Letters: Throughout this ordeal the Princess of Wales has acted with grace and dignity

Low-traffic schemes

SIR – I was pleased to read that the Government has finally moved to make local councils ensure they have the support of residents before implementing low-traffic neighbourhoods (report, March 17).

We are about to have a low-traffic scheme imposed on our already quiet area of Bristol. Rather insultingly, it is referred to by the council as a “liveable neighbourhood” scheme, as though the place where we have chosen to make our home is not perfectly liveable already.

We have just received the results of the “consultation” that was carried out earlier this year. Apparently (and perhaps unsurprisingly), a large majority of the respondents are not in favour of the plan because it will affect our ability to access vital routes in and out of the city.

A councillor told me last week that the council is pushing forward with the scheme on a trial basis because the consultation was designed to let residents raise their concerns and allow the council to answer them. It was “in no way a referendum”.
I think the Government (and our community) may have a battle on its hands.

Simon Armstrong
Bristol

SIR – Am I alone in seeing a disconnect between pervasive traffic restrictions and the desire of the Government to see economic growth? If people can’t get around, they can’t be as productive. It is not simply about ambulances, but also about the economy. 

It may be thought that restrictions just affect the better off – stuck frustratingly in their cars. But it is especially those who are dependent who suffer. The support they need is less available.

Chris Jolly
Chigwell, Essex
 

Support for Ukraine 

SIR – Daniel Johnson is right to warn that Russia jeopardises the peace of Europe (News Focus, March 17). 

Russian aggression in Ukraine is a serious threat to the whole of Europe. Young people did not experience the old Iron Curtain. It was very bad for one half of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, the Baltic and Balkan States. 
Luckily at that time the United States, Britain and France had sufficient forces in Europe for it to be evident to Russia that there would be a full-scale war if it pushed further.

No one predicted the collapse of Soviet Russia. We enjoyed the peace dividend, but Russia is back – the same monster, poking us with a stick.

The first duty of any government is to defend the nation, but our Armed Forces are so depleted that even the Chief of the General Staff has warned that we are at a 1937 moment, which means, based on experience, that thousands will soon be killed and wounded. 

Like Stalin, Vladimir Putin sacrifices his own people without concern for their lives. We do not know why many Russians accept this state of affairs, but they do. The Ukrainians do not. Ukraine wishes to be an open, liberal democracy like ours.

Our concern now is our safety. Voters should ask candidates at the upcoming election whether he or she will support a massive increase in our defences to meet the new threat. We must give Ukraine the materiel to sustain its war effort and win on our behalf. If it works, it will be money well spent. If it fails, we will be at war – but we will have at least tried to secure ourselves.

Sir James Pickthorn Bt
London SW6
 

Covid consensus 

SIR – While I support Matt Ridley’s plea for a “faster and cheaper” Covid inquiry (“The six lockdown questions we need answers to”, Comment, March 17), there is one vital question that needs to be added to his list. 

Why did the scientific community abandon its core guiding principles of integrity of knowledge, openness and respect of challenge? “Cancelling” those scientists who, with sound scientific evidence, dared to challenge the consensus, is one of the abiding shames of our Covid response – one that must never be repeated.

Dr David Slawson
Nairn

SIR – Matt Ridley asserts that the Covid Inquiry is “assuming it knows what went wrong – that we locked down too late”. Yet Baroness Hallett, the chair of the inquiry, has stated repeatedly that she is yet to reach any conclusions and is not acting on any assumptions. She will consider all the material that has been provided, including both oral and written evidence.

Mr Ridley outlines where he feels the inquiry is giving insufficient attention. However, most of the areas he highlights have either already been covered during our investigations or are set to be covered in future investigations.

Baroness Hallett does not intend for this inquiry to run and run. Nonetheless, the public deserves a serious, thorough and comprehensive examination of the UK’s planning for and response to the pandemic. 

The inquiry will produce timely and detailed recommendations as we progress. The first report will be published this summer, with public hearings set to conclude in 2026.

Ben Connah
Secretary, UK Covid-19 Inquiry
London W2
 

Facing up to Church links with the slave trade 

SIR – Having been a volunteer for the Church of England for more than 50 years, and also worked for it professionally, I am pleased to see it leading the way in acknowledging that it has benefited financially from its involvement in the slave trade – and acting to correct the situation (Comment, March 10). 

Whether or not one believes that what it is proposing to do is the best form of reparation, people must remember that Christians led the way in seeking to abolish slavery in this country, even while Members of Parliament repeatedly resisted the passing of a law to do so, preferring to maintain the benefits many of them enjoyed. 

Perhaps some of the many individuals, families and organisations that have profited from their ancestors’ involvement in slavery should consider what amount of recompense they too should offer, and suggest ways in which such funds should be spent to benefit society as a whole.

Jonathan Longstaff
Buxted, East Sussex
 

Racehorse cruelty

SIR – The news that two racehorses died on the very first day at Cheltenham was no surprise (report, March 12).

Racehorses are bred as investments and begin “training” at 18 months and racing at two years old, even though they do not reach musculoskeletal maturity until around age six. Some are kept isolated in stalls for up to 23 hours a day, deprived of social interaction.

There is nothing noble in forcing horses, through violent whipping while perched on their back, to run at perilous speeds around a track and in dangerous proximity to one another. They suffer horrific fractures, head-on collisions, pulmonary haemorrhages and myriad other dreadful injuries that lead to the same outcome – their untimely deaths at the hands of humans.

Mark Richards
Brighton, East Sussex
 

Phones and fakes 

SIR – At the cinema recently with my family, I was amused by the following sequence of events. 

A well-known mobile phone brand sought to entice customers with the ability to manipulate images and produce entirely fake results, much to the enjoyment and gratitude of its users. 

This was followed immediately by an advertisement for a brand-new audiobook reading of Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which Winston Smith bemoans the fact that the autocrat can alter history and promote lies with doctored images and news.

John Paget-Tomlinson
Headmaster, Leweston School
Sherborne, Dorset

SIR – It is strange that we now seem to have a reverse Dorian Gray effect: the portrait stays young while the person ages. 

I wonder what Oscar Wilde would make of it.

Nigel Burn-Murdoch
Hurst, Berkshire 
 

Outlandish opera

SIR – We recently went to see Manon Lescaut. The curtains opened to reveal a man slowly pouring five litres of water over the head of a fully clothed woman. Eight tall water dispensers lined the back of the stage. The chorus, dressed in a motley array of costumes, came in and frolicked and cavorted in ways that a primary school class would have found entertaining. 

Manon was tightly bound, like a mummy, in what looked to me like white elastoplast. Des Grieux entered not in a coach but on a dolphin. A very tall figure dressed in a pink trouser suit and a parasol-sized hat eventually sang in a fine baritone voice. 

We left at the interval, as I’m sure Clive Ashwin (“Opera’s decline”, Letters, March 17) would have done. We could not imagine what anyone new to opera would have made of this, and whether they would want to try it again. 

How can English Touring Opera expect to continue to receive public money?

J T Campbell
Beccles, Suffolk 
 

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