Security and measures to improve integration

Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC

Independent reviewer of terrorism legislation 2001-11

Sir, In your Saturday Interview (June 3) Nazir Afzal talks about the failure to engage with Muslim communities. He calls for further integration and for us to listen to women within those communities. Until a few years ago further education colleges were funded to offer courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). These courses helped with the settlement of new groups of refugees, with intakes reflecting the ebb and flow of conflicts, from Kosovo to Somalia. They were well attended by women from those communities and from other longer-established groups. In addition to developing students’ language skills, teachers encouraged discussion of cultural sensitivities and shared values. They developed multi-agency links with social services, housing and other public sector bodies; links that were invaluable in communicating needs and concerns. Completing the course was seen by students as a key step to citizenship and playing a full part in the life of the city they now called home.

The restitution of funding for ESOL courses would help to address Nazir Afzal’s concerns, opening up important channels of communication and empowering women within otherwise isolated communities.

Willie Mills

Principal and CEO, City College Manchester 1999-2007

Sir, Rachel Sylvester (June 6) correctly identifies core problems ignored by the political parties: the lack of connection (and antipathy) some people feel with their fellow citizens, and the imperative to invest in preventative measures to stop engagement with political violence. She also identifies “extremism” as the central issue rather than particular ideologies.

There is no lack of knowledge about terrorism or of original ideas to address the development of preventative strategies, and no lack of enthusiasm, competence and goodwill among people charged with preventing terrorism. We urgently need to mobilise existing resources to focus on two critical factors: community engagement to prevent extremism, and psychological understanding of the extremist to help to manage those at greatest risk.

Max Taylor

Visiting professor, Department of Security and Crime Sciences, UCL

Sir, Clare Foges (June 5) is right that internment will not enable us to win the fight against extremism. That policy has been counter-productive wherever it has been tried. Of the other counter-terrorism tools we have, it appears that out of 23,000 persons of interest (3,000 of whom are the object of 500 live surveillance operations), only seven people are at present subject to TPIMs. Is this because the threshold of reasonable belief is so much harder to meet than the reasonable suspicion required for the abolished control orders?

With police and MI5 manpower stretched to breaking point, surely it is time to bring back control orders with more stringent conditions that can be applied if required.

Dr Diane Webber

Visiting fellow, Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law

Sir, If separate cultural identities reinforced by faith schools and neighbourhoods with high concentrations of citizens with a similar identity are a cause of jihadi terrorism, as Rachel Sylvester implies, where is the violence perpetrated by elements in the Hindu, Jewish, Catholic or other non-Muslim communities in Britain? Melanie Phillips’s reasoning rings truer (“Terror will continue until Islam is reformed”, June 6) and it behoves our political leaders to take note.

Neil Harris

Edgware, Middx

CASE FOR DEFENCE

Sir, Further to the letters (June 6 & 7) on the size of the army, British defence is nearing a 1930s moment. Complacency has set in over the critical role played by the armed forces in defending our cherished democracy. Severe cuts since 2010 have left a funding crisis across the three services. The navy is critically imbalanced, with two aircraft carriers but too few frigates, destroyers and submarines to defend home waters and protect interests overseas. The army has been cut by more than 20 per cent, and a looming review could mean further reductions. The RAF has the fewest deployable squadrons since the Second World War and lacks a credible strategy to develop future drone capability. Accompanied by cuts to training budgets, all this has severely undermined morale among our excellent service personnel.

As we prepare to leave the EU, it is imperative that we focus on our future global role. That should begin with investment in defence.

James A Glancy, CGC

Former Royal Marines officer, London SW11

TO EU OR NOT TO EU?

Sir, The debate on membership of the EU (letters, June 5 & 7) continues to reflect those with very definite views — out-and-out leavers or remainers — although I suspect that the EU referendum may have been decided by “in-betweeners” who see merit in both positions, and who voted on the balance of pros and cons. I feel European and support membership of a pan-European organisation. But the question is whether the organisation we have, the EU, is fit for purpose without deep reform. Had we been promised a regular say on our membership of the EU (once every ten or 20 years, perhaps), continuing membership would have been a gamble worth taking. But the manifest lack of enthusiasm for reform among our EU partners (as David Cameron discovered), combined with the fact that the referendum (as we were repeatedly assured) was a once-in-a-generation opportunity, convinced me that to remain was a bigger risk than to leave, difficult and expensive though that undoubtedly will be.

Peter Hill

Sheffield

MIGRATION DEBATE

Sir, James Kirkup (Thunderer, June 6) blithely informs us that migrants tend to be younger, healthier and more economically active than the UK population as a whole. That may be true of some communities. What is true for all is that they become less young, healthy and active as the years go by. That is why every serious study has dismissed immigration as a remedy for an ageing population. It would amount to a giant Ponzi scheme requiring continuous and ever-increasing numbers of migrants to maintain any particular ratio. Opinion polls will make no difference to that, however loaded the questions. We do, indeed, need a sensible conversation about immigration.

Lord Green of Deddington

Chairman, Migration Watch UK

HEART OF MARRIAGE

Sir, Your report (June 7) that marriage reduces fatal heart disease by 16 per cent raises the question of why we don’t take issues around relationship quality more seriously. If a team of academics had developed a tablet that had the same impact, this would no doubt be described as a “wonder pill” and a “miracle cure”. It would certainly receive significant government backing to save thousands of lives.

That the UK has some of the highest levels of family breakdown in the world is not an issue of moral panic but a serious public health issue.

Frank Young

Head of family policy, Centre for Social Justice

TRUMP AND CLIMATE

Sir, We are profoundly dismayed by President Trump’s proclaimed intention to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which was signed by 195 nations, supported by the Pope and leaders of all religions.

Our respective faiths unite us in the affirmation that all human life is of infinite value and that caring for our planet is a sacred responsibility. We are answerable to God, each other and our children’s children for the wellbeing of the Earth.

We believe that President Trump’s reckless declaration will only strengthen the resolve of others to preserve and protect our environment. The response of so many municipal and business leaders across the US is a heartening indication. We trust that the next British government will remain faithful to its commitments.

Life is too precious, the Earth too wonderful and the demand to act for environmental justice too strong for us to remain silent.

The Right Rev Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury; Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, Senior Rabbi, Masorti Judaism; Bishop John Arnold, RC Bishop of Salford; Paul Parker, Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain; Shaunaka Rishi Das, Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; Dr Husna Ahmad, CEO, GlobalOne; Andy Atkins, CEO, A Rocha UK; the Rev Dave Bookless, Director of Theology, A Rocha International; Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, Adviser, EarthCharter International Secretariat; Gopal Patel, Director of the Bhumi Project, the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies

POLITICAL FOOTBALL

Sir, Further to your report “Trump hails Gulf states’ isolation of Qatar as ‘end of terrorism’ ” (June 7), if countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are cutting their ties with Qatar, should Fifa finally start worrying about the World Cup being held in Russia (2018) and then Qatar (2022)?

Anthony Fry

Former chairman, Premier League

ROBIN IN MY HOOD

Sir, I have often fancied, as my Desert Island Discs luxury, three songbirds: a blackbird of course, and top of Matthew Oates’s list (June 3, and letter, June 7), to bring tears to my eyes in the spring when I am not laughing at him; a song thrush to cheer me up; and a robin, whom I once heard singing by the light of a street lamp outside a pub in the centre of Richmond at 5am on Christmas Day, to see me through the winter.

Bob Persson

London SW14

SCENT OF HUMOUR

Sir, The farmer on the Isle of Skye who applies weedkiller to bracken by brush (letter, June 6) must have either very little bracken or an awful lot of spare time. Alternatively he could be pulling a visitor’s leg — a popular activity hereabouts.

Dr Michael Cullen

Dunvegan, Isle of Skye

PEARL OF ITALY

Sir, I’m glad that all the snobs go to Venice (letters, June 5, 6 & 7). It keeps them away from the true pearl of Italy — namely, Naples.

Colin Jones

Bedford

Letters to the Editor should be sent to: letters@thetimes.co.uk