'Reform's vote has increased from less than 100 to over 27,000 in four years' - Your Letters: May 28

I read with interest how Reform's vote has increased from less than 100 to over 27,000 in four years, implying that the Reform Party's support in Shropshire is a sign of strength.

If a councillor's role were limited to being elected the Reform Party have had success.

However, governance involves reading, listening, decision-making and compromising: things that populism tends to find inconvenient.

Perhaps the supporters of the Reform Party in Shropshire should consider the words of the 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke. He said: 'Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion'.

Roger Norton, Monkmoor

NHS WEBSITE IS A NIGHTMARE

Quite a few years ago I decided to register with the new NHS 'Patient Access' website.

One of the things it was supposed to do was let you book a appointment with your doctor online.

And it did work for a very short time, but then no longer worked.

Since then I quickly found out that the number of things the site let you do (not many) was massively outnumbered by the things it would not let you do.

The thing is now that even to access the meagre site you not only need your email and password, but you also have a quiz on some of the letter in your 'memorable word' .

And now even that is not enough - you need to download an app on your smartphone (if you have one, many still do not) as an even greater layer of security.

Remember all this is for a site that is no good in the first place anyway.

I am now invited to sign up to the 'NHS login' as a secure way to access 'Patient Access'.

But due to the uselessness of the Patient Access, I simply will not bother.

I wonder how much all this malarkey has cost.

And instead of making the whole process easier for older people (as well as the technophobes) to access it continues to simply get more and more complicated.

Many other services that are available online, like signing into pension sites, my credit card provider etc, send a six digit temporary two factor authorisation pin to my mobile phone via text message and this is considered good enough security for them.

Please National Health Service – it is about time you came up with a workable website service that is easy for us all to use.

Chris Smith, Horsehay

Send us your letters for publication to [email protected]

Letters to the editor must include the writer’s name and address and will only be published anonymously in exceptional circumstances. The editor reserves the right to condense or amend letters.