I salute our armed forces

12:24pm Saturday 17th May 2008

I HAVE been greatly encouraged by those who have written letters to express their appreciation for the men and women of our armed forces.

Others - especially the National Union of Teachers who so disgracefully disparaged our service personnel - might care to reflect on Rudyard Kipling's famous lines in his poem Hurrah! For the Life of a Soldier, written in 1892: "For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the Brute!'' "But it's "Saviour of 'is country'' when the guns begin to shoot''.

DOROTHY FUDGE, Totton.