Drakeford and co would scupper Truss M4 plans

LIZ Truss said if she becomes Prime Minister, she’ll get the M4 relief road built. Good luck with that one Liz.

Mark Drakeford and his cohorts in the bay are probably amassing blue and green paint in readiness.

To paint a blue three-metre wide cycle lane on each side with two green four-metre bus lanes inside these.

Then the added chicanes at bus stops along the route, so that buses can interfere with any traffic trying to get along the middle lanes.

With a speed limit of 30 miles an hour, or 20 miles an hour if any buildings are visible.

Added to this of course is the prospect of toll charges, for whatever excuses they can create. Francis Spragg

Cathays, Cardiff

No way I would prefer life as a youngster today

THE recent article brought many memories flooding back.

We had no TV, no telephone, no fridge, the loo was outside with no lighting; meat, groceries and the newspapers were all delivered by young boys in their first jobs.

Food such as biscuits, sugar, cheese and tea was not packaged. They came loose in paper bags.

The milk came everyday and was ladled into a jug which my mother then put on the stone in the pantry.

The morning I began infants school (I was four) my mother walked me the quarter mile there, part of which was along the main road.

After that I went in the charge of the boy next door who was a year older.

The teachers were all spinsters: if they married they had to give up their job. I remember the headmistress smacking my bare bottom for something I was accused of but did not do – that could lead to court action today.

I also remember walking up a long flight of steps behind a policeman. He turned and thought I was making fun of him. Again I had a clip across the head.

We had no running hot water, we used a geyser.

There was no street lighting because of the war.

We spent all our time outside, climbed trees, looked for birds nests, played kick-the-tin and mob, and of course football and cricket when in season; much of this on the road or on small areas of waste land that have long been built on.

There were many accidents. I pushed the spike of a garden fork through my shoe and a toe. My mother attended to it, it was too expensive to go to the doctor.

I also climbed the drainpipe on a house opposite and the pipe came away sending me to the pavement: again a big hole in my knee which mother attended to.

Then there was food rationing; how I looked forward to my father bringing home sweets when they became due.

All the shops were closed on a Sunday, and there were no supermarkets. On Sunday, after chapel, we, as a crowd of youngsters went for a long walk.

For holidays I went to a relatives’ farm in Cardiganshire; there were no foreign holidays.

My memories then moved to grammar school. I was 10 and had never seen a teacher wearing a gown and mortarboard; we sat the school certificate exam at 14, two years earlier than the equivalent in modern times.

On entry we bought the secondhand books the school provided, and my parents had to pay £1 a term school fees. Sports’ fees were in addition.

During the 1947 snow we walked more than two miles each way to school.

There was no advice on careers, no work experience, you found out as much as you could yourself.

As a teenager I cycled more than 1,000 miles on a holiday with a friend; we slept at the side of the road in a tent we carried with us.

How my parents coped with that month I shall never know.

Interests then moved to snooker, billiards and dancing at the local Miners’ Institute. This was the centre of teenage social activity.

It is time to stop. All I can say to sum up is that there is no way I would prefer life as a youngster today.

Ewart Smith

Blackwood

Added to this of course is the prospect of toll charges, for whatever excuses they can create

Francis Spragg Cathays, Cardiff

Can either Tory leader deliver for all the population?

VANITY or egotism? If, as seems to be the case, either of these qualities is a pre-requisite of leadership, then either of the present contestants for Prime Minister has it in abundance.

Whether either delivers benefits for all of the population they lead is an entirely different matter; it remains to be seen in practice. Derek Griffiths

Llandaff, Cardiff

Do we really deserve another deadbeat PM?

“I will level up Wales by harnessing the power of free enterprise”, so said Liz Truss on a flying visit to Cardiff (Western Mail, August 4).

Anyone fluent in gobbledegook who can translate please?

Truss is forever making wild statements.

Cue, one of her flunkies rolled out to defend or interpret said statements.

Geoffrey Howe was often called Mogadon Man but compared to Truss he was quite sparky.

Do we really deserve another deadbeat? We’ve just got rid of one! Mrs G Davies Manordeilo, Sir Gâr

Don’t have an accident or an emergency here

IT would seem that the Hywel Dda Health Board is determined to trim down its population, “Final three sites chosen as new hospital on way” (Western Mail, August 6).

But there is no way a new hospital should be built in such a position until the road structure in Pembrokeshire is improved as lives will be

lost on that journey.

In Fishguard and Pembroke Dock we have the only two international ferry ports in mainland Britain which don’t have a dual carriageway or a motorway within a few miles.

Precious little chance to reach A&E within a very short, lifesaving time.

Frequently the roads are clogged with lorries and holidaymakers.

Anyone living in Fishguard has around 35 miles to go to the proposed sites.

Further on in the paper on the Business Wales page, we learn of high hopes for “Holy Grail” of metro transport. But nothing in that, apart from possibly an improved rail service, so how does one get an ambulance to the hospital to save lives?

So the message from the health board to the population would seems to be “Don’t have an accident. Don’t have an emergency.”

Sally A Williams (Mrs)

Dinas Cross, Pembrokeshire