David Cameron must act quickly to win back votes from Ukip

SIR – Ukip supporters could still switch back to the Tories if David Cameron acts swiftly (report, September 15). He could give a firm date for the EU referendum and set out measures to prevent the arrival of hundreds of thousands of economic migrants from Bulgaria and Romania.

On human rights, we need fair, commonsense rules. The judiciary must be given clear parliamentary guidance not to allow appeals for so-called “family” reasons or the defence that anyone sent back to their country might be in danger. The Armed Forces should be properly resourced once again.

Ron Kirby
Dorchester, Dorset

SIR – Lord Ashcroft’s survey showing that Conservatives are changing to Ukip over Europe is a warning that David Cameron would be foolish to ignore. Since making his speech in January promising a referendum on the EU he has done nothing apart from passing a law confirming a referendum before 2017, which he was forced to do by his backbenchers.

This law is worthless unless he wins the 2015 election, which looks doubtful at present. As a result, a lot of people think he is not sincere and will try to wriggle out of it when the time comes.

Christopher Carver
Yeovil, Devon

SIR – Your report on Ukip taking votes in key marginal seats from the Conservatives should be a warning to those who are considering to register a protest vote at the next general election.

Ukip’s support is spread across the whole country, not concentrated within seats, which would be necessary to gain representation in Parliament. Therefore it is pie-in-the-sky to think that Ukip will win enough seats at the election to be the “king-makers” in a potential hung Parliament.

The disgruntled Tory voters and anti-immigration, eurosceptic ex-Labour voters, who are intending to vote Ukip, will be indirectly helping Labour return to government.

Splitting the Right-wing vote will be akin to what happened to Michael Foot on the Left in 1983. This will allow Labour to finish the job that they have always been good at – bankrupting and ruining the country.

James Adam Paton
Billericay, Essex

SIR – Current opinion polls suggest that it will be Ukip, not the Lib Dems, who could hold the balance of power between the two main parties at the next general election. Nigel Farage has said he will not contemplate a deal with the Conservatives as long as David Cameron is the Tory leader. So, what if Ukip enters a coalition with Labour and provides a curb on Labour policies? That would put the cat among the Westminster pigeons.

David Saunders
Sidmouth, Devon

SIR – All the main parties, the Conservatives in particular, make the arrogant assumption that only one of them has the divine right to form a government and that the electorate must return to their fold rather than see their traditional opponents elected.

If this were true, the Labour Party would never have arisen to replace the Liberals. On the contrary, when a political movement speaks for a previously ignored section of the people, it may very well replace the failed incumbents of old.

If people will only continue to vote for what they really believe in then there is no limit to the possibilities open to Ukip to transform the political landscape.

Colin Bullen
Tonbridge, Kent

SIR – Lord Ashcroft has warned that by voting Ukip, the electorate will get Labour.

However, if they vote Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat, they will get the EU, which rules Britain with the support of these three parties. If Ukip receives a very substantial vote, this will make it untenable for the other three parties to continue supporting the EU’s undemocratic control over Britain.

Derek Bennett
Walsall, Staffordshire

Backing marriage in the tax system

SIR – As representatives from some of Britain’s leading think tanks, political activists and faith leaders, we strongly welcome the proposals to recognise marriage in the tax system, via the introduction of a transferable tax allowance. This is long overdue.

We believe that marriage is the fundamental building block of human society and provides many tangible and non-tangible benefits to our communities and our children.

Family breakdown costs the taxpayer an estimated £46 billion a year. It is therefore clearly in the interests of government and the taxpayer to work to counter the devastating trend of family breakdown. Backing marriage in the tax system is a sensible first step.

This is why we urge all political parties not only to back the new transferable tax allowance, but also to ensure that it cannot be dismissed as an empty gesture, given that it has been set at the low level of £150.

To be meaningful it must be paid at a higher rate, even if this means a phased introduction or application of other conditions.

Rt Rev Peter Forster
Bishop of Chester
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
President of the Oxford centre for training,
research and dialogue
Lord Singh
Director of the network of Sikh organisations
Dr Majid Katme
Muslim member of the Alliance for the Family
Sir Iqbal Sacranie
Founding secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain
Harry Benson
Marriage Foundation
Nola Leach
Chief executive of Christian Action, Research and Education
Laura Perrins
Mothers at Home Matter
Robert Woollard
Chairman of Conservative Grassroots
Phillip Blond
Director of ResPublica

Wearing the veil

SIR – In a liberal democracy, choice of headwear is a free choice for individuals. However, the principle of democracy rests on open and free dialogue between informed citizenry. To what extent can a choice truly be free and informed if it is based on cruel familial and cultural pressure, enacted often against will and with force?

But to ban any form of dress, let alone that which is deemed to be “religious attire”, would be deeply controversial, and probably counter-productive.

Nothing swells the massed ranks of support like a well-played victim card.

Gary McLelland
Chair, Edinburgh Secular Society
Glasgow

SIR – Advocates of the full veil often cite cultural integrity with reference to countries in Africa and Asia. But these people have elected to enter and live in a culture likewise entitled to its cultural integrity.

That is why that culture is entitled morally – if not legally – to require its removal.

Edward Thomas 
Eastbourne, East Sussex

SIR – If we are a democratic country then this is not a decision to be made by politicians alone, but a decision on which the whole nation needs to be consulted. Most of us can understand the headscarf, but the veil is seen as almost offensive to our culture of openness. In any case, we need a government ruling, not absurd political correctness.

Philip Congdon
La Bastide d’Engras, Gard, France

SIR – Communication and trust are engendered by being open, and are what makes for a healthy society. Concealing one’s face, whether by choice, by coercion or by dogma, is the antithesis of our precious freedom.

Stephen Gledhill
Chadbury, Worcestershire

That sinking feeling

SIR – Before the world rushes to save the “sinking” Republic of Kiribati (report, September 15), has anyone considered that it could be the land mass that is sinking and not the ocean level rising due to climate change?

The North Sea platforms of the Ekofisk Field were deemed to be subjected to rising storm wave levels caused by climate change, which forced the shutdown of oil/gas production on several occasions.

It was only after detailed satellite measurement, that the “sinking” was deemed to be due not to increased water levels, but the sea bed sinking.

The whole platform system was raised by five metres and the problem solved.

Alan Belk
Leatherhead, Surrey

SIR – There are many islands in the Pacific a few feet above sea level. Yet we know that in the 10,000 years since the end of the last major glaciation, global sea level has risen several hundred metres. Either you postulate that 10,000 years ago, all these islands were those several hundred metres plus a few feet above sea level, which is surely stretching credulity; or you accept Charles Darwin’s theory that coral atolls actually grow with sea level rise, staying always a few feet above sea level.

Roger Helmer MEP (Ukip)
Market Harborough, Leicestershire

Producing Frost

SIR – I haven’t yet seen any mention of David Frost’s career as executive producer in the film industry, both on the successful comedy Futtocks End, starring Ronnie Barker and Michael Hordern, and the more serious film George Bernard Shaw. This was a one-hander starring Max Adrian, which appeared over three nights on BBC2 in September 1971, and which has apparently now been lost.

Annie Kellett
Chichester, West Sussex

Coalition government distorts democracy

SIR – Although the electoral arithmetic underlying the Coalition in 2012 ensured it did not “collapse in short order” (Matthew d’Ancona, “The Libs know their future lies in power sharing”, Opinion, September 15), that does not make this model of government any more acceptable.

Comparisons with British wartime coalitions have always been specious: in the Second World War, as in the First, all the main parties were included. This meant that small parties could not wield undue influence on government.

The current coalition has been far less representative, because the party that came second was excluded from government, while the party that came a poor third was allowed to take part. The Lib Dems could thus impose minority policies, such as postponing the renewal of our Trident submarines, which both main parties wished to confirm during this Parliament.

Coalitions are always a denial of democracy; but when they include small parties with limited support, while excluding main parties with considerable support, they distort democracy as well.

Julian Lewis MP (Con)
London SW1

SIR – Already proposing to tax owners of houses worth over £2 million, regardless of liquid cash resources, Vince Cable, the business secretary, now wishes to tax the land upon which homes are built. It can only be a matter of time before he works out how to tax the air we breathe.

Becky Goldsmith
London SW11

A thorough job

SIR – When we moved house in 1987 (Letters, September 15), we found we had no television reception, and on further inspection found that the vendors had cut the co-axial cable outside and removed the television aerial.

When the phone was “connected” by the telephone company, we found that the vendors had cut the wire and removed the telephone owned by the company as well.

Ingrid Ashcroft
Daws Heath, Essex

Radio Ga Ga

SIR – My shameful confession about Radio 2 (Letters, September 15) is that I listen regularly to the Jeremy Vine Programme. I do not know why, as I find it irritating beyond belief. Mr Vine, what exactly is the difference between the very latest news and the latest news?

P A Matthews
Colden Common, Hampshire