Nobody puts baby in a corner (or indeed a toilet) anymore (“If breastfeeding offends you, look the other way”, Barbara Ellen, Comment)! Twenty eight years ago I was shown into a toilet, with a chair in it, in order to feed my new baby son. I hasten to add that I did not stay there. I had thought that we, as a society, had come a long way since then. Establishments such as Claridge’s need to be fully aware of, and also implement, their obligations under the Equalities Act 2010.
This issue is not about feminism or exhibitionism; it is about feeding babies as nature intended and a large establishment’s apparent policy regarding “discretion” – a policy which no doubt contravenes the legislation. It is also about the obvious pressure put on women today: we are criticised if we cover too much flesh; condemned if we do not cover up enough; referred to as exhibitionists if we feed our children on demand in public.
Let us be clear, the World Health Organisation recommends that babies are solely breastfed for six months and breastfed (with other food) for two years. Women and their children are now free to feed anywhere, any time, anyhow they (and their babies and children) wish and this right is protected by the law. The pity is that such a law was necessary at all.
Isobel Kerrigan
Horsmonden
Kent
How to see off that cough
As an acoustician who devotes considerable effort to designing out extraneous noises from concert halls, it is disconcerting that this good work can be undone by people coughing (“Should you go to a concert with a cough?”, New Review).
Although the idea of free boiled sweets is a good one, I would like to suggest the provision of cough suppressors such as those used by game hunters. These are tubes lined with acoustic material and cost little. If they are good enough to make a cough inaudible to a nearby deer, they should be fine for keeping audience coughing below the threshold of disturbance.
Dr Raf Orlowski
Cambridge
Don’t do the dirty on cleaners
Congratulations on publicising the fate of the cleaners who have been left in the lurch by Saatchis (“The media giant, the cleaners and the £40,000 lost wages”, Comment). The amount owed to their cleaners by this huge media giant is a mere £40,000, and they have already offered 30% of this amount to the staff, Why not all of it? They were, after all, 100% responsible for outsourcing the cleaning, not 30%! Readers can do their bit to help by signing a petition to try to shame them into paying up, here: http://bit.ly/1z5LjMJ
Dr Richard Carter
London SW15
No need for a tizz over fizz
Combining the catering facilities within Westminster is a worthy goal that however misses the real reform that is needed (“Champagne wars in the Lords as peers say no to a cheaper vintage”, News) If members of parliament were to purchase their alcoholic drinks at market price, several benefits would accrue. The amount of alcohol consumed would go down, resulting in better health and better focus on the issues under consideration. Paying full price would increase tax revenues. And paying for champagne at full price could resolve the issue of combining catering facilities in favour of the cheaper option, which would result in additional savings.
Claudia Cullen
Leigh-on-Sea
Essex
Shame on the Lib Dems
I would rather not vote than use the “nosepeg strategy”, referred to by Andrew Rawnsley, in my Tory/Lib Dem marginal (in 2010 I voted Lib Dem and gave them some money towards their campaign) (“One leg in, one leg out. Nick Clegg had to take up the hokey-cokey”, Comment). Lib Dems have provided the Tories with a block of MPs who have enabled the most extremist rightwing government in my lifetime (born 1949) to do massive harm to our society.
Supporting failed austerity economics instead of sensible Keynesian public spending is only one of their many follies. The sheer naivety of Baroness Williams and Lord Ashdown convincing the Lib Dem conference that they had achieved changes to Andrew Lansley’s awful NHS bill was beyond stupidity – resulting in an NHS in crisis, semi-privatised, in the red – which even senior Tories admit was a disaster. All these follies, plus many others that have been foisted on us without an electoral mandate, should make the Lib Dems ashamed. They deserve to be annihilated in 2015!
Philip Wood
Kidlington
Oxon
You say tomato…
Following on from the letter from David Spaven about the US usage of train station instead of railway station, can I point out that Alex Salmond won’t be running for parliament, unless he is running in the US, but standing for parliament (“Salmond to run for seat in Westminster in 2015”).
John Alvey
Cranbrook
Kent
