Even busier

Even Busier 22 January 2010

Rain, rain go to Spain and rain on the plain and never come here again, or words to that effect. Its raining! Yes a cold wet miserable wet dark dank gloomy January rain. Not what you want when you are recommencing jogging around the park. Still its not too bad and I am greatly aided my the Men from the Ministry, must try and stop laughing out loud,as I stagger along though the gloom, but the year is progressing and its a little brighter each day.
A quiet sort of day nothing seemed to get done, I managed to clear out a drawer, turn your back and clutter mounts up, it is now blank, empty, unused, virginal you might say, the possibilities of what to put in in are endless. Today I’ll rise to drawer lining paper, a little more order among chaos.
The Energy saving man appears he wants to measure the house, for our cavity wall insulation. The rain drips from his nose, he declines to come in, I sympathise about the weather, he shrugs “I can’t get any wetter” and off he goes with his little laser measuring device. I give me a diagram of the layout of the house, he is most grateful and sighs wetly “this will make my job a lot easier’, this must be the most carefully thought out and organized cavity wall insulation in the country. We are to have two quotes one for foam and the other for plastic beads, from the companies themselves, it will be most interesting to see them.
I pick up Shaniti to take to her doctors, there is still ongoing ructions between her and Sandy, over Joan. Shanti keeps buying Joan pate, which she likes, and who can blame her I like pate too, but three packets a week is rather a lot I must admit. I rang Joan to tell her that I had booked Caroline the chiropodist and to see if we could come and visit her. No ‘its not convenient’ she ‘has something else on’ and she even canceled the visit we had booked on Saturday. I am glad to find out that we are not the only ones suffering from Joan, she snarled at Shanti the other day. Shanti thinks Joan’s dementia is getting worse.
My mouth wash foams, what idiot designed foaming mouthwash? No every time I do my teeth I look like a mad thing foaming wildly at the mouth, you can’t gargle with the stuff either, its awful! Astringent taste too, a little like accidentally inhaling some drain cleaner, must remember and cross it off my list and never, ever buy this stuff again.
I put a pheasant on for tea, with squash, red cabbage, garlic, leeks, and carrots. We watch series four of Coast, who bored with the British coast have temporarily abandoned Britain and decamped to look a the the French coast, most interesting. To see our country from the outside as it were the French accents are fascinating. I can’t remember who beat whom at Scrabble but it was an awful game.

Postcards

William Hogarth The Jones Family Conversation piece

William Lionel Wyllie Dociaus Barri

Milwaukee home of Harley Davidson, Milwaukee, USA

Eastbourne multi-view Eastbourne, Sussex, England

Eastbourne pier Eastbourne, Sussex, England

Obituary: The Right Rev Colin James: Bishop of Winchester, 1985-95

A child of the vicarage, Colin James followed his father, Canon Charles Clement Hancock James, into the Church of England, attaining high office as successively Bishop of Basingstoke, then Wakefield and finally Winchester.
Colin Clement Walter James was born in 1926 and brought up in Cambridge where he attended the King’s College Choir School. Later, after school at Aldenham and service with the Navy, he returned to King’s as an undergraduate, taking his degree in history.
Ordination training at Cuddesdon was followed by a curacy in Stepney and three years as chaplain at Stowe School. From 1959 he spent eight years with the BBC as a religious affairs producer. Broadcasting and television were to remain a keen interest; James was chairman of the BBC and IBA Central Religious Advisory Committee from 1979 to 1984 and he served on several groups concerned with the media.
It was during his time with the BBC that he met and was married to Margaret (Sally) Henshaw, who greatly sustained him in his life and ministry.
James returned to the parish ministry in 1967 as vicar of the big Bournemouth parish of St Peter’s. It was from there that Falkner Allison, then Bishop of Winchester, invited him to become the first holder of the newly created Suffragan See of Basingstoke. Consecrated by Archbishop Ramsey at St Paul’s on February 2, 1973, James quickly settled to the duties of a bishop, giving invaluable support to Allison and then to his successor John Taylor. He was at the same time a canon residentiary of Winchester Cathedral.
James was not left long in his first episcopal post; towards the end of 1976 he was invited to succeed Eric Treacy as Bishop of Wakefield. The industrial South Yorkshire diocese was something new to James’s experience, but he soon showed his quality as a leader and gained the complete trust and affection of his diocese. It was said of him at this time, and with justice, that he possessed the invaluable gift of inspiring those who worked with him to achieve things that they had not previously believed they could do. He was a devoted pastor to his clergy, taking great care especially of those who fell into any kind of trouble.
In 1985 he was asked to return to his old diocese of Winchester as its Bishop. The move, widely welcomed, brought him back to familiar and well-loved territory. He proved again an excellent administrator and pastor, sure-footed, cautious in public statement, good at choosing people for jobs and good at letting them get on with them.
Behind a deceptively bland exterior there was always a shrewd mind and a firm hand. His pastoral skills were displayed in his visits to the parishes and in his correspondence; he was a superb letter-writer.
Outside the diocese he made his mark in the General Synod by his mastery of complicated subjects, handled with a light touch and sense of humour.
He was chairman of the missionary society USPG (the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel), of the Liturgical Commission from 1986 to 1993, and president of the Woodard Corporation of independent Anglican schools from 1978 to 1993.
Towards the end of his time at Winchester the Church of England decided to ordain women to the priesthood.
Traditional Anglican that he was, James had deep reservations about this development and had not expected it to happen when it did. After the decision had been taken, he did not himself conduct the ordinations of the women priests, which were taken by one of his suffragans.
But his personal views on the issue never diminished his courtesy and respect for the women clergy of the diocese.
James read widely, and a gift for friendship went along with his disciplined life as a priest. His wife Sally died in 2001 after a long illness, during which he cared for her devotedly and with courage. His faith was strong, simple and serene.
He is survived by a son and two daughters.
The Right Rev Colin James, Bishop of Winchester, 1985-95, was born on September 20, 1926. He died on December 9, 2009, aged 83

Letters:

Guardian:

I’d like to thank Charlotte Raven for her candid account of the complex emotions that a life with, or at risk of, Huntington’s ­disease presents . I am one of those at risk and as yet untested. Unlike Charlotte, I have been aware of HD from a young age: it robbed me of my mother when I was 12. For most of my life I have felt ashamed, and seldom shared my status even with close friends. That HD is a “challenge to our sense of ourselves as self-determining ­entities” resonates, in particular. The question to be or not to be is one I have ­contemplated daily for years.
Jackie Harrison Address supplied
Charlotte Raven was obviously deeply affected by her experiences in Venezuela, but it’s unlikely that she’d experience such a level of care in Britain. People with degenerative neurological conditions who cannot swallow are fed by PEG tube, which is efficient but passive. And when they express their justifiable anguish, they’re more likely to be sedated than understood. This is why I, ­severely disabled by multiple ­sclerosis, am open-minded about whether and when I might choose to take my own life. It feels like the last act of autonomy I might take.
Meg Taylor London N16
While I’m sorry to hear of Charlotte Raven’s diagnosis, I found her ­suicidal thoughts depressing and disappointing. I’ve had MS for nearly 25 years, and despite an initial bleak prognosis, am now better than ever. I hope Charlotte and others with HD can focus on working out how to live rather than on how to die.
Kathy Kohl Brighton, East Sussex
At last a newspaper gives significant coverage to the tragedy that is Congo. One of the world’s largest and most ­mineral-rich countries has degenerated into brutal anarchy and chaos. Please let this article mark the ­commencement of some serious and sustained coverage, so that pressure is brought to bear on British and EU ministers to do something to end this humanitarian tragedy and to stop western companies exploiting the helpless people of Congo.
Simon Bull Claydon, Oxfordshire
I was disturbed by My Husband Ran Off With My Daughter. Quite apart from the moral implications of such a relationship, I believe the ­article describes criminal activity under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. People assume that the law on such matters applies only to blood relatives (and to ­children under 16), but the ­definitions are much wider than that.
Phil McNally Bolton
Great news, the rude, dismissive, hungover air steward with an ­attitude problem is in much the same state as the pilot (What I’m ­Really Thinking, January 16). ­Fantastic! That makes me feel so much better.
Simon Clew Saffron Walden, Essex
Nissen huts weren’t just used to store weapons. They stored troops, too. The ­experience of most US GIs who came to Britain was living in a Nissen hut, a tin billet that in winter was like an icebox open at both ends.
Juliet Gardiner London E8
Steve Coogan’s Q&A (16 January) was a delight. His answers were spot-on, and I, too, shall now look through the Steve Coogan section in HMV.
Eva Lawrence St Albans, Hertfordshire
What single thing would improve the quality of your life? “A large ­private classic car collection.” What do you consider your greatest achievement? “Not being motivated by money.” Ha ha. You are a caution, Steve Coogan.
Tony De Meur London N17
Finally, I look at Alexis Petridis’s ­picture and think, “I’ll buy one of those.” Eagerly, I skip to the end, only to read, “All other clothes, Alexis’s own.” Come on, Alexis, where did you get that cool black jacket?
Craig McEwan Southampton
Did you have a poor entry for the ­hibernation-themed In Pictures? What do a sleeping child, a person in a hat and scarf, and a cat under some cushions have to do with spending winter in a dormant state?
Pete Taylor Wilmslow, Cheshire

Food products such as cakes, biscuits and pastries are not necessarily “obvious” contributors to saturated fat intake (Know your fats, G2, 19 January). In fact, several members of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents the manufacturers of many of Britain’s best-loved brands, no longer use animal fats in their products except where they are required to by law, or if the nature of the product specifically requires it (eg all-­butter shortbread and all-butter pastries).
For a number of years, FDF members have been rising to the challenge of the highly complex task of reformulating existing products and developing new ones to be lower in saturated fat without compromising on taste and texture. FDF’s biscuit, cake, chocolate and confectionery (BCCC) members are well represented in this work, being especially active in reducing saturated fat levels in their products despite the many technical, quality and cost challenges associated with reformulation, for example by replacing saturated fats with non-saturated fats like sunflower oil.
Consumers now have a wide variety of products on the market to help them reduce their saturated fat intake – including cakes, biscuits and pastries – and the number of products available continues to increase. Data from independent consultancy Mintel found that since 2007 more than 700 reformulated products have been launched on to the market.
Manufacturers are committed to playing a positive role in the health debate and to ensuring consumers continue to have a range of products available to help them choose a healthy diet.
Martin Turton

The current review by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (Hefce), which will set the level of funding by Hefce for the next five years, threatens to have alarming consequences for a group of institutions which play a key part in sustaining the culture of this country: the university museums. Museums such as the Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers in Oxford, the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, the Manchester Museum, the Courtauld Gallery in London and the Sainsbury Centre at UEA are public assets, with a wide audience. They and other university museums, which together hold 30% of the collections that have been designated as of national and international importance in this country, are university-funded through Hefce.
The government has already announced that it is cutting funding to the university sector: a cut in Hefce’s funding to university museums would have a far-reaching and damaging effect on the public’s ability to access the collections that the universities hold in trust for the nation. Teaching and research also would be significantly eroded, and any retreat by Hefce from core funding will endanger other existing grants and make it all the harder for these culturally vital institutions to raise new funds from other sources. Many gifts were made to university museums on the condition that they would be freely and publicly available: a cut in core funding could lead to a breach of trust, enforced by government policy.
Dr Christopher Brown Ashmolean, Dr Mike Dixon Natural History Museum, Dr Michael O’Hanlon Pitt Rivers Museum, Mark Jones V&A, Neil MacGregor British Museum, Dr Nick Merriman Manchester Museum, Sandy Nairne National Portrait Gallery, Dr Nicholas Penny National Gallery, Dr Timothy Potts Fitzwilliam Museum, Rosalind Savill Wallace Collection, Nicholas Serota Tate, Professor Deborah Swallow Courtauld Institute of Art

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Ramblers’ Association, claims “We’ve achieved a world-class network of paths and open access in the country” (Off the couch: Ramblers target the young, 18 January). He seems to have forgotten that less than three years ago the association itself stated that “more than 30% of paths in England Wales are still reckoned to be difficult or impossible to use” (Public Rights of Way Strategy for England and Wales, Ramblers’ Association, October 2007).
In case Mr Franklin thinks that a revolutionary improvement on our paths has occurred since then, I (and thousands of other ramblers) can disabuse him. In fact, the situation has almost certainly got worse because local authorities now have less money to spend on maintaining the paths, and the Ramblers’ Association itself is showing less interest in fighting for public access. At the same time local councils’ ability to process claims for the statutory recognition of paths not yet recorded as public has also suffered.
Mr Franklin is equally astray when he claims world-class status for open access (freedom to roam) in England and Wales. He need look no further than Scotland, with its basic across-the-board right to roam to see what a ludicrous claim that is. Hundreds of square miles of uncultivated land, especially in the south and Midlands, remain shut to the public by the whims of landowners.
It is all very well to be chasing the young walkers – with, of course. a trendy genuflection to Facebook and Twitter – but if Mr Franklin had a realistic sense of the needs of ramblers of all ages he would launch a public and aggressive campaign to free the paths and remove the fences on open country. We campaigned thus for nearly 70 years and the membership of the association rose year by year. Since 2003 our numbers have fallen from more than 140,000 to fewer than 123,000 because we have ceased to be on the frontline in getting the paths and countryside open.
Chris Hall
Vice-president, the Ramblers’ Association
• The history of the Communist Party of Great Britain is not one of sustained success, so I feel it important that one of its undoubted victories is not credited to others. The mass trespass on Derbyshire’s Kinder Scout in 1932 was not organised by the Ramblers’ Association, as you claim, but by the British Workers’ Sports Federation, an organisation of the CPGB. Though the Ramblers have never, I believe, acknowledged their debt to the Communists, it was the furore created by the mass trespass and the subsequent jailings which led to the formation of the Ramblers’ Association in 1935.
Neil Redfern
Honorary research fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

The idea of Harriet Harman as a class warrior against the rich (Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle, 21 January) is ludicrous and should fool no one. The New Labour government has certainly waged “class war”, but on behalf of the ruling class.
This is a government which, as Harman admits, has overseen rising inequality. Which has made drastic cuts to the welfare state – beginning with the cut to single-parent benefit, overseen by Harman herself. Which has privatised more than Thatcher did, including a dramatic acceleration of the dismantling of the NHS. Which has bailed out the bankers at the expense of workers’ jobs. Which has kept the Tory anti-union laws and stifled Labour party democracy, blocking up the channels by which workers can fight back against this anti-working-class agenda. The result, in the absence of a strong socialist alternative, has been a drift to the right and the growth of the BNP.
I hope to stand against Harman in the general election as a socialist candidate, to provide her constituents with an opportunity to register their disgust with this fake class warrior. But we also need a fight by the Labour-affiliated unions to impose a working-class agenda in the Labour party.
Jill Mountford
Prospective Workers’ Liberty candidate for Camberwell and Peckham
• Well done, Harriet Harman, the penny has dropped at last. The major social, economic and cultural ills in this country are rooted in the mire of class inequality and the political establishment’s refusal to face up to the issue. The working class have had to stand aside for so long while politicians first gave rights and resources on gender issues in the 70s, followed by race in the 80s, sexual orientation in the 90s and religion in the 21st century.
As Harman admits, the discrimination and disadvantage overarching all of these is class. If Labour is really serious about tackling this long-standing ­prejudice, a bill of rights along with a written constitution is normally a basic requirement of any democracy.
Chris Trude
London
• In Leominster we have an MP who has been a shadow minister and is a Tory whip. In the event of a Conservative victory, Leominster could have a prime minister, a chancellor of the exchequer and an MP who would not only be among the 7% privately educated in this country, but who were educated at Eton and at more or less the same time. What does this say about equality of opportunity in Britain?
Joseph Cocker
Leominster
• The day before Harman claims Labour is committed to reducing social inequality, the Home Office offers wealthy immigrants a fast-track visa renewal service for £15,000 (Report, 20 January).
Tim Hailstone
Dartmouth, Devon
• You mistakenly report that we Liberal Democrats in the Lords oppose part one of the equality bill, which imposes a duty on public authorities to have due regard to the desirability of reducing the inequalities of outcome which result from socioeconomic disadvantage, and that we will abstain if the Tories seek to remove part one from the bill. Our position was made clear by me in committee on 11 January (Hansard, cols 313-15, 319). In its present form the so-called “duty” is gesture politics – a politically motivated statement, too vague to be likely to achieve its important aim. It is a duty “writ in water”. We will not abstain and will oppose any attempt by the Tories to remove part one. At report stage, we will seek to make the duty less watery.
Anthony Lester
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• On Monday, peers will debate crucial amendments to the equality bill affecting employment by religious organisations. Some would have the effect of barring gay people from a range of jobs, including as youth workers or in communications. Others seek to prevent potentially thousands of jobs in public services from being reserved solely for religious people. Unfortunately, it appears that the government, which prides itself on its commitment to equality, will be supporting the former, and will oppose the latter.
Naomi Phillips
British Humanist Association

One possible cause of some of the reduction in crime figures and the perception of antisocial behaviour (Report, 22 January) may be the increasing preference of young people to congregate virtually rather than physically. Teenagers talk or text incessantly on their mobiles and get together on MSN rather than the street corner. The evening gatherings of youths outside the village phone box, which were often accompanied by outbreaks of mild antisocial behaviour, have largely ceased. The technology’s ubiquity also means young people always have someone to talk to; in the past isolation could lead to behavioural problems. The best way to get the figures down further may be to supply all young people with free mobile phones and broadband access.
Owen Mclaughlin
Earith, Cambridgeshire

Independent:

Steven Ford (letters, 19 January) is right to bewail the surrender of 24-hour responsibility for patient care by GPs. The profession has lost respect as a result, but more importantly become de-skilled in emergency medicine.
The old out-of-hours service was always patchy; as any junior hospital doctor would have been able to tell you, some GPs were excellent, but many were not so good. Now the requirement seems to be for GPs to devote their time to managing long-term conditions, thus attracting a different sort of person to the profession, one who is office-based, working to protocols and within tangled bureaucratic constraints. The old-style GP of popular imagination, who would tumble out of bed in the small hours to do battle with disease, in his pyjamas, was always a bit of an amateur and has now long gone.
The solution seems to me to train a new form of emergency medical practitioner, based upon the existing paramedics, but with an extended role in prescribing. They would need to be able to recognise, diagnose and manage a comprehensive range of urgent conditions, working both in out-of-hours centres and undertaking home visiting. GPs should then be left to manage chronic disease, which would include a major role in co-ordinating patient care, navigating the increasingly bizarre and tortuous journeys that patients must take when using hospital services, fragmented as they are by super-specialisation and the purchaser-provider split.
GPs, however, should not lose sight of their role in the treatment of acute illness and a major part of their training should be a secondment to this new profession of enhanced paramedics.
Dr Bill Hart
Everthorpe, East Yorkshire
Insanity of our ‘defence’ spending
As a series of disaffected insiders queues up to censure Blair and Brown for denying our Army the protective equipment it needs in Iraq and Afghanistan (“Hoon: Brown is to blame for Army shortages”, 20 January) and war chiefs squabble over who hits the multi-billion-pound jackpot of thetaxpayer-supplied “defence” budget, the herd of Trident elephants in the room all carry 100-kiloton nuclear warheads.
Each of these insanely expensive constructs (the Government is currently spending billions of pounds at Aldermaston just to maintain them) is seven times more destructive than the Hiroshima bomb and each Trident submarine carries 48 of them; sufficient to incinerate around 40 million people.
Our government says that we need to renew this genocide capacity in spite of the cost. (£95bn by Greenpeace estimate). Yet General Sir David Richards, Chief of the General Staff, tells us that the nature of conflict has changed. Today it is “principally about and for people – hearts and minds on a mass scale”. We do not win hearts and minds by threatening to wipe out a substantial portion of the human race.
The people of the UK who supply the military with their funds do not want these nightmare instruments of Armageddon. And our soldiers deserve to be properly protected.
JIM MCCLUSKEY TWICKENHAM, MIDDLESEX
How depressing it is to contemplate the current spat between the heads of Britain’s armed services as they call for more toys for their boys.
While everyone else is contemplating cut after cut (I write as a county councillor looking at the decimation of budgets to help children, vulnerable adults, the generally disadvantaged and anyone who stirs from their front door as a cyclist, pedestrian, car-, bus- or train-user), the service chiefs want huge aircraft carriers, Trident submarines, supersonic aircraft and tanks enough to see off the Red Army on the plains of northern Germany.
If they were to say, “We need less money, but spent more wisely, more realistically and in line with the true interests of a mid-level European country”, we might all take more notice of them.More helicopters, yes.
More investment against cyber threats, yes. More people who would really be useful in Haiti, Sierra Leone and domestic emergencies, yes. But surely not those big-ticket items which hark back to a bygone age and merely make admirals, generals and air marshals feel jolly, jolly important.
SIMON SEDGWICK-JELL CAMBRIDGE
Review of criteria for blood donors
The
criteria across all of the UK Blood Services for accepting blood donors on the basis of virus risk are recommended to theGovernment by the Department of Health’s independent Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) (“Lift the ban ongay blood donors”, letters, 22 January).
In order to assure the continued safety of the blood supply, the current policy is to ask those in groups shown to have a particularly high risk of carrying blood-borne viruses not to give blood. These include men who have ever had sex with men. The reason for this exclusion rests on specific sexual behaviour, rather than the sexuality of the person wishing to donate. There is, therefore, no exclusion of gay men who have never had sex with a man, nor of women who have sex with women.
SaBTO recently began considering new research relating to deferral periods in place for high-risk blood donors, including men who have sex with men. Following this review, SaBTO will make its recommendations to the Government as to whether any changes to the current policy are warranted.
These recommendations will be based on the best and most up-to-date scientific evidence available.
There has been a safe and sufficient blood supply in this country for many years, although the rate of blood donations is subject to fluctuations, which is when we make particular efforts to ask the public – particularly those with rare blood groups – to give blood.
DR SUSAN BARNES CLINICAL DIRECTOR, NHS BLOOD AND TRANSPLANT,WATFORD
Irresponsible to abstain from voting
What a piece of irresponsible nonsense from Keith Farman (letters, 12 January), who wants ballot papers at parliamentary elections to include an option to abstain.
The country has to be governed and the people who wish to record “none of them” on their ballots are on another planet. If Keith Farman is unable to support any of the parties contesting St Albans he has one obvious solution. He can stand himself. That at least should focus his mind on the things he thinks could and should be done. Perhaps he could spell them out for us – fully costed of course.
He should get off his backside and get out and campaign forwhat he believes. Now.
HOWARD COOPER LONDON N9
Why single out Israel’s fence?
Johnny Rizq sees Israel’s proposed fence on its Egyptian border (letters, 18 January) as “evidence of its obsession with building physical barriers”. Some obsession, if it has taken 60 years to think of it!
He does not seem to appreciate that it is only because economic refugees are entering this little country in unprecedented numbers (genuine refugees have been welcomed) that Israel is forced to this measure, just as the intifada and suicide bombers forced Israel to construct the, as yet unfinished, security fence. It is quite interesting that the underprivileged of so many African countries choose just Israel for their future wellbeing and not closer Arab/Muslim lands.
He finds it sadthat Israelis no longer “shop in Palestinian markets or eat in Palestinian restaurants”. I for one am happy to forgo this pleasure in return for the reduced risk of being blown to bits in an Israeli market, restaurant or bus.
It also strange that he does not castigate America for building a wall on its Mexican border 10 times as long as Israel is planning, nor indeed numerous other countries who have built walls for the same reasons. If Britain had not been an island, it, too, would have built walls long ago.
ALAN HALIBARD BET SHEMESH, ISRAEL
I do not ‘battle’ with my cancer
I was most distressed to read of Kate McGarrigle dying. She was a great talent. I was even more distressed though, that Andy Gill’s article (20 January) was sub-headed that she “has lost her fight with cancer”.
She did not lose the fight, any more than I won it because I’m still alive. I’m lucky, and grateful to medics, but I really can’t say that I won anything.
How does being unlucky enough to get a cancer diagnosis automatically turn you into someone brave or battling? I do all I can to look after myself, but if Iwere to get a recurrence, or to be living with a terminal diagnosis, I would really prefer not to be spoken of as someone who is fighting to beat her cancer.
This makes it sound as if we can do something about our cancers. Worse, it makes dying into a personal failure.
Yes those of us who have a diagnosis focus on getting and staying well, but it is not often in our gift to “win”. It is certainly not our fault if we “lose”.
JUDY BENSON MANCHESTER
Class in the UK: the Nazi view
Terry Pugh (Letters, 22 January) comments that “for a working- class person to become an MP he/she must convert to middle- class behaviour”.
Prior to Operation Sea Lion, the planned German invasion of England, SS General Walter Schellenberg prepared a small handbook for the invading troops and accompanying political and administrative units, describing the most important institutions of Great Britain.
Under the heading of “Composition of British Government” he stated: “The Labour Party will never achieve a revolutionary change because its leaders have, like their Conservative opponents, mainly attended feudal public schools, and so are too rooted within this system. When leading Labour Party personalities really have worked their way up from the lower social ranks the system of British society usually absorbs them socially as well as ideologically.”
DR DAVID BARTLETT ILKLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE
Ian Hislop did not mock Bob Crow on Have I Got News For You for being working class (letters, 22 January) but for his far-left political views and (unfairly in my opinion) for the militancy of his union. There was class-based mockery in the other direction though: Crow mocked Hislop for being middle- class, “posh” and Cambridge- educated (though Hislop had to correct him on the last, as he went to Oxford).
LAURIE MARKS CAMBRIDGE
Cruelty to animals
As noted by the Children’s Safety Board (report, 19 January), the brothers aged 10 and 11 who abused and tortured two boys aged nine and 11 in a quarry in South Yorkshire last April had previously been reported for killing ducks. Yet again, cruelty to animals is found to be a predictor of cruelty to people.
ANNA STANLEY CHESTER
Homophobic abuse
Johann Hari writes about homophobia in the UK (13 January). I am not gay but I am a twin. Since 2000 my brother and I,now in our midsixties, have repeatedly been singled out for abuse by homophobic gangs of boys and girls who delight in calling us “botty boys”. Behind their namecalling lurks the constant threat of violence, which is very unnerving. It seems homophobia has reached such a pitch that two men out together are automatically judged to be gay. It is time that gays and non-gays got together to combat this evil.
S D WISE BRADFORD
Haitians maligned
What a fantastic piece by Andy Kershaw about Haiti (21 January). Can you imagine London if the vast majority of its citizens were left homeless, bereaved, starving and seemingly abandoned? Just take a look at our city centres at weekend closing-time to get some idea of how “the civilised West” might react.
PAUL MORRISON DERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND
Tory grandstanding
Shaun Bailey’s moral grandstanding about what is really a problem of economics (“An entire generation left out of the economy”, 21 January) does neither him, nor the Conservatives, any credit. It is redolent of the Conservative attitude towards unemployment in the 1930s, i.e. that it was not the concern of the state. It smacks of the attitude of one Alderman Roberts, who gave the Jarrow Marchers short shrift. And it alsoexplains why the Conservatives were so unceremoniously booted out in 1945.
TIM DAVIDGE GODALMING, SURREY
Scary Spice
Just when it seemed like there couldn’t be any more bad news for the British public we have yet another bodyblow.
Now there’s going to be a Spice Girls musical (report, 21 January). I’m holding on to the forlorn hope that Vauxhall prevent the show from going ahead on the grounds that the proposed title, Viva Forever, infringes a trademark.
PAUL DUNWELL ALTON, HAMPSHIRE

Times:

Sir, President Obama should be applauded for taking the initiative to clamp down on the excessive and irresponsible actions of bankers (“Obama takes on banks”, Jan 22). In total contrast to our Government’s reliance on self-regulation, despite any evidence of this being exercised, the US leads the way in taking positive and decisive action.
Over the past two decades the use of depositors’ cash in high-stake speculative banking (gambling) has spiralled out of hand, creating an elite handful of multimillionaires who, when successful, largely go unchallenged. But when their short-term risks fall apart, such is the size and complexity of the investments that only the taxpayer has enough funds to turn the situation around; the difference now being that we are allowing it all to happen again and in the US they are not. President Obama has clearly defined the responsibility of banks to their customers and to society, and it’s about time we followed suit.
John Walton
Shepperton, Middx
Sir, The huge bonuses paid out by banks since the Big Bang has attracted precisely the wrong type to the industry and a “barrow boy” mentality now rules the banks. Barack Obama is quite correct that banks should not take risks with money that is not theirs. Certainly merchant banks are at liberty to risk their partners’ and shareholders’ funds but so-called high street banks have no right to use our savings as a stake at any high-risk casino.
It is time to bring back the principles of common decency and public service back to the banking sector.
Larry Spence
London NW11
Sir, It might have been politic for the boss of HSBC, Mike Geoghegan, to combine his lecture on slashing spending and leaving bonuses untaxed (report, Jan 21) with an awareness of popular anger, a certain humility and advice to bankers to abjure tax loopholes and havens, as well as gross bonuses.
As it is, Geoghegan’s homily jars with the evidence of bankers continuing to live high on the hog while taking for granted the safety net from the very taxes he deplores. And even a “small” City bonus would be enough to restore the £100,000 annual budget cut that you report (Student Law, Jan 21) for the Criminal Cases Review Commission, undermining its work in reviewing miscarriages of justice and freeing innocent people from jail.
The kind of capitalism we are suffering today — exemplified by the Kraft takeover of Cadbury, which is motivated by financial windfalls for a fortunate few rather than industrial efficiency — is not a fair, liberal, open and competitive model but one that is rigged in a manner reminiscent of medieval guilds. Bankers’ and hedge fund managers’ greed could provoke a backlash with troubling political, as well as economic consequences that no liberal could desire.
Baroness Ludford, MEP
London N1
Sir, As a retired probation officer I am aware of how offenders morally disengage from their criminal behaviour. In this respect bankers are not very different from offenders. As Helen Kirwan-Taylor writes (times2, Jan 21), bankers rationalise and justify their bonuses but they do this in the same way as offenders rationalise and justify their crimes.
Both groups see their behaviour in terms of what they can get, rather than what impact their behaviour may have on others.
patrick dawson
Marple Bridge, Cheshire

Peter Cressall wrote:
I wish I could disintangle a legitimate desire for proper supervision of banks from the obvios envy of the incomes earned by some bankers which pervades the articles and correspondence on the subject. I have come to the conclusion that far more heat than light has been the norm.
January 22, 2010 11:32 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Peter Royce wrote:
Well, Jem at 5.59pm certainly presented some pretty powerful intellectual arguments in support of current banking practices, which should convince many of us that we are on the wrong track. It’s a pity he/she didn’t have more space to tell us more about what bankers do. I am genuinely interested as I, not a particularly wealthy person, have suffered quite a loss in the past couple of years that I had thought had something to do with them.
January 22, 2010 9:47 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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jem – wrote:
the president and your correspondents seem only to have a passing acquaintance with what a tiny minority of bankers do. as for the rest of them, you haven’t got a clue, have you?

anyone who thinks all banks do is take your money for next to nothing, gamble it away willy nilly, taking the winnings and walking away from the losses, is an ignorant baboon whose opinions are worth spit.

without banks, you’d be lost. it’s a shame there is no ghost of a bankless future to shake you out of your glib ignorant complacency

Sir, Massachusetts’ reputation as a beacon of American liberalism is not as clear-cut as you indicate (“Loss of Democratic heartland puts Obama’s entire agenda in jeopardy”, Jan 21). The Republicans captured the governorship in 1990 on a programme of cutting state spending and taxes. They held it until the national swing against their party in 2006.
Since 2000, state referendums have, among other things, rejected a state universal healthcare initiative and bilingual teaching in the state’s schools. It remains remarkable, however, that Scott Brown has been elected on a platform that prominently includes support for gun ownership, endorsement of the death penalty in a state that does not impose capital punishment and a preference for adoption over abortion. That is in addition, of course, to Senator Brown’s advocacy of free enterprise, lower taxes and limited government.
Whatever their appeal to independents, these are strong conservative positions.
Professor Bruce Collins
Professor of Modern History
Sheffield Hallam University

Peter Cressall wrote:
How the meaning of liberal has been distorted in the last decades! It is now applied to the do-gooding loony left. My Chambers dictionary defines it as “befitting a freeman or a gentleman” and so on, more appropriate, I would have thought, to those who are normally described as the Right.
January 22, 2010 11:38 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Thomas Hope wrote:
I wonder what is the point of this letter.
I’ve spent a lot of time working with Americans and have many friends from there and often wonder why the British seem surprised that generally they are more “right wing”, considering the USA’s history.
Also some of their Mr. Brown’s views don’t seem so bad to me.

Sir, Ben Macintyre is right to emphasise the role of imperial France in helping to create Haiti’s current predicament (“The fault line in Haiti runs straight to France”, Opinion, Jan 21), but we should also remember the roles of other players in the region.
US occupations of Haiti, Western support for the Duvalier dictatorships and IMF policies on tariffs, privatisations and punitive loan conditions have all been unhelpful. France is not the only country to exploit Haiti in pursuance of foreign interests.
Geoff Simons
Stockport

Sir, The doom-laden predictions of William Moyes, executive chairman of Monitor, should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who needs, or works in, a hospital (“Hospitals ‘must cut some services to stay afloat’,” Jan 22). At a time when ambulances queue outside accident departments as there are no beds in which to unload the patients, it is sensible to remember that many new hospitals are already smaller than the ones they replaced, and they cannot be expected to shrink regularly and forever.
It is disturbing to hear the suggestion that hospitals should close if they cannot match expenditure with income. The pernicious process of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) has already ensured that many brand new hospitals are in exactly this situation but they cannot be closed because they would then default on their (long-term) guaranteed interest repayments. In a perverse twist it will be the older hospitals, unencumbered by PFI debt and inherently more cost-effective, that will close. While revenue savings may be significant the realised capital will be gone in an instant.
Planners and policymakers should ensure that hospitals are planned to serve a clinical need, not be seen as money-spinning enterprises. However, they should also think with a supermarket mentality. Small may be beautiful, but it may be unaffordable. Why else have Tesco and other chains developed superstores?
All inefficient projects (“care in the community”, community hospitals and polyclinics) should be put on indefinite hold. Concentration of resources at a time of crisis is essential.
Dr Andrew Bamji
Queen Mary’s Hospital
Sidcup, Kent

Thomas Hope wrote:
It is currently being reported that the local hospital trust which includes Darlington is proposing to provide £500,000 to sponsor a new school on the understanding science teaching will be encouraged.
Now that is long term health planning. Cash crisis – what cash crisis?

Sir, It is wrong for Professor Doug King (Jan 20) to state that “wind turbines and solar cells on the roof achieve little or nothing”. I installed two solar heating panels last summer and during a ten-week period reverted to the gas boiler on only three occasions. I consider that a material environmental saving, not “eco-bling”.
Paul Avery
Lyonshall, Herefordshire

Thomas Hope wrote:
Agree with Peter on the pay-out time.
Although calculating the time to recover your costs is a simplistic measurement of returns, up to a maximum of about 4 years seems OK to me but many of these litle projects have payouts of 10 to 20 years or even more. Maybe, as with energy efficient bulbs, costs will come down.
January 22, 2010 6:28 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Peter Cressall wrote:
Have you calculated the effect on the environment of manufacturing your solar cells, Mr Avery, including the mining of the minerals required? I wonder how long it will take (if ever) for your energy savings to compensate?

Sir, The poet A. E. Housman failed his final exams at Oxford and left without a degree (letters, Jan 20). He went on to become one of the most distinguished classical scholars of his generation. Poor performance in an exam does not necessarily mean that the candidate lacks ability. I hope David Cameron will bear this in mind.
Wendy Cope
Winchester

Trudi Morris wrote:
It means you struggle to recall detailed information and lack the ability to compose your thoughts rationally and methodically.

Useful skills in the upper echelons of real world. Horses for courses, I guess it depends on what your ambitions are.
January 22, 2010 9:58 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Thomas Hope wrote:
Thats Classics for you.
January 22, 2010 6:30 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Peter Cressall wrote:
No, it does not necessarily me

Sir, Further to the views on improving the quality of teachers and teaching (letters Jan 20, 21 and 22), on Thursday we celebrated Wan Wai Kru at our school: National Teachers’ Day in Thailand. In a solemn ceremony pupils formally thank their teachers for their guidance, knowledge and understanding.
For someone who has spent more than 30 years teaching in the UK it was a moving experience. Teachers in Thailand are no better paid in relation to bankers and lawyers than in the UK but they are very well respected because their role is deemed so important for the future of “the Kingdom”. Perhaps UK politicians might consider that and treat the disease not the symptom.
Kevin Riley
Headmaster, Harrow International School, Bangkok

Redmond McDonagh wrote:
Is education free in Thailand?

What people get apparently for nothing, they value as nothing.

In the West, education is not only free, the children are forced to attend. No wonder education and teachers have no respect.

Things do seem to be different in schools which are some combination of selective and/or fee-paying.

Sir, Halting flights between Yemen and the United Kingdom will isolate Yemen at a time when we should be assisting as much as possible. (“No-fly lists, scanners and Yemeni ban to tighten air security after Christmas plot,” Jan 21). Yemen needs our security expertise and equipment to scan effectively all passengers boarding flights. Bilateral relations with Yemen are at a crucial stage and must not be compromised by protectionist measures.
Keith Vaz, MP
Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Yemen

Telegraph:

SIR – David Cameron is apparently considering raising “green taxes” to cover the costs of a “family fund” (report, January 22).
I would be more sympathetic to green taxes if each political party pledged that the money raised would be spent only on mitigating the effects of global warming.

If money is needed to fund political pledges (or follies), it should be made clear to the electorate at the time. To cloud green issues by associating them with political infighting does no good for the green cause and only increases scepticism about political integrity.
John Williams
Nettleton, Lincolnshire
SIR – I was filled with dismay when I read your headline: “Tory tax on drivers to pay for marriage allowance”. To liken a fuel duty to support marriage to the increased duty on cigarettes to improve health is breathtakingly illogical.
A better way to fund marriage would be to reduce the state support given to single-parent families, other than those caused by bereavement.
The poor motorist is always there as the cash cow, even if they try to sweeten the pill by calling it a “green tax”. If this is the best the Tories can do, then I fear we are in for more years of Gordon Brown.
Terry Lloyd
Darley Abbey, Derbyshire
SIR – There seems to be some confusion in the debate about marriage (Letters, January 19). Marriage in itself is no guarantee of family stability, while simply not being married is not the same thing as being a single parent.
What matters is encouraging couples to stay together in so far as this benefits their children.
Dr Gary Kitchen
Southport
SIR – Ed Balls states that it is costly and unfair to give tax breaks to married couples. Isn’t it also unfair to expect those who choose not to have children to contribute through taxes to child benefit?
Roger W. Gillett
Docking, Norfolk
SIR – The Labour Party is accusing the Conservatives of social engineering by suggesting transferable allowances. If they believe that to be unfair, and wish to have no tax benefit for marriage or civil partnerships, will they be withdrawing the exemption to inheritance tax of assets left to a spouse – and, although less used, the capital gains tax exemption?
G. G. Garner
Ravensden, Bedfordshire
SIR – How refreshing to see that some people have got their priorities right. The forthcoming marriages column yesterday included the announcement of Mr Aston’s engagement to Miss Martin.
Alexander Kennedy
London SW17
Policing extremism
SIR – The comments (report, January 21) attributed to the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) are disappointing and potentially harmful to our ongoing work to create and support cohesive and resilient local communities.
We do, however, welcome NAMP’s statement clarifying their support of the Government’s “Prevent” strategy. Prevent is not about singling out any group; the police service tackles all forms of violent extremism, including far-Right, far-Left and animal rights extremists.
However, the most significant threat to the security of this country – and to all our communities – is currently from those who claim to act in the name of Islam and the abhorrent ideology that falsely uses Islam to justify terrorism. These individuals do not represent the views of the majority of law-abiding Muslims.
Assistant Chief Constable John Wright
National Co-ordinator, Prevent
London SW1
The misery of obesity
SIR – Of course morbid obesity (Leading article, January 22) should be treated – surgically if needs be – and cosmetic surgery provided to correct the resultant surplus skin, which can be embarrassing and uncomfortable. The sheer misery of morbid obesity and concomitant medical problems makes this a necessity.
For years GPs have organised smoking cessation clinics. Alcoholics Anonymous, among others, has helped dependant drinkers. There has been widespread advice about sexually transmitted diseases. Drug abusers have been supported.
In none of these “self-inflicted” problems has NHS help been denied when the results of this self-satisfying, obsessive and often addictive behaviour brought on medical problems.
To my knowledge, no one has been told that they will not get NHS lung cancer treatment because they do not smoke enough or their cancer is not big enough.
Dr Peter Kyle
Letcombe Regis, Oxfordshire
Blix and the Iraq inquiry
SIR – Having followed the reports of evidence given so far at the Chilcot inquiry, I am amazed to learn that Hans Blix is not scheduled to give evidence.
The reasons given to the public for the Iraq war were Saddam’s known history of using gas against the Kurds; the supposition that he possessed WMD and would use them again; and his non-
co-operation with Dr Blix’s team.
We now learn that Dr Blix had told Tony Blair that Saddam had started to be more co-operative, and that there was a distinct possibility that there were no WMD for him to find.
If the public are ever going to be satisfied with Chilcot’s conclusions, Dr Blix should be summoned without any further delay.
V.S. Payne
Edwalton, Nottinghamshire
SIR – Wouldn’t there be more revelations if Sir John Chilcot let the witnesses sit on a sofa instead of a chair?
Patrick van IJzendoorn
London SE3
Wearing the Speaker
SIR – On the BBC News on Thursday night the subtitles said that in France, Muslim women were to be “banned from wearing the full veil, or Bercow”.
I should think so, too.
Ken Nicholson
Glasgow
Irrelevant speed limits
SIR – The point made by Thames Valley Police that they cannot enforce a 20mph limit (report, January 21) puts two arms of our target-driven state at odds with each other.
The police do not have the resources to deal with speeding vehicles while chasing crime-solving statistics, whereas the local authority wants to introduce safety restrictions which, in part at least, are the wrong solution to the different problem of poor urban traffic management.
In Oxford city centre, no attempt is being made to enforce the 20mph limit imposed a few months ago, and there is no change in driver habit. Buses still hurtle along parts of the High at over 30mph when they can, but most of the time the speed limit is irrelevant – vehicles are at a standstill through congestion.
Mark Blandford-Baker
Magdalen College, Oxford
SIR – Since the snow fell, some of the roads in the Thames Valley police area are in such a poor state that reaching 20mph is a major feat. Potholes are the new traffic-calming method.
Keith Chapman
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire
Taxpayer advertising
SIR – While I set my television viewing standards slightly higher than Edwina Currie, who admits to watching Celebrity Big Brother (Letters, January 22), she makes a very valid point about massive Government spending on public-service announcements.
However, she omits to mention those inane advertisements now being thrust upon us by the very banks that the taxpayer bailed out only a year ago. The Halifax and NatWest offerings cause me particular personal antagonism.
Surely all this taxpayer-funded advertising should be aired on the BBC, thereby helping to reduce the compulsory viewing tax known as the TV licence.
Granville Bull
Shepley, West Yorkshire
Doors to manual
SIR – I am not sure what Bryan Higgins (Letters, January 22) would have airline cabin crew do instead of sitting in their “secret nooks and crannies” after the meal service.
It is not as if they could just nip out for a while and help with check-in.
Dr Paul Mathieson
Blommenholm, Norway
The public are the best custodians of the countryside
SIR – Michael Dugdale (Letters, January 21) claims that farmers provide food for birds over the winter. This would be commendable if it were generally true.
In Cumbria, the sad fact is that farmers routinely flay berry-bearing hedges in the autumn, removing any food just prior to the winter migration of fieldfares, redwings and others. The more enthusiastic farmers also cut hedges and roadside shrubs in spring.
In contrast, I and many thousands of “ordinary people” spend significant amounts on bird food to make up for the shortfall, with no subsidies from the taxpayer. It is a myth that farmers are custodians of the countryside.
Ian Tyrrell
Bailey, Cumbria
SIR – Michael Dugdale accuses the RSPB of failing to give credit to farmers for their environmental work. This is simply not the case. We know farmers are the key to protecting the many species of birds in our countryside, from skylarks to grey partridges, and we work with them to give them all the help and advice they need.
What we want is for European farm subsidies to reward and encourage farmers for the vital environmental measures they implement on British farmland. Most farm subsidies simply don’t do this at present – so it is no surprise that there are calls to sweep them away in the search for budget cuts.
Dr Mark Avery
RSPB, Director of Conservation
Sandy, Bedfordshire

Irish Times:

Reaction to opinion poll
Madam, – Ministers take a reduction in their salaries following December’s budget. According to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll (January 22nd), satisfaction with the Government is up five points, to 19 per cent. Perhaps further salary cuts can yield similar dividends? – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BYRNE,
Mount Argus Court,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6.
Madam, – Support for Fianna Fáil is at 26 per cent, up 2 per cent. How in God’s name can this be?
How many family members can they have? How many inept bankers and property developers can there be? I challenge anybody who intends to vote Fianna Fáil to explain why and how they can possibly be satisfied with this Government.
Current and past Fianna Fáil regimes have ruined the lives of the most vulnerable in society. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT SWEENEY,
Ushers Island,
Dublin 8.
Madam, – I wonder how many of the 19 per cent who responded Yes to the question of whether they were satisfied with the Government were being ironic? – Yours, etc,
BRIAN HODKINSON,
Reboge,
Limerick.
Strike by air traffic controllers
Madam, – Whether or not a strike was called for in response to the suspension of air traffic controllerst, it is interesting to see an array of politicians and capitalists complaining about unions causing misery for the public and ruin for the economy.
Presumably they thought they had done enough to claim this job all to themselves. – Yours, etc,
IAIN PRICE,
Islandeady,
Co Mayo.
Madam, – There is no denying that the strike action by the air traffic controllers caused damage worth millions of euro to the Irish economy.
Have they not also infringed the right of thousands of EU citizens to freedom of movement around the union by denying them the ability to take off from or land at Dublin, Cork and Shannon? – Yours, etc,
VINCENT HIBBERT,
Rivercourt,
Camac Close,
Inchicore,
Dublin 8.
Madam, – In the time of Connolly and Larkin, trade unions were established to protect the masses against the avarice of the few. When was their role reversed?
William Martin Murphy (chairman of the Dublin United Tramway Company at the time of the 1913 lockout) would be right at home in today’s Impact. – Yours, etc,
LIAM DWAN,
Kimmage Road Lower,
Dublin 6W.
Hopeful gestures
Madam, – Fintan O’Toole declines to claim tax exemption on his book Ship of Fools(Opinion, January 12th) because to do so would not be in the spirit of the legislation.
Richard O’Shea, BT Young Scientist winner, will probably give most of his winnings to charity.
He told this newspaper: “I didn’t enter to make money” (Home News, January 16th).
I am heartened and uplifted by both of these gentlemen. There is hope for Ireland yet. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN HEALY,
Hampstead Avenue,
Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
One for the road as well?
Madam, – The NCT (National Car Test) was established, I believe, to bring our cars up to European standards.
Is it not now time we introduced the NRT (National Roads Test) to bring our roads up to European standards?
We might then be in a position to keep our cars maintained to accepted European standards. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN CARROLL,
Waterpark Grove,
Carrigaline,
Co Cork.
Bus link to Knock airport
Madam, – Elaine Byrne writes of a “national paralysis” (opinion, January 12th). As a visitor, I see it more as indifference on the part of those in authority to the public’s legitimate calls for services.
My particular request was that Bus Éireann serve Knock airport on its Galway-Donegal express service. The detour would be less than half a kilometre – but the authorities decline to do so.
Staff at the Knock information desk indicate they have tried to get a bus link established, but without success. An international airport not served by the national bus service, and a view that such things are normal. Not in most places they are not. – Yours, etc,
DP SAVILLE,
Eastholm Green,
Letchworth,
Hertfordshire, England.
Passing the word
Madam, – The term “giddily”, describing Shane Horgan’s sublime try-yielding pass to Brian O’Driscoll in Leinster’s Heineken Cup  victory over Brive, hit the nail on the head (“Keen to put the record straight”, Sport, January 20th).
It was a word we freely used in our youthful days in Limerick, and described something that was terrific or smashing.
Fair play to former Leinster coach David Knox for adding this lovely old expression to our rugby vocabulary. It makes a nice change from some of the modern terminology which is anything but giddily.
We cannot dispute John O’Sullivan’s conjecture that the word may be traced to Australian rugby league, but certainly our generation of the 1950s used the phrase liberally, as those who handed it down to us would also have done. – Yours, etc,
DENIS O’SHAUGHNESSY,
Janemount Park,
Limerick.
Remarks by Martin Cullen
A chara, Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism Martin Cullen compared media intrusion to being raped (“Cullen tells seminar of treatment by media”, January 22nd). By doing so he trivialised the trauma that one in four children, one in three women and one in seven men experience. To be a survivor is difficult enough, but having a Government Minister appropriate that suffering to score a point is disgusting.
Mr Cullen should resign – after he donates a large sum of money to the Rape Crisis Centre. – Is mise,
SAORLA Ó CORRÁIN,
Baile na nGall,
Kerry
Madam, – I was horrified by the remarks of Martin Cullen about his treatment by the media. To compare his experience to rape can only be extremely offensive to victims of this terrible crime.
He may not have meant to cause offence, but has proved he should not be allowed out without a public relations representative. – Yours, etc,
CHRISTOPHER LEGG,
Goatstown Road,
Dublin 14.
Pius XII and sainthood
Madam, Ned Monaghan (Letters, January 20th) refers to a plaque he saw in Rome commemorating the 1,000 Jews rounded up by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz.
This tragic figure is quite correct. But if Mr Monaghan had done some further research, he might have learned why only 1,000 of Rome’s 8,000 Jews were transported.
Nicholas Kunkel, a German army officer in Rome in 1943, has stated that German forces in Rome were ordered to round up the city’s Jews, but that only 1,000 were actually arrested, more than 7,000 having taken refuge in the Vatican, where German soldiers were not free to pursue them. Many were later hidden in Catholic monasteries, convents and schools.
As for Pius Xll not making a public protest against Hitler’s treatment of the Jews, secrecy was of the essence in saving the lives of 860,000 Jewish refugees in Europe. – Yours, etc,
Sr MARIE CELINE O’BYRNE,
St Louis Convent,
Monaghan.
Terms of the banking inquiry
Madam, – The inquiry announced by the Government into what went wrong with banking (only up to September 2008) reminds me of Richard Nixon’s early declaration on Watergate: “We must get to the bottom of this, there will be no whitewash at the White House”. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CAFFERTY,
Ballina, Co Mayo.
The return of the Dáil
Madam, – Your Editorial (January 19th) was somewhat simplistic. Independent experts produced a report that recommended a once-off correction in the resources available for the effective running of our national parliament which, since 2004, is the responsibility of a corporate body, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission.
All of these improvements were benchmarked against international best practice.
These costs included the establishment of the commission, in addition to excellent library and research services that are a norm for any modern parliament.
We make no apology for an investment that has long-term intrinsic value.
Investments in information and communications technology have ensured that access to our elected representatives is a cornerstone of our democratic system. Surely public access is a worthwhile investment?
Our national parliament is increasingly proactive in engaging the public.
There are 85,000 visitors to Leinster House annually, and 15,000 post-primary students nationwide have completed the Oireachtas Schools Initiative. A modern parliament should inform, educate and engage – that is what we are doing.
You stated that “staff numbers in Leinster House had grown by 43 per cent over the past five years and expenditure by 65 per cent”. We operate on a three-year budget, and in the 2007-2009 period, staff increased by just three people, whilst overall expenditure increased by 8 per cent. – Yours, etc,
MARK MULQUEEN,
Head of Communications,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Dublin 2.
A history of ladies’ hockey
Madam, – I am assembling a history of Leinster ladies’ hockey clubs: senior, intermediate, junior and minor.
I would like to appeal to club secretaries or individual club members who could furnish me with details or personal reminiscences of their club’s history for inclusion in my book.
All documents and photographs would be safely kept and returned.
I can be reached at: Steph.batt@gmail.com – Yours, etc,
STEPHANIE BATT,
Caldragh,
Saval Park Road,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.

Well I must be off

best wishes John