MR Young is quite correct in stating that there are more important things than money, although I believe he is mistaken about our special relationship with the United States.

No better example of a ’Special Relationship’ between our two countries can be demonstrated than by the sacrifice of American service men during the Allied invasion of occupied France on June 6 1944.

Omaha Beach was one of five sectors during the Normandy landings in which 2,400 American servicemen lost their lives.

There were many other casualties on different sectors but Omaha Beach was the bloodiest.

The Special Relationship has nothing to do with Iraq or Afghanistan: it is forged in blood and loss, we should never forget that.

If the Americans had not been at our side we would most certainly have lost the war and we would by now be speaking German.

– W Savage, Lydney.