Letters - 15 December 2017
From Brexit to education
What can we do about Brexit?
I do not share Clive Ashwin’s optimism (24 November) about the future of the UK post-Brexit. The media have recorded downside risks that concern many politicians, economists, bankers, leaders of industry and others whose views should be considered with respect.
Clive bases his views on four issues: welcome of refugees, protection of human rights, the environment, and the relaxation of protectionist tariffs so as to trade freely with economies outside the EU. However, Brexiteers won the 2016 referendum, I believe, largely because many ordinary voters do not want more refugees.
Many UK citizens may be hostile to the EU interpretation of human rights and wish these to be judged only by the UK Supreme Court. While British scientific and technical resources may be admirable, it seems overmuch to claim that the UK should lead in environmental matters.
The present trade situation is that over forty per cent of British exports are to the EU. Is it not irresponsible to dispense with what exists in favour of what Brexiteers hope? Thus far the government’s policy has focused on three nations: the US, China, and Saudi Arabia. President Donald Trump has made clear that his trade policy is ‘America first’. China is pursuing a ‘China first’ policy.
China has a lamentable record on human rights. Not only is Saudi Arabia’s human rights record deplorable, its interest in UK imports is in armaments.
I find these facts difficult to reconcile with Clive’s advice to Friends to be positive, loving, compassionate, cheerful patterns and examples.
Paul Honigmann
I do not believe that Clive Ashwin’s admirably positive response to the self-imposed calamity bearing down on the UK can offer any hope of betterment.
The 2016 EU referendum revealed us as the not very nice people we (mainly the English, I fear) are. In the UK there is an enfeebled political class, a stultifying ignorance is also widespread in the electorate, and a persistent low-level xenophobia. It seems to me that these ‘drivers’, not a helping hand to strangers, will edge us on to our miserable future in ‘reduced circumstances’.
Colin Rendall
Remember them
The UK has attained peace with other European countries since 1945 by maintaining a cosy relationship with them. We then decided to break up this relationship, possibly because we felt encumbered by being so close to these countries and could do better on our own.
At the same time both France and especially Germany moved to the political right, creating the same dangers that we ignored in the 1930s.
Recently we made a solemn promise to ‘remember them’. This was a comfortable thing to promise as it requires us to do nothing.
However, unless we do ‘remember them’, 1940 will, I think. be with us again. An aircraft carrier with no aircraft, or a nuclear submarine, which is little more than an accident waiting to happen, are no comfort.
I am not a betting man, but I think this scenario is pretty certain unless we do remember them and rush back to our previous relationships.
Aubrey Hill
Fit minds
Many Friends will have heard Neil MacGregor’s radio talks on Living with the Gods. The last one featured a Buddhist artefact with a very striking message. Our Quaker testimonies tell us how to be good. This one tells us how not to be bad. We must escape greed, ignorance and hatred.
We can readily try to practise the first and last of these. The middle one, though, is also a key to living with each other, and it gives me a new slant on Buddhism. One cannot be a fit person without a fit mind. What is in our mind will depend on our circumstances (or, for some of us, what was in it). But we deprive it of exercise – in Buddhist terms, compassion and detachment – at our peril and everyone else’s.
Richard Seebohm
Gas and the alternatives
I fear that our Friend Peter Bullman (24 November) has got the horse and cart the wrong way around. Until gas becomes unaffordable, or unreliably available, there will be no incentive for developers, housing associations, home owners and so on to explore alternative forms of home energy, and no incentive for the government to invest in and encourage affordable, efficient renewable energy.
Peter’s viewpoint is also sadly urban. There are rural and island areas in the UK where gas – other than bottled gas – is simply unavailable, and we do very well without it. Admittedly, a considerable number rely on oil, but those who do begin to think of alternatives when oil prices rocket – as they surely will again.
Here in Islay, housing association developments are based on ground source heat pumps, and many more of us have installed air source heat pumps in our homes at a fraction of the price – something anyone can do ‘post-build’. These pumps not only use electricity extremely efficiently – and therefore cheaply – to heat homes, they also make it possible to buy electricity from renewable resources.
It is only demand for devices that can harness renewable energy that will encourage innovation and investment, thereby creating jobs and ultimately bringing prices down through economies of scale.
Bronwen Currie
Silence
The thoughts of Rowan Williams (8 December) on the silence of simply being, and its integrity and beauty, caused me to think about how we are created with remarkable anatomical senses via eyes, ears, nose, skin and mouth and how with these senses we are enabled to use our brain to think, to reason, to imagine, to understand, to remember, to love, to care, to empathise, to experience, to react and respond, to know, to live, to philosophise, to be, and to wish to know more about the eternal mysteries and to know about God and His Creation.
So, in silence, having shut my eyes, I am still listening, not through my ears but with my mind. Hopefully, there is no sensual distracting smell or incense, or bodily disturbance of my skin or mouth. In this ethereal silence my mind has taken over, and I become aware of the peace of the Lord which passes all understanding. I do not know how the body and its brain are connected to the mind which has become me, or even a glimpse of my eternal soul.
In this meditation, why and when am I led to break this silence?
Tommy Gee
Journey of faith
What a joy it was to read two pieces by Friends in prison (17 November).
‘Friends on the inside’ by Ruth Moore Williams, the Quaker prison chaplain, gave an insight into the Meeting for Worship behind bars.
Our Meeting at HMP Wayland mirrors the one described at HMP Berwyn. Our Friends gather, coming from a wide variety of religious traditions and none. When we move from our common room into the chapel it is interesting to watch who sits by whom – we all have quirks that speak loudly in the silence.
A Friend wrote in ‘Finding hope’ about his journey, and what an awesome privilege it was to read his testimony. His openness and honesty moved me. I hope that he and all prisoners on this journey of Quakerism continue both behind bars and out into society. I know from my own faith journey that Quakerism is attractive behind bars because we all have ‘that of God in us’, and we meet in a non-judgemental circle. Our words and silence speak volumes about acceptance.
I would encourage Friends wherever they are to continue to hold prisoners and ex-prisoners in the Light – because whatever you are doing, and however you are doing it, it is making a difference to our lives.
Mark
Education
Those who have praised Quaker schools for the education they provide tend to emphasise their strong values: equality, respect, integrity, honest speaking, peace and service. I expect that is true – for the very tiny number of students who attend these schools.
For Quakers with a concern for the education of all young people in this country there are now greater opportunities than ever to promote these values in state schools.
Recent changes to the role of school governors give them increased powers, the first of which is ‘ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction’. For example, as chair of governors of our local comprehensive school, working with good colleagues and a head we appointed who shares these values, I see how this vision and ethos is put into practice daily in our school community.
Chris Culpin
