What do you think?
Join the debate by emailing letters@westerndailypress.co.uk and including your name and address
enormous logistical operation. We have robust processes in place, and we have done everything possible to find the specialist staff needed to put on the full-scale Christmas market, but if the staff aren’t available, then it can’t be held safely. The decision to scale back was taken as soon as practicable and before any money was taken from stallholders for their chalets.
The council and its partners are also doing a lot to attract visitors and support the local economy yearround. We prioritised reopening the Roman Baths as soon as possible after lockdown, with safety measures in place to give confidence to visitors, and we’re working with partners on significant events such as the fantastically successful Great Bath Feast, to name but two examples.
This is a tough time for the high street, no one is denying that. But what would help is for us to all support local businesses and talk Bath up as a destination, rather than continuously rubbishing it to score political points.
Now is the time to be celebrating everything Bath has to offer – particularly at Christmas.
Dine Romero Bath & North East Somerset
Councillor for Southdown per cent) of the nation now have a higher opinion of social care since the pandemic.
But with the sector needing over 600,000 more staff by 2031, action is needed now to futureproof this vital workforce.
Our research shows that the pandemic has compelled the nation to reconsider their career goals and to want to do more for others.
Social care has been the backbone of our nation during the pandemic and can provide a meaningful, challenging and fulfilling career.
Everyone deserves a fulfilling later life, but this wouldn’t be possible without the compassion and commitment of our nation’s social care workforce. If people are looking for a rewarding new career, they don’t have to look any further.
Jane Ashcroft CBE Chief executive of Anchor, not-forprofit provider of care and housing
for older people skim the surface of these destructive measures: the Policing Bill will permit the authorities to terminate a protest that is found “to be too loud”. How convenient this will be for the Government in power to reduce the activity of groups not to their taste. Wouldn’t it be incredible if, on the other hand, a football match could be cancelled if the racist chanting was found “to be too loud”.
The Judicial and Courts Bill can be used to reduce the legal accountability of the Government: Johnson’s government was prevented by our laws from ruling without parliament when he prorogued it. In future, are we to have no balance of power? Even Trump couldn’t twist the legal system to that extent.
The Elections Bill will be used to reduce the trade union donations to the Labour Party. Meanwhile, donations to the Tory Party, direct or indirect, by Russian or Eastern European billionaires, will continue with the naked conceit that “all is above board”.
The demand for a photographic recognition document to be produced by all voters at future elections means that those without driving licences or passports might be excluded.
The redrawing of constituency boundaries is planned. Will the
Tory Party make sure that the new boundaries help them? And yet some of us still naively believe that the first duty of a democratic government is to protect the rights and freedoms of the citizen.
The crony approach to awarding contracts during the Covid crisis casts a further profound shadow over this Government. Letting