Letters: The regrettable nursing strike could still have a constructive outcome

SIR – I am a retired nurse, midwife and health visitor, and have been saddened by the nurses’ strike (report, December 15).

If, however, their actions succeed in persuading the powers-that-be to review all aspects of their work – not just pay – then some good may come of all this.

A return to an apprenticeship model of training, whereby student nurses under supervision are paid and form a substantial part of the workforce from the outset, would be a start.

Juliet Buckley
London N5

SIR – How can nurses justify the strike action? They have good salaries and jobs that will last for as long as they need them to.

The people who are really suffering are the patients. I wish someone would sort out the NHS – I am almost 70 and feel absolutely abandoned, just when I am likely to need the service most.

Carol White
Northwold, Norfolk

SIR – I trained as a nurse in the 1950s and would like to know what has become of the old-fashioned concepts of vocation, compassion and responsibility. Have these been replaced by pounds and pence?

Nursing has changed almost beyond recognition, but surely the basic principles remain. The Royal College of Nursing should not be undermining them.

Stella Badby
Steyning, West Sussex

SIR – The Government has treated nurses appallingly.

Of all the groups striking at the moment, I think nurses are the most deserving of improved wages. If they were given proper remuneration it would discourage further strikes and motivate others to take up nursing.

The same applies to care staff, who are also very badly paid.

David Carter
Worcester

SIR – The list of hospitals with striking nurses included Great Ormond Street Hospital for children.

This showed callousness on the part of the Royal College of Nursing. Young patients should not suffer.

John Hudson
London W4

SIR – Do the nurses realise that by striking they make life difficult if not intolerable for the doctors and surgeons? This damages trust.

Graham White
Huntingdon

SIR – A pay rise of more than 10 per cent for nurses would not be appropriate at present. However, there should be some increase, and it could be achieved by reducing the number of NHS Trust managers, many of whom have no clinical expertise.

If more nurses could be recruited, there would also be no need for hospitals to pay inflated agency fees (Letters, December 15).

Keith Taylor
Hereford

The Sussexes’ ‘truth’

SIR – Now that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have told their “truth”, perhaps they can live the life to which they allegedly aspire – of privacy. The only people standing in their way are themselves.

Dr Richard A E Grove
Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire

SIR – Does Prince Harry seriously believe that there is something noteworthy about belonging to a family in which siblings occasionally shout and scream at one another during a disagreement?

Peter Harper
Salisbury, Wiltshire

SIR – Looking at the timeline, it appears that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had decided to break away from the Royal family prior to or just after their wedding.

To justify this, and to win the sympathy of the public, it seems their strategy was to blame the media, Buckingham Palace staff and members of the Royal family.

Hopefully we can now all move on and concentrate on the good works carried out by dedicated members of the Royal family

Anthony Haslam
Farnham, Surrey

Obstacles to charity

SIR – Six weeks ago a children’s charity for which I volunteer requested an update of my Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.

I have just received an email telling me that my application is “being processed”. Meanwhile, I am unable to work for the charity.

I am sure there are many volunteers in a similar position, just when their services are most needed.

Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire

SIR – My husband and I chose two major international charities to be the recipients of our donations this Christmas.

On calling the first, we were told that the lines were too busy. It was 48 hours before anybody got back to me. After three attempts to get through to the second, with some lengthy waits, I gave up.

Is this good news – that many people like us, who do not require the Government’s handouts this year, are donating the money to charity? Or bad news – that the charities have failed to employ enough call-centre staff to collect desperately needed funds?

Anne Morgan
Royston, Hertfordshire

Crossings from France

SIR – The French repeatedly claim that they are intent on destroying the “business model” of people-smuggling gangs. Following the latest tragedy involving small boats carrying illegal migrants (report, December 15), surely now is the time to pressure the French to use their vessels to stop and return boats while they are in French waters.

An Albanian migrant recently described a crossing: the French simply shadowed the boat that he was in until it reached British waters and did nothing to intervene.

The “business model” could be destroyed at a stroke if the French were to agree to the return of every illegal migrant who successfully arrives in the UK via the Channel. France is, after all, a safe country, and such a move would be entirely legal under international law.

The French claim to have prevented almost 30,000 from making the crossing this year. This is laudable but of little consequence, given that they simply return to camps close to the coast and try again on another night.

Peter Higgins
West Wickham, Kent

EU corruption

SIR – The recent arrest of four European Union officials on charges of taking money from an external government seeking to gain influence (report, December 14) has been described as threatening the future of the EU, and the biggest case of its kind.

However, both direct and indirect fraud and corruption have dogged the EU since the commission resigned en masse in March 1999 after an independent investigation found widespread fraud and nepotism. Not all commissioners were mentioned in that report. At the time the EU court of auditors had consistently failed to sign off the EU budget because of irregularities.

In March 2016 (just before the Brexit referendum) another independent investigation commissioned by the European parliament estimated that fraud and corruption cost the EU in excess of £750 billion in GDP terms annually.

It can therefore be assumed the future of the EU will not be threatened by this latest scandal.

David Taylor
Lymington, Hampshire

Art and life

SIR – I was sad to hear of the death of Tom Phillips (Obituaries, December 6).

I was a student of Fine Art at Bath Academy of Art in the late 1960s, when he was employed as a teacher and lecturer. He taught a life drawing class – a six-week module – during which the model did not turn up once.

Not at all fazed by this, he made us draw the chair and read us Schopenhauer for the two-hour period. He wove a fantastic story of the non-existent model, named her “the Duchess”, and made up a different explanation for her non-appearance each week.

It was very entertaining and I got better and better at drawing the chair.

Suzanne Lawler
Bridgnorth, Shropshire

Sleeping dogs

SIR – In the early 1970s we lived in a police house with no central heating. Our Labrador slept on the eiderdown on our bed (Letters, December 14) when my husband was on night duty.

The only problem was that when he came home in the morning the dog growled and had to be moved off the bed.

Pamela Duff
Lancaster

When the BBC offered an education in drama

SIR – John Birkett (Letters, December 13) rightly agrees with Simon Heffer (Hinterland, December 3) that there is “too much trash” on the BBC.

The other problem, however, is the intellectual and cultural paucity. Mr Birkett laments the loss of The Brains Trust. Another jewel, now long-forgotten, was Play of the Month. One Sunday evening a month, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, the BBC would produce splendid performances of plays from the great dramatic canon.

As a result, growing up, one was treated to nearly all the most important works of Shakespeare, his fellow Jacobean playwrights, a wide range of Restoration comedy, Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shaw, Wilde, Rattigan, Coward, Pinter, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and others.

What a wonderful education – which the BBC believed it had a duty to provide. Today the corporation’s rare outings to the pinnacles of intellectual and cultural achievement are trumpeted as though the audience were being done some colossal favour.

Michael Norris
Hunstanton, Norfolk

SIR – Did John Birkett consider what the BBC might inflict on the public if it brought back The Brains Trust?

I doubt it would provide the same calibre of discussion as the original. Instead, I suspect the BBC would give us the likes of Gary Lineker, Jo Brand, Joe Lycett, Amol Rajan and Stephen Fry.

N P Scott
Reigate, Surrey

An invigorating breakfast for the festive season

SIR – It seems that feelings about all-day breakfasts are running high (Letters, December 12).

Am I alone in favouring a holiday season breakfast of mince pies, brandy butter and espresso? This combination is both festive and invigorating.

Neil Sewell-Rutter
Oxford

SIR – We Telegraph readers were delighted to learn of our power in overturning M&S’s ban on serving toasted teacakes after 11am. Sadly we had less success when, some time ago, readers complained of the difficulty in opening Weetabix wrapping cleanly.

Not a peep from Weetabix management – nor any improvements in the unwrapping procedure.

Geoffrey Taylor
Bracknell, Berkshire

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