Letters: Bankers pro and con

The writers of the letters published on Saturday appear to lack a basic understanding of banking, not clarified in your editorial of the same date. Banks must relish the controversy over bonuses, as it distracts attention from the key point that their excessive profits arise from the casino of the derivative markets.

Banks were set up as traders in money, and because of the apparent miracle they perform of lending money they do not have, were granted great legal favours that included being allowed to publish annual reports in a way that disguised their true liabilities. This concession was regarded as a benefit to all, as it allowed the great development in human condition that we see it today.

Relying on banks to return to ethical standards is a contradiction in terms. They have to be made to drop their hedge and derivative gambling and return to their original purpose of oiling the wheels of local manufacturing and commerce. Otherwise they should lose their special privileges and any guarantee of the tax payer bailing them out.

Charles Brown

Chesterfield

What is the purpose of accruing mountains of money? After you've bought a comfortable lifestyle, what will you do with the remaining millions?

One of the more unpleasant ideologies we have imported from across the Atlantic in recent years is the concept that a person's quality is directly related to their monetary worth. The CEO pocketing a huge bonus or the celebrity actor who demands $500,000 for every TV show is telling us: "I'm a better person than you because I make more money."

If we teach children that their worth depends more on their contribution to humanity than their accumulation of wealth, some inequalities may diminish.

Julien Evans

Chesham, Buckinghamshire

It is high time that the likes of Stephen Hester and Sir Fred Goodwin were congratulated on doing a wonderful job. Just imagine what this country would be like if they proceeded to behave as exemplary moral agents and donated the lion's share of their wealth to the poor and dispossessed.

Imagine the havoc which would follow if this prompted their plutocratic peers to follow their example. Critics of Messrs Hester and Goodwin would be exposed as a bunch of malign and irrational crackpots.

Ivor Morgan

Lincoln

The million-pound-plus salaries and bonuses exist to incentivise the executives to make sure our money is safe. Lucky we don't have to incentivise care workers to clean up our incontinent elderly, or nurses to deal with our dying, or teachers to spend their weekends planning for classes of 35 of our disruptive kids, or soldiers to die on our behalf in foreign countries. Can you imagine the cost?

Jeremy Braund

Lancaster

A few months ago, we were bombarded with stories about young people who no longer consider themselves part of society, who are out of control and take anything they can lay their hands on. The media dubbed them Britain's feral kids. So I look forward to reading articles about the parallel phenomenon at the top end of the scale – the feral rich.

Rod Chapman

Sarlat, France

Do the high-salaried bonus junkies not realise they are doing their best to ensure a Labour government in 2015? Or are they banking on it being as pliable as the last one?

John Birkett

St Andrews, Fife

Not many years ago I worked hard and successfully for my employer on multi-million-pound projects in a top management position. I was delighted to receive a Christmas bonus of £500.

Bob Barker

Norwich

A Scot on the high road that leads to Cornwall

As in so many aspirational Scottish families across the centuries, the first move in life for most of my relatives was over the Atlantic or down the high road to England. My father was the only one of eight to remain, and I was the only one of four, with two of my medical brothers in North America and the third in Yorkshire.

Married to a Londoner, I have been reviewing my options if the lunatics take over the asylum in 2014 and have decided North Cornwall would make a fantastic bolt-hole. It may not have St Andrews' golf courses but it has St Enodoc and Rick Stein's restaurant across the bay, and while the natives are also Celts, they do a lot less whining.

Dr John Cameron

St Andrews,

Fife

Alex Salmond's proposed referendum question – "Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?" – is hopelessly biased because it is asking people to positively agree, not merely choose from neutral options, and it would require a "Yes" or "No" vote. It is well established that humans are predisposed to agree and say "Yes" rather than disagree and say "No", which seems negative and confrontational.

A neutral question would present two choices, "Scotland to remain within the UK" and "Scotland to be independent", with a box against each, and invite the voter to put a cross in one of the two boxes.

Robert Henderson

London NW1

The counties of Ireland that wanted to stay in the Union in 1920 were allowed to do so. Shouldn't the upcoming Scottish independence vote have a similar agenda?

If the Orkneys or the Borders vote overwhelmingly to stay in the union, why should their wishes be trampled on? If the all-or-nothing approach is pursued in Scotland, does this damage the legitimacy of the Northern Ireland statelet, and pave the way for Irish reunification?

Robert O'Mara

Nottingham

If Scotland becomes a sovereign state, will it use its newly monopolised British oil revenue to buy the British share of its two banks, HBOS and RBS?

Jane Gibbs

Poole

If the Scots gain independence from the English, what will unite them then?

Peter Bowden

Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Dark skies over Exmoor

I enjoyed Aaron Miller's piece (25 January) on the best places to see the sky at night. It would be wonderful to afford to go to Jordan, Cappadocia, Queensland and Arizona, but there are good places closer to home.

The piece mentioned Galloway Forest Park, which the International Dark-Sky Association has designated one of nine "Dark Sky Parks", and we should mention the smallest Channel Island, Sark, which is the world's first Dark Sky Island.

What I found hard to believe is that Miller didn't mention Exmoor National Park, which is one of the world's only two International Dark Sky Reserves (IDSR), and the only one in Europe. The IDS Reserve program is the epitome of the International Dark-Sky Association's classification: "Public or private land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and nocturnal environment, specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural, heritage and/or public enjoyment."

Exmoor is now attracting international stargazing visitors (it's pretty in the day as well, and the pubs are excellent), so save the air miles (and consequently the clear skies) and try closer to home.

Dr Stephen Head

Cholsey, Oxfordshire

Protesters welcome

Nigel Wilkins (letter, 25 January) has a strange approach to the right to protest. He suggests that protesters illegally occupying the public highway or other land should be offered a more permanent dwelling place, the cost to fall on the local council.

Currently any protest group can lease space from the owner of a building, and as long as they pay the rent, rates and utility bills and keep the property in good working order, then they can stay. As long as they are "good neighbours", then we do not have a problem.

As for the City's democracy, there is plenty of it. In common with all local councils, we have four-yearly elections for all seats on the council (the next across the City are in March 2013), the only difference being that almost all candidates stand as independents. Decision-taking is carried out by members sitting in committees which are open to the public to attend. We also hold many consultation meetings for residents and City workers where anybody can attend and ask any question they like.

Stuart Fraser

Chairman, Policy and Resources Committee

City of London Corporation

Novels at the National Theatre

How can the National Theatre justify staging adaptations of novels (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and The Count of Monte Cristo) when there are countless excellent but underperformed plays to choose from ("NT stages new Bennett play", 26 January)?

A national theatre should set the benchmark for staging the best dramas in world theatre as well as new plays. Allowing dramatisations of novels to push aside real plays suggests a disturbing lack of commitment to giving the public an authentically theatrical experience.

Professor David Head

Navenby, Lincolnshire

Unsound judgements

The ludicrous decision of Odeon cinemas to refund money to patrons who complained that The Artist was a silent film has a precedent. Back in 2007 the Odeon chain refunded money to punters who complained that Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was a musical! Apparently they thought it would be a straight horror movie and weren't expecting Johnny Depp and the rest of the cast to burst into song.

Martyn P Jackson

Cramlington, Northumberland

When less is more

My friend has just bought a new car. It has no spare wheel and no handbrake. Of course it comes with other devices which fulfill these functions, but why? Have people been saying, "If only cars didn't have handbrakes and spare wheels, how much better they would be"? Or are these the products of a bored designer, introducing more complications which will need repair and replacement?

Trevor Cox

London W4

Waiting in the wings

Philip Hensher is correct to say that Polunin is a loss to the Royal Ballet (20 January) but maybe Hensher isn't aware that they have another extraordinarily talented male dancer in the Australian Steven McRae. He has a very different style from the young Russian but he is terrific, and as long as he stays all is not lost.

Sara Neill

Tunbridge Wells, Kent