Sir, Two years ago when Liam Fox was defence minister he published his findings on the defence review.
As we all know, he was caught up in a scandal and sacked. Hammond took his place and dithered for two years keeping communities and servicemen in confusion whilst he had another stab at finding money for the government by cutting into the defence budget.
He has made some severe cuts including making some 20,000 plus servicemen redundant with more to come.
You have to wonder, if Mr Fox had not erred would we have seen these severe cuts?
Beeching did the same to the railways in the 1960s, chopped them to the bone, and it has been a constant struggle putting back the railway infrastructure to keep the country moving.
The elastic and the morale of the armed forces must be about to snap.
I spent 40 years serving in the armed forces,would I do it again? Certainly not.
I would not be given the chance to serve a full career as the MOD policy at the moment is get them in young and get them out whilst still young therefore denying a full military pension.
It is a great sadness for me to witness this horrible destruction by the government and MOD to what was once a respected place to serve, with many fond memories and good times.
Fingers crossed that we don’t have any big conflicts on the horizon as we will have to put our hands up and wave white flags.
Major Bob Ritchie. 17 Bloom Court, Livingston.
The V&A connection
Sir, “What is the Scottish connection?” asked Alister Rankin (Letters, March 6), when questioning the location of the Victoria and Albert Museum in Dundee.
He was right about Prince Albert being a German prince, of course, but wrong to describe Victoria as an English queen. Victoria, like our present queen, ruled over Scots, Welsh and Irish as well as English subjects. Victoria was also queen of the whole of the British Empire and Commonwealth.
Queen Victoria was a Hanoverian and Hanover is in Germany, but George I, the first of the Hanoverian line, was directly descended from James VI of Scotland and I of England, a Stewart, through his mother, Sophia, who married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.
That, Mr Rankin, is the Scottish connection! In the good old days of Scottish education at its best, in the 1930s and 40s, I learned that at a Dundee state school.
Unfortunately, for the coming referendum on independence, our teenagers, who will be voting on the strength of their knowledge of Braveheart and Flower of Scotland, have never had the benefit we had of a thorough and systematic study of Scottish and British history!
George K McMillan. 5 Mount Tabor Avenue, Perth.
Schools are good value
Sir, Ian Stewart (Courier March 6) calls for the abolition of Catholic schools using the terms sectarian, segregated and discriminatory. As a retired teacher who taught in two Catholic secondaries for 38 years I would like to reply to some of his points.
Firstly, how can it be sectarian to teach and encourage youngsters to love God, love themselves, and love neighbours and enemies? Surely, this would be an ideal society to live in?
Secondly, how can they be segregated when many places at Catholic schools are taken up by pupils of other faiths and none?
Educationally, Catholic schools present a choice for parents and for more than 30 years it has been recognised they outperform non-denominational schools in exam results where both schools have identical catchment areas.
School inspectors eventually identified the difference as being the cohesive values based on God’s commandments and Jesus Christ’s teachings that are shared between pupils, parents and teachers. Catholic schools are good value for taxpayers’ money.
Recently, parents who have been asked what values they would like a non-denominational school to have are part of the secular attempt to imitate what the Catholic schools have been doing for many decades.
Nick Clegg (depute Prime Minister and a confirmed atheist) enrolled his child in a Catholic school a choice which his family made a choice which would not be available were Ian Stewart’s views listened to.
Philip Kearns. 47 Grove Road, Dundee.
Is this what it has come to?
Sir Given the report (Farming, March 6) that 18% of greenhouse gases come from livestock, how much more comes from wildlife and human population? Should the World Health Organisation not declare flatulence a notifiable disease?
After all, we do not know for certain what destroyed the dinosaurs. Has our world, with all its human intellect Higgs boson, particles, et al really come to this?
A T Geddie. 68 Carleton Avenue, Glenrothes.
City of litter
Sir, Regarding the front page article, Dundee ready for culture clash, has anyone driven down the Kingsway recently? City of Culture? More like city of litter. It is absolutely shameful.
John McFadden. Monifieth Road, Dundee.