Letters | 21 July 2012

Beyond a boundary

Sir: This is the first time that I have been really annoyed by an article in your magazine. Your leader ‘The Tories are back’ (14 July) concludes by stating that the redrawing of constituency boundaries is a piece of blatant gerrymandering. But the present boundaries are grossly unfair to the Conservatives.
When Tony Blair and Labour won the 2005 election the party gained 35.3 per cent of the vote and won 356 seats. When David Cameron and the Tories gained 36.1 per cent of the vote in 2010 they won only 307 seats — hence the coalition. The present constituencies do not provide a fair and level playing field. The article’s suggestion of gerrymandering is offensive and, more importantly, ill-informed.
Adrian Snow

Cirencester

Sport without tears

Sir: I agree with Charles Moore’s comments (Notes, 14 July) on Andy Murray crying at the end of the men’s final at Wimbledon. My four-year-old son also expressed surprise: ‘How can Andy Murray be British, Daddy, when he’s crying? You told me British gentlemen don’t cry when they lose and don’t show off when they win.’ The public praise of the tearfest led me to question how I was bringing up my son, with one colleague telling me I was ‘emotionally stunting’ him. That reappraisal was halted when I read The Spectator’s Notes. I can report that at his school sports day Wilfred lost all but one of the events that he took part in, despite his best efforts. Not a tear was shed and he thoroughly enjoyed competing. I could not have been prouder of my aspiring British gentleman of a son.
Stephen Rand
London SW1

Take a letter

Sir: Reading Charles Moore (Notes,
14 July) on the wives of men who ran off with their secretaries (‘they could always comfort themselves with the idea that the Other Woman was an airhead, or a submissive slave’), one assumes there are no secretaries on the staff of The Spectator.