Is this really a turning point in war on waste?
SO the students went on strike in protest at climate change on the eve of the bank holiday weekend? I can only imagine how disappointed the teachers must have been that their charges didn’t go marching outside class hours.
Still, it is great to see the young people taking an interest in environmental issues. Hopefully, this will bring benefits in the form of litter-free streets, litter-free pop concert sites, the complete eradication of drug abuse and no more noise pollution. Imagine how beautiful the countryside will look without the endless trails of discarded wrappers and plastic bags along rural roads.
Maybe the students will bring their protests (and waste) home in order to convince less environmentally friendly parents to stop fly-tipping the household waste that turns so many secluded beauty spots into illegal dumps.
It will be great when everybody understands that it isn’t the plastic itself that’s the actual problem, but rather how it is disposed of after it is of no more use to the litter louts!
EUGENE CASSIDY, Co. Cavan.
Victims need justice
BRITISH justice has not changed, not because it shouldn’t, but because it is unable to do so due to an inbuilt reactionary mindset that favours its own.
Bloody Sunday took place on January 30, 1972, when paratroopers acting on orders corralled civil rights marchers in the narrow streets of the Bogside in Derry and began a shooting spree that resulted in 13 dead and dozens injured, while another died later. All innocent civilians, the oldest aged 59, the youngest 17.
The Widgery Tribunal followed, which was a disgraceful concocted whitewash on the part of the British justice system, vindicated the actions of the soldiers on the day.
Then we had the Saville Inquiry which resulted in the British prime minister of the day David Cameron issuing a public apology.
The Saville inquiry came to its conclusion even though it was impeded in its investigation by the UK Ministry of Defence, which failed to supply over a thousand army photographs and original army video footage of the march and its gruesome aftermath. Guns used by the paratroopers on their shooting spree were ‘allegedly lost’ and the remainder destroyed. Yet some of those armaments turned up later in Beirut and Sierra Leone, something which pointed to lies and further cover-ups.
Robert Ford, the much-decorated commander of land forces, set the plans in place to oversee the civil rights march, but in doing so he chose a regiment known as 1 Para with Colonel Derek Wilford in charge, while his second in command was Captain Mike Jackson.
The logic behind General Ford’s use of this, the most ruthless regiment of the British Army against unarmed civilians was that they were going to be dealt with once and for all, and dealt with they were, leaving blood and bodies of innocent victims strewn in door- ways and footpaths. Following the recent publication of the report into what happened on the day, only one of the many soldiers who took part in the massacre is going to face trial.
I understand there is a lot going on about Brexit and the horrendous killing of innocent people at prayer in New Zealand, but that is no excuse for the deafening silence from our Government politicians on the matter. What message does it send to the surviving relatives who have campaigned for so long for justice? It says a lot for our public representatives.
JAMES WOODS, Gort an Choirce, Dún na nGall.
Pension scam
CONTRARY to the official Government promise, we contributory OAPs are now being informed that our pension review will not be completed by the agreed end of March 2019 nor has a new deadline been set.
Clearly, and judging by the scant resources that are devoted to rectifying this fiasco, there never was any official intention of resolving this financial matter. Apart from our financial loss there is the added insulting stigma of being deemed second-class citizens by the State. Obviously the official intention is to change little or nothing in the certain knowledge that nature will remedy this deliberate State-inflicted elder discrimination arising from its 2012 Act. Uniquely this Act, with its retrospective aspect, was agreed by all members of the Oireachtas from TDs to senators – both elected and selected.
Then without any consultation, that Bill was quickly signed into law by the President. There wasn’t even one representative within the House who objected.
As it behoves all democratic governments to treat all their citizens fairly and equally, it is amazing that a small unique group, of citizens were selected for special and severe discrimination, and by the very institution which owes those pensioners a legal duty of care, and protection.
In return for doing a lifetime of honest work and purchasing our individual pensions, through our ‘stamp’ payments, we are now being treated as outcasts by a native government.
While sadly its already too late for many of the deprived pensioners, the only democratic remedy for those remaining is the immediate repeal of the penal, discriminatory ‘bonkers’ 2012 Act. DENIS O’HIGGINS,
Monaghan.