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Letters

Wednesday, 12th March 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles.

Ted Tedford

Bacton, Norfolk

Injurious Taki

Sir: Do any of the editorial staff read Taki’s outpourings prior to publication? This week’s rant (High life, 8 March) about the NHS should have received closer scrutiny before going to press. By his own admission, Taki has never had to go to a hospital in Britain. His views on the subject are therefore, at best, second-hand. Lord Mancroft’s recent unfortunate outburst is of dubious veracity and cannot be used as support for Taki’s opinions.

There is a rigorous NHS complaints procedure to help dissatisfied patients, including Lord Mancroft. A letter to the local hospital is an appropriate first step. If unhappy with the outcome, patients can then discuss their complaints with the Healthcare Commission: misusing a platform in the House of Lords benefits nobody. Taki would be taken more seriously if he visited a few hospitals in this country and awaited the conclusion of any Healthcare Commission investigation of Lord Mancroft’s complaint. In the meantime, his musings amount merely to so much drivel.

Craig Goldsack

Chairman, Department of Anaesthesia,

University College Hospital, London NW1

Lost soul

Sir: Many of your Christian readers will respond to Martin Rowson (‘I could never believe in God’, 8 March) not by trying to pick holes in his atheist ramblings, as he seems to expect, but by quietly praying for his lost soul. Many, like me, will also be thinking to themselves: ‘What a tedious and nauseating chap!’

Gus Teljer

Little Massingham, Norfolk

Personal testament

Sir: At a recent Westminster Abbey memorial service I was invited to read a passage from the New Testament. Despite an expressed preference for the King James Authorised Version, the Abbey authorities made clear they expected the modernised text — which, they informed me, ‘is the one used by the Abbey’ — to be adhered to, and I reluctantly complied.

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Letters

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Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Your chance to vote in the Spectator awards

James Forsyth

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