Re: “Mission accomplished”, TNW #477
Absolutely wonderful journalism from The New World. But looking at a fake front page of Trump covered in Easter eggs was enough to put me off chocolate for life.
Marcel Reinard
I didn’t buy the Easter edition of TNW – I couldn’t face that Trump front cover in my house.
Yes, the US cannot be ignored. But tone it down a bit.
Our country and thus your paper can be less reliant on the US. We simply must increase defence spending and bring in compulsory war bonds for the many of us who have a bit of spare.
Geoffrey Collett
Alcester, Warwickshire
Re: “How MAGA ate itself” by Matthew d’Ancona, TNW #477
Has there ever been a collection of more ghastly people? The 1987 decision to destroy the balance on US TV, the shift from facts to opinions in reporting, the availability of billions of dollars to safeguard wealth and foment distraction, and the gouging algorithms of social media that drive engagement through controversy have created a true dystopia.
Liberal democracies must use the only two weapons the right fears – regulation and tax – to roll this shit back into the primeval swamp.
David Slater
Reading President Trump’s ultimatum to Iran reminded me of the letter by the Ottoman Sultan to Leopold I of Austria prior to the siege of Vienna in 1683:
“I will make myself your master, pursue you from East to West, to trample upon all that is pleasant and accessible to your eyes. I resolve to ruin you and your people and to leave your empire a commemoration to my dreadful sword. I will establish my religion and pursue your crucified God whose wrath I do not fear. I will put your sainted priests to the plough and I will rape your women. Forsake your God and your religion or I will order that you be consumed by fire.”
The boot was on the other foot, but it didn’t go well for Mehmed. I can’t see it going any better for Trump now.
Hugh Ball
Eastbourne, Sussex
Lectures from Trump, Vance and Trumpist Republicans on free speech are insufferable. These are the cretins who organise book bans, suppress studies on slavery and black/female history and silence gay teachers from identifying themselves as such in their own schools.
Their “freedom of speech” is nothing more than the freedom of the extreme right to suppress the free speech of everyone else by verbal and violent intimidation. Even more insufferable is that our leaders suffer this cretinous behaviour in silence.
Ron Webster
Orpington, Kent
Re: “Trump is all your fault” by Gregory Maniatis, TNW #477
The idea that the progressive centre ground has been lost due to its own efforts is becoming a cliche, and risks becoming another self-fulfilling prophecy.
Yes, people need to work together. Yes, liberalism sometimes borders on orthodoxy. But people who voted for building walls, kicking ladders and increasing authoritarianism really need to own their shit. Self-defeatism only risks even fewer suitable people ever entering into politics. And then we really are in trouble.
Tom Åkerström
Suggested Reading
Matt Goodwin’s road to derision
Re: “Matt Goodwin’s road to derision” by James Ball, TNW #477
The right to reply quote at the end of the article from MattGPT (“A typically lazy piece. We are number 2 on Amazon books not top 10. You also miss out I am Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham”) is beautiful. Totally justifies the piece and made me laugh out loud.
Jason Washbourne
Re: Alastair Campbell’s Diary, TNW #477
Another tsunami of misleading information from Reform is being delivered into letterboxes across the country. This time, it is with regard to the local elections, and contains empty promises about the future achievements of unnamed and unprepared candidates.
These elections will be contentious due to the many boundary and organisational changes. Nigel Farage and team are desperate to build a power base by grabbing every opportunity to push Britain further into division and chaos.
If you receive a letter from Reform, you can recycle it at no cost by using this address:
Freepost Plus RUHS- YGAJ-TKBL, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1 4QP
Sandra Abrams
Fareham, Hants
Alastair is right, “join” rather than “rejoin” is exactly what we should be saying. The EU now is a totally different animal from the Common Market of the 1970s.
Gina Ford
Britain is in Europe, geographically, economically, culturally and diplomatically, whether we like it or not. We just need to stop behaving like a teenager who has flounced up to his/her bedroom in a strop and can’t face the embarrassment of coming downstairs and saying sorry.
Simon Durrant
Re: “A night among the Freemasons” by Harry James Relf, TNW #477
As a past Master Mason, I believe the problem with falling membership is not among the young – there is a programme to encourage younger members with lower fees – but in the ever-rising fees for others, as Grand Lodge seem to want the same income from fewer members. It got to the point where I could not afford to be a member.
Also, you have to rote-learn pages and pages of dialogue for rituals, and this is nigh impossible if you have dyslexia and dyspraxia, as I have. Drop the fees and let people take the book into meetings if you would like to see more younger people join.
Nick Prince
Moorlands, Staffordshire
Re: “Can you cap the population?” by Sam Hudson, TNW #477
Verena Vollenweider Schlumpf, quoted in your article, feels the Swiss population is too big. But she is doing her bit to lower it – she is a tobacconist.
Joe McLaughlin
Bonnyrigg, Scotland
BELOW THE LINE
Re: “The race to save the Beatles” by Jeremy Blackmore, TNW #477
Mark Lewisohn says, “AI is really muddying the waters by creating events that never even took place in the first instance. So, there are causes for concern.” Unfortunately, this sort of thing has been going on long before AI.
In 1992 Harold ‘Lord Woodbine’ Phillips went to see a play about the Beatles at the Liverpool Playhouse. He noticed that he’d been airbrushed out of a 1960 photo of the Fab Four at the Arnhem Memorial in Germany.
Phillips was a Trinidadian and early mentor to the band. He said of the photographic omission: “It really hurt me. Maybe the great Beatle publicity machine did not want any black man associated with their boys.”
Will Goble
Re: “Why SNL UK is winning” by Lucy Reade, TNW #477
Sorry, but I’ve never thought Americans were good at sketch or other comedy. There is nothing from there to touch Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies, French and Saunders or Goodness Gracious Me. Not to mention any appearance of Kenneth Williams on Parkinson. Australians are also great at comedy, but the Americans just make me cringe.
Wendy Hodgson
