Twins should be taken from mum

ALAN Fidler of North Shields is right in his critique of hospital food costs of between £3 and £40 per head, in that these quoted costs are not all based on the same criteria.

Labour analysed data from NHS Digital on hospital food costs but ignored the point made that the higher costs per head are likely to be down to hospitals including staff and equipment costs as well.

The Shadow Health Secretary instead suggests that the disparity is down to a “postcode lottery in hospital catering”. If he is proposing a new law to ensure that all hospitals provide quality food, he should know that cost is not an accurate measure of quality, and vice versa, and that data comparisons must be on a likefor-like basis. CT, Gateshead YOU report that convicted thief Debbie Stevenson is likely to avoid a custodial sentence because she has twins who were born in 2015. So what?

That fact should not be taken into account when her sentence is being decided.

Because she stole from her employer to fund the IVF treatment which resulted in the birth of her twins they, the twins, are in effect the proceeds of crime and should be dealt with as such.

They should be confiscated and, in their long-term interests, be put up for adoption and, should they fail to be adopted, be put into care.

ALAN DONNELLY, Blyth