Fenland Citizen letters – June 10, 2020
People like Ramila need our support
I was saddened to learn of the loss of Ramila Karia (Fenland Citizen, May 20). Although I didn’t know her well, I’ve been a regular customer of Chatteris Post Office for many years and she would always give me a friendly greeting whenever I went in.
On one occasion, she and her husband Satish shared their fish and chips with me!
Many in Chatteris are probably unaware of the dedication shown by this couple as they had been travelling from Peterborough every day to keep the shop going, despite the fact that it’s been a struggle to make ends meet.
With online and other options now taking much of the traditional business from all Post Offices, the sale of greetings cards, Lottery tickets, some stationery and a few other items has provided little to compensate.
The importance of the Post Office increased when all of the banks in Chatteris finally closed as it became the town’s only provider of any kind of high street banking service.
Perhaps the closure of most shops during the lockdown has reminded us of the value of the high street. Do we really want to put all our eggs into the online basket, especially when the technology often proves to be unreliable and when even large companies have been vulnerable to the hackers?
Not all high street business proprietors will have the tenacity of Ramila and Satish. They need our support.
Philip Wright
Chatteris
No excuse to behave in this way
On attending an appointment at the George Clare Surgery in Chatteris, I stood in the designated area for patients waiting to be called.
During this brief time, around 10-15 minutes, I was shocked and taken aback at the abuse directed at the reception nurse by not just one but THREE ‘patients’. Each person was male, elderly and appeared determined to undermine and humiliate the nurse who, to her credit, stayed calm under very difficult circumstances.
I was shocked to witness at first hand such unacceptable behaviour in such a short space of time!
We are all too readily prepared to blame today’s youth for such behaviour. I am nearing 75 myself, but the elderly, in particular, have no excuse to behave this way.
These people should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves!
Anthony Warren
Chatteris
We don’t get to put our view directly
Borough of Tower Hamlets Council has now overturned Mr Jenrick’s decision which went against the advice of planning inspectors.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has accepted he approved a £1bn East London housing development unlawfully.
The decision was made just one day before new rules would have added millions to the cost of the project, saving the developer Desmond at least £40m.
The money would have gone towards improving infrastructure for the local residents.
During one of the daily COVID-19 briefings, Mr Jenrick was asked by a journalist about this planning decision and in his preamble to the question the journalist said that the minister had been at a dinner function with the developer concerned before the decision was made.
We’ve only got the ear of our local MP and that only usually via email. We don’t get to put our point of view directly.
Those with the money who want to develop or build do get the chance one way or another to do what we can’t. I still wonder why MVV feel confident enough to continue with the incinerator scheme when it is obviously in an inappropriate place.
I think the above behaviour of Robert Jenrick has justified the concerns I raised in recent letters over the Housing Secretary’s final say about the proposed incinerator.
He appears to have survived calls for his resignation, but will he be more cautious about siding with a developer when it comes to the proposed incinerator?
David Silver
via email
Decision has sapped a lot of goodwill
You may well be reading this and agreeing that it is time to turn the page.
When the country is still in the grip of a health crisis – and the start of an economic one – of course the conduct of one individual is dwarfed by the concerns and fears of millions of people, and the scale of the decisions that the Government has to make on all of our behalf. The belief inside No 10 is that the tangible outrage has started to wane. But the political drama of the last few days is relevant, whether Downing Street likes it or not.
Fatigue with the hour-by-hour drama of the story itself may not quickly remove that question mark.
At the very least, the episode has created argument and anger, just at the moment when the Government was preparing to ask the population to understand a new set of instructions on how to live their lives that require unity to work.
And even though the Government has a huge majority in Parliament, the Cummings saga has cracked the relationship between much of the Tory Party and its boss in No 10. The story may pass and the memory may fade. But the Prime Minister’s decision to defend his aide throughout the controversy has sapped a lot of goodwill that existed between MPs and those he needs to cheer his leadership from the backbenches.
Some ministers are still upset, even appalled, with how events have unfolded. And with the level of challenge the Government will face in the months to come, it is a self-imposed fracture it could well have done without.
After a period when the Government has enjoyed an astonishing level of public support, the public was given a reason to doubt the conduct of those making the decisions. The number one question is, can it survive after the mess it has created?
Footnote: A Labour MP has apologised and stood down from her frontbench role after admitting breaching lockdown rules.
Rosie Duffield met her partner in her Canterbury constituency for a five-hour walk when he was still living with his wife. Guidance in place at the time in April banned people from socialising with anyone from outside their own household. The MP said she took responsibility for her actions and would quit her role as an opposition whip in the Commons.
John White
Wisbech
It’s going to come back to the fore
Coronavirus means that one issue – warfare in the Tory party over decades – has been temporarily hidden.
Brexit, however, is now going to come back to the fore. This issue clearly demonstrates Boris Johnson’s unreliability for the capitalist class.
The working class vote for Brexit four years ago was, at base, a cry of rage against capitalist austerity.
However, given the absence of a mass force putting a socialist, internationalist case for Brexit, the vacuum was partly filled by the nationalist ‘little Englanders’, not least the pro-Brexit wing of the Tory party.
Even when Boris Johnson won the general election with the slogan ‘get Brexit done’, big sections of the capitalist elite still hoped that he would use his mandate to negotiate a deal which kept Britain closely aligned to the EU.
Those hopes are now fading.
Boris Johnson is currently insistent that the transition period will not be extended beyond the end of 2020, making negotiating any comprehensive deal highly unlikely, and any deal at all difficult.
This month will see another round of talks, followed by the July 1 deadline for extending the transition period. The gap between the two sides is huge.
The major world powers are increasing trade barriers. Britain – a second-rate power outside the EU with no significant trade deals – is bound to be badly squeezed.
Despite the change in the parliamentary Tory party, there are still more than 130 Tory MPs who supported ‘Remain’ in the referendum.
Most of the capitalist class will be exerting huge pressure on them to try to force the Tory party to change course.
Given the growing unpopularity of Boris Johnson, they may also see opportunities to replace him with a more reliable leader.
John Smithee
Wisbech
Western culture to blame?
The report into the effect of the coronavirus shows that people from minority backgrounds have a higher death rate than white people, but nobody knows why
Many are blaming it on standards of living, wages, the jobs primarily occupied by people of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, and housing. But what if this isn’t the real reason? What if the answer isn’t just down to racial inequality, but down to genes? A few years ago, there was a report into young Asian and Middle Eastern men dying of liver disease quicker than young UK men, and it was found that it was down to genetics because after centuries of living by their rules of not drinking alcohol, Asian families, and those from other BAME groups, moved into western countries and, over time, started to drink alcoholic drinks. But their livers weren’t used to breaking down alcohol, the organs struggled, and cirrhosis started to end Asian lives quicker than others.
This could be a reason as to why more ethnic minority people are succumbing to COVID-19.
People of black backgrounds, Asian, Chinese and other minorities have lived their lives their way for many, many years.
But, they started to move to westernised countries, and took on a different way of life. Instead of eating relatively healthily compared to the rest of us, they started to eat as we did, fast foods, highly processed foods, also consuming synthetic sweeteners and foods tainted by some e-numbers.
Their lifestyles went, genetically, from working the land, and other demanding jobs, to becoming sedentary in some of their livelihoods, and also in their lives
Drinking alcohol, eating processed foods, and doing very little by way of work or excersise causes weight gain, obesity, and the risks associated with concerns of BMI, including diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and again liver issues.
So, the difference in coronavirus death rates between white people and those from BAME backgrounds could be genetic.
Ashley Smith
March
