It’s shameful that refugees have had to deal with the UK’s broken bureaucracy
SIR – My wife’s Ukrainian family escaped from Kyiv with shelling going on around them. Twenty four hours later they were taken in by a Polish family in Warsaw.
On Friday March 4, the Home Office issued the “family application forms” at 1pm – and by 4pm I had filled in all three and submitted them. I was given an appointment at 10am on Monday. Not bad – only two working hours later, given that nobody works at the weekend. The interviews and biometrics were complete by 2pm.
Since then, the application has been with the “decision making centre” (Home Office?). At the time of writing (1pm on Friday March 11), there has been no progress (I follow via an online tracker). That’s seven days since the process started – and this is a speeded-up service. Skipping the biometric interview, as proposed by Priti Patel on Thursday, will not speed up anything at the British end. Once a decision is reached, there is then more admin at the Polish end.
The Government’s approach – and, in particular, that of Ms Patel’s Home Office – to this humanitarian nightmare has been nothing short of atrocious.
Mike Darkens
Ashtead, Surrey
SIR – On Thursday morning I heard an interview on Radio 4 with a resident of Lancashire who was struggling to get a visa for her 80-year-old Ukrainian grandmother to join her here.
Later I saw a Facebook post by a four-star hotel in Rossendale’s German twin town of Bocholt, close to the Dutch border. It was offering free accommodation in 10 of its rooms to families from Ukraine, including their pets. It even said it would collect people from railway stations up to 50 miles away, and help them find work and settle in. Compare and contrast. William T Nuttall
Rossendale, Lancashire husband and wife, who wanted to offer accommodation to Ukrainian refugees but were turned down – because they were considered to live too far out in the sticks.
Our village is among the largest in Somerset. We are sandwiched between the A30 and the A303, and only a few miles from Crewkerne railway station. We have a garage, post office facilities, two shops and a pharmacy.
My friends were given no chance to explain how much space they could provide. Now one poor family has lost out on excellent accommodation. This country is run by bureaucrats with no common sense.
Ken Smart
Merriott, Somerset
SIR – It appears that the theory of nuclear deterrence works one way only.
We are scared of Vladimir Putin, and therefore cannot act decisively or effectively. He isn’t scared of us, and therefore acts as he pleases, without conscience or restraint.
The best thing ever said about the geopolitical situation we currently face came from Bismarck 150 years ago: “The weak are strong because they are reckless. The strong are weak because they have scruples.”
Andrew Rissik Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire
SIR – Like any sane person, I do not want to live my life in fear of a nuclear war – something I had hoped was now well behind us.
If, however, we let Mr Putin destroy the Ukraine and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, how on earth can we in the West live with the knowledge that we let his nuclear blackmail succeed?
I’m afraid that the Nato mantra of “They’re not members of our club, so we can’t do anything” does nothing to comfort me.
James Colgan
Pillerton Hersey, Warwickshire
SIR – Following the invasion of Ukraine, it is imperative that, in common with allies, Britain increases defence expenditure.
Against an already dire economic outlook, this can only be achieved through a painful reordering of priorities. It will then be essential to spend any additional funding effectively and efficiently.
Effectively, because we must now refocus on our European backyard as opposed to the “Global Britain” concept embodied by the fabulously expensive aircraft carriers, which have served to unbalance investment in our Armed Forces, and which will have limited utility in the current scenario.
Efficiently, because we must now provide well-equipped land forces, supported by air assets, in adequate
numbers. In this context, I note your report (March 11), “Problems with vibrating tanks may never be resolved”, relating to the £3 billion so far wasted on the Ajax project.
In a letter you published last year, I cited – among other reservations about the Army’s restructuring under the recent defence review – the Ajax project as a key example of poor equipment procurement.
Now that the review is no longer worth the paper it is printed on, it will be negligent in the extreme,in the current economic climate, if the Ministry of Defence fails to achieve maximum bang for the buck. The litany of failed, delayed and overbudget programmes does not inspire confidence.
Brigadier Rod Brummitt (retd) Bournemouth, Dorset
SIR – In a thought-provoking interview (March 6), Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said of last year’s Integrated Defence and Security Review: “People might not like the choice we made… Can we change those choices? We’ll look at the lessons of Ukraine.”
It has been reported that a reduction in the size of the Army Reserve is now planned. This will involve shrinking the size of reserve infantry battalions, and reducing support-weapons (including anti-tank) platoons to section strength.
The Defence Secretary rightly comments positively on the strong performance of anti-armour weapons in Ukraine. And the value of Ukraine’s courageous reserve forces speaks for itself.
Is now not the time, then, to reconsider the plans for our reserves? The effort required to rebuild the force under the Future Reserves 2020 programme is testament to the long-term damage that reductions to
the cohesion of Army Reserve units have on recruiting, retention and capability.
Brigadier Mark van der Lande (retd) Head of Reserve Forces, 2012-2017 Sudbury, Suffolk
SIR – In September 1941, Nazi forces surrounded Leningrad.
Somehow, during the siege, the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich managed to arrange a defiant performance of a symphony, his seventh, nicknamed “The Leningrad.”
There were only 14 or 15 members of the Radio Orchestra left in the city, so anyone who could play an instrument was welcomed. The symphony was broadcast over loudspeakers to the advancing invader. Its unforgettable rhythmic motto became a rallying call for resistance to brutal and naked aggression.
I hope that one day Ukraine will use this music, thus turning the tables on those who talk of “denazification”. David Machell
Nottingham