Letters - March 8, 2019

The credibility of national political leaders has sunk to an all-time low and increasingly causes me frustration and despair. It has been clear for some time that Theresa May is a seriously flawed leader and an ineffective communicator.

However, despite this, I gave her some credit for apparently possessing values based on her Christian upbringing.

But not any more.

Her crass protestations that the reduction of over 20,000 police officers has made no difference to crime rates and the increase in drug misuse is beyond belief.

During her stewardship of the Home Office, she was responsible for crucial decisions, which have had a devastating effect on the lives of young people and has resulted in many grieving families. On a daily basis, we are witnessing an unprecedented number of deaths following stabbings, which have now reached epidemic proportions.

In denying the truth, the Prime Minister and her minions have revealed extraordinarily poor judgement and a complete lack of integrity.

The sooner we have a change at the top in both parties and a focus on topics other than Brexit the better.

Number one should be keeping our children and young people safe.

Malcolm Rae OBE

Address supplied

Response

You missed mark on Army letter

Seldom have I read such tosh as that in Royston Jones letter of March 6. Almost every bit of his letter is biased and factually wrong. He demonstrates again his ignorance of the Armed Services, and indeed the real world.

The facts are that Capita, which he never mentions, botched its recruitment contract. It is currently overhauling its procedures.

This has provoked from Royston, a close supporter of the hapless Corbyn, the usual tirade of class-ridden nonsense.

Firstly, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not fought for what he calls resources and profit. Iraq resulted from lies told by a former Labour Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

The Afghanistan conflict was an attempt to stop a nasty terrorist group inflicting a dystopian regime on the Afghan people. One can justifiably criticise the West’s engagement in both wars but they were not fought, as he claims, for oil or profit (I am sure the Afghans will be bemused to hear they have oil deposits).

With regards to the rant about a class-ridden military establishment... words fail one. I know of many Army, Navy and Air Force personnel who became officers by attaining good A-Levels and passing a lengthy and very rigorous selection procedure that involves physical, educational and intelligence tests. Each one, male and female, came from ordinary working class backgrounds.

Royston lives in a time warp. He really must stop living in the past. Our military today bear no resemblance to that of bygone days.

To claim that “the army puts young disadvantaged people at the greatest risk” is utter nonsense. All combat personnel irrespective of rank are at risk in war. Royston is all too clearly ignorant of modern warfare. He should look up how many officers died or were wounded in Afghanistan.

War is a terrible act but there are occasions when it has to be undertaken in order to survive or to put down a monstrous tyranny.

Why doesn’t Royston come clean and admit like Jeremy Corbyn that he is a pacifist who views everything through a Marxist coloured lens?

I look forward to hearing his views on antisemitism in the Labour Party, or what was the Labour Party.

Colonel (retired) Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys

Fracking

Don’t get excited over tremors

With respect to fracking and relaxing the current traffic light rules, I shouldn’t get too excited about it.

You only have to live near an airfield or near a bus route, to both see and feel the tremors caused by buses going over potholes, or an aircraft taking off, to realise that fracking affects one small area, too small to be meaningful. The current limits are too narrow.

Right now, I’m more concerned about the number of new houses planned to be built here on greenfield sites.

Mr P Webberley

Warton