IoS letters, emails and online postings (21 February 2016)

Our so-called independent nuclear deterrent has an interesting history (“Nato and US admit to ‘anxiety’ over Corbyn”, 15 February).

It would have been irresponsible of President Kennedy, having agreed to supply the UK with submarine-launched ballistic missiles, not to have ensured that they incorporated an electronic lock mechanism. After all, what is there to distinguish a British Polaris launch from an American one? A desperate Harold Macmillan, keen to acquire a deterrent on the cheap, was easily fobbed off.

Bear in mind that the missile delivery system of Trident and its proposed successor has “Made in the USA” stamped all over it. The Yanks design and manufacture the delivery system. Missiles have to be sent back to the United States for periodic overhaul and modifications. Even submarine-launched test firings are conducted in American waters near Cape Canaveral under, needless to say, US Navy supervision.

The nearest thing nowadays to a Potemkin Village is Trident.

Yugo Kovach

Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

I have just read that the projected cost of revamping the Palace of Westminster is between £4bn and £7bn (“Westminster revamp faces three-year delay”, 15 February). Even more amazingly, it is thought by some that this could be reduced to £1bn which apparently would be “a more palatable figure for the public”.

In what parallel universe, in which £1bn is a trivial amount, are these people living?

Surely this is a unique opportunity to rebalance our country at a stroke. If the new Houses of Parliament were built in the North, it would suck jobs and prosperity out of the South-east and demonstrate that the government was serious about the so-called Northern Powerhouse.

Incidentally, it could also be built on a brownfield site, there are plenty from which to choose, and it would set a good example by not rebuilding on a flood plain.

Having the political and financial capitals in separate cities seems to work for many countries including Germany and the United States, so why not here?

Rod Auton

Greenfields, Middle Handley, Chesterfield.

You speculate on where the Commons and Lords might move to when the Houses of Parliament are closed for repairs (“Spies and thirsty MPs: the latest obstacles to repairing Westminster”, 7 February).

In his futuristic novel News from Nowhere William Morris saw Parliament as being replaced by an eco-friendly dungheap with power residing instead directly with the people.

In these austere times that would certainly save a considerable sum of money.

Keith Flett

London N17

In her article “Muslim rape myths fit a neo-Nazi agenda” (14 February), Nabila Ramdani argues that the Cologne attacks are being used unjustifiably to scapegoat both Muslims and immigrants.

I am sure that most Independent on Sunday readers (including me) agree with this.

However, Ms Ramdani uses her own stereotypes in mounting her argument stating that “Cologne was full of Caucasian drunks acting with macho abandon” and citing “‘racially pure’ Aryans, many of them beer-swilling Christians”.

Reducing individual human beings to “types” is something we all need to be careful of.

Jim Conwell

London NW3

Spot on, Joan Smith (“This is about more than pay. It’s about what the NHS is for” 14 February); I could not have put it better myself!

There needs to be a public debate about how the National Health Service can survive in the 21st century (for times have changed since its inception in 1948) – which politicians dare not discuss for fear of having to abandon party dogma and, so, lose votes.

Malcolm Morrison

Retired surgeon

Swindon, Wiltshire