The Week - UK (2021-02-06)

29

It’sstill“their”marbles

ToTheDailyTelegraph

SimonHeffer(“TheArmada

mapsbelonginBritain,along

withtheElginMarbles”)

praisesLordElgin’s“desire

toconserve”theParthenon

marbles,whichmight

otherwisehavebeen“smashed

up”bytheTurks.“Wouldthe

marblesstillexisttoday,”he

asks,“ifElginhadn’t‘looted’

them.Quitepossiblynot–

whichmeanshedidculturea

service,asBritainhasdoneby

keepingthemsafeeversince.”

SayIwalkpastMrHeffer’s

houseandseeoikssmashing

uphisfurniture.Impelledby

a“desiretoconserve”,Ihelp

myselftotwo-thirdsofMr

Heffer’sbestWedgwoodtea

set.Aweeklater,theoiksare

incustody,andMrHeffer

asksforhisplatesback.

Shouldn’t hebe gratefulthat

Iamkeepingthemsafe?

ProfPeterThonemann,

WadhamCollege, Oxford

Never enough nurses

To The Guardian

Thefailure ofNightingale

hospitalscameasno surprise.

Iwasaseniormanager in

nursingeducationinthe1990s,

whentrainingmovedfrom

“apprenticeship-styletraining”

to auniversity-based

education. Thebattleto

achieve thishadbeenlongand

bitter,withthe Conservatives

beingagainstthis transitionas

student nurses hadbeensucha

cheapwayofstaffing hospitals.

Thechangewasagreed,and

thethenGovernment cut

trainingnumbers overnight

byup toathird.

Wearestilllivingwiththe

consequences.Combined with

areduction of thousandsof

hospital beds over three

decades,the ef fect ontheNHS

is plai ntosee. No time for

recovery,no timefor re flection

andfewer opportunities for

ongoing development.

Successive governments,

mainly Conservative,have

triedand failed to convincethe

public thattheNHS is adrain

on thepublic purseand have

quickly learntthat anythreat

to it could costthem thenext

election.Thathasn’tstopped

them significantly reducing

the service and carrying out

aplannedprogrammeof

assetstripping. With every

change in government, the

overstretchedstaffmust

wonderwhat iscomingnext.

KarenJacob,retirednurse,

Devon

In aflutter over Twitter

To The DailyTelegraph

Thestorminateacupover

skiersattempting totravel

from St Pancrashighlights the

exaggerationbypoliticiansof

Twitter’s significance.

Thereare around 15 million

Twitter accountsin Britain.

How many belongtoactual

people?In 2018, Twitter

deleted morethan 70 million

accountsforbeingfake–run

by bots–oroffensive. How

manyareduplicate s? Auser

may have two accountsand

asinglebusinessmay have

several.Astudy in 2019bythe

Pew Research Centrefound

that 80%oftweets came from

just 10%ofusers.Aminority

of thecountryuses Twitter, a

minorityof usersread it often,

andasmaller minorityuses

it politically.

Thereportingof “Twitter

storms” isaninflation ofthe

Westminsterbubble. Twitter

emphaticallydoes nothaveits

finger onthe nationalpulse.

RobertFrazer,Salford,

Lancashire

Aloss of self-discipline

To The Times

In DanielFinkel stein’s account

of the“Singapore economic

miracle”,herefers to Lee

Kuan Yew’s change ofheart

from Fabiansocialis ttoan

advocateofself-discipline

before democracy.When I

interviewed Lee, hetold me

that he hadchanged hisview

after coming out oftheTubeat

PiccadillyCircusand observing

that theeveningnewspapers

on anunattendedstand were

disappearing, but that thepile

of coin speoplehadpaid for

them were untouched.

Marvelling thatapeoplecould

policethemselvessoeffectively,

thereand then he resolvedthat

this was the Singapore he

wanted tocreate.Iwonder

what hewouldmakeofBritish

self-restrainttoday.

TrevorPhillips,London

The rights of refuseniks

To The Guardian

Thenews thatasmall,but

increasingnumber ofhealth

workersare choosingtoavoid

vaccinationagainst Covid-1 9

comesasno great surpriseto

manyofus inhealthcare.

Thateveryperson hasthe

righttoself-determination,

which wouldincluderefusing

avaccination,isagiven.

However,thisstanceofrefus-

ingvaccinationissupportedby

unionpolicy.MightIsuggest a

compromisethataccepts health

work ers’rights and protects

patientsatthesametime?Any

health workerwhorefusesa

vaccinationshouldtake unpaid

leaveuntileither the corona-

viruspandemic isdeemedto

no longer poseathreatorthey

choseanother lineof work.

The US,whichdoesn’tusually

have muchin theway ofpublic

health toemulate,alreadyhas

theability todismisshealth

workerswho refuseseasonal

fluvaccinations.

Themedicalaphorismholds:

“Firstdonoharm.” Perhapsit

is timeforhealth workers to

rememberthis.

Dr W.J. Cunliffe, MD,FRCS,

Bedlington,Northumberland

The empire strikes back

To The Guardian

SoImperialCollegeLondon

hasstoppedusingitsLatin

mottobecauseitrefers to

“theempire”.Iwonder

whethertheyhavespotted

anyironythere?

Rosemary Waugh, York

6February 2021 THE WEEK

LETTERS

Pick of the week’s correspondence

©MATT/THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

“I was worried that he

might have historic links

to the slave trade”

●Letters have been edited

Exchange of theweek

Love of nation

ToTheTimes

It’sabouttimethatWalesandEnglandshouldhavethe

opportunitytohaveasayinwhatwewantourrelationship

withScotlandandNorthernIrelandtobe.

TheattachmenttoScotlandismostlyasentimentalone,but

itseemstomethatthesmuggrandstandingoftheNationalists,

andthebarelyconcealedAnglophobia,havesoalienatedus

thatwewouldbegladtoseethebackofthem.Thescrapping

oftheBarnettformulawouldleaveusabout3%betteroff,

andthetwomainproblemswouldbetheirs:theywouldhave

toleavethesterlingzonewhilenotintheeurozone;there

wouldhavetobeaborderortariffarrangementbetweenus.

ScotlandisnotwellrunbycomparisonwithEngland,ifthe

statisticsaretobebelieved,andtherestofuswouldstandto

benefitfromabraindrainfurtherdowntheline.

LouisdeBernières,Denton,Norfolk

ToTheTimes

LouisdeBernièressaysthatanattachmenttoScotlandis

sentimental.Myfather,fromFraserburgh,wasaSpitfirepilot

duringtheWar.Hedefe nded English cities fromNazibombers

and foughtin north Africa,Malta,Italy and Germany.That

was not sentimental.My wifeandIhavestayedinevery

county inEngland ;allofourfamilylive andwork inEngland

or Wales. Ilovethe English, even thoselikeLouisde Bernières.

David Fraser, Edinburgh

ToTheTimes

Onereasonfortheincrease insupportfor independenceisthat

thehistoryofScotland within theScottishcurriculumhasbeen

rewrittenbythe Scottishgovernmentandits quango,the

Scot tishQualifications Authority.NegativityoftheUnion is

portrayedthroughoutand inexamquestions.Allegedly, the

Scotshave been “downtrodden” for800 years.There isnever

anymention ofthemanyScottish inventorsor philanthropists.

MaggieCunningham,Banchory,Aberdeenshire