Irresponsible youngsters risking another lockdown
IT looks like we will be joining Europe in lockdown again – and the blame will lie with the irresponsible youngsters and protesters.
They say the young are the future. If that’s true then in the words of Al Murray this country is done (polite word replacing his).
While the majority of normal law abiding people are responsibly meeting family members or shopping to do DIY this weekend, we have this minority who believe they are more intelligent than the rest of us. In the words of another M.E.N. reader they are agitators.
If we go into lockdown again CCTV and newspaper photos should be used to locate as many of these people and fine them heavily.
If we go into lockdown again these protesters and young people will have abused our civil liberties by their very actions but that doesn’t matter to them. Their actions are also an insult to everyone who has died of Covid-19 and the doctors and nurses who have put their lives at risk to give us back normality. Jack Haynes, Swinton
Inaction from our PM
DESPITE Gerry Diamond fawning over Boris Johnson (Viewpoints, March 31), and falling for the lie that the prime minister will level up the north, I was heartened by seeing other items in the M.E.N. this week.
Firstly, as a Jew supporting human rights – whether in China, Saudi Arabia, or for Traveller and Gypsy communities here – it is rare to see coverage of Israel and its actions against Palestinian human rights, as Joseph O’Neill set out in Viewpoints (April 2).
Then, in his We Stand Together column (April 3), Peter Fahy rightly criticised the Race and Ethnic Disparities report for not recognising ‘the experience of frustration and anger’ of those who haven’t overcome the barriers that some have in order to reach the top.
In endorsing the report, Boris Johnson shows his usual ability to talk the talk, but he is incapable of walking the walk (except to attend photo calls). There is no sign of him
rejecting the police bill which curtails our right to protest, nor of restoring the 67 per cent cut from local authority support in the past decade of austerity, nor in restoring international aid which would prevent human rights abuses abroad.
As Eddie Izzard wrote in your City Life section (April 2) “when people use lies as a tool of politics, humanity starts to die”.
Steve Roman, Manchester
No time for scrutiny
I have good news and bad news for ‘Observer, M40,’ the author of a letter about Manchester council’s inaction on fly-tipping (Viewpoints, April 3).
The good news is that he and she can get together with other citizens who are concerned (or exasperated) about the council’s inaction on rubbish, on air quality and climate change, to put pressure on the council through the scrutiny committee system.
Groups like Climate Emergency Manchester can provide top tips about that.
The bad news is that the council, in its recent tokenistic rebranding, has done nothing to create more time for scrutiny of important issues. The consequence of this failure of leadership is that immediate concerns such as flytipping will still compete with the ‘big picture’ issues of carbon emissions reductions and how we get social justice as climate change exacerbates existing inequalities.
An additional scrutiny committee, dedicated to climate change, was what citizens wanted. The council was too ignorant, too fearful of additional scrutiny, to say yes to the sensible thing.
Its cowardice will blight our lives.
Dr Marc Hudson, Moss Side