Letters: January 14, 2017

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Fan faces dilemma

I’VE come back from watching Swindon Town draw 1-1 with Shrewsbury Town, and I’ve been thinking ever since.

The man sitting on the bench was not the manager. The chap who actually manages is called the ‘director of football’ although no one at the club appears to do any directing, despite the programme listing Seamus Brady, Veljko Jovanovic, Roger Terrell and Zavier Austin (whoever they are) as directors.

Are these people paid by the club? We can’t tell as the director/accountant Sangita Shah hasn’t filed the accounts for years.

We have an owner/chairman who lives outside the country and is rarely at the County Ground. His self-professed objective is to make a profit from selling STFC.

He once spoke of an Australian business investing in Swindon Town, and spent money (his or STFC’s?) meeting with them. Nothing has been heard of them (or anyone else) for a year.

We had an extremely committed supporter called Nigel Eady who was reported to have bequeathed the club a large sum of money for its benefit.

Town have subsequently bought a (long needed) training ground which, as I remember, was reported to be under the ownership of the chairman rather than the club.

Can I be sure of this? Well, not really because the last two media/communication managers with the club have not been allowed to communicate with the local press and hence supporters.

An official communication conduit, Fanzai (PieInTheSky?) seems to have disappeared without trace.

No independent local media seems willing to ask difficult questions for fear of being banned.

On the pitch we have defenders who can not defend, goalscorers who can not score and strikers who will not shoot.

We have ‘creative’ midfielders who only play the ball backwards to a (very capable) goalkeeper who can not keep his distribution on the pitch.

On a match day it often seems we are deliberately inviting disaster upon our weaknesses, rather than seeking victory upon our strengths.

We have a ‘nationally respected’ coach who presumably drills them in this manner.

We’ve had players representing Swindon Town who are not Swindon Town players and have been recalled by their clubs, and people responsible for recruitment not foreseeing that or reacting to it.

Transfer window included, Town have a huge month ahead, with fixtures against Bolton, Peterborough, Bristol Rovers and Oxford. I can’t see where any points are going to come from those matches.

I’m just a supporter. I’ve been a shareholder for 20 years, although company restructuring has rendered my holding worthless. I’ve been a season ticket holder for 40 years and come March I’m going to be asked to renew again.

Should I become a ‘supporter’ in the way that the ‘directors’ are directors? The way the ‘coach’ is a coach? The way the ‘chairman’ is a chairman? In name only without any apparent commitment, responsibility or workload?

Unless something at The County Ground changes dramatically I can see the potential for my life changing dramatically instead.

Life without a Swindon season ticket? Until recently, unthinkable.

D WALLIS

The Gardens, Heddington, Calne

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Bitter harvest ahead

HAS anyone else noticed that it is mainly kippers and other Brexiteers who are the main climate change deniers?

These people, having put the UK on the road to disaster, are now plotting to put the whole human race on the road to disaster. No, wait, it’s even worse than that, they are plotting to put the whole natural world on the road to disaster.

How are they doing this? By being the tools of the immensely rich oil multinationals. This is not to suggest that those who write to your letter page are in anyway getting financial inducements, that is reserved for those higher up the chain. No, these people are the dupes of the oil companies. Poor fools, they are sowing a bitter harvest for their grandchildren.

No doubt you will be inundated by letters saying the present cold spell in Europe proves that climate change, or global warming, is false.

Those who say it disproves climate change are obviously spouting nonsense as it is surely a further indication of the climate changing.

Those who say it disproves global warming fail to take into account that a small drop in temperature below the average in Europe is more than countered by a massive 30 degree above average temperature in the Arctic.

STEVE THOMPSON

Norman Road, Swindon

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Littering question

WONDERFUL New Year message from the Department Of The Environment – drivers allowing litter to fall from their vehicles on the highway will be now subject to a £60 fine whether or not they have personally deposited the litter.

It gets better. If not paid in 14 days it escalates to £200 … and not before time! North Swindon residents please fire up those dashboard webcams.

Speaking as one who cleans up regularly behind our recycling boys, and have in the past taken a bag of litter so collected and left it at the office of Leon Barrett at Waterside, the Chief Responsible Officer at the Borough Council, I have a question which is this: “Is the plan for Swindon Borough Council to levy fines on itself?”

And do the SBC recycling cart drivers have an indemnity from fines incurred in the performance of their duties?

As I estimate that between six and ten per cent of litter collected from the streets in North Swindon derives from kerbside recycling (whether the wind is blowing or not) perhaps less kerbside recycling and more depot- based recycling is called for?

JOHN STOOKE

Haydon End, Swindon

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Listen to NHS staff

WE ARE being told that the NHS is in meltdown because of a bed shortage caused by bed blocking, in turn caused by an older population living longer, no doubt caused by looking after ourselves that bit better.

which is what some bright spark of an MP will tell us, its all our fault for Living so long after our sell by date of 75ish. We have the Red Cross telling us the NHS is in an humanitarian crisis, a Government in total denial that there is anything wrong with our NHS.

When the NHS was first formed in the 1940s its was built for the population at that time, it was not supposed to support a population on the scale we have in 2017.

The NHS is crumbling, the funding gap is growing and someone really does need to wake up and make it work again but who have we got who’s man or women enough to get this country back on track?

I cannot think of a single minister in the Government or an MP in any of the other Parties who instils confidence in me.

What we have is the Labour Party trying to score points off the Government by saying its all the latest Government’s fault.

No it is not Mr Corbyn, what’s caused this meltdown is decades of underfunding, unchecked immigration and a population trying to look after itself health-wise and by living a bit longer and all the Governments over the past 40 years burying their heads in the sand and turning the NHS into a political football match to score points and just bad mouthing each other.

The people who work in the NHS want it to work, there is not a more professional, dedicated workforce in the world so stop hindering them.

Give them the tools to work with, give them the funding they need. Listen to them, after all they are the experts in this field not you Mr/Mrs Minister.

JOHN L CROOK

Haydon Wick, Swindon

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Halt the sex abusers

IN 2015, after more than 50,000 people joined the NSPCC’s Flaw In The Law campaign, the Government introduced legislation to arm police with new powers to tackle paedophiles.

It meant an adult would be breaking the law if they sent a sexual communication to an under 16-year-old.

This new offence was supposed to mean that the full force of the law could be brought to bear on anyone who grooms children online.

But, almost two years later, the Government is dragging its feet and the law is yet to be triggered, despite the fact that similar legislation is already proving successful in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In too many cases the police have been left powerless to take action to protect children who are being targeted by abusers online.

The public have backed our campaign, Parliament has agreed to it and the situation in Scotland and Northern Ireland show that the law works.

We urge the Government to finally make this grooming illegal, and free the hands of the police to tackle this grooming before it escalates.

Visit ww.nspcc.org.uk/fighting-for-childhood/campaigns/flaw-law

INGRID ANSON

NSPCC, Little London Court,

Albert Street

Swindon

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Thank you for purse

I WOULD like to say a big thank you to the honest person who found my purse in the Old Town Car Park on New Year’s Eve and very kindly handed it in to Gable Cross police station.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED