Cameron should not be heard from again
WHY would anyone want to hear from David Cameron ever again?
Who went to Brussels and issued the threat to hold a referendum to stay or leave in the EU? No one told him to do that. Who ran a mile when we voted to leave? Who hasn’t been seen or heard from until this week? Who has a book out to promote this week?
David Cameron’s legacy is as damning as Tony Blair’s and I never want to see or hear from him again. Jack Haynes, Swinton
A question for councillors
A RECENT consultation designed to inform constituents regarding proposals for £12.8million in cuts to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, including reductions of fire engines, crew numbers and fire stations, has quite understandably been the subject of controversy due to a woeful lack of participation from our elected representatives from elected councillors across Greater Manchester .
The consultation report notes that “updates were sent to councillors from across Greater Manchester through the consultation, to encourage them to respond and spread the information out to their local constituents. The email update was sent to 637 councillors and 259 opened the email”.
This means that 378 Greater Manchester councillors did not open this email. I just wonder if a spokesperson for Rochdale Council would like to write in to Viewpoints and let readers know exactly how many Rochdale borough councillors bothered to opened this email and contributed to the consultation?
I’d also be interested to know exactly how many, if any, local voters received an email from their local ward councillor, cascading information to them regarding the proposals to cut the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service by £12million and asking for their opinions to feed back to the public consultation? Andrew Wastling, Rochdale
Corbyn critics are just Tories
W NEWHAM, of Worsley, writes in his letter: ‘I would like to believe in Corbyn but I can’t’ (Viewpoints, September 5.)
W Newham then goes on to describe himself as ‘a retired working class man who is aware of working class problems.’
He then writes about the public suffering during the 1970s, and attacks Mr Corbyn on unrelated issues and rehashed nonsense.
I agree with W Newham on the European issues: I voted to leave, and the result was a genuine democratic vote to do just that.
However, the 1970s W Newham writes about I do not agree with in any way. In the 1970s this country had a thriving manufacturing and industrial base, many skilled jobs which provided living wages, and nationalised services like gas, water, railways etc.
In 1979, Thatcher came to power and used the slogan ‘There is no such thing as society’ by wrecking, closing and selling off our great British industries.
Mr Corbyn is a very principled man. He gave the miners support in the Great Miners’ Strike for Jobs, Pits and Communities in 1984-85. A Labour party in power will put right the destruction and disintegration of our society.
I suspect W Newham and other letter writers are, and have always been, Tory voters who are denigrating his character.
I suppose Mr Newham will be happy for the working class to have pathological liar Johnson in power who has on his agenda: selling your house to pay for your health care, retirement age up to 75, and pensioners paying national insurance, for starters.
What horrors await? Paul Kelly, Cheetham
Nuclear tests wrecked lives
I WAS privileged to join the Lord Mayor at an event with Kazakh artist Karipbek Kuyukov, who was born without arms as a result of Soviet era nuclear testing in Kazakhstan, which gave up its inherited nuclear arsenal when it became independent in 1991.
He showed us some of his painfully-produced paintings and spoke movingly of the effects on the country of more than 450 tests of nuclear weapons. Another speaker told us of the long-term effects of the 20 British nuclear tests in the South Pacific, which still affect the health of survivors. 20,000 British and Commonwealth servicemen, including conscripts, were forced to witness the tests on Christmas Island, where the 500 locals lived through the tests in tents. In the run-up to the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, buses in the area are carrying messages urging the government not to waste £205 billion on nuclear weapons, the results of these tests.
Meanwhile, the climate emergency should demand the best brains, and redeployment of thousands of skilled workers, to ensure humankind’s survival. Steve Roman, Manchester CND