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

Missed chance to upgrade our railways

I have just read the letter by Ginny Jones and completely agree that the current situation re-Eurostar is crazy.

I live in Bexhill and in December 2022 my partner and I had a city break in Bruges. We were aware that we'd have to board at St Pancras but the irony was that, when we booked our train tickets to/from Bexhill to St Pancras, the route we were given was also via Ashford ("International").

This country missed a huge opportunity when it (eventually) built HS1 - the line between Ashford and Hastings remains single track and operated only by diesels; this could have been upgraded so that people living along the south coast, as far as Brighton and even beyond, would have had better access to Eurostar and HS1 in general.

I recall the "fanfare" when the Hastings, Bexhill and Eastbourne MPs brought a "Javelin" train along the above line as part of a campaign for HS1 to serve their towns - how long ago was that now?

I'm not holding my breath - Eurostar trains had to "crawl" up to Waterloo (International) for many years before HS1 was built!

Mark Chawner

Drivers have a lot to learn

Could I please add to Bob Britnell's new year resolutions for drivers?

Read rules 238/239 of the Highway Code and bring themselves up to date (finally) on stopping, parking, controlling their vehicle, device "management" if that's the right term and saving noxious fumes by turning off their engines.

Roy Finch

Rwanda scheme must be allowed to work

It remains to be seen whether a single immigrant will be transported to Rwanda after the government cleared the last hurdle in the Commons.

But remarkably, 276 members of the House of Commons voted against it. Why? There is not a credible alternative being proffered, except to simply let everyone in, which would undermine the social cohesion, fabric and traditions of our country forever.

I’m tired of listening to the ‘do-gooders’ who have continually brought cases to the courts and attempted to block every move the government makes but at the same time would not put up refugees in their own homes. It smacks of double standards to me, but they are quite happy to cost this country billions of pounds keeping unwanted guests in the lap of luxury while there are people sleeping in the streets, which they do nothing about.

As some of the mayors from the coastal towns in France stated, the migrants look upon Britain as El Dorado, and frankly, they are not wrong.

I do hope this Rwanda scheme works because, if it doesn’t, the only alternative will be to abandon the ECHR in order to stop leftist lawyers from taking matters to court once again.

For me, I think too many immigrants have been allowed in already. If this scheme fails to stop the boats, the Tories are dead in the water and then we will have a problem.

Sid Anning

PM should call snap election

Poor old Rishi Sunak, it truly looks like his goose is cooked.

Firstly, I read a survey that states he is less popular than Boris Johnson and even Jeremy Corbyn. I suppose there is some consolation in not being worse than Liz Truss, but if and when that happens, he will really be in the land of no return.

Next, there are rumours circling about two dozen letters of no confidence going into the 1922 committee and, to round it off, Robert Jenrick, is refusing to rule out a leadership bid.

If I was the PM, I would cancel the Rwanda gimmick, pay the doctors’ pay demand, thus stopping the strikes, and call a snap general election. This is probably his only chance to avoid a wipeout. Otherwise, he has 9/10 months of continued chaos and back-bench threats!

Robert Boston

‘Journey’ to corporate twaddle

The murder of our language continues unabated.

I ordered and paid for a new cooker recently and soon afterwards received an e-mail from the supplier, informing me that they would be with me every step of my ‘journey’ until it was installed!

Journey? What a load of corporate twaddle!

Another example of this increasingly ridiculous modern penchant for using words ‘incorrectly’ is when, instead of requesting that information be circulated, companies ask for information ‘to be cascaded’ to all concerned.

Cascaded? Balderdash!

As for the growing tendency (again thanks to our friends across the pond) of the verb invite, as a noun (the noun is invitation) which is a common grammatical error by BBC presenters - don’t even get me started.

Time was when BBC personnel could be relied upon to set the standard when it comes to using our mother tongue! Just another step on the slippery slope to slanguage (sic).

Robert Readman

Stop these woke bureaucrats

Despite the public exposure of their multiple failings the bureaucratic class continues on its merry way, betraying the ordinary people in pursuit either of personal advantage, or to further the ideology of woke.

One would have thought that the post office would now be cooperating with plans to exonerate and compensate the innocent postmasters whose lives have been turned upside down by the defective Horizon system, but in fact they are placing obstacles in the way. Victims have been told that it could take 32 weeks to produce details of their personal accounts, without which they cannot even begin the process of claiming payments.

Clearly the bureaucrats are hoping that people will give up, or even die, so that the case against these incompetent bullies can be undermined, or at least kicked down the road.

Another set of abhorrent bureaucrats has taken root in the Civil Service, particularly in the Home Office, where these functionaries, paid to implement the decisions of elected representatives, are doing all they can to obstruct actions intended to put an end to the boats arriving on our shores on a daily basis.

When I joined the Civil Service six decades ago, it was always clear that it was supposed to be impartial. While that excellent series Yes Minister showed how this ideal was not always followed, the Sir Humphreys of those days would never have been so blatantly in opposing the government, while the ordinary civil servants would never have thought of sabotaging what the politicians were attempting to implement.

Politicians must take back control, otherwise the people will be wasting their time at elections if unelected bureaucrats are to override those that the voters have put in office.

Colin Bullen

Civilians are on frontline of wars

We are faced with wars and conflicts across the globe. I now read that NATO is expecting a war with Russia in the next 20 years.

The nature of war has changed. A friend once said to me that war stopped being acceptable when kings stopped leading their troops into battle.

Now it is not so much the troops who are in the frontline but civilians.

The number of children killed in Ukraine, Gaza and other conflicts is the clearest indication that those pursuing their aims through the use of highly sophisticated and expensive weapons have no regard for human life.

To what end are these wars and conflicts? The claim is that they are to defend our civilisation and democratic way of life.

The essence of democracy is to enable everyone to participate in decisions affecting their lives. This can only be done through dialogue and discussion.

If that is the basis of our democracy, why are nations not talking to each other in order to resolve conflicts rather than believing that the only way of securing our particular system is to destroy all other systems?

Ralph A Tebbutt

The science is clear on climate

I am writing to express my worry about climate change and the lack of sufficient action to try to stem it and mitigate the effects.

I feel frustrated that, for example, the climate crisis wasn't mentioned in so much of the reporting of the heatwaves of recent years and that even less was written about the fossil fuel corporations that caused and are continuing to fuel this crisis.

The science is absolutely clear: with every fraction of a degree of warming, we’ll see and suffer more extreme heat, droughts, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes.

It’s surely time for the government to step up and deliver a real plan for jobs, for insulated and energy-efficient affordable housing and for climate action - a Green New Deal.

The media undoubtedly has an important role to play - and a moral obligation to tell the whole truth: that this is a climate crisis caused by the greed of fossil fuel corporations, and the banks and governments that support them.

Mary Robertson

Reduce or scrap inheritance tax

I am trying to get the UK government to abolish inheritance tax, or at least increase the tax-free allowance.

I am doing this because I don’t think to government should benefit from money that has already been taxed someone’s entire life, quite possibly on more than one occasion as well.

As an example, a single person with a £1,000,000 estate would be forced to pay £270,000 inheritance tax; if the remainder was to be divided amongst three beneficiaries they would receive £243,333.33 each, so the government would actually receive more than the person’s family members.

To aid me in my quest for success, I have started a petition on the government website to try and get this debated in parliament.

Kev Hildersley

Support for terrorists is baffling

I find it incomprehensible why so many people who live in civilised western democracies are on the streets expressing support for undemocratic terrorists.

These are the people who deliberately attacked and killed civilians and celebrated gleefully. The following day the Israeli prime minister stated “we are at war”, an official declaration of war against Hamas that allows them to use the rules of war instead of civil law. Israel has religiously abided by these internationally agreed rules despite what some pundits and commentators say when they see something they don’t like.

Israel follows the accepted rules and norms of civilised society, even when defending themselves against the atrocities of terrorist organisations like Hamas.

Alan Hardie-Storey

Video games can breed violence

I suspect that one of the chief causes behind the culture of violence amongst young males is the preponderance of video games that depict violent settings to engage the player.

These games are perceived as a source of entertainment and fun, regardless of their adverse content. To give an example, Call of Duty portrays scenes of blood, gore, torture, child combat and countless civilians being mown down. The overall effect is to endorse acts of brutality and wanton violence in a context that would thrill young minds without them making any judgment as to its morality.

By sanitizing violence, the danger is that it will influence their pattern of behaviour.

Thus, for some, carrying knives and being prepared to use them and harbouring the thought that it would empower them to inflict grievous harm on those they choose to target.

But society is also responsible for propagating the mindset in which violence is just a means to serve a purpose, by accepting acts of violence and conflict being incorporated into a visual display of aggression to titillate and engross the participants in these games.

Michael Smith