Dutch tensions
Sir: Rod Liddle’s magnificent portrayal of Dutch politics is marred by one error (‘Orange alert’, 16 October). The anti-immigration and anti-Islam leader Geert Wilders is not ‘almost bizarrely Aryan’, as Liddle states. His grandmother was from a Jewish Indonesian family. His blond hair is peroxided. These facts, unlike many about Mr Wilders, are not in dispute.
David Jones
Amsterdam
The philosophy of Stone
Sir: I could have a little more respect for Oliver Stone’s views on cutting defence spending in the UK if he had the slightest idea what he was talking about (‘When Stone gets stick’, 16 October). Defence spending costs £35 billion per annum, in contrast with welfare at £190 billion, health at £120 billion, and education at £90 billion. Furthermore, as your own statistics show, spending on our hard-pressed armed forces has only just kept pace with inflation over the past five years, in contrast with the large real increases in the budgets of both health and education, with no discernible improvement in quality.
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