Times letters: Green growth and building on the green belt

Sir, Labour has said that, once in power, it would permit building on the green belt — an action that would be a terrible legacy for the party and a tragedy for future generations. Why do so when the government could release substantial housing stock by restricting short-term housing lets to a maximum of 90 days a year? This is already the case in London. Such a measure would increase residential accommodation in a matter of months, rather than years, and without requiring development of the green belt. Short-term lettings remove vital housing from the market, because landlords can charge holidaymakers far more for nightly or weekly rentals than they could demand for long-term contracts. Would-be homeowners and tenants are thereby not only priced out of affordable housing, but many also feel forced out by the excessive noise generated by weekly hen parties and stag dos next door. Holiday lets create “ghost” neighbourhoods, devoid of established inhabitants who have a vested interest in keeping their streets clean and safe. The key to addressing our housing crisis, while simultaneously strengthening our community, is within reach.
Amy Warnke
Brighton

Sir, Only now are Kemi Badenoch & Co waking up to the dangers inherent in their strategy of courting the right-wing populist vote (“Badenoch: Voters must see through Farage’s act”, Jun 29). By abandoning the middle ground to Sir Keir Starmer they now have to fish for votes at the grubbier end of the political spectrum, where Reform UK has an in-built advantage. It is unlikely that there are enough moderate voices left in the party to influence the result of the post-election soul searching that will commence on July 5, so it will probably take another election drubbing (in 2029?) before common sense is restored.
Jeremy Drake
Bishop’s Stortford, Herts

Sir, Your correspondent (letter, Jul 2) takes issue with Sir Keir Starmer’s use of the term “ordinary working people”, in particular challenging the ordinariness of many Britons. Being ordinary is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s the people who believe themselves to be extraordinary — Boris Johnson, Liz Truss et al — who have reduced the country to the mess we now see.
Ian Boyce
Coventry

Latin Mass at risk

Sir, On July 6, 1971, The Times printed an appeal to Pope Paul VI in defence of the Latin Mass signed by Catholic and non-Catholic artists and writers, including Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and Yehudi Menuhin. This became known as the “Agatha Christie letter”, because it was reportedly her name that prompted the Pope to issue an indult, or permission, for celebration of the Latin Mass in England and Wales. The letter argued that “the rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired priceless achievements … by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture.”

Recently there have been worrying reports from Rome that the Latin Mass is to be banished from nearly every Catholic church. This is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it. The traditional liturgy is a “cathedral” of text and gesture, developing as those venerable buildings did over many centuries. Not everyone appreciates its value and that is fine; but to destroy it seems an unnecessary and insensitive act in a world where history can all too easily slip away forgotten. The old rite’s ability to encourage silence and contemplation is a treasure not easily replicated, and, when gone, impossible to reconstruct. This appeal, like its predecessor, is “entirely ecumenical and non-political”. The signatories include Catholics and non-Catholics, believers and non-believers. We implore the Holy See to reconsider any further restriction of access to this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.
Robert Agostinelli; Lord Alton of Liverpool; Lord Bailey of Paddington; Lord Bamford; Lord Berkeley of Knighton; Sophie Bevan; Ian Bostridge; Nina Campbell; Meghan Cassidy; Sir Nicholas Coleridge; Dame Imogen Cooper; Lord Fellowes of West Stafford; Sir Rocco Forte; Lady Antonia Fraser; Martin Fuller; Lady Getty; John Gilhooly; Dame Jane Glover; Michael Gove; Susan Hampshire; Lord Hesketh; Tom Holland; Sir Stephen Hough; Tristram Hunt; Steven Isserlis; Bianca Jagger; Igor Levit; Lord Lloyd-Webber; Julian Lloyd Webber; Dame Felicity Lott; Sir James MacMillan; Princess Michael of Kent; Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest; Lord Moore of Etchingham; Fraser Nelson; Alex Polizzi; Mishka Rushdie Momen; Sir András Schiff; Lord Skidelsky; Lord Smith of Finsbury; Sir Paul Smith; Rory Stewart; Lord Stirrup; Dame Kiri Te Kanawa; Dame Mitsuko Uchida; Ryan Wigglesworth; AN Wilson; Adam Zamoyski

Too many ministers

Sir, The new prime minister should reduce the bloated size of the government payroll in the Commons and resist constant ministerial reshuffles, in addition to the changes of practice and personnel at No 10 recommended by Alun Evans (letter, Jul 2). In the last parliament the number of ministers in the Commons, parliamentary private secretaries, trade envoys and deputy chairmen of the party increased to nearly half the Conservative parliamentary party. Rapid turnover in senior and junior posts reflected their use as methods of party management more than concern for sound government. A wise incoming government should recognise that independently minded MPs in its own party, as well as on opposition benches, will help to keep ministers grounded and legislation balanced. A smaller team of ministers, holding their posts for long enough to learn their portfolios and think about longer-term policy, would redress many of the blunders from which the country has suffered in recent years.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
House of Lords

Sir, To reduce Rishi Sunak’s 41 political advisers to half that amount hardly seems ambitious. Why does a politician require such advisers at all? I recall a colleague who, as a young man, had been private secretary to Duncan Sandys when minister of aviation. He told me that on one occasion he asked whether Sandys had considered the political impact of what was being proposed. He replied, giving him a hard stare: “Jeremy, I am the politician. Leave the political decisions to me.”
Michael Cavaghan-Pack
Taunton, Somerset

Vanished votes

Sir, I am another voter to have been disenfranchised by the non-delivery of my postal ballot (news, Jul 1; letter, Jul 2). When I rang the town hall to ask whether I could collect my voting pack, I was told that was not possible. It is obvious that the new government must drag the voting system into the 21st century by allowing the option to vote online. Other countries (such as Estonia) do so successfully.
Dr David Rosen
Lancaster

Sir, Another example of complacency by the state is the apparently common practice of second-home owners voting in both constituencies. I was shocked to learn that an otherwise respectable friend of mine did exactly that because “everyone does it”. How is this unfair, undemocratic and fraudulent practice allowed to continue?
Kathy Smith
Banbury, Oxon

Starmer’s trans view

Sir, Sir Keir Starmer’s statement that trans women with penises should not have the right to enter women-only spaces was succinct and welcome (“I want people to say we made them better off”, news, Jul 2). But it was surprising, and a little concerning, that he added: “That’s why I’ve always said biological women’s spaces need to be protected.” How could JK Rowling, Rosie Duffield and the rest of us have missed that? It raises the question of whether there is anything else that Starmer has “always said” that has somehow escaped our notice.
Peter Wilson
Harwell, Oxon

Biden on the charge

Sir, I trust John O’Brien (letter, Jul 2) is not expecting President Biden to fully emulate El Cid’s charge into battle, inspiring though it undoubtedly was. At the time, the Castilian warlord portrayed by Charlton Heston was dead, having been struck by an arrow. The corpse was strapped to his horse and supported by two outriders. The enemy, seeing him apparently risen from the dead, fled the battlefield. The candidates for the US election may well not be in the first flush of youth, but the step from gerontocracy to necrocracy is surely too much, even in such odd times as these.
Dr David Bogod
Nottingham

Sir, The presidential immunity from certain crimes conferred by the US Supreme Court (news, Jul 2) is promising. Should President Biden appear to have lost the election, he can declare the vote rigged and refuse to transfer power. In fact, why bother with an election? Problem solved.
Katherine Kent Brown
Tisbury, Wilts

Sir, Supporters of Donald Trump will no doubt have worked out that the actions of which they accuse President Biden — influencing the justice department to pursue Trump — were carried out in his official capacity. Thus any prospect of prosecuting Biden has disappeared.
David Lort-Phillips
Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire

Parisian elite

Sir, Sasha Simic is overlooking the degree to which people who live in rural areas feel let down by the Parisian political elite (letter, Jul 2). During the second lockdown a law forbade anyone travelling more than 10km to their gym or other place of exercise. This was raised to 20km when it was pointed out to these elites that people in the countryside sometimes had to travel that distance just to buy bread. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally has connected to this sense of abandonment and convinced many people to ignore what the party may once have stood for. If the centre and left-wing parties, which have nothing in common politically, gang up simply to defy the National Rally a majority, they are paving the way for Le Pen to become the next president.
Dr David Cottam
Lot-et-Garonne, France

Daddy issues

Sir, In our house, the lexicon contains a “daddy look” (notebook, Jul 2). This is defined as “an unsuccessful cursory search for a missing book, item of clothing, letter or document”. It is often followed by the item being quickly found by someone else. The two words convey what has occurred: not pathetic or laughable, just a fact.
Dr Jane Smillie
Cardiff

Bad language

Sir, The item in the Times diary (Jul 1) about an online translator referring to the former French presidential candidate as Jean Marie Le Stylo reminds me of the time a similar device rendered the phrase “out of sight, out of mind” into French and then back into English. It came up with “invisible idiot”.
Paul Brown
Eymet, France