Letters | 17 July 2010

The mills of God

Sir: Theo Hobson’s concern at the emergence of Grindr (‘Gay sex by sat-nav’, 10 July) is understandable but he goes too far in describing the phenomenon as typical of male homosexual culture. Hedonism there certainly is, but that is not an exclusively gay characteristic, nor is it the case that male gay culture is the vector by which heterosexual culture becomes hedonistic. There are other trends within gay culture that emphasise the significance of constancy and commitment. The Revd Dr Jeffrey John’s Permanent, Faithful, Stable is a particularly significant example. It applies to gay relationships the wisdom of centuries of Christian experience. It applies such orthodoxy in its approach to this aspect of human sexuality that it might have been written by a bishop.

Revd Jeffrey James
Gloucestershire



Sir: I must congratulate Theo Hobson for raising blood pressures around the country. Of course, as Mr Hobson was limited to only one page, I understand why he was reduced to puerile generalisations, but I do hope that in future he won’t pad out his mutterings with other journalists’ work.

Ruari Craig-Wood
Surrey



Alternative thinking


Sir: James Forsyth claims that under AV, the process ‘keeps going until one candidate has more than half of votes cast’ (‘Coalition forever’, 10 July). This depends on the form of AV. If the electors are not compelled to put a number beside every candidate and thus express a remote preference for a party they abhor — say, the BNP or the SWP — then they may well still be allowed to vote for only one candidate, and can avoid some parties altogether.

Take the kind of constituency common in the south in which the Lib Dems have already squeezed the Labour vote. Of the 100,000 who have voted, 42,000 have voted Conservative, 38,000 Lib Dem and 18,000 Labour.