No Alternative
Sir: James Forsyth’s article on George Osborne’s machinations for a Conservative majority (‘Osborne is becoming the true Tory leader’, 26 June) at the next election failed to mention the most crucial matter — the Alternative Vote. We can assume there will definitely be a referendum on AV; so the only question is what the country’s decision will be. A casual perusal of the election result by constituency leads any reasonable person to see that, if Lib supporters put Lab second and vice versa, then the Conservative party can never again have a majority. And for those who say some socialist party supporters may put Tory second — no chance. They did not witness the class-hatred campaigns in the West country.
In addition, the BBC will very likely throw its considerable influence behind a Yes vote. Many Brits spend five hours a day slumped in front of the television and take their political views from what it tells them — as we saw in the election. And as the majority of the electorate does not vote Tory, it may well vote for a measure that would destroy the party. The concession on AV may well turn out to have been catastrophic for the Tories. Conservative energies would be best focused on how to win a No campaign.
Charles D.B. Pugh
London SW10
The future of Belgium
Sir: William Cook’s prescient article (‘Belgium meets its Waterloo’, 26 June) gives a most interesting account of the centrifugal and fissiparous tendencies at work in modern Belgium. Looking back almost 100 years, the territorial integrity of Belgium was the immediate casus belli of our engagement in the first world war. Today, while we grimly bear the very sad and painful daily news that one, two, three of our soldiers have been killed or maimed in Afghanistan, can we for a moment imagine a media announcement now saying that ‘Today 20,000 of our soldiers were killed on this the very first day of the Somme offensive’? By the end in 1918, this noble sacrifice amounted to nearly a million men from Great Britain and Ireland and the empire. In retrospect, was this noble sacrifice of blood worth a millilitre of it, given what is happening today in Belgium?
Dr Patrick Finucane
By email
Village strife
Sir: Mark Palmer is right to advise aspiring villagers to get in with those who ‘know everyone and everything’ and to ‘get God’ (‘A social pariah in the shires’, 26 June). At a church harvest supper, I was given excellent advice by the sister of the late novelist Barbara Pym, who informed me that my modest hamlet was ‘where one found one’s servants’ and the more pukka village down the road was ‘where one found one’s friends’. Taking the hint, I answered an ad in the post office to clean for a local grande dame. I found her insufferable and resigned after a fortnight — and was inundated with invitations from even more grand people, who thought her equally vile.
Kathy Walton
Chorleywood, Herts
Sir: When my husband and I left English suburbia for rural Wales 13 years ago, it was the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream. We didn’t come here to ‘flop’; we have not been looking over our shoulders to see who notices us, nor waiting for the ‘stiffies’ to land on our doormat. We just got on with our lives, daily thanking our lucky stars for our good fortune, grateful for the beauty and tranquillity of our surroundings. Perhaps Mark Palmer and his wife should just flip-flop back to London.
Elizabeth Morley
Trisant
Touché
Sir: At risk of seeming ‘the inevitable Geoffrey Wheatcroft’ that Lord Black originally called me (I always find myself evitable enough, not to say, like Sir Francis Hinsley, ‘I always was the most defatigable of hacks’), I must reply to his spirited letter (26 June), if only to say: well played! I think he won that rally. Perhaps he will allow me to buy him a glass of champagne (or Glenmorangie) when circumstances allow.
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Bath
Spare us a billion
Sir: Rory Sutherland (19 June) is inexact when he says we’ll get a high-speed rail network for £15 billion. What we will actually get is a 108-mile stretch of track and related infrastructure between London and Birmingham. For this alone, the capital costs and operating costs over a 60-year period including the rolling stock are put at £17.8 billion and £7.6 billion respectively. For the capital costs, this works out at around £160 million of public money per mile (no private sector investment is forthcoming). This dwarfs the £11-£16 million per mile for the most expensive comparable projects in France, the £27 million per mile in Italy and even the £79 million per mile for the first stage of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from the English coast to North Kent. Yet as the Wiki Man said, if we were to spend only £1 billion we could make real improvements for travellers all over the existing network.
Marilyn Fletcher
Great Missenden
Fowler’s virtues
Sir: Congratulations on John R.H. McEwen’s charming remembrance on the centenary of Fowler’s Year (‘Fowler’s match, 100 years on’ 26 June). It was one of the cricketing stories told by my father, Arthur Grenfell, to us children. A romantic story about this young man, who had all the necessary qualities: a supremely talented cricketer, brave, optimistic, who rallied his troops in the face of danger. He always described the Hon. J.N. Manners as the sub-hero of the story, describing his innings as ‘then jolly little Manners came in and blocked and blocked’, which my father maintained was just what was wanted. But the last twist came when the crowd at Lord’s surged forward shouting ‘We want Fowler’ to appear on the balcony, and all appeared except Fowler. My father went into the pavilion to find him, and discovered him in the dressing room quietly eating a bowl of cherries. Modesty and humility were added to his virtues.
Frances Campbell-Preston
By email
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