Don’t condescend to us
Sir: How amazing that so many politicians are surprised by the message that there is dissatisfaction with the political status quo, and that this finds expression through rejection of the established political players (‘Ukip’s triumph’, 24 May). Fortunately for them there were few elections in the rural districts, or the message would have been even worse.
Since the inception of the National Planning Policy Framework there has been a relentless attack upon the integrity of market towns and villages, on the greenbelt, and on the fabric of the English countryside. Democracy has been trampled on by an unholy alliance between the vested interests of some politicians and the mammoths of the construction industry. This has not resulted in affordable housing for the young rural dispossessed, but with disfiguring rashes of identikit houses and endless ruinous squabbles between the construction industry and local communities.
Our advice to politicians of every hue is to listen to us. Don’t pretend to give us localism and democracy and then trample all over us and our opinions. Don’t call us names and condescend to us. We gave you power, and through the ballot box we can take it away. If you learn nothing else from the experience of the elections of 2014, then learn this.
Jenny Unsworth,
Congleton, Cheshire
Why I voted Ukip
Sir: I agree with Peter Oborne’s every word about Ukip, its leader and his achievements in restoring politics to ordinary people.
I am a black woman who has been living in the East Midlands for almost 30 years. I am now a Ukip voter for all of the reasons identified by Mr Oborne — the fact that Mr Farage has singlehandedly restored ‘passion, genuine debate and meaning to politics … Singlehandedly, he has reinvented British democracy.’
Mr Farage is to me like water to a thirsty person in the desert of present-day political debate. Until now, I had been seriously considering emigrating elsewhere. Ukip has renewed my faith in the possibility of democratic politics here.
Of course, some of Ukip’s candidates might not be the most pleasant or unprejudiced of individuals but that, in my view, is a much lesser evil than what the other major parties stand for.
Margaret Jordon
Newark, Nottinghamshire
A royal tartan
Sir: The Duchess of Cambridge needn’t be alone if she dons Middleton tartan as Peter McKay suggests (Diary, 24 May). Prince William himself is entitled to sport it through a fine dollop of Middleton blood of his own. The Prince is a descendant of John Middleton (c. 1608-1674), eldest son of Robert Middleton of Caldhame.
The Middletons of Caldhame had been minor lairds in Luthermuir, Kincardineshire, for generations. John was created Earl of Middleton in 1656 by Charles II. Earl John’s daughter, Lady Helen Middleton, married Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Kinghorne in 1662. Helen is the ancestress of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore & Kinghorne — also known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince William’s great-grandmother.
Gordon Casely
Crathes, Kincardineshire
Trusting the wrong people
Sir: Dame Helen Ghosh (Letters, 17 May) writes as director of the National Trust to explain her plans to spend up to £35 million on renewable energy, to ‘protect the places we look after from the unprecedented threat of a warming climate’.
Despite the current alarm in official circles about catastrophic warming, higher temperatures have long been recognised as less a threat than a relief from the drought, famine and disease associated with cold. Moreover, before using intemperate language about ‘unprecedented’ risk, Dame Helen could do worse than turn to non-official sources to widen her understanding of climate change. There she would discover that to attribute change predominantly to manmade emissions of carbon dioxide is becoming a minority creed.
Lord Leach of Fairford
London W11
Working yourself to death
Sir: Nicholas Wade asks why East Asians modernised much more rapidly than Africans (‘The genome of history’, 17 May). To anyone who runs a business in this part of the world it is quite obvious, but no western economist would dare say it. They work harder. A recent story in the Japan News was entitled ‘Legislation needed to prevent “karoshi” — death from overwork’.
Cedric Talbot
Tokyo, Japan
Educate ex-servicemen
Sir: We send our soldiers overseas to fight, and they become heroes. Coming home, however, many are unable to gain a good job through lack of education. Some can barely read or write. I am 89 and went out to fight in Burma. When I came home I was given £400 a year to receive an education, and ‘Gunner 14679601’ became first Patrick Halnan, Cambridge graduate in Law, and later His Honour Judge Patrick Halnan. All this education was free.
We should give a similar free education to each of our soldiers or sailors who fight for us overseas. At the moment, all our servicemen are trained to do is to fight. Because they have had no education, many end up in prison or if not in prison, can only receive unemployment benefits to live on.
Patrick Halnan
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Pronouncement needed
Sir: Dot Wordsworth was very clear about the correct pronunciation of Marylebone (Mind Your Language, 17 May). Can she now tell us how to pronounce Slaithwaite?
Michael Henderson
London W13
Comments