Foreign aid suggestion

MANY people doubt that our foreign aid programme benefits those whom it purports to help and also, in these times of domestic austerity, that it is affordable.

Possibly those doubters would be more enthusiastic if they could see schemes of real benefit to the intended recipients and at the same time giving a boost to British manufacturing.

In many communities of recipient nations there is a chronic shortage of safe, clean drinking water and also a shortage of wood for cooking food.

Much hyped are solar panels for countries nearer to the Equator than in Britain, so that solar energy could be used directly, if concentrated using large mirrors to focus its range on to a cooking pot.

As our domestic steel industry is currently near extinction maybe it could be revived if at least some of the UK aid budget were to be directed into the manufacture of robust solar stoves systems, made of stainless steel comprising of a converse mirror and lightweight boiler, both low tech and easily transportable.

Daylight is long and sunlight stronger nearer to the Equator and when such devices are not in use for cooking (boiling) food, they could be used to boil any available water and sterilize if for later use.

Also removing the need for gathering wood for fuel and improving the lifestyle of recipients would give environmental benefits, as small trees and bushes staying in place would reduce soil erosion.

Such a scheme to ease life styles, improve health and environment might also give benefit to Britain and lead manufacturers from this very practical form of aid to recipients.

It's just a matter of governmental decision in how our foreign aid is disbursed.

NF GARDNER Carlisle Avenue Swindon

Cost of refugee kids

EVERYONE is aware that Swindon and many other areas are almost begging people to become foster parents, with very little hope of placing most of them in spite of the £300-plus per week tax free.

If we do take in the 3,000 refugee children it goes without saying that they would not be allowed to live with Christian families, they would need to be housed by people of their own religion.

I have a great love for numbers so this is something I would like to share. Not counting schooling, teaching them English and keeping them healthy, this is roughly what it would cost to look after 3,000 youngsters from being six to 16 years old – an enormous chunk out of the national budget, £1,200 per month for each child, £14,400 per year, £144,000 for 10 years, multiply that by the 3,000 adding up to a total of just over £432m.

Can we really afford this? Nearly half a billion pounds. How many more notches on our belts do we need to tighten to pay for this?

G M THOMPSON Bourne Road Swindon

String up vile killers

I NEVER like to hear of the loss of human life, but there are exceptions.

Robert Black, the evil child rapist and murderer. Convicted of the rape and murder of four little innocent girls, and suspected of at least another four. Died in his cell.

As a firm believer in capital punishment, it astounds me that this vile, sub-human creature was given the privilege of dying of natural causes. Another example of the political hand-wringing liberal elite of we know best. Against the wishes of the majority of the British public.

Reading the national newspapers and our local, the Advertiser, some of the light sentences given out to offenders beggar belief.

Many people have informed me as well that the liberal elite have imposed a lack of discipline in our schools.

It is a harsh environment out there surviving in a competitive world. Is this the proper way to treat and prepare our children before they enter the real world of earning a living?

I hope I never live to see the day when a murderer gets a suspended sentence due to his under-privileged upbringing.

But, mark my words, that is the way it is going, with a judiciary that stops deportation of a convicted criminal because he has a cat.

One example of hundreds, where the human rights brigade favour the offender instead of the offended against.

BILL WILLIAMS Merlin Way Covingham Swindon

Zika danger of Olympics

ZIKA is a disease spread by mosquitoes for which there is no vaccine or cure.

The zika virus has already caused 4,000 babies to be born in Brazil with small heads and permanent brain damage.

It seems to be only pregnant women that are in danger and the problem covers much of the South American continent.

Every athlete and visitor to the Brazil Olympics in 2016 is in danger of infection.

So far the British government seems oblivious to the truly terrible danger that exists from Zika to everyone attending the Olympics.

STEVE HALDEN Beaufort Green, Swindon

Good luck with that

SO SWINDON Borough Council is planning to spend £45,000 plus extras of our money on a "manager" whose job will entail telling the paying public that the services they pay for via taxes are no longer going to be there because SBC hasn't got any cash. Good luck with explaining the closure of children's centres against that backdrop.

GUY GREEN Old Town

Swans' eggs spotted

REFERENCE your issue January 16, 2016, of the chicks hatched at Lower Shaw Farm.

I wonder if anyone, like myself, walking around Coate Water, directly opposite the putting area, noticed a nest by the side of Island. It appeared to have seven swans eggs?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

M CATT Parklands Road Old Walcot, Swindon

Irresponsible dog owner

ON SATURDAY, January 16, at approximately 3pm, I was taking a stroll along KiIngshill Canal, towards the red brick bridge, when a woman passed with two black labrador dogs.

As I carried on walking, one of the dogs jumped at me from behind and tried to snatch my bag from me. As I lifted my bag away from the dog I almost lost my balance and fell into the canal.

Luckily for me I was able to grasp the hand rail by the bridge, and at this point both dogs were leaping at me. I was continually shouting at the dogs to heel. When I could not control them I shouted to the owner for help, but the lady was 20 to 25 metres away from me and oblivious of the potential danger I was in.

Luckily for me a very nice young man arrived on the scene and called the dogs away from me so I could get away.

I feel that the owner of those dogs was totally irresponsible and the only reason I did not report the incident to the police is because I did not get a very good description of her, as the incident happened so quickly.

Finally I dread to think what may have happened to a small child?

ANNE POLLARD Goddard Avenue, Swindon

Indefensible war

“MOST people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way.”

With these words, George Orwell opens with his famous essay Politics and the English Language. In it, George discusses the corruption in the language when one tries to defend the indefensible.

“A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”

George Orwell summarises eloquently: “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties.

"Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry:this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers.People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements."

Can one defend a war? Not at all. It’s the same old tactics in a new face.

“I see no changes”, writes Tupac Shakur.

AXMED BAHJAD Fleet Street, Swindon

Look after our own

I AGREE with everything that John L Cook said in his letter (Swindon Advertiser, January 20).

When we wanted to bring in a law for migrants to be here for four years before they could claim benefits, we were told that was against EU laws. But because women have been attacked Angela Merkel can change laws to suit Germany.

It seems we won the war and they won the peace. Let's have a level playing field. Let's get out and see who is going to pay the obscene amount of money that we have to pay every year to belong to the EU.

And why do we have to keep importing cheap steel from China, when we can make it here? Stop importing and start looking after our own workers for a change.

L TOWNSEND Redcliffe Street Rodbourne, Swindon

A bridge too far

IN this day and age, and with the brilliant engineering minds about, you might wouldn't you think someone somewhere could come up with a solution to stop lorries crashing into bridges?

Get the youngsters at the engineering-centred University Technical College to come up with a solution as part of a project.

G THOMPSON Royal Wootton Bassett