Letters: Reform and the Conservatives need each other

Greco-Roman wrestling

Sir: Rod Liddle suggests that some, perhaps many, middle-class voters on the right or centre right are deterred from supporting Reform because of their perception of the party as an unsavoury embarrassment (‘Can Reform smash its class ceiling?’, 23 May).

Harold Macmillan in the second world war appreciated that the Americans – ‘great, big, vulgar, bustling people, more vigorous than we are’ – represented the equivalent of the Romans taking over from the declining, but perhaps more cerebral Greeks – the British. But he also argued: ‘We must run Allied Forces HQ [in Algiers] as the Greek slaves ran the operations of the Emperor Claudius.’ He would have appreciated the irony of Reform stealing the mantle of opposition to the left from the waning Conservatives, who might still aspire to wield the canny influence of experience and maturity in the existential struggle.

Both parties need each other. If Andy Burnham’s Labour party, loosely aligned with its Liberal Democrat and Green fellow-travellers, is to be defeated in 2029, the Greek Conservatives and the American Reformers must cooperate.

Adrian Crisp

Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire

Peak gas

Sir: John Power draws an alarming picture of the unexpected consequences of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz (‘Dire straits’, 23 May). Fizzy drinks and fresh meat could, for example, vanish due to a shortage of carbon dioxide from the Gulf states.

Here in the Peak District a different row is brewing over the safe capture of copious CO₂ from our quarries. There’s loads of it, and it’s unavoidable in the manufacture of that humble necessity, cement.

So why do we buy it from thousands of miles away? The answer until a few weeks ago must have been price. But as Mr Power shows, the costs of shipping and insurance are likely to remain sky-high for some time to come. Instead of burying the stuff under Liverpool Bay at huge expense, could some entrepreneur not make good use of our locally grown waste product? 

Edwina Currie Jones

Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

Up the pub

Sir: Charles Moore is right to offer a mournful reflection on the cultural decline of the traditional pub (Notes, 23 May). We do not talk enough about ‘beer poverty’ or the social isolation that goes with it. The corner pub was a free market – it was always about pot luck – but many with character flourished in their idiosyncrasy. Among those I fondly recall was the one where we local sixth-formers congregated – some under age but watched over by the paternal barman and benignly ignored by the local police. Now such youngsters are excluded and congregate in local parks with the cheaper alternatives of skunk or gas canister.

Another pub had a smallish hall attached where I saw Eric Clapton play his last gig with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers – it cost me 12/6d (62½p). Entertainment licensing has killed such places.

Later there was the one closest to my office where the landlady was an excellent cook who served one daily lunch dish at a price that a pensioner could afford. The place had a steadily changing clientele throughout the day; the police officer, the villain, the bus driver, the commuter, the hippy, the waterman, the Camra enthusiast. All rubbed shoulders on terms of equality that would have shamed the average meeting of Fabians.

Pubs like these did diversity before it was a ‘thing’. We do indeed need to restructure taxation and licensing laws to restore them to their rightful place within our culture. Come on, Nigel – we know you want to!

Martin Sewell

Gravesend, Kent

Inviting confusion

Sir: Coming from Charles Moore’s generation, may I confess a failing to adapt to the modern world (Notes, 16 May). Upon receiving a wedding invitation from my nephew, I picked up my pen and wrote a formal acceptance. However, I could not find the address of the bride’s parents. Perusing the back of the invitation further, I found ‘Please RSVP using the QR code below’ followed by a picture of some spaghetti. I was completely baffled.

Resorting to having to telephone my nephew, I hoped he would accept my verbal response, pointing out that to do otherwise might mean that, as I’m the church warden, there would be no one to unlock the church.

John Harris

Penrith, Cumbria

Just like that

Sir: I much enjoyed William Atkinson’s discussion of fezzes (Notes on…, 16 May). He is right that a decent fez is hard to find in Turkey, Egypt and the eastern Med, where they are mostly tourist tat made of cardboard. Jeremy Seal wrote a superb travel book about Turkey when he went searching for a proper example. As ever, he needn’t have bothered. The hatters Lock & Co have the answer, with a superb-quality fez available.

Iain Cassie

Lymington, Hants

Lemon dropped

Sir: I have been visiting private gardens open in the summer for two decades and always try to get hold of the latest National Gardens Scheme’s Yellow Book around this time of year (‘Open season’, 23 May).

One thing I notice is that, like telephone directories, it gets thinner with every new edition. No doubt many gardens that were locked behind bars during Covid never came out again. From local observation though, I also see villages increasingly opting to open under their own auspices rather than rely on the lemon branding of the NGS. As someone instinctively suspicious of nationalisation, I find this rather pleasing. The Yellow Book may be destined to go the same way as its short-lived 19th-century namesake. But nationalisation notwithstanding, one can still regret the possible loss of this inventory of charm.

Richard Marsh

Kineton, Warwickshire

Simon says

Sir: I disagree with Tom Sleigh when he writes of Simon Jenkins’s ideas about architecture that ‘Sir Simon’s London is a museum, beautifully preserved but economically stagnant’ (Letters, 16 May). Paris and Munich, for instance, do not allow skyscrapers to be built within the city centre, yet both are economically dynamic. It seems Mr Sleigh and his committee members do not care for the cultural heritage of London. More’s the pity.

Ralph Baker

Margate, Kent

As I like it

Sir: I much enjoyed Boyd Tonkin’s review of If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation (Books, 23 May). My own favourite example is the Afrikaans translation of ‘I am thy father’s ghost’ – ‘Ek is jou poppa se spookie’.

Richard Rolfe

Morston, Norfolk