28 1GM Wednesday October 14 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 9GFTreasury, and millions of families on
low incomes, find themselves. Equally
clear is the evidence offered by food
banks: the temporary £20 weekly
boost in universal credit has protected
large numbers of people from hunger
and, if we are to prevent food banks
from being overwhelmed, it needs to
be maintained beyond next March.
On the eve of the pandemic the
very poorest households were the
only ones in Britain to have suffered a
reduction in disposable income since- Many more households are now
seeking help from the benefits system,
often for the first time in their lives.
Three urgent moves are needed: the
temporary uplift in universal credit
needs to be made permanent;
contributory benefits need to be
increased; and official calculations
need to be published annually on the
benefit rates that are required to
protect people from destitution.
Lord Field of Birkenhead, trustee,
Andrew Forsey, director,
Feeding Britain
Sir, Portraying how to manage
coronavirus as a balance between
health and the economy is
disingenuous (“Troubling Stand-Off”,
leading article, and reports, Oct 13).The law is an ass
Sir, Professor Nigel Biggar’s article
(“Judges are making an ass of human
rights law”, Comment, Oct 12) comes
as a breath of fresh air. But to
conclude that the government is
aiming at the wrong target in seeking
to change the Human Rights Act and
the European Convention on Human
Rights when it should be targeting
the judges is surely the wrong
conclusion. For if the law permits the
judges to come to unrealistic and
impracticable conclusions then it
must, in the first instance, be the law
that needs changing.
Sir Ivan Lawrence, QC
Visiting professor of law,
University of BuckinghamAs a doctors we are taught that every
social change has health implications
with poverty and unemployment
being among the most devastating,
affecting not just mental wellbeing
but physical health as well. Any
policy to slow the transmission of
Covid-19 causes, as an inevitable
consequence, an increase in poverty
and unemployment.
Anthony Cohn
Consultant paediatrician, London
NW4Sir, Lucinda Laurence (letter, Oct 13 )
is wrong to claim that Sweden has
achieved herd immunity. To do this at
least 90 per cent of the population
would need to have been infected or
immunised. In May, according to the
Journal of the Royal Society of
Medicine, Sweden reported 15 per cent
Covid-19 prevalence.
I have long disliked the term “herd
immunity”, as I found that parents
associated it with cows, guinea pigs
and animal experiments. Large
numbers of people are hordes, not
herds. Community immunity is a
much better term.
Denis Gill
Ret’d professor of paediatrics,
Dun Laoghaire, DublinHonour Sentamu
Sir, In August 2004 David Hope
announced he would be stepping
down as Archbishop of York, and
before he even left office six months
later he had been made a life peer, as
all his modern predecessors had on
retirement. After a lifetime of public
service and leadership, culminating in
15 years as Archbishop of York, John
Sentamu retired in June. Honours
lists have come and gone since, the
most recent last weekend (report, Oct
10), and yet he has not been made a
peer or given any other honour. Why?
It is hard to see why someone who
has led debate in the public sphere
over poverty and injustice in this
country and abroad (notably in
Zimbabwe) should be denied a place
in the Lords. Sentamu was our first
black archbishop and is the first not
to be honoured on retirement. In the
year of Black Lives Matter, this is
surely inexcusable.
Ben Fuller
Easingwold, N YorksRuthless Rafa
Sir, In his assessment of the merits of
the three tennis greats Federer, Nadal
and Djokovic, Matthew Syed (Sport,
Oct 12) cites the aesthetic and artistic
qualities of Federer. In terms of a
player’s stature in the game I believe
these factors are irrelevant. Nadal
combines raw ability, tenaciousness
and an extraordinary will to win with
sublime powers of touch and
invention. Serious injuries forced him
to miss many majors, but for which he
would undoubtedly have surpassed
Federer’s total. For me, Rafa will
always be the greatest.
John Karter
Hampton Wick, RichmondCorrections and
clarifications
6 Sir Roy Anderson is not a member
of the government’s Scientific Advisory
Group for Emergencies (Sage), as we
wrongly stated (Times 2, Oct 13).
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Feedback, The Times, 1 London Bridge
Street, London SE1 9GF
Impact of impending cut in universal credit
Sir, Further to Rachel Sylvester’s
insightful article, “Red Wall Tories
want a U-turn from Johnson” (Oct 13),
which was illustrated by a picture of
Blackpool Tower, the two
constituencies covering the town are
the two most deprived held by my
party. I am well aware of how hard the
pandemic has been for many of my
constituents. A town with a proud
record of tourism and hospitality has
been shaken to its core by the
restrictions of recent months, and the
financial resilience of many residents
has already been exhausted. I know
from Joseph Rowntree Foundation
research that some 75 per cent of
those benefiting from the £20
temporary boost in universal credit
said that it had helped to ease the
financial pressure they were under.
Keeping that £20 uplift in universal
credit, while not a panacea in itself, is
vital for those who have suffered most.
Paul Maynard
Conservative MP for Blackpool North
& CleveleysSir, Paul Johnson (“Covid gives us the
chance to choose how generous
benefits should be”, Business, Oct 12)
offers a clear description of the rocks
and hard places between which theUK fishing rights
Sir, If past fishery problems are an
indication, failure to reach a
satisfactory settlement of a fishing
agreement with the EU will lead to
intermittent skirmishes between
fishing fleets (“Threat of no-deal
Brexit grows as France digs in over
fishing rights”, Oct 12). However, it is
the knock-on effects on cross-
Channel journeys that could become
a problem. Coupled with post-Brexit
customs problems, the operation of
just-in-time supply chains could well
be jeopardised. Fisheries could end up
being just an excuse for a wider
expression of dissatisfaction with a
Brexit settlement of any hue.
John Garstang
Rampton, CambsSir, The French fishing minister has
laid out her red lines: “Access to
fishing grounds, quotas and the species
that we fish today.” This resembles the
UK’s red line over access to the single
market. Our response should be the
same: “You can have access but you
will have to pay for it.”
Seb Marr
Chippenham, WiltsAssisted dying poll
Sir, Professor Baroness Finlay of
Llandaff (letter, Oct 10) notes that
the BMA’s poll “may suggest” that
doctors support a change in the law
to enable assisted dying but that a
majority would not be willing to
prescribe lethal drugs for terminally
ill patients. She adds that doctors
who are now in practice are more
opposed than those members,
students and the retired, “who are
not licensed to practise”. This is a
misleading distinction as retired
doctors are likely as a group to have
had more experience than who are at
present in practice.
A reluctance to prescribe is
understandable but ought not to be
the deciding factor in a matter of
principle. Where is the patient in all
this? It is not simply a question of
assisting people to take their own lives.
The Hippocratic Oath requires
doctors to do nothing that would harm
the patient, but sometimes “nothing”
is what it would be kindest to do. My
late husband, a retired doctor, endured
treatment that he knew to be
pointless, and suffered great pain and
appalling indignities in his final weeks
last year. He wished that the doctors
would let him go quietly but knew
how unlikely that was. A change in the
law would release both doctor and
patient from a situation that is illogical
and inhumane.
Emeritus Professor Norma Rinsler
Former vice-principal, King’s College
London; London NW8
Crucible of culture
Sir, Max Hastings’s Notebook (Oct 12)
reminded me of a saying at the Nato
defence college I attended in the
1980s. It held that while the United
States contributed overwhelming
military power, the Germans great
ground force on the central front, the
British great diplomatic skill and
some naval power (at that time), the
Italians provided the culture that we
were there to defend.
David Gould
Former deputy CEO, Defence
Procurement Agency
Sir, I disagree with Roger Crouch
(letter, Oct 13) about his sugar-
encrusted bottle of limoncello. The
only way to imbibe limoncello is
poured over ice cream.
Katharine Minchin
Easebourne, W Sussex
from the times october 14, 1920
THE
MARRIAGE OF
THE PRINCE
Covid vaccination
Sir, Clare Foges (Comment, Oct 12,
and letters, Oct 13) is probably right
about the increasing level of
scepticism about vaccination. There
is, however, an easy answer. When we
have developed a safe, effective
vaccine and administered it to as
many people as possible so as to reach
herd immunity, access to public
spaces, events and transport, etc
should be made conditional upon
proof of vaccination. Anyone without
such proof, home or abroad, should
be refused admission. Vaccine deniers
will then be free to vent their
misguided opinions in glorious
perpetual social isolation.
Dr John Orchard
Youlgrave, BakewellSir, Sam Bowman, a director of
competition policy, rather oddly
suggests paying people a flat rate of
£200 to have a Covid vaccination
(Thunderer, Oct 13) instead of a more
market-related pricing approach. The
estimated cost to taxpayers of
£17 billion is eye-watering. Perhaps
this argument is upside down. Given
that vaccination is meant to helpeverybody, people who refuse to be
vaccinated could have to pay an
additional element of income tax as
an insurance premium against their
needs for future treatment.
Anthony J Berry
Emeritus professor of management
control, Stockportthetimes.co.uk/archive
Robotic endoscope
Sir, It is impressive that an Italian
professor has developed a self-driving
colonoscope (“Magnet to help robot
carry out colon checkup”, Oct 13) but I
wonder if it is a continental model: in
the accompanying diagram the
patient’s appendix is on the wrong side.
Dr Jo Deverill
Eumundi, Queensland, AustraliaMozart’s dice
Sir, Edward Chilvers (“Pianist follows
Mozart with a creative roll of the
dice”, Oct 13) might care to reflect
that his “revolutionary” idea of
polytempo that “will change the
world” was anticipated by Mozart
himself, in the ball scene near the end
of Act I of Don Giovanni (1787): three
separate orchestras combine to
superimpose time signatures of 2/4
and 3/8 upon an underlying 3/4. As
Chilvers says: “It pulls the mind [and
the dancers] in all sorts of directions.”
Nicholas Marston
Professor of music theory and
analysis, University of CambridgeLetters to The Times must be exclusive
and may be edited. Please include a full
address and daytime telephone number.The keenest public interest centres
round the Prince of Wales, and
though there is the strongest desire
to respect his privacy, the public
watch him with almost parental
anxiety. Everywhere fervent wishes
for his health and prosperity are the
staple of conversation. It would be
strange if the topic of his marriage
were not very often on the lips and
near to the hearts of his countrymen
and countrywomen. He is 26, and
the marriage of the Prince of Wales
is inevitably a matter of deep public
concern. We desire to speak of it
with proper reticence, expressing,within these bounds, what we
believe to be the real anxiety of the
country that he should make a wise
choice. The war, in this as in most
other things, has, we believe,
wrought a great change in public
opinion, which — here and
elsewhere in the Empire — would,
we are convinced, be strongly averse
from the thought that there should
be any compulsion upon the Prince
of Wales to make a marriage of
policy. For him, within the
comparatively narrow limits that his
position must impose upon him, the
British peoples would wish a
marriage of true happiness; and this,
it is our way to believe, means a
marriage of inclination. It follows
naturally that the hope for him is
that his wife may be one of his own
race; for, though there have been
fortunate exceptions, it is certainly
true that marriages of policy with
Princesses of foreign birth have not
always had the primary condition forhappiness. Farther than to give
expression to this national wish for
the Prince we shall not go, adding
only that we doubt whether there is
now the need that there may have
been before the war to limit the
choice of the Prince to the circle of
the Blood Royal.
6 hunting prospects
The hunting season promises to
open on November 1 in a manner
reassuring to those who had been
inclined to take a gloomy view, and
there are no signs that, in spite of
enormously advanced prices and
other difficulties, society on the
whole is likely to desert the shires.
In the Pytchley country, where the
Prince of Wales will frequently be
seen, Sir Charles Frederick, who is
Master for the second season, and
Lady Frederick will be at Lamport
Grange, Northampton.It’s my party
Sir, Dominic Maxwell (Times2, Oct
13), in his appraisal of Mike Leigh’s
classic play Abigail’s Party, zones in on
some of its jokes about middle-class
and lower-middle-class living: “Well-
spoken neighbour Sue brings round a
bottle of red wine; Beverly promptly
sticks it in the fridge.” But the wine is
a Beaujolais — and therefore that is a
perfectly proper thing to do with it.
Joseph Connolly
London NW3