Letters: Defence of the realm has a price to pay

The letter from Ian King of BAe (your report, 5 November) makes sad reading. Have we reached the state where our leading shipbuilder can only produce ships if it is handed over-priced and unnecessary contracts on a plate by the Government?

It seems that the directors of BAe are incapable of competing in the real world against other shipbuilders.

His claim about building complex warships is somewhat misleading. any other countries seem to be able to produce better warships at a far lower cost.

Countries we tend to assume are not our technological equals are already building better ships for less. Many countries on the Pacific rim are also building innovative ships.

Sadly, the British warship building industry is not getting independent orders because we cannot compete.

The contract agreed by Gordon Brown does no-one any favours. The design team know they are building ships without purpose.

The workforce will have the satisfaction of knowing they are building ornaments which will never see proper service.

The taxpayer is paying probably nearer 10-12 billion (already the cost has risen 500m in the past month) for museum pieces and when the contract is finished because of the drain on defence resources there is not going to be any further work for the yards.

By agreeing to build these ships we are providing the workforce with its swansong.

The only letter Mr King should be writing is a resignation letter.

Bruce D Skivington

Strath

Gairloch, Wester Ross

I agree with Alex Orr that the military co-operation treaty between Britain and France is very welcome (Letters, 4 November).

It would be very nice to think that this is the first step in creating a European defence treaty involving many more of our partners in Europe and sharing the cost for our collective defence.

No longer can the UK afford to adopt a narrow nationalist attitude which claims that alone we can provide the armed forces required to protect our country from invasion.

I should not have to remind anyone of the weak position we were in before the Second World War as a consequence of successive governments cutting back on our defence requirements.

We must prevent history repeating itself by joining forces with our partners in Europe to create a military might that can face any future threat.

Jim Carson

Larchfield

Balerno, Midlothian