Peter Pomerantsev identifies the weaknesses of Vladimir Putin’s position but I fear he overstates the extent to which the Russian people will, indeed will be able to, push back against him (“The nuclear threat might change the mood in Russia itself, stoking widespread fear”, Comment).
Recent world history is littered with brave protest movements which are eventually snuffed out – Belarus is a pertinent example. Moreover, unlike citizens in many parts of Europe, Russians have no tradition of democratisation to lean on. Rather, they appear to be unable to throw off the yoke of requiring a “tsar” to lead them – from Nicholas II through Lenin and Stalin all the way along to Putin. Now, with European liberal democracy in retreat, may not be a propitious time for that to change.
Roger Gane
London SE21
Nepal needs its nurses
You are right to criticise the Department of Health’s “ethical” initiative to recruit nurses from Nepal on the grounds of the tangible risk of exploitation (“Plan to recruit Nepal nurses ‘puts them at risk of exploitation’”, News). But an even more significant reason to reject this odious plan is that Nepal has 3.3 nurses per 1,000 population while the UK has, at 10.3 nurses per 1,000, proportionally more than three times as many.
Dr Richard Carter
London SW15
No more monarchy
An old man inherits a throne. That’s not democracy (“Are the monarchy’s days numbered?”, the New Review). This man was born into palaces, power, private education, privilege, influence, esteem and wealth. Who gained around £370m tax free on his mother’s death? Why, when everyone else is required to pay inheritance tax, is he exempt? And in what way does one family need 20-plus residences? And why does the crown estate own half the UK shoreline, including “the seabed out to 12 nautical miles”? What have they done to deserve such ownership? Unlike Beatrice May Haines – my auntie – born into poverty, doubtful literacy, a small London terrace house without central heating, a life of service, limited prospects and poor health. Who at the end died, much loved, but in obscurity. No gun carriage for her.
While I see the benefit for many of a death enabling them to release their own pain and tears at previous unleashed loss, isn’t it time for the fifth largest economy to turn this empathy to directly and practically benefiting the poor in pocket, ideas, heart or spirit? Rather than bowing and propping up through popular support a systemically unfair and out-of-touch monarchy and aristocracy?
Dr James Derounian
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
Give everyone a voting voice
In your article on Labour ruling out support for a change in the voting system (“Starmer defies calls to change first past the post voting system”, News), you say that “the Tories have previously found success in warning that Labour will lead a ‘coalition of chaos’ involving the Scottish National party, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats”. It is hard to see how a coalition of these three parties with Labour could be more chaotic than what we are experiencing under the Conservative administration right now – especially given Truss’s call for more skilled immigrants when she is also presiding over a Brexit programme that has created this very problem. It would therefore seem a very good time to promote a system that gives everyone a voice rather than the current dominant, disorganised and self-interested few.
Dr Jennifer Poole
Romsey, Hampshire
I wept for Hilary Mantel
I felt sad when I heard that the new Elizabethan age had come to an end. But I wept for Hilary Mantel (“Memory was her subject. She will live long in ours” and “I’ll treasure my last meeting with her”, both Focus). More an admirer of her historical works, I found her subjects provocative, her style lucid and muscular. I listen to books now, rather than read print, and find a total absorption in her words, her structuring and her mastery of the genre. And if you can’t take the Henry/Cromwell novels (give them a try, you’ll be amazed), listen to A Place of Greater Safety, an astonishing work of research and imagination.
I wrote to Ms Mantel to express my admiration, but also to thank her for bringing back to my life an area of my family past (Putney, Mortlake and the River as characters.) She wrote back with a letter I shall cherish, because it was so thoughtful and detailed. I’m sad she never made it to Ireland. But she believed in some sort of afterlife, and I know she is content. Thank you Hilary Mantel. One of the greats.
Gina Jolliffe
Brixham, Devon
Free lunches in Scotland
It was good to see that Anna Fazackerley’s article on hungry school children mentioned the valuable work done by the Scottish charity Launch Foods (“Why pupils pretend to eat from empty lunchboxes – there’s no food at home”, News). A better picture of the Scottish situation would have been provided, however, if it had also been mentioned that the Scottish government provides free school lunches to all primary 1-5 kids in local authority schools.
Linda MacKay
Cardonald, Glasgow
No one is a nimby now
I read with relief Phillip Inman’s article on the death of green Toryism (“This dash for growth is the death of green Toryism”, Business). The risks to us all from this administration’s indifference to accelerating climate catastrophe need emphasising as much as possible: Truss and Kwarteng’s policies show no concern about wildfires, drought, flood and violent storms in Britain, let alone about a sustainable energy-secure future.
But I take issue with the term “nimby” in the concluding remarks about protesting against bad climate policies. The ideology of growth at all costs means that the recent decades of assault on green belt and greenfield sites are existential, not aesthetic issues.
Here in Oxford, the UK’s second most unequal city, and with an acute key and frontline-worker housing crisis, the Labour city council and the university have gone hell-for-leather for developer growth at any cost in a way that must be pleasing for Truss to see in her alma mater. The result is that it can feel as if no bush or tree will be left for residents to shelter under as 40C summers become the norm. Local people know their own biodiversity best and are best placed to fight for the preservation of green belt and other irreplaceable spaces for human wellbeing and planetary survival. No one is a nimby now: anyone who fights to preserve their environment is a guardian and a steward for the survival of future generations.
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne
Oxford
Give ’em an inch…
I agree with Peter Burke that imperial units have no place in science (Letters), but I suspect we will continue to inch forward in our ten-gallon hat demanding our pound of flesh.
Michael Bulley
Chalon-sur-Saône, France
