Letters: Who will answer for the rampant crime making Londoners afraid to go out?
SIR – We moved back to London some months ago after 20 years away. Within less than three months, my 14-year-old son had his chained bike taken from outside a supermarket, was deprived at knife-point, along with his friend, of his phone on a public street, and had to witness the immediate aftermath of the tragic murder on Primrose Hill (our local park) instead of midnight fireworks (report, January 5).
The result? He is afraid to go out alone in his own city. I submit that this is a catastrophic failure of the social contract. Is anyone claiming responsibility?
M Dury
London NW3
SIR – Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, converted the city’s usual New Year fireworks display into an ego trip laden with virtue-signalling.
There was nothing inclusive or diverse about this – just shameful misuse of public funds to position himself for May’s election.
When they vote, London’s weary taxpayers and drivers should remember how the Mayor misuses their money, and that his self-serving messages omitted London’s rampant crime wave, especially knife crime.
Gregory Shenkman
London SW7
SIR – When Jack Grealish, the Manchester City footballer, suffered a break-in at his mansion, the police sent officers, a dog and even a helicopter to investigate (Sport, January 2). Most of us are lucky to get a clerk in the call centre giving out crime numbers.
John Wainwright
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
End of the SNP
SIR – Luke Tryl (“‘It’s the economy, stupid’: how the Tories could still pull off a surprise win in 2024”, Comment, December 31) might just be correct that there are ways for the Conservatives to revive their fortunes – but I doubt that Rishi Sunak has the mojo to pull it off and halt Labour.
On the other hand, there is a glimmer of a silver lining, in that Labour very likely has the mojo to torpedo the SNP stranglehold, especially in the Scottish Central Belt. I would certainly welcome the demise of its hateful, divisive, toxic misrule, which has reduced Scotland from a byword for fiscal probity and excellence in education to a dismal global laughing stock in a few short years.
Labour could thus put paid to the vacuous vanity project of “Indy”, at least for the remainder of my lifetime – something that the Tories have cynically failed to do because they calculated that SNP MPs had the virtue of keeping Labour in opposition.
I shall almost certainly vote Conservative because that’s the best chance of spiking the SNP in this constituency, but Mr Sunak should not mistake that for support. I’m a Conservative – but I’m not convinced that he is.
R S Hughes
Campbeltown, Argyllshire
What meadows mean
SIR – As a Kettering resident, I was interested to read about Boughton House and the lives of Lord Charlie Montagu Douglas Scott and his wife, Flora (Money, December 31). They certainly make a valued contribution to the local community and the village of Geddington.
Unfortunately, their family company, Buccleuch Property, has little support in the local area. At a planning inquiry in December, more than 40 local residents, aged from seven to 70, gave speeches against Buccleuch’s plans to build on a treasured local meadow.
Deemed to be of high value by The Wildlife Trusts, Weekley Hall Wood meadow is home to more than 2,500 species, including the red-listed grasshopper warbler and the rare dingy skipper butterfly. The walking routes through the meadow are enjoyed by hundreds of Kettering people every week.
Buccleuch Property wishes to destroy this meadow and build five large warehouses and one large industrial unit in its place, in a town already surrounded by warehouses.
A petition against the plans was signed by 30,000 local people and together we raised £35,000 to pay a barrister to fight the case at the planning inquiry. In your article, Flora and Charlie say the family company has a “built-in responsibility to do the right thing”. They say that in a family company: “It’s your name on the tin. You’ve had a responsibility to people, communities and your environment for hundreds of years. You can’t screw that up because you’ve tried to turn a quick buck on something.”
We would be very happy to meet with Charlie and Flora to explain just what this area means to the local community and its landscape. We make this open offer, hoping that they will be true to their words and exert some influence over their family company.
Martin Toms
Kettering, Northamptonshire
SIR – I couldn’t agree more with Roger Boyce regarding the pleasures of daily walking (Letters, December 31). The happiest people I see are those I meet on my daily walks. All seem optimistic and invariably have encouraging tales of family events, and of what they have recently seen in the countryside.
My first memory of walking is as a boy in Schleswig-Holstein, when I disturbed some deer, which then ran ahead of me along the shimmering lake shore. That image has remained with me for life.
I have walked or jogged in the countryside ever since. During the past year I have seen egret, heron and kingfisher along the nearby chalk stream here in Hampshire.
My daily walk is a most invigorating experience, which I much enjoy.
Lt Col Paul French (retd)
Andover, Hampshire
British Airways’ shame
SIR – I have every sympathy with Alan Walsh (Letters, December 31) and his experience of appallingly bad service from British Airways.
My wife and I were due to fly home to Heathrow from Budapest in September. Hours before the flight we were notified that it had been cancelled – no explanation, no apology. At least BA shoehorned us on to a later flight, though in downgraded seats.
Eventually, after many chasers, BA has paid a trifling sum in compensation, but we still await reimbursement of the ticket price paid many months ago following the downgraded flight.
How very sad that the national airline, which used to be accepted as setting the gold standard for passenger air-travel, should appear to regard shamefully poor service as acceptable.
Rev Dr John R H Railton
Swindon, Wiltshire
Missing out on the Jimi Hendrix experience
SIR – Your report (December 31) regarding the extraordinary ticket prices that current pop stars – old and young – charge for their gigs reminds me of my university days at Manchester in the late 1960s, where we were treated to excellent bands most weeks for 5s.
However, to see Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones cost 7s 6d – and to my eternal shame I refused to pay these rip-off prices, preferring to drink the extra three pints I had saved in the union bar downstairs.
Peter Boyle
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Driverless car hack
SIR – I think talk of motoring’s decline (Letters, December 31) with the coming of the driverless car is a little premature.
It was reported recently that a team of German computer science students were able to break into Tesla’s in-car operating system and autopilot using equipment costing just €600 – and they are not the only ones. Cars will need human drivers for many years to come.
Paul Milner
Sheringham, Norfolk
SIR – The thought of thousands of computer-controlled cars on our roads terrifies me. Computer software is not designed to replicate the human brain, notwithstanding the advances in AI.
As it is, the proposed systems will still require the presence of an alert, qualified driver to take back control in an emergency, so what problem are engineers attempting to solve? Like Bill Davidson (Letters, December 31), I take pleasure and satisfaction in driving a car as safely and quickly as possible. I agree that in doing so all one’s experience and constant attention are required, and I do not believe that the driver of a computer-controlled vehicle, however skilled and experienced, would be likely to achieve this in practice. They would be more likely to fall asleep and be unable to take over instantly in an emergency.
I pray that such vehicles will be prevented from proliferating on our roads, and that motor vehicles will continue to be controlled by sentient beings. Of course there will be accidents because we ourselves are not failure-proof, but self-driving vehicles will be no better – and deprive us of one of life’s pleasures.
Paul Machin
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – I have been wondering what action a driverless car will take when confronted by the potholes in South Gloucestershire’s roads. Will they just drive through, thus increasing the size of the hole, take evasive action and endanger others, or just stop? No great option seems to be available.
Andrew Macpherson
Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire
Advertising avalanche
SIR – Last Sunday I received my tenth email from Fenwick department store in the seven days since Christmas Eve, all advertising its sale. Is this a record?
John Dickinson
Chipperfield, Hertfordshire
Learning by rote
SIR – Lord Fellowes’s discussion of the advantages of children learning by rote (report, December 31) led to my looking at my school reports from 1956 to 1961, when I was aged six to 11. The class size ranged from 50 to 57. Learning was by rote: we recited times tables, poetry and historic dates, and read aloud from the board.
Few pupils were disruptive, as discipline was very tough, which would not be acceptable today. The ruler or cane was always the threat if you stepped out of line. We all learnt the basics of reading and arithmetic – with some taking these much further.
As a family we lived in a council house and were very short of money, but I went on to grammar school and university. Rote learning provided me with a useful way of establishing fundamental facts in a subject, so I could be creative in learning from there. An extension of rote learning in action is to impart basic theories, then engage in a discussion and teach from what arises from students’ viewpoints.
It requires very able teachers to make this kind of learning worthwhile and exciting; but it is a way of opening a door to so much more.
Judith Witter
Leatherhead, Surrey
Ditches and drains
SIR – There has been a lot of rain – far more than usual. Yet this would not be a problem if the ditches and drains were kept clear. Very sadly, councils no longer see the need to undertake preventive maintenance on ditches and drains beside the highways, and that is why many roads are flooded.
Where I live in Suffolk, it has taken five years of persistent chasing for the council to clear a blocked drain, which flooded the road whenever we got rain. It pleads lack of funds, but that’s probably because a disproportionate amount of our taxes are squandered on support for people who will not work. Perhaps the unemployed could clear ditches and drains.
I find it unfortunate that last Tuesday, aged 79, it was necessary for me to be out in the rain doing the council’s work.
Terry Holloway
Great Wratting, Suffolk
Inverted snuff
SIR – The easy way to put out candles after dinner (Letters, December 31) is to use the base of a wine or Champagne bottle, either full or, more likely, empty.
It is inverted and works as a snuffer. There is no smoke or dirty fingers.
Nick Yonge
Kelso, Roxburghshire
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