Line of reasoning
Laura Craik’s reflections on queueing (“Line up”, Style, last week) brought back memories of standing in a school dinner line. As head teacher I was in the queue talking to a first-year pupil, who said, “Sir, isn’t it strange how you don’t like all those in front of you and all those behind you are cool?” To this day, every time I stand in a queue I think of that perceptive young person’s rumination.
Enda Cullen, Armagh
Crashingly obvious
Rod Liddle highlights the war on motorists in Cambridgeshire, drawing attention to car traps hidden in bus lanes (Comment, last week). In Kent we’re quite used to them and they’re not confined to bus lanes. My car got caught in one recently during a wet spell. We call them potholes.
Nigel Webb, Appledore, Kent
Step forward
Any permanent damage to vehicles caught by a bus-lane car trap, as mentioned by Liddle, is regrettable, but the principle is necessary. Similar schemes should be installed for cycle lanes in Bristol, which pedestrians persist in strolling along even when designation is clearly marked.
Francis Harvey, Bristol
Good riddance, Jacinda
As a New Zealand expat, I am delighted that Jacinda Ardern’s legacy has truly gone, with a number of NZ red wall seats turning blue (World News, last week). It is time for the international media to catch up with the mood of New Zealanders and stop feting Arden. She trashed the economy with her spending and has caused a racial divide with separatist policies on healthcare, water and public service for Maoris and non-Maoris. Let’s hope New Zealand can move in a positive direction, where aspiration and No 8 wire (Kiwi ingenuity) is reinstated.
Jan Dalgleish, London NW3
The nice bit of Mordor
I was bemused to read Paul Champagne’s comments about housing developments (Letters, last week), in which he complained of living in Mordor. A quick glance at the bottom of his letter revealed that he resides in SW3, an area of London that includes Chelsea and Knightsbridge. Do his local estate agents agree, I wonder.
Bob Maddams, Bognor Regis
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Sour on sweeteners
Readers are not impressed with Rachel Reeves’s proposal that developers of infrastructure and housing should pay those who are affected to obtain their support (Letters, last week). Her plan is also unlawful. Offering reduced electricity bills or community benefits so as to obtain consent for pylons, wind turbines, or new housing would be a “financial benefit”, which is barred from being taken into account in planning decisions. The Supreme Court so ruled in 2019. Planning permissions cannot be bought or sold.
Mark Sullivan, CPRE Warwickshire
Foreign climate
I am 68 and, before risking jail as a protester, I’ve spent some of my retirement spare time doing a bit of research (“84 and facing jail: Meet the radical pensioners of Just Stop Oil”, News Review, last week). There are, annually, circa 38,000 CO2 emissions globally. The UK contributes circa 340. Even when (if) the UK is down to nil, global emissions will remain high. I think we oldies need to go abroad to protest — maybe China, Russia, Saudi Arabia?
Lizanne Thackery, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire
Floating your boat
Matt Rudd mentions that Southend pier is 1.33 miles long and then says, “It’s size that matters” (“Open wharfare as Battle of Hastings Pier rolls on”, News Review, last week). However, it wasn’t made that length to be the longest in the world but to ensure that steamers such as the Royal Eagle, plying from London to Margate and Ramsgate, could call at Southend en route, even when the tide was low. The end of the pier is where the navigable channel begins, the rest of it sitting on mudflats at low tide.
George Hart, Rickmansworth Hertfordshire
Easy money
Camilla Long discusses at length the deals done by Captain Tom Moore’s daughter in the name of his charity (“Captain Tom’s daughter is a whole new kind of freeloader. She reckons she snaffles ‘with love’”, Comment, last week). The whole Tom Moore phenomenon grew like Topsy and swept the nation off its feet at a time when Covid and lockdowns had ravaged our society. The net result was Moore’s family was suddenly awash with money, and perhaps it was all too much for his daughter’s family to deal with. I sympathise with her in a way.
Martin Henry, Good Easter, Essex
Captain’s legacy
Looking down from his celestial abode, Captain Tom probably doesn’t mind his daughter keeping £800,000 from his books success. Instead of shunting the captain into institutional care, Hannah, husband and children embraced him as an important part of a loving family home. The royalties are for you all, in gratitude, I expect he’d say.
Michael Zehse, London SE15
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Epilepsy is no joke
The language of Chaucer and Shakespeare is rich and varied and so we, at the Epilepsy Society, were disappointed to see Camilla Long describe Steve Coogan’s dramatic representation of Jimmy Savile as looking as though “the props department had had an epileptic fit”. One in 100 of us in the UK have epilepsy and many experience distressing seizures. They can result in serious injuries and can also be fatal. Using a simile that relies on a serious medical condition to describe one of the most wicked people of our times is unkind.
Clare Pelham, chief executive, Epilepsy Society, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire
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