Letters - Wednesday, August 4, 2021

I write regarding Councillor David Walmsley being investigated for using words like ‘club them’, when referring to youngsters involved in anti-social behaviour (Gazette, August 2).

I worked as a volunteer for 22 years with victims of crime and sometimes I used words did not mean. I went to university to study victims of crime and had to study offenders, plus other subjects.

I could understand Coun Walmsley’s use of words; it was to do with broken glass on a football pitch. I hope Wyre Council will not penalise him. I do understand the police may have to question his way of thinking (the Woke way today).

In old days we lived in a city where there was dire poverty for all. Children played in the streets and back courts – grass never grew so many people lived there, it was mud (soil) in back courts but streets were made of asphalt paving, great for playing games on. At school we got the strap when naughty and you held out two hands, one to steady the other,while a teacher held a ruler under hand and you got strapped.

When you went home your mammy would say ‘you must have deserved it’ – no sympathy from Mammy. Even neighbours told you off.

Today, you would not dare tell children off because many parents would not like it – these really are changed days.

Name and address supplied

EUROPE

The EU just wants to make us suffer

Reams of forms signed by three vets just to send a bacon butty to Northern Ireland, along with all the other bureaucracy and red tape that is crippling post-Brexit.

Well there would be, wouldn’t there? It’s the pure spite shown by the bully on the back foot. No matter how many reasonable and sensible practices this country puts forward to make trade easier for both the UK and the EU, the powers that be in Brussels will never accept them.

It is so much more important for them to make us suffer for as long as possible until we beg to rejoin, because if we are seen to prosper out of the EU they know that their gold-plated lifestyle will start to crumble away.

Paul Morley

via email

POLITICS

Ministers are best of a bad bunch

Gavin Williamson’s and about 10 others’ positions at Cabinet defy rational explanation, other than as supporters for Boris Johnson’s inflated ego.

In real life the astute commercial manager, given a problem or a project, appoints someone better than themselves; learns and makes progress. Mistakes, or delays, are part of that learning and shared with other managers.

The benefits are that the organisation moves forward and the manager becomes more skilled and capable, so more promotable in an objectively competitive world.

On the other hand in the “Westminster bubble”, the astute politician, given a problem or a project, appoints someone less competent than themselves and then prescribes the method, or befuddles the appointee, so that when it (almost inevitably) fails there is someone to blame, the politician appears comparatively competent and the status quo is maintained.

The benefit to the comedic politician is that they stay on the gravy train and continue to appear like a guiding beacon – but elevated solely by the flatness of the surrounding countryside. Gavin Williamson et al are primary examples of this.

Steve Mullins

via email

CHARITY

Raise funds with your pedal power

The UK Wide Cycle Ride challenge returns this September – and it is the perfect opportunity for people from across Lancashire to take their fitness up a gear, while raising money for Diabetes UK along the way.

Challengers can pick from one of four virtual distances, ranging from 150 miles for beginners through to 950 miles for more experienced cyclists, and have the entire month to clock up the mileage.

You can cycle the miles however you wish over the 30 days of September, by embracing the outdoors or staying at home and using an exercise bike.

We continue to fight for our aim of a world where diabetes can do no harm. So please sign up to the UK Wide Cycle Ride at cycle.diabetes.org.uk and get pedalling to make every mile count. Your support can change lives.

Clare Howarth

Head of the North of England at Diabetes UK

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