The Observer (2022-01-09)

The Observer
46 09.01.22 Comment & Analysis

hate: an international celebrity

fl outing rules that others must

obey. Public opinion is infl amed

and Morrison is getting stuck

in. ‘Rules are rules,’ he says. He

should know. His rules isolated

Australia from the rest of the

world for the better part of

two years with a Zero Covid

strategy ... Th e fl aw was obvious

all along: what if vaccines never

off ered complete protection?”

Fraser Nelson

The Daily Mirror

‘Special treatment’

“ It’s been suggested Djokovic

may help his case by disclosing

his reasons for seeking a

medical exemption. A more

defi nitive answer on his fate is

expected when he appears for

his appeal hearing , with legions

eager to ensure tennis’ biggest

star doesn’t receive special

treatment.” Tom Sunderland

The Guardian

‘Uber tennis’

“ So, is he going to have that

man-made chemical injected

into his bicep, the one he

uses to dole out his hyper-

organic uber tennis? Th e

same substance unhealthy,

McNugget-quaffi ng people like

me and you keep telling him

is species-duty? No. No he’s

not.” Barney Ronay

The Times

‘Infected with Covid’

“ In June 2020, he organised a

series of exhibition matches

in Serbia and Croatia,

and invited some of the

world’s top tennis players

to participate. Th ey agreed

and several of them became

infected with Covid-19,

including Djokovic.”

Jawad Iqbal

This week’s issue

Real levelling up

means going local

Phillip Inman strikes exactly
the right note on the so-called
levelling-up agenda (“ It’s hard to
‘level up’ when No 10 is bearing
down on us ”, Business , last week ).
If Michael Gove and co focus on
structures rather than activity,
outputs and outcomes, levelling up
will struggle to get off the ground.
Let’s also accept that meaningful
activities, outputs and outcomes are
in any case hard to achieve, given
tough economic times, short-term
political life cycles and economic
and social inequities.
If funding is to be properly
channelled to relatively poor regions
and localities, a government with
less centralised control tendencies
would be welcome. Beyond cities
and regions with mayors , maybe
it’s time to trust local authorities
with regeneration activity and the
like. Central government could
require local plans, a reporting
process and some incentives or
curbs, depending on progress.
Even better, local people could have
some involvement through existing
consultation methods and citizen
assemblies could be tried out. This
approach might just stand a fi ghting
chance of making a real difference.
Steve West
Fordingbridge, Hampshire

Phillip Inman rightly draws
attention to the problems with
levelling up the north. Some of the
problems lie here in Oxford, where
donors seemingly queue up to fund
new establishments, leading to all
sorts of problems with affordable
housing and undesirable green-
belt development. Sometimes, the
investment is very much to the good
(there will be soon be millions more
invested in vaccinology, for example),
but the Oxford/Cambridge/London
research and development triangle
grows apace while universities
elsewhere often struggle to fi nd
funds. A combined government and
private enterprise initiative to divert
research money to, say, Bristol,
Birmingham and Sheffi eld would be
welcome, though I cannot see our
Oxford-based political establishment
agreeing to this, alas.
Don Manley
Oxford

insightful (“ Unisex school uniforms

come to Kerala. But some parents

aren’t happy... ”, World , last week ). It

was also instructive in illustrating

gender-based assumptions in

supposedly non-gendered thinking.

Why is it that “unisex” and “gender-

neutral” clothing is nearly always

based on what is worn traditionally

by boys/men? Obvious answers will

refer to the disinhibiting practicality

for girls and the need to disrupt

the tendency to equate power and

capability with items worn by boys.

Just as there is nothing inherently

male about trousers, there is

nothing inherently female about

a skirt or dress. Despite greater

sensitivities about gender fl uidity,

gender-neutral clothing is still

modelled on “male” norms. If we

conceive of unisex clothing in terms

of what girls must wear, and model

gender-neutral clothing on what

boys have worn, we should not be

surprised if our children learn a

lopsided message.

Paul McGilchrist

Colchester, Essex

The politics of Covid

In his interview with Robin

McKie, infectious diseases expert

Professor Mark Woolhouse makes

a valid public health observation

(“ Britain got it wrong on Covid:

long lockdown did more harm than

good, says scientist ”, News , last

week ). However, what is missing

is the political dimension of the

decision-making process. While it

was obvious in March 2020 that the

global public health machinery was

mobilised to combat the pandemic

it had prepared for, rather than the

one it was presented with, for the

UK government to have admitted

this would have shone a light on the

consequences of its policies over the

previous 10 years.

Care homes should have been

fortifi ed, with enough skilled staff

to safeguard residents. To have done

so would have laid bare the working

conditions, low pay and zero-hours

contracts that facilitated the spread

of Covid among those least able

to cope. Infected patients were

returned to care homes because the

NHS had been so poorly funded that

there was no slack in the system.

David Hoare

Kingston, Lewes, Sussex

Eleven years of council cuts

Anne McElvoy’s interesting piece

on Keir Starmer omits any reference

to local government, which has

suffered signifi cantly over the last 11

years and faces more cuts (“ Starmer

is making headway, but has he

got enough to worry the Tories? ”,

Comment , last week ). Councils

are facing the prospect of having

to continue to reduce staffi ng and

services across the communities

they struggle to support. It’s time the

media began to cover the damage

being infl icted by the government in

this area of public policy.

Jeremy Beecham

Newcastle City Council

Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne

Yes sir, no sir

I’m a great admirer of Sir Lindsay

Hoyle. He has made the role of

Speaker of the House of Commons

his and continued to assert the

independence of the offi ce. He’s right

to support Tony Blair’s knighthood –

his support for George Bush over Iraq

was a serious error of judgment, but

there is still a worthy legacy , not least

peace in Northern Ireland. However,

Hoyle’s suggestion that all former

prime ministers should be knighted

( News , last week ) is surely a step too

far: “Arise, Sir Boris” – no, thank you!

Ian Ferguson

Th ornton Dale, Pickering,

North Yorkshire

Write to us

The Telegraph

‘The perfect enemy’

“A tennis star is an unlikely

target for a politician, but

these are hard times for Scott

Morrison. His approval rating

is plummeting, he needs a

good fi ght and fate seems to

have handed him the perfect

enemy. Th e unvaccinated

Novak Djokovic ... embodies

something everyone loves to

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Britain’s Unvaccinated Novak Djokovic’s bid to play in the Australian Open

view on...

A review of the fi lm

The Electrical Life of Louis

Wain should have credited

Simon Stephenson as

co-writer (2 January, the

New Review, p27).

An article ( “ And the

good news is... Omicron

is less likely to infect and

damage lung cells ” , 2

January, p14) said: “If the

virus produces more cells

in the throat, that makes it

more transmissible...”. As

quotes from the researchers

made clear, the virus infects

and multiplies in cells, so

we should have referred to

transmissibility increasing

when it “replicates more” in

the throat.

The former Hungarian

MP backing the opposition

leader in upcoming

elections is Zoltán Kész,

not “Késv” ( “ He’s religious,

on the right – and the left

backs him to beat Orbán ” ,

2 January, page 30).

We referred to the tenor

Freddie de Tommaso

stepping into a leading role

in “Verdi’s Tosca” at the

Royal Opera House; the

opera is by Puccini ( “ Who’s

who in ’22 ” , 2 January, p34).

Ray Illingworth did not

captain Yorkshire for three

championship-winning

seasons from 1959-1968, as

we said; he was the team’s

captain only in 1982-83

( “ Successful captain who

always spoke his mind ” ,

26 December, Sport, p15).

Write to the Readers’ Editor,

the Observer, York Way,

London N1 9GU, email

observer.readers@observer.

co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736

For the record

Nazi art theft revealed

With Vanessa Thorpe’s interesting

article about Pauline Baer de

Perignon ’s sleuthing to recover her

family’s Nazi-looted art , another

piece of the jigsaw of wartime art

theft falls into place (“ The amateur

sleuth, the galleries and a fi ght

for family art looted by the Nazis ”,

News , last week ).

I am reading the seminal work

on the subject of Nazi art theft and

the fate of Europe’s treasures in

the Second World War, The Rape

of Europa by Lynn H Nicholas. The

book is a masterwork of research,

explaining the convoluted schemes

to illegally acquire much of the

patrimony of the conquered nations

of Europe. It also explains the Allie d

programme for rescue, repatriation

and restitution by “the monuments

men” and their work with museum

curators in the liberated nations.

There are many unrecovered

treasures from the period that

perhaps will come to light, not

least because of the diligent and

persistent endeavours of people

such as Pauline Baer de Perignon.

Paul F Faupel

Somersham, Cambridgeshire

The wrong trousers?

Your piece about school uniforms

in Kerala was informative and

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