Tom Wall highlights one of the great problems in our housing, lack of space, which is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic (“Two adults, five children, one room: ‘It’s really scary but what can I do?’”, News). We have a confusion of “overcrowding” standards in housing law and even the latest minimum standards for licensing of houses in multiple occupation originated in the 1930s – is 10.22 square metres really adequate for two people to live and sleep in as their permanent home? We need an overhaul of these standards that must recognise the adverse health effects of lack of space and crowding, including the spread of infectious diseases, unintentional injuries and mental ill health.
Prof Gabriel Scally, quoted in the article, is right: the housing market has led to the modern equivalent of the Victorian slums that the new diseases will just love. At the same time, we build the smallest new homes in Europe, so we are storing up problems for the future.
Dr Stephen Battersby
Surbiton, Surrey
Toby Helm quotes a fellow journalist in his article on “Boris Johnson’s darkest hour” (Focus) as saying that the PM “always seemed to regard being ill as a form of moral weakness”. Along with many others who have regarded Johnson’s elevation with concern for the future of this country, I am glad that he is recovering from his brush with Covid-19. But his attitude to illness, and the sense of invulnerability with which he appears to have been imbued, would help to explain the cavalier way in which he conducted himself immediately before his positive test for the virus, engaging widely with people from whom a safe distance should have been kept.
Further, his attitude must have some bearing on the question of why the government seems to have been slow to appreciate the seriousness of the virus, disregarding the lessons we should have learned from the example offered by other countries.
Christopher Martin
Bristol
“The reaction of the world’s most notable billionaires has been commendable,” you say (“Austerity is out of the question: the wealthiest must help pay for this crisis”, Business leader). Really? Donations of $100m to food banks, $1bn towards the pandemic and $100m for vaccines respectively from Jeff Bezos, Jack Dorsey and the Gates Foundation are not significant portions of their wealth but the difficulty with charitable gifts is that the donors decide what they give and what are worthy causes.
Charitable provision is no way to provide comprehensive healthcare. The wealthiest must indeed share the cost of the crisis according to their means but far better they are made to do this through a fair and progressive tax system to which everyone contributes and which incorporates harsh penalties for serial avoiders. Universal social priorities can then be decided by democratically elected representatives and those representatives held to account.
Dr Robin Richmond
Bromyard, Herefordshire
I was delighted to see the article on how using subtitles on lockdown TV can improve children’s literacy (“Read my lips: TV subtitles could boost child literacy”, News). I volunteer as a reading helper with Coram Beanstalk, which provides one-to-one literacy support, in a primary school and often suggest to the children that they ask their parents to turn on the television subtitles at home, as this helps with their reading. This also benefits children from families whose first language is not English.
My wife and I are both deaf and always use subtitled TV at home. Our two hearing daughters have grown up to accept this as normal and they often continue to use subtitles from habit now they are in their twenties, even though they do not need them.
The lockdown has highlighted the need to use all possible tools to improve literacy. Subtitling all children’s TV will make a valuable contribution to raising literacy so that all children, whether hearing or deaf, can continue to benefit from full access to all content.
Chris Harrowell
London NW3
The courage of Edna O’Brien
Having grown up and practised medicine in the Ireland of Edna O’Brien, during a time when she was ridiculed and shunned – both as a writer and as a person – it is heartening to see her artistic and personal integrity vigorously defended against the recent caustic attack by Ian Parker in the New Yorker (“Angry scholars back Edna O’Brien over ‘hatchet job’ in the New Yorker”, News).
Like James Joyce, O’Brien has always had the courage not only to hold up a mirror to her native land but also to shine a probing light into its dark recesses. She will be long remembered for what she has written – and not for what has been written about her.
Professor Chris Fitzpatrick
Dublin
Growing veg is a way of life
James Wong is right in saying that growing your own is neither cheap nor easy (“Grow your own veg, but it will only be for fun”, Magazine). However, he is perhaps ignoring the difference between startup costs and the scenario for those of us who have had allotments for decades. I cycle to my site. I recycle seeds, tubers. I make my own compost. I buy replacement tools from a recycle shop, grow only a few crops which always give a good return and yes, celery and parsnips are a no-go area.
It is way of life, not an occasional hobby. There is also the added bonus of having the best of gardening books, personified in one’s fellow gardeners, wandering round the site.
Andrew Dean
Exeter
Animals and human health
A big thank you to Nick Cohen for going where most other journalists fear to tread (“The link between abusing animals and the world’s health is now clear”, Comment). The only word in the headline that jars is “now”; we have known about the connection for several decades, so governments’ lack of action is inexcusable.
Elizabeth Adams
London N22
A working-class act
Writing about a previously unseen photo of the youthful Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Vanessa Thorpe refers to “lower-middle class gentility” (Comment). Which seems to suggest that the Beatles were lower middle class.
The only one who came anywhere near this social stratum was Lennon when he went to live with his Aunt Mimi after a tough early life. McCartney and Harrison were solidly working class, having been brought up on council estates, and Ringo, who isn’t in the photograph, had an even tougher upbringing.
David Lawrenson
Hampton, Greater London
