Letter of the week: The Cold War hotline

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Bruno Maçães’s article was profoundly felt and brilliantly written (Cover Story, 7 August). As he recognises, the European Union must find a united will to respond to these incursions. In this time of hybrid warfare, perhaps the Cold War offers a model. EU governments could be connected by a “hotline” protocol, triggered by any major incursion. An incursion against one would be considered an incursion against all.

Governments would not comment publicly until all had received a confidential briefing from the affected country (including the incursion’s likely cause and role of third parties). A united EU response would then be given, with a centralised social media strategy to rebut malicious online narratives. Supplementing this message control, the EU could maintain a Rapid Incursion Response Force (RIRF), staffed by all member states. The RIRF would be deployed within 24 hours, fully equipped for policing and mass crowd management. If the EU does not find a unified response to these dangerous incursions, its self-serving national reactions will only hasten its authoritarian enemies’ triumph.
Robert Dear, Enfield, Greater London

Back to the Seventies

Tom McTague muses (Editor’s Note, 7 August) on the seemingly apparent descent in our public realm, both at an individual and collective level. Of course there are exceptions, but the trajectory has been apparent for a few decades now and stems from 1979 – the changes of the Thatcherite cohort very much appealed to those with aspirations, but they also unleashed darker forces that moved the narrative from being about “us”, to being about “me”. Maybe Andy Burnham’s administration can start to draw us back together again. If not, only an external existential shock of some magnitude could induce us to rediscover our better collective side again.
Michael Haskell, Flintshire

Following Tom McTague’s assertion that Edward Heath would have won the election of 1974 had it not been for the oil price rise, I have a thought to add. The election of February 1974 was not necessary: Heath could have waited for a year, cut a deal with the miners (as Harold Wilson did), nationalised British Leyland (as Heath had done to Rolls-Royce), and won in 1975.
Brandon High, Royston

Concerning consultants

Will Dunn’s forensic analysis of the idiocy of outsourcing contracts to overpaid, social-media-obsessed consultants was bracing (The Sketch, 7 August). It somehow felt like taking on the likes of Nigel Farage and Elon Musk on their own terms – and winning. Andy Burnham, take note. But please don’t hire a consultancy to investigate the policy and make some changes going forward. Just do it.
David Perry, Cambridge

Reading Will Dunn’s Sketch I realised just how “British” I am. It struck me that I had begun to accept sub-par as a form of being polite, but the more I thought about this “politeness” I realised it isn’t polite at all. The truly polite thing to do would be to express our dissatisfaction for the services we pay for so that barbers don’t continue to give out bad haircuts that make people look “old and weird”. The same principle should be applied to politics. Sometimes we should be less “polite” about where public money is spent and more dissatisfied with the quality of service we receive in return.
Joshua Cumming, Glasgow

Hail the snail

I so enjoyed Rhi Storer’s This England on World Snail Racing (7 August). It was such an idiosyncratic and delightful foray into a world where snails reign supreme, and the minutiae surrounding this quiet activity was illuminating.
Judith Daniels, Norfolk

As quaint as Norfolk’s World Snail Racing Championships are, they lose something in comparison with the competitiveness of insect-based competition across the Pond. During the American Civil War, soldiers on both sides would bet on the first body louse to cross their personal metal plate. One man, who always seemed to win the pot, was eventually found to have been heating his plate before the event.
Tom Stubbs, Surbiton, Surrey

Importance of accuracy

Malachi O’Doherty’s essay on nationalist paramilitaries was accompanied by a photo of a mural depicting gunmen holding assault rifles (The NS Essay, 7 August). The pictured “masked marauders” were UVF paramilitaries – loyalists, not republicans.

Using an image of unionist paramilitaries to illustrate a piece on Irish nationalism is misleading. Since the Good Friday Agreement, overtly paramilitary artwork has remained predominantly (but not exclusively) confined to loyalist areas. Modern republican murals overwhelmingly focus on political figures, civil rights, international solidarity and the 1916 Rising. “Fixing” Northern Ireland requires accurate historical understanding across the UK. Ensuring you do not publish contradictory or misleading imagery would be a good place to start.
Finn Toner, London IG9

In housing news

Good news if left-communitarian ideas are quietly being revived by the Prime Minister (Bursting the Bubble, 7 August). Sadly, the opportunity for discussion between local people, councils and builders to decide on which housing should be built is being lost. It will also stoke up anger and division. It looks more like state-supported capitalism than democracy.
Trevor Cherrett, Wiltshire

Look back in anger

I have noticed a slight change in emphasis in some recent New Statesman articles (from Oli Dugmore, Will Dunn and Bruno Maçães, among others), moving from world-weary cynicism to anger. The right has always harnessed anger to their cause and the left has often done the shoulder-shrugging “what do you expect?” response to even quite startlingly bad things. If joy is an act of resistance, so surely is anger – constructively directed at appropriate targets. Perhaps it is hope that things might now improve in the UK. Or simply the end of tethers. Either way, it is invigorating.
Diane Ordish, Brighton

Summer fun

It’s lazy August; time to watch some light-hearted, life-enhancing plays and films. What do you bring to our attention? Film: Ice Cream Man, “Don’t touch it… a sick version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin”. TV: Alley Cats, it “would make me feel dirty to write down”. Theatre: Cleansed, “An ordeal to sit through”. Please lighten up.
Steve Packer, Wimbledon

Heaven is a place on Earth

Finn McRedmond’s bagel odyssey (Silver Spoon, 7 August) reminded me of my 1989-91 short strolls from New York’s West 56th Street to Bagel Baron on West 57th in Hell’s Kitchen. On Saturdays, clutching a paving stone disguised as the weekend New York Times, I’d order coffee and my regular smoked salmon, scallion and cream cheese drool-fest. Then, I perched on a bar stool, to overhear a stream of orders. Male varieties would often request their bagels be presented “how my mom used to make ’em”, flesh scraped out so extra filling could be stuffed inside. It amused this Brit no end. It was bagel heaven, which is sadly where the Baron now resides.
Peter Coombes, London NW10

Nicholas Freezard

I am one of those readers who values and enjoys Nicholas Lezard’s weekly column, and am happy to join with Simon Read to contribute towards a new fridge for him (Correspondence, 7 August). Please let me know how to do this as I am not familiar with crowdfunding. And certainly it would include a bottle or more from Waitrose!
Virginia Middleton-Smith, Bishopstone, Salisbury

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[Further reading: Inside the battle to control Labour]