Pick of the week’s correspondence
Wise after the event To The Daily Telegraph
Less than a fortnight ago, we were happy to trade with Russia and Russians, buy energy from them, and allow them to sponsor major sporting institutions and events. Yet their political, military and commercial cadres are exactly the same as they were, and their nature was known. We were dealing with people who beyond all reasonable doubt were – and are – murderers (Litvinenko, Salisbury), thieves (the vast misappropriation of Russian wealth into a handful of pockets) and war criminals (Syria). Now we suddenly refuse to deal with them.
The parallels with China are almost too awful to draw. Will we continue in the coming months and years to fund this country – despite its treatment of the Uyghurs and Tibetans, along with its own military build-up – until it actually seizes Taiwan by force, when we will doubtless wring our hands and impose sanctions? We need to take steps before the event, not after.
David Waddington, Longstowe, Cambridgeshire
Slow to provide refuge To The Times
We are told that Britain has a “proud record” of accepting refugees, but the home secretary has agreed grudgingly, and under significant political pressure, to accept only close family of those already resident here. What of the other tens or hundreds of thousands of lost souls? You report that “a separate community sponsorship scheme to bring in Ukrainian refugees who have no ties in the UK will be announced” (“Three-year visa scheme for refugees”). This slow bureaucratic response lacks any sense of urgency or human decency. We should do it now, and make it as easy as possible for us to help a fellow human being.
Simon Ambrose, St Tudy, Cornwall
Yemen is also bleeding To The Guardian
Nesrine Malik’s article on an accepted view in the “West” that wars only happen to poor and uncivilised people partly
explains why there is such a lack of coverage of the war in Yemen, which the UK government is supporting in supplying arms to Saudi Arabia. Where is the outrage at the humanitarian catastrophe that is happening there? Recent sanctions imposed by the US are going to further cripple efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to areas of Yemen under the Houthis’ control. The Yemeni people are dying without shelter and food.
Rae Street, Littleborough, Greater Manchester
BP’s political posturing To The Times
How do UK firms such as BP hurt Vladimir Putin by selling stakes in Russian companies – in what is clearly a buyer’s market? Russia will have to pay fewer dividends to the West, which will benefit its hard currency reserves; and if Russian oligarchs get the stakes at knock-down prices, Putin will be euphoric. I support trade sanctions and an end to new investment, but divestment seems pure political posturing.
David Hoggett, Winchester
Preserving Parliament To The Guardian
Roy Appleyard, who believes the Palace of Westminster should be pulled down and replaced with a modern building, cites the Scottish and Welsh parliaments as exemplars. Has he forgotten the saga of the building of the Scottish parliament? The Scotsman reported in 2003 that it had been ranked as one of the worst building projects in the world for cost overruns. It opened three years late and substantially over budget. Last year the Pritzker Prize was won by Lacaton & Vassal, who say “never demolish”. They show that even the most unprepossessing tower block can be made desirable and environmentally friendly. In this era of climate crisis,
I would add “never build, unless absolutely essential”.
Every existing building contains vast amounts of embodied energy. Every demolition entails waste, upheaval and the energy involved in creating a new parliament building is immense. What is wrong with the Westminster plans is that MPs have insisted on continuing the old ways of working, with division lobbies and the rest. Government could be modernised within the estate, and the building restored merely to stability, not to excess. The roof has already been replaced, under budget. The right scheme could ensure that is the case for the rest of it. It needs careful conservation architects and engineers, not grandiosity and ego.
Judith Martin, Winchester
How to hurt the oligarchs To The Daily Telegraph
Boris Johnson postures but takes little real action against Russian oligarchs who wash their dirty money in London. The majority have still not been sanctioned and are being given time to transfer their assets elsewhere.
The EU has sequestrated Russian mega-yachts, whereas the UK sits idly by. Almost all these yachts fly under British flags of convenience, registered in the UK, Channel Islands, Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Might it not be appropriate to cancel their registry at the stroke of a pen? These yachts would then be unable to dock in a foreign country without re-registering and incurring taxes there.
Patrick Matthiesen, London