Roald Dahl has never made it onto my personal list of favourite children’s authors but news that his stories are being edited by “sensitivity readers” leaves me uncertain as to whether to laugh or cry.
We appear to be in the midst of an Orwellian literary dystopia that would surely leave Kaye Webb, pioneering editor of Puffin Books in the 1970s and 1980s, baffled and bewildered. Whatever next?
On Tuesday night we took three grandchildren to the RSC with the usual scrummage to be first to sit on “The Chair of Insults”, which included the following:
“Lump of foul deformity”
“Thou odiferous stench”
“Son and heir of a mongrel bitch”
... and much worse!
How much longer until the “sensitivity readers” get their hands on the Bard?
Hugh P
Hook Norton, Oxfordshire
We need to take God out of the assisted dying debate
Kate Ng’s piece about assisted dying takes the standard position that we should be allowed to take our own lives when the suffering becomes unbearable and nothing can be done, with a heavy focus on the Christian understanding of “God”.
But many of us who follow any Indian religion see suffering – or “dukkha” – as part of living, and the goal is to reach bliss, or “sukha”, through enlightenment. Taking our own lives is futile, as it just puts you back on the cycle of death and rebirth we call “samsara”.
Kartar Uppal
West Midlands
Sadiq Khan’s London has become prohibitively expensive to outsiders
I can only hope the challenge being launched by five London councils to mayor Sadiq Khan’s plans to expand the ultra-low-emission zone (ULEZ) boundaries causes them to question the entire programme.
Clearly, Londoners have gotten used to being penalised for daily using their streets but we “outsiders” who live in the sticks are now being effectively excluded from visiting our own capital.
Rail costs are furiously expensive compared with driving my eight-year-old diesel vehicle into the city but then we face ULEZ, as well as fees for parking and Underground trains. We find ourselves deciding not to bother going.
Add to this extortionate London prices for a pint or (God forbid) dinner, and the whole shebang is an unaffordable write-off. Khan and London business has made our capital a no-go area for ordinary low-paid rural dwellers, and frankly I’m fed up with my taxes subsidising a world I’m effectively excluded from.
Steve Mackinder
Norfolk
A clean joke
Will Gore’s article about washing towels reminded me of a similar article about how often people change bedding. It mentioned a woman who changes the sheets on her son’s bed every week. That may not seem excessive but he left home and got married three years ago!
Jean Foster
Selkirk, Scottish Borders
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