Fire crews in California are battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced about 13,000 people to evacuate in and around Oroville. The Thompson fire broke out before noon on Tuesday and grew to more than 3 sq miles by evening
Writer, who died in his Los Angeles home, also worked without credit on The Godfather and Bonnie and Clyde
Robert Towne, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Chinatown, considered one of the greatest screenplays of all time, has died at age 89.
Towne, the screenwriter also nominated for his films Shampoo and The Last Detail, died on Monday among family members at his Los Angeles home, said his publicist, who did not disclose a cause of death.
Readers respond to an article by George Monbiot about the firm grip that oligarchs have on democracies
George Monbiot’s article is spot-on (Things are not going to get better as long as oligarchs rule the roost in our democracies, 27 June). We need to return to the relative equality, fairness and functional state that we had between 1945 and 1975. Monbiot draws attention to the historian Walter Scheidel’s assertion that only four forces have ever significantly reduced inequality: “mass-mobilisation warfare (such as the two world wars), total and violent revolution, state collapse and devastating plagues”.
None of these seem to be particularly attractive solutions. A fifth option could be an innovation in participatory democracy, the Citizens’ Mandate for Change, available online. It asks people what changes they want, summarises them monthly and sends them to politicians. The accompanying book, Saving Our World: Plan B, explains how, if this idea spreads widely enough, it has the capacity to effect transformational change. Is this, perhaps, our path of greatest hope? John Seymour Presteigne, Powys
Val McDermid’s backing for the SNP is misplaced, writes John Mason. But George Elder wishes voters in England had a party like the SNP to support
Val McDermid (How could I back anyone but the SNP and the bolshie, buoyant Scotland it stands for?, 26 June) perpetuates the myth that the Scottish National party, Scotland and small European countries are all “progressive”. Free prescriptions are a middle-class subsidy. The poor already received these and the money lost on them is to the cost of other NHS services. The cost of university fees is met by taxpayers, many not well-off, and fees from foreign students. This results in many Scottish students struggling to find places. The SNP balks at taxing the excess profits of energy corporations and retains the tax breaks for private schools.
Scotland is not particularly progressive, but conservative with a small “c”. The SNP currently has a deputy leader whose social views seem to me to be to the right of most of the Conservative party. As for the small progressive nations in the EU, McDermid is obviously oblivious to the growth of the far right in these countries and the opposition to immigration in Ireland.
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