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11 January 2015 Gout

Mary a little better though she could manage to get up for breakfast. Clear out cupboards in kitchen annex, gout strikes again!

Obituary:

Rosemary Lowe-McConnell, pioneer in the study of tropical fish
Rosemary Lowe-McConnell

Rosemary Lowe-McConnell, who has died aged 93, was a pioneer in the study of tropical fish, a field to which she was introduced while studying the inland waters of Kenya and Uganda during the late 1940s.

In a career spanning nearly half a century, her contribution to ichthyology was immense, illuminating the zoo-geography, taxonomy, phenology and evolution of tropical fish. Working in the African Great Lakes region and the Amazon basin in South America, her studies focused on cichlids – the large and diverse vertebrate family of freshwater fishes that include angelfish, peacock bass, jaguar guapote and the red Texas. Her particular specialism, however, was the tilapia, which is so successfully farmed that it is said to draw an annual revenue of $1 billion and is known as “aquatic chicken”.

Rosemary Helen Lowe (known to friends as Ro) was born on June 24 1921 and educated at Howell’s School, Denbigh, before studying at the University of Liverpool ; she remained with the university for postgraduate and doctorate studies.

Her fascination with Africa was inspired by her godmother, a biologist, who gave her books on natural history. Initially she wanted to be an explorer, and in later life recalled being told: “Never mind, dear, perhaps you can teach.”

From 1942 to 1945 Rosemary was a scientific officer with the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA) at Windermere in Cumbria, but on applying to the Colonial Service for a position as an entomologist she was informed that they would not employ a woman. The relatively new tropical fisheries department, by contrast, had no such qualms, and in 1945 she left for Africa on an expedition for the East African Fisheries Research Organisation (EAFRO). While travelling on the train to Lake Nyasa, the first of the African lakes at which she worked, she learnt about the Japanese surrender. She was joined in 1950 by her friend and collaborator Margaret Varley (the pair later worked on projects in Brazil).

Rosemary remained in Africa for 12 years, collecting and recording fish, and working for various organisations and institutions, including the Natural History Museum. In addition to Nyasa she studied the fish at Lakes Albert, Turkana and Tanganyika, as well as in the Pagani river in Tanzania. She investigated the life cycles and feeding habits of fish, their life strategies, parenting methods and how the various species rubbed along with one another. She was briefly the acting director of EAFRO.

Fishermen on Lake Victoria (ALAMY)

In 1953 she married the geologist Richard McConnell, requiring her to leave EAFRO, which had a “marriage bar” under which married women were not allowed to hold permanent posts. She joined her husband in Botswana (where she collected fish in the rivers and ponds of the Okavango Delta) before the couple moved to British Guiana in South America, where her husband became director of the British Guiana Geological Survey. There she recorded the interaction between electric fish from America and Africa and carried out research in the Rupununi savannah – the first survey of the Guiana shelf between the West Indies and Brazil.

In 1962 she returned to Britain, settling into a research post at the British Museum, to which she had sent samples during her travels. The museum, she wrote, was “an ideal base for meeting people and a catalyst for ideas and information”.

But her work in the field did not end there. She visited the vast reservoirs of West Africa (including Lake Kariba and Lake Volta) in the late Sixties, and in 1968 was the ichthyologist on the Xavantina-Cachimbo Expedition to north-eastern Mato Grosso in Brazil, run by the Royal Geographical Society. In Brazil she filed reports on catfish and gymnotoids and marvelled at the region’s birds, plants and insects. A decade later she travelled to Gatun Lake in Panama where the species Cichla ocellaris had been introduced to the waters.

She arranged various symposia on fish studies and played an important part in establishing tilapia aquaculture. She believed that the species was a valuable food source in Third World countries and promoted its production with the fisheries administration of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (now known as the World Fish Centre).

Red tilapia: the species is successfully farmed, and is known as ‘aquatic chicken’ (ALAMY)

In 1995, by then a freelance consultant, she helped to raise awareness of the ecological damage being inflicted on the fish stocks of Lake Victoria in East Africa. What was once a “treasure trove” of approximately 300 species of cichlid, many unique to its habitat, had in recent years suffered from disappearing stocks. At first the finger of blame was pointed at the carnivorous Nile Perch, introduced to the lake’s waters in the mid-Fifties. This, maintained Rosemary Lowe-McConnell, was only half the story; siltation was also a contributory factor. An estimated 200 species, she maintained, once present in the lake were now extinct.

Regarding the ecological future of Lake Victoria, she supported a unified policy between Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, all of which border the lake, on the assessment of fish stocks (including the possibility of introducing species). “This is one of the largest experiments, albeit unwitting, that’s ever happened,” she said. “Now we must discover as much as possible about what is going on.”

She was a fellow of the Linnean Society of London (and its vice-president in 1967), the first editor of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society and a member of the Association for Tropical Biology .

She wrote more than 60 academic papers and published several books, including Fish Communities in Tropical Fresh Waters (1975) and her memoirs, The Tilapia Trail: The Life Story of a Fish Biologist (2006), in which she noted the peculiarity of African traffic signs (such as those warning of wandering elephants).

In later life, at her home in Sussex, she enjoyed assisting young ichthyologists and fisheries scientists . In 1997 she received the Linnean Medal of Zoology – “Not bad for someone who hasn’t had a job since 1953,” she observed.

Her husband predeceased her.

Rosemary Lowe-McConnell, born June 24 1921, died December 22 2014

 

Guardian:

All children deserve to go to an excellent school.
All children deserve to go to an excellent school. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

I was struck by the juxtaposition of the state’s and the individual’s apparently contrasting perspectives on how to do our best by our children in your editorial, “We all want the best for our children: the state must help ensure we get it” (Comment). The state’s interest in creating “a more socially integrated education system [to achieve] a more cohesive, tolerant society…” was presented as conflicting with the challenge: “Who could criticise [middle-class] parents for wanting to do the best for their children?”

Well, I for one would certainly do so if “the best” for their children was conceived in essentially egocentric terms. We choose what values we wish to inculcate in our offspring. Some of those choices (those emphasising privilege, inequality, discrimination, perhaps) will conflict with the culture we each choose to continue to live in and benefit from (socially integrated, coherent, tolerant etc). Surely this leaves any of those “middle-class parents using their greater means to get what’s best for their children”, whose values fit such an egocentric conception, open to our “hectoring”, left wing or otherwise.

Mike Warwick

Holmfirth

W Yorkshire

Your editorial comments that “there are still too many mediocre schools” and that there is a need for “opening up access to the best state schools” deserve to be challenged.  The most recent Ofsted report says that 82% of primary schools are now “good or outstanding”. The other 18% are likely to be schools where many of the children come from culturally impoverished homes and so do not score high on some of the Ofsted criteria, notwithstanding the likely commitment of their teachers. These schools do not deserve the epithet “mediocre”.

The notion that there are “best state schools” is questionable: best buildings, best test results, best teachers, best leadership? What assurance can there be that over the six years of a child’s primary career the state of “bestness” will continue.

The idea of “opening up access” to designated schools is a sop to over-ambitious parents who inevitably will elbow out others: where is the social justice in that? If every school is a good school (which is the government’s aim) then choice is unnecessary.

Attending the local school contributes to community development: children’s friends live nearby and their parents interact. If prospective parents feel the local school is “mediocre”, they should talk to members of the governing body and try to discover whether their judgment is fair and, if so, ask what the community can do to improve the situation.

Michael Bassey Emeritus professor

Newark

You refer to Tatler’s list of good schools as “money-saving tips”. The list is more important than that. Of the 21 schools in England Tatler has picked out, five are grammar schools and 16 are comprehensive ones. Of those 16 comprehensive schools, nine used to be grammar schools, two were once secondary modern schools and five have always been comprehensive.

First, the reiterated claim that only grammar schools produce high standards is obvious nonsense. Second, the still widely held belief that, at some point in the past, all but 164 grammar schools were “destroyed” by leftwing zealots is equally absurd. In fact, almost all grammar schools were transformed and often enlarged.

There are several hundred schools that are as good as the ones listed by Tatler, many of them in the north of England.

It is equally obvious that both Roman Catholic and Jewish schools would rank high on any such list and that becoming directly dependent on funding from the secretary of state as academies has had little bearing on the achievements of schools that were already among the best in the country.

Sir Peter Newsam Former chief schools adjudicator

Thornton Dale

N Yorks

Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Photograph: PHIL NOBLE/REUTERS

All of what Frances O’Grady has to say in her excellent article on our parlous economic state bears repeating (“A real recovery would mean better conditions for everyone”, Business). But for us a couple of points stand out.

First, the absurdly large expenditure going on in-work benefits and, second, Tory plans to further restrict trade union activities. In-work benefits effectively subsidise employers, boosting their notional profits by reducing their labour costs. Stripped of its modish accoutrements (learning how to bake one’s own cakes, volunteering for public service et al) “austerity” is what one gets when all other state activity has to be pared to the bone in order to finance this subsidy.

So to the second point. In the Tory vision of the future, austerity will not be coming to an end soon. As the anti-union plans show, they have in mind the low wage economy as the new normal, with all of its attendant financial risks (low paid workers still need to top up on unsecured debt) and widespread misery.

Dr William Dixon

Dr David Wilson

London Metropolitan University

London E1

Hearing aid cuts unjustifiable

Reports of NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) restricting the number of hearing aids they provide in order to save money and of other CCGs considering cuts to audiology services (“NHS accused of ‘cruel’ rationing of hearing aids”, News) prompts questions about how costs and benefits are weighed in the NHS. There is a danger that short-term savings can do long-term damage that leads to higher expenditure in other parts of the health system.

A realistic assessment of the benefits of hearing aids that takes into account the quality of life of the hearing-impaired person would mean that rationing access to them would be very difficult to justify. It is reassuring that NHS England is clear that hearing loss should be considered in terms of its impact on health and wellbeing. As CCGs review their expenditure plans, including on audiology services, they should be aware of the bigger picture.

Neil Small

Professor of health research University of Bradford

The right to be vulgar

Barbara Ellen is quite right about the reactions of some people to the decor of some celebrities (“Such bad taste to mock someone’s bad taste, darling”, Comment). If some stars want to live in a John Waters film-set, that’s their choice: rather glad I’ll never be asked round, though.

Steve Hayes

Leven

Fife

Migrants’ boost to Germany

Kate Connolly’s report on the Pegida movement in the German city of Dresden portrays the xenophobic, nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiments of its supporters well (“Dresden crowds tell a chilling tale of Europe’s fear of migrants”, News). However, her assertion that Germany’s economy “is straining to deal with a record intake of more than 200,000 asylum seekers in 2014” is simply wrong.

The German economy greatly profits from immigration. Connolly also claims that the link between Pegida and an arson attack on a home for asylum seekers and a graffiti attack on a mosque is “so far unfounded”. This might be true in a strict “legal” sense. However, there is an obvious political link between far-right groups, neo-Nazi organisations and xenophobic, anti-immigrant organisations such as Pegida.

Peter Skrandies

London N22

Putin’s not such a bad guy

In an otherwise perceptive leader on a perilous year ahead for Europe (“A year of living dangerously looms for Europe”, Comment), it was surprising to find your newspaper still harping on about the danger of Russia in the manner of a 19th-century thunderer at the time of the Crimean War. Russia poses as about as big a threat to the rest of Europe as Sheffield United does to Manchester City.

It is a recovering country driven into a self-defensive position by Nato’s expansion westwards and America’s obsession with keeping the rest of Europe under its military control and sway. Putin is not a pacifist saint, but nor are Obama or Cameron, who have much more blood than Russia on their hands from military interventions, and who bear some responsibility, through destabilising regime-change policies, for the plight of Mediterranean refugees depicted on your front page.

Richard Woolley

Pickering

N Yorkshire

Don’t scoff at what I scoffed

Barbara Ellen, as someone who has just booked a two-week stay in Portugal for a juice cleanse, may I explain the reason why I didn’t do this in September (“With my trusty Curly Wurly, I defy fitness bores”, Comment)?

1. Consumption of approx 20 mince pies over Christmas.

2. Consumption of approx 40 chocolate reindeers, snowmen and Father Christmases over Christmas.

3. Consumption of approx 20 chipolatas, 3 plates of left-over goose and sundry stuffing.

4. Christmas pud and cream x 6.

I have not been a bore about my cleansing and fitness trip, as it will only highlight my gluttony!

Carol-Anne Turner

London NW3

 

 

Independent:

Nuclear energy is neither renewable nor zero-emissions and it is extraordinary that a serious academic can make this claim (“Nuclear power is greenest, say top scientists”, 4 January). Recent research published by Stanford University estimates nuclear’s greenhouse gas emissions to be up to 25 times higher per unit than wind power.

The actual figure is unknowable since the emissions created by the mining and milling of uranium (the largest single factor in nuclear’s greenhouse gas impact) is dependent on the number of nuclear plants globally, and the corresponding level of demand for uranium. The higher the demand, the greater the emissions as miners exploit poorer quality ores requiring vastly greater processing. To talk of a “golf-ball-sized” lump of uranium is absurd; it is to ignore the tens or hundreds of tons of rock that are dug up and pulverised to extract a few grams.

The eminent biologists who have fallen for the nuclear industry’s PR rebrand as a “green” solution to looming climate catastrophe are doubtless well-motivated but they have been sold a pup. Nuclear is not the answer to climate change, only huge reductions in energy consumption and massive investment in renewables can do this.

John Hare

Norwich Green Party

Rupert Read

Green Party parliamentary candidate for Cambridge

Why not invest a tiny fraction of the money spent on research into “new” nuclear and techniques for its waste disposal, in less glamorous technology to reduce the 70 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions not produced by electricity which all the nuclear power in the world will scarcely touch? How about universal free household insulation for example, or proper integrated public transport? Both much cheaper, more effective and with a greater positive impact on people’s lives.

Taking things further, how about increased investment in large-scale energy storage to counteract the intermittency of some renewables?

Nuclear power, at the very least, is a hugely expensive distraction of minimal benefit in the fight to lower CO2 emissions.

Ian Ralls

Friends of the Earth Nuclear Network, Cambridge

I was excited to read that “Nuclear power is greenest”. I thought perhaps a way had been found to overcome the hazards of nuclear waste, but no mention of waste was made. I cannot help wondering how many “top scientists” would buy a house without any facility to dispose of their toilet waste.

R F Stearn

Stowmarket, Suffolk

Yes, cigarette ends and chewing gum are bad, but for me the mile after mile of plastic bags, soft-drink bottles, cans and fast-food wrappings strewn along every lane, road and motorway verge is worse, often causing me, as a passenger, to close my eyes unable look upon yet more of this lovely country so blighted (“Pick up some of the £1bn litter bill, MPs tell businesses” 4 January). Yet by far the worst are the filled and tied carrier bags of rubbish thrown from a car by occupants who must have more pride in their vehicle’s interior than the world outside. How can it be, that what for me, is our beautiful countryside, is to them, a bin?

Mary Bolingbroke,

Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

We are writing in response to your editorial “Common-sense rights” (4 January). We are proud of the coalition’s record on civil liberties.

It is not true that the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill grants the power simply to remove the passports of suspected foreign fighters. There were calls from some during the summer for the power arbitrarily to strip suspected foreign fighters of their citizenship. Liberal Democrats opposed this potential breach of international law and, in fact, the new legislation provides something very different – a managed return process. This will enable the police to speak to those who have fought abroad, and make sure that if they try to return this is done safely and with support – to divert them away from extremist groups.

Simon Hughes MP

Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties

Lynne Featherstone MP

Minister of State for Crime Prevention

 

Times:

People are said to be marrying later in order to avoid the problems of inheritance tax

Actually, Prof, NHS treatment is our right — we pay for it

YOU report that “top doctor” Professor Angus Wallace thinks too many people see the NHS as a right rather than a privilege (“Greedy public think NHS care is their divine right”, News, last week). We pay for it through our taxes. Patients ought not to be seen as supplicants for charity but rather as customers who have earned their treatments. In reality not all health service treatments are available “free” anyway (dentistry, for example).

David Cooper-Smith, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire

FINE LINE

The reason the NHS has been failing is that its business model is broken. It has been overprotected by the government and it needs to do far more to ensure that its users — that’s every single one of us — take a more responsible approach to how and when we use its services. It could start by fining people for missing appointments.

William Wilson, London SW11

MINOR AILMENTS

Perhaps the best way to alleviate problems with A&E departments is to have a local 24-hour triage service that provides trained practitioners to deal with minor injuries and prescriptions for simple ailments as well as referrals for cases meriting further examination.

Peter Edwards, London SE25

BRAIN SURGERY

We need an intelligent debate on financing the NHS rather than the yah-boo politics that our MPs are able to muster. How do the Germans, Swedes, Dutch and the best of the rest fund their health services?

Ralph Marshall, Bournemouth

HERBAL REMEDY

With reference to the article “Malaysia, Brazil and China put UK to shame in war on cancer” (News, last week), what all those countries have in common is a strong indigenous tradition of herbal medicine. The NHS and the media should wake up to its benefits, especially in relation to cancer treatments, so they can be properly integrated.

Jonathan Chamberlain, Author, The Cancer Survivor’s Bible and Cancer? Don’t Panic!

SCREEN TIME

The Sunday Times’s NHS Beat Cancer campaign is very worthy and should lead to improvements in treatments of the disease but there is another area in which it could be influential, by promoting the uptake of national cancer screening programmes.

Fewer than 60% of people in Britain take up the offer of bowel cancer screening, a simple diagnostic test sent out by post for people to perform in their own homes. Screening rates for breast and cervical cancer are also suboptimal, so many early-stage cancers are remaining undiagnosed. By campaigning for the greater uptake of these screening programmes you could help improve survival and save lives.

Dr Gerald Sacks, Eynsham, Oxfordshire

With this ring, I dodge the exchequer

ONE prime reason for getting married later in life is to avoid paying George Osborne, the chancellor, two tranches of inheritance tax, so your report “No ring? No rights” (Focus, last week) seems naive in suggesting more romantic interpretations. It is of course iniquitous that those who prefer to cohabit because they disapprove of state intrusion into their private lives should have to compromise and wed or risk ruin. As Dame Jenni Murray said in 2003 after cohabiting for 23 years, “I did it because of inheritance tax.”

Phillip Hodson, Gloucestershire

MARITAL STRIFE

The position of informal cohabitants is indeed precarious, although it should be noted that those who are looking after their children after a break-up are able to apply for child support from the children’s non-resident parent. The former family court judge Sir Paul Coleridge’s emphasis on education is superficially attractive, but the limited effectiveness of past campaigns is demonstrated by your article. The empirical evidence about the stability of marriage compared with cohabitation, moreover, is not as clear-cut as Coleridge implies when other factors are taken into account.

In any case, and whatever one thinks about the benefits or drawbacks of marriage, attempting to encourage more people to wed is very unlikely to reverse the increasing prevalence of cohabitation to a significant extent. Reform to the law is needed.

Dr Brian Sloan, Lecturer and Fellow in Law, Robinson College, Cambridge

Ched Evans gets red card but guilty peers are forgiven

THE footballer Ched Evans was found guilty and has done his time (“In this sordid story there are no winners”, Focus, last week). Nothing in our legal system states that the convicted person has to apologise. In any case, Evans claims that he has been a victim of a miscarriage of justice so an apology is hardly going to be forthcoming.

Our legal system is meant to be about rehabilitation. We let peers of the realm who have spent time behind bars return to the House of Lords, so why should Evans be prevented from playing football? All this guff about being in the public eye is just that — 99.99% of the population had never heard of him until his conviction.

Terry Lees, Helpringham, Lincolnshire

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Evans committed a vile crime, was punished and has been released on licence, but he is being subjected to an unprecedented campaign that is effectively preventing him from finding employment and thereby impeding his rehabilitation. It is clear from this campaign that many believe, as I do, that the crime of rape — along with murder and terrorism — is not punished with sufficient severity. Will MPs who have jumped on the anti-Evans bandwagon now work to change the law to increase the penalty for rape?

Jeffrey Stevenson, Address withheld

EXPELLED FOR A REASON

Replace footballer with teacher and I doubt there would be any sympathy for a rapist who wanted to carry on teaching after a guilty verdict. Evans’s appeal has been refused thus far; his victim has been hounded.

Carolyn McGrath, Woodford Green, London

Duke’s dairy tramples over animal rights

RICHARD GIRLING writes that unlike René Descartes’s views on animals, modern anthropomorphism helps us to connect more directly with the creatures that share our space (“Look Grumpy Cat in her malevolent eye and tell me animals don’t feel”, Comment, last week). In the same newspaper there is an article (“Dairy Duke’s cows never see daylight”, News) about the inhumane “super-mechanised” farm operated by the Duke of Westminster, where dairy cows are kept inside a shed for 24 hours a day, 52 weeks a year, and are milked on a rotating treadmill and pushed to deliver a volume of milk beyond their normal capacity until being culled at an early age.

Since the Duke of Westminster clearly lacks any anthropomorphic beliefs, perhaps he should read the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, who emphasises that animal rights should be based on human ones and rails against man’s systematic cruel domination over animals.

Kay Bagon, Radlett, Hertfordshire

Love of democracy is Ukip’s raison d’être

ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE’S column “Engineers rule China. Lawyers lead the US. We get bluffers and blaggers” (Comment, December 28) describes the aims of Ukip as “deep parochialism”. I have been a member of Ukip for 20 years and know that what drives most of its membership is not fear of foreigners or a sentimental wish to return to 1957 but a desire to maintain the principle of accountable government.

Some years ago I asked Vernon Bogdanor, an emeritus professor of government at Oxford, whether he agreed that our greatest political achievement was that the people had the power not just to elect but also to dismiss their government. He said that it was. I then asked where the comparable mechanism was in the EU, and he said that there wasn’t one.

Mike Lynch, Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire

NO VOTE WAS THE RIGHT ANSWER TO THE WRONG QUESTION

JENNY HJUL’S 2014 review of Scotland rightly points out the failure of the SNP and Alex Salmond in particular to deliver independence (“The saving of the Union should be lasting legacy of a memorable year”, Comment, December 28, 2014). She pointed out one of the startling achievements in bringing together Labour and Conservatives to fight the Better Together campaign. The political landscape since the referendum indicates that what might have been expected to be of great benefit to the unionist side has not really materialised.

The build-up to the referendum allowed the SNP two years to explain what it wanted for Scotland.Whether you agree with SNP policies or not, the people understood where the party stood, and were confused regarding Labour and the Conservatives.

The call for independence was a step too far. Had a third option been offered to maximise devolution of power from Westminster to Edinburgh, that would have carried the vote by a large majority. To vote for independence in September without any real indication of what that might mean for some 18 months was an unacceptable leap of faith.

The general election in 2015 and Holyrood election in 2016 present far less risk and uncertainty to an electorate that sees Westminster as remote and English-centric.

Mike Cottam, Aviemore, Inverness-shire

Try getting out more

Hjul obviously moves in such rarefied circles that she never meets the hordes that belong to the SNP or indeed the misguided from other political groups, also in favour of an independent Scotland.

Why is there a huge upsurge in membership for the SNP but also the Greens. Our English neighbours are looking for serious change as well, not just votes on English matters but devolved control from Westminster. Did Hjul attend the Women for Independence meetings, where the venue had to change location to accommodate more than 1,000 that wished to attend after the referendum? Did she attend Nicola Sturgeon’s sellout tour of Scotland? A large percentage of the “no” voters are sorely disappointed in the outcome and in the usual patronising response from Westminster.

Patricia Methven, Highlands

Independent thinking

If political parties were in the private sector they would immediately fall foul of two government regulators: Companies House and the Office of Fair Trading. First, for trading while insolvent, and second, for operating a cartel. They are currently incurring levels of debt way beyond our ability to service, let alone repay. However, anyone who dares challenge them is either ignored or traduced by their friends in the media. Rather than voting for them in May, we should be getting rid of them altogether by supporting only independent candidates.

Robert Durward, Biggar, Lanarkshire

DEGREES OF SEPARATION

Wooldridge laments the preponderance of PPE (philosophy, politics and economics) graduates in the top echelons of politics and society, while standing in for Dominic Lawson (PPE).

Those of us with useful degrees have long since given up wondering why successive governments peopled almost exclusively with arts and humanities graduates continue to make such a mess of things, aided and abetted by their peers in the media. Bluffers and blaggers indeed.

Dr Clive Nuttman, Department of Zoology, Cambridge

PRECISION ENGINEERS

The dozens of historians in parliament seem not to have learnt any lessons from the past. Not only can engineers count; they can distinguish between risk and uncertainty, understand scale and know what questions to ask.

Regarding the top two prime ministers of the past 100 years, Margaret Thatcher was a chemist and Winston Churchill did not go to university at all.

Hazel Prowse (double physics), Camberley, Surrey

SHACKLED SECURITY FORCES

Last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris have produced more empty statements from politicians. We need to empower our security services, police and military with the ability to fight terrorists without having their hands tied behind their backs. Recent investigations of the CIA and demands for the same within MI5 have weakened international security. Terrorists murder women, children and now cartoonists. They are not bound or deterred by human rights legislation. To ask the security services to keep us safe and then question the manner in which they do so is a failure to protect our democracy and human rights.

Malcolm McDonald, Kelty, Fife

BAD ATMOSPHERE

In October I travelled to China and with other group members suffered breathing difficulties and severe eye irritation from the air pollution, so it was with great concern that I read the article “Toxic air monitors may be scrapped” (News, December 28). It will undoubtedly result in a much more lax attitude to air pollution, as in China, and create severe health problems. I understand that air pollution in China has contributed to more than 1m deaths annually in recent years.

Alan O’Connor, Eastbourne

ISRAELI HAVEN

You published a justifiably gloomy report on the Middle East by Michael Sheridan (“Many Middle Eastern faiths, but one prayer: deliver us from persecution”, Comment, December 21). He wrote that “nobody has an exit strategy for their foes”, and then conceded that the persecuted Baha’i of Iran have found sanctuary in Haifa, Israel, before adding: “That is hardly a solution available to everyone.” Of course it isn’t, but is it not a remarkable model for other nations to follow? Israel has also offered asylum to Vietnamese boat people, Christians fleeing Lebanon and thousands of Russian non-Jews climbing onto the Jewish bandwagon. No other nation even approaches such benevolence. The once-hospitable UK balks at accepting even a few thousand persecuted Syrians while admitting some very tricky economic immigrants.

Denis Vandervelde, London NW11

QUOTATION MARKED

In your list of 2014 literary highlights (“The good, the bad and the grumpy”, Arts & Books, News Review, December 28) you quoted your chief fiction reviewer Peter Kemp’s claim that in a Sydney bookshop PD James once signed one of her novels “To Emma Chizzit” when she misheard a reader who inquired in a broad Australian accent about the price of the book. The author involved was Monica Dickens. I knew both ladies well for many years, Monica as a close friend, and it was she who told me the story when I interviewed her in 1970 after she had just returned from her first author tour to Australia. Phyllis, on the other hand, did not write her first successful book, Innocent Blood, until 1980 and did not make any tours until then.

Graham Lord, London SW15

Corrections and clarifications

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, should be addressed to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our complaints section for full details of how to lodge a complaint.

Birthdays

Mary J Blige, singer, 44; Ben Crenshaw, golfer, 63; Jasper Fforde, novelist, 54; Melvyn Hayes, actor, 80; Emile Heskey, footballer, 37; Jamelia, singer, 34; Phyllis Logan, actress, 59; Tom Meighan, singer, 34; Rachel Riley, TV presenter, 29; Bryan Robson, footballer, 58; Arthur Scargill, trade unionist, 77; John Sessions, actor, 62

Anniversaries

1864 London’s Charing Cross rail station opens; 1928 novelist Thomas Hardy dies; 1964 US health department publishes landmark report linking smoking to diseases such as lung cancer; 1973 first Open University graduates receive degrees; 1974 Briton Susan Rosenkowitz gives birth in South Africa to first sextuplets to survive infancy

Telegraph:

People hold up pens during a gathering in front of the city hall of Rennes following the attack
People hold up pens during a gathering in front of the city hall of Rennes following the attack  Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images

SIR – For a decade or more we have been subject to dictates of political correctness, against our saying or doing anything that might cause offence.

Now, in the light of the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, we are told that the freedom to offend is fundamental and to be defended.

Just what are we supposed to do?

Stephen Thomas
Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire

SIR – I admire immensely the stance that France has been taking, in the wake of the atrocities carried out there, on freedom of speech.

Will David Cameron, the Prime Minister, follow suit and allow freedom of speech to return to Britain, or will we still have to look over our shoulder before offering an opinion on race, religion, sexuality or any group to which our politicians pander for votes?

Lieutenant Colonel Ian Beck (retd)
Dearham, Cumbria

SIR – The attack on Charlie Hebdo was an attack on freedom of expression, as well as a horribly murderous attack on individuals. However, we must not allow the French Republic to bask in its own self-image as a bastion of freedom of expression. It is nothing of the kind.

The legal restrictions on freedom of expression are more encompassing in France than in any other country in Europe. A careless choice of word, in an off-the-cuff discussion (or even an attempt to avoid a discussion) can result in a peculiar hybrid criminal prosecution and civil action brought by private organisations.

Such actions might lead to criminal penalties and damages payable to campaigning organisations. Indeed, Charlie Hebdo was the target of such an action as the result of the re-publication of the Danish cartoons. While that action failed in 2007, its menace would have cowed many weaker editorial teams.

France’s repressive restrictions on freedom of expression in the areas of race, religion and ethnicity create a culture of expectation that dissent from the political class’s line will be stamped out. When legal actions fail, illegal action will be pursued.

Andrew Brons
Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – Je ne suis pas Charlie. I am appalled at the horrific terrorist attack in France. While I am a committed advocate of free speech and am deeply against the puritanical doctrinal path that some strands of Islam are taking, I am in no way a fan of Charlie Hebdo, in particular its unnecessary decision to reprint the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Mohammed cartoons.

I believe in mutual tolerance, respect and love. This sort of divisive hate-spreading incitement causes damage by radicalising and dehumanising both sides.

Am I alone in seeing parallels between these cartoons and those depicting Jews in Thirties Germany?

Max Jalil
Birmingham

SIR – The Oxford Dictionary defines phobia as “an extreme or often irrational fear of or aversion to something”: Islamophobia is defined differently, as “dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force”.

In the traditional sense of phobia, I am unfortunately, but undeniably, Islamophobic. Yes, I do fear Islam: I fear for my future, and my children’s, because of the danger that fundamentalist Islamic fanatics cause. I fear that until the Islamic hierarchy, political or religious, stands up to eradicate the fanatics among them, then my fears are indeed justified.

Gidon Stemmer
Salford

SIR – I follow no faith, but mainly observe Christian moral values. Many comments about the slaughter in Paris, by people who assume they are Christian, civilised, Western and cultured, condemn the actions of a fanatical cadre.

However, they do not seem uncomfortable about the uncivilised, insensitive, childish, intellectually presumptuous cartoons in Charlie Hebdo.

Anyone with any decency, even if agnostic, should observe sensitivity and respect for other cultures’ beliefs.

David Culm
Littleover, Derbyshire

SIR – The Paris shooting was ghastly, but why is so much attention given to it yet so little to repeated killings of this nature in Nigeria, where more people are murdered?

In Paris there had been provocation by some of those killed. In Nigeria there is none other than that of not being Muslim.

David Pitts
East Molesey, Surrey

Unprosecuted crimes

SIR – How disingenuous of Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, to say he wants to end the cautions culture. He is the architect of the latest and arguably the most savage cuts to both prosecution and defence funding, which have produced this unhappy state of affairs.

The drive to save costs has resulted in a culture of routinely charging people with less serious offences than would previously have been the charge, in order to encourage guilty pleas in low-profile, high-volume cases. If, despite this, the case seems to be heading for a trial, ludicrously lenient plea packages are increasingly agreed by the Crown, save in the most egregious cases, rather than suffer the time and expense of litigating the matter.

The sentencing judge is bound to sentence only on what an offender has pleaded guilty to. The net result is that many really quite serious offences go unprosecuted or underprosecuted.

Yvonne Coen QC
Stamford, Lincolnshire

A duty to the electorate

(Rex Features)

SIR – David Cameron, the Prime Minister, says he will not take part in the general election TV leadership debates unless the Green Party is included.

I believe that any candidate for political office has a moral duty to present himself or herself for public scrutiny. This is particularly important for those seeking leadership positions. Perhaps the time has now come when participation should be a legal requirement for those seeking office.

Doug Clark
Currie, Midlothian

Scrapheap of history

SIR – When I spent the year 1963-64 as Reuters’ (and the West’s) sole correspondent in East Berlin, I had a Wartburg (Letters, January 6). It was a disgusting pink colour but it was compulsory. This horror had one advantage: you could sneer at Trabants as you went past them.

On October 1 1990, reunification day, I watched the new masters from the west sweep past in their Mercedes and run the Wartburgs and Trabants off the road. I almost felt sorry for them.

Frederick Forsyth
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

Telephone directories

SIR – High Wycombe is not the only place that BT has moved into another county (Letters, January 8).

In Cardiff, the eastern section with the postcode CF3 is deemed by BT to be situated in Newport and given a Newport telephone directory.

If we want a local directory, we have to buy one for £10.

I have challenged this over many years and am always told by the marketing department in Scotland that this part of Cardiff is deemed to be in Newport “for marketing purposes”.

It seems to have escaped BT that its directories are passé and have a diminishing marketing value.

Barrie W Cooper
Cardiff

Law unto Broadchurch

Olivia Colman in ‘Broadchurch’ (Patrick Redmond/ITV)

SIR – As often happens when screenwriters do not take authoritative legal advice when venturing into legal waters, Broadchurch, an otherwise excellent show (Letters, January 9), seems now to be talking nonsense.

I was a barrister in private practice in London from 1963 to 2006. The suggestion that the family of the victim would hunt out a QC to “represent them” or “take the prosecution on their behalf” is ridiculous.

It is not their case; it is the State’s case. Presumably the famous lady QC is expected to put pressure on the Crown Prosecution Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions, perhaps calling in a past favour or two, so that she is nominated by them as counsel for the prosecution.

I do not necessarily think nobly of those gentlemen, but I certainly do not see them being pushed into making such a choice; more likely involvement of the QC with the family would make it certain that she would not be selected.

Charles Lewis
London N2

Tough as old boots

SIR – Our tortoise lives in the garden and is more than 80 years old. The only medical intervention he has had followed a fox bite on his undershell, which drew blood. A little well-placed epoxy resin glue and he was good as new. That was 10 years ago.

Mary Whittle
Rochester, Kent

The scientific truth behind an old wives’ tale

Salad days: a 19th-century still life by the Belgian painter David Emile Joseph de Noter (www.bridgemanart.com)

SIR – It is in fact true that carrots “allow you to see in the dark”.

The carotene pigment that gives them their orange colour is both an antioxidant and pre-vitamin A. Converted to vitamin A in the body it combines with the opsin protein found in the rods at the back of the retina to form the compound visual purple. It is this compound that is responsible for the detection of light. Thus, the earliest clinical symptom of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness; the inability of the eye to adjust to dim light.

Dr Ruth Ash
School of Human Sciences
London Metropolitan University

A chance for young musicians to excel on stage

SIR – Ivan Hewett makes many appreciative comments in his review of the National Youth Orchestra’s concert at the Barbican, for which we thank him. We appreciate serious criticism because our high standards demand it.

Mr Hewett also questions the wisdom of fielding a double-sized orchestra. We do this primarily because NYO exists to give breakthrough experiences of orchestral music to teenage musicians and audiences, and we want as many talented, committed young musicians as possible to have the chance to play with NYO. For many it is a life-changing experience, and we have to turn away far more than we would like.

Our size has an added benefit. It helps keep the NYO culture of youthful brilliance in orchestral performance alive from year to year. Our standards rely not just on our teaching team and conductors such as John Wilson, but also on peer inspiration. New members learn a tremendous amount about how to excel as orchestral musicians by following the lead of our returning members.

There are limits to what you can achieve with an orchestra of 163 teenage musicians, more than half of whom are playing in a world-class orchestra for the first time. But those limits are set far higher than you might expect if you have never heard NYO perform. Readers who wish to decide for themselves can hear our Barbican concert that was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 yesterday, at any time in the next 30 days via BBC iPlayer.

Sarah Alexander
Chief Executive & Artistic Director, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain
London WC2

 

Globe and Mail:

Doug Saunders

Europe threatened by its own ‘clash of civilizations’

 

Irish Independent:

Sunday 11 January 2015

Bankers can celebrate

Published 11/01/2015 | 02:30

  • 0 Comments

Sir – I write to you in response to the ‘Letter of the Week’ written by Mel Devlin, (Sunday Independent, 4 January).

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He refers to “bankers” having a Christmas office party, but makes no reference to what bank is involved, whether the attendees paid for their own drinks and how many of the hundreds he says were there were actually bank employees.

Instead he took the word of the door security and then proceeded to put pen to paper.

Yes, I too have been stung by the financial crisis – mostly because of my own making and indeed with some help from the financial institutions, developers, accountants, solicitors and estate agents who drove the market wild at that time. And no I don’t work in a bank, but I do have a number of close friends who do at branch banking level, including my son.

I would not deny the right of any of these employees to have a get-together at Christmas in whatever shape or fashion they wish. Mr Devlin appears to have an issue with that.

But citing the tragic death of that poor homeless man was not in any way relevant to this so-called Christmas office party. That death was an extremely sad event and should not be used as a tool to make rash comparisons.

John Ryan,

Dublin 24

Thank to all the medics and jockeys

Sir – I want to thank two professional bodies who from time to time are linked together in the work they do.

My first thanks goes to the staff at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, who looked after me when I broke my leg during Christmas week, especially the orthopaedic team who work under what is obviously a section needing further funding.

Perhaps Minister Varadaker might visit his old Alma Mater where he trained as a doctor and see for himself the conditions that exist there?

My second sincere thanks goes to the great warriors who take part in National Hunt Racing.

When any one of these great sports people get broken up it’s the professionals from an orthopaedic team who put them back together and allow them to entertain us like they did me watching the Christmas racing festivals from Leopardstown, Limerick and Kempton. Fred Molloy,

Clonsilla,

Dublin 15

Sunday Independent

Thousands of people gather for a moment of silence to pay their respects to the victims of the deadly attack at the Paris offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in Lyon, central France, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.

Thousands of people gather for a moment of silence to pay their respects to the victims of the deadly attack at the Paris offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in Lyon, central France, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015.

Sir – It’s over 25 years since the Ayatollah Khomeni issued the fatwa on Salman Rushdie for “blaspheming against Islam”. We are not ‘rushing to judgement’ when we say we are weary of this medieval barbarism and its relentless quest to stifle debate and censor commentary.

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In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, sections of a cowed public express vague fears about the potential ‘Islamophobia’. This is a construct of the addled, fevered, post-colonial imagination.

What’s remarkable is not that the odd incident of anti-Islamic sentiment may occur after such a brutal assault on our way of life but how rare and isolated such incidents actually are. The civilised and dignified restraint being shown by the French public is remarkable.

Our own history is one of censorship and religious intolerance. We cannot let our liberal instincts carry us blindly towards appeasement, in the face of such evil. We should champion life and all the things that make it a bit more bearable and that includes satire and freedom of expression.

S O’Neill,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3

Pressure is on Creighton’s party

Sir – I do hope that Ms Lucinda Creighton and her political cohorts in this newly found party Reform Alliance are successful with their future endeavours.

And I can say with certainty that having politicians of the calibre of Shane Ross is a good platform too to begin with, as I respect him for his honesty.That’s a refreshing approach.

We need political honesty instead of this two-faced hypocrisy we have been enduring for decades. That type of intolerable underhanded deceitfulness infuriates me as the citizens of Ireland have been and will continue be the financial victims of too many unaccountable political regimes for far too long.

Therefore, I am hopeful that people like me can be assured that, all the members of this newly founded party will succeed in their endeavour to firmly invoke the true meaning of the word “reform”.

The present regime has wilfully failed dramatically to even begin the process of reform. Our politicians epitomise the true meaning of self-preservation, and that has been achieved through their abuse of power. That’s why the people have been let down too often and I do believe this country is in urgent need of serious political restoration.

Having said that, and owing to Ms Creighton’s previous political affiliations, I would have some reservations about her party policies on reform. But I shall remain an optimist in the hope it won’t become an over-ambitious party whose members will forget the principles on which the party has been founded.

Moreover, I don’t want to see or even hear of them entering into coalition or amalgamating with the big boys and ending up yet another failed statistic in the annals of political history.

In all honesty, no political party has even attempted to prioritise the future security for long-term employment for the people of this country despite all their pre-election reassurances and promises. Hence, I believe the pressure is already on Ms Creighton’s party to bring about a more trustworthy political establishment so that we’ve a more equal society for the good of all us Irish citizens.

Matthew J Greville,

Killucan,

Co Westmeath

 

Real change is what we want

Sir – Your front page last week made it clear why our country is still heading downhill fast on a greasy mattress of lies and deception in all areas, especially health, environment and finance.

FF and FG are now proving that they have never been in genuine opposition, except for photo opportunities. They are now planning to confirm that they have both been living from the trough of decent people’s taxes and wish to continue that party at all costs.

Integrity – no thank you.

For anybody to decry Lucinda Creighton or Sinn Fein is to deny what FF and FG have done to the country over the last 15 years. We desperately need real change in several areas and they might just bring it. To even consider electing a FF/FG coalition is the equivalent of contemplating taking two brands of headache pill for a broken leg.

Richard Barton,

Tinahely,

Co Wicklow

Stephen should’ve joined Lucinda

Sir, Stephen Donnelly (“Move to challenge the status quo is to be welcomed” Sunday Independent, January 4) welcomes Lucinda Creighton’s political initiative.

He appears to support her guiding principles and suggests that like her, he is working to positively change the political system.

Why did he choose not to join Lucinda’s political initiative where his talents could be best served in achieving their common goals?

Frank Browne

Templeogue,

Dublin 16

Lucinda is on a certified loser

Sir – New skin for the old ceremony wrote Leonard Cohen. New party, whispers Lucinda Creighton. Is she so far removed from the people that she assumes them to be desperate?

Eddie Hobbs was a poster boy for Celtic Tiger Ireland but is now a (re) visionary on how it went belly up. An unknown councillor, John Leahy, and that’s it. The rest to follow.

Ms Creighton, apart from a single issue has backed her countyman, Mr Kenny and FG. What’s new and radical about that – apart from keeping an each-way bet viable?

The next election will split four ways. Sinn Fein, FG, and FF will be the main parties. Probably a disparate number of Independents will equal if not surpass the Big Three. But Ms Creighton carries all the relevancy of a loser’s betting docket.

The Irish people have had a bellyfull of insignificant little parties screwing them. In that I include DL (alias Labour), Greens and the PDs.

Sad when we look back with tinted glasses at Charlie and Bertie and say ” Yerra were they that bad?” Ireland needs many things at the moment. An opaque talking shop fronted by Eddie and Lucinda is not one of them.

John Cuffe,

Dunboyne,

Co Meath

New centre-right party not needed

Sir – Lucinda Creighton, the ex-Fine Gael TD and junior minister, has decided to grace the Irish people with a new political party, yet to receive a name. She and her nameless party have yet to announce their economic and social policies.

However, based on her previous actions in Dail Eireann when she was a member of Fine Gael and supported the austerity measures, we may expect similar. She is on record (in the Sunday Independent of January 4) as stating that she favours the continuation of the incorrectly named property tax and the new water charges.

Although she has stated that she favours the abolition of the universal social charge, her previous actions in relation to this speak volumes.

She did not oppose it when it was implemented. The only difference that may be seen between this yet-to-be-named party and the party that she and some of her colleagues left is their opposition to the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill.

It may also be stated that Fianna Fail are no different.

In this country we do not need another centre-right party.

Dr Tadhg Moloney,

Gouldavoher,

Limerick

Let us have a new Proclamation

Sir – Since the 2008-2009 crisis, the Irish citizen pays significantly more in tax, whether it is the water charge, the LPT, the Universal Social Charge or the pension levy.

Throw in the 23pc in VAT now compared to the 21pc before the crisis and what have we got to show for it?

Better public services? More resources for education? A more efficient and effective health service? None of the above.

Add to this a stealthy reduction in government funding for registered charities, and the calculus is simple – we pay more, we receive less, despite the Government benefitting from its lowest ever borrowing costs.

Yet our semi-state entities and quangos still want the best of both worlds – private sector pay and public sector pensions and job security.

I no longer have faith in the Irish Government, having unfashionably supported the need for some measure of austerity when it was needed. With a booming economy, falling unemployment, and low interest rates, this much austerity is no longer needed.

I would love to see the political parties come together to produce a blueprint for Ireland’s social and economic future that provides a means for our children to live in a cohesive and economically viable society, punching above its weight internationally.

Gavin Dredge,

Killiney,

Co Dublin

Timely tips for the year ahead

Sir – This year, for other people: try a smile (it will make them feel good). For the mind – try to read more (it will encourage you to write more… which will mean more letters for the Letters Page). For the soul – try to pray more (nothing is impossible to God). For peace – ignore the bullies (they’re just very sad people). For the future – try to leave the past behind, and live and enjoy one day at a time.

Brian McDevitt,

Glenties,

Co Donegal



Lazy

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12 January 2015 Lazing

Mary a little better though she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading loaf around doing nothing.

Obituary:

Anita Ekberg in Back from Eternity (1956)
Anita Ekberg in Back from Eternity (1956) Photo: Allstar Picture Library

Anita Ekberg, who has died aged 83, was the statuesque former Miss Sweden who became a global film sensation after cavorting in Rome’s Trevi Fountain for Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960). Although demure and innocent by today’s standards, the scene caused a scandal and made the 29-year-old Swede a household name.

Some gossip columnists sniffily nicknamed her “The Iceberg” due to her Scandinavian roots, yet her dramatic décolletage, glowering good looks and vivacious delivery proved an enticing and popular combination with cinema audiences of the Sixties.

Director Frank Tashlin, who directed her in the 1956 comedy Hollywood or Bust – the pun was intended – claimed that Anita Ekberg’s appeal lay in “the immaturity of the American male: this breast fetish. There’s nothing more hysterical to me than big-breasted women, like walking, leaning towers.”

Anita Ekberg was indeed a teetering tower. She was 5ft 7in tall and possessed a considerable bust, of which she once said: “It’s not cellular obesity, it’s womanliness.” Yet in the same year that Tashlin had typecast her, Ekberg showed that she could really act, if given the opportunity, when she played Hélène Kuragin, the unfaithful wife of Pierre Bezukhov (Henry Fonda) in King Vidor’s epic War and Peace. However, she was fully aware that her allure was centred on her physicality. “I have a mirror,” she said in the late Sixties, “I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn’t know I am beautiful.”

Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on September 29 1931 in Malmö, Sweden, one of a large family (she had seven siblings). As a youngster she had no desire to be famous. She wanted to marry and settle down to a conventional life. A childhood pleasure was to draw and fashion clothes.

Out walking one day, a talent scout spotted her and persuaded her to enter the Miss Universe contest. Winning as Miss Sweden, she gained a trip to Hollywood. A screen test did not bring much work and she returned home disheartened. However, she was determined to make good as an actress and began saving for a return trip.

Her break came when Bob Hope chose her to accompany him on a Christmas tour of American air force bases in Greenland in 1954. Studio moguls soon heard about the roars of approval for Anita and offered her a contract. She had small uncredited roles in films such as The Mississippi Gambler, Abbott and Costello go to Mars and The Golden Blade, before winning supporting parts in Artists and Models (1955) and Blood Alley (1955; playing a Chinese girl). Her first lead came in Back from Eternity (1956). By this time she was being touted as “Paramount’s Marilyn Monroe”.

Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita (Kobal Collection)

She moved to London in the mid-Fifties but was lonely and hardly left her hotel. Having refused dozens of invitations to premieres, something impelled her to finally accept one offer. Her escort turned out to be Anthony Steen, a matinee idol alumnus of the “Rank School”. They were married in 1956.

In her first British film, Zarak (1956), she met her match in Victor Mature. Playing a native dancer, with a few spangles and bangles judiciously placed, who falls in love with Mature’s hulking Zarak Khan. The film left audiences wondering who had the bigger chest. She teamed up again with Mature the following year for the thriller Interpol.

At this time her marriage to Steel was rarely out of the headlines, with reports of drunken driving, rows and violent recriminations. Eventually the union completely soured and they divorced after three years.

Anita Ekberg with her first husband Anthony Steel (REX)

She did not have time to mourn the marriage. Her performance in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita the following year made her a star. Shot in Rome at a time when the Italian obsession with celebrity was at its height, she played the starlet Sylvia opposite Marcello Mastroianni’s philandering paparazzo journalist. The part fixed her in audience’s minds as the European blonde “sex bomb” – stylish, sensual, shallow and ephemeral.

In the film’s most famous scene, she splashes with abandon in the Trevi Fountain, her black low-necked dress trailing in the frothy waters, cooing: “Marcello, come here.” In fact the scene had been shot in February and Mastroianni was doped up on vodka. “I was freezing,” she recalled. “They had to lift me out of the water because I couldn’t feel my legs any more.”

Following the success of Fellini’s masterpiece, Anita Ekberg appeared opposite Bob Hope in Call Me Bwana and Frank Sinatra in 4 for Texas (both 1963). She was also considered for the part of Honey Ryder in Dr No but lost out to Ursula Andress. When she did appear in a Bond film, it was both unwitting and unflattering: in From Russia with Love (1963) Sean Connery shoots a spy escaping through a gigantic Call Me Bwana poster featuring Anita Ekberg’s face. “She should have kept her mouth shut,” says Bond.

Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain (Alamy)

Anita Ekberg’s on-screen persona – a freewheeling man-eater from overseas – soon spilt over into her private life. Sinatra was one of the many leading men she was rumoured to have taken as a lover, along with Errol Flynn, Yul Brynner, Tyrone Power and Gary Cooper.

She often played characters possessed of an untethered and wild spirit. As a “war lady” in The Mongols (1961) she indulged in torture and sado-masochism, striding in thigh-high boots among the slave girls cracking a bullwhip. For “The Temptation of Dr Antonio”, Fellini’s episode in the portmanteau feature Boccaccio ’70 (1962), she was once again the sex object, this time as the model featured on a “Drink More Milk” billboard poster who is brought to life to trap a puritanical doctor. Thus Fellini followed Tashlin in using her abilities for erotic satire.

In 1963 Ekberg married Rik Van Nutter (who later played Felix Leiter in Thunderball). They lived in Spain and Switzerland and in 1969 became entrepreneurs. “Rick and I have gone into the shipping business. We found a cargo ship and we’re in business with the captain,” she said (the couple also bought a Chinese junk). “Ours is a good marriage. There are so many good times in marriage, that the bad times are really unimportant. Anyway, I learnt from my parents that difficulties are there to be overcome.”

As with all sex symbols, age diminished her currency. By the end of the Sixties she was complaining about the lack of available roles. “I should be able to get work myself on the strength of my acting. I shouldn’t have to sleep with producers to get parts. It’s depressing to see parts going to actresses who can’t act their way out of a wet paper bag but who are friendly with producers,” she observed. “My life has changed quite a bit, of course. The Ferrari’s gone – now I have a Mini Moke.”

The downward spiral continued throughout the Seventies. She made films but they were more often than not B-movies with salacious titles such as The French Sex Murders (1972) and The Killer Nun (1979). Her scenes for Valley of the Dancing Widows (1975) were left on the cutting room floor. At home things also began to disintegrate: she accused Van Nutter of cheating her over a car-hire business they owned. The couple divorced in 1975.

Anita Ekberg in 2010 (AFP)

Two years later, her house was robbed, with the thieves stealing fur coats, jewels and silver, the fruits of her once-famous career. “My last 10 years have brought nothing but bad luck,” she stated.

After a second robbery in 2011, she appealed to the Fellini Foundation for financial help. It was a sad sign of decline from the Amazonian actress who had five decades earlier threatened paparazzi with a bow and arrow.

Her final years were spent living in semi-reclusion in a run-down Italian villa outside Rome, where her only companions were two great Danes.

Anita Ekberg, born September 29 1931, January 11 2015

A Muslim man holds a placard reading 'Not in my name', during a gathering in Saint-Etienne, eastern
A Muslim man holds a placard reading ‘Not in my name’, during a gathering in Saint-Etienne, eastern France, on 9 January 2015. Photograph: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images

Your editorial writers and commentators and most of your correspondents (9, 10 January) wring their hands in impotence over the Islamist massacre in Paris. In fact, there is a great deal citizens of the rich countries can do to combat Islamic fundamentalism. First, the western powers should withdraw politically and militarily from the Middle East. Every western intevention for the past 150 years has served to strengthen fundamentalist Islam. In particular, they should immediately cut military and political collaboration with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, which are the principal backers of Isis and Wahhabism (whatever their recent protestations). Second, the people of the western countries should give every support we can to the brave and beleaguered secular and democratic political currents in “the Muslim world”, such as the Labour party of Pakistan and the trade unions in Iraq and Egypt.

Third, in Britain, we should be campaigning for state schooling which is completely secular, depriving the Church of England and the Catholic church as well as other smaller churches of their anachronistic control of state schools. This is the medieval and barbaric hangover that should concern us. Parents have (limited) rights to impose their religion on their chilrden, but a democratic state has no business indoctrinating children in any religion.Please stop wringing your hands and get involved in politics that can really change things.
Jamie Gough
Sheffield

• I was disturbed by the letters in Friday’s Guardian. The responses made me ashamed to be a Guardian reader. Rather than condemning the killings, almost all played them down, tried to excuse them, or suggested the victims had somehow brought them on themselves. What’s happened to us? Have the past 15 years been so bloody that some people have run out of sympathy, and have none left for innocent cartoonists being gunned down in cold blood?
Alasdair Murray
Richmond upon Thames, Surrey

• Some of your correspondents have argued that the right to free speech must be tempered by the avoidance of offence. Whilst I applaud the humane values underlying this claim, I must disagree. There is not – and never could be – any universal definition of what is offensive. we all have our own internal calibration of what offends; I cannot know what you think or might feel and so any stricture that bars me from saying something offensive will inevitably fuel a creeping self-censorship which is the antithesis of freedom of speech.

To live in a free society is to risk being offended. We can complain; we can retaliate; and we can shout aloud our discomfort. What we cannot do is shoot those who offend us. Je suis Charlie.
Kath Checkland
Hope Valley, Derbyshire

• Freedom of speech is a relative concept already limited by legislation. Libel, slander and incitement to racial hatred are crimes, as is denial of the Holocaust in Germany. Perhaps we should discuss whether figurative representation of Muhammad should be banned in the interests of public safety and social harmony, while continuing to tolerate satire of religion or any other belief or ideology. Such a limitation would hardly constitute a crippling assault on values that most of us hold dear, but might assuage concerns of many who are offended by images of the prophet.
Simon Sweeney
York

• Your editorial (9 January), which defends the decision to not publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons by appealing to the faulty logic underlying the calls to publish them as a matter of freedom of speech, is misguided. The cartoons have now become part of a news story and for that reason alone should be published. It is the responsibility of a media organisation to keep its users well-informed so they can form their own opinions on these issues. We should not have to search for this information elsewhere.
David Lobina
London

• Has the Guardian taken all leave of its senses in donating £100,000 to Charlie Hebdo? The “war on terror” is fought on two fronts. One is the hard war in the form of bombs and tanks. The other is the soft war in the form of the ideological demonisation of Islam. Charlie Hebdo quite consciously played its part in the soft war. It is no Private Eye. And the claim it is left is a dubious one. For when it comes to Islam many parts of the French left have a shabby record, from the way the French Communist party opposed Algerian independence onwards. While the killings have to be opposed, is it any wonder that when petrol is poured on the raging fires of Muslim-baiting some people are liable to be burnt? By donating this money to a journal that the Guardian itself would condemn if its so-called satire were directed against Judaism, it seems to have learnt nothing.
John Curtis
Ipswich, Suffolk

• I too want to resist the language of “war” (Tariq Ramadan, 10 January), whether metaphorically or literally meant, and whether it refers to a fight against politically motivated killings, against a particular religion and its adherents, or against terrorism as a phenomenon. Safety and human rights cannot be protected by violent hostility. They can come only from the building of understanding and respect, locally and globally. It will be hard to escape the dynamic of spiralling action and reaction but it must be done. We need the language of wisdom and kindness, not the language of war.
Diana Francis
Bath

• Watching the Unity March of 1 million-plus people in Paris on Sunday, it reminded me of the Iraq anti-war march of up to 2 million people in London and 15 millon people in 800 cities around the world on 15 Februrary 2003. Would the march in Paris would have been necessary if the earlier march had been listened to?
Chris Holden
London

Unity rally in Paris, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, 11 January 2015
Unity rally in Paris, following the Charlie Hebdo attacks, 11 January 2015. Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images

For anyone committed to the ideal of a multicultural society, the murder of cartoonists who vulgarly ridiculed Islamic faith proves a complex matter to address in times of soaring Islamophobia. Joe Sacco approaches this explosive issue (10 January) in a respectful and differentiated way; at the cost, however, of ignoring the political meaning of the attack. Charlie Hebdo’s caricatures are indeed often offensive. But Sacco’s reflections on the use of stereotypes or on a previous controversy over anti-Semitism in Charlie Hebdo are highly problematic in the context of the shooting. What Sacco and many others who prefer criticism over solidarity fail to understand is that the Je suis Charlie manifestation does not imply an acceptance of the magazine’s caricatures. Quite on the contrary: the power of the statement lies in the identification with a magazine which many – including presumably the several French imams who declared their support – strongly disliked. The failure of prominent voices among the left to grasp the gravity of the attack is one of the most disturbing phenomena it has revealed.
Avner Ofrath
Oxford

• Joe Sacco’s humanity shines on this week’s dreadful events with a rare clarity and honesty. It’s only a starting point to defend the right to be offensive. We must also ask what greater good our offensiveness serves – if any. Sacco illustrates that, in reality, only some offensiveness is defended, and asks us to consider why. If powerful reactionary forces mock vulnerable and victimised groups, is that as valid as when the tables are turned? What happens if a group is weak in one arena and powerful in another, and the balance is constantly contested? Instinctively we are all aware, that if the pen/cil is mightier than the sword, it can also be as dangerous. Sacco’s cartoon alone justifies my Guardian subscription as a contribution to free and responsible speech.
Emma Laughton
Colyton, Devon

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras at the party congress in Athens, Greece, 3 January 2015.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras at the party congress in Athens, Greece, 3 January 2015. Photograph: Wassilios Aswestopoulos/NurP/REX

Syriza’s potential victory in the forthcoming elections in Greece is of the utmost importance for all those who want Europe to change course. Such a victory would be an expression of the demand for dignity and justice: for hope. The threats and pressure applied by EU leaders, the troika and financial circles to influence the electoral choice of the Greek people are unacceptable.

Throughout Europe, we will defend the right of the Greek people to make their decisions freely; to break with austerity; to say no to the humanitarian crisis that has plagued the country; to pave the way for a real alternative for Greece – for a social and democratic reorientation.

We believe that such a change in Greece will not affect the future of the Greek people alone. A victory for Syriza will allow Greece to escape from the current catastrophic situation but it will also represent green shoots of change for Europe. Breaking with austerity policies would be a signal, a source of hope for those who want to stand tall. At the same time, if Syriza is voted into power, its government will need massive support from the people of Europe in the face of the pressures from the financial markets and political forces which fear any departure from the obsolete framework of capitalist globalisation.
Nicola Acocella Professor of economic policy, University of Rome, Matyas Benyik ATTAC Hungary, Nadezda Cacinovic University of Zagreb, Croatia, Mario Candeias Direktor des Institut fur Gesellschaftsanalyse, Berlin, Germany, John Douglas President, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Elena Frangakis-Syrett Professor of economic history, City University of New York, Dan Gallin Global Labour Institute, Geneva, Switzerland, Adoración Guamán Hernández Professor of labour law, University of Valencia, Spain, Jean Ziegler Former member, UN human rights council and 327 other initial signatories. Full list and petition at with-the-greeks.eu

Infrastructure bill is a threat to the rights of the British public

Anti-fracking sign on a gate in Little Plumpton, Lancashire.
Fracking ‘anywhere in Britain’ could become ‘a legal objective’, says Canon Andrea Titterington. Above, anti-fracking sign on a gate in Little Plumpton, Lancashire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian./Christopher Thomond

The infrastructure bill now making its way through the Commons is yet another threat by this government to take away the rights of the public – not just in future developments but also in environmentally damaging activities such as fracking. It has already been passed by the Lords. If it becomes law the following will occur:

1) Any public land (apart from that owned by the royal family and now our forests) can be transferred to the government’s Homes and Communities Agency, to be passed on to private firms to use for any kind of development, with all rights of public access removed.

2) The recovery of gas and oil – including fracking, coal gasification, coalbed methane extraction and geothermal – anywhere in Britain to be a legal objective.

3) The right to dump and abandon any substance whatsoever under any land (including radioactive and gases).

4) The right to drill under any land, public or private.

5) Major projects (such as power stations, new towns, high-speed rail and motorways) to be decided on by government rather than councils, with communities also unlikely to be consulted.

6) Any species deemed non-native (including barn owls, red kites, goshawks) can be controlled or exterminated.

7) Councils given short time limits to enforce planning restrictions or their duties will be discharged by a panel of two government inspectors and a minister, giving developers free rein.

8) The Land Registry to be given major new powers to hold local registers, and be the judge, jury and executioner on land ownership disputes.

9) Anyone building fewer than 50 houses in a development will no longer need to ensure they are zero carbon or eco-friendly.

If this becomes law it makes a mockery of any democratic rights still held by the people of this country. There is a mass lobby of parliament on 14 January.
Canon Andrea Titterington
Preston, Lancashire

David Cameron On The Final Phase Of Local Election Campaign
Get greenery: ‘goodie bags’ containing a silver birch sapling await collection before David Cameron’s press conference on ‘green’ issues on 8 April 2006. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Silly me. When Cameron said in 2010, “vote blue, go green” I didn’t realise he was referring to the TV debate in 2015 (Report, 9 January).
Alan Ford
Saltdean, East Sussex

• Would you please not use term bedblockers (Report, 7 January). This neoliberal language dehumanises people to commodities and treats them as a transactional contract, rather than humans. They are vulnerable people that need us to love them, care for them and provide them with a decent quality of life by paying a bit more tax.
Brian Keegan
Peterborough

• Whoaaa! Alex Hern (Why it’s smart to be dumb, 7 January) promotes more traditional alternatives to the latest gadgets – the apparently now antiquarian Kindle, instead of the iPad. If you want to read a book, get a book. To quote Hern: “They’re simple, they work.”
Brian Lake
President, Antiquarian Booksellers Association

Independent:

Times:

Sir, I once heard EM Forster give a Cambridge lecture titled “Did Jesus Have a Sense of Humour?” He thought not.

It would be possible to ask a Jewish audience if God has a sense of humour, even though the thin-skinned might take offence.

During the Islamic golden age it would have been possible to ask a Muslim audience the same about the Prophet, even though to many that was blasphemy.

In Britain (but not yet in Northern Ireland), parliament has abolished the crime of blasphemy, and our law allows offensive speech that satirises and ridicules religious beliefs and practices. That law protects our secular society.

In Britain, as in France, we have a right but not a duty to offend that belongs to all of us, of all religions and none. We are all Charlie.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill, QC
London EC4

Sir, There is a difference between the right to offend and being offensive. Expressing a contrary view about a faith or religious practice may well offend but deliberately being offensive to cause hurt, by using words or actions with the intent to cause distress, such as leaving a pig’s head on a doorstep, is clearly wrong. The two instances cited by Roger Harris (letter, Jan 10), the Public Order Act 1986 and the Offensive Behaviour at Football Matches Act 2012, clearly refer to deliberate use of words to insult or offend. I see no reason to repeal these acts.

Free speech has never been, and can never be, a licence to say absolutely anything in any circumstance.

Paul Packwood
Clevedon, Somerset

Sir, To call the vicious criminals who killed journalists and others in Paris “terrorists”, and imply they had some sort of strategic aim of destroying free speech as part of some Islamist plot, is to assign a level of abstract thought and clarity of purpose to people driven by narcissism and a search for personal significance. In our research interviewing convicted terrorists, it is only their leadership that have any distinct ideology or political objective. The people who carry out the shootings are much more like those spree killers who drive into McDonald’s or strafe their erstwhile workmates with automatic gunfire.

To call them terrorists is to give a grandeur to what are mean-minded despicable acts.

Emeritus Professor David Canter
School of Psychology, University of Liverpool

Sir, A clear contradiction stands between those who uphold free speech and those who seek to suppress it. I therefore take issue with Nabil Hanafi (letter, Jan 10) who writes that “defending free speech means defending the rights of even those who say that such a freedom should not exist”. This is an intellectual oxymoron. Common sense dictates that in giving intolerance a platform we effectively support our own demise.

Linda Bisol
Geneva

Sir, Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s criticism of the West’s complacency is spot-on (Saturday Interview, Jan 10). As leader of several African diaspora organisations, I have spent the past decade trying to secure the collaboration of government, media and universities to implement initiatives to counteract the spread of Salafi jihadism among African communities. My efforts have occasionally been met with stalling and, more often, outright rejection.

Tellingly, attackers such as the killers of Lee Rigby, the authors of the recent atrocities in France, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber”, were all of African descent. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell
Director, Policy Centre for African Peoples

Sir, Saudi Arabia condemns the attacks in Paris as a “cowardly terrorist act” (report, Jan 10). How does this stance tally with the news, reported in the same edition, that a young Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, was given the first 50 of 1,000 lashes, a ten-year prison sentence and £175,000 fine, for insulting Islam?

David Green
London

Sir, Further to Matthew Parris’s Opinion article (Jan 10), I wonder who, in the long run, is more likely to put the lives of my children and grandchildren at risk: his “murderous misfits”, or the people in this country who consistently oppose giving our security services the tools they need to keep them safe?

Rear Admiral Conrad Jenkin
West Meon, Hants

Sir, The article by Sajid Javid (“Killers want to offend but not be offended”, Opinion, Jan 10) was well-balanced. He is wrong, though, to state that the writings of Socrates “continue to be widely read”.

Socrates has no writings. It is the writings of his pupil, Plato, about Socrates that are widely read.

Sir, Maybe the non-saluting bemused soldiers at Sandhurst (letter, Jan 9) mistook Air Vice-Marshal Higgs for a bo’sun.

John Nolan
Corcullen, Co Galway

Sir, Paul Ackford’s belief that there is less respect for officials from rugby players today (Sport, Jan 10) reminded me of the instruction given to me by the senior games master in my first week at grammar school 50-odd years ago: Rule 1. The referee is always right. Rule 2. If the referee is obviously wrong, Rule 1 applies.

Jon Ryder
Sheffield

Sir, TMS (Jan 9) describes Harold Macmillan starting a letter to Harold Wilson in 1963 with “Dear Wilson” as “patronising”. Surely it was simply the way professional men addressed each other then, even ones they had known from school and university.

At that time I was a junior private secretary to a cabinet minister, and frequently had to write to the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Michael Adeane. Despite the disparity in age and status, we addressed each other as “Dear Adeane” and “Dear Martin”.

Stanley Martin
London SE22

Sir, The caption accompanying your picture of a leopard gecko (Jan 10) states that its feet have claws rather than sticky pads. The pads of most species of gecko are adhesive but dry, not sticky in the usual sense. They depend for their grip on short-range inter-molecular forces called van der Waals forces. An artificial fabric based on these forces can be used to enable a man to climb a vertical wall — a true-life Spider-Man.

Dr Richard J Bird
Middleton Cheney, Northants

Oliver Murphy
Bray, Co Wicklow

Telegraph:

12 people were killed on Jan. 7 in a terrorist attack at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters in Paris.
Workers install a poster reading ‘Je suis Charlie’ (I am Charlie) on the Palais des Festivals facade in Cannes Photo: EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER

SIR – According to Nick Clegg, we will win the struggle against terrorism “not by increasing our security but by protecting our liberty”. Doesn’t the murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists show that liberty depends on security?

In order to protect the freedom of its citizens Britain should increase police action against terrorist suspects. Freedom also depends on the use of force against its enemies. If Mr Clegg had said we should beware of overreaction he would have had a valid point, but he is wrong to treat liberty and security as mutually exclusive concepts.

Dr David G Green
Director, Civitas
London SW1

SIR – Justice isn’t dispensed from a gun – that’s revenge. I’m not aware of any god that seeks revenge and only weak humans seek such recourse.

Duncan Anderson
East Halton, Lincolnshire

SIR – Freedom of speech does not confer a licence to indulge in bad manners and insensitive behaviour towards our neighbours.

What about fraternité? Surely that means living together in harmony.

Gillian Snoxall
Wallingford, Berkshire

SIR – Let the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square now permanently carry a column in the shape of a pencil bearing the legend Je suis Charlie.

Simon Sharpe
Cobham, Surrey

SIR – The cry of “Allahu Akbar” from the terrorists as they stormed the Charlie Hebdo building has been used by extremists as they behead Christians and Yazidis in Iraq, bomb churches in Nigeria and separate out and kill those who can’t say a Muslim prayer in parts of Kenya.

Extremism can be found in any religion, and Muslims have been on the receiving end too, but a report released yesterday by our charity, Open Doors, shows that 40 out of the worst 50 countries for Christian persecution show Islamic extremism as the main driver of this oppression.

Something closer to home, like the terrible events in Paris, is particularly shocking. But we can expect more of this unless we fight extremism as an international community much more actively than we are doing.

Lisa Pearce
CEO, Open Doors UK & Ireland
Witney, Oxfordshire

SIR – The sad death of 12 people during an attack at the office of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris dominated newspaper, television and radio headlines last Wednesday.

A bomb killed 37 police recruits in Yemen on the same day, but received nowhere near the same degree of attention.

Both were attacks by terrorists, but I suppose it’s who you are and where you are that counts.

B E Norton
Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire

SIR – Up until the moment Nigel Farage spoke out last week we had endured a succession of politicians mealy-mouthing their way around the carnage in Paris.

Of course we have a fifth column in our midst. It was the same in the Seventies and Eighties, when the source was the IRA. The difference now is that it stems from the headlong rush into the misguided policy of multiculturalism, fed by the unfettered immigration embraced by the Labour government of the late Nineties.

Not for the first time Mr Farage taken the pulse of the nation and spoken for the greater majority of it.

Edward Thomas
Eastbourne, West Sussex

SIR – It was galling to hear Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, a French journalist, having to correct a British television presenter on his offensive mis-use of the word “execute”, pointing out that there was no judicial endorsement of the Paris murders.

This is one of many similar solecisms currently in vogue throughout the media.

Christopher Egerton-Thomas
Hove, East Sussex

Tackle alcohol misuse to ease A&E pressures

SIR – The current A&E crisis is being compounded by the failure of policymakers to tackle the impact of excessive alcohol consumption. Approximately 20 per cent of all A&E attendances are alcohol-related. This increases to 70-80 per cent on Friday and Saturday nights.

Almost every family in the country has been adversely affected by alcohol misuse at some point, but successive governments have failed to enact evidence-based policies that would save lives and ease pressure on the health, policing and criminal justice systems.

A 50 pence minimum unit price for alcohol, regulation to protect children from alcohol marketing, improved alcohol labelling and the establishment of alcohol care teams with specialist consultants and nurses are simple measures – none of which would punish responsible drinkers – that must be adopted urgently in order to reduce pressures on A&E departments.

Kieran Moriarty
Alcohol Services Lead, British Society of Gastroenterology

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore
Chair, Alcohol Health Alliance
Former President, Royal College of Physicians

Dr Dominique Florin
Medical Director, Medical Council on Alcohol

Dr Adrian Boyle
Chair, Quality in Emergency Care Committee, College of Emergency Medicine

Linda Harris
Medical Director, Substance Misuse and Associated Health, Royal College of General Practitioners

Dr Carsten Grimm
Royal College of General Practitioners

John Ashton
President, Faculty of Public Health

Prof Frank Murray
President, RCP Ireland
Chairman, RCPI alcohol policy group

Shirley Cramer CBE
Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health

Jackie Ballard
Chief Executive, Alcohol Concern

Diane Goslar
Alcohol Health Alliance

Andrew Langford
Chief Executive, British Liver Trust

Dr Mark Hudson
President, British Association for the Study of the Liver

Shirley Cramer CBE
Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health

Paul Lincoln
Chief Executive Officer, UK Health Forum

Katherine Brown
Director, Institute of Alcohol Studies

Chris Record
Consultant Hepatologist, Newcastle University

Professor Linda Bauld
Deputy Director, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies
Chair in Behavioural Research for Cancer Prevention, Cancer Research UK

Hazel Parsons
Director, Drink Wise

Terry Martin
Trustee, AlcoHELP

The Duke of York’s public contribution

(AFP)

SIR – In response to Christopher Wilson’s article (“It may be time for the Queen’s second son to leave the public stage”, report, January 4) it is worth noting that Court Circulars show that last year the hard-working Duke of York carried out more than 300 public engagements. These often reflected his encouragement of science and technology as well as the British charities and other valuable causes of which he is patron or president.

The Queen and many other members of our Royal family who still selflessly carry out official duties are already over the usual retirement age. The extensive public work of our monarchy would be diminished if the Duke withdrew from national life, especially if it had an impact upon the participation of his charming daughters.

Jennifer Miller
London SW15

Saving British dairy

SIR – Milk and cheese consumption per capita has declined steadily since 1985. While the number of dairy cows has dropped dramatically over the last 10 years, the amount of milk produced by the British herd has barely dropped. With a shrinking demand and almost constant supply, the market price has only had one way to go.

Processors and retailers, rather than fighting for a greater share of the pie, should try to increase its size with innovative products like Arla’s Lactofree and Cravendale. As someone who works in the cheese industry, I also believe that more also needs to be done to promote cheese’s rich nutrition and health benefits.

Soya milk, almond milk and the rest of these ghastly impostors are nutritionally very disappointing. Don’t even get me started on low-fat spreads.

Ian Eyres
Llanyblodwel, Shropshire

Wind farm farce

SIR – Paying wind farms to switch off their turbines because the electricity network cannot cope with the power they produce is farcical.

It would be more logical to leave them generating, pay other producers to reduce output and actually conserve some non-renewable resources.

Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Fool’s paradise

SIR – I was watching the horror show Necker Island Paradise on BBC Two last week when the spell was broken by the opening bars of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row, playing on a nearby radio.

It is high time someone asked Dylan to put real names on the faces of the song’s “quite lame” people.

Liam Power
Bangor Erris, Co Mayo

Solving the mystery of the east-west buttonhole

Bright as a button: Pearly Kings and Queens celebrate the annual Harvest Festival in Covent Garden (Alamy)

SIR – Having manufactured shirts and pyjamas for over 60 years I can reveal that the last buttonhole on a shirt is placed horizontally (Letters, January 4) because it may take greater strain than the others when the wearer plays sports, moves across a seat, or simply sits with legs akimbo. All pyjama buttonholes are horizontal due to the greater stress placed on them during sleep.

The remaining shirt button holes are vertical, as this looks smarter and is easier to secure than the horizontal sort.

Derek Rose
London W1

SIR – The horizontal bottom buttonhole has appeared as a result of braces falling out of fashion. Trousers now need to be held up by friction between the waistband and the shirt, causing a vertical pull on the shirt.

Mik Shaw
Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex

SIR – Any dressmaker will explain that an east-west buttonhole stays closed, and is useful for those with beer bellies.

Jennifer Clezy
Beausale, Warwickshire

SIR – Short-sleeve shirts are worn casually outside the trousers during summer. The east-west buttonhole provides reinforcement for the inevitable pulling across the fabric when one slips one’s hands into one’s linen or chino trouser pockets.

Jules Bowes Davies
Pont Ceri, Carmarthenshire

SIR – I do up my shirt buttons from the top downwards and find a crossways buttonhole useful for letting me know that I have finished, thus avoiding the frustration of seeking out a buttonhole for the spare button sewn on below.

Michael Staples
Seaford, East Sussex

Grey squirrel cull

(Alamy)

SIR – If the grey squirrel cull goes ahead taxpayers will be paying for the wholesale slaughter of wildlife.

Can nobody see anything wrong with giving landowners money and the “requirement” to cull thousands of grey squirrels “using whatever method they prefer”? Even if it were acceptable to wipe out a species in this way, other animals – such as birds, bats, doormice and red squirrels – would also be put at risk from indiscriminate poisoning and snaring.

Ginny Martin
Bishops Waltham, Hampshire

SIR – In the Fifties funding was available for every grey squirrel tail taken to the offices of the Ministry of Agriculture. I believe it was sixpence.

I spent many hours shooting grey squirrels and was immensely pleased to be able

to supplement my pocket money. Our large ginger cat, Sherry, did valiant work bringing squirrels

back home too. She did not reap the benefits, as someone usually cut the tails off her catch before she reached home.

The proposed funding seems far less efficient, as it is not based on exact results.

Willum Butterfield
East Haddon, Northamptonshire

Luck of a generation

SIR – Before demonising the older generation for living through decades of prosperity and property boomswe should remember that average mortgage interest rates in the Eighties reached 16 per cent. They never fell below 8 per cent, and there was no Help to Buy scheme underwritten by the taxpayer.

Fred Clark
Liverpool

Facebook and fiction

SIR – Mark Zuckerberg’s resolution to read a book every fortnight is commendable, but he places too much emphasis on non-fiction.

Reading fiction enhances our ability to connect with different kinds of people and sharpens our emotional understanding – traits that would be invaluable in counteracting the oft-levelled criticism that the rise of social media has led to an increasingly self-obsessed society.

Andrew Copeman
London SW18

Love is in the air

SIR – Sorry chaps, you’re all wrong: the sexiest voice (Letters, January 4) belonged to the lady who used to read the Geneva Volmet weather reports. The wonder of the Alps at 36,000 ft and that voice…never forgotten.

Capt John Grogan
Congleton, Cheshire

SIR – I was posted to RAF Melksham as an education officer in 1958. One of the young ladies who did the station tannoy announcements had the most beautiful and alluring voice.

I managed to meet her at the weekly Scottish country dancing event and married her soon thereafter.

John Ross
Tenby, Pembrokeshire

SIR – One day in the early Seventies I gave up my lunch break when on turnround at Sumburgh to walk to the control tower in search of the Shetland approach controller with the honey-soaked voice.

Seated at her console was a lady about my mother’s age, knitting, feet on the desk, wearing brown corduroy trousers. I made an excuse and left.

Capt Martyn Johnson
Driffield, East Yorkshire

Weedy diet

(Paul Grover/The Telegraph)

SIR – If Gwyneth Paltrow wishes to detox on garden weeds she would be very welcome on my allotment at any time.

Fred Wilson
Newcastle upon Tyne

Globe and Mail:

Irish Times:

Sir, – We can’t all be in Paris to march in solidarity with the victims of terror attacks there. But we can make sure we stand by the values of freedom of expression and a refusal to be cowed by fanaticism. – Yours, etc,

JAMES O’KEEFE,

Crumlin, Dublin 12.

Sir, – I refer to Dr Ali Selim’s warning to the Irish media of legal action if they publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoon he finds offensive and which others found so offensive that they killed 12 people (“Ali Selim urges media not to republish Charlie Hebdo cartoons”, January 7th).

Dr Selim has in the past argued against the abolition of the offence of blasphemy from our Constitution which, disappointingly it appears, will not be the subject of a referendum this year. His contention that satirising religious beliefs should not be tolerated is incompatible with freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Free and open expression is not only part of – but also essential to – a healthy democracy.

Humour, irony and satire are an integral part of this freedom and (save, of course, where there is for example incitement to violence, hatred or racism) should be protected.

Do we really want to live in a country where being involved in the likes of a humorous cartoon, Father Ted or The Life of Brian could result in a fine of up to €25,000? The law against blasphemy is an anachronism and should be removed. Blasphemy laws have fomented intolerance, prejudice and violence elsewhere. One need only look to other countries where such laws survive. In Egypt, insulting Islam and Muhammad has resulted in the death penalty – seven Egyptian Christians were sentenced to death in 2012 for their role in the “anti-Mohammad” movie. In Afghanistan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, blasphemy is also punishable by a penalty up to and including death. In Pakistan, two politicians, Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, were assassinated because they called for reform of the blasphemy law.

Embarrassingly, Ireland belongs to the blasphemy club. There may have been no prosecutions in Ireland to date, but this may change. Furthermore, other countries have cited Ireland’s prohibition on blasphemy in support of their own poisonous activities.

The Convention on the Constitution recommended that the offence of blasphemy be abolished. Such an offence has no place in a democracy which values freedom of speech and freedom of expression. These fundamental freedoms cannot be sacrificed in the name of a prohibition on causing offence to certain people’s beliefs. Religion is open to question, scrutiny and humour, just like any other set of beliefs or ideology. Nobody has the right not to be offended. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Sir, – Richard Coffey writes (January 10th) that “satirists and cartoonists should not go so far as to intentionally offend, insult or incite people of other creeds and beliefs”. As the great Salman Rushdie, who had more cause than most to ruminate on the topic, declared “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend it does not exist”. – Yours, etc,

PAUL WILLIAMS,

Kilkee,

Co Clare.

Sir, – The review of the Leaving Cert applied maths course (“Plan for Leaving Cert computer science module ‘tokenistic’”, January 8th) is welcome indeed, as the current content is too narrowly focused on mathematical physics (beautiful as that subject is) and does little to portray the wide scope of modern applied mathematics, with applications in diverse areas in finance, fluid engineering, systems biology, climate modelling and so on. The new specification proposed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) aims to address this issue.

In a rather deft move on the part of the NCCA, the proposed new specification aims simultaneously to address a skills gap that has arguably opened up as a result of the (well-intentioned) introduction of Project Maths. Thus, the new specification aims to strengthen the mathematical capabilities of those second-level students who wish to pursue a Stem subject (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) at third level. From my own experience as a third-level lecturer, I anticipate that this would greatly enhance the students’ engagement with Stem subjects at third level and therefore soften the transition between second and third levels.

Finally, even the introduction of computational science may not be so problematic, so long as the focus here is on the connection between computation and applications in scientific modelling and simulation, leaving “pure” computer science to be introduced as a possible standalone subject in the future. Using open-source programming platforms and computer hardware such as the exciting (and very cheap) Raspberry Pi computer, a module along these lines could in fact be delivered in the vast majority of secondary schools with only modest investment in equipment. The open-source principle, while not only cheap and cheerful, also reflects current best practice in scientific computing.

Thus, there are many exciting possibilities in play, giving the NCCA an excellent opportunity to fashion an applied maths curriculum consistent with the needs of Irish students and society and better reflective of modern trends in applied and computational mathematics. – Yours, etc,

LENNON Ó NARAIGH,

Lecturer,

Applied and Computational

Mathematics,

School of Mathematical

Sciences,

University College Dublin.

Sir, – The irony of Lucinda Creighton TD’s new party being fronted by three individuals representing incompatible interests should not be wasted on the electorate.

Ms Creighton departed Fine Gael following her election in 2011 due to a matter of conscience, after years of dutifully supporting the governing Coalition’s reforms, and she continues to espouse conservative social values. Eddie Hobbs criticises the role of the State in people’s lives and advocates for its reduction. Cllr John Leahy from Offaly calls for State support for rural post offices, farming families and public services, which would involve a concomitant increase in the reach of the State.

These three platforms are each appropriate and stimulating contributions to the debate around political and social reform in Ireland.

However, they are completely incompatible with one another, and any “alliance” or “common ground” reached between such people will represent little more than an opportunity for individuals, interests and egos to be put before the national best interest.

Multiparty politics is a painful business of compromise involving the aggregation of needs and the allocation and distribution of limited resources among a multitude of competing interests, usually at the expense of sectional, local and personal interests.

Anyone who thinks that an alliance of such diverse “independent” individuals can bring about much-needed reforms and progress in the national best interest should carefully scrutinise the agendas of individual candidates, and what exactly it is that holds any such “alliance” together before choosing to give them their vote. – Yours, etc,

BARRY COLFER,

Department of Politics

and International Studies,

University of Cambridge,

England.

Sir, – Besides voting on the budget, there is no obvious reason why every single piece of government legislation, no matter how rushed or flawed, should be blindly supported by government TDs.

The suggestion that, without the whip system, TDs would not follow their party’s principles, or would be bombarded by lobbies, is incorrect. TDs are bombarded by lobbies anyway, and most victims of the whip system in recent times fell because they tried to uphold their party’s promises to the electorate, such as Róisín Shorthall or Lucinda Creighton.

As for political instability leading to economic instability, Belgium has often gone without a government for well over a year in recent times, with little economic ill-effect. And the relatively stable Fianna Fáil-led governments between 1997 and 2011 were responsible for leaving us in this mess. – Yours, etc,

TOMÁS M CREAMER,

Ballinamore,

Co Leitrim.

A chara, – We now know that the UN, a former minister for education, the chairman of the forum on patronage and pluralism, and various others wish to see fewer schools under religious patronage (“Segregation concerns over transfer of school patronage”, January 2nd). It all seems rather overwhelming. Except that the people on the ground aren’t as keen; in fact the reason that the idea isn’t progressing is because of “huge local hostility”.

Parents don’t like the plan and parents, as it happens, are the primary educators of their children. It even says so in the Constitution. Which tends to make, I would suggest, the forces behind the push to wrest the control of schools into other hands a lot more underwhelming than they might at first appear. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – My point in highlighting the misuse of the political label of “Independent” by the media and Irish people in general was to point out that there is no such available option on the ballot paper (December 24th).

Although I do not want to see large numbers of so-called Independents in the Dáil, their automatic regulation to the category of “non-party” candidates on the ballot paper is surely confusing and politically mischievous.

As your columnist Colm Keena pointed out (“Why Ireland needs positive party politics to tackle challenges of globalisation”, December 31st), we desperately need party politics in Ireland today and apart from the undesirability of having large number of Independents in the next Dáil, it would be equally disturbing to encourage a non-party/party division at a time when we need more rather than less coherence in Irish politics.

While I share Tom Neville’s bafflement (January 2nd) at the growing popularity of Independents in Irish political life, we cannot expect new party politics to emerge if we ourselves continue to maintain our old self-centred social, cultural and political habits.

That much quoted observation that to change the world you must first change yourself certainly applies to Irish people today. Is it too much to hope that we will see the emergence of new politics in Ireland during 2015? – Yours, etc,

Dr VINCENT KENNY,

Knocklyon, Dublin 16.

Sir, – JD Mangan (January 8th) baldly states “Eamon de Valera used the Irish Press newspaper which he’d set up himself to con shareholders investing in the company”. This is totally untrue. JD Mangan is entitled to his own opinions but not to his own facts. This falsehood has been propagated by others through misrepresentation, selective use of extracts from documents, suppression of facts and bolstered by the invention of purported “facts” which can be shown to be untrue.

Eamon de Valera did set up the Irish Press and over 10,000 people subscribed funds because it was he who had set it up. There was nothing underhand in any of what he did.

For example, in February 1930, Frank P Walsh, a noted Irish American lawyer, wrote to bondholders of Republican Bonds seeking to raise funds for the Irish Press in America by the assignment of bonds to my grandfather. Within this letter he stated: “Whilst these funds are being solicited by way of donations, Mr de Valera, will, of course, not derive personally any monetary profit from them. He intends to make the necessary and proper arrangements to ensure that if any profits accrue from the enterprise, or, if there should be any distribution of assets, such profits and the amount of any such distribution will be made available for the donors, according to their respective donations.”

I can vouch that such arrangement were put in place and the commitment honoured. – Yours, etc,

EAMON de VALERA

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Are the days of chivalry and courtesy in Ireland over? As a senior citizen I travelled by Dart from Blackrock into Dublin city centre recently. The carriage was full of students from at least three different schools (I’m not going to mention them by name) travelling to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. All the seats were occupied by the students and all the adults were left standing in the aisles. Not once was I or any of the other adults offered a seat!

By contrast, travelling by Tube in London recently, on two occasions I was offered a seat when standing in the aisle. Perhaps a little training in behaviour wouldn’t go amiss in our schools. – Yours, etc,

AUSTIN SAVAGE,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – In reference to the letter written by Dr Andrew Kelly (January 2nd) in respect of the Arts Council, circuses and wild animals, I would like to point out that under the Arts Act 2003, the Arts Council has a duty to uphold circus as an art form. That includes all forms of circus, be they traditional or contemporary. Circus is one of our oldest art forms and one of our most socially inclusive.

The Arts Council currently supports only two traditional circuses, Fossett’s and Duffy’s, both which use animals as an integral part of their shows. Fossett’s works only with horses, while Duffy’s has worked with sealions in recent years. They do not, however, use lions and tigers. Both of these circuses are in full compliance with the Framework for the Welfare of Animals Presented in the Arts document, which the Arts Council implements, and they also have their own highly detailed animal welfare policies

Both of these circuses love and respect their animals and treat them with the greatest of care, something which not every human in our society is afforded today. – Yours, etc,

LUCY MEDLYCOTT,

Co-ordinator,

Irish Street Arts, Circus

and Spectacle Network,

c/o Irish Theatre Institute,

Eustace Street,

Temple Bar,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – The suggestion by Dr Gerry Burke (January 8th) for the requisition of private hospitals by the Government for the benefit of the “common good” is as laughable as it is foolish.

Such hospitals already serve the common good by removing strain on public provision of services. Given that he acknowledges their efficiency, surely he would be more in favour of government incentives for the construction of even more private hospitals and personal incentives making private health insurance less costly? Surely a better solution than leaving more helpless patients in the clutches of the seemingly hapless public system. – Yours, etc,

EANNA COFFEY,

Killarney,

Co Kerry.

Sir, – The real culprit in the Charlie Haughey affair is Allied Irish Banks (AIB). In 1979 AIB wrote off a debt in excess of £1 million which was owing by Charlie Haughey to the bank. If AIB had pursued Haughey for the amount owing and got a judgment against him, then if he was unable to pay, he would have been adjudged a bankrupt, disqualified from Dáil Éireann and his political career would have come to an end. – Yours, etc,

MATTHEW

Mac GABHANN,

Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2.

Irish Independent:

People hold panels to create the eyes of late Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as "Charb", as hundreds of thousands of French citizens take part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015.

People hold panels to create the eyes of late Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, known as “Charb”, as hundreds of thousands of French citizens take part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015.

The recent attacks in France have shocked the world and especially those of us who value free speech. These murderers do not understand, nor do they care to understand, that the right to say what we want is a cornerstone of our civilisation and is intrinsically important in the social and political history of the West.

  • Go To

It is what we call a human right, one of those rights given to us by nature, or God, or whatever higher power you believe in.

The right to freedom of speech has been long sought after and hard won over many centuries. It can in fact be traced back to the birthplaces of Western civilisation in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Both laboured under repressive tyrannies for hundreds of years before regaining their freedom and enshrining free speech in their laws. The theme of freedom borne from the sufferance of tyranny is one that is repeated throughout Western history.

England embraced free speech after years of Cromwellian dictatorship, during which theatres and other such places were shut. It then fended off attempts at absolutist monarchical rule.

The right to free speech is vital to the dialogue that generates the change we value so much.

Our whole attitude to this vital right can best be summed up in the line: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” The very fact that I’m writing this piece shows free speech in action.

Colin Smith

Clara, Co Offaly

 

Remembering ‘Charlie Hebdo’

I am a big fan of ‘Charlie Hebdo’ and will always buy a copy when visiting France. I do this for the laughs I get from the fantastic cartoons and witty scripts. In fact, I have a kept a few of these over the years so I can relive the laughs.

A particular favourite is from 2003 during the heat wave in France. It is signed Wolinski (RIP) and I am saddened to realise that I will no longer be able to enjoy his work.

There were no sacred cows in the magazine; it parodied religion, politics and even the French themselves.

I listened to the comments of Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre, and he seemed to indicate he would have a problem with content from such a magazine being published here.

Is this man the self-appointed censor in Ireland?

Donal Deering

Kilkenny

 

Freedom means responsibility

In the wake of the terrorist killings in Paris the right to ‘freedom of expression’ has been heralded repeatedly, which strikes me as one of the Western world’s enduring myths.

We have never had to be more careful about what we say, rightly or wrongly, and mindful of ethnicity, gender, social background, sexual orientation, disability, colour and beliefs. At what point does ‘freedom of expression’ slide into offensive behaviour, defamation, blasphemy and downright racism? The atrocity in Paris must be condemned. However, satirists and cartoonists should not go so far as to intentionally offend, insult or incite people of other creeds and beliefs.

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, however, the exercise of this right carries with it duties and responsibilities. In a world increasingly divided between religious extremism, with Islamophobia and disaffected Muslim youth going off to fight in the Middle East, we need to respect people of other creeds, promote tolerance and build bridges – not destroy them.

Richard Coffey

Terenure, Dublin 6

Free speech is a human responsibility, it is not a privilege, and the primary responsibility inherent in free speech is to speak truthfully and fairly. This implies honesty and the willingness to hear the meaning of those with whom we engage in discourse and to learn from that discourse.

A healthy family, community or society treasures honesty and fairness in all matters above all else, because we do live together and our action or inaction affects each other and feeds into the future to affect the lives of people as yet unborn.

This responsibility is a constant. It is a fundamental human standard. It’s the very essence of healthy adult maturity.

Free Speech is therefore both a social and a personal responsibility, as well as a ‘response ability'; it contains within it the hearing out of the response to what one has uttered as part of its essence. Antagonism is not free speech, and is in general, an immature approach to discourse.

Corneilius Crowley

Harrow, England

 

Poetic justice

Tom Gilsenan rhymes “Inda and Lucinda” (Irish Independent Letters, 07.01.2015). Perhaps Inda will be at a ‘looseenda’ if Lucinda wins?

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

 

Reboot or a kickstart?

If Lucinda feels like a “reboot” she might be better advised just to buy herself a new pair of boots.

Liam Cooke

Coolock, Dublin 17

I know a number of people who would love to “reboot” the political system. Regrettably, it involves sudden and sharp applications of force to the posteriors of certain public figures.

Of course, this is a pipe dream, a term which might be applied to Lucinda Creighton’s new party. Announcing the formation of a new party with only Eddie Hobbs and John Leahy in support was not impressive. Eddie Hobbs is better known as a financial journalist/advisor rather than a politician. John Leahy is apparently a county councillor but can hardly be described as a household name. This is not an inspiring start for a new party, nor is the news that €1m is being sought to enable the party to fight the forthcoming election.

Name and address with editor

 

Solving the crisis in A&E

I am a nurse in one of the country’s large regional hospitals and I believe there is a simple, cost-effective solution Health Minister Leo Varadkar could implement to help reduce hospital admissions and improve medical care.

Every day a significant number of elderly patients are referred from nursing homes to Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments, in particular those suffering with pneumonia and other respiratory ailments and severe urinary tract infections. These patients are typically referred to hospital having been seen and diagnosed by a GP. In almost all cases their key medical requirement is for intravenous antibiotics and intravenous fluids to be administered for a short period. However, sending these patients to A&E means taking elderly, vulnerable people out of a warm familiar environment and into busy and at times chaotic hospitals.

This could be avoided if nursing staff in long-stay facilities were trained to cannulate patients – a simple procedure that would mean intravenous antibiotics and intravenous fluids could be administered in nursing homes, in their own beds, under the care of a medical doctor.

Nursing home staff are medical professionals who are also familiar faces to nursing home residents – making for a less frightening experience for patients. I have no doubt that putting this relatively simple change into practice would mean recovery times would be much quicker for patients whose medical treatment would be a safer and a less daunting experience.

Joan O’Donovan

Co Limerick


Shopping

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13 January 2015 Shoping

Mary a little better though she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading post office M&S, Tesco and Co op.

Obituary:

Frank Atkinson – obituary

Frank Atkinson was the creator of the Beamish Museum, in Co Durham, which provides the sights, sounds and smells of yesteryear

Frank Atkinson the man who created the world-famous Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham
Frank Atkinson the man who created the world-famous Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham Photo: North News / NNP

Frank Atkinson, who has died aged 90, was chief creator of the Beamish Museum in Co Durham and regarded as the father of the industrial museum movement.

Atkinson was working as curator of the Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle in the 1950s when, inspired by open-air museums he had visited in Scandinavia, he came up with the idea of creating a museum of “living history” that would preserve the way of life, customs, and speech patterns of the North East of England at a time when the region’s traditional industries – coal, shipbuilding and steel mills – were beginning to disappear, along with the communities which served them.

Convinced that there was an urgent need to preserve not only household objects but also everything from complete buildings to industrial structures before they disappeared, in the 1960s he began collecting on a grand scale.

A 15-ton steamroller was bought for £150 from Northumberland county council; a J21 locomotive built in Gateshead in 1889 was bought for £1,200; and when Atkinson discovered that Rowley Station near Consett in Co Durham (a classic example of a small North Eastern Railway company station) was awaiting demolition, he arranged to rent it at £10 a year until it could be dismantled and rebuilt. A cast-iron gents’ lavatory from Willington Quay in North Tyneside was also taken down and stored.

Meanwhile, members of the public were invited to ransack their attics. “You offer, we collect” was the slogan; and contributions, ranging from miners’ tin boxes to turn-of-the-century dental equipment, and from 19th-century adverts to hand-sewn baby clothes and old uniforms, poured in. Eventually the collection spilt out of the Bowes Museum attics into about 30 huts and hangars at the old Army camp at Brancepeth.

In 1966 a working party was established to examine the concept of the museum, whose entrance feature was to be Tiny Tim (a huge 1883 steam-powered hammer which had been used to forge ships’ rudder posts). Beamish Hall, on a 300-acre site eight miles south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne, was soon identified as a suitable location.

The Friends of Beamish was set up in 1967, and in 1970 Atkinson left the Bowes Museum to become director of the new museum — the first to be financed and administered by a consortium of county councils (Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear).

A preliminary exhibition called Museum in the Making, which opened in 1971, set an instant record by attracting a two-hour queue on its opening day, and 50,000 people came to visit over 21 weekends. The museum began with just two members of staff, and until 1972 displays were confined to the hall; but as open-air aspects of the museum became accessible, Atkinson developed new techniques of interactive, entertaining and participatory display which have been influential on older museums.

Displays included a whole town constructed from the buildings that had been dismantled and re-erected, with terraced housing, shops, a pub, a park, a school, a newspaper office, a bank and a row of houses where professional people would have lived. There was also a drift mine, a farm with animals, a steam railway and trams to take visitors round the attractions.

A tram stops on an Edwardian street at the unique Beamish Open Air Museum (NNP)

However, while the exhibits were fascinating in themselves, it was the first-person interpreters (many of them local people who had experienced the life they described) who brought history to life. “Visitors to the museum can follow a coal miner into the eerie blackness of a 1913 drift mine; wait in a prim Victorian parlour to be called upstairs to a scary cast-iron dental chair flanked by a foot-pedal-powered drill; sample freshly baked bread in the kitchen of a miner’s cottage; watch cheese being made at the Home Farm; or shop for tea, treacle or fancy bloomers at the cooperative store,” remarked an American visitor who recommended a day at the Beamish as an antidote to “castle burnout”.

But, as Atkinson explained: “Beamish was established mainly to give confidence to the people of north-east England themselves. They tended to have a chip on their shoulder about their past, proud of it and yet feeling that it was undervalued. The museum was for them. Tourism didn’t exist up there when we first planned it.”

By 1986 the Beamish had been named British Museum of the Year. In 1987, the year Atkinson retired, it became European Museum of the Year. Today it attracts more than 350,000 visitors annually.

The son of a plumber and an infant schoolteacher, Frank Atkinson was born near Barnsley on April 13 1924 and began building up his own small museum of odds and ends as a boy. Aged 10 he took up fossil collecting and became the youngest member of the Museum of Barnsley Naturalist and Scientific Society.

A 1940s farm at the museum (NNP)

He was educated at Barnsley Grammar School, where he decided on a museum career, but after taking a Science degree at Sheffield University he initially worked at a coking plant, spending his weekends volunteering at the Wakefield Museum and Art Gallery. He eventually got a job there and became, aged 25, the country’s youngest museum director. Atkinson went on to direct the Halifax Museums before his appointment as curator of the Bowes Museum in 1958.

After retiring from the Beamish Museum, he worked with the Thomas Bewick Birthplace Trust and as a member of the (now disbanded) national Museums and Galleries Commission.

Atkinson published an autobiography, The Man Who Made Beamish, in 1999 and wrote several books about the history and traditions of the North East, including Victorian Britain: The North East (1989) and Life and Tradition in Northumberland and Durham (2001), in which gave delightful accounts of such traditional pastimes as pigeon fancying and leek growing.

He was appointed CBE in 1995.

In 1953 Frank Atkinson married Joan Pierson, who survives him with their three sons.

Frank Atkinson, born April 13 1924, died December 30 2014

Guardian:

Andrew Parker, Director General of MI5
Andrew Parker, Director General of MI5. Photograph: AP

Andrew Parker, head of MI5, used his 8 January speech after the Paris attacks to reinforce the agencies’ case for wide-ranging surveillance capabilities (Report, 10 January). This argument is driven by factors both technological – “we can collect everything so we shall” – and political: ministers and agencies fear they might miss somebody as they search for those who might threaten security.

But there is no evidence that mass surveillance will do any good. Parker’s speech gave examples where successful interception of communications led to convictions but both referred to forensic analysis of communications of people after their arrest; neither referred to bulk collection enabling prevention. Lee Rigby’s killers and the Kouachi brothers in France were known to the security agencies, and therefore their communications could be intercepted on the basis of targeting and warrants. But they were not high enough up the list of agency priorities for more intrusive surveillance and their crimes were not prevented. To use these as evidence to support an argument for yet more surveillance powers is nonsensical; the agencies are already overwhelmed with information and must make difficult judgments. The task is to improve their capacity to process and evaluate what they have in relation to known suspects.
Peter Gill
Honorary senior research fellow, University of Liverpool

• Over the past few days we have learnt that freedom has a price, which sometimes has to be paid in blood; and if the politicians manoeuvre us into a position where we are no longer paying the price, they may have manoeuvred us into a position where we are no longer free.
Barrie Dale
Wantage, Oxfordshire

• If the security services are given more powers to deal with terrorism, there is justifiable concern that these would be used to suppress legitimate dissent. In the past, special branch collaborated with employers’ organisations to compile a blacklist of trade-union activists; when the IRA was active, the security services used police spies to gain intelligence about its activities, and even used agents provocateurs to incite actions to discredit the organisation. Similar tactics were then used by police to infiltrate peaceful environmental protest groups; there is evidence that police spies encouraged activists to undertake illegal activities; one such spy is even suspected of planting an incendiary device. Recently this paper revealed evidence of the police trying to recruit informers on campuses to report on student activists, so there appears to be a continued abuse of power. Will a letter to the Guardian criticising the security services result in being placed on a police database?
Derrick Joad
Leeds

• Charlie Hebdo knew they were in danger; after all, they accepted police protection. But their actions have had tragic, and at least partly foreseeable, consequences, not only for themselves but for their protectors, all their families, and society at large. Ironically we may all now be subject to further limitations on our personal freedom and privacy as governments take the predictable opportunity to increase “security”.
Sarah Ashe
Modbury, Devon

• Congratulations to Simon Jenkins (8 January) for the wise advice not to overreact to the outrages in France. And right on cue, up pops Andrew Parker, the head of MI5, demanding “the assistance of companies which hold relevant data”.

No, Mr Nosey Parker, we are not going to let you have everyone’s data to sift through. Targeted surveillance is one thing. But bulk collection and retention of data is intolerable in a society that upholds the principles of liberty and freedom of speech, for which those poor French journalists paid with their lives.
Ron Mitchell
Coventry

• Over the past decade the fight against home-grown terror has been led by the security services, which (for fear of disclosing techniques and sources) have chosen to adopt an unsustainably labour-intensive approach of ongoing monitoring and surveillance, rather than direct confrontation and criminal prosecution of those identified in the commissioning of extremist terror.

A fundamental shift in approach is needed, whereby we have early police intervention, as soon as extremist behaviour becomes apparent, to the full extent allowed by the law, rather than just waiting for terrorism to happen.
Mark Campbell-Roddis
Dunblane, Perthshire

• I wonder if Edward Snowden is having second thoughts? After the recent multiple tragedies in France and the strong chance that they could happen in the UK and elsewhere, it must be obvious that trawling of electronic mail is necessary to try to prevent future jihadist plans.
Dr RV Dubberley
Bredwardine, Herefordshire

 

A man waves an Israeli flag during Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Paris on 12 January 2015.
A man waves an Israeli flag during Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Paris on 12 January 2015. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP

Jonathan Freedland (First they came for the cartoonists, then they came for the Jews, 10 January), claims that Jews are targeted simply as “a kind of ultimate symbol of the west”, as a result of “a curious kink in the ultra-Islamist mindset”, or as the traditional scapegoat of European fascists.

But the Israeli government, with its new bill proposing to make Israel the nation-state of all the Jews in the world, and Jewish organisations such as the Board of Deputies, with their claim that the majority of Jews support Israel’s oppressive policies, contribute to the conflation of Jews with Israel and the subsequent rise in antisemitism and attacks on Jews.

To point this out is not of course to justify the conflation of Jews with Israel, just as it is wrong and unjustifiable to identify jihadis with Muslims. But the recent massacre in France of 16 people was purportedly carried out in the name of Islam; and the swift and powerful condemnation issued by Muslim groups all over the world will help to reduce anti-Muslim feeling and deter young Muslims from joining the jihadis.

This condemnation by Muslims contrasts strongly with the support given by most Jewish communal associations around the world to Israel’s massacre last summer of over 1,400 civilians, including over 500 children, in Gaza.

If world Jewish organisations were to learn from their Muslim counterparts and say loud and clear in response to Israeli atrocities “not in my name”, this could help to reduce antisemitism and make the recruitment of young Muslims by jihadis more difficult. Despite Freedland’s claim that Jews have “no control” over Israeli policies, such condemnation could also exert strong pressure on the Israeli government to stop its atrocities and enter into genuine peace negotiations with the Palestinian unity government.
Deborah Maccoby
Executive, Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Unison members at conference
Union members vote on a motion during the 2011 Unison delegate conference in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

On the same day the government pledged to curb public-sector unions’ right to strike by introducing a 40% minimum vote threshold (Report, 10 January), it also pledged to cut the pay of health workers. This is no coincidence. The government fears strikes and knows that if it wasn’t for the unions and the right to strike there would be no barrier to moving millions of public-sector workers on to minimum-wage, zero-hour contracts. This government is out of touch. It believes that portraying unions as “the enemy within” will play well with the electorate. It could not have got this more wrong. There is more public support for unions today than there has been for many years. Especially when they take strike action to defend services and their members’ living conditions.

The public understands that working people need someone in their workplace who will stand between them and bullying managers. The hypocrisy of such attempts to further blunt the ability of unions to defend their members is not lost on the public. The same government that holds our pay down at 1%, while awarding itself 11%, unsurprisingly, doesn’t think voting thresholds should apply to it. If it were to apply a 40% threshold, then this government would not be in office. Once again the Tory-led coalition has one weapon: divide and rule. It blames migrants, people on benefits, public-sector workers and now trade unionists. We have four months to ensure that this government of class privilege is driven from office.
John McDonnell MP, Ronnie Draper General secretary, Bakers’, Food & Allied Workers Union, Billy Hayes General secretary, Communication Workers Union, Sean Vernell & Jane Aitchison Unite the Resistance, Ian Hodson President, Bakers’, Food & Allied Workers Union

• The principle that an important vote affecting the ordinary functioning of society should require the support of at least 40% of those eligible to vote seems fair enough – provided it is applied evenly; ie not only to unions, but also to parliamentary candidates and to parties seeking to share in governmental power. If unions are to be bludgeoned with this new rule, then any party which has not secured both 40% of seats in the Commons and the votes of 40% of the total electorate should be automatically denied access to the government benches.
Lawrence Buckley
Crieff, Perthshire

Depressed man
‘The treatment of depression involves antidepressants that help correct the underlying biochemical abnormality.’ Photograph: Garo/Phanie/REX

Depression is not an allergic reaction (Is depression a kind of allergic reaction?, G2, 5 January). Allergic reactions are appropriate immune responses against foreign materials. An autoimmune process may underlie some cases of depression, though we do not know how much of a role inflammation plays. Anti-inflammatory drugs have so far not yielded promising results in preliminary trials. The role of autoimmune inflammation in stand-alone depression is far from conclusive (Anti-inflammatory drugs ‘could fight depression’, 20 December). We know that depression is associated with impaired serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission which impairs the brain’s ability to form new neural networks. The treatment of depression involves antidepressants that help correct the underlying biochemical abnormality. Adherence to medication regimens from your doctor is therefore important. Psychological and social intervention is also important: helping people make sense of their problems and devise strategies to overcome them. Cognitive behavioural approaches help retrain previously maladaptive ways of thinking. Further research into the neurobiological basis of mental disorders is needed. However effective psychological and social support is also needed.
Dr KD Jethwa
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

• Research has now shown that competitiveness and self-focused achievements operate through different brain systems than those for concern for others and altruistic motives. Indeed stimulating one motivational system can tone down the other. Understanding these basic facts about the human brain is essential if we are to move towards a more just and moral society. Basically if you overdrive the competitive system, focusing on high rewards which give a dopamine rush (such as bankers’ bonuses) you risk toning down altruistic motivation systems.

Some wealthy people are philanthropists, but many are not and don’t see the problem in taking a massive share of available resources because they’re locked into a competitive, self-focused (brain) system. In the case of politics, too, if people focus on developing arguments to destroy the arguments of others (rather than promote the good) they risk toning down their altruistic motivational systems. Individuals caught up in these basic motives systems can struggle to emotionally connect with the suffering of others. The problem for politicians is that audiences know whether they are presenting their arguments simply to beat their opponents, or actually to create good. Tricky, given the brain that evolution has given us.
Professor Paul Gilbert
Mental Health Research Unit, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

• Three cheers for Hilary Mantel’s dismissal of the simplistic concept of grief as an essentially linear process ( Review, 27 December). Many people’s experience suggests that Kübler-Ross’s “stages” of grief are rather aspects of grief, that may be experienced in different orders and different combinations. Indeed the co-existence of separate, and often conflicting, emotions is a part of what makes grief difficult to describe. For some people, it is like being in a small craft on a large ocean: sometimes there are calm waters and blue skies; on other days great grey clouds exclude all light. And occasionally it seems that terrible whirlpools are going to suck the sufferer down into extinction. Insisting that there is a “grieving process” and that at any one time any given sufferer will be at a certain stage and progressing towards the next is entirely counterproductive.
PB Alldred
Leverburgh, Isle of Harris

Memorial to Yvonne Fletcher
Memorial to British police officer Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot dead outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. Photograph: John D Mchugh/AP

I have been campaigning for over 30 years for justice for Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot and killed outside the Libyan embassy in 1984 (The 30-year rule documents they don’t want you to see, 7 January). I was with Yvonne when she was shot and my words were the last she heard. Although some papers were released last year, I am especially interested in the report by Anthony Duff, who was ordered by Margaret Thatcher to hold an investigation into the failings of GCHQ, among others, in the death of Yvonne. I understand this report is highly critical of MI5 etc and has been withheld from public view. This document would prove, beyond doubt, that my request for an inquiry into the death of Yvonne and the various roles played by several government departments should be allowed. My repeated requests to date have all been refused. I wonder why?
John Murray
London

 

 

Independent:

The murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists was shocking and repulsive, and has rightly been condemned. Nevertheless, it is undesirable that this tragedy should be elevated into a heroic defence of freedom of speech.

Such freedom is a privilege which must be exercised responsibly. It is not an absolute human right. The law of civilised nations does not protect defamation, plagiarism, blackmail, harassment and other forms of bullying. There has to be a sense of balance. It is legitimate to lampoon living public figures such as politicians and celebrities for their politics and lifestyle. It is also legitimate to criticise religious leaders for extreme beliefs, pomp and ostentation and perhaps, above all, for child abuse.

This is not the same as lampooning the founders of Islam and Christianity and other world religions. It is simply an insult to millions of sincere devotees, the majority of whom are totally opposed to fanatical terrorism.

All newspapers write about what they think their own audience wish to read. The journalists of Charlie Hebdo chose to write for self-proclaimed intellectuals who believe that their superiority justifies insult of lesser mortals who are seen (by them) as uneducated or unsophisticated. It is, in the case of the particular cartoons, the journalism of the snigger and the sneer.

The murder of the journalists is deplorable, but it is not appropriate to canonise them as martyrs to the cause of free speech.

Paul Honigmann
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

 

It was sadly inevitable that someone would write suggesting that the journalists at Charlie Hebdo brought it on themselves, and that someone turns out to be Daniel Emlyn-Jones: “These writers should have known better than to insult Islam” (Letters, 9 January). Just like those rape victims, no doubt, who should never have gone out in their short skirts. What does Mr Emlyn-Jones expect us all to do? Censor ourselves and circumscribe our everyday freedoms lest some maniac feels justified in committing an outrage against us?

Duncan Torr
Maidstone, Kent

 

Not only was this latest carnage in Paris a brutal attack on freedom of expression in France, it was also an attack against our fundamental democratic values. There is absolutely nothing that can justify such cowardly and callous attack.

The military-like precision, extensive weaponry deployed and tragic targeting of pre-selected victims (where terrorists apparently knew the time of the editorial meeting at Charlie Hebdo) is alarmingly ominous – necessitating that we in Britain adopt a far more assertive stance against militant Islamism in the UK.

This involves more material and communal support for our intelligence services and the Counter Terrorism Command at the Metropolitan Police (SO15). The Home Secretary’s recent, courageous measures to counter British “jihadists” need to be applauded and espoused as the national minimum in our legal armoury.

For their part, British Islamic institutions are still woefully complacent, offering at best no more than rhetoric and well-rehearsed bouts of condemnation. They need to do much better in countering the pernicious ideology of radical Islamism, reinforcing on young impressionable Muslim minds that the security of this country is paramount – and instilling unmitigated pride in our British values and national institutions.

Dr Lu’ayy Minwer Al Rimawi
Peterborough

 

Charlie Hebdo took the hit because others in Europe were too cowed to satirise Islam. France took the hit because others in Europe were too craven to ban the burka. Now is the time for an emphatic display of solidarity to ensure our freedoms are upheld and no quarter is given to the evildoers.

Andrew Schofield
London SE17

 

The “Unity March” of one million people in Paris on Sunday reminded me of the Iraq anti-war march of two million in London and 15 million around the world in 2003. I wonder if the march in Paris would have been necessary if the 15 million had been listened to.

Chris Holden
London W4

 

The meaning of Auschwitz

Simmy Richman’s account of his trip to Auschwitz (8 January) reminds me of my own. In 1995, I boarded a bus at Victoria bus station and went overland (with some sea) to Krakow. Armed with a photocopy of the scrappily drawn map in Thomas Keneally’s Schindler’s Ark, I wanted to trace the Schindler story and did so before it became the tourist trail it is now.

I found traces of the ghetto wall in side streets, gardens and even a school playground. A local travel office offered a trip to Auschwitz, or Oswiecim, and yes, feeling uncomfortable in case I should be considered a ghoul, I booked it.

At the camp I met my guide, who explained that many guides had been Holocaust survivors, but as they were becoming too old, we in my group would have to put up with him, the mere child of a Holocaust survivor. The guide told us how important it was that people visited Auschwitz because the world must never forget what happened there in that period of history.

I think that Auschwitz stands as a symbol not of oppression, but of freedom. This camp symbolises what our world would have looked like if our forefathers had not given their all to defeat an evil, totalitarian ideology. It is a reminder of evil defeated.

Perhaps it might also encourage us to stand up against totalitarianism in all its forms whether political or claiming to be religious.

Eric Griffiths
Brampton, Cumbria

 

NHS: Listen to the accountants

During my time in the NHS, both as a surgeon and a trust chairman, the idea that privatising the service would bring the rigour and clarity to the NHS which its public service ethos lacked was popular with politicians

After two years managing Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Circle has backed out because of insufficient funding, an unprecedented clinical load, insufficient places to look after the elderly when they are ready to leave the acute wards, and the possibility of an unfavourable report from the Care Quality Commission.

Hundreds of hospital trusts throughout the UK face these problems but do not have the luxury of passing the buck to someone else.

Please let us have no more talk of privatising the NHS, but do let us listen to those Circle accountants who very succinctly state the reasons that the NHS is in trouble, and let us make the necessary changes to save the best and most cost-effective healthcare system in the world.

Andrew Johnson FRCS
Great Bourton, Oxfordshire

 

I live within the area served by Hinchingbrooke Hospital. I work with people who attend the hospital and my husband drives patients to attend clinics there.

Based on what people who use the hospital say to us, there is a general level of satisfaction and the most noticeable improvement since it moved from NHS management in 2012. We are therefore amazed at the recent news that Circle is withdrawing from its contract to run the hospital.

Prior to the Circle takeover, Hinchingbrooke was due to be closed and local people were desperately concerned that they would have to travel to Peterborough to receive care. My fear now is that the NHS will not take the hospital back into its management and we will be left with no local hospital. This will not only affect local residents but will affect the wider public because the hospital also provides accident and emergency services for frequent traffic accidents on the notorious A14, which passes nearby.

It’s incredibly sad and extremely frustrating that politics and electioneering cause situations in which we, the public, lose an excellent service, accessible care and committed staff. It’s happening in schools, colleges and councils, and is intended, I believe, to undermine the value of public services across the country. Hinchingbrooke Hospital is just the start. Where will it end?

Lizzie Clarke
Hilton, Cambridgeshire

 

Scotland’s very own ichthyosaur

Dr Steve Brusatte comments that the new type of ichthyosaur identified this week from a fossil found on the Isle of Skye means that “we’ve found a new species that was uniquely Scottish” (“First remains of new ‘shark-like reptile’ found on the Isle of Skye”, 12 January).

As the fossil dates from 170 million years ago I do think this is taking nationalism a step too far.

Phil Cole
Cardiff

 

Fish sauce for vegans

Mark Hix (10 January) offers a vegan recipe that includes fish sauce. As fish is apparently a vegetable, can he provide me with some seeds in order that I can grow my own?

Marianne Haylett
Barnet, Hertfordshire

Times:

Britain stands on the brink of a GM food revolution, but not everyone is pleased with the idea

Sir, Matt Ridley says that GM crops are “safer, cheaper and better for the environment than conventional crops” (“The argument’s over. Let GM crops flourish”, Opinion, Jan 12).

This will be news to farmers in the United States, who after 15 years of growing genetically modified crops are reported to be increasingly turning to non-GM seeds. This is because non-GM seeds are cheaper than GM, because non-GM crops fetch a higher price than GM crops, and because GM crops have led to resistant insects and weeds. As a result, according to the US department of agriculture, there has been an overall increase in pesticide use in the US since GM crops were introduced.

These inconvenient truths are why, if the EU changes go through this week, Scotland and Wales will be able to consolidate their non-GM position to protect the reputation of their farming industries, and maintain their ability to export uncontaminated food to other countries around the world.

In Scotland and Wales, farming plays a larger role in the economy than is the case in England, which is why English politicians have been able to indulge in the ideological promotion of GM crops, and to ignore the clear market signals, not just from other EU countries, but from the US, Russia, China and elsewhere, that getting a reputation for a GM-contaminated agriculture is not good for business.

Peter Melchett
Policy director, Soil Association

Sir, There is little doubt that GM crops need to be seriously considered as a route to producing healthy disease-resistant plants for human and animal consumption. For too long the idea of planting a crop in the soil and then bombarding it with chemicals to eliminate any potential pests or diseases had seemed an odd way to produce food. Using various chemicals — ending in – cides (fungicide, herbicides, insecticides — totally unbalances many natural processes that should take place in the soil. If the use of GM crops allows us to reduce inputs of pest and disease-control chemicals, this has to be a benefit.

However, I was concerned by the statement in your report (“Britain on brink of GM food revolution as minister says yes”, Jan 8) that maize, sugar and oilseed rape have been genetically engineered to withstand higher concentrations of herbicides. I presume this means that it will allow the grower to use larger amounts of herbicides to control weeds, thereby benefiting the crop, which would be impervious to the chemical.

The potential problem is that, while the crop will not be affected by the chemical, it will still be in or on the plant and at higher levels than previously, and therefore being passed into the food chain. The idea of genetic modification to increase resistance to the -cide chemicals may be one of the less attractive reasons to grow such crops.

The potential problem is that, while the crop will not be affected by the chemical, it will still be in or on the plant and at higher levels than previously, and therefore being passed into the food chain.

David Hudson
(Bioagronomist) Talke, Staffs.

Sir, Matt Ridley’s assumption that the debate is now over on GM crops must be challenged. While there may indisputably be benefits from this technology, these have to be carefully weighed against overtly commercial considerations that might in the long term not do the environment or people any favours at all. Further debate is most certainly needed.

Dr Robert Cassels
Whittlesford, Cambs

Sir, In the battle to produce more food while ensuring that we leave room for wildlife, it is crucial that we take the best from all farming methods to maintain a sustainable agricultural industry in the future.

Well-funded research is key to solving this dilemma. Research on our own Allerton Project farm has shown that reduced or no ploughing (no-till) can have overwhelming benefits to soil health and crop production. Less soil disturbance means more earthworms and soil fungi, and this in turn helps to improve soil structure — thus increasing its capacity to absorb water during heavy rainfall.

Importantly, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by employing this system. This can all be achieved without necessarily having to use GM crops.

Dr Alastair Leake
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust

My marksman badge for the Bren gun was mistaken for that of a squadron sergeant major – to my great satisfaction

Sir, As a young sapper I managed to acquire the marksman qualification with the Bren gun. With it went a badge of exactly the right shape, size and sleeve position to be mistaken for that of a squadron sergeant major (letters, Jan 9 & 12). It was an occasional pleasure to have a sergeant stand up and put his heels together for me — and to make my gracious response.

David Brancher

Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Who, exactly, is responsible for the structure, format and style of broadcast general election debates?

Sir, Your report “Ukip is a ‘major party’ and can join television debates” (Jan 9) suggests that Ofcom’s consultation on major political parties would dictate the line-up of possible leaders’ debates before the election.

This is not the case. Ofcom has no role in determining the structure, format and style of any broadcast general election debates that might take place. This is up to broadcasters.

Ofcom’s role is to set rules governing the minimum allocation of party election broadcasts, a duty placed on Ofcom by parliament.

Tony Close

Director of content standards, Ofcom

A diagnosis of the condition is often the spur a child needs to boost his or her self-esteem

Sir, As a fully qualified teacher of dyslexic pupils over a long period, I believe that Dr Simon Gibbs’s study at Newcastle University (“Dyslexic label ‘harmful’ ”, Jan 8) has failed to recognise the effect of a diagnosis on the child himself/herself. Almost invariably it is the spur that the child needs to boost his or her self-esteem and efforts to learn, alongside appropriate literacy teaching, which can lead to rapid progress. “I was afraid I was stupid!” was the comment made by many who have since acquired degrees.

If teachers are failing dyslexic pupils it is down to ignorance and lack of training, not diagnosis.

Pamela Cheshire

Nottingham

Whitehall really ought to set a good example on prompt payments, as delays hurt small businesses

Sir, The government’s poor performance on prompt payment, as highlighted by the National Audit Office (report, Jan 8), could have a significant impact on the solvency of small businesses. In 2013-14, almost half of the insolvency practitioners working on corporate insolvencies reported working on a case where late payment was a major factor.

Late payment is one of the more frustrating causes of business failure: it has a disproportionate impact on smaller businesses. Ministers have been vocal about the need for prompt payment, and must set an example.

Giles Frampton

President of R3, the insolvency trade body

 

 

Telegraph:

To avoid the spread of fundamentalism, we have to improve the way we teach religion in schools

How to avoid more attacks from Islamists; protecting the Cornish pasty; funding cancer drugs; and superslow broadband.

Demonstrators gather in the Place de la Republique prior to the mass unity rally following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, France
Demonstrators gather in the Place de la Republique prior to the mass unity rally following the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, France Photo: BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

SIR – One factor in the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in both France and Britain is the fact that religion is given such a low priority in the teaching curriculum and in the media.

As children are not being taught the difference between a rational and measured interpretation of sacred texts and a fundamentalist approach, it is not surprising that so many people are being snared by religious fundamentalism – and I include Christians in this.

As a vicar, I welcome involvement in my local secondary school, where I talk about the value of intelligent interpretation of scripture and respect for others, but I still feel the subject is not given the full importance it should be.

Let’s stop reducing religion to Songs of Praise and the early Sunday morning breakfast spot on local radio, and find a way to enable people to think intelligently about religion so that it becomes part of what it is to be British.

Rev Simon Tillotson
Whitstable, Kent

SIR – Max Jalil (Letters, January 10) draws a parallel between the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten and those depicting Jews in Thirties Germany. The former ridicule beliefs, the latter demonise people.

David Culm (Letters, January 10) states that we “should observe sensitivity and respect for other cultures’ beliefs”.

This is wrong. We should show respect for other people, not their beliefs. These should be fully open to criticism, ridicule and opposition; especially those that justify murder as a response to mockery.

Mike Mahoney
Tetbury, Gloucestershire

SIR – Watching the unity march of one million people in Paris yesterday reminded me of the Iraq anti-war march of one million people in London, and 10 million people in cities around the world, on February 15 2003. Would the march in Paris have been necessary if those 10 million people had been heeded?

Chris Holden
London W4

SIR – We did not see so many of the world’s leaders in London after the July 7 bombings, when many more people than those poor victims in Paris were murdered by Islamist extremists.

Were those deaths less tragic or are the French more patriotic?

Marion Armstrong
Peacehaven, East Sussex

Protecting the pasty

SIR – It is not only Cornish pasties that are threatened by the prospect of the free trade deal being promoted by the European Union and America (US could take slice of Cornish pasty market”, report, January 6). The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would have huge consequences for national sovereignty across the board.

It would introduce sweeping new powers for American corporations to sue member states for introducing legislation that is detrimental to their profits. Instead of such disputes being dealt with in British courts, investor protection provisions under the partnership would mean such cases would be heard secretly outside our national legal system.

It is ironic that many in the business community who so bitterly resent the intrusion of Brussels in legislative matters seem so keen to lock us into a far-reaching trade deal that would so dramatically undermine Britain’s ability to regulate its own health, labour and environmental standards, let alone its baked goods.

Nick Dearden
Director, World Development Movement
London SW9

Same-sex marriage

SIR – Our Prime Minister states he is proudest of a piece of legislation (same-sex marriage) that, regardless of whether you support it or not, has lost his party huge support and could precipitate the disestablishment of the Church. This connection between Church and state is demonstrably important, set against the background of events in Paris.

It is difficult to decide whether the content of the remark or the fact he chose to make it is more damaging to him.

Is it really too late to install a new leader for the Conservative Party before the May election?

Mary Baxter
Ledbury, Herefordshire

TV hearing aids

SIR – My wife and I have a three-pronged answer to the challenge of following the mumbling on Broadchurch and Silent Witness (Letters, January 9): we wear Bluetooth earphones, turn on the subtitles, and we can both lip-read a little.

We always need a whisky before bedtime.

Michael A Mills
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire

SIR – And for which values will we British march?

Avril Newey
Earlsdon, Warwickshire

SIR – In all the comment about last week’s atrocities in Paris, there has been much said about the rights and wrongs of insulting Muslim beliefs, freedom of speech, why many feel we must stand with Charlie Hebdo, why others have some sympathy with the killers because of the provocation.

Extraordinarily, I have not heard or seen a single comment that questions the motive of a killer who enters a Jewish supermarket and kills random shoppers. It seems there is no need to explain. They were killed not because they said or did things that were blasphemous or provocative, but because they were probably Jews.

Is the world so inured to this that the question “Why?” is not even deemed necessary?

Frances Canning
Stanmore, Middlesex

SIR – During my teenage years, the law declared that I was entitled to read Lady Chatterley’s Lover. While I appreciated being given the choice, I have never chosen to exercise this particular right. Equally, there are times when I exercise my right to use the off button when certain comedians appear on television.

How much longer will I have any choice? When can I expect a visit from a politically correct jobsworth to inspect my bookshelves?

Polly Haselton
Horley, Surrey

Cancer Drugs Fund

SIR – We will soon learn the fate of more than 40 medicines available to English patients through the Cancer Drugs Fund. This special fund was intended to be a quick fix, required because the appraisal methods used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which reviews all NHS medicines, continue to prevent cancer patients from getting the medicines they need.

We know the fund is not a sustainable long-term answer. But while Nice remains broken, the fund and its medicines must exist so that cancer patients can access new, innovative treatments.

Medicines are vital in the fight against cancer. Fifty years ago, just one in five people with cancer had any hope of surviving for 10 years or more. Today, more than half will live for a decade.

The pharmaceutical industry, in partnership with British universities, charities, clinicians and the NHS, has developed and delivered these medical advances. But there is still more to do, and as cancer rates rise, doctors need to be able to prescribe the right medicines at the right time for the right patients.

We need fundamental reform of Nice. Its role must be to identify promising medicines that help patients lead longer and healthier lives, not to be the gatekeeper of the public purse. Nice must be granted the power to make the NHS a world leader in the use of the most innovative new medicines.

We know the NHS is under huge financial pressure. That is why, as an industry, we have committed to underwrite the spend on all medicines so that it cannot exceed a set amount. So far, we havne’t seen this deal result in greater uptake. We have already offered substantial NHS savings, and will continue to do so.

The NHS spends less than £1 in every £10 on medicine. Further cuts would be short-sighted and compromise patient care. Innovation in medicines is moving faster than the health system can deliver to patients. The NHS needs to catch up.

Jonathan Emms
President, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
London SW1

If you think Switzerland is disorganised…

Avant-ski: flattening the snow before the men’s super combined slalom at Sochi last year

SIR – You report (telegraph.co.uk, January 7) that Suzi LeVine, the American ambassador to Switzerland, complained on social media that chaos reigns at Swiss ski lifts. She commented on Facebook: “We enjoyed a great day at Adelboden but I was so puzzled by the scrum heading to the lift (and the inefficiency in terms of how many people were on each lift).”

Has she ever been to Italy?

Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

Helping the high street

SIR – You report that Tesco is to close 43 of its stores. We are keen to revive our high streets and independent retailers; surely, every little helps.

Dr Bertie Dockerill
Shildon, Co Durham

Superslow broadband in many rural areas
SIR – The Government’s claim that “We are now a superfast [broadband] nation” (advertisement, January 7) is a joke.

Here in rural Wiltshire, our maximum download speed is rarely above 2Mbps. In the evenings it often drops below 500Kbps, making our village website maintenance nigh impossible at that time.

We have been promised a high-speed connection, but not until late this year.

Andrew Blake
Shalbourne, Wiltshire

SIR – I live within a mile of our telephone exchange, in a large village 22 miles from Charing Cross; it’s not exactly the middle of nowhere. I am told that there is no prospect in the foreseeable future of replacing my very unreliable broadband connection with fibre-optic cable.

Why is the Government boasting about superfast broadband which I and so many others cannot have?

Norman Gerald
Radlett, Hertfordshire

SIR – I can assure those smug government ministers and civil servants in their ivory towers that our village internet connection is glacially slow, when it works at all, and there are no plans to upgrade the five miles of copper cable to the nearest exchange. It appears we live in two nations.

J B Grotrian
West Knoyle, Wiltshire

SIR – Here in the drab, dank, slow north, I have to share files by email with colleagues who live inside the M25 in a piecemeal fashion, and I am constantly obliged to remind them that we don’t all have the same super-duper broadband service.

Bill Thompson
Frankby, Wirral

Cut up the loyalty card

SIR – Brian Herbert (Letters, January 7) should be aware that detailed information about individuals and families is like gold-dust to marketing companies.

If he possesses a loyalty card he should cut it up, as they will know every intimate detail of his family’s life. That’s what loyalty cards are for: we are all just data.

Roy Hodgson
Northampton

 

Globe and Mail:

Jennifer Keesmaat

Greenbelts make cities more livable, affordable and transit-friendly

Irish Times:

Sir, – I read Joyce Hickey’s account of her overnight experience as a patient in an emergency department with a mixture of relief and despair (“A patient’s experience: my night on a hospital trolley”, January 10th). Relief that it is clearly not my department (based on the physical description), and relief that the staff described were doing Trojan work in heroic circumstances. Despair knowing that, while difficult to achieve, the solution is clear. Flow through emergency departments can, and must be, unblocked.

To suggest that improving primary care, or chronic disease management programmes, will take a huge part of the burden of unexpected, critical deterioration in health status is overly optimistic, and preventive public health, while also playing a part, takes decades, or even generations, to make its effects felt.

The description of the aggressive, belligerent person, interfering with the care and comfort of others, was very real to me and appears to be the widespread image of emergency departments, but it represents a relatively small proportion of the people present.

Much of the dysfunction in emergency departments is due to overcrowding by patients who do not fit the pejorative picture of the drunk, the worried-well, or the social misfit.

The patients who take up most space are those whose clinical problem cannot be dealt with in the community setting, and who require acute hospital admission to save their life, to prevent further deterioration of an already dangerous disease or injury, or simply to enable them to recover function. Because of lack of functional bed capacity, they must wait, in hope and increasing despair, for the bed to be vacated, cooled, cleaned, changed and declared available.

The average length of stay in Irish hospitals is about six days. But a small percentage of patients need longer. When they cannot leave for independent living, this creates a problem. For every week spent in an acute hospital bed, another person is denied access to that bed for their procedure or episode of illness. Some of these unfortunate long-stay patients, denied independence by their illness or injury, are young but most are elderly. And the elderly cohort is increasing dramatically in proportion. This problem will not simply go away.

The cost of keeping an elderly person in an acute hospital bed is significantly less than in a nursing home, speaking purely in financial terms. There is, however, a much greater personal cost in terms of sleep deprivation, loss of personal dignity and control, and loss of social networks.

Most people will cope with this for the average length of stay, which amounts to just under a week. On return home, they will need to recover from their episode of sleep deprivation, just as they would from jet lag after a trans-continental flight.

But the frail elderly person, often with some degree of dementia, will find this sleep deprivation to be even more terrifying than the fit young man with a leg fracture. They have no one with whom to develop a relationship, as the other patients constantly change and staff also change about. Those waiting – for three, four, or even more months – in these conditions to have central funding released to allow nursing home care might well be described as victims of institutional abuse. Remember that these people are also required to surrender 80 per cent of their liquid assets and continuing cash flow to obtain a “Fair Deal”.

We have been through a very lean period, and have now turned the fiscal corner, so to speak. We, as a nation, must invest in the infrastructure and running costs of the care of all our citizens.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has seen a marked reduction in staff numbers, a cut in salaries, an increase in hours worked and an increase in proportion returned to the exchequer, from those very staff who are trying desperately to work in these appalling conditions. Surely it is time for him to reform and to improve public expenditure?

Let us leave the blame-game behind us and work collectively and collaboratively to enable improvement in all parameters of health. But remember that bricks made without straw will crumble. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK K PLUNKETT,

Clinical Professor

of Emergency Medicine,

St James’s Hospital,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – I was obviously flattered that Prof Tom O’Dowd (January 10th) read my opinion piece “Australian emergency care the State’s best template” (January 8th). However I found many of his contentions not to accord with either the international evidence or my personal experience as a consultant in emergency medicine. Perhaps his continued use of the term “A&E” some 14 years after our departments were retitled emergency departments (EDs) suggests that he may not be fully familiar with the situation in EDs across the country in 2015.

I would expect an academic general practitioner to advocate strongly for investment in primary care; however the notion that better resourcing of GPs (and I agree that this is something that should be done in its own right) will have an impact on the current trolley crisis is misguided.

What Prof O’Dowd and your readers should appreciate is that the current crisis which is manifested in Ireland’s emergency departments is a problem of admitted hospital inpatients. These are patients who have had their emergency care and now require in-patient hospital care; therefore their care is beyond the capability of our colleagues in general practice (and indeed many have been referred to hospital by their GP).

The current trolley crisis has therefore little to do with the emergency departments – the plight of patients warehoused in our departments awaiting a hospital bed is simply a symptom of problems elsewhere in the healthcare system.

It is often stated as a fact that emergency medicine and primary care are interchangeable and that optimally resourcing primary care will obviate the need for emergency department care. The evidence contradicts this. Even where primary care-based alternatives with sophisticated diagnostics are provided, the number of patients attending local emergency departments inexorably rises. Australia is a particularly good example of this phenomenon.

The UK’s Primary Care Foundation report Primary Care and Emergency Departments published in 2010 suggests that 10-30 per cent of patients attending emergency departments could be treated in primary care, a figure which is far lower than the figure regularly trotted out.

Ironically, many of us working in Ireland’s emergency departments recognise that some of these patients are actually referred to emergency departments by our primary care colleagues.

Prof O’Dowd’s line that if we resources primary care we would be able to do with fewer, smaller emergency departments is not supported by the evidence. There is undoubtedly a need for some rationalisation of emergency departments, particularly in the eastern half of the country, but not for the reasons Prof O’Dowd suggests.

Primary care and emergency medicine are two distinct branches of medicine; Ireland needs both and both need to be adequately resourced to do their respective jobs – different but distinct with a small degree of overlap. – Yours, etc,

FERGAL HICKEY,

Consultant in

Emergency Medicine,

Sligo Regional Hospital,

The Mall, Sligo.

Sir, – My colleague Prof Tom O’Dowd somewhat misses the point: “What rightly upsets Dr Hickey and his colleagues are the vast numbers attending A&E that could be dealt with by general practitioners”.

It is true that some patients attending emergency departments could be better cared for in primary care.

However the 601 patients waiting for admission last week are not this group. These patients have been seen and assessed by both an ED physician and another admitting speciality who both concur that the patient requires hospitalisation.

These patients have heart attacks, strokes, pneumonias, collapses, fractures and many other conditions which require acute care in hospital.

Better resourcing of primary and community care is a must, particularly after hours. Like so many things in healthcare, the dividends of this will not be instantly apparent.

But the current crisis is one of flow. We need to be able to get those patients who need admission into hospital and that means we need to be able to get those whose care is completed back out. – Yours, etc,

Dr DAVID MENZIES,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – While condemnation of the murders at the offices of Charlie Hebdo has been universal, it is worth noting that many commentators have qualified that condemnation by referring to “responsibilities” that attach to freedom of expression.

Such responsibilities clearly exist. We should not defame, we should not bully, we should not incite hatred, but this protection should not extend to belief systems, religious, political or otherwise.

In particular, belief systems that seek to proscribe the actions of non-believers should be held up to scrutiny, including ridicule, regardless of the insult they cause.

To purpose of the attack of the offices of Charlie Hebdo was simple: to intimidate media organisations into obeying the Islamic rule regarding the depiction of Muhammad.

To suggest that media organisations have a duty to refrain from causing offence to belief systems is appeasement of that intent. – Yours, etc,

GARRETH McDAID,

Drumleague,

Co Leitrim.

Sir, – To me it seems incredible that the elite has rushed to support Charlie Hebdo’s “right” to publish material insulting a religious faith. Particularly in Ireland one would expect educated people to recognise the danger of inflaming sectarian divisions and violence, and the deaths of entirely innocent people, as in Paris.

The ideal of freedom of speech, like majority rule, is only safe when tolerance is universal. In the meantime limitations such as blasphemy laws are much the lesser of two evils and a rare symptom of wise government. – Yours, etc,

BILL BAILEY,

Ballineen,

Co Cork.

Sir, – The problem seems to me to lie not in religious fanaticism, but in religious ideology per se. Political parties come and go and, aware of their own transience, tend to retain a sense of humour about themselves. Not so religions. Believing they hold the answers to the fundamental questions of existence, their adherents tend to develop a sense of their own importance which goes far beyond arrogance. Let us be honest, no one really knows whether there is a god or not, or what he, she or it looks like. And perhaps if we all concentrated more on this world and less on the next, we might become a little more courteous to each other.

Until the State evolves beyond pandering to the narrow beliefs of any religious group, we will not truly be free and democratic. – Yours, etc,

SUSAN FitzGERALD,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The notion that there is such a thing as freedom of speech is patent nonsense and anyone who has travelled beyond the boundaries of their own comfort zones surely knows this as fact. Even if one accepts the concept expounded by those who promote the liberal concept of “freedom of speech” as a right, they would also have to concede that with such “rights” go obligations and common sense.

While I personally am happy to aspire towards French republican ideals, I have yet to see them practised in France or indeed anywhere else for that matter.

We are constantly reminded that we live in a globalised world. If this is actually true then such a world transcends national borders. In this new globalised and increasingly dangerous world, I’m afraid that cultural differences will have to find new solutions to old problems.

Extremism and fanaticism must certainly be tackled, but we will not succeed by deluding ourselves and ignoring valid cultural or religious differences. – Yours, etc,

Dr VINCENT KENNY,

Knocklyon,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – JD Mangan (January 8th) describes the sneering attitude of many critics of Charles J Haughey’s “big house” lifestyle, which he deems to be “a classic example of the begrudging attitude that the Irish do so well”. Perhaps if Mr Haughey had lived from the money he earned, there would be more focus solely on his “significant political achievements”. However, as the Irish taxpayer was the one paying for the handmade shirt on his back, I think we are entitled to begrudge a lifestyle we funded, but did not enjoy. – Yours, etc,

DONAGH McTIERNAN,

Mullingar,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Matthew Mac Gabhann (January 12th) lays the blame for Charles Haughey’s political survival on AIB’s failure to pursue his debt. That scenario was not really possible in the frantic maelstrom of events in those days. Anyway, all the bould Taoiseach would have done would have been to lean on his other sources of revenue to make up the shortfall. There were other deep pockets available to come up with the odd million. – Yours, etc,

A JONES,

Mullagh,

Co Cavan.

Sir, – Harry McGee is the latest in a long line of Irish Times journalists and commentators to warn us of the dangers of “instability” (“Why stable government needs the party whip”, January 10th).

We had the dubious honour of remaining “stable” throughout a financial meltdown. Not only has the status quo remained resolutely intact, it is even more embedded that it had been prior to 2007.

Who does this “stability” serve?

Rapid and intensifying climate change is the future. The “stability” of the current system actually impedes the change necessary to transition Ireland to an adaptable and resilient society and economy.

The opposite of stability in this context is not chaos – but it is fundamental change to our current economic system. That will involve the destabilisation of certain institutions.

The alternative is set out in clear terms in various UN climate change reports. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL CANNEY,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Although I agree with the sentiments expressed by Austin Savage (January 12th) regarding courtesy and older citizens, a conscious effort to be courteous is not without its hazards. A number of years ago I offered my seat to an elderly gentleman on the Luas and in response he pushed me backwards and ran down the carriage without saying a word! His wife indicated that I had offended his pride.

On a visit to my local cinema a few years ago to see the film Philomena, my wife and I found ourselves at the front of a queue made up in the main of senior citizens. When the doors opened we both felt we were participating in the Pamplona bull run as the elderly crowd pushed (that’s putting it mildly) forward and trampled on anyone in the way. I would encourage all to be courteous to our senior citizens but I would ask that they return the compliment! – Yours, etc,

GILES FOX,

Kilmacud, Co Dublin.

Sir, – After two weeks of dreadful repeats on the awful new UTV Ireland, how can I persuade my programme supplier UPC to restore the UK version to my package? It was changed without my authority or approval and I miss many of the former programmes. – Yours, etc,

STUART MURRAY,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

 

Irish Independent:

Monty Python’s movie ‘The Life of Brian’ poked fun at Christianity.

Monty Python’s movie ‘The Life of Brian’ poked fun at Christianity.

People who believe they are entitled to kill anyone who dares to mock their religious beliefs need to get a life, as distinct from taking lives. I feel uneasy about some of the more belligerent satirising of religion, but no amount of mockery or humorous comment can justify attacking or killing a fellow human being.

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We can all be offended by attacks on our beliefs or by abrasive criticism of them. One’s person’s joke is another person’s blasphemy. The best response is a dignified rebuff, or simply to ignore the ridicule or criticism. I remember people who were shocked when the Monty Python film ‘The Life of Brian’ came out. There were protests and many Christians were understandably upset by the movie’s scathing depiction of their religion.

And yet in later years some of those who had objected to it most strongly said they’d like to have the song ‘Always look on the bright side of life’ played at their funerals, possibly forgetting it featured in the movie in a most irreverent context: a crucifixion scene.

Personally, I respect Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and all the other great religions of the world and the right of followers to worship as they see fit. But people ought to be entitled to express their disapproval of religion too, regardless of how offended any of us might be.

A life without humour would be very dull indeed, and attempts to suppress joking and satire have never quite succeeded. Somebody somewhere will always find a way to poke fun and make at least one other person laugh.

In one of her last performances the brilliant Joan Rivers -who was Jewish – joked outrageously about Nazis in leather being attractive. Now there was a woman who understood humour. No section of society, no belief system, no mode of human behaviour escaped her savage wit.

Speaking of Nazis, in the Third Reich citizens had to be very careful about what they said, with spies and fanatics everywhere.

However, humour still managed to surface now and again, as with the story of the family that gathered to say Grace around the dinner table. The father said: “For what we are about to receive we thank God and Hitler.” The youngest boy asked: “Dad, what happens if Hitler dies?” The father winked and said: “Then we just thank God.”

We all need to lighten up about our religious beliefs or lack of them. As the Monty Python song cautioned, the last laugh could be on us.

John Fitzgerald

Callan, Co Kilkenny

Sinn Fein’s telling silence

The silence of Sinn Fein in the aftermath of the Paris shootings is deafening. It’s ironic that they didn’t try to hijack the ‘Je suis Charlie’ March in Dublin last weekend.

However, I suppose in the light of Gerry Adams’s recent comments regarding newspaper editors, it was probably best to keep a low profile. So much for free speech in Ireland if Sinn Fein are not challenged on this.

John Fagan

Collinstown, Co Westmeath

Jewish people must be defended

The world is reeling from yet another hate-filled attack on the Jewish people, this time at a Kosher supermarket in Paris in which unsuspecting and innocent victims lost their lives to the world’s oldest hatred – anti-Semitism.

World leaders have condemned the hostage-taking episodes in France and shown solidarity at this testing time, and that will give a modicum of encouragement while so many Jewish families will meet around their Shabbat tables to ponder the latest deaths that were perpetrated just because the victims were Jews.

The Hebrew word from where we get the English word ‘Jew’ is ‘Yehudah’ (Judah), which means ‘praise.’ The Jewish people have contributed greatly in the arenas of medicine, science and the arts, in banking and the world of commerce.

It is only fitting that we extol their virtues at a time when their very existence is being undermined by such targeted terrorist attacks.

We in the democratic nations must seek to always condemn and root out any anti-Semitism that raises its ugly head in the communities where Jews live, worship and work. The Christian nations take their Judeo-Christian traditions, laws and culture from the Bible and the history of the Hebrew people and we should acknowledge that by showing our gratitude and loudly condemning all anti-Jewish rhetoric and actions which must make families and individuals feel extremely vulnerable. History attests that hatred and even murder of innocent Jews is not new, but it must not be tolerated in European countries where Christian values have been inextricably linked to Jewish ones for centuries and where the contribution of the Jews has been a real blessing.

May we wish ‘shalom’ or ‘peace’ to the families in Paris and to the extended Jewish community world-wide. We have a common bond with the Lord God of Israel. Amen.

Colin Nevin

Bangor, Co Down

Hard lessons

I hope the outrages of the recent past will have opened the eyes of the more gullible among us as to what we could possibly encounter in the future and also what the Jewish people are suffering every day.

It also proves that there are those among us who would destroy everything we hold dear, even our religious beliefs. I just hope we desist from watering down – in any way – our Christian beliefs, and to show these people that, like the French, we still cherish our beliefs.

Remember, in this twisted logic we could be targeted because we helped an ally in the recent war effort in Iraq.

It goes without saying that we should assist in any way the constant struggle to keep this most serious threat at bay – or we’ll all pay the price.

John N Barry

Malahide, Co Dublin

Meditations on Mass

I recently attended Mass in my local church in Salthill. At the start of Mass the priest made reference to the terrible events in Paris the previous week and the way people had come together in solidarity to express their anger over what had happened.

I thought of loving-kindness meditations I had attended recently where participants were invited to send loving thoughts to people in their lives – friends and enemies alike. This can have huge benefits to the person – helping them to remove negative, energy-sapping thoughts from their mind.

Later, to coincide with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which we were celebrating, the priest invited us to renew our baptismal promises. Don’t most organisations have initiation ceremonies?

The format of the Mass is the same every Sunday, except for specific readings.

There is actually a hypnotic quality to this, repetition of familiar phrases can have a relaxing effect, similar to playing bongo drums in a group setting. One of the purposes of Mass is to enable us to tune into our spiritual side, isn’t this what many meditation techniques are about as well? In Our Lord’s prayer we are urged to “forgive those who trespass against us.”

Many therapists are of the opinion that true healing cannot take place until a person is in a position to forgive someone who may have harmed them.

Don’t forget what I said earlier about sending loving thoughts to our enemies in loving kindness meditations.

Tommy Roddy

Salthill, Galway

Irish Independent


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14 January 2015 Nurse

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading District Nurse comes.

Obituary:

Sir Jack Hayward, the owner and chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, in 2003
Sir Jack Hayward, the owner and chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, in 2003 Photo: Robert Hallam/REX

Sir Jack Hayward, who has died aged 91, was a philanthropist of uncommon generosity and a British patriot to the point of eccentricity.

A modest man with an unruly shock of white hair, Hayward listed his recreations in Who’s Who as “promoting British endeavours, mainly in sport. . . preserving the British landscape, keeping all things bright, beautiful and British”. He became known as “Union Jack”.

Although born at Wolverhampton, Hayward lived for most of his life in the Bahamas, where he flew the union flag on his Rolls-Royce and otherwise drove about in a London black cab. He liked being introduced as “a professional pioneer with Rudyard Kipling as his bible”.

Into Freeport – which he helped the American industrialist Wallace Groves to develop in the 1950s – Hayward imported London double-decker buses, red pillar boxes and GPO phone kiosks. Visiting seamen from the Royal Navy were always given dinner at a local restaurant “with the compliments of Sir Jack”. Back in Britain, Hayward drove a Range Rover bearing the bumper sticker: “Buy abroad — sack a Brit”.

In 1990 he bought his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers football club for £2 million. He preferred to finance a home-grown team, and when asked in 1994 if he would have liked his manager, Graham Taylor, to have signed the German striker Jürgen Klinsmann, he replied: “I would have said, ‘Graham, you should be able to find 11 players good enough from the Midlands.’ ”

Wolves’ persistent lack of success often led him to suspect that his money was being misspent, and in 1999 he even sued his son Jonathan, a former chairman of the club, for alleged financial irregularities. “They think Golden Tit — me — will go on forever,” Hayward said on television. “It’s blackmail. Money has been wasted.” In 2003 his prayers were finally answered when Wolves won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs final, only to be relegated the next season. He eventually sold control of the club, in 2007, to Steve Morgan.

Jack Arnold Hayward was born on June 14 1923 at Dunstall, Wolverhampton, less than half a mile from Molineux, the Wolves ground. His father, Sir Charles Hayward, had been a circus performer known as “The Living Head” before making his first fortune manufacturing motorcycle sidecars. He lost it all in 1929, but then amassed a second, much larger pile with his engineering group, Firth Cleveland.

Jack was educated at Stowe and in 1941 volunteered for the RAF. He trained as a pilot at Clewiston, Florida, then flew Transport Command Dakotas on the hazardous supply route to the Fourteenth Army in Burma. While in India he crashed his Tiger Moth when trying out a “my next trick is impossible!” manoeuvre. All that survived were Hayward and the propeller, which took pride of place in his office in Freeport .

Demobbed in the rank of flight-lieutenant in 1946, he joined Rotary Hoes, part of his father’s Firth Cleveland Group, and set about selling agricultural equipment from the back of a truck in southern Africa. In 1951 he founded the American arm of Firth Cleveland in New York. He lived there for five years until restrictions on foreign investment took him to Nassau.

Hayward was quick to see the potential to make money in the Bahamas, and persuaded his father to put £1 million into Groves’s scheme to develop Freeport. Groves had leased 50,000 acres of swamp and bushland from the Bahamas government to set up a tax-free industrial complex centred around a deep-water harbour — the government was to receive a cut of the revenues. Hayward became administrative vice-president of the new Grand Bahama Port Authority, overseeing the development. He became chairman in 1976, after buying Groves out.

Hayward threw himself into the life of island pioneer, working hard to transform the bush around Freeport into a city. He banked in a tiny hut called Barclays at the harbour; he did not see a telephone until 1960; and he needed to put down a sheet fastened by rocks to signal to passing aircraft that he wanted a lift to Nassau.

His investment instincts, meanwhile, were spot on: Freetown became the fastest growing industrial centre in the Caribbean, as international companies rushed in, excited by the tax advantages, tourist potential and proximity to America. The shares rocketed on the New York Stock Exchange and Hayward became very rich.

He resented any suggestion that he was a playboy or a tax exile, feeling that although he had inherited money, he had multiplied it through shrewdness and graft. He was also both publicly and privately generous. Indeed, of all his pursuits, he seemed to derive most satisfaction from giving his money away.

A vivid — and subsequently unfortunate — example of his beneficence was his gift of £150,000 to buy Lundy Island, a wildlife sanctuary off the north Devon coast, for the National Trust in 1969.

The campaign to save the island had been launched by three West Country MPs, including Jeremy Thorpe, the leader of the Liberal Party. Hayward read about it in The Daily Telegraph while sitting at home in the Bahamas. As he later recalled: “I had a bit of spare cash, so I telephoned Jeremy Thorpe and offered it to him.” When news of his generosity broke, Hayward remarked that he was “fed up with pieces of Britain going to foreigners”.

Sir Jack Hayward and his wife in 1982 (REX)

Three months later Hayward found himself sitting in a small church on Lundy, surrounded by grateful islanders celebrating its reprieve. In the pew behind sat Thorpe, whose smooth organisation of the day’s events made a big impression on Hayward. During the service of thanksgiving, Hayward leaned back and whispered: “God, Jeremy, you’ve done a super job, this is fantastic. You really should be prime minister if you can do a job like this.” “It’s on the cards, my dear fellow,” Thorpe murmured in reply. “But I might need some help.”

Over the course of the next day, Thorpe explained that the Liberal Party had an overdraft of £100,000. The next year, after meeting the Liberal MP Peter Bessell back in the Bahamas, Hayward was persuaded to part with another £150,000; the cheque was made out personally to Thorpe.

Feeling that Hayward was an easy touch, Thorpe made sure to cultivate their friendship. In the spring of 1973, shortly after Thorpe’s marriage to Marion, Countess of Harewood, the couple stayed with Hayward in the Bahamas.

Hearing that Hayward and his partners were thinking of selling Freeport, Thorpe offered to find them a buyer, in return for a commission. Thorpe asked Bessell to help . But before they could get a firm offer, Bessell became desperate for funds to cover up various frauds he had committed. He persuaded Thorpe that they should ask Hayward for an advance of $500,000 “to pay middlemen”. Hayward suspected something was up (albeit he thought Thorpe was being conned by Bessell) and told them they would first have to convince Wallace Groves, which they failed to do.

Undaunted, Thorpe again approached Hayward for money in April 1974. Thorpe now wanted untraceable money to enact his “final solution” to the problem of Norman Scott, his former lover. In his letter to Hayward, he apologised for the way “that bastard Bessell” had tried to con him the previous year, and asked Hayward for £50,000: £40,000 to go to the Liberal Party general election fund, and £10,000 to settle “election expenses” and to be paid to a man called Nadir Dinshaw.

Dinshaw was godfather to Thorpe’s son Rupert and, as Thorpe wrote, “conveniently resident in Jersey”. Thorpe explained to Hayward in the letter that he might carelessly have broken the rules governing a candidate’s general election expenses and that Dinshaw could safely pay the “ambiguous” bills which he had run up.

Hayward complied with both requests, so that when the election was called for October 10, Thorpe was able to splash out on a hovercraft which took him dramatically along the coast, until it was damaged when it sped up a beach in Devon. Their finances in rude health, the Liberals fielded a record number of candidates, although they ended up with just 13 MPs.

The next year, at Thorpe’s request, Hayward sent a further £10,000 to Dinshaw, in addition to £9,000 to the Liberal Party Direct Aid Committee. Neither Hayward nor Dinshaw knew it, but the money was to buy letters from Scott and to pay Andrew Newton, an airline pilot and now would-be hitman, for a “professional frightening job”.

Sir Jack Hayward celebrating Wolverhampton Wanderers win at the 2003 Nationwide Division One final (Getty)

The ensuing events, including the shooting of Norman Scott’s Great Dane Rinka by Newton on Dartmoor and the eventual arrest of Jeremy Thorpe and his co-conspirators, culminated in what is often described as “the trial of the century”.

During the investigation, Hayward was contacted by the police and asked about the £20,000 he had paid to Dinshaw in Jersey. With relief he remembered that he had kept the letters from Thorpe in a drawer by his bed at his house in Sussex. “They saved my bacon,” he told Thorpe’s biographer Simon Freeman. “If I hadn’t kept them, the police might have thought I knew where the money was going.”

The letters were the last piece in the jigsaw of the prosecution case, and at the trial at the Old Bailey in 1979, Hayward gave evidence for the crown. Judge Cantley called him “a nice, respectable witness” . But it was scant consolation for being dragged into the squalid affair. “I’m too trusting,” Hayward later admitted. “I like everyone. And Jeremy was very charming and amusing. But everyone was taken in by him, weren’t they?”

In the meantime, Hayward had continued to find patriotic causes on which to shower his money. In 1976 he gave £150,000 to pay for the salvage of Brunel’s SS Great Britain in the Falklands and return her to her original dock in Bristol; he later invited Paul Getty Jnr to match his £500,000 to complete the vessel’s restoration.

He funded three international racing yachts Great Britain I, II and III, spent £100,000 on saving the sloop Gannet (the Royal Navy’s only survivor of the transition from sail to steam) and contributed another £100,000 to help raise the Mary Rose.

After the Falklands conflict, he gave £1 million towards the replacement of the fire-damaged hospital in Port Stanley, and a further £1 million to the widows and orphans of those who had died during the fighting.

With his crumpled clothes and pockets stuffed with bits of paper, it was observed of Hayward that he looked “more like an absent-minded retired geography teacher than one of the richest men in the world”. He relaxed by watching cricket (he was a life member of Surrey CC) and taking part in amateur dramatics — he built an excellent modern theatre at Freeport for the local Players’ Guild, of which he was a leading actor. In addition to his home in Freeport, he owned a farm in Sussex and was Laird of Dunmaglass, a 14,000-acre estate near Inverness.

He was appointed OBE in 1968 and knighted in 1986.

He married, in 1948, Jean Forder, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. His relationships with his children were often fraught, and in recent years they had been involved in legal action.

Sir Jack Hayward, born June 14 1923, died January 13 2015

Guardian:

Shoppers on Oxford Street, London
‘Inequality drives competitive envy, the only solution to which is more stuff. And more stuff.’ Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Larry Elliott (If money can’t buy happiness, how are we all feeling as living standards fall?, 12 January), makes a number of salient points. We need, though, to reset the terms of the debate. As long as we continue to think about growth and wealth in purely numerical terms, we will continue to be stuck in contradictions. The wealth that each of us enjoys is not simply to do with the state of my bank balance, the things I buy, or even my share of GDP.

A large part of what makes each and every one of us rich is what we hold in common, and intangibles. I am rich because of the NHS, decent infrastructure, a tradition of the rule of law, democratic institutions, educational opportunities, voluntary support networks, family life, companionship, freedom to think my own thoughts and speak my mind, and confidence that all this is sufficiently important to others for it to be treasured and defended.

We need politicians and commentators to stop talking and point-scoring about who is going to put more (or less) into pockets, and to enter into a more fruitful debate about how we can work to ensure that all citizens are helped to flourish, and what that might mean in the 21st century.
Dr David Howard
Church Stretton, Shropshire

• Larry Elliot’s argument against degrowth is reductive and circular. As long as he believes that happiness depends on a constant stream of “the little pleasures in life”, he will be able to claim that we’re bound to be unhappy when the stream dries up. But once our basic needs for food, shelter and security are met – and, criminally, in the sixth-richest country in the history of the world they are not – a much wider, non-material, range of conditions for happiness come into play. The most important of these is equality. Inequality drives competitive envy, the only solution to which is more stuff. And more stuff. There is no reason why a small fall in “living standards” should make our quality of life any worse, once we have a society organised to meet the needs of everyone rather than the wants of a few.
Professor Andrew Dobson
Keele University

• First question: whose living standards? If one individual can afford to buy a thousand houses, while another hasn’t got the wherewithal to rent decent accommodation, are the living standards of both in freefall? Larry, why didn’t you mention inequality?
Dr Wiebina Heesterman
Birmingham

• People increasingly feel a lack of control over their futures (Anxious Britain will find no succour in a TV leader debate, Zoe Williams, 12 January). Research shows that more than half of UK consumers feel they have “little or no control” in markets fundamental to the cost of living, such as transport, energy and the cost of caring for the elderly.

But the current political debate is out of touch with the change that is happening on the ground. People are coming together to confront our faltering economic model. They are creating a social economy – setting up social enterprises which reinvest their profits to tackle social and economic problems, community energy schemes and co-operatives. These businesses are giving people more control over the economic forces which so often uproot lives. A new sort of economy built on principles of solidarity and co-operation already exists – it now needs the support of our leaders.
Dan Gregory
Director, Social Economy Alliance, London

• Many people are not just sick with worry about wages, housing, food, utility bills etc in a high-living-cost, low-income Britain, they are highly insecure and fearful about the future in what Zoe Williams calls an “anxious Britain”. We live in a fear-driven society, where everyone is on their own, with coalition government austerity policies enabling a massive wealth transfer to a kleptocratic plutocracy. This rules through a corporatocracy that has largely captured government and the state so as to extract our common wealth. For example, in 2012, 46 of the top 50 publicly traded firms in the UK had a British parliamentarian as a director or shareholder.

Understanding that Britain today is an anxious, fear-dominated society is crucial. It explains why the right is happy to use blame and fear strategies such as immigration to get votes. They well know that social insecurity can lead to authoritarian governments. So, to counter fear, building societal, human security is vital through things like secure jobs, affordable housing, free education and health, the civil bedrock of human rights and taxing the corporate tax avoiders fairly. Reclaiming democracy by pushing the market out of politics would help. For starters, why not require all parliamentarians who are sponsored by corporations to wear their corporate logos like Formula One racing drivers when at Westminster?
Martin Large
Stroud

Great White Shark Carcharodon carcharias Water level view in South Africa
A great white shark off South Africa. It looks pretty fearsome, but do toasters kill more people? Photograph: Alamy

Is economics relevant as a profession (Letters, January 8)? Just been watching BBC2’s The Super-Rich and Us, to the accompaniment of texts from my daughter. After an exchange of texts despairing at the growth of inequality and the conclusion of the experts, including Thomas Piketty, that there is no such thing as the trickle-down effect, my daughter concludes: “How many economists does it take to change an economy?”
Sue Gollop
Bridlington

Paul Mason (G2, 12 January) seems to believe that it was the French population who resisted and defeated the Nazis. Perhaps he should start reading books on history as well as economics.
Professor Alan Sked
London School of Economics

• Surely a much more vital role for HP sauce (Letters, 13 January) was in the introduction of the French language to us lower middle classes. Does anyone else remember the label on the bottle: “Cette sauce de haute qualité est une mélange…” etc? It proved of little use in France, sadly.
Frances Worsley
Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

• In his discussion on the relative rarity of screen portraits of critics (Point of view, Review, 10 January), Anthony Quinn omits the brilliant portrait of Alexander Woollcott as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942), or again as Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944).
Philip Clayton
London

• Polly Toynbee’s comments on our often irrational responses to threats (Opinion, 13 January) reminded me of the posters I saw in South Africa explaining that more people are killed by toasters than sharks.
Mathew Frith
London

• Now there seems to be a groundswell of opinion in favour of free speech, perhaps the heir to the throne could allow the BBC to screen Reinventing the Royals (BBC shelves show on Prince Charles’s former king of spin, 30 December).
Janet Guest
Woking, Surrey

Dulwich Picture Gallery

The Dulwich Picture Gallery. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Independent:

 

Times:

Sir, First Milk’s announcement that it will delay payment to farmers (News, Jan 12) in some ways is not a surprise, but it highlights the deepening of the crisis facing British dairy farmers.

The number of milk producers in England and Wales has fallen below 10,000 and this number could halve by 2025. This is not because of farm inefficiency but due to the drive for ever cheaper milk, which means only a few farmers will be left standing. The use (or abuse) of milk by retailers as a loss leader amounts to playing with our food.

A perception of cows in fields maintained by those selling dairy products masks the steady march towards a future where milk and dairy products will increasingly flow from industrial sites.

I started a farmer-led movement called Free Range Dairy and the Pasture Promise label to promote the value of Britain’s seasonally grazed dairy herds and try to shift industry focus away from volume and towards value. We must all take responsibility for our food choices. That is why I would like to see labelling on milk cartons and packaging that will enable consumers to make a choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.

Neil Darwent
BBC outstanding farmer of the year 2014, and director, Free Range Dairy Network

Sir, I congratulate Deborah Ross on her piece about cheap milk (Times 2, Jan 8). At last, an article showing the human side of the dairy industry crisis. We were fifth-generation dairy farmers, milking 250 cows, and our herd was in the top 10 per cent in the UK for herd health, milk quality and production. During the last round of low milk prices, we were receiving 16p a litre; it was costing 21p a litre to produce and this became unsustainable.

To remain on our tenanted farm we had to sell our herd. It was the worst day of our lives, as we loved our cows and knew them all by name. It was like selling our family, and for many months I could not bear to walk around those silent farm buildings.

Doreen Forsyth

Amble, Northumberland

Sir, The controversy over milk is just part of the problem in food retail marketing. For years now, supermarkets have driven down the prices as they strove to gain market share. My late father, who worked for the National Farmers Union in the Seventies, forecast just such a scenario, saying that it would lead to the British farmer being dictated to by the retailer. If we don’t pay a price that gives a sensible return for the producer, we may not have a farming industry left.

Brian Milner
Boston Spa, W Yorks

Sir, If farming was to return to the supposed utopia of small farms that you appear to advocate (leader, Jan 10) the world would not be fed. Britain has had to feed an extra 14 million people over the last 70 years but, at the same time, a huge area has been taken out of agriculture for development. Have shop shelves been bare? No, because British agriculture has risen to the challenge by embracing science while being mindful of welfare.

Richard T Halhead

Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies, Cockerham, Lancs

Sir, As late as 1976, when I joined the civil service, I was issued with a booklet intended to put the young bureaucrat out of his misery when opening and closing letters (TMS, Jan 9 and letters, Jan 11 & 12); I say his misery, because female bureaucrats were required to use “Dear Mr Wilson” and to be addressed as “Dear Miss Wilson”, regardless of comparative status. Their male colleagues started with the default “Dear Wilson”. If Mr Wilson was an equal or inferior and was known personally to the author, “My Dear Wilson” was acceptable, if hand-written. If he was broadly equal or inferior and a friend, “My Dear Harold” could also be hand-written.

Then there were rigid rules as to the use of “Yours sincerely”, “Yours ever”, or even “Yours aye”. Ah, happy days.
Norman McFadyen
Edinburgh

Sir, In 1959 on my first day as a schoolmaster, I addressed a senior colleague in the staff room as “Mr Smith”. He replied, crushingly, “I am Smith; Mr Smith is the caretaker”.
David Terry
Droitwich, Worcs

Sir, In La Dolce Vita, Anita Ekberg (obituary, Jan 11) is first seen descending from the steps of an aeroplane, playing to the paparazzi. It is worth mentioning that the word “paparazzi” stems from a character in the film named Paparazzo, a freelance photographer.
James Thom
Aberdeen

Sir, It was not Lance Percival’s impersonation of Sir Alec Douglas-Home on That Was The Week That Was which so upset the government (letter, Jan 10). It was a sketch, written by Stephen Vinaver, in which Roy Hudd played a ventriloquist and the dummy on his lap was a Douglas-Home lookalike.
David Lee
(Musical director, TW3)
Kingston upon Thames

Sir, Philip Collins’s comments on “the poisonous influence of religious belief” (Opinion, Jan 9) equates what he calls the “egregious history of the Christian church” with current Muslim violence. But this is not to compare like with like. The medieval world was much more violent — according to Steven Pinker you were more than 40 times more likely to be murdered in 13th-century England than today.

As David Martin points out in his book Religion and Power, it is only Christians (and Christian derivative humanists — including presumably Philip Collins) that should have a problem with religious violence. Unlike the other peoples of the book, they have explicit instructions from their founder to avoid it (Matthew 5-7). Notably, he practised what he preached. Religion is not a single phenomenon, but embraces radically different teachings. Perhaps we should have a bit more of “by their fruits ye shall know them”.
Stephen Prickett
Regius professor emeritus of English, University of Glasgow, Charing, Kent

Sir, A huge cheer for the engineers who are reconnecting the 100,000 homes left without power following the storms (News, Jan 13). They are still, as I write, out there, in what is now a blizzard, repairing the breaks that are left and will no doubt recur as January reminds us who she is. The fault lies with our infrastructure. Rather than bury cables we have stuck with erecting pylons, allegedly for cheapness. Considering the cost every time the wind coughs, how cheap are they really?
David Catto
Ardgay, Sutherland

Telegraph:

An armed guard stands outside a Jewish School in Paris
An armed guard stands outside a Jewish School in Paris Photo: Getty Images

SIR – The horrific events in France last week highlight the need for a fundamental change of government anti-terrorism strategy, rather than just throwing yet more money at the security service.

Over the past decade the lead in the fight against home-grown terror has lain with the security service, which (for fear of disclosing intelligence techniques and sources) has chosen to adopt a softly-softly and unsustainably labour-intensive approach of monitoring and surveillance, rather than direct confrontation and criminal prosecution of those identified in the commissioning of extremist terror.

The police (rather than the security service) should take the lead. A more aggressive use of police powers is needed, to wind in and disrupt those identified as peddling extremism or who have fallen under its influence. Police should intervene as soon as extremist behaviour becomes apparent, to the full extent allowed by the law, rather than just watching and waiting for terrorism to happen. People should be charged whenever there is evidence, even if protection of intelligence methods means it is unlikely things will progress to trial.

Only thus will the threat of home-grown extremism be driven to ground, to the true benefit of a multi-cultural Britain.

Mark Campbell-Roddis
Dunblane, Perthshire

SIR – So far, so idealistic – and indeed impressive. But the millions out on French streets on Sunday were not the ones with the Kalashnikovs and rocket-launchers.

Edward Thomas
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – Britain is not equipped, culturally, to arm the police. In all countries where police are armed as a matter of course, people join them knowing they have to carry a firearm, and to use it, having been exposed to police sidearms in public from the earliest age. In Britain, applicants must apply to be a firearms officer, which calls into question their mindset.

When someone makes an application to carry the means to kill people, he or she is automatically suspect.

Stuart Cherry
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – In the same week that the tragic death of 17 French people brought 40 of the world’s leaders on to the streets in a sign of unity against terrorism, more than 2,000 people were slaughtered by terrorists in Nigeria. And the world’s response?

Paul Francis
London W8

SIR – Mike Mahoney is wrong. You do not show respect for other people if you ridicule their beliefs. Sensible discussion is another matter, but it may make no difference to their beliefs, and mockery will probably strengthen them.

Ronald Phillipson
Brentwood, Essex

SIR – I have Muslim neighbours with whom I live in peace. I wouldn’t think of ridiculing their faith, as they wouldn’t mine, so what is Charlie Hebdo about?

There’s a difference between free speech and malicious speech.

Doreen Whittaker
Ilford, Essex

SIR – We will not defeat extremism without the wholehearted backing of the peace-loving Muslim majority in Britain. How can we realistically expect this support while we continue to ridicule their beliefs?

Anthony Haslam
Farnham, Surrey

SIR – Perhaps this is the time for the French to look in the mirror and reflect upon the way they treat the Jewish population in their country.

For different religions to live side by side there has to be tolerance and respect. Free speech is all very well, but mockery just lights the blue touch-paper and then everyone gets burnt.

Frances Henton
Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – It’s a bit rich of David Cameron to say of the Paris atrocities: “We must never allow the values that we hold dear – of democracy, of freedom of speech – to be damaged by these terrorists”.

If Charlie Hebdo had existed in Britain, it would have been shut down years ago and its editor charged with hate crimes.

Virginia Price Evans
Whitland, Carmarthenshire

SIR – Who can I offend and when? It was obviously not OK for Brenda Leyland to send offensive messages to the McCanns. It was not OK for Jessica Laney to be taunted to death by internet trolls.

Is it OK for me to offend black people, Jews, or immigrants, or is that racist? What about non-immigrant, non-religious white people – can I offend them?

Caroline Shaw
Painswick, Gloucestershire

SIR – Mr Cameron says: “Nothing we want to achieve will be possible unless we eliminate our deficit and deal with our debts.”

The events in Paris this last week should have reminded him he needs to assess the values of this nation’s foundational beliefs. They are more important than sound public finances.

Jonathan Longstaff
Woodford Green, Essex

SIR – The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre says that the current terror threat is amber, that is, severe with an attack likely. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, says an attack is possible but unlikely (two levels below the JTAC advice). I want to live near to him.

W K Wood
Bolton, Lancashire

Miliband’s NHS campaign focus may backfire

SIR – If it is Ed Miliband’s intention to “weaponise” the NHS and gain political advantage during the next few months, he may have to be careful that the fire is not turned on him – particularly given the abysmal record of the ruling Labour Party in Wales in running the NHS there.

Paul Pritz
Wolverhampton, Staffordshire

SIR – Andy Burham, the shadow health secretary, doesn’t believe in top-down reorganisation of the NHS. But isn’t he advocating exactly that when he talks about combining the social-care and NHS budgets?

Jonathan Midgley
Edinburgh

SIR – The Labour Party needs to be reminded of its previous attempts to interfere with the NHS.

While I was a GP manager the party ended fundholding – a scheme that had brought untold benefits to patients of my practice. Then Labour changed the GP contract to remove the onus on doctors to offer out-of-hours cover. This has led to a failed NHS out-of-hours service, a failed NHS Direct and increased problems for A&E. Will Mr Miliband and his party not listen and learn?

Nick Hawksley
Ashill, Somerset

SIR – It is surprising that Labour should want to make the NHS a major issue in the general election campaign.

It was the decision of the last Labour government to prioritise non-medical targets in hospitals that led to the premature deaths of more than 1,000 patients in Mid-Staffordshire.

John Gordon
Kingsbridge, Devon

Milking water profits

(Getty)

SIR – You report that milk is cheaper than bottled water. It is perhaps more interesting that bottled water is more expensive than milk.

Water prices regularly exceed £1.50 a litre. It costs more than petrol, which is transported halfway round the world, refined, and then taxed to the hilt.

Cliff Billington
Nottingham

Bumf harvest

SIR – I have just received, from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the sixth variant of the farmer’s guide to the new agricultural policy schemes. This version states that “the European Commission hasn’t finished all the guidance”, so presumably there is another document to come.

The weight of my paperwork so far is 1lb 14oz. With about 300,000 agricultural holdings in Britain, 250 tons of documents must have been distributed, outlining a scheme that has still not been finalised.

John Butler
Rowde, Wiltshire

Smart but inaudible

SIR – My ability to enjoy quality television sound using Bluetooth headphones and subtitles is under threat with the rise of the smart television.

Neither Sky nor Amazon provides subtitles and Netflix’s subtitles are poor.

Dr A E Hanwell
York

Same-sex weddings

SIR – My partner and I have converted our nine-year civil partnership into a marriage. We did not hold another celebration as we are awaiting the opportunity for a marriage ceremony in England’s established Church.

I understand the right of many religious organisations to claim exemption from carrying out same-sex marriage ceremonies, but it is a disgrace that the Church of England is allowed to do so.

Kevin Liles
Southampton

Queuing USA

SIR – As an American, Suzi LeVine is well placed to comment on queuing for ski lifts. More than 20 years ago, my wife and I learnt to ski in eastern Europe, enduring scrums for the lift every time. We even had to bribe the lift operator.

We then spent a week at the ski resort at Burke Mountain, Vermont. In America, everybody had to “get in line” – and it worked perfectly. Why Europeans find it so hard to organise a fair system of queuing is a mystery.

Robert Parker
Nottingham

On the rack

SIR – It’s not just the cost of commuting. I, a 54-year-old woman, count myself lucky to sit in the luggage rack occasionally rather than stand in the morning rush on the London train.

Jacqueline Heywood
Oxted, Surrey

The dangers to children of playing rugby

SIR – As Allyson Pollock notes, rugby is associated with rare but potentially catastrophic injuries, notably to the head and spinal cord.

No data exist to quantify the risk to schoolchildren playing rugby in Britain. Professor Pollock’s study of 470 school-age children in five Scottish schools found that there were 11 “time-loss” injuries – requiring an absence from the sport – per 1,000 hours of rugby played. She estimated that a “typical schoolboy” plays approximately 15 hours of rugby each year.

Many schoolchildren will feel disinclined to play rugby, and this should be respected. But others will relish the challenge that rugby offers and this, too, deserves respect.

Rugby authorities ought to commit themselves to a systematic reporting system for all injuries to children. This would set out the true risks and identify ways in which they can be mitigated, allowing parents and young people to make informed decisions about the sport.

Dr Adam Irwin
London SW1

 

 

Globe and Mail:

Michael Bell

To respond to terror, we must distinguish its three varieties

Irish Times:

Sir, – Surely it is proper, certainly no less than polite, to respect a person’s right to believe whatever they want – so long as that belief does no harm to others. Whether we should respect the belief itself is quite another matter. If some people wish to, and are free to, perpetrate fairy tales in the guise of truth, why should not others be equally free to ridicule those fairy tales? The plain fact is – and open any history book or today’s paper to confirm this – religion breeds zealots, and zealots breed bloodshed. The sooner the concept of blasphemy is discarded, the sooner we might laugh fanatics into their grave. But I don’t think it will happen soon, people being as they are. – Yours, etc,

HENRY van RAAT,

Beara,

Cork.

Sir, – I abhor the terrorism which has shattered the lives of people in Paris and previously throughout the world. Equally I am in wholehearted agreement with the finely balanced, non-confrontational views of both Edward Horgan and Richard Coffey (January 10th). Freedom of expression, yes; but freedom to provoke ill-feeling or insult, no. – Yours, etc,

DERMOT ASHMORE,

Elliac,

France.

Sir, – According to article 44.1 of the Constitution, “the State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion”.

This clause does not differ at all from the fundamental tenet of Islam, namely, submission to Allah (the Arabic word for “God”).

If you accept article 44.1, you cannot logically object to the ban on blasphemy (article 40.6.1.i). – Yours, etc,

JOHN A MURPHY,

Cork.

Sir, – Una Mullally displays jaw-dropping double standards in her recent column (“Why a referendum on blasphemy is long overdue”, Opinion & Analysis, January 12th). She argues in favour of freedom of expression and correctly says that “sacred cows are there to be slaughtered”; however she clearly doesn’t believe that freedom of expression should apply to the upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage, judging by her recent columns on that issue.

For example, in January of last year she used your pages to call for the establishment of a body which would monitor the views expressed by those opposed to same-sex marriage, saying that “there is a need for an independent homophobia watchdog to monitor the inevitable destructive rhetoric that will colour one side of the debate” (“Homophobia watchdog needed before marriage equality referendum”, Opinion & Analysis, January 20th). She went on to say that to oppose same-sex marriage publicly, in any terms whatsoever, was to inflict “psychological trauma” on gay people. So clearly, the establishment of such a “watchdog” would lead to all opposition to same-sex marriage being removed from the airwaves.

How do such sentiments accord with her views on freedom of expression? Is it the case that only those views with which Ms Mullaly agrees are worthy of protection? – Yours, etc,

THOMAS RYAN,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – Una Mullally’s article of January 12th is the first I’ve read since the Charlie Hebdo shootings that promotes the curtailment of free speech.

The author draws an unhelpful distinction between “freedom of expression” and “free speech” and takes solace from the fact that we don’t live in the US with an equivalent to their first amendment. Drawing the comparison to the United States should only be relevant to the extent that the American free speech provision is one to which we should aspire.

How is it justifiable, as Ms Mullally does, to call for freedom of speech for the ideas which you agree with and to insist on “hate speech” for those that you don’t? Or the position that the Catholic faith should be “knocked off its pedestal” but that “for some to criticise Islam, their enthusiasm is born from their own intolerance ”?

It’s clear that not only is the author comfortable to decide on what can and can’t be said, she also confidently intuits the real motivation informing what certain individuals actually say; criticism of Islam, she perceives, is an act of bigotry which bears no resemblance to the criticism of other faiths.

The correct response to Charlie Hebdo shootings should be to promote free speech to the greatest extent possible and to “knock off their pedestals” the illiberal liberals who wish to control it. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN KITT

Kilmainham,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – I appreciate the point Una Mullally was trying to make in her column of January 12th, and I agree with much of what she said. But she glossed rather quickly over the distinction between “infringing freedom of expression” and “protecting from hate speech”.

In this debate I, like many others, find it difficult to see the difference: when people are attacked on religious grounds, it is in the name of “freedom of expression”, but if people are insulted because of their sexual orientation, social class or race, it is “hate speech” and must be banned and punished. Who decides the difference? Do not all people, regardless of race, sexual orientation or belief, deserve equal respect? What am I missing here? – Yours, etc,

LUISON LASSALA,

Milltown,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – If there is still freedom of speech in this country isn’t it about time our Government taxed it? – Yours, etc,

IVOR SHORTS,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Following last Sunday’s show of unity in France against terrorism and the demonstration of strength in numbers, could the newspapers and TV stations of Europe show a similar unity against real and implied threats by publishing cartoons from Charlie Hebdo on an agreed date?

I feel that self-censorship is already in place and we must fight this. Murderers cannot dictate what we read. – Yours, etc,

JOE ROONEY,

Clonskeagh,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – After condemning the terror attacks in Paris, Dr Ali Selim bravely stated that he would seek legal advice if any sources in the Irish media published, or republished, an insulting image of Muhammad (“Ali Selim urges media not to republish Charlie Hebdo cartoons”, January 7th). This responsible act should be welcomed rather than berated. If an Irish media source knows that there will be a measured response to the publication of an insulting satirical image then perhaps it will think before it prints. On the other hand, if a senior Irish Islamic scholar is seen to be stepping up to defend a deeply held religious position in the face of a worldwide outcry in defence of “democracy and free speech”, then fanatical elements will also have reason to refrain from knee-jerk reactions. The question we should all ask ourselves is, what kind of society could possibly emerge when people request free rein to knowingly incite other sections of their community? – Yours, etc,

RICHARD KIMBALL,

Menlo,

Galway.

Sir, – Your online report on the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo – which depicts an image of Muhammad on its cover – is illustrated not by the cartoon but by a photograph of the magazine’s staff.

Would not a blank space have been more appropriate? – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY,

Stratford-upon-Avon,

Warwickshire.

Sir, – There is much talk and comment lately on the so-called “right to offend”. I have always thought of this as a rather strange notion. I preface my comments by saying that, of course, publications such as Charlie Hebdo have a right to publish anything that they see fit.

However, surely there can be no such thing as a “right to offend” since offence is fundamentally something that is taken rather than given. One can no more insist on a right to offend than one can insist on a “right to amuse”.

I am not merely being pedantic here. If we insist on Charlie Hebdo’s “right to offend”, I think that we are legitimising the view that some of their images are objectively and universally offensive. This is nonsense, as many people, presumably including some who happen to be Muslim, will find nothing offensive about any of the aforementioned images. If other people desire not to take offence at Charlie Hebdo, they have a simple solution – don’t read the magazine. This is surely a much easier solution than attempting to kill everyone from whom you take offence. Of course, in reality the killings had nothing to do with the offensiveness or lack thereof of some images. – Yours, etc,

JAMES CRUICKSHANK,

Headford,

Co Galway.

Sir, – May I express concern at your report of an agreement on defence co-operation between Ireland and the UK, due to be signed later this month (“Ireland and UK agree historic defence agreement”, January 12th). Currently, there is a deployment of eight Army personnel as part of a joint contingent under the umbrella of the Royal Irish Regiment in Mali.

The presence of Army personnel operating under British command might be construed as conferring approval of current British wars overseas and must be considered repugnant to Ireland’s policy of neutrality. The formal presence of Army personnel alongside British soldiers blurs the independence and sovereignty of the Army and sends out the message that Irish and British armies are under single command and the State is just a devolved British administration. It amounts to a surrender of sovereign control over the Defence Forces to a foreign army. Indeed, some may interpret the State’s involvement with British forces as a further sign of incremental Commonwealth re-entry.

The Army is not an imperial army. It was born out of the struggle for independence from British rule. It is an Army that has proudly and honourably served on peacekeeping missions under a UN mandate and 84 of her soldiers have given their lives on these missions.

Army soldiers have served wherever required in the world in a selfless and heroic manner for more than 50 years, not as a predatory army but as peacekeepers, acknowledged worldwide for their impartiality and professionalism and are a source of pride to Ireland. Their independence and sovereignty should not be compromised by formal associations with British or any other imperial military forces. – Yours, etc,

TOM COOPER,

Templeogue, Dublin 6W.

A chara, – Regarding Prof Ted Hurley’s call for newly qualified maths graduates to be offered a bonus to pursue teaching, perhaps a more appropriate incentive would be the prospect of a career as a maths teacher (“Call to pay maths graduates bonus to go into teaching”, January 11th).

Unfortunately the reality for most recently qualified maths teachers is that they face years of career uncertainty in casual, part-time employment in our schools, often looking at unemployment at the end of May each year.

As a result, many take their degrees and education qualifications to England or the Middle East where there are prospects of full-time, permanent employment.

Others, disillusioned with the lack of opportunity for full-time employment in education, have changed direction and moved towards careers in finance or technology.

I wonder if the University of Limerick, which is offering courses in order to upskill maths graduates to teaching qualification standards, has compiled any data regarding the success of its own education and maths graduates in obtaining full-time employment in Ireland. Likewise, does the Teaching Council have any data on the types of contracts being offered to the 5,000 teachers on its professional register who satisfy the subject criteria for maths?

Prof Hurley makes the point that while almost half of the maths and education graduates of NUIG who went into teaching got permanent positions in the UK, those who stayed in Ireland were in temporary or part-time posts.

Ireland is losing its maths and education graduates simply because their career prospects here are very poor. A €5,000 bonus is no substitute for a full-time secure position in a school. – Is mise,

NUALA FLANAGAN,

Firhouse,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – Could we please be clear on one crucial point regarding the likelihood of Syriza winning the upcoming Greek election? The possibility that a Syriza victory might lead to Greece exiting the euro zone (a “Grexit”) is being used as a threat to persuade voters to support the existing government, as Syriza would allegedly cause further economic disaster. The Germans are saying it; the EU is saying it; Taoiseach Enda Kenny is saying it. It seems only one party is not saying it – Syriza. Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, has consistently said that he wants to remain within the euro zone. But he also wants to redress the unnecessary hardship caused to Greece by the current austerity measures, which would mean renegotiating the terms of the bailout.

Mr Tsipras wants to assert Greek identity and self-determination. Nothing disloyal in that. The issue, as even Mr Kenny admits, is one for Greek voters, not for puppet-masters and scaremongers outside Greece who use untruths to secure a phoney result. The wider issue – whether the euro zone is stable or even valid – is not a priority with Greek voters. Charity (in Greek, philanthropy) begins in the home. – Yours, etc,

RICHARD PINE,

Perithia,

Corfu.

Sir, – “This is not the person that was my late father. It was not the Sean Doherty that represented the people of Roscommon”, asserts his daughter Rachel in Steven Carroll’s piece on the Doherty family’s reaction to last Sunday’s drama Charlie (“Sean Doherty’s daughter criticises ‘salacious’ drama”, January 12th).

I beg to differ.

While not doubting for one minute that Mr Doherty was a loving father and husband who entered public life to do good by the people of Roscommon, he, like many other good and intelligent men, left their high ideals behind during the Haughty years.

The programme was not about the life of Sean Doherty but about Charlie and those who supported the low standards in high places at the time.

His daughter reminds us that she was 12 at the time of the events depicted. Well I was older . Old enough to feel like I was living in a South American dictatorship without the sunshine.

Mr Doherty played his part in creating that environment, and while eventually outing his former leader, his late intervention does not erase the events, which are a matter of record, for which he will be remembered.

If his daughter wants a career in politics, she will have to get used to that fact and move on to achieve better things in her career. In that I wish her well. – Yours, etc,

BERNARD LYNCH,

Malahide, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Michael Canney (January 13th) seems to suggest that uprooting our current economic system is a good idea in the context of the global threat of human-made climate change. While we all have to do our part, sadly it is not small nations like Ireland, but rather big ones like China, Russia, India and the United States, that are producing the most significant carbon emissions, and that need to get their act together.

With that in mind, it makes little difference to the polar ice caps whether we in Ireland elect a responsible government that will continue to expand our economy, reduce unemployment, and restore the public finances to some semblance of sanity, or whether we squander our hard-won “stability” by electing a smorgasbord of Independents in the hope that such TDs might coalesce around some shared policies and competently run the country. – Yours, etc,

DAVID McGINN,

Sandymount, Dublin 4.

Sir, – In response to Austin Savage’s call (January 12th) on schools to teach children “chivalry and courtesy”, most teachers are too preoccupied with maintaining a semblance of control over pupils whose parents have failed to instil these values – which is why on class trips, especially on public transport, teachers will usually insist that children remain seated at all times! – Yours, etc,

ALAN EUSTACE,

Marino,

Dublin 9.

Irish Independent:

French leader Francois Hollande said Islam was not to blame for the 'Charlie Hebdo' attack

French leader Francois Hollande said Islam was not to blame for the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attack

I applaud the admirable endurance of French citizens and Francois Hollande for distancing Islam from the atrocious attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo’. The French president’s statement is clear evidence of the triumph of ethics and mores over moral depravity.

  • Go To

The unjustified killing of innocent civilians, mass violence and restrictions on freedoms are reprehensible.

However, we should not conflate freedom of expression with satirising the Prophet of Islam, offending in the process the sacred beliefs of over a billion people.

The French Revolution took place to bring societal and political changes and unleash the ideals of freedom and equality.

Also, those who argue for the right to ridicule Islam should ask themselves whether it is right to satirise the Holocaust and question the number of those who perished at the hands of Nazis.

We should stand united and steadfast in the face of provocative acts from anyone, under any assumption. Despite our differences, we, human beings, cherish an open intellectual dialogue and mutual understanding and strive for a lasting and just peace.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

Amman, Jordan

 

States kill more than terrorists

After seeing the sad events in France recently, I have become very concerned at the coverage then, and since. As is usually the case with these events, there is a serious overreaction, and the important questions are never asked. Questions like “why did this happen?” and “what do we understand of our foreign policies?”

Britain and France have an appalling history in regards to the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. They have carved up the world map through history for their own interests, created divisions amongst communities (especially in Palestine), and on top of this, are two of the biggest arms sellers on Earth.

As Noam Chomsky says, “if you want to reduce terrorism in the world, then we should stop participating in it”. The idea that terrorism is only committed by a few people with small arms and explosives is biased. Armies, or state terror, kill far more civilians than a few fanatics ever will. You’ve only got to look at Israel, and its recent slaughter of over 2,000 people in Gaza to see this.

Why are the words extremism and fundamentalism only ever used against Muslims?

We should all scrutinise our military, and how our government’s policies have a devastating effect on other nations around the world. Then, perhaps, things will start getting safer for everyone.

Colin Crilly

London, UK

 

No tax on free speech – yet

If there is still free speech in this country, isn’t it about time our Government taxed it?

Ivor Shorts

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

 

Paris attacks a warning to us all

Most commentators miss the big picture. ‘Charlie Hebdo’ was just the rationale for this attack on our freedoms by radical Muslims, intent on destroying our way of life and replacing it with a Caliphate.

Whether it’s a cartoon, a Jewish supermarket, men at prayer, a video, a Coptic church, people waiting for a tram or running a marathon, there will always be a reason for Islamic terrorists to resort to violence and murder.

The target is incidental to the act. Just as Islam means “submission,” the focus of radical Islam is the submission of the rest of society to Islam.

This should be a warning to Ireland.

Len Bennett

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 

Blasphemy and the Constitution

If the following content were to be removed from the Constitution, it might serve the Irish people better:

(i) The references to God in the preamble; (ii) The reference to God in Article 6 (All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people…); (iii) Article 40.6.1.i (Blasphemy is a criminal offence); (iv) Article 40.3.3 (Acknowledging the right to life of the unborn); (v) Article 41.2 (The special position of the woman’s life within the home), which discriminates against fathers.

Furthermore, swearing on the bible could be replaced with the question “As a fellow human being, do you swear to tell the truth … etc.” Human fellowship is as powerful as the worship of any god, as was shown in Paris last week.

Alison Hackett

Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin

According to Article 44. 1 of the Constitution, “the State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honour religion.”

This clause does not differ at all from the fundamental tenet of Islam, namely, submission to Allah ( the Arabic word for “God”).

If you accept Art. 44.1, you cannot logically object to the ban on blasphemy (Art.40.6.1.i).

John A Murphy

Douglas Road, Cork

 

From flour bags to silk shirts

As the RTE drama ‘Charlie” mentions Charles Haughey’s taxpayer-funded Charvet shirts, perhaps someone might be kind enough to donate one to the County Sligo Museum – that is if they have not all been discarded.

I mention Sligo because of its long association with the Pollexfen flour milling family, the ancestors of “Willy and Lily and Lollie” Yeats.

Pollexfen’s “Pride of the West” flour was used in every house throughout Connacht – didn’t CJ once claim to be a Mayo man?

At the Sligo Museum, CJ’s Charvet shirt could be displayed alongside a linen flour bag of the type used by Pollexfen’s flour mills – out of which the people of rural Ireland hand-made their shirts, sheets and pillow cases.

The contrast between the old and new Ireland will indeed be of historic importance to future generations.

What a boast for our generation: “We went from flour bags to silk shirts!”

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

 

Stephanie’s goal was no sham

Ivan Yates has said on radio that there is no way Stephanie Roche deserved to win the Puskas Goal of the Year Award and described her inclusion in the final three as “sham amateurism”.

If Ivan still had a bookie shop open, I would make a bet with him that if Stephanie moves to England, it is more likely to be as a professional footballer than it would be to declare herself bankrupt!

Seamus McLoughlin

Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim

 

Tribunal process is in tatters

On March 29, 2011, you published a letter of mine arguing that establishing Tribunals to inquire “into certain matters” caused untold reputational damage to the parties being investigated.

I made the point that allegations could be made against anyone and the impugned party could have to wait months or even years to counter such allegations.

All this in the full glare of the media – and the media loved it!

I further argued that where criminal behaviour is suspected, only the normal criminal investigative procedure should be initiated together with the evidential burden that goes with such investigation.

Almost four years on, flowing from a recent Supreme Court decision, the Mahon/Flood Tribunal is now redacting “findings of fact” against certain parties and is paying their Tribunal-related costs.

And there are probably more redactions to come.

In my opinion, the conclusion that, after hundreds of millions in tax punts and euro, the entire Tribunal process in these matters is now in tatters is inescapable.

Innate humility would normally prevent me from saying “I told you so”. Not this time.

Larry Dunne

Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford

Irish Independent


Dentist

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15 January 2015 Dentist

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading pay dentist, and go to M&S and Co op.

Obituary:

Elena Obraztsova at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow
Elena Obraztsova at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow Photo: EPA

Elena Obraztsova, who has died aged 77, was one of the great Russian mezzo-sopranos, renowned for her vocal intensity and theatrical flair, and for her long-running feud with the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya.

She excelled in the opera of her compatriots, delivering spell-binding performances of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev; yet she could also turn her hand to contemporary music, singing Oberon in the Russian premiere of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Her presence was striking, both physically and vocally. After a London concert in 1981 one critic noted how she was “clad in flaming red, her hands clasped and spreading in ritual gestures”, before describing the “unremittingly forceful projection of her vast dramatic mezzo”.

Few voices have ever been quite so powerful. Her first appearance in New York in 1975 (with the Bolshoi) took the city by storm; the following year she received a 15-minute ovation for her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Amneris in Verdi’s Aïda with Rita Hunter and Carlo Bergonzi.

Despite her freedom to visit the West, Elena Obraztsova was something of an apologist for the Soviet regime. She was one of the signatories of a letter in 1974 denouncing Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya for their support for Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Three years later, when the two divas met in New York, Vishnevskaya is reported to have screamed “Judas, Judas!” at her. Maintaining her grandeur, Elena Obraztsova departed with the words: “Très vulgaire, n’est-ce pas?”

Her conservatism was also evident in her work. She once prepared for a new production of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmilla with the Bolshoi company, only to be confronted by the director’s unusual staging. “People came with kids to see a Pushkin fairytale, but instead they saw some naked girls running around and some beds with couples rolling around in them,” she recalled in disgust.

Elena Vasiliyevna Obraztsova was born in Leningrad on July 7 1937 (although she would later say 1939), spending her earliest years living under the German siege. Her father, an engineer who played the violin, left for the front, while in 1943 the womenfolk were evacuated to a small town in the Vologda area.

Her talent was spotted early and she was soon receiving singing lessons. She also recalled listening to opera performances on the wireless. After a post-war business trip to Italy her father returned with recordings by artists such as Beniamino Gigli and Enrico Caruso. By 1948 Elena was singing with the children’s chorus of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers, and 10 years later she entered the Leningrad Conservatory, although her parents tried unsuccessfully to enrol her at a technical college.

Elena Obraztsova in ‘Boris Godunov’ at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1965 (ALAMY)

If there was any doubt about where her future lay, Elena Obraztsova dispelled it in 1962 by winning gold medals at competitions in Helsinki and Moscow. In December 1963 she made her debut as Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in Leningrad, and the following year was seen at La Scala.

She was part of the Bolshoi delegation to the Expo in Montreal in 1967, again singing Marina, and in 1970 she won the Tchaikovsky competition. By 1975 she was appearing as Azucena in Verdi’s Il Travatore in Los Angeles with Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Ingvar Wixell; and three years later she sang Carmen opposite Plácido Domingo in Franco Zeffirelli’s film of Bizet’s opera, as well as appearing in Don Carlos with Domingo and Margaret Price under Claudio Abbado.

Thanks to recordings, her reputation in Britain preceded her debut at Covent Garden in 1981, where she reprised Azucena in the Visconti production with Joan Sutherland and John Tomlinson, conducted by Richard Bonynge. After the success of the Three Tenors in 1990 she joined Renata Scotto and Ileana Cotrubas as the Three Sopranos, appearing at the Roman amphitheatre in Syracuse, in Italy.

By the turn of the millennium she was still going strong: Prokofiev’s War and Peace for the Met, which was also Anna Netrebko’s debut; Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades in Los Angeles; and Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment in Tokyo in 2006 with Juan Diego Flórez.

Having been a renowned teacher for many years, Elena Obraztsova was appointed artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg in 2007; latterly she organised her own vocal competition. When the Bolshoi Theatre reopened in 2011 she was seated next to President Medvedev.

Meanwhile, the feuding continued. In her autobiography, Vishnevskya identified Elena Obraztsova as one of those who had caused her the most difficulty with the authorities.

Elena Obraztsova made no secret of her cosmetic surgery and was showered with Russian honours. Her first husband was Vyacheslav Makarov, a physicist. Her second marriage was to Algis Zhuraitis, a conductor at the Bolshoi, who predeceased her in 1998. She is survived by a daughter of her first marriage.

Elena Obraztsova, born July 7 1937, died January 12 2015

Guardian:

gathering in front of charlie hebdo and republic square. Paris. 2015/01/12
Place de la Republique, Paris. The terrorist attacks ‘are tragedies for the victims and for their families and friends, but they are not by any stretch of the imagination a serious threat to western civilisation.’ writes John Newsinger. Photograph: Michael Bunel/Corbis

Western governments have played the major role in turning much of the Middle East into a cauldron of blood, and yet we respond with what can only be described as hysteria when affected by minor splashes. The brutal killing of the Charlie Hebdo journalists, of the Jewish victims (the most heinous of the killings in my opinion, given the history of persecution experienced by French Jews) and of the police are actually small beer compared with what western governments have been responsible for. They are tragedies for the victims and for their families and friends, but they are not by any stretch of the imagination a serious threat to western civilisation.

Nevertheless, they have provided a convenient occasion for a positive carnival of self-pity and self-congratulation. Paris is the capital of the world! What must the people of Gaza think of this posturing, posturing in which, quite shamefully, Benjamin Netanyahu was allowed to participate. And as for the west’s pen being mightier than the Islamist’s sword, what nonsense. In the real world it is the west’s drones, stealth bombers and smart bombs that are far mightier than any terrorist’s Kalashnikov. With all the bloodshed that is going on every day in the Middle East, we have by some strange alchemy managed to cast ourselves as the victims, bloodied but still brave and defiant in the face of a minor terrorist threat that has been exaggerated into some sort of existential Islamist onslaught.
John Newsinger
Brighton

• This pussyfooting around theology is becoming frustrating. Giles Fraser’s article (The cartoonists were smarter theologians than the jihadis, 11 January) is the first I’ve read in your paper that unpicks the cod-theology of this latest group of young and immature terrorists. But there is much more to be said and discussed that is relevant to our current problems. A secular British media should not shy away from discussing modern theological beliefs. It is, as my tutor at university once told me, a necessary precursor to political discourse. Please take all of our communities seriously and engage in a discussion of their beliefs, whether you agree with them or not.
David Edgeworth
Woodford Green, Essex

• After the great flood of journalistic output resulting from the horrendous acts in Paris last week, it was a great relief to finally read someone prepared to take a deeper, less emotive look at the perpetrators and their motivations (Gary Younge: This polarised debate won’t help us move on from Charlie Hebdo, 12 January). That the many young men who go to Syria to fight for Islamic State or claim allegiance to various al-Qaida affiliates have, to them, justifiable motivations should not be denied by the use of reductive terms such as terrorism or criminality. What makes these young men so prey to Islamic radicalisation?

Could the answer, as Younge goes some way to recognising, be found in a nexus where extreme versions of Islam are seen by some to act as a counter-balance to or even a refuge from the extreme form of capitalism increasingly dominating the globe, the marginalisation and sense of frustration this creates across whole swaths of society, and the diet of real and imagined victimisation of Muslims in countries from Iraq to India available via TV and the internet. If we wish to cure an illness, it is important to remain calm and analytical in face of the symptoms in order that we are better able to identify the causes.
Peter Hudson
Director, Rainbow Development in Africa

• Monday’s Guardian (12 January) had pictures of “17 people killed in Paris”. But 20 died. The difference is the word “victim”. The three terrorists are also victims. They are today’s unemployed youth, the dregs of every big city, without hope and without a mission. Doubling security forces on the streets won’t solve their problem. They need jobs and, in order to get that job when it comes along, they need good education. That’s where Charlie should spend his money.
Michèle Young
Brighton

• The headline of Natalie Nougayrède’s front-page article “A nation united against terror” (12 January) referred of course to France in its horror and grief at recent events, but it equally could have referred to the countries of the EU who came out in support. If ever an event demonstrated the power and solidarity of nations working together, rather than singly and individually, then the rallies of unity in France demonstrated this. Nations pulling together in this way, showing tolerance to all, give the lie to the arguments of those who trash this unique institution. Do Nigel Farage and other Eurosceptics who favour separation have anything valuable or relevant to say after this?
Janet Davies
Hartley Wintney, Hampshire

• Recent events in France have done much to highlight the role of the cartoonist in political satire. Another forgotten example that seems particularly apposite is that of Naji al-Ali, who was assassinated on the streets of London in 1987. Yet there appears to have been no recent mention of him or his work in any of the various media outlets. His reputation largely rested on the character Handala, depicted as an orphaned child who became a symbol for the poor and dispossessed, in particular the Palestinian people. His work often invoked or offended the sensibilities of both the Arab and Israeli leadership, in equal measure. It is a reminder that while the pen may be mightier than the sword, it may require no less bravery to wield it.
Graham Ogden
Dundee

• Phoned our local newsagent, superstore and WH Smith to ask if they will be stocking this week’s special edition of Charlie Hebdo. In each case they barely knew what I was on about, two of them asking me to spell the name of the publication. Precious little awareness, let alone solidarity, from retailers here, it seems.
David Hemsworth
Haywards Heath, West Sussex

• My Dutch-Moroccan Muslim in-laws are overwhelmed with fear and confusion by the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo outrage. Dare they stay in the cosmopolitan city of Amsterdam where most of them were born and where I – a British Jew – met their oldest brother? Or are they to be driven out by a rising tide of contempt for their beliefs and culture? Supporters of Charlie Hebdo’s front-page cartoon call it an act of defiance in support of freedom of speech. How have we allowed defence of a good principle to degenerate into self-righteous insistence on a right to insult millions of powerless people?
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Woodford Green, Essex

Re the words “All is forgiven” on Charlie Hebdo’s cover. It’s already been said, over 2,000 years ago, and in the Middle East. “Father forgive them”, and then He added, “they know not what they do”.
Julia Phillips
Bath

A bride and groom in front of a regional government building seized by pro-Russians in Kramatorsk
A bride and groom in front of a regional government building seized by pro-Russians in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. ‘The break-up of multi­national entities is usually messy,’ writes Yugo Kovach. Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

Your inclusion of Nagorno-Karabakh in an article on “the best new adventures for 2015” (Totally out there, Travel, 10 January) is disrespectful to the people of Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is an internationally recognised part of Azerbaijan currently under the occupation of Armenian armed forces. Do you think it is morally right to encourage an aggressor to maintain control over a portion of a territory of another country and show total neglect of the sufferings of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people?

Sadly, your piece plays into the hands of the separatist regime, which strives to legitimise its act of occupation. The Guardian’s stance against recent separatist tendencies in the post-Soviet space is commendable, and one would wish the same sensitivity shown to Azerbaijan.

The Foreign Office warns against any travel to Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding occupied regions of Azerbaijan. By promoting Nagorno-Karabakh as a so-called tourist “destination” you mislead the public and potentially put their lives at risk; also, those taking unauthorised trips will be unable to travel to the rest of Azerbaijan in future.
Tahir Taghizadeh
Ambassador of Azerbaijan in London

• It’s one thing to accuse Putin of forcibly changing borders, quite another to overlook what Nato did in Kosovo (This trauma could lead to a European reawakening, 14 January). The break-up of multinational entities is usually messy. Algeria springs to mind. Also, wasn’t Northern Ireland less a land grab by London and more an instance of a young Irish state not commanding the allegiance of the protestant north? The same sort of thing could be said of the Ukraine conflict.

Other examples abound from the break-up of the USSR. The Slavs of Transnistria don’t feel any affinity with the Romanian-speaking Moldovan authorities, and they furthermore fear that Romania will eventually absorb Moldova. Nor do the Armenians of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave wish a return to rule by Azerbaijan. Then there are the Abkhazians and South Ossetians of Georgia who distrust Tbilisi rule.

To treat these conflicts as instances of Russian ultranationalism is unhelpful. Must the federalists stoop so low as to picture Russia as the indispensable common enemy that will unite Europe?
Yugo Kovach
Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

cameron
David Cameron. ‘It’s good to see that David Cameron is looking after our security,’ writes Paul Francis. ‘Last time he wanted to be elected he seemed to be on the other side of the argument.’ Photorgraph: Matt Dunham/AP Photo

It’s good to see that David Cameron is looking after our security (PM wants new internet spying powers, 13 January). Last time he wanted to be elected he seemed to be on the other side of the argument. In a speech at Imperial College London in 2009 he said: “If we want to stop the state controlling us, we must confront this surveillance state … The internet is an amazing pollinator, spreading ideas and information all over the globe in minutes. It turns lonely fights into mass campaigns; transforms moans into movements; excites the attention of hundreds, thousands, millions of people and stirs them to action … That’s foreign policy in the post-bureaucratic age – enabling the free flow of information to give people power so they can use that power to demand change.” Or was that a different David Cameron?
Paul Francis
Much Wenlock, Shropshire

Milk on supermarket shelves

‘Clear labelling on milk packaging will enable consumers to make an informed choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.’ Photograph: Gary Roebuck/Alamy

First Milk’s announcement that it will delay payment to farmers (Report, 13 January) in some ways is not a surprise. It highlights the deepening of the crisis facing dairy farmers in the UK. The number of milk producers in England and Wales has now fallen below 10,000, and there are suggestions that this number will halve by 2025. This is not because of inefficiency on farms; it is due to the drive for ever cheaper milk, which means only a few will be left standing. The use (or abuse) of milk by retailers as a loss leader amounts to playing with our food. A perception of cows in fields maintained by those selling milk and dairy products masks the steady march towards a future where milk and dairy products will increasingly flow from industrial sites rather than from traditional farms.

I started a farmer-led movement called Free Range Dairy and the Pasture Promise label to promote the value of Britain’s seasonally grazed dairy herds and to try to shift industry focus away from volume and towards value. The remaining cows in our fields can deliver so much more than bucolic images, turning abundant fresh grass, which we ourselves cannot digest, into a wonderful, nutritious food. If we are to secure a truly sustainable supply of healthy and affordable milk and dairy products for our nation, we must all take responsibility for the food choices we make. That is why I would like to see clear labelling on milk cartons and packaging that will enable consumers to make an informed choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.
Neil Darwent
BBC outstanding farmer of the year, Frome, Somerset 

You quote NFU president Meurig Raymond stating that “liquid milk in particular is now cheaper than water”. While I have every sympathy for the plight of dairy farmers, I assume that Mr Raymond is referring to that ultimate triumph of marketing, bottled water. A product that is 1,000 times more expensive than tap water, isn’t required to meet the exacting standards of the European drinking water directive (and frequently doesn’t), doesn’t taste any better and is responsible for its very own waste mountain. Water remains a fraction of the cost of milk (and bottled water). And no, I don’t work for a water company.
David Howarth
Steyning, West Sussex

The headline on your editorial (13 January) says “Dairy farmers are being driven out of business. The groceries regulator should find out why”. It won’t take the regulator much effort to find the answer. Every dairy farmer, past and present, will tell you that in 1933 a progressive, forward-looking government legislated to form the Milk Marketing Board. Margaret Thatcher could not bear the thought of a co-op being successful and so legislated to have it closed down in 1994, much to the delight of her friends the supermarkets.
David Lucas
Bath

Your editorial says that “Britain consumes more than four-fifths of the milk it produces, but its price is dictated globally, by the cost of producing milk in, say, New Zealand or the US”.

Is this not a striking example of the much wider need to get real about the sort of economy we want to live in? If it is true that our production can cover our consumption, it must be possible to separate the local price from the global price, ie we need to create, and live by, an understanding that it is good for all of us to pay more than the minimum conceivable price for this core product.
Ian Graham
Swansea

HP brown sauce spilling on to a white surface
HP sauce. Produced in the Netherlands. Photograph: studiomode/Alamy

In his interesting account of the Ofsted report on Roma education (Officials twitchy over Roma report, 13 January), Warwick Mansell could have mentioned that the report made it quite clear that the education of the other children in the schools with large Roma populations had not suffered in any way through their presence. That’s one twitch less, and it would help redress the balance to say so.
Janet Whitaker
Labour, House of Lords

• When the Tories said “The NHS is safe in our hands” (NHS is toxic for Tories, poll shows, 14 January), what they really meant was “The NHS will be safely in our hands”. With the number of Tory politicians blatantly involved in private health companies, it very nearly is.
Tony Vinicombe
Shoreham, West Sussex

• Tories are toxic for the NHS.
Laurence Gibson
Stowe, Buckinghamshire

• Toasters kill more people than sharks (Letters, 13 January)? I wonder how many of those killed were using Jamie Oliver’s horizontal cheese on toast method (Do something, 10 January; Corrections and clarifications, 10 January)?
Martin Jeeves
Cardiff

• Instead of the unpleasant term “bed-blockers” (Letters, 12 January; A certain age, G2, 13 January), you should use the word “prisoners”. That is what people in custody in hospital are, denied release because of savage cuts in social care.
Jane Lawson
London

• Economists themselves sometimes ask how many economists it takes to change a lightbulb (Letters, 14 January). Answer: none, the market will do it for you.
Jem Whiteley
Oxford

• With its picture of Big Ben, HP sauce epitomises Britishness (Letters, 14 January). It’s a pity then that it is now manufactured in the Netherlands.
Alan Woodley
Northampton

 

Independent:

Times:

Sir, First Milk’s announcement that it will delay payment to farmers (News, Jan 12) in some ways is not a surprise, but it highlights the deepening of the crisis facing British dairy farmers.

The number of milk producers in England and Wales has fallen below 10,000 and this number could halve by 2025. This is not because of farm inefficiency but due to the drive for ever cheaper milk, which means only a few farmers will be left standing. The use (or abuse) of milk by retailers as a loss leader amounts to playing with our food.

A perception of cows in fields maintained by those selling dairy products masks the steady march towards a future where milk and dairy products will increasingly flow from industrial sites.

I started a farmer-led movement called Free Range Dairy and the Pasture Promise label to promote the value of Britain’s seasonally grazed dairy herds and try to shift industry focus away from volume and towards value. We must all take responsibility for our food choices. That is why I would like to see labelling on milk cartons and packaging that will enable consumers to make a choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.

Neil Darwent
BBC outstanding farmer of the year 2014, and director, Free Range Dairy Network

Sir, I congratulate Deborah Ross on her piece about cheap milk (Times 2, Jan 8). At last, an article showing the human side of the dairy industry crisis. We were fifth-generation dairy farmers, milking 250 cows, and our herd was in the top 10 per cent in the UK for herd health, milk quality and production. During the last round of low milk prices, we were receiving 16p a litre; it was costing 21p a litre to produce and this became unsustainable.

To remain on our tenanted farm we had to sell our herd. It was the worst day of our lives, as we loved our cows and knew them all by name. It was like selling our family, and for many months I could not bear to walk around those silent farm buildings.

Doreen Forsyth

Amble, Northumberland

Sir, The controversy over milk is just part of the problem in food retail marketing. For years now, supermarkets have driven down the prices as they strove to gain market share. My late father, who worked for the National Farmers Union in the Seventies, forecast just such a scenario, saying that it would lead to the British farmer being dictated to by the retailer. If we don’t pay a price that gives a sensible return for the producer, we may not have a farming industry left.

Brian Milner
Boston Spa, W Yorks

Sir, If farming was to return to the supposed utopia of small farms that you appear to advocate (leader, Jan 10) the world would not be fed. Britain has had to feed an extra 14 million people over the last 70 years but, at the same time, a huge area has been taken out of agriculture for development. Have shop shelves been bare? No, because British agriculture has risen to the challenge by embracing science while being mindful of welfare.

Richard T Halhead

Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies, Cockerham, Lancs

Libby Purves says we need to keep school science practical experiments — is she right?

Sir, I couldn’t agree more with Libby Purves (“It’s a litmus test: humans need to be more hands-on”, Opinion, Jan 12). When my younger daughter was taking A levels in the late 1990s, her comprehensive school had a workshop and she was able to make the products she had designed. She became very proficient at operating a centre lathe. Her design and technology course gave her a distinct advantage when studying for her engineering degree at Cambridge, as she had practical skills as well as academic ability. She now works in R&D, and can also do all her own plumbing and repairs around her flat.

Elizabeth Clarke

Sheffield

Sir, The science community “has been up in arms” but not in the way that Libby Purves suggests. Rather than “cries of protest”, there is broad consensus that current GCSE assessments often make practical science stultifying for students and teachers alike. Controlled assessment simply has not worked well.

Our proposals should broaden students’ experience of practical science, and free teachers to teach inspiring practical science, and plenty of it, rather than teach mark schemes. Most science teachers welcome this.

Amanda Spielman

Chairwoman, Ofqual

If school science experiments are no longer assessed, it’s another sign of how our lives lack the physicality we require

A human being is not just a brain on a stick. We are complex animals but beasts nonetheless, requiring input from countless nerve-endings. To be complete we need a million messages from our extremities, and to do more than talk and write and look at screens. We need impetus and exertion, heat and cold and weariness, physical intricacy and intimacy. Our ability to manipulate unseen ideas is a matter for awe, but we need more. We need to feel and smell and touch. Our young need it even more.

Why this airy opener? Because I am going to write about Ofqual, the office of qualifications and examinations regulation, and I feared you would glaze over. But stay with me. A current flurry of dismay is relevant to all, as the exam body pushes our already screen-bound schoolchildren one step further away from filling that human need for practicality. Ofqual plans to remove from A-level science the assessment of real experiments on lab benches.

Its concern, on the face of it a reasonable one, is that assessment of this work by teachers — 25 per cent of the final grade — may be overgenerous, routinely producing higher marks than the pupil gets in externally assessed written exams. It says that the current practicals are “time-consuming, prescriptive and repetitive” and it would be “impractical” — ie, expensive — to improve them.

So now Ofqual will assess students’ knowledge of science experiments “by well-designed written exam questions”. No need for that exhilarating trek from classroom to lab, no fizzing test-tube and changing litmus, no dissection or “experiment to show osmosis using two eggs”. Just a requirement to describe what would happen if you did have eggs, or acids, or a rat on a slab. Ofqual insists that inspectors will ensure that lab work still features, and proffers an optional pass/fail “practical endorsed certificate for science” which won’t count towards your grade. Get real! In these days of anxious, league-table, name-and-shame education, anything that doesn’t inflate target figures will be neglected. Especially by already struggling schools.

So the science community is up in arms. Biologists call it “the death knell for UK science education”, and from industry, universities and the teaching profession there are cries of protest. They argue that practical bench-work is too important to leave to the university level, and anyway students are motivated to do science by seeing things happen before their eyes, under their hands. Not just by parroting facts about what “would” occur in an experiment.

The Campaign for Science and Engineering warns “many young people will be able to leave school with the highest grades in science without being able to do science at all”. Engineering tutors at university already find high-flying freshmen devoid of any hands-on sense of materials and stresses now that kids no longer build soap-box carts. School “design technology” rarely produces much beyond a desktop-published folder. Even in the ’90s my son designed an electric bilge-pump, got an A, but never was allowed to make it. My daughter’s “Food Tech” GCSE seemed to consist mainly of designing pizza-boxes and drawing flow-charts of imaginary pie factories.

I leave more detailed objections to science professionals. But it feels like part of a wide, sad trend towards the brain-on-a-stick delusion. Nimble crafty fingers and sweaty, frustrating constructive effort are valued far below intellectual expression: we have conceptual “artists” who never make a thing but grandly delegate an idea to humble workshops; we have nurses intent on paperwork who think it beneath their dignity to get up and make a patient physically comfortable in bed. Hands-on activities — with rare exceptions like surgery — gradually become low status. The “garden designer” outranks the man with the spade, the security consultant out-earns the locksmith.

Yet human beings yearn to struggle off the page and into physical life, and not just in sport and keep fit. Full human physicality requires doing more than just honing your abs: we are programmed, right from the sandpits of infancy, to mess about and reconstruct whatever’s closest. To prove we’re really here.

Burnt-out bankers decide to retrain as plumbers, intensely cerebral actors jump at any chance to juggle, throw things or dance (remember Simon Russell Beale’s twirling moment at the Royal Ballet?). Lads bored and confused by school geometry lessons rush out and make expert, split-second calculations of distance and angle in the skateboard park or parkour acrobatics. Lawyers, if they have any sense, go home and chop logs, paint the hall or knit. Einstein sailed his damp little boat and taught himself the violin; Marie Curie maintained her own bike.

There is a cheerful, emotionally balancing validation in achieving something solid. I remember meeting the first scion of an old fairground family to study at Oxford: a girl accustomed since infancy to put up hoopla-stalls at speed. She found it hilariously incredible that her brilliant confreres in college couldn’t change a lock or a wheel. And it may be that her understanding of the world’s history and her empathy with its literature include a dimension which theirs will always lack.

And so back to Ofqual, and its belief that “experimentation can be assessed by well-designed written exam questions”. Maybe it can, to some extent. But too many of us already live too much from the neck up. It’s no time to make it worse.

Telegraph:

The frontpage of the upcoming
The frontpage of this week’s ‘survivors’ edition of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo Photo: Charlie Hebdo/AFP/Getty Images

SIR – While I condemn the horrendous attack at the Charlie Hebdo building in Paris last week, I cannot condone the latest act of defiance by the magazine in publishing further offensive cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

I’m all for freedom of the press and of speech, but there should be a mutual respect for all religions out of our common humanity. As far as I know, no British satirical magazine publishes such material.

Sally Burgess
Budleigh Salterton, Devon

SIR – The cover for this week’s Charlie Hebdo is not defiant. It is more akin to throwing petrol on to a smouldering fire. I expected greater subtlety from such an intelligent group of people.

Charles Holden
Lymington, Hampshire

SIR – Lampooning the pompous (like yesterday’s Adams cartoon) creates healthy scepticism and intelligent debate.

I’m a Christian who is sometimes upset by criticism but well aware that a lampooning cartoon will not offend God but rather the self-serving, puffed-up people who claim to serve him.

Less respect, more lampooning, please.

Diane Barlow
Cury, Cornwall

SIR – The Government should urgently consider changing the Public Order Act 1986 to allow uninhibited discussion with regard to religious ideology.

The present law clearly states that a person is guilty of an offence if he intends his words, writing, sign or other visible representation to be “threatening, abusive or insulting”.

John Barker
Prestbury, Cheshire

SIR – We should have the freedom to insult anyone, but the good manners not to.

Duncan Ruddick
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire

SIR – We suffer from a lack of respect for the “other”. We mask it with terms like “satire” and when it is challenged, we cry “freedom of speech”.

There are names deemed offensive to black people and Jews that we do not use. It is time we applied these standards to Islam.

David Ross
Huntsham, Tiverton

SIR – The Deputy Prime Minister believes we should have the “freedom to cause offence”. What about the rights of those who are hurt by these offensive statements?

Ernest and Sylvia Adle
Didcot, Oxfordshire

SIR – Public focus should be on long–term planning towards a fairer society.

The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.

Hasan Beg
Kirkcaldy, Fife

Funding cancer drugs

SIR – Following the decision to withdraw the funding of life-extending drugs from 8,000 cancer patients, perhaps David Cameron, Nick Clegg and other members of the Government who so passionately support spending £11 billion of taxpayers’ money on foreign aid should explain to the patients concerned why their treatment must be cut while the aid budget is ring-fenced.

Ian Rolfe
Oxted, Surrey

SIR – The message that developing cancer is down to bad luck needs to be put into context.

First, breast and prostate cancer were not covered in the study by Johns Hopkins University, despite accounting for nearly 90,000 cases in Britain annually.

Secondly, the study concludes that “only” a third of cancers are preventable through factors such as lifestyle. According to our research, this means that 81,000 cancer diagnoses a year in Britain could be prevented, which is no small number.

Some cancers are not preventable, but the idea that we can do nothing to limit cancer risk must be challenged.

Amanda McLean
Director, World Cancer Research Fund UK
London WC1

Bubbling tankards

(Alamy)

SIR – Defending his opposition to prosecco on tap, Luca Giavi, director of the consortium of winemakers in the Valdobbiadene-Conegliano area, claims that “the producers of champagne… would do the same”. He is on shaky ground.

I recall the bar in London’s Connaught Rooms where champagne was dispensed by the pint and half-pint, with the personal tankards of regular customers hanging, ready for use, above the counter.

John Carter
Bromley, Kent

Lost at sea

SIR – Every time there is the tragic loss of an aircraft over the sea – as with the AirAsia jet – there follows the hunt for the black box.

Since the technology is available to transmit such information from an aircraft to a ground location, it is time for an international agreement that all new – and, where possible, existing – commercial aircraft must be fitted with this facility.

Ron Mason
East Grinstead, West Sussex

The Government must act to reduce the deficit

SIR – David Cameron is right to draw the electorate’s attention to the consequences of Labour’s “borrow more – pay later” attitude for our children and grandchildren. Interest costs accumulated by an ever-increasing national debt will pile a huge burden on to future generations.

Labour’s policy is one of greed – robbing the future to pay for the present. However, with a large proportion of the population dependent on state handouts, the chances that this message will be listened to is remote indeed.

J B Box
Hertford

SIR – The Tory policy of a fixed-term approach to deficit reduction has strangled the recovery. With £75 billion of cuts and tax rises still to come, the inescapable conclusion is that austerity has failed.

Further attacks on the welfare budget would be morally reprehensible. For the Tories and the Labour Party to continue with this strategy is utterly nonsensical.

Alex Orr
Edinburgh

SIR – Ed Miliband has said that he wants to lead millions of conversations across Britain to explain his vision.

I welcome him to Surrey to explain why taxing wealth creators and family homes, increasing government borrowing, avoiding benefit reform, bashing private schools and refusing a referendum on the EU are policies we should support.

Stefan Reynolds
Godalming, Surrey

SIR – Given that the Coalition is worried about the level of alcohol consumption in this country, perhaps they could reduce the campaign period to three or four weeks.

Alan Stanley
Southgate, Middlesex

Business skills for life

SIR – Communication, teamwork and time management – often referred to as “soft skills” – are qualities every employer looks for in employees.

Figures released today reveal that these skills are worth £88 billion to the British economy. However, for too long employers, government and educators have failed to recognise or promote soft skills sufficiently, resulting in lost employment and development opportunities, as well as lower productivity.

We are calling for a wholescale re-evaluation of the importance of these proficiencies. Through open consultation, we hope to understand how businesses and government can work with educators to connect young people with employers and help them to gain the soft skills that are needed in the workplace.

If we succeed, the British economy could benefit to the tune of £109 billion by 2020. This will make a real difference to the careers and lives of millions of people.

James Caan
Jez Langhorn

McDonald’s UK & Northern Europe
Neil Carberry
Confederation of British Industry
Kirstie Mackey
Barclays Lifeskills
Fiona Blacke
National Youth Agency
Katerina Rudiger
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Richard Atkins
Association of Colleges
Mike Johnson
Gelder Groups
Lizzie Crowley
Lancaster University’s Work Foundation
David Hughes
National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
Liz Watts
EdComs
Dereth Wood
learndirect
Simon Tarr
People 1st
Chris Jones
City & Guilds
John Allan
Federation of Small Business

To boldly swim where no man has swum before

(Alamy)

SIR – I applaud your article encouraging more of us to embrace the pleasures of wild and cold water swimming (“Come on in – the water’s freezing”, Features, January 6).

However, without wishing to take anything away from the charitable fundraising efforts of David Walliams, I am concerned by the implication that he is the first and only swimmer to have swum the Thames. The only person to complete the full swim to Southend is the extreme swimmer Lewis Pugh, whose team I lead. He accomplished the feat in 2006, five years before Walliams. Moreover, unlike Walliams, who stopped at Westminster, he did not wear a wetsuit.

Lewis also holds the records for the furthest north (North Pole) and south (Antarctica) swims of one kilometre, again without a wetsuit.

Tim Toyne Sewell
Nether Wallop, Hampshire

Same-sex marriage Act

SIR – Mary Baxter’s letter on same-sex marriage raises important issues for all political parties.

The Prime Minister claims that the passing of this Act was one of his proudest moments. But one must consider the way it reached the statute books: it was hurried through Parliament at an unprecedented rate led by what appeared to be a personal campaign supported by an inner circle. The majority of the Government’s supporters failed to back it and a petition from the electorate with more than 500,000 signatories was virtually ignored.

If politicians wish to be respected, they need to reassure the public that the full democratic process has been restored.

Malcolm Blunn
Shorwell, Isle of Wight

Taxing questions

SIR – I run a small VAT-registered business and recently made an innocent mistake when submitting a return.

HMRC’s online system would not allow me simply to cancel the incorrect return and resubmit. I phoned an HMRC adviser and, after a 20-minute wait, was told to post a letter to the VAT Error Corrections office in Liverpool. I did this immediately but, some four weeks later, I received a “default” letter, containing a threatened surcharge. I contacted the HMRC Helpdesk via email; they were unable to help.

This totally avoidable waste of my time and theirs – on what should have been a very simple matter – is quite astonishing.

Wesley Hallam
Ubley, Somerset

Lay off the sauce

(PA)

SIR – As a young boy I was addicted to HP sauce and my father had a battle to stop me dolloping it on every meal.

I always discovered the condiment, no matter where he’d hidden it. Finally, he referred me to the French on the back of the bottle, solemnly informing me that it said that HP was very dangerous for boys under the age of 17.

Foolishly, I believed him and it wasn’t until I began to study French a couple of years later that I became aware of the deception. I insisted on a raise in pocket money to compensate for the hurt caused and, God bless him, he agreed.

Michael Wilson
Dummer, Hampshire

 

 

Globe and Mail:

  (Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)

Michael Marrus

Was Paris march a ‘moment’ that revived Liberté in France?

Irish Times:

A chara, – The Irish Times is to be commended for deciding not to republish material it deems “likely to be seen by Muslims as gratuitously offensive and [that] would not contribute significantly to advancing or clarifying the debate on the freedom of the press” (“The Irish Times and the cartoons”, January 13th). The right to risk giving offence by speaking hard truths as the situation warrants should never be mistaken for a duty to offend for its own sake. – Is mise,

Rev PATRICK G BURKE,

Castlecomer,

Co Kilkenny.

Sir, – Congratulations to The Irish Times – five words that I don’t often write – for exercising its right not to republish any of the Islamophobic Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

Satirising hegemonic power is courageous but satirising the victims of that power is cowardly. Alas, this cowardice is all too often mistaken for courage.

The words of the novelist Saladin Ahmed are worth pondering: “In a field dominated by privileged voices, it’s not enough to say ‘Mock everyone!’ In an unequal world, satire that mocks everyone equally ends up serving the powerful. And in the context of brutal inequality, it is worth at least asking what pre-existing injuries we are adding our insults to.” – Yours, etc,

RAYMOND DEANE,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – I am disappointed by your decision not to publish the cover of the post-massacre edition of Charlie Hebdo. The justification that publication would be gratuitously offensive to Muslims ignores the enormous offence given to everyone else by the murderous behaviour of Islamist terrorists in Paris. The Irish Times has had no problem publishing Martyn Turner cartoons which were offensive to devout Catholics, but those carry no threat of violent reprisals. – Yours, etc,

PETER MOLLOY,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – What is lacking in much of the debate concerning the recent tragic events in Paris is common sense and the recognition that a “right” to absolute “free speech” and absolute free expression of any opinion in the media, however offensive, simply does not exist. Nor should it. Legal rights are usually circumscribed by the recognition that they should be exercised in the common good and can be restrained in certain circumstances where their expression is likely to cause such profound offence that violence and communal strife is likely to result.

I support the editorial decision made by you not to reproduce the cover of the current issue of Charlie Hebdo, but I consider the coverage of the story and the reproduced cartoons in The Irish Times to be in conflict with the spirit and reasoning that led to that wise decision. – Yours, etc,

HUGH McFADDEN,

Harold’s Cross,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – It was good to see that Ireland was officially represented by the Taoiseach in Paris on Sunday, at the march for freedom of speech, and to show solidarity with the 12 people murdered at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, (and the four civilians killed at a kosher grocery and the police officer who was fatally shot last week). Incredibly, officials from Saudi Arabia also attended the march, just two days after Raif Badawi was publicly flogged (the first 50 lashes of 1,000) for exercising his right to freedom of expression. Mr Badawi was jailed for 10 years in May 2014 after starting a website for social and political debate in Saudi Arabia. He was charged with creating the “Saudi Arabian Liberals” website and “insulting Islam”. His sentence also included 1,000 lashes, a 10-year travel ban, and a ban on appearing on media outlets.

Last year Mr Kenny congratulated the crown prince of Saudi Arabia on that country’s election to the human rights council of the United Nations. This year he should publicly distance Ireland from this latest abuse, and other gross human rights abuses (violence against women and discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, sect, race and ethnicity) by the Saudi Arabian authorities.

The Government should demand that the Saudi authorities cease to continue with Mr Badawi’s punishment of flogging, which violates the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in international law. – Yours, etc,

DAVID LILBURN,

Limerick.

Sir, – Free speech is important and must be cherished. But does that include the freedom to insult and deride things that many hold sacred? Maybe it should, but I, for one, feel a bit uneasy.

Before we rush into amending the Constitution to decriminalise blasphemy, maybe we should consider a bit more the danger of incitement to hatred and violence. – Yours, etc,

WJ MURPHY,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I fail to see how you are serving your readership by running a Charlie Hebdo centrespread. While respectful of the right of a publication to publish, I contend that this decision was, at best, irresponsible. – Yours, etc,

FRANK BYRNE,

Terenure,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – How disappointing it is that The Irish Times failed to reproduce the cover of this week’s Charlie Hebdo magazine in yesterday’s edition, despite the fact that you trumpeted “two pages of Charlie Hebdo cartoons” in a banner at the top of the front page (January 14th). The issue of the depiction of Muhammad in cartoons and other forms is absolutely central to the Charlie Hebdo news story, and by failing to reproduce the image, you have failed in your duty to inform your readers and to allow them to make up their own minds on the alleged offensiveness of these images. By failing to reproduce the Charlie Hebdo front cover, I’m afraid that protestations of solidarity by The Irish Times ring rather hollow. – Yours, etc,

PAUL TIPPER,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – There are moments in history that become turning points. In our view, 2015 will be such a moment. It is the most important year for global decision-making since the start of the new millennium.

We believe it’s just possible that we could end 2015 with a new global compact – an agreed pathway to a better, safer future for people and planet that will inspire all the citizens of the world. We can choose the path of sustainable development. Or we might not – and regret it for generations to come. Which side of history will we be on?

There are millions of voices that world leaders can’t afford to ignore – the voices of the people they represent. They are voices of all ages from every corner of the planet – the voice of a young girl currently deprived an education, of a pregnant mother deprived of healthcare, of young people deprived of decent work, of a family from a minority group fearful of discrimination from corrupt officials, of farmers forced to migrate to cities as climate refugees, and of billions of other people. Their voices will roar ever louder against the inequality and injustice that keep people poor. They, and all who stand with them, are calling for a grand new global contract for our one human family – and then deliver on it together. The great news is that in 2015 there is a historic chance to do just that.

Two critical United Nations summits will take place this year. The first in September, where the world must agree new goals to eradicate extreme poverty, tackle inequality and ensure a more sustainable planet. The second is the climate summit in December, where we must ensure the wellbeing of people today doesn’t come at the expense of our children’s futures.

Together with critical discussions on financing, these opportunities are the biggest of our lifetime. We know from past efforts against Aids, malaria, preventable diseases and saving the ozone layer that when we come together, so much can be achieved. Yet, with just months to go before these summits, few leaders are playing the leadership roles we need. We see climate progress but not yet of the scale that is needed, and a set of goals that are hugely ambitious but will be meaningless without brave financing and implementation agreements led from the very top. If this does not change, we fear leaders could be sleepwalking the world towards one of the greatest failures of recent history. It’s not too late to rise to the occasion. Let’s be clear – the actions we take in 2015 will decide which way the world turns for decades to come. Please take the right path. – Yours, etc,

AAMIR KHAN,

actor and activist;

ANGELIQUE KIDJO,

singer-songwriter

and activist;

ANNIE LENNOX,

musician and activist;

BEN AFFLECK,

actor, filmmaker and

founder of Eastern Congo

Initiative;

BILL GATES,

co-founder of the Bill

and Melinda Gates

Foundation;

BONO, lead singer of U2 and

co-founder of One and Red;

DBANJ, Nigerian musician

and activist;

Emeritus Archbishop

DESMOND TUTU;

HUGH JACKMAN, actor;

Prof JEFFREY SACHS,

Director of the Earth

Institute;

JODY WILLIAMS,

1997 Nobel peace laureate

and chairwoman of Nobel

Women’s Initiative;

LEYMAH GBOWEE,

2011 Nobel peace laureate;

MALALA, 2014 Nobel peace

laureate and education

campaigner;

MELINDA GATES,

co-founder of the Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation;

MO IBRAHIM,

philanthropist

and campaigner;

Queen RANIA of Jordan,

advocate and campaigner;

TED TURNER,

chairman,

United Nations Foundation,

London.

Sir, – GPs see about five million emergencies per year in this country (providing 24-hour emergency care to their “public” patients still forms the basis of the GMS contract); emergency departments about one million. Over 90 per cent of primary care emergencies are seen by trained, experienced doctors, ie senior decision makers. In emergency departments in general, the decision to admit is made in over 90 per cent of cases by doctors in training, whose ultimate default position, especially in areas of uncertainty, is to admit patients to the hospital. Senior decision makers, ie hospital consultants, generally see these patients for the first time on day two on the “post-take ward round”.

In departments where there are large numbers of self-referrals to the hospital (much higher in urban areas), it is logical to expect that some of the patients who end up being admitted to the hospital by doctors in training may have otherwise been managed in the community had they first seen their GP.

Solutions to overcrowding involve small margins and small wins in many different areas of the system. Without the commitment of GPs to the provision of emergency care, hospital admissions would undoubtedly increase. If the boundary between primary and secondary care was more clearly defined in the system, the impact on overcrowding may be greater than we suspect. Primary care is cheaper than hospital care. More patients being managed in the community means less overcrowding, and more money for the rest of the system. – Yours, etc,

Dr BRENDAN McCANN

Consultant

in Emergency Medicine,

University Hospital

Waterford.

Sir, – We have been analysing, writing on and discussing this problem for the past 10 years. In that time span there has been a direct correlation between the number of sick people awaiting admission to acute hospitals being held on trolleys in emergency departments and the number of medically fit for discharge older people occupying acute beds in these hospitals. The solution to this growing problem does not just lie in an increase in Fair Deal funding to facilitate admission to nursing homes but must include a more advanced and better funded home care package scheme.

I suspect politicians will only act when their sick constituents arrive in their clinics when they are not able to gain admission to an acute hospital. We are getting closer to that reality but no closer to a solution from the HSE. – Yours, etc,

Dr JONATHON ROTH,

Limerick.

Sir, – It is reckoned that a third of hospital beds are used to deal with alcohol-related diseases. The most effective health legislation was the ban on smoking in the workplace, at nil cost to the taxpayers. Similar action is required for alcohol, with a total ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship. – Yours, etc,

JAMES MORAN,

Bunclody, Co Wexford.

Sir, – I saw Charles Haughey in his office, on each of the three occasions that he left it with dignity, when he ceased to be taoiseach: on June 30th, 1981, after 18 months in office; on December 14th, 1982, after just nine months; and finally on February 9th, 1992, after five years. This was not the behaviour of a Latin American dictator (Bernard Lynch, January 14th).

Some of us are getting a little weary of the continuing whingefest of mature journalists and former politicians. Charles Haughey’s real crime, and it is easy to forget that he was convicted of none, was that up until 1992 he succeeded in surmounting all the challenges made to him. He survived the many attacks of such estimable people as Jack Lynch, Conor Cruise O’Brien, George Colley, Desmond O’Malley, Garret FitzGerald, not to mention the Workers’ Party, and Mrs Thatcher, to the understandable but lasting resentment of most of them, their admirers and their supporters.

While not disputing that Charles Haughey had serious failings and made some bad choices, both personal and political, they are in my opinion outweighed by the more lasting benefit of his many achievements. Rightly, a lot of things today are done differently, and what were very lax ethical rules, often poorly policed, have been tightened up a lot since, which I welcome, though in some areas (eg pre-election spending by candidates) not nearly enough.

With regard to Charlie, while it makes a decent effort to tell a story and covers a lot of ground, I share Vincent Browne’s view that The Guarantee is a better example of the genre. – Yours, etc,

MARTIN MANSERGH,

Tipperary, Co Tipperary.

Sir, – The old adage that if it looks too good to be true, it usually is, and that there is no such thing as a free lunch both apply when considering the news that Goldman Sachs is to advise on the proposed sale of the (reluctantly) State-owned Allied Irish Banks (“Goldman Sachs to advise Government on pro bono basis”, January 12th). Goldman Sachs, which Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine famously described as the “vampire squid” of global capitalism that goes about looking to “stick its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”, is, we are now to believe, working “pro bono” as a charitable gesture for “arse out of their trousers” countries like ours. Forgive me, but I smell a rat.– Yours, etc,

DECLAN DOYLE,

Lisdowney,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – I was, to put it mildly, disappointed with the headline The Irish Times chose to summarise the story of Sean Quinn’s settlement regarding future earnings upon the discharge of his bankruptcy: “Sean Quinn to pay €10,000 per year under bankruptcy ruling” (January 12th).

Given the “per year” element of the settlement only extends to two years, may I suggest that a more accurate headline would have been: “State settles with Sean Quinn for €20,000, despite losses to the State of billions of euro, and an insurance levy being paid by hundreds of thousands of people for decades to come.” – Yours, etc,

RONAN PALLISER,

Stepaside,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – I understand that warning images on cigarette boxes serve a decent purpose.

However, is it really necessary to display an image of a heroin needle on some packets? It must be hard for heroin addicts in recovery who smoke to see this image every time they roll a cigarette. It could influence them to relapse. Is that fair? – Yours, etc,

EOGHAN DUNNE,

Cork.

Sir, – I have just heard, for the fourth time today, reference on local and national radio forecasts to “extreme weather warnings” and “extreme weather conditions”.

Could someone please enlighten me as to what is so extreme about snow or ice in January?

It would seem that the choice of words has become extreme, not the weather. – Yours, etc,

JENNIFER

PRENDERGAST,

Kilmacanogue,

Co Wicklow.

Irish Independent:

Published 15/01/2015 | 02:30

  • 0 Comments
A man touches the spray-painted shut mouth of a statue near a poster reading "I am Charlie" as he takes part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris. Photo: Reuters

A man touches the spray-painted shut mouth of a statue near a poster reading “I am Charlie” as he takes part in a solidarity march (Marche Republicaine) in the streets of Paris. Photo: Reuters

Much of the media commentary over the past few days has displayed something of a visceral, reflexive ‘repulse’ philosophy when pitching the free-speech validity of laughter, satire and debilitative discourse against fundamentalist extremism.

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However, reaction to the tragedy appears to conveniently decontextualise the brutal and tragic events in Paris from any authentic appraisal of balance or holistic inclusion of cause and effect.

Of course, we must all abhor – and condemn – such vicious acts of unlawful aggression. But we must also, somehow, try to parse and probe all the evolutionary complexions pertaining. Reflex condemnation is understandable, but simply assessing such terrorist fundamentalism as a terrible and wanton wrong – without wondering about all the whys and wherefores – is a one-dimensional pursuit.

The historical connivances and manipulative meddling which Western powers – with all their lofty talk of universal democratic integrity – have visited upon so many countries and cultures must at least be considered. This is not to dilute the travesty of the tragedy, but to attempt to understand more and seek some initial avenue of rapprochement without capitulation.

Some attendant queries could well be:

Where do all the rogue armaments emanate from in the first place? Who supplies these? Where are they sourced? Are Western arms manufacturers obliquely complicit in such a burgeoning of weapon availability world-wide? Does filthy lucre override all considerations of social decency and human integrity? Does cartooning have an open carte blanche to deride, satirise and demean all and sundry, irrespective of taste, etiquette, risk and offence? Is one man’s ‘blasphemy’ not another man’s incitement?

There are no easy or comfortable answers to questions like these. But there is surely a case for relentlessly responsible contextualisation, respectful resilience and steadfast determination to try to understand and try to solve with a degree of dignity. There is no point bunkering down and blinkering our scope of enquiry. Why do people act as they do?

Let’s be fully honest in the round, while being strong in adversity.

Jim Cosgrove

Lismore, Co Waterford

A fresh approach is needed

There is a poem called ‘Walls’ by a Soweto poet named Oswald Mtshali which casts some light on what happened last week in France: “Man is a great wall builder / The Berlin Wall /… But the wall most impregnable / Has a moat / flowing with fright / around his heart / A wall without windows for the spirit to breeze through / without a door for love to walk in.”

And yet there is evidence everywhere of the love that exists between people. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 Stephen Jay Gould, an American scientist and writer, wrote: “Good and kind people outnumber all others by thousands to one… Every spectacular incident of evil will be balanced by 10,000 acts of kindness, too often unnoted and invisible as the ‘ordinary’ efforts of a vast majority.”

Calls to “defeat terrorism” are being made again at the moment. However, we may be looking in the wrong direction to make societies more secure. What we need is to find a way is to fan the flame of decency that exists within all of us. Love, rather than tension, needs to dominate world consciousness so that hatred cannot take root.

As a teenager in the early 1970s I listened to the news reports of the daily ‘body counts’ of Vietcong killed by the US army. I lost faith in the judgment of politicians and generals trying to create a ‘safer’ world by killing others. Nothing has happened since to make me change my mind.

Why persist with approaches to create a more secure world that have spectacularly failed? The billions that have been spent on wars on terror need to be used to find more effective strategies. The quest of our time should be to create a more mature and loving collective consciousness in the world.

John Burns

Blackrock, Co Dublin

A far-fetched comparison

I take issue with Colin Crilly’s letter (‘States kill more than terrorists’, January 14) suggesting that “You’ve only got to look at Israel, and its recent slaughter of over 2,000 people in Gaza to see … [that] state terror, kills far more civilians than a few fanatics ever will”.

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, has pointed out that the proportion of civilian casualties in Gaza (nowhere near 2,000 unless there were no non-civilian deaths) was unbelievably low and the envy of military commanders throughout the world. Mr Crilly’s comparison is far-fetched.

Martin D Stern

Salford, England

ECB an undemocratic outfit

Unlike the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank has only one self-imposed target by which its performance can be judged: to keep inflation at or just below two per cent. It has failed miserably to achieve that target, with the result that people and nations with large debts have seen their real debt burden increase.

This suits net creditor nations such as Germany, but is a disaster for almost everyone else, with deflation likely to lead to increased real indebtedness, recession and perhaps even depression in the rest of the Eurozone.

Lest anyone think this is an accident of history, it is an outcome advocated by some German economists and by many of the German staff in the Frankfurt-based ECB.

And yet no one calls for the resignation of the ECB Board for failing to achieve its one self-declared target, never mind achieving a broader set of economic targets, as the US Fed does, including employment levels.

Our leaders seem to be afraid to criticise the ECB in case it might once again threaten to pull the plug on our banking system.

The ECB is the most undemocratic institution in the EU, with Ireland never even having sought representation at board level. It is time that must change, and it is time our political leaders had the courage to hold our banking masters to account.

The Eurozone must be run in the interests of all Eurozone members. Failing that we must consider acting in our own national interest and leave the Eurozone in concert with other Eurozone members whose economic needs are being ignored.

Frank Schnittger

Blessington, Co Wicklow

Ireland on the periphery

Charlie Flanagan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, says Ireland is “at the heart of Europe”.

Charlie mustn’t have attended enough geography and biology classes when he was in school. The heart of the EU is Germany and sidekick France, and we here on the edge of nowhere are seen at worst as a nuisance, and at best a pimple which will make the right noises when squeezed.

Robert Sullivan

Bantry, Co Cork

Whither the water woes?

Tales of bankruptcy and golden goals seem just now to have moved the hot – and indeed cold – topic of water charges off the front pages. Gives us all a chance to assess our liquidity?

Tom Gilsenan

Beaumont, Dublin 9

Irish Independent


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Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading go to Tesco and Co op. Set up bird feeders.

Obituary:

John Mason with prime minister Edward Heath at the opening of a new wing of the Meteorological Office in 1972
John Mason with prime minister Edward Heath at the opening of a new wing of the Meteorological Office in 1972 Photo: ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY

Sir John Mason, who has died aged 91, was an expert in the physics of clouds; as director-general of the Meteorological Office from 1965 to 1983, he transformed the institution into a world centre for global weather and climate prediction and research.

Basil John Mason was born at Docking, Norfolk, on August 18 1923 and educated at Fakenham Grammar School. After wartime service as a flight lieutenant in the Radar branch of the RAF, and after being awarded a First in Physics by the University of London, he was appointed lecturer in the postgraduate department of meteorology at Imperial College, London in 1948.

There he formed a research group to study the physical processes involved in the formation of clouds and the release of precipitation as rain, snow or hail. He also wrote a classic study The Physics of Clouds (1957), in which he provided a mathematical expression of the formation (due to condensation) or evaporation of water droplets in clouds — known as the Mason equation.

He published a second, updated and enlarged, edition of the book in 1971, and in 2010 the Oxford University Press published a reprint in its Oxford Classic Texts in the Physical Sciences series. In 1961 Mason was appointed the world’s first professor of cloud physics at Imperial.

When he moved to the Met Office at Bracknell in 1965, Mason took his Imperial research team with him and, in the early 1970s, proposed a quantitative theory to explain how electrical charges are generated in thunderclouds, showing how they create vertical electrical fields which, under certain conditions, become strong enough to break through air insulation and trigger and sustain lightning storms. For this research he received the Rumford Medal and the Bakerian lectureship of the Royal Society.

The background to Mason’s appointment to the Met Office was the announcement in 1961 by President Kennedy of an ambitious “Global Atmospheric Research Programme” to improve long-range weather forecasting through the use of advanced computational and satellite technology. At the time the British Met Office was largely employed in making routine observations, plotting and analysing them by hand and making short-range forecasts. Mason, with his distinguished record in scientific research and an outstanding reputation as a physicist, was seen as the right man to lead the office into the computer age.

He embarked on a major programme of modernising and equipping the Met Office with the most powerful computers available – a programme that involved major building works and a significant expansion of basic and applied research. By 1983 he had replaced the traditional empirical forecasting methods with objective numerical techniques and extended the reach of the Met Office’s weather monitoring and prediction operations across the globe.

His achievement was recognised in 1977 at a major exhibition at the Royal Society to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, at which the advances made by the Met Office in numerical weather prediction featured as one of the 12 most important British contributions to science during her reign. The success of the programme was a major factor in the decision by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, in 1983, to nominate the Bracknell office as one of two world area forecasting centres (the other being in Washington) whose global forecasts it approved for use by civil airline operators.

A lightning storm over the Dorset coast (ALAMY)

After his retirement from the Met Office in 1983, Mason became director of an Acid Rain Research Project, involving some 300 scientists from institutes affiliated to the Royal Society or the National Academies of Norway and Sweden. Their report, published in 1990, confirmed that acid rain was caused mainly by emissions from coal-fired power stations and found that damage to hundreds of Scottish and Scandinavian lakes has exceeded earlier fears. The results, discussed at a week-long conference at the Royal Society attended by the three Prime Ministers, led the British government to implement measures which have seen levels of sulphur in the atmosphere drop 90 per cent compared with their peak level in the 1950s.

Mason was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1965, served as its treasurer and vice president from 1976 to 1986 and was awarded the Society’s Royal Medal in 1991. A Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1948, he served as president of the society from 1968 to 1970, winning its Symons Gold Medal in 1975 and endowing its its Mason Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the understanding of meteorological processes in 2006. He served as president of the Institute of Physics from 1976 to 1978, winning its Charles Chree Medal in 1965 and Glazebrook Medal in 1972. He was pro-chancellor of the University of Surrey from 1980 to 1985 and president (1986–94) and then chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology from 1994 to 1996.

John Mason was appointed CB in 1973 and knighted in 1979.

In 1948 he married Doreen Jones, with whom he had two sons.

Sir John Mason, born August 18 1923, died January 6 2015

Guardian:

Emergency paramedics arrive at a hospital
Emergency paramedics arrive at a hospital. ‘We seem to treat them with zero respect and as highly disposable objects,’ writes Suzanne McCall. Photograph: John Sanders/Alamy

Simon Jenkins takes aim at the wrong targets when decrying the problems facing the NHS (Here’s what my fantasy Labour party would look like, Opinion, 15 January). It is not GPs or hospital doctors who are holding back the NHS; their hard work means patients continue to receive high-quality care, including emergency care around the clock. Doctors want to do more, but they can do that only if they are given the resources, facilities and staff to do so. For example, a recent British Medical Association survey showed that seven out of 10 GPs felt their facilities were too small to provide extra services, even though GPs want to do more for their patients.

We also need to ensure that the resources we do have are used appropriately: is there really a widespread demand, as Simon Jenkins suggests, for routine GP appointments at 3am? Would the money not be better spent having more healthcare staff available in a range of disciplines in better facilities when patients are more likely to use them? Moreover, calling for people to declare their income when they need to see a GP or have an operation so they can pay means-tested charges would destroy the social solidarity the NHS is based on. There is little doubt that the NHS is under unsustainable pressure and, in a general election year, we need a serious debate, underpinned by the need for healthcare to be free at the point of use, about how we meet the challenges we are facing. Doctors want to be part of these solutions.
Dr Mark Porter
Chair of the British Medical Association’s council

• Your article (Running out of road: exhausted paramedics pick up the pieces of broken health system, 14 January) highlights the pressures on this service. But I wonder if readers realise just how appalling paramedics’ general working conditions are out of the crisis spotlight? As a counsellor I see paramedics when they become too stressed or are traumatised. There are no other professional groups I see who seem to me to be so grossly underpaid and who tolerate such inhumane working conditions, given the level of trauma they deal with. It is not uncommon for them to be spending their long shifts alone, responding to emergency after emergency with no downtime, no time back at the hospital to unload emotionally. We seem to treat them with no respect and as highly disposable objects. The plight of professional groups such as the paramedics is not about lack of funds – there are plenty of people who are paid a fortune by the NHS. It is rather, as always, that the professional power groups get the biggest slices of the cake.

One last thing. There is a solution to ambulances queueing up at A&E. Although ministers keep exclaiming that there is no more money for the greedy NHS, all over the service money is being lobbed at dead-end projects, new IT packages that will not work and expensive management consultants. But, of course, those are different budgets.
Suzanne McCall
Luton

• In 2010 my son-in-law gave up work to do four years’ paramedic training. During the first year the government announced there would be no further recruitment of ambulance technicians (a job he needed while undertaking the three-year paramedic degree). As he successfully completed his access year, the government then announced that the NHS would no longer finance the three-year paramedic degree course – requiring him to pay £9,000 a year like other degree courses. Unable to face a debt of £27,000, my son-in-law found alternative work and, lost to the NHS, he uses his skills as a volunteer with RNLI.
Christine Guedalla
London

• Lord Ashcroft is wrong to perpetuate the myth that lack of explanation lies behind wide rejection of the Lansley reforms (The Tories are still toxic on the NHS, Opinion, 14 January). They were only too well understood. We all know that high standards and cost-effectiveness are not evenly spread. We know, too, that bureaucratic tendencies and inefficient practices are found where there is inadequate management, in private as well as public organisations. Evidence is not adduced that profit-seeking firms are more beneficial to the service.

The government’s proper role is to set the overall structure, the parameters and the funding limits, within which the NHS is accountable. Excellence in leadership, effectiveness and efficiency must be demanded, along with continuous review and development. Cynically shrugging off responsibility to arms-length operators driven by profit is not acceptable in an agenda for “modernisation”.
Lord Ashcroft is right about one thing: we need a proper conversation about all of this.
Howard Layfield
Newcastle upon Tyne

• Sarah Boseley (More money is certainly needed – but that’s not all, 14 January) and your front-page report miss the core problem that compared with other western countries we get our NHS on the cheap.

Based on US Bureau of Statistics data, research shows that in 2008, the latest date for which we have data, we are 17th out of 21 countries. Worse, over the past 20 years, our average was 20th.

Greece and Portugal, which used to have higher child mortality rates than Britain, spend 9.5% and 10.2% of their national wealth on health to the UK’s 8.7%, and now have substantially lower child deaths rate than Britain. When recognised in this way, the solution becomes obvious: that the UK should match the average health spending of other western countries.
Colin Pritchard
Research professor in psychiatric social work, Bournemouth University, and emeritus and visiting professor, department of psychiatry, University of Southampton

• The decision by NHS England to de-list a number of drugs from the Cancer Drugs Fund for use in treating blood cancers is worrying (Boost for cancer fund as drugs list pruned, 13 January). Patients with many types of leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma can now live for many years with a good quality of life, thanks to the development of new drugs. While not all types of blood cancer are curable, decades of research have led to incremental increases in survival times that could eventually lead to cures. It is a mistake to dismiss the importance of any drug that can give precious extra months or years to patients and can prevent considerable suffering.

If we are serious about beating blood cancers and other forms of cancer, the government, NHS, charities and pharmaceutical companies need collectively to find a sustainable way to make these and the next generations of effective drugs available to patients who need them.
Professor Chris Bunce
Research director, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

TTIP protest, Juncker
An activist wearing a mask of the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, at a protest against the TTIP in Brussels in December. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

George Monbiot (Equality before the law? Throw it on the corporate bonfire, 14 January) highlights one of the most disturbing and potentially devastating attacks on democracy now being played out by the US, UK and 12 other EU members. To claim that the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) is primarily a trade agreement is nonsense. The trade agreements already in existence may require some fine tuning, but the addition of TTIP is anything but a tweak to existing arrangements.

Our own government and opposition parties are strangely mute on the subject. How can it be fair, reasonable or democratic for any government to put their country and their electorates in a position where a small number of international corporations can sue us over laws that affect their profits, using a legal system designed only for them? It is totally abhorrent.

Interestingly, that infamous “loony of the left” Tony Benn was forecasting events such as this as far back as the early 70s. I urge every MP to read The Best of Benn. Page 57 is a good place to start: this section covers a speech entitled Multinationals and World Politics, which he made to a conference of international business leaders, and which was coolly received. About 40 years ago, he said: “In short, multinational companies employing thousands of people, controlling great resources, with a vested interest in territorial development and with reserves of capital and know-how to protect, have become states and must expect to be treated as such… The single biggest political issue of the 70s, 80s and beyond is the need for the democratisation of power.”

Our democratic system has never been under so much pressure as it is today and it is time for people, regardless of their party allegiances, to wake up to the fact. Do not let TTIP happen.
David Beswick
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

• It is more than paradoxical that our government is proposing to sign the TTIP at the same time as it is about to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The provisions for “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS), divorced from the citizens’ own judiciary, are nothing more than the creation of a modern analogue of the Plantagenet-era parallel system of ecclesiastical courts with the exclusive right to try miscreant clergy.
David Whalley
Macclesfield , Cheshire

Rachael Regan
Classroom assistant Rachael Regan arriving at Bradford Crown Court, where she was found guilty of cruelty to a child. Photograph: Lynne Cameron/PA

Had the seven-year-old girl not told her mother about being tied to a chair and humiliated by a classroom assistant, Rachael Regan, more crimes might well have been committed (Teaching assistant bully taped girl pupil to chair, 9 January).

Parliament passed legislation in 2009 requiring schools to notify parents of significant incidents involving the use of force. However, soon after coming to power, the coalition government dismissed this duty as red tape. Following pressure from children’s charities, the parliamentary human rights select committee and teachers’ unions, ministers conceded that the duty served the best interests of children.

Michael Gove then asked his behavioural expert, Charlie Taylor to undertake a review. This took about five weeks and Taylor’s three-page report concluded that the duty was a “bureaucratic burden”, and it has been on the scrapheap ever since. No matter, apparently, that the safeguard was the result of the equally shocking case of a six-year-old with special educational needs who was repeatedly physically restrained at school, the full extent of which came to light only after her mother put in a freedom of information request.
Carolyne Willow
Nottingham

Third and final televised leaders' debate before the 2010 general election
The Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour leaders take part in the third and final televised leaders’ debate before the 2010 general election. But which parties will feature this year? Photograph: Getty Images

John Crace’s sketch (Welcome to the house of love, 15 January) suggests that Ofcom will decide the line-up of leaders’ debates before the election. This is not the case. Ofcom has no role in determining the structure, format and style of any broadcast general election debates that might take place. This is up to broadcasters. Ofcom’s role is to set rules governing the minimum allocation of party election broadcasts, a duty placed on Ofcom by parliament. The broadcasters are able to allocate additional party election broadcasts, to major parties and others, and have a duty to ensure all coverage is fair, impartial and gives due weight to a range of voices.
Tony Close
Director of content standards, Ofcom

• Sorting out who should appear in election debates is not rocket science (Report, 15 January). Four nations make up the representation at Westminster. There should be one debate in England featuring all the leaders of the English parties that have representation at Westminster. As these parties also campaign in the other UK nations, with the possible exception of Labour and the Lib Dems in Northern Ireland, the debates in these areas should feature “national” parties too – again, with qualification resting on having representation at Westminster. That would mean the Tory, Ukip and Green leaders would probably appear in four debates while Messrs Miliband and Clegg would appear in three.
Cllr John Marriott
Lincoln

• Roger Mosey (The BBC must enforce the empty chair, 15 January) doesn’t get it. Despite the best efforts of Thatcher and Blair, our system remains a parliamentary, not a presidential, one. Would Attlee have triumphed over Churchill, or Major over Kinnock, if the elections of 1945 and 1992 had been trials by television? Such individuals working as leaders of a team surely have more to contribute than the winners of a beauty contest in which the glib Salmonds of this world are likely to win over the thoughtful Darlings. It is about the “greys” at least as much as the Greens.
Martin Brayne
High Peak, Derbyshire

• Roy Hattersley pulled out of Have I Got News For You and was replaced by a tub of lard. Perhaps replace David Cameron with a condom.
Tony Rimmer
Fylde, Lancashire

Michael White’s mention of Commander Bill Boakes (Comedy candidates, 15 January) will have awakened happy memories for older Londoners of a war hero who was one of the most persistent and colourful candidates ever to have brightened the British electoral landscape. I had the privilege of lodging in his house as a student between 1959 and 1961, when he was the leader, and perhaps only member, of the brilliantly named Admiral (Association of Democratic Monarchists Independently Representing All Ladies). There is a wonderful photograph of him sporting a bowler hat, briefcase, rolled umbrella and roller skates, in the commemorative book of the Daily Mail London to Paris Race, in which he skated from Marble Arch to Westminster Pier to publicise his campaign for city-centre helicopter landing sites. They don’t make candidates like that any more.
Cyril Aydon
Banbury

Speculating on the benefits of the crude oil market price crash (G2, 14 January) is pointless. We’re in a poker game – the Middle East Opec producers have already said openly it doesn’t matter to them how low the price falls; they won’t cut production. It’s clear the aim is to ruin the producers who can only function at high prices. Once they fold their hands, Opec can set the price back up where they want it. Perhaps G2 should run a feature instead on what will happen when our oil industry collapses.
Mark Lewinski
Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire

• Suzanne Moore’s neologism, faithophobia (15 January), is a wonderfully apt term for describing the aversion atheists have towards respecting ideas based upon myth and superstition, in other words religions. Might I propose an antonym: atheophobia, a term for those who fear ideas based upon reason and rationality?
John Dillon
Birmingham

• Being barged out of the way on pavements is, it seems to me, more prevalent nowadays (Manslamming? Come off it, 13 January). The worst are often either those immersed in texting, or groups talking among themselves three abreast. A good technique I’ve found is to stand stock still as you come up to them. They will then go around you instead of bumping you out of the way. Try it.
Michael Miller
Sheffield

• I certainly remember the French labelling on one side of the HP bottle (Letters, 14 January). Aged seven, I impressed my dad, who was reading the French side, by translating all the ingredients for him. He hadn’t realised the label was in English on the other side (my side) of the bottle. One of the few times I ever managed to impress him.
Alison Dempster
Huddersfield

• It’s been a few days since you’ve printed a seasonal photo of the deer in Richmond Park. I hope they are all doing fine. Perhaps you could commission a photo of some really wild deer in Scotland. Then you wouldn’t need to crop out the dog-walkers. An otter would be nice.
Juliet Clark
Twickenham, Middlesex

 

Independent:

Share

As a practising orthodox Jew, I am beginning to wonder whether I am alone in not feeling uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK and not questioning whether it can be my home for many years to come (“The new anti-Semitism”, 14 January).

Yes, there is anti-Semitism in this country, just as there is Islamophobia, homophobia and gender inequality. Yet the media’s apparent need to portray the Jewish community as victims so enthusiastically is increasingly troubling.

Many Jewish people have forged successful careers in the UK and found their heritage to be absolutely no impediment. We have a government that supports faith schools, a Prime Minister who hosts a Chanukah party at his residence, a 20ft Chanukiah in Trafalgar Square, thriving synagogues, kosher restaurants, coffee shops and book stores.

Isn’t it time to focus a little more on celebrating the great things about the Jewish community rather than wallowing in a negativity that might well sell newspapers but cannot be healthy for the United Kingdom?

Shimon Cohen
London NW5

 

The current social discourse allows many British people to feel more comfortable admitting they don’t like Jews. But they never did. The monster of anti-Semitism had been subdued for a very long time, but it had never died nor lost strength, it just lost the ability to express itself.

UK Jews always knew it was there and felt its presence just under the surface, even as they were reluctant to talk about it or even admit it to themselves. The monster has been woken by the media’s unhealthy and unhelpful obsession with the Middle East conflict.

Killing the obsession would subdue the monster. Of course, the biased reporting that goes on is clearly a driver of anti-Semitism in the UK and elsewhere, in particular the depiction of moral equivalence between the sides for the sake of a better story, reluctance to call terror by its name, and the wholesale buying into the Hamas propaganda which demonises Israelis.

But that pales in comparison to the damage done by the sheer weight of attention to the issue. The media should simply stop reporting the Israel/Arab conflict so much, and report instead on many, many areas of the world where injustices are taking place on an exponentially larger scale. Too many causes have been overlooked, too many other critical issues ignored. At least, find another story to misrepresent!

The Palestinians will never make peace for as long as they know that they have the world’s attention. The day a deal is cut and the conflict is solved, and the Palestinians have a state, they would become as significant in world affairs as say, Micronesia.

Even if the discourse does change, of course many British people still won’t like Jews. But at least they might go back to keeping it to themselves.

Daniel Grodner
Tel Aviv

 

I was most confused recently to find a survey in my inbox, full of leading questions directing me to express fear about the growth of anti-Semitism and inviting me to agree that as a result my thoughts had turned to emigration to Israel. This struck me as odd, because Israel constantly promotes itself as a country surrounded by enemies, surely making Israel one of the least safe places for Jews.

Vigilance against anti-Semitism is important, but manufactured fear is in no one’s interests.

Diana Neslen
Ilford, Essex

 

Jonathan Fenby writes about anti-Semitism in France (8 January). There are regular attacks on religious establishments and amenities, physical attacks on those going about their daily lives.

Jews are victims in France daily and they are leaving the country in their droves. France will be Judenfrei before 2020 thanks to the Islamic terror campaign and the inertia of successive governments. This campaign is achieving what even the Nazis failed to do.

Wake up, Europe, before it’s too late.

Stephen Spencer Ryde
London N3

 

Your report that record numbers of British Jews are making aliyah to Israel should be viewed in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. If Islamic anti-Semitism is driving Jews to leave Europe in increasing numbers, then a solution to Palestinian aspirations for an independent state will be far less likely to be realised.

As Israel has to accommodate many more immigrants from Europe, so the West Bank will be needed for new settlers. Where does that leave the prospect for an independent Palestine?

Peter Beyfus
Amesbury, Wiltshire

 

Muslims aren’t guilty by association

The brutal slaughter at the Charlie Hebdo office was nothing but base criminality. But it was committed by three men, not a community – still less a religion. But the Muslim community as a whole is being charged with collective guilt by association.

I do not recall white Norwegians being asked by the media to scrutinise their values and beliefs in the same way following the murderous rampage by the neo-Nazi Anders Breivik in 2011, in which he murdered 77 young people. Such an argument would have been absurd. It is equally absurd to condemn millions of people because they happen to be the co-religionists of three brutal murderers.

Sasha Simic
London N16

 

A modest proposal to ensure community harmony in this country would be for the Government to issue a list of historical personages who may not be lampooned, caricatured or criticised, on pain of a fine for a first offence, imprisonment for a second and perhaps, especially if the infringement involved one of the more revered religious figures, for a third, death.

Your readers could doubtless add more to the list, but my suggestions would include Jesus, Mohamed, Guru Nanak, Buddha, Odin, Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher.

Nick Wray
Derby

 

Many of the British politicians who claim to support Charlie Hebdo in France are opposed to secularism in the UK. Thus we still have compulsory religious worship in state schools, discrimination against non-Christians (whether teachers or pupils) in those same schools, bishops in our legislature, and atheists banned from the BBC’s Thought for the Day. What hypocrisy!

Robin Paice
Southsea, Hampshire

 

Unfair trade for dairy farmers

When I go to a supermarket I can buy Fairtrade coffee, chocolate and wine. I am happy to support small-scale producers who receive a fair payment for their product. Their families and communities benefit and the producers have some protection from unmitigated market forces or unprincipled marketeers.

So, where can I shop for Fairtrade milk? There must be many of us who do not wish to be party to the destruction of the English dairy industry. We appreciate the contribution made by small-scale producers to our landscape and village communities. We value the welfare British cows enjoy and are dubious about the quality of foreign imports.

Not everyone is as fortunate as I am in having a milkman deliver fresh milk to my door. Despite being retired and therefore living on a restricted pension, I don’t begrudge a penny of the 89p per pint that I pay.

Elizabeth Flanagan
Malvern, Worcestershire

 

I’ve been worrying whether killing the aggressive “Nazi” cows was the right thing to do. After all, they were only obeying udders.

David Hinton
Bournemouth, Dorset

 

A chance to boost the tax take

The recent huge oil price fall has led to cuts in petrol and diesel prices. The UK’s fiscal deficit, at around £90bn per annum, remains vast; economists warn of the dangers of deflation caused by the oil price drop; and consumption of carbon-based fuels will grow.

Is this not a rare opportunity to increase tax revenues painlessly through raising fuel duties, by perhaps 10p per litre, thus shrinking the need for expenditure cuts, averting deflationary threats and reducing pollution? But perhaps the Government has not the courage to implement this “difficult choice”, despite its obvious desirability.

L Warwick-Haller
Botley, Hampshire

 

Where are the canal attack survivors?

I have no wish to sound cynical about the fate of the 61 people who have drowned in Manchester’s waterways (“Serial killer suspected after 61 bodies found in six years”, 13 January), but surely if there was a “pusher”, a significant number of people thrown into the water would have survived.

Being thrown into a canal is not a pleasant experience but it does not lead to certain death. The chances of having 61 deaths and no survivors are very low.

Michael O’Hare
Northwood, Middlesex

 

Times:

Sir, Local government should be congratulated, not condemned. Your leader (“Reinventing government”, Jan 14) correctly states that funding for local government by 2016 “will have fallen by 37 per cent in real terms since 2010” — the largest reduction imposed on any part of the public sector.

We have faced up to this challenge. Local government has innovated, procured more services from the private sector and charities, and delivered an efficiency programme that has protected and improved our services. These measures have necessitated staff reductions, but the fact that we buy temporary staff through agencies has a purpose: using agency staff can have many advantages, allowing us to be flexible in the face of fluctuating demand, and keeping our permanent workforce to a minimum. Temporary staff avoid local government pension contributions, holiday and sickness entitlement and potential redundancy costs.

Recruiting frontline social workers is a national problem and we are all too heavily reliant on agency staff in this area out of necessity, not choice.

Local government is doing more than its fair share to help restore the public finances of this country.

Paul Carter
Leader, Kent County Council

Sir, It should not be a shock that councils have been rehiring staff at an astronomical cost. This situation is true across government and is in no way confined to local authorities. This is borne out of officials prioritising short-term savings and failing to plan for long-term needs. Ultimately these savings come to naught because government departments and councils realise they need the resources they have cut, and that their cuts have been too deep. Lessons must be learnt. A lack of long-term planning cannot be allowed to happen again.

Eamon Keating
National chairman, Defence Police Federation

Sir, Local authorities have brought on themselves the problem of having to hire agency social workers.

Relatively low pay, crippling workloads and a culture of blame and bullying have created an intolerable environment. Agency social workers suffering this can walk away, and this freedom is often an attraction. If local authorities are going to avoid the expensive “revolving door” of agencies, they must treat their own workers better.

Adrian Wilson
Cardiff

Sir, The explosion in the use of former staff as consultants is due to the tax advantages gained by charging via a private service company (PSC). These have a place in the economy for those who do short-term contracts for a variety of separate employers, but the rules should be enforced so that individuals whose income derives mainly from one source, even if on different projects, should be taxed under PAYE even if paid via a PSC. For many this would double the tax paid on such income.

Colin Fuller
Bishops Cleeve, Glos

Sir, One reason why so many former council staff work for agencies is that the standard council agreement covering voluntary redundancy contains a clause prohibiting staff from working for a council. Working for an agency is OK.

John Fisher
Woodford Green, Essex

Sir, You propose that local authorities involve charities and the private sector in the delivery of services. The novelty of this suggestion, at least as regards charities, is illusory: the National Assistance Act of 1948 made specific provision for the involvement of charities. It is sometimes worth looking back, in order to see forward.

Patrick Green
London EC4

Sir, The Nolan principles state that public services should be accountable and open. If a public service, for instance a parks department, is contracted out to a private provider, to whom are they accountable, shareholders or residents? People want local services to be accountable. They do not elect councillors to nod
through a series of private
contracts.

Laura Johnson
London SW19

Sir, We need to put the brakes on the idea that Britain is not safe for Jews (News, Jan 14). We are living in a wonderful time for British Jewry, and any suggestion to the contrary simply isn’t true. Yes, people are worried. But the results of the Campaign Against Antisemitism survey do not tally with the experiences of those I meet daily. Britain is not an antisemitic country. The idea that we are living in something resembling 1930s Europe is not credible. In Britain today, we have a government working with the community to combat antisemitism. Twenty-first century Britain is a great place to be a Jew.
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner
Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism

Sir, Apropos “Cancer deaths under 80 ‘will be eradicated’ ” (News, Jan 14), I wonder if I reached 85 too soon?

Dr Frank Newton
Silverstone, Northants

Sir, Pigs have much higher intelligence than cows, yet many of them are reared indoors. We readily eat bacon, ham, sausages and chops. What’s the difference between that and drinking indoor milk (Leader, Jan 10)?

Peter Adams
Lambley, Notts

Sir, David Terry’s letter (“My dear Wilson”, Jan 14) reminds me of the distinction in the Fifties and Sixties between amateur and professional cricketers.

Amateurs’ initials came before their names, professionals’ after. There was a splendid, and possibly apocryphal, announcement at Lord’s correcting a misprint in the scorecard – “for FJ Titmus read Titmus FJ”. Confusingly, in the light of Mr Terry’s letter, amateurs were accorded a title — Mr ER Dexter — but professionals not — Trueman FS.

Brian Kirkpatrick
Godalming, Surrey

Sir, It is not surprising that students with a degree and experience are the most prized by graduate recruiters (News, Jan 12). However, opportunities to get work experience are still too often limited by student means, or entered into via personal or family networks. This gives students from privileged backgrounds an unfair advantage.

Fairness could be achieved if universities developed partnerships with businesses to both embed internship into courses and to get companies’ input on the design of degree programmes.
Ben Hughes
Vice-principal, Pearson College, London WC2

 

Telegraph:

Silhouette of a woman against blinds
MPs, students and victim support groups say that universities should have clearer sexual assault policies Photo: Alamy

In response to Telegraph’s articles on sexual assault at university, a group of politicians, students and victim support groups are demanding changes.

Twenty people have signed a letter asking for clearer policies, including eight cross-party MPs and representatives of the National Union of Students and Rape Crisis.

The Telegraph’s reported that one in three women experience sexual assault at university and told the stories of students who were not given proper support when attacked by a fellow student. Read the full letter of demands below:

SIR – As the deadline for Ucas applications arrives, we are appalled at the poor level of support that many universities give to those students who are sexually assaulted.

A Telegraph survey (report, January 14) found that one in three female students have been sexually assaulted, while a home office report in January 2013 found that full time students have an increased risk of experiencing sexual violence compared to other women.

But unlike employees, who are given clear protection from employers, many university students have no recourse other than the police when sexually assaulted by other students. Some universities refuse to investigate claims or discipline attackers, leaving students to study and live alongside their attackers. Many have poor counselling services, unclear policies on how the university will respond to sexual assault complaints, and no obvious member of staff who handles concerns about sexual assaults.

We are asking Universities UK to develop guidelines on how universities should respond to complaints of sexual assault. We’re calling on the Government to work with professionals in the sector to produce guidance on how universities should handle sexual assault. This would send a clear message to universities that sexual assault cannot be ignored, and must be addressed sensitively and thoroughly.

Toni Pearce, president of the National Union of Students

Katie Russell, spokeswoman for Rape Crisis

Sarah Green, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition

Laura Bates, founder of the Everyday Sexism Project

Dimitrina Petrova, chief executive of Equal Rights Trust

Mark Castle, chief executive of Victim Support

Claire Burke, founder of Respect Yourself

Professor Nicole Westmarland, Co-Director, Durham University Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse

Jeremy Todd, chief executive of Family Lives

Miranda Seymour-Smith, chief executive of The Fawcett Society

Michele Burman, professor of Criminology at University of Glasgow

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North (Con)

Roberta Blackman-Woods, MP for the City of Durham (Lab)

Seema Malhotra, MP for Feltham and Heston (Lab)

Julian Huppert, MP for Cambridge (Lib Dem)

Greg Mulholland, MP for Leeds North West (Lib Dem)

John Leech, MP for Manchester Withington (Lib Dem)

Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow (Lab)

Yvette Cooper, shadow Home Secretary, MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Lab)

Funding for cancer drugs; respecting religion; duty to the law over party politics; the new Creme Egg recipe, and the Dutch forger who fooled Hermann Goering

Thousands of patients denied NHS drugs for major diseases
Cancer patients currently receiving the treatments through the Cancer Drugs Fund will still be allowed to continue using them Photo: ALAMY

SIR – I read with sadness that 25 cancer drugs will no longer be available on the NHS, with the effects to be felt especially by those with breast, prostate and bowel cancer. What made me sadder, though, was the lack of attention drawn to the decision by the Cancer Drugs Fund to de-list Avastin for second-line treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.

This cancer affects 7,000 women in Britain each year, claiming a life every two hours. Despite this, awareness of symptoms is poor, leading to late diagnosis. Without a government-funded national symptoms awareness campaign, ovarian cancer will continue to be diagnosed late. At late stages there are few treatment options – and the CDF’s decision has reduced these further.

Women with ovarian cancer deserve access to the best treatments. We are calling for NHS England to work with pharmaceutical companies who make drugs like Avastin and new treatments such as Olaparib – a PARP inhibitor licensed by the EU but still unavailable in Britain – to make these treatments rapidly available to women who have so few choices.

Katherine Taylor
Acting Chief Executive, Ovarian Cancer Action
London NW1

SIR – Most cancer drugs are routinely funded outside of the Cancer Drugs Fund, which provides a supplementary funding route for a relatively small number of cancer drugs that would not be approved for NHS use by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

The CDF’s budget will grow from £280 million in 2014/15 to an estimated £340 million from April 2015.

The de-listed drugs were assessed by a panel of independent experts, who considered effectiveness, quality of life and cost. None of the drugs showed evidence of prolonging life by more than three months, and many had nasty side effects with a serious impact on quality of life. If more evidence on clinical effectiveness or quality of life becomes available, the CDF would be happy to reconsider any treatment.

Any patient currently receiving a drug through the CDF will continue to receive it, and drugs which are the only therapy for the cancer in question will remain available. Also, clinicians can apply for a patient to receive a drug not available through the CDF on an exceptional basis.

Sean Duffy FRCS, FRCOG
National Clinical Director for Cancer
NHS England

SIR – The NHS’s drug parsimony is not new. In 1979 my father, aged 73, died in a Merseyside hospital three months after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Due to his age, NHS rules allowed him only morphine. To avoid a similar fate, I moved to America.

I am now 70 and, thanks to access to good clinical care, in excellent health.

Steve Williams
Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Respecting religion

(Heathcliff O’Malley/The Telegraph)

SIR – Your correspondents who think that one is duty-bound to respect other people’s religious views are mistaken.

With religion, as with anything else, respect has to be earned. Many would find it difficult to respect a religion which regards women and gay people as inherently inferior; which believes that any questioning of its tenets is at best something that needs to be closed down and at worst tantamount to blasphemy and deserving of the death penalty.

This, of course, used to be a fair characterisation of Christianity. Fortunately this is, on the whole, no longer the case.

Roger White
London SW12

SIR – In Saudi Arabia, Raif Badawi, a blogger who created a liberal online forum, was convicted in May of insulting Islam and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He reportedly received the first 50 lashes in a flogging last week in Jeddah.

What action will our Government and the Prime Minister take to protest at this barbaric sentence – or will no action be taken in case we upset our commercial interests in that country?

Peter Watson
Sherborne, Dorset

SIR – Yesterday BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ran a piece with the reporter Sima Kotecha asking Muslims in Slough about the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

I was appalled to hear a supermarket manager expressing the view that, given the perceived insult to the prophet, while there would not be open rejoicing, few Muslims of his acquaintance would be mourning the killings in Paris.

Utterances of such callous statements cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. One can only hope the Slough man is wrong in his estimation of his fellow Muslims; one dreads to imagine what future awaits us if he is right.

Nick Williams
London NW3

Duty to the law must come before party politics

SIR – The Government fully deserves its chastisement by Peter Oborne for attacking the rule of law (“Hypocrites jumping aboard the Magna Carta bandwagon”).

The Cabinet contains the holder of a great, historic post who is under an explicit duty to protect the rule of law. That is the Lord Chancellor, Chris Grayling. Yet the legislation which he has brought forward in this Parliament has consistently attracted severe censure from the distinguished lawyers who advise the House of Lords as it goes about its work of scrutinising in detail Bills that emerge from the Justice Department.

The Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, of which I am a member, recently published a report on the office of Lord Chancellor, reviewing its position nearly 10 years after Tony Blair’s hasty, bungled reforms. In his evidence to the committee, Mr Grayling did not accept that, as Lord Chancellor, the defence of the rule of law rested ultimately with him alone. We therefore recommended that he should be instructed “to ensure that the rule of law is upheld within Cabinet and across Government”. We also recommended that, in future, the holder of the post should be a person “willing to speak up for that principle with ministerial colleagues, including the Prime Minister”.

Britain must have a Lord Chancellor who puts duty to the law above party politics.

Lord Lexden
London SW1

Sitting comfortably

SIR – Jacqueline Heywood’s seat-less commuting reminded me of a fellow passenger who, frustrated by the lack of courtesy on a crowded train, cried: “Are there no gentlemen in this carriage?” An elderly bowler-hatted gentleman peered over the top of his newspaper and replied: “Plenty of gentlemen, madam; just no seats.”

Peter Fineman
Barrow Street, Wiltshire

Long paper trail

SIR – John Butler’s sixth variant of the farmer’s guide to the new agricultural policy schemes, sent by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, weighs 1lb 14 oz.

My friend, a farmer, greeted me this week with: “Four foot seven inches”.

“What is?” I asked.

“The pile of documents on my office floor that Defra has sent me in 20 years,” he replied.

I dread to think of the weight and the cost – both financial and to trees – of producing all of this.

Julian Browning
West Quantoxhead, Somerset

The Dutch forger who fooled Hermann Goering

A 2010 exhibition in Rotterdam of forgeries by Han Van Meegeren (AFP/Getty Images)

SIR – Next month, Dulwich Picture Gallery is to hang a fake painting in its gallery to see if visitors can spot the impostor.

During the Second World War, the Dutch painter and ingenious forger Han Van Meegeren sold fake Old Masters to the occupying Germans. His greatest triumph was a sale to Hermann Goering, a well-known collector. After the war, Van Meegeren was charged with collaboration, because officials thought he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis. The charge carried a potential death sentence.

No one believed he could have fooled Goering — so he painted a “Vermeer” before official witnesses.

Tony Pay
Blairgowrie, Perthshire

Eggs for Ed

SIR – Changing the Creme Egg recipe is an outrageous attack on the nation’s cultural heritage that must not be tolerated. Though I have never supported socialism, if Mr Miliband were to pledge to nationalise Cadbury’s, I would have to give serious consideration to voting for him.

Dr Bertie Dockerill
Shildon, County Durham

Panic: button

SIR – Who is going to tell Evan Davis, presenter of Newsnight, to unbutton his jacket when he sits down?

Trees Fewster
Gomersal, West Yorkshire

Foolish figures

SIR – I have just filled out my tax return online. The confirmation reference number I was given has 6 numbers and 26 letters. If you count every grain of sand on Earth, and then count and add every single drop of water on Earth, and repeat this 20 times, the total is roughly the same as the permutations that my reference number gives.

Even more puzzling is why the Government wastes my tax paying for Google ads when its website is the top search result anyway.

Steve Barson
Oakham, Rutland

SIR – In December I received a tax demand from HMRC. On page three of four was the amount owed: £0.04.

Patricia Wallis
Boston, Lincolnshire

 

Globe and Mail:

Khan and Dueck

It’s time to confront ‘the cancer of extremism’

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – Dr Brendan McCann (January 15th) generously acknowledges the contribution of general practice in preventing emergency admissions to hospital. He makes the widely accepted point that primary care is cheaper than hospital care. The King’s Fund health research charity has calculated that seeing a GP costs £31, attending an emergency department costs £114 and the ambulance that takes the patient there costs £235 a journey.

While these are UK prices, they are likely to bear up here in Ireland. I look forward to the time when our ambulance colleagues can triage appropriate patients into well-equipped primary care and out-of-hours centres as we need more options for urgent care that is not yet an emergency or may never become one. This would be an appropriate healthcare experiment for our system to plan facing into next winter. There is a large health services research literature developing on urgent and emergency care and all of which points to problems in the broad system rather than in one area. Merely fixing one area will not do it. – Yours, etc,

TOM O’DOWD, MD

Professor of General

Practice,

Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – There has been much discourse in recent days regarding the crisis on trolleys. The Trojan work carried out by all of the staff of emergency units throughout the country during the increased pressure and congestion of the last weeks has undoubtedly saved many lives.

The needs of patients who are acutely unwell, who will not recover without the aid of medical intervention, who are beyond the scope of what general practice can deliver, are best served by our colleagues in emergency departments throughout the country.

The levels of congestion, peaking at over 600 on trollies in previous weeks, is as a result of a logjam in the system, the occupation of hospital beds by those who are medically discharged but for whom the appropriate step-down or home supports are not available. Increased resourcing would help alleviate this to some extent. Of course, better homecare packages and a robust and responsive Fair Deal scheme would help.

But what of those presenting acutely unwell? Acute injury due to some form of trauma is hard to prevent. The congested lungs of inefficient hearts, the strokes that arise from gradually accumulating clots dispersed by abnormal heart rhythms, the wheeze and breathlessness of clogged and damaged airways, the damaged toes and retinas of diabetes, the pale, pulseless limbs arising from hardened arteries are the acute manifestations of chronic poor health. At this stage of their illness patients appropriately arrive into the acute medical service, sometimes via emergency departments but ideally through acute medical assessment units.

General practice within a functional primary care framework is where chronic diseases are prevented, or if they exist already, their worst effects are mitigated. Resourcing general practice and primary care, concentrating on chronic disease management, gives us the best chance of reducing some of the burden on the hospitals, but more importantly saving patients the shattering distress of trolley-based care.

We recognise that this will take years and perhaps even a decade to have an effect but as well as trying to solve this year’s crisis we must look to the future and invest now in reducing unplanned admissions.

Like the arbitrary threshold which determines a “crisis in trolley numbers”, the acute catches the attention. Concentrating on the chronic is required if we are to stem the erosion of dignity, health and resources. – Yours, etc,

Dr DARACH Ó CIARDHA,

Irish College

of General Practitioners,

4/5 Lincoln Place,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – The debate on the emergency department overcrowding crisis in the letters page has generally been very informed and constructive. However some of the comments made in yesterday’s Irish Times expose a conflict of opinion that highlights the different views that hospital-based specialists and community-based generalists have on the health system.

It is generally accepted that different levels of analysis can yield different perspectives. Our hospital colleagues are excellent at focusing on diseases, illness and obvious disabilities and providing care for those issues in an isolated problem-orientated fashion.

In general practice we deal more with complexity and uncertainty. We utilise the knowledge we have of our patient’s medical, family, social and psychological history that is developed by having a trusting, ongoing relationship with the individual to provide personalised, patient-centred care.

The paradox of primary care is that while specialist care for individual diseases might be rated a higher quality than general practice led-care, overall patient outcomes are much better and more equitable with a lower spend on resources if a GP is the principal doctor.

It has been well proven in many reputable studies over the last two decades involving millions of patients on both sides of the Atlantic that increasing the number of GPs servicing a population reduces the death rate in that community. It also reduces the rate of out-patient attendances, emergency department attendances and, with the rare exception, in-patient admissions. The data also confirms that if a patient can get to see their own personal GP, it accentuates these benefits.

Having a specialist knowledge of diseases and illnesses in the absence of a personal knowledge of the patient increases the chance that the decision-maker will admit the patient to hospital.

There is a lot of US data on the numbers of unnecessary inpatient deaths annually due to medical errors. These are predominantly due to medication errors in emergency departments and acute admissions. No doubt the stresses that our health system is currently being exposed to will increase the chance of such a negative event. Shouldn’t we be trying to reduce these risks to our patients? – Yours, etc,

Dr WILLIAM BEHAN,

Walkinstown,

Dublin 12.

Sir, –The vast majority of front-line staff in the National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade have already received a significant level of formal and on-the-job training in addition to the professional experience gained since qualification and, as a result, they already have the training required to refer patients to the most appropriate care pathway (primary care/GP, self-care or emergency department) but are simply not permitted to do so by ambulance service management.

Married to the protocols issued by the regulators for pre-hospital care (the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council), National Ambulance Service and Dublin Fire Brigade staff are left with very little option than to bring the vast majority of patients to an emergency department.

What is needed is for the protocols issued by the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council to change their emphasis from transporting patients to “discharge” or “refer to appropriate healthcare provider” where appropriate and for ambulance service management to empower and give confidence to their staff to make the most appropriate decision for the patient.

Several volunteer organisations such as St John Ambulance and the Order of Malta have trained the public and their members to refer or transport a patient to an emergency department only if necessary. Despite the lesser experience and qualifications of the majority of these volunteers, this approach has served those unlucky enough to need their assistance for over 100 years.

Perhaps the professionals can take a leaf from their book? – Yours, etc,

BRIAN SMITH,

Clondalkin,

Dublin 22.

Sir, – It is right to raise the issue of positioning of ambulance stations as a crucial factor in the delivery time of sick patients to our hospitals and a perusal of the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council regional maps of this issue will show that a poor turnaround time is not unique to the west of Ireland. It is wrong, however, to presume that the quality of healthcare can be the same in rural areas compared to large urban areas and this gap will widen as many new treatments, as in stroke care, for example, become a reality .

I remember this debate in Leeds with the closure of a rural Yorkshire emergency department whereupon my mentor remarked that “if you live up the dales, you live up the dales – beautiful scenery, no traffic, little crime but not as good healthcare”. It’s time we stopped being disingenuous to the public. It is simply not possible to deliver many time-dependent high- tech treatments to rural areas efficiently or at all. It’s not popular to say so, but it is a fact. – Yours, etc,

RONAN COLLINS, MD

Rathgar, Dublin 14.

Sir, – Today, as always, the people of Ireland stand united with the people of France.

With thousands of messages of solidarity with France, the people of Ireland immediately reacted to the horror of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Thousands joined the French community in marches, gatherings, vigils in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. From Ballina to Cavan, Dún Laoghaire, Waterford, Wexford, Longford, Kilkenny, Killarney and Portlaoise, to name but a few, letters, cards – many in French – flowers and children’s drawings illustrated the deep bonds between our two countries and our people around shared values.

The barbaric attacks were aimed at making all of us fear, feel disoriented, disunited.

Together with the people of France, the people of Ireland have sent a very clear response.

Not only shall we not be afraid but we are ready, each of us, to rise and stand in active support of freedom, in support of our journalists and policemen, to fight for the values that are core to our societies.

Your messages, the support of President Michael D Higgins, the presence of the Taoiseach at the head of the republican march which gathered millions in Paris, the strong expression of solidarity by all the leaders of the parties in Dáil Éireann during a solemn session, the moving mobilisation of the representatives of all faiths at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, they all express the particular depth of the relation between Ireland and France, our common belief in the values of liberty, equality, fraternity and our joint commitment for peace and tolerance.

Je vous remercie de tout mon coeur. – Yours, etc,

JEAN-PIERRE THÉBAULT

Ambassador of France

to Ireland,

Ailesbury Road,

Ballsbridge,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – Like it or not, this is one of the biggest stories of our decade. The images are central to the story and readers should be allowed to make up their own minds.

The decision of The Irish Times not to publish is based on a view with a very low horizon.

A thousand years ago images of Jesus were destroyed for fear these images would became subject to idolatry. Their destruction was not about image-making per se. It was about the perception of the use of such images. Hence we have the modern word “iconoclastic” (“image breaking”). These were fears belonging to their own time and are not fears pertinent to this time. “Iconoclastic” Christian and Muslim images on manuscripts are periodically on display in the great museums of the world. Everyone should be more informed about the meanings of images, both Christians and Muslims. Images should not be hidden and should be discussed, even if they are satirical scribblings.

I would have preferred if The Irish Times had printed the cartoons and justified it with an unequivocal defence of free speech.

Now I am off to my local newsagent to pick up the latest copy of Charlie Hebdo (ordered last week due to demand) to make up my own mind. – Yours, etc,

MARCUS McQUISTON,

Brussels.

Sir, – Your decision not to republish the controversial Charlie Hebdo cartoons was measured, reasonable and, above all, sane. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Charlie Hebdo is an obnoxious publication which seeks to give maximum offence to people of faith. Puerile comics are best ignored by people of faith. God cannot be harmed by the blasphemies of mere mortals. Tragically, this was not the approach taken by fanatics claiming to act in the name of Islam. When impiety and militant secularism becomes strident and when it scoffs loudly, the response of Catholics and their fellow Christians must be to maintain calmly, and all the more insistently, the truths of the faith without compromise. – Yours, etc,

Fr PATRICK

McCAFFERTY,

Crossgar,

Co Down.

Sir, – In your editorial of January 10th, you describe the prospect of Northern Ireland’s devolved taxation powers as “a powerful new tool to attract investment”.

Stormont’s problem in trying to capitalise on that will be the undevolved political powers that will inhibit such investment, including David Cameron’s promise to hold a referendum on the UK leaving the EU.

Why build a factory in Derry and risk your access to markets being restricted by customs tariffs if the UK leaves, when you can locate 30km away in Letterkenny and benefit from an economy firmly locked into the EU family? – Yours, etc,

KENNETH HARPER,

Burtonport,

Co Donegal.

Sir, – The reduction of the rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland will certainly be welcomed by existing businesses as they will pay less tax and it probably would help to attract more inward investment in the longer term.

However, lowering corporation tax will come at considerable cost as it involves a major reduction in the annual block grant transferred by the London treasury to Stormont. If the rate is reduced to 12.5 per cent, the chancellor of the exchequer has suggested that the transfer of funds to Stormont could be reduced by up to £400 million per annum.

This inevitably will mean that Stormont will have to reduce public expenditure in areas such as schools, hospitals, welfare or agriculture grants. So the ordinary people will suffer as existing businesses enjoy paying less tax.

It is surprising that there has been no comment from the health sector, teachers or farmers. – Yours, etc,

Lord KILCLOONEY,

Mullinure,

Armagh.

A chara, – Further to “Tribunal drops ‘obstruction’ findings” (Front Page, January 15th), that’s good news for Ray Burke, then, and lots of others apparently. It was big of the Mahon tribunal to apologise. But, as usual, it is the taxpayers who are left carrying the can. Who is going to apologise to them? – Is mise,

GEAROID TIMONEY,

Rathfarnham,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Observing the process of divestment of school patronage from religious institutions is like watching an uphill slow bicycle race on a glacier. Apart from the two Catholic schools which merged in Dublin 8 to create a vacant building for Educate Together, to date just one school – a Church of Ireland primary school in Co Mayo – has been transferred to another patron.

Pouring water onto the already slippery slope, Rev Patrick Burke (January 12th) writes that the “the people on the ground aren’t as keen; in fact the reason that the idea isn’t progressing is because of ‘huge local hostility’”.

How does Rev Burke square this claim with the results of the 2012 Department of Education surveys which showed parental demand for change of patron in 28 of the 43 areas surveyed? (“‘Catholic first’ school admissions policies may be illegal, January 3rd). Less water and more progress please. – Yours, etc,

ROB SADLIER,

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

Sir, – For years, the origins of the wealth of former taoiseach Charles J Haughey has been a great wonder and puzzlement to a great many people.

To me, it was never a wonder at all. It was always crystal clear.

Back in October 1987, I sent a letter to the then taoiseach, with a helpful little piece of advice to him that successfully running the country was no gambling matter.

To add impact to my message, I enclosed a lottery ticket for him to use if he ever wanted to have a flutter. I mentioned in passing to him that while the odds were greatly against it, this lottery ticket gift of mine might – just might – turn out to be a lucky winner for him.

Shortly afterwards I received a letter, dated November 18th, 1987, from the office of the taoiseach, and signed by his private secretary, which read as follows:

“Dear Mr Hayes-McCoy, – The Taoiseach, Mr Charles J Haughey, TD, has asked me to thank you for your letter of October 28th, and for your lottery ticket. The Taoiseach greatly appreciates your kind offer of assistance and he will bear this in mind.”

All of which goes to explain why there has never been any doubt in my mind as to where Mr Haughey’s legendary millions originated. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT HAYES-McCOY,

Sandymount Road, Dublin 4.

Irish Independent:

With thousands of messages of solidarity with France, the people of Ireland immediately reacted to the horror of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

Published 16/01/2015 | 02:30

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With thousands of messages of solidarity with France, the people of Ireland immediately reacted to the horror of the terrorist attacks in Paris.

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Thousands joined the French community in marches, gatherings and vigils in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick. From Ballina to Cavan, Dun Laoghaire, Waterford, Wexford, Longford, Kilkenny, Killarney, Portlaoise, to name but a few, letters, cards – many in French – flowers, and children’s drawings illustrated the deep bonds between our two countries, our people, around shared values.

The barbaric attacks were aimed at making all of us feel fear, and feel disoriented, disunited.

Together with the people of France, the people of Ireland have sent a very clear response.

Not only shall we not be afraid but we are ready, each of us, to rise and stand in active support of freedom, in support of our journalists and policemen, to fight for the values that are core to our societies.

Your messages, the support of President Michael D Higgins, the presence of the Taoiseach at the helm of the republican march which gathered millions in Paris, the strong expression of solidarity by all the leaders of the parties in Dail Eireann during a solemn session, the moving mobilisation of the representatives of all faiths at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral – they all express the particular depth of the relations between Ireland and France, our common belief in the values of liberty, equality and fraternity and our joint commitment for peace and tolerance.

Je vous remercie de tout mon coeur.

Jean-Pierre Thébault

Ambassador of France to Ireland

Confront ‘merchants of death’

The Holy Book of the Koran reads: “God states …’If anyone kills another soul unless the soul is causing corruption in the earth – it is as if he had slain all mankind’.” (Koran 5:32).

The Christian Bible tells us: “Thou shalt not kill.” But then Christianity goes on to say “…unless it is in a war that is considered ‘just'”.

So both religions say it is wrong to kill unless the enemy is “corrupting the earth” or the enemy is unjust.”

Incidentally, when will the issue of those ‘merchants of death’ who manufacture the weapons of death and destruction and make massive profits from governments around the world be brought into the conversation regarding modern-day warfare?

Vincent J Lavery

Irish Free Speech Movement

Dalkey, Co Dublin

Don’t republish insulting images

After rightfully condemning the terror attacks in Paris, Dr Ali Selim stated that he would seek legal advice if any sources in the Irish media published, or republished, an insulting image of the Prophet Mohammed.

This responsible act should be welcomed rather than berated. If an Irish media source knows that there will be a measured response to the publication of an insulting satirical image then perhaps it will think before it prints.

On the other hand, if a senior Irish Islamic scholar is seen to be stepping up to defend a deeply held religious position in face of a worldwide outcry in defence of “democracy and free speech” then fanatical elements will also have reason to refrain from knee- jerk reactions.

The question we should all ask ourselves is, what kind of society could possibly emerge when people request free rein to knowingly incite other sections of their community?

Richard Kimball

Menlo, Co Galway

Spike in hospital emergencies

I listened with interest to several interviews with Health Minister Leo Varadkar. He dealt with the situation as it was and not as he would wish it to be, as his predecessor did. In each interview three issues arose. 1. Hospitals having to cancel elective surgery; 2. The changeover of junior doctors in January with the consequent lack of continuity; and 3. Patients not being discharged at weekends.

As this spike in hospital emergencies occurs at this time every year, surely it is a ‘no-brainer’ to: 1. Don’t plan elective surgery for January; 2. Change the date of junior doctor changeover or only change half the number at one time; and 3. Like all other crucial public services, i.e. ESB, gas, transport, etc, discharges should take place on a seven-day week basis. Weekend discharge would also be more convenient for most families.

Pat Conneely

Dublin 11

Don’t joke over President’s height

Impressionist Oliver Callan’s jousting with Mark Patrick Hederman on RTE’s ‘Today with Sean O’Rourke’ radio show on January 12, over the Abbot of Glenstal Abbey’s objection to the lampooning of President Michael D Higgins’s physical attributes, made for rather painful listening.

Not that I entirely agree with Abbot Hederman, but I do sympathise a little with his argument that Michael D’s short stature – something he can do nothing about – should not attract relentless comedic attention.

Empathising with Abbot Hederman is not a matter of religious allegiance for me; it’s just that I’ve long come under the spell of the abbot’s quasi-mystical persona from afar!

Oliver McGrane

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

Exercise did not help my ME

As an ME/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patient who has tried Graded Exercise Therapy (GET), I was deeply upset to read the article ‘Sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome ‘can benefit from exercise” (Irish Independent, January 14).

In fact, GET made me worse, not better.

You see, ME patients suffer from a range of symptoms, one of which is Post Exercise Malaise (PEM), where a patient’s body “crashes” after mental and physical exercise.

The extent of PEM differs between patients, as ME/CFS presents itself in mild to moderate to severe in form. Those severely affected are bedridden.

I can’t and won’t speak for other ME/CFS patients, but I can speak for myself, as a patient who has lived with this debilitating condition for over three years (I contracted it when I was 30 years old).

My symptoms range from debilitating fatigue, nausea, lack of concentration, PEM, sore throat, sore ears, muscle pain, joint pain, swollen glands, electric shocks in my fingers, torso spasms and insomnia. Different days throw up a differing variety of symptoms.

If GET did cure ME/CFS, I’d be better by now, having tried a programme under the supervision of a consultant for 18 months.

Instead of increasing exercise, we had to pull back on my exercise, as my body continually crashed.

As a regular reader of your paper, I encourage your journalists to further investigate ME/CFS and look forward to reading well-founded articles concerning research in the field of ME/CFS.

Marie Hanna Curran

Colmanstown, Co Galway

Farming out our problems

While drinking tea in a pub, I met a farmer who I took to be about 65, without asking him his age.

He told me that he had been sent to “help out” on his childless uncle’s farm, a day’s travel away, when he was seven years old, as his own family’s farm was too small to be eventually divided between himself and his brother, and he was the sibling chosen, thus solving two problems at one stroke.

This got me thinking about Enda Kenny’s “great little country to live in” remark, over half a century later.

These days, remarkable progress has been made in that we now see so many people emigrate instead, to some other state, far, far away -some galaxy, if our betters could arrange it, as out of sight and mind is a damn sight better than the opposite.

It turns out that the gentlemen in question was actually a bachelor of 80, which goes to show how deceptive appearances can be.

I did not have the heart to ask the farmer if some relation had been sent to help him.

Liam Power

Ballina, Co Mayo

Irish Independent


Courses

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17 January 2015 Courses

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Gout fading, sign up for two more courses and Adode.

Obituary:

Allan Garraway, railway enthusiast – obituary

Steam train pioneer who saved the endangered Festiniog line and drove an engine named Linda

Allan Garraway, who helped revive the Festiniog narrow gauge line in North Wales
Allan Garraway, who helped revive the Festiniog narrow gauge line in North Wales

Allan Garraway, who has died aged 88, was a pioneer of steam railway preservation , helping to revive the historic Festiniog narrow gauge line in North Wales and giving up his career with British Railways to manage it full-time for 28 years.

When Garraway first became involved in efforts to save the Festiniog in 1951, it had been closed for five years and was decaying fast. When the businessman and enthusiast Alan Pegler – who later owned the Flying Scotsman – acquired the company three years later, Garraway joined its board; he was the Festiniog’s full-time engineer and manager when services resumed over a short section of line in 1955, and was appointed general manager in 1958.

By the time he retired in 1983, the line had reopened over its entire length from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. This was after the company had won a legal battle with the Central Electricity Generating Board, which had flooded part of the track to create a reservoir. The CEGB offered nominal compensation, dismissing the Festiniog as “amateurs playing trains”, but was eventually forced to pay out – the Festiniog Railway’s own volunteers constructing a deviation for the line to reach its objective.

Garraway was at the helm of the world’s oldest operational railway company, dating back to 1832, as it renovated and added to its Victorian carriages and locomotives – including a stable of double-ended Fairlie locomotives built for hauling heavy trainloads of slate – and became a major tourist attraction. His natural leadership qualities motivated a largely volunteer staff and maintained standards.

He could turn his hand to almost any job on the railway, but was happiest driving Linda, one of its smallest locomotives. Cutting a commanding figure in oilskins which he christened his “Cod War gear”, he preferred an engine without an enclosed cab, reckoning that this gave him a better chance to inspect the state of the track in the almost incessant rain.

Garraway “lived over the shop” after fashioning a flat out of offices over the station at Porthmadog – staying there for a time even after marrying Moyra Macmillan in 1965. They “went away” on a special train driven by Bill Hoole, a “top link” BR driver whom Garraway had recruited to the Festiniog, their journey hampered by colleagues closing level-crossing gates with non-standard padlocks. Moyra helped out on the footplate, getting her dress covered in smuts.

A train on the Festiniog railway (ALAMY)

Allan George Weldon Garraway was born in Cambridge on June 14 1926, the son of a railway manager with the London & North Eastern. Soon after starting at The Leys School, he was evacuated with it to Pitlochry; he fell in love with the Scottish Highlands, where he would live for the last three decades of his life.

At St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, Garraway was a keen oarsman. After graduating in 1947 he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, becoming locomotive superintendent for the Detmold Military Railway in Germany. Demobilised in the rank of captain, he trained as a locomotive engineer at BR’s Doncaster works, then served as an assistant to the motive power superintendent, Eastern Region.

Garraway got involved in the Talyllyn Railway, the first in Britain to be taken over by enthusiasts. Then, in 1951, he was one of a group who met in Bristol to see whether the Festiniog could be rescued. Following Pegler’s takeover, frantic efforts by Garraway and a few other volunteers enabled trains to resume over the Cob causeway between Porthmadog and Boston Lodge on July 23 1955.

Garraway also found time in Porthmadog to help restore and then sail the steam pinnace Victoria.

On retiring in 1983, he moved to Boat of Garten, on the equally spectacular Strathspey Railway, of which he became a director.

He also took up rowing again, becoming secretary, treasurer and eventually the first honorary member of Inverness Rowing Club, which he helped to acquire a boathouse. Until then Garraway would carry his boat 400 yards from the club’s temporary store to the Caledonian Canal, make a separate journey for the oars, row six miles each way, and then carry everything back again. Between 1989 and 2002 he recorded 1,091 outings on the canal in everything from single sculls to eights. Giving up rowing at 76, he donated his kit to the club .

Garraway was vice-president of the Heritage Railway Association, and chairman and later president of the Gresley Society. He was appointed MBE in 1983.

Moyra Garraway died in 2011.

Allan Garraway, born June 14 1926, died December 30 2014

Guardian:

hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), adult female landing with a prey, United Kingdom, Scotland, Sutherland
Hen harrier, Sutherland, Scotland. ‘Of a nest of five hen harriers fledged in the Peak District last year, three died. Indications are that two, if not all three, were killed by a natural predator,’ writes Adrian Blackmore of the Countryside Alliance. Photograph: Alamy

It is wonderful to read that finally one of these people has been sent to jail (Gamekeeper jailed in Scotland’s first custodial sentence for killing bird of prey, 13 January). I’m sure gamekeepers will note how quickly this man was deserted by both the estate concerned and his professional association. He has apparently lost his job and his membership of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association.

This crime – beating to death a highly protected and rare bird of prey, after deliberately trapping it – is covered in Scotland by the law of vicarious liability. Presumably this will now be pursued against the gamekeeper’s employers. However, I would like to draw attention to what the SGA said after the earlier hearing: the SGA believed it was wrong for individuals “from one particular profession” to be under surveillance in their place of work without their knowledge.

The spokesman added: “It is not right for the Scottish government to deny people whose livelihoods come under pressure, due to the activity of certain species or animals, recourse to a legal solution to solve that conflict.” In other words: 1) How can we break the law with you watching us? 2) I know what – let’s change the law so we can kill these birds legally. You couldn’t make it up.
Name and address withheld

• The Countryside Alliance agrees with much said by Patrick Barkham in his article about the plight of the hen harrier (The long read, 13 January). We too want to see many more hen harriers in the English countryside. However, poor breeding rates and low numbers in England cannot be solely the fault of illegal persecution. Natural mortality rates are known to be highest for recently fledged and inexperienced hen harriers. Of a nest of five hen harriers fledged in the Peak District last year, three died. Indications are that two, if not all three, were killed by a natural predator.

We hope that all the groups interested in the future of hen harriers in England can work together to improve the conservation status of these beautiful birds.
Adrian Blackmore
Director of shooting, Countryside Alliance

• I take exception to Stephen Mawle’s description of anti-grouse-shoot campaigners as having “a hypocritical distaste for those who take pleasure in killing wild birds”. Distaste for sure, but what is hypocritical is the creation and management of a specific habitat entirely for the breeding and wholesale slaughter of one particular species of bird, to the exclusion of any aspect of a more diverse environment that might jeopardise the profits to be wrung from the cynical exploitation of that one resource – and then to claim custodianship of the land in the face of all opposition. In the 21st century, there is as serious a moral case to be made against killing birds for pleasure as there was in the 20th against hunting with dogs.

And to set the record straight, the pair of hen harriers I saw in Bowland last summer were nesting in a clough on United Utilities land (where no commercial shoots are organised) – and feeding on their preferred diet of meadow pipits on the river banks below.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire

• As long as grouse-shooting is permitted to take place, birds of prey and huge numbers of other wild animals will continue to be – legally and illegally – persecuted and killed. Environmentally damaging burning is carried out to encourage the growth of fresh heather, on which the grouse are fattened up for shooting. Roads are dug and car parks built for the visiting “guns” and, under the current government, wealthy moorland grouse-shoot owners are receiving even larger public subsidies than before. The grouse-shooting industry doesn’t exist to protect the environment, aid certain species of birds or create jobs; its main function is to indulge a wealthy minority that enjoys killing birds for “sport”.
Kevin Mutimer
London

• Stephen Murphy’s final comments (penultimate paragraph) were particularly incisive but the other “elephant in the room” was never broached – human access to our wild places. It is established that by far the most prolific year for our ground-nesting birds on access land was 2001 – the year of foot and mouth when moors were closed throughout the avian breeding season. Land interests and the politicisation of many of our wildlife organisations, who are donor-dependent and heavily influenced by PR, has led to conflict and as usual science and truth are the casualties. Until the facts are accurately presented, assessed and the protagonists are willing to listen and agree on the real issues without PR conflicting the argument then, sadly, the future of the hen harrier will remain dismal.
David Newton
Hope Valley, Derbyshire

• Whatever the arguments on either side of the hen harrier issue the overriding factor in the current situation is a legal one. Too many grouse-moor owners and their gamekeepers seem to think that the law protecting birds of prey does not apply to them so, in effect, taking these areas outside the law. The rule of law is of fundamental and vital importance in any civilised society and should be upheld.
Graham Whitby
Portesham, Dorset

Egyptian students, Muslim Brotherhood
Egyptian students, supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, demonstrating outside Cairo University last year. Photograph: Afp/AFP/Getty Images

Controversy over the Guardian’s recent reporting of the “al-Jazeera three” case and Amal Clooney’s work should not be allowed to obscure further evidence that the Egyptian judiciary continues to act in a manner that shows scant regard for any recognisable principles of justice (Amal Clooney risked arrest over report on Egypt’s legal flaws, 3 January). A few days ago the Egyptian prosecutor general issued a decision seizing the assets of 112 people who, he claims, are members or supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government designated a terrorist organisation in a separate ruling. No evidence to back up either of these claims has so far been tested in court. Courts continue to condemn hundreds to death in rushed hearings described by Human Rights Watch as “blatantly unjust”.

The real political purpose of the seizure of assets is revealed by the inclusion on the list of Haitham Mohamedain and Hisham Fouad of the Revolutionary Socialists, Amr Ali of the 6th April Youth Movement and Khaled el-Sayyed from the Youth for Justice and Freedom Movement, all outspoken opponents of the regime and members of left and liberal groups.

They are activists who have fought tirelessly to defend ordinary Egyptians from repression by the state, including the thousands of political prisoners who experience torture and abuse in detention centres, as exposed by the Guardian in June last year ( Hundreds of ‘disappeared’ tortured in Egypt’s secret jail, 23 June 2014).

We stand in solidarity with Hisham, Haitham, Khaled, Ali and all other Egyptian activists who are facing judicial persecution as a result of their political opposition to the military regime. We call on the Egyptian judiciary to repeal the death sentences and prosecutions under the anti-protest law passed since the military seized power in July 2013.
Ken Loach film director
Ted Honderich professor emeritus, University College London
Eamonn McCann NUJ
Billy Hayes general secretary, Communication Workers Union
Henry Blaxland QC, University of Cambridge
Bashir Abu-Manneh lecturer, University of Kent
Professor Gilbert Achcar SOAS, University of London
Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddam SOAS, University of London
Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS, University of London
Anne Alexander research fellow, University of Cambridge
Professor Raymond Bush University of Leeds
Professor Alex Callinicos King’s College London
Professor Peter Hallward Kingston University
Adam Hanieh senior lecturer, SOAS, University of London
Tom Hickey University of Brighton
Dina Matar senior lecturer, SOAS, University of London
Karma Nabulsi associate professor, University of Oxford
Professor Alfredo Saad Filho SOAS, University of London
Mohamed-Salah Omri associate professor, University of Oxford
Ruba Salih reader, SOAS, University of London
Alberto Toscano reader, Goldsmiths, University of London
Professor Salwa Ismail SOAS, University of London

Homelessness, a spiralling housing market, funding for homes slashed by government – London is in a housing crisis. Locally, Waltham Forest council is doing what it can. Aditya Chakrabortty’s article (The families cheated out of their homes – for the sin of being poor, 13 January) is couched in emotive language with a simplistic narrative: bad Labour council wants to turf local residents out, then flog off flats to the highest bidder – just like Tories. In fact, no resident of Leytonstone’s Wigg and Walsh towers will have to leave the estate; all will be offered a flat on the redeveloped estate; a third block will be built between the two towers so residents will move only a few metres during renovation. We have spoken to residents personally, and the vast majority want a radical solution.

This is because half the residents live in overcrowded homes. It’s unacceptable that a family of seven is squeezed into a rundown two-bedroom flat. We did a minimal revamp a decade ago; a simple cosmetic change would do nothing to tackle overcrowding. Our scheme will deliver desperately needed bigger, better homes. The government won’t fund this, so some flats will be sold to help pay for the scheme. But 200 will be council-owned, wholly or partially. Mr Chakrabortty didn’t mention that by 2020 we will have built 12,000 new homes, many affordable council houses. If he visits the estate, we will happily introduce him to the families who are thanking us for making the decision to tackle overcrowding and get them good homes.
Cllr Khevyn Limbajee
Cabinet lead for housing, London borough of Waltham Forest

David Cameron linked arms with other European leaders to defend freedom and human rights. His discussions with President Obama (Report, 16 January) will be an opportunity to put these values into action. British resident Shaker Aamer has been imprisoned in Guantánamo for nearly 13 years, without charge or trial, in violation of all his human rights. David Cameron has stated that Shaker Aamer’s release and return to his home and British family in the UK is an urgent priority. President Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo. Can we assume that, at last, there will be news of Shaker’s imminent freedom?
Joy Hurcombe
Worthing, West Sussex

• I pity the electorate in my old constituency of South Thanet. Now Al Murray is standing for parliament alongside Nigel Farage (Report, 15 January), voters will now have a choice of two upper-class morons portraying themselves using the grossest caricatures of what working-class people are like.
John Curtis
Ipswich, Suffolk

• Perhaps Timothy Spall could be given the Turner prize (For Heaven’s Sake, no Spall, Mr Turner or Lego Movie, 16 January)?
Mary Jackson
Gilston, Hertfordshire

 

 

Independent:

Of course Al Murray, “The Pub Landlord”, has a democratic right to stand for election in Thanet South (report, 15 January), but the cynic in me suggests that this is more about reviving a stalled career than a serious effort to engage in the politics of one of the most deprived parliamentary constituencies in the country.

True, Murray’s candidature may provide  huge comic potential, which might undermine Ukip’s angry Little England appeal, but conversely irony and satire can sometimes lend credibility to the target.

However, the important point is this: Farage and the Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem candidates are all firmly tied to an austerity programme of draconian cuts to public services. Not one of them is campaigning on the extremely serious issues facing many people living in the constituency. These include: tackling the massive health inequalities in a district served by a hospital in special measures; dealing with significant educational underachievement in a constituency with its major comprehensive school also in special measures; regenerating an economy with the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest wages in south-east England; calling to account an out-of-control Jobcentre, which is sanctioning benefits at twice the rate of anywhere else in the county; providing more social housing for the 6,000 people on the longest housing waiting list in Kent; campaigning to reform a council described by the Local Government Association as “toxic” and by Eric Pickles as a “democracy dodger”. Sadly, Murray’s candidature will detract attention from these issues.

In fact, there is already a pub landlord standing for election in the constituency; Nigel Askew, who runs the Queen Charlotte in Ramsgate, is standing for Bez’s Reality Party. My fear is that, rather than campaigning about social justice, public services  and regeneration in one of the most deprived areas of the country, we will have the spectacle of two pub landlords and a well-known pub regular vying for votes in a contest which, with the help of the media circus which is already gathering in Ramsgate, will soon be reduced to a piss-up in brewery.

Councillor Ian Driver
Thanet District Council
Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Thanet South

 

Al Murray’s announcement that he intends to stand against Nigel Farage in Thanet South is a breath of pub-toilet air. To make it a really fair contest, instead of holding a democratic election through the ballot box, it should be a drinking contest. This will save both the public purse and the time of the electorate going to the polling booth.

Murray vs Farage, pint for pint, the last man standing becomes the new MP for Thanet South. It will be a fiercely contested battle, with both candidates having near-legendary hard-drinking reputations. For the loser, there is a position in my shadow drinks cabinet as minister for culture.

Lord Toby Jug
Leader, The Eccentric Party of Great Britain
St Ives, Cambridgeshire

 

Pope overlooks the duty to speak out

His Holiness’s remarks (“Pope Francis says if you swear at my mother – or Islam – ‘expect a punch’”, 16 January) make me reflect that I abstain from commenting on people’s religions on much the same basis that I abstain from commenting on their children. They are mostly harmless or at most an annoyance even if they are not as lovely, gifted and talented as the parents (or believers) think they are.

However, when the little darlings are tearing around the neighbourhood, stealing, bullying and hurting people, it becomes a positive obligation to say and do something about the matter. The commandments (which one assumes his holiness is in favour of) tell us to eschew false witness. To fail to bear witness at all, when there is harm being done, is also, I would suggest, a sin.

I hope Pope Francis will continue his work in improving the modern church without expecting anyone’s actions past or present to go unexamined or uncriticised.

Michael Cule
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

 

Mark Steel’s article highlighting the hypocrisy of many of the world leaders attending a march in Paris for free speech and against violence was brilliant (16 January), in particular, his comments regarding Raif Badawi’s punishment of 1,000 lashes for setting up a liberal website in Saudi Arabia. This punishment is so monstrous as to be unbelievable in a modern world.

It is nauseous that Western governments kowtow to Saudi Arabia for fear of losing oil and influence in that area; they bear moral blame for Badawi’s treatment in that they condone such barbarous practices by saying nothing.

A MacCallum
Milton Keynes

 

The Pope “believes there should be limits to offending and ridiculing the faiths and beliefs of others”. I am offended by people who follow such ridiculous, irrational belief systems, and force their delusions on their children.

Tom Gahan
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

 

Ordinary fans have no chance against touts

John Rentoul (16 January) misses the point about with ticket touts. Genuine fans simply cannot compete against the industrialised touting industry, which is able to employ sophisticated computer programmes with hundreds of ghost accounts and credit cards, cosy relationships with promoters, and all sorts of sharp practices, to jump the queue and buy up vast numbers of tickets before fans ever get a look in.

According to Ticketmaster, up to 60 per cent of available tickets go straight to the touts. One only needs to look at the hundreds, if not thousands, of tickets that appear on sale on secondary resale sites within seconds of them going on sale to realise just how distorted and unfair the secondary-ticketing market has become.

Few would object to buying tickets from a genuine fan who can no longer use them, even if it cost them a bit more. It is the rank profiteering, the unscrupulous practices and the large-scale exploitation of fans that people are sick to death of. And by opposing the transparency measures in the Consumer Rights Bill, once again the Government has shown itself to be working in the interests of a wealthy minority, rather than in the interests of ordinary people, who are being priced out of musical and cultural events by secondary sellers.

Jo Selwood
Oxford

 

Honour for a true heroine

Anne Keleny’s fine obituary of Sonya d’Artois (14 January) sheds a telling light on today’s honours system. D’Artois, an agent of the British Special Operations Executive in occupied France during the Second World War, delayed the progress of a Panzer division heading towards Normandy after D-Day, acted as a courier, and gained the admiration of “tough communist maquisards” as a “de facto second-in-command and weapons training officer”.

She was just 19 at the time. Not much later, d’Artois was sent behind retreating enemy lines to relay intelligence about enemy positions. That was when she was beaten and raped by enemy soldiers. Undaunted, next day she delivered the information she was carrying.

The obituary ends: “For her war work, she was appointed MBE and mentioned in dispatches”. At a time when so many people were displaying often unimaginable courage, this recognition was possibly considered commensurate, though this is hard to grasp now. It certainly highlights the vacuity of the UK’s present-day honours lists, which routinely allocate more elevated awards to people who, compared with d’Artois, have achieved nothing particular. There is a case for reviewing the benchmarks for national honours using the example that d’Artois, and people like her, once set.

David Head
Navenby, Lincolnshire

 

The story of Sonya d’Artois’s exploits in occupied France was one of incredible heroism. I despaired to discover that she’d only ever been awarded an MBE for bravery. According to BBC News, that’s the same honour as bestowed on DJ Pete Tong for services to broadcasting and music.

L Day
Essex

 

Not disenfranchised, just disorganised

“The missing million voters” (front page, 16 January) – what twaddle. No one is being “disenfranchised” by the electoral-roll changes. Students simply have to register, in the same way as anyone else.

Geoffrey Deville
New Malden, Surrey

 

Unwilling enforcer of the speed limit

Peter Rogers (letters, 16 January) is wrong about 20mph zones not being enforced. I enforce one such every day – for myself, and by default for everyone behind me. I invariably lead a parade of angry and abusive motorists and I am heartily sick of doing the police’s job for them.

Stan Broadwell

 

Times:

Sir, Tim Montgomerie’s proposal for compulsory voting at UK general elections (Opinion, Jan 15) has much to commend it, yet there is a less authoritarian way to galvanise and engage not only the 35 per cent who currently don’t vote, but also the four out of five who do cast their vote with very little chance of it affecting the choice of governing party and prime minister. These politically impotent voters — the vast majority of actual voters — live in the “safe” Conservative or Labour seats, where only an electoral earthquake could dislodge the incumbent. The national outcome is actually settled by relatively few voters — tens of thousands — switching parties or perhaps voting for the first time in the dwindling number of marginals. Each citizen’s vote should count by making it worth the same throughout the UK.
Robert Orchard
Cardiff
Sir, I doubt whether the result of compulsory voting would be all that Tim Montgomerie would hope for. Politicians are apt to make promises which they cannot keep, but which guide voters’ choices. A good example is Ed Miliband’s intention to cap energy prices. Voters may see this as attractive but they will complain when power cuts follow as suppliers fail to invest in new generating capacity. Similarly, the national obsession with the NHS; no party will take the radical steps necessary to correct the situation for fear of voter backlash. How will the votes of those who have not given any real thought to the matter help resolve this?
R Bullen
Beachley, Glos

Sir, Compulsory voting must be the first principle in a genuine democracy. It will have a salutary effect on those who vote as well as on the politicians seeking that vote. Manifesto promises will be expected to be delivered and voters will be much less forgiving next time if they are not. The requirement to vote will surely make the voter think about its significance, leading to a deeper political interest generally.
Jeff Wilner
Didsbury, Manchester

Sir, The notion of compulsory democracy is oxymoronic. The essence of democracy is freedom — freedom to cast one’s vote or not to do so. The fact that most pensioners exercise their right and that most first-time voters do not is irrelevant. If this latter group chooses not to have a say in the governance of the country, then that is their right. It is no business of governments passing laws to make sure that elections produce the “right” results.
JRG Edwards
Birchington, Kent

Sir, There is injustice for the generation coming after me and I feel for them, as we all should. Compulsory voting would engage the younger generation who have been disenfranchised by mainstream politics. The system deserves to have a good kick up the register of electors. Apply compulsory voting to the 2015 general election and we may see queues at polling stations.
Judith A Daniels
Cobholm, Norfolk

Sir, Tim Montgomerie suggests that the Conservative party has been “at its best when it has sought to extend the franchise”. Other than Disraeli’s unprincipled dash in 1867 with little support from his party, which of the major changes in voting qualifications found the Conservative party on the side of extending the franchise? 1832? 1884? 1918? 1928? Oh yes . . . none
of these.
Nick Ratcliffe
Worcester

Sir, Tim Montgomerie’s argument has a flaw. We vote for (at least in theory) a candidate to represent us, rather than a party or prime minister. If none of the candidates are acceptable, you should not have to vote for any of them. Should voting become compulsory, every ballot paper should carry the option “none of the above”. This will give us an honest picture of the level of support for politicians.
John Allen
Shrivenham, Wilts

Sir, If David Winnick MP believes that we should be obliged to vote in elections or face a penalty, then presumably he would accept that MPs should participate in every Commons vote or face a penalty.
Richard Knipe

Solihull, W Midlands

Sir, The claim by Keith Willett of NHS England (News, Jan 15) that the 111 service “saved” two million visits to A&E while the actual number of visits has shot up, puts me in mind of my wife’s claims of savings in the January sales.
Jim Symington
High Wycombe, Bucks

Sir, Matthew Parris should beware the new health app on his smartphone (“I’d walk 2 x 500 miles”, Jan 14). I found mine intriguing and I challenged myself to walk a bit more each day. I also felt inspired to get the once-over from my GP.

As a result I now have high blood pressure, a dodgy liver, diabetes and have found that my heart may not be up to the job. With a cupboard full of drugs and a string of medical appointments to come, I spend my evenings feeling feeble and looking up medical websites.
Richard Bailey
Ryde, Isle of Wight

Sir, Too many parents have the deluded notion that their children will be the next star footballer (“Fears raised for young rejects”, Sport, Jan 15). The result is that many teenagers will not even consider a back-up plan, and a construction course is seen as being for losers. Parents need to set achievable expectations, or at least create a plan if dreams are shattered.
Chris Foreman
Wheathampstead, Herts
Sir, The phrase “millions spent in vain” (Sir Jack Hayward obituary, Jan 15) misses the point of what he achieved. Sir Jack not only repaired Wolves’ heartbreak and gave them a magnificent stadium, but also a brief stay in the Premier League. There were crowds of 30,000 as the team won League One last season. No one was happier than Sir Jack.
R Feetham
Stamford, Lincs

Sir, The polarisation of views about GM crops ensures that developments such as the recent EU decision (“English farmers free to plant GM crops”, Jan 14) lead to fierce debate, and science and rational risk assessment are frequently the casualties.

Your report describes the first GM crops likely to be planted in England as being genetically engineered to withstand higher concentrations of weedkiller (implying perhaps that more or more concentrated herbicide is needed to manage them). Actually they are engineered to be resistant to specific, usually broad-spectrum, herbicides which kill the weeds but not the crop. Deployed safely and successfully in other parts of the world and enabling no-till agriculture — improving soil and carbon conservation — they are not without environmental benefits.

If grown here, where weeds in and around arable crops form the basis of the food chain for key farmland bird species, careful husbandry and mitigating measures may be needed, but they should not be ruled out solely on the grounds that they are GM.
Professor Alan Gray
President, International Society for Biosafety Research

Sir, I am enormously encouraged by the views of the young people quoted by Alice Thomson (“We may be Charlie but our children are not”, Jan 14), but I question whether there is a purely generational divide on the issue. The reaction to the Charlie Hebdo massacre could be said to have been a little hysterical and potentially polarising. While there should be a place in all liberal societies for iconoclasts, and violence against them can never be excused, they should not necessarily be folded into the arms of the establishment as a result of such a tragedy. It seems that we have turned Voltaire on his head, and that to defend someone’s right to free speech has become by default to signify agreement with them.
John Condon
Withington, Manchester

Sir, Alice Thomson generalises when she includes “the old” as disagreeing with today’s offensive attitudes in the press. It was this generation that made programmes such as Spitting Image and Not the Nine o’clock News: compulsive viewing for their irreverence.
Roger Foord
Chorleywood, Herts

Sir, I agree with Alice Thomson in so far as women, gays and ethnic minorities are concerned: we don’t want to go back to an age when they were ridiculed. The law rightly protects them from prejudice. Religious beliefs, however, are a different matter because they are not universal truths and a personal choice is involved. If free speech is to mean anything then it must include the right to challenge the beliefs of others.
Mark Crivelli
Worcester

 

Telegraph:

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York warned that economic growth is not the answer to Britain’s social problems
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York warned that economic growth is not the answer to Britain’s social problems Photo: Getty Images

SIR – The polemics of our religious leaders would be more persuasive if they were coming from an institution that was thriving.

Sadly, the Church of England has only just come into the 21st century and put its own house in order with the ordination of female bishops. Until it can demonstrate rising popular appeal with growing congregations and modern-thinking clergy, its voice is weak, especially when our archbishops conflate politics and economics.

Greed and free-market ideology are two distinct concepts. Capitalism and the reform of the welfare state can work hand-in-hand to improve the lot of everyone.

John May
Arkesden, Essex

SIR – On Monday, Archbishops Welby and Sentamu expressed concern at the decline in Sunday church attendance – down to 800,000. Is it any wonder?

Ruth Alltree
Walden, Essex

SIR – The Church of England has assets worth £6 billion and its total investment income has risen during a recession in which many businesses have closed, and hundreds of thousands of people have been made redundant or been stripped of their welfare benefits.

An investment report in the middle of the recession boasted that the Church’s Hyde Park Connaught Village development was to focus on “boutique fashion, specialist retailers, galleries and high quality restaurants” and it announced “a number of exciting new retailers” to be added. The Church also invests in shopping centres and warehousing.

This may well raise an eyebrow from those lectured now by archbishops on the evils of consumerism and individualism.

When the Government announced it would end the zero-rated VAT concession on church repairs, the resulting outcry from the churches led the Chancellor to set aside £30 million per annum to continue to subsidise the practice, on top of the £12 million already provided to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which provides funding for auto-winding turret clocks, pipe organs and bells and bell ropes. In December, a further £15 million was set aside for cathedral repairs.

Shouldn’t churches pay their taxes, too, in the effort to alleviate poverty – not least when these same archbishops have denounced Starbucks, Amazon and Google for tax avoidance?

Alistair McBay
London WC1

SIR – It would be more honest of the two archbishops if, in future, they were to sit on the Labour benches in the House of Lords.

Edward Giles
Wootton Bridge, Isle of Wight

SIR – The archbishops’ remarks will serve only to alienate the people who keep the ailing Church of England in business.

Susan Gow
Overcombe, Dorset

Television debates are not about entertainment

(AP)

SIR – It seems illogical to leave the choice of candidates for TV debate solely to the broadcasters. The debates should be about parties presenting themselves to us, the electorate, not about entertainment.

Surely we should refer this matter to the electoral commission, or a similar independent body, to adjudicate.

Bob Woodward
Pewsey, Wiltshire

SIR – If the debates are to go ahead, all national parties, including the Greens, should be included. The SNP, Plaid Cymru and other regional parties should not take part in national debates.

Michael Edwards
Haslemere, Surrey

SIR – The proposed television debates between our political leaders would be a waste of time. The debates are in danger of becoming a clash of celebrities rather than an exchange of ideas.

Far better, in my opinion, would be an individual grilling of each party leader in turn by members of the public, chaired by a respected broadcaster such as Jeremy Paxman.

In this way, regional leaders of the SNP and other parties could be included in broadcasts in their own areas without the whole exercise becoming unwieldy.

John de Waal
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – We were no less a democracy in the last century, despite not having any presidential-style hustings.

Andrew Wauchope
London SE11

SIR – I wonder if Ed Miliband will now refuse to take part in a televised debate unless the Archbishop of Canterbury is invited to participate?

Frank Tomlin
Billericay, Essex

British Jews

SIR – This week Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, denounced the rise of anti-Semitism in France. He said: “The awakening of anti-Semitism is the first sign of a crisis for democracy.”

You report that almost half of Britons hold an anti-Semitic view. This would seem to indicate a worrying trend in this country. Many British Jews also appear to feel threatened.

I wonder how many people in Britain would recognise that we may be seeing the first signs of a crisis for our democracy, too.

Neil Miron
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire

SIR – It was with increasing unease that I read online Emma Barnett’s article about growing anti-Semitism in Britain and the actions of those who conflate Israeli policies with the beliefs of all Jews. I know that some of my fellow Muslims do so routinely and that radical Muslims see Jews as targets for their hate and bigotry.

Muslims with a more modern or secular outlook who aspire to greater integration in Britain have a responsibility to stand up to those who hold such bigoted views. Doing so consistently will enhance our right to demand action and condemnation of the many who vilify all Muslims for the actions of a violent minority and seek collective accountability.

Muslims wishing to live in Britain have not only to stand up to the violent minority but also expose and condemn all forms of racism. Making a common cause with Jewish citizens is a good way to start.

Osman Sarioglu
Bromley, Middlesex

SIR – Might we have less race and creed and more ethics?

Penelope Govett
London SW3

SIR – Imam Ibrahim Mogra, representing the Muslim Council of Britain, suggested yesterday on the BBC’s Breakfast that instead of an image of Mohammed, the Charlie Hedbo publishers should have published a blank page. He seems to be confusing free speech with saying nothing.

Paul Harrison
Terling, Essex

SIR – I, for one, salute Charlie Hebdo for its magnanimity, thoughtfulness and courage in responding so eloquently to this tragedy.

Dr Neil McLellan
Birmingham

Container ships are small fry to Seawise Giant

The Seawise Giant supertanker was the longest and heaviest ship ever built (Alamy)

SIR – Media reports on the construction of large container ships keep referring to them as the “biggest ships ever built” or the “world’s largest ships”. They are not.

The largest ship by deadweight tonnage was the Seawise Giant, broken up in 2009, which weighed 564,650 tons and had an overall length of 1,504.1ft – some 200ft longer that the CSCL Globe container ship that docked in Felixstowe recently.

The four TI ultra large crude carriers are considered to be the largest ships in the world today by displacement, deadweight tonnage and gross tonnage.

Modern container ships may have a larger displacement when the above-deck storage is included, but they are nowhere near the deadweight of these behemoths that used to, or still do, ply the oceans.

Jeremy Wescombe
Buckingham

Green Deal failure

SIR – The Green Deal continues to be a waste of public money. After a take-up of 8,000 and a cost of £42.5 million, most participants say they have lost money and are disillusioned with the scheme.

The building industry, especially at the level of small firms doing small projects, is harshly competitive and hard-working. The training and accreditation procedures for the Green Deal appear cumbersome and expensive. Reliable local builders are not short of work, so the likelihood is that only less successful operators will apply.

As an architect specialising in home extensions, I have always been depressed by the incentives of 5 per cent VAT on energy consumption against 20 per cent VAT on improvements, including better insulation. The most cost-effective way to boost woeful standards of home insulation would be to introduce a VAT concession on insulation materials. This would help reputable workmen give better value with minimal red tape, leaving the consumer to pick an installer they know and trust.

Stephanie Webster
Woking, Surrey

Inactive children

SIR – The Government has overseen a dramatic decline in the physical fitness of the young.

A relation of mine manages a leisure centre – owned and operated by the local authority – which is undergoing a £2 million refit. The proportion of this money being spent on providing sports facilities to schools, or indeed young people generally, is minimal. The bulk of it is being spent on a gym and fitness suite, because this is what produces the income. The council is interested in profit rather than being a cog in the wheel of “inspiring a generation”.

Peter D Harvey
Walton Highway, Norfolk

Fondant memories

SIR – The airline I work for used to offer Cadbury’s Creme Eggs to passengers at Easter. Cutbacks have since curtailed this largesse but, back in the day, a correctly positioned, unwrapped egg would grow an inch-high chocolate-tipped white stalagmite as the pressure change during ascent forced the fondant centre up and out through the bunghole.

I believe changes in manufacturing technique have halted this phenomenon – but then I haven’t tried it for a while.

Keith Macpherson
Houston, Renfrewshire

Signs of expense

SIR – I am glad that Welsh villages have rejected alterations to their village names; we already spend too much on Welsh signs. At Caerphilly railway station, a Tacsi sign has been added next to Taxi. All Welsh road signs are bilingual to please a tiny percentage of the population. Yet we lack money for cancer drugs.

Robert McCarthy
Caerphilly, Glamorgan

SIR – Why stop at hyphens to aid pronunciation for only Welsh place names? Ewell in Surrey would certainly benefit from becoming Ewe-ll.

Gillian Fogg
Surbiton, Surrey

A mountain to ski

SIR – It’s the time of year again for complaints about Alpine ski resorts. Why more people do not sample the delights of the Tatra mountains in Poland is beyond me; wonderful scenery, hassle-free resorts, lovely people, and the beer’s £1 a pint.

Joanna Hackett
London SE1

 

 

Globe and Mail:

Tabatha Southey

Don’t tell me I can’t joke about rape. I’m serious

That, within hours of the killings, the merits of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons were being weighed against the crime of murdering 12 members of the magazine’s staff was disturbing to me – but then, I’ve a vested interest in people not being killed for failing to be funny.

Various rationales as to why this wasn’t such a tragedy for free speech were tossed about; cartoons are a legitimate tool only in the hands of the most earnest, deadpan, certified-oppressed people, it was said – by those apparently confusing the tradition of satire with the singing of folk songs.

Humour, I read this week, is a weapon reserved exclusively for those “punching up.” Charlie Hebdo, it was judged, didn’t fit that criterion because the magazine ridiculed a vulnerable minority – Muslims.

Muslims, it was insinuated by a few non-Muslims, are pretty much powerless not to kill in the face of offensive jokes about their prophet, and racism. This, although racism is something Muslims encounter frequently in France and elsewhere, and meet with eye rolls, not violence, and despite the fact that violence committed by Islamic extremists is something being endured by and, in the main fought against, by Muslims.

Similarly, the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag embraced by many was critiqued by those apparently under the impression that when, to protest the fatwa against him, people wore “I am Salman Rushdie” buttons, they meant “I wrote Midnight’s Children. Contact me for a copy to review.”

I used the #JeSuisCharlie tag – not without ambivalence, but now isn’t the time for literal interpretations of any texts, nor the time to drop “freedom of speech” for “licence to speak” as something we defend.

Carry on, morons everywhere, I say, speak your minds – and not because your right to say, for example, that black people are lazy should be protected because it’s balanced by the right of black people to say that white people can’t dance.

That’s a false equivalency that fails to take into account the power differential – loaded overwhelmingly on the side of white people. Nor does it consider the potentially negative effects of such a slur – few people are looking for employment in the dance sector.

No, your right to say those things is balanced by the rights of non-stupid, horrible, racist people to judge you out loud for saying stupid, horrible, racist things. A fair trade, provided everyone gets to speak.

Can you make jokes about people more disadvantaged than you? Sure, you should be able to make jokes about anything there are no bad subjects for jokes, only bad jokes, lots of them, and it would be great if that weren’t the case.

However, this trend – in no way limited to Muslim extremists – toward cordoning off whole subject matters as too sacred, dreadful or sensitive to be joked about should be checked, brusquely, and here’s an example of why:

Several days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-hosted the Golden Globe Awards. In their opening, they joked about Bill Cosby drugging, as he’s alleged to have done, many women, in order to rape them.

I won’t repeat their jokes here, not because they weren’t funny, they were, but because humour often loses much in the retelling, or reprinting. Humour removed from the context in which it’s produced – both the medium and the moment – often can’t be judged fairly. I’d say that’s also true of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons.

It was amusing to watch those at the Golden Globes laugh, then clearly wonder if they should be laughing – some appeared to stop just short of texting their publicists for advice on the matter.

They were, of course, laughing at jokes about rape, rape jokes – those jokes we’ve been told we cannot make because rape isn’t funny, and because, it’s said, even hearing about rape might “trigger” victims.

Although by that logic we shouldn’t cover rape stories in the news either – and, of course, to tell women comics they can’t joke about rape is to tell women they can’t talk about rape, something women have been told enough.

No comic worth her salt and salary would’ve stood up there and asked solemnly for two minutes of silence for Bill Cosby’s alleged victims. Judging from the anger the Fey-Poehler bit engendered, that’s apparently what some demanded.

Instead, these comics did something brave, subversive and funny, and we saw what happens when we don’t limit speech – what it is we’re allowed to joke about – but instead allow more diverse voices, those with perhaps a more informed understanding of the subjects at hand, to be heard.

Saeb Erekat

It is John Baird who needs to apologize to the Palestinian people

Irish Times:

Sir, – John Horgan correctly writes, in the wake of the horrific Charlie Hebdo murders, that there is a strong argument here for removal of both the constitutional provision on blasphemy, and section 36 of the 2009 Defamation Act, which introduced a statutory blasphemy offence (“Press Council can play role in blasphemy debate”, Opinion & Analysis, January 15th). Indeed, the constitutional convention has already recommended a referendum on blasphemy.

However, we do not need to wait for a referendum to repeal or amend the statutory provision – that should be done now through the Oireachtas. As I argued in 2009 when opposing section 36, a statutory definition of the constitutional blasphemy offence could be limited to criminalising only hate speech or incitement to hatred; the Constitution does not require imposition of a €25,000 fine where a person has insulted a matter held sacred by any religion.

As John Horgan says, this sweeping 2009 definition of blasphemy has unfortunately but predictably become a precedent for repressive legislation in other countries.

Sensible and proportionate legal limits may be placed on free speech in every democracy, but it is hard to see how the use of blasphemy laws to stifle satirical commentary may be justified in a republic. – Yours, etc,

IVANA BACIK,

Seanad Éireann,

Leinster House,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – The recent debate has not given sufficient weight to one aspect: the extent to which the flow of satire between western and Muslim societies seems to be a one-way street. All societies throw up worthy targets for satirists. I, for one, would be only too delighted to see a more regular and suitably jaundiced view of life in the so-called liberal democracies coming from those who hold to Muslim values.

I’m sure there must be many aspects of our lives and culture that provoke Muslim disdain, mockery or even barbed humour, up to and including the extent to which Christian religions have become mere cultural remnants in many European countries.

What history of satire has there been in the Muslim world? Has it been stifled by the lack of press freedom and open democratic societies ? Does the Muslim view of what is “sacred” preclude Muslim writers from criticising or even mocking Christian beliefs and adherence? I would very much welcome a perspective on this from informed readers of your newspaper.

In the meantime, and with all due respect to “freedom of speech”, I find the current unequal flow of satire a little bit too much like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel. – Yours, etc,

AODH Ó DOMHNAILL,

Greystones,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Raymond Deane (January 15th) congratulates The Irish Times for not republishing the “Islamophobic Charlie Hebdo cartoons”. As a phobia is an irrational fear I believe this terminology is wrong.

The staff of Charlie Hebdo, and the victims of Boco Haram in Nigeria, have found that these fears are not irrational. Just as the Aztecs and Incas discovered at the hands of Christians before them.

Where you have religion you can have intolerance, then zealots, then people who believe they get to paradise by killing those who disagree with them. We need to be able to challenge these sacred cows with rational argument and ridicule. – Yours, etc,

DAVID DOYLE,

Goatstown,

Dublin 14.

A chara, – It is troubling that in the wake of the atrocities in Paris the narrative regarding freedom of expression in the media includes calls for sensitivity when dealing with aspects of religion or faith. People may be offended by artistic or literary material that mocks a belief that they hold sacred, but nobody has the right not to be offended.

Any argument that begins along the lines of: “I believe in free speech, however . . .” is, in fact, not an argument that favours free speech. – Yours, etc, – Is mise,

NAOISE Ó CIARDHA

South Kensington,

London.

Sir, – Voltaire’s view of defending free speech to the death has been much aired but, given the reluctance to publish the offending cartoons, another of his beliefs may be more relevant: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.” – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY

Gaoth Dobhair,

Co Dhún na nGall.

Sir, – With regard to the ongoing hospital overcrowding crisis, a national conversation must be opened up about the plight of people with dementia languishing in our hospital wards awaiting discharge either to appropriate facilities or home with the appropriate services and supports in place.

Writing on this page (January 13th), the clinical professor of emergency medicine at St James’s Hospital, Patrick Plunkett, said those waiting for nursing home places for three to four months in overcrowded hospitals, many with dementia, could be compared to victims of institutional abuse.

The Alzheimer Society of Ireland has long raised the issue of how delayed discharges are adversely impacting people with dementia in this country, and yet delays to the Fair Deal scheme continue to hurt our most vulnerable members of society.

There are currently 48,000 people living with dementia in Ireland – a figure set to rise exponentially in the coming years. Research produced by Dr Suzanne Cahill at Trinity College Dublin demonstrates how up to 25 per cent of patients in hospitals at any one time can have dementia.

While a steep rise in the number of delayed discharges of people occupying beds unnecessarily is being blamed for much of the rise in overcrowding in recent months, we must be cognisant of the fact that behind every headline is untold suffering for people living with dementia and their loved ones.

People living with dementia are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of delayed discharge from hospital; it can adversely affect their health, cognition and overall wellbeing.

As a result, adequate funding needs to be put in place now to discharge people to appropriate settings, whether that is care at home, in other community settings, in step-down facilities or nursing homes.

It also further highlights the importance of implementing the key tenets of the National Dementia Strategy which was published last month – that is the provision of adequate intensive homecare and community supports.

While hospital admissions can cause enormous distress and are associated with functional decline in older people with dementia, community-based supports make living at home possible and delay premature admission to long-term care and unnecessary stays in acute hospitals.

Political will and leadership are what is needed now to ensure there is a strategic approach to dementia care in this country for the protection of our most vulnerable people. – Yours, etc,

GERRY MARTIN

Chief Executive,

Alzheimer Society of Ireland

Temple Hill,

Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Sir, – I refer to Paul Cullen’s article regarding the possible closure in July of 2,500 public nursing home beds due to a failure to meet national nursing home standards (“Nursing home beds may close”, Front Page, January 16th).

I find it incredible that Minister of State for Primary Care Kathleen Lynch would say that the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has agreed to extend the application of the standards to public homes by three years.

Where does this leave the 500-odd private nursing homes that have had to borrow to upgrade their homes to meet the standards, on pain of closure? They did not have the luxury of a Minister to waive national standards that are supposed to apply to all. Also, where does it leave the residents in public nursing homes who will now have to reside in nursing homes that do not meet national standards?

It looks like one rule for the State and one rule for the private sector, again. – Yours, etc,

PERCY BOLAND,

Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Sir, – Noel Whelan’s opinion piece is a timely reminder of what should be avoided in the next election (“UK posturing on TV debates a taste of what we can expect”, Opinion & Analysis, January 16th). During the Celtic Tiger period we had plenty of posturing by celebrity politicians, aided and abetted by celebrity media commentators. That ended with a bankrupt country needing an €80 billion bailout.

A more sober but thorough investigation of the facts and less emphasis on personality during the next election campaign might serve the interests of the ordinary citizen of this country better. – Yours, etc,

A LEAVY,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – Noel Whelan is correct that there has been a lot of posturing both in the United Kingdom and in Ireland over forthcoming election debates in terms of participants and format.

We should recall the manner in which the last presidential election debates were handled in 2011 and the surrounding controversy.

Perhaps the establishment of a non-partisan and independent debates commission might be of assistance to all participants. The commission could lay down clear rules and guidelines, including on format, carry out research, select moderators and, more importantly, prevent the debates from descending into farce. – Yours, etc,

NIALL NELIGAN,

Dublin Institute

of Technology,

Aungier Street,

Dublin 2.

A chara, – A report in The Irish Times entitled “Children in wealthy areas get more special education teaching” (August 5th, 2013) plays a large part in explaining the discrepancy in educational attainment. The article referenced a report the Department of Education itself conducted that year, which found that children in Terenure were getting more special education teaching hours than children in Darndale. The reason for the discrepancy in provision is that in middle-class schools, psychological assessments paid for privately by parents are fed into the public education system. These assessments are used in determining resource hours and staffing allocated to a school. And so the gulf widens.

In the inner-city school where I work, we are allocated a restricted number of assessments per year and we have no parents who can afford to pay for private assessments, which can cost between €400 and €600. We struggle to provide adequate teaching time for children who score under the tenth percentile in standardised tests. We hear stories of schools in leafier suburbs where children at the 35th or even 63rd percentiles may be receiving extra teaching support. It is incredibly frustrating to be so under-resourced, but more so to read reports stating that no significant change has occurred.

All children should have equal access to educational resources, irrespective of parental wealth. – Is mise,

NIAMH MURRAY,

Islandbridge,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – It beggars belief that the Government, after all the fanfare of announcing a Minister of State for the Diaspora, and after all the commitments to take seriously and act on the views of the Convention on the Constitution in a timely manner, should be contemplating drawing up a diaspora strategy that has no provision for votes for Irish citizens abroad (“Referendum on emigrant vote ‘unlikely’ this year, says Deenihan”, January 15th).

A total of 78 per cent of the Convention on the Constitution members voted for enabling citizens abroad to vote for the president. Most polls on other issues considered by the convention have demonstrated that its members have been broadly in line with public opinion in Ireland.

Despite prodding from an Oireachtas committee and the European Commission, the Government continues to baulk at a move most countries embrace. – Yours, etc,

MARY HICKMAN,

Professorial Research

Fellow,

Centre for Irish Studies,

School of Arts

and Humanities,

St Mary’s University,

Waldegrave Road,

new political party called the “Bean an Tí” party. There will be no financial experts, no legal experts, no management experts, no religious experts – in fact no experts of any kind. Members will be made up of all the women of this country who, for at least the last 50 years, have run the family homes without running the country into debt and thereby enabled the whole show to carry on. Take a look and see where male domination has led us. Mná na hÉireann, get your act together! – Yours, etc,

CATHERINE SWEENEY,

Avoca,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Does anyone else out there see any problem with energy companies offering significant discounts to customers who “switch”? Is this really a sustainable way to do business? Who actually pays for the “discount”? And what happens when everyone has switched? Do they all just switch back again? Is this an enormous waste of people’s time? Or is all this “switching” just a distraction from the real problem that people are trying to ”switch” away from in the first place, the exorbitant unit cost of electricity? – Yours, etc,

JIM O’SULLIVAN,

Rathedmond, Sligo.

Sir, – The big supermarkets often force local producers here to bear the costs when the supermarkets have promotional prices or try to lure shoppers with loss-leaders such as milk at bargain prices. How much worse is it for small farmers overseas! In price wars between the supermarkets, the price of bananas has halved in the past 10 years but the cost of producing them has doubled. We eat cheap bananas but the banana farmers and workers in tropical countries cannot afford to feed their families or pay for basics such as education or healthcare. We should all insist on only buying fair trade bananas, as well as fair trade tea and coffee, to ensure that we do not have cheap food at the expense of those working to produce it. – Yours, etc,

MARGARET MARSHALL,

Belfast.

A chara, – It always strikes me as odd that teachers are expected to inculcate “chivalry and courtesy” (January 12th) into a child rather than their own parents.

A teacher’s job is to teach children; a parent’s job is to rear children. – Yours, etc,

GARETH T CLIFFORD,

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Travelling on the Dart from Dún Laoghaire some time ago, I was most impressed by a very well-behaved group of scouts.

At the various “stops”, a nod from the girl in charge led to one of her group hopping up and offering the seat to an older citizen. – Yours, etc,

TOM GILSENAN,

Beaumont,

Irish Independent:

Actor Aiden Gillen as former Taoiseach Chariles Haughey in the RTE drama 'Charlie'

Actor Aiden Gillen as former Taoiseach Chariles Haughey in the RTE drama ‘Charlie’

The shootings at Charlie Hebdo were undoubtedly a major crime against humanity and reflect very badly on the Islamic extremists who perpetrated the attack.

  • Go To

The implications for future relations with the Islamic world can only be guessed at and one can only hope that the view of the majority of Islam’s followers, who practise tolerance towards their fellow human beings, will prevail over that of these lunatics.

While the situation is sad and dangerous, like all such affairs it’s not without a certain black humour.

Being called a ‘Charlie’ is usually far from being a compliment, yet it seemed the whole of France, and a large part of the civilised world, were carrying placards reading “Je suis Charlie” after the shootings.

At the same time in Ireland, the most talked-about programme is ‘Charlie’, a TV drama about Charlie Haughey while he was Taoiseach of this country.

Not too many people were going around carrying placards supporting the scandal-ridden Haughey but the situation was still ironic, as Haughey was a Francophile par excellence.

With his dark sense of humour, our Charlie would have got an ego boost from it if he were still alive.

Isn’t it strange how words mean different things to different people?

Perhaps the pen is mightier than the sword after all. Somebody once said that God has a sense of humour. If these words prove anything, they are right.

Liam Cooke

Coolock, Dublin 17

Our historical debt to Islam

The growing perception within the last 30 years of a so-called “clash of civilisations” should not obscure our historical indebtedness to the Islamic world.

While Europe languished in the Dark Ages, a Golden Age of learning flourished further east.

The international language of science was Arabic and Baghdad’s House of Wisdom contained the largest repository of books in the world.

The arrival of Islamic scholarship in Spain via North Africa reintroduced the lost works of the ancient Greeks to Europe and brought advances in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, literature, art and theology.

This laid the foundation for the Renaissance in the 14th Century, out of which evolved the 17th Century Enlightenment principles of justice, fairness and autonomy that underpin modern European values.

These values allow people with profoundly different views to co-exist peacefully within a socio-legal framework that protects them all equally.

This is one of the greatest achievements of recent history in many parts of the world, particularly in Europe, where countries have had to overcome centuries of violent discord to create a peaceful union.

The founding principle for this progress has been the goal of co-operation and mutual respect among all citizens, regardless of race, creed, politics or nationality.

This is a challenging goal that requires on-going reflection, debate and negotiation but as a cornerstone of democracy, it is one that we must never lose sight of.

Maeve Halpin

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Out of step with democracy

What does the following fact say about the Irish people?

Some 100,000 protest in Dublin over water charges, while 4,000 protest a violent attack on the freedom of the press and a violent act of anti-Semitism.

Where were the voices of Ireland’s leading unions, left wing politicians, academics, civil rights organisations, anti-war groups and ‘community activists’?

A lot can be learnt from both these marches and none of it bodes well for a healthy, vibrant democracy.

Vincent J Lavery

Irish Free Speech Movement, Coliemore Road, Dalkey, County Dublin

Importance of satire in society

Satire can be a dangerous game – but we must defend it.

The recent events in Paris have thrust satire into the international headlines.

From the depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish ‘Jyllands-Posten’ newspaper to the killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by Muslim extremists.

Why bother?

The killing of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo offices came as a shock to the general public.

These were regular people going about their jobs – but the ramifications of which can get you shot in cold blood. Satire can be seen as the mirror in which a society reflects on its current moral position.

Sometimes, when there are no other options left, it can be the only way to illuminate the wrongs of a corrupt nation’s elite and the only safe way to hold powerful politicians accountable.

Take, for instance, Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’, in which he highlights the hypocrisy of Britain’s attitude to the Irish poor.

The work highlighted the plight of the Irish whilst cunningly pointing the finger at the British establishment.

But let us not get lost too much in the philosophical or theoretical constructs here.

Sometimes satire serves to get a simple laugh through the use of irony, toilet humour and outlandish slander, but, if it makes a few people open their eyes a bit more, sends a message to the masses or even makes one person’s day a bit brighter, well, isn’t it worth it?

Steven Timothy

Galway

The stamp of foolishness

I write to record my utter disgust and bafflement at An Post’s recent decision to relocate the Listowel post office at a site so far away from its current central location, a location that has facilitated the business and social needs of the local population for many a long year. You have offered no convincing rationale for moving the post office. To say that this decision is foolhardy, erroneous, stupid and totally unwarranted is an understatement.

Incredibly, it seems to have eluded you that this most inconsiderate decision will cause hardship and inconvenience to many, but especially to elderly people. What input did the local population or the business people of the town have in your consideration?

Without fully canvassing the views of the public – inevitably this is the hallmark of those who have lost touch with the grassroots – you have made a significant blunder.

If you have the wit or courage to reverse this inconsiderate decision, I suggest you do so at the earliest opportunity.

I have rarely witnessed such unanimity of offence and disappointment in Listowel over a local matter.

You have without doubt ripped the heart out of our town and greatly disheartened the local community. I urge you to reverse this decision and end this nonsense now!

Aidan Ó Murchú

Address with editor

Cracking the code, as Gaeilge

I note that the new Eircode postal code examples include the letters W and K. These, along with J, Q, V, X, Y and Z, at least up to my Leaving Cert 1968 Irish exam (mediocre pass), didn’t exist in the Irish language alphabet. Will Gaelic users be obliged to change keyboards for the address section of correspondence, or, will each ad dress have a facility to alter their code to exclude the offending letters?

Perhaps a 10pc postage price reduction for writing the address “as bhéarla”? Just wondering, I’m sure the powers that be have it all in hand.

Liam Pluck

Carrig on Bannow

Wexford

Irish Independent


Learning

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18 January 2015 Learning

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Struggling with web developer.

Obituary:

Bess Myerson as Miss New York City
Bess Myerson as Miss New York City Photo: Rex

Bess Myerson, who has died aged 90, was the first and only Jewish woman to win the Miss America beauty pageant; she then had a long career in public service before her life was overwhelmed by scandal.

When she was crowned Miss America in September 1945, the full horror of the Holocaust had only recently been revealed. Her victory took on a symbolic meaning: the Jews had survived and were thriving in the United States. Her biographer, Susan Dworkin, said: “In the Jewish community she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther.”

Bess Myerson was born on July 16 1924 in New York City. Her father was a housepainter, and she grew up in the Bronx, in a cooperative apartment complex started by socialists.

Bess was a typical high-achieving child of immigrants and graduated from the city’s free college for women, Hunter, with a degree in Music in 1945, the year she won the beauty pageant. She claimed to have entered the contest because she wanted to buy a Steinway piano with the prize money.

Miss America winners usually travel the country doing promotional work, but when Bess Myerson won many sponsors backed out of their commitments for anti-Semitic reasons.

She focused her activities on New York City, and in the decades after her victory her image was ubiquitous: on television, as a regular panellist on the popular quiz show I’ve Got a Secret, and in subway advertisements.

Shortly after her victory, in 1946, she married Allan Wayne, a naval captain who had seen action in the Pacific. The couple had a daughter, Barbara. But Wayne suffered from what would today be called post-traumatic stress disorder; he became a violent alcoholic and the couple divorced in 1957. Bess married the entertainment lawyer Arnold Grant five years later.


Bess Myerson waves from a float during a parade before the Miss America pageant at Atlantic City in 1945

In 1969 she entered public service when the mayor of New York, John Lindsay, appointed her consumer affairs commissioner. She took what could have been nothing more than a public relations role and made it into a serious job, suing companies on behalf of consumers and winning millions of dollars for people who had been defrauded by false advertising claims.

During this period she divorced Grant and became more involved in public service, as New York entered an era of crime-ridden decline. She also became the public companion of Ed Koch and was constantly at his side during his bitterly contested 1977 mayoral campaign against Mario Cuomo.

Koch, a bachelor, was a notoriously prickly politician. He was also rumoured to be gay, and Bess Myerson’s presence by his side smoothed out his rough edges with voters and partially neutralised the homosexual innuendo. She was given much credit for Koch’s ultimate victory.

Bess Myerson after being crowned Miss America in 1945 (AP)

Her own foray into politics ended in failure when she was defeated in a primary race for the US Senate in 1980.

Then her life spun out of control. While serving as Koch’s cultural affairs commissioner, she became romantically involved with a married man 20 years her junior – Carl Capasso, a sewer contractor who did business with the city. When Capasso’s wife found out, she sued for divorce.

Bess Myerson in 1985 with New York Mayor Ed Koch (AP)

Bess Myerson was later accused of inducing a judge to reduce Capasso’s maintenance payments by giving the judge’s daughter a job. The “Bess Mess” was sensational tabloid fodder. When Bess was subsequently arrested for shoplifting after visiting Capasso in a Pennsylvania prison, where he was serving a sentence for tax evasion, her fall from grace was complete and she drifted into obscurity.

In later life Bess Myerson had time to regret living her life in the spotlight. In a 1990 unauthorised biography written after all the “Bess Mess” trials were over, she is reported to have once told a Jewish businessman: “I should have married someone like you at 24 and moved to Scarsdale.”

She is survived by her daughter, Barra Grant, a film and television director.

Bess Myerson, born July 16 1924, died December 14 2014

Guardian:

How much does an university education have to tie in with what employers demand?
How much does an university education have to tie in with what employers demand? Photograph: aberCPC/Alamy

As Sonia Sodha argues, the political debate on universities has focused on fee levels and headline prices to the exclusion of almost everything else, including the benefits and value of a university education, and how they might be improved (“It’s time to reinvent what universities can be, Comment).

As many of the officers of the National Union of Students have commented over the past few years, universities should place much more emphasis on the quality of teaching and what is taught. A highly critical select committee report on quality and students contained the following student quote: “Contact time we have with staff is a problem. Lecturers are often informative but there is no one-to-one time. Sometimes I feel like I’m in a sausage factory rather than surrounded by some of the foremost minds in my field.”

Universities should focus more on how learning contributes to wider social functions such as active and ethical citizenship and shaping a democratic civilised and more sustainable society, which is crucial if they are to play an active and responsible role in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. An expanding population, increasing globalisation and advances in technology will bring colossal societal and ecological changes, particularly if our unsustainable practices and lifestyles prevail. This is just a taste of what a graduate’s future might look like.

Universities have a significant role to play in developing “sustainability literate” leaders and hence optimising their contribution to the future of society, the environment and the economy. A small number of UK universities have begun to respond to this agenda, notably the universities of Aberdeen, Bristol, Keele and Worcester but much more needs to be done by all our universities to prepare graduates for an uncertain future.

Professor Stephen Martin

Former chair of the Higher Education Academy

Education for Sustainable Development Advisory Group

Worcester

The rapid social and economic changes of the 21st century require perpetual innovation from our universities. Research we commissioned from Youthsight revealed that 67% of undergraduates expect the world of work to significantly change over the next 20 years and from our experience one of the chief concerns of students today is how far their degree will equip them to meet these changes.

Ensuring that degrees deliver skills that are “future-proof” requires universities to think creatively about how they are structured. Partnering with private sector companies is one option for doing so, as they can directly feed in the attitudes and aptitudes that they want to see in graduates, while helping universities to build work experience and internship opportunities into their courses. This in turn would help universities develop the next generation of graduates with the skills and experience employers need and those that our continued economic success demands.

Sarah Macdonald

Vice principal (academic quality and enhancement)

Pearson College, London

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Sonia Sodha claims that the purpose of a university degree should be directly linked to the needs of employers and the labour market. So, education and learning have no intrinsic worth, and creating cultured, educated citizens who can think for themselves and possess a variety of cognitive skills is old-fashioned nonsense, only still believed in by dinosaurs like me! Instead, universities must slavishly serve the needs of big business and the deity that is “the market”.

Is there no sphere of civil life or human activity that can be spared the philistine assumption that they have no purpose or merit unless they directly serve corporations and the pursuit of profit? Can we not have an economic system that serves society, rather than a society which exists to serve the economy?

Pete Dorey

Bath

Napoleon finally defeated the Holy Roman Empire.
Napoleon finally defeated the Holy Roman Empire. Photograph: Alamy

I campaigned for a “No” vote in the 1975 referendum on the common market, largely on political grounds but objections were patronisingly dismissed – the market, we were told, was an economic, not political, project. Subsequently, I took a rather childish pleasure in continually referring to the European “project”, whatever its current nomenclature, as the “Holy Roman Empire”. Now, suddenly, I find myself in agreement with Will Hutton (“The British Museum reminds us Germany is a force for good”, Comment) who also sees the EU as the successor to the HRE! There the agreement ends, because he apparently finds this laudable.

Is this really the best we can do? For centuries, there has been a fixation with some mythic ideal of the Roman empire – its codes of laws, “Pax Romana” and so on, and the HRE was just one of the futile efforts to turn back the clock. Of course there are all manner of national and international problems that need co-operation and resolution, but over 200 years since Napoleon did us all a favour by getting rid of the thing, is bringing it back the most forward-thinking idea that the third millennium has to offer?

John Old

Nuneaton

Make milk the cream of the crop

The number of milk producers in England and Wales has now fallen below 10,000 and there are suggestions that this number will halve by 2025. This is due to the drive for ever cheaper milk. The use of milk by retailers as a loss leader amounts to playing with our food. A perception of cows in fields, maintained by those selling milk and dairy products, masks the steady march towards a future where these products will increasingly flow from industrial sites rather than traditional farms.

I started a farmer-led movement called Free Range Dairy and the Pasture Promise label to promote the value of Britain’s seasonally grazed dairy herds and try to shift industry focus away from volume and towards value. I would like to see clear labelling on milk cartons that will enable consumers to make an informed choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.

Neil Darwent

BBC outstanding farmer of the year 2014; director Free Range Dairy Network CIC

Frome

Walkie Talkie’s poor reception

The Walkie Talkie is a sad contribution to London and the City in particular (“Iconic address” – or just more pie in the sky?”, Rowan Moore, New Review, 4 Jan). Wherever you see it from it looks out of scale and ugly. I am totally in support of elegant, beautiful towers; the Shard is a great contribution to London’s skyline. The problem with the Walkie Talkie is its proportion. It looks as if it has been sat on by a massive celestial gnome, making it bulge out like a malformed marshmallow.

Towers are exciting when they rise up elegantly, shimmer in the sunlight or moonlight and respect their neighbours. Chunky towers can be exciting, too, but the good ones respect proportion and are stout and rooted to the ground. The Walkie Talkie has none of these attributes. It is a sad indictment on Land Securities for forcing overdevelopment of the site and both the GLA and the City for running scared in their planning responsibilities. Moore is also right to question the sky garden; the reality is that few of us will ever get up there. It will be the playground of privileged City workers.

Camilla Ween

Goldstein Ween Architects

London SW8

Antidote for political games

I’m struck by the unedifying spectacle of politicians engaged in name-calling and abnegation of responsibility. I propose a remedy. If a politician blames the previous government for present ills the interviewer must make an adenoidal sound like the buzzer on the children’s game Operation; equally, if the politician ignores the interviewer’s question, he/she will receive the same treatment. Political parties should be prohibited from comparing their policies with those of other parties. Instead, they would lay out their manifesto and an independent, taxpayer-funded fact-checking body would tell us how much of it is true. Then in May we vote.

Ed Stoppard

Bromley

Lord Garden did his own research

I was angered to see your piece linking fees for trainees to my husband, Lord Garden, who was the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman in the Lords for the last three years of his life (“Unpaid interns charged £300 for job references”, News last week). He died in 2007. I don’t know Jan Mortier and never heard my husband mention him. Tim was well known for doing all his own research and administration and never felt the need to employ a “consultant” or an “aide”. He would certainly have had nothing to do with the practices associated with his name in the article.

Baroness Garden

House of Lords

We draw our own conclusions

It is to be expected that a piece entitled “Now hidden – Islam’s rich history of images of the prophet” (News, last week) should be illustrated – the key word being “images” – but I can’t have been the only reader to notice that the illustration used was of some buildings and some mountains.

Paul Colbeck

London E8

Independent:

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I agree with Joan Smith about the links between conflicted masculinity and outrages such as the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo (“These troubled men who project their self-hatred on others”, 11 January). Perhaps part of the problem lies in the images of masculinity with which young men are presented by popular culture. These seem to fall into two broad categories, hen-pecked “wimps” and gun-toting “heroes”.

Over the past half-century women have made remarkable social and economic advances, a major contributing factor to this has been the change in the way they are represented and therefore how they see themselves. Once freed from the shackles of being either victims or dependents they have achieved agency and begun to realise their full potential.

We need a corresponding revolution in how popular culture represents young men. A determined effort to break down tired clichés allowing a new image of a sensitive and intelligent modern man at ease with himself and others; who is able to confront the challenges of life without resorting to violence.

Adam Colclough

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

I sympathise with Arifa Akbar and with the vast majority of Muslims who, understandably, feel very upset and angry over calls for them to apologise on behalf of Amedy Coulibaly and his ilk (“No, Mr Murdoch. I am not responsible”, 11 January).

However, it is quite disingenuous to compare such jihadists with terrorists like Anders Breivik. Breivik freely admitted that he did not believe in Christian doctrines of salvation and redemption nor in a personal faith in Jesus Christ. In contrast the Kouachi brothers were devoted believers in Allah and Mohamed and professed allegiance to major Islamic terror organisations Al-Qaeda in Yemen and Islamic State and to their puritanical version of Islam.

Stephen Glasse

Kingsbridge, Devon

I wholeheartedly concur with Jane Merrick’s column, “A Patronising Manifesto” (11 January). Domestic violence is commonly committed by men, so why aim the issue solely at women? Indeed, why single out any of the said issues for women only? Especially childcare. Producing young and continuing the human species is apparently not something that all human beings are  pre-programmed to find important. Just the females. As a result women cannot be interested in the mundane issues that “normal” political manifestos are centred upon such as immigration, the NHS, climate change, transport, taxes, business, foreign policy and the economy!

Politicians need to stop treating women as a vulnerable section of society that constitutes an effectual other species. Women, men, trans, whatever – we are all human. We are all equal. Treat us as such.

Helen Brown

Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Surveys show that consumers overwhelmingly support the right to re-sell spare tickets and theirs is the only voice that should matter (“Ministers let online touts off the hook”, 11 January). A study of over 2,000 adults by Opinium Research in December shows that where they were not able to attend an event, 64 per cent of UK adults think they should be allowed to re-sell tickets. Only 14 per cent agreed that “the original seller or venue can determine how I re-sell my tickets”.

As an open marketplace, StubHub does not price tickets to any event including the tickets for the One Direction concert in September that was highlighted in your article. Neither do we own tickets to any event. Our focus is on providing the highest levels of customer service and a brand that consumers can trust.

Brigitte Ricou-Bellan

General manager, StubHub International

I refer to the article about the chef who no longer serves beef because of the amount of grain consumed by beef cattle (Interview, 11 January). Like many beef producers, I raise cattle entirely on grass. I would worry about patronising a restaurant whose proprietor is so ignorant about food sources.

John May

Exeter, Devon

 

Times:

Critics of multiculturalism say the UK has failed to confront the kind of religious fundamentalism that led to the terrorist attacks in Paris Maya Vidon Critics of multiculturalism say the UK has failed to confront the kind of religious fundamentalism that led to the terrorist attacks in Paris Maya Vidon Photograph: Maya Vidon

Britain has allowed Islamic extremism to breed unchecked

MANY Muslims who came to Britain to escape oppression in their own countries have found Islamic extremism very much alive here (“The terrorists can kill but they will not win”, Editorial, “Civilisation under siege”, Focus, and “Please don’t take offence — but, non, je ne suis pas Charlie”, Dominic Lawson, Comment, last week).

For too long we have allowed this to flourish and in so doing have severely let down our own citizens and those Muslims who travelled here to avoid persecution. I suspect there are many of these in the UK still living in fear, afraid of increasing peer pressure from their neighbours and communities, which has festered under our so-called tolerance. We owe it to Britons of all faiths and beliefs to stand up as never before for our freedom and values.
Joanne Grant, Leeds

BRITISH MUSLIMS REJECT RADICAL ISLAM

We write as Brits and Muslims who utterly condemn the Paris murders.

We will take every opportunity to reject, calmly, the angry voices who, in seeking a cycle of retribution, make our great faith of Islam seem so petty and small. But how we deal with such a threat can have huge ramifications.

We thought that UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s language about a “fifth column” was a mistake. It risks spreading an “them and us” agenda which, if it increases a sense of marginalisation, makes the work we do harder. Yet we believe that this is a moment not just to criticise, but to build bridges and seek common ground.

We also heard the UKIP leader commit to “actively support and rally behind the people who are leading the charge against radical Islam, especially those in Britain’s Muslim communities”. As British Muslims committed to that effort, we welcome that. So we have written to Mr Farage to say, ‘If you want to talk about supporting us, please talk to us.

We’ll do our bit, Mr Farage. Now let’s talk about what we all need from each other. We must do more as British Muslims but we can’t do it alone. Let’s come together as Britons to oppose every hatred, whether against Jews or Muslims, Christians or atheists, or any group, so we defend together the freedom of expression on which our religious freedoms depend too.’ Let our leaders join us in insisting that ours can be an inclusive Britain, where freedom and tolerance prevail; the country that we are all proud to call home.

Sughra Ahmed, President, Islamic Society of Britain
Qari Asim, Imam, Leeds Makkah Mosque
Adam Deen, Executive Director, Deen Institute
Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal MBE DL, Chair of Chase Against Crimes of Hate (CACH)
Rabiha Hannan, Trustee, New Horizons
Dilwar Hussain, Chair, New Horizons
Sabbiyah Pervez, blogger
Julie Siddiqi, Community Activist
Zehra Zaidi, Director, DiverCity

INTOLERANT HOSTS

The publication of the latest Charlie Hebdo cover is an error of judgment. Most people agree that the atrocities in France were carried out by extremists who do not represent Muslim communities in Europe, yet the Charlie Hebdo cover effectively says “ta gueule” — shut up — to Muslims in France and maybe elsewhere.

The truth is in France the sizeable Muslim community must remain tolerant of its hosts, but it is generally not allowed to forget the French are precisely that — its hosts — and tolerance in France is very much a one-way street.

In the UK we are a bit closer to getting it right in that we advocate free speech but also attempt to acknowledge the sensibilities of other communities and try to avoid giving them offence. France is demonstrating very clearly that no lessons have yet been learnt about the reciprocity of tolerance and how liberté must dovetail with responsabilité.
Marc Gander, UK citizen in Paris

LABELLING PROBLEMS

We all have multiple identities based on our familial ties, occupation, place of birth and political opinions. But in recent years people of certain ethnic groups have been automatically labelled Muslims.This profiling plays into the hands of Isis wannabes, toytown jihadists and misogynistic imams who see the world only in terms of “them and us” and wish to isolate Muslims in ghettos both physical and ideological, all the better to control them.

It is time we stopped labelling people as followers of outmoded philosophical systems based on the colour of their skin. Je suis Charlie.
Michael Pallett, Queensland, Australia

MULTICULTURAL SUCCESS

I lived in England for half a century and my staff included Christians of many denominations, as well as Jews and Muslims — we all got along fine. The UK is a highly successful multicultural society and it is of course terrible that some lunatics have decided to hang their hats on radical Islam, but it is not evidence of a failure of multiculturalism.
Kevin Hill, Listowel, Co Kerry

DRAWING BLOOD

One could take Dominic Lawson’s main point further. No UK newspaper has dared reprint any of the cartoons, rationalising their fear of reprisals as the desire not to be seen to give offence. To this extent the terrorists may be said to have won.
Andrew Hoellering, Thorverton, Devon

OVER A BARREL

The idea the pen is mightier than the sword is a nice one. However, Mao Tse-tung was closer to the truth when he observed that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Thus your cartoonist Gerald Scarfe depicting a hand clasping a pen being sliced off was nearer to reality.

To paraphrase an old adage, democracy depends on rough men who stand ready to do violence on its behalf. Thus the pen is ultimately protected.
Greg Waggett, Clare, Suffolk

MAKING HEADLINES

I can’t help feeling the media frenzy after the events in Paris was what the terrorists desired.
Dominic Ballard, Brabourne Lees, Kent

WHIP HAND

I wonder what the murdered cartoonists would make of seeing the Saudi ambassador to France taking part in the rally in Paris shortly after the jailed free-speech Saudi activist Raif Badawi received the first 50 of his 1,000 lashes in Jeddah.
Sudhir Gangani, Cheadle, Greater Manchester

Minor accident units are the tonic to revive A&Es

HAVING an A&E target of a four-hour wait in isolation is nonsense (“Making the grazed knees and twisted ankles wait longer will help heal A&E”, Comment, last week). It says nothing about quality of care, and the figures can be easily manipulated.

Patients kept waiting on trolleys reflect accountants’ use of beds: what is wrong with mothballing beds for allocation in times of crisis? Being in a bed takes away a lot of anxiety for patients and doctors, facilitating diagnosis and the start of treatment.

GPs are not going back to 24-hour cover, so why not accept this and go over — as some hospitals are doing — to minor accident units, or out-of-hours GP patients’ units, alongside A&E? With experienced doctor, such patients can be quickly dealt with and this is far preferable to the NHS 111 telephone service.
Reg Kingston, Retired consultant, Chorley, Lancashire

WORKING SOLUTION

I agree that A&E services have become a victim of their own success and the path of least resistance for the public who want everything now. Patients will often be seen by inexperienced junior doctors, who constantly — and appropriately — require the supervision of the senior staff, who in turn are struggling to deal with the genuine emergency cases.

It is these emergency cases that would suffer if we were to abolish the target. Before its implementation, patients needing hospital admission would wait in the corridors of A&E departments for beds to become available. There was no incentive for a ward to take a new patient until it was convenient. Simply scrapping the target would create a return to these bad old days.

Much better would be to maintain and even strengthen the target for those patients needing admission but scrap it entirely for normal ambulatory attendances, who would be sorted by our triage systems. Those there inappropriately with a common cold could decide for themselves whether the eight-hour wait was worth it.
Stuart Durham, A&E consultant, Lancaster

HIGH-QUALITY CARE

Having read so many horror stories of waiting times in A&E, we feared the worst when my 72-year-old husband was advised to go for emergency treatment in London late on a Sunday night before new year.

He was seen within 15 minutes, admitted to a ward within an hour and operated on the next day. Throughout his week-long stay in hospital he was treated with utmost care and courtesy by nursing staff. And, yes, the French health system will be charged for the full cost of his stay.
Petrina Rance, Eyragues, France

Rule change on assisted dying will alter practitioners’ role

I SHARE Professor Anthony Busuttil’s concerns so eloquently explained in “Top doctor in warning on assisted dying” (News, last week). As a medical practitioner who spent 30 years as an oncologist and who treated and cared for patients in all stages of cancer, it saddened me to see suffering.

I was also privileged to be in practice at a time when palliative care and the hospice movement ceased to be the Cinderella interests of a few on the fringes of medicine and to see them develop into essential, academically-based specialties in this country.

Perhaps that is why the proponents of the current bill under consideration by the Scottish parliament are trying to reassure us that assisted suicide would only be sought by about 100 Scots per year.

In order to further reassure us, after the defeat of the original bill, the sponsors have tweaked the failed bill here and there just to make it all more acceptable. As a result, and as Busuttil points out, we are to turn medical practice and care as we know it on its head. As he says, this may well alter the relationship between patient and doctor: it will also change the relationship of the clinicians involved with current regulations and training.

It means that those medically involved in prescribing the lethal doses of medicines, and those required to dispense them, would be expected to prescribe and dispense drugs for a condition — suicide — for which the medicines are not, and will not, be licensed.

The responsibility for so doing would lie not with the well-meaning legislators or the independent facilitator who collects the drugs, but with those clinicians. In order to do so, will those clinicians need to undergo specific training in off-licence prescribing and in the right dose to use to ensure death?

Will their revalidation every five years, a GMC requirement, and their annual appraisal need to take this into account? When will medical schools be required to include in their curricula teaching and training in assisting suicide safely and with the least chance of adverse events?

Lastly, if this is passed, how long will it be until the law has to be amended to include medically-assisted euthanasia for those unable to kill themselves and who feel their human rights are being denied?

Alan Rodger, Glasgow

Labour the point

IT IS revealing to read that the changing by the Scottish Labour party of the wording of their constitution to emphasise their new priorities is part of a doctrine the party has dubbed “Murphy’s law”(“Murphy’s new clause ‘puts Scotland first’”, News, last week). This phrase, in common usage, is a maxim that suggests that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. Current performance would indicate that they have, at last, got something right.

Kenneth MacColl, Oban, Argyll and Bute

HITCHCOCK CONCENTRATION CAMP FILM STANDS TEST OF TIME

One of the main concerns of contemporary films depicting the horrors of the concentration camps in order to counter German support for postwar Nazi insurgents was: would they be believed (“Hitchcock film of Belsen to be aired”, News, last week)? The director Billy Wilder’s answer was to swamp the screen with graphic images of the violence of the camps, but this proved to be a turn-off for its intended, propaganda-weary audience, as well as not believed. Alfred Hitchcock’s solution was much subtler, and it is for this reason that his film is still remembered today in a way Wilder’s documentary is not. Hitchcock made multiple suggestions but the following stand out.

The first was to use continuous takes — as he had done in his own movies — thus countering any claim of faking. The second was to start with one camp and, aided by maps, gradually build up a picture of how widespread they were, to the point of leaving no part of German unimplicated. Last — and I can only surmise this, since there were few if any records kept of the planning meetings surrounding its production — was the necessity to focus as much on the living, particularly the reactions of ordinary citizens to what they were being forced to see.
Stephane Duckett, Author, Hitchcock in Context, London SE11

BOAR DRAW

With parliamentarian snouts in troughs no longer grabbing the headlines and months of tedious electioneering stretching ahead of us, I suggest a generous quantity
of “Beware of boars” signs (News, last week) be prominently displayed in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster.
Ralph Treasure, Lacey Green, Buckinghamshire

DAY OF RECKONING

It would do no harm for religious leaders to brush up on their management skills (“Go forth and MBA, Welby tells bishops”, News, last week). However, there is much more to being an effective faith leader than being a proficient manager. In framing the course, the church should be mindful of Albert Einstein’s comment: “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.”
Zaki Cooper, Trustee, Council of Christians and Jews, London NW4

OUT TO LAUNCH

Having lived through the Cuban missile crisis and the Cold War, I was surprised by Major-General Christopher Elliott’s comment that if Iran deployed nuclear weapons against the UK, we would not retaliate with Trident (“Not ruling the waves, just all at sea”, News Review, last week). The point of a nuclear deterrent is the implied threat to use it. If not, what is the point of Trident?
Bernard Kingston, Biddenden, Kent

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

After another feverish search for the black box recorders in the latest in a string of air disasters, it seems to me that the last place to hold this vital data is on a plane that is about to crash (“AirAsia jet’s tail raised from sea but black boxes elude divers”, World News, last week). If the information is held in digital form, surely — given the global communications facilities available today — it must be possible to constantly upload it to a cloud facility. I understand the huge quantity of computer storage that would be required, but it is only of ephemeral interest and could be discarded as soon as the plane had landed safely. The data would then be immediately available to give the precise location and time of the crash to rescue units and clues as to the how and why to air accident investigators.
Barry Joyce, Broad Oak, East Sussex

COMEDY OF ERRORS

Graham Lord (“Quotation marked”, Letters, last week) says the author who mistook an inquiry about price for the name “Emma Chizzit” when signing books in Sydney wasn’t PD James (who told me in an on-stage interview that it happened to her) but Monica Dickens in 1970. The situation isn’t as simple as he thinks. I’ve been informed that it happened to Monica Dickens in the 1950s, in the 1960s and in the 1970s, and that it happened not to Dickens but to Kenneth Williams, and that it occurred not in Sydney but in Bristol (where the accent, I was told, is curiously similar). Obviously it’s a comic error that could have happened to more than one writer.
Peter Kemp, London N3

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times, should be addressed to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our complaints section for full details of how to lodge a complaint.

Birthdays

Peter Beardsley, footballer, 54; David Bellamy, botanist, 82; John Boorman, film director, 82; Raymond Briggs, illustrator, 81; Kevin Costner, actor, 60; Richard Dunwoody, jockey, 51; Estelle, singer, 35; Jane Horrocks, actress, 51; John Hume, joint Nobel peace prize winner, 78; Mark Rylance, actor, 55; Philippe Starck, designer, 66

Anniversaries

1486 King Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, ending the Wars of the Roses; 1778 Captain James Cook first sights Hawaii, which he names the Sandwich Islands; 1882 author AA Milne born; 1884 author Arthur Ransome born; 1919 start of the Paris peace conference; 1943 first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto

 

Telegraph:

Jewish groups demonstrate outside the British High Court against rising incidents of anti-Semitism Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images

SIR – Emma Barnett decries the way some entangle their opinions about Israel with anti-Semitic attitudes. She might have pointed out that to do so is, in fact, to play the Islamist game. There is ample evidence that jihadists, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic State (Isil) and al-Qaeda, profess a vehement hatred for Jews and advocate killing them regardless of who they are, leading to attacks such as the one on the kosher supermarket in Paris. They also aim to eliminate Israel from the Middle East, not only because it is the nation state of the Jewish people, but because it is a bastion of Western democracy, which they equally despise.

If Jews cannot live freely without fear of attack in a democratic society, then everyone is at risk.

Neville Teller
Jerusalem, Israel

SIR – As a British Christian, I find the bias against Jews hard to understand. Jesus and the first Christians, to whom we owe much of our Western culture, were Jews.

Harry Leeming
Morecambe, Lancashire

SIR – I suspect that if the words Pakistanis or Scots were substituted for Jews in most of the questions in “the British public’s attitude towards British Jews”, the percentages agreeing would have been equally high, if not higher.

David Burton
Wellington, Shropshire

SIR – While it is undeniably the case that Charlie Hebdo causes offence (Letters, January 14), your correspondents must surely understand that protecting the right to free speech only when it does not offend is meaningless.

Who should decide what is offensive? Many people were upset by satirical programmes such as Monty Python, Not the Nine O’Clock News and Spitting Image. Not for one moment, however, did the broadcasters consider cancellation. The difference between these shows and the events in Paris is that now protests are accompanied by extreme violence.

Still, appeasement in the face of violence is counterproductive. If we want to defend our way of life, we must all have the courage to support each other’s liberties and continue as before.

Gregory Shenkman
London W8

SIR – There has been talk of countering terrorism through education and religion, showing more respect and curtailing the “freedom to insult”, but I have seen little mention of a more pragmatic approach, such as setting up a fourth branch of the Armed Forces specifically to deal with terrorism in Britain.

Of what practical value is a Trident submarine when the local supermarket is under siege?

Don Minterne
Dorchester

The love of money

SIR – The Most Rev Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, expresses concern about consumerism.

We went to York Minster on the Sunday before Christmas, but were unable to enter while a service was being held. The gift shop, however, was open for business.

Elizabeth Pearce
Runcorn, Cheshire

SIR – For all its faults, the Coalition has created a situation where more people are in employment than ever before.

In Peterborough, our cathedral continues to benefit from the culture of enterprise and wealth creation. Thanks to the dynamism of the Dean and Chapter, well over 60 corporate sponsors have signed up to the current fundraising campaign. One might well wonder where the cathedral would be without these businesses, or the Church without wealthy donors.

Neil McKittrick
Peterborough, Northamptonshire

SIR – As a regular churchgoer I fully understand the views expressed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

Looking at the photograph of them both in Thursday’s paper, however, I would have preferred to see them in traditional black and white vestments rather than the gaudy and surely expensive robes of today.

James McBroom
Pangbourne, Berkshire

The TV executives out to censor political debate

SIR – We all cherish free speech, particularly in the wake of the horrific events in Paris. At least in this country we were able to watch the argument between David Cameron and Ed Miliband, at Prime Minister’s Questions, about the Prime Minister’s refusal to participate in a television debate without the Green Party, and thus form our own opinions (Letters, January 16). Sadly, the broadcasting executives who have the ultimate power in this matter remain invisible and unaccountable to the electorate.

These debates are supposed to help us make a decision about the next government, but this won’t be the case when the broadcasters censor what we are allowed to see.

Ian MacGregor
London N7

Enlightened market

SIR – Jeremy Warner’s article on the need for economic growth is excellent.

But I must challenge his assertion that without the free market system there would be no wind or solar power, and much of the world’s population would remain stuck in carbon-guzzling poverty. Wind turbines and solar power are not examples of free-market innovation. They require generous government-imposed subsidies, and even then only 0.6 per cent of today’s global energy requirements come from renewable energy systems. The rest comes predominantly from coal, oil and gas, along with a growing but minor contribution from nuclear power.

James Allan
Hartlepool, County Durham

Osborne, that’s rich

(Getty Images)

SIR – George Osborne’s claim that Britain will be richer than the United States by 2030 is surely wishful, politically motivated nonsense.

America is self-sufficient in food supplies (and is also an exporter) and energy (particularly now with the exploration of shale oil, and vast quantities of minerals), and has a very large workforce – all ingredients needed to ensure economic success.

We, however, need to import large quantities of all of these at considerable cost to our economy.

R J Burn
Finstall, Worcestershire

Foreign aid disaster

SIR – It’s good to know that an extra £1 billion has magically been found to send overseas.

According to the Department for International Development, “UK aid only goes where it is most needed and where it will provide the very best results for taxpayers’ money”.

That’s a relief. Just think: it might have been wasted on recruiting a few thousand doctors and nurses to work in A&E.

Allan Mowatt
Smarden, Kent

SIR – You report that the inefficient spending of foreign aid was caused by government officials wresting with financial years ending on different dates.

Would they be the same officials who insist on ending the income tax year on the ridiculous April 5, when all other tax years run to March 31?

There is considerable evidence that business people, taxpayers and even tax officials would find their lives made much easier if income tax were accounted for in whole calendar months, instead of the present ludicrous system.

Perhaps the Chancellor could sort out this absurd anomaly in his next Budget speech.

Hugh Williams
Crapstone, Devon

Children need healthier lifestyles, not PE classes

Best foot forward: few children in modern Britain brave the elements on the way to school (Getty Images)

SIR – In my school days, we didn’t get more than a couple of hours a week for PE and it did us no harm. For causes of obesity, we need to look elsewhere: children being ferried everywhere by car; spending too much leisure time on sedentary hobbies – using computers rather than playing outside with friends; eating too much fast food rather than enjoying more nourishing family meals together.

It’s all too easy to blame the Government and conveniently ignore the harmful effects of changes in social patterns and lifestyle.

Mike Neild
Blackburn, Lancashire

SIR – It is hardly surprising that the number of hours of PE undertaken each week is falling. We have seen a weakening in the regulations protecting school playing fields and no legal requirement for free schools to have any grounds at all.

At a time when the main response to the increase in demand for pupil places is to build temporary classrooms on playgrounds and playing fields, we have less outdoor space than ever for physical activity.

We need a radical approach to education in order to ensure continued access to the outdoors for children at school.

Juno Hollyhock
Winchester, Hampshire

SIR – The decline in school sport began in the Eighties, when the unions decided that members should not give their time to after-school activities. Consequently, teachers withdrew their time helping PE staff run teams and clubs.

Then the powers that be decided that activities should not be competitive. Competition is character-building, and a good teacher is always able to temper the effects of winning and losing.

Glynis Culley
Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Dutch exchange

SIR – Tony Pay (Letters, January 15) refers to “Hermann Goering, a well-known collector”.

A more apt description would be “a well-known thief”. According to Frank Wynne in his book I was Vermeer, Goering “paid” Han van Meegeren for the fake Vermeer by returning around 200 paintings stolen from public and private collections across the Netherlands.

Michael Zaidner
Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire

What’s in a name?

SIR – I was fascinated by the surname of one of your correspondents in Thursday’s paper – Fewster.

Apparently, it has origins as far back as the 12th century and means a woodworker. Even better, her first name is Trees.

Can anyone beat this for originality?

Gillian Lambert
Amersham, Buckinghamshire

Walked to death

SIR – You report that researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered that taking a brisk 20‑minute walk every day will help a person avoid the risk of early death. I first heard this theory 40 years ago, when I was living in Chicago, and I began an appropriate programme with my golden retriever at my side. Ten minutes into the third day, the dog died.

I have not walked briskly since, and if I abstain for two more months, I hope to reach my 84th birthday.

Derek Gregory
Castle Cary, Somerset

 

Globe and Mail:

ELIZABETH RENZETTI

Media walk a minefield of the miffed, but self-censorship is a slow suicide

On his way to the Philippines this week, the Pope was asked to pronounce on the question that has been on everyone’s minds: What limits should we draw around freedom of expression? The Pope answered, quite sweetly, that he would punch in the nose anyone who swore at his late mother. Then, more troublingly, he said, “One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith. … There is a limit.”

In fact, one can make fun of faith. In some cases, one should. And in all cases, one should be permitted to, under the law, without fear of flogging or bullets. The worst one should expect is (in the most heinous phrase of our new millennium) “giving offence.”

I personally have given offence to Catholics in these pages – once for wondering whether Pope Benedict was using his new iPad to search for Prada shoe sales and for referring to my great-aunt Sister Mildred in her long black habit as a “Dalek bride of Christ,” and once for wondering why the allegedly progressive Pope Francis was doing so little to examine the Church’s horrendous sex scandals.

Did I know in advance I was “giving offence”? Not really. I thought I was being cheeky. Similarly, I have been accused of being offensive by the fans of Murdoch Mysteries, by animal-rights activists and by monarchists. Here’s the thing: You cannot know in advance whom you will offend with your opinions. And for every person you do offend, another will be enlightened or amused or moved to question or simply so bored he turns the page.

I wish the fear of committing an imagined offence against a potential but hypothetical group of people had not kept most of Canada’s English-language newspapers and broadcasters from showing the cartoons that led to the slaughter of 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo. I wish The Globe and Mail had published the contentious cartoons, so our readers could see for themselves, in context, what could possibly inspire such blood and savagery as a response. Here, I echo Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno, who holds a similar view about her paper not publishing the cartoons: “We do not wish to offend. That’s the thing. The deeply wrong thing.”

The New York Times, along with the majority of North American newspapers, did not print the most inflammatory cartoons. The paper’s public editor, Margaret Sullivan, described a difficult decision made by executive editor Dean Baquet: “Ultimately he decided against it, he said, because he had to consider foremost the sensibilities of Times readers, especially its Muslim readers.”

But isn’t that defence not only self-serving, but insulting as well? Infantilizing, even. It assumes that all Muslim readers will react to the cartoons in the same way, as if they are incapable of filtering their opinions through any lens other than religion. A set of beliefs is just that; it is not a hive mind. The religious scholar Reza Aslan was all over television this week, repeating the idea that there is no one “Muslim world” – there are hundreds of millions of individuals who share some of the same beliefs. But not, by any means, all.

Self-censorship is a form of slow suicide for those of us in the news business, and a news outlet that tries to avoid giving offence will soon be printing one page a week. Every day, we pick our way through a minefield of the miffed. Slate magazine, quite rightly, dubbed 2014 “The Year Of Outrage.” It’s as if people believe there is a lost commandment that reads, “Thou Shalt Walk Through Life With Thy Feathers Unruffled.” But there isn’t. Something will always ruffle your feathers. We feel offended by transgressions against the belief systems that bind us, mainly sexual and identity politics. Why should religion – merely another belief system – be free from those slings and arrows?

Personally, as an atheist, I’m irritated by a lot of what goes on in the world, but I deal with it like a rational person, by muttering to myself on the bus. The opinion piece by radical cleric Anjem Choudary supporting the Charlie Hebdo killers was revolting, but I’m glad USA Today ran it – it doesn’t help to pretend these ideas aren’t out there, and I’d rather see them in the light of day. Similarly, while I think the French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala has proved himself a vile anti-Semite, and his public declaration of fellow-feeling for the kosher supermarket killer was stupid and insensitive, I don’t think he (or anyone else) should be arrested for a Facebook post.

Yet there will be more. In the days after the attacks, France made 54 terror-related arrests, and 37 of them involved something called “condoning terrorism.” What does that mean? After the mass rally in Paris, 12 interior ministers of European countries issued a joint statement, which contained buried in it an ominous declaration of a crackdown on speech that incited extremism.

Again, what kind of speech is that? Who gets to decide what the limits of expression are? At the moment, it’s the state, with its formal power, and religion, with its historical legacy of compelling obedience. You could consider that offensive.

Jeffrey Simpson

Cozying up to Saudi Arabia: How can that be ‘principled’?

 

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

Sir – The response of the French to the disgraceful acts of murder and terrorism is admirable. The consensus throughout the neighbouring nations gives welcome support.

Published 18/01/2015 | 02:30

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Sir – The response of the French to the disgraceful acts of murder and terrorism is admirable. The consensus throughout the neighbouring nations gives welcome support.

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I wonder where were the demonstrations in this country in response to the horrific acts of terrorism perpetrated in the name of Ireland?

I recall multiple marches demanding the setting free of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four – but not one calling for the elimination of terrorism. Indeed it seems to be a badge of honour amongst certain politicians to have supported the IRA.

Rose McNeive,

Tramore,

Co Waterford

Liberals the new establishment

Sir – Much of Brendan O’Connor’s article ‘Are we really champions of freedom of speech?’ was insightful and honest. He writes, ‘There is a certain consensus in Ireland on social issues like abortion and gay marriage….anyone who falls outside of that consensus and who dares to express any opinions that do not concur with the accepted liberal truths is immediately branded some kind of right-wing Catholic nutjob.”

Freedom of speech and religious liberty are surely meaningless concepts in Ireland if Catholics do not have the right to practice and to profess those beliefs on issues such as the protection of unborn life, gay marriage, and euthanasia.

Many in the media have created an environment that is hostile to opinions that differ from liberal orthodoxy. People of faith are often fearful of expressing their beliefs.

The interesting irony is that while, formerly, liberals attacked the intolerant establishment, they have now in turn become the new intolerant establishment.

Eda O’Connor,

Rockchapel,

Co Cork

We need time to forgive the past

Sir – I watched with admiration the gathering of politicians and general public to show defiance and also support for free speech last Sunday in Paris.

Thanks be to Jaysus we do not have Sinn Fein in government – with Gerry Adams leading the fight against terrorism at a demonstration like this where genuine feelings of peace and love was the priority.

Anybody over the age of 55 knows what our country went through and cost in lives, misery and monetary terms of the Troubles. We can forgive – but let us have a bit more time! Our memories are still too raw!

Je suis Charlie.

Ken Maher,

Kilcoole,

Co Wicklow

SF silence on Paris was overwhelming

Sir – The overwhelming silence of Sinn Fein on the deaths in Paris is something to behold. I suppose they are having a little difficulty with the freedom of press since Gerry’s little joke in New York. Plus, of course, deaths of police personnel.

They have a little difficulty with that too – remember Adare, June 1996?

Why didn’t they just come out and condemn the acts of the terrorists? They’ve been lying through their teeth about everything for years so it’s not like anybody would have noticed.

Unfortunately, I have to withhold my name from this letter since I am a Catholic living in the North and criticizing SF isn’t good for your health.

Since they’re expected to take a load of seats at the next election, residents of the Republic are soon to understand this. Good luck with that.

(Name and address with Editor)

Terrorists do win sometimes

Sir – Dan O’Brien’s piece on Paris is headed ‘Terrorists won’t, and can’t win’. This is naive. We only have to look close to home to see that terrorists do win and true democrats are marginalised.

Charles O’Connell,

Phibsboro,

Dublin 7

French identity needs Jews

Sir – In the aftermath of the terrorist atrocities in France, I feel that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rash in urging French Jewish citizens to come “home” to Israel.

France is their home. It is the place where they were born and raised. French is the language they speak. French culture is inherent to them and is part of their very essence.

Netanyahu’s offer was a compassionate gesture which was appreciated by Europe’s largest Jewish population, but if many take up his offer then France will have lost part of its identity and it would be seen as a victory for the terrorists.

John Bellew,

Dunleer,

Co Louth

Keep the pen close at hand

Sir – I have to congratulate Willie Kealy on his excellent article in last week’s Sunday’s Independent (‘We need fire in our hearts to protect our freedoms’).

As short as it was, it said it all.

Just a few quotes: “Freedom is a precious thing. It must never be taken for granted.”

And he then goes on to say that the majority of people in the world do not enjoy the kind of freedom that we have in this country – flawed though it is.

And last but not least, putting ourselves in danger could be something as simple as taking a pen in our hand to make a point about freedom or anything else for that matter.

Well be assured Mr Kealy, I for one, have every intention of keeping my pen in my hand, otherwise we let the bullies win.

Brian McDevitt,

Glenties,

Co Donegal

Has anything really changed?

Sir – Someone draws a cartoon of a holy man depicting him in a way that makes some fanatics feel he has been disrespected. Three of these fanatics decide to become judge, jury and executioner. Twelve people were initially murdered, including a defenceless policeman who had nothing to do with cartoons.

All over the world people of all beliefs stood in solidarity to show their sympathy. Has it changed anything?

Fred Molloy,

Clonsilla,

Dublin 15

We need manners and courtesy

Sir – I refer to Ruth Dudley Edwards’s piece (Sunday Independent, 11 January). I cannot understand how she can think it is okay to ridicule and lampoon individual organisations in the public press.

I have not read all of the commentary on the outrages in France, but nowhere have I seen any reference to the desirability of exhibiting good manners and courtesy to our fellow humans.

I often get the impression that writers and opinion-formers consider themselves to be exalted superior beings looking askance from above on the rest of the population – and on religious people in particular.

In championing the removal of our blasphemy law from our statute books, Ms Dudley Edwards doesn’t seem to have considered what may happen if belittled and denigrated people or organisations have no recourse ot the law.

Be careful what you wish for Ms Dudley Edwards!

Pat Naughton,

Clondalkin,

Dublin

Read what James Connolly said

Sir – John-Paul McCarthy suggests James Connolly has little to teach today’s Ireland (Sunday Independent, Jan 11).

Really? Is this the same Ireland that was economically broken by the misdeeds of an unholy alliance of bankers, developers and compliant politicians?

That is certainly not the sort of society Connolly or the men and women of 1916 fought and died for. Rather than plucking selective quotes in a cheap attempt to portray Connolly as a “warmonger” – and there was no more vociferous opponent of the senseless slaughter of WWI – your columnist might read what Connolly had to say about people’s everyday lives..

As we approach the centenary of the event that led directly to our freedom, one James Connolly quote is probably worth noting: “The freedom of a nation is measured by the freedom of its lowest class.”

James Connolly Heron,

1916 Relatives

Centenary Initiative,

Ranelagh, Dublin 6

Sunday Independent



Animal Welfare

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Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Helen from Animal welfare picks up the cat lit.

Obituary:

Faten Hamama, star of the Egyptian cinema and ex-wife of Omar Sharif
Faten Hamama Photo: AFP/GETTY

Faten Hamama, who has died aged 83, was an enduring star of Egyptian cinema and the wife for nearly 20 years of the actor and celebrated roué Omar Sharif.

The daughter of a civil servant, Faten Hamama was born on May 27 1931 at Mansoura in Egypt, and appeared in her first film, Yawm Said (Happy Day) in 1940; further roles followed, and by her early teens she was also studying acting at an institute in Cairo.

She was soon appearing films alongside the famous Egyptian actor Youssef Wahbi, and at the age of only 16 married the director Ezzel Dine Zulficar, who cast her as the star of Abu Zayd al-Hilali (1947). She was already one of the leading ladies of Egyptian cinema, which was entering its “golden age”, and over the next eight years she made more than 20 movies, becoming the highest paid actress in the country.

Faten Hamama was divorced from her first husband in 1954, and the next year she married Omar Sharif, who had been born into a Christian family but agreed to convert to Islam. They appeared in a number of films together, among them Our Best Days (1955), Lady of the Castle (1959) and – perhaps most famously – The River of Love (1961), based on Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina;

Everything changed for Sharif, however, when he was cast by David Lean in Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role as Sherif Ali, he inevitably saw Hollywood as a better career prospect than Cairo.

There were other attractions too. He became infatuated with Ingrid Bergman, with whom he starred in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964), and then with Barbra Streisand, with whom he appeared in Funny Girl in 1968 (“I was madly in love with her but it wasn’t reciprocated”).

His marriage to Faten Hamama finally ended in divorce in 1974, although he later maintained that she was the love of his life.

Faten Hamama with Omar Sharif and their son Tarek (AP)

In 2001 he said: “It’s not that we stopped loving, it’s that life separated us. After I became famous in the West, I just didn’t see enough of her. She was a famous actress in Egypt, and I was living all over the place, in hotels, not seeing her. And I was afraid that I’d fall in love with some dizzy blonde and leave my beloved wife for her. I didn’t want to give her that problem, so I went to her and said: ‘Look, we don’t see each other enough,’ and she said: ‘Do you love anyone else?’ and I said: ‘No, but I think I might, at any moment. I meet all these beautiful girls, actresses and other women.’ ”

For her part, between 1966 and 1971 Faten Hamama divided her time between Lebanon and London, complaining of political harassment in Cairo – although President Gamal Abdel Nasser attempted to persuade her to return to Egypt, describing her as “a national treasure”.

She continued to be highly regarded , and some of her movies, such as The Open Door (1964), sought to promote women’s rights; I Want a Solution (1975) is said to have inspired changes to Egyptian marriage and divorce laws.

Her final feature film was Land of Dreams (1993). In 2000 she appeared in a popular Arabic television series, Wagh el qamar.

In 1996, as Egypt celebrated 100 years of the nation’s cinema, she was voted the country’s most important actress, and 18 of her films were named among the best 150 made. In 2000 Egypt’s film critics declared her the “Star of the Century”.

Faten Hamama is survived by her third husband, Mohamed Abdel Wahab Mahmoud, an Egyptian physician, and by the daughter of her first marriage and the son of her marriage to Omar Sharif.

Faten Hamama, born May 27 1931, died January 17 2015

Guardian:

A man holds a placard that reads
A man holds a placard that reads Je suis Charlie, n’oublions pas les victimes de Boko Haram (I am Charlie, let’s not forget the victims of Boko Haram) in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Photograph: Sia Kambou/Getty

The question raised in your headline (Why did the world ignore Boko Haram’s Baga attacks?, theguardian.com, 12 January) implies the usual western conspiracy and/or neocolonial design, which is often used by some of my fellow Africans to explain away our failure to sort out our own problems. While we strongly condemn the terrorist attacks in both France and Nigeria, the question about Boko Haram should be aimed directly at the Nigerian authorities and the African Union, who have the primary responsibilities for maintaining peace and security in Nigeria and the continent respectively.

On paper at least, Nigeria and Africa are fulfilling their responsibilities, as demonstrated by the April 2014 report by the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute, which showed that whereas military spending continues to fall in the west, it is rising everywhere else, especially in Africa, where the figures “increased by 8.3% in 2013, reaching an estimated $44.9 billion”.

In practice, however, despite its huge defence spending, Nigeria has failed to tackle Boko Haram, thanks to endemic corruption, poor equipment and indiscipline. To underscore the point, a Nigerian court has recently condemned several military personnel to death for refusing to confront the Boko Haram terrorists. Contrast the dismal response by Nigeria to Boko Haram with France’s prompt and effective counterattack against the Paris terrorists, which saw all them killed within 48 hours.

It’s this firm action by France, not racism or neocolonialism, which drew the world’s media – as well as some 50 world leaders walking arm-in-arm, including David Cameron, Angela Merkel, the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu – to Paris on 11 January. Nigerian authorities must show a similar resolve if they want to attract and deserve world attention and help.
Sam Akaki
Director, Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction in Africa (Dipra)

• I read in dismay your article (Nigeria rocked by three more bomb attacks, 12 January). This horrific act of terrorism, though undoubtedly shocking, is only part of the growing trend of Islamic extremism in Nigeria. Many persecuted Christians in the country are experiencing unprecedented levels of exclusion, discrimination and violence, unable to worship in freedom as churches are routinely targeted, and bombed.

This trend is not unique to Nigeria. The stark reality revealed in the report released recently by Open Doors is that the increase of Islamic extremism across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and in Asia, is having a significant impact on the future of the global church. The World Watch List report tracks trends, scale and causes of persecution against Christians globally. Forty out of the worst 50 countries show Islamic extremism as the main driver of persecution.

In the past year alone, Nigeria has moved up from number 14 to 10 on the country rankings. So though something like this event is particularly shocking, we can expect more of it unless we act now as an international community – much more intentionally than we currently are. It’s rising fast and affects all of us – those of no faith, those with a different faith, and ordinary Muslims who are also appalled by this attack. Surely we must recognise that we are in extraordinary days and act accordingly?
Lisa Pearce
CEO, Open Doors UK and Ireland

• Thank you for continuing to report on the dreadful situation in northern Nigeria (‘Imagine a fear that makes you let go of your child’s hand’, 15 January). I went to school in Maidugari. I spent my younger days in a beautiful country where I felt safe (even during the civil war) and have fond memories of us packing a cool box into the Land Rover and going for a picnic by Lake Chad. We swam in the Wikki warm springs at Yankari game reserve and gazed at the stars in the clear night skies by the Sahara desert. This is not some imagined recollection of a scene from a Merchant Ivory film but the reality of what Nigeria was like many years ago.

I attended the government girls secondary school and, although the school was predominately Muslim, as a white Christian I experienced no prejudice whatsoever. I learned about the history of the magnificent ancient empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, and was able to experience a rich and diverse culture. What’s happened to the country I grew up in?

Islam has not evolved from a religion into a rogue army. Boko Haram are a band of criminals trying to justify their actions. Their barbaric behaviour has nothing to do with the teachings of the prophet Muhammad. I hope the international community will recognise that this situation needs urgent intervention.

United Nations peacekeeping force, where are you?
Jane Badstevener
Southsea, Hampshire

Marty Feldman
Marty Feldman: always one to properly sauce his lyrics. Photograph: Cine Text/Allstar

The weakness of our government in standing up for human rights is presented starkly in your stories about Mohamedou Ould Slahi (From inside Guantánamo, a tale of torture and torment, 17 January) and Raif Badawi (Saudi blogger’s case referred to supreme court, says his wife, 17 January), each foully mistreated by governments with whom we are hand in glove commercially and politically. We seem to spend time protesting loudly and fruitlessly about the actions of our enemies – whom we are actually unable to influence – while standing by as our so-called “friends” get away with officially sanctioned crimes, torture and injustice.
Karl Sabbagh
Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire

Tania Branigan’s excellent article on North Korea (16 January) quoted an expert describing its economy as one that “generates benefits for a small ruling clique and key regime constituencies, but does not deliver prosperity for the bulk of the population”. Obviously quite different from the situation in the UK.
David Hoult
Stockport

• Coincidental that the three political parties currently set to be excluded from the forthcoming TV election debates are led by women and the four to be included are led by men (Report, 17 January)?
Dave Young
London

• My daughter is an unpaid intern in Geneva. Given the shock increase in value of the Swiss franc (Report, 16 January), is she now working for nothing plus 30%?
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

• Marty Feldman turned the French text on HP sauce (Letters, 16 January) into a heart-rending chanson. Just type “Marty Feldman a song for sauce lovers” into a search engine.
Michael Vaughan-Rees
Butlers Cross, Buckinghamshire

Sales on the High Street.
Shoppers on the high street. ‘Our whole success story is based on buying stuff on credit that we can’t afford,’ writes Tim Grollman. Photograph: Alamy

Both Larry Elliott (Prolonged deflation remains a slim risk, 14 January) and your editorial (14 January) are alarmingly complacent about the slide in inflation towards deflation, as already grips the eurozone. The idea that a deflationary environment boosts living standards is delusion: as industry’s input prices decline, businesses respond to competitive pressure by cutting their prices, which in turn leads to cuts in wages or layoffs to maintain profit margins or avoid losses. Any business fortunate enough to enjoy an oligopoly will simply boost its profit margins and shareholder distributions. As the UK has the highest ratio of household debt to GDP in Europe, wage cuts lead to catastrophic loan defaults devastating bank balance sheets. As returns on traditional fixed-income securities turn negative, financial markets turn increasingly to leverage and speculative propositions to “juice up” returns, which is unsustainable and eventually turns to crash. None of this is a nightmarish fantasy: this is exactly what happened in Britain and across Europe from 1925 after Churchill, as chancellor of the exchequer, took the catastrophic decision to restore sterling to the prewar gold standard. It was not even clever politics in the short-term: the Tories’ landslide majority of 1924 collapsed in the 1929 election which made Labour the largest party for the first time. What followed, with the Wall Street crash and rise of fascism, may be history, but we should try by all means possible to avoid repeating it.
Tom Brown
Labour in the City

• Economists need to “look through” their theory a bit, and see what goes on in the real world. The idea that deflation will make us all stop spending now in the expectation of falling prices is about as plausible as the contractionary fiscal expansion that underpins austerity. If it were so, then shops wouldn’t do any business between sales and would all go bust. Anyway, our whole success story is based on buying stuff now, on credit, that we can’t really afford.

And while we’re at it, how can “core inflation” exclude things like food and fuel, which happen to be driving the present story? What is more “core” to people’s lives than driving to the supermarket? Perhaps there is no such thing as inflation, just prices that rise and fall in ways that can be added up and averaged.
Tim Grollman
London

Palace of Westminster restoration
The Palace of Westminster. ‘On 30 June 1994 my son, William Scott, appeared, aged seven, before an all-party parliamentary group on the family,’ writes Jean Scott. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

In his sketch (13 January), John Crace stated that Alex Rukin, at nine years old, became the youngest person to appear before parliament. On 30 June 1994 my son, William Scott, appeared, aged seven, before an all-party parliamentary group on the family to give evidence about the importance of his after-school club and after-school care generally for working parents. It was covered by the main newspapers with headlines such as “Boy who brought straight talk to the Commons” (Daily Mail) and “MPs are told about childcare benefits by an expert, aged 7” (Daily Telegraph). MP Peter Thurman slipped a note to him while he was giving evidence, which contained a sketch of his MP colleagues and the words “Hello, Will. Don’t worry, we are all very nice really”. We still have it.
Jean Scott
Cranleigh, Surrey

Fully Stocked Bookstore Shelves, USA. Image shot 2011. Exact date unknown.

Bookstore. ‘What a relief to know I’m not the only old bird reading an actual book, the World’s All Time Best and ­Irreplaceable Present,’ writes Ann Hawker. Photograph: Patti McConville/Alamy

Has the editor of The Bookseller compared the fall of print sales of adult fiction since 2009 by more than £150m with the massively declined budgets of public libraries over the same five-year period (The writing’s on the wall for adult fiction in print, 14 January). This is also conditioned by the number of closures of public library branches and the radical changes in book selection due to the serious loss of qualified librarians. The problem facing traditional publishing must have been exacerbated by such austerity in local government, just as it affects the profits of retail supermarkets – and it’s time for real attention to be paid to Keynesian economics instead of finding blame everywhere but in the most obvious place. The villain is not always the internet. Should the austerity continue to such an extent that public libraries disappear, then publishers of fiction – and their authors – will go with them. As will, of course, hundreds of once very familiar journals.
Ralph Gee
Nottingham

Thank You, Brian Lake, president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, and thank you Guardian for publishing his letter (12 January). What a relief to know I’m not the only old bird reading an actual book, the World’s All-Time Best and Irreplaceable Present.

A very long time ago, after every Christmas, either my mother or my best friend’s mother would take us to Bumpus (RIP) to spend our book tokens. It took all day – for Jennifer and me it went by in a blinding flash and nothing could match that quiet (silent, actually) delight. Do they have book tokens any more? (I still have most of my beloved books.)

Thank goodness for public libraries and for bookshops.
Ann Hawker
Ham, Surrey

Independent:

The result of landlordism in Scotland has been the greatest curse which has ever blighted the country (“SNP storm clouds gather over Highlands estates”,  17 January).

Every inch of land in the Highlands and Islands was stolen from the ethnic population by Anglicised clan chiefs and landlords. The whole mass of the inhabitants were dispossessed by an unrelenting avarice, which has now been found to be as short-sighted as it was selfish and unjust. The Highlands was the largest man-made wilderness in Europe.

The Highland Clearances is the longest period of ethnic cleansing in European history, lasting over 100 years – from 1784 when the Duke of Athol (Chief of the Murrays) evicted the population of Glen Tilt, until 1903, when Lady Gordon-Cathcart was cramming emigrant ships with men, women and children from Uist and Barra. It is not by accident that today there are more Highland surnames in Halifax, Nova Scotia, than in the Highland capital of Inverness.

Once British aristocrats acquired a great taste for deer, salmon and game, large swathes of land were appointed as deer forests. Between the early 1800s and 1913 the area of Scotland covered by deer forests escalated from a few hundred thousand acres to 3,599,744 acres.

Many of the tyrannical landlords were members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Is this the reason that Westminster has not apologised to the descendants of the Clearances, though Tony Blair apologised to the Africans and the Irish for the slave trade and the potato famine?

I fully support the SNP policy on land ownership, and as a descendant of an evicted family that settled in Canada in 1851 would like to see the estates nationalised so that the people of Scotland have the fundamental right to use and enjoy their native land.

Donald J MacLeod
Bridge of Don, Aberdeen

 

It was inevitable that Scottish landowners would complain about Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement that Holyrood would be seeking to take away the tax subsidies for their estates.

They didn’t mention how much money some of the estates got in farm subsidies. According to Andy Wightman’s tireless research into who owns Scotland, in 2008-9 the 50 largest estates received anything from £2.3m to £8.5m per estate – this when so many small farms are going under.

All Sturgeon is doing is implementing the Land Reform Act 2003, which was promised to be implemented by the end of the current session of the Scottish Parliament in 2016.

The Tory rural affairs spokesman Alex Fergusson bleats that the Scottish government was supposed to be governing for all Scotland’s people. When around 400 people own half of Scotland’s rural land, I would say that Sturgeon is thinking of the remaining 5,327,300 citizens.

Lesley Docksey
Buckland Newton, Dorset

 

What the ‘Charlie’ cartoons mean

Even in France, but certainly here in the UK, many people rushing to express solidarity with Charlie Hebdo don’t know what they’re doing. This is not a satirical magazine like Private Eye, whose cartoons are mostly gently mocking at the Establishment. Naïve Brits imagine that when they say “Je suis Charlie” they are defending free speech. Well, not quite.

Have a look at a cartoon like the one of a naked Muslim woman with a bit of blue rag sticking out of her derriere. The caption reads: “Yes to the wearing of the burka – on the inside!”

I doubt if even Voltaire would have fought to defend this or any of the other vicious and salacious anti-Muslim cartoons.

Elizabeth Morley
Aberystwyth

 

If you pay attention to the content of the cartoons produced at Charlie Hebdo you will see that, just as in the case of the Danish cartoons at Jyllands-Posten, none of them are actually about the Prophet Mohamed himself (pbuh).

Indeed they could only be construed as “being about him” if they depicted something he is generally believed to have done or said. Most of these cartoons satirise not the Prophet but the beliefs about him implied by the actions of extremists.

The primary target of all such cartoons is the beliefs of extremists. What they seek to depict is not the Prophet himself, but what the extremists’ actions imply about him.

It causes great mischief to misdescribe these cartoons as “satirising Mohamed” or even as being about him, because it risks prompting devout Muslims to say the fault lies in making any kind of depiction in the first place. Some may try to use this in justification of extreme reactions. Instead such pictures should be rigorously referred to as “cartoons satirising extremist Islamist beliefs” or as “anti-Islamist cartoons”.

Is it too much to hope that the media could combat visual illiteracy by making sure readers pay attention to how images should be “read”? Failing to do so, and lazily using the wrong language to describe them, may well stoke hostility between people who actually agree with one another.

Jonathan Powers
Quarndon, Derbyshire

 

If over a million people had gathered in the Paris streets to protest the execution of gay people by Islamic fundamentalists, or the murders by Isis, I would have stood with them.

A mass defence of pornographic cartoons of Mohamed, which serve to do nothing except humiliate and alienate Muslims, was mass lunacy.

Islamic extremism can only be truly defeated by education; by winning hearts and minds. To do this the West must start with a basic respect for the founder of Islam. The damage done by the “Je suis Charlie” approach is already in evidence around the world.

Daniel Emlyn-Jones
Oxford

 

No mountains  in Denmark

Married to a Dane these past 45 years, I have a little knowledge of Danes and Danish geography. Neither of the writers of your feature “Oh, happy Danes?” (15 January) mentioned the co-operative working practices that make the workplace in Denmark very different from that in hyper-competitive London.

However, it’s geography that makes me write. Surely the mountains in the picture at the top of the page are in the Faroe Islands? The Faroes are an autonomous country within Denmark, and if you want to upset the calm exterior of the average Dane, just raise the question of Danish subsidies to the Faroes, or Greenland. Then you can find unhappy Danes.

Chris King
London N3

 

In “Oh, happy Danes” we are told at some length about the psychological effects of the long, dark winters. Relative to where, exactly?

Denmark’s average latitude is less than one degree north of the UK’s, insignificant in terms of daylight hours, and its most northerly point is well south of that of the British mainland.

Colin Duncan
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

 

Editor bullied by Pharisees

I was surprised that a small minority of readers demanded that you stop using the opening phrase “Morning all!” in your weekly “Letter from the Editor” column in the Saturday edition of The Independent. I was also surprised that you felt obliged to carry out their demands.

Now is not the time to back down to a small group of people and their ideologies, so I would like to be the first in the obviously successful campaign to bring back “Morning all!” Long live Richie Benaud.

Nick Hodgson
Gosport, Hampshire

 

Morning Sir. I do not want “my” editor to be bullied, particularly by grumpy old people who get “very irritated” by trivia, can’t spell or use the plural “all” incorrectly.

I guess you can’t please them all. Like Dr Ann Kendell, I’ve bought The Independent every day since the first issue and enjoy your Saturday Letter. I like “Morning all” and agree that it conveys an informal, inclusive tone which I appreciate. We should definitely celebrate affable eccentricity.

Please don’t let them bully you. Restore “Morning all” this week!

David Small
Oxford

 

By giving in to those boot-faced Pharisees over your cheery greeting, you have left yourself vulnerable to green-ink criticism from self-appointed purists everywhere. Prepare to be inundated!

Norman Foster
Duxford, Cambridgeshire

 

A manifesto for the victims of cats

May I add a couple of items to the Cat Manifesto (16 January) which could possibly increase the popularity of cats even among cat non-owners:

A collar to be worn with a bell or some electronic device to warn their potential victims, in particular songbirds.

Encouragement to use a litter tray on the owner’s premises to lessen the fouling of neighbouring gardens.

That would be a start.

Mary Evans
Heathfield,  East Sussex

Times:

Sir, If Pope Francis (“Mock Islam and expect a punch, says Pope”, Jan 15) can throw a punch, others can justify using a Kalashnikov.

Satire or insults hurt only when they reveal a truth that others wish to hide, be it rogue rabbis, paedophile priests or horrible humanists. When it is offensive without cause, it falls flat and just reflects badly on the source.

After all, religious satire originates in the Bible, when Elijah tells the prophets of Baal that the reason their God is not answering their prayers is that he has fallen asleep or gone to the loo, and so they should shout louder to get his attention (I Kings 18.27).

Religious groups — or anyone else — need fear ridicule only when they are being ridiculous; in all other cases, the old adage about sticks and stones is still the best advice.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain

Maidenhead Synagogue, Berks

Sir, Pope Francis’s comments brought to mind his predecessor’s visit to Scotland in 2010. The Rev Professor Donald Macleod accused Scotland of abandoning John Knox in favour of “old men dressed in ancient Roman togas”.

Will His Holiness deliver the papal punch on the nose? Much of the mockery of religion is practised by one faith or one sect on another, as here demonstrated.
Alistair McBay

National Secular Society

Sir, That the Pope is not a PC theologian is wonderful. Like Jesus, the Pope uses everyday circumstances to explain deep truths. That they are not fine-tuned statements matters nothing; ordinary people can spot a big truth in everyday conversation, but theology leaves most of us — even true believers — cold. What we want is authenticity.
Philip Iszatt
Coleford, Somerset

Sir, The Pope warns us about disrespecting religion. Respect must be earned. The Catholic Church loses respect when it protects abusers; Islam when it advocates terror. When religions cease to be morally absurd, there will be nothing over which to ridicule them.
Jonathan Rowe
Spalding, Lincs

Sir, Having repeatedly and explicitly condemned the Charlie Hebdo terrorists, Pope Francis simply observed that respectful debate is more effective at securing peace than provocative insults. The former encourages a shared search for truth; the latter descends into senseless retaliation.
David Culley
Bristol

Sir, Freedom of speech is the right to disagree, which often means to offend. To condone any form of violence in response to a man’s right to express an idea or an opinion is to sanction religious and government oppression. To quote the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand: “The difference between an exchange of ideas and an exchange of blows is self-evident. The line of demarcation between freedom of speech and freedom of action is established by the ban on the initiation of force.”
DSA Murray

Dorking, Surrey

Sir, The Pope’s comments show a level of maturity and insight lacking in the minds of “Je suis Charlie” demonstrators. Press freedom implies responsibility which has been deficient in recent days. When similar anti-Muslim insults were dished out in a Danish magazine, those who suffered most were innocent and defenceless Christians in northern Nigeria, Indonesia and the Middle East. Hopefully, the Pope’s comments about the need for responsible and sensitive publishing will help to prevent a reoccurrence of such atrocities, but if they don’t Charlie Hebdo and its naive supporters will have to share some of the blame.
John Wainwright
Potters Bar, Herts

Sir, Our own freedoms are based on free speech, and we must ensure they are eroded no further by political correctness. Freedom entails the right to offend governments and religions. The Pope and Muslims must accept this and turn the other cheek — a fundamental principle of both faiths — if the huge advantages of modern liberal democracies are to continue to thrive.
John Lawrance

Enfield, Middx

Sir, Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner (letter, Jan 16) disagrees with our antisemitism survey results because she has not experienced much antisemitism, and I am pleased to hear it. According to the Community Security Trust, last year was the worst year for antisemitic incidents in the 30 years that records have been kept. Our YouGov poll shows that 45 per cent of people hold at least one antisemitic view. Our survey of the Jewish community — the largest ever — shows that 45 per cent of Jews fear we have no long-term future here and one in four have considered leaving. It is time to counter the rising tide of antisemitism with zero-tolerance law enforcement.
Gideon Falter

Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

Sir, The YouGov survey into antisemitism was extremely one-sided. It asked people to agree or disagree with closed statements, such as “Jews chase money more than other British people” and “Jews’ loyalty to Israel makes them less loyal to Britain than other British people”, leading to a biased picture. Had the survey been more neutral, with a balanced range of statements on each topic, the results would have been more meaningful.
Kay Bagon

Radlett, Herts

Sir, You omit to mention one of the most glaring errors in the programme (“Broadchurch plot laughed out of court” Jan 14): the fact that the family of the victim chose and, apparently, instructed counsel for the prosecution. That is, of course, the function of the Crown Prosecution Service.
His Honour Michael Baker
Chichester, W Sussex

Telegraph:

Cheers: despite its attractions, alcohol can be a curse - Boozy Britain: your very good health?<br />
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Would a minimum price for alcohol help ease pressure on A&E departments? Photo: PA

SIR – This year marks 10 years since the Licensing Act, which transferred licensing decisions from magistrates courts to district councils and allowed licensees to apply for 24/7 opening hours, came into force. It is hardly a surprise, then, to learn that admissions to hospital A&E departments for alcohol-related injuries among young people have risen 60 per cent during the past decade.

Within two years of the Act being introduced, street drinking, anti-social behaviour and drink-fuelled fights became a huge menace in my local area. Despite opposition from harassed police chiefs, the council’s licensing committee felt obliged under the new Act to continue handing out liquor licences.

By 2014 our small market town had a total of 56 licensed premises selling vast quantities of alcohol throughout the day and well into the night at weekends.

Putting up the unit price of alcohol for everyone will only encourage bootlegging. The solution is far simpler and fairer: since the problem was caused by our politicians, it is Parliament that must act by immediately revoking the 2004 Act and reinstating the previous limited licensing hours and conditions.

Victoria Gillick
Wisbech, Cambridgeshire

SIR – Calls for a minimum price for alcohol to ease the A&E crisis totally miss the point. The vast majority of drunks who fill up hospital wards at weekends have been drinking in pubs and clubs, where alcohol prices are many times higher than the minimum price suggested.

The most effective action would be to scrap Labour’s 24-hour drinking laws.

Paul Homewood
Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire

SIR – I share the view of Dr Kieran Moriarty and others that evidence-based policies are required to deal with alcohol misuse in Britain.

Minimum unit pricing for alcohol is, however, not an evidence-based measure. The case for it rests on unproven models and its legality is currently being assessed by the European Court of Justice. It is a heavy-handed way of trying to encourage responsible drinkers to drink slightly more responsibly while doing nothing to deter heavy drinkers, who are largely insensitive to price.

Price-fixing does not become good policy just because the motives are commendable.

David Frost
Chief Executive, Scotch Whisky Association

SIR – Never trust a simple solution to a difficult problem. Raising the cost of alcohol will not help with the problems facing A&E departments.

Take cigarettes, for example. Prices have been put up numerous times in the past. Sales tended to drop for a short time but quickly return to previous levels.

It wasn’t until the health effects were hammered home that levels of smoking dropped in the long term.

Les Sharp Hersham, Surrey

SIR – Fifty-one years ago my father bought a litre bottle of gin made by a well-known firm. I still have the receipt – the bottle cost him £4 15s (£4.75). Over the recent Christmas period an identical bottle was available in my local supermarket for £17.

I can think of no other item of food or drink that has risen in price by a factor of less than four in 51 years. It is quite obvious that alcohol is grossly underpriced. A 50 pence minimum unit price for alcohol would be a welcome start to bringing alcohol misuse under control – and it would help the Exchequer as well.

Dr Ann-Mary Hills
Tonbridge, Kent

SIR – Alcohol is responsible for wide-ranging problems in society and puts a severe strain on our police and ambulance services. Schools and other agencies must provide better education on the destructive effects of alcohol misuse.

Clifford Baxter Wareham, Dorset

Protecting Britain against radicalisation

Andrew Gilligan exposes the fragility of the Government’s efforts to tackle radicalisation.

It is naive to believe that by focusing on an inclusive multicultural society – without some acknowledgment of the conflict between democracy and radical Islam – fair-mindedness and democracy will prevail. The Government needs to prevent polarisation in society by clearly stating that we cannot be tolerant of anti-democratic rhetoric from any quarter.

Elizabeth Jones
Amersham, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, says that “we spend more on the heating allowance for the elderly in a year than we do on the combined budgets of our security services – GCHQ, MI6 and MI5”.

Many elderly people would willingly forego their heating allowance if they were assured that the money would be ring-fenced for redeployment in our security services.

In an election year it would be difficult for the Coalition Government to renege on their promises about maintaining heating allowances for the elderly. The Chancellor could instead offer tax relief to anyone who returned their heating allowance for use in the security budget.

Charles Tweedie
Ludlow, Shropshire

Controlling squirrels

(Rex Features)

SIR – Ginny Martin has obviously never witnessed the wanton destruction of her garden by grey squirrels; never seen her hours of work and money spent on planting bulbs completely spoiled; never seen grey squirrels entwining their bodies around bird feeders and eating the seed which she has bought for the garden birds; never seen them raiding nests for eggs and young birds; never seen them stripping the bark off trees.

In our squirrel trap we have yet to snare a red squirrel; small birds and mice are not snared as they can easily escape; and a pigeon once or twice a year is let out unharmed.

A grey squirrel “cull” is not about eradicating the species, but rather keeping the numbers to an acceptable level.

Carol Parkin
Poole, Dorset

Public sector strikes

SIR – The Conservatives’ proposals to curb strikes in the public sector are most welcome.

One reason teachers strike comparatively often is that their terms and conditions encourage them to do so. Schools are only required to open for 190 days a year. Yet when teachers go on strike they only lose 1/365th of their pay. Effectively teachers only lose half a day’s pay when they strike for a whole day, which hardly seems fair.

Phil Taylor
London W13

Boko Haram

SIR – It is not strictly correct to say that boko means book in the Hausa language, as David Blair asserts in his otherwise excellent article on the Islamist group Boko Haram (“Beware the rise of Africa’s own al-Qaeda state”).

When the British first arrived in Northern Nigeria, Hausa was written in Arabic script, which was called ajami. The British introduced Roman script, and Hausa written in Roman script was subsequently called boko to distinguish it from ajami.

Boko later became a word to describe books written in Roman script, which led on to Western education. The Hausa word for book is “littafi”.

John Hare
Benenden, Kent

Capital adventures

SIR – Caroline McGhie (“Find us a place with space”) suggests that couples with young families moving to the outskirts of London are somehow discovering amazing pastures new.

The idea of “moving farther east” sounds so adventurous until you realise this means moving to Walthamstow.

If these people want more space and better value they ought to give Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds or Manchester a go – plenty of culture, lovely countryside and three-bedroom semis on offer for a lot less than £300,000.

Joanna Dunn
Stapleford, Nottingham

Who can be trusted to run the economy?

SIR – During Gordon Brown’s tenure as Chancellor, this country had both product and wage deflation. Product prices fell as much cheaper Chinese goods became available; wages fell as cheap EU migrant labour flooded in.

The deflation was hidden by Brown’s profligacy that would, under any other circumstances, have caused massive inflation in wages and prices. He was able to get away with years of financial illiteracy thanks to an equally financially illiterate oppostion. This opposition is now in charge.

We still run a huge current account and balance of trade deficit and pump money into the economy, distorting house and share values. Can either Labour or the Conservatives be trusted with another five years in power?

John Upex
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Dodging debate

SIR – I hope every time Mr Cameron passes the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square he hangs his head in shame. Churchill never ran away from a fight.

Cameron would rather be called a coward than, in the middle of an election campaign, discuss important issues on television with the other party leaders. He needs to answer his critics and convince his followers that he will try harder next time.

Jim Rennie
Caerphilly, Glamorgan

SIR – Messrs Miliband, Clegg and Farage flatter themselves; I have absolutely no desire to see them on television, individually or en bloc.

Anthony Cumming
Ripon, North Yorkshire

Britannia rules the waves – with help from Europe

The Queen Victoria Cunard liner, depicted on this Gibraltar stamp, was built in Italy (Alamy)

SIR – In his fascinating book review mentions the enormous ocean liners built for Cunard in recent years: Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2. But how many of these liners were built in Britain? Not a single one.

Writing in 2003, a member of the Mackie family, who ran one of Belfast’s most internationally renowned engineering companies, observed how the government had abandoned manufacturing in favour of information and banking services, and time would tell if the policy would be a success or a disaster. This is noted in The Lives of the Great Engineers of Ulster, edited by Prof Sir Bernard Crossland and John S Moore.

Disaster or not, it is to be hoped that the recent financial crisis has changed the general attitude towards manufacturing in Britain. Perhaps Cunard might even order a ship from a British yard.

J Charles Teggart
Bangor, Co Down

In defence of soya

SIR – Substitute dairy products may be “ghastly” to those looking for a taste of milk but they are delicious to people with no alternative. Those of us who are lactose intolerant welcomed the advent of almond, soya and other “milks” and spreads.

I remember when there was no milk substitute at all for porridge or cereals. The only non-dairy spread available was one used in Jewish cooking, and it most definitely wasn’t intended to go with Marmite on toast.

Pam Maybury
Bath

Here, boy

SIR – Like Michael Simkins’s wife, I know exactly where my husband is by following his recognisable whistle.

It makes taking him to the supermarket so much easier as I never lose him. We also have a specific family whistle, which is used to call children and dogs to heel.

Lynne Waldron
Woolavington, Somerset

SIR – I, too, am a constant whistler.

My preference is for songs from the Great American Songbook – good melodies that tell a story.

Bernard Greenberg
Oxford

Multi-purpose

SIR – There may be no plans for self-emptying dishwashers, but I have long maintained that a kitchen equipped with two dishwashers would have no need for a crockery cupboard.

James Fraser
Knowle Green, Surrey

 

 

Globe and Mail:

ELIZABETH RENZETTI

We must never censor ourselves for fear of offending the faithful

Irish Times:

Sir, – Patients requiring neuro-rehabilitation services continue to be poorly served by existing provision in the community. Where such services do exist, repeated cutbacks have whittled them away near to (and beyond) the threshold of effectiveness.

I am under 65 and require regular neuro-rehabilitation to maximise my functioning and continued employment despite several decades of multiple sclerosis. I have no idea when I will get access to these services again. With a modest amount of appropriate help, I can continue to work and enjoy a social life. I want to do so, but the modest amount of help I need is being steadily withdrawn.

There are roughly 700,000 other patients in need of neuro-rehabilitation services in this country. The most recent survey (2014) by the Neurological Association of Ireland revealed that 34 per cent of respondents had increased difficulty accessing physiotherapy, with 14 per cent unable to. The figures for speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and psychology were similar. Meanwhile, related services are being cut back – 43 per cent of respondents had their medical cards revoked, 83 per cent had been affected by escalating drug costs, 70 per cent had to fight for access to respite care and 25 per cent had no access, while 64 per cent had experienced cuts to their homecare package.

The HSE’s own 2011 report (Policy and Strategy for the Provision of Neuro-rehabilitation Services in Ireland) sketches how such services might be provided. But it has been largely ignored.

In the long run Ireland is likely to save money by providing the services in these reports due to the continuing cost of the medical complications of not providing the services. Also, a recent study on a potential early discharge service for stroke patients published by the Irish Heart Foundation (Towards Earlier Discharge, September 2014, and carried out by the ESRI and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) estimates an overall saving of up to €7 million nationally in the first year post-stroke if the service were provided.

Failure to provide these rehabilitation services, for patients of all ages, hurts patients, their families and ultimately it hurts us all.

Planning these services will require careful attention to their real “outputs” before someone is discharged. Are patients functioning as well as they possibly can? Are they happy with the proposed arrangements? Are they capable of any employment? Are appropriate community services available? Are financial burdens on the family and on the taxpayer minimised? These are deceptively simple questions with complicated answers. Patients have a firm, personal (if non-technical) grasp of the implications for themselves – especially the implications unnoticed (or ignored) by others. All stakeholders – citizens, medical staff, healthcare planners and providers, Government and patients – need to listen to each other.

We have known for several years that the savings would outweigh the costs of these rehabilitation services. Yet, existing services have been cut, not developed. The time for debate is over. It is time to get moving. – Yours, etc,

ALEXIS DONNELLY,

Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Sir, – John FitzGerald, in “Shedding light on inequalities in life expectancy” (January 13th), makes the oft-repeated error of asserting that Ireland’s maternal death is three per 100,000; in fact the correct rate is close to three times higher than that, eight per 100,000, as found by the Maternal Death Enquiry Ireland, reporting in 2011 (and nine per 100,000 according to the UN).

For years Ireland’s maternal death rate was incorrectly under-reported both nationally and internationally. The reason for this was that in Ireland, figures were in years gone by not gathered accurately, in line with international standards as practised in countries like the UK. Figures here came directly from the CSO, whose information would come from death certificates only. The cause of death had to be cited as pregnancy or birth specifically on these for a death to be counted. In the majority of cases of maternal deaths, a death certificate will not record exactly this and thus these cases were not recorded by the CSO, skewing the results for Ireland dramatically.

As per the World Health Organisation definition, maternal death is the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.

These figures are now being reported for Ireland in line with international best practice, as a result of the effort put into this important work by the Maternal Death Enquiry (MDE) based in UCC. However even the MDE itself points out that the true figure for Ireland is still probably unknown, as a review of MDE cases to date has shown that “pregnancy status [on the Medical Death Notification Form, filled out by a medical practitioner to report a death] has not been correctly completed in some cases”.

For developed countries with access to healthcare, nutrition, hygiene, and technology, it is more appropriate to measure safety not only in terms of death but also the “near-misses” and serious health implications to mothers and babies as a result of birth (morbidity) – both physical and psychological. – Yours, etc,

SINÉAD REDMOND,

Association for the

Improvement in

Maternity Services,

Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Sir, – I attended a British Fertility Society meeting in Birmingham recently. There was a debate regarding the ethics of what has been called a “postcode lottery” in Britain. Couples in Scotland and Wales, regardless of income, are entitled to two NHS-funded cycles of IVF treatment if they meet appropriate medical criteria. Those in Northern Ireland are funded for one cycle and those in England receive one, two or three cycles, depending on their postcode.

Contrast that with the Republic of Ireland, where even the poorest in our society are not funded for even one cycle of treatment. In the last European survey, Ireland and Lithuania were the only two EU countries not to offer state-funded assisted reproduction. Does anyone in this country realise how out of step we are with accepted first world medical standards? – Yours, etc,

Dr MARY WINGFIELD,

Clinical Director

and Consultant

Gynaecologist,

Merrion Fertility Clinic,

Sir, – I refer to your editorial regarding a greenway on the western rail corridor (January 12th).

An alternative and highly scenic route for Mayo-Sligo, the Mayo-Sligo Ox Mountain Trail, has been mooted for both counties which would not interfere with the railway but which would serve a vast area and allow feeder routes from many nearby towns such as Charlestown, Swinford and Tubbercurry.

With minimal planning or expense, this route could be linked directly into the Western Way in Mayo creating an integrated tourist trail. In addition, part of the Sligo Way route joins the Wild Atlantic Way so tourists would have the opportunity to divert effortlessly into the Sligo Way as part of their touring holiday. This new development would also link up with the existing Mayo greenway.

Would this not be a better option for all concerned? – Yours, etc,

PETER BOWEN-WALSH,

Ballisodare,

Co Sligo.

Sir, – Following details of the survey indicating that 74 per cent of Fine Gael TDs want the parliamentary whip system relaxed for some votes (January 13th), it should be immediately agreed upon by the Government parties that they will permit one-line and two-line votes on a number of issues before the next election, thus replicating the long-established and well-understood model operating in the British House of Commons.

For example, a minister who chooses to defy a two-line whip on a government vote would not retain a place in cabinet – while the effective consequences for a government backbencher would not be as severe.

Either way, in both circumstances, the relevant member of parliament defying a two-line whip would retain his or her associated membership of the given parliamentary party.

The public would like to see evidence of substantial political reform along these lines. The Opposition parties should also recognise this obvious sentiment and also indicate that they too will respect this by loosening their own intra-party whip instructions on the same basis. – Yours, etc,

JOHN KENNEDY,

Goatstown,

Dublin 14.

Sir, – A person elected to the parliament or national assembly of a democracy is there to represent the voters in that person’s constituency. Yes, they are a member of a party; however the party exists as a mechanism to aid citizens place an elected representative in the decision-making chamber of the nation. The elected official’s primary duty is to represent the voters, and secondarily the party.

Democracy is messy, disorderly and haphazard at the best of times. Imposing a form of strict party obedience on elected officials risks making government stagnant, sterile and estranged from the nation’s population. – Yours, etc,

DAN DONOVAN,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.

Sir, – Oil is generally traded and priced in US dollars. While the price of oil has fallen roughly 55 per cent from its high last year in dollars terms, a stronger dollar means that the fall in euro terms is closer to 48 per cent. So one might expect the price at the pumps to have fallen by a similar margin. Not so – and the petrol station owners are not to blame; they generally run on thin margins with profits derived primarily from non-petrol sales.

Government taxes and duties, primarily excise and VAT, make up close to 60 per cent of the price we pay at the pump.

What possible reason is there for Irish businesses and consumers to be paying such an incredibly punitive level of tax for petrol? Excise duties on petrol should be slashed to reflect the new reality of energy prices, and allow Ireland to remain productive and competitive, not to mention the potential to ease the burden on cash-strapped households. – Yours, etc,

GAVIN DREDGE,

Killiney,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Áine Uí Eadhra (January 3rd) refers to the large number of vehicles with defective lighting on Irish roads and the problem is certainly of epidemic proportions. It has worsened significantly over recent winters and is yet another manifestation of the irresponsibility of many road users when policing of road behaviour is almost non-existent.

Increases in penalty points and the urgings of the Road Safety Authority are utterly useless in the absence of rigorous enforcement. The appalling lack of manpower and resources suffered by An Garda Síochána in recent years has clearly prevented sufficient attention to traffic law enforcement and it is inevitable that road user behaviour will deteriorate when there is little prospect of detection.

The increase in road deaths in 2014 must be a consequence of inadequate traffic policing – and the resultant indifference of many road users to traffic laws is to be seen daily. It is impossible to take the shortest journey without encountering drivers using hand-held telephones, driving with dangerously defective lighting and engaging in other irresponsible behaviour.

It is to be hoped that the new management of An Garda Síochána will have the courage to demand the resources necessary to provide effective and conspicuous policing of Irish roads. Doing so will not only ensure that our roads are safer and that lives will be saved but, moreover, the unfortunate perception that our police service is inefficient will be corrected. – Yours, etc,

PETER COOGAN,

Celbridge,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – I share concerns about the increase in road deaths and injuries. Speed is obviously often to blame but pedestrians in dark clothes on dark nights or in heavy rain do not seem to realise how invisible they are. Most cyclists now wear high-vis clothing as they know their lives are at risk if they are not easily visible. Pedestrians also should wear a reflective vest, armband or belt when out in the dark. I am also perturbed by the reluctance of many drivers to switch on dimmed headlights in rain and twilight; I have seen several near-misses recently when unlit cars have emerged from the gloom unnoticed by oncoming traffic or pedestrians. – Yours, etc,

MARGARET MARSHALL,

Belfast.

Sir, – Enda Kenny has made a big issue of people noticing take-home pay increasing in January 2015 and has run into trouble by claiming people were ringing him to thank him for it. I would like to inform him and your readers that my wife’s pay has dropped by €60 per fortnight in her first wage packet of 2015. Her USC has fallen by €6, but her PAYE rose by €57, the rest has been made up by increases in her pensions deduction. Her basic pay has remained the same.

No matter what Enda might say, €60 less is not an increase, though he might try to spin it as a “turn of phrase”. – Yours, etc,

CONAN DOYLE,

Pococke Lower,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – Further to “Paul Howard’s 44 life lessons” (January 6th), I recall the words of my beloved uncle, Bill Bradley: “Live every day as if it is your last one on earth, but if you are a gardener, live every day as if you will live forever.” – Yours, etc,

LISA McGUIRK,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – I will support any political party that proposes a ban on the sale and driving of 4×4 vehicles by drivers with oversized sunglasses unless both driver and vehicle smell of farm manure. – Yours, etc,

PATRICK O’DONOHOE,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Thanks to the hard-working Electric Ireland team, who, in face of raging gales, hail showers and freezing temperatures, climbed up to the heights and brought back power to Shrove, Inishowen, after recent storms. Many thanks to you all! – Yours, etc,

NUALA McPARLAND,

Shrove,

Inishowen,

Co Donegal.

An Irishman’s Diary on approaching Charles Haughey for a loan

‘I want that stuff back in dollars ’

I should have been given a part. As the only man on the planet who borrowed money from Charles J Haughey, I warranted some sort of role in the television drama. It happened in Paris, Charlie’s favourite city after Donnycarney. As diplomatic correspondent for this newspaper half a century or so ago, I travelled around Europe with the then taoiseach, Jack Lynch, and his minster for finance, Charles J, covering their lobbying campaign of European leaders in an effort to gain entry into what was then known as the Common Market. It was no easy task. As the official website of the EU Representation in Ireland so niftily puts it: “Ireland’s agricultural based economy was choked by its dependence on the UK market and the country suffered from poverty, mass unemployment and emigration.” (Plus ça change .) Sometime in the early 1960s they called on the president of France, the formidable Charles de Gaulle. The general, who had remote ancestral links with Co Down, had a fondness for Ireland and came here for a long holiday once. He was inclined to favour the Irish application for membership but Ireland could not enter the market unless the United Kingdom was admitted at the same time. But de Gaulle was resolutely opposed to the UK’s application. Let the Brits in, he told the Irish duo, and they will only set out to wreck everything. It would be another decade before Ireland – and the UK – were granted membership.

Cash

It was on that visit to Paris when I had to approach Haughey for a loan. I was running out of cash. In those days mere journalists did not rise to credit cards and a hole in the wall was simply an unsightly aperture. After the meeting with de Gaulle we all returned to the Irish Embassy for refreshments. “Any chance Minister you could lend me 50 dollars until we get back to Dublin?” I asked. “No problem,” says he, and peels off 50 greenbacks from his wallet. At the time Ireland and Britain shared a common currency, sterling. It was a period of erratic currency fluctuations but the almighty dollar was steady. As I was about to depart with gratitude the minister for finance grabbed me by the shoulder. “By the way,” he said, “when we get back home I want that stuff back in dollars. None of your auld sterling or anything like that.”

Radio programme

It was not my only encounter with Haughey. Jack Lynch sacked him in 1970 in advance of the Arms Trial at which he was accused and acquitted of attempting to import arms illegally into the state (for use by the IRA). Lynch brought him back into the cabinet in 1977 as minister for health and social welfare. At the time I was head of news in RTÉ and it was decided to seek an interview with him for the This Week radio programme. Unlike some other ministers, Haughey did not aggressively seek publicity and was inclined to give interviews only when he felt he had something worthwhile to say. But after seven years in the political wilderness he obviously felt his profile needed a reburnish and agreed to the request. The editor of the programme along with the presenter (the late Gerry Barry) met him in Government Buildings. They intended to start the interview with a question about how he and Lynch had mended their fences.

The minister promptly switched from cordial welcoming to bullying mode. No. No. No questions about the Arms Trial or any of that auld s***e – that was all in the past. Gerry and his editor said they could not accept any restrictions. They left the minister’s office and contacted me at Donnybrook; such was the aura of brooding menace around Haughey they felt they could not accept his invitation to use the phone in his office but went outside to a public telephone box. I advised them to tell the minister that his first major interview as a member of the new cabinet would be seen as having no credibility if the question was not put and answered. Back they went and, forever the pragmatist, Haughey took the point without further argument and the interview went ahead.

Some years later, when he was taoiseach, I received a phone call from one of the coterie of hangers-on who surrounded him (and were indulged by him). The caller said he had it on the highest authority that my days as head of news were numbered because of the things we were broadcasting about the government and the taoiseach.

‘That sort of thing’

A few days later I got a call from the man himself. “I’m told one of my so-called friends rang you the other night,” he said. “You know I had nothing to do with it. The fellow who rang you was not acting on my behalf or with my knowledge. You know what he’s like — when he gets a few drinks he goes overboard. I’m sorry about the whole thing.”

As it happened the Sunday following he came into the newsroom to do an interview for the This Week programme. As I accompanied him and advisers to the radio studio he pulled me aside and reiterated his apology: “You know me long enough to know I would have nothing to do with that sort of thing.”

Irish Independent:

Published 19/01/2015 | 02:30

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A protest in Niamey, Niger, against 'Charlie Hebdo' magazine.

A protest in Niamey, Niger, against ‘Charlie Hebdo’ magazine.

Can I be the only one who thinks it was a mistake for the survivors of Charlie Hebdo to put a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on the front cover of its new edition?

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Yes, free speech is important but, as Pope Francis said, it must have limits. Look at the trouble it’s causing. Already Christian churches have been attacked and burned in Niger in Africa, police stations there have been attacked, and thousands of Muslims have taken to the streets in angry protest all around the world.

The cartoon has turned out to be provocative and now some people are claiming to be surprised at the outrage it’s causing. Fyodor Dostoyevsky asked: “Is all the art in the world worth a child’s tears?” Yes, there are violent fanatics in the world but should we go out of our way to infuriate and provoke them?

The murderous attack on the staff of Charlie Hebdo was truly dreadful and unforgivable but it does strike me as irresponsible for the magazine to then go and publish a cover which could make things even worse. Surely, restraint and self-censorship are sometimes required? There is no such a thing as absolute freedom of speech. In some countries it is a crime to deny the Holocaust took place, and rightly so.

It is reported that Boko Haram has recently murdered 2,000 people in Nigeria, and I don’t see over a million people led by world leaders marching in protest about that. It seems that only Europe and the USA really matter. Does the world care about the people in Syria and Iraq? Unimaginable horrors are taking place there on a daily basis but our response is very muted. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and former US President Jimmy Carter have suggested that Israel has a case to answer regarding the deaths of over 2,100 people in the recent conflict in Gaza. I thought of this as I watched Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Paris demonstration.

And in Saudi Arabia, a young human rights activist, Raif Badawi, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, 50 of which are to be carried out every week. And the Saudi government was represented at the march for free speech in Paris. Amazing.

Anthony Redmond, Dublin

Silence on Boko Haram attack

The global response to last week’s terrorist attacks in France is commendable, with millions converging in Paris to show their opposition to terrorism and support for free expression, a cornerstone of liberal democracy.

Likewise, world leaders joined arms to show a united front of solidarity with France. Also standing against the Paris attacks was Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, whose swift condemnation of the “dastardly terrorist attack” in Paris should be welcomed.

However, Mr Jonathan has been strikingly silent on another terrorist attack that recently occurred in northern Nigeria. Amnesty International estimates 2,000 people (mostly women and children) were massacred in the north-eastern Nigeria town of Baga by Boko Haram, an extreme Islamist group which controls swathes of north-eastern Nigeria and is already notorious for kidnapping hundreds of schoolgirls in April 2014.

Despite the brutality of the terrorist attack in Baga, Mr Jonathan has yet to publicly speak about the killings, even while Nigeria’s north-eastern states plead for troops to protect their people. This is probably due to his wish to avoid drawing attention to the instability in northern Nigeria, particularly given the upcoming election, in which he will face former general Muhammadu Buhari, who takes a stronger stance on security.

Níall McNelis, Galway city

Dublin Airport – 75 years on

The rise in air passenger numbers in 2014 was recently illustrated in graphical form in your newspaper (Irish Independent, January 13).

Civil aviation in this country began at Dublin Airport (Collinstown) on January 19, 1940, when existing services were transferred from Baldonnel military airfield.

The growth in civil aviation can be seen when we note that the services from Baldonnell (from 1936) were only to Liverpool and the Isle of Man.

William Ryan, Dublin 7

Farmers wield huge influence

I smiled while listening to a recent broadcast in which a politician described himself as a rural TD.

He went on to deride the practise of trade unions subscribing to parties and then telling them what to do – the unions dictating to government, or words to that effect.

He is obviously unaware of a rural entity, one which holds the most powerful political lobby in this country. This is the agriculture sector, which is represented by a minister, a European Commissioner, special correspondents assigned by the national broadcast authority, a TV show, a radio programme and a newspaper. A sector which receives 65pc of the funding paid into the European Commission. I could go on.

The story of ‘Strumpet City’ should be mandatory reading for TDs, in order that deputies with such a narrow mindset will understand how trade unions came to be.

Harry Mulhern, Kilbarrack, Dublin 13

Hats off to Leo Varadkar

Well, we have finally grown up, even if it did take much longer than it should have. Now, can Leo Varadkar go on to be the first openly gay party leader or even Taoiseach?

Brendan Casserly, Bishopstown, Cork

I never thought I’d see the day that a Fine Gael government minister would make my day – and on a Sunday at that – but hats off to Leo Varadkar for doing just that.

Unfortunately, I know that this morning, all of his colleagues will be doing just the opposite.

Liam Power, Ballina, Co Mayo

Do the sick people waiting on hospital trolleys care about Leo Varadkar’s sexuality?

John Williams, Clonmel, Co Tipperary

We must get our priorities right

In a week that saw Islamic fundamentalists conduct a major terrorist attack on one of the pillars of Western democracy, Boko Haram militants in Nigeria use two 10-year old girls as suicide bombers, killing 19 people, and the Ebola virus further ravage West Africa, the question of how we prioritise our concerns entered my mind.

As I watched Al Jazeera News interview volunteers in Sierra Leone who are risking their own lives to dig graves for the dead, I was promptly told by my housemate to “Turn off that s****!” Only for him to replace it with ‘Hollyoaks’. The fact that the Ebola crisis is so bad that the 50 graves they dig in a day does not meet the demand seems to have been lost on him.

I work in a professional environment where I interact with a lot of well-educated, decent people whose localised compassion I’ve experienced for many years. But the notion of Boko Haram, Isil, Al-Qa’ida, or indeed the Ebola crisis getting any airtime in regular conversation seems far fetched at this stage. Most people’s priorities seem to be centred on things closer to home or in the alternative world that is social media.

My criticism is not of the media, for the material published is a reflection of their readership. My concern, however, is that in a modern society of instant information, the issues that are of real, significant, world importance seem to be forgotten, in an instant.

Are we becoming a people whose compassion extends only to the duration of the latest Twitter trends? Is our empathy restricted to our geographical borders?

Name and address with Editor


Mercedes

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20 January 2015 Mercedes

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. MOt and Service Leeds traffic jam took 1 h 20 mins to get to Mercedwa fortunatly the game me a lift home.

Obituary:

Ivor Abrahams in his studio
Ivor Abrahams in his studio  Photo: Anne Katrin

Ivor Abrahams, who has died aged 79, was a British artist best known for his stylised prints of garden scenes and his giant sculptures of owls.

He was a sculptor, painter, draughtsman, printmaker, collagist and ceramicist. His works varied from the small-scale to the monumental and from the whimsical to the experimental. In addition to gardens and birds, his subjects were many: cityscapes, oceans, mythologies, animals and the human figure all reappear in his work. An approach that might have seemed unfocused was, however, for Abrahams all part of a drive to create works that were accessible to a modern audience.

“Abrahams is our greatest interpreter of the suburban dream,” noted Andrew Lambirth in 2011, reviewing the artist’s exhibition Suburban Encounters for The Spectator, “whether it be the kempt lawns and borders of the gardens, the trophy window boxes and gables of the houses, or the edging into night-time activity (the hidden and the unconscious), here symbolised by the owl.”

Ivor Abrahams was born on January 10 1935 in Wigan, Lancashire. His parents opposed him becoming an artist and he supported himself through his studies at St Martin’s School (1952–1953) and Camberwell School of Art (1954-1957).

At St Martin’s he found a friend in Phillip King, fellow sculptor and later president of the Royal Academy. “Ivor was a traditionalist,” recalled King, “who ignored the current trends and found his inspiration mostly in the endless possibilities of the human figure, as well as the English garden, often combining the two happily in a manner that gave his work an unusual atmosphere.”

After graduating from Camberwell, Abrahams travelled extensively throughout Europe visiting galleries before starting on his own works back in London. Initially these were small bronzes of amorphous shapes. He cast some himself; others were forged at the Fiorini Art Bronze Foundry at Peterborough Mews in Parsons Green, where Abrahams was an apprentice in 1957.

One of those intrigued by his early works was Bernard Jacobson, later a leading London gallery owner, who as a schoolboy lived a couple of streets away from Abrahams in Willesden. Jacobson bought a bronze for £40 (paying £5 a month out of his pocket money). During the late-1950s Abrahams began working in plaster and latex. Inspired by the work of the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico, he produced works featuring classical torsos and limbs, and fragments of ruins, pillars and tombs (with allusive titles such as Dianna and Houdini).

Ivor Abrahams with one of his owl sculptures

Abrahams’s first show, with Peter Blake, was at the Portal Gallery in 1960. He was included in the landmark 1961 ICA exhibition 22 Young Sculptors and had his first one-man show the following year at Gallery One in London. During this period his work touched on the garish and comical qualities of Pop Art (his scarlet plaster Red Riding Hood was headless).

By the late 1960s he had found inspiration in the imagery of domestic gardens. “The garden iconography was like an elaborate, endless chess-game that never stopped,” said Abrahams. “It seemed that this was an area common to everyone and this I liked.”

It was his theme for the following decade. He produced a substantial body of screen-prints, lithographs and etchings (many later bequeathed to the Tate Gallery) detailing tailored lawns and towering topiary, sundials and eerie alcoves.

Often, as with his “Garden Suite” and “Garden Emblems” series, these embraced a palette of bright colours (emerald greens, Mediterranean blues, fuchsia pinks and canary yellows) in blocked-out compositions reminiscent of architectural plans. He also created sculptures of rockeries and shrubberies.

Abrahams and his French wife, Evelyne, bought a house at Pézenas in the Languedoc in the mid-1970s, after which they split their time between France and London.

After the success of his garden period he shifted his focus again to produce sculptures of bathers and nymphs, taking inspiration from the mythologies of southern France (later works depicted dancers). During the 1980s he explored the mediums of photography, video, animation and film. In recent years his love of experimentation could be seen in his totem-pole sculptures resembling follies.

A deep seam of fun ran through much of his work, particularly evident in his late large-scale sculptures of birds. His obsession with winged creatures emerged from a commission to create an oversized cockerel for the Carnaval des Animaux at the Hague in 2000. A series of owls followed, created from epoxy resin and decal. As one critic noted, these mysterious works were “perched precariously between fear and humour”.

He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1989 and taught at the academy’s schools (he also lectured at Goldsmiths and the Slade).

Abrahams had a sculpture retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1984 and a prints retrospective at the Royal Academy in 1999. His most recent exhibition was at the Mayor Gallery in London (2013) at which a giant three-metre-high red-breasted “Urban Owl” loomed over visitors.

Works by Abrahams sit in the collections of the British Council, the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Abrahams was an avid collector of the obscure and beautiful, filling his home with esoteric objects, from a Balinese bronze drum to jars stuffed with preserved snakes.

He married Victoria Taylor in 1965. The marriage was dissolved and he married, secondly, Evelyne Horvais, in 1974. He is survived by his wife and their son. A son from his first marriage predeceased him.

Ivor Abrahams, born January 10 1935, died January 6 2015

Guardian:

Pope Francis in yellow rain mac waves to the crowd during a motorcade in Manila, Philippines

Beyond satire? Pope Francis waves to the crowd during a motorcade in Manila, Philippines, on 18 January 2015. Photograph: Mark Cristino /Barcroft Media

Religions, so Pope Francis declared (Report, 16 January) in response to the murderous attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Jewish shoppers, have a dignity that we must respect. He no doubt believes that to give religions such privilege would limit aggression and hate. The problem is that there can be no agreement as to what constitutes a religion that would thus be entitled to have its dignity protected. More importantly, many religions, like his own, claim to be the only gateway to God. On that basis, holy wars, the killing of “infidels”, “heretics” and adherents of the “wrong” religion were justified and declared a holy duty. “Deus lo vult” was the battlecry of the crusaders who, on and off for two centuries, massacred Albigensians, Muslims and Jews, and ransacked their homes. A few hundred years later the great reformer Martin Luther advised the German princes to follow the example of other Christian countries “for the honour of God and of Christianity” to drive out “this insufferable devilish burden – the Jews”.

It would have been more helpful had the pontiff supported the humanist view that every human being has an inherent dignity that must be protected. An attack on that is a blemish on our own worth and diminishes us as moral beings. To understand that, we don’t need any religion.

Thus the torture of prisoners, detention without trial, withholding basic rights, degrading living conditions and crass inequality are infringements of the basic need to respect human dignity.

In this context it is pertinent to call into mind article 1 of the German constitution of 1949, expressing a lesson learned from recent history: “Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.”
Jurgen Schwiening
Market Bosworth, Leicestershire

The pope and various Muslim and Jewish religious leaders are agitating for limits on freedom of speech for those who do not share their beliefs. It’s not atheists who advocate violence in response to criticism or ridicule of their views. As an atheist, I am uncomfortable about people proselytising irrational beliefs, especially to children, especially where these preachers advocate violence.

So if freedom of speech is to be limited, perhaps we should at least act in an even-handed way by taking their proposal to the logical conclusion of outlawing freedom of all speech about all religion – both pro and anti. Without indoctrination of new recruits to their religious factions, the number of believers would quickly reduce over time. Think how much more peaceful the world would become without this source of strife, or justification for murdering other people.

For clarification for those who do not understand the principles of the cartoonists who were brave enough to ridicule this sort of repressive nonsense – this suggestion is, of course, sarcasm.
Annie Thackeray
London

In one sentence the pope says it is wrong to respond to insults with violence, and in the next says he would do exactly that himself. It is beyond satire.
Catherine Rose
Olney, Buckinghamshire

I’m amazed at the contrast between the outrage that (rightly) greeted the plan by some American religious bigots in 2010 to stage a public burning of the Qur’an, and the reaction to the provocative republication (by “secular bigots”?) of satirical cartoons featuring Muhammad. Of course people should have the freedom to give gratuitous offence, free from fear of violent reprisal, just as, for example, they should be free to commit adultery, but that doesn’t mean they are right to do so in either case.
Dr David Golding
Honorary chaplain, Newcastle University

If only the concern of anti-war campaigners at UK foreign policy could be put down to a “coping mechanism” to deal with our fear of terrorism, as Jonathan Freedland suggests (Opinion, 17 January). We take this view because it is demonstrably the fact that the war on terror, begun nearly 14 years ago, has failed in its aim. Terrorism has grown in terms of its degree of threat and its spread geographically. The wars continue, leading to devastation in countries as far apart as Libya and Afghanistan.

The implication that we consider Islamist terrorists as “the armed wing of the Stop the War Coalition” is the opposite of the case. We oppose their politics and methods. But we argue that the policies followed by successive governments have allowed these groups to grow, as has support from western allies in the Middle East. If we are going to deal with the effects of this terrorism in Europe, we have to understand its causes.
Jeremy Corbyn MP (chair) and Lindsey German (convenor)
Stop the War Coalition

Jonathan Freedland writes: “There were two groups especially shaken by last week’s attacks – journalists and Jews.” Muslims, by implication, have not been shaken and have nothing to fear, though it is likely they will be even more victimised throughout Europe than they have been so far as a result of these attacks. And it is Muslims who are the main victims of extreme Islamism throughout the Middle East, as well as of US and European responses to Islamism.
Sophie Richmond
London

The identity of Muslims is strongly bound up with Islam, and, as we too often forget, attacking people’s deepest identity only drives it deeper. Moreover, the defining experience of most Muslims in Europe has been one of social exclusion. They have lower incomes, higher rates of unemployment and fewer qualifications than the rest. They also suffer from housing deprivation and disproportionately from bad health. They are also more likely to be the victims of crime. In addition, unqualified western support for Israel and military interventions in the Arab world cause much anger. These factors of poverty, exclusion and war don’t justify the killings, but they go a long way to explaining them.

Satire has traditionally referred to the ridiculing of the rich and powerful, not lampooning those suffering deprivation and exclusion. In this sense, the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo were not examples of satire but Islamophobic attacks.
Sabby Sagall
London

Thank you, Tim Lott, for your wonderful piece in praise of doubt, and against anger (Opinion, 16 January). In some ways, it seems to me, it is even worse than you say, but in other ways, not quite as bad. Even science – the soul, one might think, of reason and institutionalised doubt – has its unacknowledged dogmas. There are unacknowledged assumptions about metaphysics, values and politics built into the aims of science. Science would be all the more rational if these implicit articles of faith were made explicit, so that they can be critically assessed and improved as science proceeds.

On the other hand, is it really true that “all our belief systems are just constructs”? It may well be that “everything is in doubt”, as you say, but still things exist that are genuinely of value in themselves in the world – the laughter of a child, an act of kindness, a good article in the Guardian. All views about what is ultimately of value in life may be open to doubt, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing that is genuinely of value.
Nicholas Maxwell
Emeritus reader, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London

Here in Pembrokeshire we had no trouble ordering the special edition of Charlie Hebdo (Letters, 15 January). Our newsagent said “no problem”, he would add us to his list of orders for it and added: “I’ve been a newsagent for 43 years, nothing scares me.”
Ann James
Hwlffordd, Pembrokeshire

What happens after you’ve been punched by the pope and turned the other cheek?
Clive Coen
Professor of neuroscience, King’s College London

A child walks on a makeshift bridge betw

A child walks on a makeshift bridge between shanty homes north of Manila, the Philippines. ‘Poverty is more than a lack of income: people living in deprivation face many simultaneous disadvantages,’ writes Sabina Alkire of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative. Photograph: Noel Celis/Getty

The Action/2015 campaign (This year is key to poverty and climate goals, stars warn world leaders, 15 January) is a welcome initiative that underlines the importance of 2015 as a crucial year in the fight against poverty and climate change, with pivotal UN summits taking place. The campaign released new data showing the number of people living in extreme poverty – on less than $1.25 a day – could be reduced from over 1 billion to 360 million by 2030 if the right decisions are made.

However, poverty is more than a lack of income: people living in deprivation face many simultaneous disadvantages. Health, education and living-standards deprivations are equally important to measure, as the 7 million people who took part in the UN’s My World survey, the Open Working Group and the secretary-general’s December 2014 report stress. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative proposes one feasible option: to complement the $1.25/ day income measure with an improved multidimensional poverty index (MPI 2015+) that would ensure the many overlapping disadvantages experienced by the poor, such as malnutrition, poor sanitation and lack of education, are not overlooked. According to global MPI estimates, 1.6 billion people across 110 countries are multidimensionally poor.

Considering two measures – income poverty and the MPI 2015+ – would empower leaders to combat poverty in its many dimensions. As Action/2015 underlines, making the right decisions this year is key – but we need to select the right tools for fighting poverty to ensure the right policy decisions can be made in future too.
Sabina Alkire
Director, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative

As celebrities and campaigners begin to talk about what will follow on from the millennium development goals, it is vital that we do not ignore the needs of the disabled people who live in developing countries. Disabled people are often the poorest and most marginalised from their communities. Many disabled people struggle to earn a living, and as a result their families face severe financial hardship. Often, disabled people have not benefited from international aid. For example, one-third of the 58 million primary-school-aged children who are out of school worldwide are disabled.

When the MDGs were agreed by world leaders in 2000, there was no mention of disability in the eight goals or in the 60 indicators of the 21 targets. This needs to change. In order to truly tackle poverty it is vital that the needs of disabled people are met and they get targeted support.
James Thornberry
Director, Sense International

'Asked for 200 more seats, I introduced a further 150 “bad seats”, over and above the brief,' says I

Your account of Chris Bryant’s cultural plans, for more grit and less glitz (Report, 17 January), lifts the heart but he clouds the issue of seating prices: “It’s great to have a £10 ticket system but if all the £10 tickets are being sold to people who were buying them for £50 the week before, then that’s no great gain,” says Bryant.

We need to unravel the connection between seat prices and auditorium design. In the first theatre building boom, at the end of the 18th century, hundreds of playhouses were built with a top-to-bottom price ratio of eight to one. In the second, at the end of the 19th century, many more were built, including the West End theatres. All had galleries and boxes stretching down to the stage. They also had a greater capacity at the lower price levels than at the higher, a contrast to today, where there are very few cheap seats and they are all at the very back or the very front.

In the theatres of the postwar building boom, such as the Olivier and Lyttelton, all seats have roughly the same straight-on view. When the National Theatre building committee wondered whether their new theatres would be more intimate with side seats, architect Denys Lasdun replied: “I would need a written instruction to include bad seats.”

Contrast that with the reaction of client George Christie in 1991 when I introduced a horseshoe plan for the new Glyndebourne to replace the old shoebox holding 850. Asked for 200 more seats, I introduced a further 150 “bad seats”, over and above the brief. These paper the walls with people and give the theatre both warmth and a better acoustic. I suggested that this should depend on agreeing a price ratio of 10 to one. Christie immediately understood both the theatrical and social benefits. We built the horseshoe and there is still a 10 to one price ratio.

In the 60s it was thought that a new theatre had to be democratic and serve the whole audience equally. The result is not only cinema or stadium forms but also huge volumes: the volume of the Olivier theatre auditorium holding 1,060 is greater than that of Drury Lane, which holds 2,300. Seat prices have been levelled up rather than down on the grounds that all enjoy an uninterrupted view of the actor. Yet the performers prefer the old theatres with their multi-level circles embracing the stage.

If Labour can reinvigorate our larger touring theatres across the nation it will win great support from the theatre profession. Today we have grit at our smaller underfunded theatres. At the larger theatres, glitz too often reigns with elaborate scenic effects, as seen in London, where spectacle rules.
Iain Mackintosh
London

Generic versions of medicines can save vast amounts of money.
Generic versions of medicines can save vast amounts of money. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

I was one of 500 people who benefited from the £18.7m government funding for Sofosbuvir (NHS delays $1,000-a-pill drug to treat hepatitis C, 16 January). If I hadn’t been treated I would be dead today. The decision of Nice to allow NHS England to postpone Sofosbuvir’s introduction will condemn many patients to death.

There is an alternative, as India has demonstrated, which is to refuse the manufacturers, Gilead Sciences, a patent. In India Gilead has now agreed to the production of a generic version of the drug. The cost of producing Sofosbuvir for a three-month course is $101 – $1 a pill.

The government balks at the potential billion-pound cost of the drug but the answer is simple – produce a generic version of Sofosbuvir. The right of Gilead to charge whatever the market can bear will come at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. In the United States hepatitis C is a bigger killer than HIV, and in Britain there are an estimated quarter of a million sufferers.

The new generation of non-interferon drugs promise to wipe out hepatitis C completely but the major drug companies must be brought under public ownership. Private profit and public health are diametrically opposed. The question is which is more important – the profits of the major drug companies or the needs of those who are ill? Capitalist versus a socialist morality.
Tony Greenstein
Brighton

Toilet bowl and paper
Bog standard. ‘It’s best to leave the seat in the position in which you used it, with the responsibility being on the next user, whatever their gender, to put the seat into the appropriate position to suit their particular anatomy,’ writes Josh Mackay. Photograph: Urban Zone/Alamy

The West Hollywood gay community may like to think of itself as being progressive (Report, 17 January), but its attitude to toilet-seat position (“Gentlemen, remember to lower that toilet seat”) is far from such. It’s stuck in the 1970s. As a general principle, it’s best to leave the seat in the position in which you yourself used it, with the responsibility being on the next user, whatever their gender, to put the seat into the appropriate position to suit their particular anatomy. Thus there is no onus on the members of any one gender to leave the seat in any specific configuration.

The current “seat-down” convention means that in order to relieve their bladders, males have to first raise then lower the seat no matter who uses the toilet next, while females have to do nothing. Surely a discriminatory practice. Maybe the seat-down convention is based on an erroneous assumption that down is the “natural” position of a toilet seat – a prejudice that is possibly boosted by an inappropriate extrapolation from the fact that men do need to have the seat down once, maybe twice, a day (though relatively infrequently in public toilets). Or maybe it’s an outdated example of good manners, in the same vein as “ladies first” – and thus the sort of patronising activity we must discourage.
Josh Mackay
London

MEDIA Weather 1
Just don’t mention the Republic of Ireland… Photograph: BBC/PA

Martin Kettle’s disquiet about weather forecasting (Let’s scrape the hyperbole off the weather forecasts, 19 January) prompts the question of why the TV weather map shows the whole of the island of Ireland but ostentatiously omits any reference, visually or orally, to the situation in the Republic. I have always assumed that this was in order to placate Ulster Unionists who fear that an all-Irish weather forecast would be a first step towards reunification. Why was this vital issue not resolved in the Good Friday agreement?
Chris Haskins
House of Lords

• To say this year or that year is the warmest on record is deceptive (Report, 17 January). Instrument records began about 1850, but measurements using proxies such as ice cores have been successfully made covering the past 6bn years of the Earth’s existence. For example Christopher Scotese, professor of geology at the University of Texas, shows in his analysis using such proxies that the Earth’s temperature and carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than today for 80% of the past 6bn years.
Terri Jackson
Founder of energy and climate group at the Institute of Physics

• I have to say how much I have been enjoying finding out the backstories of my favourite Doonesbury characters in the Doonesbury Classic cartoon strips in G2. It will be quite a jolt when Trudeau eventually brings us up to date with current events in Doonesbury World.
Jill Carr
Shrewsbury, Shropshire

• Since my letter (January 19) asking if my daughter (an unpaid intern in Geneva) is now earning nothing plus 30%, I’ve been told – in no uncertain terms – that she is now earning nothing minus 30%.
Dr John Doherty
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

• I don’t care whether the HP sauce label is in French or English (letters passim), or what its ingredients are, as long as no one calls it “haitch pee”.
Jane Jones
Chester

Independent:

 

Times:

 

Telegr

How should we address the inequality of access to leading universities by students of equal ability?

Sir, The problem of differential access to leading universities by students of equal ability is not new (“Top universities ordered to end the north-south split”, and leader, Jan 17). Much has always depended on where the head and sixth-form teachers of a school were themselves educated. Oxbridge-educated teachers direct their students towards Oxbridge. In 1980, Westminster’s headmaster and I found that there were more such teachers at his school than at the 50 secondary schools in the three poorest-performing boroughs of inner London. London does far better now, but how many Russell Group graduates are teaching at senior level in the lowest-performing schools?

It should not be difficult to establish the relationship between the university attended and level of degree achieved by senior teachers in a school, and the proportion of high achievers at that school applying to Russell Group universities.

Dealing with the results of that research would be difficult, but there is no point in blaming universities for something over which they have no control: the distribution of teachers with personal experience of what they gained from the leading universities they attended and are, in consequence, determined to give their students a chance to experience.

Sir Peter Newsam (Former education officer to the Inner London Education Authority)
Thornton Dale, N Yorks

Sir, The access gap between northern students and top universities does indeed seem daunting — but it can be bridged. The Linacre Institute works in precisely this area, and in 2014 the charity helped 70 per cent of our northern state-school students to win places at Oxbridge and Imperial.

The average acceptance rate is about 1 in 5. All students came from deprived parts of Yorkshire and north Derbyshire — many from places in the English bottom 20 for access, such as Rotherham and Doncaster. Our pilot scheme involved summer schools in Westminster and Cambridge, followed by intensive tuition and mentoring. It shows what students can do given a clear goal, a defined path, and someone to help them along the way.

Paul Coupar-Hennessy
Founding trustee, Linacre Institute

Sir, Clearly, as your reports make clear, the universities still need to do more to attract bright children in all areas of the country. But imposing a quota system is economically inefficient, because it offers places regardless of academic ability or other merits.

Why not create more grammar schools, which have a track record of promoting social mobility, and require them to be situated in poor areas (this can easily be measured from council tax figures). Poorer parents will not then suffer from high property and transport costs — and will in effect be subsidised by wealthier parents, who will need to transport their children on much longer school runs.

Ian Hitchen
Bolton

Sir, Your reports rightly draw attention to a national scandal of inequality and lack of social mobility. Comparing the extreme northeast and southeast counties, Northumberland and Kent, is interesting. Neither feature in the list of top 20 or bottom 20 councils for the percentage of state-school pupils getting into the top 30 universities, yet Kent has more than 30 grammar schools and may soon have another. It should be doing better. It also has a wealth of independent schools and some of the poorest-performing state secondary schools in the country.

Northumberland, by contrast, has no grammar schools and almost no independent schools, because the energies and ambitions of the whole community are channelled into making the state comprehensive 13-18 high schools in all the county’s market towns strong and successful for all. They are very effective agents of social mobility.

Should we not learn from Northumberland’s example?

John Haden (Former principal, Wymondham College)
Oakham, Rutland

Sir, Bernard Trafford (letter, Jan 19) urges the government to buy places at independent schools for bright, poor pupils. Surely these places should be bought for the least bright pupils, who are most in need of what is allegedly better education. Bright pupils will succeed anyway. It is the least able pupils on whom we should be spending money.

Nick Pritchard
Southampton

The Pedant has ruled on Mick Jagger’s use of the double negative. Now can he turn to Andy Williams?

Sir, Isn’t Oliver Kamm giving too much benefit of the doubt when he assumes that Mick Jagger’s double negative really meant he could get some of that elusive “satisfaction” (The Pedant, Register, Jan 17)? I always thought he was just over-emphasising his lack if it. But now that Oliver has strayed from the stockyard, where over the months he has been entertainingly slaughtering grammatical sacred cows, and has now trespassed into the field of popular culture, might I seek his opinion on Mick’s “Hey you! Get off of my cloud!”— and Andy Williams’s “Can’t take my eyes off of you”?

In our early days of marriage, my Shropshire-born wife would ridicule my south London use of that superfluous preposition, but almost 60 years on it would be good to get The Pedant’s view.

Ken Broad

Church Aston, Shropshire

Despite claims to the contrary, Britain is “good for the Jews” — as well as for every other minority

Sir, Most Jews recognise the residual persistence of antisemitic attitudes in our society (report, Jan 19, and letters, Jan 16 & 19). It is a mere shadow of what we saw in the 1930s; to characterise it as more than that is alarmist.

Britain is tolerant, and “good for the Jews” as well as for every other minority. The Pew survey of attitudes towards minorities in 2014 shows that Britain is second only to Germany in having highly positive attitudes towards Jews among other groups.

That is why my family are staying put here in Reading.

Rabbi Zvi Solomons

Reading

Why would emotionless machines be any better stewards of Earth than the human race?

Sir, Don Cowell (letter, Jan 16) suggests that the predicted destruction of the human race by artificial intelligence may be no good thing “given the damage we have inflicted on the planet”.

What gives him the idea that emotionless machines, unmoved by the extinction of their own creators, would be any better stewards of Earth than ourselves?

Simon Mallett

Buckingham

Hugo Rifkind mentioned the Canaanites and the Moabites, but missed the Mosquitobites…

Sir, We were amused by Hugo Rifkind’s piece on the Bible (Opinion, Jan 17). I can add another -ite to his list. While in Israel a few years ago we were on a coach from Jericho to Jerusalem, on a dusty road in the heat of the afternoon. Our excellent guide was droning on about the tribes of Israel: “There were the Canaanites, the Moabites, the Mosquitobites.”

There was an astonished gasp from his audience, before he added: “Just checking to see if you were awake.”

Ann Tillard

North Chailey, E Sussex

Would the Australian preferential voting system, and e-voting, be better options for the UK?

Sir, Compulsory voting makes Australians, in general, rather more interested in political life than I have observed in Britain; “copping out” is not an option (Opinion, Jan 15, and letters, Jan 17). Political disconnection is also reduced by the Australian preferential voting system, which ensures that if I vote for someone who attracts the least votes, my vote will flow on to the second person on my list of preferences, and so on. In that way, a successful candidate is “legitimised” by having received the votes of at least 50 per cent of voters — far more democratic than a typical UK candidate’s election.

Clive Huggan

Banstead, Surrey

Sir, E-voting has the potential to increase turnout, encourage young people’s engagement in politics, assist the counting process and — unlike postal voting — would allow voters to follow the debate through to the day of the election. It seems odd that the government trusts people to purchase its new pensioner bonds online but not enough to cast their votes by similar means.

Peter Saunders

Salisbury

Telegraph:

UK aid to Pakistan should continue but future increases must rest on domestic tax reform
The Department for International Development (Dfid) was required to spend £11.46billion on aid projects in 2013

SIR – I note that MPs are to take issue with the Treasury on its rushed settlement of £1 billion in foreign aid.

An examination of how other countries find ways to benefit their own population as well as the recipient country would show how aid can be more productive and demonstrate the Government’s commitment to British industry. In the early days of establishing an export market for its manufacturing industry, Japan gave manufactured goods, not money, as aid.

The advantages of such a policy are threefold. First, it helps to establish the company brand in the recipient’s country; secondly, it reduces the outflow of investment from the donor country, and also removes the substantial fees that are taken by agents in the recipient country during distribution of that aid.

Malcolm Yates
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

SIR – Your leader on last year’s spending spree at the Department for International Development highlights a long-standing problem.

DfID terminated my contract in 2000 after I drew attention to poor financial controls, as reported by Christopher Booker in The Sunday Telegraph. The most scandalous waste of money is surely on the parliamentary select committee on international development, which seems forever oblivious to any serious problem. If it were effective the Independent Commission for Aid Impact would be unnecessary.

Howard Horsley
Wenlock, Shropshire

SIR – Last year I corresponded several times with Alan Duncan, in his role as Minister of State for International Development, about the money we give to various developing countries.

I have lived and worked in Africa and I expressed my view to him that aid promotes poverty and conflict. The rulers of the receiving countries have no incentive to improve the lot of their people, since if they did they would lose access to large amounts of hard currency. It also ensures that transfers of power are often bloody affairs.

Brian Farmer
Chelmsford, Essex

SIR – The very real risk posed by corrupt governments in poorer countries should not be an excuse for reducing foreign aid.

Rather, our government should direct funds through reliable charities who know where the need lies and are accountable.

John Robinson
Stanton, Suffolk

SIR – Rushing to spend hundreds of millions to meet overseas aid targets, allowing immigration to create an extra city a year, and paying unashamedly obese people not to work: is it any surprise Britain has financial problems?

David Mears
Jávea, Spain

Election debates 2015

(Paul Rogers)

SIR – Charles Moore is right to be wary of the temptation of broadcasters to look for gaffes in election campaigns at the expense of coverage of the important issues.

But some years ago, BBC Radio Four had the excellent idea of broadcasting extracts from just a couple of speeches each night in the 11.30pm to midnight parliamentary slot. I hope politicians will still have a similar platform for presenting their ideas in depth.

Hugh Alexander
Williton, Somerset

SIR – I agree with Charles Moore that David Cameron should feel no compulsion to participate in a televised debate.

However, he really is in a tricky situation. Should he decline, Ed Miliband will be in a stronger position to rebuild his battered image. Should he take part, he would at least be better placed to contrast the economic outlook with Labour’s record in government.

But best to stay away? Yes, probably.

Richard Larner
Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – Once the television debates are over, will I be able to vote via text or will Simon Cowell decide the outcome?

John Allan-Smith
New York

Pigs in print

SIR – The author guidelines for Oxford University Press have not recently changed, and there is no ban on the mention of pigs in children’s books.

OUP believes that if we are to make the biggest impact on the educational performance of children in the 200 countries we publish for, we must also reflect children’s cultural needs. Our priority with all our publishing is that we uphold high academic standards, while ensuring our titles do not cause offence that is either unnecessary or would get in the way of our educational objectives.

Kate Harris
Managing Director, Oxford Education
Oxford University Press (UK)

Effective drug funding

SIR – The establishment of an additional Cancer Drugs Fund was a clear sign that the current system for the effective and efficient commissioning of cancer drugs in England was failing to achieve its objectives.

Now even this additional pot is crumbling under demand and the high cost of cancer drugs. The knee-jerk reaction has been to save money by re‑evaluating the availability of these drugs, regardless of need.

The number of people living with cancer is predicted to reach a record level this year in Britain. A long-term plan for more sustainable and effective drug-funding and appraisal systems in all parts of the country is urgently required. Cancer charities are uniting behind this common goal and will be working closely with NHS England, the Department of Health, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) over the coming months to develop a better process for commissioning cancer drugs.

Only this way, with the full cooperation of manufacturers, will the health service be able to cope with demand and meet the needs of people affected by cancer.

Owen Sharp
Chief Executive, Prostate Cancer UK
Mark Flannagan
Chief Executive, Beating Bowel Cancer
Andrew Wilson
Chief Executive, Rarer Cancers Foundation
Deborah Alsina
Chief Executive, Bowel Cancer UK
Baroness Delyth Morgan
Chief Executive Officer, Breast Cancer Campaign
Samia al Qadhi
Chief Executive, Breast Cancer Care
Chris Askew
Chief Executive, Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Maggie Wilcox
President, Independent Cancer Patients’ Voice
Nick Turkentine
Chief Executive, James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer
Robert Music
Chief Executive, Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust
Rose Woodward
Founder, Kidney Cancer Support Network
Monica Izmajlowicz
Chief Executive, Leukaemia Care
Lindsey Bennister
Chief Executive, Sarcoma UK
Jesme Fox
Medical Director, Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation,
Roger Wotton
Hon. Chairman, Tackle Prostate Cancer

Time is money

SIR – Would it be too early to nominate National Savings & Investments for this year’s “Windows 8 Award”, for sheer technical incompetence and customer dissatisfaction with a computer-driven service?

It took me about 15 hours to log on and eventually purchase the two new NS&I bonds, and three days to find out if my purchases had actually been processed due to a stream of false error messages. At no time during those three days was I able to get through by telephone.

Jeremy Thorn
Fairburn, West Yorkshire

SIR – If my experience with NS&I is anything to go by, I fully expect that doctors’ surgeries will be filled with pensioners suffering from high blood pressure over the coming week.

Jo-Ann Rogers
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

Archbishops’ views ignore the Anglican majority

SIR – The recent comments by our archbishops concerning the economy are, sadly, still very much the norm among the higher echelons of the Church of England.

We the Anglican majority can see the results of Coalition policies: record levels of employment, the lowest crimes rate ever, improving state education, and rising living standards here in Britain.

Rev Richard Fothergill
South Stoke, Bath

SIR – Alistair McBay (Letters, January 16) writes that the assets of the Church of England are worth £6 billion.

One of these assets is St Botolph’s Church in Hardham, West Sussex, which contains the oldest ecclesiastical wall paintings in Britain. Regrettably, these unique 1,000-year-old paintings are suffering from the effects of neglect and damp and are fading fast.

Can the Church not find the necessary funds to preserve them?

Michael Dallas
London SW13

SIR – Perhaps if the Church of England concentrated more on visiting parishioners and less on ripping out its comfortable firm pews, it might succeed in filling the latter.

Frances Jarvis
Cartmel, Lancashire

I’m just going outside…

SIR – I find the latest research on the health benefits of a brisk walk most reassuring.

Returning from my daily excursion in the recent weather conditions of west Scotland, I have never felt nearer death.

Paul Wilson
Prestwick, Ayrshire

Wild suggestion

SIR – Your correspondents Juno Hollyhock and Trees Fewster (Letters, January 17) should get together and run a garden centre.

Flora Wild
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – There is a respected clergyman living near us whose surname is Page-Turner.

As an organist, I have often thought of inviting him to assist me during a recital.

Paul Cheater
Dorchester, Dorset

A disappearing act 27 years in the making

Life in the slow lane: the spur-thighed tortoise can live for more than a century in captivity (Alamy)

SIR – In 1982 I inherited a spur-thighed tortoise with a basement garden flat that I bought near Holland Park in London (Letters, January 10).

“Ferdi” turned out to be an energetic, rather bad-tempered tortoise with a penchant for escaping. When we moved to a terraced house in Ealing he would often squeeze through a neighbour’s fence and be found marching down the road towards Pitshanger Park, his shell covered with Able Labels bearing our address.

When we moved to rural Worcestershire, he roamed around a well-fortified pen in our garden, and would inevitably make a run for it if we were distracted when we let him out to graze the lawn. Neighbours found him on a dog walk half a mile from home; a motorist found him on the main road to Worcester and foisted him on an unsuspecting family for a month before we retrieved him.

After 27 years of loving care, he finally left us one summer’s day by perfecting the art of pole-vaulting over his wooden fence while we were out.

I do not miss the restlessness, the headbutting attacks or the intolerance he had for our pet dogs and cats, but I admired his determination to escape year after year. The Worcestershire countryside is no doubt enriched by his company, and I hope he roams the woods and farmland for as long as he wishes.

Catriona Craig
Malvern, Worcestershire

Out of this world

SIR – If the Bob cartoon is to be believed (January 17), the Mars Express has increased in price by only two pence in just over 11 years.

Get me on the next rocket.

Brian Simpson
Taunton, Somerset

 

 

Globe and Mail:

DAVID BUTT

Canada’s law on hate speech is the embodiment of compromise

Freedom of expression in Canada is normally a dry legal concept, sporadically explored by law professors in dense papers, and taken for granted by everyone else. Until now, if freedom of expression got any attention at all, it was fleeting and superficial, like a bumper sticker on a passing car. The terrorist attacks in France and their aftermath changed all that, giving freedom of expression an extended tenure in the limelight and popular consciousness.

But the discussion in Canada so far fails to address the unique Canadian approach to freedom of expression, and thus fails to ask a crucial Canadian question. Does freedom of expression as legally defined in Canada provide the right tools for expression challenges in a fragmented and largely angry 21st century social media world?

Canadian freedom of expression law, like so many things Canadian, embodies compromise. In the United States, even the most hateful, virile and destructive speech is constitutionally protected. In many other countries, expression is suppressed if politically problematic. We walk between those extremes.

Here you can be put in jail for hate speech. But before you condemn the prospect of jail for speaking your mind, consider the built-in limits to the hate speech law. There are seven of them, and together they pour a big pail of cold water on any over-zealous prosecutor intent on duct-taping your mouth. For a prosecution to go ahead, all of these conditions must be met:

1. The hate speech must be the most severe of the genre;

2. The hate speech must be targeted to an identifiable group;

3. It must be public;

4. It must be deliberate, not careless;

5. Excluded from hate speech are good faith interpretations of religious doctrine, discussion of issues of public interest, and literary devices like sarcasm and irony;

6. The statements must be hateful when considered in their social and historical context;

7. No prosecution can proceed without approval of the attorney-general, which introduces political accountability because the attorney-general is a cabinet minister.

Even with these limits, the Canadian hate law still clearly curtails free expression. But the Supreme Court has not struck it down. Why? Four main reasons. First, our constitution protects not only free expression, but multiculturalism and equality as well. So to read the constitution holistically, we cannot permit one protected freedom to undermine other rights and freedoms enjoying equal status.

Second, the Supreme Court recognized the insidious impact of propaganda campaigns that gain social traction and incrementally dull our rational faculties and empathy. Perhaps paternalistic, but the court is saying sometimes we need to be protected from our baser and stupider selves.

Third, the courts have said that even if a hate speech prohibition is never used, it has symbolic value, like that framed mission and values statement on the wall of most businesses, that stares silently down at the workers while they work.

Fourth, hate speech has no redeeming value.

So, given our unique law, how would recent events have played out if they had occurred in Canada? No comics would have been rounded up by police. Prosecutors would have just shrugged their shoulders and ignored the Pope’s argument that insulting religions should have consequences. And protests by religious groups against cartoons satirizing their religion would have had ample breathing space, with police present to prevent violence, but not muzzle the message.

In other words, a crisis of Parisian magnitude, had it occurred here, would be a serious matter for our criminal and anti-terror laws, but not our hate speech law. And the hate speech law itself, on the books for decades, is used only sporadically. So does such a marginal prohibition still serve any useful purpose?

One glimmer of the law’s utility might be seen in the decision by many Canadian media outlets not to re-publish the offending Charlie Hebdo cartoons, despite being sincerely awash in “Je suis Charlie” sentiment. Our Supreme Court suggested the hate speech law has symbolic value such that even without being invoked, it silently validates a national ethic of multicultural accommodation and respect; and in the decision by Canadian media not to re-publish the cartoons, that very ethic can be seen in action. So it may be that our hate speech law was a silent point of resonance with the values, not the legal obligations, that motivated the media outlets who chose not to publish.

Is that sufficient reason for our hate speech law to exist? Sufficient reason for a law that can impose jail for speaking out? If we take these questions back to our social media haunts, our office water-cooler chats, and our classrooms, freedom of expression in Canada will come out a winner regardless of how opinion is, or is not, divided.

 

Elizabeth Renzetti

If the artists starve, we’ll all go hungry

Irish Times:

 

Sir, – Well, we have grown up even if it did take much longer than it should have. Now, can Leo go on to be the first openly gay party leader or even taoiseach? – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CASSERLY,

Bishopstown,

Cork.

Sir, – Leo Varadkar’s thoughtful interview with Miriam O’Callaghan made me think about the forthcoming marriage equality referendum. All political parties are supportive, in theory, of the Yes campaign. But concern has been expressed that complacency about positive polls on the issue may yet scupper our endeavour. Actions speak louder than words. Unless the political party machines, on the ground, nationwide are mobilised to actively campaign for a Yes vote, we will fail. I am fearful, a year out from a general election, that the political parties, whose focus will be on re-election and not marriage equality, will not step up and do the work required to deliver a positive referendum result. Will the political parties, and their leaders follow through and honour their commitment to marriage equality? I, for one, will not hold my breath. – Yours, etc,

GER PHILPOTT,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – I can’t believe that Leo Varadkar has come out and admitted that he doesn’t listen to Liveline. – Yours, etc,

MARTIN CAREY,

Athlone,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – What does it tell us about our society that LGBT people in public office feel obliged to declare their preferred sexual interest? Though maybe in a democracy we can now expect that all heterosexual people in public office – and media commentators – will also dutifully divulge their own sexual preferences. Another feather in the cap of prurience. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – What does it say about our maturity as a country that the mention of a Minister’s sexual orientation is deemed worthy of being main headline news not five minutes after his interview on Miriam Meets? – Yours, etc,

SHEELAGH MOONEY,

Naas,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – Well done to The Irish Times for not having an “I am gay, says Leo Varadkar” headline splashed across the front of your newspaper today. I would think the only thing people want to know about Mr Varadkar is whether or not he can sort out the mess that is the HSE. – Yours, etc,

JOE HARVEY,

Glenageary, Co Dublin.

Sir, – It was a brave move of Leo Varadkar to speak publicly about his sexual orientation. Victory in the forthcoming referendum can only be secured if each and every member of the gay community becomes a self-elected public representative for the cause of marriage equality. It is time to come out and speak up! Talk to your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your nieces and nephews, your cousins, your friends and your work colleagues. Tell them why they should vote yes; respond to their concerns with reason, evidence and respect. These are the people who can realise Mr Varadkar’s hope “to be an equal citizen in his own country”. – Yours, etc,

Dr FIONÁN DONOHOE,

Glasnevin,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – I am coming out. I cannot live a lie any longer. I voted for Fine Gael at the last general election. Phew, that’s a weight off my chest.

I am determined to find political happiness. I will seek out a political relationship that I can be proud of. – Yours,etc,

DECLAN DOYLE,

Lisdowney,

Kilkenny.

Sir, – Won’t Ireland be a great little country when a Minister does not have to take to the airwaves and disclose his sexual preference? I live in hope. – Yours, etc,

FRANK BYRNE,

Terenure, Dublin 6W.

Sir, – Leo Varadkar has “come out” as a being gay. As a gay man I think this is brilliant. However a part of me feels sad that his “coming out” – and isn’t that a peculiar expression in itself – has made such headline news across all media.

Why the need for gay people to “come out?” Do heterosexual people “come out”?

I know many young gay people today will welcome Leo Varadkar’s announcement and it certainly will come up in conversations in households all across the country. It may even help some gay people to “come out”, if that is what they wish to do. However, the media attention to this will die down and the conversation will move on and rightly so.

Now what were we talking about? It’s the economy, stupid, or more specifically, in Leo’s case, hospital waiting lists and the numbers of people on trolleys. – Yours, etc,

TOMMY RODDY,

Lower Salthill,

Galway.

Sir, – Given the media’s positive coverage of Leo Varadkar’s declaration of his sexual identity and the public’s blasé acceptance of same, it’s clear that it would be far more courageous in the current climate for a Minister to come out in favour of fully metered water charges. – Yours, etc,

STEVE CORONELLA,

Shankill, Co Dublin.

Sir, – There is always a balance to be struck for a gay person in the public eye. On one hand they have the opportunity to provide an example for other people dealing with the same emotional issues about whether to be open about their sexuality. But on the other hand the emotional impact of revealing your sexuality is something a heterosexual person will never understand because they never have to explain themselves, not just once but repeatedly for the rest of their life. People say, and with sincerity, that it’s no big deal, while never really understanding just how big a deal it actually is.

The undercurrent of course is that LGBT people should be grateful that heterosexual people have no “problem” with us, rather than asking why would a LGBT person have to fear someone finding out they are gay at all in the first place.

It is interesting too that despite his own experience of being marginalised, in the sense that Mr Varadkar only now felt able to be open about one of the most fundamental aspects of his personality. Remarkably his experience doesn’t seem to have had any impact on tempering his willingness to put the boot into a range of other people who also find their lives marginalised through circumstances they had no say over, such as being born into a dysfunctional family or an economically deprived area. Thanks to the decisions made by Mr Varadkar and this Government in 2015 those people have less chance to rise above their circumstances than they ever had before.

Since 2011, he has been a Cabinet Minister and I think most people would be at loss to set out anything he has actually achieved so far.

His time as transport minister was a period of paper-shuffling blandness where none of the embedded problems of the Irish transport system were addressed. Similarly to date, his time as Minister for Health is also noticeable for its lack of ambition. The location of the children’s hospital is still not decided. Absolutely nothing has been done to provide a health service that is free at the point of use that would in fact cost less than any other system, when one compares the price per head the Irish taxpayer spends on health compared to the level of service other countries with a free health system provides. The most vulnerable in Irish society are still having to battle for a medical card despite a promise that they would not have to. Ireland’s health system can’t even rise to the most basic provision of a “baby box”, similar to that provided to every new mother in Finland, to ensure that at least for the first few weeks of life, a child, no matter what circumstances they are born into, will have a safe, clean space of their own and the supplies needed for those essential first few weeks when the seeds of so many future problems are sown, and could instead be avoided.

So, lest anyone claim to be surprised later on, no-one should be under any delusion that any experience of being marginalised due to his sexuality will filter down into a more compassionate conservatism from Mr Varadkar. The reality is that he will still continue to support and vote for every single decision of the Government of which he has been a member since it was formed to chip away at the welfare state safety nets and concentrate the wealth of the country into fewer and fewer hands.

The media coverage of Mr Varadkar coming out is disingenuous when the same level of attention isn’t directed to his actual decisions as part of the Government and anyone expecting the LGBT element to bring a softer or more nuanced edge to his politics will be disappointed. – Yours, etc,

DESMOND FitzGERALD,

Canary Wharf,

London.

Sir, – We wish to express serious reservations about the recently published draft terms of reference of the forthcoming inquiry into mother and baby homes, and related matters.

We have every confidence in the capacity of the distinguished members of the commission to investigate. We are not confident that the commission will be allowed to examine lives blighted outside institutions where unmarried mothers were forced to abandon their children.

The terms of reference mention “exit pathways” from mother and baby homes. It is not clear if such pathways will lead up the entrance path of similarly dysfunctional institutions to which abandoned children were sent.

For example, some of the undersigned were sent from the Bethany Home to the Westbank Orphanage in Wicklow, which had the same Protestant fundamentalist ethos as Bethany. The orphanage had one main purpose, to raise money for the institution, with one main effect, the denial of a right of adoption to most children. Children were paraded in front of gullible but sincere church congregations in Northern Ireland as the South’s poor Protestant orphans. We were, in fact, exploited, unpaid, professional orphans, illegally transported back and forth over the Border. Some “children” remained in Westbank, which closed in 2002, into their twenties. Many suffered systemic physical, sexual and psychological abuse.

We insist on being allowed to tell the Commission of Inquiry of our experiences.

If we succeed, and lives of children who arrived from Bethany are examined, that will leave those who arrived from other “pathways”.

They arrived sometimes direct from maternity hospitals, or from the Braemar House Mother and Baby Home, Cork, which (unaccountably) is not listed in the terms of reference. Their situation too should be investigated. Similarly, the exit pathway from the Church of Ireland Magdalen Home to its associated Nursery Rescue Society, which farmed out children from the age of three, should also be examined.

We demand to know why we were abandoned and ignored by regulatory authorities.

It is time for the State to accept responsibility. The draft terms of reference should be tightened and clarified so that our experience may be recognised, investigated and validated. – Yours, etc,

CAILIN ANDERSON,

(Bethany Home,

Westbank Orphanage)

Kilwinning, Ayrshire;

COLM BEGLEY;

(Westbank Orphanage,

Bethany Home),

Carrigadrohid,

Co Cork;

ELIZABETH

CHIKANEY O’TOOLE,

(Bethany Home,

Westbank Orphanage),

Newtownmountkennedy,

Co Wicklow;

HELEN FITZPATRICK,

(Westbank Orphanage),

Langhorne, Pennsylvania;

SIDNEY HERDMAN,

(Westbank Orphanage),

Richill, Co Armagh;

JOHN HILL,

(Church of Ireland Magdalen

Home, Nursery Rescue

Society),

Stamullen, Co Meath;

DEREK LEINSTER,

(Bethany Home),

Rugby,

Warwickshire;

JOYCE McSHARRY,

(Bethany Home),

Kinsealy,

Co Dublin;

VICTOR STEVENSON;

(Braemar House,

Westbank Orphanage)

Bangor, Co Down;

ANDREW YATES,

(Bethany Home,

Westbank Orphanage)

Newtownards, Co Down.

Sir, – I should like to endorse Catherine Sweeney’s proposal (January 17th) for a “Bean an Tí” party. In a recent book, the political philosopher Colm O’Regan puts it succinctly – let’s have a government of mammies. – Yours, etc,

MAEVE KENNEDY ,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – I am writing to you with regard to the wonderful photograph of Jack Cruise, Sean Mooney and Frank Howard on the inside of the back page of your Magazine (“The Times We Lived In”, January 17th). To say that it inspired feelings of deep nostalgia for the great times of variety shows in Dublin would be an understatement. A time when nobody had a shilling in their pocket and the word austerity had not entered our vocabulary. However the Frank in question was not Frankie Howerd but was our own Frankie Howard, a man of infinite jest, who entertained us regally in those dark days. – Yours, etc,

SEAMUS MULLEN,

Dún Laoghaire,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Jim O’Sullivan (January 17th) makes a very good point regarding switching energy suppliers to obtain discounts. I would suggest it is an entirely pointless exercise designed to fool us into believing that there is actually a competitive market with each supplier fiercely fighting for market share. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When you switch you are not told, as you should be, that the contract is for one year and that at the end of which you revert to the then full price. The current supplier will make no effort to keep you as customer and will not countenance a renewal of contract on the same terms. If you wish to at least retain the same level of discount, you have no choice but to switch. This of, course, presupposes that you have copped on to the fact that it is a one-year contract in the first place.

It is quite an extraordinary coincidence that just before your contract is due to expire a competitor’s representative suddenly appears on your doorstep offering precisely the same terms that you signed up for a year previously and so the merry-go-round continues.– Yours, etc,

DEREK MacHUGH,

Foxrock,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – We at the Hugh Lane read with interest the article on The Eve of St Agnes by Harry Clarke which appeared in “Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks” by Fintan O’Toole and Catherine Marshall (January 10th). The Eve of St Agnes is part of the city’s collection in the Hugh Lane and it is on permanent exhibition in the stained-glass room in the gallery.

We also read with interest Frank McDonald’s column on the 1914 Civic Exhibition (“An Irishman’s Diary”, January 13th). The Hugh Lane has organised an exhibition, “Phoenix Rising: Art and Civic Imagination”, which pays tribute to Patrick Geddes as the inspiration behind the 1914 Civic Exhibition. It also exhibits the original Abercrombie plan for Dublin’s regeneration from Dublin City Public Libraries and Archives, together with contemporary responses by artists Stephen Brandes, Mark Clare, Cliona Harmey, Vagabond Reviews, Stéphanie Nava and Mary-Ruth Walsh. It is on public exhibition in the Hugh Lane until March 29th and admission is free. – Yours, etc,

BARBARA DAWSON,

Director,

Dublin City Gallery

The Hugh Lane,

Charlemont House,

Parnell Square North,

Dublin 1.

Sir, – Recent reports are in error giving Dr Langwallner and his colleagues in the Justice for Harry Gleeson Group credit for exposing Gleeson’s wrongful conviction and execution for murder in 1941. This was done in 1993 in a superb book, not mentioned in those articles, entitled Murder at Marlhill, published in 1993 by the late Marcus de Burca, barrister, parliamentary draftsman, historian of the GAA and biographer of John O’Leary, the Fenian. – Yours, etc,

CHARLES LYSAGHT,

Merrion,

Co Dublin.

Irish Independent:

Grandparents' generosity with food has been linked to obesity in children

Grandparents’ generosity with food has been linked to obesity in children

I’m upset and angry this morning, as I heard that the Revenue/Government are thinking of taking tax from young people helped out by their parents for mortgages or other things.

  • Go To

We, the silent majority, have taken a lot on the chin in recent years, the latest being the water charges and the terrible waste and lack of common sense or planning associated with this.

When we were starting out over 40 years ago, our parents helped us out with a piece of land to build a house on and £500 from my mother-in-law, who saved it from her old-age pension. Without this help we would have had a bigger struggle to put a roof over our heads.

For the present generation of couples and young families life is difficult. Many will never qualify for social housing, ironically because they are out there working their butts off either self-employed or in PAYE jobs.

Getting a deposit for a home and making ends meet is a struggle. And all the time they’re realising that these are the days of their lives, their youth, their children’s precious childhood, not to be repeated and so they must make the most of this time.

But the Government seems determined to make life as difficult as possible with ever increasing cuts and new charges.

Thank God for the family, for parents and grandparents who are willing to help out. This can give hope to the struggling generation, a dig out in the best sense of the word. A lifeline when everything else is stacked against them.

But no, enter the Revenue/Government, who want to see if there is anything left to suck out of the old folks or their children or grandchildren, because, make no mistake about it, any new tax on help to our children will affect our grandchildren too.

Is it not enough that pension funding has been attacked and tax on any money earned on savings has been decimated- now they want to tell us that we can’t help out our children without them being penalised. I’m enraged by this.

My generation has already paid hefty tax on anything we have earned and we are willing to forego our pleasure or future security to help out our children and grandchildren.

The Government should be grateful and relieved. How many more people would be on the housing list or looking for more social welfare payments if they were not receiving help from the older generation?

Where will it end? This interference in the natural order of things, families looking out for each other, is wrong. Will we have to keep a note of the Sunday dinners provided? Will they be checking to see if nanny has a shoe club for the kids, and what about Christmas and birthday presents for the grandchildren?

Noeleen Dunne, Drogheda, Co Louth

Our free speech is under threat

Thank you for publishing my letters, most of which deal with the subject of “free speech and a free and responsible media”.

I am deeply concerned about the state of free speech and a free and responsible media in this country. Why? As Thomas Jefferson said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

From my perspective, any country that does not have a vibrant free press and a free-flowing conversation on subjects that are offensive to some is in great danger of losing other liberties.

Citizens of a strong democratic republic should feel completely free to say and read unpopular and, yes, even stupid words. When citizens feel in fear of expressing themselves in whatever manner and the media feels it is being controlled by the subliminal fear of court action or threats of violence, these citizens and media organisations are in grave danger of extremism from either the left or the right.

One should never feel censored for expressing opinions. One should only be held accountable for actions.

Vincent J Lavery, Dalkey, Co Dublin

Burton has missed her chance

How do we get those responsible “left-of-centre” citizens who have been alienated by our recent political culture back – positively – into the political process? Engage those creative, hard-working people to undertake the “democratic revolution” which never happened during the last four years?

The non-launches of the non-party parties have been massively underwhelming.

The general election has to be in or before April next year. But because of events and the capacity of this Coalition not to be a victim of accidents but to create them itself, this election is very likely to happen at a moment not of Enda Kenny’s – or anybody’s – strategic choosing. Plunging us into chaos.

In the absence of common-sense national leadership, some of those now exercising the very un-Irish right to march have – as illustrated in the vox pops – lost all sense of realism and are being manipulated by groups with very questionable political agendas.

But these protesting, ordinary citizens do not want day-to-day governance by fantasists, either of the latter-day Trotskyist variety or of the Sinn Fein brand. They just want to live their own lives in socio-economic security. And for some of their grandchildren to live in Ireland.

If a pragmatic social democratic party was on the electoral menu, it would have a coherent group of at least 20 TDs in the next Dail.

It is very, very late to think of saving Labour. But maybe not too late.

That party might look to Scotland for inspiration. The SNP is focusing, leading and organising a small nation which is in an intellectual and political ferment. A people determined to choose their own future. The SNP’s Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon are engaged in real-life 21st century politics.

Eamon Gilmore’s resignation offered Joan Burton and Labour the opportunity to re-write the script for the party. Not necessarily to flounce out of Government, but simply to send a message that Labour would become the party and the core of a movement of which 21st century Irish people of all ages might wish to be a part.

Brutally put: Joan, an able and conscientious minister but a relic of past times, must go. This is not a game.

She had her chance, after years of waiting to seize the moment – and fluffed it.

Maurice O’Connell, Tralee, Co Kerry

Je suis Leo

We in the gay community welcome the brave move by Health Minister Leo Varadkar in speaking publicly about his sexual orientation.

We must all now follow his lead. Victory in the upcoming referendum can only be secured if each and every member of the gay community becomes a self-elected public representative for the cause of marriage equality.

It is time to come out and speak up!

Talk to your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your nieces and nephews, your cousins, your friends and your work colleagues. Tell them why they should vote yes; respond to their concerns with reason, evidence and respect.

These are the people who can ensure Mr Varadkar’s hope “to be an equal citizen in his own country.”

Dr Fionán Donohoe, Glasnevin, Dublin 9

I support the freedom to be who you are with no recriminations based on colour, faith or sexual orientation.

The straightest shooter in the Cabinet has come out of the closet. “Je suis Leo”.

Kevin Devitte, Westport, Co Mayo

Irish Independent


Social Worker

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21 January 2015 Social Worker

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Karen the social worker comes to call, I collect the car, new tyre £92!

Obituary:

Ward Swingle, of the Swingle Singers
Ward Swingle at the piano in 1975 Photo: LEBRECHT

Ward Swingle, who has died aged 87, was the founding father of the Swingle Singers, the a cappella group that blended jazz rhythms with baroque and classical music in a distinctive, easy-listening style. The group made its name with scat renditions of Bach: lots of “doob-a-do” and “bah-bah-badah” substituting for the keyboard strokes more commonly heard in works such as The Art of Fugue.

Critics could be wary. “The history of pop music is littered with jazzed-up versions of the classics,” sniffed The Times after they packed the Albert Hall in April 1965, before conceding that some people “truly find that the music’s enjoyable qualities profit by being brought up to date”. Others believed that in the same way that Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey introduced many people to Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, so Bach with a swing was an enticing introduction to Johann Sebastian’s carefully knitted counterpoint.

Not only did Swingle and his minstrels receive endorsement at the box office, major classical names such as John Barbirolli, Yehudi Menuhin and Glenn Gould offered their backing. George Malcolm, the renowned harpsichordist, shared the stage with them at the Festival Hall in 1966 in a programme entitled Jazz Sebastian Bach, which was also the name of their first album.

Meanwhile, contemporary composers came calling. Luciano Berio wrote his colourful and noisy four-movement Sinfonia for the Swingle Singers, which they premiered with the New York Philharmonic in 1968 and performed at the Proms in 1969, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Ward Lemar Swingle was born on September 21 1927 in Mobile, Alabama, where, he once said, the sounds of New Orleans float along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. He took to the piano from an early age and with his older brother, Ira, played lunchtime concerts in the school cafeteria, garnering sufficient popularity to be elected as president and vice-president respectively of their student council. By the time he left school Ward, Ira and one of their sisters, Nina, were touring with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra.

He studied music at the Cincinnati Conservatory, where he met his future wife, a French-born violinist, and won a Fulbright scholarship to pursue his musical studies in postwar Paris, taking lessons there with the celebrated pianist Walter Gieseking. Soon he was working as a rehearsal pianist for Roland Petit’s Ballet de Paris at a time whe n Petit was exploring jazz rhythms in his choreography.

Swingle’s first singing work – his voice was a mellifluous tenor – was with Blossom Dearie’s Les Blue Stars, a French vocal group whose members included Christiane Legrande, the sister of Michel Legrande, the composer. From there he joined Mimi Perrin’s Les Double Six, which won acclaim for its electronic treatment of jazz standards.

As Perrin’s health deteriorated in the early 1960s, Swingle, Legrande and other members of the group began singing privately, experimenting with jazzed-up Bach arrangements with the aim of improving their collective vocal agility. By 1962 the eight-member group was performing in public as Les Swingle Singers. Their concerts proved to be great hits with audiences, especially in Britain, and their early recordings won five Grammy awards.

By the early 1970s Swingle felt that he had exhausted the repertoire possibilities with his Parisian singers. He also wanted to experiment with other techniques, including closed-mic singing. Crossing the Channel in 1973 he set up Swingle II, or the New Swingle Singers. The traditional swing music remained, but listeners were now regaled with jazz renditions from a wider selection of musical traditions, ranging from baroque to big band. As well as looking forward, the Swingle Singers now also began looking into music’s back catalogue, releasing a disc of madrigals with a jazz twist in 1974.

Britain proved to be fertile ground. There were invitations to music festivals around the country as well as plentiful radio work. In 1982, for example, the Swingle Singers appeared in a televised concert from St Paul’s Cathedral performing the sacred music of Duke Ellington with Tony Bennett, Phyllis Hyman and McHenry Boatwright.

After recording the Berio Sinfonia under the baton of Pierre Boulez in 1984, Ward Swingle stepped back from frontline singing to return to the United States. He remained the group’s musical adviser, while also running vocal workshops and publishing his many musical arrangements. He was often invited to share the techniques that he had developed for the Swingle Singers with established groups, such as the Stockholm Chamber Choir and the BBC Northern Singers.

A decade later Swingle moved back to France, and latterly was living in Britain. His book Swingle Singing, published in 1999, tells not only the history of the group, but also takes a musicological look at the techniques that he developed.

Today the Swingle Singers, now a seven-member ensemble, continue to push the boundaries of vocal music while also making recordings for television programmes and films, including Sex and the City. Around 70 alumni keep in touch regularly, many of them gathering to celebrate Ward Swingle’s 80th birthday in 2007, when the Berio was heard once again at the Proms.

He is survived by his wife, Françoise Demorest, whom he married in 1952, and by their three daughters.

Ward Swingle, born September 21 1927, died January 19 2015

Guardian:

A man enters the Congress Center in Davos
‘Are we seriously expecting the politicians and the global business elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos to tackle this urgent problem [of wealth inequality]?’ asks Kevin Smith of Global Justice Now. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

In your article on Oxfam’s new inequality report (Half global wealth held by the 1%, 19 January) you quote Thomas Piketty’s theme of our drift back to 19th-century levels of wealth concentration. However you do not mention his solution, the wealth tax. He says that for democracy to regain control over global financial capital it must invent new tools, including a progressive global tax on capital plus a high level of transparency. He suggests 0.5% on wealth between €200,000 and €1m, 1% between €1m and €5m, 2% above €5m and 10% above €1bn. It should be levied on real estate, financial and business assets, art treasures and vintage cars – no exceptions.

It appears President Obama is moving in that direction (Obama to raise taxes on rich to aid middle class, 19 January), but will this appear in our party manifestos? The OECD and EU will be necessary partners if we are to move in this direction. Oxfam’s report is an urgent call to action. Piketty says his proposed wealth tax could be done at EU level, with a clear distributive system; it would affect only 2.5% of the population and bring in 2% of the EU’s GDP annually. The rich should be delighted to be contributing to a fairer world, they shall have treasure in heaven.
Rev David Haslam
Methodist Tax Justice Network

• It’s horrifying to read that the world’s 80 richest people now own as much as half the world’s population, but are we seriously expecting the politicians and the global business elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos to tackle this urgent problem?

What’s presented as entrepreneurial talent and business acumen at Davos is actually a series of aggressive economic and political policies that have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few while exacerbating poverty for hundreds of millions. Neoliberal free-trade deals, tax evasion, financialisation, privatisation – these are the tools that the “great and good” of Davos are using to ensure that by 2016 the richest 1% will own more than 50% of the world’s wealth.

The world will not be “saved” by a tiny group of super-rich who have done incredibly well from putting their economic dogma into practice. Hope lies in challenging their wealth and power, rather than looking to them for answers.
Kevin Smith
Global Justice Now

• Is it not clear that “Half global wealth held by the 1%” is the major factor behind the global economic stagnation? At the bottom end of the wealth/income spectrum we have the lack of sufficient income to finance the effective demand which would attract sufficient investment to initiate growth; at the other end of the income spectrum we have enormous income failing to find sufficient markets for investment and seeking to invest in public institutions – health, education, prisons etc – which will only increase the problem of maldistribution; not to mention antisocial investment in armaments etc. The widespread avoidance of tax only adds to the problem of financing government services. Similarly, the Keynesian solution of quantitative easing – the creation of new finance – and its spending on infrastructure by government bodies will only have a limited effect as the ensuing spurt in income multiplication is largely siphoned up to the top end of the income spectrum. There can be no lasting solution to this problem save through the actions of governments devoted to the general welfare of all citizens and not acting as partisans for the interests of the few.
Francis Westoby
Hitchin, Hertforrdshire

• At the moment, 99% of people behave as if the power of the wealthy 1% does not directly affect them, because their world seems “austere” but otherwise still recognisable. However, the power of the 1% could become very apparent if major instability arises. There is a good lesson from the time of the Pharaohs in Genesis chapter 47. With the help of his chancellor Joseph, Pharaoh accumulates vast food reserves during seven good years. Then years of food shortages grind most people down. Pharaoh acquires all their modest assets of money, livestock and land. Only the bureaucrats of Egypt (its priesthood) remain homeowners – the royalty take all that the 99% formerly possessed. If power corrupts, powerful inequality indebts and ultimately enslaves.
Woody Caan
Professorial fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health

• The churches’ growing condemnation of governments which tolerate poverty and inequality is welcome (Editorial, 19 January). But they should also draw the attention of affluent Christian believers to the teachings of Jesus Christ. For example, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth”, “You cannot serve God and mammon”, “woe to you who are rich”. The implication is that wealthy Christians should redistribute most of their riches to those in need, that they should live close to ordinary families, send their children to state schools. This is not to say they should not hold important jobs, but they should do so while having lifestyles which bring them close to those on low incomes.
Bob Holman
Glasgow

• In 2012 the Tax Justice Network estimated that $21-32 trillion is hidden in tax havens worldwide. Just who does this stash benefit? It is certainly of no benefit to the people who own it, and they can’t take it with them. The means are there to make the world a more equal place, and in the runup to the election we need some concrete pledges on this.
Lorrie Marchington
New Mills, Derbyshire

Snowy road, woman
Many people, especially car drivers, go out unprepared for winter weather. Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

Martin Kettle and I are too old (Let’s scrape the hyperbole off the weather forecasts, 19 January). He clearly doesn’t know that many people jump into their cars in the morning and drive off – windscreen usually unscraped – wearing T-shirts and jeans. So they do need warning that it may be cold and icy. Even as long ago as January 1995, when West Yorkshire was struck by heavy snow at rush hour, there were – joining me in the traffic jam that caused many thousands not to get home that night – many drivers totally unprepared for winter weather. It’s the fault of universal central heating – no ice on the inside of the bedroom window to remind you. All I want to know, like Martin, is the facts, not forecasters’ own value judgments, and, most importantly, whether my washing will dry outside today.
Maureen Panton
Malvern, Worcestershire

LGBT, Brighton Pride Parade
Brighton’s annual celebration of LGBT rights. ‘Children should be taught not to be afraid, and that their sexuality is not fixed.’ Photograph: Heardinlondon/ HeardInLondon/Demotix/Corbis

You report Sue Saunders as saying that a specialist state school focusing on the needs of gay children is a crucial enterprise (LGBT school could open within three years, 16 January). You don’t have to be in denial about infantile sexuality to find the labelling of children as gay or straight etc questionable. Amelia Lee talks of LGBT children “struggling with their identities”. All thoughtful young people do this. Identity develops over time, and sexual exploration and eventual orientation are a part of that growth. But gender shouldn’t dictate or permeate identity. The idea that we have an essential core which is either masculine or feminine or bisexual or trans seems naively and depressingly limiting, and it intensifies the glorified role that gender already plays in our social and cultural life. Children should be taught not to be afraid. Bullies are sometimes those who have realised that their own sexuality is not “fixed”, and so they attack those who show what they themselves would like to hide. Let it be generally accepted in all schools that whatever you think you are is fine, and, just as important, if you feel different next term, that’s fine too.
Louise Summers
Oxford

Employment agency

‘Agencies should be licensed, with the highest standards set, and loss of licences for those that fail to match them.’ Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Aditya Chakrabortty’s article about the exploitation of agency workers (Ghost jobs, half lives, 20 January) exposes the ethical bankruptcy of the recruitment industry today. To me, as the owner of a London-based agency for the past 26 years, the picture he paints of systematic and routine denial of basic rights to workers is as familiar as it is depressing. All the advances that have apparently been made in recent times to improve the conditions of those who undertake temporary work have been cynically and easily turned to the advantage of those agencies that wish to do so. The minimum wage, holiday pay and the Agency Workers Regulations have been all but ignored by dint of poor legislation and inadequate policing. Tax avoidance occurs on a massive scale and apprenticeship schemes are widely abused.

Corrupt practices have become the norm in the recruitment industry, and those agencies that will not entertain them face a hard struggle to survive, as complicit end-users drive prices ever lower. The growth in the recruitment industry exceeded 8% last year and is expected to outstrip growth in the economy as a whole comfortably again this year. As large users of labour turn increasingly to agencies, which can supply staff far more cheaply than directly employed labour, the twilight world described by Chakrabortty can only develop further.

It is astonishing that the recruitment industry, which employs 1.2 million people, is barely regulated. The mass exploitation of hundreds of thousands of workers could easily be stopped by a government that had the will to do so. Recruitment agencies should be licensed, with the highest standards set, and loss of licences for those that fail to match them. It should not only be unacceptable for agencies to exploit the very workers who earn them money: it should be impossible.
Adrian Gregory
Director, xtraman Limited

I was interested to read Aditya Chakrabortty’s statement about supply teachers “enjoying the freedom that agency status brings”. Most supply teachers are doing it because they need to care for children or elderly relatives. It isn’t exactly a great career choice. The reason? Supply teaching is dominated by our old friends, private agencies. Typically, schools are charged anything up to £200 per day and supply teachers may receive only £100 of that amount (that could be £60 below the national rate). Supply teachers working for private agencies are not allowed into the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. In the last financial year, schools in Liverpool spent more than £7m on supply; the private agencies probably creamed off £2m-£3m of that amount. Zero hours and agencies affect the professions as well.
Richard Knights
Liverpool

Greece, austerity, letter
Pensioners taking part in a protest against austerity outside the Greek financial ministry in Athens in December. Photograph: Petros Giannakouris/AP

As economists, we note that the historical evidence demonstrates the futility and dangers of imposing unsustainable debt and repayment conditions on debtor countries; the negative impact of austerity policies on weakening economies; and the particularly severe effects that flow on to the poorest households.

We therefore urge the troika (EU, European Centra Bank and IMF) to negotiate in good faith with the Greek government so that there is a cancellation of a large part of the debt and new terms of payment which support the rebuilding of a sustainable economy. This settlement should mark the beginning of a new EU-wide policy framework favouring pro-growth rather than deflationary policies (Report, 14 January).

We urge the Greek government to abandon the austerity programme that is crushing economic activity and adopt a more expansive fiscal policy setting, targeting immediate relief from poverty and stimulating further domestic demand; to launch a fully independent investigation into the historic and systemic failure of the Greek public financial management processes (including any evidence of corruption) that led to the accumulation of debt, the disguising of the size and nature of the debt and the inefficient/ineffective use of public funds; and to consider the establishment of a judicial body or alternative mechanism that is independent of government and charged with a future responsibility of investigating corruption from the highest to lowest levels of government.

We urge other national governments to exercise their votes within official sector finance agencies and to pursue other diplomatic activities that will support a cancellation of a large part of the Greek sovereign debt and new terms of payment for the rebuilding of a sustainable Greek national economy.
Malcolm Sawyer Emeritus prof, University of Leeds
Danny Lang Associate prof, University of Paris
Prof Yu Bin Professor and deputy director, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Prof Ozlem Onaran University of Greenwich
Prof Mario Seccareccia University of Ottawa
Hugo Radice Life fellow, University of Leeds
John Weeks Professor emeritus, Soas, University of London
Prof Howard Stein University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Anitra Nelson Associate professor, RMIT University, Melbourne
Prof George Irvin University of London, Soas
Dr John Simister Manchester Metropolitan University
Mogens Ove Madsen Associate professor, Aalborg University
Wang Zhongbao Associate professor, editorial director, World Review of Political Economy
Dr Susan Pashkoff Economist
Andrea Fumagalli University of Pavia
Pat Devine University of Manchester
Professor Ray Kinsella University College Dublin
Alan Freeman Co-director, Geopolitical Economy Research and Education Trust
Eugénia Pires Economist, member, Portuguese Citizens Debt Audit
Dr Jo Michell University of the West of England, Bristol
Michael Burke Economist, Socialist Economic Bulletin
Paul Hudson Formerly Universität Wissemburg-Halle
Dr Alan B Cibils Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Guglielmo Forges Davanzati Associate prof, University of Salento
Prof Sergio Rossi University of Fribourg
Faruk Ulgen Associate prof, University of Grenoble
Tim Delap Positive Money
Eleni Paliginis Middlesex University
Grazia Ietto-Gillies Emeritus professor, London South Bank University
Professor Radhika Desai University of Manitoba
Michael Roberts Economist, ‘The next recession’
Michael Taft Unite the Union, Ireland region
Dr Andy Denis City University London
Peter Kenyon Chartist
Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Colin Harcourt UNSW Business School

A Fabian Society report urges Labour to be more “business-friendly” (Report, 16 January). But in This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein shows how the fossil-fuel industry has subverted environmental organisations and governments from effective action on climate change. Jonathon Porritt has decided he can no longer work with them. The Tax Justice Network shows that almost all the FTSE 100 companies use tax havens to avoid tax. Top business incomes have gone on rising, while most people’s real incomes have fallen, and only a tiny minority of companies are living-wage employers. The tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, banking, food and insecticide industries fight almost every regulatory attempt to limit the harm they do. In Lethal But Legal, Nicholas Freudenberg documents how the antisocial policies of major business sectors inflict major damage on public health.

As corporations bigger than many national economies run rings round governments, a clash between corporate power and the democratic state looks as inescapable and as far-reaching as the historical clash between church and state. Is Labour business-friendly, or merely business-fearful?
Richard Wilkinson
Emeritus professor of social epidemiology; Equality Trust

• I agree with Peter Mandelson when he says he would prefer further bands of council tax to the mansion tax (Report, 20 January). However, to describe the mansion tax as crude continues the campaign by Tony Blair and his acolytes to belittle “the wrong brother”. They can’t forgive him for preventing his Blairite brother from leading the party. It is now apparent that these yesterday’s New Labour architects would rather have Cameron continue his devastation of the welfare state than see Ed in No 10.
Eddie Dougall
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

The lid goes up and down automatically on this Toto Neorest toilet.
The lid goes up and down automatically on this Toto Neorest toilet. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Terri Jackson’s letter (20 January) about 2014 being the warmest year since records began is seriously misleading. For the 80% of Earth history when temperatures were higher, there were only micro-organisms, or humans had not yet evolved, nor was there a nexus of other linked human-caused problems with which to cope. The current climate change problem is about how fast the temperature is rising and the destruction of the natural systems that have been able to accommodate more modest rises in the past. But perhaps Terri would like to return to being a blue-green bacterium.
Emeritus Professor Brian Moss
University of Liverpool

• Terri Jackson should get a Nobel for knowing what Earth’s climate was like 6bn years ago. Most scientists think the planet has existed for only 4.5bn years.
Tim Evans
London

• Surely the matter of whether to leave the lavatory seat up or down (Letters, 20 January) has long been settled – it’s down, because the lid itself should also be down, to minimise the aerosolisation of the contents. This practice has multiple benefits – it’s more hygienic, and any inconvenience associated with touching either the seat or lid is shared equally between the sexes.
Edward Collier
Cheltenham

• Chivalry of a kind prevails in our household. The user, regardless of gender, always replaces the toilet seat in the upright position. This is to facilitate our collie bitch ease of access to her favourite tipple.
Dinah Hickish
Tremeirchion, Denbighshire

• “Happy birthday to you, / If I don’t come, you’ll sue, / Whilst rejoicing, you’re invoicing / Your friends; why so few?” (Boy, 5, invoiced for no-show at party, 20 January)?
Fr Alec Mitchell
Manchester

• Page 3 goes tits up (Report, 20 January)?
Tim O’Malley
Stone, Staffordshire

arrows in all directions
Our sympathies should extend beyond first-world borders. Illustration: Gary Kempston

Let’s widen our sympathies

Aussi moi! Je suis Charlie! Alongside millions I too repudiate Muslim gunmen heartlessly bloodying beautiful Paris in accordance with warped precepts (16 January). Mais…

This atrocity, openly committed in a first-world city, targeted people like us. Not so straightforward is solidarity with those languishing uncharged in hidden Guantánamo Bay cells, tortured by white American boys, perhaps called Charlie. Drone strikes that kill burka-clad women and children in a nameless Afghani village elicit no Je suis Fatima marches. They are too far away – physically, culturally and emotionally. Disconnected.

But if gunmen in American or British military uniforms kill to fulfil the warped precepts of our Christian leaders, they’re not “evil”. They’re “our boys”. And we re-elect the leaders whose designs they implement. “Good healthcare policy”, we say, or “It’s the economy, stupid”.

Of course, I deplore atrocities against people with whom I identify. But when I express equal solidarity for others brutalised by groups to which I belong, then I can truly claim Je suis humaine.
Jeph Mathias
Mussoorie, India

• I was so saddened by the tragic loss of life perpetrated by terrorists in Paris who want to be famous. If the media around the world did not publish their names then they would not have succeeded.

They do not deserve to have their names published; they should be called cowards.
Deanna Mastellone
Sydney, Australia

Our mindset is the problem

No doubt your article entitled Is our economic system broken? (2 January) is correct in that there are critical infrastructural problems with the economy, and that many believe there are several potential “short-term or medium-term fixes that will put matters right”.

But there’s a much more fundamental problem: our cultural mindset on what the economy should deliver is intrinsically flawed. Economic growth cannot continue indefinitely for our civilisation because the environmental resources on which it is ultimately based are not growing – they are finite. There is only so much oil, water, soil, iridium etc on the planet. Although new technologies may overcome particular constraints, most depend on the availability of some finite resource or other, and therefore are not ultimate solutions, and in the longer term they often exacerbate problems. Nevertheless, even though the writing is on the wall, almost all politicians, economists and voters remain steadfastly devoted to the fallacy of perpetual economic growth.

This perspective is gloomy but it’s the reality. Fully recognising and accepting this reality is the first critical step toward putting ourselves on a path toward equitable, perpetual, sustainable human existence. “A dark age” does indeed loom but the question is, just how dark does it need to be? It would be a huge leap forward if our society were to truly acknowledge that the global economy cannot grow indefinitely. Then, and only then, could we start to transform our economic mindset – our whole cultural ideology – from doing more with more to doing less with less.
Paul Grogan
Kingston, Ontario, Canada

• Your article asks the question: is our economic system broken? The system we now have, throughout most of the world, is based on a neoliberal ideology, or in other words, a relatively unfettered capitalism. This system tends to transfer wealth from the general populace to a few persons at the top. The increase in inequality has been particularly strong since 1980, when this system was adopted by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. It is not working because of inadequate economic redistribution; or one could say it is broken. It has impacted the Nordic nations less severely because their system has stronger redistribution mechanisms through their taxation and welfare policies. Unfortunately, the ideology is so well entrenched today that governments are blind to its effects and unable to contemplate any other approach. This is due mainly to the control of governments by those who benefit from this system. Is there any chance that this dysfunctional ideology can be overcome by anything less than a revolution?
D Kerr
Collingwood, Ontario, Canada

We need change at the UN

Your suggestions for a new approach in selecting the next secretary general of the United Nations are excellent (Let’s appoint on talent only, 9 January): a single, longer term; decision by the (universal) general assembly; and more careful selection. But in reality, it’s more complicated.

A single term frees the incumbent, but such independence is not acceptable to the major powers. A charter revision is also necessary: easy if they agree, impossible if they do not. Fortunately, democratising the choice of the next secretary general is simpler: the general assembly can be asked for its advice on a short-list, leaving the decision to the council. There is, moreover, precedent for a joint appointment: elections for judges of the international court of justice are held simultaneously by the security council and the general assembly. I am sceptical about head-hunting for such a position: the two best secretaries general of the UN – Dag Hammarskjöld and Kofi Annan – were chosen on the basis of “quiet diplomacy”.

There is a further problem: the selection of the next secretary general will take place in the later part of 2016, coincidentally around the time of the US presidential election. The last time this happened, in 1996, the Republican candidate, Bob Dole, played to the galleries (ironically as it turned out) about the then secretary general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The US administration, and people, as indeed all governments, must realise the crying need for genuine multilateralism in the selection of senior international civil servants: only then will the United Nations have the leadership it desperately needs and the world will have the UN we want.
John Burley
Divonne les Bains, France

Farming fish is no solution

Space is not the least of the problems associated with farming bluefin tuna (Japan fights for its bluefin diet, 9 January). These magnificent creatures, held in cages of up to 90 metres in diameter and 20-30 metres deep, need enormous quantities of pelagic and baitfish to stay alive. Known loosely as “trash” fish, the species used include anchovies, herrings, pilchards, sprats and sardines – all important food sources for coastal people in many developing countries, as well as for larger fish and sea birds. The ratio of feed-fish to bluefin is 15-20:1.

Aquaculture, or fish farming of tuna and other species such as salmon, is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the food economy of wealthy countries, accounting for about 30% of all fish consumed. This growth is partly fuelled by the deeply mistaken perception that the consumption of farmed fish reduces the demand for fast-depleting wild fish stocks.

Japan’s attempts to raise tuna for farming using hatchlings, rather than the live fish that are caught in huge purse nets in the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico, may relieve the pressure on declining numbers of wild tuna but the effects of industrialised farming are well documented. These include pollution caused by the accumulation of large amounts of organic matter on the ocean floor and the occupation of wide areas of sea along the coast.

The largest specimen of bluefin recorded weighed in at 684kg. Such huge fish are seldom caught now and are unlikely ever to exist in cages.
Pat Baskett
Auckland, New Zealand

Briefly

• I was perplexed by an item in your 12 December issue. What exactly does the statement that “Afghanistan’s new president … promised to double down on corruption” mean? From the context of the short article it is perhaps possible to infer the meaning of “double down”, but to be honest, it is really not clear. As one of the world’s most respected newspapers, you should maintain your usual high standards and stick with plain English.
Andrew Forsyth
Wellington, New Zealand

• Ellie Mae O’Hagan (12 December) found difficulty in childhood using right-handed scissors. My wife and I wonder whether things have changed. In a kitchen store, we discovered a left-handed department. Promptly, scissors and a can opener were purchased for our adult left-handed son, only to be told by him that he was unable to use them, as he lives in a right-handed world.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

• Writing as one sconed on the head by half a cooked chicken (with stuffing) during a Mexican wave at a darts competition in Sheffield some years back, I find it puzzling as to just how the authorities knew the audience was rioting (Darts fans riot in Melbourne, 16 January). Surely, throwing plastic garden furniture into the air while dressed as Fred and Barney Flintstone fits perfectly into the mould fans of this most delicate of sports have created for themselves over the years.
Dave Robinson
Newstead, Tasmania, Australia

 

Independent:

Share

Theresa May acknowledges that the Jewish community feels “vulnerable and fearful”. What she failed to mention was that protecting the Jewish and other communities would be far more effective and practical with the 16,000 officers that she has removed from UK policing.

Even without the current “severe” threat from jihadist terrorism, police forces across the country would have been struggling to maintain the standard of service that the public have a right to expect.

She complains that intelligence gathering is being hindered by the refusal of Parliament to pass legislation that allows internet data to be retained and examined, yet is destroying another vital source of intelligence: community policing.

Not only has she presided over a dramatic reduction of police numbers at a time of national crisis, she has also ensured that police morale is at its lowest-ever ebb.

It is little wonder that many police officers have made it clear that, should they die in the line of duty, they don’t want “that woman” crying crocodile tears anywhere near their funeral.

Chris Hobbs (Metropolitan Police,  1978-2011)
London W7

 

Anti-Semitism is a nasty thing – so is Islamophobia. I grew up in the North of England, at a time when people often used the expression “to be Jewish” meaning to be mean with money. In the same era “Paki bashing” meant physically attacking Muslims.

Theresa May has denounced anti-Semitism. She said that the Jewish population of the UK can expect full protection and support, She, however, made almost no reference to the Muslim community. Last year in the UK there were far more attacks on Muslims than on Jews – both acts just as despicable.

The implication of such a speech is that Jewish people, according to the Government, are considered more valued than Muslims. The danger is, surely, that it will encourage yet more anti-Semitism.

Thomas Eisner
London SW14

 

Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are equally wrong. Anti-Islamic demonstrations and attacks on mosques in some European countries, which predate the Paris attacks, as well as attacks on Jewish targets should be condemned.

Anti-Semitism, however, should not be used to justify confiscating Palestinian land and destroying Palestinian communities in order to build illegal settlements for European Jews fleeing anti-Semitism.

Mohammed Samaana
Belfast

 

In the wake of the Paris attacks, there has been much media discussion of the rise in so-called anti-Semitic attacks. We need to be very clear about the difference between being Jewish and being Israeli.

Because of Israel’s 47-year military occupation of Palestine, its continuing violent land grab, illegal settlements, and numerous violations of international law, you can understand people from around the globe being upset. Then we had the slaughter in Gaza in the summer that killed more than 2,100. If there has been a rise in tensions lately, this is the most likely reason.

Israel is a self-proclaimed state for Jewish people, and those who are not Jewish have few rights (if any), and are often “encouraged” to leave. There have been many accusations made against Islamic states (by Western media and leaders) of late, but none has been made against Israel.

Colin Crilly
London SW18

 

Theresa May stated that she never thought she would see the day when members of the Jewish community would say they were fearful of remaining here in the UK. She says “without its Jews Britain would not be Britain”.

This came as much of the media highlighted the findings of the so-called Campaign Against Anti-Semitism that 25 per cent of British Jews were considering leaving for Israel, and that 45 per cent considered that Jews had no long-term future in Britain.

The CAA’s poll was methodologically flawed, according to the Institute of Jewish Policy Research.  Anyone on the web could, and no doubt did, vote in it.

A poll for The Jewish Chronicle, properly conducted last week, found that 88 per cent of Jews had not considered quitting the UK. The CAA’s primary motivation is to shield Israel from criticism via unfounded charges of “anti-Semitism”. This includes conducting a poll using loaded questions.

Theresa May’s concern about anti-Semitism and Jews leaving Britain is highly opportunistic and motivated by a desire to increase mass surveillance of British citizens and criminalise opinions she disagrees with.

If her concern is about racism against a minority population, she should turn her attention to those who single out the Muslim community.

Tony Greenstein
Brighton

 

Free speech comes with responsibilities

I was in Berlin a year after the wall came down and asked an East German journalist how it felt to young people to now be free. He replied: “It’s great – the problem is we don’t know how to use that freedom.”

My community of Marlborough has had a 32-year relationship with the Muslim community of Gunjur in The Gambia. In conversation with friends there since the events in Paris, they have said they are all appalled at the murders that took place, supposedly in the name of Islam.

At the same time, they are confused by the demands for the protection of freedom of speech when that speech is gratuitously offensive, not even humorous and is fundamentally about making money through the sale of a magazine.

Hands up, those who do not think that with freedom comes responsibility.

Dr Nick Maurice
Marlborough, Wiltshire

 

Some correspondents have failed to grasp what free speech means. It is irrelevant whether or not you like what someone says, draws or prints – it is their right to do it. Some believe that religion is an ancient male psychological disorder, which is why it sends young men mad.

It is irrelevant how “offended” any believers are; it is the right of all of us to believe – or not believe – what we freely choose.

Carole Penhorwood
Brentry, Bristol

 

Fair trials could soon be only for privileged

The Lord Chancellor has been warned time and again that his cuts to legal aid would result in a surge of self-representation among defendants (“Defendants face court alone due to legal aid cuts”, 19 January). Today’s research is a classic case of a self-fulfilled prophecy, highlighting that Chris Grayling’s wrong-headed reforms are pushing the justice system to its limits. Treasured principles, including access to justice and equality before the law, will be further undermined if his plans for crude and forced consolidation reducing the number of providers by two-thirds goes through.

That is why, in conjunction with the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, we are fighting in a judicial review in the High Court over the introduction of these plans. If we are unsuccessful in our challenge, we could be consigning the notion of a fair trial to the dustbin of history for all but the privileged.

Bill Waddington
Chairman, Criminal  Law Solicitors’  Association, Hull

 

Why can’t Parliament work from home?

How refreshing to read your editorial (“Tax and mend”, 19 January) and its admonishment to encourage people to work from home.

A shift towards working from home, which could transform our national lifestyle, supercharge our national productivity and be the laxative required to relieve our constipated national infrastructure, is constantly undermined by prejudice and moral cowardice. Businesses recoil at the idea that they might trust their employees, and politicians lack the vision or conviction to fight this fear.

How can we escape from this paralysing paranoia? An unambiguous demonstration of courage and commitment from Government would be a great start. What if, rather than merely endlessly extolling the digital highway, they actually embraced it and relocated the House of Commons online? MPs could live in their constituencies, accessible to their electorate, free of the prowling lobbyists and unencumbered by second homes.

If this example were followed, it would mean that commuting, and thus further massive road and rail investment, would be curbed; it could mean that the population drift towards London, and hence property demand and prices, might be reduced; it might mean that Britain would lead the second industrial revolution, rather than endlessly playing catch-up to countries that have overtaken us since the first. Gordon Watt

Reading

 

Greet readers with a compromise

Would “Morning some of you” keep everybody happy?

David Watson
Goring Heath, Oxfordshire

 

Times:

Matt Ridley’s article in Times2 provoked a storm of debate. Where do you stand?

Sir, I agree wholeheartedly with everything that Matt Ridley says in his Times2 article (“Hounded. Attacked. Ridiculed. All because I questioned climate change”, Jan 19).

He mentions his own estimate of a 1C rise this century. So far humanity has been very good at putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but nobody has yet found a way to remove it. As Ridley says, only the science of astronomy has a good chance of predicting some aspects of the future. However, given “business as usual”, a steady rise in carbon dioxide levels can definitely be predicted, even if the consequences can’t be. For all those who wish to look beyond the next 100 years, now is the time to take the foot off the accelerator and apply the brake to fossil fuel usage.
Dr David I Smith
Alnwick, Northumberland

Sir, Matt Ridley’s excellent article about the circular debate on climate change pinpoints how futile it all is. Is climate change down to us or not? The bottom line is that fossil fuel supplies are getting low, and we need to move to other energy sources so as to conserve those resources, irrespective of climate change.

We also ought to be much more efficient in how we use energy. A recent government report states that, by 2020, the UK will be wasting 22 power stations’ worth of energy — at what cost to us all? We must embrace nuclear and renewable supplies. Furthermore, energy wastage should be viewed as socially unacceptable, as it is in some other countries. Let’s stop this endless debate and just get on with the job.
Martin Fry
Honarary president, Energy Services and Technology Association, and visiting professor, City University

Sir, I would like to congratulate you for giving Matt Ridley sufficient space to explain how he got to his position as a “climate lukewarmer”. He got there by doing what any reputable scientist would do — he studied the veracity of all sides of the man-made global warming hypothesis and was surprised to find that many of the warmists were manipulating data so that they finished up with the answer they wanted. The deniers were ignoring the fact that man has any effect on climate change; it’s more a question of how much effect, and whether any prescribed cure is doing more damage than the perceived problem.
John WG Inge
Tenbury Wells, Worcs

Sir, Matt Ridley thinks that he is being reasonable by steering a middle course between climate change deniers and the scientific community. The problem is that, in science, there is always a right answer, and the purpose of the scientific method is to reach a conclusion based on the totality of the evidence. There is not a single reputable scientific publication that disputes the reality of climate change, and there are no national scientific institutions that deny it is man-made and serious.
Dr Robin Russell-Jones, FRCP
Stoke Poges, Bucks

Sir, Contrary to the impression that Matt Ridley gives, the so-called “hockey stick” graph, showing that northern hemisphere temperatures have increased much more steeply over the past century than during the previous millennium, has not been discredited. Instead, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently confirmed that the 30 years between 1983 and 2012 was very likely the warmest such period of the last 800 years and likely the warmest interval of the past 1400 years.
Bob Ward
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment

Sir, I am a medievalist. The historical record clearly shows that we have experienced changes in climate — at various times it has got hotter and cooler, and I have little doubt that we too are experiencing change. But to dramatise change, to make its severity an article of belief, is a religious reaction, not a scientific one.
Professor John France
Swansea

Sir, There is a mantra that all should repeat. The climate has always changed; it will go on changing; and nothing that politicians can do will stop it. It follows that investment is best directed at mitigating adverse effects and taking advantage of beneficial effects, if and when they occur.
Professor Anthony Young
Norwich

The fashion for using a double negative as an intensifier has largely waned since Shakespeare’s day, so we should now encourage users of our beautiful language to be as rational as possible

Sir, May I take issue with Oliver Kamm’s implied approval that a double negative makes sense when intended as a positive (The Pedant, Jan 17, and letter, Jan 20)? The fashion for using it as an intensifier has largely waned since Shakespeare’s day, so we should now encourage users of our beautiful language to be as rational as possible in its usage.

Indeed, a double negative can only make sense by inference from its context, which is not always obvious. Out of context “I didn’t say nothing” indubitably means “I did say something”; to approve a nonsensical and colloquial interpretation merely confuses young people.

Peter Mans

Thurcaston, Leicester

Sir, Might I seek Oliver Kamm’s opinion on Barry Manilow’s line in Weekend in New England, “We started a story whose end must now wait”?

Ann Capp

Pontarddulais, Swansea

The over-50s are not the only ones who are editing their CVs so as to make themselves more marketable…

Sir, You report (Jan 19) that people over 50 are deleting O levels from their CVs in an attempt to be considered for vacancies. If holders of O levels are discriminated against, what hope is there for those of us who matriculated with a School Certificate?

Gerry Phillips
Hexham, Northumberland

All pupils are entitled to the best education they can receive — this applies as much to ‘bright’ pupils as to those in other parts of the ability range

Sir, Nick Pritchard (letter, Jan 20) repeats the canard that “bright pupils will succeed anyway”. This may well be true, but bright pupils’ needs should not be overlooked. All pupils are entitled to the best education they can receive: this applies as much to “bright” pupils as to those in other parts of the ability range. Their needs, albeit different, are of equal importance.

Mark Wakelam

Haltwhistle, Northumberland

It was the speed of the change of the political reality that caught out complacent loyal German Jews in the 1930s

Sir, If Rabbis Solomons and Janner-Klausner (letters, Jan 16 & 20) are right that Jews are safe in the UK, how do they explain every Jewish school today resembling a fortress, many with guards stationed in nearby streets, not to mention the guarding of every synagogue? In rejecting any comparison to the plight of Jews in the 1930s, they are ignoring historical facts. It was the speed of the change of the political reality that caught out complacent loyal German Jews.
Roslyn Pine
London N3

Telegraph:

Pope Francis delivers his speech during a special audience he held for members of Catholic medical associations
Pope Francis has joined the discussion about freedom of speech Photo: AP

SIR – The Pope has said that to mock religion is wrong. If done gratuitously, he is right. In response, David Cameron has reaffirmed his support for the right to free speech, and he is right, too.

However, exercising a right should be done responsibly. It may not be a crime to offend believers but at best it is bad manners, and at worst it could be interpreted as an invocation to violence.

Keith Noble
Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire

SIR – I am puzzled by what is meant by “free speech”, given that some French politicians were excluded from the march in Paris because they say things unacceptable to liberal ears. Other examples of such hypocrisy abound.

As for freedom to insult religions, people are certainly free to do so. Surely, however, the question is why they would want to.

Joseph McMahon
Falkirk, Stirlingshire

SIR – Abdal Hakim Murad’s comment on the tolerant and courteous national character is pertinent. This character has been formed, in part, by our freedoms.

If, as he suggests, we were to flood our law courts with cases of hate speech in order to engender a Europe-wide discussion of protection from such speech, he might find that further legal action would follow as a result of people being silenced, leading to greater social unrest.

It is in countries where the repression of freedom of thought and speech is most evident that violence becomes the default form of expression.

Denise Taylor
Twickenham, Middlesex

SIR – Charlie Hebdo is a catalyst but nothing more. I have read issue 1178, but will not be subscribing. It is scurrilous, funny, insulting, polemic, and positively anti-religious. Until a few weeks ago, it was also irrelevant.

It seems, however, that a tipping point has at last been reached in the battle for freedom of speech, and all available and appropriate measures should be taken to suppress the radicalism which is at war with the values of civilisation.

Martin Betts
Abinger Hammer, Surrey

SIR – Followers of each religion believe that only their own religion is correct. Christians are the largest religious group, but they are outnumbered by believers of Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism collectively.

It follows that most believers must be wrong and that, if all beliefs deserve respect, this should include divination by navel fluff and the fondling of crystals.

All I ask is that believers respect my belief that it is OK to laugh at anything I hold to be monumentally misguided.

Rod Macleod
Maidstone, Kent

AS-level uncertainty

(PA)

SIR – It should come as no surprise that schools are rebelling against A-level reforms that attempt to decouple the Advanced Subsidiary element from the full qualification (“Anxious teachers shun reforms of AS-levels”).

Yet schools will find it very difficult to fund free-standing AS qualifications, and examination boards will cut courses owing to the economics of falling demand. This will be particularly acute in languages and arts subjects, which broaden the curriculum and feed Britain’s world-class creative industries.

Such short-sightedness unfortunately typifies successive governments who cannot see beyond the next election.

Neil Roskilly
CEO, The Independent Schools Association
Saffron Walden, Essex

Work for rural builders

SIR – The popular appeal to spare Thomas Hardy’s village from intensive development serves to emphasise the wider rural problem of development policy being led by the industrialised volume house builders, who are only able to consider developing large blocks of green field, with damage both to the countryside and the rural communities that get swamped in the process.

Princess Anne drew attention to this in a Countryfile programme last year, when she called for wider acceptance of small-scale infilling and extensions in many villages and hamlets. This would also provide essential work for smaller rural builders, as this type of development is not on the agenda of volume builders, who hold sway with planning authorities at all levels.

Jeremy Chamberlayne
Gloucester

Rationing dentistry

SIR – The Government’s dental contract is a major contributing factor towards the neglect detailed by Antonia Hoyle.

NHS dentistry is a limited resource: we do not have the manpower or funding to provide all the dental care that is necessary to care for the nation’s oral health, and therefore treatments have to be rationed. Under the current system, dentists have been made responsible for managing a limited budget and choosing which treatments should be rationed.

Many dentists (myself included) believe that it is unethical to accept patients under the pretence of providing everything that is clinically necessary only to be forced, for reasons of underfunding, into a position of either consciously or subconsciously ignoring disease, or of up-selling private treatment when it should be provided by the NHS. As a result lots of dentists have left the NHS, and others want to but fear the effect it would have on their business.

It is time for a sensible conversation with the public about what they can realistically expect from the NHS dental service. The current system does not work for either patients or dentists.

Duncan Scorgie BDS
Edinburgh

Assisted suicide

SIR – Opponents of Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill insist that it should more accurately refer to “assisted suicide”.

Assisted dying should mean helping a person on their last earthly journey, as our splendid hospices already do, not standing by impassively as they swallow poison or are despatched with a lethal injection.

Once death is accepted as the solution to suffering, anyone ready and willing to offer real help will feel obliged to explain why they wish to inflict suffering on the sick by denying them access to assisted dying.

Ann Farmer
Woodford Green, Essex

Time to shake the grey squirrel’s hold in gardens

Furry wrecking ball: the mere presence of grey squirrels reduces visits to garden bird feeders (Alamy)

SIR – The French and Swiss are correct to be alarmed about very serious threat Italy’s expanding grey squirrel population poses to their native wildlife and commercial forestry.

In Britain, we have failed to recognise the magnitude of this threat and been too slow to respond. Researchers from the University of Sheffield found that the mere presence of grey squirrels was enough to reduce visits to garden bird feeders by 98 per cent.

The winter feeding of birds in gardens can make the difference between life and death for many species. The recent announcement that landowners would be rewarded for controlling grey squirrels is an important step in the right direction.

It is time for the Government to insist that agencies and NGOs in receipt of public funding follow suit and control grey squirrels on their land – or lose an element of state-funded support.

Keith Cowieson
Director, SongBird Survival
Diss, Norfolk

Hypocrisy of politicians on mental health issues

SIR – The mental health system is currently in crisis as a result of sustained under-funding and neglect.

Nick Clegg has no legitimacy to call for an overhaul of how the NHS tackles suicides rates. Having organised public suicide awareness campaigns in the past, I appreciate that there is much that can be done to improve practice, but hypocritical politicians latching on to such an important national topic during election season – while being part of a government that has slashed mental health funding – is simply unacceptable.

There are 3,640 fewer nurses and 213 fewer doctors working in mental health compared with two years ago, and recent cuts have left mental health services unable to cope. People can’t get the support they need, so patients and their families are forced to endure unnecessary suffering and the taxpayer is forced to pay billions to counteract the impact of the ill-advised cuts.

Ed Miliband suggests that people with mental health problems have been failed by “false economies” in the NHS, but Labour has yet to publish concrete, costed plans for how it intends to address the crisis.

Mental health cuts lead to productivity losses, higher benefits payments and increased costs to the NHS. The Government’s failure to cope adequately with mental health issues costs us an estimated £70 billion a year – the highest among the 34 leading developed nations.

While a focus on the problem of mental health care and funding is long overdue, Mr Clegg has no right to be part of the solution.

Dr Carl Walker
Worthing, West Sussex

Keep the sparkle

SIR – I wish to follow the recommendation of a glass of champagne a day. But if a week’s supply is to come from the same opened bottle, how do you preserve the “fizz”?

I know the trick of putting a teaspoon in the top of the bottle, but even with this method the sparkle seems to disappear after about three days.

Mike Cobb
London SW20

Slow and steady

SIR – I sympathise with your correspondents who suffered the frustrations of trying to log on to the National Savings & Investments website or telephone them to purchase their pension bonds (Letters, January 19). I also gave up.

However, there is no need to panic; there are plenty of bonds available for all those likely to apply. I downloaded the form, filled it in and had a pleasant walk to our post office, where my application joined several others for a stress-free journey onwards.

David Hartridge
Groby, Leicestershire

Alice, wondering

SIR – As an Alice I find it curiouser and curiouser that Royal Mail decided not to use John Tenniel’s illustrations from the original 1865 edition of Alice in Wonderland on the stamps issued to celebrate the 150th anniversary of publication.

His work is synonymous with Alice and all that she encapsulates, unlike the images that have been chosen.

Alice Jaspars
Aberdeen

Vanished Borders

SIR – Among all this talk of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, there has been no mention of the Border Egg.

Wrapped in tartan foil and filled with chocolatey goo, which was much less teeth-zizzingly sweet than the standard white-and-yellow stuff, it was regarded by my Seventies school contemporaries and me as vastly superior.

Why did the Border Egg fade away?

Michael Oakey
Horsham, West Sussex

 

 

Globe and Mail:

Robert Huish

Anger at North Korean defector a failure to understand his nightmare

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – I note that a spokesman for Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, when asked about the effect that the closure of two out of 10 of their operating theatres at any one time would have, responded, “This is a short-term problem and will lead to minimal disruption” (“Vital operations cancelled at Beaumont”, Front Page, January 20th).

A consultant is quoted as saying that 14 patient lists, affecting 30 to 40 patients, are being cancelled over each eight-week period, including people with brain tumours and serious spinal problems.

I am certain that the patients affected, who need essential surgery, don’t find anything “minimal” about the disruption, let alone the distress, that these rolling cancellations cause both them and their families. – Yours, etc,

FINNIAN E MATHEWS,

Skerries, Co Dublin.

Sir, – As a former teacher, principal and chief advising examiner in state examinations, I am aware of the issues and concerns pertaining to assessment at post-primary level. Nevertheless, I view the current Junior Certificate proposals as an excellent opportunity to improve the process of teaching and learning – subject to adequate resources being put in place.

At present most teachers have little or no experience of correcting scripts in state examinations.

Putting in place a system whereby all relevant teachers will be involved in continuous assessment of their students will raise standards in the areas of setting questions or tasks, devising marking schemes, correcting scripts as well as developing teacher collaboration. This can enhance the role of the teacher as a motivator and thereby positively contribute to the student-teacher relationship.

As far as resources are concerned, it will require time and money and certainly cannot be seen as a cost-cutting measure. Apart from teacher training, it will require a structure that includes adequate internal and external moderation, as well as an appeals system.

It provides an opportunity for teachers and schools to gain increased ownership of assessment. With this comes responsibility and accountability. I believe that it is time for our unions to take a positive step in that direction and trust teachers and schools to act responsibly. – Yours, etc,

DESMOND MOONEY,

Newtownforbes,

Co Longford.

Sir, – Matt Moran has reminded us all of the high standards expected from Irish missionaries overseas (“Missionaries created the template on which Ireland’s aid programme is built”, Opinion & Analysis, January 20th). There are now fewer than 1,500 Irish-born missionaries. It is some support to read that: “As various presidents and government ministers have acknowledged many times, our missionaries created the example and the environment upon which the country’s international aid programme was built.” We are the “unpaid ambassadors of our country”.

As one of these 1,500 Irish missionaries, 43 years working in the northeast of Brazil, and now four years here in Mozambique, at 70 years of age, wouldn’t you think we deserve at least the old age pension? It would help us to put food on the table, diesel in the car, and keep the “embassy” open. But no, not unless we abandon the mission and go back to life full time in Ireland. Some support! – Yours, etc,

BRIAN HOLMES,

Redemptorist Missionary,

Tete, Mozambique.

Sir, – In the mid-1990s, the cost of electricity to the domestic customer was about mid-point on the list of European charges when Brussels canvassed the Irish government to introduce open competition in the energy market – even though the customer base here was clearly much too small for such a dramatic step. As usual our government doffed the cap. Now in 2015 we have a plethora of energy suppliers, a mind-boggling range of confusing rates, and an energy regulator who admits that the only way to ensure best value is to go online every year and change supplier. And guess what – now we are fourth most expensive in Europe for domestic energy.

When I said to my supplier recently that I would be happy to remain loyal to that company if it continued to charge me a competitive rate, its honest answer was that the only loyalty now is to your own pocket!

Would it be too simple to have just one supplier for each energy service, with a competent and well-resourced regulator that would constantly monitor the energy business and ensure charges which were fair to both customer and supplier?

The constant online battle to secure fair treatment in a chaotic market is wrong and leads to unfair treatment, particularly to substantial numbers who struggle with modern systems. – Yours, etc,

AIDAN DEVON,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Is switching a futile exercise and a waste of energy? – Yours, etc,

TOM GILSENAN,

Beaumont,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – All the hoopla about shopping around and switching electricity (or gas, phoneline or broadband supplier) to get the best price – for a while anyway – isn’t a complete waste of time. It provides employment for advertising and PR firms, if nothing else. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – Lord Kilclooney is mistaken to state in his otherwise accurate letter (January 16th) that “there has been no comment from the health sector, teachers or farmers” on the proposal to cut corporation tax.

There has been consistent comment from the trade unions, since the self-interested campaign to cut taxes for big companies was initiated and promoted by a coterie of tax advisers.

Under the terms of the Stormont agreement, the devolution and cutting of corporation tax will only happen in a sequence, following the imposition of welfare “reform” and “a comprehensive programme of public sector reform and restructuring” that will amount to at least 20,000 public sector redundancies. Those are the stakes for this huge gamble.

The trade union opposition has been sidelined and ignored by much of the press, despite the accuracy and detail of our objections. We remain opposed, and have gone so far as to pay for full-page advertisements in the three Belfast dailies, objecting to this tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of public services and 20,000 jobs, with no guarantee of new employment (except for tax advisers).

That said, our comment has annoyed First Minister Peter Robinson, who expressed his acute annoyance at our statements, accusing us in the Northern Ireland Assembly of telling “a downright lie from the pit”.

Time will tell who is right. – Yours, etc,

PETER BUNTING,

Assistant General Secretary,

Irish Congress

of Trade Unions,

Belfast.

Sir, – It is a truly sad thing to have to say that we live in a society that is almost weary of reports of child abuse scandals, how they were covered up by all and sundry from high office on down, how the perpetrators were moved on or moved up and how the victims were hushed up and forgotten.

Yet the letter (January 20th) from Cailin Anderson and others was still poignant and shocking.

To think that terms of reference are being written that still make many victims of the Bethany home and Westbank orphanage feel excluded and alienated, rather than trying to welcome them in a redress and reconciliation process, is shocking and unacceptable.

What is the point of having an inquiry if it leaves the victims where they have been for so long – on the outside and not being listened to? – Yours, etc,

ANDREW DOYLE,

Bandon, Co Cork.

Sir, – Dr Mary Wingfield calls for State funding for IVF fertility treatments (January 19th).

Proposed legislation regarding this and related surrogacy requires openness regarding risks to women. IVF treatment babies have a higher frequency of adverse outcomes than babies born after normal conception.

Risks to women include potentially fatal ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, cysts, molar pregnancy and coagulation abnormalities leading to thromboembolism, stroke and myocardial infarction. Excessive ovarian stimulation with fertility drugs during a single stimulated IVF cycle may result in up to a fivefold increase in plasma oestrogen concentration. Excessive oestrogen secretion has been implicated in ovarian, womb and breast cancer. Perusal of the internet indicates many clinical studies which report worrying concerns regarding breast cancer occurrences and IVF treatments.

IVF treatments are central to surrogacy and women should be fully informed about early and potential long-term risks of these treatments. – Yours, etc,

Dr BRIAN CANTWELL,

Consultant Medical

Oncologist (retired),

Rosslare Strand,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – I’ve yet to hear how the Central Bank proposes to protect the thousands of prospective house buyers who will be forced into long-term rental as a result of its badly thought-out restrictions. What will happen to people is that they will end up paying rents at levels similar to mortgage payments but without accruing any equity in an asset. What happens if one cannot pay rent due to illness or unemployment? You end up on the street with nothing to show for all the years of rent paid.

Contrast this with a homebuyer who can’t pay the mortgage but who at least could have some equity built up in their property even if they ultimately end up on the street.

Surely having something to show for years of paying rent such as equity in a tangible asset is preferable to having nothing. – Yours, etc,

FRANK SMYTH,

Dalkey, Co Dublin.

Sir, – The concerted campaign led by those with a clear vested interest in high house prices against the eminently sensible Central Bank proposal to introduce a meaningful limit on how much people can borrow for their mortgage has been extraordinary to witness (“New mortgage rules ‘will confine house purchases to the rich’, says Siptu chief”, January 20th).

A few short years after a property crash of epic proportions, these vested interests have managed – cheered on by the media – to turn a proposal that should reduce house prices and prevent people from falling into unsustainable debt into a bogus story about the poor first-time buyer unable to clamber on to the all-important property “ladder”. That even trade unions are blind to the fact that more credit will mean even higher prices is deeply dispiriting.

One can only hope that Patrick Honohan uses this moment to prove his independence and, once again, do Ireland some service. – Yours, etc,

BILL CALLAGHAN,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – Further to the letter by Conan Doyle (January 19th), every worker in the country who pays income tax or universal social charge (USC) or both has benefited from the changes to personal taxation in Budget 2015. A total of 80,000 lower-paid workers will no longer be liable for USC; this is on top of 330,000 removed from payment of USC over the last three years.

Budget 2015 eased the burden of the USC on those on lowest incomes by increasing thresholds and reducing rates. Anyone on incomes of less than €12,012 are now exempt from USC. The standard rate band of income tax was also increased by €1,000 from €32,800 to €33, 800, meaning that workers pay the higher rate of tax on less of their earnings. In addition the higher rate of income tax was reduced from 41 per cent to 40 per cent.

If these tax reductions are not reflected in net pay, we would encourage workers to raise this issue with their employers. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN LOUGHNANE,

BRIAN MEENAN,

Press Office,

Department of Finance,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Good news – Pope Francis (the first pope for a long time to give hope to a wounded church) promotes a sensible family size – three children at most (January 20th). Now for the bad news – he believes this is possible by entirely natural methods. I can only marvel at his disconnect from the reality that a majority of Catholics achieve a planned family with the help of science and technology. Unfortunately, for less developed societies, the harsh consequences of overpopulation will continue. – Yours, etc,

CONSTANCE MORRIS,

Shankill,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I would like to join Patrick O’Donohue (January 19th) in deploring the unnecessary use of four-wheel drive vehicles on our roads. Let’s reduce global warming and increase road safety for those of us not cocooned in these axles of evil. – Yours, etc,

IRENE ALLEN,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Patrick O’Donohoe doesn’t fully appreciate the usefulness of four-wheel drives in an urban setting. They are so useful for mounting the pavement while parking on double yellow lines outside school. As for sunglasses, I use them to stop the glare from all the foglights left on all day. – Yours, etc,

MELISSA O’NEILL,

Midleton,

Co Cork.

Sir, – Perhaps the demise of the “Page 3” pictures in the Sun newspaper is an acknowledgement of the fact that yes, indeed, it was sexist (“Sun drops topless page 3 photos”, January 20th). But perhaps it is rather just an indication of how certain people in society choose to access and consume images and content that objectifies women as sexual objects. The internet age has taken over. Let’s not be too celebratory. – Yours, etc,

ANNE McCORMACK,

Sir, – We’ve certainly travelled a long way since “coming out” meant you were joining a rebellion against the British. – Yours, etc,

GERARD LEE,

Crumlin,

Dublin 12.

Rush, Co Dublin.

Sir, – In an article headed “Same-sex witches marry in Scotland in pagan first” (January 19th), you quote Louise Park, the presiding officer, as saying that she was “over the moon” to have been able to conduct the ceremony. She would say that, wouldn’t she? – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DOWLING,

Tralee, Co Kerry.

Sir, – Nuala McParland (January 19th) is to be lauded for acknowledging the supreme efforts made to restore her electricity supply during the recent severe weather.

However, she will not have seen any Electric Ireland staff, nor those of any other energy supply company, atop any electricity poles. This trojan work was carried out by ESB Networks, as the operators of our national electricity network. Credit were credit is due. – Yours, etc,

PAT MULLEN,

Dundalk,

Co Louth.

Irish Independent:

Who cares if business people gave money to Charlie Haughey?

Who cares if business people gave money to Charlie Haughey?

In the final episode of RTÉ’s drama ‘Charlie’ Mr Haughey told Brian Lenihan Snr: “You never knew me.”

  • Go To

How many of us could use the same few words to so-called friends, relatives, or nearest and dearest? Who really knows anyone?

Another notable quote of his – this time one he actually said – came when he told the Dáil: “I have done the State some service.”

Indeed you did Charlie, unlike many before you, and certainly many thereafter.

You provided the likes of me – an old-age pensioner – with free travel and a lot of other things for free. Unlike today, where we must pay for everything. We’ll soon be charged for breathing, and better to be sent to prison than be sent to a hospital.

You set up the IFSC, the world-wide recognised money trading centre, you made Ireland the world’s leading horse-breeding country, and there are many artists and performers who benefited from your wise decision to leave them tax-free so they could concentrate on getting to where many of them are today.

There were many business people who were too willing to donate to your lifestyle, who saw that with your leadership Ireland could grow.

Who really cares if many of them gave you money? The only ones who care are those looking for something to write about.

Hindsight is supposed to be a great science, so when a hungry beggar knocks on your door looking for something to eat and you are generous enough to give it to him does he stop before he eats it and ask: “Did you earn this sandwich honestly?”

Was JFK as clean as we all thought he was back in 1963? Do we still hold him in high regard?

Is Bill Clinton still welcomed into every county in Ireland after telling a few porkies about a girl he never had sex with?

In 30 or 40 years’ time we will probably have a new blockbuster of a drama called ‘The Day The Water Stopped’, starring Enda on Tap And Leo No Trollies. All proceeds from this drama will be donated to the rich, as by then the poor will have become extinct.

The dead accused are easy prey for the prosecutors of today, but their victories are somehow hollow.

Fred Molloy

Clonsilla, Dublin 15

Blueprint for a political change

Recognising that our system of governance leaves a lot to be desired I offer the following solution.

By 2025, by attrition and by reducing the number of TDs elected at each General Election, the following would apply:

Two Dáil deputies per county = 52. One additional TD per city (Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick and Kilkenny) = 6. That would make for a total of 58, a reduction of 108 from the present 166. Starting immediately, when a seat is vacated, a by-election would not take place.

The targeted 58 seats would be more in line with other population-to-administration ratios worldwide. For instance, the USA (population 316 million, representatives 435, a ratio of 726,436 to one); the UK (population 64 million, representatives 650 a ratio of 98,460 to one); Germany (population 80.6 million, representatives 630, a ratio of 128,000 to 1). Ireland has a population of 4.58 million with 166 representatives, a ratio of 27,590 to one. A representation of 58 would be 83,620 to one, still lower than any of the foregoing.

Reduce the Cabinet from the present 16 to 12. Remove the whip to introduce a little democracy. Remove the Office of President, it costs too much and is of little value.

All State and semi-State positions must be advertised to cut out cronyism and nepotism. How about a drastic cut in holidays to bring about a few more sitting days?

Quangos and spin doctors? Yes, for the chop. What is wrong when a senior politician or a group of same must have highly-paid advisers to tell them what, where, when, and the extent of what they should say or do?

End proportional representation. First two past the post win. This would prevent candidates with fewer votes being elected on the coat tails of a party colleague at the expense of one with higher appeal.

A reduction in the Public Accounts Committee, if it is still in existence, to 10. A reduction in the Dáil term from five to four years.

Members of the Seanad reduced from 60 to 15. All senators would be appointed by the electorate, eliminating cronyism and nepotism.

Yes, all of the foregoing would necessitate constitutional changes, but it is suggested that the electorate would agree to change, in a referendum, knowing the savings and benefits that would be realised.

When the dust had finally settled we would have a lean, streamlined, professional administration instead of the costly, undemocratic, ineffective, self-indulgent dinosaur that we have today.

Name and address with editor

To the Bard be true

“I have done the State some service, and they know’t.” (‘Othello’, Act 5, Scene 2). To preserve the Shakespearean (iambic) rhythm, the last word is spelt and pronounced as one syllable.

However, towards the conclusion of the final episode of the RTÉ drama ‘Charlie’, the CJH character is heard to internally quote the foregoing line and enunciate “know’t” with two syllables (i.e. “know it”). The discussion panel on the following morning’s Seán O’Rourke radio show made the same mistake with abandon.

In this poetic respect, it is worth noting that Mr Haughey’s resignation address to the Dáil as Taoiseach (February 11, 1992) was scrupulously faithful to the Bard.

Oliver McGrane

Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

I’m ready to come out…

I am coming out, I cannot live a lie any longer; I voted for Fine Gael at the last General Election. Phew, that’s a weight off my chest.

I am tired of all the skulking about and avoiding the subject of who you voted for in the last election. Social occasions are the worst. My parents’ aspirations were that I would vote for a ‘straight’, mainstream party, one that told the truth and put Irish people’s interests first, but people can be so insensitive, by asking who you voted for and what do you think of Enda caving in to the international banking system and the Germans, when he said he would stand up to them and get a deal on Irish debt.

The pressure has been unbearable. I did consider emigrating to America to live freely as a right-wing Republican, and thereby avoiding having to come out in Ireland as a fiscal conservative, but why should I, because damn it, that’s not really who I am. The truth is that I believed. There, I said it – I believed them.

I write this with tears streaming down my face, tears of bitter regret that I should have been true to myself. It is my hope and belief that Ireland is mature enough to tolerate a closet – and now former – Fine Gael voter. I am determined to find political happiness. I will seek out a political relationship that I can be proud of. So, if you see me in the street, don’t judge me too harshly. I am openly politically lost and proud.

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney, Kilkenny

Was Varadkar really ‘brave’?

I really don’t mean to rain on any parades here, but was Leo Varadkar ‘coming out’ on national radio in 2015 really “brave”? A Chinese student standing in front of a line of tanks was brave. The Collins family in Limerick are brave. Eugene McErlean was brave to stand up alone over his whistleblower allegations at AIB when the world seemed against him.

There is a danger, or perhaps it’s too late, that we are teaching our kids that there is a difference between bravery and doing the right thing.

Darren Williams

Sandyford, Dublin 18

Irish Independent


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22 January 2015 Snow

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. It snowed on and off all day. Post office, Co Op, compost, Elena,

Obituary:

John Bayley
John Bayley

John Bayley, who has died aged 89 , was Warton Professor of English at Oxford University but was better known as the husband, from 1955 until her death from Alzheimer’s disease in 1999, of Dame Iris Murdoch.

Bayley won both friends and enemies with the trilogy of memoirs he published about his wife. His first book, Iris: A Memoir (known in America as Elegy for Iris), published in 1998 shortly before her death, became an unexpected bestseller. It charted their happy, chaotic early life together and described with gentle stoicism Iris Murdoch’s transition from one of the most incisive minds of her generation into a childlike invalid, sometimes distressed and fractious, unable to wash herself or control her bodily functions. Its sequel, Iris and the Friends (1999), published after her death, chronicled the last year of her life when she was visited by imaginary “friends”.

Most critics found Bayley’s account almost unbearably moving in its portrayal of the tender complicity that existed between the couple when faced with Iris’s slow-burning decline. In 2001 Iris: A Memoir was made into a film by Richard Eyre, Iris, starring Kate Winslet, Dame Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent, and Bayley became, in public estimation, a symbol of selfless devotion and fortitude.

But others saw the book as an intrusion into the privacy of a woman who, at the time of its publication, had still been alive, even if incapable of understanding. These included Dame Muriel Spark who, in letters to friends, accused Bayley of “muckraking” by writing a “sordid” account, and criticised him for failing to get outside professional help for his wife.

More trenchant still was AN Wilson, a former student of Bayley’s, who in 2003 stunned the literary world by publishing a book that depicted Bayley as a petulant, deceptive man who, though elevated to “near sanctity” during his wife’s slow decline, was in Wilson’s view more akin to a “screaming, hate-filled child”. The verdict brought an avalanche of protest from friends of the couple – including Iris Murdoch’s official biographer Peter Conradi, who accused Wilson of dumping “ordure spicily mixed with bile” on two people “whose only mistake was their kindness to him”.

But even Bayley’s supporters were astonished by the last volume in the trilogy, Widower’s House (2001), dealing with his life after her death; it included a ribald account of attempts by two women of his acquaintance, “Margot” and “Mella”, to bring him out of his grief and into their beds.

By Bayley’s account, the pair sought to exploit his famed hopelessness when it came to housekeeping to worm their way into his affections, the bulky Margot with indigestible casseroles and middle-of-the-night visits to his bed , and Mella, a “scrawny postgraduate student” half his age, with a bucket and mop. Mella, it appeared, succeeded. “It was obvious what I had to do,” Bayley wrote. “Nor, on the whole, did I mind doing it.”

John Bayley with Iris Murdoch in Oxford (ROB JUDGES)

The book sparked off an entertaining spat between The Daily Telegraph, which had bought the serialisation rights, and The Sunday Times, which published an interview with the author in which he passed off his tales of bedroom romps as lyrical accounts of the daydreams which had consoled him at a bad time. Admittedly, he seemed an unlikely Lothario with his balding pate, Oxfam sweaters and high-pitched giggle. His account underwent several revisions in interviews with different newspapers, though in 2005 he assured The Daily Telegraph that the women were “all too real”, while admitting that some of the details had been fictionalised to disguise their true identities.

Those who knew Bayley’s mercurial character were not surprised by the confusion he left in his wake.

John Oliver Bayley was born on March 27 1925 into an Army family at Lahore in what was then British India. After Eton, he served in the Army from 1943 to 1947, then went up to New College, Oxford, where he took a First in English. He remained at Oxford, becoming a tutor at New College in 1955.

As an academic, Bayley made his name as a literary critic and a specialist in Pushkin and Goethe. Appointed Warton Professor of English in 1974 and a fellow of St Catherine’s College, he established a reputation as one of the most respected academic critics in the country . His students included Dennis Potter, and AN Wilson who, in his more charitable moments, remembered Bayley for his courtesy, love of gossip and complete lack of intellectual snobbery.

But if Bayley was a brilliant interpreter of the ideas of others, he was always notoriously vague when it came to his own. In 1956 two academic letters were published simultaneously in the press discussing the Suez invasion by the British — one for, one against. Bayley was a signatory to both. When one of his colleagues asked him how this could have happened, Bayley reportedly replied: “I believed both!”

For most of his life, however, Bayley’s own fame was eclipsed by that of Iris Murdoch, whom he first saw in 1954 when she rode past him on a bicycle in Oxford. He met her later at a party at St Anne’s College. They married in August 1956.

John Bayley and Iris Murdoch in Japan in 1984 (Eleanor Bentall)

The relationship fascinated outsiders, not least because of their lack of interest in sex. In their early months together they were content to kiss each other’s arms until Iris finally suggested that perhaps they ought to try making love. Sex was certainly not the highest priority for Bayley, who admitted in a radio interview that he had had no sexual feelings at all until he was 27, and that his love for his wife was “in the mind, rather than physically erotic”.

If Bayley was a sexual innocent, the same could not be said of Iris. In Iris: A Memoir, he described how she had sat him down shortly before their wedding in order to make a clean breast of her past relationships: “ Unknown figures arose before me like the procession of kings in Macbeth, seeming to regard me with grave curiosity as they passed by.”

These affairs continued through most of their 43-year marriage. Generally, Bayley turned a blind eye, though he confessed to seeing off some of her more tiresome suitors; and he could not resist a bit of vengeful animus towards the unnamed intellectuals for whom she fell in her quest for “wisdom, authority and belief”.

They agreed never to have children . Rather, they were, he recalled, “very childlike together”, speaking their own made-up language and sharing practical jokes, but otherwise existing in a sort of solitary companionship, “like two animals in a field”.

In housekeeping, too, non-intervention was the rule. In a “Room of My Own” piece published before Iris Murdoch was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they wandered around their kitchen, opening cupboard doors with childlike curiosity, wondering what might lie inside. Once, Bayley recalled, a large pork pie went missing somewhere under the piles of detritus that covered every surface and never reappeared. An infestation of rats was found to be “congenial, even stimulating”. At St Catherine’s College, Bayley was famous for always leaving the dining table with his pockets lined with leftovers.

It was an old friend, Audi Villers, who first noticed signs of Iris Murdoch’s memory loss. There were clues, too, in Iris’s last novel, Jackson’s Dilemma (1995), which showed a greatly restricted vocabulary compared with earlier works. Shortly after the novel’s publication, Bayley took Iris to her GP.

In his memoir, Bayley recorded how their love strengthened as her intellectual powers declined. Her fear of strangers was so great that he could not bring himself to arrange outside help, and he continued to cope alone. It helped that he was never bothered by dirt. Iris “used to go to the lavatory anywhere she pleased,” he recalled. “I didn’t mind a bit. I just cleared it up.” If anything made her irritable he abandoned it. The chaos of their home descended into epic squalor.

Just weeks before her death, when she was unable to eat or drink, Bayley finally admitted that he could no longer cope. He found a nursing home nearby where he visited her constantly. When she died, a doctor entered the room to find Bayley holding her hand and abstractedly counting her toes. “I was so worried I would miss the moment, like one of those bird watchers – what are they called? – twitchers, who turn their back for a second to find that the bird has flown,” he explained.

Initially, Bayley found it hard to move on, admitting that, months after her death, her medicine was still in the fridge and her clothes still lying where she had left them. But within a year he had married Audi Villers who, with her late husband Borys, had been great friends of the couple for 35 years.

John Bayley with his wife Audi in Oxford (Phil Coburn)

Though friends were surprised, it seemed that Bayley had found a perfect companion for his old age. Throughout Iris’s illness, Audi had been the only person prepared to stay overnight in their house and, after their marriage, Iris remained their “favourite” topic of conversation.

Apart from his memoirs about Iris, Bayley (who once explained that he liked to regard himself as “a Church of England person, but I have no religion at all”), published well-received books and collections of essays on Russian and English literature and the theory of criticism, including Shakespeare and Tragedy (1980), which was widely seen as his masterpiece.

He also made five sorties into fiction, work that he was always quick to describe as “light”; edited Henry James’s The Wings of the Dove and a two-volume selection of James’s short stories; and, in the 1990s, he wrote widely for newspapers.

It was Bayley’s chairing of the Booker committee in 1994 that brought him before the public eye, after he caused controversy by proclaiming that modern fiction was “at best ambitious and, at worst, pretentious”. He was denounced in some quarters as being unfit to chair the panel, which itself remained bitterly divided on the merits of the final shortlist of three: Jill Paton Walsh’s Knowledge of Angels, Alan Hollinghurst’s The Folding Star and James Kelman’s How Late it Was, How Late (which went on to win the prize). Bayley looked on with amusement and announced that he was looking forward to returning to his wife’s novels.

John Bayley was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1990 and appointed CBE in 1999.

His wife survives him.

John Bayley, born March 27 1925, died January 12 2015

Guardian:

(FILES) In a file picture taken on April
President George W Bush greets British PM Tony Blair on 8 April 2003 at Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland. ‘Blair (and the rest, including the Tories) did what George Bush asked, with little solid evidence of the supposed weapons of mass destruction,’ writes David Reed. Photograph: Luke Frazza/Getty

Surely the only approach to the Chilcot report (Verdict delayed – no Iraq war report until after the election, 21 January) is to publish it immediately, exactly as the investigating team wants, with remarks, refutations and disagreements from witnesses included as an appendix or separate volume, so that readers can judge for themselves (I promise to buy all volumes, not just the first).

Anything else challenges the independence of the report, which must already be in doubt. And it is us – the taxpayers – who have funded the whole thing. We deserve nothing less.
Chris Farrands
Nottingham

• Why all the agonising about the delay in publication? We all know that MI6 got far too close to Tony Blair and his sofa-style governing methods and allowed itself to be pressurised by Blair’s insistence that the necessary intelligence be “found”, so as to justify and permit him to tell the British public that it was OK to go to war. This was for no other reason than he had already made a personal (and semi-religious) commitment to George Bush that Britain would do so in support of the US.

The problem was that weapons of mass destruction never existed, but under extreme pressure from Blair (never of course voiced by Blair himself, he was far too clever for that and had cohorts such as Alastair Campbell to do that for him), MI6 allowed itself to pass on alleged intelligence to Blair, through the joint intelligence committee, which, had it not been under such pressure, it would first have checked properly to ascertain whether it was true or not, rather than being the wishful product of “agents” themselves being pressed by MI6 to come up with something (anything) that would get the government off MI6’s back.

It truly is as simple as that and has been proved so time and again (eg see Gordon Corera’s excellent book MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service (Chapter 10). Those demanding publication largely do so in the hope that it will disclose something concrete with which finally to damn Blair. It won’t. It will blame MI6, who are the ones delaying its publication.

What those who are holding up the report fail to appreciate, is that the longer these delays and the more that when published the report’s conclusions are other than I have stated (because MI6 succeed in getting Chilcot to water down his conclusions), the more we shall all know that this has been yet another whitewash.
Paul Clements
London

• The withholding of the publication of the Chilcot inquiry till after the general election means that the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 continues to distort the electoral process in a constituency such as mine, where the sitting MP has been an unapologetic supporter of the invasion.

The election in May will now be the third general election in which I will have found myself unable to support an MP I might otherwise have wished to vote for. Had I been able to know what John Chilcot’s findings were, and then to ascertain from my MP whether he accepted them or not, the matter might at last have had a chance of being laid to rest for me.

Now the general election of 2020 will be the earliest in which this matter can cease to cast its shadow over this constituency.
David Evans
Exeter

• While Labour has little to gain from raking over the factors leading to the Iraq war, I think Ed Miliband’s more recent stance on our possible involvement in Syria shows we could have had a massively different result if Tony Blair had said the same: “No invasion without a proper UN mandate.” (This time, the boot was on the other foot, and Miliband’s move got Barack Obama off the hook, showing that he, too, has more sense than his predecessor.)

Instead Blair (and the rest, including the Tories) did what George Bush asked, with little solid evidence of the supposed weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps the main delay now is because it shows how useless both countries’ security services were?
David Reed
London

• Could it be that our nuclear deterrent is not independent and the renewal of Trident might have been in jeopardy if we had not joined the invasion?
Emeritus professor Keith Barnham
London

• With the latest delay to the Chilcot report, I am coming to believe that it is another example of a phenomena first noticed by the late French social theorist (Jean Baudrillard, 1929-2007) in respect of the first Gulf war. Namely, something that did not really happen but was reported in the media as if it had.
Keith Flett
London

Rupert Murdoch with the Sun

Rupert Murdoch with the Sun. In the 70s the newspaper’s boss said: ‘Keep that Page 3 style going, for ever,’ writes Vic Giles. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

For the first seven years of the Sun I was its art director (Editorial, 21 January). Every page that I created had to be shown to the editor, Larry Lamb for his approval. I had chosen a news picture for page three one day in the early 1970s. However, Rupert Murdoch was sitting in the editor’s chair while Larry reclined on the settee the other side of the room. I held up the fully drawn normal page so that Rupert could see it. He said: “Great, Vic.” Then I placed my “fun” – topless – version so that both could see. Larry immediately shouted: “No, that will lose readers.” But Rupert said: “I like it. Let’s print it.” The next day Rupert appeared at my elbow: “Keep that Page 3 style going, for ever.” By the end of the week the circulation figures were climbing at a fantastic rate and continued to do so. Many have claimed the idea as their own. I am happy to tell you that it was it my “fun” Page 3 accident, instantly approved by the chairman.
Vic Giles
London

Rear view of woman holding umbrella in field under cloud
Looks like a weather bomb again. Photograph: Getty Images/Blend Images

Listening to the weather forecast is a source of constant irritation (Let’s scrape the hyperbole off the weather forecasts, Opinion, 19 January) as the forecasters proceed with their inaccurate English. They speak of weather fronts when they mean cold or warm fronts, of warmer temperatures when they mean higher temperatures, of sunshine coming out, when they mean the sun coming out, of the morning time or evening time, when they mean morning or evening. I shout corrections at the radio to no avail. Surely I’m not the only one to want a weather forecast delivered more professionally?
Mary Prince
Christleton, Cheshire

• Forecasts have taken on the role of soap operas, with metrological phenomena playing the main roles. Hence we hear that sunshine will “try” to break through by mid-afternoon and temperatures will “struggle” to reach double figures. No they won’t – they will do exactly as they wish, as has been the case long before man presumed to predict such events.
Bob Caldwell
Badby, Northamptonshire

• As one of the Ulster Unionists referred to by Chris Haskins (Letters, 20 January), I always put the Met Office’s refusal to report on the Republic’s weather – while showing clouds and other climatic manifestations scudding across the 26 counties – down to British politeness: the Republic doesn’t belong to the UK so we shouldn’t talk about its weather, sort of thing. In the runup to Scotland’s referendum vote I was looking forward to seeing how Scottish weather would be handled post-separation. Images of rain, snow and hail buffeting Northern Ireland’s six counties would appear to miraculously avoid both the Republic and Scotland! What fun.
Marcus Oliver
Bromley, Kent

• My mum-in-law cancels trips and racks up the thermostat at the mention of the “big freeze” or the next “weather bomb” arriving on the back of the evil “jet stream”. Save the hyperbole for the serious stuff coming our way soon, courtesy of global warming and our precarious position twixt continent and ocean.
Haydn Jenkinson
Shrewsbury, Shropshire

• “Sub-zero temperatures, rain, gales” and even “snow” (Report, 15 January). Yes, it’s what we used to call winter.
Gerry Wyld
Langley, Berkshire

How I get ready (17 January). If it’s cold or wet I put my coat on. Or I don’t.
Paul Spedding
Macclesfield, Cheshire


Your article (Anonymous sources are vital – Guardian editor, 20 January) exposes the risk to journalists from the new powers being given to the police, intelligence services and other state bodies by the data retention powers in the counter terrorism and security bill currently before parliament. The simplest mechanism to provide some basic protection to journalists and their sources is to ensure that where any state agency seeks to exercise these powers in the case of journalists or other professions that have a duty of confidentiality, then the authority of a court must be sought and it is not left to the internal decision-making processes of that agency. On several occasions now I have tried to amend the bill before parliament to this effect. There has been no adequate explanation from government ministers why they still resist this simple measure. Time is running out to secure this concession and we urgently need the maximum pressure on the government to achieve this minor but critical change.
John McDonnell MP
Secretary of the NUJ parliamentary group

Your article (£2.5bn ‘lurking’ in academies’ bank accounts, 19 January) claims that money prudently kept by academy schools in reserve is not spent on teaching or learning. Academies are responsible for spending around £1bn each month, which they receive in advance. The amount in reserve, though a large cash amount, is less than three months’ income – a sensible amount, especially when compared with the vast reserves of local authorities. What is important is what academies do with the money. In many cases, they will have plans to reinvest this money directly into teaching resources. And, unlike schools still under council control, academies will also use reserves for capital projects – money to build the excellent classrooms and facilities needed to learn. Unlike council-run schools, academies cannot operate while insolvent. Many, therefore, take the sensible decision to keep a healthy amount of money in reserve to meet any liabilities. We rigorously check the accounts of academies and probe any reserves that appear too large.

It is also crucial to recognise that the majority of secondary schools are academies, which naturally have far larger budgets than primary schools. That academy trusts are able to reserve funding for future investment in teaching and learning should be welcomed by those interested in seeing our young people flourish. It shows the futures of many of the best schools in the country are safe – encouraging news for our hard-working teachers. Our research is clear that these reserves have no impact at all on the standard of education offered. In fact, the latest Ofsted data also shows both primary and secondary academies are more likely to be rated good or outstanding than local authority schools.

The higher cash balances held by academies are a reflection of the freedom and responsibility that this government’s plan for education has given to schools – resulting in more than a million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010.
John Nash
Schools minister

Assessing the impact of major school reforms is a tricky, imprecise, value-laden business (School reforms undermined by failure to track success or failure, says OECD, 19 January). It’s not simply a question of “what works”. Too often, encouraged, by the OECD itself, success or failure has been measured by test results of dubious reliability and validity, which by their very nature cannot do justice to the wide-ranging outcomes of major school-wide reforms. Such reforms cannot be measured, only judged; and judgments of complex outcomes can only be rendered by those knowledgeable and experienced enough in the fields in question. England used to have such a cadre of experts (HM inspectors) who reported without fear or favour. But they were regarded as “turbulent priests” by the government of the day and neutralised through incorporation into Ofsted. They or their ilk need to be reinstated, not just in England but elsewhere within the OECD.
Professor Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria

A cell in a police station in London
A cell in a police station in London. Campaigners are calling for a review into the strip-searching of children in police stations. Photograph: Peter Brooker/Rex Features

Strip-searching is a humiliating, degrading and frightening experience for anyone, but especially for children who come into contact with the police, a high proportion of whom may have experienced abuse and/or mental health difficulties. This is graphically illustrated by a case being heard by the court of appeal on Friday in which a 14-year-old girl with a mental health condition was stripped in a cell without her mother or other appropriate adult present.

Last year saw welcome changes in children’s prisons, so that children are only strip-searched where there is a good reason for doing so. This followed a pilot scheme that showed the new approach caused little variation in serious incidents, contraband or violence.

However, there has been no equivalent review of the strip-searching of children in the police station. This is despite the fact that far more children come into contact with the police than go to prison, and freedom of information requests show that police strip-searching of children as young as 12 doubled between 2008 and 2013.

We are calling on the government to launch an urgent review, to make sure children are only strip-searched at the police station as a last resort and that when this happens it is subject to proper safeguarding and child protection measures, such as making sure a child’s parent or another appropriate adult is present. These changes are vital to protecting children’s human rights to be kept safe from harm.
Shauneen Lambe Executive director, Just for Kids Law
Paola Uccellari Director, Children’s Rights Alliance for England
Dr Maggie Atkinson Children’s commissioner for England
Sue Berelowitz Deputy children’s commissioner/chief executive, Office of the Children’s Commissioner
Deborah Coles Co-director, Inquest
Juliet Lyon Director, Prison Reform Trust
Natasha Finlayson Chief executive, Who Cares? Trust
Anna Feuchtwang Chief executive, National Children’s Bureau
Christine Renouf Chief executive, NYAS
Kathy Evans Chief executive, Children England
Professor Carolyn Hamilton Coram Childrens Legal Centre
Susanne Rauprich Chief executive officer, the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services
Sandra Beeton Executive director, the Association of Panel Members
Penelope Gibbs Chair, the Standing Committee for Youth Justice
Jodie Blackstock Director of criminal and EU justice policy, Justice
Pam Hibbert Chair of Trustees, National Association for Youth Justice
Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth Newcastle University
Richard Garside Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Chris Bath Chief executive, National Appropriate Adult Network
Gareth Jones Chair, Association of YoT Managers
Maud Davis and Nicola Jones-King Co Chairs, Association of Lawyers for Children
Anne-Marie Douglas Chief executive, Peer Power
Sarah Salmon Interim director, Criminal Justice Alliance

sed but no mention of new take-off flight paths causing even more noise to west London (Heathrow advertisement, 21 January). More important, no mention of pollution and the dire effects on health of diesel residues descending on millions of people beneath. Those who predicted that Sir Howard Davies (known locally as “the man who rose without trace”) would somehow come up with this solution, may being proved to be right.
Anna Ford
London

• Re the proposed Nicaragua canal. You ask “will it bring wealth and growth or confusion and destruction?” (Report, 21 January). I would hazard a guess that it will bring wealth and growth to the rich and confusion and destruction to the poor.
Mike Harrison
Bath

• After many failed attempts to “potty (seat) train” me, my late lovely wife asked me to sit on the porcelain at 3am one cold winter night (Letters, 21 January). What a shock to the system – more so if unexpected in a pitch-dark bathroom. Ever since then I’ve put the seat down (and still do as a conditioned reflex).
Joe Locker
Surbiton, Surrey

• When Josh Mackay has given birth at least once, he’ll have earned the right to demand the end of the toilet “seat-down” convention.
Lucy Craig
London

• With the interest in HP sauce, is it not time its royal warrant lapsed as it is now produced in the Netherlands despite its invention in Nottingham? If the royal family is interested, I could recommend One Stop Brown Sauce as an acceptable alternative, which is produced in Walsall.
Robert Dyson
Kenilworth, Warwickshire

• Jane Jones should come to Spain (Letters, 20 January). Here HP is pronounced “Atchee pay”.
Mark Green
Port Andraxt, Mallorca

 

 

Independent:

The decision of King’s College London to reverse its daft adoption of a trendy new name, “Kings London”, is a welcome but regrettably rare example of university “management” being forced to realise that they had gone to far in their zeal for corporatism rather than education.

The real question was why and how the original stupid decision was taken in the first place, when it is clearly opposed by just about everyone in the university. Sadly, anyone who has worked in a university knows only too well how these decisions are taken.

Universities are now run as businesses, by isolated groups consisting of vice-chancellors and their pro-VC sidekicks  and senior non-academic managers (usually ex-Tesco or NHS accountants and HR executives who have rarely set foot in an academic department), who have become totally distanced from the rest of the university, particularly the academic staff.

“Consultation” is something they do after  whatever out-of-touch decision they have taken, and is then used as a rubber-stamp – usually by VCs who clamp down on any sensible debate in Senate. The decision is then taken for approval to gullible lay Councils or Courts who believe that everyone is in agreement as they have been “consulted” (but rarely listened to).

These university managers in the past were members of the academic staff, but now no longer see themselves as part of a continuum, but as corporate strategists. They have mostly lost sight of the basic academic functions of teaching, scholarship and research. Management has become for them an activity in its own right, with little regard for what they are actually managing.

So well done the staff and students of KCL. If only more of us had the will to stand up to these self-opinionated berks.

Professor T J Simpson FRS
School of Chemistry
University of Bristol

 

Super-rich don’t make the rest poor

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (19 January) has jumped on the bandwagon of blaming the super-rich for our woes. Her claim that “inequality is threatening to tear our democracy apart” is unfounded scare-mongering.

Capitalism produces great inequality – that is true. But it also delivers prosperity on a massive scale. The UN 2014 Millennium Goals report states that “In 1990, almost half of the population in developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped to 22 per cent by 2010, reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 700 million.”

Capitalism and technology are making most people better off. Some of the entrepreneurs who build businesses and create jobs, such as James Dyson and Richard Branson, become fabulously wealthy, but that does not make the rest of us poorer.

Bill Gates is one of the richest men in the world. He has also done more to combat malaria than all the governments in Africa combined.

It is convenient to make the super-rich scapegoats, but driving them away will not make the rest of us richer. And they are no threat to our democracy.

Paul Sloane
Camberley, Surrey

 

The Pope condemned ‘Charlie’ terrorists

David Cameron is over-reacting  and taking the Pope’s comments on the Charlie Hebdo attack out of context. Pope Francis was rightly saying that we need freedom of expression, but he reminded people to be sensitive and responsible. Surely that is reasonable?

His point about mothers and punches was trying to point out that of course people are going to be upset if you ridicule things very dear to them. He spoke from a Latino cultural background, where your mother is sacrosanct and people will get passionate if she is attacked.

Yes, it was an unfortunate example to use but he was not actually condoning violence, and condemned the terrorists outright in no uncertain terms.

Fr Kevin O’Donnell
Rottingdean, East Sussex

 

Sasha Simic (letters, 15 January) claimed that white Norwegians were not required to “scrutinise their values and beliefs” after the murderous rampage by the neo-Nazi Anders Breivik.

Actually that is not true. I am married into an extended Scandinavian family and I know that there was serious debate about the rampant Norwegian nationalism of recent years and the extent of wartime collaboration.

The Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

 

Labour party and imported labour

Labour admits that the UK economy is improving but states that the improvement is not being felt by “everyday people”.

Of course this situation has nothing to do with the mass of cheap imported foreign labour that has fuelled our recovery and which Labour encouraged in its immigration policy while in office?

It is one of the ironies of modern politics that the political party formed to further the interests of the British working class was the very party that deliberately exposed this same class to better educated and cheaper foreign labour, thereby deploying market forces to drive down the incomes of those it supposedly represents.

Alan Stedall
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

 

The other victims if the Nazis

I have followed the correspondence on anti-Semitism with interest, but also with a certain knowledge that prejudice is not limited to non-Jews.

In 1981 I visited the Dachau concentration camp. To be brought face to face with the agonies suffered there was indescribable. At the end of my visit I stood near a low wall, looking over it into the distance, pondering the experience of the last hour.

As I stood there, I felt a hand come to rest on my shoulder. It belonged to a Jewish gentleman wearing a skullcap. I fancied he had seen my distressed state. He asked me in German how I was feeling.

“How is one supposed to feel after seeing all that?” I asked him rhetorically. He had lost family members in the Holocaust; some had even been here at Dachau.

He then asked me if I had lost anyone here. I replied that I hadn’t, that I was English and not even Jewish, and had not suffered. But if I was here, it was largely to pay my respects to another group of men who were imprisoned here and who suffered along with the Jews and the gypsies: the homosexuals.

The hand which up to that point had still been resting on my shoulder was removed. He enquired if I was homosexual myself. I answered him that I was.

“Es tut mir leid, aber  Ihr habt’s verdient!” was  his reply. In English:  “I’m sorry, but you lot deserved it!”

Dr Michael Johnson
Brighton

 

If we are to understand, depressing as it is, that many Jews in Britain and France feel there is no future for them “here” (“The new anti-Semitism”, 14 January), it can only be made worse by their being assumed, understandably but often wrongly, to be sympathisers for a Jewish state carved out of Arab lands by the connivance  of the British and the French and expanded illegally ever since.

There is an understandable frustration among many Arabs and Muslims at the acquiescence of the West, which can only poison relations between Muslims and Jews outside Israel.

As John Pilger memorably said, Palestine is still the issue.

Sam Kendon
Bristol

 

I notice that the Palestinians will formally join the International Criminal Court, in order to bring charges against Israel for war crimes, on 1 April, commonly called All Fools’ Day. In view of their own behaviour, in siting rocket launchers in schools, mosques and apartment blocks when targeting Israel’s civilian population, both deliberate contraventions of the Geneva Convention, is this choice of date not highly significant?

Martin D Stern
Salford, Greater Manchester

 

I find David Grodner’s letter (15 January) repugnant. He appears to be saying that the reason Jewish people are threatened is because the world’s press keeps reporting the injustices that the Israelis are inflicting on the Palestinian people.

The way to stop the  “bad” press is to stop inflicting these injustices; it is barely a couple of months, for example, since the Israeli navy shelled and killed four Palestinian children on a beach. They were 11 years old.

Lindsay Johnston
Gauldry, Fife

 

Truncated tennis

As a long-time tennis fan, I was intrigued by your article (13 January) on the possible introduction of the much-truncated Fast4 format in Australia. However, I very much doubt that, if the format is widely adopted, the prize money would be reduced pro rata, notwithstanding the inevitability of much less court time for the protagonists: indeed, the chances must be close to love – sorry, zero.

Jeremy Redman
London SE6

 

Times:

Sir, Daniel Finkelstein doesn’t say why antisemitism is so persistent in its different forms — religious, political, antizionist, superstition (“Here’s why we all have reason to be fearful”, Jan 21). Wherever they go, Jews are tolerated rather than welcomed, treated as guests who might outstay their welcome: one moment the humble immigrant, next thing beavering to take over.

Their prominence makes them natural targets. To best them in an argument a Kalashnikov comes in handy.

Disproportionate contributions to the arts, science, commerce, law and medicine are meritorious but not endearing. They can build a viable state in 50 years, they make the best capitalists, the deadliest communists, even the most ingenious crooks. And their greed when it comes to Nobel prizes is legendary.

This is great if you are one of us, but uncomfortable for the rest. Israel is the only country that positively discriminates in favour of Jewish immigrants; other countries have been known to pass the parcel when it was a matter of life or death. Yet with all these disadvantages and dangers, it is a wonderful thing to be a Jew, to belong this most exclusive of clubs. I wear my invisible yellow star with pride.
Victor Ross
London NW8

Sir, As a British Jew I was heartened by the home secretary’s public support. However I fail to share rabbis Solomons and Janner-Klausner’s feeling of comfort as a Jew in this country (letters, Jan 20). This week my children’s school will have to relocate some activities because of security concerns. Until Islamic totalitarianism is combated, including the facetious link between the Arab-Israeli conflict and the cold-blooded murder of Jews around the world, Jews everywhere will have to get used to a life of fear.
Anthony Cohn
London NW4

Sir, Roslyn Pine (letter, Jan 21) makes a strong if disingenuous point by confusing three different issues. To be a Jew today has long meant that you are a terrorist target, wherever you live. Schools and synagogues have had guards and pupil security drills for decades. Our government is not the Nazi regime, and we have the caring support of the police and security services. We are nowhere near that black pit. Roslyn Pine has seen the headlines, and heard about the recent flawed survey of attitudes of British citizens. Like many of my fellow Jews, quite reasonably, she feels vulnerable.

By adding the three together it is easy to come to the wrong conclusion, and respond inappropriately. In Israel there are constant terror attacks. They have armed security at shopping centres. After 67 years they are still at war with their neighbours. Would she advise Israelis to leave, in the face of their plight?
Rabbi Zvi Solomons
Reading

Sir, I share the apprehension expressed by Daniel Finkelstein. In a week that has included Democracy Day, we need to recall that democracy protects us all from tyranny. Hold our representatives to account at every turn, but as Mr Finkelstein notes, “casual disdain” for politics has no place where there is so much at stake.
Ann-Frances Luther
Frant, E Sussex

Sir, All terrorism is evil. A sense of proportion is needed when we talk about the safety of Jews in the Britain. The King David Hotel bombing in July 1946 of the British military and administrative headquarters for Palestine resulted in the deaths of 91 people, of whom 28 were British. To the best of my knowledge there have not been 28 Jewish deaths at the hands of Islamic terrorists in the UK during the almost 70 years since that date.
Adrian Cartwright
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs

Sir, Daniel Finkelstein fears that the evils that followed the Nazis’ rejection of democracy can happen here. Holocaust Day on January 27 is designed as a reminder because, to quote the philosopher, Karl Jaspers: “Only in knowledge can it be prevented.”
JM Carder
Anstruther, Fife

Sir, I await the day when I can mark a Holocaust Day that includes all victims of genocide — such as the 700,000 Serbs in Jasenovac (1941-45) and the Armenians in Turkey (1915) — and isn’t tainted by modern politics and shameful diplomacy.
Anthony Shelmerdine Boskovic
Saddleworth, Oldham

Sir, The simple answer to the concerns about the current heavy security at Jewish schools is to abolish all religious schools. Beliefs are a private matter, which could be passed on to the children of religious parents in their own time.
Judith Stodel
Diss, Norfolk

Sir, Manslamming (men sticking to straight lines when walking in public spaces) is alive and well in my gym (Robert Crampton, Jan 20). I cannot remember once having had a female invade my exercise space, yet males seem to do so with clumsy, oafish, and arrogant regularity. Perhaps now this manshaming will put an end to this unedifying practice.
Fiona Phillips

London NW8

Sir, Ken Broad (letter, Jan 20) may be as encouraged as I was to find that, long after the original version was a hit, Andy Williams re-recorded Can’t Take My Eyes Off You without the superfluous preposition. Unfortunately it came too late to prevent the absurd use of “. . . off of . . .” (instead of simply “off”) creeping into the vernacular.
Emeritus Professor Richard Wilson
Bunny, Notts

Sir, Everyone is discovering Thomas Cromwell (“Cromwell rules in Westminster’s ‘Wolf Hall’ ”, Jan 20). The first play about Cromwell was written by George Calderon in 1909. Calderon is the Russianist who introduced Chekhov to the British stage, was a Times reviewer, and died at Gallipoli 100 years ago. He used the same sources as Hilary Mantel, but produced a pre-Shakespearean morality play in iambic pentameter. His message was as contemporary as your writer Rachel Sylvester suggests Mantel’s is: Calderon’s play was an allegory of the rise of Lloyd George.
Patrick Miles
Cambridge

Sir, One slipshod passage destroyed much of the intended impact of Eric Pickles’s letter to British imams (News, Jan 20). By using “can be” in the phrase “faith in Islam can be part of the British identity”, he implied that the Muslim community and its faith is not part of the British identity, that it is at the moment “inherently apart” but need not be. How different if Pickles had used “is” instead.
Kenneth Jordan
North Chailey, E Sussex

Sir, I have experienced even prompter service from the NHS than David Aaronovitch (“This is not the best way to meet the readers”, Opinion, Jan 19). I phoned my GP at 8am on Thursday and was seen 90 minutes later. I was referred to my local hospital which phoned me at 5.30 that evening with an appointment for the next day.

I was seen by a urologist who arranged for me to have an MRI scan on the Sunday, followed by a further examination on the Monday and a CT scan on the Wednesday. Five appointments in seven days — well done NHS.
David Lloyd
Stockport

Sir, Lord Pannick, QC, is right to deplore the way in which human rights are being used as “a political tool to be manipulated for narrow and partisan advantage” (“Dangerous inmates to be stripped of human rights”, Jan 20).

There is nothing new in jumping on an individual case as a justification for overhauling laws so that a political party can cast itself as the public’s saviour, but current proposals to introduce a Bill of Rights go beyond point-scoring. The draft of the proposal we have seen is nothing short of legally illiterate. It also undermines the principle of the universality of rights, set down in Magna Carta.

Suggestions that decisions from the European Court of Human Rights will be rejected if “wrong” are alarming. Who is to determine when they are wrong? The very politicians being challenged in that court? We must ask if we are prepared to allow Britain to become a country where rights apply only to the popular.
Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK

Sir, The draft Bill of Rights is a reasoned attempt to correct an imbalance between rights and responsibilities introduced by a European Court that is now intervening inappropriately in the daily life of this country. Many of us are confused at the stream of bizarre and unbalanced judgments that come from the European Court of Human Rights. Human rights should be judged against human obligations.
Tim Howard
Corfe Mullen, Dorset

Sir, Some years ago a colleague was surprised to find a Page 3 girl in his Church Times (News, Jan 20). It had been inserted by his teenage daughter. Is such simple pleasure to be denied to future generations?
The Rev Canon Basil Jones
Exeter

Sir, I have not seen The Sun for years, but I can still despise those “politicians and campaigners” who think it appropriate to censor it. If a woman is happy to be photographed in her natural state and if people enjoy looking at those pictures, what business is it of others to interfere? It’s a sad day for freedom.
Steve Devereux
Beuste, France

Sir, One of the first “page 3” girls appeared not in The Sun but in a Fisons advert in The Times. In 1971 I was the executive who raised the client’s idea for a picture of a naked Vivien Neves with the editor, William Rees-Mogg. After much thought, that wonderful voice intoned: “Yes, provided she is not in colour”.
Michael Brotherton
Chippenham, Wilts

Telegraph:

Paid for current accounts may be next scandal, watchdog warns
Figures released by Oxfam suggest half of global wealth will soon be held by the wealthiest 1 per cent Photo: Rex Features

SIR – The figures released by Oxfam (“Top one per cent ‘richer than rest of world’, Oxfam says”) are misleading. The world is in fact getting richer, and the world’s poorest are getting richer twice as fast as the world’s richest. The proportion of the world’s population living on less than $2 (£1.30) a day fell from just under 70 per cent in 1981 to 43 per cent in 2008. There is greater equality now than 15 years ago.

And the reason? Capitalism. Decades of handouts from rich countries have not made the poor richer. People in India and China – and increasingly parts of Africa – are better off because they have launched themselves into the world trading economy. Economic freedom and growth are finally combating poverty.

Sensationalist figures do a disservice to those of us who want to understand and defeat world poverty.

Dr Eamonn Butler
Director, Adam Smith Institute
London SW1

SIR – On a recent trip to my bank I was queuing behind a man who had inadvertently gone £11.42 into his overdraft.

The bank teller told him that he would be charged £6 per day until the overdraft was cleared. He had no way of paying any money into the bank for the next week, so he was likely to incur a £42 charge, plus the £11.42 he was overdrawn.

What happened to fair play? This was an example of a poor man getting even poorer due to a genuine mistake. It is time banks stopped such individuals being able to withdraw cash if they don’t have the money in the bank.

It is a money-making exercise and totally immoral.

Paul Caruana
Truro, Cornwall

SIR – The open letters exchanged between the pop singer James Blunt and Chris Bryant, the shadow culture minister, (“Being posh went against me, singer tells MP”) display the huge gulf that exists between the Labour elite and the rest of society.

From price controls advocated by Ed Miliband to Chris Bryant’s proposals to manipulate the arts and his pathetic attack on Mr Blunt’s success, one thing is clear: Labour is out of touch.

We deserve better from the Opposition.

Robert Sandall
London SW12

SIR – Mr Bryant asks where the next Albert Finney and Glenda Jackson are to come from.

Perhaps rather than playing the class card and bemoaning the success of a public school-educated pop singer, he should reflect on his own party’s chaotic education policy and consider the fact that both of the actors he refers to came from a more meritocratic age, and both attended grammar schools.

Tim Wilson
Daventry, Northamptonshire

Helping industry

SIR – MPs are urging the Government to do more to protect dairy farmers from sharp falls in milk prices. I don’t remember similar exhortations to protect the construction industry throughout the downturn, when thousands of skilled people lost their jobs and many small and medium-sized businesses were forced to close, and many larger ones to downsize, owing to a fall in demand.

The industry now lacks the capacity to respond properly to the growing demands being placed on it. But, as ever, it is adapting. Various initiatives are being explored, such as encouraging those leaving the Armed Forces to consider a career in construction.

It is not the job of government to provide subsidies to struggling industries or to make decisions on their behalf.

Ian Mackenzie
Broughton, Lancashire

Throwaway evidence

(Getty)

SIR – Many of the letters on the essays by the Archbishops of York and Canterbury seem to ignore the main concern voiced within them: that consumerism and individualism dominate our society.

Based on my observation of the ring road round Shrewsbury, where the verges are strewn with plastic fizzy drink bottles and branded cardboard cups with plastic lids from coffee shop chains, I am inclined to agree. It shows scant regard for fellow human beings and significantly less for the environment. The archbishops are on to something that we really need to address.

Simon Martin
Kenley, Shropshire

Proposed Bill of Rights

SIR – The Law Society is very concerned by the Conservatives’ proposed Bill of Rights (“Terror suspects and criminals to be stripped of human rights”).

In the 800th year of the Magna Carta, we should be ensuring that our fundamental civil rights are protected, not allowing them to be used as a political tool. Human rights are afforded to every individual. It is important to note that they usually act in defence of the most vulnerable – such as the elderly, children, and those with mental health problems – not in defence of terrorists.

The Law Society has consistently questioned the necessity of a Bill of Rights and has stressed the importance of the Human Rights Act and the need to promote it, not replace it.

We will be following developments in this area closely and scrutinising any draft Bill of Rights carefully. Human rights belong to us; they are not within the gift of government.

Andrew Caplen
President, The Law Society
London WC2

Who benefits

SIR – I was outraged to read that specially adapted homes and payments of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are given to people who have become obese due to their chosen lifestyle (“Mother and child happy to be fat on benefits”).

My daughter was born with Poland’s syndrome, a rare birth defect characterised by underdevelopment of the chest muscle and hand on one side of the body. She has suffered – and will continue to suffer – a life of corrective surgery. Owing to her condition, she is limited in the type of work she can do and is therefore in receipt of a low income.

The various surgical procedures on her right hand and right chest have left her with chronic pain. Her condition has resulted in a spinal defect which also causes her great pain.

She was told last year that, as she was not sufficiently disabled, her DLA payments would be reduced. This year she was told to re-apply, as DLA is being replaced by another form of benefit payment.

She has also been on the council house waiting list for several years: the cost of her privately rented accommodation, taxes and heating take up the majority of her salary, leaving little for food and clothing.

How can it be right that others, through greed and sloth, get benefit payments far exceeding my daughter’s salary, when she is denied the financial help she so sorely needs?

Karen Dewdney
Dorchester

Measuring the real cost of the congestion zone

SIR – Leon Daniels, managing director of Surface Transport for Transport for London, illustrates the benefit of London’s congestion charge: the number of vehicles entering the zone has been reduced.

However, what he did not mention was the fact that the average journey time through central London has increased sharply. This has a hidden cost to businesses and all road users, which is not reflected in Government or local authority statistics.

Part of the increase in journey times is because the roads have been funnelled down to allow for cycle lanes. Yes, the number of cyclists using London roads has dramatically increased. But cyclists do not pay the congestion charge, nor do they pay to use the roads.

Transport for London has certainly increased its revenue, but are the road users really better off since the introduction of the congestion charge?

John Butterworth
Esher, Surrey

It’s time for a bit of child-led etiquette in Devon

No skiing extravaganza at this children’s party in the Sixties (Getty/Hulton Archive)

SIR – The thing to be learnt from the spat over the birthday party no-show invoice in Devon is that parents can be more childish than their offspring.

Let’s hope the two boys remain friends, to set an example to their parents.

Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – It is important to teach your children to keep their word. Once I invited several people to a garden party, for which I had purchased tickets, and not one turned up. If they had given me a call, I could have invited someone else.

Graham Moorhouse
Heaton, Lancashire

SIR – The saddest part of the story about the boy charged for failing to turn up to his friend’s party is the awful – and ubiquitous – use of the verb “invite” as a noun.

Charles Foster
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

Foyle’s foible

SIR – The final episode of Foyle’s War was compelling.

However, I do think that Christopher Foyle should have raised his hat when finally saying goodbye to Samantha Stewart, especially given that she had just asked him to be a godfather to the child she was expecting.

Malcolm Cross
Plungar, Leicestershire

Touch wood

SIR – On the Telegraph obituary pages I once saw the surname “Pine-Coffin”.

I found myself wondering: “Was it?”

Hamish Grant
Buckland St Mary, Somerset

Don’t go flat

SIR – In order to keep the fizz in our champagne, we use a gard’bulles – a gadget that pumps air into the bottle and prevents the bubbles escaping.

It can be purchased from wine shops in France or online.

Susan Ramsden
Upton, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Mike Cobb should enlist several friends to ensure that his champagne is consumed all in one go.

His “syndicate” could purchase champagne by the case, thus reducing costs and opening up new social opportunities.

Colin Cummings
Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire

 

 

Globe and Mail:

Are France’s shocking cartoons hurtful or beneficial to minorities?

Do cartoons like those found in Charlie Hebdo cause harm to ethnic and religious minorities and drive communities apart, or does hiding these cartoons serve only to portray members of these communities as weak and over-sensitive?

The Debate

The cartoons from the magazine Charlie Hebdo were shocking enough to one group – terrorists – that they murdered the creators of those images. But are these images, which tend to draw on crude ethnic stereotypes to ridicule Muslim figures (including the prophet Mohammed) and other minority groups, themselves offensive and damaging, and is their widespread publication likely to stir up racial intolerance? Or does their libertine, dissenting spirit help support the very minority groups they portray? Read these two opposing views, and use the box on the right to vote.

The Debaters

Debate contributor
Piali RoyToronto-based freelance writer. Tweets @pialiroy
How can you fight racism with racist images?
Debate contributor
Omer AzizFellow with the Information Society Project at Yale University Law School. Tweets @omeraziz12
Hiding these cartoons belittles and stifles minority communities

The Discussion

Debate contributor

Piali Roy : The Charlie Hebdo cartoons are just jokes, right? More funny than racist. What is wrong with a series of a nude Mohammeds, genitalia exposed, or the prophet moaning, “It’s hard being loved by jerks,” or a black justice minister depicted as a monkey?

In the two weeks since the murders at the French satirical magazine, the issue of republishing its cartoons has become a foaming whirlpool of media angst between the crusaders for free speech and defenders of community standards. Do we stand up to the murderers and for our way of life, or protect the delicate constitutions of Muslim readers?

This so-called civilizational discussion about freedom of expression and censorship feels like a coded attack on behalf of the forces of assimilation. Forget equality, minority cultures must embrace what is deemed acceptable by the mainstream. To do otherwise would be the gravest insult to “us” whoever this “us” may be.

Apologists for Charlie Hebdo’s style of satire claim the rabble-rousing cartoonists are not racist. The images are merely used for effect and are perfectly in tune within the French tradition. And even if they are offensive, they must be republished to understand the rationale behind the murders, regardless who they may offend.

Are the images harmful to minorities? What is wrong with showing what appears to be the most benign of Charlie Hebdo covers, a tearful Prophet Mohammed saying all is forgiven while holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign? It can justifiably be read as beautiful and mournful as well as the magazine’s middle finger directed at the murderers and their supporters: the secular world’s infidel.

That cover, however inoffensive to the majority, can also be read as a not-so-subtle reference to the countless Charlie Hebdo covers mocking Muslims and other French minorities. To those communities most threatened with a backlash against them, they signify mosques with broken windows, the innocent attacked in retaliation. Ordinary law-abiding Muslims who hope not to become victims of a different group of extremists.

Charlie Hebdo, born of the political left of the 1960s Paris (the Internationale was sung at this week’s funerals), sees itself as anti-racist publication, poking its finger in the eye of authority. Unfortunately, their methods do not work. The intent may be to attack racist figures such as National Front leader Marine Le Pen, but by using the crudest of ethnic stereotypes, which seemingly tickle its insular audience, it lays itself open to appearing retrograde. Readers outside its self-satisfied cage see how hurtful it is and understand how others will use the cartoons against them. Charlie Hebdo becomes the ironic purveyor of racism, reinforcing everyday French racism.

The magazine regularly approves of images that are meant to make their targets uncomfortable – even the target is, by extension, an entire community. The numerous lawsuits – Catholic, Jewish, Muslim – against Charlie Hebdo demonstrate what many in France felt about their caricatures.

Making a faith a subject of mockery and scorn has real-life effects. French anti-racist activist Rokhaya Diallo, author and producer of the documentary Networks of Hate (Les Reseaux de la Haine), faced it the day after the shootings. As she participated in a radio panel, a prominent journalist made the bizarre demand that Ms. Diallo, as a Muslim, publicly disassociate herself from the murders.

Her response: “So I am the only one around the table to have to say I have nothing to do with it?”

It has becoming increasingly obvious that even in France, freedom of expression is not a universal right but one circumscribed by history. Protecting one minority has become critical to France overcoming its previous crimes against its own Jewish population. Anti-Semitism is banned as is denial of the Holocaust. There are no such protections for Muslims. Shouldn’t we be fighting the hierarchy of prejudice?

Today’s debate is not about censorship – the cartoons will live forever on the Internet – but about whether the mainstream media must publish them as an act of solidarity with Charlie Hebdo (or as context), or not publish them in solidarity with Muslim communities. On one side, it’s back to that simple binary: you are either with us or with the terrorists.

And what of “our” community standards? Are the editorial pages a free-for-all? Do we continue to use homophobic imagery, such as political leaders engaged in sodomy as a commentary on gay marriage, a la Charlie Hebdo’s infamous cartoon involving God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit engaged in that act? Does that make a naked Mohammed seem as benign as one would think? What about an emaciated Jesus as Santa nailed to the cross at a mall during Christmas? I don’t think we’d let that happen. Yet, not publishing cartoons deemed offensive to one group is now considered to be pandering.

Debate contributor

Omer Aziz : Dissident voices within minority communities have their absolute right to free speech threatened today by those who think certain forms of expression should be off limits if they give too much offence. This is not about “shouting fire in a crowded theatre” (a metaphor employed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes to silence opponents of the First World War).

It is about the right to express diverse, irreverent, and offensive opinions. It is about the right to publish satire and ridicule racists, religions, and the powerful alike. Most crucially, it is the same right that empowers minorities within immigrant communities who are pushing for organic and progressive change — the same people with whom other Westerners should be allied.

Plenty of objections can be made to anyone who insists on censorship. The first is that it arrogates to the censor the right to determine what is acceptable speech and what is not. It allows him — it is usually a he — to define the borders of speech and punish those who dare cross it. If giving offence is the line here, then every community can claim certain ideas as too sacred. Christians were once so offended by certain books that they banned them, and punished those found reading them. Today, this list reads like a syllabus of great novels and philosophical tracts. Many Jews who have a religious connection to Israel are offended by harsh criticisms of the Jewish state. Militant Hindus last year pressured Penguin India to withdraw a scholarly study on Hinduism that they considered offensive.

This kind of censorship would be endless, accommodating a theoretically infinite number of special immunity zones where ideas were to be restrained. It would require the appointment of arbiters to enforce these “acceptable speech” borders — an effective recipe for dictatorship over the mind.

Censorship also excludes precisely those minority viewpoints which are, within their communities, using free speech to provoke, confront, and, yes, offend established dogmas. By challenging authorities and authoritarianisms, these voices are ensuring that their communities are not held hostage by reactionary views.

The absolute right to expression is an empowering thing for the “double-minority:” that is, someone who is already an ethnic or religious minority in her country, but also an intellectual minority within her community. This is why so many writers accused of blasphemy have been minorities and women, from Azar Nafisi to Taslima Nasrin.

Finally, when censors tell us that “the Muslim community” is offended, they are suggesting that there is one easily discoverable Muslim community, an undifferentiated collective of immigrants who all think a certain way. The entire post-9/11 demand from countless intellectuals has been for politicians and media outlets to stop treating Islam as a monolith, yet this is what the centres of power do when it comes to cartoons.

This bigotry of low expectations, where “the Muslim community” cannot be entrusted with ignoring or critically refuting rebellious art, is actually a subtle form of racism, a kind of modern White Man’s Burden where the good censors paternalistically limit what Muslims may see — all supposedly for their own good.

The move from treating people as autonomous individuals guaranteed fundamental rights to treating them as part of collectives defined by the state was all done in the name of multiculturalism. Originally institutionalized to celebrate diversity, multicultural policies tried to manage it, and the self-segregated parallel communities that exist in Canada and Western Europe are its worst result. Governments now slap catch-all labels such as “the Hindu community” on millions of individuals, reducing their layered identities to their ethno-religious affiliation. This has produced a virus of sub-nationalisms within the state, exploited by the xenophobic right.

Immigrants are not the problem. They inject a vital dose of energy into any society, exposing it to new forms of thinking. The problem is with outsiders putting immigrants in boxes and treating different groups differently, thereby vitiating the Enlightenment idea of equality and reason that unites us humans.

Those who would hide or censor these images, like the European right, commit a grave error when they refer to this imaginary homogenous unit called “the Muslim community.” The two famous cases of offending “the Muslim community” make nonsense of the censors’ arguments. The Satanic Verses only became controversial after Saudi Arabia tried to ban Salman Rushdie’s novel and Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Khomeini issued his homicidal fatwa. The Danish cartoons stirred controversy four months after their publication when Islamist governments pushed their citizens to protest in the same squares where protestors are usually shot. In both cases, theocrats and conservative imams claimed offence “in the name of Islam.”

The seventeenth-century Sufi poet Bulleh Shah—himself accused of blasphemy — once wrote, “I am free, my mind is free.” He understood that enlightenment was part of the Islamic tradition, where even the Quran encouraged dialogue. As with all indictments of the ironic by the literal, the censorship of art and the punishment for thought-crimes must be opposed unconditionally.

John Ibbitson

Why Trudeau may regret saying no to the Iraq mission

WHAT READERS THINK

Jan. 22: Politicians’ hands – and other letters to the editor

Politicians’ hands

There’s a potential solution to the all-too-common political strategy of governing by obfuscation and half-truths (Language War – editorial, Jan. 21). Before sitting in a house of government, politicians at all levels should be required to stand before their constituents, one hand over their heart and one on the Canadian flag, and repeat a version of the statement we use in our courts: “I promise to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the whole truth at all times. If I ever do otherwise, I will immediately step down.”

Of course … they might be lying when they say that?

Peter A. Lewis-Watts, Barrie, Ont.

………

Re Tory Hikes TTC Fares To Pay For Improvements, Backing Away From Promise To Freeze Rates (Jan. 20): When reporting politicians’ promises, please provide an accompanying rear-view picture so we can see if their fingers are crossed behind their backs.

Michael J. Wills, Toronto

………

Words of war

Re Language War (editorial, Jan. 21): I agree that the language used to describe military operations is a political battlefield. I note the reluctance of any nation to use the word “invasion.” When a large and powerful country determines its national interests require it to overwhelm by military might and occupy a far weaker country halfway around the globe, the media obligingly report it as a “war.”

The victors write history.

Spyro Rondos, Beaconsfield, Que.

………

Deal beggars belief

So the government would have me believe it’s good for Canada to provide Canadian-made weapons to a country that decapitates people and gives them a 1,000 lashes, just so long as it sustains 3,000 jobs (Arms Deal Raises Human-Rights Issue – Jan. 21)?

Get assurances from the Saudis they won’t use the weapons against their own people? Come off it, please. To what depths of two-faced hypocrisy are we being asked (or told?) by our country to descend to? One has to wonder.

F.D. (Derm) Barrett, Kingston

………

1-per-cent solutions

The letter from Don Kerr, allegedly of the 1 per cent, was a masterpiece (Stacked-Up Wealth – Jan. 21). It lured me in and then, just before my queued-up outrage burst forth, I realized it was a joke! Right? Right?

Tuula Talvila, Ottawa

………

Wednesday’s Moment In Time focused on King Louis XVI’s trip to the guillotine – the result of the ultimate income disparity of a small group’s being super rich, and the masses living in extreme poverty. Further inside the front section, a letter to the editor from Don Kerr said, “The more we are unequal, the greater the incentive to rise above the crowd. We need more inequality. When all the wealth becomes concentrated in the 1 per cent, everything will be perfect.” Maybe the 1-per-cent should take a French and/or Russian history class.

Terry Drahos, Wolfville, N.S.

………

Re Forget Fairness, Here’s Why Taxing The Rich Benefits Us All (Report on Business, Jan. 20): What do the wealthy fear the most? Losing their wealth. What do the wealthy do to protect and preserve their wealth? They invest it, they make their wealth work for them. In so doing, jobs are created, enterprises started, tax revenue generated. That is why their wealth grows.

Suggesting that government can better use the wealth of these citizens? What a load of horse pucks.

Wade Pearson, Calgary

………

Robbie says naw

Re For Shepherd’s Pie, Granny Knows Best (Life & Arts, Jan. 21): Lucy Waverman makes Scottish shepherd’s pie with ground beef? It’s a surprise to me that Scottish shepherds herd cows. In my experience, they generally know more about sheep. A true shepherd’s pie is made with ground lamb. If you put beef in it, you are making a cottage pie. Robbie Burns is shuddering in his grave.

David Smith, London, Ont.

………

Peace of minds

Some areas of health care have received very little investment, despite reform rhetoric (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Jan. 21). Mental health is one of these areas. For example, the mental-health share of health spending has declined to 5 per cent in Ontario, down from 11.3 per cent in 1979.

Increases in health transfers should focus on neglected areas of health care. Perhaps the time has come to reconsider former senator Michael Kirby’s ideas of a mental-health transition fund, which would enable provinces to improve accessibility to community mental-health services.

Steve Lurie, executive director, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto Branch

………

Free(ish?) speech

A second-rate magazine publishes cartoons offensive to many around the world and is hailed as a hero of free speech.

Produce a tasteless, mediocre movie, and even the President of the United States defends its release as a freedom-of-expression issue. Hide anti-Semitic vitriol within a comedic performance and people line up to protect the right to free speech, no matter how offensive it may be.

Make sexist, juvenile and offensive comments on Facebook and be condemned and perhaps denied a right to make a living as a dentist. Am I the only one seeing a double standard in these free-speech issues?

George Zvanitajs, Barrie, Ont.

………

An artist’s lot

Re If The Artists Starve, We’ll All Go Hungry (Jan. 19): If “fans” are loath to pay for their favourite artist’s work, who will? Sex trade workers, hangmen and ditch diggers get more respect than we do.

Maybe it’s time for an artists’ general strike. No more studio tours, art hanging in libraries, cafés and city halls, free e-samples, pay-what-you-can folk evenings, poetry readings, live music in the park, etc. It seems not to occur to people that artists, too, have expenses.

If we had a dollar for every time we’re asked, “Do you make a living at it?” there’d be no starving artists. It would be considered nosy to ask an electrician, biologist, hairdresser or accountant that, but it’s open season on us.

Anne Hansen, Victoria

………

About that sweater

Re The Leafs Aren’t Really A Hockey Team, They’re A Leading Cause Of Nervous Breakdown (Sports, Jan. 21): Toronto Maple Leafs fans throwing jerseys on the ice? It’s a wonder they don’t throw their straitjackets.

Terry Toll, Campbell’s Bay, Que.

………

So three unhappy sweater-tossing fans “were trespassed from the premises – which is a legal way to say they were taken away from the property.” Now, if only the Leafs hockey team could be “trespassed from the premises” and put us all out of our misery.

Richard Seymour, Brechin, Ont.

 

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – The current industrial action on junior cycle is not about seeking additional money for teachers. However, recently disclosed documents from the previous government reveal that saving money drove the plan to dismantle the Junior Certificate examination (“Government considered secondary education fee”, January 19th).

The content of the declassified papers comes as little surprise to many. Teachers have always believed that the austerity agenda was a key driver in this move. This has informed our ongoing campaign to protect educational standards and the space, time and resources for teachers to teach and students to learn.

For several years, schools have been hit with a range of cutbacks by successive governments. Class sizes have increased and the pastoral support framework has been dismantled by the removal of middle management positions and guidance counselling provision. On a daily basis, teachers witness the damage that these cuts have wreaked on the educational experience of students.

Last week the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment chairwoman Brigid McManus commented that assessment change should be the driver underpinning Junior Cert reform and that if assessment does not change then nothing else will (“Student assessment is the key to proper reform of junior cycle”, January 13th). However, she failed to acknowledge that teachers are in favour of positive, fully resourced change that guarantees improvement. We fully agree with the Minister for Education and Skills that project work, portfolio work, practical work and other methods of evaluating student learning are vital elements of a modern, forward-looking system, but we believe that they should be externally assessed for certification purposes.

Teachers have shown how educational ideas such as “assessment for learning” are already part of the culture of Irish schools and are open to having this culture enhanced. Agreement with teachers is a prerequisite for the successful implementation of Junior Cycle reform. – Yours, etc,

GERRY QUINN,

President, Teachers’ Union

of Ireland (TUI),

Orwell Road,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6;

PHILIP IRWIN,

President,

Association of Secondary

Teachers in Ireland (ASTI),

Winetavern Street, Dublin 8.

Sir, –  It has been repeatedly stated on RTÉ and other media outlets that second-level teachers are protesting against “junior cycle reform”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Teachers have been making positive suggestions about real reform in the junior cycle for many years now but central to this reform must be the retention of external state certification for the junior cycle.

Teachers and their unions are very much of the opinion that project and practical work, portfolios and other methods of evaluating students’ work all have a part to play in a modern assessment system. At present, several Junior Certificate subjects have several modes of assessment, such as practical or project work. All these are externally assessed by trained,objective and impartial examiners and second-level teachers firmly believe that this practice should continue. Forcing teachers to grade their own students for official state examinations fundamentally changes the student-teacher relationship, undermines educational standards and leads to inconsistencies and inequalities between schools. In short, teachers seek the retention of state-certification and objective external assessment.

It is ironic that by attempting to force teachers to grade their own pupils for state exams, the Department of Education is embarking on a course that has proved disastrous in other countries. Recently the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK revealed that their members are being forced to manipulate results and rewrite work for students in the face of growing pressure to achieve attainment targets. In June it was reported that England’s exam regulators have received scores of complaints from whistleblowers about manipulation and grade inflation by schools in teacher-assessed exams and coursework. One complainant alleged that students were being told what to write in an English exam, another stated that an IT consultant was employed to complete students’ work. In parts of the US, the pressure on teachers to produce grades is so excessive that complex computer algorithms have to be used to determine if teachers have cheated when administering exams to their own students. Is this the vision that we want for our education system? – Yours, etc,

KEVIN P McCARTHY,

Killarney, Co Kerry.

Sir, – Despite the fact that the National Parents Council Post-Primary, the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union, the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools, the Joint Managerial Board, the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and international educational experts, such as Prof Pasi Sahlberg, have come out in broad support of the proposed junior cycle reforms, the teacher unions continue to hold strikes in an attempt to block these reforms.

Despite the fact that it is outlined in the code of professional conduct for teachers that “teachers should maintain high standards of practice in relation to student learning, planning, monitoring, assessing, reporting and providing feedback”, the teacher unions continue to resist any reforms that include school-based teacher assessment (while acknowledging that this already exists in varying ways for many subjects). Assessing students’ work and providing them with feedback is an essential professional responsibility of teachers worldwide. Accepting this responsibility is not only central to promoting enhanced student learning through formative feedback but is also vital to the promotion of the teaching profession in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

Dr RAYMOND LYNCH,

Department of Education

and Professional Studies,

University of Limerick.

A chara, – Siptu president Jack O’Connor states that new Central Bank rules on mortgage lending “will confine house purchasing to the rich” (January 20th).

Perhaps a better situation to the current one we find ourselves in where house purchasing is confined to those who can’t afford it. – Is mise,

GARETH T CLIFFORD,

Stillorgan,

Co Dublin.

Sir,– The Central Bank is quite right to try to prevent house buyers from being stampeded into buying houses at crazy prices – and don’t tell me that couldn’t happen again.

However, those who point out the difficulty of coming up with a 20 per cent deposit also have a point.

The solution may be a system which is more nuanced than the crude 20 per cent proposed.

Take, for the sake of argument, a price of €275,000. Up to that price you must come up with 10 per cent. For every €10,000 above that you must come up with another 1 per cent.

There is nothing sacred about the figures but I think the idea is worth considering. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN CASSERLY,

Bishopstown,

Cork.

Sir, – Contrary to media reports, Pope Francis did not recommend a maximum of three children.

He simply referred to experts quoting this figure, which, incidentally is the minimum required for replacement of the population.

Overpopulation is not a problem worldwide when, in fact, most countries in Europe are not even replacing their populations.

Developing countries would not have this problem either if sufficient support were given to them to develop their economies, often stifled by our protection of our economy.

I find it very hard to understand the lack of promotion for natural family planning. After all we are in an age when health and a healthy lifestyle are to the fore. Yet women are willing to put their health at risk by taking the Pill, etc. Every pill has a side-effect and, it should be pointed out, it also contributes to the coffers of the vast pharmaceutical companies. After Humanae Vitae, scientists were encouraged to update methods of natural family planning, especially by Pope Paul VI. This has resulted in this method, especially Na Pro, being as effective as artificial methods and without the endangerment of women’s health.

This is an age of choice, as we are constantly reminded. Why not chose the healthy way of planning a family over that of commercial profit and at far less expense? Na Pro has also benefitted very many couples who have fertility problems. A win-win situation all round! – Yours, etc,

MARY STEWART,

Ardeskin,

Donegal.

Sir, – Pope Francis has proven remarkably adept at hewing to an entirely orthodox line as regards faith and morals yet has journalists eating out of his hand with a few of his impromptu remarks that, parse them how you will, do not amount to a repudiation of Catholic teaching. I think he may understand that journalists, like eager puppies, yearn for a bit of harmless attention. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA O’RIORDAN,

Dublin 8.

Sir, – From the hallowed and privileged environs of the World Economic Forum in Davos emerges the news that, according to a new study of the global labour market entitled the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2014, Ireland is not doing enough in terms of “labour competitiveness” and “flexibility” and is lagging behind such inspirational role models as Britain and the US (“Ireland failing ‘home-grown’ talent, says report”, January 21st) .

Well, according to a 2013 survey of its members, Unite, Britain’s biggest union, suggested that as many as 5.5 million Britons are employed on zero-hour contracts. As for the US and “job flexibility”, well the US boasts one of the lowest rates of unionisation among the world’s industrialised nations so that speaks for itself.

Nevertheless, shame on us as a nation and all our Government’s endeavours because our economy is still not “open” enough, which, roughly translated, means we still haven’t enough jobs incorporating the aforementioned zero-hour contracts, union-free labour, minimum wage, minimum job security, maximum job instability because, unless I’m mistaken, that’s what “open” and “flexible” really mean, don’t they? – Yours, etc,

JD MANGAN,

Stillorgan, Co Dublin.

Sir, – I’d have to disagree with Michael Noonan in relation to social partnership (“Talks with the social partners”, January 19th) when he says, “Rather than having the re-establishment of social partnership, which at the end was a failure, I would like to see something where people had a way of inputting between elections”.

The proof that it was not a “failure” is the fact that people accepted savage austerity measures without any protest or significant disruption to services. It was social partnership that created the climate that made this possible.

To assert otherwise devalues the personal sacrifices that the people of this country have quietly made. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT STRUNZ,

Scariff,

Co Clare.

Sir, – Fintan O’Toole, in speaking up for the leftist political party that is leading opinion polls in Greece today (“Syriza’s way or Frankfurt’s way?”, Opinion & Analysis, January 20th), is now accusing his fellow Irish citizens of “ethnic stereotyping”, because we want to live in a country that has a secure economy.

He does not articulate the empathy of so many Irish people for ordinary people who have struggled in Greece in recent years.

He also omits to mention that Greece descended into chaos some years ago because a socialist government ran up public debts which Greek taxpayers could not afford, whereas Ireland’s economy bombed because a free-wheeling right-wing Government gave free rein to unregulated capital.

This demoralising decade has been a European experience, and its lesson is that the centre must hold; otherwise things fall apart.

I hope for all Europeans, after too long a sacrifice, that Greeks will not now hit the panic button. – Yours, etc,

PAUL HICKEY,

Castlecoote,

Co Roscommon.

Sir, – All the best to Leo Varadkar in his personal disclosure; however that is barely of passing interest. The pressing matter for citizens is his failure to resolve the shortage of consultants, the essential collapse of the Fair Deal nursing home arrangements and the predictably recurring emergency hospital trolley issue whereby ill people are expected to endure dreadful conditions, notwithstanding the very best efforts of front-line medical staff. Many of us expected him to deliver decisive action; however there is no evidence of that yet. – Yours, etc,

D O’SHEA

Grange,

Cork.

Sir, – Leo Varadkar says he has “lifted a weight from his shoulders” by publicly revealing his homosexuality. With that done, could he now please lift a weight from the shoulders of hospital patients and start reducing the number of people on trolleys and waiting lists?

Mental health services also need Mr Varadkar’s urgent attention, because they are now almost non-existent, due to cutbacks. – Yours, etc,

TIM BUCKLEY

Cork.

Sir, – Further to the letter from the Department of Finance (January 21st), I agree that lower-paid workers will be better off and their net pay will increase.

I would also implore these low-paid workers to do their bit to kickstart the Irish economy by using the extra money to buy a new car, have a staycation and perhaps put an extension on the house. Anything left over could be invested for a rainy day. – Yours, etc,

JOHN RALPH,

Carrickmines,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – In his “Irishman’s Diary” (“Man of letters”, January 21st), Frank McNally discussed some of the personalities who, like Charlie Haughey (CJH), were often known by triple letters. A famous holder of perhaps the best of such letters is Lord O’Donnell, a former British cabinet secretary and head of the civil service there. Being Gus O’Donnell, his commands were initialled GOD. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,

Letterkenny,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I recall that the Daily Telegraph used to refer to former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith as “IDS” in headlines. It never caught on. Other papers referred to him as “top Tory” or “Tory chief” in their headlines. – Yours, etc,

JAMES O’KEEFE,

Crumlin,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – I look forward to when we follow Barack Obama and introduce middle-class economics to this country (“Obama touts economic record at State of the Union address”, January 21st). I assume I will then get a tax credit for each letter published in The Irish Times. – Yours, etc,

DERMOT O’ROURKE,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Would the demise of “Page Three” have anything to do with those warnings about the dangers of overexposure to the Sun? – Yours, etc,

JOHN O’BYRNE,

Harold’s Cross,

Dublin 6W.

Sir, – Senator Ivana Bacik writes (January 17th) that “sensible and proportionate legal limits may be placed on free speech in every democracy”. That is to say, she believes a majority (which will always see itself as “sensible and proportionate”) may prevent a minority from communicating its views to the people, so that they will go to the polls unaware of differing views and unable to make an informed choice between them. That does not seem to me consistent with democratic principles. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL WILLIAMS,

Dublin 6.

Irish Independent:

Forcing teachers to grade their own students for State exams will undermine educational standards.

It has been repeatedly stated on RTE news and other media outlets that second-level teachers are protesting against “Junior Cycle reform”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Teachers have been making positive suggestions about real reform in the Junior Cycle for many years but central to this reform must be the retention of external State certification for the Junior Cycle.

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Teachers and their unions are very much of the opinion that project and practical work, portfolios and other methods of evaluating students’ work all have a part to play in a modern assessment system.

At present, many Junior Certificate subjects have several modes of assessment, such as practical or project work. All these are externally assessed by trained, objective and impartial examiners and second-level teachers firmly believe that this practice should continue. Forcing teachers to grade their own students for official State examinations fundamentally changes the student-teacher relationship, undermines educational standards and lead to inconsistencies and inequalities between schools. In short, teachers seek the retention of State certification and objective external assessment.

It is ironic that by attempting to force teachers to grade their own pupils for State exams, the Department of Education is embarking on a course that has proved disastrous in other countries. Recently, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK said that its members are being forced to manipulate results and rewrite work for students in the face of growing pressure to achieve attainment targets.

In June, it was reported that England’s exam regulator, Ofqual, has received scores of complaints from whistleblowers about cheating, manipulation and grade inflation by schools in teacher- assessed exams and coursework.

One complainant alleged that students were being told what to write in an English exam; another stated that an IT consultant was employed to complete students’ work.

In parts of the US, the pressure on teachers to produce grades is so excessive that complex computer algorithms have to be used to determine if teachers have cheated when administering exams to their own students. Is this the vision that we want for our education system?

Kevin P McCarthy, MSc, HDE, Killarney, Co Kerry

 

Loosen mortgage cap rules

The Central Bank is quite right to try to prevent house buyers from being stampeded into buying houses at crazy prices – and don’t tell me it couldn’t happen again. However, those who point out the difficulty of coming up with a 20pc deposit also have a point. The solution may be a system which is more nuanced than the crude 20pc plan proposed.

Take, for the sake of argument, a house price of €275,000. Up to that price you must come up with 10pc. For every €10,000 above that you must come up with another 1pc.

There is nothing sacred about the figures but I think the idea is worth considering.

Brendan Casserly, Bishopstown, Cork

 

The not-so-charming Christine

Reading Lise Hand’s piece (Irish Independent, January 20), one could be forgiven for thinking that a top model/celebrity had descended on Dublin, instead of the boss of the IMF.

Lise appears to be enchanted by the “charming Christine”, with her brooch from Newbridge Silverware and her €7,000 designer handbag. We certainly are impressed. Or not – this woman has the bloody cheek to call us heroes after her organisation was partly responsible for the catastrophic financial devastation wreaked on the working-class people of this country.

Our politicians still don’t get it – this kind of behaviour only alienates them from the electorate. Pictures of the Taoiseach walking almost hand in hand with this woman, and Michael Noonan besotted with his “good friend” only evokes Marie Antoinette’s answer to the problem of the Paris peasants: “let them eat cake.”

Unfortunately, the charming Christine could only stay long enough to congratulate us on our extraordinary tolerance towards her policy of taking from the not so well off and giving to the fabulously well off, then she had to board her plane for a trip to Davos to attend the annual get-together of the billionaire club.

Mike Burke, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare

 

Post offices’ archaic opening hours

Our post offices are rarely out of the news for one reason or another, with closures and competition being the main issues.

Why then, if competition is applying such pressure and forcing An Post to close post offices throughout Ireland, do they continue to shut their doors from 1-2pm each day, a time that would most suit thousands of users?

I recall this being an issue in many of the National Partnership Agreements over many years. Yet this archaic practice has survived not just those, but Croke Park 1 and 2 and Haddington Road. It seems to have slipped through the cracks entirely both from management’s perspective and that of our media.

Liam Cassidy, Celbridge, Co Kildare

 

Don’t strip capital of its magic

Ian O’Doherty’s article ‘Capital needs to pull the plug on noisy buskers’ (Irish Independent, January 20) makes a trenchant case for banning “noisy, terrible bands”.

This may well be so, but the Irish Street Arts and Spectacle Network has multiple concerns that in dealing with over-amplified performances, Dublin City Council may strip the capital’s streets of vibrant street performances. We urge Dublin City Council to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

In an earlier era, Noel Purcell sang: “Grafton Street’s a wonderland, there’s magic in the air.”

Let’s keep the magic!

Lucy Medlycott, Coordinator, Irish Street Arts and Spectacle Network, C/O Irish Theatre Institute Temple Bar, Dublin 2

 

Make all Dáil votes secret ballots

There has been recent calls for a loosening of the party whip to allow politicians to have a free vote on matters of conscience.

The challenge is that if politicians have a free vote, they will be harassed by sectional interests looking to change their vote. So, many weak politicians like the whip precisely because it protects them from this harassment.

The recent drama about Charlie Haughey illustrates this problem. When Charlie McCreevy and Albert Reynolds proposed motions of no confidence in Haughey, both asked for a secret ballot, and for the vote on having a secret ballot to also be secret. The reason was obvious – a secret ballot gives weak politicians the courage to cast an honest vote in privacy.

This was undermined by having an open ballot to decide whether to hold a secret ballot on having a secret ballot on the vote of no confidence. While it might seem ludicrous, it shows that a weakened party whip is undermined by an open vote.

When parliamentary elections began, they were by open ballot, and the threat of eviction ensured that tenants voted according to their landlord’s wishes. During the 19th Century the secret ballot was introduced so that voters could not be intimidated, bullied or bribed into voting against their conscience.

If it is good enough for the people, why not for the politicians? The whip system can’t exist if all votes in the Oireachtas are by secret ballot!

Naturally, some will argue that they have a right to know how their politicians vote. But if a vote is open, how do you know if it is an honest vote? Only with a secret ballot can politicians be freed from intimidation and harassment to be allowed to vote according to their conscience.

Jason Fitzharris, Swords, Co Dublin

Irish Independent


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Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Carrie Grey Carers Outreach come to call to explain the Socal Services

Obituary:

Leon Brittan
Leon Brittan Photo: Christine Boyd

Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, who has died aged 75, overcame a humiliating end to his ministerial career during the Westland crisis to become the longest-serving and most effective of Britain’s European commissioners.

Widely respected for his intellect and capacity for hard work, Leon Brittan made his reputation in the early 1980s as a formidable administrator with an unrivalled grasp of the details of his brief, a talent that had previously made him a successful QC.

Suddenly brought into Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet in 1981 — promoted over the head of Nigel Lawson to chief secretary to the Treasury — he proved highly effective in imposing detailed control on public spending, an intellectually demanding task that his predecessor, John Biffen, had found too unpleasant (or too difficult).

As home secretary after the 1983 election, Brittan imported a raft of ideas for updating criminal justice, including stiffer sentences, and easing restrictions on using tape-recorded witness statements and on independent prosecutions. He produced many reforming Bills and tried to streamline Home Office bureaucracy; senior officials reckoned him the only post-war home secretary to realise what was wrong with the department and try to remedy it.

Brittan was one of the few Cabinet members who could privately persuade Mrs Thatcher that her initial reaction on a particular issue was wrong, and his willingness to argue with No 10 contradicted the popular caricature of him as a placeman.

Yet though he was one of the most gifted of her ministers, he was short on political judgment and sensitivity. Myopic-looking and unashamedly intellectual, Brittan’s manner was widely interpreted, especially by press commentators, as patronising, even contemptuous. In her memoirs Mrs Thatcher recorded: “Everybody complained about his manner on television, which was aloof and uncomfortable.”

Where the public saw arrogance and coldness, Brittan’s friends noted precisely the opposite: a shy, humorous and exceptionally kind man and, improbable as it might have seemed to outsiders, the object of real affection. Even in a wider circle he was notable for being completely free of malice or spite. Yet the criticism that he was too clever for his own good and short on common sense dogged his career.


Leon Brittan (centre) with Margaret Thatcher, Lord Hailsham, Sir Keith Joseph and Michael Heseltine in the 1980s (PA)

These failings came to the fore in 1985 when, in response to rising Tory anger at “Left-wing bias” in the BBC, Brittan tried to pressure the corporation’s governors to prevent the screening of a Real Lives documentary on Northern Ireland, an effort which, since he did not succeed, left him looking simultaneously authoritarian and ineffective. This episode prompted Mrs Thatcher to move him, against his wishes, to the Department of Trade and Industry in September 1985. She was also influenced by backbench Tory complaints that Home Office questions, in which Brittan was pitted against Labour’s Gerald Kaufman, who shared his Baltic Jewish origins, was “like being in a foreign country”.

The DTI should have been an easier billet, well suited to Brittan’s backroom talents, and his speech at the party conference soon after brought him an unexpected standing ovation. But then came Westland.

The Westland company of Yeovil, Britain’s only helicopter manufacturer, was in financial trouble and sought to be bailed out by Sikorsky, its American counterpart. The Sikorsky bid ran into immediate opposition from the defence secretary, Michael Heseltine, who claimed that the Americans would turn Westland into a “metal-bashing operation” and suggested the company look for a European buyer.

When Heseltine convened a meeting of the national armaments directors of France, Italy and Germany, as well as Britain, to agree a policy whereby they would only buy helicopters designed and built in Europe, he put himself at loggerheads not only with the Westland board but with the prime minister and her trade and industry secretary, who felt it was wrong for the government to prevent any particular solution to Westland’s problems.

This disagreement erupted into a political crisis, with the arguments played out in Parliament and the press, mostly to the advantage of Heseltine, lobbying frantically behind the scenes. Then extracts were leaked from a confidential letter in which the solicitor-general, Sir Patrick Mayhew, accused the defence secretary of “material inaccuracies” in the presentation of his case.

Following Heseltine’s dramatic resignation in mid-Cabinet on January 9 1986, it emerged that Brittan had authorised the leak, albeit with what he thought was No 10’s consent. On January 24 he offered his own resignation.


Brittan with John Gummer in 1984 (Hulton Archive)

Brittan’s departure at the height of the worst internal crisis of Mrs Thatcher’s premiership was the direct result of his loyalty to a prime minister he regarded as a friend. Inevitably, he was seen as the fall guy, a necessary sacrifice to save Mrs Thatcher herself. “He meekly accepted the role of scapegoat,” Lawson recalled. “Had he made public all he knew, she could not possibly have survived.” Perhaps in acknowledgment of this, Mrs Thatcher broke with tradition in expressing a clear desire in her reply to Brittan’s letter of resignation to have him back in Cabinet as soon as possible. But he was never rehabilitated, and in 1989 left for Brussels.

Leon Brittan was born on September 25 1939, the younger son of Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the country as refugees in 1927 and settled in Cricklewood, where his father was a doctor. Leon’s elder brother, Sam, would become a respected columnist on the Financial Times.

From Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, Leon won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge. His ambition to succeed in both law and politics was clear: he gained double Firsts in English and Law and became both president of the Union and chairman of the university Conservative association. After a scholarship year at Yale, he was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1962 and became a leading libel lawyer, taking silk in 1978.


Brittan in 1992 (Rex)

Two years before, Brittan secured a change in the law of contempt of court in a case that involved The Daily Telegraph. Its reporter Nicholas Comfort had named a ward of court in the paper, and the Official Solicitor brought prosecutions for contempt against the Telegraph and the Slough Evening Mail, which had repeated the story.

After a three-day trial in the High Court both papers were found guilty. The Telegraph’s counsel advised the paper to accept the conviction, but Brittan, representing the Slough Evening Mail, insisted on appealing and so both papers had to contest it. He won, convincing Lord Denning that it was ridiculous there was no permitted defence against a charge of contempt. In the interval he told Comfort, whom as a young barrister he had taught at Trinity, “I don’t think we got this far in the syllabus, did we?”

After being rejected for 14 safe Conservative seats, Brittan was elected MP for Cleveland and Whitby in February 1974. The seat disappeared in boundary changes and in 1979 he won the far-flung Yorkshire farming constituency of Richmond, representing it until he resigned to join the Commission in 1989; the future Conservative leader William Hague took his place.

Brittan’s initial reluctance to go to Brussels owed much to his affection for his constituency. He may have been an improbable countryman but he became an enthusiastic one, with a passion for cricket. Whatever his defects as a national politician, he was a popular local MP.

Within two years of entering the Commons, Brittan became Opposition spokesman on devolution, then on industrial relations, and played an important part in framing Conservative trade union reforms. In Mrs Thatcher’s first government of 1979, he became minister of state at the Home Office under Willie Whitelaw who, with Sir Geoffrey Howe, became his main political supporter and mentor.


Leon Brittan, as EU commissioner, with Japanese trade minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in 1995

It was Whitelaw who recommended him to Mrs Thatcher as a suitable replacement for Biffen in 1981. His promotion as the youngest member of her Cabinet was announced at a party given by Sir Geoffrey in No 11 Downing Street to mark Brittan’s marriage to Diana Peterson, a divorcee with two teenage daughters. Lady Brittan would go on to chair the National Lottery Charities Board and be appointed DBE.

Although Brittan’s appointment as a commissioner was reckoned by some of his friends a poor and belated consolation for his loyalty to Mrs Thatcher, Brussels gave full rein to his talents. Serving first as competition commissioner, he demonstrated not only a lawyer’s mastery of detail but also a steely determination to force through the principles of fair competition against entrenched national interests.

His ability to plough through and absorb mind-numbing detail won him the admiration of staff at the Commission, and his willingness to learn languages (he became fluent in French and German) earned admiration from colleagues and European politicians; the president of the Commission, Jacques Delors, rated him “one of the most brilliant men I have ever met”.

In 1993 he was appointed vice-president of the Commission and given the crucial trade portfolio, a job that pitched him into the centre of the tortuous Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt). Brittan’s mastery of detail proved crucial in reaching agreement with the Americans later that year, a personal triumph which saw his reputation as a high-powered if aloof intellectual transformed into that of a deal-maker on a grand scale.


Brittan in 1989 (Rex)

Yet Brittan’s successes won him few friends; his unshakeable faith in the power of reason left him little sympathy for emotionally tinged arguments in favour of French farming. The Gatt negotiations were notable for an explosive encounter with the French foreign minister Alain Juppé in which Brittan saw off French attempts to scupper the EC-US Blair House Accord limiting farm export subsidies.

Although this triumph kept the Uruguay round alive, the French never forgave him. “He was good,” a German official at the showdown was quoted as saying, “but maybe he was too good.”

French opposition effectively sank Brittan’s hopes of succeeding Delors, and put paid to his hopes of the crucial eastern Europe portfolio after the installation of Jacques Santer. Santer had assured Brittan the job was his, but at the last moment voted for the Dutchman Hans van den Broek, a volte-face which caused Brittan to consider resignation.

Brittan also paid the price for growing Conservative Euroscepticism under Mrs Thatcher and her successor John Major. He sought to counter this in speeches and articles despite personal attacks in the British press, some of which bordered on the anti-Semitic, and a relationship with Major which was no better than cool. But his support for Britain’s entry into the EMS and the Euro put him increasingly at odds with his own party and with sentiment in the country.


With his wife Diana at home in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, in 1990 (Rex)

Brittan was among the commissioners who resigned en masse in 1999 following allegations of nepotism against their French colleague Edith Cresson. Within days of clearing his desk at the Berlaymont he was appointed vice-chairman of the merchant bank Warburg.

The last year of his life was overshadowed by rumours, including the allegation that as home secretary he had failed to act on a “dossier” prepared by the Conservative MP Geoffrey Dickens detailing alleged child abusers within the British establishment.

Brittan published two books on Britain’s role in Europe, The Europe We Need (1994) and A Diet of Brussels (2000), arguing for the nation to become more fully engaged.

Leon Brittan was sworn of the Privy Council in 1981, knighted in 1989 and created a life peer in 1999.

He is survived by his wife and his stepdaughters.

Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, born September 25 1939, died January 21 2015

Guardian:

Britain's Secretary of State for Communities
Eric Pickles and Theresa May hold up signs reading ‘I am Jewish’ during a Board of Deputies of British Jews event in London on 18 January. ‘When I read May claim that ‘antisemitism is making Jewish people fearful to stay in Britain’, I feel angry,’ writes David Rosenberg. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Individual experience does not necessarily reflect general social trends. David Conn (Just how antisemitic is Britain?, 20 January) is wrong to conflate his lack of ever having experienced anti-Jewish racism with the claim that Britain suffers from little anti-Jewish prejudice. As a PhD student in Britain I experienced anti-Jewish racism. I was called a dirty Jew walking home from synagogue, my rabbi was kicked and punched in central London while anti-Jewish epithets were hurled at him, and my university sometimes suffered from an atmosphere of intimidation and harassment of Jewish students.

Conn is right that overall British society shows respect for its religious minorities. Britain is remarkably humane and tolerant. However, the aggregate data on violent and non-violent hate crimes show a major increase in frequency and severity of anti-Jewish attacks. This evidence is not a chimera. British Jews, the police and domestic intelligence services and government are reacting to real threats to the rights and freedoms of Jewish Britons, not imagined ones.

Conn’s individual life experiences do not challenge this evidence any more than my experiences necessarily confirm it. Both may be representative, to different degrees. Doubting whether British Jews are grateful to Britain because they express concerns for their freedom and safety is irresponsible, unreasonable and indefensible. Implying so stokes anti-Jewish prejudice, however unintentionally. Only a proactive approach to protecting human rights in solidarity with threatened minorities that defends democratic principles of equality and freedom will ensure that Britain’s values of tolerance and inclusion remain its defining ethos.
Noam Schimmel
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

• We are shocked and alarmed that the home secretary has been swept up in the wave of hysteria deliberately whipped up by the so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism (Theresa May pledges extra police patrols to counter antisemitism threat, 19 January), claiming that a quarter of British Jews were considering leaving for Israel and that 45% believed that Jews had no long-term future in Britain. The CAA’s scaremongering report quotes from its own poll which, according to the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, was methodologically flawed and unreliable. Another poll by Survation, from a representative sample of more than 500 of Britain’s Jewish population, found that 88% of Jews had not considered emigrating.

The home secretary must know that the CAA was set up last summer, not to fight antisemitism but to counter rising criticism of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. Its first big success was bullying the Tricycle Theatre into withdrawing its objection to Israeli embassy funding of the UK Jewish Film Festival. The CAA and the home secretary conflate anti-Israeli and antisemitic views, convenient cover for her desire to legislate for a snooper’s charter and criminalise opinions she disagrees with.

Accusing critics of Israel and Zionism of antisemitism merely devalues the currency, while claiming the right for Jews to censor what others say about Israel is hardly the way to combat prejudice against them. We do not deny that there are fears abroad among Jews in Britain, ourselves included, but we see far greater racist threats to other minorities in this country, in particular the beleaguered Muslim community.
Seymour Alexander, Craig Berman, Rica Bird, Prof Haim Bresheeth, James Cohen, Mike Cushman, Deborah Fink, Kenny Fryde, Carolyn Gelenter, Michael Gold, Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Selma James, Michael Kalmanovitz, Paul Kaufman, Rachel Lever, Dr Les Lewidow, Susanne Levin, Prof emeritus Moshe Machover, Miriam Margolyes, Diana Neslen, Roland Rance, Frances Rifkin, Sheila Robin, Prof emeritus Steven Rose, Prof emeritus Jonathan Rosenhead, Leon Rosselson, Michael Sackin, Miriam Scharf, Ruth Tenne, Stanley Walinets, Sam Weinstein, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

• Robert Booth reports (20 January) that “UK Jews are braced for the worst” in an extensive article filled with antisemitic incidents, reported jihadist plots and suitcases packed to leave Britain. While the Paris tragedy and the spike in antisemitic incidents during last summer’s Gaza conflict demand that we remain vigilant and support individuals who are feeling vulnerable, reports from Liberal Judaism constituents seem to affirm the truism that “Britain is good for the Jews and the Jews are good for Britain”.

The challenge of reports like that of Robert Booth’s is that they do not constitute evidence of an actual increased risk of attack but rather they increase the risk of the Jewish community cutting itself off from the wider community and retreating to fortress synagogues, schools and community centres. It is impossible to contribute to an open, welcoming and inclusive society while locking ourselves away; and we cannot confront prejudice if we see only malevolence in our neighbours. The only meaningful, long-term response to antisemitism is to reach out to those of other faiths and of none, to study and work together, and – through our openness – give the lie to the ignorance and hatred which lurks behind sealed doors.

That is why, this Shabbat as every other, strangers will be particularly welcome in our communities. The only response to closed minds is open doors.
Rabbi Danny Rich Chief executive, Lucian J Hudson Chair, Rabbi Charley Baginsky Chair, Rabbinic conference, Liberal Judaism

• While Antony Beevor is right to remind us of both the Soviet Union’s role in liberating the Nazi extermination camps and of Russia’s long history of antisemitism (Why Putin should be at Auschwitz, 21 January), he fails to highlight why, at this particular moment, it is worse than “a great shame” that Putin will not be attending the events at Auschwitz next week to mark the 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation by the Red Army. The fact that Putin will not be attending and that the Polish government did not invite him is a tragedy. That this should happen so soon after millions of people around the world and their leaders appeared to come together to express their abhorrence at the recent terrible events in France is especially dismaying.

The Nazi policies of mass murder and the Holocaust were crimes against humanity and the ruins of Auschwitz stand as a terrible warning of where race hatred, religious intolerance, narrow-minded nationalism and absolutist political and religious dogma can lead. So at this time when dogmatic religious absolutism and old race hatreds are reasserting themselves and leading to outbreaks of violence around the world, it is doubly important that an event such as the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz should stand above the petty nationalisms and political point-scoring of today’s political leaders.
Michael Darlow
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

• Antisemitism in Britain is not like that of 1930s Germany, nor even of present-day France, but 2014 was the worst year for antisemitic incidents in the UK since records began. If 45% of gay people feared they had no long-term future here and a quarter were thinking of leaving due to homophobia, we wouldn’t round on them saying that they have it much better here than in Russia; we would do our utmost to tackle the problem. So why when Jews express the same sentiments does your newspaper see fit to doubt their fear? History has shown that the wellbeing of the Jewish community is the litmus test of freedom.
Gideon Falter
Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

• Hot on the heels of recent swastika daubings and damage to Jewish property in Stamford Hill, Hackney, a Holocaust memorial event poster mounted on a plinth by Newham council was graffitied last week with the word “liars”. These actions indicate that, alongside other forms of racism, antisemitism is currently on the increase. But when I hear Theresa May telling a Jewish meeting of her determination to stand together with the Jewish community against antisemitism, as a Jew I feel extremely queasy. And when I read her claim that “antisemitism is making Jewish people fearful to stay in Britain”, I just feel angry.

Jews certainly need support and solidarity against antisemitism – from people committed to overcoming racism in all its forms. We do not need support from those whose policies have marginalised and targeted vulnerable minorities, and contributed towards the atmosphere in which growing numbers regard migrants, refugees and asylum seekers as a “problem”. We do not need support from those whose policies have aided the growth of the likes of Ukip.

The spurious claim that Jews fear for their future in Britain represents a paper-thin analysis, based on self-selecting responses to a set of loaded questions in a discredited survey promoted by a body announcing itself as the Campaign against Antisemitism”. This survey was transparently designed to bolster a sensationalist misreading of Jewish experience in Britain, one that dovetails neatly with Binyamin Netanyahu’s attempts recruit British and French Jews for Israel’s “demographic wars” against the Palestinians.

If antisemitism, alongside other racism, is on the increase, why on earth should Jews respond by saying to the racists “You are absolutely right – we’ll pack our bags”, instead of saying: “we will make common cause with others threatened by racism, and redouble our efforts to build a strong, pluralist and diverse society.” As a Jew I have no doubt that together with like-minded people from all communities in Britain, we can defeat our enemies. It’s “friends” like Theresa May, who divide our communities, who give me sleepless nights.
David Rosenberg
London

• We suggest Islamaphobia is there because the Muslims do not integrate. The Jews are fully integrated, yet some 50% of the population is antisemitic. What does that say about us?
Jehangir Sarosh
Bushey, Hertfordshire

• I think it is time to take issue with the statement you and other newspapers are repeating that, in the words of your own headline, “Almost half of Britons hold antisemitic view, poll suggests”. This is based on a survey in which seven views, presented as antisemitic, were said to be “definitely or probably true” by 17%, 11%, 10%, 17%, 25%, 20%, and 13% of the sample. Somehow out of these figures your headline emerged. The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which organised the survey, said that 45% believe at least one statement to be definitely or probably true. But it is possible to believe that one of those statements, that Jews’ loyalty to Israel made British Jews less loyal to the UK, is probably true, without being antisemitic. Many, if not most, British Jews attack the British government when it condemns Israel’s illegal settlement policies and the disproportionate military actions against Palestinians in Gaza. Such attacks on the government could be seen as disloyalty, just as I was disloyal to the UK when I attacked the UK government’s war on Iraq.
Karl Sabbagh
Newbold on Stour, Warkwickshire

• I fear the government’s imbalanced response to Charlie Hebdo will deepen the dangerous divisions in our society. First we saw politicians join the marches in France in the name of free speech and democracy while in the same breath announcing plans for new security measures that raise concerns about civil liberties. This seems obviously incongruous and even hypocritical. I had to ask myself “who are our leaders claiming to defend the right to free speech from?”. Surely they aren’t trying to send a message to radical Islamic terrorists? Most Muslims in Europe already understand that we have free speech. They have lived in Europe for generations without doing anything to try to change that or take it away. For the sake of fairness and social cohesion a fair and balanced response is important. But while defending the anti-Islamic cartoons and speaking out specifically against antisemitism, they ignore Islamophobia. Then we see the home secretary publicly showing support for one community over another – ie the Jewish community. Meanwhile, Eric Pickles wrote to Muslim leaders asking them to “explain how Islam can be relevant to British society”, as if they are somehow responsible or representative of extremism and terrorism.

I can only conclude that, despite the rhetoric, they seek to further divide us.
Samuel Rice
Bangor, County Down


When one of my cousins died, I didn’t hear about it until months later. I was sad about this, because we had played together as children. So why not compose a posthumous email entitled “I have died”, to be sent to everyone in my address book? Perhaps it will become the fashion? At the bottom left-hand corner of my desktop my executors will find the file. As to what it says, you are going to have to wait and see. I was inspired to write it after an incident in the remotest Congo in which I had taken off in a tiny plane, whereupon its windscreen had become covered in oil, causing the pilot had to stick his head out of the window and land in a very great hurry. He had left the cap off the sump of his engine. A vivid intimation of mortality. We need to adapt our traditions to the opportunities of new technology.
Maurice King
Leeds

Sir John Chilcot author of the long awaited iraq war report
Sir John Chilcot, author of the inquiry into the Iraq war, has said his report is unlikely to be published before the 2015 general election. Photograph: Matt Dunham/PA

At the Scott inquiry into the export of defence and dual-use equipment to Iraq, we too were criticised for delay. The parallels with the debate over publication of the Chilcot report are plain (Editorial, Letters, 22 January). In that regard, are the criticisms well-founded? The proper conduct of any independent public inquiry will be driven by key factors. First, effectiveness. An inquiry is under a duty to consider the evidence objectively and impartially. It must draw defensible conclusions, based on the evidence (and not speculation), and must make responsible recommendations. That can take time. At the Scott inquiry, there were many reasons for the three-year time lapse between the inquiry’s establishment and publication, including the breadth of the terms of reference and the failure to submit evidence to the inquiry in good time.

Second, fairness. Where someone’s personal interests are likely to be affected adversely by publication, the person must be given a reasonable opportunity to comment. The inquiry must take such comments into account in an open-minded, objective way. That too takes time if it is to be meaningful.

Third, the timeliness of publication. A balance inevitably has to be struck between the requirements of speed and of other aspects of the public interest. That includes the proper protection of individuals’ interests, of national security and of intergovernmental relations.

There may be one salient difference between the powers conferred on the Scott inquiry and on the Chilcot inquiry. Sir Richard Scott was given the right to publish whatever he considered relevant and necessary. He took the final decisions on disclosure and publication, subject, of course, to full consultation with the authorities. That consultation was lengthy.

In respect of publication and disclosure, Sir John Chilcot’s powers appear to be more limited. For example, under paragraph 15 of the protocol agreed between the inquiry and the government, the cabinet secretary has the final say on disclosure where the inquiry and the government cannot agree. The cabinet secretary’s involvement is necessary since disclosure will encompass the papers of a previous administration. Moreover, unlike Scott, it seems to be the government, not the inquiry, that will determine the date of publication, although I doubt whether the final report would be delivered to the government until the inquiry is given a firm publication date.
Christopher Muttukumaru
Formerly secretary to the Scott inquiry

Man in art exhibition

A visitor to Tate Modern looks at a LHOOQ, a tea towel of the Mona Lisa with added moustache and beard. We need a better way to inform about artworks, writes Frank Landamore. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Following the comments by Chris Stephens, co-curator of Tate Britain’s forthcoming Barbara Hepworth exhibition, about using Google to track down exhibits (Out of the shadows and back in focus, 20 January), I would be interested to know if he and his fellow curators intend to embrace new technology in another, scandalously disregarded, area of curatorship. Exhibition captions, those simple but crucial devices for enhancing gallery visitors’ knowledge and enjoyment, typically comprise lengthy texts mounted on small cards in myriad (and often puzzling) positions. This results in visitors crowding around virtually unreadable captions – and obscuring both the caption and the exhibit. This is just not good enough and is surely the very opposite of what curators intend. It is high time they investigated modern, effective and economical solutions to this 19th-century holdover – including innovative printing techniques, light-projection and wireless/mobile/digital technologies. How we, the paying public, would appreciate it if they finally did.
Frank Landamore
Lewes, East Sussex

President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address
Barack Obama delivers his state of the union address. ‘I heard a speech of a politics of social justice, of opposition to torture, and of climate change mattering,’ writes Sigrid Rausing. Photograph: UPI/Landov/Barcroft Media

I read with a growing sense of disbelief the report on President Obama’s state of the union speech (22 January). The commentators, excluding Russia’s foreign minister, were all Republican: Cory Gardner, Marco Rubio, Ron Johnson, and Tom Cole. The speech, therefore, was broadly presented as partisan and hypocritical, and the report was accompanied by a snide little piece about the suit worn by Michelle Obama.

I heard a different speech – a speech that framed a newly confident Democratic narrative; a politics of social justice, of opposition to torture, of higher taxes for the rich and tax breaks for the poor, of childcare being not a women’s issue but an issue for all of us, of climate change mattering, delivered by probably the best orator in recent history, to many standing ovations. There is much to criticise President Obama for, but in this speech something happened that gave comfort to progressive America, just like Dianne Feinstein’s report on CIA torture did.

British leftwing politics, with its mean-spirited focus on the excessive “privilege” of individuals like Eddie Redmayne or James Blunt (“blooming precious”, according to shadow culture minister Chris Bryant) is disappointing in comparison. We need a more intellectually rigorous political debate about progress and equal opportunities than that.
Sigrid Rausing
Publisher of Granta

• Larry Elliott is right to be sceptical about whether the trillion-euro dose of QE will solve Europe’s economic problems (Report, 21 January). Like its £375bn UK predecessor, it will buy government bonds from banks and, as happened here, that money won’t generate economic activity in the real economy, but instead will doubtless benefit the banks and the asset-rich by inflating property prices, the stock market and commodities. What is needed is a Europe-wide debate about what kind of QE can actually help its flagging economy. The Green New Deal group paper Europe’s Choice – How Green QE and Fairer Taxes Can Replace Austerity proposes the introduction of “green infrastructure QE”. This would fund investment in the continent’s renewable energy supplies, ensure all buildings are energy efficient and revitalise local and regional public transport links. Paying a living wage would help to boost governments’ tax revenues and address climate change. Another huge revenue source could come from tackling the non-payment of taxes that we estimate might cost the governments of the European Union €1 trillion a year.
Caroline Lucas MP, Colin Hines Green New Deal group, Richard Murphy Tax Research UK

As Lord Oakeshott has launched a financial popular front by contributing support to 30 Labour parliamentary candidates (Report, 22 January), may we expect in return that a generous Labour donor will give £10,000 to each 30 Lib Dem candidates in marginal seats? I await the news.
Bill Rodgers
House of Lords

• Caroline Quentin’s use of the word “asexual” (‘As the years go by I enjoy my sexuality more’, G2, 21 January) seems to assign negative connotations to the word: people over 50, perceived by others as being too old for sex, or those who cannot enjoy sex due to advanced age. I should like to point out that the term asexual is defined by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network as “a person who does not experience sexual attraction”. Asexual people can be of any age and being asexual is not caused by a loss of libido linked to age. The asexual community is not helped by inaccurate use of this term.
Carolyn Sutton
Glastonbury, Somerset

• Did Keith Flett (Letters, 22 January) really write “a phenomena”? You’ll be telling me next he’s shaved off his beard.
Robin Lustig
London

• Joan Smith (The Sexual Revolution made Page 3 possible. A feminist revolution ended it, 21 January) says: “There is no evidence that anyone actually burned a bra.” Maybe not. But clearly inspired by bra-burning tales, my brother, at the conclusion of a school debate on “men’s lib”, burned a pair of Y-fronts to make his point.
Diana Cairns
Edinburgh

• A friend of mine was waiting outside an “engaged” public toilet in Paris (Letters, 22 January). When the door eventually opened a gentleman came out and seeing her said: “Excuse me madam.” He went back in and put the seat down.
Jim McLean
London

• How helpful of the Met Office to issue a “yellow snow warning” (Report, 15 January). I was advised never to eat yellow snow.
Mike Kelter
Bushey, Hertfordshire

 

Independent:

 

Times:

Sir, The decision by Archbishop of York, the Most Rev John Sentamu, following his ordination of the Rev Libby Lane as a bishop, not to lay hands the following week on a male bishop as a gesture to traditionalists is insulting and medieval in tone (“Hands of Sentamu ignite row”, News, Jan 22).

Does the archbishop believe that his touching the head of a female bishop implies some sort of physical contamination as well as a spiritual one?

If he does, he should not be involved in ordaining a woman in the first place. If he does not, his decision to decline to lay hands on the male bishop is a lie: he is symbolically declaring something in which he does not believe in order to appease a backward section of the Church of England. It is hard to see how the Rev Libby Lane can agree to be ordained by him under these circumstances.
Douglas Kedge
Sonning Common, Oxon

Sir, This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, when Christians of all denominations pray for that unity for which Christ prayed (John xvii, 20-21). What message about unity does it send to those both within and outside the church when some Christians in the Church of England would see their bishop as “tainted” if, at his ordination, hands had been laid on him by those who had earlier laid hands on a woman bishop?
David Lamming
Boxford, Suffolk
Sir, Catholics in the Church of England are used to the slur that they fear the “taint” of women’s priesthood. Your article repeats the innuendo. It is not true, since traditionalists have been receiving communion from bishops ordained by archbishops that ordain women for two decades. Father Philip North may be about to minister in Lancashire, but it is insulting to the traditional Anglicans to whom he will do so to suggest that their views have the same validity as those of the Pendle witches.
Thomas Carpenter
Student, College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, W Yorks

Sir, Why am I reminded of the extremist movement of another religion: denigration of women contrary to teachings and of human rights, prejudice and nonsensical interpretation of religious law? I thought that was why we were fighting in the Middle East.
Jennifer Latham
Wedmore, Somerset

Sir, The credibility of institutions is quickly undermined when they become the butt of jokes. It was, I think, the prophet Amos who issued the warning “Mockery killeth the good intent” — as I kept repeating to my colleagues in the European Commission when I worked there.
Peter Pooley
Alresford, Hants

Sir, Perhaps those traditionalists who adopt the doctrine of “taint” should consider the possibility that, in the light of the concept of a universal church, all of their bishops, male or female, are “tainted” by virtue of the Tudors’ break with Rome. As it is, like the Pharisees, they seem to strain out a gnat while swallowing a camel.
Malcolm Bowden
Horringer, Suffolk

Sir, Tim Montgomerie (“The church is blighted by left-wing bias”, Jan 22) gives a misleading impression by suggesting that On Rock or Sand?, edited by John Sentamu, does not recognise the benefits of private business, economic incentives and the market economy. In my chapter of the book, I point out that business is at the core of our economy, and highlight how market-oriented economic growth has lifted billions of people out of poverty. And I argue for a reform of the tax system to reduce the perverse incentives many individuals and families face.
Andrew Sentance
Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex

Sir, Mr Davis (letter, Jan 22) might like the solution to keeping sermons brief that a lord of the manor used to employ. Sitting in the front pew, he ostentatiously placed ten sovereigns on his thigh. After five minutes of the sermon he put one into his pocket, and every minute thereafter another one. What was left at the end went into the collection.
Robert Pennant Jones
London SE1

Sir, My wife found the answer to easy dishwashing 44 years ago and it has been in daily use since (Leader, Jan 17): a pair of rubber gloves, one for my right hand and one for my left.
Brian Brayford
Penarth, S Glamorgan

Sir, So the answer is to have two dishwashers (letter, Jan 20). Sadly, the law of bigamy is against me.
Eamonn O’Gorman
Elstree, Herts

Sir, A “nice cup of tea”, offered with a smile, is such a comfort in care homes, but it can have a sting in the tail (“Scandal of dehydration”, Jan 16).
Care home managers should consider changing to decaffeinated tea, which is not a diuretic, so saving time for their staff. I am in my late 80s. I love a cup of tea but I restrict the treat to times when I know a toilet is close at hand. I dread possible nappy-wearing times “in care”.
Meg Wilkes
Ellesmere, Shropshire

Sir, I have no idea whether the climate is changing (letters, Jan 21) but for years I have noted the dates of the first aconite, snowdrop, wild daffodil and bluebell. There is no discernible pattern: over the past 18 years, for seven the first aconite has been earlier, one the same date as this year and nine later; for snowdrops nine have been earlier, one the same as this year and seven later. Too early yet for wild daffs and bluebells.
Julian Pilcher
Steventon, Hants

Sir, To delay publication of the Iraq inquiry until after the general election is an admission that politicians are manipulating the electorate (News, Jan 21). I am disgusted that government can be exploited in this way. The obscuration of truth devalues the quality of my vote.
RG Williams
Hove

Telegraph:

Sir John Chilcot Photo: Getty Images

SIR – If the reasons given by Sir John Chilcot for the continuing delay in issuing the conclusions of the Iraq inquiry are to be believed, the failure to publish the report is not the result of some Machiavellian establishment plot.

Rather, it seems to be the result of bureaucratic indolence. The taking of evidence was completed in 2011, but the process of allowing those mentioned in the draft report to respond still continues, with no end date yet in sight.

Sir John and his team appear to be operating in a self-sealed vacuum, unhearing of the clamour and untouched by the importance of making their conclusions public in a timely manner. We are all the losers.

Adrian Scrope
Hungerford, Berkshire

SIR – No doubt like many others, I am perplexed as to why the Chilcot Inquiry cannot be published until after the general election.

Having started in 2009, taken its last evidence in 2011 and allegedly cost £9 million, with the draft finished last summer, why is it necessary to allow those involved an unlimited amount of time to comment on its findings?

If they feel they have been misrepresented in the report, they can have a right of reply after publication. If the report is diluted beforehand, the word “independent” is a nonsense.

David J Beswick
Ashford, Kent

SIR – Last week we cried “Je suis Charlie”. This week the lid is put firmly on to prevent publication of the Chilcot report.

Just where do we stand on free speech?

Barry Bond
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

SIR – The Telegraph has reported estimates that at least 116,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in the conflict there, as well as 179 British soldiers (in addition to another 453 in Afghanistan). Does this horrendous death toll count for nothing in the minds of our politicians as they jockey for position in a looming general election?

It is time for our elected MPs, regardless of their political sympathies, to demand that the findings of the inquiry be published now. The consequence of further obfuscation and dithering is to detach the British people even more from this once great Parliament.

Jo Bird
Slapton, Devon

SIR – The Chilcot report may contain inconvenient truths for many, but to delay its publication for political expediency sends out entirely the wrong message.

Jeremy Prescott
Oadby, Leicestershire

SIR – Apparently the truth would confuse voters.

David Baldwin
Ringwood, Hampshire

Wasting NHS drugs

SIR – Every time I read an article on cancer drug funding I want to shout with frustration.

My wife has just died from cancer after 18 months of outstanding palliative care from the NHS. Some of the drugs she received worked and some didn’t. After she died, all of the remaining drugs had to go to the pharmacist for destruction. One cost £50 per tablet; 63 of those went to waste.

I am aware of the importance of clinical safety, but if Robertson’s can sell jam in a tamper-proof jar, why can’t drugs be dispensed in a tamper-proof container that releases them one at a time, leaving the rest secure for use by someone else?

There may be a cost in secure packaging, but this would be eclipsed by the savings made in usable drugs that fall by the wayside as new treatments are adopted.

Philip Horton
Orpington, Kent

Original Alice

SIR – Alice Jaspars (Letters, January 20) asks why Royal Mail has not used John Tenniel’s illustrations from the original 1865 edition of Alice in Wonderland on its stamps to mark the 150th anniversary of publication.

Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat appeared in a set to commemorate the Year of the Child in 1979; the Cheshire Cat in a series of famous smiles in 1990; and Tweedledum and Tweedledee in 1993.

Perhaps for 2020, the bicentenary of Tenniel’s birth, Royal Mail might consider a full series to commemorate his work.

Malcolm Watson
Welford, Berkshire

Wide eyes at Ascot

SIR – I wore a monocle to Royal Ascot a couple of years ago. It caused quite a stir, with Americans asking to be photographed next to me in the Royal Enclosure.

Damien McCrystal
London W14

The Human Rights Act

SIR – It comes as no surprise that the president of the Law Society (Letters, January 21) defends the Human Rights Act.

He suggests the Act supports the most vulnerable, but yesterday we saw another example of its actual application, in the refusal to extradite a man to face charges of child rape because of a potential infringement of his human rights, in the event that he is found guilty in America (“Foreign doctor accused of child rape can stay”, report, January 21).

At the moment it looks more likely that the Act is providing a good income stream for the legal profession than protecting the wider population.

Roger Gentry
Sutton-at-Hone, Kent

All aboard: going loco for the steam locomotive

Full steam: a Ffestiniog Railway double Fairlie on the level crossing at Penrhyndeudraeth (Alamy)

SIR – The news that John Caudwell, the founder of Phones4u, is to build a railway round his estate made me wish that my late brother was still alive, as he, too, was a steam railway enthusiast.

A plaque exists on the Ffestiniog Railway in honour of his clandestine efforts in thwarting the Central Electricity Generating Board when their pump storage scheme threatened to cut the railway in half.

In the paddock alongside his home in Conwy, North Wales, he laid a circular narrow gauge railway with a steam locomotive in which he could sit. Each Thursday he and an old railway employee would don their blue overalls and peaked caps, raise steam and have a great time.

On the occasion of our father’s 100th birthday, he was taken on a ride around the paddock in a wagon.

Another brother – also a steam buff – would, on the least provocation, put on LP records of steam locomotives struggling up inclines.

I sometimes wonder why I did not get the bug. Possibly because I was a mariner.

Sid Davies
Bramhall, Cheshire

Compulsory voting

SIR – I disagree with James Kirkup.

As disengagement with politics increases, all of us need to make a contribution to recapturing public interest.

A recent report by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, which I chair, underlined that not only is compulsory voting on the agenda, but also votes at 16 and registration of voters right up to election day.

Now there are reports that the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy will recommend online voting. The debate will heighten as we approach National Voter Registration Day on February 5.

We need to support these ideas in order to extend participation in our democracy.

Graham Allen MP (Lab)
London SW1

Greeks bearing gifts

SIR – If the Greeks vote to repudiate austerity, can we also expect them to vote to change Einstein’s theory of relativity so they can go back in time and avert the 2008 crisis?

Andrew Wauchope
London SE11

SIR – Greece is Nature’s way of telling us that the EU is doomed.

G T Theakston
Ditchling, East Sussex

Party like it’s 2025

SIR – I seem to recall some years back a leading article in the Telegraph regretting (quite rightly) the passing of “simple” birthday parties in favour of bouncy castles and competitive goody bags.

This week you and your readers (Letters, January 21) lament the passing of even that level of entertainment.

I look forward to 2025, when the parents of toddlers vanishing forever in party-rental teleportation booths will have only themselves to blame, and we can all yearn for the good old days when kids were happy with dry-slope skiing and a bit of après-ski litigation.

Antony Thomas
Esher, Surrey

SIR – Charles Foster is a little belated in his objection to the use of “invite” as a noun.

The theologian Martin Bucer was given an “earnest invite to England” by Archbishop Cranmer, according to an account written in 1659. You will find it widely used in Victorian novels, though young ladies are still sometimes rebuked for the usage by their mothers.

Caroline Moore
Etchingham, East Sussex

Things are looking up

(MARTIN HARTLEY/EYEVINE)

SIR – Sir Ranulph Fiennes has said that climbing Everest failed to cure his fear of heights because he never looked down, only upwards.

How then did he get back down the mountain? By walking backwards?

David Morton
Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire

The teeth in ‘Wolf Hall’ that should be bad

SIR – Having Wolf Hall on television has raised the subject of tooth decay in Tudor times. Hilary Mantel has suggested that all teeth were healthy owing to the lack of sugar in the diet.

When the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, was raised from the Solent bed, archaeologists discovered that the skulls in the stern section had very decayed teeth and those forward of the poop were in good condition, suggesting that the officers, whose quarters were in the aft part, had a diet with sugar in it, while the hands forward fed on simpler food and thus their teeth were in better condition.

So to be accurate, the Wolf Hall producers should have actors playing the rich with teeth in bad condition, while those playing the poor should have shiny white gnashers.

Peter Smales
Swallowcliffe, Wiltshire

SIR – I applaud Hilary Mantel for refusing to dumb down Wolf Hall for television. If history had been rigorously taught in recent years, instead of served as sound bites to a generation brought up to expect academic subjects to be made “relevant” to their own lives, there would be no need for such a debate.

The idea that by simplifying the political complexity of the story, the programme would appeal to a wider audience, is misguided. What’s wrong with being challenged and stretched once in a while?

Sandra Wood
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

 

Globe and Mail:

AMANDA LANG

Public trust matters more than speaking fees

Amanda Lang is senior business correspondent for CBC News.

Journalism is one of the most important jobs in a strong and functioning democracy, and it’s a job I consider a privilege to do.

A reporter’s integrity is critical to her ability to carry out journalism’s core public responsibilities. Audiences need to be able to trust what they read and view. I have been a business reporter for 20 years and work for CBC, one of Canada’s most important journalistic institutions. I fully understand my obligations. Because of that, it is painful to me that public perceptions of my integrity may have been compromised because I have been accused of acting improperly by allowing myself to be seen to have been in a conflict of interest.
The exact allegation is this: that I intervened to affect a story the CBC was pursuing because I have accepted speaking fees from the Royal Bank – directly or indirectly. The accusation is that I sought to relieve the Royal Bank from criticism because of a personal financial interest. Some have even suggested that, because of a personal relationship with a director of the bank, that my questions about the report were due to that personal interest. It has been further implied that I intentionally kept these interests concealed. These are very serious allegations. If any of them were true, it would be an extremely serious matter. But they are not true. Let me repeat: they are not, in any fashion, true.

Yes, when asked (in fact, invited on to a conference call I did not instigate), I expressed my view – informed by my familiarity with the issue – with colleagues at the CBC. As a matter of editorial opinion, I felt the story was flawed and that it reflected a misunderstanding of important subject elements. In this, I meant (or mean) no disrespect. That opinion was a consequence of my time and experience as a business reporter – and nothing else. I did not attempt to block the story from airing, as has been implied by some reports. Indeed, it was aired. As the CBC’s senior business correspondent, I would argue that I have an obligation to challenge such stories. Similarly, others with whom I work have an obligation to challenge my stories, check my assumptions and question my understanding of all relevant facts.

It did not occur to me that others would question my motivation. That they would raise doubts about my integrity. That they would believe my perspective on this story was affected, for example, either by a relationship or by the fact that I have spoken for pay at events organized by business groups and companies. Let me explain why that didn’t occur to me.

Business reporters are acutely aware of the possibility of conflicts of interests. They have to be. Everywhere they work, there are rules about disclosure of personal assets and investments. Their personal reputations are critical to them. My particular roles in television business journalism have ensured significant and consistent scrutiny of my work.

Nevertheless, in this case, some have questioned my motives and seem willing to assume that I have been for sale because there is an implied quid pro quo for companies for contributing to or subsidizing even small parts of speaking fees. Those who say I acted improperly seem not to care that they, in effect, are alleging deeply unethical behaviour, or worse. I’m not sure how to convince people that my principles, integrity and career are fundamentally important to me, that I have no trouble understanding right from wrong and reporting honestly and independently. Unfortunately, it appears that I can assert that as long as I wish and still not overcome suspicions that originate from unshakeable and, in my view, utterly unwarranted presumptions of venal behaviour.

But I can try to limit the opportunity for the malevolent to raise those sorts of questions about me, my work, my integrity and my motives. I very much want to ensure that I can continue to earn the trust of the people who watch what I do because I have a deep professional obligation to them. That relationship of trust is built up over time, and it is one that I prize, and consider absolutely necessary in order to do the work I know and love.

In retrospect, I see that I allowed this circumstance to develop, by assuming that my integrity would not be questioned if I accepted speaking fees from business associations and companies.

Although my reporting has never been influenced by conflict, it is influenced by my general world view. I do not believe that business is inherently evil. I think business is eminently capable of behaviour that is counter to the public interest – environmental degradation, financial fraud or predatory practices that hurt consumers. I have documented all of that and more. For the record, I have been especially critical of the role the financial services and banking industry played in the 2008 market crash and the recession that followed. On the other hand, I also think business is capable of doing good – creating jobs, bringing innovations that improve our lives, playing a positive role in communities. That is my perspective and I think viewers know it, and are comfortable with it. Not everybody agrees, and some people are more inherently suspicious of business.

But conflict is a different matter from perspective, and it is what I have been accused of in recent weeks.

For much of the past two decades, at this network and the ones I worked at previously, I was permitted and even encouraged to speak publicly to groups. Sometimes that meant emceeing events. Sometimes, and especially after I wrote a book on the nature of innovation in business, I was invited to give my thoughts on innovation and the role it can play in business and in our lives. And for many years, often these invitations were paid appearances.

At CBC, the practice of allowing journalists to be paid to speak was understood to be complex, but our producers and managers undertook to work with us to be sure our journalism remained unbiased and trustworthy. I, and my colleagues, have been and remain comfortable that we were able to do that. I can look back proudly on many years of reporting, during which I was also paid to speak, and know I was on no occasion influenced. Most events have multiple sponsors and the speakers have no idea which company contributed what amount. But even where that has not been the case, the integrity of the journalism has never been in jeopardy.

And yet I now encounter the casual assumption that if I speak at events for pay, there must be a quid pro quo provided in terms of the inclination I adopt in my reporting. It seems that a distressing number of people happily accept that my reporting must be for sale. That such an assumption carries with it a deeply offensive assessment of my personal ethics and professional integrity, appears immaterial. Denials are easily dismissed, defences are brushed off as self-interested.

The question of whether I should have disclosed my relationship is a trickier matter. At the time of these events, it was very new, and very private, something that we had yet to discuss even with our children. As such, it would not have occurred to me that it could influence my journalism (or be seen to). Some of my colleagues may have felt they had a right to know about it, and I regret if they feel misled. I can see now that I should have disclosed at the time of the RBC story. But in my mind, it was then a private matter. When it became more serious and more public, I disclosed to my producers in order to manage any issues around stories we were covering.

These issues combine to create a challenge. I can lament this development, argue with detractors and consider myself a victim of malicious attack. I can try to defend my years of respected journalism, and note that I have never been in a position where any event shaped how I reported on anything. Or I can accept that the privilege of reporting carries with it obligations that, occasionally, will shift. Inside CBC, with our management team, we have undertaken to review whether this policy needed to change.

The truth is the debate that has ensued has caused many of us to reflect on this matter in a new way.

I cover business. And I cover business for the CBC. More than other networks, we serve at the pleasure of the citizens of this country. It confers a special obligation on the CBC to be above reproach, to be at the leading edge of ethics and standards. I need to be able to explain the business world to Canadians, and I need to be able to influence CBC coverage of business issues, without people doubting my motivations.

My perspective on business adds to the onus on me. To do the job as I understand it, which is to explain business in all of its facets and complexity without being reflexively critical, requires trust that I have only one interest in mind – the public interest. I am determined to protect that.

I support CBC’s decision to change its policy, and I will no longer accept paid appearances, and in fact began refusing payment several weeks ago. I want to continue to do this work that I know and love, that I’m granted the privilege to do. To do that, I need the full trust of the public.

PATRICK LAGACÉ

French Quebec has its own take on blackface

Go back to 2007. André Boisclair, then leader of the Parti Québécois, was reminiscing to a group of students about his days at Harvard.

He marvelled at the number of students of Asian heritage he encountered there: “I was surprised to see that on campus, about a third of the undergraduate students had slanted eyes.” The anglophone media could not conceive that in this province, in this culture, in this language, using “les yeux bridés” to describe an Asian person is not a racial slur. A media firestorm was born.

Mr. Boisclair’s political opponents made no issue of the comment. In La Presse, to show how absurd the complaints were, I offered this example: There is a restaurant in Montreal called “Les Bridés.” It’s owned by Québécois of Vietnamese descent.

News flash: Cultural codes, and hence cultural taboos, sometimes differ from people to people and society to society.

The past weeks, another of these controversies, mostly fuelled by anglo media and commentators, engulfed Quebec. This time, it was about blackface at Montreal’s Théâtre du Rideau Vert, where the farcical end-of-year review featured a white actor, in black makeup, portraying the hugely popular Montreal Canadiens star P.K. Subban, who was a big newsmaker in 2014.

The skit raised no eyebrows from French reviewers. That’s because blackface, used in the detestable minstrelsies that used to portray stereotypical and generic versions of blacks as dimwitted, are not as well known in French Quebec as they are in English-speaking North America. The term blackface doesn’t even have a French equivalent.

The Rideau Vert controversy was a replay of the 2013 Gala Les Olivier controversy. When philosopher king and comedian Boucar Diouf, of Senegalese descent, was portrayed in blackface by colleague Mario Jean (who also played other Quebec comedians in the feature), no concerns were raised by the province’s French media. The outrage came first from anglo media outlets and commentators. Mr. Diouf himself confessed to not knowing about the blackface stigma; he said he was not offended.

I wrote about Rideau Vert, highlighting that French Quebec sometimes has different cultural codes and taboos than you find in the United States and the rest of Canada. I offered the Charlie Hebdo covers as an example: News outlets in France and Quebec published them (offence-takers be damned) while anglo media in Canada, Britain and the United States mostly balked.

I also argued that while using blackface to stereotype an entire race is indeed idiotic, we may be confusing plate and meal when makeup is used to impersonate someone in a positive way, as in the cases of Mr. Subban and Mr. Diouf. Just as sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, black makeup is sometimes just black makeup.

The criticism in my inbox and on social media – levelled in English, mainly – was tough. But, in hockey parlance, the hits were mostly legal. I understand that discussions about race are going to be lively.

Globe theatre critic Kelly Nestruck was the only commentator of note who gave me a cross-check to the face. He distorted my 925-word column into a one-sentence quote that came within an inch of calling me a racist, and then, in a francophobic fashion, painted Quebeckers who didn’t object as backward dimwits.

But hey, he flashed his credentials: Mr. Nestruck has francophones in his family, hailing from Quebec.

Guess how patronizing I would have sounded if I’d written that I have black friends. Then again, in the ROC commentariat, one can say stuff about Quebeckers that they wouldn’t dare say about other people. Plus ça change …

 

Go, Nipp and Ng

What this UNB professor practices is intolerance, not sociology

Avvy Go is clinic director of the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic; Dora Nipp is CEO of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario; and Winnie Ng is the CAW-Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University.

Amid growing controversy over the published views of Professor Ricardo Duchesne, who has repeatedly argued that Asian-Canadians are harmful to the country, the University of New Brunswick is cowering behind academic freedom without adhering to its tenets. Mr. Duchesne spreads falsehoods about an entire community and in doing so betrays the standards of academia by engaging in racial caricature and perpetuating intolerance.

Mr. Duchesne’s writing has anti-Asian themes; most recently, he asserted that Asian immigration has “damaged Vancouver” and the speed of this migration has transformed Vancouver from a once “beautiful British city” to one of “Asian character.” Mr. Duchesne’s posts appear on a website he co-founded, which self-describes itself as a “group of public-minded individuals who believe the European heritage and character of Canada should be maintained and enhanced.” In a May, 2014, post he warned of a “re-imagining the history of Canada in such a way that white Europeans are portrayed as oppressors and non-whites as victims with the goal of taking Canada away from the Europeans and transforming the nation into multicultural and multiracial society.” Efforts by Asian and African Canadians to claim their rightful place in Canadian history are framed by Mr. Duchesne as “assaulting European civilization.”

In claiming this, Mr. Duchesne ignores the historical fact that the “founding” of Canada took place on the land of indigenous peoples, and that in the name of “preserving European civilization” systemic exclusion and colonial domination has been inflicted on the First Peoples. It is hard to avoid reading Mr. Duchesne’s notion of “European civilization” and “Britishness” as something resembling white supremacy.

It matters not to individuals like Mr. Duchesne that Chinese people first landed on Canada’s west coast in 1744, came to pan for gold in 1858, and in 1881 were brought to Canada to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway. It appears immaterial to Mr. Duchesne that Chinese Canadians have a longstanding presence in Canada. Similarly, South Asians have made Canada their home since the turn of the last century.

Despite their contributions, Chinese faced tremendous discrimination in Canada. As soon as the railroad was completed, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald imposed a head tax on all Chinese immigrants and denied them the right to vote. In the shadow of federal anti-Chinese legislation emerged provincial and municipal laws and regulations that had impacts on the social, economic and political life of the Chinese – including those born in Canada. These were carried out in the name of preserving the “European” character of Canada. Meanwhile, South Asian immigrants – who were part of the British Empire – did not fare well either, as their entrance was curtailed by the Continuous Passage Regulations in 1908.

Mr. Macdonald’s legacy, both good and bad, is now being examined as Canadians celebrate his 200th birthday. His supporters argue we should not apply today’s ethical standard to judging his racially discriminatory acts. If the first Prime Minister had time as his defence, what is Mr. Duchesne’s excuse? After all, it is 2015 and one expects a more enlightened populace today – one that includes all peoples and rejects the portrayal of Canada as one preserved for “Europeans” only.

Duchesne is a professor of history and sociology, but he has brought the academic profession into disrepute.

Mr. Duchesne’s intolerant statements will run the risk of inciting fear and resentment toward Canadians of Asian heritage by reinforcing stereotypes of the ethnic Chinese as perpetual foreigners. He glorifies scholarship and writing that fuels xenophobia and provides fodder for white supremacy. Mr. Duchesne is a unicultural ideologue. As an academic discipline, sociology is interested in examining the truths and motives behind cultural mythologies, not in perpetuating them. Duchesne’s rants are an apostasy to sociological thinking.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada’s Statement on Academic Freedom (2011) affirms that unlike the broader concept of freedom of speech, academic freedom must be based on institutional integrity, rigorous standards for enquiry and institutional autonomy. The Statement sets out the responsibilities of academic freedom, which include: evidence and truth must be the guiding principles; academic freedom should be exercised in a reasonable and responsible manner; faculty must be committed to the highest ethical standards in their teaching and research; faculty should examine data, question assumptions and be guided by evidence; and faculty and university leadership are obligated to ensure that students’ human rights are respected.

The purpose of academic freedom is to prevent a chill on the pursuit of knowledge and to safeguard diverse viewpoints. However, in Canada no right is absolute; in the case of academic freedom, this right starts to unravel when academics hide behind academic freedom to espouse untruths that actually inflict harm. If the staff and faculty of UNB are truly committed to academic freedom and academic excellence, they should join the Asian Canadian community in condemning racism in any form in Canada.

WHAT READERS THINK

Jan. 22: Politicians’ hands – and other letters to the editor

Politicians’ hands

There’s a potential solution to the all-too-common political strategy of governing by obfuscation and half-truths (Language War – editorial, Jan. 21). Before sitting in a house of government, politicians at all levels should be required to stand before their constituents, one hand over their heart and one on the Canadian flag, and repeat a version of the statement we use in our courts: “I promise to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the whole truth at all times. If I ever do otherwise, I will immediately step down.”

Of course … they might be lying when they say that?

Peter A. Lewis-Watts, Barrie, Ont.

………

Re Tory Hikes TTC Fares To Pay For Improvements, Backing Away From Promise To Freeze Rates (Jan. 20): When reporting politicians’ promises, please provide an accompanying rear-view picture so we can see if their fingers are crossed behind their backs.

Michael J. Wills, Toronto

………

Words of war

Re Language War (editorial, Jan. 21): I agree that the language used to describe military operations is a political battlefield. I note the reluctance of any nation to use the word “invasion.” When a large and powerful country determines its national interests require it to overwhelm by military might and occupy a far weaker country halfway around the globe, the media obligingly report it as a “war.”

The victors write history.

Spyro Rondos, Beaconsfield, Que.

………

Deal beggars belief

So the government would have me believe it’s good for Canada to provide Canadian-made weapons to a country that decapitates people and gives them a 1,000 lashes, just so long as it sustains 3,000 jobs (Arms Deal Raises Human-Rights Issue – Jan. 21)?

Get assurances from the Saudis they won’t use the weapons against their own people? Come off it, please. To what depths of two-faced hypocrisy are we being asked (or told?) by our country to descend to? One has to wonder.

F.D. (Derm) Barrett, Kingston

………

1-per-cent solutions

The letter from Don Kerr, allegedly of the 1 per cent, was a masterpiece (Stacked-Up Wealth – Jan. 21). It lured me in and then, just before my queued-up outrage burst forth, I realized it was a joke! Right? Right?

Tuula Talvila, Ottawa

………

Wednesday’s Moment In Time focused on King Louis XVI’s trip to the guillotine – the result of the ultimate income disparity of a small group’s being super rich, and the masses living in extreme poverty. Further inside the front section, a letter to the editor from Don Kerr said, “The more we are unequal, the greater the incentive to rise above the crowd. We need more inequality. When all the wealth becomes concentrated in the 1 per cent, everything will be perfect.” Maybe the 1-per-cent should take a French and/or Russian history class.

Terry Drahos, Wolfville, N.S.

………

Re Forget Fairness, Here’s Why Taxing The Rich Benefits Us All (Report on Business, Jan. 20): What do the wealthy fear the most? Losing their wealth. What do the wealthy do to protect and preserve their wealth? They invest it, they make their wealth work for them. In so doing, jobs are created, enterprises started, tax revenue generated. That is why their wealth grows.

Suggesting that government can better use the wealth of these citizens? What a load of horse pucks.

Wade Pearson, Calgary

………

Robbie says naw

Re For Shepherd’s Pie, Granny Knows Best (Life & Arts, Jan. 21): Lucy Waverman makes Scottish shepherd’s pie with ground beef? It’s a surprise to me that Scottish shepherds herd cows. In my experience, they generally know more about sheep. A true shepherd’s pie is made with ground lamb. If you put beef in it, you are making a cottage pie. Robbie Burns is shuddering in his grave.

David Smith, London, Ont.

………

Peace of minds

Some areas of health care have received very little investment, despite reform rhetoric (The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Jan. 21). Mental health is one of these areas. For example, the mental-health share of health spending has declined to 5 per cent in Ontario, down from 11.3 per cent in 1979.

Increases in health transfers should focus on neglected areas of health care. Perhaps the time has come to reconsider former senator Michael Kirby’s ideas of a mental-health transition fund, which would enable provinces to improve accessibility to community mental-health services.

Steve Lurie, executive director, Canadian Mental Health Association, Toronto Branch

………

Free(ish?) speech

A second-rate magazine publishes cartoons offensive to many around the world and is hailed as a hero of free speech.

Produce a tasteless, mediocre movie, and even the President of the United States defends its release as a freedom-of-expression issue. Hide anti-Semitic vitriol within a comedic performance and people line up to protect the right to free speech, no matter how offensive it may be.

Make sexist, juvenile and offensive comments on Facebook and be condemned and perhaps denied a right to make a living as a dentist. Am I the only one seeing a double standard in these free-speech issues?

George Zvanitajs, Barrie, Ont.

………

An artist’s lot

Re If The Artists Starve, We’ll All Go Hungry (Jan. 19): If “fans” are loath to pay for their favourite artist’s work, who will? Sex trade workers, hangmen and ditch diggers get more respect than we do.

Maybe it’s time for an artists’ general strike. No more studio tours, art hanging in libraries, cafés and city halls, free e-samples, pay-what-you-can folk evenings, poetry readings, live music in the park, etc. It seems not to occur to people that artists, too, have expenses.

If we had a dollar for every time we’re asked, “Do you make a living at it?” there’d be no starving artists. It would be considered nosy to ask an electrician, biologist, hairdresser or accountant that, but it’s open season on us.

Anne Hansen, Victoria

………

About that sweater

Re The Leafs Aren’t Really A Hockey Team, They’re A Leading Cause Of Nervous Breakdown (Sports, Jan. 21): Toronto Maple Leafs fans throwing jerseys on the ice? It’s a wonder they don’t throw their straitjackets.

Terry Toll, Campbell’s Bay, Que.

………

So three unhappy sweater-tossing fans “were trespassed from the premises – which is a legal way to say they were taken away from the property.” Now, if only the Leafs hockey team could be “trespassed from the premises” and put us all out of our misery.

Richard Seymour, Brechin, Ont.

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – The cantankerous and the idiotic are already limbering up for the upcoming referendum on same-sex marriage.

The current clamour centres on the right of a child to a mother and father. Biologically a child can only be borne of a mother and father so the concept of a right in this context is self-evidently fatuous. The role parents subsequently play in their child’s life is another matter entirely and society has a surfeit of examples of mothers and fathers failing often and badly in responsibly rearing their offspring to adulthood while untold silent numbers strive courageously and succeed heroically.

Woolly-headed obfuscation serves too often as a foil to derail open and honest debate, yet neatly serves to expose the hypocrisy of those moral conservatives who, for all their panicked consternation towards same-sex marriage, have rarely troubled themselves with societal failings with regard to children of heterosexual relationships; their right to know, and be publicly acknowledged by both parents, not to be abandoned, to be cared for emotionally and supported financially by their parents – rights which any society should cherish and invoke for its children and ones unrelated to the question of whether two consenting adults have a right to marry. – Yours, etc,

PATRICIA MULKEEN,

Ballinfull,

Sligo.

Sir, – I don’t think people mean anything by it, and perhaps it’s just people thinking that they are making the issue clearer, but can we please stop referring to the upcoming referendum as one on either “gay marriage” or “same-sex” marriage? Or for that matter, referring to pending adoption legislation as dealing with “gay adoption”.

The electorate needs to understand that it is not being asked to introduce some new form of civil marriage or adoption. It’s exactly the same civil marriage process, the same civil marriage ceremony, the same civil marriage licence, the same civil marriage registrar and venue. All we are being asked to do is extend those exact same rights to marry as enjoyed by straight couples to same-sex couples.

Similarly, the Children and Family Relationships Bill simply seeks, among other things, to allow couples, who happen to be of the same sex, to apply to adopt a child, or children. The legislation allows for gay couples to have exactly the same chances of being allowed to adopt, or be refused to adopt, a child or children by exactly the same criteria as straight couples. The referendum, and the aforementioned adoption legislation, seek to make our society more equal for all citizens regardless of whether they be straight or gay. – Yours, etc,

DAVID WILKINS,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Sir, – A major reason why I will be unable to support the wording on same-sex marriage that the Government has proposed for insertion into the Constitution in the event of a referendum being passed by the Irish electorate this May is that the wording, in addition to the Children and Family Relationships Bill, completely disregards and impedes a child’s natural right to be raised by a mother and a father where possible.

If the Constitution would allow no distinction or preference for the purposes of marriage between a male/female couple and a male/male couple or a female/female couple (which is what the wording proposes), what this would mean in practice is that it would be impossible for any adoption law to recognise the desirability of a child to have the benefit of both a father and a mother because the law would have to proceed under the illusion that when it comes to the qualities needed for raising children (in addition to the qualities imparted by parents to their children), two women or two men would be exactly the same as a mother and a father.

For the law to put the desires of some adults ahead of the common good (and common sense) is wrong, and it is why I will have to vote No when this wording is put before me at the polling station in May. – Yours, etc,

JOHN B REID,

Monkstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – While I remain undecided on the referendum at this point, emotionally I am committed to promoting the rights of gay people and to anything that assists young persons coming to terms with being gay, particularly from communities where there is a stigma attached to being gay. Logically I find the argument that there is no redefinition of the term marriage makes no sense as it clearly does in terms of the traditional definition of a man marrying a woman.

As a father I would ideally wish all my children to have a traditional marriage and raise children together, but should any of them be gay, I would want them to find happiness and a partner for life with all the same legal protections and rights as anyone else. While I remain unsure of using the term marriage for all relationships, I think an open, honest and respectful debate will have a positive effect in destigmatising the experience for those “coming out” as gay. – Yours, etc,

FRANK BROWNE,

Templeogue,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – It is dishonest and deliberately misleading to talk of “marriage equality” in the context of the forthcoming referendum. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence will see that marriage between a heterosexual couple and any arrangement between same-sex couples could never be “equal”. – Yours, etc,

FRANK MURPHY,

Sligo.

Sir, – The debate about the constitutional amendment to allow same sex-couples marry in Ireland seems to touch on the welfare of children.

For decades children have been successfully raised by single parents, often in spite of the obstacles put in their path. While I will be voting Yes to this amendment, there will be single-parent families and families with same-sex parents in Ireland regardless of whether the amendment is passed.

Unfortunately a No vote will deny these parents and families the additional security and acceptance that would make children’s lives better. Surely children’s welfare is best served by living in a supportive community, not one of exclusion and less than subtle moral superiority.

A No vote is a vote against children’s welfare and an uncharitable action. – Yours, etc,

SE LYDON,

Wilton,

Cork.

A chara, – The Children and Family Relationships Bill will be enacted whether or not the Irish people vote Yes to same-sex marriage. This piece of legislation will allow for adoption by same-sex couples and provide for guardianship also. The Government has pledged to enact this legislation, brought forward by the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, before the referendum in May which will seek to add the following clause to our Constitution: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

The No campaign has sought to entangle both of these issues. If the No campaign were to be successful we could have a situation whereby a child could be adopted by a same-sex couple but that couple would be unable to marry. This would be counterproductive to the very principle it purports to promote – the protection of children and the family. – Is mise,

KILLIAN BRENNAN,

Dublin 17.

Sir, – Miriam Lord’s entertaining and incisive article on marriage equality (“A window of wanton consensus on wording”, Dáil Sketch, January 22nd) highlighted an interesting general trend.

The No campaign claims that its central concern is related to children, yet several prominent No campaigners opposed the civil partnership Bill even when it went out of its way to exclude children from its provisions.

The reality is that 230 families are headed by same-sex parents (2011 census) and this referendum aims to ensure family stability for them. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN DINEEN,

Clontarf,

Dublin 3.

Sir, – If you asked married couples what is putting them and their family under pressure, they would mention increases in taxation, finding affordable accommodation, unemployment, emigration and the fear of it, childcare costs or trying to juggle family life and looking after elderly relatives. I doubt that one of them would mention the prospect of equal recognition for same-sex relationships as being a threat to their family. Yet, in the forthcoming debate, we’ll be told once again that safeguarding children, marriages and families requires withholding basic rights from one section of the population. It is a matter of some regret that articulate people who would otherwise have much to offer in the development of social policy are still basing their contributions around such ideas. – Yours, etc,

CIARÁN

Ó RAGHALLAIGH,

Cavan, Co Cavan.

Sir, –Having spent more than three decades teaching and assessing undergraduate and postgraduate education students in various higher education institutions, nationally and internationally, as well as being in the role of external examiner for such programmes, what remains to overcome the current stand-off is to work out more precisely the details of the reforms. In so doing, the challenge to the educational leadership on all sides is to harness, as well as to enhance, the professionalism of the teaching profession. To delay in doing so is to risk reputational damage to the status of the profession, nationally and internationally. – Yours, etc,

Prof CIARAN SUGRUE,

School of Education,

University College Dublin,

Belfield,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – I would like to dispel the notion that teachers don’t already give students feedback on the progress of their work. I give feedback to my students on a daily basis through homework, projects and portfolio work.

In addition, there are assessments including monthly progress tests, midterm tests, Christmas tests, Easter tests and summer tests.

Teachers want to be advocates rather than judges of their students and have become even more protective of them in light of cutbacks to the guidance counsellor allocation to schools and special education needs resources, which have predominantly affected the most vulnerable students in our schools. – Yours, etc,

ENDA WHELTON,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Further to your recent article “Ireland needs to switch on or be left behind in computer science” (January 20th), Ireland had a Leaving Certificate computer studies course. I operated it from 1982 for over 20 years as a Department of Education-supported pilot programme in schools, mainly in the Limerick area.

It was pointed through the CAO system for entry to a number of higher education institutions as a science subject. I designed and reviewed the curriculum, trained the teachers, set and marked all examinations and project work for about 15 years. I also benchmarked it against other Leaving Certificate subjects that indicated that it was appropriately challenging. Many pupils not going on to third level found that, having completed it, it greatly improved their employability. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment was, at that time, not interested in developing a national curriculum along these lines.

Those interested might refer to the recently established UK National Computing Curriculum which, reassuringly, is very similar to what I had implemented and my concern with establishing computational thinking in schools.

A vital aspect of this is to have pupils designing, coding, testing, debugging and documenting software. There is a lot to be said about this.

Rather than going into detail, I would strongly support the development of a serious national strategy for the establishment of a Leaving Certificate computing curriculum, including the necessary teacher training.

It should be a full subject beyond tinkering with other subjects like mathematics and applied mathematics. – Yours, etc,

EAMONN McQUADE,

Emeritus Professor,

University of Limerick.

Sir, – The latest CSO report which revealed that 135,000 children are living in poverty is deplorable (“One in eight children without basics such as heating or warm clothes”, Front Page, January 22nd) . Fergus Finlay of Barnardos put it succinctly when he said that that number is the equivalent to the entire population of Mayo, the Taoiseach’s constituency. Would Enda Kenny tolerate his whole constituency suffering daily deprivation? I doubt it. Yet that is what is happening on a daily basis to an equivalent proportion of children. Sometimes we may grumble about how austerity is affecting us, be it having to cut back on annual holidays or giving up certain indulgences, but when it affects children to the point of deprivation then something is grossly wrong in the way society is functioning.

When parents, through no fault of their own, are unable to adequately provide for their children then the State has a duty to step in. Our policymakers need to take a long, hard look at the consequences of decisions which have adversely affected the lives of children. – Yours, etc,

JOHN BELLEW,

Dunleer,

Co Louth.

Sir, – It is not surprising that the occurrence of orange-coloured cats is twice as high in Donegal than in Dublin (“Cat lovers, we need your help – talk to us about fur”, January 21st). After all, Donegal is in Ulster. – Yours, etc,

JOHN HUNTER,

Belfast.

Sir, – I welcome the nationwide survey of cats that The Irish Times has initiated and wish you well with it. All who take part in it might be happy to know that we cat-lovers have a heavenly patron in the person of St Jerome. He had a cat at his feet as he translated the Holy Book which, strangely, from Genesis to Revelation, does not mention a single cat. – Yours, etc,

Rev JACK HARRIS,

Cork.

Sir, – Congratulations on your cat survey. I do hope it covers the vexed question of matching socks. – Yours, etc,

SEAN MURPHY,

Kilcoole,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I see the Minister for Transport is encouraging local authorities to install more speed ramps (“Minister wants more 30km/h speed limit zones introduced”, January 12th). I wonder if the Minister took advice on the matter from people suffering from various back ailments before making this decision.

Each time a car goes over a speed ramp, the suspension receives four impacts. The result of this on the driver varies from the uncomfortable to the quite painful. Surely we don’t need more ramps. – Yours, etc,

HUGO LACY,

Drogheda,

Co Louth.

Sir, – Many thanks for Patrick Freyne’s interesting article “Don’t buy stuff. Do stuff” (January 17th) on James Wallman’s book Stuffication – Living More With Less. Mr Wallman, described as a futurist, claims that the western world has been drowning in possessions since the 1920s and this hasn’t made us happier.

I have taken Mr Wallman’s advice and will not buy his book. Though I may reconsider this at a later date, something he might also appreciate. – Yours, etc,

DONNCHA de BÚRCA,

Dublin 13.

Sir, – Frank McNally’s mention of “a C.I.E. man” in his “Irishman’s Diary” of January 16th is a reference to Mrs Ethel (Stoney) Turing’s father being a companion member of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. The British intended this order to be a less exclusive version of the Order of the Star of India and was to reward officials, both British and local, who served the Raj. – Yours, etc,

JOHN F McCULLAGH,

Skillman,

New Jersey.

Irish Independent:

What is the human rights issue of our time?

Simply to live?

The deliberate murder of even one individual is a crime. The murder of 17 individuals is a crime. The global establishment recently whipped itself into a frenzy and an orgy of ritual official gesticulation over the murder of 17 individuals in France. They were named and buried with respect. Correctly so.

Yet, every day a multiple of 17 are murdered in many countries. Generally, as the “necessary” consequence of ‘war”. They are unnamed and unnoticed and their bodies are casually disposed of. No choreographed official ritual mourning. No names; no pack drill.

A multiple of that multiple of 17 also die also every day from a number of boring causes, deriving from our species’ failure to manage the planet. The so-called “international community” cares in a vague and superficial manner but does – in effect – nothing.

Coincidentally, the statisticians tell us that 1pc of the planet’s population owns or controls half of its wealth.

Edmund Burke once bemoaned the passing of “the age of chivalry” – referring to the ungallant treatment by Parisians of a celebrated Frenchwoman (by marriage).

To attempt to hurl cheap shots at the IMF’s Christine Lagarde would not only offend Burke, but be bathetic, mean, meagre, banal and – given her job – utterly lacking in canny foresight. She has all the eclat, elan, ambience, sheer classical ‘style’, (as well as intellectual calibre and directness), which we expect of our Gallic cousins.

Nevertheless, whilst with one hand she was regally patting us “irlandais heroiques” on the head, with the other she was holding, as her entitlement, a €7,000 handbag. C’est magnifique, Mme Lagarde, mais ce n’est pas la politique. Ni la solidarite humaine.

Leo Varadkar’s coming out takes us one massive step further towards the tolerant, pluralist Irish society towards which some of us have devoted some effort.

Surely, however, the overriding ‘human rights issue of our time’ is the concrete, daily ability for all human beings to simply ‘live’ in peace and socio-economic security in a just and democratic global society. Just very occasionally perhaps to have a tiny slice of ‘frugal comfort’.

Maurice O’Connell

Tralee, Co Kerry

 

Remembering Haughey

In this country, Charlie Haughey was God – particularly in rural Ireland. I remember on one occasion – during a youthful drinking sessions in the 1980s in one of our local pubs here in Glenties – a discussion on Charlie was in progress. I mentioned – very naively, of course – that he was maybe “a bit of a rogue”.

Suddenly, the silence in the pub was just deafening, and a bit scary.

So, it was the end of that particular session for me, and I left the pub quietly and went home to my lovely wife a little earlier than I anticipated.

Brian McDevitt

Glenties, Co Donegal

 

State must protect children

The latest CSO report revealing that 135,000 children, or one in eight, are living in poverty is deplorable.

Fergus Finlay of Barnardo’s put it very succinctly when he said that that number is equivalent to the entire population of Mayo, the Taoiseach’s constituency. Would Enda Kenny tolerate his whole constituency suffering daily deprivation? I doubt it.

Yet that is what is happening on a daily basis to an equivalent proportion of children. Sometimes we may grumble about how austerity is affecting us – be it having to cut back on annual holidays or give up certain indulgences – but when it affects children to the point of deprivation, then something is grossly wrong in the way society is functioning.

When parents – through no fault of their own – are unable to adequately provide for their children, then the State has a duty to step in. Our policymakers need to take a long hard look at the consequences of decisions which have adversely affected the lives of children.

John Bellew

Dunleer, Co Louth

 

Not all parents are equal

I will be unable to support the wording on same-sex marriage that the Government has proposed for insertion into our Constitution in the event of a referendum being passed this May.

The reason for this is that the wording – in addition to the Children and Family Relationships Bill – completely disregards and impedes a child’s natural right to be raised by a mother and a father where possible.

If the Constitution would allow no distinction or preference for the purposes of marriage between a male/female couple and a same-sex couple (which is what the wording proposes), this would mean that it would be impossible for any adoption law to recognise the desirability of a child having the benefit of both a father and a mother.

This is because the law would have to proceed under the illusion that when it comes to the qualities needed for raising children (in addition to the qualities imparted by parents to their children) two women or two men would be exactly the same as a mother and a father.

In my view, for the law to put the desires of some adults ahead of the common good (and common sense) is wrong.

That is why I will have to vote ‘No’, when this wording is put before me at the polling station in May.

John B Reid

Monkstown, Co Dublin

 

University merger in south-east

I wish to take issue with John Walshe’s recent article on the prospect of a university for the south-east.

As is well-known, a recent study suggested that a merger between WIT and Carlow IT would probably not meet the academic requirements set for TU designation, mainly because of a lower level of academic research activity at the latter college.

This raises the very real danger that the proposed merger could diminish, rather than enhance, the prospect of a university in the south-east.

Whether such fears are entirely justified is not yet known, but to dismiss the issue as “two institutes that can’t get their act together” is hardly the viewpoint one would expect from an expert in third-level education

Dr Cormac O’Raifeartaigh

School of Science

Waterford Institute of Technology

 

Turbulence at Aer Lingus

Selling off Aer Lingus would prove a disastrous error, not just for the travelling public, but also for Ireland as a whole. It would be another short-sighted move by the Government in relation to our national assets – the most prestigious of the ‘family silver’ – for short-term gain. Competition is the life of any trade, and the relationship between Aer Lingus and Ryanair in this regard is a healthy one. It gives the public variety, choice and keen prices.

Accepting a fancy share price offer from its former high-powered boss – Willie Walsh’s International Air Lines Group – would possibly see Dublin carry on as usual, but it could mean adieu to Shannon, Belfast, Cork and, eventually, our national defined airline. The reality then will be higher prices for all travellers.

Established Aer Lingus – its pasture green with shamrock logo – acted as a silent foreign salesman, selling this country and its produce for many years. A country without its ‘national wings’ is not even an independent state. Shame!

James Gleeson

Thurles, Co Tipperary

Irish Independent

Promoted articles


Sharland

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24 January 2015 Sharland

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. Sharland and Susan from Emergency Care comes to call.

Obituary:

Satirical cartoonist whose spidery illustrations captured the ‘venom and anger’ he felt for the modern age

Martin Honeysett
Martin Honeysett Photo: Private Eye

Martin Honeysett, who has died aged 71, was a leading satirical cartoonist and illustrator with an acerbic sense of humour and a gift for the gag.

During a career spanning four decades Honeysett worked for magazines and newspapers including, among others, Punch, The New Statesman, Private Eye, The Oldie, The Sunday Telegraph and The Observer, providing instantly recognisable spidery cartoons which seemed to encapsulate all the casual cruelty, greed and stupidity of the modern age. As he once explained, he tried to include “venom and anger” in his cartoons: “I’ve always enjoyed the darker, blacker humour.”

The journalist Libby Purves once confessed that at one stage her home life seemed to be summed up by a Honeysett cartoon of a woman in curlers slumped in a chair surrounded by pizza boxes, remote controls and bottles. At the door, her husband is saying: “And another thing – that lifestyle guru of yours is a bloody waste of money.” In another cartoon, an obese mother in too-tight clothes, clutching pint and fag, leans out of the pub to tell her two delinquent offspring, “We’re going home soon. Go and nick a car.”

It is said that cartoonists often end up looking like their drawings, which might have caused Honeysett concern, as his characters – from moth-eaten grannies in wrinkled stockings, slippers and curlers, to slobbish youths with multiple piercings, baseball caps askew and falling-down jeans – had a tendency to sag in all the wrong places. In fact Honeysett was nothing like his illustrations, remaining trim and fit and continuing to enjoy regular dips in the sea near his home in Hastings into his late sixties.

Martin Honeysett was born in Hereford on May 20 1943 and brought up in Croydon. After education at Selhurst Grammar School he spent a year at Croydon School of Art.

He then worked briefly in a London animation studio and in a factory in Manchester before emigrating, in 1962, to New Zealand, where he had a variety of jobs from lumberjack to stage hand for New Zealand Ballet. After a further few years in Canada he returned to Britain in 1968 and worked as a bus driver while drawing cartoons in his spare time.

After initial rejections, Honeysett sold his first cartoon to the Daily Mirror in 1969 and by 1972 his work was in such demand that he was able to give up the day job.

As well as newspaper and magazine work he illustrated several books for adults and children, including Sue Townsend’s The Queen and I; Dick King-Smith’s H. Prince and Farmer Bungle Forgets; Bert Fegg’s Nasty Book for Boys and Girls by Terry Jones and Michael Palin, and a series of poetry books by the humorist Ivor Cutler. In addition he published several collections of his own cartoons, including The Joy of Headaches: How to Survive the Sexual Revolution; Fit for Nothing: How to Survive the Health Boom and Micro Phobia: How to Survive Your Computer.

One of Martin Honeysett’s cartoons in the Spectator in 2002

Honeysett won awards at cartoon festivals in Europe and Japan, and his cartoons and paintings appeared in exhibitions at public galleries such as Chris Beetles in St James’s. Examples of his work are held in public collections including the Cartoon Art Trust and the V&A.

From 2005 he spent two years as a visiting professor at Kyoto Seika University, the only institution in the world to have a cartoon faculty.

In 1970 Martin Honeysett married Maureen Lonergan. The marriage was dissolved in 1988 and he is survived by a son and a daughter. Another son predeceased him.

Martin Honeysett, born May 20 1943, died January 21 2015

Guardian:


I was grateful that, due to the first in, last out filing system in my rucksack, I read Jonathan Jones’s piece (Under the influence, G2, 21 January) after viewing the new Rubens exhibition at the Royal Academy, even though I agree somewhat with his conclusions. But given Jones’ strongly independent thinking on the exhibition, and his strident point that it had just six major Rubenses, it’s surprising that there was no mention of the elephants that weren’t in the room.

One obvious reason that, on entering the first room, his “eyes fell on a painting by John Constable” is that the Rubens landscape for that room hasn’t arrived from Leningrad, along with at least two others. We are probably never going to know whether the delay (at least I hope it’s a delay) has been caused at a low or high level, but it’s not hard to imagine that Russians, on constantly being told by western politicians how they are toughening sanctions against Russia, might not be responding with enthusiasm to loans to a British institution with such a regal cachet. At the very least, the absences told me that ascribing enthusiasm for Rubens’s landscapes as “German” was another over-simplification of this exhibition. But perhaps a wider message is intended.
Roger Macy
London

Frank Landamore (Letters, 23 January) calls for innovative printing and wireless technology to solve the problem of reading small, badly positioned captions in art galleries. Such technology already exists. It’s called a booklet. At the National Gallery’s recent Rembrandt exhibition, I was handed a small, free book that reproduced the captions in perfectly legible, large script.
Andy McAleer
London

'No Glory No More War' Commemorate WW1 Centenary - London
Green party leader Natalie Bennett. ‘Greens argue that continued growth in a country like ours, far from being a source of wellbeing and a solution to inequality, is an obstacle to them both,’ writes Andrew Dobson. Photograph: Peter Marshall/Corbis

Peter Hain’s idea of “outflanking” the Greens betrays a misunderstanding of what green politics is about (Report, 23 January). Green politics is not a more radical version of labourism, but a different politics altogether. Labour (old and new) will argue that economic growth is the solution to all our problems. Greens argue that continued growth in a country like ours, far from being a source of wellbeing and a solution to inequality, is an obstacle to them both. Growth threatens wellbeing by dismantling the ecological and social webs that bind us together and justifies inequality on the grounds that the bigger the cake, the more crumbs will fall from the table. Climate change is a sign of the catastrophic strain that mainstream politics has put us under. That’s why a vote for the Green party is a fundamentally different vote to one for Labour – however bold on tax and spending Labour turns out to be.
Professor Andrew Dobson
Keele University

• I love the utopian dreams of the Green party and, just like John Harris (The Green surge, G2, 22 January), applaud their “audacity of hope”. Dreams are all very well, but it is having a working Commons majority that allows them to implement their programme. If the Greens want to have the power of office, as opposed to the liberty of perpetual opposition, they will need to get used to the grubby business of government, probably as part of a coalition. In reality, this will mean having to accept policies and actions that go against the green ideology, imposed by a dominant Labour party. Those wedded to green idealism should also look at history and see that insurgent parties will, inevitably, be co-opted by the elite. This happened to Labour, originally founded to be a voice of the trade unions. Do not assume that the Green leadership will be any different.
Jeremy Ross
Ashtead, Surrey

Some 77% of British Jews say that they have witnessed antisemitism disguised as a political comment about Israel. As if to prove the point, Friday’s letters page was a neatly arranged showcase of claims that our organisation is secretly an Israeli front and our polling on antisemitism was “flawed” or even concocted specially to “dovetail” with the policies of the Israeli government. Ours was not the only polling to lay bare the rising tide of antisemitism. Polling aside, 2014 was the worst year on record for antisemitic incidents. Why can some of your readers not accept the facts for what they are and address the very real problem of antisemitism, rather than supposing in spite of the evidence that it is a fiction, or that it does exist but would cease to if Jews supported Israel less? Jewish concerns must not be silenced by conspiracy theorists railing about Israel.
Gideon Falter
Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

 

Wolf Hall

Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in the BBC’s production of Wolf Hall. ‘The first episode of this great BBC adaptation was a masterpiece of superlative acting, staging and involvement,’ writes Judith Daniels. Photograph: Giles Keyte/BBC

I profoundly disagree with Sam Wollaston’s review of the BBC’s production of Wolf Hall (22 January). Unlike Mr Wollaston, I’ve read Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Despite Hilary Mantel’s irritating habit of referring to Cromwell only as “he” – a practice which she modified in Bring Up the Bodies, by occasionally referring to him as “He, Cromwell”, in order to clarify who was thinking or speaking, I have enjoyed both books.

Not so with the first TV episode. The BBC may have spent a fortune on the costumes and actors and gone to great lengths to shoot the whole thing in candlelight, but the script is incredibly clunky. Too much wooden explanation is included, so that, for example, when one courtier tells another that Prince Arthur, Henry VIII’s elder brother, boasted after his wedding night with Queen Katharine of Aragon that “he had spent the whole night in Spain”, he then explains limply that the queen was Spanish. Everyone at court knew that and so, I imagine, do most people watching the programme. The majority of English people have some idea about Henry VIII’s wives. An equally clunky explanation is offered concerning the influence of Katharine’s nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Though this is less likely to be known to the audience, the explanation could have been woven more subtly into the conversation. I’m not sure I can bear to watch any more episodes.
Anne Dart Taylor
Evesham, Worcestershire

Mark Rylance’s depiction of Thomas Cromwell as a soulful, family-centred, introspective, silently suffering spectator is totally removed from the ferocious tiger who set up a proto-Nazi regime in England. He created a cult of leader worship, tortured the innocent young men round Anne Boleyn to get false accusations, leading to her death, set up a black propaganda campaign to undermine the monasteries, led a vile process against the religious who tried to cling to their ancient faith, subjected the simple Carthusians to an agonising death, destroyed the noblest Englishman (Thomas More) because he would not conform to Cromwell’s Führerprinzip.

He had absorbed the brutal cynicism of Machiavelli during his 12 years in Italy and applied this realpolitik in London. Miss Mantel is not the first bluestocking to fall for a nasty, cruel man of power: her portrait of Cromwell needs to be balanced against the facts of history.
Emo Williams
Shere, Surrey

Sam Wollaston does an injustice to Hilary Mantel by emphasising the sheer volume of her books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. They are the most accessible historical novels I have ever read: the reader is plunged literally from the first page to the last in the machinations and intrigue of Henry’s court. They are so immediate that it makes it very difficult to return to this century.

The first episode of this great BBC adaptation was a masterpiece of superlative acting, staging and involvement. I have still imprinted on my retina the sheer poignancy of Grace with her angel wings and how she suddenly disappeared in a breath of air from Cromwell’s sight. The whole performance was understated and human, so dust off those books and revel in their mastery.
Judith Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

I am confused and not a little appalled that if the mainstream parties are being rejected, like Thomas Cromwell by comparison with Thomas More, people are turning to Ukip. Holbein did not portray More with a metaphorical cigarette in his mouth. He does not fit the modern world, nor the ignoble alternatives that people have turned to. Cromwell may, as Martin Kettle writes (Cromwell the fixers’ fixer: a role model for our times, 23 January), give some hope to mainstream party politicians (wrong party, though). But surely if people admire him it is how we admire a villain and an outsider. However, no cigarette for Cromwell either. It is just so good to have an antidote to four months of electioneering – pity it isn’t so long.
Dr Graham Ullathorne
Chesterfield

If, like Sam Wollaston, you lack either time or inclination to face the “executioners blocks” of the Wolf Hall tomes, there are always digested reads in the form of nursery rhymes. There are those who think I Had a Little Nut Tree relates the visit of Katherine of Aragon to the Tudor court, that Old Mother Hubbard is Cardinal Wolsey with Henry as the dog chasing the bone of divorce, and that Humpty Dumpty represents his grace’s subsequent fall. London Bridge is Falling Down may also chart the decline of Anne Boleyn in the second part of the story, though, to be fair, each rhyme may have alternative interpretations.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire

Apparently the production has strayed from its otherwise impeccable historical accuracy and has shrunk the male actors’ codpieces so as not to offend American viewers. Does this mean that while it is a good thing to publish images offensive to Muslims, we must on no account broadcast images offensive to Americans?
Gabrielle Palmer
Cambridge

 

Independent:

Share

When Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (20 January) laments the rich, she is seemingly oblivious that by her own country’s standards she is rich, and by developing countries’ standards fantastically rich.

According to the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World report, the income earned by the poorest 10 per cent of individuals in economically free societies ($11,610) is almost twice the average GDP per capita of people living in the least free nations ($6,253).

If you are poor, the best place to be is in economically free societies such as Britain, as opposed to despotisms such as Zimbabwe, the Republic of Congo, and, increasingly, my home country of South Africa. We see millions trying to escape countries controlled by overbearing states to seek refuge in the richest and the most economically free nations.

Although the income gap within many developed nations may have widened over the past thirty years, the disparity in world income inequality has lessened. This is mainly due to the rapid economic growth that has been occurring in developing countries with big populations, such as India and China, which are following more market-orientated policies.

According to the United Nations, in 1990 approximately 47 per cent of people lived on less than $1.25 a day. By 2010, this figure had plummeted to 22 per cent. Thanks to the free-market policies that Ms Alibhai-Brown so clearly despises, the world is on the cusp of a historic feat – the complete eradication of poverty.

Jasson Urbach

Director, Free Market Foundation,

Johannesburg

 

Paul Sloane (letter, 21 January) is wrong to assert that the super-rich are not responsible for the economic difficulties faced by the rest of society. Wages and salaries in North America and Europe have been held down for several decades while corporate profits have risen.

In the United States, real wages have fallen 7 per cent in seven years while profits are up by 18.6 per cent, and in Britain the average worker is £1,600 worse off than before the last election.

Such growing inequality has fuelled asset inflation, making housing more expensive, and in turn squeezed disposable incomes and reduced demand for goods and services.

At the same time we have faced a series of laws which have privatised much of the public sector, deregulated the private sector and curtailed the ability of workers to take strike action in defence of their pay and conditions, the latter meaning that the unions are more restricted than at any time since the passing of the 1906 Trades Disputes Act, and arguably since their legalisation in 1824.

These changes have been promoted by think-tanks and media organisations, themselves owned by the rich, and have been readily adopted by politicians looking to secure large corporate donations to fund election campaigns.

Rather than the current fashion of scapegoating the unemployed, the disabled and those from other countries, cultures and faiths, it is time that public anger was directed unequivocally against the self-serving 1 per cent.

Julian Wilson

Tonbridge, Kent

 

How rewarding it has been in our society to see the help and support that has been put in place to help people come to terms with their alcohol, drug and gambling problems. It is now increasingly apparent that a new group is emerging who clearly need help to come to terms with their situation.

The evidence that there are people in our society who are rich but cannot acknowledge their plight is all too evident. To help them recognise their situation I would suggest they ask themselves a few basic questions such as “Do I go to great lengths to conceal my plight from others?” and “Do I spend too much time with individuals with the same problem?”

If there is still confusion then maybe they could be helped to admit to being rich by answering the question “Do I live in a house worth more than two million pounds?”

Once the condition is acknowledged, then the unfortunate individuals can be helped not to only live with their condition but also to learn how to make a significant contribution to the improvement of our society.

John Dillon

Birmingham

 

Hateful cartoons can’t justify murder

Elizabeth Morley (letter, 19 January) makes a valid point about whether vicious and salacious anti-Muslim cartoons should be defended. But no matter how indefensible, no matter how gratuitously offensive, no matter how deliberately inflammatory, or hateful or insulting, that does not give anyone the right to kill.

Did I express “Je suis Charlie”? Yes, I did, but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who did so, not because I believe that the artists there should have untrammelled rights to publish whatever they want, but because I believe that any limits should be defined by reasoned debate in a free society, not by ignorant fanaticism; and enforced by the due process of law, not by murderous barbarians.

Mike Perry

Ickenham, Middlesex

 

It’s easy to imagine “free speech” as a purely political concept, especially in the light of the recent horrors in France. But there’s another kind of free speech that in many ways is more fundamental and valuable.

A few years ago, I was walking along a Leicester street I grew up in, observing what had changed and what had stayed the same. One significant difference is a nearby mosque and major increase in Muslim families now living in that area.

A tall bearded man, dressed in Islamic white robes was coming out of his house and gave me the warmest smile and “Hello mate, y’alright?” It was nice to exchange greetings back. I remember how the sun was shining so clearly that day. It’s this kind of open, everyday, free speech between British people of different cultures and faiths that’s truly worth standing up for. It does not require cartoons to uphold.

Martin Coley

Leicester

Who loves these Tube mosaics?

Who says the Paolozzi murals are “much loved” (“Heritage group calls for Tube mosaics to be saved”, 22 January)? For years Tottenham Court Road has been one of the most embarrassingly cramped, grubby and tacky stations on the whole of the London Underground system, and the mosaics were part of the problem.

The murals were already a dated Swinging Sixties London fantasy when they were installed in the Eighties. And why does everything from the past need preserving, however ill-conceived it might have been?

It is no criticism of Eduardo Paolozzi to say that the commission was a huge mistake in the first place, frustrating any attempt to preserve or recreate any sense of house style for the Central and Northern Lines.

It is too late now, but it would have been better for selected pieces to go to museums, and for the new station to have found its own modern aesthetic in sympathy with the clean lines of the other revamped Central Line West End stations. I await the unveiling of the new Tottenham Court Road Tube station with interest but trepidation. Let’s hope it is a reinvention of an old station as successful as Farringdon.

Gavin Turner

Gunton, Norfolk

Jewish fears put down to ‘paranoia’

In his article on antisemitism (21 January) Matthew Norman diagnoses the widespread fear in the Jewish community of mounting antisemitism: he puts it down to “paranoia”. He goes further: Jews’ “paranoia” is a “distasteful slur against this country.”

Last year was the worst on record for antisemitic attacks, even though in his article Norman sets the bar for “real” antisemitism at murder. In our polling, which The Independent reported on its front page last week, we found that 45 per cent of Jews in Britain feared they have no long-term future here, while a quarter had considered emigrating.

Norman berates his fellow Jews for their fear and belittles the causes of it, instead of asking how this happened and what can be done.

Gideon Falter

Chairman, Campaign Against Antisemitism

London WC1

 

Stay awake at the back, there

I am surprised that your publication, renowned for calling a spade a spade, is still, in its reports of the allegations made against Prince Andrew, using the euphemism “sleeping with” instead of “having sex with”.

Whatever the truth or falsehood of the claims, at least call it as it is. If I were invited to an orgy, the last thing I would expect is a good night’s sleep.

Trevor Beaumont

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

 

Waiting for Chilcot

Has anyone told Tony Blair that the Chilcot report could be published in 45 minutes?

Peter Garside

Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire

It was cheering to read the article by Ziauddin Sardar on reason in Islam (22 January). It is what we’ve all been waiting for, and I hope he does not get into any trouble for speaking common sense.

The fatal flaw in all religion is that if one says there can be no argument on matters of faith, what  do you say to someone  who declares, for example, that their religion is  killing babies?

In view of recent events there is hardly now the need for such an extreme example. The point is, if the religious card is always trumps, anyone can play trumps, and the result is a horrible mess. A secular operating system is therefore essential and all matters of faith should be subject to the same scrutiny.

At the same time I am intrigued as to why the convinced proponents of secularism as an end in itself seem so charmingly confident that their system will be humane. I can’t see any examples. The result of abolishing religion in Communist Russia in the 20th century rather fails  to inspire.

To the extent that our system here is already secular in a humane way does draw to a great extent on Christian tradition and, equally, on the Enlightenment. The scientists who took on the might of religious bigotry in those times were not only brave but did a tremendous amount of hard thinking. A fusion took place from which we all still benefit.

Mary Nolze

Tunbridge Wells, Kent

 

Maybe I could add to Ziauddin Sardar’s appeal for the restoration of reason to Islam by pointing out that in England in the 17th century Islam was sometimes seen as a more reasonable religion than Christianity, on account of having no Trinity, which even the faithful considered inaccessible to reason.

In the same century a notable Islamic tale came to prominence, which stressed the power of reason, and the importance of observation, description and practical learning.

It was translated into Latin by the Edward Pocockes (father and son) in 1671, and gained three English translations within 40 years. Its title was Hayy ibn Yaqzan (the living one, son of the vigilant); the author was Ibn Tufayl, of Andalusia, writing some time in the 12th century.

One of its English translators summed up its aim thus: “To shew how human capacity, unassisted by any external help,  may, by due application, attain the knowledge of natural things.”

Christopher Walker

London SW18

 

Malala Yousafzai’s remark “you can shoot my body but you cannot shoot my dreams” applies also to the Muslim extremists who shot her. Repression alone cannot end an ideology. If we want to counter “jihadism” we need to know its origins, its motivation, and its beliefs.

Modern Salafism – the claim to return to the beliefs and practices at the birth of Islam – grew out of the extreme form of salafism preached by ‘Abd al Wahab and accepted by the House of Saud in 1744.

In 1932, after defeating other Arab princedoms, Ibn Saud created the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with Wahabism as the religion of the cradle of Islam and its holy places. This had provided a religious ideology for resisting European imperialism – Tsarist in Chechnya in the late 18th century and in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the late 19th.

Promoted worldwide by Saudi Arabia among imams and madrassas, Wahabism has become an important element in Islam which has been exploited by Muslim opponents of “Western” culture and incursions into “Muslim countries”.

To counter “jihadism” we must see it through the eyes of the extremists and study their beliefs – for example, which Suras of the Koran and which hadiths they quote. For this we need the help of both “moderate” (non-Wahabist) clerics  and religiously well-informed laity.

John Pedler

Sarlat,  France

 

Chilcot: no more delays

Confirmation that the Chilcot report is virtually certain to be delayed beyond the general election is another body-blow for the families of British servicemen and women killed or maimed in Iraq.

But it also represents a scandalous betrayal of democracy and the electorate’s right to know before casting its vote in May, and hammers yet another nail into the coffin of the public’s confidence in politics and politicians.

It is now imperative that backbenchers of principle and backbone, on all sides of the House, press ahead with their debate on the Chilcot delay next week, and that a select committee presses ahead with grilling Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood over his role in this painfully protracted process.

If nothing else, the Chilcot saga should trigger a review of future public inquiries with the flawed obligation to allow those who face criticism to receive advance notice and gift them the opportunity to mount delaying challenges to the inquiry’s verdict. After all, the rest of Britain’s judicial system only entitles those in the dock to appeal after the verdict and not before.

Paul Connew

St Albans, Hertfordshire

How the super-rich threaten democracy

Paul Sloane (letter, 21 January) is wrong when he says that the super-rich are no threat to democracy.

I have lost count in my 67 years of the right-wing coups that have ousted popular left-wing governments (such as that of Allende in Chile) because the rich were going to have to share a bit more of their wealth with the rest of their country’s population.

And what about those countries with TTIP-type arrangements with the US? Multinationals are suing or threatening to sue democratically elected governments such as Australia and New Zealand for daring to carry out their manifesto promises to put cigarettes in plain packaging. Or US health insurance companies suing democratic Poland and Slovenia for having the temerity to want to reverse some of the privatisation of their health systems.

Capitalism is no longer working in the interests of society. More and more of us are asking questions about a system that causes so much poverty; that distorts human behaviour in the name of profit. Wealth is not infinite – the more the rich take the less there is for the rest of us.

Mike Jenkins

Bromley, Kent

 

Paul Sloane cites the example of Bill Gates as one of the super-rich who has brought benefits to humanity. There have always been people like him, such as Cadbury. But there have also been the Fred Goodwins.

The overall picture is hardly one of a world full of rich people like Gates, with the average being more skewed to the greedy who have little concept of their responsibility to society.

Ian K Watson

Carlisle

 

Modest celebrations of yesteryear

Celia Ryan’s letter (22 January) about children’s birthday parties with pass-the-parcel and no booking required makes me wonder whether the quaintly named village of Draycott in the Clay is a modern-day Shangri-La where the young boys and girls leave their secondary schools with a handshake or a kiss and are not obliged to buy or hire an evening gown or a dress suit for a prom.

Similarly, is this a place where young men about to be married have their stag night in a local pub with their mates the night before the ceremony, while the bride-to-be just stays at home trying on her wedding dress, rather than organising weekend events in Cardiff, Cracow or Istanbul months before the wedding; and where the ceremony is at the local church or register office and the do is a knees-up at the village hall?

John Orton

Bristol

Disastrous loss of our polytechnics

I am the proud possessor of a CNAA degree in modern languages, which I studied at Leeds Polytechnic. The standard of tuition and the required level of attendance were much higher than at many a university language faculty. I used my language skills throughout my working career, in various kinds of job, and now I am retired I use them in language coaching.

The abolition of the polytechnics for the sake of sheer educational snobbery (letter, 22 January) was a disaster from which this country has not yet recovered.

Glynne Williams

London E17

 

What a splendid letter from Professor T J Simpson (21 January), neatly summing up the current management style in UK universities, where the “consultation” process takes place after the decision-making process.

I particularly liked his phrase “pro-VC sidekicks”. Couldn’t have summed them up better!

Dr N C Bird

School of Medicine

University of Sheffield

Sedate approach to Slipknot concert

“Simmy Richman heads for the mosh pit”, says the sub-headline to your review of Slipknot (22 January). “I take my seat…,” reports Simmy. That’s a seriously middle-class mosh pit, then.

Gerard Bell

Sunninghill, Berkshire

 

Times:

Sir, Mark Rylance is a brilliant actor but his historical knowledge is out of date (“Politics needs a new Cromwell, says Rylance”, Jan 20). The old argument that the English Reformation was a royal response to grassroots anti-Catholicism is not sustainable. A wave of revisionist historians has provided ample evidence that the Reformation was not “England demanding the right to choose its own course” but a top-down imposition on a largely unwilling populace, whose loyalty to the old religion continued in spite of increasingly draconian legislation and punishment.

One dramatic example of popular feeling was the Pilgrimage of Grace, when several English counties, angered by liturgical changes and by the dissolution of the monasteries, rose in rebellion against the crown, demanding negotiation and a halt to reform. Only the cynical duplicity of Henry and Cromwell prevented the success of that uprising, which was followed by brutal reprisals against the king’s subjects. I think that we can do without that brand of dictatorial “pragmatism”.
Philip McCarthy
Lower Bebington, Wirral

Sir, Andrew Billen (Television, Jan 22) is right to praise the excellence of Mark Rylance’s performance as Thomas Cromwell in the BBC production of Wolf Hall. But when he remarks that “a few deft scenes with his family establish him as a man stubbornly unbrutalised by his father’s violence” and goes on to wonder where Cromwell’s grief at the death of his wife and daughters will take him, we should remind ourselves that Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell is a work of fiction inserted into a drama that purports to be historical.

What we do know, from plentiful contemporary sources, is that Cromwell was a ruthless thug who, to gain his own ends and those of his king, bribed, blackmailed, suborned, threatened and corrupted people and placed spies in the households of court servants. There is no evidence at all that he was abused in any way by his father, nor that he was a fond husband and sensitive proto-feminist parent who encouraged his daughters to learn Latin and Greek.

Oddly enough, Thomas More was such a parent, but that is one of many facts that Mantel has suppressed, introducing instead anecdotes about More that are completely made up. By all means let us admire a fine acting performance but let us not confuse the play or the novel with anything like the historical truth.
Cecilia Hatt
Surbiton, Surrey

Sir, Andrew Billen’s review of Wolf Hall does only half the job. Yes, the BBC adaptation is very good. But he omits any comparison with the adaptation done on the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2014. The RSC’s version had far more pace than the BBC’s offering as it contained a series of often very short scenes that elided rapidly into each other, thus producing a more engrossing narrative. The wings of the theatre also enabled Cromwell to play in the shadows. Both adaptations do justice to the underlying books, but the RSC’s is the more engrossing of the two.
Nigel Purse
Hastoe, Herts

Sir, I was surprised that no cleric in Wolf Hall wore the tonsure. This was only formally abandoned following Pope Paul VI’s 1972 Apostolic Letter, Ministeria Quaedam.
Mark Burgess
London NW3

Sir, Ben Macintyre’s excellent article (Jan 23) fails to mention one crucial piece of scientific history. At the end of the Second World War Churchill threw away a chance for Britain to lead the way in the development of computers by disbanding the team at Bletchley Park and ordering the computers themselves to be destroyed. Tom Flowers, who built Colossus, went back to his telephone work, and although Alan Turing wanted Flowers to work with him on computers he was not allowed to reveal why Flowers was the right man for the job. So Flowers stayed with the GPO.

To this day, even many textbooks (let alone popular accounts) fail to mention that Colossus, Flowers’s brainchild, was the first electronic programmable computer — a genuine Turing machine.
John Gribbin
Piddinghoe, E Sussex

Sir, I can remember having my feet measured at school, and was very proud to be the only boy with feet large enough to qualify for extra coupons (“Dictator Churchill”, letters, Jan 23). My mother, on the other hand, was horrified at the thought of the expense. I never did get the shoes.
DG Shotton
Havant, Hants

Sir, Fifty-five years ago my first baby was born in Sydney. We had only lived there a few months and were shocked when my husband had to leave me at the door of the hospital (“It’s official: men really shouldn’t be at the birth”, Jan 21). I lay for hours on my own in a small room, with nurses occasionally checking me, until I needed help at the actual birth. The temperature was 104F (40C) that day and continued to rise over subsequent days; the babies were bathed in tepid water to keep them cool through the days and nights (no fans or air conditioning).

Although my beloved husband was with me when our other three babies were born, the one person I longed for 55 years ago was my mother.
Anne Powell
Southsea, Hants

Sir, Like most fathers nowadays I was present at my son’s birth, and while this was an amazing experience, both my wife and I later confided in each other that, for all the positives, we had had exactly the same creeping doubt in the labour ward: there is a point during childbirth where — particularly as a helpless and useless bystander — one realises that a male presence in the room feels somehow out of place, like an unwelcome intruder gazing on some ancient rite whose mysteries will always remain alien to the uninitiated, and whose presence offends the goddess.
John Shields
London SW1

Sir, How would Oliver Kamm (The Pedant, Jan 17) interpret the triple negative, as used in Norfolk and Suffolk? Last week I was pleased to hear again “No, they hint got narthin.” Confusing young people, whose knowledge of grammar is fairly minimal nowadays, is surely preferable to the loss of such picturesque colloquialisms.
Jeanne Thompson
Beccles, Suffolk

Sir, The Grocer’s report on falling marmalade sales may not be a true reflection of the preserve’s popularity (“Marmalade is toast at home,” Jan 22). I would venture that the homemade variety is on the rise. But what recipe to try each January? In our household at least, this question often results in Seville war.
Morton Warner
Emeritus professor, University of South Wales

Telegraph:

Law and disorder: a judge has likened our postal vote system to that of a banana republic - Why does Britian tolerate voting fraud?
Would compulsory voting increase voter engagement?

SIR – Graham Allen, the Labour MP for Nottingham North, says that compulsory voting is on the agenda. The logic of his argument is that responsibility for disengagement with politics lies not with the political class but, rather, with voters who have the temerity not to be gulled into legitimising whatever politicians choose to do.

The idea that voting under the duress of criminal sanctions will recapture public interest is bizarre. It is yet another example of the deepening divide between ruled and rulers.

David Cowell
Lincoln

SIR – Claiming that compulsory voting would make us appreciate politics more is like saying that if we had been made to watch those terrible B movies of the Fifties and Sixties, we would have learnt to love them.

Brian Christley
Abergele, Denbighshire

SIR – The right to vote is a privilege. I have exercised that right ever since I became eligible. Make it compulsory, and I will not vote.

Compulsory voting would turn a privilege that must be cherished into nothing more than an irritation like buying a television licence.

Then, how on earth would an apparently overstretched police force bring to justice the numbers of those who did not vote?

The politicians must give us something to vote for, become visible in the community, earn our support and loyalty. Surely the turnout in the Sottish referendum demonstrates that point.

The fight for the right to vote was long and hard, but it was not a fight for the Government to be able to tell us that we must vote.

Jackie Perkins
Whitstable, Kent

SIR – Graham Allen is right to be concerned about the disengagement with politics that exists at the moment. As a result of this, undesirable regimes could gain power.

Such, however, is the sense of self-importance of politicians that one of their answers is compulsory voting. It is not clear to me how corralling an unwilling populace into the polling booths would remove the current disillusionment.

It would be much better if efforts were aimed at the root of the problem itself, but politicians seem unwilling to do this, as they are, in fact, part of that problem.

Michael Morris
Haverhill, Suffolk

SIR – During a general election in India, there is a public holiday to ensure that everybody gets a chance to vote.

If we adopted that system, with the proviso that it would be a working day for any non-voters, I am sure voting numbers would improve.

Wesley Lees
Iver, Buckinghamshire

Britain’s foreign aid

SIR – The House of Lords will today debate a private member’s Bill designed to entrench in law a government commitment to spend at least 0.7 per cent of national income on aid. The Bill has the backing of the three big national political parties. However, it is against both the national interest, and, ultimately, the interests of people in poor countries.

This proposal was considered in detail by the Lords Economic Affairs Committee in 2012. The committee, including representatives of the Left, Right and centre, unanimously came down against legislating for the 0.7 per cent target. We said it would “deprive future governments of the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances at home and abroad”; that it “wrongly prioritises the amount spent rather than the result achieved”; that “the speed of the planned increase risks reducing the quality, value for money and accountability of the aid programme”; and that “it increases the risk that aid will have a corrosive effect on local political systems”.

Even before such a target has become law, the Government shoved money out the door to meet the 0.7 per cent. The National Audit Office said this risked “missed opportunities to get the best outcomes from this spending”.

The Bill needs to be defanged.

Lord Lipsey
Lord Lawson of Blaby

London SW1

Don’t waste drugs

SIR – My husband, who has cancer, has also had to abandon many drugs due to the changing nature of the disease. Fortunately, we have found a charity that will take medicine in complete strips (and in the manufacturer’s box). Inter Care, based in Leicester, is grateful for these and its newsletter details how the medication is put to good use in different African countries. GP surgeries can choose to be collection points for this scheme.

Gay Slater
Sevenoaks, Kent

Problem with Page 3

Image from the No More Page 3 Facebook campaign page

SIR – I take no offence at the naked form, indiscriminate of gender. I would call myself a fan of Barbara Windsor. The issue I take with Page 3 is that it promotes damaging ideas on how men and women should view each other.

Children grow up believing that, because daddy likes it, the photo represents the perfect woman. Such a portrayal, rooted in sexism and ageism, and spread out not exclusively on the top shelves of newsagents but in a popular newspaper, makes this depiction a kind of acceptable norm.

In a world where too many women are cruelly condemned for seeking an education and role as something other than a sex object, I think valuing cyphers with pouts in place of voices does nothing but demean the argument for equality.

I hope that Stephen Bayley (“Page 3: a victory for the joyless”) is never in a position where society judges him on his private parts in the name of British bawdiness.

Olivia Denton
Guildford, Surrey

SIR – Although not a reader of The Sun, I was pleased to learn that feminist bullying has not prevailed and Page 3 has been restored to meet Sun readers’ expectations.

Why should the editorial policy of any newspaper be dictated by a vociferous minority, the majority of whom, I suspect, don’t even read that paper?

If there was anything to which I strongly objected published in the Telegraph, I would simply cancel my subscription.

Peter Froggatt
Dorking, Surrey

No Right to Buy

SIR – The Right to Buy scheme being pushed (again) by Conservative Cabinet ministers can only mean there is another general election on the way.

The sale of publicly owned homes designated specifically for people on low incomes cannot be justified. There is a severe shortage of this type of housing, and the number of people on housing lists is increasing. The subsequent building of new council houses has never matched Right to Buy sales.

Many of the ex-council homes have become lucrative rental businesses for the buyers – often rented back to councils and housing associations. And where does HM Revenue and Customs stand with respect to Right to Buy discounts of up to £102,700?

The system stinks.

Bill Parish
Hayes, Kent

SIR – Congratulations to Allister Heath (“A council house giveaway could be the Tories’ game-changer”) for another brilliant idea for the politicians.

Giving poor households a proportion of the equity in the property they occupy is surely the right way to build responsible home ownership. That, in turn, does much to build family and community cohesion. Everyone is a winner, and the state withdraws a bit further from an area that it should not be involved in: handing out income support grants and subsidising private rents.

Alastair Graham
Bagshot, Surrey

Preserving a piece of Britain’s Cold War heritage

SIR – In your obituary of the great philanthropist Sir Jack Hayward you mention the support he gave to the restoration of the SS Great Britain. He was also instrumental in saving the project to restore the Vulcan bomber XH558 to flight.

In 2006, when the programme was in danger of collapsing for lack of funds, I was enlisted by the trust’s then chairman, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Knight, to help raise some cash.

I approached a few wealthy Thatcherite Tories, including Sir Jack Hayward, to whom I pointed out that the Vulcan had served in the Cold War as the carrier of Britain’s nuclear deterrent, before the role switched to submarines, and that it had only once been deployed in anger, during the Falklands campaign. What connected the Cold War and the Falklands? Margaret Thatcher.

Fired up, I made an impassioned plea for funds to save the project, and the jobs of those working on it.

Late one night, I received a call from Sir Jack who said: “So sorry to hear those chaps are about to lose their jobs – count me in for half a million.” The project was saved and the iconic Vulcan continues to star on the airshow circuit.

A great patriot, he wasn’t known as “Union” Jack Hayward for nothing.

Sir Gerald Howarth MP (Con)
London SW1

The aesthetic advantages of the one-eyed glass

Fisheye lens: an early 20th-century colour lithograph of piscine trends in fashion (www.bridgemanart.com)

SIR – My local branch of Specsavers has twice been able to fill my two monocles (which I procured from antiques fairs) with prescription lenses.

A monocle is very useful for avoiding tan lines on one’s face in sunny climes, when on the deck of a cruise ship or in the garden reading the Saturday Telegraph in summer. My second monocle has a dark tinted prescription lens and, I confess, can give a me slight appearance of a villain in Indiana Jones, but is indispensable when reading on a sunny day at sea.

The idea of a contact lens is something I can’t even contemplate – it would be grit in my eye as far as I am concerned.

Derek Kane
St Mary Bourne, Hampshire

SIR – In 1989, I was learning to fly and at my medical was diagnosed as being short-sighted only in my right eye.

When piloting an aircraft, if you need glasses, by law you have to take two pairs of spectacles with you.

In an effort at humour, I bought one pair and a monocle (“Monocles are for madmen”). The monocle was fitted with a photochromic lens, which darkens on exposure to light.

My flying instructor was somewhat nonplussed when I turned up for my last lesson before my first solo, on a bright sunny day, wearing a monocle, the lens of which was almost black.

Henry Wodehouse
Selborne, Hampshire

Killing it online

SIR – I have a minor heart condition so, naturally, I have been searching the web for information.

Now all my pop-up ads are for insurance cover for funeral expenses.

Russell Payne
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Peacocks crossing

SIR – A hand-painted sign outside a farm on a busy 50mph road in Oxfordshire reads: “Slow down! Don’t kill more peacocks.” I have never killed a peacock and I don’t know the speed below which an impact with a Land Rover would be non-fatal. Less signage, more fencing?

Tim Soar
Long Crendon, Buckinghamshire

 

Globe and Mail:

Tabatha Southey

Obama, understandably, is feeling a little cocky

 

Denise Balkissoon

When bad things happen, appreciate the bravery of the bystander

 

WHAT READERS THINK

Jan. 23: Rate the BoC’s cut – and other letters to the editor

Rate the cut

Name five internationally recognized Canadian brands that are manufactured in Canada. It’s harder than you think – and the absence of a quick answer makes the Bank of Canada’s rate cut look like closing the barn doors long after the horses have bolted (Wanted: All-Perils Insurance Coverage – editorial, Jan. 22).

It’s a pity, because in our nearly 150-year history the wealth and stability of the past decade was likely our best opportunity to move from resources into a value-added economy. Fingers crossed for whatever happens next.

Peter Smith, Calgary

………

The oil-price reduction that triggered the rate cut by the Bank of Canada has a far greater effect on the vote than the rate cut itself (Poloz Cushions The Blow For Harper Conservatives – Jan. 22).

The “reverse Dutch disease” under way – oil price down, so dollar down – primarily helps Ontario, where the swing seats are. Alberta would vote Conservative at $20 oil. It is ironic that a major slowdown in the industry that is championed by the Conservatives as Canada’s economic engine could get them re-elected.

Michael Margolick, Burnaby, B.C.

………

Laughter’s dark side

Re Quebec’s Take On Blackface (Jan. 22): La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé defends the use of blackface, arguing that “the detestable minstrelsies that used to portray stereotypical and generic versions of blacks as dimwitted … are not as well known in French Quebec.” I agree completely: Ignorance is the reason why blackface is still accepted here. Simon Fanning, Montreal

………

Hiding behind a culture of ignorance is the last thing Charlie Hebdo would have done.

Cultural codes and taboos may differ from people to people, but if you’ve unknowingly offended an entire culture the right thing to do is apologize, unless you just don’t care. Quebeckers may or may not be largely unaware of the historical insult that goes along with blackface, but if so, it’s time we learned.

Michael Ashby, Montreal

………

Re Defence Of Blackface In Quebec Feels Hollow (Life & Arts, Jan. 21): I thought it was a joke, but Globe and Mail theatre critic J. Kelly Nestruck was serious when he described “that kind of racist portrayal of a hockey player” (P.K. Subban) in the year-end comedy show Revue et corrigée presented in Montreal. I saw the show and I didn’t see anything racist in it.

It was a clin d’œil to P.K., who is a real hero here. That’s why he was portrayed in that revue de l’année.

But, as we could see with the Charlie Hebdo cartoons, it seems humour is a very delicate matter in the ROC.

Pierre Trottier, Montreal

………

Blackface is outrageously offensive. I notice that P.K. Subban has not exactly leaped to the defence of the actors in the revue.

Maybe he was too busy watching clips of fans in blackface and afro wigs at an NHL game in Montreal in 2010, or a banana getting thrown at Kevin Weekes in 2002 at the Bell Centre in Montreal during the playoffs? Hard to say.

Christopher Price, Toronto

………

‘Cruel and unusual’

Re Solitary Confinement Should Be Rare (editorial, Jan. 22): Much ink has recently been spilled over solitary confinement in Canadian prisons. But I have yet to read specific commentary about the 1976 decision of the Federal Court in the McCann case. This decision declared confinement in the Special Correction Unit (SCU) of the B.C. Penitentiary, long since demolished, as “cruel and unusual” punishment, contrary to the Canadian Bill of Rights.

In short, such solitary confinement was unconstitutional.

The trial, which I attended, took place in New Westminster in 1975, well before the Charter. The SCU conditions at issue involved lengthy confinement (the longest continuous period was 754 days for one inmate) in an 11-foot by six-foot windowless, poorly ventilated cell for 23.5 hours per day, with continuous lighting and no outside exercise. There were other dehumanizing aspects of the incarceration. Sound familiar?

If such conditions were unconstitutional pre-Charter, they surely must be unconstitutional post-Charter. Have we forgotten our legal history?

Vincent Orchard, Burnaby, B.C.

………

99-per-cent solutions

Yes, some investors and businesses create jobs (1-Per-Cent Solutions – letters, Jan. 22). And in economic down times, they cut them, with no thought to the larger economy or the people they employ. Some businesses are efficient and make good decisions, others crash and burn.

But investors, businesses and the rich don’t build roads, staff hospitals, or provide policing, all of which cost tax dollars. In these areas and many others, governments can make better use of my money than the 1 per cent – with the added bonus that I have an opportunity every few years to fire them if I don’t like what they’re doing with my money.

Linda Bondoc, Calgary

………

The game’s afoot

Twirls and selfies?

If Eugenie Bouchard is serious about wanting to improve her game, I can think of two things she could give up right now (Bouchard Advances And Dances Down Under – Sports, Jan. 22).

Christopher Grounds, Burlington, Ont.

………

Put (un)paid to it

I find it laughable that American interests are looking for compensation from Cuba for property lost in a social revolution (The Rapid Thaw – Folio, Jan. 21).

Did America compensate Britain for all the investments and property English business interests lost in North America after the 1776 revolution? Did the French aristocrats of 1789 (those who survived) get compensation from the French state for their seized estates? Did émigré Russians get compensation from the Soviet Union after the 1917 revolution? No!

It’s ludicrous for the U.S. and U.S. businesses (Office Depot, if you can imagine!) to expect to be compensated for what Cuba saw and still sees as the just deserts of social revolution after decades of unabashed American exploitation. But the U.S. has always seen itself as special, that the normal processes of social revolution and other people gaining independence shouldn’t apply to it – an attitude of “specialness” still prominent in its interpretation of free-trade agreements.

Hágase verdadero (Get real)!

W. E. Hildreth, Toronto

………

Grannies know best

Unlike Lucy Waverman’s granny, who put beef in her shepherd’s pie, my Scottish granny made hers using lamb (For Shepherd’s Pie, Granny Knows Best – Life & Arts, Jan. 21). When my gran made pies with beef, she called them “cowboy pie.”

On the other hand, maybe the canny shepherds Ms. Waverman references stole a calf from the neighbour rather than sacrificing a sheep that they were pledged to protect.

Gordon Duncan, Claremont, Ont.

 

Irish Times:

Sir, – It is regrettable that on the same day Government published details of its proposed marriage equality referendum in the Dáil, Joan Burton introduced its Gender Recognition Bill to the Seanad (“Tánaiste says recognition of transgender identity a sign of growing maturity”, January 22nd).

The Government proposes to grant the right to marry to same-sex couples while simultaneously proposing that transgender people be forced to divorce.

This is because its fears that giving gender recognition to trans people who are still married will lead to the introduction of same-sex marriage by the back door.

In the Dáil debate last year and in the Seanad recently, all the TDs and all but one of the Senators who spoke pointed out the Bill’s failings. The dissenting Senator did not seem to disagree with the others but merely expressed the hope that the faults in the legislation could be worked out in time. Nevertheless, Ms Burton ignores all of this and ploughs on regardless.

This Bill does nothing for the trans children who are already marginalised and bullied in our schools and in society. Trans children exist whether Government or indeed our society wants to acknowledge that fact.

Trans adults are required to get a psychiatrist or endocrinologist to confirm legally that they are who they say they are. Is this not reminiscent of the treatment of gay and lesbian people 30 years ago?

Most objectionable is the Bill’s forced divorce requirement. In Article 41 of our Constitution, the State guarantees to protect the family; it pledges to guard the institution of marriage.

There is no proviso in the Constitution that suggests these clauses should not apply if one of the spouses to a marriage is transgender! How does the State meet these constitutional obligations when demanding that trans people divorce to achieve recognition of their identity?

We are talking about forced divorce in a country where divorce did not even exist 20 years ago.

Trans voices have been largely ignored by Government in the preparation of this Bill which deals with our rights. Trans people represent a very small part of society but is that any reason why our rights should continue to be denied by Government?

It is truly historic that every Government TD and Senator support the right of same-sex couples to marry. But perhaps someone could then explain why each and every one of these politicians will also support the introduction of forced divorce for trans people. Government has already acknowledged that it is a human right of any person to have their gender legally recognised.

This right should not be contingent on a couple who do not want to get divorced being forced to do so.

Successive Governments have made trans people wait 21 years for legal recognition. Now that they have finally agreed to uphold our human rights, they attach conditions.

This Government should not feel pride with the introduction of this legislation. Instead, it should feel shame. – Yours, etc,

VICTORIA MULLEN,

Dublin 24.

Sir, – John G O’Dwyer states that the lack of access to the Irish countryside “is not the problem” when it comes to attracting walking tourists (“We need to breathe new life into fading tourism in rural areas”, Opinion & Analysis, January 22nd). He then goes on to say: “Of course, it would help the development of walking tourism if access to the countryside could be improved”.

Talk about wanting it both ways.

His assertion that the closure of more than half the B&Bs around the country is the big problem for would-be hillwalkers is to put the cart before the horse. The B&Bs are closing for a variety of reasons but paramount amongst them is the small number of tourists walking Ireland’s hinterland. Why? Because there is no certainty as to where they can walk.

Nor does Ireland have the networks of paths, and pedestrian bridges or the choice of walking books or established routes to be found in every other European country. Why this lack? Because of uncertainty over access – an uncertainty born of political cowardice and narrow sectional interest.

A succession of governments, including that of self-declared hillwalker Enda Kenny, has continued to make a fetish of extreme property rights over the common good – the good not only of visiting tourists but our own citizens. A modest Bill by Labour backbencher Robert Dowds TD was introduced in the Dáil 20 months ago. It was designed to make establishing rights of public access easier. It is currently breathing its last having been quietly suffocated in the dark recesses of the Fine Gael-dominated Oireachtas environment committee.

Consider that and you will realise how wrong it is for Mr O’Dwyer to claim that legislating for change would be “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”. After years of the “softly-softly” approach to farmers, it is becoming obvious that only a change in the law will suffice.

The looped walks established with the aid of Failte Ireland around the country are indeed welcome. But they are a tiny fraction of what is needed if we are to open the country for walkers and to make it possible for them, as many of them want to do, to walk from place to place. It is a sobering thought, but the small county of Hereford in England has almost as many free-to-walk miles as the Republic. Meanwhile, the whole of Scotland and most of Wales is open.

As for John O’Dwyer’s assertion that there are virtually no access problems here, Keep Ireland Open has dozens of disputed routes on its books. Close to my home here in the Glencree Valley in Co Wicklow, Dublin’s lungs, I can take him to six disputed long-standing routes within a couple of miles.

Ireland is not open for walking tourists. Until it is, tourism will continue to move to the towns. Or to countries more welcoming to walkers and cyclists. – Yours, etc,

ALBERT SMITH,

Keep Ireland Open,

Glencree, Co Wicklow.


Birdwatch

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25 January 2015 Birdwatch

Mary a little better she could manage to get up for breakfast. I do bird watch duties for the RSPB 14 birds, but squirrels were there for 20 minutes.

Obituary:

Mountcastle being presented with the National Medal of Science by President  Reagan in 1986
Mountcastle being presented with the National Medal of Science by President Reagan in 1986 Photo: The Washington Post

Vernon Mountcastle, who has died aged 96, was the neuroscientist known as the “Jacques Cousteau of the Cortex” for his discovery of the columnar structure of the cerebral cortex — the brain’s outer layer of neural tissue or “grey matter”.

In the 1950s Mountcastle, a scientist at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, carried out experiments on the brains of cats using then new microelectrodes. In 1957 he reported that when a microelectrode was inserted vertically in the region of the cat brain that processes local mechanical stimulation of the body surface, it encountered neurons (nerve cells) that all responded to the same type of stimulus.

When the electrode was moved to nearby locations in the brain, it found similar responses of neurons located in verticals tracking down through the cortex, though the functional characteristics of the neurons were often different from those on parallel tracks. For example, nerve cells along one track might respond to light touch, while those along another track might respond to pressure.

By contrast when the electrode was inserted horizontally into the cat’s brain so that it passed across the cortex, it encountered cells responding to different types of stimuli. Although his findings, published in the Journal of Neurophysiology, are accepted as commonplace today, they were so controversial at the time — scientists believed that neurons were arranged in horizontal layers — that two of the researchers who worked with him refused to have their names attached to the article . As Mountcastle later recalled: “One critic said that the idea [of the columnar structure of the cortex] was just the ‘musings of an old man’ and I was only 39!”

A few years after his discovery, David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel found a comparable arrangement in the visual cortex of the cat and monkeys.

In the 1970s, Mountcastle carried out similar research into the parietal lobe of the cortex, the region involved in higher functions , work for which he won the 1983 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. His findings led him to speculate in “An organising principle of cerebral function”, published in The Mindful Brain (1978 ), that vertical neural units represent a fundamental feature of the mammalian cortex that might be relevant to brain functions that are poorly understood, such as cognitive ability and even consciousness. The paper has been described as “the Rosetta Stone of neuroscience”.

The middle of five children, Vernon Benjamin Mountcastle was born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, on July 15 1918 to parents of Scottish descent. His father was a partner in a railway company while his mother was a former teacher.

The family moved to Roanoke, Virginia, when he was three. After graduating from Roanoke College in 1938, he took a medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1942. During the Second World War he served as a battlefield surgeon at Anzio and the Normandy invasions.

Returning to Johns Hopkins after the war, Mountcastle found there were no neurosurgery posts available immediately, so he joined the school of medicine’s physiology laboratory under Philip Bard, following a perfunctory interview at which Bard simply wanted to know whether Mountcastle thought there was a psychological factor in motion sickness and, when he gave the answer “no”, invited him to join his research team.

Mountcastle went on to serve as director of the department of physiology and head of the Philip Bard Laboratories of Neurophysiology at Johns Hopkins from 1964 to 1980. Later he was a founding member of the university’s Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, where he continued to work until his retirement aged 87.

In addition to the Lasker, Mountcastle won numerous other awards including the US National Medal of Science and the National Academy of Sciences Award in Neurosciences.

In 1945 he married Nancy Pierpont, who survives him with a son and daughter. Another son died in an accident in 1969.

Vernon Mountcastle, born July 15 1918, died January 11 2015

 

Guardian:

Care home
Our frontline staff are increasingly concerned about the impact on vulnerable people in our care. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

The health and social care system is chronically underfunded. While this remains the case, care and support for elderly and disabled people will only deteriorate. It is vital we put this right. Spending on social care has been prioritised by councils, but a 40% cut in government funding over this parliament has taken its toll. It is an inescapable truth that reduced funding for social care has had a knock-on impact on NHS services.

Councils work incredibly hard with health partners to ease the growing strain on the NHS. But putting extra investment into the NHS without easing the pressure on council budgets is not the solution. Without adequate funding for care, the NHS will continue to be forced to pick up the pieces from a social care system that is not resourced to meet demands, which will be increasingly unable to keep people out of hospitals. This would be a disaster for the health service and those left languishing in hospital beds instead of being cared for in their own homes and communities.

Our frontline staff are increasingly concerned about the impact this is having on vulnerable people in our care. It’s not enough to plaster over the cracks. Government must invest money in protecting a system which will be there to look after people now and in the future, and must commit to a long-term strategy to ensure people get the care they need. The system is in crisis now. We cannot wait any longer for it to be fixed.

Cllr David Sparks,

Chair, Local Government Association

Peter Carter

Chief executive, Royal College of Nursing

Rob Webster

Chief executive, NHS Confederation

Dr Mark Porter

Chair, British Medical Association

Richard Hawkes

Chair, Care and Support Alliance

Erase the voting pencil

Andrew Rawnsley is surely right about the risks to democracy and the future of Britain if young people tend not to vote (“The fewer young people that vote, the worse for the future of Britain”, Comment,). One way to help would be to make the process more in tune with their normal experience; going to a church hall or whatever and using a pencil to make a mark on a slip of paper must seem outlandish to today’s youth.

A secure online voting system (working alongside the traditional one) would be more appropriate for the modern world and would, over time, become the natural way votes are cast. It would also enable easier, more frequent expressions of the popular will – for example, a vote on a coalition programme developed in response to a hung parliament or even the annual parliaments proposed by the Chartists.

Nowadays, it seems that one can use any electronic device to express an opinion on the whole range of unimportant issues, so why not on the most important ones?  Revising the antiquated arrangements for our general elections would not only encourage more young people to engage with the process, it has the potential to revitalise the whole of our democracy.

Jem Whiteley

Oxford

Sour taste of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola does not always need to spend large amounts of money on its sponsorship (“Welcome to the Coca-Cola London Eye… but health charities are already seeing red”, Business, last week). In Uganda, it has provided schools with new signs without having to do more than pay for the sign and its erection. It is thus able not only to export more Coca-Cola, it is free to export more of the diseases of western culture, insinuating the brand with youngsters. This “structural grooming”, seeking to gain advantage to the detriment of those it seeks to exploit, should be condemned as much as any other form of grooming of children.

Prof Adrian Sutton

Hon senior teaching fellow, Manchester Medical School ;

Visiting professor of psychiatry, Gulu University, Uganda

Utopia explained

Vanessa Thorpe notes that readers of Thomas More’s Utopia are puzzled because of the differences between its ideas and his Catholicism (“He is the villain of Wolf Hall. But is Thomas More getting a raw deal?” In Focus). Enlightenment would follow were they to appreciate two facts, which More’s readers 500 years ago would have appreciated. The people in the book are pagans and thus do not have the light of revelation as a guide. While as rational beings they are capable of reaching the right conclusions in many cases, lacking the divine light, they inevitably go off the rails. Some might see similarities between the book and the present day. As for the difference between More and Cromwell, More was executed as a martyr because he refused to deny his beliefs; Cromwell was executed because he overreached himself.

Denis Lenihan

London SW19

Menace of The Machine

Nicholas Carr’s argument about the perils of automation, recounted by Carole Cadwalladr (“The Glass Cage: where automation is taking us”, New Review), was anticipated by EM Forster in his short story, The Machine Stops, first published in 1909. The inhabitants of a polluted and degraded Earth live in individual protected cells, communicating via screens, their every need catered for by The Machine. A small band of rebels brave the dangerous surface, learn to breathe the uncleaned and unwarmed air, exercise to strengthen their bodies, learn to find food… when The Machine breaks down, only they survive.

Pam Lunn

Kenilworth, Warwickshire

Fracking protest
A protest sign set up near a proposed fracking site in Lancashire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Observer

As a resident of Fylde with some oil and gas experience, I feel there has been too much said and written about fracking (“A county divided: is Lancashire ready for its fracking revolution?”, News, last week).

The technology exists (with one exception) to carry out this process with as close to zero risk as any human activity. The technical exception is the radioactive content of the water that comes back to the surface. Your feature mentions the solitary UK frack at Preese Hall, where measurements of the returned water contained between 1.2 and 9 times the radioactivity allowed for general discharge. This was disposed of, untreated, by dilution because the quantity was relatively small. That would absolutely not be acceptable for production quantities. One official suggested that existing treatment processes and facilities would cope with dilution as a solution. They will not even begin to cope.

That takes us to the main reason for public hostility. You do not need technical expertise to see that a monitoring of regulations (which do not cover all aspects of fracking, despite what is claimed) to ensure compliance, conducted by a group of agencies each reporting to a different government department, is a recipe for chaos. One senior Conservative admitted at a public meeting that the set-up was “intellectually strange”. Totally dysfunctional is more accurate.

It could all have been so different if those who knew what they are talking about had been listened to in the first place. As it is, the way this “debate” has been conducted, particularly by government, is a case study for any business school in how not to do it. The public is justified in disbelieving anything “officialdom” tells it.

Mike Turner

Lytham St Annes

Your two-page spread about fracking in Lancashire missed out the fundamental issue and that is climate change. It’s as though there is a conspiracy to keep quiet about it and see its application to everyday issues as a nerdy or a knitted sandal brigade concern.

When will it be part of our normal understanding that climate change is here and unless we plan to reduce the extraction of fossil fuel from the earth drastically there will be a build up of catastrophes for human civilisation. Fossil fuels have stored up energy from the sun over millions of years: how can we expect the release of this in a few hundred years to produce no consequences? Time may have already run out.

The Rev Mike Plunkett

Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire

Damian Carrington presents a balanced picture of the strongly divided opinion within communities on fracking. It is clear that the government and the industry need to do much more to gain the confidence and trust of communities facing fracking proposals, including strengthening safeguards for people and the environment.

This is why CPRE is calling for the government to change proposals in the infrastructure bill, currently being considered by parliament, which are inconsistent with the claim that the UK has world-class fracking rules. Proposals such as to allow fracking companies to deposit any substance underground are unnecessarily wide-reaching and likely to exacerbate widespread public concern. Along with the RSPB, National Trust and Wildlife Trusts, we want to see additional protections for sensitive landscapes, such as nationally and internationally protected areas.

More meaningful, inclusive and independent public engagement on fracking is also urgently needed with the prospect of new planning proposals affecting other communities.

With a much more deliberative approach required, it is unclear how far the £5m public engagement fund announced by the government in the autumn statement will go to fulfilling this need.

Nick Clack

Senior energy campaigner

Campaign to Protect Rural England

London SE1

 

Independent:

You quote Manwar Ali, an ex-Afghan jihadi, saying that dividing the world starkly into “them” and “us” (believers and non-believers) is the first step on the road to violent extremism (‘I am not afraid of confronting this mafia now’, 18 January).

Dividing people into two distinct groups, however, is the very first thing that all the main religions do and is central to their doctrines – the saved and the damned, the Jew and the gentile, the Muslim and the infidel, the righteous and the unrighteous. One group finds salvation and eternal life, the other is condemned to burn in Hell for all eternity, and usually given a hard time on earth first. This is deliberately divisive and elevates some people above others, purely on the grounds of their ideas about gods, and makes no distinction between those who believe in other gods and those who believe in no gods at all.

Bizarrely, this segregationist nature of religious belief finds its earliest expression here in faith schools with their discriminatory selection and employment protections. It is a tragedy that this is vested upon innocent children and encouraged by our governments in both Holyrood and Westminster.

AListair McBay

National Secular Society

Edinburgh

I applaud Dilwar Hussain, Sara Khan, Manwar Ali and Adam Deen for having the guts to challenge their co-religionists who peddle the “non-violent extremism” that gives succour to the Islamists who threaten to tear us apart. As a teacher, I found Muslims just as willing to participate in every aspect of school life as their non-Muslim friends. But I was also aware of an increasingly separatist narrative in the local community, with ever-more women in niqabs – which broke my heart. For the sake of those beautiful children who so passionately want to embrace our society, we must hope that the forces of reason will prevail.

Stan Labovitch

Windsor, Berkshire

Fascinating though I found your  18 January article about the “top eight” who have portrayed Henry VIII, the omission of Keith Michell from the list seems positively egregious. Here was an actor who not only played the king so memorably in a widely acclaimed television series (for which he won the Best Actor Bafta in 1971), but successfully reprised the role in a 1972 film adaptation: am I alone in my admiration of both of his performances?

Jeremy Redman

London SE6

Ellen Jones draws attention to the news that nearly a million people have gone missing from the electoral register, (“Locking the ballot box”, 18 January). This is the result of a change from household to individual registration. This change was bound to be disastrous in practice. The new system was introduced to combat voter fraud but I have yet to hear of a potential fraud that was not covered by electoral law – if candidates and parties choose to use the provisions. The key one is the right to have polling agents at polling stations with the right to challenge anyone they felt was not entitled to vote. These days few candidates and parties have the personnel available to undertake this important task, which may be why they prefer the new system, even if it reduces the numbers on the register.

Michael Meadowcroft

Leeds, West Yorkshire

Ellen Jones asks why David Starkey is still invited to be a current affairs commentator. It’s because he’s more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more interesting, more perceptive, and more honest than the great majority of so called pundits.

Peter Hudson

Woking, Surrey

John May (Letters, 18 January) says we should consume grass-fed cows because grain-fed cows are bad for the planet. But, surely, we must first of all acknowledge that animals are sentient beings like us. Therefore, the moral case for going vegan will always override any environmental – or indeed health – concerns people may have about animal farming.

Mark Richards

Brighton, East Sussex

 

Times:

The English Spelling Society claims that the language is too difficult for children to learn The English Spelling Society claims that the language is too difficult for children to learn

Spelling out the dangers of letting literacy standards slip

OVER the past few years part of my work has been to try to employ people for a range of positions — from sales to administration and from apprentice to management level — and I have been shocked by the poor written and spoken English of younger applicants (“Language reformers vow to end embarrassment for bad spellers”, News, last week).

The older candidates seem to have been able to learn to read and write it, despite its many challenges, while their younger counterparts have not. Are older people cleverer than today’s youngsters, or were they taught more effectively?

There is no need to “improve” the English spelling system; there is a need to teach the language well and to expect our schoolchildren to reach acceptable standards in it.

If we want to advance the literacy of pupils we should help them understand that “txt speek” is not English. Being fluent in the former and not being equally fluent in the latter will lead to a failure to reach their true potential.
John Wedrychowski, Tamworth

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

How does one account for the fact that a great many British schoolchildren find it hard to spell English words correctly yet in Germany and France, where I was based, children wrote English quite effortlessly with generally 100% correct spelling?

They even enjoyed the challenge of learning the unusual idiosyncrasies of words in the English language along with their meaning.
Marlene Hill, via email

LETTERS OF THE LAW

Perhaps a simple way to test the efficacy of “simplr speling” for the nationcome the “genral lekshun” would be to insist that all “ax of parlamnt” during the first year should be written in that form. One suspects that this would not make a great deal of difference, in terms of interpretation and enforcement.
Stephen Garford, London NW6

STRESS-RELATED

So spelling reform is back on the agenda, which seems to happen every 25 years. English is a highly stressed language, so how do we spell unstressed syllables, for instance? Take the word prison “prizn”; is this a one or two-syllable word?

Then there is the question of noun and verb forms where the noun is stressed on the first syllable but the verb on the second — a rebel (“rebl”), say, versus to rebel (“rbel”). In all the spelling reform proposals I’ve encountered I have never seen this stress aspect dealt with.
Michael Ross, Exeter

Wind power’s supposed benefits are a load of hot air

THE excessive economic and social costs of wind-driven renewable energy have been hidden by misleading claims on the supposed benefits. I will try to simplify what I consider to be the actual situation.

Assume we require a total of 10 units of electricity to supply Scotland with electrical power.

Conventional and nuclear power must be available to supply these 10 units of electricity 100% of the time; this is required due to the severe limitations of wind power, ie weather conditions allow wind turbines to work for only approximately 60% of the time.

The operational limitation of conventional/nuclear power generation means that power stations can only reduce electrical generation to about 4-5 units. This is the minimum conventional electrical generation can operate to and still be available to produce 10 units of electrical power at short notice.

Therefore the most power we can use from wind generation is about 5-6 units.

The Scottish government policy is to have wind generation capacity of 10 units, therefore if the Scottish government succeeds in this policy, it will mean that not only will we be paying a high cost for the actual power we use, but, when wind conditions do allow power generation, we will need to pay approximately half the turbines not to generate electricity all of this time.

All the above is supposed to reduce CO2, but when conventional power generation is running at 50% power it actually produces more CO2 per unit of electricity generated.
George O’Brien, Anstruther, Fife

WORD UP

Some educational theorists seemed determined to handicap pupils when they enter working life. Like any other skill, spelling correctly has to be learnt. There is a simple and very effective tool for this. It’s called a dictionary.
Vernon Robinson, Cambridge

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

I teach Spanish to Britons and English to the Spanish and indeed it is much more difficult to get started in English because of our spelling compared with Spanish. Once you know the relatively few spelling and pronunciation rules in Spanish, what you write is generally what you say. However, as you progress, English in many ways becomes easier. Our verbs and tenses are much easier to conjugate, for example, compared with those in Spanish.

Incidentally, my English spelling has deteriorated over the years. I believe this is down to the use of the spellchecker on my computer, or predictive text on my mobile, meaning that I don’t have to bother with entering a correct spelling — just something approximate and the work is done for me.
Tim Shilling, Murcia, Spain

WRITING ON THE WALL

The advent of text-speak not only spells disaster for written English as used by the younger generations, but also appears to curtail their attention spans to SMS-sized messages. Language reformers need not worry about spelling reforms as they have already been pre-empted on this front. Text-speak will in due course become the de facto method for written English. Perhaps the reformers can think of a new name for this form of communication: should it be called txtspeak, text English, or even Tinglish?
Abdul Karim, Leeds

Weeding out drunks would patch up A&E waiting times

ROD LIDDLE puts his finger on the button — as usual — by airing his views on the grossly obese people whom we all have to pay for when they need NHS help (“It’s time to chuck the fatties off the benefits gravy train”, Comment, last week).

You could draw the same conclusions about the problems in our A&E departments. If the process of primary triage could place all those patients who are drunk or under the influence of drugs into a designated waiting room, to go to the end of the queue until staff have time to attend to them, they could create a separate statistic that would amaze us. With one simple adjustment, if you take these self-inflicted cases out of the statistics, you could probably reduce the maximum waiting time to three hours.
Robin Pooley, Strumpshaw, Norfolk

SOBERING THOUGHT

I reported to A&E one Saturday night after slipping and breaking my wrist (“Making the grazed knees and twisted ankles wait longer will help heal A&E”, Comment, January 11). On arrival I was surprised to find the waiting area full of people who didn’t seem to have a great deal wrong with them, apart from having had too much to drink.

Never mind the four-hour wait — I was thankful that I was duly seen and my wrist sorted out. The staff nurse told me I’d won the prize that night for being the only sober patient there.

I won’t hear a word spoken against the frontline nursing and consultancy staff in this enviable service that is free at the point of need as a result of ordinary people such as myself paying their taxes.
Gerald Unwin, Sheffield

Cigarette smoke and mirrors

THE hapless Jane Ellison, public health minister, must curse the invention of the internet. Even a cursory investigation of her claims that plain packaging for cigarettes is likely to have a positive impact on public health reveals compelling evidence that they are false.

The long-term decline in smoking in Australia was reversed by the introduction of plain packaging and that fact is based on legitimate product sales. Counterfeit suppliers are rubbing their hands with glee at the opportunities this self-righteous stupidity will provide.

There is no excuse to be unaware of an entire country’s experience of this proposed legislation. The Australian government sharply increased excise duty on sales, leading to a short-term decline, but revenue has consistently beaten expectations and the government expects revenue to continue to rise.
Hamish Hossick, Dundee

A 40% SOLUTION

One of the main roots of the A&E problem is the fact that 40% of those attending do not need to be there. This situation is exacerbated by filling such departments with excellent but less experienced medical staff. Treatment is therefore oriented towards the risk-averse, “just in case” model.

The priority is to reduce the inappropriate 40%, and one way of achieving this is by bringing in experienced clinical staff who have the knowledge and the confidence to direct these people away from A&E to more appropriate sources of treatment.
Mike Swift (retired NHS manager)

OLD HAT

It is becoming monotonous to hear the ills of our NHS blamed largely on the ageing population. These were the very people who worked for 40 or 50 years, paying their taxes into a system for when they had need of medical care.

The elderly in their day didn’t clog up the hospitals by binge drinking and would not go to A&E with trivial matters.
Peter Scrutton, Dunston, Lincolnshire

INSIDE JOB

Dominic Lawson’s assertion that Nick Clegg vetoed the Boundary Commission proposals because he lost the alternative referendum is incorrect (“No TV debates — so what? I’ll tell you a real democratic scandal”, Comment, last week). To my recollection the reason that David Cameron ditched reform of the House of Lords was due to opposition from his own party.
John Boyd, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire

Unholy alliance of technology and terrorism

AFTER the terrorist atrocities in Paris some commentators appear to be asserting that the relatively few jihadists cannot undermine our rich and strong society. In the 16th century the number of assassinations and attempted assassinations of monarchs and leaders rose sharply after the Reformation divided Europe into two camps.

This was because people prepared to murder on religious grounds did not fear death. They were assured by their priests or ministers that killing a Protestant or Catholic leader would send them straight from the scaffold to paradise. The Catholic Duke of Guise was murdered by a Protestant in 1563. Henry III of France was murdered in 1589, and Henry IV in 1610, by fanatics who did not think they were Catholic enough.

Technical advances made it possible to kill people in unprecedented numbers without much effort. In 1585 a boat loaded with gunpowder caused hundreds of deaths at the siege of Antwerp. Modern science plus fanatics — this time from outside Europe — could do incalculable damage.
Margaret Brown, Burslem, Staffordshire

COLLISION COURSE

During my sojourns on the Continent I used to be a manslammer — and very often a receiver of slams too (“Women refuse to budge for pavement manslammers”, News, last week). But rarely did I experience such behaviour in the UK. I realised that the slamming was not because of a lack of consideration but down to the side of the road on which we drive. We do so on the left and as pedestrians we move to the left to avoid the oncoming “traffic”. By contrast the Americans, French and Germans move to the right. Considering the number of people from abroad who now live in Britain, it is no wonder we have lots of collisions here.
Howard Bradley, Bexleyheath, London

MILKING FARMERS

Charles Clover is right to highlight the scandal of milk prices paid to dairy farmers (“Asda is pouring away the future of our countryside for 22p a pint”, Comment, last week). Our dairy farmers are hard workers who achieve excellence. For them to be driven to extinction by some supermarkets is unforgivable.
Bruce Morris, Corntown Vale of Glamorgan

SIGN OFF

Magna Carta was not signed, as suggested by the headline “Sign quickly, Sire. Magna Carta is needed in the 21st century” (News Review, last week). It was sealed by King John.
Patricia Cave-Smith, Salisbury

THE SPIN CROWD

Surely it would be more apt if the new “spinning studio” at the House of Commons gym was named after Alastair Campbell (“Taxpayer sheds million pounds in MPs’ gym”, News, last week).
Michael Sleight, Castle Donington , Leicestershire

NASTY TASTE

AA Gill’s vicious comments that “all the burgs of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire . . . are the desperate slums of snobbery . . . avarice, envy” are not only irrelevant to a restaurant review, but an insult to the readership of The Sunday Times (“Table Talk”, Magazine, last week).
Alan George, Clare, Suffolk

COMEDY ACCENT

A number of sources have now been suggested for the “Emma Chizzit” story — that an author signing books in Australia mistook the phrase Emma Chizzit for a dedication request only to find that it was an inquiry about price (“Comedy of errors”, Letters, last week). It happened to neither PD James nor Kenneth Williams: it was indeed Monica Dickens, who mentions it in her autobiography. The exchange was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, with the comment that the plural of emma chizzit must be hammer charthay.
Anne Wellman, Edinburgh

LABOUR EXCHANGE

I’ve been without paid work for 56 months since I was made redundant from my marketing manager role (“Uh-oh. O-levels put you over the hill”, News, last week). I applaud what Ros Altmann, the government tsar for older workers, is seeking to achieve. It’s one of the biggest issues facing the UK, that the pre-retirement generation (40-65) are facing a huge squeeze on their career potential with the knock-on effect on their finances when they retire.
Casper Gorniok, Guildford, Surrey

SHARED ART

Gallery Tresco is a nice little gallery selling paintings by Cornish artists, but it does not have a “collection” (“The 100 best holidays of 2015 — Painting the Scillies”, Travel, January 11). What you must be thinking of is the Dorrien-Smith family’s excellent Tresco Art Collection of mainly 20th-century Cornish art, including Barbara Hepworth, the Nicholsons and many others, which is dotted about in public spaces.
Helen Anderson, Chester

Complaints about inaccuracies in all sections of The Sunday Times should be addressed to complaints@sunday-times.co.uk or Complaints, The Sunday Times, 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF. In addition, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) will examine formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines. Please go to our complaints section for full details of how to lodge a complaint.

Birthdays

Princess Charlene of Monaco, 37; John Cooper Clarke, poet, 66; Emma Freud, broadcaster, 53; David Ginola, footballer, 48; Sophie Hosking, rower, 29; Alicia Keys, singer, 34; Sir Paul Nurse, Nobel prize-winning geneticist, 66; Tom Paulin, poet, 66; Robinho, footballer, 31

Anniversaries

1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn; 1627 birth of Robert Boyle, physicist; 1759 birth of Robert Burns, poet; 1882 birth of Virginia Woolf, novelist; 1971 Idi Amin overthrows Milton Obote to become president of Uganda; 1981 “Gang of Four” Labour MPs announce plan to set up SDP

 

Telegraph:

David Cameron
David Cameron speaks as part of the Conservative Party’s 2014 European and Local Election campaign Photo: REUTERS

SIR – I entirely agree with Allister Heath that in the run-up to the election the Tories must be more ambitious.

David Cameron made it clear initially that he would give some of his ministers a leading role during the election campaign. This was partly to demonstrate how strong his team is, unlike Ed Miliband’s. It was also to dispel the impression that the Tories are run by a clique in Downing Street, like Blair’s sofa government.

Mr Cameron has listed five main topics that he and George Osborne will cover. This leaves the NHS and education among other areas for ministers to cover. That would allow Jeremy Hunt to make a major contribution on radical reforms to the NHS, as trailed by Francis Maude. It would spike Mr Miliband’s argument that the Tories will simply try to maintain the NHS in its present form (clearly unsustainable).

It would also allow Nicky Morgan to trumpet the success of Michael Gove’s educational reforms and probably announce new academies. The lack of publicity on these matters looks like “staggering ineptitude”, as Peter Oborne has described it.

Martin Greenwood
Fringford, Oxfordshire

SIR – From the rhetoric in the House of Commons it is not easy to discern what the main parties consider the fundamentals on which policy can be built. We appear to be in a game of “Let’s pretend”. A few examples illustrate my concern.

1. Let’s pretend that the budget for the NHS is a bottomless pit.

2. Let’s pretend that the European Union principle of freedom of movement around Europe is sustainable.

3. Let’s pretend that the national debt is not really an issue for our present adult generation.

4. Let’s pretend that we really do support equality and freedom of speech.

5. Let’s pretend that we can place policies in our manifestos, then do things without a mandate once we are in office, and still retain the trust of voters.

Arthur Cornell
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – I trust that David Cameron will now decline to face Prime Minister’s Questions unless Ukip and the Greens receive equal prominence in these.

Keith Wallace
Woodbridge, Suffolk

SIR – Now Russell Brand says he wants to join in pre-election television debates. Is he trying to become the pound-shop version of Screaming Lord Sutch?

Mick Ferrie
Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

SIR – Why not replay the previous election debates? Then we can see who promised what, who keeps promises and what they have achieved in the past five years.

Anne P Wheaton
Meols, Wirral

Making a mess of Libya

(EPA)

SIR – Con Coughlin’s insightful piece did not mention our catastrophic blunder of bombing Gaddafi to destruction.

The dictator, however dire his crimes, had the virtue of giving up, under pressure, his nuclear weapons programme. We rewarded him by stabbing him in the back.

No other would-be nuclear power will trust us now, when we seek to persuade it to abandon its development of WMD.

Andrew M Rosemarine
Manchester

SIR – The story about Libya goes back a long way.

When I was sent to Malta in 1965, it was our overt policy not to allow any Nasserite faction to take over Libya, where there were British and American airfields and a naval mission and the king was slowly moving into the 20th century.

Then Harold Wilson announced his intention to run the Malta bases down, thus destroying 160 years of credibility and political capital for a net annual saving of £15 million. When Gaddafi sprung his coup in 1969 we had neither the means nor the will to stop him.

John Parfitt
Painswick, Gloucestershire

Paper-free prescribing

SIR – I hope there is no further money to digitise the NHS. The introduction of paper-free prescribing means that we need more nurses on drug rounds, not fewer. Also, as a consultant, I cannot simply pick up a drug chart at the end of a bed to check what has been prescribed by my juniors.

The system is scandalously expensive and not fit for purpose.

David Nunn FRCS
West Malling, Kent

A giveaway plan that would benefit households

SIR – The ECB decided on Thursday to make a cash injection into the financial markets. Wealthier households will gain the most from the exercise. Shares and bond prices will rise and even property prices may benefit. But it is a lengthy process for the benefits of quantitative easing to work through to affect employment and incomes, as the example of the United States has shown.

The reason for this is that the funding of past government expenses does not directly address the problem of household incomes that have been reduced as a consequence of the financial crisis. Household incomes have been influenced by unemployment and a growth in wages less than inflation.

What the ECB did not consider was to use future government revenues as collateral for a different kind of QE. By paying out a fixed cash amount to each individual household for a period of two to three years, consumer demand would have been stimulated, debt servicing would have improved and people on lower incomes would have been made proportionally better off than the wealthier ones.

Dr Kees De Koning
Chorleywood, Hertfordshire

SIR – I attended the World Economic Forum for 10 years to report what happened in Davos. I can’t remember any debate that changed the world or any meaningful international political progress being achieved. A moment that stood out for me was President Jacob Zuma allowing me to have the mangoes from the fruit-bowl in his suite.

Davos provides the banker Klaus Schwab with a profit, and makes everyone feel self-important. Whatever its failings, that is successfully achieved every year.

Stephen Cole
London W5

Churchill remembered

Mourners file past the flag-draped coffin of Winston Churchill during his state funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, London (Getty Images)

SIR – Fifty years ago, I was one of a small group in a field next to the railway line at Wokingham to see the train go by with Churchill’s coffin on its way to his final resting place at Bladon (Weekend, January 17).

This was after I had given an Encyclopaedia Britannica salesman a flea in his ear for ringing the doorbell while I was watching the funeral on television.

Len Smith
Crowthorne, Berkshire

SIR – Two of Churchill’s failures had positive unintended consequences.

First, his reintroduction of the gold standard at the wrong, uncompetitive rate in 1925 directly caused the general strike the following year, as mine owners reduced wages for their own survival. At considerable cost, by 1931 it had taught the lesson of why we need to avoid currency straitjackets (EU take note).

Secondly, poor intelligence on Turkish strength gave rise to the Gallipoli adventure, which failed, having achieved many casualties on both sides. While Britain lost 34,000 men – three times the casualties of either France or the Anzac force – the slaughter contributed to generally positive nationalism in Australia and New Zealand, and a positive post-war change in Turkey. The Turkish casualties were at least as great as the full Allied list; victory at such cost weakened Turkey elsewhere, leading to its new, Western-orientated nationalism under Atatürk, the victor of Gallipoli. Churchill’s campaign re-focused Turkey and kept it out of the Second World War.

Ultimately, Churchill’s tactical defeats were, at huge cost, strategic victories. We must heed the lessons.

Tim Langhorn
Guildford, Surrey

The eyes have it

SIR – Far from being uncomfortable, the English monocle fits snugly and securely into the eye socket, provided the diameter is correct.

I once amazed a sceptical acquaintance by standing on my head for five minutes and moving my head vigorously in every possible direction, without my monocle ever threatening to become dislodged.

An additional bonus is the attention it elicits from the fairer sex – I met my dear wife while sporting my monocle, and she maintains it made me irresistibly attractive.

John Holland
Bedford

Casting a gentler light on historical drama

Interior lives: Kubrick used special camera lenses to film indoor scenes of ‘Barry Lyndon’ (Alamy)

SIR – The candlelit opening episode of Wolf Hall, wonderfully photographed by Gavin Finney, reminded me of working as one of the production managers on Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon (1975).

Kubrick, who was renowned for exact detail in his sets, had purchased camera lenses from Nasa for his earlier production, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). These lenses enabled him to illuminate his interior sets on Barry Lyndon by candle light, giving a certain authenticity to the 18th-century setting.

Hugh Harlow
Kingsbridge, Devon

SIR – If Wolf Hall, filmed by candlelight, is too dark to see, try pouring a stiff drink and turning off the room lights. All will be revealed – but don’t kick the dog when manoeuvring.

Chris Myatt
Stone, Staffordshire

Licence to time-waste

SIR – I was not surprised to read of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency making arbitrary decisions to revoke licences. Following surgery to remove a brain tumour, I surrendered my licence voluntarily only to have it revoked five months later. The process of re-application took over seven months due to “the need for extensive medical assessments”, which turned out to be a box-ticking exercise on a form sent to my consultant oncologist.

Martin Hughes
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire

Coat check

SIR – In the Sixties I had a gambling boyfriend who regularly took me to Annabel’s. He would go upstairs, leaving me with a brandy and coffee. When he returned, we would have a smooch round the floor.

One night as we left, the cloakroom attendants produced the most beautiful full-length mink coat. I put it on and did a twirl, finding a lovely silk scarf in a pocket, then said: “Sadly this is not my coat.” You can imagine the look on their faces.

They went away and produced my trusty old tweed. That was the nearest I ever got to owning a mink. He was not the type to buy mink coats, but he did introduce me to my husband.

Jennifer Harrison
London SW1

Manners maketh coffee

SIR – How does one judge if a person has good breeding? Accent? Clothes? Shoes? Car? Try looking at the state of the table after he or she leaves a coffee house.

Dr Lawrence Green
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

 

Globe and Mail:

JEFFREY SIMPSON

Harper and Obama: two leaders, two mentalities

Here are some quotes from U.S. President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:

  • “We still need laws that strengthen rather than weaken unions.”
  • “We still need … a higher minimum wage.”
  • “Free community college is possible.”
  • “Let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline.”
  • “Let’s close the loopholes that lead to inequality by allowing the top 1 per cent to avoid paying taxes on their accumulated wealth.”
  • “No challenge – no challenge – poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.”

Could any Canadian imagine Prime Minister Stephen Harper saying such things? If Mr. Harper were a U.S. legislator, he would have been sitting in the House of Representatives chamber with the sullen-looking Republicans. The Republicans might have chosen Senator or Congressman Harper to deliver their critical reply to the President’s address.

Two men with two very different ideas of government are in charge in the United States and Canada, one difference being that most of Mr. Obama’s progressive ideas have been and will remain dead on arrival in Congress, whereas Mr. Harper, as prime minister of a majority government in a parliamentary system, can put his ideas into practice.

The Obama-Harper dichotomy is not the first time U.S. presidents and Canadian prime ministers have been on completely different philosophical pages. Richard Nixon and Pierre Trudeau were hardly political soulmates. Nor were Jean Chrétien and George W. Bush.

Different domestic priorities, and even different views on the role of government, do not necessarily lead to conflicts over foreign policy or bilateral dust-ups.

Nor do good personal relationships at the top necessarily smooth all difficulties, but on balance, they do help. Alas, by every account – from U.S. and Canadian sources – there isn’t much goodwill between Mr. Obama and Mr. Harper.

As the State of the Union shows, Mr. Obama is a U.S. liberal and Mr. Harper is a Canadian conservative. That the two men stress different priorities domestically doesn’t matter much, but they can lead to conflict.

Mr. Obama, for example, believes in the seriousness of climate change, whereas Mr. Harper does not, a clash that has shaped their dispute over the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Harper government has allowed that one pipeline to excessively define the state of bilateral relations. A grievance mentality has settled over the Harper government because of Keystone XL, which Mr. Obama obviously opposes, although no final decision has been rendered.

The grievance mentality is deepened by the sense that the Americans have given nothing in return for Canadian participation in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the venue Canada provided for the U.S.-Cuba talks. Things have improved a bit, but they got so bad a while ago that the U.S. ambassador to Canada had to get Prime Minister’s Office’s approval for meetings with cabinet ministers.

With political optics defining almost everything in Ottawa, the Harper government dreaded a late-February meeting in Canada featuring Mr. Harper, Mr. Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Planning had been proceeding until the Harper government abruptly announced it was pushing back the meeting until some unspecified later date.

What Ottawa dreaded was the public airing, on Canadian soil, of disputes over Keystone XL and Canadian visa requirements on Mexicans. This would not have looked good, since it would have underscored how clumsily the Harper government has played both files.

Since neither Mr. Harper nor Mr. Obama has a serious agenda for North America, and since the Mexican and U.S. presidents recently met in Washington, why even have a meeting? Normally, the leader of the smaller country (Canada) would want some face time with the leader of the superpower (the United States), but not now, and not with this prime minister.

Mr. Obama is now what Americans call a “lame duck” president in the last quarter of his eight years in office. Like all presidents, he has one eye on the present and one on the history books. His progressive agenda outlined in the State of the Union reflected this bifocal situation.

Mr. Obama must be saying to himself, given what he faces in Congress, “let me be judged by what I wanted to accomplish, rather than by what I did.” Whether history will agree with that prism remains, by definition, unknown.

DOUG SAUNDERS

The rich do get richer. Why can’t the poor also get richer?

 

Irish Times:

Irish Independent:

Published 25/01/2015 | 02:30

  • 0 Comments
The banks of the River Fane.

The banks of the River Fane.

Sir – Congratulations to your reporter Jim Cusack for his excellent article on the polluting Provos (Sunday Independent, 18 Jan 2015).

  • Go To

He says the Provos and their bedfellows are dumping toxic waste into the river Fane from their thriving fuel laundering and petrol stretching plants in south Armagh.

Several of their plants have been uncovered but those who operate them remain immune to identification and prosecution. I wonder why?

The dogs in the streets know who these thugs are.

In the seaside village of Blackrock last year the stench of rotting slime washed in on every tide had everyone complaining.

Louth County Council spent thousands vainly scraping up this slime only to see it arrive back in on the next tide.

Bleating about how interfering with these retired Provo thugs might have them digging up their guns again, should not deter the course of the law.

Have the councils, Customs, Police and Inland Revenue not got the bottle to move against these thugs and resolve this pollution problem which is costing the country millions?

Micheal McKeown.

Blackrock,

Co Louth

We must value what we have

Sir – Dan O’Brien’s article (Sunday Independent, 11 January), on the Paris attacks was one that all who live in the Western world should read.

These Islamo-fascist killers get far too much attention and their views are pathetic and laughable. They have as much chance of conquering our world as I have of swimming unaided to the bottom of the ocean. The real problem within Islam is two factions created in the 19th and 20th centuries – Wahhabism and Salafism – in reaction to western colonisation.

These puritanical extremists have basically created a cult of hatred, resentment and death. They offer nothing only destruction. It is the equivalent of a religion for the sort of people who shoot up schools and former workplaces. Only last week a Wahhabist cleric in Saudi Arabia pronounced playing with snow and building snowmen “unIslamic”. We need to laugh at these people a lot more.

We should also appreciate much more our tolerant and successful western societies. There are successful progressive Muslim countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Our governments should also get serious about banning W and S Muslims from living in and visiting our countries.

As the Mayor of Rotterdam – Ahmed Aboutelab – put it last week – “if you don’t like tolerance then f**k off. Go live in the paradise that is ISIS-land and leave the rest of us to cope with the 21st Century.”

Gerry Kelly,

Rathgar,

Dublin 6

SF did condemn Paris atrocity

Sir – In relation to the letter published in the Sunday Independent on 18 January, “SF silence on Paris was overwhelming’, SF were one of the first political parties to condemn the horrific acts perpetuated in Paris.

On the following Monday night at the Dublin City Council meeting SF had a motion passed to affirm its support of free press and freedom of expression, as fundamental to our democratic values.

Ciaran O Moore,

Dublin City Councillor

Remembering the WP marches

Sir – Rose McNeive’s letter last week deplored the lack of marches in Ireland protesting about the terrorism inflicted during the troubles.

Can she not recall the role of The Workers’ Party which consistently condemned atrocity after atrocity and whose members died in the defence of democracy?

Eddie Walsh,

The Workers’ Party (Britain)

Nottingham,

United Kingdom

Time for us all to wake up

Sir – I feel so annoyed that I have to put pen to paper. Reading your paper and listening to the morning radio programmes leaves me so hopeless.

I hear Mr Gerry Adams telling us how he would run our country. Into the ground is the truth, with his hare-brained budgeting and cracked policies. I never heard anybody in RTE put him in his place.

While the world grieved for the slaughter in Paris , I noticed scant sympathy or condemnation from Sinn Fein. But then the IRA was responsible for the slaughter of so many innocent people, including my relation, Det Garda Jerry McCabe.

And it’s not so long ago that Mr Adams joked about enforcing his preferred editorial line in a newspaper at the point of a gun.

Wake up Ireland before we sleepwalk into a quagmire .

Una Heaton,

Limerick

Doctors and drug companies do good

Sir, – Tony O’Brien, chief of the HSE, has sought a report into the private funding of senior doctors at Connolly hospital (Sunday Independent, 18 January).

According to the article by Maeve Sheehan, a HSE spokesman admitted the funding arrangement “raised concerns.”

But a subsequent statement on behalf of the hospital made it clear that the grants provided by Abbvie, MSD, Pfizer and Roche were to facilitate both clinical services and clinical service research. It added; “During the pilot, the benefits of the rheumatology registrar post were realised and the post will be funded by Connolly Hospital from February 2015. ”

My question to the concerned director general of the HSE is this: Would the stretched resources of his unwieldy organisation have been made available to cover the costs involved in Connolly Hospital’s very worthwhile, patient friendly, project? And isn’t a working relationship, including available strategic grants, between pharmaceutical companies and senior hospital doctors, a major plus for both patients and doctors, at a time when the HSE is on it’s knees?

Mr O’Brien should direct his “concerns” and immediate attention to the suffocating bureaucracy that renders the HSE unfit for purpose. Unlike the HSE, senior hospital doctors and pharmaceutical companies have a proud record of success.

Niall Ginty,

Killester,

Dublin 5

Who filmed Stephanie’s goal?

Sir – I enjoyed Niamh Horan’s excellent article (Sunday Independent, 18 January).

Stephanie’s wonderful goal has deservedly been acknowledged worldwide. There were approximately 95 people attending the game in question so there was obviously no official camera man on duty.

I am absolutely amazed that the person who captured the ‘magic moment’ has neither had their name mentioned nor any acknowledgement made (unless I have missed it). Surely the person deserves that courtesy?

Tony Finucane,

Ennis,

Co Clare

Rivers not running so free now

Sir- In 1973 Mickey McConnell wrote the song Only Our Rivers Run Free. To quote O’ Casey’s Fluther: “It’s visa versa now”.

The political landscape has changed utterly, but some of the rivers do not run free – at least not free of polycyclic hydrocarbons (Sunday Independent, 18 January) and God knows what else!

Apparently, individuals who once masqueraded as patriots morphed into purveyors of black market petroleum and diesel.

The diesel is laundered by a process that, by any stretch of the imagination, could not be termed environmentally friendly. While these erstwhile freedom fighter get filthy rich, the North’s economy is defrauded of £80m a year in revenue and the health of people north and south of the border is endangered in this “cross border initiative”.

What do the self- proclaimed tree hugger Gerry Adams and the keen fly fisherman Martin McGuinness have to say about this environmental catastrophe?

Nothing, actually.

Well it’s certainly a new twist to the slogan Tiocfaidh ar la.

Jim O’Connell,

Dubin 7

Charlie, the champ of consumers

Sir – Why is Charlie Weston tucked away in the Business Section of the Sunday Independent every week?

He continually exposes the sharp practices of the corporate and governmental sector, and deserves a wider audience in the main newspaper.

He is a true consumer champion.

Arthur O’Donnell,

Dublin 17

Electricity costs must be simplified

Sir – I congratulate Nick Webb, Sarah McCabe and Charlie Weston for their articles on our crazy energy policy (Sunday Independent, 18 January).

I have been part of a group campaigning for a re-think on the State’s extravagant plans on energy, for at least five years. Consumers are bound into paying premium prices for monopolies of gas and electricity. The mechanisms by which electricity is paid for is worked out with the electricity market’s own uniquely complex system.

I met the Regulator, the Minister and submitted several Freedom of Information requests but I still can’t understand it. Unless we can understand this accounting system, we cannot form a judgement and we cannot know if we are getting value.

Val Martin,

European Platform Against Wind Farms, Cavan Town

Charlie will be well regarded

Sir – Free speech or none, I believe some of the remarks of Gene Kerrigan regarding the late Charlie Haughey were unjustified and rash (Sunday Independent, 18 January).

He certainly wasn’t any more ‘old bastard’ than some who succeeded him. Neither, was RTE 1 within its right to screen the three Sunday night shows. His wife Maureen is still alive: as are his three sons, daughter and their families, all held in high esteem in their professions and respective communities.

As a young politician Charles Haughey was one of the most elegant orators I ever heard. He had the typical ambition and entrepreneurial spirit of his reformer father-in-law – Sean Lemas. Without asking any questions, being an egotist and because of the exalted opinion Charlie had of himself, everything had to be ‘grand’. He brought this grandeur and prestige to the country through his gracious life-style, which impressed princes, sheiks, heads of state, ambassadors and diplomats, leading to additional foreign trade and employment.

The Tribunals and other happenings in later years cast Haughey in an unsavoury light from which he never fully recovered. Nevertheless, he will be remembered for the many good things, too – from passing food vouchers to the poor of Dublin, implementing free travel for pensioners, and, against all the odds, getting Knock airport up-and-running and sowing the seeds for the golden Celtic Tiger era.

James Gleeson, Thurles,

Co Tipperary

Haughey fans could be scary

Sir – In this country, Charlie Haughey was God, particularly in rural Ireland. I remember on one occasion, in one of our local pubs here in Glenties, on a youthful drinking session in the 1980s, a discussion on Charlie was in progress, and my mentioning, very naively of course, that he maybe was “a bit of a gangster”.

Suddenly, the silence in the pub was just deafening, and a bit scary. So, I left the pub quietly, and went home to my lovely wife a little earlier than I anticipated.

Brian Mc Devitt,

Glenties,

Co Donegal

Haughey admirers are wrong

Sir – What struck me most about the articles from Gillian Bowler, Willie O’Dea and Martin Mansergh last week was the depth of denial all three of them are in about the Charlie Haughey or Terry Keane they knew.

Ms Bowler doesn’t seem to have an opinion on the fact that the lifestyle Ms Keane enjoyed with ‘Sweetie’ was paid for from taxpayer funds. To read Mr O’Dea’s piece, you’d be forgiven for thinking he and his Gang of 22 were some white shining knights. In fact they were the other side of the same coin to Mr Haughey and his supporters.

But the best piece was by Martin Mansergh, whose depth of delusion would be funny were it not so tragic.

Like the good servant he is, there is no piece of evidence that will ever shake his loyalty to his masters. The three writers each seem to think that because Haughey did some good things as a minister – which he did – the bad he did can be ignored.

It is wrong to pander to such delusions as it implies there were no consequences or that it didn’t impact on anyone else.

Desmond FitzGerald,

London

Good luck Charlie, you were full of it

Sir – Last Sunday saw the final instalement of RTE’s blockbuster series Charlie (yawn).

Nothing of any consequence was revealed in it. CJ was full of his own importance, liking nothing more than to bully, harass, insult and berate his sycophantic colleagues. He didn’t like paying too much tax if he could help it.

But at the end of the day, if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.

RIP Charlie, you lovable rogue.

Vincent O’Connell,

New Ross,

Co Wexford



Sweeping

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26 January 2015 Sweeping

I sweep the drive and do my courses.

Obituary:

Lotte Haas with underwater camera
Lotte Haas with underwater camera Photo: Alamy

Lotte Hass, who has died aged 86, was an underwater photographer and model who, with her husband Hans, produced pioneering films of the sea depths during the 1950s.

Shot on early watertight cameras, the Hasses’ footage offered viewers a glimpse of an underwater world unparalleled in its intimacy – at considerable personal risk to Lotte, who dived using a lightweight rebreather and a fashionable swimsuit that afforded her little protection from aquatic predators. The bulky filming equipment posed a separate danger, and on one occasion she almost drowned when her oxygen supply ran out and the heavy lens required for colour shots dragged her down.

In the male-dominated divers’ community, Lotte was a striking exception, and her good looks, combined with a fearless approach to sharks, manta rays and other perils, contributed in large part to the audience appeal. Diving To Adventure, the couple’s 1956 BBC series, was the first of its kind for British television, proving a great hit with critics and viewers alike.

The Daily Mail dubbed Lotte “one of the most beautiful women who has ever prowled under the sea with a spear”; her picture adorned the covers of international magazines, and she received offers from Hollywood. She rejected the prospect of a long-term acting career, however, preferring to remain with Hass on his expeditions, and later retired from the public eye – though not before securing her place in diving history, as the first woman to explore the coral reefs of the Red Sea.

Born Charlotte Hildegard Baierl on November 6 1928 in the Brigittenau district of Vienna, Lotte was 19 years old when she applied for a position as Hans Hass’s secretary. Hans, nine years her senior, had just released his first feature-length film, Men among Sharks, and was planning a new expedition to the Red Sea. As a great admirer of his books, Lotte was eager to attend, but faced considerable opposition from Hass and his fellow team members, who felt that having a woman on board would distract them from the seriousness of their task.

Hass’s film company, however, recognised the value of an attractive lead, and Lotte was ready to prove herself a valuable addition to the crew. Unbeknown to Hass, Lotte had been taking lessons under an Olympic trainer, borrowing Hass’s camera for an excursion into the Danube while he was away on a lecture tour. The resulting pictures – of carp, pike and catfish – were published in an Austrian magazine in 1949. Under pressure from his director, Hass yielded, telling Lotte: “From tomorrow on you are a man.”


Lotte and Hans, centre, on an expedition

For Lotte, the expedition presented a steep learning curve. They made their camp among scorpions in the desert ruins of Suakim in north-eastern Sudan, and out on the sea Hass could be heedless in his determination to achieve the best possible shots. On her second dive Lotte found herself separated from the rest of the crew and eye-to-eye with a shark; a few days later Hass drove a school of barracuda towards her. Eventually she plucked up the courage to approach him: “Do you think there are any giant octopuses?

“I wish there were!” Hass replied. “Unfortunately the only ones I’ve ever seen came from American film studios and they’re made of rubber.”

Newly divorced from his first wife, Hans proposed to Lotte in Cairo at the end of the expedition. Their finished film, Under the Red Sea, won an award at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, and critics were much impressed by the novelty of a female diver. “The figure of Miss Baierl, floating smoothly along the crags of coral in the underwater world”, wrote the New York Times, “makes an equally fascinating and dramatic contrast to the life that is there.”


Lotte and Hans

The couple’s new-found commercial success allowed Hass to purchase a 170-foot hull, the Xarifa, and Lotte accompanied him on expeditions to the Caribbean and Galapagos islands, where they shot Under the Caribbean (1953). The first German film produced in Technicolor, it won an award from the Underwater Photographic Society for outstanding cinematography, and Time magazine devoted a double-page spread to an image of Lotte holding on to the flukes of a sperm whale.

Later the couple dived off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, taking 8,000 photographs along 200 miles of the coral barrier, and trawled the Aegean to shoot Diving to Adventure, producing 26 half-hour films. The Undersea World of Adventure, a six-part series shot in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, followed in 1958.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lotte was the first woman to explore the coral reefs of the Red Sea

From the end of the decade Lotte devoted most of her time to her young daughter and the family’s flat in Vienna. She made a brief return to the screen as an actress in 1976, with a supporting role in an episode of the long-running German detective series Derrick.

Her autobiography, Girl on the Ocean Floor, was published in 1970.

Lotte Hass was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame and the Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2000.

Hans Hass predeceased her in 2013, and she is survived by their daughter Meta.

Lotte Hass, born November 6 1928, died January 14 2015

Guardian:

Vigil for Raif Badawi outside Saudi embassy, London
Vigil outside the Saudi embassy, London, for Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for blogging about free speech, 15 January 2015. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

The contrast in western reactions to the two dead autocrats in your first three pages on 24 January (Revealed: how Blair colluded with Gaddafi regime in secret; A ‘strong advocate of women’ and ‘skilful moderniser’. The revised view of Abdullah) could hardly be greater: while Hillary Clinton was jubilant when Muammar Gaddafi was murdered in the ruins created by a brutal Nato bombardment, Cameron and Obama rush over to Riyadh; and the British monarch, the UK’s flags flying at half-mast, describes the Saudi monarch as a distinguished man of peace.

The difference certainly doesn’t lie in human rights records: it is notable, however, that the Libyan and the Saudi leaders had very different attitudes to the petrodollar – while Gaddafi threatened it, the house of Al Saud ensures that global oil trade is conducted in US dollars. And shovels its oil revenues into the UK and US military complexes.

We should remember our leaders in mourning the next time they talk about the need for violent regime change.
Peter McKenna
Liverpool

• The decision to fly the union jack at half mast to mark the death of the Saudi king reflects the historic relations between the two countries. The Saudi monarchy is a British-made monarchy. Its close ties with western colonial powers, including having American military bases and its support to the US-led war on Iraq, are unpopular across the Arab world. Banning women from driving cars and other conservative policies are seen by mainstream Muslims as deviation. Arab public opinion favours democratic change but western support for such dictatorships is making western foreign policies unpopular.
Mohammed Samaana
Belfast

• Am I naive in thinking it’s time David Cameron chose between oil and trade agreements and morality (‘I feel destroyed but I won’t cry,’ says wife of Saudi blogger, 22 January)? The Saudi regime is subjecting Raif Badawi to savage torture while governments around the world make mealy-mouthed noises about their disapproval. Britain has recently been shown to have been complicit in torture; it might improve our sullied reputation if for once our prime minister not only condemned this barbarity but proposed meaningful action, notwithstanding the charges of hypocricy that would follow. Our leaders will say a protesting public does not understand the intricacies of international relations and the necessity of protecting our arms sales. But we can recognise that a point has been reached when foul brutality has to be opposed.
Pat Sutherland
Glasgow

• Lest we forget, 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, and al-Qaida arose in Saudi Arabia, led by a Saudi and funded by Saudi petrodollars. That, plainly, was ok – but to ask for a little more freedom of expression in a blog – no. Sickening to see UK leaders lining up to pay tribute to a man who would have had the world living in an eighth-century-style caliphate.
Wal Callaby
Ipswich

• Disingenuous indeed to report that western powers hope training camps being opened by the US in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for Syrian “opposition fighters” will be a counterweight to Isis in the battle against the Assad regime (Iraqi forces turning the tide in battle to repel Isis, says Kerry, 23 January). Who exactly are these opposition fighters, and why is the west still in denial over the fact that the Syrian president enjoys substantial popular support? Isis was perpetrating its butchery against the Syrian army long before its beheadings of western hostages. The setting up of anti-Assad military training camps by the US is warmongering, adding fuel to the fire at a time when the watchword should be peacemaking at all costs.
Peter Godfrey
Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides

• You repeat Eliza Manningham-Buller’s claim that Britain’s rapprochement with Gaddafi was justified by the ending of Libya’s weapons of mass destruction programme. But there was always the suspicion that, as with Iraq, Blair and Bush talked up or even invented Libya’s WMDs, in order to do business with Gaddafi despite public revulsion over Lockerbie and everything else. International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei estimated in 2003 that Libya was three to seven years from producing a nuclear weapon (supposing that it wanted to). But maybe Britain’s spooks know better. Gaddafi and his regime are long gone, likewise Blair. There is nothing now to stop the government from coming clean.
Willy McCourt
London

• The revelations of Blair’s dubious dealings with Gaddafi are no reason for not voting for Ed Miliband – just further proof that we chose the right brother.
Jean Cardy
London

David Owen (Lesson one from the Hinchingbrooke hospital scandal: beware the ‘mutual’, 20 January) confused a complicated question. Many of us who run employee- or co-owned mutuals providing healthcare have followed the Hinchingbrooke “experiment” closely. When Circle withdrew from its contract we were disappointed, but we are equally dismayed that the story has not be been fully explained.

Between 2009 and 2014, 42 new mutuals were formed from parts of the NHS – all are not-for-profits. Most have now been in business for over three years with impressive results. Patient feedback is well above the NHS average. Care Quality Commission ratings are generally good to outstanding, and friends-and-family tests have been passed with flying colours. That’s because we put patients central to everything we do, by allowing our staff to be fully involved in all aspects of our organisation. Take Provide CIC: the CQC recently praised its levels of care and staff engagement as outstanding across the board. Inclusion Healthcare in Lincoln and SEQOL in Swindon are other examples.

David Owen should not blur the private and mutual sector too readily. Most of the mutuals in healthcare are fully employee- or community-owned. Unlike Circle/Hinchingbrooke, most operate as social enterprises with explicit “for good” objectives, with surpluses going back into the organisation and the community. Should all NHS trusts become mutuals? Perhaps not. But the success of many employee- or community-owned ventures confounds the political game played by Owen when he calls for a blanket end to any innovative approach to delivering better healthcare services.
John Niland CEO, Provide CIC
Steve Waite CEO, Plymouth Community Healthcare CIC
Alison Hopkins CEO, Accelerate Health CIC
Janet Rowse CEO Sirona Care and Health CIC
Lyn Bacon CEO, Nottingham City Care Partnership
Joanna Douglas CEO, Allied Health Professionals Suffolk CIC
Liz Weatherill MD, Enable2 CIC
Scott Darraugh CEO, Social adVentures Ltd
Martin Riley MD, Medway Community Healthcare
Heather Mitchell CEO, SEQOL
Jo Pritchard MD, Central Surrey Health
Penny Brown CEO, North Somerset Community Partnership CIC
Keith Edmondson MD, Aspire Wellbeing
Kevin Bond CEO, Navigo Health and Social Care CIC
Andrew Burnell CEO, City Health Care Partnership CIC
Siobhan Clarke MD, Your Healthcare CIC
Julia Clarke CEO, Bristol Community Health CIC
Jonathan Lewis CEO, Bromley Healthcare
Linda Harris CEO, Spectrum Community Healthcare

The EU financial sector does not need to be eased, there is plenty of liquidity in the banks (Report, 23 January). Quantitative easing, as practised by the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve, merely flooded the financial sector with money to the benefit of bondholders. This did not create a so-called wealth affect, with a trickle-down to the real producing economy. This was supposedly the result that the Bank of England wanted, ie to stimulate the real economy; but, as your leader pointed out, it was just fixed assets and properties that benefited. This is yet another factor in the increasing level of income inequality that is now prevalent in the UK and US, and does little to promote growth and increase GDP.

If the EU were bold enough, it could fund infrastructure or renewables projects directly through the electronic creation of money, without having to borrow. Our government has that authority, but lacks the political will. The CBI has calculated that every £1 of such expenditure would increase GDP by £2.80 through the money multiplier. The Bank of England’s QE programme of £375bn was a wasted opportunity.
Tony Pugh
Sidmouth, Devon

• I can follow the logic that the European Central Bank buying a country’s debt will provide cash for investment etc. But this doesn’t cancel the debt, it just transfers it from the country’s balance sheet to the ECB’s balance sheet. And at some stage surely the debt has to be repaid. What happens then?
David Lund
Winscombe, Somerset

• You tell us that the ECB will use electronically created money to buy bonds. Is there an app for this? How do I get it, because I could do with some of it.
Jim Waight
Hertford

“Sturgeon talks about English policy affecting Scotland. But she would push Scottish power south” (Editorial, 22 January). And why ever not? The three main UK parties blazoned from the rooftops the benefits of unionised government.
Benedict Birnberg
London

• I am not overly concerned about tits on page 3, but please, please, not penises on page 8 (Galliano and penises, 24 January). As any fule kno, penis is a third declension noun so the correct nominative plural is penes.
Bruce Holman
Waterlooville, Hampshire

• Three words for fans disappointed by sequels (Don’t give up on Broadchurch, 22 January). Spiral. Series. Five.
Nicola Grove
Horningsham, Wiltshire

King John signs Magna Carta at Runnymeade, 15 June 1215.
‘To mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta we need to … address corporate irresponsibility by demanding genuine accountability at work,’ writes Michael Gold. Above, King John signs Magna Carta, 15 June 1215. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Un/REX

We should all welcome Guy Standing’s call for a Great Charter for the 21st century to “limit the liberties of tax dodgers and put the precariat at its heart” (The case for a new people’s charter, 23 January). Indeed, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta we need to deal with the unfinished business at the core of our democracy – that is, to address corporate irresponsibility by demanding genuine accountability at work too. Corporate power and greed, demonstrated by tax evasion and soaring executive remuneration, are a major source of social inequality and anxiety as senior managers come to lead lives ever more remote from those of countless workers and their families facing austerity and pay cuts.

Now is the moment for national debate on ways to extend our rights to cover our working lives, with rights to information, consultation and co-determination for all workers, whatever our hours, background or status. In particular, we need the right to elect employee representatives on to the boards of companies so that they can argue the case for workers’ interests at the earliest stages of formulating business strategy. The argument is simple: yes, shareholders invest their capital in companies for profit, but workers invest their lives in companies for income, and without their working lives there would be no profit, so they have equal entitlement to board representation.

The Trades Union Congress has made an excellent start by calling not only for employee board-level representation but also for amendments to company law to redress shareholder primacy and requiring ownership of shares for two years before they entitle shareholders to voting rights. The best way to commemorate Magna Carta will be to update it to our needs in 2015.
Michael Gold
Professor of comparative employment relations, Royal Holloway University of London

 

 

Independent:

 

Times:

Sir, As a physics teacher in all types of schools (girls’ and boys’ grammar schools, comprehensive and mixed independent), I noted that more girls by far took A-level physics in the single-sex grammar than in any of the mixed schools (“Women students shun science”, Jan 22). Some of these girls achieved the highest grades in A-level physics and mathematics but preferred medicine to a career in physics or engineering. One factor was that at the time most physics graduates were employed in the defence industry (Few girls were seriously interested in designing missiles, I imagine). However, the fundamental question is why the presence of boys specifically deters girls from aspiring to a career in engineering, or even studying physics at A-level in this country in particular. Do we have a misogynistic culture that not only restricts the presence of women in the boardroom but also deters girls from making “unfeminine” choices at school? We are undervaluing the talent of half the population.
Catherine Dack
Fleckney, Leics

Sir, I read with a sense of déjà vu on the continuing lack of women who take engineering degrees in the UK. Until we are comfortable enough to say that we need to do something “different for girls” the numbers of women in engineering will remain below 10 per cent. The traditional message that science and maths equals engineering has the impact of simultaneously encouraging the students who already know this (often boys) and discouraging girls who aren’t being made aware of the wider appeal of engineering as a world-changing profession. Girls often have different motivators to boys and these need to be understood and exploited more effectively if girls are going to be persuaded that engineering is worthy of their interest as a creative, innovative and solution-driven profession. Until we support campaigns which deliver this viewpoint then we will not make any substantial progress.
Dawn Bonfield
President, Women’s Engineering Society

Sir, The choice of A-level subjects is made at 16. My chemistry master recommended the “holy trinity” of maths, physics and chemistry, while my headmaster steered me towards classics and ancient history, which he taught himself. Being obedient to hierarchical considerations, I chose the latter, so precluding a degree in STEM subjects. While not regretting my choice (the head of the oil company which recruited me having stated that he liked people who had studied Latin and Greek “because they sold more oil”), I support having a wider array of subjects at the A-level stage, as with the Baccalaureate, which leaves the student, two years older and more mature, free to choose a degree in either the arts or the sciences.
Peter Sterwin
Weybridge, Surrey

Sir, Bravo for your leading article (“Women in Science”, Jan 22) bemoaning the dearth of women taking up scientific careers, particularly engineering. However, newspapers regularly show photographs of big, muscular men in dirty overalls repairing roads, railway lines and electricity cables and refer to them as engineers. Is it any wonder that girls do not take up the highly academic profession of engineering when they see manual workers and tradesmen being referred to as engineers? In my experience, women make excellent engineers but they need to be nurtured in an environment that makes it attractive to them. At the moment they are not.
Paul Taylor, CEng
Derby

Sir, To argue for more women in science and engineering is necessarily to argue for fewer men. If there was a corresponding call for more men in subjects with a female dominance this would not be a problem, but there is not.
John Allen
Swindon, Wilts

Sir, Could the shortage of women in science be because girls at entry level age are typically smarter than boys of similar age? Possibly they have looked at the salary expectation and status of engineers and scientists and decided it’s not worth the trouble of taking on difficult subjects.
Stuart Johnson
Dubai

Sir, Your correspondent Peter Feilden (Jan 21) is mistaken on two points. First, the Milk Marketing Board was abolished (in 1994) by the Major not the Thatcher government. Second, this was not the result of lobbying by the Dairy Trade Federation (of which I was director-general from 1986 until 1994). The federation argued at the time that the fate of the MMB should be determined by a vote of dairy farmers. Neither the government nor the MMB leadership allowed this to happen.
JP Price

London NW4

Sir, Not all of the siren suits worn by Churchill were made by Turnbull & Asser or such eminent tailors (report, Jan 23). During the war my mother worked in the sewing room at the field stores in Aldershot.

One day she came home and told us that she had been asked to make a blue serge “siren suit” for an eminent gentleman in the government.

This she duly did and amused us with the news that his waist measured 54 inches in diameter.

Only much later were we told that the eminent gentleman was indeed the prime minister.

Wendy Naylor
Maidenhead, Berks

Sir, Regarding manslamming (Times2, Jan 20, and letter, Jan 22), my brother and I practised our sidestepping in Princes Street, Edinburgh, and saw how far we could get without pedestrian contact, as training for our respective year-group rugby teams.

It was great fun. He ended up scrum-half and I a wing forward.

Peter O’Malley
Kirkbymoorside, N Yorks

Sir, In the Gadarene rush to buy pensioner bonds (news, Jan 16), the over-60s may be missing an even better opportunity to buy up to £25 of additional inflation-proofed state pension per week. The cost of a state pension top-up falls as you get older. For example, to buy an extra £25 a week state pension at age 65 would cost £22,250. To buy a private indexed-linked annuity of the same amount would cost about £45,000.

The state pension top up (Class 3A voluntary contribution) will be available from October 2015 to everyone reaching state pension age before April 6, 2016. People can register their interest online at gov.uk/state-pension-topup and the offer will be open for 18 months.
Stephanie Hawthorne
Editor, Pensions World

Sir, While I agree with Mark Rylance (Jan 20, and letters, Jan 24) that we need a figure of Cromwell’s calibre in modern politics, it is an Oliver we need, not a Thomas. For several months now it has been obvious that Oliver Cromwell’s words to the “rump parliament” apply with equal force to our current fixed-term parliament: “You have been sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

Let us hope that our present crop of MPs use their remaining time to ensure that the misadventure of a further fixed-term parliament of five years is not repeated.
Christopher Jackson
Horbury, W Yorks

 

Telegraph:

Winston Churchill
Churchill’s funeral was attended by a great number of world leaders Photo: Toni Frissell

SIR – Churchill wished for a contingent from the Combined Cadet Force of Harrow School, where he had received his first military training in the 1880s, to line the Palace Yard at Westminster during his funeral. I was a member of the contingent chosen for that great honour.

The weather was bone-numbingly cold. We were each presented with a commemorative coin bearing the images of the monarch and Churchill, and I retain this reminder of a truly wonderful experience to this day.

Rev Simon Douglas Lane
Hampton, Middlesex

SIR – I was a pupil at the school in Bladon, the village where Churchill is buried.

The night before his funeral, I queued on the Embankment in London with my father and my wife to file past Churchill’s catafalque the next morning.

We did not notice the cold that night as we reminisced with others in that long queue.

Edward Bottomley
Hove, Sussex

SIR – As Churchill had served as First Lord of the Admiralty, it was appropriate that the Royal Navy had the honour of towing the gun carriage bearing his coffin at his funeral.

However, the escorts to the gun carriage were Royal Air Force aircraft apprentices, distinguishable by their red hat bands from the No 1 School of Technical Training, RAF Halton. Churchill had been instrumental in the foundation of this training school, and the Halton boys provided the backbone of the RAF through its difficult early years and during the Second World War.

It was a massive loss to the country when the RAF apprentice scheme ended in 1993. Churchill would have been proud to know that he was escorted on his last journey by RAF apprentices.

Group Captain Min Larkin (retd)
Archivist, RAF Halton
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

SIR – At the time of Churchill’s funeral, we lived in Berkshire, near a railway. We took our very young children to watch as the train taking Churchill’s coffin to Bladon went past.

Certain dates are indelible in my mind: VE Day, the Coronation, the assassination of JFK, man landing on the Moon, and Churchill’s funeral.

Penny Mitchell-Innes
Rye, East Sussex

SIR – Churchill’s state funeral was a landmark event in British history and it was executed to perfection, except for one oversight by the government: financial institutions remained open that day when they should have been closed as a mark of respect for the great man.

As an employee of a clearing bank I had to work on the morning of the funeral when my wish was to be at home to watch the event live on television and pay my respects as best I could.

Andrew Tomlinson
Dereham, Norfolk

SIR – A caption describing the photo of a catafalque with four guardsmen surrounding Churchill’s coffin reads: “St Paul’s Cathedral on January 30”.

Having been Canon Treasurer of the Cathedral for almost 10 years I can guarantee that the photo was not taken at St Paul’s. It was, as Andrew Roberts indicates in his accompanying article, taken in Westminster Hall.

Canon Michael Saward
Bromley, Kent

SIR – In common with many of the reporters on duty at Hyde Park Gate on Saturday January 23 1965, I was convinced that news of Churchill’s death was kept secret for several hours – until the Sunday newspaper deadlines had passed – so it could be announced exclusively by the BBC. It was suggested that the family, and others in positions of authority, felt this would be more fitting.

Some years later I put that point to Sir Winston’s son, Randolph, during the course of a long telephone conversation. He did not disagree, but as we were speaking late in the evening it was difficult to get a clear and positive answer from him.

John Carter
Shortlands, Kent

Unbuckle babies to make them sturdy

SIR – Professor John Ashton makes a convincing case for state intervention in burgeoning childhood physical and mental health problems.

There is growing evidence that the damage to development may in fact start long before the pressures of peers, electronics and information overload. Babies are being strapped into five-point harness carriers, buggies and chairs from birth.

If put on the floor or loose in prams, they learn to control the core muscles that later provide stability for feeding themselves, dressing and writing.

Failure to acquire these skills means children arrive at school ill-prepared to sit still or to hold a pencil or a knife and fork, thus setting them up to be wrongly labelled with attention deficit, learning difficulties or behaviour problems at an early age.

Emma Isworth
Tenterden, Kent

Quantitative easing

SIR – Quantitative easing (“Mario Draghi announces €1.1 trillion QE programme”) is merely a paper exercise.

The continuing recession in many eurozone countries is directly caused by misguided priorities: putting the one-size-fits-all project of Europe above its people. The recession can only be cured by reducing the amount of state interference in work and enterprise.

Diversity is vital, both commercially and democratically, allowing decisions to be taken based on voters’, taxpayers’ and customers’ needs.

George Brittain
Sunderland

Fuelling Islamism

SIR – Demonstrations by the “anti-Islamisation” group Pegida in Germany represent exactly the kind of divisiveness jihadists hope to sow among societies worldwide.

Islamisation is a fiction. By giving credence to this notion, we only aid the jihadists’ agenda and publicise their perverted interpretation of Islam.

Liz Stonard
Port Alberni, British Columbia, Canada

Syria in need

Syrian refugess at the Reyhanli refugee camp in Turkey (AFP)

SIR – Britain is to start training “moderate” Syrian opposition groups to help in the fight against Isil.

The conflict in Syria has created the largest humanitarian crisis in recent memory and has caused over 191,000 deaths, the displacement of 7 million people and the widespread destruction of schools, clinics, hospitals, places of worships, and transport and communications structures.

If Britain and its allies really want to help Syria, they ought to stop supporting the armed groups that are operating there. Britain should also take in more Syrian refugees.

Ambrose Musiyiwa
Leicester

Remove licensing powers from councils

SIR – The comments by Victoria Gillick regarding the deficiencies of the current Licensing Act struck a chord with me.

I used to prepare and present applications to magistrates’ courts for alterations to licensed premises. While the magistrates didn’t always get it right, it was absolutely clear that handing over control to local authorities with rules allowing 24-hour licensing was going to lead to problems of anti-social behaviour and alcohol abuse.

I support the calls for a change in the current law, preferably with control being removed from councils and given to a specialised body.

Arthur Bayley
Tyldesley, Lancashire

SIR – Dr Ann-Mary Hills assumes that everyone is drinking gin.

According to the Finfax Guinness Pint Index a pint of Guinness in 1969 would have cost 15 pence. By 2013 that had risen to over £3 – an increase of 1,900 per cent. Yet people still buy it.

George Sullivan
Cubbington, Warwickshire

SIR – With tobacco use decreasing following the introduction of a smoking ban in pubs, the answer must be to ban the drinking of alcohol in those same establishments.

David Wilson
Cottingham, East Yorkshire

Vintage help-to-buy

SIR – Fred Clark writes that the older generation did not benefit from a help-to-buy scheme.

In the early Seventies the Greater London Council did offer people working or living in London the finances to purchase their first property, if proof was provided of mortgage refusals from a bank or building society.

This policy was warmly welcomed by my husband and me, and many other couples whose savings fell short. We continued up the property ladder and have been enormously grateful for that initial opportunity ever since.

Melanie Whitehand
Woking, Surrey

Far from shipshape

SIR – It is not surprising Cunard chose to build so many ships abroad.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 was built in Clydebank, Scotland. In 1968 I went on a “shakedown” cruise to test the ship’s facilities before its official maiden voyage. It was already a year late and it seemed the workers were doing everything possible to prevent it from sailing, thus prolonging their work. As soon as shower fittings were put up, they disappeared. Someone had cut a piece out of the middle of the vast carpet in the Queen Elizabeth lounge for their own home. I heard a plea from the shore authorities for items, including mattresses, not to be thrown overboard.

Eventually we sailed to the Canaries, where a problem developed with the engines. We limped to Southampton and if the sea had been rough in the Bay of Biscay we would have needed a tow.

Noel Rands
Croydon, Surrey

End of the loons?

SIR – I was sad to read that the Monster Raving Loony Party is in need of financial backers (“Stand out from the herd, back a Loony”).

I spent 27 years as a Loony Party member and activist, contesting many elections. The party was never the same after the demise of its founder and leader, Screaming Lord Sutch.

A Ukip donor, Arron Banks, has donated the £500 deposit for Loony leader Alan Hope to stand against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge. I’ve even heard talk of a Ukip-Loony coalition.

Lord Toby Jug
St Ives, Huntingdonshire

The ugly reality of Tudor life in King Henry’s court

Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn and Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII in the BBC’s ‘Wolf Hall’ (BBC)

SIR – The ladies of the court of Henry VIII, portrayed by actresses in the BBC’s Wolf Hall, should not have perfect teeth for many reasons.

Penicillin had not yet been invented; society was riddled with syphilis and other disease, and they ate a bad diet, which was very rich and included a lot of red meat.

Nor were these women thin with perfect complexions. They were unlikely to go for an early morning run in those clothes and the air they breathed was badly polluted by the burning of carbon fuel. The places they lived in were so cold and damp that they had to wear many layers of clothing, even indoors, and tuberculosis was rife.

The rats they lived with, however, would have had very good teeth and taken a lot more exercise.

Sue Doughty
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – In maintaining that the Tudors did more to shape the face of Britain than the Plantagenets, Leanda de Lisle (“Which royal dynasty put the great into Britain?”) claims that Henry VIII never lost the devotion of the English people.

We Northerners well remember the promises of pardon made to the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 by this ruler, after which they were brutally executed. We remain resentful and mistrustful of the ruling classes in London.

Harry Santiuste
Edenthorpe, Doncaster

SIR – My problem with Wolf Hall is that Mark Rylance looks just like Kenneth Connor – is this Carry on Cromwell?

R A Reese
Dorchester, Dorset

Tasty wee beasties

SIR – Scotland has yet to discover how best to cook its own national dish. Sally Saunders describes cooking haggis from scratch and boiling it. One of her “wee beasties” turned into haggis soup. It’s a common problem.

All those preparing to celebrate Burns Night today should wrap their beasties in aluminium foil and bake them.

Simon Cox
East Molesey, Surrey

Clarion call

SIR – Rather than using a whistle like Lynne Waldron and her husband, my wife and I use a high-pitched call to locate one another when out and about. This “oooh, oooh”, modulated with a rising inflexion, is very penetrating and effective.

I once used it to attract her attention when on the seafront at Padstow, so startling a man standing next to me that he nearly fell into the harbour.

Roy Bailey
Hungerford, Berkshire

 

Globe and Mail:

MONA ELTAHAWY

In Saudi Arabia, change will come from below, not from the throne

When I lived in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, public executions would be announced at the very end of state media’s newscasts. The anchor would read a statement from the Interior Ministry that included a verse from the Koran used to justify capital punishment along with the name of the person executed and the crime they supposedly committed.

That was it. Just a dry and to-the-point statement that ended the news. Almost an afterthought, an “Oh by the way, we chopped someone’s head off in a public square today.” Sometimes it would be amputations. Horrors delivered in the terse drip-drop of a theocratic tyranny, no questions asked, no shame shown for the barbarism and no challenging what happened because unless you were there at the public square where a human head was severed, you had to take their word for it.

On Jan. 12, some 10 days before King Abdullah died, four police officers dragged Laila Bint Abdul Muttalib Basim, a Burmese woman who resided in Saudi Arabia, through a street in Islam’s holy city of Mecca and held her down until an executioner took aim at her neck, taking three strikes to behead her.

She was convicted of the sexual abuse and murder of her seven-year-old step-daughter. She screamed “I did not kill. I did not kill” as the security officers tried to pin her down.

We know all of that because a man secretly filmed the execution and the video was distributed by human rights activists and posted on YouTube. Although the video has been removed by YouTube as part of its policy on “shocking and disgusting content,” the Saudi authorities tellingly arrested the man who shot the video. An Interior Ministry spokesman said such matters fell under the country’s law against cybercrimes.

He might as well have said they arrested the man because he was the latest reminder that social media have unclasped the Saudi regime’s stranglehold over the narrative that they enjoyed for years. That stranglehold allowed the regime to inhabit a moral black hole despite its outrageous human rights record by claiming an “exceptionalism:” We want to reform, the royals would claim, but the people are not ready so don’t push us.

Social media, especially, have given the lie to that claim by giving alternative and opposing voices the ability to leapfrog right over that exceptionalism nonsense and to say “We are here; we are fighting to be free – hear us.” On social media, Saudi men and women – who live in one of the most Internet-connected nations in the world – are able to connect in ways often impossible in a kingdom that enforces a strict gender segregation. And for women, especially, who encounter what can only be described as a gender apartheid that leaves them dependent on a male guardian’s permission to do the most basic of things, social media have helped them give the lie that Saudi women embrace their oppression.

From veteran feminist and activist Wajeha al-Huwaider’s 2008 YouTube driving video in defiance of the ban against women’s driving, to Manal al-Sharif’s own driving video in 2011, for which she was jailed for nine days, to the driving videos of the past couple of years by other Saudi women, social media have continued to document women’s resistance. Several of those activists also openly call for the end of the guardianship system that is one of the mainstays of gender apartheid.

How frightening is a woman armed with driver’s licence and social media to support her? Ask Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, and Maysa al-Amoudi, 33, who have been detained for more than 50 days and are to be thought first female drivers to be referred to specialized court in Riyadh that handles “terrorism” cases.

We haven’t seen a revolution in Saudi Arabia in the style of the uprisings that began in Tunisia in 2010. But never doubt that the uprisings have influenced Saudis who followed them on satellite television and online, from the activist I mention above to ordinary Saudis who must be wondering why their recently departed king threw billions at a military-backed ruler such as Egypt’s Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi like an antiseptic meant to both sanitize Egypt out of revolution and keep Saudi Arabia safely immune.

But as we mark the fourth anniversary of Egypt’s Jan. 25, 2011, revolution, know that it began a process of unravelling that finds an echo in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. It is an unravelling of the kind of tyranny that arrogantly never imagined it would be challenged. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it was an arrogance that sat on one of the world’s largest oil reserves and allowed it to use the billions it spent on buying the West’s weapons in return for that same West’s blindness to tyranny.

Incredibly brave Saudi men and women are risking their freedom and their lives to continue to unravel that tyranny. The more we hear – and watch them – the less likely will western officials be able to call a dead tyrant a “reformer king” as they did with Abdullah, and will be forced instead to call him as he was: the king of counter-revolution.

Mona Eltahawy is the author of the forthcoming book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution.

 

H.A. Hellyer

Far from ‘outsiders,’ Europe and Islam have long been intertwined

 

JANICE GROSS STEIN

For new Saudi king, issues run deeper than oil

“The King is dead – long live the King!” The transition from King Abdullah to King Salman in Saudi Arabia nicely fits that phrase. One of the new king’s first actions was to immediately promote Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, who had been appointed deputy crown prince by the late king, as the new crown prince.

The succession is now assured and jittery markets can calm.

Or can they? Does the smooth transition promise continuity of Saudi strategy in global markets and in the Middle East?

Saudi Arabia is today the key player in global oil markets. In November at an OPEC meeting, King Abdullah’s ministers made it clear that that they were playing a long game. To preserve its market share in the face of new energy sources coming on-stream from the United States, Saudi Arabia refused to cut production of oil, even though the price was falling. Riyadh is trying to force higher-cost producers out of the market and preserve its pre-eminence.

Saudi strategy is punishing Iran, its sworn enemy, but it is also punishing the new government in Iraq, its vulnerable neighbour and protégé, as well as many of the oil-producing states in the Gulf. Will King Salman continue this strategy?

Almost certainly. The strategy is the result of widespread discussion and consensus among Saudi leaders and experts and is likely to endure, at least until the market stabilizes. In his first official statement as king, King Salman pledged to continue Saudi policies. Iranian and Russian producers hoping for a quick change are likely to be disappointed.

More uncertain is whether the new king will continue the aggressive support of Sunnis in their conflict with Shia Islam that is ripping through the Middle East, leaving a trail of blood and violence in its wake. King Abdullah was vituperative in his opposition to Iran and its allies in the region, privately urging U.S. President Barack Obama to “cut off the head of the snake.” His determination to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, his support of militants in Syria committed to Mr. al-Assad’s ouster, and the strong support of military dictator Abdul Fatah el-Sisi in Egypt were all signature elements of Saudi foreign policy.

As the guardian of the holy places, King Salman will play a leading role in shaping strategy for Sunni Muslims. He, more than other recent Saudi monarchs, brings with him deep experience as a conciliator. King Salman served for many years as governor of Riyadh province, where he brokered agreement among rivals in a royal family of about 7,000 princes and princesses. His temperament may be less assertive than that of the late king.

We will soon know. The new king will be sorely tested by the emergence of Iranian-supported Houthis as an important political force in Yemen and the chaos that is enveloping its southern neighbour. King Salman will not be able to remain passive for long in the face of this challenge. Whether he responds with force or builds alliances within Yemen will tell us a great deal about the predispositions of the new king.

As always, the world will be watching. If the new king mismanages these strategic challenges, Saudi Arabia can destabilize the region and global energy markets.

Irish Times:

Sir, – The opening salvos in the marriage referendum by the No campaigners have seen assertions that the ballot, if passed, will strike a terminal blow to the “traditional family”, as it will operate to extend adoption rights to all persons who would marry under it.

The class of person who can apply to adopt legally in Ireland has evolved with time. The Adoption Act 1952 provided that single people could adopt, though it was initially limited to a widow, a child’s mother, father or relative.

By 1974, a widower was added to this list and, in 1991, any single person could apply to adopt a child. This position was confirmed in the Adoption Act 2010.

A concern of those opposing the marriage referendum seems to be that this amendment will deprive the adopted child of a “mother and father”, as the Oireachtas will not be able to enact legislation which prefers an opposite-sex couple when considering applicants for adoption.

The legislative history of adoption shows that no such preference is a feature of our adoption laws. Indeed, section 33 (1)(a)(iii) of the 2010 Act makes the position clear; an applicant for adoption must satisfy the Adoption Authority of Ireland that “in the particular circumstances of the case, the adoption is desirable and in the best interests of the child”.

It is submitted that this is the State’s primary concern when making adoption orders, and not the particular make-up of the proposed adoptive family.

Whether the referendum is passed or not, this will continue to be the case. – Yours, etc,

GRACE MADIGAN, BL

NICK REILLY, BL

Dublin 7.

Sir, – As a pro-rail campaigner, I read with interest your editorial on turning the western rail corridor into a greenway (January 12th).

In order to merit consideration, such a proposal would need to be advanced and supported by the relevant county councils. There is no such support from the local authorities in the west. Galway County Council and Mayo County Councils have repeatedly rejected any such notion in line with their county development plans and the regional planning guidelines which favour the development of the railway.

There are reportedly 38 greenway proposals under consideration by the Government. A shortlist of 10 was recently published but did not contain any proposal to establish a greenway on the western rail corridor.

There is also the problem of suitability. The western rail corridor crosses many national primary and secondary main roads making it entirely unsuitable for the creation of a safe walking or cycling path for families or older people.

Given the current traffic flow statistics it is difficult to envisage people safely cycling or walking across the N17, which crosses the railway in at least seven places between Collooney and Tuam, or the N5, which crosses near Swinford, not to mention a host of secondary road crossings, including the N60 main Claremorris-Castlebar road or the R332 Tuam-Ballinrobe road.

There are many safer and more suitable places in the west where greenways could be developed without destroying a key piece of regional infrastructure. – Yours, etc,

COLMÁN

Ó RAGHALLAIGH,

West on Track,

Claremorris,

Co Mayo.

Sir, – Peter Bowen-Walsh (January 19th) suggested that the Sligo Way be used as an alternative to the proposed disused railway. As the operator of a bicycle hire and cycle tour company in Co Sligo, I can confidently say that the Sligo Way is totally unsuitable for the proposed route. Its route crosses the Ox mountains, various rivers, streams and public roads. Although a good suggestion for a walking route, which it already is, it is totally unsuitable for cycling.

Ultimately, the preparation of this route to accommodate safely the cycling public, if possible, would cost vastly more than the development of the Western Rail Trail.

All too often I hear complaints about the lack of resources and employment in Sligo and Mayo. We need new initiatives to create jobs and prevent further decline in local populations. I believe the solution is staring us in the face; the Western Rail Trail has been sitting patiently for 30 years and remains totally in public ownership.

It simply could not be more obvious. – Yours, etc,

JARLATH GANTLY,

Managing Director,

Wild Atlantic Ways,

Ted Nealon Road,

Sligo.

Sir, – The supportive editorial for a greenway on the route of the western rail corridor north of Tuam was very welcome.

However, you suggested a commuter route from Athenry to Tuam could make commercial sense. In two years a new motorway will open linking Tuam to Galway by fast dual-carriageway. Bus journey times will not only be reduced significantly but the removal of the Claregalway bottleneck and high-quality bus lanes into Galway city centre will make the bus highly competitive with any proposed commuter rail service.

If a business case is once again presented to reopen the line from Athenry to Tuam and then onto Claremorris, either based on passenger or freight forecasts, we hope the warning “buyer beware” will be attached to any proposal in large red capital letters.

The Western Rail Trail from Athenry to Collooney will be a huge boost to our tourism trade, so why not just get on with it? – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN QUINN,

Enniscrone,

Co Sligo.

Sir, – Israel is calling on its allies, including the US, to stop funding the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a move to avoid an inquiry into its actions in Palestine – its offensive against Gaza this summer and the continued building of settlements in the occupied territories. The Israeli foreign minister has dismissed the ICC as an anti-Israel institution, one that has no justification and has said Israel will do everything possible to undermine the inquiry (“Israel seeks to block Gaza war crimes investigation”, January 18th).

However, it is not just the ICC that Israel takes issue with. Israel has denied access to Gaza for respected international observers including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International amongst others, thereby preventing allegations of war crimes and other violations to be independently verified.

A commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council in July of 2014 “to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory” reports that it has “repeatedly sought the cooperation of the Government of Israel to facilitate access”. To date Israel has neither responded to the request nor admitted the UN commission to the occupied Palestinian territories.

The history of the occupation has shown that as long as Israel is allowed to act as a state outside the law, it will continue to violate international law. Innocent Palestinian civilians – the “protected persons” of the Geneva Conventions – continue to pay the price of Israel’s impunity. If international law, human rights and justice are to have any meaning, then Israel cannot be shielded any longer by its political allies; political attempts to subvert the course of justice must be rejected outright. – Yours, etc,

ELAINE BRADLEY,

Burj Abu Ramadan,

Gaza, Palestine.

A chara, – It is regrettable that the Government has decided not to proceed with the promised referendum to reduce the voting age to 16. Such a poll would be an ideal way to stimulate real debate about young people’s engagement in politics.

The referendum on Scottish independence and the Brazilian presidential election last year both allowed 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote. The turnout in Scotland was 85 per cent, while almost 81 per cent voted in Brazil, much higher than most votes in the rest of the democratic world.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is urging a reduction in the voting age for Westminster elections in the UK. Brazil has permitted those aged 16 and over to vote since 1989.

Granting the right to vote to those aged 16 and 17 will encourage greater civic participation by teenagers and ensure that young people’s concerns are more seriously addressed by more chronologically challenged decision makers.

Over a decade ago, Austria’s regions began moving to permit 16 year olds to vote in local elections and since 2007, all those aged 16 and over can vote in national elections. The Austrian National Election Study, which examines turnout and participation, has found early indications that those who vote at a younger age tend to continue to vote as they get older.

Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua and a number of German regions have also granted 16 year olds the right to vote and the Isle of Man made the change in 2006 (the first territory in the world to give women the right to vote, in 1881).

There have been a variety of reasons put forward for the lack of involvement of young people in political life. The opportunities for success and to influence Irish life are perceived to be in areas other than public office; the perceived irrelevancy of the Irish political system to real life; the failure of the political parties to realistically involve young people. The language of our political leadership is often not encouraging.

But contrary to popular belief, young people are interested in politics. Issues ranging from globalisation to the cost of college to the environment to car insurance will feature in teenage discussions. But consumer power is often seen as more effective than going out to vote and traditional political organisations such as party or trade union branches are seen as toothless in comparison to, say, raising an issue through social media.

For our political system to survive and for it maintain credibility, we need to involve people of all backgrounds and all ages.

At 16, a young person is very much part of their community and it is an easier time in which to start voting than at 18 when young people start to move out of home, to college or to work – setting out on their own journey in life. The earlier in life a habit is formed, the more likely that it will continue through later life.

By lowering the voting age, it will also force the political establishment to pay more attention to the views and concerns of young people. Nothing makes a candidate pay attention more than someone with a vote. Lowering the voting age would be a most powerful signal to young people that they are not just “our nation’s future” but also very much part of its present. – Is mise,

Cllr MALCOLM BYRNE,

Cathaoirleach,

Wexford County Council.

Sir, – There has been recent comment for a loosening of the party whip to allowing politicians have a free vote on matters of conscience. The challenge is that if politicians have a free vote, they will be harassed by sectional interests looking to change their vote. Because of this, many weak politicians like the whip precisely because it protects them from this harassment. The recent docudrama on Charlie Haughey illustrates this problem. When Charlie McCreevy and Albert Reynolds proposed motions of no confidence in Haughey, both asked for a secret ballot, and for the vote on having a secret ballot to also be secret. The reason was obvious, a secret ballot allows weak politicians the courage of privacy to cast an honest vote. This was undermined by having an open ballot to decide whether to hold a secret ballot on having a secret ballot on the vote on no confidence, thus those voting for a secret ballot gave themselves away. While looking ludicrous it shows that a weakened party whip is undermined by an open vote.

When parliamentary elections began, they were by open ballot, and the threat of eviction ensured that tenants voted according to their landlord’s wishes.

During the 19th century the secret ballot was introduced so that voters could not be intimidated, bullied or bribed into voting against their conscience. If it is good enough for the people, why not for the politicians? The whip system can’t exist if all votes in the Oireachtas are by secret ballot!

Naturally some will argue that they have a right to know how their politician votes. But if a vote is open, how do you know if it is an honest vote? Only with a secret ballot can politicians be freed from intimidation and harassment to be allowed to vote according to their conscience. – Yours, etc,

JASON FITZHARRIS,

Swords,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – As a former Labour backbencher in two governments, it is my opinion that the time has arrived for serious reform of the present whip system as it is outdated because the present electorate is far more involved with political issues and more aware of what it wants from government as a result of dramatic developments in the area of communications.

The absence of real reform has produced a large number of Independent TD who have chosen that position to ensure that they are free to represent the views of their electorate.

I found it very difficult, at times, to represent the views of my electorate because of the whip system, which curtailed what I could say as a government backbencher and how I would vote on serious issues.

Unless we face up to the serious issues that arise from the stifling of democratic debate, street politics will flourish and become an alternative rather than another component of political activity and so reduce the authority of government.

Delay in addressing serious and meaningful reforms will seriously damage our democracy. – Yours, etc,

EAMONN WALSH,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – Further to “Irish house price inflation six times higher than EU average” (January 21st), regulators failed Ireland over the past decade and we are now living with the consequences. Now sensible proposals for new mortgage lending from the Central Banks are being attacked by vested interests and those who should know better. If Prof Honohan sticks to his guns and stays on track with his proposed regulations he will have done the State some service. Otherwise we are headed into another unsustainable bubble.

Surely the dogs in the street must know the Irish addiction to property will once again lead to pain all round. – Yours, etc,

WARREN GALLAGHER,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – It is easy for Dublin airport to claim an increase in passenger numbers. Of the last four journeys I have taken out of the country, I have been forced to depart from Dublin Airport because Cork Airport does not fly to major European destinations such as Rome, Lisbon or Berlin during the winter months. They are scarce enough even during the summer months! It goes to prove once again that those beyond the Pale are left to fend for themselves. Why should Dublin claim the prize, and what did Cork do to be left out in the cold? – Yours, etc,

J O’DONOGHUE,

Sunday’s Well,

Cork.

Sir, – Ah, here now. Having read the Rev Jack Harris’s claim (January 23rd) that not a single cat is mentioned in the Bible, could I ask which Bible he studied? Every one I’ve read is replete with lions and leopards and the last time I looked they were still considered cats. – Yours, etc,

DONNACHA KAVANAGH,

Auckland,

New Zealand.

Irish Independent:

UTERS/Ruben Sprich

A recent report from Oxfam showed the 80 richest individuals have the same wealth as the poorest 50pc (3.5 billion people). In cash terms, their wealth has doubled in the last five years.

  • Go To

They predict that by 2016, the wealth of the richest 1pc will overtake that of the rest of the world’s population combined. These revelations are both astonishing and galling. I believe capitalism is the best system to lift people out of poverty but when the gap in wealth has widened to the degree where a handful of individuals control so much, and so many have to survive on so little, then something in the world has surely gone awry.

Figures also show that over recent years the very rich have become increasingly adept at finding ways of paying less tax and when it comes to lobbying politicians, their positions of influence grant them unfettered access to the policy makers.

It seems the avarice of a few, coupled with the obeisance of policy makers, is at the core of the problem. The absurdity of avoiding tax to amass wealth so enormous that it could never possibly be of practical use to the beneficiaries, seems to be lost on them. In its report, Oxfam made several recommendations that would help narrow the wealth gap by means of social and tax reforms. It is up to the world’s politicians to take these suggestions on board, but is anyone listening?

John Bellew

Dunleer, Co Louth

Tory mindset in Irish politics

A Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael coalition would bring a Kafkaesque end to our recent nadir.

Surely we are unique in modern Europe by the degree to which right-wing economic orthodoxy is supported by a majority of voters, voters that either don’t benefit from the consequences of their actions, or become victims of those electoral decisions.

Willie O’Dea, Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Social Protection, inadvertently put his finger on the fundamental contradiction at the heart of this Irish political malaise in a recent radio broadcast, when he said with gusto, “I have working class people voting for me”, in response to the debate over a potential Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael coalition.

The reality is that a most disorganised conspiracy has operated between the two large right-wing parties for decades, one that operates a simple foundation principle, that being, we are still an occupied people.

The greatest victory the British Empire had over us was that they left a deeply conservative ‘Tory’ mindset behind them when they left.

Our domestic political class simply picked up where the British occupation left off. Coupled with the reactionary influence of an over-dominant and encouraged Catholic hierarchy, the Irish ‘left’ was always going to be ‘up against it’.

The only function of the Irish Labour Party has been to repeatedly betray the poor of Ireland, through propping up the Irish Tory governments.

The next election will provide a challenge to Irish Tories, a challenge they will most likely overcome. Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael, should indeed merge to become the new ‘Irish Tory Party’, as they are the same side of the same coin.

But then again, why should they – their spell over the Irish people isn’t likely to be dispelled anytime soon.

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney, Kilkenny

Striving for equality

Éanna Johnson (Letters, January 24) is correct in saying that the forthcoming marriage equality referendum is about the child.

By passing the proposal, we shall cease discriminating against some children and their families and attain that ideal expressed in the Easter Proclamation of 1916: that all the children of the nation be cherished equally.

Ciarán Ó Raghalliagh

Co Cavan

As the public debate on the upcoming marriage equality referendum warms up, it strikes me as odd that there is always a voice missing – the devout Irish Catholic who is opposed to homosexuality.

How refreshing it would be to hear an honest Catholic advocating for a No vote based on his church’s teaching that homosexuality is a grievous sin and therefore cannot enjoy the same status as heterosexuality. Perhaps then we could have an open and honest debate.

Sean Smith

Navan, Co Meath

A friend of mine recently ‘came out’ as heterosexual. I knew when we met something was clearly bothering him. I assured him he was still my friend and what he did in his private life was none of my business. It was as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

He said it’s just so difficult, nobody comes out as heterosexual. I told him there were many heterosexual people. He left a happier man. We need to be more accepting of people irrespective of their sexual orientation.

Tommy Roddy

Salthill, Galway

Oath of office is discriminatory

Our Constitution currently discriminates against the non-religious community, of approximately a quarter of a million, by insisting on a religious oath for high office, including that of president.

The referendum to reduce the age for eligibility for presidential office from 35 to 21 amounts to an extension of existing discrimination to a new cohort. It is not too late for our Government to eliminate this blatant injustice by adding a few words to allow for an affirmation for those affected. It would be painful to have to vote against the existing wording, but no one could surely support this proposed extension of religious discrimination?

Dick Spicer

Bray, Co Wicklow

Varadkar’s hospital pledge

Health Minister Leo Varadkar (Irish Independent, Comment, January 23) says: “One of the most important goals this year will be to secure planning permission for the new children’s hospital, at long last.” Yet he goes on to say: “We are not going to be able to achieve everything in one year.”

Well, my promise to you, Mr Varadkar, is if you achieve the above goal, you and your party will have secured at least one vote in 2016. Please do not let me down.

Brian Mc Devitt

Glenties, Co Donegal

The callous murder capital

Yesterday, I found a gem of a book entitled, ‘AE Russell: A Study of a Man and a Nation’, in what used to be the Government Publications outlet on Molesworth St, Dublin.

It was written by Darrell Figgis and published in 1916. Here’s his description of Dublin: “Today, instead of dignified carelessness, Dubliners must contend with an ever-increasing callous disregard for the life of another person; as evidenced by numerous press reports citing Dublin as the murder capital of Ireland and our dear country itself; as one of the EU’s murder blackspots.” One can only imagine to what extent Messrs Pearse, Connolly and Co are helplessly turning in their graves.

Ciaran Casey

Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin

Irish Independent


Clinic

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27 January 2015 Clinic

Mary manages to get to Clinic, just. We meet Jill and Nonny rings.

Obituary:

Professor John Hibbs, transport economist – obituary

Creator of the academic discipline of Transport Studies who inspired the Conservatives’ deregulation of buses

John Hibbs
John Hibbs

Professor John Hibbs, who has died aged 89, was instrumental in establishing Transport Studies as a credible and important academic subject and as a highly professional discipline; he effectively created the subject of transport economics, encouraged a whole new cadre of transport specialists and served as a government adviser.

A long-time Liberal, Hibbs was transport adviser to the party, and a constituency activist, though in fact his “small-l” liberal economic views found a readier audience in the Conservative Party. In particular he was influential in formulating the 1980 Transport Act, which deregulated long-distance coach services, and the more controversial 1985 Transport Act introduced by the transport secretary Nicholas Ridley, which partially deregulated the local bus market through franchising.

Hibbs regretted that the government had not bitten the bullet and gone for complete deregulation – a move which was viewed as a step too far by many Tories, worried about the future of commercially unviable rural bus services.

Later, Hibbs advised John Major on railway privatisation, recommending that the government should identify a series of viable companies that could be placed on the market, having “vertical integration” of track and train services.

In the event, though, the government decided, in the light of a Brussels directive to separate the finances of operation and infrastructure, and to split the business of running trains from that of maintaining the track, leading, as Hibbs put it in 2002, “to the mess we are in today”.

Pacifist

John Albert Blyth Hibbs was born in Birmingham on May 5 1925, but spent his childhood in Brightlingsea, Essex. His father, a Congregationalist minister, died just 10 days after he was born and he was brought up by his mother, supported by two aunts and his grandmother. He was educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School and Haileybury. By the time he was 18, Hibbs was a committed pacifist. Registered as a conscientious objector, he spent the time when he would otherwise have been on National Service working in agriculture and in hospitals.

He took a Birmingham University degree in Social Studies at Woodbrooke, a Quaker college in Selly Oak. During his second year he secured a placement with Premier Travel, a Cambridge bus and coach company, an experience which helped informed a dissertation on “The place of the motor bus in the rural economy”, and led to a job as personal assistant to the managing director.

In 1952 he returned to academe as Rees Jeffreys Research Student at the London School of Economics, where he embarked on an MSc research project on the economics of the road transport (ie bus) licensing system. Then, after two years as a transport consultant and technical journalist, he and a colleague acquired a coach company in Suffolk, but the increase in rural car ownership and the stifling effect of bus licensing meant that it was difficult to make ends meet and the business had to be sold.

Transport Studies

In 1961 Hibbs was appointed traffic survey officer at British Railways’ Eastern Region headquarters at Liverpool Street. There he undertook a wide range of projects involving computerised traffic analysis, costing, market research, demand forecasting, and assessing the market for specific passenger train services.

But, increasingly frustrated at conservative attitudes to change within the industry, he accepted the challenge of creating the first British undergraduate course in Transport Studies at what was then City of London College (now London Metropolitan University).

He remained there until 1973, when he took up a post at Birmingham Polytechnic (now Aston University), where he became director of Transport Studies and developed new courses, including a postgraduate diploma in Transport Management, supervising students to MBA, MSc, MPhil, and PhD degrees. In parallel he gained his own PhD in 1983 with a thesis in which he compared different bus licensing systems around the world. In 1986 he was appointed professor of transport management.

Hibbs was in great demand as a conference speaker and external examiner. He was also active in professional bodies including the Chartered Institute of Transport, whose Proceedings he edited, and as vice-president of the Omnibus Society. He founded the Organisation of Teachers of Transport Studies (later, the Transport Teachers’ Association), and also the Roads and Road Transport History Conference/Association. He was appointed OBE in 1987.

Hibbs’s first marriage, to Constance, was dissolved. He is survived by his second wife, Paddy, by two sons and a daughter of his first marriage and by five step-children.

Professor John Hibbs, born May 5 1925, died November 7 2014

Guardian:

Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras
Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras. Photograph: Xinhua News Agency/Rex

The new government being formed in Greece places people at the heart of its programme of change. The crippling bailout package imposed through the EU/IMF memorandum has created huge increases in unemployment – especially for the young. There is a consequent loss of health insurance and therefore access to health services for nearly one in five, as well as severe homelessness and energy disconnections. This has created what The Lancet has reported as a public-health tragedy. Wages and pensions have been drastically cut while living costs have soared. There has been an erosion of basic rights such as collective bargaining. As well as damaging society, these policies have failed to reboot the Greek economy, and the public debt in relation to GDP is now far greater than it was before the programme started in 2010.

The people of Greece have chosen a new path. They have chosen a government committed to ending the austerity programme. They have voted for immediate debt renegotiation. Repudiation of some and repayment of the rest linked to economic growth, to give creditors a stake in growing the economy. German postwar debt was managed like this in 1953. The Greeks have voted in a new sort of government that has placed addressing the humanitarian crisis at the top of its priorities. The government is taking immediate steps to support those suffering the most under the austerity programme.

The Greek election results have implications for the UK and the whole of Europe. Austerity policies have been a choice by those in power, and they have failed. Greece reminds us that different economics and politics are possible. Undoubtedly there will be pressure on the new Syriza government from the EU, the banks and their friends not to deliver their promises. We applaud the courage of the people of Greece in choosing hope – and a new direction in policy that can start to rebuild a sustainable Greek economy and faith in politics. It is in all of our interests to defend them. Solidarity with Greece at this time is an imperative.
Manuel Cortes President Greece Solidarity Campaign, Frances O’Grady General secretary, TUC, Ken Loach, Katy Clark MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Len McCluskey, General secretary, Unite, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Matt Wrack General secretary, FBU, Paul Mackney Chair, GSC, Leslie Manasseh President, TUC, Peter Pinkney President, RMT, Ian Davidson MP, Diane Abbott MP, Kate Hudson National secretary, Left Unity, Rachel Newton Secretary, GSC, Steve Turner Assistant general secretary, Unite, Lutfur Rahman Mayor, Tower Hamlets, Salma Yaqoob, Imran Khan civil rights lawyer, John Hendy QC, Jude Woodward Stand Up To Racism, Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition, Sam Fairbairn National secretary, People’s Assembly, Louise Irvine National Health Action party, John Rees Editor, Counterfire, Andrew Burgin Coalition of Resistance, Gerry Gable Editor, Searchlight magazine, Mike Davis, Editor,

Chartist magazine

People looking at newspapers in Athens
People read the front pages of newspapers at a kiosk in Athens, Greece, 26 January 2015. Photograph: Orestis Panagiotou/EPA

You are correct that Syriza’s victory represents a widespread rejection of austerity (Editorial, 26 January), but I think mistaken about the party being far-left. It has attracted new members extremely quickly, most coming from the centrist Pasok (the majority of new Syriza MPs resemble, if anything in UK politics, someone like David Owen), although conservatives and those on the right have been welcomed too. It might well be that, despite having spent the past few years implementing troika measures, the new MPs have now realised the error of their ways. But it might also be that Syriza has become a convenient bandwagon on which to jump.

There is one genuinely far-left Greek party – KKE, which got around 7% of the vote – and is implacably opposed to membership of the EU and the euro. The fact that Syriza did not contemplate a deal with KKE, but did a deal with a rightwing party, might be illustrative of how far Syriza is actually willing to push back against the euro, the EU and the troika, despite the appalling humanitarian crisis caused by the conditions attached to the “bailout” (which on a bad day simply looks like the looting of a nation). Whatever happens next, it won’t be driven by a coalition dominated by the far-left.
Dr Scott Anthony
Shaftesbury, Dorset

• The victors in Greece – the “radical left” Syriza – have formed a coalition with the rightwing, anti-immigrant Independent Greeks. Betraying its voters’ hopes before the celebratory champagne has gone flat is something of a record even by the shabby standards of European reformism. The real answer to austerity doesn’t lie in parliament – it’s in the struggle in workplaces and the streets. In the words of Rosa Luxemburg: “Where the chains of capitalism are forged, there must the chains be broken.”
Sasha Simic
London

• The success of Syriza springs from the electoral death of Pasok, Greek sister party of the British Labour party. Given that Labour is also committed to austerity, it is high time that it followed Pasok into the dustbin of history.
John Wake
Harlow, Essex

• It is perhaps ironic that on the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death, the chickens have finally come home to roost on one of his most disastrous postwar adventures: the imposition on Greece, after the liberation, of a monarchist neo-fascist government.
Lionel Burman
West Kirby, Wirral

Syriza supporters cheer, 25 January 2015
Syriza supporters cheer during a rally in Athens, 25 January 2015. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Left-right distinctions fail to get to the heart of the Syriza phenomenon. Like so many, Zoe Williams misunderstands the rise of Syriza in Greece and, as a consequence, its significance in the context of British politics (Syriza stood up to the money men – the UK left must do the same, 26 January). Syriza is in reality the anti-corruption party – a response to an endemic problem in Greek society, brought to a head by the financial crisis – that of the oligarchs, a small group of families in whose interests Greek society and economy is run, and whose network of patronage and vested interests has effectively stifled any productive development in the country. A matter made worse by austerity.

The more meaningful comparison is with the liberal political economists of the late 18th century onwards – Adam Smith and David Ricardo, for example – who stood against aristocratic Old Corruption and for “business”, rather than lining Syriza up with the radical left. We need to look for the prime sites of corruption in contemporary Britain. One would be the way in which policymakers have allowed the London property market to be turned into an asset class in the interests of home-grown and foreign plutocrats seeking a safe-haven for their virtually boundless wealth. And another would be the way that much of that wealth has been generated through the operation of the remuneration committees, where effectively one group of executives determine the pay of another, with the roles reversed in due course.
Dr William Dixon and Dr David Wilson
London Metropolitan University

A man begs on a street in Athens
A man begs on a street in Athens. Photograph: /Reuters

Jeffrey Sachs is persuasive (Let Greece profit from German history, Opinion, 22 January): Greece should be granted substantial debt relief. As he points out, Germany rightly enjoyed debt relief under the 1953 London agreement and the Marshall plan, after everyone learned the lessons of the draconian Versailles Treaty. This is now somewhat ironic, especially since Angela Merkel announced in Davos that Greece should repay its debts in full, despite obviously being in no position to do so.

But perhaps the troika (EU, ECB, IMF) ought to go further and cancel the debts altogether. There is a precedent for this, to be found in Athens itself, some 2,500 years ago. The Greek sage Solon enacted the great “Shaking off of burdens”, cancelling the debts the poor owed to the rich. The wealthy landowners – the eupatridai or “well-born” – regularly enslaved peasant and tenant farmer alike if any failed to pay up a sizeable chunk of their annual earnings. This exacerbated an already appalling inequality, until Solon, to quell the rioting, intervened. Unfortunately, many of the eupatridai got early wind of his plan and, true to form, borrowed massive sums to buy up huge tracts of land with the sole purpose of seeing their own debts cancelled along with those of the poor. Solon is a great object lesson in political and economic forgiveness, even if, in the end, it didn’t all turn out as well as was expected.

In visiting Athens in 2013, I was deeply saddened by the sight each morning of dignified, elderly citizens, sitting on blankets spread on the pavements, quietly selling off their possessions, simply in order to buy food. These people, victims of a punitive system not of their own making, need a new Solon, not another Draco.
Dr Paul Grosch
Plymouth

• I am a Hungarian German. Under article 12 of the Potsdam agreement, ethnic Germans all over Europe were basically asset-stripped without any compensation. We are talking about approximately 10 million people of German ethnic origin. If we were legally allowed to claim compensation for all of our property, how much could we claim for? Also, how much compensation should we be able to claim for our forced labour in camps in the former Soviet Union? So much for Germans being generously treated after the second world war. The British, the Americans and the Russians have never accounted for their crimes against us, let alone offered us any compensation. Never mind compensation, even an apology would be nice.
Eva Kurcz
Raposka, Hungary

Man receiving food at a soup kitchen in Athens
A man receiving food at a soup kitchen in Athens. Photograph: John Kolesidis/Reuters

I’m delighted the Greeks have taken a brave decision to elect a new government which appears to them to offer hope and change. As a frequent visitor to Greece, my wife and I have seen at first hand the impact the austerity measures have had on the vast majority of people in towns and cities. Public sector workers – teachers, nurses et al – have seen swingeing cuts in salaries, making everyday life desperately difficult. The Greeks are a proud, welcoming and hospitable people, and that welcome and openness – philoxenia (a love of strangers) – has remained to visitors despite their huge problems. I hope and expect that a sensible compromise, which will regenerate Greece within the EU family, can and will now be worked out. I wonder if the UK democratic system could facilitate the voice of the people in a similar way?
Steve Burns
Warrington, Cheshire

Newsstand in Athens the day after the election
Newsstand in Athens the day after the election, 26 January 2015. Photograph: Michael Kappeler/Corbis

The Greek people have spoken but will anyone listen? After controlling our lives for the past 35 years the money markets now blame austerity on the poorest and most vulnerable and will be doing their utmost to upstage Syriza’s honeymoon. We need an urgent debate which goes beyond the election of one government. That is, how can elected politicians and the people take back control from themarkets and the super-rich? This is now the burning question of our age.
Alan Dazely
Horsham, West Sussex

• In her new book, Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy, Kerry-anne Mendoza, the one-time senior banker and management consultant, puts it succinctly: “Austerity is not a short-term disruption to balance the books. It is the demolition of the welfare state – transferring the UK from social democracy to corporate power.”  If Labour cannot see that then we need our own anti-austerity coalition to Labour’s left.
John Airs
Liverpool

• How is it that when David Cameron refuses to pay British dues to the EU, proposes to renegotiate our membership and promises a referendum for withdrawal, that is fine, but when a potential Greek prime minister makes similar promises, he is a “leftwing militant radical” threatening the EU and European civilisation?
Lee Challenor-Chadwick
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

• Since it’s clear austerity does not apply to all and the people of Greece are leading the way in rejecting it, isn’t it time other countries, including ours, sent a clear message to our politicians that we really are not “all in this together” and that it’s time for a rethink on the fundamental parameters around which our society is based?
Tim Yates
Twickenha, Middlesex

• Syriza’s victory has undermined Mr Blair’s recent claim that electoral victories can only be won from the centre and thoroughly annoyed the ruling elites of Europe. Small victories those may be, but still ones worth celebrating.
Keith Flett
London

• Surely the solution to the Greek problem is for the rest of Europe now to form a coalition of the unwilling.
Roger Greatorex
London

Monastiraki Square and Acropolis, Athens
Monastiraki Square and Acropolis, Athens: ‘Greece, the cradle of European democracy is once again leading the way.’ Photograph: Doug Pearson/JAI/Corbis

Syriza’s thrilling win in the Greek elections highlights a gap at the heart of Europe – how we, as EU citizens, can engage politically across national frontiers. What can we do – apart from signing petitions on change.org – that will influence Europe’s decision-makers to respect the outcome in Greece, and place people’s wellbeing ahead of this dangerous obsession with cuts and debt reduction? Instead of Greece being “put on collision course with Europe” (Report, 26 January), it is surely time for Europe to change course. A start would be a version of the Marshall plan, with debt-restructuring in line with growth and public investment to improve infrastructure and sustainability. Politicians in Britain might even see the advantage of such a course of action, if it was to demonstrate the benefits of staying in the EU. Is there a movement I can join to make this happen?
Mary Braithwaite
Wye, Kent

• The lesson of the Greek elections is that European rulers are sleepwalking into a collision with their electorate because the core premise of their economic model is faulty. The electorate has been asked to put up with pain for years with the unfulfilled promise of better things around the corner. It is always the fault of the poor and the sick, not the fault of the predictive power of a discredited economic model.

The best the leaders can offer is economic growth and job creation on an American scale. The mantra of labour flexibility translates into income growth for the bottom 90% of the population lagging behind productivity growth, as it has done in America and in many of the countries in Europe.

In the US as in many other countries including the UK, fruits of growth are appropriated by a kleptocracy that passes on a disproportionate share of the pains of decline to the masses. Average income, including capital gains, for the bottom 90% of Americans fell by 14% from its peak in 2007 until 2012, the latest year for which data are readily available. The top 5%-10% took a hit of only 6%.
SP Chakravarty
Bangor

• Greece, the cradle of European democracy is once again leading the way. Austerity measures have been applied asymmetrically and have disproportionately effected the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Over the past 30 years, the distorting consequences of financial deregulation have led to a rising Gini coefficient and the emergence of an unhealthily influential oligocracy. In the interests of peace and harmony, the time has come for democracy to reassert itself and address the grotesque financial imbalances that the previous generation of politicians, of all parties, have allowed to develop. I wish the Greek people well.
Donald Elliott
Ipswich

• Your news, editorial and speculations about Syriza’s victory might now be followed by an analysis of where Greece’s past decades of wealth, present revenues, EU grants, loans and gifts have gone. Such investigation will rapidly conclude that VIP Greeks have bankrupted their nation through persistent tax-evading capital flight. The government-suppressed Lagarde list of 2,059 Greek accounts at HSBC, Zurich, is a small indication, as is tax exemption for shipowners. Until these immense capital outflows are repatriated, pouring in euros just adds to the swamp of offshore corruption. Will Syriza plug the drain?
Noel Hodson
Oxford

• Jon Henley’s excellent article (24 January) describes Syriza’s programme for government as being to ensure “that no family is without water or electricity; that no one can be made homeless; that the very lowest pensions are raised and that urgent steps are taken to relieve child poverty”. For weeks I have heard this party routinely described as extremist, a threat to the stability of Europe. Who are the true extremists here? Could it be the financiers and rightwing politicians who persist in advocating the austerity programme that led to such hardship in the first place?
Bill McMellon
Chichester, West Sussex

• Twice in your editorial on the election result Syriza is referred to as “far-left”. In this way, wittingly or not, you collude in the characterisation of anti-austerity positions and perspectives as somehow “extreme” and thus illegitimate. And yet what is so extreme about rejecting a failed policy responsible for impoverishing millions and for unnecessarily prolonging recession throughout Europe? Support for this long-overdue demonstration of popular protest has included leading Keynesian economists in Europe and north America. Are their voices “far-left” as well? If what Syriza stands for is “far-left” (perhaps better described as conventional social democratic politics), why isn’t the Guardian “far-left” too?
David Butler
Plumbridge, Co Tyrone

• Your editorial says the Greek election result is “astonishing”. When a country pays itself more than it can afford and is riddled with corruption, thus building enormous debts; cheats its way into the euro and runs up further debts; then promises to pay back but has to accept the consequent austerity, and is then told by a populist that it doesn’t need to pay, it’s not surprising such a country votes for an easy way out.
Anthony Garrett
Fife

Independent:

In his magisterial “The Iraq Report” (24 January), Andy McSmith says: “In order to have lied, Blair would have had to have known that Saddam Hussein really had ordered the destruction of Iraq’s stockpile of illegal weapons… But the intelligence services had no network to speak of within that tightly ruled country… Consequently, the spooks relied heavily on Iraqi exiles.”

This is only partly accurate. I submitted a memorandum to the Chilcot inquiry on what Tony Blair and Jack Straw must have known about Iraqi WMDs, and when they  knew it: these are the documented facts:

General Hussein Kamal, former director of Iraq’s Military Industrialisation Corporation, in charge of Iraq’s weapons programme, defected to Jordan on 7 August 1995, with his brother, Colonel Saddam Kamal. Both were sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein. Hussein Kamal took crates of documents revealing past weapons programmes, and provided these to Unscom, the UN inspection team looking for WMDs in Iraq.

Iraq responded by revealing a major store of documents that showed that Iraq had begun an unsuccessful crash programme to develop a nuclear bomb. Hussein and Saddam Kamal, surprisingly, agreed to return to Iraq, where they were assassinated by the Saddam henchman known as Chemical Ali on 23 February 1996.

Before their fateful return, they were interviewed in Amman on 22 August 1995. The interviewers were Rolf Ekeus, former executive chairman of Unscom; Professor Maurizio Zifferero, deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and head of the inspections team in Iraq; and Nikita Smidovich, a Russian diplomat who led Unscom’s ballistic missile team. During the interview, Major Izz al-Din al-Majid (transliterated as Major Ezzeddin) joined the discussion. Izz al-Din was Saddam Hussein’s cousin, and defected with the Kamal brothers.

The key output from this was the documented revelation that “all weapons – biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed”. Tony Blair, in a misleading statement to the Commons on 25 February 2003, said: “It was only four years later, after the defection of Saddam’s son-in-law to Jordan, that the offensive biological weapons and the full extent of the nuclear programme were discovered.”

Former Labour MP Llew Smith, for whom I then worked, asked him about the information provided by Hussein Kamal on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and if Mr Blair would place in the House of Commons Library the text of the Kamal interview.

Mr Blair answered: “Following his defection, Hussein Kamal was interviewed by Unscom and by a number of other agencies. Details concerning the interviews were made available to us on a confidential basis. The UK was not provided with transcripts of the interviews.”

But I believe it was known to Mr Blair and his security advisors that eight years earlier Hussain Kamal had fessed up to the destruction of Iraq’s chemical and biological WMDs, and the nascent nuclear weapons programme too. If this were so, why would he blatantly disregard this information when pressing for war, except for the obvious reason that it undermined his stated reason to support an invasion?

Dr David Lowry

Former director, European Proliferation Information Centre, Stoneleigh, Surrey

 

British don’t mourn King Abdullah

I would suggest a modification of your headline “Britain mourns a tyrant” (24 January). It is Britain’s power elite that mourns the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. This is because, in its value-distorted world view, the promise of more loot from oil and gun-selling trumps the Saudi kingdom’s medieval cruelty and the hacking off of a woman’s head in its repressive female-fearing male dictatorship.

I doubt British citizens mourn the death of King Abdullah.

Jim McCluskey

Twickenham, Middlesex

 

“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” said Hillary Clinton in a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US Secretary of State and revealed through WikiLeaks.

At the news of the death of King Abdullah, President Obama said he had “valued King Abdullah’s perspective” and Prime Minister Cameron is apparently “deeply saddened” and says that the former king will be remembered for his “commitment to peace and for strengthening understanding between faiths”.

Abdullah, Obama, and Cameron shared the same perspective – support for terrorism when it aided their shared interests, and condemning terrorism which impeded those interests.

Louis Shawcross

Hillsborough

County Down

 

Your sneer at the US and UK for mourning King Abdullah highlights the fact that we can apparently do nothing right when it comes to dictatorial regimes.

It seems that we’re wrong to support them as friends and allies; wrong to try to ignore them; wrong to do vital and lucrative business deals with them; wrong to jeopardise our economic and security interests by opting not to do business with them; wrong to  subject their long-suffering citizens to UN sanctions; and wrong to send our armies to oust them. We can’t win!

Keith Gilmour

Glasgow

 

If, as a spokesman for Westminster Abbey believes, failure to fly the Union Jack at half-mast would be a “noticeably aggressive comment” on the death of King Abdullah, where in the scale of malign commentary would he rank public decapitation?

Dr John Doherty

Stratford-upon-Avon

 

An unfortunate juxtaposition

I found your front page on 24 January somewhat unfortunate. The headline read “Britain mourns a tyrant”; the picture above showed a well-known statue of Sir Winston Churchill.  I know that Churchill wasn’t popular in all quarters, but really…

Tom Campbell

Birmingham

 

There has been much outpouring of gushing praise to mark the life of Winston Churchill as we commemorate his death  50 years ago. But he was far from the paragon of virtue some would have us believe.

His finest hour aside, let us not forget that he believed that women shouldn’t vote, telling the House of Commons that they are “well represented by their fathers, brothers, and husbands”. He was also fiercely opposed to self-determination for the people of the Empire, advocating the use of  poison gas against “uncivilised tribes” in Mesopotamia in 1919.

For much of his career he was also a disastrous politician. In 1915 he had to resign as First Lord of the Admiralty after the disaster of Gallipoli. His decision in 1925 to restore Britain to the Gold Standard caused a deep and unnecessary recession. That led directly to the General Strike in 1926, in which he was reported to have suggested using machine guns on the miners.

While we must celebrate his role as a brilliant war leader, let us not forget another, rather more chequered past.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

 

Windfarm no threat to Jurassic coast

It is a bit of a stretch to say that the proposed Navitus Bay wind farm will have much effect on the Jurassic Coast, located as it would be at the far-eastern end and almost as near to the Isle of Wight (“Jurassic Coast windfarm is ‘like bulldozing Buckingham Palace’”, 24 January).

It will change the view from Durlston Head but it will not be very obvious going west between there and Lulworth Cove. Beyond Lulworth all the way to Exmouth, which comprises most of the Jurassic Coast, I reckon you will struggle to see it except in the most favourable conditions.  From Sidmouth you cannot even see the granite mass  of Portland unless it is  very clear.

If you really want to know what spoils the Jurassic Coast, look a few yards inland as you pass Ladram Bay on the coastal path. Ask yourself how it was that a large and still-developing static caravan park and associated facilities were ever allowed at this attractive location.

The coast is attractive because of its varying geology, its steeply undulating coastline and differing coastal communities. Looking out to sea is not especially inspiring. A wind farm at one end is hardly a big deal, and far better than on land.

Brian R Sheldon

Sidmouth, Devon

 

In his account of the Navitus Bay wind farm, Tom Bawden appears to have given more powers to The French Lieutenant’s Woman than John Fowles intended if her view from Lyme Regis’s Cobb was framed by the Isle of Wight to the left and Old Harry Rocks to the right. Perhaps there’s a new adaptation that I’ve not seen – transporting the Cobb to Bournemouth.

David Stone

Weymouth, Dorset

 

Times:

Sir, I am following the initiative of General Sir Nick Carter with interest (“Top brass gear up for battle against army cuts”, Jan 26).

As a young officer on the army staff course in 1986, my commandant shared with me a “green guide”, which focused on the memoirs of JFC Fuller, a chief instructor at Camberley from 1923 to 1926. Fuller held that the “yes men” were/are the fools of the army. He called on young soldiers “to liberate your thoughts from customs, traditions and shibboleths; learn to think freely, not imitatively”.

Over the next 23 years of military service I found that most senior officers fitted Fuller’s critique to a chilling degree. Needless to say, the army didn’t like it being pointed out that its system of selection for senior staff was at fault. I was told that my independent views were not “received wisdom”.

That said, I was fortunate to have seen senior officers of the highest calibre. At the risk of accusations of bias, most of these were from the Parachute Regiment, Royal Marines and special forces, the connection being that all underwent selection, as officers, prior to appointment.
David Benest
Colonel (retired)
Pewsey, Wilts
Sir, You report that General Carter is seeking to break a “culture of loyalty” by senior officers, who put the interests of their regimental “tribe” before the wider force. I find this disturbing. The regimental system is a familial one and, although it has been almost destroyed over recent years, the many thousands of officers and men who have gone through this process looked to their extra-regimental senior officers to protect them from the excesses by successive heads of the army who want to make their mark.
John Disley
Kelvedon, Essex

Sir, The military attract talented officers who, if asked to do nugatory work, will deploy their skills to win the paper battles that cross their desk. When one hears that General Sir Nick Parker was stopped from appointing an information officer that he thought essential, (“Lions led by penpushers”, Jan 24), you wonder at the time spent by those opposing him — and the cost of their actions.

One hopes that the chief of general staff is listening not just to his majors but also to his contemporaries who took their second careers earlier and will explain how in the public, private or third sectors CEOs make good decisions in the absence of MoD-style staffing.
David King
Oxford

Sir, Similar problems exist in the RAF and Royal Navy, so I hope there will be a clean sweep there, too. Such failings have occurred throughout military history. I suspect the Romans had the same problems.
Keith Abnett
Poole, Dorset

Sir, The size of the military hierarchy is a function of the essential tasks to be completed in the preparation, direction and control of a modern fighting force rather than the size of that force. As such, the present staff could probably manage a force several times the size of the existing British Army, but could not itself be allowed to fall below a level necessary to compete with these tasks for the efficient operation of smaller forces, give or take the marginal efficiencies due to progress.
CH Wilson
Colonel (retired)
Framingham Earl, Norwich

Sir, One memory seems particularly apposite given General Carter’s intention to “stop the rise of yes men”. As a 19-year-old officer I was the only one on duty at RAF Biggin Hill 50 years ago. On receiving a telegram, a little after 0800hrs, advising of the death of Sir Winston Churchill, I had the RAF ensign lowered to half-mast.

Some three hours later I was asked by a senior officer if I had received an official order to lower the ensign. I hadn’t, so it was a chastened youngster who was told to stand and salute the ensign being raised to the full as people strolled by on their way to the RAF church. The official order to lower the ensign arrived at 1510hrs.
Tom Sampson
(Sqn Ldr retired)
Bridlington, E Yorks

Telegraph:

The leader of Greece's left-wing Syriza party Alexis Tsipras (C) arrives to vote at a polling station in Athens : The flat from where Greece's Che Guevara is planning Europe's downfall
Alexis Tsipras, the victor in the Greek polls, surrounded by cameramen Photo: AFP/GETTY Photo: AFP/GETTY

SIR – Contrary to what Amjad Bashir says, Ukip does not lack policies. Its policy of leaving the EU is more than enough for most people, as Syriza has shown.

Brian Gilbert
Hampton, Middlesex

SIR – How is it that when David Cameron refuses to pay British dues to the EU, proposes to renegotiate our membership, and promises a UK referendum for withdrawal from the EU, all that is fine?

But when a Greek politician promises his people something similar, he is described as threatening the EU and European civilisation?

Lee Challenor-Chadwick
Harrogate, North Yorkshire

SIR – No one seems to have noticed that Europe has two nearly failed states in Ukraine and Greece. How many more states will fail before we get a referendum on membership of the EU in 2017?

Timothy Stroud
Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – Amjad Bashir has said that switching his allegiance from Ukip to the Conservative Party was a principled decision. If so, as he was elected as a Ukip MEP under a party-list system, should his principles not extend to standing down and allowing the next candidate on the Ukip party list to take his seat representing the voters of Yorkshire and the Humber?

Christopher Cooke
Amersham, Buckinghamshire

SIR – If David Cameron hopes his vaunted EU referendum promise is going to propel him back to No 10, it is time he told us exactly what he intends to renegotiate in order to campaign for us to stay in it.

His fudging over the Lisbon Treaty is still raw in the minds of voters, who will not be hoodwinked twice. So Mr Cameron should put up, and be sharp about it: I’m developing a taste for fruitcake.

Stephen Kemp
Tilton on the Hill, Leicestershire

SIR – Parties choose their leaders. I hate the opportunism of David Cameron; I despise the stance of Nick Clegg; I detest the policies espoused by Ed Miliband; I dismiss Nigel Farage. I see little future for the Greens.

Are any proper independents standing? I should like to vote for someone.

Alexander Hopkinson-Woolley
Bembridge, Isle of Wight

SIR – I was pleased to see Natalie Bennett of the Greens on The Andrew Marr Show last week. His opening question to her was about the Green policy for an immediate referendum on Britain’s continued membership of the EU. Mr Marr described this policy as “the one thing you have in common with Ukip”. For reasons I do not understand, this policy is seldom associated with the Greens.

Nigel F Boddy
Darlington, Co Durham

Driven off the road

SIR – I sympathise with the difficulties of Martin Hughes (Letters, January 24) in getting his driving licence back after surgery.

I have multiple sclerosis, and luckily I am not too badly affected. But I still have to surrender my licence every three years and apply for a renewal. That’s fine.

This year I sent my licence in to the DVLA at the end of July after seeing my doctor and making sure all would be OK to receive a new one.

In September I had one of the forms sent to me again saying: “You may have filled in this form before but please do so again.” It asked about medication I was taking, and I told them again I take no medication and had seen my doctor in July.

I then had a letter in December saying they had written to my doctor (giving the name of the wrong doctor in the practice that I use) but had heard nothing after eight weeks. On ringing my doctor’s surgery, I was told it was not high priority, but they would see what was happening. Now it is the end of January, seven months since my initial request and I have heard nothing.

Just what is to be done? I am quite willing to have a medical, and actually think one should routinely be given.

Why this terrible hold-up? What a waste of time and energy. Are persons employed just to return forms and do nothing?

Ann Baker
Torpoint, Cornwall

Langbaurgh challenge

SIR – Your excellent obituary of Lord Brittan did not mention the strange name of his constituency, Langbaurgh. He was the first to represent it when it came into being, in 1979. Langbaurgh had apparently been named after an Anglo-Saxon wapentake, although few local people had ever heard the name.

The late Richard Holt held Langbaurgh for the Conservatives in 1983 and 1987. He would challenge anyone in Westminster to give the location of his constituency (pronounced “Langbarf”), and then how to spell it. Few rose to either challenge.

The last MP for Langbaurgh was Michael (now Lord) Bates. After boundary changes it was renamed South Middlesbrough and East Cleveland.

Paul Lynch
London W4

Manners? Crumbs!

SIR – Eating a good fresh croissant with my morning coffee creates quite a mess (“Manners maketh coffee, Letters, January 24). When I am out it takes some effort to tidy the flakes of pastry. So perhaps the effort to do this is indicative of good manners.

If anybody can give me details of a course on the art of croissant-eating, preferably to degree level, I’d appreciate it.

Stuart Scholes
East Grinstead, West Sussex

Flop for Wolf Hall

Mark Rylance plays Cromwell in Wolf Hall and voiced Flop (right) Photo: BBC/Acamar Films

SIR – I enjoyed the first episode of Wolf Hall, only slightly put out by the voice of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) being that of Flop (pictured far right) from the CBeebies animated cartoon Bing, which I watch with my grandson Vincent.

Stella Tinsley
Langport, Somerset

Singalonga Sondheim

SIR – Ivan Hewett (“Stephen Sondheim – too clever for America?”) is right to note that his work has its roots in the worlds of both showbiz and the intellectual arts.

In that respect, Sondheim is like David Bowie, someone who produces artistically challenging and innovative work within the confines of a popular, commercial medium.

British theatre can take great pride in its role in increasing awareness of Sondheim’s musicals, but with eight Tonys, eight Grammys, an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize in his locker, I would hesitate to suggest that America is not fully aware of his worth.

It’s sad if the “too clever, not enough tunes” argument puts people off sampling his work. They may not become Sondheim addicts, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t find it well worth the effort. Start with Company, which has enough tunes for a lifetime.

Glenn Archibald
Witney, Oxfordshire

Standing up to Putin

SIR – This Government (and its successors) must endeavour to obtain justice for the Litvinenko family, and Vladimir Putin must be shown in strong terms that the days of vassal states and subjects died with the collapse of the Soviet system in 1989.

As an ex-KGB operative, it seems impossible for him to grasp democracy or to reject thuggish and corrupt ways to attain his goals. He is dragging Russia down into anarchy, and he and his cohorts will not be those who suffer. It will be the man in the street, whether he supports Putin or not.

Ann Thompson
Paignton, Devon

Cut-price killing

SIR – I have considerable sympathy for Russell Payne (Letters, January 23), who was bombarded by online pop-up advertisements for funerals after searching for information about a heart condition.

I used the search term “infanticide” on the internet while researching an essay on Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. For months afterwards, I was offered the chance to “buy infanticide cheaper” from either eBay or Amazon.

Richard Brickwood
Ware, Hertfordshire

Scrapping helmets reduces the standing of the police

SIR – Few would disagree that public respect for the police has decreased in recent years, and part of this is due to the shabby appearance they have adopted in most parts of the country with “leisure wear” and flat caps. Therefore the decision of West Yorkshire Police to abandon the traditional helmet is a cause of great regret.

The helmet is the symbol of the British police and should be treasured. It protects the head, can be secured with the chinstrap, boosts confidence by adding a foot in height and identifies the wearer as a police officer from a distance.

Its disappearance is not just an operational issue. The public should have its say – after all we do pay for the police.

Paul Hornby
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Churchill’s enduring power to command respect

SIR – Any who seek to belittle Churchill (Leading article, January 24) would do well to read the words of Roy Jenkins at the end of his biography: “In the course of writing it I have changed my mind. I now put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional childishness, but also his genius, his tenacity and his persistent ability, right or wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street.”

Michael Brotherton
Chippenham, Wiltshire

SIR – What is the BBC doing, scheduling the Churchill commemorative programme at 9pm next Wednesday – the same time as the second instalment of Wolf Hall?

Hilary Ives
Nicosia, Cyprus

SIR – At the time of Churchill’s last illness I was a policeman with the Port of London Authority. On January 24, a quiet, sunny Sunday morning, I was walking past an East German ship laid up in Millwall Dock. When I saw a lone crew member walk aft and lower the East German flag, I knew at that moment that the great man had died.

David Hall
Banstead, Surrey

SIR – As a student nurse at St George’s, Hyde Park Corner, I was keen to pay my respects to Sir Winston Churchill, lying in state in Westminster Hall. I requested time off from the matron and was refused, as the wards were busy. But I was advised to go to Westminster in full nurse’s uniform.

To my dismay there were queues of people stretching as far as the eye could see. But I was plucked from the queue by an official and ushered to a side door. I will be forever grateful to whoever made the special dispensation for nurses. Attending Sir Winston’s lying in state was a defining moment in my life.

Katie Higgs
Wallingford, Oxfordshire

 

 

Globe and Mail:

STEVE PATTERSON

A national bird? How about that one with ‘Canada’ in its name?

Irish Times:

Sir, – Breda O’Brien writes, in relation to the Children and Family Relationships Bill and the upcoming marriage referendum, “These provisions are quite possibly unconstitutional now but, by redefining marriage, we will stamp these new provisions with a seal of constitutional approval, and they will be impossible to change back”.

The constitutionality of a marriage contract, which is what we are voting on, implies nothing about what factors can or can not be used as qualifiers or discriminating factors in the adoption process. Religion, for example, is something that the Constitution is blind to when it comes to marriage, but it is a factor that requires highlighting during the consent process for domestic adoption in some circumstances. That is despite religion enjoying broad protection from discrimination in our Constitution. Other discriminating factors in adoption, income levels and poverty, are ones that the Constitution is blind to with regard to marriage. I could go on.

If the Children and Family Relationships Bill doesn’t contain enough qualifiers or constraints around the gender mix of a couple to suit Breda O’Brien, she is free to lobby for its amendment. However, I imagine she’ll need to bring more than red herrings to the table. – Yours, etc,

PETER KEHOE,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.

A chara, – Breda O’Brien writes about what she considers to be the “inconvenient truth” about the upcoming marriage equality referendum. She reiterates her position that providing equal access to civil marriage will redefine the family. There are a number of inconvenient truths for Ms O’Brien which she omits in order to frame her arguments.

When referring to the upcoming Child and Family Relationships Bill, Ms O’Brien gives us a stark yet vague warning that allowing same-sex and cohabiting couples to adopt may be unconstitutional. This Bill is a different issue from the referendum yet she attempts to link them by saying that voting Yes in the referendum will rubber-stamp this legislative change and make it impossible to challenge. Why would this be unconstitutional anyway? The current situation allows for single people to adopt; if allowing single people to adopt is constitutional, then why would allowing same-sex or cohabiting couples to adopt be unconstitutional?

When discussing assisted reproduction, she uses the example of Dr Joanna Rose, a woman who was conceived by sperm donation, as someone who had the right to a parental relationship taken away from her.

This is of no relevance to the marriage equality referendum as same-sex couples are already allowed to avail of assisted reproduction and voting Yes or No in the referendum will not change this.

In any case, if Ms O’Brien is worried that children born of donors will be denied information about how they were brought into the world, it might be worth considering how heterosexual couples who avail of sperm and egg donations handle this. Currently there is no law requiring heterosexual couples to inform their children they were created using a donor. In contrast, every same-sex couple who avail of a donor will one day tell their child where they came from because they will need to once that child develops a curiosity about fundamental concepts of biology.

Throughout her piece, Ms O’Brien attempts to link the marriage equality referendum to having children despite the fact that gay parents already exist and that the referendum will give them no additional parental rights if passed. In fact she even confirms this herself, stating that “to give a legal and financial link to the non-biological guardian does not require constitutional change, or redefinition of marriage”. It is clear that parenting rights are a matter for the Child and Family Relationships Bill, not the referendum. Voting Yes or No in the referendum will neither allow nor prevent gay people from becoming parents. They already are parents. This is the “inconvenient truth” which Breda O’Brien chooses to ignore. In ignoring it, she is misdirecting the debate away from the basic question – should two people who love each other have an equal right to civil marriage, regardless of their gender?

Finally, as a teacher, I would ask that those who have decided to frame this debate around family rights consider the impact their words may have on children, especially those from “non-traditional” families. A child’s family is the basic unit from which they construct their self-identity and if that family is described as being of lesser value it may have an adverse effect on that child’s sense of self. – Is mise,

NIALL CALLAN,

INTO LGBT

Teachers’ Group,

Irish National

Teachers’ Organisation,

Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

A chara, – The marriage equality amendment referendum is not about allowing people to choose whom to love or with whom to make a lasting mutual commitment. People do this anyway. The referendum is about the kind of official recognition afforded those who wish to make such a commitment.

The right to enter into marriage in Ireland is restricted. There are 28 prohibited degrees of kindred and affinity for each party. Marriage may be invalid due to minimum age (18); or where either party is already validly married; or if either is incapable of understanding what marriage is; or if both parties are of the same sex.

We want to eliminate discrimination, so it is proposed that “marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex”. Marriage equality must mean that conditions for all are equal. Yet the circumstances are distinctly unequal. Prohibited degrees of kindred have a biological basis for a man and woman. Do same-sex couples want the same status? Then there will be restrictions with no sound basis.

Is that justice? Prepare for a legal or constitutional challenge. If we remove those restrictions for same-sex marriage, we must do so also for opposite-sex marriage. – Is mise,

PÁDRAIG McCARTHY.

Sandyford,

Dublin 16.

Sir, – Gay people already have the right to adopt and raise children in Ireland. Voting No in the upcoming referendum will not change this; rather, it will – among other things – have the effect of clarifying any potential legal issues surrounding guardianship, should anything happen to one of the parents. – Yours, etc,

CONOR FARRELL,

Dublin 9.

Sir, – “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”Only two? – Yours, etc,

BERYL SHANKS,

Bray,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – The case for same-sex marriage is often promoted as a rights initiative. That’s understandable, but claiming something as a right doesn’t necessarily make it so. Last July the European Court of Human Rights found that there is no right to same-sex marriage under the European Convention on Human Rights, and found that article 12 of the convention, which deals with marriage, “enshrines the traditional concept of marriage as being between a man and a woman [and] cannot be construed as imposing an obligation on the contracting states to grant access to marriage to same-sex couples”.

It further found that no European consensus on same-sex marriages exists, as only 10 of the 47 countries bound by the treaty allow such designations. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN O’REGAN,

Arklow,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – I couldn’t agree enough with the sentiments of Mary Burke (January 24th). What child would chose to be reared with poverty-ridden, drug-addicted, alcoholic or homeless parents? Which child would prefer to be hungry or abused, happy in the knowledge their parents are heterosexual?

This dire future, of course, will never be suffered by children who will be raised by homosexual couples as they obviously live in the land of milk and honey. Not for homosexual couples will there be the constant daily struggles that traditional parents and families have had to overcome, such as poverty or addiction. How no-one thought of this safeguarding measure previously is beyond me. – Yours, etc,

JOHN CONNOLLY,

Galway.

Sir, – Frank Murphy (January 21st) declares any talk of “marriage equality” to be “dishonest and deliberately misleading” because anyone “with even a modicum of intelligence will see” that marriages between heterosexual and gay couples “could never be ‘equal’”. Circular arguments are circular because they go around in circles. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN HUGHES,

Rahoon,

Galway.

Sir, – The involvement of teachers in assessing their own students for national certification will change the nature of the student-teacher relationship. While concerns about educational standards and fairness can be addressed by a robust system of cross-moderation and appropriate teacher development programmes, the possible impact of the proposed changes on teacher-student relationships is at the heart of the teacher unions’ disagreement with the Minister for Education.

If the present stand-off is to be overcome, the belief that teacher-based assessment would automatically damage such relationships deserves careful scrutiny. The experience of teachers in systems such as Queensland, Finland and Northern Ireland suggests that such fears are ill-founded.

City of Dublin VEC Humanities teachers who, with the blessing of the TUI, were happy, subject to cross-moderation, to assess their own students’ work in the 1970s and 1980s did not experience such problems.

Strong relationships are built on truth and mutual respect and this is exemplified by assessment practices in higher education. Underperforming students who have just been “testing the boundaries” simply accept their grades and, where necessary, sit the repeats. Those who are genuinely unhappy with their grades exercise their natural right of appeal. Appellants’ work may be reviewed by a third party and those with a valid case are upgraded.

Alternatively, once the reasons for their grade are explained, many students realise that their original grade is based on the fair and professional application of transparent and reasonable criteria. This teaches them to take greater responsibility for their own learning and they become more accepting of professional judgments based on meaningful standards.

In such a respectful environment, student-teacher relationships are normally enhanced rather than damaged. Educators have a responsibility to build professional relationships grounded on respect and truth and the capacity of secondary school students to respond positively when these principles are extended to the assessment of learning should not be underestimated. The earlier they are treated like adults, the sooner they will become independent learners! – Yours, etc,

Prof JIM GLEESON,

Australian Catholic

University,

Brisbane.

Sir, – As a current student about to sit my Junior Cert, I believe that the continual assessment of students by their teachers is a terrible idea. If it is not a cost-cutting measure, and most teachers in Ireland oppose it, then why go ahead with it? – Yours, etc,

JOSH GARVEY,

Foxrock,

Dublin 18.

Sir, – It’s time secondary teachers joined the real world. Self-assessment, self-certification and light-touch regulation have been utilised in our financial, banking and construction sectors for many years and haven’t caused any problems whatsoever. – Yours, etc,

DARA HOGAN,

Greystones,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – Your editorial (“More milk and water”, January 23rd) is a simplistic portrayal of the Government’s approach to the climate challenge. This is a similar position adopted by the environmental NGOs.

Ireland is not obliged to introduce climate legislation. Indeed, the country is only one of five EU member states that has decided voluntarily to introduce climate law. Second, the impression that sectors such as agriculture are not playing their part is misleading.

You recognise correctly Ireland’s sustainable model of food production – which is a significant national economic asset. The agri-food sector supports 300,000 jobs right across the country, is the largest exporter of beef in Europe and produces 15 per cent of the world’s infant formula and has overall food exports of over €10 billion. This is being achieved sustainably by national, EU and international standards.

However, as farmers we are not resting on our laurels. Thousands of farmers are members of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme, the beef technology adoption programme, the sheep technology adoption programme, the Better farm programme and the resource efficiency initiative Smart Farming. Each of these initiatives has a strong environmental focus which leads to emission reduction.

Simple targets are not the answer. A silver bullet to emission reductions from agriculture does not exist. Agricultural emissions are organic, naturally occurring gases. Addressing the climate challenge requires a mosaic of responses. Ireland produces food more sustainably than most; this is a very important point at a time of increased demand for the food we produce in this country. Climate policy at EU level has evolved to recognise this. Similar thinking is required at international level.

Government’s climate legislation is pragmatic. It recognises the myriad of complex issues when addressing the climate challenge and seeks to chart a low carbon path for the country. This is in line with our legal obligations, while supporting the sustainable development of the agri-food sector in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

HAROLD KINGSTON,

IFA Environmental

and Rural Affairs Chairman,

Irish Farm Centre,

Bluebell,

Dublin 12.

Sir, – Further to Diarmaid Ferriter’s article (“Kenny should confront State-funded schools insisting on baptism certificates”, Opinion & Analysis, January 24th), the country’s national schools are places of diversity and inclusivity. In general, pupils of all races and religious beliefs are not only welcomed but celebrated by the various schools which they attend.

Certainly most primary schools retain and uphold a Catholic ethos, but there is a big difference between having a Catholic ethos and imposing Catholic beliefs on people who have a different faith or none at all.

As a principal I have never looked for a baptismal certificate as a condition of entry to my school. I have, however, requested them prior to pupils making their first confession at the request of the local clergy just to ensure that the first sacrament has been made prior to receiving the second.

The one statistic that Prof Ferriter did not mention was that in the last census in 2011, 84 per cent of the population defined themselves as Roman Catholic.

In my local town, this is borne out by the fact that our local Educate Together school is very much undersubscribed in relation to its large capacity.

I understand that the point of Prof Ferriter’s argument may be the desire for all schools to be secular. This seems to me to be quite a time away but, in the absence of that, our primary schools, in the main, are providing equally for children of all beliefs and none. – Yours, etc,

JOHN KELLY

Bennekerry,

Co Carlow.

Sir, – The reaction of western leaders to the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia highlights yet again their double standards and hypocrisy when it comes to human rights and freedom. They recently marched on the streets of Paris to defend the right to free speech and yet now they are falling over themselves to praise a tyrant. This man oversaw the subjugation of women, terrible human rights abuses and applied zero tolerance to dissent, as evidenced by the treatment of Raif Badawi. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Blackrock, Cork.

Sir, – In your item headed “New Irish Writing – Hennessy Literary Awards: Winners through the decades” (Weekend Review”, January 24th) it is stated that Brian Friel was a judge with James Plunkett for the awards of 1972. This is in error. The short-story writer VS Pritchett, who died in 1997, was the other judge with Plunkett in that year. I recall meeting him, as I received the Hennessy for prose in 1972. – Yours, etc,

FRED JOHNSTON,

Galway.

Irish Independent:

Liz O'Donnell

Liz O’Donnell

Regarding Liz O’Donnell’s enthusiasm for quotas and gender balance (Irish Independent, January 24) in various fields including politics, etc., surely the most rational and common-sense model to adopt in these and other fields is a gender mixture, but with the emphasis on ability and expertise rather than gender per se and so not tied to rigid gender balance and quotas?

  • Go To

By the way, the term “gender balance,” which Ms O’Donnell uses rather loosely, implies a male/female ratio of 50:50.

Now, however persuasive arguments about “critical mass” may sound, it remains a fact that quotas are contrary to equality of opportunity (correctly defined), and introduce a restrictive practice into a selection process that will inevitably shift the main focus onto filling the quota, most likely by whatever means are easiest for all concerned. This is not a recipe for choosing the best candidates on the basis of merit. However, as the main purpose of the exercise seems to be ideological, this probably doesn’t matter much to proponents of “equality.”

In any case, our current political system does not encourage the best and brightest of either sex to enter politics – the brief and unfortunate political career of top economist George Lee (who was one of those who warned against the excesses of the Celtic Tiger when that phenomenon was at its height, only to be ignored by the political establishment) comes to mind – and tacking a gender quota onto this system won’t improve matters.

Another aspect of Ms O’Donnell’s article is that she – like almost all proponents of “equality” – focuses exclusively on the position of women. This prompts the question: what about the large and growing gender imbalance in the teaching profession – with its implications for the academic performance of boys – which has widened from a male/female ratio of 40:60 in 1971 to 26:74 today (at primary school level the ratio is 14:86 – no “critical mass” there)? It would be interesting to know the views of Ms O’Donnell and other proponents of “equality” and gender balance on this matter.

Hugh Gibney

Athboy, Co Meath

We’re victims, not heroes

Last week the hard-pressed Irish people had to endure another session of patronizing and nauseating back-slapping codology when the IMF chief Christine Lagarde hailed the Irish people as heroes while being cheer-led by her tea boys and girl, Enda, Brendan and Joan, along with her “good friend Michael”.

Unfortunately, the Irish people are not heroes but victims of an inept banking system and financial treason aided by developers, speculators and a self-serving, uncaring political class, whereby their debts were undemocratically foisted onto the shoulders of present and future generations. This has resulted in widespread social deprivation, increased taxes and cuts to vital services, along with massive emigration.

Far from being welcomed with open arms and treated like royalty, Ms Lagarde and her fellow travellers of austerity should have been turned back at the airport.

In reality, Ms Lagarde, with her €7,000 handbag, is a financial hit-man for the IMF and its cohorts.

On enquiring how women in Irish society are doing at the moment, instead of asking Joan Burton, Ms Lagarde should have vacated the luxurious surroundings of Government Buildings and gone among the real people of this country.

That experience could have given her food for thought before she jetted off to the Davos version of the Galway tent, where she was meeting up with the wealthiest people in the world. The ones who probably lost their bets in Ireland but who got bailed out by the Irish people as a result of the policies pursued by Ms Lagarde and the IMF, helped by our past and present governments.

In essence, the Irish people are victims of selective austerity and betrayal, whereby those in the golden circle were protected.

Christy Kelly

Templeglantine, Co Limerick

State’s hard choices on Aer Lingus

One of the top ten safest airlines to fly with, healthy profits and route expansion – Aer Lingus is flying high! The Government has some serious thinking to do on the latest IAG offer.

Aer Lingus provides much-needed connections to London Heathrow from Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Shannon. If IAG were to take over, naturally assurances would be given that the slots would be maintained for their current use. However, IAG would only be obliged to do this for a three-year period, similar to when it took over BMI British Midland.

IAG could possibly then deploy those slots on more lucrative routes, such as to the US, China or to the Middle East. Where would this leave our island nation? What effect would this have on inward investment? What effect would this have on jobs, not to mention the job losses that would surely occur at Aer Lingus itself?

The Government shareholding could net the State some €348m at €2.60 per share. This might cover an overspend in the HSE for one year at best (though estimates put this at €510m). Short-term gain could lead to some long-term pain. Caution is advised because once the shareholding is gone, it is gone.

Killian Brennan

Malahide Road, Dublin 17

Varadkar’s U-turn on family

Just over four years ago, Leo Varadkar told the Dáil, “Every child has a right to a mother and a father and as much as possible, the State should vindicate that right. That is a much more important right than that of two men or two women having a family.”

That was a very clear and profound statement which left no room for ambiguity on the matter. Fast forward to last Sunday morning and his interview with Miriam O’Callaghan and the subsequent chorus of chirps and tweets, mostly in his favour, from all the usual quarters.

Surely the minister must realise, however, that his determination to push through this referendum has very serious and negative implications for children as a whole. The debate is, after all, about the value or lack of it which we attach to motherhood and fatherhood and the preferential treatment which should be due to the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman as opposed to what in my view, is the artificial concept of same-sex marriage.

It seems to me at any rate that his misguided notion of equality cannot be achieved without deliberately inflicting the loss of a mother or father on innocent children.

M O Riada

Tralee, Co Kerry

People are born gay

As a retired primary teacher who taught junior classes for many years, I am amazed that it has taken so long to recognize the fact that we are not all born with the same sexual tendencies.

In the early 90s, I attended a course given by a well-known education psychologist. At the end of that course, I asked him some questions regarding some students I reckoned were born gay.

These were children aged from four years upwards. The psychologist questioned me about these children’s backgrounds, place in family, parents’ personality, whether there was a domineering father and docile mother, etc. As far as he was concerned, these children were products of their upbringing. I didn’t agree with him.

Life has moved on for us all. Three of these young men are openly gay, one is married.

These young men were born different. Neither I, nor the educational system under which I taught, could help them. But as their teacher, I could only encourage them to be themselves.

Name and address with Editor

Irish Independent

Promoted articles


Sweeping

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28 January 2015 Sweeping

A quiet day I sweep the drive and trip the ivy.

Obituary:

28 January 2015 Sweeping

A quiet day I sweep the drive and trip the ivy.

Obituary:

Jean Lindenmann, scientist who co-discovered interferon
Jean Lindenmann

Jean Lindenmann, who has died aged 90, was a Swiss scientist who, with a British colleague, discovered interferon, a family of proteins which are released when animal cells are attacked by pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, or tumour cells, and which help protect other cells from infection.

Synthesised forms of interferon are now widely used to treat such diseases as hepatitis (B and C), Aids-related Kaposi’s sarcoma and malignant melanoma.

Lindenmann and his colleague Alick Isaacs made their discovery in 1957 at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, north London, while researching how cells develop an ability to fight off viral infection.

When they injected chick embryo cells with an influenza virus, they found that the embryos produced minute amounts of a protein that destroyed the invading virus and increased resistance to other viral infections. They named the protein interferon, because it interfered with viral infection of a cell.

Researchers around the world soon jumped on the bandwagon, revealing an entire family of interferons produced by cells of numerous vertebrate species, including human beings, in response to infection.

It was discovered that, once produced, the interferons migrate to other parts of the body, binding to specific receptors on the surface of healthy cells, where they “orchestrate” a series of events that interfere with viral reproduction, including alerting nearby cells that they are in danger of being attacked.

At first interferon was hailed as a wonder drug – a major breakthrough in the treatment of viral infections and potentially cancer – but the difficulty and expense of its production at the time discouraged further research. For one thing, the various forms of interferon were found to be species-specific, which meant, for example, that mouse or chick interferon would not work in humans. Human cells were found to produce very little interferon. The race to develop interferon as a therapeutic drug was nearly abandoned, an article in the journal Nature talking of the “Rise and Stall of Interferon”.

It was only from 1980, when ways were found to manufacture it economically, that its value was recognised as a weapon against cancer and some viral diseases. Now it is the standard treatment for conditions as varied as hepatitis, hairy cell leukaemia, genital herpes and multiple sclerosis.

Jean Lindemann was born on September 18 1924 to Swiss parents in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), and brought up in Zurich. After taking a degree in Medicine at the University of Zurich he stayed on to do postgraduate research at the university’s Institute of Hygiene and won a fellowship from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences to do postdoctoral research at Mill Hill.

After a year in Britain, Lindenmann returned to Switzerland to teach at the Institute of Hygiene, where he decided not to pursue the logical next step in interferon research — its purification and molecular analysis. He thought that would best be carried out by biochemists.

But interferon would not leave him alone. In the late 1950s he found a unique strain of inbred laboratory mice that were resistant to mouse influenza; he showed that this resistance was due to a specific gene, unique to the mice, which acted seemingly independently of interferon. However, further research revealed that, even though the gene was able to suppress the replication of the virus, it had to be activated by interferon.

Jean Lindenmann’s wife, Ellen, predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons.

Jean Lindenmann, born September 18 1924, died January 15 2015

 Guardian:

Independent:

 

Times:

The Times columnist Matt Ridley thinks we should kill the rats and move the bats. Is he right?

Sir, Matt Ridley highlights the clash between conservation of nature and conservation of art (“It’s common sense: kill the rats, move the bats”, Opinion, Jan 26). Britain is fortunate in having much religious and commemorative art preserved in the settings for which it was designed. The memorials by Nicholas Stone in the V&A do not have the same impact as his great monuments in churches such as Redgrave in Suffolk. Painted screens in churches constitute a greater body of native medieval painting than may be boasted by all museums put together. The Cassey brass at Deerhurst (Gloucestershire), with its dog Terri (now severely damaged by bat urine) is not only distinguished art but puts us close to the emotional life of a couple who lived 600 years ago.

We undervalue British art, particularly sculpture, because it is not presented to us in museums, but where it has always been and was intended to be, freely available in churches countrywide. It is the business of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to follow the Treaty of Rome’s provisions for the safeguarding of cultural heritage, and protect this rich national legacy. Meanwhile Natural England feels free to ignore the Treaty and promote nature conservation policies that actively destroy this art.

Dr JL Wilson
President, Church Monuments Society

Sir, Our ancient churches are not animal sanctuaries. Bat droppings are doing incalculable harm to our great legacy of artworks, including the finest collection of funerary monuments and memorials in the world. During my many visits to English parish churches to study funerary art, I have been appalled to see and smell bat excreta in quantities that not only constitute an obvious danger to health but cause staining and erosion of materials, notably alabaster, a beautiful stone used for funerary effigies.

Professor James Stevens Curl
Holywood, Co Down

Sir, Matt Ridley’s article brings some common sense into the conservation debate, and highlights the work to eradicate rats from South Georgia. Rats were introduced inadvertently to South Georgia by sealers and whalers over the course of 200 years. The result has been the decimation of birds breeding on this spectacular 100-mile-long sub-Antarctic island. Scientists estimate that with rats eradicated the bird population will increase by up to 100 million, avoiding the possible extinction of at least one endemic species, and returning South Georgia to its status of one of the most important seabird sanctuaries in the world.

The £7.5 million project is being carried out by the South Georgia Heritage Trust. We are already witnessing the results, with endemic species seen to be rearing young in places where they have not nested in living memory. With continuing support from our generous donors, South Georgia should be rat-free by the middle of this year.

Howard Pearce
South Georgia Heritage Trust

Sir, As a zoologist, Matt Ridley should know why bats roost in churches and houses. They like contact with wood because it doesn’t conduct away their body heat. They roosted originally in rot holes and woodpecker holes in the ancient woodland which covered much of Europe, but we have cut that down to build, inter alia, churches and houses. It is hardly surprising that the bats have followed the wood.

Restoration of their natural habitat would be “true conservation”.

Paul Racey
Regius Professor of Natural History (Emeritus), University of Aberdeen

Sir, I worked for some time as a quantity surveyor on the stabilisation of Combe Down Stone Mines, Bath, which cost £140 million. More than £1 million of this sum was spent on bespoke galleries and roosts for greater and lesser horseshoe bats, pipistrelle bats and vesper bats. One day, the bats upped and off en masse.

Money well spent?

Robert Chalke
Bruton, Somerset

Sir, Matt Ridley is wrong to say that “the demise of the dodo on Mauritius was actually caused by the introduction of alien species . . . rather than humans themselves”. Although introduced alien species did contribute to the dodo’s extinction, visiting seamen played a major role, as the large flightless birds — the size of a swan — provided an irresistible source of fresh food.

Dr Sir Christopher Lever, Bt
Winkfield, Berk

So the Green party would abolish the monarchy, yet admires Sweden as a ‘model’. Eh?

Sir, Natalie Bennett (Saturday interview, Jan 24) is reported as saying that the Green party would abolish the monarchy, with room being found for the Queen in one of the many new council houses that will be built. She is further said to have described the Scandinavian countries as her “model”. Of course, all three — Denmark, Norway and Sweden — are monarchies, and pretty secure ones at that.

Stanley Martin

London SE22

Just what is the link between drinking tea or coffee and trips to the lavatory?

Sir, Meg Wilkes’s letter on tea and diuresis (Jan 23) is misleading. Tea per se is not a diuretic. Diuresis is generally triggered when roughly 400mg of caffeine is consumed in one sitting. That would mean that Ms Wilkes would need to have consumed approximately eight cups of tea, or four cups of coffee, in one go.

William Gorman

Executive chairman, UK Tea & Infusions Association

Nicola Sturgeon is not ‘Scotland’s Barry Manilow’. But she does look like a 1970s pop star…

Sir, Hugo Rifkind’s comment (Jan 24) that Nicola Sturgeon has hair like Barry Manilow is outrageous.

Surely he is old enough to realise that Ms Sturgeon is a dead ringer for at least one of the Bay City Rollers?

Paul Kilvington

York

In case you forgot, we’ve never had it so good, as Melanie Reid says. And here is why…

Sir, Melanie Reid (Notebook, Jan 26) is right to remind us of very real improvements in basic living conditions. On a less serious level our lives have also changed a great deal. Some of the things that have transformed my life since I was a child (I’m now 70) are: adhesive tape (what an improvement on those tiresome fiddly pieces of string when doing up parcels); hair conditioner — it’s transformed haircare for countless women (and men?); more trains (from one to four an hour all through the day on our line — I don’t even bother with a timetable).

Seona Ford

Witham, Essex

 


 

Telegraph:

Syriza Party leader Alexis Tsipras speaks to supporters during a main pre election party rally on June 14, 2012 in Athens, Greece
Alexis Tsipras, head of anti-bailout party Syriza, speaks to supporters during a main pre election party rally in Athens, Greece

SIR – Your leading article “Last gasp for the one-size-fits-all euro” is right. Quantitative easing will not solve the fatal weaknesses at the heart of the euro. To reach economic equilibrium with the core of the eurozone, while sharing its currency, the national economies of its Southern periphery will need to accept the kind of sustained deflationary reduction in their standard of living that cannot be delivered in modern democracies.

They will not do it, as the Greeks have now said they will not. Any reduction in the pressures on Greece, Spain and Portugal permitted by the European Central Bank will prove temporary.

The eurozone, as now configured, is doomed. The will of the people will kill it. Promises by the European Central Bank “to do whatever it takes” to save the euro were cynical – not least because few European central bankers feel a fraction of the pain they prescribe for the periphery.

Gregory Shenkman
London W8

SIR – The financial troubles of Greece stem from its huge black economy, massive tax evasion and a retirement age for public-sector workers that it cannot afford. The bail-outs were meant to help it restructure its economy to deal with these problems.

Now Greece has voted to stop repaying its loans after having spent the money. Will the EU pursue the Greeks with the vigour that it does Amazon or Starbucks for tax avoidance or Microsoft for anti-competitiveness?

Dr David Cottam
Dormansland, Surrey

SIR – Beware Greeks bearing ballot papers.

Allan Mercado
Newbury, Berkshire

SIR – Greece has voted to end the austerity that its people have described as a “national humiliation”.

To beggar a country so that a bureaucratic elite can force through its federalist ambitions is surely inhuman, especially when in their eagerness to establish power this (unelected) elite chose to overlook the highly questionable suitability of Greece to enter into economic and monetary union in the first place.

Democracy has often proved an inconvenience to those holding power in the EU, who evidently need reminding that history has a nasty habit of repeating itself. Mikhail Gorbachev drew a parallel from history when he described the EU as the “Soviet Union of Western Europe.”

David Rammell
Everton, Hampshire

SIR – Hurrah for the Greeks! They invented democracy. Let us now see whether they can destroy the euro and bring hope back to a broken Europe.

Andrew Bremer
London SE21

SIR – The pips have squeaked.

Adam Secretan
Lewes, East Sussex

Vets as dogsbodies

(Getty)

SIR – For many years most veterinary surgeons in general practice have been registered as Local Veterinary Inspectors (LVI) with the government so that they can undertake minor administrative chores – such as tuberculosis testing, signing pet passports and inspecting imported animals – on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

This saves the department having to employ its own staff to do fairly simple jobs. With the exception of tuberculin testing, the department does not pay practising vets to do this work, and veterinary surgeons are expected to invoice the client.

From this year on, the department has decided that LVIs will have to pay a registration fee and undergo training at their own expense. Only one provider has been chosen to offer this training, so there will be no element of choice either.

It is a cheek to charge us, the vets, to do government work.

Russ King
London N11

Death and taxes

SIR – For anyone who pays inheritance tax, a pre-paid funeral plan is not a good idea at all.

All costs associated with a funeral can be offset against the inheritance tax liability. The costs of an advance-purchase funeral plan cannot.

Richard Childs
Eagle, Lincolnshire

Green Party views

SIR – The views expressed by Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party (“We would scrap Army and let all immigrants stay, say Greens”) – particularly those relating to her party’s fiscal policy, terrorism and scrapping the Army – will need to be explained in much greater detail by the time we get to the leaders’ debates. No wonder David Cameron wanted the Greens to take part; their views make him seem remarkably sensible.

Andrew Edwards
London SE15

Prescription errors

SIR – I was sorry to read David Nunn’s wish to see no further digitisation in the NHS. With regard to electronic prescribing, he writes that he will no longer be able to pick up a drug chart at the end of a patient’s bed. He will instead have to look at a computer at the end of a patient’s bed.

On a recent inspection at a trust neither he nor I work at, I found more than 20 prescribing errors in a single bay of five patients on one ward. Nationally the error rate in prescribing is around 10 per cent, and this is true for both consultants and junior doctors. The direct cost of this is over £750 million a year. More importantly, these errors harm those we are meant to be helping. Electronic prescribing is one of a number of mechanisms by which this harm can be mitigated.

Electronic systems, of which electronic prescribing is one, are already improving patient care markedly. Electronic discharge summaries give GPs information when they need it, so that they can assume effective care for patients on discharge. The old paper-based systems were lamentable, arriving weeks later and bearing inaccurate and incomplete information.

Electronic patient-tracking systems, increasingly routine in most acute hospitals, alert doctors to any patient who is deteriorating. Such systems have reduced the number of in-house cardiac arrests by more than 50 per cent.

Electronic systems are not the land of milk and honey, but they are important in delivering health care efficiently and safely.

David Beattie FRCS
Chichester, West Sussex

The waste of NHS drugs that are never used

SIR – As a pharmacist I campaigned for many years to limit prescribing quantities to 28 days, with packaging to suit. Massive quantities of unusable drugs – resulting from incomplete courses, inappropriate or excessive prescribing or deceased patients – are destroyed through pharmacies.

Philip Horton’s case is a classic example of this waste. Why was over £3,000 worth of drugs prescribed in the first place? It is extremely dangerous to suggest any returned drugs should be re-allocated as storage conditions, tampering or infection present genuine risks.

However, pharmaceutical manufacturers are content to allow wastage to boost their profits and make little attempt to standardise packaging or encourage sensible and economic prescribing.

Gerald Fox
Whipsnade, Bedfordshire

SIR – While working in the community as a nurse in the Nineties, I tried to get hospital pharmacies to take back drugs – such as morphine and some of the costly new antivirals – but to no avail. I was advised to crack open the vials of morphine and flush the contents down the lavatory.

Shortly before my husband died, six years ago, a new batch of prescription drugs and liquid feeds was delivered. I took the whole lot back to the local chemist within hours, but I was told they could only accept them to be destroyed.

I understand that some drugs may be affected by incorrect storage, but the present practice is profligate to say the least. Wastage is one of the biggest drains on the NHS and should be addressed as a priority.

June Munro
Achandunie, Ross-shire

The effect of manorial rights on property values

SIR – Manorial rights have been around for hundreds of years. All that has changed is that the Land Registration Act 2002 required the owner of such rights to register them or lose them. The owner of manorial rights can only enter someone’s land to exercise mineral or sporting rights with the owner’s consent. It can therefore be seen as a consensual process.

The report by the Justice Committee states: “Some of the evidence received also pointed to concerns regarding the impact of manorial rights claims on future property sales and securing loans. However, in the majority of cases this does not appear to have happened in practice.”

If the Land Registry improved its information on the nature of these rights there would be no concerns of this nature.

Henry Robinson
President, Country Land and Business Association
London SW1

Polite put-down

SIR – How to judge good breeding? Guests who leave the lid up are rarely invited back.

James Edmondson
Ilchester, Somerset

Eye, eye, Sir

SIR – As a young lieutenant serving in HMS Drake, I had an eye test which revealed that I needed a corrective lens for one eye. “Perhaps I should have a monocle,” I suggested.

The Surgeon Commander conducting the test snorted in derision: “Monocles are for commanders and above only.” By the time I became a commander it didn’t seem such a good idea.

Graham Creedy
Stamford, Lincolnshire

Hoaxes at No 10

(Andrew Parsons)

SIR – I am not sure which is more worrying: that a hoaxer managed to get through to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street by claiming to be the director of GCHQ, or that a hoaxer got in to 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister by claiming to be a Conservative.

Mark Hudson
Smarden, Kent

SIR – The problem of potential security breaches by hoax callers is very easily sorted out.

Install an identical phone system to the ones used by HM Revenue & Customs and by banks. Pranksters and terrorists will soon tire of waiting.

John Buggins
Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire

Right-hand woman

SIR – Might it be possible for manufacturers of rubber gloves to sell them separately, rather than as pairs?

I find my right-hand glove wears out quickly and I am left with loads of spare left-hand gloves. There must be people who are in the same – but opposite – situation.

Patricia Ford
Tamworth, Staffordshire

 

 

Globe and Mail:

ANDRÉ PICARD

Provinces, doctors need to defuse compensation

Irish Times:

Sir, – In Ireland in 2012 there were 72,225 births and 49 domestic adoption orders granted, 33 of which were to family members and 16 to non-family. Perhaps we can now get back to discussing the referendum on same-sex marriage. – Yours, etc,

JUSTIN McALEESE,

Dublin 4.

Sir, – The proposed amendment tells us that marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex. It suggests that we can change the meaning of marriage. The defining element of the distinction between a male and a female is to be no longer required.

Human nature finds expression in either male or female. Marriage – as the intimate union of man and woman – is the unique expression and embodiment of the wholeness of human nature and is therefore given a distinct status in our Constitution in accordance with this reality. Neither man, nor woman, fully captures what it is to be human but in their union, including a sexual union, man and woman capture something about the wholeness and integrity of human nature in its entirety.

The pressure for same-sex marriage is self-defeating. In seeking equality with something unlike yourself, by changing it in order to join it, the thing that you join is no longer what you were trying to join in the first place.

It is not necessary to change the definition of marriage in order to give constitutional recognition to same-sex unions. A different referendum in this country could give constitutional protection to civil partnerships while preserving the distinction between marriage and these partnerships. This would give constitutional recognition to same-sex unions but not in a way which obliterates the true meaning of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Can we not find a group of people with different views on this issue who could formulate a new recognition for same-sex unions in our Constitution which is really dignified, graceful and imaginative while retaining the truthful meaning of marriage as between a man and a woman? This would honour the dignity of difference and lead to the most truthful resolution of this question. The first step, however, is to vote No in this forthcoming referendum. – Yours, etc

PATRICK TREACY SC,

Dr RIK

VAN NIEUWENHOVE,

Dublin 7.

Sir, – In the interests of balance, not to mention the sanity of the surprisingly large portion of us for whom same-sex marriage is neither the most important human-rights issue facing mankind nor the end of family life as we have known it, column inches and broadcast minutes devoted to the subject should be the same as those dedicated to the other referendum taking place on the same day. – Yours, etc,

DAVE SLATER,

Kilkea, Co Kildare.

Sir, – Thank God for the daily “pause” for the Angelus on RTÉ. It’s not that I’m a devout Catholic but that particular minute of peace seems to be the only programme that does not feature a member of the Iona Institute. – Yours, etc,

PAT BURKE WALSH,

Ballymoney,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – Victoria Mullen (January 24th) puts forward a critical view of the Gender Recognition Bill, which the Tánaiste Joan Burton initiated through the Oireachtas last week.

In fact, the legislation is a very significant milestone in progressing the civil rights of transgender people.

The legislation ensures that persons who receive a gender recognition certificate will be officially legally recognised by the State as being of the preferred gender from that day forward. They will be recognised in the preferred gender for all purposes, including dealings with the State, public bodies, and civil and commercial society. They will be entitled to marry a person of the opposite gender or enter a civil partnership with a person of the same gender, and will be entitled, where relevant, to a new birth certificate that shows the preferred gender and new names (if names are also changed).

The application process for gender recognition certificate is fair and reasonable. It requires a statutory declaration by the applicant that they intend to live permanently in the new gender, and validation by the primary treating physician that the person has transitioned or is transitioning to the preferred gender.

The process will not require details of care including medical history or confirmation of a diagnosis, nor will the person have to confirm he or she has been living in their preferred gender for a specific period of time prior to their application. This is a much more progressive, less onerous and less invasive approach than is the case in many other countries.

As Ms Mullen notes, the Bill requires that an applicant for gender recognition be single. This is pending the outcome of the referendum on same-sex marriage due to take place in May 2015. While this is not ideal, the existing constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage is a blockage in that respect. This is a reality which your columnist, Una Mullally, also fails to take into account (“Trans rights are only basic human rights after all”, Opinion & Analysis, January 26th).

If the outcome of the referendum is that same-sex marriages will be constitutionally permissible, then it will be possible to revisit this aspect of the legislation. The Government will be campaigning vigorously for marriage equality and if the referendum is passed, the Tánaiste’s firm intention would be to return swiftly to this aspect of the legislation. – Yours, etc,

PAUL O’BRIEN,

Deputy Government

Press Secretary,

Government Buildings,

Merrion Street, Dublin 2.

Sir, – Further to Diarmaid Ferriter’s article (“Kenny should confront State-funded schools insisting on baptism certificates”, Opinion & Analysis, January 25th), this year, 2015, marks the eighth centenary of the Magna Carta and its limit on sovereign power. It ends in paragraph 63 with a royal oath that “the English Church shall be free and enjoy her rights in their integrity and her liberties untouched”.

This demand attends the fact that any political system presumes a civil society that pre-exists the state; that the life of the civic community is fed by mediating institutions like the family, churches, and fraternal organisations. Democracy is built on two practical pillars that emerge from these institutions – co-operation and conflict. Cooperation satisfies a natural hunger for solidarity that makes all community possible. Conflict is necessary because people have competing visions of what’s right and true.

Thomas Davis’s vision, as recounted by Prof Ferriter, would whittle away the mediating institutions and replace them with an uncompromising state monopoly in terms of values and beliefs about human dignity and the purpose of human freedom. Religious faith is one of the necessary limits to this state power.

Prof Ferriter doesn’t mention the Catholic Church’s desirable agreement to transfer trusteeship of some schools to non-Catholic bodies. But planned excessive state restrictions on the educational content and approach of the remaining Catholic schools seeks to render them playthings of secular policy.

The restrictions also inhibit Prof Ferriter’s principle of people being able to live what they believe thus ushering in an undemocratic and degraded notion of liberty. – Yours, etc,

NEIL BRAY,

Cappamore

Co Limerick.

Sir, – It is quite dextrous of Diarmaid Ferriter to discuss the issue of parental choice while ignoring the Forum on Pluralism and Patronage in Irish Education. This official body has uncovered no significant evidence that parents are demanding any change in patronage.

Facts and figures are absent when Prof Ferriter refers to “pragmatic baptisms” as an issue. It is simply hearsay. By comparison, the CSO reports that in 2011, 3,831,187 people identified themselves as Catholics in Ireland.

It is richly ironic to see a historian discussing Archbishop Paul Cullen without any reference to the 19th-century context of the penal laws or the Famine. Prof Ferriter suggests that Cullen was motivated by some narrow-minded sectarianism. Instead, he should acknowledge the churchman’s tireless defence of his flock’s basic right to live out their faith, as part of an inclusive nation, of course. – Yours, etc,

DAVID BURKE,

Navan,

Co Meath.

Sir, – Further to John Kelly’s letter (January 27th), the Rules for National Schools and the infamous “Rule 68” insist that religion is the “most important” element of schooling. The department’s own rules require that a large portion of the curriculum is given to religion, almost as much as maths or English and twice as much as PE. I have experience of such rules being imposed.

I appreciate that Mr Kelly does not ask for baptismal certificates on admission. Does his school’s admission form ask what religion the parents are? And does he consider that his ethos and admissions policy may influence their answer?

There are many pragmatic principals and teachers ignoring or working around these rules but that does not make them right. – Yours, etc,

ANDREW DOYLE,

Bandon, Co Cork.

Sir, – My three children attend national school in Leixlip. When enrolling them for school, I was asked for a birth certificate, PPS number and a utility bill. Later, I chose to present my children for first communion preparation and was, at that time, asked for a baptism certificate. Either my experience was highly irregular, or Diarmaid Ferriter’s sweeping observations of State-funded schools insisting on baptism certificates are a bit far-fetched. – Yours, etc,

GRAINNE HYNES,

Leixlip,

Co Kildare.

Sir, – I struggle to understand the ongoing failure of our Government to rectify the fact that one must make a religious declaration to take higher office.

The declaration’s references to God – as specified in our Constitution – were criticised in a 1993 report of the UN Human Rights Committee. The 1996 Constitution Review Group proposed that the President and members of the Council of State should be permitted to substitute a non-religious affirmation.

Disappointingly, the upcoming referendum to lower the minimum age for the presidency to 21 does nothing to address this issue. A simple inclusion in the referendum of a clause allowing the right to “truthfully affirm” as an option on taking up office would resolve the issue forthwith. Without such a clause, the referendum should not proceed without opposition. – Yours, etc,

NIAMH KELLY,

Bandon,

Co Cork.

Sir, – According to your report of January 26th, Martin McGuinness told a Sinn Féin party meeting in Omagh at the weekend that a united Ireland is “within our grasp”. Forthcoming elections will “give us the opportunity to take more huge strides towards our ultimate goal”, presumably through a greatly increased Sinn Féin vote.

Whence does Mr McGuinness derive this exuberant confidence about unity, apart from feeling it in his bones? Big Sinn Féin victories, North and South, will not help the peace process – rather the reverse. Mr McGuinness’s nationalist approach seems to take no account of unionist opposition to a united Ireland, now as adamant as ever, despite the best (or worst) efforts of Sinn Féin and the IRA. In fact, unionists see the Belfast Agreement as guaranteeing their place in the UK indefinitely.

Mr McGuinness cherishes a bogus mystique that “the establishment of the 1916 Republic is inevitable”. ( He does not recognise the present living Republic of Ireland). This self-delusion is the only source of his optimism about imminent unity. It is only to be hoped that his simplistic views do not damage the real work for peace and reconciliation in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

JOHN A MURPHY,

Cork.

A chara, – As the pernicious role of the whip system comes under closer scrutiny, Jason Fitzharris (January 25) calls for all TDs to be allowed to vote by secret ballot, as this “allows weak politicians the courage of privacy”.

I have enormous sympathy for politicians who come under pressure – be it political, financial, or emotional – from “vested interests”. However, if a TD cannot have courage in his or her convictions, stand up to these vested interests and publicly vote tá or níl on a matter of national importance, then I don’t think they belong in Dáil Éireann in the first place.

Exceptions could be made for internal parliamentary matters – votes of no confidence, or the election of the Ceann Comhairle, for example. But in other matters, for our elected representatives, the only honest vote is an open vote. How else will we assess their performance come the next election? – Is mise,

Dr HUGH ADLER,

Ranelagh,

Dublin 6.

Sir, Further to Charles Lysaght’s letter (January 20th), Marcus de Burca’s superb book Murder at Marlhill did indeed do much to expose the irregularities of Harry Gleeson’s initial trial.

Flattering though it is of Mr Lysaght to say so, David Langwallner does not have a doctorate nor has he ever claimed to.

For the sake of clarity, it was the Irish Innocence Project that initiated the novel procedure of an executive pardon and/or an argument within the structure of the Criminal Procedure Act 1993 which led to Mr Gleeson’s pardon after an independent inquiry was set up by the Attorney General as a consequence of our submissions. In addition, the project submitted new or newly discovered facts before the independent inquiry, including an independent forensic report. – Yours, etc,

DAVID LANGWALLNER,

TERTIUS VAN EEEDEN,

ANNE DRISCOLL,

Irish Innocence Project,

Justice for

Harry Gleeson Group,

The Law School,

Sir, – With the election of Syriza, the EU and its institutions are now at a crossroads.

They could heed the verdict of the Greek people, and attempt to find pragmatic, society-led solutions and policies that focus on the most pressing problems facing the people of Europe – unemployment and a contraction in opportunities for social progression.

Or they could crush the newly elected Greek government back into a conformity that is failing ordinary people, at the expense of the most powerful in society, and ultimately make Japan’s “lost decades” look like the Roaring Twenties.

Your choice, Europe. – Yours, etc,

TOMÁS M CREAMER,

Ballinamore, CoLeitrim.

Sir, – With all due respect to Christine Lagarde, I think that when history comes looking for the “real heroes” of the Great Recession, it is more likely to find them in Greece rather than in Ireland. – Yours, etc,

MIKE SCOTT,

Ballybough, Dublin 3.

Sir, – Perhaps it is not “political correctness” that has “gone mad”, as Michael Lowry asserts (“Lowry reacts to reappointment controversy”, January 27th), but an appointments system that tolerates the type of lobbying that the former Fine Gael minister indulged in. – Yours, etc,

Dr JOHN DOHERTY,

Gaoth Dobhair,

Co Dhún na nGall.

Sir, – I’ve always considered Michael Lowry to be bright, intelligent and perma-tanned looking. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN AHERN,

Clonsilla, Dublin 15.

Sir, – Simon Comer (January 24th) advises drivers with back ailments to slow down when travelling over speed ramps. As someone who suffers frequently from sciatica pains, I’d like to point out that this approach still comes with its ups and downs. Instead, I’ve found that any speed ramp problem can be overcome by simply getting over it. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN McDERMOTT,

Drumcondra,

Dublin 9.

Irish Independent:

During America’s Great Depression Walter Lippmann – an American writer, journalist and political observer – wrote that: “A demoralized people is one in which the individual has become isolated. He trusts nobody and nothing, not even himself. He believes nothing except the worst of everybody and everything. He sees only confusion in himself and conspiracies in other men. That is panic. That is disintegration. That is what comes, when in some sudden emergency of their lives, men find themselves unsupported by clear convictions that transcend their immediate and personal desires.”

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In Ireland in 2009 – when banks were near bankrupt and people were worried about savings and of a run on the banks – the FF/Green Party government guaranteed savings of up to €100,000 and bank liabilities. Investment agencies, companies and people were withdrawing their funds to secure banks in the North and in Europe. Last year, a FG/Labour government minister frankly said there had been little trust in the quality of information from the banks and that was why outside auditors were brought in by his government too.

The truth in Lippmann’s observation – about how circumstance can cause a person to believe “nothing except the worst of everybody and everything” was shown many times in the first two years of the crises affecting Irish banks.

Walter Lippmann lived through both World Wars, US wars in Korea and Vietnam and was one of hundreds consulted by Senator Robert F Kennedy in 1968 as to whether he should run for the Presidency. Three months into his campaign, Kennedy was killed and buried beside his brother in Arlington. Tragically, RFK did believe in many good things for his country.

When RFK was a federal attorney general in Washington DC in the 1960s, assisting the civil rights movement, there was a plaque in his office that read ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be given hell from both sides’. In 2009 in Ireland that could have been: ‘Blessed are the decision makers, they will get hell from all sides’.

Hopefully, the new Dáil committee banking inquiry will answer remaining questions and bring some closure.

Walter died in 1974 aged 85.

Mary Sullivan, Cork

 

To remember is not enough

This week the Holocaust is remembered throughout the world. The Nazis, aided by many Europeans, murdered about six million Jews in Germany and across Europe. Another five million were killed as part of the Nazis’ mass murder, including Roma, homosexuals, communists, and mentally handicapped.

While many are justifiably opposed to crimes against humanity committed by state of Israel against the Palestinian people, we must not make the mistake of becoming racist against the Jewish people as a whole.

Likewise we must not support Islamophobia just because the United States and its allies have unleashed a war on terror that has caused a predictable blow-back of terror by some Muslim groups. The tragic truth about genocide is that it has been relatively successful and many of the perpetrators have never been held to account. Infamously, Hitler is reputed to have said to his generals: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Let’s never forget the genocide of the Herero in South West Africa committed by Germany (1904-07). Let’s never forget the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkish Government (1915-22). Let’s never forget the Holocaust of the Jews, perpetrated by the German Nazi government (1939-45). Let’s never forget Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia 1975-78 caused indirectly by the US war in Vietnam and Cambodia. Let’s never forget the genocides by European invaders and colonisers in Australia, Africa and in all parts of the Americas.

But just not forgetting is never enough.

Let’s do all we can every day of our lives to prevent acts of genocide and crimes against humanity.

And let’s hold all governments to account for complicity in crimes against humanity.

Edward Horgan, Castletroy, Limerick

 

Vatican should look to its past

I’m afraid many dead mothers were turning in their graves at the Pope’s recent crude comment about the rabbits.

Does he not know that it was the Vatican that laid the burden on our mothers to have as many children as possible, under pain of mortal sin and eternal fire in hell?

Sean McElgunn, address with editor

 

Open letter to Joan Burton

Dear Ms Burton,

Last week my daughter called into the local social welfare office to ask about what arrangements will in place when her one-parent-family payment ceases this year when her son reaches his 16th birthday.

When she explained her particular situation she was told there would be absolutely nothing available to her. You can imagine her distress on being given this information… or can you?

If she had sat back and did nothing for the last 16 years I gather there would be courses, job seeker’s allowance, internships and other options that she could avail of.

But, because she has always tried to work whatever hours she could get, she doesn’t fit the model for any of these options.

If you sit back and do nothing you get rewarded. If you try your best to be employed you are punished. How demoralising is that?

I am surprised that you would be so callous with mothers who represent one of the groups most at risk of poverty.

I also wonder if anyone believes that somehow children cost less as soon as they reach a certain age.

In the past, I have been impressed with the way certain less well-off groups are looked after in this country and am convinced this is one of the proverbial “cracks” in the system.

Name and address with editor

 

Can Michael O’Leary save us?

“Disastrous error” was how I have previously charcterised the sell-out of Aer Lingus (Letters, January 23), the most prestigious and necessary of our national assets – ‘the family silverware”.

To jeopardise key air connections from airports all over Ireland, and Britain in particular – as well as putting at serious risk services from Cork, Knock and Shannon to London – for short-term Government gain of €341.6m, is beyond comprehension. We are an island nation and must control our own airline – sporting our marketing national emblem and colour, indefinitely.

It is now dangerously obvious the Government is displaying weakness.

Life without hope is a life without meaning. So our only option to save the day seems to be Michael O’Leary. He is the player with the biggest hand, most patriotic heart and completely independent.

I plead with you, Michael, “put the foot down – you cannot lose”. And, as you are well aware, your rewards in the future will be many-fold. The relationship with Aer Lingus and Ryanair was compatible and competitive in the past and can only progress.

James Gleeson, Thurles, Co Tipperary

 

A novel idea for those in power

What this country is badly in need of is a Department of Common Sense.

Mary Devane Wilson, Dingle, Co Kerry

Irish Independent


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29 January 2015 Snow

A quiet day two Stephen Hawking books sold and it snows.

Obituary:

Mercy Haystead in Positano in 1949
Mercy Haystead in Positano in 1949 Photo: Bert Hardy / Getty

Mercy Haystead, who has died aged 84, was an actress who played a series of capricious characters in Fifties films such as What the Butler Saw (1950) and The Admirable Crichton (1957) before, on her marriage to the publisher Tony Samuel, becoming the unflappable chatelaine of Arndilly, a fine Adam house on the banks of the River Spey.

While her acting career was brief, lasting little more than a decade, it found her in the company, on stage and screen, of many of the stars of the period, including Kenneth More, Michael Hordern, Lionel Jeffries and Stanley Holloway. Mercy Haystead’s effervescent personality, ebony hair, doe eyes and expressive mouth marked her out, as one critic put it, as “another addition to the long list of ingénues to be watched – with pleasure”.

Her beauty and sense of fun had first been captured by the Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy in 1949 on the Amalfi coast. Hardy photographed her on the balcony of the Hotel Sirenuse in Positano rapturously dangling a forkful of spaghetti into her mouth.

She was a student at the time of her Italian trip – but not for long. She made her screen debut the following year, aged 18, in What the Butler Saw. It was the first of a number of plucky roles. She played Lapis, the daughter of the king of a tropical island who stows away in the luggage of a visiting British aristocrat, only to pop out of the crates at his castle (“Bwana, Lapis naughty!”). Unknown to the master of the house Lapis is in love with his butler.

Aristocrats, butlers and exotic locations also featured in perhaps her most famous film, The Admirable Crichton, directed by Lewis Gilbert, in which Kenneth More plays the Earl of Loam’s resourceful manservant. As Lady Catherine, the Earl’s wayward suffragette daughter, Mercy Haystead once again combined delinquency with charisma. After Lady Catherine’s arrest at a protest, the family depart to the South Seas to ride out the scandal – where they are promptly stranded on a desert island. Departing from London Airport in October 1956 for the location shoot in Bermuda, Haystead discovered that she did not have the required smallpox vaccination certificate. The airport doctor gave her a shot. Concerned about her swimwear scenes, she instructed him that “on no account must the mark show.”

In 1966 she gave up acting to become the wife of Tony Samuel, an SOE veteran, racehorse owner and chairman of the publishing company Herbert Jenkins (publisher of P G Wodehouse and George MacDonald Fraser). “There will be no honeymoon,” she told The Daily Telegraph ahead of their wedding day, “I couldn’t face one, and life, after all, is one complete honeymoon. I suppose we may go to the cinema.”

Mercy Jean Haystead was born on February 2 1930 in London, the elder daughter of Malcolm and Elizabeth Haystead. Her father was in the Army. Mercy grew up in Southfields and attended Mayfield School in Putney. During the war she was evacuated to the Midlands, where she boarded with an outworker for the Redditch needle companies. She spent her holidays potato picking and haymaking during visits to her sister, Jill, at a Quaker farm run by the Cadbury family near Clent.

Mercy Haystead in 1950 (PA)

Mercy Haystead studied Modern Languages at City of London College before attending Rada on a scholarship. Her early work included performances at London’s Q Theatre and in touring repertory productions (among them Alan Melville’s comedy Dear Charles in Germany).

She juggled film, stage and television work. In the West End she played in the musicals She Smiled at Me (St Martin’s Theatre) and Out of this World (Phoenix Theatre). On film she was perfect in gently risqué fare such as Dentist on the Job (1961), and the Riviera romp Girls at Sea (1958), with the tagline: “See what happens when three lovely girls – a blonde, a brunette and a redhead – spend a night on a warship with 500 sailors.”

However, the parts petered out as the Sixties progressed and her final screen credit was in the Billy Fury vehicle Play it Cool (1962). In 1965 she appeared at the Duchess Theatre in London as a French air hostess (opposite Nicholas Parsons) in Marc Camoletti’s farce Boeing Boeing. It was one of her last performances before she married.

Mercy Haystead and Jon Pertwee recording Pertwee’s Progress (S&G and Barratts/EMPICS Archive)

Mercy Haystead was Tony Samuel’s third wife (his second was another actress, the Rank favourite Beth Rogan) and the marriage was a happy one. Having given up stage and screen work (which she missed terribly), she devoted herself to making Samuel’s Scottish house, Arndilly, into a Palladian haven for friends and family. Visitors would enjoy the estate’s fishing and shooting and marvel at the Samuels’ collection of Impressionist paintings. They also kept a London home in St Leonard’s Terrace.

Mercy Haystead was a petite woman but an imperturbable wife. Many found her husband (the youngest son of the 2nd Viscount Bearsted and a grandson of Marcus Samuel, the founder of Shell) to be convivial but difficult. On one occasion her husband noticed that a dinner guest was wearing the same Cartier watch as him. Samuel commented on what a wonderful watch it was, saying that he had had the model for several months and had never had to wind it. Mercy calmly pointed out to him that Derby, the butler, wound it for him every day.

In later life the couple sold Arndilly and moved to a smaller house at Longparish in Hampshire; for many years the couple would take a suite at the Algonquin Hotel in New York while Samuel was visiting PG Wodehouse at his home on Long Island.

Mercy Haystead’s husband died in 2001, and she is survived by her sister.

Mercy Haystead, born February 2 1930, died January 11 2015

Guardian:

Paul Strohm (The Knight, the Wife and the wool, Review, 24 January) describes Chaucer’s Knight as “virtuous” and “judicious”, and his tale as a “sober romance”. In Terry Jones’s 1980 book Chaucer’s Knight, he demonstrates that the supposedly gentlemanly knight is nothing but a mercenary, a professional killer, and his tale a crude parody of Boccaccio’s Teseida that reveals the Knight’s own lack of education and little understanding of the tenets of chivalry.

In Chaucer’s day the listeners would have been howling with laughter throughout, from the description of the Knight himself, with his mismatched armour, patently stripped from bodies on the battlefield, to the crude behaviour of the characters in a tale whose subtleties he doesn’t understand, to his own, uncourtly, predilection for accumulating wealth.
Clifton Hughes
Hitchin, Hertfordshire

The Syriza victory (Radical Greeks vow to see off age of austerity, 27 January) has lessons not only for the eurozone, but for the EU as a whole. The real question for all 28 countries now is: is austerity working? It is dragging the eurozone towards deflation and even in Germany annual growth is now falling below 1%. In the UK all three main parties, tragically, agree that deep spending cuts must continue to be made until the structural budget deficit is wiped out in 2019-20, even though wages have already fallen 8% in real terms, business investment has still not recovered, unemployment is still around 2 million, the trade deficit in manufactured goods at £110bn this year is now the largest in modern history, and household debt is now over £2 trillion and rising. This is not recovery, it’s semi-permanent stagnation.

It’s not even as though the deficit is being reduced by these savage cuts. Because shrinking incomes have now significantly cut government tax revenues, the UK deficit, which is still nearly £100bn, is likely to rise, not fall, in 2014-15 and in future years. Since cutting the deficit has been made the centrepiece of economic policy, why carry on with policies that are manifestly failing to deliver this objective, while wreaking havoc in the lives of a third of the population?

There is an alternative. At 0.5% interest rates a £30bn investment package can be funded for just £150m a year, enough to create more than a million real jobs with good wages within two to three years. Even better, fund public investment to kickstart sustainable growth either through the two banks already in public ownership or through quantitative easing (as the European Central Bank is now doing) or through a special levy on the ultra-rich, whose wealth has grown substantially since the crash six years ago.
Michael Meacher MP
Labour, Oldham West and Royton

Polly Toynbee points out (Cameron’s latest tax-cut conjuring is a trick too far, 27 January), drawing on work by Ruth Lupton and John Hills, that coalition policies have done relatively little to reduce the deficit. Instead, the government has doled out the gravy to higher earners, mainly through tax cuts, and financed this largely through cuts in benefits and services for those on low incomes. We need also to bear in mind the 2010 increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20%. For the first time in a generation indirect taxes are raising more than income and capital taxes put together – and indirect taxes hit the poor harder than the rich. Corporation tax has been cut from 28% to 21%, its lowest rate ever, making the problem of getting in enough money to run state services even tougher.

Coalition policies have shown that it is impossible to address the deficit and cut taxes, but increases in personal taxation are always unpopular. Something could be done to increase taxes on the corporate sector and on capital, but it has always proved hard to extract the money from people who can hire top accountants and who are globally mobile. Is it time to think about a move to social insurance for many of our public services, on the grounds that people might be willing to pay the money necessary to keep them going if they believed they were buying rights to something they valued in return?
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Professor of social policy, University of Kent

I am hoping, increasingly against hope, that Labour does not need more than one term in opposition to learn the mistakes of its past embrace with neoliberalism. Polly Toynbee and David Walker clearly set out why the radicalism of Cameron and co needs an equal and opposite radical response from Labour (Cameron’s coup: Has he finished what she started?, 28 January). But this will not emerge as long as Labour only halfheartedly accepts that its love of the City, privatisation and so-called “free” markets was a big mistake; that its tax credit subsidies to low-wage employers was the flip side of the minimum wage; that its policy of “governments can’t pick winners” was palpably false; that its fear of supporting such common goods as council housing was irrational.

What impels me to write is the mention in the article of the Tories’ sell-off of the RAF air and sea rescue service. Who started this? Labour. And when I protested in a parliamentary Labour party meeting against this astonishing but indicative privatisation, the then secretary of state responded with little more than a nod and a shrug. So, if air sea rescue, why not ambulances? If not ambulances, why not hospitals? If not hospitals, well, what’s left? With less than 100 days to go, and now with much attention on the general election, Labour has to work hard to show that it has shed the delusions about the market which once gripped its leadership. But before it can do that, it actually has to recognise they were indeed delusions – and that’s where the evidence is weak, despite an energy price freeze or two.
Colin Challen
Labour MP, Morley and Rothwell 2001-10

As part of my PhD research into education and the free market, I noted and made reference to Margaret Thatcher’s intention to reduce public services to a point where it would be too expensive for any future Labour government to reintroduce or reignite them. In that respect I think that we can say that, yes, Cameron is finishing what she started.
Dr M Wakelin
Alsager, Cheshire


The victims’ commissioner is right that too often victims of crime do not get what they need from the justice system (Victims of crime let down by criminal justice system, report finds, theguardian.com, 27 January). Efforts to address this are welcome. But the best way to engage and empower victims is to increase the availability of restorative justice, which enables victims to meet the offender, explain the impact that the offence had on them, and potentially receive an explanation and an apology. It can also help offenders to understand the impact of their actions, take responsibility and make amends.

There is widespread political and public support for greater use of this approach, which both improves victim satisfaction and reduces reoffending. Restorative justice should be made available to every victim of crime who wants it, wherever they live and at any stage of the criminal justice process.
Jon Collins
Chief executive officer, Restorative Justice Council

 

Independent:

I have just received two letters in the post that raise questions about the political process. One was from the Prime Minister and the other from the chief fundraiser for the Liberal Democrats.

David Cameron’s is a survey about attitudes to Europe, presumably sent at random, as I don’t know the man. However, I quite often hear from the fundraiser as I am a Lib Dem member and donate when I can.

The Conservative survey is slanted towards such xenophobic attitudes and seems so likely to incite hate crime that I wonder if it is legal.

To give two examples, one asks views on “tougher and longer re-entry bans for rough sleepers, beggars and fraudsters”.

Conflating these categories implies that anyone living on the street is a foreigner and dishonest, whereas the great majority of them are British people whose situation has been made worse by austerity policies.

The second example is “EU jobseekers will not  be supported by taxpayers and will have to leave if  they are not in a job  within six months”, which suggests that any citizen from another European country is a scrounger, and ignores the fact that very many British people benefit from free movement by working in mainland Europe.

One party in Government spends a great deal of money on a survey that seems to me designed to solicit the votes of bigots and incite hatred.

The other party, which stands for fair and liberal policies and attitudes which the majority of British people agree with, lacks money adequately to promote itself. How come?

Vivienne Kynaston, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

 

I received an email from David Cameron today, addressed directly to me. I feel privileged.

In it he says: “I believe that if you have worked hard and earned your own money, you should be able to spend it how you like. It’s your money, not the Government’s – and so  you should keep it. That is why I believe in cutting taxes.”

Let’s take his statement to its logical conclusions. Basically, he’s telling me that I have a right to keep my money and not hand it over to the Government.

But if all of us did that (and not just some of the big multinationals), there would be no government, no funding for education, no police, no NHS, no defence. Indeed, without all of us funding government, there would be no prime minister. Mr Cameron  has just talked himself out of a job.

Brian Mathieson, Plymouth

 

So David Cameron will promise voters more money for “a “nice meal out” (“Britons deserve a tax break, says Cameron”, 26 January) – even if that means less Government revenue”?

If you decide to eat out in Cheltenham or Gloucester, you may pass a hospital whose present financial support is so inadequate that, overwhelmed, it recently declared a “general incident”. Try not to fall over on your way home.

Alison Brackenbury, Cheltenham

 

A double standard: no buts about it

I read with much interest Howard Jacobson’s denunciation of the “But Brigade” (24 January) and my culpability in this crime. But (apologies for using the correct word) I’m afraid that he was very careful to miss the point, completely.

There was no “but” in the article of mine that elicited his fury. Rather, the article provided a series of illustrations of a highly significant general principle that was stated quite explicitly: “The more we can blame some crimes on enemies, the greater the outrage; the greater our responsibility for crimes – and hence the more we can do to end them – the less the concern, tending to oblivion or even denial.”

I can easily comprehend why Mr Jacobson would insist that the demonstration of the principle must be suppressed, but (apologies again) I see no reason to accede to his demand.

Noam Chomsky

Massachusetts Institute  of Technology

Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

Saudi Arabia opposes the UN charter

Will Gore (26 January) states: “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia… was an absolute monarch who had absolute disregard for what liberal Westerners would view as basic human rights”.

This is an unduly relativistic way of putting it: the rights in question are set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; this was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 after 48 nations voted in favour; Saudi Arabia was one of eight nations that abstained. The declaration is embodied in the UN Charter.

This is not simply a difference of opinion between an autocrat and Western liberals; Saudi Arabia is going against the UN Charter.

It behoves its allies, including the UK and the US, to follow the example of Amnesty International and remind Saudi Arabia of its obligations in respect of human rights.

John Dakin, Toddington,  Bedfordshire

 

Holocaust day must not be forgotten

There have been discussions around whether or not the time has come to put commemoration of Holocaust Day behind us, and move on. The answer is: absolutely not.

There is of course the argument as to how long we should continue to mark such important events. We will all recall the extensive coverage of the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, in addition to the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War. I noticed little dissension as we showed our respect for those who fought to retain our freedom, much of which is swiftly being eroded in the face of a different kind of conflict; random ruthless acts of terrorism in the name of religion.

Future generations of historians will be sure to ask the same question: what have we learnt? As a civilisation, not a lot it would seem. Wars involving many nations on such a scale may well be a thing of the past, as technological advances enable us to increasingly fight our battles remotely. However, there is barely a corner of the world in which there is not some strife, reported daily for us all to see on our TV screens, in gory detail.

I wonder if, with such constant, relentless, friction, we are at risk of becoming immune, preferring to tune into something more amusing and lighthearted as we while away our evenings over a glass of wine or two, rather than face up to the reality of the atrocities being committed elsewhere.

Without these reminders of what has gone before, we are in danger of putting the impact of such massacres, whether committed on our shores or elsewhere, out of our minds.

We must not forget, because the failure to remember will mean that we never learn the lessons that history can so vividly teach us, if we choose to learn.

Linda Piggott-Vijeh, Combe St Nicholas, Somerset

 

Disgusting prejudice against woman bishop

I am not a religious woman but I was moved by the accounts of the consecration of the Rev Libby Lane as the first woman bishop and the roaring affirmation the congregation gave her when she was challenged.

I was, therefore, disgusted to read in your editorial (27 January) that the soon-to-be Bishop of Burnley is not allowing the same clergy to “lay on hands” that touched Libby Lane because of his conservative views.

What on earth does he think will happen? Will he not speak to her at meetings or stand near her in the lunch queue either? It would be funny if it wasn’t so prejudiced.

Lesley Sainsbury

St Neots, Cambridgeshire

 

The damage done to schools by Gove

The report of the Education Select Committee (“‘No evidence’ primary schools benefit from changing to academies”, 27 January) points out that there is nothing to show that turning the small minority of primary schools into academies is resulting in higher standards or a better quality of education.

There is, however, compelling evidence of a different outcome. Gove’s academy and free schools policies have resulted in a near-fatal weakening of local democracy and accountability, and in a marked decline in the capacity of local authorities to support the large majority of primary schools, as well as a large minority of secondary schools, not opting for academy status.

But perhaps that attack on local governance and support was always part of Gove’s “grand” (or grandiose) design?

Professor Colin Richards

Spark Bridge, Cumbria

 

Nothing daft about abolition of zoos

Ian Birrell (26 January) criticises the Green Party’s “daft policies”, such as “the abolition of zoos”.

I am disappointed that Mr Birrell views this policy as daft; zoos are pernicious places that degrade and oppress animals for the sake of our pleasure.

The Greens may have some daft policies, but the abolition of zoos is not one of them.

Harley Miller, London SW19

Times:

The Times columnist Matt Ridley thinks we should kill the rats and move the bats. Is he right?

Sir, Matt Ridley highlights the clash between conservation of nature and conservation of art (“It’s common sense: kill the rats, move the bats”, Opinion, Jan 26). Britain is fortunate in having much religious and commemorative art preserved in the settings for which it was designed. The memorials by Nicholas Stone in the V&A do not have the same impact as his great monuments in churches such as Redgrave in Suffolk. Painted screens in churches constitute a greater body of native medieval painting than may be boasted by all museums put together. The Cassey brass at Deerhurst (Gloucestershire), with its dog Terri (now severely damaged by bat urine) is not only distinguished art but puts us close to the emotional life of a couple who lived 600 years ago.

We undervalue British art, particularly sculpture, because it is not presented to us in museums, but where it has always been and was intended to be, freely available in churches countrywide. It is the business of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to follow the Treaty of Rome’s provisions for the safeguarding of cultural heritage, and protect this rich national legacy. Meanwhile Natural England feels free to ignore the Treaty and promote nature conservation policies that actively destroy this art.

Dr JL Wilson
President, Church Monuments Society

Sir, Our ancient churches are not animal sanctuaries. Bat droppings are doing incalculable harm to our great legacy of artworks, including the finest collection of funerary monuments and memorials in the world. During my many visits to English parish churches to study funerary art, I have been appalled to see and smell bat excreta in quantities that not only constitute an obvious danger to health but cause staining and erosion of materials, notably alabaster, a beautiful stone used for funerary effigies.

Professor James Stevens Curl
Holywood, Co Down

Sir, Matt Ridley’s article brings some common sense into the conservation debate, and highlights the work to eradicate rats from South Georgia. Rats were introduced inadvertently to South Georgia by sealers and whalers over the course of 200 years. The result has been the decimation of birds breeding on this spectacular 100-mile-long sub-Antarctic island. Scientists estimate that with rats eradicated the bird population will increase by up to 100 million, avoiding the possible extinction of at least one endemic species, and returning South Georgia to its status of one of the most important seabird sanctuaries in the world.

The £7.5 million project is being carried out by the South Georgia Heritage Trust. We are already witnessing the results, with endemic species seen to be rearing young in places where they have not nested in living memory. With continuing support from our generous donors, South Georgia should be rat-free by the middle of this year.

Howard Pearce
South Georgia Heritage Trust

Sir, As a zoologist, Matt Ridley should know why bats roost in churches and houses. They like contact with wood because it doesn’t conduct away their body heat. They roosted originally in rot holes and woodpecker holes in the ancient woodland which covered much of Europe, but we have cut that down to build, inter alia, churches and houses. It is hardly surprising that the bats have followed the wood.

Restoration of their natural habitat would be “true conservation”.

Paul Racey
Regius Professor of Natural History (Emeritus), University of Aberdeen

Sir, I worked for some time as a quantity surveyor on the stabilisation of Combe Down Stone Mines, Bath, which cost £140 million. More than £1 million of this sum was spent on bespoke galleries and roosts for greater and lesser horseshoe bats, pipistrelle bats and vesper bats. One day, the bats upped and off en masse.

Money well spent?

Robert Chalke
Bruton, Somerset

Sir, Matt Ridley is wrong to say that “the demise of the dodo on Mauritius was actually caused by the introduction of alien species . . . rather than humans themselves”. Although introduced alien species did contribute to the dodo’s extinction, visiting seamen played a major role, as the large flightless birds — the size of a swan — provided an irresistible source of fresh food.

Dr Sir Christopher Lever, Bt
Winkfield, Berks

More from Letters to the Editor

M-way flow

Published at 12:01AM, January 29 2015 Sir, The transport secretary speaks of raising the limit on motorways to 80mph to improve traffic flow (News, Jan 24)

Massively amazing

Published at 7:53PM, January 28 2015 Words that are overused in sport and on TV

Sir, With the Six Nations rugby championship fast approaching, we shall soon be reading or hearing “massive” applied to every match by players and coaches alike. Its overuse renders it close to meaningless. Perhaps we should yellow-card any player who utters “massive” in the 48 hours before a match.
David Newth
Byfield, Northamptonshire

Sir, Winterwatch on BBC2 is “amazing”, “fantastic” and “fascinating”, as the presenters never tire of telling us. In the January 20 episode I counted seven “fantastics”, and six occurrences each of “fascinating” and “amazing”. Perhaps the presenters should be invited to play Radio 4’s Just a Minute.
John Woolley
Whitby, N Yorks

Sir, The director-general of the BBC, is correct (News, Jan 27). There’s cold comfort in The Archers these days and definitely something nasty in the cowshed.
Ros Hield
Shrewsbury

Sir, Richard Morrison makes a fair analysis of problems facing the English National Opera (“Blood at the ENO”, Jan 27). But why no mention of the slavish obligation to sing in English? Italian and French libretti do not translate easily, they sound mannered and, sometimes, ugly; German, Russian and Czech operas are more easily managed. Surtitles are used anyway, so why not go the whole hog?
Brian Lees
London SW6

Telegraph:

Conservative MP for Congleton, Fiona Bruce
Conservative MP for Congleton, Fiona Bruce, wants to outlaw gender abortion

SIR – A proposed amendment to the Serious Crime Bill would make abortion on grounds of sex selection a specific criminal offence (“Gender abortion: it’s time for urgent action”).

Those pushing for this amendment claim abortions are being performed on women coerced into having the procedure, but any doctor in Britain performing an abortion on a woman against her will would already be committing a crime.

We have three main concerns about the proposed amendment. First, it would undermine the professional integrity of those who work in an already overstretched abortion service, as it suggests that they need to be stopped from doing something that constitutes a form of violence and abuse and thus need to be prevented from harming women. This is a serious claim.

Secondly, it risks encouraging doctors to enact some form of ethnic profiling that would, for example, require service providers to question Asian women specifically regarding their reasons for requesting abortion.

Thirdly, it seeks to construe abortion as an offence against “the unborn child”, specifically “the girl”. This is an attempt to secure a legal definition of a pregnancy that recognises the “rights of the unborn” – independent of the pregnant woman – and thus erodes women’s reproductive rights. MPs should seriously consider if they want to take that step.

Professor Sally Sheldon
University of Kent, School of Law
Dr Ellie Lee
Reader in Social Policy University of Kent
Professor Helen Allan
Professor of Nursing, Middlesex University
Dr Sylvie Dubuc
Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Dr Nicky Priaulx
Reader in Law, Cardiff Law School
Professor Roger Ingham
Centre for Sexual Health Research, University of Southampton
Dr. Navtej K. Purewal
Deputy Director, South Asia Institute, SOAS University of London
Dr Maya Unnithan
University of Sussex
Dr Catherine Conlon
Trinity College Dublin
Jackie Cassell
Professor of Primary Care Epidemiology, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Dr Sinéad Kennedy
Department of English, Maynooth University and Action for Choice Ireland
Hayley MacGregor
Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex
Dr Lesley Hoggart
The Open University
Dr Marian Duggan
University of Kent
Dr Louiza Odysseos
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex
Marie Fox
Professor of Socio-legal Studies, University of Birmingham
Hilary Standing
Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex and Emeritus Fellow, the Institute of Development Studies
Professor Val Gillies
Goldsmiths College
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University
Eva Hoffmann
University of Sussex
Dr Fiona Bloomer
Institute of Research in Social Sciences, Ulster University
Francesca Salvi
University of Sussex
Sarah-Jane Page
Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Marilyn Crawshaw
Honorary Fellow, University of York
Dr Ruth Cain
School of Law, University of Kent
Dr Ruth Fletcher
Queen Mary University of London
Dr Lucy Frith
Senior lecturer in bioethics, University of Liverpool
Dr Sheelagh McGuinness
University of Birmingham
Dr Geraldine Brady
Centre for Communities and Social Justice, Coventry University
Sorcha Uí Chonnachtaigh
Keele University
Professor Liz Meerabeau
Kingston University/ St George’s University of London.
Jennifer Palmer
Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Elsie Whittington
Centre for Innovation and Research In Childhood and Youth, University of Sussex
Nicola Horsley
Research Fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Alison Phipps
Director of Gender Studies, University of Sussex
Dr Georgia Philip
Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia
Gillian Love
University of Sussex Graduate Associate of the Centre for Reproduction, Technologies and Health (CORTH), University of Sussex
Emilomo Ogbe
CORTH, University of Sussex
Jess Newman
M.Phil Doctoral Candidate, Medical Anthropology, Yale University
Dr Erica Nelson
Independent consultant in global health
Dr Graeme Hayes
Reader in French and Social Movement Studies, Aston University
Dr Samantha Lyle
Researcher, University of Oxford
Dr Gary Fooks
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Katherine Tonkiss
Aston University
Dr Pam Lowe
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Triona Fitton
Research Associate, University of Kent
Dr Carrie Purcell
Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Dr Pascale Hancart Petitet
Research Fellow, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
Dr Lesley Hoggart
Senior Lecturer, The Open University Faculty of Health and Social Care


Rear view as two jet planes follow each other almost nose to tail on take off from London Gatwick airport
Rear view as two jet planes follow each other almost nose to tail on take off from London Gatwick airport Photo: Alamy

SIR – The Airports Commission will conclude its consultation next month regarding runway capacity in the South East, and prepare its recommendation to government.

As entrepreneurs and founders of businesses across a spectrum of industries, we recognise the importance of maintaining a competitive network of airports in the South East, to sustain choice and resilience in our access to overseas markets. This can only be achieved by expanding Gatwick to reinforce competition between it and Heathrow, not by restoring the latter’s monopoly and strangling the diversity that was so long in coming to Britain’s aviation industry.

Promoting choice for consumers is paramount and only expansion at Gatwick can deliver that, along with a positive effect on fares, service levels and innovation. At half the cost of expansion at Heathrow, it would be substantially cheaper to execute and require no support from the public purse. It would allow for the further development of low-cost business access to overseas markets, and especially to Britain’s major trading partners in Europe.

Above all what business needs after years of delay is a final decision. With the Heathrow proposals dogged by insuperable environmental problems and the threat of regression to the old industry monopoly, Gatwick is the only viable option for aviation expansion in the South East.

Luke Johnson
Founder, Risk Capital Partners
Martin McCourt
Former CEO, Dyson
Emma Jones
Founder, Enterprise Nation
James Lohan
Founder and CEO, Mr & Mrs Smith
Charlie Mullins
Founder, Pimlico Plumbers
Shaa Wasmund
Founder, Smarta
David Soskin
Co-founder, Howzat Partners LLP
Former CEO, Cheapflights
David Richards
CEO, co-founder and president, WANdisco
Duncan Cheatle
Founder, The Supper Club
Co-founder, StartUp Britain
Rupert Lee-Browne
Chairman and Chief Executive, Caxton FX
Rajeeb Dey
CEO, Enternships
John Armitage
Co-founder, Egerton Capital
Derek Browne
CEO and Founder, Entrepreneurs in Action
Shalini Khemka
Founder, E2Exchange
Robert Emmett
Founder, Emmett London
John Stapleton
Co-founder, New Covent Garden Soup
Co-founder, Little Dish
Tink Taylor
Founder and President, dotMailer
Matt Turner
MD, Creative Pod
Co-founder, Young Start-Up Talent
Neeta Patel
CEO, New Entrepreneurs Foundation

SIR – All European countries have a hub airport serving world destinations. Britain has Heathrow, which is also the preferred hub for most of western Europe.

Heathrow is nearly full, so we must make more space quickly, cheaply and with as little environmental impact as possible.

Peter Burgess
Horsham, West Sussex

SIR – There has been much recent publicity promoting the need for expansion at Heathrow in its guise as a hub airport.

By definition, a hub provides an axis for numerous radial spokes. The primary purpose of a hub airport is to provide a means for passengers in transit to change flights. It therefore follows that a hub does not need to be located near any particular area of business activity.

If Britain needs a high-capacity hub airport, why would it have to be located within an already densely populated conurbation? With a little imagination, a suitable location with undeveloped land, existing rail and road links and a need for improved employment opportunities could be found – away from the South East.

Harry Arrowsmith
Frimley, Surrey

Gender abortion

SIR – A proposed amendment to the Serious Crime Bill would make abortion on grounds of sex selection a specific criminal offence (“Gender abortion: it’s time for urgent action”).

Those pushing for this amendment claim abortions are being performed on women coerced into having the procedure, but any doctor in Britain performing an abortion on a woman against her will would already be committing a crime.

We have three main concerns about the proposed amendment. First, it would undermine the professional integrity of those who work in an already overstretched abortion service, as it suggests that they need to be stopped from doing something that constitutes a form of violence and abuse and thus need to be prevented from harming women. This is a serious claim.

Secondly, it risks encouraging doctors to enact some form of ethnic profiling that would, for example, require service providers to question Asian women specifically regarding their reasons for requesting abortion.

Thirdly, it seeks to construe abortion as an offence against “the unborn child”, specifically “the girl”. This is an attempt to secure a legal definition of a pregnancy that recognises the “rights of the unborn” – independent of the pregnant woman – and thus erodes women’s reproductive rights. MPs should seriously consider if they want to take that step.

Professor Sally Sheldon
University of Kent, School of Law
Dr Ellie Lee
Reader in Social Policy University of Kent
Professor Helen Allan
Professor of Nursing, Middlesex University
Dr Sylvie Dubuc
Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Dr Nicky Priaulx
Reader in Law, Cardiff Law School
Professor Roger Ingham
Centre for Sexual Health Research, University of Southampton
Dr. Navtej K. Purewal
Deputy Director, South Asia Institute, SOAS University of London
Dr Maya Unnithan
University of Sussex
Dr Catherine Conlon
Trinity College Dublin
Jackie Cassell
Professor of Primary Care Epidemiology, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Dr Sinéad Kennedy
Department of English, Maynooth University and Action for Choice Ireland
Hayley MacGregor
Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex
Dr Lesley Hoggart
The Open University
Dr Marian Duggan
University of Kent
Dr Louiza Odysseos
Senior Lecturer in International Relations, University of Sussex
Marie Fox
Professor of Socio-legal Studies, University of Birmingham
Hilary Standing
Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex and Emeritus Fellow, the Institute of Development Studies
Professor Val Gillies
Goldsmiths College
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health, Bournemouth University
Eva Hoffmann
University of Sussex
Dr Fiona Bloomer
Institute of Research in Social Sciences, Ulster University
Francesca Salvi
University of Sussex
Sarah-Jane Page
Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Marilyn Crawshaw
Honorary Fellow, University of York
Dr Ruth Cain
School of Law, University of Kent
Dr Ruth Fletcher
Queen Mary University of London
Dr Lucy Frith
Senior lecturer in bioethics, University of Liverpool
Dr Sheelagh McGuinness
University of Birmingham
Dr Geraldine Brady
Centre for Communities and Social Justice, Coventry University
Sorcha Uí Chonnachtaigh
Keele University
Professor Liz Meerabeau
Kingston University/ St George’s University of London.
Jennifer Palmer
Research Fellow, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Elsie Whittington
Centre for Innovation and Research In Childhood and Youth, University of Sussex
Nicola Horsley
Research Fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London
Dr Alison Phipps
Director of Gender Studies, University of Sussex
Dr Georgia Philip
Senior Research Associate, University of East Anglia
Gillian Love
University of Sussex Graduate Associate of the Centre for Reproduction, Technologies and Health (CORTH), University of Sussex
Emilomo Ogbe
CORTH, University of Sussex
Jess Newman
M.Phil Doctoral Candidate, Medical Anthropology, Yale University
Dr Erica Nelson
Independent consultant in global health
Dr Graeme Hayes
Reader in French and Social Movement Studies, Aston University
Dr Samantha Lyle
Researcher, University of Oxford
Dr Gary Fooks
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Katherine Tonkiss
Aston University
Dr Pam Lowe
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Aston University
Dr Triona Fitton
Research Associate, University of Kent
Dr Carrie Purcell
Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh
Dr Pascale Hancart Petitet
Research Fellow, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
Dr Lesley Hoggart
Senior Lecturer, The Open University Faculty of Health and Social Care

Trouble in the Church

Libby Lane has become the UK’s first female bishop (Eddie Mullholland/The Telegraph)

SIR – The front page photograph in yesterday’s Telegraph, from the ordination of the first woman bishop, illustrates all that is wrong with the Church of England.

The bishops pictured are just a small part of the vast bureaucracy of “chiefs” that exists while parishes are crying out for a single vicar. Our village has a vicarage but no vicar; we share ours with seven other parishes.

The Church of England is dying because, rather than going out to the people as the disciples did, priests are settling complacently into comfortable jobs.

K G Hunter
Gilling West, North Yorkshire

SIR – Can it be that “after decades of bitter, bruising battle” the Church of England should want to see those “traditionalists” who still object to women’s ministry “vanquished” (Comment, January 27)?

Since 1992, when the vote went in favour of women priests, I have been led to believe that the Church would do everything within its power to make me – one of those traditionalists – an included member of Christ’s body.

Patrick Hawes
Catfield, Norfolk

Saudi Arabia’s censors

SIR – I thought the flying of the flag at half mast on Westminster Abbey following the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (report, January 24) was an unnecessarily obsequious tribute to a country that to all intents and purposes bans Christianity.

However, this accommodation of Islamic susceptibilities is not new. In 1995 I was asked to adapt a TEFL book I had illustrated for use in Saudi Arabia. I had to delete all crosses – even those formed by the glazing bars in windows – cull pigs and dogs, lengthen skirts and change boys into girls and vice versa so that the two sexes were never seen together. I had to remove Westminster Abbey from a map of London, leaving a blank space.

To those who claim that Turkey is still a robustly secular state, I offer the example of my Turkish publishers who, in 2010, asked me to remove a medieval market cross from the Turkish edition of my book A City Across Time.

Peter Kent
Norwich

How Greece could turn its tragedy to triumph

SIR – The new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, is in a very strong position, as he doesn’t have to pay back any money unless he wants to.

A new drachma, at a lower value than the euro, would invigorate the economy through increased tourism and income from services such as shipping – just as occurred with the pound when Britain left the Exchange Rate Mechanism – and it would once again be attractive for foreign investment.

David James
Colby, Isle of Man

SIR – The bureaucrats of Brussels must bear some of the responsibility for the problems in Greece. Eager to expand their empire, they welcomed Greece into the EU in the full knowledge that it failed to meet the criteria for membership.

Donald Sutherland
Hale, Cheshire

SIR – For Greece, Germany and the EU, read Scotland, England and the United Kingdom. In Greece and Scotland we have two minor states who want to enjoy all the benefits of membership of a strong union (the EU and UK respectively) with none of the inherent responsibilities.

One day they’ll go too far and find themselves cast out, facing the hard fiscal reality from which they have been insulated by membership of their respective unions. I hope sanity prevails before either of them reaches the door.

David Dunbar
Evesham, Worcestershire

SIR – Greece gets a new anti-austerity government. Within 24 hours a Greek fighter jet crashes and an internationally renowned Greek singer dies.

Is this a sign of things to come?

Jim Oliver
Chichester, West Sussex

Sondheim’s talent under the American radar

‘Sunday in the Park with George’ at Wyndham’s Theatre in London (Alamy)

SIR – While I agree that Britain can take pride in its role in increasing awareness of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, I would argue that America has not always been “fully aware of his worth”.

In the Eighties, prior to Sweeney Todd premiering at London’s Theatre Royal, I had the privilege of collaborating with Sondheim on a compilation of all his lyrics up to that era, called Song by Song by Sondheim. The only publisher interested in the work was a British publishing house, Rainbird Publishing Group, in London. A dummy book was produced, but with expanded material offering a substantial volume, we needed an American publisher to share the overhead costs.

Try as we might, the Americans continually put a spanner in the works by demanding a lower-priced book and the project was eventually aborted.

John L Fisher
Leeds, West Yorkshire

A hand out

SIR – To get the most out of her rubber gloves, Patricia Ford need only turn a left-hand glove inside out to make it into a right-hand one.

Jeremy Thomas
Birmingham

SIR – If only the Telegraph could bring Patricia Ford and my husband together. A reciprocal trade agreement in right- and left-handed rubber gloves would be much appreciated.

Carole Taylor
Lymington, Hampshire

Crumbling resolved

SIR – There is no art to controlling flaky croissant crumbs.

I always request a dinner plate.

Janet Toseland
Little Houghton, Northamptonshire

SIR – Take advantage of any sunny 10 minutes to have your croissant in the garden, where you will soon attract a number of small feathered friends who will be delighted to oblige with the clean-up.

In the absence of suitable weather, acquire a labrador dog.

Enid Bazire
Framlingham, Suffolk

Keep it under your hat

SIR – As a former police officer, I heartily agree with Paul Hornby on the importance of police helmets in Britain. They also provided a very useful storage space for food when on the beat.

Michael Carpenter
Glanffrwdd, Martletwy

SIR – I suspect Mr Hornby has never tried entering a foot race with a suspect while wearing a police helmet.

Steve Barry
Oxford

SIR – I thought all policemen’s heads were that shape?

Kevin Henley
Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Globe and Mail:

LYSIANE GAGNON

Quebec reopens its identity can of worms

Irish Times:

Sir, – A disservice has been done to the anti-water charges cause by those protesters in Finglas, with their reprehensible treatment of President Michael D Higgins (“President called ‘midget parasite’ by protesters”, January 28th). What diminishing public goodwill was remaining after protesters barricaded Tánaiste Joan Burton inside her car for hours in November is now surely nearing the point of total evaporation.

It would make for an interesting social experiment to see how those same protesters would react were they to witness a mob from beyond these shores spewing bile at the Irish head of state. It doesn’t seem overly presumptuous to think that their nationalistic colours might start to show at that point.

Rather than attempting to retrieve some respectability for his cause, Paul Murphy TD went on to further sully its reputation by defending the baying mob. Mr Murphy is right in saying that people should have the right to protest. However, there is nothing civilised about trying to intimidate a 73-year-old man, who had no option but to sign the water charges Bill because there was nothing unconstitutional about it.

Far be it from me to be an apologist for the Government, but nothing in recent months has swayed me more towards the argument in favour of water charges than seeing protesters chasing after our nation’s President, shouting “parasite”, “traitor” and “midget”. For shame. – Yours, etc,

JOHN HOGAN,

Ballyneety,

Co Limerick.

A chara, – Although I find the personal insults offered to President Higgins distasteful, I do not see why ordinary citizens who indulge in this behaviour are to be criticised when day after day we witness our political leaders indulging in the same invective and ad hominem attacks in Leinster House. When people see the often venomous and childish behaviour of our Ministers, TDs and Senators, are they not to be forgiven for assuming that they too can behave in a similar fashion?

When people are aggrieved – as many undoubtedly have been by the Government’s implementation of austerity – they have a right to protest. Personal insults, however distasteful (be they made by patrician or plebeian), do not make a protest violent nor do they delegitimise the valid grievance being protested about.

If our political leaders and sections of the media wish the citizens of this country engage in political debate without insults being bandied about, they should take the initiative and practice what they preach. – Is mise,

BREANDÁN Ó CORRÁIN,

Kinsale,

Co Cork.

Sir, – The gardaí that stood on duty in Finglas last Thursday to protect our President Michael D Higgins are to be commended for their patience and professionalism in dealing with the vile and disgusting behaviour of a few. – Yours, etc,

COLM McAREE,

Enniscorthy,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – The President is the first citizen and represents us all, outside of politics. What do the water protesters gain by insulting Mr Higgins, with such vicious personal vitriol? I am disgusted by their actions.

Is it a case of publicity at any price, especially with shock tactics?

By abusing the President, they insult all the citizens of the State. It does their cause no good whatsoever. – Yours, etc,

CHRIS RYAN,

Dublin 2.

Sir, – Harry McGee reports that only two of the 18 recommendations of the Convention on the Constitution are to be put to referendum (“Only two proposals for Constitution referendum”, January 26th).

The Government’s delay in responding to the final recommendations of the convention is regrettable. February 23rd will mark a year since 85 per cent of the convention voted in favour of enhanced protection of economic, social and cultural rights in Bunreacht na hÉireann.

Amnesty International has called on the Government to, at the very least, accept this recommendation in principle and, if deemed necessary, set up a working group for further consideration. Like the Convention on the Constitution, any such working group should be open to external expertise.

It should also have clear and public terms of reference and an expeditious and defined timeframe for reporting.

A Constitution that protects economic, social and cultural rights (such as the right to health, housing and education) would provide decision-makers and politicians with an objective, legally sound framework with which to make better, evidence-based decisions. It would also ensure a crucial linkage between economic and social policy.

Recourse to the courts would be a matter of last resort. International experience shows that courts tend to only intervene when an individual’s rights have been unjustifiably and significantly interfered with – not an easy threshold to meet.

Next year Ireland will mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising. This gives us the opportunity to look back, but also to consider our present and shape our future. In doing so we might remember the vision that underpinned our Republic. Constitutional protection of economic, social and cultural rights is consistent with such a vision of an Ireland built upon the principles of equality, human rights and social solidarity. It is also, in our view, a critical reform that will help to ensure that our return to economic growth secures a society which betters serves all of its people. – Yours, etc,

COLM O’GORMAN,

Amnesty International

Ireland,

Sean MacBride House,

48 Fleet Street, Dublin 2.

Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 01:06

Sir, – It is good to read of the initiatives with an environmental focus as outlined by Harold Kingston of the IFA (January 27th). However, it is wrong to state that simple targets are not the answer, because if we wish to be sustainable, then targets to define what this means are definitely needed.

A target I would like to see would be to reduce the net imports of animal feeds costing half a billion euro annually (it is difficult to conceive that much of this feed is produced sustainably, and no domestic assurance scheme seeks to verify this).

Another useful target would be to reduce methane emissions from livestock, which though natural, as Mr Kingston says, are at unnatural levels due to our success at intensification. As this can be achieved in terms of methane emission per unit production, why shouldn’t a target be set?

A further target would surely be to reduce the 300,000 tonnes of manufactured nitrogen used in agriculture each year, given that making each kilogramme of nitrogen results in three kilogrammes of CO2 in the atmosphere, a figure equivalent to 10 per cent of our annual CO2 emissions, most of which do not even feature in our official statistics as it is imported.

And surely Mr Kingston could not disagree with a target to reduce phosphorus input, given that it is an essential input for plants to live, especially considering that the world supply of accessible phosphorus is finite, and when it runs out plant production (and consequently all agricultural production) will be impossible in the way that we currently operate it.

One would have to question the logic of supplementing Irish-grown animal feeds (produced using unsustainable fertiliser inputs) with imported unsustainable feed, to give to animals producing unsustainable emissions, to produce milk powder to be exported to countries where it sold as a healthier alternative to breast-feeding. Bizarrely the countries the fertiliser is imported from are often so polluted as a consequence of these types of industry that it might indeed be healthier for mothers there to feed their infants milk made from Irish milk powder than natural mother’s milk.

I would also like to see a target for reduction in hot air production by spokespeople for certain organisations. To say Ireland produces food more sustainably than most is not correct; although Ireland produces beef and milk more sustainably than most, there is a lot more to food than just these sectors, and we have a hell of a long way to go. – Yours, etc,

CORNELIUS TRAAS,

Life Sciences Department.,

University of Limerick.

Sir, – Further to Harold Kingston’s letter (January 27th), the organic natural gases he mentions, more precisely methane, which stem from animal husbandry, are responsible for almost a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Again, fully a third of the world’s agricultural land is given over to the production of animal feedstock.

One must not forget either that to produce a kilogramme of beef requires 15.5 tonnes of water. Even if people are unwilling to accept this, it will become impossible to sustain the current level of meat production due to a shortage of resources. – Yours, etc,

TERENCE

HOLLINGWORTH,

Blagnac,

France.

Sir, – An 80 per cent reduction in emissions globally will be required by mid-century to limit the effects of climate change. This requires a new approach across all energy-consuming sectors. No sector can opt out if we are to achieve that target, nor the current EU 20 per cent and forthcoming 40 per cent reductions by 2020 and 2030.

As agriculture in Ireland is both such a major contributor to our emissions and our economic wellbeing, it will be necessary that it is given the fullest possible opportunity to contribute. The same is true, of course, for our industrial, transport and housing sectors. Each will need to better understand its role and doubtless redouble its efforts.

There are very difficult and uncomfortable choices to be made and any lack of engagement now will result in much greater problems further, but not much further, down the track. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL HAMELL,

Oughterard,

Co Galway.

A chara, – It seems that some people never vote on the question asked in referendums but on a whole array of other issues. This referendum is no different.

Reading between the lines, it would appear that for some this is essentially a referendum on whether they approve of gay people and their relationships rather than on extending rights to a minority within our society. Why else the fascination with adoption?

As for the redefinition of marriage, we have already redefined it. Wives are no longer considered the property of their husbands. – Is mise,

SÉAMUS McMENAMIN,

An Uaimh,

Co na Mí.­

Sir, – People should wake up to the fact that this proposed referendum has nothing to do with marriage. It is a proposal to extend the rights that married couples enjoy to others of the same sex who form a contract or bond to live together. Call it what you will, it is not marriage. That the Government of a so-called Christian country should regard any such arrangement as marriage is a clear sign of moral and spiritual decadence. – Yours, etc,

ROBERT A SHARPE,

Cootehill,

Co Cavan.

Sir, – It is infuriating to hear the IAG bid being described as €2.55 a share when in fact IAG is offering to pay only €2.50 with the other five cent being paid as a dividend out of Aer Lingus’s own cash reserves. With 535 million shares in issue, five cent per share amounts to €26.75 million of the company’s own money.

Also, as Aer Lingus has nearly €400 million in cash in its balance sheet, the net offer of IAG is €940 million and not the €1.34 billion being touted.

If you were an IAG route planning manager who could use a Heathrow slot to send an Airbus A320 with 170 seats to Dublin or an Airbus A380 with 550 seats to Los Angeles, which would you choose?

Michael O’Leary is correct in saying IAG cannot favour any one shareholder over another and consequently copper-fastened guarantees about Heathrow slots is not permissible. That leaves just promises.

The Government owns 25 per cent of Aer Lingus and without those shares IAG would be unable to pass a special resolution. The sale of the Government’s stake requires a vote in the Dáil. Labour now has an opportunity to save its skin in the next general election by voting against selling the Government’s 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus to IAG. Jobs and slots would be protected. It’s the decent thing to do. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN FRAWLEY,

Blackrock,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – How is it possible to introduce penal mandatory criteria for young home buyers and yet be unable to legally enforce the banks to pass on interest rate cuts to their customers? In a country that has not raised the minimum wage in years and which entertains ruinous employment contracts, the possibility of average working-class couples beating the landlords to the house keys is unlikely in the extreme. Roll on 2016. We have so much equality to celebrate. – Yours, etc,

EUGENE TANNAM,

Firhouse, Dublin 24.

Sir, – The Central Bank’s decision on mortgage deposits is to be welcomed. However, it is disturbing that a supposedly independent central bank has bowed to political pressure and allowed banks to provide extra leverage to first-time buyers. This is great news for anyone selling a small house or apartment in Dublin, as now there will be additional credit to goose up the selling price.

What is now needed is either a “use it or lose it” requirement for zoned development land – or a site tax to discourage further hoarding of land by developers in the hope of further price rises.

The current low interest rate environment makes a “wait-and-see” approach a one-way bet.

Lobbyists are using the historical costs of development land to justify sitting on zoned sites when in fact construction costs are now far below selling prices. Speculative historical prices paid are “sunk costs” and the new variable costs of material and labour should be more important in a rational market. Alas, the Irish property market can never be accused of being rational. – Yours, etc,

MATTHEW GLOVER,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 01:02

Sir, – The density of publicly accessible footpaths in Ireland is far inferior to that in England, Scotland or Wales. Sadly, although a denser network once existed here, many paths have subsequently fallen into disuse or been blocked by landowners. This situation has arisen, at least partially, from a missing level of local government in Ireland, namely the parish or community councils. In our neighbouring island and in many other EU countries, it is these locally elected bodies that, amongst their various functions, have a statutory duty to register and maintain footpaths. To cover their costs, they receive a small percentage of the district rates. Now that private property tax has been reintroduced here, would this not be a good time to set up a similar system in Ireland? – Yours, etc,

JOHN BUTLER,

Hollywood,

Co Wicklow.

Sir, – It is great to read that many principals in State schools do not ask for baptism certificates (January 27th). However, the fact remains that they can if they want to, and some do.

When I moved to the area where I live now, I rang local schools asking for enrolment forms for my son. One of the more popular schools in the area said that it would need to see a baptism certificate before sending a form, and that the school “is for the Catholic children of the parish”. I was flabbergasted, and asked if it was legal to discriminate against children who are not Catholic or religious. The woman told me that I could “put his name down if you insist but I’m telling you now that he won’t get in”, before hanging up. I had a similar experience with a Church of Ireland school.

Even if my experience is not a typical one, the fact remains that these schools are within their legal rights to discriminate against children in this way, and even if only a minority do so, that is a horrible way for our taxes to be spent. – Yours, etc,

DEIRDRE NUTTALL,

Dublin 8.

Irish Independent:

 

A scene from the film ‘300’. A modern-day Battle of Thermopylae is now set to be waged in Greece.

A scene from the film ‘300’. A modern-day Battle of Thermopylae is now set to be waged in Greece.

Perhaps it’s fitting that from the cradle of democracy itself, the flames of freedom and hope once more burn a little bit brighter in European politics.

  • Go To

The land where in 480BC King Leonidas and 300 Spartans stood and fought against tens of thousands of Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae.

Now a modern-day Battle of Thermopylae is set to be waged in Greece, once more against seemingly insurmountable odds, but this time the battle will not be waged with swords and spears, and will be waged against bondholders, markets and financial derivatives.

It remains to be seen how this particular fight will pan out, but one thing is for sure – the Germans would do well to remember recent history and the leeway afforded to them after World War II when billions upon billions were written off to help a crippled and defeated nation back on its feet.

The modern EU is a great idea in principle, but the subjugation of national sovereignty to serve the interests of an elitist few is an alarming and sinister development.

Perhaps it’s time for countries to take back their nationhood and stand proud together amongst the nations of the earth, as equals, celebrating our differences, not being ashamed of them.

And no longer being dictated to by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. If history teaches us anything it is that people don’t like being dictated to by faraway powers, in particular when those powers seem to serve only the few. It would be wise for our leaders to take note from history that the people can only take so much.

Seamus Hanratty, address with editor

 

Church must reform or wither

The Catholic hierarchical system, the clerical state, is built on shaky foundations. It reminds one of Christ’s parable about the man who built his house on sand. The building materials used are contaminated with a heretical ingredient from the time of Augustine. Simply stated, it is the heresy that holds material things to be evil and only spiritual things good. Hence sex is evil. The clergy, to be holy, must be male only, and protected from contamination from women. Hence the compulsory celibacy of the male-only clergy.

Because the foundations are not sound, the male clerical state is dying on its feet before our very eyes.

I can speak about one aspect of this matter from my own experience of 36 years living the compulsory celibate life. It’s all about the point of view. The view from the inside looking out is totally different from that of the outside looking in. When the Pope recently made the outrageous comment about Catholics not needing to breed “like rabbits”, he hadn’t a clue how it came across, because he hadn’t been there. No doubt he had been talking to the Filipino clergy about the exploding population there. When I went to the Philippines in 1959, the population was 35 million. Now I hear it’s over 80 million.

Old habits die hard, as my wife says. When Francis made that wisecrack, my first impulse was to laugh before I caught her eye and I bit my tongue.

And young priests today are ultra-conservative. What else is new?

Sean McElgunn, address with editor

 

Timely warning on extremism

John Waters’s timely reminder of how German responsibility for the Holocaust was successfully diluted by a global urge to facilitate an immediate “post-war reconstruction” of the former Nazi state, and remake it as a modern and inclusive liberal democracy (Irish Independent, January 28), should warn us all about the inherent danger of describing a totalitarian ideology “as an aberration of human history”.

This is as true of radical Islamic fundamentalism, as it was of Nazism, Fascism or 1990s Serbian ultra-nationalism. Indeed, even though Waters’s astute comment about an “unprecedented cauldron (where) terror and ideology operated in concert to seize and hold the hearts and minds of millions”, was describing the Nazi terror, it is equally as applicable to a sizeable pan-European cohort of disaffected and alienated modern-day Muslim extremists.

The only essential difference from Waters’s thesis is that instead of “history (being) the only God or master”, contemporary Islamic extremists have perverted the Koranic description of jihad, to justify the wholesale slaughter of anyone, including specifically those of the Jewish faith, who do not subscribe to their perverted ideology.

Dr Kevin McCarthy, Kinsale, Co Cork

 

State subsidies for big families

I refer to the article on high childcare costs (Irish Independent, January 26).

I fully support the right of mothers to work outside the home and certainly it is positive for the economy as well as for the mother (and therefore her child/children) to be able to do so. It therefore makes some sense for the State to further subsidise childcare.

But when I read about the featured mother, who has three children and wants to have a fourth child, I lost all empathy.

I’m all for personal choice, as this is what we have been slowly working towards in our cultural and social evolution. However, we need to balance our wants with our social and other responsibilities.

If individuals or couples choose to have a number of children, so be it, as long as they can provide the nurturing and education children need to become psychologically healthy, productive adults. But why should I sponsor this choice via my taxes paid to the State?

The argument in the editorial in the same edition, that Ireland needs the younger generation to ensure the pensions of the older generation, is a very weak and narrow one. There are plenty of creative ways in which to deal with a reducing population – it would cut childcare costs for a start. We all have to realise that the enormous human population is a big contributing factor in the significant psychological, social, economic and environmental problems facing us today.

Ann Fielding, Cork city

Irish Independent


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30 January 2015 Snow!

A quiet day 1 book sold and it snows again.

Obituary:

Colleen McCullough
Colleen McCullough Photo: GETTY

Colleen McCullough, the Australian writer, who has died aged 77, shot to fame when her second novel The Thorn Birds (1977), an epic story of a doomed romance between a Catholic priest and a woman in the Australian outback, became a global bestseller and was turned into an award-winning television miniseries in 1983, starring Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward.

Billed as Australia’s Gone with the Wind, the book sold 30 million copies and the paperback rights earned its author $1.9 million, a record at the time. Written in just three months in the evenings after her day job as a neurophysicist, the novel turned Colleen McCullough into a wealthy woman and (by her own account) put Australia on the map.

“I did the whole bloody thing,” she claimed. “I beat Paul Hogan to it; I even predated Rupert Murdoch.” Germaine Greer once described The Thorn Birds as the best bad book she had ever read.

Yet Colleen McCullough regarded her new-found celebrity as a mixed blessing. She hated the television adaptation (which earned her another $5 million), describing it as “instant vomit”, and accusing its producers, Warner Bros, of stripping her book of all nuance. “Ward couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag and Chamberlain wandered about all wet and wide-eyed,” she complained. “The filming was done in Hawaii, there was only one kangaroo on the set and everyone sounded American except Bryan Brown, whose Oz accent stuck out like a dingo’s bits.”

In the late 1970s Colleen McCullough moved to Norfolk Island, a remote Australian outpost in the Pacific, many of whose inhabitants claim descent from the Bounty mutineers, to avoid the pressures of fame. Much to her publisher’s frustration, she refused to consider a follow-up to The Thorn Birds and diversified mostly into “true historical fiction”, including a seven-novel series on the history of Rome. She did not pick up a copy of her most famous book for 25 years.

Colleen McCullough was born on June 1 1937 in Wellington, New South Wales, and spent much of her childhood in Sydney. Her Catholic mother was a New Zealander of Maori ancestry, while her Protestant father was an immigrant from Ulster who worked as a cane cutter.

An overweight, bookish child (she was later diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which causes weight gain), Colleen began writing almost as soon as she could wield a pen, to escape from her parents’ violent rows and in particular from her mother, “a dogmatic, volcanic woman”, who took her to the doctors and put her on endless diets. “She tried to make me into the child she wanted by dressing me up in ruffles,” Colleen McCullough recalled. “I looked like a Sherman tank with ribbons on it.”

Jean Simmons, Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward and Barbara Stanwyck in The Thorn Birds (1983) (EVERETT COLLECTION/REX)

Although the visits to the doctor did not help, they gave her a fascination with hospitals, and after education at Holy Cross College, Woollahra, she won a place at Sydney University to study Medicine. In her first year, however, she developed an allergy to surgical soap and was advised to give up her studies. Instead she switched to Neuroscience and worked at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney.

In 1963 she moved to Britain, where she spent four years working at hospitals in London and Birmingham. While there, she met the chairman of the neurology department at Yale University who was about to open a new neurophysiological research laboratory, and who offered her a job. Officially she became his chef de laboratoire — “which means I ran the joint” — but she was paid half the salary of her male peers and, not wanting to end up as a “70-year-old spinster in a cold-water walk-up with a 60-watt bulb”, she began writing in her spare time.

Her first novel, Tim (1974), about a middle-aged woman’s romance with a young, mentally disabled handyman, did well and in 1980 was made into a film starring Mel Gibson. The Thorn Birds, however, transformed her into a multi-millionairess.

Colleen McCullough wrote 25 novels ranging from love stories (An Indecent Obsession, The Ladies of Missalonghi) to crime fiction (a series of novels featuring small-town detective Carmine Delmonico) and from historical fiction to biography. Her 2008 sequel to Pride and Prejudice, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet (2008), upset Austen purists with its account of how the plain Bennet sister breaks out to become a crusading socialist and feminist, while the marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy ends in tears.

Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward in The Thorn Birds (1983) (MOVIESTORE COLLECTION/REX)

Colleen McCullough did not pick up a copy of The Thorn Birds for a quarter of a century, until Gloria Bruni, a German composer and opera singer, persuaded her to collaborate on a musical based on the book. It was given its world premiere in 2009 by Michael Bogdanov’s Wales Theatre Company to mostly unenthusiastic reviews. Dominic Cavendish in The Daily Telegraph complained that “some of the ballads are almost memorable in their syrupy excess”, while others “often backed by flavourless rock gyrations, are as soon forgotten”.

It was not until her mid-forties that Colleen McCullough found romance. In 1983, aged 46, she married Ric Robinson, a 33-year-old Norfolk islander whom she described as “a cross between Isaac Newton, a Samoan prince and a convict”, and who claimed direct descent from the Bounty mutineers Fletcher Christian, William McCoy, John Adams and Matthew Quintal.

Colleen McCullough suffered health problems for most of her life and wrote her final book, Bittersweet (2013) – the story of two sets of twin sisters growing up in provincial Australia during the Great Depression – to entertain herself after failing eyesight forced her to abandon her other passions: painting and drawing.

She is survived by her husband and two stepchildren.

Colleen McCullough, born June 1 1937, died January 29 2015

Guardian:

Anti-fracking protesters gather outside council offices in Preston

Fracking protest outside Lancashire county council offices, 28 January 2015. Photograph: David Ellison/Corb

What gives you the impression (Editorial, 27 January) that by 2030 “gas will not be needed for power stations, only for domestic and industrial heating”? National Grid, which manages both the electricity and gas transmission networks, does not concur. Under the greenest of its future scenarios, by 2030 total gas demand would decline by 25%, including a 37% decline in power station use. However, this is swamped by smaller percentage decreases in gas use for domestic and industrial heating, which together account for three-quarters of UK gas consumption. Moreover, they amount to more than double the total energy consumed as electricity.

Four-fifths of UK households rely on gas for heating. They are the lucky ones: those without access to the gas grid are more than twice as likely to be in fuel poverty. And that is the most optimistic scenario. Far more likely is an increase in gas use for power generation, as coal-fired and nuclear plants are decommissioned, and we lack any alternative to balance the intermittency of wind and hydro. (Storage is economically and environmentally unviable at the scale of peak grid demand.)

As UK offshore gas production continues to decline rapidly, then we either produce gas onshore or import more – most likely from Russia, with all the geopolitical risks that entails. The worst outcome would be for us to mimic Germany, where problems in balancing renewables on the grid recently prompted a “dash for coal”, reversing decades of progress in reducing carbon emissions. So let’s have the serious debate you advocate – but can engineers please be given a hearing?
Professor Paul L Younger
School of Engineering, University of Glasgow

Lancashire county council has deferred its decision on applications from Cuadrilla to begin fracking in the Fylde (Report, 29 January). In response to an LCC report recommending rejection of the applications on the grounds of unacceptable levels of noise pollution and traffic (Report, 22 January), Cuadrilla announced last-minute changes in its plans that would, it claimed, reduce these levels. LCC’s move to defer its decision was apparently taken in the light of advice from its legal team that Cuadrilla could sue the council if it did not consider the proposed changes before voting on the applications.

This sort of corporate blackmail has been going in other contexts. When Romania took the courageous decision to withdraw from opencast gold mining in Rosia Montana in September 2013 after weeks of public protest, the mining company Gabriel Resources responded by threatening to sue it. The Romanian government stood its ground under pressure from the population, and Gabriel did not sue. LCC should have done the same and called Cuadrilla’s bluff. Cuadrilla’s legal grounds for suing are not at all clear, and it would almost certainly not have been so dumb as to do so, but if it had sued it would have shown its colours for all to see.
Norman and Isabela Fairclough
Lancaster

Prince Rupert’s sovereign, Charles I, would have recognised parallels between the objection of many today to relaxing the planning laws to make fracking easier and that of his own subjects affected by the search for saltpetre, an essential ingredient of gunpowder. Successive sovereigns declared saltpetre to be vital to national security and gave those licensed to search for it wide powers. Saltpetre occurs naturally through the action of microbes on decaying living tissue – long undisturbed earth floors were an ideal place to dig for it.

“Petermen” authorised by the crown dug up the floors of barns, houses and churches, often without permission, causing local outrage. In 1628, 20 bushels of saltpetre were dug from the floor of Chipping Norton church, tossing seats aside and leaving the ground so uneven the parishioners could not kneel.
Malcolm Thick
Harwell, Oxfordshire

The House of Commons vote to allow the law of trespass to be overridden by fracking companies (Report, 26 September 2014) makes a mockery of the celebration of the sealing of Magna Carta 800 years ago. The word “liberty” also refers to the land over which I exercise my liberty. At a stroke the government has swept away a fundamental liberty guaranteed by Magna Carta, specifically clause 39, which states that no one shall be disseised (ie dispossessed) of his liberty (property). King John must be rubbing his hands in glee in hell.
Ian Beckwith
Church Stretton, Shropshire

Serious arguments demand serious consideration. Try to think of an environmental problem that is not an unforeseen side-effect of new technology. You can’t do it. This is why we need a moratorium, a “precautionary approach” to fracking.
Tom Bryson
Acharacle, Argyll

 

Actor Julie Walters

Actor Julie Walters has said that ‘people like her’ wouldn’t get a chance to go to college today. Photograph: David Fisher/Rex

Julie Walters (and others) are right (Could Rita get to Rada? Probably not, says Walters, 24 January), and it’s a problem across the creative industries. Grants for drama school would help – but the bigger problem is what follows. The really difficult part (unless parents are already in “the business” with contacts) is those crucial early years, when aspirants have to work for nothing, build a track record and be seen, almost all needing to live in London to do it.

Our two children both qualified for creative fields (where did we go wrong?) and for years both were offered plenty of unpaid work on films and in theatres, but turned most of it down because they had rent to pay and needed to eat, since we couldn’t go on supporting them. The brief 1960s flowering of working-class drama and actors couldn’t happen now that access favours the middle-class, and this must feed through into how society is reflected by the arts.
Christine Butterworth
Penzance

Julie Walters says that “people like me wouldn’t have been able to go to college today. I could because I got a full grant. I don’t know how you get into it now.” She’d be pleased to know that the grant system still exists at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and 18 other British colleges. Dance and drama awards (DaDAs), which are provided by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, offer means-tested grants to the most talented students and can cover up to three years’ full fees and a maintenance grant. DaDAs are available for a number of performance courses, including three-year diplomas in professional acting and musical theatre.

As a result the rehearsal studios at Mountview are filled with accents from across the land and 80% of our young actors have come to us from state secondary schools. It is time to redress the misconception that people from working-class backgrounds like Ms Walters (and me) can no longer afford to train as actors.
Stephen Jameson
Artistic director/principal, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts

Napoleon Bonaparte

Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, without his cloak. Photograph: Alamy

Napoleon’s cloak, which is to go on display at Windsor Castle (Waterloo robe: Bonaparte’s cloak in exhibition on battle, 29 January), was apparently “taken” from his baggage train after the battle and is just one of many such artefacts that “came into the possession of the royal family”. Might we read “taken” as “stolen” or “looted”, and “came into the possession of” as a euphemism for “receiving stolen goods”.

Perhaps now would be a good time to return the cloak to Napoleon’s family, or to France (the country that presumably paid for the cloak of its emperor), along with all the other similarly acquired items. It might even encourage those who currently possess the Parthenon marbles to do the same.
Leslie Beaumont
Croston, Lancashire

Martin Shaw (Letters, 28 January) equates the Palestinian Nakba with genocide. Painful though it was, and proper that it should be acknowledged, it is not legitimate to classify it alongside the Holocaust or more recent mass slaughters of ethnic groups.
Jeremy Beecham
Labour, House of Lords

• I am afraid the idea that “those encouraging the use of Latinised plurals” should have “their recta kicked” (Letters, 28 January) has a fundamental error. The rectum (from rectum intestinum, “straight intestine”) is an internal organ and thus not directly kickable. Presumably your correspondent meant culi (buttocks).
Bruce Holman
Waterlooville, Hampshire

• Oh, how I miss Simon Hoggart and his column. How can I now tell readers that I bought bath towels from Tesco because the label describes them as being “reversible” and “dual function”? I’ve never had towels like that before.
Peter Quinn
Helperby, North Yorkshire

• Ms Henley (Letters, 29 January) had it easy. When I was a young librarian in 1972 I had to share a room with a stranger, and the other person in the flat (and her friends) had to walk through our small room to get to the bath and lavatory (there was no basin so we cleaned our teeth in the bath). And the man in the room above had an active and noisy sex life, unlike us.
Philippa Dolphin
London

• In 1963 I realised two of my three German A-level exams would occur on the first day of my regular but agonising period (Letters, 29 January). When I asked my GP for the pill, to alter the day it started, he said: “No. I only prescribe it for a bridegroom’s convenience – where the wedding date turns out to coincide.” I failed that time – but got the required A when I retook it the following year.
Glenys Canham
London

• Daffs in Notts (Letters, 28 January)? There was one flowering at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire, around 20 December. But it felt like gazumping the festive season to say so at the time.
Mark Lewinski
Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire

 

Independent:

Sir, Your leader “Eat Less Meat” (Jan 28) comes at a critical point in the debate about food and farming.

Negotiations on global climate, food and development policy will soon take place and the results will affect all our lives and the Earth’s wellbeing. There is potential for real reform.

Global sustainable development goals — a UN initiative — are being finalised now. It is vital that the agricultural aims are based on humane ecological principles. We already produce more than enough to feed the 9.6 billion people expected to be alive in 2050, yet much farming policy is still driven by the erroneous assumption that we need to produce more.

Global farming policy should instead focus on producing food for a balanced diet for all, and achieving improved livelihoods for the poorest farmers. Industrial livestock systems must be avoided as these involve low-quality lives for sentient animals and pollute water, harm soils, reduce biodiversity and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

We are concerned, however, that the European Commission has not delivered its promised communication on sustainable food. This should give a new vision for food policy and address the high level of meat consumption in some populations, and the industrial farming model that this has generated. We call on the EC to reinstate the communication and to place the problems of industrial animal agriculture at its heart. These problems must also be recognised in the global negotiations on climate change which will culminate in Paris in December.

Joyce d’Silva, Compassion in World Farming, Dame Jane Goodall Joanna Lumley, Gordon Roddick, Jonathon Porritt, Tony Juniper, Bruce Kent, Prof Peter Singer, Prof Kurt Remele, Dr Jonathan Balcombe, Peter Egan, Peter Kindersley, Vivian Schellings, Prof Robert Lawrence, Prof Paulo Borges, Prof Dave Goulson, Prof Jan Willem Erisman, Prof William Greenway, Prof M S Swaminathan, Geoff Tansey, Prof Elizabeth Stuart, Prof Joy Carter, Fazlun Khalid, Annemiek Canjels, Dr Carola Strassner, Norma Alvares, Prof Ben Mepham, Prof Marita Candela, Dr Alex Richardson, Zhang Dan, Nithi Nesadurai, Rebecca Miller, Dr Brian Hare, Dr David Suzuki, Frantzis Alexandros, Sir David Madden, Timmie Kumar, Angus McIntosh, Dr Dan Brook, Brian Sherman, Prof Clive Phillips, Prof Steve Garlick, Julia Stephenson, Stanley Johnson, Dr Jeffrey Masson, Prof Julia Formosinho, Prof Mark Eisler, Dr Kate Rawles, Prof Mohan Munasinghe, Prof Michael Carolan, Prof Paul Krause, Dr Antoine Goetschel, Carol Royle, Dr David Nally, Dr Chinny Krishna, Prof Martin Kemp, Prof João Formosinho, Prof Duo Li, Marina Lewycka. Chris Mullin, Martin Palmer, Dr Deborah Jones, Dale W Jamieson. Sue Jameson, James Bolam, Audrey Eyton, Wendel Trio, Nitin Mehta, Miriam Margolyes, Prof John Webster, Prof Michael Reiss, Annemiek Canjels, Dr Eleanor Boyle, Prof Marc Bekoff, Mario Tozzi

Sir, Grazing livestock is the only way to utilise grassland — but it would seem that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (News, Jan 28) would have us planting trees over half the country, bankrupting the forestry industry and creating a wilderness. This approach reinforces my scepticism of the “climate change” proposition. Shave off your beards, throw away your sandals and wake up to reality, I say.
Edwin Baker
(retired farmer), Bradninch, Devon

Sir, DECC is to be commended for stating that we must reduce meat consumption in order to tackle global warming. A 100 per cent plant-based diet can do more to reduce your carbon footprint than giving up your car.
Ben Martin
Campaigner, Animal Aid

Sir, Anyone considering a more sustainable diet should be aware that beef and lamb raised on pasture in the UK are particularly sustainable, and moderate consumption can contribute to a good diet. Poultry and pork, however, tend to be fed on soy, whose production affects forests and grasslands of global importance.
Brigitte Alarcon
Sustainable food policy officer, WWF

Sir, We should cut food waste as a priority. On one estimate about 40 per cent of our food and a land area the size of Wales is squandered to produce food that is binned. Increasing the use of renewable energy across our food supply chains is another priority, and giving farmers an incentive to lock up more carbon in soils a third.
Graeme Willis
Senior rural policy campaigner, Campaign to Protect Rural England

Sir, The pasture near my home hosts a herd of beef cattle. What these “inefficient converters of farmland to food” do efficiently is to convert grass into dung, which is home to a vast number of insects. These in turn are food for birds — especially swallows and swifts. Perhaps turning forest into prairie is a crime against nature, but planting trees on pasture is simplistic and possibly ruinous.
William Petrie
Forres, Moray

Sir, We should not only eat less meat, but we should also eat all of the animal. How rarely are ox tongue, cheek, tail, stuffed hearts and kidney turbigo served these days? I have an excellent recipe for scrambled brain if anyone is interested.
RP Fernando
Epsom, Surrey

Sir, Many UK cities are in the process of converting the majority of their roads from 30mph to area-wide 20mph limits, mostly without speed bumps (“20mph zones on the rise . . . and so are accidents”, Jan 28). As a result there has been a substantial increase in the 20mph road network.

Merely comparing casualties on 20mph roads between two years without taking the length of roads into account is a meaningless statistic. To compare the danger of 30mph and 20mph roads, in 2013 only one casualty in 500 in 20mph areas was a fatality compared with one in 200 on 30mph roads.

As far as signs are concerned, it would be better for a 20mph city to put repeater signs on the minority of roads that are the exceptions. This is a cost-saving change that the government should consider.
Rod King
Founder, 20’s Plenty for Us

Times:

Telegraph:

A&E needs reform, says senior doctor
A “New Medicine Service” could reduce unnecessary hospital admissions Photo: GETTY IMAGES

SIR – Drugs waste is estimated to cost the NHS £300 million a year (Letters, January 27). Half of this waste is unavoidable, through such things as changes in treatment as a disease progresses, but the remaining £150 million could be saved.

Between 30 and 50 per cent of people with long-term conditions don’t take their medicines as prescribed. A large-scale evaluation has shown that pharmacists can make a real impact on reducing waste by providing a service giving information and advice sessions to patients after they are first prescribed a medicine.

Currently this “New Medicine Service” only covers patients diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or those needing blood-thinning medicine. This simple, practical and proven measure should be expanded to cover all long-term conditions to improve patient health and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.

David Branford
Chairman, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
London SE1

SIR – If we are talking about waste in the NHS, what about non-returnable crutches, walking frames, perching stools and all the other aids so generously provided to an accident victim?

I took mine to the tip, as apparently cleaning them for re-use is too expensive.

Joan Higgison
Preston, Lancashire

SIR – I do not recognise the NHS crisis as identified on Wednesday’s front page by Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary.

In 2011 I was diagnosed with an incurable and potentially terminal condition. Since then I have attended my hospital around 70 times a year for blood tests, consultations and chemotherapy, under the care of a very able consultant and a team of equally able and caring nurses and nursing assistants.

The important point to make is that this hospital was ranked in the bottom division of the CQC league table and has recently been taken over by a higher ranking trust. My only fear is that the usual meddling by the new broom will do irreparable damage to my clinic.

David Miller
Maidenhead, Kent

SIR – I am a senior doctor working in an emergency department in a major northern teaching hospital.

My wife’s father, who is in his mid-eighties, recently went to his GP in Surrey complaining of a fever and cough with intermittent episodes of confusion. He was not examined and was told to attend his nearest A&E department should the confusion return, even though such temporary confusion during infections is a common presentation with elderly people.

Given the well-documented pressure on A&E departments, our GP colleagues need to be more proactive in finding ways to keep such patients out of hospital.

Dr Stephen Morton
Liverpool

Housing benefit cuts

SIR – Amid the fanfare of this week’s welfare announcements by David Cameron, the proposal to remove housing benefit for those aged 18-21 on Jobseeker’s Allowance slipped by largely unnoticed.

The numbers of people affected by this cut, and therefore the savings to the public purse, are small. Yet the impact on each of those young lives affected has the potential to be devastating, as people who have had to move away from home to escape abuse, to find work or to flee domestic violence suddenly find a vital lifeline cut off.

It is very easy for those of us who have had the advantage of a comfortable upbringing to imagine that there will always be a spare room in the family home to move back to, but the reality for these young adults is likely to be somewhat less rosy: it’s a choice between returning to whatever drove them from home in the first place or finding themselves homeless.

This policy needs to be rethought or those affected will pay a heavy price.

Campbell Robb
Chief Executive, Shelter
Seyi Obakin
Chief Executive, Centrepoint
David Orr
Chief Executive, National Housing Federation
Jon Sparkes
Chief Executive, Crisis
Grainia Long
Chief Executive, CIH Shelter

Lambeth understudy

SIR – Reading about the hoax call to the Prime Minister gave me a sense of déjà vu.

A friend of mine, now sadly dead, suffered from schizophrenia and was a frequent caller to both Downing Street and Lambeth Palace. Lambeth soon rumbled him and he had regular conversations with a man he assumed was the Archbishop.

It was, in fact, the gate porter.

John Hawthorne
Devizes, Wiltshire

Tieless dedication

(Martin Pope)

SIR – I wonder if the new management at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand will alter the bizarre dress code.

I once invited a Danish customer there for lunch. We were both wearing crew neck sweaters under our jackets and, on arrival, were informed of the “ties must be worn” rule. My guest tugged down his sweater to reveal that he was indeed wearing a tie. I wasn’t, so the head waiter lent me a tie to hide beneath my sweater.

After this incident my Danish friend could not bring himself to utter the word “British” without the prefix “crazy”.

Peter Le Feuvre
Funtington, West Sussex

Football geography

SIR – Here is an idle and trivial observation. The Football League Championship table is topped and tailed by two seaside towns, Blackpool at the bottom and Bournemouth at the top. I think that is probably a measure of their comparative attractions as well.

David Culm
Littleover, Derbyshire

American students could do more for Britain

SIR – I have read a lot about the decline, for social and political reasons, of the “special relationship” between America and Britain. This wasn’t helped by Fox News’s extraordinary claims about Birmingham being a “no-go zone” for non-Muslims.

However, the relationship is salvageable. British universities are world-renowned and, even with the tuition fee increase, significantly cheaper than their American counterparts. This alone should make more Americans willing to study in Britain, but Ucas and visas stand in the way.

The Ucas calendar is several months behind the usual American university admissions calendar, meaning that US students will already have been accepted and paid their deposits to American colleges before receiving responses to applications to British universities.

The British visa system – and particularly the end of the post-study work visa – means that most American students must head home soon after finishing their courses, abandoning a network they’ve spent years building, which could result in better opportunities for both them and the local economies.

Those who advance in their career should be offered the chance to stay, while those still in entry-level positions after a few years should be given a time limit on their stay.

Young Americans could contribute on both sides of the pond, raising awareness of the high standard of British education, contributing to the local economy, and bringing home an appreciation for British culture beyond Downton Abbey.

Adam Roush
Washington DC

Mature prenuptials

SIR – I welcome prenuptial agreements (report, January 3) becoming legally binding in Britain. Completing one in England is painful and expensive. Partners see separate lawyers, and this favours an adversarial approach from the outset.

This contrasts starkly with European countries that use a constitutional system based on Napoleonic law. Fortunately for my fiancée and me, in Belgium the prenuptial agreement consists of a standard, three-page document costing around 20 euros. All advice given by the solicitor is communicated in front of both partners.

I have long admired the non-adversarial, mature approach of continental legal systems and Britain should take note.

Alexander Tabor
Brussels, Belgium

Unjust punishments

Raif Badawi

SIR – It is right that publicity has been given to the appalling flogging of Raif Badawi, a blogger in Saudi Arabia.

Similar attention should be given to the frequent executions occurring in Iran. More than 1,000 individuals, many under the age of 20, have been executed since “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani came to power.

Roly Harris
London N1

Speaker’s self-interest

SIR – The Speaker of the House of Commons wants to modernise voting in elections through the introduction of online voting in 2020.

With his support, the election of all the deputy speakers as well as most chairs and membership of select committees is now done by secret ballot. However, despite efforts to introduce a secret ballot for the re-election of the Commons Speaker, he has rejected and blocked this.

This suggests that his modernising zeal does not extend to matters that might affect his self-interest.

Simon Burns MP (Con)
London, SW1

No crumb left behind

SIR – I have the solution for Stuart Scholes (Letters, January 26): put the croissant on a bread board, warm it in the microwave and chop it up. Dip each piece into butter, then marmalade, then press it on to the pile of flakes on the board before eating it.

Mary Calthrop
Whitstable, Kent

SIR – Mr Scholes should coat his fingers with his preferred spread. The crumbs will stick to his figures, which are easily licked clean. Failing this, he should consume his croissant as close to his shower room as possible.

Roger Fowle
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

Do a little digging to unearth pothole records

Hole new world: potholes and plunge pools in the Blyde River Canyon reserve in South Africa (Reinhard Tiburzy / Alamy )

SIR – Routine carriageway inspections primarily report on road surface degradation. New potholes will only be recorded following their first sighting; subsequent inspections will ignore them unless they have degraded further.

Motorists’ applications for compensation are sent to a loss adjuster who assesses any claim against the most recent inspection report and often rejects it on the grounds that a council cannot be held responsible for road damage that it was unaware of at the time of the damage.

The solution is to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain historic inspection data for the road in question and include this with any claim submitted; chances of success will increase greatly.

Paul Owens
Tamworth, Staffordshire

SIR – Our council plans to replace perfectly adequate street lights with huge new lights – presumably so that we may enjoy a clearer sight of our many potholes.

Gay Fearn
Haywards Heath, West Sussex

Globe and Mail:

STEVE HEWITT

Skepticism: the critical counterterror tool

Steve Hewitt is in the department of history at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of The British War on Terror: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism on the Home Front Since 9/11 and is currently working on a history of terrorism and counterterrorism in Canada.

Canada’s recent experience with terrorism is not unique. Nor is its government alone in seeking to introduce fresh counterterrorism laws and powers. Across the Atlantic, Britain is debating new legislation that would, among a range of changes, allow the government to block the return of Britons suspected of involvement in terrorism while abroad, require Internet providers to keep records of IP addresses so computer users could be identified, and legally require a variety of state institutions, including universities, to “prevent individuals being drawn into terrorism.”

As such, there are cautionary aspects of the British experience, both with the current legislation and with past efforts at reform, that should inform debate over the Canadian government bill being tabled Friday.

Top among the lessons is that skepticism about the need for new powers or laws should be the default reaction from parliamentarians, news media and the wider public. Over the past decade, and across seven significant counterterrorism bills introduced since Sept. 11, 2001, various British governments have preached that the counterterrorist sky would come crashing down without the introduction of new, supposedly essential measures.

Mandatory identity cards were needed to prevent terrorism, Tony Blair’s government warned. David Cameron’s government killed off this proposal in 2010.

Equally crucial, the same voices explained, was the ability to detain terrorism suspects without charge for up to 90 days in order to gather evidence. MPs, including 50 from Mr. Blair’s own party, eventually defeated the measure.

Mr. Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, tried to bring in a 42-day detention period without charge but parliamentary opposition over its impact on civil liberties forced him into retreat. Among the opponents was Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, a member of the House of Lords who was head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, on the day of the July 7, 2005, bomb attacks in London, where 52 people were murdered by terrorists.

Driving the frenzy for new legislation has been a reactive impulse in which there is a continual assumption that the nature of the last terrorist attack will become the new norm. Hence, new laws became necessary to prevent the next 9/11, then the next 7/7, followed by “lone wolf” attacks and now plots involving jihadis who have gone to fight in Syria. The idea that a new type of attack automatically requires a new type of law needs to be reconsidered. There should be a principle that governments act effectively, not simply for the sake of being seen to respond in the eyes of public opinion.

Finally, and most importantly for the future, there has been an increasing acknowledgment (though still not universal) from the British state that, despite a raft of new laws and agency resources, you can’t arrest your way out of the terrorism problem. Counterterrorism needs to be holistic by nature.

In Britain, this has meant efforts to address what Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau might call “root causes”: countering extremism not through greater surveillance or longer prison sentences but by improving community relations, addressing wider issues connected to alienation (such as Islamophobia and economic deprivation) and, yes, having frank discussions about the connection between violent extremism and certain interpretations of Islam. There must equally be room – and here both Britain and Canada have far to go – for an honest conversation about the impact of Western foreign policy, past and present, as a recruiting sergeant for terrorism.

Terrorism is a scourge but it is not an existential threat to countries such as Britain and Canada, no matter what the doomsayers say. Responding thoughtfully and encouraging resiliency may lack appeal in the middle of an election cycle, but a measured approach may actually bring lasting results.

 

Read and vote: Has Canada drifted into a combat mission in Iraq?

Two military-operations experts debate our mission against Islamic State

The Debate

In November, the House of Commons endorsed the government’s decision to send Canadian special forces troops to Iraq to contribute to an international mission to repel the terrorist army known Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. It was to be a short-term mission to “advise and assist” Iraqi forces. In recent weeks, we’ve learned that Canadian soldiers have been laser-targeting air strikes and engaging in firefights with Islamic State fighters on the front lines. Has Canada drifted into an outright combat operation in Iraq? Or is this merely an inevitable shooting component to something that remains, at its core, the advisory mission authorized by Parliament? We have invited two military-operations experts to debate this question: Read their opinions, and vote in the box on the right.

The Debaters

Debate contributor
Roland ParisFounding director of the Centre for International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa. @RolandParis
Canada’s Iraq operation has turned into a combat mission
Debate contributor
Thomas JuneauAssistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. tjuneau@uottawa.ca
There is no mission creep in Iraq

The Discussion

Debate contributor

Roland Paris : We recently learned that Canadian troops in Iraq are spending about 20 per cent of their effort close to, or right at, the front lines, that they have been calling in air strikes from those front-line positions, and that three firefights have occurred between Canadian forces and Islamic State fighters.

The parliamentary resolution that established the mission last October indicated that Canadian forces would not engage in ground combat operations. Chief of the Defence Staff Tom Lawson and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have acknowledged that there has been a shift in the nature of the Iraq mission, but insist that Canadian forces are still performing only an “advise and assist” function, not a combat role. They also point out, correctly, that Canadian troops have a right to defend themselves if they are fired upon.

There is no universally-accepted, bright-line definition of “combat,” but common sense suggests the following: (1) If you send armed troops to front-line positions where combat can be realistically expected, and (2) if these troops are calling in airstrikes from the front lines in order to destroy enemy positions, and (3) if they are returning fire, even in self-defence, in order to kill enemy forces who are firing on them, then by any reasonable standard they are engaged in combat.

We are witnessing, in other words, “mission creep.” This is the incremental expansion of a military operation’s mandate. It may or may not also involve the deployment of more forces. A classic case is the role of American advisers in Vietnam, which gradually expanded beyond combat advice to direct ground fighting. Eventually, U.S. troops supplanted local South Vietnamese forces as the principal combatants against the North Vietnamese.

In Iraq, we are a long way from the Vietnam scenario. Western ground forces, including Canadians, still play a relatively small role. Nevertheless, it emerged last week that the terms of Canada’s operation had changed. Canada’s new front-line role – as well as our leaders’ redefinition of what counts as combat – unquestionably represent mission creep.

For some people, these changes might appear too small to worry about. After all, Canada still only has a maximum of 69 special operations forces in Iraq.

This is true, but there are two reasons to be concerned. First, our national government – regardless of the political party in power – must be forthright with Canadians about something as serious as putting Canadian soldiers into combat situations. Wars, especially long wars (as this one is likely to be), must be rooted in public trust. A lack of forthrightness erodes that trust.

Second, while much of the Canadian debate about Iraq is focused on what will happen between now and April (when the six-month deadline for Canada’s current deployment will be up for renewal), we should take a longer view, asking ourselves where the operation may be headed in the months and years to come.

Limited military operations have an inborn propensity for mission expansion, and I anticipate growing pressure on Western governments to move more of their troops into ground combat roles. Consider the fact that it only took a few months for Canadian leaders to redefine our understanding of “combat.” If we did that in such a short period of time, where might we end up in three, five, or ten years from now?

Last fall, I warned of pressures to move Western troops into the front lines. Some pooh-poohed this warning, but it has been borne out by events. My only surprise is that it was Canada, not the United States, that apparently became the first Western country to tinker with the definition of “combat” and move advisers into a front-line role. Canada now appears to be more directly involved in the ground war than even the United States, which insists that American troops in Iraq are staying away from the front lines.

Canada has a clear interest in training and equipping Iraqi forces to take back their country from the Islamic State, but we should not end up fighting this ground war for the Iraqis.

We have learned hard lessons, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, about the sometimes-counterproductive effects of deploying massive Western ground forces as front-line combatants in Muslim countries where there is widespread suspicion and resentment of Western power, even among our nominal allies. The deployment of hundreds of thousands of U.S. combat troops in Iraq did not solve the terrorism problem in that country; it exacerbated it.

It would be much smarter to focus on training and equipping Iraqi forces to wage this war themselves, while continuing our air combat mission. We need to be aware, however, that we will face constant temptations to provide more direct, on-the-ground combat assistance. We should resist these temptations.

This is not to say that direct combat would never be warranted in Iraq. But we must not allow our strategy to drift. A series of incremental steps, all seemingly minor, could take us to a place where we never intended to go. Canada has no interest in slipping into an open-ended ground war in the Middle East.

This article was adapted from a CIPS policy brief.

Debate contributor

Thomas Juneau : The government has faced mounting criticism since it announced that special forces’ soldiers deployed to the front lines alongside the Kurdish troops they are advising had exchanged fire with Islamic State fighters on a handful of occasions. Senior officers also confirmed that Canadian troops have been helping direct air strikes by Canada and other coalition nations.

It is important to distinguish between two separate debates here: one is transparency, in which the government has been at fault; and two, the mission itself, in which most criticism has been misplaced.

Had the government been transparent about the mission from its beginning last fall, the controversy of recent days would have been lessened. It is normal for military deployments to evolve, especially in a context as messy and volatile as the conflict with IS. If it is indeed true, as the government claims, that the front line advising and air strike targeting support roles are additions to the original mission, then the government should be held at fault for not having kept Canadians informed of this evolution. Operational security is not a valid excuse; if it is possible to say now that troops spend about 20 per cent of their time at the front line, this could have been stated earlier.

The second debate concerns the mission itself and here, critics, both in opposition parties and in the media, have mostly mischaracterized the objectives of the deployment.

First, let’s be clear that this is a combat mission, and it has been one since the beginning: Canada is launching air strikes alongside its coalition partners, which is undeniably a violent action. Canada has also deployed boots on the ground, through its 69 or so special forces advising and assisting Kurdish troops.

It was not – and is still not – a ground combat mission. This is not merely semantics, as some critics claim; defining what a mission is and is not is fundamental. Troops deployed on peacekeeping missions can occasionally get shot at. That does not change the fundamental peacekeeping nature of their mission. Whether on peacekeeping or advising deployments, these are soldiers operating in a war zone. Getting shot at and responding is force protection, not combat.

In the case of the Iraq mission, it would have been possible for Ottawa to decide that troops were not to go to the front lines in their advising and assisting role, and were not to direct air strikes. Had this been the case, the basic parameters of the mission would not have changed, and Canada would still have been a valuable contributing nation to the coalition confronting IS.

But that is not the issue; the current debate concerns whether the recent disclosures represent escalation or mission creep. They do not; the mission still operates within its initial parameters, to advise and assist Kurdish troops and to launch air strikes.

The criticism should be turned on its head. Constraining Canadian troops by preventing them from advising on the front lines and helping direct air strikes would be legitimate. But critics should recognize that it would limit their ability to fulfill their missions. They should also explain what the resulting benefit to Canada would be.

So what would real escalation look like? It would result from the deployment of ground forces units whose first objective would be to directly engage IS in combat. This is not the case currently, and it is highly unlikely to happen, at least as long as U.S. President Barack Obama is in power. It will not be a decision for Ottawa to make.

To deploy large numbers of ground combat troops would be a huge mistake, moreover: the U.S. experience in Iraq since 2003 shows that it would mostly pour more oil on an already burning fire. IS is a symptom, not a cause: it arose because of widespread Sunni disenfranchisement and alienation in Iraq and Syria. Militarily, Canada and its allies can and must help local actors contain and weaken it. But ultimately, its defeat will only come if or when the broken political processes in Iraq and Syria are repaired.

Paul Christie

Blame politics, not parents, for Toronto’s shrinking schools

Irish Times:

Sir, – Could the Taoiseach please set a date in May for the referendum on marriage equality? Those living abroad would like to book their flights home to vote Yes. – Yours, etc,

ANNA SHACKLETON,

Wandsworth, London.

Sir, – Unavoidably, a key part of the current debate centres on the word “marriage”, in which two quite distinct meanings are apparent. One is the established heterosexual monogamy meaning, which has been the social foundation of most societies throughout the world for a very long period. While the second meaning aims to invest the word with new ideas and ideals, which would then apply to two persons, without distinction as to their sex.

But is it really that easy or even acceptable to change radically the meaning of such an important social institution? While the proposed change to the Constitution is intended to introduce genuine equality by extending the meaning of marriage to include the second, new meaning, I suggest any attempt to alter this meaning does nothing to create genuine equality, but everything to create an illusion of the same.

This proposed fundamental change to our understanding of human society is based on the new vision in our emerging European social order that secularism now rules.

And we will probably be reminded that if we believe in generosity we ought to be happy to let same-sex pairs enjoy the same social privileges that traditional marriage brought.

I certainly believe in generosity, but it is not best shown by facilitating the marked devaluation of marriage as the social foundation of our society. – Yours, etc,

MICHAEL AUSTIN,

Gorey, Co Wexford.

Sir, – The debate on same-sex marriage has focused on the rights of children, and this is quite correct. Children are the most vulnerable members of our society. I agree with those who oppose same-sex marriage because they feel it undermines a child’s right to be raised by a mother and father, preferably their own. However, I have to admit that my opposition to same-sex marriage goes deeper still. It comes down to a question of how we view our social institutions. Do we see them as a legacy to be held in trust, or do we see them as a machine to be reassembled at will? I support the legitimate role of sentiment in social life.

Society is not a machine for living in, and the very word “marriage” has a hundred associations of masculinity and femininity, of romance and chivalry, of motherhood and fatherhood, of tradition and custom, that we should not feel ashamed of protecting.

The champions of same-sex marriage assure us that little will change if this referendum is passed, that marriage is being expanded rather than changed. Once the deal is sealed, do you think social radicals are going to hesitate to press the advantage? Do you think they will be slow to challenge and denounce every “heterosexist” or “archaic” assumption made about the redefined institution of marriage? Of course not. – Yours, etc,

MAOLSHEACHLANN

Ó CEALLAIGH,

Ballymun, Dublin 11.

Sir, – I think this “so-called Christian country’s” descent into “moral and spiritual decadence” (Robert A Sharpe, January 29th) had started long before the concept of same-sex marriage was ever on the agenda. Those responsible for the decline in religion and traditional moral values are the very institutions that now rail against what is in essence a basic human right. – Yours, etc,

PAUL DELANEY,

Dalkey, Co Dublin.

Sir, – Goodness, Mr Sharpe, I’m afraid the moral and spiritual decadence has been around for quite some time. You should have seen some of the heterosexual weddings I have attended over the years. – Yours, etc,

Dr CIARAN KIRRANE,

Salthill, Galway.

Sir, – I also share a concern for “the children”. I am especially concerned for my own children. I have two sons, one of whom happens to be gay. I would like equal rights for both my sons. If the referendum is passed, my two sons will be afforded equal rights in their country of birth. It is a simple question with an obvious answer. Vote Yes. – Yours, etc,

MARY KNOX O’BRIEN,

Rathgar, Dublin 6.

Sir, – The new mortgage rules proposed by the Central Bank should help to prevent future house price bubbles and will, over time, prove beneficial to buyers.

A major risk, however, is that it may also prove to be a disincentive to builders and developers to supply new houses to the market, thus forcing ever more people into an already overheated rental market in major urban centres.

Perhaps this is the opportune time for the Government and local authorities to launch a major building programme to supply long-term rental accommodation to the working middle classes in our cities.

This accommodation would be available at market rents, with long-term tenancies available but without a right to purchase for tenants. Rents would be guaranteed to rise by no more than inflation and might be fixed for longer-term leases.

Such developments would provide alternative, secure long-term accommodation, while delivering a reasonable rate of return for the public monies invested and help to take some of the heat out of the private rental sector. – Yours, etc,

PETER MOLLOY,

Glenageary,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – The Central Bank’s new mortgage lending cap should have the desired effect of slowing down the rate of house price increases. This means that people in negative equity face the prospect of a now much longer wait before being able to sell homes and apartments that their families have outgrown.

While this is undoubtedly a sensible long-term move, it means that one generation of house buyers will now make a huge sacrifice for the good of future generations. In the interest of fairness, something has to be done for this group. Basing the property tax on the equity owned, rather than on the value of the property, would be a start. – Yours, etc,

MICK FLYNN,

Waterford.

Sir, – The people who bought from 2003 to 2008 will be most affected by the mortgage lending changes. People who, despite a deep recession, didn’t walk away from their debts and continued to pay their mortgages, when developers were washing their hands of their debts. I am one of these people and after seven years there was light at the end of the tunnel. I was about to hit parity on what I owed versus what I would get for my house and I had saved up my 10 per cent deposit. I had bought my house back in 2006 because I was approaching 30 and wanted to settle down.

I had been paying rent for about 10 years and I was in the financial position to buy. I bought a house that was within my means; in fact, I borrowed over €100,000 less than what was available.

I had to move but I couldn’t sell my house, not with the massive negative equity. I decided to keep paying in the hope that down the line I could finally sell and move on with my life. These changes have essentially put me and many others back years.

It is an extremely hard pill to swallow when I think that I could have just walked away and claimed insolvency and would be in a much better position that I am now. Could you imagine how bad our current financial situation would be if everybody who was burdened with negative equity walked away from their debts? We didn’t and this is how we are treated.

I cannot fathom how a first-time buyer is considered a lesser risk than somebody who has demonstrated the willingness and ability to pay during the recession we have endured.

All I ask is that our generation is considered before these changes are implemented. Surely there can be a caveat added to allow people who bought from 2003 onwards the same requirements as first-time buyers? – Yours, etc,

IAN STEWART,

Portlaoise, Co Laois.

Sir, – Eugene Tannam (January 29th) fails to see that if buyers are no longer able to afford property at the current prices, prices will inevitably fall. People who call the measures “penal” are unwittingly advocating for higher property price. Although it seems anathema to the Irish psyche, lower prices will put home ownership within reach of more people without massive mortgage debt and can only be good for our economy and especially our competitiveness. – Yours, etc,

ALEX FRENCH,

Booterstown,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I really must add my comments regarding the egregious behaviour of those people who insulted our President last week in Finglas.

Michael D Higgins is a delightful man, courteous and cultured, and we should all be proud of him.

Many people in this land are rightfully protesting about the imposition of water charges, but how will they now feel about peacefully protesting on this issue, and thereby being tainted by association?

This was a thoroughly disgraceful performance, and it beggars belief that Paul Murphy TD has defended the perpetrators. – Yours, etc,

AIDAN CLEARY,

Limerick.

Sir, – I hope poetry will help Michael D Higgins to see that the worst are full of passionate intensity. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN AHERN,

Clonsilla,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – Forgive me, but do I not recall our President in a former existence using a certain derogatory term, beginning with the letter “w”, when referring to an American radio host?

I do not recall a series of letters to your newspaper condemning his actions. Perhaps there are those who feel that only a certain class of people has the right to resort to personal abuse. – Yours, etc,

GILES FOX,

Kilmacud,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – The personal abuse levelled at the President and shown on social media was out of order but many people do instinctively understand that increasing inequality in our country is represented by the expansion of flat, regressive taxation and levies.

As in England, water for sale and for profit will represent an acceleration of ongoing inequality. This expanded inequality will be driven by such charges here and the deprivation of our poorest citizens and their children will be the inevitable result.

Much commentary has been made regarding the negative impact of increasing inequality but Government actions pull in the opposite direction and a social force has now developed to attempt to constrain this. – Is mise,

JOHN SULLIVAN,

Rathmines,

Dublin 6.

Sir, – While I abhor and completely reject the demonstration to which President Michael D Higgins and his wife were subjected, I cannot help but note that the incident took place on Thursday last, yet it did not hit the newspapers until Tuesday of this week. The cynic in me suspects that this is not unrelated to the water protest scheduled to take place on Saturday. – Yours, etc,

STEPHEN MacDONAGH,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Fri, Jan 30, 2015, 01:04

Sir, – I think that many of the contributors to this page on the issue of school patronage are missing the point.

The fact that some church-run schools welcome children of all faiths and none is irrelevant – the important point is that they are under no obligation to do so.

Section 7 of the Equal Status Act 2000 allows schools to discriminate in their enrollment policies against children who have not been baptised or are of a different religion. An oversubscribed church-run school can use religion as the first criterion to shorten an application list – and it is obvious that this is common practice, otherwise why have the discriminatory law at all?

Given that almost the entire Irish national school system is church-run, the difficulties facing non-religious parents are clear.

It is understandable that those unaffected by this do not realise that the mere existence of the discriminatory statutory provision introduces deeply unsettling uncertainty into the lives of many non-religious parents who have funded schools through their taxes just like their religious counterparts.

Parents should not have to rely on the goodwill of a benevolent principal or patron. All children should be guaranteed equal access to education regardless of the decisions their parents make regarding religion, but this is simply not the case in Ireland today. – Yours, etc,

PADDY MONAHAN,

Raheny, Dublin 5.

Sir, – Further to “Dublin school cancels workshops on homophobic bullying” (January 27th), as a recent ex-pupil of Coláiste Eoin, I would like to offer my opinion on some of the claims made. I have personal experience of ShoutOut and similar organisations, and fully support the decision of the school’s principal. I find such seminars to be severely lacking in any sense of empathy for heterosexual students and they employ sweeping generalisations and use outdated suppositions. Furthermore, they do nothing to correct antisocial behaviour in both heterosexual and homosexual participants, and do not even consider bullying within the gay community.

I never once experienced anything other than complete tolerance throughout my years in Coláiste Eoin. With regard to the principal, he has only my highest respect for offering his full support, knowing full well of my sexuality. I consider myself indebted to him, and to other teachers at the school. – Yours, etc,

EIMHIN

Ó RAGHALLAIGH,

Zaragoza, Spain.

Sir, – John A Murphy dismisses Martin McGuinness’s aspiration for a united Ireland as “bogus mystique” (January 28th). However, organisations such as the IRFU and GAA have operated on an island-wide basis for over a century. Why not work towards a creative solution that would allow people in the North to participate in an all-Ireland political structure? Long-term peace and reconciliation will best be served when both of the main communities in Ireland are able to fully embrace their identities. – Yours, etc,

MARK NYHAN

Morristown, New Jersey.

Sir, – Dr Jacky Jones takes issue with RTÉ’s Operation Transformation programme (Second Opinion, January 27th), calling it “superficial”. Her definition differs from mine. Is it superficial to help create much broader public engagement around the risks and determinants of obesity, to inform campaigns for reform at government and industry levels, or to champion and promote important public health policies?

Safefood recognises that Operation Transformation has created a much-needed national debate about personal weight and long-term health. Prof Niall Moyna at the School of Health and Human Performance in DCU, as well as Prof Donal O’Shea, a leading expert on obesity and a consultant endocrinologist, both believe the series has a powerful message for the public.

Far from being a simplistic reality show, RTÉ’s Operation Transformation demonstrates that taking a holistic approach to food, fitness, lifestyle change, emotional wellbeing and mental health are key to making lasting changes.

RTÉ is proud of the contribution Operation Transformation has made to Irish health awareness over the last eight years. – Yours, etc,

GRAINNE McALEER

Head of Lifestyle, RTÉ 1,

Donnybrook, Dublin 4.

Irish Independent:

Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras swearing in his new cabinet in Athens on Tuesday. Photo: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis

Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras swearing in his new cabinet in Athens on Tuesday. Photo: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis

The events in Greece represent the first major modern challenge to the laissez-faire, state-enabled capitalism for a generation. Many can be relied upon to ask the ‘right’ questions, such as, why should other EU states pay for Greek debt?

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Of course, few have asked why did it come to pass that sovereign EU states should have said ‘Yes’ when billionaire hedge fund investors and sovereign wealth funds asked: “Can you please socialise our investment losses?” Or, perhaps more accurately, the mainstream media never derived a satisfactory answer to that question.

It is worth remembering the words of US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson, when he said that the first casualty of war is truth, ironically delivered when discussing a very different kind of war on Germany (in 1917), than that seemingly in the mind of the new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

In a sense, the truth has already been battered into submission, the reach of the mega-wealthy being so pervasive, and, most probably, the truth won’t show up again until history permits a distant, retrospective acknowledgement that ordinary bystanders paid too heavy a price to maintain the lives of the wealthy in our age.

So, how can ordinary citizens do more than bear witness to the historical injustice being perpetrated against us? Martin Luther King and Gandhi often used the term, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”.

But surely even those two colossus-like figures in civil rights history would scratch their heads in frustration if they had to face the challenges of addressing the reality that most of the world’s wealth today is contained in fewer hands than at any point in history – with the trend going against the majority.

But this is where citizens can find a footing. We have a civil rights emergency in Europe.

Only when we begin to shift the focus from the truth-numbing language of mindless capitalism, to a recognition that even unfettered capitalism needs rescuing from the current crisis, will we begin a fight back.

The drama about to play out in Greece should not be seen as putting a nation of feckless foreigners in their ‘place’, but the beginning of a magnificent civil rights adventure.

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney, Kilkenny

Hypocrisy over free speech

Public disagreement and criticism should never include insulting language or behaviour, which betray a weak argument and insecurity of conviction.

I abhor the public insulting of any person or their beliefs, especially the president of our country, who appears to be a decent and caring individual doing his best to represent the interests of Irish people.

But I also abhor gross hypocrisy when exercised by politicians and media, who can adopt holier than thou attitudes one week and wholly different attitudes the following week when it suits them.

I refer to the outpouring of support for the Charlie Hebdo magazine in the interests of free speech.

This is a legitimate view held by many but it must be exercised consistently or not at all. Our Taoiseach was lauded for marching in Paris in support of “free speech” but quickly condemns it when it steps on his own toes.

His inconsistency does nothing to build respect for politics or democracy and neither does two-faced reporting and comment by an hysterical and frenzied media. If something is right and acceptable, it is right and acceptable in all instances; if it is wrong and unacceptable, it is wrong and unacceptable in all instances.

Anything less than consistency makes hypocrites of us all.

Padraic Neary

Tubbercurry, Co Sligo

Making a connection

Of late, a word has appeared frequently in the columns of the Irish Independent and yet I’d never encountered it previously.

So I opened ‘The Concise Oxford English Dictionary’ and looked it up and guess what – such a word doesn’t exist? The word bandied about so cavalierly recently is ‘connectivity’. Might your columnists explain its meaning? Here’s hoping . . .

Michael Dryhurst

Four Mile House, Roscommon

 

Lessons from history

Seamus Hanratty (Irish Independent Letters 29/01/2015) suggests politicians of today should study history, citing the 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae.

I strongly concur with his sentiments; but it is the events of October 1917 in Russia the “ruling elite” of today need to reflect upon. These bear a stronger resemblance to events unfolding today than the aforementioned ancient battle.

For those who don’t know, in October 1917, the serfs of Russia said “enough is enough” to the ruling elite of the day. Has Europe come full circle? This should be the burning question on the mind of the realpolitik (icians)

Declan Foley

Berwick, Australia

Caught in the rent trap

There is lots of talk these days from politicians and the Central Bank regarding first-time borrowers. Little mention of the young people who are in their thirties who cannot sell their apartments and have to let them. They in turn rent houses as their families increase. They are the ones in the real trap.

A significant percentage of these apartment owners have variable mortgages. One helpful gesture from the Government would be to find a way of fixing their mortgages at a low rate for say, 10 years. This should not be a great problem with the flood of money now available in Europe.

The last thing this army of people need is more smart comments like ‘they paid too much’. Neither the Central Bank nor the politicians were saying that 10 years ago – remember Bertie Ahern was urging them on, so let us have some solutions.

John Murphy

Glasnevin, Dublin 9

What planet are our bankers living on? How are a young couple to have any chance of saving a deposit for a house?

Where in Dublin are they supposed to get a house for under €220,000 to qualify for the 10pc deposit? Surely if the deposit stays at 10pc and the loan is geared to a loan/earnings ratio, that will control prices.

Why is the deposit for apartments higher than that of houses? If these were made equal, it would at least give young people a chance of getting a home of their own, as opposed to paying rent.

Eamon Ward

Ballyscartin, Co Wexford

Irish Independent


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