“Thoughtful” Tory MP Nick Boles (Tories should morally object to universal basic income, says MP, 29 December) claims that “mankind”, being “hardwired to work”, does not “find true fulfilment in writing poetry [and] playing music”. Since when did these activities not involve work?
Gareth Reeves
Durham
• There are people – I am one of them – who reckon that being an MP is better than working for a living. Nick Boles’ invocation of the Protestant work ethic in his reflection on universal basic income, along with the subsequent correspondence on the topic (Letters, 30 December), proves that this is the case. As Bertrand Russell long ago told us, work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. There is a third kind, yet more pleasant and rewarding, at which Boles and his fellow MPs excel: telling those doing Russell’s second kind of work to do more of it.
Latinised, “who drives the slave drivers?” would make a fine and apt motto for Mr Boles.
John Smith
Sheffield
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