LETTERS

Stand up to Putin

While Sir Max hastings (Mail) is right that we should salute the sacrifices of the Russian people in hitler’s war, we must also find a way to condemn Vladimir Putin’s aggression.

Putin whispers to his people via a tame media that the West are aggressively targeting them. For evidence, he points to sanctions and the expansion of Nato.

The horrors in Georgia not so long ago and Ukraine today are the result of the classic Russian tactic of ‘maskirovka’ – using proxy forces and deceit to disguise the real culprits. Unlikely that Putin’s plans extend to Britain, but what of lithuania, say, or Poland?

Our politicians see the defence budget as a dripping roast to pick clean for other pet projects. history tells us such short-sightedness could be very dangerous.

CHRIS BLACK, via email

SNP’s ‘Red Square’

RUSSia plans to have 2,300 of its lethal new tanks (Mail) by 2020. The People’s Republic of Scotland under President-for-life Nicola Sturgeon better start improving the roads now so they can all parade through Glasgow’s Freedom Square.

ALI CLARK, Edinburgh.

Best defence

ONe word for those unable to see through Vladimir Putin’s ‘restoration of Russian pride’, as alex Salmond so crassly described his aggression – Trident. With it, Putin thinks twice. Without it? he has free rein.

B. MACDONALD, via email.

Tin can tanks

aS a warrior of Cold War vintage, i was fascinated by the new Russian armata T-14 tank (Mail).

Soviet tanks were always like sports cars: very fast, very flashy – and utterly hopeless when they collide with anything heavy.

Current Western tanks – the US abrams, British Challenger, German leopard and French leclerc – are extremely capable. Ominously, though, they are also pretty rare...

Name and address supplied.

Kate’s care for all

like many others, i’m thrilled at the safe arrival of Princess Charlotte elizabeth Diana but feel that a great opportunity was lost to publicise the pregnancy condition hyperemesis gravidarum, from which kate suffered during both pregnancies.

if only all hG sufferers were whisked into hospital at the first signs of dehydration and rapid weight loss. My daughter lost more than a stone in a week, able only to suck ice cubes to ease her burning l i ps f rom the continual bouts of violent sickness.

We are lucky — she was blessed with a delightful son after months of suffering and ill health. Many other women don’t have this outcome.

as the condition isn’t well-known, many employers are sceptical of hG and unsympathetic when staff need time off work because they can’t drag themselves away from the bathroom between bouts of sickness, which can happen 30 times (or more) a day for up to seven months (or more).

This condition robs women of what should be one of the happiest periods of their lives. Some are driven to abort much-wanted babies because of it, and the lack of medical help.

after one hG pregnancy, it’s more than l i kely that any subsequent pregnancy will be blighted by the same condition — as was the case with the Duchess of Cambridge.

Mrs M. SMITH, Coventry.

Block migrants

TheRe are currently no major wars in Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Ghana, ivory Coast, Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Guinea, Mali, eritrea, ethiopia or the Central african Republic. anyone from these countries caught trying to enter europe illegally should be returned to libya. They are economic migrants.

anyone suffering from the war in Syria and iraq should be rescued and given assistance, as per the UN accord. They are war refugees.

all the former have paid large enough sums to traffickers to be able to start a business in their own peaceful countries or apply for a visa and buy airline tickets. They know that europeans usually have only a vague notion of the geography of West and sub-Saharan africa and are susceptible to mass emotional blackmail.

PAUL ZMITROWICZ, London SW12.

Tills only serve profits

i haTe these self-service tills (Mail). i politely refuse to use them and wait for a staffed till.

Self-service tills are not quicker, are confusing, clinical and unfriendly as well as offering insufficient space for a weekly shop.

in my opinion, they mean that, eventually, staff lose their jobs.

J. FOSTER, Larbert, Stirlingshire.

Hooked on technology

i Will be 85 years old this month. in my local asda store i use self-service tills several times a week and i love them.

When first introduced to the store, several years ago now, i asked a member of staff to show me how the till worked and that was me hooked.

I. WARREN, Glasgow.

A bid to scrap staff

aUTOMaTiON in stores and banks is about cutting staff, not customer service.We can expect to pay more for a human interaction, but doesn’t that feel better than a machine’s beeps or the dreaded strident cry of: ‘Unexpected item in the bagging area’?

J. LIVINGSTONE, Dunfermline.

Inconvenient customers

i liVeD in Dublin for several years and was always unimpressed by signs in banks apologising for queues between 12.30pm and 2pm. They explained this was due to ‘customer volume’. When i suggested it was also because staff knocked off for lunch, i was told sharply: ‘We need to eat, too.’

it’s clear to me that chippy staff and the drive towards automation are two

sides of the same coin. Firms want our money but find dealing with us an inconvenience.

Dave Ferguson, via email.