There’s only one cure for election fever

WE, THE electorate, are looking forward to Friday when the General Election campaign will finally be over. It’s been one elaborate fantasy after another.

Who cares if Jeremy watches the Queen’s speech or how many children Boris has?

Boris is telling us he is going to plant 30,000 trees; Jo Swinson will plant 60,000; and Jeremy Corbyn is aiming for two billion. Perhaps the reason he is promising us a four-day week is to help out with the planting. He must be praying they will all be money trees.

Nicola Sturgeon is hoping for a hung parliament, so she can sell the SNP vote to the highest bidder and have a second independence referendum.

The Green Party doesn’t seem to accept Britain is one of the world leaders in climate change policies. Maybe they should be canvassing in China or India.

The independents, who were hoping to start a new party, are in the wilderness.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage put us where we are now when the country voted Leave, not that this democratic vote made any difference to MPs, who told us we didn’t know what we’d voted for.

The MPs who dishonoured their constituencies’ Leave vote will be signing on at the JobCentre.

Boris is the only one who looks to have won the confidence of most of the British people, so for goodness sake let’s all get behind him and let him get on with the job of restoring our standing here and abroad. MARRIANNA HUMPHRIES,

Mansfield, Notts. IS IT an omen that the new Government will take office on Friday 13th?

M. TESTER, Peacehaven, E. Sussex.

Sick NHS

PREDICTABLY, Labour has wheeled out the NHS to front its election campaign, pledging that only they can save it.

But pumping more money is not what is needed. The NHS is failing because it lacks credible and accountable management and is racked by waste and inefficiency. To be fair, none of the parties has a credible solution to resuscitating the NHS, so it’s pointless to make it a key election issue. CHARLES JACKSON, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Planet pledge

I HAVE written this letter on a laptop powered by solar panels. At current electricity rates, they won’t pay for themselves in their estimated 20-year lifespan, though the planet benefits.

Most carbon-friendly technology costs more than fossil fuels and can’t compete unless subsidised.

While applauding Labour’s environmental manifesto, I couldn’t vote for them.

If they win and unleash economic ruin, they won’t be able to fund their ambitions. If you care about our planet, vote for the party whose economic policies you judge are soundest, then lobby for environmental changes.

D. LOWE, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leics.

Friendly beast

I AM delighted that Jane Fryer wrote of the MP Dennis Skinner’s ‘untold quiet acts of kindness’ to his constituents (Mail). His treatment of my father-in-law in the Seventies was outstanding after an application for financial help to look after his disabled wife had been rejected out of hand without a proper assessment.

I was a Parliamentary reporter and approached Mr Skinner in the House of Commons about this.

Shortly afterwards, my father-inlaw answered a knock on his back door to find his MP there offering to look into the problem.

My father-in-law said: ‘I don’t vote for you, you know. I’m not Labour. I’m a Tory.’

Mr Skinner replied that it didn’t matter whom he had voted for because he was a constituent with a problem and as his MP it was his job to help. A reassessment resulted in financial help. Some Beast of Bolsover.

DAVID THOMPSON, Capel St Mary, Suffolk.

On the wrong track

I AM bemused by the chaos the RMT union is imposing on South Western Railway’s customers.

I regularly travel on the C2C Line to London’s Fenchurch Street, and the trains have not had guards for many years.

The drivers open and close the doors in a safe, professional manner. Why can’t South Western guards accept progress? MALCOLM CLEMESHA, Thorpe Bay, Essex.

Dumbing down

DESERT Island Discs is not the only long-running radio show that has been dumbed down (Letters).

Instead of just broadcasting classical music, Radio 3 devotes many of its programmes to jazz, talks, film music and modern, discordant music.

I fear this will mean that many young people know little about classical music.

When a student asked me to recommend a piece of music, I suggested Handel’s Messiah. He asked: ‘How do you spell that?’ JONATHAN SMITH,

Surbiton, Surrey.

Be considerate

HOW sad that good manners are considered passé (Mail), which explains the selfishness and boorishness of many young people.

Manners are showing consideration and respect for others. There is a reason why they have evolved: to give up your train seat for a pregnant woman or elderly person should be second nature — they could be you one day.

Opening a door for another person and smiling could make a bad day better for them. It costs nothing. And swearing in public is an offence.

ANN MILLER, Saffron Walden, Essex.

No laughing matter

DAVID WALLIAMS says some of the Little Britain sketches would be problematical today, but were right for when they were first broadcast (Mail). However, isn’t it the modern mindset that past events must be judged by the standards of today?

There have been plenty of examples of historical events, especially those concerning British history and our colonial past, being condemned on the basis that they would not be acceptable now.

DAVID COLE, Storrington, W. Sussex.

Heavy load

THE police are to try out a Spiderman gadget (Mail). Soon poor officers on the beat — if we ever see one again — will not be able to walk, let alone chase, suspected criminals due to all the paraphernalia they have to carry.

Gone are the days of a truncheon, first-aid pouch, pocket book and common sense.

MIKE DAVEY, Castle Bromwich, W. Mids.

Tied up in knotweed

HE SITS in his allotment hut, warmed by hot air, on an old guard’s van seat, sipping coffee from his friends in Venezuela and wearing his favourite scarf from his friends in the Middle East.

He is musing about whether the greenfly on his runner beans could do with a dose of Trident.

The plant he is most proud of is the money tree, but there is a nagging fear that it could, in fact, be Momentum knotweed, which could end up paralysing all the other allotments.

Name supplied, Derby.