Letters to the Fenland Citizen editor – September 2, 2020
Half of the proposals will add nothing to our town
Having moved to Wisbech from Kent over ten years ago I have never regretted it, I love the town and the cosmopolitan society therein.
Wisbech calls itself “The Capital of the Fens” but sadly, I don’t think the planned £200k Market Place upgrade will add anything of value to the moniker.
We don’t need a fountain, we already have one (vandalised three times in two years) in St Peter’s Church gardens. Why the need for a tide clock when we are no longer a huge shipping port and have a paltry marina with 173 berths?
Wisbech has a wealth of “forgotten history” that we should be celebrating: over 250 listed monuments and buildings, the original manuscript of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, and so much more. I am all for regeneration of the town but, for me, almost 50% of the proposals will not add anything of value. One only needs to look at the carbuncle of the “Reading Tree” (since removed) to validate my point.
The public consultation is now open and I urge everyone to please put their opinions across.
After all, if you don’t voice your concerns or indeed, your agreement, to their plans then you can’t really have much to say when it is all finally implemented.
Views on the proposals must be given in writing by email to policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or by letter to Cambridgeshire County Council, Shire Hall, Castle Street, Cambridge, CB3 0AP no later than September 30, quoting reference PR0631. Our public voice must be heard. After all, it is our town.
Andrew Barton
Tydd St Giles
Are we walking into a form of slavery?
The BBC’s sudden support of the Government by banning the words of our unofficial national anthem takes me back to my school days in wartime London.
There are differences. Then, attempts at forcing us to carry gas masks wherever we went, and to wear them for 15 minutes a day, failed. It seems now, more and more of us are masked up all the time, frightened into doing so by an increasingly authoritarian government. Then we were urged to take to funk holes at the sound of the alarm. Now it is difficult to winkle many from their funk holes at any time at all.
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves. That expression of confidence has been almost destroyed by diktat. Or is it by incompetence?
Are we walking into a form of slavery, or being led into it by clever Goebbel’s-like propaganda with the BBC as a purveyor?
Dick Lawrie
March
Politicians are to blame for death of mother
A woman seeking asylum in Britain and living in extreme poverty has been found dead beside her malnourished baby in a Glasgow flat.
Mercy Baguma, from Uganda, was found dead on August 22 in the Govan area of the city. The baby boy was rushed to hospital for treatment but was released after two days.
Mercy, aged 34, was a victim of a brutal welfare system and immigration regime. She was an asylum seeker who lost her job after her official leave to remain expired.
This meant Mercy was no longer allowed to work and she and her son had to rely on food from friends and charities.
The Glasgow charity Positive Action in Housing said: “Why are mothers and babies being left to go hungry in this city, why is it being left to charities and volunteers to pick up the pieces?”
Would this mother still be alive if she was not forced out of her job by the cruel system that stops you from working and paying your way because a piece of paper says your leave to remain has expired?
Mercy Baguma was left destitute by a barbaric inmigration and welfare system. She had a right to life yet was left with no hope.
The politicians who scapegoat refugees are to blame for Mercy’s death.
John Smithee
Wisbech
Are we too late to stem the rise of the machines?
Thousands of feet above the Earth and above the trillions upon trillions of life-forms living upon her, high in the virtual sky, a new rookie fighter pilot, call sign Falco, squares off in a virtual reality dogfight against another pilot.
This ‘Top-Gun’s’ call sign is Banger, he is expert in all kinds of flight manoeuvres and battle strategies.
Falco beat Banger 5-0. It was a clean sweep of victories for the ‘newbie’.
No, this isn’t the premise for the next Top Gun movie, it is more a kind of Terminator genesis arc, because in fact, Falco isn’t a REAL pilot after all, it is the very highest level of artificial intelligence we have today, but Banger IS a real pilot, he IS a recent graduate of the Air Force Weapons School’s F-16 Weapons Instructor Course, with over 2,000 hours flying the F-16, the epitome of a Top Gun, but the AI system beat the human hands down!
The programme hammered its human counterpart, blowing him out of the virtual sky, without a whimper.
It beat him on every aspect, which begs the questions, have we crossed the boundaries that kept the human race as the most dominant force on the planet, and are we too late to stop the Rise of The Machines?
The date of the watershed moment was August 20, 2020. Was that our Judgement Day?
Ashley Smith
March
