LETTER OF THE WEEK Don’t blame the old for NHS crisis

It always grieves me when I hear politicians blame the ‘ageing population’ when asked about the critical state of the NHS.

While I acknowledge that some of us are living longer, it cannot be the sole reason for the stark overcrowding and understaffing of our precious health service.

For instance, pop into your local A&E on a weekend night and see how many pensioners are waiting to be seen. And can they be blamed for the fallout from the huge increase in drug and drink addiction, or the rise in stabbings and shootings, or the upsurge in abortions, or the millions spent on interpreters? The list goes on.

It’s so easy to target the so-called ‘lucky’ pensioners who have never had it so good. Critics ought to remember that most of us have lived through proper austerity, have worked all our lives paying our taxes along the way, and scrimped and scraped to get what we have today.

So the next time the Government looks for another soft target to warrant its constant ineptitude, I hope it will think a little more carefully before deflecting the blame and look to problems it appears to be ignoring. Peter Flynn, Sheffield

Something fishy on Coronation day

Further to your letters about the Coronation, I watched the procession from a window in the residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, where my mother was helping prepare lunch for after the ceremony. It would be the first time I had seen a whole salmon! We were given an official pass (which I still have), presented ourselves at the House of Lords at 8am and were then escorted through the Lords and Commons to the Speaker’s House. It was a magical day.

Patricia Cooper, Lincolnshire

Price of vanity hair

In You magazine last week, writer Samantha Brick (right) said she’s had a 30-year peroxide habit, costing £65,000. If she’s ever asked to describe her hair colour, I suggest she replies ‘vanity fair’. C. Schaffer, Scunthorpe

Big Issue beggars

Columnist Rachel Johnson stretched the definition of ‘charity’ last week when linking it to buying The Big Issue. Selling this is an (un)glorified form of begging. Some of its sellers may be homeless – no longer a prerequisite, diluting the magazine’s raison d’etre – and deserving of charity via other avenues. Selling the Big Issue entails a quasicommercial, pseudolegitimate transaction, thinly disguising its true begging nature. F. Harvey, Hotwells, Bristol

Cut top cops

The letter last week from Ron Hogg, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington Police, about how there have been drastic cuts throughout forces in UK is 100 per cent correct. But great savings could be made by reducing the number of forces, with fewer chief constables and deputy chief constables. I would also abolish the Police and Crime Commissioners, who are a total waste of money.

John Roberts, London

A climate of change?

Donald Trump says he’d love to rejoin the Paris Accord. When might that be? When the climate’s right? Could be a long wait…

Vincent Hefter, London