Page 60 Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020

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letters

debate

Should building housing estates on floodplains be banned?

Picture that! Today’s poem

Out of the mouths of babes

I was chatting to my

grandsons, Oscar, five, and his

older brother, George, about a

trip I had once made to spain.

Oscar asked if I was a nanny

then or just ‘a normal

human being’!

Linda Webb, Silsoe, Beds.

PLEASE DON’T ADD BOX BORDER

1

One-Line

Philosophers

n My three favourite things

are eating my family and not

using commas.

Claire Harris,

Bromley, Kent.

n yOu know you’re getting

old when you have to watch

Match of the Day on a

sunday morning.

M. Busby,

Birchington, Kent.

Joke

DancInG is in my blood. I

come from a long line of

conga dancers!

Jenny Pain,

Chatham, Kent.

Wordy Wise

TROTTeRDAM — where Del

Boy goes on weekend breaks.

Sylvia Dugard, Witney, Oxon.

LIFe OF O’BRIAn — Dublin

messiah who actually is a very

naughty boy.

Mark Wraith, Newark, Notts.

AL DAnTe — devilishly hot food.

Russell Gamble,

Woodley, Cheshire.

PeRI sTAUnT — sees her family

on a regular basis, whether

they like it or not!

Vicki Watson, Bulwell, Notts.

seQUIne — a show-jumping

horse decorated with small,

shiny discs.

A. Dean, Keighley, W. Yorks.

WreCKer

I’m a ruthless, unfeeling

home-wrecker!

Oh yes, it’s quite true. now

you know.

And I don’t give a fig for

the victims

On whom I’m inflicting

such woe.

And I’m paying no heed to

your warning

That one day I’ll reap

what I sow...

Those cobwebs have been

there a week now,

And dammit, they’ve just

got to go!

Tricia Sturgeon,

Mundesley, Norfolk.

Rhyme For

Our Time

What is life if, full of samsung

We have no time to talk to

our young?

no time to say look at the

doggy over there

And see the squirrel on

the chair.

‘Mum, where are we

going next?’

‘Just a minute, I’m

answering a text.’

some day we’ll be old and

alone at home,

Wondering why our

children don’t call or phone.

Well now they are all in

their own homes

Glued to their tablets and

staring at phones.

Thomas Kelly, Manchester.

NO PlACe

lIKe GNOMe:

Peekaboo!

This garden

gnome has

taken up

residence

in a rotten

tree trunk.

Tony Sandy,

Crookedholm,

Kilmarnock.

Write to: Daily Mail Letters,

2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT

email: [email protected]

PeterbOrOuGh

email: [email protected]

Plane crazy

My sOn has just returned home

after a month long visit to new

Zealand. Before take-off, all passen-

g e r s w e r e s c r e e n e d f o r h i g h

temperatures, which was perfectly

acceptable and not unexpected.

they were advised disembarkation

would be delayed at heathrow while

health checks were undertaken.

Imagine their surprise that this was

limited to being asked to self-identify

if they felt unwell. when no one made

such a declaration, everyone was

allowed off the aircraft with no

temperature checks.

considering this flight had stopped

off at hong Kong, it seems a remark-

ably lax attitude to the precautions

we are all being urged to undertake.

Name and address supplied.

Don’t panic!

I’M nOt surprised that schools are

thinking of closing if the coronavirus

outbreak spreads. after all, they

close after the first flakes of snow.

where will this over-hyped frenzy

end? will we close all supermarkets,

pubs, restaurants, coffee shops,

garages, airports, bus terminals and

railway stations?

Let’s just sit at home and watch

the tumbleweed blowing down the

road. at least that will shut up the

climate activists for a while.

MIKE TAYLOR,

Haltwhistle, Northumberland.

whateVer has happened to the

British strength of character? why

whinge about being confined to a

sun lounger in a hotel in tenerife?

have we lost the ability to cope with

what is a necessary inconvenience?

DENNIS FISHER, Leeds.

Pointless protest

Greta thunBerG says she ‘won’t

be silenced while the world is on fire’,

but will she ever learn the art of

listening to reasoned debate?

Britain is responsible for 1 per cent

of global emissions and the Govern-

ment is taking action.

Please, Greta, stop terrifying

children and think for a moment.

take your argument to Brazil where

the real fires are.

ANNE EARLE, Felpham, W. Sussex.

what a shame Greta couldn’t use

her influence to ask her adoring fans

to do something more constructive

than play hooky from school.

no doubt they were given lifts to

the Bristol protest in the family car

and spent most of the day glued to

their phones.

It would have been more productive

to encourage them to stay in school

and have a no-phone day.

SUE TUDOR, Blockley, Glos.

Different class

hOw ironic to see the meeting of

Malala and Greta. One young women

shot while campaigning for girls to

get schooling while the other calls on

pupils to come out on strike.

JOHN TUDDENHAM,

Norwich, Norfolk.

wOuLD young extinction rebels

show the same support if protests

were held on saturdays?

D. WILLIS,

Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex.

Flood vs drought

enVIrOnMent secretary George

eustice says climate change is

leading to increased flooding.

shouldn’t someone tell him that

eight years ago, one of his predeces-

sors, caroline spelman, warned the

annual conference of the national

union of Farmers to prepare for

drought being the new norm?

DAVID KELSEY,

Middlesbrough, N. Yorks.

I aPPLauD One show presenter

alex Jones and her husband’s

decision not to have more children.

Population growth is the greatest

threat to our planet that must be

addressed by politicians and climate

change protesters.

the damage mankind has done to

our flora and fauna has got to be

stopped if future generations are

going to be able to live in a world

where there is a good quality of life.

JOHN HUW JONES,

Mold, Flintshire.

Mediocre mandarins

wheneVer the public sector is

challenged over high executive pay,

they always respond by saying it’s to

ensure they attract and retain

talented executives.

I am tired of that cliche: the fact is

most of them are mediocre at best

and some so incompetent their

management and oversight has led

to some disastrous outcomes.

home office mandarin sir Philip

rutnam is the latest public sector

failure to hit the headlines.

the aptly named sir calamity has

a cV littered with disasters and has

publicly resigned from his £190,000 a

year job in a fit of pique after falling

out with his boss, home secretary

Priti Patel.

senior civil servant seem to expect

all the pay, glory and credit when

things go well, but none of the blame

or responsibility when things go

wrong. the buck always stops with

someone else.

I hope Boris Johnson keeps his

promise to end this nonsense.

ANGUS L ONG, Newcastle upon Tyne.

why is it that when secretaries of

state try to shake senior civil

servants out of their lethargy and try

to get the departments to do their

jobs they are accused of bullying?

PAUL MORLEY, Skipton, N. Yorks.

Stay calm and carry on

I aM surprised so many women are

complaining about their struggles

with the menopause (Mail). how did

our mothers and grandmothers

cope? I can only imagine they just

got on with it rather than moaning.

I was 53 when I started this stage in

my life and certainly didn’t want to

pop hrt pills.

this is how I coped: exercise, a

healthy diet, keeping trim, not

smoking or drinking excessively and

Laughter and tears

at our toast to Dad

A

s a funeral

director for 25

years, I’ve looked

after thousands of

families when they

were at their lowest.

however, it is natural that,

once the funeral is complete,

those we’ve supported drift

away and begin rebuilding

their lives, facing their ‘firsts’

away from us.

we’ve just had a first

anniversary ourselves. My dad

died on February 12, 2019.

earlier that day, I’d taken

Mum to see him, and stepped

back to watch these two

wonderful people, who mean

everything to us and who had

devoted their lives to one

another over the best part of

six decades, sit holding hands.

as Mum got up to leave, she

kissed Dad, and he uttered the

last words I ever heard him

say. Mum simply said ‘I love

you’, and he replied: ‘I love

you, too.’

what a beautiful way to end a

truly remarkable chapter.

as my family and I began life

without Dad, we started

tackling the many firsts that

came our way; the first

birthday, the first wedding

anniversary, the first easter.

the first summer when, rather

than seeing maps strewn

across the table (Dad didn’t

trust sat-navs) and plans of

where to visit, we reflected on

the previous summer when he

drove to scotland and back,

and he and Mum spent 12

wonderful days there together.

that is what we do when each

of the firsts come around. we

look around us and see what’s

missing, but fill that void with

wonderful memories and lots

of chatter about how things

would have been had he still

been with us.

as autumn turned to winter,

we began to contemplate the

most difficult of the firsts,

christmas, which was a time of

year my father loved.

yes, there were plenty of tears,

but there was laughter, too, as

we looked back at christmases

past and the many silly things

Dad did — from wearing a

musical hat that played Jingle

Bells, to a pair of yuletide

boxers that he insisted on

wearing over his trousers to

cook christmas dinner.

On the first anniversary of his

death, we gathered as a family,

and at Mum’s request ate

takeaway fried chicken,

because that was the last meal

Dad enjoyed at his grand-

daughter’s birthday party.

Glasses were raised at 6.15pm

and we glanced to the heavens

to acknowledge a very special

man who meant so much to us

all. But above all, we were

showing him that, in spite of

missing him every day,

we’re OK, we’re getting on

with life, which is something I

know would matter to him

very much.

Stephen Nimmo,

Bournemouth, Dorset.

WHY do developers build on

floodplains? Because it’s

allowed and it makes money.

Combe Valley in Hastings is a

floodplain that has been

under water for the past two

weeks. However, planning

permission has been granted

for housing. In a few years,

will we see footage on the

news of the residents being

rescued from their homes?

ROSALIND HARRISON,

Catsfield, E. Sussex.

we haVe been assured that

no house building should

occur on floodplains unless in

special circumstances. I am

concerned 600-plus houses

and an Ikea store are being

developed on a floodplain at

the foot of the south Downs.

water filters through the chalk

and ends up on the floodplain.

the development will be west

of the river adur, which has

new flood defences, but after

recent storms, we have seen

how successful these can be.

GINA SCOTTING,

Lancing, W. Sussex.

In ITs wisdom, Rochdale

Metropolitan Borough

Council has planned for 1,000

new houses, half of which are

on the River Roch floodplain,

in my small Pennine village.

When people buy these

properties, the council won’t