Part-time heroes
Sir: I noted with interest the article about ‘lazy firemen’ (‘Britain’s firefighters are underworked and inflexible’, 26 July). I am Lincolnshire’s Chief Fire Officer with more than 35 years’ service, and though there was much truth in what Leo McKinstry said, what he failed to address was the progress made by many fire authorities with part-time staff who are not represented in the unions castigated in your article. More than half of my fire stations employ part-time staff who respond to the most urgent medical emergencies either in a car or in a fire engine and provide immediate life-saving intervention while the professionally qualified paramedics are en route. We do this in partnership with the ambulance service and with a charity, LIVES, an integrated group of volunteers and professional responders.
This has shown to have saved countless lives since 1999, when we first operated the scheme (before the firefighters in France set up their integrated service). Part-time staff respond during the nights, evenings and weekends, and this often eats into their rest and family time. They give that time unswervingly for the benefit of their own communities and in many cases at some personal sacrifice and for a scant return. But it is true that I cannot get full-time firefighters to take part in the scheme (except where they are also part-time at another fire station), and that is a real shame.
Mike Thomas MBE
Chief Fire Officer
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, Lincoln
Bird brained
Sir: I was distressed to read Aidan Hartley’s account in Wild life (26 July) of how he dealt with what was presumably a ground hornbill pecking at the window of his new house — ‘Tappetytappetytappety BANG!’
These unique birds are listed as ‘vulnerable’ and are generally not found outside of large game reserves in southern Africa. They are incredibly slow co-operative breeders, which means that the dominant pair in a group only successfully fledges a chick an estimated every nine years (see Roberts Birds of Southern Africa as a reference). Surely Mr Hartley could have taken other measures to stop the bird from attacking his window — a film of non-reflective glass at the hornbill’s eye level might have done the trick.
Andrea Weiss
Cape Town, South Africa
Online vitriol
Sir: Toby Young is correct to expose the vitriol thrown at him by readers responding to his articles by email (Status anxiety, 2 August). He gives a few explanations as to why this is the case. I would add an extra one. The internet has afforded readers unprecedented freedom and ease to respond anonymously to what journalists publish. Rather than empowering readers to provide constructive feedback about what they have read, online journalism has become a punchbag for any old fool to lash out and relieve their general frustration. All it requires is a click of the mouse, and the comfortable knowledge of impunity.
I, for one, enjoy Toby Young’s columns. It’s rare to read a journalist who can actually laugh at himself.
Ethan Greenwood
By email
Come friendly bombs
Sir: Robert Beaumont neatly explains that Laos is a great place for buying suits and enjoying a pizza, but his comments about the American bombing of that country are ignorant and offensive (City life, 2 August).
The people of Laos were not the target of US bombing — the Vietcong were, because they were using Laos as a way of reaching South Vietnam and thought they could get there without punishment. The American bombing killed tens of thousands of Vietcong and injured tens of thousands more. By dropping delayed-action bombs and contact anti-personnel bombs, the Americans made every step of the way lethal for the Vietcong.
Of course the Laos people bear no resentment. The Americans were fighting the enemies of Laos, the same enemies that attacked South Vietnam. Laos is an occupied country with a political leadership that is imposed by Vietnam. Nothing happens in Vientiane without the permission of Hanoi, and the people of Laos only wish the Americans had dropped more bombs and defeated their oppressors.
John Mustoe
Thurleigh, Bedford
Inappropriate levity
Sir: Since my last visit to Beijing in 2006, when all with whom I had contact were later arrested, imprisoned and several tortured, I have been following the persecution of China’s most popular qi gong movement, Falun Gong, which has more adherents than the Chinese Communist Party (‘The Falun Gong show that meekness can be provocative’, 19 July). Lloyd Evans may not find their Buddha-school spiritual exercises to his taste, but their horrific treatment at the hands of the authorities should move all of us to outrage.
The UN’s torture rapporteur Manfred Nowak believes that many of the seven million in China’s prison camps are practitioners. Most are sent away for three years’ ‘administrative detention’ to an escalating torture regime aimed at getting them to recant their practice. Methods used include beatings, sexual abuse and the forced ingestion of excrement. I have met many survivors but have also seen a list of some 3,000 practitioners who have died under torture since 1999.
For their willingness to defy a regime that inflicts unimaginable suffering on them, they deserve sympathy and respect, not levity.
Edward McMillan-Scott, MEP
Vice-President, European Parliament
Boston Spa, Yorkshire
Russell was agnostic
Sir: Matthew Parris refers to ‘the atheist Bertrand Russell’ (Another voice, 2 August). I clearly remember hearing Russell, on the radio, describe himself as an agnostic. Moreover, he refused to accept that ‘cruelty is wrong’ only means ‘I personally find cruelty repugnant’ — a stance surely incompatible with dogmatic atheism.
David Watkins
Cardiff
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