Dangers of rail deregulation

Catastrophes such as the Ohio train derailment and chemical spill reveal how insatiable corporate greed will lead them to successfully lobby governments to allow deregulation, thus dangerously lowering safety standards across the board.

The world also saw a similar example of this when buildings in Turkey were unable to withstand the country’s recent earthquakes, causing them to collapse on the people inside. Through shoddy and regulation-breaking construction that didn’t follow government code, countless lives were gratuitously lost due to profit-motivated greed.

Meanwhile, those same corporations remain unsatisfied, as each year targets increase, and all the more they want – nay, need – to make next quarter. It’s never enough. Maximising profits at the expense of those with so much less – or indeed, nothing at all – will likely always be a significant part of the nature of the big business beast.

Frank Sterle Jr Address supplied

College problems run deep

I was saddened to read Eddie Pells’s article about the NMSU basketball team and the issues that the school as a whole is experiencing. The story was shared with me (and another friend) by a fellow teammate who we played with at NMSU [New Mexico State University] back in the late 1980s. We all agreed that nothing has changed in the athletic department and with leadership since our time at the school.

Maybe one day, the school will start investing in its athletes’ mental health, and not hire coaches with so much baggage. While the teammates that I’ve stayed in touch with all have good careers and lives, we undoubtedly experienced trauma at the hands of the adults at the school who were supposed to be looking out for our best interests.

I know many parents push their kids to get a D1 athletic scholarship, but it’s not always a bed of roses. We endured weekly weigh-ins and charted weight losses and gains that were shared with our fellow teammates. We also endured comments about the size of certain body parts by a male coach. When we blew the whistle, scholarships were taken away. Yet, the administration did nothing when half the team was gone the following year (it wasn’t due to graduation).

Hopefully, the administration that is still employed by NMSU can right the ship before it’s too late.

An anonymous athlete Address supplied

The pot calling the kettle Gray

The Tories’ indignation that Sue Gray may be doing something similar to what many Tories have done before is laughable. As is Johnson’s “lack of Brexit freedoms” – all I've noticed is more red tape, bureaucracy and lack of freedoms from his deal.

Alan Hutchinson Address supplied

Why this pedestrian shouldn’t be jailed

The jailing of a woman for shouting at a cyclist on the pavement is ridiculous. What no one has said is that the Highway Code rule 64 states that one must not cycle on the pavement. The cyclist was breaking the law. And yet the pedestrian goes to jail for telling her so too loudly. Ridiculous.

Peter Harford High Wycombe

Johnson needs to face the music

Not only is there a great gaping hole in Boris Johnson’s defence as regards Partygate, but it seems to me that he thinks we readers and taxpayers are all a bunch of mugs.

People – including royalty – were losing members of their own families while the Tories partied away without a care in the world. Boris just needs to repent, apologise, admit he was in the wrong and resign his seat. Then, and only then, will some of us be satisfied and have some type of justice for Boris Johnson's incompetence. Geoffrey Brooking Hampshire

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