An irresponsible drama
Sir: Britain is faced with a fabricated panic which has prioritised personality over policy. Keir Starmer has been forced out of office largely to provide the media with a piece of theatre, a drama of great irresponsibility in which Act One has been written but nothing sketched out beyond it.
Michael Gove’s brilliant account (‘Butterfly effect’, 20 June) has shown that Britain’s economy has benefited greatly from our detachment from the EU, but points to an area where the misnomer of ‘Exit’ has magnified problems of national identity, which remain and require what amounts to therapy on a grand scale. Yet the orchestration of this political drama has entirely focused on the likely replacement leader, Andy Burnham, who has carefully said very little about how he may hope to revitalise our nation.
Mallory Wober
London NW3
Jam tomorrow
Sir: I am not sure which farmers Michael Gove relates to in his vision of a bright future for farming. Every farming friend I know is pessimistic about the prospects of profitability of their farms. Highly inflated costs of production and ever more restrictions on production systems are on the expenses side of the ledger. On the sales side: having to compete at world commodity prices, often against products from overseas made using methods that are not allowed in this country. The gene-editing boom seems like a promise of jam tomorrow as its availability is continually being delayed by bureaucratic prevarication.
Stephen Furnival
Romney Marsh, Kent
Well bred
Sir: As a Remainer, I was surprised to find myself agreeing with just about everything Matt Ridley (‘Gone to seed’, 20 June) wrote. The ability to press on with developing so-called ‘precision-bred’
crops, in England at any rate, is indeed a Brexit dividend. Researchers have even just harvested the first field trials: a crop of barley with high lipid levels which should improve cattle nutrition while reducing their methane emissions.
The risk of losing this advantage as the current government seeks ‘dynamic alignment’ with EU regulations is a real one. However that risk now appears slightly reduced, as EU policymakers have just this week approved their own legislation to pave the way for full commercialisation of what they call ‘new genomic techniques’.
That in itself is good news. The less good news is that, in true Brussels style, this new legislation is not due to take effect for at least another two years. Dynamic alignment could still have a sting in the tail.
Philip Clarke
Farmers Weekly, Sutton, Surrey
Not My King
Sir: In her article ‘A solid 2:1’ (13 June) Lara Brown describes Andy Burnham as the ‘so-called King of the North’. Every time I see that title used without the ‘so-called’ a little piece of me dies, and given he is now on course for Downing Street, I should probably make preparations with a funeral home. The North I know is Yorkshire, Durham, Cumbria and Humberside as much as it is Manchester – nobody there appointed Burnham as their man. Not My King!
Caden Lunness
Rotherham, Yorks
Puffin piece
Sir: If William Atkinson wishes to see puffins (Notes on…, 13 June), he should consider visiting Alderney in the Channel Islands. We have a sizeable colony on Burhou, an island just offshore, now a sort of bird reserve exclusively for puffins. I have also seen them in the Farne Islands. Funny little birds. If Mr Atkinson can’t get to Alderney, he could check out the puffin-cam operated by our local Wildlife Trust, which lets you watch these critters pottering in and out of their burrows.
Hilary Bentley
Alderney, Channel Islands
Punting joy
Sir: I read Toby Young’s article on the gambling proclivities of his offspring with great delight (No sacred cows, 20 June). As an undergraduate in the 1970s, I fancied myself as a bit of a sporting gent and a fine student of the Turf. Like Toby’s sons, I sought to leverage my very modest funds by way of an ‘Acca’ – principally the turbocharged Yankee, which has fallen out of fashion. This comprised four horses in 11 bets (six doubles, four trebles and a four-horse accumulator). So a 5p Yankee involved an investment of only 55p but promised untold riches if they all came home – which they rarely did. It was sensible single bets on the likes of Pat Eddery and Steve Cauthen that kept me ticking over, but the fun was in the Yankee.
I love the description of gambling as buying hope on credit, and as long as the boys continue to stake small and hope large there is no reason why they should not enjoy, as I have, a lifetime of punting.
Bob O’Dwyer
London SW4
Discover Rutland
Sir: It is not only the young who don’t know the geography of their own country (The Spectator’s Notes, 13 June). As a volunteer on the ‘Discover Rutland’ stand at county shows, I am all too often dispirited by older people who don’t know where the smallest county is located (one event was in a neighbouring county). They’re not always any the wiser when I tell them that it’s between Leicester and Peterborough. Even worse, some claim not to have heard of it.
We are very proud of our beautiful rural county, and will remain so whatever we’re sucked into in this government’s misguided local government reforms. ‘Save our ceremonial status’ is our rallying cry.
David Whittle
Oakham, Rutland
The Larkin left
Sir: Querying the idea that Philip Larkin could influence Andy Burnham, Ryan Dunne (Letters, 20 June) erroneously asserts a link between political positions and the appreciation of great poetry when he writes: ‘Larkin, to the right of your esteemed editor, was surely (even in the 1990s) not a name to conjure with for those seeking to get ahead in the Labour party.’
In fact, the intelligent left loves Larkin; and one of the most prominent Labour politicians of the past 30 years, the former home secretary Alan Johnson – who recommended that I join – was the honorary vice-president of the Philip Larkin Society.
Hugh Hetherington
Sandwich, Kent
Who wields the scalpel?
Sir: It would have been prudent of Lloyd Evans (No life, 20 June) to have delayed making his only too accurate critical observations about the NHS until after his non-urgent surgery. It is surely unwise to irritate the person about to wield the scalpel.
Jane Moth
Stone, Staffordshire
We have a consignment of Gentleman’s Relish, a pot of which will be sent to the writer of the best letter each week. This week’s winner is Philip Clarke.
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