• Britain’s generational blame game
The report on the polarisation of Britain (21 June) reveals a shocking truth: that many people over 65 in the UK blame the younger generation for a perceived decline in values and status in the world.
As a committed European of 67 who benefited from the welfare state, free education and EU membership, I am appalled at the attitude of many of my contemporaries. They literally – to quote Harold Macmillan – “never had it so good” when they were younger, but were betrayed by short-sighted governments and a right-wing press that kept them ignorant of the facts.
Now, after Farage and Johnson have done their dirty work – which if Brexit is implemented, will make many people in the poorer regions of the UK even poorer – they want to blame their children and grandchildren for the present malaise.
As for the “liberal snowflakes”, they will struggle for decades to pay back student debt and give their children a decent life. They may also find those ungrateful parents and grandparents relying on them for the care they will no longer be able to afford if associates of Trump get their hands on the NHS.
Those older people seem to have forgotten a simple truth: that their behaviour often serves as the example. I suggest some of your interviewees hold a mirror to their own faces.
Janet Berridge
Berlin, Germany
• So, is it Boris or Jeremy in wonderland, with their curious perceptions of the world through the looking-glass? (28 June) One of them will be chosen by a small coterie of mainly white, southern English men. Isn’t democracy wonderful?
Trevor Rigg
Edinburgh, UK
• Recent Gulf events may not be what they seem
The recent attacks on Persian Gulf oil tankers (21 June) and a US drone have been well-covered by the media, but without any historical depth. The US has a history of manufacturing incidents to justify invasions of other countries.
The non-existent weapons of mass destruction that precipitated the Iraq war is the most recent example, but there are several others. No one will remember the false claims of a Spanish attack on the Battleship Maine in 1898 that started the Spanish American War, nor will many recall the manufactured Gulf of Tonkin incident that expanded the war against Vietnam. The justification of the invasion of Grenada was the “endangered” lives of American students.
Given this history, it is certainly plausible that the US and its Middle East allies are behind recent incidents in the Gulf to justify a future invasion. If nothing else, history should teach us to keep an open mind.
Michael Taft
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• View of conflicts depends on perspective
Simon Tisdall’s view (In a world full of conflicts, why do we ignore so many? 14 June) is clearly an Anglophile one. If, like me, you watch and read French media, you will have a very different view of what is going on. In France I can assure you there is no shortage of reports about conflicts, especially on the African continent, where I am very much aware of the French military presence in sub-Saharan Africa.
Val Wake
Lodeve, France
• Tax cuts benefit no one but the super-rich
Bravo to Jonathan Aldred (Bad economics, 14 June) for a pithy and insightful essay regarding the necessity for governments to reduce inequality. In his analysis, however, he omitted an important component of the array of myths underpinning inequality: governments, particularly western capitalist democracies, cutting taxes to “stimulate the economy”. The truth is that government spending is a far more efficient way of creating employment, reducing unemployment, and moving an economy forward than cutting taxes.
Tax cuts are popularly peddled as putting more money in the hands of working people. Its a very appealing pitch. But the effects in the economy are minimal at best. They favour the wealthy, and do little to create employment or tangible benefits for society as a whole.
Robert Milan
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
• A lexicographical cure for the Trump blues
Searching through my OED while doing the quick crossword, I found the word ‘trumpery’: n and a 1. Worthless finery; rubbish; nonsense. 2. adj. Showy but worthless, delusive, shallow. (f F tromperie, (tromper: deceive).
I immediately felt better after all the depressing articles I’d just read regarding the US president, especially ‘All in’ from the 28 June issue.
From now on, I will only call him Trumpery. It works on so many levels.
Gai Dudley
Adelaide, South Australia
