Already a subscriber? Log in
Sir: Patrick Allitt (‘Elephant trap’, 7 January) nicely pegs some of the difficulties that the Republican candidates face ahead of the 2012 election against President Obama. Now is the winter of the Grand Old Party’s discontent. However, he skims over their foreign policy bind.
The Republican party’s presidential hopefuls are — with the exception of Ron Paul — terrified of sounding weak, or ‘appeasing’, on international affairs. So they reiterate the party line, sabre-rattling against Iran, North Korea, just about any country with a funny-sounding name. The trouble is, after such painful humiliations in Iraq and Afghanistan, most Americans, including many conservatives, are fed up with this militaristic outlook. They are likely to be attracted to Barack Obama’s latest plans to scale down the hugely expensive US military machine.
Miles Kitchin
New York
Sir: A Conservative Cabinet minister cheerfully tells James Forsyth (Politics, 7 January) that voters become ‘more right-wing’ in hard times — meaning, among other things, that they become more concerned about other people receiving benefits to which they do not seem entitled. When this feeling is primarily directed against the rich, rather than the poor, Conservatives have a name for it: the politics of envy.
David Prendergast
Manchester
Sir: My grateful thanks to Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 7 January) for pointing out and condemning the gradual dumbing down of Radio 3. The programme which has taught me so much about music over my lifetime has now become frivolous interactive entertainment, with the notable exception of Composer of the Week, which is always instructive. For me the Breakfast Show is the most excruciating, with constant interruptions to refer to the many ways in which the public can get in touch to express views which I, for one, do not wish to hear. What I do wish to hear, and am increasingly prevented from hearing, is the music, intelligently presented.
Mary Rose Beaumont
London SW4
Sir: Thank you for corroborating my views regarding BBC’s Radio 3. For most of my 77 years, I switched on Radio 3 first thing every morning, enjoying the uplift of decent classical music. As Charles Moore so rightly points out, the changes have been ‘by degrees’. First it was the addition of jazz and musicals (intended, no doubt, to steal Jazz FM listeners). Then it imitated Classic FM, playing single movements of symphonies, trios, quartets etc. Now it is as Charles Moore describes. How long will it be before the BBC drops broadcasts of whole concerts, or such excellent programmes as Composer of the Week, on the basis that they are too cerebral for listeners?
Now I have passed the magic age and I no longer pay a licence fee, I sadly have no means of threatening the BBC. An earlier complaint went unacknowledged. So my mornings are now silent (unless I play my own CDs). Can anything be done?
Flora Selwyn
St Andrews, Fife
Sir: Hugo Rifkind’s column on his lack of interest in sport (7 January) hit a raw nerve for many Australians. Can he imagine what it is like living here and sharing his views? My country is obsessed by these meaningless activities. To confess to being uninterested is to be ostracised and thought of as highly eccentric.
Our government funds a National Institute of Sport, where budding athletes are treated to free accommodation, tuition, medical care etc, while students studying science at university pay ever higher fees and many universities close their humanities faculties due to lack of funding. Someone should do an in-depth study of what our sport obsession has cost Australia over the years. What a remarkable country we could have become if all that money and effort had been spent elsewhere!
So stick to your guns, Hugo. Ignore the Olympics. I managed to get through the last puerile play-fest without knowing who or what won a single medal.
Adam Wynn
Adelaide, South Australia
Sir: Melissa Kite (‘On the wrong track’, 31 December) very nearly had a clear round, but missed the last fence. This fence was clearly marked TEN-T. For those unfamiliar with the workings of the European Commission, this is the cause of HS2, and while Melissa deals most emotively with the effect, the project is not one that is of our government’s making. It is, however, a project that we cannot afford and do not need, and is yet another manifestation of our membership of a failing political vanity.
John Ling
Herefordshire
Write to us The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP letters@spectator.co.uk
Also in Society
Also by The Spectator
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in