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Letters

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday, 17th October 2007

Those of us who greatly admire the Liberal Democrat stand on civil liberties and unfair taxes such as Council tax, which is not based on the ability to pay, cannot reconcile this with their desire to subsume our country ever deeper into the EU. Can’t they see that this totalitarian regime, governed by a political elite, unelected and unaccountable to the people, is neither democratic nor liberal and is the antithesis of freedom and self-government?

Additionally, the Liberal Democrats are breaking their election promise by denying a referendum on the renamed constitutional treaty. How can they expect us floating voters to vote for them with this in mind?

Bill Woodhouse
Mappowder, Dorset

Our Christian foundations

Sir: ‘I don’t want to live in a society where I get stoned for committing adultery; I want to live in a society where I get stoned, and then commit adultery.’ So, epigrammatically, the Spectator/Intelligence2 debate about culture declares its conclusions (Lloyd Evans, 13 October). The motion was, ‘We should not be reluctant to assert the superiority of Western values.’

But what are these values? Low-brow hedonism, sex and shopping; abortion on demand, in fact as a means of contraception; a lewd and trivial entertainments industry and vile popular culture.

What we are seeing is not a society that offers a morally serious challenge to militant Islam, but one which has lost its nerve because it has given up its Christian faith. For a thousand years Christianity taught us how to think and how to feel and how to behave. Chivalry, self-restraint, service to others, examination of one’s conscience — these all have their origin in Christianity. The mistake made by the secularised sophists is to think that civilised society will somehow remain even as we abandon Christianity. It won’t.

The Revd Dr Peter Mullen
Rector of St Michael’s Cornhill, London EC3

Are rights right?

Sir: Douglas Murray is right: ‘Decades of intense structural relativism and designer tribalism have made us terrified of passing judgment’ (‘Don’t be afraid to say it’, 6 October). It is indeed ‘time we spoke up’. But for what?

Sadly, his article epitomises the muddled thinking which brought us here. He notes in passing that ‘it is no coincidence that equality before the law arose out of Judaeo-Christian ethics’, but goes on to portray Western values in terms of the culture of ‘rights’ which his article repeatedly refers to, not Judaeo-Christian values.

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Bryan Stokes

March 11th, 2008 5:03am

Paul Johnson's 'Ten Perfect Poems ...' (1March, '08, page 25) is a very stimulating contribution to modern literature. What weekly magazine, apart from yours and perhaps the Atlantic Monthly, would devote so much space and money to such a frivilous essay? I appreciate that,as Mr Johnson states, every selection of short English poems is subjective & personal, but how eclectic and idiosycratic of him to choose thus. It speaks volumes for both his formal and subsequent self-education. I'd never heard of Francis Thompson and so thoroughly enjoyed 'At Lords' once I'd googled it and printed it off, as I did all those mentioned and selected, thanks to the marvels of the internet. Mr. Johnson surely is a true polymath along with James & Rushdie. Here in Perth West Australia, at the antipodes, we feel a little cut off from London's literary life, but thanks to the Johnsons and your other fine columnists (especially 'Ancient & Modern's Peter James) civilization seems a little closer, remebering Singapore & Sydney are 4 hours away by plane. I thoroughly enjoy your magazine (Joan Collins' Oscar notes were amusing as was Rod Liddle's take on Boris' mayoral antics. Thanks for everything - a real joy!