Letters: NatWest needs an overhaul if the trust of taxpayers is to be regained

SIR – The conclusions of the “independent” review of NatWest’s scandalous behaviour towards Nigel Farage defy belief (report, October 27). Its reasons were not commercial. 

Although I have no truck with Mr Farage’s views, the political behaviour of the management of this bank – of which I and the rest of the country own 38 per cent – is completely unacceptable. 

Fortunately, the person most responsible has left, but it is obvious that the buck should not stop there, and that further changes are essential if the public is to have any confidence in the bank’s honesty or commercial integrity. 

Ron Giddens
Caterham, Surrey

SIR – The internal emails from NatWest employees regarding Nigel Farage show their contempt not only for him but also for the public’s democratic backing of Brexit.

Too many bankers and others bring their bigotry and political views to the workplace; they think their views are superior to everybody else’s. They espouse free speech – but only on their terms.

Tim Davies
Lampeter, Cardiganshire

SIR – A small degree of honour would be preserved if NatWest made a donation of £1 million to a charity of Nigel Farage’s choosing.

Bob Clough-Parker
Chester

Reeves’s writings

SIR – Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has admitted she plagiarised sections of her new book, The Women Who Made Modern Economics, from Wikipedia (report, October 26). 

She has regurgitated the words and ideas of others, unacknowledged, and presented them as her own. With apparently little difference between the Tories and Labour on economic policy, can we expect more of the same from Ms Reeves if – or, more likely, when – Labour comes to power?

Martin Redfern
Melrose, Roxburghshire

SIR – The Office for National Statistics recently published the latest set of UK trade figures for the 12 months to August 2023. 

Trade was up 10.9 per cent over the period, with British exports rising by 15.1 per cent and imports by 7.2 per cent. The trade deficit had narrowed to £20 billion. 

Exports to the European Union rose by 17.5 per cent, so it seems Brexit is not having a negative effect on our trade on that front, and exports to non-EU countries grew by 26 per cent. 

This hardly suggests an economy in decline. It is clearly rebalancing after our departure from the EU, and will soon be in surplus with the rest of the world if this trend continues. Pro-Brexit economists said this would happen and have been proved right. 

Michael Banyard
Charlton Adam, Somerset

Putin and Hamas

SIR – Your headline, “Putin welcomes Hamas to Moscow” (October 27), makes perfect sense. 

How appropriate that the evil dictator, who has for the last 18 months inflicted daily acts of terror on the peaceful people of neighbouring Ukraine, should welcome a terrorist organisation dedicated to doing the same to Israel. Both enjoy the support of corrupt religious establishments which imagine that the god they claim to worship favours their obscene cruelties. 

Once again, Vladimir Putin is showing the world his true colours.

Terry Higham
Haywards Heath, West Sussex

Covid inquiry concern

SIR – It is becoming harder to disagree with the growing chorus of well-reasoned concern about the Covid inquiry, and to avoid the impression that its chair and counsel are proceeding, as Lord Frost suggests (Comment, October 27), on the preconceived basis that lockdowns were the correct solution, and the only real issue is the timing of them. 

The treatment of Professor Carl Heneghan may be indicative. Professor John Edmunds, a lockdown proponent, had earlier that day gone effectively unchallenged. Professor Heneghan was subjected to sustained – if softly spoken – denigration. Lady Hallett’s only intervention was to ask about the emergence of evidence of long Covid. When Professor Heneghan began to answer, “Well, yes, so everything exists as evidence, even my opinion exists as evidence within –”, she interrupted to contradict him: “Not in my world it doesn’t, I’m afraid. Well, not in a court of law it doesn’t.” 

What could she possibly mean? Evidence of expert opinion is routinely received by civil and criminal courts and the inquiry has already heard a great deal of it. Why should Professor Heneghan’s opinion fall into some different, inadmissible category? Most worryingly, where does this leave the authority of the inquiry’s final conclusions?

His Honour Charles Wide KC
Peterborough

Fifteen-minute cities

SIR – I was surprised to read that Carlos Moreno said he invented 15-minute cities (Features, October 26). 

He may have invented the name but there is a rich, 150-year history of town and city planning that had the same concept of meeting the social, environmental, transport, physical and mental-health needs of the population, while ensuring that residents were able to access, on foot, a full range of services and facilities, as well as workplaces.

British post-war town planning saw places such as Bracknell and Milton Keynes (among many others) being built, ensuring everyone could walk anywhere without crossing a road - and, crucially, could access the town centre. 

These were based on a town plan at Radburn, New Jersey, designed in the 1930s by Clarence Stein, which in turn can trace its roots to the British garden cities of Letchworth and Welwyn, designed by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Sir Ebenezer’s aim was to create cities with sanitary dwellings for workers, factories without pollution, and gardens and allotments so workers could grow vegetables and fruit. They would enjoy a balanced life with access to trade, machinery, sport, industry, manufacturing, agriculture, literature, music, drama and religion. 

Friendliness, co-operation, public spirit, community service and a sense of fellowship with nature were all key to his designs of these towns and cities.

Jacqueline Tarrant Bergna
Sunningdale, Berkshire

Clandon Park ruin

SIR – I recently visited the German town of Würzburg, where the prince-bishops’ palace has been restored after being severely damaged in the Second World War. 

The original was built following a visit to Versailles and was possibly even more magnificent, if unlivable. However, the restoration, while very impressive, is soulless and a pastiche – as, I note, is Uppark (Letters, October 27). Perhaps the original prince-bishops’ palace was without soul, too. It might have been better to have left it as a tidied-up ruin like Clandon Park. 

It really hurts to have to agree with the National Trust on anything, but in this case I think it is right.

Nicholas Wightwick
Wrexham, Denbighshire 

SIR – Paul Loxton Edwards (Letters, October 27) implies that the fire-gutted ruin of Witley Court in Worcestershire offers a good template for the National Trust in its handling of Clandon Park, since he found it fascinating as a young architectural student. 

As the author of the English Heritage guidebook to Witley, I can tell him that, far from Witley’s ruined state being a visitor attraction, it was found that the only way to get people to visit the site was to spend vast amounts of money restoring the Victorian gardens, especially the spectacular Perseus and Andromeda fountain. 

This is not an option at Clandon, and anyway the majority of potential visitors are not architectural students and don’t find ruins to be of riveting interest. 

As Simon Thurley, a former chief executive of English Heritage, has said of Clandon: “There is no meaning in the ruined walls.” The Trust would do well to heed his advice.

Roger White
Sherborne, Dorset

Collected letters

SIR – My parents kept my letters, written during my 20 years at sea with the British and Danish merchant navies (Letters, October 27). Often 40 pages long, describing people, places and events, I would sometimes write twice a week.

When I turned 50, they presented my birthday gift: every letter, in date order, and carefully ironed by my father. Priceless.

Michael Matthews
Belper, Derbyshire

SIR – I am 86 and still use my mother’s handwritten recipe book (Letters, October 27). 

I am glad to have it, as I have no idea what most of the ingredients are in modern recipes.

Arlene Rawlings
Ilfracombe, Devon

SIR – Following an unfortunate complaint from parents who received the informative weekly letter, “Dear Mummy and Daddy, love Andrew”, my prep school insisted that all boys should write two full sides of notepaper, with a cursory inspection that this had been done. Within a week we all were writing the first page in large handwriting and copying its contents on to the second.

Julian Waters
Standford, Hampshire

Byzantine British Gas

SIR – I recently spent four hours trying to ascertain one simple fact: who supplies the energy to my daughter’s new residence? 

Having waited more than half an hour on the phone to British Gas, I was informed that the electricity was supplied by BizzEnergy. Regrettably I hung up, only to find upon a quick Google search that British Gas took over the supply when BizzEnergy went bust. So I endured another 40-minute call on hold on a 0333 number, only to be advised once again to contact BizzEnergy. 

Eventually, having spoken to several people in India, I discovered that my daughter’s new residence was supplied by British Gas Lite. Excellent, I thought – until I was told the only way to contact it is via web chat. The “chat” took about an hour, and concluded with the problem only partly resolved. 

If I could have spoken to a real person on day one, both myself and my daughter would have saved hours of time and aged significantly less. Is it any wonder that UK productivity is so poor?

Bill Morrison
Sandbach, Cheshire 

SIR – I recently made a telephone purchase from Rohan, the outdoor clothing retailer. My call was picked up at once by a human being, who proved to be bright, polite, patient and anxious to ensure that we pinned down exactly what I wanted. This took 10 minutes, with absolutely no help from tapes or robots, and no assurances that my call was important to them.

David Rosser
Butleigh, Somerset

A Hallowe’en treat that wouldn’t cost the earth

SIR – The commercialisation of Hallowe’en has created a massive seasonal market for pumpkins, a winter squash, the production of which now takes up many acres of UK farmland.

The vast majority of these gourds are hollowed out and used as ghostly decor, while the nutritious contents are discarded.
Should pressure be put on supermarkets to accompany each pumpkin with a variety of recipes, and to ensure that the other locally sourced ingredients required are displayed nearby? 

As well as encouraging delicious meals, this would educate all age groups about food waste and practical ways of tackling climate change, without any tricks, producing only treats.

Dr Peter Sander
Hythe, Kent
 

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