Tough Budget? Yes, that’s what Britain needed!

THE toughness of last Thursday’s Budget is all the Government’s fault, according to many people on their soapboxes.

I know dementia is on the increase, but can they really have forgotten that we had to survive a pandemic, then a gas price hike because of Putin’s war? We were supported by the furlough scheme and subsidies on fuel payments, which all cost money. It has to be repaid sooner or later.

GRAHAM ARCHER,

Chorley, Lancs.

Part-time doctors

IN RESPONSE to the BMA’s Dr Kieran Sharrock (Letters), GPs are without doubt refusing to work five-days a week at our local surgery. The head of the practice told me he can’t get them to put the hours in, as they want a better work-life balance. I inferred that he meant this equated to working three-and-a-half days a week.

This is not what people expect of a public service, especially as GPs are well-paid.

One reason cited to me for GPs’ reluctance to work longer hours was the dilution of their pension benefits from increased earnings. What more can one say?

COLIN OLDFIELD, London SE9.

Is that a promise?

THERE is a by- election here in Chester and, last Thursday, I was canvassed by a Conservative Party member. Apparently, if I want low taxes and a strong immigration policy, I should vote for them.

CHRIS DEVINE, upton-by-Chester, Cheshire.

Homeless ignored

I RECENTLY got off a train at Peterborough. Opposite the station is the Great Northern Hotel, where 80 asylum- seekers have warm rooms and three-meals-a- day. Outside the station are homeless British in sleeping bags.

KATHY CuLLIP, Peterborough, Cambs.

Christmas cancelled

IN AUGUST, I booked a five-day Christmas break in Eastbourne. A few days ago, the holiday company phoned: your hotel has been taken over by the Government to accommodate migrants, so all holidays are cancelled.

By now, most alternative breaks

on offer are naturally booked up. Happy Christmas.

MARGARET HOFMAN, Canterbury, Kent. THE Home Secretary rightly calls the influx of Channel immigrants an invasion. Has Sir Francis finished his game of bowls yet? ROGER GREGORY, Horsham, W. Sussex.

Easy escape

READER Rae Mitchell (Letters) described her husband’s long wait for drugs to be dispensed so he could leave hospital.

I have been in hospital 25 times in the past six years, with a stomach blockage. I always take my own tablets and when I am discharged, I ask them to send the discharge papers to my house so I don’t have to wait for hours.

If they haven’t arrived within a week, I chase them up. Getting out of hospital can be a nightmare.

Mr R. J. CLARK, Cheltenham, Gloucs.

Gorging at sea

ON A recent cruise, I was appalled to see so many morbidly obese fellow cruisers of both sexes. At the buffet they spurned delicious

healthy options, choosing instead to pile their plates with sausages, chips, burgers and waffles, followed by cakes. They often returned for refills.

Dietary advice is obviously lost on these people, as they cannot resist gorging all day long. If this is what our doctors and nurses have to cope with, I don’t envy them.

M. DAVIES, Exeter, Devon.

Lucky Lazarus

THE article about the family who thought their dog had died (Mail) reminded me of when, about 50 years ago, my mother saw a tortoiseshell cat lying dead in the gutter outside our house.

Assuming it was our pet, Tina, she got my dad out of bed early to bury it before my sister and I saw it. Several days later, there was a scratching on the front door and in walked our cat. Dad renamed him Lazarus.

TRICIA BOCHENSKI, Mold, Flints.

Wrong trousers

AS TO whether Rishi’s trousers are too short or other politicians wear theirs too long (Letters), I learnt a simple rule in the RAF.

The hem of the trouser leg should cover all but two rows of laceholes on the shoe.

CHRIS HOAD, East Leake, Notts.

Funny peculiar

STILL on the topic of odd things people have said to us (Letters), I accompanied my older, married brother to a car dealership to collect his new car. The salesman, on being told who I was, said, ‘Shiny shoes. You’re still single.’

CHARLES GAGE, Cowes, IoW. ONE day, at work in London’s Kensington, I was walking down the High Street at lunchtime when a well-dressed elderly lady made a beeline for me. Thinking she might want directions, I stopped and smiled at her. She said, ‘You’ve got a face like a bucket of pus!’ and carried on walking.

I was so gobsmacked, all I replied was ‘thank you’.

NIK SANDS, Lincoln.