Letters: Nuclear power

Reasons to distrust the government line on nuclear power

Sir: So Tony and his cronies come out for nuclear power. Gosh, that took us all by surprise, didn't it?

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I don't know what depresses me most about this decision. Is it the paucity of vision - plumping for the evil elephant you know, rather than the potentially good ones you don't? Is it the wilful ignorance of where the raw materials come from (politicians seem to think that nuclear power stations run on hot air, much like Westminster, rather than uranium ore, which comes from a variety of potentially unstable countries, much like oil and gas)? Is it the refusal to see the connection between power generation and weapons proliferation? Is it the lip-service paid to public consultation, while privately having no intention of taking it into consideration?

No, it's none of these. It's the refusal to site the things where they're most needed - in central London, Birmingham or Manchester. Any power engineer will tell you that with electricity a loss is incurred proportional to distance between source and destination. If nuclear power is so safe, then why site the things as far away from centres of population as possible?

EDWARD COLLIER

GOTHERINGTON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Sir: Throughout the Cold War, nuclear weapons were built to combat the Soviet threat. Now harnessing the atom for peace can also protect against Russian energy hegemony.

As a bonus, nuclear power is safe, reliable, carbon-free and, as the price of carbon will make other forms of generation more expensive, it is also economically competitive. Dominic Lawson (22 May) was right. It has always been the best option.

SIMON MOORE

THE STOCKHOLM NETWORK LONDON N1

We must do justice to the Blair legacy

Sir: I am very concerned about the apparent lack of recognition of the Prime Minister's legacy, so let's just remind the public of some the Prime Minister's finest achievements.

Hutton inquiry; Butler inquiry; Bloody Sunday inquiry (now in its ninth year, still not completed); cash for honours; spin; enhanced dossier on WMD; weapons of mass destruction; Kelly suicide; uncontrolled immigration; 24 hours to save the NHS; pension crisis (guess Brown should really take the credit); Ecclestone.

If you feel the list needs sexing up a bit more let me know as I have plenty of other items and names to add to it.

J D WHARF

CHICHESTER, WEST SUSSEX

Sir: I imagine I am not the only one tired of your continued carping at Tony Blair. I did not vote for his party but must give him his due. He took over a non-electable "Old Labour", moved to the middle ground and won a landslide.

As a country we are incomparably better off. He has moved closer to the EU where we should be, worked tirelessly for aid to Africa and patiently for a resolution in Northern Ireland. The Independent did not complain of his intervention in Kosovo or Sierra Leone. Yes, he made a fundamental mistake in joining America in Iraq, probably unaware of how a weak President was being manipulated by Cheney, Rumsfeld and co.

His ready smile annoys some people, but he was born with it and will never lose it.

H G BUSBY

LONG HANBOROUGH, OXFORDSHIRE

Sir: Of all the reviews of Tony Blair's legacy the ones I find most surprising are those which refer to his Christian faith as though that had been pivotal in his policy making. True, he has been supportive in campaigning for trade justice but over a wide area of domestic policy he has largely ignored the pleadings from faith communities.

Recently there has been the case of the Sexual Orientation Regulations where the "gay rights" agenda has taken priority over the rights of those with an orthodox Christian conscience. In schools, the distribution of condoms and morning-after pills has taken precedence over moral education, even though such a policy has led to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases and in contributing to Britain having the highest abortion rate in Europe.

Economically it has been more advantageous for couples to live together rather than marry, and mothers have been pressured into dumping young children in nurseries rather than being helped to be good home-makers.

Commenting on an adulterous minister Tony Blair said "he'd done nothing wrong", quite apart from trying to conceal the sleaze of cash for peerages.

On top of all this we've had the liberalising of drugs and drink laws, the promotion of big-time gambling, and new media laws which have made it more difficult to get a clean-up of TV.

JOHN WAINWRIGHT

POTTERS BAR, HERTFORDSHIRE

Sir: Michael Petek (Letters, 23 May) argues that the Prime Minister could and should never face prosecution over Iraq. Mr Petek can quote all the international law he likes and for as long as he likes: none of it can alter the simple reality that Blair gained the support of Parliament by telling lies. In the end, that is the issue.

ROBERT BOTTAMLEY

HEDON, EAST YORKSHIRE

Thalidomide and animal testing

Sir: Simon Festing may wish to be more cautious in his use of the terms "scientifically illiterate" and "pure hypocrisy" directed toward Julia Stephenson (Letters, 21 May), especially when the language arguably applies to his own use of unsubstantiated generalities in his criticism of her column.

His unsubstantiated claims about thalidomide warrant response. After the thalidomide disaster, extensive efforts were made to replicate its effects in humans in over 50 types of animals, including even armadillos and ferrets. It wasn't until the New Zealand white rabbit was tested that "success" was realised.

Even if all prescribed animal testing were done in the typical species, thalidomide would be approved for human use even today. It is true that that better toxicity data should have been required before the drug's approval, but this could not be obtained reliably from animals.

The comment that Tony Benn's pacemaker "depended on animal research for its development" is similarly misleading. From attempts to resuscitate a stillborn infant in 1929 through the development of the first artificial pacemaker, the external pacemaker, the bipolar electrode, the implantable pacemaker, and modern dual chamber and rate responsive devices, the essential advances occurred in human applications.

JARROD BAILEY PhD

GREAT WHITTINGTON NORTHUMBERLAND

Cancer successes - and failures

Sir: Thanks to earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments we are witnessing improved survival rates for some cancers (report, 16 May). However the incidence of many cancers has been steadily rising over many decades.

According to the Office for National Statistics, between 1971 and 2003 age-adjusted cancer incidence has gone up in England and Wales for a number of cancers: non-Hodgkins lymphoma (up 206 per cent in men and 220 per cent in women); prostate up 212 per cent (prostate now exceeds lung cancer in men); breast up 80 per cent on an already very high base; testes up 115 per cent.

The real success story in reducing cancer incidence in men has been the fall in the rate of lung cancer in men due to cessation of smoking - incidence has declined by 45 per cent from a very high base. This clearly shows that prevention programmes work. There is increasing scientific evidence that man-made chemicals are linked to cancer, particularly the hormone-related cancers and cancers of the immune system. We need to take the success of smoking prevention programmes and work on reducing human exposure to harmful chemicals.

JAMIE PAGE

THE CANCER PREVENTION AND EDUCATION SOCIETY, LONDON E14

ID cards safeguard civil liberties

Sir: I can assure Mr Langham-Fitt that the National Identity Scheme, which will link unique biometric data to a secure database with strict rules outlining its use, will be accredited by the Government's security advisers to the highest standards ("Police chief calls for debate on erosion of civil liberties", 18 May).

It is simply misleading to lump CCTV together with the scheme, or to talk about the scheme purely in the context of helping to tackle crime and terrorism. The Government's proposals are designed to safeguard, not erode, civil liberties by protecting people's true identity against fraud and by enabling them to prove their identity more easily when accessing public or private services. The Government recognises that some people are concerned about the scheme infringing their civil liberties - that is why there are stringent safeguards built into the Identity Cards Act. The information that may be held by the National Identity Register is strictly limited by the Act - only Parliament would be able to change this.

There is absolutely no question of an ID card holding sensitive personal information such as medical records, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions or religious or other beliefs, and individuals will always have subject access rights under the Data Protection Act to information in their entry. There will also be an independent National Identity Scheme Commissioner whose task will be to keep how both identity cards and the Register are used under review.

JOAN RYAN MP

HOME OFFICE MINISTER LONDON SW1

Ancient history looks to the future

Sir: On 3 April you kindly printed my letter about the proposal to drop ancient history A-level. Readers who have kept an eye on the topic will be pleased to learn that in the House of Lords on 16 May Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, announced that the Government does not wish to see ancient history dropped and has invited the OCR examination board and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority "to come forward with proposals for its continuance".

The campaign to save ancient history gained massive support from pupils, teachers, parliamentarians, and the general public, with a petition on the No 10 website continuing to gather signatures by the thousand.

The announcement is most welcome, a victory not only for the popular voice but also for common sense. As teachers and academics, we can now look forward to working closely with OCR to devise the best possible syllabus for the study of Greek and Roman history in the 21st century.

GRAHAM SHIPLEY

PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

Tinpot gods of 'atheistic' cruelty

Sir: David Middlemiss (letter, 21 May) rekindles an old chestnut by dragging the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and so on, into his "atheist squad".

The problem with those rascals was not their atheism, but their ability to persuade a very large number of people to venerate them as gods. They may have been atheists, but they surely knew how to be the focus of a religion. Indeed, in order to be a god one has, necessarily, to be an atheist oneself, that is, not to recognise any other other God.

So please stop mentioning those impostors in the same breath as us ordinary atheists. It shows bad taste.

EDUARD J ZUIDERWIJK

CAMBRIDGE

Sir: David Middlemiss is quite right in supposing that atheists can be every bit as cruel and bigoted as god-believers. The difference being that gas chambers and the machine-gun were not around when the levers of power were in the hands of the religious. However, they did pretty well with the limited means at their disposal, with the added advantage that their cruelty and killing was sanctioned by a god (Samuel 15.3 et al).

DAVID HOOLEY

NEWMARKET

Sir: David Middlemiss is right about Stalin, Lenin and Pol Pot being atheists, but Hitler and Goebbels were Christians, Amin was a Muslim and Himmler started a weird pseudo-pagan cult of his own.

LAURIE MARKS

QUEENS' COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Bring them home

Sir: Throughout history, invaders have been resisted. Our soldiers are dying in a hopeless cause. Gordon Brown's first act as PM should be to announce that all British troops will have left Iraq by Christmas and the troops fighting in Afghanistan will be brought home by April 2008.

VALERIE CREWS

BECKENHAM, KENT

Popular choice

Sir: Not for the first time, you use the phrase "odious populism" in reference to the BNP (leading article, 23 May). Does this phrase actually mean anything other than "a popular choice by the electorate which I don't like"? For example, can I use the phrase in reference to The Independent or any other publication I take a dislike to, and if not, why not?

R S MUSGRAVE

DURHAM

Watching the criminals

Sir: Councillor Alan Laing (letter, 23 May) may be interested to learn that rather than watch surveillance videos of their stolen cars being driven away, ordinary working people would prefer their taxes allocated to effective preventative policing. Then he might not need to quote smug statistics concerning alleged falls in meteoric levels of crime. Are his well-funded youth services attended by the same feral children that make bus travel a frightening impossibility for most of his vulnerable constituents? CCTV surveillance on public transport has failed to stem the almost daily stabbings in this metropolis.

SIMON WALTERS

LONDON E9

Take no notice

Sir: Driving home through North Yorkshire today I saw a notice saying "For Wetherby, follow existing signs". For other places should we follow signs which don't exist?

BARBARA CULLINGWORTH

EAST MORTON, WEST YORKSHIRE

Renamed duck

Sir: If we must have Mumbai duck (letter, 23 May), we can't avoid the Kolkata Cup.

JOANNE ASTON

OVER SILTON, NORTH YORKSHIRE

Sir: Have any of your readers ever seen the musical Miss Ho Chi Minh City?

STUART GOODACRE

LINCOLN