The lost boys
Sir: The only statement in your powerful leading article (‘Boy trouble’, 17 August) which can be challenged is that ‘the plight of poor white boys is a new burning injustice’. It is certainly not ‘new’. Even 40 years ago when the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) produced policies designed to counter inequality affecting girls, it was obvious that the problem was no less serious for white working-class boys. But the subject was highjacked by those obsessing about girls, with the results described in your article 40 years later.
During the hijacking (for which he was not responsible), ILEA’s former leader Sir Ashley Bramall said to me: ‘Perhaps we should also be worried about the boys.’ We now have another female education secretary who herself overcame inequalities; she should give her urgent attention to white working-class boys.
David Woodhead
(Chief press officer ILEA, 1978-84)
Leatherhead, Surrey
Fighting talk
Sir: I found your various articles about the recent riots (‘Why Britain riots’, 10 August) sensible, fair and illuminating. I fear that the government’s response to the disorder is not going to make the problems go away. Rather than simply denying that there is a problem and cracking down hard on anyone who says otherwise, the government needs to stand up and declare that it abhors the violent reaction of a minority of mindless, misguided and too often racist thugs.
However, it also needs to accept that in many communities there is, at the very least, the perception of a problem regarding immigration. Ministers need to be clear that they will sit down with representatives of all communities to search for solutions.
Above all, the government needs to emphasise that this country will gladly accept refugees and asylum seekers as long as they are willing to learn English, integrate, respect our laws and values, work hard and contribute to society. Only then will we all be able to move on together.
David Edwards
Norton-sub-Hamdon, Somerset
Fair play
Sir: Douglas Murray points to an apparent uneven and unpredictable application of the law (‘The persecution of “the plebs”’, 17 August). It may be too much to expect politicians to act impartially. That is why the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary should act independently of political pressure in the investigation, prosecution and sentencing of criminal acts. Those who exercise everyday judicial functions – magistrates, district judges and circuit judges – are the last line of defence against an arbitrary state. We must watch them carefully.
John Hardman
Bolton, Lancashire
Penalty box
Sir: I served in Moscow shortly before Peter Hitchens was there (Letters, 17 August). Soviet TV was, indeed, in Russian. But it was a major source of what those who disagreed with us thought. My colleagues in the embassy were, at one stage, rostered to follow Spotlight on Perestroika, and I once endured 55 minutes of a Gorbachev speech to hear verbatim what he had said about the Krasnoyarsk radar. Credit to the FCO for staffing the embassy with Russian speakers, and more to the long-suffering spouses who sacrificed their evenings to the gathering of such insight.
A.V.G. Tucker (press attaché,
HM Embassy, Moscow, 1987-90)
Winchester, Hants
Campbell in the soup
Sir: Rod Liddle excels himself in his demolition of Douglas Murray’s tormentors and, in particular, of the ineffable Alastair Campbell (‘Douglas Murray vs the mob’, 17 August). Delivered with his customary wit and gusto, it is a tour de force. As for Campbell, Rod is right to observe that the man deserved to be locked up for his part in the decision to invade Iraq. At the very least, Campbell should have the self-awareness to keep his mouth shut when the subject of ill-treating Muslims comes up.
Gordon Bonnyman
Frant, East Sussex
The route to happiness
Sir: What a wonderful article about Routemaster buses (Notes on…, 17 August). It brought back so many happy memories from my youth when we would go bus-spotting in and around Kingston-upon-Thames. At the beginning the buses were all badged ‘RM’ followed by a number, which made identifying them easy. The prize sighting was RM2, which was painted green, rather than red, traversing Surrey on route 406. There was little traffic and they would appear in the distance as double-decker warhorses rumbling along.
There were no screens other than black and white TV. We had to create our own entertainment, use our brains and converse with each other. Those were the days.
Brian Fairclough
Weybridge, Surrey
Lincoln maligned
Sir: Your book review of The Demon of Unrest (10 August) says that Abraham Lincoln never visited the Deep South. As a young man, he made several trips to New Orleans on a flatboat packed with cargo which he traded off as he made his way down the Mississippi. That included stops at plantation wharfs. At the Crescent City, he surely saw the demeaning aspects of slavery, and he may even have seen the auction blocks where Africans were bought and sold, for these sites were scattered citywide such as at the ‘sumptuous rotunda of the St Louis Hotel, private residences, public parks, decks of ships moored along the Mississippi, high-walled slave pens, and commercial complexes such as Banks Arcade’.
Bill Whelan
Providence, Rhode Island, US
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