As a solo mother of a toddler, I have absolutely no regrets (“It’s not just ignorance that stops us having babies. It’s also poor relationships”, Comment). In fact, I’d love to give him a sibling. But with no family close enough to provide “free” childcare and no government help, a monthly childcare bill that is triple my mortgage means that adding another child to our family will have to wait until my son reaches school age.
And, since I had my first at 38, having waited to conceive while I saved up for fertility treatment, a maternity leave that is basically unpaid and a childcare bill that I knew would exceed my disposable income, my fertility may not hold up long enough for a second baby. Genuinely affordable, actually full-time childcare would do far more for the birth rate than telling women about their biological clocks… trust me, we can all hear those ticking!
Alison Smith
London NW2
As a person with endometriosis, I welcome calls for more fertility education in schools. Sadly, many people like myself with fertility issues face huge barriers to diagnosis: the average time in the UK being eight years (11 in my case). Many menstrual disorders could be treated much earlier and more successfully if young people felt equipped to recognise when something is wrong and advocate for treatment. This would allow them to make informed decisions about fertility and, even more importantly, avoid years of chronic pain. This is not the responsibility of education alone, but needs to be supported by fairer access to fertility services and more proactive support for fertility preservation for younger people facing these conditions, rather than the current postcode lottery.
Alanya Noquet
London SE14
Sonia Sodha’s article left out one very important reason why young people do not want to have children: the climate emergency. We are drifting towards a world that will be uninhabitable and governments are still not doing enough to prevent this. Why would you want to bring a child into such a world?
Pauline Gibson
Exeter
Let’s for a moment remember the reality of life for ordinary young mothers and families: the legacy of years of cuts in public welfare/housing, student loans and pay freezes, as well as coping with the cost of living crisis. I am not surprised young women are saying no to having children. This government has made clear that poverty is the new normal for us, so I am not expecting a growth in family/public services that would enable young women to have children.
I see more hope if the strikers, including the nurses, win their demands. Their win is a win for us all and our future children.
Jayne Davies
London SE6
Taking on the tabloids
David Olusoga’s article makes refreshing reading (“Hysteria reveals tabloid prejudices”, Focus). Meghan and Harry will not walk away – they have taken on the tabloids and won. The royal family should now see the light and show some immediate support, particularly for Harry who knew no other life and has proved to be quite courageous in all of this. The tabloid papers were looking for headlines about how Meghan and Harry would call out his family. What a surprise! The royal family now have time to redeem themselves.
Sandra Seldon
Devizes, Wiltshire
Britain wants it all ways
Peter Hain, like so many other British politicians, assumes he can cherry-pick EU components to change the 90-day in 180-day visitor rule (“The signs are clear. Our destiny lies with Europe, not a ‘sovereign global Britain’ fantasy”, Comment). He overlooks three fundamental reasons why Britain cannot.
The EU is fed up with wasting time negotiating with Britain: the country never knows what it wants and disowns, or threatens to disown, its own binding agreements. Second, the UK has been severely weakened by Brexit, whereas a little-affected EU is in a position to impose its demands. Third, please can Hain tell us exactly how the EU would operate different rules for one country out of about 160 non-free movement countries at every Schengen border crossing? I predict that, when a future government asks for mutual recognition of professional qualifications and other selected benefits, the answer will be “only by joining the European economic area” (ie, the single market), which would require Britain to accept all four freedoms with no say in future rules.
David Kauders
Zug, Switzerland
Poland’s place in history
I am glad to hear that the House of Commons is honouring the 80th anniversary of formally recognising the Holocaust (“Eighty years on, MPs will fall silent to mark day UK first recognised Holocaust”, News). It was an important day in British and Second World War history.
As Toby Helm rightly points out, Polish civil servant Jan Karski informed the British authorities about the atrocities taking place in occupied Poland. Karski’s first-hand accounts detailed the tragic conditions in the Warsaw ghetto and the genocide being committed in extermination camps. I believe it is worth mentioning another crucial document that informed foreign secretary Anthony Eden’s statement of 17 December 1942 – “Raczyński’s Note”.
On 10 December 1942, Poland’s foreign ministry sent a note, signed by foreign minister Edward Raczyński, to the signatory states of the United Nations declaration, containing data on the situation of Jews in occupied Poland and disclosing the German crimes. It called not only for the condemnation of the murders and the punishment of the perpetrators, but also for measures that would stop the mass extermination.
The note was met with widespread press commentary, and the reaction of Allied governments was the announcement a week later of a declaration in which a pledge of severe punishment of the guilty was made – a declaration read to the House of Commons by Eden.
Raczyński’s Note was the first official government report informing the west of the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland, helping the world to see the truth about the desperate situation of the Jewish population. Actions by Polish diplomats to aid Jews were also carried out in such places as Switzerland, Hungary, Japan, Shanghai, Turkey and Cuba. Without their efforts, many more would have died.
Piotr Wilczek, Polish ambassador to the UK, London W1
Like a sex machine?
I was intrigued to read that ash seedlings were being named after pop and soul divas (“You grow girl: how Aretha, Nina and Dolly can help save the ash”, News). Then I saw that the plant health expert was Professor James Brown. Presumably he tells the seedlings to “get on up”.
John Fyfe
Edinburgh
