30 Saturday April 30 2022 | the times
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1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GFincrease in demand for GP
appointments. I typically have 50-plus
patient contacts per day, and then
admin, and like all GPs I get through
it as efficiently as possible. It can
sometimes feel as if the blame for
NHS failures in the media is directed
squarely at primary care. Why not
look at hospital waiting lists? There is
little incentive for hospital consultants
to get through the lists quickly when
they can earn extra for operating on
the same patients on waiting-list
initiatives, and in private hospitals.
Dr Jonny Hobman
Street Lane Practice, LeedsSir, Dr Jennifer Jones (letter, Apr 27)
suggests that the foundation of the
NHS in 1948 should be celebrated by
a public holiday. With more than six
million people on the waiting list in
England, a national day of mourning
would perhaps be more appropriate.
Dr Chris Storer
Portishead, SomersetSir, The National Institute for Health
and Care Excellence once again states
what was common knowledge to
most medical professionals (“Stop
taking painkillers for arthritis,
patients told”, Apr 29). Exercise is
beneficial to those with early and
moderate arthritis of joints. However,
is it realistic to expect health carers to
change the ingrained behaviour of
those with the condition? Many
sufferers have never been accustomed
to taking regular exercise or eating
sufficient food to maintain a healthy
weight. To expect health carers torefuse, or make difficult, the
prescribing of pain relief when it may
be the only sensible option to support
a patient seems harsh. To refuse
specialist referral for joint
replacement, when that may be the
only realistic intervention to improve
quality of life, could be viewed as a
mechanism to reduce the
frighteningly long waiting lists for
such procedures.
Roger Calvert
Smeeton Westerby, LeicsSir, The Times is to be congratulated
on its Priory Group investigation
(“Patients died after catalogue of
errors by mental health chain”, Apr
29). Good mental health services in
the NHS are in short supply relative
to demand. Successive governments
have not invested sufficient resources
in mental health since the closure of
the Victorian psychiatric hospitals in
the 1980s and 1990s. We are captive to
the present providers unless we can
incentivise others to enter the market.
However, the shortcomings
exposed are as nothing compared
with what is happening in our prisons.
Official statistics for England and
Wales show that in the 12 months to
December there were 371 deaths in
prison custody. This was a 17 per cent
increase over the previous 12 months.
Of those deaths 86 were self-inflicted,
a 28 per cent increase. Each year
there are more than 50,000 incidents
of self-harm. As I recall, the NHS is
responsible for prison health services.
Lord Warner
House of LordsDinner-party musts
Sir, Your archive article (“Essentials of
a successful dinner party”, Apr 27)
suggested that “the three
indispensable features for a pleasant
dinner were a cabinet minister, a
duchess and a beautiful woman”. In
PG Wodehouse’s The Mating Season
Bertie Wooster, referring to his old
friend Gussie Fink-Nottle, thinks
that “the first essential for an
enjoyable dinner party is for Gussie
not to be at it”.
Peter Lowthian
Marlow, BucksBirds of a feather
Sir, We always referred to sparrows as
spyugs (Nature Notes, Apr 27, and
letters, Apr 28 & 29). Other names
commonly used by us when children
were stuckies for starlings, peezies for
peewits, craws for rooks and jennies
for wrens.
Alan G Shearer
GlasgowSir, In the West of Scotland in my
youth, the following ditty was
recited: “Twa birdies sat on a barra:/
One was a speug, the other a sparra.”
I can’t vouch for the spelling since I
have never seen it written down.
Margaret LB Anderson
CanterburyEmpire successes
Sir, Alexander Downer (letter, Apr 29)
might have added the United States
to his list of great nations formed by
empire.
Peter Davies
West Kirby, WirralWell-kept lawns
Sir, Anybody who likes to keep a
snooker-table lawn surface might be
offended by your leading article
(Apr 29) advising them to hang back
for a few weeks to let the wild flowers
flourish. This implies their nurtured
lawn is not just grass.
Roger Foord
Chorleywood, HertsCorrections and
clarifications
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by post to Feedback, The Times, 1
London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Girls and maths
Sir, It is unfortunate in the extreme
that the government’s social mobility
tsar appears wedded to opinions that
are old fashioned, ill informed and
damaging (“Girls shun physics A-level
as they dislike ‘hard maths’, says
social mobility head”, news, Apr 28).
Such views enforce gender
stereotypes and perpetuate broader
perceptions that mathematics and
sciences are difficult and unappealing.
Tackling these misconceptions,
valuing maths properly as a society
and funding it accordingly, and
encouraging more students to study
maths at every level of education,
must be prioritised. This would
benefit the UK enormously: maths
enables today’s most exciting and
urgent technological developments
and the mathematical sciences are
estimated to add more than
£200 billion to the economy, almost
10 per cent of our GDP. The study of
the mathematical sciences has also
been shown to boost graduate
earnings and opens up opportunities
for a wide range of exciting careers
including those at the forefront of
artificial intelligence, national
security, driverless cars and the
development of quantum computers.
Professor Ulrike Tillmann, president
of the London Mathematical Society;
Professor Sylvia Richardson,
president of the Royal Statistical
Society; Professor Alison Etheridge,
chairwoman of the Council for the
Mathematical Sciences; Professor
Rachel Norman, president of the
Edinburgh Mathematical Society;
Professor Paul Glendinning,
president of the Institute of
Mathematics and its Applications;
Gavin Blackett, executive director of
the Operational Research Society
Sir, The issue isn’t whether A-level
maths is too difficult for girls but
whether they think it is. The fact that
nearly 75 per cent of A-level further
maths pupils are male suggests that
perceived difficulty and suitability
might be strong factors determining
A-level choice. It is pointless to
speculate about why there is so much
gender bias in choosing further
mathematics and physics; it is an
empirical question, necessitating
psychological and educational
research. We can only do something
about the gender imbalance once we
know the reasons for it.
Trevor Harley
Emeritus professor of psychology,
University of Dundee
Sir, I have to take exception to Alan
Orbell’s characterisation of Russians
never being “on a similar wavelength
to Europeans” and implicitly inferior
because of their “casual savagery”
(letter, Apr 29). My experience of
more than five years working in
Russia was one where, far more often
than not, I was treated very politely,
sometimes as an exotic curiosity but
usually with genuine warmth and
kindness, and frequently an
embarrassing level of deference.
I could not always say that of the
Europeans he puts on a pedestal.
Demonise the regime certainly, but
please not the people.
John Brehcist
BelfastSir, Russia is a, perhaps the, leadingGP appointments, arthritis and mental health
Sir, I read with interest your report
that a quarter of GP appointments are
now less than five minutes (Apr 29).
In the same edition I note that the
government is consulting on fixed
fees to reduce costs in clinical
negligence cases. Would it be
unreasonable to speculate that the
solution to both issues lies in better
funding of frontline NHS services?
John De Bono QC
Serjeants’ Inn, London EC4Sir, Occasionally five minutes with a
healthcare professional is adequate: a
quick blood test, a simple medication
review, a triage appointment. Most of
the time a longer appointment is
required, particularly for patients with
complex health needs. This is
reflected in latest general practice
consultation data, with 39 per cent of
patients seen for more than ten
minutes. People are living longer and
increasingly with multiple physical
and mental health problems. GPs
need more time with these patients.
The Royal College of GPs thinks
15-minute appointments should be
standard but that means we need
more GPs, and more members of the
practice team to look after those
patients who do not necessarily need
care from a doctor.
Professor Martin Marshall
Chairman, Royal College of GPsSir, Your article draws attention to GP
appointments lasting less than five
minutes. ’Twas ever thus. Some last
five minutes, and some 15. For balance
no mention is made of the colossalRussia and the war
from the times april 30, 1922MURDER BY
NIGHT IN
CO CORK
thetimes.co.uk/archiveLetters to The Times must be exclusive
and may be edited. Please include a full
address and daytime telephone number.
The murder of three men at
Dunmanway, West County Cork, has
been followed by another night of
murder in the same area, in which
five more men were killed in their
own homes. All were Protestants.
As far as can be ascertained the
following are dead: Gerald Peyton,
single, aged about 20, of Ballineen.
This young man, a native of the
district, had been away for some
years and returned last July. John
Chinnery, single, aged 32. a farmer,
residing at his farm about one mile
on the Ballineen side of Castletown
Kinneigh. The son of the Rev
Richard C M Harbord, BD, Murragh
Rectory, Church of Ireland. The
rectory is situated about one mile
east of Enniskean. Robert Howe,
married, aged about 60, farmer,
residing about half a mile west of
Castletown Kinneigh. Robert Nagle,
single, aged about 18, of McCurtain
Hill, Clonakilty, son of Thomas
Nagle, summons and process server,
sheriff’s officer, and caretaker of the
Masonic lodge, Clonakilty, which
was burned some time ago. Robert
Nagle was a Post Office employee.
The shootings took place during the
early hours of the morning, and in
each case it would appear that
armed men visited the homes of the
men and shot them. One account of
the shooting of John Chinnery states
that in the middle of the night the
occupants were awakened by a loud
knocking at the door, and the farmer
himself came down to see what was
the matter. He was ordered out to
the yard, and there commanded toharness a horse to a car in the shed.
While engaged in this he was shot
dead. He had the reputation of being
a fine athlete and was physically
very strong. Later accounts from the
district state that other houses also
were visited, and inquiries made for
some of the occupants who, by one
subterfuge or another, were
fortunate enough to escape.
Our Dublin Correspondent
telegraphed yesterday: The murder
of three Protestant citizens at
Dunmanway, Co Cork, has caused
deep anxiety among all classes and
creeds in Dublin. The circumstances
of the murders are obscure, and their
motive is unknown, but the fact that
all the victims were Protestants
suggests that the murders may have
been in the nature of sectarian
reprisals for the outrages on Roman
Catholics in Belfast.Starmer’s beer
Sir, It is surprising to learn that Ben
Wallace, the defence secretary, has
involved himself in arguments over
lockdown parties (“Starmer escapes
fine for office beer”, Apr 29) when the
message from Boris Johnson’s camp
until now has been all about
trivialising the issue and how people
in Britain are far more concerned
about the cost of living and Ukraine.
His intervention only serves to fuel
the suspicion that the party of law
and order believes that two wrongs
can make a right.
Graham Davies
Shoreham by Sea, W SussexRocky history
Sir, The first time I heard the name
Rocky Marciano (letters, Apr 27, 28 &
29) was in the mid-1950s when I was
about eight years old. I returned home
for the holidays from a government
boarding school in Lusaka, Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia), and when
asked by my father how I was getting
on, I replied that I was being teased by
the other boys, who were mostly older
and tougher. My father asked why
and I told him that it was because I
wore underpants. Apparently tough
boys didn’t. My father instructed me
to return to school the next term and
point out to my opponents that Rocky
Marciano wore underpants. As
memory serves, I found it less risky to
give up underpants, and follow the
crowd.
The Rev Robin Hungerford
Heytesbury, WiltsSir, Rocky Marciano was the greatest
heavyweight of his generation. David
Simons wants to know (letter, Apr 28)
what Marciano’s fight plan might have
been at 5ft 10in and 13st 2lb against
Tyson Fury at 6ft 9in and 19 stone. As
a boxing writer at The Sun for more
than 50 years I have the solution: he
would have had to grow 11 inches and
put on six stone.
Colin Hart
Harrow, Middlesexexponent of ballet. I have long been
mystified by the love of ballet in a
country with a reputation for
savagery and would be delighted to
read a plausible explanation of this
seeming paradox.
Christopher Treves Brown
Radlett, HertsSir, I don’t agree with Sir Roderic
Lyne (letter, Apr 28) that it’s wrong
for the US and UK to attack Russia
over the airwaves. It’s a question of
timing. He’s right that with Germany
having been defeated in 1945, the US
Treasury secretary should not have
proposed further attacks on its
economic recovery. But when the war
was still raging, it was absolutely
essential for our leaders to mobilise
the English language and send it into
battle against the enemy. It may be
unfashionable but belligerent
communication used judiciously canbe an effective tool in the pursuit of
victory and peace.
Thomas Fairley
Cambridge