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Sir, Melanie Phillips’s conversion to the ranks of those who have long been concerned at the hollowing out of the UK’s armed forces is most welcome (“Britain must become a warrior nation again”, comment, Apr 8). However, the refusal of polite society to address the strategic error of the abolition of the Territorial Volunteer Reserves as the proven and cost-effective engine of primary national force regeneration from the willing citizenry remains perplexing. Imaginative re-creation of this critical vehicle for national defence and cohesive mass should be a primary policy goal before we again resort to discussions of conscription and compulsory mobilisation.
David Rew
Former colonel and consultant surgeon, Defence Medical Services (V); Southampton
Sir, Melanie Phillips’s description of a self-indulgent
