LETTERS

Deal us out

SALZBURG was the perfect ambush. The EU finally showed its true colours and hatred of the UK. There will never be an agreement between us because the EU can’t afford it.

Should such an agreement be ratified, Greece, Italy and Spain would immediately follow our lead. What amazes me is that the Whitehall experts did not see this coming. We voted to leave the EU, so stop messing about in Brussels because we don’t want a deal of any kind.

Start building the infrastructure needed for an independent nation. It’s time for the political ruling class to wake up, come together and deliver what we voted for. JOHN BOUGHTON, address supplied. THE most stunning part of the EU’s snubbing of the Chequers plan is that Theresa May was so taken aback by their rejection.

She should stun them in return by amending our terms to the WTO or better, then walk away and wait for their response.

It would seem that the EU has yet to learn that 50 per cent of something is better than 100 per cent of nothing.

P. WILSON, Chester. I HAVE seen many prime ministers come and go and I have to say Theresa May might well prove to be one of the best.

Despite being subject to almost constant bullying attacks from MPs of all parties, including her own, she is still ready to deliver a Brexit deal to suit this country.

Her opponents seem not to understand that the Brexit referendum was a split decision, so it follows that the middle course is the one to steer. This will satisfy industry while at the same time taking control of our borders.

LEWIS DUNKLEY, Wigston Fields, Leics. THE lady’s not for turning, Mk 2.

M. NEIL, address supplied. MRS May was sent home from Salzburg with her tail between her legs. She has tried compromise with nations that owe us respect and has been rejected.

Her humiliation is our humiliation. Whatever the temporary hardships of a hard Brexit might be, they are as nothing compared to the suffering and loss our nation endured after 1940 when we took a stand to defend everything that we believe in.

It is time for Mrs May to stand firm, stay true to our heroic past and give us the Brexit we voted for and which she has been entrusted to deliver. ERIC AND SUSAN WASILEWSKI, Rosley, Cumbria.

Silent victims

‘WE ARE letting a whole generation of children down,’ (Mail) admits MP Norman Lamb about county lines, enabling drug racketeers to exploit children.

Why are so many youngsters vulnerable to crime? It is reasonable to claim there is a link between austerity measures and the contracting out of children’s services. There has been a decimation of youth services, after- school clubs and year-round activities for young people in deprived communities.

Many well- established local charities are having to compete for funding against profit- driven providers. Children are silent victims of food, health and housing deprivation. There are fewer places for youngsters to meet in safety or to seek support from qualified and experienced youth workers.

This has led to an increase in the number of children who are isolated, lonely and at risk from harm, abuse and exploitation by predatory adults.

NORMA HORNBY, Warrington, Cheshire. WHAT a wonderful idea to legalise drugs and at one stroke increase tax income and do away with the dealers and gangs (Letters).

After all, it’s not as if international crime gangs are smuggling tobacco and alcohol, is it? You don’t hear HMRC complaining of the billions it loses to such smuggling, do you?

In fact, this is a major problem. A gang in Yorkshire has been sent to prison for smuggling £3.8 million worth of beer. Regulation won’t get rid of the drug dealers or raise tax revenue for the Treasury. RAY MUNRO-CRUMP, address supplied.

Smog survivors

THERE is concern at the effects on children’s health of pollution, diesel fumes and toxic air (Mail).

In the Fifties, my family moved into a council flat beside a busy road in Battersea, South West London. Heavy traffic trundled past day and night, taking fruit and veg to Covent Garden Market and workers to and from the City.

We were forever cleaning the dirt emitted by exhaust pipes from our windows and sills. Our home was sandwiched between the factories of Mobil Oil, Booth’s Gin (the excitement when that blew up!), Garton’s Glucose and Price’s Candles.

During the smog, we covered our faces with scarves. We should have been candidates for every lung disease known to man. However, even though my parents smoked 20 cigarettes a day, they lived into their 90s. I am hoping to emulate them. C. HENDERSON, Morden, Gtr London.

Parade pride

MEMBERS of the National Fire Service were allowed to take part in the 1945 Victory Parade (Letters).

My 18- year- old sister Patricia Harvey was called up in 1942 to be a firewoman and lived in barracks near Worcester. My mother, father and I were so proud to go to London to see her march in the parade.

JOYCE ROBERTS, Llandysul, Ceredigion.

Gadget society

COULD smart technology help us take control of our lives, as Professor Robin Murphy advocates (Mail)?

Get the latest unnecessary gadget, struggle to pay for it, labour under the illusion that all this technology will help us cope with even more stuff — and so the stress cycle turns.

An alternative strategy is to stop thinking we are in control. Much of life is beyond our influence.

Sometimes things just happen, but what effect they have is up to us. Recognising and accepting this is psychologically healthier. And much cheaper. Dr MICHAEL SHEARD, Northallerton, N. Yorks. PLAN your life? As a single parent of two children, I held down two jobs in the Seventies.

My days were full of chores: cooking meals from scratch; washing bedding in the bath because I didn’t have a washing machine; and cleaning the house without a vacuum cleaner.

Families are fortunate today to have a dishwasher, but still argue about who empties it. Everything is at their fingertips and they still complain they are juggling. Mrs JENNIFER DAVIES, Pentre Galar, Pembs.

SINCE I left home at 18, I have cooked for my family, kept a tidy home, had two horses in competition, exercised dogs, qualified at university and held down a high-level job, all thanks to the best gadget on the planet — a brain!

C. D. FIELD, Mellieha, Malta. SMART technology may help us take control of life, but can someone please tell me how to use it?! JEAN COOPER, Bletchley, Bucks.

Grief stricken

I AM astonished that medical staff have no training in giving support to grieving fathers after a miscarriage (Femail).

It was shocking that while Russell Moffett was trying to comfort his wife, in the chaos of his own grief he had to go back to work after just three days.

Workplaces should give paid leave to anyone who has a family tragedy.

Men, as the silent, strong protectors, struggle with overwhelming responsibility and thus feel yet more guilt, worry, sadness and inadequacy. They need to be given the opportunity to recognise and deal with their grief. MADELEINE FITCH, Attleborough, Norfolk.

Fungus peril

SCIENTISTS are developing a plastic-eating fungus (Mail). All good until it starts gobbling plastic drainage systems, water mains, insulation on electricity and telephone cables and gutters . . . NEVILLE BALMER, Sicklinghall, N. Yorks