Letters: No thought for a girl alone for Christmas in a rented room in London

SIR – In July you published a letter from me in which I pointed out that “working from home” for our daughter in London meant working from her bed in her rented room.

Now that the new Tier 4 rules apply, she is apparently supposed to be staying in that one room throughout the so-called festive season. In the absence of the friend with whom she has officially “bubbled”, she is expected to remain there on her own.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, described as “irresponsible” the weekend scenes at London railway stations, as people tried to get out of the capital. I suspect that many of these travellers are in the same position as our daughter.

Once again, the rules have been made by middle-aged people who do not mind spending Christmas in their family homes in London, where they have space and company. Nobody seems to have considered single young professionals living in a rented room.

Moreover, I suspect that these middle-aged people are all male. May I suggest that they should request the opinion of a woman – preferably a mother – before they make any decisions in future.

Katharine Nell
Great Boughton, Cheshire

SIR – For Boris Johnson, author of The Churchill Factor, a quotation from a speech by Churchill in the Commons from May 2 1935: “Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

Sean Butler
Newmarket, Suffolk

SIR – Jonathan Sumption (Commentary, December 19) lucidly argues that, in examples taken from countries in Europe and from North America the policy of lockdown, has demonstrably failed. He also states that we are pursuing a policy from which many will never recover.

The need to impose draconian lockdown restrictions in this country is, as Lord Sumption says, the “destructive consequence of decades of government action.”.

The apparently unspeakable truth is that, irrespective of the government in power and despite continuous increases in inflation-adjusted funding, the NHS has been closing hospitals and losing beds since its inception in 1948. It inherited 10 beds per 1,000 of population. It now admits to 1.9 beds per 1,000. Japan has 13, Germany eight and France six.

Dr Max Gammon
London SE16

SIR – As I unwrapped my 2021 kitchen wall planner yesterday, I caught sight of my 2020 planner.

I have made a resolution. All appointments, events and meetings will be entered in pencil.

Marjory Macgregor
Kelso, Roxburghshire

Post office queues

SIR – The imposition of Tier 4 might be the end for Royal Mail. It has forced me to look at alternatives to queuing at the post office to send parcels.

I now know that courier companies cost less and collect from my address – removing the risk of catching Covid in a stuffy old shop.

Sue Doughty
Reading, Berkshire

SIR – I am waiting for a report of an investigation into breathlessness to arrive by post (Letters, December 19) at my doctor’s surgery. I was promised it had been posted 11 days ago.

Fiona Boyles
Appleby Westmorland, Cumbria

Unicef at home

SIR – Having been encouraged to contribute to Unicef after viewing the horrendous starvation of children in Africa and the Middle East, I am dismayed to learn that the charity has used £700,000 to help feed children in the UK (Letters, December 21).

These funds would make an enormous difference in really needy countries. I have now cancelled my monthly contribution and will instead support a cause that does what it says – feed the poor and starving – rather than one that makes political gestures.

Paul Caruana
Truro, Cornwall

A VC’s best friend

SIR – After the battle of Rorke’s Drift (Letters, December 19), apart from the 11 VCs for valour, there was a mention in despatches for Dick, the fox terrier of Surgeon Reynolds VC (above, from Alphonse de Neuville’s painting, attending to the wounded soldier James Dalton VC). Dick’s behaviour was characterised by “never wavering as shots and spears fell around, only leaving Reynolds’s side once, to bite a Zulu who came too close”.

Hamish Watson
Marlborough, Wiltshire

Vaccination lottery

SIR – On Friday the Government put an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph telling readers how many hundreds of millions of pounds it had spent on the development, purchase and distribution of Covid vaccines.

However, the primary care health group to which my GP surgery belongs has no idea how many vaccines it will receive, or when. My wife is over 80 and would like to know.

Dr Martin Henry
Good Easter, Essex

SIR – Further to Lesley Wright’s letter (December 19) regarding invitations for Covid vaccination being sent by text, what of those of us over-80s who do not own a mobile phone? How will we be told that a vaccination awaits us?

John Buffin
Sompting, West Sussex

SIR – I am 85 and live alone. I received my vaccination appointment letter by post. Included was a map and written instructions on how to get to the medical centre, as well as the leaflet on what to expect after the injection.

I spent less than 20 minutes at the surgery, including the 15 minutes I was required to remain after having the vaccination. It’s not all grim up North.

G V Buxton
Leeds, West Yorkshire

SIR – Police exposure to those breaking the rules will increase under the latest severe restrictions, and close physical contact is inevitable. I am therefore shocked to discover that police are not on the vaccine priority list. Surely this is a woeful government oversight.

Chris Platford
Crudwell, Wiltshire

SIR – After having no luck volunteering locally to help administer the vaccine, I turned to the NHS website.

I completed the form, received a confirmation and three weeks later have not heard another word.

I find it astonishing. Am I the only doctor whose services are apparently surplus to requirement?

Dr Dee Dawson
London N20

Brexit navigation

SIR – I would appreciate some clarification of terminology, in relation to the Brexit negotiations (report, December 21). Is it possible to be simultaneously “sold down the river” and “up the creek without a paddle”?

Tim Watson
St Albans, Hertfordshire

Racing Princess Anne

SIR – In the Nineties, I was being driven from the Helford River back to London in my comfortable Bentley after a weekend’s sailing. I fell asleep.

Somewhere near Plymouth the pace quickened and I woke up to find my friend driving as if he was on a racetrack. He had caught up with Princess Anne’s Scimitar (Letters, December 21), the registration of which was 1318RH, for the 13th/18th Royal Hussars, one of her regiments. My driver and I had belonged to other cavalry regiments, which explained the competition between the two.

We were winning, but I told him to let her go and went back to sleep.

Neale Edwards
Chaffcombe, Somerset

Blank canvas

SIR – On the subject of names (Letters, December 21), I saw on the all-white side of a narrow boat on the Grand Union Canal the name “Intentionally Blank”.

Colin Cummings
Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire

Cornwall is grateful for the visitors it’s had

SIR – Tanya Gold (“Cornwall has had its fill of unwelcome visitors”, Comment, December 16) is right about the economic pressures inside Cornwall, but the headline to her article is not a fair representation of Cornish opinion.

The surge of visitors following the end of the first lockdown was widely welcomed. It kept many businesses afloat; had the summer holiday season been lost, they would have faced what is known as the “triple winter scenario”. An extended season brings much benefit to businesses and their employees.

James Williams
Redruth, Cornwall

SIR – I am Cornish born and bred, and over the years have watched this once special place being turned into nothing more than a circus tent.

Of course we need tourism, but not to the detriment of local people, who no longer use their own villages. Magazines and organisations such as Visit Cornwall publicise this “hidden gem” – but the whole world already knows about it. This cannot carry on.

During the national lockdown I walked around my village and started seeing locals again. I felt a pang on remembering that it was like this not so long ago. There used to be a period of respite at the end of the summer, but the tourist season has been extended so much that even this has gone.

The Cornish, by nature a laid-back people, have been taken advantage of, without regard for our wellbeing or heritage. Cornwall used to be different, but each year it becomes more and more like everywhere else.

David Penprase
Porthleven, Cornwall

Another tale of a loaf of bread, a jug of wine...

SIR – For our first Christmas together, my wife and I had an outdoor lunch (Letters, December 21). We did not want to set a precedent in choosing which parents to see, so we went to Paris.

On Christmas morning we bought a hunk of cheese, a fresh baguette and a plastic bottle of red, then marched off to a bench by the Eiffel Tower.

There, we amused the few passers-by as we giggled our way through the most delicious lunch and one litre of vin rouge sauvage, our Joyeux Noëls getting brighter by the glass.

Lt-Col Dale Hemming-Tayler (retd)
Edith Weston, Rutland

SIR – Like Fiona Wild (Letters, December 19), we have had food deliveries for months, as we are on the vulnerable list.

We are only allowed one a week: fair enough. But after our delivery last Thursday, we tried to book another for this Wednesday or Thursday, only to find that no slots were available.

Had we been warned of this, we would have ordered more. We will now have to take the risk of going to a shop to buy our turkey crown and other Christmas food.

Lynne and Mike Gibson
Swanmore, Hampshire

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