Letters | 2 May 2009

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.