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Islam and the Cross
From David Eddyshaw
Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 11 February) says in passing that Muslims ‘oddly’ deny the crucifixion of Jesus. This is true but by no means odd; as I understand it, the power and justice of Allah make it inconceivable that he could permit one of his messengers to be killed. This reflects a profound difference between the Muslim and Christian concepts of God, and indeed of power and justice.
Swansea
The limits of liberty
From Dennis Morris
Sir: Apropos Daniel Wolf’s article (‘Censorship wasn’t all bad’, 4 February) and the question of freedom becoming licence, there are two other quotations of Edmund Burke’s which are not only relevant to Mr Wolf’s arresting piece but also easy to remember. And though both date from 1777, bearing them in mind would probably stop many a political commentator appearing shallow. The first is, ‘Liberty too must be limited in order to be possessed’; and the second, ‘There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.’
Dennis Morris
Caiscais, Portugal
Wet Stones
From Rodney Garrood
Sir: Rod Liddle’s confirmation that the Rolling Stones are less than bolshevik will come as a complete surprise to nobody, least of all, one suspects, the grand old men themselves (‘Blue-collar blues’, 11 February). There have been clues, among them a knighthood, an injury to Keith caused by falling off his library steps and, of course, a very early censorship of ‘Let’s Spend the Night Together’ on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Rodney Garrood
Amersham, Buckinghamshire
What drives Boris
From Alex Moulton
Sir: I was surprised to read that Boris Johnson, as a cyclist and historian, had not pondered on what had allowed the reduction of wheel size from the ordinary ‘penny-farthing’ with the crank drive to that of the conventional bicycle which he no doubt rides (Diary, 11 February). It is, of course, the chain drive with the larger chainwheel at the crank and a smaller sprocket at the hub which enables the revolution of the cranks to be independent of wheel size. The Starley ‘Safety’ incorporated this. Lord Hailsham was probably the first parliamentarian to enjoy the benefits of the yet further reduction of wheel size with the Moulton bicycle. He acquired this in 1964.
Alex Moulton
Moulton Bicycles, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
A Franco–Russian war
From David J. Kidd
Sir: I hope Jane Kelly is as unimpressed by the replies to her letter as I am (Letters, 11 February). Britain’s Liberal administration entered the 1914 war not to defend the country but to assist French revanchists and the Tsar’s imperialist pan-Slav expansion. In his 1920 book How the War Came Lord Loreburn, Lord Chancellor in the 1906 Campbell-Bannerman cabinet, summed it up thus: ‘We went to war in a Russian quarrel because we were tied to France in the dark.’ Foreign policy made in Petrograd and Paris sealed the fate of Englishmen and women.
David J. Kidd
London N22
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