A shame that your feature on the wonderful Katharine Whitehorn included no eulogies from men (“Dear Katharine… This is how you changed our view of the world”, Focus). Reading her column regularly as a teenager, I was inspired by her all-round humanism to think about how “the other half” lived. With more of Whitehorn’s gift for examining self as well as others, we might now be living in a less divided world.
Steve Gooch
Robertsbridge, East Sussex
While I agree with the comments of your contributors to the piece on Katherine Whitehorn, I did feel there was a gap: the grateful male. My thank-you for her work goes back to her little volume, Cooking in a Bedsitter. My mum gave me a copy when I left home in 1970. The simplicity of her approach and language led me into cooking so easily that the joy of preparing good food remains with me to this day.
However, so enthusiastic was I that I overlooked her beginner’s index. With no understanding of what a clove of garlic was, I chopped up two bulbs of garlic for her spaghetti bolognese recipe. For two days, my flatmate and I found lots of space in the busy pub we frequented.
Ian Lowrie
Brighton
NHS reform, part II
Seb Taylor (Letters: “A blueprint for NHS reform”) asks: “Who will pay?” and gives one answer: “Proportional contributions should be drawn from all constituencies, through an amalgam tax…” But there is a more radical and just solution.
A general tax rise would be unnecessary if we elected a government that cared about the NHS, a government determined to end the obscenity of tax havens, offshore loopholes, non-dom farce and sweetheart HMRC/business deals. HMRC’s leadership has to be shaken up, its workforce doubled or tripled, employing people with tenacity, not in awe of the powerful, given real teeth to do their job of tax collection, not forgetting investigation into “accountancy” firms specialising in aggressive tax-avoidance schemes. That government must also legislate for worker representation on the boards of major companies and financial institutions in order to bring some sanity to the level of boardroom pay.
Coupled with Mike McGrath’s suggestion (also Letters) of scrapping Trident, we would suddenly find enough revenue to enable a well-governed Britain to become a society to be proud of.
Eddie Dougall
Walsham le Willows
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
A level playing field for all
The general secretary of the Independent Schools Council believes that schools “having a broad social mix which reflects our society is incredibly important” (“Private schools ‘abuse charity status’ by giving discount to richer families”, News). How incredibly naive. Of course it’s “incredibly important” but it’s the sector she represents that not only fails to meet the wishes of many of its original founders but also perpetuates the grossest of current educational inequalities. It’s “incredibly important” that the independent sector is not just reformed but abolished altogether.
Colin Richards
Spark Bridge, Cumbria
Breaking silence on abortion
Jess Phillips writes that her decision to have an abortion was not a big deal (“I had an abortion and I will keep fighting for this right for all”, Comment).
In the course of a two-year study into the Abortion Act (1967), we have found just one example of an MP being similarly prepared to talk publicly about a personal decision to end a pregnancy. In 1966, in the debates leading to the introduction of the act, Edward Lyons MP told parliament how he and his wife had decided to terminate her pregnancy following her exposure to rubella. MPs’ reluctance to speak about this aspect of their lives reflects a wider silence and stigma. While abortion may be a very common medical procedure, Phillips is the first MP to break this silence in over five decades. That is certainly a big deal.
Professor Sally Sheldon and Dr Clare Parker (University of Kent), Dr Gayle Davis and Dr Jane O’Neill (University of Edinburgh)
All praise to the director
Anyone reading Rachel Cooke’s article about A Very English Scandal would be led to conclude that Russell T Davies’s scripts had somehow magicked themselves into three wonderful TV hours without benefit of director (“A Very English Scandal, a timeless portrayal of the human heart”, Comment). In fact, for supervising the excellent performances, the visual reproduction of the UK in the 60s and 70s, the witty music and graphics and the pace of editing, we have to thank Stephen Frears.
Karl Sabbagh
Bloxham, Oxfordshire
Time to move on, Germaine
I agree with Barbara Ellen (“Germaine, your shock-jock musings just alienate today’s young feminists”, Comment). As a 64-year-old feminist, I feel Germaine Greer has little understanding or empathy for the devastating life change rape inflicts. It is a criminal act, not “bad sex”!
She and Jilly Cooper are reflecting the paradigm of the 60s, believing the patriarchy that men need sex and women just have to give. Disappointingly, it feels like she’s back to the time of blaming the woman for the rape and for complaining. As a woman who marched against violence, I am proud to see my two daughters and their generation carry the mantle for all those women who went before, still fighting. So please, Germaine and Jilly, start listening to younger women and move on.
Janet M Ferry
Newcastle upon Tyne
Not so splendid isolation
Interesting that Conservative Brexiter Crispin Odey cites Elizabeth I as a role model (“‘Replace May with Gove to sort out Brexit’ – Tory donor”, News). During this period of isolation from Europe, the country was essentially broke and Elizabeth was forced to rely on pirates (“privateers”) to steal Spanish gold. When the armada arrived, the queen ran out of money to pay the sailors and worried that if the Spanish landed, the local militias would fight each other rather than the enemy. Deja vu, anyone?
Will Fuller
Lewes, East Sussex
Erring on the side of caution
Nick Cohen (“The unsavoury alliance between oligarchs and London’s top lawyers”, Comment) refers to lawyers Anthony Julius and Geraldine Proudler when he says: “I’m sure in private they love investigative journalism, freedom of expression and the right to hold the powerful to account. Perhaps the firms to which they belong love money more.” I commend Nick for the necessary bravery required in making any such statement. My inkling, however, is that he is being unnecessarily polite.
Anthony Douglass
Durham
Sob stories
Come on, Barry Glendenning, a list of “the most ridiculous and embarrassing circumstances imaginable” that result in copious male sobbing has to include the final episode of Friends (“There’s no shame in football turning into the crying game”, Sport). Then there are Father’s Day cards, plus the very occasional time when something pleasant is said about you in public and, of course, a list of “ridiculous and embarrassing circumstances” that start other people off. Barry’s certainly got me started!
Bernie Evans
Liverpool
