Letters: The NHS can be reformed only if all political parties unite to achieve it

SIR – In a free-market society, a sure sign that wages are not high enough is when employees leave to do something else. Nurses are doing this, and that makes a convincing case.

The only way to change the NHS is to make it an all-party issue. The big decisions that all of us know have to be made are not going to be popular, so there is no point expecting the party in power to face up to them.

The population is living longer, we are keeping more people alive with difficult conditions, and more life-saving medicine and procedures are technically available. For an individual this is wonderful, for a whole population it is unaffordable.

Any solution is bound to be discriminatory, so I don’t envy those designated to make the changes, but I will support whoever shows me that they are serious about doing so.

Andrew Pearse
Guilsborough, Northamptonshire

SIR – On Monday our Ukrainian guest became very concerned about the health of her one-year-old baby. In a telephone consultation with her GP she was advised to go to A&E.

We took the mother and baby without delay, and the baby was triaged to urgent care. The conditions were very cramped for the number of patients waiting. After six-and-a-half hours the mother was warned of a further wait of about four hours before she could expect to see the doctor.

Now, in the middle of the night, with mother and child exhausted, she asked us to collect them as she considered her baby to be at increased risk from the atmosphere of the overcrowded waiting room, and would instead rely on self-diagnosis and self-medication.

When I asked what sort of treatment she could have expected in war-torn Ukraine, she said the delay she experienced her would have been utterly unacceptable over there. Yet we have all come to accept it. And this on a day when there were no NHS strikes. What is happening to this country?

Jack Stenhouse
Ashbourne, Derbyshire

SIR – You report (December 19) that strikes will “trap elderly in hospitals”.

Recently my elderly mother has been to hospital three times. After the first two visits she was discharged, waiting 12 hours for her medication to be issued, to the care of my father.

Three days after her second discharge she contracted sepsis. This time, much more appropriate care was given. I raised my concern that on the previous occasions she was discharged with no follow-up appointments or care plan, and was assured that after leaving the acute medical unit she would be transferred to rehabilitation. On Friday she was discharged again – no rehabilitation, no follow-up.

I wish she was “trapped” in hospital, because we are at our wits’ end.

I have nothing but praise for nurses and doctors, but the system is now broken. If my mum had been kept in from her first admission, two crews of ambulances would not have been tied up for four hours on a busy Saturday.

B Morris
Manchester

Sports car sell-off

SIR – Ian Statham’s regret at the use by China of the MG brand (Letters, December 20) simply underlines the absence of a long-term British industrial strategy since 1945.

In mid-1950s America, especially California, people were going absolutely mad for British sports cars, with four brands in huge demand: MG, Jaguar, Austin Healey and Allard. By the later 1950s Germany had started to erode our market share, especially with the Mercedes 190 and 300 SL, as we failed to update our products and increase production, beset by poor management and militant unions.

Fast forward to the sale of Bentley and Rolls-Royce in 1998 – an even greater industrial suicide – and the automobile world was aghast at 
 Britain allowing such iconic brands to be sold.

It is a total indictment of British policy and reflects our loss of industrial status and respect in the world today.

Tony Brook
Malvern, Worcestershire

Christmas coal

SIR – You report (December 20) that Father Christmas is phasing out the use of coal in Christmas stockings.

In 1949, my brother and I, aged 10 and eight, were punished in this way for opening our presents early the year before and waking up the entire household at 4am by playing the drums that Father Christmas was sufficiently ill-advised to bring us.

Unfortunately, as we opened our presents, once again in the small hours, and found a lump of coal in each beautifully wrapped parcel, we let out such terrible howls that for the second year running we woke everybody up. It was an experiment that, thankfully in our house at least, Father Christmas never repeated.

Richard Longfield
Weston Patrick, Hampshire

Egg grog

SIR – In her later years my mother would have a raw egg and a glass of sherry mixed together (Letters, December 20). She called it her “little pick-me-up”. Even I try it occasionally.

Pamela Booth
Hathersage, Derbyshire

SIR – My grandmother enjoyed a slug of brandy before bedtime. Her daughter changed it to Stone’s Ginger Wine when she was 104. She did not notice the difference and lived to 110.

John Hammond
Romsey, Hampshire

Code for journalists

SIR – The suggestion from newspaper editors that they face a “fight for freedom of the British press” over the Information Commissioner’s Office journalism code (report, December 20) is overblown.

Parliament made a decision expressly to include journalists and the press as subject to data protection law as a result of the Leveson Inquiry and public concern about journalists engaging in unlawful and unethical practices such as phone hacking. My office has been tasked by Parliament with creating a code to assist the media in understanding and meeting their statutory obligations.

This code will provide guidance about how to comply with data protection law while still enabling journalists to do their important job. It does not create new law, and there is nothing in our code that constitutes a limit on the freedom of the press.

It is also misdirected and disingenuous to criticise a draft code that is still being developed. We have consulted journalists and those in the media throughout, and the latest draft of the code reflects a great deal of what we’ve heard.

The editors may prefer to be exempted from data protection laws, but that is a case they must make to the Government. Until that point, it will remain the case that a free press is an essential function of our democracy, but so is the ability of a regulator to carry out the will of Parliament.

John Edwards
Information Commissioner
Wilmslow, Cheshire

SIR – I do not agree with the way Jeremy Clarkson expressed his dislike of the Duchess of Sussex in his newspaper column (Letters, December 20), but if we value free speech we should allow people to be rude and offensive provided they do not break the law.

The comments were offensive, as are many on Twitter, but we should take it with a shrug of the shoulders and move on.

Stephen Barklem
Woking, Surrey

Leftover bix

SIR – Like Barbara Smith (Letters, December 19), I have been using my original Weetabix tin every day for more than 30 years. If any crumbs are left in it, they are joyfully received by our sprocker spaniel Truffle.

Wendy Aitken
Marlow, Buckinghamshire

SIR – I still have my original Weetabix tin, but I keep cream crackers in it.

Martin Hall
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire

SIR – Never mind difficulties opening packs of Weetabix, where have all the Jacob’s Cream Crackers gone ?

Even convenience stores’ shelves are empty of them. It would be nice to have a packet to open.

Mike Gilbert
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

SIR – I am sorry we missed inquiries from Telegraph readers on how to achieve a crumb-free opening of Weetabix (Letters, December 16).

For the past decade we’ve been wrapping our biscuits in paper rather than plastic to benefit not only the planet, but also kitchen tablecloths across the nation.

We have seen some great tricks online, but believe the simplest is the best: use your thumb to lift up the seam running the length of the pack, then gently pull the paper open from one end to the other.

Francesca Theokli
Weetabix Ltd
Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire

Time to remove Cromwell from Westminster

SIR – The Irish press has reported that Paul Johnston, the British ambassador to Ireland, told an audience at Trinity College Dublin that Oliver Cromwell’s actions in Ireland were “completely and wholly indefensible”. He also quoted Winston Churchill’s A History of the English Speaking-Peoples: The Age of Revolution (1957), which says that Cromwell had become a “potent obstacle to the harmony of the English-speaking people throughout the world” and “upon all of us there still lies ‘the curse of Cromwell’”.

We agree, and think it is time to remove Cromwell’s statue from outside Westminster Hall, part of the original Palace of Westminster. After 373 years Parliament should acknowledge Cromwell’s atrocities in Ireland and his error in attempting to proscribe the Catholic religion.

This would be a simple way of showing regard for the Irish people, which would do no harm and be well received. The statue aroused great controversy in Parliament even before it was erected in 1899. This is an opportune time for action, as it could be replaced by a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was a unifying leader.

John Barstow and Michael Varvill
Fittleworth, West Sussex

No escape from the nightmare of British Gas bills

SIR – I have spent months ringing British Gas about my bills (Letters, December 20).

The company has decided that, despite being a 73-year-old widow in a wheelchair, I am using gas and electricity billed at nearly £1,000 per month. This is based on an erroneous estimation of usage. 

I have grown accustomed to tunes and directions to press numbers for different reasons, and have written down the names of many people who understand my problem and vow to ring back with a solution. None have. I even managed to speak to a manager once, but she didn’t ring back either.

I am owed a vast amount of money from the past two years, and am having nightmares and migraines. I stopped my direct debit, but have now been told that British Gas is going to fine me because it has had to email me about missed payments. I’ve been with the company since 1971 but can’t wait to escape.

Susan Kunc
Brighouse, West Yorkshire

SIR – It was small comfort to read (Letters, December 19) that I am not the only person over 70 who will be without heating or hot water until January 6 due to a broken boiler. It is bad enough that British Gas doesn’t have enough engineers, but nor will it find an associate engineer using its “local heroes” service.

Jim Ward
France Lynch, Gloucestershire

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