Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019 Page 59
DEBATE
AS CLIMATE change grips the globe, rails
buckle, but we’re told we will have HS2 trains
zipping along at 250 mph...
J. G. DAWSON, Chorley, Lancs.
GARY LINEKER earns every penny of his
£1.75 million BBC salary. He has to think up
questions such as: ‘What’s it like to be top of
the league?’ Then he ends the programme
with a pun. What a workload! So I say to
Gary’s critics: could you do his job?
S. JARVIS, Kedington, Suffolk.
JO SWINSON, in the job two minutes and
already putting the boot into the
Government. Good old, kindly Lib Dems.
J. WALMSLEY, Bury, Gtr Manchester.
THE look on Philip May’s face when he was
leaving No 10 said it all: concern, sadness,
love and emotion. Superb pictures — well
done Daily Mail.
JANETTE COWPLAND, uckfield, E. Sussex.
WHAT a shame that the decision to move
away from the books has turned Poldark into
a soap opera with 21st-century issues.
IAN DOLING, Eastbourne, E. Sussex.
I AM not surprised House of Fraser is
struggling. My local store is full of sportswear
after Mike Ashley took over. The only area
with any footfall is the cafe, which is excellent.
M. BERRY, Skipton, N. Yorks.
I AGREE with the complaint about creeping
Americanisms (Letters). I was surprised to
hear a BBC1 continuity announcer say
‘skedule’ instead of ‘schedule’.
DIANA JOHNSON, Sutton, Surrey.
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Straight to the
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Is M&S still serving its core customers?
HEAR, hear Di Thomas (Letters), I
agree with you that there is a
fortune waiting to be made if M&S
would consider making clothes like
we used to be able to buy in its
stores: good fit, quality fabrics and
classic styles.
M&S should forget younger
consumers (who don’t shop there
anyway) and turn profits around
by giving us oldies something to
buy. Yes, we do have money to
spend — we just need tempting!
BARBARA MOORE, Loughborough, Leics.
I WAS glad to read that other people
like me are fed up with seeing
fashion fads for the young — which
invariably end up on the sales racks
— when it’s those of us over a certain
age who have shopped at M&S for
many years who have to hunt down
the few items that are wearable.
Please, please, M&S, listen to your
core customers. We want
fashionable clothes that are not
fuddy-duddy, but certainly not the
teenage trend of the day.
ANN CLARK, Epsom, Surrey.
I WAS disappointed to read that
M&S is struggling to sell enough.
I don’t know what women would
like from the High Street store, but
from a man’s point of view, it sells
a good range of affordable, well-
made clothes.
I don’t mean just undies and socks.
I recently bought some jeans there
at £15 which were just as good as
well-known brands.
As for shirts, M&S has everything
from casual to formal.
On top of that, the food hall is top-
notch and not unreasonably
priced. As with the rest of the High
Street, use it or lose it.
SIMON CAMPBELL, Glasgow.
End of an elegant era
I’VE cruised for more than 20
years with various companies
and it used to be a nice
experience to look forward to.
You get different standards
with each brand, which is all
right because you should
know what to expect.
P&O used to be independent,
but after it was sold to
Carnival that was the start of
the decline.
The first major change was
the introduction of Ventura to
the fleet. A large ship catering
for families, it was nicknamed
Butlins-on-Sea.
I have no problem with that
as long as their loyal following
are still catered for.
Regular cruisers have seen
various little things dropped,
such as roses presented to
ladies on a formal night,
garlands on tropical nights
and a change from silver
service to plated dishes.
There has been an increase
in the number of tables the
waiting staff have to serve and
the number of cabins the
stewards have to clean.
The biggest change to hit
P&O is the switch from small/
medium size to large ships,
such as Britannia.
One of the problems with
these cruise lines is that it is
cashless — that is, until the
last day when you are
presented with your bill.
This appears to be the case
with Britannia, leaving the
last port with guests enjoying
themselves drinking away
until someone appeared as a
clown, sparking a brawl.
Traditional cruisers who
have been loyal to the P&O
brand should be catered for.
Big is not always best, even
though it may be cheaper.
BERNARD BOND,
Gillingham, Dorset.
Crude cruise
CRUISES used to be
described as classy, stylish
and sophisticated.
But the mass brawl during a
black-tie dinner on P&O
Britannia (Mail) has made me
think that the rules of
etiquette have changed.
Should you wear a football
shirt to the captain’s table?
Should you start a fist fight
over your fellow cruisers’
tacky attire before or after the
hors d’oeuvres?
Is it appropriate on such
occasions to inquire of your
fellow passengers if they ‘want
some’ or would a more appro-
priate form of greeting be to
inquire if they desire a knuckle
sandwich with their dessert?
I will have to revise my idea
of cruising, formed by watch-
ing Cary Grant and Deborah
Kerr, dressed in couture,
falling in love in the film An
Affair To Remember.
PAuL CHARLES COOK,
Huddersfield, W. Yorks.
HAD the cruise ship brawlers
seen too many episodes of
EastEnders?
JOHN EVANS,
Wokingham, Berks.
Electoral pact
WITH the likelihood of a
General Election in the not
too distant future, surely it
would make sense for the
Tories and Brexit Party to
form an electoral pact.
They both have the same
end in sight: a complete and
orderly withdrawal from the
EU with or without a Deal.
Furthermore, most Brexit
Party members are disgruntled
Tories, furious at the failure to
get us out after three years of
fruitless negotiations.
DAVID MORGAN,
Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
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and telephone number.
Husband’s right
to a dignified end
Sad loss: Sara with a photo of her husband Andrew
ONE OF the last acts of
Theresa May’s outgoing
Justice Minister, David
Gauke, was to lend his
support to making assisted
dying legal — just days before
he left office.
This important right is
something for which so many
of us have been campaigning
for such a long time.
I so hope David Gauke’s
words are listened to by the
new Government.
On April 28, 2017, my husband
Andrew Tyler died at
Dignitas. On November 17,
2017, my close friend Annie
also died at the Swiss assisted
suicide clinic.
I wish to thank from the
bottom of my heart the lawyer
Ludwig Minelli for founding
Dignitas, and also the Swiss
people for allowing so many
foreigners to go to their
country to end their lives in
such a civilised manner.
There is enough grief and
sadness without the added
burden of watching your loved
one dying in pain. We must
have this choice: it should be
our human right, if we so wish,
to die as Andrew and Annie
did — but here in the UK.
This should be available not
just to those of us who are
lucky enough, savvy enough,
rich enough and ‘well’ enough
to be able to flee to a foreign
land, but for everyone facing
this situation.
SARA STARKEY,
Tonbridge, Kent.
OH, HOW I agree with Sarah
Vine’s view about Parliament
needing to pass a law allowing
assisted suicide.
I have already told my three
children that if I get dementia
and no longer recognise them,
can’t feed myself and do not
have a dignified life, then I
want to take a pill and go.
If only I had the legal right to
leave instructions with my GP
and solicitor concerning my
final wishes.
We need to have a Dignitas
option in Britain.
DENISE CLAXTON,
Wigan, Gtr Manchester.
Picture: JIM BENNETT