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Wednesday's Letters: Why are our soldiers dying with inadequate equipment?
I HAVE been moved to tears by a recent account by Ian Sadler of the death of his son Jack. He was blown up in an inadequate vehicle on December 4, 2007.
The coroner has ruled this month that he was unlawfully killed and has outlined concern about inadequately protected vehicles.
He had both his lower limbs blown off, his pelvis was fractured and so was his skull. He had a puncture to his body and it took the helicopter 45 minutes to get to him. His father is fighting for answers and has insisted on meeting with Des Browne, the then Defence Secretary.
Jack had asked his father to buy some helmets as the ones issued did not fit, were too large, and in the prone position the helmet slipped and it was impossible to see to aim a weapon.
He complained about blockages in the machine guns caused by cheap purchases from the Czech Republic. He had to buy his own webbing pouches costing 205 and his own boots (112) because the kit issued was substandard. This is clearly unacceptable.
Why have our soldiers such inadequate equipment compared with the Americans?
If we are supposed to be side by side with the Americans, why could not more be ordered at the same cost for the British? These questions must be addressed. I ask again where are our European cousins? We were told that if we joined the EU, we would stand together in wars. This is not happening.
I so admire Mr Sadler for fighting for these things. If I had lost a son in these terrible circumstances, I would never rest until I had all the answers as to what had happened to him.
We learn that another member of the crew had broken his back; all too often we do not hear about the terrible injuries our soldiers are suffering.
It is not enough to honour them in death. This inadequate Government must be made to protect our soldiers in this war that is very difficult
to understand.
From: Janet Berry, Hambleton, North Yorkshire.
From: Jack Kinsman, Stainton Drive, Grimsby.
PLEASE don't think I'm trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but I think it might be a good idea to employ a lot more drones with cameras attached.
If the forward Army positions had these drones, they could be employed as "eyes in the sky" to check all the roads that our troops were going to use in the near future.
If there were any bandits digging up the roadside, the spy drones could spot the activity and report it to the base so that the bandits could be wiped out before they had finished planting their explosive devices.
Drones could be employed 24/7 so that no bandit could get a chance to plant any roadside bombs, and our troops would be safe to travel wherever they need to go.
From: Les Arnott, Athelstan Road, Sheffield.
MY feelings about the Afghan conflict are mixed. It is a Nato-led exercise with presumably worthy but possibly unachievable intentions.
However, there is a dreadful imbalance. It seems that the US and ourselves are the only ones approaching this matter with the maximum degree of seriousness. You can measure this by reading our lists of dead then comparing them with those of other nations. We have done our bit – now it is time to quit.
Brown has been disaster for Britain
,From: John Parker, Station Road, Baildon, Shipley.
PLEASE sir, what is a trillion? This is a word which has never been used outside bankers' bonuses until Gordon Brown blew a hole in the public finances by his own mismanagement.
Even MPs' "house flipping" expenses and tax evasion didn't reach that level in spite of enthusiastic efforts by some parliamentarians. Gordon says, "Please sir, it wasn't me, it was those other guys in America with their sub-prime mortgages".
Oh no, Gordon, it was all your fault because you removed regulation of the banking system from the Bank of England and gave it to your own creation, the Financial Services Authority, which didn't do its job properly. So the banks went out of control and it cost the public finances a fortune to rescue them.
The national debt is now measured in trillions of pounds, public sector borrowing is at a level not seen since the end of the Second War, and "prudence" has been thrown out of the pram in favour of spend,
spend, spend.
Now you urge us all to run our finances wisely, while you are still in denial of your catastrophic mistakes, and cannot see that some cuts in public expenditure will have to be made.
Start with the public sector pensions – the huge increase in public sector employment means they are unaffordable with the private sector shrinking all the time.
With apologies to Charles Dickens: "Where is the ghost of prudence past?"
Gordon, you have been a disaster for Britain, a Chancellor for 10 years of irresponsibility and you are reaping the harvest of your
folly in your two years as one of the worst Prime Ministers of all time.
Tories lose key MEP
From: Mrs Sheila Jordan, Riplingham Road, West Ella, East Yorkshire.
I AM concerned that Edward McMillan-Scott MEP has been expelled from the Conservative Euro group. Edward's knowledge and experience will are a significant loss to the Conservative Party in the European Parliament
Edward is greatly respected by his constituents, and has always been both willing and able to speak to us on all European issues. His integrity is without question.
The party's alliance with the EPP has worked very well, and, as we say in Yorkshire, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it".
There has been great concern about the proposed marriage of convenience
with the Polish and Czech centre-right MEPs and we now find that it has been imposed on us.
Edward was willing to put his head on the block for his beliefs and principles. He is one of the most valuable assets that we have in Europe.
Hypocrisy over safety
From: George Beck, High Common Lane, Tickhill, Doncaster.
BUSINESS and society generally are subjected to excessive and often over-the-top health and safety disciplines, to the extent
many activities either compromise the law or are abandoned, especially in view of the corporate manslaughter legislation we enjoy. All this has been brought in by our bureaucracy-loving Government and the EU.
However, they pay scant regard to these issues when it comes to our Armed Forces. Not only does it appear wrong to me that we go throwing our weight about overseas, when there are many parts of this country which appear lawless and uncontrolled, followed by an inadequate adhesion to its own rigid heath and safety policy when it comes to our troops' welfare and safety, and without the accountability that a business owner or community leader would be subject to.
This sums up the outrageous hypocrisy of our Left-wing, poorly performing group of individuals masquerading as
a Government.
Damaged by greed
From: Philip Johnson, Greencliffe Drive, Clifton, York.
WE need not the facts and figures of the percentages of pupils that can be shoe-horned into schools. We need figures about how home backgrounds affect pupils.
There are nearly three million people unemployed and many families in which neither parent works.
There are a great many families where both father and mother work. In these families, who is looking after the children?
Recent events have indicated that housing and goods are not necessarily indicators of a safe and healthy society.
The media (and we readers) would seem to blame politicians for every social difficulty, but I think that we should all blame our own greed and selfishness.
Vital decisions to be made over the future of flying
From: Matt Carmichael, chair, Stop Climate Chaos, Leeds.
FLYING is the most difficult issue when trying to work out how to cut carbon emissions.
It brings great benefits to many people, but it produces large quantities of greenhouse gases high in the atmosphere where they cause at least 2.8 times more harm than at ground level.
Climate scientists tell us that politicians are doing nowhere near enough to keep global warming under control. So we are going to need every possible solution for flying. We need more efficient aircraft flying more direct routes, with systems that allow them to land when they arrive instead of circling the skies wasting fuel.
We need minimum passenger numbers on each flight. We need fuel duty to be charged on aviation fuel just as it is on petrol, with the money spent on measures to make our home heating bills cheaper. And we need to stop investing money in making airports bigger.
If the aviation industry expands as experts predict, then by 2050 it will take up 80 per cent of our total UK carbon budget. In this situation we will not be able to keep climate change under control. More of our homes and businesses will be flooded, more of our gardens and crops destroyed, and food will become expensive. We will look back and wish we had stopped it when we could.
That is why tomorrow's decision on expanding Leeds Bradford International Airport matters so much.
Why did Mrs Brown go too?
From: Christopher Walker, Columbus Ravine, Scarborough.
WITH so much adverse publicity and rightly so, over MPs' expenses, where is the justification in Sarah Brown accompanying her husband to the G8 summit in Italy and who foots the expense?
In the days when I was expected to attend a weekly course for my work, it might have been nice to take my wife with me but (a) I couldn't afford to; (b) my employers would not pay for her accommodation and (c) if there was money to pay for her to join me, it would not
be allowed.
Price of feeding the world
From: R Jones, Central Drive, Rossington.
IT'S reported that we are sending more millions of pounds to Africa because of starving people. Last month, we sent millions of mosquito nets which will save millions of lives every year.
Who is going to feed these extra people year in year out? Since the Second World War,
we have sent billions over the last 60 years for food and farming equipment. We can't afford it.
Moss loss
From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.
WHY would people want to wear a supermarket version of a designer dress worn by Kate Moss? ("Asda's Kate Moss launch", Yorkshire Post,
July 13).
Ms Moss is hardly a person one would wish to emulate, while I'd have thought those who are fashion conscious wouldn't wish to be seen wearing the same outfit as somebody else.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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