25June2014 Shona

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I go to the bank

ScrabbleIts a draw at 383 despite Mary getting a seven letter word on her first move! perhaps I will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Antisemitism is an age-old phenomenon long preceding the emergence of Israel – with the role of churches playing a part – and Noreena Hertz is right to talk of individual responsibility in combatting it (Europe must face up to the new antisemites, 21 June). But it is odd that she is silent on Israel’s own responsibility in fomenting antisemitism and that she castigates leftists for “kneejerk anti-Zionism”.

Independent:

Hamish McRae’s column of 18 June is another brilliant analysis by the Independent team. It summarises the major conflicts and most prominent trade deals of recent weeks and brings them into context with the world’s still increasing hunger for fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are at the centre of the conflicts in the Middle East and the Ukrainian-Russian dispute. BP just signed a big deal with China and the day after his column was printed the long-disputed Canadian pipeline pumping oil for China has been approved. According to his analysis we are still relying for more than 85 per cent of our energy on fossil fuels. Nuclear and renewables still play an insignificant part compared to fossil fuels. McRae’s analysis is brilliant but scary. It shows our dependency and our powerlessness to do anything about it.

However, I cannot quite follow his conclusions, that fracking should be seen as a relief. Surely, this will only prolong our dependency, or addiction, I prefer to say, and exacerbates global warming and the pollution of air and water.

Our growth-whatever-the-costs ethics seem to be so deeply enshrined in our thinking and actions that nothing seems to stop our addiction to fossil fuels and nobody dares to question it. The scary weather events in the UK over the last winter and in New York the autumn before all seem to be forgotten or largely ignored, like the protest camps against fracking and indigenous peoples’ demonstrations in Canada.

There is increasing scientific evidence that if we continue with business as usual – and it looks with fracking as if we are even accelerating – the weather events of the last winter will look small compared to what is in store.

It is high time to reconsider our economic growth paradigm. Whatever the cost might be. It might be unusual and at most uncomfortable but still by far better than being exposed to a planet out of balance.

Dr Christoph Zöckler, Senior Adviser and Fellow, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge

Slavery and philanthropy

As a Bristolian, I was saddened by the article on Edward Colston (“Statues of shame”, 23 June). Of course I deplore slavery, but what good is brought about by expunging Colston’s name from the city and taking down his statue?

Condemnation will not prevent the modern trafficking of people. It is better to celebrate the fact that, despite all, he did a great deal for the benefit of citizens. In this he is truly an example.

I wonder to what degree the money of modern philanthropists is utterly free of contamination.

Nick Stanley, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

In the late 1830s a barber named Sutherland rode the three miles from Elgin to Kintrae three times a week to a retired farmer, James Gilzean, who had grown too old to walk into the town to be shaved. The money to pay him came from an account held for Gilzean’s son, Sandy, by the retired Sheriff Substitute of Inverness, James Gilzean’s brother.

The money had been made in Jamaica, probably from the proceeds of a slave gang hired out for seasonal labour on the plantations of the Blue Mountains. The slave economy went as intimately as that into the lives of people all over Britain. It’s hard to hold the likes of Colston, personally or symbolically, uniquely responsible for that level of acceptance and exploitation. Or for that matter, the cities of Bristol or Liverpool.

The historian Richard Pares’s “anger and shame” needs to be felt too. By all of us.

Jim Brennan, West Bromwich, West Midlands

High-speed rail  for the North

One of the biggest benefits of high speed rail is the economic redevelopment opportunities. There is great potential through the connections to the east and west coast main lines for cities other than Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds to benefit from HS2, but the challenges around realising these benefits need to be tackled now.

We need to think long and hard about the cities we include in the proposed HS3 linking Manchester and Leeds. Examples could include Liverpool via Warrington, and Preston via Bolton in the west, which will also allow high-speed services to run from London to Liverpool and London to Preston. In addition, from Leeds, the line could be extended to Darlington and Newcastle via York.

To increase the benefit to the North, further assistance would be needed to ensure that northern cities are well prepared for bringing forward infrastructure work. In particular, planning to fast-track the development of employment and local transport infrastructure will be required.

Including these additional cities will significantly improve the ability of the northern cities each side of the Pennines to compete with London as a regional powerhouse.

Jeremy Acklam, Institution of Engineering and Technology London WC2

Extensive effort has been made by our specialists to identify all archaeological features along the route of the North-South rail line. We continue to work with English Heritage, local authorities and others as we develop our programme of surveys and investigations.

We understand the importance of the deserted medieval village remains at Doddershall (“Village fate”, 20 June). Specialists working for HS2 Ltd, including myself, have met members of the Buckinghamshire Archeological Society over the past couple of years and we look forward to our continued dialogue. We have discussed options to limit the effect of the HS2 works around Doddershall with English Heritage, and are working with our engineers to reduce the extent of land required for construction and mitigation at this important site.

Archaeological sites, historic buildings and features have been avoided where possible and work will continue to reduce the impact of construction on our heritage.  Where we do affect archaeological remains, such as those at Doddershall, there will be an extensive programme of archaeological investigations.

HS2 is the largest infrastructure project in the UK. It will also be the biggest series of archaeological investigations ever undertaken in Britain. This is an unrivalled opportunity to advance our understanding of our ancestors and the land they inhabited.

Helen J Glass, Archaeology and Heritage Adviser, HS2 Ltd London SW1

Consider the lilies –and the cats

I note that in her recommendations for scented plants (21 June) Anna Pavord included regal lilies. Gardeners who have cats (their own or visiting) should be aware that all parts of lilies are toxic to cats, the biggest danger being from the pollen, and so ideally should not be grown if cats are around.

Many garden centres are now including warnings about lilies at the point of sale. Could I suggest that any future gardening recommendations involving lilies do the same?

Sandra Bishop, Chigwell, Essex

Right school,  wrong job

Alison Willott (letter, 23 June) is right: some private schools – not all – provide excellent facilities and opportunities. She is somewhat starry-eyed about their products: in 40 years in industry I encountered some good ones, but also a number of useless individuals whose only qualification was that they had been to A Certain School.

Can we take it that Ms Willott is ready to pay more taxes to afford the same excellent facilities and opportunities to state schools?

Peter Metcalfe, Stevenage, Hertfordshire

An unpleasant ‘community’

So Diane Coyle worries about EastEnders not being representative, on the basis that it is “too white” (report, 24 June)? That is the least of the problems with the programme. Quite how so many dysfunctional, aggressive, unpleasant, homicidal and moronic people are meant to form a “community” representative of Britain is truly beyond fantasy.

She should get out more and meet real people (dare I say, north of Watford?)

Nic Siddle, Chester

Attend carefully to what you say

For several years I have been grinding my teeth at the use of the loathsome aberration “attendee” (Errors & Omissions, 21 June). I can’t see what is wrong with “attender”. Someone who attends is an attender, surely.

Mary Richards, East Wellow, Hampshire

No more need for court dress

I note that Rebekah Brooks invested in a demure wardrobe for her trial. Now that it is over, can the charity shops of Chipping Norton expect a windfall?

Anne Thomas, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

Times:

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 24 Jun 2014

55 Comments

SIR – George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is right to say that the United Kingdom needs a “Northern powerhouse” to rival London. Improving transport between northern cities – currently in a woeful state – is welcome.

Preventing Jean-Claude Juncker from becoming President of the European Commission isn’t worth the effort

7:00AM BST 24 Jun 2014

251 Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – EirGrid’s announcement (“EirGrid set to relaunch regional network upgrade”, Front Page, June 23rd) that it will unveil a potential underground route for their Grid West electricity transmission project between points in Roscommon and Mayo brings to mind Seamus Mallon’s sardonic comment about the Belfast Agreement and slow learners.

It has taken EirGrid more than six years to get to this point. In 2008, it announced a grid reinforcement and interconnector project to run from Meath to Tyrone. When challenged as to why it had not considered the option of putting the cables underground, its response was that it was not technically feasible. It dropped that claim and replaced it with another that said it might be feasible, but the underground option would cost 20 times more. Then they said 12 times more. Then 10 times, then eight, and the last time I checked they had come down to around two to three times more expensive.

Each change in policy at government level and by EirGrid has been linked to the imminence of an election. It took the 2011 general election for the North East Pylon Pressure Campaign to wrest a commitment from the incoming Fine Gael and Labour Government that an independent panel of international experts in electricity transmission would examine feasibility and cost.

The experts unequivocally stated that the underground option was feasible. They reckoned that a direct comparison of the capital cost of overhead to underground favoured overhead by a factor of three. However, they conceded that they had not considered the other indirect costs associated with overhead – such as devaluation of houses and farms – because this issue was beyond their technical competence.

This year’s local and European elections prompted the announcement by Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte of an independent panel, chaired by Catherine McGuinness, to oversee a detailed examination by EirGrid of whether it was viable to put the cables underground. It is on foot of the establishment of this panel that EirGrid has made its announcement.

The announcement is, of course, to be welcomed. A similar study will now be carried out for the Grid Link project that is to run from Cork to Kildare. Yet Mr Rabbitte excluded the pylons project that could run across Meath, Monaghan and Cavan from the terms of reference on the basis that the project was “too far advanced”.

The real reason was that, unlike along the other proposed transmission corridors, the Coalition public representatives in the northeast were spineless in their failure to support the people affected by the proposals. Mr Rabbitte responded to where the most political pressure came from, but did no more than that.

The Minister’s exclusion of the northeast from the ambit of the McGuinness review panel is unfair. It means that only two out of the three proposed overhead pylon projects will be independently evaluated – even though all three are similar technically.

It would be supremely ironic if the only area of the country that ended up saddled with new pylons was the northeast, which pioneered and led the campaign to highlight the underground alternative. It is still not too late to amend the review panel’s terms of reference to remedy this injustice. But will it take yet another election – this time a general election sometime prior to March 2016 – to secure fair play for the people of the northeast? – Yours, etc,

LIAM CAHILL,

Clowanstown,

Drumree,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Ireland’s position at the top of the “Good Country Index” (“Ireland is the best country in the world, new survey suggests”, June 24th) would be reinforced by including emigration in the measures of a country’s outward contribution to humanity, though whether exporting 87,000 well-educated young people a year should receive an accolade is debatable. – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY,

Cnoc an Stollaire,

Gaoth Dobhair,

Co Donegal.

Sir, – I can’t help but suspect that there may be a link between something in the psyche of the Irish that is forever seeking external approbation – doing what pleases others rather than what is in their own selfish interests – and getting a high score in these kinds of indices. Frankly, as the bank bailout example shows rather starkly, the Irish need to be more like the Swiss or, indeed, the Danes, who allowed something like 10, albeit smaller, banks simply go to the wall, and thus entirely self-interested, when it counts. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN LYNCH,

Vernon Avenue,

Clontarf, Dublin 3.

A chara, – Fintan O’Toole writes: “Most people, religious or non-religious, would now accept that the toxic intertwining of church and State deformed both” (“Church and State role in education intertwined”, Opinion & Analysis, June 24th).

On reading this, I ask myself, how can he know that? Was there an Irish Times survey? But then I remember that Mr O’Toole, a journalist, has only to look into his heart, and he knows what most people think.

On further consideration, what he says is obvious. What right-thinking person would approve of toxic intertwining? Does Mr O’Toole imply that any non-toxic intertwining is grand? Or does he believe that any intertwining is necessarily toxic? Is it just any instance where the church is a partner? There is the background of even stronger intertwining for several centuries, while the Church of Ireland was the established state church.

Consider public-private partnership. It can bring significant benefits as well as significant problems, and not just where the church is a partner. There must be critical assessment. But overall, has church-State partnership been more beneficial or more harmful? Would the people of Ireland have been better off without the input of religious bodies into education, health, welfare, social cohesion, pastoral care, over the past 100 years?

Mr O’Toole is astonished that the Minister for Education would say: “Teachers seeking to maximise their job prospects would be advised to study religious education.” But 94 per cent of people in the 2011 census reported religious affiliation. If most of those choose to have religious education in school, is not what the Minister said perfectly reasonable? Yes, there are problems. Yes, there could be other models. But teachers are there to serve the pupils and their families, not to impose. – Is mise,

PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,

Blackthorn Court,

Sandyford, Dublin 16.

Sir, – May I echo the very sensible opinion of former circuit judge Peter Langan (June 24th)? Having surveyed the landscape, I see little grave impropriety in Mr Collins’s act.

It seems the Courts Service in Ireland has not adopted written ethical codes, but our sister jurisdictions in common law have adopted codes which neatly summarise the bedrock principles here. The Code of Conduct for US federal judges states that “a judge shall accord to every person who is legally interested in a proceeding the right to be heard according to law”.

But the recently published Guide to Judicial Conduct for the UK judiciary states that “the primary responsibility for deciding whether a particular activity or course of conduct is appropriate rests with the individual judge”.

Under these standards, I doubt Mr Collins could be described as “legally interested” in the proceeding in which he intervened. His manoeuvre therefore may not have been totally sound. However, it seems harmless because we presume the judge in this case will know how to act.

Whatever the guiding principles may be, I think the reaction of some commentators is completely over the top given the fact that there is no suggestion that Mr Collins’s letter proceeded from anything but honourable intentions. To impeach a man for such a letter seems to me to wish to banish pleas for mercy – a virtue “twice bless’d” let’s remember – from our justice system. – Yours, etc,

Dr SEAN

ALEXANDER SMITH,

Chao do Loureiro,

Lisbon.

Sir, – Dermot Bolger, in his excellent review of David Dickson’s recently published history of Dublin, remarks that “the extraordinary fact is not that so much of Dublin’s heritage was destroyed but that so much survived” (“Cornucopia of Dublin: Dublin – The Making of a Capital City”, Arts & Books, June 21st). Credit for saving so much belongs to those who, from the 1960s onwards, battled to preserve our heritage from the depredations of developers and their friends in government, often against the thrust of public opinion. Dickson writes well about these battles in the concluding pages of his epic book.

One of the most prominent campaigners on behalf of Dublin’s heritage was the late Prof Kevin B Nowlan who, looking back afterwards on that philistine period, observed that “Dublin was being destroyed in the cause of a debased nationalism that saw its Georgian houses as the relics of British rule in Ireland”. As Dickson points out, Nowlan and his associates were once castigated by a particularly obscurantist government minister, Kevin Boland, as a “consortium of belted earls and their ladies and left-wing intellectuals”. For Nowlan, however, conservation was “the embodiment of patriotic effort” – his own words, written in 1986. – Yours, etc,

FELIX M LARKIN,

Vale View Lawn,

Cabinteely, Dublin 18.

Sir, – Reading between the lines, not least in his antipathy to the “new atheists”, it seems Robert Grant hasn’t quite thrown in the towel when it comes to God (“The ‘new atheists’ – shallow and dangerous”, Opinion & Analysis, June 24th). This God, however, would seem to have little to offer most of us, if, like Dr Grant, we do not believe in “heaven or hell, miracles, or the power of prayer”. – Yours, etc,

OWEN MORTON,

Station Road,

Sutton,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – Dr Robert Grant’s critique of “new atheism” smacks of religiocentrism, that is the attribution of characteristics of organised religion to atheism, not least tribalistic tendencies .

An uninformed reader might conclude that “new atheism” is a fully fledged organisation, with a supreme leader or leaders with a strict code of commandments and beliefs that adherents blindly follow. Such a conclusion would be wholly incorrect.

Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett cannot be treated like popes, whose dictats their adherents are instructed to follow. The analogy simply does not hold. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Stocking Avenue,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – “Merger of Catholic and Protestant colleges of education may be finalised by 2016” (Home News, May 9th) will have alerted readers to the imminent destruction of the Anglican Christian ethos of Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines, and the Catholic Christian ethos of Mater Dei and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. This is euphemistically called “incorporation”, whereby the three colleges will become a secular institute of education on a single DCU campus by 2016.

This is a takeover of the three denominational colleges by secular DCU. However, it is also an abject capitulation by the governing bodies of the respective colleges to the demands of the Higher Education Authority, the Department of Education and Skills and those who promote a secularist agenda. There has been no consultation, no negotiation and no agreement with those most immediately concerned.

It is stated that the core curriculum will be “denominationally neutral”. This is a blatant contradiction of the essence of Christian education, which requires that the denominational ethos permeates the whole teaching and learning experience. It shows utter contempt for members of staff who have conscientiously upheld the Christian ethos of their college. The employment prospects, in denominational schools, of graduates of “denominationally neutral” education will be seriously diminished. A real concern for diversity would see the maintenance of Christian colleges of education and the provision of secular colleges as required.

As well as the fundamental issue of ethos, other crucially important matters relating to industrial relations, permanence of employment, career prospects, burden of work, redeployment, relocation, forced redundancy and forced retirement have been ignored.

The Mater Dei campus has been described as “surplus to requirements”. No doubt the Church of Ireland campus is similarly viewed. Christians and all others of good will would be well advised to speak up. – Yours, etc,

Dr CIARÁN Ó COIGLIGH,

Coláiste Phádraig,

Droim Conrach,

Duibhlinn 9.

Sir, – Further to Joe McGovern’s letter (June 20th), Dublin City University has had a long-standing relationship with All Hallows College. Since 2008, All Hallows has been a “linked college” of DCU and the university has accredited the college’s degree programmes and provided access to supports such as library and IT services. All Hallows is, however, an independent institution and DCU has no legal, governance or management function with respect to the college. We were very saddened to learn of the recent decision to wind down the college.

Arising from our long-term collegial relationship, we share the college’s concern about the welfare and education of the existing cohort of students. With that in mind, DCU and All Hallows College have established a formal process whereby academic matters relating to the proposed closure of the college will be explored and solutions sought where possible. DCU will seek to support All Hallows College in its endeavours to assist its students at this difficult time. – Yours, etc,

Dr DECLAN RAFTERY,

Chief Operations Office,

Dublin City University,

Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

Sir, – Further to Paul Cullen’s “Fresh light cast on our dysfunctional relationship with alcohol” (Home News, June 24th), it is difficult for young people not to drink when everywhere they turn there is the insidious advertising of alcohol. Then we have the mythology of the “hard man” and all the codology embedded in our culture. Isn’t it time for everyone to take a long, hard look at their drinking habits and make an effort to cut down or stop? It’s time to cop ourselves on. – Yours, etc,

MARY NAUGHTON,

Springhill Close,

Rosses Point, Co Sligo.

Sir, – It was sad and somewhat ironic to hear Sir Anthony O’Reilly described by AIB bank as “insolvent” (Front Page, June 24th). Was not this bank itself “insolvent” a few years ago? – Yours, etc,

BRIAN McDEVITT,

Ardconnaill,

Glenties,

Co Donegal.

Sir, – I have read reports of Tony O’Reilly’s current financial difficulties.

I haven’t met or spoken with him for over 20 years. However, I feel impelled to recall his great generosity in 1992 when he personally donated the money that enabled the construction of O’Reilly Hall in University College Dublin in honour of his parents.

This beautiful building still hosts many important academic events, including the graduation ceremonies of thousands of splendid UCD graduates. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK MASTERSON,

Rue d’Espagne,

Puisserguier,

France.

Sir, – I note in your Fine Art and Antiques section (June 21st) that a Wexford All-Ireland hurling medal is expected to raise €5,000 to €7,000 at auction. I can’t resist asking, “Is this a Rackard?” – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN MacDONAGH,

Sonesta,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Perhaps Euan MacPherson could explain why Scotland (or indeed the Republic of Ireland) would want to adopt Northern Ireland and its £11 billion (€13.7 billion) annual deficit? – Yours, etc,

EWAN DUFFY,

Castletown,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Irish Independent:

Gerry Conlon’s death brought back memories that were becoming slightly hazy.

When you think of the inhuman incarceration of the Guildford Four, the Birmingham Six, the Maguire Seven, and describing their imprisonment as miscarriages of justice, those words do not seem strong enough to properly express the pain that could not be seen, the hurt that could not be felt, the day after day of mental anguish that culminated in countless lives of innocent prisoners and their wider families being destroyed.

A crime against humanity would be a more appropriate term, and the proper context within which to view these horrific events.

Justice was bent so far backwards that it barely featured in the courtrooms that handed multiple life sentences to innocent people, where being Irish was all the evidence needed for a conviction.

I attended many pickets outside No 10 Downing Street and took part in countless marches in Hyde Park, Kilburn and Holloway Road, calling for the release of innocent victims of so-called British justice and an end to terrorists in British army uniform prowling the six-county countryside.

Using Gerry Conlon as an example, imagine being imprisoned when you’re a happy-go-lucky 21-year-old, and the key being thrown away?

Fast forward 15 years before the truth finally comes out that the evidence against you had been concocted and fabricated by so-called officers of the law.

Now you’re a 35-year-old man, whose father Giuseppe has died in a British prison after being wrongly convicted by the same corrupt justice system.

RIP Gerry, an innocent man.

J WOODS

GORT AN CHOIRCE, DUN NA NGALL

JUSTICE IS HARD WON

It ill behoves the press to manipulate the grief of the families of those bombed in Guildford, and the friends and family of Gerry Conlon (Victim’s family enraged over ‘injustice’ comments by Hill, Irish Independent, June 23).

What I do know as a professional working in the UK criminal justice system is that every institution has a mixed bag of abilities in the people it employs. The police put themselves on the line when they enter a house and prevent a woman being struck down by a rampant male, hell bent on serious injury to his partner, his children, the police and sometimes himself.

Different police picked on random Irish men and women rather than actually catching the real culprits in the Irish cases. I do not expect the families of those bombed to see beyond the huge loss they endured.

What I will say, as an impartial observer, is that the bombings were done by hoodlums, with no respect for life. I have no time for the IRA and never will. The Guildford Four were picked on by the state. That I do find difficult.

Different police acted like the discredited Stasi police and infiltrated campaigns such as that for Stephen Lawrence, the murdered black teenager, to discredit those campaigning for justice. I emailed the prosecutor who secured convictions in that racial crime in admiration of her focus. Have the same undercover cops spied on the Hillsborough campaigners in an effort to cover up ineptitude? One can see why justice is hard won.

Paul Hill is most likely railing at the ineptitude. Let the families of those killed in Guildford rail too. Personally, I would allow Paul Hill some slack. Everybody hurts, sometime.

GILLIAN TRAVERS

HARROW, MIDDLESEX

LITTER LOUTS

I refer to the article ‘Don’t let ignorance of litter cloud these sunny days’ (Irish Independent, June 21).

I have been fortunate to travel, and every country has a bit of a litter problem. However, Ireland is something else. Advertising the necessity to clean up falls on deaf ears.

I have lived in Ireland for eight years, and every summer the same story about litter appears.

While most Irish find litter embarrassing, especially when tourists are around, they are hesitant to say anything to those who do litter out of fear. It seems people are afraid to say anything because they will likely start a fight. No litter warden or volunteer wants to be beaten up so it just gets ignored.

The other issue that needs to be addressed is how the rubbish is collected. After doing some of my own research, I asked the local council why bins are so few and far between with such a little hole to put rubbish. The response was so people won’t dump their household rubbish.

Those bin tags are useless. There must be a better way the household rubbish can be collected so there can be more bins on the streets to cater for large amounts of rubbish.

I commend Graham Clifford on teaching his son to pick up rubbish, and not walking by. It might not be his, but it shows he has pride in his country and countryside.

T DOHERTY

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

TESTING THE TROIKA

Has anyone noticed how the troika are great at looking over other people’s books and stress testing. Who is stress testing the troika’s books?

DERMOT RYAN

ATTYMON, ATHENRY, CO GALWAY

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME

What a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful World Cup, and just when one thought it couldn’t get any better, Ghana vs Germany happens. What a spectacle! And a lot more to come.

BRIAN MCDEVITT

GLENTIES, CO DONEGAL

WAITING FOR A CURE

Your letter writer in search of a cold cure on Monday is in luck. I have invented a cold cure. One dose, wait 10 days and the cold goes.

JOHN WILLIAMS

CLONMEL, CO TIPPERARY

QUESTIONS OF GENDER

While I welcome Dearbhail McDonald’s acknowledgment that women also sexually abuse children and agree with her that Judge Hunt’s sentencing of a female accused sends an important message that “perpetrators, regardless of their gender, will be held to account for their crimes” (Irish Independent, June 24), I query her perhaps unintended recourse to essentialism.

It may be “unconscionable to accept” that women commit such crimes, but surely it is just as unconscionable to accept that men do so particularly given their greater level of perpetration of such crimes.

The fact that men, unlike women, are not “society’s traditional care-givers and nurturers” should not alter that unconscionablity or render the latter more culpable than the former.

DR CATHERINE O’SULLIVAN

CENTRE FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS, DEPARTMENT AND FACULTY OF LAW, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

LET WOMEN MANAGE CHURCH

Deliberately or otherwise, the media persistently refuse to make the crucial distinction between the church and the church management.

The Christian church is either Christ at work in the world, or it is just one more benevolent association. Church management is made up at present of celibate men, whose job it is to implement Christ’s orders.

Why no women? The record shows this arrogant, lopsided management system is not fit for purpose, has consistently fallen down on the job, aloof, lagging behind the times.

The church should be managed by the best managers, the women.

SEAN MCELGUNN

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

Irish Independent

26June2014 Wendy and Susan

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I go to the bank

ScrabbleI win despite Mary getting a good leadperhaps she will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (No wonder we whinge: Cutting benefits for young jobless people shows the political class doesn’t care about our votes, 20 June) provided a powerful explanation of why so many young people are disenchanted with parliamentary politics and politicians. But the analysis needs to inform action. The chief reason why older people (like me!) get lots of attention and material benefits from politicians is because we vote. Young people, in large part, don’t vote and don’t even register to vote, so is it any wonder they’re largely ignored? How about changing this in the runup to next year’s general election? A mass voter registration campaign among young people, organised around key issues, could transform the electoral landscape. The Workers’ Educational Association has been making a start on this recently, but it really needs a high-profile coalition of organisations to make a step change. Is anyone up for this?
Nigel Todd
Worker’s Educational Association ambassador, North East Region

The death of Gerry Conlon justifiably motivated Owen Jones to issue a cautionary reminder of how cultural prejudices can blind institutions to the principles of justice and provoke a mood of intolerance (Who will the Gerry Conlons of the future count on?, 23 June). However, he fails to acknowledge that Islam is not only an uncompromisingly proselytising religion it is also a massive political force throughout the world, and evidentially one with a violently extremist wing. While he is correct therefore to cite British military action, foreign policy and civil liberty restrictions as factors in radicalisation, he should also recognise the impact that Islamism itself has on generating a mood of apprehension and insecurity in British society.
John Dillon
Birmingham

. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Independent:

The grossly expensive phone-hacking trial made one thing abundantly clear: there was no justification for setting up the disturbingly unsatisfactory Leveson inquiry.

This exercise in curbing press freedom was driven by a claim in The Guardian that the News of the World deleted Milly Dowler’s messages, raising false hopes she might be alive. The claim was shown to be groundless, and, as the conviction of Andy Coulson confirms, existing laws against phone hacking are entirely adequate to deal with rogue journalists.

After the imprisonment of three journalists in Egypt, David Cameron had fine words to say about the vital importance of a free press to democracy. Yet to save face after the unwise appointment of Coulson as his director of communications he was prepared to jeopardise 300 years of press freedom from state interference.

Dr John Cameron, St Andrews

You, as an editor, might be able to tell us what the editor of a national newspaper is paid to do.

Is it to know nothing about what your paper prints? Is it never to enquire about the source of a story?

Is it never to ask a reporter: “How on earth did you find this out?”

Is it never to wonder how something personal and private all of a sudden becomes public in print?

Is it to open the newspaper you are in charge of and be as surprised by what  you read as are your readers?

Peter Forster, London N4

Long wait for a  living wage

I agree with Hamish McRae (25 June) that social media campaigns and voluntary action can have a positive impact on low pay, but he overstates the success.

High-profile cases such as Starbucks’ tax avoidance are a small step forward, as is the Living Wage campaign, which has signed up over 700 forward-thinking companies to date.

But in London there are now more people earning less than a living wage than in 2008, when Boris Johnson became Mayor, promising to promote the voluntary campaign. Only 3 per cent of our big businesses have signed up. I have joined citizens’ groups, a trade union and tweeters in lobbying for John Lewis cleaners to be paid a living wage, but the company has held out for two years now.

We need a mandatory living wage, so everybody can build a life on their income. This should be a legal baseline, leaving us to campaign for other improvements such as more equal pay and jobs that bring more meaning to workers’ lives.

Jenny Jones, Green Party Member of the London Assembly

Fighting both Assad and the Jihadis

Patrick Cockburn is an experienced observer of the Middle East, so it is disappointing that his article of 23 June oversimplifies a complex situation.

When he writes, for example, about the “revolt of the Sunni in Syria” he represents the uprising in Syria as entirely religious or sectarian in nature. This is untrue. Members of all religions joined in the protests against Assad’s government, and all religions are represented today in the Syrian Opposition Coalition. His statement that “the Syrian opposition is dominated by Isis and al-Qa’ida groups” is, again, the opposite of the truth. Our own affiliates the Free Syrian Army – defined by the UN as “Syrian moderate nationalists” – are fighting with some success on two fronts against both the Assad regime and Isis. Their successes would be greater if they had more help from the West.

On 3 June, on this letters page I warned that insufficient support for moderate nationalist rebels in Syria would result in the strengthening of religious extremists, and that the spillover from Syria would soon affect other countries in the region, and maybe Europe. Six days later, Isis took control of Mosul and now Western jihadis are paraded in propaganda videos or on social media urging their former compatriots to join them or, worse, return home with malicious intent.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Our fight with Isis is part of a wider struggle and deserves greater support.

Monzer Akbik, Chief of Staff, Office of the President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, Istanbul

Football in the gutter again

Uruguay’s Luis Suarez is a fantastic footballer, but why didn’t the referee red card him immediately after his latest stupidity?

When is Fifa going to sort football out? We have seen dives that an Olympic diver would be proud of, more shirt pulling, pushing, grabbing and holding than you will see in any rugby or wrestling match, and Suarez tops it all by biting an opponent again.

Unless the authorities take very strong action the game will get dragged further into the gutter. Stop turning a blind eye to the actions of people who are supposed to be role models for our children.

Dave Croucher, Doncaster

Will Fifa show it has real teeth when dealing with Luis Suarez?

John Payne, Gisleham, Suffolk

Finnish lesson for our schools

Alan Bennett highlights in his article the effects of discrimination in the UK’s education system (19 June). I was surprised that he made no reference to the alternative model as practised in Finland.

Finnish schools continue to outperform schools in the UK and governments have on occasion had to acknowledge this, but they never seem ready to grasp what may be the reasons.

There are no private schools in Finland. This means that the movers and shakers in society put their efforts into ensuring that the state education system is good enough for their children, and therefore for everyone else.

The state regards it as important that there should be a role for education in developing equality in the country. School meals are free to all students and care, guidance and health provisions are school-centred for the relevant age group.

Finnish students do not face testing until their teens. Students pursue their studies without the threat of failure. The state regards co-operation as preferable to competition.

Teachers are very highly regarded. They are all qualified and require five years’ training with a master’s degree. Many of the best students aspire to become teachers. Teachers are trusted to choose the teaching methods and materials best suited to them and their pupils, and not to fit in with the whims of a politician.

A far more fundamental change in our perception of what schools should be is required than any government seems prepared to present.

David Battye, Sheffield

The ‘balance’ shifts  to the right

The recent furore over the threat to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is deeply disturbing, and not simply because a Conservative MP has expressed the desire to do her harm and received no more than a mild admonishment from his party leader.

The whole episode has cheapened the issue of violence against women by turning it into a personalised and media-confected cartoon.

The chief problem is the virtual disappearance from public discourse of any sane, leftist account of the world. The major parties are indistinguishably right-wing and news organisations in search of “balance” now look further right for their discussants.

This means, among other things, regular work for a growing cadre of far-right provocateurs, one of whose favourite tricks is to play off the dreary myth of “political correctness”.

Stephen Wagg, Leicester

Less management and more doctors, please

I have just received a letter from my local GP practice informing me that as I am over 75 a named GP has been appointed to have overall responsibility for my care and support. But it adds that this will not stop me seeing my usual GP, in whom I have great confidence. What on earth is the point of this?

This seems to me to be an inept example of micro-managing by Whitehall bureaucrats in adding another layer of administration at a time of a serious financial shortfall, particularly when we need more medical staff, not managers.

T G Harris, Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Consider the lilies as a weapon

Having previously made fruitless attempts to track down plants recommended by gardening experts, I have often wondered whether they bother to check availability beforehand.

In the light of Sandra Bishop’s well-meant warning that lilies are toxic to cats (letter, 25 June), I wonder whether a lily shortage might be anticipated, given the many letters in gardening magazines seeking a means of “discouraging” cats from using gardens? Take heed, garden centres, it may well be a busy weekend.

Rob Hallows, Llanddulas, Conwy

Times:

Sir, It is hard to disagree with Radoslaw’s Sikorski’s assessment of our prime minister’s negotiating skills as incompetent (report, June 24). As well as being outmanoeuvred on Europe he was outflanked, out-thought and out-played by Alex Salmond in the negotiations for the Scottish independence referendum. He agreed to the matter being decided by a simple majority when around the world two thirds is usually required for major constitutional change; to votes being granted to 16-year-olds for the first time in UK history; and to the ballot being restricted to people living in Scotland when the matter is of intense interest not only to Scots living south of the Tweed but to all British people.

Mr Cameron could well go down in history as the prime minister who presided over the break-up of the United Kingdom and the isolation of the remaining pieces from Europe. Does he not care? Or, as Mr Sikorski suggests, does he just not get it?

Rodney Pinder
London SE24

Sir, It is surely unsurprising that Mr Cameron’s position in EU negotiations is not viewed as strong by his EU counterparts. He is less than 11 months from an election. He is also less than three months from the Scottish independence vote, and has promised the home electorate a referendum on the EU after 2015.

All of these elements add up to political uncertainty, and no doubt Mr Cameron’s counterparts in the EU are more than aware of the instability of his negotiating position.

To achieve strong reform measures within the EU, Mr Cameron, or any prime minister in his position, would need a political powerbase founded on a degree of certainty about what the British electorate feel about its own political leader as well as whether it wants to be in the EU.

To try to negotiate long-term reform at present is extraordinarily difficult due less to personality issues at EU level than to electoral powerbases back home.

Elizabeth Oakley
Dursley, Glos

Sir, Radoslaw Sikorski has missed the point. David Cameron’s stance is not about “playing the system”, subtle negotiations, or not-so-subtle horse-trading. It is specifically to do with saying to the EU “enough is enough”. That no-one understands this, or understands it but is not prepared to acknowledge it, is why Mr Cameron has had to be so aggressive. If he fails, all the more reason to prepare for a proper change in the relationship between the UK and the EU.

Tony Plummer
Saffron Walden, Essex

Sir, Bravo to Radolaw Sikorski for exposing so incisively the weaknesses of British policy towards the European Union. It seems ultimately self-defeating to press peremptorily for special concessions while at the same time blatantly refusing to accept the EU’s long-term objectives. Patience with Britain among the other members will eventually run out. With Mr Sikorski it seems already to have done so.

If secession is seen as a retreat into limbo, then the only way forward is to demonstrate a genuine commitment to the European Union’s long-term objectives, and to seek temporary assistance in meeting problems that emerge in the process of working towards those objectives. That way Britain might at least enlist some understanding.

Murray Forsyth
Malvern, Worcs

Telegraph:

SIR – Few countries give greater freedom to manifest religion than this one, and the National Secular Society applauds that (leading article, June 21).

7:00AM BST 25 Jun 2014

132 Comments

Irish Times:

A chara, – The recent impasse between British prime minister David Cameron and EU leaders highlights yet again the diluted democracy that now permeates European politics (“UK to force vote on Juncker appointment”, June 23rd).

Mr Cameron has been attacked by many “pro-EU” politicians for his objection to the coronation of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. They point to the Spitzenkandidaten process and claim that as a result of the European elections, Mr Juncker has been elected.

I did not see Mr Juncker’s face on a single election poster in Ireland, nor did I see his name on the ballot paper, and there was very little discussion during the campaign about the policies of Mr Juncker and of the other candidates for the presidency of the European Commission. While this new “process” was known before the European elections, I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of the electorate did not vote for MEPs based on who their party supported for commission president.

Yet a vote for any Fine Gael candidate was deemed to be a vote for Mr Junker. This is the the usual “inferred mandate” politics that the EU engages in.

Mr Cameron’s refusal to bow to Europe over this issue is undoubtedly a result of the increasing anti-EU sentiment in the UK and his domestic political needs, but isn’t that what true democracy is supposed to be – politicians responding to the wishes and sentiments of the citizens that vote for them?

I suppose that an organisation that does not take no for an answer from the people is unlikely to care about true democracy. – Is mise,

SIMON O’CONNOR,

Lismore Road,

Crumlin,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – The jailing of three al-Jazeera journalists and the sentencing in absentia of their colleagues by an Egyptian court represents an attack on the right to freedom of expression that has rightly been universally condemned.

Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy have been sentenced to seven years in jail, while Baher Mohamed was sentenced to an additional three years for possession of ammunition. Mohamed was in possession of a spent bullet he found on the ground during a protest.

Their journalistic colleagues – Alaa Bayoumi, Anas Abdel-Wahab Khalawi Hasan, Khaleel Aly Khaleel Bahnasy, Mohamed Fawzi, Dominic Kane, Rena Netjes and Sue Turton – have been sentenced to 10 years in absentia.

Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed, Alaa Bayoumi, Anas Abdel-Wahab Khalawi Hasan, Khaleel Aly Khaleel Bahnasy, Mohamed Fawzi, Dominic Kane, Rena Netjes and Sue Turton are journalists. They are not terrorists. They are not criminals.

They are journalists who have been jailed for doing their jobs, convicted without a single shred of evidence by a court which displayed no respect for the principles of justice or fair procedure.

This is a violation of human rights that must be condemned by the international community.

We call on the Egyptian government to have these convictions overturned and to stop locking up journalists.

We also call on the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs to help make this case a priority at EU level and at the United Nations.

Journalists and media organisations must be free to pursue their professional duties without intimidation or fear. The imprisonment of these journalists represents an attack on all who demand a free, independent global media. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN BAKHURST,

Managing Director,

RTÉ News

and Current Affairs;

DAVID BEGG,

Sir, – It is extraordinary that the decision by Brian Crowley (“Crowley no longer member of FF parliamentary party”, June 24th) to move from one remote grouping in the European Parliament to another should provoke such focus on the precise political credo of these groupings. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, we remain all over the shop with regard to our relationship with politics, political parties and politicians. What on earth must the Europeans make of us as a result? Historically we have had right-wing parties that appeal to poor people, left-wing parties that serve the interests of the rich, and now a whole range of “Independents”. One thing we can be sure about in mainland Europe is that politics is defined in left and right terms. Here, we still talk of “personal” votes, whatever the hell they are. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN DOYLE,

Lisdowney,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – I have been amused to hear Fianna Fáil members clamouring to the media to reassure us that their party has nothing in common with the far-right populists of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (“Brian Crowley’s MEP group ‘xenophobic’, says FF leader”, June 24th).

Fianna Fáil only joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in 2009, before which it was one of the two leading parties of the now defunct Union for Europe of Nations (UEN). Many of the constituent parties of the latter group were as right wing as they come. Indeed after the implosion of UEN, some of its adherents switched their allegiances to ECR, others to the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, now the furthest-right organised force in the European Parliament.

Up until five years ago Fianna Fáil didn’t seem to have a problem bedding down with the likes of the Danish People’s Party or Italy’s Lega Nord, nor indeed the charmingly named For Fatherland and Freedom, whose members march in Riga every year to commemorate Latvian Waffen-SS veterans. – Yours, etc,

JOHN CALE

Maiden Row,

Chapelizod, Dublin 20.

Sir, – Perhaps it would be wise of the Colombian team to emphasise to Señor Suarez before the upcoming game that their midfielder’s name is Carbonero, not Carbonara. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN TREACY,

Drumree,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Once bitten, twice shy! – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – It is wonderful to see the genius of professional footballers being celebrated each quadrennial and to give us such indelible memories – from the “Hand of God” to the “Teeth of Jaws”. The beautiful game? – Yours, etc,

DAVID SUTTON

Shoreside,

Killaloe,

Co Tipperary.

Sir, – Has Luis Suarez bitten his name into history? – Yours, etc,

RORY McVEY,

Terenure Road East,

Dublin 6 .

Sir, – Little did the subeditor who wrote the headline on the Ken Early piece “Suarez takes another nibble at the English media” (Tuesday, June 24th) know that the footballer would be sinking his teeth into someone so soon and may have bitten off more than he could chew this time! – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM,

Delwood Drive,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – I heard one radio commentator state that he had a certain level of sympathy for Louis Suarez, after his alleged biting incident. The last thing the game needs at the moment is for TV and radio commentators to offer any level of tacit approval for unsporting behaviour. – Yours, etc,

JOHN O’CONNOR,

Grange Park Road,

Raheny,

Dublin 5.

Sir, – It is brilliant that one of the so-called “PIGS” of Europe is doing so well at the World Cup. Congratulations to Greece on qualification for the knock-out stage. It was great to see the excitement on the faces of the many Greek fans in Brazil. Does Angela Merkel know they’re there? – Yours, etc,

ED McDONALD,

Stradbrook Road,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The recent reports of the Health Research Board (“177,000 dependent drinkers in Ireland”, June 24th) and of the World Health Organisation demonstrate what many of your readers know – we have a genuine health crisis in Ireland due to our excessive and dangerous alcohol consumption. The health services see the dreadful health and human toll of alcohol daily.

Over three-quarters of alcohol in the HRB study was reported consumed in binge drinking sessions, and 20 per cent reported binge drinking in the previous week.

Ireland has been shown to be a world leader in binge drinking of cheap alcohol. In Ireland, we drink too much alcohol, in patterns that are unhealthy and with little regard to consequence.

Increasingly we drink cheap, high-potency alcohol in locations other than the pub.

A huge proportion of our resource-strapped health, social welfare, Garda and justice services are taken up managing the consequences of this excessive alcohol consumption.

There is a need for urgent, focused, and effective action, despite any pleading by the alcohol industry and supermarkets.

The solutions are well recognised. There is substantial international evidence that increasing the cost and reducing the availability of alcohol are effective in reducing dangerous alcohol consumption and the harms associated with alcohol.

Let us as a country take this action and introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol and restrict the off-sales outlets selling alcohol.

It is worth remembering the resistance that was presented in the face of the smoking ban. No doubt the alcohol industry will try to resist change, but I suggest that we need to act urgently nonetheless.

While we debate other strategies to reduce harm from alcohol, let us urgently as a nation turn off the tap of cheap alcohol, which these recent studies have demonstrated is damaging some of the most vulnerable in our society. – Yours, etc,

Prof FRANK MURRAY,

Alcohol Policy Group,

Royal College

of Physicians of Ireland,

Frederick House,

South Frederick Street,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Pádraig McCarthy (June 25th) asks “Would the people of Ireland have been better off without the input of religious bodies into education, health, welfare, social cohesion, pastoral care, over the past 100 years?”

In a word, yes.

The “education” provided by religious institutes was mired in abuse – physical, emotional and sexual. Children were beaten for having the audacity to write with their left hands, for being “slow”, for anything at all really.

“Social cohesion” meant locking up unmarried mothers. “Welfare” included burying hundreds of innocent babies in unmarked graves. “Pastoral care” included shaming people who were gay, women for having abortions, and couples who divorced. (The Catholic Church really does need to look at its obsession with sex.)

Would Ireland have been a better place without all of this?

Yes, I quite think it would. – Yours, etc,

KATIE HARRINGTON

Sheikh Rashid Road,

Dubai.

Sir, – Pádraig McCarthy runs the risk of taking both himself and Fintan O’Toole far too seriously (“Church and State role in education intertwined”, Opinion & Analysis, June 24th). Fintan, of course, always takes himself too seriously. Although I must admit I do look forward to reading Fintan, if only to discover what I am or ought to be thinking. – Yours, etc,

DECLAN MORIARTY,

Clancy Road,

Finglas,

Dublin 11.

Sir, – Edward Burke (June 24th) states that “he is amazed that the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has decided to extend the search for a new Garda commissioner to foreign nationals”.

We often hear members of the Cabinet talking about Ireland’s world-class this and world-class that, so surely the Minister for Justice has a clear mandate to try and attract the best possible candidates, and, who knows, the successful applicant might be of Irish descent.

The point here is that this person must be capable of not only changing the present culture in the Garda, but also of introducing initiatives and restoring morale. This is a huge task, and might just be too difficult for a home-grown candidate – although not impossible.

I am reminded of the reaction of a certain TD, who upon hearing an “outsider” had been appointed the new regulator at the Central Bank, snorted “we don’t need foreigners telling us how to run our businesses”!

It is that embedded parochial attitude which the Minister of Justice will have to resist. – Yours, etc,

MIKE CORMACK,

Ardagh Close,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I was surprised to read Euan MacPherson (June 24th) suggesting that a newly independent Scotland (population 5,500,000) might take over running Northern Ireland (population 1,820,000).

The standard of living in Northern Ireland depends absolutely upon the subvention remitted to it by the treasury in London.

Taxes gathered and spent in Northern Ireland are insufficient and it is estimated that a further £5 billion is paid annually by the taxpayers in the rest of the United Kingdom to maintain Northern Ireland. The British government does not publish this kind of detail.

I do not imagine any canny and independently minded Scot would want to have such an expensive piece of real-estate – without any prospect of a payback – in a “United Kingdom of Scotland and Northern Ireland”! – Yours, etc.

GERARD CARTON,

Prinstead Close,

Winchester,

Hampshire,

Sir, – Your Letters Page oozes positivity these days (June 25th). We have the ever-effervescent Dr Sean Alexander Smith advocating from Portugal “twice bless’d” mercy for our justice system and Patrick Masterson from France recalling “thousands of splendid UCD graduates”.

But then both of these letters were dispatched from sunnier climes. Maybe absence – and sunshine – does make the heart grow fonder. – Yours, etc,

JOSEPH McDONNELL,

Woodlawn Park,

Churchtown,

Dublin 14.

Irish Independent:

‘Lions led by donkeys’; nearly a century on, that’s how the British infantry (including tens of thousands of Irish) and its officer corps are remembered from World War I. I wonder, a century from now, how will we and the current Irish political leadership be remembered?

Cast your mind back two years to June 28, 2012 and yet another eurozone summit meeting and the short statement issued on the separation of bank debt from sovereign debt, which included: “The Eurogroup will examine the situation of the Irish financial sector with the view of further improving the sustainability of the well-performing adjustment programme.”

Remember Enda Kenny‘s ‘seismic shift’ boast? – “I’m a hard grafter and, as some of them found out, they shouldn’t tangle with me too often.” Remember Eamon Gilmore‘s ‘game-changer’ bombast? Two years on, what has shifted, what has changed?

For starters, we’ve had Michael Noonan‘s acclaimed promissory notes deal. Notes Michael himself described in an RTE interview as “illegal, totally” but which now sees that €25bn of disputed debt transformed to sovereign bonds.

The first of those bonds is sold this year, €0.5bn. That money is then destroyed by the Irish Central Bank; €0.5bn a year for the next five years, borrowed and burned, then €1bn a year for the following five years, €2bn a year for eight years and finally, in 2032, the last bond, €1.5bn.

A total of €25bn that had been used at the behest of the EC/ECB to bail out two bust banks, now borrowed by this broke and broken country and burned at the behest of that same EC/ECB, all set up by a compliant, obeisant Kenny/Gilmore Government without even a murmur of protest. They didn’t even ask, nevermind confront.

Then there’s the vaunted ESM from which we were to receive the billions refund of the ‘legacy’ bank debt arising from the June 2012 statement. The fund has been established and Ireland has already contributed a €1bn share to that, which, of course, we also had to borrow and on which we are now paying interest. What have we received? How much ‘legacy’ debt relief? Not a cent.

The actual legacy of this Government, the legacy this generation leaves, is debt piled on debt, 40 years of debt-slavery to our new European masters, all uncontested.

DIARMUID O’FLYNN, BALLYHEA, CO CORK

A GAME TO GET YOUR TEETH INTO

Brian McDevitt is bowled over with the World Cup; “The Beautiful Game,” (Irish Independent, June 25). So am I. Yes indeed, it is a brilliant tournament. Greece looked dead and buried until a penalty in the dying seconds. Striker Georgios Samaras did the business.

Leaving aside the fact that a particular player in a game on at the same time obviously had an empty stomach, this is truly a memorable tournament.

TOMMY RODDY, SALTHILL, GALWAY

URUGUAY ARE LEAVING THEIR MARK

Italian footballers have a reputation for being soft, for making a meal out of tackles. Perhaps that legacy can be passed on to Uruguay. The Azzurris are starting to look like a hard-bitten side.

T G GAVIN, DUBLIN 4

LET’S STOP BEATING OURSELVES UP

With the halcyon boom times behind us, grim obsessing over our ‘shameful’ past seems to be the perfect new zeitgeist.

Swapping private confession with a priest for secular public confession in print and radio, our feelings of guilt don’t seem to change. We combine this with an insular tendency to assume that everything good or bad that happens here is unique, even if we should know rationally it is not.

One recent letter writer claims “we have no excuse as a society” for the scandals of the past. Actually, we have two – we are not that past society and we did not live in those circumstances.

Another correspondent made the usual stock-in-trade denunciations of our “violent roots” – 1916 etc – while engaging in anguished hand-wringing about the need for “a national debate on where Ireland is heading”.

Those ‘violent roots’ stretch back to Tudor conquest, the Normans and beyond and similar can be found in any country one cares to name. How ironic, to complain about the ‘rudderless’ state of our nation while castigating the time when young men and women, facing down threats, took the destiny of this country in their very hands.

On one point I agree – as long as we have to put up with listening to endless lectures on our ‘shamefulness’ or ‘worthlessness’ as a people, it is unlikely we will see much progress.

NICK FOLLEY, CARRIGALINE, CO CORK

SUPPORT EGYPT’S JOURNALISTS

It is indeed a sad day when journalism is considered a crime. But this is little consolation for the three Al-Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, who have been jailed for seven years on terror-related charges.

The Obama administration has pleaded with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to release the journalists but he said he would not interfere with the judicial ruling.

This means that the only option left for the journalists is a lengthy appeal process which may not begin until October.

The verdict has resulted in international condemnation of the Egyptian government’s policy of imprisoning opposing voices.

DAIRE BURKE-CARROLL, KILTIMAGH, CO MAYO

GAA MUST MOVE ON TIMING

Dermot Ryan (Irish Independent, June 24) rightly extols the outcome of the Kilkenny v Galway game on Sunday.

However, the conclusion of the game on RTE witnessed calls by some who should know better for the GAA rules to be effectively set aside in the interest of setting up a replay.

After Galway had equalised the commentator called for the ref to “blow it up”.

Then one of the studio analysts stated that the referee was right to “blow it up” as “neither side deserved to lose”.

It is really about time that the GAA moves to arrange that time-keeping in inter-county games is taken out of the hands of the referee and managed off the field, as has been shown to work in ladies’ football.

PAUL HARRINGTON, NAVAN, CO MEATH

TEACHERS EDUCATED TOGETHER

In your edition of Saturday, June 21, the Irish Independent ran an article celebrated the new structure of teacher training with the following opening paragraph: “Trainee primary teachers from the Catholic and Protestant traditions are to be educated together for the first time.”

In the interests of historical accuracy, that statement is untrue.

Your correspondent may, understandably, be unfamiliar with education developments in the 1970s, but I wish to put on the record that Trinity College School of Education provided a degree course, the BEd, for three external colleges of education – the Church of Ireland College of Education, Colaiste Mhuire Marino and the Froebel College Blackrock – and it did this from 1974 onwards.

I may add that Trinity also provided from the mid-60s teacher training for post-primary teachers on an admissions policy devoid of any criteria based on denominational allegiance. Long may such policies persist in Irish education.

SEAMAS O BUACHALLA, KILLINEY, CO DUBLIN

Irish Independent

27June2014 Pottering

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I go to the bank

ScrabbleI win despite Mary getting a good leadperhaps she will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Leo Bretholz, who has died aged 93, was a Holocaust survivor who made a daring escape en route to Auschwitz; having settled in America in later life, he became a prominent campaigner in demanding reparations from the French rail company SNCF for its role in the transportation of some 76,000 European Jews and other prisoners to the French-German border, and thence to concentration camps.

Guardian:

As supporters of the Syrian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy, we are concerned by the British government’s decision to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran in response to the crisis in Iraq (Shortcuts, G2, Iran, 18 June).

I work for the children’s services department of a local authority in north-west England. Our annual budget is £37.5m and falling. With this money we provide services for 49,000 children, young people and their families.

There is a simple reason why Tony Blair should not be permitted to continue as quartet Middle East envoy (Report, 24 June). Anyone who accepts a multilateral mandate must cease to express personal views that can affect perceptions of the impartiality of their role. It has long been obvious that this is not a restriction that Tony Blair is willing to respect. As a former United Nations representative, I feel particularly strongly that he should not be permitted to carry what is in part a UN mandate.
Ian Martin
Former special representative of the secretary-general in East Timor, Nepal and Libya

Independent:

Times:

Archduke Ferdinand believed in the creation of a multinational state Getty Images

Published at 12:01AM, June 27 2014

Telegraph:

SIR – If the Bank of England keeps changing its plans about when it is going to increase interest rates, its warnings risk losing credibility. Initially, the forward guidance was that rates would not rise until unemployment fell below 7 per cent. When this happened, the Bank pointed to a rise in 2015, before saying that it could be this year. Now the prospect of an imminent rise has receded.

SIR – Surely it is time to abolish the concession which allows smoking on stage in theatres.

SIR – One of the most depressing things about the Coulson affair is that senior politicians seem desperate to appoint so-called spin doctors to explain their actions to the electorate. One cannot imagine Attlee or Churchill requiring such people around them.

A new law to allow patients to try untested medicines will protect them and nurture medical innovation, a coalition of some of the UK’s most senior health experts say.

Irish Times:

Sir, – It is clear that our healthcare system is not serving the people. Your correspondent Turlough O’Donnell (June 24th) rightly says that health insurance is paid largely by people of modest means because they have no faith in the public health system. However, there are a lot of people in Ireland who have little or no means. Are they to be denied good healthcare because of this?

Perhaps it is time that we improved the public health system and tried to restore confidence in it. All political parties should commit themselves to the principle of publicly funded universal healthcare, free at the point of access, where the only criterion for use is medical need. – Yours, etc,

PHILIP MORIARTY,

Shanowen Avenue,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – I note Turlough O’Donnell’s defence of the private healthcare sector (June 22nd). He states that “without the independent sector, the public health system would implode” and “the public sector needs to fix itself, with the resources that are currently at its disposal, and stop looking at others as the cause of its illness”.

I would certainly acknowledge that the “private healthcare is bad” narrative is both incorrect and does a disservice to the broader healthcare debate. But the perpetuation of a taxation-funded public healthcare system paralleled with the promotion of a private healthcare system is undoubtedly damaging to patients, population health and society at large.

It is wrong that some patients receive elective surgery within weeks, whilst others wait years; that some patients wait one day for a scan, when others never get one. To believe that this is wrong is to believe in equity, fairness and social solidarity; it is to believe in universal health care (UHC) where financial means should not affect ability to access services.

The Association of Independent Medical and Surgical Specialists’ belief that the public system, which is chronically underfunded, must “fix itself” first is incongruent with a belief in UHC. Primary and secondary care should be planned and delivered in a co-ordinated, integrated manner – not by permitting one part of the system to deliver care at the behest of the market. Yes, the private sector delivers care which is often excellent, by wonderful staff, in pleasant surroundings. But it undoubtedly cherry-picks more lucrative, lower-risk, elective care and procedures – dictated by market forces and not by social or health need.

Despite attacking Clare Conlon’s assertion (June 21st) that private patients may receive care that they do not require, there is in fact compelling evidence that a fee-per-item system promotes over-investigation and over-treatment. Listen to the national radio; the Mater and Beacon private hospitals are busy advertising health screening (which lacks an evidence base), but I don’t hear them advertise (or deliver) 24-hour emergency care services, stroke services or the extent of chronic or critical illness care that the public service provides. And why should they? The private sector is not bad – it is doing precisely what it is allowed to do.

If only we could debate the type of UHC our society should choose. Alas, the biggest ruse of all, which suits the Government and the private sector alike, is the conflation of UHC and universal health insurance (UHI) as equal concepts. – Yours, etc,

Dr MARK MURPHY,

Elmwood Avenue,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – This week the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform advertised “clerical positions in the Civil and Public Service”. The starting salary for these positions is “in the region of €21,000 per annum”.

Let’s assume a husband and wife are both employed in such positions, earning a combined total of €42,000 per annum. After tax (including the pension levy), their net weekly income is €699.65.

If the same couple have three or more children, they will qualify for FIS (Family Income Supplement). So, by definition of the Department of Social Welfare, the wages paid by the State to this couple, who work a combined total of 86 hours a week, are so impoverishing as to render them incapable of adequately supporting their three children.

To quote Joan Burton (Dáil Questions, April 16th) “FIS is designed to prevent child and family poverty”. Perhaps civil servants’ wages should be designed to prevent child and family poverty. – Yours, etc,

ANNEMARIE

McCARTHY,

Carrigadrohid,

Macroom,

Fri, Jun 27, 2014, 01:07

First published: Fri, Jun 27, 2014, 01:07

Sir, – Kathy Sheridan (“Cycle of despair for commuters to Dublin”, Opinion & Analysis, June 25th) has injected some much-needed perspective into a debate that is endlessly framed as greener-than-green cyclists versus thoughtless, car-driving road hogs.

Dublin is our capital and transport “solutions” that milk motorists are bad for the city and bad for the country. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Stamer Street,

Dublin 8 .

Sir, – A friend of mine recently travelled from Bruges to Ghent, which are roughly 49 kilometres apart, by train. The return fare was €6! A few years ago I met friends of a friend in Tokyo. The idea of needing a car to get around seemed silly to them.

Why would they need a car when they had good public transport? Provide good subsidised transport and cars will disappear from our city streets. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN LOUGHEED,

Arlington Heights,

Killarney,

Co Kerry.

Sir, – In response to Kathy Sheridan, it must be pointed out that there is simply a finite amount of road-space available in Dublin.

Provision of safe cycling corridors is a more equitable sharing out of this limited urban road-space and such corridors would facilitate more efficient movement of people. – Yours, etc,

DEREK BRADY,

Victoria,

Vancouver Island,

Canada.

Sir, – Kathy Sheridan writes that people do not choose to drive in Dublin, rather they do so for “pressing practical or health reasons”.

The National Transport Authority recently found that half of daily trips are less than three kilometres and that half of these short trips are made by car.

If we could switch just these short trips to cycling or walking, then congestion and many of our health problems would be solved. – Yours, etc,

Cllr OSSIAN SMYTH,

Montpelier Place,

Monkstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Out for nine matches and a four-month ban for Luis Suarez? If some Dublin youngster bit a tourist on O’Connell Street in full view of CCTV and passersby, he would be arrested, charged, and the book would be thrown at him — “to send a message”. Fifa could have sorted out this undisciplined player two bites ago. – Yours, etc,

HUGO KIERAN

Mulgrave Terrace,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – A case perhaps for the compulsory use of gumshields? – Yours, etc,

TOM GILSENAN,

Elm Mount,

Beaumont,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – The fact that the World Cup trophy is made from gold undoubtedly puts undue pressure on the players. Perhaps Fifa should consider enamel as an alternative. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK JUDGE,

Rochestown Avenue,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Neil Burke-Kennedy (June 24th) wonders who the various teams rely on for divine intervention during this lengthy tournament. One possibility might be Our Lady of Perpetual Soccer. – Yours, etc,

PETER DOYLE,

Dornden Park,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – RTÉ had not yet been conceived and television had not rolled out to our rural area until late 1962. As a result, my first World Cup exposure occurred in 1966. This was going to be England’s year and the mouth-watering prospect of an England vs Germany final, a little over 20 years after the second World War, was almost unthinkable. By kick-off, I knew what every English player was having for breakfast.

These players transcended nationality, creed and any other perceived difference. The subsequent victory and post-tournament newsreels captured the hearts and minds of a large swathe of Irish youths. I parked my hurley, sampled the beautiful game, and was part of a group that, a few years later, met in a pub in Newport, Co Tipperary, to set up a soccer club in the town.

In our wildest dreams, we could not have imagined that one of our heroes, Jack Charlton, would go on to manage the Irish team, plot the defeat of England in “Euro 88”, take us to our first World Cup Finals in “Italia 90” and become a household name and an honorary Irishman. – Yours, etc,

PAT McLOUGHLIN,

Newcastle West,

Co Limerick.

Sir, – An opportunity has been lost in the report by the Internet Content Governance Advisory Group (“Cabinet to tackle issue of children’s internet safety”, June 24th) to deal effectively with the growing problem of the widespread availability of online pornography to children. Irish society never asked for simple, quick access to online pornography for everyone, yet this is what we have.

The answer is simple – force the internet service providers to filter out online pornography until users request it and can prove they are over 18.

The advisory group talks about greater use of parental controls as an answer to the problem.

We would not accept television stations broadcasting pornography 24 hours a day and telling us that it is up to parents to control access to the TV. Why do we accept this approach from internet service providers? – Yours, etc

SEAMUS CULLEN

Seacrest,

Knocknacarra,

Galway.

Sir, – Paul Cullen’s coverage of the Health Research Board’s study of alcohol consumption by Irish people (“177,000 dependent drinkers in Ireland”, June 24th) points to the fact that three-quarters of all alcohol is consumed in the context of binge-drinking and that two-thirds of young people in the 18-24 age group report that they engage in binge drinking.

In line with the findings of other studies carried out in recent years, these latest figures point to the fact that alcohol misuse constitutes a “ticking time-bomb” in Irish society, posing the single greatest threat to the physical and mental health of very large numbers of people across the age spectrum.

The toll that alcohol is taking is well recognised at official level. Despite the fact that it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that alcohol marketing, including sports sponsorship, encourages young people to drink at an earlier age and in greater quantities than they otherwise would, our Government continues to adopt a largely hands-off approach in terms of how alcohol is promoted in this country.

Recent revelations suggest that as a society, we can now safely condemn the way in which young, vulnerable Irish women and their children were treated in the past. While our lawmakers are currently falling over themselves to be seen to right these wrongs, they seem to be indifferent to the exploitation of the young of our own time by powerful vested interests that use the most sophisticated and insidious forms of marketing and promotion for the sole purpose of making vast profits. – Yours, etc,

Dr MICHAEL LOFTUS,

Deel Medical Centre,

Crossmolina,

Co Mayo.

Sir, – I have no doubt that as a general rule Prof Frank Murray of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (June 26th) is right about alcohol consumption – if the price is increased, the overall amount consumed will fall.

But I wait to be convinced that that fall will be spread evenly across the population – the well-off will continue to drink as much as they want; the badly-off will cut down. Even then somebody whose first priority is alcohol may well cut down in other areas, such as food, but continue to drink, the harm done by alcohol thus being compounded.

At a time when the Government is looking for any excuse to increase taxes, a chance to engage in a self-indulgent rhetoric of “it’s for your own good” as they hike prices will be welcomed. – Yours, etc,

EOIN DILLON,

Ceannt Fort,

Mount Brown,

Dublin 8.

A chara, – Declan Moriarty (June 26th) says I run the risk of taking both myself and Fintan O’Toole too seriously. Rather, I take truth-telling seriously. If I may quote the same Fintan O’Toole again (“Corrupt journalism is as pernicious as oppression”, Opinion & Analysis, June 26th): “a fundamental duty to do their best to tell as much of the truth as they can muster – regardless of whose interest may be damaged”.

Katie Harrington (June 26th) falls into the same error as Mr O’Toole – mistaking the part for the whole. She writes yes, the people of Ireland would have been better off without the input of religious bodies into education, health, welfare, social cohesion and pastoral care.

Indeed, there was the most deplorable wrong done. This is neither deniable nor excusable. But to say, as she does, that the education provided by religious institutes was “mired in abuse” paints everyone with the same brush. True, the abuse makes better headlines, and any abuse is abhorrent.

But there are many who, like myself, benefitted greatly from the work of the Irish Christian Brothers. If I recall correctly, the cost per term in Synge Street Secondary School in the 1950s was £6. It made an education possible for many who would otherwise have been deprived of it.

Without that, and without the St Vincent de Paul Society and many other religious bodies, the people of Ireland would have been far worse off, when the government did not have the resources, nor sometimes perhaps the will, to provide.

Perhaps Mr O’Toole would write about this sometime. – Is mise,

PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,

Blackthorn Court,

Sandyford,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – As as resident of Northern Ireland, who hailed originally from the Republic, I am following the independence debate in Scotland with interest. I am in my late sixties and have spent roughly two-thirds of my life in the Republic, in England and in Northern Ireland.

As an obvious secessionist ally, I find the Scottish silence on Ireland somewhat puzzling, (not to mention Ireland’s seeming ambivalence on Scotland’s impending experiment). Surely the trail blazed by its neighbour should be a clarion-cry for Scottish nationalists? Well, it isn’t, and the reason why it isn’t should be serving as a sobering warning to the Scottish people.

Ireland took a leap in the dark after 1916, a leap from which it never quite recovered. The precipitate sundering of the country has proven to be both divisive and debilitating. The gratuitous strains which Alex Salmond and his cohorts are and shall continue to inflict on the people of Scotland are wholly self-imposed.

The contribution of the Scots to a wide range of spheres has banked great resources of good will, both locally and internationally. Why jeopardise these valuable relationships in an orgy of flag-waving? If you want to see flag-waving, you only need to come here. – Yours, etc,

PADDY McEVOY,

Ardmore Road,

Holywood,

Co Down.

Sir, – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has excommunicated one of its dedicated members, Kate Kelly, for daring to advocate opening the male-only priesthood to women (“Head of Mormon feminists is excommunicated”, June 25th). The Catholic Church also claims, through Pope Francis, that the door is shut to women priests .

These churches believe that Jesus of Nazareth has given them a mandate to exclude women from their priesthoods, but nowhere in his recorded actions or words did Jesus ever exclude anybody, especially women. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN BUTLER,

The Moorings,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – When plugging in a DVD player imported from America, users should always ensure that the device is plugged into a proper voltage transformer. Alternatively users should accept a considerably shorter shelf-life for the device, alongside a loud explosion and a living room full of smoke. – Yours, etc,

CHRISTIAN MORRIS,

Claremont Road,

Howth, Dublin 13.

Irish Independent:

Nick Folley (Letters, June 19) employs something of an inverted polemic to cushion the inevitable impact of the Tuam ‘mother-and-baby’ revelations on religious orders and the church authorities of the time.

He ups-the-ante from the off, by claiming that “the story of the babies’ cemetery in Tuam has revealed a rather schizophrenic streak within Irish society”.

One wonders what supreme sociological, quasi-medicalised qualification of judgement he can proffer to make such a sweeping and damning diagnosis of a whole society.

His framing of the natural human (and Christian) response to such revelations as being of a ‘schizoid’ nature is blatantly bombastic and overbearing.

His contorted perspectives continue apace, with the distorted camouflage of a narrative soaked in the “Victorian bourgeois” penchant for “respectability”. Apparently, according to him, this was the key backdrop influence for all the extremely un-Christian deprivation and cruelty prevailing in such institutions.

No doubt the nuns, priests and bishops, who were at the coalface complicity of these regimes were fully immersed in and dedicated to Victorian bourgeois values?

Therein lies the nub of the travesty in this tragic quandary of appraisal. What fundamental Christian tenets of love, empathy, forgiveness and supportive care were practised by those who were dedicated to purely Christian values?

Would Jesus have propagated such grim systems of care, and brutal marginalisation? Wasn’t his message all about forgiveness, support, love and empathic understanding?

For sure, families, communities, State, and society blithely colluded with the decrepit debilitation of the needy and misguided. But from where did the obsessive oppression relating to sexuality, reproduction and the equal rights of women emanate? It behoves the church and State to ‘fess up’ to gross inadequacies of care, but especially a church which purports to espouse the Gospel tenets of love, love and more love.

JIM COSGROVE, LISMORE, CO WATERFORD

Post-game snack for Chewy Luis

Is it true Luis Suarez would have some fava beans and a nice Chianti after each meal … I mean game?

KEVIN DEVITTE, MILL STREET, WESTPORT, CO MAYO

Courthous must not close

I fully support the views of the Dublin Solicitors’ Bar Association (Irish Independent, June 25). I am most alarmed at the proposed closure by the Courts Services of Dun Laoghaire Courthouse.

As the only solicitor out of 40 councillors on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, I am inundated with queries from constituents in relation to this very concerning development.

It should be noted that Dun Laoghaire Courthouse operates five days per week and covers a population in excess of 400,000. It deals with all criminal prosecutions (juvenile and adult); civil matters (save family law); and small claims. Dun Laoghaire is also unique as a suburban courthouse in that it has its own office which processes warrants, fines, penalties, stamp duties and maintenance payments.

CLLR JOSEPHA MADIGAN, FINE GAEL COUNCILLOR (STILLORGAN WARD), DUN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL

Real cause of our legacy debt

Diarmuid O’Flynn is right to draw attention to the failure of the Government to get the EU to deliver on the undertaking to “improve the sustainability of (Ireland’s) adjustment programme” at the June 2012 eurozone summit (Letters, June 26). He is, however, missing out the causes of the ‘legacy’ of debt.

The decisions which led to the bankrupting of the country, and necessitated the subsequent help of the troika, were made by a small number of our most powerful citizens in government, financial institutions etc during the years of the boom.

Those decisions were made subsequent to the decision of the then government to enter the eurozone. That decision failed to take into account the fact that, by joining, we lost our ability to devalue our currency.

A LEAVY, SUTTON, DUBLIN 13

We have ethics bred into us

I take great affront to the words of our President who thinks we need to bring ethics out of the pulpit and the ivory towers and bring them into daily life.

I have lived by a code of ethics most of my life: ethics given to me by my parents who taught me love thy neighbour and do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I would expect more from the President than sweeping generalisations. Darren Williams

SANDYFORD,

CO DUBLIN

Unregulated tech business

Pol O Conghaile’s feature on the Airbnb rentals shows how the pitch is getting very uneven in Ireland, and overseas, for established businesses vs new tech businesses.

Where are all the ‘laws and rules’ that established businesses have to abide by in this new age. If I own a taxi or a B&B, I have to abide by all these laws, but it seems that I can now be run out of business by Airbnb accommodation or Uber taxis who are not regulated. The State should apply the law across the board.

BRENDAN LYNCH, BRAY, CO WICKLOW

Where does FF stand on EU?

In recent statements Fianna Fail has stated that Brian Crowley’s move from the ALDE, an EU federalist political grouping, to the ECR EU grouping is against what Fianna Fail stands for.

Can the party now confirm in clear language that it is also in favour of EU federation. Such clarity is long overdue in relation to all Irish political parties’.

CONOR O’SULLIVAN, WILTON, CO CORK

Commentators’ curse on cheats

The World Cup has provided some scintillating football, with barrel loads of excitement and controversy. On the negative side, the cheating has become so frequent and blatant that it threatens to ruin the sport.

I have noticed that commentators are expressing a new level of ambivalence towards cheating. Suggestions that diving and cheating are “all part of the modern game” is part of the problem.

JOHN O’CONNOR, RAHENY, DUBLIN 5

On same page as columnist

I feel a certain elation today; David McWilliams, the crown prince of Irish economists, has come round to my way of thinking.

For many years I have bombarded newspapers, politicians, economists, academics, broadcasters, heads of think tanks, departmental public servants and anyone I thought appropriate with the suggestion that technology is diminishing work at an alarming rate. The Irish Independent has published my letters on the subject.

Since Mr McWilliams has indicated the first crack in the censorship dam which prevents consideration of the impact of technology and automation on work and jobs, I hereby challenge politicians, economists, newspapers, the broadcasters – and all who organise serious economic debate – to end the silence on consideration of how we might generate employment by adapting to the elimination of an enormous amount of work by technology. Our futures depend on it.

PADRAIC NEARY, TUBBERCURRY, CO SLIGO

Irish Independent

28June2014 Dentist

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I go to the dentist not bat but poor Mary has to go back in two weeks.

ScrabbleI win despite Mary getting a good leadperhaps she will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Sonia Quennell was a pleasure-seeker who turned down Lucian Freud but not the man who made a mint from the Sound of Music

6:29PM BST 27 Jun 2014

Comment

Guardian:

Amid all the furore around what Luis Suárez may or may not have done (Sport, 27 June), I am bitterly disappointed about the failure to condemn the widespread low-level cheating that is now standard in most “professional” football, and evident daily at the World Cup – actions such as taking throw-ins from the wrong place, feigning injury and then making a miraculous “recovery”, and committing deliberate and cynical foul play. When one player hacked down an opponent in a threatening period of play, the BBC commentator even congratulated him, saying: “He took one for the team there.”

The irony is that at our local primary school, the value we are trying to teach the children this month is honesty! Many of the pupils idolise these footballers, and yet their propensity to cheat is now officially recognised with the need to supply the referees with a can of spray foam. When are the FA, or Fifa, or the Premier League, or commentators and journalists, going to tackle these issues, which undermine the game at every level?
Rev Preb Paul Towner
Rural dean of Hereford

• High studs-up tackles causing severe injury; elbows in faces; dangerous body checks; stamping; and head-butts are all regular occurrences on our football fields. Sometimes these are punished by red cards and two or three match bans. On one occasion, a Manchester United player broke the leg of an opponent in a revenge attack. Red card – but no extended ban. The player involved even boasted about it in his autobiography.

Fifa officials reward themselves well and some are happy to take bribes for awarding the World Cup to nations. Luis Suárez was a Uruguayan street kid with exceptional talent. His offence caused little or no damage to the “victim”. We may find biting tasteless (no pun intended). However, it causes trivial injury and is far less dangerous than many other offences on the field. The punishment meted out is disproportionate and reflects only the double standards of the authorities, who themselves have not been brought to account for their actions in respect to World Cups.
Chris Lakin
Lymm, Cheshire

• It was very revealing to see Luis Suárez through the eyes of Martin Aguirre, a sophisticated and thoughtful Uruguayan journalist, placing him in a wider social context (The beautiful game? We only play football to win, Sport, 27 June). It’s easy to see why Suárez is lionised as some kind of street-fighting hero in such a macho win-at-all-costs culture, but it’s harder to understand how the same rough-house environment could also produce such an exquisite talent as Diego Forlan, voted best player at the World Cup in 2010, when Uruguay reached the semi-finals. Wherever Forlan has played, including a relatively unsuccessful spell at Manchester United, he has attracted almost universal affection for the grace with which he has tried to play the “beautiful game”. One of the nice unintended consequences of Suárez’s repugnant bite could be that we see more of the delightful Diego, now a veteran, on the big stage in Brazil.
Giles Oakley
London

• As a long-term Uruguayan resident in the UK and now British citizen I felt upset and let down by the Suárez incident. However, I feel equally let down by the British press and the hatred of Suárez that it has uncovered. What is so upsetting is that anyone who objects to this over-reaction is condemned as an apologist. This over-reaction is on an equal footing to the denial of the Uruguayan press which you so much deplore.

As an example, one head-butt at the age of 16 does not equal a history of violence, as is implied by Daniel Taylor (26 June). Please could you provide further evidence of violent conduct in the Dutch league or anywhere else (apart from the biting incidents)? Didn’t Jermain Defoe once bite Javier Mascherano, and didn’t Oxlade-Chamberlain dive and handle the ball in the penalty area (FA Cup final)? Didn’t Joey Barton recently appear on Question Time? How does that square up with all the blinkered self-righteousness we have been made to plough through?

And, finally, how long was John Terry’s ban for racial abuse and when will he be appearing on Desert Island Discs?
Andrés Lafone
London

• My son went through a biting stage, which was quite distressing (for the other kids in his nursery). We found a reward chart particularly useful in tackling the problem. Maybe Liverpool FC should give him a sticker every day he doesn’t bite someone.
Shane Lynch
St Albans, Hertfordshire

It’s great news that artists are campaigning to remove BP from the National Portrait Gallery’s banners (Letters, 25 June), but artists should also move strongly to get death merchants JTI (aka Japan Tobacco International) out of the Royal Academy. It is disgraceful that the RA has allowed itself to be promoters of a tobacco company RIP Sir Richard Doll.
Jonathan Stone
New York

Independent:

It appears that the Prime Minister’s European reform agenda has stalled (“In four-letter words, what senior EU politicians think of David Cameron”, 24 June). If Britain cannot carry with it a known Anglophile like Radoslaw Sikorski then the Government’s attempt to get Europe to embrace the reform agenda is in deep trouble.

In a remarkable show of unity, all three party leaders have opposed the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker and stressed the importance of reform. We need to extend that consensus to an agreement on a clear agenda for change. This is a big opportunity to work together to ensure that reform takes place, and we can start this process with the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party matching the Conservatives’ offer of an in-out referendum.

Keith Vaz MP (Leicester East, Lab), House of Commons

Why should David Cameron take umbrage at the prospect of Jean-Claude Juncker being appointed President of the European Commission? Mr Juncker is a former Prime Minister of Luxembourg, one of Europe’s most prosperous, yet smallest, countries.

Could this issue be  giving Mr Cameron pause as to what could happen if Scotland votes Yes to independence? Scotland one day holding the EU presidency? Now, that may be the way to entice Scots to vote Yes.

This could give them the chance of a resounding voice in Europe as an independent nation, along with other European countries, rather than the muffled representation for Scotland that Westminster would continue to provide.

Bob Harper, Anstruther, Fife

Cuts loom for leading  psychiatry school

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), a School of King’s College London, is facing a potentially devastating round of compulsory redundancies, with 50 of its academic staff “at risk”. The IoPPN has been at the forefront of research and teaching in psychiatry and mental health for over 50 years and has a superb reputation across the world.

These cuts, to be decided today (27 June), are not driven by any decline in productivity or excellence, but by changes in funding following the introduction of “full” tuition fees, which disadvantage medical schools; the withdrawal of access to central capital funds; and deficiencies in financial projections. As a result, the King’s College Council has decided to ring-fence a capital fund of 6 per cent of its income, requiring, it says, a 15 per cent cut in salaries to staff of its health schools.

The IoPPN and its NHS partner, the Maudsley, carry out clinical research in psychiatric disorders from autism to Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of disability and healthcare costs in the developed world. While there are many areas of strength in UK psychiatry, IoPPN and the Maudsley have played a leading role in the battle to combat stigma against mental disorders and to train future generations of psychiatrists, psychologists and other clinical scientists to translate scientific advances into new therapies.

Mental health has long been a poor relation within UK research funding and staffing. It is not just the IoPPN or Maudsley that will suffer if these job losses materialise, it will also have a devastating impact on UK psychiatry as a whole.

Professors Richard Brown, Noel Buckley, Anthony David, Patrick Doherty, Sir David Goldberg, Francesca Happé, Matthew Hotopf, Corinne Houart, Robert Howard, Philip McGuire, Declan Murphy, Sir Robin Murray, Andrew Pickles, Martin Prince, Mark Richardson, Sir Michael Rutter, Emily Simonoff, John Strang, Sir Simon Wessely, Steven Williams,

Til Wykes, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5

Suarez’s only victim: himself

Thank goodness for Glenn Moore and the perspective he brings to the Luis Suarez affair. Viewed rationally, Suarez did no harm to anyone but himself.

In a moment when a flaw in his psyche took control, he almost certainly ended his World Cup participation and did great damage to his future career. No one else was affected: not the pundits who have been so vociferous in their condemnation (Ian Wright was an honourable exception), not the Italian team who were already down to 10 men, and not Chiellini, who hadn’t been knocked out by a head butt or had his leg broken by a vicious tackle. Suarez could have hoped to gain no conceivable advantage to his team by his action. The victim of the “outrage” was Suarez himself.

Suarez is a supremely gifted footballer who brings far more to the table than he takes away. Off the field he is recognised as a genuine “good guy”, as committed to the life and community spirit in Liverpool as he is committed to the welfare of their team on the pitch.

And far more sickening than Suarez’s bite is the hypocrisy of it all. We’re not talking about tennis, or snooker, or golf, three sports whose participants play by the rules and show full respect to their opponents. We’re talking about a “sport” where shirt-pulling, diving, “professional” fouls, and career-threatening tackles are so rife that they now often go unpunished and often unnoticed. I’m not a Christian but the commandment “Let him who is without sin, cast the first stone” seems apposite.

Stuart Russell, Cirencester, Gloucestershire

Uruguayan man bites Italian man in Brazil. Surely this is the most boring story since the legendary Times headline, “Small Earthquake in Chile. Not Many Dead.”

John Naylor, Ascot, Berkshire

Academy quango open to claims of abuse

With the Government making so many major changes in education, it is easy for announcements of significant changes to slip out with barely any attention. One such was last week’s announcement that over 160 headteachers have applied to help run new regional schools commissions, which are intended to oversee academy schools.

This matters. The Department for Education cannot properly oversee 4,000 academies to make sure they are run properly and their funding is not misappropriated. The National Audit Office has said so, as has the Public Accounts Committee, and now even Michael Gove has realised this, which is why he is setting up regional schools commissioners in England.

But this is one more nail in the coffin of democracy. Another government quango of unelected people. Academy heads, either elected by other headteachers or appointed by the regional schools commissioners, will advise on the performance of the other academies in their area run by the heads who elected them. Nothing about this is open or transparent, and it is wide open to accusations of cronyism and abuse.

I fail to see how this will improve the governance of academies, or more importantly, children’s education. And it is hard to see how this will improve academies’ accountability to parents. Yet you can be sure it will not be cheap to run.

Dr Mary Bousted, General secretary, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, London WC2

Where is the ‘race bias’ at the BBC?

Unless Lenny Henry has evidence of bias in the BBC’s recruitment or promotion practices (“BBC’s ‘race problem’ gets worse as ethnic-minority staff quit”, 26 June), I am not interested. Equality has nothing to do with equality of representation and everything to do with equality of opportunity.

If only a small number of minority people are applying for jobs there, then only a small number will be represented. To be calling for an artificially inflated minority representation, probably at the cost of quality, is blatant discrimination and should be opposed at every level.

Paul Harper, London E15

The science of spelling

Thank goodness the AQA is not as confused as Leslie Rowe seems to be (letter, 19 June). Neither sulfur nor kilogram are Americanisms but the correct English spellings of these words as determined by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1992 and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in 1960.

Christopher Anton, Birmingham

Nonsensical NHS titles

I could not agree more with Dr Anthony Ingleton’s view (letter, 24 June) that we should trim the NHS budget by doing away with jobs with nonsensical titles, such as “Director of the Patient Experience”. So here are two more for the list: “Homoeopath” and “Hospital Chaplain”.

Stan Broadwell, Bristol

Pay close attention

If an employer is one who employs, and an employee is one who is employed, then surely an attender is one who attends, while an attendee (letter, 25 June) is one who is attended, that is to say accompanied or waited upon.

Jenny Macmillan, Cambridge

Times:

Telegraph:

SIR – We are patients, advocates and doctors. We have one thing in common: we all support the Medical Innovation Bill currently having a second reading in the House of Lords, which will legally protect doctors who try out innovative new techniques or drugs on patients when all else has failed.

6:59AM BST 27 Jun 2014

86 Comments

SIR – Professor Susan Jebb, the Government’s chief obesity adviser, has said that parents should ban all drinks but water from the dinner table. Perhaps many children’s digestive systems would benefit if they were to eat at the dinner table in the first place.

Irish Times:

Sir, – The changing profile of people becoming homeless, as described by Fr Peter McVerry (“Apartheid Irish-style created by housing policy”, Opinion & Analysis, June 27th) and highlighted by your reporter Kitty Holland many times (“Government plan to end rough sleeping by 2016 not feasible, says McVerry”, June 26th), is an issue that needs urgent attention.

It is clear why the current situation has arisen and it is a situation that appears overwhelming. Would calling in members of the Defence Forces to kick-start the maintenance of vacant local authority housing be a solution to be scoffed at? Minister of State for Housing Jan O’Sullivan has a difficult task and to address this issue she needs the support of all relevant government departments and indeed all of us.

Many people we meet on a daily basis in Trust have been rehoused in the past. In a given month we can meet people from 26 different countries who sleep rough. Some of the people we meet are very challenging to deal with because of their personal issues, some apparent from a very young age, including mental health problems, addiction, low self-esteem and often feeling complete outsiders in our society. All these issues take time to resolve if a solution, if there is one, is ever to be reached. For that reason rough sleeping, which is a worldwide phenomenon, will not be solved on our little island by 2016. There will always be a need for very basic, clean, warm and safe emergency shelter (this should not cost the earth) to ensure people are not isolated further, rejected and forgotten about.

The right to shelter must not be ignored. Rights, however, must attach some personal responsibility, however small, otherwise the situation we find ourselves in will race out of control, at enormous expense to the taxpayer. – Yours, etc,

ALICE LEAHY,

Trust,

Bride Road,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Annemarie McCarthy (June 27th) makes an excellent point about the near-poverty status of starting salaries for new civil servants.

A similar situation exists across a number of sectors, and is a direct consequence of the relevant unions voting to keep existing pay and benefits high for existing workers, while new starters have to bear a much greater portion of necessary cost-cutting.

Unions like to paint themselves as progressive engines of social justice.

The reality is that they are special-interest lobby groups whose sole purpose is to win and reinforce privileges for their members, most of whom are workers with long tenure. These are the people who voted to establish such deep pay divides between old and new.

Any fool can see that over time membership profiles will change and that when the new eventually outweigh the old, we will see union influence being brought to bear to improve the status of the new working poor.

By that time most of the old guard will have shuffled off to enjoy safe, guaranteed pensions – funded no doubt by higher taxes on those following behind. – Yours, etc,

JOHN THOMPSON,

Shamrock Street,

Phibsboro,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – As a former public servant (administrative officer grade for seven years), I have no sympathy for Annemarie McCarthy. She should know that two clerical officers simply cannot afford to have three children. – Yours, etc,

EWAN DUFFY,

Castletown,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Eamon Dunphy, who, normally, is a sensible sort of chap, sadly disappointed on RTÉ when he explained that Luis Suarez was in need of understanding, medical help and, perhaps, God help us, counselling.

This new-fangled psychobabble of the perpetrator as victim is just too predictable and a little tedious.

What Mr Suarez is in need of, apart from a good kick up the transom, is to be hit with a civil suit for damages. – Yours, etc,

LIAM MURRAY,

Kelston,

Foxrock,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – Surely the quickest and most effective solution to the Luis Suarez problem would be to extract his top teeth and supply him with dentures which, by written contract, must remain in the dressing room during all matches? – Yours, etc,

VICTORIA LUMLEY,

Charleville Road,

Tullamore,

Co Offaly.

Sir, – The pundits say that Luis Suarez needs help. What about a teething ring? – Yours, etc,

BID O’GORMAN,

Maudlin Court,

Thomastown,

Co Kilkenny.

A chara, – Dr Ciarán Ó Coigligh (June 25th) is worried about the fate of the “Anglican Christian ethos” and the “Catholic Christian ethos” after the “incorporation” of the colleges into one DCU campus.

Yet, in 1831 in response to the initiative of Edward Stanley, chief secretary of Ireland, the two archbishops of Dublin, Daniel Murray (RC) and Richard Whatley (CoI) agreed to run the new National Schools which would have “combined literary and separate religious instruction”.

They even managed to produce a course on basic Christianity for teaching in common.

Murray said that there could be no possible objection to a Protestant teaching secular literature to Catholic and Protestant children together. He was succeeded by Paul Cullen, who was to say that any case where Catholics came under the influence of Protestants was, of necessity, a proselytising situation. So I fear that the Catholic ethos referred to is really a Cullenite ethos.

It is Catholic teaching that all who are baptised are incorporated into Christ, so, isn’t “incorporation” a good name for the transfer of the colleges, not only logistically but also theologically? It is also Roman Catholic teaching that we should “become what we are” and wouldn’t that be a lovely ideal for Coláiste Phádraig on its new campus? – Is mise,

Fr EOIN

de BHALDRAITHE,

Bolton Abbey (Cistercian),

Moone,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – I would like to support the sentiments expressed by Dr Ciarán Ó Coigligh, who indicated that there was no consultation, no negotiation and no agreement with those most immediately concerned regarding the future of the colleges of education that are to be incorporated into Dublin City University.

That is exactly what happened with regard to the Church of Ireland College of Education. Many members of the church are dismayed at the decision and angry at the way the decision was made. After the board of governors had made a decision, so-called consultation meetings with stakeholders were held. It seems that those involved think that talking at people amounts to consultation. I attended one of those meetings. People were not listened to. Our views were dismissed. Many of us left that meeting sad and frustrated. It was so unlike what I understood to be the culture of the Church of Ireland. Prior to that my experience of my church had been one where people were listened to, respected and where issues were openly discussed. This was different. I wonder what has happened to the church in the last short number of years?

It appears that the Church of Ireland, instead of being a church of the people, has become a hierarchical corporation where decisions are made without regard to the views of members of the church. – Yours, etc,

JENNIFER HANLON,

Tullyard,

Glenties, Co Donegal.

Sir, – Brendan Butler (June 27th) says that there is no justification for the continued exclusion of women from the priesthood in the Catholic Church because “nowhere in his recorded actions or words did Jesus ever exclude anybody, especially women”.

It is certainly true that Jesus counted many women among his close friends and disciples. However, it is quite incorrect to say that this extended to including women among those who he wished to carry his message to the world, since in fact his recorded words and actions suggest the very opposite.

The selection by Jesus of the 12 apostles is clearly recorded in the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke, with each of the 12 being specifically named by him and each of them being male. From the words used by Jesus to the remaining 11 following his resurrection, it is clear that he intended these apostles to carry his message to the world, essentially forming the basis for the church. (“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them . . . and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19). The 11 apostles, in turn, chose men to succeed them in their mission.

This tradition was maintained in the centuries that followed and, as the catechism of the Catholic Church states, this was not an arbitrary decision but was made because “the Church recognises herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself”.

Whether you agree with it or not, this seems to be an entirely reasonable interpretation of the recorded words and actions of Jesus, so it is hardly surprising that Pope Francis has taken a hard line on the issue. This stands in contrast to his statements on the question of priests marrying, a matter on which he has shown an admirably open mind, and on which Jesus himself was entirely silent. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Brooklawn,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – In singing the praises of Irish Catholic education, Pádraig McCarthy (June 27th) is perpetuating a myth.

Educational performance in the first 50 years of the State was in fact dismal, as shown in a 1960s OECD report; in western Europe, probably only Portugal was performing as poorly. Contrary to statutory regulations, large numbers were leaving schooling at the age of 14 without even the minimal Primary Cert, often to a future of unskilled labouring on the building sites of Britain or to domestic service there. Less than 20 per cent of a generation made it to the Leaving Cert; as one who studied for that exam, Mr McCarthy belonged to an elite of about 3 per cent.

Could there be a clearer example of the “toxic intertwining” that Fintan O’Toole addressed in his piece (Opinion & Analysis, June 26th)?

The Catholic Church insisted at the time on control over education, so it cannot escape its co-responsibility.

Only in the 1960s did “official Ireland” begin to realise the gravity of the situation and to give education the priority it should have had in the first place. – Yours, etc,

Dr GERARD MONTAGUE,

Zaumberg,

Immenstadt,

Sir, – A worrying report by the Irish Health Research Board reveals that the Irish delude themselves on their personal drinking habits (“177,000 dependent drinkers in Ireland”, June 24th).

To counter this threat to the nation’s health, one answer is to mount a long-term strategy of “fighting fire with fire”.

To change the Irish drinking culture requires a similar advertising budget to that deployed by the alcohol drinks industry itself over the past 50 years.

Government should levy a special charge on the industry’s products in the next budget and ring-fence this for a minimum period of five years.

All of this money should be spent in a creative way to inform, educate and, most importantly of all, change attitudes and behaviour, particularly among the young Irish.

This expert report by the Irish Health Research Board now requires the strongest of responses to address the threat hidden in our society.

The fear of citizens is that this wishy-washy Government will once again capitulate to the the drinks industry lobbyists, thereby allowing future generations to become enslaved to this liquid drug. – Yours, etc,

MIKE PARLE,

Highfield Park,

Leixlip,

Co Kildare.

A chara, – I see that An Post has released a stamp featuring Edward Carson and John Redmond. Edward Carson was, of course, the founder of the Ulster Volunteers. From this the UVF was formed and in 1914 received a huge shipment of arms, including 25,000 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition.

The inscription on the base of Carson’s towering statue outside Stormont reads, “By the loyalists of Ulster as an expression of their love and admiration for its subject.” I think this is sufficient expression of love and admiration in the island of Ireland and Edward Carson’s profile does not need to feature on every letter here.

In Ireland we appear to have some difficulty honouring and commemorating our own heroes and martyrs. I shall wait with bated breath for the Royal Mail stamp featuring James Connolly. – Is mise,

RORY O’CALLAGHAN,

Ceannt Fort ,

Kilmainham, Dublin 8.

Sir, – The discovery of a dead crow beneath a high-voltage non-insulated electric cable at Hazelhill on the outskirts of Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, has led to speculation that the bird had landed on the live wire, causing a blackout in parts of the district (“Crow blamed for local ESB power cuts”, June 26th). But is it assumed the unfortunate crow had been electrocuted in the process? If so, surely it must have been touching two wires at the same time? For I was always told that a bird could perch on a single naked live wire and not get electrocuted because it was not earthed to the ground. Was I misinformed? – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey, Co Dublin.

A chara, – Is it just me or is the prevalence of texting, status updating, etc, on the rise again while driving? It appears from this professional driver’s point of view that the threat of a court appearance has dissipated and people are back to their old and potentially deadly habits. – Yours, etc,

MARK O’DONOHOE,

Maple Lawn,

Ballincollig,

Co Cork.

A chara, – Paddy McEvoy is critical of Scotland seeking independence (June 27th) and offers our own situation as an example as to why it should be avoided. He forgets one important fact though. Scotland is not selfishly abandoning a large number of its people and leaving them isolated in a sectarian statelet for the foreseeable future. – Is mise,

EF FANNING,

Whitehall Road, Dublin 14.

A chara, – Over the last few months my three-year-old son has become fascinated by the Luas trams. Every weekend we somehow end up at the Beechwood stop letting him watch one or two Luas trams pass by and it is so heartwarming that, without fail, every driver, along with plenty of passengers, reciprocate his enthusiastic wave and smile. – Is mise,

JASON POWER,

Maxwell Road,

Rathgar, Dublin 6.

Irish Independent:

It is hard to discern what outcomes President Michael D Higgins is seeking to derive from his Ethics Initiative (Irish Independent, June 26). Does he consider that Irish society, as a whole, is morally bankrupt and in need of radical reform? Should citizens ‘unlearn’ the customs and habits of generations? That is a tall order.

A difficulty with his initiative is that he has yet to define what his concept of ethics is. He has suggested the Irish people have moved past the phase of anger and recrimination following the financial crisis, despite the fact that no-one has been held accountable.

Does he consider that ethics are derived from emotion and sentiment?

He is skittish about the concept that value can be measured. But if it cannot be measured, how is society to make progress? Is there any other sophisticated, competitive nation, or enterprise, that does not measure value? Is there a nation that radiates prosperity, progress and vitality where the ebb and flow of the marketplace is not central, albeit with regulation? Is there a sovereign role model that the President is suggesting Ireland should mimic?

Ethics concern well-founded and unambiguous standards of right and wrong that prescribe human behaviour. These are reflected in the context of rights, duties, obligations, fairness, justice and virtue. Ethics underpin other characteristics such as honesty, compassion, decency and loyalty. Ethics provide the basis of a right to privacy, a right to life, a right to safety and a right to security.

Ethical standards are consistent, robust, and thoroughly tested. They are not the faddish product of a village bazaar, nor are they based on some wooly concept of populism and media spin.

It would be helpful if Mr Higgins were to guide us in a more direct, concrete and clear manner as to what he has in mind for a virtuous Ireland that is ethically reformed and the nature of the contribution he is demanding from citizens.

MYLES DUFFY

GLENAGEARY, CO DUBLIN

A MESSAGE FOR YOUNG GAY MEN

I am writing to you in light of Dublin Pride this week and yesterday being National HIV testing day in the US. I hope that I can speak out to other young gay men to look after their life. I am a 24-year-old man living in Dublin.

Last year, I was diagnosed with HIV. Like many, I was ignorant due to fear and the fact that nobody was ever comfortable talking about it, so, when I got the diagnosis, I had no idea what was ahead of me.

All I was told in the hospital was that it’s no big deal nowadays and I probably wouldn’t need treatment for years. I think this is not a good approach to tackling the issue. The issue is very serious and shouldn’t be portrayed as anything else, just to spare the person’s feelings and emotions on the matter.

They don’t tell you that many treatments do not work for everyone. They don’t tell you that more people are dying from the effects of the medication in the western world than from HIV/AIDS. I realise that the death toll is nothing in comparison to 30, even 20 years ago, but the battle is far from over.

Last year, I went to a comedy show, performed by Panti. Panti openly shared his HIV status to everyone and it was inspiring.

I thought, wow, if Panti has HIV and runs such a successful business and does all the work he does for the LGBT community, anyone could have it.

It was just a few months later that I got my news. I didn’t know anyone in this country with HIV and I was in a dark place, desperate to know more from the people who are living with it.

I feel like I have been alone in this – even when it comes to my family, my own father thinks we should be legally obliged to tell people that have to live with us.

I have worked in the restaurant industry since the age of 16. I have come to learn that this is not possible for me any more. Since the recession hit in Ireland, it has been acceptable for restaurants to not give breaks, especially during busy days. I would work up to 21 days with no days off and didn’t get breaks to eat a lot of the time. I knew, immediately, I would not be capable of this any more, I was already losing weight and getting sick regularly.

I am at a point in my life now where everything I have ever worked towards is gone. The next thing I am going to lose is my accommodation.

It is true when they say HIV is manageable now, it’s something you can live with for a very long time. But I am left asking myself the big questio: can I bare living with this for such a long time?

I don’t know.

So, please guys, protect yourselves.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

STICKY PROBLEM ABOUT CARSON

I believe that An Post has released a stamp featuring Edward Carson and John Redmond.

Carson was, of course, the founder of the Ulster Volunteers, the first paramilitary group in the North.

From this, the UVF was formed and, in 1914, received a huge shipment of arms, including 25,000 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition.

The inscription on the base of Carson’s towering statue outside Stormont reads “By the loyalists of Ulster as an expression of their love and admiration for its subject.”

I think this is sufficient expression of love and admiration on the island of Ireland and Carson’s profile does not need to feature on every letter here.

In Ireland, we appear to have some difficulty honouring and commemorating our own heroes and martyrs. I shall wait with bated breath for the Royal Mail stamp featuring James Connolly.

RORY O’CALLAGHAN

CEANNT FORT, KILMAINHAM, DUBLIN 8

BREAKING THE CYCLE OF ALCOHOL

We all knew what the recent report on Irish drinking habits would contain.

Our drinking habits are the biggest cause of overspending right across all government departments for several obvious reasons: absenteeism; sick leave; drink-related illness; crime; sexual violence; domestic violence; and foetal alcohol syndrome.

Many experts have pointed out that the most vulnerable in society suffer most due to excessive drinking in families. By way of example, let’s look at a family where all the adults are unemployed and there are school-going children.

Typically, a few generations may never have worked, so there is no respect for the dignity of work. Very often there is a pattern of drinking, sleeping late and not getting up to send children to school.

Thus, the children miss out, perform badly in school and end up in the same cycle of underachieving. Across all sections of society, parents are giving the wrong message by drinking in front of their children.

Despite all this, what are we doing to break this cycle? We need a movement of sensible people who will try to counteract the madness.

MARY NAUGHTON

ROSSES POINT, CO SLIGO

QUICK SOLUTION FOR HOMELESS

It is disturbing to hear about the epidemic of homelessness in Dublin, and no doubt other locations.

Is it not possible to set up as a temporary solution– something like a camp, perhaps run by the Army?

It seems that any other solution is long term and, in this country, long term is “long” – take, for example, the children’s hospital.

MICHAEL O’MARA

PATRICKSWELL,

CO LIMERICK

Irish Independent

29 June 2014 Rain

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage to get round the park. We potter around its raining, and cold so much for Flaming June!
Scrabble Mary wins well she did get most of the high letters. perhaps I will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Delia Craig was a colonial farmer turned conservationist whose Kenyan rhino sanctuary provided the setting for Prince William’s proposal to Kate Middleton

Delia Craig and her husband, David, at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in the shadow of Mount Kenya
3:52PM BST 28 Jun 2014
1 Comment
DELIA CRAIG, who has died aged 90, was born into a family of colonial farmers in Kenya and chose to stay on after the country became independent; on their vast estate on the Lewa Downs in the shadow of Mount Kenya, she and her husband David grew wheat and raised cattle, sheep – and rhinos.
What became known as the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, now listed as part of a World Heritage Site by Unesco, started life in 1983, when David and Delia Craig were approached by the conservationist Anna Merz and agreed to set aside 5,000 acres of their ranch for conversion into a rhino sanctuary. The Craigs and Anna Merz then set to work, recruiting game-trackers, bush pilots, veterinarians and others to round up animals; and for the next few years they tracked, captured and relocated to the refuge every remaining wild rhino in northern Kenya for breeding and safe-keeping.
Despite pressure from poachers, the programme was so successful that eventually the Craigs decided to dedicate their entire ranch to conservation. By 1994, the whole of Lewa Downs, as well as the government-owned Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve, had been enclosed, creating a 61,000-acre rhino sanctuary. It is now home to 10 per cent of Kenya’s black-rhino population and 14 per cent of its white-rhino population (as well as the world’s largest population of Grevy’s zebra) raising hopes that the animals might one day return to their former dominance in northern Kenya.
The Lewa Conservancy became a major tourist attraction, visited by, among others, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, who famously proposed to his then girlfriend, Kate Middleton, there in 2010.
One of the keys to the Craigs’ success was getting local Masai communities involved, through direct employment and with financial assistance for education, health care support, water and agricultural projects. In 2001, Delia (affectionately known as Mama) and her son Ian established the Lewa Education Trust, which supports local primary schools, awards bursaries for local children to attend secondary school and university, and funds courses for local teachers.
Delia Craig was born Mary Fidelia Douglas on June 6 1924, on the ranch in Lewa Downs that her formidable father, Alec Douglas, had founded in 1922. Alec was a Scot who had trekked in an ox-cart from South Africa to Kenya (then British East Africa) in 1912. During the First World War he had served with the King’s African Rifles in Tanganyika, as a result of which he became eligible for the “soldiers’ settlement” scheme whereby ex-servicemen could apply for land parcels in Kenya. He drew a plot on the northern slopes of Mount Kenya and began purchasing parcels of surrounding land as they became available, including a swamp area known as Lewa.
Meanwhile, Delia’s equally feisty mother, Elizabeth, the granddaughter of a viscount, served as an ambulance driver and nurse in Europe in the First World War. Within a few months of her arrival at the Front, a bomb scored a direct hit on the hospital where she was working, blowing off the soles of her feet. Despite her injuries, she managed to rescue scores of people, as a result of which she was awarded a Military Medal.
After the war Elizabeth, too, took advantage of the settlement scheme (her father gave her a shotgun and simply wished her “Good luck”). She drew a plot of land outside Nairobi and set out to become a cattle rancher. For a time, before she married Alec Douglas in 1923, she lived in a hut with only a horse and a white bull terrier for company.
Elizabeth’s and Alec’s marriage ended after Delia was born, and Elizabeth and Delia moved briefly to Tanganyika, returning to Kenya when Delia was five. Elizabeth subsequently remarried, to William Powys (brother of the writer John Cowper Powys), who owned a sheep farm adjacent to Alec Douglas’s estate and with whom she had a second daughter and two sons.
Delia was sent to England for her education, returning to Kenya via fleet convoy in 1941, after the outbreak of war.
On her return she volunteered as a nurse and was then posted to Egypt, where she had a narrow escape on a train blown up by the Haganah. She then moved to Jerusalem to train as a wireless operator, before moving to the Suez Canal Zone and Cairo. While waiting to be demobbed she took flying lessons and on her return to Kenya bought a Tiger Moth.
In 1949 she married David Craig, who had served in the King’s African Rifles during the war, and with whom she would have three children. For a time they lived on David’s farm in England, but in 1950 they accepted her father’s suggestion that they take over his ranch at Lewa, which he was finding hard to maintain. As Douglas drove away from Lewa, he called out: “Remember! Make sure there’s always room for wildlife…”
Delia Craig’s early years there were difficult due to the threat of the Mau Mau. After Kenyan independence in 1962, however, they threw themselves wholeheartedly into the task of building the new nation. Their involvement with conservation began in 1967 when they agreed to help move some rare Rothschild’s giraffes from an estate formerly owned by Delia’s father. Then in 1974 they entered into a partnership with Peter Hankin to provide “walking” safaris at Lewa, becoming one of the first ranches in Kenya to operate safaris on their own land.
Over time, Wilderness Trails, as it was known, attracted a devoted coterie of regular guests from around the world. Then, in 1983, they teamed up with Anna Merz and began their work with rhinos.
A self-effacing woman with a keen sense of fun and adventure, Delia Craig kept in touch with a large circle of friends around the world, by letters or emails notable for their eccentric spelling. In 2011, her story was told in From Ox Cart to Email: the Kenya Story of Delia Craig, by Natasha Breed.
Delia Craig’s husband David died in 2009. She is survived by their daughter and two sons.
Delia Craig, born June 6 1924, died June 12 2014

Guardian:

 
The laws protecting our children from drug abuse are already in place. Photograph: Doug Steley C / Alamy
The death by overdose of 15-year-old Martha Fernback was indeed a terrible tragedy. But I fail to see any logic in the Observer’s In Focus piece that seeks not to blame her death on the offending drug (MDMA), its producers, dealers and users, but on its current prohibition under law.
The article makes the case that minors should be permitted to take this dangerous substance, but not in its most pure and deadly form, and be advised by their teachers which are the least deadly options, while government takes control of the trade that is now the preserve of criminal gangs.
Current policy on the legal status of dangerous substances is clumsy and inconsistent but one thing is clear – when it comes to protecting minors such as Martha, prevention (through education) must always be reinforced by prohibition. Making dangerous substances more easily accessible will not reduce usage, neither will it discourage criminal gangs from seeking alternative ways of corrupting young people.
The lessons of this case seem clear. Martha was a child; MDMA is illegal; the dealer who provided the substance is a criminal. We have laws to protect children. They should be enforced.
Chris Forse
Stratford-upon-Avon
Green initiative is just hot air
The optimistic tone of your leader (“At last, Obama is making good on green promises”) appears to be drawn from some limits now being set on the carbon dioxide that US power plants can emit into the atmosphere and is cited as justification for commending the president for building “a real legacy on global warming”.
Far from that initiative deserving approbation, it reflects a disturbing lack of understanding of the predicament the world now faces. The reality is that, as an inevitable consequence of climate change, we are bequeathing an appalling legacy to future generations: this includes regions of the world becoming uninhabitable at an accelerating pace; escalating millions of ecological migrants; fewer and fewer of the planet’s finite mineral reserves available; widespread loss of species diversity; catastrophic loss of life and likely wars of survival.
Coming to terms with the immensity of the challenge is not helped by exaggerating the significance of small steps.
Dr Mayer Hillman
Policy Studies Institute
London W1
The true cost of rural bliss
Just as key workers are finding it impossible to buy or rent in cities, families and young people are losing the struggle to stay in their “idyllic” rural communities (“Sun, sand and inequality”, In Focus).
If a levy were added to the purchase price of a second home based on the cost of replacing a dwelling, this fund could be ploughed directly into new housing projects. These could be in the form of grants for small-scale self-build or affordable housing for local people. Alternatively, a massive hike in council tax for owner-unoccupied dwellings could be considered.
If people could better afford to live and work in their locality, it would strengthen communities and regenerate our villages. It would arguably help to combat social problems associated with unsatisfactory housing and the lowered expectations highlighted in your article.
Sean Geraghty
Bridport
PM Ed will have the last laugh
The trouble for Ed Miliband, though few dare to say it, is that he doesn’t conform in appearance to the limited and stereotyped images that the media now have, and propagate to the public, of what politicians have to look like (“Ten crucial months remain for Ed Miliband to pass the blink test”, Comment).
The duller media can now only see images in terms of central casting candidates for the The West Wing. Or as elongated Ants and Decs, like the current leaders of the coalition. This shrinkage of the media imagination, while detrimental to Ed Miliband, can be countered by considering, say, Disraeli, Attlee, Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir as politicians who have, for better or for worse, had impact while not conforming to the prim little images of today’s tabloids.
Prime minister Ed Miliband will, I am sure, prove this point next year.
Frank Scott
Oxford
Why I’m haunted by loneliness
Barbara Ellen is fortunate in her self-sufficiency (“Loneliness is one thing. A happy loner quite another” Comment). Not all people are.
I am a sociable, active, late 50s female, but since the death of my husband two years ago I have been struggling to come to terms with the echoing loneliness of the house when I come back to it after one of my many outings and when I waken in the morning. Our adult children live in America and England, adding to my sense of isolation.
I work part-time, have a very good network of family and friends, volunteer for charities and participate in other activities, but loneliness still haunts me. Human beings lived close to one another for millennia; it is only in recent times that enforced solitary living became the norm. I am not “trying to hide in the crowd”, as Ms Ellen says, I just like company. And no, my dog is not a substitute for a life partner.
Sharman Finlay
Ballyclare, Co Antrim

As a committed NHS consultant (part retired) dealing with leukaemias among other haematological disorders, I read Will Hutton’s column with great satisfaction (“The NHS is loved and efficient, so why the obsession with reform?”, Comment). Not because I want a pat on the back, but because his position on the NHS and condemnation of the current government’s systematic and determined undermining of the organisation resonate with my own and many others’ attitudes. He is right to assess that its strength lies in the underlying “value driven” ethos. His reference to the “drive to cure” uniting the teams, including the altruistic blood and marrow donors, is, in my mind, what it is all about and why I work in it.
It was the freedom from having to be commercial that allowed me and my colleagues to place the patients’ interests as our paramount concern. Never having to question how a patient was to pay for their treatment has been a great privilege.
Susan J Kelly
Kidlington
Oxon
It’s genuinely good to know that Will Hutton has experienced first-class leukaemia services with the NHS at the excellent UCL, but he will know the problems that other patients experience because of the variability of those services across the NHS. He will also recognise the problems of issues of late diagnosis of cancer highlighted by Macmillan cancer care. Most major patient groups, as well as the NHS Confederation, are arguing strongly for new models of health and social care that are much better co-ordinated around patients’ lives and not health providers’ organisational needs.
We believe in the ethos of the NHS and that it is strong enough to go with these changes demanded by patients. The last thing the NHS needs as it faces the challenges of greater demand is complacency.
Professor Paul Corrigan
and Mike Parish, chief executive, Care UK
c/o Reform
London SW1
It is a shame that politicians are not as candid in public as they are in private about the problems facing the NHS. Rising patient demand, falling resources, workforce shortages: the picture sadly is the same throughout the NHS. Unfortunately, politicians in public seem to ignore this reality and instead meddle in the NHS in a way that ends up contributing to the problem rather than solving it.
The Health and Social Care Act wasted huge amounts of time and resources on an experiment that is already fragmenting the delivery of care by introducing needless competition. It is not surprising in this climate that a BMA poll found that three-quarters of the public thought politicians designed their polices to win votes rather than improve care.
We need our policymakers to be transparent about the state of the NHS and to stop inflicting ill thought-out policies on a health service that is already struggling. Most importantly, politicians need to have this conversation in public rather than hiding their comments behind close doors.
Dr Mark Porter
Chair of BMA Council
London WC1
Toby Helm reminds us that the pointless £3bn shake-up of the NHS caused by Andrew Lansley was not voted for and not spelled out in the 2010 election manifesto (“Minister: NHS is out of our control”, News). Actually, it is far worse than that. He had told us clearly that it was not going to happen. At the British Pharmaceutical conference in 2009, in front of several hundred pharmacy and scientific colleagues, Mr Lansley informed me, in response to a direct question, that no major NHS reorganisation was planned. His reply was, for a politician, surprisingly clear and unequivocal. So was the palpable sigh of relief among my 700 or so colleagues at this welcome news. I will not forgive Mr Lansley or his party for being so very economical with the truth.
Brian Curwain
Christchurch, Dorset
Dorset

Independent:

The British Medical Association is right to warn of a funding crisis in the NHS (“Doctors’ leader warns of more NHS rationing,” 22 June). There are two clear issues. First, Jeremy Hunt’s naïve presumption that healthcare, like sales, can be run on economies of scale. This is simply not true. There is a minimum cost per patient, and this cannot be reduced. To continue to cut budgets will have a detrimental impact.
The second is the spiralling debt incurred by Labour’s years of pandering to headlines about waiting times and beds. The debt escalated and was then sold off in chunks to try and recoup value. The reality is that not even the Treasury has a grasp of who owns Private Finance Initiative debts, and Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups are still racking up interest, reducing their ability to invest in better care.
We need an approach that puts patients first, not pennies. A system where you get good quality care quickly and locally. And for goodness sake stop treating a public service like a factory production line. This is people we’re talking about.
Kelly-Marie Blundell
Social Liberal Forum
Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Guildford
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, says the NHS can save yet more money by avoiding litigation costs. Has it not occurred to him that people exhausted by long hours, lack of resources and staff shortages will inevitably make mistakes, especially if they face a constant barrage of criticism from their masters in Government? And in the NHS such mistakes will prove very costly, both in human and monetary terms.
BJ Cairns
London N22
Hamish McRae (June 22) is missing a fourth reason why the amount of tax being collected is going down: even though there are more of us in employment, a lot of us are earning less, in some cases much less.
As a small-business owner I am earning about half what I used to, and there is less work available. A friend of mine, working in what used to be a stable job in education, has been forced to take a 15 per cent salary reduction – he now cuts his own hair, so presumably his former barber isn’t earning as much either.
Many people who are now no longer classed as unemployed have gone, in some cases very reluctantly, into self-employment, and are making very little money. Many used to have well-paid, secure jobs, from which they have been made redundant. It is not always the big picture that provides the clues – the devil is in the detail, and for many of us, the devil is driving us pretty hard.
Name and address withheld
Ben Williamson of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals rolls out that old chestnut of “90 per cent of medicines that pass animal tests fail in humans” (Letters, 22 June).
This is an utterly misleading statistic. The 90 per cent figure is the proportion of new drugs that never make it though all levels of testing and to licensing. This includes the drugs that don’t make it out of preclinical non-animal tests, the ones that are shown to be dangerous or ineffective in animal studies, all of the drugs that fail during the various stages of testing in humans, and all the drugs that regulators do not license at the end of testing.
The point of animal testing is to see whether a drug has any potential therapeutic value and, more importantly, to see whether it is safe to test in humans. It should tell you something that over 30 years there has not been a death in Phase 1 trials.
The fact is, animal testing saves lives. It isn’t perfect – but it is the best we have for now.
Jo Selwood
Headington, Oxford
Archie Bland’s article on rape (22 June) seems to imply that men cannot be victims. Rape is common in prisons worldwide, prevalent in the theatre of war and, as is the case for many women, a violent assault committed by someone they know and once trusted.
Rape is about power, whether perpetrated on male or female. Please do not simply paint men as the villains because all victims need to be shown support.
Emilie Lamplough
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Times:

Older people who are lonely could seek out company in social activities, charity work or volunteering (Diverse Images)
Prevention better than cure for loneliness among the elderly
THE answer to loneliness — as with fatness — is to stop it happening in the first place (India Knight, “A simple cure for the lonely elderly — the spring chicken companion”, Comment, last week). I would urge anyone who is not working to volunteer at a hospital, library or other such institution. And to develop social skills so that they can make the most of life.
Alastair Lack, By email
Get out more
We have to stop expecting the government to have a solution to every problem. Life is unfair and there are plenty of people who have larger crosses to bear than old age. Loneliness is a spiritual issue that does not necessarily equate with being physically alone. There is an onus on the elderly to address this problem themselves — most communities have charities, bowling clubs, voluntary organisations and so on where one can meet other people and feel useful.
Mike Kemp, Truro
Foreign exchange
I knew an old man who used to have foreign students lodging with him free in return for some cooking and companionship. It was mutually beneficial and kept him young.
Chris Melikian, By email
Sharing doubts
Knight says: “It makes perfect sense for an elderly woman with more space than she needs, to share that space with somebody younger.” As elderly people lose their faculties, though, such an arrangement becomes highly dubious, and they are at the mercy of a stranger.
Dr Adam Darowski, Oxford
Will to live
My parents, married for 70 years, lived at St Mary’s House care home in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, for 12 months until my mother died. I felt my father would fade away too. However, that has not been the case. He sees a lot of people and goes out nearly every day on his scooter, does his own shopping and visits my mother’s grave.
Mary Guppy, South Kilworth, Leicestershire
Going it alone
I have to disagree strongly that most elderly people have “serious, medical-grade loneliness”. They don’t. Of course there will always be lonely people of all ages, but there are many older people who relish life on their own, free of work and family commitments.
Sue Light, Lancing, West Sussex
Gome help
The best way to combat loneliness and stay independent is to have a home-share arrangement — a companion who will do a little shopping, make a couple of meals a week and do light domestic duties.
Alex Fox, Chief Executive, Shared Lives Plus, Liverpool

EU membership has become political
THE nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president is unlikely to influence how most of us would vote in a referendum, but what would have an impact is if the EU decides that Albania and Ukraine should be considered for membership (“Defeated on Juncker, No 10 must fight on”, Editorial, last week). I voted to stay in the European Community but EU membership has now become political and I do not agree with this.
TP Charles, Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire
No deal
How sad that the signatories of the letter “Vital to stop EU curbs on City” (Letters, last week) cannot grasp the fact that EU procedures are so convoluted that any change in policy is virtually impossible. The concept of renegotiation is a pipe dream. Only by leaving the EU can Britain regain the freedom to develop its competitiveness. Perhaps most of the signatories are too young to recall a time when we coped well without the nanny EU to control our endeavours.
John Myles, Peterborough
The lady was for turning
While I agree with much of the historian Niall Ferguson’s argument in “What would the Iron Lady do?”(News Review, last week), he is quite wrong about Margaret Thatcher’s attitude to Europe. She detested the Maastricht treaty and told me herself that signing the Single European Act had probably been a mistake. By the time she died she believed that Britain should quit the EU.
Alan Sked, Professor of International History, London School of Economics

Valuable lessons from Festival of Education
I WRITE to commend The Sunday Times Festival of Education. Our charity aims to prevent young people from turning into Neets (not in employment, education or training) by early intervention and an out-of-school, full-time curriculum. We do not tell anyone what to do but enable them to see their capabilities. The festival gave us time to talk, to listen and to see others doing amazing work.
Tom Clark, aspire@wokingham

Tackling the burden of cheap alcohol
This week , we will be shown yet more evidence of this government’s failure to tackle the burden that cheap alcohol places on society. A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation has revealed that current policy has failed to deliver the prime minister David Cameron’s commitment to stop beer being sold more cheaply than water. Rock-bottom supermarket prices mean that even with a ban on below-cost sales, alcohol prices remain at dangerously low levels, fuelling rates of liver disease, crime and disorder and loss of work that cost the nation £21 billion each year.
The public health and crime prevention community has unanimously called for the government to bring back plans to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol. This is a policy that will target the cheapest, strongest drinks that put some of the most vulnerable members of our society at risk of harm. It will not affect the pockets of the majority of moderate drinkers but will make a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of low-income groups.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all acknowledged the benefits of minimum unit pricing and are pressing ahead with plans for its introduction. England risks being left behind to deal with a growing burden of disease and social disorder that is not only costing taxpayers, but is also costing lives. Urgent action is required to curb the damage caused by cheap drink.
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance UK and Special Advisor on Alcohol to the Royal College of Physicians
Katherine Brown, Director, Institute of Alcohol Studies
Eric Appleby, Chief Executive, Alcohol Concern
Tom Smith, Chief Executive, British Society of Gastroenterology
Professor Linda Bauld, Professor of Health Policy & Director, Institute for Social Marketing University of Stirling; Deputy Director, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies (UKCTAS)
Suzanne Costello, Chief Executive Officer, Alcohol Action Ireland
Dr Evelyn Gillan, Chief Executive, Alcohol Focus Scotland
Professor John R Ashton CBE, President, UK Faculty of Public Health
Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive and General Secretary, Royal College of Nursing
Professor Marsha Morgan, Principal Research Fellow and Consultant Physician, Division of Medicine, University College London
Professor Robin Touquet, Emeritus Professor of Emergency Medicine, Imperial College, Vice Chairman, Medical Council of Alcohol UK
Dr Dominique Florin, Medical Director, Medical Council on Alcohol
Dr Adrian Boyle, Chair of the Quality in Emergency Care Committee, College of Emergency Medicine
Colin Shevills, Director, Balance, the North East Alcohol Office
Terry Martin, Chair of Trustees, AlcoHELP
Dr Chris Record, Consultant Hepatologist, Newcastle upon Tyne
Dr Zul Mirza, College of Emergency Medicine
Professor Mark Bellis, Alcohol Lead, UK Faculty of Public Health
Hazel Parsons, Director, Drink Wise North West
Dr Kieran Moriarty CBE, Alcohol Lead, British Society of Gastroenterology
Dr Nick Sheron, Alcohol Lead, British Association for the Study of Liver Disease

Sporting chance
Your correspondent Adrian Perry misses the point about encouraging leadership through school sport (“Losers at sport but winners in life”, Letters, last week). Many children find success through sport that they can’t find via academic studies.
Sue Hunter, Brockenhurst, Hampshire

Meet the ancestors
May I, as a descendant of the original Britons, respond to comments by David Cameron and Lord Bragg (“PM brings in barons to teach British values”, News, June 15). The prime minister wants all children to learn about Magna Carta and Bragg wants them all to read the King James Bible. Welsh pupils might prefer to learn about our contribution to Wales’s culture and it would do no harm for those in the rest of the UK to understand what we British/Celts have done in the past.
Wyn Thomas, Carmarthen

Failing to add up
The writer and businesswoman Shirley Conran (“It’s Supermaths”, News Review, June 15) had to resort to having a stomachache when her maths teacher focused on her for an answer. I clearly remember our maths teacher, Mrs Carr, when I was at Notre Dame High School in Sheffield in the 1950s, giving us the hard stare and saying: “I can tell the girls who are good at maths by the alert expressions on their faces.” Being a member of the drama club, I found it no great hardship to cultivate this look. I failed my mocks with an embarrassing 17%.
Ann Tyas, Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Peace index warning signs for Qatar ahead of World Cup 2022
Your article “Fifa ignored own terror alert” (News, June 15) rightly drew attention to the terrorism risks facing the 2022 World Cup host Qatar but did not touch on other institutional factors that will affect the country’s stability between now and then. In the past Qatar consistently topped the regional rankings in the Global Peace Index (GPI), a testament to the ability of its successive leaders to ensure domestic stability. However, the Gulf state fell by five places to 22 out of the 162 countries in the 2014 GPI report, published on June 18. Moreover, our new risk assessment model identified it as among the top 10 in the world at risk of experiencing small-to-medium deteriorations in peace levels in the next two years. The absence of certain underlying qualities such as low levels of corruption, well-functioning government and equitable distribution of resources would all be reasons for a country to be on a “watch list”.
Given the deteriorating levels of global peacefulness we have seen in this year’s index, this is a wake-up call to governments, development agencies, investors and the wider international community that building peace is the prerequisite for economic and social development.
Steve Killelea, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, Sydney, Australia

Points
BBC quality control
India Knight misunderstands me if she thinks my support for the quality of British drama was a way of moaning at critics (Comment, last week). My focus is on championing the brilliant creative work of the UK’s drama community. I believe that shows such as Sherlock, Happy Valley and Line of Duty compare to anything produced across the world.
Danny Cohen, Director of BBC Television
Simulated evidence
The captain of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have had an unusual hobby — creating aviation videos that he posted online — but the scenario that was deleted from his computer is a standard one in the Microsoft flight simulator list (“MH370 pilot ‘chief suspect’”, News, last week). It is to fly your Boeing 737 from the Seychelles across the Indian Ocean to Trivandrum airport in southern India. Both engines fail and the only place to land is a remote island with a short runway. The captain may be the culprit but this might not be the evidence that clinches his guilt.
Bernard Newnham, Woodham, Surrey
Good Catholics
I am stunned by the religious hatred you gave space to in “Bullying priests” (Letters, last week). In the 1940s my mother-in-law, from a strong Catholic working-class family, had two illegitimate children. The father abandoned them and she gave birth to the first in a convent, where she says the nuns were very kind to her. Her family then persuaded her to return home and gave her every support, even after she went on to have a second child by the same man. Both boys were baptised, were educated in Catholic schools and went to good universities.
Janet Smith, Hastings, East Sussex
Double or quits
Dominic Lawson explains clearly Alex Salmond’s gamble (“Salmond’s scratchcard plan: bet his nation’s future on hand-outs”, last week). Could we double the stake? If the residents of Scotland vote to leave the union in September, let them have our place in Europe and we’d be free to join the wealthy countries such as Norway and Switzerland.
Richard Tanner, North Waltham, Hampshire
Potboiler gets thumbs-up
I congratulate the writer Jeanette Winterson (“She hit a nerve… and skin, sinew and bone”, Profile, last week), who cooked the rabbit that ate her parsley. This year my garden has become overrun with wild rabbits from the field next door. These are not sweet little picture-book bunnies; they breed like, well, rabbits and are a pest. Beatrix Potter’s Mr McGregor was right, and so is Winterson.
S Donald, Christleton, Cheshire
Vegetarian option
As a vegetarian for 50 years and a former chief executive of the Vegetarian Society in Britain I have far greater respect for Winterson’s approach than I have for those who buy meat that is pre-packaged. Meat bought from supermarkets and in fast-food restaurants has probably been intensively reared, mass-transported and slaughtered in an environment of fear.
Patricia Moss, Bere Alston, Devon
All in vein
Matt Rudd (“God of Small Things”, Magazine, June 15) asks: “Why are veins blue?” It is not because the blood they carry is blue: blood normally loses only 75% of its oxygen in circulating round the body and changes from bright red to maroon. The colour of veins is due to the connective tissue and muscle in the wall. Unfortunately this common mistake is reinforced by the convention of colouring veins blue in medical textbooks.
Philip James, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Dundee

Corrections and clarifications
BB Energy
On June 1, 2014, in “Inside the City: Genel cash may start to gush” (Business) we incorrectly reported that BB Energy had purchased the first tanker of crude oil delivered via a new pipeline from Kurdistan in northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. BB Energy was not the purchaser of this consignment and BB Energy has not entered into any agreement with Genel or the Kurdish government for the purchase of oil. We are happy to make this clear and apologise for the error.
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
Gary Busey, actor, 70; Amanda Donohoe, actress, 52; Robert Evans, film producer, 84; Katherine Jenkins, singer, 34; Rosa Mota, marathon runner, 56; Anne-Sophie Mutter, violinist, 51; Ian Paice, drummer, 66; Mark Radcliffe, broadcaster, 56; Nicole Scherzinger, singer, 36; DJ Shadow, musician, 42

Anniversaries
1613 fire destroys the original Globe Theatre in London; 1861 poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning dies; 1956 playwright Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe; 1974 ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada; 2007 Apple releases the first iPhone
The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST Email letters@sunday-times.co.uk Fax 020 77825454
Telegraph:

The profession has become focused on complying with the demands of Ofsted reports

Elizabeth Truss, the schools minister, has said that teachers spend too much time preparing new lessons Photo: Alamy
6:57AM BST 28 Jun 2014
256 Comments
SIR – Elizabeth Truss, the minister for education and childcare, criticises teachers for preparing different lesson plans for children in the same class. She is right: it is time-consuming and ineffective. But teachers are directed to do this; it is not just a way to add excitement to one’s life.
As for excessive use of worksheets (and, while we’re at it, PowerPoint and interactive whiteboard presentations), this could be born of the need to “put on a show” to comply with what school leaders think Ofsted wants to see in classrooms.
Clive Thomson
Maidstone, Kent
SIR – If, as Elizabeth Truss states, teachers spend hours preparing lessons that do not result in better outcomes for students, they do so because successive ministers and Ofsted inspectors have said that their lessons should have different activities that apparently improve students’ learning. These activities require preparation.
Just under half – 46 per cent – of new teachers leave the profession after five years. Continual interference by ministers, with contradictory advice, may have something to do with this sorry statistic.
Carol Forshaw
Bolton, Lancashire
Criminals in No 10
SIR – Both Peter Oborne and Ed Miliband may be wrong in asserting that the present Prime Minister is the first to host a criminal in No 10, as Harold Wilson entertained there the then Sir Joseph Kagan (whom he subsequently ennobled in his dissolution honours list) and who later went to prison.
Dermot Boyle
Winchester, Hampshire
Ticket to ride
SIR – Mike Hawes (Letters, June 21) asks how one can fly from Sussex to Scotland without a passport. For adults, at least, a valid photo driving licence or – if they are old enough – a photo bus pass will do.
Ian Gibson
Rooks Bridge, Somerset
Not in Cumbria
SIR – I was born in the historic county of Westmorland (Letters, June 24) and have no intention of allowing anyone to tell me that I no longer live here.
Charles Dobson
Burton-in-Kendal, Westmorland
Wimbledon manners
SIR – As a life-long tennis player and fan, it is not just grunting players that I find irritating.
Commentators who continue to witter on about irrelevancies when play is under way have me reaching for the television mute button.
Then there is the crowd screeching and bellowing in an unsporting way whenever a British man is on court. Last year the wall of noise during Andy Murray’s semi-final match was so bad that we left the Centre Court after the first set.
There is also the apparent acceptance by umpires of players trashing their racquets on court. It is like watching a top violinist destroy his violin – shocking. It should be firmly discouraged by all tennis coaches, especially those who teach children.
It was a pleasure to watch the tournament at Queen’s Club, which is more like Wimbledon used to be, and less like a football stadium.
Vivien Coombs
Hungerford, Berkshire
SIR – Those less lucky than I, who have to catch up on the day’s tennis with the Today at Wimbledon programme at 8pm, must find it frustrating when, intent on seeing several hours of play condensed into an hour, they have to sit through uninteresting analysis by yesterday’s celebrities rather than watch actual play.
Charles Holden
Lymington, Hampshire
SIR – I had a wonderful day at Wimbledon. However, sitting on half of one of the new padded seats in Centre Court is not a comfortable experience. Looking around, I could see I was not the only one suffering.
Veronica Bliss
Winchester, Hampshire
Paying for the Queen
SIR – It is a misconception that the Queen is awarded taxpayers’ money. She is not. The arrangement that George III made was to give the Crown Estate to the nation in return for an income. It made a return last year of £267 million, of which the Queen received £35 million (£12 million being for major repairs to historic buildings).
The arrangement with the Crown Estate can be reversed. Each monarch ascending the throne is presented with the option.
Chris Lenton
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Open and shut case
SIR – So now it is quite clear. We know who has the teeth, and it is not Fifa.
W N B Richardson
Northwich, Cheshire
Armistice on a plate
SIR – On show in the Museum of Military History in Vienna is the car in which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. It has the number plate A111118, the date of the armistice ending the First World War.
Is this one of the most extraordinary coincidences in history, or merely a number plate added after the event?
John Shrive
Holt, Norfolk
Hard cheese
SIR – On a previous occasion when England were dire at rugby, soccer and cricket, I made it known that, in this area, we were at least good at cheese-rolling.
The following year’s event was won by a former Kiwi rugby player.
Dave Alsop
Gloucester
Snapping up tales of crocodiles in British rivers
SIR – The story about the Avon crocodile reminded me of the Trent piranha fish and the Great Ouse crocodile, two incidents in which I was involved more than 30 years ago.
I was a biologist for the power industry based near Nottingham, working on the environmental effects of warm cooling-water effluents on rivers. A reporter from Radio Nottingham phoned to say that a boy had been admitted to hospital with what the boy said was a piranha bite on his foot, which he had apparently sustained while paddling in the river near Ratcliffe power station. Could piranha fish live in the warm water, the reporter asked.
The reporter also quoted a man who owned a tank of tropical fish and said he had tipped some into the river.
The river Trent at the time was warmed by several power stations, and winter temperatures could reach summer levels in places. However, putting together devil and detail, we found out eventually that the boy, it seems, had been paddling in the River Soar, which was not warmed, and had cut his foot on some glass and was afraid to tell his mum, so he allegedly made up the story to get out of trouble.
The Barford crocodile was supposedly spotted in the Great Ouse river near the effluent from Little Barford power station at St Neots. But there were no photographs of the croc, just pictures of a man on the riverbank, who had opened a pet-and-tropical-fish shop in St Neots and needed some publicity. No pictures of a crocodile ever emerged, though we did find a half-submerged log near there on a later visit.
The only exotic fish population in warmed water I knew of was a group of tropical fish that lived for some years in the St Helens canal, near a warm glassworks effluent.
I look forward to the investigation of the Avon crocodile or alligator.
Prof Terry Langford
University of Southampton
Competitors in the Great British Duck Race, at Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court, Surrey  Photo: Alamy
6:59AM BST 28 Jun 2014
70 Comments
SIR – In our garden we have a bird bath that contains two small rubber ducks – one blue and one orange – to entertain our grandchildren.
Most mornings we find the blue duck has been removed and dropped on the patio about three yards away. We suspect that a wood pigeon which frequents the garden is performing this activity.
Can any ornithologist confirm this strange action? Why remove the duck, and why always the blue one?
Keith Davies
Priorslee, Shropshire
The Prime Minister has called the selection of Jean-Claude Juncker ‘a bad day for Europe’ Photo: REX
7:00AM BST 28 Jun 2014
151 Comments
SIR – I listened to David Cameron yesterday morning in Europe, making an excellent speech on his coming encounter over Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment as president of the European Commission. He knew he would be defeated, but his determination reminded me of 1940, when Britain was alone.
Mr Cameron may think he is alone but he has the backing of millions of British and Europeans who do not like the way Europe is going, as can be seen by the last European elections.
Tom Wainwright
Aughton, Lancashire
SIR – We are living in a political fantasy world where politicians, by negligence or wilful misrepresentation, take our country sleepwalking into a federal Europe.

For years, EU mandarins have been talking of “ever closer union”, culminating in a United States of Europe.
How is the appointment of Mr Juncker any more than just another step towards a federal Europe? I fear Mr Cameron is disingenuous in suggesting that Mr Juncker’s appointment is somehow a departure from established EU objectives.
Terry Lloyd
Darley Abbey, Derbyshire
SIR – By electing Mr Juncker to the presidency of the European Commission, European leaders are saying that Mr Cameron is not going to get anywhere with his renegotiation of EU membership. So either Britain stays as it is or goes.
If Mr Cameron had the stomach for it, he could call the promised vote on our EU membership this year, after the Scottish referendum.
Then when the majority votes to withdraw, he could go into the next election to carry out the British people’s wishes, ensuring his party’s position in power for many years.
Tony Saunders
Brighton, East Sussex
SIR – The appointment of Mr Juncker may raise support in Britain for an exit from the EU. If Ukip is serious about wanting such an exit, it will be placed under increasing pressure to support the Conservatives publicly at the next general election, as that is the only way to achieve a referendum.
Robert Persey
Broadhembury, Devon
SIR – David Cameron need not be too concerned about his isolated position on the Juncker vote. In the 1972 US presidential election, only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia didn’t vote for Nixon. Two years later he resigned.
John Mounsey
London SW13
SIR – The game used to be to ask the names of three famous Belgians. Should we now be asking the same question in relation to Luxembourgeois?
Richard Hardman
Standford, Hampshire
Irish Times:
Irish Independent:

Madam – The place to start the new politics is here – at home, so to speak.
Having been involved for more decades than I care to remember in the mundane nitty-gritty of ‘real politics’ I look with horror at any suggestion that we should start to try to build a ‘new’ political movement from scratch. One of the lessons of the so-called ‘Arab Springs’, is that quick-fix, emotion-driven ‘cardboard revolutions’ almost always end in disaster.
But if our political elite does not provide the equivalent of the ‘Velvet Revolutions’ which freed much (but not all) of Eastern Europe, we are going to have to provide our own. Soon.
Being of a somewhat left-of-centre tinge, I have placed my confidence consistently, in the ‘potential’ (sic) of Labour to deliver in the broadest and most fundamental way. Given that the Irish voter does, every now and again (since the foundation of the State), make a lunge to the left – with very positive, (if electorally short-lived), results, this is not an entirely witless policy.
However, whatever small chance there may be of re-electing a reasonable ‘critical mass’ of coherent Labour TDs and Senators to the next Dail and Seanad to keep the Plough and the Stars flying in Leinster House, it will be minimal, if not non-existent, if the next Labour leader cannot enter a credible dialogue with us, the people.
If our citizens want to live in a Republic, every individual among them must take that Republic back into their homes. They can start by engaging the new Labour leadership in serious debate during the few months remaining for this Government. If that turns out simply to be a ‘dialogue of the deaf’, then they will have to look at and engage with those among their fellow-citizens who share their views. Take whatever means are necessary to ensure that there is at least the makings of a genuine pragmatic social democratic presence in Leinster House.
Maurice O’Connell,
Tralee, Co Kerry
Sunday Independent

30 June2014 Reading

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. We potter around its raining, and cold so much for Flaming June!

ScrabbleIwinone of those dull game, perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Peter Lee was a wartime flying-boat navigator who became the first counter-forgery scientist at the Bank of England

5:54PM BST 29 Jun 2014

Comment

Guardian:

Independent:

Times:

Telegraph:

SIR – As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard indicates, Jean-Claude Juncker dislikes Britain with an abiding passion. As an arch-federalist, he will ignore the cries of European electors, just as he did the French and Dutch when they voted against the EU Constitution. With Germany’s Bild Zeitung now stating that Britain should leave the EU if we cannot accept this fait accompli, perhaps now is the time to consider obliging.

SIR – I agree totally with Nicholas Farrell’s view regarding the sad demise of culinary standards in most restaurants in France (“French food has gone off the boil”).

SIR – Every day I read articles suggesting that British jihadists in Syria or Iraq could come home and commit atrocities here.

Irish Times:

Sir, – When the legitimately elected president of Egypt was ousted in a coup, commentators in the West welcomed the restraining of the power of the Muslim Brotherhood. When that party was banned, and all its voters disenfranchised at a stroke, there was little demur. When 529 members of the Brotherhood were sentenced to death for one crime, there was some gentle tut-tutting. Gen Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was globally accepted as the new president, when his so-called election was only achieved by the banning of the opposition.

Now one western journalist has been put in jail and suddenly there is an outcry. If Peter Greste is freed from prison, will that prevent Egypt from its inevitable slide into greater repression and the inevitable terrorist response?

If the Muslim Brotherhood has no legitimate outlet for its views, what else can you expect? Justice is justice and democracy is democracy. There will be no peace in the Middle East until legitimately elected leaders are respected and supported internationally. – Yours, etc,

ARTHUR DEENY,

Rock Road,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Alan Howard’s letter (June 21st) on the disrespect shown to our national flag by many of our public institutions is timely as we approach the climax of the marching season in the North.

Every July, as part of the annual Orange Order marching season, many Northern Catholics feel the necessity to leave their homes to escape the global cultural phenomenon known as the “11th Night”. Across many towns and cities in the North, hundreds of “towering infernos” are built, most surmounted with the national flag of the Republic. These “bonfires of bigotry” are tolerated by the police. As a further insult, since 2010 Belfast City Council has financed a scheme whereby those associated with Orange Order bonfires can claim £100 if no Tricolours are incinerated.

Offering financial inducements to cease burning the Irish national flag is an appalling affront to the citizens of the Republic of Ireland.

Nowhere else in Europe would the annual ceremonial burning of many hundreds of the national flag of a peaceful neighbouring state go virtually uncommented upon.– Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeville Road,

Templeogue,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – In better business circles there is a move towards lean business instead of cost reduction. Cost reduction tends to cut both value and waste, thereby reducing competitiveness. Lean business only reduces or eliminates waste, thereby increasing value, competitiveness and customer service.

The decision to cut obesity surgery at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin is an example of cost reduction at its worst because it eliminates that value proposition that many customers need without considering waste at all (“Decision to halt obesity surgery in St Vincent’s Hospital should be reversed”, Opinion & Analysis, June 25th). If this is the way our health service is run I can’t see any future for it. If it continually eliminates value, all that will be left is waste; and I think we have enough of that in the public service.

Minister for Health James Reilly should consider some of the principles of lean business in his strategy for the health service so that the customer is better served. – Yours, etc,

BILL KEE,

Ministers Road,

Lusk, Co Dublin.

Sir, – There has been much talk about the upcoming leadership election for the Labour Party to the effect that the party needs to “rediscover its values” and a “sense of direction” to bring some “reforming zeal” to the debate and the like.

What Labour needs more than anything else is clarity.

Ask someone down at the dole office what they feel about the difference between democratic socialism and social democracy and you’ll get a shrug (at best). These issues don’t matter to ordinary people. What matters are jobs, affordable housing, healthcare and schooling.

What Labour needs to do is to set clear goals and a pathway to these goals that goes beyond the usual five-year electoral cycle. Nobody expects that in five years joblessness will have disappeared, but what about in 10 years?

Let’s leave the waffle at the door and set some clear goals that everyone can understand. Free healthcare for all. Affordable housing for all. No child having to be schooled in a leaky prefab. There are many more, but let’s be clear in our language.

Let’s have, for example, free childcare for all within 10 years.

First step: increase the affordability of childcare under the current system through greater tax relief and/or subsidies.

Second step: establish a State body with a mandate to provide free childcare to all who require it.

Third step: build the required number of creches to provide childcare for our population. It should not be difficult; after all the State already provides free childcare for those over-four in our schools. Adding a few more years to this is easily achievable.

Do the same with employment, with schooling and so fourth. Clear medium-term goals and a clear path to these goals. This then can be the benchmark by which the party judges whether or not coalition is worthwhile. It is also the only way the party will regain the trust of voters. – Yours, etc,

NOEL HOGAN,

Ballymakenny Road,

Drogheda,

Sir, – Further to “Betrayal of Arabs after first World War set stage for turbulent century” (Weekend, June 21st), the impression is often given that the Sykes-Picot line was an arbitrary imperial carve-up of the Middle East, rather like the lines drawn on the map of Africa by European imperialists.

However, if you were to overlay the current map of the Middle East with the Ottoman Vilayat map – a map showing the governates or districts of its empire – you would see that there is a remarkable confluence.

The problems of the Middle East are those of competing nationalisms and ideologies and not necessarily caused by imperialism, real or imagined. – Yours, etc,

MELVYN WILCOX.

Dundanion Road,

Ballintemple,

Cork.

Sir, – Ciaran Ó Raghallaigh (June 24th) repeats the myth of the “broadcasts” that it is claimed were made by Arab leaders ordering the Palestinian population to leave their homes in 1948 “on the expectation that they could return once the fledgling Jewish state had been erased from the map”.

This myth was exposed as far back as 1961 by Dr Erskine B Childers, who examined all the radio transcripts of the British and American monitoring units of the time. He concluded that, “there was not a single order … there is repeated monitored record of Arab appeals, even flat orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put”. The Palestinian people attempted to stay put but tragically failed, and roughly 800,000 of them were expelled. – Yours, etc,

JACK O’NEILL

Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.

Sir, – In the past, puritancial clerics were forever lecturing us about sex. Now secular puritans are forever lecturing us about food and drink.

Remember the definition of a puritan – a person who is horribly afraid that someone, somewhere might be happy. – Yours, etc,

Dr BRIAN ARKINS,

Moyola Park,

Galway.

A chara, – In addition to the museums and heritage centres mentioned in Ronan McGreevy’s comprehensive article (“In Flanders Fields”, Magazine, June 21st), there is another interpretative centre which opened last November in the village of Ploegsteert. It is the “Plugstreet 14-18 Experience”, close to Ploegsteert Wood, which was the site of some fierce fighting throughout the Great War.

There are 13 military cemeteries in the surrounding area, and several craters which resulted from the chain of subterranean mine explosions which took place on June 7th, 1917. One of the football matches at Christmas 1914 between the German and British forces took place close by at St Yvon.

As well as explaining the movement of the Western Front in this region, the interpretative centre highlights the relationship between occupying forces and the local population, which makes it different to most other museums dealing with this period. It is a 20-minute drive south of Ypres, and about five minutes from the Island of Ireland Peace Park at Mesen, also well worth a visit. – Is mise,

AUDREY MacCREADY,

Maryfield Drive,

Artane,

Sir, – Hugo Kiernan’s reflections on the fate of Louis Suarez (June 27th) and his observation that if a youngster had done the same on O’Connell Street in Dublin in full view of CCTV and passers-by he “would have the book thrown at him” is sadly not the likely outcome.

My son was hospitalised after a serious assault off O’Connell Street three weeks ago in full view of CCTV and passers-by.

To date no-one has been arrested, charged, or indeed had “the book thrown at them”. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN McMAHON,

Elmwood,

Naas,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Last Monday’s Irish Times carried an appreciation of Dominican priest Malachy O’Dwyer.

On the day of its appearance it was brought to my attention that Malachy, who had written his doctoral thesis in Latin in canon law, never completed secondary school. On the early death of his father he left school at a young age to support the family.

He worked in a builders’ providers and did his Leaving Cert at night in a one-classroom school, all grades together with one teacher. Malachy often recalled to friends how excellent the teacher was.

A man in Paraná in Argentina, talking about Malachy, 30 years after first encountering him, remembers how well he preached: “Short, full of content and obviously well prepared”.

My late father always sat up in the seat when he saw Malachy come out to celebrate Mass in St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght, in the 1970s. He knew he was in for some wise words, well crafted.

When Malachy was asked to go to India he was somewhat reluctant as he would much prefer to have gone back to Argentina. He went to India, helped reestablish the Dominicans in the country and made it his new home. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL COMMANE,

Orwell Gardens,

Sir, – Have you ever noticed how difficult it is in Ireland to change direction when pushing a load of groceries in the supermarket or a stack of bags at the airport?

It is a lot like trying to steer a sailboat with a missing keel. The cart and the boat just want to continue going in the same direction, regardless of the pusher’s directional plans.

The reason for this is that in Ireland all four wheels are on casters, while in the rest of the world the back wheels are fixed and only the fronts can pivot. Thus to change direction, you just pivot the cart and away you go. Not true in Ireland, where you must walk around to the side of the cart and turn it in the desired direction, then return to the back to push in the new direction.

So could someone, better connected than me, contact the cart makers and tell them to fix the carts? – Yours, etc,

NED MONAGHAN,

Siwanoy Lane,

New Canaan,

Sir, – We all have heard the quip, “ready, fire, aim”. In fact those words were not just a joke. For centuries after infantry soldiers were given the rifle, they were ordered not to take the time to aim; rather, they were instructed just to point in the general direction of the enemy and fire. Their commanders believed that it was the mass impact, the “broadside,” that won the day.

Our leaders still believe it. They think that our “shock and awe”, our marvellous technology measured in stealth bombers, drones, all-knowing intelligence, our massed and highly mobile troops and our money constitute a devastating broadside.

All we have to do is to point in the right direction and shoot.

So we shoot and then shoot again and again. We win each battle, but the battles keep happening.

And to our chagrin, we don’t seem to be winning the wars. – Yours, etc,

PETER BAXTER,

Springate Road,

Southwick,

Brighton,

England.

Sir, – Recently I received a letter from my bank relating to my credit card account. The missive made absolutely no sense and was “bonkers” – to use the McAleese phrase. On phoning their office, the man I spoke to was both apologetic and honest. “A computer sent the letter,” he said! – Yours, etc,

OLIVER McGRANE,

Marley Avenue,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Praise where praise is due. Yesterday I received my new passport exactly 14 days after posting my application to the embassy in Vienna. Many thanks to the embassy and the Passport Office for processing it so quickly at such a busy time of year. I had hung onto the old one in case I needed it for the European election; and the first use I am planning for the new one is a trip to Switzerland, to introduce my 4-year-old daughter to my 87-year-old aunt, who has been living there since the 1950s. – Yours, etc,

BEN HEMMENS,

Hafnerriegel,

Graz,

Austria.

Sir, – I am researching the life of Fr Alexander McCabe (1900-88), who was rector of the Irish College in Salamanca from 1935 to 1950. Upon his return to his native Kilmore diocese, he served as a curate in Maghera and Corlough, parish priest in Rossinver and chaplain to St Joseph’s nursing home in Virginia. Any information about Fr McCabe from your readers would be much appreciated. Replies to timfanning76@gmail.com. – Yours, etc,

TIM FANNING,

Northumberland Court,

Northumberland Road,

Ballsbridge,

Sir, – I would like to add the Holocaust Museum to Jennifer Steinhauer’s list of places to visit on a weekend in Washington DC (Magazine, June 21st). This museum is the United States’ official memorial to the Holocaust. It is a moving experience and a “must see” when visiting the city. – Yours, etc,

MARY CLARKE,

Kincora Park,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Irish Independent:

* I am writing this letter to you with a heavy heart. Picture 507 young adults in a room. All fighting fit, with so much to live for. Now imagine something coming along, opening the door to that room, and killing all 507 of those people. Imagine the families of these people, thousands of mourners, funeral after funeral.

Ordinarily this would make the news headlines, be in every paper and on every news channel across the country and world, but it’s not. It’s not talked about, and is swept under the carpet, as if it never happened.

This is exactly what is happening in this country every day with the suicide of our young people. This weekend, I learnt again of yet another young man, a mere 22 years old, in our local community who took his own life. Why?

This is a subject that I feel very passionate about. In the past I suffered from the debilitating disease of depression. I struggled each day with the haunting feeling of hating myself, the feeling that the world would be a better place without me.

I had many attempts on my life, which earned me a stay in a mental hospital for eight weeks. Here we were locked up, fed tablets; saw a doctor once a week, only for them to give more medication. There was no help.

But I was one of the lucky ones. I eventually found a doctor who was willing to see me, free of charge, because he believed in me.

Years later and I have finally got my life back. I have a whole new appreciation for life, and all because somebody listened to me.

Why do we as a society simply sit back and accept that suicide is now “the norm”?

Where is our Government, the elected leaders? I challenge them to explain to those who have lost their loved ones why they will not help. Why they are closing mental health hospitals. Why there is insufficient after-care facilities available.

Isn’t it time now to call upon our Government to step up? To educate our children on the importance of talking. If we educate our young children that “the norm” is talking through our problems, we may break the vicious cycle of “the norm” being suicide.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

FORGOTTEN STORIES OF WWI

* This month sees the 100th-year commemorations of the start of World War I. We know of its major battles, but less of the hardships on civilians.

American Herbert Hoover was a businessman and a natural administrator, and at the start of the war he lived in London.

He was asked to evacuate 120,000 American civilians from Europe, which he duly did. He then led the Commission for Relief in Belgium to provide food to the eight million people who were in danger of dying from starvation. Their factories had closed, farms were ruined and most of the food stores taken by the German army.

In response to this monumental challenge, Herbert Hoover distributed $1.8m worth of food weekly for two-and-a-half years with the help of the New York office of the Commission.

He saved millions of lives, but not without reported human flaws. He rarely visited a food station and there were allegations of profiteering.

Whether true or not, he saved millions of people and helped them survive, and for this he was known as ‘the Great Humanitarian’.

It was the biggest relief effort the world had seen. He negotiated with the German authorities to allow the distribution of food in Belgium.

There was Myron T Herrick, an American ambassador to France during his first term to 1914, and during the war he helped the French people.

He was awarded the French Legion of Honour and was the first American ambassador to have a Paris street named after him.

When the US entered WWI in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson requested Hoover to head the US Food Administration to ready the country for war-time food production. Their slogan was ‘Food will win the war’.

At war’s end, he headed the American Relief Administration, which saved millions more lives in Europe, including Germany. They set up 35,000 food stations in Germany, which provided 300 million meals.

He certainly was effective and founded the Hoover War Collection library in 1919 on his immense food aid effort in WWI.

This is now known as the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, USA, and also has archives from WWII and other wars.

It should not surprise that he was elected 31st President of the United States in 1929. He came from a family of devout Quakers.

MARY SULLIVAN

COLLEGE ROAD, CORK

PRIDE PARADES

* Now that gay is the new straight, when can we expect, nay, demand, hetero pride parades through the streets of Dublin?

ROBERT SULLIVAN

BANTRY, CO CORK

A PRICELESS CHANGE

* The cost of replacing Marian Finucane with a Mensa comedian?

Priceless.

LIAM POWER

BALLINA, CO MAYO

RELIGION AND RESPECTABILITY

* Jim Cosgrove (Letters, June 27) has demanded to know how I arrived at the term ‘schizophrenic’ to describe the response to the Tuam babies story.

In a nutshell, while there remains considerable antipathy towards single mothers in today’s society, it is schizophrenic to castigate past generations for similar attitudes, albeit for different reasons.

That today’s society seems unaware of the irony of its position lends itself to the label ‘schizophrenic’.

He asks: “No doubt the nuns, priests, bishops … . were fully immersed in and dedicated to Victorian bourgeois values?” Yes, that is exactly what I was saying. Nuns, priests, bishops, and the rest of society as well.

Mr Cosgrove then goes on to ask ” … but from where did the obsessive oppression relating to sexuality, reproduction and equal rights for women emanate?”

From Victorian middle-class bourgeois attitudes, Mr Cosgrove, out of which a particular form of society emerged to which other areas of human activity (such as religion) were subsumed.

Perhaps Mr Cosgrove is unaware that Ireland was once a colony of the UK and heavily influenced by Victorian social engineering programs of the 18th and 19th Centuries, though I thought I had made this point clear previously also.

We are still living in such a paradigm, though ‘religion’ has been largely dropped in favour of more secular explanations of ‘respectability’.

NICK FOLLEY

CARRIGALINE, CORK

UNBELIEVABLE PROFITS AT VHI

* The recent media reports of the huge profits of €65m at VHI is quite unbelievable. This profit is despite the thousands who were forced to cancel their insurance premiums this year because of the unending increases imposed on them, year in, year out.

I had to cancel my insurance this same year as the huge profits, having been a member for over 30 years without any cost to VHI regarding a claim.

Part of the increase in profits is reported to have come from a closer examination by VHI of the costs of the claims from the hospitals, consultants, etc, in regard to possible overcharging. Does this mean we as customers have been paying these additional costs for years?

JOE BREEN

RAHENY, DUBLIN

Irish Independent

1July2014 Funeral

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. We go to the funeralof Shelia

Verity an old collegue of Mary’s

ScrabbleMary winsand gets over 400. well done Mary,perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

I welcome the news that Nestlé has become the first leading manufacturer to commit to paying all employees, including contract and agency workers, a living wage (Nestlé agrees to pay all employees living wage, 30 June). Business secretary Vince Cable greeted the announcement with warm words, saying that he encouraged “all businesses to pay their staff above the minimum wage when it is affordable and not at the expense of jobs”. But while any news of employers paying a living wage is welcome – especially in London – the government must do more.

Independent:

The deluge of reporting over the results of the phone-hacking trial has reintroduced us to the terrible behaviour and lack of respect for privacy which characterised much of Fleet Street.

However, there is one group of people who must bear some responsibility for what happened but who appear to have been airbrushed out of the debate. I am of course talking about the millions of people who read the vacuous drivel that passes for news in the tabloids and gossip magazines.

Some weeks ago, I stood in a shop at a motorway service station and counted the number of celebrity gossip magazines which filled the shelves in the prime position, just beside the entrance.

I got to 20 and stopped in a kind of despair. These magazines and their companions, the tabloid newspapers, must be filled somehow to keep up with the apparently insatiable desire for more and more news about people in the public eye.

It is only natural, then, that the limits of what is and is not permissible in the search for this news are likely to be expanded.

If the demand for this nonsense was not there, there would be no gap to fill and there would have been no phone-hacking. So, perhaps one way of stopping these terrible events being repeated is to become a less cruel and a more caring society, and the first step in that is to stop buying these magazines and newspapers; in other words, to let people in the public eye have a private life.

John Dowling, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Irrespective of the verdict, the length of the hacking trial indicates serious failings in the judicial system. For the trial to take over six months is an unreasonable use of public facilities.

Perhaps there should be a body independent of the legal system which puts limits on the time cases may take.

David Warrick, Cranbrook, Kent

Market success for university research

The recent success of Imperial College in realising £10m cash in exchange for a 10 per cent share holding in Imperial Innovations shows the continued market interest in the commercialisation of university research (report, 24 June).

However, the availability of investment funds for promising university spin-outs will not on its own deliver the economic impact that the UK might expect from its world-class research base.

For commercialisation to thrive it is vital that the UK invests appropriately in the entire pipeline of development, from early-phase frontier research through to technology development and thereafter commercialisation.

However, there is evidence that the UK is failing to do so. According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2012 Britain invested 1.7 per cent of gross domestic product in research and development, the lowest percentage in Europe, and some way from the 3 per cent achieved in the US in the 1950s.

There is plenty of evidence that commercialisation of university research can deliver returns, but only if it is approached as a long-term investment. But the good news is that investment in university research not only fuels innovation but also sustains and underpins our world-class higher education sector, which in turn delivers a more immediate economic return.

According to a recent report from Universities UK, the higher education sector delivers some £73bn to GDP, £10bn in exports and more than 750,000 jobs.

Although funding and investment are essential ingredients for continued academic and economic success from UK higher education, money alone will not suffice. We must imbue a much greater sense of ambition in our university communities, so that we can not only create the successful companies of the future, but we have the confidence to grow them so that they can provide employment and tax revenues for future generations of UK citizens.

Professor Stephen Caddick, Vice Provost, University College London

Under arrest in Tajikistan

Today (1 July) William Hague will meet the visiting Tajikistani Foreign Minister, Sirojiddin Aslov, who has come to Britain to request economic and political support to bolster his country’s security forces and develop some ambitious hydroelectricity generation and export programmes.

At the same time, a University of Exeter-employed researcher, Alexander Sodiqov, has been arrested on baseless charges of espionage and treason while conducting scholarly research as part of a UK research consortium. His family and supporters have been denied access to him since his detention a fortnight ago, and there is growing concern for his safety in a country with dismal human rights records. Amnesty International has recognised him as a prisoner of conscience.

It would be unconscionable for the UK to be bolstering Tajik security services whilst they deny basic freedoms of speech and association to their citizens in this way. When William Hague meets Mr Aslov today he must insist that Alexander Sodiqov be freed.

Dr Nick Megoran, Lecturer in Political Geography, Newcastle University

Cameron enigma over Europe

I am puzzled by David Cameron’s stance on Europe. What, in detail, does he think? Is his present behaviour just a smokescreen? Why couldn’t he avoid blundering into the dismal isolation he finds himself in?

If Tony Blair were Prime Minister at this time we would be given a fully contextualised account of what he thought Europe was or should be. Even if he was hiding his true view, at least the rhetoric might have been engaging.

Cameron wants to “reform” the EU. How? What does he want? He is, I suppose, against a “federal” Europe. Why?

There seems to be little that is articulate and intelligent in politics these days, or that gives the electorate any credit for being capable of informed, critical judgements.

Eric Harber, St Albans, Hertfordshire

Where are the politicians of today’s generation who would speak up for our membership of the EU, apart from in the Liberal Democrats, who might be regarded as a busted flush?

The only people I have heard setting out the case in a fluent and convincing way recently are Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Ken Clarke, all of whom are yesterday’s men. The Labour Party’s silence on this issue is as unforgivable as it is deafening.

David Cameron’s ham-fisted attempts to stop Jean-Claude Juncker’s appointment were frankly embarrassing, and underline that he is not the man to bring about reform of the EU.

Were Labour to seize upon this own goal and set out a coherent pro-European strategy, rather than running scared of the right-wing press, they might be able to garner some support and prevent the impending disaster of our leaving the EU from unfolding. Without this, and the intervention of some credible heavy-weights, we are heading straight for the cloud-cuckoo land so beloved of Nigel Farage.

Ian Richards, Birmingham

You report (27 June) an EU diplomat as saying that Jean-Claude Juncker’s alcohol consumption “has been raised by a number of EU leaders”. If I’d been in his position dealing with Mr Cameron over the past month, mine would have been too.

Philip Goldenberg, Woking, Surrey

An alarming letter from the revenue

I expect many people were dismayed to read that 3.5 million people were undercharged by HMRC for tax and could expect letters in the post. Like many we thought ,“Oh dear, we hope we are not one of them”.

Luck however was not with us, and this morning my husband received four pages from HMRC to tell him he owed the huge amount of £1.81. The temptation to write to them to ask how much it cost to produce the letter was, with some difficulty, overcome.

Sally Bundock, Eastcote, Middlesex

Standing up for ‘standee’

Like Max Double (letter, 28 June), I was puzzled by “standee”, but discovered that it has been in use since at least the middle of the 19th century. Jenny Macmillan’s account (letter, 27 June), entirely logical though it is, does not match usage. Consider that a bargee is someone who operates a barge, not someone who is barged.

Martin Smith, Oxford

International comedy

I was sorry to see the absence from Tom Vallance’s excellent obituary of Eli Wallach (26 June) of any mention of Le Cerveau, Gerard Oury’s 1969 multilingual comic epic. Wallach acquits himself wonderfully alongside David Niven, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bourvil.

Conrad Cork, Leicester

Times:

Telegraph:

6:58AM BST 30 Jun 2014

114 Comments

SIR – I sympathise with Ron Kirby, who is concerned about yet another new word entering our language, but our language is constantly changing and will continue to do so. For example, no one leaves any more; they exit. Equally, no one talks about things “in the future”; it is all about going forward.

SIR – We are often told by Europhiles that the reason Britain must stay in the European Union is that, if we left, we would have no influence; the naming of Jean-Claude Junckeras President of the European Commission shows we have none anyway. We might just as well leave at the earliest opportunity and pocket the £50 million-plus-per-day it costs us to be ignored.

Irish Times:

Sir, – I doubt that anyone in Britain knew that Jean-Claude Juncker was the wrong man for the job of European Commission president until British prime minister David Cameron started his one-man crusade against him. Now Mr Cameron is looking for the EU’s help in stopping the British public voting to leave the EU. Is this the diplomatic way of asking for assistance in picking up his toys and putting them back in the pram? – Yours, etc,

DAVE ROBBIE,

Seafield Crescent,

Booterstown, Co Dublin.

Sir, – I would have thought that the appointment of the arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker should give Ireland pause for thought over its role within an increasingly German-dominated EU. Without espousing the “in or out” hysteria that is daily spewed out in the British press, isn’t it time for a considered examination of where the German-driven EU train is leading us? – Yours, etc,

PATRICK WILKINSON,

Windgates,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – European voters have the power via the ballot box to choose their European Commission president. The process of having lead candidates, who are selected by their parties and campaign across Europe before the elections, has deepened the debate about European issues. This has meant the EU has become closer to its citizens, more transparent and more democratic. – Yours, etc,

AIDAN O’SULLIVAN,

Avenue de l’Armée,

Brussels.

 A chara, – Using  Barry Walsh’s “entirely reasonable interpretation of the recorded words and actions of Jesus” (June 28th), it would not be just women who should be excluded from ordination, but any man who was not a circumcised Jew. There was no gentile among the 12. Too painful to contemplate?  – Is mise,

SOLINE HUMBERT,

Ascaill Abhoca,

An Charraig Dhubh,

Co Bhaile Átha Cliath.

Sir, – When we remember that it took the thick end of some 1,800 years to unpack the concept of human slavery, the retaining of that concept bitterly fought under the banners of tradition and scripture, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that many Christians are still trying to work out the full implications of accepting that both female and male were made “in God’s image”.

There are thousands upon thousands of us women priests exercising ministry worldwide in different Christian denominations, our vocations having been discerned and accepted by other (male) priests and male and female laity.

Can we please just be left to get on with our work of God’s kingdom without having to constantly put up with what, from our perspective, is noisy splashing in the shallow end of the theological paddling pool? – Yours, etc,

Canon

MARIE

ROWLEY-BROOKE,

St Mary’s Rectory,

Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Sir, – In the First Epistle to the Corinthians (14:34-35) Saint Paul teaches that “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church”.

Some may argue against female priests, based on the incongruity of a woman preaching such passages of the New Testament from the pulpit.

These and many other misogynist New Testament scriptures suggest to me that the problem does not relate to women in the Christian priesthood, but rather Christianity’s understanding of womanhood. – Yours, etc,

JOHN HAMILL,

Church Heath,

Castleblayney,

Co Monaghan.

Sir, – I agree with Una Mullally that it’s time for some action on excessive drinking in Ireland (“Time for action on our booze epidemic”, Opinion & Analysis, June 30th).

However, buy-in from the community at large is the essential starting place. There will be no chance of achieving broad consensus by using statistics that torpedo credibility. No young person in Ireland, and few older people, will accept binge drinking as anything over three pints of beer (six units) in a session and the resultant absurd statistical extrapolations.

The answer, as always, will lie in a broad spectrum of measures in education, sporting facilities and social justice – all requiring investment and sacrifice by the community at large. And trusted and credible data as a foundation. – Yours, etc,

JOHN GRIFFIN,

Bloomsbury,

Kells,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Carl O’Brien writes that that, “When companion passes are taken into account, there are more than 1.1 million customers with free travel eligibility” (“Transport firms issue threat over free travel scheme”, Front Page, June 30th).

That’s a lot of votes. – Yours, etc,

MATTIE LENNON,

Lacken,

Blessington,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I believe the free travel scheme to be of enormous social, psychological and economic benefit to citizens. It should, however, be administered effectively. A photo-ID card should be used to eliminate fraud. On clients reaching 66, social welfare services should send out application forms only. At present, non-photo cards are sent out automatically. I know many people who have never used their free travel passes. Make application forms and renewal payments available online. Charge for the card annually – a modest figure to cover administration costs, say €30. If transport providers are having financial problems, then restrict travel to non-peak times. End the issuing of companion passes, unless the card-holder is disabled.

I think these simple steps would eliminate the unbalanced elements of the scheme. Meanwhile, I am trying to improve my cycling.– Yours, etc,

JANE HALL,

George’s Street Upper,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – The recent dispute at a certain waste collection company brings into sharp focus the dangers of privatising services that are essential to citizens of the State (“Taoiseach to contact employment rights body about row at Greyhound”, June 26th). It is certainly fair to say that since waste collection services have been privatised, the quality of service has plummeted in some areas, the cost to the consumer has increased everywhere and now it appears that the wages of staff are being slashed, yet I suspect shareholders are still reaping profits.

In that light, this Government’s apparent crusade to privatise the transport network of this country is extremely worrying. I wonder if it is a case of putting ideology ahead of reality and pragmatism?

There are certain sectors of a society that simply cannot be left to the whims of the market, that should not be expected to yield profit, that the State simply has to provide for its citizens. Foremost among these are healthcare, public sanitation and transport.

The Government’s intention to put the bus service for the entirety of Waterford out to tender can only lead to disaster for that service. Should private transport operators be granted these routes it will simply go one way. We have seen already what has happened to waste collection.

To put it bluntly, private companies exist for one reason and one reason only – to create a profit. There is nothing inherently wrong in businesses striving for profit; however, there are simply some parts of our society that should not be left to their tender mercies.

A privately operated transport service will lead to diminished services, increased fares and lower wages for staff, because the shareholders of these companies will simply not forego their profit margin in the name of public transport. Nor should the State simply abdicate its responsibility to provide a functioning transport system nationwide. – Is mise,

SIMON O’CONNOR,

Lismore Road,

Crumlin, Dublin 12.

Sir, – I agree absolutely with the sentiments expressed by your correspondent EF Fanning (June 28th). Having been born in Dublin in the 1940s, I know exactly what it’s like to be “isolated in a sectarian statelet”. – Yours, etc,

ALAN O’BRIEN,

Barnhill Avenue,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – When EF Fanning wrote of a sectarian state and about a large number of people being selfishly abandoned, I thought perhaps he had in mind the millions failed by the Irish State, the so-called “surplus population” whose remittances kept thousands of families afloat in the dark decades. Or perhaps he was going to go on to mention the thousands subjected to cold internal exile in our austere institutions?

It is long past time that we decided on a national jigsaw whose pieces, even approximately, accorded with reality.

Scotland eschewed violence. What a pity Ireland didn’t. – Yours, etc,

PADDY McEVOY,

Ardmore Road,

Holywood,

Co Down.

Sir, – I am writing to respond to your editorial “Big Four, big fees from Central Bank” (June 24th). The editorial included the following two assertions: “the banking crisis – to which the Big Four accounting firms have, in particular, made a significant contribution”, and “the role of the Big Four in the banking collapse has yet to be adequately investigated, and properly explained”. The former statement appears to be based on a misconception of what is involved in a financial statements audit, while the latter ignores the work undertaken by Prof Peter Nyberg and the House of Lords select committee.

Audits of company financial statements are carried out in compliance with legal requirements specified in the Companies Acts. Their purpose is to enable the auditor to express an opinion on the financial statements prepared by the company, notably on the truth and fairness of the financial position reported. This opinion must be formed on the basis of the best evidence available at the time. The audit is not intended to provide assurance on the business model being operated by the company, nor on future strategies or risk appetites. So the audit is not some form of “catch-all assurance” on an entity’s operational health or viability. The role of auditors has been investigated here, and in the UK, by Prof Nyberg and the House of Lords Select committee respectively. Prof Nyberg concluded that auditors had, by and large, complied with their legal responsibilities, though he challenged current orthodoxy on the role and scope of audit and whether it remains fit for purpose.

This is the challenge that the auditing profession must now meet head on, and Chartered Accountants Ireland is playing an active and constructive role in responding to this challenge. – Yours, etc,

RONAN NOLAN,

President,

Chartered Accountants

Ireland,

Pearse Street,

Sir, – Rory O’Callaghan (June 28th) seems to resent the fact that Edward Carson (born and bred in Dublin) appears alongside John Redmond on a recently released An Post commemorative stamp. He now awaits “with bated breath” the day the Royal Mail issues a stamp depicting James Connolly (born and bred in Edinburgh). Yet the concluding paragraph of Mr O’Callaghan’s missive begins with the sentence: “In Ireland we appear to have some difficulty honouring and commemorating our own heroes and martyrs”. – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – Rory O’Callaghan mentions that “in Ireland we appear to have some difficulty honouring and commemorating our own heroes and martyrs”. Almost 170 years ago Gavan Duffy included in his elegy in the Nation on the death in September 1845 of Thomas Davis: “The warriors of England have statues and triumphal pillars erected to their honour in our public places; but our heroes have no trophies, no monumental piles, no marble records of their worth. It would seem as if we had no valour, no genius, no patriotism to offer, or that we had too many wrongs to remember to be reminded of benefits to the nation by one of our own countrymen”.

Mr O’Callaghan won’t be alone as he waits with bated breath for the Royal Mail stamp featuring James Connolly. – Is mise,

SEAMUS Ó DUNLAING,

Sugarloaf Terrace,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I really enjoyed Áine Ryan’s piece about our beautiful Atlantic coastline (An Irishwoman’s Diary, June 19th). As a young archaeologist working then for the Office of Public Works, I excavated the majestic Iron Age promontory fort at Dunbeg for three months in the summer of 1977. Incredibly, we only lost one day’s work to weather in all that time. These promontory forts are still somewhat of an enigma.

Back then, I was also worried about coastal erosion and how it would impact on the site, but even if the State had invested large sums to protect it, the ever-mighty sea would still have eventually eroded the land around the edges of the fort. The sad fact now is that the most recent erosion has almost completely destroyed much of the northern dry-stone side wall of the complex entrance-way into its interior. But at least we have plans and archaeological data relating to this fine site. – Yours, etc,

Prof TERRY BARRY,

Department of History,

Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – If AIB had been as assiduous in its pursuit of CJ Haughey as it was in its pursuit of Sir Anthony O’Reilly, how different our history would be. – Yours, etc,

ROSSA BUNWORTH

Seafield Avenue,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – Further to “Ignominious end to career of Ireland’s first business superstar” (Business, June 27th), there is no ignominy whatsoever in O’Reilly’s current situation and there is no reason to believe that his career has ended.

Let us not forget that Tony O’Reilly has been the most generous of Irish benefactors in a vast number of deserving areas, every one of which was directed to contribute to the development of our country. Many of these were in the higher education domain where he provided extensive funding, not only for buildings on our university campuses but more importantly, for a great number of our most brilliant but needy scholars, giving them funding to pursue higher degrees open to all university disciplines, which they otherwise would not have been able to do, with the mission that they would return to Ireland and contribute to the development of our country, which indeed they have done. No one, yes no one, has been more generous, or innovative in their generosity for the greater good of our small island than Tony O’Reilly. – Yours, etc,

Professor Emeritus

JOHN KELLY,

University College Dublin,

Belfield,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – In 1986 the Richmond Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery applied to the Ireland Foundation for a research grant to study malignant brain tumours at the Richmond Hospital. The application was unsuccessful. The following year Tony O’Reilly, a patron of the Ireland Foundation, invited me and the chairman of the institute to meet him in his private office in Fitzwilton in Dublin. He expressed admiration for our research, noting our disappointment regarding the grant application. As we left his office he reached for his cheque book and wrote a personal cheque for $10,000 for our research. I have not met Sir Anthony since but I will forever remember his gesture on that day. – Yours, etc,

JACK PHILLIPS,

Neurosurgeon,

Beaumont Private Clinic,

Beaumont Hospital,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – Clare Herbert (“We’re separated by an ocean, but emotionally we’re right alongside each other”, Generation Emigration, June 28th), describing her ongoing engagement with Ireland while living abroad, writes, “Spending time way from home has allowed me to see [Ireland] more clearly, both our national strengths – the capacity to work hard and build relationships – and our weaknesses . . . The longer I spend outside Ireland, the more convinced I become that our global connections will be the foundation for the country’s success in the future.”

When will we give our emigrants the vote? – Yours, etc,

SHEILA BARRETT,

Saval Park Gardens,

Dalkey,

Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

Recent comments on the stress generated by the demands to succeed at the Leaving Certificate raise significant questions about the point and purpose of schooling.

Our education system is fuelled by the unchallenged assertion that at the heart of human thinking is a single faculty called ‘intelligence’, which is variably distributed across the population; the function of education is to identify those who have it and discard those who don’t. Thus, failure is manufactured in order to highlight success.

An extensive industry has been built around the myth of intelligence as an inherited faculty. It has been deemed to make good economic sense to direct education resources to the detection, selection and nurturing at an early age of those revealed to be in possession of this competence.

It is still assumed that the presence of intelligence could be detected through conducting certain kinds of test. The notorious 11+ examination in England purports to identify those who would profit from a thoroughly academic education provided by grammar schools.

Despite the discrediting of intelligence tests that test only the ability to do the test, the education system still rests on test-based selection.

For instance, the international comparison of schools’ performance is mainly based on so-called Higher Order Thinking Skills, known as HOTS.

On a recent visit to Malaysia, I found anxiety expressed that the school examinations were not embracing HOTS, with the result that the country was falling behind in the international league tables.

The provision of a liberal education is undermined by schools being burdened by the latest government wheeze, bypassing the professional judgment of teachers, overloading the curriculum and getting in the way of releasing the creativity of the students.

Sadly, success in the Leaving Certificate examination amounts to the capacity to go through certain, more or less arbitrary hoops under stress.

PHILIP O’NEILL

EDITH ROAD, OXFORD, OX1 4QB

STILL WAITING FOR REFORM

According to the report on civil service accountability and performance, a position of Head of the Civil Service is to be created by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to act as guardian of the ethos and values of the system.

The Head would report to a board of experts, including the now obligatory member recruited from outside the State, who would be expected to provide the civil service with ‘an outside perspective’.

Yes minister, but is this a tacit admission that the existing regimes within the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform do not have the credibility and legitimacy to lead and deliver fundamental change?

This report does not describe a single concrete example of reform successfully accomplished by either the civil service or a major semi-state agency in the history of the State, yet root-and-branch modernising change has been on the programme of every government since 1994.

The last major reform initiative, the decentralisation of the public sector outside Dublin, conjured alongside the now abandoned national spatial strategy, cost well over €300m, not the €20m promised.

The civil service operates on the basis of constructive ambiguity. How could it be otherwise if a cabinet minister never issues a letter of direction to the secretary-general of a government department and both are surrounded by political advisers and ministers-of-state who have ambiguous roles, who behave like the rarified potentates of a utopian mythical realm and are not subject to any real scrutiny?

To an outsider, government departments are well-fortified, impregnable baronies that brook no interference in their internal affairs, or entertain suggestions to modernise or change that are imposed externally.

MYLES DUFFY

GLENAGEARY, CO DUBLIN

SECOND JOBBING AT RTE

Where have I been that I didn’t hear that unemployment has finally reached zero? Why am I missing out on all this second-job stuff?

If the employment situation is such that someone who is (a) already on a damned good screw (and fair play to him) and certainly not in need of an extra income; (b) not a current affairs expert – as I am sure even he would admit; (c) not at all the best choice as replacement for the admittedly hard to replace Marian Finucane, isn’t putting Brendan O’Carroll in her chair giving out a pretty pathetic message on the part of RTE?

There is surely a wide enough choice of very able broadcasters and journalists who can be called upon to present a show of this kind with humour, insight, perceptive vision (and not quite the mega income) in the absence of Marian.

GWYNETH UI GHAORA

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

FACTS OF GUILDFORD FOUR CASE

Gerry Conlon was one of four people arrested, tortured and falsely imprisoned for carrying out bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich in England in 1974. His father Giuseppe was also arrested while visiting his son in prison and wrongly convicted of involvement in bomb making. He died in prison.

The Guildford Four, the Maguire Seven, the Birmingham Six and others were all victims of miscarriages of justice, which saw the British police service, judiciary and political establishment conniving in imprisoning citizens they knew to be innocent of any wrongdoing.

Gerry Conlon, Paul Hill, Carole Richardson and Paddy Armstrong spent 15 years in English prisons under horrendous conditions.

A public campaign in support of their release eventually succeeded in achieving that in 1989.

Contrary to Eamon Delaney’s claim (Irish Independent, June 24) that the IRA members known as the Balcombe Street unit “half claimed that they were also responsible for the Guildford bombings”, the facts are as follows.

In December 1975, four IRA volunteers who became known as the Balcombe Street unit were arrested. Within 24 hours they had told senior British police officers that they, not the four people recently convicted – later known as the Guildford Four – were involved in the bombings.

At the Guildford Four’s appeal hearing in October 1977, IRA volunteers Eddie Butler, Harry Duggan, Joe O’Connell – members of the Balcombe Street unit – and Brendan Dowd, who had been arrested separately, testified in court.

Butler, Duggan, O’Connell and Dowd testified that they were responsible for the Woolwich bombing. Dowd also accepted responsibility for the Guildford bomb attack. All said that the four persons convicted of the Guildford and Woolwich bombings had played no part in the attacks.

Respected British Labour MP Chris Mullen, who campaigned for the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, said of the men’s testimony: “All said that the four persons convicted of the Guildford and Woolwich bombings had played no part. So detailed was the Balcombe Street unit’s account that it was not possible to pretend that they had not been involved.”

Despite this, the Appeal Court upheld the convictions of the Guildford Four.

Mr Delaney ignores these facts in his efforts to use the tragic death of Mr Conlon to try and score cheap political points against Sinn Fein.

GERRY ADAMS TD

SINN FEIN PRESIDENT

KILDARE STREET, DUBLIN 2

Irish Independent

2July2014 Ears

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I go to the clinic to have my ears syringed

ScrabbleMary winsand gets over 400. well done Mary,perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian:

No doubting that Aditya Chakraborrty hits the soft underbelly of clothing retailers with the “Swansea stitcher” (Why we need a Truth on the Clothes Label Act,1 July). What would also be useful would be to stop clothing manufacturers using the term “Designed in UK” printed four and five times larger than the “made in” part of the label. This technique is also used widely in the household goods area along with a union flag. Most people want to know where a product is made rather where it was designed. I confess to having a nice winter warmer saying “Knitted in Denmark – Made in Latvia” all on one label!

Civil partnerships should not only be available to opposite-sex couples (Letters, 1 July) but made the mandatory first step for all couples, irrespective of sexual orientation, who wish to commit publicly to a permanent relationship. Thereafter those couples seeking God’s blessing can pop along to their local church for a spiritual top-up, no questions asked. The church could get down to the business of blessing partnerships that are already recognised by the state and the community at large.
Very Rev Richard Giles
Tynemouth

Giles Fraser inveighs against “the Trojan horse of militarisation of our schools” (Loose Canon, 28 June). He is being hypocritical: he needs to address simultaneously the fact that hundreds of parish churches display regimental army colours referencing past wars, “great” military encounters and possibly “the glorious dead”. Unless the church displays leadership in condemning war and conflict – and gets rid of this paraphernalia – it cannot assume the moral high ground.
Chloe Baveystock
London

A disturbing global pattern

Once again the Guardian Weekly supplies the threads that together weave a disturbing fabric: specifically, China may give Britain the India treatment (27 June). Ian Jack warns that Britain risks becoming a third-world supplier of goods and services to its Chinese masters. The same applies even more to Australia, where the last vestiges of semi-independent manufacturing, in the shape of the motor-vehicle industry, are scheduled to vanish within a few years. This will leave us totally dependent on China and other growing economies continuing to pay artificially inflated prices for our coal, iron ore and agricultural produce.

In the feature by Peter Geoghegan: Aberdeen, the oil city (27 June) we see a clear example of how a resource-dependent economy promotes economic inequality and social disharmony, while providing the illusion of overall prosperity. This is the current situation in Australia with the mining boom. As Jack points out, the age of colonialism is by no means over. While the present manifestation may be more subtle, the cult of globalisation as a panacea is nonetheless one that at its heart carries sinister connotations.

Declining global powers, in which I include the US and the UK, continue to engage in ultimately futile wars in a vain attempt to defend what they perceive as their national interests. Meanwhile, ascendant powers, including China, expand their economic interests on every continent to facilitate their own unsustainable expansion.

Is there a solution? Certainly none that does not begin with wider awareness of the real problems at the heart of our current economic, social and environmental crises.
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia

Who are the real interlopers?

Peter Beaumont’s article on Iraq (20 June) appears to miss the point. He speaks of the bloodshed of the “sectarian war” in 2007-08, of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s sectarian government, about Iraq’s fragile state and describes Isis and al-Qaida in Iraq’s leaders as “opportunistic interlopers whose vision is shared by the smallest minorities”.

In 2007-08 Iraq was occupied by a US-led invasion force, the “opportunistic interlopers” whose primary aim was to gain control over the Middle East for economic and strategic ends. After their invasion they imposed a “non-inclusive” regime over the country. And one reason given for the illegal invasion was not that Iraq was weak and fragile, but because it was potentially powerful and thus constituted a threat.

The cause of Iraq’s current circumstances was the illegal invasion and occupation of the country. This injustice was compounded by US propaganda.

Iraq is as it is today primarily because of brutality inflicted in the recent past. Why is the west still trying to imply that the fault lies with the Iraqis themselves?
Lavinia Moore
Aldgate, South Australia

• We are witnessing in Iraq the beginning of the third act of the drama, originally produced by American fantasists, that opened in 2003 with only the first line having been written and the rest to be improvised.

In the first act, the Iraqi state was dismantled, the emerging Iraqi nation destroyed and the regional power balance altered in favour of America’s arch-enemy Iran.

The muddled second act – in two scenes, one written in Washington the other in Baghdad – was about putting the pieces of shattered Iraq together again, but demonstrated instead that a broken country is like a broken egg.

There wasn’t supposed to be a third act; the unsustainable second act, however, made a third inevitable: the drama demanded to be brought to a conclusion. The conclusion won’t be scripted by America. It will, however, enliven the American preoccupation with politics.
JM Haas
Pullman, Washington, US

Australia’s refugee problem

The letter of Frederika E Steen (Reply, 27 June) is the first on the topic of Australia’s treatment of refugees in an overseas news outlet that I have come across. Australians are outraged by the treatment of refugees, but our newly established rightwing government, and their supportive media and rightwing religious followers, have made it very difficult to get sufficient press publicity to counteract that of Tony Abbott’s Liberal government.

The letter sets out the inhumanity in the current government activities, which “demonise refugees” and which are, in fact, being very dishonest about the refugees’ motivations for leaving their countries.

The damage done to refugees by Australia’s stance is terrible, and I hope that the tide will change. With exposure from such publications as the Guardian, Australia will again go back to welcoming refugees.
Paula Kelly
Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Iran photos were political

Having recently spent a few weeks in Iran, I was struck by the fact that two editions of the Guardian Weekly in a row (16 and 23 May) featured articles on Iran illustrated with photos of women, the choice clearly made to convey opposite messages but neither directly connected to the content of the articles.

In the first case the story was about a book fair in Tehran, accompanied by a photo of two younger women in the more “modern” style of clothing commonly seen on streets everywhere in Iran.

In the second case, it was a front-page story about the impact of sanctions, illustrated with a photo of three women covered in black, also commonly seen on the streets, totally unrelated to the content of the article but clearly intended to convey a political message.

This tabloid-like manipulation of what women wear is not what I would have expected of the Guardian.
Wendy Flannery
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The real cure for hiccups

Contrary to what Meeri Kim writes about the suppression of hiccups, prolonged breath-holding is the most effective self-administered treatment (13 June). But it does mean prolonged. With elbows on a flat surface, take a deep breath and clamp the nostrils shut with the heels of your hands. You have to keep breath held to a point of near asphyxiation, bringing up at least three suppressed hiccups. On the point of passing out, let the breath out slowly and under control. The buildup of carbon dioxide will have suppressed the hic reflex.

It’s very unpleasant and should only be used when all other attempts have failed. But it works.
David Bye
Kosd, Hungary

Howard was omitted

Your cartoon captioned George Bush and Tony Blair’s legacy in the Middle East is a powerful summary (20 June). However, the absence of the former Australian prime minister, John Howard, on the shoulders of the grim reaper makes many Australians feel let down. Howard was in the US at the time of the 9/11 attack. He was the first leader of a country to sign up with George Bush to unleash the War on Terror, which has caused so much bloodshed and misery. In a just world not only Bush and Blair but also Howard will be facing the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bill Mathew
Melbourne, Australia

Sick as a Fifa parrot

Thanks for the brilliant Hadley Freeman article Inside a Fifa World Cup Stadium (20 June). Those of us who have little or no interest in football have known for years that this is the truth about Fifa and these massive global jamborees. The line “someone later swore they saw Sepp Blatter running out of the stadium, clutching various wallets to his chest” perfectly describes everything to do with Fifa.

As long as these huge, self-important, wealthy global organisations, and the companies that support them, continue to control so many areas of our lives, ordinary people will, in increasing numbers, say “no – we don’t agree with this” and continue to protest.
Eric Beckmann
Shrewsbury, UK

Briefly

• In your sports story All Blacks frustrate England (13 June), the former must have been desperate for manpower if they truly recruited “Conrad Black”, Lord Black of Crossharbour, to play and score a “try two minutes from time”. His performance of the haka must have been a sight to behold.

You meant to say Conrad Smith.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

• By the time Lawrence Darani’s messages cease to be posted, ie in 999 years, each of his descendants will have a few million ancestors of Darani’s generation (20 June). If we also take account of the intermediate generations, let us hope that Darani remains the exception in his wish to attain immortality.
Amy Gibson
London, UK

• Your front-page article Iraq stares into the abyss (20 June) refers to Nouri al-Maliki as ‘”president” of Iraq. However, Ian Black’s piece later in the same issue calls him “prime minister”, which is correct.
Alaisdair Raynham
Truro, UK

Independent:

Your editorial on Isis (1 July) is wonderfully vague. To state that the aim of the West should be to stop terrorism without a single suggestion on how to do it is insulting. It’s like saying that income tax should be 5 per cent and government spending increased by 45 per cent. So what? The devil is in the details.

Shouldn’t the fact that thousands of people are being slaughtered and war crimes being committed  on a huge scale have been mentioned? Or is it OK if the unspeakables kill the unpronounceables, as long as it doesn’t spill over into the West?

This is a global struggle between the forces of darkness and the forces of good. It is time for the “good guys” to do the right thing. This includes the enlightened nations and the good and moderate Arabs of all persuasions (and they are the majority of Arabs).

Dr Stephen Malnick
Ashkelon, Israel

It is impossible to conceive a more toxic mix than that which exists in the so-called Islamic State – heat, many young males without employment, and plentiful supplies of the true “weapon of mass destruction”, the AK47. Neutralising these three challenges is beyond the power of any government, so the chaos in the Middle East has no foreseeable resolution.

David Bracey
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s pile of possible factors behind young Muslims becoming jihadis (30 June) omits such excerpts from the Koran as: “Fighting is obligatory for you” (chapter 2, verse 216); “Fight for the cause of God”, (2:244);  and “God loves those who fight in his cause” (61:04).

These are a few of over 160 Koranic references to “holy” war.

David Crawford
Bromley, Kent

Tell us the costs  of NHS treatments

The key policy issue is how to make NHS spending more transparent so voters know how well any extra money would be used (“Raise our tax bills to save the NHS, voters say”, 1 July). A recent visit to Cuba leads me to one suggestion.

In the pharmacies there, wall posters state boldly that the country’s health service is “free” at the point of use. But they also list the actual costs of many of its treatments, ranging from visits to a nurse or GP through measures such as mending fractures to major surgical procedures such as a heart by-pass or kidney dialysis. Reading such posters in pharmacies and GPs’ clinics in the UK could educate us all into an awareness of the real costs of the NHS – most of us are already aware of its benefits.

Additional revenue for the NHS should not come from higher National Insurance contributions – retired pensioners like me, heavy users of the NHS, do not pay NI. It would be fairer for it to come from higher income tax, payable by the retired as well as by the employed.

Dr Alan Baker
Emmanuel College, Cambridge

A great career wiped out by sex scandal

Although I abhor the activities of Rolf Harris, it is with a certain sadness that I realise that a great career over many decades has been virtually wiped from the pages of theatrical history as a result of the guilty verdicts at his trial.

In future, any time Harris is remembered it will be for his sexual activities and not for his ability to entertain. Over the years Harris has entertained us on television, in theatres and with “Jake the Peg”, “Two Little Boys”, and “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport”, to name just a few of his popular songs. His ability to paint a picture before your very eyes was an act of great talent.

In the weeks and months to come, will he regret those moments of madness that have taken him in the blink of an eye from the top of the bill to the bottom of the trough? Fame is fleeting – never quicker than when found guilty in a court of law.

Colin Bower
Nottingham

Jimmy Savile was not always as coy about his sexual propensities as he was in his 1990 interview with Lynn Barber, reprinted on 30 June.

I have a cutting from The Observer of 4 July 1976 in which, in response to the question “What is your pet hate?”, he replied: “Cold water and getting up early. Habit. I am the clockless man – one who is more animal than man, who does what he likes when he likes, eats when he likes, sleeps when he likes, goes where he likes when he likes, savages young ladies when he fancies.”

In retrospect, this seems like a confession of guilt, but clearly no one took him seriously.

Peter Graves
Leicester

Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris were loaded with honours. Surely the honours system should be changed to prevent further embarrassing mistakes, the private lives of public figures being as thoroughly and systematically investigated as the Vatican does those of prospective saints, and the names of television celebrities only put up for gongs if it can be proved that praying to them has performed miracles.

Peter Forster
London N4

Why keep printing pictures of Jimmy Savile and his like; it must be shocking for the victims, and I certainly don’t need reminding.

Jacqueline Neville
Durham

The World Cup: I  still don’t get it

I am indebted to many correspondents and colleagues who have tried to educate me on the rationale of the World Cup, but I still admit to puzzlement.

I was always told that “the taking part, not the winning” is the important thing about sport. The World Cup will only produce one winner, not even a league table, so it can’t be a dishonour not to win. So why is it apparently humiliating for England to lose out in what is after all, only a game?

I am all in favour of international get-togethers, such as Scout jamborees, music festivals and scientific meetings, where participants of many nationalities mix and celebrate, and I thought the World Cup was similar. However, England have gone home having been knocked out.

Why? Shouldn’t the team congratulate those who beat them and stay on for the rest of the event, cheering on those who are left, and have an international party at the end. Meanwhile play a few informal games with amateur sides, visit schools, youth clubs and hospitals etc, and generally raise their profile and give enjoyment to many. They must all have had clear diaries for the period in case they proceeded further in the tournament.

I’m lost.

Richard Pring
Clevedon, Somerset

Fight back for Britain in Europe

“Smell the coffee,” Alexander Stubb, the Finnish Prime Minister, has urged British electors on Europe; and he is right, because it’s British voter euroscepticism, fed by right-wing tabloid misinformation, that spurs on the Tory Party’s eurosceptic right and the blatant negativity of Ukip.

Cameron’s failed intervention against the election of Jean-Claude Juncker to the presidency of the European Commission has left Britain dangerously isolated.

John Cridland as Director General of the CBI has outlined the risk to this country’s jobs and future prosperity if we exit the European Union: but our isolation is additionally a direct threat to the long-term peace and geopolitical stability of Europe. Leaving the EU would also undermine the ability of employees to challenge the exploitative practices of unscrupulous employers in this country.

It’s now vital for pro-European politicians, businesses, journalists, individual citizens and organisations to speak out loud and clear against the madness of leaving the European Union. Setting up a high-profile and well-funded umbrella organisation to fight the eurosceptics should be the first step of the fightback.

Richard Denton-White
Portland, Dorset

David Cameron’s failure in trying to prevent Jean-Claude Juncker becoming president of the European Commission was a total humiliation.

Dealing with EU leaders and institutions requires a diplomacy and skill that the UK simply does not have and it is well and truly in the EU departure lounge. Any thoughts of a fundamental renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU are off the agenda.

We in Scotland are shackled to a corpse, part of a UK which is a pariah when it comes to the EU, friendless, toxic and with no influence. The choices before us are simple: we take charge of our own affairs in the EU, building strong relations with other member states, freed from the ill will there is towards the UK – or we remain in a failed UK which will see us forced out of the EU against our will.

The choice is simple and it is in our own hands come this September.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

Take a stand for the English language

Perhaps a “standee” (letter, 28 June) is a passenger whose feet are stood on.

Carolyn Beckingham
Lewes, East Sussex

Times:

Telegraph:

A reader recalls his encounter with Cvjetko Popović, whose bomb never reached the Archduke’s car

6:58AM BST 01 Jul 2014

179 Comments

6:59AM BST 01 Jul 2014

87 Comments

7:00AM BST 01 Jul 2014

261 Comments

Irish Times:

Sir, – I refer to Una Mullally’s article “Time for action on our booze epidemic” (Opinion & Analysis, June 30th).

While it is entirely reasonable to criticise the slow pace of change in this contentious area of public policy, it is quite wrong to say, in relation to the Government’s response, that “nothing happens”.

Last October I secured Government approval for a package of measures including provision for minimum pricing (to deal with alcohol that is cheap relative to its strength), restrictions on marketing and advertising, regulations on labelling and health warnings, and a host of other instruments which will be contained in the forthcoming Public Health (Alcohol) Bill.

This will be the first ever legislation in this country dealing with alcohol from a public health perspective. The heads of Bill are currently being finalised for Cabinet approval.

Far from inaction (or “guff”) this Government is delivering the kind of effective measures that will have a real impact on reducing our excessive consumption of alcohol.

Tackling our alcohol misuse requires more than a periodic outcry. It calls for the implementation of policy choices that some will find difficult, even objectionable, but which are essential if we are to have a real impact on the problem.

That is what we are determined to do. – Yours, etc,

ALEX WHITE, TD

Minister of State,

Department of Health,

Hawkins House, Dublin 2.

Sir, – Congratulations to Una Mullally on a meaningful, factual and honest article. Yes, a very good start would be to close the Dáil bar. Why it was ever put there in the first place amazes me. I feel sure the ladies and gentlemen of the Dáil can consume alcohol with their meals at the Dáil restaurant when needs arise. Having a bar to pop in and out of during their working day seems outrageous. – Yours, etc,

URSULA

HOUGH-GORMLEY,

Donnybrook Castle,

Dublin 4.

A chara, – According to the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, women were indeed the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus and played a key role in the formation of the early Christian community and in witnessing to the Risen Christ ever since and especially in the world today.

The exclusion of women from priesthood can no longer be justified by using the scriptures and by selective quotations from the Gospels, which were put together long after Jesus. The only basis for excluding women today is the tradition of the Catholic Church. That argument is now beginning to look threadbare, given that the modern world has begun to recognise the equality of women and also given the decline in male vocations.

The claim that Jesus ordained only males to the priesthood has no biblical basis. The fact is that Jesus never ordained anyone to the priesthood. That men only were ordained was a later development and a gradual development mainly in keeping with the Roman culture of the time. Nowhere in the Gospels does it state that men were the only ones to be ordained as priests. Presumably those disciples of Jesus who were present at the Last Supper were exclusively Jews and that could hardly be used as an argument that only Jews should be ordained.

Jesus went out of his way to include everyone in his new community.

A fundamentalist interpretation of scripture has done neither the church nor Jesus any service in creating a new and inclusive world or in building up the reign of God in the world. Outdated superficial interpretations of scripture are a real hindrance in furthering the message of Jesus of peace, love, forgiveness, truth and inclusion.

The Holy Spirit is calling on us to think again about this issue and to open up the discussion about ending the marginalisation of women in our world and in our church. – Is mise,

Fr JOE McVEIGH,

Tattygar,

Enniskillen,

Co Fermanagh.

Sir, – If the issue of women and the priesthood is primarily about fairness and equality, then surely men should be allowed, indeed encouraged, to become nuns? It could be win-win all round, with women keen to be priests, and men nuns, as sadly both ranks are greatly depleted.

In the happy circumstance of this happening, I can foresee a time when a keen and ambitious young man rises through the ranks and eventually becomes mother superior of his order. Wouldn’t we have something to talk about then? – Yours, etc,

PATRICK J COYLE,

The Ninch,

Laytown,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Barry Walsh’s letter (June 28th) saying that Jesus apparently only chose male apostles is fine and reasonable as far as it goes, but why stop at the Twelve? In Luke, another “72” are appointed with no indication of either name or sex. In Romans, mention is made of one “Junia”, a female name. Not alone that but she is described as “outstanding among the apostles”! – Yours, etc,

JOSEPH WOOD,

Shamrock Avenue.

Douglas,

Cork.

Sir, – Given the recent OECD report findings (“Hospital consultants among best-paid in world”, Front Page, July 1st) that the average annual reimbursement for public work paid to consultants is €171,000, why is the Government surprised that newly qualified consultant posts remain empty with a “new entrant” salary of less than 60 per cent of this figure?

Does it honestly expect them to work longer hours, more weekends, on totally different terms and conditions, trying to rearrange trolleys on the ship of gargantuan dysfunctionality that is the HSE, while their so-called senior colleagues may add private income to their already much greater salaries? – Yours, etc,

Dr PAUL MacMAULLAN,

Castleknock Manor,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – Eamonn McCann (“Most Irish media failed Gerry Conlon with silence”, Opinion & Analysis, June 26th) criticised the response of Irish journalists generally to the scandals of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, and quoted Ed Moloney, a previous Northern Editor of The Irish Times, as saying, “If the story had been left to the Irish media to cover, Gerry Conlon would have died in a prison cell.”

When challenged about this comment on his blog by the former editor of the Irish News, Nick Garbutt, Mr Moloney later clarified his position, and said that he had only been referring to Dublin-based outlets.

Our files are readily available and confirm that the Irish News consistently campaigned for the release of victims of miscarriages of justice throughout that difficult era and maintained close links with their families.

As a result of this relationship, we were specifically asked by the late Mr Conlon to organise a petition asking the British government to apologise formally to those involved in the Guildford Four/Maguire Seven case. His request, made in 2005 on the 25th anniversary of the death in jail of his father, Giuseppe, reached a successful conclusion through a public statement by the then prime minister, Tony Blair, in Downing Street three weeks later.

Mr McCann cited five respected figures from other news organisations as emerging with credit from the case of Mr Conlon, and wrote, “There may be other Irish journalists who should be mentioned, but names don’t spring to mind.”

As someone who did not work for the Irish News during the imprisonment of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, I feel that a number of members of staff from that paper could reasonably have been added to Mr McCann’s list. – Yours, etc,

NOEL DORAN,

Editor,

Irish News,

Donegall Street,

Belfast.

A chara, – Sheila Barrett (July 1st) asks a very good question – when will Irish emigrants be given the vote? It should be noted that some emigrants already have the vote, which makes the current situation all the more unjust, unequal and even comical. Members of the diplomatic corps and Defence Forces can vote in Oireachtas elections when abroad. All Irish university graduates have the postal vote for Seanad elections from wherever they are in the world. And of course Irish emigrants from Northern Ireland can continue to vote in Northern Irish elections when they leave the island. The Republic has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the European Union that disenfranchises its emigrant citizens. And now for the truly comical – all Irish emigrants living abroad can in fact stand for and be elected to the Dáil, but cannot vote themselves. – Is mise,

CIARÁN Mac GUILL,

Rue Gaston Paymal,

Clichy, France.

Sir, – In response to Chris Johns (“Why saving and investment are the keys to our future”, Business Opinion, June 27th) , I would argue that there are two legs holding up modern developed economies – cheap energy in the form of fossil fuels and almost unlimited credit created out of thin air by banks.

As energy gets scarce and more expensive to extract and the huge mountains of sovereign, corporate and personal debt that exist worldwide become impossible to repay, there is only one way for developed economies to go, and let’s just say that the next 20 years will not be the same as the last 20 years. Economic growth on a scale seen in the last 250 years is over and capitalism – or any other “ism” – is not going to save it. – Yours, etc,

JOHN DEEGAN,

Market Square,

Kilbeggan,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Peter McVerry (“Apartheid Irish-style created by housing policy”, Opinion & Analysis, June 27th) raises a very important question relating to the evolution of housing policy in Ireland since the foundation of the State.

Irish government policy in the 1930s and 1940s was such that social housing estates amounted to 60 per cent and 70 per cent respectively of all new housing construction in those decades. This represented an effort to get rid of the infamous tenement housing in urban areas, particularly in Dublin.

Unintentionally, however, this policy sowed the seeds of how Irish housing developed thereafter. From the 1950s on, a proliferation of private housing estates resulted in what Fr McVerry correctly describes as apartheid-style housing in Ireland.

He points out that the Planning and Development Act 2000 required builders to allocate 20 per cent of housing output to social and affordable housing. However, resistance from builders and private owners quickly buried that requirement. It was simply abandoned.

Can such a policy be enacted and succeed? The answer is yes. This very policy has been in place and successfully implemented in New Zealand for over 50 years. Political will is all that is needed. – Yours, etc,

ALBERT COLLINS,

Bishopscourt Road,

Cork.

Sir, – Minister for Health James Reilly’s proposal to increase the price of tobacco products by 100 per cent makes very bad economic and health sense (“Reilly calls for packet of 20 cigarettes to cost €20”, Front Page, June 27th).

If this measure is agreed and put through in the budget, the vast majority of smokers will travel to Northern Ireland and purchase their cigarettes there (and do the weekly shopping too while they’re at it), resulting in lost tax revenue to the State.

Would the Minister not consider reducing the price of cigarettes to reflect the price on the Continent, and in one swoop stop the illegal trade in contraband tobacco products overnight? – Yours, etc,

VINCENT DEVLIN,

Oakview Avenue,

Dublin 15.

A chara, – I read with considerable interest Michael Parsons’ article on Seán Ó Cuirrín’s translation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula into Irish, a book first published in 1933 (“Irish translation of Dracula funded by minister who slashed the old-age pension”, June 30th).

I have in my possession an updated version of the same book, published by An Gúm in 1997. It is an enthralling translation, containing a very rich lexicon, marvellous turns of phrase and cora cainte, which are gradually being lost to the native language today. Priced at only €10, it is a must-read for any serious student of Irish who wishes to develop his or her linguistic or translation skills to an advanced level. It is also a fabulous read in its own right. – Is mise,

SEÁN Ó BRIAIN,

Colpe Avenue,

Deepforde,

Drogheda,

Co Louth.

Sir, – A mere five runners went to post in last Saturday’s Irish Derby at the Curragh. Alas, what was once the jewel in the crown of the Irish flat-racing season has lost a lot of its prestige and allure. The first three home in the Group One race (total prize money €1.25 million) were trained by the maestro of Ballydoyle, Aidan O’Brien. While not wishing in any way to devalue a stupendous achievement, it’s surely high time Horse Racing Ireland reappraised its scheduling of the classic. It’s now generally accepted it’s staged too soon after Royal Ascot.

If the event is to regain its international status and not develop into a quasi-benevolent fund for the all-powerful, all-conquering Coolmore syndicate, a radical review of the present set-up will have to be undertaken in the very near future. – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Beacon Hill,

Dalkey,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Ned Monaghan (June 30th), who wants fixed wheels on the nearer pair of supermarket trolleys and casters confined to the front pair, should go to America, where (except for use in Ikea stores) they are all built to his preferred pattern. He would soon discover how unwieldy it is in actual supermarket conditions – specifically, how much more room it takes to change direction. This is because you and the casters have to pivot around the fixed pair (think of a compass needle). By contrast, you can move a four-caster trolley with yourself as the pivot (think of a windscreen wiper, or, to tighten the analogy, half a compass needle).

I pointed this out last year to a supermarket manager in New Jersey, adding that he could narrow the isles by eight inches and fit another entire sales gondola into his store. His amused and tolerant smile was replaced by a more thoughtful expression. I like to think he was mentally planning the route to Ikea in nearby Newark. – Yours, etc,

M ROSS-MACDONALD,

Krinkill,

Birr,

A chara, – Further to your news report “Humanists to take legal action to overturn outdoor weddings ban” (June 30th), will outdoor smoking areas be allowed at indoor humanist weddings ? – Is mise,

LOMAN Ó LOINGSIGH,

Ellensborough Drive,

Kiltipper Road,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – What a magnificent photograph by Brenda Fitzsimons of something being propelled by hot air – greatly enhanced by virtue of the fact that, for once, it did not involve any incumbents of Leinster House (“Balloon over Meath”, Front Page, June 30th). – Yours, etc,

FRANK BYRNE,

Cormac Terrace,

Terenure,

Dublin 6W.

Irish Independent:

As I am witnessing the installation of water meters in my area, I am once again reminded of the folly and futility of this operation. The cost of Irish Water, the labour force involved, meters and other materials would probably provide for gold replacement water pipes in the system. At a time when we are allegedly broke and committed to gifting Europe with further billions, it seems daft to indulge in this money-eating project.

The anticipated huge cost to each household must worry every citizen in the country. I am open to correction on this, but I seem to remember Irish Water intimating that in the event of a shortfall in revenue received, it would increase the water charge to make up the deficit – a licence to print money. And all the time consumer cash is drained from an ailing economic system.

Will anxiety and uncertainty over the amount of the charge lead to health and hygiene problems? Will toilets only be flushed once a day? Will showers become a luxury? Will outdoor flower beds be left barren? Will it in numerous ways adversely affect the quality of our lives?

Add to this the enormous cost of servicing the system, a new layer of bureaucracy, meter readers by the hundreds, huge administration costs and maintenance bills, and the length of time it will take to recover the initial outlay.

If a water charge has to be imposed, wouldn’t it be much simpler and far less costly to do so in the same manner as the property tax with the appropriate exemptions, or to join the two together under some local charges heading? The water meter fiasco is a sure sign of a government and administration having lost the plot.

Statistics in the media today point out that children and adults in one out of every five households are living on or below the poverty line while we continue to throw countless millions literally down the drain on an unnecessary and ill-thought-out project.

WJ CROWE

ADDRESS WITH EDITOR

MANY MEDICS LOOK FOR MONEY

Your wistful and wishful commentary on the exodus of Irish-trained doctors to foreign shores, flags a deeper malaise. (Editorial, July 1).

The dysfunctional relationship between the Leaving Cert ‘points-race’ and wannabe medics betrays a ‘filthy-lucre’ motivation for a majority (though not all) of prospective clinicians. High-points ‘intelligence’ tallies seem to be the overriding criterion in the competing academic gallop for assertive (usually middle-class) professional alignment. Money, social status and professional aggrandisement usually trump any inherent compatibility with the eventual coalface work, dealing with real people who are health-distressed.

Altruism, empathic orientation, or natural inclination towards authentic, egalitarian care are all in shortish supply for some aspiring medical students. For them money-money-money careerism feeds the surge towards medicine as a career .

So few candidates are hewn from the pure Hippocratic disposition of innate sensitivity and dedicated delicacy of respectful engagement. If only the balance of enthusiasms relating to financial reward and caring philosophy could be recalibrated, swopping primacies and priorities for the communal sharing of ability – for, of course, an appropriately decent reward.

However, the primitive call of the ‘moolah’ wins out for some at least.

Thus, it’s inevitable that when the system here punches below the financial reward scale of overseas’ remuneration templates, the cash-crop will surely lure some abroad. For some but obviously not all, there’s no hint of gratitude or commitment to the Irish citizen who funded them through college, just a flighty exodus along the yellow-brick road of ‘dosh-posh’. The sad thing is that so many prospective medical students who could precisely fit the salient empathy/sensitivity aptitude bill for suitability towards a selfless healthcare ethos, just fall short of the stringent points sluice-gate, and are inevitably lost to the profession.

There are, of course, many statutory/adminstrative labyrinths abounding in the system delivery, which are inefficient, impractical and unproductive. But surely, more young and able, newly-qualified clinicians could choose to stay around to work towards transformation of these, rather than jump ship.

JIM COSGROVE

LISMORE, CO WATERFORD

BUDGET SWEETENER WON’T WORK

The headlines of the Irish Independent (July 1) highlight the amount of pay-off to Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and the contempt this Government shows to the working people of Ireland, who have yet to see any of the green shoots the Coalition keep bragging about, not to mention the health service which is even more shambolic than during the Cowen era.

If Michael Noonan thinks we can be sweetened up for voting this crowd back in by reducing his trademark austerity in the Budget, he is grossly mistaken and would be better focussed in remembering the wipeout of Fianna Fail and the Greens in 2011. The election is drawing closer than many realise and the electorate need to see their money back in their pockets, and quickly – not in the pockets of the likes of Geoghegan-Quinn.

DAVID BRADLEY

DROGHEDA, CO LOUTH

NON-ALCOHOLIC BEER WAS DEARER

You know the way it is. You meet for a few drinks every now and then and enjoy the evening. Now, there is considerable concern about over-indulging in the country, and rightly so. The publicans, through their organisations, complain that they are not making a cent and business is bad. The latest from the medical profession is that three pints equates to binge drinking. It seems we, as a drinking nation, are in a bit of a quandary.

Well, we have a few jars and I decide to finish the night on a non-alcoholic lager. And so the prices of the drinks – pint of Guinness €4.70; pint of Heineken €5.20; 500ml bottle of non-alcohol Erdinger Lager €5.20. So why is alcoholic beer cheaper than non-alcoholic beer in pubs?

Publicans are constantly blaming supermarkets for cheap drink being sold and decimating their businesses and causing alcohol-related problems. But publicans charge more for non-alcoholic drinks than for alcoholic drinks. Surely it should be the other way around. Erdinger in off-licences retails for generally about €2, and I am sure there is a profit for the retailer in that.

So may I make a suggestion to the Finance Minister, a kind of pre-Budget submission so to speak from an ordinary Joe Soap? Scrap any duty on non-alcoholic beers and introduce a lower duty on low-alcohol beers and lagers so the likes of Guinness, which is mid-strength, and lagers with low alcohol levels might possibly get a hold in the market. And is it time to think about the cafe-bar idea again?

Maybe too it’s time for the Brits to take over again. But this time with pub chains and give us some real competition in the pub business.

And to the publicans of Ireland – what about a bit of competitive pricing and a drink, be they alcoholic or non-alcoholic, at a fair and reasonable price.

PADDY PLUNKETT

DEANSGRANGE, CO DUBLIN

VERY HIGH PROFITS INDEED

I read with interest the letter from Joe Breen regarding profits of €65m in VHI. Very High Indeed.

TOM GILSENAN

BEAUMONT, DUBLIN 9

Irish Independent

3July2014 Tired

I jog around the park I still have arthritis in my left knee, but I manage toget round the park. I am so tired barely get the chores done

ScrabbleI win, by three points, and gets under 400. well done Mary,perhaps Mary will win tomorrow.

Obituary:

Guardian: