Family courts, Blunkett scandal and others

Fathers, mothers and children are all victims in secret courts

Fathers, mothers and children are all victims in secret courts

Sir: Judgments about children in our family courts are in complete disarray. So long as the mantra "this is for the welfare of the children" is stated, almost anything can be done. Decisions are made in secret. What is decided and why cannot be discussed. Rumour and allegation enable those who have stereotyped views, whether on one side or the other, to have enough examples for a field day.

Let your correspondent of 29 November ("Mothers suffer just as much as fathers in family courts") be more open-minded. She will find that the oldest, and possibly still the largest, group for shared parenting is not a group for the rights of parents of one sex. It is a charity seeking to ensure that children are allowed to have a full and free relationship with both their parents unless a child-centred reason is shown otherwise. We think people should be judged according to what they offer their children and not by their sex. We have no truck with those views that we label phallocratic, nor with the contrary assumption that a "maternal instinct" makes a female parent superior. The fact that we argue quietly and reasonably means that we are less conspicuous than publicity-seeking groups.

As for misogyny, we fully acknowledge the mutual love and need of children and their mothers. We support mothers who are victims of the "winner takes all" nature of family proceedings as vigorously as the more numerous male victims. And of course half the children wrongly denied a proper relationship with a parent are girls.

JOHN BAKER
Chair, Families Need Fathers, London EC2

Stop putting the boot into Blunkett

Sir: David Blunkett has now become a victim of the usual politician-kicking brigade at the first whiff of personal scandal.

Here we have a 57-year-old blind man who has a relationship with a younger woman who is already married to a man much older than herself. She then allows herself to become pregnant with not one but two children. I'm not sure what she was hoping to achieve with these two men in her life at the same time but obviously all was not going to plan. It seems that she is now hellbent on getting revenge on Mr Blunkett. Are we going to stand by and allow this to happen to him, even sticking the boot in at the same time? Are we all too happy watching Mr Blunkett's embarrassment.

Does David Blunkett really strike anyone as a womanising cad? It's time for the media and the nation to take a stand on this voyeuristic aspect of our culture. If we don't develop mature, realistic views on situations like this then we are giving carte blanche to every kiss-and-tell blackmailer.

BRENDA BRESLIN
Grays, Essex

Sir: MPs follow a unique path to gain appointment. Candidates for election enthusiastically offer their private lives for scrutiny: "Happily married father of three, 10 years in teaching, keen rose grower ..." and so on. If an MP was also keen on long-legged, blue-eyed blondes and a bit of kerb-crawling on Friday nights, his constituents would like to be told that at the same time. It could influence the way they vote.

Constituents are right to continue to be heedful of their MP's private life. If they come to regard it as flawed and irresponsible, the MP must be called to account.

E M KNIGHT
Southampton

Sir: "David Blunkett is entitled to a private life" ... but the rest of us are not, after ID cards are introduced.

G N G TINGEY
London E17

Sir: David Blunkett should give himself an Asbo and an injunction to not go within 50 yards of a married woman.

PAMELA KINNUNEN
London NW2

Sir: Tony Blair had no doubt the inspectors would find WMD. He now has no doubt the inquiry will exonerate David Blunkett. Should not the Home Secretary be afraid, very afraid?

THOMAS COOPER
Cardiff

Alexander in America

Sir: In their column of 29 November, "Alexander the (not so) Great fails to conquer America's homophobes", John Hiscock and James Burleigh perpetuate the laughable and cartoonishly simplistic myth that has recently gained prominence among Europe's liberal media elites; namely, that the US is a land of snarling conservative bogeymen, burning homosexuals at the stake and chasing pious liberal martyrs out of their midwestern towns with pitchforks.

As their damning evidence of this reign of terror, they produce one anonymous "online critic" and then cite no source whatsoever to back up their assertion that Christians have been urged to speak to their pastors immediately because "Satan is attempting to enter your mind."

Your arrogant, European brand of deconstructionist liberalism has become so tiresome, so old, and so intellectually irrelevant, even non-religious "blue state" voters like myself are voting against your ideology when it rears its ugly head in our own culture.

DAVID WALSH
Montclair, New Jersey, USA

Sir: Both sides are missing the story of Alexander the Great's life. Morally, he was a man of his time. He was not "gay" in the sense that the homosexual world would like us to believe. Neither was he "straight" as the Christian right would have us to believe. He participated in the sexual lifestyle of that time: women were for child-bearing and men were used for pleasure. As a Christian (and Southern Baptist minister) I do not condone this but understand it.

More importantly, however, Alexander contributed more to this world than anyone else with the exception of Christ. He unified the world in culture and language. Our democracies have their roots in the Greek city-states. He was a masterful military man who is still studied today.

It's a shame that the debate over Alexander is not on his contributions to the world but on his sex life. This is an indictment of us. How we have fallen from intellectual discourse to arguments over sex is a tragedy of Greek proportions.

TERRY ROBINSON
Chunchula, Alabama, USA

Free to tour Zimbabwe

Sir: You indignantly suggested in your editorial of 25 November 2004 that the FCO "stopped short of banning" the England cricket tour to Zimbabwe. This is true and for good reason. We do not have the power to dictate to the UK's sporting authorities who they should compete against.

Britain has led the international community in putting pressure on Mugabe's government to restore democracy and human rights, leading to targeted measures by the EU and others against the regime. However the decision to tour must be one for the cricket authorities.

I would be the first to argue that the international cricket authorities should look to remove Zimbabwe from playing international matches. It is not an appropriate place to play cricket, but the ICC's refusal to allow the ECB to withdraw from the tour without financial penalty put them in a difficult position.

The decision is for the ECB to make. Unlike Zimbabwe, we do not have state-controlled sport.

CHRIS MULLIN
Minister for Africa
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1

Ruled by old Trots

Sir: Many thanks to Francis Beckett for his background on the former lives of our esteemed leaders in government ("Who are you calling an old Trot?", 27 November).

Whether Leninist, Trotskyist, Stalinist, Far Left, Revolutionary Socialist or just plain Communist, it explains much about their comfort with policies and proposals such as internment without trial; holding "camps" for potential immigrants; detention centres for immigrants awaiting deportation; the rapid derogation from parts of the European Human Rights Act in 2001; trials without juries; mandatory carrying of identity cards; pre-emptive military strikes; the continuing harsh provisions of the "temporary" Terrorism Act and more recently, the less-than-subtle inclusion of "fear, uncertainty and doubt" in the pre-election arguments.

Given Jack Straw's penchant for historical research in this area, perhaps he could enlighten us on what other progressive policies we can expect to see in a third term of the New Labour (reformed Communist) Party?

PETER COGHLAN
Broadstone, Dorset

Drug dangers

Sir: The report that England has the highest rate in Europe of cannabis use among 15-year-olds ("Blunkett promises to hit drug pushers hard", 26 November) emphasises the need to get across the public health messages on drugs, and not just focus on the problem as a crime issue. We continue to support the reclassification of cannabis and, contrary to some claims, the majority of young people do know that it remains illegal.

Though cannabis is harmful, not all drugs are the same. There is encouraging evidence that drug use among young people has stabilised, but we should not be complacent. We welcome the Government's pledge to do more to provide information about drugs to young people and parents, but tackling the social problems that can lead to drug misuse is crucial.

MARTIN BARNES
DrugScope, London SE1

Democratic Ukraine

Sir: I cannot agree with the notion (leading article, 27 November) that the West can somehow impose democracy in Ukraine. Over the last few years I have noticed during my visits to Ukraine an increase in civil society and national awareness that has now taken Russia, the West and, most especially, the Kuchma regime by surprise. While the reality there between the two sides is certainly not black and white, there is clearly a desire on the part of many (I believe the majority) to wrest responsibility for the destiny of the country from the gangsters who have run Ukraine for the last decade or so, and most certainly from the influence of Putin's Russia.

We must remember that much of Ukraine was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and is not some far-away bleak plain devoid of all European influence. I see in your leading article much of the unfortunate line of British foreign policy that did so much damage in the last century: namely, that when it comes to Eastern Europe the leading influence should remain the mysticism of the unknowable Russian soul, and that democracy has somehow remained a "Western" phenomenon.

Is the West once again to look away while an autocratic and undoubtedly brutal Russia reasserts itself in the region? Is it to be left to the Polish government to try to avert a bloodbath in Ukraine?

FRANK SALE
Warsaw

Sir: Before people in the Ukraine do anything irreversible in the anticipation of joining the EU at some future date, wouldn't it be wise for the EU to predetermine what its maximum managable size is going to be?

PETER WINNALL
Sheffield

Christmas at home

Sir: Your article of 27 November described an imaginary Mancunian travelling to London or to New York to do Christmas shopping ("A transatlantic flight, a holiday in New York, all the Christmas shopping and still save £161"). However, it did not say why you believe this person would need to leave Manchester at all.

Since I already live in Manchester city centre, I can save the entire budget for travel and accommodation. After all, I'm only ten minutes' walk from Harvey Nichols, Heals and Selfridges, and more interesting "alternative" shops are even closer. Should I wish to, I can buy the goods you suggest at London high-street prices, or less, without the need to travel anywhere.
The Independent makes occasional welcome stabs at suggesting that culture - and shopping - can be found outside the metropolis, but still does not appear to be truly convinced. Should you wish to visit to confirm this, the Commonwealth Games left us with a glut of hotels. The three-star city centre accommodation your article suggests can be had for less than £50 a night.

KATE TOWNER
Manchester

Small difficulties

Sir: As David McNickle rightly says, the compact Independent crumples easily for firelighting (letter, 29 November), but I think the best solution to John Abrehart's problem of lighting the fire is to do what I do; use the Sunday broadsheet to draw the fire and the compact to light it. That way, he'd get the best of both worlds.

GORDON WATSON
Clunderwen, Pembrokeshire

Smell the difference

Sir: With reference to smelly cheese (report, 26 November), I feel my Latvian paternal grandmother's home-made cheese would have qualified quite highly in the ratings. My father used to relate how on returning to Riga from a visit to the family farm near Valmiera with various home-produced edibles in his suitcase he would be surprised to discover that, on an otherwise packed train, he had been the sole occupant of his compartment.

MARINA DONALD
Edinburgh

Any other name

Sir: The actress Julia Roberts has been safely delivered of twins, a boy and a girl, named Phinnaeus and Hazel. I worked for close to forty years as an obstetrician- gynaecologist and was constantly telling mothers not to give the kid an unusual name, and not to use an unusual spelling of a usual name. I predict Phinnaeus is going to have a great deal of trouble with his name growing up. Roberts has not done her son a favour.

ROBERT L BRATMAN
Aberdare, Mid-Glamorgan

Say that again

Sir: Ough!

The Rev JOHN OUGH
Totnes, Devon