Letters: NHS patients are at risk after 12 years of government incompetence

SIR – Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary, said that the proposed walkout by ambulance staff would put patients at risk. I was involved in the last ambulance strike 30 years ago. During the five months of the dispute, we never saw ambulances queueing for hours to offload patients.

If there is a risk to patients, it is due to 12 years of incompetent government – not a one-day strike.

Graham White
Kingham, Oxfordshire

SIR – I abhor strikes but have total sympathy for ambulance workers. They are first responders in a front-line emergency service who do a tremendous, often unpalatable job, and have been under-appreciated.

As a former police officer, I was always mightily relieved when an ambulance turned up at road and home accidents, street assaults, suicides and sudden deaths. They deserve more pay for dealing with these difficult situations and for saving lives with their expertise.

I have experience of the ambulance paramedics who have dealt with me twice in the past few months, rushing me to hospital in emergency mode. The ambulance crews should be paid what they richly deserve.

John Dorricott
Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire

SIR – The shortage of nurses has prevailed for years, and it ill behoves MPs on salaries of £84,000 to perpetuate the crisis by pretending that they cannot find the money.

Voters remember the promise of spending an extra £350 million per week on the NHS; they remember the “whatever-it-takes” approach to buying PPE in 2020; and they remember the billions allocated to HS2. The vast majority of the electorate value the NHS but see a Government that does not. Continued intransigence on this issue is simply a gift to the opposition parties.

Chris Johnson
Bradford, West Yorkshire

SIR – The cost of storing unwanted or unusable PPE has now passed £1  billion. This is typical of the breathtaking incompetence at all levels of government. No wonder nurses feel so undervalued that they have to strike. They and hospital doctors took the full brunt of the first two waves of Covid-19, and sadly hundreds died trying to save others.

Kim Potter
Lambourn, Berkshire

SIR – The current strikes that some compare to the General Strike of 1926 remind me of a letter I read recently, written in May 1926, which includes a quotation from a BBC broadcast given by the Archbishop of Westminster at the time, Cardinal Bourne: “There is no moral justification for a general strike of this character ... It is therefore a sin against the duty which we owe to constituted authority and to God who is the source of that authority.”

How times have changed.

Celia Webb-Carter
Fairford, Gloucestershire

British Gas delays

SIR – I was told by a British Gas engineer that one reason for increased delays to service (Letters, December 19) was the use of electric vans. These need to be recharged at least once a day, which has significantly reduced the number of calls that can be made.

This is a classic example of greenwashing. Appearing to be environmentally friendly is now, it seems, more important for many businesses than providing the service for which their customers are paying.

Mark Westaby
Leominster, Herefordshire

SIR – My mother, aged 87, calls me daily to let me know her total electricity cost according to her smart meter.

She watches it more than the television, and it has become an obsession to keep the sum very low. Indoors, Mum’s wearing several jumpers and a coat. She’s well in credit and can afford the bills. Visitors are few. I’ve run out of ideas.

Jacky Staff
Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh

Clarkson vs Markle

SIR – I would like to thank all those celebrities who stood up against Jeremy Clarkson’s rant about Meghan Markle, especially Carol Vorderman.

How could Mr Clarkson possibly have claimed to know that “everyone who’s my age thinks the same way”? He certainly didn’t ask me; I wish he had. I would have been pleased to tell him that I think the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have had a very bad deal, and I believe their version of events.

P J Mills
Dursley, Gloucestershire

Christmas mystery

SIR – One of the mysteries of Christmas is that, over a great many years, I have never received a duplicate card (Letters, December 19).

Even in the past – when the post was working, with two deliveries a day, and we received numbers in the high 70s – each and every card was different.

Paul Milner
Sheringham, Norfolk

SIR – How amazing to read Nairn Brown’s memory (Letters, December 19) of his father sending one Christmas card, signed off with pseudonyms, to a random address every year. My great aunt Lucy, who lived in Ayrshire, was one of the lucky recipients and often wondered who “Bob, Edith and the children” were. She lived to be 104 and, in the end, became convinced that they were long-lost cousins.

Peter Baker
Worthing, West Sussex

SIR – I think my husband and his old friend from college must have a record for sending the same birthday card to each other every year since 1979.

It has continued even while they have both lived in different countries – until this year. The chance of The Card getting lost in the Royal Mail industrial action was too much of a risk to take so, for the first year ever, my husband will have to wait until it is safe for his turn to receive it.

Barbara Wicker
Málaga, Spain

A tot and a Telegraph

SIR – My daily joy comes at around 10 am, when everything stops for a coffee and brandy (Letters, December 19), and I read The Telegraph (which includes doing a Codeword puzzle).

If I’m out on the golf course at that time, my friend produces a flask of the above, which is gratefully received.

Marilyn Turrell
Rooksbridge, Somerset

Gary Neville’s rant

SIR – I had just settled down to watch the World Cup final and chose the ITV coverage. Within minutes I had to endure a prepared monologue by Gary Neville comparing the undoubted human rights breaches by Qatar to the way the British Government is treating nurses and railway workers attempting to secure higher pay rates.

I knew by tuning in to ITV that I would have to endure Mr Neville’s questionable punditry, but I do not appreciate being preached at by him on any subject other than football. Why did he choose to express views on a subject in which he is not qualified, and why did ITV allow him this platform?

Wilson McLellan
Lutterworth, Leicestershire

SIR – I look forward to hearing that Mr Neville has donated his entire fee for the World Cup coverage to the strikers he claims are being demonised by the Government.

Charles Penfold
Ulverston, Cumbria

SIR – Thank goodness we did not have to wake up to photographs of President Macron posing with the World Cup.

Mick Ferrie
Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

SIR – In the light of one of the greatest ever football matches, is there not a strong case for Fifa to cancel the ignominy and tragedy that is the penalty shoot-out in the World Cup final, and make both teams joint winners after a draw?

David Brooks
York

SIR – At last we have some good news. Gareth Southgate is to stay as England manager. I wish him all the very best.

Mary Moore
London E2

Alpine antidote

SIR – Many years ago, when I tended to party at this time of the year, a dear Swiss friend gave me a hangover cure from the Engadin region of Switzerland. It’s called Mehlsuppe, and if you aren’t too hungover it’s simple to make.

Add a large lump of butter to a pan and two ounces of plain flour. Cook and let the butter slightly brown the flour to give a nutty flavour. Slowly add water or light stock, season to taste and stir until you have a thin broth. It may seem unpalatable, but it does the trick.

Avril Wright
Snettisham, Norfolk

The disheartening fate of a great British brand

SIR – As a lifelong MG sports car enthusiast I was saddened – although not surprised – to read of the proposed push for more sales of Chinese-owned MG electric cars in Britain.

The sale of the MG marque to China in 2005 was a scandal in its own right. By 2011, the owner, SAIC Motor, was designing and building entirely Chinese models, with the MG octagon badge as the only remaining connection with the car’s heritage. The two main MG classic car clubs in Britain are now promoting these products of the Chinese government in their monthly magazines.

Are we ever going to learn that this can only end badly for Britain? Unless our Government bans or imposes hefty tariffs on these products, and our people vote with their feet, it is only a matter of time before the economic power of China turns us into a vassal state.

Ian Statham
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Reform pensions to drive down national debt

SIR – The Adam Smith Institute argues that wealthy older people should not receive any state pension (report, December 16). This would effectively introduce means testing to pensions, as with all other state welfare benefits.

David Brown (Letters, December 19) is mistaken to claim this would amount to theft, since “such pensioners have paid for their pensions through National Insurance”. NI welfare benefits (including pensions) are neither earned nor funded. My large and unnecessary state pension is paid for by my children and others through ever-increasing NI contributions. My own contributions paid for the state benefits receivable during my working lifetime on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Only a funded pension scheme gives members a defined entitlement. The Adam Smith proposal, if adopted, would quickly resolve the debt crisis.

Peter Froggatt
Dorking, Surrey

SIR – David Brown should try emigrating. As with thousands of fellow expats, my state pension was frozen the day I left Britain nine years ago, despite the fact that I had paid in all my working life to secure a decent, index-linked retirement pension.

A devious loophole allows the Government to say: “We’re not legally obliged to pay – so we won’t”. And that’s governments of both colours. Shame on them.

David Conroy
Christchurch, New Zealand

SIR – It is a myth that a pensioner is a millionaire just because they live in a house worth more than £1 million.

The real test of someone’s wealth is whether they could write a cheque for £1 million and have it honoured. Very few pensioners could do this. Others may be asset rich, but are cash poor.

Clive Moorman
Cobham, Surrey

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