This week's letters: Never voting again, Ladbrokes, postmaster convictions & more - The Redditch Standard

This week's letters: Never voting again, Ladbrokes, postmaster convictions & more

Redditch Editorial 17th Oct, 2020   0

REDDITCH STANDARD, OCTOBER 16, 2020.

 

I HAVE decided never to vote again.

Our politicians simply aren’t worth the effort.




Another pay award for our stay at home MPs (over £70 / week) is the final straw for me!

The £Billions thrown at HS2 is beyond comprehension especially when you take into account the destruction caused and the family homes wiped out with compulsory purchase orders.


Foreign Aid surely should have been reduced if not stopped altogether?

Why not put that money into more furloughing to protect British jobs and livelihoods instead of pouring money into the likes of India and China who seem affluent enough to fund space programmes?

Aid more so than ever before should start at home?

Then we have our world class Track and Trace system…..currently it’s about as good as Matt Hancock, Cummings & Co.

I think millions will feel the same as I do.

We are a country lacking leadership and direction.

Our ‘leaders’ appear to think more of the welfare of people in other countries than the people in their own country.

Ask the underpaid nurses and care workers, the elderly folk in care homes, the millions who will lose jobs (albeit down to coronavirus).

Surely UK money now needs to be invested/ spent on UK residents?

P Smith, Oakenshaw

DOES anyone know if Ladbrokes are offering odds on the A441 Birmingham road by Bordesley remaining open for a minimum of two weeks before more damn temporary traffic lights are put up?

S Jones, Redditch

I READ with bemusement the letter from Liberal Democrat election candidate Mark Tomes about the hourly cost of e-scooters (Redditch Standard).

Whilst Mark is right to quote £1 to unlock and just 15p per minute afterwards, I’m afraid he’s got the wrong end of the stick, which is not terribly surprising considering the Liberal Democrats have been getting the wrong end of every political stick for the last ten years.

They’re not designed for hours and hours of use.

They’re for short hops as part of a mixture of choices people can now make about how they move.

We’ll keep unlocking Redditch, the Liberal Democrats can add escooters to the list of things they oppose along with Brexit and their own pledge on student tuition fees.

Unlike Mark, I’ll sign off my letter with proud transparency.

Councillor M Rouse,

Deputy Leader

Redditch Conservatives

JUST a brief general comment about those e scooters that are now around town.

Just one example of a nuisance: there are FOUR outside a house in Plymouth Rd (No. 61).

Obstructing the pavement – one is on its side.

I’ve reported it to Bird.

I don’t know enough about them to know if that location is a nest!

Local Resident

I AM confused by the hospitality industry’s claim that they cannot make a profit if the pubs have to shut at 10pm.

It smacks of the opposition to Fielden’s 10 hour bill (1847), then the mill owners claimed they only made a profit in the last two hours of a 12 hour working day.

If we think back to, say, 1950, then licensed establishments had to close at 10pm yet there were plenty of pubs in the area.

Take Mount Pleasant/ Evesham Road – start with The Plough and Harrow, then southwards in some order The Black Horse, The Woodland Cottage,The Park, The Scale and Compass (Birchfield Rd,) The Gate Hangs Well, The White Hart, The Bell, The Dog and Pheasant, The Eagle (and Sun?), The Fleece, The Rose and Crown and finally The Star and Garter.

They all succeeded mostly selling Mild Ale to the working man.

So when the cry comes up about pubs having to close, just consider is your pint of ice cold lager really worth someone’s life?

D Vincent, Winyates

FIRSTLY, congratulations to Mrs Wilson for her success in overturning her husband’s conviction (Redditch Standard).

However there are a lot of unanswered questions about this and other miscarriages of justice cases involving post offices. There have been allegations for some time that senior executives and government representatives were aware there were problems with the Horizon IT system.

These should be fully investigated and if proven the Individuals concerned should be prosecuted. The government has now promised a full inquiry and many MPs on all sides have expressed serious concerns over a possible ‘whitewash’.

It would be good to know where MP Mrs MacLean stands on the case and whether she has offered help or support to the Wilsons to clear their name.

I Welch, Redditch

THE government has finally introduced a ban on plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton buds. A step in the right direction. This will prevent single-use plastic pollution and will help in looking at plastic- free options and alternatives. Aldi UK has also announced

they’re not just swapping plastic for another single-use package but encouraging behaviour change: reusable bags. Plastic Free Redditch welcomes these decisions!

Dr N Patel, Plastic Free Redditch

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