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Letters

Wednesday, 28th May 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

For nearly 40 years children’s interests have taken a back seat to the ‘woman’s right to choose’, the economics necessary to support ‘Life Plans’, the denigration of the nuclear family, the institutional care of the under-fives and a determination to see education as little more than a platform for economic advancement.

No Labour candidate will be selected unless they are ‘on message’ about such things, and that is both weakening of their party and the general polity, as the recent vote indicated, with the outcome being less than representative of the mood of the country.

If we are truly seeing the opportunity emerging to confront the sterility of New Labour’s theoretical underpinnings, it seems to me essential that we take the wisdom of one victim of an immoral slaughter and apply it to averting the current one. Nothing would begin our liberation from the dead hand of political correctness faster than a determined and direct challenge to the article of faith that the current abortion settlement is untouchable.

Martin Sewell
Gravesend, Kent

What’s funny?

Sir: I suppose it’s just about possible to conceive of a name for a child more pretentious than Aeneas, the name Matthew Dennison gave his child (‘What’s in a name?’, 17 May), but I’m not sure what it might be. Good luck Aeneas Dennison, I say; maybe he’ll learn to quote from Virgil as the blows come raining down in the playground.

My oldest son, meanwhile, is called Tyler — after Wat Tyler. I suppose, in Dennison’s view, he was probably the original chav. But Tyler’s proud of the association and the worst he has to put up with is his brother saying ‘What, Tyler?’ and then laughing a lot.

Rod Liddle
Marlborough, Wiltshire

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Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

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In his speech announcing his Pre-Budget Report, Alistair Darling said that he was going to put up the top rate of income tax to 45 per cent from 2011, because he wanted the burden to be borne by ‘those who have done best out of the growth of the past decade’.