I am from Marsabit in northern Kenya and have seen how the drought has left pastoralist communities with no other choice but to rely on aid. It was heartening to read that the UK’s development secretary, Priti Patel, has pledged more support to East Africa (“Patel to defend aid budget as famine crisis spreads”, News).

There is no doubt that this money will save lives, but for it to be as effective as possible the aid response must be locally led. There has been a growing realisation of the need to empower local organisations and communities, with international aid agencies working alongside.

This approach is at the heart of UK aid agency Cafod’s response to this devastating drought. Our long-standing, trusted church partners harness indigenous knowledge, contacts and expertise. Our partners know, for example, that a vulnerable family left with nothing will share food aid with a neighbour, because communities sustain each other during good and bad times.

Local organisations are there before, during and after a crisis and plugging into their systems will help support the transition from humanitarian response to longer term development.

James Jirm Galgallo

Humanitarian capacity development officer

Cafod

The dumbing down of science



I doubt if many practising engineers and scientists will agree with the tenor of your article regarding the alleged success of scientific coverage on Radio 4 (“BBC must now do for the arts what it has done for science, says R4 culture boss”, News).

The majority of the “new wave” of presenters on Radio 4 are science academics or journalists. Prefacing one’s name with “Dr” or “Professor” might impress undergraduates, but it is useless within engineering R&D departments.

I listen to Saturday Review every week and have yet to hear Tom Sutcliffe cracking jokes about a play or film. Why does supposed science have to be diluted to the level of The Archers’ Christmas pantomime, with programmes such as The Infinite Monkey Cage? Thankfully, television understands the importance of engineers. I applaud individuals such as Sam Lovegrove (Shed and Buried) and Guy Martin (Channel 4), who put self-promotion on the back burner.

Dr Lawrence Jones

Liverpool

Luther’s antisemitic legacy



Peter Stanford eulogises Martin Luther (“Five centuries on, Martin Luther should be feted as hero of liberty and free speech”, In Focus) and asks: “What’s not to celebrate?” I suggest Luther’s murderous sentiments towards Jews and Anabaptists. In Luther’s 65,000-word treatise, On the Jews and Their Lies, he advises Christians on what to do with this “rejected and condemned people”:

“First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools…[and] I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed…that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them… that their rabbis be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb… that safe conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews” and so on.

At least he stopped short of calling directly for the killing of Jews. The Anabaptists were not so lucky. For their heresy of believing that people should not be baptised at birth, but only when they were ready to affirm their faith for themselves, Luther declared that they should be put to death. There is no doubt about Luther’s immense courage in exposing corruption within the church, but I believe the good he did is counterbalanced by his legacy of anti-semitism and intolerance of heresy.

David Simmonds

Woking

Surrey

Incompetence and Brexit



David Olusoga has exposed the “dangerous nostalgia for something that never existed” (Comment), yet this nostalgia has a long history. In 1950, Lord Hinchinbrooke addressed the Conservative Club at Oxford with phrases such as “the Empire will stand by us” or “our own and kin”. Olusoga also turned on the Brexiters, that group leading us into unknown territory. I was shocked that David Davis told the House of Commons Brexit committee that he has no idea about the future of Britain after Brexit. In the 18th century, such incompetence would have been followed by impeachment, so why not now?

William Robert Haines

Shrewsbury

SNP suffers twisted logic



The SNP has made a case for another independence referendum, in part because Scotland voted 60/40 to stay in the EU and that by the UK leaving it would deny the people their right to remain (News).

Much of Scotland south of the M8 voted overwhelmingly in 2014 to remain in the UK, as did Edinburgh. Indeed, areas such as the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway voted No to independence by almost 2 to 1. If the people in these areas vote No again, using the SNP’s logic over the Brexit vote, they must surely be allowed to stay in the UK, even if the majority of Scots vote Yes.

Stephen Bower

Belvedere, Kent