THE National has terrific front pages that are highly visible on the newsstands, but I must correct the glaring inaccuracy of one front page. On Monday the front page stated “Outcry as £130bn Trident renewal goes ahead amid economic crisis”. The story on page five stated: “Tories to press on with £130bn Trident renewal”. On both headlines the word “renewal” is inaccurate.

Whenever politicians or the media talk about Trident, it’s referred to as “renewal of Trident” or “renewal of the Trident independent defence system”. They never say it’s an upgrade, as that may remind folk they’re upgrading its ability to destroy civilisation.

READ MORE: Tories to push on with £130bn Trident renewal despite pandemic

The word renewal also portrays an image of a like-for-like replacement of worn-out but necessary items, such as car tyres or windscreen wiper blades, which will be a relatively minimal expense compared to the cost of upgrading to a brand new high specification car.

My first car was a 1987 Ford Escort; it had wind-up windows and a dodgy radio cassette player and had no power steering or central locking. Several times I’ve replaced my cars and each came with greatly upgraded specifications as standard. If they had only been renewals, I’d still be driving around in a 1980s-specification car.

So my suggestion to everyone is that whenever you hear the term “renewal of Trident” to always correct it to “upgrade of the Trident offensive weapons system”.

Roddy MacNeill
East Kilbride

WITH many people left without any human contact during lockdown, I would like to flag up the important work done by two superb charities who make thousands of telephone calls to vulnerable people every week, namely The Golden Generation and The Good Morning Club. These organisations are a real lifeline for those in our community who have been largely forgotten about; their staff’s kindness, cheerfulness and optimism deserve to be recognised for their outstanding contribution to public health.

Stephen McCarthy
Glasgow