Letters: Cameron’s limp EU negotiations do little to persuade undecided voters

A June referendum looks unjustified; better prison food; Celtic cash; what Sudan can teach us about divisive statues; and a worrying development

Cameron with EU President Jean Claude Juncker
Cameron with European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker Credit: Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman

SIR – For those of us who are not in the Leave or Remain camps, but rather wish to see our relationship with the European Union redefined, the justification for a June referendum on the basis of David Cameron’s recent attempt at a draft deal seems to be totally lacking at present.

If there was a third box on the ballot paper that said “Go back, properly redefine our relationship and then ask me again”, the politicians might be surprised at the outcome of the vote.

Simon Fearn
Sidmouth, Devon

SIR – The proposed reforms – to exempt Britain from ever-closer union, to protect us from discrimination outside the eurozone, to return power to national parliaments, to cut red tape and to apply an immediate brake to benefit payments for EU migrants – all address key concerns about the EU.

These reforms are substantial and would redefine our relationship with Europe. The Prime Minister said he would negotiate a better deal for Britain and he is succeeding. In the tough remaining phase of negotiations, he deserves our support.

With these reforms Britain will have the best of both worlds: outside the euro, and protected from deeper integration, but able to access the single market; in the world’s greatest trading block of over 500 million people, but outside the Schengen area and so able to maintain our borders.

We urge fellow Conservatives to support the campaign for Britain to remain in a reformed EU.

Sir Nicholas Soames MP
Keith Simpson MP
Sir Peter Bottomley MP
Heidi Allen MP
Peter Aldous MP
James Berry MP
Richard Benyon MP
Byron Davies MP
Jonathan Djanogly MP
Ben Howlett MP
Neil Parish MP
Mark Pawsey MP
Craig Whittaker MP
Craig Williams MP
Nadhim Zahawi MP

Conservatives for Reform in Europe

SIR – The fundamental matters in the EU debate are sovereignty, democracy and accountability. While economics is important, Britain is the fifth largest economy in the world and, any short-term insecurity notwithstanding, will continue to be a leading economic power should we vote to leave.

David Cameron owes it to the British people to get the right deal, with sovereignty at its core, and then allow a properly informed debate before any vote.

D J B Shearer
Glasgow

SIR – Mr Cameron does not appear to appreciate that it is not the level of benefits paid to immigrants which concerns many British people, but the level of immigration itself.

His “breakthrough” does nothing to address this issue.

Peter Ward
Welling, Kent

SIR – The benefits covered by the tenuous “emergency brake” do not encompass the things people really come to Britain for – free health care, education, and maternity and child care.

The whole fiasco is therefore a pointless exercise in political sleight

of hand.

Charles Pugh
London SW19

The Iowa fallacy

Ted Cruz has defeated Donald Trump in Iowa

SIR – I feel that Iowa caucus results should usually be viewed with caution.

The man who ran against Barack Obama for the White House eight years ago was John McCain, assisted by Sarah Palin. He became the likely Republican nominee in February 2008 following the withdrawal of Mitt Romney, despite not having appeared in the top three candidates in Iowa just a month earlier.

Michael Cox
Gravesend, Kent

Better prison food

SIR – A majority of prisoners in Britain are dissatisfied with the quality of the food they get, according to a recent survey.

I’m against the pampering of prisoners, but research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that when a healthy diet of fruit and vegetables was given to inmates at the Aylesbury young offender institution in Buckinghamshire, anti-social behaviour fell by 35 per cent. Tests on 230 inmates aged between 18 and 21 found that adding vitamins, minerals and other nutrients such as essential fatty acids “remarkably” reduced their anti-social behaviour.

The Hyperactive Support Group of Chichester, West Sussex, has been helping disruptive children by this method since 1977.

Ann Wills
Ruislip, Middlesex

Bomber stowaway

SIR – Am I the only living man who can claim to have flown as a civilian with the RAF on a patrol over the North Sea in 1941?

We flew very low over the sea, possibly as a defence against marauding Messerschmitts. The pilot offered me the bomb aimer’s position, but I did not fancy having only half an inch of Plexiglas between me and the sea – so I sat in the co-pilot’s seat.

I was 10 at the time, and my father had smuggled me aboard.

Geoffrey Bishop
Malvern Wells, Worcestershire

Celtic cash

SIR – If Plaid Cymru gets permission for Wales to create its own banknotes, who or what would you like to see on the reverse?

I would opt for the story of Mary Jones and her Bible.

Bernard Powell
Southport

What Sudan can teach us about divisive statues

SIR – In 1959, in the heady spirit of decolonisation, the government of the newly independent Sudan removed the statues of General Gordon (splendidly seated on a camel) and General Kitchener (posed on a horse) from Khartoum and returned them to Britain.

Decades later, many Sudanese friends told me this was a mistake, resulting in the loss of important memorials to the country’s history, whether good or bad. Amid the ill-advised demands for the removal of Cecil Rhodes’s statue from Oriel College, Oxford, let us be guided by the reflections of the good citizens of Khartoum.

Roger Croston
Chester

Biomass power is the cheapest renewable

SIR – Charles Perez-Storey accuses Dorothy Thompson, the chief executive of Drax, of being disingenuous about the cost of converting coal-fired power stations to biomass. However, his arguments are naive and misleading.

Until renewable power options are better developed, all will be more expensive than coal. Hence, in chasing the goal of a zero-carbon energy sector, the Government has resorted to subsidy mechanisms such as the Renewables Obligation and, more recently, Contracts for Difference, to encourage the construction of wind, solar, nuclear and biomass plants.

The critical point is that converting coal-fired stations to biomass has been shown to be the cheapest renewable option available. Such conversions use existing infrastructure (including grid access) and are the only renewable technology capable of rapidly changing power output to match customers’ requirements, particularly in periods of little wind or sun.

Dr Nigel Burdett
Kelsale, Suffolk

SIR – Dorothy Thompson makes some good points about the use of biomass. However, she appears to discount carbon capture and storage (CCS), saying it is “still being researched”. In fact CCS technologies, while not mature, are being commercially deployed across the world.

The Government’s recent volte-face on its CCS programme has caused dismay in the energy industry. The Energy Technologies Institute, the Committee on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency, as well as the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, have all made clear that CCS is vital for a low-carbon future, and will save major cost burdens

for electricity customers in the long term.

It is also worth noting that when biomass is combined with CCS the environmental outcome is particularly attractive, with the possibility of “negative carbon emissions”.

Michael Gibbons
Chairman, Carbon Capture and Storage Association
Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire

A culture of ignorance

A student solving a maths equation
Concerns have been raised over literacy and numeracy levels among students

SIR – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s bleak assessment of students’ literacy and numeracy skills in England has prompted debate about the quality of teaching in our nation’s schools.

Though there is much justification for visiting these ills on “progressive” education methods over the past few decades, the ineluctable fact is that increasing numbers of young people live in homes where there are few, if any, books. It has also become fashionable for adults to wear innumeracy as a badge of honour. We must recognise that this is both a cultural and an educational problem, and tackle it as such.

Dr Millan Sachania
Headmaster, Streatham & Clapham High School
London SW16

Accountable charities

SIR – The assertion by Dan Hodges that most charities rely too heavily on public funding does not apply to Britain’s hospices.

Hospices depend on the generosity of local people and businesses for the bulk of funds needed for the care they provide, receiving only around a third of their funding from the NHS – although statutory funding levels vary greatly across the country and many hospices receive far less. On average, hospices have to raise £9,000 a day, and could not do that without local support. As a result, hospices see themselves as accountable to the communities that they serve.

While we appreciate public concerns about charity fundraising in the wake of recent reports, we must not overlook those charities that are striving to serve the public good.

Lord Howard of Lympne
Chairman, Hospice UK
London WC1

Friends of Wogan

SIR – One detail that I feel has been overlooked in accounts of Sir Terry Wogan’s life is his attachment to opera.

Through a friendship with the impresario Leonard Ingrams, he was involved with Garsington Festival Opera, serving on the committee. In July 2005 he was master of ceremonies at the Gala Evening of Music, featuring Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, when Garsington Opera bade farewell to Garsington Manor to re-emerge on the Wormsley Park Estate the following year. Clearly he was a well-rounded man of catholic tastes – at home with Mozart as well as Marley.

David Kenny
Tredunnock, Monmouthshire

SIR – We had a Sussex cow who was an avid fan of Terry Wogan.

When she was in the field next to the house, and we had the back door open and Radio Two playing, she would move right up to the fence and lean over to catch every word. No other broadcaster would do.

Mary Kellett
Cranbrook, Kent

Worrying development

SIR – Thank you to Christopher Howse for his revelations about the growing use of the phrase “no problem”.

I recently asked a staff member on a hospital ward to stop using its variant, “no worries”, during a conversation about my father, as, while she may not have had any, I did.

Her immediate reply was: “No worries.”

Malcolm Watson
Welford, Berkshire