STUART Chapman wants the UK to spend even more on so-called defence than it does already, which will inevitably mean that there will be even less money available for the health service.

As for his reasons for wasting more of our resources countering a non-existent threat, I will take them in order

1 The Falkland islands are not the UK: they are a historically disputed territory to which Argentina and the UK both lay claim

2 What is the evidence that the USSR as it was then, ever planned to invade Western Europe? I have a cutting from the Guardian for January 1 1999, reporting on a document which was a briefing for British Chiefs of Staff and marked Top Secret UK Eyes Only and headed The Threat: Soviet Aims and Intentions and dated June 1988.

The Guardian summarises the findings of this document and its implications: "The Soviet Union had no intention of launching a military attack on the West at the height of the cold war, British military and intelligence chiefs privately believed, in stark contrast to what Western politicians and military leaders were saying in public about the 'Soviet threat.'"

So it appears that successive British governments knew the truth but regarded the citizens of this country as 'useful idiots' (Lenin's famous phrase) whom they wished to manipulate for their own purposes

3. I note that Stuart Chapman does not believe in disarmament at all and sees the future of this country, and of the world, as involving one never ending futile arms race, which will inevitably lead to a catastrophic war if only by accident What a prospect!

Malcolm Pittock

James Avenue

Bolton