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Letters: Grammar schools

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

At last a serious newspaper has called for a rethink on the opening of grammar schools and selection by academic ability. The UK is about to spend £10bn to put on the Olympics, and yet all those who decry academic selection would never consider not selecting the very best elite athletes to compete in the Olympics.

Letters: Grammar schools

Mon, 28 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Like Chris Blackhurst (Opinion, 26 May), I was a working-class lad who passed his 11-plus and was sent (very much against my wishes) to the nearest grammar school in rural Cheshire. Unlike Chris, this experience instilled in me a hatred for the educational apartheid system that claims to be "meritocratic" yet in reality only upholds the nepotistic advantages of the better off.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (27 May 2012)

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The media coverage of last week's Draft Energy Bill, announced by Energy Minister Ed Davey on Tuesday, focused on the need to "keep the UK's lights on", as if the Winter of Discontent of yore would become a permanent feature as we travel further into the 21st century. This was encouraged by Davey's announcement itself, which emphasised that the £100bn investment needed would "keep the lights on", as well as helping us meet green targets. However, the simple route was not emphasised, which is to encourage reduction of electricity usage. This is something in which everyone can play their part: reducing individual carbon outputs reduces collective outputs – and energy bills. Demand reduction is a crucial part of the reforms to the energy market; its importance must be given prominence at every opportunity.

Letters: Pernicious effect of the grammar school system

Fri, 25 May 2012 20:00:01 +0100

Mary Ann Sieghart ("How to change the shape of the establishment in one generation", 21 May) quotes Michael Gove suggesting that grammar schools are a beacon for our state education system. She asks: "Well, if that's the case, why can't we have many more of them?"

Letters: Round up all the usual grammar school lobbyists

Fri, 25 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Are those of us who work, proudly, in the nation's comprehensives never to be spared the endless nonsense about grammar schools, aired this time by Mary Ann Sieghart (21 May)?

Letters: Only selective schools offer the poor a way out

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The front page headline in The Independent on 22 May reads "Born poor, stay poor". Well, we can blame Shirley Williams for where we are today as she abolished grammar schools.

Letters: How the 11-plus helped everyone

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

At last, someone is openly saying what I've been saying for many years: getting rid of grammar schools has stifled social mobility (Mary Ann Sieghart, 21 May; leading article, 22 May).

Letters: Grammar schools

Tue, 22 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Mary Ann Sieghart thinks that more grammar schools will improve social mobility (21 May). There were very few working-class children in the grammar school I attended in the Sixties. When my daughter attended a grammar school in the Nineties, we appeared to be the only parents who lived in a semi-detached house.

Letters: Politics of poverty

Mon, 21 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

What a welcome I gave to Owen Jones's article on benefit claimants (18 May). During my 20 years as a district councillor, and over 30 as a parish councillor, I have watched in despair as successive governments, of both colours, have pushed the poor deeper and deeper into poverty and trapped them ruthlessly there. I have watched with anger and disgust as the poor have been branded as feckless, lazy parasites. So what a relief to have somebody telling us the reality. Thank you, Owen Jones.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (20 May 2012)

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

We would like to thank Gail Porter for sharing the story of her harrowing battle with depression ("Being sectioned was absolutely terrifying", 13 May). Her brave account helps combat the stigma many women feel about depression and taking antidepressant medication; Platform 51's research shows that while a third of women in England and Wales have taken antidepressants, one in five has felt the need to keep this a secret from friends and family.

Letters: As the euro totters, Cameron speaks

Fri, 18 May 2012 20:00:01 +0100

I find your criticism of David Cameron's policy towards the euro crisis (leading article, 18 May) incomprehensible.

Letters: When fathers are needed at home

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

"Get new fathers to stay at home with the baby and we all gain," says the headline on Mary Ann Sieghart's article of 14 May. How true. May I add one more benefit?

Letters: Stress? Everyone blames teachers

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

As the children of an incredibly hard-working secondary school teacher we feel obliged to express our outrage at Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw's statement that "teachers don't know the meaning of stress".

Letters: Why abolish excellent schools?

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Laurie Penny in her article on private schools (12 May) makes a number of very good points. It is true that in our current society it does matter how much money your parents have, and that this money can buy a pupil the best teachers and the smallest classes.

Letters: Greece and Europe

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Matthew Norman's musing that the European electorate could plunge half the European Union into a fascistic abyss is laughable, as is his suggestion that as Italy, Spain and Portugal all have "recent" histories of fascism they will all succumb to its dark allure, given half the chance (Opinion, 9 May).

Letters: Green energy

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The campaign against wind turbines seems to be gathering momentum with luminaries such as Donald Trump, the Duke of Edinburgh, and your own correspondent Terence Blacker in the vanguard (30 April). Add to that the anti-turbine campaign launched in Parliament by Lord Carlile on 19 April and the report by Bill Bryson (30 April), President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) and one has to wonder whether windmills should ever have been allowed into the UK.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (13 May 2012)

Sun, 13 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Fostering is not the only part of the child care system in crisis ("Fostering system on the brink as number of children in care soars", 6 May). Children's homes also face increasing problems.

Letters: Why Rochdale victims were targeted

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

There are two false assumptions that have distorted debate about the Rochdale abuse case (report, 9 May).

Letters: Locals powerless against the wind-power lobby

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Terence Blacker's experiences and complaints are echoed throughout many other rural communities whose lives have been blighted, or are under threat, from the erection of wind turbines ("The public has bought the myths of the vast wind energy industry", 1 May).

Letters: Please don't let Blair loose again

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

So Blair is returning to British politics. Bequeathing us the folly of the Dome, the horrors of the Iraq war and the expense, inconvenience, tedium and hazards of the Olympics, surely he has done harm enough?

Letters: Hurrah for Francois Hollande, scourge of the europhobes

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Your editorial on the likely consequences of the French election ("Europe's new dynamic", 8 May) is a refreshing counterpoint to most British media comment. Hollande could be bad news for British europhobes – oops, eurosceptics. His Socialist predecessor Mitterrand and (German Christian Democrat) Kohl forged one of the strongest bonds in recent Franco-German history and consolidated European integration.

Letters: Tory futures

Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

David Cameron will only come further unstuck if he listens to the reactionary voices from the Tory backwaters urging a return to the days of the "Nasty Party". Former Conservative leaders William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard all took the Tories sharply to the right and all three were total failures at the ballot box.

Letters: Local elections

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:00:01 +0100

Not surprisingly, given the economic conditions and recent mistakes by the Coalition, Labour have made large gains in the local elections – congratulations to them. The issue will be very different at the next general election, particularly if the economy is showing signs of recovery.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (6 May 2012)

Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

With regard to Emily Dugan's article "Union anger at low-risk rating for tough jobs" (29 April), readers must understand the deep frustration of many Health and Safety Executive inspectors. I work for the HSE: many of us feel under siege. In January, David Cameron declared "war" on what he described as "the excessive health and safety culture". I regularly deal with employees who have been affected by poor working standards resulting in death, injury or ill health. I have seen several major offices closed because of devastating financial cuts and the Government requiring that we abolish half of the regulations designed to protect employees and the public. Last year, 200,000 injuries were reported to the HSE and 171 workers were killed, resulting in 26.4 million working days lost, and costing society an estimated £14bn. Without the health and safety legislation in place this figure will increase.

Letters: Unforgiven Blair eyes road back

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:00:01 +0100

Do our politicians (or ex-politicians) all live on a different planet? You report that Tony Blair is planning to "re-engage with British politics" (3 May). If Blair thinks we have forgotten or forgiven him for Iraq and his over-the-top anti-terror laws, then he is wrong.

Letters: Stop panicking about population worries

Fri, 04 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

As an economist I find the Royal Society Report "People and the Planet" very depressing reading (report, 26 April). The thrust of the report is that with increasing population and scarce resources we must cut back our consumption and reduce the population. However the report is wrong on both counts.

Letters: MPs have no right to damn Murdoch

Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

It is ill-informed for the Commons Media Committee to say that Rupert Murdoch is "not a fit and proper person to run a business". This man has built up the third-biggest media group in the world over 60 years. He has started, saved and grown thousands of major businesses across the globe, put The Times and The Sunday Times back on the streets of the UK and saved hundreds of jobs. He feeds over 54,000 families every day worldwide.

Letters: Olympic missiles in the wrong place

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:01 +0100

It is beyond belief that the Ministry of Defence is deploying surface-to-air missiles at sites across London during the Olympics. It is even more astonishing that the proposed sites include residential structures such as the Lexington building in Tower Hamlets and the Fred Wigg Tower in Waltham Forest.

Letters: Even independents need policies

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:00:01 +0100

In urging London residents to vote for Siobhan Benita for mayor, it would have been useful if Mary Ann Sieghart had mentioned what Ms Benita's policies are ("We need more independents to break the stranglehold," 30 April).

Letters: Good sense in ‘made-up’ words

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:00:01 +0100

The proposed age-six literacy tests are a well-intentioned attempt to ascertain whether children who have been taught literacy for two years have developed the ability to sound out words phonetically (leading article, 26 April). Phonics is the most important component of becoming literate and without developing it properly children will struggle later with spelling, and with decoding new words.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (29 April 2012)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

What an extraordinary view Sir Barney White-Spunner, head of the Countryside Alliance, has of morality ("The man who wants kids to shoot", 22 April). By his lights, it is perfectly all right to cause terrible suffering and pain to a hunted animal. What music to the ears to all those who indulge in cruel activities: murderers, rapists, child molesters, badger baiters, people who beat their dogs and starve their cats. All you need is a clear conscience!

Letters: Rents too high? Build more houses

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:00:01 +0100

The Mayor of Newham's drastic action in asking housing associations and other landlords outside London to house 500 families once again highlights the housing crisis gripping this country.

Letters: As predicted, here's the recession

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The UK is now back in recession. The Coalition may be right that in the long-term the economy needs to be "rebalanced" away from the public sector to the private sector. But how do we get to a point when that can start to happen?

Letters: Shameful cost of uprooting families

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The reckless forced migration of tenants out of London, to who knows where, creates costs for the taxpayer and to the wider economy that the Treasury never estimates ("Plans to house London's poor in Stoke attacked as 'social cleansing' ", 25 April).

Letters: Cameron's 'let them eat cake' moment

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The madness of job-rich Newham council's attempt to dump 500 families on job-deprived Stoke-on-Trent is just another consequence of this governments "let them eat cake" policies.

Letters: No one needs a second chamber of politicians

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Creating an elected second chamber is an understandable but, nevertheless, reactionary response to Lords having for centuries derived their authority from birth and dodgy patronage. But it's not a solution.

Letters: Nato risks leaving behind a perilous Afghanistan

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Nato's attempts to finalise plans for withdrawal from Afghanistan leave many questions unanswered ("Nato chiefs and politicians at war over 'risky' Afghan withdrawal plans", 19 April).

IoS letters, emails & online postings (22 April 2012)

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

While we should welcome the vast public support shown for public libraries, it is quite wrong to suggest that the public library service, as we know and need it, will survive as a result of localism or the cant of the Big Society ("Keep on borrowing...", 15 April).

Letters: In a drought, fracking is the last thing we need

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

According to the Environment Agency more than half the UK is now in a state of drought. Water-table levels are extremely low and still going down, so the long-term impact could be dire. The Government has called on consumers to take responsibility for finding a way out of the water crisis and to help by using less water, starting from now.

Letters: Ending sweatshops costs money

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Controversy about worker exploitation in countries with low wage costs, especially your report of 16 April by Meredith Alexander ("The scandal of our Olympic sweatshops"), prompts me to raise points about which there appears to be much ignorance.

Letters: Don't expect China to be like us

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I would like to see The Independent break away from the general media tendency in the UK to perpetuate a hostile view of China. The charge you make, that China is a state in which "superficial prosperity cloaks endemic corruption and ruthless politicking" (leading article, 17 April) is one that, to judge from The Independent's own recent reporting, could quite easily be applied to Britain or the United States. In fact, as far as corruption is concerned, China performs better than several European countries, according to Transparency International's 2011 rankings.

Letters: Fracking - only a ban will do

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

With respect to fracking, earthquakes are the least of our worries. Fracking involves drilling 1,800 metres down, then horizontally the same distance. Water, sand and chemicals are forced down the hole, the pressure splitting the shale and releasing the gas. The gas forces 40 per cent of the liquid back up the shaft, now contaminated with volatile chemicals and harmful carcinogenic metals.

Letters: Tax relief

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

By clumsily introducing a £50,000 ceiling for tax relief on giving, George Osborne has done us all a favour by shining a spotlight on yet another way that wealthy and influential people can exploit their money and position.

Letters: Politicians and tax

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Owen Jones (Opinion, 13 April) is quite right to highlight the bias of the right-wing media concerning Ken Livingstone. But he fails to mention the utter hypocrisy of the media when it comes to Boris Johnson earning a quarter of a million pounds on top of his generous publicly funded salary. If, when Livingstone was Mayor, he had been paid a six-figure sum, perhaps by The Guardian, the media would have been apoplectic with rage and the campaign against him would have been vociferously led by The Daily Telegraph, the very paper now paying Johnson an obscene amount of money for a weekly column.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (15 April 2012)

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Regan Doherty carefully analyses the very difficult situation of family unions in the Middle East ("First-cousin marriages come under scrutiny", 8 April). This is far from being confined to this region, and it is an issue which needs treating with great delicacy here at home within British South Asian communities.

Letters: Horse-race deaths are no accident

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The sport of horseracing is at pains to show scrupulous regard for welfare, but this is not the same as actually having a scrupulous regard for the welfare of the animals used. With one death already at the Grand National meeting, and many animals falling hard over fences, journalists must look at this so-called sport more objectively and tell the public what is really happening – that horseracing inevitably causes pain and death to those who have no choice in whether they take part.

Letters: Same-sex union fears are baseless

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The Coalition for Marriage says it "reaches out to people of all faiths and none", indicating that faith communities are behind the petition and that their script derives from the tenets of their largely evangelical fundamentalism ("Gay marriage: the fight is on", 7 April). Faith groups may contribute to the debate, but no greater value should be placed on their views than on those of any other section of society.

Migrants are not 'health tourists'

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:26:19 +0100

The story 'Boris Johnson criticised over medical guide for migrants' on 11 April 2012 perpetuated common myths about migrants and healthcare.

Letters: Underachievers lack help at home

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

You write "Teachers do not always know best" (leading article, 6 April); so who knows better? As a retired teacher, whose family has served state education continuously since the late 1800s, and with a brother and sister-in-law both primary heads and a daughter teaching in a secondary school, I believe that my experience enables me to have an opinion.

Letters: Who knows what's good art? Or bad?

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

David Lister writes about his horror on learning that some critics don't think Damien Hirst's work is art (Arts, 7 April). I have to agree with him. The only way to describe the work of Hirst and others of his ilk is "art".

Letters: School meals

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

That school meals are shrinking (report, 3 April) is yet another indicator that children in our poorer communities are bearing the brunt of the government's austerity measures: hungry children are more likely to be disruptive in class, to have low levels of concentration and to be less resistant to childhood illnesses.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (8 April 2012)

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

You have highlighted the devastating damage inflicted on girls and young women, and on all of society, by a culture that perpetually judges women and girls on their looks, rather than who they are or what they do ("Girls, interrupted... the true cost of low self-esteem", 1 April). As well as dampening their aspirations and directly impacting equality, the persistent portrayal of women as objects to be judged – based on stereotypical values of sexual attractiveness – negatively impacts the attitudes of boys and men, and often leads to discrimination, harassment and violence against women and girls.

Letters: We tried to cede Falkland sovereignty

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Dominic Lawson (Comment, 3 April) is correct in stating that the Falklands War was defensible and justifiable because of the invasion by a particularly "nasty" junta general who was demanding his third whisky by 10am. The last thing you would want is to transfer responsibility for this population to an Argentine government, then or now.

Letters: No need to outlaw forced marriages

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Is criminalisation of forced marriage necessary (leading article, 3 April)? The Coalition Government's recent consultation on this was preceded by an announcement about its intention to criminalise it.

Letters: Education 'improved' to death

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Christina Patterson is right that A-level results are in a constant state of apparently superficial improvement ("Not just unprepared for university, but for life", 4 April). But this may prepare them better for university than she thinks, as the same game is in full flow in higher education.

Letters: The state must not have power to snoop at will

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Liberal Democrats have a proud history of defending civil liberties, both in opposition and more recently in a Coalition Government. We successfully opposed the Labour government's undermining of data privacy in 2009 and since taking office in 2010 we have turned back the tide of Labour's erosion of these liberties. So far we have destroyed the ID cards database, halted the indefinite retention of innocent peoples' DNA, turned off the ContactPoint database, stopped the mass fingerprinting of children without permission from their parents and ended child detention for immigration purposes.

Letters: Internet surveillance

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

So the Government wants to take us one step closer to a totalitarian regime by granting itself permission to monitor every single piece of communication which is passed between its citizens. This is a wholly unwarranted response to the massively (one might almost think deliberately) overblown perception of a terrorist threat, and needs to be resisted by any who cherish freedom of thought and the right to uninhibited political expression.

Letters: Bees and pesticides

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

Sir Robert Watson, chief scientist at the Department of the Environment (Defra), has acted bravely in ordering a reassessment of the licensing of neonicotinoid pesticides in the UK. The French government banned these poisons in 2000, after the deaths of half a million bee colonies; Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland followed after similar wildlife catastrophes.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (1 April 2012)

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:01 +0100

In reporting possible plans for south-east airport expansion, you did not question whether south-east airport expansion is even necessary ("Heathrow: Tories' secret plot to build third runway", 25 March). Research by WWF and the Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) shows that it is not. Under the CO2 constraint used by the Government's independent advisers, the Committee on Climate Change – a reduction in aviation CO2 levels to 2005 levels by 2050 – there is sufficient available airport capacity in the South-east, now and in the future, to allow for new routes to emerging markets without having to build a single additional runway.

Letters: Spooked into a national fuel panic

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

What is happening to our country? All it takes to create mayhem is the threat of a fuel distribution strike, and you have panic buying, empty fuel stations, brawling at forecourts and harassment of fuel station staff. The strike hasn't even started!

Letters: Back the world ban on looting

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The March 2003 invasion of Iraq by a coalition led by the US and the UK failed to prevent the immediate and appalling looting of museums, libraries, archives and art galleries, followed by years of looting of archaeological sites across the country.

Letters: Racist tweets don't deserve jail

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I find Liam Stacey's prison sentence for inciting racial hatred deeply uncomfortable. Stacey has made a thoughtless and deeply offensive comment in the heat of the moment. But since when has that become punishable by a custodial sentence?

Letters: The alternative to cash-for-access

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

I despair at the arguments against taxpayer funding of political parties deployed by Dominic Lawson in his article and Arthur Percival in his letter (27 March).

Letters: Funding and sleaze

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

You quote the Prime Minister: "What happened is completely unacceptable. This is not the way that we raise money in the Conservative Party. It shouldn't have happened. It's quite right that Peter Cruddas has resigned. I will make sure there is a proper party inquiry to make sure this can't happen again."

Letters: drinking

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0100

The excessive drinking that leads to unruly behaviour (and often violence) in our streets is a serious issue (report, 23 March). If the Government is serious about curbing binge drinking it should return us to more restricted licensing hours and ban special offers in supermarkets whereby alcohol is often sold at less than cost price.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (25 March 2012)

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

These are dark and angry days for those who work in the NHS or who, like myself, are retired ("Doctors bid to unseat 50 MPs ...", 18 March).

Letters: Lessons from Ireland on planning

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I was born and raised in rural Ireland where there are relatively few protections afforded to the countryside. The result is rural areas blighted by indiscriminate housing and poorly applied planning rules, ie – exactly what Michael McCarthy (22 March) and others are afraid will happen in the UK.

Letters: If you liked Sport Relief – wait till you see THIS

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Dear Editor/Editoress,

Letters: NHS succumbs to US ideology

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I am deeply saddened to see that the Health Bill is going forward into law. As an American living in London, I'm desperately disappointed to see that the Bill will introduce the worst of the American system into this country: commodification of health, a two-tier healthcare system, healthcare professionals looking after funding more than looking after the wellbeing of patients, and care (or lack of it) being driven by profit.

Letters: School pupils allowed to 'disappear'

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The news that schools are unlawfully excluding difficult pupils (19 March) will not be a surprise to many people who work with young people in other capacities.

Letters: Road pricing

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Do governments learn nothing? Privatising roads will inevitably lead to putting profits for road company shareholders before infrastructure investment, as with utilities and railways. The 1989 water privatisation, meant to sort out 19th-century pipes and sewers, is still nowhere near completion after nearly 25 years.

Steve Richards: Economically it's neutral, politically it's radical

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The political fallout from tomorrow's Budget will be at least as significant as its impact on the economy. The stakes are very high for all three parties, partly because of the timing. None of them is yet clearly defined in this electoral cycle. They still have some freedom of manoeuvre before voters' perceptions become more clearly formed and the next election moves into view. The way each of them chooses to use their relative freedom now will determine their fates. Politically, we are entering the most important few months of this parliament.

Letters: Budget

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I trust that the Chancellor's plan to make the cut in the 50p rate for those earning over £150,000 in the Budget, while cutting the salaries of public-sector workers in poorer parts of the country, indicates that the Coalition considers we are no longer "all in this together"?

IoS letters, emails & online postings (18 March 2012)

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The parliamentary passage of the Health and Social Care Bill has been an embarrassment to democracy.

Letters: Life in the City piranha tank

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Messrs Welch and Yell (letters, 16 March) are absolutely right about the culture of Goldman Sachs. But the problem sadly goes much wider than merchant banks.

Letters: Crazy idea to prop up house prices

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The Government's NewBuy scheme is not the answer to our dysfunctional housing system and is just going to keep house prices artificially high, leaving people stuck with 95 per cent mortgages they can't afford. Should interest rates go up, buyers will be in even worse trouble.

Letters: To beat the drought, plug the leaks

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The Scottish Government's offer to assist drought-stricken parts of England with water is an interesting contribution on how to address the issue of water shortages.

Letters: My gravely ill son had to starve himself to death

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

How well I understand the feelings of Tony Nicklinson and his family ("My right to choose when to die", 13 March). We were in the same situation last year.

Letters: Afghanistan

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

For service families like my own, the news that a further six soldiers have been killed in the misguided and hopeless Afghan military intervention is profoundly depressing. To have to listen to yet more patronising drivel from Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence is simply an insult to our collective intelligence.

Letters: Bankers pay

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

What a sad reflection Michael Spencer's article is on the motivation of those who work in banking ("Britain needs these big payouts", 10 March). "Why go that extra mile," he asks, "if you are not going to be rewarded [financially] for it?"

IoS letters, emails & online postings (11 March 2012)

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

We are granddaughters of Walter Hurst, a crew survivor of the Titanic disaster (The New Review, 4 March). He jumped into the sea to scramble on to an upturned inflatable lifeboat with a number of other men including Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the most senior officer to survive the accident. Lightoller took command and the men managed to keep the lifeboat balanced. However, a number of men succumbed to cold and tiredness and slipped back into the sea. Walter suffered from severe frostbite in his legs. For some time, his wife Rosina was unaware he had survived as he had been wrongly named on the survivors' list.

Letters: The cost of a railway in fragments

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Christian Wolmar comments (9 March) that the most obvious way of reducing the cost of Britain's railways would be some form of reintegration. Indeed it is surprising that while Sir Roy McNulty determined that our railways cost about 30 per cent more than others in Western Europe, he didn't try to get to the bottom of why this should be.

Letters: Two more years of Afghan calamity

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Congratulations on the brilliant reporting by Terri Judd (8 March) on the sense of tragic loss and foreboding felt in Warminster, hometown of the regiment which has just lost six young soldiers in in Afghanistan. This was only the advance party of the regiment beginning its tour of duty in this extremely dangerous area. The huge bomb blast that destroyed their Warrior armoured vehicle marks a period of acute anxiety for many.

Letters: It's not cool to demean women

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

For the generation that grew up celebrating personal freedoms, it's hard not to agree with Christina Patterson about the apparent failure of feminism "Sisters, we've let our teenage daughters down", 7 March). But before we harrumph off into the sunset about the moral failure of modern youth, there is a perspective that needs to be taken.

Letters: Cardinal condemns our love

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

As a gay couple, we would like to thank The Independent for Jerome Taylor's article "Cardinal: same-sex marriage is just as immoral as slavery" (5 March). It analysed the specious arguments which Keith O'Brien devised to condemn gay unions. We deplore the words of the clergyman as hate speech undermining our democratic entitlement to marry.

Letters: Travellers

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Thomas Hammarberg's article (Opinion, 1 March) gives human rights a bad name and potentially valuable European institutions a bad press.

Letters: Israel

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I must be allowed to correct the allegation made about me by Andy McSmith ("0ops, the Baroness did it again", 29 February). When I was asked 18 months ago by the Jewish Chronicle to comment on YouTube postings that the IDF were stealing body parts from victims of the earthquake in Haiti, I congratulated the IDF for their swift and generous response to that disaster and said that to stop any such rumours spreading, they should have a swift inquiry into the allegations. Nothing more.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (4 March 2012)

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

We are aware that members of our respective organisations have been subject to pressure from their employers for criticising the Government's plans to reform the NHS ("Critic of Health Bill claims Lansley 'smear'", 27 February). Public health professionals have the right and duty to speak out on issues which they perceive as threatening the health of the population they serve. This established independence has improved and saved countless lives. Wherever employed, they must be confident that they retain the professional freedom to voice their concerns, propose solutions and use their skills and training to keep their communities safe and healthy.

Letters: Ironies of Israel's new submarine

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Your report concerning the possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities by Israel (29 February) might have alluded also to Israel's apparent attempt to obtain "second strike" facility.

Letters: You can't buy compassion for the old

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

There is something wrong with the debate about the care of the elderly ("Call to assess nurses for compassion", 29 February). When we entrust care homes with the long-term care of our elderly, the last thing that we are doing is buying compassion. Service can be bought, but not compassion. Carers may put on their best smile, show their best manners and be courteous, but they may not have compassion. Yet they may have done their job perfectly decently.

Letters: Terrorised by 'security' jobsworths

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Nicholas Lezard (Opinion, 28 February) bemoans the death of banter thanks to the jobsworth attitudes of airport security. Sadly it's far worse than that.

Letters: Press and bankers still don't get it

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The latest allegations of a culture of corruption within The Sun newspaper, set against the wave of outrage from Sun supporters at the arrests of reporters, further indicates that they still do not get it. But the tabloid press is not alone in not getting it. The investment bankers' continuing to devise schemes to deliver exorbitant bonuses and banks' setting up of aggressive tax avoidance schemes demonstrate that they are still living in an alternative universe.

Letters: Lords reform

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Mary Ann Sieghart's negative article on Lords reform ("A fight that Nick Clegg will never win", 27 February) needs a response. Constitutional governance may be a boring subject but poor governance, if ignored, can have devastating results (such as the French Revolution).

Letters: Business and the community

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Sir Victor Blank ("Business must start a giving revolution", 24 February) raises a timely issue but does not go far enough.

IoS letters, emails & online postings (26 February 2012)

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Nick Clegg writes about the immense damage caused by the global arms trade, but is blind to the UK's complicity in this trade ("We can lead from the front in disarming", 19 February).

Letters: Economic crisis in Greece

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

As someone with six grandchildren in Athens, the oldest about to finish university, I am horrified by the conditions their generation will be facing as they grow up and try to establish themselves.

Letters: Gay marriage, yes, but keep the state out of it

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

I rarely disagree with Sir Ian McKellen's views on gay rights, but on this occasion I must. I do not believe that gay couples should have the right to a state-recognised marriage. I believe that the state should not recognise any union except a civil partnership, which makes things easier for legal purposes such as pensions, parenthood and inheritance.

Letters: Don't sneer at passion in defence of the NHS

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

Andy McSmith, in his sneering dismissal of pensioner June Hautot ("She screamed and ranted – and let Lansley off the hook", 21 February) unwittingly shows what is wrong with politics.

Letters: Holiday times are up to parents

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0000

The Education Secretary's intention to remove from head teachers the power to sanction term-time holidays ignores the needs of one section of society. Parents wholly involved in the tourist industry, running restaurants, B&Bs or hotels, cannot take their holidays in holiday time.