Letters: Deportation into danger

Sir: Pierre was a nurse in a military hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the murder of President Kabila, officers were arrested, and Pierre and a doctor were asked to give powerful doses of morphine to them. They refused, and were arrested, beaten and imprisoned. Pierre escaped because his brother bribed the guards, and he managed to get to the UK in 2002.

Now he is in Oakington Detention Centre, near Cambridge. He faces deportation today, on a HO-chartered flight to the DRC. Pierre is certain that if he is returned he will be murdered.

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In 2004, police stopped a car, driven by another Congolese, in which Pierre was a passenger. He was arrested because he was not carrying documents, and held to await removal. Through BID (Bail for Immigration Detainees) he was granted a bail hearing. The notification stated he was being detained because he had arrived without proper documents, and because he "had tried to obtain money by false pretences using a credit card".

But police told BID South there was no record against him. BID sent a fax to York House for the hearing. The adjudicator said the immigration service should never have mentioned documents because all asylum-seekers came in on false documents and there was no stain on his character. Because of letters of unqualified recommendation by those who knew Pierre, he was given bail without need for sureties.

Since then he has observed all restrictions imposed on him and reported weekly to police. He is also engaged to a woman from the DRC who has exceptional leave to remain. His detention notice includes unsubstantiated charges: "You have previously failed or refused to leave the UK when required to do so." There is no evidence of this. It also reads: "You have not produced satisfactory evidence of your identity, nationality or lawful basis to be in the UK."

People who flee their country never do, as the adjudicator had pointed out. But the HO obviously thinks he is Congolese, or they wouldn't be deporting him there.

It is imperative that this particular deportation is stopped.

COLIN FIRTH

LONDON NW6

The real issue about lending by banks

Sir: I have followed your campaigns against the banks with a degree of desperation because the real issue is not being addressed, which is the issue of fractional reserve lending and the disgraceful way in which banks have progressively loosened lending criteria.

In 1970, a family was limited to borrowing a maximum of one year's salary of the principal wage-earner to buy a home. Property prices reflected that availability of money and cost, not surprisingly, about one year's salary. Lending is now offered at a five-times multiple of double incomes, so houses now reflect that and cost five times average total household income.

This lending should be renamed creation, because that is what it is; banks lend nothing, they create the money out of thin air. It is widely known within banking circles that money ceased to have any intrinsic value after sterling came off the gold standard, together with the dollar, in the early 1970s, and they were free to create as much debt as they chose.

The banks encouraged women to take on debt alongside their husbands, which effectively snared young women into 25-year financial commitments, ignoring the fact that they may choose at some time to care for their babies.

This, in turn, led to children being denied a full-time mother because she had no choice but to continue working to pay the mortgage. This led directly to higher levels of delinquency, and ultimately, to the gangster culture we have recently read so much about.

If politicians are serious about supporting the family, helping women and children, and reducing crime and other societal ills, they should ask exactly what contribution banks make to society, and set lending limits.

That would allow house prices to reduce to an affordable level for average families and liberate women from the shackles of a mortgage which denies them choice in the most important aspect of their lives, the upbringing of children.

ADRIAN BUCKLEY

LEEDS

Sir: In your article on 22 February on unfair and excessive bank charges you could also have drawn attention to the perniciously misleading offers made by such banks.

Here's one example. One high street bank offers 5.75 per cent interest on its Online Saver Account, but points out that no interest is payable on the full balance in any calendar month in which a withdrawal is made.

So, if one never withdraws a single penny during the life of the account, then decides to close it, the investor loses one month's interest on the full amount invested.

In other words, it is impossible, under any circumstances, ever to receive, over the life of the account, the 5.75 per cent being offered.

ROBIN BOYLE

CAMBRIDGE

Sir: Is there not a case for non-direct debit charges being illegal, or at the least extortionate? Up until a year ago, I didn't have a bank account that would allow direct debit, therefore I couldn't pay DD anyway.

I have always paid NTL by Paypal, the electronic method. I have been with them for six years. At first, there was no charge for that, then it was £1. Now it costs me £5 a month, a quarter of my phone bill.

I have a problem with what is, effectively, writing a blank cheque and would rather I didn't, but these fees take the biscuit.

T GRANT

LONDON W3

Sir: It is all very well for Mr Croggon (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers) to provide statistics to indicate that only an average of £46 per annum may be earned by banks on money at their disposal from a client's current account (letter, 23 February).

But for every million clients, this sum earns the banks what could courteously be estimated at £46m. With modern technology, it cannot cost anything like this to administer these accounts.

DR ANTHONY FIELD

LONDON EC2

Ultimately, we must have road pricing

Sir: For every genuine hard luck story such as that of Lady Eveline Bright (letter, 23 February), there are 10 families who have chosen to live miles from public transport, and who expect the rest of us to provide road space and cheap fuel so they can transport themselves to work and their children to school.

Even in Lady Eveline's case, there is a frequent train service from Bridge of Allan and Stirling to Edinburgh, which would permit her husband to avoid the congested part of the road system into Edinburgh and, at £10 return, cost him no more than the fuel and parking, let alone the true marginal cost and other hassles of a long daily drive.

Herein, of course, lies the principal objection to the small area city centre congestion charge that Edinburgh citizens voted against: it would tend to push businesses out of the congestion zone. That is why a form of road pricing is ultimately needed.

There is no reason why it should not be combined with relief for people who can demonstrate genuine hardship. If the M9 were in France, Lady Eveline's husband would pay a hefty toll. And the alternative journey to Edinburgh off the motorway would make him switch to the railway swiftly indeed.

PETER D BROWN

MORECAMBE

Sir: I have just found my A level economics exam paper (University of London) dated Summer 1966. The first question, which I apparently answered, read: "The way to deal with the traffic problem is to charge motorists the full price for the use of roads. Discuss."

This was 40 years ago; I wonder what the road situation would be like now if this issue had been tackled then.

PAUL MONK

ASHBY DE LA ZOUCH, LEICESTERSHIRE

Bombing villages is difficult to justify

Sir: The use of aerial bombardment of villages, apparently executed by US aircraft and supported by the UK and the EU, is difficult to justify.

Where are the Taliban meant to live? Do their views on education, especially of women, justify the killing of women and children and the destruction of villages? Would this be the preference of women if they could choose?

At least their culture does not tolerate the growing of opium, at present a major cause of death and crime in Europe, dwarfing the recent casualties of war.

J H EDWARDS

OXFORD

We still do not have a level tennis court

Sir: Wimbledon's decision to pay the same prize money to women as to men does not introduce equality, but reinforces the bias in favour of women.

To win the trophy, men need to play seven matches, and a minimum of 21 sets (and a maximum of 35). Women require at least 14, and never more than 21.

The better you are, the closer you get to the lower figure. Last year, Federer was almost as "productive" as possible, taking just 22 sets (and 201 games). His £655,000 works out at £29,773 per set. Mauresmo needed 17 sets (dropping three) to pocket her £625,000, but her rate per set, £36,765, was 12.4 per cent higher than Federer's.

Nadal, the men's runner-up, played 24 sets (and his 281 games kept him on court longer than the two women finalists combined, who played 270). His reward of £13,650 a set was more than a third less than Henin-Hardenne, his female counterpart, who got £20,830.

The two losing male semi-finalists got £327,500 between them for 44 sets (and 437 games) and the women who lost at that stage pocketed less, at £303,000, but for only 24 sets (and 220 games), working out at £12,625 per set against a mere £7,443 for the men. There were an average of 10 games per male set against just under nine for the ladies.

HARVEY R COLE

WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE

An analysis with all the right signals

Sir: Hurray for Janet Street-Porter. What she said about rail franchises, "It's time to get our trains back on track" (Opinion, 22 February), deserves the serious attention of everyone who uses our railways.

Like her, I am a regular passenger on GNER trains on the mainline east coast routes and, like her, I am horrified that the company is about to lose its franchise. As an even more regular user of Virgin's west coast services I can attest that GNER is, by far, superior, in every way.

The rolling stock is more comfortable, the staff better trained and the catering miles better. I, too, dread the possibility of Virgin inheriting this franchise.

Indeed, all her perceptive analysis of the present situation lacked was a complete breakdown of exactly how many tens of millions Virgin has already cost the taxpayer.

GILLIAN REYNOLDS

LONDON W2

Sir: I wholeheartedly agree with Janet Street-Porter's views on the excellent service provided by Sir Christopher Garnet and his team at GNER. As a regular user of rail services across the country, I say its standards of service cannot be surpassed.

ANNA HACKET PAIN

LEYBURN, NORTH YORKSHIRE

In tune with respect

Sir: In view of the very respectful reception of "God save the Queen" by the Irish crowd at Croke Park, Dublin on Saturday, will it now be possible for "The Soldiers Song", the Irish national anthem so emotionally sung by the Croke Park crowd, to be played publicly in the UK? To my knowledge, this has never happened. May one hope the Irish national anthem will be treated in future by British authorities with the same respect that they give to all other national anthems?

JOHN WARNER

CAMBERLEY, SURREY

Blame badgers

Sir: The chief executive of the People's Trust for Endangered Species (report, 22 February) states that, "There is something drastic happening to the hedgehog population", and no one appears to have any explanation of why hedgehogs should have declined by 50 per cent in some areas of the UK in the past 15 years. The reason is simple. The disastrous decline has been caused, to a large degree, by the explosion in the badger population. Badgers eat hedgehogs. If you have badgers in an environment, and they have no natural predators, there will be no hedgehogs.

SIMON W YORKE

TRURO, CORNWALL

Seeing the light

Sir. The story about Australia's ban on incandescent bulbs (report, 21 February), says 90 per cent of the energy is "wasted" as heat. Most of the time when I have lights on I also have the central heating running. So if I switch to low-energy bulbs, what I save on lighting costs (and carbon emissions), will be replaced by extra heating costs (and carbon emissions). But I have a "renewables only" electricity supplier, and oil-fired central heating, so using these bulbs would actually increase my carbon emissions.

STEPHEN MARR

BIGGAR, FIFE

Women guilty

Sir: I sympathise with Rachel Bell's concerns about young women being turned into sex objects and the consequences (Opinion, 22 February). But if women were not prepared to sell themselves as sex objects to the lads' mags, the red tops or the porn industry, and dress and behave provocatively when socialising, there wouldn't be much of a problem. Thousands of women choose to live this way. Until women adopt more appropriate behaviour I can see no solution to this.

A DAVIES

BURTON ON TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE

Woody's travels

Sir: Elizabeth Nash asserts (23 February) that, until Match Point, "Woody Allen had never filmed outside his native New York". There is the cogent, superior matter of Love and Death.

CHRISTOPHER HAWTREE

HOVE, SUSSEX

Urn earnt income

Sir: Dr E A French says junior doctors in the 1950s referred to cremation certificate fees as "ashcash" (letter, 21 February). At our hospital medical school, we disdained the vulgarity of "ashcash"; we referred to "urn earn".

DR P M J BENNETT

WOKING, SURREY