We had no choice
Sir: ‘Britain remains an expeditionary nation keen on shaping the world,’ says James Forsyth (Politics, 27 August). Come off it, James. We weren’t consulted about Libya any more than we were about Iraq (a referendum would have been nice), but if ‘the nation’ means ‘the people’ then I’m sure that if we’d been told how many hundreds of millions of pounds would be involved, we’d have been considerably keener to spend them on job creation in our own country than on killing people and trashing the infrastructure in someone else’s. We elected Dave and Nick to make prudent cuts in public spending, not to make things worse by splurging our scarce resources on regime change in foreign parts.
Derek Rowntree
Banbury, Oxon
Bad for business
Sir: The blindness of British governments to business opportunities abroad long predates the events described by Christopher Meyer (‘Show us the money’, 27 August). A couple of centuries ago, when the boundary between Rhodesia and the Congo was negotiated, Britain was represented by soldiers and Belgium represented by businessmen. The outcome was that Britain secured hills ideal for defence against an attack from the north, but Belgium had the mineral-rich territory of Katanga.
Frank Tomlin
By email
More about ME
Sir: I am pleased to read that Simon Wessely is ‘very proud of his achievements’. Unfortunately even he admits that at least a third of patients do not respond to CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) or GET (graded exercise therapy). In fact this figure is likely to be much higher, as around a quarter of sufferers are housebound or bed-bound and therefore unable to access these treatments. And while the recent PACE trial showed some benefit to a small proportion of those involved, it only included those well enough to attend the hospital for appointments. A similar trial (the FINE trial) which involved nurses carrying out treatment in the home of patients who are severely affected showed absolutely no benefit. In the light of this, and despite Simon’s hard work over the last 20 years, it is absolutely not surprising that the third of patients for whom these treatments do not work are demanding something more. Twenty years is a long time to be housebound, cut off from the world with not even a glimmer of hope — their frustration is understandable. It is time to take a wider view of ME and expand research efforts to other specialist areas. These people want more and they deserve more.
Dr Anna Wood
Glasgow
Sir: I’m concerned that Simon Wessely and his colleagues have suffered harassment, but am also concerned that anyone who legitimately criticises their ideas and methods could be labelled as ‘extremist’. Simon Wessely fails to mention that there is an ongoing debate between the ‘biopsychosocial’ model of CFS, favoured by psychiatrists like himself, and the biomedical model of ME/CFS, supported by many international researchers and clinicians. His article serves to raise the profile of one opinion whilst effectively stifling debate and dissent over treatment. For instance, he suggests that the treatments he recommends are effective, but doesn’t acknowledge that this is contested by both large-scale patient surveys and a significant body of international research.
K. Wimhurst
Colchester
Edinburgh binge?
Sir: As a Scot, I can ruefully accept the reality that underlies our reputation for excessive drinking. But I take issue with Lloyd Evans’s depiction of drunks at the Edinburgh Festival (‘Down and out in Edinburgh’, 27 August). He describes ‘alcoholics roaming freely and touching the extremes of bliss and despair’, ‘sozzled ruins’ who ‘doze unmolested in gutters’, and ‘lurch shirtless and crimson-faced, touting for cash’, ‘muttering florid curses’.
I spent a week at the Festival, most days strolling down the Royal Mile. There were plenty of what appeared to be tipsy students, particularly in the evenings. All of them were cheerful and good-natured. Could it be that Lloyd Evans’s account was, perhaps, coloured by his own over-indulgence?
Gordon Bonnyman
East Sussex
Prejudicial reading
Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne asks, of my novel King of the Badgers, whether my ‘shocking exposure of homosexual eroticism risks reawakening homophobic prejudices’. Prejudices, that is, in the minds of readers who apparently don’t object to gay men in a novel, so long as they keep all their clothes on and stick to their traditional trade of antique dealing. One may wonder whether ‘reawakening’ here is exactly the right word. Still, I have given Sir Peregrine’s question a good deal of thought, and have come to the firm conclusion that, really, I don’t give a toss what a reader of that sort thinks.
Philip Hensher
Geneva
Black violinists
Sir: It is not clear whether it is your reviewer, Michael Beaumont (Books, 16 July), or the author of The Levelling Sea, Philip Marsden, who is at fault, but the statement that ‘London was not yet ready for a black genius’, in reference to the West African violinist Joseph Emidy (1775-1835), is quite wrong. The Chevalier Joseph Bologne de Saint-Georges (1745-99), the celebrated Guadaloupian swordsman and violinist-composer, based in Paris, was a roaring success in both capacities in London in 1787, and the child prodigy George Bridgetower (c.1779-1860) was a highly regarded violin soloist in London beginning around 1796, held the post of first violinist in the private orchestra of the Prince of Wales from 1795 to 1809, and was a member of the Philharmonic Society.
Warwick Lister
Florence
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