Daily Mail - 03.03.2020

Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020^ Page 61

ARE the public so dreadful that Harry can’t

bear to share a train carriage with them?

L. MARSAY, Middlesbrough, N. Yorks.

EARL SPENCER said his sister Diana ‘needed

no royal title to generate her particular brand

of magic’. Neither do Harry and Meghan.

DIANE SILVA, Bournemouth, Hants.

WE SHALL fight in the English Channel, we

shall fight in the North Sea, we shall fight in

the Irish Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean. We

shall never surrender our fishing rights.

MIKE HOWELL, Folkestone, Kent.

BRUSSELS pouts.

ALAN JACOBS, Biddenham, Beds.

LIKE the Disney CEO who’s quit, I wouldn’t

want to work for a Mickey Mouse company.

BEN HIGGS, Aylesbury, Bucks.

CHINA may send 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to

fight a plague of locusts. Are they quackers?

TED SHORTER, Tonbridge, Kent.

CALL this justice? A jail sentence of five

years and four months for smashing a door

and ceiling; 16 months for killing a teen friend.

J. M. TOKARZ, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

I HOPE the new James Bond film No Time To

Die has more life than its dreary theme song.

RON SEWELL, Dovercourt, Essex.

WITH global warming and increased rainfall,

we’ll be able to grow rice in our allotments.

RAY H. DOVER, Ingatestone, Essex.

TALK about Holmes under the hammer!

Eamonn has been nailed by the taxman.

VINCENT HEFTER, Richmond, Surrey.

÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷

Straight to the

point

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Should building housing estates on floodplains be banned?

having a positive outlook on

life. Just remember that this

stage of your life will pass

soon enough.

Ms LESLEY DAWSON,

Rawtenstall, Lancs.

Fussy eaters

I WAS gobsmacked to read

about vegan and vegetarian

children demanding their

meals are cooked separately

f r o m t h e i r m e a t - e a t i n g

parents (Femail).

If they are so fussy, why not

buy in the special ingredients

they demand and cook their

own meals?

I was brought up to eat what

was given to me and be

grateful for it.

My four children were raised

the same way — if they didn’t

eat what was put in front of

them, they did without.

Mrs I. KEMBER, Dover, Kent.

Right to die

I A C C O M P A N I E D m y

husband to Switzerland for an

assisted death, so I have found

it disappointing that despite

the Royal College of GPs

survey having 51 per cent of

voters preferring a neutral or

s u p p o r t i v e s t a n c e , t h e i r

council has decided to remain

opposed to assisted dying.

The only fair position would

be neutrality, as the Royal

College of Physicians decided

last year when its survey on

this issue showed a similar

split in views.

The BMA has also surveyed

its members on assisted dying

and I hope that if the vote is

d i v i d e d t h a t i t o p t s f o r

neutrality. This will allow every-

one’s views, patients and

doctors, to be respected.

SARA FENTON,

Hungerford, Berks.

Pension risks

IT IS hardly a wonder that

many opt for the risky choice

of plunging into their pension

pots, potentially leaving them-

selves impoverished.

What incentive is there to

take the safe and sensible

option of a consistent monthly

income when annuity rates

are so poor?

Cheap, reliable advice is

crucial. It’s all well and good

shopping around, but having

been quoted £1,724 to move

my funds to generate an extra

few pounds, I have to ask what

are transfer companies doing

to command such high fees?

And with advisers’ fees so

high, no wonder people are

shunning this.

Until it’s made clear to those

living the dream on the back

of their windfall that the state

won’t bail them out after the

fun has ended, we’ll continue

to see bad outcomes.

TONY THOMPSON,

Banbury, Oxon.

Kippered

E U F I S H E R M E N s h o u l d

consider trawling the internet

looking for new careers as

their trawling days in our

fishing waters are limited.

It’s no good beating the bass

drum as they flounder on

the rocks. This is no red

herring, nor a load of pollocks,

and the only conger they’ll

hook on to with their dabs is

when they take their plaice on

the dance floor!

PIERS MINALL,

Leverington, Cambs.

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My bandsmen were

all as fit as fiddles!

Proud: Lt Col Derek Kimberley

HAVE you lost a relative

or friend in recent

months whose life you’d

like to celebrate? Our

column on Friday’s

letters page tells the

stories of ordinary

people who lived

extraordinary lives.

Email a 350-word tribute

to: [email protected]

or write to:

Extraordinary Lives,

Daily Mail, 2 Derry

Street, London W8 5TT.

Please include a contact

phone number.

celebRate liFe

oF a loved one

I AM surprised that 348 military

musicians have been medically

downgraded because of stress injuries

caused by playing their instruments

on the march.

For more than 40 years, I served as an

Army musician and conductor and

never heard of such an injury.

I remember having to dip brass

instruments in water to defrost before

we could play.

Clarinettists often had icicles several

inches long hanging from their

instruments, but parades continued no

matter how inclement the weather.

I served and played in the heat and

humidity of Belize and what was then

Malaya, and in the bitter cold of

Austria and Germany, but at no time

was anyone excused parade due to a

repetitive strain injury or heat stroke.

I was also privileged to serve with the

Grenadier Guards where the musicians

played and carried their trombones

and cornets horizontally.

Bass players managed the large tubas

without question or complaint, though

some might have wished they had

chosen to play a piccolo!

For the Queen’s silver jubilee, the band

toured 65 towns and cities across the

U.S. performing a complicated two-

hour marching display without any

musician requiring medical attention

or complaining of stress.

A musician’s daily schedule might

include an early morning rehearsal

for a state visit, a rehearsal for

Trooping the Colour followed by a

guard mounting.

This would entail marching and

playing from Chelsea barracks to

Buckingham Palace with the new

guard, playing for the guard change

and marching back to the barracks

with the old guard.

I have no recollection of a single

musician complaining they had a

problem carrying out their duties. In

fact, they always performed with great

pride and dignity.

Does the report about medical issues

among Army musicians reflect a

change in the physical attributes and

attitudes of today’s servicemen and

women? Has there been a diminution

of the pride in service which in the past

carried us through many difficulties?

Will we see an avalanche of claims

for compensation and early

pensionable discharges by this

snowflake generation?

Lt Col (rtd) DEREK KIMBERLEY,

Northampton.

be footing the insurance

policies or providing cash if

they flood. As for the

developers, will they simply

walk away saying the land

has always flooded?

Mrs LINDA MELLALIEU,

Littleborough, Gtr Manchester.

LOCAL councils, struggling

to fulfil government quotas

for new houses, just pay lip

service to the advice of

statutory consultees such as

the Environment Agency.

Consent is granted against

advice, with assurances from

the developer to manage risk.

I have a cottage in a Dorset

village. An application to

build an estate on higher

ground across the road was

granted. We were assured

soakaways would manage

surface water run-off.

However, these have not been

maintained and during heavy

rain a deluge crosses the road

to flood our garden and, on

several occasions, our home.

Before the houses were built,

the rain was absorbed

naturally into the land.

The village also suffers from

foul flooding because the

sewerage system can’t cope.

In the past few weeks, at the

same time as tankers were

emptying overflowing sewers,

another housing development

was approved.

The Environment Agency

needs stronger statutory

powers to veto development.

JOY BLACKWOOD,

Potters Bar, Herts.

WHY does planning

permission continue to be

given for new houses to be

built on floodplains in the

light of clearly changing

weather patterns?

GERRY DOYLE, Liverpool.

IF LOCAL councils insist

on allowing homes to be

built on floodplains, I

suggest they only give

permits for properties on

stilts, or houseboats.

JANET DUIGNAN,

address supplied.

AS 348 MILITARY MUSICIANS REPORT STRESS INJURIES...