In the face of such adversity, could you be a police officer?
YOU won’t see protests, parades, or people taking a stand. You won’t see well-known figures using their platforms to support us — in fact, you won’t see much support at all.
What you will see is continued disrespect, disdain and a total disregard for the people who are committed to trying to do the right thing in the face of adversity; people who are prepared to leave their families at home not knowing if they will return to them at the end of their shift.
Underneath the uniform, police officers are human, too. They have friends and family just like you do. When something happens to one of us, it affects us all. We have all been assaulted, spat at, punched. Some have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Could you do it? Rest in peace, Sgt Matt Ratana.
WRITTEN BY A SERVING OFFICER, and supplied by her grandfather.
Clutch at straws?
RESEARCHERS state that feeding wheat products to children may save them from coeliac disease in later life (Mail).
As a child I ate all my Weetabix and Shredded Wheat, not to mention toast and sandwiches and various other staples made with wheat. Food was on ration and we were grateful for what we could get.
A few years ago, not long after I retired, I was recalled to the doctor following an annual checkup that revealed my blood count was extremely low. After various invasive tests at hospital, I was told I am coeliac. I am now on a gluten-free diet. Those Weetabix don’t seem to have helped.
Back to the drawing board, researchers?
ROGER WALSH, Hightown, Liverpool.
That’s nothing!
FATHERS crying as their sons leave home for uni, students moaning that they can’t go out to play...
As a former 18-year- old RAF National Serviceman, confined to barracks at Padgate in Warrington, for eight weeks of training, marched to the barber for a scalping before being sworn at daily by drill instructors, living in a wooden barracks with wind howling through the walls, why do I find it hard to sympathise?
KEITH TuRNER, Norwich.
Bravery gap
I AGREE entirely with the sentiments expressed by Mr Craig (Letters).
I was born during the Battle of Britain, we were bombed out of our house, no government aid was offered then but people survived knowing that they only had themselves to rely on.
I have spoken to many of my generation, who even though classed as too senile to understand what is going on, agree that since the last world war there has been a decided lack of what brought us through the war, namely bravery and the ability to adjust to that which was out of our control, meet it head on and survive.
There’s been a lot of head shaking and murmurs about: ‘What would they do if we had another war?’ Well now we know — moaning about their lot, claiming to be educated but seemingly incapable of understanding the meaning of ‘do as you are told’, and blaming the Government.
No, Boris did not foresee the circumstances which would arise during his premiership and his having ‘ made a U- turn’ over several issues is a sign that he is not afraid to be flexible, listening and learning.
Like ‘nimbies’, they are full of protest, but can give no alternative suggestions as to how we deal with this unseen enemy.
We have a war on our doorsteps, people are going to die, our whole lifestyle is going to change and from the current response of blaming everyone else but ourselves, it is going to be a long, hard slog.
There will be heroes as well as cowards, scaredy- cats and the unsung brave. Which will you turn out to be?
Mrs DOROTHY DuFFIN, Wickham Market, Suffolk.
Open NHS: really?
DURING today’s coronavirus update Professor Chris Whitty said the NHS is open for business despite Covid, and that people should not hesitate to approach the NHS if they have the need for other reasons.
My wife had a lung cancer operation last December and was told she would need to be monitored at three-monthly intervals for the first year. Her first follow-up was postponed by the NHS and could not be done until June.
She was given an appointment for a hospital phone consultation for October 6, which was supposed to be to discuss the result of a CT scan, but no appointment for the scan.
Only by constant telephoning and cajoling has she finally been able to get the scan arranged. The chances are the consultation will now be postponed because the results will not be available by the time of her consultation, increasing her acute anxiety.
My wife has also been given a form to obtain a blood test. The earliest date locally online is March 2021! If she wishes to travel many miles, the earliest is December 2020. She is not in the best of health and any travel is difficult.
This has left me wondering, where in the country is the NHS ‘open for business’? HOWARD ROBERTSON,
upminster, Essex.
Lives at risk
LAST January, I had a health scare (cancer) which resulted in a small operation. I was extremely fortunate to have this before Covid struck.
I have a letter from my consultant stating that if I have ‘any further issues’, I am to be referred back to him.
I have had continuing issues since August. I have never been able to ‘see’ my GP (just ‘phone calls) but she did eventually, refer me ‘urgently’. I have just been offered an appointment, at some stage in the future (a minimum of six to eight weeks), yet this is only for a telephone conversation with a consultant or team member.
One assumes, if anything is considered necessary, there will then be a further wait.
This is unacceptable on so many levels. If the consultants are not seeing their patients, what on earth are they doing?
More lives are going to be lost due to non-treatment of patients desperate for help, than will have ever been lost to this virus. Shameful.
L. GADSBY, Truro, Cornwall.
Local knowledge
PLEASE tell Malcolm Allcroft (Letters) that locals kept well out of the way in Cornwall over the summer when we were jammed with visitors, who then took their germs back ‘ upalong’. This explains why there were no hospital deaths in Royal Cornwall Hospital. Simples!
P LLOYD, Camborne, Cornwall.
Ruined by Ramsay
I AGREE completely with Christopher Stevens’s review of ITV’s The Savoy (Mail). It was cringeworthy before Gordon Ramsay made his entrance, then he (and the F-word) turned up and I turned it off. Disgraceful and totally unnecessary. The sad thing is I’d always intended to take afternoon tea at the Savoy. It’s no longer on my to-do list.
MEG BOuTELL, St Leonards-on-Sea. E. Sussex. BRAVO Christopher Stevens! At last someone has said what I have long thought about the unpleasant ex-footballer Gordon Ramsay.
MRS. M. BARFORD, Heathfield, E. Sussex.