Beyond good and evil

Sir: In your Christmas issue, both James Macmillan (Composer’s Notebook) and Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, in his interview with Andrew Roberts, refer to the ‘war between good and evil’, as if most of us experience life on Earth as a continuous struggle of this kind. But many issues cannot be polarised so simplistically, and our understanding of religion and psychology has moved on. Who is to decide which people are good and which evil? Some fundamentalist Christians regard the Dalai Lama as evil. In international relations, it is surely dangerous to use this kind of language: while the actions of Hamas are undoubtedly evil, I doubt if it is helpful to revive the rhetoric of G.W. Bush and ‘the axis of evil’. Perhaps The Spectator could present a discussion of the issue.

Stephen Terry

Lustleigh, Devon

Larder than life

Sir: The Christmas cover by Morten Morland is pure genius. He has got to be the greatest cartoonist of our day; every time I look at that cover, I laugh. Besides making the people recognisable, he puts them in the right part of the pantry and in a shape that reflects their personality and importance. Giorgia Meloni Panettone is a particular favourite. Please congratulate him.

Marcia Brocklebank

Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk

Small print

Sir: A shame that David Hare (Playwright’s Notebook, 16-30 December) included a Scrooge-like rant accusing the newspapers that ‘are loudest about freedom of speech’ of being ‘the ones which forbid it themselves’; saying ‘Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere both no-platform with a ruthlessness which makes student unions look permissive’. In fact worse recent incidents of newspaper de-platforming have occurred at the Guardian, which claims its ownership model makes it ‘beholden to no one’. Two long-serving columnists, Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freeman, were hounded out by a mob of Guardian employees unwilling to allow them to express views they judged unacceptable. It appears neither received the support they might have expected from the ‘independent’ Guardian editorial board or the Scott Trust. These left-leaning writers found sanctuary in the ‘enemy’ camp: Moore at the Telegraph and Freeman at the Sunday Times.

John Coen

Cheam, Sutton

A child’s purpose

Sir: A propos Alexander Herzen and the death of his little boy (Playwright’s Notebook), Herzen did not write that short-lived flowers have the brightest bloom. What he did write – I’m lightly editing – deserves to be remembered: ‘Because children grow up, we think a child’s purpose is to grow up. But a child’s purpose is to be a child. Nature does not disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment. We don’t value the lily less for not being made of flint.’

Tom Stoppard

Dorset

Job done

Sir: I’d like to offer some cautious comfort to Kate Andrews (‘In search of a second epiphany’, 16-30 December), who identified with the suffering of Job but not with his ultimate restoration. Norman Snaith, my tutor at theological college and a Hebrew scholar, reckoned that the last few chapters recording Job’s restoration were added later, and that the book should really end with Job’s conclusion that life can be rough and God knows best. Kate’s anger, therefore, is both reasonable and acceptable.

Bryan Webster

Eyemouth

Snoring like a pig

Sir: Charles Moore asks for the source of ‘hoggish slumber’ in P.G. Wodehouse (‘Divine comedy’, 16-30 December). Madame Eulalie’s Rare Plums website attributes it to R.L. Stephenson in ‘The Ebb Tide’ (1893): ‘…from the moment he rolled up the chart, his hours were passed in hoggish slumber.’

Andrew Edgington

Bristol

Pilgrim’s progress

Sir: I read with interest Mary Wakefield’s article ‘Turning away the worshippers’ (9 December). My wife and I have visited all 42 Anglican cathedrals in England this year (plus one or two in Scotland, Wales and Ireland). More often than not, we were greeted at the entrances by an invitation to contribute. Sometimes these invitations were of a mandatory nature. However if we explained what we were doing, we were treated as pilgrims and allowed in free. All cathedrals were as inviting and welcoming as could be, except for Christ Church Oxford. Here we were told at the gate that it was a ticket-only entry and the concessions were for alumni and permanent residents of Oxford. In discussion with the gentleman at the gate, the concept of pilgrimage and silent prayer was greeted with an incredulity bordering on contempt.

Ralph Rolls

Fontwell, West Sussex

Still laughing

Sir: I feel compelled to correct the final sentence of Charles Moore’s otherwise touching account of George Kershaw’s laughing relationship with Harry Beaufort (Notes, 6 December). My wife and I often spend Sunday evenings with George and his wonderful wife Sarah, during which our exchanges invariably range from erudite discussions about the state of the world to regular fits of uncontrollable mirth. I am thus happy to report that despite his hunting accident and resulting disability, George has lost neither the talent nor the faculty to have a good laugh, and as regards the Beethoven comparison, I am sure he would be the first to point out that the great man did much of his best work after he went deaf.

Martin Smith

Long Newnton, Glos

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