Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing letters@thekmgroup.co.uk

Mixed feelings over assisted dying vote

Following the historic vote by MPs in favour of the assisted dying legislation, I am sure that I am not alone in being both relieved and concerned in equal measure about what the future holds.

No one can fail to be moved by the agonising stories of fear and pain as people face the end of their life and in principle I feel that people should have the right to die at a time and place of their choosing if they have a terminal diagnosis. So I do not hold a moral objection to assisted dying per se.

It is, however, safeguarding those people that gives me the greatest concern and I am not sure that the necessary protections are capable of being put in place.

We currently have a legal system whereby vulnerable people can have an individual with power of attorney over their financial and health and wellbeing and yet even this current system appears rife with failings and abuse.

Often solicitors are judging when people do or don't have mental capacity, when it is notoriously difficult for even a medical profession to make a definitive diagnosis. There appears to be a silent epidemic of cases and I have lost count of how many people have told me of how the last wills and testaments of their late father or mother were changed in the final months of their lives, often behind closed doors and family members have no idea until after the death of a loved one. This appears to occur with particular regularity where there has been a divorce and remarriage of a parent.

This invariably leads to protracted and costly legal disputes, which some in the legal profession have little interest in addressing as it is most certainly a very lucrative area of work which rarely ends up in court. Whilst that might be seen as a separate issue, money is often the motivation behind a lot of people’s actions and my fear is that assisted dying could lead to many vulnerable people being taken advantage of.

How can anyone be truly certain of what goes on behind closed doors and that the decision has not been arrived at through either coercion and the feeling of being a burden?

Paul Girling

Politicians don’t often implement will of voters

The UK is not ready for democracy and so, despite the vote in Parliament, the right to medical aid in dying is unlikely to be implemented in the foreseeable future.

For democracy to work there has to be an acceptance of the will of the majority. This is not happening, as evidenced by the issues of capital punishment, immigration and Brexit where the implementation of the wishes of the majority have been, and continue to be, sabotaged by influential members of government holding the minority opposing view.

We should learn from the failed implementation of Brexit and require Wes Streeting to resign as Minister of Health and be replaced by someone in favour of medical aid in dying, since politicians cannot be trusted to implement a policy to which they are opposed.

Derek Wisdom

People are more important than going green

With the first floods of winter having taken place, fortunately not here, accompanied by the first heavy rain and snowfalls bringing chaos and power lines down, surely it’s time to stand back from the pursuit of net zero and the desire to be a world leader in something and take stock of where we are.

The world has demonstrated that after 30 years of doom-mongering about global warming, rebranded as climate change, the world is not really going to be able to stop the climate changing; change is what the climate has always done, we can influence it but it's absolutely clear that we cannot stop it.

With the benefit of hindsight we can look back and say we wasted billions trying to stop the unstoppable instead of spending the money on flood amelioration schemes, undergrounding power lines and securing gas and electricity supplies for our own people.

Time to stop the spending on going green, we've done our bit, time to prioritise looking after our own people as winter hits.

Bob Britnell

Government has broken its contract with voters

To paraphrase Churchill, never has an incoming government antagonised so many groups in such a short space of time.

First it was motorists, smokers and protestors, then OAPs and now farmers. Who will Calamity Keir target next?

Labour won by default. In eagerness to dump Tweedledee (Sunak), voters chose Tweedledum (Starmer), only to find they'd jumped out of the frying pan and landed in the fire.

Labour got one-third of the vote but took two-thirds of the seats. However, the record-low 60% turnout meant only one in five voted Labour, and of those who did, I bet most opposed the winter fuel cuts (for which Labour had no mandate).

It's not just this lot though. The system is bust. Parties can ditch election manifestos and enact legislation they have no mandate for.

If the law of the land was applied equally the former would be mandatory while the latter require public consent. This is parliamentary dictatorship, not parliamentary democracy.

Name a single trade, profession or occupation that can get away with flouting the law of contract this way. Not only that, no business could be run on parliamentary lines with one half of the board slagging off the other.

Yet we are told that this rotten, corrupt and inefficient system is the last word in good government and must be exported worldwide!

John Helm

Time for action over pavement parking

It has been four years since the previous government’s consultation on pavement parking in England closed.

Cars parked on, and sometimes hogging the whole pavement, will be a familiar sight to many.

Pavement parking is dangerous, especially for families with young children, people with sight loss and disabled people. A recent poll found that 87% of parents have had to walk in the road because of a vehicle blocking the pavement. It damages pavement surfaces too.

Living Streets has been campaigning on this issue for over 50 years and it's high time we saw an end to the problem.

Pavement parking has been banned (with exemptions) in London since the 1970s. Scotland adopted a similar approach to London which came into force earlier this year. The Welsh government has indicated they will take action on pavement parking. But England is way behind.

We must urge the new government to deal with the troubling legacy of pavement parking once and for all. Everyone will be better for it.

Michelle Meyer-Masterson

Paying tax helps those in need

Everyone is concerned about the state we are in just now.

Almost all of us agree government must get to grips with housing, health, homelessness and poverty but taking action at government level on any of these issues and the many other problems we all now face must stretch the ingenuity of government and the pockets of citizens.

There are always those prepared to put their hands in their pockets to help others in need, most of us will help to pay if we must and so we do not grudge paying taxes because they help to pay for benefits that we all might need at some time. Paying tax is the first and most important sign of a civilised society.

Inevitably there are those who feel no sympathy for the more unfortunate members of society or the need to build publicly financed structures like schools or hospitals and go as far as to maintain that the more prosperous members of a social group should be free to spend their income as they think fit. They see this as an issue of “freedom”, of course it is nothing of the sort, just that some people want to hang onto their own money in a miserly way.

Recently farmers have become the group who make a good deal of fuss about a return to an inheritance tax system like the one we used prior to 1984.

People who own land will find themselves in the same position as other rich business owners who must pay inheritance tax.

No one likes to pay any tax but it is a clear and simple way to ensure that we can live in a sophisticated society that attempts to provide for all its citizens.

Derek Munton

Unelected lawyers trying to govern our lives

Despite its name the International Criminal Court is no more a court of law than was Juke Box Jury. It is a pressure group run by anti-Western antisemites and we should have nothing to do with it

Israel is our only true ally in the Middle East, a democracy which suffered a barbaric assault by fascist terrorists, yet our Prime Minister is prepared to join the attack on it by a body full of left-wing lawyers, masquerading as an unbiased arbiter of the actions of nations.

Arrogant lawyers, working in the dubious field of international law, have declared certain treaties to be living documents. In other words, while we may have agreed to the initial treaty, it can then be amended without our agreement, and we are then supposedly to abide by whatever it then contains. In fact the ICC is not following its own rules, which do not grant it the right to replace national legal systems. Its accusations are based on allegations, which can be shown to be untrue.

This extension of the powers of courts is unacceptable in a democracy, and, if our votes are to mean anything, the former must be prevented from acting in this manner, by the UK withdrawing from any, and all of those treaties and agreements, which are responsible for this growing ability of the self-interested legal profession to increase its own power at the expense of that of the people.

As things stand, instead of democracies, the peoples of the West are increasingly living within bureaucratic dictatorships, where policies formulated by unelected functionaries are enforced by equally unelected lawyers.

Colin Bullen

Advice for staying warm and keeping well

As we head further into the colder months and are layering up our winter woollies, I would like to share with readers the support that’s available through Royal Voluntary Service.

We’ve found through research that at this time of year, unfortunately, feelings of isolation and loneliness can increase, which can impact our health and wellbeing.

We want to be there for as many people as possible this winter so we have created the Stay Safe, Warm and Well guide, filled with essential information, practical tips and advice to help people navigate the challenges of winter.

The guide also encourages us all to make sure we are socially connected and have support in place as we face the difficulties the season can bring.

The guide includes details on how readers can sign up for Royal Voluntary Service’s telephone support services, which match volunteers who are available for a friendly chat, with people across the country who are looking to make new connections, share a story or a joke, and ease feelings of loneliness and isolation. It also shares information on accessing the charity’s Virtual Village Hall online community of events and activities.

I’d like to encourage readers to download the Stay Safe, Warm and Well guide and find out more, at www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/safe-warm-well. Physical copies of the guide can also be requested by calling 0800 731 9197, a small P&P charge will apply.

Sam Ward OBE, Deputy Chief Executive, Royal Voluntary Service