Letters - Monday November 9 2020

I was interested yet disturbed by Jim Oldcorn’s letter headed ‘This is not from the pages of Dickens’ (Your Say, October 29).

First of all, Jim, I think you DO need reminding that we now live in a different era than that you and I were brought up in.

I speak as a former teacher, and in the ‘good old days’, I was teaching parental skills, including how boys should look after their future children by showing them how to change nappies, prepare bottles and all that stuff, but that was in an era when couples married much younger than they do now, so could just about recall all those skills that we taught them. Today’s couples now marry, on average, 10 years later than then.

Jim also needs a reality check on the cost of living these days. In my day, a two-up, two-down mid-terraced house cost around £1,000 or less. Recently I saw such a house up for sale at £160,000! Some couples will never be able to afford their own homes, so are stuck paying rent for the rest of their lives, with what inheritance to pass on to their children?

Oh, Jim, and those ‘millions from around the world (who) want to join us’? The reality is that organised gangs are in failing/instable states feeding the myth that this is a land of milk and honey, thus causing the hopeful to do anything in their powers to get here, when all the traffickers are after is their money and don’t care if their ‘customers live or die.

I do agree that the welfare state is a safety net which should not be abused, but when we are faced with such trying times, when many people’s incomes have been cut, their jobs lost with little chance of a new opportunity opening up soon, just what are their alternatives, Jim?

Just how are people, in these trying times, expected to show ‘personal responsibility and encourage self-reliance’ when this government is failing to do this?

I think that many who are struggling and, despite their best efforts to do right for their children, will find your comments unhelpful and depressing.

Neil Swindlehurst

via email

Election

No such thing as special relationship

I have visited America many times and have never met an American who has ever heard of a ‘special relationship’ between our nations.

So before we Brits get doe-eyed about the next President, you should consider what Henry Kissinger said some years ago: “America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.”

This sums up our relationship with the USA.

Peter Bye

via email

Head of state

US mess makes monarchy appeal

Looking at all the shenanigans going on in the American presidential election, doesn’t it make our Queen and the monarchy seem a wonderful institution?

Hilary Andrews

address supplied

Politics

Our country is becoming divided

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 scenario has been turned into a political football, mainly by those who don’t like Boris Johnson and are simply not prepared to obey the rules.

Sir Keir Starmer jumps on the ‘I told you so’ bandwagon. Our country is sadly becoming divided. People expect everything and are not prepared to toe the line for once.

Barry Foster

address supplied

Politics

I switch off when the PM appears

I become more perturbed day after day with the bullying tactics of the Government under the leadership of Boris Johnson.

This is evidenced by the continued tendency to govern by decree, without giving Parliament sufficient opportunity to scrutinise key matters. I find all this very sad as it makes many people, myself included, have increasing mistrust in the Prime Minister whenever he makes a pronouncement of any sort. I tend to switch off the TV whenever he appears. So sad.

Canon Michael Storey

address supplied

Health

They must get it together

One of the few things that the ‘experts’ agree on is that the country needs a test, track and trace system that is efficient, reliable and robust so we can try to control the pandemic.

Unfortunately the system we have at the moment is none of these. It fails to contact a significant number of the people it should and those it does contact are pursued with the zeal of a double glazing salesman scenting a huge commission. The test results can be so slow to report you could have caught the virus, got over it and caught it again before you are notified.

There was a test, track and trace system in operation prior to the pandemic, run by Local Authority Public Health, but the Government chose to set up NHS track and trace from scratch.

The Government needs to take this latest lockdown to get its act together, set a strategy they can actually stick to, communicate it unambiguously and have an exit plan.

Richard Saberton

via email