Con’s the word

Sir: In his article ‘Neo con’ (6 June) Michael Simmons claims that neoliberalism powered this country into the 21st century as the fastest-growing large economy in Europe. It didn’t; it was the North Sea that fuelled the UK’s growth, the UK being the only large European economy gifted by geology with major oil and gas fields. Comparing the UK and Norway over this period is enlightening. The UK, believing in neoliberalism, sold off its national oil company BNOC and trusted in ‘the market’, while Norway, wanting a direct stake in its substantial oil and gas resource, created the state-owned company Statoil to manage it. The sobering result was that between 1971 and 2017, the UK’s tax revenue from the North Sea was $11 a barrel, while that of Norway was $33 a barrel. In total, the UK’s tax revenue from North Sea oil and gas production has been more than £400 billion, while had it followed Norway’s approach it would have been three times higher. In this sector alone, neoliberalism has cost the UK £100 billion that could have been invested in defence, infrastructure, health and education. At least Simmons got his headline right – neoliberalism is a con.

Richard Creasey
Greetham, Rutland

The politicians we deserve

Sir: Rod Liddle laments the shallowness of modern politicians (‘Kemi has given me hope’, 6 June). The more interesting question is whether we simply get the politicians we deserve. Political parties select for media skills, loyalty and slogan-making. Voters increasingly reward relatability and social media fluency. It is hardly surprising that depth of knowledge, historical understanding and intellectual curiosity sometimes seem in short supply.

Standards of appearance have changed too. Yet there is a difference between appearing approachable and appearing unserious. If the electorate prefers politicians who look and sound exactly like themselves, it should not be surprised when expertise and authority are harder to find.

Ronald Lansdell
St Helier, Jersey

Powell play

Sir: Toby Young wonders if Anthony Powell’s 12-volume A Dance to the Music of Time would qualify for one’s chosen book on Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs (No sacred cows, 6 June). I can reassure him that I sneaked it past Sue Lawley when I appeared on said programme. I also forced her to listen to the Scottish band Mogwai, but that’s another story.

Sir Ian Rankin
Edinburgh

Restore v Reform

Sir: James Heale’s article analysed the contest between Reform and Restore (‘How Lowe can they go?’, 6 June). In my experience, James is right that there seems to be greater support for Restore among Gen Z men. Looking at the breakdown of law and order in this country, mass deportations and capital punishment have become very attractive to the many I have spoken to. But the Tories are still popular in some quarters – many seem confident that they will come back strong, despite their evident failures in power in recent years.

Reform UK seems neither here nor there. The party is walking the tightrope, balancing against winds from both sides. One thing is certain: there is unprecedented political volatility on the right.

Henry Bateson
Whittingham, Northumberland

Tongue-tied

Sir: Like Christopher Forrest (Letters, 6 June), I was raised in the ‘seen not heard’ era. I chafed, and when the time came to take budding acquaintances out to dinner à deux, I had no idea how to manage the encounter. I’d been taught to be tongue-tied. With teenaged children of my own now, we often go to a very decent Italian restaurant where they are encouraged to discuss matters of consequence, engage with the waiters and learn how to behave like adults in civilised society. I’m looking forward to lively debates as they reach voting age.

J. John Dyer
Poole, Dorset

Pray for them

Sir: Lionel Shriver (‘Who fancies a pint in Reeves’s ideal pub?’, 6 June) observes that rural pubs are among the last places where one can strike up a conversation with a stranger without being regarded as a nuisance. Another such is parish churches. These remain rare spaces where people of different ages, incomes and backgrounds still meet face to face.

Just as pubs are being squeezed by higher taxes and rising costs, churches are facing a blow of their own. One of the government’s most shortsighted decisions has been to abolish the Listed Places of Worship grant scheme. Since 2001, that has enabled churches, chapels, synagogues, mosques and temples to reclaim the VAT on essential repairs, helping to preserve more than 13,000 historic buildings. The scheme has been replaced by a more bureaucratic fund that will support only a limited number of particularly significant buildings. Many ordinary parish churches will face an even greater struggle to afford repairs, despite serving not only as places of worship but also as venues for coffee mornings, concerts, play groups, debt advice, exercise classes and so on.

The English parish church is at least as irreplaceable as the English pub. It is unfortunate that the Chancellor seems determined to make life harder for both.

The Revd Richard Coombs
Rector of Cheltenham

That false worm

Sir: For the sake of accuracy in Flora Watkins’s article on tequila, I would like to point out that no bottle of tequila has ever had a worm in it (‘Notes on… tequila’, 6 June). Tequila regulations do not allow the presence of insects or any other addition to the finished spirit, and it may only be made with the Weber blue agave plant. The myth emerged as the worm, or gusano, which feeds on agave plants is found in some mezcals – a smokier spirit which is a cousin of tequila. This was introduced into some mezcals as a marketing gimmick in the 1940s.

Chris Nadin
Retired tequila brand director, Diageo
Child Okeford, Dorset

Wrong about John

Sir: I disagree with Robin Simon’s dismissal of the art of Gwen John: ‘her endless droopy women with the light and life sucked out of them’ (Arts, 6 June). On the contrary, she imbues her subjects with a gentle serenity. John had a genius ability to paint in the ‘minor key’, reminiscent, I venture, of Vermeer. He continues by excoriating Ben Nicholson’s work, oblivious to his fusing of still life with landscape into a non-figurative abstract space. Lastly, he castigates the Bloomsbury set, who may not have reached great painterly heights, but who certainly helped to shake up moribund Victorian aesthetics and take us into the modern world.

Richard Philp
London