Right to say NO
Sir: Three cheers for the Spectator NO! (‘Why we aren’t signing’, 23 March). I would rather be informed by the slimiest of Fleet Street’s journalists or the rudest blogger than any one of Westminster’s incompetents.
Dr A.E. Hanwell
York
Sir: Perhaps our newsagents should split the papers they sell into sections marked ‘Free Press’ and ‘Other’. I know which one I’d choose.
Leo Bajzert
Sydney, Australia
The house price problem
Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 23 March) blames the astronomic rise in house prices on planning restrictions — a point of view endorsed by the Chancellor and by Nick Boles, the planning minister.
Britain is, of course, a small island with a fixed land area, some of it protected until now by planning laws. But that restriction on supply is only a small part of the relentless upward pressure on house prices. The major impetus has come through the relentless promotion of demand through cheap mortgage credit over the past 30 years and, after that pack of cards came tumbling down in 2008, quantitative easing, which has done precious little to promote economic growth but has leaked almost in its entirety into the asset markets.
You could pave over the remaining open spaces to your heart’s content, but downward pressure on house prices will be minimal so long as real interest rates (measured against the expected future price of houses) stay negative.
Alan Doyle
Sunbury on Thames, Surrey
Enthusiastic amateurs
Sir: Matthew Parris (‘Why do amateur performers still flourish?’ 23 March) entirely misses the point. The motivation of any amateur is the creation of beauty, its sharing with others, and the love of the art.
Music is integral to all our lives. Professional musicians do wonderful things, as do amateurs. As a teenager, I decided not to attempt to earn a living with my music, as I loved my music far too much (and still do). We all need and are grateful for the informed listeners who support our work. Amateur musicians just love what they do.
David Taylor
Allington, Lincolnshire
Not worth it
Sir: Despite Lady Nicholson’s concern about the plight of ordinary Iraqis that she expressed at the start of her argument (‘Was Iraq worth it?, 16 March), she fails to explain how the list of developments she cites would actually help any of them.
This, to my mind, undermines her argument, and inclines me at least to think that no, it was not worth it.
Susan Peak
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs
Levelling the landscape
Sir: James Delingpole (‘What I learned from my week as a teacher’, 16 March) wrote about how the uncritical concern for fairness in education has warped our common sense. When I was a maths PGCE student at the West Sussex Institute of Higher Education in 1988, I was told by one of our lecturers that what she wanted most for children in schools was equality.
When I asked her if she meant equality of opportunity or of outcome, she said both. I pointed out that for equality of outcome, it would be necessary to lower standards to a level achievable by students with the least natural ability. She agreed, and said that for that reason she wanted to lower standards.
This came from a woman in a position of influence over new teachers, and we see the results today. Isn’t it amazing how otherwise intelligent people can be blinded by ideology? This would be a useful field for psychological study.
Chris Price
Minehead, Somerset
A snippy review?
Sir: Quentin Letts (Diary, 16 March) describes my review of Our Church by Roger Scruton as ‘snippy’, ignoring that I also wrote that Scruton should be listened to ‘with respect, appreciation and enjoyment’. I agree that much modern liturgical writing is anaemic, but not all; and there are many excellent translations of the Bible. It is to be regretted that those who rightly value 16th- and 17th-century prose too often champion its virtues by disparaging all modern attempts to use contemporary language.
Richard Harries
Pentegarth
Summer of 1704
Sir: In his Notes of 2 March, Charles Moore confesses that he is a sucker for stories in which one can get back to the distant past in very few generations. Recently I came across an interesting specimen. The German author Oskar Maria Graf, who died in 1967, writes in Das Leben meiner Mutter that his grandfather told him that as a small boy, he had heard from his grandfather about how he had carried the statue of Maria from their local Bavarian village church to the Augustinerkirche in Munich in the summer of 1704.
Allard Hoogland
Langbroek, The Netherlands
Not me, guv
Sir: Sam Leith (Books, 23 March) has the drinks correspondent of The Spectator wearing his drink as a hat, shouting ‘Free Pinochet! Jail Hobsbawm!’ at Eric Hobsbawm. For the avoidance of doubt: not me, the other one. I appear, apolitically, on page 57 of this issue.
Simon Hoggart
Twickenham
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