Letters: Soulless recruitment puts young people off joining the Armed Forces
SIR – I served 23 years in the Royal Air Force and for the last two was part of a recruitment team (Letters, January 29). The training for this role included an extensive specialist course on recruitment techniques and policies, and a visit to many training establishments that enabled me to offer advice to potential recruits on their chosen trade.
I feel this specialist training, together with my personal experience of Service life and conditions, allowed me to encourage, test and eventually recruit large numbers of young people to what I still consider to be among the finest careers available.
How can the present recruitment process – involving anonymous and faceless computer screens and decisions made by inexperienced and uncaring private-sector office workers – offer the same quality of service to young people interested in a career in the Armed Forces?
How long can the Government continue to ignore the current recruitment crisis? Perhaps until our recruitment offices are based in Moscow or Beijing.
Patrick Garside
Bournemouth, Dorset
SIR – Talk of a third world war needs to stop. Russia cannot even conquer a smaller neighbour, Ukraine, let alone Nato. Her military losses in troops, vehicles, aircraft, warships and other military hardware have been devastating. First World War tactics and senior-level corruption that has denied troops the full capabilities of their otherwise (in many cases) excellent military kit all point to Russia as a paper tiger.
However, abysmally weak Western politicians have given Vladimir Putin’s odious regime hope that it might yet win because of Western cowardice and neglect of Ukraine’s needs.
An escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war is very likely. Russian aircraft have fired live missiles at RAF reconnaissance jets. Then the RAF got lucky; the missiles failed. The law of averages states that the Russians only have to get “lucky” once for a huge expansion of that war to happen.
Then we will need cool heads, not conscription, to solve the problem.
Sqn Ldr Steve Oakley (retd)
Epsom, Surrey
SIR – I read with grave concern that Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make 12 nuclear bombs within five months (report, January 28). The widely held belief that the principle of mutually assured destruction will prevent nuclear conflict does not necessarily stand up when dealing with a regime that glorifies death and suicide bombing.
Martin Mitchell
Laxfield, Suffolk
SIR – Russia, China and Iran are spending billions on armaments, while the UK is spending billions on net zero.
Keith Morgan
Minting, Lincolnshire
Bevis Marks’s future
SIR – Bevis Marks in the City of London is Europe’s oldest continuously functioning synagogue and the single most important historic site for British Jews. That unique history nearly ended in 2021, when the planning department recommended approving a tall building at 31 Bury Street, overshadowing the secluded courtyard where the synagogue is situated, obstructing the view of the sky that is integral to its character, and blocking so much sunlight that the congregation would struggle to hold services. A massive public campaign prompted a change of heart.
Now the City has moved the goalposts. The new draft Local Plan pays lip service to protecting Bevis Marks, but the setting excludes 31 Bury Street, and the clause preventing tall buildings in conservation areas has quietly been removed. Meanwhile, the developer has submitted a new application for this highly contentious site. The City’s failure to consider the religious and cultural dimensions of the synagogue will cause outrage.
It is not too late to do the right thing. We urge the City’s planning committee to incorporate an amendment protecting the view of the sky from Bevis Marks’s historic courtyard and including 31 Bury Street within its immediate setting.
This is essential to preserve the synagogue as a living community for generations to come.
Sir Michael Bear
Former Lord Mayor of London
Professor Sir Simon Schama
Baroness Neuberger (Crossbench)
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Marie van der Zyl
President, Board of Deputies of British Jews
Nickie Aiken MP (Con)
Abigail Green
Professor of Modern European History, University of Oxford
Sir Christopher Clark
Regius Professor of History, University of Cambridge
Baroness Deech (Crossbench)
Lord Dyson
Lord Etherton (Crossbench)
Professor David Feldman
Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London
Dr Jaclyn Granick
Senior Lecturer in Modern Jewish History, Cardiff University
Tom Holland
Lord Howard of Lympne (Con)
Howard Jacobson
Dr Karen Skinazi
President of the British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies
Professor Peter Mandler
Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge
Rabbi Shalom Morris
Bevis Marks Synagogue
Professor Miri Rubin
President of the Jewish Historical Society of England
Dr Tom Stammers
Associate Professor in Modern European Cultural History, University of Durham
Andrew Stone
President of the West London Synagogue of British Jews
Zoe Strimpel
Lord Triesman (Lab)
Zoe Waxman
Professor of Holocaust History, University of Oxford
William Whyte
Professor of Architectural History, University of Oxford
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)
Broken banking
SIR – With so many empty premises on our high streets, why can’t the major banks combine to open one site with tellers for each bank (Letters, January 29)? Or would that be too much like real customer service?
John Kennedy
Hornchurch, Essex
Dental crisis
SIR – It remains to be seen if the Government’s pledge to increase funding for rural dental practices is anything more than creative accounting (report, January 27).
When close to half a billion in “underspends” is now being lost from the front line annually – as practices struggle to hit their punitive targets – it would take a lot for any Budget boost to represent an increase.
It’s concerning that funds appear to be chasing rural votes when this is a national crisis. It is equally worrying that the Government seems unwilling to tackle the failed contract fuelling this crisis. For the million people struggling to access care, progress hinges on both real reform and fair funding.
Eddie Crouch
Chair, British Dental Association
London W1
Mynah offence
SIR – Some years ago I visited a friend in America who had a mynah bird (Letters, January 27).
I expressed surprise at how many phrases it knew, when the bird interrupted itself, looked at me scornfully and said: “Birds don’t talk”.
Dr Daphne Pearson
Redbrook, Monmouthshire
University selection
SIR – It is disturbing that foreign students appear to be receiving preferential treatment by universities because they are prepared to pay much higher fees (“DfE investigates claim foreigners given ‘backdoor’ path to degree”, report, January 29).
Since the introduction of the annual £9,250 tuition fee, we have seen some university vice-chancellors’ annual salaries rocket to £500,000 – so clearly they are not short of cash.
The offer of a place on a preferred university course is an honour and provides an applicant with a sense of personal achievement. There should be a level playing field for all university applicants, regardless of the fees some are prepared to pay.
Chris Learmont-Hughes
Caldy, Wirral
Trust volunteers
SIR – For 17 years I’ve been a volunteer park guide at Dunham Massey in Cheshire, which is owned by the National Trust.
We patrol the 500-acre deer park, ensuring that people treat it with respect, answering questions and assisting in any way possible. However, we have recently received an email from the general manager saying that, from today, the 70 park guides will be let go while the role is paused for a year and reviewed.
In my management experience, you carry out a review and then announce the results, but Dunham Massey appears to have put the cart before the horse in this instance.
A meeting with the managers took place, at which the park guides expressed their disappointment and anger. Managers admit that the recruitment of volunteers is very difficult following Covid, yet they are prepared to let go 70 of us.
Many will never volunteer again at Dunham Massey. We are looking for other volunteering opportunities.
Tony Russell
Stretford, Lancashire
Hurdy-gurdy repair
SIR – Tim Stanley (Comment, January 29) says he needs a repairer for his hurdy-gurdy.
He should go on the internet and type in the French phrase: trouver un réparateur de vielle à roue.
He will find a number of possible sources. The instrument is often used at traditional country weddings in France.
Adrian Thornton
Shackleford, Surrey
Bat species fighting for survival in Britain
SIR – William Sitwell (“Bat lovers love bats, but they love their bats--t power over us even more”, Features, January 20) has misunderstood the findings of the National Bat Monitoring Programme report.
The report does indeed carry the great news that some bat species are beginning slowly to recover from serious historical declines. This is thanks largely to legal and conservation action. Bats make up 25 per cent of British mammal species and are a vital part of our natural heritage. Unfortunately, four of the 11 mammal species native to Britain classified as being at risk of extinction are bats, including the barbastelle. Genetic research by the University of Exeter and the Bat Conservation Trust has revealed that this species has declined by 99 per cent over several hundred years.
We’d like to extend an invitation to Mr Sitwell to join us on a bat walk this summer to find out more about these remarkable creatures.
Kit Stoner
CEO, Bat Conservation Trust
London SW8
Life in the aftermath of an attack by a stranger
SIR – Thank you for your Leading Article (January 26) highlighting the care available for the mentally ill. However, can I ask you to spare a thought for their victims?
In September 2021, I was physically assaulted in a public place. The effect of this attack has been acute. Both my physical and mental health were affected, although thankfully, with the help of my family, I am now much better. My attacker was a 23-year-old paranoid schizophrenic. He was tried in absentia in a Crown court, found guilty of grievous bodily harm, and is currently detained in a mental hospital.
The hardest part of my ordeal has been the lack of awareness of these assaults on innocent people like me. There is no support group for victims, and the low public awareness means that recovery can be a very lonely process.
Greater appreciation of the devastating results of an attack by a stranger with mental health issues might improve care and mean that we can all walk safely on our streets again.
Anne Roberts
Bridport, Dorset
SIR – I suspect that most of the public are tired of hearing that there will be an increased police presence and that family support officers will be in attendance after another violent and pointless crime has been committed.
There are fewer police officers on the beat, and the idea of prevention is dismissed as too costly. But as detection rates fall and crime rises, the conclusion must be that the system will continue to fail those whom it is meant to protect.
Simon Taylor
Poringland, Norfolk
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