Still still clearing out

20 January 2014 Still still clearing out

I go all the way around the park listening to the Navy Lark. Our heroes are in trouble, again. They have to deliver the Tood Huinter Browns to some remote location ans Leslie has gotten them lost.

Clearing out attic for insulation

Scrabbletoday Mary winsand gets over400, Perhaps Iwill win tomorrow.

 

Obituary:

 

Sir Christopher Chataway , who has died aged 82, was the athlete who paced Roger Bannister to the first sub-four minute mile, finishing second himself. He later served in the governments of Harold Macmillan, Lord Home and Edward Heath; was a pioneer of commercial broadcasting; and served as chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority.

He was in the vanguard of social reform, co-sponsoring Humphry Berkeley’s Bill to legalise homosexuality and telling for the Ayes in the 1964 vote to end capital punishment. As leader of the Inner London Education Committee, he upset grassroots Tories by letting comprehensive plans for seven boroughs go ahead, before securing a reprieve from the Labour government for 44 grammar schools.

Pro-European and very much a Heath man, Chataway left Parliament in 1974 , moving effortlessly into the boardroom before his appointment by John Major to head the CAA. He remained an athlete at heart, querying Harold Wilson’s creation of a Sports Council, opposing Mrs Thatcher’s efforts to force a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and chairing the Commonwealth Games Council and UK Athletics. Taking up running again after stopping smoking, he turned in a 5 mins 48 sec mile at the age of 64.

With three friends, Chataway was prime mover of World Refugee Year, which raised £9 million in Britain alone and brought him the 1960 Nansen Medal. He was an early chairman of Oxfam, and went on to chair Action Aid and the Bletchley Park Trust.

Christopher John Chataway was born in Chelsea on January 31 1931, spending his childhood in Sudan, where his father was in the political service. At Sherborne he excelled at rugby, boxing and gymnastics and did not win a race until he was 16. He caught up fast, finishing second in the Public Schools’ championships despite losing a shoe, and in 1950, running for the Army, clipping 2.4 seconds off the Inter-Service mile record to 4 mins 15.6 sec.

Reading PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, Chataway won a cross-country Blue in his first term. Early in 1952 he cut Bannister’s Oxford mile record to 4 mins 10.2 sec; that July he knocked five seconds off the British all-comers’ two-mile record.

In the 1952 Helsinki Olympics he tripped going for the lead in the 5,000 metres, recovering to finish fifth, 12 seconds behind Emil Zatopek. In his last year at Oxford, in the Varsity match, he cut his best for the mile to 4 mins 8.4 sec, then the third fastest by a Briton. In May 1953 Bannister set his record of 4 mins 3.6 sec, paced by Chataway.

Chataway joined Guinness as a transport executive, but continued to run. Gordon Pirie and Australia’s John Landy had talked of breaking four minutes, but the barrier stood until that day at Iffley Road. At White City in July, two months after he had helped Bannister make athletics history, Chataway and his fellow Briton Fred Green broke Gunder Haegg’s world three-mile record, with a time of 13 mins 32.2 sec.

Then, on October 13, again at White City, Chataway captured the world 5,000 metres record, beating Russia’s Vladimir Kuts in 13 mins 51.6 sec. Although Kuts regained his record 10 days later, the Soviet authorities made Chataway a Master of Sport. The drama of this clash — millions had followed the race on television to see the Briton win in the last few strides — made him the BBC’s first Sporting Personality of the Year, ahead of Bannister. After running his only sub-four minute mile, on July 30 1955 Chataway broke his own world three-mile record by nine seconds.

Before the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Chataway set a personal best for the 880 yards of 1 min 53.3 sec. He should have taken on Kuts and Zatopek in London, but the Russians withdrew after their team-mate Nina Ponomareva was caught allegedly shoplifting hats in Selfridges. Melbourne was a disappointment, Chataway fading in the final stages of the 5,000 metres, and he retired from the track.

Chataway joined ITN two months before ITV went live . He excelled, but wanted to do more reporting — and in 1956 he moved to the BBC as an interviewer with Panorama.

In 1958 he was elected to London County Council, and in 1959, at 28, won Lewisham North from Labour by 4,613 votes. He played himself in slowly at Westminster, supporting the Rev David Sheppard’s refusal to play cricket against South Africa and probing an alleged “colour bar” at a dance hall in Catford. He wrote on athletics for The Sunday Telegraph and continued to broadcast.

Early in 1961 Richard Wood, Minister of Power, made Chataway his PPS, and the following year Macmillan brought him into his government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Education. His priority was doubling the number of trainee teachers.

Chataway held Lewisham North in 1964 by just 343 votes. In opposition he remained an education spokesman until the incoming Edward Heath moved him to overseas development.

Defeated in the Labour landslide of 1966, he rejoined the BBC, presenting Horizon. But he had to limit his broadcasting when, the following April, he became leader of Ilea’s education committee; his personal assistant was Jeffrey Archer. Seeking another seat, Chataway was defeated for the Reigate nomination in 1968 by Geoffrey Howe . But early in 1969 he was selected for Chichester, which he won in a May by-election, his majority of 26,087 making it the Tories’ safest seat. That October he rejoined the front bench as environment spokesman.

After winning the June 1970 election, Heath made Chataway, not yet 40, Minister for Posts and Telecommunications . He came under immediate pressure from Mary Whitehouse to “clean up” programmes, and from colleagues to stop jamming pirate stations such as Radio Caroline and to legalise commercial radio.

His 1971 White Paper, and subsequent Sound Broadcasting Bill, created an Independent Broadcasting Authority and up to 60 local commercial radio stations, with the BBC limited to its existing 20. He resisted pressure for breakfast television and a fourth channel.

In April 1972 Heath promoted him to the new sub-Cabinet post of Minister for Industrial Development. Chataway spent much time brokering the survival of lame ducks: the collapsed Upper Clyde Shipyards under new ownership, Cammell Laird, Rootes Motors (under Chrysler), BSA and International Computers.

On deciding to leave Parliament in late 1974, Chataway went into merchant banking with Orion, where he was a managing director until 1988, heading mergers and acquisitions. He joined the boards of BET, Fisons, Allied Investments and Macquarie Securities, and later chaired British Telecommunications Systems, United Medical Enterprises (his share options made him £360,000 on privatisation), Kitcat & Allen and Isola 2000.

When bidding opened for a breakfast television franchise in 1980, Chataway chaired the unsuccessful AM Television, backed by Pearson. From 1981 to 1993 he was chairman of LBC, the London news radio station set up under his legislation.

In 1991 Chataway took the chair at the CAA. His greatest challenge was bringing on stream the computerised NERC air traffic control centre near Southampton. He defended BAA’s monopoly control of London’s three main airports, but rebuked the government for allowing British Airways to take over Dan-Air, and accused BA and Virgin of price-fixing, while trying to resolve their public feud over “dirty tricks”.

He was knighted in 1995, and retired the following year .

Christopher Chataway married first, in 1959 (dissolved 1975), Anna Lett, with whom he had two sons and a daughter . He married secondly, in 1976, Carola Walker, with whom he had two sons.

Sir Christopher Chataway, born January 31 1931, died January 19 2014

 

Guardian:

 

 

Thank you, Michael Rosen (A levy on grief, 15 January) for describing so poignantly how the absence of a dear one is felt in the empty room. Space is rationed and proscribed, always by those who have plenty. Enough space to store belongings, develop a hobby, study in peace, have someone to stay – could members of the current cabinet imagine life without this?
Hazel Imbert
Worthing, West Sussex

 

 

 

 

Independent:

To offer or conduct psychotherapy or counselling with the express aim of altering sexual orientation is profoundly unethical (“The woman who thinks Tom Daley’s gay because his Dad died”, 17 January).

The UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and all other leading therapy organisations have spoken out against this practice, including the Association of Christian Counsellors.

While UKCP agrees with the good intentions behind Geraint Davies’s Bill, we don’t necessarily need more legislation to ban gay conversion therapy.

The voluntary professional bodies have already issued guidance to their registrants. We would welcome the statutory regulators (the Health and Care Professions Council which covers arts therapists and psychologists, and the General Medical Council which covers doctors) rising to the challenge and following suit.

People who are struggling with conflicting feelings about relationships and sexual attractions need support, whatever their sexuality.

They need confidence that the therapist whom they see abides by a robust ethical code.

UKCP is calling for clear professional guidelines and high-quality public information, and is working with professional partners and the Department of Health to deliver both.

David Pink

Chief Executive,

UK Council for Psychotherapy,

London EC1

Dr Mike Davidson of the Core Issues Trust was reported as saying: “On what grounds should a married man with children be forbidden the opportunity to reduce unwanted same-sex attraction in order to hold his family together?”

Surely it’s unrealistic to see feelings in terms of “unwanted” or “wanted”? Our feelings are part of the raw material that makes us. They offer information in regard to ourselves and the world, and as such signal a potential.

I support Geraint Davies’s Bill. Any counsellor or psychotherapist who attempted to eradicate “unwanted” feelings  would be failing to recognise that human processes are not the same as medical ones.

Sexuality is more  complex and interesting than that.

Chris Payne

Registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy  and the UK Council for Psychotherapy,

London NW1

 

The media and  teenage suicide

Emily Dugan’s article “The tragedy of Tallulah: how a secret online identity took over a girl’s life” (18 January) seemed to jump on the bandwagon of accounting for teenage suicide by headlining the use of Internet sites by teenagers.

She is perhaps unaware that one person committing suicide often leads to others they know – or who hear of it – being more likely to kill themselves.

As the parent of a 16-year-old who knew Tallulah, I was horrified to open the paper and find the glamorous photograph – first used, irresponsibly, in another paper the day after Tallulah’s death.

Journalists should think very hard about how such issues are explored in order to prevent other young people looking at this image and thinking they, too, could receive such attention after their deaths and have their photograph in the national news. All forms of media can be dangerous to vulnerable people, not just the Internet.

Loraine Hancock

London W9

 

Lost girls: Think of a mother’s dilemma

There has been a great deal of outrage expressed about the “lost girls” who may have been aborted, and the need to stop people learning the gender of their babies until after the abortion time limit has passed. However, there has been little concern expressed for the woman who is in the position of being pregnant with a daughter not wanted by the father, as well as possibly by the mother herself and her extended family.

How will it help these mothers to force them either to seek an illegal abortion at an unregulated clinic or to carry to term an unwanted child?

And what kind of life will these unwanted daughters live, with fathers who wish they had never been born, and mothers who are ashamed of having produced them?

We allow women to terminate pregnancies of up to 24 weeks on the basis that, until it is viable, a foetus is a part of the mother’s body and not a separate human being. If that is the case, a mother’s reasons for requesting a termination before 24 weeks should not matter.

Of course, doctors do not want to be a part of forcing an abortion on someone. But isn’t it patronising to assume that a woman cannot make a rational decision to terminate a baby, sad though the prospect is, rather than bring a daughter into a family where she isn’t welcome?

It is terrible that women are being coerced into abortions by husbands and families. But the root of the problem is entrenched sexism, which needs to be tackled with education and community outreach, not by restricting mothers’ options.

Ellen Purton

Twickenham

Why would it be “draconian”, as Dr Sarah Wollaston argues (“Britain to act on illegal gender selection”, 16 January), to withhold gender information totally from expectant parents? Why is it necessary for any expectant parent to know the gender of their unborn child?

Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is the right thing to do. In fact, it could be regarded as unnatural. Countless generations of humans have managed perfectly well without this foreknowledge. The element of surprise through not knowing can add to the pleasure of the birth event.

Refusal by the medical profession to reveal the gender of the foetus would certainly put paid to much of the selection.

Iain Smith

Rugby, Warwickshire

 

I have just listened to the news with its litany of rape, sexual assault and generally unacceptable behaviour by a wide variety of men and boys. I also felt horror at The Independent’s revelation of the rate of abortion of female foetuses in certain areas of the world and the fear that it is even happening in this country.

It all adds up to make me feel extremely depressed at the state of our society. Misogyny seems to be everywhere and the casual “use” of women so widespread that many men don’t even recognise it.

Where have we gone wrong that our men are so dysfunctional and have such a distorted idea of the way they should relate to women? Do they not realise that women are people – as they themselves are – and not simply commodities?

Angela Peyton

Beyton. Suffolk

 

British spirit is a thing of the past

I read that the Royal Mail suspended deliveries to two villages near Swansea after a postman complained that paths were slippery and dangerous because of rain.

However, a resident is reported to have said that the condition of the paths was no worse than in other winters; and a neighbour said it was absolutely fine with a pair of wellies.

There was a time when the Royal Mail was proud that, whatever the weather, the mail was delivered.

During the freezing winter of 1947, a train delivering coal to a town on the east coast became frozen solid. But the railway staff knew that the town was almost out of coal, and despite the perishing cold and incredible discomfort, they managed to start the train, and the vital fuel arrived in time.

Where is the British spirit and pride these days in overcoming all difficulties to finish the job?

Perhaps we should be grateful that a different generation was around during the Second World War and that the health and safety brigade had not yet appeared on the scene.

Colin Bower

Sherwood, Nottingham

I understood that the Government privatised the Royal Mail in the best interests of both the business and its customers.

Recently, a notice has been pinned to our local postbox stating that to achieve business efficiencies the collection time on Saturdays is being brought forward by half an hour.

For many years we have received our mail between 9.30am and 11am. We have noticed since New Year that deliveries have gone back to between 1pm and 2.30pm.

Today, our post included a letter from the local sorting office saying that in the interests of efficiencies, rounds had been reorganised and the delivery “window” extended. As a customer, am I missing something?

Roy Baker

Marston Green,  West Midlands

 

Humane approach to lethal injection

Between reading your accounts on 17 and 18 January of the clumsy execution of Dennis McGuire in Ohio, I had to have an elderly and sick cat put down.

The process was entirely peaceful. A first injection sent the animal gently to sleep, and a second injection finished him off, with no distress whatsoever being caused. Have the authorities in Ohio and other American states that use lethal injection missed something?

D W Budworth

London W

 

 

 

Times:

 

Sir, George Osborne’s suggestion that the time is ripe for an above-inflation increase in the national minimum wage is economically prudent and politically astute (Jan 17). Opponents may claim that employment prospects of the lowest paid will be adversely affected but the independent Institute for Social & Economic Research (ISER) report published in February 2012 found no evidence of significant adverse impacts on pre-recession employment arising from the minimum wage.

The return of strong economic growth and the rapidly improving jobs market supports the timing of the Chancellor’s statement which is one of the most significant Conservative policy reversals of David Cameron’s leadership. The lingering public perception that the party is hostile to the poor is now firmly contradicted by the huge increase in personal allowances focused exclusively on basic rate taxpayers, the freeze in fuel duty and council tax and the belated admission that the party was wrong to oppose the introduction of the minimum wage in the 1990s.

Philip Duly

Haslemere, Surrey

Sir, You assert that people on the minimum wage earn just over £12,000 a year. This is incorrect. The majority of those on this hourly rate are working part-time; many are students. The minimum wage is an ineffective anti-poverty instrument which does little for working families. A significant rise in the rate will, however, close off entry-level jobs for many young people. We already have a million under-25s looking for work — Mr Osborne’s generosity with other people’s money will do little for them.

Professor J. R. Shackleton

University of Buckingham

Sir, You say “there is no better welfare policy than better pay”. Surely the best answer is to align the proposed national minimum wage with the income tax personal allowance. For a 37-hour week at £7 per hour this would amount to a £13,468 annual tax threshold so that no one on the minimum wage pays income tax.

Derek Edwards

Brentwood Essex

Sir, A rise in the minimum wage will in the first instance attract even more migrants from within the EU. As for policing it, this will prove in the longer run to be a mug’s game. Better to acknowledge that a living wage and mass immigration are mutually exclusive. Curtail immigration and the market will automatically raise unskilled wages.

There will, of course, be a transfer of purchasing power from the majority “haves” to the minority “have-nots” as menial jobs that cannot be outsourced abroad become more costly. This is a small price to pay for all who espouse One Nation cohesiveness.

Only a “penny wise and pound foolish” society would import cheap labour with the aim of driving unskilled pay below a living wage. Not being able to control migrants from within the EU is tantamount to importing cheap labour.

Yugo Kovach

Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

 

 

 

 

Reward systems with a high-bonus element lead to employees performing in a manner that is penny wise but pound foolish

Sir, The growth of the bonus culture in banking and in financial service industries has spread worldwide and is proving difficult to control and even harder to reverse (report, Jan 15).

Reward systems with a high bonus element are pernicious: they distort performance towards narrow and short-term objectives, they exhibit upward creep under competitive pressures, and they are perceived as unfair by those not eligible. They are popular only to those who receive them and they are sustained by fallacious arguments about attracting good people but they are most attractive to the avaricious.

I worked for many years in industrial operations management where our research indicated that bonus payments, or payment by results, works best for simple manual work. Here it is easy to relate earnings to tons of material moved or packed, and where proportional reward can be paid in relation to effort expended. In more complex roles, the direct relationship between effort and output is hard to define, and bonuses linked to specific business targets leads to distorted or selfish behaviour which diverges from the wider and longer term aims of the organisation.

The only way out of the present contentious and pernicious bonus culture in the banks, which has now run way out of control, is to bring it to an end. Governments and shareholders should work together to encourage distaste for these bad reward systems.

Arthur Dicken

Prestbury, Cheshire

 

 

 

 

Telegraph:

 

SIR – Congratulations to Alan Titchmarsh for his article about manners (Life, January 12).

 

SIR – The wind energy industry’s claim that “the UK is the windiest country in Europe” is misleading (“Britons pay more for wind farms”, January 12).

 

 

SIR – The attempt by 95 Conservative MPs to strengthen the Prime Minister’s hand in his negotiations for treaty change was bold, but doomed to fail (“95 Tory MPs call for EU law veto”, report January 12).

 

Irish Times:

 

Sir, – Your Editorial (January 13th) highlighted the continuing crisis in relation to ongoing overcrowding in hospitals, particularly in our emergency departments (ED).

The sad reality is that seven years after being described as a national emergency by the then Minister for Health, there is still no end in sight to this problem.

The fundamental problem with overcrowding stems from a reduction in bed numbers at a time of increasing population. The IMO believes that the problems in EDs will not be solved until this Government addresses the issue of integrated health care and bed capacity. It is the lack of vision and resources that cause the problems in EDs all over the country and it must be recognised that emergency departments represent just one of the many pressure points in the system.

The Special Delivery Unit (SDU) theoretically looks at the total picture of a hospital but the reality is that so much more needs to be done – where are the long stay units for elderly and high dependency patients? Where are the so-called community services? Where are the beds in the hospital when at any given time wards are closed for budgetary reasons further reducing capacity?

It is not acceptable to blame the crisis on the season of the year or the ageing of the population – the sad but true fact is that our health services are starved of resources and cannot deliver the quality of care required for patients. – Yours, etc,

Dr MATTHEW SADLIER,

President,

Irish Medical Organisation,

Fitzwilliam Place,

 

Sir, – Last October I filled out the annual statistical census in my school. One of the easiest sections was a straight Yes/No answer to the question, “Does your school operate a book rental scheme?”. With justifiable pride I clicked “Yes”. With an average donation per child of €60,with parents most generously sending in all their children’s used books in order to create a stockpile and with a committee of staff and parents giving up to two weeks of their summer holidays, we ensured that every child in our school was part of our new book rental scheme. Click “Yes” for a job well done!

What would have happened had I clicked “No”? What if the parents had not donated €20,000 as well as their used books to provide the initial outlay? What if the staff had not given their time along with the PA volunteers to put the scheme into effect? Simple. The school would have received €150 per capita over the next three years (approximately €50,000) to introduce a book rental scheme.

Minister of Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn has decided to reward the no-clicking schools with a €15 million grant (Home News, January 9th). Damned if you do, damned lucky if you don’t. – Yours, etc,

PETER GUNNING,

Principal, Scartleigh NS,

Saleen,

Midleton, Cork.

 

Sir, – Reporting on the Government-backed launch of an online version of Ireland’s Memorial Records, Stephen Collins (Home News, January 11th) repeated the official statistic that “49,000 men from the island of Ireland” died in the 1914-18 war. This figure is simply untrue.

In 1979, I began a thorough examination of the Memorial Records, which had originally been compiled by Eva Bernard 60 years before. I found that some 11,007 of the 49,400 dead had not been born in Ireland, and that 7,245 were without a listed birthplace. However, no simple conclusions may be drawn from these raw figures. Willie Redmond, for example, who emphatically was Irish, was born in Liverpool, and Lord Kitchener, who emphatically wasn’t, was born in Co Kerry. Similarly, neither the English John Kipling, son of the poet, killed in action with the Irish Guards in 1915, nor the Irish Tom Kettle, killed in action with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1916, are accorded a birthplace. What muddies the waters considerably is that the Memorial Records also include men from Britain who either served in Irish regiments, or enlisted in British service battalions with the parenthetic (Irish) attached. No authentic Irish connection was required for such enlistment.

Other listings defy analysis, such as those of Demosthenes Guilgaud, died of a heart attack in Canada, in 1919, William Jennings Bryan, died in Colorado Springs 1916, and Richard Smythe, drowned in Jaffa Bay 1919.

Overall, I found that some 31,000 of the dead were born in Ireland, and I concluded that some 35,000 could properly be considered Irish. Other analyses, notably Pat Casey’s, generally – if not in detail – concur with my far lower estimate than the “official” figures. I published my findings in a long article in The Irish Times on November 11th, 1980. Yet, more than 33 years later, the utterly inaccurate figure of circa 49,000 is still being cited. Perhaps one reason for this is that anyone doing a search in The Irish Times online archives for material on the Great War will not find my analysis: page 10 for November 11th, 1980, which contained that article is – quite uniquely in my very extensive experience of the archives – missing in its entirety. How very curious.

The official recycling of statistical falsehood as historical fact comes hard upon the widespread allegation last month that Major Willie Redmond asked not to be buried in a British military cemetery in 1917, in protest at the execution of the 1916 leaders. This utter falsehood, with its calumnious implication that he did not wish to be buried with the men he so gallantly led into battle, has no documentary basis whatever – yet it has now found its way into Wikipedia, with RTÉ News being cited as a reputable source. Innocent students interested in the Irish involvement in the 1914-18 war are now being systematically misled by publicly-funded institutions into believing complete fabrications.

This follows the deplorably one-sided commemorations of the 1913 industrial disputes, tendentiously and inaccurately named “The Lockout”. These differing examples suggest that an officially-supported fiction masquerading as history remains, as always, the Irish narrative of choice. In which case, God help us all come 2016. – Yours, etc,

KEVIN MYERS,

Ballymore Eustace,

Co Kildare.

Editor’s note: Due to a technical error, the page referred to above did not go online. This is being rectified.

 

 

Sir, – Is it not time the European Union considered abolishing the European Parliament?

I doubt if even 1 per cent of the Irish electorate can point to any achievement of the European Parliament. The democratic element in the union is already provided by the Council of Ministers where democratically elected government representatives have much stronger credentials for representing the local electorate. It is time we stopped pretending the EU is a state. It is a multi-lateral international organisation that plays a very important role in citizens’ lives, but is not a national state.

The European Parliament is an expensive charade which does little for the good governance of Ireland, but has been established to provide hefty salaries to “has been” national politicians. It is time to abolish it. It makes the Irish Senate actually look good. – Yours, etc,

JOE CONROY,

Eglington Road,

Brampton,

Toronto,

 

Sir, – You have published three interesting figures recently.

The first was that our agricultural exports were worth almost €10 billion last year, a great achievement by that industry.

The second was that the interest paid on our national debt was €8.1 billion ( almost all paid to holders outside the Irish jurisdiction and therefore a total loss to Ireland Inc) which largely wiped out the benefits of the above.

The third is that we Irish have approximately €90 billion worth of savings, most of which is held outside Ireland. The Post Office, our banks and prize bonds pay a derisory rate of interest which does not match inflation, why doesn’t the State offer to pay us the 3.53 per cent it is paying international lenders and thereby ensure we fund our own deficits and the interest paid remains in our economy? – Yours, etc,

DONALD PRATT,

Avoca Handweavers,

Kilmacanogue,

 

Sir, – When my late father David Faiers married Peggy Tansey (my mother) in Haddington Road Roman Catholic church on August 29th, 1953, there were no guests and just two witnesses.

The marriage ceremony was conducted at a side altar and there was no Mass, candles, nor flowers. There was however a dispensation from Pope Pius XII. My father had to sign an agreement to have all children of the marriage raised in the Roman Catholic faith. This was, he contended throughout his life over many a glass of Bushmills whiskey, a form of ethnic cleansing .

By profession he was a marvellous sports journalist, but according to his neighbours he was the “black Prod” on the avenue. I was baptised a Roman Catholic and I practise very hard at being a good Christian. I suspect that inside me there is a “raging Protestant” trying to emerge. – Yours, etc,

HELGA FAIERS,

Kildavin,

Bunclody,

 

Sir, – If, in his answer to Prof Sheila Greene (January 15th), Prof Kevin Mitchell (January 16th) had stuck with “mental states arise from brain states” and that such brain states incorporate all the complexity of past experiences, I would be happy to declare him the winner in this exchange.

However, he exposes a narr owness in neuroscience by say ing that past experiences are “written in changes to brain circuits”. Since there is much about matter and consciousness and how they interact that we do not understand, such an assumption is just an unproven theory. So, for the time being, we might be wise to stick with the view of that other Trinity College academic, George Berkeley, who said: “What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.” – Yours, etc,

TONY CAREY,

Glencree Road,

Enniskerry,

Sir, – I gladly noted Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council’s decision to drop its plans for an €800,000 refurbishment of its chamber (Home News, January 11th).

The plan, which was to allow extra seating for the increased number of councillors to be elected next May, was expensive and unnecessary. People want to see money being spent on their local services, not on plush new surroundings for the council.

A focus on providing social housing, more community grants and improved library and educational services is where this vital funding is needed. This extravagant refurbishment was never essential. If we learn anything from the past, surely it is to first think of the most cost-effective way to deliver a solution. – Yours, etc,

DEIRDRE KINGSTON,

Merrion Grove,

Booterstown,

 

Sir, – Emmet Malone’s excellent article on the links between Ireland and Everton FC (Sport, January 15th) omits mention of perhaps the most remarkable connection, the signing in 1939 by Sligo Rovers of the legendary ex-Everton forward Dixie Dean.

Dean’s 60 goals for Everton in 1927-28 stands as the record for most scored in a season in the top tier of English football. His prolific strike rate continued with Rovers and helped the club reach the FAI Cup final, and secure runner-up spot in the league in 1939. – Yours, etc,

DAVID ROUSE,

Royal Canal Park,

Ratoath Road, Dublin 15.

 

 

 

Sir, – Eamonn’s McCann’s article (Opinion, January 16th) lacked one important thing – namely, facts, to support his thesis.  At no point does McCann provide any evidence that the biblical quotes he provides, or any part of the Bible, had any impact on Ariel Sharon’s political ideology.  Rather than facts, McCann merely writes his personal suppositions of Sharon’s belief system.  Moreover, he makes false historical claims.

For instance, he stated that Sharon wanted to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Israel yet the only mass cleansing under Sharon’s leadership is when he forcibly removed the Jewish community of Gaza.  Taken in sum, it appears that McCann’s goal is not to educate the readership of The Irish Times but to teach them to demonise religion. – Yours, etc,

JASON LEVINSON,

Beechnut Street,

Houston,

Texas, US.

Sir, – I’m scratching my head at Ena Keye’s evaluation (January 16th) and wondering has s/he perhaps confused this Sabra and Shatila iconic “. . . warrior hero raised up to defend Israel and deliver peace to the land . . .” with a certain biological detergent of similar appellation and coincidental white-washing reputation? – Yours, etc,

DAMIEN FLINTER,

Castleview Estate,

Headford,

Co Galway.

Sir, – Eamonn McCann’s latest piece of anti-Israeli agitprop (“Paisley and Sharon driven by ideology of biblical destiny”, Opinion, January 16th) claims that both Ian Paisley and Ariel Sharon based their ideologies “on books of the Bible”. Unfortunately, because Sharon was not religious McCann has to pepper his references to him with phrases like “. . . will have been mindful of” and “. . . will have believed”.

The simple fact is that Ariel Sharon supported, for example, settlement building not as a result of some biblical command but rather as a means to make Israel secure. Ariel Sharon had many faults, but religiosity was not one of them. – Yours, etc,

KARL MARTIN,

Bayside Walk,

Bayside, Dublin 13.

 

 

Sir, – Cutting through the verbiage, the justifications and the slippery self-righteousness of those who constitute themselves as cheery advocates of the bonus culture, it might be timely to resurrect what the economist JK Galbraith wrote in his 2004 book, The Economics of Innocent Fraud, when he commented, “Performance-related pay is called salary. Bonuses should be beneath the dignity of professionals, as bribes should be beneath the dignity of commerce”. – Yours, etc,

CIARAN COSGROVE,

Hillcourt Road,

Glenageary, Co Dublin.

Sir, – It is time for the annual State ceremony to mark the founding of Dáil Éireann on January 21st, 1919 to be given more emphasis and publicity. I would suggest an Army presence on Dawson Street, Dublin, to mark the turning of the sovereign seal ceremony in the Mansion House.

Traffic could be diverted from the top of Dawson Street for about an hour and the ceremony relayed outside on speakers. Schools could be given a brief talk on this most important event, including a copy of the chief justice’s annual reading. – Yours, etc,

DA HURLEY,

Frenchpark,

Co Roscommon.

 

Sir, – Martyn Turner’s cartoon “The 7 wages of MANagement” (Opinion, January 17th) is slightly misleading as the sack of money for the pension should be at least three times the size of the others.– Yours, etc,

MICHAEL STOREY,

Glencar, Co Sligo.

 

Sir, – “Roadmap”, especially when applied to anything maritime, such as the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (European Commission, some 10 years ago). – Yours, etc,

UNA O’DWYER,

Nutley Park,

Dublin 4.

 

 

 

Irish Independent:

 

* Another week, another government scandal — be it Irish Water revealed to be splurging tens of millions of euro on consultants without the minister in charge seemingly being aware, or more details leaking out about how leeches on the board of the CRC considered themselves more worthy recipients of charitable donations than the people the CRC was established to help.

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Something is seriously wrong with the country’s governance. Politicians, civil servants and people in semi-state bodies are too commonly putting self-interest before public service.

They should be open, direct and fully accountable to the public for their actions and their custodianship of billions of euro worth of public assets.

Instead when forced out of their bunkers into the glare of public scrutiny, they all too often hide behind excuses of data protection and commercial confidentiality, and heavily redact (ie, censor) any documents squeezed out of them under freedom of information laws. So much for democracy.

A key function for elected representatives should be to hold government to account, but instead too many members of the Oireachtas are more concerned with preventing public scrutiny of government actions for political reasons.

This state of affairs is likely to continue until TDs and senators are given broader powers to question decision-takers and hold them fully accountable for their actions. Why not give Oireachtas committees the responsibility for deciding the variable pay/bonuses of senior decision-takers? Additionally, our highly restrictive freedom of information laws should be brought in line with those of other EU countries.

It’s often said that a country gets the government it deserves. The problem is that Ireland deserves and needs a much better government than it has got.

ROGER BLACKBURN

NAUL, CO DUBLIN

PAISLEY‘S SUNNY MOOD

* It’s hard to believe that Ian Paisley is now saying that he was aware of the injustices that stirred the civil rights protesters into action half a century ago.

It really can only be explained in the context of him becoming a happier man in recent years.

He was clearly a deeply unhappy man at the beginning of the Troubles, demonstrating great bitterness and anger at Catholics, Nationalists and the Catholic Church. He was also pretty hard on mainstream unionists.

This serves to explain well the power of moods in our lives. This unhappy man had to be right every time, to suppress and intimidate his opponents and know everything there is to know about everything.

A happier Paisley, with his memories of sitting in government with Sinn Fein and regularly making Martin McGuinness laugh, is much more at ease with himself. He has nothing to prove, conquered many of his demons and can speak his mind without being concerned about incurring the wrath of friend or foe.

Truth becomes more important than anything else and incurring the wrath of those in the DUP who have, as yet, not found happiness and, because of this, persist in telling the tribal account of recent history, is not a particular concern.

I hope more politicians find happiness, for it is a powerful mood for progress. We might even hear Gerry Adams say that things aren’t as bad as he’s been telling us they were.

JOHN O’CONNELL

DERRY

MINISTER’S BIG IDEAS

* Environment Minister Phil Hogan seems to think that this Irish Water scheme is really the equivalent of the electrification of the country (by German engineers) in the 1920s, when really it is no more than a metering system.

Little wonder, then, that the consultants hired by Irish Water were able to sell their expensive expertise without the minister apparently being aware.

RICHARD DOWLING

MOUNTRATH, CO LAOIS

HOLIDAY SUGGESTIONS

* You know Christmas is long gone when we are bombarded with holiday ads. Many of them offering trips to places I never heard of and have no wish to be in. I have never been in ‘Cahoots’ as you can’t get there alone ; you must be with someone. I’ve never been in ‘Cognito’ as nobody would recognise me. However, I have been in ‘Sane’. It has no airport, as you must be driven there. I’ve also been in ‘Doubt’; sad place, won’t go back. I was also in ‘Flexible’, but only when I was cranky.

A while ago, I was in ‘Denial’ where I met a lot of quango bosses and ‘top-up’ CEOs. My doctor says when I get much older, I’ll be in ‘Continent’. I still don’t know the place, but I’m told it’s wet and damp. On second thoughts, maybe I’ll just head for ‘Lisdoon’ in September. I met her sister there last year: ‘Nothindoin’.

SEAN KELLY

TRAMORE, WATERFORD

CHARITIES IN WITCH-HUNT

* Of late, your paper’s letters section has been filled with people bemoaning the wages earned by individuals working in the charity sector in Ireland. This has been prompted not only by the CRC scandal, but also by your paper’s surveys into how charitable donations are spent in this country.

I would like to raise a number of concerns I have regarding the logic that is applied by those who are taking part in what can only be described as a witch-hunt of those working in the charitable sector in Ireland today.

Despite what many people like to believe, the charitable sector is in constant competition with the private sector. This is because, as every economics’ student knows, consumers have a limited amount of resources. They shall spend these resources as they see fit, and the private sector, through marketing, attempts to influence their economic decisions.

Now I would like to ask you this — if the charitable sector is competing with the private sector for limited resources (donations), yet is vilified for hiring the most capable staff it can because they demand a respectable wage, how can it possibly manage to actually tackle the massive issues that it sets out to fix?

DARAGH MANGAN

CARRIGRUE, CO WATERFORD

INCONVENIENT ELECTIONS

* I wish to register, on behalf of my generation, my disgust at the choice of May 22 as the date for the upcoming local and European Elections.

The Council of the European Union has confirmed that the European Parliamentary elections will be held between May 22-25. However, given this scope, our Government has decided that Thursday is their day. This proves to be of significant inconvenience to working people (especially commuters) and of devastating inconvenience to the student population of Ireland.

ALAN J. MCKENNA

KILKENNY CITY

BRAVE SHANNON ACTIVIST

* The writer, activist and citizen Margaretta D’Arcy has taken a brave stance against the use of Shannon Airport by US military flights. She is to be applauded for this selfless action. Her refusal to rule out further protest has put her, knowingly, on the wrong side of the law.

The issue now is to get her out and home, but also to see that the publicity that has followed her sacrifice (for such it is, despite our cynical times) is used to bring pressure on a government that allows this ‘grey area’ in Irish neutrality to persist.

PAT BORAN

BALDOYLE, DUBLIN 13

Irish Independent