How to reform the NHS

Sir: During the pandemic I and millions of others went out every week and clapped for the NHS (‘National health disservice’, 8 July). But if you’ve experienced it lately, it’s a dystopian nightmare. Appointments regularly cancelled, paperwork missing, 1950s administration. It appears the only thing being managed at the NHS is its decline. A working group of trusted business leaders should consider ‘best practice’ at excellent private and public hospitals in the UK and across Europe, and implement reform of the service immediately. The Tories don’t have the bottle or anyone with the talent to get this under way. All the reform talk is coming from Labour, and at the election this will cost the Tories dear.

Joe Hanson

Preston, Lancashire

Health wealth

Sir: Kate Andrews explains that the NHS performs very well in international comparisons of health spending as a percentage of GDP. But this doesn’t allow for the size of GDP, nor how many people there are sharing the health spend between them. In terms of health spend in dollars per person, the NHS is in about 15th place, significantly behind countries such as Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Norway, where expenditure is at least a quarter more per capita.

Trevor Cooper

Arundel, West Sussex

Whose English?

Sir: Charles Moore (Notes, 8 July) refers to arguments over the name of the Queen’s English Society. In September 2021 (a year before her late Majesty’s death) we voted by a large majority to remain as the Queen’s English Society. But since the accession of King Charles III, several members, including N.M. Gwynne, have said we should become the King’s English Society. Other members argue for no change. To slightly misquote the musical: ‘We are reviewing the situation.’ We welcome new members, royal or non-royal, from all over the world who share our interest in good English. Google can lead you to us.

Michael Gorman

Secretary, the Queen’s English Society

Guildford, Surrey

Tilting at windows

Sir: Christopher Howse’s ‘Notes on… Windows’ (8 July) reminded me of so-called ‘witch’ windows, a type found mostly in the state of Vermont, USA in older farmhouses. Tilted sideways at 45 degrees from vertical in gable-end walls, they confound architectural aesthetics, discombobulating the eye. Folklore would have it that they were designed to prevent entry by witches, who were believed to be unable to fly their broomsticks through crooked openings.

Peter Saunders

Salisbury, Wiltshire

Exposed

Sir: I was intrigued to read Ivo Dawnay’s article about being classed as a politically exposed person (‘PEP talk’, 8 July). I suggest that the underlying problem is the structure of the UK and international anti-money-laundering legislation, which establishes the concept of the PEP.

The first issue is that while banks are obliged to comply with this legislation, the regulators give no indication of the extent of assessment required. They only promise to come down on such institutions like a ton of bricks if they conclude that not enough has been done. The result is inevitably massive overkill. A second issue is that the process of establishing and disseminating anti-money-laundering information is also required to remain undisclosed, for fear of tipping off a criminal. So there is no accountability or means of redress when something goes awry. Finally, no ‘de-minimis’ concept is permitted, despite the fact that money laundering invariably involves large sums. It is clear that Mr Dawnay’s brother-in-law, until recently the UK prime minister, is a PEP, but is there any reason for this to extend to Mr Dawnay himself and his $200?

Nigel Kavanagh-Brown

Tideswell, Derbyshire

A cruise with Low Life

Sir: I was lucky enough to meet Catriona Olding and Jeremy Clarke on the wonderful Spectator Mediterranean cruise in August 2015, and briefly got to know them. I hadn’t realised, until reading her fond farewell to Jeremy in the magazine (‘Life with Low Life’, 8 July), what a fine writer she is. Perhaps she should have a column of her own in your magazine. ‘My Life’?

Peter Johns

Macclesfield

The pride before the Fall

Sir: Matthew Parris identifies how in abolishing God (‘Our God complex’, 1 July) people have now taken it upon themselves to be the ultimate arbiters of good and evil and to mete out rewards and punishments. This is the pride or conceit which is signified in the story of the Fall of humankind. As Peter Hitchens writes in his book The Rage Against God, it is this faith in ‘the greatness and perfectibility of human society’ without God or an understanding of human fallibility which has frequently led to the worst excesses of history and the absence of any forgiveness.

Christine Crossley (religious studies teacher)

Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

Cricket and not cricket

Sir: Henry Blofeld is right about the laws of cricket and the problem with English indignation (Diary, 8 July). I would go further. In sport and politics, partisan positions cloud judgment. Claiming a penalty that is unjustified or accusing an opponent of deceit while justifying an almost identical stance from your own side is brazen and undignified. As the perpetually acerbic William F. Buckley once said: ‘I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.’

Struan Macdonald

Hayes, Kent

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