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I disagree with the prime minister’s view that “globalisation has failed” (news, Apr 6). While the US has decided to look inwards, I believe the present panic will be resolved as countries begin to work together without the US. In my opinion Donald Trump’s main target is China but, if you target one country, goods are redirected via other nations to bypass tariffs. Chinese companies have been building factories in countries such as Vietnam to try to avoid US tariffs. To counteract that, Trump’s solution was to target everyone. Unfortunately the West has been asleep while China has built the world’s second-largest economy.
While I don’t support Trump’s methods, I believe he has a bigger plan and these tariffs, like his approach to Ukraine, will force Europe from its slumber. What happens once European countries strengthen their military will be even more interesting.
Gary Tagg
Wickford, Essex
Jesse Norman’s timely article (“Rough trade”, news review, Apr 6) reminds us that Adam Smith was not a cheerleader for self-serving nationalism but a philosopher of moral commerce — one who saw trade as a co-operative act grounded in trust, mutual benefit and ethical sentiment. Given the apparent retreat of the US into a self-interested and isolationist trade posture, is this not a critical opportunity for the other G20 nations — especially those developing economies rich in raw and processed commodities — to explore an alternative framework for international trade?
Such a system could be grounded in a more faithful reading of Smith’s twin legacies: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations. It would favour reciprocal co-operation over competitive protectionism, and long-term shared prosperity over short-term political theatre. With the old order in flux, the time has come for a new architecture — one that Smith himself might have recognised and endorsed.
Peter Bennett
Chesterfield, Derbys
Donald Trump may have inadvertently saved the world from disaster (“Feeling the burn”, politics, Apr 6). If America produces everything it needs at home, nothing will have to be shipped, flown or driven in from another country. Similarly, I love English cheese and Welsh lamb so why should I buy French cheese and New Zealand lamb that comes with a built-in carbon footprint? I am aware the UK is not able to produce enough food at the moment but we must make more of what we need ourselves. Once you are self-sufficient, a tariff becomes meaningless. Trump’s move might mean the race to cut global warming can be won. If so, his Nobel peace prize may be on its way.
Martin Hunt
Longfield, Kent
Trump is a businessman and assumed China would respond as other countries have done and cut a deal. However, the Chinese people have a simmering resentment about the way the western powers humiliated them more than 100 years ago. It would prefer economic disadvantage to being humiliated again. It will stand up to bullies and in so doing will attract other vulnerable countries.
Professor Michael Hyland
University of Plymouth
Anyone who uses the term “may you live in interesting times” will have had their wish granted — but it is not the only expression that rings true of late. I don’t know the origin of the saying “trumped-up charges” but it has proved prophetic.
Mark Woolley
London N14
Busking blues
Dominic Lawson is right to condemn the menace of street musicians (“Why must we endure these amplified buskers?”, Apr 6). A particularly egregious example of this “daily aural torture” is to be found on the concourse of Waterloo station in London where, absurdly, the buskers’ hideous noise makes it impossible to hear the announcement of train departures and arrivals.
David Woodhead
Leatherhead, Surrey
My goodness. Dominic Lawson’s lambasting of amplified buskers is a little unfair in my opinion. My wife and I must be fortunate to live where we do. We are both senior citizens but we greatly enjoy and like to contribute to the excellent live music that is provided by our local buskers.
Bill Jones
Beverley, E Yorks
Digging the new breed
Two hundred years ago Marc Brunel (assisted by his son Isambard) started work on the world’s first tunnel under a river. That feat is worth celebrating as the new tunnel at Rotherhithe (where Brunel’s original is still used by trains) has opened (“Light at the end of tunnel for Thames crossing”, Apr 6). I wonder whether the new tunnel will still be in use in 200 years’ time?
Joan Freeland
Bristol
Barking up the wrong tree
It is one thing to abolish winter fuel payments for pensioners, but it would be a brave government indeed that revived dog licences (letters, Mar 30 & Apr 6).
Jean Kehoe
Formby, Merseyside
Mind your p’s and q’s
The University of Edinburgh offering accent-bias training to staff (news, Apr 6) reminds me of my experience as a student nurse at St George’s Hospital, London, in the 1980s. Undertaking a secondment in the psychiatric unit as a second-year student, I was greeted by the charge nurse with the salvo: “You sound posh. What are you doing here?” Let us hope the university’s accent training addresses both sides of the coin.
Ancilla Shirley
Nayland, Suffolk
I was working for a respected firm of insurance brokers in the City when news broke that one of my colleagues had been told that, for his career to blossom, he should lose his Essex accent. Oddly, the boss who told him this had the thickest Manchester accent imaginable.
David Greagsby
Nine Ashes, Essex
Russia spying at sea
We will always be behind the curve when it comes to tracking Russian naval espionage if we carry on indirectly disarming by closing our steel furnaces and selling our shipyards to foreign countries (“Kremlin’s spy sensors found in British waters”, news, Apr 6). An island nation that cannot build ships will be at the mercy of those that can. We have only one ship, the Proteus, which is capable of tracking Russia’s fleet of nuclear-powered mini-submarines, which are fitted with cable-cutting arms. We had to buy the Proteus and plan to purchase another but, if war comes, I fear the shipbuilding nations will keep what they are constructing for themselves, as Churchill did in the First World War when he commandeered two battleships that were being built for Turkey in British yards.
Nigel Hawkins
Author of The Starvation Blockades
Shaftesbury, Dorset
Rise in private tutors
It is remarkable that the world of private tutoring remains unregulated (“Pricey private tutors helping more and more GCSE pupils make their mark”, Apr 6). Private tutors are not required to be registered with, or approved by, a statutory organisation. They also do not have to be qualified teachers and are not legally required to undergo enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks, even though many work one to one with children. The Department for Education should establish a central register of tutors who meet the qualifications and safeguarding standards required to teach in a school. The aim of this register would be to provide parents with reliably verified information on which they could make decisions on a tutor’s suitability.
Mark Steed
Principal and chief executive, Stamford School
Fox in the box
Roger Dawe reports a fox stealing his copy of The Sunday Times after it was attracted by the packaging (letter, Apr 6). On my way to church on Sunday I saw a large green package on the pavement. On closer inspection it was The Sunday Times in a wrapper but with a deposit of fox excrement on top. Was the fox attracted by the smell of the packaging or the comfort of doing its business on a nice, clean plastic bag?
Josephine Clark
Bromley, Kent
When I worked in my local library’s reference section, the newspaper most frequently stolen was The Church Times.
Helen Fox
Poole, Dorset
Pews for thought
I am horrified that two directors of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh Society face calls to resign after church pews that were designed by the Scottish architect were sawn up and sold for only £40 each (“Sacrilege!”, news, Apr 6). The pews are only two of many and comprise planed but otherwise unworked planks nailed or pegged together. They are ugly and uncomfortable. Mackintosh was notorious for uncompromising seating. Indeed, it is said that the wife of the Bath-based vehicle engineer Sidney Horstmann once complained to their mutual friend and engineer, WJ Bassett-Lowke, how uncomfortable were the upright dining chairs that Mackintosh had supplied her with!
Dr Alister Hoda
Kemerton, Worcs
Marathon feat
Leodhais Macpherson is to be congratulated for his efforts in memory of his brother (“128 marathons in 128 days is easy. Thinking about Conor is hard”, Apr 6). If he starts to flag he should take inspiration from Gary McKee, who ran the equivalent of a full marathon on every day in 2022, raising more than £1 million for charity.
Gary Rawlinson
Burbage, Wilts
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