Readers' letters - December 29

I am often blinded, when driving, by the new extra bright headlights from the back and from the front.

I’m not the only one. It is more likely 4x4s, BMWs, Audi, larger vans and new buses that are the worst. I have to drive through it and we are supposed to slow down or stop if we cannot see where we are going. Imagine the queues.

I thought dipped lights should shine downwards and to the left so as not to dazzle other road users, including pedestrians, and not across to the right to light up the right-hand side of the road.

I’ve seen this three foot up a side wall.

It seems to me new designers don’t understand why things are the way they are.

Electric handbrakes means it is easier to stand with your foot on the brake than use the handbrake, thus dazzling the person behind.

But the problem I have is the black area left between the lights of cars approaching.

This means I cannot see in this area and it blots out things such as street furniture, that is not seen until it makes the lights flash as they pass behind, or the pedestrian who suddenly appears in front from in between the row of vehicles.

Some cars have “self-levelling” lights.

Now this tells me they do not shine down and, as they are brighter, they shine further and dazzle from a longer distance, especially over the brow of a rise.

We have had a report about the increase in light pollution that the world emits.

What do the powers-that-be expect when vehicles can have headlights as bright as they are?

My lights are adjustable filament bulbs and point down as low as they go for commuting.

This is enough to see with the road lights but it does not dazzle anyone.

What happened to the “dim” dip that was proposed not long back?

Then we have the cyclists who now have lights as bright as car lights but without the control as to where they position or point them.

Still it must be keeping the garages in work with all the MOT failures for vehicles’ light aim.

I don’t think there is anything we can do about it – just look the other way.

Stephen Hunter

via email

brexit

Disgraceful conduct

As a Brexit voter, when I heard the result of the vote in the House of Commons on the Brexit Bill, it really turned my stomach that the Government lost.

I thought those 11 Tory rebels – who voted with Labour, SNP and Liberals against the Brexit Bill – disgraced themselves as traitors to their own party and country because they were even defying democracy and the will of the majority of voters.

They showed utter contempt for democracy and should be sacked as MPs by Theresa May.

Their conduct supports European totalitarian dictatorship and is reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement conduct in the run-up to the Second World War.

They only pander to the EU for what they can get out of it for themselves and couldn’t care less about what is best for Britain. They have no sense of shame.

Those anti-Brexit MPs are actually playing even harder hard ball against Brexit and Theresa May than the EU itself.

They are giving the leave voters the two-fingered salute.

Despite the leave campaign winning the June 2016 referendum, leave voters actually have more reason to complain than remain voters, because they are being cheated out of independence by Parliament.

R N Coupe

Lostock Hall

brexit

Hidden cost

of Brexit?

There are more than 1.2m UK citizens living in other EU countries, one third of whom are estimated to be pensioners and currently able to claim their pension locally, with entitlement to free health care.

Once Brexit happens, they will lose these entitlements, so presumably many will have no choice but to return to the UK.

Given UK house prices are higher compared to most of Europe, and the fact that popular EU locations, such as Spain, are still suffering from the 2008 crash, many will not be able to afford to buy a house back in the UK.

Has the Government considered the impact this will have on the already stretched health service, as well as social services, or is this another hidden cost of Brexit?

Phil Cray

Scorton

nostalgia

Fond memories from America

I read the Post on the web from Anacortes, Washington State, USA. I was interested to see a familiar family name in today’s issue – that of Glenn Swarbrick (LP December 21). I was good friends with a classmate at Balshaw’s in the 1950s, he was named Bob Swarbrick.

We went through classes 2B to 5B together, both being interested in motor racing.

He had an older brother, whose name escapes me.

Bob’s dad was the manager (I think) of the British Road Services depot on Golden Hill Lane, close to the junction at Earnshaw Bridge.

My wife and I both grew up in Leyland. My extended family ran George Damp and Sons hardware shop on Towngate and my wife’s parents had a green grocery store at 90 Hough Lane. We emigrated to the USA in 1968 when I took a job with Boeing Commercial Airplanes, retiring on September 1, 1998.

Frank Damp

via email

n Frank would like to contact Bob Swarbrick, email us at [email protected] and we will pass Frank’s email address on.