Ka-shing in
Sir: Ian Williams highlights (‘Chasing the dragon’, 3 May) the degree to which the Chinese state has acquired interests in the UK. Yet he overlooks a few tentacles of the Asian octopus that have curled around my home region of eastern England. Swathes of high-quality arable land are being subsumed into solar farms, panels for which are manufactured in China. The resultant electricity will be distributed by UK Power Networks, controlled, as Ian points out, by Li Ka-shing. East Anglia’s biggest brewer, Greene King, has been China-owned since 2019, held by Li Ka-shing through CK Asset Holdings.
Our government seems craven in its attempts to lure Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein to list on the London Stock Exchange. Core to the business model of this company, and its fellow Chinese rival Temu, is the exploitation of a tax loophole that allows them to avoid UK import duty or VAT. Their commercial success therefore comes at the expense of UK online and physical retailers. Is it too much to ask that domestic investment (as well as foreign) should be encouraged, and that the fruits of our government’s ‘Growth, growth, growth’ strategy should accrue to British citizens?
F.P. Smiddy
Woodbridge, Suffolk
School ties
Sir: Ian Williams paints a disturbing picture of how far the Chinese have their claws embedded in British businesses, institutions and infrastructure. You can also add independent schools to that list. My alma mater, Plymouth College (founded 1877), has been bought by a Chinese company, Galaxy Global Education Group, which also owns three other British fee-paying schools. I imagine there will be many more similar takeovers as independent schools struggle to stay afloat after the imposition of 20 per cent VAT on fees.
James Potts
Cardiff
Court ledger
Sir: The excellent exposé of Garden Court Chambers and their like by Ross Clark and Sophia Falkner (‘Echo chambers’, 3 May) raises the question: who is paying for this left-wing radical legal madness? With the best will in the world, typical Garden Court Chambers clients may sometimes lack the resources to pay for these doubtless expensive barristers and their presumably equally costly solicitor friends. So who pays? As ever, we must follow the money – and it will surely lead straight back to the country’s much abused Legal Aid system. Given the increasingly socialist nature of our current government we can probably look forward to a proliferation over the next few years of Garden Courts as other legal professionals see how to bend the rules and line their pockets. The taxpayer, who unwittingly funds it all, will be pouring ever more money into this particular honeypot.
Ian Webb
Hindhead, Surrey
Positive transition
Sir: I read and agreed with much in Lionel Shriver’s article on the ‘trans debacle’ (‘Why the trans debacle matters’, 3 May). However, I must take issue with her opinions on authenticity. During my teaching career, thousands of children came and went. One I remember very well: a young biological girl who was clearly unhappy in her sex and who wanted to be a boy. She became withdrawn and depressed. It was obvious to everyone, yet nobody felt able to help. She has since started the process of transitioning. I bumped into her recently and was amazed and delighted at how happy she seemed as a boy. It must not be forgotten that the Supreme Court ruling, although to be celebrated in many ways, will return people like my ex-pupil to a far bleaker previous existence. That is an obvious sadness for us all.
Name and address supplied
Cover up
Sir: Max Hastings (Diary, 3 May) refers to the ‘extortionate charges’ levied by vets: he should try insurance companies. I have recently had a pacemaker fitted, which apparently makes me far less likely to keel over. The surgeon who performed the operation told me I should inform my car insurance company. When I told them I was now much safer, they thanked me for telling them and added £98 to my annual premium.
Carolyn Baird
Framlingham, Suffolk
Rural realism
Sir: Your leading article (3 May) lists what it perceives to be the gains of Brexit, one of which is ‘a smarter agricultural policy’. A coherent ‘policy’ for the future of British agriculture is almost impossible to discern from either a Conservative or a Labour government, although subsidising farmers not to produce food appears to be one of its principal strands. Deluging farmers in forms to complete and giving them a ‘pay as you earn’ ten-year inheritance tax bill that will remove any chance of small farms or young farmers being able to remain in business without realising land sales suggests that ‘policy’ is anything but ‘smart’. The gap of understanding between urban and rural Britain is widening each year. Life is going to get tougher for us all. We need to support our farmers to produce more food.
James Beazley
Newmarket, Suffolk
Question of time
Sir: Enjoying ‘Notes On…’ quizzes by Mark Mason (3 May), my husband and I worked out the answer to one of the questions in the article: ‘Which year from the past uses the most letters when written in Roman numerals?’ By coincidence our older son is a popular quiz master at his local pub, his paternal grandfather was born in this year, and his paternal great grandfather was a professor of Classics and ancient history. Certainly a question for a future pub quiz. The answer is the longest year with 13 Roman letters – 1888.
Angela Walters
Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire
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