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We were robbed

If eventually proof can be established concerning the culpability of the leadership of the Russian Federation concerning the Salisbury poisoning incident then it would be certainly be appropriate for Theresa May’s government to crack down and confiscate the so called dirty money of Russian oligarchs in London. However this is very unlikely to happen of course as shamefully and quite brazenly the Conservative Party continues to accept major donations to its coffers from these Russian oligarchs and despite having been called out over it refuse point blank to return them.

It is common knowledge that the birth of the oligarchs came about after the looting of state assets during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when certain people there became instant opportunist billionaires or millions overnight, by default. However we openly gave birth to our own equivalent of the oligarch in the UK during the early 1980s under the Conservative Thatcher led regime which similarly looted state assets but with one subtle difference in that the theft from the taxpayer was not as in the Soviet Union by default but was planned and quite calculated, however the results for a few Conservative Party acolytes that were in the circle were much the same as they also became billionaires or millionaires overnight.

This biggest theft in history, or so called privatisation, was achieved by very stealthy and clever means which entailed issuing a very small percentage of shares in the state assets that were set up to be looted to ordinary taxpaying people in the street so as to make it appear that they were sharing in this new form of capitalism, whilst at the same the majority of the shares were spoon fed to the Banks and big corporate interests.

This very clever idea was a great success so it was deemed at the time, and shamefully the practice became endemic under future governments of different political persuasions, however it has been all of the disenfranchised taxpaying public that has been the victim of this calculated looting of state assets by way of being ripped off for ever higher utility bills and ever spiralling travelling and commuting costs, and also the effects on services and local government.

Therefore because the UK does not use the Russian term oligarch in reference to these barons that stole state assets from us all, in essence the practice was even worse over here as it was a premeditated theft of our state assets. The people in this country that have profited from the looting and plundering of our state assets in the name of privatisation are equally as culpable in every single way to the Russian oligarch.

Mr G A Woodward, Swindon

Fishy business

I see that Mr Bill Williams is once again moaning about the fat cats wasting our money in Brussels.

Of course, in some cases he is right. One such example is a certain Nigel Farage, who is quite happy to take his “earnings” as an MEP and EU Parliament committee member despite rarely bothering to turn up. What committee was he on? You may well ask, since his fellow members of the fisheries committee probably didn’t know either, considering he turned up to only one meeting out of 42. And now he has the bare-faced cheek to say he is steadfastly defending our fishermen.

Howard March, Tudor Crescent, Swindon

Smoke in our eyes

The reason one’s heart sinks daily at the increasing betrayal of the promises to the British public in the negotiations for the withdrawal from the EU, (Dave Durie Letters 22/03), is that the reality of the whole Brexit idea, as sold by the campaign, is at best impractical, and at worst, corrupt and irresponsible.

With the latest Cambridge Analytic scandal and ongoing investigations, smoke is positively billowing around the Leave campaign. As the saying goes, there’s no smoke without fire.

Steve Rouse, Wroughton

Time on our hands

A friend of mine told me that, when we have to put the clocks forward one hour, all of the stones at Stonehenge have to be moved forward one hour! If that is the case and they have to be moved back one hour in the autumn, surely that is an awful amount of work and dangerous as well. Can we not standardise the British Summer Time so that the clocks do not require changing and then we can leave Stonehenge alone?

My final question: Do we have to put the microwave forward one hour as well, as that may mess up my cooking?

Chris Gleed, Proud Close, Purton