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Hatred must be put back in its box

Just seven years ago, Great Britain opened its arms and welcomed the entire world as London hosted the world’s biggest multicultural celebration to our country in the form of the Olympic Games.

How times have changed.

I am sure the hatred in some people has always been there, buried beneath a false facade of pleasantries as racism and homophobia have become socially unacceptable.

But since the referendum, the dogs of bigotry have somehow been unmuzzled and allowed off their short leashes to roam freely, with owners who have little concern who they bite.

The incidence of hate crimes has increased dramatically since the referendum.

It’s not just racism and homophobia, but a general feeling that it is now acceptable to throw abuse at anyone who appears to be different, even if the only difference is their opinion.

Why do people think it’s OK to shout obscenities at someone who is handing out leaflets in the street?

Why do children as young as ten feel it necessary to have to lighten their skin so they appear less foreign?

Why did people cheer a man who aggressively assaulted a peaceful protester?

Why did a group of 15 year olds think it was ok to physically attack two girls on a bus?

Why did a group of parents think it was acceptable to hurl death threats at a disabled child?

Why are many remain MPs under police protection as a direct result of credible death threats?

And why has the murder of Jo Cox been brushed aside, because “the man was mentally ill” regardless of the wealth of evidence they collected to show that he did it because he disagreed with her stance on Brexit.

Hatred must be put back in its box.

Zoe McCormick, West Swindon

Exploding beer cans sale is perfectly legal

Last Saturday 22nd June I bought twelve cans of lager from a shop in the area for £16.55.

A friend came round and we opened two.

On opening them they literally exploded releasing three quarters of the can upwards in both cases.

We looked on the bottom of the cans and found them to be three months out of date also all the other cans were the same.

We took them all back the shopkeeper apologised and offered us replacement drink.

By our own inspection we found the three lots we picked up from the shelves of different makes were also out of date so we in the end settled for the best of a bad job and took some that were three weeks out of date.

The next day I emailed the Environmental health dept and reported all the out of date stock and on Monday received a reply saying nothing could be done as selling out of date goods isn’t illegal.

She said that at the next visit the shopkeeper would be made aware it isn’t good practice to stock so much out of date product.

I replied and said although it isn’t against the law to sell out of date goods I always understood that if a shopkeeper was selling something past it’s sell by date it should be made clear to the consumer that the product is out of date and reduced accordingly thus giving the consumer the choice of buying out of date goods at a cheaper price or paying full price for goods in date.

If these council departments can do so very little when a member of the public has a complaint I really don’t see why we need them in the first place? I found it baffling that nothing whatsoever could be done.

Steve Blanchard, Coleview, Swindon