Write and wrong

Sir: As a former member of the Society of Authors I read with interest Julie Bindel’s article about its failure to defend J.K. Rowling when she received death threats (‘Write-off’, 26 November). I asked on the society’s ‘Children’s Writers and Illustrators’ Facebook page why they had not spoken out in support of a fellow children’s author and the administrator replied that Rowling ‘has not requested an intervention’. I hadn’t realised that the defence of freedom of speech was something which had to be specifically requested. The other responses I got ranged from blandly negative to downright vitriolic and it wasn’t long before the administrator closed the discussion. I’m quite certain that was in order to protect the society rather than any of its members. I didn’t leave the SoA in a blaze of glory, I just didn’t bother renewing my membership. I suspect I’m not the only one.

John Harris

Chelmsford

West isn’t always best

Sir: While one can hardly disagree with the overall tenor of Harriet Sergeant’s declamation of the monstrosity of the Iranian regime, it is misleading to describe it as a ‘medieval Islamic theocracy’ (‘Massacre of the innocents’, 26 November). With an intellectual milieu formed by Neoplatonic readings of the Quran, medieval Iran nurtured some of the greatest scientists, philosophers, mystics and poets of the contemporary world, including many women. Indeed, the medieval Islamic theocracy tout court was surely a happier place for women, Christians and Jews than are many of its modern successors. For now, perhaps Iranian girls have better access to social media than to books, and football and TikTok are more effective weapons in the fight to shame the tyrants. But in the longer term, a recovery of some older Persian insights may yield a better future for Iranians than the wholesale adoption of western secular liberalism, the results of which are not always the envy of the world. There are other and arguably better options than the ‘modern West vs medieval Islam’ binary, which history has demonstrated is not without dangers of its own.

Revd Dr Thomas Plant (Fellow, Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism)

Toshima City, Tokyo

Balance of power

Sir: Ross Clark quite rightly asserts that there is a huge and growing hole in the future of Britain’s electricity supply (‘Hot air’, 12 November). However, I wouldn’t agree with his views on energy storage. For many years, renewable energy has been more expensive than fossil fuels. Costs have come down as the industry has matured, and once deployed, renewable energy sources keep producing. Before storage became viable, renewable energy had to reach a tipping point, and we have now reached it. What is more relevant, however, is that renewable energy is being wasted. More than 1,300 GWh of wind was wasted between September 2021 and May this year due to an inability to store excess generation. That is enough to power 500,000 homes a day.

Mr Clark also refers to the index-linked prices of wind. One of the benefits of wind and solar is their ability to provide long-term, guaranteed, index-linked prices, whereas gas must be purchased on the energy market. It would be a false comparison to artificially inflate the cost of wind by applying the same market conditions as gas. What he fails to mention is Russia’s weaponisation of fossil fuels, to which the UK’s renewable energy industry will never be subject. Finally, he claims that we have the capacity to store less than an hour’s worth of the country’s electricity demand. However, long-duration energy storage plants can deliver electricity for anything from six hours to days and weeks.

Rupert Pearce

CEO, Highview Power, London WC2

Blessed ignorance

Sir: I was struck by the remorse expressed by Paul Parker (Letters, 26 November) over concealing his late wife’s terminal diagnosis from her. I would like to offer a note that his good intentions could have been practically sound. My grandfather faced a similar dilemma. His wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer after a hysterectomy aged 70. He decided not to tell her as he feared the revelation would cause her to rapidly deteriorate mentally and physically. My grandmother went on to live a further 15 years and died of natural causes, still oblivious of the diagnosis. It was a mystery to her doctor and family and we are convinced that in this case ignorance was bliss.

John Lovell

London

Open to debate

Sir: We are very much committed to freedom of expression within the law.
The debate in which Rod Liddle participated is just one of many around our campus (‘A course in Rod Liddle studies’, 19 November). In the interests of accuracy: i) we are not aware of anyone seeking to have Rod Liddle’s invitation to address the Durham Union Society withdrawn; ii) at no point was Professor Tim Luckhurst, as the article stated, ‘effectively suspended’; and iii) there was no parallel event debating whether Rod Liddle should be allowed to speak at Durham, only another student discussion
on the topic of freedom of speech.

Professor Antony Long

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, Durham University

On the sauce

Sir: Jeremy Clarke and his foreign correspondent friend needn’t have worried about post-Brexit HP Sauce supplies (Low life, 19 November). Its production – and associated jobs – moved from Birmingham to the Netherlands in 2007.

Steve Chilvers

Lowestoft, Suffolk

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