Letters

Fire is a leveller Sir: It was disappointing to read Fin Taylor’s Diary (26 September) in which he reflected upon feeling a ‘tinge of satisfaction’ at the California wildfires. He made the rather sweeping statement that Californians believe they live beyond the laws of nature, and that those affected are so rich that it is of no consequence. In fact, the fires at Pacific Palisades affected the whole community. Near to us, a children’s day centre, largely used by low-income families, was completely lost. Our local Ralph’s supermarket burned to the ground with dozens of jobs lost. Landscapers, gardeners, waiters, domestic workers all lost their livelihoods. Whether a billionaire or working for $20 an hour, the merciless devastation touched everyone.

Reform’s high bar Sir: Michael Gove’s concerns about Reform lacking the talent and an adequate policy framework to ‘prove their credentials for government’ should probably reflect on Starmer’s Labour party in opposition (‘Can Reform reform?, 19 September). Vagueness, bland generality and virtue signalling was all that was offered at the same stage. Reform’s proposals are a model of specificity, realism and genuine conviction in comparison. We should not be overcritical of differences within the Reform leadership. Previous governments have accommodated Foot and Healey; Clarke and Tebbit; Benn and Jenkins, et al. Debate on policy and principles should be seen as healthy, and Kruger and Yusuf are entitled to disagree.

The need for Mammon Sir: Douglas Murray is right to wince at Sadiq Khan’s gloating over the partnership at St Paul’s with the nightclub Fabric (‘Would Sadiq Khan back a rave in a mosque?’, 12 September). But the decision to host club nights is simply about cash. Since the government scrapped the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, historic churches now face an extra 20 per cent VAT bill on all maintenance. The National Churches Survey reveals that 39 per cent of them have roofs at risk or in urgent need of repair. Cathedrals cannot fund seven-figure restoration projects through the Sunday collections alone. Cathedrals have always had multiple uses.

Despoiling Suffolk Sir: There can be few better summaries of government attitude to Britain’s countryside than James Vitali’s: ‘Something to vandalise or extract from, but not to value’ (Diary, 5 September). Here on East Suffolk’s Heritage Coast, the arrival of Sizewell C – along with the imminence of net zero’s offshore land connections – are transforming an area of outstanding natural beauty into a degraded landscape of stripped-out woodland, destroying thousands of trees and literally miles of hedgerows. The effect on wildlife is incalculable. Despite the area also being designated of Strategic Scientific Interest, there is no defence.

Lessons in education Sir: I read Michael Gove’s thought-provoking piece (‘Revenge of the Blob’, 29 August) with great interest. It prompted me to reflect on my 26 years’ experience in various teaching and leadership roles in the English education system. This has convinced me that, despite changes of government, political persuasion, and evolving theories of pedagogy and school improvement, two fundamental truths remain constant. First, the quality of teaching makes the single greatest difference to young people’s achievements and, ultimately, their life chances. This is particularly true for disadvantaged pupils and those with additional needs. Second, the quality of school leadership is fundamental to the ethos, culture and expectations of a school.

People power Sir: Quentin Letts’s article (‘Plastic parsons’, 22 August) underlines the dire state of the Church of England today. How can the Church grow when its leaders are more and more removed from its flock? The problem is in the way the Church is managed. When confronted with increasing costs and lower revenue, dioceses cut the number of vicars and force parishes to merge to form benefices of ten or more parishes, each overseen by one or two salaried priests. Instead, perhaps we lay members of parishes should push back. Every diocese has many ordained clergy among its ranks. Each diocese should be required to allocate these ordained clergy to parish churches where they can continue to perform their diocesan duties as well as being a parish vicar.

Universities’ challenge Sir: I have spent more than three decades in academia and so Lara Brown (‘Alma madder’, 15 August) struck a chord. The craziness is not a new phenomenon. In the mid-1990s my employer, Thames Valley University, offered a half-module in kite-flying. Students spent half a day each week on Hampstead Heath, learning how to fly their silk and bamboo contraptions. I have often wondered how the students used the transferable skills they gained in later life. More recently, I was taken to task by a bureaucrat for not stating my preferred pronouns in my email signature block. When informed it was ‘university policy’, I capitulated. Thereafter, my preferred pronoun was ‘Dr’. I assumed this was acceptable, as I was troubled no further.

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.

Bad education Sir: Lara Brown (‘Class warfare’, 1 August) lays bare the baleful consequences – intended and unintended – of Labour’s vandalistic attack on private schools. It borders on the insane for a government to seek to destroy a sector which is a world leader. An administration genuinely committed to economic growth would champion industries where the country retains comparative advantage. Consumed by an outmoded class ideology, and seemingly unconcerned about the effects of its policies on the educational prospects for many young people, Labour seems determined to do the opposite.

Rights and wrongs Sir: As one of those centre-left weirdos who reads your magazine to see what the other side is thinking, I was surprised by your assertions regarding Britain’s wrong economic turn (‘Labour’s inheritance’, 25 July). There is a reason why Britain’s economy has grown so slowly since 2008 and it is directly related to the financial crisis you mention in the same paragraph – the bailout for which was laid on the taxpayer, resulting in the austerity agenda, both of which significantly dragged on GDP. There was a cross-party faith that the financial system would regulate itself. The same thinking applied to Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy on council houses: buy your house and let the market sort the rest.

That’s the spirit Sir: What a wonderful young man Michael Simmons is (‘Sick of it’, 18 July). His stubborn refusal to be held back by disability and illness sets him apart from a generation encouraged to erect mental barriers and create artificial limits. He shows that determination, stoicism and a little bloodymindedness go a long way toward a better life. Our society has improved: we no longer mock disabilities. However, is the kindness culture that discourages growth and aspiration not far crueller in terms of a life well spent? Ewen Melling London Seal their fate Sir: It would be wonderful if Matt Ridley would add the Atlantic salmon to his list of endangered species whose recovery we should be supporting (‘Wild ambitions’, 18 July).

The right kind of devolution Sir: Your leading article ‘The Burnham Question’ (11 July) suggests that the putative prime minister’s enthusiasm for devolution might be a good thing, provided that it is the right kind of devolution. Although Andy Burnham would never admit it, devolution of the Manchester and Teesside type succeeds because, in both cases, business is given the chance to thrive. By contrast, devolution to the Scottish parliament and Senedd has stifled economic growth, while providing a platform for nationalist politicians to bash the UK. A true believer in effective devolution would scrap these national institutions and transfer power to business-friendly bodies in cities and regions across the UK.

Unjust William Sir: It is a bad idea for schools to be recommending their pupils listen to William Dalrymple’s podcast Empire (‘Striking back’, 4 July), without also suggesting they listen to, for example, Niall Ferguson on the same subject. Dalrymple does not prize the British Empire, but many of us who have studied it in detail admire the many benefits it conferred on its subjects. Balance is essential in educating children and from Dalrymple they will get an unduly pejorative view. Hearing his analysis, one might wonder how such an inefficient and corrupt entity succeeded in governing about a third of the world for a long period. There were two main failures.

Telling stories Sir: As a filmmaker by training and a marketer by profession, I couldn’t agree more with your leading article (‘Northern soul’, 27 June) on the absence of narrative in our politics. The appeal of figures such as Burnham and Nigel Farage lies in the storyworld they build around themselves – be it via pints shared down the pub, off-the-cuff honesty, or a Monty Python line landing in the Commons. But the PM who stays the course, as any brand-builder learns the hard way, must know two things: their own story, well enough to tell it plainly; and the people they speak to, well enough for them to make it their own. Aim a dull narrative at everyone and you reach no one; tell a story worth sharing and both left and right will see themselves in it.

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.

I Spy Sir: Overt political allegiance and class snobbery may indeed have thwarted Toby Young’s undergraduate ambition to be ‘tapped on the shoulder’ by the security services (No sacred cows, 13 June), but I wonder if he underestimates the importance of persistence. We were almost exact Oxford contemporaries and ‘out’ right-wingers to boot. During my first term I recall vividly a long conversation into the early hours with a fellow St Edmund Hall freshman, who confided that he had set his heart on joining MI6. He also insisted that one of the fabled dons responsible for recruiting spies was none other than the senior English fellow at our college, who after distinguished service in the second world war was now close to retirement.

Con’s the word Sir: In his article ‘Neo con’ (6 June) Michael Simmons claims that neoliberalism powered this country into the 21st century as the fastest-growing large economy in Europe. It didn’t; it was the North Sea that fuelled the UK’s growth, the UK being the only large European economy gifted by geology with major oil and gas fields. Comparing the UK and Norway over this period is enlightening. The UK, believing in neoliberalism, sold off its national oil company BNOC and trusted in ‘the market’, while Norway, wanting a direct stake in its substantial oil and gas resource, created the state-owned company Statoil to manage it.

Keeping their promises Sir: Matt Ridley is right to assert the conservation role of gamekeepers (‘Ruffled feathers’, 30 May). They, like farmers and crofters, know wading birds are integral to Britain’s rich cultural landscapes. All ground-nesting birds benefit from culling generalist predators. I do this on my croft at my own expense because I love waders and passerines. Where costs cannot be borne by individual goodwill or taxpayer-funded grants, shooting provides a sound economic case for funding the vital combination of predator control and habitat management. A keeper’s livelihood depends on his ability to prove consistent competence in these two skills.

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.