While I’m not wealthy, I’m quite comfortable about paying taxes to support public services and I certainly don’t feel targeted for living away from England.
Douglas Morton
The wrong idea
In response to Carol of Edinburgh who wrote that her state pension was under threat from means testing. It is not. Where did that idea come from and why publish a letter without clarifying that? We pay NI contributions when working to also contribute to the NHS, unemployment benefit, maternity leave and entitlement to other benefits. It is not just for pensions.
I would add that the clue is in the name. It is a National Insurance that all working people pay into as a communal protection scheme. Otherwise, we would all need separate insurance for health matters, unemployment etc and possibly end up like folk in the US who can be bankrupted by health costs and other misfortunes that we may avoid.
Rob Draper, Ascot
Preaching to the choir
Andrew Ford’s article is full of interest, but surely music began long before humans existed – with birdsong and other animal calls! In fact, the sound of water, perhaps in a waterfall or with the lap or crash of waves, could also be called music.
Certainly, rhythm is very important – sea shanties and other work songs are helpful for people doing jobs which require rhythm. Marches, including funeral marches, are helpful in the same way, while dance rhythms will set people’s feet tapping. All these things, along with melodies and harmonies, may trigger emotional responses in the hearers. But as we are all individuals, the responses will vary enormously. It is no wonder that music can’t be explained in words, but its effects may be very obvious. For example, music for a romantic film will be very different from that for a documentary about the Great Plague of 1665.
Some years ago, the British Museum put on an exhibition relating to the Ice Age. One exhibit referred to footprints outside a cave indicating that people had been dancing. One artefact was a wind instrument like a flute, made from a hollow bone, some tens of thousands of years ago. Music is a vital part of life, and a powerful one.
Juliet Chaplin, Sutton
Name and shame
Your reporter reveals how Stephen Mulhern was hugely popular as a TV star but appalling as the owner of a £4m property empire. It’s time Big Issue ran a name and shame column, featuring those who don’t do what they should for those renting who experience damp, mould and cold. Be proactive!
Do it now. Let your readers help you draw attention to nightmare housing.
Wendy James, Cambridge
Talk of the Tyne
Eeee well done to @BigIssue for managing to capture both the structural injustice and the local brilliance of Byker, a balance/tension that most journalists miss.
@Joyinthecorners, X
Independent thinking
Excellent piece on SNP leader John Swinney. The media suggest the SNP is bad because they’re terrified an independent Scotland will lose them money, plus it will show how different our country is from one governed by self-interested power brokers. A Great Britain along the lines of Scandinavia is needed, where its countries are independent but act together when appropriate. Swinney’s challenge is to govern fairly but also to push for independence – a well-nigh impossible task but one he, if anyone, can pull off.
Mary Brown, Aberdeen
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