28 1GM Saturday August 1 2020 | the times
Letters to the Editor
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1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GFUK has a bright and exciting future.
Hastings overlooks the fundamental
imperative of Britain producing its
own food and the fact that the beauty
and biodiversity of our countryside
can exist in harmony with high-tech,
productive and sustainable farming
provided that we are innovative and
prepared to invest.
Far from speculating in the
countryside, I have sought to add
value by investing £110 million into
the infrastructure of our soil,
drainage, biodiversity and ecology,
using technology and research to
improve yields as well as to reduce
reliance on fertilisers and pesticides.
We are creating a sustainable
business model for our farms that
relies less on subsidy while also
becoming one of the first large farms
in Britain to be carbon-neutral.
If this is a tax dodge, as Hastings
claims, there must be cheaper and
easier ways of achieving that particular
aim. British farming can be successful
and sustainable but that takes vision
and investment. That is what my
farming venture is all about and I
know that there are many others in
British farming on the same journey.
Sir James Dyson, OM
Founder and chairman, Dyson LtdCycling essential
Sir, The use of a bell (letter, Jul 31)
makes sense but there is another
accessory, rarely seen on bikes, that I
have used for 30 years, a small, easily
fitted attachment that I use about
four times a minute: a rear view
mirror. I cannot imagine cycling
without one. It gives me an instant
warning of what is behind me when I
need to deviate slightly to avoid
potholes or make a right turn.
Jasper Stevens
BrightonCutting the cabinet
down to size
Sir, Jack Straw (letter, Jul 30) writes
that the cabinet should be reduced in
size to 15 or so. I think that it needs to
be cut far more. I served in Margaret
Thatcher’s cabinet for five years: we
were 21 in number and the only
others in the room were the cabinet
secretary and two official notetakers.
We addressed each other by our job
title, thereby continually reminding
ourselves why we were there.
Twenty-one years later I found
myself sitting in cabinet occasionally
during the coalition when I was the
prime minister’s enterprise adviser.
We were now 33 in number, 36 with
officials, and addressed each other by
our first name. But that was not all.
Crowding the room, perched on any
chair available, were 20 or more
spectators who had the right to listen.
It was a cabinet no more but a public
meeting and any chance of a frank
and meaningful discussion had gone.
Lord Young of Graffham
House of LordsSir, Clearly Max Hastings and I are of
similar vintage but I was the farmer’s
son who left school two days after my
15th birthday and the next day began
to work for my father on this farm.
Then there were four other families
employed, and for the potato harvest
in June up to 30 folk from the west
coast of Ireland arrived to help to lift
the crop. However, the past 60 years
have had a dramatic impact on the
social structure of our area. From four
other families here we now have one,
and from ten children for the school
bus now none. We do though have a
railway line (which was closed by
Dr Beeching in the 1950s) running
through our farm. Nearly all the
sidings where we loaded our potatoes
have been converted to caravan parks.
Most of the non-farm revenue
generated in the countryside is not by
the farmers. Many like me have some
areas of redundant land that could be
used by chalets or glamping pods but
we are frustrated by planners who
think some areas need to be protected
for “future generations”. Farmers
could and should be the nation’s park
keepers but some flexibility from
government would not go amiss.
John Duncan
Maybole, AyrshireWoeful presents
Sir, Imagine my delight when for my
birthday (letters, Jul 30 & 31), nine
days after our wedding, my husband
presented me with a toaster. I expect
some husbands will understand his
reasoning. The toaster didn’t last, but
the marriage has, miraculously, for
almost 54 years.
Avis Eaton
Tonbridge, KentSir, I recall an ITN reporter coming in
to the newsroom on Boxing Day in
the mid 1970s in a thoroughly dejected
mood. We asked him what the matter
was. He said his girlfriend hadn’t liked
the Christmas present he had bought
her. We asked him what it was. “Jump
leads for my car,” he replied.
John Suchet
London E14Ripe for picking
Sir, We have all enjoyed an abundance
of flowers in our gardens and in the
countryside this summer. There is now
a profusion of blackberries, some
(even in Yorkshire) already ripe in July.
Moira Allan
Wetherby, W YorksStore wars
Sir, Esther Walker’s dilemma about
whether to move from Ocado to
Amazon Fresh (Times2, Jul 30) shows
why the high street cannot survive.
When I drowsily awake in the middle
of the night to find my wife no longer
beside me my first reaction is to think
that she has despaired of my snoring.
Not at all. She is downstairs at two
in the morning booking her next slot
for her Tesco delivery.
Julian Bunkall
Buckland Newton, DorsetCorrections and
clarifications
6 We said (Comment, Jul 27) that
Stephen Lamonby “opined, with zero
evidence, that most Nigerians did not
have it in their DNA to be engineers”.
The statement quoted at his tribunal,
which he denies making, was that
most Africans did not have the
heritage in their DNA to be
engineers.
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by post to Feedback, The Times, 1
London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Blood cancer risks
Sir, Having blood cancer increases
your risk from the coronavirus by
more than almost any other health
condition, evidence confirmed in a
study published in Nature this month.
Yet when shielding ended yesterday
(August 16 in Wales), thousands of
people with blood cancer are now
expected to leave the protection of
their home and go back to work. Many
of them will be able to work from
home or practise social distancing in
their workplace. But for some (eg,
those working in factories, cafés and
schools) this will not be possible.
Hence as doctors we cannot advise
the people we care for to go back to
busy workplaces when they have
compromised immune systems that
put them at very high risk from the
virus. Yet some of these people risk
losing their jobs if they refuse to go
back, and so face an impossible choice
between their health and financial
security. This is not fair, and is why
we back Blood Cancer UK’s campaign
for the government to support the
small number of people with blood
cancer who cannot safely go back to
work by paying 80 per cent of their
salaries for the next three months.
Mhairi Copland, professor of
translational haematology, University
of Glasgow; Dr Christopher Fox,
consultant haematologist,
Nottingham University Hospitals
NHS Trust; Bertie Gottgens,
professor of molecular haematology,
University of Cambridge; Dr Steve
Knapper, clinical reader in
haematology, University of Cardiff;
Dr Kim Linton, honorary consultant
medical oncologist, Manchester
Cancer Centre; Dr Alastair
Whiteway, consultant haematologist,
North Bristol NHS Trust
Future of farming in a post-Brexit landscape
Sir, Max Hastings (“Farmers need to
be the nation’s park keepers”, Jul 30)
covers a range of issues but does not
mention the importance of food
security and value of food production.
Public support for British food is at a
record high, with 86 per cent of people
agreeing that British famers should
grow as much food as possible to
provide national food security. As the
Covid-19 crisis has shown, we need a
secure supply of food to flow to our
supermarket shelves from a farming
sector able to withstand volatility and
shocks in the marketplace.
Public investment in farming must
show a multifaceted return. It is vital
that we encourage entrepreneurial
businesses both large and small to
invest in the future of British food
production, so as to provide carbon-
neutral food, improve soil health and
grow much more of our own fruit and
vegetables. If we invest only in the
environment, then who pays for it and
where will we get our food from in the
future? The public purse simply
cannot afford a nation of park keepers.
Minette Batters
President, NFUSir, Unlike Max Hastings and the
Cassandras, I believe farming in theSir, The health secretary wants a shift
towards more telephone and video
consultations and suggests that all
consultations should be done this way
unless there is a compelling clinical
reason to be seen in person (report,
Jul 31). I find this extremely
disturbing. I have seen two cases of
“concealed pregnancy” in my career
as a GP. This is where a woman
presents late in pregnancy with
seemingly no idea she is pregnant, or
in deep psychological denial. In both
cases the history gave no clue as the
women had not realised they had
missed periods and the symptom was
mild intermittent abdominal pain and
indigestion. In both cases baggy
clothes concealed the eight-month
baby bump until she hopped up on
the examination couch. I was then
able to feel head, back and limbs of an
almost full-term baby.
If these consultations had occurred
by telephone or video, these women
would probably have been sent to buy
over-the-counter medications for
irritable bowel syndrome and then
had a shocking surprise when they
went into labour a few weeks later. IDoctor Zoom
could give hundreds of other
examples. We need all our senses as
doctors (well, perhaps not taste) as
well as the sixth sense: the gut feeling
that really only happens in person.
Rachel Turner, MRCGP
Overton, HantsSir, Your leading article (Jul 31)
suggests that Doctor Zoom is here to
stay, but please spare a thought for
Doctor Doom: bad news is very
difficult to give by phone or video but
may become the new normal.
Dr Mabs Chowdhury
Cardifffrom the times august 1, 1920GENERAL
LUCAS’S
ESCAPE
Funding social care
Sir, Deborah Brooker (letter, Jul 31)
states that her father’s care home
costs are £52,000 a year, willingly paid
from the proceeds of his house sale.
My father-in-law’s advanced dementia
care home costs £90,000 a year, again
paid for by his house sale. The reason
his charge is so high is that many
other residents are social care-funded.
The home would close if self-payers
did not cover the shortfall between
inadequate state funding and the
actual cost of care provision. I agree
that a fair proportion of costs can be
met from his estate but subsidising the
broken system is patently unfair and
unjust.
Dr Tom Ettling
Mount Hawke, Cornwallthetimes.co.uk/archiveBody language
Sir, You report (Jul 31) that the RHS is
now headed by a Weed. Was it
nominative determinism that decreed
that I should once have the privilege
of speaking to the annual conference
of burial and cremation authorities?
As I said in my opening remarks,
“This is the first time you have been
addressed by a body.”
The Rev Andrew Body
Ludlow, Shropshire
Air of knowledge
Sir, One autumn night at RAF
Brawdy I was in the control tower in
charge of the night-flying programme
(report, Jul 27, and letters, Jul 28 & 30)
when we received a complaint from a
lady who said the noise was adding to
the discomfort of her arthritis. I
sympathised but had to point out we
would shortly be launching the next
wave of sorties. She then asked why
we didn’t do square circuits “like we
used to do in the war”, as this would
take the landing Hunters well clear of
her house. Realising that I was in the
presence of a former Air Transport
Auxiliary “ferry” pilot, I conjured up
an approaching fog bank and
cancelled the final wave, which
delighted her. When we later became
firm friends I read with awe of the
30 types of fighters and bombers that
she had flown.
Mike Shaw
Solva, PembrokeshireBrigadier-General Lucas left the
military barracks at Tipperary
yesterday morning, on the Dublin
road. There is reason to believe that
if he makes the journey safely it will
not be long before he is in England.
His departure was marked by the
most comprehensive military display,
and about the streets careered
lorries mounting Lewis guns and full
of soldiers with rifles at the ready.
The general, who was in civilian
clothes and had others in mufti with
him, occupied a large touring car
with a strong bodyguard, while his
escort filled three lorries bristlingwith rifles and Lewis guns. These
precautions were probably necessary
as the buildings and trees
overlooking the barracks were
believed to be occupied by spies. The
troops in Tipperary were excusably
sore about the shooting of two of
their comrades, and their feelings
were vented in window smashing
last night. The thoroughness of the
Sinn Fein organization is
exemplified in the fact that whereas
General Lucas’s captors were able to
keep his whereabouts secret for
nearly two months his arrival in
Tipperary yesterday was known in
Cork by 3pm, though the news had
not reached Dublin via London till
late in the evening. Another
interesting commentary appears in
the advertising use made by Sinn
Fein of the general’s capture and the
complete secrecy, so far preserved,
by the authorities. Obviously, it was
desirable, in General Lucas’s own
interests, to cloak his intendedmovements in mystery, but a history
in other respects of his adventures
would serve much needed
propaganda purposes. The general
himself, though he confided some of
his experiences to friends, is said to
have requested secrecy. Official
reticence was carried to excess today
when four representatives of
reputable English and American
newspapers, including myself, made
a formal application for information
at Tipperary barracks and were met
with a refusal reinforced by a show
of bayonets. The order to turn out
the guard was tacitly concurred in by
an officer standing a few yards away,
to whom cards had been sent and it
was followed by a peremptory order
to leave the public highway outside
the gates. Comment on such an
incident is superfluous, and one can
only hope it is not typical.