I hope and pray that there are many other Conservative MPs with the humanity and intelligence that Caroline Nokes demonstrates in her article (“Johnson broke the rules that hurt so many. I still think he should resign”, News).
In the elective dictatorship to which this country’s strange version of democracy has doomed us, backbench Conservative MPs have become our only hope. Surely Nokes is not alone in what her constituents are telling her? Or is she just exceptional in actually listening?
Anthony Nixon
Horndean, Hampshire
You ask if Conservative MPs are prepared to be complicit in the damage Johnson is wreaking to their party (“Tory MPs should use their power to get rid of PM”, Editorial).
But it is no longer truly theirs, nor is it the party of Churchill, Macmillan, Heath or even of Margaret Thatcher. It is the Johnson party, which in less than three years under his leadership has moved from the centre right to the extreme right with its policies on immigration, policing and rights to free expression, its cruelty to the poor and its disdain for the law and parliament. Every Tory MP is already complicit in this transformation and no voter should mistake it for the Conservative party of the past.
John Hambley
Snape, Suffolk
Nato is failing Ukraine
I agree entirely with Simon Tisdall’s article “Nato should talk less and do more, or Ukraine will be torn apart, bit by bit” (World).
Does anyone think Nato would not intervene if Russia invaded Sweden or Finland? Of course they would; those countries would not be left to fight on their own, it’s just inconceivable. Yet Ukraine, it seems, must just get on with it. Is Ukraine not European enough, is it too far east? Is it still seen as part of the Soviet Union instead of Europe “proper”? As pointed out in your article, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Czechia and Poland have shown more support, yet it seems their views aren’t considered important enough. Perhaps they also are thought of as ex-Soviet and not yet western enough to be truly influential.
Nato is like an exclusive gentleman’s club. Let’s hope it has a change of heart before it’s too late to provide decisive help. My father was Ukrainian, and who wants to watch a nation being destroyed before our eyes day by day? The reporting of war has changed but the attitude of Nato is still stuck in the past.
Christine Romaniw
Swansea
Making all births safer
As a midwife, the recent Ockenden report is a heartbreaking read – each and every loss is a tragedy and every experience of poor care represents an injustice (“Relentlessly pushing the idea of ‘natural’ childbirth is an affront to pregnant women”, Comment).
The report makes clear that seeking a reduction in the caesarean rate at all costs is misguided and dangerous. The reason midwives seek to promote physiological birth is because we are trained professionals who understand the evidence base to support better outcomes and witness the results of over-intervention – increased morbidity, increased mortality and traumatised parents. The report shows where this intention has gone tragically astray and we must learn lessons. Please can we make better attempts to understand the complexity of the terrain instead of turning it into another culture war issue?
Rachael Ferguson
Glasgow
Solving the Shroud of Turin
Film-maker David Rolfe said he’ll donate $1m to the British Museum if it can create something similar to the Shroud of Turin (“The $1m challenge: ‘If the Shroud is a forgery, show how it was done’ ”, News).
Better pay up, David, because my collaborators, the father-daughter scientist team of Robert and Rebecca Morton, have already figured it out. As I chronicle in my 2020 book, The Holy Shroud: A Brilliant Hoax in the Time of the Black Death, the two hypothesised – and demonstrated – that the image on the shroud is a human body printed in the medium used in all medieval writing: iron gall ink.
It was not a direct print, rather, the two ingredients of iron gall ink, tannic acid and iron sulfate, were separately applied to the cloth and to the body and pressed together. The resulting print matches the Shroud of Turin in that it appears, after exposure to air and humidity, in shades of sepia. Like the shroud, it is a negative, with the protruding parts of the subject’s body revealed as dark against light.
Gary Vikan
Baltimore, Maryland
Bacon’s bequest
Your article mischaracterises the material donated to the Tate by Barry Joule and the events that have taken place since (“Francis Bacon bequest will be sent to France in snub to Tate gallery”, News).
This is a collection of archival material from Bacon’s studio address, including documents and photographs, not finished works of art. It was accepted into the Tate’s archive as such, where it has been catalogued and made available for research at Tate Britain, and where some of the items have since been publicly shown in archival displays. We have acknowledged and thanked Mr Joule, keeping an open dialogue with him throughout this period and our conversations with him about the material are ongoing.
Maria Balshaw, director, and Roland Rudd, chair of Trustees, Tate
London
The price of animal welfare
The intensification of animal farming at the expense of the welfare of the animals themselves is perhaps at its most extreme in the chicken meat industry (“Cheaper than chips… ‘Frankenchicken’ at the heart of the animal welfare fight”, News). Birds have been selectively bred to grow so fast that many are lame, suffer from chronic pain and cannot support their own weight. However, the same process of intensification has taken place – and continues to do so – throughout the animal farming industry.
Iain Green, director, Animal Aid
Tonbridge, Kent
The greenest of mowers
Shane Hickey asks: “Is it time for cutting-edge tech to make your lawnmower greener?” (Business and Cash). The answer is no. A push mower, not mentioned in the article, is both better for the environment and for one’s health.
Brenda Rush
Lincoln
