George Eaton (Politics, 23 August) nails the ineptitude displayed by Rachel Reeves in the winter fuel allowance fiasco. The haste, clumsiness and callousness it revealed bodes ill for further policymaking. If hitherto universal allowances are to be means-tested, this cannot mean simply restricting them to existing recipients of means-tested benefits. That way a new, more impoverished class of people will be created just above the means-test level who will inevitably suffer – thus more people will choose to rely on the state, increasing the burden Reeves is trying to reduce. If she had gone for a tax clawback rather than the blunt instrument she has chosen, she could have avoided the current disaster entirely.
Jill Chisholm, Clapham, London
After the storm
I was struck by Jason Cowley’s acute observation (Cover Story, 16 August) that Keir Starmer needs a “new national story” to inspire renewal. It has to be one of optimism, potential and the legacy we want to leave future generations – a story told so compellingly by Labour almost 30 years ago before it got bogged down by a duller one of technocratic competence.
New Labour’s message was one of opportunity, a theme ironically used to great effect by Brexit campaigners. Today, fear has become the dominant storytelling theme of our age. It’s why Nigel Farage, Donald Trump and their armies of online agitators and media commentators are so potent. Facts matter less than feelings. Starmer’s government needs a story and, crucially, storytellers that do the same thing: make the nation feel positive.
Indeed, some of that constructive storytelling would not go amiss within the pages of the New Statesman, too.
Grant Feller, London W4
In his analysis of what lay behind the riots, Jason Cowley writes “a nation is more than an imagined community: it has a history that cannot be wished away”. The problem arises when the facts of that history are misremembered or misunderstood.
The Czech political scientist Karl Deutsch defined a nation as “a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours”. The rioters’ chants of “English till we die” suggest he had a point. People who feel that they and their communities have been ignored and betrayed by governments may not share Cowley’s understanding of their nation’s history. The unfortunate truth is that they have often been encouraged to think as they do by irresponsible politicians.
Robin Lustig, London N10
Spiritual underpinnings
In Madeleine Davies’s stimulating survey of contemporary cultural Christianity in Britain (Cover Story, 23 August), she rightly points out the complex and contradictory range of views. Those who cite the positive Christian values in society that undergird the welfare state, education and human rights too often fail to acknowledge Christian justification for colonialism, slavery and racism (though there have also been Christian voices challenging this view). Whenever a Christian value becomes established, it is prone to being taken for granted, abused and exploited by those in power and needs to be challenged, reformed and renewed. This relates to Tom Holland’s insight that the core idea of Christianity is that “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”. Christianity has to be countercultural, prophetically calling out injustice, standing with the powerless, criticising the powerful, and as the American philosopher David Bentley Hart asserts, “radical in rejecting the values and priorities of society”. This is in fact the dominant theme in the Bible, from the community of justice and peace Israel is called to be, to Jesus’s subversive disciples who turned the world upside down.
Reverend Richard Barrett, Biggleswade, Beds
When I was fortunate enough to be featured as your “Subscriber of the Week” in November 2023, my answer to “Who would you put on the cover of the NS?” was Bukayo Saka. I was therefore delighted to see him featured on the cover on 23 August – I had not realised the answers were taken into account for future covers! Were I to answer the questions again my response to “All-time favourite NS article?” might well now be Madeleine Davies’s thoughtful article on the rise of cultural Christianity.
Graham Fulcher, Reigate, Surrey
Need for prevention
Hannah Barnes’s excellent column on violence against women and girls (Out of the Ordinary, 23 August) fails to mention the impact of the internet, social media and pornography. Anyone who has been the parent of a teenager over the past decade will know of the routine consumption of porn by teenage boys, which has led to sexual practices such as “choking” becoming normalised. In Scotland, the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme seeks to give young people the space to explore and challenge the attitudes that underpin gender-based violence. This needs to be rolled out across the country alongside other preventative measures if we are to tackle this shattering epidemic.
Justine Womack, Warminster
Feeling deflated
William Boyd’s enjoyable review of Richard J Evans’s book on the Third Reich (Critics, 23 August) makes a mistake in referring to “debilitating hyperinflation” after the Wall Street crash. What followed the crash was, in fact, severe deflation – and it was the unwillingness of Weimar Germany’s leaders to adopt measures to reverse deflation that sank the economy, drove unemployment and laid the ground for the Nazi takeover.
There was, of course, hyperinflation in 1923. But this episode did not destroy German democracy. The economy recovered, and by 1928 – when the Nazi party won less than 3 per cent of the vote in national elections – the prospects for German democracy were quite good.
If we want an economic explanation for Hitler’s rise, it is essential to focus on the deflation of the Great Depression and the misconceived economic policies pursued in response to it. In our times, a common term for such policies is “austerity”.
Tony Barber, Cheam, Surrey
Haven’t got a clue
In the absence of the final three clues for the NS Crossword in Brief 135 can I suggest some? 19 down: A youthful pain in the knee (answer, OSS, or Osgood Schlatter Syndrome). 20 down: A minimalist’s sleep (answer, nap). 21 down: a curtailed arbor (answer, tre). On the other hand I may have got the answers wrong!
Chris Stewart, Mirfield
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This article appears in the 28 Aug 2024 issue of the New Statesman, Trump in turmoil