Heading south?21st June 2010
David Goldblatt’s preview of South Africa’s World Cup (June) refers to “the southern hemisphere, where most of the world lives.” Has there been some rapid continental drift in recent weeks, or have vast numbers of the populations of China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico and the US suddenly emigrated?
Benjamin Levy London W4Make them work longer 110th July 2010
Tim Leunig (July) joins the chorus advocating a continually rising retirement age to offset the fiscal consequences of increasing life expectancy. At an aggregate level, this is persuasive. Yet there are large variations in life expectancy by social class and occupation, and later retirement is hugely unequal in its impact on, say, gas fitters in Glasgow and stockbrokers in Surrey.
Might it be fairer to allow retirement after a set number of years in the labour market, rather than at an absolute age? The pension age could, for example, be defined as x years after a person left full-time education. If the starting figure was 45 years, school-leavers at 18 could access their pension at 63, while those completing their PhDs at 26 would wait until they were 71. Future adjustments, in response to greater life expectancy, would then be achieved by periodically increasing the “x factor” as necessary.
David Griffiths HuddersfieldMake them work longer 26th July 2010
I’m a civil servant who supports Tim Leunig’s suggestion of a transitional retirement scheme to age 65. I was surprised when Gordon Brown withdrew similar proposals a few years ago—most staff would probably have accepted them or something similar. One issue not touched on by Leunig, however, is the effect on unemployment among the young. Keeping on older people chokes off careers for youngsters at a time when their dynamism and new approach is badly needed. Added to this, the civil service has been undergoing radical retrenchment in the last few years. HM Revenue & Customs, where I work, has reduced from 100,000 to 70,000 employees in five years. I’ll leave others to discuss Stephen Nickell’s point (July) that Labour always overestimated the tax take. Did they get rid of too many tax officials?
Andy Grainger Via the Prospect websiteDon’t fear the web24th June 2010
Both Evgeny Morozov (July) and Nicholas Carr, whose book Morozov refers to, seem to have a very shallow understanding of the internet. For a start, Carr suggests that internet users spend their time clicking on link after link. But only a moron would do this. When Carr goes into his favourite library, does he open every book?
Carr’s underlying assumption is that internet users engage in all possible web activities—tweet, Facebook, email, post videos, search, blog—and that they do it all the time and all at once. This is entirely untrue. Internet users are segmented by their usage, which depends on many factors—age, profession, gender and so on. Likewise, he suggests that our natural reaction to the ubiquity of modern technology—especially the cameras and recorders that come with mobile phones—would be to stop any unusual behaviour for fear it may be made public. Have you seen how many videos there are of people doing risky stunts? Meanwhile, this seems to contradict Morozov’s later point about narcissism. Surely narcissistic teenagers wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from posting self-promoting videos? And I was under the assumption that teenagers were narcissistic self-promoters long before the dawn of the internet.
Nick Stone Via the Prospect websiteHow to get rhythm28th June 2010
Both Philip Ball’s account (July) of how musicians keep time, and the experiment to which it refers, are flawed. Keeping time is no more mysterious to the experienced musician than hitting the ball correctly is to the experienced cricketer. It is all about accurately predicting the future, making the correct choice as to how to react, and executing the action efficiently. Ask a musician how they make an ensemble work. It’s simple, in principle. Yes, there is often a lead voice, just as there is a captain in a sports team who directs the action, but to think that the other players don’t have a profound effect on how the group goes about its business is naive.
Pete Langman Goldsmiths CollegeMore women senators11th July 2010
“Washington Watch” (July) claims that California is the only US state with two female senators. That is not correct: two other states, Maine and Washington, also do not have male senators. And in each of these three states, the two senators have quite similar voting records. In both California and Washington, the senators are Democrats and mostly on their party’s left-wing; in Maine, the two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, are two of the only remaining moderates at that party’s national level.
Jeff Hoover New Haven, ConnecticutStop the spongers?2nd July 2010
As I’m one of the shameless spongers James Hawes (June) writes about, I don’t suppose he meant to make me laugh. But his idea that we so-called baby boomers (I was born in 1951) are “fit enough to bugger about down the gym” and should stop it and “damn well help out with their own bloody grandchildren,” had me helpless with laughter. I am not entirely sure why his article had this particular effect, but I’d like to thank him for a Sunday afternoon of exceedingly therapeutic giggling.
Angela Young London SW11Not the first theatre25th June 2010
Joseph O’Connor (June) describes the Abbey Theatre in Dublin as “the world’s first national theatre.” This canard is widely believed in Ireland, yet the Abbey was preceded by several national theatres—look no further than Prague.
Hugo Brady Brown Co Wicklow, IrelandLib-Con disasters25th June 2010
Dick Leonard’s summary of past Lib-Con coalitions (July) deals admirably with those of 1895 and 1931. Both ended up with Liberals dividing their party, but this was even more true of the one peacetime coalition which he leaves out: that of 1918-22, in which over half the Liberal MPs followed Lloyd George into a right-wing anti-Labour alliance, hastening the Liberals’ demise as a credible party of government.
What he should add is that the coalitions of 1895, 1918 and 1931 were all disastrous. The first prevented Irish self-government and was responsible for the Boer war. The second saw us plunge into economic depression. The third made the social effects of that depression even worse. Each time, the Liberal coalitionists showed themselves to be mostly shallow opportunists willing to jettison their principles for the sake of office. This time around, with the supposed heirs of the early Lloyd George, Keynes and Beveridge smugly accepting Tory policies that will hurt the poor and vulnerable, create more unemployment and diminish the welfare state, is not Leonard’s “sorry story” likely to become even sorrier?
Kenneth Morgan Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire
