Readers' letters - April 17

Why is it that there is so much foul language used today?

Walking through any town, Chorley included, it is not unusual to hear foul language as people – many of whom are old enough to know better – utter what I would refer to as ‘barrack room’ profanities.

Turn on the TV and you are lucky to find a programme without bad language, many before the so-called ‘watershed’ hour.

As for comedians, how many are now able to complete half an hour without swearing in one form or another?

We would be hard pressed to name them.

Gone are the days of Morecambe and Wise, Ronnie Barker, Tony Hancock, Cannon and Ball, to name but a few, who achieved such great heights without the need to resort to foul language.

The same can be said for social media. I’m a relative newcomer to Facebook and see that, even on local groups, those involved will type in the first and last letters and space out the middle with exclamation marks or asterisks, leaving the reader in no doubt as to what is meant.

Often those guilty of these utterances are people who should know better, and that includes many politicians.

Having completed my stint in the forces, I’ve experienced my share of ‘barrack room’ profanities, particularly when on the parade ground, but I’m pleased to say that is in the past and that is where such language should remain.

As a child I was told that people who swear do so because they do not have a proper understanding of the English language and cannot express themselves in any other way.

Graham Archer

Chorley

politics

Be a Party for many, not few

I have voted Conservative all my life but I would have to think hard if there was an election tomorrow.

Why are bursaries being removed from trainee nurses?

Why aren’t minimum wages made at such a level as to be livable on?

Why aren’t all primary school children given free school meals so as to remove the stigma for those who receive them?

Why remove some disability payments from those who are genuinely disabled?

Why is speeding above 30mph not given a severe penalty to discourage those who do?

Why is the NHS and elderly care always short of money?

And why is this not being sorted?

Perhaps leadership is at fault.

Maybe a new leader is required who has energy and enthusiasm to do the right thing.

So how do we pay for all this?

Most people are going to need the NHS and care in old age so why not have a special tax band for those earning over £25,000 a year.

Those paying it will be paying for their future care for the majority grow old and will need it.

When I was a boy, the wife and mother stayed at home to provide a happy home life and cared for both young and old.

The wage earner received enough pay to cover all the bills but nowadays it takes two earners to pay the bills so no-one is at home doing the caring.

So let’s do the right thing.

After all, Theresa May, in her opening speech as PM, said: “Let us be the Party for everyone not just the privileged few.”

John Redfearn

via email

conflict

Boris repeating Libyan policy?

President Trump’s attack on President al-Assad’s forces in Syria makes some sense as a means of rendering the use of chemical weapons counterproductive and of lending credibility to his military options against North Korea.

There are those, however, who wish to extend and exploit this.

Bizarrely, Hillary Clinton tries to suggest that the natural corollary of objecting to the poisoning of civilians is to invite hundreds of thousands of them to settle permanently in the USA.

At the same time supporters of the rebels ask that restrictions upon Syrian government tactics to be made so comprehensive as to bring about regime change.

However black some may wish to paint the soul of Bashar Al-Assad, this does not imply that the opposition leaders who seek to replace him are virtuous men. A long civil war inevitably takes a heavy toll in human life.

Those who begin and perpetuate such a war in order to overthrow the state must bear responsibility for that. Actions taken by the state in resisting this attempt can hardly be cited in mitigation for the earlier act of rebellion.

The West arms, and aids, factions in the war whose leaders escape censure only because most of us don’t know their names. There is no nice option for ruling Syria. It would be criminal to prolong the war for a single day to secure a change of leader. Yet Boris Johnson seems set upon repeating the Libyan policy of William Hague.

John Riseley

Address supplied

environment

Bad attitude just wasn’t cricket

The serious amount of litter in our public places is down to personal responsibility.

Sitting behind three young men at a cricket match, we noted they were drinking cans of lager and throwing their empties on the floor.

One of our party pointed out that the rubbish bin was only a yard away.

“People are paid to clean up after me” was the reply and we moved the cans ourselves.

Councils can’t do much about attitudes like that.

Hilary Andrews

Address supplied

politics

Will Farage finally stand up for us?

Now we have Brexit, can Farage, UKIP’s mouthpiece, please stand up for the little people he constantly goes on about. We are not counted by Brussels and are oppressed by Mother Theresa’s Tory policies, for instance, bedroom tax, benefit sanctions.

Please reinstate the employment rights that Thatcher’s Tory government took away, not Brussels. Not much to ask for, but will staunch Tory Farage do it?

S Ellis

via email

roads

New M6 exit is all

a bit confusing

Perhaps the Highways Department can inform us as to why the new M6 to Morecambe exit is so complicated? Thousands of seemingly permanent traffic cones, awkward manoeuvring and lack of legible signs have already caused two of my relations to revert to the Carnforth turn-off, a much simpler exit with not a traffic cone in sight.

Name and address supplied