Letters: April 30, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters. Please note, the Adver will not be printing letters on local political subjects until after the elections in May.

Services treated poorly

I HAVE just sent in my response to the consultation on libraries.

This is what I said: “The other day, in Cambridge (a city, surprisingly, smaller than Swindon) I heard someone telling a young mother about the weekly ‘learn to read’ sessions at the local library.”

I thought it was a good illustration of the value libraries have, over and above the lending of books and the various online services they currently have.

For my whole career as a local GP I have been acutely aware of how difficult it is for deprived families to access opportunities to learn and improve their lot.

The above example is but one of many that I see being eroded, all in the name of “necessity to save money”.

I am appalled that things have come to such a pass that services – public services which councils have always provided – are being withdrawn, to the particular disadvantage of the already disadvantaged.

I would like to register my strong objection to this proposal.

It is almost beyond belief that the council is withdrawing so much in the way of services.

In the case of Children’s Centres it is certainly – proof already given – doing harm, and is probably doing so with reducing library provision.

Yet the Conservatives are on record as being proud about freezing council tax over several previous years. What are things coming to?

DR C N BARRY

The Bramptons, Swindon

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Control of EU destiny

BRITAIN Stronger In Europe claim that President Barack Obama’s support for the UK remaining in the EU has strengthened their campaign.

To me and, I suspect, much of the world our Prime Minister David Cameron has portrayed himself as a lackey for the Brussels bureaucrats and the USA administration.

The USA’s prime concern is to protect American interests. Only the naive would believe otherwise.

When President Obama ended his visit to the UK his next stop was Germany. On the eve of this next visit there were demonstrations in Germany against the Transatlantic Trade And Investment Partnership.

This is a series of trade negotiations being carried out, mostly in secret, between the EU and USA. TTIP is about reducing the regulatory barriers to trade such as food safety law, environmental legislation, banking regulations and sovereign powers of individual nations.

One of the main aims is to open up Europe’s public health (including the NHS), education and water services to USA companies.

In a report last October, the Independent newspaper said: “The EU has admitted that TTIP will probably cause unemployment as jobs switch to the USA, where labour standards and trade union rights are lower.”

TTIP aims to introduce Investor-State Dispute Settlements, which allow companies to sue governments if those governments’ policies cause loss of profits.

This means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments.

United Nations data has shown that USA companies have made billions of dollars by suing other governments nearly 130 times in the past 15 years under similar free-trade agreements.

The Remain campaign are keeping quiet about TTIP and ISDS, so I urge anyone who is interested in making an informed decision on the EU referendum to check them out.

The facts continue to convince me we need to regain our sovereignty and take control of our own destiny.

The sooner we leave the EU the better.

K KANE

Wharf Road, Wroughton

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Democratic deficit

THERE have been two eloquent letters recently, one from K Kane who, quite rightly, points out that Mike Spry is wrong and both Sweden and Denmark are members of the EU.

I think that Mike made a slip of the keyboard and meant to write Switzerland and Norway.

Both of them are outside the EU but having to pay to trade within the EU and to obey EU rules without any say in the making of them.

He is also correct in saying the EU has a democratic deficit, but this should be addressed from within as there would be a bigger deficit in our case if we left but still had to obey the EU rules, as do the two countries mentioned above.

While criticising the democracy deficit in the EU let’s not forget the greater one in this country which we are quite happy to carry on with.

The EU has a democratically elected Parliament, a council of ministers, made up of ministers from each democratically elected European Government and an appointed commission.

The UK has one democratically elected House of Parliament, one appointed House of Parliament and a hereditary head of state.

Bill Williams says that it is generally accepted by those who study American History that President Obama is at the bottom end of the scale when it comes to success.

Once again he gives no source, so we can give no credence to this statement.

However, I do agree that US Presidents should keep their noses out of our business, even if they happen to agree with my view.

It is wrong, though, to equate the UK with the USA in the matter of sovereignty.

It would be more correct to equate the UK with one of the American states, say Texas, that gives up some sovereignty to be a member of the USA, as we give up some sovereignty to be members of the EU.

STEPHEN THOMPSON

Norman Road, Swindon

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Questionable priorities

AFTER reading Barrie Hudson’s excellent and common sense article in the Adver on April 26 about Swindon’s homeless, may I agree and add to his conclusions.

You tend to sympathise with cases like that, and then you forget and get on with your daily life.

I am well known for walking my little Westie around Covingham every day.

For the last month, a chap has been lying in a sleeping bag, outside the chip shop in Covingham Square near the Co-op cash machine. Almost every day.

Many of these poor souls lie close to a cash machine, for obvious reasons.

I am surmising he is homeless as he covers himself in blankets.

In the evenings, even at this time of year, I pass him lying there. I am glad to get home to my centrally heated abode.

Every time I get in I feel sorry for that poor chap. I do not know his problem, drink, drugs, a broken marriage. Perhaps just bad luck.

I do my bit for charity, as most of us do. But we watch these politicians grandstanding and squandering our money away, to the European Disunion, on foreign aid, on countless jobs for the boys in useless quangos and housing illegal immigrants.

Money we are borrowing that future generations will have to pay back.

You can jump out of the back of a lorry and find yourself with free bed and breakfast and evening meal and get free legal aid, when you are not even a British citizen, and have no right to be here.

Meanwhile, there are people with families waiting on Swindon’s social housing list for years.

In towns and cities all over Britain we have thousands of our fellow citizens, many ex-servicemen who put their lives on the line for this country, sleeping in the streets.

Should they not have priority over illegal immigrants crossing Europe and chancing their hand at milking our system at tax payers’ expense, or am I missing something?

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

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Health service support

THE argument made by many Brexit campaigners that turning our backs on Europe is the only way to save the NHS is utterly ridiculous.

The notion that we haven’t had a good NHS since 1973 is absurd and frankly it is unbelievable that those leading the Vote Leave camp who are today pretending to champion the NHS, have for long been strong supporters of a carved-up and privatised US-style system.

Properly funding the NHS hangs not on our membership of the EU but on having a strong economy and a government that is willing to allocate the necessary resources.

The economic shock of leaving Europe would seriously reduce the amount of overall funding available for our health service.

But that is only half the story. Being a part of the EU gives us unmatched access to the free movement of highly qualified doctors, nurses and health professionals, as well as resources and funding for cutting-edge research.

To throw this away on June 23 and constrain NHS funding for years to come would be a huge error and I urge people to look beyond the empty promises of the Out camp.

ALEX HEGENBARTH

Head of Britain Stronger In Europe

Swindon

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Putting patients first

A QUICK web search suggests that Geoffrey Heaford is quite right to assume that doctors in the UK no longer adhere to the Hippocratic Oath.

Perhaps this is just as well, since in its original form, it bans “use of the knife”, among other things.

However, the guiding principle of putting the patients’ interest first is reflected in the GMC guidelines.

I applaud the junior doctors for their efforts to uphold this principle in the face of the government’s damaging reforms.

Meanwhile, you could be forgiven for thinking that many politicians adhere faithfully to the “hypocritic” oath.

HOWARD MARCH

Tudor Crescent, Swindon

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Keep our town clean

WHEN I am coming home from my shift in the early hours of the morning in Victoria Road there is always rowdiness, alcoholic-fuelled people who come out of the lap dancing clubs along that area.

When you walk along there in the morning it’s absolutely disgusting, with vomit and kebab contents scattered everywhere.

This does not look attractive at all for people that come from out of town.

We want our town looking clean, not shabby.

S HARRIS

Drove Road, Swindon