Changes

Changes 8 July 2009

My shaver has arrived! My old one having broken on Sunday, I am now shaved and look semi- well almost respectable.. Electronic rather than electric, but the important thing is how many time can I drop it in the wash had basin before it goes bust? It has fancy led lights and a battery and claims it can he charged in five minutes But I can’t work out how to do it. I plug it in and get a steady green glow, which then winks mischievously at me. It that good or bad? Electronics!
It rain off and on all day, so no roofer then. Puddy come in from the garden looking disgusted having been caught out in a shower, and tries to dry herself by rubbing herself against me.

I loathe the 7/7 memorial It look awful. Why could they have not put up something pretty
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/3699641619/ It looks awful mindless banal and depersonalized. I suppose this is how the elite think of us the people.
The comments in the Times say it all:

They could hardly have put less thought into it.
Insulting.
Graham Rounce, London, UK
Why was Gordon Brown allowed to be there? He is responsible for their deaths, he went to war with Blair. How dare those politicians show their faces, it is an utter disgrace.
Algernon Black, Cheltenham, England
John , Matlock, Derbyshire

I think anyone can comment on any public memorial. It doesn’t just ‘belong’ to those involved. Having only seen photos, it does look ugly and poorly thought out.

Blitz memorials have so much more style than this one.
Anthony Farrar, Worthing, UK

I settle down to make my rose petal wine, It is a curious darkish yellow colour, one is fizzing away the other is quiet and ominously dead looking. I throw away the remains of the rose petals, their colour washed out of them all those reds and pinks and yellows and white, the colours all having gone into the wine.

I quite like the Trafalgar Square plinth lot, I am glad the young man dodged security to make his point. Lovely stuff. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1197704/Now-theres-poo-Trafalgar-Squares-fourth-plinth.html

Obituary: Joan Rice
Joan Rice was a writer whose abilities became apparent to a significant audience only when she reached her late eighties, when her Second World War diaries were published by HarperCollins in 2006. Sand in My Shoes — also the name of a popular wartime song — is an account of her service in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force based on diaries that she kept at the time. “We weren’t supposed to keep diaries, so it was rather naughty. But everyone did,” she said.
Her record of her life in the WAAF begins in September 1939 when she was aged 20 and continues until December 1942, by which time she had been posted to Cairo and was engaged to be married. Much more than a straightforward account of wartime experiences, the book paints a fascinating picture of optimistic and romantic youth in horrifying situations amid dangerous uncertainty, from the air bases in the Home Counties to the deserts of Palestine and Egypt.
Joan Odette Bawden was born in Kensington, London, in 1919, the elder daughter of George and Florence Bawden. Her father was an entrepreneur in the fashion trade and her mother was a former model and, later, an executive in the fashion business. Joan was educated at Maida Vale High School in London and after leaving she worked as a secretary for Shell. Her sister, Pamela, died aged 13 in 1935.
By her own account Joan could not wait to break away from dull, middle-class life with her parents in Surrey and leapt at the chance of freedom and adventure in the Services. Within two years she was in North Africa with a team tracking enemy troop movements, and in Egypt she met a tall army officer, Major Hugh Rice, who was “refreshingly unsentimental and with unbelievably beautiful manners”. Her diary goes on: “My heart is singing wildly and madly with joy. Here he is come at last and he has never so much as held my hand.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6651729.ece

Letters:

Guardian:

The fight against climate change will not be won without a technology revolution. In that, the former British prime minister Tony Blair is correct (L’Aquila summit needs to capitalise on global goodwill on climate change, 6 July). Mr Blair is also right to point out that many of the technologies we need to fight climate change are within our grasp.
However, if we are to seize this opportunity, a much better understanding of why we have not yet managed to harness the potential of even some of the most rudimentary low-carbon innovations is desperately needed. Our joint study of the barriers that stand in the way – published later this week – provides some important insights.
We asked more than 100 leading business people, government officials and academics in eight key countries what they thought stood in the way of a grand roll-out of low-carbon technology. They told us that while all of the governments represented at the G8 and Major Economies Forum in Italy this week are doing something to encourage low-carbon technology, not one is yet implementing a coherent low-carbon growth or development strategy.
They also told us that finance is woefully lacking. While the private sector may well be the main source of investment in low-carbon technology, governments have to lead to make new technologies cheaper and less risky.
Success at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December depends upon reaching consensus on several extremely divisive issues. One of these is technology. Low-carbon innovations have the potential to improve lives as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions, but this will be squandered unless governments step up and lead.
John D Podesta President and CEO, Centre for American Progress, USA
Dr Rajendra K Pachauri Director general TERI, India; Chair, IPCC
Professor Jiahua Pan Executive director, Research Centre for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
Dr Rubens Born Director, Vitae Civilis, Brazil
Professor Manfred Fischedick Vice- president, Wuppertal Institute, Germany
John Connor Chief executive, Climate Institute, Australia
Lisa Harker and Carey Oppenheim Co-directors, IPPR, UK
Andrew Gilder Director, IMBEWU sustainability specialists, South Africa
Dr Ewah Eleri Director, International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development, Nigeria
Global Climate Network
I certainly hope that all of the methane produced by Mark Capron’s algae-digesting system for absorbing atmospheric carbon dioxide (Just add lime to the sea – the latest plan to cut CO2, 6 July) will be captured and used as fuel, if the method is implemented. Methane is 23 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2.
Martyn Smith
Aberdare, Mid Glamorgan

Is David Cameron, with his apology for section 28 banning the promotion of homosexuality in schools, vying for a place among the gay icons chosen by Elton John to appear in the National Portrait Gallery (Nick Herbert, Comment, July 7)? Section 28, which became law in 1988 when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, was subsequently repealed by the Labour government in 2003, no thanks to David Cameron, who voted against.
If he thinks an apology now is enough to make up for all the damage that he and his party inflicted on the many thousands of children growing up during those vindictive Tory years he is mistaken. The homophobia that persists today would not be as ingrained if the teaching profession during those depressing years had been free to guide, encourage, discuss and debate homosexuality. Instead it stigmatised our children, left them insecure and unable to be themselves.
Bernard Harper
Pontefract, West Yorkshire
Having opposed virtually every lesbian and gay equality measure in the UK, the Conservatives suddenly feel able to claim empathy with our community. David Cameron’s damascene conversion to lesbian and gay (and transgender) equality will appear less opportunistic and hypocritical when he explains publicly and forcefully why his MEPs over the last 10 years have failed to vote in favour of any of the EU equality laws. As co-founder of Stonewall, I am somewhat saddened by its executive director’s support for this piece of political theatre.
Michael Cashman MEP
Labour, West Midlands
Shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert claims 38% of gay men plan to vote Conservative at the next general election. If he had been at London Pride in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, he would have witnessed the crowd boo and heckle a Tory shadow minister as he claimed the Tories have changed.
Ian Ross
Labour PPC, Worthing West

Helen Phillips (Response, 7 July) is right to be concerned about the disconnection of large parts of the population from the countryside and while her solutions, accessibility and education, are broadly correct, current political priorities are not. The Countryside Alliance supported the right-to-roam legislation and is equally supportive of improving coastal access, although it believes the marine and coastal access bill is the wrong way to deliver it. However, access is irrelevant if large parts of society have no discernible interest in using it. New sections of society will not be attracted to use those many areas that are already accessible if they are not introduced to the countryside, which is why a commitment to outdoor education in the national curriculum is a central demand of the Alliance’s rural manifesto. The long campaign to open up the countryside will fail, despite the right to roam and coastal access, if the countryside is still a foreign land for large parts of society.
Simon Hart
Chief executive, Countryside Alliance

Independent:

Harrow council’s unsuccessful attempt to have Mrinal Patel prosecuted for fraud over her application for a school place for her child (report, 4 July) is merely the logical conclusion of the education reforms foisted upon us by both the Conservatives and New Labour over the past 20 or so years.
School inspection regimes, league tables, foundation schools and now city academies have served to pit child against child, parent against parent, school against school and now, sadly, a local education authority against a parent who, however misguidedly, tried to use whatever ruse she thought necessary to obtain the most desirable school place for her child. And who really could blame her when successive governments have created a dog-eat-dog market in school admissions?
The rampant consumerisation of our public institutions must be reversed. There must be a return to the values of citizenship on the one side and public service on the other, with public partnership and user involvement in the running of services seen as central, not quasi-managerial customer-care smoke- screens being used as a substitute for true involvement in our schools, hospitals and other services.
Noel Nowosielski
Pudsey, West Yorkshire
Ed Balls has ordered an inquiry into how many parents are “playing the system” to get their children into a school of their choice. Wouldn’t he be doing something more useful if he ordered an inquiry into removing the need for caring parents to play the system to get their children a decent education. All praise to Mrs Patel.
Nigel Wardle
Leicester
MPs to vote on ID snoopers’ charter
Do not been fooled by Alan Johnson’s announcement last week on ID cards “not being compulsory”. It is still very much business as usual: your life will not be worth living without a card and your data is the Government’s to lose and abuse at your expense, albeit by the back door.
To prove it, there are three ID-related Statutory Instruments to be voted on in the House of Commons this Wednesday.
The “Provision of Information without Consent” regulation would give powers to the Identity and Passport Service to pass on information it holds on you to a host of other agencies without your knowledge or consent.
This information would include not only official document numbers, and personal details such as your name, addresses and signature (more than enough to facilitate massive identity fraud) but also your fingerprints and even – to the police, intelligence services, taxman and anyone else they authorise – details of every time you had had your ID checked, such as when you register with a GP, open a bank account, or travel abroad. Your medical and financial dealings will be thus conveniently tagged and indexed for further snooping.
Records of what information has been given to whom and why may be destroyed after 12 months or less. They would track you for life, but prefer to leave no trail of their activities.
Blocking these three Statutory Instruments would not only stall the scheme; it provides an opportunity for ID opponents to show how committed they are to killing it off completely. It is important that as many MPs of all parties as possible vote against them on Wednesday.
Robin Tudge
London SE8
No passport, no fee. Is this a common experience?
In early March, as experienced freelance theatre directors, a colleague and I were invited by the Central School of Speech and Drama to facilitate a workshop for 18 mature students at a small student arts festival in London. The festival was good, our work was successful and we all enjoyed it. I had imagined that we were offered the work because of our reputation, as we had for over three decades conducted many similar master classes around the world.
But no. Despite being booked by their agent, with contractual email, the work experience section of human resources in the Central School of Speech and Drama are still refusing to pay us our modest fees unless we give them copies of our passports, to prove we are who we say we are. They also wish to file these passport copies in their database.
None of this was mentioned until after the work was completed. We have refused to give copies of our passports on the grounds of civil liberties, invasion of privacy and because we are not convinced that our confidential information will be secure.
I understand the collection and storing of such information is becoming a common procedure in all educational institutions. It does rather look like identity cards by the back door.
John Fox
Ulverston, Cumbria
This week I was outraged by a announcement over the public address system at my local supermarket that as from late July their checkout operators would demand ID from any member of the public wishing to purchase age-restricted products (fags and alcohol), to prove they were over 25.
Whatever happened to 18? Images of fresh-faced squaddies just back from Iraq flashed before my eyes, vainly trying to buy the odd bottle of cider and being rebuffed. This has got the greasy fingers of the Government’s ID cards scheme all over it.
Doug Wilde
Stretton, Staffordshire
The truth about spending cuts
Our Prime Minister assures us that he does not tell lies. He insists that if we vote in a Conservative government at the next general election there will be massive cuts in public spending, leading to thousands of job losses within the ranks of the armed forces, police, fire service, schoolteachers and other public services in order to facilitate favourable changes to inheritance tax for a small number of very wealthy people, and to address the current public borrowing debt.
But if we vote in a Labour government for another five years, under his stewardship, there will be no tax increases, no reduction in public spending, nor job losses in the public services, and the public debt will be addressed by departmental efficiency savings, a sell-off of government assets, and natural tax increases when the current recession ends and the economy returns to healthy growth again.
Who would be stupid enough to vote Tory with a promise like that from a Prime Minister who tells us no lies?
Malcolm Wild
North Shields, Tyne & Wear
Has there ever been a time when a government was so out of step with voters’ wishes, and did not appear to care? The voters want services and sound financial management, but the leaders of the Labour governments of the past 12 years only want to flatter US presidents, and get to Brussels and run the EU, a well-paid swan-song.
The costs of loans to sort out the economy will fall on future generations. As long as some rich people in London contribute to party funds, all is well.
Nick Fawcett
Ashford, Kent
Science journalists not always wrong
Drs Bell, Boynton and Goldacre (letter, 6 July) claim that “science journalists are often lazy and inaccurate”, citing MMR among the issues about which “the public have been misled by journalists”.
While there are occasional examples of poor reporting, I think the authors are guilty of extrapolating a few data about a small number of individuals to make an inaccurate inference about an entire profession. The MMR debacle was initiated by a researcher rather than by a journalist.
They might be surprised to discover just how many misleading media reports, for which they apparently hold journalists solely responsible, actually arise from exaggerated claims by researchers and their colleagues: a recent study found that just 42 per cent of press releases issued by US academic medical centres provided relevant caveats about the research they described, and 29 per cent exaggerated the importance of their findings.
Bob Ward
Policy and Communications Director, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics
End the stigma of mental illness
We congratulate The Independent for putting “Unlocked: the secrets of schizophrenia” (2 July) on the front page and giving research into severe mental illness the importance it deserves.
The search for the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is vital if we are to find more effective treatments. This is the best way to reduce the stigma associated with these conditions and the trauma that often comes with diagnosis. After all, it was only when we started to identify different cancers and find treatments and cures that we began to overcome the taboo of the “C word”.
Research carried out at the Prince of Wales International Centre for SANE Research is looking at whether schizophrenia may be the price humans pay for the development of higher functions of the brain such as language. The elusive answer to the question as to why one in 100 people worldwide continue to develop these debilitating conditions goes well beyond the hunt for specific genes.
Marjorie Wallace
Chief Executive, SANE, London E1
A nation of fruit-pickers?
Roger Nobbs (letter, 2 July) cites the fact of people leaving this country in large numbers as reason to deny that we also have mass immigration. By taking only the net figure to be significant Mr Nobbs is suggesting that a change in ethnic composition of a population should be of no interest to the natives.
Mr Nobbs is far from being the first to defend immigration on the basis of a dearth of British applicants for fruit-picking vacancies. But surely Mr Nobbs is aware that the wages of fruit gathering do not cover such through-life costs as raising a family or saving for a comfortable retirement. Importing pickers means more welfare dependants to add to the many we already support. If the latter cannot be induced or cajoled to take up their baskets and pick, then some less labour-intensive crop is needed.
John Riseley
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Roger Nobbs states that there’s been no “mass immigration to this country for quite some time”. A perusal of the internet reveals many sources, including the Office of National Statistics, which state that this country has seen net inward migration for about 20 years and that this has substantially increased in the last 12 years, leading to an increase of about 2.3 million people by immigration alone.
George Wheeler
London E18
Briefly…
Agency for quangos
The debate over quangos reminds me of an occasion when I was entering a United Nations building in Geneva. Among the brass plates on the wall was one that proclaimed that the building housed the “UN Agency for the Protection of Newly Developed Plants”. I never did discover why juvenile flora required an agency all of their own.
John Wells
West Wittering, West Sussex
Birds and bats
Further to the letters concerning the apparent reduction in the swift population recently, I suspect that many people make sure that birds can’t get into their roof-space now because if birds can get in, then bats can as well. And if bats set up home there, then, as they’re protected species, your roof-space is no longer your own.
John Hall
Telford
The dawn of Blair
Andreas Whittam Smith (3 July) repeats the story that Labour supporters were bussed into Downing Street on the morrow of the 1997 election. My friend and I, Labour supporters but part of no group, were allowed to walk along Downing Street and await the arrival of the new Prime Minister and his wife. We were not bussed in and we knew none of the people around us. It was a lovely occasion. In spite of the Iraq war, which we marched against, we went on supporting Tony Blair and would do so again.
Leonard Webb
London NW1
Dementia myths
Richard Ingrams (“I’m only too aware of dementia”, 4 July) shows lamentable ignorance by repeating the most common errors made about the disease – that it is a normal part of ageing and that it is about temporarily forgetting names of familiar people or places. My husband was diagnosed five years ago at the age of 56 – even then he did not know the names of everyday foodstuffs and could not look after himself.
Victoria Jones
Topsham, Devon
Medalled
Further to the letter from Michael Cook (6 July) on “medalled” and “medallist”, if I am merely awarded a medal would that mean that I become an “awardist”?
Roger Cook
Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire

Times:

Sir, In this cynical and churlish age, when lack of respect for anything is the norm, it has been good to read Julian Keanie’s letter (“Don’t forget Crown Estate income”, July 3) and J. B. MacGill’s letter (July 6) on the same subject.
One is reminded of Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic as “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”. The price or cost of the monarchy (whether taking into account the Crown Estate income or not) is absolutely no match for its value in national or international terms. The Queen and the Royal Family stand outside the grubby world of business and politics and represent what is best about duty and service to others, both of which are almost dirty words in this age.
Frank Skinner (“I’ll pay 69p for a belt-tightening Queen”, Opinion, July 3) cynically refers to “those hanger-on relatives”. One only has to look at the daily Court Circular to see the vast amount of duty and service each member of the Royal Family gives to charities, events, organisations, business, the Services and those in need — the list is endless.
From some quarters the Duke of York comes in for criticism for his travel costs but what is overlooked is that he visits almost every country as the Special Representative for Trade. Who values that? The cost of his travel is insignificant for his tireless energy on behalf of this country.
Please can we start to be less cynical and fairer to our excellent head of state and her hardworking family for their duty and service on behalf of us all?
Graham Toole-Mackson
Arundel, W Sussex

ears

Sir, Richard Ehrman (Opinion, July 3) is wrong in using the recent struggle against insurgency in Iraq and the current battle against the Taleban in Afghanistan to justify his theories on the supremacy of demographical forces.
In both examples it is true that the numbers deployed by America and Britain were wholly inadequate, resulting in resource-limited campaigns inevitably doomed to strategic failure. This resource limitation was not demographic but the result of intellectually vacuous politics and feeble military advice and leadership.
All historical analysis would indicate that the UK required about 40,000 troops in southern Iraq and that Nato requires about 250,000 troops in Afghanistan now. These are not large numbers in the context of the US and UK populations but they are not sustainable by the small numbers of retained soldiers that these countries are prepared to pay for in peacetime.
These forces need to be geared up long enough to meet such extraordinary commitment. This was the norm until the Cold War when gearing up, or “mobilising” in the expansion sense, was abandoned as the theories of deterrence required limits to be placed on deployed conventional capability.
The US and UK have had more than six years to gear up to be able to make a proper fist of Iraq and Afghanistan and have failed to do so. If Britain needs an Army of 150,000 troops right now, it is not demographics that are preventing it.
Martyn Cubitt
Wimborne St Giles, Dorset

Sir, Your leading article (“Bishop’s wrong move”, July 7) states: “To adapt the words of Clement Attlee to an obstreperous Labour critic: a period of silence on his part would be welcome.” This is a quite mistaken understanding of the role of Dr Michael Nazir-Ali or any other bishop in the Anglican Communion at this time.
For more than ten years the Church has argued for “a period of silence” to enable complex theological and biblical issues to be weighed and resolved, but sadly this “mind of the Church” has been ignored by those pressing for a revision of orthodoxy. Time and again, unilateral decisions have been taken by the revisionists and those seeking to uphold orthodoxy have been marginalised. In consequence, the Church is in turmoil — no longer is it a light to the communities it is called to serve; it has largely lost its confidence in the Gospel it is called to proclaim.
Silence in the face of such a challenge is certainly not the function of those called to “expound and teach the doctrine of the Christian faith as the Church of England has received it” (a vow made at every bishop’s consecration).
Rather, whatever the private views any individual holds on matters under dispute, the Church (and nation) has every reason to be grateful for the ministry of Dr Nazir-Ali at this critical period of the Church’s history.
The Rev John Samways
Keynsham, Bristol

At an early age I loved studying the Bible and attending divinity classes, however the priests took a poor view of my dispassionate interest. It was clear I did not seek ‘faith’ without argument , and my questions were not welcome. This rejection explains why the Church now has modern problems!
Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines
I have always been confused on the doctrine on “grace” which appears to mean that you cannot get to heaven by your own individual efforts. God in his grace decides who gets to heaven, and yet at a lower level of daily life, priests seems to argue that a “good life” will be its own reward. Will it?
Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines
The Church of England spends its time arguing about questions of sexuality and gender because it has so little to say about the things which really matter. That is why so many people, quite rightly, have given up on it .
Robin Kempster, Brighouse, England
“Complex theological and biblical issues? The Church has spent too long debating obscure esoteric issues like how many angels can stand on the head of a pin. It seems to have very little time for, and even less to do with, God
Peter Cressall, La Lucila, Argentin
Sir, A degree is not essential (letter, July 7). I left school at 14, became a messenger on The Times, moved to the reading room, did five years in the RAF, then returned to The Times reading room to become a reader. Soon after I joined the NUJ to work on magazines. I then launched an angling newspaper on my experience gained from The Times.
Next was many years with a large partwork company (Marshall Cavendish) where eventually I launched various partworks and was editor of some of them. I retired at
60 as a senior editor and wrote books on fishing, ichthyology and mineralogy.
Working experience and dedication are more important than a degree.
Len Cacutt
Carshalton, Surrey

Apart from gardening and horticulture, I can think of nothing in this world less harmful than angling. Out totally useless government and business managers with totally useless degrees in English literature and education have brought England very low, but perhaps Eric Campbell does not agree,
Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines
Well there won’t be many of us who end up as icthyologists. Just shows doesn’t it? If you don’t do a degree you can eventually be something TOTALLY useless, like Len.
eric campbell, harrogate, uk

Sir, It is good to see folk enjoying themselves on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square (“Statues of liberty”, times2, July 7). But art?
Perhaps I need to read the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes again.
Mark vale
Harold Wood, Essex

An in-depth study will confirm:
[1] Art is anything produced by an artist.
[2] An artist is anyone who adopts that label.

If you’re pushed for time, just watch Tim Marlow’s “Highlights of the new Tate Modern”, for confirmation.
Brendan Linnane, Adelaide, Australia
Art is, and always has been, in the eye of the beholder, and no-one’s eye is as good as one’s own.
Peter Cressall, La Lucila, Argentina

Telegraph:

SIR – In March, a public outcry forced the Justice Minister to withdraw clauses buried deep in the Coroners and Justice Bill that allowed ministers to authorise unfettered sharing of people’s sensitive personal data, without the permission or knowledge of the individuals concerned.
Today, as Jeremy Burns (Letters, July 6) pointed out, ministers will try again to smuggle data-sharing powers through the parliamentary process, this time via a statutory instrument that allows the Home Office to share information from the proposed identity card database with a range of agencies.
 
These covert attempts to share our personal data are part of a general attitude across Whitehall that our data belongs to civil servants and not to us: witness the way the Department of Health is still trying to grab control of personal medical records by setting up a national “Care Record”, and only grudgingly offering patients the chance to opt out.
Proliferation of Government databases makes imperative the establishment of a constitutional principle that personal data are the property of the individual, and should not be shared without permission.
Andrew Watson
Cambridge
SIR – Philip Johnston (Comment, July 6) rightly addresses the tendency for significant legislation to be introduced by statutory instruments. While considering such regulations today, Parliament will also vote on the Identity Cards Act 2006 (Provision of Information without Consent) Regulations 2009, which is every bit as insidious as the title would suggest.
The Home Office is seeking powers to share information with everyone from the security services to the Department of Transport. Such information would include applications for credit, travel bookings, hotel visits and, potentially, even visits to clinics for medical treatment.
Dr Geraint Bevan
Glasgow
SIR – David Kirwan (Letters, July 4) should not be overly concerned about DNA profiles being kept on file. Far more worrying is the proposed privatisation of the Forensic Science Service and the loss of 40 per cent of their workforce. Such a depleted number of scientists cannot possibly continue the fight against crime.
Surely the function of the Forensic Science Service, which has a global reputation for excellence, is to provide a service, not a profit?
Gordon McDermott
Gainsborough, Lincolnshire
SIR – The Home Secretary now says that the optional identity card will be useful for young people wanting to prove their age in bars. It is also being considered whether the over-75s should get a free card, presumably to allow a very young-looking pensioner to get a drink.
And all this a snip at £5 billion!
Rev David Ackerman
Windrush, Oxfordshire
National Archives in peril
SIR – Britain’s National Archives are under threat. Public access to records at Kew are to be cut by one day a week, staffing levels slashed, many documents on microfilm withdrawn and other services eroded.
As a researcher at the National Archives for 34 years, I have seen many changes. There was protest when the Family Records Centre moved to Kew from central London in 2008. It was stated that this was to save money, yet huge sums were spent to house the influx of records and readers in a building already struggling to cope. Staff were crammed into inappropriate work areas.
The National Archives are in danger of becoming a glorified family history centre. There is nothing wrong with family history (on which I used to give classes), but that is not the National Archives’ most important function. Their own website says they are “the UK government’s official archive, containing almost 1,000 years of history”.
The National Archives have striven to make the most-used records such as censuses available online digitally, which is to be lauded. But the digitisation of hundreds of thousands of documents will not be possible by virtue of their size and the costs involved. Many others will never be digitised because they are little used, but they should still be readily accessible for research. Like all the documents at Kew, they are part of our national heritage.
A once fine library is now a shadow of its former self after several strongly contested changes, including the removal of dedicated librarians to become jacks-of-all-trades, answering general queries outside the library area. Walls were removed to make the library more accessible and less elitist – and noisier.
There has been a dumbing down and a loss of specialist staff, whose knowledge of records, invaluable to researchers, cannot easily be replaced. Last week, a number of staff received letters informing them that they had been “displaced”, an apparent euphemism for sacked.
In the current economic climate, it is inevitable that some cuts will be necessary, but these should not involve tearing the very heart out of a respected institution, vital to the record of the nation’s history.
Ruth Wilcock
Brentwood, Essex
Signs of madness
SIR – For Boris Johnson’s “Royal Society for the Extremely Stupid” award (Comment, July 6), a sign on a bridge over the River Cocker near Cockermouth, Cumbria, says: “Warning: Shallow water”.
John Grange
Keswick, Cumbria
SIR – Boris Johnson has only scratched the surface. I have to consult a 168-page brochure for safety signs on a regular basis. I think my favourite sign denotes “Eye wash”.
I.P. Smith
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
SIR – Boris Johnson is right to complain about signs that state the obvious. I often wonder, though, what foreigners make of such signs as “Heavy plant crossing” or “Adverse camber”.
I myself was bewildered by signs I saw recently in the Lake District pointing to “Peninsula Lakes”. What can this mean?
Myra Robinson
Newcastle upon Tyne
Immigration and the poor
SIR – The Equality and Human Rights Commission says that there is a widespread public misapprehension that new migrants have unfair advantages to which they are not entitled (report, July 7).
This is disingenuous. What really causes resentment is that new migrants are, by the fact of their migration, more likely to be poor, and are therefore in direct competition for social housing or jobs.
The worst off suffer the most from mass immigration – promoted since the War by the political and social elite on the basis of self-regarding progressive ideals.
James Gray
London EC1
Under arrest
SIR – Having been arrested three times (for relatively trivial incidents) in my 67 years, I value the obligations now placed upon the police to document events.
My first arrest occurred before full record-keeping, and so I was unable to challenge assertions made in the witness box. It was therefore reassuring, after my latest run-in, to see full records being kept and proper procedures scrupulously observed. It is some reassurance against the possibility of wrongful conviction.
Simon Bryden-Brook
London SW1
Ten khaki bottles
SIR – Jim King (Letters, July 7) can sleep soundly through his dilemma about the disposal of blue glass.
While waiting at my recycling centre recently, I saw the collection vehicle loading. All the “igloos”, into which people had carefully sorted their coloured glass, were emptied into the same truck.
Granville Bull
Shepley, West Yorkshire
Shameful cricket caps
SIR – While visiting Shanghai this year, I noticed Chinese tour groups wearing baseball caps in every colour except green. I asked why this was and was told that a green hat is the sign of a cuckold.
I thought I should publicise this before the Ashes, in order to give the Australian team a chance to change their baggy green caps to a less embarrassing colour.
I am sure the English team would be too polite to mention it, but there might be some New Zealanders in the crowd.
Tom Webster
Canterbury, Kent
Honouring the brave men serving in Afghanistan
SIR – When the bodies of Lt Col Thorneloe and Trooper Hammond came home on Monday, it showed in stark relief the difference between the heroic men of our Armed Forces and the Prime Minister.
These two men fought selflessly for their country and paid with their lives, whereas Gordon Brown spent the first 10 years of this Government stabbing people in the back to serve his overweening ambition.
Having been responsible, along with Tony Blair, for sending these brave men to war, he can’t even supply them with the right equipment to help to save their lives. Shame on him.
Elizabeth Waide
Wetherby, West Yorkshire
SIR – Concentrating on British casualties can lead to public disillusion with the war.
We need to redress the balance by regular reports of the casualties inflicted on the Taliban to ensure that everyone knows that the sacrifices are not in vain.
Neville Pughe
Donhead St Mary, Dorset

Irish Times:

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill
Madam, – We the undersigned are lawyers whose practices include the area of criminal law. Many of us both prosecute and defend.
We see at first hand the effect of crime, particularly violent crime on individuals and communities in our society and we also have a close up view of the criminal justice system with its strengths and its frailties.
We are extremely concerned then about the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 which, it appears, is likely to become law this week.
It has been introduced without any research to support its desirability and without canvassing expert opinion or inviting contribution from interested parties on the issues.
It appears now that it will be passed without proper debate in the Dáil because such debate has been guillotined by the Government.
It is quite simply astounding that we as a society would jettison ancient rights and rules of evidence in such a manner and seemingly without regard to the effect such impetuous legislating might ultimately have on the respect for the rule of law in this country.
While there are many aspects of the Bill that cause real and serious concern the most pressing are as follows: The abolition of jury trial for a range of new offences; the use of opinion evidence from any garda as to the existence of a criminal organisation; the failure to require that the garda opinion evidence be corroborated; the provision for secret hearings to extend detentions without the presence of the suspect or their lawyer.
Jurors who give up their time, as is both their right and duty, often come away with a deep appreciation of the process that must be applied in ensuring a fair trial for all and a realisation of the magnitude of the decision which has been entrusted to them.
The right to trial by jury is enshrined in our Constitution, only to be taken away where it is determined that the ordinary courts are inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice, and the preservation of public peace and order.
Are we as a nation at greater threat from “ordinary” criminals than other countries are from organised international terrorism? The US will allow jury trial of those within its territorial borders. In the UK they try “terrorist” offences in jury courts.
Recent legislation in the UK has allowed for rare non-jury trials but it at least requires a hearing before such an order can be made. If this legislation is passed, all these new offences will go to the Special Criminal Court unless the DPP directs otherwise.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already condemned the inequality of similar provisions as it applies to existing offences but now it is proposed that we widen the net of those accused who are to be denied the right to a jury trial.
Opinion evidence from a Garda must be understood as simply that – an opinion. No basis for such an opinion would be required by this Bill. No corroboration is required.
A Garda on the beat – who may base it on a person’s previous convictions or from evidence upon which he/she will claim privilege and therefore not have to divulge where it came from – will be able to give an opinion which could result in conviction and sentence for a serious crime.
The Constitution will surely not permit this, but even if it does, Ireland is likely to find itself shamed before the international community when the European Court of Human Rights or the United Nations Human Rights Committee are, inevitably, called upon to rule on the issue.
When seeking extensions of detention for the purpose of investigation the hearings may be heard in secret and not just in the absence of the person in detention and his/her lawyer but without even the judge’s clerk or prosecution lawyer if deemed appropriate.
Secret hearings should be anathema to a system based on the rule of law. From the manner in which detention hearings are currently conducted, there is nothing to suggest that investigations would be compromised.
In the main the court hears generalised evidence about the necessity for further time to carry out interrogations, forensic testing or assessment of evidence.
Finally we would draw attention to the fact that many of the issues that have been raised by the Government in promoting this Bill have already been addressed in previous legislation.
For example, the intimidation of witnesses is met by both the use of out of court statements as evidence and the use of covert surveillance.
Out of court statements have already been used before the courts and have resulted in successful prosecutions and the latter provisions regarding covert surveillance have to be given the opportunity to work before we rush headlong into unknown territory.
We the undersigned urge the Government to withdraw this Bill and instead provide for a short consultative period during which reasoned debate can be heard. – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE BUTLER, Solicitor. AILEEN DONNELLY, SC. DARA ROBINSON, solicitor. BRENDAN GREHAN, SC. MICHAEL STAINES, solicitor. ROGER SWEETMAN, SC. FRANK BUTTIMER, solicitor. PATRICK GAGEBY, SC. YVONNE BAMBURY, solicitor. MARY ELLEN RING, SC. MOIRIN MOYNIHAN, solicitor. LUAN O BRAOINAIN, SC. TED McCARTHY, Solicitor. MICHAEL O’HIGGINS, SC. PETER MULLAN, solicitor.
MAURICE GAFFNEY, SC. GRAINNE MALONE, solicitor. PAUL McDERMOTT, SC. CATHERINE GHENT, solicitor. COLEMAN FITZGERALD, SC. MICHAEL KELLEHER, solicitor. ISEULT O’MALLEY, SC. DONOUGH MOLLOY, solicitor. BLAISE O’CARROLL, SC. SHALOM BINCHY, solicitor. CONOR DEVALLY, SC. DANNY HANAHOE, solicitor. DEIRDRE MURPHY, SC. EMER O’SULLIVAN, solicitor. ANTHONY SAMMON, SC. AINE FLYNN, solicitor. ERWIN MILL ARDEN, SC. GERRY O’BRIEN, SC. EANNA MULLOY, SC. DAVID GOLDBERG, SC. MARJORIE FARRELLY, SC. BRIDGET ROUSE, solicitor. CIARA McCANN, solicitor. SIMON FLEMING, solicitor. FERGAL FOLEY, BL. REMY FARRELL, BL. VINCENT HENEGHAN, BL. SEÁN GILLANE, BL. COLM O BRIAIN, BL. RONAN MUNRO, BL. JUSTIN McQUADE, BL. TOM O’MALLEY, BL. MARTINA BAXTER, BL. PAUL CARROLL, BL. MARY ROSE GEARTY, BL. ANNE MARIE LAWLOR, BL. PAUL GREENE, BL. TONY McGILLICUDDY, BL. KERIDA NAIDOO, BL. KAREN O’CONNOR, BL. STEPHEN McCANN, BL. SIOBHAN Ní CHULACHAIN, BL. JAMES B. DWYER, BL. UNA Ni RAIFEARTAIGH, BL. REBECCA SMITH, BL. MICHAEL BOWMAN, BL. WILLIE GALVIN, BL. MAIREAD GREY, BL. ELVA DUFFY, BL. CARL HANAHOE, BL. DAMIEN SHERIDAN, BL. JIM McCULLOUGH, BL. DIARMUID COLLINS, BL. DEAN KELLY, BL. PHILIPP RAHN, BL. JOHN BYRNE, BL. KIERAN KELLY, BL. EMMA BROWNE, BL. EOIN LAWLOR, BL. DAVID HEGARTY, BL. OLAN CALLANAN, BL. DIANA STUART, BL. SUZANNE FLEURY, BL. FIONNUALA O’SULLIVAN, BL. PIETER Le VERT, BL. KEITH SPENCER, BL. SONYA DONNELLY, BL. AOIFE CARROLL, BL. SILE ROONEY, BL. RONAN KENNEDY, BL. BRIAN GAGEBY, BL. PADDY McGRATH, BL. JANE O’REILLY, BL. MICHAEL DILLON, BL.
LILY BUCKLEY, BL. LORCAN STAINES, BL. DAVID STAUNTON, BL. MICHAEL HOURIGAN, BL. RORY STAINES, BL. KATIE DAWSON, BL. LISA DEMPSEY, BL. DEREK COONEY, BL. EMMETT NOLAN, BL. TOM NEVILLE, BL. CATHERINE ROBERTS, BL. EOIN HARDIMAN, BL. DAMIEN COLGAN, BL. LEO MULROONEY, BL.
KATHERINE McCULLICUDDY, BL. IMELDA KELLY, BL. NICOLA COX, BL. KAREN TALBOT, BL. SIMON BRADY, BL. SHANE DWYER, BL. GRAHAM O’DOHERTY, BL. MARIA LANE, BL. MARK MURPHY, BL. Zena Al-Nazer, BL. MUIRÍOSA REGAN, BL. DAVID PAUL BURKE, BL. CONALL Mac CARTHY, BL. MARTIN DULLY, BL. ANTHONY HANRAHAN, BL. MAURICE COFFEY, BL. LIBBY CHARLETON, BL. ULTAN McCABE, BL.
GARRETT McCORMACK, BL. MARK BYRNE, BL. MARGARET McEVILLY, solicitor. MAURA KELLY, solicitor. SUZANNE DOWLING, solicitor. FIONA McGOWAN, BL. NIALL NOLAN, BL. JULIA FOX, BL. KATHLEEN LEADER, BL. SHANE REYNOLDS, solicitor. RICHARD YOUNG, solicitor. DEBORAH KELLEHER, solicitor.
The Law Library and Suite 309A,
Capel Building,
Mary’s Abbey,
Dublin 7.
Electricians’ strike
Madam, – The request for pay increases at this moment in our economic history beggars belief and should be resisted (“Electricians’ strike threatens jobs in wider economy, say employers”, July 7th).
We are experiencing the most profound changes to our economic circumstance and decisions, for good or ill, that are taken now shall ring through the coming decades.
To choose to strike for pay increases in a massive deflationary contraction makes no logical sense and will compound our problems.
As Adam Smith remarked long ago: “Though the wages of the workmen are commonly paid to him in money, his real revenue, like that of all other men, consists, not in money, but in the money’s worth, not in the metal pieces, but in what can be got for them.”
Notwithstanding Government tax increases, social partners must acknowledge the big increase in real wages they have received as prices have fallen over the past two years. – Yours, etc,
AW LALLY
Herbert Avenue,
Merrion,
Dublin.
Madam, – With the economy on its knees and the construction sector in particular on life support the decision by electricians to proceed with their strike action simply defies belief.
To disrupt the construction of vital national infrastructure such as Dublin airport’s Terminal 2 in pursuit of an 11 per cent pay rise at a time when people lucky enough to still have a job are facing pay cuts is nothing short of a disgrace.
Even worse is the gleeful encouragement being provided by the wider trade union movement who seem stuck in some sort of 19th century class warfare time-warp. It is not the “rich elites” who are resisting these pay demands it is simple economic logic!
The unions need to be brought to their senses before their actions drive even more people onto the live register. – Yours, etc,
GAVIN ROSS,
Eaton Square,
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.
Madam, – With over 10,000 electricians currently refusing to work, and thousands of unemployed electricians on the dole across the country, surely the solution to the current strike is obvious? – Yours etc,
BARRY WALSH,
Brooklawn,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Handling the banking crisis
Madam, – Prof Morgan Kelly (Opinion, July 3rd) made it clear that neither Nama nor nationalisation of the banks would involve bondholders losing their capital in the cleanup of the banking sector.
The taxpayers of the Republic of Ireland are soon to assume responsibility for the performance of tens of billions of “non performing” bank assets. Neither taxpayers nor the Government has this sort of cash lying around so the Government will borrow large sums of money in the financial markets to execute the handover.
Each euro borrowed will be liable to compound interest since the money belongs to someone else, not to the Government.
Corporate bonds are typically priced to account for the extra risk of investment compared to lower yielding risk free investments in the form of government bonds.
In the case of Nama, risk-free status has been extended to the corporate bonds of Ireland’s banks. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the cost has been passed on to the taxpayer.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was quoted as saying: “In simple terms, nobody predicted what has happened globally or in Ireland”.
This line has been echoed in recent months by many chief executives wanting to put the past behind them.
There are two possibilities. Either nobody in the Department of Finance ran any projections to see the impact of an alternative to the “soft landing” theory of 2007 or the work that was done was ignored by those unwilling to accept that the boom years had come to an end.
A very clear consequence of the property crash appears to be the protection of bank bondholders at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. There are probably very good reasons for this including the wider stability of the European finance markets at the current time.
The euro-zone economies are not in the best of health and the implications of a wipeout of bondholders in Ireland could be very damaging .
It is probably too late to stop the damage now. Taxpayers will just have to take it on the chin.
The cost of this protection of bondholders will run into many billions of Euro and result in higher taxes for many years to come. If the property market does not recover as projected, the compound interest on the debt generated will rise relentlessly. Assuming interest of 5 per cent a year on an initial amount of €75 billion, the amount outstanding after five years assuming no disposals in the meantime would rise to €96 billion.
This is the magic of compound interest in an age of falling asset values. Was this outcome ever considered by the cabinet while the boom was being stoked?
There would appear to be chronic problems in the decision-making process at Government level. If these are to be swept under the carpet with the excuse that nobody could have predicted the crash, the same appalling circumstances are likely to recur in less than a generation.
There is no excuse for the substitution of analysis with deluded optimism in any context, be it political, sporting or corporate. Political failure has costs and any taxpayer wanting to know what these are can look at his or her payslip over the next decade or so. – Is mise,
CATHAL RABBITTE,
Im Walder Zollikon,
Switzerland.
Using the dead spaces
Madam,  – I share the concern of Alice Lyons (4th July) in respect of the number of empty housing estates that have spread like a rash in post-boom Ireland.
Our pleasant vices have become instruments to plague us. I can recall the great hopes raised for our new environmental programme in our schools in 1971. Sadly it has yet to permeate our greedy society. That is why heritage societies, like an Taisce, should have a more central role in matters of planning and development.
I thoroughly agree with the letter’s point that community bodies be given more of a voice in planning decisions in their area especially the number of houses in a site. There has been a noticeable disjunction between the people and the local authority where often no one knows exactly what is going on. Clearly there must be better communication and that is my first creative suggestion.
A few principles should govern all planning and  development. The number of new houses should be determined by need and not by personal or corporate gain. The practice of building eye-bewildering rows of houses to the maximum number must be strictly  regulated.
Quite obviously we now to our cost  realise that during the building frenzy individuals were allowed to build without without having a complete understanding of the potential environmental impact  or indeed did they care about the local needs as long as the banks were willing to lend.
Local communities are the best placed to judge the impact of development and also how best to use those “dead spaces” now that we have them in our hands.
Finally we must continue through environmental education to generate a greater awareness of the impact of this unsustainable rate of house building. – Yours, etc,
JOHN F FALLON,
Boyle,
Co Roscommon.
Child abduction
A chara, – I read with interest Ruadhán McCormaic’s article on child abduction to states governed by Shari’a law (Weekend Review July 6th).
Merely monitoring and recording the number of children removed to cultures where young girls may be submitted to female genital mutilation or arranged marriages is not sufficient to protect the human rights of those children or their non-consenting parent.
The fundamental reason why Shari’a law states have not acceded to the Hague Convention – which requires that the issue of custody be decided by the court of the domicile of the child – is that the adversarial nature of the courts is fundamentally incompatible with the ethos of Shari’an family law.
Under Islam matters relating to the family are kept within the family and resolved by mediation.
If Ireland is to make a genuine effort to address child abduction to Islamic states it needs to provide a mediation process through bilateral treaties with each country, as happens with France and several North African countries. – Is mise,
SHARON WATERS,
Herbert Lane,
Dublin 2.
Becoming an ethical people
Madam, – Perhaps John Waters (Opinion, July 3rd), despite his faulty analogy of the queue jumper, is yearning for an Ireland that is able to function in the spirit of the law rather than the type of legalism demanded by the equality agenda or used by the State to avoid confronting abuse.
To get there we, as a nation, need to have a change of heart and, as A. Leavy (July 4th) rightly points out, a turning from the arrogance and absence of morals that got us into the mess we are in.
Surely this means a constant search for what is true, a return to personal accountability; rewards for honesty and integrity; and a change from the popular notion of pluralism in which all – even diametrically opposing, points of view – have to be equally esteemed.
It beggars belief to read (July 2nd) that the Environmental Protection Agency can find that only one local authority in the country that is fully compliant with EU directives on sewage and waste water treatment.
What is equally staggering is the idea that imposing a fine on a local authority will in some way fix the problem.
Why not fire the culprits and give the jobs to people who will do them.
It is time for us as individuals in this State to grow up and learn to do what is right.
All the laws in the law in the world won’t change us.
Instead we need to become an ethical people. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS O’CALLAGHAN,
Bullock Park,
Carlow.

Well I must be off

best wishes John