A city spokesman said the ex-president will be representing the William J. “They haven’t protested formally, but they’re annoyed,” a source in the Canadian government, conference host, said of the US delegates. “They’re not infuriated, but they’re not thrilled.” The US delegation was meeting late yesterday and had no immediate public comment, said spokeswoman Susan Povenmire. Bill Clinton, who as US president championed the Kyoto Protocol clamping controls on “greenhouse gases,” was scheduled to speak at the conference afternoon – in an unofficial capacity but potentially at a critical point in backroom talks involving the US delegation.
The US envoys, representing a Bush administration that renounced the Kyoto pact, were said to be displeased by the 11th-hour surprise. In that respect, perhaps Tony Blair has as much in common with Disraeli as David Cameron.CHARLES HOPKINSNORWICH Dubai misconceptions Sir: I was interested to read that Dubai has secretly become the “capital of the UAE” (“Brent Cross in the sand”, 8 December) “No alcohol” is listed as the downside to Dubai. A contentious UN climate conference entered its final day in Montreal today with the long-term future undecided in the fight against global warming, and with a surprise visitor on tap to rally the ‘pro-Kyoto’ forces.
When Beckett received it his wife commented, “Quelle catastrophe, tu as gagn?R H TAYLORBROMLEY, KENT. Do we really all drink tea in the ex-pat pubs and bars found all over the city?MARK THOMPSONEXETER Oh no! Not the Nobel Sir: The Nobel Prize for Literature is as notable for those who haven’t received it as for those who have: with J M Synge and Arthur Miller in the former camp and John Galsworthy and Pearl S Buck in the latter. However, I can assure readers that Christian Scientists, as a rule, find that loving their neighbour as themselves, as Jesus suggested is a far more effective approach to convincing others of the merits of Mary Baker Eddy’s very spiritual approach to Christianity.TONY LOBLCHRISTIAN SCIENCE COMMITTEES ON PUBLICATION, LONDON SW13 Disraeli and Blair Sir: Another reading of Disraeli’s role in the expansion of the franchise (Johann Hari, 8 December) is that it was less an act of principle, than a pragmatic decision fuelled by the desire to cling to power, in spite of the opposition of large sections of his own party. It is a fundamental Labour principle that citizens should be subordinated to the state.
This basic truth should not be allowed to be concealed by malice or class hatred, as poisonous in its own way as race hatred.ALEX SWANSONMILTON KEYNES Love thy neighbour Sir: Having never known the Astors personally I can’t speak to the claim that Nancy Astor “harangued” Michael Davie on Christian Science in the 1950s (Obituaries, 8 December). It is a fundamental Conservative principle that individual citizens should be as free as possible. It is clear that marriage is not what was intended, and in fact many gay couples, including my partner and myself, have no desire to ape heterosexual mores. What gay people wanted, and have achieved, is equality before the law. Let’s not sensationalise matters needlessly by referring to “marriages”.DAVID VAN DER JARLHERTFORD An ordinary Tory Sir: As an ordinary Conservative Party member, who went to a comprehensive school and has always worked for a living, I find it insulting to read suggestions (letters, 7 December) that we “represent privilege and power”. I am sure that Ms Stephenson has many qualities, and that there is an abundance of adjectives with which she can legitimately prefix her deification.
“Green”, however, most definitely isn’t one of them.SAM LITTLEHALE, CHESHIRE Let’s be civil Sir: Please get it right The new civil partnership arrangements are not marriages. In your report (6 December) you relentlessly refer to “marriage”, yet the piece below, by a gay couple, rightly pointed out that they were registering a civil partnership. As far as I can ascertain, her recent itinerary has been as follows: fly to Japan to visit Buddhist retreat; fly to Thailand to visit “eco-spa” and reflect on the experience; write a column called “The Green Goddess”; fly home to fight “rampant consumerism” at Peter Jones.No amount of prattling on about worms, compost and solar panels should detract from the fact that she has flown halfway around the world to indulge in a little transcendental meditation and a facial. Defending the status quo on women, sex, prostitution and pornography is generally the hallmark of brain-dead males.IAN FLINTOFFLONDON SW6 This goddess is green in name only Sir: I really, honestly tried not to get worked up about Julia Stephenson’s piece of 5 December, but in the end I had to give in. Economic, social, and cultural pressures which have, and do, force women to sell sex for survival should have been conquered long ago. Only then would trafficking of unsuspecting, vulnerable girls by criminal gangs and profiting by pimps exploiting their ignorance and helplessness, have no ground to thrive.EVA MAYDELLMILTON, DUMBARTONSir: Your correspondent is either disingenuous or trapped in a historic male timewarp if he believes in equal rights for men and women to buy and sell sex when, both historically and now, this is the result of a contemptible economic imbalance which makes it much more lucrative for a woman to sell sex to men than to be a teacher, a nurse or a shelf-stacker.The dire platitude that “there has always been prostitution” is on a par with former arguments that little boys have always gone up chimneys or that we’ve always hanged, drawn and quartered criminals in public.
Nostalgia is no way to run a bus system.DAVE W MORRISEDGWARE, MIDDLESEXSir: A little-lauded advantage of the Routemaster bus is its gentle acceleration. The modern bus has much greater acceleration than necessary, and you need to be super-fit to travel on it. It is driven in such a way as to exclude most of those for whom Brussels has decreed it to be designed. You might be alright in a wheelchair, but the mobile semi-disabled, infirm, and just plain old, haven’t got a chance at all.C G NOELLEDBURY, HEREFORDSHIRE The selling of sex requires regulation Sir: The sickness of prostitution cannot be cured but might possibly be “managed” (letters, 3 December).