Our courageous Cold War pilots deserve a medal
DESPITE 20 years of flying in the Royal Air Force, including serving on five operational tours on fighter, bomber and strike aircraft, I am not entitled to a medal (Letters).
As a former RAF nuclear bomber captain on Canberrra B6 and Vulcan B2 aircraft, I served in Germany.
This involved carrying out 24hour duties locked inside a secure compound, at all times in readiness for a short-notice strike on the Soviet Union.
In the early days, we used an American nuclear weapon, so a USAAF officer would insert the secret codes prior to take-off.
During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and after President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, we were on the highest state of readiness, strapped in the cockpit for hours.
On many other occasions we bade our fond farewells to our families because, though we didn’t tell them, these would have been suicide missions.
The Canberra and Vulcan were designed in the Forties to fly at high level.
There was a change of tactics to low-level attacks in the early Sixties after Gary Powers’s U2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR from 70,000ft.
Fuel consumption for low-level flying was so great that we would not have had sufficient to return to friendly territory after an attack.
Crews in RAF Germany could buy a commemorative medal, but this was purely a memento because it could not be worn on uniforms.
So I support the calls for an official campaign medal.
It saddens me when young people ask: ‘What was the Cold War? Were we expecting trouble?’ Was it all in vain?
GEOFF DYER, Bleasby, Notts.
Salmond’s folly
IT seems as if former First Minister Alex Salmond has started to embark on a concerted and sustained campaign designed to undermine not only the ‘British State’ but indeed all aspects of Britishness.
He is now appearing on RT, a television channel sponsored by a government whose country is rated ‘not free’ when it comes to Press freedom, according to Freedom House.
It’s a place where LGBT relationships are still not recognised and there are a number of discriminatory laws. A place that is rated 119th in the world’s least corrupt countries. The United Kingdom is number 11.
However, Russia was one of the few nations to support an independent Scotland in the run-up to the 2014 independence referendum, not because of any vague notion of self-determination of people.
Its support owed more to the damage it would do to the Western world – in particular to the United Kingdom, one of the great historical engines of liberal democracy, toleration, Press freedom and minority rights.
That’s something Mr Salmond likes to forget in his attempt to resuscitate his moribund dream.
DaviD BONE, Girvan, ayrshire.
Trendy distractions
BABY boxes, apologies to gay men, gender issues, a crackdown on alcohol and unhealthy foods…
Is it me or has the Scottish Government allowed itself to become distracted by trendy side issues when the economy is dire, the police force is in chaos, transport a disaster and the NHS in crisis?
Of course, all these are difficult problems to crack – much easier to get on telly with right-on initiatives that change little. GEOFF BallaNtiNE, Edinburgh.
Age of entitlement
IT has come to something when we have to pay pupils to stay in school. As John MacLeod (Mail) points out so eloquently, education was once prized.
In the age of benefits, entitlement and children who know more about their human rights than about the three Rs, school plays second fiddle.
It may be years before the full impact of this is felt but the damage is done.
lEsliE MuRDOch, aberdeen.
One rule for the rich ...
CAN anyone explain how the wealthy can pass all they own to an offshore bank, which is exempt from tax and take out a loan on the value, which presumably is not repaid, but if I give more than £3,000 to my children in any tax year, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs can include it when it calculates death duties?
M. E. tREW, trowbridge, Wilts.
Gender choice
IF gender matters so little that children can choose to be boys or girls (Mail) and that changing rooms are to be unisex, why are we so hung up about a female Doctor Who? JiM caMpBEll, paisley,
Renfrewshire.
It’s our BBC
IT WOULD be great if the BBC went ahead with a Netflix-style online service offering vintage sitcoms on demand (Mail).
Apart from the nominal costs of creating and maintaining an archive and of running the website, viewers shouldn’t have to pay for shows they already ‘own’. Hence the slogan: ‘It’s your BBC.’
F. haRvEY, Bristol.
Boost business
DO HUNDREDS more small businesses, shops, cafes and pubs have to close their doors before the Government realises it has messed up with respect to VAT, corporation tax and business rates?
Laughably, the Conservatives claim to be the party of business, but if things carry on as they are they will be viewed as the party of ‘business-lessness’!
Let’s cut VAT and contemplate a simple sales tax that would reduce costs and inject cash into enterprise.
As for businesses, could they not adapt co-operative principles for 21st-century needs?
In the case of pubs under threat of closure, locals, staff and regulars could form co-operatives with other pubs to share costs and spread profits for re-investment.
DON BROaD, Dartford, Kent.
Job creation
IS there any occupation other than football manager where having been sacked is not a disadvantage to getting another job (Letters)? My immediate response is ‘politician’, and Peter Mandelson springs to mind. JuDiE BlaKE, castle Douglas,
Kirkcudbrightshire.
Beware of the giants
I’M NOT surprised there was a warning about medical scenes before Doc Martin (Letters).
There was a warning before each Land Of The Giants episode on the Horror channel.
I first watched this series in the Sixties on children’s TV. But we played on bombsites back then and were a bit tougher.
s. MitchEll, london sE8.
Note of concern
IN these days when the price of everything has rocketed, why do we see so few £50 notes?
I tried to use one in a shop and was treated like a criminal.
The note was passed among the staff, marked with pens, held under anti-fraud lights before finally being accepted. What’s going on? ROB BaxtER, Glasgow.