Letters to the Fenland Citizen editor – January 20, 2021
The people of March want McDonald’s
What good news that at last we are getting a McDonald’s in March, and about time too.
Whoever is holding up the development of the drive-through restaurant should consider what the people of March want at this difficult time, and it will bring much-needed jobs.
The flooding issue is irrelevant as permission has been granted for multiple home developments in March where there could be flood issues. McDonald’s should not be a cause for concern.
Currently we have to travel to Wisbech for a McDonald’s, which is unacceptable.
This is a heartfelt plea to those people holding up this application. Please allow McDonald’s to open in March.
A Munsey
March
Take your rubbish and poo home with you
Due to the fact I had some dog poo in my bin this week, can you please print this letter in the Fenland Citizen as a reminder to lazy dog owners?
Will the lazy dog owners who are too bone idle to take their dog poo home stop leaving it in people’s bins on their way home?
It is their responsibility to dispose of the mess, not leave it for other people who don’t have dogs.
The same goes to the litter louts who chuck their litter outside people’s houses. You used the products – you take them home.
We do not want your rubbish. Take it to your own bins.
Edward Tomblinson
Walton Highway
Thanks again to Sam and her gang
Top marks once again for Coun Sam Hoy and her team for help in getting shopping and medicines for the most vulnerable during the third COVID-19 lockdown.
A two minute text conversation on Tuesday and it was arranged for us to have our shopping done.
I know it has been reported before but I think they deserve praising again.
George Treadway
Wisbech
Such fond memories of Janet Bays
I read your piece about Janet Bays being awarded the British Empire Medal with great interest.
Mrs Bays (then Miss Ward) was my Kindergarten teacher at St Audrey’s Convent in Wisbech in 1956.
She taught me to read and to love all types of music and singing.
She also played the organ at my wedding in 1971.
I’m sure there are many others who would join me in recognising and applauding her worth as a teacher and musician.
Deirdre Glynn-Jones
Guildford
One person per couple rule is so disgusting
I feel I must raise my head above the battlements of my castle to voice my utter disgust at the Tesco policy of only one person from a couple to be allowed to shop in store.
What right do they have – pandemic or not – to dictate to customers who spend money in thier stores, couples who live together, whose trip to the shop is the only break they get from this terrible place we all find ourselves in? At Tesco they say ‘Our cutomers are King’. Poppycock – they only care about profit and footfall in store, not people.
Well they will no longer get our money. I will go without rather than spend money at any of their stores ever again.
As for the Tesco logo – I now know what it stands for: ‘Treat Elderly Senior Citizens Outrageously.
Bob Melton
Coldham
Rashford is playing into their hands
With all the furore surrounding the food packages allegedly being sent to parents to feed their school children their lunches for the week, it would be quite easy to side with the parents and vent our spleens at the apparent outrage, but, let’s get things straight.
Many parents are complaining because of the sparsity of their hand-outs, but, that is exactly what they are, hand-outs, and you have to consider that children in other countries have to starve because their parents cannot find jobs or receive benefits because their states do not offer them.
In Britain, we have a welfare state that gives parents money, like in terms of Child Support where a parent gets £21.05-a-week for their first child, and then £13.95 for their other children.
Where does this money go?
If the parents spent that money on food for their kids, then they wouldn’t starve. I have been on benefits as an adult, and could feed myself quite easily and healthily for £20 per week, with change left over.
Also, these parents claim their children are vulnerable, so they send them to school during the week, where their child gets fed, so who else is eating this food?
So, these parents have these ‘starving’ children that their benefits don’t stretch to feeding, but they do stretch far enough to pay for iPhones, tablets, laptops, Playstations, X-boxes, Nintendo game machines for their children at Christmas.
These ‘paltry’ benefits also pay for Sky, BT and Virgin TV, and the wi-fi required to access televisual and gaming content!
In this country today, it seems that parents are having children like there’s no tomorrow, but they expect the state or schools to rear their offspring for them.
A large number of parents wouldn’t know how to even identify cauliflower or carrots, let alone how to cook them, because they don’t see them as nature intended, just how many minutes the packaging says it must be microwaved for.
Many more are sending their kids to school without the basics of human knowledge, i.e. packing them off to schools without teaching them how to use a knife, fork and spoon, in some cases, not even being toilet-trained, because that is too much like hard work for them.
A teacher’s job is to teach they think, so they can teach my child how not to wet or poo themselves, it’s too dirty for me.
It’s the mindset!
Finally, if these ‘vulnerable’ children have been sent to school to learn the three R’s, along with toilet and table etiquette, be fed so that the parents don’t have to do any of that, what do these parents do with the time they have saved?
Last year, during the first wave of the pandemic, and considering their ‘anguish’ of the nation’s children starving, how many of them answered the call when our growers and harvesters were so hampered by a lack of help that fresh crops were being binned.
Exactly how many of these lazy parents, with time to spare, offered their services to help to feed a hungry nation?
Not very many, I would presume, because whilst Marcus Rashford’s intentions may be well meaning, this isn’t the same Britain he was raised in.
He is playing into the hands of the ‘influencer’ generation, meaning if parents cannot make money sitting on their backsides posting YouTube, Instagram or TikTok messages and videos, then the lazy and feckless amongst them will cry, whinge, whine and moan until someone else raises their children for them.
For a country that played the biggest roles in helping to win two world wars, what would the odds be today for the youth of Britain following that example, and leading us to victory against such unsurmountable odds today?
Not slim to none, but none, full stop.
Ashley Smith
March
We're set for a double dip recession
As chancellor Rishi Sunak delivers his COVID-19 economy speech (“The economy will get worse before it gets better and the road will be tough”) he forgot to mention that we are set for a double dip recession, apparently the first one since 1975.
Hopefully this new trampoline will be large enough for all 67 million of us to bounce on so we can all “see through the darkness and see the brightly illuminated pub sign of destination, change and hope that lies ahead next door to the patisserie”.
“So with courage, patience and discipline we can bounce back and return to the life we left behind”.
Then we can have our cake and eat it, from the cakeist patisserrie on our way home from the pub, and “seize this opportunity to transform our country”.
Or as Winston Churchill would say: “Never let a good opportunity go to waste.”
However, some people have profited out of this world pandemic, such as the big nationals who cut back while smaller independents closed their doors.
This facilitates the big boys to buy up and create a monopoly after the pandemic financial recovery of the UK economy.
Also, countries around the world are actively taking advantage of the
devaluation of their currencies.
Whoever devalues their currency the most will create a stronger trading base to export around the world and capture the lion’s share, and boost their economic recovery.
Inevitably, all bail out spending will have to be paid back by tax payers via tax increases.
But not the top 10% with tax avoidance and offshore tax haven bank accounts.
Recently we paid off WW2, so when will we pay off COVID-19?
Maybe when we’re “living it up in the year 3000”.
Mark Burton
Chatteris
