There are more important things than money and it is time that the sad remnants of the fur trade recognised this.Yours faithfullyMARK GLOVERRespect for AnimalsNottingham. From Mrs Eryl Howard Sir: The chief executive at Treliske Hospital, Brian Milstead, is quoted as saying (report, 17 May) that no individual would be disciplined for leaving a needle embedded in a newborn baby because it was the system that was at fault. Since Mr Milstead is in charge of the system, shouldn't he be disciplined, or are managers not accountable for the results of their actions (or inactions), unlike other professions? Yours faithfully,ERYL HOWARDWhittlesford, Cambridgeshire19 May. From Mr Robert Colover Sir: With regard to your leading article "Spare the cash, spoil the parent", on Sunday last my son went to get yet more Pogs from a local newsagent His bike was stolen from outside the shop I went to pick him up. As we cruised the area looking for the miscreant, we suffered a damage-only accident to my car. Score so far: Pogs, none, Colover family, down pounds 250. Not cheap, not popular.Yours etc,ROBERT COLOVERLondon, SW1620 May.
From Mr John Gorman Sir: Steve Hitchens (letter, 19 May), in referring to the flying of the red flag over Islington town hall, argues that the red flag is a "symbol of oppression" Nonsense. It is an emblem of revolt, liberation and international working-class solidarity. Its origins are uncertain, but Britain may lay claim. Professor Gwyn Williams, in writing of the Merthyr Tydfil rising of 1831, relates how the miners, after a bloody confrontation with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, "ritually sacrificed a calf, washed a flag in its blood and impaled a loaf of bread on the staff" and "marched to rouse the people to insurrection".When Jim Connell, the grand old Irish socialist, wrote The Red Flag in 1889, he was, he said, inspired by the judicial murder of trade unionists in Chicago in 1887, and the great London dock strike of 1889. Both events arose from the struggle of working people against oppression.The red flag may not fly in Islington next year, but it is worth recalling the fifth verse of The Red Flag:It suits today the weak and baseWhose minds are fixed on pelf and placeTo cringe before the rich man's frownAnd haul the sacred emblem downHaul it down, Mr Hitchens, but it will still flutter aloft in the hearts of all true socialists.Yours sincerely,JOHN GORMANWaltham Abbey, Essex21 May. From Mr David Holland Sir: As a practising barrister, I believe the proposed "demolition" of the Bar ("Time for a new order in the court", 18 May) would make litigation more expensive and difficult for most people. The authors fail to realise that a relatively small percentage of the legal aid budget goes on barristers' fees.It is also the case that the cost of court appearances would be significantly higher in most cases if barristers, who have much lower overheads and who charge a fixed fee, were replaced by solicitors, who charge an hourly rate and include travel and waiting time.
A large and well-known London firm of solicitors a few years ago asked its accountants and was told that the pounds 2m it had incurred in counsel's fees that year would have been pounds 4m if the same work had been carried out by its own solicitors. Most of my practice is spent in the County Courts where solicitors have had rights of audience for years, and yet few choose to exercise that right in anything other than very short hearings.The abolition of the Bar would also have serious consequences for hundreds of small- and medium-sized solicitor's firms that simply could not offer their clients a cost-effective litigation service without barristers. They would not be able to employ their own full-time advocates.The independent Bar should not fear competition from solicitors or employed barristers.Whether one adopts the inquisitorial or retains the adversarial system, one will always need advocates. Advocacy is a specialist skill requiring specific training and experience. The Bar currently represents a pool of trained advocates available for hire to any member of the public. The latter would be ill-served by the disappearance of the former.Yours faithfully,DAVID HOLLANDLondon, WC120 May. This is a story of how a painting once celebrated, and valued above the lives of thousands of men, went mysteriously invisible, even though it was always on display.
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