Log-burner lifeline
SIR – Phil Mobbs (Letters, December 1) outlines many of the pitfalls surrounding the push for the country to run on electric power, as illustrated by the recent havoc wrought by Storm Arwen. One additional problem that affected villages in this area was the failure of the electric pumping system for the water supply. Several were without water as well as power until Tuesday.
A further problem for the village shop was the loss of power for the tills and digital payments. This will have affected retailers over the entire region, from Scotland to Lincolnshire.
Like Mr Mobbs, we will not be parting with our wood-burning stove and will continue our rearguard resistance to the attempts to stop us using cash.
Felicity McWeeney
Morpeth, Northumberland
SIR – Like Phil Mobbs, we suffered three days and nights in gales and freezing temperatures but survived very comfortably thanks to our log-burning stove.
Not only did we have continuous and powerful heat and glowing light, but we were also able to cook and boil water. At night we put embers in my grandmother’s Victorian brass bed warmer and warmed the freezing bedsheets in just a few minutes (an electric blanket takes far longer). The gales also brought down lots of trees – enough to keep us supplied with free fuel for years to come.
Peter Froggatt
Troutbeck, Cumbria
The new Tories
SIR – Good on Nick Timothy (Comment, November 29). The Tory life raft has been under attack for years now from the Old Guard, who still refuse to accept the result of the democratic Brexit vote. They and the media have been trying to sink Boris Johnson ever since, but risk sinking the Tory party instead. No matter how unpalatable Mr Johnson is, a Labour government would be much worse.
Better to retire with what dignity they have left and cede the Tory party to the new generation of MPs.
Don Edwards
Lawford, Essex
Falklands drama
SIR – Lord Grade, formerly of the BBC, claims greatly to regret that it was “impossible to develop [Ian Curteis’s] script” for The Falklands Play “into a work to match his previous ground-breaking efforts” (Letters, November 27). How strange, then, that the BBC did exactly that in 2002 to critical acclaim – the Guardian’s review, for example, concluding: “Regardless of one’s political affiliations and beliefs, The Falklands Play was a thrilling piece of drama which challenged prejudices and misconceptions. That, surely, is what drama is all about.”
Lord Grade has apparently convinced himself that there was no bias against the play arising from its sympathetic portrayal of Margaret Thatcher: he may find it harder to convince anyone else.
Dr Julian Lewis MP (Con)
London SW1
Tippler’s tip
SIR – I was interested in the feature (November 30) about the pros and cons of various sizes of wine glass.
The solution was summed up many years ago by my father, a Master of Wine. The actual glass size is immaterial. However, “it should never be full but never empty”.
Simon Lovell
Peterborough
