'I'm in my 80s and shop on the internet'

As someone in their late 80s with limited mobility, I would like to say a few words in favour of online shopping.

Without it, I would not have such a choice of items.

For example, if I am looking for clothing, I can compare items in stores such as Jaegar, John Lewis and Matalan.

There is no way I could find my way around so many stores.

To park my car and make my way to shops is a painful and hazardous journey.

Another aspect of online shopping, which I don’t think has been mentioned, is the fact that many retailers, including the supermarket who I buy the bulk of my groceries from, make a donation to my favourite charity with all my purchases, at no extra cost to me.

I just have to click on to the easy fundraising website to start shopping.

Old age, the internet and online shopping really do go together.

I still shop locally, I have a milkman and real milk in glass bottles left on my doorstep, and a fishmonger who calls at the house. But, please, do not knock online shopping – there are those of us to whom it is a blessing.

Sheila Hopkinson

Address supplied

brexit

Reasons to

be cheerful

All indications suggest that 2019 will be a wonderful year for our great country.

Although, as ever, all is not perfect, there are still many reasons to be cheerful.

There are a record number of people in work in Britain; our economy is growing and is the sixth largest in the world; our military budget is the second biggest in NATO; the United States, Japan and Australia all want to do free trade deals with us once we leave the European Union; and Forbes has recently concluded that we are the best country on the planet to conduct business.

However, the positives will never be enough for those diminishing few who want to subvert the will of the people and keep us in the European Union.

Be prepared for the professional tantrum throwers to whip up fabricated and outlandish scare stories over the coming months.

But do not be fooled, it is the final kicks of an ailing campaign of fear, which nobody is falling for.

Although I dislike Theresa May’s deal, I still predict that we will leave the EU on March 29.

Moreover, when we wake up the following day, the sun will still rise, the Earth will still turn, and the trains will still run.

There will be no water shortages, no planes grounded, no absence of life-saving drugs and no army on the streets - regardless of what certain politicians and journalists say.

The only difference on March 30 is that we will have taken back control of our own destiny as a proud, sovereign, nation state. Onwards and upwards!

Happy New Year.

Paul Nuttall

North West Independent MEP

brexit

We need a clean break

All our MPs will soon be voting on a framework on which we can negotiate in the future. As such, it is pointless addressing the situation as deal or no deal.

Any deal will not be known for possibly years to come. Twenty six countries will put themselves first and we should do the same.

I feel that the best way forward is to have a clean break, and honour the marginal national vote. The billions that the EU are demanding should be put to immediate use to safeguard our future and enable us to make stage payments to them if our relationship to the EU turns out to be reasonable.

Mike Marlow via email

eden

Problem, not

a solution

The head of the Eden Project in Morecambe is wrong to see the Eden Project as a solution to climate change.

In fact, building the Eden Project, which aims to attract 8,000 visitors a day, and with aspirations to be an ‘international attraction’, will further damage our climate.

These 8,000 extra cars a day will increase the UK’s carbon emissions – the main driver of climate change – at a time when we need to reduce them.

There already exist enough expertise in our local schools, colleges, universities and environmental groups to get the message across, and kick-start urgent action to adapt to global warming. For a tiny fraction of the £250,000 the city council plans to hand over to the Eden Project, it could be organising environmental task forces to work to reduce the threat from catastrophic climate change.

Dick Follows

Lancaster