Reading of Dan Poulter’s defection (“Top Tory MP defects to Labour in fury at NHS crisis”) was of particular interest to me: I am a mental health nurse in the NHS; I too cover the A&E department in my local hospital; and I work for the same NHS trust. He lists many reasons why he is appalled at the state of the NHS, and does well to highlight the suffering that mental health patients are forced to go through, thanks to lack of resources and outsourcing to private providers.
However, it was laughable to read of his praise for David Cameron’s Conservative party, with its “commitment to the NHS”. Poulter speaks of his concern over health inequalities, yet it was Cameron’s party that unleashed austerity and only advanced such inequalities. Poor mental health is overwhelmingly experienced by those from a lower socioeconomic standing. Many people were accelerated into poverty thanks to Cameron’s policies.
Dr Poulter says Keir Starmer means change. Today’s Labour party says it will continue to outsource and has said nothing of improving the lives of nurses like me. Dr Poulter may well have genuine concerns, but as a psychiatrist he should know that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
Name and address supplied
So it took Dr Dan Poulter 14 years to realise that the Tories were bad for the NHS. How relieved I am that he wasn’t involved in the diagnosis of anyone I know.
Angela Singer
Cambridge
Put these horses out to grass
Considering the pieces by Andrew Rawnsley on defence spending and Michael Hogan on the escaped army horses, why, a century after the cavalry horse become obsolete, does the army persist with maintaining what is, in some ways, a circus spectacle in fancy dress? The Royal Signals motorcycle display team was disbanded in 2017 – presumably due to the obsolescence of the despatch rider.
Colin Bennett
Kilburn, Belper, Derbyshire
We saw HIV coming
In 1973, I was a medical student at King’s College Hospital, where intensive research was being undertaken into hepatitis B and hepatitis C, for both of which there was no test. We students were very aware of hepatitis caused by infusions and needle stick injuries, since we took all the blood samples on the ward – without any protection (“‘Plasma was called liquid gold’: the true story of the UK infected blood scandal”).
After we had returned from our 10 weeks studying and working in hospitals abroad, we met in the refectory to relate our experiences. One student had just returned from Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He commented on the effect of the financial incentives associated with blood donation in the US, saying that even people with very unhygienic lifestyles, including convicts, donated blood. We agreed that all manner of viruses would be readily transmitted within the US blood transfusion service. HIV duly followed.
Dr MJC Brown
Northwood, Middlesex
Don’t listen to the landlords
I am pleased to find Rowan Moore approving much of Nick Bano’s account of private renting in Britain (“Against Landlords”, Books, New Review, 21 April). He appears, however, to capitulate to the defence often advanced by landlords: rent controls and secure tenancies would inevitably produce homelessness.
The convenient sources of self-enrichment that private landlords have been given since the 1980s, in the form of assured shorthold tenancies, buy-to-let mortgages and housing benefit have contributed significantly to a world in which the young cannot start families and many suffer poverty and ill-health.
Ownership is no proof against housing precarity, so there is no reason to think fair rents and long-term tenancies (as enjoyed by many in Europe) uniquely produce homelessness. Nonetheless, the horrors of modern tenancy make the news. The cure may lie in market regulation, the conversion of private rental portfolios to public housing via compulsory state purchase, or elsewhere. But we must believe renting can be made affordable and secure, though private landlordism may wish it otherwise.
Julian Case
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Angela Rayner: the real deal
I’m not sure that Angela Rayner would appreciate being credited with possessing the same “it” as the likes of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage (“Blair had it, Johnson too… the quality that wins Rayner support despite her gaffes”). It seems to me that Rayner is genuinely, er, genuine. She has no guile. What you see is what you get. Johnson and Farage, on the other hand, are privileged individuals who cynically adopt, for political purposes, a carefully crafted persona that is designed to dupe people into believing that they are “one of us” and “anti-establishment”. Rayner’s appeal lies in her true authenticity, which is why Tories see her as such a threat.
Charlie Adamson
Honley, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire
Tourism trumps all
The wringing of hands about overtourism in your editorial has a parallel in the world’s slow reaction to climate change (“Sometimes, the planet’s hotspots are best left unvisited”). Cassandra-like, I and my fellow campaigners in the UK charity Tourism Concern knew in the 1990s what was coming if the tourism bandwagon went on its merry way. We drew attention to the ignored impacts of all-inclusive holidays, huge cruise ships, trekking in vulnerable mountain environments, holiday rentals in areas with little local housing and tourism’s demand for water in dry resort areas. Sadly, the instinct to travel, like our instinct to lead energy-thirsty lives, trumped efforts to change attitudes and curb corporate ambitions.
Alison Stancliffe
Newcastle upon Tyne
Bravery of a young mother
Never have I experienced as many emotions in such a short time as I did while reading Lauren Bensted’s article on childbirth (“I felt myself split into before and after”). From horror and sympathy for her health issues to fury at the state of the NHS, chuckles at her ability to see the humour in extraordinary situations to relief when she finally got the treatment she so clearly deserved, I reached the end of her ordeal not only in tears (of happiness) but with sheer admiration for this brave mother. As she expressed so eloquently, things could have ended so very differently. This was an extraordinary piece of journalism and I wish Lauren and her family only the very best from now on.
Sue Styles
Marton, North Yorkshire
Like Bensted, I was told by a nurse lots of people name their stoma; like her, I felt no inclination to do so. She compares hers to a sea urchin; I think mine resembles a sea anemone when the tide’s gone out.
Jocelyn Rose
Fort William, Inverness-shire