Broken pledges
Sir: Labour has lost all credibility, having broken a clear manifesto pledge not to raise taxes but then doing so. It is the second pledge that it has failed to honour, the first being its failure to hold a referendum on the EU constitution. If directors of a company break clear pledges made in a prospectus, then they face prosecution under the Companies Act and possible fines or imprisonment. But Labour seems to regards its manifesto commitments as an exam paper: only keeping three commitments need be attempted. Why should we be surprised that the reputation of our politicians has fallen so low and that so many people will not bother to vote at the next election?
Tom Benyon
Bladon, Oxfordshire
Don’t blame the Scots
Sir: Whatever the many weaknesses of Vince Cable’s thesis in The Storm, it is disingenuous of Allister Heath (Books, 25 April) to argue that it was Scottish banks and a few ex-building societies that behaved disastrously. Barclays fought bitterly with RBS for control of ABN-Amro, and lost. Had it won, it would doubtless be John Varley and the members of the Barclays-linked banking dynasties who would now be denounced for their profligacy, with Sir Fred Goodwin being congratulated for his sagacity.
Roger Broad
London W2
On April’s cruelty
Sir: Susan Hill (Diary, 25 April) says she cannot understand why April should be described as cruel. Every elegy ever written contrasts the sorrows of human mortality with nature’s annual renewal: spring cruelly reminds us. From Larkin’s beautiful ‘The Trees’, among a host of other examples: ‘Their greenness is a kind of grief./ Is it that they are born again/ And we grow old?’
Edward Teale
Via email
I did foul Ronaldo
Sir: Let me assure Charles Matthews (Letters, 25 April) that I most certainly vandalised Cristiano Ronaldo’s Wikipedia page — on not one but two occasions. This would suggest that the site’s ‘history’ section is every bit as inaccurate as every other part of Wikipedia. It’s fun, but most people would be advised to trust it about as far as they would a press statement from Derek Draper.
Rod Liddle
Marlborough, Wiltshire
Things you can’t do in a car
Sir: Of all the things we’re not allowed to do in our car (Standing Room, 25 April), why is smoking not on the list? If you are eating a chocolate bar or drinking water from a bottle and an emergency arises, you are able to drop the offending item. Dropping a cigarette in similar circumstance causes problems that don’t bear thinking about. I’m afraid Sarah Standing is misguided if she thinks we can all tuck into our picnics while stationary on the M25. The first person to be prosecuted under this rule was a young lady who was spotted taking a bite out of an apple at a red traffic light by a police helicopter. The words lunatic and asylum spring to mind.
Pat Bibby
Gloucester
White soup
Sir: I have just caught up with the 4 April edition of the magazine. In his review of Jane’s Fame, Philip Hensher remarks how much more useful a good recipe for white soup would be than articles about post-colonialism in Persuasion. I have a manuscript recipe book dated 1769 (with additions dated 1805) which has a recipe for ‘White Soup’, attributed to a Mrs Shipman: ‘Boil a knuckle of veal whilst your gravy is very strong when enough take your Veal out & strain your soup bone a Chicken or a Fowl season it with Salt & Mace fill it with white forcemeat put it in the Soup & let it boil whilst enough put in a little & thicken it with good Cream & Yolks of Eggs, putt in a good deal of Vermacilly Lie your Chicken in the middle of the Dish Lie a good deal upon it.’ I haven’t tried it yet, so cannot say if it is good, but it doesn’t sound horrible.
Simon Cockshutt
London W5
Thanks for Paul Johnson
Sir: Thank you to The Spectator and its succession of editors for giving us Paul Johnson. This polymath has enlightened, amused, challenged and enraged your readers for three decades, and we have much for which to be grateful.
Mark McGinness
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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