We did it, not the state
Sir: I am not a social historian but surely Liam Byrne fatally undermines his whole argument when he praises the founding of various organisations and movements 150 years ago to deal with the ‘huge change which swept millions from the countryside to the cities’ (‘Give us back our Big Idea, Mr Cameron’, 16 August). Isn’t the whole point that the state did not do this — individuals and groups did? Less state interference allows individuals and groups to help their communities and Britain as a whole rather than being strangled by the red tape, form-filling and box-ticking so beloved by Liam Byrne and New Labour. Clearly Mr Byrne hasn’t been on enough doorsteps recently — if he had he would know that any politician arguing for less government will be greeted with relief and enthusiasm.
Nicky Morgan
Loughborough Conservative parliamentary spokesman, Loughborough, Leicestershire
Shear delight
Sir: I have no connection with the Big Sheep, Bideford, other than as a visitor, but I feel bound to counter the negative impression given by Rachel Johnson’s Diary (23 August), in which she and her family ‘drove for two hours to watch a sheepdog herd three ewes’. This is very unfair. My husband and I took our two boys of eight and 11 there last week and saw not only the sheepdog demonstration but also a display of sheep-shearing, a sheep show featuring different breeds, a dog herding Indian runner ducks and the Big Sheep Grand National, all presented in an informative yet amusing and child-friendly way. Should the appeal of all things ovine pall, there is a combat laser-shooting area, pets corner, horse whispering, pony rides, ceramic painting and a huge indoor play area with giant slides. Our sons had a fabulous time.
I can’t imagine why Rachel Johnson’s family failed to see any of the above. Perhaps, as her children appear to get up at lunchtime, the place was about to close. Be fair, Rachel: at a time when more people are holidaying in this country, don’t give such bad publicity to what is in fact a fun, all-weather day out.
Anna Lane
Westcott, Surrey
Deepening the Depression
Sir: I am puzzled by Bill Jamieson’s conviction (‘New Deal Economics: lessons from Herbert Hoover’, 23 August) that the New Deal hastened the end of the Great Depression. The late Nobel laureate Milton Friedman showed how it deepened America’s economic suffering compared to that of Europe, and was dramatically attenuated by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the trade war that it started.
Stephen Masty
The Savile Club, London W1
Bobbitt’s mistakes
Sir: One uncharacteristically perverse suggestion mars Philip Bobbitt’s otherwise admirable analysis of the troubled rise of post-Soviet Russia (‘A portent of perils to come’, 16 August). He writes that ‘a wealthy and energetic people were overtaken by demoralisation and decline’ after the collapse of communism. Surely the opposite is more accurate: 70 years of communist rule left the Russian people impoverished and apathetic and easy prey for the ex-gangsters and ex-KGB men who succeeded the party bosses.
John Torode
London W1
Sir: Philip Bobbitt’s eloquent assessment of the situation in Georgia is not however correct in dismissing the connection with Kosovo. With great encouragement from the US and UK, Kosovo was invited to declare unilateral independence, in breach of UN Resolution 1244 and the UN Charter itself. Thereby, albeit without the use of force, the integrity of Serbia’s territory was violated and some 15 per cent of it lost in the process. This has created the precedent and Russia’s entry to Georgia simply follows that.
Avram Balabanovic
Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey
Hebrew plugs the gap
Sir: I was fascinated by Matthew Parris’s delightful article on nilogisms (Another voice, 16 August). It may intrigue you to know that two of the omissions you specifically mention — a term for ‘the day after tomorrow’ and ‘the day before yesterday’ were, in Hebrew, already in existence in ancient times. Shilshom = [the day before yesterday] is used as such in the Bible in Exodus v 8 and mochorotayim = [the day after tomorrow] was used in Talmudic times. They are both in common use today in modern (colloquial and formal) Hebrew here in Israel!
Asher Tarmon
Israel
Feat of Clay
Sir: May I refresh Taki’s memory? The boxer whom Cassius Clay defeated at the Rome Olympics was the Australian light heavy-weight Tony Madigan. No, Taki, it was a unanimous rather than a majority points decision. And incidentally Tony earlier boxed for the Fulham Boxing Club and I think won the British ABA (middleweight?) title in 1954.
Billy Purves
Sydney, Australia
Howard’s trend
Sir: I find much I agree with in Charles Moore’s writing, but he is too generous in his praise of John Howard (The Spectator’s Notes, 19 July). Howard, in his decade as our leader, brought great shame upon the name of his country through his incarceration of young people on the grounds that they were ‘illegals’, when in fact, as immigration processing eventually revealed, more than 90 per cent of them were bona fide refugees.
I am an Australian citizen who left Britain in the 1960s because of my perception that tribal Brits are largely a brutal lot. The Thatcher years intensified the trend to individual rights-ism and a more violent, damagingly hedonistic society. The Howard years in Australia were Thatcherism with little disguise. And now our city streets, like Britain’s, are no longer safe.
Bob Hawkins
Tasmania, Australia
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