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Only people power can save us from populism | Letters

Only people power can save us from populism | Letters

Democratic safeguards won’t work unless they’re backed by the will of the people, argues Peter Loschi , while Roger Heppleston calls for wholesale reform of the British political system. Plus letters from Rob Hunter , Peter Buckman and Dr Piers Brendon Timothy Garton Ash has produced an excellent list of safeguards against extremism ( My guide to populist-proofing your democracy – before it’s too late, 25 November ). Unfortunately, they don’t work in the long term. The finest minds of the Enlightenment devised the checks and balances of the US constitution, and an authoritarian like Donald Trump brushed them aside in two minutes. Laws and regulations to guarantee good government only work if the people want them to. If they’re not bothered, then no amount of safeguarding is of much use. We could replace the House of Lords with a citizens’ assembly, comprising a randomly chosen cross-section of the public, with membership changing every six months. Continue reading...

The loss of access to and respect for autonomous midwifery is tragic | Letters

The loss of access to and respect for autonomous midwifery is tragic | Letters

A concerned NHS midwife responds to an article about the Free Birth Society I’m an NHS midwife, despairing over your article ( Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world, 22 November ). My key frustration, though, is how, as with any successful charlatanism, there is truth and real fear being exploited: medical overreach blights lives, women can and should trust their bodies, and a healthy body rarely grows a baby it can’t birth. However, physiology is not a perfected endpoint. Evolution continues with genetic variation spreading through a population by “survival of the fittest”. In the brutal “wild”, the least “well-adapted” (whether by health or circumstance) do not survive. Human beings, however, don’t like those odds. Medical intervention, yes, but a body of life-saving social knowledge has been passed down since language began, towards facilitating successful birth. Continue reading...

Was JMW Turner’s mother really ‘mentally ill’? | Letter

Was JMW Turner’s mother really ‘mentally ill’? | Letter

It seems likely the artist’s family wanted to get rid of a woman who was just difficult to get along with, writes Helen James JMW Turner mother’s died when she was 29, when he was busy preparing for and opening his first public exhibition, and her “mental illness”, referred to in your review of the BBC Two documentary Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks ( 19 November ), should be described as “purported”. We only have the testimony provided by the actions of her husband and son, who sent her to a lunatic asylum designed for paupers, when they were in fact not poor and could have accommodated her in a better environment with better care, and thereby lengthened her life. Continue reading...

The Green party’s policies on Israel are appealing to young British Jews | Letter

The Green party’s policies on Israel are appealing to young British Jews | Letter

Prof David Feldman, Dr Ben Gidley and Dr Brendan McGeever from the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism say it is wrong to characterise Jewish support for the Greens as ‘paradoxical’ We were fascinated to read your article on the important report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) on Jewish voting patterns in the UK ( British Jews turn to Greens and Reform UK as support for main parties drops, 20 November ). This demonstrates that growing numbers of Jews are deserting the Labour and Conservative parties in favour of the Green party and Reform UK. As JPR points out, there is no symmetry here. The turn to Reform among Jewish voters is half the size of the growth in support for the party within the population as a whole. On the other hand, support for Greens among Jews is 900% the size of the turn to the Green party overall. Continue reading...

We older people are always a footnote | Brief letters

We older people are always a footnote | Brief letters

Life’s five ‘eras’ | Levelling up Huddersfield | Favourite headlines | Posh breakfasts | Grieving nominative determinism letters As one of your older readers, I was looking forward to reading the interesting article on the five epochs of brain development ( Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s, 25 November ). But why was I not surprised to find the final two epochs given just one sentence between them? Dave Headey Faringdon, Oxfordshire • I was delighted to find out that the Royal Opera House is replacing its 26-year-old stage curtains . Perhaps the old ones could be reused to make new riser cushions for the stage of Huddersfield town hall. We’re still waiting to be levelled up. (See my Guardian letter, 14 February 2022 .) Lynn Brooks Kirkburton, West Yorkshire Continue reading...

Taliban used discarded UK kit to track down Afghans who worked with west, inquiry hears

Taliban used discarded UK kit to track down Afghans who worked with west, inquiry hears

Whistleblower tells Afghan leak inquiry those affected were told to move and change phone numbers to protect themselves The UK left behind sensitive technology allowing the Taliban to track down Afghans who worked with western forces, a whistleblower has told the Afghan leak inquiry. The woman, known as Person A, said that Afghans affected by the data leak were told to move homes and change their phone numbers to protect themselves from the Taliban because it had the resources to track them down. Continue reading...