Michael Henderson suggests

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Letters

Wednesday, 21st May 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Secondly, he seems to overthrow all moral teaching and takes it as a given that ‘no one has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body’. On the contrary, Scripture is clear on the limits for all people, what they may and may not do, and if these limits are overstepped, this is clearly stated to be sinful.

Thirdly, he claims Jesus Himself called him to ‘come out’, although the imagery is somewhat confused here. He attributes to Jesus forgiveness of sin where there is no repentance. Indeed, he also implies that Jesus has overturned Scripture, which of course He Himself said could never be done.

Finally, he wants to ‘be in a church in which all the different opinions are included’, as if a church were a debating society.

We should be grateful for these statements, as it shows that what he preaches is not the Christian Gospel but a new ‘gospel’ and a new ‘way of life’, not the godly, holy way described in the New Testament.

Nigel Stone
London SW19

Religious howlers

Sir: With reference to Eric Brown (Letters, 17 May), verbal anachronisms are not the only plague in Foyle’s War. Its religious howlers are worse. In a recent episode, the murderer was a fake German refugee priest, shown (impossibly) conducting choir practice before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance. His devout young Catholic victim was called a ‘Bible before bedtime’ type and ‘a Bible basher’, terms only applied to Protestants. The ‘priest’, though an alien, was improbably running a busy parish on his own, then in any case rare and, even more improbably for the time, was part of an ecumenical group of Anglican peaceniks.

The programme makers blamed this all on their props department.

Sheridan Gilley
Western Hill, Durham

Markham my words

Sir: Charles Moore tells us (The Spectator’s Notes, 17 May) that property prices in Markham Square, Chelsea, have rocketed from £7,800 in 1955 for the house in which his wife was born, to £2.25 million for a flat today. The rise is even more impressive than that. In P.G. Wodehouse’s ‘Ukridge’s Accident Syndicate’, written in 1923, the narrator refers contemptuously to Markham Square as ‘a dismal backwater’ where the chronically penniless Stanley Ukridge was once obliged to subsist. Indeed, it may have been in the very room of the future Mrs Moore’s birth that the unfortunate Victor Beamish was bitten by the dog placed there by Ukridge in a doomed attempt to earn a fortune. I shall leave it to Mr Wodehouse to explain how Ukridge was planning to make his fortune.

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nic careem

May 25th, 2008 11:58am

Dear Sir

I left the Labour party more than 18 months ago highly dissallusioned with its loss of direction and purpose. I will not take the easy option by blaming Gordon Brown for Labour's demise...that would be too easy! It far more serious, changing the leadership is not the solution, the party really needs a general reflection on where things went wrong and this can only be done when it is in opposition.

It was not an easy decision for me to leave the party that I devotedly campaigned for, for more than 16 years and I hope my many friends in Labour will understand why I have decided to join David Cameron's Conservatives. I joined the Labour party because I genuinely wanted to make a difference to ordinary peoples's lives and for a while under Tony Blair we were doing just that. I now feel that the Conservative party is in a better position to help our country regain its footing.

I have met David Cameron on two occasions in the past two years and I like his brand of caring Conservatism. I genuinely believe that his brand of Conservatism is what our country has been waiting for, for generations.

David Cameron has demonstrated that he is a true man of the people, and no Labour supporter should fear the coming of a Conservative government.

Labour has a had a good innings, but they have been at the crease for far too long without adding anymore runs. Our country now needs a team to create a country where aspiration is admired and emulated not envied, a country where hard work is fairly rewarded, a country where every young citizen feels that there is a sense of purpose to their lives, a country where social justice and equality are more than just well meaning words, a country which cares about dismantling extreme poverty, by not just throwing money at it, but by investing time and money in creating opportunities for the poor to help make their own pathways to a better life.

This is my mission goals in life. This is the reason I joined the Labour party. I am increasingly becoming confident that the modernising Conservatives are now in the best position to do this. It really is time for change!