Maternity cover

SIR – I am not sure that maternity pay is “excessive”, as Kemi Badenoch put it (report, October 1), but, having run a small business, I will say that the system can be testing. 

I employed about 50 people, and the office was run by four wonderful women, two of whom had been with me for many years. When the other two became pregnant at the same time, office life became a nightmare.

We had to employ three temporary workers as cover; they needed training and help from the two remaining permanent staff. This caused overtime to soar. Then, as the temps could leave at very short notice, issues arose with finding replacements and initiating more training. Even when temps stay for longer periods, mothers can change when or if they want to return with only eight weeks’ notice.

Larger companies can easily move staff internally for a few months, as individuals are nowhere near as critical to the operation of any particular department. Processes and software tend to be company-wide, so training isn’t such an issue. Small businesses, however, are generally run on very tight financial lines, where everyone is critical to the smooth functioning of the operation.

It seems unreasonable to me that there is no differentiation in the rules for small and large businesses. Pregnancies certainly had a major effect on my company’s productivity and profitability, and while it’s absolutely necessary to offer an effective system for women in the workplace, I am not sure we have the right balance at present.

Ian Brent-Smith
Bicester, Oxfordshire
 

Reliance on wind

SIR – You report (October 1) the closure of Britain’s last remaining coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire. Coal and nuclear have been the backbone of reliable power for more than 50 years, but the aim of the Government is to rely on wind and solar from 2030. 

Last Tuesday, at 8.30am, the total output from wind and solar was 1.5 gigawatts out of the required 35. Granted, new offshore wind farms will increase the total, but turbines will produce nothing on a cold winter’s day when there is no wind.
Intermittency is not the only problem. There is more wind in the north than the south, yet energy demands are higher in the south. Upgrading the National Grid accordingly will take many years and be hugely costly.

Viking, Ed Miliband’s flagship wind farm in the Shetlands, has already been paid millions to keep turbines switched off, and at the same time we are importing electricity from France, Norway and Holland. 

When are these concerns going to be heard by the Government?

Walter Stevenson
Falkirk, Stirlingshire
 

Leftie marksmen

SIR – Like all tank crewmen, I was armed with the Sterling submachine gun as my personal weapon. 

Being left-handed (Letters, October 1), I could either fire it from the right shoulder and suffer my comrades’ jokes about poor marksmanship, or follow my natural inclination and endure hot brass cartridges being ejected on to my right cheek. 

There were several other weapons then in service that were difficult for left-handers to use, and I often wondered what impact this had on combat effectiveness, given the significant minority of leftie soldiers.

Brigadier Rod Brummitt (retd)
Bournemouth, Dorset
 

Elgin copies 

SIR – The Oxford-based Institute of Digital Archaeology’s unauthorised marble facsimile of the British Museum’s Parthenon sculpture of a horse’s head was no substitute for the work itself – its surface was dull, dead and without history (Letters, September 25).

But if such artefacts were to be considered acceptable substitutes by museums, the obvious solution to the contested holding of the Elgin Marbles would be to make two facsimile sets of all the surviving Parthenon sculptures in their various museum homes and present them to the Greek authorities. 

It would then be possible to attach one set to the Parthenon itself (without risk of environmental erosion) and for the other to join the sculptures recently removed from the Parthenon to be housed in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. 
Leaving the surviving Parthenon sculptures where they are presently sited in museums (such as the British Museum and the Louvre) would retain the inestimable benefits of large, culturally comparative historic museums.

Perhaps even more importantly, it would also help deflate today’s dangerously regressive, nationalistic calls for a kind of aesthetic and cultural cleansing, whereby all works of art are returned to their geographical places of origin.

Michael Daley
Director, ArtWatch UK
Barnet, Hertfordshire

SIR – I see that Sir Keir Starmer “wants a solution” to the Elgin Marbles question. 

If his success in negotiating with doctors and train drivers – giving in to their demands for nothing in return – is anything to go by, one presumes the marbles will soon be on their way to Greece.

Idris White
Sevenoaks, Kent
 

A long way to Paris

SIR – The only time I have travelled on the sleeper train to London was as a child during the 1970s (Letters, October 1).

My mum collected Persil tokens for months in order to subsidise our trip as a family of five from Inverness to Euston.

We then took a train to Dover and a ferry to Calais, boarded another train, and finally arrived in Paris. 

All I can say is: thank goodness for budget airlines.

Kirsty Blunt
Sedgeford, Norfolk
 

From Corsican delights to fast-food doldrums

SIR – We are just back from a fantastic holiday on the enchanting island of Corsica.

The towns and villages had many restaurants and cafés offering a wonderful range of food. The people we met were all cheerful; most appeared healthy and not overweight.

On our return to Britain, we had to stop at a motorway service station. The only food available was that offered by the likes of KFC and McDonald’s. The place was dirty and the extent of obesity was very obvious. What a sad contrast.

Nigel Luckett
Kinver, Staffordshire
 

When palliative care fails to provide relief

SIR – Over the past weekend my mother died in an NHS hospital, where I witnessed the difference between the theory of a pain-free death under modern palliative care and the cold, hard reality (Letters, October 1).

While the staff involved were kind and considerate, the application of pain relief for my mother was reactive. Numerous times over four days, when she was showing obvious signs of serious distress, a family member had to ask staff to administer additional relief. I understand that this process is designed to protect medical staff from accusations of assisting the death of a patient, but to see my mother in such pain was mortifying.

She had been a widow for more than 20 years and had suffered from a complex range of health problems. When she died she was no longer the woman we would like to remember, and she had made it abundantly clear that she had little to live for.

I would prefer to spare my wife and children the distress of seeing me in the same condition, and would certainly like the option to consider assisted dying. This wish could be conveyed through a condition on a health power of attorney, in case I were unable to make my wishes known at the point of crisis.

I have seen much moralising by doctors and others on the ethics of assisted dying. However, they need to face reality and respect the wishes of the people they are supposed to be caring for.

T D Amphlett
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire

SIR – Dr Susan Coe (Letters, September 28) asks: “Why should paralysis, incontinence, difficulty swallowing or total dependence on others make an individual’s life less valuable?”

They could certainly make it less valuable to me. If my life became intolerable, I would like the option of assisted dying.

Dr John Garside
Thirsk, North Yorkshire

SIR – I was visiting a friend in hospital recently and overheard this from a son visiting his seriously ill mother nearby: “Oh please, Mum, can you hang on a bit longer? I am up to here with admin, and just cannot cope with anything else at the moment.”

Patricia Donati
Culworth, Oxfordshire
 

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