The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

24 1GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times

Letters to the Editor

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Gordon? We are ashamed of him”,

rather than “John Gordon? Never

heard of him. No slave trade here.”

Dr JL Wilson

Cambridge

Sir, The Archbishop of Canterbury is

on a cleansing mission. While

acknowledging the sins of the past, he

and the Church of England are at risk

of turning us back into Cromwell’s

Puritans. We ought to have less focus

on statues, please, and more on

supporting and inspiring youngsters

from all communities to find

education, housing and jobs.

Lucy Lubbock

London SW6

Sir, It is shocking that the Archbishop

of Canterbury feels that some statues

and memorials in churches and

cathedrals “will have to come down”,

and worrying that you refer to “one

Thomas Picton” as if he were a

nonentity (“Do Not Altar”, leading

article, Jun 27). Picton distinguished

himself during the Peninsular Wars,

and in June 1815 led the 5th Division

of the British Army, some 7,000 men

in all, towards Quatre Bras, where he

was wounded. On June 18 he was

killed when his forces faced d’Erlon’s

18,000-strong infantry. The Duke of

Wellington said that “no man could

do better in different services I

assigned to him”. Picton’s body was

Lack of levelling

Sir, I agree with Matthew Parris that

Boris Johnson is sending out the

wrong message by protecting top

advisers and ministers, and the public

will smell a rat (“Jenrick affair taints

the Conservative Party”, Comment,

Jun 27). In the case of Robert Jenrick

and Richard Desmond, the fact is that

a rushed decision saved Mr Desmond

money that could have proved a

necessary benefit for a disadvantaged

borough in London. This devalues Mr

Johnson’s promise to “level up” and

makes this aspiration rather

meaningless. The public will always

have the perception that this party

entombed in St Paul’s Cathedral, the

only Welshman so honoured. His

great neoclassical monument (1816)

was the work of the Dublin-born

Sebastian Gahagan. A campaign to

indulge in iconoclasm and destroy a

splendid memorial to “the most

valuable of Wellington’s generals in

the Peninsula” (Oxford Dictionary of

National Biography) should be resisted.

Professor James Stevens Curl

Holywood, Co Down

Sir, History is about change. Let future

historians read about 2020 as the year

we started to talk about our history

from a multiplicity of perspectives and

how as a mark of that change decided

to put new figures on old pedestals,

people who did great things but who

were ignored first time round because

they were the wrong sexuality, race or

gender. It won’t obliterate the

mainstream narrative, it will balance

it. It seems the least that those in

positions of power can do.

Jackie Morris

Godalming, Surrey

Sir, The Archbishop of Canterbury

must surely take care when deciding

which morally dubious figures should

be removed. After all, wasn’t his own

church established by Henry VIII?

Now there’s a real sinner.

Geoffrey Malone

Donhead St Andrew, Wilts

Fallen Archers

Sir, In her Notebook (Jun 26), Ann

Treneman writes of the end of her love

affair with The Archers. I have been

listening since I was ten, having been

introduced by my grandfather. I have

met most of the cast at Archers

Addicts events. However, I have not

tuned in since they first ignored the

virus and subsequently decided on

using archive episodes, followed by

those dreadful monologues. The

Archers was the highlight of my day.

Part of my life has been lost for ever.

Anne Johnson-Rooks

Thorncombe, Dorset

Sir, Ann Treneman needs to listen to

The Archers in one continuous hit, in

the Sunday omnibus or online, which

gives a coherent story arc. The new

monologues reveal the inner thoughts

of characters we know and love —

since 1969 in my case — or rather, we

thought we knew and loved. They are

different, they are a slow burn, but

they are very cleverly revealing subtle

clues to future storylines.

Marjolein Thrower

Richmond upon Thames

Jewish Superman

Sir, Despite Giles Coren’s best efforts

to get away from being a “four-eyed

Jew boy” and become “Superman for

ever”, he has missed a crucial irony

(“Staying in with the Corens”,

Magazine, Jun 27). Superman not only

has a Hebrew name, Kal-El, but he

dons spectacles as Clark Kent and he

was created by two Jews: Jerry Siegel

and Joe Shuster.

Ben Wolfin

London NW7

Wish we were here

Sir, I remember my only visit to

Bournemouth (“Brawls on the beaches

in sizzling 33C heat”, News, Jun 26) as

a young boy holidaying soon after the

Second World War. It was grey, cold

and wet. The seafront was lined with

anti-invasion concrete emplacements

and barbed wire. Perhaps they should

never have been dismantled.

Rob Sargent

Heighington, Lincs

Lockdown locks

Sir, Our daughter, visiting for the first

time since the lockdown, was most

amused to be greeted by a father with

a hairgrip in his untamed silver mane

and a mother with a ponytail that was

last sported, somewhat more

luxuriantly, in the Sixties (“Unicorn

hair: a fix for lockdown locks”, Times 2,

Jun 24). I notice, however, that she has

not taken any selfies with us since she

has been home.

Lesley Thompson

Lavenham, Suffolk

Hold the sugar

Sir, Like your reporter, I wondered if

Michelle’s version of “British tea” in

her TikTok video was a spoof (“Envoy

teas up a new special relationship”,

News, Jun 24). Upon hearing that she

also posted a video on how to make

“British eggs” with quantities of sugar

and cream, I am forced to conclude

that she is, in fact, trying to account for

what Americans call “British teeth”.

Tricia Lumley

Draycott, Somerset

Corrections and

clarifications

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Need for open data

Sir, To build public confidence in the
relaxation of lockdown measures, and
maintain vigilance against a second
wave, governments owe it to their
citizens to publish transparent data on
Covid-19 and the response to it. We
have grave concerns about gaps in the
data published in the UK. There is no
central dashboard detailing deaths and
cases by local authority area or
numbers for recovered patients.
Information from the emerging
contact tracing system is limited, with
no regional breakdown. Most alarming
are the multiple issues with testing and
results data. These weaknesses, and
the lack of useful breakdowns, make it
difficult to know how prevalent the
illness is. Regular NHS indicators, like
the number of people delayed leaving
hospital, remain suspended — while
understandable at the peak of the
crisis, we now need to work out how
hard the service has been hit.
This lacklustre performance is a
paradox. The UK has a large health
service research capacity with pockets
of excellent practice, as well as a first-
rate Office for National Statistics.
Much of this information exists but is
not published in a transparent, timely
way. This is critical. Thousands of lives,
swathes of the economy and the
functioning of the NHS hang on the
decisions we make now. Crucial facts
cannot be hidden from scrutiny.
Nigel Edwards
Chief executive, Nuffield Trust

Archbishop and the removal of church statues

Sir, Rather than advocate the removal

of statues and other works of art from

churches (“Church statues must go,

says Welby”, News, Jun 27), the social

climate surely affords an ideal

opportunity for the Archbishop of

Canterbury to give a lead in what the

church is: a place for all flawed human

beings. The spirit of forgiveness is at

the heart of Christianity and this is

being seriously undermined in the

displays of anger for past wrongdoing.

There are many portrayed in artistic

works who should no longer be

glorified but they simply mark the

historical progression of culture.

Hilary Martin

Thatcham, Berks

Sir, For three centuries the British

were involved in slavery. Many

profited and enjoyed the fruits in the

forms of sugar, coffee and cotton. The

celebration of British abolition of the

trade often evades the fact that our

complicity made it necessary. Now we

want to pass over it, by expunging the

memory of those involved, instead of

taking the opportunity to increase

awareness of what has been

suppressed in our national narrative.

We should know that those

commemorated in churches may have

been involved in slavery. Destroying all

mention of them compounds the guilt.

Far better that the people of

Dorchester should be able to say “John

Sir, I agree with the food writer MiMi

Aye that the measures proposed by the

food publishing industry to promote a

more culturally sensitive image are

tokenistic and may please nobody

(“Chefs are in a stew over ‘cultural

theft’”, Jun 27). The joy of cooking is

more in the soaking up and infusing of

cultures in one’s own creative

endeavours, than in providing an audit

trail of ingredients and heritage. By all

means correct misleading uses of

international terminology, for example

the misuse of words like “biryani” and

“jerk”, and broad-brush descriptors

such as “Asian”. The same rigour

should also be applied to British and

European foods. But if the industry

wishes to become more inclusive, it

should do more to promote diverse

talent on TV cookery programmes,

and to lobby against visa regimes

which punish restaurants that attempt

to hire authentic chefs.

Sachin Patel

London N2

unequivocally looks after its own and

in this dire and tragic time this sends

out completely the wrong message.

If the government is to be believed

that it genuinely wants a level playing

field, the prime minister stating that

this issue is now closed reinforces the

idea that actions do not match the

inclusive rhetoric.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Food fight is silly

Sir, My husband’s late mother invented

a dish that she called “Spanish rice”. It

involved leftovers held together with

generous quantities of OK sauce and

tomato ketchup.

It was served often. For this she

should certainly have apologised.

Sue Hudson

Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts

from the times june 29, 1920

THE

KIDNAPPED

GENERAL

thetimes.co.uk/archive

Both ways are fine

Sir, Gavin Williamson (“Face the front

and pay attention, minister orders

nation’s children”, News, Jun 26) is

either “doing the single most useful

thing to improve education” or he has

“expressed his preference for Victorian

education” (Letters, Jun 27). Good

teachers know that the two are not

mutually exclusive. Sometimes

everyone faces the teacher, and then

they carry on working in groups on set

tasks, which the teacher supervises.

Ken Emery

Southampton

Letters to The Times must be exclusive

and may be edited. Please include a full

address and daytime telephone number.

Since Sunday morning the military

stationed in Fermoy have been

searching the countryside for

General Lucas, who was kidnapped

by Sinn Feiners at Kilbarry, County

Cork, on Saturday night. All the

roads are patrolled, and aeroplanes

are scouting in every direction, but

up to this evening no trace has been

found of the captured officer. It now

appears that General Lucas, who was

accompanied by Colonel Danford,

RE, of Fermoy, and Colonel Tyrrell,

had arranged to spend some days in

salmon fishing on the Blackwater.

On Saturday night the party drove

to the fishing lodge at Kilbarry. Here

they found a number of armed men,

who made them prisoners and drove

away with them in motor cars in the

direction of Cork City. At Clykeel

Colonel Danford was wounded while

trying to escape, and Colonel Tyrrell

released to attend to him. It is

understood that his wounds are not

so serious as was at first reported. In

Fermoy soldiers who were infuriated

by the capture of General Lucas and

the other officers turned out last

night and wrecked a number of

houses. Nearly 400 soldiers were

engaged, and there was looting.

It is true that two persons are

needed to make a quarrel, but

England cannot continue to ignore

the fact that a large body of Irish

extremists insist on being at war

with her. The Government may take

the situation philosophically, but

such patience cannot be expected

from the immediate victims of this

one-sided war in Ireland. It is not

fair to soldiers to expose them to

humiliating disarmament in a

technically peaceful land. The theory

that British officers can go fishing

with impunity in a hostile country

has become untenable. The danger

now is that if the Republican

movement insists on a state of war

which the British Government

repudiates, the troops in Ireland,

being after all ordinary men, may be

tempted to take the law into their

own hands. The outlook fills

moderate Irishmen with alarm. They

realize that if matters are not to drift

from bad to worse two things must

be done. Sinn Fein must abandon

the guerrilla warfare and bestir itself

to denounce political crime. The

Government must accept the now

obvious fact that the present Home

Rule Bill never will settle, but can

only aggravate, the Irish problem.

Trouble in pipeline

Sir, Alarm bells are ringing at the news
that the government is to spend
significant sums of taxpayers’ money
on a damaging gas extraction project
in Mozambique. (“PM gives nod to
African gas pipeline”, Jun 27). The UK
parliament has declared a climate
emergency. We have a responsibility to
do everything we can to address it and
we are not free of obligation just
because high- emission projects are
not in the UK. It flies in the face of the
Paris agreement to be supporting such
schemes and not considering the
impact of the UK’s actions overseas.
The Committee on Climate Change
has concluded that the UK’s export
finance is not aligned with our climate
goals. Friends of the Earth is actively
scrutinising this announcement with a
view to challenging it if we consider it
unlawful. As hosts of the UN climate
talks next year the UK has an
opportunity to set a precedent for
what real global action on the climate
and nature emergencies looks like.
Will Rundle, Head of legal,
Friends of the Earth