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Plenty of air time

I SEE that the former Labour councillor Derek Bye is concerned he hasn’t seen me on the Parliament channel.

I am not sure if he is having some issues with his TV as I have one of the highest voting and speaking records in Parliament.

In recent weeks, for example, this has included employment opportunities for young disabled people, Heathrow, media mergers, voter ID pilots, powers to tackle fly-tipping, the future of the high street, animal welfare and hybrid car technology.

I’d be very happy to send Mr Bye video clips if he feels he has missed out.

I am very proud to represent my local community in Parliament and I do so with great enthusiasm.

Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon MP

Where’s our CCTV?

In this day and age of the need to have proof before the police, courts even the council will take any action against anyone breaking the law or making life unbearable for others, could someone in authority at Swindon Borough Council please explain to me (and I’m sure many other concerned residents) why they are removing the CCTV cameras sited around the town?

They were put there by SBC for a reason - that main reason being they were sited because of trouble hotspots and to help those in authority gather information and keep members of the general public safe.

If the reasoning behind this is because we have all been placed in a parish now and it’s down to the parish to supply the CCTV coverage - which is the answer I am expecting back - has anyone even bothered to consult anyone about this or even attempted to explain it to us.

It seems to me it’s more money saved for the council but the council tax will remain the same.

If the parish has to foot the bill to reinstall the cameras, would it not have been beneficial for everyone involved to cut the costs of removing and then reinstalling and just ask the parish to take over this vital service?

Answers please on a postcard.

John L Crook, Haydon Wick

One rule for one...

Sustrans, who campaign for more people to use bicycles and bicycle lanes, have said almost three quarters of women in seven major cities never go for a bike ride. They then quote “most of our cities are failing to design roads and streets for women to cycle”.

Can anyone explain how you design roads and streets for women that are different to the ones we already have? Why do Sustrans think women need special roads and streets at all?

I’d love to see the fuss from feminists if it was claimed that roads and streets needed redesigning especially for men’s cycling needs. Utter claptrap Sustrans.

Roger Lack, North Swindon

Unethical poaching

A RECENT Ipsos Mori survey found that Britons are in favour of relaxing immigration rules to allow more non-EU doctors to come to the UK and fill vacancies in our NHS.

Immediately after this, Home Secretary Sajid Javid stated he will look favourably at removing the present restriction.

Currently an annual limit of 20,700 skilled workers from outside the EU is in place and 1,518 Tier Two work visas for doctors were rejected in the four months up until March.

To me this represents a dilemma and while I understand the why, frankly I feel deeply uncomfortable with demands to widen access.

Denuding some of the poorest parts of the world of medical skills, countries who themselves have spent large sums training these medical health professionals, appears an ethically dubious strategy.

Of course they will want to come to the West and command higher salaries, but is it right to strip out such individuals badly needed in their home countries?

Even the most inept forecaster should be able to predict National Health Service demand seven years hence (the time it takes to train a doctor), so one can only conclude that as a society we prefer as a strategy to draw on work done in poorer economies?

Apparently there is already a backdoor available to seek to replace nurses, driven home by the hostile and fevered Brexit atmosphere.

But again it could easily be argued these individuals, too, are much-needed in their homelands.

John Stooke, Haydon End, Swindon