Letters - Tuesday January 5 2021

I have just been made aware that the rolling out of the Covid vaccine appears to have become a ‘lottery’ for those over 80.

I have a longstanding friend, over 90 and in good health.

She fully expected to be one of those contacted as regards the first batch of vaccine from her GP surgery, having been registered with them for well over 50 years.

Having had no contact, she eventually, after a very lengthy wait on her phone, was finally informed that the first batch of vaccine for the over-80s was not dealt with by the oldest first but at random.

As a fairly active 77-year-old, I hopefully expect that some time in the New Year I might be contacted, but for an active woman in her early 90s, having read all the various statements from the Government, she did expect to be one of the earliest in the contact list. Now she has been told that they should/hope to have a second batch of vaccines in the New Year. I wonder if another ‘age lottery’ will take place again.

What a shambles.

David Lloyd-Williams

via email

Transport

Thank you to the gritting teams

I would like to thank the highways department on gritting Chapel Road over the festive season .

I am sure they are aware of the local extremely heavy goods vehicles using the road from cropper Road to Midgland Road on a daily basis.

The road surface is breaking and the drains are becoming blocked and overflowing, hence the surface water requiring constant gritting to try and make the road safe.

So thank you to them and may they continue to do so during the cold freezing winter period.

Mr D Bakalarski

via email

Brexit

Finally... we’ve escaped from EU

Finally we have escaped from the tyrannical rule of the European Union.

My heartfelt congratulations to Boris Johnson and his negotiators for achieving what the Remainers all said was impossible.

Although the deal on our fishing rights may not be perfect, it is hugely better than our previous situation when we were ruled by Brussels, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel.

I hope that New Year’s Eve .

will be celebrated in years to come as UK Independence Day. Well done, Boris.

The left-wing intellectuals and liberal Remainers all laughed at and scorned Boris’s attempts to organise our escape from the EU – they ain’t laughing now!

Dick Lindley

address supplied

Worry for BBC as habits change

Coronavirus is likely to see a huge change in TV habits. As well as praise for the NHS frontline hospital staff, thank heavens we have the technology of streaming television that has played as vital a role in maintaining the country’s sanity through all the emotional turmoil and lockdowns.

The big loser is terrestrial television which must concern the BBC and ITV.

Virtually none of it has matched my mental mood over many months hibernating – apart from ITV’s Good Morning Britain or BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, Call The Midwife, a documentary of the Royal Christmas Broadcasts – Cue The Queen (BBC2) – and commemorative programmes at the Albert Hall and Buckingham Palace. We particularly enjoyed C5’s All Creatures Great and Small – and the Christmas edition.

My wife and I have passed hours and hours of bingeing on streaming high production value drama series – the majority on Netflix and a little on Prime.

As we have hardly been out (we are in an age risk category and I did suffer a heart attack), we decided to buy a top of the range 55” 4K LG OLED television which is absolutely superb (I’m not being paid for this plug) on picture and sound quality.

Top of my Netflix series list is Homeland, Designated Survivor, The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit, Emily In Paris and, for pure escapism, three Spanish series with sub-titles with wonderful 1930s fashions; The Grand Hotel, Cable Girls, High Seas and a Danish political drama Borgen.

All 4 has two good French thriller productions – The Announcer and The Red Shadows. Looking in the mirror I wonder why I have wide-screen eyes!

Keith Massey

via email