What on earth have we become (“Threat of being ‘disappeared’ haunts asylum seekers amid Rwanda crackdown”)? I am ashamed to belong to a people who think it OK to treat others like this, who are prepared to terrorise and think it funny when they arrest and cart people off without warning, depriving them of their means of communication. These poor, deluded victims of unimaginable horrors in their home countries, having faced dangerous and frightening journeys to a country they thought of as a place of safety and support, are finding out what a mean, inefficient, uncaring, selfish “shower” we are. We’re all right, Jack, you can all go to hell, whoops, Rwanda.
Shame on the government. Shame on the Home Office and the way it and some of its employees treat such vulnerable beings whom they don’t even seem to see as people. Most have committed no crime, yet are treated more callously than fraudsters, drug dealers and murderers. Britain, where is your humanity?
Jacqueline Simpson
Garforth, Leeds
The straitjacket that is the EU
In Neal Ascherson’s paean to Scottish independence (“The SNP may be laid low but the call of Scottish independence is loud and clear”), he claims: “Independence within the EU could nerve a Scottish state to block the haemorrhage of economic control to London or to US hedge funds.” Is he really unaware of the free market straitjacket the EU imposes on its member states, irrespective of what their people vote for? Britain outside the EU has more freedom to pursue socialist policies – if we choose to – than an independent Scotland within it.
Christopher Clayton
Christleton, Chester
Dating younger men is fun
If, as a woman over 30, you’re staying away from relations with younger men because you are “terrified to go out with an actual young guy who may have been watching dehumanising and abusive porn on his phone”, I have news for you (“A successful woman in her 40s with a toyboy pop star? Great on screen in The Idea of You, scary in reality”).
First, watching abusive porn is not exclusive to younger men. Plenty of older men do so, which, when coupled with ingrained, chauvinistic attitudes can often make them a disappointing relationship choice.
Second, it seems to me that women’s “terror” at dating younger men doesn’t stem from suspected porn-watching habits but rather from their own insecurities at being stigmatised for such relations, which sadly does happen. While older men dating, marrying and having sex and kids with younger women doesn’t raise an eyebrow, the reverse still causes outrage and criticism.
So, all you “older” ladies out there, do yourselves a favour, rock the patriarchal boat a little and date a younger man! Not only because the more of us who do it, the more we challenge this outdated gendered stigma, but because it’s fun. I know because I did it. When single for 10 years (between 35 and 45), I enjoyed many romantic and sexual encounters with younger men, who proved more caring and respectful than their older counterparts.
Joanna Maidment
Surrey Hills, Melbourne, Australia
What, no mushy peas?
I commend the praise for fish and chips; it is a marvel and my choice for an alternative Sunday lunch (“Britain’s most overrated food? No chance … fish and chips is a marvel”). It is also my standard method for measuring restaurant value for money and the national “real” inflation rate (more accurate than the cost of coffee). However, I must protest in the strongest terms: where were the mushy peas? One of my five a day.
Neil Heydon-Dumbleton
Pathhead, Midlothian
The sacred rite of theatre
Thank you, Martha Gill, for saying something that increasingly gets you branded a dinosaur in a world of obsessive intermediation (“Live concerts have the power to delight – let’s try to forget about our phones”). Peter Brook defined the moment of theatre as when several hundred people who have probably never met before, nor will again, come together to focus their attention, exclusively, on one event. The concentration creates an energy that can lead in the best moments to a change of state.
Such moments are sacred, their rites timeless, and they should be held inviolable. They truly make human life worth living. And now, courtesy of your columnist, it seems you don’t have to be a hundred and three to say so. Get down with the kids? No, get them up here. The view is terrific and the feeling exhilarating.
Theia Galena
London N2
The role of slavery
Further to Will Hutton’s article (“So empire and the slave trade contributed little to Britain’s wealth? Pull the other one, Kemi Badenoch”), it’s worth recalling that the Conservative party has not always been so ignorant about the importance of West Indian slavery for the development of British capitalism. On the eve of the second world war, Winston Churchill said that “our possession of the West Indies gave us the strength, the support, but especially the capital, the wealth, at a time when no other European nation possessed such a reserve”. This “lay the foundations of that commercial and financial leadership which enabled us to make our great position in the world”. Churchill called it “that unexpected margin of capital”.
Peter Hulme
Sedbergh
Building for the future
In “Solving the housing crisis – we don’t have the power”, Jack Simpson misses some important points. First, the demand for electricity varies through the day, with a high in late afternoon and a low in the early hours. Second, many countries only build “zero-energy” houses. The techniques for this are proven and affordable. This means that domestic demand is reduced by better insulation, and solar roofs export surplus power to the grid. Electric cars recharged overnight can use spare generating capacity. And, as the wind often blows all day, zero-carbon generation can be more than half and sometimes nearly 90% of the electricity we use.
New houses can therefore be built even where the grid is thought to be weak, since power will be exported during daylight hours, not imported. Such houses can make a significant contribution to a zero-carbon future, and residents will directly benefit from lower running costs. A win-win result?
Prof Lewis Lesley
Liverpool
Which came first? Easy…
“Chicken or egg: which really came first?” asks Jules Howard. If the question means which came first when a new species or a new variant of a species developed, it seems pretty clear. A new variant can only come about by a mutation (or several mutations). This happens when an egg is formed, not later in life. It therefore seems clear that the egg has to precede the chicken and the egg (with the mutation) is also different from the chicken that produced it. Thus, the egg came first.
Ulf Lando
Santa Monica, California
