Letters: Protests must not be allowed to disrupt this country’s Armistice Day

SIR – Camilla Tominey (Comment, November 4) speaks for the majority of the British public in voicing her dissatisfaction with the police and the Government in their response to the pro-Palestine marches. 

There is a clear reluctance to confront the Left-wing agitators who are disrupting our cities and attacking British values. If the police are incapable of dealing with the situation, it is time the Government brought in the Army to restore order. 

All marches or demonstrations in support of the Palestinian cause should be banned over the Armistice weekend and the law should be properly enforced. The nation must be allowed to respectfully honour those who died in its defence without hindrance or distraction.

Mick Richards
Worcester

SIR – It was with deep dismay that I read Camilla Tominey’s article about the proposed disruption to the Remembrance commemoration at the Cenotaph by demonstrators. As the daughter of an Army officer who gave his life for this country in 1942, I find it quite horrifying and extremely sad that this should ever be allowed to happen.

Lois Gilbert
East Harting, West Sussex

SIR – On Saturday, the Cenotaph was stripped of the Union Flag so as not to offend those marching in support of Palestine. I take no side in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but I find this deeply concerning. To those of us who served, or have family who served or died, this is a monumental slap in the face.

The institution that is our country is being torn asunder by pandering to those to whom it means little. We are seeing the end of Britain and nothing is being done to stop it.

Andrew Holgate
Wilmslow, Cheshire

SIR – The act of remembrance is a sacrosanct part of our national heritage. As such it is above politics, religion and ideology. It must not be used as a platform for protest or any aim other than the remembrance of our war dead.
Footballers and other commentators who support actions that may detract from or disrupt our national mourning only promote their own ignorance.

Barney Gray
Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – In his call for a two-state solution, Sir Julian Brazier (Letters, November 2) overlooks the simple but undeniable fact that Hamas does not want it. Neither does Hezbollah nor Iran. They all want a one-state solution that does not include Israel or any Jews. The two-state solution has been an option for decades and is supported by the majority of moderate Israelis. The problem has always been with the Palestinian leadership.

David Miller
Chigwell, Essex

Falklands War inquiry

SIR – I was interested in the letter (October 30) from Commodore Michael Clapp – Commander, Falklands Amphibious Task Group, 1982 – supporting Commander John Prime’s efforts to locate Foxtrot Four, the landing craft of HMS Fearless bombed and sunk by the Argentine Air Force on June 8 1982.

My son Gareth was killed that day, along with 49 others, on the Royal Fleet Auxiliaries Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, when they were bombed while anchored at Fitzroy. For more than 20 years after that disaster I took key roles in the Falkland Families Association, which represented and supported the bereaved families of servicemen who perished in that war. I too thoroughly support Cdr Prime’s plans – as I am assured other bereaved families would – to give the relatives of the six servicemen who died on the landing craft closure.

An inquiry into those bombings, the worst single-day disaster to befall the British Armed Services since the Second World War, was held in 1982. Now, however, more than 41 years later, the inquiry’s full report is yet to be released. Like the bereaved families of those who died on Foxtrot Four, we cannot get closure until this report is released, unredacted and in full. As it stands, the Ministry of Defence does not intend that the close relatives, or seriously injured veterans, will see the full report, as it will not be released until 2065 – 83 years after the event.

How would the bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower victims feel if they were deprived of the conclusions of that inquiry for more than 80 years?

Ray Poole
Tenby, Pembrokeshire

 

Sweden’s Covid hero

SIR – Carl Sundblad cannot understand why epidemiologist Dr Anders Tegnell has received so many accolades for Sweden’s management of the pandemic (Letter, November 4).

Perhaps it is because the Swedes did not have to live through three largely futile lockdowns, and are not now suffering their serious long-term consequences

Dr David Walters
Burton Bradstock, Dorset

SIR – The Covid Inquiry brings to mind my late grandfather, who used to say: “My boy, when it comes to our politicians believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see.”

John C Ives
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Policing mental health

SIR – I must reply to Marjorie Wallace (Letters, November 4), CEO of SANE, who is alarmed by reports that police plan to attend fewer crisis call-outs. 

When Sir Robert Peel established the Metropolitan Police Service in 1829 it was to fight crime, not to assist those with mental illness; this remains its job today. Cases of mental illness seem to have spiralled since lockdown, but this is a issue for the NHS, not the police.

As it is, the NHS is a dysfunctional system that pours funds into diversity and gender activities rather than patient care.

George Kelly
Buckingham

Artificial assumptions

SIR – The AI algorithms of a popular shopping website are still imperfect (Letters, November 4). The computer has pondered my purchases over several years, yet for no clear reason keeps trying to sell me strong painkillers and handcuffs.

Neil Sewell-Rutter
Oxford

MCC virtue-signalling

SIR – Bruce Carnegie-Brown, chairman of Marylebone Cricket Club, says that it needs to keep the naming of the Warner Stand under review because links to the slave trade are a “live” challenge for the club (Sport, November 1). 

The Slavery Abolition Act was passed in Britain long before Sir Pelham Warner – the youngest of a family of 21 children descended from historic slave owners – was born in Trinidad in 1873, so how can slavery possibly be a live issue for the club? 

As a frustrated member of 45 years, I would like to see MCC stand up for its history and traditions, and cease its constant, woke virtue-signalling.

Tim Oldfield
Wye, Kent

SIR – My mother was employed in domestic service in Sir Pelham Warner’s household. I clearly recall her describing him as “the kindest person that I ever worked for”.

John Miller 
Writtle, Essex

SIR – The Independent Commission Report identifies the problem at Lords: “Club members are out of touch … with those who play cricket.”

Mr Carnegie-Brown is – by his own admission – a non-cricketer, as are 90 per cent of today’s members. The MCC is no longer a cricketers’ club.

Dr Nigel Knott
Seend, Wiltshire

Seabirds’ sustenance

SIR – The recent Nature Notes on seabirds (“Climate change alters birds diet”, November 1) omitted to mention the contribution that fishing for sand eels has made to their declining numbers. 

In recognition of the effect this has had on the seabirds’ diet, British boats have been banned from fishing for them since 2021. However, in March this year it was agreed that EU fishing boats could take 188,594 tonnes of sand eels from our waters, while British boats may land 5,573 tonnes. 

The damage to seabirds is not all down climate change.

Dr Nicholas L Bishop
Bath, Somerset
 

A costly cutting

SIR – My father also bought us a eucalyptus (Letters, October 27) from Woolworths in the 1970s. We had to have it cut down last year – at a cost of £2,400 – as it was about 95ft high.

Chris Jones
Fowey, Cornwall

Memories of a summer spent at Forton Services

SIR – Your report about Watford Gap Services (“Iconic service station where Stones, Beatles and Hendrix stopped off faces demolition”, November 3) on the M1 reminded me of my holiday job at Forton Services on the M6 near Lancaster in 1966.

The M6 was the first motorway to be constructed in the UK and was called the Preston Bypass. Forton Services was built and opened in 1965 by the Rank Organisation. It featured the now Grade II-listed Pennine Tower, which then included a smart restaurant, in which I worked over the summer holidays while still at Lancaster Grammar School. I remember being sent on my first day for a “long stand” from the storeroom: it took me about 10 minutes to realise I’d been had. 

My best memory is of working in the packed café on the ground floor on July 30, when the World Cup final was broadcast over the public address system.

Stan Kirby
East Malling, Kent

Ticket machines can’t solve rail conundrums

SIR – I am pleased about the reprieve for railway ticket offices (Letters, November 3).

Recently, I took my eight-year-old grandson into London. I have an Oyster card, but I needed to buy my grandson a ticket. However, when I tried I found that the automatic machine did not seem to offer child tickets, so I went to the booking office.

There they explained that the machine requires you to purchase an adult ticket before it will offer a child option. You then have to cancel the unwanted adult ticket before completing the checkout process.

Who says we don’t need people?

Keith Appleyard
West Wickham, Kent

SIR – I travelled from Colchester to Alnmouth, changing at King’s Cross. I had booked specific trains, with the help of Colchester ticket office, but for various reasons the first was very delayed. 

Worried that I had missed my connection and would have to purchase another ticket, on arriving at King’s Cross I went to the ticket office. The staff there knew about the delay and, to my great relief, stamped my ticket for the next available train.

Ticket offices are not just for purchasing tickets; they also help to solve problems.

Angela Pawsey
Colchester, Essex

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