'Have our values become politically incorrect?” - Your Letters plus a hydro-glider hits the Severn… and the Iron Bridge, in a 1923 picture

Am I becoming a ‘perpetually offended saddo’, as described by certain voices online? I might well be you know. Thanks for the warning! But at the same time, as a 67 year-old, the world around me seems to be changing at such a fantastic rate I would have to be some kind of saint or bodhisattva to be anything else, and these are very very rare qualities!

It seems to me that everything that I was taught at school or by my elders and indeed by life itself is now being categorised as ‘wrong’, as politically ‘incorrect’ or ‘right wing’, ‘criminal’ even!

At university, as a mature student, I was accused by one lecturer, young enough to be my daughter (can I use the word ‘daughter’ or is that too gender specific?) of being ‘too white and middle class’. To the accusation of whiteness, I could only plead ‘guilty’, to the charge of being middle class, I thought she must have been addressing someone standing behind me. 

The way things are going, I can’t escape this vague nagging fear, that one day I will find myself in a kind of Room 101 having to face my worst fears, simply because I was born in 1958 and was formed by the culture of my country and my times.

Alan Jones, Midlands

Park and ride hard to find

Our neighbouring Shropshire CC, part of our own WMCA, through at least 13 years of negligence, boldly publicises Meole Brace / Shrewsbury Park and Ride on the A5 to start drivers off on the impossible to find P&R!

Fruitless search because of wrong and missing direction signs. Drivers, as I did on the first occasion, get lost! Adding to the congestion and air pollution it is meant to relieve. And accelerating the Climate Emergency and future shortages of oil and gas.

Thus, empty P&R and overflowing town centre car parks!

Tim Weller, Halesowen

Claim what you are owed

According to fresh DWP figures, nearly a million pensioners in the UK are eligible for Pension Credit but aren’t claiming this vital top-up benefit. That’s money just sitting there, at a time when heating bills are rising and winter is just around the corner.

The Government, somewhat unsuccessfully it seems, is trying to encourage pensioners to claim Pension Credit; the DWP has written to a mere 2,000 pensioners across England to tell them they may be eligible.

The problem is you have to complete a huge claim form only to then find out you’re not entitled. Rather than go to the hassle why not check if you’re entitled before you claim. Benefit Answers offer a free check which will tell you if you could be entitled to Pension Credit and any other benefits. For your free check call 0333 121 2128.

Paul Brennan, Benefit Answers

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