A poor brand of democracy
It is perhaps trite as well as crass to point to two key indicators in your 25 November issue of Britain’s current crisis: the 66% pay rise for Her Majesty (Buckingham Palace to undergo refurbishment) and the revelation that 2 million self-employed workers earn less than £8 ($10) an hour (7m Britons shown to have little or no job security).
While some may claim that the Palace – and indeed the Queen – are valuable tourist assets, bringing in much needed revenue to post-Brexit Britain, this pales into insignificance in contrast with the seemingly inexorable whittling away of workers’ rights under this government, in the name of free enterprise bargaining.
How can any country claim to be a true democracy when such gross inequity is entrenched in its culture, from the overreliance on the south-east for employment growth and relative prosperity to the growing national divide between the haves and the have-nots? Is it pure coincidence that the cartoonists increasingly use Marie Antoinette as an avatar of Theresa May?
Noel Bird
Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
Cultural tragedy of war
Simon Jenkins, in his article about the cultural tragedy of the Iraq war (25 November), has rightly condemned George Bush and Tony Blair for instigating the disastrous invasion and its catastrophic consequences. However, Blair was not the only leader infatuated by Bush. Australian prime minister John Howard, dubbed “The Man of Steel” by Bush, was equally infatuated and dragged Australia into the war as rapidly as he could.
We must hope that Unesco can be overcome and that we can at least make some small atonement for what we have done.
Michael Manhire
Perth, Western Australia
• I was pleased to read Simon Jenkins’s comments on rebuilding destroyed buildings of great significance. When I was teaching English in Vietnam, I was shown one of the most symbolic buildings in Hanoi, the celebrated Buddhist Temple, the One Pillar Pagoda. I was told that the French had completely destroyed it in anger when they had to abandon the country but it had been immediately rebuilt.
So much better to see it as it was rather than gaze at a heap of preserved rubble. Unesco have certainly got it wrong here.
Pat Stapleton
Beaumont du Ventoux, France
Bombing isn’t the answer
In the article Libya hit by currency collapse (25 November) Patrick Wintour claims that the dramatic GDP loss faced by Libya renders it “the worst-hit from the political upheavals caused by the Arab spring”.
It was not the upheaval but the bombing of the UK, US and France that destroyed a former stable state and the wealthiest African country. Roughly 50,000 people died after the west intervened, dropped thousands of bombs and turned Libya into a failed state.
If we do not stick to the truth, how are we supposed to have a better outcome in the future?
Steffen Müller
Hastings, UK
Australia is snakebitten
When I saw the headline Man gets bitten by two snakes in three days (2 December), I knew it must be Australia. I got to thinking that publicising stories like that about Australian native fauna might be a more cost-effective way of deterring asylum seekers than naval operations to turn them back and offshore detention centres that threaten to make their lives a living hell.
Then again, the image of a continent teeming with venomous snakes and other dangerous critters might put tourists and foreign investors off too.
Lawrie Bradly
Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
Putting Castro in context
I won’t deny what Zoe Williams has levelled against Fidel Castro’s rule in Cuba (2 December). What is not considered is the context.
Is it reasonable to expect rebels who triumph over a corrupt regime to introduce a system of democracy similar to what we might expect 60 years later? And in the aftermath of a bloody revolution at the feet of the most powerful capitalist nation? Or at a time where enemies threaten the new nation with violence, invasion and embargo?
When neighbouring Latin American nations, fearful of rebellion spreading, pose their own threats? Or when, as Chile learned with Allende, the ballot box is just as threatening to the right as revolution?
Those who overturn a system are rarely given a peaceful period in which to adjust, let alone to consider all the interests of society in rebuilding from scratch, free of the need for vigilance.
Byron Comninos
Bronte, NSW, Australia
Poor generation for music
John Harris’s piece on the high cost of pop struck a chord (25 November). In the late noughties, nearing retirement, I would frequent a concert venue just outside Toulouse where you could see a decent band for the equivalent of $20. The likes of Supergrass, Klaxons, Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye, the Kooks, Rakes, Razorlight and Vampire Weekend may mean nothing to some, but were the forefront of what is termed pop rock of the day. The groups would do these small gigs as a runup to the arena and festival bashes.
That has gone, and some of the groups with it. The term popular music is an anachronism. We wondered if things weren’t quite right with generations nurtured on the wave of pop, but the generation that is growing up with manufactured, trite and un-original sound is the poorer for it.
E Slack
L’Isle Jourdain, France
Briefly
• Proponents of so-called free trade deals used to label their opponents “protectionist” (11 November). Nowadays, the more disingenuous among them simply apply the inaccurate and grossly oversimplifying label “anti-trade”. It is, of course, an insult to the intelligence of the public to claim that anyone who has concerns about the details of these voluminous legal contracts is therefore opposed to trade as a general principle. I expect better from the Guardian Weekly, however, which is why I was particularly affronted by Natalie Nougayrède’s resorting to this foolish rhetorical trick.
Greg DePaco
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
• Amid all the fanfare over the prowess and puffed-up looks of the luxury watch brands, one aspect was left unmentioned: the durability and reliability of the devices (25 November). Do they come with a 100 year/5,200-wind warranty, and can they be tinkered about by my corner shop?
Were I to posit such an impudent inquiry to the arch-salesperson, doubtless she would retort sniffily, “If you need to know such things, perhaps you shouldn’t have one.” If you sport the Rolls-Royce of watches, isn’t this the prime consideration? Aren’t the jewels inside more important than those outside?
R M Fransson
Wheat Ridge, Colorado, US
• Concerning your editorial in the 18 November issue titled: A dark day for the world: as serious as all the social and political concerns the article raises are, I believe it fails to explicitly address what I believe to be actually the most important threat posed by the upcoming Trump administration – the potential intensification of the decline of the ecological status of the planet. Although the last paragraph in the article can be interpreted to implicitly include this issue, I believe it points to the possible social destabilisation of the world.
Alberto Vásquez
Buenos Aires, Argentina
• I read Paul MacInnes’s piece (25 November) in which he tried to persuade me that the lack of atmosphere at English Premier League football stadiums is due to the seat-selling strategy of clubs and their bias towards season tickets. I was not convinced. I believe that there is a much simpler explanation and one that many people have known for a long time – football simply isn’t all that exciting.
Alan Williams-Key
Madrid, Spain
• The captivating writing that pervades the quartet of Neopolitan novels by Elena Ferrante (whoever she is) has rendered me a grass widower for the last fortnight, my wife being lost to reading. With the publication of Ferrante’s Frantumaglia (Books, 18 November), now I find that it will be yet another week before I get her back.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Email letters for publication to weekly.letters@theguardian.com
