Letters: Bird flight

Sir: A lifetime in aviation has given me an undying admiration for the amazing aerobatic capabilities of swifts, so Steve Connor's "Secret of the swift's aerial mastery is revealed" (26 April) was a fascinating read. But I'm a bit puzzled that this "morphing" of the swift's wings has been discovered through new research in the Netherlands. Humans have been morphing aeroplane wings for quite a while, only they call it variable sweepback, or variable geometry.

In the RAF's present bomber, the Panavia Tornado, for instance, the pilot varies the sweepback of the wings anywhere from fully forward at 25 degrees swept back to fully back at 67 degrees, according to the same criteria of speed and manoeuvrability that the swift uses (albeit on a rather different scale). The Tornado has been around since the early 1970s, and there have been plenty of other aircraft that use this variable geometry. It would be interesting to know if aeroplane designers in the 1960s were aware of the swift's morphing capabilities, or whether this recent research on birds resulted from the perceptive ideas of those 20th-century designers.

SEAN MAFFETT

AIRSOUND AVIATION BOURTON-ON-THE-WATER, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Sir: Did the Dutch scientists whose study you report really have to use dismembered wings and a wind tunnel to conclude that a bird's ability to change its wing shape is central to its mastery of flight?

Binoculars and an hour on the same mountainside as a golden eagle will reveal precisely the similar thing. It soars on stiff, wide-open wings, it spills 1,000 feet in a vertical dive with its wings closed, brakes to a notch above stalling speed with its wings held high and back.

It accelerates from an easy glide to 100mph by half-folding its wings - no wingbeats. The one that leaves me shaking my head in wonder is when it hunts close to the ground - say three feet above the mountainside - and travelling at a slow, human walking-pace, all of it on unbeating wings, and sometimes for half an hour at a time.

No wind tunnel, no dismemberment, just spending time with the living creature, which is the only way to really understand it.

JIM CRUMLEY

BALQUHIDDER, PERTHSHIRE

Blair's legacy of deceit about Iraq

Sir: I am intrigued by the news that Tony Blair has sent a 22-page "dossier" to Labour MPs about his record, especially the part about foreign policy ("Marking 10 years of New Labour in power, Blair stakes his claim for lasting legacy", 27 April).

The implications of what he is reported to have said is that Britain "punching above its weight" is more important than international law. Do the MPs who have received the dossier understand this is what he is saying? Do they agree with this ordering of priorities? I certainly don't.

Blair also appears to be admitting that regime change was all along the reason for invading Iraq, contrary to the assurances that he gave at the time, and that the business of WMD was a smokescreen to avoid a discussion about international law.

Do the MPs who have received the dossier understand that this is an admission that they (and the people) were deliberately misled?

PAUL ROBSON

LONDON SW2

Sir: "His death went largely unnoticed". The reminder by Independent correspondents of the deaths of so many young Britons in this "ill-conceived conflict" (report, 26 April) raises a question that must have lurked in many a mind in the past three years or so.

If Mr Blair is so certain that this is a legitimate war and that the sacrifices are so worthwhile, why are his sons not clamouring to play their part in it?

Why have those servicemen who, willing as they are to serve their country in any legitimate undertaking, been treated with such malevolence when they have said, in accordance with the Nuremberg verdicts, "We refuse to serve in an illegal war"?

H V F WINSTONE

BIDEFORD, DEVON

Sir: There has been much debate about whether Prince Harry would be deployed with his unit to Iraq. The irony is that it would not be an issue if the press had not made such a story of it and published so much specific information.

Wales Jnr would just have been another British soldier indistinguishable from his peers to the local population or the insurgents were it not for the very helpful British media. Now if he is deployed amongst this media circus he will indeed pose an extra risk to his unit.

I can fully understand this young officer's desire to be deployed with the men he has been trained to be responsible for. Military training will have instilled in him that feeling of responsibility and comradeship and I'm sure he would be frustrated enough to resign his commission if prevented from going with them.

This would be a sad day for him and the country as we lose another positive role model to ridiculous press intrusion. I'm sure members of the media will cry that the public has the right and the desire to know, but when will you start to weigh the cost of this? Selling newspapers is not the most noble of endeavours; the Prince's wish to lead and protect his men in battle cuts more ice with me.

MARK CURTIS

LONDON SW15

Sir: In contradistinction to the anti-war left's oft-repeated objections, there does seem to be at least one pro-war reason to bring our troops home: they seem to have stopped killing the enemy.

Instead, British forces have been reduced to "patrolling" the streets while attempting to dodge roadside bombs. If we aren't actually there to eliminate would-be suicide bombers (and the extremists who support them), we might just as well pack up and quit.

KEITH GILMOUR

BEARSDEN, GLASGOW

Braced for battle of the wheelie bins

Sir: Shall we soon see the growth of a new phenomenon: "rubbish rage"? Penalties are promised for disposing of more than an allotted quota of rubbish so ways of avoiding them will be found. Fly-tipping is already with us so there is the opportunity for skirmishes between tippers and landowners or vigilantes.

In an urban setting, where neighbours' bins may be close to each other, some, who have achieved their quota, may be tempted to place rubbish in other people's bins. The scope for conflict is considerable.

But let us look on the bright side. The politics of waste disposal offers manufacturing and marketing opportunities. Who will provide lockable waste bins? Shall we have offers for our waste to be moved at less than the standard fee or fine, and no questions asked? Where there's muck there's brass.

ERNEST POTTER

HUDDERSFIELD, WEST YORKSHIRE

Sir: Here on Gozo we enjoy daily rubbish collections, except for Sundays. Maybe your readers consider this is because the climate is hotter here. Yesterday it was 72F and London was 73F.

Is the proposal to change to fortnightly collections of rubbish in the UK yet another move towards its entering the third world?

ANTHONY FIELD

ZEBBUG, GOZO, MALTA

Sir: Tesco give customers a green loyalty card point for every bag they reuse. Ikea charge 10p for every carrier bag they provide. On the average visit to Tesco, I rarely see more than one other person with their own bags. On the average visit to Ikea, it is almost unknown to see anyone actually using an Ikea bag.

Isn't it about time the major supermarkets, of which Tesco is the market leader, stopped making noises about being green, and actually took effective steps to stem the avalanche of plastic waste they create?

PAM OWEN

LONDON SE20

Media images of mental disorder

Sir: Would you please inform whoever wrote the headline "Cameron drubbed by brawn of bipolar Brown" (19 April) that bipolar disorder is the leading cause of suicide, the mortality rate is two to three times higher than that of the general population, that 10 to 20 per cent of bipolar patients take their own lives, and that between a quarter and half of all patients attempt to do so at least once in their life, that between one and two in 100 adults suffers from it, and that it is a lifelong condition for which there is no cure.

Columnists frequently resort to this lazy labelling, which is offensive to both the person being described and to bipolar patients themselves, but to describe a non-sufferer as bipolar in a heading is an outrage. Such a distasteful trivialising of a life sentence of mental anguish is unforgivable, and demonstrates a pitiful paucity of linguistic inventiveness.

DR PAULINE KIERNAN

OXFORD

Sir: With reference to the recent killings at Virginia Tech, I would like to raise the point that while Cho Seung-Aui was widely described as being mentally "disturbed", not all those who experience mental distress are prone to violent behaviour. Indeed, while one in four people experience mental ill health, the majority are gentle individuals whose illness rarely leads them towards such tendencies.

As one who has experienced mental distress, I find it disconcerting that the media often only relates incidents concerning mental ill-health when violence has been involved. In the public mind, the link between mental ill-health and violence is made concrete, and the terrible stigmas and stereotypes surrounding such diagnosis perpetuated.

While there has been much good reporting on mental health issues, I hope the reporting of such terrible events will be such that it is understood there is no inherent link between mental distress and violent behaviour.

DAVID SWEETSUR

HANLEY, STOKE-ON-TRENT

They bicker about beauty as trees fall

Sir: Lovers of the landscape of Bristol Downs and the Avon Gorge are faced with a similar problem to that being experienced by the unfortunate inhabitants of the Ashdown Forest (report, 21 April).

There are plans in the pipeline to cut down half of the hanging woodland on the Bristol side of the Avon Gorge. One key area has already been felled.

Natural England wants to recreate the open grassland habitats that have slowly returned to natural woodland since the cessation of grazing before the Second World War.

As in the Ashdown Forest, there is valuable biodiversity in the Avon Gorge. Here, too, professionals charged with its management appear to have little understanding of the aesthetic impact of their activities.

Here, too, they argue the toss about the nature of beauty. But the truth is that most people enjoy natural-looking landscapes and these are not achieved by the kinds of aggressive habitat-management favoured in conservation circles.

It is unfortunate that the drive to secure the biodiversity of our natural landscapes has not been balanced by the need to preserve the spirit and beauty of place. Conservation managers have a limited brief for aesthetic considerations and little training in this field as is shown by outrage their activities have caused.

ROGER YATES

BRISTOL DOWNSWATCH

Football needs an open market

Sir: Two of the three "Voices of Experience" invited to deconstruct England's winter of discontent on the cricket field (20 April) make the point that using overseas players at county level restricts opportunities for bringing on promising young English players.

A similar point may be made with respect to the national football squad and the use of overseas players by the top-flight clubs. Your experts suggest stiffer controls; I suggest rather the opposite.

Commercial considerations now rule both games and there is no realistic prospect of reversing that trend. So the rules of international engagement need to be changed.

Contracts to overseas players should in future require them to make themselves available to the national side where they earn their bread and butter rather than to their birth or adopted country.

This would have the immediate effect of better matching national and domestic performance. It would also, undoubtedly, encourage some overseas stars to think twice before defecting.

MALCOLM ROSS

TOTNES, DEVON

All Fayed's fault

Sir: It is due to the complaints of Mohamed Fayed, employer of Paris Ritz staff involved in Diana and Dodi's fatal travel arrangements, that holding an inquest into their obviously accidental deaths has been so long delayed (letter, 26 April). The expense to the public has already been enormous and will be much greater.

JENNIFER MILLER

LONDON SW15

Tuned in

Sir: It was heartening to read Vassily Petrenko's article (26 April) about the power of classical music and its effects for good on the young who would otherwise never hear it in school. Why do school music curricula seem biased against the European classical tradition? Petrenko's statement and the Royal Liverpool Orchestra must be hugely applauded.

RAYMOND HEAD

CHIPPING NORTON, OXFORDSHIRE

A stab at accuracy

Sir: If Paul Blezard went into the bullring against a bull he would deserve to be tossed and gored for disservice to the Spanish language because he would be carrying a concept, not an artefact (letter, 26 April). The matador's sword is el estoque. La estocada is the act of killing the bull at its fore end. So who deserves a short stab in the back of the neck, then?

FELICITY ROLLAND

CRAWLEY, WEST SUSSEX

Credit where it's due

Sir: The letter published on 26 April under my name was, in fact, written by my daughter, Sarah, who lives in Holland and has dual British and Dutch nationality. She is staying with me at present and used my emailer and unfortunately forgot to insert her name. I agree with all she says but would like her to have the credit on this important subject.

GF STEELE

IPSWICH

Baby swap shop?

Sir: How many readers, while travelling the M4 in Berkshire, have spotted the sign for Reading Services, and wondered whether to pull in and renew their library books? If they do, they will find the rather more mysterious and sinister Baby Changing Unit.

PETER BROOK

MALVERN