Letters: A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest museums

SIR – The director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, has resigned over the alleged thefts of thousands of artefacts from its collections under his watch (report, August 26). 

In his resignation statement regarding the matter, he said: “The British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have.” 

If an organisation as august as the British Museum doesn’t know what’s missing – through simple audits of its collections, say – how does it know what it has on loan and what it is loaning out? The whole situation beggars belief. I dare say Mr Fischer will pop up again in some similar role once the dust has settled.

Peter Wickison
Driffield, East Yorkshire

SIR – Whether it is in our hospitals or at the British Museum, we see how those who run large institutions react to crises. First, they try to silence or disregard whistleblowers. Then sham investigations try to show that all is well. Finally, ranks are closed. 

All this is done because the first priority of bureaucrats is not to serve the public but to protect the reputation of their organisation, on which their highly paid jobs depend. 

Until there is a national structure that can make those who wield so much power truly accountable, British life will continue to be marred by avoidable scandals.

Francis Bown
London E3

SIR – Recent events at the British Museum have put me in mind of my father’s research visits to the Natural History Museum (once part of the British Museum) 50 years ago. 

He was an amateur myriapodologist (that is, he studied centipedes and millipedes), but with an international reputation. Most of the material was uncatalogued as the museum simply didn’t have enough staff or time. It is easy to imagine how such a situation can develop in any department where the quantity of items becomes too much to deal with – and then more arrive.

When my father died a decision had to be made as to where his notebooks and specimens would be housed for posterity. A Swedish colleague and friend, working at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at the time, advised against bequeathing the material to London for the above reasons. 

The Oxford museum took two years and did a very fine job, conserving the notebooks and placing the specimens in fresh solution so that they would not dry out.

Marian Waters
Pebworth, Worcestershire

SIR – George Osborne is chairman of the British Museum, which means that the buck stops with him. He should do the honourable thing and resign.

Richard Cussons
Knutsford, Cheshire

Hospital leadership 

SIR – I recall the underhand way that doctors were stopped from having a say in the running of their hospitals.

In the early 1980s I was a member of the medical executive committee of my hospital. This became the medical advisory committee almost overnight. We realised it had the support of the politicians. Things worsened after the Harold Shipman case, which sowed distrust of the medical profession.

Following the Lucy Letby scandal, the way forward is for a senior consultant body to oversee – and, when necessary, overrule – decisions taken by managers.

Dr René Tayar
Tadworth, Surrey

SIR – Martin Henry (Letters, August 26) writes that he has never knowingly met a senior doctor who does not have an additional private practice.

Perhaps he has never had to be treated by a specialist consultant in emergency or trauma medicine. Always busy, often tired from long hours and unable to profit from private work because of the unpredictable nature of their speciality, they provide front-line care that saves lives.

I am not a medic, but I speak as the proud father of a dedicated and frequently stressed A&E consultant.

Frank Hawkins
Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Population strain

SIR – Allister Heath’s article (“The lunacy of climate change fanatics is driving humanity to extinction”, telegraph.co.uk, August 23) fairly points out the shortcomings in the 1972 Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth report, but then gets carried away by the counterarguments.

It is true that the latest projections suggest that the world population will peak around 2065. But those same projections expect that peak population to be 2.5 billion (29 per cent) higher than today. Who can tell what effects this will have on the world in terms of damage to our environment, our ecology and our social cohesion? More parochially, those same projections suggest that, even in 2100, the UK’s population will be five million higher than it is today. That is equivalent to building two cities the size of Manchester.

At some point, we have to make what may be a painful transition from a society built on steadily increasing numbers to one in which there is a greater degree of stability and balance. In that sense the Club of Rome report made an important point.

Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)
London SW1

Pea change

SIR – I was a brand manager at Batchelors foods, in Sheffield, in the 1950s. When Bigga processed peas were overcooked they became mushy (Letters, August 26), and were usually disposed of.

In due course, many in the firm found that they were too enjoyable to be wasted, and so they were made available as a separate product. 

Sinclair Stewart
Welwyn, Hertfordshire

SIR – When my late husband left the Army in 1965 he found himself in Zambia. Wondering what to do next, he started exporting avocado pears to London (Letters, August 26). 

He offered them to one Mr Cooper of M&S’s fruit department. However, in a letter dated June 28 1965 he wrote: “Mr Cooper telephoned to say that the average housewife was not quite ready for this sort of thing.”

Carolyn Hill
Marlborough, Wiltshire

Dorries departs

SIR – Nadine Dorries’s resignation letter to the Prime Minister (report, August 27) suggests that she is peeved not to have been granted a seat in the House of Lords.

While she is entitled to criticise government policies, her personal attack on Rishi Sunak shows a lack of loyalty. What does it matter what suit or shoes he chooses to wear? She also shows little loyalty to her constituents, who, we understand, she has not served well for many months.

Many of her problems have been brought on by her comments and attitude, and the fact she has been unable to get over Boris Johnson not being prime minister.

Susan Osborne
Great Bookham, Surrey

SIR – I disagree with virtually everything Nadine Dorries has to say about Rishi Sunak. 

I have been a very active member of the Conservative Party for well over 60 years, and Mr Sunak has my full support. Ms Dorries has done almost nothing but damage to the party in recent years. She does not deserve to be taken seriously.

Patrick Evershed
London SW1

The R-word

SIR – Douglas Murray’s sensible article (“Truth and justice die when your career can be destroyed by a claim you can’t disprove”, Comment, August 26) ends with an expression of confidence in the English legal system. If only this were fully justified. 

The Left still regularly uses the adjective “racist” as a device to bring down its adversaries, yet the word’s definition has changed constantly, especially since the race relations laws of the 1960s. Children use the word, ignorant of its meaning, then teenagers scream it as abuse because it tends to silence any conversation. We have some way to go.

John Pritchard
Ingatestone, Essex

Too boring to hack 

SIR – Further to Eileen Smith’s letter (August 26), a hacker once captured my email address for a week. 

At the end of the week, knowing I would soon get my account back, the hacker left a message for me: “You are so boring and your friends are so boring.” Every time I think of someone accessing my messages I also think of that reality check.

Susan Postill
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A corner of England where autumn came early

SIR – August in west Norfolk has been akin to the Septembers of years gone by. My Discovery apples were beginning to ripen at the end of July, and we are already picking blackberries, so crumbles abound.

Mushrooms appeared in early August. Now the elderberries are ripe and it’s time to make cordial, which has come in handy in recent years as a soothing hot drink for coughs. It has a high percentage of vitamin C and is efficacious in many ways. All free and on my doorstep.

Avril Wright
Snettisham, Norfolk

How lazy councils swerve the pothole problem

SIR – We have had a group of potholes (Letters, August 26) at the end of our road for more than three years. 

They vary in size, depth and length, and I and others who live here have lost count of the number of times we have contacted the council asking for them to be filled in (and providing photographic evidence).

A few weeks ago, to our amazement, the repair lorry arrived and proceeded to fill one round hole (which has since collapsed again). When we asked why the others – many of which were deeper and longer – were ignored, we were told that they were not classified as potholes and therefore not a priority.

Michael J Menhenitt
Exmouth, Devon

SIR – In our area the council sprays yellow paint around potholes that need mending. However, much of the paint has been there so long that it is wearing away. I wonder if it actually keeps potholes off the “waiting list”.

Geoff Wilson
Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire

SIR – Like Lorimer Burn (Letters, August 26), I have recently been driving in France.

While I too was impressed with the condition of the country’s roads, I was equally – if not more – impressed with the French standard of driving. 

Lane discipline was perfect, with nobody hogging the centre or outside lanes. This made driving so much easier, a lot more pleasurable and considerably safer.

Michael Phillips
Brighton, East Sussex

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