Better transport is vital: Readers have their say, plus a historic moment from the archive

Public transport a huge issue

Mike Crump is of course absolutely right on travel. How do people get to work without their own or public transport? Not possible.

Our own children have had to move away to towns and cities in order to work, and of course accommodation is very expensive there.

Gone are the days when frequent bus services ran from 6.30am to 11.30pm, and builders’ men crammed 10 or 12 in the back of an old van amongst cement bags and tools. No health and safety then!

Council lorries used to have a tin canopy for workers, with seating on planks, that also served as a lunchtime shelter when lifted off the vehicle.

In the 1950s farms employed 10 times as many workers (at £4 per week), than they do now, but prospects for betterment were poor, and tied cottages were the norm — no water, no electricity, no indoor loo or bath, but only 6/6 (32½p) rent for their one-up, one-down hovels that housed maybe a family of 10, and there was no security of tenure.

But are people any better off on the dole, or selling drugs, today? That’s the reality for many.

Without Reform I see a very bleak future, sad to say.

W F Kerswell, Picklescott

​UK is always ahead of EU

Thierry Viennois is obviously living in a bubble and never reads financial papers.

Even the 'stagnant' British economy has outgrown the 'moribund' EU economies since Brexit. This is in spite of our obsession with net zero and the highest energy costs in the world. Even under this dire Labour government we still outperform EU. Britain always ran a huge trade deficit with EU, The name for UK within Europe was 'treasure Island' due to the money they made from us.

Chris Smith, Horsehay

Burnham is right on change

Andy Burnham is absolutely correct, after his by-election in Makerfield, saying politics has failed ordinary working people in this country the past 40 or so years and change is needed.

It started in the 1980s with the scourge of Thatcher destroying most of our engineering industrial bases in the the Black Country, North West and North East and Scotland.

What followed inadequate, so called apprenticeships and closure of technical colleges which devastated training of young people. The Blair culture of university for all just did not help and a future job in heavy engineering became a rare opportunity. I met surveyors from Germany, France Who could not understand the path our governments had taken, I agreed with them. Then came Brexit, said it all about us, we are doomed without radical political change and it won’t come by blaming immigration, right-wing popularism will get us nowhere.

We should remember what happened in Germany following a Pied Piper!

R I Jeavons, Onibury

• You can enjoy other pictures from the past and more with our weekly FREE Nostalgia Newsletter - with scores of archive pictures and exclusive features on the history of Shropshire and Mid Wales - all sent to your inbox every week. Sign up here.

Have an opinion? We want to hear from you.

Share your views by writing to Readers’ Letters at [email protected].

Letters to the editor must include the writer’s name and address. Letters will only be published anonymously in exceptional circumstances. The editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, clarity or style.

Do you have a picture from the past to share?

We would love to hear from you. Whether you have an old photograph, need help identifying a street or recognise a familiar face, send your images to [email protected].

Please include your name, where you are from and as much information as possible about the photograph. We will publish as many as we can online and in print.