Readers' letters - April 11

I have begun to notice it’s fairy tale time, mixed with the usual ‘it’s all their fault’ time – better known as the local elections.

Maybe one election, just one time, will concentrate ONLY on what the candidate and their party will do with what we, the paymasters, can afford, and not play the blame game, of which most of us are not interested.

Equally, these are local elections. Blaming the opposition or the government of the day, is a politician back sliding... again, do what you can with the money that’s available, not dream time money, not money from that famous money tree, known only it seems to those of the socialist ilk.

There will be howls about austerity as though it’s some sort of plot. They might as well howl at the moon, because for a time it must continue.

The Labour lot is now, of course, being run by another group of the so-called extreme left, better known to most as the Communist party.

If you don’t like that, as a message to my Labour friends: DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT – you’re letting these people run the show and acting like a bunch of lemmings.

The bit nobody wants to talk about is the £1.8 trillion pounds we are in debt – that means we, fellow readers, are paying £168m interest per day. Ask yourself what sort of things we could all have if we could get rid of that.

That’s why we must, for the time being, keep a lid on public spending the best we can, and try to pay that off or at least get it down as far as possible.

Back to local politics, the best position is actually in Opposition.

You can promise the earth, and they do, in the full knowledge their promise is meaningless, just for the gullible, because until you’re in power, you can do nothing.

However, when you get into power and you now know you cannot keep your promise, you blame it on the outgoing crowd for spending all the money you were going to use.

It’s a local election, it’s about local issues. If you have a good candidate, who actually is out and about, forget the usual silly party politics.

Pick the best for your ward, look carefully at the promises. Those involving huge sums, forget, we don’t have it.

Men and women have died to give you the right to vote, a privilege denied to millions across the world,

I would respectfully ask you all to honour this privilege and use your vote.

Michael Sutcliff

Address supplied

population

Immigration in

a tiny country

In a museum the other day, we came across a large chart, a map of the world.

There was a HUGE landmass, with Britain a tiny speck on the western edge of Europe.

It was obvious, more so on closer inspection, what we have long been thinking and which politicians seem to have been missing for decades now.

Unlike us, it seems not to have dawned on them and their ilk, or they refuse to admit to it, that allowing uncontrolled immigration to our shores – both legal and illegal – from the huge expanse of the world depicted on that map should never have been and could not possibly be a viable option for the UK and is, without doubt, a factor in the problems of Britain today.

How can you fit a pint pot into a tiny tea cup?

How can you push a large foot into a miniscule Cinderella shoe without it causing a myriad of problems?

Britain is a compassionate country.

It more than punches above its weight in helping that world, even when it knows that help is often abused.

I therefore suggest that every politician or person who thinks that all should be welcome here, without let or hindrance, stands in front of a map of the world until it dawns on them that Britain, due to its size, can no longer open its borders to the world.

It needs to get its own house in order before continuing on the path it is treading.

No racism, no prejudice, just simple common sense on tackling a problem that is escalating out of control due to the overcrowding of this little speck on that map of the world.

C Cross

Broughton

planning

Local residents being ignored

I write following the news that the government has, yet again, overruled the local planners (LP April 5).

I was led to believe that we were supposed to have a say on our local planning but, if every time we make a decision, Whitehall can overrule it, we have no chance.

Also, as we keep putting new bypasses in, this opens up more land for development as the bypass becomes the new building line.

This has happened at Leyland, Penwortham (which will be made even worse when the new road is finished) and Fulwood (M55).

The people who wanted the bypass at Broughton will regret it as their village will become a town because more land will be opened up for development.

We will see what happens.

David Gabbott

via email

health

Lack of research on sugar

What disturbs me most about the new tax on sugar is the government’s pathetic lack of research.

Not only is the health case against sugar weak, but in several countries which implemented sugar taxes, most notably Denmark and France, obesity rates have either risen or stayed constant.

It really cannot be a good thing for manufacturers to have to put more aspartame in their products.

Only a government with no instinctive belief in personal freedom could endorse this stupidity. Surely we can be trusted to make informed choices ourselves as to how much sugar we give our own children?

Aled Jones

via email