Let’s tax cars on how much REAL harm they cause
I SERVICED my first car in 1964 and have always been conscientious when servicing. My previous four cars had diesel engines. I use Redex and have replaced the standard air filters with high-performance ones.
I use synthetic oil, changing it every 4,000 miles and the oil filters at 8,000 miles.
Clean engines are efficient, and on a run from Grasmere in Cumbria to Ayr in Scotland, I achieved 56 mpg with a 1.9-litre car. A fellow Probus Club member has just bought a Peugeot 308 1.6-litre diesel with the AdBlue injection system and particulate filter, meeting the 2015 Euro 6 standard. He boasts that he achieves more than 70 mpg.
AdBlue is a mix of urea and de-ionised water. Injected into the exhaust system, it combines with nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide to produce water and nitrogen, reducing harmful emissions by 80 per cent.
If the basis for setting vehicle tax levels were an engine’s harmful emissions, the annual charge for PSA Group (Peugeot/Citroen) vehicles would be minimal. The nonsense here in Northern Ireland is that MOT centres don’t even check diesel emissions.
Had it been my choice, I would still be driving a diesel car, but my wife chose a Citroen DS3 with a petrol engine which emits 135mg CO2 per 100km. So I now pay tax of £130 annually.
GORDON WILEMAN, Portstewart, Co Londonderry.
Lay off overworked GPs
HOW easy it is for researchers to shame hardworking GPs for their failure to spot cancer (Mail).
Doctors get just ten to 15 minutes to listen to patients, who often don’t tell the whole story or report all of their symptoms.
The GP then has to interpret their answers to make a diagnosis, carry out blood tests or refer them to hospital physicians or surgeons, which can take months.
The medical services need more money, more up-to- date equipment and more staff. NHS workers do more for the little they get than the freeloaders in the House of Lords.
MPs should roll up their sleeves and go to work in a hospital or clinic. How quickly would funds then become available?
RONALD BALL, Farnborough, Hants. WALKING is again being extolled as the equivalent of a ‘wonder drug’ (Good Health).
I walk for at least 90 minutes every day in fields and woodland, but at a recent routine NHS health check recently, this wasn’t counted as ‘activity’.
Going to the gym once a week would be considered ‘an activity’, but I’m officially recorded as ‘inactive’. I now take all statistics about sedentary lifestyles with a pinch of salt. ROSALIND HARRISON,
Battle, E. Sussex.
A nation divided
THE SNP doesn’t need any help in ‘splitting the UK’ (Mail): the UK is already broken.
In 1882, Breton philosopher Ernest Renan defined a nation as having ‘common glories in the past, a common will in the present’.
It’s hard to describe the UK as a nation, considering the contrasting opinions throughout the country. But how would splitting the UK further help?
It would leave the population of an independent Scotland still split. The 2014 referendum saw Scotland divided 45/55.
I was unhappy with the EU referendum result, but I want to live in a nation where democracy is respected. LUCY CLODE, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Soft-boiled Brexit
THE ‘soft/hard’ Brexit dialogue is mesmeric but deceptive.
After Jean- Claude Juncker dictated that no country outside the EU could be in the single market without accepting freedom of movement, Mrs May had no choice but to announce that Britain would leave that market.
There is no ‘soft’ option unless ‘soft’ means continuing towards a federal Europe. The ‘soft’ option the Lib Dems et al really want is not leaving the EU.
In the battle of the soundbites, the term ‘soft’ appeals to those who want Easy Street. ‘ Hard’ is associated with adversity. This is a false premise.
Mrs May isn’t seeking anything harder for Britain than rapprochement with the European mainland. Any ‘hardness’ is likely to come from the other side.
The UK’s post- referendum position is realistic and diligent. The EU has become something like expensive gym membership which isn’t good value: we don’t use it often, so it makes sense to pay for ‘ as and when’ we use it rather than pay an exorbitant annual fee.
Just how ‘ hard’ realigning ourselves with the EU will be will depend largely on the EU. WENDY NEVARD, New Romney, Kent.
Corbyn catastrophe
CAN anyone explain what would happen were Jeremy Corbyn to be elected with a majority of seats?
If he is, can we assume that on June 9 a message would go out to our Trident vessels to return to their pens in Scotland?
Clearly, it would be pointless for any form of deterrent to remain at sea after it had been confirmed worldwide that our new leader would never use such deterrence.
We would then need to assemble a flotilla of ships to evacuate residents and their belongings from the Falkland Islands to start their refugee lives in the UK, our new PM having notified Argentina that it’s as good as theirs.
Would there be an alternative to this threat to our national security? I believe it’s usually termed a military takeover.
A better option would be for a Palace spokesperson to make it clear that under no circumstances would Mr Corbyn be invited to form a Government. STUART CHALLONER, Stockbridge, Hants.
Terror confusion
THE Wiltshire town that has had to call off its charity day fete because it didn’t have an anti-terror plan got me wondering who should have such a plan in place (Mail).
Before entering pubs, shops, public buildings, even our places of work, should we demand to see their policy on how they would deal with such an attack?
Should we have our policy pinned to our front door so visitors know that if an attack should occur while we’re enjoying our tea and biscuits, we’re prepared to handle the situation? AVARANT GIBSON, Manningtree, Essex.
Antisocial media
I’VE just returned from a week’s break in Portugal. At every meal there, you could see children eating with one hand and with a tablet or phone in the other.
I pity their social skills and the world when they get older. They aren’t being taught by their parents, who sit at the table and ignore them.