If the BBC hadn’t fallen victim to hubris many years ago, there would be less talk about its decline (“Is BBC news broken? If so, how do we fix it?”, New Review).
Charles Curran, director general from 1969 to 1977, sensed the beginning of that pernicious corporate sickness “we must have a finger in every conceivable pie”. He was reluctant to go along with unbridled expansionists. He saw on the horizon the threat of editorial and managerial energies dissipated. The inevitable bureaucratisation, fading resistance to commercial pressures and, above all, a much less rigorous news and current affairs weighed heavily on his mind. His successors, however, have been lured by the mirage of an all-powerful, all-popular BBC and have been ardent expansionists. The price of this damaging policy is there for all to see – an editorially and financially stricken corporation. Yes, there are some excellent programmes but as a very much reduced proportion of the massive overall nondescript output. Editorial standards have been diluted and there is confusion about the BBC’s role in the national life.
Is it too late to turn the wheel and bring about a BBC with a well-defined editorial policy, less obsessed with audience figures and living within its means?
George Fischer (head of talks and documentaries, BBC Radio, 1972-87)
Bromley, London
US foreign policy failings
It would be interesting to know when the golden age of US foreign policy described by Simon Tisdall took place, an era he contrasts with the current dire state of affairs under Donald Trump (“Sudan, Algeria, Libya: new Arab spring stalls as Trump looks the other way”, World).
The charge sheet against the US would start with the Vietnam war and proceeds through support for the overthrow of the elected president of Chile in 1973; backing the vicious dictatorship of Somoza in Nicaragua; supporting the Iraqi government in its bloody war against Iran in the 1980s; the first Gulf War of 1991; the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001; regime change in Iraq in 2003; and more recently Obama’s failure to take action against Assad’s use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria and his lack of interest in the cause of Palestinian statehood.
Trump may be a particularly ill-informed president but he has not done less to promote peace and democracy than most of his predecessors in the past half century.
Dan Taylor
Tilehurst, Reading
Equality cuts both ways
The parents objecting to an inclusive curriculum demonstrate the need for such a curriculum in the first place (“Identity politics is dividing Britons, warns equality commission chief”, News).
David Isaac, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and local MP Jess Phillips are correct to call out the unacceptable, intimidating campaign pursued by some parents, involving gathering outside primary schools shouting threats through a megaphone. The Equality Act protects people of all faiths (and none) from discrimination, so these parents benefit from that. But the legislation also affords the same protection to people of all genders and sexualities. So it is sad to see people who may suffer abuse because of their faith themselves act in such a discriminatory way. It is even sadder to think of the harm and confusion this will cause some of the children.
Max Fishel
Bromley, London
Everest is more than a ‘scalp’
Thank goodness for a proper opinion piece on the disgusting debacle that has engulfed Everest (“I’d never join queue to scale Everest”, Viewpoint).
Your columnist Peter Beaumont has succinctly encapsulated the opinion of most “proper” climbers and mountaineers who are heartily sick of, and ashamed at, what Everest has come to represent. Everest has become a “scalp” rather than our most majestic mountain and deserves to be climbed by committed climbers, not “conquered” by commercially supported adventure junkies.
I have lived my entire life in the climbing world and spent it climbing around the world and I have been fortunate to experience the extraordinary highs as well as the desperate lows of a climbing life. I myself have chosen to back down from just below the top of one of the biggest alpine north faces when a wild winter storm made conditions intolerable. I regard that as one of my most satisfying mountaineering accomplishments as I am still alive to enjoy it and reflect on the inestimable value of experienced decision making!
After a climbing career of 50 years (and still rock climbing), I know that there is one abiding rule in the mountains that is crushingly true: there are old mountaineers and bold mountaineers but no old, bold mountaineers. You have to earn your right to attempt ambitions such as climbing mountains, not buy them in some shoddy market.
Dick Turnbull
Grindleford, Derbyshire
Men, stand up for abortion
The role of men in causing pregnancies means we do indeed have a responsibility to provide the support for pro-choice activities that Kenan Malik urges on us (“Men don’t have abortions. That’s no reason not to fight for women’s rights”, Comment). Polling in Britain shows that the current legal provision of abortion and the principles on which it is based are regularly supported by over 80% of the population, which confirms that a big majority of men support it.
Crackdowns on women’s autonomy bear more heavily on poorer families and the reason a pregnancy is unwanted is often that the family can’t afford another mouth to feed. Family men don’t all live down to the stereotype and will be supportive of their partner’s choice. Involving us in the campaigning can only strengthen that support.
Nik Wood
London E9
Written in the stars?
The article about the astrologer Susan Miller surprised me in that it appeared in the Observer at all and also that it provided no justifications or explanations as to how she arrived at her predictions (“Susan Miller is one of astrology’s brightest stars, but why are millennials looking for answers?”, Magazine).The brief nod to science regarding the Moon affecting the tides hardly explains how the motion of objects millions and billions of miles away affect or predict the outcomes of our lives on Earth.
“Learning astrology is complex – you have to think in calculus” was a surprising statement and having 17 million readers doesn’t make the predictions credible. There are more important things to worry about and none depends on the motion of Neptune through the pattern of stars that looked to ancient civilisations like a man with an urn on his head.
Andy Rayner
Great Lumley, Chester-le-Street, Co Durham
Stop war on Syria’s hospitals
Over the past month, Syrian and Russian warplanes have bombed 23 medical facilities out of service in north-west Syria. We are appalled by the deliberate and systematic targeting of healthcare facilities and medical staff, which is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
Throughout the Syrian conflict, we have seen both Russia and the Syrian government attack hospitals prior to major offensives, their collective aims seeming to be terrorising civilians and reducing medics’ ability to treat the injured.
Our letter couldn’t come at a more desperate time. Since 26 April, at least 270 civilians have been killed due to Syrian government and Russian attacks while a further 300,000 people were displaced. The continued escalation of airstrikes and other hostilities means civilians require medical assistance more than ever. But the repeated targeting of medical facilities by the Syrian government and Russia has forced the hospitals that remain to operate under a state of emergency, only treating the most urgent cases and unable to take in patients for routine care. These hospitals serve the 4.5 million residents of north-west Syria.
As doctors, medical workers and public health professionals from around the world, we condemn the Syrian and Russian governments in the strongest possible terms for their airstrikes on hospitals. We stand in solidarity with our Syrian colleagues on the ground who are risking their lives and demand immediate measures to protect their lives and work.
What is happening in Syria is unimaginable. We have watched in horror the footage of repeated airstrikes on hospitals and listened in shock to our colleagues on the ground who described patients fleeing bombed hospitals with IV drips still attached and choking on dust raised by the explosions. Rather than being a place of healing and refuge, hospitals are now some of the most dangerous places for civilians to be.
Many of the hospitals targeted by the Syrian government and Russia were based underground in secret locations to shield them from attack. As part of a United Nations deconfliction process, however, medical organisations shared their coordinates with the UN, which in turn shared them with Moscow and Damascus in a bid to shield them from attack. The decision to share coordinates was made after painstaking deliberations by medical staff and was ultimately adopted out of hope that it would protect their work and their facilities. The UN must immediately investigate the targeting of listed hospitals.
All armed parties in the Syrian conflict must respect medical neutrality and allow doctors, nurses and paramedics to treat their patients without violence, threatened or actual. International governments must reverse their decision to cut funding to medical facilities in north-west Syria and put pressure on Russia and its Syrian ally to stop targeting hospitals.
Healthcare in Syria has been under consistent attack since the 2011 uprising with medical workers forcibly disappeared and tortured and hospitals routinely bombed, killing dozens of doctors and nurses and patients. Between 2011 and December 2018, Physicians for Human Rights has documented 566 attacks on medical facilities, 90% of them by Syrian and Russian government forces. Attacks have involved banned weapons including barrel bombs and chemical agents that have killed a total of 890 medical personnel. We cannot stand by and watch the same thing happen to medical staff in the north-west. Their job is to save lives—they must not lose their own in the process.
Dr Denis Mukwege, 2018 co-recipient of Nobel peace prize, Panzi hospital, DR Congo
Sir Terence English, retired cardiac surgeon
Professor Peter Agre, Bloomberg distinguished professor and director, 2003 co-recipient of Nobel prize in chemistry
Dr Aula Abbara
Dr Nada Abdelmagid, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Saleyha Ahsan, The Phoenix Foundation
Dr Ibrahim AlMasri
Dr Khuloud Alsaba, University of Edinburgh
Dr Deborah D Ascheim, Physicians for Human Rights
Dr Claire Bayntun, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/Public Health England
Dr Chris Beyrer, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health
Dr Hannah Blencowe, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Sabah Boufkhed, King’s College London
Professor David D Celentano, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Sir Iain Chalmers, James Lind Library
Professor Yaolong Chen, Chevidence
Professor Simon Cousens, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Delan Devakumar, University College London
Dr Yazan Douedari
Dr Abdulkarim Ekzayez, King’s College London
Dr Conrad Fischer, Touro College of Medicine
Professor Heiner Grosskurth, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Amy Hagopian, University of Washington
Dr Natasha Howard, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Vincent Iacopino
Dr Samer Jabbour, American University of Beirut
Dr Blanchet Karl, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Mohamad Katoub, Sams, Syria
Dr Kerem Kinik, Turk Kizilay (Red Crescent)
Professor Emeritus Robert S Lawrence, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr Jennifer Leaning, Harvard Chan School of Public Health
Dr Ona McCarthy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr Sanaa Merimi, Maison de Santé Albalsam, Morocco
Dr Lina Murad
Dr Sanjay Nagral, Forum for Medical Ethics
Professor David Nott, Imperial College London
Dr Maryam Omar
Dr Miriam Orcutt, Institute for Global Health, University College London
Lord David Owen
Shefali Oza, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Dr David Peters, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health
Diana Rayes, American University of Beirut
Amelia Reese Masterson, Care International in Lebanon, US
Professor Bayard Roberts, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Professor Leonard Rubenstein, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr Neal Russell
Dr Zaher Sahloul, MedGlobal
Dr Maureen Seguin, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Professor Joshua Sharfstein, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr Neha Singh, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Professor Paul B Spiegel, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr Kerry Sulkowicz, Physicians for Human Rights
Baraa Tahani
Dr Nazneed Uddin
Dr Michael VanRooyen, The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Dr Vasiliy Vlassov, Society of Evidence Based Medicine, Russia
Professor Ron Waldman, Doctors of the World
Dr Sarah Wollaston, UK Parliament
Dr Matthew Wynia, University of Colorado
Dr Eiad Zinah
Like author, like book
In reviewing Jacob Rees-Mogg’s book, The Victorians: Twelve Titans Who Forged Britain, Andrew Rawnsley writes that it is “trite, tedious and muddle-headed” (Books, New Review). Momentarily, I thought it was the author rather than the book being described.
Paul Faupel
Somersham, Cambridgeshire
