Fine way to get war on plastic waste in the bag
During a holiday in nairobi, Kenya, last August, there was an announcement on radio and television that as from midnight, plastic carrier bags were banned.
From the following day, being caught with one carried an onthe-spot £20 fine or three days in jail – rather harsh, but i didn’t see another plastic carrier for the remainder of the holiday.
Supermarkets were using paper bags and one store chain was left with a stock of 17,000 plastic bags.
There are no cigarette butts to be seen in the streets of nairobi as smoking is banned both inside and outside.
Could this approach be enforced here? Thomas ForsyTh, Newmains,
Lanarkshire. WHiLE welcoming calls to reduce the use of plastic, replacing it with paper is not the answer. You would need seven lorry loads of paper bags to replace one lorry load of plastic bags.
not long ago, you couldn’t give away paper for recycling. This will only be an effective solution if councils and industrial waste collectors make it a priority. BILL hoDGEs, Eynesbury, Cambs.
Calais chaos
THE chaos at Calais is fuelled by the Schengen Agreement, which forbids internal passport checks between members. France is a member; the uK is not.
Yet Theresa May mollifies President Macron by funding security at Calais and taking more migrants, all to ensure France is nice to us in trade negotiations.
NICK o’GormaN, Kingston-upon-Thames, surrey. AgrEEing to admit more immigrants from France as part of a border control deal will inevitably encourage yet more migrants.
JohN BraIThWaITE, Leominster, herefordshire. WHY are there unaccompanied minors in camps around Calais and other Channel ports? Does France not have social services? Or is this just one Eu country passing on a problem to another?
st JohN CoX, Taunton, somerset. nOT only are we incapable of controlling our own borders, we are having to pay France because it can’t control its borders.
DaVID sKELToN, Goole, E. yorks. FirST Theresa May goes to Brussels and hands over £50billion of our money in exchange for the promise of more hassle.
next, she goes to France and hands over £144million to help the French kick economic migrants over to Britain faster.
is there anything left in the public coffers for her to distribute at Davos? Every time she goes abroad it costs us a fortune. GEorGE DoBBIE, Blairgowrie, Perthshire.
What a stitch-up!
THE French will allow Britain to borrow the Bayeux Tapestry now the Prime Minister has capitulated to their financial demands by agreeing to pay £45million to beef up security at Calais (Mail).
Our taxes have put millions into securing this area over the years, so by coming back for more, they are taking us for mugs.
But one of the stipulations for borrowing the tapestry could be that we would have to foot the bill to restore it.
French President Macron claims Calais needs the money in order to stop it becoming a back door for illegal immigrants to enter the uK, but the real back door will be not having a hard border between the republic and northern ireland.
How tempting to accept the tapestry, restore it and then keep it. France is hardly going to invade us. Let’s get embroidering!
a. J. smITh, march, Cambs.
Trumped by tests
i HAVE taken the same cognitive tests as Donald Trump. From the age of 17, i have belonged to Mensa but due to dyspraxia i struggle to draw a cube.
Someone who is intelligent but suffers working memory problems would do poorly at remembering several numbers in reverse, while someone who has a low iQ with no specific learning difficulty might be able to do well. Pam DoBsoN, Welwyn Garden City, herts. SHAME on those who have mocked the cognitive tests taken by President Trump (Mail).
These are standard questions if dementia or Alzheimer’s is suspected.
Anyone who, like me when my late husband was diagnosed, has been with a loved one who struggled with those questions and realised the enormity and humiliation of the outcome if they failed, would not be so quick to criticise.
L. PETErs, Lamberhurst, Kent. MY FiVE-YEAr-OLD niece could pass the cognitive test Donald Trump claims shows he is a genius. She might need prompting on what date it is, but she knows her address and phone number, and could not only identify all the animals, but do pretty convincing noises for them all.
Like the present White House incumbent, she might not appreciate the responsibilities of leading the free world, but she is a much nicer person and would make a much better president.
m. BraDLEy, hampton, middlesex. MY MOTHEr took the same test and, like Donald Trump, scored 30 out of 30, twice. She was then diagnosed with dementia. LINDa LIGhTFooT, Chichester, W. sussex.