Letters: February 3, 2017

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Action is needed now

EVEN among the historic events of 2016, the football abuse scandal stood out as one of the major news stories of the year. Hundreds called the NSPCC’s dedicated helpline to talk about how they had been attacked by coaches who had held their sporting ambitions in their hands.

Our nation has to face up to addressing a culture of abuse and lax safeguarding in sports clubs and changing rooms throughout the country and across all levels.

Much has been done in recent years by the sporting community to put children’s safety first, but we have nevertheless discovered worrying loopholes.

The NSPCC has found that while it’s unlawful for certain professionals, such as teachers and social workers, to have sex with 16 and 17 year old children in their care, this does not apply to sports coaches or other youth workers.

We are asking Government to urgently extend the position of trust laws to cover coaches and other roles.

We are also demanding that all those working with children should undergo the most stringent DBS check – not just those working alone with children.

These changes make the law clearer, make it easier for clubs to apply the rules and can be delivered quickly and easily. When it comes to child safety, not a second can be wasted.

INGRID ANSON

Service Manager – Swindon

NSPCC

Albert Street

Swindon

.....

Please give us a lift

THE council have recently built a five-storey car park at the corner of Islington Street and Fleming Way at great expense to the ratepayers of Swindon.

But it seems that council do not have enough money for maintenance because the lift has been out of order for weeks. Here is yet more evidence that the finances of the council are falling apart.

As there only ever seems to be spaces on the fifth floor people my age find it a long climb up the stairs and of course it rules out any use by disabled people.

It is the duty of the council to give visitors to the town the impression that Swindon is is open for business, even if the toilets at the bus station are not.

STEVE HALDEN

Beaufort Green

Swindon

....

What about Obama?

THERE is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that President Trump’s executive order restricting the rights of people to travel without hindrance to the USA is unpleasant and hugely inconvenient; but its effect is very similar to orders signed by his immediate predecessor President Obama who signed legislation introducing restrictions for anyone who had visited Iran, Iraq, Syria, or Sudan.

Two months later he added three more countries to the list: Libya, Yemen, and Somalia. Add them all up and you get the very same countries as appear on Trump’s immigration ban.

Indeed Obama used his all encompassing executive powers on six occasions. “Whenever the president finds that the entry of aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, the president may, by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrant’s or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”

Americans, be they Republican or Democrat, have always considered that migrating/visiting the US is in itself a special privilege and that it is not a constitutional right of every human being to come to the United States.

Whilst Trump may be an ‘unpleasant’ character to many, demonstrating against him when we never did the same against Obama does make us look a tad hypocritical.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive

Swindon

....

Can’t tell the difference

HOW on earth can anyone tell a genuine refugee from an economic migrant?

And how can you tell a peaceful Muslim from a radical individual?

How indeed did our authorities let 850 000 migrants into the country last year, by giving them Nation Insurance documentation without the slightest proof of whether they were genuine refugees? To even question this madness according to the million protesters makes you a bigot.

What about the million protesters who tried to stop Tony Blair from starting a war which has now radicalised Muslims against the world? Are they the same million who protested against someone who has at last decided to reverse Tony Blair and George Bush’s stupidity?

I don’t think so. It’s time these dim bats got their muddled minds together.

IAN HUNT

Hill View Road

Swindon

....

Heat or eat again

THE ‘news’ that the council tax would go up by five per cent, should have shocked nobody, after Bristol went down the same road, this increase in council tax the precept charges is going to hit home on the 1st April when those council tax bills hit the door mat.

Has the council leader, on his 17.5 per cent pay rise, even thought how OAPs are able to pay this amount? Someone in a band D house in Stratton is looking at a combined rise of around £250, so it will be back to the heat or eat days. An utter disgrace.

I hope the three projects the council is funding to the tune of around £20 million is going well, not to mention the ski slope\flats at the Oasis.

T REYNOLDS

Wheeler Avenue

Swindon

....

Inspired by racism

DES Morgan wrote a defence of Donald Trump using the angle of a criticism of Gill Harris’s column. But she was right and Trump was celebrating about his chance now to build his racism inspired wall.

This idea of “the wall” was indeed Trump’s which he was happy to claim during the election campaign. If Des was intending to deny Trump’s originality in using racism to scapegoat immigrants he may have had a point. He could have gone further than pointing to Bush’s ramping up of technology and military style hostility at the Mexican border and written about the record numbers of deportations ordered by Obama.

Des’ memory is faulty if he “doesn’t recall anyone in this country being offended by the Bush administration’s actions”. Of course there was quite a lot to be offended by and the focus was pretty much on opposing the war which set light to the Middle East; a fire that is still burning.

None of this removes the seriousness of the threat posed by Trump. Trump has taken prejudices already widespread in society and amplified them to cobble together a grubby electoral constituency (albeit 3 million short of a majority). It’s been done before and we see the pattern globally, UK included. Everywhere established parties fail to answer the lies and instead incorporate bits of them into their own policies dragging the political spectrum into ever more seedy territory.

Far from being anything to do with safety, a Trump-stained world will be worse for all but the very rich. Many are prepared to resist the slide and fight to avoid repeating past mistakes.

PETER SMITH

Woodside Avenue

Swindon

....

An obvious solution

NO one is a greater supporter of Swindon heritage, culture and the arts than I am – however, I feel bound to comment on the proposal to locate a new art gallery and museum on the site of the Islington Street car park. I would suggest this is a classic vanity project, which risks being a white elephant as well as seriously undermining efforts to protect the real built heritage of our town.

I have lived here for 70 years and, despite my own modest efforts in the 1970s with an original art gallery, Swindon is neither a tourist destination or a place of high culture. What is it? A wonderful town of hard working families with a proud industrial heritage, populated by well grounded, real people. It is not Oxford, it’s not Bath, it’s not Cheltenham.

Similar lottery funded ventures in other “Swindon like” communities have failed to attract viable audiences and have closed. Sheffield’s Pop Music Museum attracted a quarter of hoped for visitors and shut after 15 months. The Earth Centre in Doncaster, a flagship project costing £55million, closed in 2004 due to lack of visitors. Think Tank science museum in Birmingham attracts half the 300,000 visitors planned. The millions spent on Walsall’s “Public Gallery” went south when it shut up shop in 2013.

These galleries were neither essential to their local communities nor significant on the national stage. Sound familiar? Even locally, the terrific Steam has struggled to achieve 140,000 visitors annually (despite subsidised school groups) and numbers are in decline…. probably little more than 80.000 annually.

All these facts are cause for concern but the bigger issue is the collateral damage to existing alternative options. We are told that Swindon cannot afford libraries, leisure and swimming, children’s centres, parks, grass cutting… I could go on. However it seems to have no problem with the £100k or so Hadrian Ellory Van Dekker and his office/entourage must cost, the gifting of high value town centre real estate, another £5 million or more in borrowings, or the ongoing financial support, of which we have been told nothing.

Despite an understandable conspiracy of silence, the subsidy to our much loved Steam museum is already being being cut back and more economies will quickly be demanded if this project goes ahead and the current spotlight moves.

The greatest irony however, is that we already have a centre of heritage, culture and the arts built in the 1870s and which has been falling down for the last 35 years and the council will not engage with the trust over its future. The Mechanics Institute, the finest heritage building in the town both in terms of architecture and history, is falling down and has no obvious role and we have a decent art collection with no home.

Is it just me or is there a better way? The hoped-for 100,000 visitors would transform Swindon’s real cultural quarter, a catalyst for an integrated quarter, new life for the Health Hydro and other adjacent heritage jewels.

If this project goes ahead, I suspect it will look like a folly to future councils as expected visitors fail to materialise, subsidy demands rise and no viable solution for the Mechanics can be conceived or funded.

So will Swindon’s “Matchbox Gallery”, be anything more than a liability for future borrowing and a decent café for council executives to pop over and grab their cappuccino? You decide.

JOHN STOOKE

Haydon End