Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, has recently announced her intent to make billions of pounds of cuts in welfare and other public spending in the forthcoming Spring Statement. This comes hot on the heels of the announcement to balance increased defence spending on the backs of the world’s poorest through cuts in international aid. The poor, both at home and abroad, will continue to suffer as the austerity screw is turned further due to Reeves’s damaging and self-imposed limits on public borrowing. In Germany, a different fiscal approach is being taken. The likely new Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is proposing a move to exempt spending on defence and infrastructure from the “debt brake” – strict borrowing rules entrenched in the German constitution by Angela Merkel following the financial crisis in 2008. According to finance minister Jorg Kukies, all expenses in the defence budget above one per cent of GDP will be exempted from the national debt brake. Kukies has also announced the creation of a special fund to invest in Germany’s infrastructure which also escapes the borrowing restrictions. This will amount to €500bn (£420 billion) over ten years – with no cuts to welfare spending. This is what dumping crippling fiscal restraints can do, demolishing Reeves’s insistence that cuts in benefits and international aid must go in order to boost spending on defence and infrastructure. Alex Orr , Edinburgh Nuclear deterrent Ken Gow (Letters, 8 March) claims that before firing the UK’s nuclear submarine’s nuclear missiles we must obtain US permission. This is not so. The only authority required to fire them must come from our Prime Minister. Furthermore, the US cannot remotely dismantle the Trident systems, and further Trident (Now Dreadnought) subs are under construction at Barrow-in-Furness. Vladimir Putin understands the meaning of Mutual Mass Destruction just the same as the rest of us. Doug Morrison, Tenterden, Kent Farage flounders Nigel Farage cannot complain about his current problems, as each and every one of them have been wildly self-inflicted in much the same exasperating manner he – rightly or wrongly – called out the established parties, that of good old-fashioned hubris. Since finally achieving his life's ambition to become a Member of Parliament – and indeed of breaking the Conservative Party’s total monopoly of national right wing politics – he’s treated it like a toy he’s grown steadily bored with. Never mind Reform UK members’ exasperation – the people of Clacton and Jaywick who thought they were electing the new messiah have discovered instead he's a very naughty boy, having seen hide nor hair of him since. Farage is a soapbox revolutionary: demanding change whilst refusing to change himself in perpetually avoiding his own responsibilities. He needs to knuckle down like a grown-up and spend less time as the media’s expert witness from the University Of The Bloke Down The Pub. Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire Allied bomb Many people may think that the unexploded Second World War bomb which disrupted rail services at the Gare du Nord station in Paris on Friday would have been German. This is unlikely because marshalling yards throughout France were regular targets for British and American planes. The RAF and the USAF dropped eight times the tonnage of bombs on France as Germany did on Britain, killing 60,000 French civilians. On 27 May 1944 3,012 French people were killed by Allied bombing. Many French cities and towns were reduced to rubble. Not a building was left standing in St Nazaire, while other towns suffered 90 per cent damage. During D-Day alone 3,000 French civilians were killed by Allied bombing – almost as many as the Allied troops who died that day. The bombing caused resentment in France towards Britain for many years after the war, not forgetting also that on 3 July 1940 a Royal Navy battle group fired on the French fleet at anchor at Mers-el-Kebir, killing 1,300 French sailors, sinking a battleship and damaging five other warships. These events led to a mistrust of Britain in France which the passage of time has thankfully erased. William Loneskie, Lauder, Scottish Borders Peaceful protest Peaceful protest is enshrined in our democracy but groups like Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and now Palestine Action – with their vandalism attack at Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf course – are pushing the boundaries so hard they will break. Noticeably, many of these protestors favour covering their faces and a few do criminal damage. It is incumbent on Westminster and Holyrood to deal with this effectively and the judicial system too. It is also very noticeable these protestors enjoy little public support whereas the farmers, with a legitimate cause and genuine peaceful protest might actually succeed with getting their grievances attended to. That is what genuine popular protest is all about. Gerald Edwards, Glasgow Tartan Luddites If ever an occasion has arisen that shows perfectly the Luddite mentality of the SNP, it is surely their blind refusal of the UK's offer for them to join in with the rest of the country in the development and installation of small and ultra-modern nuclear power plants. The plants are not dependent on the vagaries of wind. They do not kill local wildlife or ruin treasured landscapes. But the SNP would rather Scots hid themselves in caves without fossil fuels. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh Write to The Scotsman We welcome your thoughts – NO letters submitted elsewhere, please. Write to lettersts@scotsman.com including name, address and phone number – we won't print full details. 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