Letters - February 1, 2019

Calls by the fracking industry to be allowed to trigger larger earthquakes before they have to down tools should be ignored.

Cuadrilla accepted the regulations after they were introduced in 2012 – right up to when they found out last October that they couldn’t work within them. Only then did they start to complain.

Earthquakes triggered by fracking have been felt at the surface, but it’s what is happening underground that is the real concern. Nobody wants the ground shaking, particularly not near a gas well.

The government has said that the current system is fit for purpose and they have no intention of changing it. They must stick to this and not make further concessions at the first sign of complaints from a dirty, unwanted and unnecessary industry.

Between earthquakes and the effects of climate change already being felt, isn’t it time to down tools on fracking once and for all?

Tony Bosworth

Fossil Free Campaigner

Friends of the Earth

Brexit

Vote is attack on democracy

What are the arguments for and against a second referendum or the so-called “People’s Vote – a weasel title the Remain lobby use to give it the ring of democracy?

Their default chorus is the accusation of false claims such as the NHS slogan inscribed on the side of the campaign bus that Remainers have tediously exploited to the point of cerebral stupor.

They omit to recite the predictions of economic and social doom that they forecast would occur almost immediately after the referendum. All but one, a drop in the pound, turned out to be false.

And it is rarely emphasised that the full and massive weight of the Establishment, including Government forces, were mobilised to achieve a Remain vote.

The continual repetition of the so-called wafer-thin voting margin never takes into account that every geo-political region in England, apart from London, voted to leave, including the well-to-do South-East.

The result reflected the long term animosity that the English public felt towards the self-serving control freaks in the European Commission that remorselessly attempted to diminish national identity and override our Government and Parliament.

Remain assert that voters didn’t understand the complexities of withdrawal and things have changed. That is true.

But escape from the EU was, and is being made all the more improbable, by the peevish, arrogant, undermining activity of those sanctimonious Remain groups that could never accept a contrary democratic decision not even if it were tattooed on their faces.

Moreover, we all seem to have forgotten the promises that the vast majority of prominent Remain campaigners, including Nick Clegg and David Cameron (pictured), made proclaiming the result of the vote would be irreversible.

I believe if the People’s Vote goes ahead, the foundations of democracy will have suffered a seismic blow!

Gordon Lawrence

Address supplied

Weather

Easy to spot who needs insulation

This current cold snap accompanied by the dusting of snow is a wonderful opportunity for all the council departments (and very interested private companies), to see quite clearly which houses in the region are in desperate need of extra loft insulation.

A new snowfall is soon melted by a house which has a badly insulated loft so it’s just a matter of travelling around the region, spotting the roofs and dropping each home a leaflet to let them know the benefits of adding the insulation and of any grants available to carry out the work.

Virtually the whole street behind my house need it, as does one across the street - there’s 31 already!

Hopefully the staff aren’t huddled in their warm offices bemoaning the weather....

Howard Morgan

Kirkham