Spiritual discomfort

ALAN Scotford writes a moving letter with regard to his view on the subject of marriage within the Church of England for homosexual and lesbian couples (SA 16 Feb). He suggests that in refusing the opportunity to marry in a church the church itself displays its hypocrisy.

Why is it that Alan implies the ‘wants’ of a minority must be seen as fair and reasonable while any intransigence for change must be seen as prejudicial behaviour? Does he not understand that many people have a real fear that if gay marriage within the church can be established on the premise ‘Why should they not if they love each other?’ it will only be a short time before the question arises ‘How can we fairly discriminate against others such as bisexuals, transsexuals, polygamists or polyandrists?’ Indeed, polygamy has a much longer anthropological history than gay marriage and whilst illegal under UK law, polygamists are already benefitting by being paid extra social welfare payments with their second, third and even fourth wife being treated as a single person for benefit entitlement.

Marriage for some has already become institutionally incoherent and far removed from its basis in countless societies as a union in which to bring up children. That is simply a fact and not an opinion.

The European Court of Human Rights has already considered and ruled that the differentiation between gay civil partnership and heterosexual marriage is a lawful distinction and within what is known as the ‘margin of appreciation’ for any member state.

For my part, I wonder why anyone who knows the three approved form of words for a CoE marriage, each of which clearly states that marriage is between a man and a woman, would even consider being married in a church with whose rules and regulations they so vehemently disagree. Asking the CoE to change the rules to meet their ‘wants’ appears self indulgent. Surely if a person feels so hurt, so conflicted and so affected it’s time to look for spiritual comfort elsewhere. There are denominations which will allow same sex couples to marry in church; currently the CoE is not one of them.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive, Swindon

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Blair is a lost soul

AS the blood-soaked ex-despot appears once again, namely Anthony Lynton Blair, has he forgotten he has a soul answerable to God when your time is called in?

I honestly cannot believe that the BBC televised this megalomaniac into my living room at my expense of £150 a year. There is an old saying that you cannot take your wealth with you when you leave this dimension. I am totally convinced in my own mind, that although not blameless in my passage through this life, who is?

I will face my maker when my time comes, with less depredation than his conscience would even contemplate. This monster will pay the full price for his financially self-interested destruction of my country as well as others.

Before I changed the TV station as he appeared, I saw a lost, sad soul. Was I the only one?

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way

Covingham, Swindon

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The vanishing pubs

I AM a Committee Member of Swindon and North Wiltshire Group, Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA).

In 1984 the late David Backhouse, our then Chair, wrote a book entitled Home Brewed recording the current and lost public houses in Swindon and district - a very comprehensive but fairly technical record of pubs and brewing in these parts.

I am planning to update and enlarge on that book, although this time, only public houses that no longer exist …and I’m looking for as much help and ideas as possible from the local community. Perhaps you are a retired landlord of a now defunct public house. You may want to talk about events, happy memories or even your opinion of pubcos. I want the book to be as readable as possible, a populist venture with images and anecdotes and stories throughout the years … old characters portrayed, events described… getting what we can down in print whilst these memories still exist.

So can you help? OK I am not expecting stories from the Wholesome Barrel or the King of Prussia, but the Bulldog, the Queensfield, the Worthington, Park Hotel, Princess, Gardeners etc, maybe even the Fox, the Masons or the Eagle. In particular I’m looking for drawings, posters, memorabilia, rare or unusual photographs, particularly any of the interiors of some of the old pubs which are extremely difficult to find.

The book is not a commercial venture. I believe some hard working railwaymen in the glory days of the GWR probably did not treat their wives in the way they should have, after a long Saturday night in the local, so there was a darker side beyond the facades and the built heritage. For this reason I plan to self fund and use the book as a charity vehicle to raise what modest monies I can for Swindon Refuge.

Your reward for helping? Well sadly only an acknowledgement in a book that I hope will be an exciting read factually and visually fascinating - a comprehensive compendium of a rapidly vanishing slice of our social history and heritage, the “back street community alehouse”. At a time when, apart from a very select few, the market is changing really to restaurants that sell beer, it cannot be soon enough to get down in print some of this history. If you can mention this with friends on social media, the more the merrier.

Contact me via a PM on facebook, or email at j.stooke@btinternet.com, text or call 07836 609369 or mail at 43 Havisham Drive, SN25 1SL. If you would like to talk face to face about reminiscences, I’d be delighted to visit, listen and scribe.

JOHN STOOKE

Editor, Rising Tun Magazine

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Support available

THERE is an unacceptable postcode lottery of patchy and inadequate support for pregnant women struggling with mental health problems.

A report by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has found just seven per cent of those reporting mental health conditions were referred to specialist care, and even those who were referred faced delays of up to a year.

If unrecognised and untreated, mental illness during pregnancy and after birth can affect a mother’s ability to provide her baby with the sensitive, responsive care they need.

Every pregnant woman should have a midwife or health visitor she trusts, with the time and skills to spot mental health problems and take action to protect mothers and their children.

The NSPCC provides services for expectant mothers including Pregnancy in Mind, which is available in Swindon. It offers support to pregnant women at risk of developing mental health difficulties, and expectant mothers can self-refer.

It’s important for us to do this because pre-natal can quite easily turn into post-natal depression and we can stop this happening.

To find out more about Pregnancy in Mind, or to become a volunteer for the service, visit the NSPCC website or ring the Swindon service centre on 01793 683100.

We’re always looking for volunteers so please get in touch.

INGRID ANSON

Service Manager – NSPCC

Albert Street,Swindon

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Car park mystery

In the late 1990s Tarmac Contruction had a World Heritage site on their hands that they could not demolish and with the help from Swindon Borough Council they came up with the idea of a new RAILWAY MUSEUM.

The funding of the museum was as follows: 1. The large majority of the funding came from the people’s lottery; 2. the council. 3. Part from Tarmac Construction. And the fourthth part was from Mcarthur Glen. At the time their donation was £900,000 which they then equated to 200 car parking spaces as their share of the funding. No monies passed hands and so somewhere along the line there are 200 car parking spaces belonging to Swindon Borough Council, so the spending of £100,000 on surfacing would be justified as they are looking after the boroughs assets.

DOUGLAS STEWART

Common Platt