintenance, registration, compliance, as well as the normal taxes levied on the population, such as the USC, PRSI and income tax. It is ironic that management charges in multi-unit developments are allowed against rental income, yet charges for services provided to tenants are not allowable.

Central Bank statistics show that landlords with arrears in their buy-to-let mortgage accounts rose from 39,948 (26.9 per cent ) to 40,426 (27.4 per cent) at the end of the third quarter of 2013, which disposes of the suggestion espoused by certain sectors that landlords have deep pockets and are somehow immune to the financial crisis in our society.

The mid-February report from Germany’s Bundesbank strongly supported efforts to encourage investors back into the market, and held the view that this would be more effective in moderating prices than rent control, which the Bundesbank described as “counter-productive”. How can people promoting rent control be treated seriously when its previous incarnation up to the early 1980s contributed to the ruination of many fine buildings throughout the country as rental income was controlled and property owners were unable to retain or maintain their properties?

It is easy to shout out that increased rents should be held back by legislative means. Yet those bald statements conveniently ignore the fact that the market forces causing rents to increase are the same market forces that caused a reduction in rent during the austerity years, and increases now originate from a very low base where rents decreased by some 40 per cent over the past five years.

Recent actions by the Government in making it easier for lenders to repossess properties will only cause further aggravation to the rental market through independent landlords exiting the business, and their properties being snapped up by so called vulture funds that will not have the same ethos as an independent landlord who values tenants. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN FAUGHNAN,

Irish Property

Owners’ Association,

Ashtown Business Centre,

Navan Road,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – I find the Taoiseach’s whinging to my government about “immigration reform” to aid thousands of Irish who have entered America under false pretences and are living here illegally appalling (“Undocumented Irish frustrated with US lawmakers, says Kenny”, Home News, March 14th). This is a gross interference in American domestic affairs by a foreign leader.

Rather than being a high-profile spokesman for lawbreakers, perhaps Mr Kenny should have forgone this year’s boondoggle to America and spent his time, and taxpayers’ money, tackling the very real problems at home that are the root cause of such illegal behaviour. – Yours, etc,

WARREN McKENZIE,

Serenity Lane,

McKinney,

Texas.

Sir, – If it takes one bowl of shamrock to sort out the “undocumented”, how many would it take to bail out the banks? Answers in writing only to Enda Kenny, Michael Noonan, Nama, Central Bank and the troika (cc St Patrick). – Yours, etc,

PADRAIG Ó CLEIRIGH,

Leim an Bhradáin,

Co Cill Dara.

 

Sir, – We witnessed a truly great sporting weekend and have sadly seen an Irish hero wear the green of Ireland for the last time. When we look back in 10, 20 or 30 years from now, the achievements of our favourite son will be no less spectacular. In a country where our institutions have continually failed us, we have often looked to the institution of sport for respite and inspiration. We have not been let down. Professional sport in most cases demonstrates true meritocracy as there is no place for spin, waffle or nepotism. On the pitch, there is nowhere to hide.

Within this arena, Brian O’Driscoll has set his own standards on and off the pitch over 15 years.

People often cite his hat-trick in Paris in 2000 as the trigger for international recognition, but for many it was his performance for the British and Irish Lions against Australia in the opening test of the 2001 series that achieved this. He scored one of the great tries and in doing so, led the Lions to a test victory over the reigning world champions. We often forget how bleak Irish rugby was in the 1990s, but through that performance, we had someone who banished those dark days to a distant memory.

We live in a world that seldom provides heroes. Sport is the exception and we have ours in Brian. He will undoubtedly be remembered for his tries and turnovers, but mostly for how he dealt with adversity. He came back after his 2005 career-threatening injury to become a stronger player, who achieved greater success through Heineken Cups, a Grand Slam and further Lions tours. When dropped by Warren Gatland last summer for the final Lions test, he simply moved on and returned to help Ireland win a second Six Nations championship. – Yours, etc,

DAMIAN O’RIORDAN,

Madinat Al Alam,

Muscat,

Sir, – Trevor White’s article (“Why do Irish people take so little pride in Dublin”, Life, March 17th) makes the astonishing claim that, with reference to the Irish people, “most of our citizens can’t stand Dublin”, while attempting to substantiate this assertion with reference to an unnamed survey commissioned by Dublin City Council in 2010 which “revealed that just 26 per cent of Irish people have any emotional connection to the capital”. Such a conclusion based on this evidence is at best unscientific, and at worst disingenuous and provocative in equating a lack of an “emotional connection” with not being able to “stand” our capital city.

The many facets of “Irishness”, of Dublin and of this country’s relationship with the rest of the world are truly unique, and our culture, heritage, music and games are seen as inclusive and accessible to anyone with an interest, without being limited to people “of” or “from” this country, and indeed Ireland is known as a fantastically diverse, welcoming and interesting place that is enjoyed by millions of visitors each year.

The urban-rural divide is an inevitable feature of any society. I would have hoped that particularly at this time of year, when the eyes of the world are on Ireland, that readers could be spared the jaded cliches about “parochialism and provincialism”, and the divide between Dublin and “the rest of the country”.

Perhaps our energies and the energies and exceptional capabilities of Mr White and others like him would be better spent celebrating all that is good about this country and its peoples, rather than dwelling on or exaggerating our perceived differences. – Yours, etc,

BARRY COLFER,

Pembroke College,

University of Cambridge,

 

 

Sir, – Further to Manchán Magan’s article “Away with the faeries”, Magazine, March 15th, I was county engineer in Clare for 12 years prior to my retirement in 2008, so I oversaw infrastructural development, including the motorway, in the county.

I can categorically state that the motorway was not rerouted to avoid the sgeach or fairy bush. The fact is that, when the controversy arose, nobody knew the precise co-ordinates of the bush, except that it was fairly close to the carriageway under construction. When its precise co-ordinates were determined, it was found that the bush occupied a spot which lay between the main carriageway and the northbound slip road at the Latoon interchange, so we fenced it in and it did not interfere with construction works.

Later attempts to vandalise it by unknowns with a chainsaw did not succeed, thankfully, and it co-exists today with the motorway. – Yours, etc,

TOM CAREY,

Gallows Hill,

Ennis, Co Clare.

 

Sir, – Now that the Crimeans have had their say, are we to expect a referendum on Chechnya’s allegiance any time soon? – Yours, etc,

PAUL GREGAN,

Sans Souci Wood,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – The depressing assertion of your editorial (March 18th) “There is almost now, like it or not, a fait accompli quality to Ukraine’s loss of Crimea”, should perhaps have read, “Sadly, EU economic self-preservation, and imperial expansionist bullying, combine in triumph, as one United Nations member invades another with astonishing and shameful impunity”.

The situation in Ukraine is undoubtedly complex, but so what? This complexity should not blind us to the shocking reality that a sovereign nation’s territorial integrity has been ripped apart, with every possibility that further Ukrainian territory will be annexed.

The slow strangulation of the infant Russian democracy under Vladimir Putin has been conveniently and long ignored by whatever the “West” is supposed to be. Now, I fear, the tanks are coming home to roost! – Yours, etc,

DECLAN DOYLE,

Lisdowney,

Kilkenny.

 

Sir, – Together with two friends I attended the game on Sunday between Blackrock College and Clongowes, which turned out to be a thriller, played in exemplary spirit. It made a fine conclusion to a rugby weekend. On the field, that is.

Seated in the sparsely populated north stand, there was a mix of rugby people, some neutral fans, including many families with children.

Some 10 rows behind was a large group of young men, all attired in Blackrock jerseys and colours, who offered loud, occasionally aggressive, vocal support. This included a chant of few words, “**** off Clongowes, “**** off Clongowes”, not an imaginative lyric, just highly objectionable.

They appeared to be recent graduates rather than current pupils and so outside the direct sphere of any influence from their alma mater. However, it made me wonder how they came to acquire these “values”.

What school did I go to? Blackrock College. Proud of that fact? Let me get back to you on that. – Yours, etc,

PETER CULLY,

The Alders,

Monkstown Valley,

Co Dublin.

 

Sir, – Greg Carley’s call (March 18th) for the introduction of a €5 coin is a pragmatic response to the increasing devaluation of the loose change in our pockets. Here in the UK the 1p and 2p coins are almost irrelevant. The Bank of England has recognised this fact and in 2016 it is going to introduce a polymer £5 note to replace the existing paper one.The £10 plastic note will be introduced a year later. Such a move has overwhelming public support. The new note will be more durable and as such will be more environmentally friendly, it will be harder to counterfeit and, with a shelf life of five years, it will be in circulation for some 2½ years longer than the current fiver.

There is a downside, of course. Although the polymer note is waterproof and will survive a spell in the washing machine, it could melt if you take your iron to it. You have been warned. – Yours, etc,

FRANK GREANEY,

Lonsdale Road,

 

 

Sir, – Following the success of Property, The Terror , Morgan Kelly (“Real crisis will begin when ECB halts sweet credit line,” Opinion & Analysis, March 14th) has finally delivered his difficult second album SME, Future Fear . Sadly, it doesn’t live up to the promise he showed all of seven years ago. After building up our hopes that we’re in for another full-on credit crunch-style crisis, he fumbles it by declaring that “SMEs will eventually recover from their debt overhang – this sector is nothing if not resilient” before fading with a lament on the state of academe. A big disappointment for miserabilists everywhere. Maybe he should have done as U2 did and postponed. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN AHERN,

Meadow Copse,

Clonsilla,

 

 

 

Sir, – While I appreciate the attempts by those who smoke to tackle their nicotine addiction, I find the widespread use of e-cigarettes to be extremely rude and unpleasant. It is now approaching the 10th anniversary of the smoking ban in the Republic and I feel the use of e-cigarettes in public places to be regressive. – Yours, etc,

Dr MARY SCRIVEN,

Browningstown,

Ballinlough, Cork.

Sir, – Am I alone in detecting an increasingly intolerant attitude emerging regarding electronic cigarettes? The health “dangers” posed by someone “vaping” next to one are virtually nil. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Stamer Street,

Dublin 8.

 

 

Sir, – It was upsetting to encounter the negative reaction (March 13th) to the Taoiseach’s participation in the recent service of thanksgiving and remembrance for the most remarkable Irish inventor Louis Brennan (“Taoiseach honours Mayo-born inventor of the torpedo”, Home News, March 12th).

Brennan’s inventions spanned a number of application areas and were by no means exclusively of military application.

While the dirigible torpedo that he invented clearly had military application, its deployment in the coastal defence of the British Isles probably prevented much death and destruction from German U-boats among the civilian population.

As a nation, we ought not to be churlish in our attitude to the remembrance of greatness in our past in all of its rich diversity. Brennan’s genius and creativity serve as a source of inspiration as we address our current challenges. – Yours, etc,

LOUIS BRENNAN, FTCD

Professor in

 

Sir, – I fail to understand why dog-owners are fined €150 “on-the-spot” or, on summary conviction, up to €3,000 for failing to clean up a dog’s waste, yet horses are permitted to be used as a tourist attraction in our city and are freely permitted to foul our streets. Would it not be a simple matter to attach dung-catchers to these animals and offset the cost by selling the manure for fertiliser?

We all need to play our part in keeping Ireland tidy. – Yours, etc,

LUCY McFARLANE,

Newtownpark Avenue,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

 

 

Sir, – Good to see lots of Patrick’s in the Magazine (“I’m no saint”, March 15th) but where are the Fitzpatricks? – Yours, etc,

BRID FITZPATRICK,

Beechlawn Manor,

Terenure, Dublin 6W.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

* With media focused entirely on the Government lurching daily from farce to fiasco, another significant injustice to pensioners has slipped under the radar, ie the unilateral elimination of the Transition Pension for 65-year- olds.

Also in this section

Letters: Using and abusing the right to free speech

Letters: Keeping a little light alive

Wake up you ‘Moby Dicks’

This represents a loss of €12,000 to those who have worked and paid PRSI all their working lives, up to 40 years in many cases. Workers did this in the legitimate belief and expectation that they would receive this money on retirement.

Contrast this shakedown of ordinary Irish citizens to the kid glove, hands-off treatment by the Government of their own lavish pensions and perks. Just like those in the previous Fianna Fail government, present ministers, as well as the President of our bankrupt little state, will retire on world-class, six-figure pensions and golden pay-offs.

Contrast also this shakedown on the easy availability of countless millions for a growing army of consultants in quangos like Irish Water and across all government departments. The Government boasts that it has not reduced basic social welfare rates – true maybe, but in a whole series of sleight of hand stealth taxes they have savaged the income of ordinary pensioners.

Apart from the transition pension, pensioners have also lost the Christmas bonus and vital telephone subsidy; many have lost their medical cards; prescription charges have trebled; government changes have driven the cost of ‘gold-plated’ private health insurance through the roof; and there’s been an increase in retention tax on savings.

It is inexplicable, therefore, that the present grey brigade appears, so far, to have lost its bottle and has meekly accepted the unprecedented, unfair, immoral and unequal treatment meted out by the Government.

Presumably and hopefully, pensioners and others are patiently biding their time, waiting in the long grass to collectively and justifiably give their verdict, loud and clear, on May 23 next. Time surely for a real and genuine democratic revolution.

JOHN LEAHY

WILTON ROAD, CORK

 

OUT, OUT, OUT

* At first it might seem reasonable to wonder what all the fuss is about Enda Kenny marching in the New York St Patrick’s Day parade, that is until you consider the bigger picture.

No rational vote could have chosen Fianna Fail in the 2011 election, so people were instead left with little option but to take a leap of faith and plump for Fine Gael.

In doing so, they were reassured by Mr Kenny claiming that he was offering a complete and total break with the way things were done in the past, so much so that he specifically stated when he took office that there had been a “democratic revolution” in Ireland and this would be reflected in his style of governance.

Well, three years into that term, people can be under no illusion that they were sold a dud.

In New York, when given the choice between following the example of the new New York mayor, he buckled and simply could not stop himself from looking like the wannabe New York ward boss that he is at heart.

At every juncture of his period in office to date, when Mr Kenny is confronted with a situation that requires him to take actual action, he reverts to type and makes an emotional speech but then fails to tackle the root cause.

He made an emotional speech upon taking office; his speech about church failings on child abuse was moving but he’s done nothing to hold the religious orders to account and get them to pay up.

He made another speech on the rights of children but has done nothing to ensure a child in the Irish care system of 2014 can come out the other end an emotionally secure person – and of course, there is still no children’s hospital.

The public have an opportunity in the upcoming local and European elections to vote intelligently and send a message to Mr Kenny and his government partners – that they have failed to live up to the promise that they made to the Irish people in 2011.

If you don’t think austerity has been fairly spread and if you realise that there is a difference between the sacrifices we all have to make to correct our current budget deficit, and the sacrifices some of us were made to make to pay for private sector banking debt, then May 2014 gives you the chance to make your voice heard.

DESMOND FITZGERALD

CANARY WHARF, LONDON

 

PARADING SEXUALITY

* I believe the Taoiseach was entirely correct to resist pressure to follow the example of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Minister Joan Burton and boycott this year’s New York St Patrick’s Day Parade, despite being strongly urged to do so in our national media and by many others.

Gay organisations are not unfairly discriminated against in the New York parade.

The parade rules which bar them from displaying banners proclaiming their sexual orientation also bar heterosexuals from doing likewise.

This is a crucial point which seems to be overlooked or ignored by most commentators.

Thankfully, the Taoiseach understands this, but the boycotters and their numerous supporters in the media and elsewhere apparently don’t. Besides, there are other events, such as gay pride parades, when gay organisations can express their sexual orientation and carry banners to that effect.

HUGH GIBNEY

CASTLETOWN, ATHBOY, CO MEATH

 

PUTIN MASTERCLASS

* Mr Putin gauged the weakness of the political establishment in the west almost flawlessly. He considered that talk and discussion had reached epidemic proportions in western democracies, and the stomach for any kind of military support for their political and commercial colonialism was absent.

He knew they would consider that such support would be just bad for investment. He then proceeded to give leaders in the west a masterclass in how to annexe a strategic interest without firing a shot.

The taxpayers of the west are so fed up supporting political and commercial adventures around the world, there is now little or no prospect that their ‘leaders’ could ever hope to persuade them to support a military adventure, based on their leaders’ loss of face.

ROY STOKES

LIMEKILN PARK, DUBLIN 12

 

DIFFERENT VOICES

* I read the letters, the debates and the opinions in your newspaper.

I am saddened and ashamed to read of the dilemma the author of ‘St Patrick’s lament’ (March 17) faces on La Fheile Padraig in Ireland in 2014.

I did not join the parades this year. Instead, I walked for a charity on the day.

Yet I hope all who joined festivities on St Patrick’s Day, and especially visitors to Ireland, enjoyed themselves.

When I am up to it, I enjoy a celebration.

I am not in negative equity, and I will not ever be among those who ‘have craved fame and fortune’ (‘Keeping a Little Light Alive’, March 17). I still ride my bicycle. Eccentric or not at my age?!

And paying off a big health bill where I had to refer myself to London for head surgery last year. Thankfully, I’m doing okay for now.

I am still working. None of us knows where we may be in one or two years from now.

For me, it’s good to still be here, and to be contributing. Please get your prolific letter writers writing articles for the Irish Independent.

We need to hear the voices of the observers and carers out there.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

Irish Independent

 


Jill

$
0
0

20 March 2014 Jill

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to stop Leslie from ResigningPriceless

Cold slightly saw Jill pottereed

Scrabbletoday Marywins and gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

Oswald Morris, who has died aged 98, was an Oscar-winning British cinematographer whose career bridged the cinematic shift from the mood-infused chiaroscuro of the 1940s silver screen to the lush celluloid palette of the Technicolor productions of the latter half of the 20th century.

Morris, along with Freddie Young, Jack Cardiff and Christopher Challis, was of the generation of cinematographers who learnt their trade as cinema developed around them. He filmed more than 50 features, including perennial favourites such as John Huston’s early take on Moulin Rouge (1952), the country house puzzler Sleuth (1972) and the 1974 James Bond outing The Man with the Golden Gun. In the years before standardised film industry practices and technical advances, such as Steadicams and digital enhancement, Morris found that lighting and shooting movies was often an exercise in logistical flexibility, ego management and technical invention.

He won his Academy Award for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), a shoot on which he slipped a silk stocking over his camera lens to gain the distinctive sepia-tinged visuals. The film was, he said, “a cameraman’s dream because it had everything a cameraman could wish for.” Filming Norman Jewison’s musical — in which Chaim Topol plays a Jewish peasant attempting to marry off three of his daughters in pre-revolutionary Russia — allowed Morris to take a cinematic journey through the seasons. “We have winter with rain, winter with dull weather, winter with snow. We have dawns, sunrises, hot summer days, cold winter days, sunsets and nights,” he said. “Now I can’t think of anything, except possibly a storm, that one couldn’t have put in this film from a photographic point of view.”

Morris would defuse actors’ demands as adeptly as he would soften the light in which they were bathed. “I would chat them up before filming started and ask if they had any hang-ups,” he explained. “You bypass the director and form a relationship with them. Sophia Loren was as nervous as a kitten when I worked with her in 1957. She said, ‘I don’t look good in profile. I have a pointed nose’. So we developed a code: I would grimace whenever she was going into profile.”

Directors could be equally tricky. He worked on eight films with the notoriously difficult John Huston. “I did use to go up and say, ‘John, we have a problem’,” remembered Morris on publication of his memoirs Huston, We Have a Problem (2006). “He would always say: ‘Well, kid,’ — he always called me kid — ‘what are you going to do about it?’ and I’d go and find a solution. We always came up with something in the end.”

Oswald Norman Morris was born on November 22 1915 in Ruislip, Middlesex, where his father ran a newsagents and encouraged his son’s interest in film (they shot amateur shorts in the garden by the outside lavatory — calling them Bogside Productions). Oswald attended Bishopshalt School, working as a projectionist in a local cinema on his holidays, before joining Wembley Studios, alongside a young Michael Powell, in the early Thirties. Moving up from clapper boy to camera assistant, he worked on American Fox Film Company productions of “quota quickies” — fast turnaround features made to meet the legal requirement on British cinemas to show a quota of British films.

During the Second World War he served as a pilot in Bomber Command, in raids over France and Germany, winning a DFC in 1943. While he was filming The Odessa File in 1974, a German “grip” asked him whether he had ever visited Hamburg. “Yes,” replied Morris, “the last time I was 20,000 feet up”. Later on in the war Morris was transferred to Transport Command and given the job of taking Field Marshall Sir Alan Brooke on a global tour, which included a stop-off in the Crimea where Brooke attended the Yalta Conference. For this he was awarded an AFC.

On being demobbed Morris joined Pinewood Studios, where he worked alongside Ronald Neame (who called him “probably the greatest cameraman in the world”) and David Lean, who employed him behind the camera on Oliver Twist (1948).

In fact, Morris had the unique privilege of twice putting Charles Dicken’s orphan in the frame. As cameraman on Lean’s adaptation he was given the task of creating a point-of-view shot of Oliver being punched in the face. “The only way I could think of to achieve this was to use a pram,” recalled Morris. “I couldn’t run with the camera as it would be too unsteady. So I climbed in, and David Lean gave me a push. The punch went right into the lens.” Two decades later he was the director of photography — responsible for the entire look of the production — on Carol Reed’s film of Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! (1968).

In 1952, Morris “broke every rule in the book” while shooting Huston’s Moulin Rouge. On being interviewed for the job at the Dorchester Hotel Morris asked Huston how he envisaged the completed film would look. “I would like it to look as though Toulouse-Lautrec had directed it himself,” replied Huston. Morris shot using strong, light-scattering filters on the camera, which had never been used before. “We also filmed every set full of smoke so that the actors always stood out from the background,” he recalled. “The Technicolor people hated it.” Their tune changed, however, on the film’s positive reception. “The head of Technicolor in America wrote to Technicolor in London congratulating them on the wonderful colours in the film. No mention of me.”

In addition to his win for Fiddler on the Roof, Morris was Oscar-nominated a further two times: in 1969 for Reed’s Oliver! and in 1979 for Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (a sequel to The Wizard of Oz). He also won Best Cinematography Baftas on three consecutive years, for the family saga The Pumpkin Eater (1965), Sydney Lumet’s anti-establishment drama The Hill (1966) and the John le Carré adaptation The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1967). He made his last film, The Dark Crystal, in 1982.

Film directors, he claimed, were a rare and varied bunch. “The top ones are a breed apart. David Lean would quiz me over every shot, while John Huston was so laid-back that for Beat the Devil he simply told me to shoot it as a ‘shaggy-dog film’ and I had no idea what he meant. But what links them is that they are always receptive to ideas. They listen to people.”

Unlike many cinematographers, however, Morris never wanted to join their ranks. “I didn’t want to have to deal with actors,” he said late in life. “If the acting is bad, blame the director. If you can’t see what’s going on, blame the cinematographer.”

Morris was appointed OBE in 1998 for services to cinematography and the film industry and made a Bafta Fellow in 1997.

Oswald Morris married first in 1939, Connie Sharp, his childhood sweetheart who died in 1963. In 1966 he married, secondly, Lillian Fox, a film script supervisor who died in 2003. He is survived by a son and two daughters of his first marriage.

Oswald Morris, born November 22 1915, died March 17 2014

 

 

Lenny Henry (Report, 18 March) is clearly right to draw attention to the lack of black and Asian people in the television industry. He is wrong, however, to suggest that “new legislation” is needed to solve this problem. There is legislation in place, but the industry must solve its own problems. The first stage is to look carefully at the reasons why, after decades, there are still too few black faces on our screens and, no doubt, even fewer in executive positions behind those screens.

Where the cause is old-fashioned unlawful race discrimination, then those at the top should act swiftly to bring the industry’s complex procedures within the law. Where there are other barriers, the television industry has available to it in the Equality Act 2010 wide scope for positive action to overcome under-representation – the main test being that the action is proportionate. Lenny Henry has given some thought to where change is needed and is putting forward his ideas to the BBC and Ofcom. The legislation is there; what is needed is a commitment to use the law boldly to bring about meaningful change. Good luck.
Barbara Cohen
Chair, Discrimination Law Association

• It isn’t enough to give a slave their freedom and a colony its independence and there will not be an unqualified apology that admits reparations are due in law at least until they are settled (Legitimate reparations, Comment, 17 March). The reparations suggested by Caribbean nations are reasonable and will hardly hurt the European nations implicated in the slave trade. Many will believe them not punitive enough, insufficient reparations for the evils of slavery, colonisation and racism in our lifetimes.
Dr Graham Ullathorne
Chesterfield, Derbyshire

 

We were interested to read Joe Sandler Clarke‘s piece about the number of children strip searched by the Metropolitan police and the Met’s response to it (Met police strip search more than 4,500 children in five years, 17 March). His piece quoted a spokeswoman from the Met, who said: “Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies and Prisons undertook regular joint inspections of the Met’s custody suites and records, and had found the use of strip search to be ‘proportionate and appropriate’.”

We have never given the Met that general assurance in all their operations as we inspect each borough separately. We are not in a position to say that all strip searching of children and young people is necessary and proportionate across all boroughs and in some cases we have identified concerns, such as young people strip searched in Merton without an appropriate adult present.
Nick Hardwick
HM chief inspector of prisons
Dru Sharpling
HM inspector of constabulary

 

The universities attended by your Generation Y trainee journalists who control this week’s G2 (15 March) reveal the selective processes of mass higher education just as surely as Michael Gove’s view of Old Etonians’ influence on Cameron in the same issue. (Though the latter mainly reveals that many Tories have abandoned hope of winning next year’s election and merely seek to stop a Boris succession.)

Not one of the nine female 24- to 30-year-old trainees (out of 10 in total) attended a former polytechnic (though one coyly admits to “living in Oxford for three years” – at Oxford Brookes perhaps … or not?). Unlike the fabled progress from tea-boy (sic) to editor, these trainees already served extended academic apprenticeships at universities representative of the next rung below Gove’s “preposterous Etonians”. John Harris’s “Inside the A* factory” (Guardian Weekend, 15 March) shows how this selection happens in schools where literary tests indicate more or less expensively acquired cultural capital.

So I look forward to reading inter alia what these top 10 have to say about how we box our way out of the social and cultural logjam the current education system has gotten us into.
Patrick Ainley
University of Greenwich

• Laura McInerney’s argument about the absurdity of claims that too few girls are studying physics is well argued (Education, 18 March). There are marked gender preferences across all subjects that merit attention. But the natural science lobby has, for a long time, succeeded in privileging their subjects in the minds and actions of government – evident in curriculum reform, teaching and research funding in universities, the appointment of science advisers in government departments (why no history advisers?) and even in their own science and technology select committees in parliament. A more even-handed approach to subjects is needed.
William Solesbury
Visiting senior research fellow, King’s College London

 

So Lord Dyson has overruled the attorney general’s decision regarding publication of Prince Charles’ letters (Report, 13 March). Looks like this won’t be swept under the carpet after all.
David Gerrard
Hove, East Sussex

• I loved those sci-fi stories about the future of the media (G2, 17 March). Of course, I read them on my Kindle edition. However I don’t think we need to worry quite yet. My recent music choices on Amazon (other, tax-paying internet businesses also available) were Piazzolla, Albeniz, Steely Dan, Chet Baker, Neneh Cherry and Beethoven. Amazon replied by saying that I might also enjoy John Denver. Actually, I am now worried.
Bob Pite
London

• In France, local taxes automatically include the TV licence fee (Report, 19 March). One has to opt out of paying, which makes the process simpler. Of course, a Tory-led government could not do something sensible that the French do.
Professor Paul Fowler
Potterton, Aberdeenshire

• When the new pound coin was introduced 30 years ago (Report, 19 March), the then leader of the opposition, Neil Kinnock, compared it with Margaret Thatcher: thick, brassy and thinks it’s a sovereign.
Calum Bartlett
Lingen, Herefordshire

• I recall asking Doncaster miners in the parish where I worked why the pound coin was called a “Scargill”, to be told that it provided a new name for the 50p coin: “‘alf-a-Scargill”.
Rev Canon Chris Oxley
Lutterworth, Leicestershire

• Didn’t Queen Victoria once make a birthday present of Mount Kilimanjaro to her German cousin (Letters, 18 March)?
John Smith
Sheffield

• Gill Jewell (Letters, 19 March) is in good company. We in the West Midlands have also been ignored, to say nothing of those in the south-west. Were I paranoid, I would suspect a devious plot.
Stan Zetie
Birmingham

 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that by the end of this financial year 60% of the cost-reduction programme will have yet to reach the front line (Report, 6 February). Eighteen months ago council leaders were talking about the “graph of doom” – when repeated budget cuts would reduce local authority services to little more than bin collections, care for the elderly and looked-after children. Now even that seems optimistic. The poorest boroughs like ours in Newham – hit 10 times harder than the richest by local authority cuts – felt the brunt of the recession but are not feeling the recovery. This doesn’t feel like the predictable lag between the time when an uplift in the private sector ripples out into the public. This feels like a disconnect.

As the economy appears now to be picking up for some, but grinding others further down, it is surely time to revive the discussion about the cuts and whether those who bore the biggest burden of the recession should also benefit least from the recovery. If we were all in it together, shouldn’t we get out of it together?
David Robinson
Co-founder, Community Links

• The growing chasm between rich and poor is an obscenity, if not the only one. But does Simon Jenkins (Comment, 19 March) seriously expect the chancellor to tax the rich? Rather his focus is chiefly on the poor, for political and economic reasons, and his policies are resulting in the worst crisis in living standards since the 1930s. The only glimmer of hope for those who seek a fairer future is the handful of Fairness Commissions recently set up by local authorities. Of course, they face a tidal wave of government cuts that are anything but fair, however they have begun to establish a foothold for an alternative approach.

In Sheffield, for example, the council has introduced the living wage and now subjects all policies to a test of fairness; tackling health inequalities has been prioritised by commissioners, including the obscene early death rates among people with mental health problems and learning disabilities; and, to save children’s lives, 20mph speed limits are being introduced. Already there is sufficient evidence of impact on local policy priorities and public enthusiasm for greater fairness for the Labour opposition to take note. It is there that we must look if the gap between rich and poor is to be closed.
Professor Alan Walker
University of Sheffield

• As a higher-rate taxpayer – largely because of my widow’s pension, since my teacher’s pension certainly wouldn’t get me there – I fully accept my tax “burden” and would happily vote for a party who came out and made a case for higher taxes for high earners. Sadly, the only party that made a case for raising taxes so we can pay for better services was the Lib Dems. Since I live in Buckinghamshire, and am therefore to all intents and purposes disenfranchised, given the Tory majorities hereabouts, and since the Lib Dems have made themselves political outcasts, I don’t expect to get the chance to vote for such a policy any time soon.
Jill Wallis
Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire

• Welfare benefit is set to be capped at £119.5bn. Suppose that sum is spent by, say, February of the tax year. Does that mean that people who depend on the capped benefits – disablement allowance, incapacity benefits et al – will be left to suffer? Is that the mark of a caring society?
Peter Cave
London

 

Martin Amis (Report, 18 March) may still see white skin as a key attribute of being English, but I was born in London in 1950 of a Jewish mother whose family fled from the pogroms of 1880 and 1904, and a Nigerian father who served in the Merchant Navy during the war. I have considered myself English because I was born in England and know only English culture – I am not Scottish, Welsh or from Northern Ireland. It is racist according to law to treat someone like me “less favourably” because of the colour of their skin.

When I was the chair of a community group in south London in 2006, I managed, with others, to celebrate St George’s Day so that the BNP could not monopolise that day with a racist march as they had done previously. The history of England should be celebrated and it should be inclusive of all of us born in England. From John Archer, a black Englishman who became mayor of Battersea, to Henry Sylvester Williams and William Cuffay, a leading Chartist, these men and many more unnamed black men and women played a significant part in the struggles of working-class people in England. Are they to be denied their place in English history because of the colour of their skin?
Linda Bellos
Founder, Black History Month in the UK

• Martin Amis does not speak for most people in England when he says that having white skin is still an important part of being English. The majority don’t share his view. A poll by YouGov found just 22% of people in England say it’s important for someone to be white for them to be regarded as English, compared to 74% for whom it is not important. The figures are even more striking when broken down by age. Those, like Amis, aged over 60 are more than three times as likely to consider “being white” as important to Englishness than 18-24 year olds; 86% of this younger group say being white is not important to being English. Amis’s version of Englishness may still ring true for a minority, but most people – particularly the next generation of English men and women – are proud of an inclusive English identity that reflects our modern and diverse nation.
Sunder Katwala
Director, British Future

• Has Martin Amis found the time to read at least a sentence or two by the late Stuart Hall? Or at the very least seen John Akomfrah’s The Stuart Hall Project (now available on DVD)? If not, perhaps he should, and then dig a little deeper in order to reflect on his (Amis’s) meaningless view that multiculturalism is “a luxury”, apparently some sort of soft altruism which cannot endure in “hard times”. Yes, Amis should definitely familiarise himself with the work and ideas of Stuart Hall, and chuck in some Foucault for good measure.
Bruce Ross-Smith
Oxford

• As the European and local elections approach in May, the political agenda is becoming increasingly dominated by attempts to appeal to voters by drumming up racism and xenophobia. This vying by mainstream parties to be the most trenchant on immigration has even led the government to suppress the facts about the impact of immigration on unemployment. Leaving this discussion unchallenged is deeply dangerous. The scapegoating of immigrants for economic and social problems may be convenient but it is both false and leads to real discrimination and abuse of minority communities. For mainstream parties to get caught up in the slipstream of this destructive agenda will not raise their votes but instead plays into the hands of the more extreme exponents of this racist and xenophobic politics, whether the authoritarian, far-right variants like the BNP or the populist version of Ukip, which calls for an end to all immigration – whatever the economic and social cost – while promoting “little Englander” isolationist policies across the board.

Alongside the campaign against Bulgarian and Romanian migrants that dominated the tabloid media at the beginning of the year, hostility to Muslims also remains a constant feature. Very few voices have been raised against this dialogue of hate and prejudice. This is creating a dangerous slippage where anti-immigrant, xenophobic, anti-Traveller and racist views become normalised within the mainstream political debate. We have therefore decided to take the occasion of the annual UN Anti-racism Day to organise a counter-blast and celebrate our diversity and the contribution of all. The scapegoating of migrants and Muslims is a blight on society.  We hope that everyone who agrees with us will join us in Parliament Square, London, at 11am on Saturday 22 March (www.standuptoracism.org.uk).
Diane Abbott MP, Mark Durkan MP, Peter Hain MP, Naomi Long MP, John McDonnell MP, Mohammad Taj TUC president, Weyman Bennett, Sabby Dhalu Unite Against Fascism, Christine Blower NUT general secretary Billy Hayes CWU general secretary, Mark Serwotka PCS general secretary Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite Dr Tommy Tomescu Alliance Against Romanians and Bulgarians Discrimination Co-President Don Flynn Director, Migrants’ Rights Network, Jean Lambert MEP, Sally Hunt UCU general secretary, Chris Keates NASUWT general secretary, Ged Nichols General secretary, Accord, Andy Reid PCS national exec, Matt Wrack General secretary FBU, Mick Whelan Aslef general secretary, Kingsley Abrams Unite executive council, Anton Johnson Unite London & Eastern Region LGBT committee chair, Ian Hodson National president, Bakers’, Food & Allied Workers Union, Farooq Murad Secretary general, Muslim Council of Britain, Zita Holbourne PCS NEC and national co chair Barac UK, Martin Powell-Davies NUT national executive, Aaron Kiely NUS black students officer, Dr Daud Abdullah Spokesperson of British Muslim Initiative (BMI), Shakeel Begg Imam, Lewisham Islamic Centre, Abdullah Faliq Media and external relations secretary, Islamic Forum of Europe, Dr Omar Hamdoon President of Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), Mohammed Kozbar Chairman of Finsbury Park Mosque (FPM), Canon Barry Naylor, Balwinder Rana Sikhs Against the EDL, Dr Francisco Dominguez Centre for Brazilian and Latin American Studies (Middlesex University), Marisol Guzman Women and Family Commission Ecuadorian Movement in the UK, Hackney Refugee Forum, Sarah Isal Chair, European Network Against Racism, Dr Jennifer Langer Director, Exiled Writers Ink, Yvonne MacNamara The Travellers Movement, Juan C Piedra Ecuadorian Movement in UK, Phien O’Reachtigan Pavee Advise Assist Direct, Veerendra Rishi Indian Institue of Romani Studies, Dr Rhetta Moran Matron, RAPAR, Simon Woolley Director, Operation Black Vote, Lindsey German Stop The War Coalition, Paul Mackney Joint chair, Greece Solidarity Campaign, Michaël Privot Director, European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Maurice Wren Refugee Council chief executive, Jon Lansman Editor, Left Futures, Kate Hudson General secretary CND, Bob Archer Redbridge association president, National Union of Teachers, Gerry Gable Editor, Searchlight, Cathy Pound Organiser, Trade Union Friends of Searchlight, Cllr Patrick Vernon South London People’s Assembly, Nick O’Brien We are Norwich, Andrew Burgin Left Unity, Hugh Lanning Unite Against Fascism, Nick Long Lewisham Local Gov Unite branch LE/1183, Raj Mandair National BAME Labour Executive, Kevin Ovenden One Society Many Cultures, Michael Burke Economist, Glyn Robbins Convenor, United East End, Ulrike Schmidt We are Waltham Forest

 

 

Guardian:

 

 

 

 

Independent:

 

 

 

 

The bare bones of your front-page story “British nuclear power plant’s ‘Fukushima alert’” (19 March) are that as the result of a routine review of safety, EDF, unprompted and erring on the side of extreme caution, decided that the shingle beach at Dungeness could no longer provide adequate protection against flooding and that they should, to be perfectly safe, shut the reactor down while an additional flood- protection wall was built.

This is the kind of decision that managers of technical systems take every day of the week. No crisis of any kind, no hint of a disaster, but news of this was apparently enough to send your environment editor into hysterics.

Apart from the fact that Dungeness is a nuclear-power plant near the sea, there are no parallels between this and Fukushima, whose location has long been known to be prone to earthquakes and tidal waves.

David H Bebbington, Broadstairs, Kent

Nuclear power is dangerous – quite literally because it is so toxic, and because it distracts attention from the investment we need to be making in harnessing the free energy of the sun,  the wind, the waves and  the tides.

We need a green-energy revolution in this country – and nuclear should be absolutely no part of it. Since this winter’s extreme weather this country has finally woken up to the dire threat of climate and weather chaos – threats which undermine severely the case for nuclear-power stations, virtually all of which are sited on the coast, because of how hungry they are for cooling water and for water to discharge into.

Nuclear is so last-century – and so pre-floods.

Rupert Read, Green Party, Norwich

The operator of the Dungeness power plant recognised an emergent risk to their facility. They reviewed and assessed that risk and as competent operators decided to shut down the facility until remedial work could be carried out thus minimising the risk to all involved. They have undertaken the work and can now ensure the continued secure energy supply to the UK.

Congratulations EDF

Marc Owen, North Ferriby,  East Yorkshire

Britain, after Tony Benn

The passing of Tony Benn highlights, for me, not what might have been but what we now have. A majority of benefit claimants are now in full-time low-paid work; television programmes (Famous, Rich and Hungry) end with appeals for donations to food banks for our British citizens; and taxpayers’ money is poured into enabling ever more house purchases that are driving up prices (and debt) yet again.

Three decades of Thatcherism have delivered a low-wage economy and poverty so widespread that it is now subsidised by income tax to jack up employers’ low-wage jobs and middle-class aspirations.

And they called Tony Benn the most dangerous man in Britain.

Vaughan Thomas, Usk, Gwent

OK Prue Bray (Letters, 18 March). Tony Benn argued passionately, educated and informed us, stood up for and advanced the rights and interests of ordinary working people and the disadvantaged. He entertained and charmed us but sometimes infuriated us as well. He stimulated debate, united and divided, gave us insights into politics and government in his diaries, challenged the cant and arrogance of right-wing and centrist politicians.

He was an honest, caring, humorous and highly intelligent man. Isn’t that enough?

Robert Heale, Bedford

When Tony Benn was Minister of Technology he enthusiastically supported Concorde, built in his constituency of course. At the same time he cancelled the UK government’s financial support for the then infant Airbus project, leaving it to the French and Germans. He didn’t think it would be a commercial success!

Andrew Scholes, Whitwell, Hertfordshire

Do the Scots really want this vote?

Your perceptive editorial “The power of No” (18 March) says “given the public appetite for such a ballot, this newspaper can only support it being held”.

Are you sure that there is a public appetite? Sure most, not all, politicians want a ballot – so do Edinburgh-based journalists and BBC Scotland. But my impression is that the public want to get on with their lives, and don’t fancy having to make a choice between seeming to be patriotic Scots and remaining part  of Britain.

There are hundreds of thousands of what Jim Sillars memorably called “80/90-minute Scots” who would roar our heads off at Murrayfield or Hampden Park but have no appetite for being required to make a judgement on the future constitutional arrangements of the United Kingdom.

Tam Dalyell, Linlithgow, West Lothian

I read parts of the Scottish White Paper on independence in Oban library yesterday, while waiting for the ferry home. It is made up of shoulds, coulds and woulds and SNP manifesto commitments for the 2016 Scottish elections. I don’t understand why anyone takes it seriously. As James Cusick points out (18 March) the time given for the many negotiations that have to take place is ridiculously short.

But once there is a yes vote, there is no reason why Alex Salmond cannot postpone the 2016 elections until the negotiations are complete. Referring to the transition period, the White Paper states that legislation will “provide for continuity of laws: all current laws, whether in currently devolved or reserved areas, will continue in force after independence day, until they are specifically changed by the independent Scottish Parliament”.

David Pollard, Salen, Isle of Mull

New-look pound coin

The choice of design for the new pound coin, which is reminiscent of a threepenny bit, is inspired. The purchasing power of the pound will soon be equivalent to that of the threepenny bit when it was discontinued.

Nigel Scott, London N22

The West precipitated Crimea crisis

Hillary Clinton’s description of the Crimea crisis as being about “our values” versus Vladimir Putin’s “aggression” overlooks the West’s role in precipitating the crisis (report, 19 March). At the end of the Cold War the US assured Russia that German reunification and the Soviet withdrawal from Eastern Europe would not occasion an advancing US military threat. Yet instead of abolishing Nato as a Cold War relic, the alliance was actually pushed eastwards with Ukrainian membership touted as a goal. This was perceived in Moscow as an act of aggression. The imposition of symbolic sanctions and the knee-jerk support of the politically dubious new Ukrainian government has further escalated tensions.

Winding up Nato would be more useful than winding up Putin.

Dr Nick Megoran,, Lecturer in Political Geography, Newcastle University

Patrick Lavender’s letter (17 March) brilliantly details US hypocrisy when it comes to foreign policy, but it beggars belief that the EU has joined in.

Everyone seems to forget that Ukraine’s legitimate government was overthrown by terrorists. Then Russia, rather than react against this, simply went to protect those who speak Russian and see themselves as Russian. In order to do this properly an election took place which confirms what everyone knows, that Crimea wants to be part of Russia. But when it comes to foreign policy the US does not believe in democracy.

Then everyone goes on about “international law”, something Israel has defied for at least 40 years, yet never faced any sanctions for. One rule for one…

Malcolm Howard, Banstead, Surrey

Many in the West have difficulty in taking seriously either the US Secretary of State John Kerry or the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Russia has the same problem. Vladimir Putin mocked their “baffling, primitive, and blatant” Crimean posturing saying it was a little late in the day for the West “to take a lead on observing international law”.

It had recognised Kosovo’s secession from Serbia as legitimate arguing that “permission” from the central authority for a unilateral declaration of independence was unnecessary”.

In view of our recent record of invasions and international interference which set ablaze the entire Islamic Crescent, it is difficult to argue that  the Russian president is being unfair.

Dr John Cameron, St Andrews

Whatever viewpoint one takes on the current “crisis” in the Crimea, the people voted and declared their preference – and a huge majority voted to cut links to the Ukraine. The referendum might be illegal in the eyes of the likes of Hague, Obama and possibly some of the EU but nonetheless is hugely telling.

Ewa Maydell  & Derek Fabian, Milton, Dumbarton  

 

Times:

 

Sir, Instead of HS2 correcting the UK’s economic imbalance (Hugo Rifkind, Mar 18), its speed-first route to Birmingham risks making that city and its airport a real-time part of the London colossus, worsening the North-South divide. If, however, HS2 capacity is equally important, the M1 and M6 corridors await it. HS2 could then improve the East Midlands economy, with a station at East Midlands Airport. And, although its twin destinations of Leeds and Manchester may be over 90 miles north of Birmingham, they are only 40 miles apart. If HS2 began construction by using the M62 corridor to draw these two centres time-closer, it would from the start shrink two of the UK’s economic divides.

Michael Wand

Brentwood, Essex

Sir, Hugo Rifkind suggests building HS2 regardless, so we can have a “bloody great super-fast railway”.

Fine, but who is going to use it, when recent statistics show all types of long-distance business travel reducing, for obvious reasons.

J. J. Cameron

South Heath, Bucks

Sir, The decision (“HS2 link to the Tunnel abandoned’, Mar 18) to scrap the short interconnection between HS2 and HS1 is a third shot in the foot for this project. The other two potentially fatal injuries were ruling out the proposed Euston Cross station under Euston, St Pancras and Kings Cross, and routing HS2 into a terminal station in Birmingham rather than connecting with the rest of the network at a long overdue expansion of the appallingly cramped Birmingham New Street. Any single bullet might not have been fatal to the success of the project. Three supposedly money-saving decisions may well be.

We seem to have learnt nothing from the mistakes of the Victorians, who built main lines into dead-end London termini, requiring all passengers to change stations for onward travel. Only now, 150 years later, have we rectified this thinking with Thameslink and Crossrail.

Without the HS1/HS2 link enabling direct trains to Europe from the North, HS2 loses most of its potential to compete with air to European destinations.

Tony Whittaker

Willington, Derbyshire

Sir, I welcome the letter (Mar 17) calling for “a comprehensive review of UK transport priorities, and where, if at all, HS2 fits with this”. It reminded me that we used to handle such “big topics” as follows: wide-ranging Green Paper, then reasoned public discussion, then a White Paper, then parliamentary scrutiny and debate, then decision.

Archy Muir

Kenilworth, Warks

Sir, London and the South-East are economically dominant because they are closer to Europe than the peripheral UK which suffers from what geographers call “the friction of distance”. Friction can sometimes be remedied by lubrication which is the anticipated role of HS2 in bringing the Midland and North closer to London. The reality is that there are geographical limits beyond which HS2 cannot succeed or justify its cost, so it may be wiser to invest in tourism, recreational and retirement opportunities in our beautiful peripheral regions than attempting to turn Britain into a “bloody great super-fast railway” system.

Bernard Kingston

Biddenden, Kent

 

 

 

It is high time for a Royal Commission to start the process of restoring public trust in the police services

Sir, Your report “Manchester police to face triple corruption inquiry” (Mar 18) made interesting reading the day after Dame Anne Owers, chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, confessed to the BBC’s Newsnight programme that she lacks the resources to properly investigate the cases referred to the commission.

Her admission poses serious questions over the IPCC’s ability to tackle the current scandals that have triggered a crisis in public trust in the police, including the Manchester triple investigation of your headline. Coincidentally, we now learn that a lorryload of documents relating to a Met police corruption investigation (which impacted on the Stephen Lawrence case among others) was suspiciously shredded in 1983.

Significantly, these revelations coincide with the report from the respected World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers warning of the dangers to press freedom posed by politicians’ royal charter proposals and the impact of the Leveson Inquiry (“Global news body backs UK papers’ fight for freedom”, Mar 18).

Lest we forget, some revelations about police corruption owe much to the determination of investigative journalists, aided by police whistleblowers, serving or retired. That, in itself, flags up the risks posed by aspects of Lord Justice Leveson’s recommendations and the subsequent enthusiasm with which too many police chiefs have ordered draconian crackdowns on police/press contacts.

Surely the time is overdue for a new Royal Commission on policing in the UK generally. It would serve the public interest well in these critical times for trust in the police, and it would also be in the best interests of the great majority of honest, dedicated police officers.

Paul Connew

(former editor, Sunday Mirror)

St Albans

 

A mother of three reckons legalising drugs would help parents to teach their children about the risks

Sir, I applaud Anne-Marie Cockburn for her mission to challenge traditional drug education for our young people following the tragic death of her daughter, Martha, from ecstasy (Mar 15). Drugs are a part of youth culture and, as such, our youngsters should be told detailed and useful facts about drugs so they can make informed choices. Like Anne-Marie I think drugs should be legalised so quality and quantity control can be made just as with the drug alcohol, but until that time our young people deserve to be advised about the effects of different drugs, as I have done with my three offspring. The “just say no” approach is outdated and useless and just plays into the hands of teenage rebellion.

Sue Reed

Willimoteswick, Northumberland

 

 

The 4th Sunday in Lent is Mothering Sunday, not to be confused with the recent US custom of Mother’s Day

Sir, I was dismayed to see “Mother’s Day Gift Guide” this morning (Mar 19). Mothering Sunday suggests loving, caring warmth, whereas Mother’s Day reeks of commercialism. Children used to pick wild flowers for their mothers — “Those who go a-mothering find violets in the lane” — and painstakingly make cards.

Ann Tillard

North Chailey, E Sussex

Everyone spends too much time worrying about coffee and butter when the real health damage is done by alcohol

Sir, Forget caffeine (Times2, Mar 18) and start concentrating on the serious stuff, alcohol. If the amount of time and energy spent on warnings about relatively innocuous substances which, like bacon and butter, often prove less harmful than we had been led to believe, was spent on combating the ills of alcohol abuse, the atmosphere on Friday and Saturday nights in towns and cities all over this country would become much pleasanter, the police could be deployed to fight crime and the A&E departments of hospitals could concentrate on the genuinely ill.

Kathryn Dobson

Liverpool

 

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – I counted the number of hugs in Sunday night’s episode of The Voice. During the 75-minute programme, I recorded 105 hugs, or 1.4 hugs per minute. However, as an accurate count was difficult to achieve during scenes of mass-hugging, it is possible that some hugs may have been missed. If my television proves to have a slow-motion function, I will redo this part of the research retrospectively.

The subsequent programme, Mr Selfridge, was also included in my study. It has a running time of 60 minutes, including commercial breaks. While watching, I recorded two hugs, both of which took place in emotional scenes depicting the reuniting of families. There were no hugs during the breaks.

Barbara Adam
Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire

 

SIR – The media describes the Euro-sceptic viewpoint inside the Conservative Party as a minority. But how do we know that? Ninety-five Tory MPs have declared their hand by asking for a more urgent referendum. That leaves about 210. Half of these are the payroll vote, bound never to disagree publicly with the party line on pain of dismissal; another 105 have chosen to remain mute. Some of these may be EU enthusiasts, others simply hoping for preferment. But what do they really think?

It should not be beyond the wit of the 1922 Committee to organise a simple secret ballot of the 210. A single question, two alternate boxes for a cross in either, an otherwise plain no-name ballot form and a ballot box in a prominent place. It could be that, with guaranteed confidentiality, over 60 would admit to Euro-scepticism. That would make them, with the 95, a majority.

In a democracy is it not the wishes of the majority that are supposed to prevail? In the referendum of 1975, voters supported staying in the European Economic Community, and for the next 17 years, until Maastricht, the dissenters accepted the result. That is the British way of doing things. Stopping people having a vote, and calling them troublemakers is not our way.

Frederick Forsyth
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

Child care bias

SIR – “Working parents to get £2,000 handout” looks very impressive. However, parents who stay at home to care for their children are just as much working parents and deserve equal consideration.

John Scotson
Altrincham, Cheshire

SIR – As with all special interest tax reliefs, the introduction of this one will have the long-term effect of increasing the average cost of child care, as providers raise their fees until they reach the full charge that the market will bear.

It would be so much better to reduce the overall rates of income tax instead.

John Archibald
London N20

Rhododendron shelter

SIR – We have a large old rhododendron bush in our garden, which I think is a rhododendron ponticum. It has been there for at least 50 years.

The bush does not discourage wildlife: ivy, bramble and holly grow profusely underneath it, and it is used as a shelter for many small birds. Dunnocks, robins and tits can be seen regularly in the bush, and it once housed a blackbirds’ nest.

Helen Oliver
Beckenham Kent

SIR – The reason for banning rhododendrons is because they are believed to act as host to the pathogen that causes sudden oak death. Many of the large estates and well-known gardens in Cornwall, including the Lost Gardens of Heligan, have already carried out extensive programmes of uprooting and burning the most commonly seen rhododendron ponticum.

Linda Reed
Selby, North Yorkshire

Exploding flour

SIR – Forget about sugar; why is flour sold in paper bags?

Something else in a shopping basket can easily pierce the bag, and then you get an explosion of flour. Is this form of packaging to do with moisture retention?

Rose Tanner
East Peckham, Kent

Chancellor’s vision

SIR – Since entering Parliament in 1983, I have had a ringside view of eight chancellors, and I believe that George Osborne already compares favourably to all of them.

He has a strong vision of an enterprise Britain that can compete in a ruthless global race, recognising that every small business and entrepreneur deserves encouragement because out of their ranks will emerge the great companies of tomorrow. Firms will only succeed if they have motivated workforces, so this is why the Chancellor is so keen on raising the basic tax threshold and increasing the minimum wage. This will help to increase productivity and investment.

Today’s Budget is a step forward from what was a ghastly economic inheritance, but it is also another step on the way to Mr Osborne establishing himself as one the great post-war chancellors.

Henry Bellingham MP (Con)
London, SW1

HMRC fantasy

SIR – An impact assessment by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs concluded that people who are dragged into the 40 per cent tax band and see their disposable incomes fall “may choose to work more in order to maintain their post-tax incomes”.

Most employees in the 40 per cent band will find either that their employers can’t offer them more hours, or won’t pay them overtime, even if they do work more.

Keith Appleyard
West Wickham, Kent

Ripe bananas

SIR – I tasted my first English banana in the Fifties, aged 12, on arrival at a Sussex boarding school from a southern Indian one. In my first letter home, I commented on how “dry and horrible the English bananas were”.

I still do not care for the taste of those on offer here; good mashed banana sandwiches require soft, sweet, ripe fruit.

Frances Finch
Welland, Worcestershire

SIR – When the first consignments of bananas reached our village shop in straw-filled wooden boxes at the end of the Second World War, our concern was not with the quality of the fruit but with the huge tropical spiders that had survived the journey.

Roy Jones
Quorn, Leicestershire

The party politics behind garden cities and HS2

SIR – You report that Tories are thought to be reluctant to build a garden city in Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire or Oxfordshire because they fear a backlash from rural voters in safe Conservative seats in those areas.

What a pity that same rationale wasn’t applied when the decision was made to push ahead with HS2.

Neil Blake
Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire

SIR – We should be developing brownfield sites within walking and cycling distance of London’s business districts. This would also have the advantage of bringing investment, light and life to areas urgently in need of all three.

London needs New York-style, quality high-rise living, not more miserable commuters.

Victor Launert
Matlock, Derbyshire

SIR – The idea of garden cities, in its historical sense, may not on its own be able to solve the housing crisis. People are still going to be drawn to the bright lights of the city.

Another solution would be garden suburbs, built on the outskirts of large cities. The garden city principles, including long-term stewardship, together with the delivery of a sustainable and well-designed community, might be captured as much in that format as in a stand-alone new settlement.

Aman Sahota
London EC4

SIR – George Osborne’s plan for garden cities sounds so delightful, but I can’t help thinking that with the economic restrictions and limited land available they will end up more city than garden.

Anne Newbery
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

 

SIR – The rump of Ukraine will remain outside Nato and outside the protection of Article Five of the Nato treaty – an attack against one member being an attack against all. Therefore, there will never be a “credible armed deterrent”, as Air Vice Marshal M R Jackson mentions. Russia has had a generation of humiliation as the Warsaw Pact nations deserted to Nato, with the former Soviet Baltic states rubbing more salt into its wounds. Those nations are all protected by their Nato membership. The recovery of Crimea is symbolic not only for Russia but also for Ukraine and the West, dependent as they are on Russian gas.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has achieved his objective, and will now concentrate on wooing Kazakhstan away from the influence of the West.

Chris Watson
Lumut, Perak, Malaysia

SIR – Until 1954, Crimea was part of Russia. Not for the first time, its inhabitants have voted to leave Ukraine, recently with 97 per cent in favour of returning to Russia, yet the British Government regards the result as illegal. Scotland has been part of the United Kingdom since 1707, but if 51 per cent of its voters choose to leave the UK in this year’s referendum, Alex Salmond will regard that as a valid result as, of necessity, will the Government.

The situation in Ukraine became predictable once the Ukrainian parliament removed Russian as an official language in February. Bearing in mind that Russian is the first language of more than 14 million inhabitants of Ukraine, that was surely an act of provocation.

R B Tubb
Thatcham, Berkshire

SIR – Regarding the Crimea referendum, Maggie Hughes says: “At least they’ve had an in/out vote” (Letters, March 17). They haven’t. Voters had two options: to “support the reunification of Crimea with Russia as a subject of the Russian Federation” or to “support the restoration of the 1992 Constitution and the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine”. It was not clear whether the second option referred to the original version of the constitution, which declared Crimea an independent state, or the later amended version which declared Crimea to be an autonomous republic within Ukraine. Retaining the constitutional status quo was not an option.

Robert Saunders
Balcombe, West Sussex

SIR – Central America and the Caribbean are generally regarded as falling within the sphere of influence of the United States.

The United States put armed forces into around 17 countries in the region during the last century, the most recent being Panama and Grenada. The American attitude to Crimea shows a degree of double standards. Or are they exasperated at losing the use of Sevastopol’s port?

Hywel Davies
Newport, Pembrokeshire

 

 

Irish Times:

 

Sir, – Fr Brian Eyre, a Catholic priest who has received a dispensation from celibacy and who has married, yet who still practices ministry, though not in public, makes a case for a married priesthood within the Catholic Church and argues that one reason that this should be allowed is because this church allows clergy which it knows to be gay to minister as priests (“Priesthood and matrimony are not incompatible”, Rite & Reason, March 18th).

“We have some gay priests ministering in dioceses and doing good work, but we can’t have married priests. We can accept one but not the other. Why? The problem is the woman. She has been seen as the temptress, the Eve who brought about the fall of Adam,” he writes.

While not going into the topic of whether the creator actually needs “clergy” in order to commune effectively with creation, there are a few points in Fr Eyre’s article that might still be addressed.

Firstly, it might be noted that while it is true that Rome knows about its gay clergy, it is the case that such clergy are expected to be celibate.

Fr Eyre may know some that are not, but he has not presented priests who are in openly same-sex relationships as part of his case.

He tells us about his wife, the “woman by his side, a companion to walk with him through life”; but if gay clergy had such a companion – walking with them through life – they would soon have their ministry terminated. Celibacy is the issue rather than sexual orientation, I would suggest.

It might also be said that since Fr Eyre has brought up the subjects of “gays” and of “women” in the Catholic church, might he not have said more about both?

How about a case for the “woman by his side”, his wife, having a right to access the same ministry as himself?

How about making a case for the gay clergy he mentions to also be allowed to have a companion by their side – walking with them through life?

It could be argued that it might not be a good thing to have a “married clergy” in the Catholic Church if the ensuing increase in numbers of such clergy were only to see more men promoting a male priesthood and exclusively heterosexual relationships. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN KELLY,

Whitechurch Road,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – I read with interest the article by Fr Brian Eyre. While I agree with his position that the priesthood and matrimony should not be regarded as incompatible, I believe he is not clear on the reasons why the church is opposed to permitting a married clergy. He argues that obligatory celibacy for the priesthood arises out of the church’s attitude towards women. The attitude of church authorities towards women is shameful and a cause of scandal in the modern world. But I believe it is not the core reason the church demands that those aspiring to the priesthood make a vow to live a life of celibacy before considering them for ordination.

But that culture is a dysfunctional one and, ultimately dangerous. It is part of the culture that speaks of “manly”, that admires a male “standing up like a man”, or in the cringe-making lingo of the rugby world, that urges players to “man up”.

Donncha O’Callaghan’s autobiography was published a few years ago and a feature of that were the stories of casual violence that arose on rugby pitches and even on training grounds. Donncha O’Callaghan is someone else I admire and from what I know of him he is a decent, generous person, but again he was offering an insight into the “manliness” of the rugby world.

The image many of us males have of what it means to be a man, is disturbing and it doesn’t much differ from the rugby world’s ideal. One feature it surely does not include is homosexuality – the ideal man, hegemonic man, is certainly heterosexual, perhaps aggressively so. A bit prone to violence or at least “able to look after himself” – ie able to beat the bejasus out of anyone who challenges him. A capacity to drink enormous amounts of pints – sensibly of course – is almost de rigeur. And being a good man with the girls, lots of girls.

The posh private all-male schools do their bit to engender this culture, as does the media and, classically, rugby does it too. Less so the GAA and, I think, soccer.

It isn’t just the social boorishness that is the problem with this, it is the homophobia, the misogyny, or at least the patriarchy that goes with it – the idea that the world is there for the men, the business, political and professional world certainly, although to put a decent gloss on it in modern times we let the women in a bit. But for the most part women are there for decoration, sex and procreation, of course.

And, no, I am not saying Brian O’Driscoll and or Donncha O’Callaghan are representative of this sort of hegemonic masculinity – Brian O’Driscoll seems very different from that and so too I understand from people who know him, is Donncha O’Callaghan. But that the icon of modern rugby should speak of a thrill in legally inflicting pain on someone else, is, well, disturbing.

 

Sir, – Adrienne Murphy (“Autism – it’s not all about genetics”, Health and Family, March 18th, 2014) argues that autism is not primarily a genetic disease, based on her experiences with her own son. While I sympathise with the desire of parents to find causes to explain their children’s illness, they should be cautious of claims that the condition is caused by fluoride in the water, aluminium toxicity, GMOs, vaccines or any other supposed environmental toxins. There is no good evidence to support these claims, which amount to little more than conspiracy theories.

By contrast, the evidence that autism is primarily due to genetic insults is overwhelming. If one of a pair of identical twins is autistic, the chance that the other one will be too is over 80 per cent, while the rate in fraternal twins is less than 20 per cent. Any environmental exposures should not differ across identical versus fraternal twins – what does differ is the degree of genetic similarity. More generally, if you are related to someone with autism, your risk of autism is vastly increased over the population average (unlike adoptive siblings who are at no increased risk, despite sharing the same environment). We now know that the condition can be caused by mutation of any one of several hundred different genes, many involved in how the brain develops. Around a third of cases can currently be diagnosed with a specific genetic condition and that number is increasing rapidly.

In a subset of cases, these conditions are associated with additional problems, including gastrointestinal symptoms. These can sometimes be ameliorated by dietary interventions, which may well affect behaviour and improve quality of life for those patients. That does not mean that nutritionists can cure autism, any more than homeopaths can. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN MITCHELL, PhD

Associate Professor

of Genetics

and Neuroscience,

Trinity College Dublin,

 

Sir, – Further to John Holden’s article “Imbalance at the top in third level” (Education, March 18th), I write as one of the small handful of women professors at NUI Galway.

Care-giving responsibilities, especially in relation to children, are cited as the main impediment to the aspirations of university women for senior positions. A focus on that significant point highlights the larger elephant in the room. Some male colleagues also choose to spend time with their children instead of writing late into the night to meet project and publication deadlines.

They, like their female colleagues who go home to their children, or those who devote their lives beyond the campus to a sick parent, partner or sibling, or to spending quality time with loved ones after work, are less likely to succeed in the game of thrones.

The modern university, driven by a caste of highly stylised, predominantly male managers supported by HR executives, is not sympathetic to the human consequences of policy and strategy for the workplace. A fatal result of this unenlightened management philosophy is inequity for academics who, after satisfactorily performing their duties, dare to have a private life outside the gates of the university.

The disadvantage is, undoubtedly, compounded for women who, as Prof Kathleen Lynch suggests in the article, are the primary carers, a factor that is not considered by university managers.

However, the underlying problem will not be solved by addressing gender equality alone. The question is, how much is enough?

Humanity and labour law must begin to have their place in university work practices, so that women and men have equality of opportunity to become professors without having to sacrifice all of life for that success. – Yours, etc,

Prof ELIZABETH

FitzPATRICK,

School of Geography

and Archaeology,

 

 

Sir, – I wish to strongly disagree with the politically correct nonsense put out by Vincent Browne (“Rugby culture is boorishly patriarchal”, Opinion and Analysis, March 19th).

Rugby is hard and physical and those who engage in it accept that or do not play it. That is the reality. It is good to see the Irish women’s rugby team do so well internationally and may they continue to prosper. They are quite prepared to engage in rough physical play, showing bravery, courage and determination and no-one criticises them! – Yours, etc,

DAVE KAVANAGH,

Lawrence Grove,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

A chara, – Vincent Browne approaches the topic of physically aggressive sports such as rugby from an entirely negative point of view.

Contrary to Mr Browne’s assertion, it is perfectly possible to enjoy the positive aggression of sports such as rugby and Gaelic football without being a dysfunctional, violence-glorifying misogynist. Indeed, for many sedentary office workers – both male and female – the catharsis of physical exertion is highly conducive to good physical and mental health. There’s nothing like a big “hit” to clear the head and improve the mood!

Indeed, if Mr Browne had taken the time to watch the women’s international which followed Brian O’Driscoll’s last match at the Aviva, he would have seen a formidable team of Irish women crashing into their Italian opponents with great skill and physical fearlessness. Are they, too, propagating the nefarious “culture of rugby” which glorifies the infliction of pain?

Mr Browne might consider receiving a few decent shoulder charges or rugby tackles to clear his mind of this misguided theorising. – Is mise,

OLOF GILL,

The Mill,

Clare Island,

Co Mayo.

 

Sir, – I was delighted to read that Guinness, Heineken and the Boston Beer Company pulled out of sponsoring the New York St Patrick’s Day parade (“Kenny tries to keep in step despite New York parade row”, Home News, March 18th). It should not, however, have taken an issue of discrimination against gays to prompt this move. Behind the publicised decision of these companies lies a conversation yet to be candidly had about why such drinks companies are sponsoring events intimately associated with Ireland and the Irish people worldwide.

Perhaps parade organisers everywhere can learn from the New York example and refuse to accept sponsorship from drinks companies in the future. – Yours, etc,

ULTAN Ó BROIN,

Utrecht, Netherlands.

Sir, – In keeping with the social conscience that both Guinness and Heineken have displayed in regard to sponsoring the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York, I was wondering if they, and the drinks industry, would pick up the tab for the A&E charges and other hospital treatments that their products necessitate each week?

This could dramatically reduce the number of patients on hospital trolleys and relieve taxpayers of the burden of paying for the product liability of the drinks industry on top of having to bail out the banks.

I will be welcoming election candidates who come to my door with some real proposals to address this issue. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS O’CALLAGHAN,

Bullock Park,

Carlow.

Sir, – The scientific community is celebrating another “discovery ” relating to the origin of the universe (“Signal from ‘dawn of time’ helps explain the birth of the universe”, Home News, March 19th). Of course everything describable can be described and the latest theoretical answer to “how” falls well short of the answer to the more significant question “why”, but everyone is entitled to their moment in the sun.

No wonder the universe is expanding, making room for all that hubris. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Monalea Park,

Firhouse,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – Despite the illegitimate nature of the referendum in Crimea, the fact that it was carried out within the space of two weeks must be the cause of some embarrassment to Minurso (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara), the UN body charged with organising a referendum on self-determination there. That was back in 1991.

Some 23 later, in the face of ongoing Moroccan obstruction and international indifference, Minurso has still not fulfilled its mandate and a population a quarter the size of Crimea’s is still awaiting a say on its future. – Yours, etc,

STEFAN SIMANOWITZ,

Willow Road,

London.

 

 

Sir, – Russian president Vladimir Putin has gauged the weakness of the political establishment in the West almost flawlessly. He considered that mere talk had reached epidemic proportions in western democracies, and the stomach for any kind of military support for their political and commercial colonialism was absent. He knew they would consider first that such support would be just bad for investment.

He then proceeded to give leaders in the West a master class in how to annexe a strategic interest without firing a shot. He not only judged the western political establishment quite accurately, he also judged the level of disenchantment with “democratic capitalism”. The taxpayers of the West are so fed up of supporting political and commercial adventures around the world that there is now little or no prospect that their “leaders” could ever hope to persuade them to support a military adventure based on those leaders’ loss of face. – Yours, etc,

ROY STOKES,

Limekiln Park,

Dublin 12.

 

Sir, – I agreed with Conor Pope’s five-star review of the Guinness pint bottle of stout (Pricewatch, March 17th) but not about it being hard to find.

I feel he needs to travel to sample the joys of Waterford and south Kilkenny pubs, where the pint bottle of Guinness still holds its traditional prominence.

“A bottle off the shelf – small glass” (½ pint size) is all the barman needs to know to serve one of the finest drinks still available.

Some say the lower the shelf the better the taste – a stone floor is the ideal – and no central heating, of course.

There are tips on how it should be poured – especially when it is “high” or a “bit fresh” – and on how it should be imbibed, but these are for more esoteric musings. Sufficient for now – hold the glass at a 45 degree angle, pour slowly to achieve a finger-width frothy head of an off-amber hue and with a good “cut” in the taste.

Off-amber? It must be time to talk hurling. – Yours, etc,

HUGH McELROY,

Killapy,

Sir, – Is the current e-cigarette controversy proof that there can, indeed, be smoke without fire? – Yours, etc,

RONAN CAHILL,

Moyne Road,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

* I applaud the Taoiseach for his unswerving resolve to participate in this year’s New York St Patrick’s Day Parade. However, the decision of organisers to ban gay rights activists from the parade is discriminatory to say the least.

Also in this section

So when is the real democratic revolution?

Letters: Using and abusing the right to free speech

Letters: Keeping a little light alive

It is disheartening that diverse interpretations of human rights remain very alive today, and that there are people out there who still view this idea as no more than “bawling upon paper”.

St Patrick’s Day does not belong to Ireland only. Its tremendous appeal cuts across cultures and espouses tolerance, emancipation, diversity and symbolism. In essence, it is a colour-blind event where everyone celebrates the life of a man who was taken as a slave, found God and was the driving power which rekindled the innate spirit of leadership, wisdom and spirituality in each of us, irrespective of gender, religion, creed and sexual orientation.

The day itself symbolises the moral appeal of human rights. This symbolic gesture predates the American Declaration of Independence which takes it as granted the idea that everyone is endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; and the pinnacles of the French Revolution which assert that men are born and remain free and equal in rights.

It is therefore disheartening that the abrogation of human rights, the occurrence of famines and poverty, the neglect of the agency of women and the worsening threats to environment have become part of the prevailing rhetoric, or as others put it “rhetorical nonsense”, when the 21st Century was supposed to be about participatory and inclusive governance where everyone should have a voice.

The idea of freedom is in itself too inclusive. No one should harbour any sceptical thought about this. St Patrick’s Day should remain at the vanguard of social change. Let us hope that next year the day will invoke the conspicuous idea that “it is hard to envisage good health and the fulfilment of needs and wants as freedoms without stretching the term until it embraces everything that is of central value to human beings”.

DR MUNJED FARID AL QUTOB

LONDON, NW2

WHAT DO WE STAND FOR?

* I am sure I cannot be the only one to wonder why in today’s diverse Irish society those that represent us cannot make a stand when the modern Ireland is not being fully represented.

If anything, the reaction to the New York St Patrick’s Day parade by a few drinks companies in contrast to our Taoiseach sets a dangerous precedent and shows me that we are more reliant on big business to set our moral compass than those that are chosen to represent our society.

I for one expect more from those that have been elected to our highest office than to act simply as a bean counter selling the Irish brand to the highest bidder. I struggle to understand how it can be forgotten that we are a society, a nation for which people died to establish. We should not be represented as a corporation that can be bought and sold.

I do not believe it is good enough to just pay our debts and move on, this generation has to achieve more for the pain it is suffering. We must build a future for our kids that is more than just bean counting but a society that is predicated on equality, fairness and freedom of speech.

In my view, this is what has been lacking in the vision of what it means to be Irish and we are now in danger of missing an opportunity to define what our society stands for in the 21st Century.

JOHN GRUMLEY

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

PUTIN THE POLL-TOPPER

* Vladimir Putin informs us that the referendum in Crimea was held “in full accordance with democratic procedures”. To win with 97pc of the vote is no mean achievement.

Eamon de Valera once famously stated that in order to read the mind of the Irish electorate he had only “to look into his heart”. The old chief often triumphed at the polls but never came remotely close to winning 97pc of the vote.

Clearly Mr Putin has perfected the art of “cardiac self-examination” to a degree Dev could only have dreamed of. But then the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was recently returned with no less than 100pc of the vote.

Where did Putin slip up? Perhaps the 3pc who dissented in Crimea are in reality a “margin of error” and it would be simpler for all to accept this fact and round the figure up to 100pc.

FR IGGY O’DONOVAN

O’CONNELL STREET, LIMERICK

CATHOLIC GENERATION GAP

* At Mass on St Patrick’s Day in our local church, the priest spoke about our Christian heritage. He surprised me by saying the present generation of Irish people was the first in history which has failed to pass on the Catholic faith to our children.

He said that we may have to look to our grandchildren now. I think, unfortunately, that he may be right.

ANTHONY J JORDAN

SANDYMOUNT, DUBLIN 4

INSURANCE MADNESS

* The proposed 1pc insurance levy to cover the cost of flood damage to homes that probably should never have been built in flood-prone areas is a levy too far. We have been forced to bail out banks, builders and irresponsible developers. In the past our governments have forced us, unwillingly, to bail out PMPA Insurance, AIB/ICI insurance, and most people probably don’t realise that we also pay for injuries caused by uninsured drivers.

If this flood insurance levy goes ahead, then building in flood plains will also probably continue. Why not build a house too close to the sea or a river if someone else will pay for any flood damage?

With Ireland’s total indebtedness at over €500bn, the ordinary people of Ireland cannot continue to provide funding through such levies. It’s far too easy for our politicians, who are among the highest paid in the world, to give away our money without our permission.

EDWARD HORGAN

NEWTOWN, CASTLETROY, LIMERICK

TECHNOLOGY JOB THREAT

* On St Patrick’s Day, Bill Gates warned the world that nobody realises how many jobs will be eliminated by computerisation. At the end of January, the ‘Economist’ magazine warned of a tornado of job elimination in office work and a tsunami of other job losses looming that no government is preparing for.

I have been playing that tune for five years but nobody takes any notice. Perhaps with the endorsement from Bill Gates those who endlessly discuss economics will at last think the subject of job elimination by technology worthy of consideration.

Technology has transformed economic activity in the last two decades or so. The balance of supply and demand has been reversed; supply exceeds demand, rendering economic growth unnecessary and impossible, yet all recovery strategy is based on restoring growth.

It was such a strategy of throwing money at growth that gave rise to unmanageable debt. Growth cannot occur when growth is not needed and overproduction capability ensures growth is no longer needed.

Overproduction capability has been achieved by the elimination of dependence on human labour. To prevent social collapse job numbers must be restored and employment must be generated from less work – but all policies are aimed at having those employed work harder, more efficiently, longer and into old age.

It will not go away, impending unemployment due to work elimination by advancing technology is a reality of the 21st Century and the greatest social problem we face.

PADRAIC NEARY

TUBBERCURRY, CO SLIGO

Irish Independent

 

 


Hair

$
0
0

21 March 2014 Hair

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to stop take Mrs Murray around the harbour, the get lost!Priceless

Cold slightly better hair and library card

Scrabbletoday Marywins and gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the former president of Sierra Leone who has died aged 82, invited British forces to rescue his capital from a brutal rebel army, paving the way for Tony Blair’s most successful foreign intervention.

A kindly and well-meaning man, temperamentally about as far from a war leader as could be imagined, Kabbah found himself confronting a singularly ruthless enemy when, in May 2000, rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) massed outside the capital, Freetown.

For almost a decade, RUF insurgents had ravaged Sierra Leone, specialising in hacking the arms and legs off their victims. Foday Sankoh, the RUF’s psychotic leader, had been trained in Libya by Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and sent back to West Africa to carry out a “people’s revolution”.

On January 6 1999 the RUF struck deep inside Freetown, carrying out a massacre which the city’s people still remember with horror. So when Sankoh and his men returned the following year Kabbah, who had already been overthrown once and restored once, faced the prospect of his capital again being sacked with trepidation.

Ensconced in a gloomy official residence on a windswept hill overlooking the Atlantic – with a tank permanently stationed outside – Kabbah knew that his own Army was incapable of stopping the RUF. He was also grimly aware that he could not rely on the world’s biggest United Nations peacekeeping force, which maintained 17,000 ineffective and often inert troops in Sierra Leone.

So Kabbah turned to Britain, the former colonial power.

At first, he received a lukewarm response. Britain dispatched 800 troops, consisting of 1 Bn the Parachute Regiment and supporting elements, under the command of Brigadier David Richards. But the official mission was simply to evacuate British and other eligible citizens from Freetown.

In the event, this evacuation took less than a week. Instead of packing up and leaving, however, Brig Richards then decided – largely on his own initiative – to stay in Freetown and prevent the RUF from capturing the city. Tony Blair gave retrospective backing to his commander on the ground.

Brig Richards was barred from going on the offensive, so he carefully deployed his troops in exposed forward positions and waited for the RUF to attack.

 

The rebels took the bait and attacked British paratroopers near Lungi airport on May 17. The ensuing firefight was, in hindsight, the turning point of Sierra Leone’s civil war. For the first time since its foundation in 1991, the RUF collided not with a ragtag African army, but an elite fighting force. The rebels duly came off worse. Just how badly they were mauled remains unclear: Britain maintains that 30 insurgents were killed; the true figure was almost certainly far higher.

On the same day, Foday Sankoh was captured by Sierra Leonean forces acting with the help of British intelligence. After suffering this almost simultaneous double blow, the RUF began to fall apart and the threat to Freetown evaporated. The rebels opened talks with Kabbah and the civil war formally ended in 2002.

Fewer than 800 British combat troops had changed the course of history in a country of five million people – without suffering a single loss (although one British soldier was killed four months later during a mission to rescue 11 hostages).

Brig Richards went on to become a general and Chief of the Defence Staff; Blair became a national hero in Sierra Leone, where babies were named in his honour. Kabbah never forgot his debt to Blair. In his last weeks in office in 2007, Blair paid a triumphant visit to Sierra Leone where Kabbah made him a “paramount chief” with the right to sit in the country’s version of the House of Lords.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16 1932 in what was then the British Crown Colony of Sierra Leone. Although a devout Muslim, he attended St Edward’s Catholic secondary school in Freetown, before moving to Britain where he lived for more than 10 years.

Kabbah studied at Aberystwyth University and was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1969. He then joined the United Nations Development Programme, working in Africa as its resident representative in Lesotho.

Kabbah returned to Sierra Leone in the late 1970s, where he became a senior civil servant and permanent secretary in several ministries. A bureaucrat rather than a politician, he nonetheless ran for president and won the election in 1996. He served for only a year before being overthrown in 1997 and then restored to office by a Nigerian military intervention the following year.

After the civil war, Kabbah won a sweeping victory in the 2002 election, running as the man who had brought peace. He served as president until 2007, but achieved little with his time in office.

Kabbah proved too weak to act against corrupt ministers. On his watch, Sierra Leone was penetrated by Latin American drug barons, who used the country as a staging post for running cocaine to Europe. When the opposition made (justified) complaints about his government’s corruption, Kabbah resorted to accusing them of a “lack of patriotism”. Few missed him when he retired from office.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s wife, Patricia, predeceased him. They had five children.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, born February 16 1932, died March 13 2014

 

Guardian:

 

 

I am old, much older, than Charlie Brooker (G2, 17 March), and he has problems understanding the generation you have let loose on G2. So pity me who, in my first job as a young engineer, relied on my trusty sliderule to earn a living (do they know what they were?). There were few telephones, no TVs, no computers. One of our children was still at home at 27, would they believe? However, I am still much interested in how the world changes, but at times despair that I am now irretrievably lost and stranded. I search for things and ideas I can recognise in all the frenetic cultural activity around me, things to latch on to that might drag me along with them.

What do all these trainee “digital” journalists editing G2 actually do? They obviously have the means to communicate with one another that I never possessed until later in life, and make money from them.

But what is it that they have to say? They can communicate with one another globally and instantly and, as far as I can see, aim at the shortest pithiest statements (fewer than 140 characters – oneliners, if possible) on major aspects of the human condition.

I do realise that I am probably already presenting the image of elderly ossification they dread, but I hope they appreciate that almost all aspects of their world today have arrived since I was their age, although we are all in this same world together now. I would like to be here to see how they will be coping another 50 years from now. How about a week of G2 driven by those born before 1930?
Frank Evans
Orpington, Kent

• OK, so your Generation Y team have demonstrated that young people today are as hard done by, misunderstood, arrogant and randy as they always are (been there, done that, got the mental scars), and also that they can produce as good a G2 as your usual gang. How about now giving them a crack at producing the Sport section?
Bob Heath-Whyte
Chalgrove, Oxfordshire

 

It came as no surprise to me that a lot of the upper decks of HMS Victory are not original (Report, 17 March). My grandfather, George Rogers, was bosun of the yard in Portsmouth when the ship underwent a major refit in the 1920s. At that time a lot of the original oak was removed and the decks remodelled. My grandfather and the master carpenter in charge of the refit were each allowed to take a cupboard door made of the original oak. Grandfather had a gate-legged table, a dressing-table set and a pair of candlesticks made from his door, all of which are still in my possession. In that same era, visitors to the ship were each given “a piece of Victory oak” as a souvenir as they left the ship. According to my mother (who was banned from joining the visiting tourist parties at the request of the sailors showing visitors round because she used to ask awkward questions), these souvenirs came from a local sawmill and were mostly anything but oak. Had they been authentic, there would by now be absolutely nothing left of the original timbers anywhere.
Val Harrison
Birmingham

 

 

In order to put the current crisis in Crimea in perspective, I would refer people to a very interesting book that I am sure John Kerry, William Hague and, no doubt, President Putin have read. It is The Grand Chessboard,written in 1998 by one of President Obama’s favourite foreign affairs theorists and President Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In it he argued that the US had to take control of a number of strategic countries, including Ukraine, arguing that that country is “a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country (means) Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire”. He warns against allowing Russia to regain control over the country because, by doing so, “Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia”.
Colin Burke
Manchester

• Instead of imposing sanctions on Russia for recognising Crimea‘s independence, perhaps we should welcome President Putin’s new-found enthusiasm for democracy and ask him when he plans to hold a similar referendum in Chechnya and allow the Chechens to declare their independence from Russia.
Sam Dastor
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

• Timothy Garton Ash (The focus is on Crimea, but next is the fight for Ukraine, 19 March) criticises the Crimea referendum for lacking “the consent of all parts of the existing state”, and for being held “without due constitutional process”. Why did he not similarly complain when the referendums which carved up Yugoslavia were being held – without the consent of all parts of the existing state, and without due constitutional process?
Marko Gasic
London

• David Cameron has rightly condemned the annexation of Crimea as illegitimate and illegal. He called at prime minister’s questions for “a rules-based system where countries obey the rules”. This would be an excellent and brave initiative. Consistency is key. For example, last week, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset, one has to ask why he did not call for Israel to cancel its illegal annexations of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both of which were condemned by UN security council resolutions 24 years ago. It took less than 24 hours to pass sanctions on Russia. He did not even ask when Israel would be ending its 47-year-old military occupation. If Putin had been paying attention, he would have been happily reassured.
Chris Doyle
Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding

• Despite the illegitimate nature of the Crimea referendum, the fact that it was carried out within the space of two weeks must be a cause of a little embarrassment to Minurso, the UN body charged with organising a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara. That was back in 1991. Twenty-three years later, in the face of ongoing Moroccan obstruction and international indifference, Minurso has still not fulfilled its mandate and a population a quarter the size of Crimea’s is still awaiting a say on its future.
Stefan Simanowitz
London

It would be nice to see some mention of the contribution made by secondary-modern-educated men and women, the poor bloody infantry of the workforce, in the shipyards, factories, building sites, hospitals, offices and elsewhere in the UK, now that the last of them are coming up to retirement. In all this recent chatter about Etonians at the top and the clamour in some quarters for the return of grammar schools, the sec mod class of 64 and before that have remained, as usual, invisible.
Frank Conway
Newcastle upon Tyne

• So, is Tanya Gold’s insight (If fashion is how you express yourself, I pity you, 20 March) into the exploitative, misogynistic nature of the fashion industry going to stop the Guardian’s continued promotion of it on its front and main national and international news pages? The frequent photographs of young, gaunt, vacant, Barbie-doll women modelling the latest trends seems completely at odds with the paper’s ethos. Like art, fashion has become business and should therefore be on the business pages. What an opportunity the Guardian misses to provide an alternative aesthetic that expresses the paper’s wonderful, observant, human and humane journalism.
Judy Marsh
Nottingham

• Paradise in Norway gone (Letters, 15 March)? While away your time in Purgatorio, western Sicily.
Dr Mike Rushton
Tarporley, Cheshire

• I feel that the Treasury could be on very dodgy ground in suggesting that the new £1 coin (Report, 19 March) is the most secure coin in circulation in the world. Anyone, especially small boys of my generation who carried around their meagre savings in their trousers, could guarantee that within a few weeks any sharp sided “threepenny bits” among the pennies would wear a hole in your pocket and you lost the lot. What then the security of the new coin?
John Marjoram
Stroud, Gloucestershire

• But unlike threepenny bits, I can’t see 12-sided £1 coins ever becoming Cockney rhyming slang.
John Cranston
Norwich

 

 

There is not an ounce of humanity in a budget which puts a cap on overall benefit spending that includes housing benefit needed to pay rents in a property market which is out of control (Vote blue, go grey, 20 March). Any fat cat can swallow the cream of UK property and leave it empty. The coalition continues to allow the existing caps on the housing benefits of families and individuals to create unmanageable rent arrears and hunger. Tenants are forced into temporary, overcrowded and often sub-standard accommodation in the private, and increasingly overpriced, rented sector. Meanwhile, the dreaded diseases of poverty reappear. Will, or can, the Labour party produce any policies which will redeem their capitulation to the overall cap in voting for it?
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty

• You emphasise (Editorial, 20 March) how George Osborne continues to see reducing the government’s debts as central to his economic strategy. Yet he regards the much larger debts of the banking sector as not worthy of his attention. It is estimated that government debt will peak at around 80% of GDP, while the debts of the banks remain stubbornly high at 500% of GDP. Britain shares with Japan the least envied title of being the most indebted of the G8 countries. When the next financial crisis comes, as it will, Britain may have to apply for what would be the largest loan in the history of the IMF. In return for that loan, the IMF will impose on Britain a savage austerity programme, similar to Greece’s. Is the government’s complacency due to its assumption that Britain, as with its over-indebted banks, is too large to be allowed to fail? More likely it is because the government has taken its eye off the ball as to what is the real cause of the crisis: rash speculation by over-indebted banks.
Derrick Joad
Leeds

• Most baby boomers are not rolling in it. In fact most can’t afford to retire. Final-salary pensions were closed down years ago, and women particularly find NI contributions only cover 18 years of child-bearing/raising, and those contributions are reduced. In addition, any money people are able to scratch together for retirement has made a loss for years.

If we could get hold of moneys from my husband’s work, for example, the future might look more manageable; and if he died first, I would have a little more to live on than a worrying half of not much. Osborne’s bribes make principled older people turkeys who must vote for their own Christmas in a society that teaches that we’re greedy, fattened-up people who have long had it easy and had it all. Where is the coherent narrative from other political parties to help counteract this divisive bribe? And while we’re at it, we’ve all paid NI contributions, ie a tax for public services such as the NHS. Successive governments have wasted all that money, which is not our fault. Remember, only a few swing votes in the UK count.
Olivia Byard
Witney, Oxfordshire

• While I wouldn’t want to argue against the chancellor’s assertion that responsible pensioners should be trusted to make the right financial decisions about what to do with their pension money, individual choices need to be understood within the contexts in which they are made. Unfortunately, that context is the British financial services industry, and one can have little confidence that the advice pensioners will be able to access will be given in their interests.

I doubt if one would get very long odds betting on the proposition that in 10 or 15 years’ time, we will be waking up to the great “pensions drawdown misadvice scandal” (no doubt the wise will shake their heads and remind us of the “pensions misselling scandal” of the Thatcher era). Nor will you get long odds betting that no one will be considered criminally liable for it. Under neoliberalism, it is only the less privileged who have to take responsibility for their choices.
Rob Raeburn
Brighton

• It will come as a great relief to any emergency service worker that if they are killed in action their estate will not be subject to inheritance tax. Of course, they already had the mere sum of £325,000 free of this tax, and if by chance they are married or in a civil partnership, the combined estate of a mere £650,000 would be exempt and would not be taxable if they are survived by their spouse or partner. Given the salaries of most emergency workers and their relative youth, they may not have had much time to build large and valuable estates, and happily only a small number die in active service. I suspect that this generous gift by the chancellor may not cost the country too much money. Would it be cynical of me to suggest that this was merely a piece of well-sounding PR?
David Lawson
Ilford, Essex

• Every pensioner able to put £10,000 into each issue of the new three-year “pensioner bond” will, if the interest rate is the expected 4%, have an income (net of tax at 20%) of £320. Poorer pensioners without that level of savings will get nothing. Another example of the government using state finance to give to those that have in order to attempt to buy their votes.
John Gaskin
York

• If the likelihood is that only a “small minority” of retirees will misuse their pension pot and fall back on the state is therefore of no consequence, why is the likelihood that only a “small minority” of EU immigrants will misuse the benefits system then outrageous and an indication that urgent action is required?
Gordon Milligan
Berlin

• We have been concerned for some time that the government’s proposed reforms for apprenticeships would have a negative effect on the number of small and medium enterprises taking on apprentices because of the additional costs and increased red tape. We hope that the budget announcement, in addition to the apprenticeship funding reform-consultation feedback, will result in sufficient steps being taken to support small businesses providing apprenticeships.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s recent work leading the government’s Electrotechnical Trailblazer was an opportunity for small businesses to have their voice heard in making sure that apprenticeship further-education courses are fit for purpose. The priority now will be to make sure that small businesses in the electrotechnical and other engineering disciplines are given a generous share of government grants. After all, given the huge shortfall of engineers, apprenticeships represent a valuable lifeline to the future of engineering in the UK.
Paul Davies
Institution of Engineering and Technology

 

 

 

 

 

Independent:

 

George Osborne may have calculated that giving money to the elderly in his Budget would persuade us, on the basis of unenlightened self-interest, to vote Tory in 2015. But he may not be aware that many of us have grandchildren, and we are appalled at the difficulties our youngsters are having to struggle with because of the policies of his government.  

With enormous fees if they are lucky enough to get to university, ever-increasing rents demanded by greedy landlords, unemployment or low-paid and insecure jobs, and ferocious and corrupt policing if they dare to demonstrate or protest, life is pretty tough for youngsters these days.

I and many others try to make up for Osborne’s harshness by giving our grandchildren some of our pension, and I, and I hope many others, will persuade the youngsters to use their votes but never to vote Tory. Osborne may live to regret his cynical “Help the Aged Only” budget.

Tony Cheney, Ipswich, Suffolk

George Osborne, whose high office probably precludes him regularly frequenting public houses, and whose drinks in the Commons watering holes are subsidised by us taxpayers, can be forgiven for not knowing the harsh realities of pub life for beer drinkers. But journalists, even those of the modern school who do not spend all afternoon at the bar before submitting their copy, surely have no excuse. Your paper’s headline on the Budget “A speech for . . . drinkers” (20 March) is as misleading as a politician’s spin.

A penny duty off a pint of beer does not result in a penny off a pint. Publicans never change prices by 1p, and never reduce prices, and increases nowadays are 10p minimum, more likely 20p. After last year’s “beer drinker’s budget” I was laughed out of the bar of my local after asking why I did not get a penny off, and two weeks later all drinks went up by 20p.

John E Orton, Bristol

Has the Chancellor factored in a large budget increase for the policing of organised crime, given his gangster’s gift of increasing tobacco duty in the Budget?

It is only a matter of time before violent gang “turf wars” break out in our inner cities, in parallel with the exponential increase in contraband cigarette sales. It is similarly just a matter of time before, because of this ugly phenomenon, Treasury revenue from tobacco starts to drop off.

Nicky Samengo-Turner, Hundon, Suffolk

The new 12-sided pound coin just confirms that the pound today is only worth 3d in old money. And why the long delay to its introduction? It is only a coin, not a hi-tech device.

Colin Stone, Oxford

UK useless in aircraft search

The search going on in the southern Indian Ocean for the Malaysia Airlines aircraft points up the UK’s stark lack of military capability. Such a search can only be done with sophisticated long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The Australians, the New Zealanders, and, of course, the Americans have provided Orion aircraft, and even the very latest aircraft, the US Navy’s P-8A.

This should be an area where Britain might be able to help. But we couldn’t, even if we wanted to. We used to have one of the best maritime patrol aircraft in the world, the Nimrod. Since 2010, when we grounded our current Nimrods and decided not to carry on with a newer version, this country has had no maritime air patrol capability.

This is an extraordinary situation for a maritime nation such as the UK  – and our inability is sharply emphasised by the absence of equipment that could help in this very sad situation.

Sean Maffett, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire

Am I the only person who is surprised to discover from the disappearance of a Malaysian aircraft that the means of transmission in aeroplanes can be so easily switched off by the pilot or others, or indeed switched off at all? I cannot see any legitimate benefit in planes having this “facility”, and a whole raft of dangerous disadvantages.

Ian Craine, London N15

HS2: most of us pay  but get nothing

Simon Calder, as usual, hits nails on the head (“Expensive and destructive, but also the only way to revitalise the railways”, 17 March). HS2 benefits too few and has a business case that is precarious at best. The environmental damage, especially to woodland, is completely unacceptable.

While it would be nice for Brits to enjoy the same high-speed inter-city rail service that most on the continent have known for decades, there is a far more urgent need.

This morning, I sat in a bus which arrived 13 minutes late and took 40 minutes to fight its way just six miles into town. For every long-distance commuter and business traveller, there are a hundred who face the consequences of road congestion and the failure to deliver rail for local service.

Now that we see the result of pretending that road transport alone suffices, we need to prioritise the reopening of stations and lines closed 50 years ago, and building new light electric rail systems within towns and out to their suburbs and satellites.

Blowing the budget on a single system for the wealthy few may deliver political kudos, but it will anger the rest of us who pay but get nothing.

Ian East, Chairman, Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group, Islip, Oxfordshire

One of the biggest benefits of HS2 is the economic redevelopment opportunities. We’ve heard a lot about these opportunities for the major cities connected by the high-speed line, but little or nothing about the potential wins for cities beyond the immediate confines of the HS2 network.

There is great potential through the connections to the east- and west-coast main lines for cities other than Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to benefit from HS2, but the challenges around realising these benefits need to be tackled now if these locations are not to fall behind.

In addition, many of these smaller cities could be reached by HS2 trains moving to the classic railway network to complete their journey. But this will require new or significantly enhanced stations.

We need an urgent dialogue between HS2, Network Rail, the train operating companies and local authorities to fully understand the challenges that the arrival of high-speed trains will bring to the classic railway network.

Jeremy Acklam, Institution of Engineering and Technology, London WC2

Two achievements of Tony Benn

Prue Bray asks what Tony Benn did apart form talking “a lot of left-wing stuff” (letter, 18 March). For full details she should obtain the several volumes of Mr Benn’s splendid diaries, covering 50 years of parliamentary life.

But let me mention two concrete things he did. As the drums of war against Iraq built up 11 years ago, Tony Benn, then and until his death president of the Stop the War Campaign, flew to Baghdad to interview Saddam Hussein. Benn asked Saddam directly if he had weapons of mass destruction. Saddam denied he did, saying, according to Benn’s diary: “I tell you, as I have said on many occasions before, that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever.”

It turned out Benn was right. Benn also, when energy minister in the late 1970s, promoted the biggest ever taxpayer-sponsored energy-efficiency campaign. In so doing, he was years ahead.

Dr David Lowry, Stoneleigh, Surrey

Reasons for Turner’s strange vision

Turner’s eyesight has worried many for a long time (letter, 19 March).

Leigh Hunt in 1831 thought Turner’s “chromatic absurdities” might be the result of an ophthalmic condition. A “lens sclerosis” and secondary astigmatism were also blamed for the distortions of vision that caused Mark Twain to describe Turner’s work as “like a ginger cat having a fit in a bowl of tomatoes.”

The subject is discussed in the eye-surgeon Patrick Trevor-Roper’s The World through Blunted Sight  (1970) and by the undersigned in a biography of Turner. (Standing in the Sun, a life of JMW Turner, 1997).

Anthony Bailey, Mersea Island, Essex

Outsourcing the job of a parent

So the Government is to make £2,000 available to parents to help pay for childcare – just as long as the person providing the care is not the child’s own parent, but a paid surrogate. This will enable parents to fill all those job vacancies around the country, I suppose – perhaps in nurseries?

And yet we regularly hear that there is a “crisis of parenting” in this country. Just who is supposed to be doing this parenting, if parents are being given incentives to outsource it rather than doing the job themselves?

Marjorie Clarke, Totnes, Devon

 

 

Times:

 

 

Sir, Why anyone wants to be ruled by Vladimir Putin is a mystery, but Western leaders have not covered themselves with glory. The violent overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine was viewed with equanimity by Cameron, Obama et al. A peaceful referendum in Crimea has aroused howls of rage from the fiddlers, giving new meaning to the concept of hypocrisy.

John Bromley-Davenport, qc

Malpas, Cheshire

Sir, As a Hungarian of 1956, I never thought that the following would leave my lips, but Putin is right — Russia is taking back what is historically and popularly its own, ignoring the decision of the drunken Khrushchev in 1954.

Dr Andrew Zsigmond

Liverpool

Sir, The West’s self-serving lack of resolve over the invasion of Ukraine is worrying. Cannot the UK at least lead a group prepared to ban all sporting contacts with Russia while its troops remain on Ukrainian soil?

David Harris

London SW13

Sir, The Ukrainian Ambassador says the Crimea has been “heavily subsidised” (letter, Mar 20). This burden now passes to Moscow — in return for an assurance that Sevastopol cannot become a Nato military base. A win-win situation?

David Ashton

Sheringham, Norfolk

Sir, I thoroughly agree with Jenni Russell (Opinion, Mar20) that the West should take the blame over Crimea for its meddling in Ukraine. Did the EU actually consider the fact that Russia bases its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol? If Ukraine joined the EU and eventually Nato, there is no chance that this situation would be allowed to continue with the possibility of Russian nuclear armed ships in an EU state.

Julian Nettlefold

Editor, Battlespace

Sir, If the West fails to exact a heavy price for Putin’s foreign adventurism, others, notably China, with domestic and economic problems of its own, may be encouraged to follow the same route. The interests of the City, of German exporters and of European gas consumers must take second place to the need to shore up international stability, otherwise the final bill in terms of increased military spending, and perhaps even war, could be far higher.

Adrian Cosker

Hitchin, Herts

Sir, Most Crimeans want to become part of Russia. The pragmatic approach is to let them get on with it. We have far more pressing problems much closer to home.

Stephen Knight

Rhoscolyn, Anglesey

Sir, Whether the West chooses to recognise the referendum or not, it had a 95 per cent turnout (something most Western democracies could only dream of) with an 89 per cent Yes vote — a vote which appears to be far more genuine than the 2004 US presidential election, for example.

The West should be helping to support a peaceful transfer of Crimea to Russia ensuring that the minorities in the region have protection.

The US and EU need to be very careful how they lecture the rest of the world on democracy.

ELizabeth Hastings-Clarke

 

Some of the measures announced by Mr Osborne sound attractive but now they must be implemented

Sir, Most people will support actions to reduce tax avoidance but allowing HMRC to demand disputed taxes before the taxpayer has had his case heard by a court gives unacceptable power to the taxman (“Revenue wins power to raid bank accounts in battle over tax avoidance”, Budget supplement, Mar 18).

In his Budget speech, the Chancellor reminded us of the signing of Magna Carta in 1215. That wonderful document set down that: “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised (dispossessed) . . . but by lawful judgement of his peers”. That principle has protected the citizens of this country for 800 years. He was wrong to violate it.

Richard Tweed

Croydon

Sir, The Chancellor announced early on in his Budget Speech that emergencies personnel who die in the line of duty will be exempt from inheritance tax. How many people will actually benefit from that?

If the person is married their assets pass freely to their spouse — and if they are single how many would have assets in excess of the inheritance tax threshold?

A more meaningful gesture
would have been to repay soldiers who have had to buy their own life insurance while fighting during
recent wars.

Sara Blunt

Chislehurst, Kent

Sir, The latestBudget promised all sorts of goodies, especially for pensioners, but why should they believe it?

After all in October 2007 Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron promised all sorts of changes to inheritance tax, but once they were in office those promises were quietly forgotten with not a word of apology to those of us who believed them.

Rear Admiral Conrad Jenkin

West Meon, Hants

 

It is a tough decision whether to give up a career to look after small children, and women need help not hectoring

Sir, I am surprised that Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Childcare and Children, considers it a “waste of talent” when mothers are not at a distant place of work, but actually at home looking after their own children (letter, Mar 18). Parents should be being encouraged to look after their children in the crucial early years of childhood and then helped back into work when their children are ready for that separation.

Instead of making those who chose this route feel guilty that they are “holding the economy back”, Ms Powell should be backing these parents’ tough decision and offering them a way back into work that values the time they spent managing their home and children.

Maria Smith

Exeter, Devon

 

 

Council tax bills vary wildly across the country as house prices are skewed by the London property boom

Sir, One anomaly created by the massive rise in London property prices compared with the rest of the country is seen in the council tax demands now being sent out.

The demand for my home (band F; value £475k) in a Dorset village is £2,489. The demand for my home in Islington (band G; value £1.5m) £2,101. The equivalent Band F would be £1,821, ie £650 less.

Mind you, I do get six buses a day, last bus 6pm. And what do Londoners get? Ah yes, the Tube and bus system. Will any politician be brave enough to sort this out?

Mike Nixon

Sutton Poyntz, Dorset

 

Slow-moving bureaucracy is threatening to turn young Catholics couples away from church marriage ceremonies

Sir, My daughter plans to marry a non-Catholic in a Catholic church in August. She now has to rely on the goodwill of an unpaid volunteer in each parish to find and post her the required original certificates for baptism and confirmation. This is a slow process because parishes are inundated with similar requests. The result is long delays and considerable anxiety.

It’s fair for the church to charge for this but not fair to rely on an unpaid, usually very nice volunteer to fulfil this church-regulated duty. The inefficiency and anxiety could turn faithful young people away from a church marriage — and so their children may not be brought up as Catholics.

Peter Hobday

Folkestone, Kent

 

You don’t expect a hospital to order a young mother not to nurse her baby in a maternity wing waiting room

Sir, How outrageous and contradictory that a new mother is stopped from breastfeeding her baby in a hospital waiting room by a health trust aiming to “Promote positive attitudes to breastfeeding” (“You can’t feed your child here, hospital told new mother”, Mar 19).

The maternity information also advises: “We think it is a good idea that your baby is with you at all times.”

How can this possibly happen if a child as young as six weeks is not brought along while her mother has time-consuming blood tests?

While David Eltringham, the chief operating officer of the hospital is worrying about “patient safety”, the rest of us should ask what dangers could possibly be posed to anyone. I have never heard of an accident being caused by breast feeding.

Janet Weston

Westerham, Kent

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – The body of Tony Benn may rest overnight in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster next week, an honour previously awarded only to Margaret Thatcher. There has perhaps never been a better example of British absurdity.

On the one hand, we have a politician who led this country as prime minister through three terms and changed the country’s financial and international fortunes dramatically.

On the other hand, we have a politician who was never prime minister, making it as far as secretary of state for industry. He had dramatic and outdated hard-Left views and was left behind by his own party as it moved to the centre. He continued to be a great constituency MP, a champion of the powerless, a diarist of the highest order and a good father.

But Benn and Thatcher are in different leagues; it is like comparing Winston Churchill with Dick Crossman.

J R Nickell-Lean
Ryton, North Yorkshire

SIR – Tony Benn was a brilliant orator, but was nevertheless an egocentric maverick; it would be a travesty to extend to him the accolade that was granted to Margaret Thatcher. She was a political winner; he a political loser.

David Phipps
Freshford, Somerset

SIR – An “accident of birth” allows many to forgive Tony Benn for his silver-spoon background and public school education. Yet Old Etonians in Government are roundly criticised for being toffs. Why?

Michael Nicholson
Dunsfold, Surrey

Clear as a bell

SIR – I was dismayed to read yet another complaint about “noisy” bells, in this case bells that have chimed for 140 years in Knighton, Radnorshire.

Surely people who buy houses anywhere near bell towers, whether they be church or civic buildings, should check on the frequency of the ringing before they buy. Bravo to the town mayor and his campaign to keep them ringing.

Christine Lavender
Send, Surrey

Left out

SIR – Peter Luff MPhas said that left-handed children need more support in schools (March 18). Far from being psychologically scarred by my schooldays, I can use right-handed scissors and write legibly despite being left-handed.

Improving standards in the teaching of basic numeracy and literacy would be a more worthwhile cause to champion.

Kirsty Blunt
Sedgeford, Norfolk

SIR – My husband, myself and two of our three children are left-handed. The verse our daughter was taught on starting school wasn’t very helpful: “The hand you write with is your right, the one that’s left is left.”

Kay Blackwell
Maesygwartha, Monmouthshire

SIR – Like Rowan Pelling, I am a left-handed person living in a right-handed world. I have also battled with tin openers designed for the right-handed. One of the most useful tools I have acquired is a left-handed ruler. Before any right-handers scoff at this, try drawing a line against a ruler without being able to see the numbers clearly. My left-handed ruler has the numbers running from right to left.

Clifford Baxter
Wareham, Dorset

German cemeteries

SIR – Like M J Gibson, I try to visit German war cemeteries, like the one at Langemarck. I find the contrast between stark German cemeteries and serene British ones astonishing.

I always read the comment books at the Commonwealth memorials, and some of the most poignant remarks I have seen have been from German visitors. Perhaps quiet appreciation is preferable to flamboyant visual displays.

Ray Bather
Allendale, Northumberland

Natural deterrent

SIR – In my wooded garden we used to have a serious grey squirrel problem. They ate everything I tried to grow in the garden and they even raided the house.

But since a pair of buzzards returned to breed, the grey squirrel numbers have collapsed. Natural control obviously works.

Anthony Vickery
Poole, Dorset

Money talks

SIR – The introduction of £1 coins resembling the old threepenny bit will be a reminder to all in Britain how much successive governments have safeguarded the value of our money.

What used to cost 3p back in 1971, when the threepenny bit was rendered obsolete by decimalisation, now costs just over £1.

Mark Boyle
Johnstone, Renfrewshire

SIR – The reverse image on the original threepenny bit was of the flower thrift.

Surely no better image could be found in these challenging times?

Christopher Macy
Lincoln

MoD should not build on Stonehenge aerodrome

SIR – I am deeply saddened that the Ministry of Defence plans to build thousands of homes over the site of the historic Larkhill aerodrome, within sight of Stonehenge.

In February 1910, my great-grandfather Sir George White (1854-1916) founded what became the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

He chose Larkhill as a testing ground for his new Boxkite aeroplanes in part because there was little except Stonehenge for errant aircraft to hit, and in part because he hoped to attract interest from the nearby Army base. He acquired the flying rights over 2,000 acres there, building an iron hangar to house his aircraft and setting up a pioneering school. Others joined him, and Larkhill blossomed.

Two Boxkites flying from the original Bristol shed became the first aircraft to take part in British military manoeuvres. Arguably the first air-to-ground radio signals were received at Larkhill and the first government trials to select aircraft for the Forces took place there. A great number of the pilots available when the First World War broke out were trained at Larkhill. Many brave young men lost their lives at the aerodrome, but through their bravery and sacrifice, extraordinary strides in the development of British aviation took place. It is certainly the oldest hangar to survive in Britain, and is, perhaps, the oldest in Europe.

While this hugely significant building is under threat, in Australia, pioneering Bristol aircraft are being celebrated. On March 1, the flight of a specially built Boxkite replica was the centrepiece of the Royal Australian Air Force centenary celebrations. The purpose was to replicate the first Australian military flight, made on a Boxkite by Lieutenant Eric Harrison at 7.40am on March 1 1914. Harrison learnt to fly at the Bristol School at Larkhill.

Larkhill was a cradle of British and Commonwealth aviation. There must be many suitable sites for new homes. Historic Larkhill is not one of them.

Sir George White

Rudgeway, Gloucestershire

 

SIR – Richard Spencer is unfortunately right when he says the situation in Syria is actually much worse than one might think. Amnesty International has reported on how 250,000 people are now subjected to brutal medieval-style sieges, in which entire neighbourhoods have been sealed off from the outside world.

In the Yarmouk district of Damascus, for example, the Syrian army has maintained a deadly stranglehold since July, preventing people getting in or out and cutting off the food supply and electricity. Food is so scarce that many of the 20,000 malnourished residents have been reduced to eating cats and dogs or boiling dandelion leaves.

Meanwhile, Syrian army snipers callously shoot at those foraging for food. Over 200 people have died in Yarmouk’s barbaric siege, with at least 128 perishing through starvation.

Last month’s long overdue United Nations resolution on Syria called on all parties – government forces and armed opposition groups – to lift their sieges and allow in food and medical supplies. This has not happened and, unless it does, the grotesque suffering of the Syrian people is likely to descend to a level that most people will struggle to believe.

Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK
London EC2

 

SIR – Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition, says that living standards have dropped by £1,600 in the past four years, which I would have thought was an inevitable consequence of Labour’s policies up until 2010.

It would be interesting to know how that drop in living standards splits between the various sectors of society – what is the drop for the richest 10 per cent, the next 10 per cent, and so on. This would surely prove whether we were “all in it together” or not. It is curious that neither Labour nor the Conservatives seem willing to divulge this information.

Barry Smith
Loughborough, Leicestershire

SIR – The Chancellor’s announcement of additional help to cathedrals for renovations is extremely good news, not only to communities battling to keep their immense buildings windproof and watertight – a task made far more difficult through this winter of storms – but also to the heritage construction industry, which has been cruelly punished through the recession.

As a building conservation architect (and surveyor of the fabric at St George’s Chapel, Windsor), I know that the heritage sector has yet to show signs of recovery.

The loss of irreplaceable historic craft and trade skills critical to the sustainable maintenance and repair of these magnificent buildings is gravely concerning. It is vital that the Government provides greater support to skills training for conservation specialists.

Martin Ashley
Twickenham, Middlesex

SIR – I am blessed with two young children, parents who require support to keep them at home, and a husband who works long and variable hours. I also volunteer at my children’s school.

I did not make a choice not to work. Indeed, like thousands of others, I work long hours, unpaid, out of family necessity. Am I to presume that if I stopped helping my higher-rate-taxpayer husband, abandoned my parents to the NHS, sent my children to school ill, and took a minimum-wage job for a few hours a week I would be entitled to a pat on the back for contributing to the economy?

Josie Jennings
Moulton, Suffolk

SIR – I was initially delighted to hear Nick Clegg on the radio telling me I was going to get £2,000 per child for child care. With four children, that would be welcome. My joy was short-lived, however, as my wife reminded me that all our child-benefit payments had been taken away, amounting to many more thousands lost than we may gain. She then went on to ruin my breakfast by telling me that it wouldn’t apply to those who had only one income. My solution? Pay her to become a cleaner in our own home and vote Labour next time around.

Daniel Connolly
Lancing, West Sussex

 

 

Irish Times:

 

Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 01:10

First published: Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 01:10

Sir, – Are Vincent Browne’s sensibilities confined to rugby, where he finds it so “disturbing” for a participant to obtain a “thrill in legally inflicting pain on someone else” (“Rugby culture is boorishly patriarchal”, Opinion and Analysis, March 19th)? If this susceptibility extends more widely, perhaps he would ponder his own opinion pieces, where he has been inflicting pain for years. – Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Rugby could be viewed as part of the overall British package offered to this nation and gratefully accepted along with an accompanying ethos which many Irish schools have embraced and championed in our recent history. This British ethos (along with fagging and other abominations) had one aim and one aim only, namely to desensitise British youth and thus prepare them for the cold-hearted military and cultural domination of native peoples around the world. The “playing fields of Eton” is where most of their battles were fought and won. The British Empire is no more, but the fight continues as long as the will to compete and dominate is seen as a legitimate aspiration for sentient beings. – Yours, etc,

GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK,

Gleann na gCaorach,

Co Átha Cliath.

Sir, – It is such a pity that the venerable Vincent Browne did not play serious rugby at school, even though we know he did attend Castleknock College for five years. If he had it seems doubtful that he would find rugby culture “boorish and patriarchal”. Mr Browne obviously has never tackled an opposing player in full flight for the line, never had the satisfaction of bringing down an adversary physically and legally. He is extraordinarily good at it on television and in print – but on the physical field of play? No, nay, never! – Yours, etc,

ERIC C O’BRIEN,

Howth Lodge,

Howth, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Considering the risk of physical injury alone, anyone who encourages a child to play rugby is an eejit. – Yours, etc,

DENIS O’CONNOR,

Front Street East,

Toronto, Ontario.

Sir, – Does homophobia exist in rugby? Does misogyny exist in rugby? Does boorish behaviour? Yes. Rugby – like Gaelic football and hurling and soccer – is simply a sport played by people and since any community contains these things, it is silly to suggest that a sport or a club or an office or any large collective of people does not reflect elements of those attitudes. But they do not define it.

Is rugby a tough sport? Yes. Mr Browne suggests that the “manly” culture of rugby is dysfunctional. Is it dysfunctional to teach teamwork, hard work, taking the knocks life may send and getting back up again? Those are values many people would like to pass on to their children.

The culture of rugby that I know is one epitomised by Brian O’Driscoll and Donncha O’Callaghan and so many more of the icons of Irish rugby – fair play, hard work and respect (we still call the referee “Sir”, though that may be a product of the “posh private education” that seems to irk Mr Browne so much).

BARRY CUNNINGHAM,

Clonfert,

Maynooth,

 

Sir, – There are compelling reasons why the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) should introduce a standard to monitor the outcome (morbidity and mortality) for subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) patients who are denied access to emergency neurosurgical or endovascular treatment. Standards of performance are key drivers of patient safety. They measure not only performance but facilitate comparison with healthcare providers in Europe and elsewhere. This can inform best practice and use of scarce resources.

Untreated SAH patients face life-threatening risks. The cost of an intensive care bed (€1,800 per day) is the same whether a patient is being treated in the neurosurgical centre or is in an intensive care bed in the local hospital – and not being treated. The humanitarian and economic consequences of not securing a ruptured brain aneurysm are immense.

Providing additional neurosurgical intensive care beds addresses the unmet need of patients who require emergency neurosurgical treatment. It also removes the onus on admitting hospitals to provide intensive care beds for SAH patients who are being “managed” rather than treated. Early treatment significantly reduces the risk of a catastrophic rebleed, levels of morbidity and mortality and length of stay, when compared to patients who are not treated.

The refusal by HIQA to introduce a standard to monitor, and then publish the outcome for untreated SAH patients, invites questions regarding the competence of HIQA to assess patient safety risks. – Yours, etc,

JIM LAWLESS, MBA

Cypress Downs,

Templeogue,

Sir, – Rosita Boland’s article (Weekend Review, March 8th) referred to Ireland’s ratification of the Hague Convention and its impact on inter-country adoptions. Prior to ratification, Ireland operated a system of light-touch regulation – an indefensible position given our own history of forced adoptions.

Children have been denied the right to grow up with their parents and families because of child trafficking, abduction and through the deception of birth parents. Given the sums of money involved, inter-country adoption can encourage malpractice and corruption, with children and prospective adoptive parents at risk of being exploited for financial gain. A 2009 International Social Service report found that “the number of ‘abandonments’ depends considerably on the extent to which there is a demand for the children concerned”.

The Hague Convention aims to protect children and their families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad. Hague-compliant countries are required to build up their domestic child protection, care and adoption infrastructures, with inter-country adoption as a measure of last resort. Consequently the number of children placed for inter-country adoption is very low once Hague comes into force.

On the other hand, non-Hague compliant countries – many of which are developing countries, such as Ethiopia – often have large numbers of children for adoption but very weak child protection systems.

Ireland’s ratification of Hague has had a personal and profound impact on hundreds of prospective adoptive parents. Unfortunately, there is no magic solution. We must protect children from exploitation and abuse and ensure that every adoption is in the child’s best interests. It is for this reason that we urge extreme caution if Ireland moves to enter into a bilateral agreement with a non-Hague compliant country.

We urge the newly established Child and Family Agency to integrate its adoption and childcare systems. Adoptive parents currently undergo an intensive investigation process and then languish for years in the system with little prospect of ever becoming parents. At the same time, procedures prohibit adoption applicants from fostering, despite a chronic shortage of foster families. Reform is clearly needed. Each adoption applicant should be informed of the likely timeline and outcome of their application and of fostering opportunities open to them. A change in the law to allow for “open” adoptions is also long overdue and could benefit children growing up within the care system. – Yours, etc,

TANYA WARD,

Chief Executive,

Children’s Rights Alliance,

Molesworth Street,

Dublin 2.

 

Sir, – Further to recent letters on the future of Aldborough House in Dublin, your readers might be interested in the fate of Belcamp House, an important 18th-century structure within a few miles of Dublin Airport.

This house, designed by James Hoban (the architect of the White House) in the 1770s and containing an original oval office, a precursor to its famous namesake, was for a time the residence of Henry Grattan, as well as being rented for a time by Countess Markievicz as a centre for the Fianna movement. Run as a school by the Oblate Fathers as Belcamp College, which closed in 2004, the house and lands were sold to Gannon Homes and, like so many other development sites, ended up in Nama.

The house has been allowed to fall into complete neglect and, through vandalism and various arson attacks, little is left now but a ruin of a house that welcomed Jonathan Swift and other famous personages when it was one of the leading country houses in the Dublin area.

Even if funds were not available to preserve this historic building, surely it would not have cost much to protect it from the vandalism directed against it. Sadly Aldborough House seems to be going the same way. – Yours, etc,

ERNEST CROSSEN,

Ard Aoibhinn,

Chapelizod,

Dublin 20.

 

Sir, – I don’t know where Brendan Behan is nowadays, but if he gets hold of your editorial (“The Quare Fellow”, March 20th) in which he is described as a “cultural icon”, you can expect to hear from him.

“I’m not an effin’ Russian monstrance” will be the thrust of his message. – Yours, etc,

KIERAN FAGAN,

Seafield Court,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – My favourite quotation concerning Brendan Behan appears in John Montague’s memoir, Company: A Chosen Life . Neatly summarising his friend’s sexual proclivities and linguistic abilities, Montague says, “He was the only trilingual bisexual I ever met.” – Yours, etc,

PAUL LAUGHLIN,

Spruce Meadows,

Culmore,

 

 

Sir, – Regarding Fr Tony Flannery’s piece (“Pope pragmatic in prioritising structural reform”, Rite & Reason, March 11th), he seems to be arguing that Pope Francis is reorganising the internal governance of the church, (the curia, the synod of bishops, etc) in order that theological change will follow in the wake of such structural changes. Either that or that theological change cannot take place without prior structural change.

Fr Flannery ends his article by saying, “I am very hopeful” (of change). This hopefulness is somewhat at odds with the sense of the two preceding sentences where Fr Flannery cites the pope’s recent statement of defence and indeed praise of the church’s handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandals and the pope’s assertion of Pope Paul VI as a “genius”, for his encyclical Humanae Vitae . These two observations are hardly tokens of an intention towards change.

Father Tony’s theory that structural change is a necessary precursor for theological change, if that is what he is saying, seems to me to be a feeble thesis.

Surely Pope Francis could institute theological change in areas such as clerical celibacy, the ban on contraceptives and the place of women in the church if he had a mind to amend the governance of the church at the same time or even after such changes?

The necessity for proper structural changes to bring about doctrinal change is far from convincing on reading Fr Flannery’s article. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD HOLDEN,

Middleway,

Taunton,

Somerset,

 

Sir, – Seamus O’Callaghan (March 20th) asks if, in keeping with the social conscience that both Guinness and Heineken have displayed in regard to withdrawing sponsorship of the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York, if they, and the drinks industry, would pick up the tab for the A&E charges and other hospital treatments that their products necessitate each week?

This is yet another example of the “blame anyone but ourselves” attitude so deeply etched in our psyche.

To suggest that breweries and distilleries are responsible for the behaviour of individuals who voluntarily overindulge in alcoholic products is rendering individual responsibility for our own actions obsolete. Are we in this country ever going to mature to the point whereby we accept responsibility for our own behaviour and stop blaming others?

Such logic would place responsibility for the anti-social behaviour of car drivers on car manufacturers, sugary soft drinks producers and chocolate manufacturers for obese children and decay in teeth and fast food outlets for rising cholesterol and diabetes levels.

We do not need events like St Patrick’s Day parades to see our streets awash with drunkenness and anti-social behaviour, although such events do come in handy for blaming others for our own delinquency. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeville Road,

Templeogue,

 

Sir, – Warren McKenzie (March 19th) takes issue with Taoiseach Enda Kenny preaching to the United States government about immigration reform, calling it a “gross interference” in American domestic affairs.

While the United States government is no stranger to taking an active role in the domestic affairs of foreign states, Mr McKenzie raises a valid argument – that our Taoiseach should tackle the very real problems at home. There are said to be up to 50,000 undocumented Irish migrants in the United States of America, a federal republic with a population of 313.9 million people. Back home in Ireland, a State with a population of 4.6 million people, there are said to be up to 30,000 undocumented migrants, the majority of whom have been here for many years.

I wonder if the Taoiseach devotes 40 times as much attention to the undocumented in Ireland as US president Barack Obama devotes to the undocumented Irish? – Yours, etc,

SEÁN Ó SIOCHRÚ

Glenbeigh,

Co Kerry.

 

Sir, – Daniel Griffin repeats (March 13th) the old charge that the Seanad is elitist. One only has to accept the legitimacy and value of the electoral college as an instrument of democracy to see that the charge is without merit.

At the same time as the electorate at large elects local authority councillors, it mandates them to form an electoral college to elect 43 Senators. This is a no less democratic process for being indirect.

Likewise, the voters elect TDs who in turn elect the Taoiseach, conferring on him by these two democratic steps, the mandate defined in the Constitution to nominate 11 Senators. By the same processes, he is empowered to nominate 15 Ministers, but nobody regards that power as undemocratic.

As for the remaining six Senators, they are elected by graduates who have invested effort and funds in increasing the value of what they can contribute to society. The State has also invested resources in their education. In return for these investments, the State gives them the right to elect representatives who, because they are not part of the party political system, are likely to add diversity to the Upper House.

The electorate showed last year that it does not want the Seanad to be abolished. The broadening of the graduates’ franchise is an appropriate reform. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DRURY,

Avenue Louise,

Brussels,

A chara, – Dr Mary Scriven’s comments (March 19th) epitomise what the anti-smoking lobby has regrettably become. What began 50 years ago as a well-intentioned campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers of smoking is now little more than an alarmist witch-hunt whose raison d’être seems to be the harassment and control of those who choose to consume this legal product.

While Dr Scriven may find the public use of e-cigarettes “rude”, “unpleasant” and “regressive”, she tellingly fails to provide any health reasons for her objection. Of course, this is because no such reasons exist.

Smokers are no different from any other addicts in that they stand a better chance of conquering their dependence if treated with encouragement and understanding. – Is mise,

Dr GARETH P KEELEY,

Gneisenaustrasse,

Dusseldorf,

Germany.

Sir, – I think it is time to stamp out the debate around electronic cigarettes. No butts. – Yours, etc,

HUGH McDONNELL,

Strand Road,

Termonfeckin,

Co Louth.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

* Another quango and another idiotic report. An alliance between the Health Minister and the rather Orwellian titled Minister for Children have come up with an exclusion fat-free takeaway zone for children.

Also in this section

St Patrick’s Day can be about social change

So when is the real democratic revolution?

Letters: Using and abusing the right to free speech

As if the humble chipper is the sole cause of waddling Jennie’s and Johnny’s life . . . were it so simple.

Where is the 1.5km zone to be placed in the supermarket when the parents buy the vast array of food laced with sugar and encrypted lettering masking god knows what?

Who will permit children to be allowed actually run, play ball in the school yard and tumble free from the omnipresent threat of suing somebody else for Paddy and Patricia growing up with its attendant tumbles and falls.

Will the newspaper shop have barbed wire around a 10ft-high soft drinks stand preventing the youngsters from buying sugared water or will the Government ban such sugar-loaded juice?

Perhaps we should let parents decide themselves what to do. I see many of them buying such food for their children in the takeaways. Is this because of the pace of life, or the lack of money to buy ‘real’ food due to government policy.

Lead by example, I say. Educate but don’t impose a nanny, Orwellian state.

Also, perhaps a few of those who seem disturbed by overweight children might lead by example and lose a few pounds themselves. The last few ministers for health carried some excess poundage themselves.

JOHN CUFFE

CO MEATH

THE POLITICS OF SCAM

* Alas! Elections are mere cosmetic exercises in musical chairs. You are simply replacing the faces, yet the music remains the same.

Now that all power is of the European, centralised version – which means decisions for this country are made in Europe – and passed on to the organ grinders who call themselves politicians.

They in turn carry out the wishes of their European masters. Elections have become nothing but scams. All manifesto-false promises should be treated as toilet paper.

Waiting for political messiahs to save us is futile. People need to look inward and forget politics and politicians.

ANTHONY WOODS

ENNIS, CO CLARE

TIP OF FINANCIAL ICEBERG

* I am writing to you, as I assume many others have, regarding the pitiful greed of Irish banks within our society.

This story will probably come of no surprise to you; however, as I am only 22 years of age with limited life experiences, I am still in shock.

My story is essentially about my parents who are both in their 50s and are struggling as hard as anybody I have met in order to keep a roof over our heads.

I am in my final year of college, my sisters are married and have their own families; however, we are finding it difficult to see the goodness in life when we watch our parents living off a few euro every week.

Simply put, they are close to negative equity but not close enough for the banks to decrease their mortgage repayments – repayments that are crippling them every month.

We have downgraded in every aspect possible, my parents’ quality of living is quite humiliating as they find themselves waiting in the evening in Tesco for the reduced products.

They spend their days at home as they cannot afford to eat out, meet friends or visit relatives.

A few weeks ago we thought that a blessing had come in surprise, a contract from the banks offering a reduced mortgage repayment for a set period of time. My parents got advice from other people, signed the contract and sent it back to the banks.

It was agreed that the new repayments would start in March. However, we were notified recently that the banks had made a ‘mistake’ and have decided to rescind the contract.

My parents are distraught and are now fearing that the house will be repossessed.

This is only the tip of our story. I know you may not be able to print this but, even knowing that there are others in our situation that are being kept silent by society, may provoke a reaction.

NAME AND ADDRESS

WITH EDITOR

BOD NOT OUR ONLY HERO

* Ireland’s spectacular Six Nations victory over France in Paris and the equally spectacular solo display by Brian O’Driscoll in his final international appearance will long be remembered in Irish and international sporting history.

The plaudits being showered on the country’s rugby team and on O’Driscoll, in particular, have been well earned.

However, we should not lose sight of the fact that these players are highly paid full-time professionals. This is their paid chosen profession.

On St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park, just two days after Ireland’s rugby victory over the French, four GAA teams contested the All-Ireland club hurling and football finals.

Despite the amateur status of both these codes, those in attendance at Croke Park and those watching on television were treated to spectacular displays of sporting skills.

For generations, the GAA in villages, towns and cities – both in Ireland and abroad – and exclusively on the premise of volunteer participation, turned the GAA into one of the world’s largest and most successful amateur sporting organisations.

These players, who, in their spare time, play for the love of the game with no monetary compensation epitomise the original ideals of sport. They are true sporting heroes.

TOM COOPER

TEMPLOGUE, DUBLIN 6W

BEWARE OF EXAM CHANGE

* I write as somebody who has been involved in education for more than 35 years. During that period I have had experience of state and independent, fee-paying schools.

The schools included both primary and secondary international schools in the Netherlands and Belgium and state schools in the UK – in London and in the industrial region of south Wales.

Most of the time I held posts of responsibility in the managing of subjects throughout the school.

I notice that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is in danger of repeating the errors that led to the British educational system slipping down the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international tables of educational achievement.

The emphasis on child-led education and social co-operation in learning can lead to a difficulty in discerning individual progress.

Covering ground by investigation and by reporting is time-consuming. In group work there is a danger of certain children doing the work while others ‘coast along’. . .

Replacing examinations with teacher assessments is also fraught with difficulty.

The temptation to make overgenerous assessments to enhance teacher achievement is ever present and there is no certain way of controlling one teacher’s assessment of a level with those of another.

The reduction of the central role of the teacher can lead to covert bullying and, since this is already a problem, it is likely to get worse.

It is to be hoped that Mr Quinn will consider the advice of the many experienced teachers who have seen the results of experiments – not dissimilar to his – and who know of the pitfalls.

WILLIAM SHEPHERD

MONKSTOWN, CO DUBLIN

Irish Independent

 

 

21 March 2014 Hair

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to stop take Mrs Murray around the harbour, the get lost!Priceless

Cold slightly better hair and library card

Scrabbletoday Marywins and gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the former president of Sierra Leone who has died aged 82, invited British forces to rescue his capital from a brutal rebel army, paving the way for Tony Blair’s most successful foreign intervention.

A kindly and well-meaning man, temperamentally about as far from a war leader as could be imagined, Kabbah found himself confronting a singularly ruthless enemy when, in May 2000, rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) massed outside the capital, Freetown.

For almost a decade, RUF insurgents had ravaged Sierra Leone, specialising in hacking the arms and legs off their victims. Foday Sankoh, the RUF’s psychotic leader, had been trained in Libya by Col Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and sent back to West Africa to carry out a “people’s revolution”.

On January 6 1999 the RUF struck deep inside Freetown, carrying out a massacre which the city’s people still remember with horror. So when Sankoh and his men returned the following year Kabbah, who had already been overthrown once and restored once, faced the prospect of his capital again being sacked with trepidation.

Ensconced in a gloomy official residence on a windswept hill overlooking the Atlantic – with a tank permanently stationed outside – Kabbah knew that his own Army was incapable of stopping the RUF. He was also grimly aware that he could not rely on the world’s biggest United Nations peacekeeping force, which maintained 17,000 ineffective and often inert troops in Sierra Leone.

So Kabbah turned to Britain, the former colonial power.

At first, he received a lukewarm response. Britain dispatched 800 troops, consisting of 1 Bn the Parachute Regiment and supporting elements, under the command of Brigadier David Richards. But the official mission was simply to evacuate British and other eligible citizens from Freetown.

In the event, this evacuation took less than a week. Instead of packing up and leaving, however, Brig Richards then decided – largely on his own initiative – to stay in Freetown and prevent the RUF from capturing the city. Tony Blair gave retrospective backing to his commander on the ground.

Brig Richards was barred from going on the offensive, so he carefully deployed his troops in exposed forward positions and waited for the RUF to attack.

The rebels took the bait and attacked British paratroopers near Lungi airport on May 17. The ensuing firefight was, in hindsight, the turning point of Sierra Leone’s civil war. For the first time since its foundation in 1991, the RUF collided not with a ragtag African army, but an elite fighting force. The rebels duly came off worse. Just how badly they were mauled remains unclear: Britain maintains that 30 insurgents were killed; the true figure was almost certainly far higher.

On the same day, Foday Sankoh was captured by Sierra Leonean forces acting with the help of British intelligence. After suffering this almost simultaneous double blow, the RUF began to fall apart and the threat to Freetown evaporated. The rebels opened talks with Kabbah and the civil war formally ended in 2002.

Fewer than 800 British combat troops had changed the course of history in a country of five million people – without suffering a single loss (although one British soldier was killed four months later during a mission to rescue 11 hostages).

Brig Richards went on to become a general and Chief of the Defence Staff; Blair became a national hero in Sierra Leone, where babies were named in his honour. Kabbah never forgot his debt to Blair. In his last weeks in office in 2007, Blair paid a triumphant visit to Sierra Leone where Kabbah made him a “paramount chief” with the right to sit in the country’s version of the House of Lords.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16 1932 in what was then the British Crown Colony of Sierra Leone. Although a devout Muslim, he attended St Edward’s Catholic secondary school in Freetown, before moving to Britain where he lived for more than 10 years.

Kabbah studied at Aberystwyth University and was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1969. He then joined the United Nations Development Programme, working in Africa as its resident representative in Lesotho.

Kabbah returned to Sierra Leone in the late 1970s, where he became a senior civil servant and permanent secretary in several ministries. A bureaucrat rather than a politician, he nonetheless ran for president and won the election in 1996. He served for only a year before being overthrown in 1997 and then restored to office by a Nigerian military intervention the following year.

After the civil war, Kabbah won a sweeping victory in the 2002 election, running as the man who had brought peace. He served as president until 2007, but achieved little with his time in office.

Kabbah proved too weak to act against corrupt ministers. On his watch, Sierra Leone was penetrated by Latin American drug barons, who used the country as a staging post for running cocaine to Europe. When the opposition made (justified) complaints about his government’s corruption, Kabbah resorted to accusing them of a “lack of patriotism”. Few missed him when he retired from office.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s wife, Patricia, predeceased him. They had five children.

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, born February 16 1932, died March 13 2014

Guardian:

I am old, much older, than Charlie Brooker (G2, 17 March), and he has problems understanding the generation you have let loose on G2. So pity me who, in my first job as a young engineer, relied on my trusty sliderule to earn a living (do they know what they were?). There were few telephones, no TVs, no computers. One of our children was still at home at 27, would they believe? However, I am still much interested in how the world changes, but at times despair that I am now irretrievably lost and stranded. I search for things and ideas I can recognise in all the frenetic cultural activity around me, things to latch on to that might drag me along with them.

What do all these trainee “digital” journalists editing G2 actually do? They obviously have the means to communicate with one another that I never possessed until later in life, and make money from them.

But what is it that they have to say? They can communicate with one another globally and instantly and, as far as I can see, aim at the shortest pithiest statements (fewer than 140 characters – oneliners, if possible) on major aspects of the human condition.

I do realise that I am probably already presenting the image of elderly ossification they dread, but I hope they appreciate that almost all aspects of their world today have arrived since I was their age, although we are all in this same world together now. I would like to be here to see how they will be coping another 50 years from now. How about a week of G2 driven by those born before 1930?
Frank Evans
Orpington, Kent

• OK, so your Generation Y team have demonstrated that young people today are as hard done by, misunderstood, arrogant and randy as they always are (been there, done that, got the mental scars), and also that they can produce as good a G2 as your usual gang. How about now giving them a crack at producing the Sport section?
Bob Heath-Whyte
Chalgrove, Oxfordshire

It came as no surprise to me that a lot of the upper decks of HMS Victory are not original (Report, 17 March). My grandfather, George Rogers, was bosun of the yard in Portsmouth when the ship underwent a major refit in the 1920s. At that time a lot of the original oak was removed and the decks remodelled. My grandfather and the master carpenter in charge of the refit were each allowed to take a cupboard door made of the original oak. Grandfather had a gate-legged table, a dressing-table set and a pair of candlesticks made from his door, all of which are still in my possession. In that same era, visitors to the ship were each given “a piece of Victory oak” as a souvenir as they left the ship. According to my mother (who was banned from joining the visiting tourist parties at the request of the sailors showing visitors round because she used to ask awkward questions), these souvenirs came from a local sawmill and were mostly anything but oak. Had they been authentic, there would by now be absolutely nothing left of the original timbers anywhere.
Val Harrison
Birmingham

In order to put the current crisis in Crimea in perspective, I would refer people to a very interesting book that I am sure John Kerry, William Hague and, no doubt, President Putin have read. It is The Grand Chessboard,written in 1998 by one of President Obama’s favourite foreign affairs theorists and President Carter’s national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski. In it he argued that the US had to take control of a number of strategic countries, including Ukraine, arguing that that country is “a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country (means) Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire”. He warns against allowing Russia to regain control over the country because, by doing so, “Russia automatically again regains the wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state, spanning Europe and Asia”.
Colin Burke
Manchester

• Instead of imposing sanctions on Russia for recognising Crimea‘s independence, perhaps we should welcome President Putin’s new-found enthusiasm for democracy and ask him when he plans to hold a similar referendum in Chechnya and allow the Chechens to declare their independence from Russia.
Sam Dastor
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

• Timothy Garton Ash (The focus is on Crimea, but next is the fight for Ukraine, 19 March) criticises the Crimea referendum for lacking “the consent of all parts of the existing state”, and for being held “without due constitutional process”. Why did he not similarly complain when the referendums which carved up Yugoslavia were being held – without the consent of all parts of the existing state, and without due constitutional process?
Marko Gasic
London

• David Cameron has rightly condemned the annexation of Crimea as illegitimate and illegal. He called at prime minister’s questions for “a rules-based system where countries obey the rules”. This would be an excellent and brave initiative. Consistency is key. For example, last week, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset, one has to ask why he did not call for Israel to cancel its illegal annexations of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both of which were condemned by UN security council resolutions 24 years ago. It took less than 24 hours to pass sanctions on Russia. He did not even ask when Israel would be ending its 47-year-old military occupation. If Putin had been paying attention, he would have been happily reassured.
Chris Doyle
Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding

• Despite the illegitimate nature of the Crimea referendum, the fact that it was carried out within the space of two weeks must be a cause of a little embarrassment to Minurso, the UN body charged with organising a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara. That was back in 1991. Twenty-three years later, in the face of ongoing Moroccan obstruction and international indifference, Minurso has still not fulfilled its mandate and a population a quarter the size of Crimea’s is still awaiting a say on its future.
Stefan Simanowitz
London

It would be nice to see some mention of the contribution made by secondary-modern-educated men and women, the poor bloody infantry of the workforce, in the shipyards, factories, building sites, hospitals, offices and elsewhere in the UK, now that the last of them are coming up to retirement. In all this recent chatter about Etonians at the top and the clamour in some quarters for the return of grammar schools, the sec mod class of 64 and before that have remained, as usual, invisible.
Frank Conway
Newcastle upon Tyne

• So, is Tanya Gold’s insight (If fashion is how you express yourself, I pity you, 20 March) into the exploitative, misogynistic nature of the fashion industry going to stop the Guardian’s continued promotion of it on its front and main national and international news pages? The frequent photographs of young, gaunt, vacant, Barbie-doll women modelling the latest trends seems completely at odds with the paper’s ethos. Like art, fashion has become business and should therefore be on the business pages. What an opportunity the Guardian misses to provide an alternative aesthetic that expresses the paper’s wonderful, observant, human and humane journalism.
Judy Marsh
Nottingham

• Paradise in Norway gone (Letters, 15 March)? While away your time in Purgatorio, western Sicily.
Dr Mike Rushton
Tarporley, Cheshire

• I feel that the Treasury could be on very dodgy ground in suggesting that the new £1 coin (Report, 19 March) is the most secure coin in circulation in the world. Anyone, especially small boys of my generation who carried around their meagre savings in their trousers, could guarantee that within a few weeks any sharp sided “threepenny bits” among the pennies would wear a hole in your pocket and you lost the lot. What then the security of the new coin?
John Marjoram
Stroud, Gloucestershire

• But unlike threepenny bits, I can’t see 12-sided £1 coins ever becoming Cockney rhyming slang.
John Cranston
Norwich

There is not an ounce of humanity in a budget which puts a cap on overall benefit spending that includes housing benefit needed to pay rents in a property market which is out of control (Vote blue, go grey, 20 March). Any fat cat can swallow the cream of UK property and leave it empty. The coalition continues to allow the existing caps on the housing benefits of families and individuals to create unmanageable rent arrears and hunger. Tenants are forced into temporary, overcrowded and often sub-standard accommodation in the private, and increasingly overpriced, rented sector. Meanwhile, the dreaded diseases of poverty reappear. Will, or can, the Labour party produce any policies which will redeem their capitulation to the overall cap in voting for it?
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty

• You emphasise (Editorial, 20 March) how George Osborne continues to see reducing the government’s debts as central to his economic strategy. Yet he regards the much larger debts of the banking sector as not worthy of his attention. It is estimated that government debt will peak at around 80% of GDP, while the debts of the banks remain stubbornly high at 500% of GDP. Britain shares with Japan the least envied title of being the most indebted of the G8 countries. When the next financial crisis comes, as it will, Britain may have to apply for what would be the largest loan in the history of the IMF. In return for that loan, the IMF will impose on Britain a savage austerity programme, similar to Greece’s. Is the government’s complacency due to its assumption that Britain, as with its over-indebted banks, is too large to be allowed to fail? More likely it is because the government has taken its eye off the ball as to what is the real cause of the crisis: rash speculation by over-indebted banks.
Derrick Joad
Leeds

• Most baby boomers are not rolling in it. In fact most can’t afford to retire. Final-salary pensions were closed down years ago, and women particularly find NI contributions only cover 18 years of child-bearing/raising, and those contributions are reduced. In addition, any money people are able to scratch together for retirement has made a loss for years.

If we could get hold of moneys from my husband’s work, for example, the future might look more manageable; and if he died first, I would have a little more to live on than a worrying half of not much. Osborne’s bribes make principled older people turkeys who must vote for their own Christmas in a society that teaches that we’re greedy, fattened-up people who have long had it easy and had it all. Where is the coherent narrative from other political parties to help counteract this divisive bribe? And while we’re at it, we’ve all paid NI contributions, ie a tax for public services such as the NHS. Successive governments have wasted all that money, which is not our fault. Remember, only a few swing votes in the UK count.
Olivia Byard
Witney, Oxfordshire

• While I wouldn’t want to argue against the chancellor’s assertion that responsible pensioners should be trusted to make the right financial decisions about what to do with their pension money, individual choices need to be understood within the contexts in which they are made. Unfortunately, that context is the British financial services industry, and one can have little confidence that the advice pensioners will be able to access will be given in their interests.

I doubt if one would get very long odds betting on the proposition that in 10 or 15 years’ time, we will be waking up to the great “pensions drawdown misadvice scandal” (no doubt the wise will shake their heads and remind us of the “pensions misselling scandal” of the Thatcher era). Nor will you get long odds betting that no one will be considered criminally liable for it. Under neoliberalism, it is only the less privileged who have to take responsibility for their choices.
Rob Raeburn
Brighton

• It will come as a great relief to any emergency service worker that if they are killed in action their estate will not be subject to inheritance tax. Of course, they already had the mere sum of £325,000 free of this tax, and if by chance they are married or in a civil partnership, the combined estate of a mere £650,000 would be exempt and would not be taxable if they are survived by their spouse or partner. Given the salaries of most emergency workers and their relative youth, they may not have had much time to build large and valuable estates, and happily only a small number die in active service. I suspect that this generous gift by the chancellor may not cost the country too much money. Would it be cynical of me to suggest that this was merely a piece of well-sounding PR?
David Lawson
Ilford, Essex

• Every pensioner able to put £10,000 into each issue of the new three-year “pensioner bond” will, if the interest rate is the expected 4%, have an income (net of tax at 20%) of £320. Poorer pensioners without that level of savings will get nothing. Another example of the government using state finance to give to those that have in order to attempt to buy their votes.
John Gaskin
York

• If the likelihood is that only a “small minority” of retirees will misuse their pension pot and fall back on the state is therefore of no consequence, why is the likelihood that only a “small minority” of EU immigrants will misuse the benefits system then outrageous and an indication that urgent action is required?
Gordon Milligan
Berlin

• We have been concerned for some time that the government’s proposed reforms for apprenticeships would have a negative effect on the number of small and medium enterprises taking on apprentices because of the additional costs and increased red tape. We hope that the budget announcement, in addition to the apprenticeship funding reform-consultation feedback, will result in sufficient steps being taken to support small businesses providing apprenticeships.

The Institution of Engineering and Technology’s recent work leading the government’s Electrotechnical Trailblazer was an opportunity for small businesses to have their voice heard in making sure that apprenticeship further-education courses are fit for purpose. The priority now will be to make sure that small businesses in the electrotechnical and other engineering disciplines are given a generous share of government grants. After all, given the huge shortfall of engineers, apprenticeships represent a valuable lifeline to the future of engineering in the UK.
Paul Davies
Institution of Engineering and Technology

Independent:

George Osborne may have calculated that giving money to the elderly in his Budget would persuade us, on the basis of unenlightened self-interest, to vote Tory in 2015. But he may not be aware that many of us have grandchildren, and we are appalled at the difficulties our youngsters are having to struggle with because of the policies of his government.  

With enormous fees if they are lucky enough to get to university, ever-increasing rents demanded by greedy landlords, unemployment or low-paid and insecure jobs, and ferocious and corrupt policing if they dare to demonstrate or protest, life is pretty tough for youngsters these days.

I and many others try to make up for Osborne’s harshness by giving our grandchildren some of our pension, and I, and I hope many others, will persuade the youngsters to use their votes but never to vote Tory. Osborne may live to regret his cynical “Help the Aged Only” budget.

Tony Cheney, Ipswich, Suffolk

George Osborne, whose high office probably precludes him regularly frequenting public houses, and whose drinks in the Commons watering holes are subsidised by us taxpayers, can be forgiven for not knowing the harsh realities of pub life for beer drinkers. But journalists, even those of the modern school who do not spend all afternoon at the bar before submitting their copy, surely have no excuse. Your paper’s headline on the Budget “A speech for . . . drinkers” (20 March) is as misleading as a politician’s spin.

A penny duty off a pint of beer does not result in a penny off a pint. Publicans never change prices by 1p, and never reduce prices, and increases nowadays are 10p minimum, more likely 20p. After last year’s “beer drinker’s budget” I was laughed out of the bar of my local after asking why I did not get a penny off, and two weeks later all drinks went up by 20p.

John E Orton, Bristol

Has the Chancellor factored in a large budget increase for the policing of organised crime, given his gangster’s gift of increasing tobacco duty in the Budget?

It is only a matter of time before violent gang “turf wars” break out in our inner cities, in parallel with the exponential increase in contraband cigarette sales. It is similarly just a matter of time before, because of this ugly phenomenon, Treasury revenue from tobacco starts to drop off.

Nicky Samengo-Turner, Hundon, Suffolk

The new 12-sided pound coin just confirms that the pound today is only worth 3d in old money. And why the long delay to its introduction? It is only a coin, not a hi-tech device.

Colin Stone, Oxford

UK useless in aircraft search

The search going on in the southern Indian Ocean for the Malaysia Airlines aircraft points up the UK’s stark lack of military capability. Such a search can only be done with sophisticated long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The Australians, the New Zealanders, and, of course, the Americans have provided Orion aircraft, and even the very latest aircraft, the US Navy’s P-8A.

This should be an area where Britain might be able to help. But we couldn’t, even if we wanted to. We used to have one of the best maritime patrol aircraft in the world, the Nimrod. Since 2010, when we grounded our current Nimrods and decided not to carry on with a newer version, this country has had no maritime air patrol capability.

This is an extraordinary situation for a maritime nation such as the UK  – and our inability is sharply emphasised by the absence of equipment that could help in this very sad situation.

Sean Maffett, Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire

Am I the only person who is surprised to discover from the disappearance of a Malaysian aircraft that the means of transmission in aeroplanes can be so easily switched off by the pilot or others, or indeed switched off at all? I cannot see any legitimate benefit in planes having this “facility”, and a whole raft of dangerous disadvantages.

Ian Craine, London N15

HS2: most of us pay  but get nothing

Simon Calder, as usual, hits nails on the head (“Expensive and destructive, but also the only way to revitalise the railways”, 17 March). HS2 benefits too few and has a business case that is precarious at best. The environmental damage, especially to woodland, is completely unacceptable.

While it would be nice for Brits to enjoy the same high-speed inter-city rail service that most on the continent have known for decades, there is a far more urgent need.

This morning, I sat in a bus which arrived 13 minutes late and took 40 minutes to fight its way just six miles into town. For every long-distance commuter and business traveller, there are a hundred who face the consequences of road congestion and the failure to deliver rail for local service.

Now that we see the result of pretending that road transport alone suffices, we need to prioritise the reopening of stations and lines closed 50 years ago, and building new light electric rail systems within towns and out to their suburbs and satellites.

Blowing the budget on a single system for the wealthy few may deliver political kudos, but it will anger the rest of us who pay but get nothing.

Ian East, Chairman, Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group, Islip, Oxfordshire

One of the biggest benefits of HS2 is the economic redevelopment opportunities. We’ve heard a lot about these opportunities for the major cities connected by the high-speed line, but little or nothing about the potential wins for cities beyond the immediate confines of the HS2 network.

There is great potential through the connections to the east- and west-coast main lines for cities other than Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to benefit from HS2, but the challenges around realising these benefits need to be tackled now if these locations are not to fall behind.

In addition, many of these smaller cities could be reached by HS2 trains moving to the classic railway network to complete their journey. But this will require new or significantly enhanced stations.

We need an urgent dialogue between HS2, Network Rail, the train operating companies and local authorities to fully understand the challenges that the arrival of high-speed trains will bring to the classic railway network.

Jeremy Acklam, Institution of Engineering and Technology, London WC2

Two achievements of Tony Benn

Prue Bray asks what Tony Benn did apart form talking “a lot of left-wing stuff” (letter, 18 March). For full details she should obtain the several volumes of Mr Benn’s splendid diaries, covering 50 years of parliamentary life.

But let me mention two concrete things he did. As the drums of war against Iraq built up 11 years ago, Tony Benn, then and until his death president of the Stop the War Campaign, flew to Baghdad to interview Saddam Hussein. Benn asked Saddam directly if he had weapons of mass destruction. Saddam denied he did, saying, according to Benn’s diary: “I tell you, as I have said on many occasions before, that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction whatsoever.”

It turned out Benn was right. Benn also, when energy minister in the late 1970s, promoted the biggest ever taxpayer-sponsored energy-efficiency campaign. In so doing, he was years ahead.

Dr David Lowry, Stoneleigh, Surrey

Reasons for Turner’s strange vision

Turner’s eyesight has worried many for a long time (letter, 19 March).

Leigh Hunt in 1831 thought Turner’s “chromatic absurdities” might be the result of an ophthalmic condition. A “lens sclerosis” and secondary astigmatism were also blamed for the distortions of vision that caused Mark Twain to describe Turner’s work as “like a ginger cat having a fit in a bowl of tomatoes.”

The subject is discussed in the eye-surgeon Patrick Trevor-Roper’s The World through Blunted Sight  (1970) and by the undersigned in a biography of Turner. (Standing in the Sun, a life of JMW Turner, 1997).

Anthony Bailey, Mersea Island, Essex

Outsourcing the job of a parent

So the Government is to make £2,000 available to parents to help pay for childcare – just as long as the person providing the care is not the child’s own parent, but a paid surrogate. This will enable parents to fill all those job vacancies around the country, I suppose – perhaps in nurseries?

And yet we regularly hear that there is a “crisis of parenting” in this country. Just who is supposed to be doing this parenting, if parents are being given incentives to outsource it rather than doing the job themselves?

Marjorie Clarke, Totnes, Devon

Times:

Sir, Why anyone wants to be ruled by Vladimir Putin is a mystery, but Western leaders have not covered themselves with glory. The violent overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine was viewed with equanimity by Cameron, Obama et al. A peaceful referendum in Crimea has aroused howls of rage from the fiddlers, giving new meaning to the concept of hypocrisy.

John Bromley-Davenport, qc

Malpas, Cheshire

Sir, As a Hungarian of 1956, I never thought that the following would leave my lips, but Putin is right — Russia is taking back what is historically and popularly its own, ignoring the decision of the drunken Khrushchev in 1954.

Dr Andrew Zsigmond

Liverpool

Sir, The West’s self-serving lack of resolve over the invasion of Ukraine is worrying. Cannot the UK at least lead a group prepared to ban all sporting contacts with Russia while its troops remain on Ukrainian soil?

David Harris

London SW13

Sir, The Ukrainian Ambassador says the Crimea has been “heavily subsidised” (letter, Mar 20). This burden now passes to Moscow — in return for an assurance that Sevastopol cannot become a Nato military base. A win-win situation?

David Ashton

Sheringham, Norfolk

Sir, I thoroughly agree with Jenni Russell (Opinion, Mar20) that the West should take the blame over Crimea for its meddling in Ukraine. Did the EU actually consider the fact that Russia bases its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol? If Ukraine joined the EU and eventually Nato, there is no chance that this situation would be allowed to continue with the possibility of Russian nuclear armed ships in an EU state.

Julian Nettlefold

Editor, Battlespace

Sir, If the West fails to exact a heavy price for Putin’s foreign adventurism, others, notably China, with domestic and economic problems of its own, may be encouraged to follow the same route. The interests of the City, of German exporters and of European gas consumers must take second place to the need to shore up international stability, otherwise the final bill in terms of increased military spending, and perhaps even war, could be far higher.

Adrian Cosker

Hitchin, Herts

Sir, Most Crimeans want to become part of Russia. The pragmatic approach is to let them get on with it. We have far more pressing problems much closer to home.

Stephen Knight

Rhoscolyn, Anglesey

Sir, Whether the West chooses to recognise the referendum or not, it had a 95 per cent turnout (something most Western democracies could only dream of) with an 89 per cent Yes vote — a vote which appears to be far more genuine than the 2004 US presidential election, for example.

The West should be helping to support a peaceful transfer of Crimea to Russia ensuring that the minorities in the region have protection.

The US and EU need to be very careful how they lecture the rest of the world on democracy.

ELizabeth Hastings-Clarke

Some of the measures announced by Mr Osborne sound attractive but now they must be implemented

Sir, Most people will support actions to reduce tax avoidance but allowing HMRC to demand disputed taxes before the taxpayer has had his case heard by a court gives unacceptable power to the taxman (“Revenue wins power to raid bank accounts in battle over tax avoidance”, Budget supplement, Mar 18).

In his Budget speech, the Chancellor reminded us of the signing of Magna Carta in 1215. That wonderful document set down that: “No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised (dispossessed) . . . but by lawful judgement of his peers”. That principle has protected the citizens of this country for 800 years. He was wrong to violate it.

Richard Tweed

Croydon

Sir, The Chancellor announced early on in his Budget Speech that emergencies personnel who die in the line of duty will be exempt from inheritance tax. How many people will actually benefit from that?

If the person is married their assets pass freely to their spouse — and if they are single how many would have assets in excess of the inheritance tax threshold?

A more meaningful gesture
would have been to repay soldiers who have had to buy their own life insurance while fighting during
recent wars.

Sara Blunt

Chislehurst, Kent

Sir, The latestBudget promised all sorts of goodies, especially for pensioners, but why should they believe it?

After all in October 2007 Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron promised all sorts of changes to inheritance tax, but once they were in office those promises were quietly forgotten with not a word of apology to those of us who believed them.

Rear Admiral Conrad Jenkin

West Meon, Hants

It is a tough decision whether to give up a career to look after small children, and women need help not hectoring

Sir, I am surprised that Lucy Powell, the Shadow Minister for Childcare and Children, considers it a “waste of talent” when mothers are not at a distant place of work, but actually at home looking after their own children (letter, Mar 18). Parents should be being encouraged to look after their children in the crucial early years of childhood and then helped back into work when their children are ready for that separation.

Instead of making those who chose this route feel guilty that they are “holding the economy back”, Ms Powell should be backing these parents’ tough decision and offering them a way back into work that values the time they spent managing their home and children.

Maria Smith

Exeter, Devon

Council tax bills vary wildly across the country as house prices are skewed by the London property boom

Sir, One anomaly created by the massive rise in London property prices compared with the rest of the country is seen in the council tax demands now being sent out.

The demand for my home (band F; value £475k) in a Dorset village is £2,489. The demand for my home in Islington (band G; value £1.5m) £2,101. The equivalent Band F would be £1,821, ie £650 less.

Mind you, I do get six buses a day, last bus 6pm. And what do Londoners get? Ah yes, the Tube and bus system. Will any politician be brave enough to sort this out?

Mike Nixon

Sutton Poyntz, Dorset

Slow-moving bureaucracy is threatening to turn young Catholics couples away from church marriage ceremonies

Sir, My daughter plans to marry a non-Catholic in a Catholic church in August. She now has to rely on the goodwill of an unpaid volunteer in each parish to find and post her the required original certificates for baptism and confirmation. This is a slow process because parishes are inundated with similar requests. The result is long delays and considerable anxiety.

It’s fair for the church to charge for this but not fair to rely on an unpaid, usually very nice volunteer to fulfil this church-regulated duty. The inefficiency and anxiety could turn faithful young people away from a church marriage — and so their children may not be brought up as Catholics.

Peter Hobday

Folkestone, Kent

You don’t expect a hospital to order a young mother not to nurse her baby in a maternity wing waiting room

Sir, How outrageous and contradictory that a new mother is stopped from breastfeeding her baby in a hospital waiting room by a health trust aiming to “Promote positive attitudes to breastfeeding” (“You can’t feed your child here, hospital told new mother”, Mar 19).

The maternity information also advises: “We think it is a good idea that your baby is with you at all times.”

How can this possibly happen if a child as young as six weeks is not brought along while her mother has time-consuming blood tests?

While David Eltringham, the chief operating officer of the hospital is worrying about “patient safety”, the rest of us should ask what dangers could possibly be posed to anyone. I have never heard of an accident being caused by breast feeding.

Janet Weston

Westerham, Kent

Telegraph:

SIR – The body of Tony Benn may rest overnight in the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster next week, an honour previously awarded only to Margaret Thatcher. There has perhaps never been a better example of British absurdity.

On the one hand, we have a politician who led this country as prime minister through three terms and changed the country’s financial and international fortunes dramatically.

On the other hand, we have a politician who was never prime minister, making it as far as secretary of state for industry. He had dramatic and outdated hard-Left views and was left behind by his own party as it moved to the centre. He continued to be a great constituency MP, a champion of the powerless, a diarist of the highest order and a good father.

But Benn and Thatcher are in different leagues; it is like comparing Winston Churchill with Dick Crossman.

J R Nickell-Lean
Ryton, North Yorkshire

SIR – Tony Benn was a brilliant orator, but was nevertheless an egocentric maverick; it would be a travesty to extend to him the accolade that was granted to Margaret Thatcher. She was a political winner; he a political loser.

David Phipps
Freshford, Somerset

SIR – An “accident of birth” allows many to forgive Tony Benn for his silver-spoon background and public school education. Yet Old Etonians in Government are roundly criticised for being toffs. Why?

Michael Nicholson
Dunsfold, Surrey

Clear as a bell

SIR – I was dismayed to read yet another complaint about “noisy” bells, in this case bells that have chimed for 140 years in Knighton, Radnorshire.

Surely people who buy houses anywhere near bell towers, whether they be church or civic buildings, should check on the frequency of the ringing before they buy. Bravo to the town mayor and his campaign to keep them ringing.

Christine Lavender
Send, Surrey

Left out

SIR – Peter Luff MPhas said that left-handed children need more support in schools (March 18). Far from being psychologically scarred by my schooldays, I can use right-handed scissors and write legibly despite being left-handed.

Improving standards in the teaching of basic numeracy and literacy would be a more worthwhile cause to champion.

Kirsty Blunt
Sedgeford, Norfolk

SIR – My husband, myself and two of our three children are left-handed. The verse our daughter was taught on starting school wasn’t very helpful: “The hand you write with is your right, the one that’s left is left.”

Kay Blackwell
Maesygwartha, Monmouthshire

SIR – Like Rowan Pelling, I am a left-handed person living in a right-handed world. I have also battled with tin openers designed for the right-handed. One of the most useful tools I have acquired is a left-handed ruler. Before any right-handers scoff at this, try drawing a line against a ruler without being able to see the numbers clearly. My left-handed ruler has the numbers running from right to left.

Clifford Baxter
Wareham, Dorset

German cemeteries

SIR – Like M J Gibson, I try to visit German war cemeteries, like the one at Langemarck. I find the contrast between stark German cemeteries and serene British ones astonishing.

I always read the comment books at the Commonwealth memorials, and some of the most poignant remarks I have seen have been from German visitors. Perhaps quiet appreciation is preferable to flamboyant visual displays.

Ray Bather
Allendale, Northumberland

Natural deterrent

SIR – In my wooded garden we used to have a serious grey squirrel problem. They ate everything I tried to grow in the garden and they even raided the house.

But since a pair of buzzards returned to breed, the grey squirrel numbers have collapsed. Natural control obviously works.

Anthony Vickery
Poole, Dorset

Money talks

SIR – The introduction of £1 coins resembling the old threepenny bit will be a reminder to all in Britain how much successive governments have safeguarded the value of our money.

What used to cost 3p back in 1971, when the threepenny bit was rendered obsolete by decimalisation, now costs just over £1.

Mark Boyle
Johnstone, Renfrewshire

SIR – The reverse image on the original threepenny bit was of the flower thrift.

Surely no better image could be found in these challenging times?

Christopher Macy
Lincoln

MoD should not build on Stonehenge aerodrome

SIR – I am deeply saddened that the Ministry of Defence plans to build thousands of homes over the site of the historic Larkhill aerodrome, within sight of Stonehenge.

In February 1910, my great-grandfather Sir George White (1854-1916) founded what became the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

He chose Larkhill as a testing ground for his new Boxkite aeroplanes in part because there was little except Stonehenge for errant aircraft to hit, and in part because he hoped to attract interest from the nearby Army base. He acquired the flying rights over 2,000 acres there, building an iron hangar to house his aircraft and setting up a pioneering school. Others joined him, and Larkhill blossomed.

Two Boxkites flying from the original Bristol shed became the first aircraft to take part in British military manoeuvres. Arguably the first air-to-ground radio signals were received at Larkhill and the first government trials to select aircraft for the Forces took place there. A great number of the pilots available when the First World War broke out were trained at Larkhill. Many brave young men lost their lives at the aerodrome, but through their bravery and sacrifice, extraordinary strides in the development of British aviation took place. It is certainly the oldest hangar to survive in Britain, and is, perhaps, the oldest in Europe.

While this hugely significant building is under threat, in Australia, pioneering Bristol aircraft are being celebrated. On March 1, the flight of a specially built Boxkite replica was the centrepiece of the Royal Australian Air Force centenary celebrations. The purpose was to replicate the first Australian military flight, made on a Boxkite by Lieutenant Eric Harrison at 7.40am on March 1 1914. Harrison learnt to fly at the Bristol School at Larkhill.

Larkhill was a cradle of British and Commonwealth aviation. There must be many suitable sites for new homes. Historic Larkhill is not one of them.

Sir George White

Rudgeway, Gloucestershire

SIR – Richard Spencer is unfortunately right when he says the situation in Syria is actually much worse than one might think. Amnesty International has reported on how 250,000 people are now subjected to brutal medieval-style sieges, in which entire neighbourhoods have been sealed off from the outside world.

In the Yarmouk district of Damascus, for example, the Syrian army has maintained a deadly stranglehold since July, preventing people getting in or out and cutting off the food supply and electricity. Food is so scarce that many of the 20,000 malnourished residents have been reduced to eating cats and dogs or boiling dandelion leaves.

Meanwhile, Syrian army snipers callously shoot at those foraging for food. Over 200 people have died in Yarmouk’s barbaric siege, with at least 128 perishing through starvation.

Last month’s long overdue United Nations resolution on Syria called on all parties – government forces and armed opposition groups – to lift their sieges and allow in food and medical supplies. This has not happened and, unless it does, the grotesque suffering of the Syrian people is likely to descend to a level that most people will struggle to believe.

Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK
London EC2

SIR – Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Opposition, says that living standards have dropped by £1,600 in the past four years, which I would have thought was an inevitable consequence of Labour’s policies up until 2010.

It would be interesting to know how that drop in living standards splits between the various sectors of society – what is the drop for the richest 10 per cent, the next 10 per cent, and so on. This would surely prove whether we were “all in it together” or not. It is curious that neither Labour nor the Conservatives seem willing to divulge this information.

Barry Smith
Loughborough, Leicestershire

SIR – The Chancellor’s announcement of additional help to cathedrals for renovations is extremely good news, not only to communities battling to keep their immense buildings windproof and watertight – a task made far more difficult through this winter of storms – but also to the heritage construction industry, which has been cruelly punished through the recession.

As a building conservation architect (and surveyor of the fabric at St George’s Chapel, Windsor), I know that the heritage sector has yet to show signs of recovery.

The loss of irreplaceable historic craft and trade skills critical to the sustainable maintenance and repair of these magnificent buildings is gravely concerning. It is vital that the Government provides greater support to skills training for conservation specialists.

Martin Ashley
Twickenham, Middlesex

SIR – I am blessed with two young children, parents who require support to keep them at home, and a husband who works long and variable hours. I also volunteer at my children’s school.

I did not make a choice not to work. Indeed, like thousands of others, I work long hours, unpaid, out of family necessity. Am I to presume that if I stopped helping my higher-rate-taxpayer husband, abandoned my parents to the NHS, sent my children to school ill, and took a minimum-wage job for a few hours a week I would be entitled to a pat on the back for contributing to the economy?

Josie Jennings
Moulton, Suffolk

SIR – I was initially delighted to hear Nick Clegg on the radio telling me I was going to get £2,000 per child for child care. With four children, that would be welcome. My joy was short-lived, however, as my wife reminded me that all our child-benefit payments had been taken away, amounting to many more thousands lost than we may gain. She then went on to ruin my breakfast by telling me that it wouldn’t apply to those who had only one income. My solution? Pay her to become a cleaner in our own home and vote Labour next time around.

Daniel Connolly
Lancing, West Sussex

Irish Times:

Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 01:10

First published: Fri, Mar 21, 2014, 01:10

Sir, – Are Vincent Browne’s sensibilities confined to rugby, where he finds it so “disturbing” for a participant to obtain a “thrill in legally inflicting pain on someone else” (“Rugby culture is boorishly patriarchal”, Opinion and Analysis, March 19th)? If this susceptibility extends more widely, perhaps he would ponder his own opinion pieces, where he has been inflicting pain for years. – Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Rugby could be viewed as part of the overall British package offered to this nation and gratefully accepted along with an accompanying ethos which many Irish schools have embraced and championed in our recent history. This British ethos (along with fagging and other abominations) had one aim and one aim only, namely to desensitise British youth and thus prepare them for the cold-hearted military and cultural domination of native peoples around the world. The “playing fields of Eton” is where most of their battles were fought and won. The British Empire is no more, but the fight continues as long as the will to compete and dominate is seen as a legitimate aspiration for sentient beings. – Yours, etc,

GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK,

Gleann na gCaorach,

Co Átha Cliath.

Sir, – It is such a pity that the venerable Vincent Browne did not play serious rugby at school, even though we know he did attend Castleknock College for five years. If he had it seems doubtful that he would find rugby culture “boorish and patriarchal”. Mr Browne obviously has never tackled an opposing player in full flight for the line, never had the satisfaction of bringing down an adversary physically and legally. He is extraordinarily good at it on television and in print – but on the physical field of play? No, nay, never! – Yours, etc,

ERIC C O’BRIEN,

Howth Lodge,

Howth, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Considering the risk of physical injury alone, anyone who encourages a child to play rugby is an eejit. – Yours, etc,

DENIS O’CONNOR,

Front Street East,

Toronto, Ontario.

Sir, – Does homophobia exist in rugby? Does misogyny exist in rugby? Does boorish behaviour? Yes. Rugby – like Gaelic football and hurling and soccer – is simply a sport played by people and since any community contains these things, it is silly to suggest that a sport or a club or an office or any large collective of people does not reflect elements of those attitudes. But they do not define it.

Is rugby a tough sport? Yes. Mr Browne suggests that the “manly” culture of rugby is dysfunctional. Is it dysfunctional to teach teamwork, hard work, taking the knocks life may send and getting back up again? Those are values many people would like to pass on to their children.

The culture of rugby that I know is one epitomised by Brian O’Driscoll and Donncha O’Callaghan and so many more of the icons of Irish rugby – fair play, hard work and respect (we still call the referee “Sir”, though that may be a product of the “posh private education” that seems to irk Mr Browne so much).

BARRY CUNNINGHAM,

Clonfert,

Maynooth,

Sir, – There are compelling reasons why the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) should introduce a standard to monitor the outcome (morbidity and mortality) for subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) patients who are denied access to emergency neurosurgical or endovascular treatment. Standards of performance are key drivers of patient safety. They measure not only performance but facilitate comparison with healthcare providers in Europe and elsewhere. This can inform best practice and use of scarce resources.

Untreated SAH patients face life-threatening risks. The cost of an intensive care bed (€1,800 per day) is the same whether a patient is being treated in the neurosurgical centre or is in an intensive care bed in the local hospital – and not being treated. The humanitarian and economic consequences of not securing a ruptured brain aneurysm are immense.

Providing additional neurosurgical intensive care beds addresses the unmet need of patients who require emergency neurosurgical treatment. It also removes the onus on admitting hospitals to provide intensive care beds for SAH patients who are being “managed” rather than treated. Early treatment significantly reduces the risk of a catastrophic rebleed, levels of morbidity and mortality and length of stay, when compared to patients who are not treated.

The refusal by HIQA to introduce a standard to monitor, and then publish the outcome for untreated SAH patients, invites questions regarding the competence of HIQA to assess patient safety risks. – Yours, etc,

JIM LAWLESS, MBA

Cypress Downs,

Templeogue,

Sir, – Rosita Boland’s article (Weekend Review, March 8th) referred to Ireland’s ratification of the Hague Convention and its impact on inter-country adoptions. Prior to ratification, Ireland operated a system of light-touch regulation – an indefensible position given our own history of forced adoptions.

Children have been denied the right to grow up with their parents and families because of child trafficking, abduction and through the deception of birth parents. Given the sums of money involved, inter-country adoption can encourage malpractice and corruption, with children and prospective adoptive parents at risk of being exploited for financial gain. A 2009 International Social Service report found that “the number of ‘abandonments’ depends considerably on the extent to which there is a demand for the children concerned”.

The Hague Convention aims to protect children and their families against the risks of illegal, irregular, premature or ill-prepared adoptions abroad. Hague-compliant countries are required to build up their domestic child protection, care and adoption infrastructures, with inter-country adoption as a measure of last resort. Consequently the number of children placed for inter-country adoption is very low once Hague comes into force.

On the other hand, non-Hague compliant countries – many of which are developing countries, such as Ethiopia – often have large numbers of children for adoption but very weak child protection systems.

Ireland’s ratification of Hague has had a personal and profound impact on hundreds of prospective adoptive parents. Unfortunately, there is no magic solution. We must protect children from exploitation and abuse and ensure that every adoption is in the child’s best interests. It is for this reason that we urge extreme caution if Ireland moves to enter into a bilateral agreement with a non-Hague compliant country.

We urge the newly established Child and Family Agency to integrate its adoption and childcare systems. Adoptive parents currently undergo an intensive investigation process and then languish for years in the system with little prospect of ever becoming parents. At the same time, procedures prohibit adoption applicants from fostering, despite a chronic shortage of foster families. Reform is clearly needed. Each adoption applicant should be informed of the likely timeline and outcome of their application and of fostering opportunities open to them. A change in the law to allow for “open” adoptions is also long overdue and could benefit children growing up within the care system. – Yours, etc,

TANYA WARD,

Chief Executive,

Children’s Rights Alliance,

Molesworth Street,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Further to recent letters on the future of Aldborough House in Dublin, your readers might be interested in the fate of Belcamp House, an important 18th-century structure within a few miles of Dublin Airport.

This house, designed by James Hoban (the architect of the White House) in the 1770s and containing an original oval office, a precursor to its famous namesake, was for a time the residence of Henry Grattan, as well as being rented for a time by Countess Markievicz as a centre for the Fianna movement. Run as a school by the Oblate Fathers as Belcamp College, which closed in 2004, the house and lands were sold to Gannon Homes and, like so many other development sites, ended up in Nama.

The house has been allowed to fall into complete neglect and, through vandalism and various arson attacks, little is left now but a ruin of a house that welcomed Jonathan Swift and other famous personages when it was one of the leading country houses in the Dublin area.

Even if funds were not available to preserve this historic building, surely it would not have cost much to protect it from the vandalism directed against it. Sadly Aldborough House seems to be going the same way. – Yours, etc,

ERNEST CROSSEN,

Ard Aoibhinn,

Chapelizod,

Dublin 20.

Sir, – I don’t know where Brendan Behan is nowadays, but if he gets hold of your editorial (“The Quare Fellow”, March 20th) in which he is described as a “cultural icon”, you can expect to hear from him.

“I’m not an effin’ Russian monstrance” will be the thrust of his message. – Yours, etc,

KIERAN FAGAN,

Seafield Court,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – My favourite quotation concerning Brendan Behan appears in John Montague’s memoir, Company: A Chosen Life . Neatly summarising his friend’s sexual proclivities and linguistic abilities, Montague says, “He was the only trilingual bisexual I ever met.” – Yours, etc,

PAUL LAUGHLIN,

Spruce Meadows,

Culmore,

Sir, – Regarding Fr Tony Flannery’s piece (“Pope pragmatic in prioritising structural reform”, Rite & Reason, March 11th), he seems to be arguing that Pope Francis is reorganising the internal governance of the church, (the curia, the synod of bishops, etc) in order that theological change will follow in the wake of such structural changes. Either that or that theological change cannot take place without prior structural change.

Fr Flannery ends his article by saying, “I am very hopeful” (of change). This hopefulness is somewhat at odds with the sense of the two preceding sentences where Fr Flannery cites the pope’s recent statement of defence and indeed praise of the church’s handling of the clerical sexual abuse scandals and the pope’s assertion of Pope Paul VI as a “genius”, for his encyclical Humanae Vitae . These two observations are hardly tokens of an intention towards change.

Father Tony’s theory that structural change is a necessary precursor for theological change, if that is what he is saying, seems to me to be a feeble thesis.

Surely Pope Francis could institute theological change in areas such as clerical celibacy, the ban on contraceptives and the place of women in the church if he had a mind to amend the governance of the church at the same time or even after such changes?

The necessity for proper structural changes to bring about doctrinal change is far from convincing on reading Fr Flannery’s article. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD HOLDEN,

Middleway,

Taunton,

Somerset,

Sir, – Seamus O’Callaghan (March 20th) asks if, in keeping with the social conscience that both Guinness and Heineken have displayed in regard to withdrawing sponsorship of the St Patrick’s Day parade in New York, if they, and the drinks industry, would pick up the tab for the A&E charges and other hospital treatments that their products necessitate each week?

This is yet another example of the “blame anyone but ourselves” attitude so deeply etched in our psyche.

To suggest that breweries and distilleries are responsible for the behaviour of individuals who voluntarily overindulge in alcoholic products is rendering individual responsibility for our own actions obsolete. Are we in this country ever going to mature to the point whereby we accept responsibility for our own behaviour and stop blaming others?

Such logic would place responsibility for the anti-social behaviour of car drivers on car manufacturers, sugary soft drinks producers and chocolate manufacturers for obese children and decay in teeth and fast food outlets for rising cholesterol and diabetes levels.

We do not need events like St Patrick’s Day parades to see our streets awash with drunkenness and anti-social behaviour, although such events do come in handy for blaming others for our own delinquency. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeville Road,

Templeogue,

Sir, – Warren McKenzie (March 19th) takes issue with Taoiseach Enda Kenny preaching to the United States government about immigration reform, calling it a “gross interference” in American domestic affairs.

While the United States government is no stranger to taking an active role in the domestic affairs of foreign states, Mr McKenzie raises a valid argument – that our Taoiseach should tackle the very real problems at home. There are said to be up to 50,000 undocumented Irish migrants in the United States of America, a federal republic with a population of 313.9 million people. Back home in Ireland, a State with a population of 4.6 million people, there are said to be up to 30,000 undocumented migrants, the majority of whom have been here for many years.

I wonder if the Taoiseach devotes 40 times as much attention to the undocumented in Ireland as US president Barack Obama devotes to the undocumented Irish? – Yours, etc,

SEÁN Ó SIOCHRÚ

Glenbeigh,

Co Kerry.

Sir, – Daniel Griffin repeats (March 13th) the old charge that the Seanad is elitist. One only has to accept the legitimacy and value of the electoral college as an instrument of democracy to see that the charge is without merit.

At the same time as the electorate at large elects local authority councillors, it mandates them to form an electoral college to elect 43 Senators. This is a no less democratic process for being indirect.

Likewise, the voters elect TDs who in turn elect the Taoiseach, conferring on him by these two democratic steps, the mandate defined in the Constitution to nominate 11 Senators. By the same processes, he is empowered to nominate 15 Ministers, but nobody regards that power as undemocratic.

As for the remaining six Senators, they are elected by graduates who have invested effort and funds in increasing the value of what they can contribute to society. The State has also invested resources in their education. In return for these investments, the State gives them the right to elect representatives who, because they are not part of the party political system, are likely to add diversity to the Upper House.

The electorate showed last year that it does not want the Seanad to be abolished. The broadening of the graduates’ franchise is an appropriate reform. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DRURY,

Avenue Louise,

Brussels,

A chara, – Dr Mary Scriven’s comments (March 19th) epitomise what the anti-smoking lobby has regrettably become. What began 50 years ago as a well-intentioned campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers of smoking is now little more than an alarmist witch-hunt whose raison d’être seems to be the harassment and control of those who choose to consume this legal product.

While Dr Scriven may find the public use of e-cigarettes “rude”, “unpleasant” and “regressive”, she tellingly fails to provide any health reasons for her objection. Of course, this is because no such reasons exist.

Smokers are no different from any other addicts in that they stand a better chance of conquering their dependence if treated with encouragement and understanding. – Is mise,

Dr GARETH P KEELEY,

Gneisenaustrasse,

Dusseldorf,

Germany.

Sir, – I think it is time to stamp out the debate around electronic cigarettes. No butts. – Yours, etc,

HUGH McDONNELL,

Strand Road,

Termonfeckin,

Co Louth.

Irish Independent:

* Another quango and another idiotic report. An alliance between the Health Minister and the rather Orwellian titled Minister for Children have come up with an exclusion fat-free takeaway zone for children.

Also in this section

St Patrick’s Day can be about social change

So when is the real democratic revolution?

Letters: Using and abusing the right to free speech

As if the humble chipper is the sole cause of waddling Jennie’s and Johnny’s life . . . were it so simple.

Where is the 1.5km zone to be placed in the supermarket when the parents buy the vast array of food laced with sugar and encrypted lettering masking god knows what?

Who will permit children to be allowed actually run, play ball in the school yard and tumble free from the omnipresent threat of suing somebody else for Paddy and Patricia growing up with its attendant tumbles and falls.

Will the newspaper shop have barbed wire around a 10ft-high soft drinks stand preventing the youngsters from buying sugared water or will the Government ban such sugar-loaded juice?

Perhaps we should let parents decide themselves what to do. I see many of them buying such food for their children in the takeaways. Is this because of the pace of life, or the lack of money to buy ‘real’ food due to government policy.

Lead by example, I say. Educate but don’t impose a nanny, Orwellian state.

Also, perhaps a few of those who seem disturbed by overweight children might lead by example and lose a few pounds themselves. The last few ministers for health carried some excess poundage themselves.

JOHN CUFFE

CO MEATH

THE POLITICS OF SCAM

* Alas! Elections are mere cosmetic exercises in musical chairs. You are simply replacing the faces, yet the music remains the same.

Now that all power is of the European, centralised version – which means decisions for this country are made in Europe – and passed on to the organ grinders who call themselves politicians.

They in turn carry out the wishes of their European masters. Elections have become nothing but scams. All manifesto-false promises should be treated as toilet paper.

Waiting for political messiahs to save us is futile. People need to look inward and forget politics and politicians.

ANTHONY WOODS

ENNIS, CO CLARE

TIP OF FINANCIAL ICEBERG

* I am writing to you, as I assume many others have, regarding the pitiful greed of Irish banks within our society.

This story will probably come of no surprise to you; however, as I am only 22 years of age with limited life experiences, I am still in shock.

My story is essentially about my parents who are both in their 50s and are struggling as hard as anybody I have met in order to keep a roof over our heads.

I am in my final year of college, my sisters are married and have their own families; however, we are finding it difficult to see the goodness in life when we watch our parents living off a few euro every week.

Simply put, they are close to negative equity but not close enough for the banks to decrease their mortgage repayments – repayments that are crippling them every month.

We have downgraded in every aspect possible, my parents’ quality of living is quite humiliating as they find themselves waiting in the evening in Tesco for the reduced products.

They spend their days at home as they cannot afford to eat out, meet friends or visit relatives.

A few weeks ago we thought that a blessing had come in surprise, a contract from the banks offering a reduced mortgage repayment for a set period of time. My parents got advice from other people, signed the contract and sent it back to the banks.

It was agreed that the new repayments would start in March. However, we were notified recently that the banks had made a ‘mistake’ and have decided to rescind the contract.

My parents are distraught and are now fearing that the house will be repossessed.

This is only the tip of our story. I know you may not be able to print this but, even knowing that there are others in our situation that are being kept silent by society, may provoke a reaction.

NAME AND ADDRESS

WITH EDITOR

BOD NOT OUR ONLY HERO

* Ireland’s spectacular Six Nations victory over France in Paris and the equally spectacular solo display by Brian O’Driscoll in his final international appearance will long be remembered in Irish and international sporting history.

The plaudits being showered on the country’s rugby team and on O’Driscoll, in particular, have been well earned.

However, we should not lose sight of the fact that these players are highly paid full-time professionals. This is their paid chosen profession.

On St Patrick’s Day in Croke Park, just two days after Ireland’s rugby victory over the French, four GAA teams contested the All-Ireland club hurling and football finals.

Despite the amateur status of both these codes, those in attendance at Croke Park and those watching on television were treated to spectacular displays of sporting skills.

For generations, the GAA in villages, towns and cities – both in Ireland and abroad – and exclusively on the premise of volunteer participation, turned the GAA into one of the world’s largest and most successful amateur sporting organisations.

These players, who, in their spare time, play for the love of the game with no monetary compensation epitomise the original ideals of sport. They are true sporting heroes.

TOM COOPER

TEMPLOGUE, DUBLIN 6W

BEWARE OF EXAM CHANGE

* I write as somebody who has been involved in education for more than 35 years. During that period I have had experience of state and independent, fee-paying schools.

The schools included both primary and secondary international schools in the Netherlands and Belgium and state schools in the UK – in London and in the industrial region of south Wales.

Most of the time I held posts of responsibility in the managing of subjects throughout the school.

I notice that Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is in danger of repeating the errors that led to the British educational system slipping down the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international tables of educational achievement.

The emphasis on child-led education and social co-operation in learning can lead to a difficulty in discerning individual progress.

Covering ground by investigation and by reporting is time-consuming. In group work there is a danger of certain children doing the work while others ‘coast along’. . .

Replacing examinations with teacher assessments is also fraught with difficulty.

The temptation to make overgenerous assessments to enhance teacher achievement is ever present and there is no certain way of controlling one teacher’s assessment of a level with those of another.

The reduction of the central role of the teacher can lead to covert bullying and, since this is already a problem, it is likely to get worse.

It is to be hoped that Mr Quinn will consider the advice of the many experienced teachers who have seen the results of experiments – not dissimilar to his – and who know of the pitfalls.

WILLIAM SHEPHERD

MONKSTOWN, CO DUBLIN

Irish Independent


Fridge

$
0
0

22 March 2014 Fridge

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to deliver an ambassdor, can they find the rght country? Priceless

Cold slightly better order undercounter fridge

Scrabbletoday Marywins, just,and gets under400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Bob Millard, who has died aged 91, was a teenager in the Home Guard in 1940 when he was approached by a friend and asked if he wanted to join “something a bit more interesting”; the “something” was a secret group, the British Resistance Organisation, also known as the Auxiliary Units, composed of civilian saboteurs who would go into hiding and carry out guerrilla operations behind the lines in the event of a German invasion.

It was shortly after British forces had beaten a desperate retreat from Dunkirk that Winston Churchill ordered a battle-hardened colonel called Colin Gubbins to form the new organisation. At the time German forces were only 25 miles across the Channel and invasion seemed imminent. Unlike other, often poorly disciplined, freelance resistance movements that sprang up across Nazi-controlled Europe, Churchill was determined that the British version would be state-sponsored and meticulously planned in advance.

Gubbins selected a dozen regular Army intelligence officers to recruit local men, many from the Home Guard and many with an intimate knowledge of their local areas (gamekeepers and poachers were said to be particularly popular recruits), and turn them into ruthless killers. “They should be solid chaps who are not likely to lose their heads under the sort of pressures that occupation brings,” one officer wrote of the character that was required, “quite ordinary types in normal, everyday jobs”.

Millard was one of thousands who signed up. “I said yes and they asked me all sorts of questions and then a week later I was contacted and told: ‘You can join.’ I had to sign the Official Secrets Act before being told we were to go underground and come up behind enemy lines in the event of an invasion…It was not whether there was going to be an invasion, but when it was going to come.”

Gubbins established his new HQ at Coleshill House, a stately home in Wiltshire, where recruits were trained in the dark arts of sabotage, stealth and silent killing. “We were trained in how to set up a charge, the best place to blow a railway line, how to tackle a sentry with a knife or garrotte — how to move around quietly at night,” Millard recalled.

After training he was issued with explosives, weapons and vital supplies and returned to a “normal” civilian life. In the event of an invasion, however, as a member of the Bathhampton Patrol, he was to report to his unit’s operational base (OB) in an 18th-century stone mine near Bath. This was one of hundreds of hideouts around the country, many of them dug out in woodland in the dead of night so that no one would know they were there. The OBs were so well hidden that many remain undiscovered to this day.

Millard’s patrol would regularly practise what they had been taught at Coleshill and also identified possible targets to attack in the event of a German invasion (including the main London to Bristol railway line and Claverton Manor – a local country house deemed a likely candidate for a German HQ). On one occasion the patrol staged a practice night attack on the airfield at Colerne to test their skills as well as the defences of the RAF unit guarding the airfield. During the exercise the patrol’s sergeant was taken captive, only to be “rescued” by Millard and other members of the patrol. They also captured a captain and flight sergeant and placed dummy explosives on the target planes before getting away.

Men in the Auxiliary Units were expected to last for about two weeks before they were either captured or killed. Though Millard was never given this depressing prognosis, he knew that the reality of invasion would have been brutal. Auxiliers, as they were known, were expected to ignore German reprisals among people in their own localities and were instructed never to be taken alive: “We were told at Coleshill that if a colleague was badly wounded he was to be shot. It was made clear if you were captured you would be executed — but before that you’d be tortured,” he recalled. “The story was that some patrols were given suicide pills because you weren’t to be caught.” Millard felt “apprehensive” but not scared. “There was a job that needed doing so you volunteered to do it,” he said. “You didn’t think much more deeply about it.”

By the middle of 1941 Hitler had turned his attention to the Soviet Union and the immediate threat to Britain had passed. However the Auxiliary Units were kept in place until November 1944, when they were stood down.

Millard received a letter of thanks at the end of the war and a small lapel badge, but for the next 50 years no one knew about the Auxiliary Units. Millard had sworn an oath of secrecy and even his wife was unaware of his involvement. “You just didn’t talk about it, really,” he said. “As far as my family were aware I was still in the Home Guard. It was all very hush, hush. After the war, it was water under the bridge.”

It was not until 1994, when a reunion was held to mark the 50th anniversary of the stand-down of the Auxiliary Units — and the end of the 50-year silence decreed by the Official Secrets Act – that Millard himself became aware of just how substantial the organisation had been. One of his fellow guests was a man with whom he had played rugby in 1941, neither being aware that the other was an Auxilier. He was also surprised to discover that, in addition to his own unit, there had been 10 other patrols around Bath alone.

In later years Millard was instrumental in helping to found the Coleshill Auxiliary Research Team (CART), a group of volunteers that has been uncovering the story of Britain’s Resistance Army and which has unearthed the remains of many of the underground bunkers from which Millard and his comrades would have launched their clandestine raids on the enemy.

He became the principal spokesman for CART, helping to educate the public, and in 2012 he opened a replica operational base at Coleshill House, cutting the ribbon with a Fairburns Sykes knife – the main assassination weapon issued to the units.

CART’s campaign for members of the Auxiliary Units to be included in the Remembrance Day march was crowned with success last year when former members were invited to participate in the Cenotaph ceremony. Sadly Millard was too ill to attend.

Robert Millard was born in Bath on New Year’s Day 1923 and educated at the City of Bath Boys’ School. After leaving school in July 1940 he became a student teacher and joined the Local Defence Volunteers (the Home Guard).

By 1942 the immediate threat of invasion had diminished and members of Millard’s Auxiliary Unit were allowed to volunteer for other services. Millard joined the Fleet Air Arm as aircrew and was subsequently involved in anti-submarine patrols and attacks on Tirpitz off Norway, eventually serving with the British Pacific Fleet. In September 1945 he was aboard Formidable when the aircraft carrier survived several kamikaze attacks while supporting the landings on Okinawa. He became a member of the “Goldfish Club”(with bar) having survived going down “in the drink” in an aircraft on two occasions, in May and November 1944.

After demob, Millard trained as a teacher at Loughborough Training College and joined the staff at City of Bath Technical College. In 1953 he returned to Loughborough Training College as a teacher and remained there for the rest of his working life, becoming head of the department of creative design at what is now Loughborough University. During his time there he ran the college British Sub Aqua Club and became a National Diving Instructor.

Bob Millard married Josephine Bond in 1946. She died in September last year and he is survived by their son and daughter.

Bob Millard, born January 1 1923, died March 15 2014

 

 

Guardian:

 

We believe that education, like healthcare, is a fundamental social good, one that benefits both individual students and society as a whole (Report, 21 March). We believe that everyone should have an equal right, during a formative period of their lives, to pursue their own interests for their own sake. The ability to exercise this right should not be filtered by wealth and privilege, or be determined by the current priorities of the labour market. Still less should it be decided by those who might profit from any imminent increase in student debt, or from the erosion of staff pay and conditions.

As a matter of principle we oppose the ongoing privatisation and marketisation of education at all levels, and any accompanying increase in staff workloads, casualisation and precarity. We reject in particular the neoliberal logic used to justify the recent introduction of (and subsequent increases in) university tuition fees. We believe that progressive taxes on wealth and income, rather than fees and loans, are the appropriate ways to pay for social goods. We do not want the future of education to be decided by the divisive, market-driven race to the bottom that is overtaking staff and students alike, and we are encouraged by the steps recently taken, in places like Germany, Chile and Québec, as a result of collective pressure, to reduce or eliminate tuition fees and to reclaim education as a universal right.

We call on our government, our university community and our colleagues in other universities to reject the marketisation of education, to abolish tuition fees, and to ensure that provision of all further and higher education is restored to the public, not-for-profit sector.
Éadaoin Agnew Senior lecturer, English literature
Eric Alliez Professor, Philosophy
Paul Auerbach Reader, economics
Etienne Balibar Professor, Philosophy
Robert Blackburn Professor and associate dean for reesearch, faculty of business and management
Fred Botting Professor, English literature and creative writing
Mary Brady Senior lecturer, nursing
Beth Brewster Associate professor and head of department, Journalism and Publishing
Howard Caygill Professor, Philosophy
Howard Chadwick Senior lecturer, mental health
Tina Chanter Professor and head of department, humanities
Simon Choat Senior lecturer, politics and international relations
Jonathan Chu Senior lecturer, dance
Radu Cinpoes Senior lecturer, politics and international relations
Valerie Coultas Director of studies, education
Martin Dines Senior lecturer, English literature
Paul Dixon Reader, politics and international relations
Ilaria Favretto Professor, politics
Peter Finn Lecturer, politics and international relations
Korina Giaxoglou Senior lecturer, linguistics
Carlie Goldsmith Senior lecturer, criminology
Peter Hallward Professor, philosophy
Sue Hawkins Senior lecturer, history
Peter Haywood (retired) Senior lecturer, faculty of business studies and law
Andrew Higginbottom Principal lecturer, politics and international relations
Atsuko Ichijo Senior lecturer, politics
Marina Isaac HPL, Economics
Meg Jensen Associate professor, English literature and creative writing
Reem Kayyali Pharmacy practice field leader, pharmacy and chemistry
Ann Kettyle Senior lecturer, nursing
Marina Lambrou Head of department, linguistics and languages
Amanda Latimer Sessional lecturer, politics
Marisa Linton Reader, history
Karen Lipsedge Associate professor, English literature
Catherine Malabou Professor, philosophy
John Ó Maoilearca Professor, film and television studies
Martin McQuillan Professor and dean, faculty of arts and social sciences
Paul Micklethwaite Senior research fellow, the design school
Simon Morgan Wortham Professor and associate dean for research, faculty of arts and social sciences
Catherine O’Brien Senior lecturer, film studies and French
Peter Osborne Professor, Philosophy
Winsome Pinnock Senior lecturer, creative writing
Jason Piper Director of studies, dance and drama
Maria Ponto Associate professor, nursing
Sam Raphael Senior lecturer, politics and international relations
Trish Reid Associate professor, performance and screen studies
Mike Roberts (retired) director of studies, history and politics
David Rogers Director, Kingston writing school
Stella Sandford Reader, philosophy
Mike Searby Principal lecturer, music
Jalal Uddin Siddiki Senior lecturer, economics
Jackie Smart Head of department, drama
Philip Spencer Professor, politics and international relations
Engelbert Stockhammer Professor, economics
John Stuart Associate professor, history
Eleanor Suess Associate professor, architecture and landscape
Allan Swift Lecturer, school of performing studies
Sara Upstone Associate professor, English literature
Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau Professor, psychology
Julian Wells Director of studies, economics
Scott Wilson Professor, film and television studies

The thing that struck me most forcefully about the graphic in your budget special (20 March) was that, in terms of the amount spent on defence, we rank behind only the world’s superpower states of the US, China and Russia and the super-profligate state of Saudi Arabia. What on earth are we spending this huge amount on? Why?
Dr Neil Denby
Denby Dale, West Yorkshire

• The Serota, the triple mixed metaphor, was first noted here (Letters, 25 January). TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady has achieved one in just nine words: “A welfare cap that bites into the safety net” (Vote blue, go grey, 20 March).
David Bernstein
Croydon, Surrey

• I don’t know about Heaven (Letters, 19 March), but I’ve been to Valhalla. You take the Harlem line from Central Station, New York. It takes about 45 minutes.
John Baldwin
Silverdale, Lancashire

• My mum, Edna Dashwood, worked as a draughtswoman in Portsmouth dockyard during the war. The joke was that it was possible to make several HMS Victories from all the souvenir pieces that had been sold (Letters, 21 March).
Mark Hebert
St Ives, Cambridgeshire

• As a 77-year-old Guardian reader, I am finding the widespread use of acronyms difficult to cope with. This week’s G2 dealing with youth subcultures was perhaps meant to say to us geriatrics look at what we can get away with today. However, instead of saying “What the fuck?!” you chose to acronymise it to “WTF?!”
William Burgess
Leeds

• Generation Y people who think they’re forgotten must attend a UK Uncut demo. They’ll find everyone from students to grannies (and sometimes Polly Toynbee), all united in anger, outrage and comradeship.
David Redshaw (70)
Gravesend, Kent

• Now that Generation Y have enlightened us all regarding their plight, I suggest they form a political movement to further their cause. They could call it the Generation Y Front.
Tim Wood
Northallerton, North Yorkshire

 

Campaigners welcome the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service that it is in the public interest to prosecute the three G4S custody officers in relation to the death in their custody of Jimmy Mubenga (Report, 21 March). Jimmy was due to be deported on 10 October 2010, but he never left Heathrow. On the British Airways flight he was heard to cry out, “Help me, I am dying”. As his wife Adrienne Kambana says: “He died alone like an animal.” Campaigners recognise that the CPS has had the opportunity to review the material in its possession, following the unlawful killing verdict at the inquest in July 2013 and it has arrived at the correct decision. The time is surely ripe for the law to be so drafted that companies whose employees are alleged to have committed such crimes will face the same charges as the individuals they employ. Statutory authorities should consider carefully whether they wish to employ such companies.
Diana Neslen
Campaign co-ordinator, Stop G4S

 

 

While I am not sure that garden cities are the answer to our housing shortage, the chancellor’s recent announcement for a “real garden city” to be built in Ebbsfleet contains, at least, a vestige of possibly unintentional vision.

Inexplicably, our housing shortage is normally discussed only as a problem of logistics and delivery. When did we relinquish the ambition to build new communities and resort, instead, to speaking only of housing numbers?

The largely unpopular (but not always unsuccessful) post-war attempts at co-ordinated and planned housing estates seem to have convinced us that such desires are futile, playing into the hands of housebuilders, who are given license to deliver their market-friendly but socially and environmentally disastrous product: acres of cul-de-sac estates devoid of any notion of the collective potential to organise housing in a meaningful manner.

Delivering housing should be different to delivering cars or washing machines, since the manner by which you place houses together has the possibility of creating not only streets and squares, but also the potential to create a meaningful sense of place and community.

Such opportunities and possibilities used to captivate our imagination and focus our ideas of society. When did we resign ourselves to talking about society without striving to give it shape? Do we have to wait for our next Olympics in order to give rhetoric and idea a physical form by co-ordinating resources in the name of something beyond what can be justified solely in practical and logistical terms?

We are building the physical world for future generations, whether we accept the responsibility or not. By default, we plan our cities and towns primarily as a response and a reaction to pressures. By calling our planners “development control officers”, we confess our retreat from the position that it might be possible to do anything meaningful. Instead, our poor planners are left to man the barricades of mediocrity, charged with preventing the worst from happening.

When did we decide that beautiful towns and cities were a thing of the past? Or do we really believe that can be built without planning them, by allowing the market to deliver them? Why would free enterprise insist on a park or a square, on a kindergarten or a playground, on a public swimming pool or any other non-commercial element in a situation that does not offer the incentive of financial gain?

The creation of large amounts of housing, similar in number to those required after the war, forces us to confront this problem seriously, not as an issue only of numbers and volume, but as a representation of social priorities and civic pride. Providing fast trains and new airports might be essential, but taking care of our built world, providing good homes and shaping the meaningful physical environment that nurtures communities must be just as important for the soul and spirit of the nation.

The chancellor’s plan for Ebbsfleet may well make good commercial and practical sense, but if we do not take such opportunities to lead with ideas and a vision of how to create community, then we will have squandered the chance to show that there are other considerations when building housing beyond commercial pressures or political expediency.
David Chipperfield
David Chipperfield Architects

 

Donald Braben and others ask for suggestions on how to support and encourage “maverick” scientists to pursue open-ended research (Letters, 19 March). One way is to encourage scientists to move from one institution to another, so they do not become set in the orthodox thinking of one particular group of peers. In former years, the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 used to award research fellowships to applicants intending to pursue research in any institution in the Commonwealth other than the one he/she currently worked in; and, most unusually and importantly, did not require applicants to submit any research proposal. On arriving at their chosen institution, they could pursue any project they liked. This is the kind of support mavericks need. Sadly, the 1851 Commission nowadays requires applicants to submit a research proposal, in line with the practice of other funding bodies. They – and other funding bodies – should rethink this conservative and risk-averse policy.
Rupert Lee (former 1851 research fellow)
Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire

• Quoting Richard Feynman, “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts”, Donald Braben and colleagues invite Guardian readers to suggest ways in which scientific mavericks could prosper again. I am reminded of the story told by Milton Friedman about his erstwhile colleague, the maverick Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard: “When Szilard applied for grants he always proposed to do experiments that he had in fact already done, so that he could use the money for research whose outcome he could not predict. The system worked perfectly until one year his application was rejected on the grounds that the proposed experiment was impossible.”Rather than relying on this kind of subterfuge, we need at least a modest funding stream where the sole criterion for future funding is, overtly, the quality and originality of the applicant’s recent past research. In this way, top research would be rewarded by giving successful applicants the freedom to find their own new blue skies. In science, as in other walks of life, one of the best predictors of future success is past success.
PN Pusey
Malvern, Worcestershire

• The scientists advocating that more of their colleagues should become mavericks forgot to mention that their lives will inevitably suffer if they take this approach. For example, the careers of notable modern heretics like Peter Duesberg (HIV is not the cause of Aids), Arpad Pusztai (GM foods can be dangerous), Jacques Benveniste (memory of water) all suffered dramatically under the weight of attacks by the science establishment. It is also often said that Sir Fred Hoyle was denied a Nobel prize because of his support for the idea that life comes from space and for maintaining that the chemical origin of life is a statistical impossibility. Heretics may expect protection from other academics, but this is rarely forthcoming; as the saying goes “academic freedom is there to protect academics from their colleagues”. As for peer review, it is designed to prevent paradigm shifts. Where would Darwin have been had his famous (and unrefereed) book been peer-reviewed by the likes of arch anti-evolutionist Richard Owen?
Professor Milton Wainwright
Sheffield

• Like the Ancient Greeks, the maverick philosopher Hegel used dialectics to distinguish physics from metaphysics, and right political authority from not-right political authority. Like the Ancient Greeks, Hegel regarded enlightenment as people using physics to extend their understanding of the world beyond their natural horizons, to include abstract people – future humankind. Like the Ancient Greeks, Hegel recognised that “all power corrupts”. Like the Ancient Greeks, Hegel developed dialectics to repudiate the tendency of political authority to become self-validating and alienated from the rest of the population.

Hegel’s method for mitigating the tendency of political authority to become self-validating and alienated was for maverick philosophers to teach the rest of the population to critique all political authority according to whether it meets the needs of future humankind. Hegel, like the Ancient Greeks, regarded the rest of nature as unchanged by the course of history. Maverick philosopher Feuerbach recognised that, unlike other animals, humans deliberately change the rest of nature, because that is how they cultivate themselves – by deliberately cultivating their habitats. Prompted by Feuerbach, Marx and Engels famously “turned Hegel on his head, or rather his feet”. The Marxist method for mitigating the tendency of political authority to become self-validating and alienated is for maverick philosophers and scientists to teach the rest of the population to critique all political authority according to whether it cultivates humankind and the rest of nature.
Steve Ballard
London

 

 

Independent:

 

 

Times:

Sir, The Chancellor’s pensions revolution will allow people to get their hands on their own money and do with it as they choose. This is in touch with traditional Tory values of individual freedom and certain to be extremely popular electorally. The notion that people sensible enough to save for their retirement are hardly likely to blow the lot in the first couple of years is persuasive.

However, no one knows how long they are going to live. Doubtless these newly enriched people will invest their money wisely to partly fund their retirement but this will only take them so far. The question is how quickly to run down their capital — a conundrum which the maligned annuity neatly addressed. Those dying early in retirement tended to fund those who just went on and on, with the insurance company absorbing any imbalance.

Under the new arrangements, it is the next generation who will benefit when early leavers pass on the residue of their lump sum to their families, but the State will have to pick up the tab for the ones more inclined to linger. The equilibrium currently managed by the insurance companies will no longer prevail. What might seem like an excellent vote-winning idea today may look less appealing in 20 or 30 years.

John Stone

Elton, Matlock

Sir, It is suggested that people may cash in their pension funds, squander the money and then claim benefits. They should know about the Deliberate Deprivation of Assets rule. They may find that they are still treated as having the capital they have squandered, and that they are not entitled to those benefits.

D. M. Milstone

Northwood, Middx

Sir, I wonder whether there is another reason for the pension reforms. Care costs continue to rise as our population ages. Will giving pensioners direct control of their funds enable councils to consider these assets as “realisable” when determining an individual’s ability to pay for retirement care?

Alun Marriott

Tudeley, Kent

Sir, All this hot air about pensioners blowing their pensions on fast cars, holiday homes and helping their children out with house purchase deposits — but the average pension pot is only around £30,000. A budget idea for the better off?

P. D. Cocks

Horns Cross, Devon

Sir, The pension changes may, ironically, hit young people hard.

Letting the over-55s raid their pension pots means that some will squander their assets and eventually fall back on the state, increasing the burden on the younger generation.

On average, people underestimate their life expectancy by almost five years, so individuals are not as well positioned as a third party to decide what to keep aside for their old age.

The freedom to withdraw pension assets means it will now be easy to avoid IHT — a loss to the Treasury and increasing the burden of national debt for future generations.

Many baby-boomers may withdraw pension savings to invest in buy-to-let properties which could well push up prices for first-time buyers and force more of them into renting for their whole lives. These young people, saving for a deposit, won’t have access to the Pensioner Bonds which Mr Osborne is subsidising for the over-65s.

Angus Hanton

Intergenerational Foundation

London SE24

 

 

 

Sir, We would like to register our satisfaction at the passing into law of the International Development (Gender Equality) Act 2014, which attained Royal Assent on March 13.

This Act will, for the first time for any government in the world, place a statutory responsibility on the Secretary of State for International Development to take gender into account in decisions relating to how the UK’s overseas aid budget is allocated.

The Bill was originally proposed by a British charity, the Gender Rights and Equalities Action Trust (Great), and taken up by Bill Cash as a Private Member’s Bill (supported by Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development).

“Bill’s Bill” (as the initiative has become known) has received little media attention despite its powerful potential to tackle what Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described as “the greatest human rights abuse of the 21st century,” the continuing discrimination against half of the world’s population, often denying women the right to make a valuable contribution to the development of their nations or to be protected against violence and abuse.

From now on the Secretary of State for International Development will have to routinely consider issues like access to education and protection under the law against sexual exploitation and domestic violence.

We would like to thank The Times for being one of the few newspapers to report this good news story (“Britain shows the world the way — again”, Mar 8) and Parliament for its cross-party support for this Act which will directly benefit the millions touched by UK aid globally for years to come.

Karen Ruimy, Mariella Frostrup, Jason McCue (co-founders of Great), Maria Sukkar (trustee), Miriam Gonzalez Clegg, Elisabeth Murdoch, Gemma Mortensen, Vanessa Branson, Renee Zellwegger, Elle Macpherson, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, Baroness Nye, Baroness Kidron, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, Emma Freud, Lady Trimble, Dr Scilla Elworthy, Brigitte Lacombe, Jemima Khan

 

Sir, Susan Patton advises women to snap up husbands with their degree certificates (“How to marry well; meet at uni”, Mar 18). The same could be said of men, too. If a man puts off marriage for too long he may have to buy a wife from the Third World or Eastern Europe, which stamps him as a write-off. This is even more likely if he deteriorates physically — many men wear badly as they are not governed by the rigorous beauty industry.

Patton’s book belongs to a US tradition back through Jo Hemmings’ The Little Black Book (2006) and Ellen Fein’s The Rules (1995) to Marabel Morgan’s The Total Woman (1973). The kindest adjective is “quaint”. Let this tradition stay moored on the other side of the Atlantic.

Margaret Brown

Stoke-on-Trent

Sir, My wife and I enjoyed our ruby wedding last weekend, having met and married at Nottingham University. I have always said that I saw my 2:1 degree as a side-benefit.

Dudley George

Alnwick, Northumberland

 

Two readers report finding among their family memorabilia the name tags of First World War soldier relatives

Sir, You say (Mar 15) that in the First World War no British soldiers were issued with metal tags. I have an aluminium tag worn by my great-uncle, Thomas J. Brown of the Loyal North Lancs. He was killed on April 5, 1916, in Mesopotamia having survived Gallipoli. Could this, too, have been a self-made one or were some metal tags issued to some regiments?

Joyce Draycott

Wickhambrook, Suffolk

Sir, My family memorabilia includes an ID tag worn by my great-uncle William Arnold. He was a gunner on the Western Front in the First World War, then in the Ordnance Corps. The tag is solid silver and hallmarked Birmingham 1917. Unlike Private McAleer, Uncle Willy survived.

Harry Arnold

Alrewas, Staffs

 

The sport of climbing and swimming around Cornwall’s cliffs is first recorded around half a century ago

Sir, Coasteering began well before the 1970s (“Terror of woman trapped in a sea cave”, Mar 19). In his A Climber in the West Country (1968), E. C. Pyatt calls Arthur Westlake Andrews (1868-1959), who devoted a lifetime to the promotion of cliff climbing in West Cornwall, the father of coasteering. The book has a photo of the coasteering route “The Traverse of the Gods”, first climbed in 1963, which crosses Tilly Whim Caves where the recent tragic accident took place. It is a great day out on a warm summer’s day in calm seas but in adverse conditions would be best avoided.

Dr John Steers

Bristol

 

The Church of England may be in decline but some bits of it are flourishing vigorously — what is their secret?

Sir, Baroness Hale’s contention that observance in the Church of England is not rigorous enough may well be right in the abstract (“Church is in decline because Christianity is not demanding enough”, Mar 21) but the parallel fall-off in Catholic church attendance suggests the causes of English church decline are more diffuse and may well be more broadly cultural. What the Church of England has not so far considered in any detail is why cathedral attendances in contrast have been growing steadily in recent years. The cathedrals offer a more complex and traditional liturgy and high standards of preaching, music and service enactment. Meanwhile, parish church services such as Christingle, in which candles blaze throughout the church, appeal to young and old. Rural churches are often full. Can it be that what parishes need for growth is imaginative and creative liturgical life full of visual interest rather than reductive, barebones biblicist evangelism?

Peter Wood

Stainton, Cumbria

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – Have other readers noticed how many actors wear their watches on their right wrist?

I have long held a theory that those children with artistic ability who cannot handle right-handed scissors channel their talents into the dramatic arts – as did my left-handed son, who is now a television drama producer.

J M K Jones
Copdock, Suffolk

 

SIR – The British sense of humour is famous around the world. Anyone who has watched Prime Minister’s Questions can see that even our MPs are funny – occasionally intentionally.

Satire is a vital tool for campaigning organisations to create debate, expose hypocrisy and change opinion. However, the importance of parody in public debate is not recognised in copyright law. This omission has led to the removal of material that is undoubtedly in the public interest – such as Greenpeace films taken down from YouTube.

Since 2005, two governments have run reviews on copyright, both of which said that there should be a copyright exception to allow parody.

We now have less than a week for the Government to commit to a vote. If it doesn’t, the opportunity to change the law may be postponed until after the next election. That isn’t funny. We call upon Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, and Lord Younger, the minister for intellectual property, to act now and ensure that an exception to copyright for parody is put into law.

Jenny Ricks
Director of Policy, ActionAid UK
Maureen Freely
President, English PEN
Kirsty Hughes
Chief Executive, Index on Censorship
John Sauven
Executive Director, Greenpeace UK
Thomas Hughes
Executive Director, ARTICLE 19
Ann Feltham
Parliamentary Co-ordinator, Campaign Against Arms Trade
Niall Cooper
Director, Church Action on Poverty
Simon Moss
Managing Director, Programs, Global Poverty Project
Phil Booth
Coordinator, medConfidential
Jim Killock
Executive Director, Open Rights Group

Malaysian mystery

SIR – Boris Johnson writes of the “agony of those poor relatives” who do not know the fate of the 239 on board Flight 370. He might also spare a thought for those families of the 645 lost on the cruiser HMAS Sydney on November 20 1941, who have been kept in similar ignorance for 73 years.

Officially, our relations were the victims of an engagement with the German commerce raider Kormoran; however, raiders were not equipped to take on warships and 318 of the German cruiser’s much smaller crew survived. The mystery has been the subject of two government inquiries, but both upheld the official account.

I believe that the Japanese were involved. I hope that political expediency will be set aside to end our suffering.

Michael Montgomery
Idbury, Oxfordshire

Social cleaving

SIR – Martin Amis is right to point out the ruptures in our society perpetuated by money (report, March 18).

However, he should think more broadly to understand the true nature of the divisions within our communities. These go beyond cash-rich and cash-poor, also cutting across lines of both age and ethnicity. They have been compounded by a decline in the number of spaces where people from different backgrounds are able to mix, and research suggests that this leads to lower levels of trust among groups.

Craig Morley
London, SE1

What a clanger

SIR – Christine Lavender advises property seekers to check for church bells before buying. But things can get dramatically worse if a group of “enthusiasts” takes over a local church. If bell-clangers are allowed to make a dreadful din, why not motorcyclists, pub “musicians”, ice-cream vans, and so on?

Michael Gorman
Guildford, Surrey

Russian sporting ban

SIR – It is unlikely that sanctions against Russia will persuade Vladimir Putin to change course in Crimea. What might work better is to ban Russia from international sporting events, starting with this year’s football World Cup, the 2016 European Championship and the 2016 Olympic Games.

Fifa should also threaten to ban Russia from hosting the 2018 World Cup. There is plenty of time to arrange it in another European country. A sporting ban would make Mr Putin realise that the rest of the world is taking his actions very seriously. The sporting ban on South Africa played a major role in changing that country’s policies on apartheid.

Gilbert Paton
Knutsford, Cheshire

Lunar Communion

SIR – Atheists in America have a long history of objecting to the symbols and rites of religion. Their intransigence was epitomised in a story told by Bernard Lovell, the astronomer.

Buzz Aldrin was a devout Christian and when the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon, the first thing he did was to celebrate Holy Communion. The little ceremony was kept secret for fear of fanatical atheists, who had brought a lawsuit against Nasa because the crew of Apollo 8 broadcast the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis while orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve in 1968. The action was based on the rather eccentric grounds that the word of God should not be promoted from the heavens.

John Bromley-Davenport
London EC4

Numbers game

SIR – The French solution to combating pollution in Paris is to ban odd and even number-plated cars on alternate days. When the same plan was adopted in Lagos many years ago, drivers just bought a second set of plates and changed them daily.

Lyn Everitt
Oakham, Rutland

Best left unopened

SIR – Many years ago I purchased a copy of Schlegel’s Philosophy of History (1846 edition). Most of the pages were uncut.

Now I have cut them, I understand why.

John G Squirrell
Reigate, Surrey

Conceding defeat too early to the grey squirrel

SIR – The Government has been defeated by the grey squirrel. It made no sense for Oliver Heald, the Solicitor General, to tell the Commons that eradicating the grey squirrel was “no longer considered feasible”. Many parts of the South of England, especially London’s parks, are overrun by these animals.

Throwing in the towel means that grey squirrels will spread even faster to all areas of the country – damaging trees by stripping the bark, attacking bird feeders, digging up plants, and gaining access to attics where they chew at the timbers and pipes.

The Government should encourage licensed gun-holders to eliminate the greys to help stop the further decline in the population of our native red squirrel.

Ron Kirby
Dorchester, Dorset

SIR – I would like to reassure your readers that, far from conceding defeat, the fight to protect red squirrels continues unabated in Northumberland. Citizens are doing what the state cannot or will not do.

Morpeth and District Red Squirrels is a voluntary group that actively protects reds and controls greys. We receive support from local county, town and parish councils, and a large number of local residents who work tirelessly to feed the native red squirrels in the area. As a result, we are now receiving reports of reds in localities where previously only greys were spotted. The beleaguered red is, indeed, worth defending.

Catherine Weightman
Hepscott, Northumberland

SIR – I am delighted to hear from Anthony Vickery that buzzards are striving to control grey squirrels in his garden in Dorset.

Here in Northern Ireland, where the red squirrel is still trying to hold on (assisted by such organisations as the North West Red Squirrel Group), the buzzards, which are numerous, seem unable to distinguish between the two types of squirrel and kill both with an even-handedness that is most upsetting.

Perhaps we should ask the RSPB to intervene and educate the buzzards towards a more eco-friendly diet.

Bob Parke
Campsie, Co Londonderry

 

SIR – The Government wants to micro-manage parents as they raise their children, and qualified school teachers. It tries to micro-manage the entire population’s eating habits and (by over-regulation) most of its lifestyle choices.

Yet the Government has suddenly decided that the elderly should be entrusted with control of their own pensions. By the time the current generation reaches that age, this may well be their first experience of freedom of choice.

Gillian Gibson
Little Baddow, Essex

SIR – I am delighted for all those nearing retirement who will benefit from enhanced rates as the annuity industry comes to terms with the loss of its captive market and improves its offerings accordingly. But how about those of us already taken prisoner in recent years?

John Makin
Oxshott, Surrey

SIR – While the reduction in Air Passenger Duty is a welcome step in the right direction, British Airways’ parent company, IAG, is correct in its assessment that the Chancellor’s announcement is just “window dressing”: Britain will still have the highest rate of duty in the world.

The difference in tax between Heathrow to Hong Kong and Paris to Hong Kong is around £250. BA’s price needs to be cheaper by that much – which would not be fair on BA.

Andy Bugden
Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

SIR – Are the people now described as too foolish to manage their own pension funds the same as those who are expected to vote sensibly at election time?

Bill Davidson
Balderton, Nottinghamshire

SIR – I have given debt advice at the Denbighshire Citizens’ Advice Bureau for the past 10 years, following my retirement after 20 years as a bank manager.

I have been surprised by the number of clients who, having reached pensionable age, still have substantial debts that, in many cases, are at unmanageable levels.

Given the Chancellor’s announcement that new pensioners will have access to their total pension savings, how does he propose to prevent the funds being seized by pressing creditors?

Currently the funds are mainly protected from creditors. Seizure of monies in the future could mean the pensioner will fall back on the state for financial support.

Paul Webster
Dyserth, Denbighshire

SIR – Will the new pound coin be made of steel, like all the smaller denominations now are? Having magnetic coinage in one’s pocket is a bit of a nuisance when standing behind the wheel of a yacht that has a binnacle compass.

David Gray
Corfe Mullen, Dorset

 

Irish Times:

 

A chara, – It’s a delight to read Una Mullally’s view of the Irish language (“Irish – A language for all speakers”, Monday March 17th), coming as it does from a fluent urban speaker. She’s absolutely right to note that we need to start looking outside the Gaeltacht if we’re serious about achieving the 250,000 daily speakers sought by the Government by 2030. I fly in the face of conventional wisdom in my belief that this number is very possible, but it can only be done if non-Gaeltacht Irish speakers begin to shoulder the burden that Gaeltacht people have been predominantly carrying since the foundation of the State – using the language at home.

Ms Mullally is right to note that snobbery exists within the language, but should go a little easier on Gaeltacht people. Yes, there is a certain Gaeltacht hostility towards “46A Irish” and the dialect of the urban Gaelscoil, but it is there firstly because of the difficulty Gaeltacht people have speaking Irish with city folk, whose Irish is often a non-fluent schoolroom mishmash, but secondly because there is the whiff of the language hobbyist about many urban speakers. They’re delighted to “come down” to the Gaeltacht and practise their Irish on the natives, but when they go home, it’s back to English again. Native speakers are rightly annoyed by this. City speakers of Irish will earn respect when it becomes clear that they are using Irish as a home language with their children, not just for one-night-a-week hobbyism or for the day job.

When this happens (and I think it will), that 250,000 daily-speaker figure will rapidly become achievable. Is mise,

BRIAN Ó BROIN, PhD

Department of English,

William Paterson

University, New Jersey.

Sir, – Una Mullally rightly notes that the “Irish language is for all, not just for the fluent”. She is very concerned that “snobbery towards Irish is real”. Here in Wales the very same point of view was put forward earlier this year by Karen Owen in the Welsh language weekly newspaper Y Cymro . There was a fierce response – from snobs and non-snobs! – Yours, etc,

CLIVE JAMES,

Cae Gwyn,

Caernarfon, Cymru.

A chara, – Una Mullally’s piece is pertinent, timely and most welcome. It opens a major debate.

The success of the policy of promoting our national language by an overemphasis on the Gaeltacht is open to question. For its size, the Gaeltacht has had disproportionate influence and, it can be argued, has frustrated the wider promotion and development of the language. Is it not time now to turn attention to areas where greater developmental opportunities exist – if only because of greater population density and a broader growing interest in the national tongue?

For the most part the national agencies, notably the Department of the Gaeltacht, TG4 and Radio na Gaeltachta, have been somewhat passive to the need for a more inclusive base. My own representations to TG4 for greater flexibility to satisfy a wider diversity of intonation in its programming, elicited the response that the “integrity” of the language had to be preserved. Not a particularly enlightening response! It may be a little unfair to pick on TG4 given the quality of some of its programmes, but it must not lose sight of the fact that it is “Teilefís na Gaeilge” and not “Teilefís na Gaeltachta”. Its remit extends to all of Ireland.

Snobbery “within” the language, as Ms Mulally points out, is a dilemma; but whether we like it or not a two-tiered edifice is emerging. The summer days going west to challenge the progression of one’s capability in the language is now less easily satisfied. Regrettably, one finds that the fíor Gaeilgeoir is becoming less willing to engage with those of us on lower fluency levels or who lack the blas.

All, however, is not gloom – there have been some very worthwhile developments and initiatives with respect to the language. In the Gaelscoileanna, demand for places across communities outstrips supply, while the emphasis in the Leaving Cert on speaking the language is having a most positive impact. We can now say with some certainty that interest in the language is growing.

So how do we build on this? For those of us in the eastern region, an official recognition of a Leinster dialect, alongside those of Ulster, Connacht and Munster, would certainly be a help. Persuading TG4 to broaden its staffing and commissioning base would facilitate a more inclusive service. Encouraging the promotion of more centres of Irish learning in areas outside the Gaeltacht would give a significant impetus. Assigning the responsibility for the language to the Taoiseach’s department would ensure the necessary leadership. Such actions could readily be taken without any additional cost to the national finances. – Is mise,

PG Ó hEOCHAIDH,

Gleann na Smol,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

 

Sir, – Vincent Browne’s singling out of an entire sport’s “culture” as private school boorishness is a strange attempt at some form of populist class warfare (“Rugby culture is boorishly patriarchal”, Opinion and Analysis, March 19th). It is strange because, while perfectly entitled to an opinion, I find it very ironic indeed that he deems those who have attended private fee-paying schools to be “posh”, despite having attended a private fee-paying school himself.

This is surely a ground-breaking statement for a contrarian? An instance of “self-contrarianism”? – Yours, etc,

JUSTIN DEEGAN,

Celbridge Road,

Maynooth,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Gabriel Rosenstock puts his finger in the wound (March 21st). In my Dublin Catholic school, renowned for its rugby, we 10-year-olds practised military drill as an integral part of the curriculum, swinging white batons to signify that we were “officer class”. We had our own parade ground for marching and afterwards it was compulsory rugby on the playing fields of Rathmines. There were beatings for not attending. True to post-colonial type, Ireland was imitating its colonial masters – young Irishmen were being trained in British imperial traditions. This was in the late 1950s, more than 30 years after Ireland theoretically became independent.

The English also gave us that fine, egalitarian game of soccer – ruptured sinews and broken bones indeed, but no ruptured spleens or broken heads. We were not permitted to play soccer, it was for the lower classes only. – Yours, etc,

GERARD MONTAGUE,

Zaumberg,

Immenstadt,

Allgäu, Germany.

Sir, – Vincent Browne on “boorishness“? That’s a good one. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL HEALY,

Ardagh Park Gardens,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – The suggestion by Denis O’Connor (March 21st), writing from Toronto, that “anyone who encourages a child to play rugby is an eejit”, is rich considering that ice hockey is Canada’s national sport. Hardly a genteel game. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN O’CONNOR,

Clinstown,

Stamullen, Co Meath.

 

Sir, – Eamonn McCann’s argument for Ireland supporting Russia over Crimea is a classic instance of half-baked facts and rhetorical tricks being deployed to a bad end (“If we have to pick a side over Crimea, let it be Russia,” Opinion & Analysis, March 20th).

Crimeans should have some say over their political destiny, but the referendum held in Crimea last Sunday fell so far short of even “shifting norms of democratic probity” that it has to be dismissed. The vote was in no sense free or fair. The choice put before Crimea’s citizens was not a choice since it contained no option to remain within Ukraine. The vote was rushed forward so that there could be no campaigning against it, held under the auspices of a Crimean government that lacked any legitimacy and that denied meaningful protest against the referendum, and under conditions of a media blackout of Ukrainian news sources. Not surprisingly, many Crimeans boycotted the poll to deny it any legitimacy. Now that Russia has annexed Crimea and fatally wounded its relations with Ukraine, we will never know what Crimeans actually wanted.

Mr McCann is right to note that Russia has grievances with the post-cold war security architecture in Europe. It is, however, hypocritical of him to argue for the right of Crimeans to make decisions about their political and security futures and deny those rights to east Europeans whose countries joined the EU and Nato after 1989. Nato and EU enlargement may not have been well handled diplomatically, with rash promises that there would be no eastward enlargement of Nato made on several occasions by people who had no right to determine the foreign policy orientations of the new east European democracies. But this does not obviate the right of east Europeans to choose to be part of either Nato or the EU, a right that they exercised.

The rhetorical reason that Mr McCann holds east Europeans’ rights in such low regard is to justify Russian fears of further Nato expansion and to link these to Ukraine’s relationship to the EU. But no such relationship exists. Contrary to Mr McCann’s assertion, there is no mention of “Kiev align(ing) forces with Nato” in the agreements that Ukraine was due to sign with the EU last year. There is talk of co-operation in policing, anti-terrorism and other security areas, and of bringing about alignment between Ukrainian policy and the European Common Foreign and Security Policy. This has nothing to do with Nato and, given the state of European foreign and security policy, is not much of a threat to anyone.

The other argument that Mr McCann proposes, that the West is bad so we should ignore the wickedness of others, is so intellectually lazy that I will not dignify it with a response. – Yours, etc.

Prof NEIL ROBINSON,

Department of Politics

and Public Administration,

University of Limerick,

Limerick.

 

A chara, – The Government will move shortly to appoint a new member of the European Commission. As a country, we have, for the most part, appointed effective commissioners over the years who have made significant impacts on their portfolios and in tackling challenges faced by European citizens. For example, current commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has achieved much success in her science, innovation and research brief.

Yet the debate in Ireland seems to be more about the potential of freeing up a Cabinet spot in a forthcoming reshuffle than about the qualities of the individual that will be appointed to Brussels or the portfolio that the Government should seek.

The appointment should be made on the basis of the person best capable to provide leadership and vision in the portfolio they receive and a willingness to seek Europe-wide solutions, not because of party loyalty or a desire to see somebody off the national pitch.

Given the challenges across Europe, a commissioner with specific responsibility to tackle the social and economic consequences of youth unemployment should be appointed, and Ireland would do well to seek such a post. – Is mise,

MALCOLM BYRNE,

The Chase,

Gorey, Co Wexford.

 

A chara, – On March 20th, we, as a nation, and in spite of years of austerity, cuts and bailing out banks, are one of the happiest in Europe (“Irish rank highly for quality of life in EU, survey finds,” Home News, March 20th).

However, the following day, we learn that as a nation, notwithstanding years of austerity, cuts and bailing out banks, we have some serious issues to do with suicide – most especially among adolescents (“Ireland has ‘exceptionally high rates’ of suicide”, Home News, March 21st). Lies, damned lies and statistics. – Is mise,

MICHAEL NASH,

Assistant Professor

Mental Health Nursing,

School of Nursing

and Midwifery ,

Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.

 

A chara, – Finally, a Government Minister acknowledges the distinguished, not disgusting, service Garda Sgt Maurice McCabe and retired Garda John Wilson have done for the State (“Burton increases pressure on Callinan”, Front Page, March 21st). Personally, I find both Sgt McCabe’s and Mr Wilson’s brave and selfless acts incredibly heroic. I believe both these individuals, at enormous personal costs to themselves, their immediate family and friends, have been wholly vindicated in the entire course of their actions.

However, what I do not understand is why Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and Taoiseach Enda Kenny find it so impossible to embrace wholeheartedly these honest whistleblowers and apologise for the horrendous treatment both men have received and continue to endure? Surely the sooner an apology is sincerely given to both men, the better for everyone involved. – Is mise,

JASON POWER,

Maxwell Road,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6.

 

Sir, – Recent references to the impact of caring on women’s lives are well made and ultimately reflect the reluctance of the State to really value such care (“Imbalance at the top in third level”, Education, March 18th; Letters, March 20th).

However, universities also have responsibilities to create organisational cultures which are “women friendly”. The impact of such cultures is illustrated by the fact that while roughly one in three of those at professorial level in the University of Limerick are women, the national average is 19 per cent (with NUI Galway having only 13 per cent). Furthermore, the University of Limerick moved from a position where it had no woman at professorial level 15 years ago to one where it now has almost twice the national average. Hence even in the context of less than optimum involvement by the State, change is possible. Universities cannot be allowed to ignore their responsibilities. – Yours, etc,

Prof PAT O’CONNOR,

Department of Sociology,

Faculty of Arts, Humanities

and Social Science,

University of Limerick

 

Sir, – Two years. Read that and say it out loud. I was told today there is a two-year waiting list at the hearing centre on North Great George’s Street in Dublin if I wish to have my three-year-old son’s hearing, which I have concerns about, tested there. – Yours, etc,

CAROLINE MITCHELL,

St Mary’s Road,

East Wall,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – I note that Tom Carey (March 19th), former county engineer in Clare, clarifying that a motorway was not rerouted to preserve a fairy tree, has insisted on spoiling a very good story with the facts (“Away with the faeries”, Magazine, March 15th). Such behaviour, if continued, could lead to the ruination of many newspapers, and a decline in radio and television current affairs programmes.

I would ask for restraint from the public during this difficult period. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY WALSH,

St Aidan’s Drive,

Goatstown, Dublin 14.

 

 

Sir, – Before the Patricks, including Patrick Freyne, get too smug and claim their name as the most “versatile on the planet” (“I’m no saint”, Magazine, March 15th), may I remind them that the “Michaels” can match their six piddly nicknames and go one better: Mícheál, Mick, Mike, Mickey, Mikey, Mitch and Micilín. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL “MICK” KELLY,

Dunmore East,

Co Waterford.

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

* While not wanting to take one whit from the richly deserved adulation accorded by the Irish public to Brian O’Driscoll in the past few weeks to mark his international retirement, please let us spare a thought for another of our rugby superstars, Ronan O’Gara.

Also in this section

Just say no to a nanny, Orwellian state

St Patrick’s Day can be about social change

So when is the real democratic revolution?

O’Gara’s playing achievements were no less outstanding than BOD’s. He is Ireland’s second most capped player (128), and the third most capped in rugby union history. He is the all-time highest points scorer for Ireland and is the fourth highest points scorer in the history of rugby union. He also holds the Heineken Cup record for points scored (an amazing 1,365) in that competition.

He captained Munster, Ireland and the Lions, and won four Triple Crowns with Ireland and two Heineken Cups with Munster. Who will ever forget his drop goal in 2009 against Wales which won us our only Six Nations‘ Grand Slam, or his nerveless 84th-minute drop-goal, after 41 phases of play, to secure victory for Munster against Northampton in the 2012 Heineken Cup campaign?

Sadly and inexplicably, O’Gara was accorded no opportunity for a glorious and celebrated retirement from the international rugby fray. His fate at the hands of Ireland’s then rugby management a year ago was to be left out of the 23-man squad for our final Six Nations game, against Italy, which we lost. A great player was badly wronged.

STEPHEN O’BYRNES

MOREHAMPTON ROAD, DUBLIN 4

HEROISM OF VARADKAR

* Cometh the hour, cometh the lion! Mr Leo Varadkar has done the State a great service. It is not his calling for the withdrawal of the “disgusting” remark by the Garda Commissioner, which is in itself an act of great service. It is that he has proven there is a politician in Government who is not only lucid but who can coolly and calmly look at a situation and rationally assess the correct course of action. He has further elevated his standing by thanking the garda whistleblowers.

The fact that he has called for this action in a personal capacity and not from behind the usual government-generated spin machine proves him to be that rarest of party politicians: a man of integrity and bravery.

These are the qualities that define all heroes throughout history. They are the qualities that defined Mr Wilson’s actions; they are the qualities that defined Sergeant McCabe’s actions and those of the independent politicians who were until now the only people within the legislative processes of the State who, to put it simply, did the right thing.

I often wonder if history, with its eye eternally focused on the heroic deeds of the dead, smothers that which is heroic within each and every one of us. Does it paint such a vision of the heroes of the past that we get a feeling that we could never measure up to O’Connell, or Parnell, or Davitt, while at the same time forgetting that they were, like us, simply human?

Mr Varadkar reached into his humanity and found a hero.

Well done, Mr Varadkar: you, like the whistleblowers and the media that have supported them, and indeed the families behind all those who have supported the quest for truth, have also added to the light you so eloquently spoke of. The heroes of the nation grow in numbers; how refreshing and hopeful for us all.

DERMOT RYAN

ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

THAT’S DEMOCRACY

* Sometimes democratic elections produce unwelcome results. The voters of Crimea voted by an overwhelming majority to join Russia . . . let them!

KEVIN DEVITTE

MILL STREET, WESTPORT, CO MAYO

LABOUR’S IVAN WOES

* Just when you thought the Labour Party’s woes couldn’t possibly get any worse, Ivan Yates announces that he voted for them at the last election (Irish Independent, 20 March).

How can Mr Gilmore’s party ever recover from such an embarrassing revelation?

BARRY WALSH

CLONTARF, DUBLIN 3

ODDLY SUNNY THOUGHTS

* Edward Horgan wrote (March 20) that Ireland’s indebtedness now stands at €500bn, and that to physically move €500bn by road would take over 30 40-foot containers, each stuffed floor to roof with €50 notes – and our Taoiseach tells us things are improving? Must be the weather he has in mind.

PADDY O’BRIEN

BALBRIGGAN, CO DUBLIN

LEADER FOR EC NEEDED

* The Government will move shortly to appoint a new member of the European Commission. As a country, we have, for the most part, appointed effective Commissioners who have made significant impacts on their portfolios. For example, current Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn has achieved much success in her Science, Innovation and Research brief.

Yet the debate in Ireland seems to be more about the potential of freeing up a cabinet spot in a forthcoming reshuffle than about the qualities of the individual appointed to Brussels.

The appointment should be made on the basis of the person best capable to provide leadership and vision in the portfolio they receive, and a willingness to seek Europe-wide solutions – not because of party loyalty or a desire to see somebody off the national pitch.

Given the challenge across Europe, a Commissioner with responsibility to tackle the social and economic consequences of youth unemployment should be appointed – and Ireland would do well to seek such a post.

CLLR MALCOLM BYRNE

GOREY, CO WEXFORD

EU TREATS US FINE, MING

* I see ‘Ming’ Flanagan is trying to get himself into the European Parliament to proclaim the message that “we have gone too far with this European project”.

The European project he is talking about is a union of nearly 30 democratic states, with a home market of 500 million people, each of which signed a treaty to cooperate in matters of mutual interest.

He also said that the EU “left us with a bill of €70bn”. He is thus blaming other people in Europe, who ran their countries much better than we did, for what happened to us. The vast majority of EU countries did not go broke. Ireland did.

He also ignores the fact that European taxpayers, some from countries much poorer than us, funded 20pc of our €100bn infrastructural development programme over the decades.

They also funded another, €85bn programme, put together by the EU, the ECB and the IMF, to rescue this country from the results of the reckless decisions of its own most powerful citizens.

Of course if ‘Ming’ and UKIP have their way, they can always go back to the tariffs and tanks of the 1930s.

A LEAVY

SUTTON, DUBLIN 13

POPE FRANCIS: REAL THING

* The media must run with the latest news that sells. That is understandable. The ‘Francis effect’ is not a passing fancy. He certainly has a way with words, a clear, ready, off-the-cuff answer to every question. But will he last the pace? Will people get tired of his style in time?

It is important to realise that this is not about style at all. This is the man Francis; what you hear is what you get. He talks his own personal faith. Far from skin-deep, every syllable comes from the very core of his being. He is no seven-day wonder. Good for the long haul, he speaks what he lives: the truth, like his Master.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

Irish Independent

 


Books

$
0
0

23 March 2014 Books

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to have a visit from the admiral will he find any of Pertwee’s little schemes? Priceless

Cold slightly better post office sold 3 books

Scrabbletoday Marywins, just,and gets justunder400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Mike Parker, who has died aged 84, was known as the “Godfather of fonts” – typographical rather than ecclesiastical — and was responsible for popularising Helvetica, a lettering style which now pops up on everything from corporate logos to the washing instructions on clothing labels.

Much thought goes into designing a font, but people rarely think twice about the lettering they see all around them, their interest mildly aroused only when they scroll through the strangely-named fonts on their computers. Yet ever since Johannes Gutenberg began transforming handwritten texts into modular fonts of movable type, the art of font design has been integral to the advance of literacy and modern civilisation.

The Bible printed by Gutenberg in 1455 used an old German ornate “blackletter” font; the fluid lines of “Garamond” (which Parker studied for a Master’s degree at Yale) emerged from the pen of Claude Garamond, a French publisher and “punch-cutter” of the 16th century (who also gave us “Grecs du Roi”, “Granjon” and “Sabon”). Most of today’s newspaper typefaces derive from the “Roman” typefaces of another 16th-century printer, the Dutchman Hendrik van den Keere.

The late 19th century saw a renewed interest in font design, led in Britain by members of the Arts and Crafts movement. In the early 20th century perhaps the most famous letter designer, Eric Gill, designed nearly a dozen fonts, including “Perpetua” and “Gill Sans”, the latter becoming the standard typography for Britain’s railway system and featuring on Penguin Books’ classic jacket designs of the 1930s.

Helvetica’s roots, as the name suggests, were Swiss. It began life as “Neue Haas Grotesk”, developed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein in 1957 — when Swiss designers were promoting the idea of “rational typefaces” to suit the ethos of the modern industrial age. The pair tweaked a 60-year-old German font, stripping off unnecessary fripperies such as the small flourishes at the end of letter strokes known as serifs, to produce a clean and simple typeface.

Parker, then working as assistant to Jackson Burke, director of typographic development at the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, spotted the font, liked its clarity and set to work to adapt it, renamed Helvetica, for the company’s linotype machines that then led the world in book and newspaper typesetting technology.

In 1961 Parker succeeded Burke as Mergenthaler’s director of typographic development. He went on to develop some 1,000 fonts, but Helvetica was the one that really took off. From the 1960s onwards it became a popular choice for public signage and commercial logos such as those for Société Générale, Nestlé, 3M, BMW, Kawasaki, Lufthansa, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Motorola and Panasonic.

Helvetica entered the digital age by securing a place among the 11 fonts bundled with Apple’s early desktop computers, and the company continued to use it widely in devices such as the iPod. In Britain its rather bland functionality commended it to state-run monoliths such as British Rail, which adapted it into its own Rail Alphabet font (which was also adopted by the NHS and the British Airports Authority).

However, while Helvetica became dominant in the public world, it never really took off on the printed page, research showing that serif typefaces are easier for users to read in book-length stretches of text. While some criticised Helvetica as nondescript and dull, Parker waxed lyrical about its aesthetic appeal: “The meaning is in the content of the text, and not in the typeface,” he explained in a 2007 documentary. “It’s not a letter that’s bent to shape; it’s a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space. What it’s all about is the interrelationship of the negative shape, the figure/ground relationship, the shapes between characters and within characters… Oh, it’s brilliant when it’s done well.”

The son of an American mining engineer, Michael Russell Parker was born in London on May 1 1929. The family returned to America after the Blitz and settled in Rye, New York State. Mike was educated at boarding schools, where he became interested in painting, only to discover that he was colour-blind. Instead he took a degree at Yale University in Architecture, followed by a Master’s in Design.

After graduation he got a job at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, whose extensive historical typography collection inspired his fascination with fonts. Returning to America, he joined Mergenthaler in 1959.

By the beginning of the 1980s, however, revenues from the sale of typesetting equipment were dwindling; and as the digital age dawned Parker saw a business opportunity in the design and sale of fonts themselves — independent of equipment. In 1981 he left Mergenthaler and, with Matthew Carter, established Bitstream, a company based at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which became the first in the world to produce digital fonts that could be licensed for use by anyone.

The company was highly successful in the 1980s, when desktop publishing and personal computer use took off. In the Nineties, however, Parker lost money attempting to develop a joint venture with Steve Jobs which never quite came off.

Parker’s knowledge of the history of font design was exhaustive. In 1994 he created a stir when he published evidence that the design of Times New Roman, credited to the British typographer Stanley Morison in 1931, was based on 1904 drawings by the American Starling Burgess, which, he suggested, had been stolen in the 1920s.

Subsequently Parker became consultant and type historian for the Font Bureau, a typeface design foundry, and in 2009 he launched a font called Starling, based on Burgess’s original designs.

Parker’s two marriages were dissolved. He is survived by his ex-wife Sibyl who cared for him in his final years, by a son and two daughters and two stepdaughters.

Mike Parker, born May 1 1929, died February 23 2014

 

 

Guardian:

 

Your editorial “There’s no choice: we must grow GM crops” (Comment) attempts to draw a direct and compelling link between the starvation of future generations and GM technology. In fact, the link is tenuous at best and irrelevant at worst. We can’t even prevent starvation now, when there is plenty of food, because the framework of world trade pulls in the opposite direction towards widening the gap between rich and poor. To change this requires political will on a world scale and this is where our first efforts should lie.

Beyond that, a significant reduction in cereal-fed meat production would release a lot of food for human consumption and probably produce health benefits as well. GM science may well produce some valuable gains, but products must face a severe testing regime, not just for human health, but, above all, for their potential damaging interaction with our natural delicate ecosystems.

Such a science in the hands of short-term profit seekers is unlikely to contribute to the solution of feeding the nine billion in 2050. We need to take a much wider view.

Philip Thornley

St Weonards

Hereford

Argentina, which once possessed one of the richest agricultural soils in the world, is facing soil depletion, soil structure degradation and initial desertification from growing GM crops. The situation in regard to GM crops in the US is not as rosy as your leader implies. The New York Times‘s Mark Bittman writes: “To date… the technology has been little more than an income-generator for a few corporations desperate to see those profits continue regardless of the cost to the rest of us, or to the environment.”

John Little

Bigbury on Sea

Devon

I’m writing to you to express my admiration for your editorial. You built your case on clear-headed and logical thinking. For too long, the issue of breeding enhanced crops through genetic engineering has been dominated by well-meaning, but scientifically illiterate people. Their cacophony has drowned out rational discourse. There have been two particularly unfortunate consequences of this hysteria.

First, research progress has been greatly slowed down, meaning crop improvement will now take longer. Second, a multitude of hurdles have enabled a small number of very large companies to dominate the market. This is particularly sad, since most of the discoveries that enabled these advances were made in publicly funded universities.

Philip Wigge

Sainsbury Laboratory

Cambridge University

The assumption that only GM crops will feed the world represents a position contested by scientists, food producers and civil society groups everywhere. Politicians must not swap due diligence for evaluation that prioritises speed over substance. Ministers ignore contrary evidence, such as the report from the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, which involved more than 400 international scientists. The government, instead, supports pro-GM corporations, such as Syngenta and Monsanto, which set profits before the needs of the poor.

The answer to global hunger is agroecology and access to land – not a technical “solution” that has brought thousands of Indian farmers’ suicides.

Graciela Romero War on Want and UK Food Group

Emma Hockridge Soil Association

Pete Ritchie Nourish Scotland

Jocelyn Jones World Family UK and Food Sovereignty Sussex

Andy Goldring Permaculture Association

Ruth West Campaign for Real Farming

Teresa Anderson Gaia Foundation

Simon Maddrell Excellent Development

Philip Goodwin Tree Aid

Eve Mitchell Food and Water Europe

Claire Robinson GMWatch

Debbie Clarke

Unicorn Grocery

 

While Andrew Rawnsley may be correct in asserting that Tony Benn’s political career was, ultimately, a “failure”, his crowning achievement – rare, in modern times – was to remain true to his principles: to encourage the citizen, in particular the working-class individual, to believe in their invaluable worth to society (“Charismatic leader of the left damned by warm Tory praises“).

Following the Digger vision, it was a society that he agreed should be judged by what it provided for the poor rather than how it treated the richest.

Yes, Rawnsley was correct to point out that the other Tony (Blair) led the Labour party to victory on three occasions, and improved the lives of working people (to a point), but such achievements came at a cost. In the quest to regain power for Labour, Blairism abandoned the socialist goal of equality and a fairer society. The party pandered to big business, the service industry and consumerism; under a Labour government, the gap between the rich and the poor began to widen. To cap it all, we now live in a political climate where all the discussion about austerity centres upon the “squeezed middle”. Where is the voice that will represent the “downtrodden poor”?

MA Hobbins

Woking

Surrey

Andrew Rawnsley writes that Tony Benn “had an incurably romantic view of what the British people would vote for”. It was precisely this romanticism that helps account for the widespread emotional resonance evoked by his death. Despite all his weaknesses he made people feel there should be more to politics than toadying to big powers, appealing to crude self interest and looking after number one.

Ivor Morgan

Lincoln

Look to the north – or else

Thank goodness one senior minister has finally acknowledged the nexus of political, economic and moral issues associated with the HS2 project (“Cable demands high-speed rail rethink to ease north-south split“, News).

The case for starting the project from the north always has been strong. Likewise the argument for significant investment to improve rail connectivity between major northern cities. These arguments tend to be ignored by a metropolitan elite that seems to have little grasp of current realities outside the favoured capital and south-east.

I confidently predict that failure to deliver what the north needs will make the Scottish independence debate look like a sideshow. Demands for devolved regional government for the north are waiting in the wings; non-engagement with these will make the northern half of England impossible to govern from London, whatever the outcome of the forthcoming Scottish referendum.

Gus Pennington

Stokesley

North Yorkshire

Let’s hear it for the PO bank

May I suggest an answer to Mick and Viv Beeby, who asked: “Where next for our bank account?” (“Co-op pay storm: it’s time to regulate the cabals that set executive salaries”, Big Issue)? I also decided to move from the Co-op when it sold out to the hedge funds; I opened a Post Office current account. They are, it’s true, not available everywhere yet (memo to the PO: why not?) but if they are able to do so, it is a great alternative.

The Post Office offers full current account services, including a cheque book, telephone and online banking, and your account can also be accessed at any of the hundreds of POs throughout the country, thus helping to keep them open, too. I had no trouble with the switch and all the staff I have been in contact with have been very friendly and efficient.

Liz Waterland

Deeping St James

Lincolnshire

Don’t make such a meal of it

I enjoyed Rachel Cooke’s Simon Rogan interview (Observer Food Monthly) story but here in Cumbria we are getting exasperated with the number of London journalists incapable of visiting L’Enclume in Cartmel without reference to long journeys and “braving” the West Coast main line or M6. It’s only a long journey if you assume all your readers are in London or perhaps the only people who would want to visit are from London.

In this instance, it is apparently “quite a journey” unless and only unless you live in Grange-over-Sands a few miles away. There are more than 10 million people in an arc from Glasgow to Liverpool via Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester, all within a couple of hours of L’Enclume. If you were the London Observer this assumption that writer and reader share the same outlook would make sense, but you aren’t and it doesn’t.

Richard Eccles

Wigton

Cumbria

Scarlett makes me see red

Gosh! I’ve just found a page in last Sunday’s paper without a picture of Scarlett Johansson! I’ve got nothing against the attractive and talented Ms Johansson, but perhaps six pictures of her in one edition, including the front page of both the main section and review section and a full-page picture as part of a four-page feature story, is just a wee bit excessive.

Eleanor Van Zandt

Bath

 

 

 

 

Independent:

 

Tony Benn’s passing leaves us ever closer to being saddled with faceless career politicians, who may be “effective” to our Joan [Smith], but don’t have a principle or a moral code in their collective, expensively educated bodies (“Benn was entirely ineffectual and usually wrong”, 16 March).

I may have disagreed with Tony Benn in many ways, and found his naivety both touching and infuriating in equal measure. Maybe his ideas were just too utopian? We will most probably never know. It is still a shame though, that supposedly left-leaning commentators choose to prefer living in the world of unfettered and destructive capitalism promoted by every government since Thatcher, and only tinkered with around the edges by the latest incarnation of the Labour Party.

I am also blonde and political – but I chose to mark his passing with the sadness and respect it deserved.

Emma Flowers

Witney, Oxfordshire

In all areas of human achievement history is the final arbiter of an individual’s success or failure. Many visionaries have died with the stigma of having been drowned by the waters of history, only for the currents to change and show they were in fact swimming powerfully in the right direction.

Thus to those antagonistic to change or those lacking in judgement, Tony Benn has failed because the world has become a plutocratic heaven and an ethical hell. However, the very excesses of this system and it’s catastrophic effects on our planet must ensure that Benn’s visionary, sharing socialism will become relevant and fashionable again. Else… all of us are done for.

Joan Smith’s obtuse and spiteful little dance on the grave of a great man already looks silly but to future historians it may well provide a classic example of the partisan fallibility of contemporary judgements.

Steve Edwards

Haywards Heath, West Sussex

I applaud Katy Guest’s decision not to review gender-specific children’s books (“A good read is just that. Ask any child”, 16 March) but why limit this policy to children’s literature? The relegation of women’s writing to the world of candy-coloured frivolity is demeaning to both writers and readers. Additionally, it corroborates the belief – commonly held among men – that women’s writing is not for them. This warps the literary space and denies many fine writers the reach they deserve.

Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Feminism is about gender equality, but it should also be about pride. Katniss from The Hunger Games is a strong female protagonist, but we should avoid suggesting that this is because she is associated with what might be considered typically male traits. Can a woman wearing a pink dress not be a strong feminist? Women can be “handy with a bow and arrow”, but they can also be a glittery pink princess, and the world we want is one in which all of these possibilities are the unchallenged norm for men and women alike.

Charlotte Davey & Joe Murgatroyd

London SE27

Prince Charles only gets away with perverting the course of democracy because of this class-divided country and the support of the establishment (Archie Bland, 16 March). In a small country like this one they have six palaces, thousands of servants, and this Government gives them an open cheque book while many are in abject poverty.

Jenny Bushell

Wimbledon SW19

Why does Jane Merrick insist that the Prime Minister should have visited Israel sooner (16 March)? Surely, it is bad enough that a British Prime Minister should heap such fulsome praise on, and “stand every step of the way” with, a country which illegally occupies Palestinian territory, has annexed Jerusalem against international law, discriminates against Israeli residents of Palestinian descent and ignores UN resolutions without going further out of his way to favour this particular country over others?

Jeff Smith

Beeston, Bedfordshire

Have your say

 

 

Times:

 

STATE school teachers hostile to Oxbridge are one of the reasons for the under-representation of their pupils (“University leg-up for state pupils”, News, last week). I remember the director of education of a Labour council who hoped no local pupils would apply to Oxbridge as they were “corrupt institutions”, and the department head who refused to speak to his star pupil after she accepted an Oxford place.

In more than 20 years as head of a comprehensive I can think of only two deserving pupils denied a place — and they are more than outweighed by those successful at colleges only too anxious to recruit from the state sector. Hostility to elitism has been one of the more damaging crusades.
Geoffrey Samuel, Twickenham, London

Analyse this
Caution must be applied when using research to endorse discriminatory practices. Less than a year ago the Higher Education Funding Council for England produced research that gave a very different picture from your report.

It tracked 225,765 students living in the UK who started university in 2006. Almost 65% of privately educated students gained a first or upper second-class degree, compared with 52.7% of their peers from the state system. It also emerged that 60.4% of students from fee-paying schools gained a graduate job — a skilled career — compared with 46.8% of other graduates.

The research mentioned in your article uses a smaller base and excludes students with A*/A at A-level (the majority within the independent sector). It should not be used to shore up the crass assumption that all who receive a government- funded education are disadvantaged.

Nor should it be used to deny that many students from disadvantaged backgrounds attend independent schools as bursary recipients.
Roberta Georghiou, Co-chairwoman, Girls’ Schools Association

Class leading
I’m afraid that, as with so much in this world, there is nothing new in Daisy Christodoulou’s Seven Myths About Education (“Classroom politics”, Books, last week).

She has — as have many young teachers before her — realised that what works best is teacher-led lessons. Interestingly, in the same section, John Carey remarks in his book The Unexpected Professor that to learn and to have fun are “two aims [that] seldom coincide”.

My first teaching textbook in the early 1970s in Scotland was useless, leading the pupil and the inexperienced new teacher down unfinished roads, following the politically led rise of the comprehensive system in Scottish education.

However, direct instruction is still alive and well. I know — I was one of those unfashionable teachers until recently.
Sandy Cunningham, Largs, North Ayrshire

Scan delays fail to reveal true picture

YOUR article “60% jump in patients kept waiting past six-week deadline for scan” (News, last week) fails to point out that the rise in waiting times is not happening because radiology departments are failing; indeed most of them will be able to demonstrate very significant increases in productivity over the past 10 years or so.

The problem is that the number of scan requests continues to rise exponentially as doctors increasingly rely on technology rather than clinical judgment. However, the output from a scan is not a picture: it is a proper radiological report from an appropriately experienced radiologist — generally a consultant — who has reviewed the images.

The target is that scans should be performed (on non-urgent cases) within six weeks of the request, but there is no mention of the crucial factor, which is when that scan is actually analysed. Because there is a national shortage of radiologists, many of these scans once performed will sit for weeks in a queue before anyone gets round to analysing them. Some of them will show significant pathology.

Hospitals will pour resources into achieving the six-week target (to get the box ticked) but ignore the crucial matter of getting the scans reviewed in a timely manner. The target culture does not work and merely drives dysfunction into the system.
Dr Tom Goodfellow, Consultant Radiologist, Pailton, Warwickshire

Type 1 error

The billionaire industrialist Jim Ratcliffe (“Union-busting tycoon tackles obese children”, News, March 9) says that “childhood diabetes didn’t exist when I was growing up. It was an old man’s disease. But now lots of kids have diabetes. They are eating so much sugar that by the time they are 16, the pancreas is giving up the ghost.”

In fact 97% of UK childhood diabetes is type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune condition that cannot be prevented and is not caused by lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.

Almost 30,000 children in the UK live with type 1 diabetes and must take insulin every day via multiple injections or a pump simply to stay alive.
Karen Addington, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

No deal for Mr Blobby at BBC

IMAGINE what Noel Edmonds’s BBC would be like: a week-long house party with celebrities and game shows (“Mr Blobby bids to buy ‘doomed’ BBC”, News, last week). Perhaps some services need to go, but the corporation’s Reithian ideals should not be thrown out as it comes to terms with commercial limitations. The licence fee is still fabulous value.
Kevin Platt, Walsall, West Midlands

Not so fast on iPlayer boast

Once again the metropolitan and arrogant BBC says the iPlayer is to become the “front door” into the corporation (“BBC report says scrap licence fee”, News, March 9). Has anyone at Auntie inquired about the speed of internet connections outside urban areas? Even my fast connection struggles to cope if every member of my household watches iPlayer. For those outside the big cities the iPlayer will be more of a peephole than a front door.
David Thorpe, New Malden, London

Pay to play
There are many advantages to living in Perth, but Australian TV is not one of them. While we are grateful to be able to listen to The Archers et al free, we miss the quality and variety of BBC TV and would pay a significant premium for such a service. Adam Maxwell, Perth, Australia

Film reviewer flunks her screen test

CAMILLA LONG (“How I became a film critic”, Culture, February 16) writes that Unforgiven was “rubbish”, Mary Poppins was “stomach-churning stuff”, Henry V was great because Kenneth Branagh was “woof” and she saw Howards End four times as she was “unsure if there was anything sexier than being dry-humped on a barge by Samuel West”. Time has gone by but not Long’s teenage approach to life.

Yet it was her review of The Book Thief (Culture, March 2) that led me to write. The vitriol she pours out is false and absurd. She shows no understanding of the horror of wartime — hiding someone in a cellar meant dicing with death for all concerned. She describes the child heroine (played by Sophie Nélisse) as “a pudgy-faced goody-goody who spends most of her time borrowing books or reading to Max, the Jew in the basement”, and says Emily Watson and Geoffrey Rush have terrible accents. Watson, Rush, Nélisse and the entire cast are all excellent.

She is trying to follow in the steps of AA Gill but is moving along the wrong path. Gill is wicked but with humour, observation and insight. Long does not notice the heart of a movie — only the penis. Does that make a critic?
Joss Ackland, Clovelly, Devon

Points

Pot shot
Allowing us to take our pension pots in a lump sum is not a good idea. Some people may invest wisely but many will not, and there are financial sharks looking for such tasty morsels. Many will lose their money one way or another.
Alan Scaife, Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire

Hungry for less
Camilla Cavendish makes an excellent analysis of the problems with food banks (“The wrong notions about solving poverty are piled high at the food bank”, Comment, last week). It is inexplicable why Britain, with social security benefits from cradle to grave, has need of them. Average workers cannot possibly live anywhere close to their place of work in the London area. In Greece if you do not work you will starve without family or community support. A fifth of its population is in that position.
Brian Vallance, Lefkimmi, Greece

Working model
Vast legions of non-working adults have become a generational concern in some areas. The churches are not considered relevant. The Conservatives can’t appear too radical on these matters for fear of being labelled uncaring, and so progress is minimal at best. Nothing short of a revolution is required. The next generation should not be allowed to spend their lives being unproductive. An unemployed person should be required to volunteer, be in training or be studying before an allowance is given.
Mary Cecil, Ballycastle, Co Antrim

Balanced opinion
In any society there will be poor and rich — but a society in which the desperately impoverished are minimised and the overly wealthy not lionised would be better than what we have. A differential certainly encourages ambition but too great a differential crushes it.
Bernadette Bowles, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Patriot games
It is a mark of the degree of Euroscepticism in this country that government supporters of the EU feel they have to dress up in patriots’ clothes (“‘True patriot’ Tories urge Cameron to keep UK in Europe”, News, last week). In doing so they miss the point, however. Those of us who oppose the EU do so not just because we are patriots but because we are democrats. We love our country because, despite all its faults, it can claim to have led the world in establishing parliamentary democracy and accountable government.
Mike Lynch, Wolverhampton

Hitting the buffers
The expenditure on HS2 is often justified on the grounds that the rest of Europe has modernised its infrastructure with a fast railway. What is overlooked is that distances in Europe are vastly greater than in Britain and HS2 entails huge expenditure for a gain of minutes rather than hours, as is the case in Europe.
Gordon Vinell, Uckfield, East Sussex

Head in the sand
If the 45 beaches identified by the Environment Agency are unsafe, why is it not closing them immediately instead of waiting until next year (“Kiss me quick before 45 top beaches close”, News, last week)? How many people might suffer illness or worse as a result of this inaction?
Alistair Nicoll, Sheffield

Peace pipe
Tony Benn and the folk singer Roy Bailey came to the Wickham festival two years ago and talked and sang respectively about the struggle for democracy, peace and human rights (“The tears of big Benn”, News Review, last week). Halfway through the evening Benn lit the pipe he had been holding and occasionally sucking on since the start of the proceedings. He puffed away till the end; nobody in the audience objected. Who else would have got away with this?
Gill Farrar, Fareham, Hampshire

Corrections and clarifications

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, including online, should be addressed to editor@sunday-times.co.uk or The Editor, The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST. In addition, the Press Complaints Commission (complaints@pcc.org.uk or 020 7831 0022) examines formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines (and their websites)

Birthdays

Damon Albarn, musician, 46; Mike Atherton, cricketer, 46; Sir Roger Bannister, first man to run four-minute mile, 85; Barry Cryer, comedian, 79; Princess Eugenie of York, 24; Mo Farah, athlete, 31; Sir Chris Hoy, cyclist, 38; Chaka Khan, singer, 61; Michael Nyman, composer, 70; Sir Steve Redgrave, rower, 52

Anniversaries

1857 Elisha Otis’s first “safety elevator” installed at 488 Broadway, New York; 1919 Italian Fascist movement founded by Benito Mussolini; 1933 Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany; 2001 Russian Mir space station burns up in the atmosphere before falling into the Pacific

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – A daily shower may now be, as Victoria Lambert writes, the norm. But it was not always so.

Arriving to live in student digs at Exeter University in 1968, I was informed by my landlady that the bathroom was kept locked, and that I could ask for the key to take a bath, once a week.

Neither I nor my fellow house-mates thought this arrangement unusual.

Stephen O’Loughlin
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

SIR – I remember well the tin bath in front of the Rayburn on a Friday night in remote Suffolk in the Fifties. As the only girl, I was allowed the bath water first.

Heather M Tanner
Earl Soham, Suffolk

 

SIR – We write to express our deep concern at the attempt by the Metropolitan Police to introduce water cannon on the streets of London, and urge Theresa May, the Home Secretary, not to authorise their use.

The proposal lacks support even from the police, with five out of the six largest police authorities, several police and crime commissioners and Lord Blair, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, refusing to support the introduction of water cannon. The London Assembly voted down the proposal and 39,000 people have now signed a petition against it.

The Association of Chief Police Officers’ own briefing acknowledges that “water cannon are capable of causing serious injury or even death”. Water cannon would be more likely to be used against organised protests than in situations such as the 2011 riots, with profoundly disturbing implications for democracy.

Mrs May has previously rejected calls for the weapon to be introduced, saying in 2010: “I don’t think anybody wants to see water cannon used on the streets of Britain because we have… a different attitude to the culture of policing here in the UK. We police by consent and it depends on that trust between the police and the public.” The following year she reiterated: “The way we police in Britain is not through use of water cannon. The way we police in Britain is through consent of communities.”

Trust between the police and the public is fundamental to a peaceful, civilised society. The introduction of water cannon would take us down a dark path.

Joanne Darrant
Founder of petition against water cannon
Paul Burstow MP (Lib Dem)
David Lammy MP (Lab)
Andy Slaughter MP (Lab)
Shadow Justice Minister
Dame Tessa Jowell MP (Lab)
Diane Abbott MP (Lab)
Kate Hoey MP (Lab)
Katy Clark MP (Lab)
Andrew Love MP (Lab)
Caroline Lucas MP (Green)
Paul Flynn MP (Lab)
John McDonnell MP (Lab)
Jeremy Corbyn MP (Lab)
Dr Hywel Francis MP (Lab)
Martin Caton MP (Lab)
Sarah Teather MP (Lib Dem)
Dr Julian Huppert MP (Lib Dem)
John Leech MP (Lib Dem)
Martin Horwood MP (Lib Dem)
Lord Adonis
Joanne McCartne
Chair, London Assembly Police and Crime Committee
Fiona Twycross
London Assembly Member
Caroline Pidgeon
London Assembly Member
Liz Green
Leader of Kingston Council
Muhammed Butt
Leader of Brent Council
Jean Lambert MEP (Green)
Mary Honeyball MEP (Lab)
Shami Chakrabarti
Director, Liberty
Susan Bryant
Director, Rights Watch (UK)
Helena Kennedy
barrister and human rights law specialist
Gareth Peirce
human rights lawyer
Stephen Knight
London Assembly Member
Darren Johnson
London Assembly Member
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
Jeannette Arnold
London Assembly Member
Len Duvall
London Assembly Member
Tom Copley
London Assembly Member
Murad Qureshi
London Assembly Member
Andrew Dismore
London Assembly Member
Susan Bryant
Director, Rights Watch (UK)
Matt Foot
Criminal Defence Solicitor
Hannah Dee
Defend the Right to Protest
Rosie Rogers
National Coordinator, Compass
Dr Chris Cocking
Senior Lecturer, University of Brighton
Susan Matthews
Michelle Stanistree
General Secretary, National Union of Journalists
Paul Kenny
General Secretary, GMB Union
Billy Hayes
General Secretary, Communication Workers Union
Mark Serwotka
General Secretary, PCS Union
Len McCluskey
Unite the Union, General Secretary
Steve Turner
Unite the Union, Assistant General Secretary
Frances O’Grady
General Secretary, Trades Union Congress
Wes Streeting
Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Ilford North
Jessica Asato
Labour Paliamentary candidate for Norwich North

Finding your voice

SIR – Mary Beard wonders how we overcome the problem of women’s voices being ignored or labelled with derogatory words such as whine, whinge and strident.

First we need to address where women stand in our society; we must look to issues of equal pay, our domestic role and the nurturing of children. We should enjoy being women and what we have to contribute to the whole – neither better or worse than men, but different. Once we’ve overcome these obstacles, our voices will most certainly be heard as valued members of society.

Gillian Cohen
Hale, Cheshire

Flying jackets

SIR – I used to have access to subload seats on planes, where staff are entitled to travel on a space-available basis. In order to take advantage of this, I was obliged to dress smartly (collar, tie, jacket, no jeans) to “fit in” with first-class passengers. The irony was that the wealthy first-class passengers would, more often than not, be dressed down, not up, so I would be rather conspicuous.

Jeremy Burton
Reading, Berkshire

A fine nose

SIR – My wife is allergic to moulds and fungi, and can tell instantly upon entering a building if it has dry rot . She could make a fortune this way.

John Goulding
Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

Re-purposed heritage

SIR – Sir George White laments the Ministry of Defence’s plans for Larkhill aerodrome. This week, the local planning committee consigned RAF Hucknall, near Nottingham, to a future of houses and industrial units.

First opened in 1916 it was, from 1935, Rolls-Royce’s flight test establishment. All of the great engines were initially flown from there, from the Kestrel, through the famous Merlin, which powered Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquitoes, and heavy bombers, to the RB211 and its derivatives that contribute to this country’s kudos and export earnings. Airborne tests of the original Whittle gas turbine began as early as 1942, followed by the first flight of a Mustang with the Merlin engine, the world’s first turbo-prop aircraft, supersonic military jets, and the “Flying Bedstead” which tested jet-powered vertical take-off, leading directly to the Harrier jump-jet.

Why must we squander our heritage?

David Smith
Calverton, Nottinghamshire

School age

SIR – I was glad to read of the mother’s victory in keeping her son, whose birthday falls at the end of August, at home for another year before starting formal schooling (report, March 21).

When my son was three, he was only just starting to talk and hated being left at a crèche once a week. Luckily, we were living abroad, and my husband’s company paid the fees at the local expat school from the child’s fifth birthday. Starting school at five was right for him: he is currently at Oxford, studying engineering sciences.

Marilyn Leary
Worcester

Urban pests

SIR – We share Anthony Vickery’s experience of torment by grey squirrel.

Mr Vickery lives in the woods; we live on the top of a block in the Barbican in London. Squirrels have ruined our roof terrace and we have even caught one little monster munching on a vase of roses in our drawing room: it had entered via a slightly open window 200ft up from the street.

The pest control department of the City of London squeamishly refuses to deal with this nuisance (although they willingly exterminate other kinds of vermin).

So where do I find some buzzards?

Richard Lynam
London, EC2

Bletchley Park vs the Museum of Computing

SIR –The Bletchley Park Trust (BPT) says it “bent over backwards to cut the struggling computer museum a good deal in a joint-ticketing proposal for the National Museum of Computing.

At first sight, single-ticketing seemed to be a major step forward in relations between the two, but the offer included a section implicitly questioning the ownership of the Colossus Rebuild.

The National Museum of Computing could not accept a deal with such an unnecessary and provocative statement. The working rebuild of Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, which cracked the most complex cipher of the Second World War and altered the course of the war, is the highlight of most people’s visit to Bletchley Park. The Colossus Rebuild has been maintained and displayed by the museum for many years through a long-term agreement with Colossus Rebuild Limited.

The “good deal” also failed to recompense the museum adequately for making the Colossus Rebuild available free of charge to Bletchley Park Trust visitors for many years despite calls by the museum since 2008 for fair recompense in the form of a rent and utilities discount. The Computing Museum faced an annual bill of more than £100,000 in rent and utilities from Bletchley Park Trust.

We hope that the Board of BPT will agree to an independent review so that the full facts can be addressed by third parties and the situation finally resolved so that a globally important heritage site can be an inspiration for future generations.

Tim Reynolds (Chairman)
Kevin Murrell (Deputy Chairman)
Andy Clark
Matt Crotty
Margaret Sale
Bob Willett
Kevin Murrell

Trustees of the National Museum of Computing

 

SIR – We welcome the move by the Chancellor in the Budget to reduce the cost of flyingto growth economies such as China and Brazil.

The next priority should be to ensure that there are the aeroplanes and routes to bring people to and from existing destinations in these markets as well as to new cities in China, Brazil and other growth economies.

One of the biggest barriers to Britain trading more with growing economies is a lack of connectivity. A long-term solution that will deliver a fundamental change in boosting trade is expansion of our airports.

To enhance Britain’s economic competitiveness and our status as a global aviation hub, before the next general election the leaders of all the main parties should commit to airport expansion.

Gavin Hayes

Director, Let Britain Fly

Baroness Jo Valentine

Chief Executive, London First

Mark Boleat

Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee, City of London Corporation

John Allan

Chairman, Dixons Retail

Sue Brown

Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting

Sir George Iacobescu

Chairman and Chief Executive, Canary Wharf Group

Ufi Ibrahim

Chief Executive, British Hospitality Association

Andrew Murphy

Retail Director, John Lewis Partnership

David Sleath

Chief Executive Officer, SEGRO PLC

Sir Martin Sorrell

Chief Executive, WPP

Colin Stanbridge

Chief Executive, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Simon Walker

Director General, Institute of Directors

Mike Cherry

National Policy Chairman, FSB

Tony Pidgley

Group Chairman, Berkeley Group

Iain Anderson

Director and Chief Corporate Counsel, Cicero Group

Surinder Arora

Founder/CEO, Arora International

Dr Eamonn Butler

Director, Adam Smith Institute

Gordon Clark

Country Manager, Global Blue

Richard Dickinson

Chief Executive, New West End Company

Robert Elliott

Chairman and Senior Partner, Linklaters LLP

Chris Grigg

Chief Executive, British Land

Dale Keller

Chief Executive, Board of Airline Representatives in the UK

George Kessler

Group Deputy Chairman, Kesslers International

Tim Knox

Director, Centre for Policy Studies

John Lehal

Managing Director, Insight Public Affairs

John Morgan

Chief Executive Office, Morgan Sindall Group PLC

Theo de Pencier

Chief Executive, Freight Transport Association

John Rhodes

Director, Quod

James Rook

Managing Director, Nimlok LTD

James Rowntree

Managing Director Transportation, CH2M Hill

Francis Salway

Chair, Open for Business Champions

Hugh Seaborn

Chief Executive, Cadogan

Inderneel Singh

General Manager, The May Fair Hotel London

Michael Tobin

Chief Executive, TelecityGroup PLC

Paul Wait

CEO, Guild of Travel Management Companies

Ian Reeves

Senior Partner LLP

Richard Fursland

hief Executive Officer, BritishAmerican Business

Gary Forster

xecutive Director, Turley

Bob Rothenberg

enior Partner, Blick Rothenberg

Sir John Ritblat

Chairman of Governors, LBS

SIR – George Osborne’s announcement of an increase in Air Passenger Duty (APD) for the business jet industry clearly positions operators on the Continent at an unfair advantage over their British counterparts, following a recent survey from the Baltic Air Charter Association suggesting that 25 per cent of non-British business jet operators avoid paying APD.

Yet again the Government is picking on an industry which, according to the latest figures from 2008, contributed 4.2 billion euros to the British economy.

With a potential 50 per cent increase in the amount of APD, some British-based business jet operators will be less able to compete with the rest of Europe. The Chancellor continues to cripple an industry that is a major contributor to the British economy with a duty that was originally proposed as an environmental tax but has simply been absorbed by the Treasury.

Patrick Margetson-Rushmore
Chief Executive, London Executive Aviation
Stapleford Tawney, Essex

SIR – The scrapping of the scandalous annuity handcuffs is welcome, but we must be cautious. Pensioners will now be able to spend their own hard-earned money, but we need to avoid the flow of this money offshore to holiday properties, hotels, cruises and luxury goods – none of which will fuel the recovery in Britain. I would like to see pensioners invest and spend their cash on things that benefit Britain, and not the Costa Brava.

While it is their money, it was invested tax-free and some restrictions or incentives on its use would be appropriate.

Dr David Cottam
Dormansland, Surrey

SIR – As a result of the Chancellor’s budget, I watched my shares in Aviva and William Hill plummet on Wednesday (thanks, George). My only consolation was that Ed Miliband’s credibility plummeted even further.

Tony Bullock
Kirby Le Soken, Essex

 

 

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

 

2:30 AM

Madam – Martin Callinan succeeded admirably in one thing. His rather sly tapping into the Irish psyche by linking the evidence of two members of the Garda with the nation’s suspicions of “informers” would do credit to anyone wishing to muddy the water.

Also in this section

No new politics on offer

Quotas contrary to equal opportunity

Monumental achievements

The Sunday Independent banner headline had a politician pleading that we must protect the “whistleblower.” Much like we must protect the white-tailed eagle or some rare bird that is threatened. The pellet-riddled body of a white-tailed eagle tells us how quickly a rare species can be wiped out. That only two men from a force of 14,000 plus (not counting retired members) felt compelled to speak out, tells us how scared the rest are. Or are they so steeped in endemic sloppy practice that right and wrong are now blurred into grey?

The penalty points fiasco has permeated all of Irish life, in particular the ruling and influential classes. It is alleged points were wiped out across the pillars of society and its four estates. That erosion comes at a price. Sometimes it’s a favour returned and sometimes it’s just pointed silence and a nod of the head the other direction. That the whistleblower is seen as some lesser spotted oddity and needs protection surely is amazing.

In a true democracy both the Minister for Justice and Garda Commissioner would be gone by now. This won’t happen, because in Ireland we avoid sword-falling like an alcoholic avoids lemonade. However the body politic and a once grand institution is now dragged down to the level that the Catholic Church is viewed over its dealings with the various abuses.

Well done to all concerned including the rather silent Garda unions who left two honest colleagues swivel on a stick. One assumes the next government will appoint an outsider with managerial experience and a strong constitution to head the Garda force.

That whistleblowers need protection, that it merits a front page headline, is an indication of how far into the slime we as a people have sunk.

John Cuffe,

Dunboyne, Co Meath

Monumental achievements

Madam – I was almost in full agreement with Declan Lynch (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014) on his assessment of the Failte Ireland/Inspire Ireland promotional video, which I found cringe-inducing.

However, I took exception to his analysis of the video caption “Newgrange is older than the Pyramids and Stonehenge” when he declared “this could simply mean we’ve been reducing everything to ruins longer than anyone else”.

Newgrange is, of course, not in ruins but rather is one of the best-preserved Neolithic monuments in the world. It is almost incomprehensible that our ancestors, some 5,000 years ago, had such knowledge of the seasons and the trajectory of the sun and that when at its lowest azimuth on a single day in December they were able to harness its sunlight through a narrow channel to a central chamber. If this is not something we should use in promoting tourism in Ireland, then I’m not sure what else should qualify.

John Bellew,

Dunleer, Co Louth

OVER-EDUCATED, UNDEREMPLOYED

Madam – The comments by Declan Lynch (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014) were timely and true.

This Government is a real letdown in my view. All we can now aspire to as a country is to get a job working for an American. Since jobs are being shed at the same time, are we running after a receding train?

It seems that cars that can drive themselves will appear in the near future – they are almost ready. What will this do to those earning a living by driving?

We have more university qualifications than ever before. Yet all they do is ship off to Australia for a job. I once believed that education would help end unemployment and emigration, through empowerment. Why is this not the case?

Those who voted in the Government can hardly slate it now. What can sheep expect but to be slaughtered – or, as the Greeks say: “We are not the Irish.”

John Arthur,

Dublin 16

PRIDE IN ‘FOUR PROUD PROVINCES’

Madam – May I echo the words of David Scott from Belfast (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014) regarding Ireland’s Call. Yes it will take time to grow a fondness and attachment to it, but it is those words – “The four proud provinces of Ireland” – that stir me. It is a precious thing to see the 32 counties represent Ireland, and long may it continue and grow to all sports regardless of your political alliance. As a very proud Irishman I am humbled to see our men from Ulster wear the green of Ireland with the passion and pride they do.

Michael Fitzgerald,

Jersey, Channel Islands

CALL US BY OUR PROPER NAME

Madam –As a long-term reader, I am sick sore and tired of your correspondents referring to my country, Northern Ireland, as ‘The North’.

Why can’t these people use the proper term and give our country the respect it deserves? Better still, why don’t you set an example by living up to the sub-heading of your letters page and exercise your right to ‘edit where necessary’?

John McClung,

Kells, Co Antrim

NO SPEEDY FIX TO ROGUE POINTS

Madam – Following further revelations about the state of the administration of the penalty points system, I wonder if any of your readers are in the same position as myself.

When, in December 2013, I was notified that two points had been put on my licence for a speeding offence, I discovered somewhat alarmingly that I already had two points belonging to another driver.

Numerous letters, phone calls and emails have resulted in me being one step nearer to having the rogue points removed.

However, as the first offence took place in June 2011 and points cannot be removed retrospectively, I will have points on my licence for six years for one offence.

Robert Brown,

Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary

SILVER SCOTT MEDAL IS NO JOKE

Madam – Eoghan Harris proposed that the silver Scott medal be awarded to the Garda “whistleblowers” (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014). Surely he jests.

There are few Scott medals presented, and when done, it is for bravery displayed in the face of great personal danger.

Gardai, willing to put their lives on the line for the greater good, are a treasure to be cherished.

Fergus Moroney,

Castlegregory, Co Kerry

PERFECT POSITION FOR POETIC JUSTICE

Madam – How sad to read on the front page (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014) “that two district judges named in the whistleblower file on penalty points, each had their points removed three times, and points were also removed for the spouse of one of the judges”.

“This revelation is particularly serious in light of the fact that it is district judges who adjudicate on a daily basis on citizens who face the imposition of penalty points on foot of charges under the road traffic acts.”

This article continued on to page two, and it was so appropriate to read on page three opposite, a poem, The Madness of Mammon, by Anthony Cronin: “The sins of the rulers shall be visited on the people, forever and ever. The poorer we are, the more honest we’re required to be.”

This poem could have been a continuation of the penalty points story, and was so appropriate in the context of recent events. Oh dear, things never change.

John M Hunt,

Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo

WHISTLEBLOWERS DESERVE AWARDS

Madam – I agree with both Eoghan Harris and Gene Kerrigan that whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson should be praised for the work they’ve done in exposing malpractice. The fact that this Government, and in particular the Minister for Justice, has refused to do so shows a government unrepresentative of the people it serves.

There is a way, however, that the people can show their appreciation and also embarrass the Government into doing the same. Log on to the “People of the Year” website and nominate the two whistleblowers. Then when the Taoiseach has to present them with their award it might dawn on him that his loyalty should have been to the people of Ireland, not his buddies the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner.

Kevin Conry,

Mullingar, Co Westmeath

 

FOI BILL IS A RETROGRADE STEP

Madam – In her critique of Minister Howlin’s FOI Bill (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014), Emer O’Kelly notes, I assume sardonically, that the minister “wants to give the little man and woman the right to find out how the great public and semi-private corporations are operating on their behalf”.

The minister richly deserves a derisive tone to overlay any analysis of his plan for the FOI Bill. While purporting to herald a new era of transparency, a section of this bill actually takes us in the opposite direction.

The current law requires public bodies to make known to the public, information regarding their operations across a range of categories, (sections 15 and 16 FOI Act 1997). The new bill abolishes this legal requirement and instead gives the power to the public institutions to decide what they will make public.

In addition, the minister is vested with new powers to decide what information will be published and to revise such information if he “thinks fit” to do so: Section 8 FOI Bill.

In his defence, the minister has said that a new “code of practice and guidelines” will contain publication requirements for the public bodies, but this code and guidelines are not specified in the text of the law – and it is what is printed in the text of the statute that matters.

This is an incredibly retrograde step that urgently requires the retention of the current law and not a ‘make it up as you go along’ charter, which is what the bill proposes.

John Sullivan,

Dublin 7

No new politics on offer

Madam – ‘Revolution’ or ‘busted flush’? (“Enda’s revolution needs heads to roll,” Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014); tossed stir-fried ratatouille or drab ‘deja vu’? What does this non-Government now offer us?

Some of us suggested, back in 2008 or so, that TDs should take Edmund Burke‘s definition of their mandate seriously, remove the flaked-out Cowen regime and form the equivalent of a National Government to confront what was clearly a national emergency.

Such a patriotic and pragmatic leap outside the box suited nobody in Leinster House. Everybody had their own blinkered reason for waiting for the then ‘Administration’ to collapse so that they could cherry-pick the carcase.

Professor Morgan Kelly may or may not be correct in his identification of the runaway locomotive coming hurtling down the track. What we can state with some certainty is that the EU is not yet ready to ‘work’ in the way it was intended to. For the benefit and security of all its members – particularly the smaller, more ‘open’ and vulnerable. Such as ourselves.

You, Madam, have done your best to encourage us, the Plain People of Ireland, to generate ‘a new politics’. I see no coherent and potentially politically effective group in Leinster House offering the long, hard road to such a new politics.

When I vote on May 23, I will see no such group of candidates on the ballot paper. However, time is short and if we do not take control of the locomotive of history soon, it will drag us, sleep-walking, to oblivion.

Maurice O’Connell,

Tralee, Co Kerry

Quotas contrary to equal opportunity

Madam – Regarding Emer O’Kelly’s article (Sunday Independent, March 9, 2014) on gender quotas and Sheila O’Flanagan’s response (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014), Ms O’Kelly’s article is the more convincing of the two in terms of reasoning and logic.

While Ms O’Flanagan is undoubtedly correct in saying that men in high positions do not always owe their status to being the best persons for their jobs on the basis of ability, quotas raise serious issues of their own.

As someone who has voted for women candidates in the past, I regret to say that the introduction of quotas will make me think twice about doing so in future because it will be impossible to know if such candidates have been chosen primarily for their ability or primarily to fill a quota.

This is a valid point, and I quite fail to follow Ms O’Flanagan’s reasoning when she says: “Such a belief is only possible if it is the case that all the male incumbents . . . are the best person for the job by reason of ability.”

Quotas are, by their very nature, obstacles to choosing the best persons on the basis of individual merit and are contrary to the concept of equality of opportunity, which is not the same thing as equality of outcome.

The supposed need for quotas seems to be based on the simplistic egalitarian premise that just because men and women are roughly equal in numbers in the general population, this should be reflected in every profession or occupation, and at every level, on the grounds that gender imbalances are always due to “sexism” and past or present discrimination, whether direct or indirect.

I do agree there are a few instances in which gender quotas could be justified, and one of these is in relation to education. UK research suggests that boys’ academic performance has suffered relative to that of girls because of the shortage of male teachers in both primary and secondary schools, a shortage which is especially acute in the former. Research also suggests there’s a preference among teachers for teaching girls, which, if correct, bodes ill for boys in the context of a female-dominated teaching profession. However, given today’s PC climate, there’s little chance of a serious debate on these matters anytime soon.

Hugh Gibney,

Athboy, Co Meath

OBJECTORS SPOUT ‘TOKEN’ MANTRA

Madam – Sheila O’Flanagan’s criticism of the people who have objections to the long overdue efforts to get more women on the ballot papers in the next general election is apt and to the point (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014).

The message from the objectors is that the women on the ballot paper are ‘token’ and have no ability. The ‘token’ mantra will be repeated ad nauseam by insiders and incumbents from now till the general election and beyond.

We are told that, since independence, a mere five per cent of TDs have been women. The Dail is still 80-90 per cent male. Now when there is a chance that the more than 50 per cent of the electorate that are women might get more of their kind on the ballot paper, the insiders and the incumbents will fight tooth and nail to undermine the effort.

They should not succeed.

A Leavy,

Sutton, Dublin 13

CALLINAN SHOULD STAND DOWN

Madam – Gene Kerrigan’s piece (Sunday Independent, March 16, 2014) was a simple work of journalistic brilliance.

When I first heard and then read the Garda Commissioner’s comment on the whistleblowers, I thought to myself that I must have misheard him or not interpreted his thoughts correctly. Unfortunately I was wrong.

To think our Justice Minister and Taoiseach approve of him only makes the whole sorry episode even sadder.

It would be nice to think that by the time this comes to print our Commissioner would have resigned, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Sean Healy,

Waterford

 

 



Mary

$
0
0

24 March  2014 Mary
I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to  test a new electronic gun range finder. Priceless
Cold slightly better post office sold 3 books Mary very under the weather
No Scrabble today  Perhaps I  will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Lord Moran, who has died aged 89, was the son of Sir Winston Churchill’s physician and made a name in his own right as a career diplomat, the author of an award-winning biography of Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and a distinguished cross-bencher in the House of Lords, where he campaigned to improve the lot of the Atlantic salmon.
In the 1970s Moran served as Ambassador to Hungary and then Portugal, but by his own admission it was his final posting — as High Commissioner in Canada from 1981 to 1984 — that proved the most testing.
He arrived in Canada in the middle of a major political controversy. The previous year Canada’s prime minister Pierre Trudeau had informed the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of his intention to “patriate” the Canadian constitution which, until then, could be changed only by acts of the British Parliament — albeit with the consent of the Canadian government. Trudeau’s move would require the British government to pass legislation, but the majority of Canadian provinces were opposed and appealed to the British Parliament, as the guarantor of their rights, to defeat Trudeau’s plans.
As Canadian Indians in full costume converged on Westminster, and representatives of the provincial governments wined and dined MPs, the British government was faced with the choice either of damaging relations with the Canadian government by refusing to introduce legislation, or risking defeat by a strong cross-party lobby in Parliament. “There was the possibility, if things went wrong, of a confrontation between the two parliaments, which would have been unprecedented and very serious,” Moran recalled. To make matters worse, Moran’s predecessor, Sir John Ford, had just been called back to London “for briefings” after complaints that he had been “meddling” in Canadian affairs.
A colleague on one of the many environmental bodies on which he served in later life observed that Moran was a man who “with his quiet manner, achieved more by raising an eyebrow than the rest of us achieved by raising the roof”. His discretion, courtesy and intelligence served him well in Canada as he sought to calm tensions and explain the British government’s position to the Canadian people. Mrs Thatcher, he explained, was “absolutely rock solid. Anything the Ottawa Parliament wanted, she would do.” But she was “not certain she could carry her own troops with her”. British MPs, he observed, were “not as disciplined” about following the party line as Canadian MPs.
Moran put such points across without ruffling feathers, and the feared confrontation was avoided as Trudeau eventually concluded a deal with the provinces that changed the arithmetic so that only Quebec stood out against patriation. The Canada Act was duly passed in 1982.
The goodwill this brought paid off when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands a few months later and Moran found himself having to ask the Canadian government for help in equipping the Task Force sent out to recapture the islands. “The Canadian Government did everything we asked them to do,” he recalled.
Moran’s time in Canada came back to haunt him in 2009, however, when, under the Freedom of Information Act, the BBC obtained a copy of his valedictory dispatch, “Final Impressions of Canada”, written in 1984 at a time when no one imagined that such musings, typically written for the amusement of colleagues, would reach the public domain.
“One does not encounter here the ferocious competition of talent that takes place in the United Kingdom,” Moran observed in his bracingly candid piece. “Anyone who is even moderately good at what they do — in literature, the theatre, skiing or whatever — tends to become a national figure, and anyone who stands out at all from the crowd tends to be praised to the skies and given the Order of Canada at once.” As for Canada’s Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, he had “never entirely shaken off his past as a well-to-do hippie and draft dodger”, while “the majority of Canadian ministers are unimpressive and a few we have found frankly bizarre.”
His remarks led to a predictable outcry in the Canadian press, though a few calmer souls pointed out that Moran’s strictures were mainly directed at the country’s political class, and that many Canadians would agree with him. In fact, Moran was generally positive about the country, observing that he would miss “the cry of the loon” and the country’s “cheerful shop girls and waitresses” and arguing for a “less dusty and more positive and substantial” relationship between the two countries.
Richard John McMoran Wilson was born on September 22 1924. His father, Charles Wilson, was Winston Churchill’s personal physician from 1940 until the former prime minister’s death and was raised to the peerage in 1943. The author of The Anatomy of Courage (1945), a pioneering account of the psychological effects of war, he would write a far more celebrated and controversial work, Winston Churchill, The Struggle for Survival 1940-1965: this was a memoir, published soon after Churchill’s death, which brought accusations that the 1st Lord Moran had breached patient confidentiality, but it provided historians with an indispensable first-hand account of one of the greatest historical figures of the 20th century. Richard would write an introduction to an edited version of the book, published as Churchill at War in 2002.
From Eton, Richard went up to King’s College, Cambridge, in 1942. After just six months, however, he joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary seaman and was assigned to Belfast on Arctic convoy duty. On his first voyage he took part in the sinking of the Scharnhorst, recalling that the only casualty in Belfast had been a reindeer, presented to Admiral Burnett by his Soviet counterpart, which died of shock during the confrontation.
After officer training in 1944, Wilson was promoted to sub-lieutenant and posted to motor torpedo boats at Gosport, escorting the invasion force on D-Day. His final posting was in the destroyer Oribi, again on convoy duty. When the war ended he was in Travemunde, Denmark, where he was shot in the leg by a British sentry.
In 1945 Wilson joined the Foreign Office. After postings in Ankara, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro, Washington and South Africa, from 1968 to 1973 he served as head of the West African Department and, concurrently, as a non-resident ambassador to Chad.
Among other things he dealt with the British response to the Biafran War (the attempted secession of the south-eastern provinces of Nigeria), setting up an International Observers’ Group in Nigeria, accompanying the Prime Minister Harold Wilson on two visits to the area, and disbursing aid after the collapse of the breakaway state.
He went on to serve as Ambassador to Hungary from 1973 to 1976 where, among other things, he sought to alert British trade union leaders, starry eyed after being wined and dined by the Communists in Budapest, of the true nature of the regime. His subsequent posting was to Portugal, where he pressed for Britain to make greater efforts to revive its historic friendship with the country as it returned to democracy. In 1981 he was posted to Canada.
Moran, who listed his hobbies as “fishing, fly-tying, birdwatching”, succeeded to the peerage on his father’s death in 1977. After his retirement he became involved in conservation issues, serving as vice-chairman, then vice-president, of the Atlantic Salmon Trust; as president of the Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association; chairman, then executive vice-president, of the Salmon and Trout Association; chairman of Wildlife and Countryside Link; and president of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust.
He was also vice-president of the RSPB until 1997, when he resigned following the society’s decision to allow Barbara Young, its chief executive, to stay in her job after being made a Labour working peer.
In the House of Lords, Moran chaired a joint Fisheries Policy and Legislation working group, known as the Moran Committee, which brought together all the main national NGOs concerned with angling and fisheries to advise the government and the Environment Agency. He also served as president of the All-Party Conservation Committee of both Houses of Parliament.
In 2002 he organised a rare cross-bench-led defeat of the Labour Government, using an obscure parliamentary procedure to force a floor debate. Against a government three-line whip and with no official Conservative opposition, he persuaded peers to vote against a clause in the Animal Health Bill that would have given ministers greater powers to cull cattle in the event of another foot and mouth outbreak.
During spare moments from his duties as a diplomat, Moran devoted himself to historical research. His time in South Africa inspired him to write a biography of Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman, the Liberal prime minister who had granted self-government to the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, thereby securing the Boers’ loyalty to the British Empire despite their recent defeat by the British in the second Boer War. Published in 1973, it won the Whitbread prize for biography, and in 1985 he published a biography of the Civil War general Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Moran was appointed CMG in 1970 and KCMG in 1981. Last year he was awarded the Arctic Star for his service on the convoys.
A strong family man, he married, in 1948, Shirley Rowntree Harris, who provided staunch support to her husband throughout his diplomatic career. She predeceased him and he is survived by their daughter and two sons, of whom the elder, James, born in 1952, succeeds to the title.
Lord Moran, born September 22 1924, died February 14 2014

Guardian:

The new £1 coin (Budget reports, 20 March) has 12 straight edges and does not have a constant diameter. But to work in a slot machine a coin must be able to roll smoothly. This requires that the coin have a constant diameter. To achieve this, the coin must therefore be circular (as in the penny) or have an odd number of edges each of which is an arc centred on the opposite corner (as in the 50p and 20p coins). Still, I’m sure they’ve thought of this.
Jim Warren
Birmingham
• Kale would be more highly praised if supermarkets stopped chopping it into tiny pieces, reducing its keeping qualities and making it harder to clean and pick over (In praise of…, 21 March). And buying at local markets rules out any suggestion that it is cheap – a stall in the former spa town of Streatham in south London has been offering it at 99p for 100g. Hardly cattle feed, at £10 a kilo.
Tim Barnsley
London
• Low, even dismal, productivity in a service-dominated economy should come as no surprise (Editorial, 18 March). After all, a hairdresser can only cut one head of hair at a time.
Roy Boffy
Walsall
• WTF is not an acronym (Letters, 22 March). It is an initialism. An acronym is a word formed by the initials. Imgom is an acronym: I must get out more.
Richard Barnard
Wivenhoe, Essex

The unfair, unbalanced rightwing press in the person of Peter Hitchens (Letters, 19 March) moved quickly to dispel any notion that BBC reporting may be fair and balanced. And what’s this? A pincer movement attacking the BBC licence fee is mounted by 140 Tory rightwingers, who have long hated the BBC’s fair and balanced reporting of areas where a Murdoch, Barclay or Dacre-influenced spin would align with their desire to control the content and flow of information to the electorate (TV licence fee evasion could be decriminalised, 19 March).
If magistrate’s courts are clogged with licence fee dodgers, the answer is simple – introduce a fixed penalty that can be imposed by inspectors in a similar manner to parking fines. Maybe double or treble the licence fee would be appropriate, but using this excuse to justify a backdoor scheme to undermine the BBC’s revenues will not wash. The BBC and its supporters should take a more robust line in arguing for its continued financial security, allowing it to remain independent of political influence. What we do not want is for the broadcast news agenda to be set by the likes of Fox News in the US, which exists only to further the political and commercial aims of its proprietors and the political parties that they support.
Nigel Beatty
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
• Among the complaints about BBC bias one correspondent asked why there were no programmes revisiting the issues of the miners’ strike upon its 30th anniversary (Letters, 19 March). We might also ask, given the late cultural critic Stuart Hall did most of his broadcasting for the BBC, where were the TV retrospectives commemorating his life? No programmes either to mark the 80th anniversary of the birth of space pioneer Yuri Gagarin on 9 March despite his strong links with the city of Manchester where the BBC is based.
Dr Gavin Lewis
Manchester

Britain faces unprecedented challenges: a financial system still too big to fail or jail; austerity causing unnecessary hardship to those already at the bottom of a massively unequal society; climate change flooding people’s homes; and a democratic system that seems pretty irrelevant to any of these problems. To begin to tackle these challenges the country needs not just a change of government but a transformative change in direction.
That demands a Labour or Labour-led administration. But if Labour plays the next election safe, hoping to win on the basis of Tory unpopularity, it will not have earned a mandate for such change. It must take into the election a vision of a much more equal and sustainable society and the support of a wider movement if these formidable challenges are to be met.
As members of the progressive community that recognise the need for Labour to play a leading role after 2015 we would urge the party to adopt an approach to its manifesto that is based on the following principles:
Accountability of all powerful institutions, whether the state or market, to all stakeholders.
Devolution of state institutions, by giving away power and resources to our nations, regions, cities, localities and, where possible, directly to the people.
Prevention of the causes of our social, environmental, physical and mental health problems, which requires a holistic and long-term approach to governance.
Co-production of public services by workers, users and citizens, to make them more responsive and efficient.
Empowerment of everybody, so they are equipped with the resources (time, money, support) to enable them to play a full role as active citizens.
National government has a continuing strategic role to play but the days of politicians doing things “to people” are over. The era of building the capacity and platforms for people to “do things for themselves, together” is now upon us.
Working in this way, with others, Labour can help act to fundamentally disrupt power relations and reframe the debate to make a good society both feasible and desirable. It is time people had the power.
Neal Lawson Compass, Rob Philpot Progress, Patrick Diamond Policy Network, Anna Coote Nef, Andrew Harrop Fabian Society, David Clark Shifting Grounds, Mark Ferguson Labour List, Tim Roache Class, Maurice Glassman, Ruth Lister Compass, Robin Murray LSE, Anthony Barnett Opendemocracy, David Marquand Mansfield College, Oxford, Charles Secrett ACT! Alliance, Marcus Roberts Fabian Society, Cat Hobbs Director, We Own It, David Robinson Changing London, Colin Hines Convenor, Green New Deal Group, Professor Victor Anderson Global Sustainability Institute
• It came as no surprise that young people did not benefit from the budget (Older people vote – that’s why George Osborne’s budget is for them, 21 March). Under-25s are an easier target for government cuts because four million of us are not registered to vote. I’m the chair of the Centrepoint parliament, a group of homeless young people from Centrepoint hostels. We believe young people are invisible to politicians, so launched our “You Got A Problem?!” campaign encouraging others to register to vote and realise how politics affects us all.
We’re already facing a lack of jobs and affordable housing, and if threats to cut housing benefit for under-25s go ahead, many of us could be on the streets again. Important services, such as Connexions, that advised and supported young people have been forced to close, leaving fewer places for homeless young people to go for help. So it was surprising to read that “2 million over-65s own assets in excess of £1m and still get universal winter fuel allowances”. It is hard to see some people receive benefits they don’t need while we face cuts and then more cuts.
Young people need to register to vote to see a change and make politicians realise that ours is a vote to be won. Millions of young people can stand together so that the government has to listen. Then who’s got a problem?
Layan
Chair, Centrepoint parliament (centrepoint.org.uk/yougotaproblem)
• “Not in my name” are these gerentocratic policies pursued. As a 61-year-old, I don’t relish being one of the grizzled leisured ones being waited on in restaurants and shops by the underpaid, poorly housed young. Such policies reflect the skewed and cynical political values of the current and recent governments, not those of our relatively idealistic generation. If there is a party with the courage to redress the balance, let them say so loudly and throw all resources at mobilising the votes of the young. The generous and idealistic old will gladly back them up.
David Longson
Sheffield

The current journey time from Crewe to London is as little as 1 hour 35 minutes (Fast-track plan for HS2, 15 March). The journey time on HS2, following a longer route through Birmingham, is unlikely to be much shorter and there would be relatively little economic or social benefit in any time saving which might be possible. Economic geographers have always known that express rail travel rather like air travel, only comes into its own on long journeys, because a relatively large proportion of the travel time on a short trip is taken up just getting to and from one of a limited number of hubs. The real potential for HS2 is surely to improve direct accessibility between the north of the UK and continental Europe. This is after all what HS1 does for London.
The decision to scrap the short direct connection from HS2 through London to HS1 will add considerably to interchange times, not to mention the inconvenience of lugging baggage through two busy stations and along Euston Road. As it is now proposed, HS2 will find it hard to compete with air travel to European markets and holiday destinations. It will instead add yet more to London’s relative locational advantages compared with the rest of Britain.
Jerry Spencer
Tarporley, Cheshire
• How very disappointing that David Higgins has gone to Manchester to deliver his report yet fails to recommend that work should commence in that city. If the idea is to bridge the north-south divide, surely it should start in the area most in need of rejuvenation?
Noel Livesey
Carnforth, Lancashire

Independent:

George Osborne has rashly promised to allow savers to take all of their pension pots, subject to tax on 75 per cent of it, to be used as they see fit. This is a highly populist policy which not even Nigel Farage will be able to trump.
All the main parties have said that they will support the idea in principle and the Chancellor will have to implement it – in spite of the several disadvantages which are emerging day by day. For example, will people who are tempted to take the lump sum appreciate that they will receive considerably less (having suffered tax on its removal) than they would have had they left well alone?
Osborne will have effectively taxed, ie raided, the pension pots of anyone taking the lump sum rather than the annuity option, and he will not be around when those who may prove to be profligate need state assistance in their later years.
David Hindmarsh
Cambridge
The Chancellor promised that pensioners who retire on defined contribution pension schemes will be offered free, impartial, face-to-face advice on how to get the most from the choices they will now have. He does not say who will provide this admirable service. If he has in mind the financial services industry, let us hope that it’s not the same parcel of rogues that over the past 25 years conned us out of billions by giving us free advice, often face to face, to put our money into personal pensions, mortgage endowments, equity-release schemes, personal-equity plans, precipice bonds, absolute return funds, interest-rate swaps and payment-protection insurance.
Ian Mackersie
Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear
Is it likely that an individual who is prudent enough to give up spending today to secure an income decades in the future will suddenly become the kind of spendthrift who, as one minister suggested, might go out and buy a Lamborghini (report, 21 March)? I think not.
Osborne’s proposals for the liberation of pensions is most likely to encourage a far greater level of pension saving; the existing alternative prospect of being forced to “invest” in an annuity which benefits insurance companies far more than the annuitant, has been extremely unattractive. It is also likely that this liberation will tilt the annuity market in favour of the purchasers as insurance companies cease to have a captive market and, necessarily, become more competitive.
David Bracey
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

For nine years, I lectured to young people (19-29) starting in business, with the help of a grant from a royal charity. My advice to start a personal pension as soon as they started earning money was greeted with derision. Advice to start thinking about retirement met the same response. There is no alternative, therefore, to taxes high enough to meet both objectives. If people want to save extra, they could have a tax-efficient personal pension, which would be the icing on the cake. As your interviewee Rita Young pointed out (report, 20 March), our pensions are the smallest in Europe, and “this budget was for Tories and no one else”. She is not fooled, so why should anyone else be?
William Robert Haines
Shrewsbury

The change in the rules concerning compulsory annuities will mean that many retirees will be looking for a safe and lucrative market to place their pension-pot lump sums. One such area may well be property. Investing in this sector will surely inflate the housing bubble still further. Is this just another example of the law of unintended consequences? Perhaps. Or perhaps George Osborne knows that rising house prices always play well with the middle-aged and elderly, home-owning, Tory faithful. Unfortunately it does little to help younger people desperate to get on the property ladder.
Malcolm Harris
Grimsby, Lincolnshire

The idea that following the Government’s liberalisation of defined contribution pensions, ordinary people will blow their pension pot and then be left to a life of penury recalls the age-old prejudice about the feckless working class. Of course those with a more elevated social status, bankers for example, are well known for the care they take with money.
Keith Flett
London N17
Garden city will be no such a thing
Janet Street-Porter (22 March) is spot on about the proposed Ebbsfleet garden city. How easily and glibly the term “garden city” is used by politicians to justify and sell large-scale housing projects such as this.
The notion that builders/developers would subscribe to the low housing density, the spacious airy houses, the large gardens front and back, the integrated community amenities and the parks and woodland provided for a population drawn from all socio-economic groups that were the characteristics of the original garden cities is utterly absurd. There would be no profit in it for them.
If such a new town is to be built, let us be honest and call it something like a “prestigious and exclusive development of executive houses and apartments with prices starting in the region of £500,000”.
Nick Hudson
Welwyn Garden City

You report that 15,000 homes are set to be constructed at a new garden city at Ebbsfleet in Kent. The Chancellor has said that this will be a “proper garden city”, like Welwyn Garden City or Letchworth. This announcement, while welcome, is only one of the measures needed to address England’s need for housing. For while the garden city idea offers one concept of a better quality of life, I would question whether this is really what many people want, today or in the future.
In fact, planning permission already exists for 22,000 homes to be built in Ebbsfleet, so one would challenge whether this is truly a new garden city, or just a rehashing of an existing scheme.
The idea of garden cities, in the historical sense, may not on its own be able to solve the current housing crisis. People are still going to be drawn to the bright lights of the city. Perhaps another solution would be garden suburbs, built on the outskirts of large cities and set only a short commute from people’s workplaces.  I suggest that the garden city principles (including long-term stewardship, together with the delivery of a sustainable and well-designed community) might be captured as much in that format as in a stand-alone new settlement.
Aman Sahota
Associate, Real Estate and Development, Lewis Silkin LLP, London EC4

Dungeness is perfectly safe
Contrary to your alarmist front-page story “British nuclear plant’s ‘Fukushima alert”, (19 March) EDF Energy’s nuclear facilities at Dungeness have always been extremely well protected from severe weather and seismic events.
Suggestions of a cover-up are completely incorrect. We take very seriously the need to be transparent. The local community was consulted and kept informed about our plans at all times and media were told. Furthermore we have recently reopened our visitor centre at Dungeness and have welcomed 5,000 people to see our operations in action over the past year.
Even before the Japanese tsunami, Dungeness was safeguarded against the worst flood risk that could be expected. Yet following the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi plant, EDF Energy acted with humility and leadership and worked with our regulator to establish whether there were more steps that could be taken to enhance safety.
Following an extensive programme of analysis, modelling and physical testing we decided to strengthen the flood defences at Dungeness still further. They have now been developed to an extent that the power station is protected against levels of events whose probability is vanishing small.
Similar exercises were carried out at all nuclear facilities, scrutinised by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, which has since acknowledged the safety of EDF Energy’s operations.
Martin B. Pearson
Station Director
Dungeness B, Kent
Make up has nothing to do with beauty
Alice Jones writes about the trend for women to take “no make-up selfies” (22 March). Many of us choose not to wear make- up daily. But it’s against the mainstream. I recently heard a commentator say the number of women spending money on cosmetic surgery showed the economy was on the up. No – rather it shows a culture swamped by the power of advertising.
We all have beauty within. As Benjamin Zephaniah puts it in his poem “(She don’t want to be) Miss World”: “Beauty is about how you greet /the everyday people that you meet”.
This is the beauty we should strive to develop, until it shines out of us, blinding each other with our natural radiance.
Louise Hall
Leicester
Crimea and scotland: spot the difference
The UK Government has furiously condemned the referendum in Crimea saying it is illegal and that to have legitimacy the independence issue would have to be decided by Ukraine as a whole. Perhaps it would care to explain why it has not taken the same approach over the Scottish referendum where the rest of the UK has been denied a vote?
RL Davey

Times:

Many doctors have strong opposing views — could they not agree at least to be neutral?
Sir, Dr Mark Porter’s excellent article (Most doctors support assisted dying — they want the option themselves, Mar 18) was a much-needed corrective to the hysteria that frequently surrounds the assisted dying debate.
Dr Porter rightly points out the disconnection between the monolithic opposition of bodies such as the BMA and the deeply divided views of the doctors whom they are supposed to represent, most of whom see neutrality as the correct stance. Surveys have shown similar disconnection between people of faith (overwhelmingly in favour) and their leaders (against); likewise, people with disability and those who claim to speak for them.
Meanwhile dying people and their loved ones are suffering. It is wrong that unrepresentative spokespersons can so dominate a debate as to be able to block a compassionate law that would permit greater choice for mentally competent people at the end of life.
Professor Raymond Tallis
Chair, Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying
Sir, Mark Porter is quite right that senior figures of the Royal College of General Practitioners may be out of touch with their membership on assisted dying. I write as one of the regional representatives appointed by the RCGP to assess the attitude of their GP members towards assisted dying. I acted for my patch of East Anglia where there are 1,700 members. Briefly, 7.5 per cent replied to my e-ballot, 47 per cent wishing to maintain opposition, 33 wised to move to neutrality, and 20 per cent were seeking the RCGP to move and lead on assisted dying.
The RCGP refusess to allow its 49,000 members to have a ballot on assisted dying stating that the subject was “too contentious and difficult an issue” for a simple vote.
Like Dr Porter, I believe that the RCGP should move to neutrality on assisted dying in order to best represent the opinion of the majority of its GP members,
Dr Philip Hartropp
Alwalton, Peterborough
Sir, Dr Porter believes that the opposition of the RCGP to assisted dying reflects the views of those who work “in the ivory towers of medical politics”. In fact, the opposition to a change in the law is the result of a consultation of GPs last year. Of the 1,700 members who responded, 77 per cent are against a change in the law. They felt it would undermine the doctor-patient relationship, put the most vulnerable at risk from coercion.
Dr Euan Dodds
Edinburgh
Sir, The recent consultation by the RCGP suggests that nearly four out of five GPs consulted wanted the College to stand firm in its opposition to assisted dying.
Dr Porter says doctors can assess a patient for assisted suicide and leave it to another doctor to supply the lethal drugs, but the main problem for most doctors is the near-impossibility of making the life-or-death assessments involved.
Doctors are all too aware of the vulnerabilities of seriously ill patients. They also have an important role to play in preventing suicide. Is it any wonder that most of them, and their professional bodies, are opposed to attempts to foist assisted suicide onto them?
Dr Idris Baker, Professor Marie Fallon, Dr Jim Gilbert, Professor Robert George, Dr Craig Gannon, Dr David Jeffrey, Professor Scott Murray, Professor Patrick Stone (UCL)

Leading figures from the worlds of theatre, ballet and opera welcome the Chancellor’s tax credit largesse
Sir, We welcome the extension of the creative sector tax credit regime to all UK theatre productions, including live performance in theatre, opera, ballet and dance, as the Chancellor announced in last week’s budget.
This is a powerful encouragement to the creative sector, stimulating jobs, live performance, cultural exports, and more public engagement in the arts across the whole country.
British theatre leads the world. We have some of the finest writers, directors, designers, actors, dancers, singers and technicians, and we must guarantee this pre-eminence for future generations. In particular, we are pleased that these proposals provide the greatest incentive for touring productions. This will stimulate the UK regions which so often are the training ground for new talent in our industry — at present, for almost a third of the year our regional theatres are “dark”.
We welcome the inclusion of opera, dance and ballet, alongside all forms of theatre. Importantly, these measures put theatre and all these performing arts on the same footing as those creative sectors that already benefit from a tax credit regime such as film, animation and high-end TV drama.
Christopher Barron, Birmingham Royal Ballet; Dan Bates, Sheffield Theatres; Sir Peter Bazalgette & Alan Davey, Arts Council England; Alex Beard, Royal Opera House; Julian Bird, SOLT & UK Theatre;
Hugh Bonneville; Matthew Bourne & Robert Noble, New Adventures Dance Company; Nica Burns, Nimax Theatres; Simon Callow; Stephen Daldry;
Sir Richard Eyre; Alan Finch & Jonathan Church, Chichester Festival Theatre; Sonia Friedman, Sonia Friedman Productions; Rupert Gavin, Incidental Colman; Nigel Havers; Sir Nicholas Hytner & Nick Starr, National Theatre;
Felicity Kendall; David Lan, Young Vic Theatre; Sir Cameron Mackintosh; Richard Mantle, Opera North; Caro Newling, Neal Street Productions; Sir Howard Panter & Rosemary Squire, Ambassador Theatre Group; Kim Poster, Stanhope Productions; David Pountney, Welsh National Opera; Ian Rickson; Josie Rourke & Kate Pakenham, Donmar Warehouse; Mark Rubinstein; Mark Rylance; Mark Skipper, Northern Ballet; Alistair Spalding, Sadler’s Wells Theatre; John Stalker; Nadia Stern, Rambert; David Suchet; Rachel Tackley, English Touring Theatre; Caroline Thomson, English National Ballet

Experts from the offshore dredging industry point out that obtaining building materials on land would be more damaging
Sir, Jenni Russell (Mar 21) lists world peace, an end to rape and a ban on dredging in the sea as three goods. Sea-dredged aggregates have long been used for building, and if sea dredging were banned it would mean the despoliation of more sites on land. Marine research has repeatedly shown that sea dredging makes no appreciable difference to beach protection or marine habitats.
David Harris
London SW13
Sir, May I, as a chief officer aboard a British dredger working off the UK coast, assure Jenni Russell that we run under stringent regulations which include care for the environment and sensitivity to marine life.
The land-based alternatives to marine aggregate dredging are far more destructive. Maintenance dredging, keeping ports open and rivers from silting up, is a separate issue, but one equally important to an island nation reliant on sea trade.
Peter Dixon
Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset

Harping on scientists’ gender and skin colour damages science and discourages youngsters from studying it
Sir, I was proud to be a scientist this week when the Bicep2 collaboration released evidence of events moments after the Big Bang (“Echoes of the Big Bang confirm theory of how Universe began”, Mar 18).
Unfortunately, some people still manage to see past these wonders and focus only on the gender and race of those involved. A columnist in one newspaper wrote that Maggie Aderin-Pocock (space scientist and expert science communicator) and
I were invited to comment on these results on Newsnight because of our “diversity”.
Maggie and I are both women with dark skin. If this is worthy of mention at all, it should be to celebrate that individuals in modern British society are achieving their potential, regardless of their appearance or heritage. Likewise, the Bicep2 team
is composed of men and women of many ethnicities, all with hard-earned expertise. These scientists are working together to uncover the secrets of the Universe, as opposed to peddling an outdated worldview from behind a fake name. I deeply pity the sort of person who can watch a report about ground-breaking news on the origins of the Universe and everything in it, and see only the gender and skin colour of the scientists involved. These attitudes are deeply damaging to science, and discourage women and people from different backgrounds from studying and engaging with science.
Dr Hiranya Peiris
Reader in Astronomy, UCL

A naval historian believes that propoals to paint HMS Victory all black are historically incorrect
Sir, Your report “Victory’s modern paint hides dark secret” (Mar 19) was intriguing but off beam. Ships’ hulls used to be coated with a mix of tar and black paint, but it was also common for naval ships to have wide bands along the wales of the hull painted in a variant of “English yellow”, between a light ochre and a reddish yellow.
Since she was saved for the nation in the 1920s, the Victory has been restored to look as she was in 1805 before the battle of Trafalgar. While analysis of paint layers has been useful it is not the only evidence; the returns of naval carpenters and dockyard stores are also studied. Contemporaneous paintings clearly show that in 1805 Victory had yellow bands along her hull.
The consultants state that the great cabin and captain’s cabin of Victory, being working spaces, would not resemble “country houses as they do now”.
While this shows little grasp of Georgian naval culture they have a point. The decoration of such cabins reflected the taste and status of the occupants, whose houses were typically decorated in light blue, yellow, pale grey and ivory white. The dark varnish in Victory’s grander cabins is a Victorian anachronism which should be rectified.
The suggestion that the Victory’s hull should be repainted all-over black would ruin a beautiful ship — and it would be historically incorrect.
Justin Reay
Editorial director, BritishNavalHistory.com
Oxford

Telegraph:
SIR – Sir Michael Pitt, chief executive of the Planning Inspectorate, seeks to defend one of his staff, Paul Griffiths, or “Inspector Blight”. Mr Griffiths has allowed 19 of the 22 appeals regarding wind turbines that he has considered since May 2009, to the fury of the local people who opposed them.
This record seems extraordinary. It is difficult to accept that all these people, who have extensive local knowledge, are wrong and Mr Griffiths is the only one who is right.
It is not surprising that the High Court did not find fault with one of his decisions on the grounds that local people were ignored. Matters of planning judgment are the exclusive province of the Secretary of State. There is no way of challenging an appeal decision except in narrowly prescribed circumstances.
The Planning Inspectorate, with its unknown, unelected and unaccountable inspectors, is an impediment to localism. Its reform is long overdue.
Alan Overton
Reading, Berkshire
Related Articles
Upstart circus school won’t stop Big Tops thriving
23 Mar 2014
David Cameron must follow through on his targets for Europe
23 Mar 2014
Crimea sanctions
SIR – Given that Crimea was always part of the USSR until Khrushchev inexplicably transferred it to the Ukraine, it is not surprising that Vladimir Putin sought to use the Ukrainian unrest to achieve its return to Russia. Although his methods have been devious and no doubt illegal, the joy of the Crimean people at their imminent return to Russia has been plain to see.
As Mr Putin has stated that he intends to go no further and that he wants a peaceful and secure Ukraine on his border, Western sanctions, which could lead to tit-for-tat repercussions, seem rather futile.
It may be more realistic for the Western powers to keep their powder dry, accept the inevitable, and determine far stronger sanctions and actions to be brought into play should Mr Putin go back on his word. A bit of realpolitik is required.
B J Colby
Portishead. Somerset
Budget bonanza
SIR – May I thank George Osborne, the Chancellor, for the staggering generosity he displayed in the Budget by reducing a pint of beer by 1p?
This means that, with a pint costing approximately £3, I will now save £10 for every £3,000 I spend on beer.
I reckon that if I drink an extra 20 pints a week I could make this saving in a year or so. I had better get drinking.
Alan Lewis
Cheadle, Staffordshire
Assisted dying Bill risks error and abuse
SIR – Ann Farmer writes cogently about the risks associated with Lord Falconer’s Bill on assisted dying, comparing it to the Abortion Act 1967 and its similar provision that two doctors must give their approval before an abortion can be carried out.
During my career as a psychiatrist, I came across a number of physically ill, suicidal patients who regained their will to live when treated for their underlying depression.
Would depression always be correctly diagnosed by the two doctors making the recommendation?
Angus McPherson
Findon, West Sussex
SIR – From assisted suicide to persuaded suicide is a small step, and from persuaded suicide to mercy killing is another small step. Those who seek to legalise assisted suicide now may come to regret the consequences.
Ray Cantrell
Colchester, Essex
HS2 connections
SIR – There is great potential for cities other than Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to benefit from HS2 via the connections to the east and west coast main lines, but this needs to be addressed now if these locations are not to fall behind.
Many of these smaller cities could also be reached by HS2 trains moving to the classic railway network to complete their journey. But this will require new or significantly enhanced stations.
It is time for an urgent dialogue between HS2, Network Rail, the train operating companies and local authorities.
Jeremy Acklam
Institution of Engineering and Technology
London WC2R
Training paramedics
SIR – You report (March 9) that Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS medical director, suggests that fewer 999 patients should be taken to hospital and that paramedics need more training in order to feel comfortable treating patients at home. Yet these are the people officially appointed by the NHS to deal with emergencies.
Some authorities, according to your report, are also using financial bonuses in an effort to persuade undertrained staff to take risks with patients’ lives. At the same time we have highly skilled doctors, trained at great expense and experienced in a vast range of diseases and conditions, saying: “If you have an emergency, don’t call us.”
And we are told that the NHS is the envy of the world.
Dr Philip E Elwood
Nettleham, Lincolnshire
SIR – The excellence of our NHS has become something of a credo. Last month I was in China and found myself unable to stand or walk properly. I went to the hospital, registered (10 yuan/£1), was taken to a nerve specialist who diagnosed the ailment as CCCI (insufficient blood to the brain), prescribed some medicine, and suggested I have a scan when I returned to Britain. I bought the medicine in the hospital pharmacy (£1.40), and was out of the hospital in 40 minutes. Back in Britain, I had to wait five days to see my GP, who referred me to a “super GP” at our local hospital – in five weeks’ time. This, the hospital informed me, was an urgent appointment.
Hari Thorpe
Swanage, Dorset
Bankers’ salaries
SIR – You report that suspect accounting standards may have allowed banks to overstate their profits and thus contribute to the bankers’ huge bonuses. We have previously read about alleged manipulations of index benchmarks such as Libor and foreign exchange prices, not to forget the ridiculous fiasco of payment protection insurance.
But who benefits from all this dubious activity? It is not the banks’ customers, who are now suing the banks in massive class actions. The shareholders don’t benefit either – they seem to have to pay for the losses and lawsuits. As for the taxpayer – the Government, the Bank of England and the regulators seem to shore up the system with our taxes while incurring huge liabilities for future generations.
Why do the banks and investment institutions pay such large salaries and bonuses to their employees, managers and directors?
Steve Male
Highampton, Devon
Long-range aircraft
SIR – The huge areas covered in the search for Flight MH370 reminds us of the need for long-range maritime patrol aircraft in Britain’s front line.
With a range of over 7,000 miles (or more with air-to-air refuelling) and sophisticated radar and acoustic sensors, the Nimrod MRA4 would have been tailor-made for this operation. Britain’s reputation would suffer if it were unable to offer such assistance in the event of a similar incident in the Atlantic.
Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Roberts (retd)
Lymington, Hampshire
Diet scaremongers
SIR – When will those who try to scare the living daylights out of us about our diets and lifestyles realise that the more they preach that things are bad for us, the less notice anybody will take?
Dr Michael Barley
Hove, East Sussex

SIR – As the founder and director of Zippos Circus and its associated school, the Academy of Circus Arts, I was delighted to read Dea Birkett’s article (News Review, March 16) supporting traditional circus in the face of the launch of the National Centre for Circus Arts (NCCA).
While I welcome any initiative that raises the profile of circus arts or brings in new audiences, it is important to put the NCCA into perspective as a training organisation which largely supports theatre and nouveau cirque. Yet it would seem to have appointed itself rather arrogantly as the ambassador for Britain’s entire circus industry.
There is actually another whole world of circus out there. “Big Top” circuses are thriving, with up to 40 tenting shows performing at some point each year around Britain. They are socially inclusive and culturally diverse, playing to huge audiences across the country, often for less than the price of a cinema ticket.
Furthermore, our academy is the only travelling tenting circus school in the world and prepares students for the reality of life in the ring, as opposed to a career in theatre or opera. When I want fresh talent I’ll be looking for highly skilled artists who also know how to rig their own equipment and hammer in a tent stake (and possibly even make candyfloss). I won’t be running to the NCCA’s door for a student with a BA.
The NCCA will never threaten the real magic of the Big Top – the show will most definitely go on.

SIR – I was pleased to see David Cameron set out his seven targets for a new Europe in The Sunday Telegraph.
He is now publicly committed to ensuring that Britain will no longer be bound to ever-closer union with other EU members under the Lisbon Treaty. But you were right to sound a cautionary note in your supportive leading article. He has to follow through.
David Sprague
Dorking, Surrey
SIR – David Cameron seems just as unlikely to keep his promise of holding a referendum after renegotiating our relationship with Brussels as the promise he made in 2008: that he would hold a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty was not fully ratified before the Tories came to power.
Related Articles
The Planning Inspectorate ignores local opinion
23 Mar 2014
It must have been clear to Mr Cameron at the time that all the indications were that the treaty would be safely voted through. The majority was 140.
Today Mr Cameron would have us believe that he can persuade not only an obdurate EU Commission, but also all other EU member states, to effectively tear up the Lisbon Treaty and come up with a new one designed to suit Britain’s needs – all by the end of 2017, and without invoking Article 50 of the treaty. Surely he must know that he is making yet another empty promise.
Rather than an honest debate on our EU membership, we are getting more political misdirection and obfuscation. By entering an election campaign hoping he can fool enough of the electorate to win, Mr Cameron evades the truth, abuses trust, and debases democracy.
Carol Doggett
Barton on Sea, Hampshire
SIR – Mr Cameron’s negotiating hand would be strengthened if he were to announce that, in the event of his seven targets not all being achieved, he would campaign for a No vote.
Alan G Cox
Belper, Derbyshire
SIR – Having read Mr Cameron’s seven points for a new Europe, I am disappointed that not one of them refers to the undemocratic, indeed anti-democratic, nature of the European Union. In 1975 I genuinely believed that I was voting for an association of sovereign states in a customs union. Despite governments giving away further political power without our consent over the years, I can still see the sense in some form of political treaty.
What I cannot understand is how Mr Cameron, his cohorts and others before him have failed to perceive how offensive it is to be governed by a corrupt organisation manned by second-hand politicians who exercise executive power without being accountable to the electorate. I would be prepared to support a European treaty if it provided an elected parliament which dispensed laws authorised by an electoral mandate.
Since I believe that Mr Cameron’s programme will not succeed at all, this attempt to encourage people like me to vote for him in the next election demonstrates the gulf that exists between the rhetoric of politicians and the reality of what can be achieved.
Major Gordon Bonner (retd)
Leeds, West Yorkshire
SIR – If the changes to Europe that Mr Cameron seeks are to be achieved, this first requires an EU convention to be set up to host the negotiations over the reforms between the member states. An essential precondition to setting up this convention, though, is that there are enough states interested in reform to constitute the quorum necessary to trigger its formation. Thereafter, of course, any reforms unanimously agreed by the convention will still have to be ratified by all 28 member states, some by a referendum.
At present, however, there is precious little evidence that any of this is going to happen before 2017, or indeed at all.
John Graham
Epsom, Surrey
SIR – Every week, it seems, we hear what “David Cameron thinks” or “David Cameron says”. When are we going to read that David Cameron has actually done something?
Don Minterne
Bradford Peverell, Dorset

Irish Times:

A chara, – Further to Ann Marie Hourihane’s article “Cinderella of public dental health braces itself for a cultural shift” (Health + Family, March 11th), over the last number of years, public dental services have been decimated.
Falling staff numbers, due to the recruitment embargo, and retirement, have had a hugely negative effect on the everyday operation of the service, with the decreased availability of service to patients, and target class primary school screenings in some areas, simply not being met. Where services have been reduced, we have seen an increase in patients presenting with pain and infection, necessitating complex treatment, and, in certain circumstances, acute hospital admission, a reprehensible consequence of the circumstances which now prevail, and simply unacceptable for a first world country. Waiting lists for oral surgery and treatment of both children and special needs patients under general anaesthesia continue to soar due to lack of resources and facilities.
While the introduction of orthodontic therapists, as alluded to in the article, may expedite treatment in some cases, the basics have been overlooked. Many orthodontic issues could be flagged and possibly intercepted earlier if the manpower was available to see and treat children more frequently, with the emphasis put on the maintenance of a decay-free primary dentition, which could, in turn, reduce the bottleneck which now exists, particularly in the provision of care under general anaesthesia.
At the annual general meeting of the Public Dental Surgeons Group of the Irish Dental Association in October 2013, this group called on the HSE to ensure adequate dental staffing in all areas, to allow patients access equitable services, irrespective of geographical location, thereby safeguarding their oral health. This group also called on the Department of Health and the HSE to ensure appropriate and timely provision of dental general anaesthetic services for children and special care patients in order to avoid unnecessary delays in treating pain, sepsis and dental trauma. These requests remain.
To no other profession does the old adage “A stitch in time saves nine” ring more true. Dental decay is the most prevalent, preventable disease worldwide. The simple messages of maintaining adequate oral hygiene and reducing frequency of intake of sugar remain to the forefront in the constant battle against it. – Is mise,
Dr ISEULT
BOUARROUDJ, BDS
President,
Public Dental
Surgeons Committee,
Irish Dental Association,
Belvedere Hills,
Ballinderry,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

Sir, – The National Transport Authority has submitted for public consultation their proposal for a “Bus Rapid Transit” project encompassing three corridors: Blanchardstown to UCD; Clongriffin to Tallaght; and Swords to City Centre. It is proposed to use streamlined buses, with a capacity of 120 passengers, which are much cheaper than alternative rail solutions, it is claimed. Such bus transit projects have been a solution in Latin America in places such as Curitiba and Mexico City and in a few provincial European cities.
The acceptance by planners to allocate dedicated road space to efficient public transport is laudable. However, there is a touch of Groundhog Day here. Decades ago when reopening the then disused Harcourt Street line was under consideration there were strong proposals made for a busway. Eventually, the siren allure of lower capital costs was resisted and a quality light rail system was built. Ask the present users of the Green Line Luas if they would prefer a diesel-powered busway and you would get a dusty answer.
At first sight, busways have cheaper capital costs (though unlikely to be as cheap as the claimed one-third of comparable rail costs). However, operating costs can be higher, as a properly designed light rail system can carry a higher throughput of passengers for a lower cost. Buses have a design life of around 12 years, as opposed to the 30-year life of a light rail vehicle. There is the pollution from diesel versus the non-pollution of electric traction. Finally, it has been difficult to lure motorists from their vehicles to travel on buses, as opposed to light rail. A light rail system would have higher patronage than a busway – look at the crowded Luas at rush-hour.
People may not realise that in the Dublin of 1900, there was a dense network of electric trams providing easy access across the city. Dublin is a European capital. To maintain its attraction to inward investment, not to mind the quality of life for its citizens, it should be an enhanced urban environment with high-quality transport system that is fast, safe, reliable and clean. Let’s get back to the future, invest wisely and move towards eventually having a dense network of Luas services in Dublin. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL BARRY,
Frankfort Avenue,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.

Sir, – I find the carelessness of our Civil Service in mislaying the records of the late Brian Lenihan’s phone calls at the crucial moment for our country of the putting in place of the bank guarantee to be farcical (“Department of Finance has ‘no record’ of Lenihan phone calls”, Home News, March 20th). In light of Edward Snowden’s revelations of the diligence and thoroughness of the British secret service in keeping track of our telephonic communications, I wonder has your correspondent considered applying to GCHQ for details of Brian Lenihan’s phone records? If they were feeling in a generous mood I’ve no doubt they might even – in contrast to our Civil Service – provide a transcript of the actual conversations themselves! – Yours, etc,
CATHAL KERRIGAN,
Old Youghal Road,
Cork.

Sir, – Chris Johns makes the case that Ireland would make €400 million a year in tax by legalising cannabis (“Marijuana tax yield may prove the final blow to war on drugs”, Business Opinion, March 14th).
Surely it is time for Enda Kenny to show that Ireland could really be the best small country in the world in which to do “cannabusiness”? Can we afford to miss this opportunity?
Considering that the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, is a Nobel Prize nominee for his innovative lead in moving away from the failed “war on drugs” and that Uruguay’s health system has now been placed in the top three countries in the world, surely Minister for Health James Reilly will lend support to this idea?
If given the nudge, President Michael D Higgins might be persuaded to champion this initiative by contacting his counterpart in Uruguay who – as it happens – lives just off the O’Higgins Road near Montevideo!
Crucially, Michael O’Leary could annoy Aer Lingus by emblazoning the cannabis leaf on aircraft – a branding symbol of Ryanair’s nicer, more relaxed flying experience. – Yours, etc,
JUNE O’REILLY,
Lecturer in Communication,
Cork Institute
Sir, – Technology has transformed economic activity in the last two decades or so. The balance of supply and demand has been reversed; supply exceeds demand rendering economic growth unnecessary and impossible, yet all recovery strategy is based on restoring growth. It was such a strategy of throwing money at growth that gave rise to unmanageable debt; growth cannot occur when growth is not needed and overproduction capability ensures growth is no longer needed.
Overproduction capability has been achieved by elimination of dependence on human labour, the elimination of work. To prevent social collapse job numbers must be restored; employment must be generated from less work but all policies are aimed at having those employed work harder, more efficiently, longer and into old age. Such policies only ensure fewer people will ever work. In future we will have more people working less or fewer people working more.
Attempts to have the impact of modern technology introduced into economic discussion have met a surprisingly hostile reaction, especially in broadcasting. Government departments, politicians and economists have simply refused to enter into any discussion on the subject as if by ignoring the possibility it might go away.
It will not go away; impending unemployment due to work elimination by advancing technology is a reality of the 21st century and the greatest social problem to be confronted. The only possible solution is more employment generated from less work. Shorter hours, longer holidays and earlier retirement must be considered.
I challenge the political, economic and media establishment to acknowledge the crisis of work elimination and enter debate on how to create more jobs from less work. – Yours, etc,
PADRAIC NEARY,
Tubbercurry,
Co Sligo.
Sir, – Further to Morgan Kelly’s article “Our real economic crisis will begin if ECB credit stops” (Opinion and Analysis, March 14th), the National Treasury Management Agency did not sell bonds in December. The NTMA’s last issuance of 2013 involved short-term treasury bills, not bonds, and took place in September.
More importantly, neither the treasury bills issued in September 2013 nor the bonds issued this year following Ireland’s exit from the EU/IMF programme were “bought entirely by the State-controlled (or effectively controlled) banks AIB and Bank of Ireland”. In fact, the majority of the issuance (approximately 80 per cent) was acquired internationally. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN O’NEILL,
National Treasury
Management Agency,
Treasury Building,
Grand Canal Street,
Dublin 2.

Sir, – I’m sure everyone is aware of the considerable damage caused to our countryside by the recent storms. This includes damage to our forests as well as our roadside, hedgerow and parkland trees. As the body representing the forestry profession in Ireland, the Society of Irish Foresters is very concerned at the possibility of an over-reaction by local authorities and others which could lead to widespread, unnecessary felling of healthy trees.
All landowners are obliged by law to act in a prudent manner. However, trees considered for felling should be inspected by competent professionals to determine if felling is justified on safety grounds. – Yours, etc,
PACELLI BREATHNACH,
President,
Society of Irish Foresters,
Glenealy, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Charles Lamb, I think it was, who, having been shown a rough draft of one of Milton’s poems, declared that he never again would look into an artist’s workshop.
Dick Ahlstrom’s article on the detection of gravity waves from “the dawn of time” (Signal from ‘dawn of time’ helps explain the birth of the universe”, Home News, March 19th) deals with things that, for me, are getting very near to the original artist’s workshop. But my reaction is quite different from that of Charles Lamb. I want more of it for it’s where science and religion meet. Is this not creation? – Yours, etc,
GABRIEL MARTIN,
Leinster Park,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.

Sir, – I’m sure Brendan Behan would have had something to say on your editorial’s reference (The quare fellow, March 20th) to the “assassination” of Michael Collins, who died fighting, armed and in uniform among comrades similarly employed, armed and dressed. – Yours, etc,
DONAL KENNEDY,
Palmers Green,
London N13.

Irish Independent:

* Controversy surrounding the use of the word ‘disgusting’ by Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is descending into an unworthy pantomime of political brinkmanship by ministers vying for public sympathy.
Also in this section
No new politics on offer
Quotas contrary to equal opportunity
Monumental achievements
The Oireachtas has been advised in four special reports by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) since 2000 that An Garda Siochana management of the collection of road traffic fines has been inadequate. Official criticism of this matter has prevailed throughout the entire tenure of four garda commissioners and seven ministers for justice and none of them has taken effective remedial action.
Five government departments – Justice, Finance, Transport, Tourism and Sport – share responsibility for road traffic fines with An Garda Siochana but the PAC report noted that there was no analytical data to allow the issue of enforcement to become more focused and effective.
The C&AG’s fourth report in July 2012 was prompted by a member of the gardai presenting a file relating to 4,000 cases where it appeared that fixed charge notices issued had subsequently been cancelled.
In many cases the fixed charge notices had been cancelled corruptly and illegally and a number of persons who had benefitted from one or more cancellations of fixed charge notices for speeding or dangerous driving had subsequently committed similar offences, resulting in some cases in deaths and/or injury to themselves or others. Transport Minister Leo Varadkar is responsible for the Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2013 to 2020, which aims to reduce road collision fatalities from 162 in 2012 to 124, or fewer, by 2020 and a 30pc reduction of serious road traffic injuries.
Is this target achievable if the commissioner merely withdraws the word ‘disgraceful’? Will the public be reassured by politicians and the garda commissioner merely using the media to play Scrabble with them?
MYLES DUFFY
GLENAGEARY, CO DUBLIN
NO JOKE
* Everybody enjoys a bit of a laugh, a bit of banter, which is perfectly normal and acceptable. At times however, this bit of banter, may be had at the expense of someone else who may not enjoy being the subject of others’ entertainment. This is where, sometimes, people should perhaps consider a few things …
We can never know what’s going on in a person’s body, head or heart. A simple comment or gesture, made in the quest for a 20-second chuckle or to bask in the applause of a few peers, may be the most hurtful thing we can do to another and trigger a journey on a downward spiral that can result in untold harm and damage, not only to that person, but to those who they love and care for.
Such spur-of-the-moment decisions can result in a loss of self-esteem and self-respect.
So, please, before you decide to have a laugh at someone else’s expense, ask yourself this: “Is my 20-second chuckle worth the damage I may do to them and theirs?”
NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR
POLITICAL PAST MASTERS
* Around 1921, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins sent private emissaries to Washington to plead with the US government to reduce the number of visas it issued to young Irish men and women because they needed the youth of Ireland in Ireland to advance the nation.
In 2014, without any hint of embarrassment, the leader of the Irish Government pleads publicly in Washington with the US government to alter legislation to allow permanent residence to Irish illegals.
The contrast between the selfless Irish statesmen of 1920s’ Ireland and the selfish elite of today, posing as caring politicians, could not be greater.
DECLAN FOLEY
BERWICK, AUSTRALIA
SELFLESS SELFIES
* I was shocked by the patronising attitude of Helen Moorhouse last week (‘There’s something about do-gooding on social media that doesn’t sit right’, Irish Independent, March 22) regarding the unified approach of women (and men) who participated in an online campaign to donate money towards cancer research.
Many of the participants had suffered from cancer and had the scars to prove it. These people were not worrying about pimples. They were posting pictures online because they believed in the power of people working together.
The Irish Independent reported that €500,000 had been raised towards cancer research.
As far as I’m concerned people who take the time and effort to participate and donate to this campaign are wonderful.
So Helen, next time you write an article, try and look at the big picture.
MAJELLA O’NEILL
CLONMEL, CO TIPPERARY
ON SIDE OF ANGELS
* I am writing as an octogenarian who has just spent six weeks in two Kerry hospitals recently, due to a fractured femur.
I have been in different hospitals throughout my long life, but it was my first experience in Kerry. It was an eye-opener, to say the least. The sense of duty from all staff should be seen to be believed, may the Lord bless them.
In my opinion, the staff are all God’s representatives and are continuing Mother Teresa’s good work.
I would hope Health Minister James Reilly and all current and future governments appreciate the vital role that all care staff play in all our lives.
LIL STACK
TARBERT, CO KERRY
THUGS ROAMING FREE
* Does anyone remember the vicious assault on the young Italian student, Guido Nasi, who was playing football in Fairview Park in 1999?
His wallet was stolen and when he tried to get it back he was hit with a bottle and left paralysed. He lives with his elderly mother in Italy and requires full-time care. The Irish people were deeply shocked by this dreadful attack and many contributed to a fund to help him.
I was reminded of Guido when I saw the horrible attack on a young Brazilian man in Dublin by two thugs who kicked him in the face and left him lying unconscious on the road. It was filmed by someone and posted on YouTube for the whole world to see.
RTE’s ‘Liveline’ has been full of reports of unspeakably violent incidents in Ireland. There was an attack on a non-national family on the Luas and dreadful cases of the most horrible cruelty to defenceless animals by sadistic thugs.
Viciousness, cruelty and sheer savagery are all on the increase. Dublin is not a safe place to be. I often watch the innocent tourists as they walk around, carrying cameras and admiring our city. They are so trusting and vulnerable. I have visited many countries but I have never felt the palpable sense of menace that pervades Dublin. O’Connell Street and North Earl Street are awash with drug addicts – a particular phenomenon that seems to have developed in the past two years. Why is it tolerated?
It seems that feral thugs believe that they can do what they like and nothing will be done about it.
And while we’re at it, could we perhaps show our deep sympathy and support to that unfortunate Brazilian student by establishing a fund to help him and show him that we are all sickened by what happened on the feast of our national saint?
ANTHONY REDMOND
DUBLIN 12


Mary in hospital

$
0
0

25 March 2014 Mary
MARY IN HOSPITAL
No Scrabble today Perhaps I will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Jack Belliveau, who has died due to complications of a gastrointestinal disorder aged 55, was a scientist who managed to capture the first images of our brains’ thought processes in action, so engaging public imagination and laying the foundations for a whole new field of cognitive and behavioural neuroscience.
Before Belliveau began his research, radiologists gathering data on a patient’s cerebral function used an technique called PET (position emission tomography), but the images it produced did not have the clarity and resolution that allowed physicians to examine brain anatomy with any degree of accuracy. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), too, had been developed, allowing scientists to take high resolution images of the brain. But these were static, not dynamic, and could not track the brain’s response to stimulae.
It had long been known, however, that when neurons in the brain become active, local blood flow to those brain regions increases over four to six seconds before falling back, a phenomenon which can be detected by magnetic resonance which responds to the blood’s own magnetism. In the late 1980s Belliveau and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital worked with industry to develop a technique – called dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging – to look at blood flowing in the brain. This involved the use of an MRI scanner that took pictures 20,000 times faster than conventional imagers.
Dynamic susceptibility contrast imaging became a standard technique for assessing the movement of blood in brain capillaries (“perfusion”) in stroke patients, but Belliveau wondered if the technique could also be used to view activity in the brain while it processes information. By focusing on blood flow and subtracting images of the brain at rest from those at work, he thought, areas involved in cognitive processing would be revealed.
Belliveau visited a discotheque equipment supplier and bought a strobe light to stimulate a response in the brains of a group of volunteers. He then took images of their brains while they watched the flashing light and compared them with images taken when the strobe was switched off. But there was no difference. He tried again, this time with his guinea-pigs wearing goggles that displayed a chequerboard pattern. The primary visual cortex that responded to the strobe showed up perfectly.
In 1991 he and colleagues published a paper in the journal Science which marked the beginning of an explosion of MRI research by behavioural scientists and, more importantly, by neuroscientists, helping to shed light on the brain’s neural networks.
This culminated in the announcement last year by President Barack Obama of a new £100 million initiative (Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies — or BRAIN) to map the brain and provide insight into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy as well as psychological conditions like schizophrenia and autism.
Meanwhile in Europe around 80 European research institutions and some from outside the EU are involved in a Human Brain Project, which will use supercomputer-based models and simulations to reconstruct a virtual human brain to develop new treatments for neurological conditions.
John William Belliveau was born in San Mateo, California, on January 25 1959 and studied Biology and Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. After graduating in 1981 he spent a year in Britain at the University of Cambridge on a Winston Churchill scholarship, then took a PhD in biophysics at Harvard, where he made his breakthrough.
He remained at Harvard’s Martinos Centre until the end of his life, working on refinements to radiological imaging techniques and serving as first president of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.
He married, in 2001, Brigitte Poncelet, who survives him with a daughter.
Jack Belliveau, born January 25 1959, died February 14 2014
Guardian:
Letting the over-55s raid their pension pots whenever and however they want means that some, at least, will squander their assets and eventually fall back on the state, increasing the burden on the young (Analysis, 20 March).
Since the baby boomers as a generation have written themselves unaffordable promises, racked up massive national debts and cornered the supply of housing, their financial judgment must be in question, so maybe trusting them further with money is unwise.
On average, people underestimate their life expectancy by almost five years, which suggests that individuals are not as well positioned as a third party to decide how much to keep aside for their old age.
The new freedom to withdraw pension assets means it will now be easy to avoid inheritance tax, which represents a large loss of tax to the Treasury, increasing the burden of national debt for future generations.
Many baby boomers may withdraw pension savings to invest in buy-to-let properties which could well push up prices for first-time buyers and force more of them into renting for their whole lives. These young people, saving for a deposit, won’t have access to the “pensioner bonds” which Osborne is subsidising for the over-65s.
Angus Hanton
Intergenerational Foundation,
http://www.if.org.uk
• Chris Huhne is absolutely right to warn that changes to pension rules are likely to lead to “another rip-roaring house price boom” (Osborne’s ‘brilliant’ budget could turn out to be a dud, 24 March). The shame is that all three main parties now seem to want above-inflation increases in house prices.
A booming housing market is lucrative for the Treasury but has dire long term social and economic consequences. If housing is the best investment opportunity available, money will pour into bricks and mortar rather than finding more productive outlets. And the impact of increasingly unaffordable housing on social justice and intergenerational equity should be clear.
Property bubbles also result in building splurges and pressure on the countryside, as recently seen in Ireland and Spain, while doing little for those in need because houses are built for investment on the assumption that prices will continue to rise.
We do need to build many more houses. But we should plan them well and locate them sensitively. A building frenzy fuelled by hopes of making a quick buck should be the last thing anyone wants. Which is why it is so disappointing that no party will commit to house price stability as a policy aim.
Shaun Spiers
Chief executive, Campaign to Protect Rural England
• If retirees could invest in bonds that went to fund local infrastructure, including social housing, rather than buy-to-let schemes, then we could have a win-win-win situation. Pensioners would have a secure source of income in retirement, significant sums of capital would be invested in socially and economically useful local projects instead of financial institutions, and the costs of housing – and housing benefit – would not be further forced up. Local economic investment, devolution to communities as well as to individuals, addressing the shortage of housing and underinvestment in infrastructure, all in one policy. That’s a real radical alternative to the coalition.
Alex Hollingsworth
Oxford
• Now that one will not have to take out an annuity (too late for me, but anyway), it turns out that private pension schemes were just a way of investing money and obtaining tax relief. The more you saved, the more relief, and the higher your earnings, the higher the rate of relief. The poorer subsidise the richer, as usual. If private pensions are to become merely investment vehicles, why should they receive tax relief?
Dan Usiskin
London
• Let them blow their pensions on a Lamborghini (21 March). What irresponsible nonsense, especially from a minister in a government that claimed to have green credentials. For Steve Webb’s information, Lamborghinis have a fuel consumption of 20 mpg, and more like 12 mpg when driving in towns and cities. The minister might also like to know that they emit 400-500 g/km carbon dioxide. If ministers want to suggest how recent retirees should spend their money, more responsible advice would be for car users to buy small hybrids (or electric cars, or even bicycles), and for home owners urgently to improve the insulation of their houses.
Barry Mellor
London
• Not a Lamborghini, stupid … it will be private hip replacements, early cataract treatment and heart-bypass if the pension pot is big enough. Where else is the cash to come from to keep the private providers in business?
Joyce Brand
Ludlow
• According to Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary, her party “supports” the principle of the pension reforms announced by George Osborne (Report, 24 March). Can I ask was this decision made at a shadow cabinet meeting or a meeting of the parliamentary party, or was it just by a small clique of individuals?
Irving Nicol
Milton Keynes
• What is the Guardian doing presenting a very well-off family as being in straitened circumstances (Money, 22 March)? With a joint gross annual income of nearly £60,000, the family you featured are not in the middle of the income spectrum but in the top 28% – the average income for a family with two young children is around £30,000. Neither can they be financially squeezed with a monthly income of approximately £3,600. Even after deducting costs for mortgage and childcare, their monthly income must be over £2,000. How can a family of four reasonably find it difficult to live on this sum?
Jane Duffield-Bish
Norwich
• Are public employees, such as teachers, also to be trusted to make their own choices about retirement finance?
Will they also have the option of taking a pot of money, or are the contributions made throughout their careers not regarded as their money?
Averil Lewin

 

Your correspondent (Letters, 24 March) does not need HS2 to be built with a link to HS1 to get a through train from Crewe to Paris. Thanks to lobbying from the north-west, HS1 built a connecting track to the West Coast mainline to enable through trains. What this needs now are the trains and an operator prepared to take on immigration, security and the high Channel tunnel charges.
Tony Berkeley
House of Lords
• When the Channel tunnel was mooted, the votes of northern MPs were bought by the promise of a direct rail link to the continent. For a few heady months it was possible to board a train in York and step off in Paris, by trundling via Clapham Junction. New Thameslink tunnels were then built to take those trains under, instead of round central London. Someone in the capital soon put a stop to that.
Roger Osborne
Snainton, Scarborough
• The first phase of HS2 was always intended to reach Lichfield Junction, if not Crewe. Conventional trains would then be able to use it, just like Javelin services on HS1, and so cut journey times for through trains, even from Glasgow. At a stroke this would relieve congestion on the West Coast mainline: upgrading the existing lines out of London would still cost tens of billions, with years of disruption to existing services.
High-speed lines are built to higher and wider continental loading gauges. However, when the line from the Channel tunnel was built, no thought was given to proper connections with a future line to the north. In contrast, from the outset SNCF planned for successive phases of construction, leaving room for future growth, although we could learn from its mistakes with little-used intermediate stations: TGV Picardie was deliberately sited not to connect with the provincial network which crossed its route only a few kilometres away at Puzeaux.
David Nowell
New Barnet, Hertfordshire
• When it was announced in July 2013 that Hitachi had won the East Coast train replacement order, my reaction was that while it might benefit employment in Newton Aycliffe, the Department for Transport had gifted Hitachi an opening into the European market. Where does Vince Cable think the profits will go? “March of the makers”, indeed.
Robert As

 

In stating in the House Magazine that, for the personal independence payment and universal credit, he has a passionate belief that “what I am doing is the right thing”, Iain Duncan Smith echoes that other infamous politician, Tony Blair. I am sure we all recall his unflinching belief in the presence and threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and, when these failed to materialise, he said – without a hint of irony – “Look, I only know what I believe.”
Dan Tanzey
Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire
• Your correspondent (Letters, 24 March) is right to point out that I don’t (unlike the BBC) pretend to be impartial. But he is wrong to link me with Tories who attack the licence fee. I have repeatedly defended it. I just think the BBC should try harder to deserve it.
Peter Hitchens
London
• While it is a good idea to suggest Martin Amis read the writings of Stuart Hall (Letters, 20 March), it is obvious that Amis knows Foucault.
Phil Rhoden
Kidderminster, Worcestershire
• Spotted in a cookshop in ever-so-desirable San Rafael, North California, a recipe book: Fifty Shades of Kale (In Praise of … Kale, 21 March 2014).
David Collison
Richmond, Surrey
•  Having graduated 55 years ago and been a Guardian reader for even longer, I regard myself as well educated and well read. However, I needed to look up two words in the letter to Pamela Stephenson Connolly (24 March). Her answer involving “tops” and “bottoms” is still incomprehensible. I wonder how the plushophilists fared when I was young, what with clothing coupons and bald teddybears.
Ann Pugh
Walsall
• Wow! 10 best chickpea recipes in Saturday’s Cook supplement (22 March). How about 10 best mushy pea recipes for all those north of Watford?
R Moulds
Ludford, Lincolnshire
• I have never been to Valhalla, but I have sometimes been in Chãos, Portugal (Letters, 22 March).
Michael Miller
Sheffield
The chancellor has stated that we are to exploit the invention of graphene in this country. In this regard it may be worth contrasting the numbers of patents held by Manchester University, where it was discovered (0), and Samsung (a lot).
While I agree that graphene probably is the best thing since sliced bread, it is hard to see how it can be commercially exploited in the absence of something to exploit. It is also my understanding that Sir Andre Geim, one of two emigre Russian scientists at Manchester who made the discovery, is not patent friendly, taking a similar line to the Manchester Manifesto published by John Sulston through the university, which is probably the simple most meretricious document relating to patents ever issued.
Before making further investments in graphene, the chancellor might well be advised to review the due diligence carried out by Manchester to ensure that graphene is actually its to exploit.
Philip Atkinson
Solicitor and former head of intellectual property at Eversheds

 

It matters not a jot for those of us who were against the imposition of student fees to say “we told you so” now that there needs to be a change to the system of repayments (Government got maths wrong over tuition fees, 22 March).
Given that it is too late to go back to where we started from, a rethink is due. If you were to take as a broad proposition that education is for life, perhaps a lifetime repayment scheme would be possible? A graduate could choose when to repay. This could be, as now, drip-feeding the loans back annually, or in later life after children have left home / downsizing property / inheritance / windfall and so on, with the amount needed repaying keeping place with inflation. Repayment from untaxed income would also help and encourage settlement of debt.
Nothing can overcome the injustice of a coalition most of whom benefited from free college education imposing a large financial handicap on younger generations through student debt. They cannot have thought through all the implications and life-changing decisions that debt has caused graduates. For instance, whether bringing up children is affordable and where they may well be denied a mortgage because student repayments have priority at the £21,000 earnings threshold.
Deb Nicholson
Bristol
• It has taken the government three years to admit its tuition fees system is not sustainable (Report, 23 March). It will take years to correct the enormous strain it has already put on our universities and students.
The system was always wrong in principle: saddling young people with a lifetime of debt, while starving universities of adequate funding. Now we hear the maths was wrong and there is a looming funding gap. We have been warning minsters that the overwhelming majority of postgraduate teachers will not be able to pay back their loans and will owe more than £100,000 after 30 years – twice as much as they borrowed. And if young people are unemployed or in low-paid jobs, go abroad or simply drop out of official statistics, the debt to the public purse will be much greater. Cutting fees would provide only a short-term solution. The spectre of raising fees still further is sheer madness.
Dr Mary Bousted
General secretary, Association of Teachers and Lecturers
•  The report that the government’s system for funding a university education may end up costing more than the system it replaced is not that surprising. Critics of the reforms have long argued that the trebling of tuition fees and provision of up-front loans was an accounting trick designed not to make the system more efficient but to further implant a competitive market into higher education. Perhaps the government should cut its losses and go back to providing a free education to all those who want a degree. Can UK plc afford it? Well, it depends whether you see higher education as a drain or an investment in the future. After all, Germany is set to scrap tuition fees and its economy does not appear to be collapsing.
Professor Des Freedman
Goldsmiths, University of London
•  If there is one thing we can learn from the student tuition fee loan debacle, it is the idiocy of applying the logic of neoliberalism to a sector in which it is clearly ill suited. This massive economic category error is not restricted to higher education. Neoliberalism, and its ideological adjutant, managerialism, has contaminated primary and secondary education, health and social care, and the voluntary sector. Tragically, there appears to be no end in sight for this discredited experiment in philistinism.
William Hutson
Nottingham
Needing an anecdote or two for a paper I was due to deliver on the occasion of the director Peter Glenville’s birth centenary in 2013, I rang up Ossie Morris (obituary, 20 March) late last year. He recalled, still with astonishing clarity, working with Glenville on Term of Trial (1962), a small black-and-white British film.
Interestingly, he hadn’t bothered to give the credit even a mention beyond its title in his riveting 2006 autobiography, despite the fact it co-starred Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, Terence Stamp and the newcomer Sarah Miles. Ossie’s fabulous memoir, devoting considerable space instead to his long collaboration with the Hollywood film-maker John Huston, was, rather fittingly and wittily, entitled Huston, We Have a Problem.

 

Independent:

 
I find it extremely difficult to reconcile your newspaper’s stance on climate change with your support for fracking. (Editorial, “Fracking is right and necessary. So publish more evidence”, 21 March.)
The only environmental advantage offered by fracking is that burning gas emits considerably less CO2 per unit of energy than coal, but this only benefits climate change if fugitive emissions of methane released by fracking are kept below 2 per cent. In the US there has been no proper monitoring but releases as high as 9 per cent have been recorded. Furthermore there is no evidence that shale gas will replace coal. Instead the US is exporting cheap coal and power stations elsewhere in the world are now converting back from natural gas to coal with disastrous consequences for climate change.
Finally the Chancellor’s policy is to support shale gas at the expense of renewables which explains why UK investment in green technologies has halved over the past  three years.
Opposition to fracking is therefore rational and scientifically based. It does The Independent no credit to pretend otherwise.
Dr Robin Russell-Jones MA FRCP FRCPath, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire

I was very disappointed by your editorial of 21 March. You acknowledge the kind of concerns raised by protesters, but imply that they are misinformed and that there is abundant evidence that fracking is “safe and clean”, and that this will see off the “increasingly politicised” anti-fracking movement.
But on the contrary, experience from the US and elsewhere, backed by European Commission and American independent research, has identified significant pollution risks and actual damage from leaking wells, including permanent contamination of aquifers and drinking water by methane, heavy metals, radioactive elements and carcinogenic chemicals.
Local communities also suffer greatly from air pollution, noise from drilling and heavy truck movements, and water shortages. And significant release of methane from underground further accelerates climate change.
No doubt the corporate interests that stand to benefit financially (backed by a compliant government) can mount an impressive PR exercise aimed at getting public opinion on-side, but only by skewing the truth.
You claim that fracking will reduce energy prices and increase security of supply. But energy prices are set in an international market, so any gas extracted by UK fracking is unlikely to have much effect on our bills.
And rather than subsidising oil and gas giants trying to squeeze out the last drop of fossil fuels with what is a highly invasive and resource-intensive process, a better way to strengthen energy security is increased research and investment in a range of genuinely clean, renewable technologies, coupled with improved insulation and more efficient heating systems.
Dr Christine Marsh, Dawlish, Devon

The fracking lobby is wrong to suggest that public opinion remains “the last piece of the puzzle” (“Lobbying drive for fracking launched”, 20 March). There are other gaping holes in the industry’s game-plan too.
Experts have warned that shale gas won’t cut UK fuel bills, and the industry has completely failed to show how a shale-gas boom is compatible with tackling climate change.
On top of this there remains real concern about the damaging impact of fracking on local communities and their environment, particularly given recent cuts to the main regulator, the Environment Agency.
The real solution to our energy challenges are energy efficiency and developing the UK’s substantial renewable potential. This will not only be good for our environment – it will boost our long-term economic prospects too.
Tony Bosworth, Energy Campaigner, Friends of the Earth, London SW6

Only force will  stop Putin
Your correspondent Nick Megoran (20 March), a lecturer in political geography, wants to see Nato wound up in the interests of preserving good relations with an expansionist Russia.
This sort of reductionist claptrap has no credibility. If Mr Megoran consulted the freedom-loving peoples of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as other countries which have borders with Russia, he would find massive support for their continuing membership  of Nato.
Why? They know that as long as they remain members any attempt by Putin to invade them would, in terms of mutual treaty obligations, require Nato to intervene militarily. Secondly, its membership of Nato gives the US massive traction, and moral collateral.
Force and the threat of force spearheaded by Nato are the only factors likely to impact on Putin’s thinking and restrain him from further adventurism.
Michael Batchelor, Swansea

It is really exasperating to see our government pressing the EU to “punish” Russia with economic sanctions. There can only be three consequences: (i) everyone, on both sides, is worse off; (ii) nothing will change as regards Crimea; (iii) in a couple of years,  we will all move on and  the sanctions will be lifted. An exercise which, if it has any purpose at all, is to make the political leaders feel less impotent than they actually are.
And anyway: why is it legitimate for the Falklanders to vote to be part of Britain rather than Argentina, the Gibraltarians to vote to be part of Britain rather than Spain, and the Northern Irish to vote to be part of Britain rather than Ireland, but not for the people of Crimea to vote to be part of Russia and rather than Ukraine?
Malachy Cornwell-Kelly, Sevenoaks, Kent

Your correspondents who adhere to the notion that “free elections” took place in Crimea should read Anne Applebaum’s book Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe to understand Russian-style elections. Where were (or are) the opposition parties in the Putin/Medvedev elections and reign? And, for all this talk about Crimea being so Russian, it was Catherine the Great who expanded Imperial Russia’s influence and seized Crimea.
Also, if the ethnicity of the people determines the fate of part of a country maybe the people of Bradford would like to vote to become part of Pakistan?
Zofia Pacula, Windsor

The ‘studentification’ of the city of Durham
As a resident of the City of Durham from 1984 to 2000, I am not surprised that there are protests about the loss of local housing to student accommodation (“Gown town: Durham locals fear losing their city to ‘studentification’ ” 17 March).
I lived in a two-bed terrace house in one of the streets near the viaduct and got used to the “thundering trains of the east-coast main line”, and enjoyed living there. I walked to my teaching job in the city, as did my daughter to her school, and I did most of my shopping in the city; there was a good selection of quality shops then.
The street’s inhabitants were a mixed bunch – professional people, retired, young singles and couples, and long-term residents. The street got a “City in Bloom” award for its tubs and hanging baskets.
Then developers bought up some of the houses, and one next to mine was turned into a four-bed student house. Gradually the area changed its character and was no longer desirable for couples or families. I represented our street on a local Police-University-Residents’ Liaison Committee to look at problems related to students living in the community, but the university was, to my mind, arrogant, and dismissive of residents’ complaints.
However, the university doesn’t need to fear disruption to residents from the latest development of student accommodation on the former county hospital site (a stone’s throw from the viaduct and Crossgate areas) – there will only be a handful left and they won’t matter.
Janet Slootweg, Crook,  Co Durham

Resistance movement at the checkout
Congratulations to Brendan Sharp on winning the Wyn Harness prize for young journalists (“Self serving”, 18 March). He makes many valid points about how the self-service tills in supermarkets can alienate customers.
However, I challenge his description of “old age pensioners” and what he assumes to be “their stark sense of inferiority” in relation to technology. Many of us have used computers for years and quite a few of us actually have smart phones.
Far from avoiding such tills because of being “subtly humiliated” some of us are engaged in active resistance. Our answer to the hard-pressed assistants who implore us to use the self-service machines is “No thanks. I don’t want to work for Tesco” or whoever. Another effective response is “No thank  you – I’m trying to save your job!”
So again, well done Brendan but please give older people a break and don’t make assumptions about an entire generation.
Barbara Sheppard, Cambridge

 

Times:
Sir, Many children were acquainted with the First World War poets well before Britten’s War Requiem in 1962 (letter, Mar 19). One set book for the London School Certificate exam in 1949 was An Anthology of Modern Verse (43rd edition), with poems by Brooke, Grenfell, Owen and Sassoon among others. The editor warned: “Some teachers may think a few of the pieces unsuitable to the youthful mind.” They actually seemed no worse to us than the other set text — Macbeth .
Professor A. J. Meadows
Seagrave, Leics
Sir, Kipling was “a better poet than all of them,” says Professor Karlin (letter, Mar 19) of the poets of the First World War. Field Marshal Earl Wavell would have agreed. Kipling appears more than any other poet in Wavell’s 1944 anthology Other Men’s Flowers. (Sassoon appears once, Owen and Edward Thomas not at all.) Wavell’s own poignant Sonnet for the Madonna of the Cherries (“a little wayside dandelion,” he says, modestly) should be considered for any Second World War anthology.
Barry Ferguson
Shaftesbury, Dorset
Sir, And not just Kipling. A. E. Housman also understood that honour comes in a soldier’s pack: “Here dead we lie/ Because we did not choose/ To live and shame the land/ From which we sprung.”
George Pownall
London SW4
Sir, Ian Cherry believes that Horace was extolling “the virtues of heroic gallantry”. Yet nowhere else in Latin poetry is found the concept that death is sweet. Either Horace was being deeply ironic (which puts a double irony into Owen’s poem) or, as has been argued by Horatian scholars, the text should be amended to read “dulci decorum est pro patria mori” – “it is fitting to die for one’s sweet country”.
Margaret Stephen
Westcott Surrey
Sir, Wilfred Owen’s collected poems were not published until 1963. His poetry was not well known during or after the First World War, but it may be that the poems struck a chord with the atrocities inflicted during the war in Vietnam.
His Dulce et Decorum is a graphic description of the horror of war that civilians and the returning soldiers may well not have been ready for just after the armistice.
Perhaps this poem crossed Mr Blair’s mind when troops were sent to the second Iraq war.
Ralph Bates
Aller, Somerset
Sir, Apropos Dr Harvey’s letter, the anthologies of English poetry tend not to include work in another language by, for example, Verlaine or Machado. This does not mean that poets from other cultures are not acknowledged. A poem in another language would not be readily understood by many people but once it is translated, it really becomes a different poem. In translation much of the beauty of the original language, eloquence and emotional appeal would be lost.
The war poets recounted their experience of death and yearning for home in terms that resonated with their families and their tragic generation. In the same way, Stramm, Ungaretti and Apollinaire recounted their experience, from their own perspective, within the context of their own culture, but to put poetry in another language alongside poetry in English in the same anthology would reduce the power of both poetic languages to move and inspire.
My father, who was a pilot in the Great War, was an avid reader, but whatever book he had in his hand, the work of Siegfried Sassoon was at his elbow.

Sir, My neighbour is involved in the care of a man who was discharged after ten weeks in hospital for treatment of a stroke (“One in three patients dies within a year of discharge from hospital”, Mar 19). His post-discharge care from the local authority stopped once he was deemed able to live alone in a bed-sit — although unable to go shopping because of mobility problems. My neighbour was told that voluntary organisations would take over some of his care but that further help would have to be paid for — not an option in his case. When she went to see him this week his only food was two ready-meals, ten days out of date. His flat needed cleaning but no one from the voluntary organisations is supposed to help domestically and no one is insured to take him out, so he just stares at the four walls.
Many patients are not sent out of hospital with the expectation that they are terminal, but the level of care is so abysmal that death becomes inevitable. In my experience as a hospital consultant, we didn’t operate on elderly patients with the aim that they would be dead within a few months. Lack of care in the community may well be a huge contributory factor.
Jane Stanford
London SW13
Sir, Your article) reinforces the fact that despite most of us wanting to die at home, busy hospital wards will continue to be the place where many of us will die.
It is therefore imperative that hospital staff provide high quality, compassionate care for their dying patients. The recent Neuberger Report emphasised that the ethical framework underpinning the guidance within the Liverpool Care Pathway was sound and in accord with the guidance from the General Medical Council. There are still misunderstandings and criticisms of anticipatory prescribing, clinically assisted hydration and the use of medication to relieve anxiety and distress for the dying.
To move forward decisively in improving care for the dying, NHS England must provide clear explanations of these difficult ethical issues while putting in place measures to improve the organisational governance within which care is provided.
Dr Gerard Corcoran
Formby, Merseyside

How many pensioners will raid their savings to buy a Lamborghini? And would it matter if they did?
Sir, Two aspects to the proposed reforms to pensions struck me.
First, someone with substantial other income can pass his or her pension savings to a spouse or civil partner with an overall reduction in the amount of tax the couple will pay.
Second, most pensioners (at least the ones who don’t buy Lamborghinis) will have more capital to leave to their heirs on their deaths, making many people better off and no one but insurance companies and their investors worse off.
Susan Kelly
London W5
Sir, It is being suggested that as a consequence of the Chancellor’s proposed pension reforms, some people would be tempted to cash in their pension pots and buy a Lamborghini.
This would not be a profligate purchase, providing the Lambo was old enough. Classic cars are reported to have shown an average capital appreciation rate of 28 per cent last year, and an astonishing 430 per cent over the past ten years. Furthermore, capital gains on classic cars are still tax-free.
Anthony H. Ratcliffe
London W1
The man who put the glam in Georgian England had some high-powered enemies, among them William Hogarth
Sir, Richard Morrison’s fascinating article on William Kent (“The carpenter’s son who put the glam in Georgian England”, Mar 22) does not quite tell the whole story about Kent’s enemies. William Hogarth was not just a “fellow artist” of Sir James Thornhill, he was his son-in-law. Thornhill’s star was on the wane by the 1730s and, to his credit, I think, Hogarth waded in to support the old boy whenever he could. This was partly out of love for Jane Thornhill/ Hogarth, but also because both Hogarth and Sir James detested the Palladian influence in art, of which Kent was champion and figurehead.
Michael Dean
Colchester, Essex
A reader outraged by Melanie Reid’s cancelled operation shares her experiences of NHS bureaucratic chaos
Sir, I read Melanie Reid’s Spinal Column (Mar 22) about her cancelled NHS operation with real empathy and increasing outrage.
Like Mrs Reid I too have had planned NHS surgery cancelled, not just once but on three occasions. Worse still, I had been told after first diagnosis that my operation would take place within four weeks due to the uncertain nature of the cervical polyp I had. Can one even begin to imagine the mental anguish I suffered during 13 weeks and after three “in situ” cancellations?
Ultimately I had the surgery in the private sector, performed by a wonderful gynaecologist who was totally bemused at the failings of the NHS in my lamentable treatment. Like Mrs Reid I too have suffered huge “mental and physical cruelty” at the mercy of an inhumane administrative system which treats its patients with the utmost contempt.
My concern is that cancelled elective operations are occurring all too frequently as failing hospital trusts try to meet unrealistic waiting list targets by overbooking theatre slots. The suffering caused by this is abhorrent, and this issue must be addressed at a national level. Indeed I would encourage all readers who have had elective surgery cancelled on one or more occasions to tell their MP and request that this issue is debated as a matter of urgency at Westminster.
Sandra Ward
Bridgnorth, Shropshire

 

Telegraph:
SIR – Your report recognised that William Kent’s greatest artistic achievement was landscape design, and rightly criticised the Victoria & Albert Museum’s exhibition about Kent for underplaying this. Curators have not worked out how to exhibit landscape design, and so ignore an art in which the British have led Europe since Kent’s time.
While working at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire, William Kent must have influenced the great Capability Brown, who was, at that time, the young head gardener there. Rousham House in Oxfordshire set another precedent in landscape design. Our beautiful countryside was to become part of the landscape designer’s palette.
Hal Moggridge
Lechlade, Gloucestershire
Peter Johnson
Great Gransden, Cambrideshire

SIR – You report that Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, is in favour of a mansion tax.
This tax would be a fundamental invasion of individual property rights, currently protected under English law. In this respect, it must not be confused with a tax on earnings, savings or transactions, which is the state’s prerogative.
A mansion tax creates a precedent for other wealth taxes, allowing the state to exercise a claim on the property of anyone it chooses. This point is unlikely to be lost on those with property, and is a deterrent to further investment and the creation of wealth upon which we all depend.
Alasdair Macleod
Sidmouth, Devon
Related Articles
If benefit claimants are able to manage their money, why not pensioners?
24 Mar 2014
It’s hard to showcase landscape garden design
24 Mar 2014
SIR – As a member of the public, I strongly refute Danny Alexander’s claim that I am part of “a general consensus in favour of a mansion tax”. Although it will be a while, even in the current property price bubble, before my house reaches the likely threshold for a such a tax, I see it as an arbitrary confiscation of wealth which is grossly unfair, illogical and immoral.
Roger Earp
Bexhill, East Sussex
SIR – Given the Government’s appetite for our hard-earned money, should we start planning to block up our windows?
John Kellie
Pyrford, Surrey
Flood horror continues
SIR – Having recently travelled to Taunton, Somerset on the main road – which reopened only a week ago after nearly three months under water – before and after photos showing life returning to normal on the Somerset Levels are misleading.
Homes, farm buildings and business premises that were flooded still need months of repair work, at significant expense, to return them to anything approaching normal. Hundreds of acres of pasture also remain under water; those fields slowly emerging from the water are generally a filthy brown colour. The stench of polluted mud is in the air, and litter is heaped on what were the high-tide marks of the flooding.
Agony for the residents continues.
John Chillington
Wells, Somerset
Time for two watches
SIR – I wear my watch on my right wrist, not because I am left-handed, but because I broke my left wrist, aged 13, which was encased in plaster for six weeks. That was 51 years ago.
Since then, I have only worn a watch on my left wrist when flying across the Atlantic, when I find that one watch set at each of the departure and destination time zones helps with jet lag.
Philip Barry
Dover, Kent
The perfect match
SIR – I was much amused by the three questions needed to find the right partner suggested by four mathematicians from Harvard. These were: do you like horror movies; have you ever travelled around another country alone; and wouldn’t it be fun to chuck it all and go live on a boat?
Women assessing a possible partner want to know if he would make a good father, and is basically kind-hearted. I suggest the question: “When did you last see your grandmother?”
Jane O’Nions
Sevenoaks, Kent
African bloodbath
SIR – Your leading article (March 21) draws attention to the massive human suffering in the Central African Republic, where militias are brutally targeting both Muslims and Christians.
As a leading donor country and member of the United Nations Security Council, the United Kingdom has a vital role to play in preventing this crisis from spiralling further out of control. The Government must take action to protect civilians by providing further support to the African Union-led mission on the ground. It must also vote for a strong United Nations–led peacekeeping operation, with a clear mandate to protect civilians and support the re-establishment of state institutions across the country.
The Government should also appoint a special envoy to ensure the crisis remains on the international agenda, and open an embassy in Bangui. Twenty years ago, after the Rwandan genocide, the international community vowed never again to ignore mass atrocities. The Government must use its influence to prevent more human suffering.
Mark Goldring
Chief Executive, Oxfam
Matthew Frost
Chief Executive, Tearfund
Justin Forsyth
Chief Executive, Save The Children
Bathroom etiquette
SIR – Stephen O’Loughlin describes being allowed a bath only once a week at university.
At my boarding school we were allowed two baths a week, but a line had been painted above the plug hole allowing about four inches of water.
Diana Crook
Seaford, East Sussex
SIR – In the Seventies, I stayed for one night in a small hotel in Newcastle and asked to be provided with a bath towel.
The proprietor looked puzzled and said:
“But you are a one-nighter, and we don’t expect them to have a bath.” I was then begrudgingly issued with a bath towel for an additional charge of 50p, and told not to take all the hot water.
Ted Shorter
Tonbridge, Kent
SIR – When I was a teenager, I used to go on a two–week camp with the Scouts, for which my mother provided me with a new bar of soap. She complained that on my return, I hadn’t even washed the name off.
Peter Franklin
Woking, Surrey
Police should not be able to use water cannon
SIR – As a retired police superintendent with over 32 years’ service, I share your correspondents’ concern regarding police using water cannon on the streets of London.
Major public disorder is increasingly being organised through instant communication, which makes the rioters much more mobile than in previous years. That, in itself, renders the use of an asset such as water cannon ineffective.
Do we wish to use an offensive weapon on our streets that has the potential to cause serious injury or even death? The answer has to be no. I hope that the Home Secretary reaches the same conclusion.
Graham S Scott
Batley, West Yorkshire
SIR – The argument that “the introduction of water cannon would take us down a dark path” implies that the trust between the police and the public would be endangered. That trust has been severely tested by cases of police misconduct, some going back to the Seventies, when the then commissioner purged almost 500 corrupt officers from the Metropolitan Police.
Sadly, high-profile revelations since then have had an even more corrosive effect on that trust. If the police wish to retain what is left of the trust it has, it should welcome the cold water being poured on the idea.
Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – The “do-gooders” opposing water cannon ought to put themselves in the shoes of those who were at the receiving end of rioting, such as the shop workers. These people have the right to work free from fear, and the prime duty of government is the protection of its citizens.
Society needs more instruments in protecting life, limb and property. Hence the case for water cannon.
John Barstow
Pulborough, West Sussex
SIR – Many commentators seem to think that people who have responsibly saved into a pension fund are incapable of managing their own funds. This is an unfair assumption.
Benefit claimants are not only deemed capable but are encouraged to manage their own financial affairs. Rent is now paid direct to the claimant, not to the landlord as in the past, to promote financial independence.
Why should pensioners accessing their own money be treated differently to benefit claimants who are accessing money from the taxpayer?
Lynne Marsh
Prestwich, Lancashire
Related Articles
It’s hard to showcase landscape garden design
24 Mar 2014
Mansion tax is an arbitrary confiscation of wealth
24 Mar 2014
SIR – While the Budget has offered tax breaks for businesses, there is a bigger issue that would benefit companies far more: a mandatory payment time.
The National Specialist Contractors Council informed me that the Government has confirmed on numerous occasions that it will not legislate for 30–day payment terms. Why not? It would go a long way to lessen the need for expensive overdrafts, reduce insolvency, and promote growth and workforce security.
Derek Winter
Ashford, Kent
SIR – I would be able to overpay my mortgage payments from my earnings and, having cleared it four years before retirement, divert money to my pension fund. The problem is that, like many others, I cannot afford to do so without incurring a big penalty from my building society.
If such penalty clauses were removed, many would use the extra freedom to do what they wish with their own money. This would include both clearing debt and preparing for the future.
Kevin Wright
Harlow, Essex
SIR – In the euphoria surrounding George Osborne’s liberation of pension pots, has the pension mis-selling scandal been forgotten?
When Margaret Thatcher removed the requirement to belong to company pension schemes in 1988, many sharks fell upon the vulnerable, who were lured out of excellent company pension schemes.
Those sharks and their descendants must now be scenting blood at the prospect of a new feeding frenzy.
Mike Post
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
SIR – George Osborne might have overlooked an important safeguard in giving the elderly the freedom to blow their pension as they wish, rather than having to buy an annuity.
Pressure might be applied to a family member’s valuable pension pot. “Come on, Dad, I need a new car”, can no longer be rebutted with: “Sorry, I’m obliged to put it into an annuity”.
John Drewry
Beckenham, Kent
Irish Times:

Sir, – By any standards, the decision of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeal to order Boston College to hand over recordings of taped interviews with dozens of former IRA and UVF members, which were conducted on the basis of confidentiality, is bizarre.
This decision, which has culminated in the bringing of charges against a person in Northern Ireland who made himself available to Boston College interviewers, poses a threat to the safety of those involved and has significant implications for future academic and journalistic research.
These interviews were recorded and collated for Boston College’s Belfast Project and participants were assured that they would not be published while they were alive. British prosecutors, in collaboration with the US Justice Department, want access to the tapes to aid their efforts to investigate past crimes in Northern Ireland.
The British government might display practical and moral leadership on this issue and lead by example.
In 1984, following a string of allegations about a shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland carried out by the RUC and British army, the British government set up the Stalker/Sampson Inquiry. Families of those killed as a result of this alleged shoot-to-kill policy are still awaiting justice.
Despite a four-year investigation into the allegations, the final report has never been published. Then, in 1989, the Stevens Inquiry was established by the British government to investigate claims of collusion between the RUC, M15, British Intelligence and loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland’s “dirty war”. Following a six-year inquiry by the commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police Service, Sir John Stevens, culminating in three separate reports, only 19 pages of the 3,000-page final report were made public.
Furthermore, there have been three Joint Oireachtas Committee reports into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. Since then the democratic pursuit of justice for the 33 innocent people killed in the biggest mass murder in Irish history has led to dead ends and cul-de-sacs.
Requests from Mr Justice Henry Barron in the final report of the commission of investigation into these bombings for documentation which was in the possession of the British government, and which would have been vital in establishing the identity of those responsible, were refused. Even recent requests from Taoiseach Enda Kenny to David Cameron to release files relevant to the cases were refused.
If the British government wishes to be seen to be consistent, fair and open in its application of standards of justice, why does it not apply equally the judicial principles it demands from Boston to Belfast and London? – Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER,
Templeville Road,
Templeogue,

Sir, – I was interested, and delighted, to read Simon Carswell’s piece (“Tea Party used Kenny visit to raise funds”, March 22nd) regarding Enda Kenny’s attendance at a fundraiser for conservative Republican congressman Mick Mulvaney.
Before his St Patrick’s Day trip to the US, the Taoiseach made it clear that he would advocate strongly for the approximately 50,000 undocumented Irish people living in the shadows in America. His attendance at the fundraiser is proof positive that he did just that.
The reality is that a few dozen Republican congressmen and women, many of whom have Tea Party ties, are standing in the way of immigration reform legislation that would benefit the undocumented Irish. The other reality is that the Taoiseach, as a white European male, can play a unique role in engaging the hard right in the US on this issue that affects so many Irish people — especially on St Patrick’s Day.
Many Irish people abhor the Tea Party movement. As a Democrat, I’m no fan myself. But winning over even a few of their hearts and minds would go a long way toward immigration reform.
In this light, the Taoiseach, whom I have been critical of on a number of other fronts, was absolutely right to attend Mulvaney’s fundraiser. – Yours, etc,
LARRY DONNELLY,
School of Law,
NUI Galway
A chara, – I am a citizen of the United States living and working in Ireland. Thus, when the Taoiseach helps to raise funds for a Tea Party candidate in Washington, my Irish taxes are supporting his efforts.
In other words, I find myself indirectly supporting a political party whose far-right politics I abhor. A Government spokesman is quoted as saying that “the fundraising question is not an issue for the Taoiseach”. It is an issue for me if a head of state on a foreign diplomatic trip becomes part of a campaign for one political party in another nation. Yours, etc,
MARGARET MILS
HARPER, Parteen,
Co Clare

Sir, – If Tanya Ward of the Children’s Rights Alliance (March 21st) has any hard evidence that any intercountry adoption registered in Ireland, was obtained through “child trafficking, abduction or the deception of birth parents”, she should immediately report it to the Garda.
The fact that no such complaint exists from the Children’s Rights Alliance confirms the fact that our pre-Hague adoptions are thorough and lawful. These internationally adopted children have not been denied the right to grow up with “parents and families”. They have been adopted from orphanages and baby homes because for so many reasons their birth families were unable to rear them.
I would be shocked to think that the Children’s Rights Alliance believed an orphanage in a birth country was a better place to grow up in than a family unit in an adopted country. The orphanages haven’t magically emptied because Hague exists. Hague hasn’t meant that there are fewerchildren needing families. It means that the families available to to those children are unable to reach them. – Yours, etc
DEIRDRE O’HALLORAN
Garnett Hall,
Dunboyne,
Co Meath
Sir, – In an ideal world, every child would be born into an ideal situation. In the imperfect world we live in, there will always be some who aren’t.
Adoption and fostering are as old as humankind. My own children are internationally adopted, and, far from this being under “a system of light-touch regulation” (Letters, March 21st) both adoptions required rigorous process in both countries.
We have since made contact with the original families of our children, as have many adoptive parents, and I have yet to hear of a case where there was anything misleading or untruthful in the paperwork.
The Hague Convention is very welcome as a further step to absolutely ensure that all adoptions are ethical. The convention’s full title is actually “The 1993 Hague convention on the protection of children and co-operation in respect of intercountry adoption”.
I would like to ask the Adoption Authority what active steps it is taking, and with which countries, to further the stated aims of the convention and to co-operate in respect of intercountry adoption? – Yours, etc,
LINDA KEOHANE,
Furbo,
Co Galway
The Commissioner of An Garda Síochána was badgered by politicians to give his opinions and comments before an open session of a Dáil committee and this he did in good faith. He is now being badgered to apologise for the same for the sake of political appearances and pointscoring. Disgusting indeed. Yours, etc,
CONOR O’REILLY,
Richmond,
Templemore,
Co Tipperary

Sir , – The appointment of Marie Collins by Pope Francis to the recently established Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is a most welcome development (“Pope shows political nous in naming council for protecting minors”, March 24th).
Ms Collins has been a tireless campaigner for justice for the survivors of clerical sex abuse while working to ensure that those bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes who failed in their Christian duty to defend the “little ones” be brought to justice and held for accountable for their crimes of omission.
While she is one of eight members, four of whom are women, I am confident she will continue to be a forceful voice for those who have suffered from clerical sex abuse.
An equally challenging task for Marie and this new commission will be to bring about a radical change of heart and robust procedures for the protection of minors in all dioceses of the Catholic world . – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
The Moorings,
Malahide,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Brian Ó Broin (Letters, March 22nd) suggests that the target of 250,000 Irish speakers by 2030 is an achievable one, but only “if non-Gaeltacht Irish speakers begin to shoulder the burden that Gaeltacht people have been predominantly carrying since the foundation of the State – using the language at home”.
How strange to think that speaking to one’s family in what is considered to be one’s native tongue should be termed a burden. Communicating in either one’s first or second language at home should be (largely) a pleasure, not a burden; and I would imagine that for the vast majority of Irish-speakers it is.
If indeed the Irish language is such a heavy load to carry, then it should be ditched without delay. A language that is a burden is worthless.
Yours, etc,
JEREMY CASTLE,
Ballinderry,
Nenagh,
Co Tipperary
Sir, – An Coimisinéir Teanga, Rónán Ó Domhnaill, does not advance his cause by using the slur “linguistic Darwinists” (Opinion & Analysis, March 24th). The survival of the 2,000-year-old Irish language is a tribute to its evolution, not a refutation of it.
Yours, etc,
DR JOHN DOHERTY,
Cnoc an Stollaire,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Donegal

Sir, – How reassuring it is to know that the Vatican is putting its full might into Italy’s battle against organised crime. One can only imagine the profound effect that Pope Francis’s threat of hell has had on the hearts and minds of these hardened criminals.
The Italian government should now take the opportunity to turn the screw even further by reminding these Mafia killers that Santa Claus is always watching and perhaps we can move another step closer to ending the senseless violence that has scarred the beautiful Italian landscape for centuries.
Yours, etc,
SEAN SMITH,
Clonmellon,
Navan,
Sir, – I recall that my father, a member of the initial draft into the Garda Siochána, emphasised that the role of the Garda was to attempt to ensure that law-abiding citizens could pursue their lives peacefully, safe from the wrongdoing of others.
In my view, it is obvious that confidence in such a force can only be ensured where the standards of behavior by gardaí are of the highest order. Surely it follows that, regardless of whether forcing legislation does or does not exist, it is the duty of every member to enthusiastically support any member who draws attention to improper behaviour. While sympathising with the difficulty imposed by collegial loyalty in such cases, not to do so is surely a neglect of duty, any culpability being higher where rank is higher.
Yours, etc,
ALBERT PARKINSON
Redford Court,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow

Sir, – Una Mullally (Opinion & Analysis, March 24th) tells us that “women should be raging” that there are so few of them in the decision-making forum of what is supposed to be a representative democracy.
In the next election, if the quota regime has an effect, there will be an increased number of female candidates. There is considerable opposition to this development. The message from the objectors is that the women on the ballot paper are “token” and have no ability. This mantra will be repeated ad nauseam by insiders and incumbents from now till the general election and beyond.
The objectors have the weight of history behind them. In this state we are told that a mere 5 per cent of TDs have been women since independence. The Dáil is still between 80 and 90 per cent male.
Now, when there is a chance that the more than 50 per cent of the electorate that are women might get more of their kind onto the ballot paper we can expect the insiders and incumbents to fight tooth and nail to undermine the campaign.
Women may, as Una Mullally says, be raging, or they may not. What the electorate as a whole thinks will be known only when the votes are counted after the next election.
ANTHONY LEAVY,
Shielmartin Drive,
Sutton,
Dublin 13
Sir, – Has Una Mullally, or any of the other quotaistas , considered the fact that the reason there are fewer women than men in politics is that women don’t want to go into politics as much as men?
Doing a head count of the number of women in the Oireachtas and on the basis of this count declaring there is discrimination is like saying that men are discriminated against in the primary teaching profession because they are in a minority there. Ms Mullally’s sneering reference to a “parallel universe” shows that she, like many feminists, will not listen to any argument other then the one they are proposing themselves. – Yours, etc,
PAUL WILLIAMS,
Circular Road,
Kilkee,
Sir, – Michael Barry (Letters, March 24th), makes a number of points regarding dedicated busways versus a light tram system. On the issue of pollution, electrically driven trams are only non-polluting if their electricity source is generated from renewable resources.
Vienna runs virtually all of its buses on bio-methane extracted from the city’s sewerage system. This both reduces greenhouse gas emissions and can create sustainable jobs. If Vienna can do it, why not Dublin?
In an ideal world, where money was no object, of course it might be better to have a light tram system. But borrowed money is expensive. Better to borrow less and provide a service which may not be quite as fancy but will supply virtually the same result.
Another advantage of buses over trams is their flexibility. A bus can reroute around an accident. A tram cannot.
What is actually most important about public transportation services is that they are reliable and punctual. There is nothing worse than waiting for public transport, be it a bus or a tram, and not have it arrive.
Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN
Ashfield
Bagenalstown
Sir, Dorcha Lee (Opinion & Analysis, March 22nd) admits that the chances of foreign military intervention in Ireland “lie somewhere between zero and nil”. This is a telling own goal from a militarist hawk.
Why do we feel it necessary to ape our neighbours with a conventional standing army? Which of the European powers could we repel in the unlikely event of a military invasion? We would be better served by substantially reducing the defence budget and redirecting funds into a counterterrorist armed division of the police force. Realistically, we need to confront threats posed by our armed criminal gangs, paramilitary groups or zealots of the al-Qaeda hue. Our navy’s role in fishery protection does, however, justify a serious allocation of resources. – Yours, etc,
DES O HALLORAN
Ballyard,
Tralee,
Co Kerry

 

Irish Independent:

* Differing faces of the Catholic Church were revealed in your newspaper recently.
Also in this section
Whistleblower row descends into ‘pantomime’
No new politics on offer
Quotas contrary to equal opportunity
On the one hand, we read reports of the Pope’s compassionate, non-judgmental response to questions about gay priests and gay marriage. On the other hand, we read that Fr Flannery had been silenced and banned from saying Mass, albeit by the machinations that the Pope himself seeks to reform.
The Fr Flannery case implies that outside the Vatican faith-police there is no salvation.
The idea that there is only one way to God, fenced in by various statements about what we ought to think and do is clearly at odds with the more inclusive example of Christ.
This demeans the whole Gospel tradition, reflected in the work of Pope Francis, who reaches out to the world rather than retreating into a cocoon of doctrine.
Of course, to claim to be a Christian, as I do, must distinguish me from those who claim not to be so inclined.
Yet, I often fail to see the difference.
Many of my atheist friends seem more forgiving and more compassionate, and hence more Christian, than I am.
I see my commitment as a direction I take, rather than as adherence to a set of clear-cut conclusions.
Indeed, I sometimes seem to weave my way in and out of a clear sense of purpose, feeling increasingly at home with the ambiguity that this engenders. My life slips in and out of sense.
It seems counterproductive to repress honest misgivings expressed by the ministers or laity of any church.
The repressive inculcation of orthodoxy and resignation reveals a fear of releasing our God-given intelligence, as if there was something sinister to hide.
A world of certainty and inner assurance has its advantages but tends to cultivate a superficial glow of self-satisfaction, often leading to a rush to judgment of those whose lives are more precarious and less assured.
The faith of our fathers is not the faith of our sons.
I took some comfort from my five-year-old granddaughter’s recent declaration that she felt she was half-Christian and half-normal.
PHILIP O’NEILL
OXFORD, UNITED KINDGOM
THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
* Well done, Leo. Well done indeed!
Against all adversity, you took the lead.
While Enda and Alan merely looked on,
You stood up and lauded Maurice and John.
So now, Mr Callinan, all eyes are on you,
Apologise, and mean it, and the FORCE may just be with you!
MARTHA KERTON
CLONMEL, CO TIPPERARY
GET SOME PERSPECTIVE
* In the wider world today, you have the tragedy of Flight MH370, the re-emergence of the Cold War over Ukraine/Crimea and the 59 deaths from the Ebola virus in Guinea.
And when you also consider what disasters this country has endured and weathered over the past few years, it is shocking to think that – in this state – one word, “disgusting”, has mature and so-called reasonable adults at each others’ throats and the possible destabilisation of a coalition government in the offing.
Enough said.
AIDAN HAMPSON
ARTANE, DUBLIN 5
DO THE MATHS
* I have a question for the parents and employers of Ireland.
Has anybody, anywhere, seen any benefits arising from the Project Maths curriculum?
No, I am not a teacher. I am a former IT manager and the parent of a Junior Cert student. I find the changes to the curriculum incomprehensible in their intent. It’s as if an arts faculty was unwillingly landed with responsibility for engineering and science.
The results that I see ( in my small world) are that the kids who enjoyed maths through national school are struggling with the verbosity of Project Maths, whilst those who were good at English alone are now doing better at Project Maths.
The student has to negotiate through a short story (worthy of an English comprehension paper) and figure out what has been asked. This introduces needless ambiguity.
For instance, a technically minded student would ponder whether the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s height is the vertical drop or the distance from base to top. The imprecision of the question will bug them throughout as they try to work out the solution.
Having worked in technology, I would prefer technical staff to ask questions and eliminate ambiguity rather than make assumptions.
Google or Microsoft would be nuts to invest in developing a database or algorithm where the core specifics are not nailed down.
We don’t want our mathematicians to be comfortable with ambiguity. To my mind, that is the opposite of maths. Does the Department of Education figure that we will import this skill in the future from the capable Indian or Chinese graduates or will the department require Irish students to complete a doctorate before they have acquired it?
My guess is that the changes to the curriculum are a heavy-handed attempt to encourage ‘problem-solving’ skills that the Irish have been valued for in the past.
Instead, it has introduced ‘puzzle-solving’. We, as a society, have developed a helplessness in our kids by managing every moment of their day and essentially doing too much for them.
In IT we developed problem-solving skills by dropping somebody in the middle of a problem, giving them responsibility and observing but not assisting unless a good attempt was made or a major disaster was imminent. The cost to the employer is the time it takes to observe and supervise. Generally, it’s a good investment.
Adapting maths to develop problem solving is misguided and lazy. Transition Year offers far more opportunities to develop these skills.
Realistically, as parents, we have to invest the time, too. So, I’m going to let them brush the floor (though it will give me a headache to watch – “two hands on the hurl, put down the phone, look at what you are doing” my mind will clamour silently). But I will only ask the questions: ‘Did you solve the problem? Is the floor clean?’
NASA awaits. . .
However, my question remains: ‘cui bono?’ in the murder of maths?
NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR
OPERATING THEATRE
* I’m writing in reference to the article in your newspaper ‘Rotunda defends paying top-ups due to private income from Gate Theatre’ (Irish Independent, March 24).
Obstetricians uncertain whether to accept additional largesse from the private income the Rotunda Hospital derives from the Gate Theatre might be helped if George Bernard Shaw’s perceptive play ‘The Doctor’s Dilemma’ was revived at the historic theatre.
DR JOHN DOHERTY
GAOTH DOBHAIR, CO DONEGAL


Astrid

$
0
0

26 March 2014 Astrid

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to go on an initiative exercise. . Priceless

Cold slightly better Mary very under the weather take Astrid to visit her in hospital

No Scrabbletoday Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Peter Oakley,, who has died aged 86, defied the perceived restrictions of old age to become an internet sensation through his wistful, heartfelt and honest video diary on YouTube.

As “geriatric1927” — his “handle” for 435 video postings that he collectively titled “Telling it all” — Oakley set viewers straight on how the world looked from a pensioner’s perspective. For seven years, his views as an octogenarian vlogger (video blogger) were to be a tonic to a youth-saturated online audience.

He regaled viewers with tales of growing up during the war, his love of motorcycles, the topography of his hometown of Bakewell, Derbyshire, and the various small ignominies, frustrations, and joys of being of old in Britain during the Noughties. “I would find it difficult to tell you what I do here,” he stated on his profile page, “as it doesn’t fit into any one genre. As an 86 year-old I reminisce about my life today and stories of times past. I might cook a meal or read you a story or tell you what has been happening during the week in which I upload the video. It is kind of like ‘shooting the breeze’.”

Oakley made his online debut on August 5 2006 with a two-minute video titled “first try”. A delightfully incongruous blues song plays him in as he sits, wearing a beige v-neck jumper, looking slightly off camera. “I, um, got addicted to YouTube,” he begins, “a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced so I thought I’d have a go at doing one myself.”

Thereafter he used his video blog as a platform to “bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who’s been there and done that and hopefully you will respond”.

Respond they did — his first post has, to date, received nearly three million views and more than 10,000 comments. Subsequent films — lasting between five and 10 minutes — touched on personal reminiscence from his military service, working life or marriage, or on broader topics such as education and ageing. The combination appealed to young and old alike. “Biographies are generally boring sort of things unless there’s some anecdotes in them,” he said. For seven years he related anecdote upon anecdote with impeccable manners, an eiderdown-soft delivery, self-deprecation, and shot-from-the-hip candour. His imperative, as EM Forster termed it, was: “only connect”.

Peter Oakley was born on August 20 1927 and grew up during the war in Norwich, where he witnessed the devastation inflicted on the city by German bombers. “My father was a butcher and I loved him,” he recalled of his early family life. “He taught me the trade and how to drive a motor car when I was 10 years old. That wouldn’t happen today.” On leaving school at 16 he got a job with the local authority’s public health department (he later trained as a health inspector).

He was conscripted into the Navy at 18 and became a radar technician (a period he chronicled at length in his video logs). After being demobbed he studied at university in Leicester where he was to pursue his two lifelong loves — an art student named Patricia, who would become his wife, and motorcycles. He eventually gave up the “proper job” to become a garage mechanic, turning a bakery into a workshop, and finding his true calling.

It was in the wake of his wife’s death in the late Nineties that Oakley began looking online for pen friends. After the hugely positive response to his initial YouTube posting he began his “Telling it all” series with the admission that he was “absolutely overwhelmed and don’t quite know what to say. If I should break down during this video then I’ll click the button and I will come back to you as soon as possible. I just need to say thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Oakley began each film with a jaunty “Hello Youtubers” before continuing with whatever had caught his attention since his last entry. This could be a memory, an observation or a helpful tip. In his opus on “Making an English Cup of Tea” he explained the importance of warming the teapot (his aunt, “who thought she was very posh”, would yell at him that she expected “boiling water not boiled water”). A walk into Bakewell along the river path inspired another video, a visual “poem on some thoughts when looking at an old gnarled tree” (“I know exactly how you feel,” was his starting point).

Inevitably his YouTube popularity drew the gaze of the world’s media. He initially refused requests for interviews, which he considered “pointless and dangerous”. In his seventh video he addressed this intrusion and made a statement declaring that several “geriatric1927” websites had been created by others. “I leave you to make up your own mind about their motives,” he said wearily. His aim in making the films was, he reiterated, to reduce his loneliness and isolation, not to nurture any ambitions to become a celebrity. He later relented and gave a BBC interview. “They were so lovely,” he said. “I can’t think how many TV companies have been since. I don’t regret it.”

Oakley believed that YouTube “reflects the whole of society”. But he was aware that the internet had its more unpleasant corners. “Whilst I’ve not been taking part in chat rooms I have seen what goes on and, well, pretty disgusted by it really,” he said in 2007, “because people could hide behind any sort of identity.” The transparency of his video log, however, allowed him to develop friendships and, he acknowledged, become “a grandad kind of figure” to a global audience.

In 2006 he said his YouTube adventure had been “one of the major changes and breakthroughs in my life and given me a whole new world to experience”. In his last post on February 12 this year — in which he appears gaunt from the effects of cancer and is bundled up in a dressing gown — he completed his series of Navy service tales before a typically humble sign-off: “That’s it really. And sort of in conclusion I will say possibly my final goodbye. So goodbye.”

He is survived by a son and daughter.

Peter Oakley was born August 20 1927, died March 23 2014

Guardian:

Larry Elliott asks if the innovations made by Formula One manufacturers cannot be used in the fight against climate change (When nudge comes to shove, 24 March). I agree. We sit on 400 years’ worth of coal, we’re surrounded by sea and wind. Surely the country that gave the world television, the jet engine, antibiotics and the world wide web, among other innovations, can lead the way to develop clean coal technology and use wind, tidal and solar power to give the UK both energy supply and security?

If Ed Miliband wants to set a bold radical manifesto, what could be bolder than to set Britain on a course of clean energy self-sufficiency? We own the banks to provide cheap long-term finance, so use the best brains and universities combined with our engineering genius to lead the green energy revolution providing skilled, well-paid jobs, factories and apprenticeships and leading to prosperity for our country.
Alan Quinn
Manchester

• While in some respects agreeing with Larry Elliott on behavioural economics, I take issue with his assertion that governments need to “be prepared to shove as well as nudge”. He cites improvements to fuel and power efficiency made to Formula One cars as a result of stipulations made by its authorities. Extending this to car makers generally would impose costs on them in the event of recalls involving tens if not hundreds of thousands of models if they go wrong – nowhere near as draconian for the typical F1 team, which might have four or five models.

Furthermore, many breakthroughs, such as the discovery of penicillin and the technology behind microwave ovens, come about via fluke rather than intention. While there probably is a case for governments to fund R&D spending, setting rigid parameters and targets instead of allowing researchers to pursue their own proclivities might stymie this as a source of discoveries.
Paul Negrotti
Winchester, Hampshire

On Wednesday MPs will vote on legislation that could have a huge impact on thousands of the country’s most vulnerable people – yet many who are most likely to be affected will not know about it, let alone get the chance to have their say on it. The legislation is the charter for budget responsibility, which includes the setting of a welfare cap, and the people who are likely to remain unaware are people with learning disabilities.

Our research shows that just 11% of the people we support find it easy to understand what politicians say, due to the complex and jargon-heavy language many MPs use. Yet disabled people are often profoundly affected by political decisions, as they are disproportionately likely to be unemployed or poor. That’s why charities such as United Response have urged politicians to communicate in a clearer and more accessible way so that everyone can understand their policies and act accordingly, including the many who struggle with reading. Last week’s budget, with its complicated welfare and pension plans, was a perfect example of inaccessibility. The government should be doing more to recognise that it represents all its citizens and, as a minimum, should translate its major announcements into accessible formats. With an election looming, this duty becomes ever more urgent.
Su Sayer
Chief executive, United Response

ages

While “members of the progressive community” write to this page (Letters, 24 March) mapping out the principles on which Labour should build a new offer to the electorate, Cameron carries on marking out the Tories’ territory. Plans to reform pensions – devolving decisions from insurance companies to pensioners in thinktank parlance – and now hints of a substantial rise in the inheritance tax threshold – hang on to more of your family’s assets because there is no collective good to which they could be usefully deployed (Report, 25 March) – could each be pivotal influences on public opinion and the outcome of the election.

It is becoming increasingly urgent that Labour addresses the continuing confusion about what it actually stands for (Polly Toynbee, 25 March). Agreeing to accept Tory spending limits, going along with pension changes, welfare caps and sundry other passing policies stands in sharp contrast to the formidable record of facing down the press barons, opposing armed intervention in Syria, highlighting the skewed nature of the energy market and successfully raising concerns about everyday living costs with which I associate Ed Miliband. Perhaps he needs a clause IV moment at which time he could reassert an interest in “securing for workers – by hand or by brain – the full fruits of their labours and the equitable distribution thereof”? I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in voting for that in preference to any other offer.
Les Bright
Exeter

•  Your correspondents should be careful what they wish for. The challenges they identify all demand action from the state as well as from civil society. The financial system needs firm regulation; massive inequality demands labour market intervention and more progressive taxation; and stronger government action on climate change is increasingly sought by the business sector. It is not clear how firm state action in these areas, or indeed in collective social security, can be framed by arguing that “the days of politicians doing things ‘to people’ are over”. The challenge for Labour and other progressive forces is indeed to ensure that the state is transparent, accountable, responsive and efficient; but also, through reforms in these respects, to build political legitimacy for the areas where it must also remain strong and “coercive”.
David Griffiths
Huddersfield

•  Many of us remain members of the Labour party because when really pushed this is the only party that will protect the disadvantaged of our society: underneath all the pretence our leaders know that inequality is caused by the imperfection of a market economy. But the letter from Neal Lawson and others ignores this entirely. Where is reference to old principles? The Labour leadership should speak out on the suffering experienced by people on or seeking benefits under a punitive regime instead of refusing to support those such as church leaders, the CAB and the food banks who have come to their defence.
Jenny Salaman Manson
London

•  To produce policies that chime with its principles, I have the greatest respect for Polly Toynbee and desperately wish to share her hope that we are on the threshold of Labour making a decisive radical move but the nub of the problem is revealed in the middle of her article “Miliband seems to do or say something clever but then fall silent.” Compare the reticence of leading opposition figures to the ritualistic chanting of the Tories in the past few years to the effect that the financial crash was the fault of Labour and public expenditure; at every opportunity from merest apparatchik and blogger up to the prime minister they have churned out these nonsensical mantras in the best Orwellian tradition. Labour responses such as “out of touch” and “one nation” simply have not been aggressive enough and have barely registered. Let’s hope that the policies that Polly yearns for do emerge and when they do they are broadcast and repeated loud enough and often enough that, the rightwing press notwithstanding, the public is left in no doubt about what they mean.
Ted Woodgate
Billericay, Essex

•  Your correspondents prioritise getting to the root of our social and mental heath problems and empowering active citizens, all to build the capacity and platforms for people to “do things for themselves, together”. They might like to check out the Street Associations initiative, which is doing all of that and more from the ground up. Whole streets are coming together, creating real (as opposed to imagined) community, with a core group organising fun events for all, spotting those with needs and creating an environment in which people belong, find friendship, have fun together and look out for one another.
Martin Graham
streetassociations.org

•  To produce policies that chime with its principles, Labour desperately needs to break out of the seminar rooms and into the public consciousness. One policy that would reverse its fortunes would be legislating to make public utilities such as energy, railway and water companies (which by their definition are natural monopolies) directly operated services. This would ensure real fairness for millions of consumers across the UK and stop the private profit over public interest that takes place currently. Indeed, a YouGov report in November 2013 found that public support for nationalisation of energy and railways at 68% and 66% respectively.
Callum Smith
Gateshead

• I have never received a penny in inheritance and, at 78, don’t suppose I ever will (Prime minister may revive pledge to cut inheritance tax, 25 March). So what. I don’t need it. Inheritance tax should be increased and used to promote social housing for those in desperate need. If Ed Miliband wants a radical policy this is one.
Bob Holman
Glasgow

•  Your correspondents urge a fresh approach for Labour, another letter deplores the gerontological bias of governments (Future generation to pay for pensions revolution, 25 March), while the Scots are urged to support an “all in this together” approach to the UK. What could be more radical and all encompassing than legislation to make voting compulsory for everyone over 18?
Simon Harris
Rossett, Wrexham

•  There is a simple solution available to the 19 thinktanks who have written to Ed Miliband with a policy wishlist. There is a party already delivering the policies they are asking for all. All they need do is vote for it next time in order to strengthen that party’s influence so that even more of them can be delivered. It’s the Liberal Democrats.
Mark Pack
Editor, Liberal Democrat Newswire

•  ”Co-production of public services by workers, users and citizens” and “giving away power … where possible, directly to the people” sound like the sort of things Tony Benn was advocating-and look where it got him and Labour.
Stan Labovitch
Windsor

•  I struggled to see the purpose of the open letter from 19 Labour-leaning intellectuals to Ed Miliband, still less its reporting as front-page news. It’s always a strange affair to see tactical advice delivered in public, and Ed Miliband wouldn’t have learned anything new from the policy content. If it was the high number of signatories that made the letter news, the missing names were more noteworthy: I’d be interested to know the thoughts of the IPPR and the Resolution Foundation .
Richard Berry
London

It’s good to see John Clare referred to in parliament (Maths mist precedes a Clare day, 25 March) in the year of the 150th anniversary of his death (20 May 1864). It is even better he be recognised by Michael Gove as among the great literary figures. It’s a pity your writer refers to him as the “peasant poet”, though, a label he was anxious to escape and that undermines his stature as a poet. Moreover, although he is reported to have claimed Shakespeare’s compositions as his own, this was not the reason he was confined in Northampton Asylum.
Dr Valerie Pedlar
Southport

• The photograph of the Co-operative Group’s Manchester HQ said it all (Co-op’s former boss lost touch, says movement’s worldwide president, 24 March). Aided, no doubt, by a city council that sees regeneration only in demolition and new-build, the Co-op had ditched its stuffy old Edwardian buildings in order to look like other faceless corporate traders. It must have been a small step to believing it had to pay superstar salaries and bonuses, too.
Judith Martin
Winchester, Hants

• Martin Amis, who knows Foucault (Letters, 25 March), is famed for his epistemological refusal to distinguish between Arius and Albo. A lovely thinker. I have even suggested to the Senat von Berlin that Kantstrasse, round the corner from which I live, be renamed after him.
Brian Smith
Berlin, Germany

• “Arguably the most unprecedented live comeback in rock history” (The week ahead in arts, Kate Bush, 24 March). Does this mean it’s nearly unique?
Nick Clayton
Alderley Edge

• Wow wow wow wow wow; running up that hill again; unbelievable.
Sian Mile and Kelly Hayward
Cardiff

• My grandma, who lived in Devon, had no time for low-fat spreads (Should I go back to saturated fats?, 24 March). When serving afternoon tea, she’d say: “Don’t be afraid of the butter.” I realise now she meant it wasn’t the butter that killed – but the fear of it. She was 103 when she died.
Paul Vincent
Crediton, Devon

Chris Grayling‘s insistence that constraints should be placed on the amount of reading and access to family memorabilia that is available to prisoners is callously punitive (Authors unite in protest over ban on sending books to prisoners, 25 March). Can this be the same minister who is reportedly concerned about the ineffectiveness of so many attempts at rehabilitation?

I was in charge of arts in prisons work at Arts Council England in the 1990s and remember the then chief inspector of prisons, Stephen Tumim, lamenting the size of the box that inmates were allowed to take in to prisons. By the time they had put their childrens’ photographs and their teddy bear into it there was precious little room left for a book or two. That was why he was such an advocate of prison libraries. He felt there could never be enough reading done in a prison and that it was just about the only route a prisoner could take towards becoming a better member of society. He knew that many prisoners do not have a reading habit and that it would therefore be futile to make access to books an earned privilege. Mr Grayling could benefit from reading a bit more himself, perhaps starting with a few of Stephen Tumim’s speeches.
Alastair Niven
London

• My career as a probation officer taught me that the majority of prisoners, especially those repeat offenders who take up most resources, work and prison space, fall into one (or more) of three groups: those with a psychiatric disorder, those with drug and alcohol habits, and those whose minimal educational attainments have barred them from any meaningful chance of employment. The first two groups have suffered from the failure of successive governments to provide proper treatment programmes, and the third from the diminishing availability of prison-based education.

The removal of access to books is pointless and counter-productive. (Yes, I know there are prison libraries – I’ve worked in one and its contents would have shamed any charity shop.) I suppose Grayling is now too busy dismantling the probation service against all sensible advice to think of his next destructive criminal justice policy. To assist him, could I suggest making prisons self-sufficient in power by reintroducing the treadmill?
Anne Cowper
Bishopston, Swansea

• As a volunteer in a prison library, one of my tasks was to help prisoners participate in the Storybook Dads scheme. This encourages a prisoner to record a story, which is sent to his child to listen to, and helps maintain family contact. In many cases I was able to help the prisoner choose a story from library stock, but in some cases the child would have a favourite book, which the family could bring in. If your report is accurate (Mark Haddon helps launch online petition against prisoner’s book ban, 24 March), this will no longer be possible. I wish more of your readers could see our dismal and poorly resourced prisons; they would have no doubt about the consequences of prisons, and prisoners, being used as a political football.
Harry Stannard
Leicester

• When Thomas More, Grayling’s illustrious predecessor, was imprisoned in the Tower of London, Thomas Cromwell is alleged to have forbidden access to books. This is portrayed in Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons as a supreme act of meanness and vindictiveness. Grayling should beware of falling out of favour.
Bernard Naylor
Highfield, Southampton

Stupidity over Ukraine

I am distressed by the stupidity and hypocrisy of political leaders (14 March). In Ukraine, the new government should have known that no Russian leader could ever accept their major navy base on the Black Sea to be located in a country linked to Nato. If it wanted to join the west, Ukraine should have used the fact that the majority of the Crimean population wanted to join Russia and told Putin that a referendum would be held as soon as possible. Then Crimea could have been returned democratically to Russia.

Instead, ignoring the lessons of Georgia, Ukraine choose confrontation: a stupid approach not only because it would not work, but also because it has annoyed Putin – something that a country like Ukraine can ill afford. To add another blunder, the Ukrainian parliament voted to make Ukrainian the only official language: threatening Russian, the main language in Crimea.

Judging by their public pronouncements, most western leaders are not any better. They rush to recognise a new government installed by rioters and eager to implement drastic changes before consulting the electorate. At the same time, they refuse to recognise a separation that may be legally doubtful but was approved by a democratic vote. Their threats are also hollow because most western countries have far more investment in Russia than the reverse, and Europe needs Russian gas.

One can only hope, first, that western politicians have told their Ukrainian colleagues privately that their best approach is to be a neutral bridge between east and west like Finland and Austria were, and second, that Ukrainians will be more reasonable than their leaders when they vote again.
François P Jeanjean
Ottawa, Canada

We must reform the police

It is time for a root-and-branch reform of our police forces in the UK following the recent revelations of long-suspected potential corruption in the Metropolitan police (May orders public enquiry into role played by police spies, 14 March). Corrupt practices – such as spying and lying – have been associated with the police in the UK for many decades. The oft-cited refrain that “our police force is the envy of the world” has always been difficult to accept and rings particularly hollow today.

It simply will not do for Met commissioners to deny all knowledge of wrongdoing and to lay the blame for the outrageous anomalies at the feet of “a few rotten apples”. It is their job to know, and that is what we pay them for.

The culture of impunity appears to permeate the force, and a commissioner who professes ignorance should be replaced at the earliest opportunity. As Owen Jones suggests (14 March), it is all over for the Met and we should now get on with the job of cleaning out and restocking the barrel.
Brian Sims
Bedford, UK

Problems with fish farming

I read with interest your letter relating to farm fishing from Andrew Mallison, the director general of The Marine Ingredients Organisation in London (Reply, 7 March). Although I agree with his sentiments, there seem to be some significant omissions.

We in New Zealand initially fully supported the start of fish farms. But it has become apparent that the outcome, although producing significant amounts of fish protein, does not make any allowance for the random way in which the fish are fed, the source of their feed (often the minced waste of slaughtered animals) or the significant pollution that is produced when the combination of uneaten food and fish faeces falls to the seabed.

The surrounding marine landscape becomes progressively more polluted, with the inevitable loss of habitat for other fish. In addition, the fish’s flavour is seldom of the same calibre as when fish are caught from their natural environment.

Perhaps some thought can and will be given to such problems.
Brian Mahood
Waikato, New Zealand

Where are our priorities?

I was appalled to read the article on teff in your 7 March issue, as I consider it to be very misleading – depending, of course, on one’s priorities. Teff eragrostis is a grass seed and comparatively low-yielding when compared with maize, sorghum, rice or wheat.

If our aim is to bring a degree of food security to the ever-increasing world’s population, then teff is not a miracle grain. If, on the other hand, our aim is to supply a niche, boutique market and to put money into the hands of entrepreneurs, then teff may well prove to be a money-spinner.

Tobia teff flour sells in London at $11.50 per kg, but that is far beyond the reach of the starving millions. It may compare favourably with the cereal grains on a strictly nutritional basis, but the cereal grains with the aid of vegetable proteins will always feed far more people.

So surely we must ask ourselves just where should our priorities lie?
Michael Scarr
Old Bar, NSW, Australia

Plenty of Roma research

Sukhdev Sandhu, in his review of I met Lucky People (21 February), was wrong to say there has been “relatively little” Roma research”. There’s been lots – especially this last 30 years. And when he speculates that this “surprising” dearth is probably due to their “stories” being passed down orally, not textually, he misses the main point: namely, that centuries of persecution has taught Roma not to trust outsiders (gadje). Consequently, to know Romany stories you need to get accepted by the people and then hang out with them.

Internationally distinguished scholars include Thomas Acton, Donald Kenrick, Michael Stewart, David Mayall and Judith Okely in Britain, and Ian Hancock, David Nemeth and Matt Salo in the US. The list goes on and includes Roma authors. Nor should we forget the century-old Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, now the Journal of Romani Studies, and work done at the University of Leiden.
Christopher Griffin
Rakiraki, Fiji

A master of mindfulness

Regarding David Derbyshire’s article on mindfulness therapy (7 March): as one who wrestled with depression, anxiety etc in my late 20s and early 30s, I want to recommend the various collected speeches of Jiddu Krishnamurti to any of your readers who are in or tending towards the sort of therapy discussed in this article.

His observations made more sense to me than anything I had come upon before then, and helped me incalculably in my efforts to make sense of myself, life, the universe and everything, to borrow a smidge from Douglas Adams’s work. I’d say more, but Krishmamurti says it so much better.
Jonathan Vanderels
Shaftsbury, Vermont, US

• Thanks for the interesting article A meditation on the power of the mind. For further info on this fascinating subject, I would suggest readers should search Google/YouTube for a man called Eckhart Tolle. Born in Germany, this humorous and entertaining man suffered depression for most of his life until he underwent a sudden and life-changing transformation into a state of “living entirely in the present”, about which he lectures and entertains his countless followers across the world.
Kim van Hoorn
Tarn, France

The joys of translation

Translator in residence at the Free Word Centre, Lucy Greaves, chooses to translate Luis Sepúlveda’s una avutarda as “some great bird” rather than the directly translated “a great bustard” (Are some words untranslatable? 14 March).

As both an English/Spanish speaker and as an ornithologist, could I point out that the word “great” as used here appears to have been translated as an adjective, and not as the noun that is given to the largest species of the bustard bird family. In bird field guides, the species name normally begins with the upper case: a Great Bustard, is likely how Sepúlveda would have wanted it translated.

I suppose you could have a “great”, meaning “pretty good”, as in “Wow, that’s a really great bustard!” (individual, rather than species), but it wouldn’t do to have a “Not-Bad Bustard” or a “Flippin’-Awful Bustard” now, would it?
Martin Toland
Wellington, New Zealand

Briefly

• Of the three Baltic states, Latvia is the one with the highest percentage of Russians in its population, so it is surprising that it did not feature in your survey of “Former Soviet Republics” (14 March). Latvia has been as vulnerable to Russian attempts to regain influence as any former member of the Soviet Union, so their reaction to events in the Ukraine are just as interesting as the reactions of the countries that were mentioned.
Ian Brown
Melbourne, Australia

• Your article Former Soviet republics watch from the wings (14 March) provides a map that ignores the existence of Turkmenistan. As for your story on India (Ruling party faces big losses in ‘milestone’ for democracy), it became independent from Britain in 1947, not 1952.
Alaisdair Raynham
Truro, UK

• So Bavarian pretzels have joined the EU’s protected origins list (Shortcuts, 7 March) along with champagne, Parma ham and Cornish pasties. Does this mean that soon we can expect a European commission edict to the effect that genuine HP Sauce must be manufactured within the walls of the Palace of Westminster?
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

Independent:

Defenders of the old system of obligatory annuities seem to be arguing that people are so little able to take good financial decisions that they should be forced to take bad ones – which is what buying an annuity has been for a long time (Letters, 21 March).

Now that they no longer have a captive market maybe annuity providers will be forced to make their products more attractive, the sort of thing sensible investors might buy of their own free will.

Duncan Howarth, Maidstone, Kent

In George Osborne’s decision to allow pensioners to do what they will with their pension pots, am I the only one to sniff the next massive financial-services mis-selling scandal?

Stanley Tyrer, Bury, Lancashire

The Government is attempting to target the grey vote, offering a series of goodies to pensioners, thinking they won’t be concerned about the “have-nots” of society: children in poverty, the young unemployed, the disabled/long-term sick, the homeless. They forget that pensioners have children and grandchildren, too, whose future is just as important to them, certainly more so than the marginal benefit offered by such blatant bribes.

John Andress, Lyn Hazel, Jean Heaven, Derys Maddox, Breda Thomas  & Colin Thomas, Dorstone, Herefordshire

No flag of St George for me, thank you

You report Jon Cruddas, one of Ed Miliband’s closest advisers, saying “the Liberal Left should stop feeling guilty about flying the flag of St George and have no qualms about celebrating Englishness” (17 March). As someone on the left, I loathe flags, national anthems and all patriotic things, so to hear talk of people like me claiming the Cross of St George flag makes me sick.

Leave this piece of cloth with a red cross on it for the right where it belongs, and leave thinking progressives to be the internationalists that we are.

Ray Love, Bath

Ofsted offers reasons to be cheerful

Many of us longstanding critics of Ofsted welcome what appears to be a major cultural shift developing within Ofsted itself and its relationship with the teaching profession (report, 21 March). For many years it has ignored criticism from teachers, academics and others, and resisted fundamental changes through a never-ending series of minor, piecemeal adjustments. But Ofsted finally appears to be moving from what has too often been a negative approach, focusing on what is wrong and requires improvement, to a more supportive developmental one focusing more on celebrating success and working with schools to make them even better.

That’s a profound mind-shift – which some inspectors will find difficult to make and which some school leaders will find hard to acknowledge after years of suspicion, anxiety and even hostility to Ofsted inspection teams. But it is welcome nonetheless.

Professor Colin Richards, Former HM Inspector, Spark Bridge, Cumbria

GM crops are not the answer to hunger

In your report on GM crops (14 March) it is stated that the push for GM is important because of the “scale of potential food shortages facing humanity in the coming decades”.

Huge amounts of evidence show that there is more than enough food to feed everyone in the world, yet people still starve. This is because of lack of access to food; lack of money to buy it, or means to produce it. The system is broken and GM crops will do nothing to fix it. In places where they are being grown, they are not feeding people, but animals or cars. GM crops are now causing huge problems to farmers, for example causing pesticide- resistant insects and “superweeds”.

We hear constant claims from the GM industry about what these crops might be able to do in the future, but no tangible results. In the meantime countless tried, tested and successful ways of tackling hunger and food insecurity are underused for lack of investment. It is madness to throw good money after bad on GM, and to open the floodgates to a torrent of risky and unneeded  GM crops.

Emma Hockridge, Head of Policy, The Soil Association, Bristol

Sporting triumph

Well done for the short report and picture of Laura Massaro’s brilliant victory in the World Squash Championships (24 March). Squash is a demanding game that requires supreme fitness and mental strength – Roger Federer stopped playing (for kicks), reportedly saying it was “too brutal”.

While it seems to be being ignored everywhere else, we need more coverage of this great game – which, unfathomably,  is still not included in  the Olympics.

Lalit Bhadresha, London SW4

Perplexed by pronuciation

Who at the BBC has decided that “homage” should be pronounced so that it rhymes with French cheese? It has Latin origins.

Ian Turnbull, Carlisle

No special favours for Scotland

Alex Salmond should factor in an additional hurdle for an independent Scotland to clear before being able to join the EU (report, 18 March). Eastern European MEPs are telling me that they will insist on transitional measures being applied to any new EU accession state, including Scotland. This is because they had to suffer harsh transitional measures when they joined and they are adamant that new member states can expect no  special favours.

When 10 Eastern European and other countries acceded to the EU in 2004, subsidies for farmers were phased in over 10 years. This was also the case for the Bulgarians and Romanians who joined in 2007.

The EU also allows for restrictions on the freedom of movement of workers, giving these Eastern European MEPs additional tools with which to make life difficult for Scotland.

An independent Scotland would require the approval of an absolute majority of MEPs before acceding. The cost of achieving this majority support would be the application of these severe restrictions and transitional measures.

This isn’t “Tory scaremongering”; it’s reality.

Struan Stevenson MEP, (Con, Scotland), The European Parliament, Brussels

Have you ever wondered why so many Scots are in favour of independence? Allow me – a voteless SNP member, happily resident among decent English people – to enlighten you.

First we shall shut the biggest nuclear-arms dump in Europe and invite its American owners to collect their property.

Second, we shall restore the welfare state to full principled public ownership. It will be an offence to call the unemployed who cannot find work “scroungers”. We shall stop the selling off of parts of the NHS to the likes of United Health.

Third, we shall immunise our education from creeping “Goveism”. Unlike England, Scotland does not see education as a consumer item like cars and holidays, as a well-known senior English academic recently defined it, but as an investment for the country’s future. Well, we do have four medieval universities. Two, is it, in England?

Fourth, after a Yes vote it will be how, not whether, our fiscal affairs are organised; and Osborne, Barroso etc will then be singing from a very different song-sheet.

W B McBride, Bristol

Alex Salmond claims that if the UK would not allow an independent Scotland to share sterling this would mean that Scotland would not be liable for its share of the national debt. No it would not. A “yes” vote in the referendum would authorise the Scottish government to negotiate terms for independence, but the terms would have to be agreed by both sides.

It may well be that no matter what currency Scotland might use the creditors of the UK would not be willing to have Scotland take on its share of the debt on the current terms enjoyed by the UK, because independent Scotland, as a new nation without an established credit rating, could not expect such good terms. Scotland might then be beholden to the UK to accept Scotland’s share of the debt, and Scotland would then be in debt to the UK for that amount.

If a newly independent Scotland cannot persuade international markets to give it the same credit rating as the UK, there is no reason why the UK should ignore the risk factor and grant favourable terms to Scotland. Scotland would then be servicing its debt on less favourable terms, at a greater cost to the Scottish taxpayer.

I find it interesting that Alex Salmond thinks it reasonable to suggest that Scotland can leave with the lion’s share of North Sea oil and leave the national debt behind. It is a bit like a party to a divorce keeping the house but leaving the mortgage.

The North Sea oilfields were developed by the UK and became assets belonging to all UK taxpayers, including English, Welsh and Northern Irish. If independence happens it would be reasonable to agree that assets and liabilities should be apportioned by population.

Donald MacCallum, Bletchley, Milton Keynes

Times:

Sir, “We have been meddling carelessly in a situation we did not grasp” (Jenni Russell, Mar 20). How right she is. Does no one in the US State Department or the Foreign Office understand how Russia sees the world? Russia has a (not irrational) fear of invasion from the West. In the past 400 years or so Poles, Swedes, French, French and British (1854), French and British again, Czechs (1919) and Germany have poured troops into Russia, mainly through its western frontier. Russia has no natural defences between Lithuania and the Black Sea in the shape of mountains or rivers. Its only protection is its buffer states. This was the principle behind the division of Europe agreed at Yalta.

When Yeltsin released its first ring of buffer states (Poland, East Germany, Czechosloavkia, Hungary, Romania), Russia was left with two buffer states, Belarus and Ukraine. It was crass stupidity of EU and US “diplomats” to try to detach Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence, and the outcome was clearly foreseeable.

I do not fear Russian intervention in the Baltic States, unless badly provoked by the West, even though for many years they were part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Crimea is different, as Ben Macintyre explained (Mar 21).

Forget about sanctions. They are difficult to operate, difficult to bring to an end, and will have little influence on policy which has been central to Russian thinking for centuries. They will not bring Crimea back into Ukraine (where it never ought to have been). The best outcome of any negotiations will be a neutral Ukraine and removal of any fear of Russian intervention near Donetsk and Kharkov. That is the practical end at which we should aim.

Edward Nugee, QC

London WC2

Sir, Your report on Obama and crisis talks with European leaders (Mar 24) is alarming. You say rightly that China could have a helpful role. What is important is that bullying should not succeed. It is possible to change frontiers, but this should only be done by the agreement of all parties — as happened in the agreed separation of the Czech and Slovak republics, the Velvet Divorce.

I suggest that the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe be asked to report on the situation of Russian speakers and nationals and other minorities, within the present boundaries of the Ukraine. The facts could then be calmly considered without threats or unnecessary troop movements.

Lord Hylton

House of Lords

Sir, There is no doubt that due to the lack of any real sanctions against Russian expansion, within the month Putin will move into Ukraine and on to part of Moldova. We are, in effect, having a re-run of Hitler’s expansion policy and the resultant appeasement that brought about the Second World War. The Baltic states with large Russian populations ought to be very afraid.

Nato and the West have no military will to oppose this and the proposed basing of 3,000 British troops in Germany is laughable, as are the economic sanctions which will impinge only on Russian people and not on the oligarchs.

We have a non-elected Ukrainian government formerly led by a corrupt leader and a people who have voted for Russia in the Crimea. The West’s response is weak and Putin knows it.

Bill Bradbury

Billinge, Lancs

Sir, These young igniferous politicians and generals advocating a show of military strength worry me. They have become detached from reality or have a grossly exaggerated idea of our capabilities.

John P. Hunter

Swindon, Wilts

Most people want a change in the law — is it not time for doctors to put the views of their patients centre stage?

Sir, Dr Hartropp (“Physicians are divided over assisted dying”, Mar 24) tells us that the Royal College of General Practitioners refuses to allow its members to have a ballot on assisted dying because the subject is “too contentious and difficult an issue”.

If correct, how craven is that? What is the point of a ballot if the subject is not contentious? And on what authority does the RCGP adopt a positive stance on the issue rather than one of neutrality?

The letters on the same page illustrate the need for more information by drawing conflicting conclusions from inadequate data. That from Dr Baker and others seems particularly contentious. No one is attempting “to foist assisted suicide” either on patients who do not want help or on doctors who are unwilling to give it.

It is generally accepted that a large majority of the population want a change in the law. At a time when the tide is towards treating mentally competent people as capable of making their own decisions, is it not time for doctors to give centre stage to the views of their patients and not to stand in the way of a compassionate end to life for those such as Diane Pretty and Tony Nicklinson.

Sir Gordon Downey

London SW1

Like many peaceful and popular villages Shrivenham is about to be bulldozed into oblivion by house builders

Sir, You omitted Shrivenham from your list of best places to live in Britain and from your list of villages under threat of massive green field development.

We don’t need lists to convince us that this village is the best place in which to live. What does concern us are the district council’s proposals to build 829 houses in Shrivenham. This would enlarge our village by 89 per cent. At the same time Swindon plans to build 8,000 houses two miles west of us, and Faringdon plans to build 1,000 to the east. There are few jobs in the village and the infrastructure is already at bursting point (including sewage seeping into houses).

Apart from the villagers, no one seems to care about the “fanciful housing numbers” designed to meet government-imposed quotas.

Richard Bartle (Lt Col ret’d)

Shrivenham, Oxon

The Great War poet’s works passed through several editions before the 1960s when he came to be more widely lionised

Sir, It is misleading to suggest (letters, Mar 25) that Owen’s collected poems were not widely accessible, and widely known, before 1963. A collection of his poems, edited with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon, was first published in 1920 and reprinted in 1921. A new complete edition, edited with a memoir by Edmund Blunden, came out in 1931 and was reprinted several times.

Nigel Bawcutt

Liverpool

Leading science educationists call on Ofqual not to separate practical marks from the core subject grades

Sir, As a partnership of the leading scientific learned societies, Score has grave concerns that Ofqual will today decide to separate practical marks from the core A-level grades in biology, chemistry and physics.

At a time when the UK needs to be cultivating a scientifically skilled workforce, we are on the verge of depriving our children of a grounding in hands-on scientific experimentation.

We implore Ofqual to reconsider or delay this process in order to address unresolved questions surrounding the proposals.

Professor Julia Buckingham, Chair of Score; Professor Peter Main, Director, Education and Science, Institute of Physics; Charles Tracy, Head of Education, Pre-19

Institute of Physics; Professor Jim Iley, executive director, Science and Education, Royal Society of Chemistry; Professor Adrian Sutton FRS, Royal Society; Rachel Lambert-Forsyth, Director of Education and Training, Society of Biology; Gemma Garrett, Deputy Director of Education, Society of Biology; Richard Needham, Former Chair of the Association for Science Education; Marianne Cutler, Director Curriculum Innovation, Association for Science Education; Juliet Upton,

Project Leader, Vision for Science and Mathematics Education, The Royal Society

Telegraph:

SIR – You report that “almost half of children fail to bond with their parents by the age of three”. Can this have anything to do with the almost ideological fervour with which successive governments have subsidised institutional childcare?

For politicians, this is a way of gaining votes and helping the economy. However, George Osborne’s pledge of £2,000 for childcare costs in the Budget, to be bestowed only on two-earner couples, was not properly costed. The signs are that this huge “investment” will “deliver” generations of socially disengaged adults.

Perhaps they will not want to work at all.

Ann Farmer
Woodford Green, Essex

SIR – The collapsed Al-Sweady Inquiry into allegations that British troops murdered Iraqi prisoners has already cost in excess of £22 million, all paid for by the British taxpayer.

Experience of the Saville Inquiry and others show that the final bill will be much higher; but the suffering for those falsely accused, and their families, cannot be calculated in monetary terms.

Perhaps, in future, when allegations turn out to be unfounded, all fees paid via legal aid to the lawyers should be recovered, and used to defend deserving cases in the United Kingdom.

Bill Duff
Belfast

Sharia law wills

SIR – Any solicitor drafting a will based on Sharia law should advise the client that the will may be challenged and its provisions set aside under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Under the Act, a claim may be made against a deceased’s person’s estate irrespective of the claimant’s religion. Potential claimants comprise the members of the deceased’s family, including a spouse or civil partner, or former spouse or civil partner, who has not remarried and any person who was being wholly or partly maintained by the deceased before the death.

Any solicitor not advising the client of this would be negligent.

Jane Barham Carter
Godalming, Surrey

Starting school young

SIR – My great-granddaughter was four last August, and started in reception class at her local state school last September. Some of her classmates are nearly a year older than her (Letters, March 22).

This has not held her back; in fact, it has inspired her to the extent that at her recent parents’ day, her teacher said she was in the top half-dozen of her year group. She has developed in every aspect: reads, writes, can do simple maths, and one can hold a near-adult conversation with her.

Ian Boylett
London N9

Watch what you wear

SIR – A diver’s only reliable timepiece used to be a bulky Rolex Submariner. This had a protruding, guarded button that dug deeply into your hand, so it was deemed sensible to wear the watch in reverse on the right wrist. The habit has stayed with me.

John Dawson
Blandford Forum, Dorset

SIR – I remember people wearing a watch on each wrist during military exercises in Germany. One was used for “exercise time”, and the other for “wives’ time”.

Colonel J A Baker
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Behind the Borisisms

SIR – May I request a short dictionary of Borisisms? His article contained the gorgeous verb “tinkle-plinked”.

I would like to know its exact meaning so that I may incorporate this word, at suitable moments, into my vocabulary.

Carol Farrand
Modbury, Devon

British sea power

SIR – Lord Dannatt’s remarks on the importance of continuing to maintain a British Army garrison in Germany are to be expected. The Army establishment continues to seek a raison d’être for a large force, and somewhere foreign to put it.

Those days should be over. The transfer of American forces from Europe to Asia will leave a big naval gap in the Mediterranean. American carriers will be a rare sight. Our resources would be better spent forward-basing major surface units at Gibraltar to complement the four American navy destroyers based at Rota, near Cadiz.

The more we spend on sea power, the less we will need to spend on troops on the ground. Britain has not had a prime minister who has valued sea power since James Callaghan. Do not expect another one until there has been a sea change in British politics.

Mark Harland
Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Babies of the House

SIR – In his blog, Peter Oborne praised the extraordinary life of Roy Jenkins and cited age as a major reason for the “dullness of the modern generation”.

Yet Roy Jenkins first stood for Parliament aged 24 and became the youngest MP in the House at the age of 27, following his victory in the 1948 Southwark by-election. This is hardly exceptional – many of our great statesmen and characters went into politics at an early age.

William Gladstone entered Parliament aged 22, the third Marquess of Salisbury was elected at 23, while Winston Churchill, Arthur Balfour and Tony Benn were only 25 when they first sat in the Commons.

It would appear that fault for the alleged dullness of modern politics lies in the character, rather than the age, of those who stand for Parliament.

James Heale
Kew, Surrey

Modern multi-tasking

SIR – Yesterday morning, a lady in her mid-thirties jogged past my house.

In her left hand was a small dog on a lead, trotting along with her. She was listening to music on her headphones, and she appeared to be texting someone using only her right hand.

Bob Farey
Kettering, Northamptonshire

How two ships destroyed each other in wartime

SIR – Michael Montgomery is wrong to say that the loss of the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney on November 19 1941 is still unexplained. David Mearns, the undersea search expert, found her wreck in 2008, ending 60 years of mystery and conspiracy theory.

In fact, the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran was well equipped to take on warships like Sydney. She was heavily armed with 6in (15 cm) guns, as well as anti-tank and heavy machine guns, and torpedoes. Her success in sinking Sydney is also down to the element of surprise.

Her captain lured the light cruiser into near-point blank range (900 yards) by getting his chief signalman to return recognition signals by flag, and slowly. Captain Detmers reinforced the element of surprise by opening the action with salvoes aimed directly at Sydney’s bridge – his standard tactic (Kormoran’s concealed guns could be brought into action almost instantly.) This tactic meant that tragically, within 20 seconds of the start of the battle, Sydney’s command team were probably all lost, and it wasn’t long before her forward A and B turrets – and gunnery control – were out of action too. Sydney did return independent fire with her aft X and Y turrets, fatally wounding Kormoran by starting an uncontrollable fire; and though she was grievously hurt, her surviving crew fought on with great courage for nearly an hour, before she drifted away ablaze, and sank. Sadly there were no survivors. Kormoran’s remaining crew abandoned her shortly before she blew up.

David Mearns was awarded the Order of Australia for his outstanding achievement. His account of his discovery can be read in his book The Search for the Sydney.

Rob White
London N3 SIR – Pensions are not funded by taxed income. That is true of Isas, but not of contributions to the pension pot, which the Chancellor says pensioners can now spend as they wish rather than buying an annuity.

Few politicians understand that pension contributions are tax-free to avoid the injustice of paying tax twice – first on the amount that is saved, and second when the pension is eventually spent.

From this point of view, the present rules are much too restrictive. People should be allowed to save as much as they like free of tax (within reason). It was wrong of the Government to reduce the tax-free pension pot from £1.5m to £1.25m from April 6. After all, pensioners will pay the full tax rate on their sports cars or world cruises.

And they will pay income tax on any part of their pension that is withdrawn from their fund and re-invested, say in buy-to-let housing. Tax pensioners, but only once.

Max Wilkinson
Dedham, Essex

SIR – I believe that the new rules will allow a pension fund to be transferred to a family member without paying tax. This can be achieved by making annual withdrawals, on which tax would be paid.

These funds could then be gifted to a family member who could make contributions to their self-invested personal pension. Family members would be granted tax relief on this investment, which would compensate for the tax paid when money is withdrawn from the pension fund at the beginning.

This would result in the total pension being transferred over a number of years with no cost to the family.

G A Hinitt
Sheffield, South Yorkshire

SIR – The Government has chosen to implement dramatic changes to pension rules with no reference to the experts.

Through advising people, I know that annuities are, and will remain, the best option for people looking for secure lifetime income. Annuity providers should be supported, not undermined.

Experience shows that those with the smallest pension pots are most likely to access them as soon as possible and blow the money on cars and holidays.

Mark Osland
Croydon, Surrey

SIR – The pension changes announced by George Osborne are welcome, but not only did he renege on his promises for inheritance tax, he also hasn’t reversed Gordon Brown’s tax raid on pensions.

John Henesy
Maidenhead, Berkshire

SIR – Charles Moore bemoans the erosion of trust in pensions. Banks, governments and insurance companies have turned trust and customer goodwill into cold, hard cash. They have sold our tomorrows for their own profit.

K J Phair
Felixstowe, Suffolk

Irish Times:

Sir, – As a former member of An Garda Síochána I am glad that Mr Callinan has decided to resign as commissioner, both for his own sake and for that of his family.

It is sad to see any commissioner being backed into such a position, but it may allow the spotlight to shine more clearly on a Minister for Justice who has used the commissioner for too long as a shelter from criticism.

Mr Shatter has decimated the Garda since he came into office. He has denuded the force of stations, manpower and transport, leaving us with a skeleton force. When opposition is expressed to his decisions, he will say that the commissioner runs the force. The truth is that the commissioner was not allowed to run the force.

When I joined An Garda Síochána, I found it to be a force subservient to politicians and that has changed very little since. I vividly recall a case in Boyle, Co Roscommon, where a sergeant who raided a licensed premises after hours and found a high-ranking member of government there, quickly found himself transferred. He was only saved by his representative association (the AGSI), who took up his case and had the decision reversed. This was far from being an isolated situation.

While we now have calls from politicians on all sides for an independent police authority, I would remind them that the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants & Inspectors were calling for such a body more than 30 years ago. One former minister for justice at the time opposed the suggestion, saying “It would be giving excessive control to a police authority”. At that time, and through the intervening years, there was no political party in favour of a police authority and members of An Garda Síochána of all ranks are well aware of why that is the case. Yours, etc,

TONY FAGAN,

Bellefield Road,

Enniscorthy,

Co Wexford

Sir, – The Garda Commissioner should not have had the option to resign. He should have been dismissed because the moment he let the word “disgusting”pass his lips, he revealed that his attitude toward accountability comes from a different era and is unacceptable in a modern police force.

His departure raises the question of the process that will be put in place to choose his successor. Not only must this process be transparent and open to external candidates, but the remuneration agreement reached with Mr Callinan before he resigned must also be made public.

It is also essential that the two whistleblowers, whose bravery in standing up for ethics and integrity in the face of what we now know was massive pressure from vested interests who preferred the ways of the past, are given adequate recompense. Yours, etc,

DESMOND FITZGERALD,

Canary Wharf ,

London

Sir, –   Since the Watergate scandal it has frequently been the case that people in public life in various countries have insisted on learning the hard way that the cover-up can do them more harm than the scandal it is supposed to hide. In Ireland the variation is that the cover-up is an effect rather than an intent. The Garda whistleblowers are heroes who should have been welcomed with open arms (to say the least. The fact that Alan Shatter and Commissioner Callinan treated them in precisely the  opposite way was a cover-up in effect (regardless of intent) and that was a bigger scandal than how any penalty points system “works”. At least let us hope that those in Irish public life will have learned this lesson for future scandals. Yours, etc,

FRANK DESMOND,

Evergreen Road,

Cork

Sir, – “If he (Martin Callinan) stays in office, the message goes out that it is still normal, in official Ireland, to be nauseated by troublesome truths,” writes Fintan O’Toole (March 25th). I could not agree more. I have the highest regard for the whistleblowers who had the courage to speak out. In a democracy, lack of accountability and lack of transparency should worry us all. My late father grew up in the Ukraine and Poland, under a totalitarian regime. In those days, people were thrown into prison for expressing the “wrong” ideas. Need I say more? Yours, etc,

INGRID NACHSTERN,

Eglinton Road,

Donnybrook,

Dublin 4

Sir, – No doubt PAC member Mary Lou McDonald will be crowing with delight at the resignation of Martin Callinan. I do believe that the Commissioner’s “disgusting” remarks were inappropriate and intemperate (and should have been unreservedly withdrawn) but I would sooner embrace his morality than that of his inquisitor. Yours, etc,

GEOFF SCARGILL,

Loreto Grange,

Bray,

Co Wicklow

A chara, – Minister Shatter is an intelligent man, but seems incapable of seeing the simple truth. He is supposed to be the representative of the citizens and to look out for our interests. In months of endless scandals however, he has not been on our side. He has defended the establishment against the interests of the people, and neglected their legitimate concerns. The people no longer have confidence in him as their representative at Justice. In the light of the growing list of scandals and with the security establishment he sought to protect having buckled under much-needed scrutiny, how can the politician trusted with this portfolio remain above question? How can his position be tenable? Is mise,

JOE BYRNE

Schoolhouse Lane,

Dublin 2

Sir, — I have personally felt that Mr Shatter has been unfit for the office of minister for justice ever since he used confidential Garda information to smear an opponent in a political debate. His ongoing difficulties are only teaching us how much his colleagues are willing to tolerate before they feel the need to withdraw their support for him. Yours, etc,

SEÁN HOGAN,

Fisherman’s Grove,

Dunmore East,

Co Waterford

Sir, – The Taoiseach and Alan Shatter backed the wrong person, Martin Callinan. Martin Callinan didn’t back the right persons, whistleblowers McCabe and Wilson. Disgusting! Even though Callinan didn’t apologise, he did have the courage to do the right thing by resigning.

KEVIN DEVITTE,

Mill Street,

Westport,

Co Mayo

Sir, – Martin Callinan must get his Irish Times early (“Disgust means Callinan must go”, March 25th). Yours, etc,

GP McHUGH,

Somerton Road

Belfast

A Chara – I was delighted to see that Una Mullally is not surprised that Fianna Fáil is failing in its attempts to fill a third of its candidate lists for this year’s local elections with women candidates. For too long, its safe-seated senior women politicians rubbished calls to introduce gender quotas.

After the 1987 general election returned no Labour woman candidate to the Dáil or Seanad, I was involved with the Labour Women’s Council in analysing our difficulties in attracting and electing women candidates. Academic research was examined; our sister socialist parties were consulted, while the leadership of the Irish Labour Party was charged with solving the problems of retaining the integrity of the PR ballot paper once we were convinced that quotas were necessary.

Soon, 25 years later, we are to witness changes in the candidate selection process which will deliver gender choice to the electorate. After much soul-searching, all parties, including FF, have committed themselves to supporting the Government’s proposals to agree to field at least 30 per cent women candidates at the next general election – or suffer the financial consequences.

Fianna Fáil has some catching up to do. Pleasant Mary O’Rourke’s protestations against the need for gender quotas are already sounding positively archaic.

Women constitute 50 per cent of the population. We dominate educational league tables. Our experience and education must be harnessed so that we can all contribute to the national efforts of resolving our present economic crisis. Together we should be able to shape a better Ireland. – Is mise le meas,

NIAMH BHREATHNACH,

Anglesea Avenue,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin

Sir, — Has Paul Williams (Letters, March 25th) considered the possibility that the reason there are fewer women than men interested in going into politics is because of larger societal factors rather than their inherent dispositions? Men who want a career in primary teaching may indeed be discriminated against by social forces which view this as “women’s work”. This is an example of how oppressive gender roles shape people’s lives, and in effect steer men from caring, nurturing roles, and women from careers involving science or leadership.

As Ms Mullally states in the piece Mr Williams criticises (March 24th), men need only be asked to run for office, while women need “confidence-building, encouragement, solidarity and support” – precisely because of the extra barriers they face. Their absence in this field is particularly damaging as women’s interests are ignored, thereby preserving a male-dominated status quo. Quotas may at least somewhat redress this imbalance in the short term, but more importantly they help change attitudes about who can and cannot lead. Mr Williams’s sneering reference to “quotaistas” suggests that he, like many anti-feminists, will not even listen to those they argue against. Yours etc,

DAVID BEATTY,

Coolamber Park,

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16

Sir, – Col Dorcha Lee’s article (“Steady Decline of Defence Forces must be halted”, March 24th) is timely, coming as it does between Green and White Papers on defence.

The Irish Maritime Forum (TIMF) shares Col Lee’s concern at the low percentage of GDP allocated to defence. In the context of the vastly increased sea area claimed by Ireland, the forum advocates an increase in the allocation to maritime security.

The area of operations to be covered by the Navy has more than doubled since the publication of the last defence White Paper. To patrol the area encompassed by the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (410,000 sq km), the White Paper on defence 2000 recommended eight ships and 1,144 personnel. The defence and security of our hugely expanded maritime domain (now 1,000,000 sq km) is surely worthy of an increase to a more realistic number of ships and personnel.

We are an island nation and we now claim the largest maritime domain to landmass of any northwestern European state. In fact 92 per cent of Ireland is under water. This domain contains natural resources with a potential value of several trillion euro, including mineral deposits, fossil fuels, marine life, fisheries and wind and wave energy. Effective policing of our maritime domain is an important indicator of our determination to exploit our marine resources effectively and sustainably. Yours, etc,

CAPT JAMES ROBINSON,

On behalf of the IMF

Boulaling,

Riverstick,

Co Cork.

Sir, – On the subject of the Irish language, which has been featuring in these columns over the last few days, I feel I must express some pent-up feelings that have been with me for decades.

Going to school in Dublin 4 during the 1950s, at all times during Irish class I was reminded that I was not a “fíor gaeilgeoir”. Terms like “seonín” were used liberally and frequently. I was good at Irish and got more than 90 per cent in my Leaving Cert and I have retained a strong affection for the language. But that did not matter during class time.

The school did not have a GAA team – neither did it have a soccer team. It had a rugby team, and I was its captain at several age levels. No opportunity was ever missed to remind me of “garrison towns”.

Some of my classmates were from rural Ireland. The favouritism shown to them by the teacher was little short of sectarian.

Needless to say, most of the rest in the class were completely demotivated from ever having any interest in speaking or having a strong feeling for the retention of the language.

How wonderful now to have TG4 showing Rugbaí Beo . I don’t care if Jerry Flannery’s Irish isn’t perfect (his rugby was very nearly). Can we get on with preserving the language by making it living and not an academic exercise? Yours, etc,

FINTAN GIBNEY

Glasnevin Hill,

Dublin i9

Sir, – The only meaningful way to ensure the continuity of the Irish language in Ireland is if we mandate a high percentage of all broadcasting to be made in Irish. This would allow people the ability to think of the language outside of school. A similar policy has worked wonders for Catalan. So why not in Ireland? Yours, etc,

HEBER ROWAN

Annagh lodge,

Geevagh,

Co Sligo

A Chara,- Tá go leor scríofa, agas cainte déanta, faoi “Ceist na Gaeilge”. Is trua gur i mBéarla a bhíonn sé! Tá sé in am dúinn anois ár dteanga Ghaeilge a úsáid, a bheag nó a mhór de atá againn. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, “Beatha teanga í a úsáid”. Use it or loose it! Is Mise,

SÉAN O’CUINN,

Gleann na Smól,

An Charraig Dhubh,

Átha Cliath

Sir, – My stomach turned listening to RTE’s Primetime interview with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on the subject of horse welfare. But it wasn’t just the thought of all those abandoned horses that sickened me, heartrending though their plight is: untold numbers have starved to death, been ill-treated or been rescued in a pitiful, emaciated condition.

It was also the Minister’s professed concern for the welfare of animals generally and his boast that the new Animal Health and Welfare Act has greatly advanced the fight against animal cruelty. He spoke of his determination to alleviate the suffering of animals that are “welfare-compromised”. Yet this is the same Minister who specifically exempted hare-coursing and fox-hunting from prohibition under the Act.

Instead of protecting the fox and the hare from cruelty, the legislation fully permits the live baiting of these animals for “sport”.

Can the Minister not see, or accept, that a wild dog being hounded until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to a pack of hounds to be eviscerated is “welfare-compromised”? And could this euphemism not also be applied to a hare that is terrorised, mauled and tossed about by dogs like a paper toy for the amusement of a crowd of gamblers and sightseers?

The welfare of a fox or fox cub that is dragged from its underground refuge with the aid of spades, terriers, and poles wrapped with barbed wire is certainly compromised, whatever about claims that the hunt “dig-out” is part of a proud rural tradition.

Instead of a horse cull, I suggest a (non-lethal) culling of politicians who claim to love animals while refusing to legislate against some of the worst animal cruelty practices on the planet. Yours, etc,

JOHN FITZGERALD

Campaign for the Abolition

Of Cruel Sports,

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Sir, – The Society of Irish Foresters has added its voice to warnings from the Woodland League on the loss of trees from our parkland, roadsides and hedgerows (Pacelli Breathnach, Letters, March 24th).

Wherever a tree is planted it graciously provides oxygen, flood soakage and shade to the population, while also offering shelter and a habitat to the natural world.

It is to be hoped that our local authorities will fell trees only after an inspection by a qualified arborologist has recommended this course, and then on grounds of safety alone.

It has been pointed out in this newspaper that only one-fifth of one per cent of our tree cover consists of ancient oak, and we cannot afford to lose any more of this species.

At a time when so many people are unemployed it seems incredible that the Government has not seized upon the economic advantages of a massive programme of afforestation. We have 11 per cent tree cover in Ireland.

If we actually wanted to provide jobs and the real wealth of natural resources, greater numbers of different varieties of trees would be planted. On maturity and when ready for harvesting these could produce a paper industry, construction materials and renewable fuel. Yours, etc,

CAITRIONA LAWLOR,

Redesdale Road,

Mount Merrion,

Sir, – I am a local historian engaged in research on the Cumann na mBan in Co Louth. The cumann was the women’s auxiliary corps to the Irish Volunteers and by extension the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence and Civil War periods. It was founded on April 2nd, 1914, in Wynn’s Hotel, Dublin. I wish to contact anyone who may have had a relative, a friend or a neighbour involved in Cumann na mBan activity in Louth and who would like to contribute to my research. I can be contacted at a.rog20@live.com. Yours, etc,

AILBHE ROGERS

Leinster Road,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6

Irish Independent:

* As a former member of An Garda Siochana I am glad that Martin Callinan has decided to resign as commissioner – both for his own sake and for that of his family.

Also in this section

Different faces of the Catholic Church

Whistleblower row descends into ‘pantomime’

No new politics on offer

It is sad to see any garda chief being backed into such a position but it may allow the spotlight to shine more clearly on a Minister for Justice who has used the commissioner for too long as a shelter from criticism.

Alan Shatter has decimated An Garda Siochana since he has come into office. He has denuded the force of stations, manpower and transport, leaving the country with a skeleton police force.

When public opposition to his decisions is expressed, he says the commissioner runs the force. The truth of the situation is that Mr Callinan was not allowed to run the organisation.

When I joined An Garda Siochana, I found it to be a force subservient to politicians and that has changed very little in the interim.

While we now have calls from politicians on all sides for an independent police authority, I would remind them to recall how the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors were calling for such a body to be put in place more than 30 years ago.

Indeed, one former minister opposed the suggestion, alleging “it would be giving excessive control to a police authority”.

At that time, and through the intervening years, there was no political party in favour of a police authority and members of An Garda Siochana of all ranks are well aware of why that is the case.

TONY FAGAN

ENNISCORTHY, CO WEXFORD

COLD MORAL HIGH GROUND

* Yes! Callinan is gone; let’s march on Leinster House and remove the Minister for Justice. Yes, Alan Shatter with his reformist views and bustling intellect, not to mention his in-depth knowledge of our legal system. Why? Sure we don’t like him. He’s not popular. He challenges us and we definitely don’t like that. He’d never be voted in down the country.

Who will replace him? Surely there is a career politician and former teacher ready to fill the highest legal position in the land.

And who should lead this charge to maintain the moral high ground? How about an elected representative who has openly and brazenly avoided paying all his taxes? Perfect. Because we love the rogue who chances his arm and gets away with it. Just like your brother or sister or uncle who was caught speeding but got the points removed after a call to their cousin’s partner’s brother-in-law who happens to be a guard. Ah now, nobody in Ireland would do such a thing!

I have come to admire politicians who are uncomfortable with the parish pump political model and who genuinely seem to have the greater good of the country in mind.

Let us be patient and allow Mr Shatter time and space to defend himself and his record in office. Let us try to park our party loyalties and do what is in everybody’s interests. If this means resigning, so be it, but let it be an informed decision.

RONAN BERRY

TULLAMORE, CO OFFALY

OFF THE CUFF

* I see Health Minister James Reilly is proposing a smoking ban in cars. I agree that it is wrong for adults to expose children to second-hand smoke while driving, but in what universe does he think this is enforceable?

Even if our already overworked gardai were able to pull somebody over for it, how could they ever hope to get a successful prosecution?

An offender would have plenty of time to stub out the ciggie and pull out an e-cigarette before the garda could even get out of the squad car. How is anybody to prove which item was in use at the moment the blue lights started flashing?

Parents are inflicting far more damage on their children by smoking in the home. Can we expect a ban there too? This problem is better solved through education.

If they refuse to learn, then huffing and puffing and threats of the cuffs will achieve nothing.

REVD PATRICK BURKE

CASTLECOMER, CO KILKENNY

OUR TWO-FACED NATION

* It is really amazing how two-faced Ireland has become. We have the positive, vibrant, happy, booming, open-for-business Ireland as portrayed by Enda Kenny and his illustrious team of ministers as they travel the length and breadth of the globe for St Patrick’s weekend.

Then we have the other side as experienced by the public on a day-to-day basis: the shootings, stabbings, muggings, suicides, poverty, depression, robberies, fear, repossessions, bankruptcies, homelessness and bullying.

Which face are you seeing today?

CATHERINE DOLAN

TRALEE, CO KERRY

SICKENING HYPOCRISY

* My stomach turned listening to RTE’s ‘Prime Time’ interview with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney on the subject of horse welfare.

But it wasn’t just the thought of all those abandoned horses that sickened me. It was also Mr Coveney’s professed concern for the welfare of animals generally and his boast that the new Animal Health and Welfare Act has greatly advanced the fight against animal cruelty. He spoke of his determination to alleviate the suffering of animals that are “welfare compromised”.

Yet this is the same minister who specifically exempted hare coursing and fox hunting from prohibition under the act. Instead of protecting the fox and the hare from cruelty, the legislation fully permits the live baiting of these animals for ‘sport’.

Can he not see, or accept, that a wild fox being chased until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to a pack of hounds to be eviscerated is “welfare compromised”? And could this euphemism not also be applied to a hare that is terrorised, mauled and tossed about by dogs like a paper toy for the amusement of a crowd of gamblers and sightseers?

The welfare of a fox or fox cub that is dragged from its underground refuge with the aid of spades, terriers and poles wrapped with barbed wire is certainly compromised, whatever about claims that the hunt ‘dig-out’ is part of a proud rural tradition.

Instead of a horse cull, I suggest a (non-lethal) culling of politicians who claim to love animals while refusing to legislate against some of the worst animal cruelty practices in the world.

JOHN FITZGERALD

CAMPAIGN FOR THE ABOLITION

OF CRUEL SPORTS, CALLAN, CO KILKENNY

MORAL FIBRE STRUGGLES

* The most recent Fianna Fail ard fheis brings to mind author Milan Kundera‘s observation that “the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”.

With the local and European elections looming it is important voters’ memories are not so dulled by the struggles of the past six years that they forget: that the previous FF government is responsible for the fact that they don’t have a job; or that if they are lucky enough to be working that it is a form of servitude where they are working to pay a big mortgage and a host of bills, with little incentive to make money as it would only go to the banks.

Families who have members with disabilities and who are victims of lost services will not forget (they are reminded on a daily basis) and, of course, there are the thousands of people who have had to emigrate.

Finally, while this cognitive faculty is important, let us also recognise that though the Coalition’s inheritance was a poor one, it has not done enough for those mentioned above and, indeed, as the recent conduct of the Minister for Justice has shown, that the struggle of man against power is about many other things as well as memory – not least of which is moral fibre.

ROB CAREY

TRALEE, CO KERRY


Mary in hospital

$
0
0

27 March 2014 Mary still in hospital

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have to go move a barge. Priceless

Cold slightly better Mary very under the weather visit her

No Scrabbletoday Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Colonel Tresham Gregg – obituary

Colonel Tresham Gregg was a serial escaper who posed as a member of the Hitler Youth and led a brigade of Italian partisans

Colonel Tresham Gregg

Colonel Tresham Gregg

5:56PM GMT 26 Mar 2014

Comments7 Comments

Colonel Tresham Gregg, who has died aged 94, had an adventurous Army career as a leader of wartime Italian partisans, having already acquired a reputation as a serial escaper from PoW camps.

Born in Dublin on April 7 1919, Tresham Dames Gregg was educated at Bishop’s Diocesan College, Cape Town, South Africa, and at Bedford School. During a cosmopolitan childhood he made friends in Cologne, whom he continued to visit until the outbreak of the Second World War. He became fluent in German, attended several Nazi rallies and heard Hitler and Goebbels speak from only a few yards away.

In May 1940, in the defence of Calais, he commanded a troop of light tanks of 3 Royal Tank Regiment (3 RTR) in support of 60th Rifles. Badly wounded by mortar-fire, he was evacuated by Motor Torpedo Boat and subsequently mentioned in despatches.

Tresham Gregg (third from right) with some of his Italian partisans

During the fighting withdrawal from Greece the following year, Gregg was standing on the rear deck of his tank at Thermopylae when a German bomb landed immediately beside it. The vehicle, weighing 14 tons, was thrown wholesale into the air.

Gregg landed on a drystone wall. In great pain, he was ferried south to the Peloponnese. At the Corinth Canal, he saw German parachutists being dropped and capturing the bridge which he had just crossed. Evacuated from Nauplion by destroyer to Crete, he was put aboard an ageing tramp steamer bound for Alexandria. Despite being unable to walk, he took charge of 21 German prisoners for the voyage.

He soon recovered (though it was not until 50 years later that he learned that he had fractured his pelvis). In November 1941, having rejoined his regiment, he took part in Operation Crusader, a series of attritional battles in the desert around Tobruk and the airfield at Sidi Rezegh.

Tresham Gregg (wearing the scarf) with fellow partisans

The following month Gregg was surprised by a German patrol near Derna, Libya, and taken prisoner. In an attempt to escape, he tried to sabotage the Germans’ reserve petrol supply with sugar but he was handed over to the Italians too quickly for the ploy to be effective.

As he was marched to the port in Benghazi, Gregg dived out of the column of PoWs and hid in a shop. After two hours he was spotted by two Italian soldiers who were looting the place. They refused to believe his story that he was a German soldier “taking a leak”.

In Italy, he was sent to Camp PG66 at Capua. After trying to walk out of the camp with a working party, he was detected. His persistent efforts to escape had earned him the label pericoloso, and the irate commandant sentenced him to a month’s “solitary” in an unheated tin shack. But for the arrival of a representative of the Red Cross, he might have perished of cold and hunger.

In March 1942 Gregg was transferred to Camp PG35 at Padula. A failed attempt to tunnel his way out earned him another month in solitary confinement. As an additional punishment, he was then sent to Camp PG29 at Veano, a converted seminary near Piacenza – its commandant claimed that it was escape-proof.

Calculating that the last place that the Italians would expect a tunnel to start would be in the middle of an open exercise yard, Gregg and a group composed mostly of RTR officers sank a 16ft shaft into the vegetable plots at the centre of this open space, concealing their excavations with lines of washing.

There ensued six months of work in claustrophobic conditions. Hair oil provided fuel for a single lamp. Gregg dug with an iron rod wrapped in rope to give a firm grip. One night in July 1943, they reached a slit-trench outside the perimeter fence.

Four of the six tunnellers broke out, and three were quickly captured. Gregg emerged three yards from a sentry and was shot in the head — but still succeeded in getting away. Disguised as a member of the Dutch Hitler Youth (his cover story being that he was on his way to a conference in Rome), he took a bus to Parma railway station, and seated himself in a carriage full of German soldiers.

He even borrowed copies of their magazines to add to his camouflage. He hoped to reach the Vatican and use his Irish passport to get him a free passage home, but the Carabinieri were searching for him and picked him up while the train was still in the suburbs of Rome.

Back in PG29 he was serving a third month in solitary confinement when, in September 1943, the Armistice was announced and he was released. He had relations in Switzerland and could have headed north; but he chose to stay with his closest friend, Captain “Donny” Mackenzie of the Cameron Highlanders, who was suffering from malaria.

The two men sheltered with a local family but, as winter set in, moved south-west into the mountains and settled in the Val Nure with a group of charcoal burners. They lived off an almost unrelieved diet of chestnuts.

In spring 1944 they were contacted by the partisans. Gregg and Mackenzie led a successful raid on a police station at Ferriere, then ambushed two truckloads of troops sent to flush them out.

As they moved down the Val Nure towards Piacenza, their force picked up recruits. They liberated Bettola and cleared the valley almost as far as Veano. Gregg (known as “Capitano Ganna” to the Italians) and Mackenzie commanded the fighting elements of what became known as the Stella Rossa artisan brigade.

Contacts were established with MI9 (the intelligence agency which assisted resistance fighters in enemy-occupied territory) and with an SOE mission code-named “Blundell Violet”. The Prefect of Piacenza put a price on their heads; but they were in a natural stronghold, and when a Fascist Alpini battalion attacked over the mountains, Gregg not only forced its commander to give them all his heavy weapons as the price for freeing him, but also recruited many of his men.

During September 1944 more than 100 downed Allied airmen passed through their hands towards safety in the south. They built an airstrip for supplies and raided German supply lines. In October they liberated Ponte dell’Olio, the northernmost town in the Val Nure. When Gregg’s partisans took the airfield, they were delighted to find 4,000 bottles of rum and brandy bricked up in a storeroom.

Mackenzie was killed a few days later while on a patrol, and Gregg had to retrieve his body for burial at Bettola, several thousand people turning out for the funeral. Gregg was recalled to discuss future plans and ran a gauntlet of “friendly fire” on reaching the American lines near Serravezza on December 5. He was again mentioned in despatches for his attempts to escape.

Tresham Gregg helping to bear the coffin of his friend and comrade Capt ‘Donny’ Mackenzie

After the war he was posted to India and then Singapore as a staff officer. A posting to HQ Southern Command Poona, India, coincided with the turbulent period before the partition of India and Pakistan, and the British withdrawal.

In 1949 he returned to England to attend Staff College, and was then posted to HQ British Element Trieste Forces. He subsequently served as a squadron leader in 6 RTR in Germany and as a company commander at Sandhurst before commanding 1RTR in Hong Kong and Germany.

Tresham Gregg (centre, with his hands raised) and his brigade of Italian partisans

He was on the Directorate Royal Armoured Corps and Commandant of the Driving and Maintenance School at Bovington, Dorset, before a final posting as Colonel Recruiting Northern Command in York. On retirement, he remained there for a further 10 years as the Army Schools’ Liaison Officer.

Tresham Gregg married first, in 1946, in Poona, Elsie “Dusty” Miller, who, as a QA nurse, had landed in Normandy soon after D-Day with a field ambulance unit. She died in 1991, and their son and two daughters survive him. He married secondly, in 2000, Joan Wood, who survives him with a stepson.

Col Tresham Gregg, born April 7 1919, died March 17 2014

Guardian:

Labour should beware falling in too closely behind the people’s hero, Andrew Bridgen MP, in his brave campaign to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee (Labour will support Commons vote to decriminalise TV licence fee evaders, 24 March). This is the same Andrew Bridgen who regularly accuses the BBC of “endemic” leftwing bias, opposed plans to let a small number of Syrian refugees enter the UK, supported restrictions on immigration from Romania and Bulgaria and fully supports the government’s austerity programme.

Most disturbingly, his reaction to the Daily Mail’s attack on Ralph Miliband (as ”the man who hated Britain”) was to call for an inquiry into the BBC’s political coverage, not into the behaviour of Paul Dacre and the Mail.

The funding and output of the BBC certainly does need major reform, but we don’t need to take lessons from Tory backbenchers, either about impartiality or about the integrity of our criminal justice system.
Des Freedman
Chair, Media Reform Coalition

• Arguments over the licence fee (BBC chief questions licence fee claims, 25 March) are easily resolved. As the government sets the fee, why not fund the BBC out of general taxation? That would be no greater risk to its independence than at present. It would generate no greater unfairness – indeed, less, if unfairness it be – for those taxpayers who resist television services than for those who do not use the NHS, state schooling or national museum visits.
Peter Cave
London

• Should people in prison for non payment of the TV licence fee be allowed to receive books?
Ian Brooker
Crawley, West Sussex

Orlando Crowcroft (Diaspora returns to build Iraqi Kurdistan into the ‘next Dubai’, 26 March) misses two important points. State employees were not paid for two months because the federal government in Baghdad blocked budget payments to Erbil. This is part of a dispute over the region’s oil and gas, developed from scratch recently, and exports to Turkey via a new pipeline. This flows from the second major omission: the Kurdistan region’s new and growing commercial relationship with Turkey, which was once on the verge of invading Kurdistan but is now its largest trading partner. Neither was imaginable in 2003 as the region began to recover from decades of genocide, isolation and poverty. Both enable better public services and increased living standards. The need for further political, economic and social reform is widely acknowledged. A fuller picture of a region in transition is detailed in our reports on fact-finding delegations there.
Nadhim Zahawi MP, Meg Munn MP
Co-chairs, All-party parliamentary group on the Kurdistan region in Iraq

John Harris (View from the east, G2, 25 March) is quite right to identify the Ukip heartland as Lincolnshire and East Anglia, but based on last year’s local government election results, it also extends south and east to Kent (17 seats), Sussex (17) and Hampshire/Isle of Wight (12).

All these areas have several things in common: they contain major ports which have considerable traffic with EU cities, in a swath from Hamburg to Cherbourg; the agricultural sector is crucial to their local economies; and they contain few major cities or metropolitan conurbations. Local people are acutely aware of EU migration in general, and are particularly concerned about the negative impact of migrant labour (organised by gangmasters in concert with local employers) on their job opportunities and wages. As such, they are at the sharp end of the neoliberal economic policies pursued by both New Labour and the coalition, but also feel vulnerable and threatened, thanks to their relative proximity to Europe.

It is hardly surprising that they should support Ukip – aka the English National party – as they feel that the three major parties have abandoned them and do not understand or empathise with their concerns.
Professor Steve Giles
School of cultures, languages and area studies, University of Nottingham

• John Harris’s article on Ukip and the east coast made interesting and depressing reading. One Ukip candidate said: “It’s almost like we’re an island. We’ve got that tiny little road coming in.” That could describe the whole area. The irony is that, while it has always been isolated from the rest of England because of poor roads, this stretch of coastline was busy and wealthy from both the medieval woollen cloth trade and the herring trade. The business came not from England, however, but from Europe – indeed, King’s Lynn, now a centre for unemployment, was a rich Hanseatic town with plenty of foreign inhabitants.
Katie Hawks
Polegate, East Sussex

Your editorial (School’s out, 25 March), referring to “changes to the national curriculum, such as the exclusion of music“, struck entirely the wrong note. On the contrary, music remains compulsory between the ages of five and 14 in our new national curriculum – just as it was in the old. This government is completely committed to making sure that every child in the country has the opportunity to enjoy and play music. More than £300m is being spent on music and arts education over three years by the Department for Education.

Our national plan for music education is designed to ensure that all young people between five and 18 can learn to play a musical instrument, sing in choirs and perform in ensembles. From 2016 onwards, our new league table measure will examine pupil progress across eight subjects, which can include three arts subjects, providing further incentives for young people to study arts subjects at key stage 4. This government strongly believes that every child deserves a rich, rounded education, with music at its heart. Our changes are making sure that every single young person has the opportunity to enjoy and play music – both in and beyond the school curriculum.
Elizabeth Truss MP
Under secretary of state for education

• Your generally informative editorial explaining the reasons for yesterday’s teachers’ strike was spoiled by your remarkable assertion that “Mr Gove is showing a welcome readiness to talk”. This is demonstrably untrue and is, in fact, one of the main reasons myself and thousands of my colleagues in schools forewent a day’s pay. In fact, Mr Gove has repeatedly refused to either sit in the same room as teaching unions or negotiate meaningfully on his “reforms”; instead, he sends unfortunate Whitehall minions to present them as a fait accompli and simply discuss “implementation”.

His arrogance is breathtaking, especially given the recent rejection by the previously supine School Teachers Review Body of every single one of his proposals to dismantle the national framework of conditions of service. Schools do not need yet another “education radical” whose main purpose is to further his career by macho posturing; we need a politician who is prepared to listen.
Austin McHale
Isleworth, Middlesex

• Well done, Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector for schools. Earlier this year, you were “spitting blood with fury” at what you saw as unfair criticism of you and your organisation – especially criticism by those who appear to know little about education and have certainly never taught in a school in their lives. Thank heavens you were given the right of reply at the ASCL conference. Sadly, a human right that Ofsted itself denies to the teachers and the schools which it criticises (Letters, 18 March). Although my lesson was recently graded outstanding by Ofsted, I am only too well aware that had even a few things gone wrong – a small change in the teaching environment or even simple misfortune, for example, a computer or software glitch, a few late students on the same broken bus, etc – the result would have been very different for me and my career, and no excuses.
Peter Clarkson
Manfield, North Yorkshire

Anecdotal evidence aplenty for Duncan McLean’s contention that our northern islands cousins see themselves differently (Debatable islands, 26 March). I recall a TV concert by Fiddlers Bid, Shetland’s great wee fiddle band, and the band leader telling a Lerwick audience: “Last week we were up in Norway and next week we’re going down to Scotland.”
Alistair Richardson
Stirling

• Massive profits for underselling shares in the Royal Mail, a national asset (Letters, 26 March), quickly followed by an announcement of redundancies. Capitalism at its worst.
Tim Yates
Twickenham, Middlesex

• The phenomenon of inanimate objects that describe themselves in the first person (Wackaging, 26 March) is already well advanced in the transport world, where buses commonly display a front sign reading “Sorry, I’m not in service”. This needless and childlike anthropomorphism makes me want to reach for the nearest rock and hurl it at the bus.
Nick Hanna
Beckley, East Sussex

• If 12-sided coins wouldn’t work in slot machines (Letters, 24 March), how come the payphones of the 1960s took threepenny bits?
Willie Montgomery Stack
Norwich

• Call home at seven on a weeknight (So, how often do you call your mother?, G2, 25 March)? I’d be disinherited. Don’t these people listen to the Archers?
Catherine MacIntosh-Dixon
Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire

• Some years ago I came across a sad monoglot Brit marooned in a bus station (Letters, 25 March). He wanted to go to Noia (Galicia) but was unable to ask for help. My Spanish was only slightly better than his but I suggested he approach someone and say: “Para Noia?” He didn’t find this anything like as amusing as I did.
Peter Roland
Bognor Regis, West Sussex

• Being unable to contribute anything of consequence, I’m off to console myself in Useless Loop, Western Australia.
John Prior
Karratha, Western Australia

Independent:

Whether we agree with the teachers’ strike or not, we must pay attention to the effect that the current primary school system is having on our children and their education.

Primary teachers are expected to teach English, maths, science, history, art, geography and languages – plus perhaps music, PE and other subjects.

They teach a class of mixed-ability children, at times being the only adult in a class of up to 30 children. A good teacher needs to be able to impart knowledge in a way that can be understood, and be a skilled disciplinarian and comic, as well as kind and sensitive to the wide range of needs in the class. They also need to be able to identify the different range of learning needs of their students, putting in place and supporting the strategies that enable each child to fulfil their potential and retain the love of learning that most start school with.

Through my children’s years of primary school, I’ve never met a teacher who has delivered this – and I believe my children have had mostly good and often excellent teachers in a school that really tries and succeeds as much as  is possible.

Often, the problem is lack of experience, related to limited training (especially in the area of teaching strategies for children who don’t learn in the traditional way, eg mild learning difficulties/dyslexic spectrum conditions). But mostly, I believe it is the huge expectations we have of them.

I’m not a teacher but I’ve worked in 60-hours-a-week jobs for a few years, and for increasing pay that let me live a comfortable life outside work. Teachers don’t have this financial reward. I’ve also worked in a decently paid and rewarding job where it wasn’t physically possible to achieve everything needed, and this, after many years, was a major reason in my decision to leave.

We cannot expect our teachers to remain in the profession with the expectations laid upon them currently. The primary school system, with one teacher expected to achieve everything, and a lack of funding for specialist knowledge and focus on learning abilities, is failing children. They reach secondary school with difficulties not addressed and confidence smashed.

Rather than complaining about the teachers or the Government, the Department for Education and the unions should be looking at how to improve the whole system.

Pippa Jones, London W10

The trouble with some teachers is that they  never actually left school and worked in the real world. They don’t understand that it’s just as tough for professionals in other sectors.

Before I retired, I worked as a sales manager in financial services; the hours were very long and the majority of my time was spent on record-keeping to satisfy the regulators.

Michael Gove is doing the right thing, and some teachers need to realise that their package of benefits is what most ordinary workers dream of.

Graham Hinitt, South Anston,  South Yorkshire

Our GP services are just not coping

On two occasions in the past six months, I have needed to see a doctor.

On the first occasion, I was told there were no appointments for three to four weeks at any of the three surgeries. I went to a local walk-in centre where I was diagnosed with upper respiratory tract infection and given antibiotics.

Then, three weeks ago, I realised I might have shingles. I went to my local doctors and asked for an emergency appointment. I was told there was none and to go to the walk-in centre, which I did. I had shingles and was given antiviral medicine.

Without the walk-in centre, I could have been seriously ill. The local clinical commissioning group has recommended that the walk-in hours be restricted to night times and weekends, and within the year it is expected to close. Our GPs simply are not coping with the numbers, and this recommendation will impact on people’s access to doctors – and on numbers attending A&E.

Pat Nimmo, Fleckney, Leicestershire

The Government keeps telling us how it is  improving the NHS and how much extra money it is pouring into it, but the NHS is slipping down the pan more and more every day. Before the Coalition took power, we could phone our local surgery any morning and get an appointment the same  day or at least the next morning.

Now, if you phone any morning at opening time, you are told: “Sorry, we have no appointments left, we can give you one next week or the week after.”

Do David Cameron or Nick Clegg get the same answer when they phone their surgery? Do they ever go to an NHS surgery?

If someone wants to see a doctor, it is because they need help now – not in a week or a fortnight.

Dave Croucher, Doncaster

London’s hospitals are under huge and increasing pressure, spawning sectoral Save Our Hospitals groups, such as ours in north-west London.

We oppose the closure of four out of nine existing Accident and Emergency departments (Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Ealing and Central Middlesex), leaving Hammersmith and Fulham with no A&E.

The closest A&Es will be in Chelsea, Paddington or Brentford. This is iniquitous: Hammersmith and Fulham’s population gets steadily older and larger. Yet Charing Cross will be downgraded to elective surgery and diagnostic tests only, with an “urgent care centre” manned by GPs and no emergency consultants.

“Shaping a Healthier Future”, the report proposing changes in February 2013, asserted that cardiac care, strokes and major trauma – including road traffic accidents – should go to specialised hospitals with “super” A&Es.

We agree. But the report ignored the need for continued prompt and local treatment for other emergencies, eg diabetes crises, kidney failure, aneurysms, cancer, septicemia, asthma attacks and others that are life-threatening.

Improved “social care” to the elderly and immobile was mentioned without plans or funding. The way in which it is proposed to trim health services in north-west London is not fair; specialised, well-funded parts of the hospital service are being favoured at the expense of “ordinary” A&Es.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust proposes to sell “surplus” land, such as 40 per cent or more of Charing Cross, to fund redevelopment at remaining sites.

With Imperial College, it will pursue clinical research at the Academic Health Science Centre. International health companies will fund the new Imperial West research centre at White City.

The reputation of Charing Cross for emergency medicine is second to none – but for how long?

Una Hodgkins, Committee member, Save Our Hospitals, London W6

One spring doesn’t make a democracy

I agree there is considerable naivety in expecting a smooth and short transition from autocracy to democracy in Egypt (Editorial, 26 March) or elsewhere.

It took England more than 700 years to transition from Magna Carta to women (over 30) gaining suffrage. In between, there were many extended periods of bloody internal power struggles about who rules and how.

Yet we are expecting the  “Arab Spring” to short-circuit the process that took us several dozen generations.

David Bracey, Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

Dangerous jobs in danger

I am concerned on behalf of a number of professions that the Chancellor’s ill-timed abolition of annuities will send shock waves through the rank and  file of those in dangerous jobs.

The imminent release of newly redundant actuaries on to the employment market presents a real threat to the likes of lion tamers, jump jockeys, stuntmen, steeplejacks and Grand Prix motorcyclists, who will naturally feel threatened that these devil-may-care, foolhardy, risk-taking pen-pushers and danger addicts will steal their jobs.

Nicky Samengo-Turner, Hundon, Suffolk

Are you disrespecting the police?

If you continue to draw your readers’ attention to corruption and misbehaviour in the police (“Something rotten in the Metropolitan Police”, 26 March), there is the risk that, as with Andrew Mitchell in the “Plebgate” case, you will be accused by the Prime Minister of not showing them “the respect they deserve”.

Gyles Cooper, London N10

It’s no longer a boys’ club

The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is proposing to end its ban on female members.

Over to you, Eton.

Anthony Rodriguez, Staines, Surrey

Times:

Sir, I agree with Maureen Baker, chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) (“Skimping on GPs is a false economy”, Mar 24). There is a definite correlation between rapid access to a GP and a lowering of admissions to A&E departments.

When our surgery was taken over by Elgar Healthcare of Worcester, the number of GP appointments more than doubled and the surgery extended opening hours from four and a half days to five. This, and daily open-access surgeries in the mornings and doubling the number of GPs on duty at that time, has ensured that admissions to A&E units from its patient group remain the lowest in Worcestershire.

Any patient may attend morning surgery, without an appointment, and be guaranteed to see a GP. This is not the case in many surgeries in nearby towns.

Paul Skinner

Grey Gables Surgery,

Inkberrow, Worcs

Sir, As a GP I have enjoyed sending many letters to The Times regarding health matters over the years. At the moment I just do not have enough time to write.

Dr Mike Betterton

Skelton, Cumbria

Sir, I am a GP who took early retirement. Whenever I said that general practice could not survive as it currently runs, the official response was the usual ostrich’s backside. For decades governments have imagined that health is a product like any other, best made available following market principles. If so, this product can also disappear from the market.

Dr Trevor Griffiths

Ivybridge, Devon

Sir, The Royal College of General Practitioners claims that the lack of GPs is putting patients at risk.

It occurs to me that if GPs worked five days a week instead of four and a half, they would be able to see far more patients.

Karen Ansell

London NW4

Sir, The chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners has described the current crisis as being due to lack of investment and shortage of doctors. This is disingenuous. The cause can be traced back to the lavish contract with GPs which Patricia Hewitt, the then Secretary of State, agreed in 2004. Family doctors then went on to limited hours, nominally five days per week. For this they were richly, if not extravagantly, rewarded.

In addition, extra doctors were hired to do duty to cover out-of-hours requirements. Some of them were even flown in from the Continent at tremendous cost.

The president of the RCGP now calls for more money and more doctors. In fact what is required is that the present cohorts of GPs should provide extra duties.

I suggest that every general practitioner in the country should do one evening surgery of two hours each week and should work one Saturday or Sunday, in a rota every month, to provide emergency cover.

This would take much pressure off A&E departments and would
deliver a better service to their patients.

Practice duties during public holidays could be allocated on a rotational basis. This is not going to be too arduous for the doctors but might save general practice — and it would deliver a better service to their patients.

Sir, “We have been meddling carelessly in a situation we did not grasp” (Jenni Russell, Mar 20). How right she is. Does no one in the US State Department or the Foreign Office understand how Russia sees the world? Russia has a (not irrational) fear of invasion from the West. In the past 400 years or so Poles, Swedes, French, French and British (1854), French and British again, Czechs (1919) and Germany have poured troops into Russia, mainly through its western frontier. Russia has no natural defences between Lithuania and the Black Sea in the shape of mountains or rivers. Its only protection is its buffer states. This was the principle behind the division of Europe agreed at Yalta.

When Yeltsin released its first ring of buffer states (Poland, East Germany, Czechosloavkia, Hungary, Romania), Russia was left with two buffer states, Belarus and Ukraine. It was crass stupidity of EU and US “diplomats” to try to detach Ukraine from the Russian sphere of influence, and the outcome was clearly foreseeable.

I do not fear Russian intervention in the Baltic States, unless badly provoked by the West, even though for many years they were part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Crimea is different, as Ben Macintyre explained (Mar 21).

Forget about sanctions. They are difficult to operate, difficult to bring to an end, and will have little influence on policy which has been central to Russian thinking for centuries. They will not bring Crimea back into Ukraine (where it never ought to have been). The best outcome of any negotiations will be a neutral Ukraine and removal of any fear of Russian intervention near Donetsk and Kharkov. That is the practical end at which we should aim.

Edward Nugee, QC

London WC2

Sir, Your report on Obama and crisis talks with European leaders (Mar 24) is alarming. You say rightly that China could have a helpful role. What is important is that bullying should not succeed. It is possible to change frontiers, but this should only be done by the agreement of all parties — as happened in the agreed separation of the Czech and Slovak republics, the Velvet Divorce.

I suggest that the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe be asked to report on the situation of Russian speakers and nationals and other minorities, within the present boundaries of the Ukraine. The facts could then be calmly considered without threats or unnecessary troop movements.

Lord Hylton

House of Lords

Sir, There is no doubt that due to the lack of any real sanctions against Russian expansion, within the month Putin will move into Ukraine and on to part of Moldova. We are, in effect, having a re-run of Hitler’s expansion policy and the resultant appeasement that brought about the Second World War. The Baltic states with large Russian populations ought to be very afraid.

Nato and the West have no military will to oppose this and the proposed basing of 3,000 British troops in Germany is laughable, as are the economic sanctions which will impinge only on Russian people and not on the oligarchs.

We have a non-elected Ukrainian government formerly led by a corrupt leader and a people who have voted for Russia in the Crimea. The West’s response is weak and Putin knows it.

Bill Bradbury

Billinge, Lancs

Sir, These young igniferous politicians and generals advocating a show of military strength worry me. They have become detached from reality or have a grossly exaggerated idea of our capabilities.

John P. Hunter

Swindon, Wilts

Most people want a change in the law — is it not time for doctors to put the views of their patients centre stage?

Sir, Dr Hartropp (“Physicians are divided over assisted dying”, Mar 24) tells us that the Royal College of General Practitioners refuses to allow its members to have a ballot on assisted dying because the subject is “too contentious and difficult an issue”.

If correct, how craven is that? What is the point of a ballot if the subject is not contentious? And on what authority does the RCGP adopt a positive stance on the issue rather than one of neutrality?

The letters on the same page illustrate the need for more information by drawing conflicting conclusions from inadequate data. That from Dr Baker and others seems particularly contentious. No one is attempting “to foist assisted suicide” either on patients who do not want help or on doctors who are unwilling to give it.

It is generally accepted that a large majority of the population want a change in the law. At a time when the tide is towards treating mentally competent people as capable of making their own decisions, is it not time for doctors to give centre stage to the views of their patients and not to stand in the way of a compassionate end to life for those such as Diane Pretty and Tony Nicklinson.

Sir Gordon Downey

London SW1

Like many peaceful and popular villages Shrivenham is about to be bulldozed into oblivion by house builders

Sir, You omitted Shrivenham from your list of best places to live in Britain and from your list of villages under threat of massive green field development.

We don’t need lists to convince us that this village is the best place in which to live. What does concern us are the district council’s proposals to build 829 houses in Shrivenham. This would enlarge our village by 89 per cent. At the same time Swindon plans to build 8,000 houses two miles west of us, and Faringdon plans to build 1,000 to the east. There are few jobs in the village and the infrastructure is already at bursting point (including sewage seeping into houses).

Apart from the villagers, no one seems to care about the “fanciful housing numbers” designed to meet government-imposed quotas.

Richard Bartle (Lt Col ret’d)

Shrivenham, Oxon

The Great War poet’s works passed through several editions before the 1960s when he came to be more widely lionised

Sir, It is misleading to suggest (letters, Mar 25) that Owen’s collected poems were not widely accessible, and widely known, before 1963. A collection of his poems, edited with an introduction by Siegfried Sassoon, was first published in 1920 and reprinted in 1921. A new complete edition, edited with a memoir by Edmund Blunden, came out in 1931 and was reprinted several times.

Nigel Bawcutt

Liverpool

4

Leading science educationists call on Ofqual not to separate practical marks from the core subject grades

Sir, As a partnership of the leading scientific learned societies, Score has grave concerns that Ofqual will today decide to separate practical marks from the core A-level grades in biology, chemistry and physics.

At a time when the UK needs to be cultivating a scientifically skilled workforce, we are on the verge of depriving our children of a grounding in hands-on scientific experimentation.

We implore Ofqual to reconsider or delay this process in order to address unresolved questions surrounding the proposals.

Professor Julia Buckingham, Chair of Score; Professor Peter Main, Director, Education and Science, Institute of Physics; Charles Tracy, Head of Education, Pre-19

Institute of Physics; Professor Jim Iley, executive director, Science and Education, Royal Society of Chemistry; Professor Adrian Sutton FRS, Royal Society; Rachel Lambert-Forsyth, Director of Education and Training, Society of Biology; Gemma Garrett, Deputy Director of Education, Society of Biology; Richard Needham, Former Chair of the Association for Science Education; Marianne Cutler, Director Curriculum Innovation, Association for Science Education; Juliet Upton,

Project Leader, Vision for Science and Mathematics Education, The Royal Society

Telegraph:

SIR – Champagne’s problems are the same as those of Bordeaux: consumers have discovered that much of the wine is not better than competitive products from other parts of the world.

The solution lies not with supermarkets but with the French producers’ representative organisations. If they wish their wines to command premium prices, then they must find a better way to control the wines that are allowed to carry their appellations and labels.

Philip Styles
Cheddar, Somerset

SIR – We are extremely concerned at new rules that ban family and friends sending books to prisoners. While we understand that prisons must be able to apply incentives to reward good behaviour by prisoners, we do not believe that education and reading should be part of that policy.

Books represent a lifeline behind bars, a way of nourishing the mind and filling the many hours that prisoners spend locked in their cells. In an environment with no internet access and only limited library facilities, books become all the more important.

We urge Chris Grayling, the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, to reconsider the Prison Service instruction that limits books and other essentials being sent to prisoners from family and friends.

Frances Crook

Chief Executive, Howard League for Penal Reform

Mark Haddon

Salman Rushdie

Julian Barnes

Ian McEwan

Carol Ann Duffy

Alan Bennett

Philip Pullman

Jeffrey Archer

Irvine Welsh

Joanne Harris

Hari Kunzru

Ian Rankin

Nick Hornby

Deborah Moggach

Ruth Padel

Mary Beard

Sir David Hare

Colin Thubron

Maggie Fergusson, Director, The Royal Society of Literature

Simon Stephens

Laura Wade

Samantha Ellis

David Edgar

Jack Thorne

John O’Farrell

Caitlin Moran

David Harsent

Linda Grant

Andrew O’Hagan

Iain Dale

David Eldridge

D C Moore

Caroline Moorehead

Stella Feehily

Alecky Blythe

Moira Buffini

Lucinda Coxon

Susannah Clapp

Kathryn Gray

April De Angelis

Elif Shafak

Vivienne Franzmann

Tim Gee

Colin Beveridge

Melanie McFadyean

Melanie McGrath

Shami Chakrabarti, Director, Liberty

Jenny Diski

Stella Duffy

Janice Galloway

Jackie Kay

Darian Leader

James Robertson

Niall Griffiths

Kamila Shamsie

Kathy Lette

Terence Blacker

Alice Rawsthorn

Jenni Fagan

Blake Morrison

Tiffany Murray

Rhian Jones

Rachel Holmes

Robin Tudge

Ahdaf Soueif

Nikesh Shukla

Sophie Mayer

Nikita Lalwani

Peter Hobbs

Maggie O’Farrell

Ian Dunt

Naomi Alderman

Lise Mayer

William Fiennes

Bidisha

Ali Smith

Helen Walsh

Taxing capital gains

SIR – While we are talking about tax and pensioners, could the Government please give back the allowance for inflation on capital gains calculations or, better still, do what most countries do and say that after 20 years there is no liability for tax on capital gains.

I invested taxed income in property over the years for my retirement and if I now sell something I have had for 20 or 30 years, I find that the capital gains tax is even greater than it was before the indexation for inflation was withdrawn.

Richard Finlinson
Pluckley, Kent

Not retiring

SIR – You reported on the 88-year-old who is the country’s oldest “paper girl”. Our parish priest at Holy Cross church in West Bromwich is 90 years old and is responsible for two churches. Is he the oldest serving priest in the country?

Dr Gerry Gomez
Walsall, Staffordshire

Time to remember

SIR – I have always worn my watchon my left wrist. If I absolutely have to remember something, I slip it on to my right wrist, as an irritating but constant reminder.

Philip Glascoe
Sturry, Kent

SIR – As a boy, I wore my watch on the inside of my left wrist, having been most impressed when my father explained that, as a Wellington navigator and bomb-aimer, he wore it like that to allow a time check without taking his hands off the controls.

Steve Dooley
South Pool, Devon

SIR – Have those people writing to you about wearing a watch on each wrist (Letters, March 25) got too much time on their hands?

David Constantine
Storrington, West Sussex

Volunteer lease of life

SIR – Lord O’Donnell is spot on in the recommendations he quotes from his review Wellbeing and Policy.

Community Service Volunteers’ highly successful Retired and Senior Volunteering Programme (RSVP) provides clear evidence of the benefits of volunteering for the pensioners who volunteer as well as those they help. Our 480 volunteer organisers are supported by around 18,000 volunteers across the country. Older volunteers support people of all ages, through knitting groups and GP driving schemes, healthy walks and cooking groups.

We know that the physical and mental health of older volunteers improves; they have a renewed lease of life and feel that they are giving something back to the community. Just as importantly, we also know that keeping older people healthy and active reduces their dependence on health and social care services and increases their independence. Volunteering is a two-way process: our volunteers often report that they receive more in happiness and satisfaction than they give.

Sir Jon Shortridge
Chairman, Community Service Volunteers
London N1

Flight MH370

SIR – In 1999 a Learjet carrying, among others, the golfer Payne Stewart crashed as a result of a decompression that incapacitated everyone on board. It continued on auto-pilot for four or five hours after losing radio contact until it crashed when it ran out of fuel.

Could this have been the fate of Flight MH370? And isn’t it time that flight recorder information was automatically transmitted to a ground station, thus obviating the search for the “black box”?

Malcolm Allen
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Plunked

SIR – Carol Farrand asks for a definition of the Borisism tinkle-plinked.

It is, essentially, an onomatopoeic term for a sound like raindrops or piano keys being played. It is nicely exemplified in one of the poet Zev’s “Three Jazz Eulogies”, on the death of John Lewis, 2001:

Pianoman
Jazzman
Musicman
hey, man”
(plink tinkle plink tinkle plunk).

Jeremy Price
Cromarty

It’s time to get rid of our useless copper coinage

SIR – Good news: a new £1 coin. But is it also time to revamp our coinage totally? The lowest denominations now appear to be obsolete.

The usual argument for keeping our copper coinage is that increasing the value of the lowest denomination coin (LDC) will be inflationary, as all prices must rise by at least the value of the LDC.

This argument needs to take inflation into account. The pound is worth less than a tenth of its 1973 value (report, March 19).

Removing smaller denominations would mean savings for businesses, such as in bank charges for supplying and receiving change.

I would envisage the 10p becoming the LDC. Had this been implemented a few years ago, the Royal Mint would have had a large value of returned coins, and a supply of suitable metal. It might then not have been necessary to debase the 10p, leaving us with two versions, one thicker than the previous coin (and magnetic), which has caused problems with vending machines.

Nigel Parsons
Cardiff

SIR – While on holiday near Newquay in 1969, I lost my car keys on the beach. This was not the nightmare it would be today. My car was a 1964 Mini and I knew that if I leaned hard on the (locked) door handle, the door would open. A threepenny bit, because it had flat sides and was the correct size, would fit between the contacts on the fuse box and give ignition. I was thus able to start the car and drive into Newquay, where I purchased a new set of keys. Perhaps the new pound coin will be popular with the classic car fraternity.

Derry Gibb
Epping, Essex

SIR – Some coins last longer than others. In the Seventies, a local antique dealer showed me a small disc he had received as change. It was one of those fourth century pieces known from their metal and size as AE3. His comment: “Must be the last Roman coin in circulation, we should write to the papers.” Rather tardily, I do so.

Robert Stephenson
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

SIR – Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of the General Staff, is right to call for recent defence cuts to be reversed.

The Prime Minister has on several occasions asserted that national security is the Government’s “first duty”, but one only needs to examine the Armed Forces’ declining share of the national budget to see that this duty is not being fulfilled.

According to the Treasury’s latest figures, defence of the realm now accounts for barely 5.2 per cent of total government expenditure. At a time of growing instability in the world, and massively increased threats to national and international security, for the British Government to be spending such a derisory proportion of its annual budget on defence is sheer folly.

Most government spending these days goes on social welfare in one form or another, but surely the long-term safety and security of the nation, its borders, trade routes and energy supplies, should take precedence over the insatiable demands of the welfare state.

Andy Smith
Director, UK National Defence Association
Portsmouth, Hampshire

SIR – A number of delusions held by our governing politicians have led to involvement of our troops (lions led by donkeys, as ever) in humiliating defeats in Basra and Helmand in recent times.

The duty of the Government is certainly the defence of the realm – but Britain has not been threatened in any direct way since the Falklands nearly a third of a century ago.

Since then, the Ministry of Defence has transformed itself into the Ministry of Offence in choosing to invade and make war on Muslim nations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. This is at the behest of hubris-infected politicians.

As for Crimea, it is inconceivable that anyone in their right mind might send our troops to face up to Russia. Our only concern should be to lend a helpful negotiating voice.

Our fine troops should now be used for humanitarian purposes, such as setting up camps and facilities in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to care for Syrian refugees. They could also be used to great effect to reinforce the unfit-for-purpose Border Force in controlling who goes in and out of Britain.

Isn’t it time our governing classes gave up the idea that we are capable of being global policemen trying to impose democracy on nations that neither want it nor are ready for it?

Dr Peter Grey
Hurley, Berkshire

SIR – Lord Dannatt’s advice, namely to re-deploy troops to Germany by cancelling cuts to regular forces, is an infinitely better formula in an uncertain world than sanctions against Russian oligarchs, which can only harm our economy.

John Barstow
Fittleworth, West Sussex

Irish Times:

Sir, – Just over three years ago Enda Kenny hailed the start of a new era in Irish politics that promised to sweep away the cronyism and hubris of the previous administration. The cynics among us took it as just more hot air from a generation of politicians steeped in a culture of secrecy and selfishness.

The events of the past days encapsulate a serious malaise at the heart of Irish society and demonstrate that nothing has changed. The Garda commissioner resigns for “family reasons” on the very day that the revelations of recorded calls to stations are made public. Amid the furore, Mr Shatter appears in the Dáil, but only to answer questions on defence. Earlier in the week Mr Kenny issued veiled threats to his cabinet on talking out of turn regarding the commissioner’s comments on whistle blowers.

Three years ago the Irish public was told it had participated in a “democratic revolution”. The lack of substantial reform in large areas of society and the debacle of the past few days show just how deluded Mr Kenny was when making that statement. Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Linden Avenue,

Blackrock,

Cork

Sir, – Am I missing something? From your extensive coverage of revelations in relation to An Garda Síochána, it is clear that many high-powered brains in the fields of law, politics, administration and journalism will be occupied for a prolonged period with analysis and investigation.

To the ordinary citizen, it is regrettable that these resources are being diverted from economic and social challenges requiring attention. Why does this situation have to be so complex? Surely the central issue is that management did not do the job it was paid to do, or did it incorrectly.

Presumably every garda recruit is taught the implications of taping a conversation without the agreement of the parties involved. Even if he/she is not, listening to any customer service helpline might make them curious about the practice.

These recruit gardaí advanced through the ranks and were paid to take on managerial responsibility and ensure proper operation of their stations or districts.

In most other organisations, if a manager does not do what he/she is paid to do they take the consequences individually. Real accountability, application of systems already in place in a disciplined force, and removal of those who have not complied with standards would seem a more effective use of taxpayers’ money than setting up yet more investigations and engaging in endless debate. Or am I missing something? Yours, etc,

MAUREEN ROWAN,

Northbrook Avenue,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6

Sir, – The unfolding saga of the mismanagement by senior gardaí of the whistleblowers’ accusations of abuse of the penalty points system arguably highlights the requirement that those in senior positions have the required management training so as ensure real leadership in developing the right culture throughout the organisation, of transparency, accountability and a commitment to continuous improvement based on best international practices.

The recruitment for the next Garda commissioner is a potential opportunity to begin this process. Yours, etc,

FRANK BROWNE,

Ballyroan Park,

Templeogue,

Dublin 16

Sir, – Tony Fagan, a former serving garda, (Letters, March 26th) argues that the force has been denuded of manpower, transport and other resources. As a former member too I can say that this is not the case. The numbers in the Garda Síochána now are as high or higher than they were in the 1970s when large numbers of gardaí were concentrated on the Border and every city, town and rural station had a good compliment of officers.

Patrol cars were then very rare – there was one in every district to serve on average about seven stations. Now practically every station has a patrol car. What has happened is that gardaí themselves have removed themselves from the public, often living a long way away from their base. There are also too many specialist units in the force, too many career breaks, too much service abroad, and with a large influx of females into the force many such members will of course be on maternity leave at any given time.

The force may have leadership issues from time to time, but let us not forget that those same 1970s saw the Garda save our democracy from many who would have subverted it. Mr Callinan would be one of them, but as Mrs Thatcher said on leaving office, it’s a strange old world! Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CAFFERTY,

Ballina,

Co Mayo

Sir, – What nonsense it has been to pretend that the problem in the Garda affair has been that, of the scores of available adjectives, the Commissioner had the misfortune of hitting on the word “disgusting” – described as “infelicitous” by the beLaboured bit of the Government.

The real point was the explicitness of his portrayal of two members of An Garda as having made false accusations against fellow officers with utter indifference to the good name of 14,000 gardaí. It has become very clear whose accusations were false. The prudent assumption that the public interest requires is that the Garda inquiry into that matter was established and conducted for the purpose not of discovering the truth, but concealing it, that it was aimed at sacrificing the whistleblowers, not looking objectively at the concerns they had raised.

Can the public interest then be served without a comprehensive clearout of all those involved in that inquiry, not omitting those at departmental, ministerial and, perhaps, prime-ministerial levels whose political convenience it was to expound on its findings and represent it as more worthy of trust than the lonesome pair of whistleblowers?

What is operating against the public interest is that so much of a commentariat that would otherwise be in full cry baying for blood is relying on a “reforming” Minister as the champion not, in all truth, of justice, but of certain “liberal” causes so dear to their politically correct little hearts. Yours, etc,

FRANK FARRELL,

Lakelands Close,

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Would I be pushed out to sea in a leaky boat at Banna Strand if I expressed a measure of disgust at certain items on Fintan O Toole’s list (Opinion & Analysis, March 25th)?

I feel sorry for people who were left in financial dffculties when the economy “imploded”. A certain percentage – far too small certainly – were discreetly helped by family and friends, without any ulterior motive. Who invented, from out a nasty mind, the term “dig-out” for such decency and Christian charity? (I am not suggesting that Fintan invented it.)

I resent this stone being thrown repeatedly at certain people in public office, who obviously have the same rights as everybody else to be treated with decency and charity. Fintan did not claim that the Law Society and the medical profession had “imploded”, even though they have had their share of scandals in recent years. They now seem to have tightened up their safeguards and got on with things.

Human nature being what it is there will doubtless be an occasional scandal in the future. Yet Fintan tells us that the Catholic Church has “imploded”. Perhaps implosion, unlike explosion, doesn’t make a big bang, because I haven’t heard any strange noises in my native town. Mind you, the roof did blow off a local hotel on the day of the big wind. Yours, etc,

SHEILA GRIFFIN,

Blennerville,

Tralee,

Co Kerry

Sir, – The same people responsible for finding out what happened to flight MH370 would appear to be also working for Enda’s Kenny Cabinet. All the evidence seems to be available to reach certain conclusions but no one is capable is putting it all together. Or maybe they are doing their level best not to. Yours, etc,

LIAM POWER,

Angel’s Court,

Triq Il-Karmnu,

San Pawl Il-Bahar,

Malta

Sir, – So Commissioner Callinan fell on Minister Shatter’s sword. How many more will do so before the Minister actually realises that he must take responsibility? Yours, etc,

DONAL MOORE,

Rockenham Court,

Ferrybank,

Waterford

Sir, – Might I query a curious omission from the titles listed in the newly published volume Books That Define Ireland , namely, the Garda Station Telephone Log Book? Yours, etc,

BOB CORKEY,

Edendale Lodge,

Kilbride Church,

Wicklow

A chara, – Is it time for Fintan O’Toole to tell David Moyes to go? Is mise,

LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH,

Ellensborough Drive,

Kiltipper Road,

Dublin 24

Sir, – David Beatty (March 27th), in replying to my letter, manages to undermine both his own argument and that of Una Mullally. He cites “larger societal factors” as being a problem with regard to women’s participation in politics. He might well be right, but quotas won’t change this.

Our parish pump political system is built on gladhanding and backslapping and rewards politicians who are good at same. Many women, and many men, feel this sort of politics to be offputting. The answer is to change the system. With gender quotas all we will get is more female parish-pumpers and a parish pump politician in a skirt is still a parish pump politician.

Mr Beatty’s “gender role” talk is typical cappuccino liberal waffle. Even in Scandinavia the majority of engineers are men and most teachers are women. In a documentary made for Norwegian television it was found that despite 30 years of social engineering the percentages of women in engineering (a minority) and nursing (a majority) had not changed.

Finally, Mr Beatty talks of women’s interests. What are these interests? How are they different from men’s? I am willing to venture that when women enter the polling booth they think of their jobs, their families, their communities and maybe their country, and they vote for the candidate that will best represent them. Whether that candidate is male or female is irrelevant. Yours, etc,

Yours sincerely

PAUL WILLIAMS,

Circular Road,

Kilkee,

Co Clare

Sir, – The historical gaelteachtóir bias in Irish language policy has meant that other gaeilgeoirí such as myself, a third generation Dublin Irish speaker, are formally – and ridiculously – deemed not to have a native accent. I and my many peers’ existence is seen as an inconvenience, the cure for which is a prescribed trip to a Gaeltacht to learn to mimic an accent not native to us. Is mise mar dhea,

CLÍONA SAIDLÉAR,

Ballymoneen Road,

Knocknacarra,

Galway

A Chara, – I was interested to read Heber Rowan’s comments (March 26th) comparing the continuity of the Catalan language with Irish. However I should point out that Catalan always remained the vernacular language of the region, despite the efforts of the Franco regime to suppress its use, whereas this unfortunately cannot be said for Irish, which was evidently suppressed more successfully. I myself very much regret that, growing up in Co Down and attending state schools in the 1960s, we were totally oblivious of our national language. Is mise,

STEPHEN CONN,

Dantestrasse,

Heidelberg,

Germany

Sir, – Heber Rowan (March 26th) suggested that the best way to promote the use of Irish would be to dramatically increase the production of Irish language broadcasts. This letter was then followed by another from a Mr O’Cuinn which I could not read because it was in Irish. If Mr Rowan’s suggestion were to be transposed to print media and then enacted, I would have to stop reading your newspaper. Yours, etc,

DANIEL STANFORD,

Upper Leeson Street,

Dublin 4

Sir, – Mention of the Cork Dry Gin bottle by John Fleming (Michael Talbot, An Appreciation, March 24th) jogged my memory. As a young trainee in the restaurant business starting out in 1951, I recall the interest in this new product in its different, stylish bottle.

It soon became clear to service staff that Cork gin contained an extra measure or half-glass more than other bottles. Whether this was intentional or not, it encouraged bar staff to push its sales over other products, since it gave them a measure in excess, to sell or consume. Unfortunately, it soon became obvious that the bottle had a serious fault. It was fragile and broke more easily than others. That was at a time when “empties”, empty bottles, had to returned or paid for. What had first been seen as an advantage soon became a liability and the sales push ceased. I believe that fault was rectified later, but the early enthusiasm was gone. Yours, etc,

CHRISTOPHER SANDS,

Collinswood,

Dublin 9

Sir, – Regarding the opening of a Starbucks branch in the former Anglo Irish Bank headquarters on St Stephen’s Green, Dublin (March 26th), one must hope that the enterprise will have competent bean counters to look after its financial affairs – unlike the egregiously mismanaged institution that previously occupied the building. Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin

Irish Independent:

* If ever the time was right for an independent examination into the Garda Siochana it is now, following the ongoing speeding ticket and whistleblower controversies, which reached a new low with the resignation of the Garda Commissioner, literally minutes before a new controversy over phone recordings broke.

Also in this section

Shatter has decimated An Garda Siochana

Different faces of the Catholic Church

Whistleblower row descends into ‘pantomime’

Some years ago, the Patton report into the RUC resulted in a complete overhaul and re-naming of the force as the PSNI, which now has the support of all law-abiding people in Northern Ireland.

One of the main factors in this renewal of the police force was the appointment of a chief constable from outside that jurisdiction.

Hugh Orde arrived without any baggage or allegiance to those already there and proved to be hugely successful in leading the PSNI in this new beginning.

Now is the perfect time for the Government to follow suit, have a root-and-branch examination of the force (the first since 1971) a part of which would be to appoint a Commissioner from outside the force.

Let us not forget that the pangs of “sympathy” being felt by the opposition parties in their show of support for the garda whistleblowers are nothing more than an opportunity for them to attack the Government.

The sad part is that the serious problems that exist in An Garda Siochana are at senior management level but those who will feel the contempt of the public are the ordinary men and women on the ground striving to carry out their duties without adequate guidance or leadership.

Let us not waste this opportunity.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

LETTER DELAYS

* In the event that the Chief of Staff of the Army ever advises the Defence Minister of an impending invasion by the Russians, how long will it take for Mr Shatter to open the letter?

GERRY O’DONNELL

DUBLIN 15

CRISIS UPON CRISIS

* Watching ‘Prime Time’ and the ghostly face of a floundering Michael Noonan, my mind went back to 1982 when another garda crisis was dragged centre stage by Mr Noonan.

Then he wasn’t so benevolent or patronising towards the government. That this man is relevant in Irish politics 32 years later shows the sludge pace of cutting-edge politics.

Essentially a man high on rhetoric and dramatical postures, Enda Kenny now presides over a dam that is holding back a torrent of scandal and chaos. That Mr Noonan is sent out to bat like an old Soviet war horse shows how stale this Coalition is.

The greatest contribution this Coalition can make to democracy today is this: go, in the name of God, before the people find a real leader that will take us on to the streets to hose the stench of corruption out of Irish life.

JOHN CUFFE

CO MEATH

E-CIGARETTE DANGERS

* Progress has been described as “the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance” and it is a perennial process, often vividly illustrated in our emergency departments. This week, for instance, we saw a second case of accidental ingestion by a child of liquid nicotine, the “fuel” for electronic or “e-cigarettes” and “vaping”.

These were our first examples of yet another novel type of poisoning produced by “alternative” medicine, but the number of such cases of “e-liquid” poisoning in the USA reached over 1,300 in 2013, a 300pc increase from 2012, according to the American National Poison Data System.

Some of us in emergency healthcare would take issue with Professor John Britton of the Royal College of Physicians in the UK who was quoted recently as saying that “nicotine in itself is not a particularly hazardous drug”.

Some American toxicologists in fact describe it as “one of the most potent naturally occurring toxins”, at the very least likely to provoke acute illness and vomiting in the young children who are most at risk of sampling fruit-flavoured e-liquids lying around in vapers’ houses.

So while accepting that the “jury is out” in strictly scientific terms in relation to e-cigarettes, and conceding that smokers may very well benefit from a reduction in “real” smoking, I would remind people of the alleged attractions of methadone, mephedrone and zopiclone, all of which have been recently championed as “healthier” substitutes for legal and illegal drugs of addiction, with often tragic consequences.

At this early stage in the (potential) evolution of e-cigarettes as a substitute for tobacco, HL Mencken’s priceless contribution to public health debate comes to mind: “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible and wrong.”

DR CHRIS LUKE

CONSULTANT IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE,

MERCY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, CORK

REPRESENTING IRELAND

* In his two short meetings with the Queen of England, Cork fish merchant Pat O’Connell has done more for Ireland than has Gerry Adams in his whole lifetime.

ROBERT SULLIVAN

BANTRY, CO CORK

CLUBS AND SOCIETIES

* The recent article regarding UL students’ rejection of a Life Society was incomplete. There were, in fact, several objections and legitimate questions, several of which were not answered adequately.

In particular, the founders of the Life Society had wanted to vet potential members in a way that is not in keeping with clubs and societies’ policy of inclusion. Even the campus political groups and LGBTQ society are not permitted to restrict their membership to those who agree with their positions.

Furthermore, it is legitimate that the organisations whose funding and reputation will be affected by a new society should have final say on its creation rather than decisions being imposed from the top down.

UL societies aim to enhance the students’ experience, not to serve as platforms for political hobby horses.

DARRAGH ROCHE

CHAIRPERSON, CLUBS AND SOCIETIES’ COUNCIL,

UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK

LET THEM EAT CAKE

* A Starbucks sign has appeared on the front of the former Anglo Irish Bank building on St Stephen’s Green. Is it time to change that immortal phrase from “Let them eat cake” to “Let them drink lattes”?

DERMOT KIRWAN

KILBARRACK ROAD, DUBLIN


Mary hospital

$
0
0

28March 2014 Mary still in hospital

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again.They have a row over Heather. Priceless

Cold slightly better Mary very under the weather visit her

Scrabbletoday Mary winds gets just under 400Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Jerry Roberts – obituary

Jerry Roberts was a Bletchley Park codebreaker who cracked Hitler’s secret messages and warned of an attack on Kursk

Captain Jerry Roberts

Captain Jerry Roberts  Photo: Bletchley Park Trust/PA Wire

7:01PM GMT 27 Mar 2014

Comments3 Comments

Jerry Roberts, who has died aged 93, was one of a small group of Bletchley Park codebreakers who read Hitler’s messages to his generals, providing unprecedented details of the German preparations for the D-Day landings.

The German High Command’s teleprinter messages, which were broken in part with the help of Colossus, the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer, also provided the German plans for the Battle of Kursk, now seen as the turning point of the war.

“I can remember myself breaking messages about Kursk,” Roberts recalled. “We were able to warn the Russians that the attack was going to be launched and the fact that it was going to be a pincer movement. We had to wrap it all up and say it was from spies, that we had wonderful teams of spies, and other sources of information. We were able to warn them what army groups were going to be used, and most important, what tank units were going to be used.”

Provided with the information by the British, the Red Army was able to rebuff the German attack, before launching an all-out assault that destroyed the German forces aligned against them in what led to a Soviet advance that did not stop until it reached Berlin.

Raymond Clarke Roberts (always known as Jerry) was born in Wembley on November 18 1920. His father was a pharmacist, his mother the organist in the local chapel. He was educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, before studying German and French at University College, London.

His ambition was to join the Foreign Office, but his German professor, Leonard Willoughby, who had been a leading member of the Admiralty’s First World War code-breaking unit Room 40, put him forward for “work of a secret kind” which could not be discussed in advance.

Roberts found himself facing an enigmatic recruitment process at a War Office building just off Trafalgar Square during which he was asked by an anonymous major if he played chess. When he responded in the affirmative, the major asked if he could also “tackle crosswords”.

Another nod of the head was sufficient to see him sent to the codebreakers’ “War Station” at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, where John Tiltman, the chief cryptographer, recruited him into his research section, warning him that “absolute silence must be preserved” about what happened there.

Queen Elizabeth II speaks with code breaker Captain Jerry Roberts during a visit to Bletchley Park in 2011

Roberts was initially put to work breaking the Double Playfair hand cipher used by German police troops operating on the Eastern Front. The deciphered messages revealed the early stages of what would become known as the Holocaust, with German generals seemingly vying with each other to tell Berlin about the tens of thousands of Jews their men were killing.

Churchill requested a special series of reports on the atrocities and, despite the danger that it might lead to improved German cipher security and hinder Bletchley’s successes, publicly denounced the killings as “a crime without a name”.

The team working on the police messages was headed by Ralph Tester; and in July 1942 Tester and his team were put to work on a new problem — the enciphered teleprinter messages being sent between Hitler and his generals. German teleprinter messages had first been intercepted in the second half of 1940, but little had been done with them until it became clear, in late 1941, that they were being used more frequently. The messages were enciphered with the Lorenz SZ40 system, which had two sets of five cipher wheels, making it even more complex than the most difficult of the Enigma ciphers, which had one set of four.

Tiltman looked at the early messages, trying to find a way into them, initially without success. In August 1941, however, a German operator sent the same message twice on the same settings, shortening some of the text in the second message to save time.

This allowed Tiltman a way in; and in an extraordinary piece of code breaking he worked out the texts of the messages, giving a stream of 4,000 plain text letters and their cipher equivalents which might help to reconstruct the operation of the Lorenz machine. For two months the research section tried without success to use Tiltman’s decrypt to break the enciphered teleprinter messages, which were code-named Fish by the codebreakers. Then, in October, it was given to the young chemistry graduate Bill Tutte.

Jerry Roberts in later life

“He used to sit staring into the middle distance, twirling a pencil about in his fingers,” Roberts recalled. “I used to wonder whether he was getting anything done. My goodness, he was.”

In a stroke of genius, Tutte managed to find a way in, allowing the research section to reconstruct the Lorenz machine. The combined efforts of Tiltman and Tutte were described in an internal GCHQ history as “one of the outstanding successes of the war”, not least because of the high standard of intelligence the Fish messages produced.

The teleprinter links ran between all the major German front line headquarters and Hitler’s command posts in Berlin or at the Wolf’s Lair, his forward command post for the Eastern Front at Rastenburg in East Prussia.

Tester and his team, including Roberts, by now commissioned into the Intelligence Corps, were put to work on breaking the Fish messages on a regular basis in July 1942. “The people the messages were going to and coming from would be given at the beginning of the message,” Roberts recalled. “So you would have General so-and-so sending to Army HQ in Berlin.”

The Testery, as it was known, began with Roberts and five others actually breaking the messages, but grew to be 118-strong, including among its numbers Peter Benenson, who later founded Amnesty International, and Roy Jenkins, who went on as a Labour politician to become Chancellor of the Exchequer and was subsequently Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

Jerry Roberts receiving his MBE from the Queen in 2013

One of its early members was Max Newman, who had been Turing’s tutor at Cambridge. Newman realised that one part of the code-breaking process for the Fish ciphers could be done by the kind of machine Turing had described in their discussions.

That belief led to the creation, by the GPO telecommunications engineer Tommy Flowers, of Colossus, which greatly speeded up the breaking of the Fish ciphers ahead of the D-Day landings, when the codebreakers were able to read details of Hitler’s conversations with Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the German commander in France.

“Some were signed by Hitler,” Roberts said. “I can remember myself deciphering at least one message − he called himself: ‘Adolf Hitler, Führer’. I suppose I should have been unhappy that I wasn’t fighting the true fight. But this never bothered me. One knew that this was immensely more important than any other single contribution that you could make as a soldier, or as an officer.”

After the war Roberts spent two years in Germany with the War Crimes Investigation Unit before being demobilised in 1947 and beginning a career in market research which would take him all over the world.

In 1970 he set up his own companies, working for a number of high-profile clients including British Gas, Reebok, DuPont, American Airlines, Chrysler and Holiday Inn. Roberts sold his companies in 1993 and retired. Two years later, he married Mei Li, an artist and book illustrator.

He spent his later years campaigning for greater recognition for Flowers and Tutte, which led to a BBC documentary on the latter’s work breaking the Fish ciphers, and for the preservation of Bletchley Park.

He was appointed MBE in the 2013 New Years Honours “for services to the work of Bletchley Park and to code breaking”.

He is survived by Mei and their daughter, and by a son and two daughters of two previous marriages.

Jerry Roberts, born November 18 1920, died March 25 2014

Guardian:

Robert Shore (Let’s hear it for the Midlands, G2, 27 March) is right. The Midlands are brilliant and blissful. Roy Fisher, one of the UK’s greatest living poets, and one of its most modest, once wrote “Birmingham’s what I think with”. Perhaps that should be added to the signposts of all roads leading to the West Midlands from north and south alike.
Jenny Swann
Nottingham

• Shame on Robert Shore from Mansfield for preferring the fictional character Mr Darcy to represent Midland aristocracy when Lord Byron from nearby Newstead Abbey would have been a far more interesting “Midland sex symbol”. No mention either for DH Lawrence who, like Byron, was a great poet and, moreover, a prolific author whose work was also turned into a Ken Russell masterpiece.
David Selby
Winchester, Hampshire

• There is an alternative to garden fences (There’s a great fence shortage? That’s awkward, G2, 26 March): natural hedging (but please, avoid leylandii). A well-maintained beech hedge will look good, diffuse rather than resist the gales, present an impenetrable barrier to next-door’s dog and, best of all, offer shelter for a wide variety of wildlife. Oh, and you can also eat the new, springtime green leaves.
Tim Feest
Godalming, Surrey

• Reading of Veronese’s appearance before the Inquisition (which nobody ever expects) reminded me of the Monty Python sketch of Michelangelo explaining to the pope why he had included 28 apostles, three Christs and a kangaroo in his painting of the same scene (Review, 22 March). He, too, claimed artistic licence: “You don’t want an artist, mate, you want a bloody photographer.” It’s on YouTube – enjoy.
Julian Taylor
Cuffley, Hertfordshire

• Pentre Cythraul in Flintshire is the Devil’s Village (Letters, 27 March).
Huw Roberts
Cardiff

• Valhalla, Chaos and Useless Loop sound interesting, but there’s no place like No Place, County Durham.
Alan Pearson
Durham

Philip Pullman is right to use the word “barbaric” in commenting on Chris Grayling‘s ban on families and friends sending books to prisoners (Report, 25 March). Grayling’s title as “justice minister” is surely ironic. I am reminded how the apartheid “minister of justice” John Vorster (later South Africa’s prime minister) denied all reading matter to “90-days” detainees, except for the Bible. I was grateful when a friend tested the system by sending me a Bible with line drawings, including little route maps and with a foreword describing it as “a great travel book”. In my solitary cell in 1964, I knew she had specially chosen it for me. That mattered.

Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom contains a photograph captioned “The books I kept in my cell”. Political prisoners struggled for the right to books, supported by the indefatigable opposition MP Helen Suzman. Books connected them to “outside” – to the world of ideas, relationships and human emotions beyond the brutalising reality of prison. In the 1980s, the security police hated the concessions on books made by their superiors under pressure from the campaigning Detainee Parents’ Support Committee. Neil Aggett, the idealist doctor-cum-unpaid trade unionist who died in detention in Johannesburg in 1982, effectively ran a small lending library among detainees with books sent in by family and friends. The security police confiscated books as punishment.

Grayling’s notion of books as Brownie points for good behaviour is ludicrous. He should go down in history as the book snatcher, alongside his heroine the milk snatcher. The quality of decision-making in the country that gave me a home in exile in the late 1960s – and to which I hope I have contributed – is increasingly impoverished. It’s frightening.
Beverley Naidoo
Bournemouth

• As Thomas Cromwell’s current reputation manager, I should gently caution Bernard Naylor (Letters, 26 March) that there are more precise sources of information than A Man for All Seasons. Thomas More was sent to the Tower in April 1534. His papers were taken away in June 1535, after he was discovered to be writing to his fellow prisoner Bishop Fisher. His books went too, and no doubt this move was designed to put psychological pressure on him; it may have been nasty but it wasn’t pointless. Thomas More was a great burner: of books, of writers, of readers. If we need a patron of free access to the written word, his name is not the name to invoke. Mr Grayling’s common sense should tell him to allow prisoners good access to books. He should need no instructions from history.
Hilary Mantel
Budleigh Salterton, Devon

• I would very much like to thank Guardian readers for their overwhelming response to my son Jake (Letters, 21 January), asking people to send cards, letters of support and books. Having recently been released from jail (I was a prisoner of conscience) in the Republic of Ireland, I was shocked to read that the UK minister for justice is banning friends and families from bringing books into jail. So now not only are they locking up the body, they are locking up the mind also. Is this a new form of torture?
Margaretta D’Arcy
Woodquay, Galway

• We are crime writers. At the end of our novels the prison door closes on the perpetrator of the crime. But it is only in fiction that this is a satisfactory ending. Which is why we are writing to the lord chancellor and the secretary of state for justice to voice our deep concern at the exclusion of books from prison parcels. The spartan regime in prisons that Chris Grayling claims the public wants should, surely, allow for rehabilitation too, and books are essential in that process. In the face of a declining library service and ill-stocked prison shops, parcels from relatives are often the only way that prisoners can have access to reading and study materials. The figures on reoffending, and on substance abuse in prisons, speak volumes about the importance for prisoners of being able to imagine a life beyond crime. We call on Mr Grayling to address the reality of prison life rather than a fictional version.
Alison Joseph
Chair, Crime Writers’ Association

• Not long after the Good Friday agreement, I was visiting a barracks near Armagh at a friend’s invitation. Among other guests was a member of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. He told me he’d transferred from the prison service, having served at, among other prisons, Long Kesh. I asked what he’d experienced there and he said that the main difference he noticed was that, while the majority of loyalist inmates spent their time in the gym, the nationalists were in the library, “educating themselves and getting degrees”. He predicted that this difference would probably come to the fore in future. Chris Grayling, please note.
Dan Tanzey
Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire

• Great to see the literati wading in to highlight yet another faux pas from Chris Grayling. But where were they when Grayling was seeking to dismantle the probation service – a somewhat more significant factor in the rehabilitation of offenders? Napo – the probation officers’ trade union is still at the forefront of the campaign to save probation. On 1 April, from 7.30am there will be pickets outside each probation office as Napo is on strike as part of that campaign. Perhaps authors, wordsmiths, poets, lyricists and readers would like to attend their local Napo picket line to show support. Losing the probation service and access to books. Whatever next? Custody in the community!

Mick Gough

Retired senior probation officer, Stoke on Trent

Paul Brown is correct when he writes that “This should be a bumper year for the common frog” (Specieswatch, Common frog, 24 March) because of the mild wet winter.

Unfortunately, however, in some areas the longlasting and freezing conditions of the previous winter had a disastrous effect on frog numbers. Our four garden ponds were frozen until the end of March 2013, and in April a maximum of 20 frogs gathered, with little spawn laid. In previous years, I had got used to peak numbers exceeding 100. This year, the maximum has again been a meagre 20 frogs, although with a lot of spawn, giving hope for long-term recovery.

It should be noted that neither of the last two winters has been typical. Amphibian populations in many parts of the world are in crisis, with rapid climate change thought to be a significant factor. One more extremely hard winter could certainly wipe out my garden frog population.
Denis O’Connor
Otley, West Yorkshire

We, as leaders of eight major northern cities that are crucial to the economic prosperity of the north, call on the leaders of the main political parties to commit to support the high-speed rail link through to completion (Fast-track plan for HS2 wins George Osborne’s support, 18 March). HS2 is a once-in-a-century chance for our cities to realise their enormous potential and to make an ever greater contribution to the wider prosperity of the UK. As such, we ask the main party leaders to show their commitment to high-speed rail by ensuring the parliamentary process for HS2 is expedited.

Within our own cities we have already started to detail how we will use HS2 to drive growth, create jobs, generate prosperity and deliver a step change in productivity for the UK economy. We must reap these benefits at the earliest opportunity if our country is to remain a global leader.

We now seek a strong and active partnership across all the political parties and between national and local government in order to focus on the delivery of HS2. Working together we can secure a thriving north and Midlands as a strong contributor to a fully diverse and resilient national economy.

We therefore urge all party leaders to not only back, but vocally champion HS2 so that this essential scheme is delivered at the earliest opportunity for the benefit of our great cities and our country as a whole.
Cllr James Alexander Leader, York city council, Joe Anderson Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Paul Bayliss Leader, Derby, Cllr Jon Collins Leader, Nottingham, Cllr Julie Dore Leader, Sheffield, Cllr Nick Forbes Leader, Newcastle, Richard Leese Leader, Manchester, Cllr Keith Wakefield Leader, Leeds

• I trust that failure to buy a railway ticket will also cease to be a criminal offence and that private railway companies will be placed in the same position as the BBC over the licence fee.
Roch Garrard
South Warnborough, Hampshire

We are all consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists who look after, or have looked after, women who have suffered female genital mutilation. We wish to express our serious anxiety about the decision to prosecute a doctor for alleged mutilation after a delivery (Medical experts criticise prosecutions over FGM, 26 March). In this case, it is clear that the woman had undergone the practice before her pregnancy.  

Female genital mutilation is a horrendous practice; the most severe form involves cutting off a girl’s clitoris and labia and suturing the remaining tissue together, leaving a small hole for the passage of urine and menstrual blood. The practice is carried out in many countries, and probably affects more than a 100 million women.

When women who have suffered FGM are pregnant, they may need to have the vaginal opening widened to allow the baby out. If this is not done before labour, it will need to be done at the time of delivery. This may leave a bleeding area that needs to be repaired.

There is the world of difference between FGM and repairing cuts that are necessary to allow a baby’s delivery. Prosecuting professionals for so-called FGM under these circumstances distracts us from the real issues – namely, ensuring that girls are not sent abroad for FGM, that such operations are not performed in the UK, and that we help people in countries where this is endemic to change cultural attitudes.
Naaila Aslam, Chris Barnick, Mark Broadbent, Melanie Davies, Edgar Dorman, James Drife, Katrina Erskine, Abha Govind, Matt Hogg, Penelope Law, Nick Nicholas, Louise Page, Maryam Parisaei, Avanti Patel, Catharine Roberts, Audrey Ryan, Ali Sajjad, Robert Sawdy, Amit Shah, Anthony Silverstone, Geeta Suri
Consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists, London and Leeds

We are writers from around the world who love, live and breathe words. We are united in our belief that freedom of expression is a universal and fundamental human right. We are gravely concerned about “the freedom of words” in Turkey. We connect both within and across borders through words, written and spoken. A free exchange of ideas is essential for democracy, as well as for creativity, empathy and tolerance. As revealed in a Pen report on last year’s protests,Turkey has many freedom of expression issues, from criminal defamation to self-censorship within the mainstream media, to police violence against journalists and a narrowing of freedom of expression on the internet.

Turkey ranks 154th among 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. Translators, editors, publishers, poets and writers face criminal proceedings and even imprisonment for legitimate expression, under a variety of legal fetters, including the country’s draconian anti-terror law, the law on meetings and demonstrations and the Turkish penal code’s articles on defamation (article 125), religious defamation (article 216), obscenity (article 226), insulting the Turkish people, state or its organs, and promoting conscientious objection to military service (article 318).

The blanket ban on Twitter and YouTube (Report, 27 March) comes in the aftermath of a regressive new internet law and is an unacceptable violation of the right to freedom of speech. With over 36 million internet users, Turkey should be proud to be home to Europe’s youngest internet audience, placing it among the most globally connected countries in the Muslim world. By connecting people from a range of backgrounds and making it possible for them to express their thoughts, the internet is a valuable network that supports and strengthens democracy. Twitter and YouTube are vehicles of expression that give a voice to each and every user, regardless of class, religion, ethnicity or political stature. There are more than 12 million Twitter users in Turkey, which shows the vibrancy of civil society. Turkey is a state party to the European convention on human rights and the international covenant on civil and political rights, both of which protect the right to legitimate freedom of expression.

We welcome the administrative court in Ankara’s decision to suspend the ban ahead of a full judgment and urge the telecommunications authority to restore access to Twitter immediately.

We are writers from Turkey and across the world. We care about one another’s problems and we know that we are all interconnected. Turkey is a country where western democratic values, secularism and Islamic culture come together. It is not surrounded by enemies. It is not an isolated or inward-looking country. It is part of an international community. Our plea to Turkey’s leaders is not to retreat from democracy and its keystone, freedom of speech; but rather to recognise their obligations under international treaties and to lift the block on Twitter and YouTube with immediate effect. We urge them to remember that this beautiful country will be stronger and happier when, and if, it appreciates pluralism, diversity and the freedom of words.
Héctor Abad Faciolince
Boris Akunin
Svetlana Alexievich
Hanan al-Shaykh
Ahmet Altan
Mehmet Altan
Jirō Asada
Margaret Atwood
Oya Baydar
Marian Botsford Fraser Pen International’s writers in prison committee
Martín Caparrós
Fethiye Çetin
Can Dündar
Kerstin Ekman
Peter Englund Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy
Álvaro Enrigue
Moris Farhi
Maureen Freely President of English Pen
Maggie Gee
Kaya Genç
Graeme Gibson
Francisco Goldman
Günter Grass Nobel laureate
Tarık Günersel President of Turkish Pen
Josef Haslinger President of German Pen
Eva Hoffman
Elfriede Jelinek Nobel laureate
AL Kennedy
Abbas Khider
Karl Ove Knausgård
Hari Kunzru
Valeria Luiselli
Perihan Mağden
Alberto Manguel
Bejan Matur
Blake Morrison
Neel Mukherjee
Sofi Oksanen
Michael Ondaatje
Orhan Pamuk Nobel laureate
John Ralston Saul President of Pen International
Sergio Ramírez
Salman Rushdie
Elif Shafak
Kamila Shamsie
Mikhail Shishkin
Sjón President, Icelandic Pen
Zadie Smith
Ahdaf Soueif
Hori Takeaki International secretary, Pen International
Janne Teller
Ece Temelkuran
Olga Tokarczuk
Tatyana Tolstaya
Jarkko Tontti International treasurer, Pen International
Dubravka Ugresic
Lyudmila Ulitskaya
Günter Wallraff
Per Wästberg President of the Nobel committee for literature
Sarah Waters
Hyam Yared President of Pen Lebanon
Samar Yazbek
Adam Zagajewski

There is considerable frustration within the police service regarding the inspectorate report on the police handling of domestic abuse (27 March). The College of Policing, which represents all professionals in policing, asked for this to be a multi-agency inspection with a far wider remit, but this was ignored.

Our experience is that cases of domestic abuse invariably include a far wider range of social issues, shown by the fact that only about 30% of cases result in a recorded crime. It is understandable that many victims refuse to make a complaint against their abuser, or later withdraw the allegation, because they don’t see that the criminal justice system can actually make their lives better.

There is a significant overlap between domestic abuse and complex dependency issues, and with those involved in gangs and organised crime. Even if police can remove an abuser from a victim’s life, victims may well live in a community where they will face pressure from their families or criminal networks.

We can only truly serve the needs of victims by approaching this in an integrated, multi-agency way, which links up all the issues of complex dependency, as we are doing in Greater Manchester. We cannot have a system that relies so much on the victim in an abusive relationship having the courage to go to court when it is in the very nature of an abusive relationship that their self-confidence is destroyed. My officers deal with an average 170 domestic abuse incidents every day and become weary that the wider system is not dealing with the underlying issues or that society is not taking this more seriously.

To that end, I would like to see the creation of full-item specialist magistrates able to impose a range of conditions for the protection of victims and the control of offenders, where the police could take all high-risk cases within 24 hours, whether or not the victim wishes to make a complaint. This would create the space for the full range of agencies to put in a comprehensive solution.

The police can always do better and comply more closely with the processes, but it has to be acknowledged that there are fundamental flaws in the way the wider system safeguards very vulnerable victims, which is why so many are reluctant to come forward.
Sir Peter Fahy
Chief constable, Greater Manchester police

Independent:

The Government has announced an investigation into the energy supply industry, with the promise of increasing competitiveness to drive down prices. Is this a real fix for the energy industry or just a big election fix?

It sounds wonderful to have lower prices, until you look at the real business economics in such a move.

If you forcibly drive down prices by diktat, will energy companies really cut their profits or will they cut their costs? As Britain suffers a lack of new power-generating capacity, will this increase in competitiveness cause more or less investment in new capacity?

When you cut prices, you reduce income. That usually means a big business will slash its long-term investment first, not the short-term profits to shareholders. It also means a large company is far more tempted to engage in vicious, competitive sales practices verging on the criminal.

Deception and mis-selling can be expected as sales forces are driven to increase the number of customers, while the suppliers’ customer service and maintenance departments are slashed due to falling income. This is made worse if that sales force is on aggressive commission schemes, taking more money from the limited income.

Neither a competition inquiry nor the diktats to be expected from the Government to reshape the market for ideological purposes will solve the quality of service. Nor will they solve the quality and quantity of investment. But this inquiry is perfectly timed for local elections in a few weeks and the general election next year.

We need real power for the people, not another round of competitiveness ruining the economy, people’s lives and our environment. We need investment in new, efficient power generation that is owned locally, not by greedy remote overseas corporations. Breaking up the existing suppliers, as suggested, will not create new innovative businesses; they will be smaller, weaker, under constant demand to reduce prices – thus income, thus costs and services to the customer.

Michael Bond, Stockport, Cheshire

The announcement by Siemens that 1,000 wind farm production jobs are to be created in the North of England (“Wind of change”, 26 March) shows businesses are leading the charge to develop the green jobs of the future.

The number of green jobs is predicted to increase from 1m today to 1.4m by 2020. Leading businesses argue that these jobs will not be confined to the green-energy sector, and many roles, even in service industries, will feature a green component.

However, a greater understanding of the skills needed for these jobs is urgently needed, with clear direction and guidance to teachers. Recent YouGov polling of teachers, commissioned by Global Action Plan, shows that 63 per cent think their school is not doing anything to develop green skills.

The Government needs to improve this situation by helping to improve careers advice to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the future.

Trewin Restorick, Senior Partner, Global Action Plan, London WC2

I congratulate fellow Nuclear Free Local Authorities member Hull City Council and Siemens for deciding to develop a major green energy hub in the city. My own city of Manchester has strong connections with Siemens and I am sure this will be a fantastic economic, sustainable and energy-rich part of the solution to the UK’s future energy needs.

However, SSE has decided to ditch several offshore wind projects, our Prime Minister advocates a shale gas revolution and a new nuclear revolution, and the Met Office tells us that cold, wet winters and blisteringly hot summers could be the norm in 20 years’ time.

I urge the Government to stop messing about with shale and new nuclear and embrace a renewable local energy revolution that councils across the UK and Ireland are keen to play a full part in.

Councillor Mark Hackett, Chair of UK and  Ireland Nuclear Free Local Authorities, Manchester

The curse of Kardashian

Is Grace Dent the Julie Burchill de nos jours? Her veneration of Kim Kardashian (25 March) misses an important point about the danger of this type of celebrity culture.

Her “footballer’s girlfriend” comment disregards the worrying trend in manufactured super-ordinariness that is so prevalent in much media-constructed celebrity. Kim Kardashian is no rags-to-riches heroine, and I suspect that even her sex tape was a sophisticated marketing tool.

I know that it must be hard for clever readers of The Independent to understand this, but the young, ethnically diverse, mainly working-class girls, whom I used to teach in an East London further education college, really believe that they can become Kim or Katie Price or any other of these women who appear to have little actual skill yet are able to attain wealth and popularity.

So they underachieve chronically in their studies because – in their minds – the dream will come true. It does not. Role models such as Kim Kardashian are responsible for more female teenagers’ lack of aspiration than all the supposedly poor teachers in our schools and colleges put together. These kids then have to live the rest of their lives with disappointment and poor prospects of gainful employment.

Chris Hugo

London E10

Teachers should revolt – not strike

From my own assorted work experiences, I found that, compared with other professions, teaching in state schools was comparatively easy to move into at any age.

But it entailed putting up with far more day-to-day hassle than I was used to, a great deal of which was the direct result of endless streams of daft organisational and curriculum ideas emanating from distant academics and politicians who couldn’t organise the proverbial activity in a brewery – and who generally approved of our Great British educational apartheid and made quite sure that their own offspring went to a nice private school.

But what really finished me off was the docile acceptance of all this rubbish by the classroom teachers. And that still seems to be the case (forget about all those in the myriad peculiar promoted posts who would sell their grannies for yet another move further way from the dangerously demanding electronic chalkface).

A meek little strike without upsetting the parents is no good at all. What should have been done years ago, and cries out to be done now, is point-blank refusal by the front-line troops to have anything at all to do with any more new organisational or  curricular wheezes.

Alison Sutherland, Kirkwall, Orkney

As a teacher, I feel supported by colleagues in my secondary school. However, I went on strike in protest at the unsustainable average working week of 55 hours for secondary teachers and 60 for primary. The amount of bureaucracy required by Government and Ofsted not only reduces time to design challenging activities, but leaves us physically shattered and unable to give the energy required to facilitate the best educational experience for students.

Teachers went on strike to work to create a better learning environment, and not over petty details, as the Government and some media seem to make out.

Dr Isabelle Humphries, Cambridge

My schoolteacher wife supported the national NUT strike. This allowed her to spend the day on lesson preparation and pupil attainment records – roughly doubling her weekly quota of  unpaid work.

David Mitchell, Cromford, Derbyshire

Coupling and uncoupling

In The Dream of Gerontius, where the death of Gerontius and the soul’s ascent to heaven is related, Edward Elgar sets the words of Cardinal Newman. When Gerontius meets the Angel who has accompanied him thither, he addresses her: “I wish to hold with thee conscious communion.” So “conscious uncoupling” seems an appropriate way to part from an angel.

Anthony Bramley-Harker, Watford

Foreign antecedents?

Ian Turnbull (letter, 26 March) informs us that “homage” has Latin origins and doesn’t rhyme with French cheese. Perhaps he could enlighten us on the origin of Farage – French  or Latin?

Dave Keeley, Hornchurch

Just one wrong word

According to your report (“Revealed: secret second police corruption probe”, 27 March), information on police corruption was “inexplicably shredded”. The only thing wrong with that phrase is the word “inexplicably”.

Pete Barrett, Colchester

Times:

Sir, You suggest (leader, Mar 24) that a core purpose of the green belt — to restrict urban sprawl — is no longer a priority given the great need for new housing. There is no doubt we need to build many more homes than have been built in recent years — and there will be appropriate locations in the countryside to do so — but the maintenance of strict green belt controls is essential.

Strong, long-term boundaries are essential to enable a focus on reusing suitable previously developed land and buildings — which could accommodate more than 1.5m new homes — so that we can improve the quality of life of urban communities and provide decent housing where people want to live and work.

Green belts have an important role to play to help use land wisely, including for food production and flood management. Just because the policy is more than 60 years old doesn’t mean it is no longer relevant.

Peter Waine

Campaign to Protect Rural England

Sir, In a world of increasing food insecurity it is important to retain as much agricultural land as possible.

The UK’s population is projected to rise by almost 10 million over the next 25 years. At present the UK can only feed around 60 per cent of its present population, let alone another 10 million. Yet in your discussion of the loss of green belt land to housing you did not ask whether in future our country will be able to afford or even gain access to the imported food it is so dependent on.

Pressures on the UK’s food security are here to stay. Increasing global population and changing consumption patterns are increasing demand for foodstuffs and contributing to rising prices.

However, the threat to UK food security could be more serious if increased global demand were to be combined with other potential problems such as climate change. The government’s official climate change advisers recently warned that droughts could devastate food production in the England by the 2020s.

Colin Hines

East Twickenham, Middx

Sir, At least 48,000 hectares of brownfield England is derelict, vacant or in use but with potential for redevelopment. I propose that we create a national database of potential brownfield housing sites. The database would allow councils, housing associations, developers, agents, architects, consultants and builders to identify opportunities to unlock the potential of these sites. Where this differs from other databases is that it is based on landowner participation and their early engagement is crucial to putting spades in the ground.

Whether or not sites are suitable for housing would still be determined by the planning system, the aim of the database would be to stimulate discussion and act as a catalyst for housing delivery.

There is no doubt we need to build more new homes, but we need to be sure they are in the right place. This database, for the first time, will help to identify more brownfield sites in private ownership across the country and encourage parties in the development process to bring them forward for housing delivery. Only once this brownfield supply has been exhausted should we focus on garden cities.

Andrew Taylor

London SW6

Dylan Thomas came to regret that his parents had not passed on to him their own first language, Welsh

Sir, The view of the Welsh language expressed by Roger Lewis (letter, Mar 27) may be a reflection of his own opinion but is far from the truth as far as Dylan Thomas is concerned.

Along with so many others of his generation Dylan came to regret his parents’ decision not to pass on their own first language to their son — which, to borrow a phrase, could be described as a “conscious uncoupling” from his own heritage. He was prone to change his opinion on any subject in line with his audience, but his poems, prose works and letters reveal a man who was inspired by the Welsh language, not scornful towards it.

Kate Crockett

Swansea

The proposal to construct a racetrack on moorland in South Wales will be a blow to biodiversity

Sir, National planning guidance policy is not influenced by particular cases of local planners weighing up the demands of communities with a need to protect biodiversity as set out within their adopted plan (Simon Barnes, Wild Notebook, Mar 22)

The urge to continue building on Olympic successes may not be directly felt here in South Wales but a large swathe of moorland, adjacent to the Brecon Beacons National Park, has been earmarked for a motor racetrack as part of the economic regeneration of nearby severely deprived Merthyr Tydfil (News, Mar 22).

The area has plenty of skylarks singing on it and perhaps now is the time to be braver in exploring how biodiversity offsetting might enable progress of much needed development without trashing
wildlife habitat.

Rob Yorke

Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Opponents of a change in the law argue that the majority does not favour assisted dying on request

Sir, I contradict the claim that it is generally accepted that a large majority of the population want a change in the law with regard to assisted dying (Sir Gordon Downey, letter, Mar 26).

In my 38 years as an MP the number who have written in that cause is below 38. Fewer than ten have raised it in conversation.

In my public and private life more often than most I meet people with bad conditions, people who are dying slowly and I listen to their carers. If many wanted a change in the law they would have told me.

Additionally, I have known people who assured me in advance that they would in certain circumstances deliberately bring their life to its conclusion. Up to now not one has.

Turn to what I describe as death on request. Rare cases only? See the figures in the Netherlands and compare them with the totals for suicides. Consider also the move to death decisions taken for those judged not mentally competent.

There is little reason to be frightened of our deaths or to be put off discussing them. There is every reason to reject sloppy argument and unjustified assertions. Let us limit the law to its present state which to me and to an unknown proportion of the population seems to cover most situations.

Sir Peter Bottomley, MP

House of Commons

Sir, A recent ComRes opinion survey helped to undermine the myth that people with disabilities are eager for premature death (letters, Mar 24). In Britain they are more likely than the general public to support a change in the law to prevent doctors from allowing patients to die through dehydration, if they had asked in advance to be kept alive (61 per cent).

At present, people may only refuse sustenance by an advance directive. This may explain why the Liverpool Care Pathway lasted so long.

Elspeth Chowdharay-Best

London SW3

A general election is meant to be about electing a party to form a government, not a single telegenic individual

Sir, Contrary to your leading article “Clegg v Farage” (Mar 26), it would be a mistake to repeat televised leaders’ debates in 2015.

They convey the impression that a general election is about electing a single person not a party to form a government, and that performing well in such a debate is a good indicator of the qualities needed by a prime minister. They distort campaigning, as the media focus on the debates, and diminish attention to the team likely to compose the next Cabinet.

Conservative and Labour leaders should not be bullied by the media into agreeing to participate but should be thinking of how to present to the electorate their parties’ programmes and their leading colleagues, and not just themselves.

George Jones

(Emeritus Professor of Government, LSE), London N19

Telegraph:

Modernise churches to attract new visitors

Churches must be welcoming if their communities are to grow

‘My Second Sermon’ (1864) by Sir John Everett Millais  Photo: Bridgeman Art Library

6:58AM GMT 27 Mar 2014

Comments55 Comments

SIR – Over the past decade, funding by the National Churches Trust, an independent charity that receives no financial support from the Government, has enabled more than 2,000 churches, chapels and meeting houses to repair roofs and stonework and to install modern facilities, such as cafes, lavatories and heating.

Making churches attractive and welcoming enables them to attract new visitors, some of whom may go on to become part of the church community.

The National Churches Trust welcomes the announcement of £20 million in funding for cathedrals in the Budget. However, many of Britain’s 47,000 Christian places of worship are also in need of significant support to pay for repairs and modernisation.

Clare Walker
Chief Executive, National Churches Trust
London EC1

SIR – Sadikur Rahman expresses concern at the Law Society’s choice to issue a practice note to solicitors for drawing up “sharia-compliant” wills that conform to Islamic law. If we are serious about having the same law for all, then parallel legal systems must be prohibited, including all religious courts and tribunals.

Sharia laws are inherently discriminatory. This was recognised by Britain’s highest court in 2008, when the government attempted to remove a woman and child to Lebanon. In a 5—0 ruling, the Law Lords argued that there was no place in sharia for the equal treatment of the sexes and it would be a “flagrant breach” of the European Convention on Human Rights for the government to remove a woman to Lebanon, where she would lose custody of her son because of sharia-inspired family law.

Unfortunately, in the same year, Lord Chief Justice Phillips, who later became President of the British Supreme Court, mistakenly argued the opposite during a speech, “Equality before the law”, at the East London Muslim Centre: “There is no reason why principles of sharia law, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution.” This doubtless encouraged advocates of sharia-compliant laws and the Law Society.

The Law Society must withdraw its discriminatory and divisive guidance.

Dr Rumy Hasan
Senior lecturer, University of Sussex
Brighton

Recycling medicine

SIR – The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the NHS campaign Medicine Waste urged GPs to minimise over-prescribing to reduce an estimated £300 million wastage. With inflation and ever-expanding Nice-approved pharmaceuticals, that must be an underestimate. Many prescriptions are for chronic conditions. Recovery, remission, or death invariably render quantities of costly medicines or other items still intact, unopened and uncontaminated, but they are none the less destroyed.

In the interests of financial sustainability, might it not be prudent to update the research into this hidden cost and consider a risk assessment of less wasteful disposal, including perhaps some means of recycling, rather than destruction?

I was dismayed to discover that NHS trusts decline to take back walking aids, including crutches, on the grounds of hygiene. My Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health for an estimated annual cost of such items yielded no data, and a reply that policy is determined by local trusts. Surely such items are easily sterilised?

Paul A Newman
Winchester, Hampshire

Mature regular

SIR – A 90-year-old priest? Next month the owners of the Red Lion, in Wendover, will throw a 100th birthday party for a loyal member of staff. She still does three shifts a week.

Jennifer Ballantine
Wendover, Buckinghamshire

Language of love lost

SIR – In this era of jargon, I was not terribly surprised to hear that the unfortunate act of separation may now be referred to as “conscious uncoupling”.

We can only hope that this phrase doesn’t catch on, going forward.

Charles Foster
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

Morning-after pills

SIR – In the effort to reduce teenage pregnancy, it is madness to encourage teenage sexual intercourse by providing such easy access to all methods of contraception, including the morning-after pill.

Were the directors of Nice never teenagers themselves, and subject to peer pressure to appear “cool”? Of course young girls and boys are going to experiment if contraception is so readily available. Their future happiness in satisfied sexual relations will be damaged by this attitude that everything is fine as long as you use contraception.

Anne F Bloor
Burton Overy, Leicestershire

Proper multi-tasking

SIR – Regarding the lady who was apparently multi-tasking, texting was the only task needing any application; jogging, having a dog on a lead and listening to music do not.

When I was learning to fly an aircraft, the instructor would pull the throttle back and announce “Engine failure!” I had to run checks, see if it would be possible to restart the engine, look for a suitable field to land in and then begin a landing pattern, all the while calling mayday and explaining what was happening and where I was likely to land. Now that was multi-tasking.

Huw Beynon
Penybanc, Carmarthenshire

Tea time

SIR – For more than 50 years I have worn my watch with the face on the inside of my wrist. This was based upon the advice of my grandfather, who said that if I had a cup in my hand and somebody asked the time, I would spill it over them, and not myself. I remain dry to this day.

Kevin Cottrell
Buckland, Oxfordshire

Get your priorities right

SIR – Andy Smith notes that the Prime Minister has repeatedly asserted that the Government’s “first duty” is national security. But Mr Cameron recently said that the economy was his top priority. I have little doubt that on other occasions he has variously stated health, education, welfare, Europe and immigration to be his main concern. Does he have a problem with priorities?

R P Gullett
Bledlow Ridge, Buckinghamshire

The monarch should play a role in law-making

SIR – The monarch should not be removed from the law-making procedure. The monarchy, together with the military and judiciary, is the only protection society has from a renegade parliament.

Terry Bryant
Weaverham, Cheshire

SIR – The Commons’ political and reform committee tell us that Royal Consent is arcane and complex. Although Royal Consent does exist, it applies only to Bills affecting the monarch directly. What the committee has to say on the matter suggests that it is talking about Royal Assent, which is arcane only if the legal foundation of the government of the country in 1689 can be called arcane.

Royal Assent says that the monarch shall agree to a Bill becoming law only if it is just, merciful and constitutional. It is part of a necessarily complex system to prevent Parliament making law for its own benefit.

In 1911, Herbert Asquith persuaded the king that Royal Assent no longer need be anything other than an automatic agreement. The fact that it had not been denied since the reign of Queen Anne did not indicate that it was of no use, but that Parliament had been careful to create only Bills that would pass the monarch’s veto.

Since 1911 we have had unconstitutional legislation passed, which the proper use of Royal Assent would have blocked.

Kenneth Hynes
London N7

SIR – Is our “speculation fuelled” by the suggestion that “the monarchy has an undue influence in law-making”? No. Our speculation is fuelled by the agenda to dismantle our constitution and Church, manipulate our culture, compromise the Fourth Estate and bring on the federalisation of Europe.

David J Addington
March, Cambridgeshire

SIR – The NHS should be extremely grateful to the large number of women who work as GPs. However, many women doctors – with good reason – work part-time. As the number of women GPs increases, so, too, does the risk of the end of the traditional family doctor – a familiar and trusted face.

Philip Moger
East Preston, West Sussex

SIR – There is a danger among my colleagues that, if propaganda is repeated often enough, it is believed. I have the greatest respect for Dr Maureen Baker, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners. But before we leap to conclusions about the workload of GPs, we need to look at hidden problems that have led to this feeling of being under siege.

I have just retired as a GP appraiser. My conversations with GPs have revealed how many of the aspects of the 2003 GP contract have put pressure on the system.

First, there has been a significant change in what is now deemed to be a “full-time” GP. Peruse the advertisements in the British Medical Journal and you will find that nearly all practice vacancies define a full-time commitment as eight sessions (four-hour time blocks) a week.

Secondly, many GPs spend at least one of these sessions glued to a computer screen. GPs are also being increasingly sucked into managing the NHS, commissioning group meetings, referral reviews and prescribing meetings.

Thirdly, this generation of GPs-in-training is increasingly looking for “portfolio careers”, and intends to spend only part of its time in practice. A recent report from Health Care Information Systems confirms an increasing part-time work force.

As well as removing the obligation to provide out-of-hours cover, the 2003 contract also removed a requirement for GPs to provide a minimum number of hours a week in face-to-face contact with patients. Before we rush to clamour for more money, there needs to be a radical review of the whole organisation and management of general practice.

Perhaps the model of the independent contractor is now not fit for purpose.

Dr Robert Walker
Great Clifton, Cumberland

SIR – Prof Clare Gerada, former chairman of the Royal College of GPs, neglects to point out that part-time doctors are more expensive to train. Part-time work may be the prerogative of all people but, at the moment, patients cannot access their surgery easily and, in many cases, have to wait days for an appointment.

In the “good old days”, same-day appointments were possible even when GPs were working alone. I realise that times have changed and that medicine is now more technical, but it is a shame to move away from that ideal.

Raith Smith
Sherborne St John, Hampshire

Irish Times:

Sir, – Brendan Cafferty (Letters, March 27th) purports to speak with authority in relation to the current situation regarding Garda resources and personnel numbers. He argues that in his day (the 1970s, it seems) there was only one car per district, similar numbers of serving members, and fewer women who could take maternity leave. Is this for real? He only stopped short of saying he had to walk around in his bare feet and carry a lump of coal for the station fire.

A look at population statistics would have shown him that there are well over a million more people in the county than there were in 1979, requiring a proportionate increase in garda numbers. Cars are vastly more prevalent, requiring more Garda cars to respond to the very mobile modern criminal. This is also part of the reason for specialist units. Gone are the days when drugs were to be found only in Dublin, there were only a handful of largely domestic murders per year to investigate and computer crime etc wasn’t even a consideration.

With regard to his attitude to female gardaí and career breaks it is clear that he sees both as an unnecessary luxury, which is baffling in a time of supposed understanding of family and personal needs. He also suggests that it’s a problem that gardaí don’t live in their areas of work anymore. Did he consider that the reason for this might be because most could not afford to buy in these areas? They didn’t buy houses miles from their workplace because they enjoy driving huge distances daily to work.

The gardaí of the 1970s did great service fighting threats to the State, but I think nostalgia may have clouded Mr Cafferty’s capacity for rational thought. The modern garda has just as much reason – and more – to be fearful when he goes to work given the proliferation of drug-related gun crime and violence. Perhaps Mr Cafferty should spend less time dancing at the crossroads and more time reading crime and demographic statistics. Yours, etc,

KEVIN FLYNN,

Temple Court,

Santry,

Dublin 9

Sir, – I am very much amused by the many people who deny knowledge of phone tapping in Garda stations. If you consider the practicalities of the initiative, someone had to assess the various bugging products available, choose one, buy it, install it, run it and then change the tapes almost daily back in the 1980s when cassette tapes were used. As technology changed, newer equipment had to be bought, invoices approved, rubber-stamped by officials and paid out. Over the decades there must have been hundreds of gardaí involved all around the country running the system. It is not remotely conceivable that at least some gardaí at every rank in every station did not know exactly what was happening. Yours, etc,

JOE BERGIN,

Caragh Green,

Naas,

Co Kildare

Sir, – Given that the taping of Garda phones started in Border-area stations in the 1980s in order to combat IRA threats (Arthur Beesley, March 27th), could these tapes be examined for Dundalk station for the days around the murder of the two RUC officers to check for Garda informants’ calls? Some good could possibly result from this sorry situation. Yours, etc,

JOHN McDERMOTT,

Oakglen View,

Bray,

Co Wicklow

Sir, – One of the assumptions surrounding the penalty points controversy seems to be that gardaí can lawfully exercise discretion to cancel penalty points at different levels of the force. But a review of case law and the Constitution suggests this could be queried. In the case of the issuance of gun licences the courts held that a higher-ranked garda could not interfere (by imposing an additional condition) in the statutorily appointed garda’s exercise of discretion. This suggests that only the original issuing garda (in the case of a fixed penalty notice) possesses discretion, after which only the courts should set aside notices. The “courts only” system seems to work in Britain without any of the purported problems that some claim are inevitable. Yours, etc,

KIERAN FITZPATRICK,

Cummer,

Co Galway

Sir, – The current Dáil inter-party bluster and fury on matters relating to Garda whistleblower/penalty point issues is about as relevant to the general public as a dispute in a local golf club. Its very irrelevance, however, makes it an ideal subject for debate in the Seanad. Yours, etc,

MICK O’BRIEN,

Springmount,

Kilkenny

Sir, – Minister Brendan Howlin’s statement to the effect that “Alan Shatter has the full confidence of every member of the Government” is very worrying indeed. Only a matter of a few days ago how many members of that same Government, including the Taoiseach. were expressing their confidence in the Garda commissioner?

Enough said. Yours, etc,

GEARÓID KILGALLEN,

Crosthwaite Park South,

Dún Laoghaire

Sir, – Question: When is an apology not an apology? Answer: “I believe it is appropriate that I apologise to both (the House and the whistleblowers).” Question: When is an apology an apology? Answer: I apologise to Sgt Maurice McCabe and former garda Wilson. I apologise to members of this House. Yours, etc,

JOHN McHUGH,

Smithfield Market,

Dublin 7

Sir, – The recent debacle concerning the Garda and Minister Alan Shatter could well be summed by quoting Samuel Johnson, who observed that “the Irish are a very fair-minded people; they never speak well of one another.” Yours, etc,

DEREK HENRY CARR,

Harcourt Terrace,

Dublin 2

Sir, – “He’s never been afraid to deal with what’s been lying under a lot of carpets for many years” (the Taoiseach to Deputy Donnelly). Has Bertie been coaching Enda? Yours, etc,

NIALL GINTY,

The Demesne,

Killester,

Dublin 5

Sir, – Reports of a possible name change at Trinity College Dublin are alarming, and reminiscent of the absurd and half-baked recent attempts at similar rebranding at University College Dublin. Rebranding shouldn’t add to the list of confusing Irish university names (University College Dublin, Dublin anyone?), but should simplify them.

While the UCD moniker is forever destined for confusion internationally, and should long since have become a unique and simple “Joyce University”, the powers that be at TCD can surely figure out a way to distill the name to a simple “Trinity”. And if such purity cannot be achieved, a plain old “Hamilton” would do. Yours, etc,

STUART JACKSON,

Center for Neural Science,

New York University,

Washington Place,

New York

A Chara, — Why should Ireland have “much to fear” (Editorial, March 26th) from the OECD’s laudable proposals to introduce more equitable corporate taxation on a global scale?

Given that the organisation’s aim is to thwart the spurious (that is, borderline-legal) tax avoidance tactics of multinational companies, how can any country fear the call for corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, which in any case serve to secure the conditions of the possibility of engaging in economic action in the first place?

The worldwide sovereign debt crisis had many and varied roots, but not the least was the fact that corporations’ contributions to tax revenue have fallen dramatically in absolute and relative terms over the last three decades.

Ireland’s ranking as the second-highest exporter of information and communications technology is an unashamed deception, perpetrated by its corporate tax legislation. The Government is evidently living a lie in the hope of winning the favour of tax-dodging multinationals through its parasitic trickery, doing so at the expense of the public coffers of fellow EU member-states as well as of US, Australian, and other market economies. Ireland, that is, is effectively hindering jurisdictions across the world from earning tax revenue, revenue which is absolutely essential to them if they wish to operate as stable democratic nation-states and efficient open market economies.

Thanks to the sly trick of tax-dumping, Ireland is cooking the books; but it is not pulling the wool over its citizens’ eyes, those who are bearing the burden of dysfunctional tax structures and misguided austerity policies.

Earning a pittance (with dubious job creation benefits) at the expense of the world’s economies and remaining nonetheless in a condition of economic subservience and thus underdevelopment will not secure sustainable growth.

Is mise,

JOHN FARRELL,

Im Nardholz,

Frankfurt,

Germany

Sir, – I am writing in response to the article by Frank McDonald (March 24th) concerning the proposed Central Access Scheme for Kilkenny City. At a time when virtually every city in Europe is devising schemes to remove traffic from city centres through enhanced public transport, Kilkenny is proposing to bring more traffic through its medieval centre. Cities in France and Germany have implemented imaginative, sustainable city centre road schemes which satisfied pedestrians, motorists and traders in an environmentally friendly way. In contrast Kilkenny is proposing to follow the destructive approach of the Celtic Tiger era when development proceeded without consideration for people or the environment.

The construction of a grotesquely ugly bridge to facilitate the Central Access Scheme will create an appalling vista which will alter the essential character of Kilkenny forever and split its medieval core in two. The additional traffic flow will make the city unattractive for living or leisure.

The protest in the city last Saturday demonstrated the high level of opposition to the scheme and how out of touch the local councillors are with the people they claim to represent.

Yours, etc.

MARY RICE,

Michael Street,

Kilkenny

Sir, – Paul Kelly (March 27th) wonders whether women’s political interests differ from those of men. The world of paid employment has been designed by men for men. It is based on the assumption that someone else will take on the role of unpaid carer for paid workers, children and the infirm. Indeed, the entire economic model of this country is built on this same assumption.

In the main, women are prevented from playing a full part in this world of paid employment because of their care duties. So, yes, women in general have a different set of interests from men. Further, in countries where women have a real ability to influence the legislative process it is clear that legislative priorities have changed to reflect their concerns. This has only happened when a critical mass of women public representatives has been achieved through the use of gender quotas. Yours, etc,

MARIA WALSH,

St Aidan’s Drive,

Goatstown,

Dublin 14

Sir, – David Beatty (Letters, March 26th) mentions “oppressive gender roles” as one reason why women seem to avoid politics. Frankly this is a cliche. One reason many people, men as well as women, avoid politics is because of the unsocial hours and weekend working that it entails and the apparent lack of a private life. Parliaments everywhere sit into the night when legislation is being debated or when urgent issues require debate. Quotas alone are not likely to ensure that otherwise suitable persons, unhappy with these demands, may be induced to stand. One problem with quotas indeed is that they tend to generate demands for more. A good example of this was the call made a few weeks ago by the National Women’s Council for a 40 per cent representation for women at Cabinet. No mention of merit or experience. This arrogant demand apparently went unremarked by journalists. Yours, etc,

DAVID WALSH,

Rockfield,

Maynooth,

Co Kildare

Sir , – A language lives by being spoken. There was a time when Latin was a common school and university subject. In its study, grammar and literature were emphasised, but at the end of the process few, if indeed any, could communicate in a functional way in the language. Too much of this method was transferred to the learning of Irish, and it produced similar results.

In my mid-50s,while working in Vienna, I attended German language courses for a mere two hours a week over a four-year period. German literature was not touched on and from the start, with students of various linguistic backgrounds, German was the only language spoken in class. Tests included comprehension questions on oral recorded passages, usually spoken in strong local accents. At the end of this short period of study I was functional in communicating in normal situations such as shopping, in restaurants, and staying in B&Bs throughout Austria and Germany where, in many cases, the owners spoke no English.

Incidentally I was also able to read with pleasure several German novels and English-language novels in translation. Illiterates can and have throughout the centuries kept languages alive. Study of literature is important but if we are to use Irish as a spoken language the ability to communicate comfortably has to take precedence. Yours, etc,

ALBERT COLLINS,

Bishopscourt Road,

Cork

A Chara, – While it is apparent that there are diverse opinions on the Irish language, it is clear that Irish-speakers are demanding parity of esteem, and what is wrong with that? What is striking is the negative attitude of some letter-writers towards the language. Daniel Stanford (March 27th) proclaims to all and sundry that he could not read a letter by another reader because “it was in Irish” and that if this practice became widespread he would have to stop reading The Irish Times .

Why would someone bother to take the time to write to a newspaper to announce his ignorance of another language? It would also seem unlikely that The Irish Times has any plans to launch as an Irish language newspaper. I think Mr Stanford and any other anxious readers can rest assured that their preferred monolingual world of journalism is unlikely to be disturbed. Is mise le meas,

ROB MAC GIOLLARNÁTH,

Simonsridge,

Sandyford,

Dublin 18

Sir, – I laughed heartily reading Michael Harding’s description of the conversation that took place in a car as a couple in their 60s gave him a lift to the train ( March 25th). The man is a tonic to read and makes a Tuesday copy of The Irish Times a must. Yours, etc,

GERALDINE COBURN,

Parkmore Drive,

Terenure,

Dublin 6W

Sir, — Could Vladimir Putin’s arrogance in the face of accusations by Western powers of illegal annexation of territory and flagrant violations of international law be at least partially explained by the absolute impunity with which Israel has been treated by said Western powers in the light of its contempt for international law? Yours, etc,

HASSAN OULD MOCTAR,

Hortland,

Donadea,

Naas,

Co Kildare

Sir, — Christopher Sands (Letters, March 27th) provides some interesting additional information about the late Michael Talbot’s design of the Cork Dry Gin square bottle. Doesn’t it just prove the old adage about squaring the circle? Even Myles na Gopaleen would have known that the sticking-out corners of the square bottle would contain that extra measure or half glass of gin. Or perhaps it had to do with the dispersal of the alcohol molecules round the glass. Perhaps Science Editor Dick Ahlstrom might care to comment? — Yours, etc,

PATRICK JUDGE,

Rochestown Avenue,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin

Sir, – Jason Clarke’s photograph of the four ladies chatting happily above the heading “A welcome change – bathers enjoy new unisex shelter in Sandycove” (March 27th) helped brighten up a grey day. But where were the male bathers? Being party-poopers round the corner at the Forty Foot? Plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose (The more things change, the more they remain the same.) Yours, etc,

MICHAEL CULLEN,

Albert Park,

Sandycove,

Co Dublin

Irish Independent:

Published 28 March 2014 02:30 AM

* Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was the wrong man to resign this week; it should have been Justice Minister Alan Shatter.

Also in this section

Perfect opportunity for real garda reform

Shatter has decimated An Garda Siochana

Different faces of the Catholic Church

Mr Callinan, as commissioner of An Garda Siochana, was a decent public servant who came down hard on dissident (self-described) republicans and organised criminals.

Mr Callinan, throughout the current controversy, stuck by a principle and was made a fall guy for Mr Shatter as a result.

Mr Callinan, as commissioner, was well-respected by rank-and-file gardai. It is a great shame that Irish law enforcement has lost a good man this week in the form of the former commissioner.

For justice (for all concerned) to be done, Mr Shatter, of whom there are now serious questions as to his competency in overseeing the administration of justice in Ireland, must be made to resign.

JOHN B REID

MONKSTOWN, CO DUBLIN

THE PRICE OF DEMOCRACY

* It has taken three years for some to realise this “controlled and cohesive Government” is anything but.

A debt of gratitude is owed to Transport Minister Leo Varadkar for his timely, very important public outrage about the arrogant manner of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan.

An insult not alone to the whistleblowers, but the Public Accounts Committee and, by extension, the citizens.

What I find disgusting is the absolute, ridiculous subservience by Fine Gael TDs to their colleague, Justice Minister Alan Shatter, because of his ability to write and introduce bills.

Each and every TD is a representative of the people in the Dail, therefore each one of them has the right to introduce a bill to the House. That some have not the ability is of no consequence in a democratic Republic, whereas subservience to “eminent people” is fraught with danger for any democracy as we have witnessed.

Mr Shatter would do well to employ a ministerial adviser akin to the slaves Roman senators had, to tell him throughout each day, “Remember man you are mortal”. I fear this would go over the heads of some of his cabinet colleagues.

If Taoiseach Enda Kenny had nous, he would be chastened by these events and bring the major changes he promised prior to the election to fruition.

Alas, winning seats for Fine Gael at the forthcoming local and EU elections takes priority over the goodwill of the citizens of Ireland.

DECLAN FOLEY

BERWICK, AUSTRALIA

CLEAN AS A WHISTLE

* I wish to nominate Maurice McCabe for the vacant post of Garda Commissioner and John Wilson for Deputy Commissioner.

If courage, integrity, endurance in the face of adversity and competence are requirements for the job, there are not two finer candidates.

DR MARK HARROLD

MALAHIDE, CO DUBLIN

FOOD WAR IS HEATING UP

* May I refer to Eilish O’Regan’s article “Study links birth defects to austerity” (Irish Independent, March 19). May I suggest that austerity is only part of the problem.

Today, home cooking of fresh food is being replaced by quick foods, processed foods and pre-cooked meals.

Most processed foods are super-heated to kill off all bacteria (a must) but in doing so it kills the natural vitamins, enzymes and renders amino acids unavailable to the body.

The result? – an unbalanced diet creating the natural bodily reaction to eat more (looking for missing nutrients).

This only increases the carbohydrates and mineral intake (what is left after over-heating) leading to deficiencies and obesity.

The lack of folic acid (the brain food) is the result of not eating fresh vegetables, whole grain, lentils, meat, milk and cheese that has not been over-heated.

Folic acid is most important in regulating embryonic and foetal nerve-cell formation for normal development and in hardening of the arteries. It should be taken before conception and is more efficient with vitamins B12 and C.

If we as a nation wish to improve our heath, we must revert to consuming fresh, basic foods that are home-cooked.

This should be encouraged by the HSE, Government and supermarkets. After all, Ireland produces the best food in the world and we should live on it.

DAVID THOMPSON

CASTLEGARDE, CAPPAMORE, CO LIMERICK

GIVE THE GIFT OF LIFE

* I just finished reading about Deirdre Roche Doherty’s story (Irish Independent, March 27). An amazing young woman, who, against all odds, is alive and living a normal life, as normal can be, after what she has been through.

A victim of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and a triple transplant recipient (heart, lung and kidney), she became the first ever woman who has undergone a triple transplant to have a child, let alone two.

I think the least we can do, in her honour, is sign an Organ Donor Card as soon as possible so more people like Deirdre can live.

You can actually help someone, you may never meet, with the ultimate act of kindness. Just imagine that after you’re gone, your donated organs will help keep others alive. It is at no cost to you and you can save a life or two. It’s a real no-brainer.

KEVIN DEVITTE

WESTPORT, CO MAYO

STORY DOESN’T HAVE LEGS

* Writing in this newspaper yesterday, Paul McNeive criticised An Taisce for seeking greater levels of public transport, cycling and walking in commuting to work at the former Dell plant in Limerick.

The plant is due to be refurbished and enhanced by Regeneron, a US bio-pharmaceutical company.

After Regeneron applied for planning permission, An Taisce wrote to Limerick County Council asking the council to request Regeneron to develop a mobility plan to guide the company, over time, to achieve higher levels of public transport, walking and cycling for travel to work.

The benefits of having such a plan include reduced congestion, better air quality, improved employee health and, as recent studies have shown, improved employee well-being and retention.

However, Limerick County Council granted planning permission without requesting any definite plan to boost public transport, cycling and walking.

To say this jars with Limerick as Ireland’s Smarter Travel Demonstration city is an understatement. Limerick has been granted €9.3m of public funds to increase public transport, cycling and walking.

An Taisce then appealed the transport condition of the permission to An Bord Pleanala. Only the transport condition was appealed, something very clear from the document itself.

Regrettably, a local election candidate issued a press release that neglected to make this clear, and a small number of news outlets covered the release without checking the story – or without making any contact with An Taisce for balance and fairness.

Mr McNeive was unfortunately wrong-footed by the misreporting described above.

Also, the story has moved on. An Taisce and Regeneron have since worked together on a revised mobility plan and the appeal on the transport condition is no longer before An Bord Pleanala. Regeneron and An Taisce followed this up with a joint press release.

JAMES NIX

POLICY DIRECTOR, AN TAISCE


Viewing all 594 articles
Browse latest View live