Letters: Doctors and their backgrounds

NHS is bouyed by keen young doctors from diverse backgrounds

Four new medical schools have come into being in the last five years (Peninsular Medical School, University of Brighton & Sussex, East Anglia and University of Hull and York), and the increase in the places available in the United Kingdom to study medicine to nearly 7,000, far from diluting the pool of applicants, has seen a resurgence of interest in a career in medicine. Most medical schools report 10-15 applicants per place.

It is certainly true that the medical profession has lost much of its autonomy, but it is incorrect to equate that with loss of prestige, intrinsic value or appeal. Daniels regrets that five distinguished doctors from his hospital are consigned to the bottom row of the publicity photograph. He may wish to ask the patients attending his hospital to name their doctor and their manager, to find who has a higher recognition with the people who use the service.

As a lead clinician of an acute medical service in a large London hospital, I am very aware of the poor work patterns the new European working hours directives and shift patterns have imposed on the junior doctors. What I am most struck by, however, is the enthusiasm of the new trainees that join us every year after a gruelling five or six years in medical school. They always seem to find ways of not letting extraneous issues, including the state of perpetual administrative change verging on chaos that characterises the present-day NHS, get in the way of their core business of learning how to care for the sick. A degree of cynicism sets in by the time they have been in post for a few years, much as in any other profession, but to state that dissatisfaction with their lot results in 25 per cent of junior doctors leaving the medical profession is alarmist and not borne out by fact.

DR MANGALAM K SRIDHAR

CONSULTANT PHYSICIAN AND SENIOR LECTURER, HAMMERSMITH HOSPITALS NHS TRUST & IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON CHARING CROSS HOSPITAL, LONDON W6

Creeping jingoism has invaded cricket

Sir: Much of what has been written about this Ashes series has focused on the spirit and humour between the two teams. So often in the past the excuse for off-the-field loutishness associated with football has been that the players somehow initiated it. So what is the excuse this time?

When the cameras pan around the crowd at vital moments during the Test matches we do see humour and fancy dress. We also see, increasingly, the same contorted faces yelling obscenities and pointing in unison at the opposing team. Saturday was a prime example. Justin Langer had just completed a magnificent 100 but was out. The camera pointed to a man in the crowd, aged about 40, his face purple, veins bulging, and screaming four-letter words. Justin Langer's "crime", it seems, was to be Australian.

I agree with Peter Roebuck's assessment of the creeping jingoism that has now invaded cricket ("Great series shamed by crowd's abject display", 12 September). However, he seems to be a lone voice at the moment. Maybe the dazzling cricket has blinded most people to it.

I would love to rejoice in the success of the England team, after all they deserve it. But I find increasingly that major sporting occasions are now just a way for the worst aspects of English behaviour to be broadcast around the world. How long before we have segregated fans at The Oval?

GARY FLOWERS

WILLERSEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Sir: It was with much disappointment that I read the diatribe of Peter Roebuck.

Does Mr Roebuck imagine that true cricket supporters all over the world would not behave in such a way if their side was so close to such a historic series victory? His criticism is unfounded. And his remarks concerning the taking of the light are pathetic. Mr Ponting or any of the opposing batsmen certainly would have accepted the umpires' offer if the position of the sides were reversed. The umpires were consistently applying the laws of the game, something all true cricket fans hanker after.

DAVID ALLEN

WEST DRAYTON, MIDDLESEX

Sir: Thank you Peter Roebuck. Watching the crowd reaction at The Oval on Sunday, I was ashamed. I cannot believe that true England cricket supporters would have wished for the weather to intervene to "save" the match for England, rather than to have witnessed a potentially nail-biting day's cricket. Did they think England would lose the match, and therefore the Ashes? It didn't show much faith in "their" team, and was decidedly unsporting.

BRIGID ALLEN

LONDON SW16

Sir: I have followed the England cricket team's fortunes for more years than I care to remember and, after a long and agonising gap, until recently with not a great deal to cheer about.

I read the predictions of the pundits on the morning before the first test at Lords and felt that they were unduly pessimistic. My wife is also a cricket enthusiast and we both expressed the wish that if the pundits were proved wrong in their predictions, they should all be asked to eat their words. We would be pleased to provide salt, pepper and vinegar and a bottle of (Australian) wine to assist all the journalists who predicted 5-0 or 4-1 victories to the Australian team, in the enjoyment of their meal. Many congratulations to the England cricket team on winning back the Ashes.

ROGER STOKOE

ST ALBANS, HERTFORDSHIRE

It's not racist to say the numbers matter

Sir: According to your editorial of 8 September, Migrationwatch seems to believe that numbers alone should be the measure of immigration. You later refer to those who clothe their racism in hostility to immigration.

I should like to make it clear that we are neither hostile to immigration, nor racist. But we do believe that numbers are important. With net foreign immigration running at 200,000 a year it is hard to see how we can achieve the degree of integration necessary for a harmonious society. We now have, as you point out, a very diverse society which includes five million immigrants. The issue is whether we wish to add a further five million to our population over the next thirty years as a result of immigration. Given that three quarters come to London and the South-east, that clearly has implications for our quality of life.

Surely this should be a matter for national debate, free of accusations of racism. That, certainly, is the view of 70 per cent of your fellow citizens who, according to successive polls, are concerned about the present scale of immigration.

SIR ANDREW GREEN

CHAIRMAN, MIGRATIONWATCHUK DEDDINGTON, OXFORDSHIRE

Patron saints of neo-conservatism

Sir: There is much speculation that George Bush will suffer politically after the destruction in New Orleans. To think this is to fail to understand the neo-conservatives.

According to their "minimal government" philosophy society worked exactly as they would wish. Those who, by their own industry and foresight and without government intervention, evacuated before the storm were saved. Those who did not suffered.

This policy also minimises the economic impact as damage is concentrated among those with least disposable income, who therefore contribute least to the economy.

One point however which continues to perplex is that the neo-conservatives should have chosen the left-leaning Christ as their spiritual leader. One might have thought Genghis Khan or Vlad the Impaler to have been more appropriate.

RICHARD SIMMONS

OXFORD

Bushmen pictured as the victims

Sir: While we appreciate the intention of Meera Selva's sympathetic report on the dire circumstances of the Kalahari Bushmen (9 September), we suggest it is so one-dimensional as to do the Bushmen and anyone trying to help them a disservice.

She mentions that the Bushmen have established permanent settlements within the reserve, and that they are keeping livestock. These activities have time and again, throughout Africa, led to the destruction of habitat - something that is not good for the Bushmen or the wildlife or tourism or the many thousands of people employed in the tourism industry.

Ms Selva glosses over the fact that the Central Kalahari Game Reserve is a semi-arid and arid area that cannot support settlement and livestock. She bemoans a court order that the Bushmen's livestock be removed from the reserve. If they are living in the traditional way she likes to suggest, why are the livestock there to begin with? Why are the Bushmen settling and no longer nomadic? Where are their leaders to ensure that they comply with the restrictions and intentions of the original laws that allowed them to remain in the reserve? What responsibilities do the Bushmen bear for their own fate?

To paint a group of people as victims whose over-simplified cause is somehow more noble than the thousands of others who rely on tourism, farming, conservation, and yes, even mining is romantic thinking and a wasted opportunity to examine the complexities of a changing Africa.

MELANIE FINN

MATTHEW AEBERHARD

SERENGETI, TANZANIA

Europe is the model for welfare reform

Sir: Mr Blunkett, the Work and Pensions Secretary, is in the United States this week to look at its welfare schemes . You report that he was to spell out his vision of a new model welfare state based on "active inclusion" ("Ministers plan biggest shake-up of the welfare state for 60 years", 12 September).

If social inclusion had any level of priority, he would be visiting Sweden, where the incidence of child poverty is one quarter that of Britain, or even France, where it is half that of Britain, and not the USA, where child poverty is twice that of Britain. It is also interesting that he will unveil his proposals in Washington, not London, as though this is a proposal for economic debt restructuring, demanded at an international level, not primarily a response to domestic issues and needs, or even requiring the approval of the British electorate.

I hope Mr Blunkett will visit New Orleans to understand the full implications of the American model.

HEATHER MCDOUGALL

CULLERCOATS, TYNE AND WEAR

Society likes and respects the elderly

Sir: While ageism may be the most widely experienced prejudice in Britain, the research statistics you quoted from the University of Kent and Age Concern (report, 7 September) mask a much more nuanced and interesting debate.

According to HSBC's Future of Retirement research, released in May, UK society is supportive of those in old age, with 70 per cent thinking they are interesting to be around. Eight in ten consider them full of wisdom and an overwhelming majority (90 per cent) believe they deserve respect. Over two thirds of Britons (67 per cent) agree that being old does not make you unattractive.

It is not just older generations that are affected by ageism issues, however. HSBC's research also showed that half of those under 30, and over two-thirds of those over 60, want to spend time with people outside their respective age brackets.

And a good job too. The baby-boom generation is reaching traditional retirement age and the rest of the world is getting older too. By 2050, the United Nations predicts there will be no fewer that two billion citizens in the world aged 60 or over.

We do need to address ourselves to the challenges - and opportunities - that global ageing presents and it would be naive to pretend that ageism does not exist in UK society. Yet, as long as we continue to discuss and confront ageing issues, an older, happy society is one that we can all enjoy in the not so distant future.

STEVE TROOP

GROUP HEAD, RETIREMENT BUSINESS HSBC LONDON E14

Ulster triumphalism

Sir: The French wouldn't allow the British to parade triumphantly at the scene of Agincourt, as we would not want the descendants of the Normans to parade at Hastings, so why should we allow the perpetuators in Ulster of a long-gone event that was led by a foreign king, to parade their bigoted triumphalism over the Irish Catholics on their own soil?

PETER DAY

DENABY, SOUTH YORKSHIRE

Golden oldies

Sir: The answer to David Lister's question "Why can't old rockers write decent songs?" (10 September) is that rock music composition is like mining a seam of gold: you'll work it dry in the end. Classical music composition is like cultivating a rich soil, learning husbandry and thrift and always improving your expertise.

TOM ELLIOTT

LONDON SW8

Cherie and Muslims

Sir: Your report headed "Cherie puts foot in it again " quotes Mrs Blair as saying, "There are some interpretations by some groups, especially about women, that I have some problems with". You think she caused embarrassment to her husband because of his negotiations with Muslims. I would have thought that the groups that she was referring to are exactly the groups that this country needs to get rid of, not the ones that he's negotiating with. I would think that a large majority of the population, and that includes Muslims, would agree with her reservations.

JOHN HALL

TELFORD

A place for Howard

Sir: In his column "On the Press" (12 September) Stephen Glover inaccurately declares: "It tells us everything we need to know about the modern Times that there should be no place in it for ... Tony Howard." Anthony Howard continues to write for The Times, and will appear often on the comment pages, in The Register and as a senior book reviewer.

ANNE SPACKMAN

MANAGING EDITOR, THE TIMES LONDON E1

The guilty man

Sir: In his letter of 12 September, Dr C J Burns-Cox writes: "Who is really guilty of killing and harming millions of innocent Iraqis? Put them in court". I can assure Dr Burns-Cox that Saddam Hussein's trial is due to begin on 19 October.

DR G HUGHES

KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON WC2