I loved Kenan Malik’s piece on labour historian and adult educator EP Thompson (“What a legendary historian tells us about the contempt for today’s working class”, Comment). Thompson would have been 100 on 3 February. He helped rescue the struggles of ordinary working-class folk in that memorably inspirational phrase, “from the enormous condescension of posterity”. “Theirs was a fight against the freedom of the capitalist to destroy the customs of their trade whether by new machinery, by the factory-system or by beating down wages.”
But I think there is a significant omission in Malik’s reflection on working-class agency: yes, Thompson lived in Halifax and taught at Leeds University, but significantly he worked in the extramural department and was an adult educator, teaching many “ordinary” working people. If working-class people collectively created their own agency in the 18th and 19th centuries, they continued to do so, over a long period, including in workers’ education. We now understand, thanks to historians like Jonathan Rose and Lawrence Goldman, how important this educational movement was in the creation of a welfare state and a more egalitarian society in the light of two horrific world wars.
Malik is spot on in claiming The Making of the English Working Class as a sumptuous tribute to the human spirit and a reminder of the capacity of ordinary folk to transcend their circumstances and to envision a better world. We need reminding of the history in our contemporary, profoundly unequal, global dystopia.
Professor emeritus Linden West
Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent
Men, please do your share
I was clearly fortunate in having a husband (who died nearly 12 years ago, sadly) who, despite being 19 years older than me, and of a generation for whom women were still expected to be subservient, loved cooking, did the ironing and was a wonderful full-on father to our two children (“What hope do we have when even female breadwinners have to put their men first”, Comment). It stuns me that younger men today do not follow his example, although I am proud of our son, who also does his share. Unfortunately, his behaviour is not the norm.
Sharman Finlay
Portrush, County Antrim
Betrayed by our politicians
At a seminal moment in our history, it seems that the Labour party’s offer is going to be “Vote for us; we won’t do very much” (“Labour ditches radical reforms as it prepares ‘bombproof’ election manifesto”). This is either deplorable timidity or dissimulation aimed at electoral advantage. It epitomises the dire effect of the first-past-the-post voting system. We will be offered a shopping list, but with no prospect of better, more effective government; a long list of promises but with no convincing means of delivering them.
Without a radical reform of parliament and the voting system, there is every reason to believe we will be locked into this emasculated vision of politics for the foreseeable future. We have betrayed one generation and are on the cusp of betraying future generations. We need and deserve more than this.
Neil Blackshaw
Alnwick, Northumberland
Another Brexit drawback
The focus of your editorial was on migration and the economy (“The list of Brexit wins is in. It’s short and feeble”). Although that makes it easily relatable to the promises and half-truths of the infamous Vote Leave campaign, I’d like to draw your attention to a less tangible element that increasingly affects British citizens.
Being based in Belgium, I used to experience the regular inflow of young Brits rotating through jobs before either falling in love with the lifestyle here or returning to the UK some years later. This employment pattern has virtually ceased to exist. It now requires so much time and effort for an HR department to go through the necessary stages of residency and work permits that, in one case I know, prospective British employees are actively discouraged, even when moving between branches of the same international company. It is simply much easier to recruit from within the EU.
Will young Brits suffer from these restrictions in any quantifiable sense? It’s difficult to say. I certainly deepened my understanding of others through working with and managing diverse teams across Europe. I also became a better manager – and that opportunity only came because of Britain’s membership of the EU.
James Capon
Waterloo, Belgium
In grief, a beacon of light
The report that struck me most forcefully last week was the profound apology of the family of the murderer of Brianna Ghey and the graceful acceptance of it by Brianna’s mother Esther and her hugely empathetic recognition that they, too, had lost a child (“Family of Brianna Ghey murderer apologise and praise victim’s mother”).
What a beacon of light these people are in the ocean of hate, vengeance and destruction and dishonesty and corruption that fills the news every day. Their extraordinary understanding of each other’s tragedies, and reaching out to each other across a gulf of grief and other painful emotions, are outstanding models for a good society. It is qualities such as these that should be nurtured, rather than the self-seeking and greed that our society encourages and increasingly rewards with wealth and titles.
Teresa Belton
Norwich
Nationalist O’Neill
You described Michelle O’Neill as Northern Ireland’s “first nationalist first minister” (“Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill marks historic moment for once unionist state”). Given that the first prime minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, boasted that “we are a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State”, it might be fairer to say that Ms O’Neill is the latest in a long line of nationalist leaders in Stormont. She merely happens to be the first Irish nationalist leader of the assembly, rather than a British nationalist one.
David Patrick
Edinburgh
Science publishing in crisis
I am writing to express my deep concern about the publishing crisis in science, which is getting worse every year (“Fake scientific papers push research credibility to crisis point”)
The peer review system, a fundamental pillar of the scientific method, is in jeopardy. The difficulty of finding expert reviewers, especially when they are asked to provide expertise without compensation, and the proliferation of disreputable publishers, many of them under the “open access” model, are reducing the quality of scientific publishing.
The pressure on scientists to publish in order to advance their careers can lead to the production of irrelevant work with unreliable results, inflating the CVs of academics rather than contributing to knowledge and social improvement. Necessary measures include:
• Strengthen peer review: implement incentive systems for reviewers, improve training in critical review and promote transparency in the process;
• Combat predatory publishers: encourage publication in quality journals and promote ethical open access;
• Redefine indicators of scientific success: prioritise quality, social impact and reproducibility of research over quantity of publications.
Only through a joint effort of the scientific community, institutions and funding agencies can we overcome the publishing crisis and build a future for science based on integrity, transparency and rigour.
Dr Julio Gonzalez-Lopez
Madrid, Spain
The ultimate dietary advice
After Thérèse Coffey told us all to eat turnips, and Lee Anderson to stop using food banks and cook meals for 30p, Sunak’s dietary regime is the obvious next step in Tory dietary and budgeting advice – stop eating (“I found out the hard way the secret of Sunak’s Monday blunders – a 36-hour fast”, Comment).Terry Fletcher
Cramlington, Northumberland
