Hunting for jobs

lABoUR’S mary Creagh believes that ‘people are worried about their incomes falling, rising prices and losing their jobs, not bringing back hunting’ (mail).

What she fails to say is that if the previous labour government hadn’t wasted 700 hours of parliamentary time on the best way to cull countryside vermin or — as has been admitted by former labour mPs — ‘toff-bashing’ and had spent more time on the economy, our country wouldn’t be facing financial disaster.

DANNY KEANEY, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks. FRAnCeS gRIFFIn ( letters) appears to be as lacking in perception as the hunting fraternity. The RSPCA prosecutes not because humane killing of foxes is cruel but because terrorising them with dogs for hours beforehand surely is.

Civilised people do not deliberately terrify animals before killing them. Can the hunters really not see this, or are they too selfish to care? The RSPCA would be failing in its duty if it didn’t try to stop it.

Mrs BERYL SANDERS,

Scunthorpe, Lincs.

Playing with our money

In 2007, my son and I took out a joint interest-only mortgage with Abbey on the standard variable rate of 4.24 per cent on a property occupied by my son. This was maintained by Santander when it took over the Abbey business.

In october 2012, we were told by Santander that the rate was being increased to 4.74pc, which means my son having to find an additional £81.42 a month from his teacher’s salary. We were given no explanation as to why this increase was necessary, and it is likely to cause hardship to many customers and might even lead to their homes being repossessed.

given that the Bank of england base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent since march 2009, I wrote to the chief executive for an explanation. And as we’ve recently read that Britain’s top bosses have awarded themselves 10 per cent pay rises (mail), under the Freedom of Information Act, I also asked for details of his pay.

The response from a nellie Pledge in Santander’s complaints team said the rate was being increased because the economic situation meant the cost of raising the money it lent to customers had increased in recent years. She said she wasn’t obliged to supply her boss’s remuneration details.

But I’ve also read that the Bank of england’s funding-to-lending scheme, launched in July to boost lending to households and businesses, is starting to work. Banks have borrowed £4.4 billion of cheap money and can borrow an unlimited amount for as little as 0.25 per cent if they maintain or increase their lending.

Santander also has access to this cheap money, so why does it find it necessary to heap more misery on its mortgage customers?

A clue might lie in the fact that Banco Santander is to absorb Spanish banks Banesto and Banif and will close 700 of its 1,698 branches in Spain. As it has access to cheap money in the Uk, what’s the ‘real’ necessity in raising its interest rate, particularly for previous Abbey customers who were lent money before the subsequent calamity the banks brought on themselves in 2008? This is just sucking money out of the economy.

A. P. HOPKINS, High Wycombe, Bucks.

You get what you pay for

HAvIng worked in the wine and spirit trade since 1960 (and my father and grandfather before me), I can offer some clues as to how the supermarkets can sell champagne at this time of year for £9.99 a bottle (mail).

At my monthly wine club meeting, I arranged a tasting of eight different supermarket champagnes at prices ranging from £9.99 to £15. All were produced by blending the three famous grape varieties — white chardonnay and red pinot noir and pinot meunier.

I noticed that the cork of the first bottle I opened was made of composition cork — a type normally found in sparkling wines. of the eight champagnes, two had composition corks, representing a considerable cost saving over the traditional cork.

only two of the supermarket champagnes we tasted had a traditional biscuity bouquet. none had a long-lasting mousse, and there was virtually no length of taste after swallowing. We found all of these wines very acidic: drink too much and you’ll suffer with bile and have a pain in your chest, characteristics found only in poorer quality champagne.

Champagne producers have been trying to reduce costs for almost as long as champagne has been produced. Traditionally, the grapes were hand-picked: modern mechanical harvesting must be quite a saving.

The grapes are put into presses and the juice that comes off first, known as ‘ free run’, is used for the top marques. As you continue pressing, every part of the grape is compressed, adding to the acidity. years ago, the end juices were sold off for industrial alcohol. Is some of it now being made into champagne?

The juice is transferred to stainless steel vessels for first fermentation, after which most champagnes undergo malolactic fermentation. The wine is now ready for bottling, along with a mixture of wine, sugar and yeast ( tirage) to produce the second fermentation, which takes place in the bottle in the cellars.

Second fermentation produces a sediment that must be removed. This is where the cellarmen ( remueurs) use their skills to twist and tilt each bottle to get the sediment to the neck. This is very labour intensive and usually takes up to six weeks.

The wine industry has developed machines to riddle 504 bottles at a time. Has this method been adopted for champagne? All these could be some of the reasons why some champagne can be produced much cheaper than the grande marques.

GEOFF COLLINS, Hilperton, Wilts.

Prioritise the elderly

I’m THe 83-year- old wife of a 92year- old husband who is living in a care home suffering from vascular dementia, heart, lung and prostate problems, as well as a badly ulcerated heel and arthritis in his hands, which make it difficult for him to feed himself.

I feel great resentment when I read of the vast sums of money sent abroad to countries that don’t need it, of the large firms and rich people

who avoid paying their taxes, and of mps who steal from the taxpayer. my husband served in North africa, Italy and Greece during the war.

I cared for him on my own for the past seven years as we had no children. In October, I reluctantly arranged for him to go into a care home as I could no longer cope.

We haven’t had a holiday for 20 years because we saved for our old age, and the only benefit we receive is the attendance allowance, which is a great help towards the £450 a week I pay the care home.

Now I read of a 20-year- old mother who can afford to spend £2,000 on gifts despite never having worked. she gets £15,500 a year in benefits.

If only this government had the decency to arrange free care homes for all who fought in the last war now in their 80s and 90s and not in good health. Not much to ask for, is it?

Name and address supplied.

Uncaring profession

Last sunday morning, my son suffered an asthma-type attack. It was distressing, but I didn’t

There to serve

Trend-setting Kate

think an ambulance was needed, so I called our Gp surgery. all I got was a recorded message to call the Nhs helpline.

so, in the early hours of the morning, I had to get drive our son to a&e in pouring rain. there we waited for an hour until we were seen. Whatever happened to weekend services and home visits? Why was a Gp not available to visit us at home? JENETTE GOODCHILD,

Bexhill, Sussex. Why are policemen now referred to as ‘ serving’ police officers? I was never called a ‘serving’ salesman, and postmen aren’t called ‘serving’ postmen.

policemen are paid for what they do. they aren’t waiters, relying on tips.

DAVID EDWARDS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds. WatchING the christmas screening of Downton abbey, I was delighted to see Lady mary so elegantly dressed for her pregnancy. the trend for mothers-to- be to insist on stretching Lycra across the bump is appalling.

this is a marvellous opportunity for the Duchess of cambridge, always the epitome of good dress sense and elegance, to enrol the genius of the top designers at her disposal and change this crass trend.

It is, after all, a beautiful time in one’s life when a woman can look truly at her glowing best (sickness permitting). What an opportunity for the fashion industry to embrace the mums-to-be of the world and make a difference.

EILEEN BAYLEY, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan.

On the record

RIchaRD DaVeNpORthINes’s ludicrous book in which he tries to denigrate the standards of Fleet street journalism in the past (mail) begins by describing the author’s connection with King’s college London, where his deceased son was a student.

as I was a prominent Fleet street journalist at the time concerned, dealing with the Vassall tribunal and the profumo affair — about which he is ignorantly critical — Davenport- hines needs to know I am a Life Fellow of King’s college and was awarded that distinction in 1977 for my services to journalism. CHAPMAN PINCHER,

Kintbury, Berks.

A time to pray

heRe’s a timely prayer for fair weather, from the Book of common prayer: ‘O almighty Lord God, who for the sin of man didst once drown all the world, except eight persons, and afterward of thy great mercy didst promise never to destroy it so again; We humbly beseech thee, that although we for our iniquities have worthily deserved a plague of rain and waters, yet upon our true repentance thou wilt send us such weather, as that we may receive the fruits of the earth in due season; and learn both by thy punishment to amend our lives, and for thy clemency to give thee praise and glory; through Jesus christ our Lord. amen.’

Mrs E. STUART, Bristol.