Letters | 3 May 2012

Murdoch’s responsibility

Sir: Having examined Rupert Murdoch’s dealings with successive governments, Tom Bower (‘Dangerous liaisons’, 28 April) wearily concludes: ‘Blaming the businessman for exploiting politicians’ follies is akin to blaming whales for eating sardines.’ Does the conservative doctrine of personal responsibility extend to media moguls? Or is that, as Leona Helmsley said of paying taxes, just for the little people?
Robin Peters
Nottingham

Unrest in Bahrain

Sir: Taki describes Bahrain as ‘a hellhole’ (High life, 28 April) and characterises the unrest there as being, essentially, the inevitable result of the deprivation of the Shia majority. I grew up in Bahrain in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was very far from a hellhole — on the contrary, it was, for the region, a highly liberal state, where women could drive and work, alcohol and pork were available in the supermarkets and we westerners mixed freely with locals of all classes and types. It is now more developed, and many people hanker after the dhows, pearl divers and empty beaches of old; but their replacement by skyscrapers was probably inevitable.