Letters: save our coastline and scrap HS2

Your article about the threat to the coastline caused by rising sea levels estimates that less than £2bn is needed to protect our most vulnerable places such as Looe and Fairbourne (“Inches from disaster: the crisis facing Britain’s crumbling coastline”, Special report). However, the government is unwilling to commit to what is in effect chicken feed compared with the obscene and constantly escalating costs of HS2, the benefits of which are debatable.

The job of our government is to keep its citizens safe, not just physically but mentally. If it were to fund the necessary flood defences while at the same time scrapping HS2, which is causing huge stress to those in its path, the quality of life for a great many people would be massively improved and it would save a lot of money too.
Sarah Gardner
Coombe Green, Malvern
Worcs

Stalin and antisemitism

Whatever the merits of Simon Sebag Montefiore’s overall argument, it is puzzling to find the highly regarded historian of Stalin suggesting that Israel was a factor in Stalin’s savage turn against Jews (“This antisemitism poisons any good Labour might do”, Comment). There was ample evidence of a deeply embedded and reflexive antisemitism in the show trials of Stalin’s opponents in the Bolshevik old guard, long before the creation of Israel.

What the evidence does point to is the antisemitism embedded deeply in many cultures, including the Russian, the English and many Muslim cultures. The Labour party must set its house in order on this question, but it is highly unlikely that voting to extend a Conservative government will do anything to address the problem of antisemitism in British society or politics.
Amit A Pandya
Silver Spring, Maryland
US

Measure all schools equally

Barbara Ellen is correct to point out that proposed Tory government policy seems intended to make state schools even more unpleasant for teachers and students alike (“Who’d be a teacher with these spiteful tactics?”, Comment). Unless Ofsted takes over private school inspections and inspects all schools equally against the same standards, especially concerning mental and social development as integral to academic development, ministers will never respect the advice of state head teachers where government policy is harmful to teachers and students.
Miles Secker
Heckington, Lincolnshire

GDP and the climate crisis

Joseph Stiglitz is right that GDP does “not fully reflect the adverse impacts of the austerity measures”, but omits to mention the potential great adversity of nuclear weapons and preventable adversities of tobacco and gambling (“It’s time to retire metrics like GDP. They don’t measure everything that matters”, Business). Economics now has to accommodate the climate emergency and adopt metrics that show policymakers the degree of benefit or harm to humanity of every economic activity. Politicians would then be able to discredit accusations of them “knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

Schools of economics must be the first to learn that “it is possible to construct much better measures of an economy’s health” and initiate the task of making economics more useful to society.
Geoff Naylor
Colden Common, Winchester
Hampshire

End this songbird slaughter

Your report on the killing of songbirds is a depressing indictment of EU member states’ failure to enforce the EU birds directive and the egregious exceptionalism permitted to “rural traditions” that governments, pressured by vested interests, insist upon (“Slaughter of the songbirds: the fight against France’s ‘barbaric’ glue traps”, Focus). Gluing, trapping, netting, poisoning and shooting of birds are endemic throughout the Mediterranean region. While your report focuses on France, where half a million birds are killed annually, Birdlife International reports that Italy kills 5.6m a year, Cyprus 2.3m. Greece, Croatia and Malta also kill vast numbers. Across the Mediterranean, including North Africa, an estimated 25m birds are killed each year.

With populations of almost all birds in freefall, this abomination must be outlawed and effectively policed. Sadly, post-Brexit, the UK voice in opposition to the barbaric persecution of wild birds will no longer be heard.
Dr Simon Sweeney
Sheriff Hutton, York

New mothers deserve better

Margaret Jones (Letters) echoes my despair at the relentless deterioration of our maternity services, which are predicated on a return home six hours after birth. This breathtaking lack of respect, time or ceremony afforded to mothers, babies and midwives is a direct result of the maternity tariff, which is too low. As a consequence, all maternity hospitals and units are unviable, which explains why clinical commissioning groups are so keen to shut/reduce maternity units. Chief midwives and obstetricians have long campaigned for the tariff to be raised but their voices are not heeded.There are too many episodes involved in comprehensive maternity care and the commissioning number-crunchers have responded with a system that sets targets on time and bed occupancy regardless of long-term consequences. A healthy and confident mother determines the health and wellbeing of the family. It is the foundation stone of our nation’s health. The inadequate maternity tariff fundamentally undermines this.
Penny Griffiths
Winkleigh, Devon

Plymouth comes up trumps

Plymouth is fortunate to be the focal point for celebrations surrounding the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s journey to America. (“Behind the scenes”, The New Review). None of the “pilgrims” came from the region, neither did the ship or its captain. And it’s arguable whether the ship can be said to have set sail from there.

In July 1620, the Speedwell sailed from the Dutch port of Delfshaven carrying 35 members of the English Separatist church, originally from the East Midlands. They had fled England in 1608 to escape imprisonment for their beliefs. Now they were on their way to America. At the same time, the Mayflower set sail from London with 67 merchant adventurers on board, heading for Southampton and a rendezvous with the Speedwell. The two ships were to sail in tandem to the New World. But the Speedwell was taking on water and had to put in for repairs in Plymouth. There, she was abandoned and the Separatists joined the merchant adventurers on board the Mayflower.

The focal point for celebrations should surely be the Dutch city of Leiden, which in a spirit of tolerance and generosity provided a refuge for the Separatists for 12 years.
Mick Catmull
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex

Jamesian wit

Clive James once described Barbara Cartland’s eyes as “like the corpses of two small crows that had crashed into a chalk cliff” (“Clive James: the last interview”, Focus; and “The playful pair who pricked the grim respectability of postwar British culture”, Comment).
Robert Kelso
Milton Abbas, Dorset