Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019 Page 49HE’S tough, a match winner and won’t take
‘No’ for an answer. Why not send Ben Stokes to
negotiate with the EU?
ALFRED LEVY, Ilford, Essex.
STOKED!
ROD MATTHEWS, Melbourne, Australia.
BEN STOKES deserves as many accolades
and rewards as he can get, including an outing
on Strictly in ten years’ time.
Dr CHRIS WHEATLEY, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.
MEGHAN hasn’t joined the Royal Family,
Harry has joined showbusiness.
OWEN MCALLISTER, Borrowash, Derbys.
PORTLY, middle-aged Paul Hollywood and
Nick Knowles attract women half their age.
My life of abstinence has been in vain.
M. SOUTHON, Ferndown, Dorset.
DIANE ABBOTT wants to stay in the EU — I’ll
pay her train fare!
FAY GOODWIN, Lutterworth, Leics.
THE well-known brown sauce brands are made
in the EU. My supermarket’s brand, just as
tasty, is made in Britain. Guess which one I buy?
PAUL BRUCE, Newcastle upon Tyne.
THE subtitle for No Time To Die, the new
James Bond movie:... And No Time Yesterdie.
ROS HARRISON, Catsfield, E. Sussex.
I MISS the dulcet voices of male DJs rather
than screeching women who must be
employed due to gender equality targets.
YVONNE EUINGTON, Menston, W. Yorks.
MEDICINE made from the Berlin Wall (Mail)?
Will it cure German measles?
BEN HIGGS, Aylesbury, Bucks.÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷Straight to the
POINT
FOR permission to copy cuttings for internal management and information
purposes, please contact the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), PO Box
101, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1WX. Tel: 01892 525273. e-mail: [email protected]cut its losses and cancel the HS2 rail project?
arriving at our ports every day
without physical checks
because all the paperwork is
done online.
Only minor changes would
need to be made to existing
procedures if there was a will
to do so.
ROY DEEGAN, Lincoln.Cheap as chips
The Government should
hand control of the Irish
border to Mcdonald’s.
When I visited a local drive-
through, my car was photo-
graphed for identity pur-
poses, I submitted my food
order electronically and paid
by card.
I then proceeded to the
check-out and was handed my
meal. The whole procedure
took just five minutes.
Surely this type of technol-
ogy, and that used by traffic
police for checking if vehicles
are taxed and insured, could
be used for processing lorries
passing though the borderand confirming their bills of
lading, thus doing away with
long queues.
TED SHORTER,
Tonbridge, Kent.Don’t call us ‘guys’
WhAT made our holiday on
the danube special was that
the friendly, helpful staff called
us as ‘Sir’ and ‘Madam’.
There was no ‘luv’, luvvie’,
‘duck’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘darling’
or — a particular dislike —
‘guys’ that we get in most
shops and pubs at home. evenM&S, which used to be known
for its polite staff, allows this
disrespectful language.
Maybe youngsters like being
referred to in this way, but I
certainly don’t. It is also over-
familiar and unprofessional
for my bank to refer to me by
my first name and not my title
and surname.
M. J. LEVERINGTON,
Middlewich, Cheshire.Marked by measles
IT IS wise of parents to ignore
the internet anti-vax scarestories and get their children
vaccinated against measles.
I contracted this disease as
an adult and fell into a coma
after developing post-measles
encephalitis — swelling of the
brain. I was in a coma for a
week and my heart stopped
twice. doctors told my family
they didn’t think I’d survive.
I recovered, but the disease
has left me with a number of
health issues, including petit
mal epilepsy and short-term
memory loss.
TIMOTHY SAWYER,
Bromsgrove, Worcs.WIN our Letter Of The Week Magic Mug, courtesy of
Printer Pix. These reveal our Daily Mail Letter Of The
Week design when hot. To create personalised photo gifts
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Editor will announce the Letter Of The Week each Friday.
Write to: Daily Mail, Letters, 2 Derry Street, Kensington,
London, W8 5TT, email [email protected] or fax onLETTER OF THE WEEK
020 7937 7493, including
your full postal address
and telephone number.Stop whining and
just get on with it!
War service: Robin Horsfall and (right) in camouflage as a serving soldierCANCELLING HS2 would save a lot of
money, but it would leave us with the
problem of delays to express trains
due to slower commuter services in
the Home Counties. A cheaper solution
would be to build HS2 from London to
Aylesbury, reopen the former Great
Central Railway from Aylesbury to
Leicester and connect it to the West
Coast main line at Rugby and the
Midland main line at Leicester.
This would mean that expresses to
Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and
Glasgow would get a clear run for the
first 80 to 100 miles out of London.
RODERICK MOORE, Liverpool.CANCeLLING hS2 would cushion any
hardship caused by a No deal Brexit.
IAN HARRINGTON, Axminster, Devon.
BORIS JOHNSON’S top aide Dominic
Cummings is right to call HS2 a disaster
zone. It’s time to cancel this ridiculous
vanity project.
IAN DUNLOP, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
STePheN GLOVeR is right to be
sceptical about the review into hS2.
According to the terms of reference,
douglas Oakervee and his colleagues
will only be looking at the alleged
environmental benefits of this scheme,
totally ignoring the catastrophic adverse
impact it will have on ancient woodlandand the many species of plants and
wildlife that call it home.
This will paint a one-sided picture.
The review can’t afford to neglect the
loss of or damage to 108 ancient woods
by hS2. Ancient woodland is one of our
most precious natural habitats. It can’t
be moved or replaced and if the current
timetable of preparatory work for hS2
continues, we may well lose many of our
greatest national assets and habitats to
a scheme that might not even happen.
The Woodland Trust continues to stand
up for woods and trees. To join our fight,
visit woodlandtrust.org.uk/hs2
ABI BUNKER,
Woodland Trust, Grantham, Lincs.BeTWeeN 1972 and 1991, I served with
the Parachute Regiment, the SAS, the
Sultan of Oman’s Forces, the Armed
Forces of Sri Lanka and the Army of
Mozambique. I’m going to upset a lot of
people. I think that PTSd — post
traumatic stress disorder — is in most
cases a lie, an excuse or an attempt to
get on the gravy train.
There is no doubt that it exists as a
condition. I had it after returning from
Mozambique in 1991, my sixth and last
war. I didn’t think there was anything
wrong with me — it was the rest of the
world that was messed up.
After a crisis at home, I had counselling.
I talked non-stop and came to the
conclusion I couldn’t change the world.
I could only change myself — and I did.
Now, when I hear people complain
about their inability to cope because
they served in a combat zone, I suspect
they are after sympathy, admiration or
money. The sympathy is provided by the
public, who are persuaded by media
coverage, charities and medical services
that every former serviceman and
woman is a victim.
Admiration comes from telling everyone:
‘I can’t cope because of my PTSd.’ In
response, people will tell you how brave
you are. The money comes from
increased war pensions and charitable
donations. At my last war pension
assessment, the doctor tried to lead me
towards claiming I had symptoms of
PTSd. I declined. Much as I appreciated
his attempt to increase my pension, I
knew that to claim for a condition I no
longer had was weak and immoral. Ithink most former servicemen and
women experience post traumatic
growth, a term coined by dr Lucy
Longhurst. She argued that the number
of service personnel psychologically
damaged by a violent incident is less
than 2 per cent, in line with the fire,
police and ambulance services.
If we have 10,000 servicemen and women
in a war zone, less than 10 per cent will
engage the enemy in combat or receive
incoming fire. If dr Longhurst’s figures
are accurate, that should result in less
than 200 cases of PTSd that needtreatment and most will respond to
short-term respite care, as I did.
The state is rewarding many who refuse
to deal with the normal problems of life,
such as earning a living and caring for
their family. I am not a victim of war, I
am the beneficiary of military service.
I am not damaged by the stress of my
past. I learned to cope, to manage
difficulty and to become more capable.
I’d like to see less whining and a bit
more barking!
ROBIN E. HORSFALL,
Prague, Czech Republic.