Grasping water firms will bleed the country dry

CLEARLY the chief executives of the water companies are not being paid vast salaries for their efficiency, environmental efforts or financial skills. But perhaps they are fulfilling the agenda of their foreign bosses.

It would seem unlikely that firms based abroad would give a second thought to a polluted river in southampton or dead fish and a foul odour in Newcastle.

They have no love for our countryside or concern for us, and no compunction about squeezing out every penny before selling the firm on to the next vampire.

The fact that successive governments have done little to regulate utilities is even harder to take.

We have been sold off to the highest bidder. Poor Britain, brought to its knees by third-rate chancers and immoral millionaires.

G. MATTHEWS, Lancaster. IF, BAsed on relative salaries, running a regional water company is 20 times more important than being Prime Minister, and talking about football is ten times more important, it’s no wonder we are in such a mess.

ALAN SHARPE, Melton Mowbray, Leics. THERE is one proven method to end a drought. dress 22 men in white. Hammer some sticks into the grass. Then stand back and watch it rain.

KEITH LANGLEY, Nottingham.

Save our pharmacies

CAN’T people join the dots? Lord Grade has highlighted the loss of more than 600 local pharmacies. Allowing these closures shows the lack of thinking outside the ‘save money’ box.

We are being urged to ease the pressure on GPs and A&e, but nothing is done to support the very service that can do this.

In the same way, public libraries are being closed or reduced to a few bookshelves in a council building run by volunteers.

Youngsters are leaving school illiterate and the non-tech-savvy

can’t access online services. I hope the next prime minister steps up to the challenge.

BERYL HOLMES, Northumberland.

What a travesty

THE first period dignity officer is a man (Mail). This is yet another attempt at demoralising, humiliating and undermining women.

We are losing our rights and identities in the name of diversity and inclusion. What a travesty of common sense. How can a man begin to understand the period pain some women endure?

surely it must have been possible to find a qualified woman to take on this role.

Mrs GERRY HUGGETT,

Cowfold, W. Sussex. THE idea of a man being appointed as a period dignity officer is beyond

satire. If he were a nurse, he might have some relevant skills, but a former account manager at Imperial Tobacco? How can he say periods aren’t ‘ just a female topic’ when they clearly are?

File under Richard Littlejohn’s ‘you couldn’t make it up’.

KATE FISHER, Dorchester, Dorset. FUNNY that a male period champion is being paid more than a nurse who could do the job.

KAREN O’NEIL, address supplied.

Police under pressure

THE call to stop sniping at our pressured police (Letters) hit the nail squarely on the head.

I am the mother of a frontline police constable with ten years’ service. He has told me that often there are fewer than a dozen officers to cover an area with a quarter of a million people. He has often worked a 12- hour shift without a meal break, rushing from one call to another. What chance do he and his colleagues have to investigate crimes properly?

Once the police were considered a special case when it came to pay, but not any more. Last year, when other public workers got pay rises, the police had a pay freeze.

Name and address supplied. As A former police officer, I saw many promoted colleagues returning from training centres having had their common sense replaced by groupthink.

The best officers I served with had previously been in the Armed Forces or worked down the pits.

Those who want to be uniformed local PCs should be valued and respected. unfortunately, they are seen as unambitious.

As a CId officer, I recognised that local knowledge was invaluable and could save hours of work.

Let’s get back to officers serving the communities they live in.

TIM DAVIES, Lampeter, Dyfed.

Hard lesson

UNIVERSITY applications from international students have risen.

What about those, including my grandchildren, who are not going to get a third-level education because preference is being given to those paying a lot more?

GORDON BAIRD, Tyne & Wear. THeRe should be a root-andbranch shake-up of universities.

Mickey Mouse degrees don’t give the slightest chance of employment. Or perhaps that’s no longer the point of going to uni. ADRIAN BUTTREE,

Wakefield, W. Yorks. CAN’T get a university place? Get a proper job then — thousands of vacancies need filling.

TERRY COATES, Birmingham.

Time to go

As GOVERNOR of the Bank of england, Andrew Bailey has overseen disastrous inaction on quantitative easing, interest rates, the balance sheet and inflation.

The cloak of excuses needs to fall. He should go.

Prof STEVEN KING, Nottingham.

Lost world

I REMEMBER when the BBC reported news, not opinion; MPs served the country, not themselves; High streets had banks and post offices; the Armed Forces weren’t hauled into court for doing their duty; a local copper gave miscreants a clip round the ear; there were no profanities on TV; and doctors would pay a home visit any time of the day or night. What has happened to society?

JOHN HOLT, Wolverhampton.