Letters: Police should enforce the law to protect the public from dangerous electric vehicles
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SIR – Margaret Scaldwell, who was put in a coma after she was hit by an e-bike (report, February 4), calls for controls on them and e-scooters. Having been forced off the pavement by a scooter recently, I agree with her.
In a misguided attempt at reducing carbon emissions, many councils have designated parts of their pavements as cycle paths. This is despite the fact that cycling on the pavement is still illegal.
E-scooters, unless part of council trial schemes, are classed as motor vehicles, and as they cannot be insured they are illegal on public roads. The scooter problem (endemic in my local town) could therefore be fixed by the police simply doing their job.
E-bikes must surely be classified as motor vehicles. Something similar to compulsory basic training for motorbikes should be required before use, and insurance obtained. But the police would have to be prepared to enforce these changes.
Ian Brent-Smith
Bicester, Oxfordshire
SIR – At 2am on December 1 last year I was woken by my wife, who said there was someone in the house. I went into the hall to find the front door wide open. On looking out, I saw a car parked with three men in it. It eventually drove off.
My wife called the police, who came within 20 minutes and reassured us, taking statements and checking neighbours’ houses. They refused to leave us alone in an unsecured house (the front and back-door locks had been burnt), waiting until my son arrived about an hour later. In the morning an officer dusted for fingerprints and another took downloads from neighbours’ CCTV.
We have been updated several times since. We have only praise for the Humberside Police.
Richard Rodgers
Pollington, West Yorkshire
The Army’s appeal
SIR – I read with bewilderment that the Armed Forces are surprised that they are unable to recruit in sufficient numbers (report, February 4). Who would wish to travel the world fighting various enemies at the behest of the United States? The British fought in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and now Yemen – for what purpose?
British troops were twice as likely to be killed in Afghanistan than their American counterparts. To my mind, none of this serves as much of a recruiting poster.
James Foxall
Loughborough, Leicestershire
SIR – Having been brought up in the era of the Iron Curtain, I never believed that I would end up living in eastern Europe and on the front line. Yet it is now evident that complacency over Russia must not prevail.
I don’t believe in peacetime conscription (report, February 4), but I think a version of the Swiss model should be considered. Perhaps every school leaver should be obliged to do six weeks’ basic training and then attend a four-week refresher course every five years until the age of 40. Then, in the event of aggression, there would be a large pool of people who could rapidly be brought up to speed.
Jonathan Youens
Bucharest, Romania
SIR – Stored in the attic above my bedroom is the assault rifle provided to my son by the Swiss Army. He takes it down now and again and checks it on the kitchen table – like thousands of other young men do here.
I asked him once why there is not more gun crime in Switzerland. He replied: “Because we are only allowed to use it when we are on manoeuvres.”
Eileen Letestu-hanks
Geneva, Switzerland
Debt-addled Britain
SIR – Jeremy Warner is right about our “debt-addled” country (“Debt annihilation is approaching and no party is minded to stop it”, City, February 4).
When I was an adviser for Citizens Advice, I specialised in helping clients with debt problems. The debt itself was never the biggest issue to deal with. Working with clients to establish and follow a budget that accounted for all regular spending, including savings for known future expenditure like new shoes for the children, was by far the most difficult problem.
Unless clients could grasp that they had to find a way of spending a bit less each month than they earned, they would lose control of their lives. Courts and bailiffs could take over.
It is not a difficult concept to grasp, but I know that it can be extremely difficult to choose what you are going to spend less on. Food? Kids’ treats? HS2?
David Hayes
Farnham, Surrey
SIR – I’m sure ratepayers across the country, who are being punished with higher council tax due to the threat of councils going bankrupt (report, February 8), can see how important it is that HS2 continues to receive all the funding it needs to become the biggest infrastructure disaster in history.
Peter McHugh
Alvechurch, Worcestershire
NHS cancer delays
SIR – As a loyal subject, I wish the King a speedy recovery, but it has to be said that his cancer diagnosis throws the parlous state of the NHS into stark relief. He has instant access to the very best healthcare, so an early diagnosis was inevitable, and is likely to result in a positive outcome. Most of the rest of us must wait, sometimes for months, for investigations, diagnosis and treatment – allowing cancer to advance and become less treatable.
We spend a fortune on the NHS, yet our cancer outcomes are worse than those in most comparable countries. It simply isn’t good enough. When will we have a government prepared to think the unthinkable and sort this mess out without just throwing money at it and hoping it goes away?
Georgina Stanger
Caerwent, Monmouthshire
The fate of a once-popular Christian name
SIR – Sadly I have no knowledge of any young Janets (Letters, February 4), but older ones are alive and well. Many are Janet Elizabeth, named after the late Queen.
There were at least three in my class at school. I was often called Jan – only Janet when my parents were cross with me.
I suppose it has been succeeded by Jane, and I cannot imagine there will be an imminent comeback of Janet.
Janet Elizabeth Hollis
Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex
SIR – Janet Wilson (Letters, February 4) should try not to feel old or despondent when she hears her name – one that she presumes isn’t given to anyone young, and so therefore must be an old person’s name.
When in London, I used to go out with a Janet, and one of the things I found most appealing about her was her name.
Back then, every girl seemed to be named Candida, Charlotte, Camilla, Constance or Clementine. For me, the name Janet was – and still is – definitely the most attractive.
Stefan Badham
Portsmouth, Hampshire
SIR – Mr Rochester called Jane Eyre by the name Janet. What could be more romantic?
Maggie Summers
Hexham, Northumberland
SIR – I enjoy visiting France, where I am addressed as “Jan-ay”. I have adopted this pronunciation and feel much happier and rather exotic.
Janet Newton-Lewis
London N5
SIR – If Janet Wilson thinks her name dates her, try Margaret.
Margaret Scattergood
Solihull
SIR – I regret to inform Janet Wilson that the young Janets are an extinct species, as are the young Alans.
Alan Hunt
Edgware, Middlesex
SIR – Joan is another name that has gone out of fashion. I am 86 and the only other Joan I know is 85.
Joan Dobson
Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire
SIR – Are there any young people named John? Ordained for 65 years, I have christened only one John, a name once so common.
John Bunyan
Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia
A flower crown
SIR – Your report (February 4) on the possibility of “Mr Pink” becoming the first male Lincolnshire Flower Queen put me in mind of the Benjamin Britten opera Albert Herring, in which the lack of suitably qualified local May Queen candidates results in the election of the virginal Albert as May King.
I wonder if similar rules apply in Lincolnshire. One can only speculate as to what occurred during Albert’s drunken night out with the £25 prize money. A clue might lie in the discovery the following morning of his crushed crown of flowers.
Paul Duggins
Birmingham
Apprentice teachers
SIR – I was intrigued to read about the proposed teacher apprenticeship scheme (report, February 4).
In the 1960s, such schemes were commonplace, and my friend and I joined up. On the first day I was shown around the school, then taken into a class of 42 six-year-olds, handed a piece of chalk, informed that playtime was at 10.45, and left to it.
Fortunately I loved it and spent 30 years in primary education. I’m sure the new scheme won’t be quite as challenging.
Eve Wilson
Hill Head, Hampshire
SIR – After I had taken my A-levels at my state grammar school, the headmaster invited me to stay on for a year. I played lots of sport and was even able to take classes in Spanish and Russian. In those days (the 1960s), when teachers were absent, prefects were asked to invigilate. I did a lot of this, and taught science classes.
Apart from this being a lovely in-house gap year, I went to university knowing that I’d take a degree in physics and become a teacher. I loved my 46 years of teaching, and would do the same again if time was set back.
Geoff Piper
Cranbrook, Kent
SIR – At school I was introduced to the works of the early 19th-century poets such as Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron and Coleridge. At times of stress and despondency, after having lost two of my children to cancer, I found succour and strength in recalling their words on such matters as beauty, life and death (Letters, February 4).
During a career as a teacher of English at a number of comprehensive schools, I was disappointed to find that the great majority of my pupils had never heard of these great icons of literature. This is a sad reflection of our education system today.
Philip Woolcock
Preston, Lancashire
The cost of charity
SIR – Mary Guttridge (Letters, February 4) complains that Age UK was charging £12 per hour for her son to visit an elderly gentleman, and that he is now continuing the relationship on a personal basis without charge.
At Surrey Heath Age Concern, of which I am a trustee, we’ve offered a visiting and befriending service, free of charge, for many years, despite having to employ staff to train and vet our befrienders, receive and, if necessary, act on their reports, and offer advice. In addition we have insurance to cover us and our volunteers in the event of accusations of theft, harm, inappropriate behaviour and so on.
A charity is a business that happens to be a charity, and we’ve only been able to offer a free service because of the generosity of those who support us. Charities need income streams, and it would not be unreasonable to ask elderly people, many of whom have substantial assets, to contribute to the costs of providing a service.
Denis Fuller
Lightwater, Surrey
Marriage’s mysteries
SIR – David Fillingham (Letters, February 4) quotes a fictional parson on the subject of marriage and its pitfalls for the unwary bachelor.
A similar conclusion is delivered in George V Higgins’s novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle, where an ageing married criminal says to a younger single one: “I don’t have time to explain married life to you, and besides, you wouldn’t believe me anyway. I didn’t believe it when they told me, and you wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”
Tom Stubbs
Surbiton, Surrey
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