Letters - Monday February 8, 2021

Home Secretary Priti Patel has shown her customary inhumanity towards refugees following the recent fire at Napier barracks last week.

Seeking refuge from war, persecution or the effects of climate change is not a crime, but the government treats refugees as if they were criminals.

With police still investigating the incident, Patel opportunistically used it to attack refugees, calling the fire deeply offensive to taxpayers in this country who provide accommodation.

Patel makes the squalid conditions at Napier barracks (pictured) sound like a luxury hotel.

It is nothing of the sort.

Only a week earlier, 200 asylum seekers held there signed an open letter to government arguing the cramped conditions there meant they couldn’t socially distance. One in four have coronavirus and little access to healthcare.

This is no concern to Patel though, who sees these desperate people as enemies who deserve only abuse.

In the wake of what happened in Washington in early January with the toxic power of discriminatory language, and what it all leads to, she has no hesitation in using hate speech directed at these refugees.

I’m a taxpayer and I send unconditional solidarity to the refugees in Napier Barracks and to all refuges locked up by the Tories.

Refugees are not the enemy but are amongst the most powerless and desperate people on the planet.

It is Priti Patel who is deeply offensive.

Royston Jones

Anchorsholme

Energy

New coal mine needed for some

We hear of opposition to a coal mine in Cumbria.

Have the objectors thought of the big picture?

There are people who use coal for heating in the UK. Getting the approval overturned will just mean all solid fuel used in the UK will be imported. Some of us live away from gas by piped main or do not want it by road tanker. That leaves just oil or solid fuel.

Tom Skupham

Scorton

History

Letter was wrong on two counts

The letter from Barry Carr (your say, February 4) contains two factual errors. It also raises several interesting points about this country in 1940.

First, ‘Operation Sea Lion’ was the code name for the aborted Nazi invasion of this country. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the Battle of Britain !

Second, The Battle of Britain (a battle fought mainly by 19 and 20 year old pilots) took place between 10 July and 31 October 1940, not June to September. It was won not by a ‘few’ but by a combined Home Front of men and women.

Contrary to myth it did not stop the invasion of this country for we now know Hitler was bluffing. He hoped the threat would make us sue for peace. Meanwhile, he was concentrating on conquering the Soviet Union, always his real prize, not England.

The archives also show that in 1940 the belief our nation was united is another myth. It was like the Cabinet riddled with appeasers. We may not like it but Hitler had many supporters in every sector of society. Some were in very high places indeed.

Hence, the belief that when Churchill succeeded Chamberlain in May 1940 he conducted a well-drilled orchestra in defiant unison is pure fantasy.

With regards to how Hitler committed suicide the jury is still out. Historians are divided on this. It may have been by gunshot or cyanide.

We don’t know which and we never will; the Soviets made sure of that.

Dr Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys

Brexit

Music tours can still go on Elton

Watching the news on Wednesday evening, I unfortunately had to listen to Sir Elton John moaning that upcoming musicians will be unable to get on now they can’t travel freely to the EU.

Do non-Brexiteers really believe that nobody ever left this country to work or holiday abroad before we were conned into joining the EU?

Their lack of knowledge of history is quite scary.

Paul Morley

via email

Tribute

Focus on NHS

The best way to honour Captain Sir Tom Moore is to make sure NHS staff have the support they need while fighting the pandemic. Only when this is all over, should there be a discussion about a statue.

Henry Cobden

via email