Letters: Oliver Cromwell and the challenge of dealing with complex history

SIR – Oliver Cromwell’s statue outside Parliament should not be removed, as proposed by John Barstow and Michael Varvill (Letters, December 21).

For better or worse, he is an important part of our history. The itch to demolish memorials to our past, whether to appease the fashion of the day or conciliate those with some historic grievance, should be resisted. Ironically, it is just the kind of action that Cromwell and his fellow Puritan iconoclasts might have proposed.

The Civil War was a decisive factor in the evolution of our constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, to the profound benefit of this country and much of the world. Cromwell’s statue must be kept, not only to mark his greatness, but also as a warning against the folly of republicans along with today’s intemperate prigs and zealots who are so keen to order our lives for us.

Patrick Walsh
Newbury, Berkshire

SIR – I disagree profoundly with John Barstow and Michael Varvill: we need Cromwell outside the House of Commons to remind us of what the alternative might develop into.

Those in Parliament may not be perfect (some might think by a long way) but they are better than a dictatorship.

Jonathan Baldwin
Nantwich, Cheshire

SIR – Cromwell’s statue is offensive to the Irish and many others. Both of my grandmothers (one Scots, one Welsh) would quietly spit when they walked past it, and it deserves to be toppled.

Charles Taylor
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

SIR – John Barstow and Michael Varvill have written a wonderful letter about a terrible human. Not only did Cromwell go to Ireland to encourage his soldiery in deeds of physical savagery, but he also carried out these acts himself against the Irish civilian population.

Bryan Oates
London SW18

SIR – What happened in Ireland nearly 400 years ago will not be changed by the removal of Cromwell’s statue. Most Irish people are probably not aware of it (although this Irish person is).

Cromwell probably killed as many Englishmen as Irishmen. The statue represents an important step from absolute monarchy to parliamentary government. Any decision about its future should be made by the British.

Olga Parsons
Banbury, Oxfordshire

SIR – Should we not also consider the removal of Richard the Lionheart’s statue for his part in the Third Crusade (in which he ordered the beheading of over 2,000 Muslim prisoners of war in 1191) and, from the Embankment, that of Boadicea for her revolt against Roman rule in AD61-62, during which 80,000 people lost their lives and Colchester, London and St Albans were sacked and burned?

And as for the statue of Churchill …

Mark Hicks
Hereford

At the NHS coalface

SIR – Year after year I read about how the NHS needs to change, yet nothing happens.

As the pay dispute continues (Letters, December 22), I suggest that Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, and Amanda Pritchard, the CEO of NHS England, try shadowing ambulance and A&E staff one Saturday night in a London hospital.

The reality of this desperate situation might then sink in.

Jacky Ellinger
Southampton

SIR – I was recently taken to a major west London hospital by ambulance after an initial four-hour delay.

The paramedics apologised (they had been quite busy) and were fantastic, as were the hospital staff on arrival. During our journey the young paramedic explained that she worked eight days on and five days off, but had to work three of those five days as overtime just to pay her rent.

Should those at the coalface of the NHS really be in this position?

Chris Wakefield
London W12

SIR – Steve Barclay’s conduct during the strikes has served only to increase support for health workers.

The Conservatives need to realise that the people of this nation are very unhappy with how they have handled our health service over the past decade.

Steve Urwin
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

SIR – It was with utter bewilderment that I read of the Liverpool nurse who lost her job, her career and her home for helping herself to two pills to combat a workplace headache.

Why did some imbecilic manager go to the expense of taking the nurse to court when a quiet word from an immediate superior, reminding her of the written permission protocol, would have sufficed? The NHS is now yet another nurse short.

Simon Channon
Newark, Nottinghamshire

SIR – With regard to the sacked nurse, the NHS has become a bureaucratic national embarrassment.

Dr Richard A E Grove
Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire

Girls in Afghanistan

SIR – What inadequate men are ruling Afghanistan.

To suppress 50 per cent of the potential in their society demonstrates stupidity beyond belief.

In addition, what kind of fathers look at their young daughters and willingly abandon them to a life of ignorance?

Julia Sharpe
Salisbury, Wiltshire

Spirited away

SIR – I’m afraid that when my brother and I partook of alcohol at a young age, it wasn’t by accident (Letters, December 22).

In the early 1960s our mother would bring home miniature bottles of spirits from foreign holidays and display them around the pelmet in the sitting room.

During one school holiday, while she was at work, we managed to get through all of them, replacing (for instance) gin with water and brandy with tea.

I think we might have been fazed by the crème de menthe but I don’t suppose we were in any state to worry too much about it.

Brenda Derry
Newton Ferrers, Devon

Zelensky’s bravery

SIR – That President Volodymyr Zelensky left the front line in Bakhmut, Ukraine, to fly to Washington for talks with President Joe Biden would have impressed not only his own troops but also the American people.

By this action he has demonstrated his bravery as well as how closely in touch he is with all that is happening on the ground.

Paul French
Andover, Hampshire

SIR – How many millions of Ukrainians would not have suffered from bombed homes and lack of heating, lighting and other vital services had President Biden agreed many months ago to supply a greater number of more effective defensive weapons?

How many lives would have been saved?

Peter Cave
London W1

Neglected parishes

SIR – I read the piece by Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York, with increasing incredulity.

I worship in our village church, which is in a rural benefice with five churches. It recently had a restoration that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, of which not a penny came from the Church itself.

We have been without a vicar for more than a year because of archaic recruitment procedures, relying heavily on the goodwill of local retired clergy and church wardens to cobble together services, with little help from our diocese. It goes without saying, though, that we have still been expected to pay our parish share.

Sunday services are the backbone of the Church of England. Young people coming to cold and rundown churches staffed by retirees understandably run a mile. We all know where this will end.

Vanessa Marment
Wantage, Oxfordshire

Mystery mail

SIR – This year my stepdaughter, who lives in Belgium, received a correctly addressed envelope (Letters, December 22) with a British Christmas stamp on it. Unfortunately, the envelope was empty.

She posted a picture of it on social media to see if anyone could identify the sender. Fortunately, it wasn’t me.

Janet Haines
Reading, Berkshire

Where to find a better class of cheese biscuit

SIR – Phil Walton (Letters, December 22), in his search for “elusive cheese biscuits”, should try his local cheese shop.

We buy from an independent shop in Tavistock. Not only does it stock local cheeses from Devon and Cornwall, but it also has a wide selection of cheese biscuits, jellies and chutneys to complete the plate.

I do not know whether it sells Stinking Bishop, from Gloucestershire, but it does stock Miss Muffet, a very similar cheese, produced in Cornwall. I had a little with my lunch yesterday.

Anne Hanley
Gunnislake, Cornwall

SIR – Bath Olivers also seem absent from the shelves. Two good alternatives (though they are a different sort of biscuit) are the iconic oatcakes from St Andrews (Fisher & Donaldson) and Portree, Isle of Skye (MacKenzie’s Bakery).

James Bishop
Wincanton, Somerset

How Jeremy Clarkson’s crass rant backfired

SIR – Jeremy Clarkson’s offensive rant about the Duchess of Sussex has played right into her hands.

The Netflix series Harry & Meghan was a self-pitying and indulgent saga, with the Duchess in particular playing the victim.

After Mr Clarkson aired his vitriolic views about her, she has had even more reason to complain.

Kate Graeme-Cook
Brixham, Devon

SIR – I unequivocally and unreservedly support Jeremy Clarkson’s right to express his views in our free and democratic society, and suspect that a vast majority feel the same.

However, the current climate makes many simply too frightened to say what they think, and that is the real problem this country faces.

Nicky Samengo-Turner
Brockworth, Gloucestershire

SIR – Once again, the main defence of Jeremy Clarkson’s remarks about the Duchess of Sussex is his right to free speech. I’ve also seen social media comments such as: “He was just saying what we were all thinking.”

However, there’s a reason why we don’t always voice our thoughts. Anyone can have moments in a conversation when they randomly say something foolish, then kick themselves after being met by an awkward silence. But Mr Clarkson didn’t even do that. He sat down and wrote something for a popular newspaper that was both creepy and vile.

How is it ever acceptable for a perfectly sane individual to declare publicly they want to see someone carted through the streets naked and tormented? Free speech is hardly an excuse for such repugnant language.

Emilie McRae
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Letters to the Editor

We accept letters by post, fax and email only. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers.  
ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT   
FAX: 020 7931 2878   
EMAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk   
FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk