Letters: Blair's intervention

Sir: I rarely find myself in agreement with the Prime Minister, but after two decades working in drug and alcohol dependency I am disappointed by the attitude of some of your correspondents (5 September) who wilfully refuse to acknowledge the huge amount of evidence of risk and protective factors in children's upbringing.

Over the years, I have seen the reality of multi-generational family addiction and often criminality; children growing up to become dependent on alcohol and other drugs because of their family culture; tiny gaunt faces and stressed hollow eyes of toddlers who struggle to make sense of the chaos around them, and the anger and despair of older children turned in on themselves in violent self-destruction or outwards on to a society that selfishly did not care enough to rescue them and which then criminalises them for lashing out in their pain.

Many can be identified before they even go to school. Why shouldn't they have the same standards of nurturing and care that others take for granted by accident of birth? We live in a wealthy society, yet we sit back and condemn a small underclass of children to a miserable existence.

Your correspondents are indulging their political ideology at the expense of sad, condemned children and chaotic and ineffective, although often loving, parents. Tony Blair's proposal to intervene in seriously dysfunctional families will offer some hope of rescue and respite.

ROSE DAVIES

SWANSEA

Labour heads for paralysis and defeat

Sir: The Labour Party is falling behind in the polls, its foreign policy is disintegrating, the party membership is declining and its finances are headed into bankruptcy.

The media are turning against us, people are tired of our infighting, and we are headed for paralysis in Parliament and a crushing defeat in the local elections next May.

Mr Blair has been a remarkable prime minister but if his leadership continues, David Cameron will clearly become our next prime minister. If Mr Blair's supporters want this, they should say so, or else give the reasons why he should not resign immediately to make way for Gordon Brown.

As Churchill once said: "If Number One trips, he must be sustained, If he makes mistakes, they should be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed, and if he is no longer any good, he must be poleaxed."

BRIAN BOUGHTON

LABOUR COUNCILLOR SOUTH HAMS DISTRICT COUNCIL HAMPSHIRE

Sir: The Labour party has just destroyed itself. They are a bunch of turkeys voting for Christmas in trying to force out Tony Blair. He is in a terrible position, with no authority left, and until he goes the Tories will just ask, "Who is in charge?" As soon as he goes, they will call for a general election.

Gordon Brown may have speeded the time when he gets his heart's desire, but that increases the likelihood that this will turn to ashes as soon as he does. If Blair goes now, Brown has brought down the Government. If he stays, the Government is paralysed until he goes.

What a farce. You would have thought the Labour Party would have learnt from the Tories, but obviously not.

PAUL WRIGHT

SHIPLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE

Sir: Sitting at home with the radio on following the developing story of Tony Blair's resignation date, all became clear to me. The Prime Minister believes that his legacy will be safer in the hands of David Cameron than of anyone the Labour Party could select to follow him.

He is prepared to hang on to office, not only while his party becomes less and less trusted, but so this can happen. He has decided to push the party past breaking-point so that a Conservative government can continue his great work.

MICHAEL EDWARDS

KEIGHLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE

Sir: Tony Blair has stated that the electorate should not be regarded as "irrelevant bystanders" in the matter of the change of leadership. What a pity he regarded them as being just that in relation to the far more important issue of the invasion of Iraq.

The message of the anti-war demonstrators was barely acknowledged, let alone acted on. An early departure from office would be in the international as well as the national interest, because his dangerous foreign policy is likely to inflame the situation in the Middle East to the point where conflict escalates into a third world war.

DR VERONICA BRADLEY

BRIGHTON

Sir: It is repugnant to see Labour Party internal politics writhing on the surface and distorting our reaction to national and international situations.

It is particularly upsetting when our troops are dying in action in several areas, to have to watch Gordan Brown's version of Macbeth.

Have the ravens reached Downing Street?

A C FOSTER

CHISLEHURST, KENT

Gaza: the crisis the world ignored

Sir: I was delighted to see the front cover of today's Independent, which highlights the plight of the people in Gaza (8 September). At a time when propaganda and lies abound, The Independent has displayed journalistic integrity, and a truly independent, well-researched and accurate coverage of the situation in the Middle East.

The crisis in Gaza has been swept under the rug in the past few months with the media's attention shifting to the war in Lebanon and the instability in Agfhanistan and Iraq. By launching a campaign to bring the world's attention to the disastrous situation in the Gaza Strip and the plight of its people, you have demonstrated courage, integrity but most of all humanity.

As a British-Palestinian, I thank you for your honest coverage of the crisis in the Middle East and your support to the people of Gaza at a time when the international world, leaders and media, have turned a blind eye to their suffering.

Special thanks also go to Deborah Orr, who has launched this campaign last week.

LENA EL-MALAK

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

Sir: I beg to differ with the word "jail" in the headline "Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now" (8 September). Gaza appears more like a concentration camp, created by a people who ought to know better.

JOHN R HOUGHTON

ASKER, NORWAY

Sir: Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding writes (letter, 7 September) that Tony Blair is frequently seen as responsible for "the destruction of Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, for the loss of lives of hundreds of thousands of Arabs and Muslims, and for fuelling the extremism that is blighting so many Middle Eastern states".

Although UK forces bombed some parts of Iraq, it seems that the people causing the carnage now are almost entirely Muslims. Israel dropped bombs on Lebanon, not Blair. Israel is taking action against the Palestinians, Blair is not.

As for fuelling extremism, Blair does not make propaganda videos for Muslim extremists; he does not preach death and destruction of innocents; he is not trying to impose his religion on others; he loves life more than death; he does not teach children to hate from an early age or teach them songs about killing and becoming martyrs; he does not run training camps where people are taught to how to murder random and innocent people.

Tony Blair is not responsible for fuelling extremism. Extremists are doing a good enough job on their own. Arab-British understanding would be so much better if people placed blame where it really belongs.

JAMES GOLDMAN

LONDON NW4

How dolphins show their intelligence

Sir: Dolphin intelligence is not actually a myth, as suggested in the article "Do mice like cheese?" (7 September). The solid body of careful behavioural research that has been conducted by many scientists over the past few decades confirms high intelligence in the species studied.

This work clearly outweighs the recent novel hypothesis from one researcher (mentioned in the article), which suggests large brain size is an adaptation to life in cold water. In modern science, brain size and shape are only ever taken as indicators of intelligence. The behaviour of animals is used to investigate their cognitive powers. Dolphins score very well in the cognition tests that have been applied to animals such as chimpanzees.

The novel thermal hypothesis is, in fact, causing considerable consternation among many behavioural scientists and neuro-anatomists because it does not fit with what they have found, and a robust scientific dispute about this work has already started.

The evidence in favour of high intelligence is overwhelming: dolphins have complex social interactions, they are long-lived with long periods of parental care, they are self-aware, innovative, puzzle-solving, excellent mimics and pass all other tests we demand to illustrate intelligence, with the possible exception of tool-making, although they are certainly capable of manipulating objects in their environment.

Our recognition of their intelligence, including the societies and cultures these animals live in, has important implications for their welfare and our efforts to conserve them.

MARK SIMMONDS

INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR OF SCIENCE THE WHALE AND DOLPHIN CONSERVATION SOCIETY

CHIPPENHAM, WILTSHIRE

Hospital closure is a sad irony

Sir: Maxine Frith, reporting on Peter Elphinstone's positive experience of French orthopaedic surgery (6 September) highlights for me a sad irony with regard to the NHS.

I have also just undergone a hip replacement. The wait had been less than six months and the entire experience was every bit as good as Peter's; the operation expertly done, the after-care friendly and highly professional and the surroundings delightful. I was almost sorry to leave hospital.

I was therefore shocked to learn, just a fortnight after the operation, that Ravenscourt Park, the hospital where I had received such excellent care, was to be closed because "too few operations" had been performed there since it was leased by the NHS for elective surgery four years before (only 4,500 operations a year as opposed to a planned 12,000).

How can it be that we are bearing the cost of sending NHS patients to France and simultaneously claiming we cannot afford to maintain a facility that, by all accounts, could absorb most of the waiting lists in the UK?

JOHN THOROGOOD

LONDON NW2

Mystery of Brother Roger runs deeper

Sir: I was astonished to read the article "Murdered sect leader 'was secret Catholic' " by John Lichfield (7 September). I have spent a week at Taizé every summer for the past 28 years, as a Roman Catholic priest and more recently as a bishop, and I have never before heard the Taizé community described as a "sect".

It is an ecumenical community of men from different Christian traditions living together in the spirit of reconciliation. The life and worship of the community draws together thousands of young people each week during the summer, and sends them back to be faithful and active in their own churches. That is not a sect.

The article suggested that the mystery of Brother Roger receiving Holy Communion from the then Cardinal Ratzinger had now been solved, because Brother Roger had been an "undeclared Catholic" for 33 years.

This claim was based on an inadequately researched article in Le Monde and on a misunderstanding of the former Bishop of Autun. The mystery of Brother Roger is much deeper than your article suggests. As he put it himself in the presence of Pope John Paul: "I have found my own identity as a Christian by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone."

RT REVD MICHAEL EVANS

BISHOP OF EAST ANGLIA NORWICH

Wrong writer

Sir: An article by Johann Hari in The Independent of 9 August wrongly states that I was "a co-author of sorts" of a play called Wasted by Henry Filloux-Bennett. Nothing in that play was written by me.

IAN BRADY

ASHWORTH HOSPITAL, LIVERPOOL

Time will tell

Sir: Kate Murray ("Playground politics", 2 September) may take comfort from the saying "Revenge is a dish best served cold". In 10 years' time, the husband of the manipulative superior mother trophy wife ("Was your father a general too?") will finally rumble her gold-digging; her smug sidekick ("Is that Jocasta's Armani jacket your daughter's just taken?") will lose her husband to the nanny, and the innocent children ("Where's the rest of your house?") will be binge-drinking or on heroin and on waiting-lists for the most expensive therapist available.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Worker Princess

Sir: Princess Anne does indeed "go her own way", to the extent of fulfilling no fewer than 640 public engagements last year (Joan Bakewell, 8 September). But I have seldom seen her look so happy as when she arrived at Windsor Guildhall for her brother Charles's second wedding. He is the eldest and has two sons; there is no sex discrimination in the immediate royal succession line-up.

JENNIFER MILLER

LONDON SW15

Is Coop for real?

Sir: Even I, a keen classical music fan for nearly 50 years, could have laughed at Cooper Brown's account of his visit to the Proms (7 September), if it had been remotely funny. But I was unable to raise a titter. Coop seems to have set out in his usual crude, heavy-handed way, to insult as many people as possible, the members of the audience, the musicians and the composer. If, that is, he really went to the Albert Hall and didn't invent the entire experience. Is this guy for real?

DEREK HASLAM

COLNE, LANCASHIRE

Munchy Marmite

Sir: Michael K Baldwin (letters, 8 September) is wrong. Having used the outer lettuce leaves to make Marmite, cheddar and lettuce sandwiches, the proper place for Marmite is spread on the lettuce heart (with the knife cleaned by being inserted in the middle of the heart). No finer food is known to humanity.

ANDY LAING

CAMBRIDGE