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Wealth creators ignored

ONCE again, in supporting Government policies which favour the rich at the expense of the rest, Steve Halden has answered a question which wasn’t posed and ignored the problem that was.

He says industry creates jobs. This is a fairly unremarkable observation. We could equally accurately say jobs (or at least the work done by people doing the jobs) creates industry.

But, as I said before, this doesn’t get us far in explaining the numerous crises of capitalism.

A very rich minority make all the investment decisions on the basis of how much profit they can make.

If they can boost their profit by destroying food they will. If there is more to be made by speculation, whatever the resulting damage to society, they will speculate.

If they feel like sitting on mountains of cash, which could be invested for the common good, they will.

If a sympathetic government opens more avenues of profit by handing chunks of the NHS to the corporations they will grab the opportunity.

The needs of the majority, who actually produce that wealth through our labour don’t feature unless we organise to force our interests on to the agenda.

PETER SMITH Woodside Avenue, Swindon

Rail fares go abroad

STEVE Halden treats us all to another of his distorted economics lectures in which “left wingers” only know how to spend the wealth that others create, (Industry creates jobs, SA March 21).

He thus implies that it’s right wingers who will be the country’s financial salvation.

It was a right wing government that privatised our railways with the result that we now have the highest rail fares in Europe while substantial sums are returned to overseas owners, including the operators of German, French and Dutch railways, all of which are partially state owned.

Perhaps Steve would care to explain to me how our economy benefits from the excess fares paid by UK rail passengers which help to subsidise European train services.

DON REEVE Horder Mews, Old Town, Swindon

Weedkiller is not safe

I READ Julie Girling MEP’s letter “Weedkiller safe to use” (March 20) with some misgivings. She welcomes the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) Risk Assessment Committee’s conclusion that glyphosate is not a carcinogen. However, she ignores other pertinent and very important issues about its use and safety.

For a start, two members of the committee do paid work for organisations that provide consultancy services to the chemical industry. The committee chairman has similar connections. This must surely call into question the impartiality of their conclusion about glyphosate safety. Similarly, most herbicide research is done by the manufacturers themselves. Obviously, the results should be published openly. It is worrying to note that the committee has kept some evidence secret, making peer review by outside scientists impossible.

There is also the unaddressed question of other potentially hazardous health risks, quite apart from cancer. Glyphosate is thought to cause liver and kidney damage. Predictably, the manufacturers deny this, but refuse to reveal all the results of their safety tests.

Commercial glyphosate weedkillers invariably contain many other chemicals which, according to Dr Robin Mesnage of Kings College, London, “when mixed together are 1,000 times more toxic than glyphosate on its own.” Little or no research has been carried out on this.

Studies reveal that this so-called ‘safe’ weedkiller has harmful effects on micro-organisms in healthy soil, earthworms and insects, including bees. Traces have been found in wells and reservoirs. Nobody knows what damage long-term exposure to these hazards will have upon people, particularly our children, and our environment.

It would seem that Julie Girling, in welcoming glyphosate as ‘safe’, has done so on very limited evidence. BASIL JONES Grosvenor Road, Swindon

Osborne mocks media

ISN’T “we are all in this together” George Osborne doing well?

His mission in life it seems, is to outdo one Anthony Blair in financial greed, and become a member of that exclusive Sunday Times Rich List Club.

The Right Honourable gentleman who, when Chancellor, set us all an example by keeping mum about his London pad being rented out for some £65,000 a year.

And now it seems he wants to start controlling the news. Never mind that it makes a mockery of the independence of the media.

His confused constituents will have to write to him at the Evening Standard with any problems that might occur; if he replies is another matter.

Accusations of “it smacks of greed and the accumulation of power” doesn’t faze our George; he’s sniffed wealth and he’s going for it.

A slight snag: He has no experience of running a newspaper. However, that’s no problem when one has been educated at public school and then Oxford.

Of course it has nothing to do with the Old Boy Network, has it?

Think of all those mothers and fathers having to hold down several low paid jobs just to make ends meet.

Since 2010 MPs’ salaries have rocketed by £12,000 to £76,011. In addition they receive office and expense allowances, pensions and severance payments unrivalled in the public sector. Nice work if you can get it.

Not enough for George it seems, he wants more; little wonder he never stops smiling.

No doubt his actions will encourage others to devote themselves as ‘servants’ of the people via Parliament’s route.

All passengers for the gravy train please now board, thank you, and we hope you enjoy your trip, and will have many more!

Parliament’s esteem drops yet another notch.

J ADAMS Bloomsbury, Swindon

...And destroys UK

WELL, what a shock! Just a few days after dropping my letter into the Swindon Advertiser offices, which you kindly printed on Saturday, March 18, entitled Crime does pay, re George Osborne and the number of jobs he has, up popped the former chancellor on Friday to announce he has landed another one.

This being the new editor of the London Evening Standard, he is now known as Six Jobs Osborne, to me he will be known as the most cruel, wicked, vindictive chancellor in modern times, his treatment and disdain of the working people in this country knows no limits, destroying families and communities across the UK.

Amongst other things during his tenure as chancellor we saw more foodbanks open up and between the years 2014 and 2015 more than 600,000 food parcels were handed out to users of the above mentioned charity.

That is the brutal reality of Osborne as chancellor, a man who has destroyed the UK.

MARK WEBB Old Town, Swindon

Post is delayed

I READ with interest T Reynolds’ letter. T Reynolds, you are not alone. My daughter also sent two birthday cards at the same time on November 22, in Swindon - one for Brighton and one for Covingham.

The one for Brighton arrived in good time, the one for Covingham arrived in the second week of December.

I would be interested to know if anyone else has had the same problem.

Does anyone remember when Swindon was a small town and we used to have deliveries three times a day - one early morning, one at dinnertime and one around 3pm? It just shows how old I am.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED

Who is accountable?

WHAT is the definition of accountability? An individual or organisation to account for its activities, accept responsibility, disclose results in a transparent manner.

Taking this in the context of council tax, what are the actions of our two MPs to obtain additional Government revenue as per Surrey Council? Why is our rating higher than many affluent home county areas?

We are in turn being taxed twice by Swindon Borough Council. A very dubious increase of seven per cent which should be subject to legal challenge.

We have no idea how this is to be spent on adult care. No business plan exists, or confirmation that monies are to be ring fenced for this purpose only.

Why let public transport lose £2m and Wichelstowe has £48m debt to cite but two examples. Why not combine services with Wiltshire Council?

The transfer of many services to parishes or to have no service is totally unreasonable, as parishes in their present format are not prepared for this work. So will the personnel respond about their accountability?

GLENN MILLS Perrys Lane, Wroughton Long wait for GP ON MONDAY, March 20 I went to Merchiston Surgery, in Highworth Road, to make an appointment for April for a blood test and blood pressure check. The earliest one they could give me was May3.

The staff at the surgery do a good job but six weeks’ wait for appointment to be seen is too long.

Blair, Cameron, May and others use private GPs and they can get appointments straight away, night or day; we can’t.

Our hospitals, schools and housing are all overcrowded. The country is too small.

Blair made a big mistake and he hasn’t got the guts say to he was wrong letting thousands in from other countries.

ALBIE LANE Lower Stratton

Bail out the NHS

I WOULD like to comment on the letter headlined ‘NHS needs more aid.’ How much are we spending on new Trident missiles? Can we not spend some of that money on the NHS? I think if you called the NHS the NHS Bank we could call it a bail-out, after all we only get what we vote for.

ROY SMALL Haydon Wick, Swindon