Disgraceful 18C retreat

Sir: The articles by Brendan O’Neill (A Dark Day for Australia 9/8) and James Allan (Tony Abbott – The New David Cameron? 16/8) perfectly convey the disgrace of the Abbott government’s retreat from 18C. Also, your editorial “Voltaire’s Vision” which reinforces the fact Australia doesn’t need debate replaced by state censorship.

It strikes me as a shocking reflection on those we have elected that not one Abbott government minister, including Attorney-General Brandis, had the ability to barrack for and succinctly explain the vital and amazingly simple concept of free speech.

Still, the Liberal Party erroneously maintains on its website the words “We believe ….. in those most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy – the freedom of thought, worship, speech and association.”

The Liberal Party website will obviously need to have the words “freedom of thought” and “speech” removed.
Chris Harrington
St Ives, NSW

Deceitful politicians

Sir: It is surprising to see Alan Gold (‘Betraying Israel for the Muslim vote’, 9/8) so cynical about politicians being cynical enough to prefer votes over principle and tradition.

The great reality is that having the best policies possible means nothing if you do not have the legislative power to implement them. Additionally, lack of trust in politicians has been around for millenia. Think of Cicero, Augustine, Machiavelli, Thomas More, to mention a few notable observers. Then you will appreciate that many politicians, especially when in government, are frequently disingenuous and sometimes outright deceitful.
Alfred P Zarb
Leura, NSW

Worth the candle

Sir: I was saddened by Charles Moore’s account of the Westminster Abbey candlelit vigil marking the centenary of the start of the first world war (The Spectator’s Notes’, 9 August). At each of the four quarters of the Abbey (representing the four corners of the British Empire), he notes, there was one big candle and one dignitary assigned to snuff it out. He was ‘niggled’ to be in the South Transept, where ‘our big-candle snuffer was Lady Warsi’.

Baroness Warsi had been chosen to represent the upwards of one million men from the Indian subcontinent who took part in the Great War. The Indian army was possibly the largest volunteer army in the world at the start of the war. Only six weeks after the war’s outbreak, Kitchener (then war secretary) brought in the first of seven ‘Indian Expeditionary Forces’ — some 130,000 men — who were rushed to the Western Front. Around 9,000 died in Flanders and France, six of whom received the Victoria Cross. Many more would later lose their lives fighting for the Empire in the Middle East and Africa.

I was born in south India and I am proud to be British — and would die for my country if called upon. I am also conscious that none of those fallen from the land of my birth are honoured, by name, on war memorials. They are remembered only on paper in archives and in the memory of their surviving loved ones. Baroness Warsi snuffed out that candle in Westminster Abbey in their honour.
Tazi Husain
Chairman, Tempsford Memorial Trust,
Bedfordshire

Your father should know

Sir: As one of his ‘aged parents’ to whom James Delingpole refers (16 August), I’d like the opportunity to give him the good news. I shall be celebrating my 80th birthday just before he has his 50th, and can report that life does actually get much better as you age, if you’re lucky enough to hang on to your faculties.

Looking through the list of things he thinks he’s never going to do, I am glad I was able to learn the rudiments of Mandarin and Russian at the age of 18, but attempting to learn Modern Greek now is proving impossible. Being able to walk for a couple of miles along the top of the Malvern Hills every day, with the odd eight-miler at weekends, is far more enjoyable than a marathon would be. Can there be any more wonderful view, with the Cotswolds and the Severn to your right, and the vista right across Wales to your left? We have an excellent University of the Third Age here in Malvern, with a choice of 80 different courses, from archaeology to ukulele playing. I shall never master golf, and my bridge will only ever be social, but I would say to James that hopefully he’s got at least another 30 years to enjoy life, so he should do the things that give him satisfaction, be content with his lot and make the most of his time with his children.

As for sleeping with that supermodel, it was only ever in the mind — wasn’t it?
Malcolm Delingpole
Malvern, Worcestershire

The use of animals

Sir: I share Martha Gill’s reluctance to sacrifice lab animals without good cause (‘Lab test’, 16 August) but her distinction between research and teaching is specious. If he has never tried it, how can a budding researcher know if he has the stomach for working with animals? The first day of his PhD is too late to realise that he has not.
Dr James McEvoy
Centre for Biomedical Sciences,
Royal Holloway University of London
Egham, Surrey

A reader bites back

Sir: Iain Dale’s declaration that he will not be publishing a book by Roger Lewis because of the way he reviewed Dusty: an Intimate Portrait (Letters, 16 August) prompted me to reread Mr Lewis’s review, twice. I detected none of the homophobic sentiments claimed. If Mr Dale’s letter is an indicator of the present state of his editorial acumen, then Roger Lewis and his book have had a lucky escape.
Paul Barnes
Norwich