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Road safety awareness

AS a road safety practitioner and advanced driving tutor, I attended the Safe Drive, Stay Alive presentation at Greenbridge Cinema on September 22.

It was very thought provoking with input from the emergency services and police, plus a parent who lost her son in a crash, a motorcyclist who suffered life-changing injuries and a film which depicted some of the pressures that young drivers feel when accompanied by their vocal friends. The dangers of distraction were obvious and with a very sad result.

It is a presentation that many young drivers and parents would do well to attend and, if common sense prevails combined with a great degree of responsibility, then many young lives could be saved. The driving test of today is a very, very, small way of preparing one for the venture out on to the roads in charge of a lethal weapon.

It can end in tears if that vehicle is driven without due care and consideration. Only when it happens to those who think, “It will never happen to me” will any message about the dangers involved, be accepted. Many young lives, I fear, will still be lost.

Be safe out there, but think about assessing and improving your present driving skills. There are advanced driving groups out there to help and the courses are not expensive either. The experience could save lives.

CHRIS GLEED

Proud Close

Purton

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Wasted complaint

TO reply to the letter from Mr Kane, and how he speaks of the problems people have with the council and its running of the town.

He goes to great lengths to tell people about the local ombudsman and how you should write to him and get the situation sorted.

I am of the same thinking as him, and to that end, I asked my local MP twice, if not three times, for the contact details of this person, but none was provided, so then I wrote to the council and stated my concerns, all of which were thrown out, for want of a better word, but to give them some sort of link, they did give me the address of the ombudsman, who is in Coventry. I wrote to him and put my case about several aspects of this council’s working.

I was telephoned yesterday, by the office and told they only deal with personal problems and anything like council administration is nothing to do with them. So my letter of complaint was a wasted one, and this council will march on, tax bills will go up and up, like their pay rises.

So if you are thinking of writing to the office, I wouldn’t bother, as it has been said many times, they, or is it we, are all in this together

T REYNOLDS

Wheeler Avenue

Swindon

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Changing the context

BY continuing to twist the facts to suit his own political agenda Steve Thompson is proving himself to be a master of misquotes (The Adver, September 23).

He says he is a member of the Green Party and claims I am under the misapprehension he is a member of the Labour Party. I made no reference to his political affiliation but responded to his assumed position as champion of the “left”.

I merely pointed out the Labour Party is currently seen as a foolish laughing stock by the majority of the public.

Mr Thompson makes the false accusation that I said it is acceptable to call people with mental illnesses “Loonies” because its in the dictionary.

To put the record straight, I referred to dictionary definitions for the word loony but certainly did not say it was acceptable to call anybody with a mental illness by this name.

On the contrary, I believe it is totally unacceptable to ridicule or insult anybody with a disability.

Consequently, I ask Mr Thompson to give a precise, word by word, quotation from my letter where I say it is acceptable to call people with mental illnesses loonies (no more of your false concoctions please).

When he realises his claim is incorrect I ask that he does the decent thing and retract the offensive slur which he made against me.

The day Mr Thompson’s letter was printed there was a letter on the same page from Peter Smith which contained the sentence, “The lunacies of capitalism abound”.

Will Mr Thompson be using this statement to reprimand Mr Smith for “insulting” the mentally ill?

The term “loony” is not a taboo word and has more than one meaning.

A little common sense is required Mr Thompson.

If it was a taboo word do you think the Swindon Advertiser would print it?

I believe it is shameful you chose to change the context of a debate by selecting a definition which is associated with a disability.

Mr Thompson doesn’t say whether he is an official Green Party representative but is obviously proud of his Green Party credentials.

He certainly doesn’t want to be mistaken for a Labour Party member.

I assume this is because the Green Party is deemed to be further and harder “left” than the Labour Party.

Perhaps he can inform us whether it is official Green Party policy to distort the facts and dictate what people can or can’t say.

If the Green Party ever came to power would we be expected to live under a system similar to that described in George Orwell’s novel 1984? Would people’s thoughts and beliefs be manipulated by the state? Would the history books and records from the past be rewritten to suit the political agenda?

There is a saying in politics, “go to far to the left and you come out on the right” i.e. ultra left turns to ultra right or Fascism.

MR K KANE

Wharf Road

Wroughton

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Simple common sense

MAY I ask a question to all the ladies, young and old out there who peruse the Adver pages (half the readership of which is 25,000 - the County Ground would settle for that for every home game)?

The Good Lord in his wisdom, although making you the weaker physical sex, has also made you in general the longest living sex. As well as the most resilient. I speak from personal experience on that one.

One question: Why do some of you, if not most, fall in love with creatures like I, 54 years married last month.

Ladies, have you no common sense?

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way

Covingham

Swindon