TheTimes8April2020

26 1GM Wednesday April 8 2020 | the times

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor should be sent to

[email protected] or by post to

1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones,

director, National Problem Gambling

Clinic; Dr Chaand Nagpaul,

chairman, BMA Council; Professor

Wendy Burn, president, Royal

College of Psychiatrists; Dr Alan

Smith, Bishop of St Albans; Iain

Duncan Smith, MP

Plus a further seven signatories at

thetimes.co.uk/letters

Sir, You report (News, Apr 7) that the

National Health Service is struggling

to cope with the extra demands of the

coronavirus crisis because of staff

shortages caused by clinicians who

are absent from work because they

either have coronavirus symptoms or

are self-isolating.

I am 61 and fit and well. I retired

from NHS practice in 2017 but have

continued to work part-time in the

private sector and am registered with

the GMC and up to date with

appraisal and revalidation. I

responded to the request for

volunteers to return to the NHS to

help ten days ago, and although my

offer was acknowledged I have not

yet been called upon. A friend of

Wedding largesse

Sir, I have never heard of a “poor oot”

(letters, Apr 6 & 7) but I recognise the

scenario. As children we were always

keen to find a church where a

wedding was taking place in the hope

of a “scramble” as the cars drove away.

Jeanette Stafford

Bearsden, E Dunbartonshire

Sir, Geordie children used to shout

“Hoy oot! Hoy oot!” at weddings to

encourage guests to throw money out

of the car windows.

Bill Oxley

Warrington

mine, however, who is 75 and who

retired more than 15 years ago, has

been contacted to ask if she would

consider returning to work; she has

not unreasonably declined.

There are many other doctors like

me working in the private sector. No

wonder the NHS is struggling if the

Department of Health cannot get its

act together to make use of this large

pool of competent and up-to-date

clinicians who are ready and willing

to help.

Dr Rebecca Scorer

London SW11

Sir, The news that the prime minister

is being treated in the intensive care

unit at St Thomas’ Hospital in central

London confirms the importance of

that institution in the coronavirus

story. Human coronaviruses were

discovered there in 1966 by the

brilliant electron microscopist June

Almeida, and in the same year the

first purpose-built intensive care unit

in the UK was opened there.

Hugh Pennington

Emeritus professor of bacteriology,

University of Aberdeen

Inspiration of art

Sir, James Marriott is right about the

importance of local art galleries

(“Councils’ sale of artworks is a false

economy”, Thunderer, Apr 6). I grew

up in the industrial Birmingham of the

1960s: it was a revelation to discover

that I could drop into the Museum

and Art Gallery whenever I wanted on

the way home from school. It wasn’t

simply because of the extraordinary

collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

I found inspiration everywhere. The

quality of the art mattered less than

the fact that it existed, was publicly

available and offered a portal off a

grimy Broad Street into a different

world. Birmingham is also lucky to

have the jewel-like Barber Gallery at

the university in Edgbaston. Both

institutions are tributes to an age of

philanthropy and a deep sense of

municipal and local pride. They

should be cherished.

Sir John Jenkins

Matfield, Kent

Right of way

Sir, The tension between joggers and

dog-walkers might be resolved by

adopting the simple protocol: that it is

the responsibility of the faster-moving

person to keep their distance from the

slower one. In the case of joggers who

are running at speed, that should be

more than three metres.

John Black

London W12

Just a minute

Sir, In July 1988, when asked by Sue

Lawley on Desert Island Discs how he

wrote the cabinet minutes, Lord

Armstrong of Ilminster (obituary, Apr

6) replied that he followed the advice

of an irreverent predecessor who had

suggested: you don’t write down what

they said nor what they thought

they’d said, you write down what they

would have said if they’d thought

[about] what they were saying.

Wise indeed powerful guidance for

all minute takers.

Christopher Clarke

Windlesham, Surrey

Table manners

Sir, My mother-in-law’s family, also

from the northeast, are more

definitive than Canon Elizabeth

Fisher (letter, Apr 7). Their phrase is:

“spoon never; fork ever; sometimes

spoon and fork together.” This mantra

has been passed on to our children.

Robin Chute

Bishop’s Sutton, Hants

Sir, My parents were adamant that

napkin rings were used only by those

who could not afford fresh napkins at

every meal.

John Dover

Glasgow

Sir, Napkins are worn by babies.

Serviettes are worn at the table.

Susan Woodham

Pulborough, W Sussex

Personal distancing

Sir, Casting back to my school physics

lessons, I think that Sara Tor

(Notebook, Apr 7) can reassure her

father that he need stay only one

metre from his shaving mirror to

ensure social distancing, as the image

he sees is as far behind the mirror as

the subject is in front of it. A blessing

in small bathrooms.

Philip Clayton

Fotheringhay, Northants

Corrections and

clarifications

6 We referred to a £2 billion

withdrawal from Fundsmith Equity in

April 2019 (“Fund investors pull out”,

Business April 7). We have been asked

to make clear that this was a transfer

into Fundsmith Equity SICAV fund.

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Closed for Easter

Sir, His Honour Robert Hardy asks,

“If there can be livestreaming from

the vicarage, why on earth not from

the church itself next door?” (letter,

Apr 7). This was prohibited by the

Archbishops of Canterbury and York

on March 24, on the grounds that

they wished to support the

government in its efforts to control

the coronavirus. However, two days

later the government expressly said

that churches could be used for this

purpose: Health Protection

(Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England)

Regulations 2020, Regulation 5. In

view of this the archbishops’

continued prohibition is even more

incomprehensible.

The Rev Canon Andrew

Lenox-Conyngham

Edgbaston, Birmingham

Lockdown ‘should apply to gambling adverts’

Sir, Businesses big and small have

incurred significant losses during the

lockdown to help the population to

stay safe. The gambling industry must

now do its bit by stopping all

advertising during this crisis to

protect people from financial harm.

Gambling adverts online and on

television can drive people to gamble

in the erroneous belief that they may

then overcome financial hardship.

Too much spare time and a lack of

distractions during the lockdown have

placed many more people at risk of

gambling beyond their means,

particularly the half a million people

suffering with gambling disorders and

the two million people already

showing harm from gambling.

Young people are more likely to

gamble after viewing gambling

advertisements and have the added

risk of being able to do so at any time

of day or night on their mobiles.

It is time for the gambling industry

to realign its moral compass and show

that it is prepared to take the

necessary steps to do so by banning

all advertisements until the end

of the lockdown.

Starmer’s cabinet

Sir, Lord Mandelson described the

Labour Party manifesto drawn up by

Ed Miliband for the 2010 general

election as one designed to “avoid

hard choices”; the party was in due

course decisively rejected at the polls.

Miliband’s similarly directionless

leadership of the party and failure to

gain any traction with the electorate

led to even worse defeat in 2015,

against an unpopular government in

coalition with the Liberal Democrats,

and a wipeout in Scotland from which

the Labour Party has never recovered.

In such circumstances it beggars

belief that a place can be found for

Miliband in the shadow cabinet but

not for politicians of genuine talent

and ability such as Yvette Cooper or

Jess Phillips.

David Hornsby

Herne Bay, Kent

from the times april 8, 1920

TRAGEDY

OF FILM

COMEDY

National archive

Sir, Brian Kealy’s letter (Apr 7) calling

for all us to take photographs of our

empty buildings and streets during

the lockdown, to create a legacy of

this extraordinary time, is a brilliant

idea. The Building Centre, created in

1931 as the home of the built

environment, is therefore proposing

to collect all these photographs under

the auspices of our parent charity, the

Built Environment Trust. We will

then curate them to form a national

archive and will mount an exhibition

in our galleries in London when we

are all able to return to our daily lives.

We will formally announce the call

for photographs from amateurs and

professionals alike on our website

(buildingcentre.co.uk) within the

next few days.

Colin Tweedy

CEO, The Building Centre and the

Built Environment Trust

thetimes.co.uk/archive

Chinese reparation

Sir, It is right to hold the Chinese

government responsible for the

Covid-19 pandemic (“Sue China for

outbreak, says think tank”, News, Apr

6). But the suggestion that the UK

should sue China for damages misses

the point. The Chinese government

under the Chinese Communist Party

will never take part in a court process,

let alone pay up. This does not mean

that Melanie Phillips (“West can no

longer turn a blind eye to China”,

Comment, Apr 7) is not spot on that

Beijing must be called to account

after this crisis. China scholars have

explained that the consultative

political system in China is first and

foremost about keeping the Chinese

Communist Party in power. The same

factor drives China’s foreign policy,

although the interest of the party and

its leader is dressed up as China’s

national interest. We know that.

Beijing’s handling of Covid-19 is

merely a blatant manifestation of this

approach. China under Xi Jinping will

not change. It is high time that our

leaders see Xi’s China for what it is, a

dictatorship of, by and for the party,

and stop engaging with it on the basis

of wishful thinking.

Professor Steve Tsang

Director, SOAS China Institute

Rambling nation

Sir, Your plea for Britain to be a

rambling nation (leading article, Apr

7) would be greatly developed if golf

courses, particularly in congested

areas such as Surrey, allowed greater

access to their land in times such as

these. Golf is not being played and so

there is every reason for a more

community-based approach.

Shopping on foot might then become

a more realistic option, as a lesson

that grew out of the present crisis.

The right to ramble should not be

available only in Scotland.

Andrew Greaves

Brechin, Angus

Sir, It will indeed be lovely to use a

“slow way” to get from A to B.

Perhaps the Ordnance Survey could

follow the lead of the Sussex Hospices

Trail, 26 walks totalling more than

200 miles linking all hospice care

providers in the county. Each walk

starts and ends where it is possible to

return to the start point by public

transport. There is even, like the

Camino to Santiago de Compostela, a

“pilgrim passport” to record the

sections completed. An opportunity

to challenge friends and family when

we are free once more to roam.

Katharine Minchin

Easebourne, W Sussex

Letters to The Times must be exclusive

and may be edited. Please include a full

address and daytime telephone number.

Criticizing film comedies resembles

tilting at windmills. The latter were

made to grind corn, and not to be

tilted at, and it may be pleaded that

film comedies were made to cause

laughter and not to be criticized.

When, however, they fail to cause

laughter, they are ripe for criticism.

One of the most hopeful signs that

the film comedy will eventually

improve is the fact that it is at last

ceasing to interest the public, and

this is emphasized by one so-called

comedy being shown this week. It is

named Shades of Shakespeare. The

reason is difficult to discover. Not

long ago a similar comedy would

have caused mild hysteria, but now it

is merely depressing. For a long time

it appeared that the cinematograph

public was a veritable Peter Pan,

since it seemed to be in no hurry to

grow up, but there are hopes that it

is now deserting its mental nursery.

If the public is taking a long time

to grow up, the producer is taking

even longer. Shades of Shakespeare is

probably no worse than a hundred

other films being shown this week. It

is only unfortunate because it is such

an admirable example of the kind of

thing that is supposed to make us

laugh. An amateur dramatic society

gives a performance of an amateur

play dealing with the war, the three

chief parts being taken by the three

sides of a human triangle — two

males and the woman with whom

they are in love. The two men keep

on hurling each other on to the

stage, and sometimes off it into the

orchestra, and at last the more

villainous of the two bribes a body of

supernumeraries to go on strike.

They do so just when they should be

representing a German army

attacking the British trenches, and

one of the characters rushes wildly

to the local fire station and induces

the firemen to take their place. The

convention that firemen are

naturally very humorous people

seems now to be firmly fixed in the

minds of those who write comedies

for the films. All the old comic

cliches reappear, and when it is over

it is hard to realize that the film has

run for 20 minutes without one new

idea or amusing incident. This alone

is an achievement. It can at least be

said of the cinematograph at present

that it affords a historic paradox,

because it presents comedies that

produce only tears and tragedies

that cause nothing but laughter.