36 2GM Saturday November 14 2020 | the times
Letters to the Editor
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1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GFgovernment’s presentation is in such a
mess. As you say in your leading
article, Boris Johnson needs to reset
his government. He should have
sacked Dominic Cummings before he
resigned, to show who’s boss. Here is
my suggested agenda for action this
day: the prime minister should cancel
the unconstitutional appointment of
Allegra Stratton as his White House-
style televised press briefer (this is a
parliamentary democracy, not an
executive presidency); tell his warring
ladies to cool it; restore genuine
cabinet government; and rise to the
most formidable challenge faced by a
postwar government, that of fighting
Covid-19, as well as sorting out Brexit,
NHS administration and restoring the
economy. If he does not do this the
nation will feel he is not fit for purpose.
Sir Bernard Ingham
Chief press secretary to Margaret
Thatcher 1979-90; Purley, SurreySir, Dominic Cummings’s reported
departure offers a chance to reset the
government, as your leading article
points out. However, his legacy will
live on, not just through the Brexit
and parliamentary majority that he
helped to achieve for the prime
minister but also through the toxic
working environment that he helpedSir, Those who doubt that Hilary
McGrady (“National Trust told to
learn from slave row”, Nov 12) is on a
mission to lead the National Trust
away from its core purpose of looking
after the buildings and land placed in
its care need only read the autumn
edition of the trust’s magazine. In it
the director of volunteering,
participation and inclusion says: “At
the National Trust we have a duty to
play a part in creating a fairer, more
equitable society.” It is clear that the
National Trust Acts from 1907 place
no such duty on the trust. However,
the actions of the director-general and
her staff suggest they have this
ambition at the centre of their strategy.
The trust must not become a
vehicle for those endeavouring to use
it for social and political purposes.
The trustees have a responsibility to
ensure that the director-general and
her staff focus on the trust’s charitable
objects. If they fail to do that the
Charity Commission should step in
and do the job for them.
Dr Alan Hearne
Woodstock, OxonSir, The summer debacle of relying on
teacher assessment of A-level grades
highlights the folly of doing away with
all students taking an AS in their
subjects at the end of the first year. I
agree with Nick Hillman (letter, Nov
10) on predicted grades, and when the
AS innovation came in it was met with
relief by universities and by my
students. They too were able to assess
their relative standard of achievement
between their chosen subjects, plus the
standard of teaching they had received.
Yet another costly reorganisation of
university entrance and teaching years
is now being suggested to cope with
the uncertainty of teacher assessment.
A better solution would be to return to
an external AS assessment at the end
of the first year. The organisation for
setting and marking papers is already
in place and working well, so there
would be no extra expense. University
application would be straightforward
and the student could make a rational
choice as to the subjects.
Gillian Skelton
Ret’d A-level teacher and
examination marker, WorthingAttention please
Sir, Attention has been drawn (letters,
Nov 12 & 13) to Olivia Colman’s sloppy
salute in The Crown and to her
aiguilettes. That’s as nothing compared
with other errors. Colman appears to
be wearing a Welsh Guards cap badge
and plume but the collar badges on
her tunic are of the Grenadier Guards.
Moreover, her lightweight Garter star,
from the bottom of the dressing-up
box, looks nothing like the diamonds
and rubies of the real thing.
Philip R Grant
Formerly of The Cameronians
(Scottish Rifles); Enfield, Middxto create in government and the
cavalier approach that he adopted to
spending taxpayers’ money.
You reported one example
yesterday: the government has settled
the employment dispute with Sajid
Javid’s former special adviser Sonia
Khan for a “five-figure sum” to prevent
Cummings having to appear at an
employment tribunal. There have been
significant pay-offs to ousted
permanent secretaries. There are
other reports of contracts awarded to
companies connected to Vote Leave.
The prime minister needs a
personnel reset. But he — aided by his
new cabinet secretary — also needs a
process reset to make sure that the
necessary proprieties are observed.
Jill Rutter
Senior research fellow, UK in a
Changing EuropeSir, In criticising the probity of Tony
Blair, and by implication defending the
present PM, Tom Bower (letter, Nov
13) asks: “Where are the equivalents in
Mr Johnson’s mendacity?”
It would be interesting to know
where Mr Bower places Mr Johnson’s
“£350m per week for the NHS” claim
on his sliding scale of falsehoods.
Jill Holden
Radlett, HertsSt Paul’s pantheons
Sir, Apropos the fracas over the
monuments in St Paul’s (letters, Nov
11, 12 & 13), the research project
conducted by the University of York
in partnership with the cathedral is a
sustained scholarly exploration from
every angle (historical and aesthetic)
of one of the most significant
collections of 19th-century funerary
sculptures in existence anywhere in
the world. It is not in any way an
exercise in ideology or propaganda,
whether “woke” or otherwise. Anyone
interested should consult the project
website: “Pantheons: Sculpture at St
Paul’s Cathedral, c.1795-1918.”
Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn
Head of department, History of Art,
University of YorkSwitching direction
Sir, Matthew Parris (My week, Nov 11,
and letter, Nov 13) need worry less
about the word inflection as it is a
perfectly respectable mathematical
term. A point of inflection on a curve
locates any point where the curve
stops bending one way and starts
bending the other way.
Mathematically this would be from
clockwise to anticlockwise, or vice-
versa, but it does seem appropriate for
changes in government too.
Brian Clough
Northiam, E SussexCorrections and
clarifications
The Times takes
complaints
about editorial
content
seriously. We are committed to abiding
by the Independent Press Standards
Organisation rules and regulations and
the Editors’ Code of Practice that IPSO
enforces. Requests for corrections should
be sent to [email protected]
6 We wrongly said that Tobias Rustat
gave Jesus College Cambridge £1,000
in 1667 for books for its library (news,
Nov 13). This endowment was in fact
given to the University of Cambridge
for the University Library, and it is the
university, not Jesus College as we
stated, which is considering whether
to remove a statue of Rustat from one
of its buildings.
6 We stated (news, Nov 12) that there
have been more than 8,000 new
recruits to nursing in the past six
months, half of whom are nursing
associates. This was incorrect. The
Nursing and Midwifery Council’s
register has grown by 7,909 in this
period, with the number of nursing
associates rising by 1,014.
Addressing the turmoil in Downing Street
Sir, Your leading article (“Whitehall
Farce”, Nov 13) is right that Downing
Street desperately needs a serious
chief of staff. The blame for the
incompetence that has dogged the
government’s handling of the Covid
crisis and the Brexit negotiations over
the last year lies not with scientists
and diplomats but with No 10: it is
dysfunctional. The mistake was to try
to govern the country with the team
that brought us the Brexit campaign.
Campaigning and governing are very
different challenges and require
different skills. Setting up a parallel
structure of special advisers in
departments reporting to Dominic
Cummings and sidelining the civil
service was always bound to fail.
Government is far too complex for
such a centralised and amateurish
approach. For all our sakes, the prime
minister needs urgently to appoint a
grown-up who can get a grip and
restore a competent No 10.
Jonathan Powell
Downing Street chief of staff
1997-2007; London W6Sir, On the day that deaths from
Covid-19 topped 50,000 the
government — or the unelected cabal
running it — revealed its petty
squabbles. It is no wonder that theAccessible homes
Sir, With a second nationwide
lockdown we are again spending most
of our time inside our homes. But for
many people, their homes limit what
they can do, who they can see, and in
some cases are even a danger to their
health. Fewer than one in ten homes
are suitable for people with mobility
issues. However, we have an
opportunity to change this and build
the homes that we desperately need.
The government is consulting on
plans to update a higher accessibility
standard for all new homes in
England. With an ageing population,
and thousands of disabled people
already struggling to get suitable
housing, this update is long overdue.
As the Housing Made for Everyone
coalition we urge the government to
make the “accessible and adaptable”
M4(2) design standard, as proposed in
the consultation, the mandatory
baseline for all new homes as
soon as possible. Further delay will
entail yet more expense for
individuals and taxpayers.
Anna Dixon, Centre for Ageing
Better; Sheron Carter, Habinteg
Housing; Steph Harland, Age UK;
Sue Adams, Care & Repair England;
Gavin Smart, Chartered Institute of
Housing; Kamran Mallick, Disability
Rights UK; Kate Henderson,
National Housing Federation; Alan M
Jones, Royal Institute of British
Architects; Fiona Howie, Town and
Country Planning Association
In which we Trust University entrance
Gutless Guinness
Sir, Sean O’Neill (Thunderer, Nov 13)
laments the introduction of alcohol-
free Guinness, but it could have its
advantages. Years ago, after downing
three pints of Guinness on an empty
stomach, I awoke the next day to find
that I had a mild hangover and a
fiancée. The hangover soon went but
the fiancée lasted a considerable time.
Alan Blackwood
Stalybridge, Greater Manchester
from the times november 14, 1920FAT PIGEONS
AND
HUNGRY GULLS
Welsh education
Sir, Further to Jawad Iqbal’s Thunderer
(“Cancelling exams in Wales disguises
its real problems”, Nov 12), he seems
unaware that Wales has outperformed
the rest of the UK for top A-level
results two years in a row. We now
punch above our weight on Oxbridge
admissions, with a 55 per cent increase
in state school admissions to Oxford.
This is down to our Seren programme,
which supports our brightest students.
This scheme also means that Wales
has more pupils at Yale’s prestigious
summer school than any other non-
US region or nation. We have also
transformed our GCSE science
performance, focusing in particular on
our less well-off learners.
Mr Iqbal mentions work by the
Education Policy Institute on
disadvantaged students but overlooks
its findings that Wales was in a better
position than the other UK nations in
how we planned and delivered free
school meals during the pandemic,
and that we expanded access to
digital devices at the same time.
Kirsty Williams
Education minister, Welsh governmentthetimes.co.uk/archiveStonehenge tunnel
Sir, The go-ahead for the Stonehenge
road tunnel is to be welcomed, if not
celebrated, as an effective
compromise to a problem with no
perfect solution (News, Nov 13). The
route that became the A303 was
created in the 1760s. Until now the
response to traffic growth has been
accommodation, notably in the 1960s,
when part of the road was dualled
within sight of the stones and across
the ancient Avenue.
The tunnel will hide most of this
road, opening up the World Heritage
Site with transformative possibilities
for experiencing and understanding it.
The construction of the tunnel will
come after substantial archaeological
excavations that will improve our
knowledge of the Neolithic world.
Thus we will be honouring Stonehenge
by recognising it not just as a great
antiquity but also as a monument in a
modern landscape which we can, with
the ambition of this new scheme, care
for and enhance.
Mike Pitts
Stonehenge archaeologist and author
of Digging up Britain; MarlboroughPlenty of parakeets
Sir, Parakeets (letter, Nov 13) fly over
us in formation making an earsplitting
racket, so I call them a “squadron”.
Matthew Hudson
Stoneleigh, SurreyIt seems a paradox, but at this
season the country naturalist has
cause to envy the Londoner his
opportunities of watching wild life.
One need not even go beyond the
City’s limits to observe interesting
wild birds at close quarters, for by a
natural rule of inversion, those kinds
which are wariest in the country are
most ready to appreciate the fact
that in cities men do not carry guns.
A striking example of this may be
seen in any of the parks, where wild
woodpigeons — so difficult to decoy
within gunshot in their native woods
— have forgotten their natural fearof man, and waddle happily about
crowded pathways, hardly troubling
to move out of the way of even a
policeman’s feet. Living mostly on
crumbs dropped by office boys and
girls lunching on the seats, the
woodpigeons become amazingly fat,
and their chief annoyance in life
seems to be the superior agility of
the grey squirrels and sparrows that
compete with them. But the most
spectacular wild bird sight in the
City of London is the multitude of
black-headed gulls (white-headed in
winter, by the way) that come
annually now to the Thames
between the bridges, and throng the
Embankment. It is fascinating to
watch the gulls, hastening together
from all quarters and competing for
scraps thrown over the water,
catching morsels in mid-air, noisily
wrangling and chasing those which
have caught bits too large to swallow
at once. Country bird-lovers in many
inland districts would go far to seegulls in such numbers, and so tame
that they may even perch on a man’s
shoulder while he fumbles in his
paper bag for crumbs. Yet they are
genuinely wild birds, leaving us in
spring for the distant marshes where
they breed. It is only lately that
London has become a recognized
winter resort of the black-headed
gull. Nearly 40 years ago, during
hard weather in autumn, eight gulls
surprised London by coming boldly
up the river and making their
headquarters in St James’s Park,
where multitudes of people went
daily to see and feed them. They
evidently approved of London, for
next winter they returned, bringing a
number of friends and relations.
Since then their numbers have risen
each year and “feeding the gulls” has
become a favourite winter pastime
with Londoners, young and old.