26 1GM Friday August 7 2020 | the times
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor should be sent to
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1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GFSir, Alice Thomson is right.
Universities must offer students a new
deal or, as the dean of a London
university said, “many will quit before
they have to pay the year’s fees and
then some universities will go bust”.
Before the pandemic, students were
given reduced contact time and poor
pastoral care and were treated as cash
cows. The universities invested in
swathes of accommodation for the
vast numbers of overseas students on
whom they built their budgets. Now
universities are having to cut those
budgets by making redundancies in
support staff while retaining lecturers
who have been labelled by some
students as unsatisfactory. New
students will vote with their feet. A
better deal is imperative or, for some
universities, it will be no deal at all.
Janice Ketley
Englefield Green, SurreySir, In her article Alice Thomson
writes that “most academics have
done little lecturing or tutoring since
March”. For the University of
Buckingham this is not the case. As
we have a four-term year, we have
already taught a full programme
online for a term and a half since the
lockdown began. Our teachingShunning the office
Sir, Iain Duncan Smith says the
“nonsense” of so few civil servants
having returned to their offices has to
stop. I wonder if he has experienced
travel on public transport recently.
When travelling on the London
Underground I have seen many
people not wearing masks or covering
only their mouth with their mask, not
their nose. There appears to be no
enforcement of the law. If civil
servants can work effectively from
home, they should.
Edward Bacon
Harrowcontinues throughout the summer.
We have also held a full examination
schedule. We are in touch with all our
students, many of whom are now
abroad, and provide what we have
been told is an exemplary degree of
support. Our Buckingham campus is
now partially reopened, and we
intend to resume some Covid-secure
face-to-face teaching when our
autumn term begins, for both new
and returning students.
Professor James Tooley,
vice-chancellor designate, and
JR Shackleton, professor of
economics, University of BuckinghamSir, Alice Thomson is correct to point
out that universities should increase
their focus on small group teaching.
As an undergraduate at a university
that places much emphasis on small
group/tutorial teaching, I’ve found
that there’s no better way of exploring
a topic or assessing your
understanding of a concept than via
an in-depth discussion with an
academic. The only caveat is that
these sessions can be less enjoyable if
you’re nursing a hangover.
Matthew Peach
Biochemistry undergraduate,
Pembroke College, OxfordForget poetry,
what about film?
Sir, Libby Purves (“Pupils who avoid
poetry will lose out in the long run”,
Aug 5) and John Sutherland (letter,
Aug 5) both express concern at the
ability of schools to opt out of
teaching poetry (except via a
Shakespeare play) at GCSE. Reading
the summary of the syllabus I am
personally much more concerned at
its failure to come into the 21st or even
the 20th century. Apparently children
can study Shakespeare, a 19th-century
novel, and a modern novel and a play.
They are not allowed to study a film.
This is despite more than 100 years of
films, which in the past 50 years at
least have been as major a contributor
to our culture as contemporary poetry
or novels. Why is there such a
reactionary prejudice among the
academics who set literature courses
at schools and colleges?
Robert Keys
Danbury, EssexSir, I agee with Libby Purves. Here’s a
radical idea, a compromise perhaps:
English teachers could read poems
with their GCSE classes without
students having to answer poetry
questions in their examinations.
Carolyn Simon
London NW11Appetite for gout
Sir, As a long-term sufferer from gout
I can confirm how painful it is (“Gout
on rise in modern age of lusty
appetites”, and leading article, Aug 6).
However, I have taken a certain
comfort from the fact that it puts me
in the company of three of my great
heroes: Michelangelo, Galileo and
John Milton.
Tony Phillips
Chalfont St Giles, BucksMissing letter
Sir, Michael Davison’s letter (“Missing
eyboard ey”, Aug 5) reminded me of
James Thurber’s story for children,
The Wonderful O, where the use of
the letter “o” is banned on the island
of Ooroo. This meant that a man
named Otto Ott could henceforth
only stutter and Ophelia Oliver spoke
her name and “vanished from the
haunts of men”.
Terri Green
Langley, WarksEnigmatic smile
Sir, The saying goes, courtesy of the
film Alien, that “in Space, no one can
hear you scream”. Well, in the
supermarket no one can see you
smile. We need a convention to reveal
the smile behind a mask. I suggest
two fingers pointing to the corner of
your mouth when you smile.
Richard Towers
ReadingCorrections and
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Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF
Planning shake-up
Sir, If the government thinks its
proposals will mean more houses
being built it is delusional (“Red tape
to be slashed in planning revolution”,
Aug 6). Speeding up planning
decisions may be a good idea but it
will not increase the capacity to build
new houses or the ability of
prospective purchasers to buy them,
which will always be limited by the
availability of mortgages. What it will
do is provide the large housebuilders
with stronger cash flows with less
money tied up in land. Increasing the
number of new-build homes will be
achieved only by a government-led
and funded building programme and a
massive investment in apprenticeship
training to increase building capacity.
Relying on the private sector and
housing associations has proved to be
a failed model.
Neil Davidson
Former non-executive director of
Persimmon; Woodhouse Eaves, Leics
Sir, The rhetoric suggests that
planning will change overnight but as
the white paper acknowledges on
page 38: “We would expect new Local
Plans to be in place by the end of the
parliament” (December 2024). This is
because consultation will take place
until October 29, then parliamentary
space has to be found for the
legislation next year, and then 30
months are allocated for local
authorities to produce the plans.
The reality, however, is that
planning is not the cause of failure in
house building numbers. Ninety per
cent of planning applications are
permitted and housebuilders are
sitting on 1,000,000 permissions —
enough for four years of building at
the present rate of 240,000 a year.
Andrew Gilg
Author of Planning in Britain
Sir, The need to reform planning
legislation is overdue but consideration
must be given to the lack of education
and training across the whole of a
construction industry charged with
implementing the government’s “build,
build, build” strategy. To date the
Grenfell Tower inquiry has shone a
light on an industry where profit takes
precedence while the ability to
understand and construct ever more
complex buildings diminishes through
a lack of qualifications and training.
The reforms must include a
meaningful role for good design and a
recognition that any such policy needs
qualified architects leading a design
team that is not treated as yet
another subcontractor.
John Myers
East Molesey, Surrey
Universities and the need for fresh thinking
Sir, Alice Thomson challenges
universities to rethink how they
educate students (“Universities must
offer students a new deal”, Aug 5).
They already have. The Quality
Assurance Agency for Higher
Education has worked extensively to
support universities in changing their
provision for the new academic year.
A blend of well-designed digital
learning and face-to-face teaching
that makes the most of the available
space is going to be the norm at
universities from the autumn.
These changes are set to outlast the
pandemic and are already having
benefits: eg, students who were
quieter in the lecture theatre are more
confident with online delivery, and
students with caring responsibilities
or certain health conditions can also
thrive with a more flexible way of
doing things. For the time being, this
will not bring back all the wider social
experiences that people look forward
to at university. But universities and
colleges are working hard to ensure
that high-quality teaching, wellbeing
support and social activities can take
place safely on and off campus.
Vicki Stott
Deputy CEO, Quality Assurance
Agency for Higher EducationLords reform
Sir, David Aaronovitch (“How low
can we go in packing the Lords?”, Aug
6) rightly excoriates the government
for packing the House of Lords with
further unworthies, including an
apparently unreconstructed Marxist
IRA apologist and the PM’s chum and
annual holiday host. I do, however,
take offence at Mr Aaronovitch’s
description of “us” as “saps” for
putting up with it. Not only has the
PM gone against his oft-repeated
wish to reduce the size, expense and
sheer unwieldiness of the Lords, he
has, more damagingly, reminded us of
the naked duplicity of politicians
who will say anything to achieve
election but who, once elected,
choose to ignore it all in the interests
of the party, the “system” or their
own agenda.
Tony Adams
Deal, Kentfrom the times august 7, 1920A TAME
GORILLA AT
THE ZOO
This crowded isle
Sir, Dr Anton Borg (letter, Aug 6)
seeks to reassure us that “at present
rates it will take a century or two forthe UK’s population density to match
that of Malta or Luxembourg”. This
may be correct in respect of the
former, but Luxembourg? At about
700 people per square mile the UK’s
population density is already well
ahead of Luxembourg’s (c. 600).
More importantly, the UK’s
population density is highly uneven.
Looking at areas in the southeast of
England of roughly the same size as
Luxembourg we see that its density of
population is about half that of Kent’s
or a third of Surrey’s. It is this
excessively high density in particular
areas that is the real problem.
Dr Richard Aspin
London W4thetimes.co.uk/archivePaid-for TV licence
Sir, I am an 81-year-old widow who
has enjoyed the benefit of a free
television licence (report, Aug 5, and
letters, Aug 6) since 2005, when my
late husband reached the age of 75.
However, I have already completed a
direct debit mandate to pay for my
licence and am happy to do so
because I watch a good deal of
television, value the BBC and am
conscious that the country is facinghard times financially. I, and
pensioners like me, am fortunate in
being cushioned from economic
hardship and I am therefore ready to
play my small part. Many of my
friends support this view.
Carole Cunnell
Pontypool, TorfaenLetters to the Editor must be exclusive
to The Times and may be edited. Please
include a full address and daytime
telephone number.The tame young gorilla, “John”,
which was exhibited in the
Zoological Gardens last summer, has
resumed its visits and will be on view
in the large outer cage of the lion
house, nearest the South Gate, on
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
when the weather is fine. It is a
young male, the property of a flying
officer, and is in the charge of Mme
Alyse, of Sloane Street. Its owners
have treated it as much as possible
like a human child, and it is a
testimony to their care that it has
remained in good health for two
winters. Gorillas are delicate animalsin this country, and very few of the
importations have lived more than a
month or two. They require careful
management in other respects, as
their temper is capricious, and they
can use their teeth as well as their
hands and feet with effect. “John”
has grown several inches since last
year. He is docile with the lady who
looks after him, but has made
trouble for more than one of the boy
playmates that have been provided
for him. No attempt fortunately is
made to teach him “tricks” or to turn
him into a performing animal, but
his intelligence is developing quickly,
and some of his spontaneous
performances are remarkable.
There is little difficulty and no
cruelty is necessarily involved in
training young anthropoid apes to
perform the tricks sometimes seen
on the public stage, and occasionally
they will act in ways showing much
more intelligence than is required
for riding a bicycle, putting onclothes, or using table utensils. The
objection to the public performances
of trained animals, particularly the
higher animals, is that punctuality is
a condition of professional success.
When the time for the “turn” comes,
the animal must be ready to perform
at once, and must not disappoint by
unwillingness. Chimpanzees and
gorillas are uncertain and “moody,”
and sometimes will do nothing but
sulk. Cruel methods are apt to be
employed, not in training them, but
in forcing them to do tricks exactly
when their trainers command.
Last week three van-loads of
animals went to New York by the
Atlantic transport Minnesota, in
charge of Keeper Bailey, of the
Western Aviary. They included a
panda, a penguin and three Greater
Black-backed gulls, the gift of the
London Society to New York.Insipid cup of tea
Sir, On the subject of a good cup of
tea (Hilary Rose, Notebook, Aug 6),
I’ve never understood why Americans
tend to shun the electric kettle. On an
extended stay in New York once I
searched for one and eventually a
retailer finally twigged what I was
talking about and located one on a
top shelf: a strange-looking, round,
squat thing labelled a “Hot Pot”.
Where I come from that means a
very different thing.
John Moysen
London SE21