First bricks in the wall fall
THE first brick in the Red Wall has collapsed as Labour retake Wakefield in West Yorkshire.
Elsewhere, Tiverton in Devon also fell, won by the Lib Dems, in what was the Tories’ biggest by-election defeat in British history.
These will be the first of many as Labour and the Lib Dems do a demolition job on team Boris.
Of course, things were a lot different back in 2019 when the Tories were riding the crest of a wave.
Labour had the unelectable Jeremy Corbyn to contend with and prickly issues about exiting the EU.
In fact the Tories were gifted so many Willy Wonka golden tickets they could have fielded Mickey Mouse and got elected (this I believe is exactly what happened in the North East).
But politics can change so quickly as Boris turns from hero to zero. And the laughable thing is it was all self-inflicted.
There were the minor Boris scandals like the lavish refurb of No10, dubbed Wallpapergate, and a major one in the illegal lockdown-breaking Partygate, events that will haunt Boris until the day his Ever Ready batteries run out.
There are plenty of Red Wall Tories here in the North East who continue to blindly support him. But with Red Wall seats no longer guaranteed, many Teesside
Tories will be looking nervously over their shoulder.
STEPHEN DIXON, Redcar
Ping! I have an idea – learn to cook
MY message to women who say they are not able to afford to feed their family, is to learn to cook. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to eat much better and cheaper without having a microwave oven.
I do not have a microwave oven and eat very well.
Learning to cook used to be passed down from one generation to the next.
Growing up in the 1950s, some food was still on ration long after the war. Obesity was not a problem and there were not any food banks.
KEITH DEWISON, Billingham
Why are refugees our responsibility?
RE ‘Rwanda fiasco is a modernday farce’ (Feedback, June 20) I don’t agree that this is a fiasco.
Maybe what has happened to the idea the government has, but what the people against it have done is absolutely wrong.
Why do we have to take responsibility for these so-called refugees?
It must not be forgotten these people are economic migrants not refugees. They have paid for their trip over the channel. Most of them are young men who are not satisfied with what their own country has to offer.
We must have, as a country, legitimate borders and proper immigration rules and regulations. We cannot have open borders as this would be open season for terrorism.
I am afraid that this country is being set up by people who just want to find anything wrong with this government and do their utmost to get rid of it.
We need to start to look after our own people who need help in these hard times, not people who have travelled through many countries to get here for all the benefits that they can get for nothing.
JIM HIGGINS, Normanby
My green credentials are constant
CLLR Ron Arundale’s criticism of my letter about ecocide and MBC’s cavalier attitude towards Mandale Meadow and spine road was as ludicrous as it was ill-informed (He’s wild-ly off the mark, Feedback, 23.06.22).
He seems to imply I am selfishly motivated, but it’s fairly common knowledge I have a record of consistently adhering to the ethos of ‘Thinking Globally and Acting Locally’ and have therefore opposed every craven departure from local plans and cash-related surrender of greenfield.
In respect of Cllr Arundale’s comments about my record in relation to Ingleby Barwick, he is once again way off the mark.
Since that settlement was agreed in the 1970s on pristine, biodiverse greenfield, the expansion of what was originally proposed to be six villages west of Bassleton Beck has become disastrous in the sense that out -of-control ‘development’ has obliterated flora and made fauna almost nomadic – all of which I opposed.
So my environmental credentials are intact and constant – something countless people can bear testament to.
STEVE WALMSLEY, Thornaby