Letters: Cambridge University is not a victim

After Arday

Sir: Lara Brown scathingly condemns Cambridge University’s acceptance of Jason Arday’s credentials (‘The fabulist’, 8 August). That it did so comes as no surprise, given the modish progressivism that pervades academia. However, the sheer extent of its gullibility in taking Arday’s claims at face value is startling, and the reputational damage that will follow is hardly undeserved. Cambridge University is not a victim here. Our sympathy should be with the qualified black teachers and students for whom it is already hard enough to make headway. They will now have to contend with the inevitable shadow over their legitimacy cast by the Arday farce.

Gordon Bonnyman
Frant, East Sussex

Snob alert

Sir: I am writing to challenge what could be seen as a rather snobbish claim made by Lara Brown in your recent edition, suggesting that it would be ‘quite unusual for anyone with a doctorate from a post-1992 university to ascend to such lofty heights’ as attaining a Chair at Cambridge.

Professor Anne Watson, now Emeritus, was appointed to a Chair in Education at the University of Oxford. She gained her PhD from London South Bank University in 1998. She was, and remains, a leading researcher in her field, her work taken up by researchers and teacher educators across the world.

I know this because I was her supervisor at London South Bank University. I gained my PhD at King’s College London in 1986, a university reputable enough for Ms Brown I hope.

Stephen Lerman, Emeritus Professor
London South Bank University

Special brew

Sir: I was moved by Flora Watkins’s article about the chronic shortage of hay owing to poor harvests (‘The hay wane’, 8 August). Early visitors to the Scottish Highlands were astonished to discover that the natives did not grow hay, despite the regional economy being pastoral. How did the cattle and horses survive the harsh northern winters? Answer: draff – the residue of brewing and distilling (spent grains and husks), still extensively used in Scotland as nutritious cattle feed. There are many breweries and distilleries in East Anglia; I suggest she might approach them.

Charles MacLean
Edinburgh

Wish you were here

Sir: Since my 93-year-old father has been happily living with us following the passing of my mother, holiday postcard-writing has been fully revived by his 17 grandchildren (Arts, 8 August). English Heritage is right to promote the habit of holiday postcards in children: the joy of receiving them cannot be overestimated. My father’s well-travelled grandchildren find the perfect postcards for their well-read grandfather, indulging him with their itineraries, reminding him of his adventures and bygone travels and inspiring much-loved conversation once they are home.

Claire Matthews
Moulton, Northamptonshire

Bookshop find

Sir: I was delighted to read (Letters, 8 August) that the Rutland Bookshop continues to flourish. In past years I spent many happy hours browsing among its shelves, shyly greeting the proprietress who sat at her table, peering out from behind teetering piles of books, before climbing the narrow stairs to the top floor. Here one day I picked up a nondescript Latin dictionary which I purchased for a few pounds and subsequently presented to the historic library where I then worked. Many years later, revisiting the library, my successor held up the dictionary and asked: ‘Did you look inside the front cover?’ There, in faint pencil, was the signature ‘Margaret Roberts’. Could this indeed be Mrs Thatcher’s Latin dictionary? Two distinguished parliamentarians subsequently confirmed that it was her writing. One of them offered me £100 for the book; ‘Not for sale!’ I replied. I would urge your readers to visit the Rutland Bookshop – you never know what you may find.

Dr Nicholas Bennett
Nocton, Lincs

Live stream

Sir: Peter Hitchens’s critique of my book The Nord Stream Conspiracy substitutes conspiracy theory for argument (‘Murky waters’, 25 July). He claims Joe Biden effectively confessed to destroying Nord Stream when he said an invasion of Ukraine would mean ‘there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2’. In fact, President Biden’s threat was more powerful than explosives: US sanctions. Those sanctions have since blocked repeated efforts by Russia and others to repair and restart the pipelines. Hitchens also finds it incredible that explosives could penetrate an inch of steel and four inches of concrete, or that Ukrainians could dive to 80 metres. Technical divers routinely reach such depths, and experts giving evidence in the High Court recently testified that even a small shaped charge could seriously damage Nord Stream – a commonplace technique in commercial subsea demolition.

Most inconveniently, German investigators found matching explosive traces at the blast sites, aboard the Ukrainians’ yacht and on their diving equipment. Germany’s federal prosecutor, who issued seven arrest warrants and indicted an alleged commander, says that the operation was ordered by Ukrainian state authorities.

Hitchens’s answer? It’s an American-German cover-up. Once every investigator, forensic result, arrest warrant and inconvenient fact can be declared part of the conspiracy, evidence ceases to be necessary. Everything that disproves his conspiracy theory becomes further proof of it.

Bojan Pancevski
European Politics Chief, the Wall Street Journal

Perfect plastic

Sir: It is precisely to maintain ‘lower stress levels and reduced heart rates’ that I have plastic plants, despite Ella Veakins’s championing of the real thing (‘Notes on… plastic plants’, 1 August), which are seldom satisfied with conditions or position in the house and behave accordingly. I also recommend my two vases of cut flowers, constructed from Lego.

Angela Laing
Wells, Somerset

Sock it to them

Sir: I am not quite as old as Mr. Robin Aird, who wrote to advocate the wearing of long socks with shorts (Letters, 1 August) but I distinctly remember that more than 50 years ago in Australia it was common for men to wear very short shorts with long white socks. Coupled with a short-sleeved white business shirt and a tie, it was sometimes referred to as ‘Darwin rig’ and was generally accepted as summer-time office wear throughout Australia.

John Nankervis
Martock, Somerset