32 Saturday May 28 2022 | the times
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1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GFoutweighed by its negative economic
impact in the medium term.
Professor Costas Milas
Management School,
University of LiverpoolSir, Rishi Sunak’s cost of living package
must be seen in context. Universal
credit was cut by £1,000 a head a year
to the lowest level for 30 years last
October. Benefit increases are well
below the rate of inflation, as are wage
increases. We face new national
insurance taxes. The package will go
some way to help with rising bills but it
will do nothing to compensate for the
sharp decline in living standards that
we have already seen.
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Professor of social policy,
University of KentSir, The chancellor has awarded
owners of second and third homes
£400 for each property they own.
Surely if you are wealthy enough to
have another home you do not need
this grant? It would have been better
to have paid it to groups that were
really struggling.
I am lucky enough to have a second
property but when I visit it I switch
off everything in my primary home,Doctor of rugby
Sir, No roll of honour of Welsh rugby
players with a medical background
would be complete without the name
of Teddy Morgan (sport, May 25;
letter, May 26). He also had a part to
play in the downfall of the All Blacks,
scoring the try in the 3-0 victory in- Born in Aberdare, he was a GP
in Swansea before moving to a
practice in East Anglia.
Gwyn Evans
Aberdare, Glamorgan
thus incurring only one energy cost.
Keith Manktelow
New Barnet, HertsSir, The high inflation of the 1970s was
due to overheated demand, fuelled by
excessive wage increases. Today’s
inflation is the result of contracted
supply caused by the aftermath of the
pandemic, China’s Covid containment
policy and the war in Ukraine. Rishi
Sunak’s largesse will add inflationary
pressures on the economy, particularly
at a time of full employment, without
addressing the cause of the price rises.
If his windfall tax discourages energy
companies from investing in new
sources of supply, then his measures
will be entirely counterproductive and
prolong the agony for us all.
Erik Wilson
Beverley, East RidingSir, I calculate that the government is
to give me, an affluent, second-home
owning pensioner, a total of £1,450
towards my energy bills. If someone is
going to give me a free lunch I’ll take
it, but I don’t need it, and I wish Rishi
Sunak would stop being so profligate
with taxpayers’ money.
Stephen O’Loughlin
Huddersfield, W YorksSir, Zewditu Gebreyohanes, the
director of Restore Trust, implies that
the National Trust’s 2020 report into
our properties’ links with colonialism
and historic slavery was beyond our
statutory remit (“National Trust must
stop finger-wagging”, Thunderer, May
26). May I remind her of what the
Charity Commission’s chief executive,
Helen Stephenson, said about the
report in March last year, after her
organisation looked into this matter:
“The National Trust has been able to
demonstrate that its work [in relation
to this report] was carefully
considered, and that it fitted within its
charitable objects.”
Thankfully, we still live in a world
in which British charities are held to
account by an independent regulator
applying charity law, and long may
that continue.
Jan Lasik
General counsel and secretary,
National TrustDismay over BBC4
being moved online
Sir, The announcement by the BBC’s
director-general that BBC4 is to move
online shows how out of touch the
BBC has become (“BBC4 shunted
online as bosses try to plug £1.4bn
funding gap”, May 27). The BBC
recently moved BBC3 from its digital
home back to mainstream television,
apparently targeting the youth
audience. BBC4, though, is headed in
the opposite direction. The majority
of the audience for BBC4 are from the
older generation, who are often less
tech savvy and comfortable with the
digital age. BBC4 was where it should
be: on mainstream television.
Is it too much to expect that the
BBC could have asked its audience
what they wanted?
His Honour David Ticehurst
Winscombe, SomersetSir, The BBC says that it is to axe
BBC4, CBBC and Radio 4 Extra, with
the loss of up to 1,000 jobs. It made
this announcement without drama
but with a realisation that
redundancies were necessary for the
existence of the BBC in the long term.
Rail union bosses should take note.
Claire Pearson
Lytham, LancsSir, How is one going to listen to TMS
in the garden where there is no digital
reception? And how many millions of
small portable radios will be sent to
landfill? Time for Esther Rantzen’s
older people’s champion.
Michael Hutchings
Sherborne, DorsetLoving that feeling
Sir, John Nichol observes that his
body has not aged as kindly as Tom
Cruise’s in Top Gun: Maverick (“How
true to life is the new Top Gun?
Times2, May 27). He should smile
inwardly and appreciate that it’s the
price paid by real fighter pilots for a
life of G-forces, combat flying and
(obviously only occasionally)
carousing. A price well worth paying.
Nick Collins
Squadron leader (ret’d)Corrections and
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Mandarin’s future
Sir, I do not know if Simon Case will
step aside as cabinet secretary and
head of the civil service later this
year, as some are speculating (“Quit
now, civil servants tell their boss”,
May 27). But if he does it is essential
that his successor be someone who
can command confidence both within
Whitehall and outside based on a
deep knowledge and understanding of
the workings and culture of
government, and not someone
parachuted in at a relatively young
age without that experience. It is
impossible to imagine that any of the
outstanding cabinet secretaries under
whom I had the privilege to serve
would have allowed to develop, or
would have tolerated for one minute,
the culture and behaviours described
in the Gray report.
Sir Leigh Lewis
Permanent secretary, Department for
Work and Pensions 2005-10; Watford
Chancellor’s £21 billion spending bonanza
Sir, Your editorial (“Big Spender”,
May 27) and Paul Johnson’s analysis
(“Giveaway is on target — but this
can’t go on for ever”) praise aspects of
Rishi Sunak’s latest fiscal package but
also warn that it carries risk. In fact,
the timing of the U-turn on the
windfall tax, only one day after the
publication of the Gray report,
increases the suspicion that the
government wants to deflect attention
from the report’s findings. It will also
raise expectations that further fiscal
stimulus will be implemented when
the MPs start their investigation into
whether Boris Johnson lied to
parliament about the Downing Street
parties. All this is likely to raise the
interest rate that investors demand
over and above international interest
rates to bring, or even keep, their
money in UK bonds, which will have
an adverse impact on the UK
economy. The Bank of England
estimates that a higher interest rate in
the UK relative to international
interest rates reduces consumer
spending and delays investment
decisions, which in turn harm GDP
for as many as four years. Therefore,
the short-term beneficial impact of
Sunak’s “blowing with the wind” fiscal
stimulus on the economy risks beingSir, As a retired GP it has long been
obvious to me that vertical
integration of GP and hospital care
was the optimal way to reorganise the
health service (“Consultants will
move out of hospitals to work with
GPs”, May 27). It would be more
logical, though, to locate such an
integrated system within or alongside
state-run hospitals with ready access
to laboratory, imaging and all other
high-tech support, plus all of the
nursing, physiotherapy and other
services available on site. Salaried
state-owned facilities could be fully
operational 24/7 providing routine,
emergency and follow-up care in one
place. With the best will in the world,
privately run GP practices funded by
the NHS could never operate such a
comprehensive service.
Such a move would probably be
unpopular with many GP partners,
who could stand to lose their
independent contractor status, but it
might prove very popular with those
GPs who wish to provide part-time
services, and it could be arranged in
such a way that comprehensive cover
for patients could still be providedMobile consultants
full-time. I suspect that many patients
would prefer such a versatile system
to the present dislocated service,
which causes considerable frustration.
The problems seem unlikely to be
solved by relocating consultants away
from the hospitals where patients still
require their specialised services.
Moreover, the proposals would do
nothing to relieve the pressure on
accident and emergency departments.
Dr Christine Dewbury
Shawford, HantsSir, The report by Dr Claire Fuller
suggesting that consultants spending
time in GP surgeries will reduce the
problems associated with accessing
primary care is missing a novel
change in medical care. The GMC is
reviewing the accreditation of UK
physician associates and anaesthesia
associates, with a report due in the
summer of 2023. Those with degrees
in medicine-related courses would
convert in two years to associates in
primary care and anaesthetic care,
with GMC regulatory support. This
would provide improved access to
medical care in a safe and urgent way.
Dr James Mckelvie
St Brendans Hospital, Isle of Barra,
Outer HebridesTrust and slavery
from the times may 28, 1922A NEW
FASHION IN
FURNISHING
Tory waiting game
Sir, J Roger Thomas (letter, May 26)
states that he and many other loyal
Conservative Party members intend to
allow their party membership to lapse
in response to Boris Johnson’s lack of
integrity and leadership over the
course of the lockdown parties debacle.
However, as a fellow (and reluctant)
member of the party, I would urge him
to hold fast. Only Conservative Party
members will have the final say in the
election of the next leader. And only
by ensuring that the party membership
has a majority who recognise the
impact of the failings and mendacity of
the present holder of the post will we
stand a chance of appointing a leader
worthy of the title. The annual
subscription of £25 and a willing
suspension of disbelief seem like a
small price to pay.
Alison Howie
Willian, Herts
Sir, Iain Martin brilliantly summarises
the problems within the chaotic Tory
government (“No one fears Johnson
and that’s a problem”, May 26). Boris
Johnson has been brilliant on the big
issues of Covid and Ukraine but the
electorate will still vote him out as it
has become tired of him. Martin
concludes that the leadership vacuum
is a huge opportunity for Labour. This
may well be true but he omits to
mention a replacement leader in the
wings: Ben Wallace. He is organised,
determined, unsullied and has an
impressive record as a soldier and as
defence secretary.
Julian Rivers
Earls Barton, Northants
thetimes.co.uk/archiveChurch’s sexism
Sir, Doubtless there are some
members of the Church of England
who are racist (comment, May 24;
letters, May 25-27) but why the
self-flagellation about institutional
racism, which has very little evidence
to support it, when the acceptance of
institutional sexism is left virtually
unchallenged? Thirty years after the
decision to ordain women priests
there are still churches that are
allowed to bar them from officiating
and, even worse, they are allocated
special bishops to ensure that they
can remain that way. I guess that
racism is a more fashionable cause for
a church that has lost all credibility.
Brenda Wolfe
Liverpool
Letters to The Times must be exclusive
and may be edited. Please include a full
address and daytime telephone number.In these days many a June bride-to-
be is completing the great work of
furnishing her future home. That is
perhaps the most enthralling work in
which woman can engage and, if
rumour is to be relied on, the charm
of it has not been diminished by the
fact that this year furnishing must be
conducted on lines of strict
economy. For the narrowness of the
margin of expenditure affords scope
for the exercise of individual gifts of
buying and arrangement which in
more prosperous years might not
have been called into play. The
modern bride is on her mettle, as itwere, to justify in advance the
wisdom of the man of her choice.
Thus, many a wife this year will
return from her honeymoon to
surroundings of the most utilitarian
kind which, nevertheless, will be
expressive, in a very unusual degree,
of her own individuality.
Nor is there anything to regret in
this necessary dominance of the
personal over the conventional. The
florid decoration of the late
Victorian period produced an
environment characterized very
often by tawdriness and
sentimentality. Its sheer futility
wrought on younger minds, at any
rate, a sense of gloom as all-
pervading as in those days it was
mysterious. With rebellion in our
hearts we did not know why we
rebelled.
That we have come at last to
understanding is great gain, for it
implies the rediscovery of beauty
where, alone, beauty may be found— in the forms and manners of
essential things. These modern
homes are said to be beautiful after
the fashion of the country cottages
of another age. Their simple
furnishings are good and honest
stuff. We can well believe it, for as
men and women are compelled to
restrict their expenditure their need
of the craftsman grows. His cunning,
after all, is but the obverse side of his
neighbours’ necessity; it is the
translation into generous material of
the will and the power to serve.
The manufacturers of furniture
have assuredly been given a great
opportunity in this new tendency. Is
it too much to hope that in their
necessary strivings after utility and
cheapness they will hold in view the
nobler end of craftsmanship in
which both these other qualities,
ultimately, are joined together?