Thank you, Tanit Koch, for Germansplaining (TNE #426) on the German media’s new admiration for Keir Starmer. One thing we Brits fall down on is knowing what other countries think of us, and our press is on the whole exceptionally bad at reporting it. If more people had been informed about attitudes like you’ve highlighted, then Brexit may never have happened.
Christopher Harrison
While Starmer has indeed stepped up and shown pragmatic leadership in support of Ukraine, we must never forget that the UK is still in a self-imposed exile from the EU. Lincoln’s famous maxim that “a house divided against itself cannot stand” should still resonate.
The UK needs to be part of the European project as a fully active member. Only by bringing the UK back into the EU can Europe truly stand united against both Trump and Putin.
Mark Grahame
Tanit Koch’s article shows that even Brexit could not eliminate or even dampen the fundamentally European nature of Britain. This is a huge moment for Europe, and we are part of it.
Europe now has a chance to come together to defend Ukraine and our principles of peace, prosperity and democracy. The last being important even if it does occasionally throw up parties like Reform and the Arschlöcher für Deutschland (Arseholes for Germany, or AfD).
Peter Martin
Will Starmer now bow to the inevitable? We need to be in the EU. We want to be in the EU. Just start the process. Enough dithering.
Lauren Smith
US solidarity?
Paul Mason rightly credits Keir Starmer for the deft hand he has played so far in avoiding the wrath of Donald Trump (“Starmer’s make or break moment”, TNE #426).
However, while the old adage “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me” may hold true, the appalling insults heaped upon Europe by Trump’s vice-president, JD Vance, undermines the efforts of both the UK prime minister and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and plays into the hands of growing anti-American sentiment.
A more robust reminder to Washington needs to be made that since the end of the second world war, some 7,193 British servicemen have lost their lives serving alongside their US allies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Korea, while 47,600 French servicemen died defending allied interests against the Communist insurgency in Vietnam.
As does pointing out that the only time Article 5 of the Nato Treaty was ever invoked was September 12, 2001 following the Twin Towers attack when the other members offered immediate solidarity and the sharing of resources and intelligence to America.
Paul Dolan
Northwich, Cheshire
In his classic book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L Shirer wrote that “Adolf Hitler is probably the last of the great adventure-conquerors in the tradition of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon, and the Third Reich the last of the empires which set out on the path taken earlier by France, Rome and Macedonia”.
Clearly Vladimir Putin has other ideas. One thing is abundantly clear: ‘The west’ now means Europe (minus Slovakia and Hungary), Canada and probably Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, too.
The US under Trump is now part of a rogue axis of nations that includes Russia, China and North Korea. Who would have thought it?
Will Goble
Rayleigh, Essex
Alastair Campbell (Diary, TNE #426) is quite right to describe Donald Trump as a narcissist who craves attention. But this should not come as a surprise. At the Nato summit in May 2017, when the leaders were gathering for the news reporters, Trump realised he was at the back, and immediately pushed others out of the way so that he could take centre stage.
Once there, he could be seen to adjust his jacket, before assuming a posture that attempted to make him look as if he was the most important man in the room. He hasn’t changed his behaviour one iota.
Anthony Sutcliffe
Taunton, Somerset
However covert or oblique, it becomes clearer by the day that Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are dividing up the world into spheres of influence… the Americas (including Canada) for the USA, Europe and western Asia for Russia, eastern Asia for China, leaving Africa and the Pacific to be fought over between them.
It is a repeat of the scramble for empire in the late 19th and early 20th century between Britain, Germany and France – and we all know where that led in 1914. On the battlefields of Ukraine, the lessons of history are being unlearned.
Chris Clode
America is officially now a DINO (democracy in name only).
Keith Hobbs
Donald Trump’s state visit should go ahead, but the venue changed to our oldest castle. Host him at the Tower of London so he can enter through The Traitor’s Gate.
John Simpson
Ross on Wye, Herefordshire
The life of Brian
Alastair Campbell (Diary, TNE #426) mentions “Brian”, the reporter who castigated Volodymr Zelensky for not wearing a suit to the White House.
As Alastair rightly says, “Brian” is the partner of the extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. His name is Brian Glenn, and he works for Real America’s Voice, a right wing streaming service that received $157,000 from Trump’s 2024 re-election campaigns.
Steve Buch
Take kids to Europe
Peter Hyman’s impressive and radical blueprint for a new school curriculum omits a vital dimension (“Our exam system is broken. Discuss”, TNE #426): an entitlement to physical education in its broadest sense, offering opportunities to sample running for pleasure or competition, a variety of team sports.
Learning to climb a mountain or descend a pothole, canoe down a river, ski or camp out might be experienced as a short residential course with expert tuition. Thus adding “body” to Hyman’s “head”, “hand” and “heart”.
But most importantly, schools should offer all students a visit to Europe – something that might have to be subsidised for some students. How about three or four days in France and sell the trip as “Bayeux and Arromanches: 1066, 1944 and all that!”
It is a guaranteed winner; I know, I did it with my school maybe 30 years ago. It’s the drudgery and joylessness that puts so many students off school… and some teachers too.
David Handley
Gargrave, North Yorkshire
Petey Hyman makes very important points. I think we need a system more like Finland, teaching independence of thinking and citizenship.
Bruce Dickson
To thrive at school and get the most benefit from it, each child needs a sound base. It used to be Sure Start, and it should be again.
Patrick Reynolds
Beat the gloom
I read Marie Le Conte’s column on dealing with feelings of impending doom (TNE #426) and it was balm to my mind and soul, because, like many readers probably, there is just so much world angst one can take. This is coming from a political obsessive who now struggles to keep up with the frantic news, which seems not just to be rolling coverage of the latest Trump announcement but also the news of a world that appears to be going to hell in a handcart.
Marie is correct – we must tune into the pleasant, reassuring moments we can personally have autonomy over and not fixate on the ones we don’t. Spring is here. We can relax and enjoy nature in all its burgeoning glory, and keep hope alive that many are with us on the right and moral page.
Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
I must applaud Marie Le Conte and her philosophical approach to life (Dilettante, TNE #426). For many years now I have recited to myself some wise words from the long-ago prime minister, Arthur Balfour: “Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all”. It has certainly helped me many times to retain my sanity in a bonkers world.
Robert Boston
Kingshill, Kent
Marie Le Conte is always interesting, not only in what she says and does, but in the manner she does so. She is a fine writer, putting into words feelings and attitudes I’m sure many share but cannot properly express in writing.
Her final paragraph (TNE #426) is a classic. And I confess it reflects exactly my thoughts on how to cope with living in the madhouse we are presently being forced to occupy.
Robin Barnes
Creased up
As ever, Peter Trudgill delivered another fascinating piece in TNE #426
(“A linguistic hat-trick for Woakes, Foakes and Stokes”), this time about cricketers’ names and origins. It reminded me of the research done on my own family name.
The replacement of the “s” with a “z” makes people think we are perhaps Polish, but in fact we are Huguenot, migrating here as Protestants escaping the Catholics in the 1600s, presumably having left our home village of Thisac near the French-German border.
But Peter, in his serious discussion about former cricketers, forgets to mention the phrase supposedly uttered by a BBC radio commentator describing the scene at the crease at Headingley: “The batsman’s Holding, the bowler’s Willey”.
Peter Tyzack (Thisac)
Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire
Silent fight
In Everyday Philosophy (TNE #426), Nigel Warburton writes that when it come to performances of John Cage’s silent 4’33”, “‘performed’ is a controversial word here”. Is it really controversial, though? I have seen many performances at venues with words like National and Royal in their titles. It seems thoroughly institutionalised in the canon to me. And it never fails as a piece of theatre.
Ross Brown
Lies and holy errors
What nonsense from Nigel Farage (Lie of the Week, TNE #426). There are plenty of examples of Hitler saluting with his hand “out to the right”. I’d say Adolf was an even bigger expert on Nazi salutes than Nigel.
John Winterburn
Lie of the Week (TNE #425) listed benefits derived from the Holy Roman empire. That should be the Roman empire. The Holy Roman empire only dates from 926 AD.
Carolyn Beckingham
BELOW THE LINE
Comments, conversation and correspondence from our online subscribers
Re: “How woke went broke” by James Ball (TNE #426). Any discussion of the peak of “wokeness” in 2020-21 should at least flag that there is more than an intersection – an incubating or amplifying resonance – between that “moment”, as Keir Starmer put it, and pandemic and lockdown. I was on the front line of this, having to step up as the interim leader of an institution whose regular head had effectively been cancelled.
If during this period the languages and arguments of social justice discourse became more extreme, it should be remembered that these were extremely destabilising times.
Ross Brown
Re: Rats in a Sack (TNE #426) on Darren Grimes departing GB News. I hope young Darren takes some time to give his head a wobble. Contrary to what he repeatedly tells anyone fool enough to listen, foreigners are not the problem. Oligarchic media owners burning millions on loss-making channels to spread their hateful agendas whilst not paying taxes are the problem.
Neill Bayley
Re: “The professors of rhythm” (TNE #426). I saw Can in my late teens during the early 1970s on a UK tour. They made a deep impression as a band at the forefront of avant-garde rock. Thanks to Jeremy Blackmore for the article.
Simon Pocock
Re: Josh Barrie on spanakopita (TNE #426). Almost any bakery you visit in Greece makes homemade spanakopita and tiropita. Be sure to take a couple with you before boarding your plane. Beats airline food hands down.
Haralambos Varvarigos
Re: Letters on French restaurants (TNE #425). Not the most important issue we face at present, but the best place to eat near the Gare de Lyon is Les Embruns.
Kate Sweeny
Never mind French food being bad in Britain (Dilettante, TNE #424), it’s also bad in France. I have no idea where they get their reputation from. And it’s expensive (at least in Paris, where we live).
Wine, cheese, boulangerie, markets and fresh salads (until they are murdered by copious salad dressing) are excellent. But restaurants are just… bad. The best food in Europe by a long, long way, is in Italy.
Richard Riddle
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