Letters: December 13, 2016

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Not fit for purpose?

RE FACT versus fiction ( Adver Des Morgan 26/11/16)

How amazing! Des Morgan accuses me of contempt for the Queen – he who sends regular derogatory missives to the local council (courtesy of Adver) demonstrating his contempt!

Never mind at least he’s been steadfast in his loathing.

If the royals cannot look after Buckingham Palace and raise their own revenue to fund maintenance out of her vast wealth, then isn’t it time they moved out? Before long they’ll be claiming squatters’ rights.

Council house tenants (who at least pay rent) aren’t allowed to keep their property in perpetuity, why should they?

Buckingham Palace is a national property treated like a private home by a rogue tenant. Years of neglect on the part of the royals have left the building in desperate need of repairs.

The palace should be opened up to tourists all year round to pay for maintenance costs. It’s time they moved out and the palace turned into a world class museum and art gallery. The royals are clearly not fit custodians of our heritage.

It has one of the greatest art collections in the world - so let’s see it handed back to the nation where it belongs.

It seems Des Morgan has become a man possessed by an image of the Queen that doesn’t exist, naively asserting that ‘she is a Constitutional monarch.’

See how easily he has succumbed to the Palace spin? Repeat it often enough and certain people are taken in.

I suggest he consults the excellent Down With The Royals by Joan Smith, who exposes the unconstitutional meddling of the Queen in the UK’s democratic processes, ensuring her interests are never threatened, but damn the public’s.

Then there is Charles, the future king – and a great republican’s dream candidate, who regularly lobbies ministers concerning his own interests (naturally), forcing them to respond to his views even though he has no constitutional right to do so. Strange how the usually vigilent Mr Morgan conveniently failed to notice Charles’ ongoing unconstitutional activities without comment. (Perhaps he is approaching his use-by date?) If he is doing it now, how much more so when Charles 111?

Des Morgan asserts that monarchy attracts an awful lot of visitors. What exactly is an awful lot? There is no evidence that monarchy is a big draw.

On the contrary, any such a notion is dispelled by the simple expedient at looking at tourist numbers worldwide.

Chester Zoo, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths, among others, are all more successful tourist spots than, say Windsor Castle (a mere 24th on the list). Was Des Morgan that cavalier stood in front of me at the top of the Eiffel Tower a few months ago whom I heard exclaim:‘Hmm it’s quite a nice view, but the lack of a monarch seems to spoil it.’How do the French manage without a monarch? Versailles, for example, is awash with visitors, even though vacated.

Des Morgan would prefer the Queen to a president. However, our nearest neighbour, the Republic of Ireland, offers some contemporary examples of how such a role can work.

Mary Robinson was the country’s first female president, her leadership earned her approval ratings of 93 per cent. Her successor, Mary Mcleese, also proved an inspiring president.

Just think: we have three heads of state in waiting, all vastly wealthy, white and aristocrats! Their only qualification for the job? Mother has been keeping the seat warm! Royal nepotism at its best!

Des says he values the Royal Family as a sign of stability in a very uncertain world. Doesn’t he mean our Government security services? Security equals stability, not the monarchy.

Countries aren’t stable because they have a monarchy, monarchies survive only if countries are stable.

Des says “And for the many the opportunity to see the Queen is the cherry on the cake, why else would they peer through the railings at the palace?” A daft statement Des. What would they have visited before awaiting the cherry?

Has anyone ever peered through the palace railings and seen the Queen? More likely the muzzles of semi-automatics! How do you know what they are up to?Perhaps they are ‘wellwishers’ - that mysterious category of persons who only ever appear at royal events? They could even be thinking ‘is this really the same woman who associates with blood-thirsty tyrants by choice’?

The same woman who, when Princess Diana died, refused to have flags flown at half mast until public opinion forced her hand? Yet she was happy to fly the flag at half mast for a head-chopping Saudi dictator!

The same woman who suggested that princess Diana’s body be shipped home in a Harrod’s van? Dear me, Mr Morgan.

The same woman who made an unsuccessful grab for £20m put aside by the Government for hospital and council house repairs barely a few years ago?

The monarch survives by staying silent, keeping their heads down and making only the blandest public statements.

The institution of monarchy poisons our national culture, by tacitly legitimising nepotism, institutional inequality, class privilege and all its attendant snobbery and toadyism.

When subjects are invited to the palace for an award, they should not bow, scrape or curtsey before her. Instead her Highness should bow to the Lownesses taxpayers in front of her who keep her in such unnatural and theatrical opulence.

JEFF ADAMS

Bloomsbury, Swindon

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Double standards?

ON September 12 the Swindon Advertiser published a letter “Cheap pejorative insult” from Steve Thompson.

He started this letter by saying, “I always feel saddened when political debate in your letters pages is cheapened by using insults rather than reasoned arguments.”

He went on to reprimand David Collins for using the expression “lefty loonies.” Mr Thompson said, “Loony and lunatic are pejorative and insulting terms for people with mental health problems and should not be used at all, much less should they be used as terms of insult against political opponents.”

Mr Thompson concluded by saying, “Shame on you Mr Collins and I look forward to your letter apologising for the use of the expression and I am sure many other readers also look forward to it.”

In his letter “Misleading figures” (SA, December 8) Steve Thompson started by saying, “No doubt we are going to get a deluge of letters from the Barmy Brexit Brigade about the latest immigration figures, which show a record net immigration.”

To use Mr Thompson’s own terminology, barmy is a “pejorative and insulting” slang word for a person who is insane. To reprimand others for using “insulting words” and then commit a similar offence is bizarre.

Mr Thompson should take his own advice. He could start by apologising to the 17.4 million of the electorate who he insulted for exercising their democratic right to vote for Brexit in the EU referendum.

He may also like to apologise to any people with mental health problems for his use of the expression “barmy.”

I suggest those who insist on others being courteous, respectful and “politically correct” should set an example and abide by their own rules.

K KANE

Wharf Road, Wroughton

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Uncomfortable truth

IT is disappointing to see your correspondent on November 26 refer dismissively to ‘the old chestnut, climate change.’

I do understand that it is, frankly, terrifying, to acknowledge that our societies’ collective actions are altering our only habitat. This is a process we may be unable to slow or reverse.

In just the same way we initially deny and refuse to accept a bereavement or other bad news, such wilful disbelief is a very human response.

However, as the information sinks in and we learn more, we reluctantly accept the truth and face what must be faced, if we are wise.

The bare facts of the matter are that the seasons are shifting, the planet is warming, the ancient Arctic ice is melting, the sea level is rising, and it’s all happening at increasing speeds. Under the Precautionary Principle, we would surely be well advised to take seriously the very real and growing risk of imminent permanent damage to our environment.

This is not our children’s challenge anymore – as if leaving them in environmental debt is in any way moral or humane – it is ours.

The timescale is speeding up. As animals and plants will fall in the race to follow their shifting habitats, if we go on as we are, one day there will very likely be no more old chestnuts, anywhere.

TALIS KIMBERLEY-FAIRBOURN

Swindon Area Green Party, member

Perrys Lane, Wroughton

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Garage ‘scandal’

THE size of garages, the provision of suitable parking spaces per dwelling and the width of roadways within Swindon’s new estates, is nothing short of a scandal.

I have a potentially five-bedroomed house with one garage (which if you use it, you cannot open the car doors to get out) and one parking space.

Three bedroomed houses in Redhouse have one parking space. The roads are narrow, twisting and resulting directly from the above, crammed with on street parking, making the passage of vehicles, especially waste, commercial and emergency vehicles, highly problematical.

Redhouse Way, an important bus route in North Swindon, is arguably even more ridiculous with pavements actually wider than the carriageway.

Now Swindon Borough Council can perhaps be forgiven here as Wiltshire were the highway authority and developers got permission generally on appeal, but no such excuse can be relied on at Wichelstowe.

So they instead rely on the ludicrous assertion that if you build large houses and flats with no parking provision people will forgo a car, forgo perceived independence…. oh and none of your kids will have any wish to drive!

This simplistic and naïve planning concept would never stand up to any real scrutiny.

One only had to pay heed to the effect on car ownership when fuel prices leapt from 90p a litre to £1.50 plus a litre. Did it deter car ownership? Not a chance. Car ownership went up.

So next the Borough Council prosecutes ordinary householders who are doing nothing more than trying to quietly live their lives in the way local residents in Wroughton, Old Town, Parks, Old Walcot, Greenmeadow, Oakebourne Park, etc. etc, add infinitum, are able to do.

Thankfully one councillor with a conscience (well done Claire Ellis, EA Saturday) has promised to get some common sense brought to bear.

At least one thing you can be certain of however, the civil servants, the estate designers, the developers and the assenting planners will not be found living within the confines of these ill- thought through and misguided ‘experimental’ estates.

JOHN STOOKE

Haydon End, Swindon

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Festive light relief

AS we approach the festival of the calendar guess of the birth of Jesus Christ , Christmas, it cheers me up as I walk my little Westie on the dark winter evenings, hail rain or snow to contemplate the bright lights and Christmas trees inside the house, not to mention the brilliant outside displays in Covingham and I suspect in all areas of Swindon.

The time and effort involved astounds me as I guess most of the mothers and fathers have young kids and jobs to support their families, and time is precious.

May I humbly offer a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my supporters on these pages as well as my detractors.

On a lighter note, an Englishman was charged with being drunk and disorderly. The magistrate inquired regarding his plea in mitigation.

He said: “A Scotsman bought me a bottle of whisky.”

The magistrate then declared: “Send him down, six months for perjury.”

BILL WILLIAMS

Merlin Way

Covingham, Swindon