Letters: Rishi Sunak is right about extremism – but his words must be followed by action

Downsizing realities

SIR – I can’t agree with the points Ollie Corfe makes in his article on property (“Where baby boomers are refusing to downsize – and fuelling a housing shortage”, February 27).

Who, for instance, would be able to afford to buy this sudden glut of four and five-bedroom homes? Certainly not most young people, who he appears to think are desperate to move into them.

Moreover, many of the “unused” bedrooms he mentions probably are used for other things. We have three and have converted one into a study.

Mr Corfe also makes no mention of the thousands of immigrants who, through government mismanagement and lack of planning, have done more to create a housing shortage than any baby-boomer not downsizing.

Homes are more than just bricks and mortar; they are part of our lives and hold many happy memories. Sorry, Mr Corfe, but I’m not about to sell to ease a crisis I’m not responsible for.

Matthew Biddlecombe
Sampford Courtenay, Devon

SIR – I cannot recommend moving house in old age. My mother did, but found great difficulty orienting herself when she woke at night, and was often confused about where she was. The stress of moving also brought on a painful attack of shingles. In addition, it is often useful to have a spare room in later life for a family member or carer to stay in.

Rod Mackay
Barry, Glamorgan

NHS app obstacles

SIR – I am also a victim of the “use the NHS app on a smartphone” scheme  (Letters, February 25). For years, I have been able to request repeat prescriptions for my wife and myself by a simple email to the GP surgery. Once authorised, they were sent directly to our local pharmacy, from which I would collect the medication. However, the GP practice informs me that this reliable process will end, meaning that from April 1 I must use the NHS app.

I have a smartphone and have been trying to get the app to work, but apparently I need data that only the GP practice can supply. Unfortunately, the person who deals with this is on leave.

Even with the data, I am not confident that I will be able to use the app and manage our life-critical repeat prescription requests. Why are we being subjected to this?

Michael Nidd
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

SIR – My mother lives 300 miles from me. Her village chemist no longer accepts phone requests for repeat prescriptions, even from the housebound. Until now, she has telephoned in her requests, which have then been delivered to her.

She has been told by the chemist to request her prescriptions from her GP. However, the GP practice will not accept repeat prescriptions over the phone either. Its advice is to download the NHS app or to order online.

My mother is 99 years old and does not have broadband or access to a computer. Nor, because of chronic arthritis, does she have the dexterity to manage a mobile phone. This leaves her in no man’s land. Don’t get old – you become a square peg in a round hole.

Gail Young
Dundee, Angus

Anti-slavery squadron

SIR – I’m sure I am not alone in appreciating Simon Taylor’s excellent letter (February 25) on the matter of reparations for the slave trade. The only thing missing was any reference to the formation of the West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy, its sole purpose being to patrol the coast off West Africa to intercept shipping engaged in the transportation of slaves

Thanks to the determined efforts of William Wilberforce and others, our Slave Trade Act received Royal assent on March 25 1807, followed by the creation of the squadron the next year. This was in operation for 50 years and achieved the release of some 150,000 African slaves, at a cost of about 1,600 Royal Navy sailors, many of whom succumbed to disease. 

Whatever debt we had was surely more than repaid by the operation of this squadron, but if the current, ludicrous reparation argument is followed to its logical conclusion, to whom should we send the bill for the ships and British lives lost?

Clive Goddard
Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

SIR – Those calling compensation from beneficiaries of the slave trade should remind themselves that there is no buyer without a seller. They were often black Africans selling their conquered enemies for huge profit. The further tragedy is that this still occurs in parts of the world.

Neale Edwards
Chaffcombe, Somerset

SIR – Rather than pay £100 million in reparations for slavery centuries ago, the Church of England could better spend the money on retirement homes for faithful, long-serving clergy.

Jennifer Allen
Weybridge, Surrey

How a mining family moved on from the pit

SIR – As I come from a mining family, I read Daniel Hannan’s article (“The same fallacy that fuels nostalgia for coal miners is determined to keep us poor today”, February 25) with great interest. 

My great-grandfather was a miner in the Forest of Dean and my grandfather followed him down the mine, but he then moved to the pit in Wheatley Hill, Co Durham. My grandfather told his children: “Don’t go down the mines” – and they didn’t. One of his sons went into the RAF, while the other served in the Army and his daughters became senior nurses. 

As for his grandchildren, one became a major in the Army, another became squadron-leader in the RAF, a third became a judge and a fourth is a director of Shell UK. One of the girls became the headmistress of a large school and one of his great-granddaughters is now in a very senior position in an international bank. 

Mr Hannan asks how many coal miners would want their grandchildren to have jobs like theirs. In our case he didn’t – and we are eternally grateful.

David Miller
Newton Abbot, Devon

Great War ancestors 

SIR – I suspect that there are still many of us alive who had close relatives killed in the First World War (Letters, February 25).
My uncle, Edward McCormick, a Gordon Highlander, was killed by a sniper in November 1918. He left a young widow, Moira, and a son, also Edward, whom he had seen only once. 

In the 1990s, thanks to the assistance of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, my husband and I were able to visit his grave in the churchyard in Taintignies, Belgium. Having been told that more than 20 others were buried there, we took enough sprigs of rosemary and garden flowers with us to lay posies on every grave.

My mother lost contact with Moira in the 1940s, but I would be overjoyed if any descendant of Edward junior reads this.

Gillian Badcock
Hythe, Kent

SIR – My father (born in 1887) was one of five brothers who all fought in the trenches. One was a padre, two were awarded the Military Cross and one died aged 19. My grandmother considered herself fortunate that four of her sons survived, mostly intact.

Marcus Agius
Exbury, Hampshire

SIR – My uncle Irving, after whom I am named, was an officer in the Welsh Regiment and was shooting tigers in India when war broke out. He got to the front in 1915, only to be shot in the head at Aubers Ridge that May. 

I am proud to have his name.

Dr Irving Wells 
Yelverton, Devon

SIR – My father, Edgar, was born in 1896 and was awarded the Military Medal after the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. He went to enlist as soon as war broke out in 1914. Three-quarters of those who enlisted were wiped out. 

He lived to be 90 years old, but rarely spoke about the war – apart from saying: “It was awful.”

Hugh Stewart-Smith 
London E11

SIR – My great-grandmother, Florence Nordberg, came to my wedding in 1968. She was born in 1864, the same year as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States and it was the age of horse-drawn carriages.

I adored her. In her younger days she had set sail to rescue an errant niece, who had eloped to Paraguay with a polo player. Life sounded much more exciting then.

Jacqueline Davies
Faversham, Kent

Dropping the h

SIR – Patrick West’s letter (February 25), about there being no “aitch” in “’erbs”, reminded me of living in Herefordshire. There, a dear friend, well into his 90s, would say: “There’s no aitch in Ereford”. Or: “Ye’re not from these ’ere parts, are yer.” We needed three generations in the churchyard to be “local”.

Chris Hodson
Benson, Oxfordshire

SIR – It is not just Americans who preserve the original pronunciation of “herbs”. I know someone who, rather disparagingly, refers to them as “they ’erbs”, and treats them with deep suspicion. She is not alone.

Jonathan Mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall

Hugh goes there?

SIR – Years ago I worked at the Oxford Flying School, where there were three Hughs in my department (“Retro naming”, February 25). When our ebullient leader wanted to see one of us, he directed his secretary to find fat Hugh, loud Hugh or intelligent Hugh.

Huw Baumgartner
Bridell, Pembrokeshire

SIR – My daughter was christened Romilly, then Ruby and Rose, after her two great-grandmothers. Three unusual Christian names. At Cheltenham Ladies’ College she was known as “Rah, Rah, Rah”.

Justin Tahany
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – I am the youngest of four children. My parents told my senior siblings that I was to be the last and they could therefore have the honour of choosing my names. They went into a huddle, then told my parents what they had agreed on. 

I have been eternally grateful that the parental veto was applied, which has spared me from being known as Jesus Pinocchio Rutherford for the past seven decades.

Paul Rutherford
Bishop’s Sutton, Hampshire

Letters to the Editor

We accept letters by email and post. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers.  
ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT   
EMAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk   
FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk 
NEWSLETTER: sign up to receive Letters to the Editor here