Letters: As the junior doctors’ strikes rumble on, it’s patients who are left to pay the price

SIR – Given that there are around 75,000 junior doctors, most of whom are well paid in the grand scheme of things, the estimated £1 billion cost of their strike action (report, August 11) works out at more than £13,000 per head – some of which has evidently gone into the pockets of consultant doctors, who have also elected to go on strike. 

Was this financial impact ever taken into account in the negotiations, or has the poor old British taxpayer yet again been shafted by the joint incompetence of our elected Government and its public servants?

John Kellie
Woking, Surrey

SIR – Junior doctors will no doubt hope that, now the eye-watering cost of their strikes is known, a decision will be made to give them the pay rise they are asking for. 

The £1 billion lost so far could have been spent on healthcare. But can the country really afford to meet the doctors’ demands? 

In all disputes, there is a tipping point where the loss of income to those taking action and the cost of the strikes to the employers become unsustainable, and a compromise has to be reached. As the Government has so far failed to end the dispute, perhaps Sir Keir Starmer could propose a solution.

Jonathan Mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall

SIR – I read your report (“Senior doctors threaten more strikes in September if No 10 ignores pay talks”) with great interest.

I am a consultant who won’t be striking. Although I agree with my NHS colleagues that calls for better remuneration and improved working conditions are appropriate, I feel that the harm being caused to patients by prolonged industrial action is disproportionately high. 

In my own field of cancer surgery, we have seen numerous operations cancelled (sometimes on multiple occasions) and subsequent treatment delays. Unfortunately, this can lead to progression from a cancer that can be radically treated to something which cannot. The Government and trade unions need to reconsider their positions in light of the damage that the current disputes are causing to an already overstretched health service.

Dr Priyad Ariyaratnam FRCS
Consultant thoracic surgeon
Plymouth, Devon

The ECHR question

SIR – Jim Riley (Letters, August 11) urges the Tories to “listen to the country” and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

I wonder who Mr Riley is hearing these demands to leave the ECHR from. Most people I speak to think we need more human rights, not fewer, and I am not convinced the country shares Mr Riley’s views.

Alexander Lunn
Edinburgh

SIR – This country has a tradition of tolerance stretching back hundreds of years. 
Why, then, do so many seem to believe that removing ourselves from the ECHR will turn us into a nation of barbarians?

Alistair Mackay
Dunoon, Argyllshire 

SIR – Rebecca Niblock (Letters, August 11), a lawyer, writes that leaving the ECHR could have unintended consequences.

She explains that it would restrict co-operation with the EU on stopping Channel crossings. Many would ask: what co-operation?

Michael West
Canford Heath, Dorset

Good deeds thwarted

SIR – I have been working with a remarkable organisation, started by a young man, which has to date procured, equipped and delivered to Ukraine 42 vehicles (mainly medical). 

With others, I drove an ambulance as far as Zaporizhzhia in December. I personally handed it to a brave Norwegian working for an American charity. Small organisations such as this can ensure safe delivery to well-run medical charities – and this one has done so without charitable status.

On my return, I wanted to raise funds to enable me to repeat the process. I quickly obtained pledges of just under £100,000. These pledges cannot be processed properly without a charity, so I decided to embark on what I believed to be a relatively straightforward registration process. How wrong I was. 

I have been on this frustrating journey since February, and my experience with the Charity Commission is identical to that of Mr and Mrs Carpenter, as described by Charles Moore (“The Charity Commission puts bureaucracy before Ukraine”, Comment, August 1). 

The quotes in his article are, word-for-word, the same as the responses I have received. The suggestion by the Charity Commission that there might be trouble with EU bureaucracy is so absurd as to illustrate its real intent: to find every excuse to reject these applications out of hand.

I have now stopped fundraising because I believe that the Charity Commission will not relent in its determination to prevent any of us from helping these brave people – people who are fighting a war on behalf of us all. The Charity Commission should be held to account.

Michael McCalmont
Newbury, Berkshire

SIR – The chief executive of the Charity Commission (Letters, August 3) says she is proud of its work to support charities, and describes its process as “rigorous” and “robust”.

Yet Lytham Institute Trust has been waiting since May 2022 for the commission’s decision following public consultation. Meanwhile our institute – built by the community for the community – stands empty in the heart of town.

Brian Turner
Lytham, Lancashire 

Kew’s prudent plan

SIR – As highlighted in your report (August 10), the proximity between the dried and living plant collections at Kew Gardens has many positives; but critically, substantial technical assessments show that Kew’s heritage buildings cannot provide long-term security against fire and pests, nor enough space for expanding science operations, collections, and partnerships. A fire in the herbarium would cause truly irreparable damage to a global asset for science and conservation.

Kew’s executive and trustees have therefore committed to move the herbarium offsite to provide the best conditions of safety, access, and usage for generations to come. The preferred destination – the Thames Valley Science Park – is under an hour from Kew and Heathrow, and will continue to welcome international and national scientists. 

This is also where the Natural History Museum will move large parts of its collections. Once the specimens are relocated, the current herbarium will be restored and converted into a hub for research and training, with modern laboratories and public access. Biodiversity is in crisis. Kew is in a unique position to address this. A new herbarium is part of our plan to do so.

Professor Alexandre Antonelli 
Director of Science
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Against SUVs

SIR – Ed Wiseman’s remarks on SUVs (telegraph.co.uk, August 8) are spot on. 

These vehicles weigh more, so have worse miles-per-gallon figures. They are very top-heavy, so handle less well, and have much less boot space than an estate, as well as less headroom. How can people want to drive them if they are concerned about the planet and their impact on it?

I have never understood what there is to like about SUVs – apart, perhaps, from the feeling that because you’re physically higher, you are in some way more important and powerful. 

Ian Brent-Smith
Bicester, Oxfordshire

Atheism and science

SIR – May I offer a moderating voice in response to Richard Luscombe’s letter (“The claims of atheism”, August 9)?

I made a journey from militant atheism through atheism to lapsed atheism and then agnosticism. This came about after I read a biography of one of my scientific heroes – Henry Tizard. In the 1930s he was instrumental, through his chairmanship of the Aeronautical Research Committee, in the development of British radar, which eventually made a crucial difference in the Battle of Britain. He said that “no true scientist can be an atheist”, and the author said of him that “he felt agnosticism to be part of the scientific inheritance; he could never justify to himself the blind faith of the atheist”.

Don Webber
Bembridge, Isle of Wight

Faulty subtitles 

SIR – The fashion for mumbling on television means that subtitles are frequently the only means of following a drama or learning quiz solutions.

Sadly, the subtitles are themselves often misplaced or incorrect. In a recent Sky Arts documentary about Orson Welles, Macbeth’s three witches had their opening speech transcribed as “When shall we three meet again? In thunder I think or in rain” – which, for the aurally challenged viewer, added insult to injury.

Dame Esther Rantzen
Lyndhurst, Hampshire

Don’t deny diners the pleasure of eating alone

SIR – You report that restaurants in Barcelona are turning away solo diners in favour of groups of tourists who are likely to spend more.

It reminds me of the businessman Nubar Gulbenkian’s observation that the best number of diners is two: “Myself and a damn good head waiter”.

Sandy Pratt
Storrington, West Sussex 

SIR – I have noticed over the past couple of years that it has become nearly impossible to find a pub lunch menu that includes sandwiches. 

We read of the problems besetting the industry regarding footfall, price rises and so on, and I feel tenants and landlords are missing a trick here. Not every punter wants a cooked lunch (or even “light bites”) and surely the potential mark-up on a decent sandwich is appealing for these establishments. Nor is it particularly difficult to slap a couple of slices of wholemeal around some tuna or ham. 

In leafy Warwickshire the absence of pub sandwiches means that we often don’t bother going. I wonder how many other potential lunchtime customers are lost because of this (admittedly first-world) predicament.

Howard March
Birmingham

Welcome at Wilko

SIR – I am sure that Ben Marlow’s analysis (Business, August 11) of the financial reasons for Wilko’s demise is correct. However, I take issue with his claim that shopping at Wilko was “undoubtedly pretty forgettable”.

On the contrary, I found in all the stores I visited something that is sadly lacking in many retailers – namely, polite, helpful and efficient staff providing excellent customer service. This is to be appreciated, and it will 
be missed, unless a buyer can be found.

Stephen Howey
Woodford Green, Essex

SIR – I am a fan of Wilko, but what worries me most about the current situation is that my garden birds – which include a raven – love its wild bird seed, which is far superior to anything else and more affordable. I hope a buyer can be found – otherwise the birds may abandon me.

Chris Rigg 
Horwich, Lancashire

Darkest hour

SIR – Is anyone else disconcerted in the dark hours of the night to find their smart speaker declaring hollowly, a propos nothing in particular: “Sorry – something went wrong”?

At 2am, this raises all kinds of existential questions.

Neil Sewell-Rutter
Oxford

Letters to the Editor

We accept letters by email and post. Please include name, address, work and home telephone numbers.  
ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT   
EMAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk   
FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk 
NEWSLETTER: sign up to receive the award-winning Telegraph Conversations here