Prosecute those who turned a ‘blind eye’
REGARDING Jennifer Williams’ article in the M.E.N. (Friday, January 17).
It brought tears to my eyes when reading of the powers that be turning the proverbial ‘blind eye’ to the grooming and letting down of vulnerable children.
This has not been happening for 20 years, more like 40 years. Many good people have tried to bring it to the public’s notice only to be ignored by the police.
One incident was in 2004 when two prominent members of a political party faced a jury charged with race-hate crimes for highlighting the grooming of young girls.
Fortunately and ‘quite rightly’ they were acquitted.
Over the years a lot of work and effort by a dedicated few has gone in to ‘out’ this disgrace only to be slapped down.
Any person or institution who aided and abetted the silencing should be grossly ashamed and those in authority at the time who had knowledge of the silencing should, even now, face prosecution.
Shame on you all. David Gough, Audenshaw
Temperature misleading
IN the M.E.N. of January 18, the daily stats page claimed that 2019 was a record-breaking year for the hottest temperatures on record in the UK – sourced from the Met Office.
The claimed hottest was Heathrow but this thermometer can be seen on satellite photos close to runways and terminal buildings – in other words it’s contaminated by UHI, or urban heat island effect, to clarify how much the asphalt adds heat to this thermometer Paul Homewood – who regularly investigates hottest weather claims – looked at all the thermometers within a 10-mile radius of Heathrow and they all registered much lower temperatures.
The Met Office has a history of making unreliable claims; two years ago the record summer temperature in Scotland was supposed to have been broken, only later did someone point out that the thermometer was in the middle of a supermarket car park!
It’s a real shame that we rarely get to the truth about temperatures today because the M.E.N. takes its stats from government-sponsored agencies pushing the climate scare agenda. D Thompson, Manchester
Queen keeps us on course
PRINCE Harry is undoubtedly an exceptional human being, as is the Queen.
She is surely the most altruistic monarch of all time, and speaks volumes for the value of a good education.
If the UK was the Titanic, where Boris Johnson and his ‘crew’ are potentially steering us at full steam ahead towards disaster and a senseless loss of life, the Queen and her ‘crew’ would surely steer us away from it. R Allan, Radcliffe
Betting is all around us
THE Gambling Commission states that there are 430,000 adult problem gamblers and two million more at risk, but more worrying is 370,000 children, aged 11 to 16, gamble each week and 25,000 are classed as problem gamblers.
After seeing those figures it made me think about celebrities, especially professional sportsmen and women, who are sponsored in some way by gambling firms and bookmakers.
In 2020 half the Premiership teams and 17-out-of-24 Championship teams are backed financially by gambling firms or bookmakers.
Recently the director of the NHS’s mental health service has written to gambling firms asking them to stop using methods in their advertising, that can push punters into addiction.
The NHS says that betting firms fuel addicts to keep going and asks the question: “Why should the health service be left to pick up the pieces from damaged people because of gambling?”
I find it surprising that most, if not all, of these sportsmen and women mentioned are millionaires yet seem to have no concern or conscience when they pick up their ‘40 pieces of silver’ for this type of ‘work.’
The damage it does to addicts results in them losing jobs, losing homes, families splitting up, divorce, moving into poverty, depression, other mental illnesses and even suicide.
I feel that the celebrities who work for betting companies should think very hard about the damage and hardship gambling addiction brings, quite often to the people who can least afford it and are the most vulnerable, and whether this is an ethical way for them to earn money? Colin Morrison, Whitefield