Letters: Talk of returning to the EU weakens Britain’s negotiating position

SIR – Mr Lidington is surely right in one respect. The EU is going to change, and may well be configured differently in a generation’s time.

However, any reconfiguration would have to be dramatic for the majority of people to reconsider their referendum decision. For a start, the EU would need to drop its unequivocal goal – the centralised union of its member states – thereby ending the undemocratic political project that is the EU. European cooperation would continue to be essential, but the EU itself would no longer exist.

Lord Shinkwin
London SW1

SIR – It’s more likely that, after we have enjoyed 10 or 20 years of exciting, successful life free of the EU’s tethers, they will want to join us, rather than the other way round.

Christopher Lambert
Tadworth, Surrey

SIR – Jeremy Warner writes that “we cannot know what Churchill would have thought of Brexit”.

Yes, we can. His concept of a “United States of Europe” specifically excluded Britain (“We are with them but not of them”), and he was appalled when he heard of Harold Macmillan’s bid to enter the European Economic Community. He would have positively rejoiced at the referendum result.

Professor Alan Sked
London School of Economics

The future of defence

SIR – Despite Brexit, Britain remains part of Europe, and the defence of the European mainland is fundamental to our security.

There are siren voices saying that Britain must choose between remaining a global military power or reducing to a regional one. One hears this particularly from the anti-carrier lobby. There seems to be little analysis of what military assets are required by a regional power.

Are the North Atlantic and Arctic crucial to our defence? They certainly are to Europe. Is stability in the Mediterranean littoral and Middle East crucial? It certainly is to Europe. The assets needed to ensure the protection of those areas include carrier strike, nuclear attack submarines and amphibious capability.

We are a global trading nation and a member of the UN Security Council’s P5, and we are responsible for 14 dependent territories. Fortunately, the flexibility of our maritime forces means that, even if required for regional security, they have an intrinsic global capability. If “regional power” simply consists of protecting our territorial seas, and having a small army in Poland and an air force of limited range, then God help Europe.

Admiral Lord West of Spithead
London SW1

Graduate nurses feel a sense of vocation too

SIR – Robert Jackson (Letters, January 20), who laments “the loss of vocational nursing”, fails to understand that today’s registered graduate nurses bring both education and compassion to their work.

Nursing, like medicine, is improved by higher levels of specialist study, and nursing care is measurably safer when provided by graduates.

I don’t suppose Mr Jackson would suggest that his degree-educated medical colleagues lack any sense of vocation. But presumably he believes that nursing requires no underpinning knowledge or critical thinking skills – just cool hands and a warm heart.

In our overstretched health service, doctors and nurses support each other in multi-disciplinary teams, and value one another’s knowledge and skills.

June Girvin
Chepstow, Monmouthshire

SIR – I am in complete agreement with Robert Jackson. I was a district nursing sister in the Eighties, when the plan to bring in graduate training for registered nursing was introduced. At a professional meeting, I asked how the hospital wards would be manned. No answer was given and the question was not minuted.

The old apprentice-type training, at the bedside, provided experience in communication: we were trusted, and won the respect of patients. We learnt the skills of observation and empathy. Those who struggled with these things were clearly not cut out for the work.

Anne Pepper
Shaldon, Devon

SIR – Nursing education remains 50 per cent hands-on, and many of the students I meet still refer to their “vocation”.

The demographics and intensity of care required by patients have changed radically in the 30 years since I entered the NHS. Mr Jackson’s attitude is unhelpful.

Professor Roger Watson
Hull, East Yorkshire

Careers in engineering

SIR – Engineering is Britain’s most productive sector and provides huge economic benefits, well-paid jobs and world-leading technology.

However, Britain faces a shortfall of engineers. Some 186,000 new recruits are needed every year up to 2024, to upgrade our infrastructure, make advances in medical treatment and develop technology to protect the environment. Along with the need for more apprentices, technicians and engineering graduates, we must address the lack of diversity in a workforce that is currently 92 per cent male and 94 per cent white.

There has never been a better time to be an engineer. Ambitious infrastructure investment will see us complete Crossrail, Europe’s largest civil engineering project, as well as other rail and power infrastructure. Innovations are taking place in our aerospace and automotive sectors, and manufacturing is growing.

As the industry changes, the skills required of engineers are changing too – and British engineers are leading the way in digital, smart and robotic technologies.

However, the perception of engineering remains skewed. Many people do not fully understand what a career in the field entails, or the opportunities it offers. That’s why industry and the Government are joining forces under the Year of Engineering campaign banner. Our ambition is to foster better awareness and understanding of engineering in schools, and show families the variety and creativity it involves, so that more young people consider it as a career.

We, as partners of the campaign, will work hard to challenge the stereotypes and showcase everything this forward-looking sector has to offer. We call on others to do the same.

Sir Terry Morgan
Chairman, Crossrail Limited

Bob Dudley
Group Chief Executive, BP

Sinead Lynch
Chairman, Shell UK

Sir Martin Sorrell
Founder and CEO, WPP

Chris Fraser
Managing Director and CEO, Sirius Minerals

Sarah Parker
Managing Director, Surrey Satellite Technology

Justin Kelly
Head of Business Development, Siemens

Mark Allen
Chief Executive, Dairy Crest

Andy Milner
Chief Executive, Amey

Steve Wadey
Chief Executive, QinetiQ

Martin Griffiths
Chief Executive, Stagecoach Group

Victor Chavez
Chief Executive, Thales UK

Mike Brown
Transport Commissioner, Transport for London

Mark Thurston
Chief Executive, HS2

Katherine Bennett
Senior Vice President, Airbus

Mark Carne
Chief Executive, Network Rail

Mark Richardson
Chief Operating Officer, Ocado

Charles Woodburn
Chief Executive, BAE Systems

Paul Gibbs
UK Managing Director, Bechtel

Warren East
Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Holdings

Bravery in illness

SIR – My son and I read Doddie Weir’s article on living with motor neurone disease with mixed feelings of recognition, inspiration and overwhelming grief.

My husband, Mike, also a rugby player, died of Motor Neurone Disease in October 2016, aged 51.

So many of Mr Weir’s words echoed our own family experience of this dreadful disease. It brought us closer together: we took our three sons out of school and university for three months of travelling.

We have an amazing circle of family and friends who helped Mike wash, dress, brush his teeth and eat. He suffered a great deal with this terrible disease, but was a trooper to the end.

Like Mr Weir, Mike (via family and friends) also raised money, and wanted to create awareness of this devastating disease. I look forward to reading Mr Weir’s column every week and I wish him all the very best.

Tracey Spicer
London SE27

Plastic-free shopping

SIR – The way to avoid plastic bags is to avoid supermarkets. I use my local shops and take my own carrier bag.

Meat and fish are a problem; but I am sure that shops could use paper to wrap them, as they did years ago.

Sarah Duncan-Brown
Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire

SIR – Nearly every weekday, I receive three or four bulky catalogues wrapped in plastic, most of which are discarded without being read.

Why can’t someone design a strong paper wrapper that will secure the catalogue? Better still would be a law stating that such catalogues can only be delivered if requested.

Tom Templeman
Woking, Surrey

Rogue detectorists mustn’t slip under the radar

SIR – Police have been accused of “wasting resources” by pursuing an “unauthorised” detectorist.

However, those who think detecting is a trivial matter are mistaken. Detecting is not allowed anywhere without the landowner’s consent – and, in the case of a scheduled ancient monument, consent from the Culture Secretary.

On one site in Suffolk, more than 55 thieves have been caught and prosecuted. Meanwhile, a police officer has been seconded to English Heritage in an attempt to mitigate the damage being done by people whose sole motivation is money.

There are many responsible detectorists, but every effort must be made to prevent looting by the greedy and unscrupulous.

John Browning
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Match day

SIR – When I was married on the afternoon of July 8 1972, it was not I who was late (Letters, January 19); it was the vicar. He had been watching the televised Wimbledon ladies’ finals.

Sue Durkin
Thame, Oxfordshire

The May effect

SIR – The Prime Minister may have difficulties controlling the Conservative Party, but she is subtly enforcing changes elsewhere.

In the past few months, a firm of solicitors, a social services department and even my own employer have insisted on spelling my second name as Theresa.

Mary Teresa Moore
Croydon, Surrey