No defending the tabloids
Sir: Toby Young (Status anxiety, 9 July) suggests that we are only shocked by tabloid phone-hacking scandals because we are ignorant of the ways of tabloid journalism. He seems then to equate phone-hacking hacks with ‘these Fleet Street foot soldiers’ who are busy protecting us from becoming French (shudder) — i.e. even more corrupt. What? Are all the foot soldiers also hackers? I’m not on any high horse, nor am I enjoying an orgy of sanctimony (or of clichés), but to suggest that we should not condemn too readily because the amoral, immoral or downright cruel pursuit of a story is some sort of ethically transcendent category in the search for a purer nation is the sort of editorial comment that makes me wonder if The Spectator really is for me. Ah, but then there’s Peter Oborne’s excellent article.
Tim Clark
By email
Cameron’s career moves
Sir: The piece by Peter Oborne (‘What the papers won’t say’, 9 July) was stunning. My view is indeed that David Cameron is a glib PR-wallah following in the footsteps of Tony Blair. He entered office with no big ideas, and seems destined to leave it having achieved nothing and with his party in disarray. Where are the conviction politicians of yesteryear?
Peter Bromwich
Spain See you in court
Sir: Tom Bower and I are both looking forward to trying my libel suit against him in Toronto, and can leave our many disagreements to that adjudication, where I will testify with pleasure and answer any questions his counsel has for me. And I can assure him of a lively and prolonged sojourn in the witness box explaining the malicious novel he wrote, ostensibly about my wife and family and me. Three factual points arise from his recent letter to the Spectator (9 July). All 17 charges against me were either abandoned, rejected by the jury, or vacated by the Supreme Court of the United States, although the appellate panel which that court excoriated did revive two charges after the high court asked it to assess the gravity of its own errors; it is not a disinterested conviction. My agreement with the defendants in my libel suit against Richard Breeden and others included the provision that each side would comment as it wished on the settlement, and I never suggested there was an apology from Breeden. When the details of the settlement are published, Bower’s disagreement with my comments about it in my piece in the Spectator will be shown to be false. Christopher Browne was a competent investor, but scarcely a saint; he was, unfortunately, a chronic, frequently treated alcoholic, which sharply hastened his death. He did lose $70 million for his investors in our company as it was mismanaged by my successors, and did publicly lament bringing Breeden and the others into the company. It is true that he died when his heart stopped, but so does everyone, including Charles I.
Conrad Black
New York City
Friday feeling
Sir: Now that Freddy Gray (‘Thank God it’s Thursday’, 9 July) has realised that some Whitehall workers enjoy a poets culture, he might care to investigate the same culture in some local authorities. He might also like to consider ways of bringing an end to this phenomenon. Perhaps we should provide compulsory opportunities for these people to shadow workers in jobs that require five-day concentration. My own preference would be to let them spend full weeks, including Friday afternoons, preparing for and teaching classes to lively 16-year-olds. Of course, to be completely fair, I’d want them to have the same compulsory pension opportunities.
Eric Sinclair
Former head teacher, Orkney
Phonic boom
Sir: I fear it’s Rod Liddle, rather than our teachers, who has had his brains sucked out of the top of his head (9 July). In his case, it’s the UK Literacy Association rather than aliens who are responsible. Their campaign against the government’s new 6+ phonics test appears to have convinced Liddle that our kids can’t spell because they are taught about letters and sounds.
Of course, English spelling is confusing. So are algebra and trigonometry, but I’ve yet to hear a maths teacher use this as an excuse for not teaching them. If our children can’t spell, it’s only because their teachers place very little importance on the subject — one of the old mantras is ‘We don’t worry too much about spelling so long as they can get their thoughts on paper.’
Good phonics teaching is an integral part of teaching spelling, even if it is not enough in itself. In 1999, I tested the nine-year-olds at Kobi Nazrul primary school in Whitechapel — almost all of them came from homes where English was not spoken. The head, Ruth Miskin, was one of the leading pioneers in the re-introduction of synthetic phonics. On a standardised spelling test, her pupils were 22 months ahead of norms. Their spelling was only seven months behind that of the 12-year-olds at the white suburban Norwich comprehensive where I was teaching. All of our feeder schools were using the ‘mixed methods’ so enthusiastically endorsed by the UK Literacy Association.
Tom Burkard
Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies
Driverless streets
Sir: If the Wiki Man (18 June) wants to see self-driving cars in action he could do worse than visit La Rochelle, on the west coast of France, where a small herd of them have been trundling around the city on an experimental basis for several weeks. Since I have not heard any shock-horror stories in the media about them running amok and causing personal injury or material damage I can only assume that they, and the experiment, are proceeding in an orderly manner. In any case La Rochelle is an attractive city to visit, so Rory Sutherland would not be wasting his time.
J. Ward-Hayne
Albi, France
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