Letters - January 21, 2016

I had a brief occasion to take off my gloves. With doing so and unbeknown to me my wedding ring was accidentally pulled off my finger. I did not realise the ring was missing until I once more removed my gloves in the Houndshill shopping centre.

As W H Smith was the only place I had previously removed my gloves, my wife and I returned to the store where a kind assistant helped us search, to no avail.

Whoever picked up the ring inadvertently forgot to hand it in.

I would like to think that whoever pocketed the ring, enjoys its company for more than the 30 years that it had been on my finger.

F Earnshaw

Cunliffe Road

Blackpool

POLITICS

Trump’s visit is a mere sideshow

Maybe it’s my imagination, but there seems to be a certain amount of apathy with regard to so-called austerity.

People are losing their jobs, services are being lost, and the poor, sick and vulnerable are suffering. Yet MPs can still afford to pay themselves big pay rises.

This should be a time when whoever is in opposition should be attacking the Tories with all their might. But instead I feel disillusioned with all politicians.

No, instead of austerity, let’s distract the public with talk of immigration and the EU. There seems to be many distractions. More people are concerned about an American idiot called Donald Trump coming to Britain than museums and libraries closing or the steel industry losing more than 1,000 jobs.

Jane

Lancashire

HEALTH

Thank goodness NHS was there

As a keen – if less than skilful –hockey player, the risks I face when I take to the pitch on a Saturday are rarely at the forefront of my mind.

Standing on the goal-line ready to face a penalty corner, I don’t ponder what may happen if, like Sam Owen, an errant shot or an unlucky deflection hits me on the head (Gazette, January 11).

All sportsmen and women play sport in the knowledge they could get injured, and the key thing I take from Sam’s story is that the NHS was there to take care of him.

We should all take steps to ensure we have the right protection when we play sport – shinpads, gumshields, skullcaps – but we should also make sure that the NHS has our protection as well.

It is a source of pride this unwieldy juggernaut cares for us as well as it does, and it is up to all of us – but especially us weekend sportspeople – to ensure it cares for us for generations to come.

P Laurence

via email

HEALTH

The health service is not in safe hands

In reply to yet another closure of an NHS hospital, we hear Lord Carter has been appointed to find ways to save the NHS money.

This Lord Carter reminds me of this Lord Beeching, who decimated the railway.

The Prime Minister says one thing and then does another. Can the people not see what they are trying to do to our NHS?

P Jones

Blackpool