Letters: the genius of Morten Morland

Beyond good and evil

Sir: In your Christmas issue, both James Macmillan (Composer’s Notebook) and Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, in his interview with Andrew Roberts, refer to the ‘war between good and evil’, as if most of us experience life on Earth as a continuous struggle of this kind. But many issues cannot be polarised so simplistically, and our understanding of religion and psychology has moved on. Who is to decide which people are good and which evil? Some fundamentalist Christians regard the Dalai Lama as evil. In international relations, it is surely dangerous to use this kind of language: while the actions of Hamas are undoubtedly evil, I doubt if it is helpful to revive the rhetoric of G.W. Bush and ‘the axis of evil’. Perhaps The Spectator could present a discussion of the issue.

Stephen Terry

Lustleigh, Devon

Larder than life

Sir: The Christmas cover by Morten Morland is pure genius. He has got to be the greatest cartoonist of our day; every time I look at that cover, I laugh. Besides making the people recognisable, he puts them in the right part of the pantry and in a shape that reflects their personality and importance. Giorgia Meloni Panettone is a particular favourite. Please congratulate him.

Marcia Brocklebank

Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk

Small print

Sir: A shame that David Hare (Playwright’s Notebook, 16-30 December) included a Scrooge-like rant accusing the newspapers that ‘are loudest about freedom of speech’ of being ‘the ones which forbid it themselves’; saying ‘Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere both no-platform with a ruthlessness which makes student unions look permissive’. In fact worse recent incidents of newspaper de-platforming have occurred at the Guardian, which claims its ownership model makes it ‘beholden to no one’. Two long-serving columnists, Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freeman, were hounded out by a mob of Guardian employees unwilling to allow them to express views they judged unacceptable.