It makes sense to support a British institution that is doing well
There is a saying: "If it's not broke, don't fix it," and that certainly applies to the reduction of funds for British Antarctic science, and submerging the significance of a first-rate science group, the British Antarctic Survey ("Preserving the spirit of Shackleton: why the UK must treasure its polar research", News).
It is foolish to apply across-the-board cuts to "solve" a budget crisis. It would make far more sense to protect and nourish the British institutions that are performing very well on the world stage, while cutting more deeply into those subjects that are performing less well, or are just mediocre in importance (do we really need a state-funded popular music radio channel?).
Thomas Crowley
Formerly of the US National Science Foundation
East Linton
East Lothian
Robin McKie reports that British polar research is under threat as a result of the proposed merger of the National Oceanography Centre and the British Antarctic Survey. This proposal will be considered by the Council of the Natural Environment Research Council in December following an open consultation. Far from posing a threat to polar research, we are continuing to sustain our polar activity, and its role in maintaining the UK presence in Antarctica and South Georgia, in spite of the pressure on science budgets that our present circumstances demand.
Our aim in proposing the merger of the BAS and the National Oceanography Centre is to create a single institute that can take on the largest grand challenges of polar science, north and south, and that can make the most effective use of the combined fleet. We are considering matching the centre's ambition with a new name, but there are no plans to close BAS at Cambridge, whose existence remains integral to the new centre's ambition.
Duncan Wingham
Chief Executive, Natural Environment Research Council
Swindon
1962 – a good year for cricket
I celebrated my first teenage birthday in October 1962 so your tales resonate strongly with me ("October 1962: the month that modern culture was born", In Focus). I recall a geography teacher scaring us over the Cuban missile crisis by suggesting there might never be another geography class, while the Beatles offered some relief.
I would add one further event in that autumn which signalled a changing world. While England's best cricketers toured Australia under the flag of the MCC, that powerful private club was agreeing to abolish the long-established distinction between amateur "Gentleman" cricketers and the professional "Players". When the 1963 season began they were, for the first time, all cricketers.
Dr Dave Allen
Hon Archivist, Hampshire Cricket
Portsmouth
Urgent need for TB vaccine
The problem of TB in cattle and badgers has been known for a long time, long enough surely for a vaccine to be developed for cattle ("Tempers rising over badger cull as farmers confront activists", News). It would not be difficult to identify vaccinated cattle eg with an ear tag.
As it is, the test to find infected animals is hopelessly inadequate. Many cattle are found not to have signs of the disease when slaughtered, and some cattle proved negative when tested are later found to have TB. There is a lot of work to be done before the killing of badgers should be considered. It is difficult to understand how this slaughter has been allowed to go ahead.
Catherine Caveney
Glastonbury
Somerset
What's in a name? A great deal
Tazeen Ahmad's article explaining that child sexual exploitation is not the property of any particular social or racial group is timely and it's a shame that it was felt necessary ("The abuse of children was sickening. In Asian communities a fightback has begun", In Focus).
However, her employment of the term "British Pakistani" contributes to a wider problem with integration. In America, terms such as Italian American or Greek American are widely accepted. Isn't it time for Pakistani British or Indian British to be preferred as more accurate and helpful?
Chris Lymn
Leicester
You scratch my back…
For John Carlin's depressing picture of "amiguismo" in Spain, read also the Italy of "clientilismo" ("Behind Spain's turmoil lies a croynism that stifles the young and ambitious", Comment). The principle of compulsory quid pro quo was founded in the Rome of the emperors, sophisticated over the centuries by the Vatican and the mafia, perfected into a well-oiled machine by the Christian Democrats and their American masters in the second half of the 20th century. We are left with the caricature of cronyism, clients and corruption as practiced by Berlusconi, well-taught by his mentor, the socialist Bettino Craxi. Povera Italia!
(Oddly enough, most of my Italian friends and relatives who decided to escape all ended up in Barcelona.)
John Howlett
Rye
East Sussex
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