Behind the pack
Sir: Melissa Kite (‘Labour’s Iron Lady’, 21 January) writes an excellent article examining the pros and cons of Yvette Cooper’s suitability for leadership of the Labour party. She is quite wrong, however, to state categorically that ‘Cooper’s intelligence is beyond doubt’. Cooper’s academic ability may be so described but, dear oh dear, anyone who could have sponsored, let alone championed, the ludicrous Home Information Packs (Hips) fiasco could never, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as having intelligence beyond doubt. Academic success and intellectual prowess are the result of having a good memory and the ability to read fast. Nothing more. Intelligence is quite a different matter.
Christopher Andrews
Coulsdon
Not just Balls
Sir: Peter Jones says Aristotle wouldn’t have approved of Ed Balls because the shadow chancellor takes the electorate for fools (Ancient and Modern, 21 January). I’m no apologist for Balls, but couldn’t this Aristotelian criticism apply to any frontline figure in party politics?
Currer Ball
By email
Return of the hamster
Sir: Toby Young and his children (Status Anxiety, 21 January) should not despair. My family, too, had a pet hamster that disappeared. It was named Henry. Two weeks later, we discovered it had started a family of its own, behind the boiler in our airing cupboard. It was returned to its cage under a new name, Henrietta.
Albert Waring
London W6
Italian courage
Sir: Well done Nicholas Farrell (‘Ship of fools’, 21 January) for sticking up for the Italians. The British always overplay the stereotype of the cowardly Eytie. Italian men are not all wimpy sleazebags. Remember Fabrizio Quattrocchi, the security contractor who was kidnapped in Iraq? He was forced to dig his own grave while wearing a hood, but he refused to grovel. ‘Vi faccio vedere come muore un Italiano!’ he shouted, which means ‘I’ll show you how an Italian dies!’ He was shot in the back of the neck.
William Gore
London W6
Sir: An entertaining article on the ship of fools by Nicholas Farrell, but he got the joke wrong. There were four gears on Italian tanks in the second world war, not one — three reverse and one forward, in case the enemy attacked from behind.
Mark Tebbit
Dorset
Military colours
Sir: Charles Moore and his informant are, alas, mistaken about the ‘Red Dean’ missile project (Notes, 21 January). It would not have been named after the Red Dean of Canterbury, Hewlett Johnson. All British weapon projects in the 1950s were given colour-based codenames to muddy their true natures — a lesson from the second world war, when British Intelligence was able to deduce the nature of several German projects from their unimaginative names.
Thus, for example, ‘Red Duster’ became in operational service the RAF’s Bloodhound surface-to-air missile. ‘Orange Poodle’ and ‘Indigo Corkscrew’ were experimental radars while ‘Yellow Sun’ and, less appropriately, ‘Green Grass’ were nuclear weapons. My favourite is ‘Blue Peacock’, a nuclear landmine. Once armed, several live chickens would be buried inside it in order that their body-heat would keep the delicate electronics at the required temperature until it was detonated as Soviet tanks trundled over the top. It was never deployed, but it does rather put into context today’s debate about European battery chickens.
Dr Jeremy Stocker
Warwickshire
Bell’s tone
Sir: Charles Moore (21 January) did well to point out the ‘weird bitterness’ of John Bell of the Iona Community on ‘Thought for the Day’ last week. Mr Bell further said that Scots are mocked because of their accent. What rot. A Scottish voice is a great advantage in British life: it is considered genteel and intelligent without being posh. Has Mr Bell never stopped to wonder why so many Scots can be heard on Radio 4?
Elizabeth McFarlane
London W10
Righteous Republicans
Sir: How cheering to read Harold Evans (Diary, 21 January) describe President Eisenhower as ‘one of the greats’. Indeed he was. His stark warning about the looming power of the military-industrial complex seems more and more prophetic to Americans today. He was a real conservative who understood that the ceaseless expansion of the national security machine represented a mortal threat to American values. If only today’s Republican party could elevate a man of similar stature.
Terence Griffiths
Seaview, Isle of Wight
Sir: Mitt Romney is no safe pair of hands (‘Mitt’s progress’, 14 January) when it comes to foreign policy. This was the man who criticised Obama for insulting Netanyahu. Unfortunately, Obama and all the Republican hopefuls — bar Rep Ron Paul — are fully paid-up members of the bipartisan war party. Paul would ditch profligate empire and its imperial presidency, and supports the restoration of a fiscally responsible American Republic. Yes, he’s an economic libertarian, but elections are always about the least bad candidate. As president he would only have unbridled authority in the conduct of foreign affairs. Unnecessary wars would be avoided. Paul is a safe pair of hands.
Yugo Kovach
Dorset
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