Ed: This is the last ‘Letters’ column before Polling Day. It is short, not least because most of you have been out campaigning and thus had no time to write. Let me thank you all here for what you’ve done, irrespective of the parties you have campaigned for. As always, a campaign is down to us foot soldiers, so if your candidate hasn’t yet thanked you, regardless of the outcome, I do so here on behalf of all of us!
The three letters we publish below touch upon the major issues of the GE, although one of them has been sidelined in the MSM even though there was ample time to address it.
It is disturbing though that we’ll only learn on Friday how large the percentage of postal votes will be this time round. We know postal voting is open to massive fraud, we also know that these frauds are only investigated ‘after the event’, i.e. when an MP has been elected and has parked his backside on those green benches. In any case, this should give politicians food for thought: do their stunts really matter? Do these unspeakably dreary TV debates have any effect, except to make some wannabe TV ‘pundits’ get a star in their CV and a rise in their earnings?
Tomorrow then it’s for us to have our say. I’m sure the last-minute shenanigans of Johnson or Corbyn won’t change our vote. But going to the polling stations is vital! Turn-out really matters. So – don’t stay at home, no matter the weather!
~~~ OOO ~~~
Sir,
My mother is 5 months short of her 100th birthday and has mostly managed to live in her own flat. She is, unsurprisingly, a little unsteady on her feet and recently had a fall. The hospital diagnosed anaemia.
There’s a case meeting tomorrow and there is talk of sending her home with a care package. Last time the hospital did this – that was also just before Christmas – she was blue-lighted back to hospital in less than a day.
Until NHS and care responsibilities are merged then cases like hers will always prove contentious, with the local authority and the NHS trying to save money by making short term decisions and dumping responsibility onto each other and onto increasingly desperate families.
One hundred years old and hurried out of hospital to save money. What a state we are in.
Respectfully, (author known to the editor)
~~~ OOO ~~~
Sir
Sir John Major fought to keep the UK out of the flawed Eurozone, with a Maastricht opt out.
So isn’t it bizarre that, while all EU members are expected to join the Euro over the next few years, he has campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU?
The so called opt out means little because Article 5(3) of the Lisbon Treaty says that the “Union shall Act ……. if a proposed action CANNOT BE SUFFICIENTLY ACHIEVED BY MEMBER STATES……
Since U.K. MEPs comprise only about 10% of the total and self amending Treaty Change is in place, you don’t have to be a lawyer to see the high risk of the UK being dragged into the Eurozone, despite the “opt out.
WHY didn’t Sir John think of that, before he campaigned to remain in the EU?
Respectfully, Mr King
~~~ OOO ~~~
Sir
Ambrose Evans Pritchard tells us (DT Business 28th Nov) that “green technology has already won the battle that matters” , ie against the cost of coal, because of the continued fall in the cost per kWh for solar and wind power. He might equally have argued that the cost per kWh for nuclear electricity is similar to that for hydroelectric power, ignoring relative differences in capital cost.
But he has missed the fact that solar and wind capacity has to be backed up by energy storage, standby power, plus smart grid control systems, to maintain supplies when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing – the capital cost of which cannot be ignored, when making such comparisons.
Indeed, to compare the cost of solar and wind, with the 24 x 7 conventional grid, you have to add the cost of back-up systems to turn an intermittent power source into a 24 x 7 one. We will know when true cost parity has been reached, when the owners of mainland domestic installations (with batteries) disconnect themselves from the grid, thereby saving the connection charge of well over £100 pa. Have any of your readers done that, or do they know anyone who has?
Respectfully, Roger Arthur
Mr “X” I sympathise with you aged mother`s plight in facing the apparently inhuman Christmas (and also at other times) “clear out policy”.
I am not sure up and down the country all hospitals apply the same criteria when assessing their bed space, although the older you are the more likely you may be to get a raw deal.
I can only comment personally in one instance.
On Christmas Eve I had returned to hospital A & E after catching an infection following a kidney operation a few weeks before, I had seen the doctor who examined me and did tests about 11.30am, eventually about 2.30 he hadn`t received the results and said go and sit in the restaurant and I`ll send somebody for you We expected to receive a prescription for anti – biotics.
At about 3.30pm a Junior Doctor appeared by my side said
“Are you Mr.Turner, I have come to tell you we have managed to find a bed for you” apparently I was in too bad a condition for them to let me go home.
#I woke up on Christmas morning to the skirl of a piper standing by my bed (I was next to the ward entrance) and discovered a present by my pillow presented by the staff. A present and a personal piper too the NHS is truly wonderful
As I say you and your mother have all my sympathy, I know they don`t get it right all the time, but “my hospital” certainly looked out for me – but I don`t know whether they had to “clear” somebody out to enable them to find me a bed, or whether they are one of the hospitals that manage to find themselves some slack in the bed availability system
Anyway no complaints only compliments from a 79 year old man.
Hi Roger Arthur. Yes, A E Pritchard must have been on another planet recently when London and large areas of the South suffered a total power blackout. We should use any means we can to ensure UK (or GB) has the power it needs 24/7. We should aim for self sufficiency in energy and only worry whether it is renewable, green, or environmentally friendly as far as it suits us.
GB has the great advantage of being an island. Tidal power could provide us with oodles of totally dependable electricity, with surpluses used to electrolyse water for oodles of hydrogen. Those who favor nuclear should IMO be made to keep their share of the waste at home, in a labelled container on the mantelpiece.
John Major. Well it’s news to me that he did anything useful at Maastricht. Well ok we have learned since how useless any opt out is. Confession here, I’ve forgotten which Traitor it was signed the Lisbon Treaty. I do remember that was originally truthfully called a Constitution and the name changed only after 2 or more countries had refused after umpteen referendums to give the ‘right’ answer. Then because the name was changed our government saw no need to risk a referendum!
I agree Mr King why didn’t he think of that? Could be that they ALL work on the assumption that we the voters are ignorant peasants with a very limited memory span.
Pauline, it was Gordon Brown (of pig ignorant woman fame ` memory going can`t remember the precise word he called her)
Regarding what people can be expected to remember os a very dodgey thing, for instance a chap I was speaking to the other day and mentioned the word apparachick, not only had he never heard that word, but when I told him it probably applied to the sort of person that went round applying Stalin “law” for the communists, he asked me what a Communist was.
Honestly I was flabbergasted, here was a 69 year old man, but on reflection I was born in 1935 I am 15 years older than him, so when I was 31 he was only 16, so my history concept was bound to be different from his and also perhaps he never had modern history of WW2 at school, he had heard of Stalin in the war, but was aware of nothing else other than he was said to be a very bad man. You have also to remember there were families who never took a newspaper other than perhaps the Racing I don`t think current affairs was covered in schools.
I`m not going to go on any more, but you probably remember some of my comments where I have pointed out that probably the mass of population don`t know or remember why they voted to leave, we have been very remiss in not remaking the case and I`m afraid we are going to suffer for it, even if Boris wins, I don`t think there will be sufficient pressure to ensure he abandons Mrs May`s Deal and goes for a COMPLETE/PROPER/HARD/COMPREHENSIVE………………Brexit
Hi Roger. It’s very odd how different we all are. I had not even wondered what apparachick meant. I suppose I assumed a meaning from it’s use each time.
At my girls only, so called grammar school current affairs, as in government and politics was strictly forbidden. Though we did have something, name forgotten, where I learned to see through and mistrust advertising.
It was a strange mixture of old and new schooling at the time. Grammar in the sense of all teachers had to be Graduates, I think but NOT fee paying. Comprehensive had already started in Surrey and that was co – ed. Probably why my mother insisted on sending me the other way! Thanks for reminding me re Gordon Brown and the Lisbon Treaty.
It’s not just who could afford newspapers and what was discussed where though is it. Even Modern History has been warped and twisted in a relatively short time. Those that have been interested to study events throughout the 20th Century have been subjected to different interpretations from one generation to another.
How many people have heard of Winston Churchill warning us of an iron curtain coming down across Europe, after his meeting with Stalin at end WW2. The phrase stuck, but many young people now have totally forgotten about the USSR – one reason why they think the EU represents a brave new world.
I only ‘half’ disagree with you about the Boris WA. It is certainly NOT Brexit. I’m probably boring you with repetition now – I never remember names. It is only the first stage of withdrawal. I DO agree that he MUST be forced from ‘our side’ to tell the EU to get lost when they impose their ‘red lines’ for the 2nd stage.
Apparently EU have said today that they want a large Boris Majority from this Election. THEY think that will cause him to give way to a SOFT Brexit! Sounds to me like ‘Europe’s’ psychology has drifted away from ours. Surely it would work the other way.
Ah, I forgot to say. I agree, ‘we’ have not done enough to spell out all the reasons why we voted to leave.
Ah ha. I’m first to comment. (I’ll put the knitting aside Biscotte). The first letter. Now that sounds like a good idea. Put ‘Care’ and ‘Health’ (NHS) together, under the same umbrella so to speak. Isn’t ‘Care in the Community’ the responsibilty of the County Council at the moment? Whatever, ‘they’ are NOT DOING THEIR JOB.
Somebody shouted loudly that Keeping people in their own homes was the best policy for everybody. Whoever said that have failed abysmally to ‘follow through’. I’m quite frightened at times of falling, or some other problem striking suddenly. When I did have a warden system it proved useless – all they were able to do was call an ambulance. To get any sort of help in my own home now would cost an arm and a leg and would NOT provide any useful help.
Roger Arthur,
Yes, I did it for my boat. I did have an advantage, An electronics, Electric, Engineering STEM background including directorships etc of several market leading electronics manufacturing with firms many high tech many world chang developments. Now, Remember, Its a SECRET BALLOT, Do not tell anybody how you will vote., I’ve got that out the way.
I had a start of course , much of the essential electricityneeded for runninng a yaght is already electronic eg tiny wattages and voltages and direct. And even the heavier demands such as lighting We were 60 years ahead of of the herd..
So stop using electricity for the wrong thins such as cooking or heating. The electricity the boat took was minute and easily supplied by a home made toy windmill, and a bit of a scrap solar panel wirth a 6V prewar motor bike battery. The cost of electricity in your house both Manufacture, commissioning, Distribution and Storage is quite simply Tax and bribes. And while I’m at it .
While I’m at it.
Nuclear power stations :– The technology, Engineering and Knowledge to build ’em is out there in men over 60. As a named and specified supplier to Consultants, or Main Contractors and so on. The Knowlrdge is there and ignored . It’s qute funny really, That we are buying a £13.1Bn Nuke Power Station from a bunch of French and Chinamen . It’s exactly the same as us selling TSR2 , Lightnings, Sea King helicopters, etc, and then buying them back. I have been witness to this peculiarity in the50, 60s and 70s. Where under civil Service pressure A World leader developed and made a few product. Sold em to foriegn governments and companies. Each product was rejigged for mass markets and sold back to us. Then We bought them back. I was at one stage ordered to look after a “commission ” of 13 Chinamen and show themanything they were interesed in ( In the evening it transpired what they wanted to see was Strippers.)
That’s politics and their inventions of tax, loyalty, honour etc etc all dishonored and defiled and destroyed.
Also was it the Derwent Jet engine that the Labour party handed over to the Russians for nothing and we ended up with MIGs that chased the pants off the Yanks in Korea.
Fair comments Viv. Personally I have made up my mind to vote Tory. – I’m not overjoyed about it, but for what I want it gives me about a 50% chance of a half decent result. ….. This election is, to my mind, thoroughly disgraceful ! – We see Parties not being in any way clear in their intentions, and leaders that are utter rubbish. – A give-away contest that cannot be costed, and one leader who is openly friendly with those who wish this Nation harm ! ….. I am a floating voter with no Party allegiance, and I have chuckled at the died-in-the-wool Party Property People, who have tried to make out that their Party is wonderful ! ….. Guess we will all know which idiots have won on Friday of this week !
Re. renewable energy.
We need more tidal power investment.
I agree with you Harry, I cannot understand why the Cardiff Bay scheme was abandoned, but I would guess political and that the money is being held back for something else politically required in somebody else`s back yard.
The problem Tidal power could too easily be under the management of locals, and short cuts the resources-Extraction-Distribution- Redistribution( grid)-The User Tax and Bribe system invented by politics to provide another silly industry to spurious employment and tax. and makes us less competitive,less wealthy , and gives wealth to the wrong people and irritation to us all.Also the EU wants it, and can’t get it.
But you are correct . We do.
It is actually quite amazing how much Politics gives away to EU on a minute by minute basis. Without us it’ll drop straight into bankruptcy . And, No amount of false wealth creation can stop it.. And our politics has no idea. None..
Has nobody read any Ayn Rand. That might help.Not for tender marxists..
Also, Tidal power is totally on time. As Canute found out. to the second. We cannot have that . The EU wants it.. It’s too easy. Just like a hundred ( Or maybe thousands ) other schemes just dismissed by Politics or Civil Service subserviance to EU.We are not allowed to cancell HS2 either.
Another jaw ( excuse – see Poland) of the pincer