Letters: Hope that British tanks will help the Ukrainians land a decisive blow

SIR – At last our Government appears to see that the West’s overcautious approach to arming Ukraine has allowed its soldiers only to resist the Russians, rather than push them out.

Unhelpful distinctions have been made between defensive weapons (acceptable) and offensive weapons (not acceptable). Tanks may be regarded as offensive assets but in the context of this war they are needed to repel the Russians from illegally occupied territory. In order to defend, the Ukrainians must be able to deploy offensive capacity.

This war is being fought for our democratic freedoms as well as those of Ukraine: its security is our security. In partnership with Ukraine, our Government and its allies must now develop a clear strategy to achieve agreed objectives, underpinned by unity, decisiveness and determination.

David Platts
Newark, Nottinghamshire

SIR – While I strongly endorse your Leading Article – ably reinforced by Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon’s article on the same day – about the urgent need to send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, it must be emphasised that this has thrown the spotlight once again on the woeful state of the British Army.

Since the Cold War, successive defence cuts, allied with frankly delusional priorities for spending the limited funds left, have diverted us from the key pillar of our defence.

As a medium-sized yet influential European Nato power, our current focus should be on the threat from Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In this context, while it is important to maintain a balanced Armed Forces, every effort must be bent towards increasing the size of the Army, procuring and upgrading our armoured and artillery systems, and rebuilding adequate stocks of materiel. All other defence ambitions are secondary.

Brigadier Rod Brummitt (retd)
Bournemouth, Dorset

SIR – As a former user of the Challenger 2 main battle tank, both in peace and on operations, I am somewhat sceptical about the utility of gifting these vehicles to Ukraine.

While it’s a battle-proven tank, with a design that avoids many of the flaws that have plagued Russian tanks, it has nevertheless suffered from a lack of investment by the Government over the past decade, which was necessary to maintain its tactical edge.

As such, it could rapidly become a burden to maintain and supply – its ammunition, for instance, is not Nato standard, a factor that is becoming increasingly relevant.

Its utility is more likely to be political if, as one hopes, it encourages Germany and the United States to start gifting Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks, which will be more capable and, more importantly, easier to support in the field. In sufficient numbers, and used as part of a combined arms approach, these would be a game changer.

Lt-Col H Beanfield (retd)
Shaftesbury, Dorset

Lost NHS beds

SIR – You report that the Government is to spend £200  million on block-booking beds in the local community to free up space in hospitals.

In May 1900, a site here in Burford was purchased with the intention of building a hospital by voluntary subscription. The funds were raised and the cottage hospital was completed in around 1902.

In 1948, the hospital came under Oxford and District Hospital Management (dissolved in 1956) and was run by NHS staff and some 80 volunteers. It provided care in the community following release from hospital. In the mid-1990s the NHS embarked on a programme of centralising such care in major urban hospitals, and in 2000, in spite of determined local opposition, Burford’s cottage hospital was closed.

We understand that it is now to be sold as a private residence.

Brigadier C D Daukes
Chairman, Burford Patient Participation Group
Burford, Oxfordshire

Closed court justice

SIR – The Magistrates’ Association says that too much crime is being resolved out of court, behind closed doors.

Cautions and community resolutions are indeed meted out in police custody or on the street but many people are involved in the process. Victims are consulted, lawyers advocate for their client to police and the individual themselves must accept responsibility for their crime. Someone who receives a caution is far less likely to reoffend than someone who receives a court sanction.

Magistrates themselves preside over a totally closed process – the single justice procedure. The majority of all prosecutions are dealt with this way, in a closed court presided over by a single magistrate. Neither accused, victim nor lawyer is present and most defendants do not understand that they have been prosecuted. They are convicted without any face-to-face conversation. Accountability in the use of community resolutions and cautions could certainly be improved, but at least the suspect understands the accusation. Closed justice, whether in the police station or the court, undermines legitimacy.

Penelope Gibbs
Director, Transform Justice
London NW5

School sweethearts

SIR – A school has banned pupils from having romantic relationships or hugging, to ensure a focus on learning. This is nothing new.

My parents’ grammar school had a similar policy in 1960 when, aged 17, they were reprimanded for sitting together on the wall dividing the girls’ and boys’ playgrounds. They were deemed, as sixth-formers, to be setting a bad example.

The rules also proved in this case both pointless and ineffectual: my parents attended and succeeded at university, married in 1966 – and remained so for 52 happy years.

Frances Williams
Swindon, Wiltshire

Beckett’s many talents

SIR – Another aspect of Samuel Beckett’s life (Letters, January 9) was cricket. As a quizzer, I was once asked who was the only Nobel prize winner in Wisden. The answer was Beckett.

Geoff Vaughan
Warrington, Cheshire

Church priorities

SIR – The Archbishop of Canterbury has defended the establishment of a £100 million fund to “address past wrongs of slavery”.

It is clear from these outpourings of virtue-signalling from Lambeth Palace that the Church of England is, despite its protestations to the contrary, awash with money.

I am minded therefore to reduce my monthly standing order to my local church (which goes in very large part to the diocese in payment of the parish share) and donate the money to a more deserving cause of my choosing.

Dr David Pound
Daventry, Northamptonshire

SIR – It would be more appropriate to invest in the present-day Church – otherwise there will be no members left to address any wrongs.

Peter Smith
Alston, Cumbria

SIR – Given that the Queen Anne’s Bounty investment in the South Sea Company is considered to be worth more than £700 million in today’s money, the Church’s £100 million feels like a cost-of-doing-business token rather than sincere contrition.

Paul McGoldrick
Sittingbourne, Kent

The maths ceiling

SIR – Rishi Sunak thinks that all pupils should study maths until the age of 18.

His tutor at Winchester disagrees. In the late 1960s, before I went to university, I had a short-term boyfriend. He was doing a PhD in advanced mathematics at Cambridge. I had no understanding of what he was researching (hence the short-term nature of our relationship) but remember him saying his supervisor believed that everyone had a ceiling in mathematics. No matter how hard they tried, they would never rise above it.

I gave up trying at that moment.

Margaret Baker
Juvigny les Vallées, Manche, France

That’s the spirit

SIR – I failed my driving test twice in 1966 (Letters, January 11). On the third attempt, to steady my nerves, I helped myself to a large gin from my parents’ splendid drinks cabinet.

I duly passed. This was important, as the following day I started as a fresh-faced Norland nanny to a wealthy family, and there was a brand new red Mini Estate awaiting me.

Jane Burtt
Gallowstree Common, Oxfordshire

Shoppers who welcome a chat at the checkout

SIR – Jane Shilling’s remarks about self-checkouts made me smile.

We hear so much about people’s mental health, yet we experience less and less human contact. Banks are closing, meaning we have to conduct our business online, and supermarkets are reducing the number of checkouts where you are actually able to speak to someone.

For many people the checkout employee may be the only person they speak to in the day. Our current way of conducting business may be more efficient – but at what cost?

Margaret Durrant
Sonning Common, Oxfordshire

The cost of energy storage can’t be ignored

SIR – Dr Chris Staley (Letters, January 10) suggests that solar parks should only get planning permission if they can invest in a “certain number of days’ energy storage”.

A typical large 40MW solar park might cost £25-£35 million to build. The liquid air storage Dr Staley refers to could store 45 minutes of the farm’s summer output, at an estimated cost of £400 million. Battery storage for the same one hour’s summer generation would cost much the same as the solar park. At present, none of these methods is financially viable. More research and, critically, time are required.

Ian Brent-Smith
Bicester, Oxfordshire

SIR – Recent letters highlight that Britain has substantial and increasing amounts of high-level radioactive waste, including spent fuel, that must be disposed of safely.

The Government’s implementers, Nuclear Waste Services, plans to co-dispose of this waste with a much larger volume of intermediate level waste in a geological disposal facility when, and if, a suitable site can be found. Such a facility would be one of the largest national infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Britain. It would cost many billions of pounds and take several decades to construct and fill. Even if a site could be found and approved within the next five years, the facility could not take any high-level waste until at least 2085, and is likely to remain open for more than 150 years at considerable operating cost.

There is, however, a potentially much better alternative for disposal. Our recent paper shows that the country’s entire inventory of legacy high-level radioactive wastes could be safely disposed of in seven to 10 deep bore holes over an area of less than three football pitches. Crucially, these could be drilled, filled and sealed in between 10 and 20 years at around 10 per cent of the cost of disposing of the wastes in a geological disposal facility.

It is a matter of some regret to us that Britain is not interested in developing a new technology, preferring instead to buy one off the production line, irrespective of the potential benefits.

John Beswick
Director, Marriott Drilling Group
Professor Fergus Gibb
Dr Karl Travis
University of Sheffield

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