Letters - October 16, 2019

Enough is enough. We want our bobbies back’
Chris Webb talks to a police officerChris Webb talks to a police officer
Chris Webb talks to a police officer

Boris Johnson’s flagship police recruitment pledge will leave more than half of forces below 2010 officer levels and entrench existing inequalities between Tory heartlands and our major towns and cities.

The government has confirmed that officer numbers will be allocated through the outdated funding formula, which the current Policing Minister has called “manifestly unfair” and subject to “constant complaints and nobody really had the cajones to get a grip on it”.

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How is it fair that the leafy Surrey is getting 70 more officers than they had in 2010 right away and yet Lancashire won’t get anywhere near our 750 bobbies back.

Paul Maynard and Boris Johnson think they can get away with misleading people, but this again shows they can’t be trusted to be honest and that their claims fall apart under scrutiny.

The truth is the brutal cuts our MP Paul Maynard voted for will not be reversed and our communities will continue to be less safe as a result.

We must end austerity and properly invest in the police, youth services, our NHS and other public services to rebuild our communities.

Chris Webb

Labour’s Candidate for

Blackpool North & Cleveleys

BREXIT

Make your voice heard on march

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Let’s all support a People’s Vote on Brexit for all the reasons outlined here - and let’s resolve the issue of Brexit for good with an informed confirmatory vote that comprehensively and clearly expresses the wishes of the people, ‘all’ the people, both leave and remain, based on facts and the status quo ‘now’.

This would be a second, confirmatory vote that should have always been a pre-condition of having a referendum on Brexit in the first place.

The only main political party that now supports the option of a people’s confirmatory vote is the Labour Party.

The possibility of leaving with ‘No Deal’ should never have been a option, given how destructive this outcome would undoubtedly be for our already struggling public services and local economy.

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All projections, including those made by this government, and all other independent and authoritative sources (ie. ‘Yellowhammer’ etc), highlight that no Brexit deal can ever come close to competing with the best deal we already have as full members of the EU.

Full members have full voting rights, a veto, all the ‘opt-outs’ agreed, retention of our own currency sterling, and the multiple trade deals and agreements accrued over 40 plus years that made us the fifth largest economy.

Members are influential in shaping and reforming, what I agree is, a far from perfect EU, but it represents one of the world’s most powerful trading blocs, with all the protections that confers for our nation and its citizens in terms of workers’ rights, environmental protection and food and animal welfare regulations, not to mention the importance of maintaining our key role geo-politically in terms of intelligence, security of the realm, and co-operation with our 27 other partners in combating organised crime.

Most importantly, in what is, increasingly, a very hostile world, this country’s security and the livelihoods of its people should ‘never’ be put at risk by the possibility of a disastrous ‘No Deal’ Brexit!

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I hope all who can will attend the planned People’s Vote March in London on the 19th of this month.

A fleet of coaches have been organised at multiple collection/pick-up points throughout the UK.

Look them up by going to the website for the People’s Vote March October 19).

Let’s make all our voices heard on what will be a momentous day!

Miles Farrimond

via email

TRAGEDY

Casual dismissal of Harry’s death

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In America, gun killings are part of everyday life. Hence Donald Trump’s casual dismissal of Harry Dunn’s car killing by asserting that wrong way driving “happens”.

Far more surprising is the fact that Harry’s alleged killer – a mother herself – is apparently able to sleep, without at least having the common decency to say “sorry”.

M.E. Wright

address supplied