Will Hutton lumps pensioners together, equating us all with a wealthy elite (“Ending pension lock is a start, but there’s no easy fix to the yawning generation gap”, Comment). We are not all wealthy with the perks Hutton sets out and many are dependent on the state pension, one of the lowest in Europe. Saying pensioners are the beneficiaries of cuts in overseas aid or lack of refunding of students’ fees is tantamount to implying we are less worthy of keeping out of poverty.
Hutton writes that “Britain is stuck with no revenue streams to build a fairer society”, yet fails to mention the billions of pounds that extremely wealthy people have hidden away in tax havens in order to avoid contributing to the community. So who is to blame for the shortfall? It certainly is not us pensioners. Please stop blaming us. We have contributed all our lives and if some of us have a bit more, then we pay tax on it. That is not an excuse to cut the state pension for those who do rely on it.
Carol Terry
London SW18
Awful plight of those with ME
As the parent of a young woman who has suffered with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) for 21 years since the age of eight, I was deeply moved by your article on long Covid in children (“‘Their childhood has been stolen’: calls for action to tackle long Covid”, News).
But while I was relieved that so much attention is being paid to a new chronic and horrific condition, I felt like weeping for my daughter and the thousands like her, who have been ignored, disbelieved and vilified for years, not least by many medical professionals who should have been there to help and support them.
Like long Covid, ME typically follows a viral infection. Even when such an infection is easy to discover (as in the case of the Epstein-Barr virus) and precedes the onset of ME, the lack of a diagnostic test means that the symptoms of sufferers are often misunderstood as psychological, with the result that the need for vital biomedical research into ME has been consistently dismissed by successive governments. It would seem that it always takes a tragedy for action to be taken; perhaps the tragedy of long Covid will bring action for the desperate plight of those with ME.
Kathy Goodchild
St Albans, Hertfordshire
Boris Johnson, fake fan
Andrew Rawnsley reminded us that Boris Johnson, not known as a football fan, donned a “Boris No 10” England shirt to demonstrate his support for the national side at Euro 2020 (“This England team aren’t playing for the Tories’ version of the country”, Comment).
This was a display of shameless opportunism by our cynical and hypocritical prime minister who, in response to the England squad taking the knee in support of anti-racism, said that he believed in action, not gestures. I do hope his idea of action is more substantial than mealy-mouthed words of support while playing the clown dressed in a replica football shirt.
Mike Pender
Cardiff
Public health must come first
While the roadmap is coming to an end, Covid-19 remains a threat to public health. No one wants endless cycles of legal restrictions and lockdowns, but the idea that we should be relaxed about rising cases is wrong and damaging to public health. The vaccination rollout is a huge success and enables us to move closer to the normality we crave. However, millions have yet to receive the full protection of two jabs.
Our members, public health and environmental health professionals, alongside colleagues in local government, social care and the NHS are facing rising pressures and seeing the stark consequences of a third wave: illness, complications, hospitalisations and deaths. The human and economic cost of long Covid is only partially understood.
The government must promote effective public health measures because personal responsibility will not be enough.
First, we must remember that public health is an enabler of recovery. As we look beyond 19 July, we should be guided by a simple reality: there is no health without wealth and no wealth without health. Public health interventions, designed and implemented with businesses, can boost public confidence and create safe environments. Some businesses have already requested customers to continue to wear face coverings.
Second, we know what works in limiting the spread of Covid – washing hands, wearing face coverings in crowded indoor places, socialising outdoors, working from home if possible, opening windows and good ventilation systems, isolating people with the virus and providing financial support. Let’s keep doing it. Finally, a sense of collective spirit is the unsung hero of the pandemic and will continue to be vital. Living with Covid is not the same thing as letting it rip. We should proceed carefully, not recklessly.
Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, president of Association of Directors of Public Health; Christina Marriott, chief executive, Royal Society for Public Health; Professor Maggie Rae, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health; Julie Barratt, president of Chartered Institute of Environmental Health
Legalising drugs saves lives
A spokesman for the Dutch justice ministry said: “People who take a pill or sniff coke at weekends are partly responsible for keeping criminals in business”, but this is less than half the truth (“The top journalist, the mafia boss and the gunman: Dutch fear the rise of ‘narco crime’”, World news). Prohibition keeps criminals in the drugs business as it did in the alcohol business in the US in the 1920s. Under prohibition, competition is conducted by gangs that provide careers to young men willing to take risks and use weapons.
Alcohol is liquid and has a low ratio of potency to volume and therefore needs to be delivered to customers in large vehicles bought and driven by adults. Powders and pills, having a high potency ratio, are very light and can be distributed in small packets by teenagers on bikes or on public transport, which is why the victims of knife crime in the UK are so young.
Although Covid-19 has caused more deaths in the UK in two years than drugs have in the last 50, our new health secretary has suggested our approach to the virus should be based no longer on rules, but on responsibilities, so the question arises: why shouldn’t the same apply to drugs? Why shouldn’t even the hardest drugs be legalised and Boris Johnson’s “free-born Englishmen” be made individually responsible for their use so that children don’t have to go on being stabbed?
Christopher Eddy
Swindon, Wiltshire
Labour’s Brexit blunder
William Keegan is correct in saying that Keir Starmer was right to be a Remainer and that Brexit is a disaster, but wrong to say Starmer was right to call for a second referendum (“The PM is no Machiavelli: his ruthless streak serves only himself”, Business). Once the referendum was agreed, Labour had to abide by its outcome. Had the result gone the other way, would Remainers have agreed a second referendum?
I cannot comprehend why Labour, and other parties didn’t insist on a threshold to be passed for the result to be binding. Labour should have accepted the result and stated categorically that it would negotiate something akin to the EEA deal, protecting jobs, rights at work and free movement. Had that been the case, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the mess we are, led by liars and mediocrities.
Jol Miskin
Sheffield
Greed has no place here
Not all Oxbridge colleges have succumbed to greed (“The real rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge is how low they can go for money”, Comment). At Oxford University, the permanent private halls in general, and my own Regent’s Park College in particular, have never accepted donations from Middle Eastern potentates, Russian oligarchs or those who oppress the poor. We preferred to send our graduates to Africa, the Caribbean and India to preach, teach and heal. We are poor but unsullied and aim to stay that way.
Malcolm Bishop, honorary fellow, Regent’s Park College, Oxford
