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Letters

Wednesday, 2nd July 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Unarmed and dangerous

Sir: If Fraser Nelson’s insight (‘Very discretely, Cameron is writing his first Queen’s Speech’, 28 June) into what is being planned by the Conservatives is comprehensive, then it reveals a dangerous omission which should be unacceptable to any government and particularly a Conservative one: defence policy.

The defence of the realm, the unchallenged first duty of any government, has been shamefully and dangerously neglected by New Labour. All spending commitments should necessarily be secondary to those required for adequate defence and security.

That all three of our armed services are underfunded is now irrefutable as the unanimous pleas for more resources from the former chiefs of staff, other military experts, and now Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the current head of the Armed Services, attest. On present funding, we can no longer meet our current commitments, yet the world is clearly becoming more hostile and unstable.

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P McNeill

July 3rd, 2008 4:59pm

With regard to Mr. Cummins' remarks about Muslims, it is a sad day when the free world has to listen to tirades that totally counter the pursuit of peace and understanding by people who are obviously more educated on the subject than himself.

Keith Bryer

July 4th, 2008 3:59pm

Chris Doyle's view of the Crusades is bent heavily in favour of the Muslims who invaded the middle east in 700 AD changing it over the next 300 years from a Hellenistic/Roman area into a Muslim one. That was what Pope Urban wanted to reverse by calling for a Crusade. So too did the Byzantine Emperor whose empire had been snatched from his dynasty by newly-enthused Muslim warriors. Cummins was not wrong -- at least on this point.

Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

Brown bets the farm

The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Pre-Budget Report (PBR) was one of the most arresting political events of modern times.

Diary

Hardeep Singh Kohli

Social networking: surely that has to be a tautology?

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Tamzin Lightwater

Tamzin Lightwater's unique take on the week

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

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’.

Diary

Anne Robinson

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

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.

Letters

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

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.