If civil servants have to make the grade, MPs should too
Reading the letters expressing different points of view on Jack Vettriano (Letters, 9 March) I was reminded of an old cartoon that shows two people in a gallery looking at John Constable's The Hay Wain, with one asking the other: 'It's a lovely picture, but what does it mean?'Peter PhilpottPatrick Brompton, North Yorkshire
Re Jack Vettriano's work, I recalled my 1950s physicist headmaster quoting Claude Bernard's 'Art is I; science is we' after trying to explain Boyle's law to fledgling sixth formers.Dr Roger MerryBath
'Laura has a pleasing voice' (Letters, 9 March) reminds me of my brief stint in the school choir. I lasted until they worked out where that 'bloody row' was coming from.Ian GarnerOxenhope, West Yorkshire
I felt a tinge of sadness that King Charles chose a cover of Little Eva's song, The Loco-Motion, rather than the original (King Charles pays tribute to 'marvellous' Bob Marley as he shares favourite songs, 10 March).Linda RheadHampton, London
Do you have a photograph you'd like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers' best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Britain's Princess Anne celebrates her 75th birthday
LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Princess Anne, the late Queen Elizabeth's only daughter and a former Olympic equestrian, turns 75 on Friday, with little fanfare planned in keeping with the royal's disdain for making a fuss. To mark the occasion, Buckingham Palace is releasing a new photograph of the horse-loving princess, who is often credited with being the hardest-working member of the British royal family. Born in 1950, two years after her brother, now King Charles, and two years before her mother would become monarch, Anne became renowned as a young princess for her rather brusque, plain-speaking public demeanour - reminiscent of her late father Prince Philip. But she went on to gain acclaim for her horse-riding triumphs, becoming Britain's first royal Olympian when she competed at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games. More recently she has been lauded for her campaigning for domestic and international charities. A YouGov poll last week showed Anne was the third-most popular of the royals, just behind heir Prince William and his wife Kate, with 70% of those surveyed having a favourable view of her. While other members of the Windsor family have become staple tabloid fodder, Anne has eschewed the limelight although she was involved in one of the most dramatic royal events of modern times when an armed man attempted to kidnap her near Buckingham Palace in 1974. She said her calmness in dealing with the incident - she told her would-be assailant "Not bloody likely!" when he demanded that she get out of her car - was due to her experience with horses that had helped make her prepared for the unexpected. Last year, she spent five nights in hospital after suffering concussion from an incident which involved a horse, but was back at work three weeks later. "She just keeps her head down the whole time, keeps working away and leaves others to worry about column inches," her son, Peter Phillips, said in a TV interview last year.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Censorship': over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine
More than 120 education scholars have condemned the cancellation of an entire issue of an academic journal dedicated to Palestine by a Harvard University publisher as 'censorship'. In an open letter published on Thursday, the scholars denounced the abrupt scrapping of a special issue of the Harvard Educational Review – which was first revealed by the Guardian in July – as an 'attempt to silence the academic examination of the genocide, starvation and dehumanisation of Palestinian people by the state of Israel and its allies'. The writers note that the issue's censorship is also an example of 'anti-Palestinian discrimination, obstructing the dissemination of knowledge on Palestine at the height of the genocide in Gaza'. The scholars also asked for the publisher to apologize to the authors, commission a new special issue on Palestine and implement safeguards to protect editorial independence. They pledged to boycott the journal's publisher and the affiliated Harvard Education Press until then. The special issue of the prestigious education journal was planned six months into Israel's war in Gaza to tackle questions about the education of Palestinians, education about Palestine and Palestinians, and related debates in schools and colleges in the US, as the Guardian previously reported. 'The field of education has an important role to play in supporting students, educators, and policymakers in contextualizing what has been happening in Gaza,' the journal's editors wrote in their call for abstracts – which came against the backdrop of the devastation of Gaza's educational infrastructure, including the shuttering of hundreds of schools and destruction of all of the territory's universities. More than a year later, the special issue was just about ready – all articles had been edited, contracts with most authors had been finalized, and the issue had been advertised at academic conferences and on the back cover of the previous one. But late in the process, the Harvard Education Publishing Group (HEPG), a division of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which publishes the journal, demanded that all articles be submitted to a 'risk assessment' review by Harvard's general counsel – an unprecedented demand. When the authors protested, the publisher responded by abruptly cancelling the issue altogether. In an email obtained by the Guardian, the group's executive director, Jessica Fiorillo, cited what she described as an inadequate review process and the need for 'considerable copy editing' as well as a 'lack of internal alignment' about the special issue. She said that the decision was not 'due to censorship of a particular viewpoint nor does it connect to matters of academic freedom'. The authors and editors flatly rejected that characterization, telling the Guardian that the cancellation set a dangerous precedent and was an example of what many scholars have come to refer to as the 'Palestine exception' to academic freedom. 'The decision by HEPG to abandon their own institutional mission – as well as the responsibilities that their world-leading stature demands – is scholasticide in action,' the dozens of scholars who signed the recent letter also wrote, using a term coined by Palestinian scholars to describe Israel's 'deliberate and systematic destruction' of Palestine's educational system. 'It is unconscionable that HEPG have chosen to publicly frame their cancellation of the special issue as a matter of academic quality, while omitting key publicly-reported facts that point to censorship.' Arathi Sriprakash, a professor of sociology and education at the University of Oxford and one of the letter's signatories, told the Guardian that the special issue's cancellation has mobilised so many education scholars 'precisely because we recognise the grave consequences of such threats to academic freedom and academic integrity'. 'The ongoing genocidal violence in Gaza has involved the physical destruction of the entire higher education system there, and now in many education institutions around the world there are active attempts to shut down learning about what's happening altogether. As educationalists, we have to remain steadfast in our commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and learning without fear or threat.' The ordeal around the special Palestine issue played out against the backdrop of the Trump administration's crackdown on US higher education institutions' autonomy on the basis of combating alleged antisemitism on campuses. Harvard is the only university that has sued the administration in response to the White House cutting billions of dollars in federal funds and other punishing measures it has unleashed on universities. But internally, Harvard has pre-empted many of the administration's demands, including by demoting scholars, scrapping initiatives giving space to Palestinian narratives and adopting a controversial definition of antisemitism that critics say is antithetical to academic inquiry. In conversations with the Harvard Educational Review editors, the journal's publisher acknowledged that it was seeking legal review of the articles out of fears that their publication would prompt antisemitism claims, an editor at the journal said. Harvard is reportedly close to finalizing a settlement with the Trump administration along the lines of those reached by other top universities. Thea Abu El-Haj, a Palestinian-American anthropologist of education at Barnard College and one of 21 contributors to the cancelled special issue, criticized the university's handling of the matter as yet another sign of institutional capitulation. 'If the universities – or in this case a university press – are not willing to stand up for what is core to their mission, I don't know what they're doing,' she told the Guardian last month. 'What's the point?' A spokesperson for the Harvard Graduate School of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest letter but in an earlier statement to the Guardian wrote that the publisher 'remains deeply committed to our robust editorial process'. Last month, the free speech group PEN America also condemned the special issue's cancellation as a 'blatant assault on academic freedom'. 'Canceling an entire issue so close to publication is highly unusual, virtually unheard of,' Kristen Shahverdian, the program director for the group's campus free speech initiative, said in a statement. 'Silencing these scholarly voices robs academics, students, and the public of the opportunity to engage with their insights. It also sends a chilling message in the context of the Trump administration's unrelenting pressure on Harvard University and mounting political interference in higher education, including efforts that target scholarship on Palestine.' Last week, the Middle East Studies Association of North America (Mesa) and its committee on academic freedom also wrote a public letter to Harvard's president, Alan Garber, condemning the issue's cancellation as an 'egregious violation of the principles of academic freedom and a blatant betrayal of Harvard University's avowed commitment to scholarly integrity and freedom of expression'.
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Buckingham Palace makes embarrassing error about Princess Anne in fact list to celebrate hardworking royal's 75th bday
FALSEHOODS surrounding Princess Anne have mistakenly been issued by Buckingham Palace in celebration of the royal's 75th birthday. An article was published on the official royal website to mark King Charles's sister's special occasion on Friday. 10 It was headlined 75 facts about the Princess Royal, with a list of trivia that followed. But number 14 revealed Princess Anne had two stepchildren from her second marriage to Sir Timothy Laurence, called Tom and Amy Laurence. In reality, the Princess Royal was Sir Tim's first wife when they tied the knot in 1992 - and he did not have any kids. Meanwhile Anne has a son, Peter Phillips, and a daughter, Zara Tindall, with her first husband Mark Phillips. Mark and Anne, who were married for 19 years, divorced the same year she wed Sir Tom. The falsehood was taken down from the website shortly after royal fans were quick to point it out. It's not known exactly where the information came from, although the same error was published by Woman & Home magazine a few years ago. There's speculation whoever wrote the royal website article may have used AI, which found the info from this 2023 piece. A palace source told the Daily Mail: "The facts were checked, and that one was a late addition, sourced from a reputable publication online, which unfortunately wasn't put back through the checking process. "There was no AI sourcing on our part." Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment. Meanwhile, other facts published in the list ranged from the royal's birth to memorable public engagements. "Her Royal Highness was born Princess Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise at Clarence House on 15 August 1950, VJ Day, at 11:50 am," read one fact. It was shared alongside a heartwarming photograph of the late Queen Elizabeth holding the royal baby. 10 10 10 10 The article went on to explain how Princess Anne was a proud member of the first Buckingham Palace Company of Brownies and Guides. It also highlighted her honourable charity work, with more than 400 organisations worldwide. And, she has made a staggering 562 overseas trips, visiting every continent. It has seen her become Colonel-in-Chief of more than 20 British and Commonwealth regiments. Royal fans may have been intrigued to learn Princess Anne was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by the President of Zambia in 1990. The Princess was also the first in the Firm to appear on a TV quiz, BBC's A Question of Sport. And, the first to hold an HGV licence - seeing her get behind the wheel of a double-decker London bus and a police vehicle. She was also the first member of the British Royal Family to compete in an Olympic Games, when she entered as part of the British Equestrian team at the 1976 Montreal Games, the list revealed. Other facts included her being the Patron of the Scottish Rugby Union. Sister to the king, she set to spend her birthday next month as she always does - sailing with her husband around Scotland for just ten days. After this brief period she will return to her work as a senior member of the royal family. This comes royal fans have also theorised hard-working Anne could now prove vital in Harry and Charles' peace talks. The Princess Royal is thought to have some useful advice to offer Harry on life as a "spare" in the Royal Family. A source close to the Royal Family told The Times that Anne could offer some words of wisdom to her nephew. The source said: "She often talked about how, as children, she was treated so differently from Charles. "She was second to him and kicked further down the line of succession as a woman, but she forged her own path. "In her twenties she was bolshy and upset about a lot of things, but she came through that. "He should talk to her about her experiences. She is shrewd. She could tell him a lot about what she went through.' Anne reportedly doesn't plan to retire until her tenth decade, following in Prince Phillip's footsteps. A dutiful and hard working member of the Royal Family, Anne overcame an injury just last year and returned to her duties just a few weeks later. The Princess Royal was admitted to intensive care last June with head injuries and a concussion after reportedly being kicked in the head by a horse at her Gatacombe Park estate in Gloucestershire. She was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol for tests and treatment before returning to her duties that July. Anne has been almost unstoppable for more than seven decades now, working nearly without pause. She is reportedly notorious among her aides for resisting attempts to create downtime for her. Shying away from attempts to celebrate her 75th birthday, Anne instead opted to celebrate more than 100 of the 400 charities she is a patron of. The Princess Royal hosted more than 100 of her charities at a Buckingham Palace reception last month as part of her birthday celebrations. Aside from the reception, Anne has accepted the issuing of a silver coin to commemorate the momentous occasion. Released last week the coin features the Princess Royal's face and the words "The Princess Royal. Celebrating 75 years. Duty and devotion.' Peter Phillips has announced his engagement to girlfriend Harriet Sperling. Peter, 47, will marry Harriet, 45, after dating the NHS paediatric nurse for the past year. the King and Queen today of their engagement. 10 10 10
