We need some perspective on the defence and security pact between Australia, Britain and America

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Friday 17 September 2021 18:02 EDT
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Joe Biden and Boris Johnson announce the new security initiative on Wednesday
Joe Biden and Boris Johnson announce the new security initiative on Wednesday (EPA)

The Australia-UK-US alliance (Aukus) will not lead to Britain’s involvement in a war with China if it invades Taiwan. For more than 40 years the US has made clear that this would not be a casus belli.

In 1972, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger said that the island was “part of China”. President Jimmy Carter unilaterally annulled the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty in 1979 after diplomatic relations were established with the People’s Republic of China. The US Taiwan Relations Act (reconfirmed in 2021) promises cooperation but not direct US military assistance in case of an invasion.

Dr John Doherty

Stratford-upon-Avon

Anti-Chinese sentiment will never slide into full-blown animosity similar to the Iraq or Afghan wars. China and the west are only engaged in a mutual shouting match to hide their trade deals. They prioritise their economic interests at the expense of human rights. For example, there is overwhelming evidence from eyewitness testimonies to satellite imagery and Chinese officials’ own statements about repressive measures that amount to genocide towards Uighurs in the Xinjiang region. These include severe restrictions on religious practices and cultural traditions, an extensive web of incarceration camps, coercive labour, forced sterilisations and abortions, and the desecration and destruction of mosques, and cultural heritage.

My question is: if the west doesn’t act now to halt genocide, then when?

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London NW2

Imperial mathematics

While amusing, Victoria Richards’s article on the reintroduction of imperial weights and measures (‘Imperial weights and measures – what next, stone tablets in the classroom?’, 17 September) misses an important point: school maths.

While it is very unlikely that imperial weights and measures will ever return in science and industry, imperial does have a lot of uses in the classroom, in that units are fraction based, not decimal point based, which gives teachers opportunities to introduce fractions and fractional maths into the curriculum earlier, and allows children to better understand them. It also introduces the concept of different numeration systems, which in itself is useful, leading the pupil into concepts like binary, octal, hexadecimal and other complex number systems, all of which are essential to budding scientists and technologists.

Added to this, many people, particularly “of a certain age” do find them more useful for domestic use. I confess that, despite being one of the very lucky “changeover” generation, who moved from using imperial measures in science and technology as a schoolchild through CGI to full SI metrication during my later education, I still find myself “converting” metric measures to imperial for visualisation purposes, particularly for things like weight and height, not to mention car speed.

Finally, we are already in danger of much of our great country’s history being “airbrushed” away. Imperial units, while anachronistic now, are a part of that history, and should be preserved as such, and what better way to preserve history than to use it occasionally. Another pint please, landlord!

Ian McNicholas

Ebbw Vale

A taxing life

The older generation have contributed enormously over the years to the freedoms and life that we enjoy in the UK today. Their income taxes also contributed towards the education system and helped pay towards the upkeep and maintenance of our towns and cities.

My parents’ generation pioneered the setting up of the national insurance contributions system, to be paid out of people’s pay packets each week, to fund the NHS system. My generation’s national insurance contributions have also helped to maintain the NHS system, and worked towards producing the NHS healthcare system for the younger generation of today.

Some of the failures in the NHS system can be put down to mismanagement of funds and in some cases lack of funds being paid into the national insurance and NHS systems. The pandemic of the last 18 months has not helped an already creaking system.

J Hyatt

Address supplied

BBC is a part of ‘Global Britain’

It seems ironic that one of the few aspects of Britain that is genuinely respected across the globe today, namely the BBC, is so despised and derided by our leaders, who are desperate to project the idea of “Global Britain”.

Robert Park

Address supplied

One man deserves to be reshuffled

Following your article about our beloved prime minister getting rid of gaffe prone ministers (‘There may now be fewer gaffes, but there’s only so much a cabinet reshuffle can do’, 16 September), I suggest he look in the mirror for the most gaffe prone of all, and humbly resign.

Mike Fairclough

Exmouth

The new cabinet is probably an improvement on the last one. But its members are still mostly lacking the experience and wisdom of the people who were in Theresa May’s government, and who either left or were sacked when Boris Johnson became prime minister. What the UK really needs is for the bumbling, power-obsessed Johnson himself to be shuffled into obscurity.

Susan Alexander

South Gloucestershire

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