Page 60 Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020
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letters
No bugs, please,
I’m a vegetarian
Today’s poem
Out of the mouths of babes
One of my great-grandsons,
three-year-old George, was
playing with his cousin
Sebastian, aged seven. When
George said, ‘I’m really, really
cross’, Sebastian started tolaugh at him. Little George
looked at him with great
indignation and said: ‘You go
to your room immediately.’
Mrs Mary Cooper,
Market Rasen, Lincs.Picture that!
PLEASE DON’T ADD BOX BORDERCARTLess — left without wheels.
FAReLess — thumbing a lift.
CAseLess — travelling light.
COReLess — no hard centre.
MAReLess — all male stud.CARDLess — back to cash.
CAPeLess — crusader
left exposed.
CAGeLess — allowed free run.
T. John Foster, Stafford.tHe PAst I s A
FOreIGN COUNtrY
The Britain of my childhood
I see through rosy eyes,
For us children in the Fifties
Our limits were the skies.
People seemed much
kinder then,
Less hurried, keen to smile,
And everyone was so polite
They queued in single file.
It’s true there were
wet summers
And often heavy fogs,
But in the cold,
damp winters
Open fires burned
fragrant logs.
Children’s television
programmes
Were broadcast just once
a day,
But we youngsters
never minded —
We went outside to play.
In cinemas they played
the Anthem
As soon as films had ended,
And we each stood
to attention,
All our realms defended.
That was Britain way
back then
Like a distant fairy tale,
A pleasantly recalled
dream
That is not Great Britain
now.
I suppose each generation
Will look back on years
gone by
And they will, too, be full
of praise.
‘It was all wonderful,’
they’ll cry.
Claire Summers,
London NW11.Limerick
such destruction is difficult
to pardon,
And feelings will
only harden
Against the eco brigade
Who wielded pick
and spade
To trash a beautiful garden.
Peter Thomas,
Widnes, Cheshire.Nursery Rhyme
For Our Times
Hey diddle diddle,
We’ve all had a giggle
At Boris’s family life.
no wonder he’s having
no time to examine
The floods — now he’s
taking a wife!
Ken Irons,
POsH NOsH: My Mr Uppity-style spud baked up a treat! Newport, Isle of Wight.
Kathy Mayhew, London E4.Sign language
HeDGING Its Bets? Is the Ritz the Pitz? The signage at my
local Wetherspoons needs a little TLC.
Tony Halliwell, Lincoln.Write to: Daily Mail Letters,
2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT
email: [email protected]PeterBOrOUGH
email: [email protected]
Priti steely
I HOPe Boris Johnson stands firmly
beside Priti Patel when it comes to
her differences with civil servant Sir
Philip Rutnam, who has resigned as
the Permanent Secretary at the
Home Office.
It is the Government’s responsibility
to come up with policies which affect
and improve our lives, and the civil
service’s job to find and advise on
the best way of achieving them.
If Sir Philip didn’t like some
government directives, it was still his
department’s job to undertake
this task.
When it comes to law and order,
criminal justice and immigration,
Priti Patel seems to have a steely
determination to get things done.
MICHAEL FINNIS,
Barton-upon-Humber, Lincs.
GOOD luck to Sir Philip Rutnam
with his constructive dismissal case.
I have long had misgivings about the
workings of government.
Boris Johnson has expressed that
he has full confidence in his Cabinet.
I wish I could say the same.
INA CHARLTON,
Ffynnongroyw, Flintshire.
THe dynamic Home Secretary isn’t
a weak Jim Hacker type of minister
that a Sir Humphrey Appleby can
outsmart and manipulate.
ANN WILLS, Ruislip, Middlesex.Hysteria is contagious
FLU kills thousands a year in Britain,
so why are we in terror over a few
dozen cases of coronavirus in a
population of 66 million?
Coronavirus is not smallpox, the
black death or a zombie apocalypse.
It is akin to the flu, and more than
9 8 per cent of people who get it will
recover. What’s wrong with us — are
we all snowflakes?
Dr J. C. EDWARDS,
Goostrey, Cheshire.
nO LARGe gatherings, a drastic
reduction in foreign travel, flight
cancellations, no more cruises,
streets deserted.
Surely we only have to ban save-
the-planet bunfights such as Greta
Thunberg’s school protests and we
have the Brave new World envisaged
by extinction Rebellion.
RAYMOND NORMAN,
Hemingstone, Suffolk.
I USeD to tease a friend who wore
gloves when pushing a supermarket
trolley. I’m not laughing now.
SHIRLEY HARRIES,
Angmering, W. Sussex.Turning a blind eye
THe police are developing an app to
allow the public to report crimes and
provide photographic evidence.
Don’t be lulled into thinking this will
result in more crimes being solved or
even dealt with by the police.
I have submitted many images to
the police of motorists ignoring road
signs and exiting roads incorrectly.
each was timed and dated, and the
registration number, make, model
and colour of the car was evident.
The police said their policy was
only to intervene when an accident
that involved injury to a person had
occurred. So it appears breaking the
law is OK.
The app will not cut the workload
of police. In fact, the public’s vigilance
will result in them being overloaded
with clear infringements of the law.
But as they won’t be hate crimes, the
police won’t want to know.
DES MORGAN, Swindon, Wilts.Health divide
A S T U DY c l a i m s a d e c a d e o f
austerity has damaged the nation’s
health and life expectancy.
In 1990, I led Knowsley Council’s
policy objective in Merseyside to
bring together health professionals
and community providers to address
poor public health and its causes for
the first time.
Research in Huyton on the rates of
c h r o n i c h e a r t a n d r e s p i r a t o r y
disease, stroke, lung cancer and
infant mortality showed a hugedisparity between the northern and
southern parts. Reasons identified
i n c l u d e d d i f f e r i n g l e v e l s o f
employment, low expectations in
education and welfare dependency.
The council’s project received a
vast amount of money for more than
20 years from the government and
the european Regional Development
Fund. If money were the answer, the
causes of health inequities ought to
have been reduced or eradicated.
The project was so innovative that
it became a template for the nHS
primary care trusts.
H e a l t h i n e q u i t i e s h a v e b e e n
exacerbated by policies allowing
all-day drinking and the relaxing of
gambling laws. Gordon Brown’s
government, which axed funding for
disadvantaged families, commissioned
the long-term study on life expectancy
that naively suggests throwing more
money at problems.
PETER FISHER, Liverpool.Positive action
GReTA THUnBeRG continues to
preach all over the world, but I have
yet to see her do anything positive.
She attracted thousands of children
playing truant to a protest in Bristol.
In the same edition of the Mail that
covered this event was a photo of a
large group of smiling children
clearing up litter on Chesil Beach in
Dorset. That truly warmed my heart.
ELENA CHRISTE,
Holmfirth, W. Yorks.Mob mentality
In HIS column on the threat to free
speech (Mail), John Humphrys had
the courage to highlight the danger
of the mob, whose sole object is to
shut down any opinion that conflicts
with their own ideology, usually
through social media.
He quotes the transgender issue as
a typical example. Any opposing
views are pounced on by zealots who
refuse to listen to anyone who
e x p r e s s e s d o u b t s a b o u t t h e
advisability of gender dysphoria
treatment for young children.
DAVID MORGAN,
Shrewsbury, Shropshire.Power of touch
HAS Dr Max Pemberton visited a
care home lately and spent time with
the residents (Mail)?
My mother, who is in the late stages
of Alzheimer’s disease, is in a nursing
home, and I have worked in a care
home doing activities with residents.
I am impressed by the way staff
spend any spare time chatting and
holding hands with the residents.
They are especially aware of those
who do not get many visitors.
Far from being neglected, their
emotional needs are seen as of equal
importance to their physical ones.
elderly people living alone or in
busy hospitals are much more at risk
of a lack of human touch.
TRUDY FERMER,
Uckfield, E. Sussex.Ethical farming
I AM amazed mothers cook different
meals for their vegan children
(Femail). Unlike my husband, I don’t
eat red meat, but I still cook it for
him, and we don’t have separate
utensils and pans. Do vegetarians andHAVe 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: [email protected] 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
© ROGER HARGREAVESWordy Wise
W
Hen I was at
school around
70 years ago,
a new
headmistress
arrived and set up a
vegetarian table for
lunch, which I joined.
We were allowed to bring in
our own protein, such as nuts
and cheese, and were provided
with extra vegetables.
One day we found a large,
dead caterpillar in the greens.
A deputation went to the
mistress on duty with the
offending dish.
She looked down her nose and
said: ‘Most unfortunate, isn’t
it. now go back, remove the
caterpillar and eat your meal.’
All ten of us were kept in thecanteen until it closed
because we never did eat
those greens!
Mrs Mary Stanley,
Bognor Regis, W. Sussex.