Issues that need tackling

CONSIDERING the present state of public services and planning in this country, you would wonder if our politicians live in the real world.

The population and the number of elderly people have substantially increased in recent times. This has not happened overnight, yet our political leaders have failed to act.

We now have a situation whereby our NHS is suffering a serious overload, a care system in total disarray. A crumbling and heavily congested road network. Overcrowded trains. A prison system in meltdown plus a severe shortage of affordable housing. Meanwhile the North-South divide continues to grow.

Cuts have been made in the wrong places such as the prison service and border agency. I also suspect the cut in the number of government quangos has not happened as promised.

The NHS and our care services need to be centrally funded - putting the burden on increasing the Council Tax to pay for care is not the answer. Additional trained doctors, nurses and care workers are needed. Centres of medical excellence need to be increased along with the expansion and retention of A&E services in those hospitals where it has been withdrawn.

PG (by email)

Increased bill, fewer services

I LIVE in the Pothouse Area of Darwen. We have a bus service that runs every two hours Monday to Friday but none on weekends.

There are holes in the roads and the pavements are in a shocking state.

We have to pay an extra £20 per year for our brown bin to be emptied.

The Library only opens four and a half days a week.

The three day market has been closed and the area round the train station (shelter) looks derelict.

We today like many others received a new council tax bill for £5 per month more, so I reckon it’s going to cost us £80 a year for less services.

Name and address supplied

Vera’s singing will live on

MUCH has been said and written regarding Vera Lynn, the forces sweetheart.

The TV programme with her daughter was a delight.

What a memory, with tearful veterans contributing alongside her.

Her songs, singing and diction could teach today’s singers a thing or two.

Paul McCartney’s obvious respect of her (along with the other Beatles at the time) was a joy to see and hear.

My cousin, who reached 100 years old in November last, when asked if she had watched the television programme remarked how sad she was to see Vera looking so old.

We had a good laugh when I reminded her she was 100 years old too.

Age is just a number is it not?

Vera’s singing will live on along with her memories.

It was my cousin’s era too and her memory is brilliant, her hearing perfect, just sight is a problem and body frailty, as with the veterans.

Pam Frankland,

Blackburn

Do we still live in a democracy?

I DO wish that writers to readers’ letters in the Telegraph over recent months would desist from referring to people who voted to stay in the EU at last year’s referendum as remoaners.

It is a huge insult.

Even though I voted to remain, I accept the outcome of the referendum, but I do not accept the fact that the current Prime Minister, for the first few months of her premiership, tried to sideline Parliament from the debate.

It took a Supreme Court ruling to pull Theresa May into line and eventually accept that in British law Parliament is supreme and the ruling and input of Members of Parliament cannot be denied.

Members of Parliament are democratically elected to represent our wishes.

The only way they can fulfill their job is by being in possession of the full facts that Mrs May attempted to withhold from them (and is still attempting to do so).

But when we have a Prime Minister who states that she will not give commentaries on this issue to Members of Parliament then she is rightly rebuked by the highest court in the land and the people of the country who voted to remain.

Do we still live in a democracy?

Harry Perry, Burnley

Peter Gaukroger

Kendal