Letters: October 18, 2016

Anonymity is granted only at the discretion of the editor, who also reserves the right to edit letters.

Death penalty fallacy

I AM responding to the letter (Vote on Death Penalty) October 13 from the advocate of the death penalty Terry Hayward.

In it he accuses Jeff Adams of speaking with great affection for murderers, terrorists, gangsters and rapists.

Such an accusation is a vile slur, not only against Jeff Adams but also against the 52 per cent of the UK population who oppose the death penalty.

I’ll point out to Mr Hayward that in both Nigeria and Somalia, where Boko Haram and Al Shabaab operate, the crimes which they commit are punishable by death.

So, as both organisations carry on with their brutal way of life, the death penalty acts as no deterrent, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram and Isis are murderous death cults who view blowing themselves up and causing maximum death and destruction in the process as a way to martyrdom.

So the restoration of the death penalty in the UK, or any other western country, could not deter such organisations from carrying out attacks in the UK or anywhere else as Mr Hayward implies in his letter.

The belief that the death penalty would act as a deterrent against murderers, rapists etc is a fallacy. The death penalty is, like war, legalised murder.

MARTIN WEBB

Old Town, Swindon

....

Saving ourselves

POLITICS was a sensible method of building a better society and changing a corrupt form of economics, until we reached the present state, where a large proportion of the population have been persuaded by a proven dishonest media, that all politicians, of opposing values, are self-serving crooks.

It may be some politicians are less honest than some, but voters have only made themselves stupid by their inability to perceive the distinction between the social philosophies of separate political parties. ‘All politics is the same,’ is their silly judgement.

One consequence is right wing populism, portrayed by Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, where anger and even hatred prevent their supporters thinking rationally about what used to be called politics. They much prefer outrage against everybody but themselves.

There are examples of such rabble-rousing in the 1930s, requiring a demagogue like Sir Oswald Mosley as a rallying figure.

It is even more worrying that Trump is ridiculous, as an incoherent, self-contradictory demagogue, and yet millions follow where mindless slogans substitute for any thought.

Populism is the very extreme of Personality Politics, which the media loves. ‘A picture says more than a thousand words’ is only true about minds which are empty of any principles.

The popularity of Jeremy Corbyn is probably an indication of left wing populism, fuelled by emotions to declare high principles to change a very unjust society. It lacks intellectual discussion or policies showing how this could be achieved by first uniting the will of a majority of voting citizens.

I suggest that the rise of all populism is a product of modern technology and its power to dominate all our thinking, in a manner which is directly comparable to the advertising industry, which never has had any intention to tell the truth about anything, but preys upon our emotions in order to steal our money, while employing real knowledge from educated psychologists to cheat us.

Britain’s commerce uses deliberate deceit, which is a huge waste of billions, creating calculated dishonesty, aimed at children who are trapped by it by the time they are adults.

So it seems that this mindless, self-centred acceptance of poisonous emotions, such as material acquisition, greed, covetousness for what you will never need, envy of others from advertising, might partly explain the rise of populism, the refusal to think, in politics.

Only a more critical and analytic form of school education can save us from ourselves.

CN WESTERMAN

Meadow Rise, Brynna, Mid Glam

....

Our darkest hour?

I SUPPOSE we are all a bit hacked off with the way the pound has performed over the last month.

In two and a half years the pound has gone down 30 per cent against the US Dollar, equal to 1975-1977.

However, the latest fall has been too much and much too fast. which is leading us to an overshoot downwards. But exports are up to a three-year high.

The UK has a £60bn deficit with the EU, despite single market access.

We also have a £30bn surplus with the rest of the world. We must also remember that the EU is a declining Bloc with GDP growth lagging behind every other region for a generation.

The 85 per cent of the world which is outside the EU is growing faster. This gives Britain lots of trading possibilities.

In 1999 60 per cent of our trade was with the EU, Now it is down to 43 per cent. Our non EU trade is rising so we must ask ourselves if the Single Market is so very important.

Don’t forget the US, China, Japan, Australia and India all enjoy access to the Single Market. When we get to the actual negotiating stage, powerful French and German industrial lobbies will start to flex their muscles, pushing aside these bickering, self-important Eurocrats and their nonsensical “Britain Must Pay” rhetoric.

That is the point when common sense will take over and real negotiations will begin.

However. we must also stop this Quantitative Easing - printing money we don’t have. In the long term it does no good. Rather it’s a short term policy brought in by Labour fiscal policies to cover the mistakes they made in 2008 regarding Northern Rock.

All this is in the process of developing and will probably result in increased inflation. But inflation was high in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but we still had a pretty good employment record.

We must also look at the fast one that some of our larger suppliers are trying to pull - Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline to name but two. Unilever has already tried to increase its prices. But let’s remind them that their share price has increased from £25 a year ago to £37 today. Likewise GlaxoSmithKline is up from £12 a share to £17 today.

So the darkest hour is perhaps not here yet; or is it? If it is then hopefully it will pass and we shall start the recovery.

DAVID COLLINS

Blake Crescent

Swindon

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Keep thermals handy

ALL this hullabaloo over the council’s grit pile and the forthcoming severe ice-age conditions we are going to have this winter. What poppycock!

Every year about this time we get all these ridiculous predictions of ice ages. The Daily Express and Mail are two of the newspapers (and now the SA) which annually warn us of epic freezing conditions.

Never have any of these predictions come to pass. Last winter - same predictions, but one of the mildest on record. Hardly a smatter of snow.

We, in Swindon are protected on two sides from most snow flurries - the Downs on one side, Cotswolds on the other.

Weather is not that accurately predictable that far in advance - just wait and see, but keep the thermals handy just in case.

CHRIS HUMPHREYS

Fuller Close

Swindon

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A PR chance lost

FORGIVE me for being a ‘silly Billy’ when I thought today’s football was all about money.

Evo-Stick League football team Merthyr Town FC’s game was abandoned and the fans were told the charge for the next home game will be ‘pay what you want.’

What a different stance to Swindon when the board of directors decided to charge their supporters full price for the return of the abandoned game against Bristol Rovers.

The old argument by Swindon would be: Our overheads are a lot more and you can’t expect to watch a higher standard of football for free.

To my mind that was a good PR exercise lost. Like it or not, the gulf between non-league and lower league teams isn’t as vast as years ago. However, that hasn’t stopped the cost at the league turnstiles rocketing.

I’ve been to Merthyr over the years but on this occasion I went to watch Trowbridge Town play. Terry Woollen, the former Swindon Town full back, who broke his leg, was making a come-back and turning out for Trowbridge.

What has stuck in my mind all these years was the home supporter standing behind me.

He had lungs Bryn Terfil would be proud of, and it seemed every time the ball entered the Wiltshire side’s half he would shout “WATCH THE GOALIE KEEPER, BOYO!” My ears are still ringing! Good days.

WILLIAM ABRAHAM

Rodbourne

Swindon

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Parishing of Swindon

THE SBC proposal to create parish councils to take on some of its duties is interesting.

It could work if enough community-minded people volunteer. Is Salisbury in effect a parish council?

Wiltshire Council has experience working with parish councils. Perhaps “parishing” Swindon will make it easy for Wiltshire to take control again after a boundaries review.

JOHN DAVIES

Byron Avenue, Wootton Bassett