Letters: we can still unite in forgiveness and tolerance

As Jess Phillips’s still much mourned parliamentary colleague Jo Cox once asserted, there is very often far more that unites us rather than divides us.

How right Phillips was to effect a meeting with the citizen who had attacked her office when she might have been forgiven for never having wished to see or hear of him ever again (“Fighting for progress from within the party is the only way to do it”, Focus). To give up on him or anyone is to give up just a little more on essential efforts at inclusiveness and mutual understanding.

A sharing of common human experience and respect for often uncomfortable differences are signs of strength and resilience in our, at present, far too divided communities. To exchange contrasting and even conflicting visions of how life should be lived is the hallmark of any mature society. A constant striving for inclusivity and tolerance is a crucial building block.
Malcolm Fowler
Kings Heath
Birmingham

Corbyn’s credentials

Rachel Botsman writes about trust in politics and cites the “letter of last resort” that the prime minister has to write to the Trident nuclear submarine commander (“Trust is a rare commodity in today’s politics. How can we rediscover it?”, Comment).

The human race faces two existential threats: nuclear annihilation and climate crisis. The only sane response to the former is the abolition of all nuclear weapons, starting with Trident, which create insecurity for everyone. Then the question of the “letter” would never arise.

This is one issue where I would unequivocally trust Jeremy Corbyn, who has rightly said that he would never “press the button”.
Frank Jackson
Former co-chair, World Disarmament Campaign
Harlow, Essex

Cut the wait and pain

Despite being enshrined in legislation, the right for patients to receive treatment within 18 weeks has increasingly been forgotten. The target of 92% of patients receiving appropriate treatment within 18 weeks of referral was last met nearly four years ago, in February 2016.

Recent figures show that only 84.8% of patients were seen within 18 weeks, a position that is likely to worsen over the winter. Up to 90,000 people also waited more than 18 weeks for trauma and orthopaedic surgery. The waiting-time targets for this speciality were last met five years ago.

The 18-week standard is vital for people waiting for many types of elective surgery, including those waiting in pain for hip, knee and other joint replacements. In those months of waiting, people’s physical condition can deteriorate, they can become depressed, suffer pain or struggle to stay in work. The impact on both them and their families can be devastating.

As we approach the general election, we are calling on all political parties to commit to an 18-week maximum waiting time in their election manifestos and in the next parliament.
Liam O’Toole
CEO of Versus Arthritis
Professor Derek Alderson
President, Royal College of Surgeons of England

Nature must be nurtured

In answer to Robin McKie’s question: “Climategate 10 years on: what have we learned?”, (Focus), first, that environmentalists have treated the ecosystem for too long as almost independent of the dominant economic system, one based on deregulated, globalised finance.

Second, that there will be no chance of protecting Earth’s life-support systems unless we at the same time escape from the hold that those running the globalised financial system have over all our lives. We have a capitalist system that ignores the most vital capital of all: that provided by nature, which is being exploited parasitically and used up at a reckless rate.
David Murray
Wallington, Surrey

Osborne’s toxic legacy

Your editorial was too lenient on George Osborne (“Celebrate the end of austerity. But the new cash must be spent wisely”). Admittedly, he did have “important support” from the International Monetary Fund and the OECD when he declared in 2010 that austerity measures were “the only way to bring the deficit under control”, but by January 2013 things had changed significantly.

It was then that the IMF’s chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, told the then chancellor of the need for a “reassessment of fiscal policy”, less than two months before the March budget. His recent work on fiscal multipliers had shown him the devastating effects tax and spending cuts were having on the wider economy, but did the arrogant Osborne take any notice?

What we saw was the growth forecast for 2013 halved, and debt as a share of GDP increase from 75.9% to 85.6%, while government department budgets were cut by 1% in each of the following two years, £11.5bn further cuts were earmarked for 2015-16, corporation tax cut to 20%, and the 1% cap on public sector pay extended for another two years.

Osborne ignored expert advice and continued with his callous austerity policies, so that now billions have to be spent to “repair pretty much all of the fraying fabric of public services, infrastructure, amenities and welfare provision”. Most certainly, history will not forgive Osborne. December’s voters should not forget, either, which parties and politicians supported Osborne in his duplicitous scheme.
Bernie Evans
Liverpool

Plane truth about Midway

In her understandably humorous review of the film Midway, Wendy Ide says: “The US is on the back foot after Pearl Harbor. The Japanese are better equipped; the American fighter jets are creaky crates…”

Although the film is a dramatised portrayal of historical events, it is an indisputable fact that the Americans did not have “fighter jets” at Midway.

No US design was ready in time for deployment in any theatre before the end of the Second World War. If the US had been able to benefit from the deployment of reliable jet aircraft early on in the Pacific theatre of war they would almost certainly have brought Japan to its knees very rapidly and the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would probably have been averted.
Paul F Faupel
Somersham
Cambridgeshire

Less meat, more veg

It is great to see new advances in producing animal-free meat (“How do you like your beef – old-style cow or 3D-printed?”, News).

It’s time for meat without compromise, meat that does not exacerbate climate change or undermine the effectiveness of our antibiotics. Hunger is increasing across the globe, in part because of the climate crisis. Despite recent advances, we still have a long way to go to shift all meat production to plant-based and cultivated steaks, sausages and fillets.

Given all that is at stake, governments should back research and development for plant-based and cultivated meat. By making better meat production a priority, publicly funded research will not only improve and protect public health but also increase food security and self-sufficiency, issues especially important for the UK.
Jessica Almy
The Good Food Institute
Washington DC