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Letters

Wednesday, 12th September 2007

Running with the ball
Sir: Rod Liddle’s put-down of rugby in favour of football (‘A game devoid of skill’, 8 September) reminds me of the old adage that rugby is a game for hooligans played by gentlemen whereas football is a game for gentlemen played by hooligans.
Ronald Macdonell
Dingwall, Ross-shire

Silver, not gold
Sir: Paul Johnson asserts that the Maria Theresa thaler (‘still circulating as a currency in East Africa when I first went there in the 1950s’) was a gold coin (And another thing, 8 September). But it isn’t gold, as anybody who has spent time in Africa or the Levant knows. It is a silver coin, first minted in 1740 when the Empress succeeded her father, Charles VI of Hungary. Since 1780, the year of the Empress’s death, the coin was always dated with that year. I believe that the last minting was in Vienna in 2002.
Anthony Weale
Wellow, nr Bath

Arms race
Sir: Without wishing to comment on the content of Matthew Lynn’s article on Britain’s arms industry (Business, 25 August), it is a shame that someone chose to illustrate it with a picture of a M-113 — an American armoured vehicle.
Lt-Col N.J. Ridout
British Embassy, Tbilisi

The right Wainwright
Sir: Can I make clear, which my diary last week (8 September) did not, that Martin Wainwright is both the Guardian’s northern editor and the author of a fine new biography of the Lake District guru, Alfred Wainwright.
Rt Hon Denis MacShane MP
London SW1

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A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.