Letters: Like Rowan Atkinson, consumers can make up their own minds on EVs
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SIR – I was amused to learn that the green lobby feels Rowan Atkinson is partially to blame for the slowdown in consumers buying electric cars because he described them as lacking in soul (report, February 7).
If consumers truly valued soul as well as function, then I doubt there would be many new cars on the road at all, as most look as if they plopped out of the same jelly mould.
Consumers are not idiots. People choose not to buy electric cars because they are relatively expensive – to purchase and insure – and the infrastructure is hopeless. Some people also understand that the lithium mining process is far from green.
Michael Oak
Stirling
SIR – It appears that the Government’s EV push has been derailed by a newspaper article by Rowan Atkinson. Mr Bean would’ve been most gratified.
Jeremy Thompson
Sudbury, Suffolk
SIR – I was appalled to read that Rowan Atkinson has been blamed in a report by the House of Lords for “damaging” the public perception of electric cars because he wrote an opinion piece in the Guardian about his experience.
He is perfectly entitled to his view and has a right to express it, even if it is negative. Attacks on freedom of speech belong in dictatorships.
Andrea Deakin-Radkov
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Only two of the 13 members of the House of Lords environment and climate change committee drive electric cars. Have the others all been influenced by Rowan Atkinson’s view?
Roger Tagg
Newark, Nottinghamshire
SIR – I own a Skoda Octavia diesel. I pay no road tax due to low emissions and on a full tank it will do more than 500 miles. A friend has just paid a small fortune for a fancy EV, which at best will do half that distance, provided he does not overuse the lights and heater. And then it takes ages to recharge – if he can find somewhere to do it.
Don’t blame Rowan Atkinson for the drop in sales.
Richard Matkin
Rolleston-on-Dove, Staffordshire
SIR – Rowan Atkinson drove a very unusual car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last year: a Toyota with an internal-combustion engine powered by hydrogen – with zero emissions. The same principle is used by JCB, which long ago realised that an electric digger working all day is not viable.|
Green hydrogen can be produced with wind power, and projects are in the pipeline for the west coast of Ireland and Scotland. The Government should get off the electric bandwagon and pay more attention to hydrogen.
Well done to Rowan Atkinson for bringing some badly needed balance to the conversation.
David Wilkinson
Heathfield, East Sussex
Countering extremism
SIR – During my time as the counter-extremism commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley – now Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis – and I demonstrated that there were gaps in legislation that allowed extremists, whose activity fell just below the terrorism threshold, to operate with impunity.
“Hateful extremists”, as I termed them, shared the same ideology as terrorists, were guilty of radicalising people and propagating their narratives, and were – with intent – creating a climate conducive to extremism, terrorism and other harms, including undermining democracy.
We put forward a number of recommendations to ministers, including commissioning a legal and operational framework to counter this extremist threat. Our report, “Operating with Impunity”, was published in February 2021. Three years later, I’m still waiting for a response.
Suella Braverman (“Take on hate-filled mobs, before it’s too late”, Comment, February 7) suggests new laws are needed to address extremism, as well as “a new category” for extremist groups not involved in terrorism but whose activities were clearly harming our country.
These were precisely the points we raised, including recommending extremism proscription orders that could ban dangerous but lawful Islamist and neo-Nazi groups.
When Ms Braverman was home secretary, she had the power to take action – but chose not to. It is my belief that had she done so, we would have not fallen behind the curve in countering the extremist threat to our country.
Dame Sara Khan
Counter-extremism commissioner, 2018-21
Hertford
Britain’s dental health
SIR – Having worked for more than 40 years in general dentistry in this country and in Europe, I can say that your Leading Article (February 7) contained the only possible solution to the crisis in our NHS: “an expansion of the insurance market”.
All else will fail abysmally – and with a great deal of wasted investment.
Jonathan Taylor
Marlborough, Wiltshire
SIR – One reason young dentists go private is the failure of patients to turn up for their appointments.
Dentists should be allowed to fine for this – as indeed the whole NHS should for non-attendance. Highly skilled dentists and doctors should not be sitting around waiting for patients. Saying this is too difficult to implement is no excuse.
Mike Griffith
London SW11
Femme fromage
SIR – Four of us were on a cycling trip in France some years ago. We stopped in a village café for lunch (Letters, February 7), which was quite busy with local workmen.
We chose the plat du jour. In schoolboy French, my husband asked if I could have something other than the cheese course. The clientele all collapsed in laughter. He had asked to swap his wife for the cheese.
Polly Hurlow
Marnhull, Dorset
SIR – While in Paris, I once asked a young waiter what the soup of the day was. He took the menu from me, looked at it and said: “It’s soup du jour, sir”. I mumbled that I would give it a go. It wasn’t bad, though I couldn’t tell what it was.
Hamish Watson
Axford, Wiltshire
Davey vs postmasters
SIR – Sir Ed Davey is still giving excuses for his deplorable behaviour as postal affairs minister from 2010 to 2012. He was even given an easy ride on the Today programme yesterday.
Martha Kearney failed to ask the crucial question: how could he have accepted assurances that there was no fault with the Horizon system, when this meant believing that hundreds of previously blameless sub-postmasters had suddenly turned into criminals?
Charles Simon
Leicester
Barclays’ bad practice
SIR – As treasurer or trustee of four community organisations – two of which had Barclays accounts – I am encouraged to know that my poor experiences are not unique (Letters, February 6).
Taking on one treasurership at the start of the pandemic, I was unable to change the mandate because Barclays’ staff worked from home, did not answer the phone, and would not respond to letters or emails.
One of the charities, which had received free banking, had charges introduced because there were more than three trustees, despite this conflicting with Charity Commission best-practice guidance.
Another organisation has received rude, aggressive and threatening letters since September. It has taken me five months to provide information to Barclays’ satisfaction, but still staff do not seem to know what they’re doing.
Mark Pender
Sherborne, Dorset
SIR – When and why did loyalty stop counting for anything? Aviva, with which we have had home insurance for 20 years, has increased our premium by 33 per cent, saying it is non-negotiable. And EasyJet, with which we take perhaps four return flights each year, has asked us to pay to join its loyalty scheme. Really?
Roger Walkinton
Lindfield, West Sussex
Prudent pruning
SIR – I also see a bright future for the Wisley wisteria (Letters, February 7).
The magnificent specimen we have has appeared in full and severely pruned guises in photographs and etchings for at least 250 years.
We ourselves have cut it right back three times since 2007. I have no doubt I’ll be getting my pruning shears out again in about 2030.
Antony Mannion
Battle, East Sussex
How Snowdon’s beauty is becoming a curse
SIR – I live in the shadow of Snowdon and often walk on its slopes. During a recent ramble I found an abandoned tent, along with empty cans, bottles and other detritus (“Entitled litterers”, Letters, February 2).
The perpetrators had come to the valley because it is beautiful; they had carried everything to their camping spot and then left it all there for others to clear away.
It’s a mindset I cannot fathom.|
Philip Roberts
Caernarfon
SIR – Louisa Houghton (Letters, February 1) should come and pick up litter in Bedfordshire.
In the past year I’ve found a £20 note, a tenner and a fiver – all in spendable condition, as they are new, polymer notes. I’m now also the owner of the county’s leading collection of magnetic L-plates.
Our enduring problem is discarded takeaway meals. The last burst bag spread 26 separate bits of plastic and paper litter around the road verge.
Mike Wells
Ickwell, Bedfordshire
SIR – I share Sue Leach’s disgust (Letters, February 2) at the littering of this once beautiful country.
The detritus strewn on most roadside verges is matched by signage that is so faded or covered with algae that it’s almost illegible.
Thankfully, the authorities increasingly allow signposts to rust away, so that once they’ve toppled over the offending grubby face is less visible.
Andrew Adamson
Tetbury, Gloucestershire
A benefits system that would incentivise work
SIR – I absolutely agree with Philip Johnston’s article, “Britain is abandoning hard work in favour of welfarism and idleness” (Comment, February 7). Clearly many people are able to survive without work, which indicates a failure in the benefits system.
First, the ease with which people get benefits needs to be addressed. The definition of “mental health problems” should be re-examined and the bar set higher.
Secondly, the amount of money paid in benefits should not provide an incentive to be idle. Benefit payments should be just enough to sustain people while they look for work and should be limited to a few weeks.
Stan Kirby
East Malling, Kent
SIR – One of the reasons for the increase in the numbers dropping out of work due to long-term illness is the fact that doctors who give certificates that allow people not to work are afraid. They fear problems arising at work for those patients who have been told they are now fit. Doctors cannot risk being criticised because of the litigious paranoia that pervades the profession.
Dr Richard Soper
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
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