Decisions on flu jabs mean we are left to wait
MY husband and I are in our eighties. When I telephoned our local surgery to find out when we would be getting this super new flu jab – the one that people in England will be having but, sadly, in Scotland only the over-75s qualify for – I was told we will have to wait until the middle of December.
The doctors decided, as they had limited supplies, to carry out the vaccinations alphabetically rather than let age or medical condition influence their judgment.
We, unfortunately, are unlucky enough to be at the wrong end of the alphabet.
I have just heard Nicola Sturgeon ranting on about the poor performance of Theresa May’s government and saying ‘people will not forget’.
Well, the old saying ‘people who live in glass houses...’ sprang to mind. I do hope voters in Scotland also have good memories.
NAME SUPPLIED, Aberdeen.
Bank withdrawals
FIRST, they came for the Post Offices, then they came for the banks (Letters).
My town once had six sub-post offices, now it has none. We had five different bank branches; now, you’ve guessed it, we have none. It seems that local communities have been told to get lost by financial institutions that are in business only to make a profit. When the next bank crash occurs, I hope No 10 refuses a bail-out.
fRANK SCHOfIELD, Royton, Gtr Manchester. I AGREE that a simple name check would beat bank scammers (Mail), but I don’t know why this move has taken so long.
In 2004, I started sending money by bank transfer to my goddaughter in Brazil. As well as supplying the account holder’s name, branch, sort code and account number, I had to give a National Insurance number.
They checked that all the data matched a bank account in Brazil before they sent any money.
Contrast that with my recent experience when I wanted to transfer money from my Nationwide account to a fellow customer. The bank refused to confirm whether the account details I gave them matched a name on their files.
ROGER SMITH, Croydon, Surrey.
Leader with backbone?
THE Government is paralysed. None of the Tory Brexit bigwigs, such as Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg, wants to be prime minister because that would mean picking up a poisoned chalice.
If enough Labour MPs vote for May’s Chequers plan, it will go through and we will be trapped in a never-ending transition.
Unless someone with backbone steps forward, our goose is cooked.
SANDRA HAYWOOD, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Notts.
Voters won’t be fooled
HARD on the heels of the SNP conference, the latest Survation opinion poll predicts the loss of 11 SNP Holyrood seats and no separatist majority in 2021.
Nicola Sturgeon’s closing conference speech focused extensively on the ceaseless pursuit of independence.
The SNP is not rewarded by voters for being upfront about its UK break-up obsession – it lost its Holyrood majority in 2016 and, following Miss Sturgeon’s March 2017 Indyref 2 demands, in May the Nationalists lost half a million votes and 21 seats in the general election.
So what can we now expect from the SNP leader to try to curry favour with voters? A pause in her separatist tub-thumping? Instead, she’ll feign enthusiasm for her day job of managing our public services. It seems voters aren’t fooled so easily.
MARTIN REDfERN, Edinburgh.
Easy target
IT IS outrageous that former soldiers are being hounded over events in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The police would serve the public better by investigating historical killings of innocent civilians, servicemen, police and prison officers during the IRA murderous bloody campaign, many of which remain unsolved to this day.
No one should be allowed to get away with murder, but this witch-hunt smacks of finding an easy target. DAVID ORCHIN, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne & Wear.
Keep nature in trim
THE trend to encourage wildlife by turning your garden into a wilderness is an urban myth. My garden has trees, shrubs and plants chosen to look attractive.
It is visited by dozens of birds, from hawks and woodpeckers to nuthatches and wrens, bees, butterflies, rabbits, hedgehogs, weasels and a stray cat.
The lawn is short and every border is weed-free. Making your garden look like an overgrown field might encourage rodents, but it appears that wildlife would prefer a nice place to visit.
Name supplied, Preston.
The frozen limit
CONGRATULATIONS to those who thought chucking a chest freezer in a nearby canal would enhance this beauty spot. How hard would it have been to take it to a scrapyard or phone the council rubbish collection service? Flytippers are turning Britain into one great big rubbish dump.
TONY LEVY, Wednesfield, W. Mids.
A sight at the opera
ELAINE PAIGE’S lament that theatres are packed full of scruffy herberts (Mail) reminds me of my granddaughter, who lives on a ranch in Montana.
The last time she went to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, she wore jeans and cowboy boots. Back home, she wore the same outfit to a semi-professional performance of La Traviata. Oops! Everyone else was in bow ties and evening dress. PAULINE WALLER, Luton, Beds.