Letters: Food waste

While I'm all for reducing the ridiculous amounts of food that get thrown out by the "average family" in this country (front page, 7 July), I was disconcerted to read that supermarkets are to be instructed to end the practice of multi-buy offers.

In these credit-crunch days, buy-one-get-one-free ("bogofs") and the like have been my family's saving grace. With judicious use of a freezer (energy-efficient of course) special offers on bread, cakes, vegetables, meat, fish, even the odd ready meal, can become meals for two or three weeks, for the price of one or two.

Yes, I have to use a little planning; yes, I usually cook from scratch, and with leftovers (despite being a working mother of four); yes, my weekly trolley push gives me an upper body workout to die for, but hey, who's complaining.

It seems to me a great pity that the supermarkets are being blamed for the inability of many people to do anything other than live for the moment, and as instantly as possible.

The Revd Sharon Grenham-Toze

Wilstead, Bedfordshire

I am sure that J Tinbergen (letters, 8 July) is rigorous at turning round the stocks in her freezer. But, for most people, the spare food goes into the freezer and sits there consuming energy until it is noticed way past the six-to-12-month storage recommendation, then discarded.

We have dispensed with our large upright freezer and, by planning our menus a week in advance, we buy only what we need, removing the need for long-term storage.

If supermarkets were trying to give value, as I am sure they would like us to have it, they could be easily sell these items at half-price. But it is clear that buy-one-get-one-free is a vehicle to dispose of surplus stocks, and a product of their market power and wasteful buying practices.

J Basevi

Swindon, Wiltshire

Nicene Creed and women bishops

Whenever Anglicans attend Holy Communion we say the Nicene Creed, part of which has the sentence "We believe in one catholic and apostolic church".

Despite erudite words from a few of our liberal bishops and others who would destroy any hope of reunion with the Roman Catholic Church, many of us would find it very difficult to be part of a church which continued to give in to yet another pressure group.

We have women priests, which is bad enough. Having women bishops would ensure that the Church of England would become a very small sect, rather than as at present, a major force throughout the world.

African bishops and others in parts of Asia and a few in Britain should not be scorned by some all-knowing Anglican bishops in North America and our own country. They wish to be true to the meaning of the creed, whereas "modernisers" want to dumb-down everything so they can appear trendy.

I hope the coming Lambeth Conference will give our African colleagues the courtesy they deserve and listen to their pleas for holding on to the beliefs of the Apostles, which still have relevance for people today.

Omar Beg

Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire

Where in the New Testament is the injunction informing some Anglican clergy that "their consciences would be offended by being preached to by female bishops" (leading article, 7 July)?

There is nothing in the Gospels. The Pauline letters deal with the immediate situation of the Church in the first century, and refer to standing with, and by, Paul's female colleagues. They do not amount to the "ought" of a categorical imperative.

Brenda Beamond

Lymington, Hampshire

The problem of homosexual and female bishops is easily solved. Repeat what we did 350 years ago, abolish bishops. It requires only one Act of Parliament. "No bishop, no King (or Queen)" no longer applies.

Dr P D Hooper

Chale, Isle of Wight

Both Mark Lilly and Ilse Boas (letters, 5 July) seem confused about the issues surrounding the Archbishop's views on homosexuality.

Lilly appears unable to distinguish between people's behaviour and the people themselves: for him, the Archbishop's remarks that homosexuality is inferior to heterosexuality are the same as saying homosexual people are inferior to heterosexual people.

The Archbishop did not say this; if he had, he would belong, maybe not in prison, but certainly not in a Church that teaches we are all sinners equally in need of God's mercy.

In the statement that homosexuals do not "have a choice in the matter", Boas implies a similar confusion: between inclination and action. We humans may not have a choice in our inclinations, but we do have a choice in our actions. Some have a natural inclination towards violence, or towards thievery; we do not condone mugging or theft on that basis.

The Church needs to answer the question about whether homosexual activity is simply something that confers ritual pollution in the Old Testament law, blind adherence to which is superseded in Christianity by a mature relationship with God; or whether it is something more fundamental that profanes the "temple of the Holy Spirit", as St Paul described the human body.

The Christian faith has always taught that with God's help we can overcome our natural inclinations. We should welcome homosexuals into our churches whether they need to overcome their sexuality or can embrace it.

Whatever the answer, the traditionalists must strive to overcome their equally natural inclination towards homophobia, which goes directly against all the "love thy neighbour" teaching in both Testaments.

Philip Belben

Coalville, Leicestershire

Davis is fighting for our freedoms

On the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, John Roger Tardif defends of Jill Saward as standing up for the "real liberty", not the "pseudo-liberal, middle-class" idea of liberty (letters, 1 July).

We do not yet have a police state but we do have an unprecedented system of surveillance that sends us on our merry way to one.

Most car journeys we make are recorded and we have one CCTV camera for every 24 people in the country. We have local councils using terror laws to spy on anyone they like. We have ID card legislation that will eventually enable anyone at the levers of power to track and monitor British citizens hour by hour.

Every institution we visit and every transaction we make will be recorded on one database and we will be fined up to £1,000 if we fail to keep our records up to date. It will be up to us to prove who we are, using a handy plastic "licence to live", a card that can be revoked at the wave of a civil servant's hand.

David Davis took a stand because this Government treats individual rights as their property, and turned liberty into a generous gift to the little people of Britain instead of safeguarding the inalienable rights of us all to enjoy a life free from unnecessary state interference.

When Mr Tardif or a member of his family is taken away, stripped of their "pseudo-liberal, middle-class" liberty, and imprisoned for 42 days without charge or being told why, will he still think the same?

If Mr Tardif feels the level of state intrusion we endure is acceptable then perhaps he wouldn't mind sending me a copy of his fingerprints, a sample of his DNA, his medical records, his monthly bank statements, itemised mobile phone bills, a full list of everything he puts in his wheelie bin and details of every car journey he makes. I promise to keep them all in a safe place. If he has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear.

Adam Burns

Manchester

Sceptical look at reports on Chavez

Sir: Johann Hari's excellent article "Lies, kidnapping and a mysterious laptop"(7 July) calls upon us to be sceptical when reading about the "dictator" Hugo Chavez, pointing out that various interested parties benefit from disseminating half- truths and distortions.

Such scepticism should constantly be applied to all secondary sources such as the news media and the question asked, "Cui bono?" ("who benefits?") from such misinformation. Additionally, we should adopt the maxim shared by the Buddha and Karl Marx and "doubt everything", even if it appears in The Independent.

Colin Burke

Manchester

Tracing the cause of bovine TB

Now that a badger cull has been ruled out (report, 4 July) perhaps more attention can be focused on other issues relating to the incidence of bovine TB. In addition to developing a vaccine for cattle, there are several questions that should be answered.

For example, why is TB five times more common in dairy cows than in beef cattle, and three times more common in dairy herds than in mixed beef and dairy herds? Why is TB incidence positively related to multiple site ownership? Why is TB incidence significantly lower under "conservation-friendly" cattle management than under intensive farming?

Are cattle being fed a diet deficient in trace elements such as selenium, that are essential for maintaining an animal's immune system? And to what extent are the low levels of these elements in the soils of the South-west compared to other areas implicated in the high incidence of TB in the region?

Has the intensive breeding of dairy cattle for maximum milk production at the expense of body condition produced animals with increased susceptibility to disease infection?

So much research effort and taxpayer's money have been focused on badgers over the past 10 years or so, these and other issues have not received the attention they deserve.

Dr F W Kirkham

Crediton, Devon

Dirty water, silent killer of children

Paul Vallely is correct to call G8 leaders to account for the promises made at the Gleneagles (Opinion, 7 July), yet his analysis misses a crucial part of the development jigsaw that undoubtedly would have affected young Teklu. Growing up in Ethiopia, a country where only 8 per cent of people have access to a safe toilet, Teklu and those like him may have been exposed to a deadly global sanitation crisis silently undermining health and development worldwide.

The charity WaterAid, a member of the End Water Poverty coalition, has reported evidence that because of its role in causing diahrroeal diseases, pneumonia and malnutrition, poor sanitation is likely to be the largest killer of children in the world, accounting for up to 2.4 million young lives each year.

G8 leaders are discussing measures to tackle a crisis that kills more children than any other. Knowing, as they must, that by taking sufficiently bold action they could reduce child deaths by a quarter, can any of them leave Japan without shame if they fail to agree a global action plan to ensure life and dignity to billions of people across the world?

Steve Cockburn

End Water Poverty, London SE11

Briefly...

Unfair to Canada

You are a little unfair to Canada (The Big Question, 4 July). Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and Pamela Anderson may be big black clouds in the cultural sky, but I for one can forgive any country that also produced Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and k d Lang.

Mike Parker

Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire

The eyes have it

Like Katy Guest's Londoners, I would almost certainly "walk by on the other side" if I witnessed a scene of violence (Comment, 4 July). I am 80, not entirely intact, and know my limitations. But anyone in those circumstances can look, see and remember. What is the attacker wearing? What colour? What shoes, what kind of hair? How tall, does he have an accent? The exact time? Look, think, be a good witness. I have to hire people to do jobs I once did myself, and most anti-crime action falls into that category for most citizens.

Bill Hyde

Offham, Kent

Push for equality

To continue on the theme of sexist sizes of things (letter, 5 July): all pushchairs, as far as I know, are designed for smaller adults, that is, women. As a 6ft man, I have to stoop painfully, or push with one hand while walking beside the pushchair. It would be a simple business to have extendable handles for pushchairs; indeed, these should be made compulsory under equal-opportunities legislation.

Patrick Browne

Derby

Are readers of The Independent too poor to afford dishwashers?" asks John Naylor (letter, 5 July) Does he not savour the companionship of washing and drying with his partner? Would they want it to save time? Why are mobile phones and television sets considered essential? We have neither, nor indeed a dishwasher. People who think such banal material things essential should begin living a real, as opposed to a vicarious, life.

Dennis Davis

Bideford, Devon

No hit-list

In your article "Top grammar enters pioneering partner deal with hit-list school" (28 June) you refer to a hit-list of 638 failing schools threatened with closure if they do not improve standards. Neither myself nor my colleague, Ed Balls, have ever referred to failing schools and nor have we published a list of schools. In fact, we have set aside £400m to help these schools – many of which are already on the right path – to improve their standards.

Jim Knight

Minister for Schools and Learners, London SW1

Truth doctored?

I had a close encounter with an octopus 30 years ago which proves they are intelligent ("Do octopuses have a favourite tentacle?", 7 July). I was sitting on a pier when I felt something touch my leg. I looked down to see a small octopus with its tentacle wrapped round my ankle. Locals told me it was probably ill and had come inshore to seek help. It must have realised I was not a doctor and swam away.

E F Corbett

Ramsey, Cambridgeshire