The restoration of the Palace of Westminster

Sir, Matt Chorley’s article “The wiring’s so ancient Boris’s pants won’t be the only thing on fire” (Jan 27) draws attention to the dire state of the Westminster building and the high risk of a fire disaster.

I cannot fathom the wilful blindness and appalling complacency of our MPs concerning this. They have just witnessed the fire at Grenfell Tower, the loss of life and its far-reaching consequences, but have failed to acknowledge how easily one at Westminster could spread through the building.

MPs apparently want to keep their heads firmly in the sand, and the lack of incisive leadership by the government is unforgivable.
Robert Jewell
Cheadle, Cheshire

Sir, There is danger in delaying the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament, as a Northern Ireland example illustrates.

On January 2, 1995, after numerous delays to refurbishment of the parliament buildings at Stormont, justified by the need to have them available for important interparty talks, a fire caused by an electrical fault under the Speaker’s chair destroyed the House of Commons chamber. It was subsequently restored for the Northern Ireland assembly with a less confrontational, U-shaped layout.
Sir John Semple
Holywood, Co Down

Sir, David Cameron proposed that the optimum number of members of parliament should be 600, which is a reduction of 50. It is obvious that the number should be suboptimal until the repairs are completed as this would result in substantial savings.
Bob Howes
Leeds

Sir, Not only should our legislators “get out” of the Palace of Westminster, they should “stay out” for good. Few UK citizens feel any great affinity to Westminster, and it would be salutary and efficient for legislators to be removed to less pompous surroundings.
Clifford Webb
Witney, Oxon

Sir, I feel repairs at Westminster would bring a much-needed rejuvenation to the process of government. At present this “ancestral home” often lends itself to a “cloak and dagger” modus operandi in its dark, clubbable, secluded corners.
Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

DISCLOSING EVIDENCE
Sir, I write further to your report “Every rape case to be reviewed” (Jan 27). The prosecutor in a criminal trial is obliged by section 7A of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 to keep disclosure under constant review before and during a trial to ensure the material that assists a defendant is provided to that defendant.

The DPP’s announcement that such a review should now take place in rape cases suggests a recognition that there has been a substantial failure to carry out the principal obligation of disclosure on the part of a prosecutor.

Further, limiting the announcement to one category of crime (however justified) creates a sense that that statutory obligation is less important in others.

Both are of concern but the fact that the DPP feels the need to tell prosecutors to do what they are obliged to do does not inspire confidence in the Crown Prosecution Service’s ability to discharge its duty to ensure a fair trial as it is now managed, funded and directed.
Louis Weston
London EC4

Sir, Will the DPP’s sensible decision to review all rape cases at present before the courts be extended to cases where there have already been convictions?
Paul Darling, QC
London WC2

UNIVERSITY OF LIFE
Sir, I would venture a step further than Sir Anthony Seldon (letter, Jan 26) and suggest that an inability or lack of desire to enter university — Oxbridge or otherwise — need not constitute an admission of failure. I left school as early as possible and lived in European countries doing menial jobs but I did pick up several foreign languages. I returned to the UK and my languages have kept me gainfully employed since.
Jem Cook
Marlborough, Wilts

HOME EDUCATION
Sir, What is often overlooked in the concerns about home schooling (letters, Jan 26, 25 and 24) is that since parents have become liable for prosecution for not getting their children to school, families are increasingly signing their children out of the education system altogether to be “home schooled”.

The school is off their backs, and they do not face fines they frequently cannot pay. Their ability to home educate is never questioned. Strapped for cash, local authorities, which are meant to monitor home schooling, can sometimes manage only one annual visit.

As a school governor I and my colleagues are only too aware of the situation, and great efforts are made to bring these children back into the mainstream.

Under certain circumstances home schooling means the end of education. This cannot be right.
The Rev Maggie Guillebaud
Salisbury, Wilts

BBC PAY EQUALITY
Sir, With regard to your article “Robinson is latest BBC star in talks about salary cut” (Jan 26), cutting the pay of the men to equalise the low level of women’s pay displays a misconception in the way the law requires employers to equalise pay.

Taking this course of action is not acceptable nor will it protect the BBC from the equal pay claims it might face. In addition, male “stars” pressured to take a pay cut could sue for breach of contract.

The suggestion that the male “stars” have agents who shouted louder and banged the table for more money is not an excuse.

In the case of Enderby v Frenchay Health Authority in the European Court of Justice the health trust argued unsuccessfully that the reason they had to pay the mainly male pharmacists more than the mainly female speech therapists (in an equal value claim) was because the men were unionised and the unions were “tough” negotiators.

Such an argument was a dismal failure in justifying the differential in pay.

The BBC must face reality and increase the female staff’s pay to the same levels as their male “stars” and not duck out of equalising the women’s pay in a such a shabby manner.
Gillian Howard
(Employment lawyer)

SURGICAL SERVICES
Sir, I have recently retired from the National Health Service and have spent almost 20 years trying to have elective and acute surgical services geographically separated in my health trust. I support Alan Mackay (letter, Jan 25) and advise Eleanor Walsh (letter, Jan 27) that it is usually the public and politicians who are resistant. Any suggestion that orthopaedic surgery leaves an acute site is viewed in the public eye as a threat to A&E, and is resisted even with street protests.

Historically, elective orthopaedic surgery was always on dedicated sites until they were closed in the 1980s as they were considered to be unsafe. Waiting lists were never disrupted.

Surgeons who are prevented for months each winter from operating as the beds are taken by acute medicine become deskilled and bored, and trainees get little experience. The sooner we return to past arrangements the better.
Gavin R Tait
(Retired consultant orthopaedic surgeon)

BREEDING SUPERCOWS
Sir, The proposal of Bill Gates to develop a breed of more versatile cows is laudable (“Bill Gates pumps millions into quest for a supercow”, News, Jan 26).

An even better idea might be to develop a cross between an English heifer and a member of the Highland cattle family. The latter, I believe, is a breed able to stay outdoors both in winter and summer. The proposed variety of African cattle, although good for Africa, would have to be kept indoors in winter and would therefore not be as useful for much of the rest of the world.
Quintin Davis
Leatherhead, Surrey

Sir, Your scientific editor should get out on the farm more: a cow has but one udder, with four teats, and a heifer, being a maiden, does not produce milk.

I hope Bill Gates will use Jersey genes for his cow — for quality milk and a quiet temperament.
Richard Simmonds
Past president, Jersey Cattle Society of the UK

CULTURED CLUBS
Sir, I couldn’t agree more with Richard Morrison’s sentiments on the sad contrast beween the Swedish football club Ostersunds’ “culture academy” and the lack of such an atmosphere in most British clubs. (The Arts Column, Jan 26).

The day before Newcastle United were playing Bayer Leverkusen in the 2002-03 season I encountered the team, shepherded by Bobby Robson, in Cologne Cathedral.

He told me that he had walked them across the famous Hohenzollern Bridge and to the cathedral and that he made sure, when abroad, that they saw some of the key historical sights.

The success he had with his teams perhaps owes something to this attitude of wanting to make them young men with a wider context to their lives.
Sue Jones
Frampton Mansell, Glos

DRUG WITHDRAWAL
Sir, I write further to your report “Prescription drug addicts turn to internet in absence of NHS help” (Jan 27). When I was in danger of becoming addicted to a strong painkiller after a major operation I was advised by an alternative medicine practitioner to take a nail file and file one stroke off each pill on the first day, increasing by an extra stroke each day.

By this means I was able to successfully wean myself off the drug with no discomfort or withdrawal symptoms.
Alan Miller
London N20

MUSICAL MELTDOWN
Sir, You write that the flautist Emmanuel Pahud would include the composer’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande among his desert-island discs (“The five-minute guide to Debussy”, Times2, Jan 26). When Bernard Levin was a castaway on the Radio 4 programme, he asked for a recording of the opera on LPs as his luxury, but not so that he could listen to it.

He wanted to lay the records on the sand under the burning sun and watch them melt.
Peter Best
London N19

Letters to the Editor should be sent to letters@thetimes.co.uk