Hate your heat pump? Then buy a better one! Letters in The Week on the pros and cons of heat pumps.

The letters below appeared in the October 23 edition of The Week having first been published in The Daily Telegraph.  It appears to me that air-source heat pumps are a waste of money and effort, and ground-source heat pumps are only viable if you have room on your land for 320 feet of trench – fine if you are fortunate enough to own “fields”!

Hate your heat pump?

To The Daily Telegraph.

I’m no expert, but I have had personal experience of a heat pump during the past seven years.  It was sourced and installed by a German company.  Does the Government know how cumbersome they are, and how they dribble water?  Ours is installed outside in our back yard, as there’s no way we could accommodate such a large appliance inside our home.  We have a thriving moss patch around it.

Do ministers know how they guzzle electricity in colder weather in order to function at all, or how loud they are?  I’ve had to apologise to neighbours many times over the years about the noise, which kicks in at the most unexpected and inopportune times.

Maja Dijkstra, Glasgow.

Then buy a better one.

To The Daily Telegraph.

Maja Dijkstra perpetuates the commonly held belief that all heat pumps are air-source, but this is not the case.  I have an excellent ground-source heat pump, which provides abundant hot water and keeps the house warm, with lower bills.  It has done so for 13 years.  Its disadvantages were its cost and the inconvenience of installation: it required two 160 foot trenches to be dug in our fields.  However, if all new houses had to have ground-source heat pump, the expense would be incorporated into the cost of the home, and the work could be done by the builders.  Air-source heat pumps are indeed noisy and don’t work very well when it is really cold.  People buy them because they are cheaper and convenient to install – but these appear to be their only advantages.

Elizabeth Jones, Chard, Somerset.

So it seems we will have to give up our efficient gas boilers and install new systems using an expensive and complicated technology in order to meet the Government’s “ambitious” net-zero-carbon targets. Yet we live on an island made of coal which also contains an abundance of shale gas.  Unfortunately our so-called Conservative Government led by Boris, and his wife, appear to be fully supportive of Greta Thunberg and in step with the eco loons belonging to Extinction Rebellion.

Afghanistan and the lessons from history. Letters in The Week.

The letters below appeared in The Week published on Sept 4 2021.  Each show an interesting take on the lessons from history which have, or should that be haven’t, been learned from events in the graveyard of Empires.

Afghanistan: Lessons from history.

To The Guardian

One can perhaps forgive Americans for botching the Afghanistan campaign, but the British, who fought the Afghans three times (1839, 1878 and 1919), should have known better.

When, before the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839, Lord Auckland, the head of the British invading force, asked the Maharajah Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Punjab, to undertake the responsibility of invading Kabul, the Maharajah refused; he knew only too well that they were easy to conquer, but difficult to rule; that they were a mosaic of competing tribes, which ensured that no strong central authority maintained its power over them for too long.  It is a pity that Western leaders could not foresee in 2001 what Ranjit Singh could in 1839.

Randhir Singh Baines, London.

Obviously the Sikhs knew the Afghans far, far better than the British, or anyone else for that matter.

 

To the Financial Times

The British Army’s retreat from Kabul in 1842 was chaotic and ignominious, resulting in the deaths of 16,000 troops and support staff.

However, Britain still had a plan: imperial expansion.  This plan meant the retreat was a minor sideshow.  Britain’s retreat from Kabul today is existentially significant because Britain has no plan.  Having been abandoned by the US and having rejected the possibility of achieving national fulfilment as leader of the EU, Britain, unlike in 1842, stands in self-inflicted desolation.

Professor John Martin, University College London.

This letter arranges and distorts facts in order to make a very thinly veiled attack on Brexit.

To The Times

You report that the air evacuation from Kabul is the biggest since the Berlin blockade in 1948-49.  It is more appropriate to mention the airlift from Kabul in winter 1928-29, the first mass air evacuation by the RAF, in which 586 British and foreign nationals were flown to Peshawar to escape the take-over of Kabul by Bacha-i-Saqao, also known as Habibullah Klalakani.  The operation was co-ordinated by the British legation in Kabul.  Operating in overladen, underpowered aircraft, then flying through the North-West Frontier was no mean feat.  Politicians ought to do more historical research.

Geoff Cowling, British vice-consul, Kabul, 1970-73.

I thought the Berlin blockade of 1948-49 was a matter of supplies being flown in rather than people being flown out.  Be that as it may, a remarkable effort by the RAF on both occasions.

There should be an HMS Duke of Edinburgh!

I had the letter below published in the Western Daily Press on June 3.

Name frigate after Duke of Edinburgh.

The Royal Navy’s new Type 31 frigates will be known as the Inspiration Class.

The Duke of Edinburgh was an inspiration in peace and war. I suggest it would be especially appropriate to name one of these vessels after him.

Steve Wright, Somerset.

I was flattered to see that my letter brought forth this interesting response from Chris Cope, published in the Western Daily Press on June 8.

Navy has already chosen frigate names.

Whereas I agree with Steve Wright (June 3) that one of the type 31 frigates should be named after Prince Philip, unfortunately, the Navy has already selected the names, which have been approved by the Queen.

And apart from the last two, a very uninspiring selection of names they are: Active, Venturer, Cambeltown, Bulldog and Formidable.

However, seeing that these £400million frigates will be lightly armed – not much reassurance if you are serving on board and find you have been despatched to the Persian Gulf – even Bulldog and Formidable hardly seem appropriate.  As for HMS Duke of Edinburgh, the 7 type 26 frigate will be HMS Edinburgh.

Chris Cope, Political Correspondent, Warship World Magazine.

 

I did know that the type 31 frigates had already been named, and that a type 26 frigate is to be named HMS Edinburgh, but it is not unknown for the RN to change the name of a ship before, and sometimes after, launch.

Be that as it may, Mr Cope’s comments on their names and designed armament are interesting – and illuminating!

Incidentally, both these letters were also published in the Western Morning News.

Brexit came too late for the Cadburys factory at Keynsham in North East Somerset. A letter in the WDP.

A letter in the Western Daily Press on February 6.

Cadbury move too late for SW factory.

It has been reported that Cadburys is bringing Dairy Milk chocolate bar production back from Germany and other sites in Europe to its Bournville site in Birmingham.  Very good news for workers in the Midlands, but we should spare a thought for those who were employed at the Cadburys factory in Keynsham near Bristol who lost their jobs in 2011 when the factory was closed and the machinery shipped to Poland.  Brexit came too late for them.

S.W.

Ilminster, Somerset.

"Dislike of England" the SNP's motivating force? Professor Vernon Bogdanor asks in The Times.

I came across an interesting letter from Professor Vernon Bogdanor in the January 9 edition of The Week.  He implies that dislike of England is the SNP’s motivating force – surely not!

The letter was first published in The Times. I reproduce it below as it appeared in The Week.

St. Andrew’s cross

To The Times

In a Commons debate last week, Ian Blackford, parliamentary leader of the SNP, declared that “Scotland is at heart a European nation”, and indeed that she had been well before the Acts of Union in 1707.  The SNP seems to have acquired this insight somewhat recently.  In the 1975 referendum it was the only major party in Scotland to recommend leaving the European Community. 

Voters are entitled to an explanation of why the SNP changed its mind.  Dare one suggest that dislike of England rather than love for Europe has been its motivating force?

Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government, King’s College, London.

The Law Commission following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union's Stalinist authorities? A cautionary tale!

I came across this letter in The Week (November 14) which illustrates what may happen if the Law Commission’s proposals on hate speech come to pass.  And they say an Englishman’s home is his castle!

Lethal home truths.

To The Times

The Law Commission’s proposal to extend the jurisdiction of hate speech to private homes has unhappy parallels.  In 1932 Soviet, propaganda had it that a 13-year-old dedicated Young Pioneer, Pavlik Morozov, did the “right thing” by denouncing his father, Trofim, to the Stalinist authorities.  Trofim was said to have been executed as a result.  Members of Pavlik’s family, somewhat unhappy with this, then murdered the youth.  In turn they themselves were executed.  Pavlik was lauded in the USSR as a martyred hero, an example for Soviet youth to follow.

Michael Olizar, London.

Professor Vernon Bogdanor appears to support the balkanisation of England to save the Union. A letter in The Week.

In a letter which first appeared in The Times Professor Vernon Bogdanor  appears to support the balkanisation of England as a way of saving The Union.  It seems he is among those who believe in suppressing any political entity which exclusively represents English nationhood.

I reproduce below his letter to The Times which I came across in The Week (24 October).  I find it a disappointing read from someone so distinguished.  He gives powerful ammunition to those who argue against the establishment of an English parliament in order to discourage Scottish separatism and preserve the 1707 Union.

To The Times.

John Kampfner is right to call for further decentralisation “to the localities”, but an English parliament would not achieve this.  Whether situated in Manchester, Liverpool or York, it would appear just as remote to most as Westminster which would be reduced to a debating chamber for the discussion of foreign and defence policy and macro-economic management, while the quasi-federal UK which resulted would be so dominated by England as to be unbalanced, and an encouragement to Scottish separatism.  There is no democratic federation in the world in which one of the units represents more than 80% of the population. 

The right course is to build on the combined authorities with directly elected mayors by strengthening their powers, and by devolving on a similar basis to those areas of England outside the city regions.  That entails a unitary system of local government in those areas, as recommended more than 50 years ago by the Royal Commission on Local Government, in place of the present two-tier system.  That is the path that I hope the Government will follow in its forthcoming white paper.

 

Vernon Bogdanor, professor of government, KCL

Will breaking the Brexit withdrawal agreement damage Britain's reputation? A letter in the Western Daily Press.

 Letter in the Western Daily Press 22 September 2020.

Treaties only last while they last.

It is all very well for Geoffrey Cox MP, the former Attorney General, to say breaking agreements and treaties does “unconscionable” damage to Britain’s reputation, but there are circumstances when standing by them can be disastrous.

In 1914 those in government didn’t want conflict with Germany, but because they did not wish to break the treaty which guaranteed Belgian neutrality ministers reluctantly decided war had to be declared when German troops marched into Belgium.  They felt it was a matter of upholding Britain’s honour and reputation to do so.

Devastatingly, to put it mildly, World War One cost Britain and The Empire millions of dead and wounded to defeat Germany and her allies.  That victory lead to an unjust peace, the rise of Nazi Germany, and another world war.

With the benefit of hindsight one might think fighting for Belgian neutrality and maintaining Britain’s reputation came at too high a cost.  

Perhaps, in present circumstances, Mr Cox might consider the words of President de Gaulle: “Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.”

S.W. 

Ilminster, Somerset.