All at sea

I AM surprised that Richard Littlejohn states: ‘Russian vessels are steaming up and down the English Channel and the North Sea at will, testing our defences.’ (Mail).

The Channel and North Sea are open water to ships of any nation. The UK does not own them and we have no right to prevent ships of any nation sailing in or through them.

Even if we had the world’s biggest navy, we would still not be able to prevent a single Luxembourg rowing boat from using the open seas.

LES CARR, Liverpool. IT ISN’T admirals, tweeting or otherwise, we need, but more ships. That would be a better use of the defence budget. And Boris Johnson needs some aircraft before he sends the carriers to the Far East.

KEN JOHNSON, Douglas, Isle of Man.