Letter of the week: Know thy party

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Lewis Goodall has written a perceptive and measured article on the problems facing Starmer (Inside Westminster, 12 December). However, I disagree with his view that Starmer “came to office well qualified for his country’s highest office”. Starmer had been an MP for just under five years when he was elected leader of the Labour Party, and four years later he became Prime Minister. Politics is a dirty business and those who succeed are usually well versed in all its machinations. Starmer has cited Harold Wilson as the Labour leader he most admires. The contrast is striking. Wilson had been an MP for nearly 18 years before he became leader of the party and during that time had served as shadow foreign secretary and shadow chancellor.

We are often told that Starmer dislikes “politics” and the intrigues of Westminster. If you are to be an effective leader you have to know your own party very well. The debacle over the welfare bill is just one of many illustrations of the fact that Starmer doesn’t have that qualification.
Chris Morris, Kidderminster, Worcestershire

A major omission

I enjoyed reading your list of “The 25 Brits who have defined the century so far”. You asked: did we miss anyone? Well, yes. I am amazed David Cameron didn’t make the cut. More than any other recent political figure, Cameron, in my assessment, was the architect of the mess the country now finds itself in. From overseeing austerity through to agreeing to the 2016 Brexit referendum, many of his decisions have shaped the country we now live in. His casual resignation opened the door for a string of woefully bad prime ministers and helped create the fractured political, social and economic conditions we are now grappling with. That is some legacy to have missed off your list.
John Adcock, Ashtead, Surrey

Cross to bear

Rowan Williams’s appeal to reclaim the cross from the far right (The Ideas Essay, 12 December) reminded me of St Francis of Assisi’s readoption of the Tau cross, which had been co-opted by the crusaders of his time. Despite figures such as Francis and Williams, there is a riptide of violent xenophobia throughout Western Christian history that has too often undercut its more peaceable tributaries. The current co-opting of the cross is another iteration of this brutal swell, one that persistently obscures its primary (and often racial) concerns behind religious affectation. As Williams alludes to, we are not short of examples of Christians killing and oppressing other Christians under ironic pretences of “preserving Christianity” throughout history. Despite Francis’s stance against the crusader tide, his voice was drowned out as he was effectively ousted from his own order before his death, and his opposition to the crusades practically expunged. One hopes that leaders such as Williams can find a way to quell this once-again rising tide, and that it is not already too late.
Noah Rouse, Beirut

Subtle depths

It was always what Hemingway left implied but untold in a story that made it great, and him a genius. Read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (The Big Picture, 12 December) again and see if the shooting of Macomber by his wife wasn’t accidental at all, and then see how much better a story it becomes. I find new depths of subtlety in Hemingway’s work even after a lifetime of reading him, particularly the short stories, which I still consume on repeat. “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” was supposedly James Joyce’s favourite. One genius on another.
Brian Cunningham, Norwich

Overinflated hope

Zack Polanski decries a culture of political cynicism and calls for moral clarity (Lines of Dissent, 12 December). Although I’m sure he is right that “hope rather than cynicism” should be our shared national ambition, I hope he will forgive me for suggesting that he may not be the most compelling messenger for this sentiment.

A man who once claimed he could hypnotise women to enhance their breast size, who joined the Liberal Democrats after they had served as human shields for Tory-led austerity, and who only belatedly converted to the Green cause is unlikely to be a strong antidote to pervasive cynicism.

If this is emblematic of the quality of progressive political leadership on offer in the United Kingdom, eye-rolling scepticism seems to me not only justified as a response but essential.
Michael Collins, Reaseheath, Cheshire

A haunting tale

The Christmas edition of this magazine was a cornucopia of so many varying articles – political, cultural and everything else in between. But the story I kept returning to and rereading was Kate Mossman’s “The Strange Fate of Flight 2069” (Reporter at Large, 12 December) and her tight, incisive writing. It haunted me, as it has the pilots. A totally immersive account of what could have been a disaster except for the quick thinking of the pilots.
Judith A Daniels, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Fresh marketing

I was surprised that Finn McRedmond, in her piece about Smithfield Market (Food, 12 December), made no mention of the crucial part that Smithfield plays in the Christmas celebrations of many. My husband has been long been making an annual pilgrimage to Smithfield to hunter-gather the centrepieces of our festivities: a turkey that could comfortably feed an army and a ham the size and heft of a small toddler. Our now-grown children still drag themselves out of bed in the wee small hours to accompany him on the jaunt, as do any relatives or friends visiting from out of town keen to partake in a ritual that is peculiar to London.

He has long nurtured a desire to skip the late night foray and instead take his chances at the 10am Christmas Eve meat auction, where the traders make an event out of getting shot of as much stock as they can before the big day. There is an element of risk, of course – you get what you’re given, so to speak, but at a fraction of what you might normally pay.
Pauline Brown, Streatham, London

Sea state: good

Bella Bathurst misses one very valuable benefit to mariners and others in her interesting article on the radio shipping forecast (The New Society, 12 December). Any listener to the broadcast armed with a blank template showing the British Isles and the 31 sea areas around them, using the information provided in the forecast, can draw a synoptic weather chart, like those seen in any BBC TV weather forecast, with just the aid of a pencil. All those with a knowledge of weather conditions are therefore able to predict from the chart what the weather is likely to be over the next 12 hours.
Simon V Read, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

Crossing the divide

I enjoyed Rachel Cunliffe’s article on cryptic crosswords (Future Perfect, 12 December). Might I suggest she enters next year’s Times Crossword Championship? I have been going in for it since 1983 – my father, Hugh, was national runner-up two years later – and it is an event that needs many more women to take part.
Tom Stubbs, Surbiton, Greater London

Every fraction counts

Rob Cadman suggests we sign off our letters with our ages including the fraction (Correspondence, 12 December). Personally, I only count the years I have lived under a Labour government.
Paddy Casswell (aged 29), Loughborough

A spoonful of sugar

Pace Lezard and the ghost of Bernard Levin (Down and Out, 5 December), who knew little about botany or indeed cookery: tomatoes have seeds, like other fruits. Of course, you season your homemade tomato soup, but you also add a teaspoon of sugar.
Ann Lawson Lucas, Beverley, East Yorkshire

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