Letters - December 31, 2018

Such a demonstration of a ‘kakistocracy’ has not occurred since our last Prime Minister gambled with this country’s future – why was a simple drone unable to be detected by Gatwick Airport’s internal system?

Why was it not able to be traced and why was it not detected by our defence system before it caused such chaos?

I, as should many others, despair at the efficiency and joined-up working of our civilian and military forces.

How can we believe that we can detect and destroy any airborne attack on our country if we cannot find a supposed drone over Gatwick Airport, let alone say that 3,500 service personnel will be available to help with the Brexit process?

Scrap all public sales of drones and let’s have a joined up government – a coalition if need be – for our benefit.

Brian Buckley

Via email

What happened at Gatwick was an absolute shambles.

Don’t we have radar systems that can pinpoint these drones? If not, why not?

And why weren’t one or more helicopters put in the air with sharp shooters on board instructed to blast the drone out of the sky?

What worries me is that little research may well be being done to study the effect of such a drone entering a plane’s jet engine.

I’d like to think that at some research centre drones are being deliberately flown into jet engines to study the effect, but I’m not confident that this is taking place.

The intake of birds has been known to stop a jet engine and do considerable damage, so why not a drone?

David Craggs

Address supplied

Transport

Road signs and too much foliage

How wonderful nature is with its prolific growth of foliage.

Could I please ask councils and highways departments to bear this in mind in respect of road signs?

So many signposts are blacked out by overhanging tree branches or covered with green lichen so as to become indecipherable.

Strangers to an area have to radically slow down to read them, causing irritation to drivers behind them on what appears to be a clear/unrestricted road ahead.

Are speed restriction signs enforceable in law if not legible?

Maybe workers in highway departments could report in with signage requiring immediate attention when clocking on at work.

David H Rhodes

Address supplied

Politics

Trump’s made a terrible mistake

President Trump is pulling America’s troops out of Syria.

What a terrible mistake.

President Assad of Syria is an evil autocratic ruler who does not tolerate any opposition whatsoever.

He is a person who will encourage international terrorism and endanger the rest of the world.

President Trump has abrogated his responsibilities to the free world.

Mr PL Taylor

Via email

Politics

David Cameron... you totally failed

The attempt to drive a wedge between those who have and those that do not is succeeding, whilst the gap between rich and poor is forever widening.

David Cameron once said: “The test of a good society is how you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable and the poorest.”

I have news for Dave. You and those you represent have failed on all counts.

Roy Pearson

Address supplied

Politics

Blair’s blunders are to blame

When Tony Blair was Prime Minister, he valued referenda so much that he twice promised one on his changes to EU constitutions.

Unfortunately, he changed his mind and decided against giving democracy back to the people.

He wouldn’t change his mind this time, if he had the power, because this time the people have already voted to withdraw from the EU and this time it is concentrating his mind.

Remember how Tony Blair valued the views of the people when he lied about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and took us into an illegal war? It was the fallout from this, and Blair’s policy to allow mass immigration to the UK, that brought about Brexit in the first place.

Mervyn Jackson

Address supplied