Letters: why not let readers buy The Spectator?

Power to the readers

Sir: I would suggest that even if the government of the UAE gives a ‘cast-iron’ guarantee not to interfere with The Spectator’s editorial line, this should be taken with a very large pinch of salt (‘The real deal’, 2 December). Why don’t you ask your subscribers to buy the magazine? With nearly 140,000 of them, and 300,000 subscribing to your TV channel, surely we could raise £70 million, enough to satisfy Lloyds Bank? (It’s called ‘crowdfunding’, I believe.)

Jo Aldenham

London SW10

To the barricades

Sir: In its leading article of 2 December, this magazine quotes John Howard’s comments recently about what makes up a functioning democracy, namely the law, parliament and a free press.

Since this article was published, the possibility that the world’s oldest weekly, The Spectator, might be sold to an American fund financed by the UAE government has, temporarily at least, been halted by the intervention of the Culture Secretary, who will investigate the sale.