Western Daily Press

Nigel Farage should be made a Lord

- Mrs A Earl, Bristol Jenny Suggate, Senior Policy Manager (South West England) Consumer Council for Water Mrs Jillian L Chave, Devon

I HAVE never been very impressed with the Honours selection, as many of the people given one were only doing nothing more than many others do as part of their job – but do not make such a ‘song and dance’ about it.

As for Nigel Farage, he was the best thing that ever happened.

If we hadn’t swallowed the pack of lies that Edward Heath told us back in the 1960s about joining the ‘Common Market’ we would not be in the mess we are now.

Edward Heath told us that by joining the ‘Common Market’ the existing exporting bureaucrac­y would be reduced. Instead, on joining the regulation­s controllin­g the importing and exporting of our goods and services into Europe were taken over by the French. Nobody ever dreamed that all our fishing rights would be taken over by the Spanish.

The bureaucrac­y was increased and our borders became an open door to illegal immigrants who have caused housing shortages, heavy responsibi­lity on Social Services to provide foster care for unaccompan­ied children and provided foreign labour who were prepared to be paid less than the minimum low wage.

‘Leave means leave’ and the sooner the better! I am only sorry that Nigel Farage has not been rewarded for his efforts and given a seat in the House of Lords.

I would like to think that on our departure I will be able to buy a glass of Babycham and drink to our departure but I cannot because the EU ruled that a brand name containing the syllable ‘cham’ was illegal. Only wine produced in the Champagne area of France was entitled to use a derivative of the word Champagne as a trade mark.

I strongly support any effort to get Nigel Farage a title so that he can get a seat in the House of Lords and make sure those unelected ‘gasbags’ already sitting there can get made to accept the county’s wishes and get on with the job of getting us out of the EU.

In some instances, they can also provide a leakage allowance.

At the Consumer Council for

Water (CCW) we also advocate that water companies put a customer’s account on hold until they have resolved the problem.

Disputes over water consumptio­n are one of the biggest causes of complaints to water companies which is why it’s critical that suppliers are alive to these bill spikes and nip them in the bud quickly.

If Mr Bray is unable to resolve the issue with South West Water he would be welcome to contact CCW for free help and advice.

Every year we support customers with thousands of complaints made against water companies. Our website is also packed with tips and advice on how to reduce your use of water or seek financial help with water bills. Visit www.ccwater.org.uk for more informatio­n. damage being caused. We have only to go back to the 1960s when we had the knee jerk, quick-fix Beeching cuts to the railways which were simply to prop up the ailing car industry and get more people buying cars etc. In no time we had the biggest car park in the world

– aka the M25, hundreds of miles of new or widened roads creating enormous pollution everywhere and becoming a health hazard. Now we have another knee jerk reaction trying to get people off the roads and to abandon the use of cars by using public transport! Building cycle lanes to lure people into using bikes!

Plastic was hailed as the new wonder material but in the 1970s we were actively encouraged to be the throwaway society which is the basis now for many of the problems we have – plastic bottles being discarded everywhere, etc, etc, causing litter and damage worldwide to our seas and wildlife.

The environmen­tal cost literally is huge to clear up the mess but government­s do not like spending money like that, and when you have the President of the USA, Donald Trump claiming that climate change is fake news, anyone attempting to make a change before it’s all too late is only banging their head against a brick wall!

We have the knee-jerk reaction to building housing. I have for at least 10 years been writing to MPs to state my concern about the amount of top quality agricultur­al land being used for this purpose, despite the dire warnings of climate change and not knowing what effect this may have on our traditiona­l crops. It’s no use assuming we can import food in the future because climate change will affect crops worldwide and other countries may not want to, or be able to, export food.

I have said that all this building on agricultur­al land will probably mean in the future that people may be able to starve to death in the comfort of these houses! But I too have been ignored! The only person who will probably be able to say in the future with glee will be Greta Thunberg “I told you so”.

It’s no use just clearing up the litter and plastic – its use has to be severely restricted. There are more acres of agricultur­al land being used as solar panel farms. Why is it not mandatory for all new buildings – housing, schools, supermarke­ts, industrial units etc – to have solar panels? Supermarke­ts could/should have roofs over their car parks using solar panels which would help customers anyway loading their cars in either very hot or cold weather.

Any spare power generated can be fed into the National Grid which I assume would reduce the need for more new power stations, and preserve agricultur­al land.

Wind turbines were hailed as the solution to energy requiremen­ts, but they have now been proven to be not as good as expected and are a blot on the landscape and causing some health problems.

So sorry Sir David, Your Highness and Greta, but I think your efforts you will find very difficult and you will continuall­y come up against brick walls because you have to convince government­s as well as local population­s that this is a serious problem – which few want to confront because of the financial implicatio­ns! But best of luck!

 ?? Getty Images Europe ?? Nigel Farage, then leader of the Brexit Party, gives
the thumbs up
Getty Images Europe Nigel Farage, then leader of the Brexit Party, gives the thumbs up

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