Readers' letters - January 30

Trident cash could go towards NHS

The recent malfunction of a Trident missile off the coast of Florida should be a cause for major concern.

Scientists have, for many years, believed that a nuclear war could easily be started by accident such as a malfunction, and this subject has been raised in the past.

I understand the new Trident will cost at least £205bn.

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An unimaginable amount for taxpayers to fund, which has taken funding from our armed forces, particularly the army and navy.

The NHS, according to the Red Cross, is in a crisis situation.

There is a shortage of doctors and other professional staff, and sadly a severe shortage of beds, when patients are made comfortable on a trolley and wait hours in corridors.

Social care services are run down and short of funding.

But we then compare the situation with Germany, a nation with a larger population than the UK, with a much better state pension than we have, who have had immigrants for many years and in the past year taken in 1m people.

Yet their health service is not in crisis.

No shortage of staff or beds reported there!

How on earth do they manage?

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The most obvious difference in the two nations is they have not poured billions of pounds every year into weapons of mass destruction, which none would want to actually use.

The German nation have their own well maintained armed services, as do the Netherlands, Canada and others.

Perhaps better equipped than our much-reduced armed forces now.

The country needs a serious discussion.

People have said NHS funding cannot go on increasing.

Yet the bill for these weapons is allowed to grow unhindered.

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I wonder if the public truly feel that this situation should continue.

Jack Croysdill

via email

nostalgia

The man with the golden trumpet

This is a story about one of Preston’s famous sons, Eddie Calvert.

I never actually met him, he was in a different age group, nine years older than me.

Eddie’s mother had a shoe shop in New Hall Lane, a stone’s throw from where we lived in Acregate lane. My mother used to do a half day’s cleaning for her once a week and became good friends. She knew I was a painter and decorator and asked Mum if I could help her pick a suitable wallpaper for his bedroom.

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He had a two-day break in his 1955 concert commitments and was going to spend two days with his mother.

Armed with three pattern books, we looked to see if we could find something suitable.

There was a wallpaper with a red background and pattern of gold musical instruments with, what else, but golden “trumpets” which we both thought would be idea.

It was a bit strong to do the whole room so I suggested a feature wall behind his bed. The rest of the room would have to be a plain paper and we found one with white and pink as the main colours.

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Not exactly cherry pink and apple blossom white but near enough, like his chart- topping song.

I painted her kitchen as well as papering the bedroom as it needed brightening up.

He left a note for me on a scrap of paper which read “Thanks for helping my mother, wallpaper great – Eddie.”

Not a man of many words, he let his trumpet do the talking!

His mother said he took two pieces of wallpaper.

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He said he would get the same to do a room when he got settled somewhere!

Ken Woods

South Australia

transport

Barking up the wrong lane

I was interested to read Ray Butler’s letter (LP, Letters January 25) regarding getting to the railway station.

Firstly, let me answer the question posed at the end, for he himself had answered it earlier in his own letter.

Ray, you go up Corporation Street, turn right on to a short stretch of Fishergate before turning left down Butler Street.

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I think you are confusing two separate bus lanes along Fishergate. Indeed one of them is not even a bus lane per se but is technically termed a bus gate. And it was at this point your letter became a little clearer to me.

Your question should thus have been not how you go TO the railway station but how you go AWAY FROM the railway station.

The bus lane, where the restriction applies from 11am to 6pm, is for that stretch of Fishergate between Mount Street and Corporation Street. The other bus lane/bus gate, and the one that I think the camera may have caught you on at 9.48am, is between Butler Street and Corporation Street and, for which, there are two clear No Right Turn Signs.

Thus, if this is the case, your appeal is bound to fail as this bus gate is in operation for 24 hours a day.

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There is no need for a sign telling you about this bus gate, approaching it from the opposite direction of Corporation Street. That’s like having to put up a sign on the M6 southbound at Leyland saying that there is a lane closure on the northbound carriageway!

For the record, Ray, the correct way to exit from the railway station from Butler Street is to turn left onto Fishergate Hill, and then, depending upon which way you want to go from there, either carry on down Fishergate Hill or turn right at the traffic lights into Bow Lane and at the end turn either right or left, again depending upon whether you wish to travel west or east.

Finally, however, if you have been issued with a fine because you were on the Mount Street to Corporation Street section of Fishergate at 9.48am, then your appeal should succeed.

One last thing, I used to work for LCC but not, thank God, in the Planning Department...

Neil Swindlehurst

Walmer Bridge

politics

Voted for change ... still waiting for it

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Just what is it that our Establishment politicians don’t understand about democracy? Last year Parliament voted by a ratio of 4 - 1 in favour of an in-out EU referendum, with the then Prime Minister promising to abide by the result. During the last seven months we have constantly heard from elements of the Remain side how damaging it will be for us if we leave the single market, this despite our economy thriving and countries queueing up to strike trade deals with us.

Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and many Tories are doing their best to frustrate the democratic outcome, with the Lib Dems wanting a second referendum – exactly what the EU does when it gets the wrong result. It is time political parties listened to the electorate and do what they have been instructed to do, in this case, get on with our exit from the EU. If it was not for UKIP, we would never have had the referendum which was won by 17.4 million voters. These are now being ignored by elements of the established parties. The simple message is – don’t vote for those who oppose the will of the people, vote for those who you can trust. Last June we voted for change. We are still waiting.

Philip Griffiths

North West President, UKIP