Letters - Friday October 9, 2020

Given the state of affairs in the North West and Blackpool in particular, I find it unbelievable that Blackpool Corporation are allowing the Illuminations to remain in being.

Whilst I can understand the viewpoint that they bring trade and thus money to the town, to what extent are they bringing Covid-19 given the extensive numbers of people being tested positive in Preston, Blackburn, Burnley and East Lancashire in general?

I have recently been informed, on good authority, that the council plans to put the town on full lockdown for the first two weeks of November in order to stop the spread of Covid-19 brought in by all the visitors during the last week of October which is of course, half term.

I would also point out that according to the Gazette this evening, Covid-19 cases are on the increase and having just watched Granada Reports it seems you are correct.

In the interests of local residents surely the time has now arrived when the illuminations should be switched off until next year, always assuming that Covid 19 is, by then, under control.

Extremely Concerned of Blackpool

Over 80 and would very much like to hit 90!!

Nostalgia

Magical memories of former arena

Thank you so much for printing the two photos of Cleveleys Arena, as it was before the beach front re-vamp.

Many memories! As a young lad born just before the war one of my family treats was to visit the arena to see my dad perform as half of a stand-up double comedy act.

Provincial it might have been; to me it was Covent Garden. Although part of what was probably a poor man’s Morecambe and Wise, I thought my dad must be the funniest man on the planet. The act which really excited me, however, was a ventriloquist, whose name, sadly, I cannot remember. His main puppet was a crocodile - with attitude! Whilst his ‘minder’ told his jokes to the audience, the evil croc would survey the watching company with obvious dislike, moving his head slowly from side to side, sneering, baring his huge white teeth and occasionally making pretend lunges at the youngsters on the front rows, of which I was always one. (This was a long time before Rod Hull and Emu.) To me it was magical theatre.

As an unbelievable additional bonus, after one show, my dad took me back stage (behind the stone pillars to the left of the stage in the photo) to actually meet the man himself, and, of course, his ‘pet’. There it was, dormant and docile, but still with eyes which pierced right through you and teeth that could gobble you up in a flash. It took me a few seconds to actually enter the room, such was my combination of fear and excitement. ‘Would you like to hold him?’ I was asked. My hands must have been trembling. Outside, in the wider world, war was being waged, and here I was nursing a vicious beast, trying to look calm and nonchalant. Some memories last for a life time!

Phil Hatton

Knutsford Road

Blackpool

Politics

Labour need more nuanced approach

Many years ago a classic book on opposition tactics in a democratic parliamentary chamber was entitled: ‘But You Could Have Done More’. It said it all for sadly that is what the Labour Party excels at.

Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist acolytes were masters of the negative rebuke but never ever revealed what they would have done given the same circumstances.

Corbyn, of course had major flaws. He always resembled a tennis player who having played only on local municipal courts finds himself on the centre court at Wimbledon. Lacking all the skills required by a leader he and his party were slaughtered in the 2019 General Election.

It is a great pity therefore that his successor, an educated, articulate and more moderate politician, has in opposing government policies concerning the pandemic chosen to adopt Corbyn-type tactics.

It is not sufficient to decry and shout down the PM’s decisions. This is not the strategy of a responsible opposition. The public want and deserve a more measured and nuanced approach.

The key role of the opposition in a healthy democracy is to hold the government to account.

It requires credible alternative policies to be put forward in detail. Barnyard negativity will simply not do Mr Starmer.

Dr Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys