SIR – Criticism of a religion should not be construed as racism. Did Lee Anderson MP make negative comments about people of a certain ethnicity (report, February 26)? No, he did not. So why do people like Anneliese Dodds, the Labour Party chairman, accuse him of racism, when they know perfectly well that he was speaking about Islamists, who come from many different racial backgrounds? Would criticism of Christianity be construed as racism? Of course not. These people, and many others, are simply
SIR – Labour’s desire to have the NHS working seven days per week is of course admirable (“Operations and scans at weekend under Labour plan for 24-7 NHS”, report, December 18). Sadly, maintaining the use of expensive assets such as operating theatres, radiology and pathology services 24 hours a day is wholly unrealistic given the large number of human beings required to run the organisation. When I operate, whether it be a major joint reconstruction or a simpler procedure, there are often seven
SIR – What a wonderfully human person the Duke of Edinburgh was.
In the 1960s, when I was a resident in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, the doctor’s mess was ill decorated. A doctor suggested that the only way to get it redecorated was to invite royalty to visit.
We sent a letter inviting the Duke to dine in the doctor s mess. To our astonishment we received a reply saying that he would be delighted to accept the invitation on the next occasion that he was in Edinburgh.
We kept the date secret but word got out during the week of the visit. A host of workmen descended and very rapidly redecorated and transformed the mess.