The Guardian | Wednesday 3 July 2013

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Letters and emails Kazakh presidents human rights record
I continue to be astonished at the hypocrisy of both David Cameron and Tony Blair in their dealings with the Kazakh regime of Nusultan Nazarbayev. You correctly highlight the lack of human and democratic rights that exist there (Report, 2 July). I visited Kazakhstan last November as part of a trade union delegation to investigate the killing of oil workers at Zhenaozhen. The ocial number of workers shot in the back by the police and killed is 12, as you report. However, after speaking to eyewitnesses and survivors, I am convinced that the actual number of those killed is nearer to 70. This gure does not include those who, a year after the attack, are still too injured to work. Neither does it include those who were rounded up and imprisoned for the criminal oence of publicly opposing the regime by being on the square at Zhanaozhen. Many of these, including the lawyers who tried to defend them, like Vadim Kuramshin, are still held in Kazakh jails. The Kazakhstan state ocially sanctions the repression of any opposition elements. This ranges from threats and intimidation, right up to murder. The activists that I spoke to claim that the situation is getting worse. Blair and Cameron are experienced politicians who are acting as apologists for one of the most repressive and corrupt regimes in the world. Cameron shows that he is more interested in getting deals for the 1% than securing human rights for the 99% in Kazakhstan as in the UK. Trade unionists in the UK and across Europe will continue to campaign for human and democratic rights in Kazakhstan, many of us organised under the banner of Campaign Kazakhstan. Mike Whale Secretary, Campaign Kazakhstan

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Corrections and clarications

All in it together except for MPs

I was about to create an e-petition about MPs pay on the government website but see that someone has beaten me to it. It has more than 50,000 signatures already and now mine, too. At a time when most employees cant get any pay rise at all, or at best something around the consumer price index (2.7%), its unthinkable that MPs might be awarded huge rises over the next two years (Report, 1 July). I was also incensed to see Keith Vaz on breakfast news yesterday not willing to condemn the proposals. Its not good enough for a Labour MP to use the excuse that an independent body is now in charge of parliamentary salaries so MPs shouldnt comment on their judgment. William Robertson Thornton Dale, North Yorkshire The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is expected to recommend a pay rise of up to 10,000 for MPs. The authority has clearly failed in its objective of de-politicising MPs remuneration. The obvious way out is to set MPs pay in law as a xed multiple of the statutory minimum wage. That way, MPs can raise their own salary at the same time and by the same percentage as the income of the lowest-paid workers in the country. Tom Vote London Once again we are demanding we get our MPs on the cheap: 65,000 a year to spend in most cases two-thirds of your working life hundreds of miles away from home; weekends spent listening to constituents who have problems they expect you to solve; your long holidays recesses to you and I juggling your time between 75,000 electors, various local interests in your constituency, and last but by no means least, your family? Pilloried if you claim expenses to which you are entitled, to make your work bearable. Youve got to be joking. Alan Carcas Liversedge, West Yorkshire If people are deterred from becoming an MP because the salary of 66K plus expenses is seen to be insucient, then good: we dont want them anyway. Jol Miskin Sheeld I would not object to an increase in MPs salaries provided that the job was their only employment. Many MPs have other part-time work: continued practice within their previous professions, directorships, consultancies, etc. If their salaries were treated like, say, unemployment benet (as jobseekers allowance used to be known), where payment for part-time work is deducted from the benet, then we would have a more equitable situation. They would still have their expenses to fall back on. I would like to think that MPs worked primarily for their constituents and not for any job opportunities that may arise as a result of their election. Martin de Klerk Portsmouth It is good that an independent pay review body has thoroughly researched their needs and recommended a signicant pay rise for one group of public sector workers. Now can we please have one for the rest, whose case is far stronger on all grounds than that of MPs? John Veit-Wilson. Newcastle upon Tyne There is a laughably sanctimonious air to the way in which members of the government frontbench are falling over themselves in their haste to tell us they will turn down any pay increases for MPs (Clegg pledges to say no if MPs get pay rise, 2 July). For the multimillionaires who make up a good proportion of the coalition frontbench, their salaries as MPs are a very small part of their income. Additionally, they had already voted themselves a huge windfall with the tax cut for the rich, which, for most of them, amounted to far more than any salary increase will provide. Still, I am quite sure Clegg and the rest will take every opportunity to remind the country that their new found enthusiasm for frugality in their own lives is yet another example of the fact that we are all in this together and thus those whose benets are cut should take a similar altruistic attitude. Dr Chris Morris Kidderminster, Worcestershire

Some decimal points went astray in an item about new EU rules capping the cost of mobile phone roaming charges. The cost of sending or receiving a text message within the EU has been capped at 0.08 (not 0.8) falling to 0.06 (not 0.6), by 2014 (Roaming prices cut, 28 June, page 40). An article about Theresa Mays plans for a 3,000 cash bond to deter high risk visitors from overstaying in Britain said the Confederation of British Industry had attacked the scheme as highly discriminatory and very unfortunate. It was the Confederation of Indian Industry which made those remarks (Clegg stalls bond plan to deter illegal working, 26 June, page 7). Jill Finney, former deputy chief executive of the Care Quality Commission was wrongly described as a former deputy chair of the organisation in a leader column (Take care, 25 June, page 30). Homophone corner: A recent switch to hydraulic breaks may well have stopped him going over his handlebars (Froome res warning shot to rivals before Bakelants claims his moment in the sun, 1 July, page 11, Sport). Further corrections and clarications on guardian.co.uk include: Climate change poses grave threat to security, says UK envoy, 30 June. Contacts for Guardian departments and sta can be found at gu.com/help/ contact-us. To contact the readers editors oce, email reader@guardian. co.uk including article details and web link; write to The readers editor, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU; or phone +44 (0)20 3353 4736 between 10am and 1pm UK time Monday to Friday. The Guardians policy is to correct signicant errors as soon as possible. The editorial code of the Guardian incorporates the editors code overseen by the Press Complaints Commission.

I would not object to an increase provided that the job as MP was their only employment.
Martin de Klerk

Pedalling soup
I am amazed and angered to nd that Nottingham University is charging parents 20 per ticket to attend degree ceremonies this summer (Report, 1 July). Most other universities Leeds and Birmingham, to name but two give two tickets to families at no charge. I hope this will not become a model to be copied by others. Gill Jewell Leeds Not only is Novak Djokovic (Tennis, 2 July) playing the best tennis at Wimbledon, he is the best mannered. He seems to be the only player to make eye contact with the ball boys and girls rather than simply chucking the towel back over his shoulder, as most do. Anthony Garrett Falkland,Fife David Cameron claims he was hijacked at the EU summit over Britains rebate (Report, 29 June). Where the hell were GCHQ when you need them? Glyn Ford Cinderford, Gloucestershire Marie Paterson bemoans the coverage of classical as apposed to pop music (Letters, 1 July) but at least pop music is performed by the composers, whereas classical music, with some exceptions, is usually performed by a tribute band, often known as an orchestra. Derek Middlemiss Newark, Nottinghamshire Bob Elmes (Letters, 2 July) asks what expenses married couples face that unmarrieds do not. The rst is the absurd cost of a modern wedding and the second, perhaps as a result, is divorce proceedings. Richard Gilyead Saron Walden, Essex Every stage of the Tour de France is gruelling (Letters, 29 June). Noel Cullinane Leeds When did annual roll over and become year on year? Francis Treuherz London When are professionals consummate? Isnt it to do with sexual intercourse? If so, how do I achieve that status? Peter Leach Mold, Flintshire

Egypts jubilant crowds should beware of what they wish for

Emboldened by ery army statements and helicopters displaying Egyptian ags ying overhead, jubilant crowds on Tahrir Square cant be blamed for feeling that the balance of power has tipped in their favour (Report, 2 July). While President Morsi has unquestionably squandered the fragile support he enjoyed after a contested and divisive election a year ago, the dividends of ousting the rst democratically elected leader through undemocratic means might prove to be a bitter disappointment for the Egyptian people. Opposition leaders, many directly responsible for Morsis ascent because their individual presidential ambitions precluded the formation of a broad secular-liberal alliance able to challenge the well-organised bloc of the Muslim Brotherhood have not demonstrated the fortitude or the vision necessary to move Egypt away from the brink. A new round of military rule is in no ones interest. To avoid this, opposition leaders must shelve their political ambitions and agree on the formation of a technocratic government mandated to x the economy and place the country back on a transitional path towards genuine democracy. Protesters must express future discontent through democratic channels and realise that further Tahririsation of Egyptian politics is unsustainable. Sander van Niekerk The Hague, Netherlands What Ahdaf Soueif calls the Egyptian revolution (In Egypt, we thought democracy was enough. It was not, 2 July) was in fact a counter-revolution against authoritarian capitalism. In 2009, Egypt grew by 5% and its projected growth for 2011 was 6%. Its GDP per head, at purchasing power parity, was almost double that of India and 50% higher than Indonesias. Despite the current euphoria over freedom and democracy, Egypt is unlikely to grow faster under liberal democratic capitalism. Authoritarian capitalism works because ineciencies and favouritism in this system is often oset by higher levels of social discipline. Its political dynamics may not please the wests armchair democrats and human rights activists, but it does provide a faster and an alternative route to economic development. Randhir Singh Bains Gants Hill, Essex In many countries, both majority vote referendums and single-preference electoral systems are little more than sectarian headcounts. The latest victim is Egypt (Egypts fate is in the hands of soldiers, 2 July). The majority vote, however Orwellian in its simplicity this good, that bad is the most inaccurate measure of collective opinion ever invented. Elections based on rst past the post (as in Kenya), the two-round system (Egypt), or simple PR list systems (as now used in the Balkans) are also often inappropriate. Majority rule is ne, in so far as it goes. But majority rule by majority vote majoritarianism is inadequate. Accordingly, in todays high-tech world, majority opinions should be identied on the basis of the voters (and/or their elected representatives) preferences. Nations need not divide into two. Where such a danger exists, power should be shared; so presidencies should be plural, ministerial posts should be all-party, and any new constitution should be based on a preferential choice of about four or ve options. Peter Emerson Director, De Borda Institute, Belfast

Country diary

Cotehele, Tamar Valley

Five cygnets, closely attended by their mud-stained parents, shue about and peck o grass near the lime kilns on the quay. Tide floods between mudbanks, beneath mud-coated lower branches of oak and the fresh greenery of reed beds where growth now hides the swans nest beside the millstream. Dog rose and clematis scramble up stumps in the marsh and, in an adjoining orchard, trees are swamped in tall grasses and oxeye daisies. Voluble wrens sound louder than the stream beside the woodland path, and then, across a footbridge and sunny glade, the mill comes into view. My grandfather was miller here, as tenant of the Edgcumbes. Now it is a National Trust museum and includes reproductions of memory paintings by my mother, Marie Lorraine Martin. During her childhood, her father, as well as milling, kept pigs fed on freshly ground barley meal; the house cows grazed in the meadow, and there were wooden sheds for the flock of ducks and hens. Tree trunks from the woods were dragged across this useful space towards the saw-bench geared to the water wheel. The sawn timber was made into gates and fencing posts for the estate. Now the eld is a owery haven, where the cutting regime allows southern marsh orchids to thrive, distinct from the rank tangle of dropwort, meadowsweet, rush and ag iris. Back on the quay, where red valerian owers alongside maidenhair spleenwort on old walls, the swans await high tide. The cygnets still lollop and graze, overseen by the vigilant parent birds, proprietorial among people unloading canoes and setting up stalls for the special wet weekend that includes the Cotehele splash and dash: a 400m swim and 4km run. The song of reed warblers carries upriver and, below the shadowy tree crowns in Braunder Wood on the opposite Devon bank, the morning sun is mirrored on the widening reach of tidal water. Virginia Spiers

Security services held to account

William Hagues assertions that our security services at all times act within the law (Report, 22 June) are not credible. In 2004, my client, Sami al-Saadi, an exiled opponent of Libyas President Gadda, was handed to Libyan agents, with his family, by the Hong Kong authorities, at the request of MI6. The family arrived back in Libya on 28 March 2004, three days after Tony Blair arrived in Tripoli for his famous rapprochement meeting with Gadda. Once in Libyan custody, Mr Saadi was imprisoned in appalling conditions for six years and repeatedly subjected to severe torture. He was given a show trial in 2009, condemned to death and nally released in 2010. Over the same time period that he was being tortured in Tripoli, he was visited and questioned by British intelligence personnel. Subjecting people to torture in Britain or overseas is illegal under British law. The British Government has paid the Saadi family 2.2m in settlement of a claim. This size of settlement could not have been authorised unless MI6s conduct in relation to the Saadis was illegal. It is too much of a coincidence that Saadis forced return coincided with Tony Blairs visit to Tripoli. I call on Tony Blair to disclose all he knows about MI6 and British government action in relation to Sami al-Saadi. Paul Harris Founding chairman, Bar human rights committee The annual independence from America demonstration at the gates of NSA Menwith Hill tomorrow could not have been better timed, as more and more documents released by the courageous Edward Snowden are revealed. Many of us have known for a long time that NSA Menwith Hill gathers intelligence and monitors individuals, groups, states and businesses. We have also known that the intelligence and security committee, which sounds reassuring, is not a credible watchdog (Editorial, 2 July). Lindis Percy Co-ordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

Fracking worse
Your correspondent David England does a disservice to the anti-fracking cause (Shale gas promises could be hot air, 2 July). He says that methane is 200% worse than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas the correct gure is 2,000%. This means that a small leak from fracking wells will more than cancel out the so-called gain by using gas rather than coal. Each molecule of methane is approximately 60 times more eective as a greenhouse gas than a molecule of carbon dioxide. But, over time, methane is very slowly converted to carbon dioxide through oxidation processes in the atmosphere. Averaged over 100 years, this makes methane about 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, that is, about 2,000% worse than carbon dioxide. A research group at Cornell University has shown that it requires only 4-5% leakage from fracking wells to cancel out the gain from using gas rather than coal. Dr David Hookes Liverpool