Letters - Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Hauliers moaning about a lack of HGV drivers is the height of hypocrisy, as it is a problem entirely of their own making.

There is no shortage of bus drivers because bus companies have recognised the need to train their own drivers. But for the last 50 years haulage companies have rarely trained their own drivers.

Initially some of the slack was picked up by Armed Forces training drivers, with the industry continuing to push wages with using agency and self-employed drivers. My own unions (URTU and TGWU, now UNITE) warned of the problems of driver shortages, and called for an industry-wide training levy, which employers resisted.

The EU with many European countries in the east of Europe then gave a new pool of drivers.

With full training costs running to thousands of pounds, there are very few who can afford to take this up off their own bat.

I know that Unite and URTU are ready to talk to industry leaders, Ministers,and others to start helping unemployed workers into these skilled vacant jobs.

Over the years the chronically underfunded Road Transport Industry Training Board only ever really provided training for managers... surely not right!

Can some MPs up and down get involved.

Royston Jones

Anchorsholme

NHS

A nasty sting in the tail

Boris Johnson and his cronies (aka ‘the Government’) have increased the pay offer to NHS workers from one per cent to three per cent but like all things Johnsonian, there is a nasty sting in the tail: the increase will have to be paid by the NHS itself.

The subsequent cuts to the service will affect everyone in the country who depends upon the NHS.

It is the equivalent of a boss offering a pay rise to his workers then telling them that they will have to sell their houses to pay for it.

John Prance

Lancashire

MIGRANTS

Migrants treated like criminals

Re: the anti-migrant bill, euphemistically entitled the Nationality and Borders Bill.

There are no safe routes to enter the UK for those migrants/asylum seekers unable, for whatever reason, to make formal applications from abroad.

Nevertheless those who enter illegally – not using the ships or planes denied them – will, should this Bill be enacted, be branded criminals.

It will no longer matter what desperate circumstances drove them to a dinghy on the Channel; what will matter will be the method of arrival.

By international law, such treatment is probably illegal and will be challenged.

The Refugee Convention states that people should not be penalised for their method of entry as all have a legal right to claim asylum.

David Cragg-James

Address supplied

MIGRANTS

Priti Patel needs our support

On the issue of asylum, the Home Secretary is being criticised for what reason? My view is that Priti Patel is attempting to bring some sense to it all.

Immigrants cross many lands before getting to the Channel – why are they choosing this country and why do other countries send them on their way instead of giving them assistance?

As for France, what are they playing at and why are we giving them money to do jobs they are dreadfully failing to do?

A couple of years ago, before the pandemic, I stayed at a hotel in Folkestone which was 80 per cent occupied by immigrants. We hear complaints by the do-gooders and some immigrants about the conditions they are living in. Surely they are better from whence they came.

I do not always support the Government, but on this occasion, Priti Patel needs our support.

Barry Foster

via email

FOOTBALL

St George’s Flag

An observation/prophesy.

England will never win the World Cup (or Euros) while ‘fans’ drive around with the St George’s Flag graffitied with the word ‘England’.

Is it because fans aren’t sure the cross of St George is the English standard?

I can’t write as I’ve never seen the flags of Japan, Switzerland, Finland, Georgia etc adulterated with their countries’ names.

And anthems like ‘Back Home’ are the death-knell.

‘Scenic in the Mist’

address supplied