Letters | 22 March 2008

Key question

Sir: Debt, debt everywhere. Britain really is in trouble if — as Fraser Nelson suggests (Politics, 15 March) — the Conservative opposition is shying away from the ‘obvious strategy’ of proposing to freeze public spending or cut taxes.

There is a sensible ‘bottom up’ approach for our leaders to take, namely to start budgeting from a base of zero expenditure. Then prioritise and add the spending that really must be made (schools, hospitals, defence and the like), while checking value for money at every step. The key question is, ‘What is essential for Britain?’ rather than, ‘What is in the current budget?’ or ‘What did Gordon promise on the Andrew Marr Show?’ At the end of the cull there will remain the optional extras, dodgy PFI schemes and political pork, whose costs can then be phased, reduced or — hopefully — cut completely. Cue a more balanced budget.

The Blair, Brown, Darling refrain that all public expenditure is inherently good has prevailed for too long and is now ruining this country. The Conservatives need to adopt a more rigorous approach to justify their spending plans. So do the Lib Dems. So does Labour, but fat chance of that happening.

Tim Holman
St Albans, Hertfordshire
Simple remedy

Sir: I am glad Craig Goldsack, chairman of the Department of Anaesthesia, University College Hospital, has such faith in the complaints system of the Healthcare Commission (Letters, 15 March). Those of us who have had cause to complain would cheer Lord Mancroft and Taki to the echo.

I complained to the Commission about the care of a close relative and received a letter with condolences on the death of my loved one (who was still — thankfully — very much alive.) It took 12 months for the Commission to review the complaint, which seems an inordinate amount of time given the review of my complaint was a desk review — no visits, no interviews, no opportunity for me to comment on the response of the staff of the Trust about whom I had complained.

Sorry Mr Goldsack — we need the help of people like Taki and Lord Mancroft to speak up for those who get poor care and treatment from the NHS. Certainly in my profession as a vicar I come across many people who have had excellent care, but when the system fails, and fails badly, someone needs to take note. Frequently, the remedy is simple, and is about staff attitude and care rather than costly resource issues.

Revd Peter C. Bellenes
Marldon, Devon
Rough trade

Sir: Even for a self-described ‘posh bird’, Venetia Thompson (‘A Sloane in gangsta land’, 15 March) seems to be drawn to rough trade(rs) like a moth to the flame. Now that one lot has sacked her and another has drawn a gun on her, is she not tempted to branch out a bit?

Duncan Reed
London SW18

Atheist ramblings

Sir: So Gus Teljer (Letters, 15 March) thinks Martin Rowson’s ‘atheist ramblings’ show him, not only to have a ‘lost soul’ to be impertinently prayed for, but to be ‘a tedious and nauseating chap’. Teljer, on the other hand, reveals himself in his letter as the epitome of modest charm.

Michael Grosvenor Myer
Cambridge

Tin ear

Sir: Sir John Weston (Letters, 15 March) deplores Westminster Abbey’s refusal to allow the use of the King James Bible at a memorial service, and asks if it is now officially banished in London. Things are far worse than that. Many parish churches, and the chapels in cemeteries across the land, do not allow the option at all, having only modern translations on the premises, together with ‘Common Worship’ or a scruffy leaflet giving what passes for the burial service in modern English. If you’re very lucky, there may also be a few almost unrecognisable fragments of what is called the ‘Traditional Words’.

When the bereaved have specified emphatically that they wish to commemorate their departed with the Authorised Version and the Book of Common Prayer it is an affront to them, not to mention to the memory of the deceased, to insist on garbled and tin-eared translations of some of the greatest prose in the language, which by virtue of its quality as prose (quite apart from its validity as the word of God) is for many a real aid to meditation and consolation.

When will the Church wake up to its mistake, which is both philistine and deeply insensitive?

Andrew Wilton
London SW11

Dubious procedure

Sir: In contrasting her Chinese medical treatment favourably with that received back in England, I suspect that Tessa Keswick (‘If you need a doctor, go to China’, 15 March) is not comparing like with like. In China she paid for expensive — certainly by Chinese standards — private consultations, whereas in England she complains that she was ‘still waiting for an appointment to see a specialist’. This is presumably because she is waiting for free NHS treatment — based on my own experience, I doubt that she would wait more than 48 hours if she went the private route, as she did in China.

I also suspect that a month of analgesic or anti-inflammatory medication would have been at least as effective as the month of painful and dubious-sounding procedures she subjected herself to in China.

Mike Venis
Faversham, Kent

Distinguished lineage

Sir: Taki wonders (High life, 15 March) ‘what’s wrong with keeping it in the family?’ The answer surely is that every family, no matter how distinguished its lineage, will eventually produce a Taki. QED.

Sebastian Lawson
by email