Letters - February 8, 2017

Social and health care services are facing high demand.

Another headline further on reads ‘Ministers forecast migrants could make up four in 10 new households’.

After reading Professor John Sutherland’s book ‘War on the Old’ I am beginning to believe him. The elderly are not only bed blockers but are house hoarders as well. If senior citizens are happy living in their houses, and their community, stay put and fight back. I am quite sure there are many older people who can still remember living in dire poverty and have many a story to tell.

Prof. Sutherland states: “Until British OAPs organise to set up a British Association of Retired Persons they will suffer the fate of old animals in the jungle.”

Social housing has not been replaced at the rate it is being lost to the private market. The need for housing that is both affordable and of good quality cannot be met in a half hearted way.

Local authority housing is declining and demand is rising.

The government should be building more social housing. Allow even low earners to buy half a share of newly built houses until they can afford a mortgage. Build more affordable homes. Will the ministers who came up with the great idea for older people to downsize their homes will be doing the same and giving up one of their two homes and join the revolution? I doubt it.

P O’Connor

Portland Road

Blackpool

STROKE

Just like many of your readers, I’m no stranger to the devastating impact of stroke.

My grandmother had two strokes before she sadly passed away, and that’s why the work of the Stroke Association is so close to my heart.

I’m calling on your readers to make a New Year’s pledge that counts, and sign up to the Stroke Association’s Resolution Run at Stanley Park, Blackpool on Sunday March 19.

Whether you’re putting on your running shoes for the first time, increasing your running distance or achieving a personal best, the Resolution Runs are perfect for all ages and abilities.

Runners can choose their distance from 5k, 10k or 15k and participants can run, jog or walk the routes.

By training and taking part you’re helping to reduce your own risk of having a stroke, and the vital funds you’ll raise will help the Stroke Association to support those who have been affected by this incredibly cruel condition. Please join us and sign up for a Resolution Run: together we can conquer stroke.

Find out more about Resolution Runs here: www.stroke.org.uk/resolution

Laura Tobin

ITV

POLITICS

Bercow should  resign in disgrace

Excuse me if I smile at John Bercow’s seemingly brave stand on behalf of womankind.

The man has been humiliated by his free-spirited wife, and wants to tell the Scots Nats and anyone else who will listen, that he is a right-on feminist.

He should now resign in disgrace at this gross insult to President Trump, a true Anglophile.

This is how we Brits repay him for restoring the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office.

Dai Woosnam

Via email

TRUMP

Together we can defeat terrorism

Good on Donald Trump for doing what he said he would, that is why he was voted in.

And good on Theresa May for doing her job and doing what the British people voted for once, out of the EU.

We should be able to vet the people wanting to come into this country, and not have an official EU quota to legally allow in.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were of course responsible for this while in office, these two have a lot to answer for.

The west has been too soft for far too long on immigration hopefully this will change in the near future.

I often wonder why Russia has not got a problem with immigration and terrorist bombings etc, is it because they know better than to try to enter Russia, no freebies there.

The people who are demonstrating against Brexit and Donald Trump need to get real, and to accept we live in a dangerous world, more so than ever.

Let the people in charge get on with the job of keeping us all safe and maybe one day terrorism will be defeated.

We all need to work together to make this possible.

K E Coates

Via email

ECONOMY

What about wages and inflation?

The news last week was the Bank of England’s report on inflation and growth.

The media chose to run with the story of growth of the UK economy instead of the fact that inflation could well outstrip wage increases.

At the moment wages and inflation are level pegging at 1.6 per cent, but because of the lower value of sterling, inflation is expected to increase to above two per cent in 2017.

So the vote to leave the EU will make working people in the UK poorer, and Article 50 has not been triggered yet.

Nigel Bywater

Via email