Concerns over relaxation of border checks
SIR – Having worked for years in the immigration service, I believe there are now only scant records kept of arrivals at our borders. Details are kept of passengers allowed transit without visa, but as there is no embarkation control, it cannot be known how many arrivals have left.
Moreover, the last Labour administration introduced a visa system whereby no one is interviewed any more. Most visas are issued in central processing points (“hubs”) such as the United Arab Emirates for Pakistan and Mumbai for Sri Lanka, so rudimentary checks are impossible to make on dubious applicants. Electronic systems which carry out checks on travellers before they begin their journey and automated gate systems do not work, although they may do in 20 years’ time.
Since visa fees and airport taxes raise billions it is time that some of this money was invested in proper immigration control, instead of 25 per cent staff cuts.
Colin Brownlee
Yateley, Hampshire
Yateley, Hampshire
SIR – I recently queued in immigration at Chicago airport for three hours while three immigration officers slowly worked through some 300 people ahead of me.
Our borders must be secure, but let’s not use this model.
Stephen Gledhill
Evesham, Worcestershire
SIR – While British troops die in Afghanistan, to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in Britain, our border controls have been relaxed, with the Home Secretary admitting that the number of people who entered the country without being checked against a database of terror suspects and illegal immigrants will never be known.
With blame for the fiasco being laid by the Government at the door of Border Agency management, shouldn’t the buck stop with the Home Secretary?
Bob MacDougall
Kippen, Stirlingshire
SIR – Before more money and resources are thrown at “plugging the leaks” at our border points, would it not help if the problems were better identified?
What is it about Britain that makes the arrival of an EU citizen so much greater a risk than in France, Germany or any other member of the Schengen Agreement?
In France, free movement operates across the borders with Italy, Spain, Germany and Belgium, and the nation feels secure. If British politicians admitted that EU border controls are just tokenism, we might have enough resources to deal properly with non-EU arrivals.
Robert Walters
Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France
SIR – As we could not know how many terrorists might have slipped past our “relaxed” border controls, what value could there be in conducting a “pilot scheme” (report, November 8), unless it was only to measure the length of queue reduction?
Mick Rodger
Thirsk, North Yorkshire
Reluctant euro bail-out
SIR – Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, are reluctant to make additional contributions to the enlarged bail-out fund (report, November 8). They should lead by example and contribute France’s receipts from the Common Agricultural Policy, with an equivalent contribution from Germany, into the fund rather than attacking the City of London via the proposed tax on financial transactions.
Doesn’t the lack of commitment to the bail-out fund, together with the shameless bullying to which France and Germany have subjected Greece, underline the need for a British referendum on continued membership of the EU?
Christopher Rickard
Ampfield, Hampshire
SIR – An unexpected result of the G20 meeting in Cannes was the Chinese reaction to the eurozone crisis. The Chinese effectively said that Europeans are too lazy as a result of too much welfare, and do not deserve to be bailed out. But the Europeans do not depend on the Chinese in the same way as the Americans.
If the Chinese pull the financial plug on America in the next 12 months by selling dollar reserves, which seems likely in view of rising tensions between them, who will bail out the Americans?
Timothy Stroud
Salisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – Professor James Foreman-Peck (Letters, November 7) suggests that France and Belgium should probably be included in a proposed nouveau eurozone “for political rather than economic reasons”.
Is that not the very thing that has caused the present debacle within the current eurozone – that countries, such as Greece, were allowed to join for political reasons?
Would that not be repeating the same mistake, to include France and Belgium in a nouveau eurozone? Surely economics should override politics in a union so important to its members.
Robert Wills
London N3
SIR – The collapse of the euro will help me. Finally, I will be able to get rid of the jam jar full of centimes, pfennigs, lire and pesetas.
Hugh Collins
Wool, Dorset
Impersonal banking
SIR – Yesterday, I closed my account with the high street bank I have been with for 42 years. If I was leaving my doctor, dentist, mechanic, accountant, or hairdresser, I would have a chat and say goodbye.
But in all the years I have been with my bank no one has ever greeted me by name or rewarded me in any way for my loyal custom. Five years ago, I was even made to show identification to prove who I was.
There isn’t anyone at my bank to say thank you and goodbye to. Who cares? I do, enough to get out.
Jo Bousfield
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Prickly problems
SIR – Chicken wire is not only useful for protecting cars from the ravages of mice (Letters, November 7).
Years ago, when we lived in British Columbia and used to hike in remote Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, the parking area was provided with rolls of chicken wire with which you were advised to surround your car to prevent porcupines eating holes in your tyres and leaving you stranded miles from the main highway.
David Forbes
Edith Weston, Rutland
Leonardo dangers
SIR – Richard Dorment (Comment, November 7) endorses the National Gallery’s forthcoming Leonardo da Vinci exhibition on the grounds that the fragility and extreme rarity of this master’s work, combined with the strong opposition of curatorial and conservation experts in the lending countries, have together made the event the “hottest ticket in town”.
However, prising Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine out of Poland required what Mr Dorment terms “persistence and diplomacy”, but other critics have identified as bullying pressure from a government minister.
The National Gallery has had to obtain indemnities from the Government to the tune of £1.5 billion, but even that sum pales into insignificance in view of the utterly precious value of the works that have been subjected to risks through travelling which insurance underwriters place at between six and 10 times greater than when left in their home institutions.
Travel is not the only threat to the assembled works: three years ago the gallery dropped and smashed a 16th-century panel painting. After a hasty restoration, it was relegated to the reserve collection and declared too fragile ever to travel. In July, a man sprayed two Poussin paintings with an aerosol paint canister.
With warders threatening strike action, this can hardly be judged the best time and place in which to concentrate so many works of Leonardo da Vinci.
Michael Daley
Director, ArtWatch UK
Barnet, Hertfordshire
SIR – The cleaner who tried to remove what she thought was a stain from a Martin Kippenberger artwork in Dortmund deserves a medal for conscientiousness (report, November 5). The NHS should headhunt her: MRSA wouldn’t stand a chance against such vigilance.
Brenda Matthews
Rottingdean, East Sussex
Well-travelled book
SIR – Last week, I ordered a book from Amazon. According to Amazon’s tracking system the package was sent from Bedford to Glasgow, a distance of 371 miles, passing just a few miles away from my house.
The package then went to Droitwich, West Midlands, so it was driven a further 305 miles. Assuming the courier finds me in the next day or so, the book will have travelled 900 miles, at a cost in fuel of roughly £126. I paid £5 for delivery.
I. R. Tyrrell
Carlisle
Human error, not speed, caused the M5 accident
SIR – Rupert Lane (Letters, November 8) writes that if the motorway speed limit is raised to 80mph we can expect further tragedies like the M5 crash last week.
This is specious. Raising the limit would only affect traffic flowing freely. In the case of the M5 accident, speeds were nowhere near even the present speed limit, not least because of several articulated lorries at the head of the queue, whose speed is limited.
The accident was most likely caused by drivers allowing insufficient distance from the vehicle in front, being distracted by the fireworks or suddenly running into a patch of low visibility – or all three.
Paul Machin
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – I regularly used to join the M5 northbound at junction 25. It is difficult because the joining slip-road is uphill and commercial vehicles are unable to accelerate enough to mesh easily with the motorway traffic. A serious accident at junction 25 comes as no surprise.
Marcus Croome
Truro, Cornwall
SIR – What will be achieved if it is found that the nearby firework display contributed to the M5 crash?
Sometimes we have to accept that events are accidental and that no one is to blame.
Robin Lane
Devizes, Wiltshire
SIR – How many of the vehicles involved had their high-intensity rear fog lamps on?
Drivers following cars or lorries with their fog lamps on just don’t notice the brake lights coming on until it’s too late.
David Drysdale
Woking, Surrey
SIR – It doesn’t matter what the speed limit is. Common sense is the important factor.
Source www.telegraph.co.uk/
Our borders must be secure, but let’s not use this model.
Stephen Gledhill
Evesham, Worcestershire
SIR – While British troops die in Afghanistan, to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks in Britain, our border controls have been relaxed, with the Home Secretary admitting that the number of people who entered the country without being checked against a database of terror suspects and illegal immigrants will never be known.
With blame for the fiasco being laid by the Government at the door of Border Agency management, shouldn’t the buck stop with the Home Secretary?
Bob MacDougall
Kippen, Stirlingshire
SIR – Before more money and resources are thrown at “plugging the leaks” at our border points, would it not help if the problems were better identified?
What is it about Britain that makes the arrival of an EU citizen so much greater a risk than in France, Germany or any other member of the Schengen Agreement?
In France, free movement operates across the borders with Italy, Spain, Germany and Belgium, and the nation feels secure. If British politicians admitted that EU border controls are just tokenism, we might have enough resources to deal properly with non-EU arrivals.
Robert Walters
Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France
SIR – As we could not know how many terrorists might have slipped past our “relaxed” border controls, what value could there be in conducting a “pilot scheme” (report, November 8), unless it was only to measure the length of queue reduction?
Mick Rodger
Thirsk, North Yorkshire
Reluctant euro bail-out
SIR – Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, are reluctant to make additional contributions to the enlarged bail-out fund (report, November 8). They should lead by example and contribute France’s receipts from the Common Agricultural Policy, with an equivalent contribution from Germany, into the fund rather than attacking the City of London via the proposed tax on financial transactions.
Doesn’t the lack of commitment to the bail-out fund, together with the shameless bullying to which France and Germany have subjected Greece, underline the need for a British referendum on continued membership of the EU?
Christopher Rickard
Ampfield, Hampshire
SIR – An unexpected result of the G20 meeting in Cannes was the Chinese reaction to the eurozone crisis. The Chinese effectively said that Europeans are too lazy as a result of too much welfare, and do not deserve to be bailed out. But the Europeans do not depend on the Chinese in the same way as the Americans.
If the Chinese pull the financial plug on America in the next 12 months by selling dollar reserves, which seems likely in view of rising tensions between them, who will bail out the Americans?
Timothy Stroud
Salisbury, Wiltshire
SIR – Professor James Foreman-Peck (Letters, November 7) suggests that France and Belgium should probably be included in a proposed nouveau eurozone “for political rather than economic reasons”.
Is that not the very thing that has caused the present debacle within the current eurozone – that countries, such as Greece, were allowed to join for political reasons?
Would that not be repeating the same mistake, to include France and Belgium in a nouveau eurozone? Surely economics should override politics in a union so important to its members.
Robert Wills
London N3
SIR – The collapse of the euro will help me. Finally, I will be able to get rid of the jam jar full of centimes, pfennigs, lire and pesetas.
Hugh Collins
Wool, Dorset
Impersonal banking
SIR – Yesterday, I closed my account with the high street bank I have been with for 42 years. If I was leaving my doctor, dentist, mechanic, accountant, or hairdresser, I would have a chat and say goodbye.
But in all the years I have been with my bank no one has ever greeted me by name or rewarded me in any way for my loyal custom. Five years ago, I was even made to show identification to prove who I was.
There isn’t anyone at my bank to say thank you and goodbye to. Who cares? I do, enough to get out.
Jo Bousfield
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Prickly problems
SIR – Chicken wire is not only useful for protecting cars from the ravages of mice (Letters, November 7).
Years ago, when we lived in British Columbia and used to hike in remote Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, the parking area was provided with rolls of chicken wire with which you were advised to surround your car to prevent porcupines eating holes in your tyres and leaving you stranded miles from the main highway.
David Forbes
Edith Weston, Rutland
Leonardo dangers
SIR – Richard Dorment (Comment, November 7) endorses the National Gallery’s forthcoming Leonardo da Vinci exhibition on the grounds that the fragility and extreme rarity of this master’s work, combined with the strong opposition of curatorial and conservation experts in the lending countries, have together made the event the “hottest ticket in town”.
However, prising Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine out of Poland required what Mr Dorment terms “persistence and diplomacy”, but other critics have identified as bullying pressure from a government minister.
The National Gallery has had to obtain indemnities from the Government to the tune of £1.5 billion, but even that sum pales into insignificance in view of the utterly precious value of the works that have been subjected to risks through travelling which insurance underwriters place at between six and 10 times greater than when left in their home institutions.
Travel is not the only threat to the assembled works: three years ago the gallery dropped and smashed a 16th-century panel painting. After a hasty restoration, it was relegated to the reserve collection and declared too fragile ever to travel. In July, a man sprayed two Poussin paintings with an aerosol paint canister.
With warders threatening strike action, this can hardly be judged the best time and place in which to concentrate so many works of Leonardo da Vinci.
Michael Daley
Director, ArtWatch UK
Barnet, Hertfordshire
SIR – The cleaner who tried to remove what she thought was a stain from a Martin Kippenberger artwork in Dortmund deserves a medal for conscientiousness (report, November 5). The NHS should headhunt her: MRSA wouldn’t stand a chance against such vigilance.
Brenda Matthews
Rottingdean, East Sussex
Well-travelled book
SIR – Last week, I ordered a book from Amazon. According to Amazon’s tracking system the package was sent from Bedford to Glasgow, a distance of 371 miles, passing just a few miles away from my house.
The package then went to Droitwich, West Midlands, so it was driven a further 305 miles. Assuming the courier finds me in the next day or so, the book will have travelled 900 miles, at a cost in fuel of roughly £126. I paid £5 for delivery.
I. R. Tyrrell
Carlisle
Human error, not speed, caused the M5 accident
SIR – Rupert Lane (Letters, November 8) writes that if the motorway speed limit is raised to 80mph we can expect further tragedies like the M5 crash last week.
This is specious. Raising the limit would only affect traffic flowing freely. In the case of the M5 accident, speeds were nowhere near even the present speed limit, not least because of several articulated lorries at the head of the queue, whose speed is limited.
The accident was most likely caused by drivers allowing insufficient distance from the vehicle in front, being distracted by the fireworks or suddenly running into a patch of low visibility – or all three.
Paul Machin
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – I regularly used to join the M5 northbound at junction 25. It is difficult because the joining slip-road is uphill and commercial vehicles are unable to accelerate enough to mesh easily with the motorway traffic. A serious accident at junction 25 comes as no surprise.
Marcus Croome
Truro, Cornwall
SIR – What will be achieved if it is found that the nearby firework display contributed to the M5 crash?
Sometimes we have to accept that events are accidental and that no one is to blame.
Robin Lane
Devizes, Wiltshire
SIR – How many of the vehicles involved had their high-intensity rear fog lamps on?
Drivers following cars or lorries with their fog lamps on just don’t notice the brake lights coming on until it’s too late.
David Drysdale
Woking, Surrey
SIR – It doesn’t matter what the speed limit is. Common sense is the important factor.
Source www.telegraph.co.uk/
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