What about a referendum on the TV licence?

THE fact that tough times lay ahead with the squeeze on public finances is something that was always going to happen after a pandemic.

Yet by extending how much low-paid people can keep in their pockets and increasing the tax thresholds over the years, I believe successive Conservative

Chancellors have at least cushioned this blow to a certain extent.

Add to this the heart-warming jobs data and things are not that bad after all.

Council tax rises of five per cent or more were a regular occurrence under a Labour government, as was the increase in cost of the television licence too.

Yet, by refusing to follow our former EU friends in locking down just at the thought of a new variant of Covid on the horizon coupled with escaping EU bureaucracy on the vaccine does give the Conservatives hope.

They must use these Brexit advantages though.

For example, instead of Tory MPS tearing each other apart just for the sake of ambition, what is wrong with exposing the socialist rot at the heart of the failed devolved assemblies in Scotland and Wales, whose real agenda is not just higher taxes but an interfering and near police state nation too?

Furthermore, how about having a referendum on the television licence fee as a whole?

Geoffrey Brooking.

Flood defences well planned and built

SOMETHING positive on these pages for a change I hope.

I popped down to the pier this morning for a quick look as I’d heard the flood defences have been completed.

I know the work has taken a long time, and residents and businesses have had to put up with a lot of upheaval, but the results are fantastic.

There are large open spaces, plenty of seating, viewing windows along the front for the little ones, very well - planned and constructed. Well worth a stroll. T Gostelow, Willerby.

Smokers near hospital not a good look for city

I KNOW there is a non-smoking policy in the grounds of the hospital, but why are staff allowed to smoke in the bus stop and bring out stools on the pavement on Anlaby Road?

Doesn’t look good for visitors to Hull Royal Infirmary or the approach to the city centre.

Name supplied.