If the Tories win, oil wells will ruin our countryside
IF THE Tories are re- elected, you’ll need no more planning permission to drill an oil well than to put up a conservatory or shed.
The Conservative manifesto proposes to make any ‘ nonfracking’ drilling for oil and gas ‘a permitted development’ — one of those minor works you don’t need to bother the planners about.
This would fire the gun that would pepper the Weald of Sussex and Surrey with oil wells.
‘Non-fracking’ covers any oil or gas prospecting that does not fall under the new definition of fracking. In the 2015 Infrastructure Act, fracking was redefined by an oil and gas-friendly government according to the amount of water used.
It means 44 per cent of the thousands of wells that have been fracked in the U.S. would not be counted under this definition! None of the UK’s fracking regulations and safeguards would apply.
‘Not fracking’ could mean drilling in protected areas, such as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. KATHRYN McWHIRTER,
Balcombe, W. Sussex.
Nothing is free
‘FREE’ is the most alarming word in this election campaign.
Free childcare, free university tuition, free care for the elderly. The problem with this, of course, is that it is not free.
The money for all these Labour/ SNP/Plaid Cymru/Lib Dem gifts will have to come from taxpayers.
The wealthy will be able to find ingenious ways to minimise their tax burden. The victims of this monetary largesse will be hardworking families who can’t avoid subsidising all these freebies. ST JOHN COX, Taunton, Somerset.
Generation Smug
I AM of the generation that plundered. We had free higher education, local authority grants, unemployment benefits with no questions asked, inflation-proof final salaries, pensions, mortgage interest relief, astronomical house price rises, cheap shares in the nation’s utilities, free dentistry, school meals and free milk.
We created and proliferated plastic rubbish, depleted the ozone layer and poured untreated sewage into the sea.
We are about to elect a Government that is going to continue to feather the old birds’ nests with inflation-proof state pensions, free TV licences, free prescriptions and free bus passes.
We will then remove ourselves from the one institution that will allow the young to work, travel and trade freely throughout Europe, one that has helped maintain peace and security in Western Europe for 60 years.
I appeal to youngsters to become engaged in their future. Their parents and grandparents have stopped caring.
PETER CADE, Torpoint, Cornwall.
Wasteful Labour
WHEN I worked for one of the largest print suppliers to government departments, we were delighted when Labour was in power because it spent money as if it was going out of fashion.
We took one order for £80,000 worth of booklets, were paid in seven days and then printed them all. For six months I kept asking for a delivery address before I had a call saying: ‘Scrap the lot.’
MICHAEL CARR, Ashford, Kent.
Too little, too late
HOW sorry I feel for Jan Lane, who struggled to get any help for her autistic son (Femail).
When my wife was diagnosed with dementia, I could manage to look after her. But once the illness took hold, I phoned the NHS, my GP and every agency I could think of to ask for help with washing, dressing or just getting her out of bed. I was ignored for two years.
The week following her funeral, I had a call saying they had a note to make an appointment to assess my wife for assistance.
JOHN M. SEAL, Oxford.
Watch the detectives
WHEN I joined the Metropolitan Police, you needed to spend two years on the beat before you could become a CID officer.
There was no shortage of recruits then. Today, instead of finding out why uniform officers do not want to join CID, police chiefs, pressured
Communist nightmare
IT’S been said Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and their cronies want to take us back to the days of communism in Europe.
We visited a number of former communist countries shortly after the sea change to freedom.
There were still many vestiges of the sort of life the people had been forced to lead. In Prague, the restaurants were bare and soulless. In Kracow, we were taken on a communist tour of blocks of dreary flats.
We have recently returned to Krakow, Warsaw and Prague, which have been revolutionised beyond belief. The furtive, suspicious and downtrodden inhabitants are relishing their longed-for release from that political system.
Yet in Britain, the Communist Party has stated: ‘A Labour victory would be an essential first step toward the dream of a Left-led government.’ Dream? More like a nightmare. JOHN & ELEANOR HINDBURN,
Preston, Lancs.
Isolated Britain
PRESIDENT Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change is not a major foreign policy break with every other nation on Earth. The agreement is not worth the paper it’s written on.
Far from securing a reduction in global CO2 emissions, it’s a blank cheque that allows emerging nations to increase their emissions in pursuit of economic growth.
With billions worldwide still without electricity, who can blame them for producing that vital commodity at the lowest cost?
The only country out of step is not the U.S., but Britain.
Parliament voted for the Climate Change Act, so we are closing down our last coal plants, relying instead on undependable, subsidised wind turbines, together with the new Hinkley C nuclear plant, which might be operational in a decade and produce power costing three times our current prices.
We will have the most expensive and irregular supply of electricity of any advanced economy.
J. PHELAN, Louth, Lincs.
Sweet dreams
IT’S reported many women need wine to help them sleep (Mail).
When my husband was in the Navy, I had two small children to look after by myself and the church bells rang throughout the night, keeping me awake.
My doctor suggested I went to bed with a mug of hot milk — topped up with a large dollop of whisky. I slept like a dream. S. HARRIES, Angmering, W. Sussex.