Brenda’s right: web shopping isn’t easy, it’s a long ordeal

I ENJOYED Brenda Power’s piece on the headaches of internet shopping (Mail, yesterday).

I, too, have more or less given up on it. Yes, it seems handy to order from your living room with just a few clicks, but then there’s the sustained worry of waiting weeks for the parcel to turn up, missing couriers, etc.

I have concluded that it’s a lot easier to go to a bricks-and-mortar shop, buy on the spot and remove all of that stress.

It’s also nice to be supporting local jobs and the home economy. MARGARET DOLAN,

Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Martin’s failure

I NOTE Brenda Power’s praise for Deputy Micheál Martin’s decision to support the Government for a further year ‘in the national interest’ (Mail, Saturday).

I think she is being generous here in this assertion in light of his support for the abortion Bill, a subject on which he performed a complete U-turn.

Surely it was equally in ‘the national interest’ to protect and support the most vulnerable and helpless of all, babies in the womb. Instead he decided, in defiance of his party, to do a solo run and campaign for abortion and ruthlessly ensure that those of his party who did not subscribe to his ‘conversion’ were sidelined.

I cannot see how ‘basic decency and integrity’ are served by wholeheartedly supporting the most liberal abortion regime in the world. Surely the contradiction is obvious: basic decency and integrity would ensure that the defenceless baby in the womb is protected, not disposed of for any reason and none up to 12 weeks of pregnancy and then up to birth if it is diagnosed as being handicapped. Survival of the fittest?

Indeed, Deputy Martin’s legacy will be defined most definitely by his destruction of Fianna Fáil, which is such a shame for those who vainly tried to ensure its adherence to its principles. MARY STEWART,

Donegal town.

UnChristian tradition?

I NOTICE more and more churches advertising Christmas tree festivals or exhibitions with a range of decorated trees on display in their sanctuaries.

What is the significance of the trees that they are displaying in relation to the doctrine of their faith, as non-Christians, commercial businesses and even atheists also follow the same custom of putting up decorated trees?

The only verse I could find in the Bible concerning decorated trees was a section in Jeremiah 10:2-5 where God denounces the practice as futile: ‘Thus saith the Lord. “Do not follow the way of the Gentiles [pagans]... for the customs of the people are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails so that it will not topple”.’

This bears a very close resemblance to the current practice of decorating trees for Christmas, but here we can see such practices are very clearly pre-Christian and condemned by God.

How can the churches reconcile this practice in their buildings today? I wonder would Jesus condone this practice? Just food for thought for the Christmas Day conversation... COLIN NEVIN. Bangor, Co. Down.

Shocked by Branson

I WAS horrified to hear Richard Branson bragging about his spaceship nearing the point where there could be tourist trips into space.

What a terrible waste of millions of euros when so many deserving causes could benefit from this money.

The carbon footprint for his ego trip must be colossal.

Please can elite billionaires like Branson, who don’t seem to know what to do with their money, put their talents and funds to doing something worthwhile that would benefit the whole of mankind?

P.M. WILLIAMS, by email.