From rejoining the EU to the toughest of punishments, our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent in their letters to the editor...

We can’t go back to EU with begging bowl

I preface this by telling you I voted Leave in 2016. By early 2017, I realised I’d been lied to by the people I trusted to know what was best for the country.

Whilst I agree that leaving the EU has been an unmitigated disaster, with not a single tangible benefit to anyone that isn’t in the top 1% of earners, rejoining now isn’t a sensible option.

Firstly there are still too many people who voted to leave that haven’t accepted that it IS a disaster and blame the current woes only on the war in Ukraine (which is undoubtedly a huge factor). Secondly, to go back to the EU now with a begging bowl, pleading to be let back in, would leave the UK open to only joining on very unfavourable terms. Both of the above scenarios would serve only to widen the fractures that have been caused by Brexit.

The government (ANY government) needs to try to make Brexit work, first fixing the Northern Ireland Protocol (if I knew how I’d be a lot richer, so don’t ask me!) then unilaterally easing rules on immigration from the EU in the hope that we can restart our economy with imported labour.

That might lead the way to getting back to some sort of free movement, which might allow the EU to ease customs restrictions.

'Whilst I agree that leaving the EU has been an unmitigated disaster, with not a single tangible benefit to anyone that isn’t in the top 1% of earners, rejoining now isn’t a sensible option...'

Whatever happens we will never again have as good a deal as we had, because we simply don’t have much that they need from us - and that’s the pill that Brexiters find hardest to swallow.

Terry Wildman

NHS problems will get worse without action

The problems with the NHS are worsening by the week and there seems no intent or plan by politicians to act.

Soundbite statements that have included ‘40 new hospitals’, ‘5,000 more GPs’ and ‘will fix social care once and for all’ have all been empty words.

We are told NHS spending is at a record high and this may be the case but remember it included £37 billion spent on test and trace and £10 billion written off for useless PPE bought during Covid, and does not allow for an increasingly older population even before inflation.

Brexit has compounded major problems in training, recruiting and retaining staff. There are 130,000 NHS vacancies plus a similar number in social care leading to a lack of capacity. Large parts of the NHS have been shared with or sold to private providers.

In some circumstances this has enabled a better service such as community ultrasound and community physio but the fact private companies can provide a faster service at the same cost to the NHS with NHS trained staff makes one ask why.

Bigger sell-offs include the main GP computer systems (EMIS )and a large chunk of London GP practices that have been sold to US companies who decided to sell off NHS staff accommodation so staff can't afford to live locally. In Devon and Cornwall care home staff can’t afford to rent due to second homes and Airbnb, etc.

There seems to be no joined up policy within our government. Who has planned for hospital beds in the NHS long term, one wonders? We have the fewest in Europe. Perhaps it was in the hands of Kaiser Permanente, another US company, that runs a health care maintenance organisation aiming to keep people out of hospital and act as consultants to the NHS.

The current NHS workforce is ageing. Kent has the fewest GP numbers per head of population in England and will get worse as many of us are over 50.

Do our local MPs know how the NHS is run, and do they care and try to change things?

Perhaps people need to start asking what can be done, not just accept this downward spiral.

Contact your MP, join patient participation groups or attend the Integrated Care board meetings and ask questions. Unless major serious changes occur the problems we have seen this week will become the norm, I fear.

Dr John Sharville

Nurses can’t live on clapping and sympathy

I found Sidney Anning’s tirades against nurses forced to take industrial actions in order to get fair pay deal (‘Striking nurses are better paid than many’) to be grounded in ignorance rather than facts.

He also branded nurses as “selfish and uncaring”. Should he need their services in the future, I hope he would be brave enough to look them in the eyes and tell them so.

The fact is, most qualified nurses are on mid-point Band 5 pay scale, earning £29,180 a year or £ 2,431.67p a month. However, after the deductions of income tax, National Insurance and Pension contributions, they take home £1,798.17 per month.

The current pay offer of £1,400 is worth less than £1,000 when the above deductions are factored in. And it was made prior to the start of the Ukrainian War and Kamikaze Kwarteng’s budget.

Why did Sidney Anning think that nurses are holding the Treasury to ransom when all they are asking is just enough to cope with the spiralling cost of living crisis, triggered mainly by political incompetence?

He should read the latest Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report about in-work poverty in the UK and compare it with the House of Commons Green Book about our MPs lavish allowances and perks.

Only then would he understand why our nurses and other essential workers have got genuine and legitimate grievances.

The most insulting part of the letter is the assertion that nurses are “living above their means” and “sacrifice food for their children to have a 50in telly hanging on the wall”.

Such stereotypic depiction of the poor as more interested in material goods than the welfare of their own children has never been proven but accepted as self evident truth by some.

Lastly, may I reassure nurses and other struggling essential workers that you still retain the love and goodwill of most people who believe in social justice and fairness, because we know that you do not live by clapping and sympathy alone.

L. Roger Numas

Our hospital staff deserve more money

I read the letter from Sidney Anning with a sense of sorrow.

I live on a state pension and hope the nurses get a settlement that suits everyone. They deserve much, much more.

I sincerely hope Mr Anning never has to be an in-patient in any hospital. But if the horrible circumstance comes around, will he lay in his NHS bed and tell the nurses caring so well for him that their wage is ample ?

I think not.

C. Latham

Crime is not tackled by weakness

Recent events include the stabbing to death of a young man on a Birmingham dance floor, the random shooting to death of a young woman, out enjoying herself with friends in Liverpool, and the truly horrifying multiple murders of a woman, her unborn baby, and three children by a monster who raped the little girl of eleven as she lay dying.

Individuals who should have had perhaps another 70 or more years of life have had them stolen, while to this carnage must be added the ongoing knifing to death of youngsters on a daily basis in London and the murder of two women every week by their so-called partners in the UK.

Yet, despite all this horror, the liberal elite who have dominated this country for decades prevent the restoration of the only sanction, capital punishment, which would put a stop to this litany of death. These people would have a fit of the vapours at the very suggestion and would no doubt be crying over the murderers, should they receive their justly deserved punishments. Clearly not all deaths would be prevented, but those who claim that it would not be a deterrent are ignoring the basic facts of human nature, while, even if it were not, it would nevertheless be a just act of retribution and would certainly end the practice of releasing these people to kill again.

I have no doubt that those of us who advocate restoration would, as always, be abused by those who call themselves progressives, but, apart from the murderers, it is the latter who are to blame for the epidemic of killings which so disfigure our society.

Nothing else will reduce the death toll, whatever psychiatrists, criminologists and liberals may claim.

Colin Bullen

Politicians don’t grasp reality

I did think, or more likely hope, that our new Prime Minister would spell an end to the UK being an international laughing stock; which we certainly were under Boris Johnson and then even worse with, Liz ‘44 days’ Truss, at the helm!

Little did I know that, Rishi Sunak, would procure a photo opportunity at a homeless centre to increase his public standing. Whilst serving up food paid for by charitable donations he said to a man in the queue: “Do you work in business?” Why on earth would you ask a homeless man, who is relying on charity to eat, such a question?

Further, the reason there are more soup kitchens and food banks is primarily down to his parties policies since 2010. So once again these and other words and images have gone around the world to howls of derision. When are we going to get politicians that at least have an inkling of what the real world is like?

Robert Boston

Time to restore peace, security and basic rights

My dream for 2023 is for an end to war.

It is pertinent that the year will mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Whilst many on the right wish to remove human rights, we should be demanding that these basic rights be enforced.

What we need is an end to exploitation, whether of garment workers in Bangladesh or of young people in this country by commercial companies.

An end to oppression, whether of women in the streets of Iran or of women in this country working on zero hour contracts.

An end to warfare, whether the weapons used are missiles or economic sanctions.

An end to inequality, whether between nations or between individuals within those nations.

An end to all barriers and an end to all borders.

In 1948, people looked forward to a world in which they had peace and security, able to live a life free from the fear of want and a lack of food, with a home and a family and a freedom to be themselves.

Why in 2023 have we moved so far from those ideas? Could it be that our economic system is incapable of meeting human need?

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Give unwanted gifts to charity

The UK’s leading children’s charity Barnardo’s is encouraging people to donate their unsuitable Christmas gifts and help children at the same time.

Barnardo’s is appealing for unsuitable gifts from the festive season to be donated to their local shop so they can be sold to raise vital funds.

All money raised in Barnardo’s shops is used to fund the charity’s many projects that support children and young people who are affected by today’s most urgent issues including those who are living in poverty, who have suffered abuse or who need our help.

This year’s appeal for quality donations is even more urgent as families struggle to cope with the rising costs of living as energy and food prices soar, making bills even harder to pay. Many families are having to make tough choices between paying their heating bills or buying food.

All purchases made in our Barnardo’s stores and through our online shop help us to support some of the most vulnerable children in society.

Every year Barnardo’s works to turn around the lives of more than 382,000 children, young people and their families through 791 projects across the UK. Every penny raised through purchasing quality clothes, household goods, books, toys, accessories and much more at Barnardo’s shops, plays a vital part in ensuring we continue to support these children.

Emma Bowman

Director, Barnardo’s South East and London region