Military farce
Sir: Your leading article (‘The age of realism’, 1 March) argues that the government must invest in the UK’s ‘thinned-out infantry ranks’. This is certainly true, but it does pass over, in my view, the more fundamental issue of the broken recruitment system.
My own application to join the Royal Air Force was rejected on the basis that my mother is Polish. Given that Poland is an ally, this seems a curious justification for disqualification. I was born and educated in London, my mother having moved to the UK with my English father 30 years ago. Clearly I am not a security threat, but because ‘computer says no’, I will never be able to enlist.
It is, then, with amusement and some frustration that I often read of the ‘recruitment crisis’. There are many young people willing to enlist, but who are turned away on the basis of senseless recruitment criteria adapted to a stricto sensu concept of a homogenous British society. Relaxing them to permit applicants such as myself would be an easy, cheap and fast solution which does not compromise national security.
Luke Markham
London SW10
Reformed character
Sir: Nigel Farage has made much of Reform’s new slogan, ‘Family, Community, Country’ (‘Nigel’s gang’, 1 March). I’d like to point out that their slogan bears a striking similarity to the longtime slogan of the Social Democratic party (with whom Reform were recently in an election pact) of ‘Family, Community, Nation’.
Matthew Leese, Social Democratic party
Sheffield
Crash course
Sir: Madeline Grant likens Amazon’s takeover of the Bond franchise (‘Premium Bond’, 1 March) to the White Star Line asking Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith, if ‘he’d like a second crack at the old ocean-liner gig’. In fact, six months before Titanic’s maiden voyage, Smith commanded her sister ship, Olympic, and collided with HMS Hawke in the Solent, breaking the Royal Navy cruiser’s prow. Also, just minutes after Titanic’s departure, Smith almost crashed into the laid-up City of New York. One could be forgiven for thinking that White Star Line told Captain Smith that they expected him to sink.
Joch Ivor Cusack
Weem, Perth and Kinross
Leave our soldiers alone
Sir: Mary Wakefield’s article on the inquest finding against the actions of the SAS in Clonoe in 1992 chilled me to the bone (‘Who’d be a soldier now?’, 1 March). From 1984-86, I either served in or trained soldiers for Northern Ireland. In all of that time East Tyrone, centred on Coalisland, was largely out of bounds to conventional troops because of the virulence and effectiveness of the local Provisional IRA, who combined attacks on the security forces with a vicious, genocidal campaign against Protestant farmers on the Eire border with the clear intent of driving them out.
The judge’s ruling is completely at odds with the well-founded view we all had, based on many years of bitter experience, that East Tyrone PIRA were utterly ruthless killers. PIRA never gave quarter nor attempted to capture members of the security forces: they killed. However we, and I include Special Forces in that, remained faithful to the ‘Yellow Card’, based on the Common Law presumption of the inherent right to self-defence.
Any of us, faced with 20 IRA men and an armour-piercing heavy machine gun, would have reasonably presumed that the terrorists represented an immediate and deadly threat and responded as Soldier A and his colleagues did. Add to that the disparity in numbers and firepower and the loss of concealed cover, and ‘minimum reasonable force’ feels like the understatement of the year. That a UK judge concludes otherwise should beggar belief, but with an Attorney-General who appears to have used the ‘cab rank’ principle to exclusively represent the King’s enemies, nothing surprises me.
So here’s an offer for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Leave these soldiers alone: instead arrest me and every other officer who commanded in Co. Tyrone. Our soldiers are not automata – their training, their understanding of the situation, their appreciation of the law and their orders came from officers like me. I accept command responsibility and I look forward to defending myself in court – but leave our soldiers alone.
Simon Diggins OBE
Colonel (Retired)
Rickmansworth
Fast friends
Sir: Melanie McDonagh should not be too anxious about Lent (‘Fast food’, 1 March). Millions of Christians and many churches still mark Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent. This includes times of prayer and spiritual reflection, study and reading; and such occasions as Lent lunches and other positive action, often ecumenical (even in prison).
Christians who may fast will probably heed the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 6:18: ‘…that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’ Churches will not rely on business or state to understand or promote the spiritual significance of this period leading up to Holy Week and Easter celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ.
The Revd Anthony Oehring
Associate Priest, St James’ Church, Poole, and Anglican Chaplain, HMP Guys Marsh
Poole, Dorset
Title role
Sir: Following Dot Wordsworth’s article on nominative determinism (22 February), I can advise readers that I once worked for an organisation where the transport manager was called Rick Shaw.
Phillip Pennicott
London E18
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