Nothing to fear?
Sir: I rather enjoyed reading Tessa Mayes’s anxious tirade about the imminent arrival of Big Brother (‘Big Brother is coming’, 3 March), although perhaps not for reasons of which she would approve. During my 88 years of life so far (in at least 44 of which income tax at between 40 and 83 per cent has been levied on part of my earnings), I have never met any self-employed person who has not admitted to ‘fiddling’ his or her tax return as a matter of routine. If, as Tessa Mayes now claims, HMRC is being much more aggressive and — dare we say it? — astute in pursuit of those who manage their own tax affairs, I stand ready to lead the applause.
Exotic dancers apart, surely all of us enjoying the freedoms of a democratic society recognise that one of the prime duties of an elected government is to protect the majority of its citizens (who pay income tax in advance, refrain from dropping litter or supplying alcohol to children, support their local councils’ attempts to rationalise refuse collection and accept ‘arbitrary surveillance’ by authorised officials) against those who refuse to accept any of these constraints.
Tessa Mayes appears to sympathise with the latter and seeks to raise the spectre of ‘a foot in the door’, with all its implications of forced entry. This is designed to frighten ordinary taxpayers into believing that they, too, face the threat now being directed at people who are not paying their way. For most of us, there is no threat of ‘a foot in the door’, because the door will always be open to legitimate inquiry by those with nothing to hide.
John Duthie
Gullane, East Lothian
Sir: Tessa Mayes’s article was an excellent commentary on the insidious erosion of freedom and privacy in Britain. However, she omitted to mention the army of spies presently gathering to be unleashed on the public on 1 July — the smoke detectives.
A recent article in the Weekly Telegraph informed us of the following (obtained from the Department of Health/Smokefree England factsheet): you can smoke in your own home provided you do not earn a living there; you cannot smoke if a work colleague comes to work at home with you; you can smoke if your cleaner or the builders are in your home, but not private caterers as it then becomes their ‘workplace’ (no, I don’t follow the logic either); you can smoke in your car provided you are not using it to carry out voluntary work; you can smoke in a smoking shelter attached to your office provided it has no walls or doors.
The smoke detectives have been empowered to secretly photograph and film private citizens seen smoking where they shouldn’t and to impose on-the-spot fines. It is but a very short step away from allowing them to intrude unannounced into people’s homes and to stop drivers seen smoking to demand the purpose of their journey. The British public should be afraid — very afraid.
Peta Seel
Nassiet, France
Iraq, not nuts
Sir: It is a joy to be mentioned by the magnificent Taki (High life, 3 March) — even if only for my peanut-eating in Saigon in 1972. Alas, I still do like nuts, whereas I know that Taki’s taste in everything is more sophisticated. He is also quite right that in 1972 he had a better understanding than I did of how catastrophic the communists’ defeat of America would be for the people of Indochina.
I suspect our only disagreement these days is not over nuts but over Iraq. Unlike Taki, I believe that the United States and Britain were right to overthrow Saddam, the Pol Pot of the Middle East. But I hope we can agree that the US and Britain must continue to help the elected Iraqi government to defeat the odious car-bombing fanatics who are trying to destroy the Iraqi people’s future. Blair is right and brave to support Bush. As in Indochina, American strength and will are what counts most.
Sir, may you publish Taki for ever.
William Shawcross
St Mawes, Cornwall
Jazz without the chat
Sir: I am grateful to Charles Spencer for drawing my attention to the Jazz radio station (Arts, 3 March). If his worst fears are realised about it descending towards a jazz version of Classic FM, he should head for the Parisian station TSF (tsfjazz.com) online. The very small amount of talking will have the added benefit of helping him keep his French up to scratch.
David Whittle
Oakham, Rutland
In the zone
Sir: A normally reliable friend of mine who lives in Kensington tells me that, contrary to what Anthony Browne suggests (Politics, 3 March), she and her well-heeled fellow residents have benefited enormously from the enlargement of the congestion charge zone. Instead of paying £8 per day for the privilege, now for a mere £4 per week they can drive around the very centre of London to their heart’s content.
Richard Simon
Edinburgh
Isolationism is not an option
Sir: In ‘America: you’ll miss it when it’s gone’ (3 March) Irwin Stelzer gives a fair imitation of a rejected child picking up his toys and leaving the nursery. The truth, as a wise commentator like Mr Stelzer must know, is that isolationism is not an option for the world’s sole superpower. Fortress America was not a practical proposition in 1940 when isolationism was at its height, and it is still less so in the era of globalisation and international terror.
Whichever president is elected next time will have to defend and protect American interests across the world, and will need to win friends and allies in order to do so. Let us hope that he or she will make a better fist of it than George W. Bush. Being hated, as Britain discovered at the time of the Boer war, goes with the territory of being top dog.
I fear that Mr Stelzer will have to get used to hearing ignorant, irritating and inaccurate anti-American remarks at those disobliging dinner parties he insists on attending for a good while yet.
Nigel Jones
Lewes, East Sussex
Let’s all laugh at Brown
Sir: Congratulations to Jeff Randall for his cutting satirical rendition of Ko-Ko’s ‘Little List’ (‘The Clunking Fist’, 3 March). This Chancellor and the rest of the Downing Street crew have surely committed enough crimes to have kept Gilbert going for ever and ever. If we can’t do anything else to goad this ‘administration’ into resignation, surely we can have a jolly good laugh at their stupidity?
Bernard Twiddy
Camberley, Surrey
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