Major achievements
Sir: I enjoyed and applauded Matthew Parris’s piece (Another voice, 26 May). It is indeed time that Sir John Major’s legacy was recognised and that he be remembered for those two acts that will leave what I hope will be an indelible mark on our daily life. Having been involved with cultural institutions that have been wholly renewed with Lottery money, I can only hope that its introduction will be remembered as his great contribution to this country. Let us fervently hope that this administration’s raid for the Olympics is resisted with maximum force by the current trustees to allow it to continue its remarkable work.
Also let us remember his keeping sterling out of the eurozone by negotiating our opt-out of monetary union. Please may Gordon Brown keep us tightly opted out too.
Rupert Hambro
London SW1
Too many laws
Sir: It’s all very well Boris Johnson writing about the new Puritans (‘The purpose of life is happiness’, 26 May). Perhaps he and his
colleagues could start opposing some of the puritanical/authoritarian legislation that spews forth from New Labour. New Dave seems to agree with half of it and doesn’t put up much of a fight against the other half.
Simon Wood
By email
Sir: Boris Johnson is right. The Conservatives’ basic policy should be not to pass laws but to repeal them. I would scrap almost all of Blair’s laws, most of Major’s, some of Thatcher’s, some from before her time, all laws subordinating Britain to the EU and all EU regulations imposed on us against our will. If the result of this was a less healthy, less safe, society — oh dear, how sad. I favour more laws to keep out immigrants and protect animals.
Mark Taha
London SE26
Vaccination risks
Sir: Doctors Elliman, Bedford and Hamilton (Letters, 26 May) dismiss Prof. Gordon Stewart’s evidence, but there was a Medical Research Council-funded study last year (Harnden et al) in the British Medical Journal which showed that whooping cough was proliferating despite vaccination (and going undetected because the illness was presumed eradicated). So Prof. Stewart is credible after all.
In the meantime, we can surely reasonably ask these doctors whether it was wise to administer five vaccines to an unwell infant (Harry Clark) and whether the autopsy should not have looked conscientiously at the possibility of adverse reactions to this complex of pharmaceutical products, irrespective of their a priori view.
John Stone (autism parent)
London N22
My row with Rian
Sir: When Rian Malan’s book, My Traitor’s Heart, was shortlisted for a non-fiction prize awarded by the (South African) Sunday Times, of which I was then editor, I ventured the opinion that it was an exploitation of racism. He never forgave me. However, as I told Malan during our recent dispute at the writers’ conference in Franschhoek, my original view has since been confirmed repeatedly by his later writings in which, frankly, I cannot recognise the country in which we both live. Nor do I recognise in his latest report in The Spectator (‘Shame on Mugabe’s stooges’, 19 May) the terms of our argument, although on this occasion the reason was perhaps that he was enjoying the lavish supply of fine Haute Cabrière Cellar wines while I, a teetotaller, was not.
I must confess that I told him his snivelling, self-pitying, race-based terror of the future in this country was pathetic. I also said, among other things, it was not beyond understanding that President Thabo Mbeki might resort to ‘quiet diplomacy’ to try to avert rather than precipitate the implosion which Zimbabwe now faces. I used the Anglo-American intervention in Iraq as an example of the sort of catastrophe that can ensue when hubristic leaders intervene in other nations’ affairs. He seemed, in his excited condition at the time, to find that view mystifying.
Ken Owen
Claremont, Cape Town, South Africa
Stigmatised at 11
Sir: Why is the grammar school debate so heavily focused on the few who pass rather than on the great majority who fail the selection and go to secondary modern schools? As the mother of four grammar school pupils, I was fortunate and so were they. As a governor for many years of the concomitant secondary modern, I watched as children who had happily learnt alongside mine in primary school were gradually deprived of chances after failing the 11-plus. French (and of course other languages) disappeared, then history. Teachers of academic subjects lost heart; pupils could pursue them only if they later found a place at sixth-form college. The school, excellently equipped for sport, woodwork, cookery and other skills, had no provision for over-16s. I listened to agonised parents who had hoped their child might take up law or architecture and were told it was out of the question.
As a parliamentary candidate (Labour) in 1974, I campaigned for comprehensives. They have not been very successful, but at least they do not label a child at 11. Setting does allow sudden interests and talents to be encouraged, and teachers can spot late developers. Grammar schools are fine but even Tories need to offer hope to the other 75 per cent of children in selective areas.
Marigold Johnson
London W2
MS isn’t terminal
Sir: In response to Rod Liddle (‘The BBC should be less opinionated’, 26 May), the MS Society would like to point out that MS is not a terminal illness. It is a lifelong condition, but people with MS are most likely to die from natural causes.
Chris Bentley
Press Officer, Multiple Sclerosis Society, London NW2
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