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.

Rose-tinted view of post-war years

I was born just a few years before Mr Grummitt (‘People happier with less in 1950s’) but apparently on a different planet!

I cannot believe anyone would be envious of some of the common experiences of those days.

True, one was not moved out of NHS hospitals at great speed, but the thinking behind that was faulty, as shown by later developments in medical care. The ‘first-rate’ health service led to our neighbour’s son dying literally on the kitchen table from an attempted tonsillectomy.

Our GP visits were on a first come, first served basis, and believe me, the receptionist was feared as much then as they are now! Doctors visiting homes was necessary because the infectious diseases of the day were frequently fatal.

The ‘first-rate’ dental care consisted of dentists ‘drilling for gold’, using any excuse to get their bumble-bee drills out; modern-day dentists just sigh at the devastation caused by those monstrous activities.

Bobby on the beat? Such was their rarity that we would rush to the window to view this oddity. There was always the fear, for a child, not so much from adults, but from local yobs, speaking from experience on several occasions where we would hear the exhortation to ‘run or you’ll get beaten up’.

It is disingenuous to say the milkmen, etc, called at no extra cost: like all businesses they absorbed the cost into the price of the product, and found it unsustainable eventually. Which brings us on to supermarkets: who was happier in the 50s, queuing endlessly in high street shops to be served with each and every item. Who misses the time spent at weekends, trudging along miles of high street to buy the week’s groceries, many of which would have gone off too soon because the home freezer was still outside the pockets of many?

Mr Grummitt alludes to transport: my memories of commuting to college in the 1960s was of overcrowded trains, frequent train strikes and cancellations, and at best an unpleasant journey in smoke-filled carriages with no air-conditioning.

True, there were no motorways, but journeys took ages even with the very low vehicle numbers of the day, and as for setting out on a Bank Holiday: forget it! Television and newspaper items were dedicated to the high numbers of people killed on the roads after holiday periods.

I am grateful for the advances which have been made over 70 years, and I think people would be better off making the youth of today appreciate their good fortune rather than criticising ‘developments’, of which there will always be good and not-so-good.

John Brightwell

No room for middle ground in politics

Your correspondent James Solly has misinterpreted the nature of the so-called “culture wars”.

He relates to these in the way they are represented in the media by those who dominate the presentation of information.

The views of the left, which I try to represent, are rarely stated and often distorted.

There is no “middle way”. As Nye Bevan, well known as the founder of the National Health Service, once said, “those that walk down the middle of the road are liable to get run over”.

It is true that we all have many things in common.

The things we share are a desire to live our lives at peace with one another, able to provide for our children when they are young and our parents when they are old. To care for the sick and disabled. To be able to enjoy all that life could provide with freedom. To be able to participate in society. Above all to know that we live to some purpose and are valued and respected.

However, this is not possible in a society organised on the basis of competition in which a small section of society profits from the work of the much larger working class.

To enable each and every individual to live their lives to the full we have to put social and community interests at the centre of our politics.

That means establishing a form of society in which the needs of every individual, world wide, are the sole priority.

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Public services have been slowly undermined

Mr Grummitt is correct that in the 1950s we had established our NHS including dentistry, GP service and much else regarding public services overall.

However, it has been successive governments, mostly Tory, which have undermined these for the last 45 years or so, even allowing for the extra spending during most of the Blair years.

Work to restore modern publicly-funded NHS and public services, eco-friendly council homes, and restoring youth, elderly and other services such as libraries, has to campaigned for vigorously, along with changing our business models to foster fair trading. This, along with all paying affordable taxes with no tax havens, so public services, etc, are full affordable, may be tall orders but need to done.

As for artificial intelligence, I may embrace such up to a point in terms of social media and its use in health and wellbeing, but the idea - put about by such as the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, etc - that we may eventually 'upload' our consciences to machines is not something I would relish.

Ray Duff

Suffragettes are no excuse to break the law

Those such as Vivien Clifford, who refer to the suffragettes as a means of justifying law breaking to protest about issues on which they feel strongly, are completely missing the point.

If one has no right to change things by democratic means, as was the case with the female half of the population, who did not possess the vote, then indeed illegal action is the only route forward.

However, in a democracy, where everyone has access to the ballot box, the avenue to be used is to support, and elect, those who advocate the changes you wish to see made, not to attempt to achieve your aims by force. To do otherwise invites anarchy.

Protest is one thing, blatant law breaking something else entirely. I wonder just how many of those who excuse pressure groups such as Extinction Rebellion would react if others were to emulate them, but in support of policies with which they disagreed.

For instance, it is obvious that the political and bureaucratic elite have successfully blocked a proper implementation of Brexit, as evidenced by the latest retreat from abolishing EU laws to which we are still subjected. If Brexiteers were to block traffic, disrupt legitimate events, and vandalise works of art unless this latest change of policy was reversed, I very much doubt that the militants who claim to approve of such behaviour would be supportive of the idea that it was fully justified.

The two ideals which we, and our cousins in the USA, have given, however imperfectly, to the world, are democracy, and the rule of law. If the latter is to be ignored by anyone who has an axe to grind, then the former will not long survive.

Colin Bullen

Voters have worse problems than immigration

S.C. Anning is completely deluded if he attributes the Tories’ poor local election results mainly to failure to deal with illegal immigration.

This may be a source of irritation to many people but does not directly impact on their lives, unlike the high cost of living, state of the NHS, etc.

How to deal with the issue would be highly challenging to whoever is in power and simply proposing sending the immigrants back to where they came from is no solution at all to a very complex problem.

Bill Ridley

Don’t dismiss the value of maths

I found the letter written by Michael Smith a little concerning. It is to be hoped he doesn't have children who are growing up thinking the same.

Whatever we do in life, we need maths and numeracy skills. It can only benefit future generations and their individual job prospects, if they extend their education in this subject area.

Mr Smith's view that only "a basic grasp of arithmetic is all you need" is unfortunately a little misguided and I would welcome the opportunity to correct that belief.

John Harmer

Life was no fun under the puritans

I truly feel sorry for John Cooper, having self-inflicted the pain of having to watch on television what he believes to be an outdated spectacle, the coronation ceremony of King Charles.

In my opinion life would be dull without some pageantry. Oliver Cromwell, through bloody means, did his level best to rid this country of the monarchy. He introduced such delights as banning Christmas, women had to dress in black head to toe, no make up was allowed and his troops acted as moral police in the streets.

This all has a familiar ring! Thank goodness his regime came to an abrupt end with his death and the monarchy restored.

You stated there was a superficial nod to modernity. I am not sure what you really want, would you like us to be a republic? Have you watched the pomp and ceremony when Mr Putin enters the palace in Russia – the man who would be king!

I assume you would have preferred a ceremony hosted by Ant and Dec with the king dressed as Mickey Mouse being held at Disneyland Paris. They have got castles!

Maybe the ceremony should have been hosted by Eurovision, is that multi-cultural enough for you?

David Grummitt

King’s coronation was a triumph

There was an epic feel to the coronation of our King, which was played out in real-time to an audience of millions both here at home and around the world.

It may have been a solemn affair, but it was also a celebration of monarchy and its duration, culminating in the crowning of a King and Queen.

Fortunately, the ceremony unfolded without a glitch and even the rain couldn't dampen the mood of those who watched the proceedings from the streets where the procession passed.

The pomp and grandeur of the occasion, was a true illustration of our ability to stage a monumental event which, by any measure, was a triumph.

M. Smith