London still swings

Re: Despairing Over Britain, letter to the editor, April 29. Was this person visiting a different Britain than I did last year? I saw friendly people willing to direct me to the right Tube line even in rush hour. I visited amazing attractions, walked miles, enjoyed conversations in many pubs and shopping in beautiful stores. I visited friends living, working and enjoying life. At no time did I run into any more unhappy people than one would see on Yonge or Bloor streets. I lived in London many years ago and returning last year only saw improvement.

Annice Blair, Pickering, Ont.

Letter-writer Sharon Maclise is hardly on top of things in Britain if she visited there “a few years ago” and “first went (there) in 1976.” As a Brit, I head to London frequently, twice in the last three months. Sure, things have changed, but I didn’t see “streets thick with unfriendly and unhappy people.” Where were you Maclise? Canada today is not the way it was in 1958 when I first came here. Or perhaps Canada’s own “simpletons in wigs” — the justices of the Supreme Court — with their inconsistent decision-making have always been that way. And what about the sleaze surrounding Mike Duffy and the Senate? I lived in Toronto for 20 years and it has certainly gone downhill. And then she decries the “horrors of France.” Where does that leave her grab bag of comments regarding the French, the Brits and Canadians? The whole damn world has changed and there’s not much Maclise in Edmonton can do to remain immune from reality.

Malcolm Bell, Lions Bay, B.C.