The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 2 September 2006

Readers respond to articles recently published in The Spectator

issue 02 September 2006

Nothing but the truth

From Peter Clarke

Sir: Rod Liddle suggests that the public are losing confidence in the police because Scotland Yard ‘has developed a tendency, as night follows day, to change its story repeatedly and shiftily’ (‘Passengers won’t mutiny on planes if they are made to feel safe’, 26 August).

Why should I bother to change my story when Rod Liddle has already spared me the trouble? I am the only police officer who has made any public statements about the evidence uncovered in the recent case. Just for the record, I have never said, as Mr Liddle suggests, that martyrdom videos were found in a wood, that bomb-making equipment had been found in suspects’ houses, or that which had been found consisted primarily of hydrogen peroxide.

The information I gave about the case on 21 August was entirely factual — although obviously not the full story. At this stage, for sound legal reasons, I cannot say more.

So far as public confidence in the police is concerned, the Daily Telegraph YouGov poll on 25 August reports that 86 per cent of the public think the police and security service have performed well during the current emergency. This would seem to suggest that the public, if not Mr Liddle, understand and appreciate what we are doing on their behalf.

Peter Clarke
Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
New Scotland Yard, London SW1

Immigration’s real effect

From Tim Hubbard

Sir: You say that cheap labour keeps interest rates down, and so must be beneficial (Leading article, 26 August). But this analysis is so simplistic as to be meaningless, since it ignores many other economic and social factors. We must consider the effects of mass immigration on health and education infrastructure, crime, housing demand, etc. ad infinitum. Apart from that, low interest rates are not necessarily a good thing since they create asset price inflation (vide the housing market) and poor returns for investors on fixed-income portfolios of bonds (such as those held by many pensioners) and cash savers.

You have reiterated the fallacy that there is some way we could limit immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. But as the Telegraph has pointed out, there is nothing whatsoever we can do to limit the flow, since it would be against European law. We have no discretion to exclude EU workers. Damian Green thus sounds not ‘admirably moderate’  but ill-informed and thoroughly lightweight, which is undoubtedly a unifying characteristic of the Cameron shadow Cabinet.

A lot of the economic revenue generated by migrants is paid in cash by those avoiding VAT, so again your leader is misguided in saying there are tax benefits for the Treasury. In fact the flow of funds into a burgeoning black economy will naturally reduce the tax take. I could go on but it’s too depressing.

Tim Hubbard
London SW14

Blame the banks

From Michael Reid

Sir: Allister Heath’s article (Business, 26 August) says that borrowers should bear all the consequences of their actions and by implication the lenders should enjoy better protection. This might be true if borrowers had actively sought their debts. However, too often they borrow more and more as a result of hard selling by the lenders, which means that lenders have responsibility for the amount they lent.

Certainly in this household, students have experienced routine increases in credit limits and many mail shots exhorting them to borrow more. Had they taken up these offers, it would not have been because they needed the loans but rather that the loans had been thrust at them. Banks must reap what they sow. Casual lending will beget casual debt avoidance through easy bankruptcy.

Michael Reid
Northamptonshire

How polls are fixed

From Helen Brady

Sir: Matthew Parris did well questioning the recent Spectator poll on terrorism (Another voice, 26 August). From my observation, questions in polls are inevitably framed to produce the result required. The classic example can always be seen in the regular polls on the public’s views on fluoridation of water supplies. The first questions in polls into this ‘health’ measure is generally along the lines of ‘Do you approve of fluoridation, which stops tooth decay and dental pain?’

Helen Brady
Halesowen, West Midlands

On beauty

From J.C.H. Mounsey

Sir: I enjoy Olivia Glazebrook’s film reviews partly because they do not always follow the established line. (For example, I went to see Confetti simply because, unlike almost every other film critic at the time, she recommended it. She was right: it was very funny.)

I was therefore amused to note that in one area at least she conforms to type. In her column last week she asked, ‘Is there a more beautiful woman than Penelope Cruz in cinema?’ The answer is, of course, ‘yes’, because it is an inflexible rule that when a woman pronounces another woman to be beautiful, a man can be absolutely certain that the admired one is actually a bit of a dog.

J.C.H. Mounsey
London SW13

Apian idea

From Charlie Stott

Sir: In last week’s issue, Mr D.R. Grayshott had a very clever answer to the problem (raised in Mary Killen’s excellent column) of floor-length chintz curtains in downstairs loos frequented by men. He suggested that a spider be painted on to the bowl to assist and encourage better aim. But I have a better idea. What about a bee, not a spider? Bee in Latin is apis and incidentally was the logo introduced on men’s urinals by my father in 1923 when he ran Armitage Shanks.

Charlie Stott

Penicuik, Edinburgh

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