Andrew Rawnsley rightly draws a line connecting politicians of all parties as being among those culpable of allowing the Post Office to perpetrate its evil strategy (“The abuse of unaccountable power is at the wicked heart of the Post Office scandal”, Comment). Evil, because I believe what they did was so. Even today, it continues to be obdurate in its behaviour to the inquiry and all of us.
However, there was weakness in oversight that should have come from an effective, suitably empowered, regulator.
Only when we have properly funded regulators adequately armed with statutory powers of action and punishment will we go some way towards avoiding these scandals occurring in the future. The Post Office regulation appears to have been weakened over time rather than beefed up.
Government seems to have an aversion to regulators that are effective. They are used as a sop to reassure us when outsourcing services from its balance sheet. But equally, it doesn’t like the firefight when a scandal emerges. It can’t have it both ways, yet it never seems to learn that simple fact. Nor do we.
David Claridge
Oxted, Surrey
It is not just overtly political drama but all drama that has the power to evoke empathy, to invite critical thinking and to provoke action. All the arts have that power. (“‘The timing was impeccable’: why it took a TV series to bring the Post Office scandal to light”, Focus)
That is why it is no surprise that there has been a calculated effort on the part of this government, as well as the preceding several, to undermine artistic endeavour in the UK. The constant devastating removal of funding for the arts is directly linked to their desire to diminish the empathy and critical thinking skills of the electorate.
When you see what a drama like Mr Bates vs The Post Office can achieve, it is clear that, from their perspective, they are right to make the attempt. And we must resist.
Alison Bomber, Royal Shakespeare Company Associate Artist
Bavorov, Czech Republic
International law and Gaza
Kim Darroch says the UK and US, in their actions in the Red Sea, are “standing up for the postwar world order. International law shall prevail” (“Whoever rules the waves rules the world... The Red Sea crisis will show us if that’s true”, Comment).
Sadly, the crisis arises because for the last 75 years they have failed to do just that. This betrayal has been exacerbated since 1967. The US and UK have prevented international law being complied with in relation to the right of Palestinians for their own state. In recent months, they have failed to address the collective punishment being meted out in Gaza and the West Bank.
The US even vetoed a UN security council resolution seeking to uphold international law. Unless and until a Palestinian state has been created from the present chaos, there will be no peace in the Middle East, and that cannot happen until the US ends support for Israel until it abides by international law.
Rev David Haslam
Evesham, Worcestershire
Schools fail children too
Some families may fail some children some, perhaps even all, of the time (“Yes, parents have the right to educate their children at home. But children have rights too”, Comment). However, all schools fail some children all of the time, not to mention the many children who underachieve.
When the best outcomes for all children who attend school, state or private, are guaranteed, then let’s talk about compulsory schooling, restrictions on home education, state intervention and oversight. While schools of all descriptions are failing children not suited to a mass-learning, test-oriented environment, or those with non-mainstream interests, while violence is rife in schools and there are huge teacher shortages, it is not the right time.
Gina Purrmann
Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
Free education is priceless
The story about the chances postwar free education gave to working-class aspiring actors like Peter Capaldi (“Peter Capaldi says posh actors are smooth, confident and tedious”, Magazine) is also relevant in other spheres of life.
I left school at 16 with two O-levels, but in my late 20s, while working as a milkman, took A-level English at night school (free); which inspired me in my 30s, while working as a carpenter and with a wife, two children and a mortgage, to study in the evenings for a science degree with the Open University (heavily subsidised) and later a teaching degree (free, plus a £5,000-a-year bursary).
I spent the rest of my working life as a teacher. Whether carpentry’s loss was education’s gain is moot, but it meant I could fulfil my potential, something denied today to thousands of young people from working-class families.
John French
Brockweir, Chepstow, Monmouthshire
Shere Hite’s crucial legacy
Yvonne Roberts rightly says that Shere Hite should be remembered (“Women’s sex lives were a mystery to men. Then along came Shere Hite”, Comment).
Her approach of eliciting nuanced, complicated, sometimes contradictory, responses demonstrated the intricacy of the human condition, especially for underrepresented social categories, including women, minorities, class and race. In this, Hite paved the way for other ways of knowing.
Bríd Connolly
Maynooth, Co Kildare, Ireland
Earth’s too far for aliens
Stuart Clark is right, governments are lying to us – but not about aliens. (“It only takes one to be real and it changes humanity for ever’: what if we’ve been lied to about UFOs?”, New Review.) Of course UFOs are real. They are apparent phenomena that we can’t explain.
Our galaxy must be teeming with life among its billions of star systems but, as Douglas Adams said: “Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.” No sensible extraterrestrial is going to brave the huge distances of interstellar space. They would be dead before they got even a fraction of the distance to the nearest inhabited star system.
Howard Lane
London SE27
Love, an ever-fixed mark
Fie on “‘Gender inequities are important’: why couples fall out of love” (Focus, last week). Shakespeare had it right: “Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks / Within his bending sickle’s compass come; / Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks.” To which my wife and I can testify, having recently celebrated our diamond wedding.
Humphrey Clucas
Sutton, Surrey
