ANDY Newman is quite right to draw our attention to the amount of money which is spent on the cost of conflicts in the Middle East and how much better use that money would be put to (SA, December 5).

We have outstayed our welcome in Iraq and should never have been in Afghanistan in the first place. It is now time to bring the troops home.

I cannot, however, agree with him over the proposed upgrading of our nuclear weapons.

The adage let him who desires peace first prepare for war' is as relevant now as it was all those hundreds of years ago.

We live in a very troubled world and must take steps to ensure that we have sufficient means of protection should the need arise.

Nuclear weapons may not protect us from attacks from terrorists but with rogue states like Iran and North Korea about to join the nuclear club we cannot afford to be complacent.

Nothing would please the enemies of this country more than to see us scrap our deterrent, and deterrent is what it is.

No, Mr Newman, we cannot have defence on the cheap although for years that is what Gordon Brown has been aiming at.

Your ideas may well rally the CND brigade once again but would leave us in a state of nakedness and this is a position which just cannot be contemplated, no matter what the financial burden.

Every penny spent on defence is a penny well spent and we should never allow ourselves to be so unprepared as we were in 1939.

R W SELWAY.

Stratton St Margaret.

Swindon