Don’t deny villages the chance to thrive
I TAKE umbrage that as ‘rural folk’, we should be condemned to a third-class broadband service (Letters). We might be a minority, but we still contribute to the country. My husband and I run a small village shop in rural Perthshire, where broadband speeds have always been a problem. Like us, many of the local community rely on the internet for communication and running businesses. BT Openreach is slowly making progress in putting fibre into the glen, but if you venture out of suburbia, you will see how difficult it is to lay cables — on some of the estates, it can be two or three miles up a driveway to someone’s house. We accept the internet can be slow, but ‘Because the money is not as good, and there are not enough jobs to go round,’ I was told. JOYCE WAGHORN, Portsmouth.
Spuds you like
THROW out spuds (Mail)? When I lived in the Cotswolds, at the end of the potato picking season, the farmer would give us each a big bag.
My neighbour used them to make delicious potato wine, which we’d help her to drink and, believe me, it blew your head off!
You learn a lot when you live in the countryside. MADELINE BATES,
St Helier, Jersey.
Idle speculation
LOVING grandparents in collusion with parents who only want the best for their children are being blamed for the lethargy of modern youth (Letters). Imagine the joy of having your unemployed 24- we do moan about it — just like the weather! The reader’s comment about Tesco and Shell propping up failing rural areas is an insult to all the shopkeepers who try very hard to keep villages alive. The big supermarkets have hit us by taking a lot of our trade, but we are not all failing. Our shop has been a vital link to the community since the 1800s.
HELEN BRAWN, Bridge of Cally, Perthshire. PEOPLE in the countryside are right to complain about slow internet speeds. How would city dwellers feel if their water supply collected from rural areas was not effectively delivered to them?
M. LAWSON, Lincoln. year- old grandson living in your spare room.
The sum of his activity is to walk from his bed to his computer and venture downstairs in search of food.
He makes no financial contribution because he believes paid work is slavery.
However, he is quite happy to live off the two lucky pensioners who have helped to spoil him.
Over dinner, he harangues them over the inequalities of the system he feels has deprived him of opportunities because pensioners are inconsiderate enough to outlive their usefulness and are using up resources that should be spent on the needy young.
Name supplied, Axminster, Devon.
Mangan’s mangle
IN THEIR row about having a smart meter installed (Mail), perhaps Anna May Mangan would consent to her husband Joe’s request that she washes his clothes by hand, but with a few conditions.
Joe would be able to change his clothes just once a week WHEN he was prime minister, David Cameron said the internet was as essential as electricity and water. Every local authority, bank, business and the NHS keep on reiterating the same message — do this online, do that online, do everything online. If that’s what the Government and everyone else wants, then they should provide the infrastructure and not penalise rural areas. Mrs SUE MacGREGOR,
Thurso, Caithness. I LIVE in a village, and I don’t expect ultrafast or even superfast broadband; I would just like it to be consistently usable.
T. CANDLER, Tendring, Essex. and should be prepared to turn the handle of the mangle.
Money would be saved by turning down the heating, which means wet clothes would take a up to a week to dry on an airer.
Dinner would be salads or a takeaway, if the cost can be offset against the fuel savings.
If Joe wants chunky soup, he can make it himself, but it would cause the meter to spin when the leftovers are put in the fridge, if it is still allowed to be plugged in. Mrs PAULINE PASMORE,
Shepperton, Surrey.