Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019 Page 65
DEBATE
AN ANNEKA Rice and Anton Du Beke
partnership? Strictly brilliant!
N. PETER SUTCLIFFE, Newcastle upon Tyne.
CAN someone come up with a TV set that
doesn’t broadcast the BBC?
CLAIRE BELLENIS, Ossett, W. Yorks.
WHEN did the BBC change from being
Auntie to anti?
J. S. JONES, Brecon, Powys.
IS GOOGLE intrusive? Yes, Go-ogle!
A. H. CLARK, Goffs Oak, Herts.
WHEN Boris Johnson does his half-wave/
half-salute, is anyone else reminded of the
Benny Hill character Fred Scuttle? They’re
both good for a laugh.
JOHN BELLAMY, Chester.
WHY does Nicola Sturgeon want to
get divorced from the UK, but stay wedlocked
to Europe?
GRAHAM ANDREWS, Bideford, Devon.
ISN’T there a kettle or a tap in No 10? Why
else does every politician arrive carrying a
cup of coffee or a bottle of water? It may be a
bid to appeal to the millennials, but it won’t
help save the planet.
PETER RUSTON, Skegness, Lincs.
THE Americanisms I can’t abide (Letters)
include starting every sentence with the word
‘so’; mispronouncing Amazon, python and
marathon with the emphasis on ‘on’; and the
incorrect use of ‘there’s’ before a plural noun,
such as ‘there’s organisations that can help’.
R. KIMBLE, Leeds.÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷Straight to the
POINT
FOR permission to copy cuttings for internal management and information
purposes, please contact the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), PO Box
101, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1WX. Tel: 01892 525273. e-mail: [email protected]Should we adopt Rees-Mogg’s style guide?
AS A pedant of the first order, I
welcome Jacob Rees-Mogg’s new
style guide for his Westminster
office staff. When I joined the civil
service 40 years ago, entrants
were given a copy of Sir Ernest
Gowers’s Plain Words, a guide to
correct English usage. Sadly, that
has been discontinued.
M. LLOYD RICKETTS, London W5.
AS SOMEONE who worked in
Whitehall for years, may I put in a
plea for Jacob Rees-Mogg to ban the
meaningless words ‘diversity’ and
‘sustainability’. They seem to have
to appear in every document and
statement as a nod towards the
obligatory political correctness.
TED SHORTER, Tonbridge, Kent.IT’S refreshing that the new Leader
of the House wants to clean up
(grammatically) the act of his
department. He could have added
‘everyone’ and ‘everybody’ are
singular and banished that
barbarism ‘sorted’ to mean
‘solved’ — I blame EastEnders.
A stretch on the rack for
broadcasters who insist on adding
-ly to the end of ‘important’.
Hanging, drawing and quartering
for all those who can’t tell the
difference between the passive
voice and present participle of a
verb. ‘We were sat round the
table’ is fine only if an external
force put you there, but what isusually meant is: ‘We were sitting
round the table.’
And a mere flaying alive for all who
pronounce ‘again’ to rhyme with
‘rain’, ‘ate’ with ‘eight’ and ‘says’
with ‘haze’.
MEL CARTER,
Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taff.
SO, REES-MOGG ’as desided that
propa Inglish must prevale in all ’is
Westminsta documentashun. Let me
tell you, Moggy mate, that if the
likes of you ’ad look’d afta our
teechers an’ state skools the likes of
me an’ your Westminsta staff mite
not ’ave needed your politikaly
corect grammaticool instructshuns.
TED HUNWICK,
Southend-on-Sea, Essex.over-75s, which would be a
huge vote winner.
Not only that, the Chilterns
could be enjoyed by future
generations without the scar
of a rail line.
WILLIAM BROWN,
Wendover, Bucks.Sterling effort
STERLING is falling against
the Euro and the dollar, but
could this be a good thing?
Perhaps families will choose
to holiday in this wonderful
country, which will benefit our
economy, rather than travel to
Spain. Our summers are
getting warmer so we will not
have to travel abroad to seek
the sun.
European holiday destina-
tions should be worried by
this, not us.
We will prosper without the
EU if we make the individual
choice to stimulate our
economy by buying British.
BOIK STEWART,
address supplied.Sun is smiles better
I WAS surprised that Dr Max
Pemberton dreads the ‘so-
called joys of summer’. While I
have every sympathy for those
who suffer from hay fever,
most people relish the all too
brief occasions when we get
wall-to-wall sunshine.
In summer, people are cheer-
ful and happier. Children can
enjoy fresh air and play out-
doors. Fundraising galas, fetes
and festivals depend on fine
weather to attract the crowds.
Who can beat a trip to theseaside, strolling on a golden
beach looking out to sea while
enjoying an ice cream?
These are only some of the
joys of an English summer so,
unlike miserable Dr Max, who
shuts himself in his flat with
the blinds closed, most of us
will be only too thankful for a
magical spell of near-tropical
heat between rain showers.
I am certainly not looking
forward to shorter days and
colder weather, which brings
coughs, colds and the flu.
SUSAN RICHARDSON,
Sheffield.Artistic licence
THE argument in providing
free access to our nation’s
heritage is lost on me after yet
again seeing only the back of
people’s heads as they Insta-
gram their experiences
instead of looking at the art.
Why don’t museums and
galleries charge a nominal fee
to visit an exhibition?
Then they could provide free
catalogues via an app and ban
photography by visitors.
DAVID NICOLSON,
Sevenoaks, Kent.WIN our Letter Of The Week Magic Mug, courtesy of
Printer Pix. These reveal our Daily Mail Letter Of The
Week design when hot. To create personalised photo gifts
(see example, right), visit printerpix.co.uk. The Letters
Editor will announce the Letter Of The Week each Friday.
Write to: Daily Mail, Letters, 2 Derry Street, Kensington,
London, W8 5TT, email [email protected] or fax onLETTER OF THE WEEK
020 7937 7493, including
your full postal address
and telephone number.We didn’t ALL go
totally overboard
Left: John and Jackie Balchin
enjoying their cruise on Britannia.
Above: The Daily Mail’s news storyLeft: John and Jackie BalchinBy Arthur Martinval, Carfest North in Cheshire – but to no avail. y ppearance at his motoring festi-Evans announced his wife’s pregnancy on his ded a pair of retro sunglasses to the look.ps, she
BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in April last year. At
show on Virgin Radio – married Miss Shishmadcasts a breakfast
from a previous relationship.nian in Faro, Portugal in 2007.The DJ also has a 33-year-old daughter, Jade, -on the ship we found many of the other guests to be rude, have zero
manners or respect for others. The boat was basically Benidorm-on-
Sea with a me, me, me attitude.‘We found many people were
there pl tshoved, almost pushed on to a train track by other guests rush-
ing to get on the P&O train trip before us and had his hand burnt
by a man jtliwho had been ‘helpful and lovely’.cruise. She said she pitied the staff
on the lin ’ LiRevellers at the afternoon partythose who wished to continue drinking gathered in the Horizon
buffet restaurant on the 16th deck, which is open until 2am.
crew member suffered severe Police said five passengers and a
bruising, cuts and scratches in the fracas, which began in the early
hours of Friday in the Horizon. Witnesses reported that blood
was smeared ‘everywhere’.A man, 43, and a woman, 41, from
Chigwell, Essex, were arrested onsaid: ‘There was a person dressed one of the ship’s entertainers, who
as a clown and this upset the other passengers. Things got out of
hand very quickly.‘Chairs and plates were being
thrown. It was shocking to see and some of the staff and passengers
were scared and had to hide.’However, P&O Cruises and
Hampshire police said yesterday a clown was not the cause.
from Plymouth, said: ‘I saw four Passenger Martin Symons, 54,
people fighting and they were pulling hair and shouting.
trol, he had his shirt all ripped ‘One of the men was out of con-
open. He was beating up a woman who seemed to be one of the other
men’s wives. They were being kicked in the head and one wom
an’s earrings were pulled out.’Launched by the Queen in 2015, -
the Britannia is the largest ofP&O’A BRITISH cruise ship was branded ‘Benidorm on the sea’ after drunken
passengers hurled crockery and chairs at each other in a mass brawl
during a black-tie dinner.Families fled in terror as guests fought
each other on the P&O Britannia as it sailed to Southampton after a week-
long voyage to Norway’s fjords.Trouble broke out at the evening do after
hundreds had spent the afternoon drinking at a ‘Great British Sailaway’ party around
two swimming pools on the deck to mark the cruise’s final leg.
many of the passengers were obnoxious and A mother who was with her young son said
just there to ‘drink as much as they could’.The woman, who asked to remain anony-
mous, said: ‘From the moment we embarked Booze cruise: Guests at the Great British Sailaway partyBrawl at sea!
‘Blood smeared
everywhere’Drunk passengers
hurl chairs in fight
on P&O cruise shipexpected later this year. SpeakA compensation hearing is
ing outside court, Miss Nailard’s lawyers said her claim was -
worth up to £1million.suspicion of assault when the ship docked on Saturday morning. The
pair were released yesterday but remain under investigation.
out after a passenger dressed as a Early reports said violence broke
clown gatecrashed the black-tieparty GdWE MUST disagree with the view that
the cruise to Norway on Britannia was
like Benidorm-on-the-Sea (Mail). This
was our first cruise and along with our
friends we had a wonderful time.
The staff and others passengers we
came across were polite and friendly
from embarkation to the end of the
cruise. All the shore excursions were
well organised and we didn’t see any
pushing to get on the train at Flam, as
has been reported.
However, we ate in the ship’s
restaurants and not in the Horizon
buffet, so cannot comment on the
brawl that was reported to have
occurred in that area.
There was obviously some trouble in
the early hours of Friday, but we feel
that most passengers were probably
not aware of it until after
disembarkation when it was reported
in the media.
Please don’t have the impression that
everyone on board Britannia was there
purely to drink to excess. We and many
others went to enjoy a wonderful,
scenic holiday on a lovely, well-run ship.
JOHN & JACKIE BALCHIN,
Bognor Regis, W. Sussex.
I’M NOT surprised by the ruckus on
the P&O ship Britannia. There are so
many people nowadays who have
money, but no manners or class.
A similar thing happened to me at afive-star hotel in Sorrento. Most of the
guests were middle-aged and the first
four days were lovely. But then a party
of six adults and six children turned
up. They monopolised the pool area
where other guests were dozing,reading and relaxing. The noise was
horrendous: the children argued,
screeched and yelled and the youngest
one cried non-stop.
The adults were also loud, probably
due to drinking every day from
breakfast until 5pm. I would have
expected it in Benidorm, not in an
upmarket Italian hotel. They were
English and it was so embarrassing as
there were French and Italian children
who were perfectly behaved.
The Brits abroad are often horrendous
and you find the same type in this
country in pubs and restaurants. They
have zero consideration for anyone
else. As far as they are concerned, it’s
their planet and they’ll do what they
jolly well like.
CAROL CARPENTER, Caddington, Beds.