Letters: Hope that the Cass report will usher in a cultural shift on gender issues
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SIR – Liz Truss (Comment, April 11), discussing the Cass report on gender identity, is right to call on the Government to adopt her private member’s Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill, so shamefully filibustered by Labour MPs last month, and pass it into law before the coming general election.
The issues addressed by the report are of the utmost importance, and its conclusions and recommendations have implications beyond its child-protection remit. It has the potential to become the light that leads us out of the oppressive darkness of mob-driven identity politics.
I remain determined to vote for Reform UK at the election. Yet this matter is so important that, were the Prime Minister to adopt Ms Truss’s Bill and pass it into law, I would consider supporting the Conservatives again.
Adrian Barrett
Haywards Heath, West Sussex
SIR – It took Dr Hilary Cass four years to produce her review, but she reaches a conclusion that most of us see as blindingly obvious.
Martin Bazeley
Fareham, Hampshire
SIR – I wonder if the treatments and surgeries that have been carried out on children and young adults will, in about 10 years’ time, be found to have caused tremendous mental-health problems among many of them.
Will there be, at great expense, an inquiry that finds the organisations responsible to have been negligent? Will the victims receive compensation?
David Henderson
East Molesey, Surrey
SIR – I consider myself fortunate to have been born in 1938, rather than 60 years later. As a teenager, I often thought, and said, that I wished I was a boy. Had the climate then been as it is now, I might have been assured that all was well, whatever you think, no problem, you can become a boy if you want to – possibly with life-changing consequences.
I went on to have a very happy marriage, with three children and five grandchildren. I appreciate that, for some, the adoption of a different identity must be a lifeline, and I wish them well; but the immediate acceptance of vulnerable young people’s wishes is dangerous.
Gillian Mitsi
London SW1
SIR – I know of at least one former practitioner at the Tavistock centre who resigned because she could not, in all conscience, follow the protocols forced upon her by the management, which went against all her clinical experience.
Many such people are now needed to return and fill the vacancies for qualified staff in the new clinics being established. But will they agree after what they experienced?
Tony Jones
London SW7
Ed Davey’s failure
SIR – It is now clear that Alan Bates wrote to Sir Ed Davey in 2010 (report, April 10) to raise his concerns about the way in which the Post Office was being run. Sir Ed, with his “arms-length relationship” with the Post Office, ignored the warnings, so failed to notice one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.
How did that earn him a knighthood?
Hon Ian MacGregor
London N2
SIR – Is there anybody in Britain who doesn’t think that at least a dozen senior Post Office executives should be prosecuted and, if found guilty, sent to prison?
Robert Pugh
Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire
Going to university
SIR – Vivienne Stern (Letters, April 11), discussing university places, says that young people today should be given the same opportunities that the generations before them enjoyed.
In 1958, when I left home to study medicine, my fees were paid by the local authority, and I was also given enough money to live on. Most of my fellow students were similarly treated. This could not happen today.
Pamela Taor
Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex
Join the club
SIR – I can assure Jeremy Nicholas (Letters, April 11), a Garrick Club member, that, should he become interested in applying to join the Mothers’ Union, he would be made very welcome.
It is a worldwide Christian movement of four million members, in 84 countries, and is proud that a growing number of men are choosing to become members.
Pamela Bentley
Hest Bank, Lancashire
Spiritual sustenance
SIR – I read with interest your report, “Resting place of Bread of Heaven writer saved from sale” (April 9), about Ann Griffiths’s church.
John Hughes, a Welsh composer of hymn tunes, was asked in 1905 to write one for the wonderful words of Griffiths’s hymn Wele’n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd (“Lo, Between the Myrtles Standing”) by the members of Capel y Rhondda for the cymanfa ganu (hymn festival) in Pontypridd, and a version this was published in 1907. However, the words of Griffiths’s hymn were difficult to fit with the music when translated into English, whereas William Williams’s text Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch (“Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer”) fitted perfectly. It was this translation that gave us Bread of Heaven.
Many years ago I needed a copy of Cwm Rhondda (the name is taken from the Welsh name for the Rhondda Valley) for a school project, which I thought would be easy, as my mother was a chapel organist. However, my grandmother instructed my father to take me instead to see Mrs Hughes, the widow of John Hughes, in Llantwit.
Old Mrs Hughes sold me a copy of Cwm Rhondda, which cost my father 21s 2d. Mrs Hughes had boxes of them, which she called her treasure; Dad explained that selling them gave her extra money. I still have that worn piece of paper: on one side are written Griffths’s wonderful words, on the other the hymn tune with Williams’s translation. The words “Bread of Heaven” are from his hymn, not Ann Griffiths’s.
Gwlithyn Bartlett
Reading, Berkshire
NHS emergency
SIR – On Wednesday morning, at 9am on the dot, I rang my NHS surgery. A recorded voice told me I was number one in the queue, but that if it was “an emergency, such as vomiting blood”, I should dial 999. If my problem was “routine”, however, I should hold.
I then spoke to a receptionist, who snootily informed me that unless my call was an emergency I would have to ring back at 10am; and no, she was not able to book me in there and then.
Two points: what constitutes an emergency (does being unable to walk due to a very painful foot count?), and if I was meant to ring 999 for whatever an emergency is, why is the surgery answering the phone at all between 9am and 10am?
Veronica Timperley
London W1
SIR – Every nurse, doctor and NHS employee who is working flat out to give patients the best possible care will be insulted to be called an “enemy of the British people” (Comment, April 10).
Yes, public satisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low, hit by people’s experience of the relentless “demand outstripping capacity” challenges that face not just A&E but all departments, medical and social care. Today, the NHS faces some of the toughest conditions in its history.
Nobody wants people to have long waits for the care they need, and trusts have cut the longest waiting times, while doctors and nurses are seeing many more patients than before Covid. Years of soaring demand and a shortage of resources have piled pressure on the NHS, which was intensified by the pandemic. Meanwhile, over the years our healthcare system has been given fewer resources than those of similar countries.
Public support for the fundamental principles of the NHS remains rock solid, but for NHS teams to be able to give people first-class care we need sustainable investment, backed by the long-overdue reform of social care.
Saffron Cordery
Deputy Chief Executive
NHS Providers
London SW1
A is for H
SIR – Despite more than 50 years having passed, I can still clearly recall sitting in class Five Alpha, and the sound of our wonderful teacher smashing her wooden rubber against the chalk board as she loudly proclaimed: “It’s aitch – A, I, T, C, H!” (Letters, April 11).
Philip Cuddy
Wilmslow, Cheshire
Scrabble is supposed to stretch its players
SIR – It is disappointing that Mattel has decided to introduce a simpler version of Scrabble for those who find it “too intimidating” (report, April 9).
Two of the things I love about Scrabble are having my mind stretched and learning new words. I do hope that Mattel does not come under pressure to withdraw the traditional version.
Jean James
Farnborough, Hampshire
SIR – All my life I have been intimidated by the idea of playing Scrabble. My grandparents insisted on us playing, and my husband is competitive. Being dyslexic, I can’t stand the game.
But at last the makers are bringing in a more relaxed version, making it easier for the likes of me. So I’d like to say a huge thank you to Mattel for its understanding.
Robyn Maitland
Sherborne, Dorset
SIR – Having played Scrabble since wet caravan holidays in the 1960s, I am saddened that this great game is being dumbed down.
I am now in my 80s, and my wife of nearly 60 years and I have played Rummikub most days since we were introduced to it 25 years ago. It can be played by up to four players of all ages, and we enjoy two or three games most evenings. No two games are the same.
Sometimes the challenging nature of the game results in another burnt supper, but we trust it keeps our old minds alert.
Rob Morley
Ashbourne, Derbyshire
A hard worker’s view of Wales’s four-day week
SIR – That Wales is considering a four-day week for public-sector staff (report, April 10) will raise cynical smiles from pensioners, who are often accused of having it easy in retirement.
Most earned this through hard work. Like millions of others, I worked a five-and-half-day week for many years, and a six-day week in the Middle East.
It is no wonder that so many now don’t bother when work is not seen as the basis for a happy life. If the public sector can run effectively on a four-day week, then 20 per cent of the staff can be let go to work in the private sector.
Michael Edwards
Haslemere, Surrey
SIR – Being asset-rich as a result of house-price inflation does not pay for a bottle of milk (“Baby boomers cope with higher bills”, report, April 10).
Many pensioners may sit in a freehold, mortgage-free property, but rely on their pension to pay for basic needs.
One simple way of balancing assets between pensioners and the 35-to-44 age group would be to abolish inheritance tax and allow property and other assets to pass down to the next generation – and not disappear into the Treasury black hole.
David Burrow
Barton on Sea, Hampshire
