“Housing should be at the top of the list of subjects to be re-examined [after Covid],” writes Phillip Inman (“Jenrick must stop this race for houses at all costs”, Business). True, but unfortunately, as Inman says, “Jenrick will give permission for infrastructure that few will use” and worse still, “private developers will be allowed to build dehumanising homes that are in the wrong place and do nothing to tackle climate change”. The area of expertise of the housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, would seem to be “to side with developers at every turn” and not to the benefit of those in need of housing.
Carolyn Kirton
Aberdeen
There is a lack of housing in our country but it is made worse by many things, the geographical location issues Phillip Inman raises being among them. Another is the obsession with getting into a third of a century’s debt for the right to live in the collateral that is called owning your home. When discussing the costs falling on leaseholders in tower blocks afflicted with post-Grenfell works, Robert Jenrick said they had “done the right thing” in getting on the housing ladder. The implication of this conservative setting of the options is that tenants are not doing the right thing and are somehow undeserving. The provision of lifetime homes for the kind of rent that council housing did and does supply should be a priority.
Nik Wood
London E9
Forget electric. Consume less
An interesting coincidence of articles in last week’s Observer. In the Business section, Octopus Energy promises a carbon-free future with consumers storing cheap, green electricity in banks of batteries at home and in their electric cars (“Energy needs a digital revolution, and we’re it”). But nothing comes without cost, as reported in “Child labour, toxic leaks: the price we could pay for a greener future” (News). The demand from rich countries for rare and even common minerals is already fuelling wars as well as unacceptable labour practices and ecological destruction.
We cannot tackle the climate emergency and hope to continue our rapacious habits. Today’s solution is tomorrow’s problem by virtue of the sheer numbers of humanity, the majority of whom consume next to nothing. We share this little planet with 7 billion others, not to mention all the other species. So let’s forget about an electric vehicle world and start learning to live with less. It might just be the saving of us.
J Shippam
Yapton, Arundel
West Sussex
The name’s Judith…
I was slightly miffed when Dame Judi Dench revealed how she was named Judith by a famous clairvoyant but now says “which, fortunately, now I’m never called” (“That’s the spirit! Judi Dench reveals how a clairvoyant chose her name”, News). I must admit that, although I am Judy to my family, I prefer Judith.
I possess a treasured coaster, which states: “Judith: she is well organised, friendly and artistic; she has a flair for writing.” I cannot act for toffee.
Judith A Daniels
Cobholm, Great Yarmouth
Norfolk
Urgent need for tax reform
Two revelations combine to make a powerful case for UK tax reform. First, research by the Resolution Foundation reported by Michael Savage shows that the wealth held by the richest is a staggering £800bn greater than officially estimated (“Shock figures reveal extent of wealth gap for richest 1%”, News). Second, Paul Lashmar and Jonathan Smith report that Richard Drax, the wealthiest sitting MP, belatedly registered his ownership of large estates in the UK and Barbados after an article the previous week exposing his failure to register interests (“Reparations row MP adds plantation to his register of interests”, News).
Put together, these examples of the role of land in intensifying gross inequality make an unanswerable case for property taxes to be levied at a level sufficient to deter hoarding and speculation. The revenues generated could go a long way to helping the country “level up”.
Geoffrey Payne
London W5
Red walls and other myths
Kenan Malik’s analysis is spot on (“It’s too easy to lapse into stereotypes when we talk about ‘red wall’ seats”, Comment). I come from one of these northern “red wall” areas and am fed up with the stereotyping that Malik highlights. The decades-long dominance of the majority Tory-supporting press has been the main factor in sustaining an agenda that promotes “social conservatism” and the mythology surrounding English exceptionalism and its current fulfilment in Brexit. This hegemonic agenda simplifies and finds easy scapegoats such as east European immigrants.
Keir Starmer is wrong to assume that working-class communities will only be persuaded to return to a broad Labour affiliation if he accepts this economically illiterate and profoundly damaging Brexit deal. As Margaret Thatcher, whose revolution I detested and considered massively harmful, demonstrated, conviction politics is very attractive to aspirant, skilled, working-class families, exemplified by the selling-off of council houses. As Malik says, politics is about “standing on a set of principles and trying to win people over”.
Philip Wood
Kidlington, Oxfordshire
Education requires leaders
Sonia Sodha’s scathing criticism of Gavin Williamson was not only timely but a summation of all things wrong with successive government ministers attempting to adopt a role for which they are blatantly ill equipped (“Meet the new breed of cabinet minister – too rubbish to fail”, Comment). Although rather too late to redeem the current fiasco relating to the pandemic, it is high time government sought to work closely with education leaders to secure the future of our children. If “playing politics is a game, not about getting stuff done”, then a national education steering group with real clout, involving the representatives of the country’s school and college leaders is, surely, the only way. For education policy to be fit for purpose and to encapsulate real vision, it needs to be guided by such leaders who have the vision, experience and integrity to advise.
Michael Grimes
Heacham, Norfolk
Friday on my mind
Tina Rowe’s letter (“Don’t judge a book...”) reminds me of having found sexologist Nancy Friday’s Women on Top in the management section of the City University of Hong Kong’s bookshop in 1993.
Robert Morgan
Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire
