Times letters: Housing Ukrainian refugees across Britain

Sir, My wife and I hope to offer a room in due course (“Tens of thousands of refugees to be welcomed into British homes”, Mar 14) but why should we be given £350 a month in return? We do not want rent, and if refugees receive benefits they can contribute to the cost of food. Similarly, why does a local authority need to be paid £10,000 for each refugee settled in their area? I wonder if these figures help to explain why Britain has seemed so reluctant to offer asylum to Ukrainians.
Ken Dickinson
Sicklinghall, N Yorks

Sir, Samantha Bishop says that most village halls are empty for most of the year and could be used to house refugees (letter, Mar 12). Checking the diary, we could offer a couple of hours on Tuesday afternoons and alternate Friday mornings. There are possibly spaces in the dance, painting and badminton groups, the WI welcomes interesting speakers, the Scouts groups always need helpers, Maisie’s parents could use another pair of hands at her birthday party but Lunch Club is full. However, Ms Bishop will be pleased to know that, like other caring village communities, we are finding our own practical ways of helping in the Ukrainian crisis.
Janet Harrison
Chairwoman, Hambledon Village Hall, Hants

Sir, Clare Foges is right (“Staying neutral on Ukraine must come at a cost”, Mar 14). All the government need do is politely inform the government of Pakistan and others of like mind that UK foreign aid has had to be sharply reduced to free resources for the massive reconstruction that will be needed once the attempted colonial reconquest of independent Ukraine by a former imperial power has been defeated. I am sure they will get the message.
Christopher Clapham
Mepal, Cambs

Sir, It is all very well for those such as John Porter (letter, Mar 14) to urge that there be a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia, but what settlement could there possibly be? Putin has chosen to invade Ukraine with the intention of conquering it, and will settle for no less. The Ukrainians want their country back and see no reason why they should settle for less either. There is no remotely conceivable basis for any kind of partition of Ukraine. Either Putin will win or he will not; the only question is how long either of those possibilities will take to happen, and how much suffering there will be as a result.
Steve Vince
Wolverhampton

ENERGY SECURITY
Sir, You report (“Big push for solar and nuclear to cut reliance on foreign oil”, Mar 14) that the prime minister is keen, once again, on another old-fashioned large nuclear power station at Wylfa, Anglesey. The equivalent Sizewell C was at the same stage of prime ministerial enthusiasm in 2010 but the actual decision to proceed may not be until the end of this parliament, ie 2024, 14 years later. The Treasury has been blocking new nuclear for 20 years. Nuclear plant designs have changed mightily while it has been asleep: advanced modular reactors are now being commissioned in countries such as the US and Canada at far lower capital and running costs. Should we applaud the Treasury for finally waking up or chastise it for having kept us in the dark for so many years?
Tim Ambler
Senior fellow, Adam Smith Institute

Sir, It is clear from your news report on energy security that the government is placing a great deal of hope on expanding solar energy production from 14GW now to 50GW of capacity by 2030. In this part of eastern England there are sizeable solar farms occupying many acres of prime arable land. We have seen, in the past two weeks, just how easily a substantial proportion of the world’s cereal exports can be disrupted. Is this really the time to be converting many more acres of arable land to energy use with solar panels? We should think again.
Norman Mayhew
Woodbridge, Suffolk

Sir, Emma Duncan criticises the British public for valuing its rural landscapes (“Nimbys are putting Britain’s future in peril”, Mar 11). She is wrong to do so in my view. One should also treat with caution the claim by the head of analysis of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit that onshore wind turbines are “popular” (“Relaxing rules on wind farms could ease gas crisis”, Mar 9).

A further rush to intermittent supplies onshore would achieve little, save to impose unsightly structures on our remaining swathes of countryside, as the government rightly recognised in 2015. Cornwall, for instance, has already suffered greatly in this respect, with its rural landscapes being industrialised (and urbanised) at breakneck speed.
Clive Chafer
Newquay, Cornwall

DEMISE OF THE 2:2 DEGREE
Sir, Your news report (“Grade inflation puts 2:2 at risk of extinction”, Mar 14) highlights the worrying inflation in degree grades. As a minister responsible for higher education in the first Blair government I was not surprised to learn that, in 1997, 8 per cent of graduates were awarded a first; 44 per cent a 2:1, 38 per cent a 2:2 and 9 per cent a third. Contrast this with last summer, when 36 per cent of graduates were awarded a first, 46 per cent a 2:1, 14 per cent a 2:2 and 3 per cent a third.

I haven’t come across any evidence that students in 1997 were any less intelligent or hard-working than were those who graduated last year. There is much talk of recalibrating the awards by, for instance, awarding a “starred” first above an “ordinary” first: an adjustment useful, perhaps, for identifying the most outstanding students academically but in reality another form of grade inflation that will not help employers or research institutions to judge the qualities of the vast majority of graduates.
Dr Kim Howells
Pontypridd

Sir, I was sad to read that the 2:2 degree, known affectionately as a “Desmond” after the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, may be on the way out. Holders of Desmonds, in my experience, wear them as a badge of pride. They do not see themselves as under-achievers. But if grade inflation is to be the order of the day, we are going to have come up with a new term for an award given to undeserving plodders promoted far above their natural level. May I suggest a “Sir Gavin”?
David Robson
Oxford

Sir, Professor Alan Smithers is right about most things but I wonder if there is so direct a correlation between grade inflation at GCSE and A-level and the endangered status of the lower second as he suggests. Given that your article identifies 2011 as the start of the decline, an alternative explanation might take as its starting point the vertical rise in university tuition fees to £9,000 in December 2010. That’s a hefty price tag for a humble “Desmond” and universities may well have reacted accordingly.
Richard Russell
Headmaster, Colfe’s, London SE12

LEBEDEV’S ELEVATION
Sir, I’m not in a position to comment on any security implications relating to Lord Lebedev or his peerage but it is striking that he has not contributed to a single debate or cast a single vote in the Lords since his maiden speech (“Newspaper peer has minister’s backing”, Mar 14). Surely the vetting process should include assessing the willingness of a candidate to be involved meaningfully in the Lords as a legislator. Otherwise one has to assume that acceptance is not to contribute to public life but for prestige, contacts and personal advancement.
Chris Petty
Kerridge, Cheshire

Sir, Michael Gove says: “At no point did anyone ever say to me that it would be inappropriate to meet him [Lebedev] and talk to him.” It seems to me that “nobody warned me not to” is not an intelligent explanation for an experienced politician’s failure to make his own inquiries about whether it was appropriate for him to associate with the son of a former KGB officer.
Nick Hills
Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset

RUGBY’S ORANGE CARD
Sir, Booing the referee at Twickenham on Saturday was less to do with his correct decision to penalise a clash of heads than the realisation by 82,000 fans that under the red card rule they were not going to see a proper contest. The rule that the offender is excluded for the rest of the match is right but the contest is destroyed. The orange card approach being trialled in Super Rugby is the answer: it allows the full contest to resume after 20 minutes but without the offending player on the pitch. In rejecting this idea Alex Lowe has leapt to judgment (“Forget ‘orange’ cards, reds are needed for bad tackles — but tell fans in stadium what’s going on”, sport, Mar 14). If concussions under the orange card system prove no different or lower, then someone, somewhere should stand up for the fans who, lest it be forgotten, pay for the whole damn circus.
Nick Brookes
London SW19

Sir, There is a simple way to remove controversy over high tackles: all rugby shirts should have a thick black line on them above which a tackle is deemed dangerous and illegal. This would leave no room for dispute.
Richard Warnock
Melton, Suffolk

UNIFORM POLICIES
Sir, In your report “Schools warned off sexting bans” (Mar 12) you state that Amelia Jenkinson, chief executive of the School of Sexuality Education, “gave as an example a school’s rules on skirt lengths being explained to girls ‘in terms of preventing distraction to boys or male teachers’ ”.

May I make two points: first, that this is the reason given by many religions for insisting that girls and women dress “modestly”; it embeds misogyny into a culture and takes away freedom of expression for women and girls. Second, we have an education system that often requires girls to wear skirts as uniform; this makes girls monitor their skirt lengths and it is no wonder that victim shaming is normalised as girls grow up. If boys and men are “distracted” by seeing girls’ legs, that is their problem, not the girls’ problem.
Louise Tonkin
Fordingbridge, Hants

MOTHERS IN PERIL
Sir, Shops and catering venues have begun the run-up to Mothering Sunday, when vast amounts will be spent on presents and cards. But what if mothers asked for no material gift but for the equivalent cost to be donated to Ukrainian relief? We should perhaps forgo shop-bought flowers, chocolates or an extravagant meal with the family in a warm, safe restaurant and instead make a donation to an organisation such as the Disasters Emergency Committee, to support the mothers of Ukraine. I hope many will join me in this simple act of practical compassion.
Linda Wild
Reading

QUEASY FEELING
Sir, Whether it was castration by pincers or surgery I always felt a queasy sympathy for the calf when performing the operation at agricultural college (news, Mar 12; letter, Mar 14). Turning to observe the faces of the watching female students I could detect a fleeting joy.
Nicholas Trefusis
Flushing, Cornwall