Back to work

Sir: I read with interest Martin Vander Weyer’s clarion call to ‘Mr and Mrs Early-Retired Spectator Reader’ to return to work (Any other business, 14 January).

The successful realisation of this aim is likely to require both a nudge from government, possibly through the tax system, and employers to show greater creativity. This pressing economic need will not be met if ‘grey returners’ are treated to the same expectations and orthodoxy as thrusting 35-year-olds.

What is required, as Martin rightly notes, is flexibility. Flexible hours, flexible work practices and a flexible attitude to those who, having ‘seen and done it’ several times over, are confident in challenging, and demonstrating candour in, the workplace. If employers can adjust to these realities they will reap the benefits of experience, knowledge and, if I may pompously claim, the wisdom that increasing years can bring.

Richard List (aged 56 years and five months, now back in the workplace)

Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

Things to remember

Sir: In the main I agree with Mary Wakefield that we now spend far too much time documenting and curating our lives online and that this is not our ‘own internal remembered past’ (‘Real memories aren’t “made”’, 7 January). However, I have noticed that the most frequent references to ‘making memories’ are from people facing a terminal diagnosis or an uncertain future. ‘Making memories’ gives such people a way of living what remains of their lives, a sense of purpose. They do so mainly so that their loved ones have a record of their lives together. It’s something I am sure anyone who has lost a loved one will appreciate.

Louise Walters

London N8

Spare time

Sir: Possibly fuelled by the visceral loathing Prince Harry has for the press, he has received nigh on unanimous condemnation from commentators at The Spectator and other publications, with the widespread view being that the chance of rapprochement within the royal family has evaporated (Books, 14 January).

Yet, however toxic his wife appears to be, and however muddled, self-pitying and spoiled Harry is, it is clear that he is deeply troubled – and, like his parents before him, is desperate to let ‘his truth’ be known about what has been played out, in his mind unjustly, in the British media. Taking a dispassionate view, it is also clear that both sides would like to come together again, that the monarchy is too important for our country to allow this unfortunate episode to harm it, and that the deep love that many a father, not least the King, has for his son will override all manner of hurt far worse than that emanating from Harry.

Tim Coles

Carlton, Bedfordshire

Humans being

Sir: Ivor Morgan argues (Letters, 14 January) that the Turing test for AI should be superseded by a Spectator test whereby AI is judged by a computer’s ability to ‘read’ a Spectator article, inwardly digest it and then write a letter that is published in the magazine. All well and good – but if and when this happens where does that leave the many readers who have failed to have their contributions acknowledged in this way? Do we become second-class citizens? Do we lose our subscriptions and our bottle of Pol Roger as people not worthy?

Stephen Tarry

Broad Hinton,Wiltshire

Given the boot

Sir: Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s notes on Kiwi shoe polish (14 January) took me back to 1947 as a young National Service sapper at Cove Barracks, Farnborough. We knew enough to make sure we kept away from Cherry Blossom which was hopeless at bulling army boots. Kiwi was the stuff every time. Both my boots finished up looking like patent leather – hours and hours sitting on the bed bulling away – complete with healthy competition as to whose came out best. The big problem was that there were army boots and army boots. You could guarantee that one pair would be un-polishable because they were rubbish. Nevertheless we just plugged away because there wasn’t much else to do. One of my smart compatriots smuggled in a prepared pair of boots and had much easier time of it. I just wish I’d thought of that idea.

Bernard Cowley

Blakeney, Norfolk

Best of the bunch

Sir: The strangest use of the word ‘bunch’ (Mind your language, 7 January) that I have heard was in New York in 2003. We were there for a long weekend just before Christmas and were about to head off to explore when it began to snow in earnest. A fellow guest turned to us and remarked: ‘Say, this weather’s a bunch of crap.’ It had never occurred to me that either weather or crap could come in bunches, but looking out of the window now at the driving rain and howling gale I can only repeat our American friend’s comment.

Julia Pickles

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Pump it up

Sir: Spectator motorists hoping to fill up their tanks with petrol priced at 152p a gallon (Barometer, 7 January) will be bitterly disappointed. This figure refers, of course, to the cost of a litre of petrol. The equivalent cost for a gallon (4.55 litres) is £6.92. To put this into historical perspective, when I had a holiday job as a petrol pump attendant in south London in the mid-1960s, a gallon of petrol cost 4s 11d (25p). A litre cost just over a shilling (5p) – although petrol being priced in litres would have been thought absurd at that time. By the same token, the prospect of motorists being expected to operate the petrol pumps, check oil levels and tyre pressures themselves and clean their own windscreens would have seemed equally far-fetched.

David Thomas

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Get 10 issues for just $10

Subscribe to The Spectator Australia today for the next 10 magazine issues, plus full online access, for just $10.

SUBSCRIBE 10 issues for $10 REGISTER 3 articles a month

Already a subscriber? Log in