Letters - Tuesday, December 1 2020

Re: Lancashire and Tier 3. We have, I believe, 11 Conservative MPs in Lancashire, if we include Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen as the Government seems to have done.

They are the main group representing Lancashire in Westminster.

Have they tried working together to make the Government understand the geography of this area?

Do they have any influence at all?

I would be very annoyed to see any from this part of Lancashire vote for the tiers this week.

I hope The Gazette will name them if they do.

We have a right to know.

I feel, particularly, for Lancaster. They suffer because their hospital beds have patients from South Lakeland, which is in Tier 2!

Perhaps we should ship our sick elsewhere as well!

How ridiculous!

When voting next time we should all remember who it was who reduced our hospital capacity in the first place.

If this pandemic had happened 10 years ago our hospitals would have been able to cope.

I do not believe that there is any intention of ‘Levelling up the North’.

The only way we are going to move forward is to get agreement for regional government which is largely self-governing and financing as is Scotland.

I cannot see this Government ever agreeing to that!

A democrat

via email

Virus

Take care... it’s slippy out there!

I was recalling the other day of the Olympic Ice Dance Final when one of the competitors took to the ice and proceeded to fall over each time he took a step.

At the judging session at the end one judge pronounced a 10, much to the dismay of his fellow judges.

“Why have you given him a 10?” they asked, only for the offending judge to tell them that, “you have to remember, it’s very slippy out there!”

So all of you concerned about your Covid tiers or the Brexit negotiations just remember whatever the outcome “it’s very slippy out there!”.

George Holden

Bispham

Welfare

End horrific puppy smuggling trade

Every year thousands of puppies are smuggled across Europe in appalling conditions to be mis-sold to UK dog lovers. Many suffer life-threatening health conditions, and some don’t survive, leaving their buyers helpless and heartbroken – as well as out of pocket.

Demand for dogs has soared during lockdown and it’s creating a lucrative market for puppy smugglers.

Since lockdown started, Dogs Trust has rescued 14 heavily pregnant mums, and an incredible 140 puppies that could have fetched over £380,000 for cruel smugglers, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. This week, Dogs Trust Veterinary Director Paula Boyden gave evidence to a special one-off EFRA session (The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee) on puppy smuggling, to urge the Government to take action.

Something has to change. For over six years we’ve campaigned to end this abhorrent trade, yet Government continues to drag its heels.

Despite the three largest political parties pledging to stop puppy smuggling at last year’s General Election, over 200 Parliamentary Questions being tabled on puppy smuggling since 2014, and 148 MPs joining our puppy smuggling campaign, we’re no closer to seeing this suffering end. In fact, we have yet to see any significant action from Government at all.

Current legislation is not fit for purpose. We need to cut this trade off at the source and close the loopholes which put innocent puppies at risk, and we need to do this urgently.

As the Brexit transition period draws to a close on December 31, now is the time for Government to act and, dare we say, ‘take back control’ of this spiralling situation.

Government must change the law to raise the minimum age for puppies to be imported into the UK to a minimum of six months to make them less desirable to buy and sell, and introduce tougher penalties for smuggling.

With every day of delay, more innocent puppies will continue to pay the price.

Owen Sharp

CEO at Dogs Trust

Society

Why this burden on taxpayers?

Some, if not most, people in prison are not a threat to the public. So why are they in prison?

For example, make people who commit fraud work to pay it off, with a percentage extra as punishment.

Why burden the taxpayer with keeping them in prison? There must be other ways those people can pay their debt to society other than costing the taxpayer a fortune.

David Speight

via email