Letters - Tuesday, September 28, 2021
More crises in transportation and health and yet more calls to “Bring in the Army to help”. Understandable though such demands are, have people actually thought about what it means?
Most Army HGV drivers are in the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC) and about 80 per cent of them are reservists. This means they are part-time soldiers whose full time job is likely to be as drivers for transport companies so they are already heavily involved in providing the solution.
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Hide AdIt’s a similar story in the Army’s medical services as the majority of Army medics are also reservists and already work in the NHS.
And the army isn’t a bottomless pit of people.
Fully recruited its strength would be just over 100,000 – all ranks– and including both regular soldiers and reservists. This is the same as the size of army permitted to a defeated Germany by the 1919 Versailles Treaty. But the Army is less than 70 per cent recruited; a situation likely to worsen as the nation nears full employment.
The British Soldier’s unofficial motto has always been “We have always had to do so much with so little, we can now achieve miracles with sod all”.
But even our brilliant soldiery can’t be in two places at once.
S M HARDY
(Army retired)
Address supplied
HEALTH
I’m unable to get help
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Hide AdI am having great difficulty walking. I can only walk very slowly and I’m in pain.
An occupational therapist visited me recently to assess if I could walk 25 yards.
She found I could only walk slowly and when I walk, it affects my breathing.
I received a phone call this morning from the receptionist at my GP practice.
She rang to change an appointment.
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Hide AdI told her that I was having difficulty walking and I was in pain. She said that all the referrals had been sent to the orthopaedic team.
I got a spinal injury when I was a nursing auxiliary at a local hospital. I was lifting a patient.
I receive NHS Injury Benefit. I am restricted to what I can do because of my disability.
I need to be seen in the orthopaedic clinic.
I also had a nasty fall before Christmas when I fell backwards.
I know I have got sores and it’s not due to my age.
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Hide AdWhen I go out I take my shopping trolley which I use as a walker. I have to use a walking stick in the house and when I go out.
The orthopaedic clinic keeps sending referrals back when my GP sends them.
I need to be seen and I need help. It’s urgent.
Vernon Allen
Freckleton
PROTESTS
Rights and inconvenience
The recent blocking of the M25 by the so-called climate activists has made me question again the Human Rights Act. I may be alone, but I really do feel that it should be modified in some way.
Yes, we do have the right to protest, to have justice, to refuse vaccination or treatment.
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Hide AdBut surely these rights should only be protected if, by exercising them, we don’t injure or inconvenience others who are only trying to claim their own rights to live, to work, to access treatment and to remain free from preventable diseases?
Hilary Andrews
Via email
ENERGY
Tidal project should be built for future
The UK is plainly unable to control our energy prices, because we need to import so much – from Russia, for example.
It was a strategic mistake by the UK Government when the project to build the Swansea Tidal Energy project was abandoned. It was said to be “too expensive”.
There are three obvious reasons why this was a shocking error.
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Hide AdThis kind of energy is reliable, creates no carbon and the price would be controlled by the UK government.
Will the Tories now recognise that current instability in world energy prices may easily recur in future?
If this Government would commit now to building the project, this would boost the credibility of the UK before the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in November.
Robert Holland
Address supplied
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