Advertisement

Letters: The European Super League challenge to Uefa is not going to go away

Fans protest against Chelsea's involvement in the new European Super League outside Stamford Bridge, London - Ian West/PA Wire
Fans protest against Chelsea's involvement in the new European Super League outside Stamford Bridge, London - Ian West/PA Wire

SIR – Jason Burt (Sport, April 19) suggests that some football clubs are motivated by greed and self interest. Maybe. The enormous sums generated from games are controlled by a less than perfect organisation – Uefa.

This American-inspired Super League proposal seeks to make Uefa redundant – may be no bad thing. However, to use the American notion of no relegation will not find approval with European football fans.

This idea won’t go away and a compromise needs to be found. In the meantime, the proposal should be of no concern to politicians, who have more than enough to do.

Peter Kleeman
Newbury, Berkshire

SIR – Once again, Boris Johnson has forsaken his libertarian ideology to meddle in a free-market arrangement.

Simon Bird
Penn, Buckinghamshire

SIR – When leading Rugby Union clubs in England attempted to create a league with no relegation, I don’t recall threats of government intervention.

Should the Government also intervene to stop the cricket Hundred, which will destroy red-ball cricket as we know it?

J G Hopkinson
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

SIR – The current outcry is similar to that in 1977 when World Series cricket was started by Kerry Packer.

Kevin Lees
Alton, Hampshire

SIR – How short are the memories of such clubs as the now great Manchester City. Only in 1998 they were playing the likes of Macclesfield Town in Division Two. Now they would stop any other club from reaching their current heights.

Clare Morgan
Alderley Edge, Cheshire

SIR – Any principled player (and, yes, there are many) of affected clubs should demand a transfer – I’m sure a good lawyer could argue that the clubs are in breach of contract with their players.

Coupled with expulsion from the Premier League, this would have the effect of leaving the super-clubs without their best players, and how would the clubs survive then in this crazy new league?

Tony Haworth
Porthcawl, Glamorgan

SIR – I have just turned on the BBC World News to be presented with 20 minutes of talking heads going on about football. Have we taken leave of our senses? It is quite simply not that important.

David J Hartshorn
Badby, Northamptonshire

SIR – It’s a funny old world – we seem more concerned about the loss of football clubs from the Premier League than we do about the loss of our civil liberty.

Alan Rogers
Epsom, Surrey

Medicine shortages

SIR – Northern Ireland could face shortages in medicine supply because of the Brexit deal. The current temporary grace period for their supply in the region is a sticking-plaster solution, and medicines manufacturers cannot wait until the end of the year for further clarity.

Generic medicines represent four out of five drugs used by the NHS, including Northern Ireland. The manufacturers operate on simplicity, efficiency, high volumes and low margins.

Nearly all Northern Ireland’s medicines are provided by UK manufacturers. If companies have to duplicate regulatory licences, inspections, storage, quality testing and laboratory space, this complexity will make supply unfeasible. Medicine shortages will increase.

Without political agreement between the UK Government and the EU on mutual recognition for medicines, Northern Ireland risks losing the wide range that is provided to Britain. For the sake of patients, we must avoid this.

Mark Samuels
Chief Executive, British Generic Manufacturers Association
London EC2

Demand for housing

SIR – Does anyone in government understand the most basic principle of economics – supply and demand?

If the Government creates additional schemes to increase the budget of first-time buyers (report, April 19) looking to purchase their own home (and chasing the same finite supply), all that will happen is that house prices will increase further.

The only way to solve the housing crisis and enable more people to own their own homes is to increase supply and build more houses.

Andy Tuke
Pensford, Somerset

To boldly split

SIR – Suzanne Kirk (Letters, April 20) says that it is poor practice to split an infinitive.

H W Fowler, in his standard work Modern English Usage (1926), spends two and a half pages discussing the “tyranny” of the principle and concludes that, for clarity, it is far better to split an infinitive than to reduce a sentence to absurd clumsiness in the headlong clamour to avoid its use at all costs.

Alan G Barstow
Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

Unhelpful banks

SIR – Rather like the gentleman thwarted by age-sensitive technology in his quest for a pint of beer (Letters, April 14), I have encountered a problem in applying for a bank account for a new business. Metrobank requires a photograph of me and either my passport or a photo driving licence.

Attempts by the bank’s system to photograph my passport failed, but then to produce a clear photograph from a grainy passport covered with a layer of film is a tall order. Metrobank’s alternative was not available because I am of an age where I have only ever had the wonderful old driving licence on a piece of pale green paper, which carries no photograph.

My company is now in the queue for an account at Barclays.

Brian Symonds
Worcester

SIR – Banking used to be regarded as a service industry. No longer. Yesterday I went to NatWest to open a joint account, having banked with them since 1964.

“Online only,” said the greeter. I had two cheques to pay in. “Please use the machine over there,” said the cashier, who had no other customers.

I suppose that if the in-branch experience is made sufficiently unpleasant fewer people will go and the branch can be closed through lack of footfall.

Christopher Watkins
Brentwood, Essex

Vaccine passport flaw

SIR – I received my first Oxford-AstraZeneca jab on February 4. I am still awaiting my second.

On April 11 I had a test for antibodies as part of a research project with UK Biobank. It was negative.

What is the point of a Covid passport without an antibody test? I am still allowed to go anywhere that requires proof of vaccination, even though I have no protection from the virus.

Win Dewsbury
Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Pub lectures

SIR – Poor old Sir Keir Starmer only wanted a chat, but ended up telling the landlord of The Raven in Bath that he didn’t “need lectures from you” (report, April 20). But is that not what politicians must expect from us, the voters (tedious though it may be), when they go walkabout to press the flesh?

Like Boris Johnson or loathe him, I’m sure he would have ended up having a pint with the Labour-voting publican.

J S F Cash
Swinford, Leicestershire

National Trust votes

SIR – Further to Walter Walker’s letter (April 17), we at Restore Trust welcome the support of anyone who cares about the National Trust, whether or not they are current members.

However, only National Trust members have the power to bring about change by using their vote at its annual general meeting.

Jack Hayward
Restore Trust
Bristol

Garlic smell? Not me

SIR – If you consume garlic on a daily basis, you do not smell of it (report, April 19). I speak from experience, as garlic is part of my daily diet; your metabolism learns to assimilate the alliin.

David Sisson
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

The masterclass in piping at the Duke’s funeral

Flodden Field by Edward Burne-Jones, 1882, with King James IV mortally wounded - bridgeman images
Flodden Field by Edward Burne-Jones, 1882, with King James IV mortally wounded - bridgeman images

SIR – The lament played by the solo piper at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral (report, April 18) was Flowers of the Forest, an almost sacred pipe tune, written to commemorate the fallen at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

The Pipe Major last Saturday, Colour Sergeant Peter Grant, gave us a masterclass in ceremonial piping. His instrument was meticulously tuned, the drones and the chanter were in perfect harmony.

He shortened the tune slightly to match the exact number of steps he took to slow march out of the church, and, of course, played exquisitely. It was sublime.

Tony Craig
Mold, Flintshire

Hospital care for chronic conditions neglected

SIR – The backlog of people waiting for NHS treatment (Leading article, April 16) tells only part of the problem. For some time, bed numbers have been reduced and people are being treated in overcrowded Accident and Emergency departments rather than being admitted to hospital.

The regular surveillance of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart failure, appears to have gone by the board, yet we have no means of finding out what is going on in our hospitals.

Perhaps your efforts to highlight these problems will have some effect.

Dr Nigel Legg
Bracon Ash, Norfolk

SIR – Is it not time that GPs returned to their normal service as family doctors?

I recently tripped, fell and hit my head. Next day I had visual disturbance, so rang my GP, who told me to go to A&E. There, after shielding for the past year, I would risk contracting Covid-19, which I might then pass on to my family bubble.

A simple GP appointment could have assessed whether such a visit was really essential.

Caroline Jane Monro
Lockerley, Hampshire

SIR – Like Dr Alistair Brookes (Letters, April 15), my wife and I have had problems getting our ears syringed by a GP. Reasons given have included: “It is not a service the NHS pays for, or which GPs are required to provide,” to, “The new equipment risks damage to the ear drum”. Yet you can pay to have it done privately in a non-medical location. Does that add up?

Blocked ear drums cause distress and discomfort, which is surely a reason for the NHS to fund the service. Latterly it was done by practice nurses, not doctors, but any risk is surely better managed in a surgery. The NHS needs to publish clear guidelines so that the public – who, after all, pay for its services – are given facts not excuses.

Barry Bright
Storrington, West Sussex

Letters to the Editor

We accept letters by post, fax and email only. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers.

ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT

FAX: 020 7931 2878

EMAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk

FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk