Zero sense

Sir: Ross Clark’s article (‘Hot air’, 12 November) neatly sums up some of the fallacies of the net zero target. Electricity generation currently fulfils about 20 per cent of the UK’s total energy demand – of which at best 40 per cent is covered by wind, solar, and hydro: i.e. 8 per cent of total energy demand is fulfilled from renewable sources. Are we really expected to believe that in the next 27 years electricity generation from renewables will grow 12.5 times – or from any source five times – and that the infrastructure will be put in place to deliver it?

James Fairbairn

Oxford

Thank you, Jeremy

Sir: I lunched today with friends, one fighting the unwinnable battle against Motor Neurone Disease. I have known him for more than 50 years and the sadness in seeing him in such decline was immense. Sitting by the fire after with my new copy of The Spectator,I inevitably turned to Jeremy Clarke’s column (12 November) and read of his kindness, like my chum’s, in turning out to join his friends for a lunch he could not eat. It was very moving to read Jeremy’s assertion that it may be his last such lunch – barring a turn for the better. I am sure I am not alone in wanting to thank him, and Catriona and his family, for his courageous, witty and honest writing on his long battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with him.

Christopher D. Forrest

Yealmpton, Devon

Conserving energy

Sir: Stephen Bayley wants to have a rant about ‘heritage’ and my book has provided him with the chance (Books, 12 November). He has long made up his mind about the subject and nothing was ever going to persuade him otherwise, least of all reading a book on the topic – and one which he admits to not having entirely read. His review is strewn with factual errors, he twists things and attributes views to me I do not hold. Elevating David Watkin to my ‘mentor’ allows him to make unpleasant insinuations. Heslington Hall was not pulled down but stands proudly as York University’s senate house. I nowhere mention a Georgian house or a caravan park.

For Bayley, all heritage endeavour is nostalgic, harking back to a golden age. Yet the great heritage battles which are the subject of my book had nothing to do with nostalgia: saving the London Commons in the 1860s; saving the Lake District; preventing ribbon development in the 1930s; the backlash against 1960s developments. The activists and communities who fought these battles were looking at human values. The residents who saved Macclesfield and Covent Garden were not indulging in nostalgia but in saving the area they loved.

Bayley offensively refers to ‘proles’ who should not be allowed to move about. The mid-1990s battles over the M3 and A34 were grassroots movements, one local and the other national, at a time when popular opinion was beginning to think in green terms. These battles had a strong influence on the incoming Labour government’s transport policy. Bayley is, I fear, trapped in his own nostalgia: a 1970s view of heritage.

James Stourton

Stour Provost, Dorset

Dependency culture

Sir: Congratulations to Matthew Parris for his excellent article (‘We’ve lost interest in our dependencies’, 12 November), raising the issue of the Chagos Islands, and the last-minute decision to postpone the London meeting of the Joint Ministerial Council because the minister responsible, Zac Goldsmith, wanted to attend Cop27.

Mr Parris is correct that Britain has lost interest in our overseas territories, although the monarch is still their head of state. He points out that ‘the inhabitants want them to be British, and we have a responsibility to these people’. This was brought home to me by watching the 2016 BBC4 documentary Britain’s Treasure Islands. The geographer and biologist Stewart McPherson spent three years planning this trip of a lifetime, and claims to be the only person to have visited every one of the 14 territories scattered across the globe.

Mr McPherson’s main interests were the landscape, the wildlife and the history, but the highlight for me was seeing the people’s incredible loyalty to this country, their community spirit and hard work: an example for us all today. It is still not clear to me where the responsibility for our overseas dependencies lies – is it the Foreign Office or the MoD? I commend the documentary to Mr Parris and your readers.

Paul Knocker

Bembridge, Isle of Wight

Wilde times

Sir: Ten minutes after reading Dot Wordsworth on the word ‘Invasion’ (12 November), I happened to open Oscar Wilde’s essays and lighted on his 1887 piece ‘The American Invasion’. Unlike many more recent American invasions, this one was wholly pacific, and seemed chiefly to involve Buffalo Bill, someone called Mrs Brown-Potter and numbers of eligible young ladies intent on bagging a titled spouse (along with their ‘dreary’ mothers). Wilde is full of enthusiasm for this particular invasion (apart from the mothers), concluding: ‘There can be no doubt that, of all the factors that have contributed to the social revolution of London, there are few more important, and none more delightful, than the American Invasion.’

Graham Chainey

Brighton

Royal titles

Sir: I agree with Charles Moore that the term ‘King Charles’ is grating (5 November) and he should simply be referred to as just ‘The King’. But what about the Queen Consort? Surely she should be ‘Queen Camilla’, in the same manner as Prince Philip or Queen Mary? We all know she’s the consort, and not the queen regnant. We don’t need this constant reminding.

Adrian Fogarty

London W4

 

The post Letters: Camilla should not be called ‘Queen Consort’ appeared first on The Spectator.

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