Letter of the week: The rise in racism and government inaction

It is only since Brexit that they feel licensed to communicate these horrendous views. I agree with Sunder Katwala that the blame lies with government inaction.
Mark Rowlands

Matthew d’Ancona’s brave and brilliant “Reading is the new resistance” (TNW #458) was brimming with depressing truths. I nominate Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys as a set book for all sixth formers. If any title can, it should extinguish the early stirrings of judgements made for all the wrong reasons.

As the daughter of a Spanish civil war refugee who fled to the UK, I proudly tick the White European (as opposed to White British) box when asked. Perhaps we could extend the proposal to Read Against Xenophobia in general – it casts a wider net of misunderstanding of any and every person not of the same culture. Ergo Brexit.
Jenny Rivarola

I recommend watching the Storyville documentary The Librarians as a chilling illustration of the points made by Matt d’Ancona. It shows the hounding of US librarians by school boards demanding the removal from school libraries of literature they perceive as counter to white, right-wing evangelism. It’s available on iPlayer.
Rosalind Russell

As a teenager, there was nothing I enjoyed more than “disappearing” into a book. In my 50s and 60s I have rediscovered the pleasure of reading. Since retiring last year, I have avidly devoured numerous books, of infinite genres, with the help of a Kindle.

As George RR Martin famously commented: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only once.”
Charles Thomas

How depressing to learn that so few Americans now read – what an indictment of modern society.

Of course, it is not a solution to all society’s ills and problems, and you can be a wide reader and still hold racist, xenophobic views – but there is always a chance that reading may encourage people to think differently and consider different perspectives.
Liz Court

Suggested Reading

Reading is the new resistance

Matthew d’Ancona

James Ball’s “The poppy has been hijacked” (TNW #458) was excellent and so poignant, coming at this time of remembrance. We should be remembering the people who died fighting for our freedom, but the poppy is too often seen as a symbol of the so-called Bulldog spirit. 

Meanwhile, Reform’s anti-immigration, anti-foreigner, anti-civil rights agenda is the same as that of those fascists who tried to invade this country in 1940. If Reform UK ever formed a government then the thousands of people who died fighting for us would have died in vain. 
Clive Blakesley 
Maidenhead, Berkshire 

The way to deal with the hijacking of the poppy is to embrace it in the way gay people co-opted the pejorative term “queer”.

So now embrace the symbols of Britishness and take them out of the exclusive use of the far right. Buy poppies, wear them on your clothes, hijab, skull cap and turban. Get British and English (or Scottish, or Welsh) flags and fly them outside your own homes, businesses, mosques, synagogues, temples and schools.

Buy flags with “Proud to be British” on them, and if you hear of an intended far-right march, turn up en masse with your communities, carrying your flags, and play them at their own game!
Malcolm M Caporn
Aston on Trent, Derbyshire

Re: Marie Le Conte’s “Lessons from Mamdani about Islamophobia” (TNW #458): this article just filled me with joy, and I’m not quite sure why except that I am so very sick of every reference to Muslims being in the context of terrorism or immigration. Thank you, Marie.
Ann Harries

Re: Paul Mason’s “This is Rachel Reeves’s only rational choice” (TNW #458): until Reeves advocates rejoining the single market, Labour cannot be taken seriously on growth. Addressing rent-seeking and planning is fine, but without the ability to scale and trade freely with our neighbours, the opportunity will be heavily curtailed.
Alexander Dale

When it comes to taxation, it’s an error to lump tech firms in with literal rent-seekers. Property landlords extract value from ownership. Tech firms, for all their flaws, have built things that make life better. Building and scaling digital services requires skill, capital, and long hours of engineering, not just sitting back collecting rent.

Complaining about Uber, Deliveroo or Amazon is an easy moral performance. The real rent-seeking in those sectors came from the incumbents. In transport, it was the black-cab cartels and the under-regulated mini cab networks. In food delivery, it was restaurants being slow and unreliable at delivery. In logistics, it was the Post Office and legacy couriers who made receiving parcels a miserable, expensive gamble.

If we’re talking about structural injustice, the bulk of it lies in financial deregulation and the vast intergenerational theft of quantitative easing – not delivery riders on bikes. So, yes, tax and regulate well. But let’s not pretend Deliveroo drivers are the problem while we order takeaway and watch Netflix.
John Henry

Re: Patience Wheatcroft’s “Snobbery and deference have broken Britain – and created Andrew” (TNW #458): I am thoroughly sick of the monarchy. If the Andrew M Windsor scandal hastens the downfall of this outmoded institution, then hurrah!
Anni Sullivan

The King is finally removing all honours and titles from his disgraced brother. Why stop there?

This is an ideal opportunity to ditch a past where dozens of silly badges are pinned on various uniforms, whether military or royal, and no one knows what they mean or represent. 

There is nothing wrong with awards provided they are deserved and earned; decorated, serving and ex-service military personnel quite rightly wear them with honour on Remembrance Day. Awards should be for true service, not just for who you know or which political party you fund. 
John Simpson

I have loved Chris Barker’s annual montages for years – a wonderful way to acknowledge the passing of icons from across the decades of my life. It made me sad to read in TNW #458 that the complexities now of deciding who’s in and out mean the tradition is coming to an end. This is the world we now live in. 
Pat Morgan

Chris Barker is running a Kickstarter for his new book A Decade in The Lives. See chrisbarkerprints.co.uk

Below the line

Re: John Osborne’s Great Life of Leonard Cohen (TNW #458): I met LC at the opening of his art show at the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester. I was wondering what I could say to him when he walked up to me, shook my hand and said: “I’m Leonard, so pleased to meet you.” All I could say was “thank you”.
David Pollard

I have read a number of reviews of the new Lily Allen album and Jamie Klingler’s (TNW #458) was the most thought-provoking I have found. 
Emma Owen Davies

Jamie Klingler’s article casts women’s experience as universal victimhood. Being cheated on is not a universal female experience and should not be presented as one. I wish women would just believe their experience is valid without applying it to everyone. 
Vanessa Cicos 

Re: Nicky Woolf on a presidential run for Jon Stewart (TNW #457): Stewart is not a career politician and, importantly, has hours of extraordinary political commentary that would spread like wildfire online. He would overwhelm JD Vance, who has the charisma of a loaf of bread!
Nick Smallman