IT’S GONGS FOR THE BOYS, BUT PAY CUTS FOR THE NURSES
WHY NOT SET ASIDE JUST ONE PARK AS A DOG-FREE SPACE?
INCREASING dog ownership over lockdown means our parks are now repurposed as spaces to exercise and as toilets for dogs, some on leads but most racing freely.
Inevitably there is more dog dirt (not all owners pick up) and a noticeable change in the balance of park use, as children and parents are squeezed into the small dog-free play areas.
Dogs in public are not risk free. I appreciate that people need to exercise their dogs, but at present they have every single park, without exception – as well as other green spaces, even including cemeteries.
Designated dog-free parks are common in other UK local authorities. A very modest proposal would be to set aside just one park as dog-free, with the rest still available for exercising and toileting dogs.
Natalie McKenna
COMPANIES that have made record profits from the pandemic have been urged to apply for New Year’s honours.
The Tories priorities are a real pay cut for our nurses and gongs for Serco and Amazon.
The companies are amongst many businesses and industry giants asked to nominate staff members for a gong from the Queen, in a list accidentally leaked by bungling officials.
The top civil servant at the business department wrote to firms including Capita, investment giants Blackrock and BP.
Tech giants Facebook, Google and Apple were also given the nod.
It’s amazing that the Tory Government are offering to spray gongs around like confetti to firms involved with the largely failed, horrendously expensive Test & Trace, whose boss Dido Harding is the wife of a Tory MP.
The accidentally leaked email invited industry leaders to online classes about how to get a gong, on “how to master and award honours nominations”.
Tories offer honours for those who profiteered from the pandemic but offer real pay cuts for the nurses, who care for those affected by Covid.
It is gongs for the boys and pay cuts for the nurses.
Brian Silvester
CENSUS QUESTIONS ARE A GROSS INVASION OF PRIVACY
THIS latest census form now doing the rounds is not a census form at all. It’s just Big Brother asking some ridiculous and personal questions that should only be of interest to the person involved.
Haven’t the powers that be got enough of our personal information as it is without hiding behind this bogus census form to ask for more?
I’ve filled in many a census form down the years, But this one seems beyond the pale.
Mr Cowley