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Lost in Lisbon
Sir: James Forsyth (Politics, 5 February) fails to mention the elephant in the room, i.e. the reason we no longer have a distinctive foreign policy. That is, of course, the creation and development of a European foreign policy to which we will be subjugated. The Lisbon Treaty established this and EU embassies are now springing up around the world.
Niall Warry
Somerset
Tangled thickets
Sir: How I wish Charles Moore (Notes, 5 February) could have been in the Forest of Dean on Friday. Local opposition to the government’s plans to privatise the public forest estate has been fanned by the reluctance of the Forest’s MP, Mark Harper (the Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform), to talk to us about it for the past three months. Finally, on Friday evening, he held an ineptly organised public meeting, which managed to upset just about everyone. I’m afraid it ended with the unfortunate Mr Harper fleeing through the night to the waiting police riot van, pursued by cries of ‘Run, rabbit, run’ and ‘Harper out,’ together with the occasional low-flying egg. For us, this is a local issue, and national political allegiances have little to do with it. In our part of the world there is a widespread and no doubt misguided perception that the government will force through privatisation for ideological reasons, and that the principal beneficiaries will be a few wealthy individuals or companies. Perhaps the coalition should think a little harder about how it presents this policy.
The Forestry Commission, flawed though it is, has its charms if you care about maintaining public access and managing an enormous and varied tract of woodland for future generations. So does the concept of public ownership. Better the devil you know. Pass me the eggs.
Andrew Taylor
Coleford, Gloucestershire
Iraq’s happiness index
Sir: Never one to pass up an opportunity to burnish his brass neck in public, Alastair Campbell used last week’s Diary (5 February) to inform us of a recent ‘happiness index’ purporting to show Iraqis (and Afghans) more contented with life than ourselves. Presumably, the four million refugees from Iraq, not to mention the women giving birth to badly deformed babies in Fallujah thanks to the effects of British and American weaponry, were not required to give their views.
Michael Wharton
Darsham, Suffolk
On Horizon
Sir: In response to James Delingpole’s article last week (5 February), I wanted to clear up a few points concerning the Horizon documentary Science Under Attack. From the outset, we made clear to James that the purpose of this film was to examine public trust in science generally — not just in the area of climate change — reflecting both the role of scientists and the influence of the internet and bloggers. And at no point did anyone on the production team lie or mislead any contributors about the programme’s content or objective.
We recorded an interview with James in good faith and it lasted just over 90 minutes — a typical length of interview for most scientific documentaries. The film contained five minutes from this interview, including what we believed were his key arguments. The science in the film was rigorously researched and accurate. There is a substantial body of evidence that humans — rather than natural causes — are producing most of the increases in atmospheric CO2. The significance of this human contribution can only be properly assessed against the evidence that the natural release of CO2 into the atmosphere is almost completely balanced by the absorption of CO2 into the land and oceans as part of the carbon cycle.
Aidan Laverty
Editor, Horizon, BBC White City, London W12
American spy
Sir: A review of The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming (Books, 5 February) opens with the statement that American spy novels are ‘unreadable’. Such chauvinistic ignorance must not be allowed to go unchallenged. In the postwar period the novels of the Americans Robert Littell and Charles McCary have been rightly recognised as masterpieces of the genre, while Alan Furst is widely acknowledged as probably the best living writer of spy fiction in the English language. Perhaps you should find a reviewer who is able to read the best available in the field, rather than one who writes such arrant nonsense.
E. MacIntosh
Darlington
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