Disappearing England
Sir: Rod Liddle’s reference to Labour’s intention to build 1.5 million new houses (‘The great bee-smuggling scandal’, 13 July), even though there is not a shortage, leads one to worry where they will be located. The green belt was introduced for London in 1938 and the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 extended powers with local authorities for self-designation.
In 1937, John Betjeman wrote for one of his BBC talks: ‘England is disappearing and there is growing up, where the trees used to be and where the hills commanded blue vistas, another world that does not seem to be anything to do with England at all. This new world lives in ill-shaped brick horrors, for which it has had to pay through the nose. Many of these horrors, built with no regard for one another, dropped higgledy-piggledy in the loveliest of places – for all the world like huge slices of cake dropped on the top of hills by some mad celestial picnic party – these little brick horrors are poisoning England.’ He was talking about the London suburbs and places like Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth, which compared to the standardised boxes put up today, appear positively stylish. Will lessons be learned?
Steve Reading RIBA
Ludlow, Shropshire
At capacity
Sir: In the current debate on providing more housing, there seems to be a lack of consideration of capacity (‘Keir royale’, 13 July). How many people can this country support with the necessary infrastructure – and not forgetting recreational facilities? Our large cities are already extensive large conurbations – London with a 50-mile diameter and a ribbon of development almost joining it up with Bristol; Manchester and Leeds already all but joined up; and over-tourism rising in the environmental agenda. This might be a no-go area for politicians but it is an important matter for the voters.
R.W. Sutton
Malvern, Worcs
Promises to Ukraine
Sir: Matthew Parris (‘Could Ukrainians ever trust a Putin peace deal?’, 20 July) omits to mention the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, signed up to by Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Under this memorandum Ukraine eliminated what was the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world in return for security assurances which included respect for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial independence, and no use of force against it. After Russia’s seizure of Crimea and parts of Donetsk in 2014 (which went effectively unchallenged by the US and UK) and Putin’s 2022 invasion, is it surprising that Ukrainians would never trust him again without cast-iron guarantees of their future status such as Parris describes? And whose assets would fund the mega-billion rebuilding programme?
Philip Corp
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Adjectival left-wing
Sir: The ongoing case of Hitchens (Letters, 20 July) vs Moore (Notes, 13 July) – over who first described a woman as having a ‘left-wing face’ – reminded me that the late, great Paul Johnson once wrote of a Greek mezzo-soprano that she had ‘unmistakably, unashamedly, a left-wing voice’. Quoting Johnson in his response, the later, greater Bernard Levin objected that ‘She sings in modern Greek, a language which I have no reason to suppose is familiar to Mr Johnson. So as far as he knows, she could be singing the equivalent of “Jolly old Hitler, what a good fellow is Sir Oswald Mosley, hurrah for Mussolini”. Come, now: is B minor right-wing and B major left-wing? Is the chromatic scale Liberal party, and a bloody great wallop on the cymbals ILP?’ (Daily Mail, 29 April 1968).
Harley Mitford
London SW11
In the London Library
Sir: In response to Charles Moore’s remarks about the literary qualifications of the London Library trustees (Notes, 20 July), I would like to reassure him that I am one member of the board who is both a full-time professional author (one memoir, four novels and nine poetry anthologies) and a daily user of the library. So I do have some idea of the concerns of the library’s regular users. I might also add that in 35 years of membership, I have yet to spot Charles Moore in the building.
Daisy Goodwin
London W14
Pillar assault
Sir: Chris Guyver (Letters, 13 July) maligns Sir Samuel Hoare, one of Neville Chamberlain’s closest colleagues in the extension of the welfare state during the interwar years. He did not ‘purloin’ Soane’s Ionic pillars (there were eight of them, not four): he rescued them from destruction. He also saved some magnificent features from the demolished Nuthall Temple near Nottingham, known as Britain’s Rotonda, including some superb Tijou ironwork. Few people cared more about conservation than Hoare.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords, London SW1
Free rein
Sir: Charles Moore notes that because most of us have a ‘master right eye’, the left is the better side to drive on. More importantly, it frees up the (mostly) stronger right hand to do business with (or fight) passers-by.
He blames the change to right-hand-side driving on Napoleon, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Everyone drove on the left until wagon drivers in America started passing each other on the right so as to keep their right hand holding the reins. The French made the Europeans change to driving on the right because they saw the USA as a natural revolutionary ally. Also, as with modern-day Brussels bureaucrats, they took pleasure in being as annoying as possible to Britain.
Valentine Guinness
London W12
After Low Life
Sir: Since October 2022, I have been going through breast cancer followed almost a year later by a diagnosis of stage 4 ovarian cancer. I felt I had a bit of a kindred spirit during some of this, as I had read Jeremy Clarke’s Low Life column for years and adored his honesty and sense of humour. Now, following his death, his wife Catriona’s articles are delightful and I find myself looking forward to them as much as I did Jeremy’s. I really hope that she keeps on writing so I can continue to live French village life vicariously through her.
Angie Silagy
Cortez, Florida
Allergic to Wagner
Sir: I thank Rupert Christiansen for his openness about falling out of love with Wagner (‘Ring of truth’, 13 July). It made me wonder if some (like me) are born with an allergy to Wagner, and others achieve it. Others perhaps have it thrust upon them (possibly by being subjected to an entire Ring cycle, as Christiansen tells us he was, at the age of ten).
Dr Graz Luzzi
Oxford
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