So thankful for NHS as it marks 70 years

MY family has been greatly helped over the years by the NHS, including local GPs, University Hospital in Walsgrave, Warwick Hospital and the West Midlands Ambulance Service.

Having been treated in 16 hospitals in six different countries, I have much with which to compare the NHS.

I was one of the councillors who attended the Celebration Service for 70 years of the NHS at Coventry Cathedral on Thursday, July 5.

The Reverend Ricarda Witcombe, Chaplain at the George Elliot Hospital Trust, and herself a very experienced nurse, gave a moving address, stressing the constant hard work and dedication of staff across the whole range of jobs.

There will always be political comment of different kinds, but my wife and I wish to say to them all a simple many thanks. Cllr David Skinner (Con) Westwood ward

Brexit sucks out energy

I CAN’T remember this country ever being run by such clueless, backstabbing bunch. As we face the most serious peace time challenge of our lifetime, they offer no leadership ideas, policies, solutions, credibility or belief other than surviving for survival’s sake. All energy has been sucked out of the government by Brexit and replaced with fear, and the right of May’s party if she goes against their hardline wishes.

Externally, Donald Trump walks all over us even refusing to give May a formal meeting at G7 summit. While Russia ignores us, Europe is laughing. And the wiser world we’re supposed to be forging trade deals with is thanking Liam Fox for taking them out to dinner before shrugging and getting on with their lives. Then there’s Boris Johnson knifing his leader in the back as he tells his Thatcherite fanbase the country is better off led by Trump. Andy McDonald Tile Hill

We need toilets, not art schemes

ALAN Denyer, so-called leading Coventry developer, states the council should “show some imagination” by opening up the Precinct’s “long lost loos” as a creative space (Jul 7).

Surely it would make much more sense to reopen them as muchneeded toilets instead of some art scheme. Martyn Lomas Omar Road

JULY 10, 1967: Members of Coventry, Nuneaton and Banbury combined Sea Cadet Band rehearse on the playing fields at Bishop Ullathorne Grammar School.

The entrance to both toilets, during the construction of the Upper Precinct