Your Letters: December 21

Thank goodness for the Shropshire countryside to remind Uncle Norbert and I that the UK is well worth living in, despite the best efforts so far of the Labour Government. I thought Labour wanted to ban excessive hot air, not add to it.

Being in Opposition was easy, vote for us and will right all the wrongs of the past. Being in Government is difficult, especially when a good chunk of the Labour Party would much rather fix the problems of Gaza rather than get their hands dirty dealing with UK problems.

Uncle Norbert and I agree that if you want to fix public services, then we will have to pay for it through higher taxes and maybe expect the public sector sickness absence to drop from six per cent a year.

If you want to stop illegal immigration then for a start withdraw from the European Court Of Human Rights. The UK has enough laws to protect us. For new legal immigrants there should be no state aid for 10 years and any medical costs should be charged for those 10 years.

While many worry about prison overcrowding many of us would say it serves them right, but this should not mean danger or over work for prison officers. 

The justice system finds it very hard to come to terms that there are many who see crime as a career and imprisonment as the odd inconvenience for them while their dependants are looked after by the State. 

These regular offenders cost the State money whether they are in or out of prison, but at least when in prison you have a better idea of the costs. If three offences meant life in prison in the West Falklands would that deter?

On the plus side its been much calmer and drier lately.

Peter Steggles, Rushbury

BLAME GAME ON FLOOD DAMAGE

Reading that recent floods have damaged properties and their contents in North Shropshire it seems that the ‘blame game has started’. Government and local council actions could do more to alleviate flood damage but there is not a short-term simple solution.

Clearing ditches, dykes, gutters, channels and culverts may help. Employing a riparian consultant to produce a cohesive flood resilience plan may look good on paper but with Storms Emptybucket, Flashflood and Getwet awaiting over the ocean there will be more soggy carpets and submerged settees in the future.

Now if climate change is partly to ‘blame’ for the water damage then I have made my contribution to the warming weather and rising seas. For more than fifty years I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles for pleasure, flown thousands of miles to holiday resorts and cruised the seven seas. Then there is my weekly brunch consisting of Peruvian avocados, pruneaux d'Agen and yogurt served with Champers. So perhaps we are all to blame for the increasing intensity of damaging storms; so, what parts of ‘our carbon footprint’ are all prepared to forgo for the sake of the planet?

Roger Norton, Shrewsbury

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