http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-independent-scotland-825465.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-independent-scotland-825465.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: I enjoyed the article on Scottish independence (The Big Question, 9 May). It was unusual for a London-based media outlet to give such a fair and balanced view, but there are a few small points I would like to raise.</p> Letters Sat, 10 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-voting-for-the-bnp-824283.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-voting-for-the-bnp-824283.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: With regard to Bob Askew's comments (Letters, 7 May) on "white working class" support for the British National Party (BNP), there can be little doubt that the main impact of immigration over the last 40 years has been felt by the "white working class", who have been inundated by alien cultures and surrounded by foreign languages. They, more than most, have endured cultural dilution, communal breakdown, overcrowding in schools and hospitals, suppressed wage levels and (often unfair) competition for housing. </p> Letters Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-no-middle-east-peace-without-respect-for-history-822749.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-no-middle-east-peace-without-respect-for-history-822749.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Today, millions of Israelis and Jews around the world will joyfully mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel. For many, this landmark powerfully symbolises the Jewish people's ability to defy the power of hatred so destructively embodied in the Nazi Holocaust. Additionally, it is an opportunity to celebrate the wealth of cultural, economic and scientific achievements of Israeli society, in all its vitality and diversity.</p> Letters Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-bnp-822076.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-bnp-822076.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: One has to wonder at the logic Johann Hari employs in his article denouncing the British National Party (Opinion, 5 May) while exonerating the voters who have made BNP their choice.</p> Letters Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saved-by-an-orangutan-821624.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saved-by-an-orangutan-821624.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: You report on the resourcefulness of orang-utans (Picture Post, 29 April). I was visiting the orang-utan sanctuary at Camp Leakey in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, some years ago. On the first morning, while it was still dark. I went out and started to walk in the direction of the river along a wooden causeway. Dimly, I soon discerned a large orang-utan with a smaller one on her lap. As she had a friendly look, I stopped and spoke to her. In response she took my hand in a friendly way.</p> Letters Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-fritzl-case-821188.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-fritzl-case-821188.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: I agree with Dominic Lawson's comments on the Fritzl case (2 May). What many people in this country do not understand is that most post-war German and Austrian houses of any quality have huge basements, many equipped to cope with possible nuclear attack during the Cold War. </p> Letters Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-city-pay-820379.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-city-pay-820379.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: After reading Nick Clark's report "Bankers hit back at Governor's attack on City bonuses" (1 May) I reflected that, like all slippery slopes, recent talk about the regulation of City pay may start off as an attractive idea but will only turn into a disaster if realised. </p> Letters Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-organic-farming-819662.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-organic-farming-819662.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: How right Rob Johnston ("The great organic myths", 1 May) is to point out that organic farmers, along with all farmers across the globe, are operating within a new world order of climate change and apparent food shortage. </p> Letters Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-opium-policy-818673.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-opium-policy-818673.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Your article correctly highlights the dangers Afghanistan's heroin trade poses to UK troops and British society at large ("Drugs for guns: how the Afghan heroin trade is fuelling the Taliban insurgency", 29 April). However, the current strategy used to combat escalating opium production levels &ndash; forced poppy crop eradication &ndash; has destroyed the livelihoods of entire farming communities, driving them into the hands of the Taliban and putting UK troops at further risk.</p> Letters Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-climate-catastrophe-818007.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-climate-catastrophe-818007.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: We agree with your leading article that the London elections could have wider significance than simply their impact on the capital ("The contest is local, the significance national", 28 April).</p> Letters Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-twostate-solution-817243.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-twostate-solution-817243.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Johann Hari (Opinion, 28 April) is right to be outraged by Israel's vicious colonial policies in the West Bank but wrong to trace their origins to the creation of the state in 1948. The past four decades of occupation, land-grabbing, checkpoints and military raids are a world away from the 1948 conflict. </p> Letters Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saving-the-white-rhino-816660.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-saving-the-white-rhino-816660.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: The situation facing the northern white rhino is of grave concern ("The Cloning Revolution", 18 April). There have been no rhino sightings for several years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Garamba National Park. A few elderly, non-reproductive animals live in two zoos in the US and in the Czech Republic.</p> Letters Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-st-georges-day-815913.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-st-georges-day-815913.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: I, like many other English, was very disappointed to find that 23 April passed just like any other day. St George's Day is an incredibly special day in the English calendar &ndash; a rare chance for our country to celebrate everything that makes us the proud nation we are. In this world of doom and gloom, terrorism and economic austerity, don't we need something to give us a bit of national pride?</p> Letters Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-bee-colonies-815383.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-bee-colonies-815383.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Thank you for the very clear article concerning the plight of honey bees and the Government's apparent indifference to their fate (The Big Question, 23 April). I would like to add some points.</p> Letters Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-deportations-814698.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-deportations-814698.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: What happened to Ayodeji Omotade was shocking, but what happened to the Nigerian who was being deported was far worse ("Nigerians back BA boycott after deportation flight row", 21 April).</p> Letters Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-labours-core-principles-813968.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-labours-core-principles-813968.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: It's not the tax rebels who have dragged this government to the edge, but the Government themselves. Misjudgement on key issues has squandered any goodwill which could have been gained by a break with the Blair legacy. Instead, the Government appears tired and timid, and by Gordon Brown's own calculus, never less Labour. Whipped this week and beaten next, Labour must rediscover its raison d'etre. If not, the party is finished.</p> Letters Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-migrant-birds-813348.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-migrant-birds-813348.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Is it significant that the species of summer visiting birds to the British Isle showing decreased numbers is restricted to the true, long-distance trans-Saharan migrants ("The great migration crisis", 21 April)?</p> Letters Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-mediums-and-the-message-813375.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-mediums-and-the-message-813375.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: The reporting of the changes to the treatment of fraudulent mediums (report, 18 April) with comments on the role and function of PR (letters, 18 April) fortuituously allows for comparisons from these surprisingly similar practices. </p> Letters Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-train-travel-811849.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-train-travel-811849.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: On the same day as your front-page report "The new age of the train" (11 April), Nottinghamshire County Council announced a Sunday service on the Robin Hood Line (Nottingham to Worksop), starting on 14 December. This will be the final stage in the council-instigated re-opening of the line, closed by Beeching in 1964 but now carrying more than a million passengers a year. Also starting on 14 December is another council-initiated service of 28 trains a day between Nottingham and Leeds. </p> Letters Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-colonel-gaddafi-811180.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-colonel-gaddafi-811180.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Although I regard Robert Fisk as one of the most truthful and reputable journalists on the planet, I have one point of disagreement with him regarding Libya and Colonel Gaddafi. </p> Letters Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-sustainable-agriculture-810330.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-sustainable-agriculture-810330.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: As an (organic) beef farmer, I was obviously intrigued by the Big Question concerning possible changes in our diet to resolve the global food crisis (16 April).</p> Letters Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-biofuels-809556.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-biofuels-809556.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Your excellent article "The Burning Question" (15 April), on the adverse effect of first-generation biofuels, becomes even more compelling when recent quantitative information is considered.</p> Letters Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-fatherhood-and-health-809016.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-fatherhood-and-health-809016.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Duncan Fisher does not go far enough in his condemnation of how fathers and men are treated by the NHS and society ("Stop ignoring fathers when babies are born", 14 April). We are described as a bystander, inconvenience or potential threat at every opportunity. Who judges us as this the most harshly? Other men and fathers. We ourselves are the major culprits at bringing about our own downfall. Our "positive" collective voice is so weak that we rely upon Fathers for Justice for the inappropriate recognition. Our "negative" collective voice is ferocious, self-critical, unforgiving and ready to condemn any man who stands out as anything other than normal. </p> Letters Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-train-blame-808658.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-train-blame-808658.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: Your editorial (11 April) is well off target when it puts many of the problems on the railways down to train operators running an "inefficient and cosy cartel". The reality of the privatised railway is that the operating companies have almost no influence over the number of trains or the number of coaches. They are forced into raising their prices as high as the market will bear because of the bidding process run by the Department for Transport. The latter also effectively dictates the service frequency and the number of coaches.</p> Letters Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-pop-festivals-808175.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-pop-festivals-808175.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: You report on the travails of Glastonbury Festival, which is struggling to attract sufficient numbers ("Has Glastonbury lost its mojo", 9 April). All of the reasons you give are doubtless partly why the event has lost its lustre, but the article should also have examined the state of the major British festivals as a whole, and the changing consumer response to them.</p> Letters Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-world-food-markets-807768.html http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-world-food-markets-807768.html?r=RSS <p>Sir: The Haitian food riots illustrate the impossible situation that developing countries are in. Aid and trade policies imposed by rich countries have made developing countries more dependent on international markets. Aid for agriculture is now less than half what it was in 1984. At the same time, governments in the developing world have been encouraged by aid donors to open their markets to imports to meet consumer needs. </p> Letters Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0100