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A load of rubbish

Having returned to Swindon after four months in Australia, I welcomed the snow ...why? Because it hid the disgraceful amount of litter strewn around the streets of Swindon. Who is it that nonchalantly creates this abominable mess? Who discards cans, packets, fast food containers without a care or thought of how it denigrates our town?

Don’t tell me I’m wrong. Take a drive around with your “litter eyes” open. It is an absolute disgrace. If we can’t persuade our children to take a pride in our town or their parents to encourage them to take their litter home, then step outside and if it’s there in front of your property, your shopping area, your library and you are fit enough, please pick it up and bin it. We shouldn’t expect SBC to clear it up because it shouldn’t be there - it doesn’t need to be there. If a stranger walked up to you and shoved an empty coke can into your bag or pocket you’d be incensed and that’s just how incensed we should be about the same coke can dropped into the gutter, thrown into a hedge, dumped on a pavement in our town.

I know we have remarkable individuals in our local communities who voluntarily pick up litter and it must seem a thankless task as day after day more litter is there. But we all need to be litter aware; firstly to ensure we don’t add to the problem, secondly, when we can, to remove it and thirdly, to talk about the issue openly, hopefully to make dropping litter commonly regarded as abhorrent.

C Inskip, Swindon

Sceptical about Europe

The EU is dropping in popularity. The working class across Europe are voting in ever larger numbers for Eurosceptic parties. The very recent elections in Italy have ended with the Eurosceptic Five Star Party topping the poll. In France the the Eurosceptic National Front came a close second in the 2017 French Presidential Elections.

The Alternative for Germany Party made huge electoral gains during 2017 by also standing on a Eurosceptic platform.

What makes the Italian General Election so interesting is that the new Prime Minister could be Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the Five Star Party. He is only 31 and is very strongly Eurosceptic. Italy is the fourth biggest economy in EU the and it could have a Prime Minister who is strongly against membership of the European Union.

Steve Halden, Beaufort Green, Swindon

A global issue

It seems I owe Bill Williams an apology, when I accused him of denying his children and grandchildren a democratic vote on whether to remain in the EU. I had assumed they were younger than they are. I apologise Bill.

However the fact remains that by not having a referendum on whether to leave the EU on the terms the government have negotiated or to remain in the EU is highly undemocratic. Democracy must give you an opportunity to change your mind.

In the second part of his letter, he continues to pursue the strange interest that kippers have in what I wear. No Bill, I did not wear shorts in the cold spell nor did I wear sandals, though why you feel the need to ask I know not.

He thinks the fact that the UK was five or six degrees colder than average recently shows that global warming is a farce. Global warming, Bill, GLOBAL. While I couldn’t walk my whippet because of the cold, the Arctic was 20 degrees or more warmer.

Steve Thompson, Norman Road, Swindon