Letters - Tuesday, November 17 2020

Re Marcus Rashford’s idea of dishing out free school meals during the holiday.

Growing up in the 50s, I was informed by some elders that my generation was lucky, which was true because we missed the travails of the war.

For all that, my family didn’t have a bathroom, a car or a telephone and we didn’t have a television until I was 12 years old.

Despite the ‘poverty’ of those times, my sister and I were always well fed without any recourse to charity (foodbanks were non-existent anyway.)

I make these points because, although not advocating a return to the austere life of the 50s, 60s and 70s, it is remarkable that some modern parents have an expectation of luxuries that are more important than feeding their children.

We now discover that, because of lockdown, many young children have lost the skills of holding a knife and fork and going to the toilet. As Nick Ferrari said on LBC: “If people can’t be bothered to bring up their children properly, they shouldn’t be having them.”

Mervyn Jackson

via email

Response

Street name origin discovered at last

You were kind enough to print a letter from me in the Blackpool Gazette on October 29.

I was born 75 years ago at 7 Teenadore Avenue, Blackpool and have always wondered about the unusual name.

Fortunately Barry Shaw of the Blackpool Civic Trust saw my letter and very kindly sent me a letter of explanation.

Apparently the builder Ronnie Mitchell named the avenue after his daughter, Tina, and wife, Dorothy - hence Teenadore.

Thank you for your help in solving the mystery.

Stuart Duckmanton

Mansfield

Virus

It’s high time we called upon the Army

I have spoken recently to a number of Liverpudlianswho have attended the Exhibition Centre in Liverpool in order to be tested for the Covid virus.

They tell me they have been greatly impressed by the speedy and ‘slick operation’. Test results were known very quickly. The whole procedure was handled by the Army.

I may be biased as a retired Army officer but I and others have been astonished at the Government’s inadequate use of our Armed Forces during the past several months.

The army has long had among its many roles one termed: ‘Aid to the Civil Power’. Examples of what this means include, for example, flood assistance.

It is high time the government called on the army to play a much greater role in the current crisis.

They have the expertise, vehicles and training to aid and reduce the pressure on civil authorities so these skills should be used, and used now without further delay.

Colonel (retired)

Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys

Virus

Fake news about Covid

In reply to M Naylor’s letter, his fake propaganda is staggering (Your Say, November 13).

The military has been deployed on the streets to help NHS staff with the virus testing, not to control the public as he states.

Contrary to what he says about the BBC, I have always found it mostly impartial with a slight left wing bias which is no bad thing considering the mostly right wing press in this country.

I wonder what M Naylor’s next rant will be?

Don’t tell me, I think it will be about the vaccination programme and telling everybody that will listen not to have the jab because it’s all a plot.

The only thing that we agree on in his letter is the billions of pounds so far given out to private companies (‘sympathetic’ to the Tories) with regard to virus protective gear.

All the rest of his letter is complete rubbish and fake news.

M Tipper

address supplied