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

Teachers should not go on strike

Striking teachers should be ashamed of themselves - they are letting down vulnerable children who have been robbed of their education and for some, their only protection during Covid-19.

Let’s not forget students have lost on average 11 days of education due to the teacher strikes this year.

For a vulnerable child under the radar who is suffering at home, that’s 11 days too many.

Academic standards have declined, most teachers had an easy ride during Covid, doing online lessons at best and still selfish teachers want more at the expense of young people.

I have children at state primary and secondary schools and I have been disgusted by the entitled attitudes of many teachers following Covid.

Parents are utterly deluded if they think teachers strike to support children - on the contrary they strike to line their own pockets. Our children deserve more.

Let’s not forget that the furlough scheme cost the UK taxpayer £70 billion and had we had a Labour government, that cost would have been higher as they wanted us to have been locked down for longer.

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Wrong on many different levels

Mr Anning’s letter last week on the subject of immigration was based on three misconceptions.

The first was his belief the House of Lords, by voting to make modifications to the Government’s Illegal Immigration Bill, was an example of the unelected Lords using their power to thwart, what he calls ‘The will of the people’.

In fact, the last expression of the will of the people was in the 2019 General Election and the Conservative Party, based on the promises in its manifesto, won a majority and Boris Johnson became Prime Minister.

In that manifesto, the big idea on immigration was to stop the free movement of labour from the EU.

There was also a promise to accept refugees as required by international law.

Ironically, in view, of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new tough promise, made in January to “stop the boats” filled with immigrants making illegal crossings from France, the manifesto also contained a promise to make the immigration system ‘more fair and compassionate’. Backed only by the majority of Conservative MPs and no doubt, the majority of Conservative Party members in the country, there is no way that this new policy can be seen as an expression of the ‘will of the people’ in the country at large.

His second misconception is that the unelected House of Lords is an impediment to our democratic system.

While it is widely agreed the membership of the House of Lords is in need of reform, for the time being it serves as a second chamber, the function of which is to act as a brake on hasty legislation being made by the MPs in the House of Commons.

Hence, the Illegal Immigration Bill being passed to the Lords for their amendments, then back to the Commons where the Government, had the final say.

Mr Anning’s third misconception related to the European Court of Human Rights of which Britain was a founder member after the Second World War in the 1950s.

His contention was the rulings of the court, which is being drawn into the immigration debate, could be dismissed as having no relevance to our situation today.

In fact, if the Government ignores the injunctions of the Court to stop the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda, it would undermine this country’s pledge to protect human rights.

Leaving the ECHR or reneging our obligations would undermine Britain’s credibility in criticising human rights abuses abroad, whether that is either in Europe, in the Ukraine or in Asia, in China.

So it clearly has very serious consequences and every relevance to Britain’s standing in the world today.

John Cooper

Appalled by this rail decision

Further to Phoebe Maria's recent letter, my wife and I decided to make less use of the car and more use of the railways.

Armed with the appropriate form, photos, and fee and having first checked the booking office opening times online, I went to Birchington station and found the booking office shut.

Nothing daunted I then went to Broadstairs station and found the same thing.

Not wanting to admit defeat I then went to Margate station. Lo and behold, the booking office was shut!

Not wishing to spontaneously combust I then went home resigned to the fact that I will still be polluting the air with exhaust fumes for the foreseeable future.

As the late Arthur Askey used to say: "Doesn't it make you want to spit?"

Mike O'Hara

It’s a disgrace

I’m appalled at the news the Government and rail industry have formally announced plans to close almost 1,000 ticket offices at stations across the country.

I live in Staplehurst and the ticket office at our station is vital to the village and to me.

I am sight-impaired and find the help of the ticket office staff absolutely indispensable. The ticket machines are not enough. If the ticket office closes, I don't think I'll be able to use the trains anymore.

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.

Despite the massive implications for passengers, the rail companies and the Government are ploughing ahead.

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

I encourage everyone to respond to the consultations and hope that the Government will see sense.

Annie Whyman

Interested by top historic find

I was very interested to read of the exciting finds of paleolithic flints at Frindsbury, reported on KentOnline.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could go on at least temporary display in the Rochester Museum before going to some other repository, very likely not on public view.

The Medway Valley has produced some of the most important finds from the paleolithic period yet none are on display in either Rochester or Maidstone.

The only good collection on view is at, of all places, Herne Bay. So please could we see these latest finds?

Paul Craddock

Don’t blame top star for moving

I can't say I blame Simon Cowell for selling his house in Holland Park in order to move to the country to safeguard his family from the continual rise in crime in the capital.

Simon has experienced first-hand, the trauma of burglars breaking into his home.

And in spite of taking measures to reinforce his security, the locks on his front door were stolen.

It is due, in no small part, to the acute absence of police on our streets.

Criminals have no fear or expectation of being interrupted in their nefarious activities, much less of having their collar felt.

The onus lies with the police chiefs, the mayor of London and the Home Secretary, all of whom have failed in their duty to ensure the public are adequately protected.

Of course, crime isn't confined to London and has no boundaries, which means there are no areas that can provide a sanctuary or a respite from the lawbreakers in society.

Michael Smith

Drastic action is needed over firm

It has been announced recently that bosses at Southern Water will not take any bonuses this year.

This is because of the continued discharge of raw sewage into the sea.

On the face of it, this may seem a reasonable thing to do.

However, it raises the question as to why these individuals might be receiving bonuses in the first place.

It doesn't seem very likely that it is because of outstanding efficiency in the water industry.

It seems more likely that it happens almost automatically for no very good reason.

Southern Water has been fined large amounts because of the continued discharge of raw sewage into the sea.

It is by no means clear what happens to this money.

It could be that it is used to help improve facilities in the water industry.

Another possibility is that it just disappears into general government funds in which case there is no benefit to consumers.

These are important matters which deserve a proper explanation.

Richard Ablett

It’s clear Boris was in the wrong

C. Aighgy's recent letter gives a detailed analysis of the supposed motives of members of the House of Commons' privileges committee in coming to their conclusions about Boris Johnson's conduct as Prime Minister.

In the letter, almost all of the members of the committee are accused of anti-Johnson bias, a conclusion which is, to say the least, doubtful.

More to the point, the inconvenient truth which C. Aighgy totally ignores is that the Committee, even if it were biased, does not have any power to remove a member it finds to have broken the rules.

It is only empowered to take evidence and then report back to the whole House.

The most that it can do is to make recommendations for all of the members to consider and possibly vote upon.

After the evidence presented in the committee's report had been published for all members to read, they duly voted by a massive majority for his suspension from the House.

They were not obliged to take this course of action and could have rejected the committee's main finding that Johnson had deliberately misled Parliament, but the evidence was so obvious, clear and conclusive against him that he had to go - and rightly so.

K. A. Chapman

We need to look after ourselves

We have enough problems in this country already, what with the uncontrolled immigration from the EU as we see the infrastructure is failing because of this action.

Yet people want these illegals to have priority, in other words we plan nothing and let everybody in no matter who they are.

This has been the policy of the British government for many, many years and causes poverty.

We pay the French government to prevent the Channel crossings.

It seems to have done the reverse as the EU want us to suffer for the audacity of leaving their club and go it alone.

The EU would be stronger if all the countries within were independent and lived their own ways of custom and dealt with each other in respect and friendship.

Many Eastern Europeans are finding the EU is not much different from the USSR.

Stephen Bennett

Too much Colin

Once again we hear too much from letter writer Colin Bullen.

The future is just too inconvenient for his fixed mind. We hear too much of his denial of overwhelming scientific consensus, his dehumanising characterisations of asylum seekers and his absurd assertion that everything in the past was so much better than now.

We could easily dismiss him as a kind of modern-day Alf Garnett but we’d be falling into his own same trap.

The point is, sometimes his arguments can be both banal as well as extraordinary insensitive. Yes, this snowflake is definitely offended.

When he lauds ‘those great allies who joined us in the fight against the most evil regime’ in WWII he ignores the fact that one of those allies was Joseph Stalin, who is widely acknowledged to have murdered millions of his own citizens.

The past is full of compromise but also horror.

Too many recent news reports reveal there was generation or two of people who felt entitled to respect without ever having to earn it.

I’m very glad we are progressing towards a society where there is safeguarding for vulnerable people and where it is possible to speak out when things are wrong, to be heard and not have to wait forty years to be so.

Some of us are looking forward to a better future.

This is where we give the less powerful some respect and don’t sweep inconvenient truths under the carpet.

Sometimes it’s very right to be offended.

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