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SIR – The Archbishop of Canterbury’s dire swansong in the House of Lords (report, December 6) has been rightly criticised as tone-deaf by survivors of John Smyth’s abuse.
There was precious little indication of contrition. Instead, Justin Welby’s script suggested he was undecided whether to channel Wolf Hall (heads rolling) or Noel Coward (his diary secretary’s predicament). Either way, it was thoroughly cringeworthy, and amply demonstrated his utter unfitness for leadership.
Particularly unedifying was the fact that some of his colleagues tittered sympathetically from the wings. The Good Book promises: “His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor” – starting, one might hope, with substandard clerics.
Dr Catherine Moloney
Liverpool
SIR – Was cracking jokes in the House of Lords the right way for Justin Welby to take leave of his colleagues?
It seems that the Archbishop and other top people in the Church still do not get the full horror of what has been done by some Church leaders to those they are meant to care for.
Andrew McLuskey
Ashford, Middlesex
SIR – Justin Welby clearly doesn’t understand the concepts of leadership, responsibility or remorse. Christians around the world will be ashamed at his frivolous “not me, guv” statement in the Lords. No wonder so many Bishops had their heads in their hands.
Dr Margaret Platts
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
SIR – Now is a good time to reflect on Justin Welby’s legacy.
He showed pity in his speech for his diary-keeper, but little sympathy for the survivors of abuse in his church.
He managed to find plenty of money for reparations, but little for parish priests and their church buildings.
He presided over an increase in diocesan inclusion and diversity officers, and a decline in parish congregations.
He loved national ceremony and flummery, and showed disdain for day-to-day parish work.
He offered few words of scriptural faith, but plenty of comment on woke nonsense.
Perhaps we should allow the Most Rev Welby to move on to a role that better suits his beliefs and talents. He would do well as an aspiring candidate to be a Labour MP.
Fred Fearn
Bridport, Dorset
Pensioners’ bonus
SIR – Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, may think that the £10 Christmas bonus sent to pensioners is “almost meaningless” (Money, December 2) – and calls for it to be increased – but as a pensioner I would rather have it than not.
Two of us in our house are eligible, making it £20 in all. Shopping carefully will buy a small turkey at £17, leaving £3 for some vegetables. Other options offer even more delights. For £20 we can have a large chicken, stuffing, pigs in blankets, vegetables and a Christmas pudding.
If we eat in the kitchen when it’s all ready, we might not notice the lack of heating in the rest of our house.
Maureen Wilde
Liverpool
Reintegrated railways
SIR – In your Leading Article (December 5) on renationalisation of the railways, you argue that “the network was failing under the old British Rail”. However, the main cause of the privatisation of British railways was the European Union directive 91/440 of 1991, which led to the current fragmentation of the network.
Many of the franchise train operators are now under the ownership of foreign governments’ state railway companies, and thus are not “privatised” in reality. A long overdue return to a fully integrated railway system will be no bad thing.
Roger Croston
Chester
SIR – Having been told that the wait time just to start investigation of a neurological condition by the state-run NHS is 20 weeks, am I persuaded that a state-run railway will be an improvement?
Michael Turner
Winchester, Hampshire
SIR – On Thursday, my 1705 train from London Waterloo to Winchester was cancelled, due to a driver shortage. While claiming “delay repay” online, I noticed in the data provided for the last four-week period that South Western Railway had paid out a total of £343,777 for disrupted travel. No doubt this is currently a burden on shareholders. Will a nationalised railway system be as generous in recompensing customers for the no-doubt worse performance we will have to suffer?
Great Western Railway, also part of FirstGroup, has recently refunded £3,042,452. Just how will the Government afford these losses?
Chris Ford
Malmesbury, Wiltshire
M&S store demolition
SIR – It will be sad to see the destruction of the Art Deco Marks & Spencer flagship store in Oxford Street, to be replaced by a dull modern structure (report, December 6).
Churchill House in Bath, built in 1932, was the headquarters for the city’s electricity company. It was a beautiful building with fluted Tuscan columns, frieze and entablature, one of the last products of the Municipal Georgian revival. It was replaced by the ugly modernist bus station – an eyesore that locals hate.
Rob Dorrell
Bath, Somerset
Renaissance art to feed the soul in dark times
SIR – I have just returned from a visit to London, where I viewed astonishing Renaissance art in separate exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace.
I came away with my spirits greatly lifted and a renewed feeling that there is far more in our society that is virtuous than has often seemed to be the case during 2024, given what we’ve learnt about many hollow men and women in branches of public life – politics, showbusiness and sport, for example.
Both exhibitions continue in 2025 and I commend them as affordable therapy for the soul.
Kevin Duffy
Manchester
Truth and facts
SIR – In her criticism of fact checkers, Madeline Grant confuses facts with truth (Comment, December 4). They are not the same thing.
Facts are discrete and observable, truth is almost always a subjective claim. At Full Fact, we are not trying to tell anyone what the truth is. We are trying to establish verifiable facts as an important basis for much-needed, robust political debates.
Equally, we are not telling anyone what to think. We are trying to give them accurate information so they can think for themselves, in order to make informed choices on the issues that matter to them.
Ms Grant also suggests that Full Fact treads more lightly on one party than another. We disagree. Our fact checks during the recent general election called out Labour’s dodgy numbers as robustly as the Conservatives’ fudged calculations. Our recently launched government tracker will hold people in power to account for the promises they have made.
Ms Grant asks: who fact checks the fact checkers? And the answer is reassuringly simple: everyone. From our methodology to our sources, everything Full Fact does is a transparent matter of public record. Anyone who chooses to do so can reverse engineer our fact checks by examining the sources we have used, and they can decide whether or not they agree with our conclusions. When we get it wrong, we say so.
Full Fact is committed to promoting honesty and accuracy in politics, which are essential for rebuilding public trust. Agreeing that shared facts exist – which are open to different interpretations by different parties – is indispensable in a healthy democracy.
Chris Morris
Chief executive, Full Fact
London SE11
Benefits of Britain
SIR – Sir James Dyson (Letters, December 5) asks why anyone would wish to start a business in the UK, following the recent Budget.
He is right that other countries might be more attractive, provided you are content to move home, lose friendships, purchase health insurance and pay for your children’s education until they reach adulthood.
As with any business decision, there are many elements to consider, and if your one concern is to maximise your potential wealth by moving to an unfamiliar location, then one can follow his path.
The sacrifice will be to leave a country that has a reasonably balanced democracy (an observation that cannot always be made about the United States and several Asian countries), a health service that largely protects you, some of the best creative minds in both the scientific and artistic fields, outstanding cultural assets, reasonable weather, and a stimulating and largely open-minded social mix.
Of course, there are serious faults and flaws, but true entrepreneurship requires taking the longer view, not just maximising the return in one generation, and seeking to adjust those elements you believe wrong.
Whatever one thinks of the current Government, the real damage is being done by the constant negativity being proclaimed virtually every day, sadly usually by people who have nothing to lose in any case.
Iain Harvey
Richmond, Surrey
Policing dog-owners
SIR – That more councils are getting to grips with law-breaking dog-owners is welcome news, but why aren’t all councils doing this (“Dog owners are new target of spot fines by ‘busybody’ councils”, report, December 6)?
A mere 88 out of 317 councils issued penalty notices for dog offences in 2023. Many more should be carrying out their duties.
In Torbay, dog-exclusion zones on beaches, parks and even in fenced-off children’s play areas are constantly ignored, while fouling is commonplace and goes unpunished. Noise pollution from barking dogs is off the scale.
In my particular neck of the woods, Brixham, I have never seen a dog warden, which is a shame, as they would not only pay for themselves in fines collected but would also contribute to a safer, healthier and cleaner local environment.
John Hadley
Brixham, Devon
Parsnip persuasion
SIR – I have to agree with Henry Maj about parsnips (Letters, December 5). My father always insisted that I eat my parsnips, though they made me retch, on the premise that they were the Queen’s favourite vegetable.
I later discovered that he didn’t even like them himself, so I cannot understand his reasoning. I never did find out the Queen’s true opinion of parsnips, but they’re definitely banned in our house.
Carol Kelly
Horwich, Lancashire
The best Christmas
SIR – I was surprised that William Hanson frowned on the idea of proposing on Christmas Day (Features, December 5). My boyfriend had moved into my flat in September, and when the question of celebrating Christmas came up I explained that I had already invited my mum to stay, and I couldn’t uninvite her.
After we had all gone to bed on Christmas Eve, my boyfriend disappeared and came back in wearing a big red bow, got down on one knee and proposed to me with a plastic ring he had kept from a Christmas cracker.
The next day we took mum and visited his parents, and he announced our engagement, at which all three swooned and collapsed into armchairs. We then went home and enjoyed Christmas dinner.
We all agreed it was the best Christmas ever.
Shirley Batten-Smith
Watford, Hertfordshire
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Justin Welby’s shameful speech was further proof of his unfitness to lead
Plus: Pensioners’ Christmas bonus; reintegrated railways; art as therapy; the benefits of doing business in Britain; and a parsnip ruse