From striking nurses to 'trans ideology', our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent in their letters to the editor...

Some letters in this section reference correspondence from last week which can be found here.

Striking nurses are better paid than many

All the love and goodwill that the nurses rightly earned during the pandemic has been eroded by the selfish and uncaring attitude towards the sick and dying by going on strike. It’s not as if the nurses are badly paid compared to the private sector when most are being paid over £30,000 a year, plus a gold plated pension when they retire. They ought to try to live on an old age pension.

If their pay and working conditions are supposedly so bad, why then don’t they just up sticks and get another job?

They are not that stupid, as the strikers believe they can hold the treasury to ransom. But there is an old saying, that their pay rise is another’s lost job. It’s got to be paid somehow as the taxpayer cannot keep on coughing up.

I have heard all the drivel that nurses can get better pay at the supermarket. If that’s the case, there’s nothing stopping them.

Also, it’s said that nurses are using food banks. What, on £30k plus a year? There can only be one answer to this, they are living above their means and are simply bad managers, like many today who sacrifice food for their children to have a 50-inch telly hanging on the wall.

It’s time also that all civil servants were banned from striking like the military, and their unions packed off to Russia where they belong. But in fairness to them a standard annual increase should be given at 1.5% for not striking.

It’s also time that many of the managers in hospitals should be given their cards, and go back to the old system whereby doctors ran hospitals - not managers. The NHS should do away with degrees for nursing and training given upon the wards, as they used to.

It’s time for the nurses and doctors to get back to the wards before anyone else dies just because they want a few more quid in their purses.

Sidney Anning

Public transport network vital for our future

Colin Bullen is adopting a process so common in political dialogue, to argue from those who have not in order to continue a system that benefits only those that have.

As the Good Book states “to them that have more shall be given, to them that have not shall be taken away even that that they have.”

Action does need to be taken to enable all who live in rural areas to have means of transport to enable them to fully partake in social life.

That is why we should oppose all the cuts that are being made to bus services in Kent and elsewhere and demand improvements to these services.

I do not claim that we have the solution to transport policy in the future. What I do believe is that this solution must be an integrated public transport system.

I believe we should apply the best brains in the fields of transport to come up with solutions that meet the needs of everyone.

Sadly, much of the discussions around political issues only consider the more prosperous sections of the community who benefit from present conditions.

I am more concerned about those who are being failed by our present system.

In Mr Bullen’s comments on climate change, I note that he is either ignorant of, or choosing to ignore, the great wealth of scientific knowledge which clearly indicated that unless action is taken the severe conditions we are facing will continue, more habitats, flora and fauna will be lost and the future of humanity will be put at risk.

I support Mr Bullen’s plea for the political elite to wake up to reality, maybe he could lead by example by examining the relevant scientific knowledge impartially.

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Mistakes from the past are being repeated

Karl Marx famously remarked that “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce”, and, from our perspective in the first decades of the 21st Century, looking back to the period between the World Wars, we certainly seem to be living up to that, although it does seem to be shaping up to be more tragedy than farce. The parallels are not exact but there are eerie similarities.

The earlier era began with a global pandemic, and although Covid was much less serious than the Spanish flu, we nevertheless experienced a major world health emergency in the past few years.

In 1929, the Wall Street crash led on to the great depression, while in our time the financial crisis of 2008 has had an extremely detrimental effect on the economies of the world.

In November 1923, the Nazis attempted a putsch to gain power in the Germany, which failed, while this month a group of right wing extremists tried, again unsuccessfully, to overturn the current German government. The international order was put under threat, and, in 1939, eventually destroyed, by the ambitions of a European despot, while now we watch as the Russian dictator returns to the policies of the tank and the gun in Ukraine.

In 1936 the monarchy was endangered by the actions of Edward VIII, a weak, vain and unintelligent man, who put his obsession with an American divorcee above any concepts of duty, while now we see Prince Harry, a courageous, but rather easily led chap, allowing his uxorious passion for one who is clearly a therapy obsessed, Californian prima donna, to lead him down a path where he is damaging his own family by giving his support to false claims which are demonstrably motivated by one who has a chip on her shoulder a mile wide.

In the run up to the Second World War a large proportion of the political class, backed by the media, sought to appease, rather than oppose the dictators, while in our own time those who wish to see this country governed by a foreign power in Brussels have sought to ignore the clearly expressed will of the British people, to have nothing to do with the single European state being constructed by the European Union, rather desiring to hand away our status as an independent nation.

Given that the earlier age ended in the conflagration of the most destructive war in human history, we must hope that that aspect is not repeated, as nuclear weapons would ensure that the result was a final tragedy for humanity.

Colin Bullen

Many rely on railway station ticket offices

I’m appalled to learn that the government and rail industry are looking to close almost 1,000 ticket offices at stations across the country.

I care about ticket offices because to remove this facility is yet another erosion of our freedom of choice and is particularly an assault on the services relied on by the senior population of this country, a population which is growing daily.

Many senior citizens are uncomfortable with technology and automation and should have the option to buy their tickets from a human being.

It is also a thinly veiled excuse on the part of the rail employers to cut yet more jobs in the railway industry.

If ticket offices are closed, it will be devastating for disabled people, the elderly, people with learning difficulties and many more people who rely on being able to speak to someone at a station in order to be able to get around.

Losing staff at stations is crucial for access to information, to waiting rooms, to facilities and has a big impact on safety.

I support the rail strikes and I believe that ticket offices and station staffing need to be protected.

I hope that the government will see sense.

Linda Jones

Dear Kent Messenger

Trans people aren't aliens and don't eat children

I noted with interest the story about Mr and Mrs Watts, the Tenterden couple who were unhappy that St Michaels school had taught their child about complex gender identities.

I’d like to praise the school for its work to reflect the modern Kentish community.

'I’d be happy to show them trans people aren’t aliens, don’t eat children and are not planning to run through the High Street naked, or whatever their other fears are...'

I’m a trans woman, born in Kent but now living elsewhere but I serve as one of the Director / Trustees of the Kent & East Sussex Railway. I started my working life as a railway manager and now am a discrimination barrister. The K&ESR prides itself in maintaining a welcoming atmosphere for all responsible folk who love railways to work, volunteer or visit here no matter what your background or protected characteristics.

I am sorry that the Watts find trans and non-binary folk threatening, and I hope that it is just that we are outside their experience. I’d be happy to stand them a tea or a coffee in one of Tenterden’s many fine cafes and show them trans people aren’t aliens, don’t eat children and are not planning to run through the High Street naked, or whatever their other fears are.

I was brought up in a family with a strong churchgoing tradition but decided at age 10 that religion was not for me but I would never denigrate those who find religion useful or important for them. Acceptance and understanding difference is the way to an equal and tolerant society, surely?

Robin Moira White

Not a sporting comment

I found Mike Smith’s remarks about our loss to France in the World Cup objectionable.

Football is a sport. What has history to do with it?

Olive Lindsay