Letters - September 24, 2019

It has been announced this week that offshore wind has now become the cheapest source of electricity in the UK.

This demonstrates that the UK can continue to lead the world in wind power – with the right level of ambition from government. It is now clear that investing in wind power will not only save the environment, but can bring down bills too.

Unfortunately, our MP and his Government seem more interested in pushing dangerous fracking (Preston New Road site, pictured) and maintaining our dependence on fossil fuels than the massive investment in renewables we will need to tackle the climate emergency.

As your MP I will campaign for a seven-fold increase in offshore wind by 2030, creating 120,000 good, unionised jobs as part of our Green Industrial Revolution and fight for us to become the first ever carbon-neutral town in the country.

Chris Webb

Labour’s Candidate for

Blackpool North & Cleveleys

ILLUMINATIONS

I’m sure councillors will pay to see Lights

Coun Williams’s intended proposal to allow free VIP Illuminations Switch-On tickets only to the Mayor and consort or their deputies for the occasion, and not to all councillors and partners, should be supported.

I am sure all councillors would be happy to continue to support the event by buying tickets for themselves and partners.

I do not agree that the councillors should be offered a discounted ticket provided they donate £50 per ticket to the Mayor’s Charity Fund.

Mayors have always been very capable of raising money for their Charity Fund.

All the income from the sale of tickets should be ringfenced for much needed new illuminations features.

John Baxter

Blackpool

BREXIT

Party neither Liberal nor democratic

With the political conference season underway the party leaders are doing their best to attract new supporters and Jo Swinson is no exception.

The new Lib Dem leader has stated “there is no Brexit that will be good for our country”, pledging to revoke Article 50 and to stop us leaving the EU. Well, she will certainly attract a lot of Remainers, although after the deliberate humiliation meted out to our PM by Luxembourg’s PM by his “empty chairing” prank will surely will cause unease with many.

She also forgets that the majority voted to Leave the EU in the 2016 referendum and I suspect even more voters would vote leave in any re-run.

By stating that she will stop Brexit, she is choosing to ignore the 17.4 million who voted to Leave, which proves that her party is neither Liberal nor Democratic.

Philip Griffiths

Brexit Party

BREXIT

What a supreme waste of time...

What a complete waste of the Supreme Court’s time in considering the possible unlawful proroguing of Parliament.

The reigning monarch: (the Queen) is above the law, cannot be prosecuted and therefore cannot be held liable for any advice that led her to enable the prorogue. Even if the Supreme Court find that Mr Johnson’s request was unlawful I find it difficult to envisage what it can do to reverse the situation.

Mike Marlow

Address supplied

SOCIETY

Tech giants and censorship

Facebook is now the arbiter of truth, it decides what is fake news, what is hate speech, who should have their accounts deleted and who should be ghost banned.

Google is just as powerful, using algorithms to make certain websites that challenge official narratives disappear from sight. Most people will agree that it’s good to ban hate speech and fake news but now that these global tech giants have their foot in the door there is nothing to stop them widening the criteria for banning and deleting. Particular angles on topics including health and climate change can no longer be discussed. We have freedom of speech, but only for those who conform with tech giant protocols.

Harry Francis

North Shore