Tim Adams has decided that Birmingham residents don’t care about the cuts, because not many of us turned up to a recent demonstration (“Birmingham council has just cut services to the bone, but its citizens can’t read all about it in print”). As someone who works in Birmingham libraries, I’d like to assure him that citizens are desperately worried about the city’s future. Libraries are hugely valued as resources for the community, and on every working day people ask whether the building will stay open. What makes it all the harder is not knowing exactly where the axe will fall. People are busy signing petitions and lobbying their councillors.
It is women, people with disabilities, the elderly and children who will suffer most. Too often the trades union movement has failed these groups. A Westminster-based political culture has failed us too. We want to talk about the future of our city. What concerns us most of all is a sense that few people in power wish to listen.
Sibyl Ruth
Birmingham
Birmingham citizens have learned that there is no point voicing their opinions. Birmingham voted against the creation of new metropolitan mayors and police commissioners. We ended up with both. Many local “consultations” on various schemes sought local views; the schemes went ahead anyway.
Now we are in a situation that would require a referendum to carry out the level of cuts and tax rises “voted” through, but again we have no say due to the section 114 notice. Any opportunity the electorate had to pass comment and effect change at this year’s May 2024 elections is denied, with only a third of seats up for re-election. Yet another example of how voiceless the citizens of Birmingham have been made. It’s not surprising that an article about the royals or the weather gets more clicks. Why bother?
Peter Malins
Birmingham
Artists, the north awaits you
I’m sure Barbara Ellen is correct in her assessment that artists can no longer afford London, so I wonder why there was so much outcry over the enforced move of English National Opera to the frozen wastes of the north of England (“Creatives are leaving London, and for the first time I understand why”). In fact, if we take things a step further, why isn’t there more of it? The most successful economies, such as Germany, thrive on multi-centre hubs. If London is to be the financial centre of England, then the seat of government should move to Birmingham (replacing the decaying House of Commons), arts could be based in Manchester and Liverpool.
Of course, such centres rely on an efficient transport infrastructure, but that’s another article.
Alan Gent
Cheadle, Cheshire
Sunak just doesn’t get it
Andrew Rawnsley’s article is a tour de force in its analysis of all that is wrong with Rishi Sunak and the Conservative party (“Rishi Sunak’s refusal to give up the Frank Hester gold proves his principles have a price point”). I’d like to add to the charge sheet. A PM who is wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of the vast majority of voters is never going to be troubled by a cost of living crisis or the appalling state of public services. This is evidenced by his trip to Leeds in a helicopter, which neatly circumvents the need to see the state of this country, as we have to do in our daily comings and goings. Sunak, Hunt and others say they get it. The truth is they don’t get any of it and never will.
David Claridge
Oxted, Surrey
A refuge for scoundrels
In William Keegan’s column, he quotes Dr Johnson’s definition of patriotism as “a last refuge of the scoundrel”. (“The country doesn’t need ‘reform’. It just needs to rejoin the EU”). The great Ambrose Bierce in his Devil’s Dictionary says: “With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first.”
Suzan Delivuk
London N5
Hitting the wrong notes
What a pity Catherine Bennett omitted Angela Rayner’s very astute response to Dominic Raab’s attempted putdown of her visit to Glyndebourne to see The Marriage of Figaro (“In the name of anti-elitism, Arts Council England has declared war on opera and excellence”). She reminded him it was an opera in which a nobleman was outwitted by his servants. What a travesty the Arts Council has become.
Jan Mortimer
Lewes, East Sussex
Schools for scandal
In the 1920s, my mother taught in an elementary school in South Shields (“‘Desperate neglect’: teachers washing clothes and finding beds as poverty grips England’s schools”). I grew up with disturbing stories about children with emaciated bodies arriving at school, mostly barefoot, dressed in a few rags, with clear signs of bed bug bites. It became brutally clear to my mother that what these children desperately needed was not the mastery of the three Rs, but food, decent clothes and clean, warm houses.
It was during these gruelling few years that my mother became an enthusiastic socialist, and fervently hoped that the fledgling Labour party would do something positive about extreme poverty and deprivation.
A hundred years later, have we really moved on? Yes, we have a welfare state, which is supposed to act as a safety net, but the net is riddled with holes. Children are still arriving at school undernourished, cold and dependent on caring teachers who try with admirable determination to alleviate some of these totally unacceptable situations.
Alison Thompson
Thursby, Carlisle
Slow lane to Cheltenham
Greg Wood’s excellent piece “Galopin Des Champs has the superstar quality to win elusive third Gold Cup”) highlights the cost and difficulty of getting to the Cheltenham track. So here’s a tip for train travellers. Don’t try to get a taxi or bus to the course from the station. Instead, enjoy a stroll up the Honeybourne Line, a pleasant conversion of disused railway line into a broad footpath/cycleway that will get you to the course in 40 minutes, considerably less time than taxi or bus, particularly on Gold Cup Friday. No cost, a breath of fresh air, a cheap pint along the way and some healthy exercise make a virtue from what is otherwise an ordeal.
Roy Pumfrey
Cannington, Bridgwater, Somerset
