SUSAN Stockwell’s desire for the always popular Bournemouth air show to never be held again (Letter 2nd September) includes a curious list of reasons.

She says it is noisy; as if anything that makes a noise should be banned.

Aircraft using Bournemouth Airport are noisy; and most are taking people away on quite unnecessary foreign holidays.

Besides, they are adding to the supposed human-created global warming.

Forget the pleasure the passengers obtain with time on beaches where the sun will shine; and the employment given to the airport staff and the travel industry.

She complains the sound of air show planes makes dogs bark; I know of a dog that barks every time it hears a strange noise. She cites the US military using ear protection for dogs trained to work where there are genuine sudden loud noises: weapon fire, explosions, etc. Very different from an event that last just three days over all, with the flying displays a total of a few hours during that time.

Then the strange idea that seeing and hearing military aircraft will upset ‘asylum seekers’ who have come from countries that are enduring civil war or other hostilities.

Anyone wishing to make a home in the UK should also understand our history, and how twice in the last century we faced invasion and countered it at the loss of 880,000 British servicemen in the First World War and 384,000 soldiers alone in Second World War.

As for the sound (and sight) upsetting service veterans, has she ever been to an RAF museum or Duxford? Air shows and museum visits have the power to bring ex-servicemen together, to remember their own military days, and to think of their comrades who died in the cause of our country.

Many of those who come to the Bournemouth air show will have a keen interest in both the civilian and military aircraft, and their roles of the latter in Second World War and subsequent conflicts.

Perhaps Susan Stockwell would rather the public were not reminded of some of the aeroplanes that helped us win both world wars. And that there is a strong need today to be able to defend ourselves against aggressors.

That the BCP Council should organise a cycle ride instead is not just risible, but an insult to anyone who was killed or who lost relatives in any airborne operations from 1914 to the present day. There is a powerful Puritanical streak infecting the UK. Having fun is now bad. Perhaps we should copy Oliver Cromwell, and ban Christmas.

Eric Hayman

Bradpole Road,

Bournemouth