Letters | 14 July 2007

Sir: Charles Moore’s insinuation (Spectator’s Notes, 7 July) that following Alan Johnston’s release the BBC would now report Hamas more sympathetically is baseless.

Beeb remains unbiased

Sir: Charles Moore’s insinuation (Spectator’s Notes, 7 July) that following Alan Johnston’s release the BBC would now report Hamas more sympathetically is baseless. If he needs evidence he should consider that during the time that Alan was in captivity the BBC continued to report Gaza objectively — despite the incarceration of one of our own. Thankfully Alan is now free and, as ever, the BBC will report the region with courage and integrity.

Adrian Van Klaveren, Deputy Director
BBC News & Controller, London W12

Arresting issue

Sir: Nobody wants The Spectator to be consistent, or to follow any party line. Its readers expect (and in my case hope) to disagree with many of the opinions expressed in its pages. But until your leading article of 7 July (‘Hearts and Minds’) The Spectator possessed two rare and valuable qualities. It was undeceived by conventional wisdom, and it could be assumed to be on the side of liberty against arbitrary power. Your support for 90-day detention, justified by the cult-like, ir-rational invocation of the events of 11 September 2001, means that it has lost those qualities. It is now just another magazine.

Peter Hitchens
London W8

Aspire to what?

Sir: Nowhere in Fraser Nelson’s article on James Purnell (‘Meet New New Labour’s Mr Aspirational’, 30 June) is there any mention of precisely which of the public’s aspirations Labour understands so well.

Could it be the aspiration, say, of a young teacher ever to afford a house? Of a farmer not to go bankrupt? Of parents to see their children become literate and numerate and thus employable in the global economy? The aspiration of a factory worker not to become permanently unemployed? Of workers to find employers offering final-salary pensions schemes? Of people to have more, rather than less, disposable income year on year?

Voters, after a long period of atrocious government, normally aspire to have the opportunity to vote for a real change.