Pretender to the crown
Sir: Kate Andrews combines detail and analysis with a sprinkling of satire to devastating effect in her article on Kamala Harris (‘Trump’s new rival’, 27 July). The news anchor she describes in the first sentence (‘I’m struck just in your presence’) is more partisan than journalist, and would give Ofcom good reason to clutch its pearls if they popped up on GB News. Here is someone who identifies as, but isn’t actually, a news anchor. Rather like Harris, who identifies as a politician but hasn’t gone to the trouble of securing any actual votes. Perhaps this is why the Democrats have the overwhelming support of Hollywood, whose whole business is, after all, pretence.
Compare the unhealthy state of the American mainstream media with the BBC of a generation ago, when Robin Oakley became political editor. In his Spectator Turf column of 13 July he writes that when he got the job: ‘I gave up political betting on the spot, aware that if it became known I had punted on some political outcome, accusations of partial reporting would rapidly follow.’ As consumers of news and opinion, on whatever media, we need to recognise and reward such integrity wherever it can be found.
Jon Wainwright
Cliburn, Cumbria
Age concern
Sir: Joe Biden said he was passing the torch to a new generation when he endorsed Kamala Harris for president. At 59, Kamala is not that young. This was the phrase used by Jack Kennedy when he was inaugurated in 1961, aged 43, succeeding Eisenhower, aged 70. Kamala is also five years older than Lyndon Johnson was when he became president and, unlike LBJ, will have served a full term as vice-president. Surely the problem is that, thanks to Donald Trump and then Joe Biden, we have become accustomed to old white men in the White House. The man to watch is J.D. Vance, who’s the same age as Richard Nixon when he became vice-president.
James Hughes-Onslow
London SE5
Mourning doves
Sir: Although Roger Alton rightly referenced the live pigeon shooting of 1900 as the only time animals were deliberately killed at the modern Olympic Games (Sport, 27 July), the infamous Seoul 1988 opening ceremony wasn’t far off. More than a dozen of the white doves released earlier in the proceedings settled on the then unlit flame cauldron and refused to budge. Hence the dignity of the lighting itself was somewhat marred by the sight of the doves of peace being immolated in the name of harmony between nations.
Thomas Sweeney
Reading, Berkshire
Border game
Sir: In support of your leading article (‘After Rwanda’, 27 July), it is surprising that Sir Keir Starmer KC has failed to recognise the ‘cops and courts fallacy’ in creating his Border Security Command. This well-established principle explains that complex social, political and economic problems cannot be solved primarily through law enforcement and the courts. ‘Toughness’ will undoubtedly dominate the rhetoric, and a significant bureaucracy will be created to produce a narrative of success. But the people will keep coming and the tax revenues will keep draining away.
Illegal immigration will be reduced only by the prosaic hard yards of creative international co-operation and diplomatic negotiation. What Sir Keir requires is not a maritime RoboCop but a Dag Hammarskjold. I wish the Prime Minister the best of luck in identifying such individuals in modern law enforcement.
Richard List QPM
Aylesbury, Bucks
Vision defect
Sir: It is a matter of shame that the Nato countries with a combined GDP more than six times that of Russia continue with their drip feed of weapons to Ukraine guaranteeing it can defend but not attack, while Russian planes launch missiles from within Russian airspace without fear of retaliation (‘Russia’s game’, 13 July). It is a pathetic failure of politics and vision of our western leaders. Any ceasefire or deal will merely delay Russia’s next push west by a few years at best.
Bernard Benson
Johannesburg
Poor curriculum
Sir: Toby Young’s musings about the state of our schools and the curriculum review ordered by the new government are simply misguided (No sacred cows, 27 July). As a teacher, inspector and governor of some 35 years’ experience, I would like to offer an alternative view. The reason boys, and in particular white, working-class boys, perform so badly can be traced, in part, to the disastrous reforms initiated by Michael Gove. The narrow, stultifying focus on standards of literacy and numeracy at the expense of sport, technology and the arts would have any keen-spirited young male running to the exit. Boys need variety, stimulus and provocation.
A diverse and creative curriculum, well taught with passion and a twinkling eye, will attract and hold most children. This can be seen in the continuing influx to independent schools, where a varied curriculum remains the norm. The parents of these pupils know the secret to happy, successful, motivated children growing into balanced, valuable innovative adults is not and never will be the Gradgrindian approach so favoured by the likes of Gove and Young.
David Edwards
Norton sub Hamdon, Somerset
Divorced from reality
Sir: Hannah Moore (‘Split personalities’, 27 July) says what all politicians and most community leaders are afraid to say: divorce, except in exceptional circumstances, harms children. Working as a school mentor, I know that such symptoms of adolescence as mild rebellion and the challenging of long-suffering teachers are common. However, some students display a deeper disturbance which evades attempts by teaching and remedial staff to diagnose. Consistently rebellious, deeply cynical and usually monosyllabic, these children are seen as a baffling enigma. In a mentoring session the clues become clearer. As a former relationship counsellor, I believe the root cause is family breakdown. Moore rightly emphasises that divorce is treated as an ecstatic freedom pass for a woman who is bored with her husband. But whether a man or a woman sees it this way, the result is always less freedom for the child. Less freedom from care and less freedom from worry.
This is more pronounced in lower income families. While schools encourage academic aspiration, 15-year-old boys from divorced families feel under pressure to earn money to help Mum, with working-class boys too often giving up the prospect of further education to take up the place where Dad used to be. Left-wing dogma, meanwhile, isolates them further, because of its insidious narrative that they are inherently flawed and need fixing.
Marriage was valued post-war as a balm to soothe shattered lives and build up a sense of emotional and financial security. As we see escalating mental health crises in the young, perhaps we should be valuing its importance again.
Dr Fiona Turner
Antingham, Norfolk
Good grief
Sir: Petronella Wyatt’s memories of the deaths of Princess Diana and her father in 1997 (Charmed life, 20 July) resulted in me digging out my very musty scrapbook of Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965 which I had reverently compiled from newspaper cuttings when I was a young teenager.
Peering now at the faded images of that January day, I notice that the nation’s grief was expressed not only by the pomp and solemnity of a state funeral but by the people lining the streets. Instead of smartphones held high, heads were bowed and hats removed as the cortege passed. No flowers can be seen except those laid at Churchill’s final resting place at Bladon.
Compare this with the funerals of Princess Diana and the Queen where florist-bought flowers, teddy bears, balloons and photographs carpeted our land. Grief, it now seems, must be public and the larger the audience the better. Even personal mourning must go viral, with photos of the dead and messages from friends and family uploaded on social media to half the planet.
Queen Elizabeth, Sir Winston Churchill, Ms Wyatt’s father and all other members of that generation must be turning in their graves. At least they are in a place where, to date, the selfie cannot reach.
Linda Willby
Thornton le Dale, North Yorkshire
Rein check
Sir: As a sometime member of the British Driving Society I would take issue with your correspondent Valentine Guinness (Letters, 27 July). Contrary to his letter, in horse-and-wagon driving the reins are held in the left hand separated by one’s fingers. The right hand applies the necessary force to whichever rein while holding the whip.
Michael Orpen-Palmer
Hove
The public be damned
Sir: Rory Sutherland observes that relatively little has been written about the prevalence of defensive decision-making in large organisations (The Wiki Man, 20 July). However I have before me an article by your own Theodore Dalrymple, published in March 2001, about precisely that. The sole aim, he alleges, of most public servants (employees of huge and unwieldy organisations) is ‘to keep their jobs by obeying orders… bullying those below…in the hierarchy and… toadying to those above… The public be damned’. He warned us about such professional distortion long before it became more widely recognised. The only remedy, some people tell us, is to break down these management structures into small units answerable to their customers – something unlikely to appeal to mega-corporations. Maybe the Welsh wizards Rory mentions will come up with a more ingenious solution.
Prudence Jones
Cambridge
The wisdom of Flashman
Sir: Peter Jones (Ancient and Modern, 27 July) discusses the attitude to the law taken by the Just Stop Oil protestors and compares it to the beliefs of Plato, Tacitus and Livy. His conclusion is that ‘shrine worshippers’ have always held that their calling is not answerable to the law of man. I suspect I can detect a second motive, and adduce a more recent philosopher-historian, albeit a fictional one.
Decrying those who risk their lives in battle and expect him to do the same, George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman writes: ‘Let them see a hope of martyrdom – they’ll fight their way on to the cross and bawl for the man with the hammer and nails.’
Tom Stubbs
Surbiton, Surrey
Tie minded
Sir: Charles Moore, unusually, fell into error when he wrote of ‘men with Guards ties’ (Notes, 27 July). For some five years women have been serving – and the tie is a Brigade tie.
Christopher Bellew
London W6
Cats’ tale
Sir: Further to the article by Rupert Christiansen (‘Ring of Truth’, 13 July) and the letter from Dr Graz Luzzi (27 July), I have noticed that antipathy towards Wagner exists among animals as well as people. One of the cats who used to live next door to me would happily come into my flat if I was playing Verdi – but walk past with a look of utter disgust if I was playing Wagner.
Richard Briand
Leek, Staffs
Write to us The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP; letters@spectator.co.uk
Comments