Letters - June 6, 2017

ELECTIONPolice on beat not answer to terrorAmong the avalanche of promises that Jeremy Corbyn keeps offering us is his claim that he would increase police numbers by thousands. He blames the necessary cuts in police numbers for the recent savage terrorist attacks in Manchester and London.
Armed police on St Thomas Street, London, near the scene of last night's terrorist incident at Borough Market.Armed police on St Thomas Street, London, near the scene of last night's terrorist incident at Borough Market.
Armed police on St Thomas Street, London, near the scene of last night's terrorist incident at Borough Market.

Both are false and are deliberately aimed at fooling the publc.

He fails to tell you, as does Diane Abbott, that these thousands of extra police would have to be: recruited, trained and paid for.

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The impression that they would be patrolling our streets on 9 June is ludicrous and even he knows it. It would take years.

More police on the beat is not the answer to terror attacks. The terrorists are evil but they are not stupid. What we need are very highly trained intelligence personnel, and these, l can assure you, take even longer to train. It is very obvious that Corbyn and his team have no understanding or knowledge of what this entails. To put them in Number 10 would be a catastrophe for the nation.

Colonel (retired)

Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys

ELECTION

The Tories have 
lost the grey vote

We have had the bedroom tax forced the chronically sick and disabled to be ‘‘re-assessed for work’ and a reduction in their benefits if they don’t work and now it’s the ‘care and dementia tax’.

Council care homes have closed with the cuts, hence high fees charged by private homes.

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There is continuing health care provided by the NHS, but even those who qualify for it can’t get it.

The Conservatives have lost the ‘grey vote’.

Sandra Ogden

via email

ELECTION

Why is Marsden

opposing fracking?

Reading through the election leaflets to date, I was very surprised to see that the Labour candidate for Blackpool South (Mr Gordon Marsden) is against fracking. Also,he appears to be a ‘remainer’.

Why on earth would a Labour MP spend his time disrupting efforts to bring jobs and prosperity to our area? I would have thought that he should be encouraging industry and commerce to the town, not opposing it.

Puzzled

Blackpool

REFUGEES

Don’t ignore 
these children

Re: the ongoing refugee crisis, which is the worst since the Second World War, and the withdrawal by the Home Secretary of the agreement of Parliament last year to set up a special scheme (the Dubs Amendment).

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This scheme aimed to resettle 3,000 unaccompanied children, lost and alone in Europe, when only 350 children had been given refuge.

As election day approaches, as a member of Fylde Coast Amnesty International Group, I urge the candidates of all political parties not to turn their backs on these vulnerable human beings.

I ask that they ensure that the UK Government reinstates the scheme in the new Parliament and recalls the UK’s proud history of welcoming vulnerable children displaced by war and terror.

Leaving these children at huge risk of deprivation and abuse is a callous and inhumane act and not to be tolerated. We have a duty to do better than this and ensure their human rights are protected.

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While the news has moved on, many young refugees have not. According to Help Refugees: “When the rain doesn’t ruin sleeping bags, police pepper spray bedding so children in Calais have no sheets to sleep in”.

At Fylde Coast Amnesty Group’s open meeting on Monday, June 7, at 7.30pm at United Reformed Church Hall, St George’s Road, St Annes, we will be welcoming Dawn Judd, a volunteer for the charity Care4Calais. Please come along tonight to hear her speak of her experience.

Julie Bullough

Ansdell

ELECTION

Labour would just keep on spending

How can anyone even consider voting Labour in the coming election?

History has shown that whenever Labour are in power, when leaving office, the country is always skint. Margaret Thatcher had to pick up the pieces in 1979 when she took over from a Labour government under complete control of the trade unions.

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When the Conservatives took over, they not only cleared the billions of debt which Labour had saddled us with, but left us with a balance sheet which was the envy of Europe.

In 1998 our economy was in credit, the first time for years, Gordon Brown soon changed that. In just 12 months we had a deficit of £86 billion.

The downturn in the world’s economy could not have come at a better time for Gordon who used it as a smokescreen for the disgraceful mess he got us into. With another Labour government, it would start all over again, spend spend, borrow and spend, then let the Conservatives sort it out once again.

Terry Watson

Via email