Letters: British voters will not forgive a chancellor who fails to boost defence
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SIR – I share the concerns expressed to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt by both Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt (report, March 2) that defence expenditure should be increased in the forthcoming Budget, particularly in view of the crises facing us in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
We have also learnt that due to the introduction of two new frigates, the Navy will have to stand down two perfectly serviceable vessels because of a lack of crew – and budget.
The British public will not soon forgive a chancellor who is seen to sacrifice national security for the sake of tax cuts, however desirable.
Robert Hickman
Andover, Hampshire
SIR – The Chancellor should inform the Treasury that scaling up defence spending is shrewd commercially – an obvious example being the diplomatic leverage that bigger UK defence contributions to Europe’s security would give London. One could also add the importance of the military industry and its supply chains to the UK’s employment and economic activity, which feed into Treasury revenues.
John Barstow
Fittleworth, West Sussex
SIR – The only spending the Chancellor needs to increase in his Budget is on defence. Every other sector has ample money, but it is wasted by poorly administered departments.
It has been proven beyond doubt that cuts to immigration would save the country plenty of money.
To obtain growth, the only solution is to be unashamedly pro-business and cut business taxes.
Finally, to obtain the feel-good factor our country so desperately needs, he should raise income-tax thresholds.
Lady Dutton
Sherborne, Dorset
SIR – I’d be content to pay a bit more tax to finance the well-resourced defence forces we need in these uncertain times. But I will be very unhappy if my taxes continue to underpin the badly managed and bloated structures in government, the NHS and the broader Civil Service.
Bill Halkett
Bispham, Lancashire
SIR – How can this Government have money to spend on aid to India and China, both of which run space programmes and align themselves to Vladimir Putin, yet say there is no extra money to spend on the defence of the realm?
Judith Rixon
Bourne, Lincolnshire
SIR – The first duty of a government is to protect the country from external aggression. The second is to secure the welfare of its citizens. If it has not achieved the first, it is unlikely to succeed in the second.
K Kenworthy
Mansfield, Nottinghamshire
Navalny remembered
SIR – I couldn’t help contrasting the bravery of the hundreds of unmasked mourners who attended the funeral of Alexei Navalny in Moscow (report, March 2), with the significant number of masked demonstrators in our own country, where the likelihood of retribution from the authorities is negligible.
Ian Devine
Yarm, North Yorkshire
SIR – We should immediately erect a statue of Alexei Navalny somewhere in central London. It will also show extremists how fortunate they are to be living in this wonderful country.
Richard Hoare
Kington Magna, Dorset
SIR – The pictures of so many mourners at the funeral of Alexei Navalny were deeply moving. Their brave witness shows that the power of those who sacrifice their lives for the truth does not cease with their passing. Nalvany is now a martyr, whose example will strengthen the longing of his people for freedom and peace.
Francis Bown
London E3
National Trust votes
SIR – I agree fully with Roger White (“National Trust tactics”, Letters, March 2). Since the use of “discretionary” votes ensures that, in practice, every candidate recommended is elected, it is somewhat ironic that on Friday I received an email from the National Trust inviting me to apply to join the National Trust Council. I can only assume that other members received the same invitation.
In the present circumstances, there is clearly no point in making any such application. If someone so eminently sensible as Lord Sumption cannot get elected, what chance does a mere member such as myself have against an undemocratic monolith?
John Orbell
March, Cambridgeshire
SIR – I have been visiting a National Trust property called Overbecks, near Salcombe, for more than 50 years. The Edwardian house had a collection of local and natural history – including a children’s area – a sub-tropical garden, a shop and a busy tea room with a terrace that had the most sublime views of the south Devon coast.
For reasons known only to the cabal that runs the Trust, four years ago it permanently closed the tea room, shop and house, and disposed of all its collections. Only the garden remains open.
Salcombe has some of the most-expensive real estate in the country, and Overbecks sits in a prime position. No one knows what the Trust is planning, which is such a shame. It was a place full of joy and life, but has been smothered by the Trust’s dead hand.
Jonathan Yardley
Wolverhampton
Stamp prices
SIR – How ironic that, having been fined by Ofcom for failures in its delivery services to customers, the failing Royal Mail will be recovering the cost of the fine from the increased cost its customers will have to pay for their stamps (report, March 2).
Sir Neville Trotter
Newcastle upon Tyne
SIR – The Royal Mail is to again raise the cost of stamps “as the company battles falling enthusiasm for letters”.
When running a business it is often difficult to satisfy customers. But try running a business without customers – the Royal Mail can see how that goes.
Idris White
Sevenoaks, Kent
Don’t blame e-bikes
SIR – Rowan Pelling (“Electric bikes are a menace to the law-abiding majority”, Comment, March 2) is fortunate to live in flat are such as Cambridgeshire. For the rest of us, e-bikes are useful. Bicycle use in hilly Bristol has certainly risen since their advent.
The antisocial activities that she mentions, which include pavement riding and throttled e-bikes that don’t need to be pedalled, are illegal. The issue is that the law is not being enforced.
Gavin King
Long Ashton, Somerset
SIR – Rowan Pelling’s article about e-bikes being a menace does not reflect my experience of them here in rural Lancashire.
My husband (72), and I (68), both of whom have health problems, use our e-bikes to get out into the hilly countryside. Without these wonderful bikes, we would be unable to enjoy the fresh air and exercise that they allow. We certainly don’t consider ourselves to be speed-crazed citizens, nor cheats. E-bikes allow the elderly and less mobile to experience the same pleasures of cycling that Ms Pelling and other younger people enjoy.
Pauline Young
Egerton, Lancashire
Frogs in the road
SIR – The signs warning of frogs in the road (Letters, March 2) are there because the males return to the pond where they spawned for mating. There they await the arrival of local females. It seems a shame to wreck such perfect etiquette – which happens in early spring.
Christine Wilson
Whiteabbey, Co Antrim
SIR – There is a pond near us where amphibians come to breed. Each year warning signs are erected on the nearby road; nobody knows by whom.
One day, I noticed they had the addition of: “Vivent les anglais sympa” and “Que vous êtes gentilles”.
It seems that we have a different class of frog in Devon.
Paul Berry
Bishop’s Tawton, Devon
Lashes in lessons
SIR – I was interested to read that a Kent headmaster is allowing girls to wear false eyelashes to school (report, March 1). When I was a schoolgirl in the early 1960s, l remember pupils being suspended for wearing mascara. Times have certainly changed.
Anne Peebles
Cardiff
Man’s best friend takes a step towards heaven
SIR – Reading that half of England’s cathedrals now admit dogs (report, February 28) reminded me that, when I was a schoolboy in 1952, the Provost of Southwell Minster presented me with a non-descript mongrel called Flossie. Then, in front of a prominent notice at the West door encouraging the admittance of dogs, he told me to walk around inside with Flossie, so that we could be photographed.
Why me? Who was Flossie’s owner? I still have no idea, but Southwell was certainly admitting dogs more than 70 years ago.
Rev Dr Anthony Peabody
Burghfield Common, Berkshire
SIR – I am the organist for St Finnbarr’s, the Scottish Episcopal church in Dornoch. My assistant organist is my cavalier King Charles spaniel, who generally sits by my feet. However, if the spirit moves him, he sits instead on a base pedal, whereupon a lovely boom reverberates around the church.
He has been made very welcome for several years now, even with the occasional unplanned boom. At the end of the service, he likes to get up and join the priest’s procession down the aisle.
Caroline Cousins
Rogart, Sutherland
Supermarkets’ surplus provides sprouts all year
SIR – Heather Erridge (Letters, March 1) expresses surprise at sprouts being eaten now, but my wife and I take advantage of the supermarkets’ generous Christmas reductions to stock up on sprouts and parsnips. Blanched then frozen, they last for ages, which means that last week we enjoyed them both with roast chicken.
Stephen Howey
Woodford Green, Essex
SIR – I have just eaten the last of my home-grown sprouts. They were tiny but absolutely delicious, sweet with a lovely, nutty bitterness. I couldn’t eat tasteless, farm-produced sprouts the size of golf balls anymore. Small is best, as with most vegetables.
Michael Banyard
Charlton Adam, Somerset
SIR – If you just boil sprouts – like most British do – they can be tasteless, but Indian cuisine is more imaginative. My wife parboils them, slits them in the middle, stuffs them with a light masala paste then steams them. This tasty dish goes perfectly with roti or chapatis.
Rama Murthy
Basingstoke, Hampshire
SIR – Regarding odd portion sizes (Letters, March 2), I recently ordered 32 fishcakes for a party, from a supermarket fish counter. I am very old and I could see the young assistant thinking: “Oh dear, she’s a bit confused.”
To his great credit, he did not ask me to pay in advance and they were all there next day, beautifully wrapped.
Penelope Govett
Painswick, Gloucestershire
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