The UK needs to rethink its defence strategy

In the light of warnings from senior military figures about the UK’s capability to resist a Russian attack, the wisdom of withdrawing Nato and UK troops from Germany must now surely be questioned.

Mark Morsman
London SE13

General Sir Nick Carter, in The Independent, spells out the weakness of our armed forces. In emphasising the enormous gaps in UK defences, he says: “Modern capability [is] essential if we wish to provide a realistic deterrence.” He is not referring to nuclear deterrence. He is talking about the conventional forces we lack to counter Russian aggression: conventional forces we cannot afford. Surely the time has come to recognise that Trident is neither a military or political answer for today’s real threats, and the cost of maintaining and replacing “the deterrent” it is making this nation less safe.

Robert Forsyth
Oxfordshire

Radioactive air pollution routinely discharged from UK nuclear sites is not being monitored in spite of Bristol University’s AARM drone mounted device to do so. Why doesn’t Michael Gove, UK nuclear regulators and the Environment Agency commission the monitoring of nuclear radiation in the air, sea and land?

There is no need for a UK nuclear waste dump. The Sellafield plutonium stockpile must be immobilised on site for near surface storage.

Jo M Brown
Address supplied

The fuss about the retention of mug shots is based upon a historical view of privacy. You cannot drive, fly or open a bank account without proving who you are and giving the state personal details, which the state has to retain. There is nothing secret about your name, appearance or address. Law enforcement will win the argument on the state using the information it has and getting more information. Detection is all about joining the dots and computers will do it better with large databases than humans have ever been able to.

Civil rights should focus on ensuring the data the state has is accurate and secure, and that access to it is logged, in detail, securely and automatically. That is essential to evidence and deter the inevitable abuses.

Jon Hawksley
London EC1R

I am proud and pleased to read that there is a surveillance camera for every 10 of us here in the UK. I find it extremely satisfying that, for once, this country is leading the world in embracing technology, rather than reading that another British invention has been taken on by another country, leaving us floundering in the wake.

I think not enough is made of our personal freedom and civil right; And by that I mean the freedom and safety granted to us by our police and security forces. They have developed the correct tools to protect us.

Who could fail to have been impressed by the speed with which the Parsons Green suspect was apprehended, while awaiting to catch a ferry from Dover?

I am sorry, but new threats have to be rebutted with new defences. This is no infringement of our rights; this is reinforcing them. We have to move on.

AlastaIr Duncan
Winchester

Re sustainable, disposable and recyclable, the debate reminded me of a Nasa scientist who once said “everything has to go somewhere” when talking about consumption of resources

Doug Flack
Derby

The anniversary of Donald Trump’s presidency has landed as a wet squib. The government has shut down, his poll rating are at their lowest, he had to cancel his visit to UK on a false pretext, he has infuriated African nations by calling them “s***holes”, he is refutes climate change and is anti-media, accusing them of giving fake news. His ban on six Muslim nations was a fiasco as the Supreme Court had to overrule him. His out of the blue, controversial announcement of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was unhinged and not welcomed by Palestinians and the entire Arab and Muslim world.

He is suffering from Obama-phobia and is hell bent in destroying his legacy in all areas. He wants to get rid of Obamacare and he is deporting thousands of dreamers. There are roughly 1.8 million immigrants in the United States who might be, or might become, eligible for the Obama administration’s “deferred action” initiative for unauthorised youth brought to the US as children. This is strongly opposed by the Democratic Party and America at large, not by the dreamers.

He has sacked members of his cabinet and some have resigned in the first six months of his presidency, which is scarred by scandal and acrimony. He says he is not a racist, but his inclinations are tinged by racism. The growth in economy and low employment is not because of him, but in spite of him. It has happened because of general growth in the global economy. His “America First” agenda is undermining transatlantic relations.

Trump is the representative of these reactionary forces. His first year has had more minuses than pluses. Thus the second year does not augur well.

Baldev Sharma
London