Letters - Tuesday December 8 2020

The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) is urging communities in Lancashire to be extra cautious this December after the county ranked third highest for drug and alcohol related drowning cases.

As part of the national Don’t Drink and Drown campaign, run by RLSS UK, residents are being urged not to walk home alongside water after they have been drinking.

Lancashire was named high risk by RLSS UK after statistics revealed 63 people drowned in the county in the last five years and 23 of them (more than 36 per cent) were found to have had alcohol or drugs in their system, making Lancashire the joint third highest county for alcohol and drug related drownings in the UK.

Out of the 13 people who drowned in Lancashire in 2019, four of them were found to have been intoxicated (30 per cent).

The majority of alcohol and drug related drownings happen when a person accidentally falls in whilst waking home from a night out.

Despite the Tier 3 restrictions in Lancashire scuppering people’s plans of celebrating the festivities in the high street this year, there is still a major concern that individuals could fall into cold water whilst intoxicated. With more people choosing to drink at home this December, there is a real temptation to enjoy more generous measures. Many people will want to spend time in their family bubbles and then return home later to avoid the extended contact of staying overnight.

Alcohol can seriously impede your ability to survive in water and we strongly urge everyone to avoid walking home near water, in the darkness and particularly if they are on their own.

. Plan a safe route away from water.

. Make sure your friends and family get home safe.

Robert Gofton

RLSS UK CEO

Economy

Buy British for nation’s future

It is vital, as a nation, we support and purchase all British manufacturers and growers’ products were possible.

This policy would give a greatly needed boost to our businesses, employment and eventually helping our national economic recovery, which can only benefit us all.

Not only do we need to recover from this dreadful pandemic but we need to rebuild our world standing after we exit from the EU.

Those people who voted for Brexit, ultimately for an independent Britain, must support everything they wished for. If these people do not support the British economy, I have to say they would be somewhat hypocritical. It seems to me that a buy British policy will be our only real route forward to make this country great again.

So, come on, let’s start a buy British campaign for the sake of Britain’s future.

Anthony Kitching

via email

Councils

More harm done than good

Councils are shooting themselves in the foot!

In their quest for ways to bring in revenue, they do not look far enough ahead into possible consequences.

They have made and increased charges and imposed ever increasing fines for non-compliance over the years.

They have encouraged people to avoid town centre shops, progressively encouraging people to find alternatives such as shopping online. In the long-term, councils eventually lose out on a loss of revenue as shops close and stand empty.

Then there is fly-tipping. The increasingly heavy costs of clearing fly-tips eventually outweighs any income from charging.

Why don’t they just scrap the charges? Although it’s a bit late in the day!

Damage has already been done to the high street and countryside! These problems already existed before now but have been brought to a head by the effects of the pandemic.

Ann

via email

Councils

Civil liberties and vaccines

Speaking in the House of Commons, Sir Desmond Swayne states, “A vaccination may be a passport to the acquisition of your civil liberties. And without which you will have all sorts of things that you would be able to do, denied to you!”

The freedoms we enjoy could, in the future, be determined by how compliant we are to intrusive science.

The more vaccines we allow into our bodies, the greater freedoms we will possess. Pharmaceutical companies and large technology companies will become our new masters.

This, by the way, is tyranny. Refusing the vaccine will be the new heresy. Health has nothing to do it. Profits have everything to do with it!

Louis Shawcross

via email

Society

Child-proof containers

Many medications and washing products are supplied in anti-child containers. This is fine but what about we oldies? Why can’t parents ensure their children can’t get into the products instead of making them unavailable to us?

Peter Hyde

via email