Among the leaderless
young in Zuccotti Park,
a glimmer of hope
The Cafe
The point of the protests
Shocked and saddened
by the personal animus
of a literary critic
The Cafe 2
Power prices
Why not gay marriage?
We have a tradition
of religious liberalism
Barbara Millar
Real doctors
John Cameron
Britain’s economy has entered an era of low growth when many will be squeezed and it is pointless to heap all the blame on the venal rich, the feckless poor and the bankers. The fact is that for over a decade around the turn of the 21st century we started to live beyond our means and borrowed recklessly hoping tomorrow would pay the bill.
The protest movement camped on his doorstep has moved the Archbishop of Canterbury to assault the immorality of capitalism and pen an article to the Financial Times. His Grace vaguely suggests ‘fiscal fairness and a sense of proportion’ and advocates a Tobin tax, the unintended consequences of which are clearly beyond his understanding. Other concerned clerics declare that ‘maximising shareholder value should no longer be the sole criterion’ but the nature of replacement criteria is not disclosed.
Ed Miliband, whose contribution to the mess might suggest a period of reflective silence, has instead discovered ‘a gap between people’s values and the way our country is run’. Of course democracy tends to leave us feeling powerless after encouraging us to believe we have a voice, so the temptation to shriek abuse is understandable. But those in positions of leadership, including the clerics, have no such excuse and the platitudes included in the church’s recent report on financial ethics were Pythonesque. It was full of abstractions such as ‘the more we are free, the more we are in chains’ and has declared a crisis in which capitalism has spread greed, wealth and inequality.
There is nothing of practical value in such fuzzy moralising and the church is slumped in the pious simplicity of Savonarola’s Florence hoping to find a banker to burn. We need caution, balance and insight as we face one of greatest challenges of recent times but I have yet to hear an ethical contribution that is not a pretentious cop-out. We also need the democratic participation of parliament, local government, the City and the unions and this should not be short-circuited by clerical fluff and mob rule.
Faces of Scotland
A month of character studies by Islay McLeod
6. Friendship
Was the editor of SR
right or wrong about
the M5 accident?
That was a rather callous article by Kenneth Roy (9 November). I agree with the argument that the press tends to cover what’s happening in England and the south of England in particular. But the accident didn’t just affect those whose family members were killed – there were many seriously injured, who he doesn’t mention. I suppose that they don’t know how their injuries will affect their lives in the future.
Major accidents like this do throw doubt on the wisdom of the Westminster government in even thinking about increasing the speed limit. Let’s build a campaign for lower speed limits in Scotland – the death toll on the A9 is alarming enough.
Cathie Lloyd
Might I suggest that Kenneth Roy’s piece includes potential effects of location and technology on coverage, but misses the basic journalistic ‘So what, who cares and what’s in it for me?’ point.
The M5 is far more likely to be used by a reasonable proportion of the readership and listenership of UK national press and media than is ‘an obscure slip road in Ayrshire’, and hence brings a ‘There but for the grace of God’ frisson.
In addition there was the longer-term effect on traffic and travel for many people, the fireball resulting from the accident and people’s fear of being burned alive in their cars in the event of a smash, as well as the fact that for some time the police were suggesting that the death toll as a result of the fireball may be both much higher and more difficult to establish.
Caroline Dempster
I have just read Kenneth Roy’s article about the M5 road accident and wanted to pen a few words from someone who understands.
The sadness of lives lost is something the majority of people can grasp, especially when there was no planned reason for it. What does not make sense is for the vast majority of newspaper journalists, radio and television crews and internet editors to make assumptions yet again before the families have been informed and identified.
We seem to be a population which can only thrive on the sadness of others just to get the story out there, irrespective of what truth or harm is in it. Kenneth Roy was right to mention 9/11 and also I can speak of 7/7 as one who knows what hurt and pain is caused by the thrust of the media knives, even now after six years have elapsed.
Are our lives so empty that we need them filled by others, telling us so much which has no real connection to anyone we know? I would rather read and see more on the mastership of drawing and painting that Leonardo da Vinci created centuries ago – this truly is world news when it is gathered in one place for us all to enjoy, as it happens to be here in London.
My heart understands loss and for the families of the two innocent and unnamed girls who died in Ayrshire, but we must try to get a hold on the reality of sensationalist headlines.
Tim Coulson
Tim Coulson is one of the survivors of 7/7. He was appointed MBE for his bravery in coming to the aid of the dying and injured during the attack on the Edgware Road tube station
Kenneth Roy replies: Cathie Lloyd is mistaken: I did mention the ‘many’ injured in the M5 accident. The names of the two young women killed in the Ayrshire accident were Holly Fulton, 19, and Jayde McVicar, 19, both of Greenock