Under proportional representation, people can be sure that their vote counts
Why does Sonia Sodha think it is acceptable to call me a crank (“It is foolish and self-indulgent for the anti-Starmer left to split the Labour vote”)? My views count and deserve respect. I am still a member of the Labour party for one reason only: to work within for reform of our voting system so that everyone’s vote counts (not just those who live in marginal constituencies). My view is that Labour is misguided on the economy, wrong on climate, wrong on Palestine and lacks vision and hope. That does not make me a crank.
With proportional representation, the Green party could be assured its votes would convert into seats in the House of Commons and would not have to focus on areas where its vote is concentrated enough for a chance to get an MP. People could vote for the party they support, knowing their vote would lead to representation. Blame the voting system, not me. Aileen McLoughlin
Bristol
Dong Jun rails at length about democratic island’s ‘separatists’ during Shangri-la Dialogue defence conference in Singapore
Peaceful “reunification” with Taiwan remains China’s goal but the prospect is being eroded by Taiwanese “separatists” and external forces, the Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, has said.
George MacKay and Léa Seydoux star in a epoch-traversing sci-fi romance, while the latest Star Wars spin-off has a mystery-thriller twist
The Beast Out now
Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Colour) and George MacKay (Femme) star as the couple at the heart of this arthouse sci-fi epic, loosely based on Henry James’s 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle and spanning three time periods, from director Bertrand Bonello (House of Tolerance).
Madeleine Hewitt says it’s time people who support the movement recognised that nothing in nature exists independently. Greg Blonder notes that many of the problems we need to solve are the result of the growing population itself
The Global Footprint Network says we are in ecological overshoot, with humanity using the resources of 1.7 Earths. The UN has made clear that our unsustainable demand for resources is driving the triple planetary crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing levels of pollution and waste. And despite the rhetoric of Silicon Valley, technology is not our saviour; it is found to mitigate global extraction by only 5%.
Readers extol the benefits of sustainable gardening in response to a long read about the untapped potential of home gardens
Kate Bradbury’s article struck a very loud chord (Where the wild things are: the untapped potential of our gardens, parks and balconies, 28 May). I have been gardening for many moons, having caught the bug as a child, and have gone from the days of double digging and spraying anything that moves to the current advice to avoid digging and to plant for the climate. In all that time it barely occurred to me that what I was doing might be bad for the planet, but lately I have wondered if gardening itself might be a problem.
It’s not just the paving and plastic grass, but the constant desire to have the latest plants, the most up-to-date garden designs, and the need to buy ever more compost, chemicals, and equipment. All of this uses energy and natural resources, and comes with the need to dispose of the unfashionable, whether it be vegetation or planters or decking. It’s a huge industry, and shows like Chelsea add fuel to the fire with the annual catwalk of new ideas.
Damian Griffiths shares a witty response to an underpoured pint, while Robert Newton wants glasses with measure lines to be reintroduced. Plus letters from Rob Harris and Richard Luscombe
Are the short beer measures Imogen West-Knights refers to (Put your tape measure away – and enjoy your delicious underpoured pint, 28 May) made up for by the modern phenomenon of asking for a taste of beer before ordering? As one who misspent his youth in pubs in the north, I have gradually overcome the cringing this used to induce in me when my partner asked to taste one (sometimes even two) and now enjoy these free sips, despite knowing that my northern, male forebears are probably spinning in their graves. They would rather have backed the top-it-up approach, perhaps by an interchange with the bartender serving the underpoured pint such as the following: “Do you think you could fit a large whisky in there?” “Yes, certainly.” “Well, why don’t you fill it up with beer, then?” Damian Griffiths Buxton, Derbyshire
• May I be the first of many members of the “security council of beer-drinking” to suggest that the answer lies in the return of the lined measure glass instead of the brim measure that is now the norm. There would be less wastage in filling a pint glass with liquid beer to the line than in topping up a brim measure. Watching someone waste much more than a “thimbleful” of beer in trying to achieve the right balance between head and beer breaks my heart. What it does for the publican doesn’t bear thinking about. Robert Newton Uppermill, Greater Manchester
Readers respond to an article by Sebastian Doggart on being flogged at Eton and share their own experiences of corporal punishement at school
Sebastian Doggart’s article resonated with me (‘It gives me no pleasure, but I am going to have to beat you’: was I the last boy to be flogged at Eton?, 25 May). I had the dubious honour of being the first pupil to be beaten (or receive the “whacks” as we used to call it) by the newly appointed headmaster of my prep school, when I was also 13. Separately, the deputy headmaster was an enthusiastic administrant of the hairbrush whacks, but unlike the claim from the Eton teacher that he derived no pleasure, in my situation, on several occasions I remember having the distinct feeling that one of us was most definitely enjoying it (and it wasn’t me). Being the same age as the author, I know exactly what he experienced, in a very dark time of appalling treatment of children who were entrusted by their parents to these individuals and institutions. Dr Julian Stone Buckland, Oxfordshire
• I despaired at the response of Tony Little, questioned during his tenure as headmaster of Eton in 2002-15 about the school’s practice of flogging, which had ended years before. Sebastian Doggart gave an account of his brutal abuse, and asked Little if it was something the school should be ashamed of. “It was a different time,” Little said. “It’s hard to get back into the mindset of what happened 25 … years ago.” No, it’s not. Tap anyone over 50 on the shoulder and ask them. Lynne Scrimshaw London
This is no ‘tragic mishap’ | Votes and phones for teenagers | D-day and Dunkirk’s domination | On the hunt for Private Eye | One-word slogans
I was transfixed by the look in the eyes of the boy in the centre of the photo of devastation in Gaza (‘Bodies everywhere’: the horrors of Israel’s strike on a Rafah camp, 29 May). This is no “tragic mishap”, but an act of war. Instead of platitudes, the UK should immediately cut off the supply of arms to this out-of-control regime in Israel. Mike Godridge Brampton, Cumbria
• I have met numerous under-16s with more common sense than many MPs. If Labour legislates to allow a person to vote the day after their 16th birthday, how can parliament legislate to prevent that same person owning a smartphone the day before their 16th birthday (MPs urge under-16s UK smartphone ban and statutory ban in schools, 25 May). Kim Thonger Collyweston, Northamptonshire
Readers respond to Labour’s investigation following the Hackney MP’s suspension from the party in April 2023, and the long delay in coming to a resolution
I am not on the left on the Labour party – if anything my political views are more closely aligned with Keir Starmer’s. However, this does not matter. I feel the hurt and pain that Diane must be feeling – along with every black person in this country who has faced treatment which can be comfortably placed in the category headed racism. Her treatment by the Labour party is acting as a trigger for us all.
Russian missile hits apartment block in Kharkiv, officials say, as Biden administration allows Ukraine to target forces inside part of Russia. What we know on day 828
US-made weapons can be used over part of Ukraine’s border with Russia to counter Moscow’s offensive aimed at the city of Kharkiv, Joe Biden has decided, relaxing an important constraint on Ukraine’s able to defend itself. “The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US-supplied weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region so Ukraine can hit back against Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them,” a US official said. The change will also allow the Ukrainian army to target Russian forces massing across the border in the Belgorod region but restrictions remain on the use of US long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
At least three people have been killed and 16 injured after Russian missiles hit three sites in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, local officials said early on Friday. Accounts of the attack said the missiles hit a five-storey apartment block, a shop in a three-storey building and a sewing factory, Reuters reported. Regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the attacks on the city’s Novobazarskyi district, used the “double tap” technique; delivering a second strike soon after an initial attack on a given site. He said that, according to preliminary information, S-300 missiles were used. Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov told public broadcaster Suspilne about the damage to the apartment building. “The third, fourth and fifth floors are destroyed, stairwells were destroyed, facades were destroyed,” he said. Syniehubov said at least two children were among those injured in the attack, which occurred at about midnight local time.
China’s support for Russia “not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security”, US state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel has said, a day after Washington accused Beijing’s leadership of supporting Russia’s war and threatened further western sanctions. US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell and deputy national security adviser Jon Finer met China’s vice-foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu in Washington on Thursday. Patel declined to provide details of any future sanctions but added: “If China does not curtail its support for Russia’s defence industrial base, the US will be prepared to take further steps.” The Biden administration issued an executive order in December that threatened sanctions on financial institutions helping Russia skirt western sanctions. Campbell said Chinese support, “with the backing of its leadership,” was helping Moscow reconstitute elements of its military, including long-range missile, artillery and drone capabilities, and its ability to track battlefield movements.
Russian authorities are increasingly targeting children and their families as punishment for opposing the Kremlin and its invasion of Ukraine, Amnesty International said on Friday. Since the invasion, Russian authorities have been using children to put pressure on parents, threatening to remove parental rights or place children in institutions, the rights group said in a report. Some parents had to flee Russia with their children to avoid being separated from them. “Despite all the Kremlin’s talk about the value of the family, it is the very bond between children and their parents that is being shamelessly exploited to crush dissent,” said Oleg Kozlovsky, Amnesty’s Russia researcher. “In this politically motivated assault on children, schools and teachers have become tools of persecution and arbitrary interference by the state,” he said, adding that schools were indoctrinating children with “false government-mandated narratives”.
Late-night host discussed end of Trump’s hush-money trial and public support from ex-president’s sons
Jimmy Kimmel took aim at Donald Trump and the end of his hush-money trial on last night’s edition of his late-night show.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host spoke about the former president’s New York City trial, where he faces multiple charges, which is coming to an end as the jury deliberates. Trump must stay in the courthouse to “sit there for hours farting next to the vending machine”.
Days after co-founder dropped buying bid, the company claims it is set for ‘sustainable, profitable growth’ and to re-emerge next month
A US bankruptcy judge approved WeWork’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, enabling the struggling shared office space provider to eliminate $4bn of debt and handing control over to a group of lenders and real estate tech firm Yardi Systems.
Sixteen of 47 pro-democracy campaigners had denied charges of ‘conspiracy to subvert state power’ in national security case
Fourteen people have been found guilty in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial, the prosecution of the “Hong Kong 47” pro-democracy campaigners, in a ruling that was immediately condemned by rights groups.
In a verdict delivered on Thursday, the panel of judges handpicked by Hong Kong’s government found 14 people had committed the national security offence of “conspiracy to subvert state power” by holding unofficial election primaries in 2020. The convicted included one organiser and 13 candidates, almost all of them former politicians.
The IDF says that it is in ‘operational’ control of the buffer zone on Egypt’s border, a move which risks complicating relations with Cairo, amid Rafah offensive
Israel is in effective control of Gaza’s entire land border after taking control of a buffer zone along the border with Egypt, Israel’s military has said, a move that risks complicating its relationship with Egypt.
In a televised briefing on Wednesday, chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces had gained “operational” control over the Philadelphi Corridor, using the Israeli military’s code name for the 14km-long corridor along the Gaza Strip’s only border with Egypt.
Prosecutors evaluating more claims of sexual misconduct and new indictment could be filed before New York retrial on rape charges
Manhattan prosecutors told a judge in New York on Wednesday that they are evaluating more claims of sexual misconduct against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and could potentially seek a new indictment against him before his scheduled retrial on rape and sexual assault charges.
Assistant district attorney Nicole Blumberg said during a court hearing that additional people have come forward with assault claims, and prosecutors are currently assessing which fall under the statute of limitations.
We need a centrist, electable party, writes one Labour member, but a good result for its former leader as an independent in Islington North would be welcome. Plus letters from Libby Telling,Simon Short, Susan Merli and Graeme Smith
A thoughtful article by Andy Beckett (It’s Corbyn’s last stand. But can he beat Labour’s Starmerite machine?, 24 May). The Labour party has always had idealists who have been important to the heart of the movement. They have also often been problematic to their party leaders. Think Clement Attlee and Nye Bevan, Harold Wilson and Tony Benn.
As a Labour party member, I did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn and did not believe he could lead the Labour party to electoral success. Sadly, I was proved right.
Here in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the tidal surge resulting from December 2013’s Storm Xaver left 158 homes and 233 commercial properties flooded, with many people made homeless. In response, improved floodwalls were completed in 2023, but in January 2024 the plug was pulled on the construction of a tidal barrier due to the emergence of a £124m funding gap. Instead of a flood defence system, Lowestoft has therefore been left with what worryingly looks a lot like a funnel.
The Biden administration has said recent Israeli operations and attacks in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah do not constitute a major ground operation that crosses any US red lines, adding that it is also closely monitoring an investigation into Sunday’s deadly strike on a tent camp.
Speaking after Israeli tanks were seen near al-Awda mosque, a landmark in central Rafah, the national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, told reporters the US was not turning a “blind eye” to the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Temperatures in Delhi have soared to record highs of 49.9C (121.8F) as authorities warn of water shortages. The India Meteorological Department (IMD), which reported “severe heatwave conditions”, recorded the temperatures on Tuesday, saying they were nine degrees higher than expected
In 1977, Janine Wiedel set out in her VW campervan to photograph potteries, jewellers, coal mines and steel works. It became one of the most important photographic works of its generation
James Marape says the estimated death toll is more than 2,000 people, as rescue efforts in Enga province continue
Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape has blamed “extraordinary rainfall” and changes to weather patterns for multiple disasters in the Pacific Island nation this year, including a landslide last week which may have killed thousands.
Parts of a mountain in the Maip-Mulitaka area in Enga province in PNG’s north collapsed in the early hours of last Friday and Marape said more than 2,000 people are estimated to have died, with up to 70,000 people living in the area affected by the disaster.
DePape, who didn’t get to speak in court in original trial on assault of Nancy’s Pelosi’s husband, gets no change to original sentence
The man who was convicted of assaulting then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 was re-sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, with no change in the original sentence after the case was reopened so he could speak during his sentencing hearing, local news reported.
David DePape was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison on 17 May for forcibly entering Pelosi’s home in San Francisco early on 28 October 2022 and clubbing her husband, Paul, in the head with a hammer in a politically motivated attack.
Two items Freedland mentions – rivers and seas polluted with sewage, and the lack of affordable housing – can be traced directly to the privatisation of public assets. We should see that as theft. No matter how hard we punish the Tories, even if they never have power again, it’s hard to see how we can regain even the assets given away in the last century, let alone those we are still losing. The long list only starts with libraries, swimming pools and playgrounds. It includes family centres, youth clubs, theatre, art, music, health, heritage, trust, decency – life’s essential services, assets and resources shrivelled, as Freedland says, by deliberate neglect.
The party must ensure the benefits of significantly increased land values in the proposed areas for development are shared by all, says Miles Gibson. Plus letters from Christina McGill and Peter Waterman
As a former town planning policy adviser to both Tony Blair and David Cameron, I have only one question about Labour’s proposed new towns: who will benefit from the significant increase in land value arising from granting planning permission for them (Labour will aim to reveal new town sites within first year in power, 20 May)?
Postwar new town legislation forced landowners to sell land to the state at the existing use value. The surplus from the later resale of the land at market prices paid for infrastructure and affordable housing. Angela Rayner gave no suggestion that Labour would deploy such heavy artillery. But if it does, it would be well advised not to announce new town locations until it has control of the land, “grey belt” or otherwise.
Former CEO of shared office space provider was ousted from company in 2019 following botched attempt to take it public
The WeWork founder Adam Neumann has shelved his bid to acquire the bankrupt shared office space provider.
It emerged earlier this year that Neumann, who was ousted from the business in 2019 following a botched attempt to take it public on the stock market, was seeking to buy the business. His new real estate venture, Flow Global, submitted a bid of more than $500m to take over WeWork and its assets.
Three years ago, Charlie Tallott was in a dark place – and found escapism through his camera. Now the photographer’s blissful, flash-laden images have won a prestigious award
It has long been thought that psychological tactics can persuade consumers to adopt much healthier habits. But it turns out there is a hitch …
Name: Behavioural nudges.
Age: Nudge theory was popularised by the 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. But the term nudge had been used in cybernetics, the science of communications and automatic control systems, in the 1990s.
James Cleverly has suggested recalcitrant teenagers could be working weekends as emergency health responders and special constables. How will the ambulance service deal with someone they must spend resources on training, who is unable or unwilling to contribute? Perhaps refuseniks can be press-ganged into building a wall along the Kent coast so we may make Britain great again.
Bren Pointer saysthe AmericanpianistKeith Jarrett was right to disallow photography during his performances. Plus letters from Barry and Joy Norman, Meirion Bowen and Joan Lewis
Sadly, on many occasions, a flash from a phone in the audience would happen and subsequently either the concert would come to an abrupt end or there would be a lengthy delay before the performance would resume. The wishes of the musician were not respected.
More than 40 people were wounded in the attack, while several more are still missing. What we know on day 824
The death toll from Russian strikes on a hardware store in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv rose to 16 on Sunday, authorities said, as rescuers continued to search the charred debris for bodies. The dead included a 12-year-old girl. Another 43 people were wounded and several people were listed as missing.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, released a desperate video plea calling on world leaders to attend a “peace summit” in Switzerland. Zelenskiy appealed in particular to the US president, Joe Biden, and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to attend the summit, which is due to start on 15 June. “Please, show your leadership in advancing the peace – the real peace and not just a pause between the strikes,” said Zelenskiy in English. Biden has not yet confirmed his attendance and it is not known whether China will attend – “negotiations are ongoing” over Beijing’s participation, Zelenskiy’s aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview last week.
Zelenskiy is set to meet Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid on Monday, as well as King Felipe VI. Earlier this month, Zelenskiy postponed all upcoming foreign visits, including the trip to Spain that had been scheduled for 17 May, after Russia launched an offensive in the north of the Kharkiv region.
Ukrainian prosecutors said Russian shelling on Sunday killed three people in three different towns in the Donetsk region, another focal point for the Russian military’s onslaught. Prosecutors in Donetsk region, which Russia has annexed though it does not control all of its territory, said civilians had died in Siversk in the north of the region and further south in Krasnohorivka and Chasiv Yar.
Russian forces have also taken over the village of Berestove in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the Tass news agency reported, citing Russia’s defence ministry. The report could not be verified.
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated her opposition to weapons supplied to Ukraine being used on Russian soil, after Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg told the Economist the restriction should be lifted. “I don’t know why Stoltenberg said such a thing, I think we have to be very careful,” Meloni told Italian television, while adding that “I agree that Nato must remain firm, not give the signal that it is giving in.”
Readers respond to the testimony of Paula Vennells, former managing director of Post Office Limited, at the inquiry into the failings of its Horizon IT system
Re your editorial on Paula Vennells (24 May), one of the main themes of the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry has been the complete lack of evidence of competence, curiosity or compassion in the leadership team; it is a theme that has often been seen in public inquiries in recent years. It is clear that the UK is infected with leadership teams staffed by people who are there not due to any sort of competence or merit, but because that’s just what their sort of people do.
The overriding characteristics of these privately educated, overpaid and arrogant groups of people are their indifference to the real-life consequences of their actions for ordinary hard-working people, their intrinsic belief that their sort are trustworthy and credible, unlike the little people, and their bewilderment at the idea that they should be held accountable.
Wendy Savage on the Albany Midwifery Practice and missed chances to improve care for mothers and babies
Re your letters on how maternity services are failing mothers and babies (17 May), your readers are correct – there is a fundamental problem with our maternity services, which need radical change. As the World Health Organization stated in 1985, “birth is not an illness”; but NHS services treat childbirth as if it is.
In 1992, after years of campaigning, birth activists were delighted when the select committee chaired by Nicholas Winterton made far-reaching recommendations about reorganisation. The government responded by setting up a working party chaired by Julia Cumberlege. They reported in 1993 that women should be at the centre of care, midwives should have a greater and more autonomous role, and that there should be continuity of care.
Residents of Snettisham, Norfolk, say birds are destroying their gardens, while food left out for them is attracting rats
The clucking nuisance of about 100 feral chickens has left residents of a Norfolk village spitting feathers, with locals claiming the birds destroy their gardens and keep them awake.
Dwellers in Snettisham, Norfolk, have said their life is being made “hell” as the chickens swarm in from a nearby wood. It is unclear who owns the land the chickens live on, but villagers believe numbers have soared recently.
The unequal distribution of resources needs to be addressed at government level
It is commendable of the Observer to highlight the crisis of child poverty, but the government – and prospective governments – should prioritise tackling the poverty crisis (“Britain 2024: The scandal of child poverty”, Focus and Editorial).
Unfortunately, Rishi Sunak did not address poverty at all when he mapped out his five “priorities” in January 2023, nor did our PM-in-waiting, Keir Starmer, feel that the issue of poverty was important enough for Labour’s six “first steps”. It appears that it requires a former prime minister – Gordon Brown – to become the driving force for ending child poverty, demanding a multibillion-pound package from the state.
Demonstrators also called for resignation of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and for fresh elections
Scuffles between Israeli police and protesters have erupted in Tel Aviv after thousands gathered to demonstrate against the government and demand that it bring back the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.
Meanwhile, a small US military vessel and what appeared to be a strip of docking area washed up on a beach near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Saturday, not far from the US-built pier on which the Israeli military said humanitarian aid is moving into the Palestinian territory.
Prosecutors make request of Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, saying ex-president’s claims pose threat to law enforcement
Federal prosecutors on Friday asked the judge in Florida overseeing the classified documents case against Donald Trump to bar the former president from public statements that “pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents” participating in the prosecution.
The request was made to the federal district judge in the case, Aileen Cannon. It follows a distorted claim by Trump earlier this week that the FBI agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022 were “authorized to shoot me” and were “locked and loaded ready to take me out and put my family in danger”.
The Mad Max: Fury Road heroine gets an origin story, while Channel 4’s Muslim female punk band returns for a second gig
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Out now One of the year’s most anticipated movies sees director George Miller return to the post-apocalyptic world he and Byron Kennedy first created in 1979 with Mad Max. Both spin-off and prequel to 2015’s Fury Road, this new adventure unveils the origins of Imperator Furiosa, with Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role.
David Scattergood on how the work of independent fostering agencies is offering a glimmer of hope and Peter RC Williams on the government’s obligations. Plus a letter from Nina Lopez and Tracey Norton
However, there is a glimmer of hope. A small number of independent fostering agencies are charities, providing services on a not-for-profit basis. Working alongside local authorities, with no shareholders to enrich, not‑for-profit fostering agencies reinvest surplus funds back into their organisation to fund activities, educational support, and therapeutic interventions for their children. They also fund training and financial support for their foster carers, and activities such as holidays for children with disabilities and additional needs. This model should be the rule, rather than the exception for the whole sector.
Readers respond to Francis Beckett’s article on the great American singer-songwriter who gave up celebrity to teach maths
Francis Beckett doubts whether the Jesuits at his boarding school “ever realised the subversive nature of what we were listening to” (‘My songs spread like herpes’: why did satirical genius Tom Lehrer swap worldwide fame for obscurity?, 22 May). It may surprise him to know that I was first introduced to the incomparable Tom Lehrer by my Roman Catholic parish priest, in north London, who found The Irish Ballad a perfect comment on hypocrisy, in about 1959 or 60, and gleefully brought a copy of the LP round to my parents’ house. It was listened to avidly, among much hilarity. It’s possible, and even probable, that the scholarly Jesuits had as good a sense of the ridiculous as the Benedictines who ran the parish I grew up in. Kate Enright Weymouth, Dorset
• Francis Beckett’s article on Tom Lehrer made me laugh and took me whizzing back in time. In the late 1950s, our big brother, Sandy Craig, started at Glasgow University. He discovered Tom Lehrer there and brought him home to us in the shape of two second-hand 10-inch vinyls, which I still have. Our railwayman father laughed his head off at the songs. My sister Pat and I developed a party piece singing one of them with some of the more gruesome lyrics, I Hold Your Hand in Mine. I can still sing it today, ending with: “I’m sorry now I killed you / For our love was something fine / Until they come to get me / I shall hold your hand in mine.” Maggie Craig Ruthven, Aberdeenshire
Login
