Pick of the week’s correspondence

The truth about populism To The Times

Daniel Finkelstein seems to use the term “populism” as a pejorative, and suggests we should “fear the danger this represents”. But populism is nothing other than significant minorities, sometimes majorities, expressing a lack of faith in an existing establishment elite, which is perceived as failing. But then, this is the essence of democracy. Although the term only became fashionable in the 1950s, it is arguable that today’s Conservative and Labour parties both grew out of what would now be called populist movements.

It is true that some such movements are single-issue and extreme, but it is wrong to conflate those movements with others that are a genuine questioning of a failing political elite. Where he is correct is that “defiance is one thing, deafness quite another”; perhaps the political elite should start listening. Nigel Barratt, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Honesty and the NHS To The Guardian

The short vignettes from so-called NHS recovery experts were depressingly superficial and made the same economic error as those originally setting up the NHS: namely that improving the health and longevity of the population would ultimately reduce cost. The opposite is true.

If people die prematurely, they cost the NHS nothing. The NHS is a victim of its own fantastic success, but the cost is rising exponentially. Prevention and looking after one’s own health is a priority, but the reality is that we all get sick – costing the NHS – and die, no matter how well we look after ourselves. The idea that personalised medicine will decrease the bill is ludicrous. For example, patients shown, using genetic analysis, to have particular subtypes of tumours, will be eligible for treatments that cost tens of thousands of pounds per course, extending lives by up to a few years, with attendant healthcare problems.

Equally, the idea of creating better links between hospitals and social services is all well

and good, but where do family responsibilities come into this? No mention was made of the sclerotic management of the NHS that needs a branch and root reform. We need an honest debate about what the NHS can and cannot deliver within a reasonable budget (how much is the public willing to pay for what?) and, dare I say, how it should be rationed. Douglas Higgs, director, MRC molecular haemotology unit, University of Oxford

Give peers a break To The Times

Your suggestion that retired peers are gobbling taxpayersubsidised food in our dining rooms is ludicrous. Allowing them occasional access to the building was simply a way of encouraging members to leave.

I promoted the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 that allowed peers for the first time to retire. Since then, I have spotted only three in the building – none of them dining. Lord Steel of Aikwood, House of Lords

Windsor’s homeless To The Times

What to do with the homeless in Windsor on the day of the Royal wedding? Invite them to the feast: they would be off the streets, get a meal and have a story to dine out on. As the Church’s Supreme Governor, the Queen would know this is biblical. Jesus told his followers not to invite the rich to their parties, but to ask the poor, the crippled and the lame (Luke 14:12-14). Easy, eh? Ruth Hilton, Australia

Nowt so queer as folk To The Guardian

Simon Jenkins quotes David Cameron as saying, “we knew Yorkshire people hated the rest of us, but I never knew they hated each other”. That’s just about the only political lesson he learnt. The Danes probably knew the nature of the beast when they divided the county into three ridings. There are England map T-shirts that also show the outline of Yorkshire. Inside the county boundary is the legend “Right”, and outside, the word “Wrong”. Yorkshire folk are united only by a sense of superiority to the rest of the world and a generalised grievance against it. Beyond that, nowt. Sheffield thinks the “One Yorkshire” movement is a power grab by Leeds. Leeds thinks Sheffield has ideas above its station. The Tory councillors of North Yorkshire would rather be seen dead than sit in a council chamber with Sheffield socialists, and so it goes. What the Danes put asunder, let no man or woman join together. Professor Glyn Turton, Shipley, West Yorkshire

Time to scuttle coal? To The Daily Telegraph

I see that all coal-fired power stations are to close by 2025.

According to the National Grid website, over the cold and relatively windless nights of 10 and 11 December, coalfired generation was delivering almost 20% of the load. Does anyone have any idea how this capacity will be provided? John Lewis, Hagley, Worcestershire