Trump’s support for Nato and a UK trade deal

Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon

Former chief of air staff, London SW1

Sir, I am not surprised to hear Donald Trump’s positive views on Nato. The generals in his inner circle are a better indication of his attitude to defence than the knee-jerk reactions of the many politicians and commentators who set themselves against him from the start.

Theresa May showed her readiness to get in step with Trump on foreign affairs at the weekend when she reversed long standing Foreign Office policy by refusing to take part in the futile Paris peace conference set up as Obama’s last swipe at Israel.

Now she must do the same on defence, rejecting the MoD’s evident desire to fall in with Angela Merkel’s EU army that will dangerously undermine Nato yet will lack its own teeth. In an increasingly perilous world, Britain’s best interests lie with a US that shows every sign of returning to Reagan’s “peace through strength”, not with a Europe led by backward-looking politicians who will even work against their own countries’ defence interests to try to thwart the hated Trump.

Colonel Richard Kemp

Commander of British forces in Afghanistan in 2003, London SW1

Sir, Further to your leader “Peace through Strength” (Jan 16), trade deals are not done quickly, especially if a country has not had the economists, negotiators and sector analysts needed for 25 years. A trade deal occurs when two countries agree to set certain conditions on terms of trade that they believe to be in mutually beneficial interest. For this to occur one has to know with a high degree of accuracy what these will be. Suppose we do a trade deal with the US on cars: to determine if this is good for the UK, one has to determine the impact on glass companies, component manufacturers, and plastic mouldings companies. In addition, will either side engage in foreign direct investment to support their exports (thus shifting jobs)? Such issues have not been considered in these terms for 25 years, and it is not clear that the civil service has the skills or capacity to analyse such details in the kind of detail that will be necessary.

Professor Nigel Driffield

Warwick Business School

Sir, The report of Donald Trump’s interview was long on generalities but short on specifics. Given the president-elect’s promise to bring manufacturing back to the United States, what does the UK stand to gain from a trade agreement with the US? Michael Gove and our government need to ask one simple question and then try to answer it: why does the pound fall every time there is a suggestion of a hard Brexit?

Sir Stanley Burnton

1 Essex Court, Temple, London EC4

Sir, I write to congratulate you on your innovative use of a coloured map in the leader “Risky Business” (Jan 14), as an aid to appreciating the provocative action of artificial island-building by China in the South China Sea — one of a number of potential flashpoints facing President-elect Trump. I note that one of these islands is aptly named “Mischief Reef”.

John Greaves

Maidenhead, Berks

KORAN IN CATHEDRAL

Sir, You report that the reading of the Koran in the Epiphany Eucharist in a Glasgow cathedral led to abuse directed at the clergy (“Bishop sorry about Koran in cathdedral”, News, Jan 16). No doubt it did, sadly. But your report obscures a more important point. It also led to some constructive criticism about how interfaith dialogue might work, or in this case, fail and not be repeated.

Sanctioning a key passage from the Koran which denies the divinity of Jesus to be read in Christian worship has been widely criticised as a rather serious failure. The justification offered that it engages some kind of reciprocity founders on the understandable refusal of Islamic communities to read passages from the Gospel in Muslim prayers announcing the Lordship of Christ. It never happens.

Quite apart from the wide distress (some would say blasphemy) caused by denigrating Jesus in Christian worship, apologies may be due to the Christians suffering dreadful persecution at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere. To have the core of a faith for which they have suffered deeply treated so casually by senior western clergy such as the Provost of Glasgow is unlikely to have a positive outcome. There are other and considerably better ways to build “bridges of understanding”.

The Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden

Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen, Church Stretton, Shropshire

‘OYSTER’ HEALTH CARD

Sir, Lord Desai’s Trojan horse proposal to achieve pay-as-you-go in the NHS is excellent, apart from its rather London-centric “Oyster card” allusion (letter, Jan 14). Having been in Milan helping to build the European Institute of Oncology, I would add in a chip with each patient’s entire medical record, as used throughout Italy’s health service. This must be better than the NHS’s failed IT scheme. Moreover, it’s high time patients were empowered with the responsibility to hold their own data. Whose data is it anyway?

Professor Gordon McVie

Division of Cancer Studies, KCL, and clinical adviser, Institute of Molecular Oncology, Milan

JOCKEY CLUB’S PLAN

Sir, It is not necessarily wrong for the Jockey Club to sell Kempton Park (letter, Jan 14) as long as the funds are used to construct a better National Hunt racing facility elsewhere. However, its proposal to build an all-weather track at Newmarket is clearly an aberration.

The dismal attendances at all-weather meetings are an accurate reflection of racing fans’ disdain of them, and the Newmarket area is already adequately served by the track at Chelmsford City. A first-class jumping venue could possibly be located in Manchester or Bristol, depending on market research.

The Jockey Club has a long tradition of high-handedness so it was inevitable that the views of the paying customer would never be sought, but it is incredible that no attempt was made to consult with respected senior trainers such as Nicky Henderson, whose family have been a source of wise words for generations.

John Williams

London SE9

MEDICAL TRAINING

Sir, It is disingenuous of Charlie Massey to claim that the GMC does not require doctors to do 50 hours of training annually (letter, Jan 14). To meet the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements of the Royal College of Physicians, I must achieve a minimum of 50 credits annually (which equates to 50 hours of professional educational activity). If I do not meet this target, my annual appraisal will not be signed off by my hospital. The GMC requires me to complete five consecutive annual appraisals before it will renew my licence to practise in each “revalidation” cycle. The other medical royal colleges have similar CPD requirements, which are well known to the GMC.

While it may be true that the GMC itself does not specify the amount of training needed, its requirement to complete annual appraisals mandates the 50 hours of annual training referred to by the BMA.

Dr Steven White, FRCP

Barnet, Herts

AGE AND EXPERIENCE

Sir, Further to Janice Turner’s article (“Don’t be in such a rush to give up working”, Jan 14), helping older people to find outlets for their skills, energy and enthusiasm should be a national priority, with or without Brexit. Sadly, from my own long experience of “the age and employment industry”, I must advise: “Don’t hold your breath.”

Julia Evans

CEO, PRIME Cymru, 2000-05; CEO, Time and Experience, 2007-10

Sir, I heartily agree with Guy Adams’s letter (“Come of age”, Jan 16). Many years ago, one of our older players had to attend hospital. His wife overheard the doctors behind the curtains saying: “He’s very confused. He keeps asking when he’ll be able to play tennis again.” She pulled the curtains open with some vigour and in no uncertain terms announced: “Excuse me, he does play tennis.” He continued until about the age of 82.

We have members in their 70s and 80s who still play, some of them three or four times a week. At 71, I also play squash. I have no intention of hanging up either racket in the near future.

Jackie Williams

Formby, Liverpool

LONELY WOODCOCK

Sir, I rescued a very lost-looking and rather disabled woodcock wandering uncertainly at night in Vaughan Street near Tower Bridge at the end of November. I left it with a trainer from a local gym. Was it perhaps the same bird as the one described in I Lobban’s letter yesterday?

Tim Salmon

London NW3

WIPE FOR ‘DISAGREE’

Sir, The fracking protesters in Ryedale encourage passing motorists to “honk” their support. What if someone does not support a cause? Perhaps a quick wave of the windscreen wipers could become a generally accepted sign to disagree.

Michael Trimble

Goathland, N Yorks

CHANDELIER SERVICE

Sir, While staying at a well-known hotel in St Petersburg in 1980 my husband and I discovered that we had no towels or bath plug (letters, Jan 13 & 14). Rather than try to find the housekeeper we informed the chandelier of the discrepancies.

Two minutes later a maid arrived with the missing objects.

Ros Hammarskjold

St Peter Port, Guernsey

TRADITIONAL HELMET

Sir, The banning of the traditional top hat by British Eventing (Jan 16) is to be regretted but could not riders wear bowler hats instead? After all, they were developed as a means of protecting the heads of gamekeepers at the request of Edward Coke, the younger brother of Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester, and the prototype was apparently tested by him for its strength by his stamping on the crown twice when he arrived at the hat makers, Thomas and William Bowler, the hatters for James Lock & Company of St James’s in December 1849. Gamekeepers had previously worn top hats, which were easily dislodged.

Peter Sergeant

Hathern, Leics