LETTERS

Stop the revolution!

RichaRd LiTTLEJOhN bemoans the fact that all the good music consists of Left-wing protest songs (Mail), but this isn’t entirely true. There are plenty of songs that take an anti- or non-socialist point of view.

anti-communist songs include Red is a Mean, Mean colour by cockney Rebel and the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled again. Then there’s david Bowie’s all The Young dudes: ‘i never got it off on that revolution stuff/What a drag, too many snags . . .’

and John Lennon might have changed his mind later, but his song Revolution includes: ‘if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao/You’re not going to make it with anyone anyhow.’ and how about George harrison’s income tax protest Taxman?

Red London by punk band Sham 69 specifically targeted the Left-wing GLc: ‘London streets are turning red, there’s no democracy,’ adding ‘free yourself from this, individuals rule’.

in the U.S., the Left-bashing tradition stretches from hank Williams’s No No Joe to Toby Keith’s courtesy Of The Red White & Blue. Rush were inspired by ayn Rand and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet home alabama wouldn’t go down well at a Momentum rally.

Nor, presumably, would Madonna’s Material Girl, The Band’s The Night They drove Old dixie down or 50 cent’s i Get Money. in hip hop, wealth and success are revered. Wu-Tang clan’s c.R.E.a.M. stood for cash Rules Everything around Me. There are numerous other examples.

GARRY BUSHELL, Sidcup, Kent.

Be honest, John

iF Labour’s John Mcdonnell is the Marxist he says he is, why continue the farce of being Shadow chancellor in a capitalist system he deplores?

Be honest, John, and tell us how you would bring about the fall of Britain so we can become a satellite state of Russia like cuba or czechoslovakia or Poland in the days of the USSR. That would present voters – and this one questions your commitment to democracy – with a clear choice.

L. CUnninGHAm, Edinburgh. ThE SNP want to end Westminster’s power over Scotland yet still take up their seats there.

Meanwhile Labour’s Left is in the ascendancy and cares little for the institution. The problem for both is that, imperfect and flawed though it is (and riddled with self-serving politicians), the people rather like democracy and abhor parties that do not. Welcome to the Wilderness Years, both of you. fRASER KiRK, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire

An ill wind . . .

ST hELENa is a small South atlantic island accessible only by sea. The only ship that calls in is old and in dire need of a refit, so it was decided to build an airport.

This airport was first used only recently. The volcanic island was found to have dangerous high winds which make using the airport — which cost millions — dangerous. The checks for high winds were made after the airport was built.

The island has built new hotels and refurbished another and hopeful youngsters have already arrived to work and live a simpler and happier life in the Southern Ocean, 2,000 miles from South africa.

But they can’t get there by sea unless a newer ship can be found and funded, and the promised work won’t be there if the tourists can’t land.

anyone who becomes ill can’t easily be flown to cape Town and fresh food can’t be brought over in a matter of hours. if you want tourists — forget it.

S.C. LAnGfORD, Clanfield, Hants.

Don’t shoot the messenger

aRE you wondering why hermes parcel service woke you up on Sunday morning to make a delivery? You didn’t ask for it on a Sunday, you didn’t pay for it on a Sunday.

You’re puzzled, maybe a little annoyed: perhaps you even shouted at the courier for getting you out of bed. hermes started Sunday deliveries for customers who requested that specific service.

On that basis it agreed a fee for the courier, which takes them all over the place. To squeeze as many jobs out of the courier as humanly possible, any available parcel is now pushed through the system, so they don’t have to pay couriers properly on Saturday or Monday.

Now the courier has to suffer the customer’s anger and his shift is probably even less financially viable than a normal 50p-a-parcel delivery round, without petrol money or holiday pay, and absolutely no job security.

a courier can, of course, leave and get another job but it’s likely to be with similar bad treatment and lack of security. it’s not exactly the Victorian workhouse, but it’s still unsatisfactory in 2016.

CAROL SmiTHSOn, Stretford, Gtr manchester.

Indy by the back door

PaUL Sinclair’s column (Mail) is spot-on. Ever since devolution, Labour’s voters have deserted the party and joined the SNP.

Many warned at the time that granting devolution would lead to independence by the back door.

n. BLACK, Livingston, West Lothian. ThE warning from Paul Sinclair could not be more timely. Yes, Labour’s utter collapse is great news for the Tories nationally but for those of us in Scotland who see the danger of the SNP’s lunatic independence fixation, it is a serious concern.

and he is right that the broader No campaign needs to be revived as a matter of urgency.

jAnE WALLACE, Cupar, fife.

Keep it clean

NOW campylobacter in chickens has reared its ugly head again, with some alarming statistics (Mail), we must take great care with kitchen hygiene.

apart from storing fresh meat separately from cooked meats in properly controlled fridges at under 5c, surfaces and utensils must be cleaned thoroughly when preparing chicken and any other food product.

constant hand washing with hot soapy water is a must and disposable paper towels should be used, not a constantly re-used dishcloth, as often seen on TV cookery shows.

chicken and other food products may bring organisms into the house but these are easily destroyed by proper handling and cooking at recommended temperatures.

if cooks took more care, our surgeries, hospitals and the NhS would benefit considerably — to say nothing of less suffering for the patients.

name and address supplied.

Legal aid scandal

i WELcOME the report that the Government intends to bring to an end the scandal of widespread misuse of our legal aid system by a cohort of Left-wing lawyers bringing spurious claims of abuse against our brave fighting forces (Mail).

however, shouldn’t the Government now turn its attention towards similar lawyers doing the same on behalf of supposed ‘asylum seekers’, the vast majority of whom turn out to be economic migrants, arriving on these shores with little to offer and becoming a burden on our hard-stretched public services for decades to come?

This part of the legal aid section has succeeded to date only in making fatcat lawyers’ wallets thicker, to the detriment of the British taxpayer, and is now more than due for a root-andbranch clean-up.

pAUL pRiTz, Wolverhampton

Carriers of catastrophe?

LORd WEST is right in saying how essential aircraft carriers are (Letters) in limited warfare when enemy weaponry is relatively unsophisticated.

We could not, for instance, have regained the Falklands islands without such a deployment. But the political decision ten years ago to save

costs by selling our Harrier jump jets for virtually nothing, to appease the Americans, and to scrap our Invincible class carriers meant we could no longer contribute fully to any hostilities

We then had only the capability of deploying RAF ground-based aircraft, relying on French and Italian carriers.

As for our two new, much larger carriers (the first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to be commissioned shortly), they will hardly be suitable for such limited warfare, deploying only a handful of high-speed, sophisticated Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, if we can afford them.

When it comes to engaging a superpower with all the latest weaponry, our new carriers will be far too vulnerable, because the MoD chose a conventional rather than a nuclear propulsion system.

This means there isn’t enough steam available to operate catapults and only VTOL fixedwing aircraft can be used. The cost of the VTOL version is more than double that of a conventional one, and it has a limited weapon-carrying capability and severely reduced range.

Meanwhile, our future carriers will have to rely on oil supplied by a vulnerable Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker every few days. Our carriers could become dead ducks without fuel to propel them.

As for the defending task force, our surface fleet is so reduced that we will once again have to rely on other allied navies to provide many of these escorting ships.

One can only hope such poor past decision-making will not lead to the nation paying dearly for this mistake in future. RODNEY PATTISSON,

Poole, Dorset.

Chilly response

I VERY much enjoy Penelope Keith’s new Hidden Villages TV series on Channel 4 and a recent reference to the village of Bibury in Gloucester brought back a memory that made me smile. In the Thirties, my mother and I were travelling on our local bus to Cirencester. As we passed through Bibury, an American lady’s loud voice could be heard saying: ‘It must be wonderful to live in one of those cottages.’

From the other side of the bus a voice said: ‘You should live in one of the draughty old hovels, like me!’

I imagine there have been a few alterations since then.

DOREEN HUNT, Cowley, Oxon.