Letters and Emails: April 22

Letters and emails: April 22

The Sunday Times Published: 22 April 2012

Protect children online

One in three 10-year-olds have seen sexual images on the internet, and four out of five 14 to 16-year-olds look at pornography online at home. Children and young people — whether accidentally or deliberately — are accessing mainstream pornography on the internet including hardcore, violent and abusive images. And the problem will get worse as more acquire internet-enabled devices.

The recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry into online child protection, published last week by Claire Perry MP, are the way forward. These include a proposal for a formal consultation on the introduction of an opt-in network-level filtering system for all internet accounts. The default setting for pornography would be “off”, and it would be restored only after strict age-verification for those over 18.

Internet service providers (ISPs) should develop an appropriate self-regulated solution as soon as possible; failing that, the government should consider legal powers to intervene. The online safety private member’s bill introduced by Baroness Howe of Idlicote — which similarly requires ISPs and mobile phone operators to block pornographic content, subject to an opt-in — offers a good legal framework. Our children deserve a much safer online environment.

Pippa Smith & Miranda Suit Co-Chairwomen, Safermedia, Jacqui Smith, Fiona Mactaggart MP, Julian Brazier MP, Fiona Bruce MP, Angela Leadsom MP, Annette Brooke MP, Harriett Baldwin MP, Helen Goodman MP, Baroness Finlay, Baroness Benjamin, Baroness Goudie, Dr Linda Papadopoulos Author of Home Office report on sexualisation of children, Penelope Leach Mindful Policy Group, Gill Slocombe Chief Guide, Girlguiding UK, Dr Mary Bousted, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Professor Kevin Browne Nottingham University

A full list of signatories is on page two of this article

Letters and emails: April 22

The Sunday Times Published: 22 April 2012

Recommended (7)
Comment (1)
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Philanthropists must put tax before charity

IT IS time the philanthropists met their tax obligations first, and with the millions left over they can decide if they wish to support a good cause (“You’re wrong on charity, chancellor”, Editorial, and “Tories rebel on charity tax cap”, News, last week). The “99% good people” that you refer to in the editorial donate to charities but do not have the luxury of deciding when and how much they pay in tax. Do we whine and whinge? If the wealthy want to help, let them pay their taxes in full. They should not be allowed to use charity as a tax dodge.
Clive Bottrill, Newton Abbot, Devon

Give and take
If an individual earns £500,000 and donates £200,000 to a bona fide charity, the tax on the remaining £300,000 makes a very generous contribution to the chancellor. We should be strictly enforcing existing rules to ensure that charities are not fake, rather than penalising the philanthropists.
John Rennocks, Oxshott, Surrey

The cap fits
I hope the chancellor will resist the petulant complaints about the proposed cap on tax relief for charitable donations.
Bernard Wood, Sevenoaks, Kent

Cause and effect
How would it be if we all decided to support our own good causes in place of paying income tax and National Insurance contributions? I think it healthier that the government decides what to spend our money on for the common good. That’s what we elected it to do.
Stephen Cunningham, Chelmsford, Essex

Preservation order
The Vat on repairs and alterations to listed buildings is not as exciting as the one on pasties but just as stupid (“Tax on alterations is blow to church”, Letters, last week). Tourists come to see our countryside and old towns.

To tax the raw material of this industry is counterproductive. The duty to “preserve”, which is what having your house listed involves, also includes the duty to repair. I live in a listed building, and repairs are subject to Vat at 20%.
Lady Elizabeth Kennet, London W2

On a plate
I read the protestations of the Protestants with a degree of disconcertion. Most of us pay Vat on our bills, so why not the Church of England? As an atheist involved in voluntary work for the parish, I suggest the collection plate be passed around with “20% more than last week, please”.
David Lowe, Matlock, Derbyshire

Ugly side of toddler beauty shows

The toddler beauty pageants India Knight writes about (“Stop the princess parade — it’s a kiddie step away from abuse”, Comment, last week) represent the crass, weird and extreme side of America where consumerism reigns and parents can have their every whim indulged.

Britain is a more subtle, less shiny cousin of the United States, but we seem to crave the bigger, brighter lifestyle on offer there, no matter what the cost. When I left school we had a disco. Now my 16-year-old son is about to go to his “prom”, complete with a yearbook.
Sarah Boyce, Chipperfield, Hertfordshire

Going to the dogs
I have always thought that the parents who put their daughters through such treatment must be sick in the head. I despair about the state of the world’s morality when these children’s beauty pageants are even legal, never mind televised. I feel the same way about the sanity of pet owners who compete at Crufts.
Rob Watt, Deddington, Oxfordshire

Different for girls
I happened to see the reality television series Toddlers & Tiaras and was morbidly fascinated by its gruesomeness. In one programme a little girl was in a constant tantrum as she clearly hated the whole process, and all the while her mother was saying how much she loved it and what a girlie girl she was. Most of the parents seem totally deranged and spend vast amounts of time and money trailing around to these events.
Sarah Honeyman, Perth, Perth and Kinross

Protect children online

A full list of signatories is on page two of this article

Cruelty on a grand scale

Thirty years ago The Sunday Times published my letter after the 1982 Grand National (“Neptune rises from a sea of carnage”, News, last week). As a young doctor just arrived from Ireland and a lover of horse racing, I had been keen to attend the event. The race was an appalling spectacle of suffering, and watching it on television gives you little warning.

Horses can die in shorter races, or even when loose in fields, but in the Grand National, suffering and death are inevitable, and that is what distinguishes it from other races. Token revisions do not change the outcome.
David Clinch, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin

Horse sense
Before the outcry starts over the unfortunate equine deaths, I would like to ask if it is better for a horse to join the large numbers that live out their lives stuck in a field, covered in mud in the winter and flies in the summer, often when they are old and slightly infirm, or to die instantly — or near enough so — doing something it loves? I know which I would prefer.
Marcia MacLeod, London NW6

Unsporting conduct
It defies belief that Paul Nicholls, the trainer of the winning horse, can state that because “millions of people watched the race”, the event is justified. Horses trust humans, and races such as this permit both riders and the public to break that trust. We have not moved on since the days of the Roman empire in taking pleasure from a “sport” that inflicts such pain on innocent participants.
Dawn Thomas, Monmouth

Points

Political vacuum
Kath Raymond Hinton’s article “The parties are killing people power” (Think Tank, last week), which argued for taking politics out of local elections, shows the intellectual vacuity of the chattering classes. The absence of understanding of both parties and the government is astounding, even if it does pander to the anti-politics view of the media. It also shows contempt for the electorate, who are quite capable of making an informed choice at the ballot box and show a better understanding than the so-called intelligentsia.
John Spellar MP, London SW1

Bee line
Charles Clover’s article “Your perfect roses might be killing bees” (Comment, April 8) misses one main point. Three-quarters of food production is dependent on bees and 84% of vegetables grown in Europe depend on pollination. Without bees there are two unsavoury consequences: a return to the days of famine, or the need for greater use of modified and treated seed from big firms that increasingly use in-vitro bio-embryogenic technologies to manufacture “their” seeds.
Dr Ian Horman, Blonay, Switzerland

Broad church
When 190,000 British Mormons read an article putting polygamy front and centre with a photograph of people who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they wonder why (“Good Mormon, America!”, News Review, last week). Polygamy was officially discontinued by the church in 1890, and those groups that advocate it have no association with us whatsoever. Mormons not only constitute the fourth- largest church in the United States but we’re a growing international faith, too. In Britain our people are found in business, industry, politics and academia. Let’s get away from the old Mormon myths.
Malcolm Adcock, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Solihull

Corrections and clarifications

In the article “Bag of nerves” (Style, last week) we ran a picture of the journalist Plum Sykes with the caption that she carried the drug Xanax in her handbag. We would like to make clear that Sykes does not carry Xanax in her handbag and has never taken the drug. We apologise to her for the error.

Lynn Barber’s interview with Lady Colin Campbell (“Palace indiscretions”, Magazine, last week) carried a copyright restriction that applied to the book extract that ran in our online edition, not to the interview itself.

In the article “We came, we stripped, we conquered: feminists open up a bold new front” (Magazine, April 8) we said Taras Shevchenko was a 19th-century Russian poet. He was, in fact, a celebrated Ukrainian poet and artist who defied the Russian authorities.

Complaints about inaccuracies in stories in all sections of The Sunday Times, including online, should be addressed to or The Editor, The Sunday Times, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1ST. In addition, the Press Complaints Commission ( or 020 7831 0022) examines formal complaints about the editorial content of UK newspapers and magazines (and their websites)

Birthdays and anniversaires

Glen Campbell, singer, 76; George Cole, actor, 87; Dion Dublin, footballer, 43; Lloyd Honeyghan, boxer, 52; Sean Lock, comedian, 49; Jack Nicholson, actor, 75; Gary Rhodes, chef, 52; Michelle Ryan, actress, 28; Ryan Stiles, actor and comedian, 53; John Waters, film director, 66

1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral of Portugal discovers Brazil; 1838 SS Sirius becomes first ship to cross Atlantic using only steam power; 1915 first large-scale use of chlorine gas by Germany in first world war; 1969 Sir Robin Knox-Johnston becomes first sailor to circumnavigate the world solo and non-stop

Full list of signatories to Protect children online

Pippa Smith & Miranda Suit, Co Chairmen, Safermedia

Fiona Mactaggart MP

Julian Brazier MP

Fiona Bruce MP

Angela Leadsom MP

Annette Brooke MP

Harriett Baldwin MP

Helen Goodman MP

Baroness Finlay

Baroness Goudie

Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE

Rt Hon Jacqui Smith

Dr Linda Papadopoulus

Peter Kerridge, CEO, Premier Christian Media

National Council of Women of Great Britain

Vivienne Pattison, Director, mediawatch-uk

Pauline Myers, Townswomen's Guilds

Nola Leach, Chief Executive, Care

Lucie Russell, Young Minds

Melanie Gill, Mindful Policy Group

Penelope Leach, Mindful Policy Group

Roger Scruton

Dr Richard House, CPsychol, RoehamptonUniversity

Christopher Clouder, Director, Alliance for Childhood

Gabriel Millar, Therapist and Teacher

Yvan Rioux, Biologist and Teacher

Dr Iain Gilchrist, Fellow of the RoyalCollege of Psychiatrists

Professor Andrew Samuels, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex

Tanith Carey, author of ‘Where Has My Little Girl Gone? How to Protect your Daughter from Growing Up Too Soon’

Sue Palmer, Writer, Broadcaster and Consultant on the education of young children

Philip Waddell, Poet

Dr Teresa Belton, Researcher, School of Education and Lifelong Learning, UEA

Peter Bradley, Deputy Director, Kidscape

Dorothy Y Selleck, Early Years Consultant

Dr Lindsay Peer CBE.

Sami Timimi, Consultant child and Adolescent Psychiatrist,

Director of Medical Education

Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust,

Visiting Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,

Faculty of Health and Social Sciences,

LincolnUniversity.

Sally Goddard Blythe (MSc), International Director of The Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology.

Dr A Majid Katme, Spokesman, Islamic Medical Association/UK

Kim Simpson, Psychotherapist

Bel Mooney, Columnist, Daily Mail

John Woods, Consultant Psychotherapist, London Portman Clinic

Gill Slocombe, Chief Guide, Girlguiding UK

Mrs E Loke, Montessori teacher.

Anne Cooke, Principal Lecturer in Clinical Psychology

CanterburyChristChurchUniversity

Professor Jeremy Turk, founder of Mindful Policy Group and Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Southwark Child & Adolescent Mental Health Neurodevelopmental Service,

Dr Felicity de Zulueta, Emeritus Consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy at the SLaM NHS Foundation Trust and Hon. Senior Lecturer in Traumatic Studies at KCL ,and also a Founder of Mindful Policy Group

Andrea & Tony Julius (parents)

Patrick Holford, Director of the Food for the Brain Foundation.

Donald Findlater, Director of Research and Development with Lucy Faithfull Foundation and Director of Stop it Now! UKIreland

Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary, ATL

Kevin Browne, PhD, MEd, MSc, C.Psychol (foren), F.I.Biol. Professor of Forensic Psychology & Child Health, University of Nottingham,

Angela Duffy

Mona Abouelfetouh, Early Years Professional and Montessori Teacher

Dr Jill Cowie, Lecturer in Science Education

Lucy Machin, Lecturer in Counselling University of East Anglia

Lydia Keyte, What About The Children?

Diana Dean, Research Director, What About The Children?

Marisa Guthrie, Managing Director, Mindful Policy Group

Rachel Gardner, Director, RomanceAcademy

Meg Wilson, Parent

Simon Bass, CEO, CCPAS

Neelam Wilson, Parent

Katherine Johnson, Parent