http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/jan/18/european-union-like-holy-roman-empire1/17/15
European Union: we really don’t want the Holy Roman Empire brought back
It’s futile to try to turn the clock back on Europe to some idea of Pax RomanaI campaigned for a “No” vote in the 1975 referendum on the common market, largely on political grounds but objections were patronisingly dismissed – the market, we were told, was an economic, not political, project. Subsequently, I took a rather childish pleasure in continually referring to the European “project”, whatever its current nomenclature, as the “Holy Roman Empire”. Now, suddenly, I find myself in agreement with Will Hutton (“The British Museum reminds us Germany is a force for good”, Comment) who also sees the EU as the successor to the HRE! There the agreement ends, because he apparently finds this laudable.
Is this really the best we can do? For centuries, there has been a fixation with some mythic ideal of the Roman empire – its codes of laws, “Pax Romana” and so on, and the HRE was just one of the futile efforts to turn back the clock. Of course there are all manner of national and international problems that need co-operation and resolution, but over 200 years since Napoleon did us all a favour by getting rid of the thing, is bringing it back the most forward-thinking idea that the third millennium has to offer?
John Old
Nuneaton
Make milk the cream of the cropThe number of milk producers in England and Wales has now fallen below 10,000 and there are suggestions that this number will halve by 2025. This is due to the drive for ever cheaper milk. The use of milk by retailers as a loss leader amounts to playing with our food.
A perception of cows in fields, maintained by those selling milk and dairy products, masks the steady march towards a future where these products will increasingly flow from industrial sites rather than traditional farms.I started a farmer-led movement called Free Range Dairy and the Pasture Promise label to promote the value of Britain’s seasonally grazed dairy herds and try to shift industry focus away from volume and towards value. I would like to see clear labelling on milk cartons that will enable consumers to make an informed choice about the provenance of the dairy in their diet and reward farmers with a fair price.
Neil Darwent
BBC outstanding farmer of the year 2014; director Free Range Dairy Network CIC
Frome
Walkie Talkie’s poor receptionThe Walkie Talkie is a sad contribution to London and the City in particular (“Iconic address” – or just more pie in the sky?”, Rowan Moore, New Review, 4 Jan). Wherever you see it from it looks out of scale and ugly. I am totally in support of elegant, beautiful towers; the Shard is a great contribution to London’s skyline. The problem with the Walkie Talkie is its proportion. It looks as if it has been sat on by a massive celestial gnome, making it bulge out like a malformed marshmallow.
Towers are exciting when they rise up elegantly, shimmer in the sunlight or moonlight and respect their neighbours. Chunky towers can be exciting, too, but the good ones respect proportion and are stout and rooted to the ground. The Walkie Talkie has none of these attributes. It is a sad indictment on Land Securities for forcing overdevelopment of the site and both the GLA and the City for running scared in their planning responsibilities. Moore is also right to question the sky garden; the reality is that few of us will ever get up there. It will be the playground of privileged City workers.
Camilla Ween
Goldstein Ween Architects
London SW8
Antidote for political gamesI’m struck by the unedifying spectacle of politicians engaged in name-calling and abnegation of responsibility. I propose a remedy. If a politician blames the previous government for present ills the interviewer must make an adenoidal sound like the buzzer on the children’s game Operation; equally, if the politician ignores the interviewer’s question, he/she will receive the same treatment. Political parties should be prohibited from comparing their policies with those of other parties. Instead, they would lay out their manifesto and an independent, taxpayer-funded fact-checking body would tell us how much of it is true. Then in May we vote.
Ed Stoppard
Bromley
Lord Garden did his own research
I was angered to see your piece linking fees for trainees to my husband, Lord Garden, who was the Liberal Democrat defence spokesman in the Lords for the last three years of his life (“Unpaid interns charged £300 for job references”, News last week). He died in 2007. I don’t know Jan Mortier and never heard my husband mention him. Tim was well known for doing all his own research and administration and never felt the need to employ a “consultant” or an “aide”. He would certainly have had nothing to do with the practices associated with his name in the article.
Baroness Garden
House of Lords
We draw our own conclusionsIt is to be expected that a piece entitled “Now hidden – Islam’s rich history of images of the prophet” (News, last week) should be illustrated – the key word being “images” – but I can’t have been the only reader to notice that the illustration used was of some buildings and some mountains.
Paul Colbeck
