Letters: Racism in Britain and France

Why it is better to be young and black in Britain than in France

Sir: As a black woman who was born and brought up in France and who came to London when I was 17, I observed with great interest the recent disorders occurring throughout France ("What France needs is affirmative action", 21 November).

In France I was encouraged to believe that as a French citizen I was equal to all others within the Republic and to absorb the culture and customs of French society and reject the culture of my African parents and our ancestors. The reality was very different. I never felt as though I quite belonged to France; being white seemed the most important aspect of being French. There were no black role models to aspire to, no black members in the National Assembly, no black faces on TV and nothing to give me self-respect or confidence as a black teenager. We were mindful that we faced racial discrimination, harassment and disadvantage for the rest of our lives.

In Britain we also are confronted with racism and disadvantage, but here we are aware that there has been race-relations legislation available for many years through which we can seek remedy for the discrimination we experience. We see many black and Asian people at all levels on TV and some black and Asian MPs. Most importantly, I can express myself in terms of black culture without it being seen as being non-British. I don't have to pretend to be a white person to be accepted by the majority of white British society.

I believe that the multicultural model for realising good race relations is preferable to the assimilation model in France. Within the European Union all the member states jealously guard their culture, history and traditions, so why do people assume that black, Arab and Asian people want to abandon theirs?

MICHELLE EGOUNLETY

LONDON E15

Hanging lets killers off too lightly

Sir: The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Stevens, claims that we should bring back capital punishment in the wake of the tragic murder of PC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford (report, 21 November).

Lord Stevens must know that the EU wouldn't allow it anyway. But in any case, it is apparent that murderers fear a very long spell in prison far more, so this is what he should be campaigning for. Consider the evidence: in America Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, preferred death by lethal injection to a long prison sentence, and Gary Gilmore opted for execution by firing-squad. In Britain, Fred West and Harold Shipman cheated justice by committing suicide, Ian Brady and Ian Huntley attempted it. There have been many others.

I know that it costs a lot of money to keep people behind bars but this is the price that a civilised society has to pay to keep hardened criminals off the streets. Leaving aside for a moment the immorality of a cold-blooded, ritual, judicial murder, or the hypocrisy of killing someone because he or she has killed someone else, it is obvious that the greater deterrent is a long spell in prison where they can think about what they have done. Why then should we allow them an easy and early way out?

BRIAN RUSHTON

STOURPORT-ON-SEVERN, WORCESTERSHIRE

Sir: Those who are discussing the arming of the police have got the wrong end of the problem. What we need are penalties that are sufficiently draconian to deter criminals from carrying firearms in the first place. If a life sentence is around 10 years, no such deterrent exists.

TOM MACFARLANE

THORNTON CLEVELEYS, LANCASHIRE

Sexy clothing and the blame for rape

Sir: It is impossible to deduce from the reports of Amnesty's survey of attitudes to rape just what the answers meant (report, 21 November).

Did the one quarter of respondents who "believe a woman is at least partly responsible for being raped if she wears sexy or revealing clothing" intend to say that they believed that a man was justified in raping such a woman? Such a view is truly horrible and cannot be justified in any way. On the other hand, did they intend to say that a woman who wears revealing clothing increases her risk of being assaulted? There are sufficient numbers of violent men in our country, many with despicable attitudes to women, for it to be obvious that this is true, and to say so does not in any sense condone the assaults.

Since we don't know what questions were asked, nor indeed how they were interpreted by the respondents, we end up hopelessly confused as to what the survey really means.

HENRY LAW

MANCHESTER

Sir: One third of people in Britain consider it at least partly a woman's fault if she is dressed immodestly or drunk and is then raped, according to a study.

If I walked across a dark park and was robbed, the thief would be to blame for the crime, not me. But just as I wouldn't walk across a dark park at night in a crime-ridden area, so women need to be careful also. Urging caution is not, however, the same as apportioning blame to the innocent party.

God tells us in the Quran 24:31: "And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty."

If a woman is attacked whilst half naked or drunk she is at fault for being half naked or drunk, not for any attack that results; that is the man's fault not hers. Men have control of their own desires and God has given us the ability to keep our trousers on.

DAW'UD ABDULLAH MANNION

SHEFFIELD

Sir: According to research, women wearing sexy clothes and are inebriated are to be blamed for being raped. Can we therefore assume that drunk men wearing tight trousers also deserve to be raped?

SARAH PEGG

SEAFORD, EAST SUSSEX

Africa's problems go beyond farm trade

Sir: Your correspondents from African business interests (letter, 19 November) make a poor case for increased trade between Africa and the West by simply insisting that agricultural subsidies be abolished in the developed countries and more donor funds are made available to the developing nations.

Most African countries have problems feeding themselves on a daily basis without trying to export surplus agricultural produce to Europe. If there is a surplus it is usually crops that they themselves do not need; for example Ethiopia's coffee exports during years of famine.

Africa is a major source of nuclear material, rare earths, scarce minerals and high-value commodities such as gold, diamonds, platinum, nickel and chromium, but this export wealth is not reflected in comparable internal investments in agricultural production and food security. The income earned from mineral exports is seldom ploughed back into improving local agriculture; for example Congo's massive oil exports are not reflected in equally impressive local agricultural development.

European agricultural production has benefited massively from internal investment in order to establish capacity and diversity of production. If Africa was to be successful at feeding itself on a regular basis through similar internal investments I am sure the demands for easier access to European agricultural markets would receive a more sympathetic hearing.

PETER DEVILLEZ

CHELTENHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Sir: Hamish McRae ("Blair, not Bush, has the right ideas about how world trade can help the poor", 16 November) engages in a misleading simplification when he says that a number of organisations have "joined together under the 'trade justice' banner to promote trade restrictions."

In fact over 500 organisations are involved in the Make Poverty History campaign that is calling for trade justice. What we mean by "trade justice" is using trade policies to improve people's lives and protect the environment, rather than pursuing liberalisation as an end in itself based on the spurious assumption that this will benefit everyone. Sometimes this means restricting trade - such as protecting small farmers, infant industries or basic services - and sometimes it means getting rid of policies that do more harm than good such as Europe's agricultural export subsidies.

This is not, as McRae claims, an agenda focused on the "narrow and immediate interests of producers". No country has achieved long-term development without the use of policies that he would deem trade and investment "restrictions". The actions of the European Union in the current talks - demanding that developing countries eliminate a range of development policies that we in Europe used while we were growing wealthy - is an act of gross hypocrisy and threatens the development prospects for billions of people.

PETER HARDSTAFF

HEAD OF POLICY, WORLD DEVELOPMENT MOVEMENT, LONDON SW9

JPs' rulings on bail applications

Sir: Frances Crook's statement, quoted by Johann Hari (Opinion, 17 November), that magistrates are increasingly denying bail to punish offenders is an outrageous accusation that I cannot let pass.

Bail decisions can be fraught with difficulty, not least because of lack of information and lack of bail-hostel accommodation. However, whatever difficulties there might be, magistrates must always find good grounds and sound reasons to remand someone to custody.

A bail decision is not a sentence, nor an alternative to a sentence; it is an entirely separate decision. If Frances Crook knows of magistrates who are not dealing with bail decisions properly then I ask her to report them forthwith.

CINDY BARNETT JP

CHAIRMAN, MAGISTRATES' ASSOCIATION, LONDON W1

Families of disabled shoulder the burden

Sir: Services for people with learning disabilities and their families are seriously underfunded (letters, 4 & 12 November).

In the 1980s, when I worked on the Kensington Chelsea and Westminster Register for People with Learning Disabilities, at least 50 per cent of people with learning disabilities lived in "mental handicap" hospitals, built and funded by the Victorians. These hospitals have now been closed.

Each person who left hospital took with them a "dowry". This was a transfer of capital and revenue to enable their life in the community. However the funds for those who died in hospital remained with the health service, as did most of the capital from the sale of the hospital sites.

This has left the community service chronically underfunded, both for those who had remained with the families, and who would, in the past, have used the hospital service when their families could not longer cope, and for those born in the intervening years. They cannot use the hospitals and there has been an inadequate community inheritance for them. It is families, and in particular mothers, who have taken on this care.

JENIFER ROHDE

LONDON SW1

Local services saved from Tory ideology

Sir: It is nice to read of David Cameron's support for the social enterprise sector and particularly Greenwich Leisure Limited which has, as he stated, pioneered the development of community leisure trusts across the country (Opinion, 17 November).

There are, however, many ingredients essential to the success of such enterprises. First, is the requirement for strong managerial leadership and the commitment of the staff. Turnover is low and job satisfaction correspondingly high. Greenwich had to ensure that its staff at the time were not sacrificed on the Tory altar of compulsory competitive tendering, which would have lost the experienced staff required to make the venture a success. A commitment from Mr Cameron to avoid making public-service employees compete for their jobs every few years would be welcome.

He proposes that "failing" FE colleges should be run by new organisations. Greenwich Council developed its concept for a leisure trust not because the service was "failing", but because of the financial crisis it faced. There are dangers in externalising any failing service. Tories might have learnt from their experience in privatising the railways.

Politicians have less power to effect change through a crude contractual approach than if they are able to "hire and fire" those responsible for service failure.

CHRIS ROBERTS

LEADER, GREENWICH COUNCIL LONDON SE18

Cluster bombs in Iraq

Sir: How I laughed! A spokesman for the MoD insisted: "Cluster munitions are entirely lawful weapons. If we did not use them we would have to use something much more hazardous to civilians," (report, 21 November). Well, I had to, or cry.

JOHN PEDERSEN

TOTNES, DEVON

Sir: Lib Dem MP Michael Moore is right to question the Government's immoral use of cluster bombs in Iraq. However, he should also ask his own leadership why they refused to condemn the practice when it was actually happening: a proposal for the party to condemn their use came before its Federal Executive at the outbreak of war and was voted down.

DONNACHADH MCCARTHY

LONDON SE5

Seeing and believing

Sir: David Ridge (letter, 19 November) does not understand that Jesus's statement to Thomas in John 20:29 ("Because you have seen me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed") has a future reference which includes me. Only Thomas's generation was granted personal access to Jesus's flesh and blood. Subsequent faith cannot be based on physical sight.

THE REVD RICHARD JAMES

RIPON, NORTH YORKSHIRE

Not such a dinky rink

Sir: Fascinating to learn that the Natural History Museum is to have a 1,000 metre square ice rink in its gardens this Christmas (picture caption, 21 November). As a rink one kilometre on each side will not quite fit inside the existing gardens, when are they planning to demolish the rest of south Kensington? Or will they prudently downsize it to 1,000 square metres?

ROGER KINGSTON

LONDON SW1

Little black dresses

Sir: Thanks for a choice of 50 party dresses ranging in sizes from 6- 18 ("The 50 Best Party Dresses", 19 November). Shame on you - you're just like the rest of the size-ist fashion industry. Oh well, it's on with the potato sack for yet another party season.

MARY WEBBER (SIZE 20)

KENFIG HILL, MID GLAMORGAN