Problems lie ahead due to this MoT amnesty

AS BRITAIN’S premier UKAS calibration laboratory for decelerometers used in the MoT Test I am appalled at the lamb brain thinking of this government in granting an MoT amnesty to motorists.

The original MoT test was introduced in October 1960 because motorists were not prepared to pay to maintain their vehicles. Nothing has changed. Come October unless something is done there will be an extra 12 million untested (dangerous?) vehicles on the road together with the two million due for test in October. The MoT stations will not be able to cope.

Additionally, it appears that the insurance companies are reducing cover to third party only for those untested vehicles involved in accidents. They are also refusing to pay the costs of vehicle hire during the repair period. After all, the insurance contract requires the owner to maintain his/her vehicle in a roadworthy condition.

I know that most MoT stations are prepared to carry out MoT tests, and an MoT test is no more dangerous than a visit to the chemist.

Would readers please complain to their MPs and get this additional potential disaster avoided.

KM Bowen Accerometer Laboratory, Whitson, Newport

Easy to criticise from the sidelines

I NORMALLY enjoy Sue Lee’s weekly musings but last Saturday’s column attacking Boris Johnson was a spiteful diatribe (“This is a war and Boris went missing in action”).

She accuses the Prime Minister, “buoyed up, dazzled and distracted by Brexit”, of falling asleep at the wheel while Covid-19 spread from China around the globe, despite the “dire warnings” of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Sue blasts the Government’s provision of PPE for health workers, calling it a “shambles”, and asks why so many frontline NHS staff are dying. Of course, these are dire problems but advanced healthcare systems around the world are struggling with PPE shortages because the equipment cannot be manufactured quickly enough to meet the unprecedented demand. Also doctors and nurses are dying of this awful disease globally, it’s not just our brave NHS staff. Remember the Chinese whistleblower doctor who died in February?

If anyone was slow out of the blocks it was surely the woeful WHO, which dithered until March 11 before it declared the Covid crisis a pandemic. But no criticism of them from Sue, who also fails to mention the Chinese government’s role in worsening the outbreak with its cover-ups and misinformation early on. Far easier to bash Boris, I guess.

The UK Government’s response hasn’t been perfect but it has been guided by the science throughout. That’s why key advisers like Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance are often at the Downing Street press briefings.

Do you know more than these distinguished experts, Sue, or are you just another armchair epidemiologist? What would you have said if Johnson, ignoring the advice of experts, had decided to lockdown in January? I’m sure you’d have been appalled and accused him of ignorance and arrogance.

If going into lockdown on March 23 was too little too late, as Sue suggests, you would think the devolved administrations would have objected, but Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford seemed happy enough at the time. They appear to be following the same science.

Italy went into lockdown on March 9 but as the spread of Covid19 there was about two weeks ahead of us our lockdown timing would appear about right.

It’s easy in hindsight to sit sanctimoniously on the sidelines and pick holes in the Government’s response but I don’t remember any British journalists in January or February calling for extra PPE supplies, a lockdown or closing airports to foreign visitors. It was all about the floods.

Sue might like to reflect on two recent opinion polls. A YouGov survey (April 23-24) found 60% of those asked thought the Government was handling the crisis well, with 34% rating its response bad. A Sky News survey (April 20-21) asked “who do you trust on coronavirus?”. Boris Johnson had a net approval rating of 12 after 51% said they trusted him, with 39% in the negative. Compare that to newspaper journalists, whose net rating was -55 (yes, that’s a minus figure!).

Using a pandemic which has killed more than 20,000 Britons to score cheap political points is at best irresponsible and at worst callously opportunistic.

Please, Sue, you can do better than this.

B Phillips

Newport

I know most MoT stations are prepared to carry out MoT tests... KM Bowen Newport

Making sure you’re not in this alone

UNCOMFORTABLE as it is, the coronavirus pandemic means many of us will be forced to confront death in ways we never could’ve comprehended just a few weeks ago.

Dying, death and bereavement are difficult to process at any time, but even more so now, when anxiety is high, and we are unable to come together to support each other, attend funerals or even simply say goodbye.

As such, we want to let your readers know that they are not alone, and that Marie Curie is here to help them.

As an end-of-life care charity, specialising in caring for dying people and their families, we appreciate how distressing this is for people.

So if your readers are worried, caring for someone, bereaved, or are working on the frontline, they can call our free telephone support line. Trained staff, including nurses, are ready to provide information and emotional support including bereavement and spiritual support, as well as a check-in and chat service where people can access the compassionate care and support of our volunteers. Health and social care professionals can also use the service for clinical guidance.

If you are struggling to navigate the waters of this pandemic or if you would simply like someone to speak to, please call the Marie Curie support line free on 0800 090 2309 or visit mariecurie.org.uk/support.

In a time when we can’t hold each other’s hands or give one another a hug, Marie Curie is here to ensure that your readers are not in this alone.

Andrew Wilson-Mouasher, Divisional general manager, Marie Curie Wales

WAG hiding from accountability

THE public will remember that back in March Health Minister Vaughan Gething promised that WAG would increase testing for Covid-19 to 5,000 a day by mid-April, and all NHS and key workers would be provided with PPE.

It will surprise very few people that the Welsh Government has failed on both counts, and to add insult to injury WAG has decided not to set any future targets, so WAG does what it does so well, hides from any form of accountability.

Nigel Dix Blackwood

Don’t forget the crematorium staff

I AM all in favour of supporting the NHS as front-line workers. I have a son who works in a crematorium. They are the forgotten people who are also doing a brilliant job and never get any thanks.

Tony Powell, Heath, Cardiff

The small print: Letters will not be included unless you include your name, full postal address and daytime telephone number (we prefer to use names of letter writers but you can ask for your name not to be published if you have a good reason). The Editor reserves the right to edit all letters.