As a lifelong Manchester City supporter and season ticket holder (even in the days when we were penniless in the third tier), I read with interest Nick Cohen’s article on the use of our club as a vehicle for Abu Dhabi soft power and the moral issues it throws up (“Man City play beautiful football but it masks the ugliness of their owners”, Comment). The assumption is that Manchester City fans have become like “gangsters’ molls” and willing accomplices, ignoring the human rights abuses in their thirst for glory.
Without wishing to characterise Cohen as a “puritanical nag” (to use his phrase), his observations highlight just how dangerous a place the moral high ground is and that moral relativism is not the sole preserve of some City supporters. Do we equally condemn the UK government and workers when Gulf states buy arms to oppress their own and neighbouring people or a UK racing industry heavily dependent on Gulf cash? We will soon be watching the 2022 World Cup in stadiums built on the exploitation of migrant workers, while wearing replica outfits produced in sweatshops in China and Bangladesh.
On the wider issue of the ownership of football clubs, how wonderful would it be to send packing the oligarchs, the sovereign wealth funds and assorted venture capitalists trading on the deep emotional bond between clubs and their supporters and adopt the German model of fan-based ownership. On that I am sure Cohen and the majority of Manchester City supporters could agree.
David Cronin
Stockport
What’s more important – football or human rights? The latter every time. As a City fan of 65 years standing, I’ve loved the privilege of watching the likes of David Silva playing and know the quality on view is only possible because of the massive investment of the owners. Those same owners have also regenerated a biggish area of east Manchester, creating many jobs. All good.
On the other hand, I know the human rights record of Abu Dhabi leaves much to be desired. Would I like the regime to improve its human rights record? Very much so. Will that happen? I hope so, but wouldn’t put money on it. Ought I to end my love affair with City? Possibly/probably. Trouble is, I don’t think I can!
Alf Orton
Romford, Essex
The wrong sort of novelist?
Well, this is a puzzle. Of the last 13 books I have read, 12 were written by women. This wasn’t a conscious effort. It just worked out that way. Yet not one of the authors featured in the long article “Where are the all the young male novelists?” (the New Review). I’m mortified. Am I reading the wrong sort of female novelist? Is Zadie Smith now a guilty pleasure? Should I cover my Donna Tartts with wallpaper to disguise them? What’s going on? I need to know.
David Williams
Leeds
The shameless quad
Samuel Johnson wrote: “Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.” I used to think this an overly cynical analysis but Will Hutton’s excellent article (“Public squalor and private wealth: how the ‘austerity quad’ sold their souls”, Comment) details how, shamelessly, Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Alexander did exactly that.
Dr Bill Jones
Beverley, East Yorkshire
Labour needs Scotland
Andrew Rawnsley is surely right that the Labour party must start appealing to people all over England and not just rely on its traditional heartlands where its vote is waning (“Labour won’t see power again until it remembers the essentials of winning”, Comment). He is also right that Labour should seriously commit to reform of the first-past-the post voting system.
However, he omits one of the main reasons the party looks unable to form a government in the immediate future: in Scotland, the Labour vote has collapsed. The reason Tony Blair was able to win successive elections was not merely because of his supposedly successful centrism, it was largely because Labour in the 1990s was the party of Scotland and Wales and not simply of England. It is surely evident that Labour cannot return to power without it once again becoming a serious electoral force north of the border.
Stephen Chappell
Upper Colwall, Herefordshire
Don’t tax boomers
Rowan Moore (Notebook) advocates a tax on “boomers” because of the inflation in property values. Yet he seems oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of boomers will be living in the property as their home, so to “realise the value” they would have to sell and then buy in the same market. An increased property value does not mean the council tax is reduced, or the repair and maintenance bills are lower, or the utilities cost less. Where is the money for a tax going to come from?
Joe Oldaker
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Teasing out the truth
In Tim Adams’s interesting interview, Daniel Kahneman states that “it’s not in the interest of the judicial community to investigate themselves” (Q&A, the New Review). We pride ourselves on our adversarial system that enables evidence to be teased out mercilessly to get to the truth. At least 39 Post Office workers have, through no fault of their own, been punished and their lives ruined by the law, which clearly failed to find that the evidence was wrong. Surely this is worthy of some investigation.
Peter Barbor
Wambrook, Chard, Somerset
Oil’s time is up
That a major oil company intends to spend just $2bn to $3bn on renewables a year should come as no surprise (“Eco investors turn up the heat on Shell over climate target”, Business), especially as the price of oil is rising nicely towards $70 a barrel.
Shell’s directors want to make hay while the sun shines on the production of oil – because they know it won’t be shining for long. CEO Ben van Beurden said in October 2020 that the company’s oil output probably stopped growing in 2019. So peak oil demand is already here. BP’s “Outlook 2020” comes to the same conclusion.
The end of oil demand growth won’t mean a precipitous fall – the transition to a global green economy will take years – but even a gradual drop may trigger a scramble to harvest and go, with dire consequences for oil prices, company profits and investor returns.
Perhaps eco-minded oil company investors, rather than quibble over percentage points of renewable spending, would be better off quitting the oil sector entirely.
Eurof Thomas
Cardiff
Penguin tartare, anyone?
As Observer Food Monthly has always tried to provide ideas for the most adventurous palate, may I ask why Roald Amundsen’s Antarctic Penguin Surprise with a blood and cod liver oil jus was not included in this month’s magazine, with an idea of cooking time and suitable veg? (“The secret of how Amundsen beat Scott in race to south pole… a diet of raw penguin”, News.)
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal
