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Sir: In his television review (21 January) James Delingpole commends Jonathan Meades for having little time for General de Gaulle, citing just one reason, the ‘disgraceful treatment’ of the OAS leader Roger Degueldre and his ‘messy execution’ to ‘sate liberal bloodlust’. Delingpole backs his condemnation of De Gaulle by describing Degueldre simply as ‘one of the few genuine resistants’.
This is revisionism carried to indecent lengths. One may judge De Gaulle as one wishes. But whatever his past in the second world war and Indochina, Degueldre was a mass murderer in Algeria, a ruthless nihilist whose Delta Commando began by stabbing a liberal lawyer and a police commander to death and went on to slaughter civilians in an attempt to create anarchy. That Delingpole should condemn De Gaulle and his administration for having put a stop to this indicates a very strange set of values.
Jonathan Fenby
London WC1
Sir: Yellow Friday (‘What colour is Wednesday?’, 21 January)? Ridiculous. Friday is white, Sunday is green. Every day has a definite colour, as do all numbers. Seven is dark blue, five is red, three is pink, zero is white. Hence ten is black-and-white. This has been so all my life and I am now 75 (dark blue and red!).
Anne Fisher
Hampshire
Sir: Rod Liddle (31 December) gives a wholly misleading impression of the term intersex. Intersex is nothing to do with sexual orientation. It refers to physiological variations affecting between 1 and 4 per cent of the population. Whether or not a person is biologically identified as a male or female depends on a cluster of characteristics. In intersex people, these characteristics do not align in the way we might usually expect. Most intersex people still consider themselves to be male or female, but they are often subject to prejudice because of their variance. Sadly, it is still common for intersex people to be subjected to ‘normalising’ surgery when they are too young to consent, often leaving them with lifelong health problems. It is important that publications like The Spectator avoid contributing to a climate of prejudice and misunderstanding.
Jennie Kermode
Glasgow
Sir: I have been feeling uneasy about David Hockney’s Yorkshire landscape paintings. The lack of feeling in these works, and, dare I say it, of observation, makes me sad. I get the idea that he is doing them because he can, not from any real joy in the landscape. Like Andrew Lambirth (Exhibitions, 28 January), I really admire Hockney’s early work and adore his portraits and the swimming pool paintings. I am very, very happy to find that I am not alone.
Shirley Page
Cambridgeshire
Sir: To Paul Johnson (‘Age of achievement’, 21 January) please convey my sincerest thanks. His uplifting piece was published the day after my 40th birthday. Perhaps with the publication of this letter my own rise from obscurity begins?
Chris Shelley
Woodbridge, Suffolk
Sir: If Deborah Ross wants to get crumbs as well as fluff out of her keyboard (Film, 28 January), may I suggest she gets hold of some of the little brushes that dentists use to clean between the teeth? The ones we use are called TePe, and they are much more efficient than pins.
Olivia Bell
Edinburgh
Sir: Disappointingly, despite your exclamatory headline (21 January) — ‘Free Abu Hamza!’ — I didn’t get one.
Neil Martin
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