Although Stewart Lee has presented an excellent summary of the obnoxious conduct of Nigel Farage, he probably doesn’t have to be that worried about his appearance on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, a programme clearly designed to humiliate anyone foolish enough to go into its fake “jungle” (“We’re only making platforms for Nigel”, the New Review).
It is unlikely that many people who work at ITV supported Brexit, more probable that they are out to get the vain Farage. He has already been made to eat several animal penises. How Julius Caesar would have laughed if he’d been able to get one of his enemies – Cato, for example – to suffer such humiliation in the Roman amphitheatre.
Ant and Dec are, in a heavily scripted way, quite witty when presenting the show and will surely be laughing at, rather than with, the likes of Farage. Some of the other “celebrities” in with him have already identified the unpleasant fellow as a massive enabler of racism and have asked him what purpose his monomaniac idea of Brexit actually served. What did it achieve? ITV shows us all this. As for the £1.5m he was apparently paid, that only proves him to be greedy as well as nasty. Even the costumes they are obliged to wear make the competitors look ridiculous. Relax and enjoy it, Stewart!
Ralph Lloyd-Jones
Nottingham
Your roof, your energy
The solution to the problem of introducing vast quantities of energy into the grid is staring us in the face (“Powering up: the scramble to ready the UK grid for net zero”, Business). On average, a domestic solar panel installation costing £5,000-£6,000 generates 3,000 kWh of electricity a year. Its owner consumes half that amount, saving about £400pa at today’s price of electricity, and receives about another £80pa for the surplus.
The crucial advantage to the UK of using solar panels on houses and commercial premises lies in their ability not only to effectively tackle climate change but to do so by generating energy at the point of use. This avoids the huge costs, delays and structural problems of introducing vast quantities of power at far fewer spots outlined by your correspondent.
The reason why private companies want to invest in wind and solar farms is down to the huge profits they can make. Clearly, they wish to retain their stranglehold over our energy sources. In the Netherlands, private ownership of energy is illegal. Here, it’s a case of “greed, not need” and we can see which our government prefers.
Mike Joslin
Dorchester, Dorset
Pauline Boty and me
It’s wonderful to see an interesting, well-illustrated article about Pauline Boty that brings her important work to an ever-wider audience (“Forgotten heroine of the 60s British pop art scene finally gets her solo show”, News). Yet her first solo was in 1963 when she was still alive. After her death in 1966, she disappeared from cultural view for nearly 30 years, too challenging for the mainstream story of pop art. However, culture moves on and an excellent solo was jointly hosted by the Mayor and Whitford fine art galleries in 1998. Then in 2013 I was invited to curate a full, retrospective, solo exhibition for Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which toured to Pallant House, and authored the book that accompanied the show, Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman.
The exhibition at Gazelli Art House, which opened on Friday, is more than welcome: lovely pieces are to be enjoyed with a great array of ephemera. Readers might also like to look further to appreciate the full range and richness of Boty’s work.
Dr Sue Tate
Bristol
Tory Telegraph tears
“Interesting” might be one word to describe the squeals from the Tory party over the possible sale of the Telegraph to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium (“Grandees, sheikhs and the fight to own the Telegraph, voice of Tory Britain”, News)”. Such a contrast to their rejoicing when selling off the water, energy and telecoms companies, whose products we all rely on, to foreign individuals, companies and national governments.
David Hayhow
Chew Magna, Somerset
Promote fairness, not growth
I must disagree with Andrew Rawnsley – Labour’s greatest task is not to get growth, but to redistribute wealth more fairly in this rich, inequitable country (“After years of Tory failure, getting Britain growing again will be Labour’s greatest test”, Comment).
There is no reason why millions should live in squalid conditions and be expected to make do on poverty wages. Spending power should be restored to essential public services, which have been starved of funds because of a spiteful neoliberal ideology that prioritises the needs of the “economy” over the people. The fact that this economy only works for the privileged minority is never questioned.
Incidentally, increasing the spending power of the economically disenfranchised majority will itself be a great boost to economic growth.
Derrick Joad
Leeds
The price of flying
Martha Gill’s article on taxing aviation gets much right, but does not put an accurate price on carbon emissions (“Frequent flyers are rewarded for polluting. Let them pay the full price”, Comment). Directly taxing aviation fuel is prohibited, but a flight tax based on distance flown, takeoff weight and aircraft efficiency can be a good proxy for a carbon tax.
As Gill says, this would mean that airlines would charge more for premium seats, as they reduce the number of passengers per flight. Modern aircraft use less fuel, so should be taxed less. Taxing individuals based on the number of flights is a very poor measure of emissions: a first-class flight to Los Angeles emits about 100 times more CO2 than a short hop across the Channel. A tax of £100/tonne of CO2, rising year by year, should be effective. Airline frequent flyer programmes should be banned.
Stewart Reddaway
Ashwell, Baldock, Hertfordshire
Spain, beacon of hope
Your editorial notes that elections this year in Poland and Spain “show the far right’s advance is not inevitable” (Comment). Deep-seated nativist prejudice is not just about immigration numbers. Despite Poland’s negative net migration, with more Poles leaving than immigrants arriving, most Poles remain resolutely opposed to immigration. Rather than welcome immigrants, the centrist coalition leader Donald Tusk encouraged Poles abroad to come home.
Spain is a beacon of hope. Governments of both left and right have discreetly welcomed immigrants since the turn of the century and miraculously kept the far right at bay, perhaps because many recent immigrants are culturally similar Latin Americans.
Our net migration rate is higher than most EU countries, largely because of the English language. The main reason we don’t yet have a big European-type far-right party here is first past the post. That could change if Suella Braverman is elected leader of the Conservatives.
Joseph Palley
Richmond, London
