On beauty14th September 2010
Nicholas Humphrey’s potentially interesting analysis of beauty (September) was marred by his nonsensical distinction between “high” and other art. His belief that “we often need to be told that this is beauty before we respond to it” may reflect his own insecurities, but others are perfectly capable of responding to their own instincts. He is also wrong to assume we are in thrall to nature because of carnal fondness for a god. Plenty of us have no fallibility over notions of ownership of the type he describes, and hence have no need to fall upon the crutch of some imaginary god. We find beauty in nature because it is so improbable, has such a fundamental impact on our existence and because it dwarfs and confounds our conceptions of our environment. Gods need not apply.
Joshua MouldeyLondon
A lesson in capitalism19th August 2010
Anatole Kaletsky (August) takes issue with false opposites in transatlantic comparisons of the British and US health systems. Yet he makes the same mistake in suggesting that higher education is state-controlled and decaying in Britain, and largely private and thriving in the US. Having worked in higher education in both countries, I know that US colleges are struggling. Most rely on charitable foundations whose investments have suffered during the recession. Many are subsidised at state level to encourage students to remain in their home state (the Welsh and Scots have tried something similar). Meanwhile, lower taxation in the US allows donors to leave a legacy to their alma mater; higher taxes in Britain tend to mitigate against this, except for colleges with many rich alumni, but it at least spreads funding across the country. This not only benefits all students, but raises standards across the board.
Neil Fleming Cardiff
Meet the Taliban14th September 2010
James Fergusson (September) claims the Taliban are in favour of girls’ education; they object only to co-education. How does this chime with their dismissal of 7,790 female teachers and the destruction of 63 schools in Kabul alone? What about the murdered teachers and the schoolgirls disfigured by acid thrown in their faces for trying to get to school? The west may have to negotiate with the Taliban, but we must ask ourselves if we really want to help Afghanistan take a leap back to the dark ages.
Elizabeth Sidney OBE Chair WWAFE , www.wwafe-women.org
No risk at the Guardian30th August 2010
Peter Morris’s conclusions on the financial adventures of the Guardian Media Group (September) are unconvincing. GMG’s sale of a stake in Trader Media helped cut risk by diversifying its investments. And opting for a leveraged buyout (LBO) helped raise more cash—hardly a controversial aim. Even Morris accepts that his own plan, to switch into a trust, might not have been possible, and that a stock market investment would barely have been more profitable.
Though the buyout left Trader Media loaded with increased debt, this does not mean GMG is exposed to it, nor any greater risk. The trick of an LBO is that the owner is usually off the hook if the debt-laden company sinks. And the idea that debt and private equity are inherently risky needs greater scrutiny. Ironically, one big consequence of the credit crisis is that more people’s savings and pensions will end up somehow invested in debt, some of which will be structured by private equity. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
It may prove that GMG has left itself open to only one risk: accusations of hypocrisy as it profits from a strategy repeatedly criticised in the Guardian’s own pages.
Tom Freke London SE12
Immersive storytelling6th September 2010
It is interesting to compare Michael Coveney’s frustration with “immersive” theatre (September) to Mark Cousins’ eulogy to Christopher Nolan’s film Inception (August). Although visually stunning, Inception is a familiar spy thriller, and Cousins is generous to describe the plot as a “metaphor” for corporate espionage. The dream caper inside a business rival’s psyche is simply that: corporate espionage—a premise not unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “dream holiday” in Total Recall (1990). If this is Hollywood’s attempt to keep hold of the videogame generation before they forsake cinema forever, good luck to them. Surely the best “immersive” experience is reading a great story.
David Booth Liverpool
Charter schools rethink5th September 2010
Judith Judd (September) claims that US charter schools make little difference, citing a Stanford study showing that “for 46 per cent of pupils of similar socioeconomic background the type of school they attended made no difference to attainment.” So does that mean for most pupils, (54 per cent), it did?
Mike Grocott Loughborough
The real pupil premium30th August 2010
The pupil premium advocated by Tim Leunig (September), whether set high or low, is unlikely to achieve better performance by the least advantaged, so long as the curriculum remains one which relentlessly plays to their weaknesses. For eight years, as chief executive of the Foyer Federation, I was closely involved with 10,000 young people who were to varying degrees homeless. Some 25 per cent had ceased attending school by the age of 14. One poignantly described his sense of failure at school thus: “You go to the edge of the pitch hoping the ball won’t find you—but it always does. In the end, you just walk off.”
I’d like to see schools being allowed to disengage from the key stage 3 curriculum entirely, on condition that they shepherd their entire cohort through to key stage 4. The best preparation for adult life is not to have absorbed a rich diet of information, but to have become a successful learner. And frankly, with one of the most polarised education systems in the west, it could hardly produce a worse result than we have now. Plus, it wouldn’t cost anything.
Carolyn Hayman London NW5
A gentler society9th September 2010
Gavin Kelly and Nick Pearce’s call for a “new social democracy” (September) took me back—not to the co-operative traditions of the left, but to John Major. In the middle of a speech full of eulogies for nuns on bicycles and warm beer, Major called for a gentler society. He never expanded on this, but, stripped of nostalgia, he may have been on to something. Could a quest for gentleness become part of the mission for a new “social patriotism,” a guiding principle for rethinking the relationships between citizens and the state, the market, and each other? In a faster, more frantic and irreversibly diverse modern world, could gentleness chime with those who deserted new Labour?
Joe Hallgarten London E9
Serb prejudice12th September 2010
Janine di Giovanni’s report from Bosnia (September), echoes the anti-Serb bias in much western media. It’s not only inaccurate in apportioning blame for the Bosnian conflict, but dangerous, because it fosters a sense of ostracism among a new generation of Serbs, fuelling ethnic tension. Journalists must realise the influence their words can have on the feelings and opinions of the people whose views they try to portray.
Mato Lagator University of Warwick
Nicholas Humphrey’s potentially interesting analysis of beauty (September) was marred by his nonsensical distinction between “high” and other art. His belief that “we often need to be told that this is beauty before we respond to it” may reflect his own insecurities, but others are perfectly capable of responding to their own instincts. He is also wrong to assume we are in thrall to nature because of carnal fondness for a god. Plenty of us have no fallibility over notions of ownership of the type he describes, and hence have no need to fall upon the crutch of some imaginary god. We find beauty in nature because it is so improbable, has such a fundamental impact on our existence and because it dwarfs and confounds our conceptions of our environment. Gods need not apply.
Joshua MouldeyLondon
A lesson in capitalism19th August 2010
Anatole Kaletsky (August) takes issue with false opposites in transatlantic comparisons of the British and US health systems. Yet he makes the same mistake in suggesting that higher education is state-controlled and decaying in Britain, and largely private and thriving in the US. Having worked in higher education in both countries, I know that US colleges are struggling. Most rely on charitable foundations whose investments have suffered during the recession. Many are subsidised at state level to encourage students to remain in their home state (the Welsh and Scots have tried something similar). Meanwhile, lower taxation in the US allows donors to leave a legacy to their alma mater; higher taxes in Britain tend to mitigate against this, except for colleges with many rich alumni, but it at least spreads funding across the country. This not only benefits all students, but raises standards across the board.
Neil Fleming Cardiff
Meet the Taliban14th September 2010
James Fergusson (September) claims the Taliban are in favour of girls’ education; they object only to co-education. How does this chime with their dismissal of 7,790 female teachers and the destruction of 63 schools in Kabul alone? What about the murdered teachers and the schoolgirls disfigured by acid thrown in their faces for trying to get to school? The west may have to negotiate with the Taliban, but we must ask ourselves if we really want to help Afghanistan take a leap back to the dark ages.
Elizabeth Sidney OBE Chair WWAFE , www.wwafe-women.org
No risk at the Guardian30th August 2010
Peter Morris’s conclusions on the financial adventures of the Guardian Media Group (September) are unconvincing. GMG’s sale of a stake in Trader Media helped cut risk by diversifying its investments. And opting for a leveraged buyout (LBO) helped raise more cash—hardly a controversial aim. Even Morris accepts that his own plan, to switch into a trust, might not have been possible, and that a stock market investment would barely have been more profitable.
Though the buyout left Trader Media loaded with increased debt, this does not mean GMG is exposed to it, nor any greater risk. The trick of an LBO is that the owner is usually off the hook if the debt-laden company sinks. And the idea that debt and private equity are inherently risky needs greater scrutiny. Ironically, one big consequence of the credit crisis is that more people’s savings and pensions will end up somehow invested in debt, some of which will be structured by private equity. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
It may prove that GMG has left itself open to only one risk: accusations of hypocrisy as it profits from a strategy repeatedly criticised in the Guardian’s own pages.
Tom Freke London SE12
Immersive storytelling6th September 2010
It is interesting to compare Michael Coveney’s frustration with “immersive” theatre (September) to Mark Cousins’ eulogy to Christopher Nolan’s film Inception (August). Although visually stunning, Inception is a familiar spy thriller, and Cousins is generous to describe the plot as a “metaphor” for corporate espionage. The dream caper inside a business rival’s psyche is simply that: corporate espionage—a premise not unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “dream holiday” in Total Recall (1990). If this is Hollywood’s attempt to keep hold of the videogame generation before they forsake cinema forever, good luck to them. Surely the best “immersive” experience is reading a great story.
David Booth Liverpool
Charter schools rethink5th September 2010
Judith Judd (September) claims that US charter schools make little difference, citing a Stanford study showing that “for 46 per cent of pupils of similar socioeconomic background the type of school they attended made no difference to attainment.” So does that mean for most pupils, (54 per cent), it did?
Mike Grocott Loughborough
The real pupil premium30th August 2010
The pupil premium advocated by Tim Leunig (September), whether set high or low, is unlikely to achieve better performance by the least advantaged, so long as the curriculum remains one which relentlessly plays to their weaknesses. For eight years, as chief executive of the Foyer Federation, I was closely involved with 10,000 young people who were to varying degrees homeless. Some 25 per cent had ceased attending school by the age of 14. One poignantly described his sense of failure at school thus: “You go to the edge of the pitch hoping the ball won’t find you—but it always does. In the end, you just walk off.”
I’d like to see schools being allowed to disengage from the key stage 3 curriculum entirely, on condition that they shepherd their entire cohort through to key stage 4. The best preparation for adult life is not to have absorbed a rich diet of information, but to have become a successful learner. And frankly, with one of the most polarised education systems in the west, it could hardly produce a worse result than we have now. Plus, it wouldn’t cost anything.
Carolyn Hayman London NW5
A gentler society9th September 2010
Gavin Kelly and Nick Pearce’s call for a “new social democracy” (September) took me back—not to the co-operative traditions of the left, but to John Major. In the middle of a speech full of eulogies for nuns on bicycles and warm beer, Major called for a gentler society. He never expanded on this, but, stripped of nostalgia, he may have been on to something. Could a quest for gentleness become part of the mission for a new “social patriotism,” a guiding principle for rethinking the relationships between citizens and the state, the market, and each other? In a faster, more frantic and irreversibly diverse modern world, could gentleness chime with those who deserted new Labour?
Joe Hallgarten London E9
Serb prejudice12th September 2010
Janine di Giovanni’s report from Bosnia (September), echoes the anti-Serb bias in much western media. It’s not only inaccurate in apportioning blame for the Bosnian conflict, but dangerous, because it fosters a sense of ostracism among a new generation of Serbs, fuelling ethnic tension. Journalists must realise the influence their words can have on the feelings and opinions of the people whose views they try to portray.
Mato Lagator University of Warwick
