Instantly we are swept from a tableful of podgy men discussing the Maastricht criteria to a livid vision of Panzer tanks crashing through the walls of burning villages. Its interest comes from the sudden screams of anger, such as the warnings of British Euro-sceptics about the death of the UK, or Chancellor Kohl’s wild threat that the issue is one of peace or war. Its boringness derives from its daily discourse; all that stolid droning about harmonisation and cohesion funding. There is probably no boring subject which is more interesting than the European Union. And, heaven help us, we may have to endure it for months yet.Yours faithfully,Geoffrey ChandlerLondon, SE1030 January. The relative failure of the British economy means that we have little margin for error and cannot afford the self-indulgence of politicians who prefer the false certainties of dogma to reasoned analysis and debate.This is simply a cry of outrage, which must be shared by countless numbers. There are no ready answers to the conundrums they pose in a world of different expectations and possibilities today.
At best the winner will form a government with a minority of the popular vote, spurning or caricaturing any move to find consensus.And yet the issues at stake – health, education, crime – are immensely complex. From Sir Geoffrey Chandler
Sir: Never has the need for a new electoral system been more vividly portrayed than in the shoddy debasement of argument for party advantage that we are seeing on issues fundamental to the happiness of people in this country.
Not only is reason thrown out of the window, but the interests of the young, the sick and the victims of crime are sacrificed to short-term political advantage as the dreary blast and counter-blast of premature electoral battle contend for news time or column inches. The youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature was Rudyard Kipling. He received it in 1907, aged 42.
Yours sincerely,Liam DunneLondon, SW18.
From Mr Liam Dunne
Sir: Geoffrey Brogan (letter, 3 February) is incorrect. We should not rush into any further mistakes.Yours sincerely,Josephine QuintavilleCo-FounderComment on Reproductive EthicsLondon, SW32 February. All we are asking for at this stage is to hold an extended and open debate with access to as much research and opinion as possible.The “orphaning” to date of 3,000 frozen embryos is fruit of the present system. There are very serious scientific, legal and moral questions that need to be asked about embryo freezing Technology rushes ahead but the thinking has yet to be done. To quote Oscar Wilde: “To lose both [parents] looks like carelessness”.
It is this carelessness that Core (Comment on Reproductive Ethics) would like to address. While the tone of her article was certainly agitated, perhaps a little more emotional focus on the fact that these embryos have been abandoned by their parents might have been expected.
From Ms Josephine Quintaville
Sir: We welcome Polly Toynbee’s comments regarding unclaimed frozen embryos (“Who’ll bear an unwanted foetus?”, 2 February), as we are trying to encourage debate at all levels. Leavis, she was “fearless, unashamed of passionate feeling, and while needing to serve, still determined to have her rights acknowledged”. Hardly the characteristics of a mousy woman.Yours sincerely,Geraldine BurkeMarsh Baldon,Oxfordshire5 February. From Mrs Geraldine Burke
Sir: Whatever gave Marianne Macdonald the impression that Jane Eyre was a “mousy governess” (“Brontes next to scale heights of television”, 5 February)?
In the words of Q D. Cook might have visited it, but that’s about all .The Melbourne authorities fell for a good Yorkshire bit of salesmanship.Yours truly,John TindaleWhitby,North Yorkshire25 January.
