LETTERS

Barmy Army policy

When I joined the army, it was a simple case of walking down to your local military recruitment office. It was staffed by long-service regulars, who could answer any questions immediately and arrange your tests and induction dates.

today, it is difficult for any young person to join up. It’s been reported that more than half of applications take at least ten months to process and just 14 per cent of applicants end up joining up (mail).

What would happen in a national emergency — could we ask the enemy to hold off for a year until we recruit enough soldiers to defend us?

MIKE MCINTOSH, Bexhill-on-Sea, E. Sussex. the Government pays Capita millions of pounds a year to run army recruitment and the results have been pathetic. Instead of meeting the recruiting target, the army is 5,600 short.

Four or five old hand recruiting officers would yield better results.

J. WALMSLEY, Bury, Gtr Manchester.

Hey, big spenders

state-FInanCeD organisations claim that to deliver utopia, all they need is more money.

What rubbish. Given injections of cash, they will only subcontract services so they can do less work and let someone else take the blame when things go wrong.

be it the nhs, the police, prison service, departments for education, environment, Justice or Work & Pensions, they all demand cash.

they wouldn’t dream of cutting back their bloated institutions or disbanding quangos and think-tanks with a view to saving money.

J. COLES, Orpington, Gtr London.

One rule for them . . .

mPs are to receive a 2.7 per cent pay rise, thanks to a decision made by an independent process.

staff in other public sectors have independent pay reviews, too, but they are over-ruled on the grounds that the country can’t afford it.

DENNIS NISBET, Whickham, Tyne & Wear. IF the mPs’ pay rise is linked to average rises in the public sector and these are pegged between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent, how can politicians get a rise of 2.7 per cent? DAVID FULLBROOK,

Gillingham, Kent. When I joined the Civil service, the maximum salary I could earn was the same rate as that paid to a back bencher. now mPs get three times the comparable civil servant’s rate.

It used to be the Parliamentary custom to rebuff any pay claim with the mantra: ‘there’s no problems in recruiting or retention.’

Given that every seat in the house of Commons is hotly contested, is not their attitude to their pay cynical and contemptuous of voters?

E. J. MALONE, Bromley, Kent. WhIle I don’t have a lot of time for mPs, I was surprised two highly paid tv presenters, Kate Garraway and ben shephard, berated the education minister’s pay rise to £80,000.

BARRY S. SMITH, Prestatyn, Denbighshire.

Brutal upbringing

the sons of sally Challen have welcomed her murder conviction being quashed on appeal.

I know what it is to have a father who was violent towards his wife and children. I hated my father, and when he committed suicide I was not moved to shed a tear on his behalf.

today, spousal abuse is seldom passed off by the police as ‘only a domestic’ and is dealt with properly.

but is psychological abuse a justification to kill the perpetrator?

DES MORGAN, Swindon, Wilts. mrs Challen’s son David summed it up succinctly by stating ‘nothing will be solved in society unless we look at the root cause’.

It’s all very well sending offenders to prison, but the problem remains unresolved. We need to help the offender discover what motivated him or her to offend.

Only then will there be a chance of assisting them to modify their behaviour and lead a productive life.

I commend mrs Challen and her family and wish them well.

J. HORDEN, Bournemouth, Dorset.

Dangerously thin

I Was shocked to see the doublepage spread of ten emaciated, miserable young women on the Paris catwalks (mail). Whatever happened to the attractive radiance of youth?

I was a wartime child and due to hard times and stringent food rationing, none of us was fat. the only people who looked like these models were those incarcerated in concentration camps.

Do these models realise they could be on the fast road to osteoporosis and arthritis? If I was one of their mothers, I would march them to the GP as soon as possible. MARGARET MAY,

Whitby, N. Yorks.

From idealism to reality

I FInD it strange that some remainers think that anyone over 60 who voted leave did so because of a yearning for a mythical past.

they should remember that the over- 60s were the idealistic youngsters in 1972 who embraced the idea of the Common market.

but over time we watched it morph into a monster controlled by an unelected elite.

We were told lies about the eu 40 years ago, so the young voters of

today would do well to find out what it plans for the next 40 years.

GEORGE MANN, Nottingham.

Home truths

AS THE sun rose on the little part of Dartmoor I call home, against the background of the dawn chorus I gazed upwards to the cloudless sky and counted 18 vapour trails.

when it comes to emissions, aircraft pose more of a threat than Daisy and Gertrude, my home-grown bovines. LLOYD MORTIMORE,

Dartmoor, Devon.

Go even wilder

THERE have been concerns raised about the cull of wild boar in the Forest of Dean (Letters). These escapees — they weren’t reintroduced — are having a useful effect on the environment.

Our woodland flora tend to be monoculture, where one species, such as wild garlic, takes over.

when boar move in, they root up the forest floor and allow many more species to move in, thereby improving the natural environment. The reintroduction of red kite means they have spread to parts of the country they haven’t inhabited for years.

They are scavengers by nature — wildlife’s dustbin men — and rarely predate domesticated animals.

Sadly, they are still being persecuted by people who think that any bird with a hooked beak is dangerous.

There are plans afoot to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx to Britain. The idea is to keep the roe deer population in check and keep them moving, rather than eating the forest to the floor then moving on.

This would boost the environment and save millions in deer foraging losses. The lynx wouldn’t hunt the local wildlife to extinction. That’s not how nature works — if predators did that, they would die out.

A lynx might take one deer a week, and would keep the rest of the herd on their toes. They rarely prey on domesticated animals or pets.

And there are wolf packs in many European countries. Britain needs to wise up to rewilding — one lesson we can learn from the Europeans.

G. TEMBY, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham.

Killer holidays

I AM looking for a safe place to go on holiday. The Scottish islands are out due to the number of murders depicted in the TV drama Shetland.

Bergerac had his hands full in the Channel Islands, the South Coast looked dodgy in Broadchurch and Morse had a busy time in Oxford.

Aberystwyth looks lovely, but there’s a murder there every week on Hinterland; Vera has found it’s pretty bad in northumberland; and who would risk Happy Valley in Yorkshire?

I’ve changed my mind about a city break in Manchester thanks to Cracker and, as for London, I’ve been put off by Luther, waking The Dead and Silent witness. Perhaps I’ll just stay at home. TONY McGUIRE, Garstang, Lancs.