LETTERS

Vocation we must value

It has been reported that nurses are leaving the profession.

Why? Because they feel undervalued, with the lack of a decent pay increase and long shifts (12hour sessions are really draining and can lead to errors).

some are leaving the Nhs and going to agencies where they can earn more for doing the same job, as well as being able to choose hours that suit them.

I do blame the constantly changing targets, shift patterns and training schemes brought in and implemented by successive governments, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and hospital trusts.

Nursing used to be a vocation, and training used to take place in schools of nursing attached to hospitals. this has all but disappeared and now it has become a degree course.

You can teach theory, but you need a special type of person to understand and care for people who are sick, confused and frightened.

student or pupil nurses now also have to pay for their training. this was not the case years ago.

the Government must get its act together to resolve the shortage of people joining an honourable profession. I am proud that I undertook my nursing training in the Royal army Medical Corps in the sixties. I did not need a degree to train as a stateenrolled nurse.

a lot is also said about the Nhs being underfunded. It is not.

Money is wasted by using inefficient systems and unnecessary tests. senior management in Nhs trusts should not have excessive salaries or be rewarded just for doing their job (or, often, failing to).

the Government should stop setting unrealistic targets that basically mean nothing.

We also need a training scheme that does not require students to do a university degree course that some will find intimidating.

at the end of the day, the proof of quality care and good practices is the health of the nation.

as I was taught: prevention is better than cure. Brian Jenkin, Swadlincote, Derbys.

Disastrous omission

I NotICed the wording on my travel insurance renewal form had altered, so I rang the company for an explanation.

the young man who answered my call told me in great detail that I was still covered for any delays caused by natural disaster, earthquake, cosmic rays, hurricane, volcanic eruption, ash cloud, lightning strike, civil unrest, tsunamis, war and invasion, foreign enemies, extraordinary natural phenomena, landslide, tropical cyclonic storms, falling objects from space, meteorites, extraordinary atmospheric, meteorological, seismic and geological phenomena.

I asked: ‘ are we covered if our bus breaks down on the way to the airport?’

he replied: ‘oh no, sir, you are not covered for that.’

Steven thorpe, Whitwell, notts.

Home truths

RIChaRd LoWeth ( Letters) rightly says that the Government is focusing on the 3.2 million eU citizens living in the UK and the 1.2 million UK citizens living in the eU.

however, he goes on to say that the Government is not considering a much smaller but equally ‘ threatened’ group of noneU spouses and other immediate family members whom he fears will not, under government proposals, be granted residency rights in the UK.

Mr Loweth says that he and his Nigerian wife live in France.

Regardless of the duration, he has abandoned the UK to live in France for his own benefit. Presumably, he has paid tax and most certainly will have paid Vat to the French government, and possibly not paid anything into the running of UK services. What makes this even worse is that Mr Loweth is planning to return to the UK on retirement to put his feet up and to use these services free of charge.

But while he will be able to do so, he fears that his Nigerian wife will not be able to join him in the UK because his retirement income will not be sufficient to meet the immigration criterion.

Like many others are doing, including the Government, Mr Loweth fails to consider the huge group of UK citizens living in the UK who have remained domiciled to support (and some to protect) the UK, and its economy, pay taxes to the UK government and otherwise support the UK and its services.

For all that, we must also bear the burden of eU and other foreign immigration . . . and, if Mr Loweth gets his way, the return of the ‘prodigal sons’ and their hangerson.

UK citizens domiciled in the UK should be given the greatest consideration in the Brexit negotiations. the UK ‘nanny state’ should put foreigners and those who abandoned the UK well down the pecking order.

roBert J. evanS, Sheldon, Birmingham. oF CoURse the negotiations concerning the terms on which we shall leave the european Union only ‘focus’ on the rights of eU citizens remaining in the UK and the corresponding rights of UK citizens remaining within the eU after we cease to be members of it.

they have nothing to do with Richard Loweth’s problem.

even if we were to grant noneU spouses of eU citizens settled status rights, where both have lived in the UK for five years, how would this assist his dilemma?

his problem, as far as I can see, has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we are members of the eU nor the terms upon which we shall leave the eU but is a consequence of the UK’s immigration policy, i.e. that the UK citizen has to demonstrate that he/ she has sufficient means to support said spouse.

this rule applies to all UK citizens wishing to bring a foreign spouse into the UK irrespective of where they have been living previously. Mrs Yvonne BaileY,

Stoneleigh, Surrey.

Cut-glass baddies

IN a tribute to the late Barry Norman, his friend Ray Connolly (Mail) didn’t mention something I’ve always admired about Barry: he was the first film critic to publicly cite hollywood’s ongoing anglophobia.

Barry pointed out that the vast majority of screen villains have all had english accents.

It’s the hollywood Left’s stock propaganda smear, and used so many times that moviegoers in the Usa now immediately identify screen villains by their english accents.

thanks to unbiased american historians, archive documents discovered only a few years ago clearly reveal that during the 1930s (hollywood’s golden era ) anglophobia was so bad that there was even a secret U.s. military plan drawn up, called operation Red, designed to attack Canada and ‘drive the British out of North america’.

No wonder Winston Churchill was much relieved when the Japanese attacked Pearl harbour and dragged the Usa, reluctantly and belatedly, into World War II.

thanks, Barry, for being a great englishman, too. Maurice Bligh, Sittingbourne, kent.

C4’s privileged poseurs

I aM amazed there has been surprise at the views expressed by Jon ‘f*** the tories’ snow, as one only has to watch Channel 4 News to see a blatantly Leftwing broadcaster.

Not surprisingly all of the arrogant, pompous and rude journalists of Channel 4 News have an oxbridge background and/or attended elite

schools, starting with news editor Ben de Pear (Oakham School), Jon Snow (grew up at Ardingly College, where his father was headmaster), Krishnan Guru- Murthy (Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Blackburn), Michael Crick (Manchester Grammar School), Matt Frei (Westminster School), Jonathan Rugman (Bradfield College) and Gary Gibbon ( John Lyon School).

They profess to be antiEstablishment but they are the liberal Establishment who have dominated the media for the past 60 years.

Anyone who does not meet with their approval, such as Nigel Farage or Jacob ReesMogg, are subjected to rude and hostile interviews.

They look down on the poor English working class for daring to disagree with them and for objecting to the influx of cheap labour from Eastern Europe. But, of course, like all liberal hypocrites, no Bulgarian or Romanian journalist has taken their highly paid jobs (although the C4 posse may have benefited from pay for plumbers, builders, etc. being driven down).

C4 is nothing but a Left-wing propaganda machine.

JOHN DUNKIN, London W11.

Tricked, not bribed

EDWARD HEATH did not bribe the EU with fishing rights to convince it to allow us to join (Debate). To quote a history on this: ‘The original six Common Market members realised that four countries applying to join the Common Market at that time (Britain, Ireland, Denmark including Greenland, and Norway) would control the richest fishing grounds in the world.

‘The original six therefore drew up Council Regulation 2141/70 giving all Members equal access to all fishing waters, even though the Treaty of Rome gave no authority to do this.

‘This was adopted on the morning of June 30, 1970, a few hours before the applications to join were officially received.’

Sadly, Heath was not strong enough to resist their trickery and bad faith, and was eventually forced to accept it.

It most certainly was not a bribe. R. P. KHAREGAT, Ford, West Sussex.