Page 61spoken English on the decline?
Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019NOW the weather is back to normal for a
British summer — windy, rainy and chilly — will
the climate change fanatics give us a break?
T. BROWN, Brighton.
ECO-FRIENDLY climate change activist Greta
Thunberg should row across the Atlantic. Then
we might get a bit of peace for a few months.
KEITH BULLOCH, Halesowen, W. Mids.
TRANSPORT Secretary Grant Shapps pledges
to get railways running on time. His minister,
George Freeman, wants them to be held for
latecomers like him racing down the platform.
RICHARD HERRIOTT, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
SO MANY problems to solve, but we research
how to stop seagulls stealing your chips.
SHIRLEY HARRIES, Angmering, W. Sussex.
DID the referendum wording include ‘The
result will be subject to approval by a majority
of MPs’?
M. COATHUP, Coventry, W. Mids.
BEFORE pouring more money into the NHS,
the appalling wastage should be addressed.
MARGARET ANAHAN, W. Sussex.
WHY has Songs Of Praise been moved
from 6.15pm to 1.15pm on Sundays? A good
programme tucked away in an unpopular slot.
DOROTHY WILBRAHAM, aged 104, Nottingham.
IF No 617 Squadron RAF are the Dambusters,
which squadron is the Damfixers?
BRUCE NEEVES, Mortimer, Berks.
SUE OLDS, who is the only donor of her
blood type, should get an honour.
JUDITH KENNEDY, Radcliffe, Gtr Manchester.÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷Straight to the
POINT
FOR permission to copy cuttings for internal management and information
purposes, please contact the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA), PO Box
101, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1WX. Tel: 01892 525273. e-mail: [email protected]Caught in a jam
THERE needs to be a change
of approach by the police
when there is a serious
incident on a major road.
I was held up for nearly three
hours on the A419 dual
carriageway recently, but this
was nothing compared to the
plight of motorists on the M5
last week, where hundreds
were stranded all night.
Despite paying billions in
motoring taxes, only a fraction
of which is spent on roads,
drivers are left to rot. They
should be looked after in the
same way as delayed rail and
air travellers.
Just because you haven’t
bought a ticket for a journey
should not mean you don’t
have any rights.
PAUL DI-NUCCI,
Cirencester, Glos.Bet on Rooney
REFORMED smokers, drink-
ers, drug addicts and gamblers
are the first to condemn the
industries who supply these
vices, Government and the
sheer greed of people who do
little to help those with
addiction problems. JamesGrimes, who lost £100,000
through gambling (Mail),
blamed the methods betting
firms use to lure people.
His account of how he
spiralled into debt will
resonate with many. But his
gambling was a choice.
It is easy for him now to
see not only the error of his
ways, but also the exploitative
methods used by gambling
companies to attract players.
Now 32Red is coming in for
criticism for sponsoring Derby
County and bankrolling a deal
with Wayne Rooney.
Maybe it is wrong for Wayne
to promote a gambling firm,
but will this really turn young,
impressionable Derby fans
into irresponsible gamblers?
Most of them will just beexcited that a genuine world-
class English player, as
opposed to yet another foreign
footballer who hardly anyone
has heard of, will be playing
for them.
Rooney’s misbehaviour has
been well documented, but
fans are only interested in his
illustrious career and the
riches it has brought him.
It is this which will get
youngsters buying his shirt
and aspiring to be in his boots
one day. Yes, the FA should do
something to stop gambling
firms having such a strong say
in football clubs.
But until that happens, it’s
very good business for Derby
County and Wayne Rooney.
And if it helps to propel the
team into the Premier League,who will be complaining about
it then?
DAVID PATRICK MOORE,
Beckenham, Kent.BBC’s no laugh
WHEN was the last time you
laughed at a BBC comedy?
Auntie seems to have
forgotten the meaning of
humour as entertainment.
Maybe if the BBC didn’t pay
its presenters such a ridiculous
amount of money, it could
afford to make new shows, but
all we get are endless repeats,
soaps, cookery, gardening and
the news.
What are we getting for our
licence fee? Perhaps the BBC
should be paying us to watch.
JOHN BEE, Norwich.WIN our Letter Of The Week Magic Mug, courtesy of
Printer Pix. These reveal our Daily Mail Letter Of The
Week design when hot. To create personalised photo gifts
(see example, right), visit printerpix.co.uk. The Letters
Editor will announce the Letter Of The Week each Friday.
Write to: Daily Mail, Letters, 2 Derry Street, Kensington,
London, W8 5TT, email [email protected] or fax onLETTER OF THE WEEK
020 7937 7493, including
your full postal address
and telephone number.At your service —
but for how long?
Shop floor advice: Mark HaggerstoneHAVE you lost a relative or friend in
recent months whose life you’d like
to celebrate? Our column on
Friday’s letters page tells the
stories of ordinary people who
lived extraordinary lives. Email a
350-word tribute to: lives@
dailymail.co.uk or write to:
Extraordinary Lives, Daily Mail, 2
Derry Street, London W8 5TT. Please
include a contact phone number.CELEBRATE LIFE
OF A LOVED ONE
I HAVE spent my whole career in
retail, working for Tesco, Safeway,
Wickes, B&Q and Wyevale
Garden Centres.
I am amazed so many shoppers
question service levels in shops and
the seeming lack of knowledge,
application and standards.
These are the same people who
harangue a shop worker for a
decision clearly taken by head
office, or talk on their mobile phone
for the entire time it takes to serve
them. Would this level of rudeness
be accepted in reverse?
Retail is in crisis because it has
suffered from decades of senior
management being allowed to
inflict their plans and ideas on a
company, then leave for another
lucrative role before the error of
these plans catches them up.
The foot soldiers are left to try to
make the best of things on the
shop floor.
No one who has any other choices
sees retail as a good career to
pursue any more.
It is poorly paid — I received the
same salary in my last role that I
was earning 15 years ago — with
24-hours a day, seven-days-a-week
opening, bank holiday working,
bonus schemes that are not worthy
of the name and pressured working
conditions as a result of staffshortages and unrealistic
expectations from management.
Mandatory minimum wage rises
have not been an improvement.
Head office won’t pay out more in
the overall salary bill, so the
number of staff is cut in stores
to compensate.
Retail is in crisis because it doesn’t
use its staff as a foundation for its
business model. The lack of
inspiration in store for staff and
customers is woeful and sends
people running to the internet,
where they get no real service, but
at least they can buy on their terms.
Retail needs to inspire its staff and
the customers will follow.
Too many people describe retail
jobs as menial and unskilled, filled
by those who leave school without
any qualifications.
Let me tell you that to provide a
choice of goods in such abundance
every day is incredibly skilled.
If you start valuing shop workers
and treating them with common
decency and respect, your own
shopping experience will be much
more pleasant.
Otherwise, with the speed that
internet buying is growing, who
knows how long we will have shops
on the High Street?
MARK HAGGERSTONE,
Swindon, Wilts.the commentary box during Test
matches. The last straw will be if it’s
uttered by Geoffrey Boycott.
RAY KILSBY, Filey, N. Yorks.
MY PET hates are ‘lor and order’;
‘fantastic’, ‘fabulous’ and ‘cool’; and
the word ‘like’ scattered through
every sentence.
ROY DUNNING, Bradford, W. Yorks.
I DO wish everyone would literally
stop saying literally at literally every
opportunity whether it’s literally
appropriate or not.
CHRIS WELLS, Burton-on-Trent, Staffs.WHEN did ‘Y’alright there?’ take the
place of ‘May I help you?’ and ‘You guys’
replace ‘Sir and madam?’
K. L. REID, Birstall, Leics.
I PARTICULARLY hate the way that
‘normality’ is slowly being replaced by
the Americanism ‘normalcy’.
NICK GARRICK, Crowthorne, Berks.
THE split infinitive is bad enough, but I
heard a BBC reporter say: ‘They are
also looking in, they say, to the matter.’
I hope this new grammatical form
doesn’t catch on.
DAVID COLE, Storrington, W. Sussex.Picture: SWNS.COM