Readers’ Letters: Do not pick a fight that we cannot afford

I'm not unused to seeing a Labour government throw our forces into disastrous wars in far flung parts of the world. Iraq and Afghanistan spring to mind with all the carnage that went with them.

Now we see Sir Keir Starmer and his hapless foreign secretary apparently hell bent on escalating the war in Ukraine. Hand-in-hand with the exhausted Biden administration, Britain has enabled her Storm Shadow missiles to be fired deep into the Russian heartland, provoking the Russian to retaliate with a sophisticated missile that is designed for nuclear warheads.

Fine if the government wants to play war, but the defence secretary has already said that the Army is so small that it can no longer fight, whilst further defence cuts have just been announced.

We need to remember our disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan a couple of years ago - Mr Putin certainly does! If we want to avoid wars we need to prepare for them and spend the necessary money. Anything else is just dangerous, empty posturing from a government that seems to have run out of ideas, drive and determination. — Patrick Mercer