Rights and wrongs

Sir: As one of those centre-left weirdos who reads your magazine to see what the other side is thinking, I was surprised by your assertions regarding Britain’s wrong economic turn (‘Labour’s inheritance’, 25 July). There is a reason why Britain’s economy has grown so slowly since 2008 and it is directly related to the financial crisis you mention in the same paragraph – the bailout for which was laid on the taxpayer, resulting in the austerity agenda, both of which significantly dragged on GDP. There was a cross-party faith that the financial system would regulate itself. The same thinking applied to Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy on council houses: buy your house and let the market sort the rest. We know this has not happened with sufficient volume or affordability.

If people are turning to Burnhamism, it’s because the right has failed to put enough guardrails on the opportunities it affords.

Mark Peachey
St Helens, Merseyside

How to spend it

Sir: Your leading article of 25 July mentioned Roger Douglas, who was finance minister of the New Zealand Labour party. He certainly understood finance and published his thoughts in a book titled Towards Prosperity. Key to the NZ approach was its annual yearbook. It looked at its sources of income and what resources were needed to earn it, which led on to national income, immigration policy, taxation and expenditure. This seemed perfectly logical to me and makes an interesting comparison to our own approach, which seems to miss a few steps before it gets to the spend stage.

Clive Marsh
East Sussex

Smoke screen

Sir: James Dixon’s excellent piece (‘Pipe dreams’, 25 July) reminded me of a lecture given by an experienced detective in the 1980s. He informed us junior CIDs that ‘never in the course of solving thousands of serious offences did I ever encounter a criminal who smoked a pipe’.

Graham Cox
Bexhill

In the pipeline

Sir: I enjoyed James Dixon’s defence of the pipe, which provided a convincing argument for smoking slowly in solitude. However it would be remiss of me as secretary for the Pipe Club of Norfolk not to point out that smoking in company can be just as rewarding. Convivial conversation, sharing tobaccos and, occasionally, comparing pipes. In fact, what better form of ‘doing nothing’ could there be than a slow smoking competition? Visitors or prospective members would be made most welcome.

Joe Morris
Norwich, Norfolk

A crafty puff

Sir: I bought my first pipe from Woolworths while still at school in 1969, and didn’t give up tobacco until smoking in pubs was banned in 2007. James Dixon brought back memories of smoke-filled bars where a pipeful of Condor complemented both beer and conversation. Within one year of the ban an estimated 1,500 pubs closed. My career as a prep-school master also altered as common rooms became sanitised, and the opportunity for a crafty puff or two between lessons was outlawed. We cricket masters commonly smoked our pipes while umpiring matches, where few could resist the temptation to blast out a cloud of smoke just as the opposition fast bowler reached the pinnacle of his delivery stride.

John Walker
Abingdon, Oxon

Kemi’s strategy

Sir: Matthew Parris (‘Kemi needs her centrists’, 25 July) laments Kemi Badenoch’s sharpness toward the softer, nougaty centre of the Conservative party, who balk at her stances on the ECHR and net zero. He is right that she will eventually need a broad church, but underplays the longer-term, two-phase strategy needed to build a credible opposition. Kemi and her party’s immediate priority is existential: fending off the Nigel-inclined flank by offering something familiar that millions on the right can buy into, without having to make the leap to Reform.

The second act – loosening up to welcome a wider array of Cameroon Conservative views – can begin only once she has won back those who felt the Tories had grown too ‘meh’ to be trusted.

​Louis de Verilles
Hertfordshire

Man up

Sir: Joan Alexander (‘Advance notice’) and Melissa Kite (‘Save the date’) nicely portray the challenges of modern-day relationships (25 July). From my recent experience at university, young men are terrified about being perceived as creepy. They will forgo the opportunity to ask a woman out, fearing not only rejection, but reputational damage. It explains why men are hiding behind their mobile phones. According to research, 45 per cent of men between the ages of 18 and 25 have never made a romantic approach to a woman in their entire life. The paradox is that around 85 per cent of women want men to make the first move. Given that our birth rate is an ominous 1.39 children per woman, we should be sending men a more positive message, signalling the importance of approaching women confidently and respectfully. A simple cultural change like this could be enormously beneficial for society in the long term.

Henry Bateson
Whittingham, Northumberland

Shorts shrift

Sir: I am 89 and I feel Andrew Nash is a little pessimistic in advocating against the wearing of shorts by elderly men (Letters, 25 July). Spindly shanks can be much improved sartorially by the wearing of knee-length white stockings resembling the white football socks worn by a number of the football World Cup teams, and will hence become iconic.

Robin Aird
Wolverton Common, Hampshire

Cabinet women

Sir: Charles Moore asks if he is ‘right to be shocked that the Burnham cabinet contains 33.333 per cent fewer gay men than the Starmer one?’ (Notes, 25 July). I’d say no: the cabinet’s inclusion of Angela Eagle, a gay woman, surely compensates for this? Further, more noteworthy to me is that for the very first time in British political history, women comprise half the cabinet, thus at last achieving gender parity in the highest offices of state.

Peter Saunders
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Boring on

Sir: I cannot agree with Steve Morris (Notes on…, 25 July) about seeking out and listening to party bores. What is interesting about the fact that the junction of the A29 and the A272 gets blocked? Or the junction of the A24 and the A27? You see, I’m doing it myself now. Boringness is contagious. I can go on about this at some length.

Antony Bird
Petworth