Letters: Europe’s complacent elites need to start listening to their voters
SIR – There is a common thread running through recent elections, from those in Europe over the weekend (“Macron trounced in Right-wing EU surge”, report, June 10) to the Irish constitutional referendums in March.
The elites in charge of the countries in question either don’t understand the wishes of voters – or they do, and are simply happy to treat them with contempt. Either way, they are now getting what they deserve.
Alistair Mackay
Dunoon, Argyllshire
SIR – The rise of populism and demagoguery should have us all frightened. The lessons of history need to be understood.
Peter M May
Southampton, Western Australia
SIR – Britain is always out of step with the rest of Europe. The elections have shown that EU countries are moving to the Right; the British, meanwhile, are about to vote for a government of the Left that seeks closer ties with the EU.
Once this has been achieved, we shall discover that we are – yet again – out of step with everybody else.
Richard Tracey
Dinan, Côtes-d’Armor, France
SIR – There’s something reassuring about Emmanuel Macron’s panicked declaration of his own snap election.
Here in Britain, catastrophising is fashionable. “Exceptionalism” is often assumed to be an arrogant state of mind, but it can be the opposite: we do like to wear hair shirts and tell ourselves that our country is unique in its state of political and cultural decline. This attitude is particularly common among Remainers, who fret about what the neighbours must think.
Developments in France give us a sense of perspective. The grass may seem greener on the other side, but other countries have problems too.
Robert Frazer
Salford, Lancashire
SIR – Kamal Ahmed (Comment, June 10) advises the Conservatives to stick to the political centre.
What is clear is that the centre is fluid, and has moved considerably to the Left since the days of David Cameron’s government. The Conservatives, in seeking to capture the centre, have now moved so far to the Left as to alienate their traditional supporters. In addition, the support they may have acquired from the centre is “soft”, and has now deserted them.
A similar conclusion might be drawn from the poor showing of Emmanuel Macron’s centre party in the European elections.
Rob Maskell
Banstead, Surrey
SIR – It is strange that, to judge by much of the coverage of the European elections, there were no Right-wing parties standing – only hard-Right or far-Right.
John Frankel
Newbury, Berkshire
Farage on the stump
SIR – Nigel Farage has a way of communicating with ordinary people, just as Boris Johnson did.
The establishment hated Mr Johnson and eventually ousted him. We can now expect a barrage of anti-Farage sentiment from all sides.
Mike Metcalfe
Butleigh, Somerset
SIR – Nigel Farage has misunderstood true Conservative voters. We want to see the party adopt conservative policies, namely a smaller state and lower taxes. But we celebrate our multicultural society.
I hope his comments on Laura Kuenssberg’s programme on Sunday (“Farage under fire for Sunak ‘culture’ claims”, report, June 10) lose support for Reform UK.
Richard North
Stanford Dingley, Berkshire
SIR – It is deplorable that there will be no Conservative candidate in Rotherham at the general election (report, telegraph.co.uk, June 7).
Even in difficult times for the party, there has been a Tory for people in the town to support. In recent years Labour’s hold has crumbled, and in 2019 its majority was down to 3,121.
It is not clear why the Conservative candidate has withdrawn, but surely, if there was any chance that this would happen, Conservative Campaign Headquarters should have acted swiftly to find a replacement.
Are we seeing the effects of the rushed decision to hold an election in July?
Simon Gordon
Conservative candidate for Rotherham, 1997
Richard Powell
Conservative candidate forRotherham, 2001
Dr Mosley’s legacy
SIR – Like many people, I am so saddened to hear of the death of Michael Mosley (Obituaries, June 10).
I never met him but I feel as if I have lost a friend. He was such a special person and I totally trusted what he had to say on the various programmes, podcasts and interviews with which he was involved.
He came over with integrity and honesty, and his death is a great loss to this country.
Penny Clinch
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire
SIR – The dietary and health messages championed by Dr Michael Mosley were simple and effective.
The best tribute would be to create a health foundation based on his principles. Such a concept would continue his legacy for the nation’s fitness and longevity.
M K H Crumplin FRCS
Marford, Denbighshire
Lip service
SIR – Practising my Spanish at dinner (Letters, June 8), I thought I had ordered another water glass.
A short while later the waiter returned, put two glasses on the table, and said in Spanish: “Señor, this is un vaso (glass), this is a copa de vino (wine glass) and this is un beso (kiss)”. He proceeded to kiss my cheek.
Anthony Round
Bloxham, Oxfordshire
SIR – In a restaurant in France some years ago, I rather liked the look of a chicken meal that the diners at the next table were eating.
When the waiter came to take my order, I asked in my broken French if I could have what they’d just had. He returned to my table with a bag of bones and other leftovers.
Martin Horsfall
Newick, East Sussex
Childbirth pain relief
SIR – I read Miranda Levy’s article (Features, June 10) on her childbirth experience and was horrified at the barbaric way in which she was treated.
I had my first child in 1974, when the epidural was a fairly new procedure and “volunteers” were requested at my antenatal class. The anaesthetist came to see me before I was induced to explain what would happen and answer any questions.
I duly had the epidural and it was wonderful: no pain, but no loss of the sensation guiding me when to push either. I had the sort of delivery one might reasonably expect in a civilised 20th-century country.
I also had one for my second child three years later – which was just as well, as post-birth complications would have kept me in agony for hours afterwards without it.
I find it incomprehensible that we are going so far backwards. No one should suffer pain during childbirth when we have the means to eradicate it.
Christine Morris
Peterborough
Volume control
SIR – My father’s answer to the problem of too many books (Letters, June 10) was to box up the ones he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of – or thought he ought to own – and store them in the coal cellar. Eventually they smelled so musty that they had to be disposed of.
I’ve tried this method using the garden shed. It works.
Of course, an e-reader would solve the problem: Ben Lawrence (Arts, June 6) could store his unloved Austens, Snows or Dickenses on that. The trouble is, no one would know he had them.
Sue McMillan
Hampton, Middlesex
SIR – Ben Lawrence’s books are his outer envelope and he must keep all except the merely accidental.
I too live in a flat, and it is shrunk by being lined with books. But this is a small price to pay for having so much of one’s past readily to hand.
Charlotte Graves Taylor
Oxford
War on error
SIR – Why is everyone saying “outside of”? Don’t they know that in English we simply say “outside”? Americans say “outside of” but we should not.
Please will people who broadcast on television, radio or the internet set a better example?
Joan Freeland
Bristol
Clues that an Orwellian future has arrived
SIR – Last weekend, George Orwell’s 1984 was read on BBC Radio 4. There was also discussion of the extent to which it had foreseen today’s surveillance society.
In recent months the BBC has promoted the various ways in which its programmes can be accessed, including through “your smart speaker”. Since it does not say that programmes can be listened to through “your radio”, one wonders whether the word your is being used to normalise the adoption of such speakers.
Is this part of a plot by Big Brother to monitor conversations in the privacy of our homes – not by coercion but subtle persuasion?
Peter Gray
Belfast
SIR – In 1984, Orwell referred to “the swallowers of slogans” as the population is brainwashed by the Party. Judging by the media performances during this election campaign, we are heading in the same direction.
Chris Davies
Woking, Surrey
Labour’s plan to punish hard-working parents
SIR – Why is it that when the VAT raid on private education is mentioned by Labour, schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester are used as examples (“Thornberry admits VAT raid will hit state school pupils”, report, June 9)?
Most private schools are filled by the children of hard-working parents who choose them for the smaller classes, better discipline and special-needs support – and in doing so make significant financial sacrifices.
Labour’s policy means that overstretched state schools will be further challenged. Let’s be honest and call this what it is: the politics of envy.
Elizabeth Booth
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
SIR – The furore over class sizes begun by Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, is just one of many problems in Labour’s plan to impose VAT on school fees.
For example, the party has said that it won’t impose VAT on the boarding element of the 32 state boarding schools, where tuition is free but boarding is paid for by families and carers (report, telegraph.co.uk, June 6).
It is an extraordinary proposition that a tax should be imposed not upon a particular good or service, but upon how its provision is funded. This is as ludicrous as, say, putting VAT on a train fare for Great Western Railway, which is privately owned, but not on LNER, which is publicly owned.
I suspect this will not be the only policy that will soon fall apart if and when Labour achieves power.
Mark Robbins
Bruton, Somerset
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