Times letters: Imposition of US tariffs on ‘liberation day’

Sir, By focusing on goods rather than services, President Trump has taken an analogue approach to our global digital future. If the UK and Europe can no longer rely on a dependable and collaborative ally in economic and defence matters in the decades ahead, we must seize this opportunity to reshape our reliance on the US tech oligopoly and develop digital products and services of our own over which we can exert control. We cannot allow the future of social media, online safety, data security, freedom of speech and other issues in online media and AI to be controlled from the US.

We should immediately increase the existing digital services tax from 2 per cent to 30 per cent to fund a transition to homegrown services over the next decade. The UK’s digital and robotic world of the future must not be entrusted to two behemoths, China and the US. President Trump has now given us the ammunition and the impetus to TAKE BACK CONTROL!
Mark Bernstein
Chartered accountant, Stoney Stanton, Leics

Sir, According to the dictionary, the word “reciprocal” means involving two people or organisations who agree to help each other by behaving in the same way or by giving each other similar advantages. It is disappointing that much of the media have adopted President Trump’s phrase “reciprocal tariffs”. There is nothing reciprocal about any of these tariffs: they are vindictive and opportunistic, but certainly not reciprocal.
Geoff Watson
Bristol

Sir, I have been considering the predicaments that face us, and have come up with a possible solution: why don’t we sell Scotland to Donald Trump? We know he is keen to expand US territory, and Scotland is surely more attractive than Greenland. It has many things he likes: golf courses, nuclear submarine bases, some of his relatives, and it would offer him the opportunity to spend more time with our royal family, as landlord to their holiday homes.

In return we would get a useful payment towards reducing our national debt, and it would save us the continuing cost of subsidising our northern neighbour. There is an existing footprint for a boundary wall, should he so wish. As our neighbour, the president would be bound to be more keen on Nato. Maybe he would throw in a reduction in the new trade tariffs as part of the deal?
SJ Disley
Ketton, Rutland

Saving our parks

Sir, The solution to underfunding of our national parks is to levy a charge on those who use and benefit from them (“‘Body blow’ to national parks as funding is set to be cut by tenth”, Apr 2; letter, Apr 3). Those people living within three quarters of a mile of the perimeter of Wimbledon Common are charged a special levy, at present between £23 and £71 depending on the rateable value of the house. Locally, I benefit from Richmond Park and Kew Gardens and support them through their membership schemes. I also belong to the National Trust. I am sure that those who regularly use our national parks would support them and in return receive updates and perhaps talks on their natural history. The parks would also benefit from knowing their customers better.
Steve Vogt
Petersham, Surrey

Sir, Surely the time has come for our national parks to charge a visitors’ fee. Here in the Lake District annual visitor numbers are about 18 million. If visitors paid £1 per head (or £5 per car), the problem would largely be solved. The London congestion charge is an example and with modern technology it would be simple to cover the 60 or so entrances to the national park, with a weekly or monthly pass so that visitors wouldn’t pay twice and exemptions for those who live and work in the park. The money could go towards the maintenance of these outstanding landscapes. In Europe one pays a modest daily bed tax without complaint, but overnight stays in the park are only about eight million a year and would not generate enough funds. Moreover, there is no guarantee that Defra funding will continue, even at a reduced level.
Miles MacInnes
Pooley Bridge, Cumbria

Great grannies

Sir, I used to admire the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh — but no longer (“Is ‘granny’ a synonym for daft … or even expendable?”, Janice Turner, Notebook, Apr 3). This “granny” (I prefer “woman” or my name) does not consider herself either feeble-minded or dispensable. And as it happens I neither knit nor own a cat, and there is no beige in my wardrobe.
Sue Pheasey
MA (Oxon) and incidental grandmother, Amberley, W Sussex

Race disparities

Sir, I read with interest Tony Sewell’s article about how young, poor, white working-class boys have been failed, especially after I finally managed to watch Adolescence, with its similar theme (“We are still failing the white working classes”, Apr 3). Much has been made of young white boys’ engagement with the “manosphere”, but I contend that a more simplistic explanation (though more complex problem) is the sheer dearth of investment and interest in the average white working-class boy. What else is there for them to do but go online and be promised easy solutions?
Stuart Milligan
Headley, Hants

Sir, I disagree with the implication in Tony Sewell’s article that “white privilege” counts for nothing. I have always disliked this phrase but I find it hard to believe that high-achieving black British youngsters have it easier than their white counterparts when it comes to “stop and search” and general societal racism. And as for the so-called tough life in predominantly white areas, I married a white working-class man from one of those towns. His family did not take the slightest interest in his education but he studied hard regardless and left his home town to move to London. Today he is 54 and a high-performing manager. He took the opportunities afforded to him by a free education and has taken bold risks ever since.
Nargis Walker
St Albans

True cost of F-35

Sir, There has been much discussion of the merits of the Typhoon and F-35 (letter, Apr 2). I was privileged to have been part of the Typhoon programme at its earliest stage (as the Eurofighter) in the early 1980s, serving in the RAF’s operational requirements department, and in the early 2000s in sales and marketing for the British and European aircraft industry. One thing I learnt was to be wary of any figures quoted regarding performance or pricing; the prize for the latter must go to the US, which, when quoting prices for its “affordable fighter”, failed to include the price of the engine.
David Hamilton
Tarporley, Cheshire

The upper hand

Sir, Clan Kerr members were indeed noted for their left-handedness (letter, Apr 3). Their genius was in building their border defensive structures, known as Peel towers, in such a way that the winding staircase between the upper and lower levels went from left to right, instead of right to left, thus giving them a clear attacking advantage over their rival clan right-handed attackers.
Fiona Titterington
York

Sentebale spending

Sir, I am astounded how much money has been wasted by those charged with running the Sentebale charity (“Head of Harry’s Africa charity spent £400k on consultants”, Apr 2). It is possible to do a lot of good work in Africa while using zero per cent of donated income on administrative costs or salaries. Selfless goodwill and a desire to change lives is all that is needed.
Gillie Nicholls-Penny
Founder, Les Amis-Burkina Faso charity

Gabbling Badenoch and PMQ advice

Sir, If Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton is advising Kemi Badenoch on her performances at PMQs (news, Apr 3), perhaps he could tell her to observe the parliamentary niceties. On Wednesday, the prime minister and Sir Ed Davey expressed concern for events in Myanmar and Thailand but on her introduction she launched straight into her questions. This is not the first time this has happened and it smacks of arrogance.
Mary Moore
Croydon

Sir, You report that Giles Coren says that “Kemi Badenoch is not doing fantastically well in PMQs but her job is not to land massive blows. Her job is to hold the party together, to create a sort of icon to have something to build around”. I disagree. We pay her well as leader of the opposition to hold the government to account. That is why I voted for her in the leadership election, something I now regret because she is not doing that job very well.
Roger Hogbin
Weymouth, Dorset

Clandon’s future

Sir, The scale of the National Trust’s achievement in protecting historic landscapes and buildings is unmatched. It is all the more remarkable that this has been achieved over its 130-year history without taxpayer subsidy. The destructive fire at Clandon was a monumental tragedy but the cost of full restoration, including the opportunity cost in the context of the National Trust’s multiple other heritage priorities, is prohibitively expensive. It is fortunate that your correspondents (letters, Mar 29, 31 & Apr 2) who have criticised the carefully considered plan for Clandon do not carry the fiduciary obligations of the National Trust’s trustees for ensuring the continuing success of this uniquely British institution.
Sir Laurie Magnus
National Trust deputy chairman 2005-13; London EC1

Elusive sparrows

Sir, I must contradict Melissa Harrison when she says that tree sparrows are absent from Scotland (Nature Notes, Apr 1). I live in rural Aberdeenshire and we have had a thriving population for 20 years.
Alexandra Sinclair
Insch, Aberdeenshire

Say it like it isn’t

Sir, Further to your report “The polite-isms for saying what we don’t mean” and leading article (Apr 3), I used to work for a Swiss company. My Swiss colleagues used to call phrases such as “I am a little concerned”, which really meant a crisis was brewing, the “British art of understatement”. I soon learnt to discard such phrases and speak plainly to get my point across, otherwise, when translated, there was no concern at all.
Clare Bull
Beaconsfield, Bucks

Sir, My go-to polite-ism is “let me check with my wife and get back to you”. This gives me a foolproof buffer to decide whether or not I want to do whatever it is that is being asked of me.
Ben Wolfin
London NW7

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