Letters: Wealth provokes anger

Fabulous wealth provokes anger of the have-nots

Thursday 02 April 2009 19:00 EDT
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I have also noticed the steady growth in anger and violence in British society these past 30 years and, like many, wondered what its causes might be. The connection between national anger and the way in which members of Parliament have embraced the money culture may be tenuous but it is real.

The disparity between poverty and wealth has never been greater. From down here on ordinary wages, the incomes of politicians and senior policemen and senior civil servants look fabulous. The gap is widening; when I began teaching in the late 1960s, an ordinary polytechnic lecturer earned about 40 per cent of the salary of his principal. I understand the ratio has now widened to about eight to one. That has been happening everywhere in the public sector.

The wealthy, in both private and public sector, are brazen in flaunting their riches to a population 50 per cent of whose workers earn less in a year than a Premier League footballer gets in a day. Why should MPs, a group not usually known for high intellect or moral independence, not also be of the same mindset?

It is not likely that the urban thug or the road rager or the foul-mouthed ladette knows why they are angry, but perhaps in a society where the message that only money matters is publicly rammed down the throat of the have-nots, should we be surprised that they are?

Professor Chris Payne

American University in Bulgaria, Lagoevgrad

Staged clashes muffle G20 protest

I saw the violence at the G20 demos in London and was especially shocked by one thing: if you take a look at the footage of the smashing of the windows at RBS, you will see that the window-smashers are surrounded by a perfect circle of professional cameramen, all with zoom lenses and expensive equipment. This indicates to me that the smashing of those windows was "for the benefit of the press" and was maybe even encouraged by the media.

Yes, I know that there were some anarchists in the crowd who were looking for violence, but when the media portrays demonstrations as potentially violent (in the lead-up) and then goes on to initiate that violence, I am extremely disappointed.

The demonstrations around the G20 summit have legitimate issues and I am equally disgusted by the anarchists and by the press who deter normal people from attending these rallies. Without the participation of a broader cross-section of society it is impossible to judge the real depth of feeling.

Alan Searle

Cologne, Germany

The coverage of the G20 protests by the major newspapers and broadcasters has been blatantly one-sided. There is no balance and no analysis.

The criminalisation of political dissent is increasingly commonplace and it seems that corporate media outlets feel that it is in their best interest to play ball. The G20 protests were ugly in every way: the few protesters who instigated the violence, the police tactics which exacerbated it and the media who over-hyped, indirectly encouraged and misreported it.

Tom Cunliffe

Oxford

Let us stand up for and celebrate our heroes demonstrating in London, all of them. Enough of the accusation that the protest was hijacked into violence. What has happened that is so terrible? Did they ruin the world's economy as a result of their greed? Or perhaps flatten a nation while searching for illusory WMDs?

Vested interests are keen to portray popular threats to their power as comprising lawless agitators. It is time we saw the world aright and did something about the powerful law-abiding real troublemakers: the financiers, the corporations, and our supine governments. Bravo to those taking a stand on the streets!

Howard Pilott

London N14

David Usborne's account of President Obama's visit to Buckingham Palace included comments about Prince Philip's "gaffe" (2 April). Yet when I read what this gaffe was – asking whether the President could tell the difference between the Russian President, Gordon Bown and David Cameron – I have to say, I really don't see how that is a gaffe. Isn't it just one man voicing the question that millions of us would like answered?

Martin Milton

London SW14

A banking system the world envies

The finger-pointing at the Cayman Islands led by Messrs Brown and Sarkozy, Ms Merkel and now the Pope has no more intellectual integrity than a Monty Python sketch. "If it floats it's a witch; burn it" appears to be the extent of their comprehension.

It is easy to understand why the robust Cayman Islands banking system may well be the envy of the G20 nations, but perhaps there are lessons to be learnt here. Mr Madoff could not have conducted business under Cayman fund regulation and nor could Cayman banks lend at 20:1 ratios to hedge funds or at all to impecunious mortgagers.

Nor is much made by them of the blindingly obvious distinction between the Cayman Islands and its complete tax transparency with the US and Europe under the OECD and the EUSD initiatives on the one hand, and on the other those jurisdictions that are the focus of the present furore, Switzerland, Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein, as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, which chose to retain complete opacity.

The ill-informed ramblings of certain private-interest groups about offshore bank secrecy need proper scrutiny lest anyone actually believe them and adopt them as a basis for policy; the numbers on offshore bank accounts of European residents in Cayman are all publicly available.

Anthony Travers

Chairman, Cayman Islands Financial Services Association, Grand Cayman

Wonder cure defies science

Your article concerning the simplicity of the polypill (31 March) shows lack of understanding of the science behind producing a pharmaceutical product. I have experience in the formulation of all the active ingredients present in the polypill and can assure you that in pharmaceutical terms these materials are incompatible.

Several of them react with each other causing them to degrade, potentially to toxic materials and certainly reducing their potency. Ramipril will decompose at a tremendous rate and the described product will simply not comply with the health authorities' demand for stable and safe products.

I would challenge the proponents of this wonder cure to submit their data, as required by European law, to any competent reviewer. I do not disagree with the statements made that lack of patentability will drive away the major companies from investing, but, sorry, that is not the only reason. This polypill is simply defying the laws of chemistry.

Dr Malcolm Ross

Basel, Switzerland

Art that the public actually likes

Janet Street-Porter launches a tirade against public art (1 April). While I am against the gigantic sculptures which are supposed to add another dimension to landscapes, I feel her scorn for sculptures such as Eric Morecambe is misplaced.

I pass the statue in Morecambe at least once a week and there is always a knot of people gathered round it, some even touching it. I think the laughter surrounding him touched many of our lives. This kind of public art at least achieves its purpose of being approachable and loved by the general public, unlike the effigies of the worthies who decorate many of our town centres and who the public neither know not care about.

Pete Parkins

Lancaster

NHS priority for the troops

I disagree with your campaign that servicemen and women should get priority for health care. I wouldn't want my nephew who's in Afghanistan to have priority over my 83-year-old mother-in-law. And he wouldn't either. Health care should be provided on medical need and not on the basis of occupation.

If there are major psychological problems in these soldiers they should be treated in medical facilities provided by the Ministry of Defence. How would you balance the needs of a young, depressed mother with children against a soldier? This is not a conscript army: people join as a career.

This plan is divisive and unworkable and why is the Defence minister only now wanting to "make it happen". Perhaps there's an election coming. The best reward for these soldiers and their families is for politicians not to send them to war in the future.

Janet Salmon

Richmond, Surrey

As an Army veteran, I fail to share your apparent joy at the privilege pass that I will apparently receive next year. I'm happy to take my place in the queue with everyone else, but those currently serving should have the benefit of the now-abandoned British military hospitals.

The BMHs were staffed with service personnel, trained in the specialist skills for the unusual injuries that conflicts throw up. The skills were passed down in those hospitals without the need for priorities or privilege, just the right people in the right place.

It all seems obvious; we can't run the health service with various people afforded differing priorities because of their personal histories and run the risk of excluding other worthies such as the emergency services.

D B V Thomas

Usk, Gwent

Oranges are not only Arabic

Philip Hensher's informant got it wrong (30 March). The Arabic etymology for "orange" has given English both the fruit and the colour, which are obviously associated. The Latin etymology is from the town of Arausio, now Orange, north of Avignon, where the powerful Dutch Orange-Nassau family had estates.

When William of Orange came to the throne, his Protestant admirers in Ireland exploited the dual etymology and made orange their distinctive colour. As for being of use, I would have thought that the ongoing symbolism of Orange and Green in parts of our kingdom made it more than just interesting to know how it originated.

Nicolas Hawkes

Ilkley, West Yorkshire

Briefly...

Scottish water

Della Petch (letter, 1 April) should get her facts right before screaming for England. Water and waste water charges add about a third to my council tax in Glasgow, and while the Scottish Government has encouraged councils not to increase their own tax charges, Scottish Water's charges have increased steadily year by year.

Norman Horne

Glasgow

Apprentice egoists

Why do people such as Mark Steel point to the BBC's The Apprentice in their criticisms of British business and workers (Opinion, 2 April)? It's television. It has the usual reality show mix – pretence and artifice, a chosen-for-conflict group of contestants, engineered dramas and (I strongly suspect) a great deal of editing. Now in the fifth series, it's clear that the show goes out of its way to find egotistic fools. It's good fun to watch and not something to be concerned about.

Emilie Lamplough

Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Cost of a visa

Further to Dr Culik's letter (20 March), last year I wanted to invite my daughter's Gabonese friend to England from Belgium. I was shocked, although not surprised, to find that the visa service of the British embassy in Brussels appears to be outsourced to an American organisation that charges $13 for a local call. This seems especially obnoxious in the light of the grandstanding and money-wasting by our political leaders during the G20 show.

Paul Kellerd

Milton Keynes

Breeding disaster

At last, blame for the destruction of the planet is being firmly placed on the fecund heterosexuals of the world (Science notebook, 10 March, Big Question, 20 March). Why then does the Christian church continue to spew out homophobic rhetoric? We do not expect a change of tune from the Vatican, but the silence from Canterbury and York is deafening. The most homophobic prelates of the Anglican church are the bishops of West Africa and the West Indies, whose low-lying dioceses will be the first to be submerged under the rising sea.

Hugh Jenkins

London WC1

Suspected bombers

In attempting to justify civilian deaths in Gaza, Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation reminds us that civilians may be suicide bombers (letter, 23 March). Is it his position that Britain and America should adopt a similar precautionary principle to the civilian populations of Afghanistan and Iraq? Or Luton and Bradford?

Steve Hill

Barford St Michael, Oxfordshire

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