Letter: Tourism in rural Britain blighted by noisy Hawk jets
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Polly Toynbee is to be congratulated for pressing on with her questioning of the Defence Review remit and structure ("A Boy Scout motto: prepared for what?", 14 July).
We live near an RAF training base where activity was suddenly intensified as a result of Options for Change closure of other bases. After a year and a half of trying to elicit straightforward information from the MoD many of our questions are still unanswered. We have even been chided for our failure to "support the armed forces".
Now we learn that the noise which invades our home and blights the creation of leisure and tourist jobs in the area (circuit night flying till past 3am every six weeks in summer) is contributed to by foreign student pilots from the Arab Emirates being trained by our own RAF training division, itself now partially privatised. But just how far do complicated defence sales transactions go? Do we also blight rural Britain with the training noise of pilots from countries purchasing the Hawk, for instance? Where does legitimate defence of the realm end and the interests of the private arms industry begin?
CLARE BROOKS
Harrogate
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments