Preserve their names with pride
MY vILLage is under threat of more houses than it can sustain, with the local council wanting to join up neighbouring areas to make one large town.
a victim of this urbanisation will be Tempsford airfield, from where many brave special Operations executive (sOe) agents flew to occupied France in World War II.
violette szabo, who inspired the film Carve her name With Pride, was one of those brave young people who flew from the airfield, many of whom never returned.
There are fears that the memorial barn dedicated to sOe agents could be sold to make way for a science park and 7,500 houses.
This development is not wanted or needed, and no thought is being given to the surrounding villages and animal habitats.
Many people know of violette because of the code poem The Life That I have. she was executed by the nazis and awarded the george Cross posthumously, which was presented to her fouryear-old daughter by george vI at Buckingham Palace.
The loss of the memorial barn would be a shameful ending to her story.
SuSAN EVANS, Everton, Beds.
Pester power
I aM shocked that the Financial Conduct authority ( FCa) is paying arnold schwarzenegger a seven-figure sum to star in a PPI (payment protection insurance) campaign and will squander £42 million on advertising.
This must be music to the ears of the poorly regulated claims companies, who can carry on pestering us all by phone for another two years.
some might view having to pay out PPI compensation as a welldeserved punishment for the banks that racked up profits when the going was good.
however, pension funds and Isas are invested in banks, insurance and financial institutions. Bear in mind that the FCa is the regulator doing nothing while unaffordable cars are bought by personal contract purchase (PCP). JoANNE ADRAIN, Irvine, Ayrshire.
Health rationing
suggesTIOns that gPs run referrals for tests or operations through a peer review panel (Mail) would be a box-ticking exercise that would only further prolong the scandalous delays for scans.
Patients are simply seen as ‘health customers’ to be pushed around a spreadsheet in an effort to shave costs, rather than as real people who are suffering pain and worry.
The waiting time between getting a gP appointment and the results of a scan can already be up to three months, and this will only increase if the panels go ahead.
If the nhs really wants to save money, why not start with the over-inflated salaries and pension pots of its managers? The money saved could be spent on doctors, tests and treatments.
CARoL PRICE, Westgate, Kent. raTIOnIng of hospital referrals is not new. Being told to stop smoking and that you need to lose weight are standard nhs excuses to justify doing nothing else.
That’s unless you can afford to go private, in which case all things become possible.
JIM CHAMBERLIN, Norwich.
Korean crisis
The north Korean leader seems to have the whole world by the throat. Years of sanctions and diplomatic posturing have created a volatile situation that is going to be difficult to resolve.
This mad regime can’t be allowed to dictate to the West. The passive approach created this problem, and the options are narrowing.
S. GERRARD, York. Is IT not time to expel north Korea’s embassy staff? I can’t see what useful purpose the London embassy serves, and I doubt it is flooded with tourist visa applications. Who would want to go on holiday to see starving families, prison camps and the latest portrait of the beloved leader?
TERRY McDoNALD-DoRMAN, Middleton St George, Co. Durham.
Laughter blaster
I haD a right old chuckle at Mac’s cartoon of a tiny Kim Jong-un and his missiles sitting on top of Donald Trump’s head, with the south Pacific inspired caption: ‘I’m gonna blast that man right outa my hair!’
Continuing the theme of rodgers and hammerstein musicals, a suitable song from The sound Of Music might be: ‘how do you solve a problem like Korea?’
PAuL CoLDWELL, Huddersfield.
Trolley dashed
PrevenTIng children standing in supermarket trolleys (Letters) won’t ensure our shopping will be free of pathogens that can cause food poisoning.
as a microbiologist who has worked in the food industry, I can tell you there is a danger from raw food such as meat, poultry, seafood and eggs. even vegetables are covered with soil pathogens.
not only do these products contaminate the trolley, but so do re-usable shopping bags.
Your handbags, wallet, credit and debit cards, cash and clothes are covered in pathogens. Who can avoid touching these items while doing their shopping?
Name and address supplied.
Testing times
I agree that knowing about romeo and Juliet is not the ideal preparation for a job (Letters), but I beg to differ about the usefulness of being able to solve quadratic equations.
sadly, some people think that mathematics is a form of torture inflicted on pupils.
You can get by in life with intuition, common sense and trial and error, but it’s mathematics that’s behind the technology that heats and lights your home, and flies you to your holiday resort.
DENIS SHARP, Hailsham, E. Sussex. The exam system, supposedly designed to prepare young people for work, seems to be based on the belief that it is acceptable to be wrong four times out of five. What does that say for Britain’s chances of improving productivity?
ALAN SHARPE, Melton Mowbray, Leics.
Dates by the dozen
anna heaTOn boasts that she’s had 77 first dates, but can’t find Mr right (Mail).
someone should inform her that she needs to attempt to be Ms right before she will have any success with any of the fellows she has discarded. she is so shallow, yet she has the cheek to demand perfection in others.
Name and address supplied. gOIng on 77 dates in two years? I’ve been on two dates in 75 years. should I try speed-dating?
PHILIP BRANNoN, London SE25.
Absolutely annoying
The most over-used word is not ‘like’, ‘absolutely’ or ‘ basically’ (Letters). It is ‘literally’, actually . . . or is it ‘actually’, literally?
DoN MacKENZIE, Telford. I WInCe at an electrical retailer’s adverts for ‘haitch P’ laptops and ‘haitch D’ Tvs.
D. LLoYD, London SW3. aMaZIng seems to describe everything that happens in daily life. Perhaps the word’s dictionary meaning should be amended to ‘something really ordinary’.
JoHN RouND, Wolverhampton. WhY have Tv presenters stopped referring to a railway station, but always to the americanism ‘train station’? and I can’t stand ‘snuck’ instead of ‘sneaked’. ANDREA ADDISoN, oxted, Surrey.