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I will willingly pay more

WHAT a very poisonous and bigoted letter from David Collins, (I hope you’re all happy, S A, June 13). I am 85 years old, have been retired for many years but still keep busy giving a hand to Swindon Allotment Association.

My wife died of motor neurone disease 18 months ago and I spent the two years prior to her death as her sole carer.

Towards the end of her life the cataracts in both my eyes became so bad that I could no longer drive my car.

This meant that she would have to go into a care home for two separate stays of four weeks while I recovered from the operation on each eye.

I then discovered that most of the homes in Swindon, (all privately run), would not take her because her “needs were too great.”

This, of course, begged the question, if her needs were so great, why was an OAP in his 80s left to cope on his own?

Eventually a home was found. The weekly fees were enormous and I was told I would have to pay them myself.

However, everything was delayed because the Great Western Hospital twice deferred my appointment with the eye surgeon and my wife finally died before my eyes were dealt with.

I earn precious little interest on my savings and pay quite a bit of income tax on my pension. But I’m prepared to pay more if it means we get a better NHS and decent public services.

So I voted Labour, as did my three children, who are all in work, (self-employed), and as did those of my grandchildren old enough to vote.

They, too, are all in work but some of them would like a better job and all would like a fairer society.

DON REEVE, Horder Mews, Old Town, Swindon

Working people fight on

REGULAR readers of Adver letters will know David Collin’s letters and know that politically he believes all decisions must deliver the needs of the rich elite who run this country.

He has “learned to live with” walking to heel behind the rich freeloaders. So he often writes to bark at those who organise for a politics which works for the working people who produce the wealth and who fight for a fairer society.

In a comic stroke he concludes his long whining complaint about Theresa May’s busted mandate (Tuesday, June 13) by accusing others of whinging.

The greyness of his views are shown by his attack on education. He has no inkling that society benefits from education or that people with university education should pay more through higher taxes if paid more.

Corbyn shocked the establishment, rubbing the faces of the Tory press in its own ordure, because masses of people are sick of being robbed to make the rich richer.

So now we should take heart and step up our resistance to cuts and privatisation of schools and hospitals and all the other attacks on the conditions of working people.

PETER SMITH, Woodside Avenue, Swindon

We voted, get over it

HOW patronising of David Collins to tell young people that they “voted wrongly” (letters, June 13). In last week’s election young voters finally put their apathy aside and came out in huge numbers which is wonderful for our democracy.

Jeremy Corbyn must be given credit for inspiring them to do so.

I would say to David what anyone who argues against leaving the EU is told. We voted. Get over it.

The electorate decided against giving Theresa May the blank cheque she arrogantly asked for. The Tory Party are entirely to blame for the hung Parliament.

I would also point out to David that the vast majority of people on benefits are not “lazy” - they work long hours but simply do not earn a living wage.

Labour is campaigning for a £10 an hour minimum wage to help stop taxpayers subsidising the wage bills of wealthy corporations.

David also has a very disparaging attitude towards students. He should remember that they are our next generation of doctors, teachers, lawyers and scientists.

It is all of us who will ‘benefit in the long run’ by making sure university education is accessible to all.

NEIL MERCER, Maidstone Road, Swindon

Our views may differ

ACCORDING to John Stooke the General Election vote “reflects the thinking of the majority of people he knows.”

He then goes on to say they “do not operate or believe in political extremes”(SA 13 June) – I believe John is absolutely right in his comment. The fact is that very few people have ‘extreme views’ but they do have different views.

John also claims to be “politically independent” which, given the tenor and tone of his letter may come as a shock to your readers who might consider the content to be a classic example of Tory bashing with little to say about the policies of their Labour opponents.

As for suggesting Vince Cable is the ‘sensible’ face of the Lib Dems, well, he simply cannot be serious!

Finally, a comment on the ongoing Brexit issues. Retaining access to the single market has always been an aim of the Conservatives, as it has every other political party.

The EU has made it clear that to retain access requires acceptance of the four principles of the EU and the jurisdiction of the ECJ.

Even John McDonnell acknowledges that leaving the EU means the UK leaves the Single Market and the Customs Union.

If the EU wishes to enjoy reciprocal tariff free trading with the UK it can do so very easily, just make a trade agreement which allows for that to happen.

DES MORGAN, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Ashamed of the town

IF EVER there was conclusive evidence that Swindon is a culturally backward, intellectual backwater it is last week’s elections results.

Swindon is now the biggest city or town in England with no Labour MPs. To make it worse, we elected two of Theresa May’s austerity army (and mediocre ones at that).

Yes, you expect London, Manchester, Liverpool et al to return Labour MPs, but Swindon is the clueless dunce in the corner when it comes to mid-sized provincial towns, too.

Peterborough, Luton, Lincoln, Reading, Oxford, Slough, Bedford, Bury, Exeter, Southampton, Portsmouth, Canterbury, Ipswich and Norwich are hardly hotbeds of socialism but they all managed to vote for Labour’s message of hope rather than back Theresa May’s dystopian vision of hard Brexit and vanishing public services.

Frankly, it’s yet another reason to be embarrassed about living in Swindon.

JEFF KING, Old Town, Swindon

Are we quite mad?

I AM sure that everyone, barring a few very senior members of the Tory Party who are clearly suffering from denial brought on by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, would agree that this country is in a mess following the recent General Election.

Sadly, those who got us here are so busy covering their tracks that they cannot find the way ahead and it is difficult, if not impossible, for the Prime Minister’s “ordinary working people” to decide wherein, or with whom, lies the truth.

With our supposedly ‘free’ press and media one would have hoped that some help would be forthcoming but, alas, they too are floundering in a slough of rumour and despond.

I have just checked the date and it is June 13, 2017, NOT June 15, 1215 (the date of the signing of Magna Carta) yet on BBC News this morning we were told that one of the reasons being given for the delay in the presentation to Parliament of the Queen’s Speech is that it has to be hand written on vellum and “there is a need to allow time for the ink to dry”!

National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder indeed! No wonder the rest of Europe thinks we are mad.

TERRY FLINDERS, Upper Stratton, Swindon

Fox hunting faux pas

I HAVE always been an animal lover. The joy of my cats, now long gone, purring on my knee after a hard day on the building sites in all weathers was a delight that eases the tribulations of the society we all share.

My long gone dogs wagging their tails as I came home from a nightmare day at work giving me a purpose to continue to support my family and my pets.

My little Westie enhances my life on a daily basis with daily walks. My point?

The Prime Minister of Great Britain decided to mention in her manifesto that she would encourage another vote on the despicable pursing the uneatable - namely fox hunting.

Hunters are a crowd of jumped up toffs on horses. Can any of the Adver readers afford the upkeep of a horse? Not many I suspect.

A hunt is chasing a wild British canine, which is to be to be ripped apart by domestic British canines.

And let’s not to mention the fact that the Master of the Hounds executes the hounds when they get too old to keep up with the chase - while he himself evades that problem by sitting on a horse.

Mrs May wonders why she is now in charge of a minority government, I don’t. And she won’t be for long I strongly suspect.

BILL WILLIAMS, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon