13 May2014 Clinic

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate A trip to the USA to sell Black Puddings Priceless

Off to the clinic Peter Rice, Mr Kel, Sharland, busy day

Scrabbletoday, Mary wins just by five pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

I was happily reading the Guardian on a train journey from Durham to Birmingham on Saturday till I got to your five-page article on the north-east of England (Tory cuts have left the north-east teetering on the brink. Can it avoid becoming Britain’s Detroit?, Weekend, 10 May). This article left me heartbroken that the beautiful, proud and dynamic area I live in could be represented in such an unfair manner. I fail to see how the photographs depicted of run-down shops and graffiti in any way reflect the true north-east.

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed’s sarcasm is misplaced when he puts the medical use of leeches in the same category as the fringe treatment homeopathy (Hunt asked chief medical officer to set up homeopathy reviews, 9 May). Leeches are still used in modern medicine, with undoubted value in plastic and reconstructive surgery. They secrete a natural anticoagulant that prevents blood clots and restores blood flow to areas of inflammation. They cost about £6 each.
Karl Sabbagh
Co-author, Magic or Medicine?

The report on asthma treatment (One in four killed by asthma had inadequate care, say GPs, 6 May) mentions that some patients had not collected their prescriptions, but not a possible cause of this – prescription charges, currently £8.05 per item. Asthma is not one of the limited number of chronic conditions that are exempt from charges, and though some people on benefits and very low incomes may get free prescriptions, there is no help available for most people of working age. Prescription charges need to be looked at again, taking account of long-term conditions and treatments: no mental health conditions, for example, are exempt, and many people who may not want to take prescribed medication are further deterred by the cost. It is about 50 years since the system was last looked at, and since then the only change in England has been the annual price rise. The comprehensive GP report just published could help consideration of the costs and benefits of free prescriptions for all chronic conditions.
Marian Nyman
Whitstable, Kent

Independent:

Times:

Sir, It comes as no surprise that researchers now say that the average pensioner will end up spending £140,000 of their personal savings on a care home, well above the proposed cap of £72,000 (report, May 12).

Although the government cap seems to indicate that there is a political will to change a system that is currently incredibly complicated, if anything, the new proposals seem to recommend a system that will be even more incomprehensible. Relatives wishing to investigate the costs of a care home for a loved one will need expert guidance to explain how the funding will work.

The so-called cap is misleading on two levels. The higher costs result from the fact that the limit introduced by the government only applies to care costs set by the local council, and does not take into consideration the hidden “hotel costs” for bed and board — which are as much as £15,000 a year. In addition, there is a limit to how much you can count towards the cap each week, which is dictated by the rate the local authority would pay towards care.

For example, a care home costing £900 a week may be supported by the local authority by up to £500 a week per person. The cap would only apply to that rate set by the local authority, meaning that each resident would either need to pay the difference themselves or wait considerably longer to reach the “cap”.

Older people already have to go to extraordinary lengths to meet the financial burden of paying for their future care, and the current proposed gap is not only confusing but also only benefits a minority in practice. I find it hard to understand how the measures go far enough in alleviating the financial impact that the reforms will have on older people who have worked hard all their lives to ensure they are looked after when they may need care.

Leon Smith

Executive vice-president, Nightingale Hammerson, London SW12

Sir, Mary Conway (“Carpe diem”, letter, May 12) is understandably upset that this “grasping” government expects her father to pay for his care when admitted to a home; thus depriving her and her children of their anticipated windfall — for which they themselves have not worked.

The alternative is for this “grasping” government to add this cost to the tax bill of those who are working. Someone has to pay. Who?

AA Gibberd

Basingstoke, Hants

Sir, Mary Conway asks “what sort of nation are we to become if we’re too frightened to work hard and save, because the grasping government will snatch it back?”Perhaps a better question would be “what sort of person expects the rest of us to pick up the bill for their care so that they can blow their savings on jolly nice cars and expensive holidays?”

Andy Charlwood

Leeds

Sir, Mary Conway’s father had better eat, drink and be merry in haste before HMRC empties her father’s bank account to defeat his aggressive tax avoidance.

Richard Tweed

Croydon

Telegraph:

SIR – The proposal to allow HM Revenue and Customs to raid someone’s bank account without a court order in the belief that the individual or company has evaded taxation, is against the very principles of the rule of law that originated in this country.

Irish Times:

Sir, – I concur with Prof Diarmaid Ferriter’s view regarding the apparent unease of Government at commemorating our revolutionary past (“Ordinary lives best define our revolutionary decade”, Opinion & Analysis, May 9th).

I believe the Government decision to invite British royalty to the centenary commemoration of the 1916 Rising is a deliberate attempt to use the glamour and cult of celebrity monarchy to distract public attention away from the ideology and ideals of the women and men of 1916. Instead of a sovereign people, we have sovereign debt. Instead of a spiritual nation, we have a spiritual wasteland. Instead of talking about an agenda of sovereignty, equality and decolonisation, we will be talking about who shook whose hand and what people were wearing.

The current political elite wants to avoid comparisons between its shabby and bankrupt political ideology and the ideals of the leaders of 1916.

What has Enda Kenny in common with Patrick Pearse other than they were both school teachers and both owned houses in Mayo? How does Eamonn Gilmore’s ideology measure up to that of James Connolly?

Our current political leaders don’t want comparisons drawn between themselves and the 1916 leaders, they don’t want to talk about their ideology and beliefs and they don’t want to talk about why the noble objectives of the Proclamation have not been attained in 100 years of independence. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeville Road,

Templeogue,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – In debating the pros and cons of a royal presence at the commemoration of the Easter Rising in 2016, don’t we need to consider extending an invitation to a representative of the House of Hohenzollern in view of the reference in the 1916 Proclamation to “our gallant allies in Europe”? – Yours, etc,

FELIX M LARKIN,

Vale View Lawn,

Cabinteely,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – Diarmuid Ferriter’s opinion piece of May 9th was a welcome relief from the latest attempt to rewrite history.

Whatever our present relationship with England, the fact is that we had hundreds of years of wars and oppression by a foreign power. Thankfully, the Rising of 1916 proved a successful forerunner to the fight for the return of Irish autonomy.

It is inconceivable to me that we should commemorate this Rising and the subsequent deaths that resulted from it and the conflicts that followed as if rule by the British Empire had been a benign agreement between two nations.

Given this, it is no surprise that the downgrading of history in schools should now be on the cards. – Yours, etc,

MARY KAY SIMMONS,

Crumlin Road,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – We seem to be acting out a strange echo of life in Ireland 100 years ago. We have had the royal visit, and a mild reawakening of pro-British sentiment. We have an understanding and empathy for those who decided then to rush to the British army recruiting stations. Constitutional nationalism dominates the political agenda, but is showing signs of ideological exhaustion. A Sinn Fein-led opposition is growing in strength. – Yours, etc,

MIKE SCOTT,

Foster Place,

North Ballybough,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – Dominic Carroll (May 10th) wonders “what possessed” the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) to issue a statement regretting the resignation of the former minister for justice.

The ICCL’s statement, available on its website, regrets that it became “necessary” for the former minister to resign, clearly acknowledging the necessity of his resignation. Nonetheless, the council frankly acknowledges Mr Shatter’s significant legislative legacy, especially in the area of equality law reform. Mr Carroll may have noticed that a similar degree of magnanimity has characterised the responses to Alan Shatter’s resignation by Mick Wallace TD and Garda whistleblower John Wilson.

From the outset of the current spate of Garda-related controversies, the ICCL has called for those responsible to be held to account. It will continue to do so, but by playing the ball, not the woman or the man. – Yours, etc,

MARK KELLY,

Director,

Irish Council

for Civil Liberties,

Blackhall Place,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – Readers should appreciate one aspect of Alan Shatter’s legacy – as minister for justice he ordered a review of the trial and death by hanging of Harry Gleeson for the murder of Mary McCarthy in November 1940. Harry Gleeson’s conviction has remained controversial for decades – many individuals and organisations have consistently proclaimed his innocence – and it was only because Mr Shatter reviewed the brief presented by the Innocence Project that new hope exists for a posthumous pardon for Mr Gleeson. Credit where it is due. – Yours, etc,

CAITRIONA LAWLOR,

Redesdale Road,

Mount Merrion,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – With the resignation of Alan Shatter, the Irish people have lost the one minister for justice with the intelligence and strength of will to fix the systemic problem. Instead, the lack of accountability will probably persist under a friendlier face. – Is mise,

MARTIN G PADGETT,

Charles Street East,

Toronto,

Canada.

Sir, – I read with interest the report that the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has recently entered “talks about talks” with the Government over the proposed contract to introduce free GP care for children under six (“More talks on free GP care to take place,” Home News, May 10th).

It is truly incredible that any organisation representing doctors would even consider discussing a document that contains a “gagging clause” preventing its own members from criticising the HSE. I find it appalling to think that my constitutional right to free expression could somehow be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations between a union and the State.

Furthermore, it is my view that the IMO currently has little credibility with many members of the medical profession. This is as a result of the astonishing pension arrangements afforded to a former chief executive of that organisation and the ongoing failure to hold a promised independent inquiry into these matters.

Regrettably, in recent years the IMO also failed to support reforms that gave young, fully qualified GPs the same entitlement to treat medical card holders as their established peers.

Finally, it should be pointed out that an alternative representative organisation, the National Association of General Practitioners , has been deliberately excluded from any talks process, despite having over 1,000 GP members and no history of multimillion euro pension arrangements for its staff. Neither the Government nor the IMO appear concerned by this. I wonder why? – Yours, etc,

Dr RUAIRI HANLEY,

Bush Road,

Gibbstown,

Navan, Co Meath.

Sir, – Debra James (May 12th) informs us that one night spent in the hotel at London’s Shard building (£14,000) is the equivalent to the amount of money that half of the world’s population live on for 26 years .

I am not sure what conclusion we are expected to draw from these facts.

I am reminded somewhat of the loathing that existed for the owners of big houses who nevertheless provided employment the length and breadth of the country.

When they were successfully expelled, the call went out for factories to be provided for the unemployed in the distressed areas.

Such factories, had they been built to any extent, would probably have offered conditions that were worse than those in the big houses. Of course, the Irish solution to the problem was emigration.

A night at the Shard results in money trickling down to caterers, cleaning staff, manufacturers, food suppliers, etc, and helps to create employment in all these sectors.

On the basis that a fool and his money are soon parted, I can only encourage more visitors to avail of these bargain Shard rates whilst they are still available. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,

Ballyraine Park

Letterkenny

Co Donegal.

Sir, – Paul Cullen rightly highlights concerns at the prescription charge of €2.50 for medical card holders (“GPs call for review of prescription charges”, Home News, May 6th).

However the charge for those of us who pay €144 per month under the drugs payment scheme should also be highlighted.

Currently one of the major pharmacy chains charges us a fee of €7 per item of prescription per month and another charges €5 per item.

Both say they cannot supply more than one month’s prescription at a time, thereby preventing customers from saving on the monthly prescription fee.

The lesson for all customers is to ask for details of the underlying charge per item, both product and prescription fee, even though the total is capped at €144 per month.

By doing so, customers may be able to reduce the cost of their drugs to less than €144 per month, especially if they switch to doctor-approved generics. – Yours, etc,

DAVID McCABE,

Waltham Terrace,

Blackrock,

Sir, – Paddy Cosgrave, founder of the Dublin Web Summit, only wants to hire top honours graduates to fill upcoming positions (“Tech entrepreneur hits a nerve”, Education, May 9th). He is overlooking a big opportunity. The founders of the top three technology firms in the world all have one thing in common. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Jobs all dropped out of college to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. A more inclusive hiring process might capture more potential greats. – Yours, etc,

EDEL FOLEY,

School of Marketing,

Faculty of Business,

Dublin Institute

of Technology,

Aungier Street,

Sir, – John Lee (May 10th) equates the reduction in numbers of smaller birds, or songbirds, to the increase in magpie numbers. If only the loss of so many songbirds could be so easily explained. Many long-term studies have proven that magpie numbers do not have a detrimental effect on songbird numbers. Indeed there is evidence to the contrary.

Because the predation by magpies at this stage of the breeding season is so easily observed, it is often misconstrued by the casual observer as being overly destructive when it is merely the normal cut-and-thrust of nature.

Rather than call for the reduction of magpie numbers, we would be better employed in looking at the real causes of a decline in songbirds and in particular the high mortality rate among newly fledged birds. Then we might do something about the loss of habitat, the use of pesticides, the free roaming of cats, the overuse of slug pellets and all the other factors that actually have an impact. – Yours, etc,

PAT MULLEN,

Kilkerley,

Dundalk,

Co Louth.

Sir, – I agree that it is distressing to see and hear magpies attack nesting birds and their eggs and chicks but they are not the cause of the apparent decline in songbirds in our cities. What makes life more difficult for small birds is having nowhere to build nests safely.

Our suburban gardens are getting smaller and tidier, with fewer shrubs, trees or damaged roofs for small birds to nest safely in. On top of this, birds have fewer places to forage for food in the nesting season as we increasingly keep our gardens plant-free.

As if this were not bad enough, cats probably kill more small birds than magpies and they seem to be increasing in number, while magpie numbers have been steady for about 20 or 30 years. If you want to help birds, here are some tips: put a bell on your cat and keep it in at night; provide nest boxes and maintain or plant hedges and shrubs. Further excellent information is also available on the advice section of the Birdwatch Ireland website. – Yours, etc,

DES HIGGINS,

Castle Park,

Monkstown,

Dublin.

Sir, – What is it with the spate of former government ministers coming out of the woodwork in an attempt to revise history?

Eamon Ryan (May 10th) did not favour privatisation of State assets, even though he signed up to the troika “review” of those assets, and Michael McDowell (May 7th) was not in favour of “light-touch regulation”, even though this was a central tenet of his former party’s philosophy.

Is it any wonder people are so cynical when it comes to politics? – Yours, etc,

ALAN KEEGAN,

Howth Road,

Raheny,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – I am beginning to wonder if Danske Bank really wants to leave the personal banking market in Ireland.

After 20 years of banking with Danske, my husband and I are in the switching process but Danske will just not let go. In the process (over three months now) we have had utility bills misdirected, life assurance suspended and multiple mortgages payments deducted from our account. I think this administrative blundering is really just a delaying tactic.

I have heard of the long goodbye but this is ridiculous. – Yours, etc,

CLARE POLLARD,

Carrigeenlea,

Cliff Road,

Tramore,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – James O’Keeffe (May 10th) suggests slugs are deterred by eggshells and coffee grounds. Do slugs instinctively understand coffee is a stimulant, which would result in them being less sluggish? – Yours, etc,

PAUL GALLAGHER,

Roebuck Castle,

Clonskeagh,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – There are more humane ways of getting rid of slugs and snails other than killing them. You can always try to reason with them or send them a solicitor’s letter, but if that does not work you may well have to line your allotment with election posters. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Monalea Park,

Firhouse, Dublin 24.

Sir, – Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher is far too hard on himself in defending his €843,000 salary (“Bank of Ireland chief defends hard line on debt forgiveness”, Front Page, May 9th). “There will be some people . . . who if I got paid sixpence would say it’s too much”, he says. I should think that many people would be of the view that sixpence is just about right. – Yours, etc,

JAMES

CONNOLLY HERON,

Oxford Road,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – Further to Mary Mulvihill’s article on William Rowan Hamilton (“Where’s the bridge for our greatest scientists?”, (Science, May 8th), in which she writes that there is not a building named after the great man, in fact there is one – a splendid sheltered housing complex in Cabra, in which I have lived for the past nine years. Not a bad memorial, I think. – Yours, etc,

TERENCE ORR,

Rowan Hamilton Court,

Dunmanus Road,

Cabra,

Dublin 7.

Irish Independent:

Let’s give humanity a chance – divinity can look after itself

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Published 13 May 2014 02:30 AM

In response to a spate of recent over-confident letters, I should like to suggest that we cannot prove the existence of a God; we can give reasons why our convictions take us in one direction or the other.

Also in this section

Let’s hope moral ground in Garda Siochana rediscovered

Letters to the Editor

Let’s make sure we know how to vote, not just for whom

Those who appeal to the methods of science have got their science badly wrong. Other than in mathematics, we do not talk about proof but of varying levels of probability.

The notion that nothing can be said to be true unless it can be verified in experience now resides in the museum of bad ideas, as such an assertion is self-defeating. The belief that only what is verifiable in experience can be claimed to be true is not itself amenable to such verification.

Our rational lives are constituted by the exchange of ideas where we are ready to give reasons, not proofs, for what we hold to be the case. On the basis of the same considerations, some will take a deistic position, others an atheistic or agnostic one.

For years, the archpriest of the defence of atheism was Professor Anthony Flew. He is unique in also being the writer of a wholehearted defence of theism in his more recent change of mind.

We find straw arguments coming from all directions. Who needs persuading that a God who stands by and watches a child murdered or who sends offenders to a torture chamber for eternity is a monster?

In the midst of my doubts, what has never left me is the reality of a good man, Christ, who walked this Earth and revealed not what it was like to be divine but what it was like to be human.

The challenging simplicity of his life has so often been lost in a haze of convoluted discussions about whether he was God, man or both.

Let’s give humanity a chance; divinity will look after itself.

Our humanity is not constituted by being on our knees relating to God but by being on our feet relating to one another.
PHILIP O’NEILL, EDITH ROAD, OXFORD

Higher casualties than 820

I was most interested to read Part One of ‘Ireland at War’ (Irish Independent, May 10). Diarmaid Ferriter is certainly correct when he states that the reasons why Irishmen enlisted in the British armed forces during the World War I are multi-faceted.

He is also correct that there would possibly not have been any 1916 rebellion except for the war. However, I would contend that it was the 1916 rebellion that made partition more likely and actually copperfastened it.

I would take issue with the number of casualties given for Limerick as being 820. The reason for this is that the war memorial erected in Pery Square, Limerick City, on November 10, 1929, and blown up during the month of August 1957, had as part of its inscription, ‘To the Glory of God and to the 3,000 Officers, NCOs and Men from Limerick City and County who died in the Great War 1914-18′.

There is also another version to that enunciated by Ronan Abayawickrema regarding the conscription issue. Most assuredly the British authorities had placed conscription on the Military Service Act 1918 for Ireland, this, it could be argued, was done to assuage British public opinion.

Irishmen, after all, had taken the jobs vacated by British workers who were fighting in the war, and this incensed them. There was, therefore, no attempt to introduce conscription in Ireland in April 1918.

There is also the fact that an order would have had to be issued by the government to implement this clause. This would have had to wait for a resumption of Parliament after the summer recess and, by the time this happened, peace feelers were being made that would lead to the Armistice of November 11, 1918.
DR TADHG MOLONEY, GOULDAVOHER, LIMERICK

No ambassador for 17 months

What has Ireland done to offend the sensitivities of US diplomacy? It is 17 months since the last US ambassador to Ireland left office and a successor has not even been nominated at this stage. Ireland ranks alongside Bolivia, Venezuela, Sudan, Syria and Eritrea in the length of time it is taking US President Barack Obama to nominate his ambassador, despite the President’s proclamation on St Patrick’s Day that, “there is a little bit of green behind the red, white and blue”.

One of the functions of an ambassador is to foster trade. It is noteworthy that during the past 17 months, imports of American goods into Ireland have fallen by 25pc.

Perhaps the strategic interest of the US in Ireland does not really extend beyond the convenience of the facilities at Shannon Airport and the warmth of our gracious hospitality.

But how can much-vaunted high-level official visits from Ireland to the United States deliver a desired outcome, or even credible progress, if the mere appointment of an ambassador to Ireland proves to be such an intractable quagmire for the Obama administration?
MYLES DUFFY, GLENAGEARY, CO DUBLIN

Archbishop’s refreshing answer

It was refreshing to hear Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, when asked by Sean O’Rourke on the radio recently, “Do you believe in hell?”, answering with great honesty and courage that he only believed in the possibility of hell. All that hell and damnation nonsense is what destroyed this country for years.
BRIAN MCDEVITT, GLENTIES, CO DONEGAL

Forget about chasing phantoms

I read with interest the many letters on this page in recent weeks arguing for the existence of God and it strikes me that a thread of wishful thinking runs through them all.

A prime example of this is the argument that the beauty and magnificence of the universe is enough to prove that God exists. The very best that this argument can do is to suggest that there is some kind of intelligence behind the formation of the universe. To put a name on this intelligence and claim to know its nature and intention is a huge leap of the imagination that does not hold up to any scrutiny.

Life is meaningless without God, another letter states. I find this the saddest of arguments. Our lives are full of meaning that does not compel us to look to the stars – our families, our relationships, our children, our work, our interests, our achievements and our hopes.

It would be more accurate to say that death is meaningless without God, a thought that should spur us on to appreciate what we have and not spend our short lives chasing phantoms.

Western civilisation is at a stage now where it can be compared to a child who is on the cusp of realising that Santa Claus is not real.

He/she knows that something doesn’t make any sense here but is reluctant to let go of the magic and is afraid that the gifts might not be quite as good.

He/she soon realises, though, that December still comes around every year, Santa Claus or no Santa Claus.
SEAN SMITH, NAVAN, CO MEATH

Grateful for whistleblowers

It is an age of information… and disinformation. It is an age of deceit. And Ireland, being divided loosely into cliques of inscrutable loyalties, makes it an age of insider privilege, influence, and naked menace. Thank goodness for whistleblowers.

RICHARD DOWLING, PATRICK STREET, MOUNTRATH, CO LAOIS

Irish Independent

14 May2014 Shona

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate Helping the Health Service Priceless

Knock wall down upstairs, Shona, Tracy

Scrabbletoday, Mary wins just by a few pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

As schools officer for Granada Television in 1962, I remember Antony Hopkins being involved in the series The Art of Music. Schoolchildren with him in the studio in Manchester composed tunes, and he improvised on them on the piano. Eventually he orchestrated them so that the Hallé Orchestra could play the finished result in front of the children. The 13 programmes were broadcast across the ITV network and were considered to be a great success.

Jealous of the US? Is John Graham kidding (Reply, 2 May)? I am a US citizen living in the US, and I would love to move to Europe.

What is to be jealous of here? We have one of the most unequal societies in the world; our healthcare is the most expensive and one the most inefficient in the world; the quality of our education is on a par with third-world countries as Republicans continue to eviscerate it through lack of funding.

We have no regulations on Wall Street; the US is one of the most corrupt countries, with legalised bribery ubiquitous; racism is rampant; guns sales are unregulated and are rapidly increasing (one can even purchase machine guns and hand grenades!).

We have a president who undercuts jobs and wages by making corporate trade deals; the internet is on the verge of losing its neutrality; whistleblowers are sent to prison and the media is controlled by corporations; our infrastructure is a disaster, again, through Republican efforts to block any funding; and the president talks about addressing climate change while encouraging the development of fossil fuels.

Who would want to live here?
Thomas Hohn
Ithaca, New York, US

Blair shows his ignorance

I would have passed over Tony Blair’s call for jihad against Islamic extremism as nonsense, but Patrick Wintour gives it a semblance of authority (2 May). In what you call his “keynote speech … Blair urged a wilfully blind west to realise it must take sides and if necessary make common cause with Russia and China to counter the Islamic extremism that lies at the root of all failures of western intervention”.

In echoing this rubbish, you help turn truth on its head: the rise and spread of Islamic extremism was the product of western intervention. We armed and fostered the Taliban in Afghanistan as once we armed Saudi bigots in Arabia,and blocked popular nationalism in Iran.

Wherever the west has most vigorously intervened in Muslim countries, the dragons teeth of Islamic insurgency have taken root.

What Blair ignores is the unfinished history of enlightenment in Europe and the west. Such secular democracy and religious tolerance as we now enjoy was not achieved by foreign, let alone military, intervention, but by often bloody argument among ourselves.
Greg Wilkinson
Swansea, UK

Scottish independence

Re: the view from England on independence for Scotland (2 May). Scotland will not separate for certain obvious reasons. First, as a part of the UK, a Scot living in Scotland can become the prime minister of Britain, but an Englishman living in England cannot become the first minister of Scotland.

Second, as an independent state, Scotland will be obliged to have its own army, navy and air force and its own embassies abroad. This will cause heavy financial strain.

Third, the breakup of the UK will make both England and Scotland less attractive for foreign investors. For these obvious reasons, I think the voters in Scotland will reject separation out of hand.

Recently, voters in French-speaking Quebec in Canada rejected the separatist Parti Québécois and elected the federalist Liberal party, despite the fact that the francophones have genuine concerns about the future of the French-language and culture in an overwhelmingly English-speaking continent. Most francophones have come to realise that they can protect their French language and culture without separating from Canada. The same applies to Scotland.
Mahmood Elahi
Ottawa, Canada

Worshipping capitalism

A thank you to Guardian Weekly for following up on the aftermath and compensation (or lack thereof) for the victims of the Rana Plaza disaster (2 May).

The Communist Manifesto had it right: “The cheap prices of [the bourgeoisie's] commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls” (for production as well as for consumption). Capitalism and immiseration go hand in hand.

As long as the Moloch of capitalism is worshipped, fresh sacrifices will be required. Will the sweat shops of the 22nd century continue in Lagos? Hanoi? Offshore?
R M Fransson
Denver, Colorado, US

Devon was its own world

Beyond the Cornish pasty by Michael Morpurgo evoked many memories (2 May). I grew up in a north Devon village on the coast with Lundy Island in full view. Cornwall was a foreign country. They even put their jam and cream on a cutround in opposite sequence.

Broad Devonian was a language with its own complexities. Before the second world war most Devonians seldom ventured away from their villages and spoke in dialect. Outsiders were completely bewildered trying to translate the ordinary conversation.

Children of my generation were the first to learn normal English. Radio – the BBC – was a teacher of the universal national language. Come the war there was a vast upheaval. The Devonians learnt to cope with Scots and Scousers, Cockney and Geordie, and many more.

To add to the melting pot, vast numbers of Americans came from 1942 to 1944. And the airfield nearby was home to a mix of pilots and ground crew from Poland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia. The place that prime minister Neville Chamberlain described as “a far away country” was one whose people we knew little about.

By comparison, Cornwall was not subjected to the influences of a myriad of “vurriners” talking their own brand of English. No wonder the Devonian dialect is now the province of a select few linguistic specialists.
Tony Fletcher
Mandurah, Western Australia

• Michael Morpurgo states: “The trouble for Devon, when it comes to identity, is maybe that we are not far-flung enough” and cites Thomas Hardy’s “old association” of people and landscape.

Well, I lived in Lulworth and Max Gate, Dorchester, for 20 years and travelled the county studying Hardy’s works and places, and am convinced Dorset has no problem with a sense of identity.
Edward Black
Pauanui, New Zealand

Proofreading is essential

I bet Hadley Freeman had someone glance through her piece, just in case; she’d never live it down (9 May)! It’s impossible to proof-read our own stuff, try as we may. The most eagle-eyed writer drops random howlers to the delight of the smug.

How right she is. Grammar, like spelling, is now a discipline, refined and defined by its universality, no longer an arbitrary Elizabethan freestyle. We can’t all be proficient, but we should and can be readable, by sharing the manuscript with others, humbly, for correction and advice, before publication, or emailing the desired one. Anger and excuses are childish.

Have pity and good-humoured forbearance, though, on those bright, intelligent, interesting but dyslexic ones who write with the wild abandon of a dropped tray of martinis.
Andy Jenner
Nudgee, Queensland, Australia

Words are very important …

As George Orwell famously said: “Words are important.” The rationale for selling the personal data of British citizens is contained in one word: “customers” (25 April). HMRC thinks citizens and taxpayers are “customers”. That sort of thinking transforms citizens into commodities that can now be legitimately used to create another income stream for a particular business.

It is all part of a regrettable trend to use the language of private enterprise as though it were entirely applicable to government activity. We’ve certainly seen this phenomenon in Canada, and it appears that we are not alone in our folly.
Peter Kagis
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

… And so are captions

Accompanying Chris Brown’s review of You Are Here (2 May), is an image that is labelled, “No place to hide … a vintage compass on an ancient world map”.

The compass may be vintage, but even that may be cast into suspicion by the fact that what you depict is not an “ancient world map” but a detail of a late 18th or early 19th century chart of the area just to the west of Vinyardhaven, Maine. I spent much of my youth sailing the waters of surrounding Hurricane Island and Greene’s Island (as it is now known).

This sort of careless captioning of an image supposedly representative of the article casts the entire pairing of images in the Guardian Weekly into an uncomfortable light. Image department, take note!
Anthony H O’Malley
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Briefly

• I thought the whole point of drones is that they are pilot-less (Shortcuts, 9 May). Has nobody else noticed the absurdity of a “pilot project” for drones?
Ted Webber
Buderim, Queensland, Australia

• I am amazed at the naivety of Steven Kleinman in not understanding the CIA’s James Mitchell’s continuing support of torture (25 April). Samuel Johnson summed up Mitchell’s attitude in 1775: “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
Jim Burns
Jesmond, NSW, Australia

Independent:

Nigel Farage complains that while he is willing to engage in argument, his opponents are engaging in orchestrated violence against him. As someone who was manhandled out of the Ukip public meeting in central London last Wednesday after heckling one of the speakers, I take issue with this.

Since there was apparently no room for discussion from the floor, how else could a challenge to Ukip’s toxic, scapegoating views be made? Heckling is a long-established democratic tradition and to equate it with violence is ludicrous.

Nigel Farage and Ukip talk a lot about free speech. They certainly receive more than their fair share of it. They have received remarkable levels of media coverage.

In reality, what Farage and Ukip object to is being challenged over their views at all. They expect a free ride and wish to intimidate their opponents. We won’t shut up.

Mark L Thomas, Stand Up To Ukip, London N16 

It would be all very well for Aidan Harrison to berate Ukip for its irrationality (letter, 10 May) if he also berated the main political parties for the same.

A significant section of the Conservative Party shares Ukip’s denial of climate science, and the complex tax system supported by the three main parties that has allowed companies such as Amazon to pay little or no tax is wholly irrational.

Peter Moyes, Brightlingsea, Essex

My wife’s 86-year-old aunt turned to me, knowing of my support for Ukip, and said: “I received my postal ballot form today and I see there are two Independence parties.”

She had been confused by the inclusion of the clumsily but deliberately named An Independence for Europe. I thought I’d mention this just to let Mike Nattrass and his fellow party members know that their apparent plan to confuse voters has met with some success.

The Electoral Commission can decide to refuse to register a new political party if its name is confusingly similar to another party’s. One has to wonder why this did not happen in this case.

Tom Trust, Redruth, Cornwall

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy about a party that celebrates freedom of speech when a member talks about “bongo bongo land” and labels women as “sluts”, but as soon as it disagrees with a negative comment about it, it calls the police (Ukip complaint prompts police to question Green blogger”, 13 May).

It speaks volumes that this party can pick and choose when the free speech argument can be used, and we should be very wary of any political party that thinks it could possibly be right to use uniformed officers to crush dissent.

Simon G Gosden, Rayleigh, Essex

Nigel Farage and Ukip state that over 75 per cent of our laws are made by the EU. Are not these laws passed by the European Parliament whose members happen to include English MEPs one of whom is Nigel Farage?

So it is not as if we don’t have a say in the framing and ratification of these laws. Perhaps he should do a better job at arguing his case if he believes they are poor laws.

Ken Osborne, Hayling Island, Hampshire

In the run-up to local and national elections in Holland large roadside boards appear plastered with the posters and slogans of competing parties.

I note that of the 20 different parties displaying their opinions, 50 per cent were anti-EU. Of these most were demanding that the Netherlands withdraw from EU membership.

As for the remaining 10 parties – almost all acknowledged anti-EU sentiment by emphasising that they placed Dutch interests above those of Brussels. This in a country which at one time was uncritically besotted with the vision of a united  liberal Europe.

Adrian Marlowe, The Hague, Netherlands

Torture is different in the real world

It is sad news that 44 per cent of Britons reject the idea of a global ban on torture (“‘24’ effect: a third of Britons think torture can be justified”, 13 May)

In fictional dramas such as 24, as in many books, films and video games, it is easy to set up a scenario in which cruelty to an enemy is necessary in order to save the lives of innocents.

First, we should realise that such situations almost never occur in real life. Even the notorious waterboarding of terror suspects by US personnel was found to produce little or no lifesaving information that was not already obtained by normal interrogation.

What it did do was erode the standards of treatment of prisoners, which had been unquestioned for decades in the armed forces.

Second, we need to look at how torture is actually used in those many countries where it is routinely practised. It is not employed to save innocent lives. It is used by those in power to suppress dissent, to persecute minorities and to humiliate and terrify political opposition. There are no good reasons to oppose a ban.

Sue Gilmurray, Ely, Cambridgeshire

It is depressing that so many people support torture. Perhaps they mistakenly think that only the guilty are tortured. Maybe they should imagine themselves or their children or parents being tortured, when innocent; I wonder if they would then support the practice.

Peter Cave, London W1

let’s have more of the Edith Cavell spirit

The final episode of the BBC’s television series about volunteer nurses in the First World War chose to draw a parallel between one of the main characters in the drama and the real-life nurse Edith Cavell.

The Crimson Field has been described by critics as “fluffy”, a “period soap”, and an “opportunistic mishmash” of previous hit TV shows. So the reference to Edith Cavell may be aimed at offering some sort of “balance” by touching on the real-life courage and ultimate sacrifice of those involved in the war.

While the hospital sister in The Crimson Field faces execution by the British for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of her German fiancé, Edith Cavell was tried and executed for helping 200 Allied soldiers to escape from German-occupied Belgium.

The two “offences” sit worlds apart. But it is a pity that the courageous, caring exploits of Edith Cavell were largely overlooked by the producers. Instead, her inclusion in the storyline seemingly only serves to deliver an anti-war, anti-establishment message by one of the other characters saying there is nothing like an executed nurse to “reignite the fervour” and get everyone behind the war effort.

It was the outcry from the general public following Edith Cavell’s death that led to the Cavell Nurses’ Trust being set up in her memory and it continues to support retired and current nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants in need today.

It is to be hoped that if a second series of The Crimson Field is commissioned, then the sense of duty, vocation and self-sacrifice shown by nurses such as Edith Cavell will be uppermost in future episodes.

Kate Tompkins, Chief Executive,, Cavell Nurses’ Trust , Redditch

First remove the beam from your own eye

I was amused to see that the Archbishop of Canterbury wishes to eliminate homophobia from church schools (“Welby condemns anti-gay bullying in schools”, 12 May).

He could start by getting rid of the verse in the Bible which states that people who commit homosexual acts should be put to death. While he’s at it, he should also get rid of the verses that relegate females to a lower status than men, as well as those that condone slavery, and those that indicate that the Earth and the universe are only a few thousand years old.

Not to mention the numerous passages where his deity comes across as nasty and vindictive.

Or he could just admit that he cherry-picks the bits of the Bible that fit in with his own opinions and ignores the bits that don’t.

David Love, Torquay

German or not, royals should stand down

John Dakin’s letter (13 May) saying that the royal family are not German may be true, but there is one inescapable fact with our royal family and that is that their claim to the throne is illegitimate.

They are descended from the Tudors via the Stuarts, and the Tudors are descended from the illegitimate Beaufort family which was John of Gaunt’s second family while still being married to Constanza.

When will the Windsors relinquish the throne and allow a legitimate heir to claim it?

J K Apps, Bury St Edmunds

This sounds like a standing joke

If it really is true that Network Rail’s proposed Northern Hub will “handle 700 more trains a year, carrying 44 million extra passengers” (“‘Oldest railway station in the world’ threatened by Network Rail plans”, 12 May), can I be guaranteed a seat?

John Driver, Abberley, Worcestershire

Times:

Sir, While I do not sympathise with Gary Barlow and other tax avoiders, should we not also be condemning the “creative” accountants who are paid to advise high-earners where to put their money (reports, May 12, 13). If Barlow and others are fined by the taxman, they should consider suing their advisors who led them into such activities.

Dr Alan Baum

Staplehurst, Kent

Sir, Gary Barlow is doing what all of us with offset mortgages are doing. They have no purpose other than avoiding tax. Venture Capital trusts anybody? What about family trusts to avoid inheritance tax? Not to mention many celebrities who avoid tax by simply not living here — some of them have knighthoods and you’re not asking for those back. Give him a break. At least he is nice to look at and writes brilliant songs.

Annabel Cartwright

Cardiff

Sir, No politician is daring to use
the E word about the scheme that Mr Barlow got embroiled in. “Aggressive avoidance” seems to be the gibberish of choice. Avoidance is legal — we all do it, with ISAs, pensions etc. We pay what we owe. When/if the line is judged as having been crossed from avoidance to evasion, then m’learned friends can hitch up their gowns and wigs and Mr Barlow can adopt the bread and water diet, not otherwise.

Return an OBE? When the duck house goes back, perhaps.

Tony Hale

Barnt Green, Worcs

Sir, I am delighted that the prime minister has clearly rebuked such overt tax avoidance. Leaving aside acceptable assurances on research and British jobs, I am surprised that he has equally unambiguously condemned Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca. The Treasury should not be allowed to prosper by Pfizer paying less tax in Britain than in other jurisdictions. Surely the government would not act in such a cynically hypocritical manner?

John Kennedy

Harpenden, Herts

Sir, HMRC is dysfunctional, unresponsive, and impossible to hold to account. It treats its captive customers with contempt and demands action from them within timescales and under evidential circumstances which it refuses to apply to itself.

The concept that this organisation will be able to raid private bank accounts in a manner which undermines centuries of established laws and liberties is enough to justify anybody seeking to put their funds beyond its extrajudicial reach, at least until a fair accounting can be made. Add to this the state’s record on wasting tax money, squeezing the earner, and raiding the prudent to subsidise the feckless, and I am sure as many people will raise a glass to Gary Barlow as will condemn him.

Victor Launert

Matlock Bath, Derbys

Sir, We may be annoyed with aggressive tax schemes that enable wealthy individuals to avoid tax thereby putting a greater burden on the rest of us but equally I’m sure all of us would like to pay the least tax possible. It seems unfair to demonise Barlow and his fellow Take That members when they only involve themselves in such schemes on the advice of their professional advisers. They are musicians not tax experts.

Gareth Tarr

Chertsey, Surrey

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 13 May 2014

114 Comments

SIR – David Lowe’s disgraceful treatment by the BBC is a reflection of the change that has happened to its local radio services over the past 20 years.

SIR – I have just received my postal voting form for the forthcoming European elections.

SIR – Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is talking about the possibility of Ofsted, the state inspectorate in England, inspecting English independent schools.

Irish Times:

Sir , – Maureen Dowd’s article “American nuns at rough end of Pope Francis’s mixed messages” (World, May 12th) raises a critical question on the direction the Catholic Church is taking under his papacy.

His publication Evangelium Gaudium and its inspiring content are at odds with what continues to emanate from the Vatican, especially from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is not the case that Pope Francis is unaware of the continued hard-line position being adopted by this doctrinal watchdog.

Although he inherited the well-known hardliner Archbishop Gerhard Müller as its boss, nevertheless he reappointed him and promoted him to cardinal, the highest position apart from pope in the Catholic Church .

As Ms Dowd has written, Cardinal Müller has once again harangued the organisation representing over 80 per cent of American religious sisters and has demanded that a US archbishop must be allowed to supervise all their work and even attend their meetings as they are under suspicion of “positive errors of doctrine”.

We have learned that Cardinal Müller has effectively silenced an internationally known Jesuit theologian from India, Fr Michael Amaldoss, and forbidden him from giving lectures and publishing until this Jesuit has “reworked” his most famous work The Asian Jesus. This effective silencing of Fr Amaldoss must certainly have the approval of his fellow Jesuit , Pope Francis.

Pope Francis has now signed a decree recognising a miracle attributed to a recent predecessor, Pope Paul VI, and has announced that this pope responsible for the ban on artificial contraception in the Catholic Church will be beatified on October 19th of this year .

This proposed beatification means, inter alia, that Pope Francis is officially endorsing this infamous ban on artificial contraception.

Pope Francis must not only be judged by his cool gestures and inspiring rhetoric but also by what he is doing or allowing to be done in his name, especially in the continuation of the doctrinal hardline approaches of his predecessors. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN BUTLER,

The Moorings,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Maureen Dowd contrasts the “liberal” St John XXIII and the “conservative” St John Paul II. This distinction between the two popes is now so well established as to be unquestioned; and yet questioned it must be.

On the one hand, one cannot think of any sense in which St John XXIII was a liberal – if, that is, what is meant by liberal is a person holding progressivist and relativistic opinions. The innovations that some Catholics wish to see introduced into the church were never espoused by St John XXIII.

On the other hand, it is possible to think of gestures made by St John Paul II – for example, his visits to Anglican and Lutheran cathedrals and to a synagogue – which were never even contemplated by his predecessor. – Yours, etc,

CDC ARMSTRONG,

Ulidia House,

Belfast.

Sir, – Maureen Dowd takes Pope Francis to task over the censure of American nuns who, according to her, are “inspired by Vatican II” and are prevented from “caring for the sick” in order to “parrot church teaching”.

I would have thought it was totally acceptable that nuns, who wish to remain in the church, would at at least be willing to promote its teaching.

It is no harm to state that Catholics accept the pope as the successor of Peter appointed by Jesus to continue His ministry.

It is surprising that Ms Dowd does not see that promoting the images of God as “father, lord and king” is basic Catholic teaching. It never ceases to amaze me that so many religious wish to remain in the church while undermining so much of what it teaches.

I don’t know what “gospel-infused spirit” the nuns are allegedly being punished for but it is not for following the teaching of the church.

Catholicism is freely chosen by those who wish to follow Jesus under the leadership of the pope.

However, so many dissidents, so welcomed by the secular media, seem to wish to transform the church into their own image and likeness. For myself, as an adult I freely choose membership and am aware that if decide I cannot accept its teaching, I am free to leave, but I do not think I have the right to undermine the faith of those who wish to remain.  – Yours, etc,

MARY STEWART,

Ardeskin,

Donegal Town.

Sir, – Maureen Dowd’s article on Vatican ambiguity makes for very interesting reading. Like most people, I think Pope Francis has made huge steps in giving the Catholic Church back to the ordinary people. His focus on the poor is a clear statement of intent. Therefore we might be better to take a pragmatic approach and allow more time for a truly inclusive discipleship that we would be witness to. On the other hand, Jesus did it in three years – why is the Vatican taking so long? – Yours, etc,

MONICA DOLAN,

Manor Street,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – Further to your coverage of the correspondence between Jacqueline Bouvier and Fr Joseph Leonard (May 13th), John A Costello also corresponded with her, as I have detailed in my biography of that taoiseach. Jacqueline went on a year’s visit to Paris in 1948. With her stepbrother Hugh Auchinloss, she came to Ireland for the Dublin Horse Show. Her contact in Dublin was Fr Leonard, who had met and become a friend of her uncle Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis at Strawberry Hill in London. Fr Leonard entertained the visitors as they spent a few weeks touring the country. He brought them to meet his friend John A Costello, who described Fr Leonard as a deeply spiritual man who had little time for the “dangerously devout”.

Jacqueline again visited Dublin in 1955, with her husband Jack Kennedy. Fr Leonard gave them a book inscribed “To Jack and Jacqueline, with love and admiration. 29 September – October 2 1955”.

Costello recalled that Jacqueline invited Fr Leonard to come to Washington to baptise her son in 1960, but ill-health prevented him from making the trip. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY J JORDAN,

Gilford Road,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – I was most alarmed to read how Donald Trump proposes to change the shape of things to come with the development of Doonbeg golf club (“Trump card: property tycoon lays out big plans for Doonbeg”, May 12th).

At the risk of appearing obtuse, I was flummoxed at Trump’s description of his newly acquired course in Doonbeg, along with two of his other courses in Turnberry and Aberdeen, as the “Trump Triangle” and his further illustration of the three courses being “literally a straight line from here to Turnberry and on to Aberdeen”. Let’s hope the course engineers are fully aware of these recent geometrical changes currently under way in Co Clare. – Yours, etc,

THEO RYAN,

Sitric Place,

Stoneybatter,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – The reception afforded Donald Trump at Shannon Airport earlier this week fell far short of what Shannon is capable of. Where were the dancing cailíní and the Bunratty harpers? – Yours, etc,

RORY O’GRADY,

Olcovar,

Shankill,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The unedifying spectacle of a Government Minister greeting a swashbuckling property developer who appears to share the obsession of many of his ilk with helicopters and golf courses (something to do with soft landings perhaps?) indicates that our ruling elite have not yet got over their infatuation with such people. However I hope that Michael Noonan at least summoned up the temerity to inform Mr Trump that the showband era is over and it is many a long year since any Irish businessman made any money or provided any employment by opening what he so quaintly terms a “ballroom”! – Yours, etc,

FINBAR O’CONNOR,

Claude Road,

Drumcondra,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – Many are annoyed at idea of a royal presence in Dublin 2016 in context of a “shared history”. Diarmaid Ferriter writes that “the suggestion that Ireland should rejoin the Commonwealth . . . is indicative of a worrying postcolonial inferiority complex” (“Ordinary lives best define our revolutionary decade”, Opinion & Analysis, May 9th).

The Commonwealth is a free, voluntary association of independent states. As an Irish citizen, I prefer to see the prospect of Irish Commonwealth membership as a self-confident choice by a mature independent people and nation. – Yours, etc,

JEREMIAH P WALSH,

Kew Green,

Richmond,

Surrey,

England.

Sir, – Una Mullally’s argument in favour of water charges does not present a compelling case for imposing water charges nor for the privatisation of services (“It may be hard to swallow but we should pay for water”, Opinion & Analysis, May 12th).

It is true that we are facing a global water crisis; primarily as a result of climate change. However, comparing Ireland’s situation to that of California, a desert region, does not enable our wider understanding of the issues. Ireland and California’s water challenges may both be borne out of mismanagement of public services but both regions face incomparable challenges in terms of climate and population.

Ms Mullally fails to address the fact that water is considered a fundamental human right, protected by international law. States have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right of access to safe drinking water. While this does not exclude imposing water charges nor privatising services, the State must ensure that water is accessible and affordable to all, particularly the least well-off in society.

In many instances of water privatisation, particularly in the developing world, neither access to nor the quality of water has improved. In fact the opposite often occurs. In 1999 the public water company in Cochabamba, Bolivia, was privatised. The price of water increased by nearly 50 per cent over a number of weeks but there was no corresponding improvement in either access to or the quality of the local water supply. The multinational company Bechtel was focused solely on making a profit rather than maintaining infrastructure or improving the supply and quality of water. This led to a series of protests in 2000 during which the local citizens reclaimed the public water company.

Finally, Ms Mullally’s use of the 2030 Water Resources Group as an example of progress towards sustainable water governance is baffling. Each of the companies participating in this group, with the exception perhaps of the World Bank, represent some of the principle suppliers of bottled water worldwide, and have deeply vested interests in promoting further the privatisation of water.

Yes, a debate on global water governance is urgently needed. However, this debate should be based on human rights principles rather than economic imperatives. – Yours, etc,

AISLING WALSH,

Willowbank,

Carrigaline,

Co Cork.

Sir, – Further to John McManus’s claims about the implications for the public finances arising from the €240 average domestic water charge (Business Opinion, May 12th), in order to ensure Irish Water’s borrowings are excluded from the general government balance (ie State debt), certain Eurostat rules must be met. The decisions taken by the Government last week have been framed by our understanding of the Eurostat requirements and I am satisfied that these requirements will be met. The budgetary framework is based on Irish Water being classified as a market corporation from inception.

The introduction of domestic water charges is another difficult measure for the public, but is a vital part of reforming the water sector. It will ensure sustainable funding of water services and bring essential improvements to our public water and waste water systems. Sustainable funding will secure water supply in the coming years and decades. This will become increasingly important as demand increases through a growing population and a recovering economy, and new challenges emerge from a changing climate. – Yours, etc,

PHIL HOGAN, TD

Minister for the

Environment,

Community

and Local Government,

Custom House, Dublin 1.

Sir, – We recently entertained some friends from Scotland. They commented on the way the city was festooned with election posters, a practice they do not know of at home. I began to wonder if anyone has ever looked into the effectiveness of these posters.

I would be interested to hear from any of the many candidates, or their campaigners, or anyone from the back rooms of the political parties, who have any evidence – other than anecdotal – that posters are an effective tool in election campaigns.

Campaigns have become such micromanaged affairs in recent years that I cannot believe that the political parties, at least, would waste money on unproven methods. But it appears to me that, in previous elections, unsuccessful candidates spent just as much on posters as successful ones. This prompts me to think that the reasons candidates use posters is “because the other candidates use them”.

Could someone with data show me that I’m wrong, and that posters are of some proven benefit to candidates? – Yours, etc,

TONY McCOY O’GRADY,

Grangebrook Close,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Sir, – The stories of the undocumented Irish in Simon Carswell’s report on the visit of President Michael D Higgins to Chicago (“Higgins believes US politicians ‘won’t be able to ignore plight of undocument’”, Home News, May 13th) again show the human misery which results when immigration reform is stalled.

While our political leaders have been quick and adept at pointing to the impact of delayed reform in the US, few have paid heed to the personal hurt and isolation caused on our own shores by similar delays.

For the sake of thousands living in limbo in Ireland, the Government, under the guidance of Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, must end five years of delay and deliver on its promise to publish new legislation this year.

At the Immigrant Council of Ireland we have used our frontline and legal experience, as an independent law centre, to set out priorities which would make a real difference not just for migrants but also for Irish citizens.

Priorities include the introduction of clear, straightforward and fair rules and guidelines to replace a system primarily based on discretion, the right of family reunification to be enshrined in law, and an independent appeals system in the immigration system, as current users do not enjoy the protection of the Office of the Ombudsman.

These are reforms that will not only deliver real change for thousands of people torn apart from their loved ones but will also strengthen our position when making the case for US reform on Capitol Hill and in the White House.

We are committed to working with politicians from all parties to deliver these changes, and encourage Ms Fitzgerald to act decisively and end the delay on this important issue. – Yours, etc,

DENISE CHARLTON,

Chief Executive,

Immigrant Council

of Ireland,

Andrew Street,

Sir, – There is a great deal of publicity regarding the new fish processing factory in Killybegs, Co Donegal, and the fact that boarfish are to be the principal feedstock of this enterprise (“Biomarine plant to bring jobs to Donegal”, Home News, May 10th).

Not wanting to pour cold water on the enterprise, but these fish are presently viewed as a nuisance catch in mackerel fisheries. Try telling that to the larger species which live on them.

Would it not be better if the present system of discards was harnessed to provide an ethical and environmental friendly source of feed stocks rather than pillaging yet another valuable and unappreciated natural asset? – Yours, etc,

JOHN K ROGERS,

Rathowen,

Co Westmeath.

A chara, – Jason Fitzharris (May 9th) need not worry about the media explaining how our voting system works. From now until the results of the upcoming elections are announced, we will hear journalists telling us repeatedly that “transfers will be crucial”. – Is mise,

LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH,

Ellensborough Drive,

Kiltipper Road,

Dublin 24.

Irish Independent:

Published 14 May 2014 02:30 AM

It’s not too often that I’ll be stuck for words, but this is exactly what happened to me a few days ago while out delivering mail of a political nature.

Also in this section

Let’s give humanity a chance – divinity can look after itself

Let’s hope moral ground in Garda Siochana rediscovered

Letters to the Editor

A similar incident happened to me in 2011 during the presidential election when I knocked on a door and after assuming there was nobody at home, I was about to turn to walk away when the door opened and a woman with tearful eyes greeted me.

On asking her ‘was there something wrong? she did not reply but thrust her hand with a piece of paper in it towards me. On reading it, I felt utterly helpless, as it was a letter from the bank threatening repossession of her home.

After getting over the initial shock, I set things in motion with a few phone calls to get her some help. Now, in 2014, and the same scenario greets me at a doorstep, as a woman opens up to me and invites me – a complete stranger – into her kitchen.

The family are at their wits’ end in fear of the postman delivering a similar letter warning of bank repossession.

I have to say that it upset me much more than I can put into words, as I lay awake thinking what could I do to help?

I would challenge any pro-austerity politician to knock on their door and explain to them why they think it is right that they are being made pay for the reckless mistakes of others?

All in a vain, shameless attempt to pay Europe‘s super-wealthy elite who gambled on our insane, runaway Fianna Fail-led economy.

The banking guarantee saw to it that those wealthy gamblers were never going to lose out, because the likes of this family I’m referring to – along with every other breadline family in the country – are the pawns who are going to spend the rest of their lives paying the price.

We are being continuously drip-fed filtered leaks and promises that we have turned a corner and things are now on the way up.

Here in Donegal things are certainly on the way up and have been for a long time – if you’re talking about unemployment and emigration.

J WOODS

Gort an Choirce, Dun na nGall

WE SHOULD HAVE EU OPT-OUT VOTE

Instead of having an election to see which politicians we send to Europe, why don’t we have a referendum as to whether we want to be a part of the EU in the first place.

Maastricht was the last fair treaty of consequence, and there are at least two generations of Irish citizens that haven’t had a say on whether they want to be part of a united Europe. I suspect also those that voted in favour of Maastricht never envisaged quite how much sovereignty we would eventually cede.

Since 1992, the Irish people have been asked to vote on Nice and Lisbon – twice on each treaty. It appears, however, that rejecting those treaties was never actually going to be an option available to us. We have also had the fiscal treaty, which was presented as part of the solution to the financial crisis.

With the UK about to give its citizens a genuine say as to whether or not they want to be part of the EU, would it not be appropriate for Ireland to do the same thing?

As things stand, we have an increasing level of governance coming from EU institutions and while most of our political class are ideologically attached to the idea of the EU, the Irish people haven’t had a genuine voice in decades (at least not one that was accepted). That is the very antithesis of democracy.

The time has come for the Irish people to give a democratic renewal to the EU, or for the EU to accept that we no longer want to be part of the European project.

SIMON O’CONNOR

Crumlin, Dublin 12

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH

I wish to protest at the programmes being foisted on viewers in the name of comedy. I refer to ‘The Republic of Telly’ and ‘The Centre’, respectively.

These programmes are rude, crude and devoid of any content remotely resembling comedy.

It is ironic that they are being foisted on viewers by a station where once one could see or listen to the peerless Maureen Potter, the talented Brendan Grace and last, but not least, that doyen of comedy Brendan O’Carroll, whose creation ‘Mrs Brown’ has become one of the great comedy hits of this decade, not only in Ireland but worldwide.

As an OAP I do not have to pay a licence fee but in the name of justice for the viewer being done – and being seen to be done – I will cheerfully dust off my Zimmer frame and join the protest.

EILEEN MALONE

Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

THE CONTINUING SEARCH FOR GOD

In response to Rob Saidlier’s letter (‘But indeed where is God’) I would certainly reiterate that the atheistic answer in the search for the ultimate meaning of life on Earth is the blindest of blind perceptions.

It is the wrong answer to that pivotal question posed by every human being.

The belief that we all have a creator – whether we call him ‘God, Truth, Allah or Sat-Chin-Ananda’ – has been embraced by and proved inspirational in the histories of peoples throughout the ages.

It has guided and maintained European civilisation up to about 200 years ago.

Rob mentions the “thousands of children who die in the world every day” as an indication that a merciful God does not exist.

Believers know that, after death, they and all others who are totally deprived do in fact attain perfect happiness in paradise.

Atheism can only offer condolence, heartfelt no doubt, to their loved ones. But it fails them completely in proffering some sort of existential nothing-but-ness as having been their unfortunate lot in life.

It also affronts our deepest and sacredly held beliefs in the existence of love, of justice and of egalitarianism as entitlements of human kind.

Simone Weil – ‘saint of those on the outside’ and formerly a Cartesian type agnostic – came to the realisation that a reality exists outside time and space and that “corresponding to this reality, at the centre of the human heart, is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object of this world”.

His visits to Auschwitz caused Rob to wonder “Where was God?” His existence was certainly witnessed to by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Edith Stein during their incarcerations and in their deaths in Flossenburg and Auschwitz concentration camps respectively. Many other believers survived and also came to forgive their tormentors.

The potential to gain paradise is open to each human being in any situation. Albert Camus‘ remark, ‘I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is’, is highly perceptive.

However, Christ, in certainly transforming the prevailing acceptance of cruelties as well as challenging the elitism of his own people, taught that it is in loving and in accepting obligation to one another that civilised life can be made realisable.

COLM O TORNA

Baile Atha Cliath 5

WATERTIGHT LANDLORDS OF OLD

Ian O’Doherty asks why, with the best fishing grounds in Europe, did the Irish people of the 1800s not eat fish instead of potatoes? The problem being that the local landlord had to be paid first before anybody could launch from the shore. Denied on land and sea.

THOMAS WHELAN

Miltown Malbay, Co Clare

Irish Independent

15 May2014 Quiet day

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate Helping save energy Priceless

Potter around

Scrabbletoday, Mary wins just by a few pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Peter Hanson’s idea, for a website where people’s views could be collected and voted on (Letters, 14 May), already exists. It is called 38 Degrees and has already had some successes in modifying government policies.
Dudley Turner
Westerham, Kent

is International Conscientious Objectors’ Day. This year families of 65 of the 20,000 first world war COs will take part in a commemoration in Tavistock Square, London, to recall the sacrifice of these men. Motivated by political and socialist convictions as well as religious faith, many suffered repeated imprisonment and force-feeding for their anti-war convictions. Among those to be honoured are John Rodker, a poet from a Jewish immigrant family, one of the group the “Whitechapel Boys“, James Ashworth, a mill worker and socialist and member of the Boot Shoe and Slipper Union, and Tom Attlee, architect, member of the Independent Labour party and Christian pacifist.

We are dismayed at the lack of attention to global issues in public debate around the elections to the European parliament. In the first televised debate between candidates for the presidency of the European commission, there were only two brief references to international development. We hope that candidates will do better in the second debate on 15 May, and that party leaders in member states will also highlight the issue.

Paddy Ryan writes: I met Bob Hoskins in Israel in 1965. Like me, he had landed up on a kibbutz on the edge of the Gaza Strip. Volunteering for work there was a way of getting food and shelter. Bob wanted not only to act, but to write: his luggage consisted of a rucksack and a typewriter. We became friends and made a number of trips around the country. His gift of the gab was phenomenal. As a result, we dined with a senior Israeli official from the ministry of transport and later with a Druze Arab family on the Lebanese border. And we slept in empty buses in a Jerusalem bus depot at the invitation of some drivers.

Independent:

The horror of the schoolgirls being kidnapped in Nigeria is yet another reality jolt: a reminder that we women can go about our daily lives of education, eating, working, surviving… if the men in our communities and societies allow us.

If there is a consensus between men that women should have a degree of freedom, then it is granted, but, sadly, recent history shows that if that consensus disappears, women’s freedoms are curtailed or lost altogether.

Take Afghanistan; as recently as 1995 nearly half the working population were women – employed as doctors, teachers, engineers and scientists, as well as in other professional occupations. And then the Taliban came to power.

The brutal rape of a young woman in Delhi in 2012 lifted the purdah on the horrific experiences of thousands of raped women. The introduction of new legislation and strong media coverage have meant that rape is more openly discussed, but what has changed?

Legislation can only be a deterrent if it is enforced. Hard to do when the police are open to bribery and turning a blind eye, and when the raped woman is put under a lot of emotional, and sometimes physical, pressure not to press charges.

We like to think that here in Britain women stand shoulder to shoulder with men, and we have achieved equality.

So we can go out drinking, be “one of the lads”, buy property and have careers, and we certainly do have more freedom than a lot of our sisters abroad.

However, we’re still blamed for the sexual violence we might experience because we weren’t dressed right, had to much to drink, didn’t say no at the right point in the evening…

In November 2013, a TUC report published for Equal Pay Day highlighted the small matter of women in full-time employment being paid 15 per cent less per hour than men. And if you are of childbearing age, you’re seen as a liability, just in case you reproduce.

When are we going to wake up? The use of women as collateral and chattel is contemptuous and shows utter disregard for us.

We need to stop thinking we’ve shattered the proverbial glass ceiling, that walking the streets at night is safe, and that young women don’t need to be feminists. We have to continue to demand that our voices are heard and our presence respected.

To change the sexist and misogynist paradigms that we toil through, we must address those that hold power.

It is up to you – boys and men – to change. You have to stop the violence and oppression.

Lily Gupta
London N5

I am not at all comfortable about people like Richard Scudamore, who thinks that even in private he can make or send sexist comments.

He should read the poster held up by a Nigerian in a photograph in The Independent  (12 May) saying: Real Men Don’t Buy Girls.

Real men don’t buy girls, under any circumstances, nor do they think it is clever or acceptable to make sexist jokes.

The Nigerian man was referring to the abhorrent abduction of the schoolgirls in his country – which the rest of the world has only justA bothered to get worked up about.

Sarianne Durie
Bampton, Oxfordshire

Without tax avoidance we would all pay less

Grace Dent (13 May) misses the point in defending Gary Barlow and his attempts to be more “tax efficient”.

There are thousands of higher-rate taxpayers who could avail themselves of the multifarious tax avoidance schemes peddled by accountants and other tax advisers.

The point is that the ethical and moral among us, who choose to live, work and/or own a property in this relatively rich and stable country, recognise that society can only flourish if all pay their fair share of tax on their earned and unearned income and capital gains. If all higher-rate taxpayers did the same, we would all pay a lot less tax.

Nick Eastwell
London SE10

I am distrustful of recent political efforts to demonise tax avoidance and I take issue with Chris Blackhurst’s rallying call (14 May) to clamp down on tax avoiders.

Tax avoidance is not illegal or immoral. Indeed, the Government actively promotes tax avoidance schemes such as ISAs which, due to the restrictions on what you can put in, when you can put it in, and the split between cash and equities, must count as “artificial or contrived arrangements” in the words of HMRC.

Surely, if the Government feels that schemes are in existence where unsanctioned aggressive tax avoidance is occurring, then they are the people ideally suited to change the law, close the loophole and declare schemes of this nature illegal.

Then tax evasion is illegal and immoral and perpetrators can be prosecuted. This is what the Government should be aiming at, rather than trying to shame a few high-profile celebrities to change their completely legal tax arrangements.

Alan Gregory
Manchester

One of the Prime Minister’s showbiz chums has come a cropper with the taxman. Perhaps he could show a little contrition by spearheading a new HMRC campaign to promote self-assessment.

If only the Government hadn’t cut the top rate of tax. They’ve missed out on at least an extra million if the widely reported extent of tax avoidance by the man described as “a national treasure” is true.

David Cameron’s “cast-iron” promise over an EU referendum has just been reported on, but we’ve heard that from him before. There’s a rumour that he shrugged “Promises? Everything changes” when challenged about this. But it could have been a discussion of his favourite boy band track.

D Holland
Litcham, Norfolk

Racism is a much abused word

People will see racism who have a thirst for finding it. In The British Dream, published last year, David Goodhart wrote: “The word racist is used to describe everything from surprise at seeing a black face on a Cornish beach, through the suspicion that an Asian man with a holdall on the London Tube might be a bomber, to the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing.

“The word has become a portmanteau term of opprobrium, devalued through overuse and inaccurate use… The threshold for the use of the word racism has fallen too low in the past two decades.”

If it is racist to want to leave the European Union, if it is racist to wish for a strictly controlled rate of immigration, so be it. I shall not be deterred from voting for Ukip next week.

Edward Thomas
Eastbourne

Last week Nigel Farage argued Ukip was undergoing a “Clause IV” moment insisting: “I don’t care what you call us but from this moment on, please, do not ever call us a racist party.”

Less than a week after that, Sanya-Jeet Thandi, one of Ukip’s most prominent British Asian supporters, has quit the party, accusing it of descending into “racist populism”. No matter how much its leadership denies it, by any sane criteria Ukip is a racist party with a racist agenda which appeals to racists. No one who is considering voting for them should be in any doubt about that.

Sasha Simic
London N16

Double standard on domestic violence

I am a long-time admirer of The Independent’s support for campaigns against domestic violence and I have supported those campaigns.

However, over the years, it has been obvious that, implicit in these, has  always been an assumption that domestic violence is always perpetrated by men on women. That is not correct. Over 40 per cent of victims of domestic violence are men.

I was shocked, therefore, to see (Dilemmas, 13 May) an incitement by someone identified only as Ruth, to a woman who had written to Virginia Ironside, to attack the woman’s husband by throwing a brick at his head.

This is indicative of an appalling double standard in what is a desperately serious issue, and a denigration of all victims of domestic violence.

John Dowling
Newcastle upon Tyne

Halal is an animal cruelty issue

If you were forced to have your pet put down by cutting its throat, would you choose to have it stunned first? If there were a halal or kosher Dignitas would you choose to end your days there?

There are opportunistic people who use the halal issue to attack Muslims, but many people are genuinely concerned about animal cruelty.

Paul Stanbrook
Tiverton, Devon

A lesson from Turkish mine disaster

Detractors of health and safety provisions and “regulation” should give serious consideration to the Turkish mining disaster before spouting any future populist opinions on workplace conditions.

Iain Christie
Dersingham,  Norfolk

Times:

Sir, While I do not sympathise with Gary Barlow and other tax avoiders, should we not also be condemning the “creative” accountants who are paid to advise high-earners where to put their money (reports, May 12, 13). If Barlow and others are fined by the taxman, they should consider suing their advisors who led them into such activities.

Dr Alan Baum

Staplehurst, Kent

Sir, Gary Barlow is doing what all of us with offset mortgages are doing. They have no purpose other than avoiding tax. Venture Capital trusts anybody? What about family trusts to avoid inheritance tax? Not to mention many celebrities who avoid tax by simply not living here — some of them have knighthoods and you’re not asking for those back. Give him a break. At least he is nice to look at and writes brilliant songs.

Annabel Cartwright

Cardiff

Sir, No politician is daring to use
the E word about the scheme that Mr Barlow got embroiled in. “Aggressive avoidance” seems to be the gibberish of choice. Avoidance is legal — we all do it, with ISAs, pensions etc. We pay what we owe. When/if the line is judged as having been crossed from avoidance to evasion, then m’learned friends can hitch up their gowns and wigs and Mr Barlow can adopt the bread and water diet, not otherwise.

Return an OBE? When the duck house goes back, perhaps.

Tony Hale

Barnt Green, Worcs

Sir, I am delighted that the prime minister has clearly rebuked such overt tax avoidance. Leaving aside acceptable assurances on research and British jobs, I am surprised that he has equally unambiguously condemned Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca. The Treasury should not be allowed to prosper by Pfizer paying less tax in Britain than in other jurisdictions. Surely the government would not act in such a cynically hypocritical manner?

John Kennedy

Harpenden, Herts

Sir, HMRC is dysfunctional, unresponsive, and impossible to hold to account. It treats its captive customers with contempt and demands action from them within timescales and under evidential circumstances which it refuses to apply to itself.

The concept that this organisation will be able to raid private bank accounts in a manner which undermines centuries of established laws and liberties is enough to justify anybody seeking to put their funds beyond its extrajudicial reach, at least until a fair accounting can be made. Add to this the state’s record on wasting tax money, squeezing the earner, and raiding the prudent to subsidise the feckless, and I am sure as many people will raise a glass to Gary Barlow as will condemn him.

Victor Launert

Matlock Bath, Derbys

Sir, We may be annoyed with aggressive tax schemes that enable wealthy individuals to avoid tax thereby putting a greater burden on the rest of us but equally I’m sure all of us would like to pay the least tax possible. It seems unfair to demonise Barlow and his fellow Take That members when they only involve themselves in such schemes on the advice of their professional advisers. They are musicians not tax experts.

Gareth Tarr

Chertsey, Surrey

Dr Johnson at Cave’s the Publisher: the great man of letters eating at his desk http://www.bridgemanart.com

Published at 12:01AM, May 15 2014

New statutory guidance will direct schools how to help chronically ill children to thrive

To realise Ed Miliband’s pledge of a GP appointment for all within 48 hours will need more people and more money

Sir, A 48-hour access target for all to see a GP is not practical or realistic (May 12). Of course patients who need to see a GP urgently must be able to; non-urgent appointments, however, are non urgent. Given the shortages of resources and people in general practice, it is essential that patients are seen on the basis of need.

If general practice is to be more accessible we require more training for GPs, nurses and other professions involved in general practice; we have 28 per cent fewer GPs per head than Germany and 14 per cent fewer than the OECD average.

We welcome new money and a focus on primary care from politicians, but this will not be enough to enable us to offer the services for our patients that we would like to deliver if only we had the time and resource to do so.

Dr Michael Dixon, chair, NHS Alliance

Professor Sir Denis Pereira Gray, Patron of the National Association for Patient Participation

Dr John Ribchester, Whitstable Medical Practice

Dr Nick Brown, Rowden Surgery

Dr Colin Philip, The Stennack Surgery

Dr Tim Dalton

Dr Niall Leonard

Dr Paul Charlton

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 14 May 2014

40 Comments

SIR – Your report on the “national shame” of late cancer diagnosis points to worrying levels of variation in the investigation of cancer.

SIR – Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is talking about the possibility of Ofsted, the state inspectorate in England, inspecting English independent schools.

Irish Times:

Sir, – I read with considerable interest the recent opinion piece by UCD adjunct professor of meteorology Ray Bates (“Warning of ‘over-alarmist’ stance on climate risk”, Opinion & Analysis, May 13th).

I very much appreciate any efforts by The Irish Times to afford a platform for public debate on Irish policy response to the unprecedented challenge of human-made climate change. It is a debate which is long overdue.

Of course, I must respectfully demur from Prof Bates’s idiosyncratic – not to say bizarre – downplaying of the stark warnings contained in recent reports from the highly respected UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Contrary to Prof Bates, I would say the thing that is most obviously absent from current Irish policy debates is the appropriate level of absolutely rational “alarm”.

Nonetheless, on one specific point, Prof Bates does raise a very legitimate policy concern, having particular resonance for Ireland: that is, if we constrain Irish agricultural production – in order to meet our overall emissions reduction commitments – is there not a real danger that other, less emission-efficient, producers will simply take over this production, leading in fact to increased total emissions, on a global basis?

This problem of so-called emissions reduction “leakage” (which is not at all unique to the agricultural sector) is a genuine one. As is well known, such problems can only be fully addressed through effective international agreements, and I take it therefore that Prof Bates is (tacitly?) advocating for strong Irish diplomatic effort in pursuing such agreements (for example, by offering the “bold pledges” requested of heads of government by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in advance of the special UN climate summit next September in New York). I would very much welcome that.

But we should be clear on the consequences – prioritising, as we must, those agricultural practices having maximum nutritional output relative to greenhouse gas emissions will necessarily favour a major shift in global dietary mix away from beef and dairy toward increased cereal and vegetable consumption. This will obviously have profound implications for the strategic future development of Irish agriculture.

Prof Bates is to be commended for raising this crucial issue. – Yours, etc,

Prof BARRY McMULLIN,

Executive Dean,

Faculty of Engineering

and Computing,

Dublin City University.

Sir, – It has to count for something when a law lecturer at NUI Galway declares that the Constitution of Ireland is itself the basis for a range of egregious abuses of human rights in our national school system (“Treatment of non-Catholics urgent human rights issue”, Education, May 13th).

Eoin Daly mentions divestment of schools in the context of dealing with the situation. I would go further. I would abolish the so-called patronage system in primary schools altogether, and bring all national schools under the direct control of the Department of Education. They are, after all, funded by all the people through the auspices of the same department.

The patronage system is totally unsuitable for the modern world. Just as religious zealots on a solo run can make a mockery of the efforts of some church people to have inclusion where a religious body has the management of a school, so there is nothing to prevent a teacher with what is to him or her a pressing ideological issue of a more secular nature from indoctrinating young, unformed minds in any school that has a patron other than the State itself. This is because right now there are no standards that would protect our children from any ideology until such time as they are in a position to make judgments themselves on the matters concerned.

One way or the other it is indefensible that the Constitution is being abused in the manner described to deprive one section of the community of its human rights. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS McKENNA,

Farrenboley Park,

Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.

Sir, – Tom Cooper (May 14th) wants to know what Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore have in common with Pearse and Connolly. Well the former have a democratic mandate, having been elected several times, and they were never guilty of leading a ragtag mob of self-selected vandals who put back the Irish unity more than a century. So Mr Cooper is correct, they have little in common. – Yours, etc,

JOHN K ROGERS,

Rathowen,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Let’s try and celebrate the country we now have, compared to 1921 or, indeed, 1916 – clean, relatively prosperous and contented, happier than most Europeans, vibrant, young, free of clerical thought-control. 1916 is another country, as relevant to today as Napoleon was to the men of 1916. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. We have moved on, so let’s stop looking in the rear mirror and concentrate on the road ahead. – Yours, etc,

IAN d’ALTON,

Rathasker Heights,

Naas,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – I refer to Diarmaid Ferriter’s article (“Ordinary lives best define our revolutionary decade”, Opinion & Analysis, May 9th) in which he discusses the problematic history of commemorating Ireland’s revolutionary decade since the founding of the State.

Towards the end of the article, he writes “Commemoration of 1916 might be better served by a concentration on ordinary lives as they were lived and lost in 1916 due to a variety of different allegiances”.

The Letters of 1916 project is doing just this (letters1916.ie). Its goal is to collect letters written from November 1st, 1915, to October 31st, 1916, by anyone, anywhere, written for any reason, as long as they concern Ireland. Thus far we have many letters, as one would expect, relating to the Easter Rising and the Great War. But we also have collections of love letters, official documents, letters about the arts and culture, as well as business.

We collect letters from cultural institutions, as well as individuals. The project will be in a position to deliver on Prof Ferriter’s call for a commemoration of ordinary lives with the help of the public – both in uploading letters held in private collections to our database, as well as by transcribing already uploaded letters.

Be part of the research process by helping us to build this exciting new resource that focuses on the lives of ordinary people during extraordinary times. – Yours, etc,

Prof SUSAN

SCHREIBMAN,

Professor of

Digital Humanities,

Director of An Foras Feasa,

Iontas Building,

National University

of Ireland,

Maynooth,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – It may well be Sean O’Conaill’s opinion (“Is the Association of Catholic Priests slipping back into clericalism?”, Rite and Reason, May 13th, 2014) that the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has faltered in recent times. But it is just that, an opinion. As are the contributions of priests and others to our website. But it is unrealistic to expect the ACP to adjudicate and comment on every opinion expressed on our website and explain to those who view it whether it accords (or does not accord) with the policies of the ACP.

The ACP has argued for and is committed to the highest standards of child protection. Any suggestion ­– based on little more than a failure to respond formally to Mr O’Conaill’s question – that there is a diminution in that policy is unfair and not in accord with the opinion of our 1,000-plus members and the policy of our association. – Yours, etc,

Fr BRENDAN HOBAN,

Association of

Catholic Priests,

Moygownagh,

Ballina,

Co Mayo.

Sir, – Sean O’Conaill dismisses retired judge Fergal Sweeney’s assessment of the Murphy report as “minimisation” and Fr Pádraig McCarthy’s Unheard Story as “jaundiced”. He thus repeats the allegation that “Irish bishops had begun insuring their church’s financial assets against liability for clerical child sex abuse in 1987 – eight years before they began taking steps to protect the children themselves”, ignoring Fr McCarthy’s correction: “the derisory premium and insured sum in such a serious matter are an indication that neither the archbishop nor the insurance company, with all its business experience, had any realistic understanding of how serious the whole issue would be”. Mr O’Conaill does not even attempt to consider the case argued by Mr Sweeney, that the Murphy report proceeded on a hostile presupposition which prevented it from seeing that Dublin’s bishops did take cases of child abuse with the utmost seriousness.

Reacting to a suggestion that the Murphy report might be “deconstructed” (or critically assessed), Mr O’Conaill calls for a “decisive rejection of that troubling option”, as if the Murphy report were sacred scripture. Mr O’Conaill confronts the Association of Catholic Priests with “a challenge to clarify its policy on the boundaries to be advised for clergy in relation to young adults”. This sounds a bit like “how do you propose to stop beating your wife?” It is based on Mr O’Conaill’s annoyance that so many people remember Fr Michael Cleary as a compassionate man and in many ways a good priest, despite (or even because of) his common-law marriage with Phyllis Hamilton. Mr O’Conaill’s scathing commentary about this relationship on the ACP website showed scant human sympathy for any of those involved. – Yours, etc,

Rev JOSEPH S O’LEARY,

Sophia University,

Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.

Sir, – I note with favour Caitriona Lawlor’s letter (May 13th) in favour of Alan Shatter, who as minister for justice courageously ordered a review of the tragic case of Harry Gleeson, who was hanged in 1941 for the murder of his neighbour, Mary McCarthy.

My late father was a business partner of Gleeson’s and he attended the trial as a character witness for Harry, an experience from which he never fully recovered. – Yours, etc,

BERNADETTE GORMAN,

Castlewood Park,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – Catriona Lawlor rightly gives credit to former minister for justice Alan Shatter for accepting the case for a review of the conviction of Harry Gleeson for the murder of Mary McCarthy in 1940. I am putting the finishing touches to a book which will show Gleeson’s innocence.

May I appeal to Irish Times readers who may have old photographs of the people involved to contact me as these are proving hard to find. I should also like to know about any old documents people may have in case they shed further light on this distressing case in which an innocent man was sent to the gallows in 1941.

I can be contacted by email at fagan.kieran@gmail.com or by post at the address below. – Yours, etc,

KIERAN FAGAN,

31 Seafield Court,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a Christian mother in late-term pregnancy, was sentenced to death for apostasy and 100 lashes for adultery by the public order court in El Haj Yousif Khartoum, Sudan, on May 11th. Mrs Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian by her mother; but because she has a Muslim father she was charged with apostasy. Because Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslims, her marriage to a Christian man is not considered valid, and she was therefore also charged with adultery. The court has told her she has until today to convert to Islam.

Mrs Ibrahim’s conviction is based on Sharia law; however, the interim constitution in Sudan only references Sharia law as a source of law and not as the basis of the constitution. In fact, the interim constitution still provides for the right to freedom of religion or belief. This renders her sentence not only a blatant violation of her fundamental human rights but also illegal under the laws of her country. I would ask the people of Ireland to do all in their power to bring pressure on the government of Sudan to rectify this grave injustice. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Honorary Secretary,

Church of Ireland

Council for Mission,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – Jennifer O’Connell’s observations about Dublin having a lot of growing up to do are true, sadly (“Dublin is a city lacking in maturity”, Life, May 14th).

The squalor in public places is not due just to official neglect. The attitude and behaviour of citizens are as important.

There are bright spots, though. Volunteers cleaning the Grand Canal in Dublin on the first Saturday morning every month throughout the year enhance that wonderful amenity. And on Tuesday evening this week, the Dodder Sea Scouts (average age about 12, it seemed) were hard at work fishing out litter from the canal, under adult supervision, giving an example to all passing by. – Yours, etc,

RODERICK BOURKE,

Upper Leeson St,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – Further to “Traffic easing to transform Dublin” (Environment, May 13th), it is not just the bronze rails of Dublin’s Millennium Bridge that are scarred by graffiti. Most of our capital’s streets are suffering from meaningless “tags” daubed on walls, poles, etc, which must be off-putting for tourists. Surely a dedicated graffiti removal unit funded by Dublin City Council and Dublin tourism groups could help tackle the crisis? Perhaps dedicated walls throughout the city would help attract the best of the artists’ work. – Yours, etc,

JOSEPH RYAN,

Upper Churchtown Road,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – Brendan Butler’s disappointment (May 14th) over the apparent change of mind of Pope Francis regarding matters of discipline and governance brought a fit of laughter, which I thank him for!

It seems that Mr Butler and others who share his views of Pope Francis seem to think that just because he is a Jesuit and from Latin America that he is all but Che Guevara in a mitre, which is a simplistic understanding of the set-up of the current pontificate. – Yours, etc,

Fr JOHN McCALLION,

Mountjoy Road,

Coalisland,

Co Tyrone.

Thu, May 15, 2014, 01:04

First published: Thu, May 15, 2014, 01:04

Sir, – Ruth Coppinger (“Turn elections into referendum on unfair taxes and austerity”, Opinion & Analysis, May 14th) ignores the fact that the reason we have cuts in public expenditure and new taxes, which affect everyone’s standard of living, is that the Government is spending billions more than it is getting in taxes.

Her solution is to reverse all the adjustments made since we became bankrupt and take in less in taxation. Her solution is to tax the multinational corporations and the “super-rich”. How many jobs would go in this country if our corporation tax regime was torn up? How many “super-rich” do we have?

The present anti-austerity bandwagon, of which Ms Coppinger is a prominent spokesperson, is hypocritical.

It gives the impression that there is an alternative to austerity.

There is none. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

Sutton,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – Ruth Coppinger (“Turn elections into referendum on unfair taxes and austerity”, Opinion & Analysis, May 14th) ignores the fact that the reason we have cuts in public expenditure and new taxes, which affect everyone’s standard of living, is that the Government is spending billions more than it is getting in taxes.

Her solution is to reverse all the adjustments made since we became bankrupt and take in less in taxation. Her solution is to tax the multinational corporations and the “super-rich”. How many jobs would go in this country if our corporation tax regime was torn up? How many “super-rich” do we have?

The present anti-austerity bandwagon, of which Ms Coppinger is a prominent spokesperson, is hypocritical.

It gives the impression that there is an alternative to austerity.

There is none. – Yours, etc,

ANTHONY LEAVY,

Shielmartin Drive,

Sutton,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – For years I have read in your newspaper the frequent accounts of illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers being ordered to be deported from Ireland.

Equally frequently I have read of our elected leaders making ongoing representations to the authorities of the US for an amnesty to be granted to undocumented, illegal Irish immigrants in that country. A clear case of hypocrisy and double standards, surely? – Yours, etc,

GERARD CLARKE,

Castlebrook,

Dundrum, Dublin 16.

Sir, – I read Roddy L’Estrange’s wonderful column “Against the Odds” every week and got a great thrill to see our shop get a mention (“Giro hits Clontarf and Vinny takes a ride to remember”, Sports, May 14th). Our banner got a great reaction and we had good fun on Sunday.

As a 55-year-old man living in Clontarf, I enjoy Vinny’s words of wisdom and empathise with him during his travails. I grew up in Raheny, so get added enjoyment through recognising local landmarks.

Thanks for the mention, and keep up the great writing. – Yours, etc,

RONNIE CARAHER,

Clontarf Wines,

Clontarf Road,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – To every cow its calf, to every house . . . its postcode? – Yours, etc,

VAL NOLAN,

Ardagh, Co Limerick.

Irish Independent:

Letters: There is actually more comfort in things that are provable

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Published 15 May 2014 02:30 AM

God’s existence is neither verified nor disproved by the good or bad done in his honour. Guilt or innocence by association in this way only ever obfuscates the issue. In fact, the good and bad done in God’s name are by-products solely of the beliefs associated with man-made institutions.

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Letters: Families on breadline are pawns paying for errors of others

Let’s give humanity a chance – divinity can look after itself

Let’s hope moral ground in Garda Siochana rediscovered

And while God, the unknowable, abstract, conceptual notion of a deity, cannot be judged by the good or bad done in his name, religions most certainly can be. Religion is not abstract. It has teachings, makes claims, and promotes actions, to which there are real-world consequences.

These actions, whether you consider them sacred or not, can and must be judged by the standard of our 21st-Century moral and ethical values – values that have, of course, been propagated from the pulpits, but are no more derived from any of the world’s religions than is neuroscience or philately.

There is an incongruity between religion and God when it comes to existence.

Although it seems ludicrous to suggest, they are separate questions, to be dealt with separately. It is probably because of this that people think of God as the unknowable, enigmatic solution to the indignities, suffering and downright (philosophical) absurdity of the human equation. Is it rational? Certainly not, but if God brings hope in the face of suffering, consolation in the face of loss, and meaning to an otherwise indifferent universe, then great.

The caveat, however, is that even in the face of all this – the ‘comfort and mystery’ etc – reasoned arguments, empirical evidence, and systems of rigorous thought utilised as tools in the quest for objective truth can be and are far more fulfilling, precisely because they are provable: they are literally as real as it gets. In this model of living, no supernatural entities are needed to understand things like suffering.

At its most fundamental level, the argument for God will always be about a God of the gaps – forever residing just beyond the ever-moving frontier of history. As long as human beings are uncomfortable with not having all the answers, God will always be invoked – if not the God of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, then future gods invented by our descendants. Because no matter how many gaps there are or will be, religion will make sure that when God is removed from a gap he now inhabits, there is another primed and ready for tenancy.

The catch here is that this isn’t a weakness in science, but a weakness in an argument for God.

BRIAN MURPHY

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

LET’S ALLOW CHILDREN TO FIND GOD

Whether people believe in the existence of a god or not, there is one thing that is real about God – and that is the concept of him. It is a concept that every human being has to confront in his or her lifetime.

It is also a concept that needs many years of reflection – but unfortunately different versions of the concept of God are imposed on children in a hurried manner, just as soon as they are born. This has the effect of both devaluing children as thinking human beings, and also making God a stranger – usually a strange old man living far away in a distant heaven.

No-one, no matter who he or she is, whether a great religious teacher or a great atheist, should impose their concept of God or lack of God on young children. Children should have some choice to consider God at an age when they can think for themselves.

SEAN O’BRIEN

CLONLIFFE ROAD, DUBLIN 3

IF ANYTHING, BIG BANG IS PROOF

It never ceases to amaze me that atheists spend all their time rubbishing other people’s beliefs. The truth is, religion, no matter what form you believe in, is based on nothing more than faith – and all the scientific counter-evidence is just condescending claptrap.

Atheists can neither tell us what caused the Big Bang, nor what was there before it. If God made the universe, how else would he have done it? Only with a big bang out of nothing, from which every single thing – not only this microscopic earth, but mind-boggling trillions of planets and suns – came from.

I think it was Rob Sadlier who said that the children who died in Auschwitz are testament to the non-existence of God. I would like to quote Steve Collins at his slain son’s funeral in Limerick, when he said, “I talked to God and God said, ‘Why are you so sad?’ I said, ‘My son was killed,’ and God said, ‘So was mine.’ I said, ‘But, God, your son lives.’ And God said, ‘So does yours.’”

MICHAEL BURKE

SIXMILEBRIDGE, CO CLARE

IT’S FAIR ENOUGH TO PAY FOR WATER

I am following with interest the debate regarding the introduction of water charges – and I find it interesting that there is no mention of the many thousands of households already paying for domestic water.

I am a subscriber to a group water scheme supplied from a county council source, and for 35 years I and many others have paid for domestic water and I’m happy to do so.

We all need a good supply of water, and if consumers do not wish to subscribe for their consumption, who do they expect will pay to install and maintain a supply to their homes?

I predict that when water charges are in place, consumption will drop considerably, as people begin to cut back on the squandering of this most valuable resource.

FRANCIS MCNICHOLAS

KILTIMAGH, CO MAYO

WELL DONE, WHISTLEBLOWERS

It is an age of information – and disinformation. It is an age of deceit. And Ireland, being divided loosely into cliques of inscrutable loyalties, makes it an age of insider privilege, influence, and naked menace. Thank goodness for whistleblowers.

RICHARD DOWLING

CO LAOIS

THE REASON WE DIDN’T EAT FISH

Thomas Whelan (Letters, May 14) said that Irish people in the 19th Century did not eat fish because “the local landlord had to be paid first before anybody could launch from the shore”. There was also another reason. The main fishing boat in Ireland was the curragh, a small boat constructed of wicker and animal hide. These boats were unsuitable for deep-sea fishing and were extremely dangerous, particularly off the volatile west coast. Yet these boats were the best a native could hope to acquire, if they could at all. There was another problem in that the vast majority of fishermen couldn’t afford salt in the quantities needed to preserve their catch. Even for the inhabitants of Claddagh, who were out-and-out fishermen, the destitution caused by the famine reached such a point that many out of desperation sold their fishing nets.

JOHN BELLEW

PAUGHANSTOWN, DUNLEER, CO LOUTH

TAKING GOOD ADVICE ON AFRICA

Africa‘s smallholder farmers have a vital role to play in that continent’s economic growth and development. It is heartening, therefore, that this week’s report from the Africa Progress Panel (APP) should focus on the role of small-scale farmers.

The 2014 report reinforces the belief that Self Help Africa has held for 30 years – that rural farming communities are vital if hunger and poverty are to be eradicated.

The APP, which includes our own Bob Geldof among its membership, is a hugely influential body. We must hope that international governments and decision-makers heed their recommendations and provide the necessary support, so that Africa’s enormous potential can be unlocked, and its people can look forward to a future free from hunger and dependence.

RAY JORDAN

CEO, SELF HELP AFRICA

Irish Independent

16May2014 Delivery

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate Mr Lamb’s guinea pig Priceless

Potter around Builder deliver at 7:30 tip, Sainsburys

Scrabbletoday, Mary wins just by a few pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Politicians have sought assurances from Pfizer that it will not cut research and development jobs in the UK on taking over AstraZeneca (Report, 15 May). These assurances have not been forthcoming and are unlikely to be worth much if given. Pfizer is a public company and is reported to be interested in this takeover for economic and tax reasons, primarily. It would be sorrowful if job cuts in the medical and pharmaceutical research and development in the private sector were to occur due to this takeover. However, it is disingenuous of the politicians to use this takeover to champion research and development presence in the pharmaceutical sector in the UK by shouting about jobs at AstraZeneca only.

Independent:

Andreas Whittam Smith (15 May) gives as a reason for abstaining in the European elections the possibility that populist parties could win up to 31 per cent of  the vote.

Surely this is precisely a reason for not abstaining? These parties are mostly the rather nasty xenophobic ones such as the Front National in France, Geert Wilders’ party in the Netherlands, the BNP and (in the view of many of us) Ukip.

All the more reason to vote, so as to minimise the influence of such people.

Alan Pavelin, Chislehurst, Kent

 I was disappointed to read that Andreas Whittam Smith had decided not to exercise his right to vote in the European elections, even after taking the trouble to see what candidates were on offer.

Here in Putney we did one better. We organised a hustings and invited five of these candidates, one each from the major parties, to come and debate the issues in front of an audience of south-west London residents.

Dr Charles Tannock, lauded by Mr Whittam Smith, was one of those attending to represent his party. All five candidates were interesting and informative, and I hope I was not the only one to come away feeling better informed about the workings of the European Parliament and, more importantly, what those we might vote for will do when they get there.

Of course there is a massive case for reform of Brussels, but engagement with the process is the only way any reform can be achieved.

And as Dr Tannock pointed out, the Parliament is gaining greater powers, including significant influence over who succeeds Jose Manuel Barroso, as President of the European Commission. I will be voting next week.

Jonathan Callaway, Deputy Chairman, Putney Society, London SW15

On 9 May we celebrated Europe Day, a day which 64 years ago marked the foundation of what is now the European Union. Not many people noticed.

Unfortunately, they also didn’t notice the safeguards they enjoy at work which are down to the efforts of the EU, nor the holiday and rest entitlements they get from being members of  the group.

Those in hospital may not notice the care they are getting from professionals able to work in the UK because of free movement of individuals across the 28-nation organisation, nor appreciate how millions of Britons are able to settle in other parts of Europe and enjoy all the health and social security benefits of other citizens in those countries because of this rule.

They possibly won’t see the benefits for the environment that come from our membership of the EU, nor the wealth that has accrued in our country because of our membership of the world’s largest trading bloc.

Just over half a century ago, our continent was torn by strife. In contrast, our continent today is a beacon of hope for those around the world in terms of promoting peace and protecting human rights.

I would urge all your readers to recognise the positive benefits membership of the EU has delivered and to remember these benefits when they cast their vote in the European elections.

Derek Hammersley, Chairman, European Movement in Scotland, Edinburgh

Where has Ian Richards been these past few years that he can write that “the EU stands as a shining beacon of secular, liberal democracy” (letter, 8 May)?

Auditors refuse to pass the EU’s accounts; countries (eg Ireland) that vote in referendums against the latest treaty are made to vote again until they give the answer that their EU masters want; countries (eg Switzerland) that vote to break the bonds that tie them to the EU are threatened with sanctions; other countries (eg Greece and Spain) are brought to their knees and have to suffer mass unemployment, again under threat of sanction; and mass migration and other  policies have been imposed on member countries whether those countries like it or not.

The EU is a club from which no country can be allowed to resign without, it seems, the most dire consequences.

D Stewart, London N

How do you serve under a Tory boss and yet convince your grassroots supporters you haven’t sold out your progressive principles?

At the same time how do you demonstrate that a coalition administration remains capable of running a competent government? And how do your tactics change as you prepare for the pre-election parting of the ways?

The conflicting pressures of the Coalition’s final year in office – described by one party source as “pragmatism vs principles” – are being agonised over at a senior level in the Liberal Democrats.

Such dilemmas constantly confront Lib Dem ministers Norman Baker at the Home Office and Simon Hughes at the Ministry of Justice (both on the left of their party) as they work alongside Tories Theresa May and Chris Grayling (both on the right of their party).

The pair were dispatched by Nick Clegg with the instruction to make the liberal voice heard more clearly in sensitive areas, from sentencing and immigration to human rights and civil liberties.

The appointments were a signal to Lib Dem activists that their values would be defended in office and that they would have a distinctive product to sell to voters appalled at the tie-up with Tories.

For Mr Baker it means trying to assert himself with a Secretary of State famed for her work ethic, attention to detail – and occasional reluctance to delegate. He has amassed a wide-ranging brief that brings in crime reduction, tackling violence against women, reducing animal experiments and gun licensing.

After an initial wariness, the pair have built a mutual respect and Mr Baker has achieved a higher profile than his predecessor, Jeremy Browne, who found himself isolated.

Mr Hughes has only been at the MoJ less than five months and has spoken of  his determination to boost diversity in the legal profession and cut the number of women in prison.

The outside observer might imagine there is precious little meeting of minds with Chris Grayling. But the Tory Secretary of State’s hawkish language belies a strong commitment to rehabilitation shared with his Lib Dem minister.

In both departments, however, the Lib Dems are planning moves to get over the message of differentiation from the Conservatives more clearly.

Mr Baker is preparing to recommend a new approach to tackling drug abuse following a 15-month study of legislation around the world. It is certain to receive an immediate thumbs-down from Ms May – and its conclusions will head into next year’s Lib Dem manifesto.

The Lib Dems will also trumpet their success in knocking off the rough edges from Tory plans on immigration and their veto on moves to give the security services access to everyone’s online and email history.

At the MoJ, Mr Hughes is ready to react with horror to Mr Grayling’s proposals – due to become a Tory manifesto promise – to tear up the Human Rights Act.

The Lib Dem minister also has concerns about the potential impact of cuts to legal aid on access to justice. It would be no great surprise if his party campaigns next year on diluting the policy.

Messrs Baker and Hughes are likely to find themselves in different voting lobbies from Tory ministers next month when a Conservative MP’s call for automatic jail sentences for people twice caught carrying a knife is put to the Commons.

It will be a sign of things to come  as the Coalition’s marriage of convenience comes to its inevitably scratchy divorce.

Times:

Front page of The Times yesterday

Published at 12:01AM, May 16 2014

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 15 May 2014

21 Comments

SIR – Dan Hodges suggests that Michelle Obama, wife of supposedly the most powerful man in the world, and our Prime Minister are advertising the West’s impotence in the face of Boko Haram’s kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls.

SIR – (Or should I say Mr?) As a teacher who is both a married woman and a doctor of philosophy, I think the suggestion that it is sexist to call teachers “Miss” is founded on a misunderstanding of how language works. As Jacques Derrida, the French philosopher, explained, language always expresses “more, less, or something other than what [we] mean”. Hence, all words have a symbolic value and we understand the meaning intended despite the lack of precision.

Irish Times:

A chara, – If the Government is serious about stimulating the construction industry without creating a property bubble, then it will need to keep a tight rein on the banks’ lending practices (“Coalition dismisses claims of property bubble risk”, Front Page, May 15th, 2014). One of the ways lenders helped fuel the boom was by taking into account bonuses, overtime, the possibility of renting a room, etc, when they were calculating the size of a mortgage, instead of basing it on a low multiple of the borrower’s basic pay. Conservative policies strictly enforced now will help prevent the misery caused by the flahulach practices of the past happening again. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – We bought a house in Dublin in 2004, paid a sizeable chunk of stamp duty, and remortgaged to update our house so we could raise a family. In 2012 we took the decision to sell our lovely home as our mortgage was becoming too much, and we did not want to get to a position of default. Hands up, yes, we may have overstretched ourselves, but with the best of intentions to create a safe home for our children. A raft of government-imposed levies didn’t help the situation. We are left with arrears from the sale which we are paying off over the next six years with our mortgage provider, so nobody got burned but us.

We are now in the unstable situation of renting, with a major lack of suitable properties and rising rents, and with little wiggle room as we need to be close to our children’s school. It would make sense for us to buy a modest house with a modest mortgage and we could get approval. But raising a deposit for wildly increasing house prices due to lack of supply is impossible. And we must factor in the impending water charges.

Although it is admirable for Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to support first-time buyers, when is he going to help the thousands of struggling families who do not fall into the first-time buyers bracket, and who are either stuck in boom-time apartments with small children or throwing money down a black hole renting a family home? – Yours, etc,

PHILIP KEENAN,

Ardmeen Park,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Daisy Christodoulou’s observations, as reported by Gráinne Faller (“Maybe rote learning is not such a bad thing”, Education, May 13th) on the importance of rote learning and of the fostering of memory, are borne out by studies showing a clear correlation between working memory capacity and fluid intelligence. Aristotle considered that even virtue was developed through habit rather than through reasoning and understanding.

My colleague Prof Orison Carlile and I have written about the dangers of fashionable student-centric approaches to education. These include a lack of emphasis on disciplinary knowledge, and an over-emphasis on learning styles and multiple intelligences theories.

Teachers of the English national schools curriculum were told to dampen their enthusiasm for the categorisation of learners into “visual”, “auditory” or “kinetic” types because of a tendency of pupils to label themselves – “I’m a visual learner – I can’t do numbers”. The different disciplines should dictate the styles and ways in which they are learned.

The value of learning multiplication tables by rote far surpasses the tedium of doing so.

People talk of “deep learning” being superior to “surface learning”. However, in order to go deeper, you first need to go through the surface.

Prof ANNE JORDAN,

Waterford Institute

of Technology,

Waterford City.

Sir, – Jacky Jones (Second Opinion, “Moyes attracted more headlines than a treaty protecting women”, Health, May 13th) suggests that if men and the media devoted half the time they spent on sport to solving the problem of violence against women, there would no longer be a problem. However, Dr Jones made no reference to gender-neutral studies, such as Men and Domestic Violence, What Research Tells Us, by McKeown and Kidd (2002), and commissioned by the Department of Health and Children, which stated “studies also show that men and women are about equally likely to initiate domestic violence and seem to give broadly similar reasons for doing so. However it needs to be emphasised that the outcomes of domestic violence in terms of physical and psychological injuries tend to be considerably more negative for women victims than for men victims. In addition, the studies show that sexual violence is overwhelmingly perpetrated by men against women”.

While men have a lot to reflect on, fair play demands that women and groups such as the National Women’s Council refer to the reality and stigma of intimate-partner violence against men. – Yours, etc,

FRANK BROWNE,

Ballyroan Park,

Templeogue,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – In my school days, I mercifully avoided compulsory casting for the roles of flannelled fool and muddied oaf. However, I’ve maintained a lifelong spectator interest. I was therefore intrigued to read (“Sports injuries”, Sports, May 14th) that rugby players and American footballers are at risk of brain shrinkage and “compromised white matter integrity ” (a marvellous phrase, to be kept in mind for future insults ).

But have the researchers sufficiently investigated whether those who take up such sports are congenitally disposed to these risks? – Yours, etc,

JOHN A MURPHY,

Rosebank,

Douglas Road, Cork.

Sir, – Jeremiah P Walsh (May 14th) repeats the hoary old chestnut that Irish membership of the Commonwealth would be a self-confident choice by a “mature independent people and nation”.

As I recall we declared ourselves to be a Republic in 1948. Is that not a worthy statement of a mature, independent people and nation? – Yours, etc,

PETER MULVANY,

Conquer HillRoad,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

Sir, – I feel it is time that the United States should consider joining the Commonwealth. This would surely be seen as a self-confident choice. – Yours, etc,

PAT KERNAN,

Knockchree Road,

Downpatrick,

Co Down.

A chara, – The Commonwealth’s secretariat is based in Britain and its head is the British monarch. There is no provision for rotation of the position or, God forbid, elections for the job. It doesn’t say much for an international organisation that it would lose its entire raison d’être if one member, Britain, left. As a proud, independent and mature post-colonial society, we should keep well away from this neo-colonial relic. – Is mise,

PAUL LINEHAN,

Thormanby Road,

Howth,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Anthony Leavy (May 15th) informs us that there is no alternative to austerity. He may be right, although many economists and politicians disagree, but surely the problem is how austerity is unfairly implemented, hitting as it does the “easy targets”, the elderly, the sick and the poor. Ruth Coppinger (“Turn elections into referendum on unfair taxes and austerity”, Opinion & Analysis, May 14th) draws attention to the unfair double taxation of property and the spending of hundreds of millions of euro installing meters to tax our water. I have been badly hit by the levy on my already underfunded pension. So, yes, let us campaign, not so much for “taking less in taxation”, but for a fairer system in which those that can afford it pay their fair share. If that involves “turning elections into referendums on unfair taxes”, as Ms Coppinger suggests, then so be it. – Yours, etc,

W J MURPHY,

Gaybrook Lawns,

Malahide, Co Dublin.

Sir , – Why can’t Enda Kenny, Alan Shatter, Martin Callinan, Brian Purcell and any other person appointed to or holding public office appear before a Dáil committee to answer in public reasonable questions put by the people’s elected representatives on matters of public interest in connection with how they discharged their duties?

It is ludicrous for Enda Kenny to refuse to answer a question where he has a specific and definite involvement because he has appointed a judge to ask him that question at some time in the future. – Yours, etc,

HUGH PIERCE,

Newtown Road,

Celbridge ,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – It seems to me that the debate (May 12th) about principles-based versus rules-based regulation is rather missing the point.

Our financial systems failed because of a failure to conform with reasonable expectations. Expressing those expectation as principles rather than rules wasn’t the problem – it was the fact that they were ignored. A similar collapse could have resulted from behaviour which was not technically breaching any rules but was blatantly breaching the principles upon which the rules were based.

Similarly illogical thinking led to a gradual tightening of the drink-driving laws. The law said “you may not drive while drunk”. People ignored that law so it was changed to say “you may not drive while even a little tipsy”. A more logical response would surely have been to catch and punish those who ignored the law. Fear of detection is a much stronger deterrent than a higher penalty. – Yours, etc,

PETER O’ROURKE,

Greenfields,

Ballincollig,

Sir, – In response to Tony McCoy O’Grady’s letter (May 15th), I would like to point out an alternative political poster system that is used in other countries.

In areas of high volumes of pedestrian traffic or at major crossroads, there are boards erected by local authorities that allow a designated space for each candidate. These boards devote equal size and space to all candidates and the posters are made of paper.

This system works in Japan, Italy and Spain, among other countries, in an effort to lower the cost of a campaign for all candidates and decrease the influence of money on politics.

Meeting the electorate face to face has been proven time and again to be the most effective method of winning votes.

While posters may offer a new angle of publicity to new candidates, the system outlined above lowers the playing field and should be implemented in the future.

I hope a strong dose of non-partisanship could see this through. – Yours, etc,

HEBER ROWAN,

Annagh Lodge,

Geevagh,

Sir, – Why is it that people have to sound off from the east about Shannon (May 14th)? Some of the more creative ideas have originated from Shannon. They might not always have been considered “edifying” or politically correct by the mid -Irish Sea brigade.

I remember well the negative comments floating about in the 1960s when Brendan O’Regan was trying out the Bunratty model, which eventually was adopted by castles around the world.

Donald Trump will always recall the unusual greeting he received on his arrival. That’s marketing. – Yours, etc,

Prof NOEL MULCAHY,

Ard Coillte,

Killaloe, Co Tipperary.

Sir, – It is only right that we roll out the red carpet, as it were, on the inaugural visit of a major international investor to our shores like Donald Trump, not least, lest we forget, when he is planning to invest a further €45 million into the fabulous Doonbeg facility and has given clear indications that he will be looking for further opportunities here.

Aside from the investment and the employment that will come with it, there are few, if any, people in the world of business that can generate international attention on investing in our country like Donald Trump does. His clear message at the press conference at Shannon Airport that the Irish economy is making a comeback is exactly what we want and need conveyed internationally.

As a former vice-president and managing director of a US multinational in the midwest, I can assure you that the global captains of industry do appreciate being made feel welcome. – Yours, etc,

KIERAN MacSWEENEY,

Clonmacken,

Ennis Road,

Sir, – With the exception of milk, could any of the other “top branded food products” identified in Ireland by Kantar Worldpanel be described as healthy (Business, May 15th)? White bread, sausages, biscuits, packet soup, bacon, with Coca-Cola the top-ranked brand. Could Ireland’s obesity problem be a “top branded” product? – Yours, etc,

KEN BUGGY

Lyons Cross,

Ballydubh Upper,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – Surely both Jacqueline Kennedy and Fr Joseph Leonard assumed absolute confidentially. The publication of the extracts and their proposed sale are signs of some of our generation’s scant respect for confidentially. Perhaps All Hallows should even at this late stage consider gifting the letters to the Kennedy or Leonard families or just allow them to rest in peace. – Yours, etc,

DAVID DEIGHAN,

Sooreeney,

Sixmilebridge, Co Clare.

Sir, – Was there not one woman capable of being appointed by Government to the banking inquiry panel from the financial sector? I’m astonished at this lack of representation in such an important area. – Yours, etc,

CIARÁN MacGONIGAL,

Edgeworthstown,

Co Longford.

Sir, – More than 42,000 people crowded into a Dublin stadium wearing the colours of “their” team, in fact the team of an English provincial city, to cheer them on against a local football club. In what other country of the world could this happen? Do we laugh or cry? – Yours, etc,

PETER CULLY,

The Alders,

Monkstown Valley,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – A Spanish man would rather his past financial affairs were forgotten (“EU privacy blow to US internet companies”, May 14th). So he takes a landmark court case. Ensuring the memory will long survive.

The Spanish word for irony, anyone? – Yours, etc,

KEVIN LYNCH,

Vernon Avenue,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

Sir, – Just wondering would now be a good time to produce a “fit for purpose” league table for government departments? – Yours, etc,

DERMOT O’ROURKE,

Westbury Drive,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

Losing faith in a justice system that is seen to be unfair

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Letters to the Editor – Published 16 May 2014 02:30 AM

* Bad laws are a cheap form of tyranny. If we are to believe Abraham Lincoln, the best way to get bad laws repealed is to enforce them strictly.

Also in this section

Letters: There is actually more comfort in things that are provable

Letters: Families on breadline are pawns paying for errors of others

Let’s give humanity a chance – divinity can look after itself

Some of our Irish laws are not just bad but ridiculous.

Our legal system is full of anomalies.

Recently, we saw two top bankers avoid spending time in jail.

After a six-year investigation and a 48-day trial, both men were found guilty.

Obviously, there was also evidence of general inefficiency as well as faulty advice from the former financial regulator, who is now on a €114,000 pension, that led trial Judge Martin Nolan to comment: “It would be incredibly unjust to impose custodial sentences.”

It’s not nice to advocate a jail sentence for anybody, but it is vital that justice is administered in some form, evenly and fairly for all.

We only heard late last year that over 400 people who hadn’t paid their TV licence were jailed, vividly illustrating the strange face of our value system.

Again, this could very well add to the perception that ‘might is right’ and that somehow this has become acceptable in our society.

Here were ordinary people being branded as ‘jailbirds’ because they had run into temporary financial difficulties.

‘Man’s inhumanity to man’, Irish style!

JAMES GLEESON

THURLES, CO TIPPERARY

THE ONE CERTAINTY IS UNCERTAINTY

* I am always curious as to how people know for certain what is in store for them after they die. How can these folks, such as Colm O’Torna (‘The continuing search for God, Letters, May 14), be so sure that they, simply through the act of belief, are guaranteed a place in an unknowable, unprovable, perfectly happy (whatever that is) paradise.

Why, as an unbeliever, can I not know what will happen to me after I die? Where is this information kept, and why is it unavailable to me?

It would seem that paradise is a very exclusive place. The kind of place where, in order to get in, you need to believe; but to believe, you need to be guaranteed to get it.

This is why I think that the atheistic view, although it may not be comforting, is a more open and intellectually honest position.

After all, Socrates knew this. “I know only one thing: that I know nothing.”

In all of this, although it seems odd to me personally, there isn’t any real problem. If someone wants to believe something, they’re free to. Where one has to object is in this unfounded anthropocentrism.

Whether the belief that we have a creator has been embraced or not and what we call it, is just that, a belief – just like the belief of some that mankind didn’t land on the moon or that 9/11 was an inside job. It’s not instructive, it’s doesn’t answer any questions simply to assert that “I believe” this or that.

What we do know is that we evolved from a more primitive state. What we also know is that humans are most certainly not the end product of evolution.

As Martin J Rees, Astronomer Royal, said: “Many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. It will not be humans who watch the sun’s demise six billion years from now. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.”

More objectionable still is to suggest that a non-believer will be bereft of this warm, fuzzy, perfect happiness by simply asking a question and waiting for an answer, rather than presuming to know the answer before the question is even asked.

Also, to suggest that non-belief offers nothing in the face of existential questions is just wrong. It makes one question the meaning of one’s life and tasks people with creating their own meaning by giving them everything to live for but nothing to die for.

Also, of course, Camus was an agnostic, as a reading of his ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’ will show.

BRIAN MURPHY

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

PUTTING MY FAITH IN THE BOTTLE

* In regard to the God debate taking place in the letters page this past while, although I am not a believer in gods, I must confess that I have a strong faith in spirits, especially if they come from a bottle and are at least 40pc proof.

PADDY O’BRIEN

BALBRIGGAN, CO DUBLIN

HOW TO STOP ‘CLOCKING’ OF CARS

* Regarding your motoring correspondent Eddie Cunningham’s article on the high percentage of cars being sold with clocked mileage, there is a simple solution to all this.

1. Garages stamp a ‘mileage book’ on servicing the car up to the time when the NCT is required.

2. The NCT centre would note the mileage on the disc, as well as the cert.

3. For imports, encourage the UK to implement legislation on the above for MOTs. Failing that, cars imported must have their mileage checked through Motorcheck or something similar.

CARL KEENAN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

SOCIALISTS ARE MAKING NO SENSE

* On a basic plain of thought, traditional European socialism entails the public paying higher taxes, with the State providing services in health, benefits, and so on, paid for by those taxes.

Traditional American capitalism, on the other hand, involves the public paying lower taxes, but with the State spending minimally, in favour of the people looking after themselves with the money they don’t hand over.

With those two extremely basic policy summaries in mind, the tax situation in Ireland is rendered laughable.

Specifically, the public reaction to those taxes is laughable

Irish socialists, you see, protest against and reject any and all taxes any government introduces.

Take the water charge, for instance, where the State is attempting to raise the money it has committed to the construction and improvement of water services in every area in the country – to the tune of €27m in Kilkenny, for instance.

Normal socialists would get behind this as a measure designed to fix the water system that functions on average at 60pc capacity, with tax revenue used to pay for the treatment of our water.

Neither of these services comes cheap.

Irish socialists, though, in the guise of the Anti-Austerity Alliance, Sinn Fein, People Before Profit, the Socialist Party, the Workers Party and any number of other splinter, often dissident organisations, oppose the charge for what can only be described as political giggles.

They seem to expect these services to be delivered without anybody paying for them and to be allowed to marshal the public into acts of civil disobedience, knowing that a tax – no matter its purpose – will always be an exploitable point of public disorder.

Looking at things this way, we see that by and large, Irish socialists aren’t socialists at all, and that the AAA has left one A out of its name – that which represents anarchy.

KILLIAN FOLEY-WALSH

KILKENNY CITY

Irish Independent

17May2014 GP

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate the have to look after a parrot. Priceless

GP shopping

Scrabbletoday, I winjust for once not 400 though mis it by by a few pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

There is much comment on the negativity of the Scottish referendum campaign, but I don’t believe the fault can be laid entirely at the feet of the unionists (Report, 16 May). As the SNP has lost the financial and economic debate, it has turned to bluster, accusing even neutral specialists of bullying. But the real negativity is the lack of coherence in the SNP definition of what it means to be Scottish – beyond not being English. After so many centuries and so much intermarriage, our language, literature, ideology, philosophy, rituals and traditions are pretty much identical. Married to a Londoner for almost half a century I (and many others) have far more in common with my cosmopolitan southern brothers-in-law than Little Scotlanders. British culture was largely defined by the giants of the Scottish Enlightenment and we are being asked to knock down a house we ourselves have built.
Dr John Cameron
St Andrews, Fife

Independent:

Times:

Telegraph:

thumbs down.

6:58AM BST 16 May 2014

157 Comments

SIR – In January I had the privilege of hearing Stephen Sutton address a conference of 4,000 people in the O2 arena on behalf of his charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust. We were deeply moved, not only by his message, but by his manner: focused, unaffected, good- humoured and compassionate; without a trace of self-pity or self-obsession.

SIR – Is it any wonder that tax-mitigation schemes for those with larger than average incomes are in the news?

Irish Times:

A chara, – Further to the assertion by Anthony Leavy (May 15th) that there is “no alternative to austerity”, it is true that the Government currently spends more than it gathers in taxation. However, the point that Mr Leavy apparently chooses to ignore is that the cuts in spending imposed by the Government affect the poorest and weakest in society far more than they do the wealthy and those on higher incomes.

Likewise, the taxes and charges imposed by this Government are designed to ensure that as many people as possible are required to pay them, with only lip-service paid to the fact that a great number of people simply cannot afford to pay. For many, it is not a question of their standard of living being lowered, it has become a question of deprivation, poverty and, in some cases, homelessness.

The appropriate taxation of wealth in this country would most likely not eliminate the need for some tax and cuts to be imposed on society as a whole, but a top-down approach would certainly be a nod toward a more equal society. It would also mitigate to some degree the burden imposed on the poorest in our country and would in all likelihood make the austerity measures that were imposed far more palatable.

The corporate taxation system in this country has been demonstrated to be a shambles, particularly in relation to large multinationals. It has been the subject of severe criticism in both the US and UK. There is certainly scope for an increased tax-take in this area without the spurious doomsday scenario peddled by some people, that of large multinationals running out the door at the slightest increase in taxation. – Is mise,

SIMON O’CONNOR,

Lismore Road,

Crumlin, Dublin 12.

Sir, – Ruth Coppinger (“Turn elections into referendum on unfair taxes and austerity”, Opinion & Analysis, May 14th) peddles the usual unworkable Toytown version of taxation and economics, just as Fianna Fáil did when, as an election ploy, it abolished property tax some years ago. – Yours, etc,

NICK STRONG,

Glin, Co Limerick.

Sir, – It is interesting that as its keynote speaker, the HSE picked an expert from the US, a country with one of the most expensive and worst-performing healthcare systems in the world (“Health cuts ‘wrong way’ to reform system, Harvard expert says”, Home News, May 16th) .

Prof Robert Kaplan tells us that GP’s shouldn’t be paid for simply “being there”, but for providing “excellent outcomes and efficient processes”, for which they would be rewarded. Clearly, he misconstrues “being there” in the sense that he is “there” in Harvard while delivering a masterclass to the “healthcare leaders” in the Irish health service, at a cost of €50,000 to the taxpayer. He further advocates a splintering of the GP’s clinical role into specific areas of focus – diabetes, disability, etc.

The key strength of Irish primary care is that the GP is in every sense “there” – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. GPs provide around 25 million consultations annually, with a shrinking 3 per cent of the healthcare budget. They continue to deliver a high standard of care and provide value for money, in spite of being persistently undermined in this objective in both resourcing and policy terms.

Narrow goal-based incentives do work, as the British discovered where they resulted in an unanticipated £1.8 billion overspend in this area as targets were surpassed by GPs. But perhaps the HSE could start by allowing us to get on with even the basics.

As for Prof Kaplan’s issue with GPs dealing with “the whole range of conditions”, coming from the hyperspecialised world of US healthcare, he may well miss the whole point of general practice – to provide an integrated model of care where conditions are not compartmentalised and where the finer details can fall through the cracks as a patient moves between providers, none of whom are intimately acquainted with the patient’s needs in a holistic sense. – Yours, etc,

Dr DAVID O’CONNELL,

Riverside Medical Centre,

Mulhuddart,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – Joseph O’Leary (May 15th) accuses me of making a “scathing commentary” on the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) website on the relationship of Fr Michael Cleary with Phyllis Hamilton (“Slipping back into clericalism?”, Opinion & Analysis, May 13th).

Those who take the trouble to read that discussion will see that I did no such thing. What I did do initially was to lament the consequences for the church of the contradiction between Fr Cleary’s high public profile as a defender of a rigorous Catholic sexual morality, and his private life. Then I pointed to the difficulty of defending without serious implications the origins of Fr Cleary’s relationship with Phyllis Hamilton in a meeting between a mature priest and a teenager.

At no stage did I make a personal attack on the character of Fr Cleary, and the implication that I did so against Phyllis Hamilton is transparently untrue.

As to the question of the insurance taken out in 1987 by Irish bishops against financial liability for clerical sexual abuse, the “derisory premium and insured sum” are entirely beside the point. Our bishops delayed until 1994 in taking effective steps to protect children – and quite obviously did so then only because of the revelation of clerical child abuse in the media publicity over the Brendan Smyth case. The record is clear and still lamentable; it was the parents of abused children who initiated effective child safeguarding in the church – not Catholic bishops.

As for the safeguarding of young adults in the church, my understanding is that Catholic dioceses in Northern Ireland are presently setting out to develop guidelines for safeguarding relationships between clergy and all vulnerable adults. For some reason progress is slower in the Republic. The ACP could still play a part in mending that situation. Why should Catholic parents not hope it would take a lead in that? – Yours, etc,

SEAN O’CONAILL,

Greenhill Road,

Coleraine.

Sir, – It is a matter of record that the near-winning of Home Rule by peaceful means in 1912 was the occasion of the discussion of the partition of Ireland, the creation of the UVF, the formation of provisional administrative bodies in Northern Ireland and of support for extraconstitutional action by members of the British Tory Party.

I do not think readers should give credence to the clearly prejudiced view that 1916 was the primary cause of partition. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a fallacy; Ante hoc ergo propter hoc is ignorance and prejudice. – Yours, etc,

FRANK FITZPATRICK,

St Kevin’s Parade,

South Circular Road,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – John K Rogers (May 15th) claims that Pearse and Connolly, as the principal proponents of the 1916 Rising, had no mandate from the general public to take up arms on their behalf.  May I remind Mr Rogers that it was British terror in Ireland that had no mandate, and revolutionaries by definition act first then seek a retrospective democratic mandate, which is what was given in the 1918 general election when Sinn Féin received a massive electoral endorsement, winning 75 of the 103 seats.

The right to resist foreign occupation does not necessarily stem from the ballot box. There is a long-established and internationally recognised right of people to resist foreign occupation, as expressed in UN resolutions 3070 and 3103, which acknowledge the status of combatants struggling against colonial domination and the rights of people to self-determination. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeville Road,

Templeogue,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – I have received only one canvasser to my door. Is this a record? – Yours, etc,

DIANA DOYLE,

Sion Road,

Glenageary, Co Dublin.

Sir, – One of the election posters for the Labour Party references the number of journeys undertaken on the Dublin Bikes scheme. I was unaware that I was part of a political party advertisement when cycling. – Yours, etc,

EWAN DUFFY,

Castletown,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – After finding another doorstep-sized pile of election leaflets, I won’t term it literature, inside my letter box, I can’t help but wonder why, with all the technology available, the candidates have to send out multiple copies of the same fiction to each address and at my and every other taxpayer’s expense.

A far simpler solution would for each electoral area to print one booklet with a page or two for each candidate and deliver one copy to each of our newfangled postcodes.

That way the electorate could have one easily consulted source of information and not have to remember if it was the green bin or the budgie’s cage that a particular candidate’s efforts were filed. – Yours, etc,

JOHN K ROGERS.

Rathowen,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Peter Cully (May 16th) notes that “more than 42,000 people crowded into a Dublin stadium wearing the colours of . . . an English provincial city, to cheer them on against a local football club” and asks “in what other country of the world could this happen?” Using Liverpool’s 2013 pre-season tour to answer his question, those countries would be Thailand (34,000 people in Bangkok), Indonesia (80,000 people in Jakarta) and Australia (95,000 people in Melbourne).

With regard to Mr Cully’s question of “Do we laugh or cry?”, I would say it would depend on what the score was. – Yours, etc,

ANDREW ABBOTT

Auburn Drive,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I wonder about the accuracy of Peter Cully’s description of Liverpool as a “provincial English city”. It reminded me of the old joke about the English being prepared to give us back Belfast if we were prepared to give them back Liverpool in return. – Yours, etc,

FRANK E BANNISTER,

Morehampton Terrace,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – In the piece on the appointment of a principal to a secondary school in England, it was described as a “top school” and a “great Catholic school” (“Goodbye Mr Lambon”, Magazine, May 17th). On reading the article, I discovered the school charges its students €36,000 annually. I would suggest a criterion of a “top” school might be that it does not charge fees and provides a good education for its students, whatever their means. The Irish Times often describes fee-paying schools as “top” or “prestigious”. There is an obvious implication that these schools are superior to the general school. This is not the case.– Yours, etc,

BREANDÁN Ó MATHÚNA,

Aille Indreabhán,

Co na Gaillimhe.

Sir, – Is it my imagination or is 2014 turning out to be an exceptional year for nesting blackbirds in Dublin? At present every green space in the city centre seems to be literally hopping with recent fledglings. Walking to work early this morning, I counted 17 of them in various gardens, St Stephen’s Green and Merrion Square – and they were only the ones I saw.

On the other hand, I have not yet seen a single duckling or moorhen chick on the lake in the Green, nor do the pair of swans that successfully raised a brood of eight cygnets there last year seem to have hatched any young as yet this year. – Yours, etc,

ARTHUR BOLAND,

Greenville Place,

Clanbrassil Street, Dublin 8.

First published: Sat, May 17, 2014, 01:05

Sir, – I must commend Joseph Ryan’s suggestion (May 15th) to create dedicated walls throughout Dublin for public art and graffiti.

I suggest those who are sceptical of the suggestion should familiarise themselves with the Lennon Wall in Prague, which has been used as a focal point for artistic expression and political dissent for decades.

Such an avenue for public expression in Dublin would be a great addition to the city, and would redirect into aesthetic creativity those energies currently wasted in destructive vandalism. – Yours, etc,

CEARBHALL TURRAOIN,

Pairc a’ Chrosaire,

An Rinn,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – Regarding the opposition to water charges, the Irish people should be reminded that when the infinitely more expensive bottled water came to our shops, we took to it like ducks. – Yours, etc,

DONAL MacERLAINE,

Synge Street,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Never mind the Commonwealth, let’s join the Donaldwealth at Donaldbeg. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’BYRNE,

Shandon Crescent,

Phibsborough,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – Countdown to War (May 14th), the fifth instalment in your splendid “Century: The Years That Shaped Modern Ireland”, is a great addition to the previous four excellent publications.

Looking forward to the next issue in the sequence. – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Eugene Tannam (May 13th) suggests one way to get snails and slugs to leave your garden is to send them a solicitor’s letter. By snail mail, presumably. – Yours, etc,

PADRAIG DOYLE,

Pine Valley Avenue,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Irish Independent:

Updated 17 May 2014 02:35 AM

* The gardai are going through a rough time. In fact, that is always the case if one thinks about it. We give them a can of pepper spray and send them out at night to battle the great heaving mess that is humanity, while we sleep comfortably in our beds.

Also in this section

Losing faith in a justice system that is seen to be unfair

Letters: There is actually more comfort in things that are provable

Letters: Families on breadline are pawns paying for errors of others

We don’t see, and don’t want to see, the carnage they witness. We don’t see humanity in its lowest form. And yet we expect them to be superheroes. They have to get my cat out of the tree and they have to make sure that traffic flows and they have to witness our judiciary in action.

They have to deal with requests that put them in almost impossible positions. Perhaps rather than declare an all-out war on our gardai, we should sit down and listen to them. Yes, there are some who are probably at the point where their services are no longer required and they should be removed with haste, but the rest know more about us than we probably know ourselves.

If we are to turn this current debacle to our advantage as a society as a whole, then we have to ask our gardai how our laws are letting them down. For, if they are somewhat off centre as we all are to some degree or another, then it is as much a reflection on ourselves as it is on them and any culture that developed under a judicial system that was designed in Victorian times.

The ‘Big Debate’ on law and order has to be had. It has to extend beyond the confines of our Oireachtas and it has to include all players: judicial, political, legal and criminal. The boom threw off the shackles of our ‘Poor Paddy’ image, but it also allowed for some of the more human sides of our nature to flourish as well; some traits that require a review under law.

Remember, it is impossible to fix something if one believes it is not broken. It is broken and how we fix it will define the world and the society that my children and every other citizen’s offspring will enjoy as mature adults when they get there in the future.

It is after all our civic duty – is it not?

DERMOT RYAN, ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

Faith and claptrap

* Michael Burke (Irish Independent, May 15) hit the nail on the head, and I quote: “The truth is, religion, no matter what form you believe in, is based on nothing more than faith, and all the scientific counter evidence is just condescending claptrap”. Faith being the operative word.

BRIAN MCDEVITT, GLENTIES, CO DONEGAL

Telly addict

* David Quinn gets five columns to inflict us with his thoughts and dreams. Lucky him, most of us – if lucky – depend on the letters page.

He lambasts RTE because he is only on television every six to eight weeks. What arrogance. Who does he think he is? Most, in fact 99pc of this nation’s population, were never in RTE and most wouldn’t think that they possessed some God-given right to feature.

We all have opinions equally as valid as Mr Quinn’s; alas, we don’t get a column to expose them, or an airing every six weeks from RTE.

JOHN CUFFE, CO MEATH

Vote – and emulate India

* The biggest democracy in the world is not the US, nor indeed the European Union. In fact, it is India, a developing country.

Its 814 million eligible voters have now cast their ballots, during a six-week contest, resulting in a record turnout of 66pc.

In contrast, in Ireland, only 57pc of people voted in the 2009 European and local elections. Hopefully, this time around, the people will decide to use their hard-fought right to decide – and hopefully we can match the turnout in India.

Our vote on Friday will have a direct influence not just on our own future, but also on the future of Europe and the rest of the global community. The 950 local councillors and 11 Irish members of the European Parliament we elect will have a say in local and international issues such as climate change, equality, taxation and energy.

HANS ZOMER, DIRECTOR, DOCHAS

Archaic and offensive wording

* The Cork Deaf Association was dismayed by the wording of a recent article referring to a ‘deaf-mute’ (Irish Independent, May 14.) It is astonishing that a national paper of repute used such an archaic and offensive term when referring to a deaf man. The term ‘deaf-mute’ is closely aligned to that other wildly offensive term ‘deaf and dumb’. Both of these terms imply that a deaf person is unable to communicate.

Let me assure you that deaf people are perfectly capable of communication and expression. In fact, Irish sign language – the preferred method of communication among the majority of the Irish deaf community – is an extraordinarily expressive language, which can make spoken communication seem limited by comparison.

The article also referred to the need for court proceedings to go particularly slow to facilitate the sign language interpreter. We must also correct this misconception. Sign language interpreters generally require that communication take place at a normal, reasonable pace.

We recommend that journalists writing for your newspaper become more deaf aware before writing any future articles relating to the deaf community.

GERRIE O’GRADY, CORK DEAF ASSOCIATION, CORK CITY

Great War’s 100th anniversary

* This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 1. New material, such as the stories from those who lived through the war, are contained in the book ‘Forgotten Voices from the Great War’, compiled by Max Arthur.

It tells the story of the men and women – from Britain, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US and Germany – who lived through the war as civilians, munitions workers, soldiers, nurses, doctors and drivers.

German medical officer Lieutenant Stefan Westmann told of the time when, for a week in 1916, they were under constant shelling, how the dugouts crumbled and fell on top of them and they’d had to dig themselves and their colleagues out.

Sometimes, they’d find their colleagues suffocated or smashed to a pulp. Soldiers became hysterical and wanted to run out; fights developed to keep them in the safety of the deep bunkers. They had nothing to eat or drink while shells burst upon them for that week.

Mrs Scott-Hartley was with the Voluntary Aid Detachment group in a big house converted to a hospital in London in 1917 and said how all the cases there were shell-shocked, which meant they couldn’t keep their hands or their heads still. She held them gently behind their heads so she could feed them.

Heinrich Beutow, a German schoolboy, told how food became scarce by 1918, queues were longer and going to a soup kitchen became a feature of everyday life. Meat was particularly scarce as was butter – and they had turnips repeatedly because there were so few potatoes.

Sergeant-Major Richard Tobin spoke of the summer of 1918 when the breakthrough came: “The Armistice came, the day we had dreamed of. The guns stopped, the fighting stopped. Four years of noise and bangs ended in silence. The killings had stopped. We were stunned. I had been out since 1914. I should have been happy. I was sad. I thought of the slaughter, the hardships, the waste and the friends I had lost.”

MARY SULLIVAN, COLLEGE ROAD, CORK

Irish Independent

18May2014 Sweeping

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate the have to clear their entertainment expenses Priceless

Sweep the drive

Scrabbletoday, Mary wins just for once not 400 though misses it by by a few pointsperhaps I’ll win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

In the extract from Think Like a Freak, the authors of Freakonomics describe how, having once been outmanoeuvred over the incentive structure of potty-training by a three-year-old, they feel it is better to address small problems rather than big ones (“Freakonomics was a global hit…“, The New Review). This does not apparently prevent them offering David Cameron advice on how to run the NHS: in short, make the ill pay. However, in the authors’ home country, the US, healthcare is already largely privately funded, yet on average costs 250% more than the NHS per person (OECD figures for 2011) and generates worse outcomes: for example, life expectancy at birth in the US was 78.2 years compared to the UK’s 80.4 (figures for 2009).

Independent:

An investigation into Nigel Lawson’s so-called charity, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is long overdue (“Lawson’s charity ‘intimidated’ environmental expert”, 11 May)

It was launched in 2009, just before the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, and Lord Lawson used the hacked emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia to cast doubt on the science of global warming and the independence of key researchers.

Subsequently there were five official inquiries into “Climategate” including three in the UK, none of which found any evidence of scientific misconduct or manipulation of data, but these inquiries took years and allowed climate-change deniers to argue that the science of global warming was suspect.

Lawson also criticised Professor Phil Jones and his colleagues at CRU for failing to provide data following Freedom of Information requests, but has himself refused to declare who is funding GWPF, a stance that has been criticised by the editors of both the Lancet and the BMJ.

Finally it is richly ironic that a trustee of GWPF should accuse Bob Ward from the London School of Economics of “not being an academic”, whilst Lawson himself has no scientific credentials of any sort.

Dr Robin Russell-Jones

Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire

Tim Mickleburgh (Letters, 11 May) correctly claims that Inheritance Tax reduces the amount received by beneficiaries who have done nothing to earn it. The tax does however remain pernicious!

It must be pernicious not to discriminate between the ways in which wealth has been accumulated. It must be right to collect tax from the transfer of those assets which have not been taxed in the hands of the donor. Equally it must be wrong to tax again those assets on which the donor has already paid tax.

This could be achieved by abolishing the illogical seven-year rule; the source of much avoidance. The donor should then be assessed for tax on all asset transfers but have the right to claim double taxation relief on any assets which can be shown to have arisen from taxed income.

Clive Georgeson

Dronfield, Derbyshire

For those who condemn Inheritance Tax, the simple response is: “For those in receipt of money or property gifted to them by inheritance, 60 per cent of something is better than a 100 per cent of nothing!” Just be grateful.

David Culm

Littleover, Derby

Michael Calvin fears Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff’s “successors in the England team have been browbeaten into becoming corporate clones” (Sport, 11 May). Given Flintoff’s natural cricketing successor is Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes, who was sent home from an England Lions tour for enjoying a drink rather too much and who is currently unable to play because of a broken wrist sustained by punching a locker, Freddie’s legacy appears to be in safe hands.

Martyn P Jackson

Cramlington, Northumberland

Paul Vallely is quick to trivialise the question of halal meat – an attempt to silence those of us who want the law on stunning enforced (Comment, 11 May). This law was brought in to save animals suffering. Meanwhile full labelling on all meat sold/served should be enforced. Consumers have a right to a choice and the Food Standards Agency should act.

Jenny Bushell

London SW19

Hamish McRae argues that thousands of job losses at Barclays are an inevitable result of changing times in banking (Comment, 11 May). One thing that does not seem to have changed is Barclays ethical position. Having been a part of a banking crisis that brought society to its knees, while it carried on handing out bonuses to its top people, it now proposes that the taxpayer should pay again, in the form of benefits, as it sacks many which it might more reasonably have redeployed.

Keith Flett

Times:

Generals in the First World War have often been portrayed – perhaps wrongly – as inept (Popperfoto)

Shooting down myth of bungling Great War generals

THANK YOU, Max Hastings, for debunking part of the myth engulfing First World War generals, particularly  the accusations about incompetence (“Oh, what a lovely myth”, News Review, last week). My family lost two members in the Great War, both brigadier-generals decorated in earlier conflicts.

One was killed by a sniper in no man’s land, the other mortally wounded visiting the front line. Alan Clark’s slur in titling a book The Donkeys (after the phrase “lions led by donkeys”) damages the memory of such brave men.
David Cranstoun, Corehouse, Lanarkshire

Frontline duty

My father was one of those underage volunteers who went to war believing they were defending their homes and families. A Lewis gunner, he saw action at Ypres, at Cambrai and in the “most gallant defence” — the words of General Douglas Haig — of Béthune by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division, before being wounded and gassed in the advance through Flanders.

Never once did I hear him speak of his commanders other than with respect. He was not damaged emotionally and, like most others who served, he returned home and resumed his life. Ordinary people of that era had a very different outlook on life from ours. We should not judge their actions or reactions by today’s standards.
Ron Bullen, Chepstow, Monmouthshire

Poet’s corner

The war poets Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and many others volunteered with great enthusiasm to fight for their country. These men were cultured, sensitive people who were able to express the reality and horror of the conflict. Their poetry is part of what makes us civilised.
Yvette Roblin, Cardiff

Commanding officer

Horrendous though the casualties were, they were far less than the tens of millions who died in the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. The poets who wrote of the futility of the war and the incompetent generals were not representative of those in the trenches. Some had done no fighting, and the majority were from public schools.

Revisionists who revile Haig should remember that when he died in 1928 more than 100,000 people filed past his coffin as it lay in state in Edinburgh.
Dr Barry Clayton, Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire

Crime of Passchendaele

If Haig was such an able commander as Hastings argues, why did he choose to fight at Passchendaele in 1917? Hundreds of fit and thousands of injured British soldiers drowned in the mud for a few yards of ground of no strategic significance. There are pages of letters attached to the former prime minister David Lloyd George’s views on Haig in his book War Memoirs, in which soldiers of all ranks wrote that the generals should have been hanged over Passchendaele.
John Fisher Kew, London

Soldiers not above the law

THE notion that terrorist attacks within the UK have been deterred by the presence of British troops in Helmand since 2006 requires serious scrutiny and definite proof —  I doubt it (“Hammond: I’ll save troops from lawyers”, News, last week).

Furthermore, the suggestion that British forces should be provided with “combat immunity” under law is a cause for deep concern. This issue was under review in 1972 in anticipation of similar incidents during Operation Motorman, the clearance of so-called “no go” areas in Northern Ireland.

Fortunately, and rightly, legal opinion has remained that British soldiers were, are and always will be subject to the common law, regardless of provocation. The alternatives are far worse — we have only to examine Bloody Sunday as an example.

After 37 years of military service, from the age of 18 to 55, in the Parachute Regiment, where my own actions were on occasion subject to scrutiny, I cannot but applaud those who insist that this fundamental legal requirement is placed upon  all our servicemen and women.
David Benest (Colonel, retired), Pewsey, Wiltshire

No comment

Please do not use Tony Blair again to comment (“Combat this evil where it takes root — in our schools”, Focus, last week). His legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan will affect people, especially service families, for years to come.
Ralph Marshall, Bournemouth

Shale gas regulations not set to go up in smoke

NOWHERE in our recent report on shale gas and oil did we call for a “bonfire of the regulations”, as Charles Clover alleges (“Between ban and frack-for-all is a way to share the shale bounty”, Comment, last week). We specifically point out that the UK’s existing regulatory regime is rigorous and thorough and well regarded internationally — indeed we suggested improvements, including that well inspectors should be independent and not employed by the drilling company, as can be the case at present. What we did call for was more effective regulation through reduced complexity and better co-ordination of the various authorities involved.

Nor do we say that a cabinet committee should be established to push through fracking ahead of carbon-free forms of energy. What we do call for is a cabinet committee to improve co-ordination between the various government departments involved, so that we can get on with developing the potentially huge benefits much faster.
Lord MacGregor of Pulham Market Chairman, House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee

Follow rules of engagement on paying for dinner dates

IN AN unusual, though refreshing, burst of feminist “we want the best bits” honesty, Katie Roiphe points out that women still expect men to pay on a date, although males are increasingly reluctant to do so (“Why he should pay”, Style, last week). The simple rules are: man invites woman, man pays; woman invites man, woman insists on paying, as men are victims of the seemingly coy but cunningly money-saving reverse invitation gambit; and for internet or agency dates the costs are shared equally.

If Roiphe has found herself on a date where the man is reluctant to pay, my suggestion would be to follow her own advice and “man up” and pay her share.
Dr Steven Field, Wokingham, Berkshire

Out of date

Roiphe does a disservice to women by suggesting it is acceptable or desirable for men to pay for dinner dates. Is she not aware of the patriarchal culture of entitlement — “I’ve bought her dinner, so I’ve bought the right to her body” — that is the real subtext?

It has nothing to do with dewy-eyed nonsense about men “protecting” grateful, dependent little women by buying their dinner. I find it depressing that after 40 years of feminism  anyone could still write this in a national newspaper.
Dr Barbara Reay, Inchture, Perthshire

English language and literature A-level is the genuine article

UNIVERSITY English represents higher-education English departments across the UK. The English language and literature A-level is not, as Eleanor Mills suggests, a new qualification (“Let English A-level stick to the Bard’s booky wook”, News Review, last week). We have no idea why the Department for Education (DfE) has pronounced that pupils taking such a qualification may be denied places at “good universities” as it is currently accepted by universities across the country, including almost all Russell Group institutions.

All exam bodies, including Oxford Cambridge and RSA, whose proposed new syllabus has generated so much media noise over the past fortnight, must adhere to subject content identified by the DfE, in which, for English language and literature syllabuses, the study of spoken language is a key requirement. It draws on ideas and methods from literary criticism and the study of language to analyse both literary and non-literary texts, spoken and written. There are obvious benefits in introducing teenagers to the rigorous analysis of the forms of discourse they encounter in their daily lives (such as Twitter feeds) as well as those with which they are less likely to be familiar (such as the proceedings of parliamentary select committees).
Professor Susan Bruce, Chairwoman, University English

Points

Voice of America
It is a triumph for feminism that Michelle Obama took the place of her husband in his weekly radio address to America in order to publicise the case of the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls, but was it constitutional (“Find our girls and save their dreams”, Focus, last week)?
Nicholas Coates, London SW6

Actions, not words
Christina Lamb writes about the Nigerian teenagers being held by Boko Haram. The girls are tragic pawns in a morally desolate place. Yet western summits still go ahead in a country whose governance seems distorted and inept. Until the West addresses the rights of the Nigerian people, nothing will change.
Jim Cosgrove, Lismore, Co Waterford

Black mark
Your article “Teen Victoria’s diary reveals first view of ‘blasted’ Black Country”, News, last week) left me incandescent. The area takes its name from the deep Staffordshire coal seam and has nothing whatsoever to do with the thoughts or opinions of the 19th-century monarch. In addition, far from the Black Country wishing to live down the name, as stated in your newspaper, it is a badge of honour for its inhabitants. Incidentally, none of Birmingham and practically none of Wolverhampton falls within the Black Country, which largely consists of the area between these two cities.
Martin Bonnor, Wolverhampton

Grammar lesson
There is a growing acceptance of the grammatically incorrect “myself” instead of “I”. Even Sir Richard Branson (“Buzz Branson stuck on launch pad again”, News, last week) says: “And then, summer or late summer, myself and my family will go into space.” What happened to “my family and I”?
Michael Jenkins, Leatherhead, Surrey

On song
Camilla Long (“Hairy moments in Eurovision apocalypse”, News, last week) had me laughing uproariously in spite of the doom and gloom elsewhere in the news.
Brian Stephens, Penarth, South Glamorgan

More than a woman
David Cameron says he  wants “a woman” to be the next director-general of the BBC, as if they were some homogeneous subspecies (“PM wants woman to head BBC”, News, last week). If he does appoint a woman, all the newspapers will refer to her for ever as “the first female director-general”, as if her sex were the only thing to say about her. You might as well label Winston Churchill “the bald prime minister”.
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Northwood, London

Lapse in concentration
Your article “Cocaine on tap in drinking water” (News, last week) reminded me of a similar drug story in the 1960s that highlighted the fact the pill was contaminating London water, and that it might feminise men, who could go on to develop breasts. It turned out that to ingest the equivalent of one pill, a Londoner would have to  drink a gallon of water  every day for 40 years.
Tim Kenny, Cavendish, Suffolk

Private failures
The headline “NHS misses tumour the size of a football” (News, last week) cannot be justified. Private contractors were responsible for taking the scan and then reading it wrongly. The patient himself objected to radiology being contracted out in this way and praised his NHS treatment. The mystifying aspect of this story — apart from the tumour being missed — is that two private companies were indemnified from legal action, so the NHS picked up the bill for compensation.
Jennifer Rees, Cardiff

Corrections and clarifications

A report about the property market (“Welcome to the jungle”, Home, March 9) stated that Douglas Allen estate agency advocates selling by “informal tender”, charges the purchaser a percentage fee based on the property’s value and “picks up the usual fee” from the seller. In fact, the agency charges the seller only a small administration fee of £150 plus VAT. We also accept that sale by tender is a legitimate marketing method. We are happy to clarify the position and apologise for the error and any embarrassment caused.

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

Chow Yun-fat, actor, 59; Tina Fey, actress and screenwriter, 44; Brad Friedel, footballer, 43; John Higgins, snooker player, 39; Miriam Margolyes, actress, 73; Jacques Santer, former president of European Commission, 77; Nobby Stiles, footballer, 72; Rick Wakeman, keyboard player, 65; Toyah Willcox, singer, 56

Anniversaries

1804 Napoleon declared emperor of France; 1944 Monte Cassino falls to the allies; 1965 Israeli spy Eli Cohen hanged in Damascus;  1980 Mount St Helens erupts in Washington state, killing 57 people; 1991 Helen Sharman becomes Britain’s first astronaut, on an eight-day mission aboard a Soyuz spacecraft

Telegraph:

SIR – As an accountancy student, I was taught that tax evasion was illegal. Tax avoidance, on the other hand, provided it did not infringe the provisions of the law, was considered to be a worthy pursuit.

SIR – In North Carolina the best they could offer us in a well-known fast food establishment by way of a cup of tea (Letters, May 15) was to put a mug of sweet iced tea in the microwave. We had coffee.

SIR – Reading Sarah Rainey’s piece about Dr Richard Hughes (“I saw them through the best and worst times”) made me realise that my husband, also a Richard – Dr Dick to all and sundry – shared an experience of general practice that was almost identical.

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

Published 18 May 2014 02:30 AM

Madam – Your Letter of the Week writer (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014), suggested that Sinn Fein “took pride in the peace process” and should therefore “now engage in a warring process and say sorry for the nightmare years”.

Also in this section

Hope: a thing of magic

Youth recognises political promises

Democracy valued

I suggest that Sinn Fein‘s current attitude to the peace process is simply because it best serves their future political ambitions. As for saying sorry, that’s not in their script – as it would be very much a vote-losing exercise, particularly in Northern Ireland. For the same reason their fine representatives at Westminster will continue to refuse to take the Parliamentary Oath. According to my dictionary, democracy is defined as “government by all the people, direct or representative”. Sinn Fein is therefore denying the most basic of democratic expectations to their constituents.

Over 100,000 people in the relevant constituencies were non-Sinn Fein voters at the last UK general election. There are three questions that need answering: Why is Sinn Fein so ready to praise “the democratic process” in other situations and declare, in recent times, that they have “moved on”? Why is this situation allowed to continue by the UK government, given the present successful application of democratic local government within Northern Ireland? Sinn Fein should be told that it will not be accepted at the time of the next UK general election in May 2015.

Finally, the question of flying the Union flag on public buildings in Northern Ireland has caused strong protests, physically and otherwise recently but, on the question of the loss of their basic democratic nights, the affected voters in Northern Ireland have remained silent over many years. To me this is particularly odd, given that they are still required to pay the same taxes as those who have full representation by their MPs at Westminster.

John Crossland,

Crawley, W Sussex, UK

HOPE: A THING OF MAGIC

Madam – Hope is magic.

So here’s the bit where I’m supposed to fly. Be optimistic. Successful. Only I’m falling not flying, and the sun’s warm and something in me tells me even if my wings appeared in this moment, strong and wide and beautiful as I could ever dare to imagine, that somehow the self-doubt, the bad news, and the scars of the past would make me some kind of ridiculous Icarus because people are watching and I might fail again.

And in the fleeting moments of confidence I’d be blinded to my own flaws and I’d burn and the world would witness.

And the usual chorus of ‘I told you so’ and ‘we always said she’s no good’ would be the last song I’d ever hear.

Rising time after time is hard. Knowing each night when I lay my head on my pillow that the odds are against me and have been for a while, and knowing the morning comes and I have as much power over that as I do over the banks and the government tomorrow, makes me wish for sleep that I never have to wake from again.

But . . . there is a thing called hope. And I believe hope is a kind of magic – even though we might get so beaten down we forget sometimes. And it is said hope is a dangerous thing. It is true there’s danger in hope.

The risk of another letter with that crushing red line and those killer words ‘Final Reminder.’ And the knock on the door or the look of pity in the eyes of someone who sees you and doesn’t understand because where they stand today, the waters you’re drowning in now haven’t reached them yet. But they probably will. And some of us will inevitably drown. Or suffer so much damage we never deserved, that when and if it’s all over, what they leave us with of who we once were will be different.

And it will have made us hard. Cold. Without hope.

I can’t pay all my bills. I can’t promise I won’t want to die sometimes. I can’t give what I want to give to those who have less than me. I can’t say I have any clue where or how the light is coming in. But I look for it anyway because of hope.

Someone gave me hope just by listening to what I needed to tell them. And like a tattoo that reminds me, I come back. The hope an angel has given to me comes back too. Day after day. Week after long and, at times, suffocating week .

And I absolutely, defiantly and forever refuse to believe in a world without the kind of magic that hope is.

Name and address with Editor

ENDA ON BORROWED TIME

Madam – Your editorial (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014) raises questions about Mr Kenny following Mr Shatter. Similar to a broken clock being occasionally correct this will happen, if not sooner, then at the next election. It is fast becoming obvious that whistleblowers are among the few assets we have left.

Some would say that simply on the basis of his smugness and arrogance, Minister Hogan should also go. Why should he be allowed to coast to the next election before moving from one gravy train to another in Europe, leaving a path of destruction in his wake? The current class are not concerned about the level of water charges in two years’ time because they know they will not be involved.

Give me a politician like Leo Varadkar or some of our current Independents (and some notables from different parties in the past) who actually speak out and make decisions and I will support them. My problem in the next election is that there are very few of these, and Mr Varadkar’s problem is that he must stand away from the current crop, before he too becomes contaminated. He is obviously a future candidate for Taoiseach but I can’t see him waiting around as long as Enda did.

Furthermore, unlike Enda, he wouldn’t want it by default.

Michael Duffy,

Co Clare

YOUTH RECOGNISES POLITICAL PROMISES

Madam – So the canvassing is on again, handbills are being passed through the door like no one’s business, promises are being made left, right and centre; posters are being put up on high vantage points on the telephone poles; people are shaking hands with people they never met before, at least not since the last election.

New schools will be built, student grants restored, hospital wards re-opened, pensions will rise, tax will come down, jobs will be guaranteed, roads brought up to standard – the same balderdash we’ve heard come every election time and numerous lies will be told to young and old alike.

The youth of today will not, however, succumb to the put-on promises like their parents did. For years, families have been turned against each other over politics, and God help anyone mentioning FG in a FF house, and vice versa.

My late father left Ireland for the US in the the last century not talking to his sister, all over their preference of government. Opposing deputies can be found with arms around each other in the Dail bar, singing The West’s Awake, with their poor followers thinking they’re working their ass off up in the Dail.

One rotten potato will rot the whole pit of spuds, and by God we have seen some rotten potatoes down the years.

What a sad state of affairs that the invalided, deaf, blind and poor have to pay for the sins of others. The once famous island of saints and scholars is now the island of thieves and blackguards and the emigration train never was as busy.

So come on, young people, get out there and vote in who you think may get you off the emigration train, the dole queue, and the road to nowhere.

You are the future of this once proud little gem of an isle.

Murt Hunt,

Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo

DEMOCRACY VALUED

Madam – Maurice O’Connell is overstating the case when he implies that it was the 1916 rising alone that was ‘undemocratic’ and that ‘left us with a toxic legacy’ (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014).

Some blame for the toxic legacy rests in London. There, between 1912 and 1914, the parliament, at the head of the most powerful and populous empire in the world, passed an Act giving the people living on the island of Ireland Home Rule.

But this most powerful parliament failed to implement its own Act when nearly half a million unionists signed a covenant ‘to use all means necessary’ to stop its implementation. That was at least as undemocratic as what happened in Dublin in 1916.

That caused a minority of Irish nationalists to turn to physical force. The euphoria over Home Rule had marginalised physical force. Even Patrick Pearse was on Home Rule platforms in 1912.

So the rebellion in 1916 was no more undemocratic than the failure of the most powerful parliament in the world to implement its own Act.

It took the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, endorsed by the vast majority on this island, to bring that toxic legacy to an end.

Our present problems tell us that democracy is not perfect and our governments can be as liable as the British to make mistakes.

But surely our free press and our democratic leadership are capable of ensuring that what Maurice O’Connell calls the ‘principles and values’ of this constitutional democracy are not ‘thrown on the rubbish heap of history’.

A Leavy,

Sutton, Dublin 13

EMPIRE IS GONE, NOW GET OVER IT

Madam –I refer to Mr Barrett’s, letter ‘Catholicism and the fight for freedom’, (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014).

I seem to recall myself that in 1845, Ottoman Sultan Abdulmecid declared his intention to send £10,000 to Irish farmers, but Queen Victoria (the famine queen) requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, because she had sent only £2,000. The sultan is supposed to have sent the £1,000 along with three ships full of food. The British administration tried to block the ships, but the food arrived secretly at Drogheda harbour. A letter in the Ottoman archives of Turkey, written by Irish notables explicitly thanks the sultan for his help.

Mr Barrett would be wise to come to terms with the natural end to the defunct British empire, and undertake a new hobby.

Margaret Mitten,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 14

KERRIGAN EXPOSES UNPALATABLE TRUTH

Madam – Perhaps J Dawson (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014), should stop buying the Sunday Indo and instead confine him or herself to the tabloids.

Gene Kerrigan is, and has been for years, like a light shining into the dark crevices of Irish public life. He exposes the truth, however unpalatable it may be, to the party hacks of whatever persuasion.

For my part, I look forward with relish to his articles.

Keep up the good work, Gene!

Paul Mullan,

Navan, Co Meath

MOBILES AND FAGS A DANGEROUS DUO

Madam – There is a lot of talk at the moment about the use of mobile phones while driving. I think the practice of smoking while driving is dangerous and should be banned. Just think the fag in one hand and the wheel in the other! The smoke from the fag blinding the driver, so it is very dangerous.

Seamus Denton,

Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

EMIGRATION VERY REAL EXPERIENCE

Madam – I found Pat Fitzpatrick’s article ‘A Decade of Difference’ (Life, Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014), to be extremely shallow and out of touch with reality. It’s an insult to put emigration on a list with subjects that have no real substance.

The tone of Mr Fitzpatrick’s description of emigration led me to ask what planet has he be living on and maybe his only experience of emigration is his dad paying for his gap year abroad. Emigration has a huge effect on families and communities and from my own experience it certainly is no joke even if you are prepared to make it into one, Mr Fitzpatrick. You have the same mentality as our Government; out of touch with what is going on with young people in this country.

Connor Burke,

Co Kildare

LOOK AT YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE, PAT

Madam – I have just read your headline article ‘Rabbitte: High taxes will bring down coalition government’. (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014). Pat Rabbitte needs to look to his own department. His handling of Ireland’s natural resources, together with the giveaway of the Whitegate power plant and Bord Gais Energy is nothing short of disastrous. He should add this to the reasons why the Government could fall.

Joe Brennan,

Co Cork

HISTORY LESSON FOR ECONOMIST

Madam – Marc Coleman writes: “It is a sad fact that too few of our politicians have a thorough grasp of history”. (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014). Sad indeed! Marc then proceeds to describe King Louis XIV as the grandfather of King Louis XVI. He was, in fact, his great, great, great grandfather. People in greenhouses, Marc …

David Kelly,

Stillorgan, Dublin 18

DANDELIONS PUT SMILE ON MY FACE

Madam – There must be something wrong with me. I love dandelions. I love their bright yellow colour. The fact they pop up every year unaided and unfarmed. In times gone by our ancestors used them for food, flavours and medicine. They are also one of the first summer flowers and are there to provide a large amount of food for the emerging bees – the real farmers which go around, unpaid and help to increase nature’s bounty. The bees are just emerging from the winter hibernation in response to the growing heat and light, the same factors that brought on the dandelions. Why would anybody want to kill these magnificent creatures?

These are not weeds. They are food and medicine for us and for the rest of nature, provided free for our benefit.

Ayla Mahon,

Kildare

EMER IS CORRECT ABOUT COUNCILLORS

Madam – Cllr Dermot Lacey wrote (Sunday Independent, May 11, 2014), “Reluctant as I am to disagree with a constituent, Emer O’Kelly (Sunday Independent, May 4, 2014) has tempted me. Her comments about the role of councillors are ill-informed and unfair… Contrary to Ms O’Kelly’s implication, the adoption of a budget is a reserved function for councillors”.

But should councillors have any reserve function?

In 1876 a speed limit of 6mph was introduced in Ireland and in 2014 it is a reserve function of councillors to set speed limits. Councillors must consult with organisations including the Gardai before setting speed limits – but having consulted, consent is not required.

According to the Irish Independent (March 7, 2003) car-nage on Dublin city roads was cut by 74 per cent as a result of traffic-calming measures but there was an increase of 26 per cent in the number of deaths in Dublin county over the same period. Dublin now claims to have the safest roads of all EU capital cities.

Up to 4,000 drivers receive speeding penalty points weekly on roads with incorrect speed limits set by councillors using the reserve function.

Ms O’Kelly’s comments about councillors appear well-informed and fair.

Frank Cullinane,

Dublin 11

19 May2014 Washing the Drive

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate the have to clear their entertainment expenses Priceless

Wash the drive high pressure breaks

No Scrabbletoday, we watch the Pirates of Penzance

Obituary:

Guardian:

We need to look closer to home (Scandal of Chile’s baby-snatching priests, 16 May). Thousands of young unmarried girls in the UK were in a similar position in the 1950s to 70s. I like many others was coerced into giving up my baby in the 1965 by the Catholic church. My only crime was that I was not married. We were never told that we were entitled to free nursery places and that there was help out there to enable us to care for our babies. We were demoralised, browbeaten and humiliated by the church and made to carry out hard physical labour, such as scrubbing floors on our hands and knees until just before our babies were born.

Richard Walden, chairman of the Independent Schools Association, claims state schools fail to provide pupils with a moral compass because of a relentless focus on exam results and league tables (Report, 15 May). Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, retorts that there is no evidence for this failure; indeed, those who led us into the financial crash were typically not state-schooled. I suggest that we consult the evidence. The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues is conducting the most extensive research ever undertaken into moral virtues and values among schoolchildren in the UK. Initial findings indicate that year 10 children seem to be scoring lower on some traditional virtues, such as honesty and courage, than we would ideally want to see. Results so far, however, indicate no systematic differences between state-funded and independent schools. A list of the schools that seem to perform best in our surveys includes representatives of both school types, so does a list of the lowest performing schools.

Simon Jenkins (Miliband must give up his love of state intervention, 14 May) has an uncharacteristically stereotyped view of the relationship between state and markets. He altogether omits the central fact that the epic financial crash of 2008-09 has made the hitherto prevailing ideology of freewheeling capitalism – governments get out of the way and leave it all to the markets – untenable. In the quarter-century of managed capitalism 1948-73, UK income growth per capita grew at 2.4% a year. Britain broadly paid its way in the world in traded goods, unemployment averaged 2% and there were no banking crashes to speak of.

Independent:

I suggest that any voters who are seduced by the political wiseacres’ reassurances that the EU elections don’t matter and don’t affect our daily lives should remind themselves of Nigel Farage’s remark near the end of the second debate with Nick Clegg: “I don’t just want us to come out of the EU, I want all the countries to come out.”

This would mean the collapse of the Union and a return to the Europe of the inter-war years – nations trying desperately to survive and to negotiate non-aggression or  mutual help treaties to try to avoid being swallowed up by powerful neighbours. Then a minority of European countries were democracies whereas now all 28 EU members are and it’s a condition of entry for aspiring new members.

The elections do matter to every one of us and the best candidates to send to Brussels are those who will work tirelessly for the successful evolution of the Union, in which they wholeheartedly believe.

Geoff S Harris

Warwick

Nigel Farage and his disciples tell you that the UK is the sixth-strongest economy in the world. But they do not mention how strong we would be outside the European Union. I suggest our ranking would fall hugely.

On Thursday, if you are absolutely fed up with the sound of Mr Farage and his followers, then do go out and vote. Ideally for the Liberal Democrats.

It is Ukip who are still fighting a war within Europe. The rest of us have moved on. Next year it will be 70 years since the end of the Second World War. Europe together has got stronger and will continue to do so, even without us. But, the UK  will not, as a single nation; especially if we also lose Scotland.

Richard Grant

Ringwood, Hampshire

At a poorly attended public meeting called by Farage’s party in Bridport, I caught some of the magical intellectual quality of debate characteristic of Ukip when confronting a well-informed heckler.

The organisers instantly began an angry shouting response, greatly assisted by a forbidding matronly supporter who grunted, turned and spat out that comfortable old rural greeting, “Peasant”. Ah, the spirit of Olde Englande is alive and kicking in rural Dorset! I doff my cap in quiet despair.

Andy Summers

Burton Bradstock, Dorset

Mark Steel’s thrill at Ukip’s immigration over-estimates is entirely specious and misplaced (16 May). Immigration from new EU members is now running at the size of a mid-size British town every year.

The immigrants claim entry-level jobs that would – should – be done by our own workers, they consume housing, education, health-care resources, without any upfront payment, and impose remorseless social change and dislocation on British communities already exhausted by change and bullied into silence by such cultural fascists as Mr Steel.

David Burns

Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

I am nearing 70. Gays do not make me feel uncomfortable and never have. Nigel Farage, on the other hand, does make me feel very uncomfortable and I find him “distasteful if not viscerally repugnant” (report, 12 May). So, we just about cancel each other out.

Sandra Semple

Exeter

Terrorists who kill for a religion

Yasmin Qureshi (letter, 17 May) complains that Boko Haram is always referred to by the media as an Islamist terrorist group, whereas the IRA was never referred to as a Catholic, or the Tamil Tigers as a Hindu terrorist group.

Surely this is because Boko Haram (and other al-Qa’ida-inspired groups) commit their crimes in the name of, and to advance the cause of, their religion. The IRA and the Tamils committed their crimes for nationalist political ends, to which their religion was irrelevant. I don’t remember anyone from the IRA claiming that Protestantism was evil, or that Catholicism was the only true faith.

When crimes are committed for primarily religious ends, the religion of the criminals is relevant and should be reported.

Ian Dickins

Wimborne, Dorset

Privatisation  marches on

Linda Kaucher (letter, 8 May) raises the issue of privatisation of the public sector in her discussion of the Pfizer bid for AstraZeneca. In one government agency, the Land Registry, this process has recently culminated in the proposal that it should cease to be a government department and be established as a service-delivery company. The proposal includes options for moving assets to the private sector where there is “no longer a strong policy reason for continued public ownership”.

Registration of any property confers title on the registered proprietors – and this record and thus title is held within the Registry offices – paper title deeds are no longer “necessary”. Thus, this change affects all house-owners, property owners and potential house-owners. It is proposed to create a private company to deliver the operational side of the Registry, with only a small central office retained.

Land Registry staff would become employees of a private, commercially run (profit-making?) company, which could one day be taken over or bought by any other commercially run company. The public-service role of the staff would disappear and their responsibilities would be to the company – not the Government. The change has not been widely advertised, the recent public consultation on it was relatively short and most people are not aware of it and the possible consequences.

One can envisage a situation as has arisen with our power providers whereby the registered title to all properties and land would be in the hands of an overseas company.

Hilary Mobbs

Leeds

Inspectors call on independent schools

Readers might be forgiven for thinking that Michael Gove’s idea of the state inspectorate in England inspecting English independent schools is a new one; but this already happens in Wales, carried out by Estyn (the Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales).

We believe independent schools have nothing to fear from such an arrangement and we found the inspectors fair and open in their assessments (we were rated excellent in all areas). Indeed, the process provides a useful link between state and independent sectors, and members of senior leadership teams in independent schools – including our own director of studies – are often Estyn inspectors.

Independent schools do vary in quality (hence the service that the Independent Schools’ Inspectorate provides) but is public money really going to be spent in England on inspecting independent schools? At least when an independent school is inspected by ISI the school has to pay for it themselves.

David Lawson

Director of Music

Monmouth School

Formidable writer in the library

When I was working in Morningside library in the late 1960s, in the Edinburgh area where Mary Stewart (obituary, 17 May) lived, the writer was an occasional visitor.

She was necessarily heavily disguised in headscarf and dark glasses; Stewart would have been mobbed if her readers had spotted their favourite novelist. Multiple copies of her latest book were ordered to meet the demand.

When she began researching her Merlin series, she chanced on me for help in locating some books. As I guided her to the appropriate shelves, she commanded: “Do not tell anyone what I am writing! Anyone!”

“Did you think when you had your first book published,” I asked, “that your books would be such a success?”

“Of course” the modest scribbler snorted crossly, “I would not have written anything if I had not known I would be a success!”

Geoffrey Elborn

London N1

Bob Crow’s  socialism

I was pleased to see the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) mentioned for the first time in The Independent (“Could the new Bob Crow bring RMT in from the cold?”, 3 May) but disappointed that Andy McSmith got his facts wrong about its foundation. For the record TUSC was co-founded in 2010 by Bob Crow, who sat on its national steering committee first in a personal capacity and then, after an RMT conference decision in 2012, as an official representative of the union.

Clive Heemskerk

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition London E1

Rehabilitation without books?

Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling has a “strong commitment to rehabilitation” (report, 16 May). How does this square with his vindictive and stupid policy of banning books for prisoners?

Bernard McGinley

St Leonards-on-Sea,  East Sussex

Times:

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 18 May 2014

42 Comments

SIR – You recently reported on the question of political abuse of Interpol, leading to the wrongful arrest of recognised refugees and exiled activists. You quote Interpol’s Secretary-General as saying that problematic cases are just “small complaints within a big picture”.

SIR – While I accept that David Cameron’s stance on Europe is the best that is on offer from any leader of the major parties (and the best from a Conservative leader since Iain Duncan Smith), there are still two questions that he needs to answer before he can be sure of my vote in 2015.

Irish Times:

Sir, – The time has come for Ireland to join Nato. Membership of Nato would represent another step in the modernisation of Ireland, a step away from old fears and outdated ways of thinking. Participation would reflect a more sophisticated conception of Ireland’s place in the global community. Ireland cannot expect to reap rewards from partnerships with democratic nations, whether economic or political, if it does not play its part. With Ireland’s economy struggling, participation in Nato would bring renewed credibility to the country as a valued partner.

Russia’s aggression in Ukraine highlights Nato’s vital importance to the free, modern, democratic nations of Europe. However, Nato’s mission is much more elemental than the short-term goal of stopping Russian power plays. Like the European Union, Nato ultimately seeks to create a zone of perpetual peace in Europe. The EU’s economy is the largest in the world when viewed collectively. With Europe united together in collective defence under the aegis of Nato and aided by the vast strength of the United States, Nato becomes an unassailable citadel. This strength creates a safe haven for democracy, economic growth, individual liberty and cultural expression.

This is the most important mission of our time, the creation of a lasting peace and the perpetual preservation of the liberties we hold most dear.

Ireland can no longer watch the world from the sidelines. Faced with deadly non-state extremism and powerful, corrupt regimes that do not share the values most treasured in the West, the world is no longer safe for democracy. We have a moral obligation not to let our planet slip back into the horrific wars and great power intrigues of the 20th century. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL PATRICK

CAMPBELL,

Columbia Pike,

Arlington, Virginia.

Sir, – The actions of EU foreign ministers are only fuelling the crisis in Ukraine.

Both the EU and the US quickly legitimised the government of dubious legality in Kiev whose first declarations included a diktat to restrict the rights of Russian-speaking ethnic groups (now thankfully rescinded) and an application to join Nato. The cabinet includes six extreme ultra-nationalists, including defence secretary Andriy Parubiy, a founding member of the far-right Svoboda party. Is it any wonder ethnic Russians might be worried?

Rather than attempt to calm tensions, EU foreign ministers have barely disguised their favouritism in gleefully acting as the tools of US and Nato foreign policy in Europe in its continued military encirclement of Russia, a policy that is only playing into the hands of Mr Putin and his own extreme nationalist acolytes.

Instead of echoing the rampant militarism of the US, EU and Nato, the Irish Government should call for a genuine demilitarisation and de-escalation of the situation and a facilitation of serious peace talks that recognise the legitimate fears and concerns of all ethnic groups within Ukraine with the aim of the development of a non-aligned, nuclear-free country.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore and Minister of State for European Affairs Paschal Donohue could start by requesting their EU fellow ministers to call on Nato to cancel its planned military exercise, Repent Trident, in Ukraine this July and to declare that they will not ask the Ukrainian government to join Nato. The last thing the people of Ukraine need is for US, British and other troops to be romping around their territory stirring up further ethnic tensions. – Yours, etc,

JIM ROCHE,

Irish Anti-War

Movement,

PO Box 9260,

Dublin 1.

Sir, – I agree with Eoin Daly (“Treatment of non-Catholics urgent human rights issue”, Education, May 13th) that the treatment of non-Catholic parents and children is an urgent human rights issue.

I and my children have direct experience of what I believe is discrimination against us as non-Catholics.

Our children were “lucky” as non-Catholics to get a place in our local school, as it is a Catholic ethos school. We were told that had there been any pressure on numbers applying to the school, our first child would have not received a place there. This is despite the fact that we live in a rural area and the nearest alternative non-Catholic school was a further seven miles away.

We would have been subjected to unwarranted longer commutes and simple things like a school bus would not have been a possibility. We were further told that under no circumstances could our children be excluded from religion class as there was no facility for that.

This meant that for the eight years of primary school, our children received a religious education that was in direct conflict with our family’s beliefs.

The focus on divestment is all very well but will in no way help non-Catholic families in rural areas who will not have access to alternative schools for the most part.

I also think it’s a terrible pity that religious and non-religious as a rule cannot be educated together.

We should have more communication between groups and this should start from a young age. I believe that in Educate Together schools parents who wish their children to have religious sacraments can do so but are prepared outside school time. Could this not be a model for all State schools, with some hours set aside for religious preparation but still letting children in general be educated together?

I believe that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and the Department of Education have failed our non-Catholic children by not addressing this issue in a comprehensive manner. – Yours, etc,

EMMA SMITH,

Hollywood,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – In response to Mark Byrne (May 8th), I would like to say that as one of two working parents with one child in primary school education, I feel privileged that my children have the benefit of free education in this country, in a school system where they are safe and well cared for, and fortunate that we have the right to democratically elect our public representatives.

Having had more than three months’ notice that elections would be held on May 23rd , we were able to make alternative arrangements for childcare (expensive though that is) on this day. Elections don’t exactly happen every month (or even every year for that matter), so I fail to see what the big issue is. Also, is Mr Byrne too old to remember the joy of a day off school? – Yours, etc,

EILEEN DILLANE,

Whitethorn,

Douglas Road,

Cork.

Sir, – On Friday, the people of Ireland will have the opportunity to elect 11 Irish members of the European Parliament.

The choices we make on May 23rd will have a relevance for international issues such as climate change, trade, taxation and energy, and will therefore have a direct influence not just on us, but also on the rest of Europe and on the global community.

In Ireland and around the world, people have long fought for the right to have a say in the way their country is being run. And still today, millions of people do not have a say in the policies that affect them.

In most cases this is not because they do not have a vote, but because they have no influence on the centres of decision making.

For millions of poor people in Europe and beyond, decisions made (or not made, as the case may be) in European capitals about finance, trade, climate and agriculture can be the difference between prosperity or dismay.

One of the great challenges of the 21st century is to reduce the alienation and marginalisation experienced by billions of people, and to acknowledge that our decisions on what may seem local issues have global repercussions.

On Friday, we can use our voice and our vote, to choose a better future for ourselves, but also for all those without a say. – Yours, etc,

HANS ZOMER,

Director,

Dóchas,

Sir, – Kevin O’Sullivan (May 13th) laments the loss of the “big houses” – and presumably the corresponding redistribution of land during the Irish “adjustment”. The feudal system did, indeed, provide secure employment for the serfs! The proportion of the £14,000 bill for a one-night stay in the Shard hotel that will “trickle down to the cleaning staff, manufacturers, food suppliers, etc” is insignificant. The actual cost of the stay would be a small fraction of that sum. Most of it becomes profit for the wealthy owners of the Shard. The wealth of the super-rich is protected in tax havens; ultimately, this has a negative effect on the local economy. – Yours, etc,

DEBRA JAMES,

Primrose Lodge,

Cummerduff,

Gorey,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – The first order of business for any well-run commercial undertaking is that money should trickle absolutely nowhere except into the pockets of the owners. Paying anybody for anything is a drain on profit and no business person will pay one farthing more than they can get away with. – Yours, etc,

DAVID SMITH,

Harmonstown Road,

Artane,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – Rather than inviting a representative of the House of Hohenzollern, as Felix Larkin suggests (May 13th), would it not make more sense to invite the president of Germany to represent Ireland’s “gallant allies in Europe”, in the words of the 1916 Proclamation?

And also President Barack Obama, to represent Ireland’s “exiled children in America”? – Yours, etc,

ED KELLY,

St Helens,

Merseyside, England.

Sir, – This is just another letter, from just another worried daughter, about just another sick man, on just another hospital trolley, for just another 48 hours. But Friday is not just another day. I have just another vote. Sadly, it won’t be going to this Government. On healthcare, they are just another disappointment. – Yours, etc,

SARAH KIERAN,

Windy Gap,

Meelick, Co Clare.

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Published 19 May 2014 02:30 AM

* How does one decide who to vote for in the upcoming European elections? Should one vote at all? Sure aren’t they all the same?

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No, they are not. There is no one answer but we can look to the history of our candidates in Europe to assess those who are looking to get re-elected.

How do we do this? It is very much up to the individual. Does one vote along party lines? Yes, that is an option and a very real one, if for no other reason than no matter how good or how bad the political party structures are within this State, they have done some good for many and will be rewarded as such from those who benefit from the current political set-up. This is an indication of our traditions and is a part of who we are.

But politics should be more than traditional faith. Politics should be about identifying and solving problems. Our politicians continuously speak of the economy – so what is the main problem with our economy and how have our MEPs dealt with it in Europe?

To my mind, the main cause of our problems is the European/troika-led campaign of austerity. Tighten our belts as it were and yes, in fairness, the excesses had to be pared back. But who benefits? Do people with terminal illnesses getting their medical card removed need their belts tightened? I don’t think so. I definitely don’t think so when the maths behind austerity have been proven to be totally incorrect.

This mathematical fact has been pointed out to the architects of austerity: the ECB, the IMF and the EU. They have not listened, why would they? The ECB is making a fortune in interest payments from us. The ECB in particular had a somewhat ‘private’ interference in our government’s decision-making process through Jean-Claude Trichet‘s letter.

I don’t like this personally, so I’m looking to see how the European Parliament has helped us to assess whether the current MEPs will deserve my vote or whether I vote at all.

As modern democratic politics is and has been for some time more about information than economics, I decided to have a little root on the interweb to confirm my admitted cynicism. I got a little shock: the European Parliament has actually tried to help Ireland – it held a vote to force the ECB to publish the Trichet letter. They have, I have to say, proved that they have our back.

And how did our current ‘Irish’ MEPs vote on this issue? I could tell you that the results of that particular test of ‘Irishness’ was not what I expected from some ‘Irish’ people in Europe.

Who did what and how each MEP voted is a matter of fact. I could list the votes as published for each Irish MEP . . . but then I would be stopping you – yes, you – from finding out for yourself, and to do that would be an insult to your intelligence and mine, would it not?

DERMOT RYAN

ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

IT’S IMPORTANT TO USE OUR POWER

* Is it melodramatic to suggest that Friday, May 23, is a ‘Day of Destiny’ for us, the Plain People of Ireland?

Suddenly the hills are alive with the sound of commentators diagnosing the loss of direction (and leadership) in the Government. The forthcoming local and European elections will not affect the composition (or survival) of the present Government directly – or immediately. But they will have a profound (if rude) effect on its strategic thinking (if any) – and upon the menu available to us at the next general election.

It has never been more important for us to use our vote strategically and tactically to determine our future. Citizenship has its duties as well as its rights. It is we, the people, in the absence of clear political leadership, who must write the greater ‘shopping list’ with those ‘grubby little stubs of pencils’ on May 23.

Maurice O’Connell

TRALEE, CO KERRY

HOW YOU GO BAD: A STEP AT A TIME

* Straight from the mouth of a real big, bad wolf of Wall Street: describing how he descended into a life of debauchery and fraud, Jordan Belfort added: “You don’t lose your moral compass overnight. You take tiny steps where you become desensitised.”

Where does that leave those politicians and others who have managed to take one step further into depravity?

We know where it led the rest of us – up that well-known creek without a paddle.

LIAM POWER

SAN PAWL IL-BAHAR, MALTA

AND THEN MY ALARM WENT OFF

* I dreamed it was Monday, May 27, and the slaughter of FG, Labour and FF candidates in the local and EU elections had brought the immediate resignations of Kenny, Gilmore and Martin. Incoming Taoiseach Bruton and Tanaiste Burton gave a media address in which they promised open, accountable government as a result of the ballot in which there was almost a 90pc turnout.

Taoiseach Bruton mused: “It would appear the only votes not cast on the previous Friday were those of the young Irelanders compelled to emigrate by the inane political decisions of the past 20 years.”

Alas, I awoke to reality.

DECLAN FOLEY

BERWICK, AUSTRALIA

FAIR PRACTICE AT AER LINGUS

* As a customer of Aer Lingus, I would like you to raise the matter of the threatened strike of cabin crew at Aer Lingus on Friday, May 30.

Surely roster arrangements can be put in place that meet the needs of both the airline and its staff? I understand that the pilots operate ‘five days on’ followed by three rest days. This type of patterned roster is worked by cabin crews in other airlines including Aer Lingus Regional crews, and even Ryanair has something similar. The European Aviation Safety Agency, in its EU-OPS Flight Time Limitation rules, makes no distinction between pilots and cabin crews in terms of schedules worked – so why does Aer Lingus? What is good for the gander should also be afforded to the geese!

JOHN PATRICK MURPHY

BALGRIFFIN, CO DUBLIN

SECULARISM IS FAIR TO EVERYBODY

* In the comments section on Friday, May 16, David Quinn bemoaned the rise of secularism in RTE over the past few decades.

To highlight this appalling trend, Quinn borrowed a quote from Helena Sheehan, who claims that some RTE staff “put up a formidable fight to secularise and liberalise programme output”. Quite a statement, according to Mr Quinn.

I wonder if anyone has pointed out to him that secularism is, by its very definition, the lack of religious bias. Mr Quinn is perfectly within his rights to complain about the collapse of the overwhelming conservative bias in Irish public life, but he should at least have the decency to be upfront about it.

COLM O’MAHONY

GREYSTONES, CO WICKLOW

A LANDMARK AND A LEGEND

* The 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be the 10th consecutive World Cup that RTE commentator George Hamilton will have covered. Surely this is an achievement that UEFA should acknowledge – and that the Irish population, led by its senior newspaper, should ensure happens?

I, as a Scotsman, tune in to RTE to watch games regularly purely because I feel that George Hamilton makes an average game of football enjoyable. I suspect this applies to many others.

MURRAY CAMPBELL

PEEBLES, SCOTLAND

ependent:

23May2014 Hospital Visit

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate the have to care for a pigion Priceless

I go and visit mary in hospital

Scrabbletoday, two games I win one game Mary wins the other, perhaps I’ll win tomorrow

Obituary:

6:02PM BST 22 May 2014

Comment

Guardian:

The use of any animal for medical research rightly attracts public attention (Jane Goodall and Peter Gabriel urge Air France to stop ferrying lab monkeys, theguardian.com, 20 May). But the majority of people accept that animal research is currently essential to help deliver life-changing and life-saving new medicines. In the UK, it is illegal to use an animal in research if a validated non-animal alternative is available. Nevertheless, the carefully regulated use of animals remains a vital tool in improving our understanding of disease and ensuring the safety of new medicines.

Independent:

I have just exercised my franchise. I had a choice of 11 parties in all – Britain First, British National Party, Conservatives, Green Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, No2EU, Plaid Cymru, Socialist Labour, Socialist Party of Great Britain, and Ukip. I only received information through the door from three of these, and none of these mentioned any local meetings or public debates. 

Whatever the outcome, with so many small unknown parties to the extreme right and to the left to divide the vote it is unlikely that the views of the majority of voters will be reflected in the result. No wonder people do not vote when it is so difficult to do so in an informed way, in spite of the media coverage.

I can’t help thinking maybe we were right in the Sixties when we said: “Don’t Vote; it only encourages them!”

Sue Hamblen, Cardiff

Voting for Ukip in the European elections this week was bizarre.

I can understand voting for them at general elections if that is your preference. The UK Parliament will ultimately decide whether or not we remain a part of Europe, not the European Parliament.

To vote Ukip into the European Parliament means that we will be represented by a party that does not want to be there, hardly a party that will look after our best interests in the meantime.

Derek Tate, Melksham, Wiltshire

Had Parliament made it compulsory to publish the number of spoiled ballot papers along with the registered votes for candidates it would have provided a way of registering a protest without encouraging the likes of Nigel Farage.

Unfortunately it was better for politicians to ascribe low turnout to people being content enough not to bother voting, rather than being fed up with the lot of them and having nowhere to show it.

Ashley Herbert, Huddersfield

In some countries, youthful anger and despair produce suicide bombers. Here, middle-aged dissatisfaction produces suicide voters.

Trevor Pateman, Brighton

Do your homework and boost Britain

So sad if, as Alice Jones (17 May) predicts, National Work at Home day passed largely unnoticed.

A shift towards working from home, which could transform our national lifestyle, supercharge our national productivity and be the laxative required to relieve our constipated national infrastructure, is constantly undermined by prejudice and moral cowardice. Businesses recoil at the idea that they might trust their employees, and politicians lack the vision or conviction to fight this fear: Boris Johnson’s “skiver’s paradise” soundbite says it all.

How can we escape from this paralysing paranoia? An unambiguous demonstration of courage and commitment from Government would be a great start. Rather than constantly slipstreaming public opinion, perhaps they could lead from the front. What if they actually embraced the digital highway and relocated the House of Commons online? MPs could live in their constituencies, accessible to their electorate, free of the prowling lobbyists and unencumbered by second homes.

Of course if this example were followed it should mean that commuting, and therefore further massive road and rail investment, would be curbed; it could mean that the population drift towards London, and hence demand and price of property, might be reduced; it might mean that Britain would lead the second industrial revolution, rather than endlessly playing catch-up with countries that have overtaken us since the first. How the lobbyists will howl, but MPs will be insulated in cyberspace!

Gordon Watt, Reading

Alice Jones misses the big point. The increase of 62,000 who work from home is due to their becoming self-employed in their own speciality after finding themselves unemployed and unable to find replacement employment. It has very little to do with “exit from the office”.

She dismisses the advantages of working from home. You are your own boss. No one to overrule or pressurise you, no one to control your income or give you the sack. To work at one’s own speed in one’s own home creating a result to suit your own family needs is very satisfying.

Bob Barker, Norwich

Schools turn away from Europe

The troubling decline in the number of UK nationals on the European Commission’s staff reported by James Ashton – a drop of 24 per cent in the seven years to 2012 – contrasts with the long queues of graduates seeking jobs in what has since become the EU during the period around the completion of the European Single Market in 1993 (“My week”, 17 May).

That was a time when universities old and new were growing provision in European languages, sometimes in conjunction with non-language degree programmes such as engineering. They were also acccelerating the development of European studies as a degree subject, and encouraging the evolution of subject combinations which were conducive to employability in the European context, not least because they often included the possibility of a European work or study placement.

Since then, the UK has witnessed the decimation of languages provision in secondary schools, the subsequent retreat from European language provision in many of our universities (a development that has been particularly marked in the former polytechnics), the shrinkage of European studies at degree level, and the decline in the number of graduates with a European-flavoured degree and/or with a European placement under their belt. In short, there are now fewer students graduating from the nation’s universities who have the outlook and the confidence that would enable them to undertake the challenge of working at high level in other EU countries, let alone in EU institutions. The sad fact is that our schools and universities have become less European than they were and in so doing have reduced the employability of our graduates in the EU context.

James Ashton reports that UK nationals now make up less than 5 per cent of the European Commission’s workforce, despite the UK’s accounting for more than 12 per cent of the EU’s population. If this shameful state of affairs is to be remedied, the language learning revival in schools needs to be given fresh impetus and the monoglot, more insular parts of UK higher education need to rediscover Europe.

David Head, Navenby, Lincolnshire

Prince Charles’s Crimean war

I join in the condemnation of Charles’s comments about Putin behaving “like Hitler”, not merely because it is not his place to make comments over political issues but because they are a regurgitation of much of Western right-wing propaganda on the issue.

Although Crimea has been absorbed into the Russian Federation it has happened with the overwhelming support of the local population. There seems to be a case of double standards here – self-determination is OK for Kosovo, Gibraltar, the Falklands and Scotland but not for Crimea.

Phil Nicholson, Glasgow

If Prince Charles would compare President Putin to a megalomaniac tyrant perhaps Oliver Cromwell or any one of the many home-grown plunderers and looters of other nations might be a better choice.

Denis Ahern, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex

None of your correspondents on the subject of Prince Charles’s reference to the parallels between President Putin’s actions in Ukraine and Hitler’s takeover of the Sudetenland seems to be aware of the much closer parallel of the Soviet Union’s takeover of the Baltic States and eastern Poland under the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Putin would doubtless look on any comparison to Stalin as a compliment.

Marina Donald, Edinburgh

Charles Windsor is a foolish old man who represents nobody but himself. Why anybody, least of all Russia, should take his burblings seriously is beyond me.

David Wheeler, Carlisle

Ancient answer to a Greek crisis

Christine Berry suggests (letter, 20 May) that we have been told about the trickle-down effect for decades. Trickle-down economics has a far longer history. In his Ways and Means of 354 BCE the politician, general and all-round know-all Xenophon explained to the Athenians how to get out of an economic crisis.

They should attract rich foreigners with special privileges, who would then get the economy moving, thus eventually benefiting the lower orders.

I have no idea whether this worked for Athens or not, but I have my suspicions.

Roger Moorhouse, Todmorden, West Yorkshire

Times:

Western Antarctic ice sheet: its collapse could raise the global sea level by 60cm Getty Images

Last updated at 12:01AM, May 22 2014

Sir, The riposte to Akbar al-Baker, of Qatar, by Daniel Moylan (letter, May 20) was mild by any standard. I lived under the flight path for over 20 years, in Horton, Berkshire, so close that the shadows of aircraft taking off and landing at Heathrow would fall across the house. Those who don’t live close to the flight path of an airport cannot understand that you “never get used to the noise”, though you can tolerate it to some degree.

It is galling to hear a leading person from Qatar lecturing the UK on the “excesses of individual freedom” and for “making a fuss” — in Qatar any anti-government speech or writing is enough to have you thrown out of the country.

Richard Coates

Hayling Island, Hants

Sir, Daniel Moylan rightly draws attention to the one million or so people who would be subjected to unsafe noise levels if a third runway goes ahead at Heathrow. Few seem to realise that a third runway, some half a mile north (and slightly west) of the existing runways would bring incoming aircraft over the heart of Central London half a mile further north of the existing flight path for the northern runway. Most of the City, West End, Belgravia, Chelsea, Kensington, Hammersmith and Chiswick will be right under the flight path. Pollution as well as noise will spread right over the centre of our capital city. Can any economic or operational argument justify this attack on Londoners’ quality of life?

Henry Kronsten

London W6

Sir, Mr al-Baker says “If you live under the flight path, I assure you, over a period of time you will not even hear the aircraft passing over your house.” I lived in Datchet for 12 years and I can assure Mr al-Baker (who has clearly never lived in a place such as Datchet) that you always hear the planes flying over your house and you do not get used to it. You do not appreciate how bad it is until you actually live there for a time. It is the non-continuous nature of the noise. Maybe in winter the noise is reduced when you are indoors but the problem is mainly the summer months. Windows are open and the noise of the planes is very disruptive when trying to have a conversation or listen to what is being said on the TV. Early morning planes wake you up and being in the garden is a very loud experience. I moved away as soon as I could.

Martin Rimmer

Woking, Surrey

Sir, Apropos “Boris attacks untold misery of Heathrow open 24/7” (May 20) I was explaining that Gulf airlines are so successful because our airports are open 24 hours a day. Europe’s growth is being impeded because airports are closed between 11pm and 5.30am, a critical period for east-west transfers.

If Heathrow or Gatwick do not expand, London will be overtaken by other airports which are open longer and expanding. The Mayor advocates a new airport to the east of London, but it is Heathrow that has helped London remain a magnet for air travellers.

It is the gateway to Europe and the logical plan is for a third runway to be allowed to enable British carriers and airports to grow as strongly as airlines like Qatar Airways have done in the Gulf.

Britain’s national interest is the same as mine — expansion of the best infrastructure already in place. That is Heathrow.

Akbar al-Baker

Qatar Airways

Telegraph:

SIR – Today and tomorrow, the British Medical Association’s Local Medical Committees’ Conference will discuss a motion that supports charging patients for using NHS general practice services. We categorically oppose the introduction of user charges for GP services.

6:58AM BST 22 May 2014

33 Comments

229 Comments

SIR – Most Conservative voters, including me, would respond well to a package that set out proposed Conservative reforms on the European Union market, human rights, employment legislation, EU laws in general, sovereignty, immigration, and further ceding of powers to the EU. They should combine this with a plan detailing how they would go about these reforms.

Irish Times:

Sir, – Having journeyed with people who are homeless or in need since 1969, I am appalled that despite being alerted to the increase in numbers of people accessing services such as the Capuchin Day Centre, the current housing crisis has been allowed to develop and that it took until two days before an election before it reached the agenda of the Oireachtas.

We became aware of the new situation regarding homeless families in early 2013 when parents asked for take-away food for their children because they had no access to food or other facilities in the evening or at night.

Every day here in the Capuchin Day Centre we meet the tragic human casualties of failed policies that have reached a new level of social neglect by our Government.

While the Government’s new-found realisation that we have in fact a homeless crisis has resulted in a promise of “urgent action” by the Taoiseach, going by past experience we have found that these “promises” soon get swamped under layers of bureaucracy and passing the buck between different departments, local government and other agencies when it comes to their practical implementation. We have seen precious resources being frittered away on meaningless surveys and failed action plans.

Perhaps the State could learn something from our “strategic plan”, which is based on the principles of St Francis of Assisi – “Start with what is necessary and do what is possible”.

We now have a three-tiered homeless population and it is my fear that those most at risk will be plunged to the bottom when it comes to priorities and all three are competing for the same limited resources.

Regarding rough sleepers – the diversion of funds from emergency accommodation and the cessation of the night bus with its ring-fenced accommodation (following the previous action plan) means we have more people at risk of dying on the side of the road than when we started the centre in 1969.

How many of these people will even be alive for next Christmas?

Regarding the new poor who have been squeezed out of the private rented market, if the current appalling situation is not addressed we will be paying the health and social consequences for generations. What is to become of these children who are uprooted from their schools, friends and families? Little children and their stressed-out parents cannot put their lives on hold.

Regarding owner-occupied households, Peter McVerry has predicted a “tsunami” of possibly 35,000 homes being repossessed by banks from people who cannot pay their mortgage. Apart from the human and financial cost, the social consequences of such a situation are unimaginable.

For those sleeping rough, the night bus and emergency accommodation services should be restored to even 2010 levels.

For families in private rented accommodation, reinstate the rent supplement or force landlords to accommodate people adequately.

Recently an intervention by Senator Fergal Quinn led to legislative changes in upward-only rent reviews for commercial property. Surely someone in Government could take up the gauntlet for a similar piece of legislation on behalf of private rental tenants that would prohibit landlords from exploiting vulnerable people who have no other means of providing a home for their families.

Stop the banks who owe the Irish people billions from repossessing homes.

In conclusion I would like to say that while there is a “tsunami” of homelessness, from our experience here in the Capuchin Day Centre, there are good people who do all in their power to help and show concern for the wellbeing of their brothers and sisters who have fallen on hard times. Every day I thank God for the many people who have continued to help us over the years in spite of all the difficulties. – Yours, etc,

Bro KEVIN

CROWLEY, OFM CAP

Director,

Capuchin Day Centre,

Bow Street, Dublin 7.

Sir, – One cannot deny the existence of a housing crisis for many people in Ireland today. However, bringing empty homes into use has received little attention in the current discourse. The CSO’s Census 2011 showed that there were some 17,597 unoccupied vacant houses in Dublin (not holiday homes). Some 7,995 of these were in Dublin City, 4,070 were in Fingal, 2,786 in South Dublin and 2,746 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

In addition, there were 25,333 vacant flats (again not holiday homes), with 16,321 in Dublin City, 2,823 in Fingal, 2,439 in South Dublin and 3,750 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

Could it be that these are all now occupied (or for sale) and that the Government must relax planning laws and other regulations to drive the building of more homes in Dublin? Indeed, the figures are the same for all other urban centres. – Yours, etc,

Dr PADRAIC KENNA,

Centre for Housing Law,

Rights and Policy,

NUI Galway.

Sir, – It may not be popular, but it needs to be said – the sentencing of Pat Scanlan to 15 years in prison for importing 4.8kg of cannabis is monstrous (“Restaurateur jailed for 15 years for importing cannabis”, Home News, May 21st).

The merits or otherwise of cannabis can be debated; what is absolutely certain is that its criminalisation has done nothing to diminish its popularity, and it has been freely available in Ireland for over 40 years. It has remained popular because people who use it know it is not in any way equivalent to heroin or other hard drugs. A sentence of 15 years is completely out of proportion to the crime committed, and in due course will come to be seen as barbarous. – Yours, etc,

EOIN DILLON,

Ceannt Fort,

Mount Brown,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Eamonn McCann seems unable to stop himself from bashing the Catholic Church in his Irish Times columns (“Why do we rarely give the Devil his due?”, Opinion & Analysis, May 22nd).

He’s gone from complaining about the diplomatic status of the Vatican to grumbling about the church’s canonisation procedures (why should an atheist care?) to poking ridicule at Pope Francis for his expressed belief in the Devil. Does he perhaps yearn to be a religious affairs correspondent?

Perhaps this attitude is only to be expected. After all, Mr McCann’s personal faith of radical socialism has been devastatingly disproven by history and human experience, while Christ remains the light of the world to tens of millions of people, educated and uneducated. We should allow Mr McCann a little bit of rancour, I suppose. – Yours, etc,

MAOLSHEACHLANN

Ó CEALLAIGH,

Woodford Drive,

Clondalkin,

Sir, – I could not agree more with Barry Walsh (May 22nd) about the reasons for the low representation of women in Irish local politics, but I would go a bit further. I worked alongside local politicians for many years and in my humble opinion there are many differing and complex reasons why a person would subject themselves to the public scrutiny and the hardships required to get elected. They have to be either highly motivated to make a contribution to the common good (a few), hardworking (most), cheerfully available day and night (most), ambitious (all) or just egotistical (plenty).

They are expected to be on call to their electorate 24/7, they are expected to solve everyone’s problems and can be subjected to all sorts of abuse and misinformed comment. And they are not really that well paid for their efforts. It must also be said that many collude in the confusion that exists about what they actually do and what they actually can do.

Maybe the truth about the low percentage of women going forward for election is simpler than the statistics suggest. Maybe they are just smarter and do not wish to waste their time and energy in the chaotic political scene that is local government, Irish-style. – Yours, etc,

GER MULVEY,

Kells Road, Kilkenny.

Sir, – I strongly reject the assertions in the article by Frank McDonald suggesting that recent amendments to the building control regulations are leading to a decline in building activity. The only source used appears to be an online blog with a clear vested interest to discredit the new regulations (“Dramatic fall in number of buildings being started”, Home News, May 19th). There has been no attempt to provide balance or at the very least check the accuracy of the assertions of the blog. The article is disingenuous with respect to the decline in the construction sector, inferring that the new regulations have further contributed to that decline.

The fact is, as noted in the Construction 2020 Strategy published last week, commencement notices have been falling year on year from about 1,450 per week at the peak of the building boom in 2006 to about 100 per week last year. Around 840 commencement notices have been validated or are at various stages of lodgement in the 10 weeks since the new regulations were introduced. That is about 80 notices per week, which does not constitute a dramatic fall in building starts.

Claims that architects, surveyors and chartered engineers are reluctant to take on the assigned certifier role are completely unsubstantiated. The fact is that over 2,000 registered construction professionals have set up user accounts on the Building Control Management System (BCMS) to date. And the BCMS, far from creating an avalanche of paperwork, has streamlined the administration involved, providing local authorities with easy access to the information they need. Indeed, I am aware that building control staff are already using the BCMS to intervene in a number of projects currently under way in relation to compliance matters that may previously have gone unnoticed.

Furthermore, the new regulations do not prevent self-build or building by direct labour. They do not require the appointment of a main contractor. Self-build projects are known to have been lodged on the BCMS, so the new regulations are clearly workable in such scenarios.

Perhaps Mr McDonald is against providing better building regulations and would prefer to continue with the same sloppy practices that led to the terrible outcomes, such as the disastrous living conditions experienced by the residents of Priory Hall? I am on the side of the home owner and better protection for the consumer. – Yours, etc,

PHIL HOGAN, TD

Minister for

the Environment,

Sir, – Kieran Ryan, chief executive of the Irish College of General Practitioners, makes some interesting points (May 20th) regarding the HSE engagement of a Harvard professor to advise it on strategy.

I believe the HSE should at least be commended for the consistency of its initiative. It appears most appropriate that an organisation that doesn’t understand or engage with general practice in Ireland should engage the services of a person who also does not understand or engage with general practice in Ireland, nor does he live in Ireland.

General practice in Ireland has been the only adequately functioning aspect of the Irish health system for many years, while managing 98 per cent of the Irish population’s illnesses. Patient satisfaction levels are in excess of 90 per cent. The problems in the health system are therefore largely outside of general practice.

However, the HSE has decided to focus its current attention on that one element of the health system that has been working, at a time when the HSE and Minister for Health cannot deliver the other 2 per cent of medical care from a huge budget.

The HSE has claimed that the cost of this two-day initiative, at €150,000, represents an “immensely cost-effective” measure. When one adds in the salary, travel and accommodation costs of the 470 delegates, the cost of the event must be close to €500,000. If the HSE view is that such an outlay is “cost effective”, one must wonder how such an organisation can manage its own finances.– Yours, etc,

MICHAEL AHERN,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Without commenting on the merits of Ireland becoming a member of Nato, it is remarkable to see the continued lack of knowledge as to what Nato actually is and how it operates (May 20th). Nato members are committed to common defence through its Article Five, but the manner of how to contribute is left up to individual states. Hence when Article Five was invoked after the September 11th attacks, many Nato states had only a limited role in military operations in Afghanistan. The alliance’s supreme political decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, makes decisions on the basis of unanimity. That is, each Nato member has a veto over Nato policy. Irish opponents of Nato policy should be clamouring for a seat on the council!

The historical experience has shown that far from being dominated by America, Nato’s smaller members have had a strong role in the development of the alliance and its operations. Those who speak of a “Nato foreign policy” or putting “our sons and daughters into the Nato military front line against those who do not share the American world view” fundamentally misunderstand what Nato is, what it does, and how it does it.

As to the moral and ethical components of the debate, I struggle to defend Ireland’s policy of neutrality in the historical context. Ireland faced the same threat from the Soviet Union during the cold war as the rest of our European neighbours, yet contributed nothing to its common defence. The same was true during the second World War, when we let others fight and die in Europe against the threat of Nazi barbarism, which would have consumed our State as well if left untouched.

There are extremely good arguments for and against Ireland’s entry into Nato as it actually exists, and how to address the security situation in Europe as it actually exists. It serves no-one to base a debate on portrayals of either that have zero relation to reality. – Yours, etc,

Dr DARAGH McDOWELL,

Thomas Street,

Bath,

Sir, – The letter from Donagh O’Riordan (May 22nd) concerning his elderly parents is indeed harrowing. The notion that our elderly should be harassed and threatened while suffering from dementia and advanced Parkinson’s disease is certainly “barbaric”. All those who live with Parkinson’s disease can empathise with the feelings of fear and vulnerability which this disease brings on a daily basis. It is this fear of what the future holds for someone living with Parkinson’s that has the power to depress, disable and destroy. Is it not ironic that those who purport to be the providers of care and stability for our elderly and sick people are seen as the purveyors of that instability and fear which make life more difficult? – Yours, etc,

DECLAN MORIARTY,

Clancy Road,

Finglas, Dublin 11.

Sir, – Michael Harding’s welcome promotion of Bundoran as a remedy for melancholy (Life, May 20th) echoed that of a friend of mine from Belfast in the 1970s who expressed it alliteratively: “Beautiful bracing Bundoran banishes the blues”. Tourism Ireland please copy. – Yours, etc,

CORMAC MEEHAN,

Bundoran,

Co Donegal.

Sir, – The Irish Water website states that “The meter will be installed at the stop-valve on the public footpath, and so while it is possible to read the meter it is not envisioned that you will need to do so”. What if I “envision” that I want to do so? I wonder who did the “envisioning” for Irish Water? – Yours, etc,

TONY BURKE,

Abbey Park,

Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

Sir, – Alice Leahy’s letter (May 22nd) regarding the use of newspaper cuttings as toilet “tissues” reminded me of a fellow lodger many years ago complaining to the “woman of the house” that the newspaper adorning the toilet floor was always out of date. – Yours, etc,

TOM GILSENAN,

Elm Mount,

Beaumont,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – I was in Dublin last week and walked through St Stephen’s Green, admiring the trees with their fabulous spring foliage. Although I’m a gardener, I could not identify many of the more exotic species, and I thought it a pity that they were not labelled. It would be wonderful if they were. The OPW provides plenty of useful information about the Green but not its trees. – Yours, etc,

NOEL GALLIVAN,

Ballinahow,

Tipperary.

Irish Independent:

Published 23 May 2014 02:30 AM

Having journeyed with people who are homeless or in need since 1969, I am appalled that despite being alerted to the increase in numbers of people accessing services such as the Capuchin Day Centre, the current housing crisis has been allowed to develop and it took until two days before an election before it reached the agenda of the Oireachtas.

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Letters: Let’s see what MEPs are really fighting for

We became aware of the new situation regarding homeless families in early 2013 when parents asked for take-away food for their children because they had no access to food or other facilities in the evening.

Every day here in the Capuchin Day Centre we meet with the tragic human casualties of failed government policies that have reached a new height in social neglect by those charged with “cherishing all the children of the state equally” (the very principle that our forefathers gave their lives for).

While the Government’s newfound realisation that we have a homeless crisis has resulted in a promise of “urgent action” by the Taoiseach, going by past experiences we have found that these ‘promises’ soon get swamped under layers of bureaucracy.

Having survived over four decades of the social situations that foster and nurture homelessness with practically no help from the government, perhaps the State could learn something from our Strategic Plan which is based on the principles of St Francis of Assisi: “Start with what is necessary and do what is possible.”

We now have a three-tiered homeless population and it is my fear that those most at risk will be plunged to the bottom when it comes to priorities and all three are competing for the same limited resources.

Rough sleepers have been affected by the diversion of funds from emergency accommodation and the cessation of the night bus with its ring-fenced accommodation (following the previous action plan). This means that we have more people at risk of dying on the side of the road than when we started the centre in 1969. How many of these people will even be alive next Christmas?

We must reinstate the night bus and emergency accommodation, even to 2010 levels.

In addition, the new poor have been squeezed out of the private rented market and if the current appalling situation is not addressed we will be paying the health and social consequences for generations. What is to become of these children who are uprooted from their schools, friends and families?

Families in private rented accommodation must get more help. We should reinstate the rent supplement or force landlords to accommodate people adequately.

Recently an intervention by Senator Feargal Quinn led to legislative changes in upward only rent reviews for commercial property. Surely someone in government could take up the gauntlet for a similar piece of legislation on behalf of private rental tenants that would prohibit landlords from exploiting vulnerable people who have no other means of providing a home for their families.

BROTHER KEVIN CROWLEY OFM CAP

CAPUCHIN DAY CENTRE, DUBLIN 7

Don’t forget this Leinster hero

Brian O’Driscoll and Leo Cullen, of Leinster and Ireland, have each had their large and deserved public send-offs in recent weeks, but another crucial rugby figure who will be departing the stage at the conclusion of this year’s RaboDirect Pro12 competition on Saturday week, after six years’ service, will be Leinster’s revolutionary forwards coach, Jono Gibbes.

A New Zealander, Gibbes, took up the role of forwards coach at the beginning of the 2008-09 season. By the end of that season, Leinster Rugby had won its first Heineken European Cup.

During Mr Gibbes’ time as forwards coach, Leinster added a further two Heineken Cups, making Leinster the most successful Irish province in European Cup history and one of the most successful in Europe.

Until the arrival of Jono Gibbes, Leinster’s forward pack was considered to be the perennial Achilles’ heel of the team.

The top teams in Europe knew that Leinster’s famously talented backline could be rendered impotent by the targetting of the team’s soft underbelly up front. Mr Gibbes found a way to put an end to this problem which had dogged Leinster for many years by developing a vastly improved technique and hard-edge within Leinster’s forward play.

As forwards coach, Mr Gibbes succeeded in fixing the problem beyond recognition to the point where Leinster’s greatest asset is not its (still potent) backline, but its forward pack. It was Leinster’s revolutionised forward pack which made the province’s three Heineken Cups possible, and Jono Gibbes must be thanked for that.

Leinster Rugby showed vision in sourcing Jono Gibbes from New Zealand and taking a chance on him as a young coach. The contribution of Gibbes was a powerful demonstration of the value of sourcing coaches from that land which constitutes the Oxford and Cambridge of rugby coaching, New Zealand.

Mr Gibbes’ ability to form a complementary working relationship at Leinster with such superb (but diverse), successive head coaches as Michael Cheika, Joe Schmidt and Matt O’Connor is also a testament to his character and lack of ego. The standard which he has raised Leinster’s forward play to will pose a worthy challenge for his successor to maintain.

JOHN B REID

MONKSTOWN, CO DUBLIN.

Solving Kennedy conundrum

A sure way of immortalising the names of Jacqueline Kennedy and Father Leonard would be to sell the letters and give the proceeds to the Peter McVerry trust.

MATTIE LENNON,

BLESSINGTON, CO WICKLOW

Geopolitical priorities

K Nolan asked whether the European Court of Justice will instigate proceedings against the Americans for activities in Europe that are similar to the offences with which five Chinese military officials have been charged by the US government (Letters, May 21). The difference between both cases is that the US government is part of Western civilisation but the Chinese government poses a threat to Western civilisation.

CIARAN MASTERSON

CARRICKANE, CAVAN, CO CAVAN

What atheists believe

In response to A Rogers’ letter (‘The beliefs of atheists’, May 20), atheism is a position on one subject only – the existence of a deity. As for the beliefs listed in the letter as being necessary to atheism, were Mr Rogers to look into it he would find that atheists have many different views on all of these subjects. This atheist, while not having a firm position on the origin of the universe, is more than happy to say ‘I don’t know’, and leave it at that until more evidence comes along.

ALISSA DUNSKY

CRUMLIN, DUBLIN 12

Shatter has cake and eats it

An interesting report, emerged yesterday, whereby deputy Shatter was being snapped while leaving a city cafe, and allegedly told the snapper to get lost.

Now, I would support anybody taking such a line in defence of their rights to privacy, but in the light of recent goings-on, this was surely a case of the ex-minister wanting his cake immediately after eating it.

RJ HANLY

SCREEN, CO WEXFORD

Irish Independent

24May2014 AnotherVisit

I go all the way around the park listening to the Men from the Ministry: Our heroes face a terrible fate the have to care for the Crown jewels Priceless

I go and visit Mary in hospital

Scrabbletoday, I win one game, perhaps Mary will win tomorrow

Obituary:

Mark Fitzgeorge-Parker was a louche writer and jailbird who became Ukip’s press officer and helped Nigel Farage write his memoirs

5:34PM BST 23 May 2014

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