Letters: Honeybees

Published: 02 March 2007

Mysterious loss of honeybees hits Europe as well as America

Sir: You report the mysterious death of honeybees in North America (1 March), but a similar phenomenon is also being experienced in parts of Europe. There have been unexplained, but very severe, honeybee colony losses over the past few years in several European states, including Poland, Greece, Italy and Spain. Heavy losses in other countries are suspected to be going unreported. However, it is not possible to say at this stage whether the European bee deaths are related in any way to the North American bee colony collapses.

Last season, some British beekeepers also experienced what has been described as the Marie Celeste phenomenon - colonies simply disappearing from hives leaving no bees for post-mortem analysis. It will be very interesting to see what British beekeepers find in a few weeks' time as they open their hives for the first time this year.

In meeting beekeepers and scientists across Europe and North America, I have heard the deaths attributed to many causes ranging from harmful pesticides and increased solar radiation through ozone thinning to falling queen fertility and use of unauthorised bee treatments. We really don't know the answer - several causes may be at work and the only common factor known so far is that many honeybee colonies are dying.

It is especially important this season for British beekeepers to report their losses and examine and analyse their colonies thoroughly.

DR MAX WATKINS

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, VITA (EUROPE) LIMITED BASINGSTOKE, HAMPSHIRE

Schools lottery will not be fair

Sir: Sadly, the new admissions system for Brighton and Hove secondary schools will not provide social justice. To portray the system as a solution to middle-class manoeuvrings is misleading, as the vast majority of socially deprived children in the area will now be excluded from the "desirable" catchment areas.

Most children on free school meals and with special educational needs live in the outer areas of Brighton and Hove; areas where the council has ensured they will now have no "choice" of secondary school, as all of these outer areas - Portslade, Patcham, Falmer and Longhill - have now been made single catchment areas with a far higher intake of socially deprived children than the newly created dual-catchment areas (where the "good" schools are) in the central parts of the city.

Meanwhile, in the dual-catchment areas, all children will be subjected to a lottery, which will split peer groups, splinter communities and send many more children than previously to a school that is not within walking distance of their home (passing, on the way, children being transported from across town to the schools in that locality). The new system will create more bus and car journeys and more pollution in an already overcrowded city.

What a mess, and what a shame for the children of our city.

SUZANNE ROMNEY

BRIGHTON

Sir: Why do you blame middle-class parents for the ills of our education system? If we depend on middle-class people to run the country to the public good isn't it a good idea for them to be properly educated?

Why are you demanding that middle-class children should improve the standards of low-performing schools? Surely it is the responsibility of all children to get on with the business of learning and for local authorities to make a proper job of providing education for all.

Have you considered that in the case of failing schools education authorities are merely using the aspirations of middle-class parents as an excuse for their own poor performance? Why are a few schools in Brighton and Hove so over-subscribed that people are willing to pay over the odds for a house in their catchment area? What is Brighton and Hove council doing to allow the other schools in its area to be so undesirable?

HELENA FICKLING

MORETON, OXFORDSHIRE

After Iraq, Bush eyes his next target

Sir: I am puzzled by the American claim that an Iran that possesses nuclear weapons is a threat to the whole world.

If Iran were to explode even one nuclear device in or above Israel, then everybody in the world, and especially Iran, knows that the Americans would unleash 100 nuclear devices on Iran and wipe it off the face of the earth. Iran would suffer the same fate if it were stupid enough to attack America.

I have an awful feeling that all this stuff about Iran and nuclear weapons is just another fiction similar to the fiction about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that George Bush is secretly determined to destroy Iran before he has to leave the White House in two years' time. Bush is like a child willing to start things whereof he does not know the consequences, which he does not know how to control and which he does not know how to finish.

Leaving aside the immorality and the illegality of the action and the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have lost their lives as a result of our action, the attack on and the destruction of Iraq has had a terrible effect on the situation in the Middle East, but an attack on Iran could have a disastrous effect on world peace. The whole world should now stand up and say to Bush "No, you have already gone too far. We will not allow you to attack Iran."

ANGUS PHAURE

GERRARDS CROSS, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Sir: The ruling of the International Court of Justice on Monday is remarkable for unexpected reasons ("Court rules Serbia did not commit genocide in Bosnia", 27 February). A state can be held responsible in international law for failure to prevent and punish genocide even if committed in another country and irrespective of the obligation under the UN Charter to abstain from the use of force.

Since there is no doubt that genocide occurred in Saddam Hussein's Iraq as surely as it did in Bosnia, it follows that the USA and the UK would have been responsible for a similar failure had they not invaded Iraq and brought him and his accomplices to justice.

MICHAEL PETEK

BRIGHTON

Sir: My thought after reading that the allies don't seem to share our enthusiasm for sending troops to Afghanistan is that they've more sense. After seeing what a fiasco Iraq has turned out to be for the UK, after following Blair, who followed Bush, no wonder they don't want anything to do with it.

Why do we continually have to prove we "punch above our weight"and "deserve to be with the big boys". We need to change our emphasis to home problems, rather than continuously trying to be a superpower that we no longer are.

PETER DAY

DONCASTER

Sir: If you include the jihadist death toll from 11 September 2001, the figures compared in your front page article would be 3,481 for the 565 days from 11 September 2001 to 30 March 2003 versus 5,420 for the 1,289 days from March 2003 to September 2006 ("How the war on terror made the world a more terrifying place", 28 February).

This equates to an average of six killings per day prior to the invasion of Iraq and four per day after the invasion. All this tells me is that jihadists have to be fought.

KEVIN O'NEILL

LONDON E14

Sir: If the Post Office will not produce stamps depicting the war art of Steve McQueen, why can't the work be produced privately in stamp form for people to stick on envelopes as an act of solidarity with the families of those killed? The profits could also be used either for the children of those killed in the conflict or for some other charitable cause such as building schools in Iraq or whatever the families think most fitting.

PAUL ARCHER

WATFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE

Beware of trying to 'defeat' mountains

Sir: Stephen Goodwin may not have chosen the headline on his article, but it was: "The struggle to defeat the 'killer wall' " (28 February).

Commentators often talk of defeating or conquering a mountain or difficult climb route. Climbers are a special breed. They wish to place themselves at great peril, from falling, altitude, exposure, lack of oxygen. Many end up dying as they take up a challenge too far. It is very sad when one dies, especially so when colleagues in the same party are killed by their error, or by trying to save the doomed climber. But these people do not conquer the mountain. They do not defeat anything. They have no power over the elements. If they get the weather wrong, or their diet or supplies are incorrect, they die just as surely as if they had put a plastic bag over their heads.

To take these extreme risks is a form of self-abuse; they get something out of the pain they endure just as much as an anorexic or a drug addict. What is really sad is when the charismatic leader of an expedition takes others along in their enthusiasm, and all the lives are lost.

As with any human endeavour, there are spin-offs such as lightweight very strong materials, better insulation, and understanding how the body reacts to extreme conditions. But we should be wary of revering climbers who seek an ever increasing level of challenge, the pursuit of the top seven peaks within three months, etc. This will always lead to greater tragedies and useless loss of life.

Mountains are there to be enjoyed, to play on, to admire. Man will never conquer or defeat any of them.

TONY BEAUMONT

LEWES, EAST SUSSEX

Hogwarts was never like this

Sir: Following the press coverage of Daniel Radcliffe's West End debut in Equus, I feel it is timely to recount my experience at a preview of the play last week, which I went to see with my parents.

The debate raged as we ate our pre-theatre snack in Grab-a-Snack on Shaftesbury Avenue. My mother insisted that the theatre would be filled with serious theatregoers who were there for the play and nothing else. I argued that at least some people would be there for the naked Potter.

As we settled in our seats high up in the upper circle everything seemed normal. There was a quiet air of expectation. The play was about to start. My mum was looking smug.

Then a group of teenage girls entered the arena. They found their seats and sat down. As the curtain was about to go up one of them said loudly: "How are we going to see his pecker from 'ere?"

LUKE BARCLAY

LONDON SW11

No stay-at-home choice for me

Sir: Once again I have to hang my head in shame, guilt and despair. I am a working mother.

What J Dunn (letter, 28 February) and many others fail to consider is those of us who do not have the luxury of a partner because they have died or otherwise left.

How I would love to be a stay-at-home mum. My children don't see "expensive holidays, pastimes or designer clothing" either; what they see is a very hard-working mum and a heavily mortgaged, extremely basic, roof over their heads.

I am not "at the bottom of the financial and social scale" but I absolutely do not have this imaginary "choice" about whether or not to work. I would welcome a reply from the smug and sanctimonious people who insist that I do.

LAURA ELLIOTT

WORCESTER

Perils of ending drug prohibition

Sir: It is true that as Johann Hari writes, "Go to a pub or off-licence in Hackney, and you'll find that Oddbins and Costcutters are not engaged in a turf-war. " (Opinion, 19 February.) But it is also true that the alcohol sold legally kills far more people and does far more damage to society in general than drugs sold illegally.

If we were to hand the drug trade "to doctors and pharmacists and off-licences" as Johann advocates, this might "bankrupt most of our criminal gangs overnight", but it might also trigger an explosion in drug-taking that would cause far more misery than arises from the present illegality.

G W DAVIES

NATIONAL DRUG PREVENTION ALLIANCE, PINNER, MIDDLESEX

Briefly... Fuelling hysteria

Sir: Am I the only person who believes that machines have suddenly become self-aware, as foreseen in Terminator? Witness the mass hysteria about "contaminated fuel" experienced by cars all over the country. But isn't it fascinating that they're using this self-awareness to exhibit a very human failing, hypochondria, rather than turning on their makers?

PAUL DUNWELL

ALTON, HAMPSHIRE

Record goals

Sir: Further to your interesting football item "Quick off the mark" (28 February), it will take some going to beat the all-time record achieved in an Amateur Cup tie between Barnet and Willington in the 1958-59 season. Willington scored straight from the kick-off, then Barnet scored twice from the restarts to make the score 2-1 after 75 seconds. Final result: 8-4 to Barnet, who went on to lose to Crook Town in the final at Wembley.

COLIN SAUNDERS

LONDON N14

Thin on the ground

Sir: Australian CO2 emissions may seem high in per capita terms (letter, 27 February) but are next to nothing when measured as tonnes per square kilometre.

J PRIOR

BUNBURY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Rail and road

Sir: I note a degree of prominence bordering on anti-rail hysteria is beginning to creep into your reporting of the Cumbrian rail crash. Would it be too much to expect the same prominence to be given to the 17,500 fatalities on Britain's roads since the previous fatal UK rail crash?

LES RICHARDSON

NEWARK, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

Real-time banking

Sir: C Moorey writes: "If the bank would allow us to see up-to-the-minute account statements over the internet ...". I moved from the Midland about twenty years ago because of a row over charges, and moved to the Co-operative Bank, and right from then they had a real time banking system (which you could access via telephone), and when internet access became available, you could do just what C Moorey wishes. I am surprised there are still banks who run things in batch mode overnight.

IAN K WATSON

CARLISLE

Bin that Latin

Sir: Julia Stephenson may be the the Green Goddess, but when she describes some recycling bins as the "sine qua non of bins" (1 March), she probably needs to recycle them as non plus ultra.

DAVID HASELL

THAMES DITTON, SURREY