Philip Guston potentially risked his life by satirising a white supremacist hate group in order to expose systemic racism (“Sense or censorship? Row over Klan images in Tate’s postponed show”, News).
By putting off his retrospective, we are failing him and should be ashamed of ourselves. As a Jewish painter, he had a right to defend humanity against the Klan’s evil brutality. Riding Around (1969) bravely exposes its members as fools driving Flintstone-style cars in badly stitched hoods. Their wordless cartoon think bubbles come from an empty brain filled with smoke. Their red hands, clumsy and oversized, are full of blood and death. He even includes himself in the ridicule: “I almost tried to imagine that I was living with the clan” – no one is immune from ignorance and its potential for harm.
Surely now, if any, is a moment not to delay but to take a stand against rightwing extremism. Who is really behind this attempt to suppress his work? Possibly the very people he aimed to expose.
Ian Ellis, Tutor, Putney School of Art,
London, SW11
Lessons from Sweden
Nick Cohen’s piece on learning from Sweden (“Welcome to libertarian fantasy land – that’s Sweden to you and me”, Comment) showed how much the Swedish government support those who are unemployed and how our government could learn from them.
In line with this is a recent scheme carried out by an experienced headteacher in Stockholm, pioneered by Engelska (a federation of 39 English-speaking schools in Sweden) where he selected suitable and appropriate Swedes who had recently been made redundant to give them a short intensive training course so they could fill in for teachers in schools who were having to self-isolate, in order that schools did not have to close.
Why can’t a scheme like this be introduced in the UK to protect children from the disruption of their classes being cancelled at short notice due to teachers’ absences? And can we side-step bureaucratic restrictions in order to think more creatively?
Penny Elder
London N10
The business of universities
Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, is right in her assessment of the government and university vice-chancellors “selling students a lie” about attending higher education in contemporary times (“‘We came all this way to start a new life’: the misery of Glasgow’s lockdown freshers”, News).
This analysis is unsurprising as the higher education sector has been selling a lie since 1998, when the marketisation of universities was initiated under a Labour government through the introduction of student fees.
Universities are now businesses, portraying themselves in whatever light - how truthful that is or not - in order to, as Kennedy states, “prioritise their income over the safety of students”. Since 1998, universities have sold the lie that whatever degree you did, it would enhance your life chances – clearly an untruth given the decline in graduate jobs in austerity Britain.
Moreover, as Kennedy reflects, “if we’re going to see universities act in the interest of student… safety, the government needs to underwrite this”. In the current context, abolishing student fees and covering student living costs with a grant would be a start.
Dr Charlie Cooper
Nottingham
Johnson must carry the can
Should Boris Johnson be replaced or resign from office this must not allow him to evade responsibility for the damage he has done to democracy and the UK (“How Sunak wooed the press – and sparked furore over No 10 challenge”, News).
Johnson, Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove have wilfully abused our democracy and must be held accountable. The wilful neglect of Russian interference, in the EU referendum, is complicity. The £350m-a-week for the NHS a lie. The prorogation of parliament unlawful. Giving massive contracts and public money to favoured “friends” without scrutiny is corruption. Manipulating the visceral emotions of populism has degraded democracy. I suggest that this is no less than a form of treason.
Howard Eaglestone
Leeds
There’s no shame in remain
It ought to be obvious to any progressive party of the centre/left that we need “a greener economy and fairer society in a more caring country” (“We lost the battle for Europe – we must move on, Davey warns Lib Dem activists”, News). The Lib Dems need to prioritise working with Labour and the Greens to bring about proportional representation and a written constitution to enable the devolution of power.
At the last election there was a majority of voters for remaining in the EU after the appalling mess created by the referendum. It would be perfectly legitimate for the centre/left parties to jointly campaign to stay in EFTA and a customs union that would more accurately reflect the actual referendum result.
It is madness for Starmer and Davey to be embarrassed for believing that staying close to the EU is in the national interest. Just because Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn were arrogant and inept in opting for an election is no excuse for failing to provide political leadership on this existential issue.
“Listening” to an electorate is all very well but a lot of public opinion is in thrall to an agenda shaped by our mainly rightwing press, which also infects the BBC and other institutions locked in a culture war with ultra-rightwing ideologues in No 10, hellbent on a Trump-like revolution. We need a progressive ideological fightback or these New Tories will retain power for the foreseeable future.
Philip Wood
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
All dressed up…
Lawyer Ayesha Vardag’s advice to women employees on appropriate work wear (“It’s bosses who tell people how to dress who deserve a dressing down”, Comment) reminds me of a staff meeting called by the male headteacher of a comprehensive school in 1970 when I was a young teacher.
Female staff had daringly asked for permission to wear trousers to work. After reciting a poem likening the rear view of a woman in trousers to that of a hippopotamus, he pronounced that we could wear trousers, provided that we also wore hip-length cardigans. These would cover our behinds, he said, which “looked obscene” without this coverage. Nobody protested.
We don’t seem to have travelled far in 50 years if even women managers want to control their employees like this.
Vivien Bailey
St Albans, Hertfordshire
Tikka masala’s true home?
Madhur Jaffrey speculates that chicken tikka masala may have originated in Birmingham (“20 Best Autumn Recipes”, Observer Food Monthly).
In fact, the dish was created in the 1970s by the owner of the Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow. He added spices to a tin of condensed tomato soup to make a gravy after a customer complained his chicken was dry.
The rest is history. So much so that in 2009 Glasgow applied for protected designation of origin status to have the dish renamed the Glasgow Tikka Masala.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
