Letters: February 23, 2017

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

Why am I paying more?

WHAT a monumental fiasco the new council tax rating system has turned out to be.

Obviously nobody is happy about it. Nobody wants to spend money on taxes that many of them do not understand.

And it further complicates matters when differing factions within the council insist on going down the “party” path when it comes to criticising. Yes we know times are hard and the country as a whole is in debt. And yes one party did in fact leave a note for the new occupier of that office saying “no money left.” Comical, maybe, clever definitely not.

And, if we are honest about it, it was just a load of very poor decisions and late play that left us all in this situation.

It was brought about, as you will remember, by the downfall of Northern Rock and the Government of the day’s inability to act upon it.

We now have a situation where by we have to raise more cash to support our town in just about every area.

So why is it we have such a divergence of amounts of tax for different areas of the town?

Do we not all get our rubbish collected equally and likewise with our street lighting etc?

Do you understand why we all are paying different amounts? I certainly don’t. Why am I, living in Stratton St Margaret, paying what I perceive as the highest amount in the whole of the areas shown on the the map in the Adver on February17.

Why are we not all paying the same amounts? If it’s something to do with the antiquated systems that were used in the past Then it’s wrong. We are living in 21st century Swindon.

I can see from the map that some have gone up by a larger percentage than mine. But these areas are still paying less than I am. What am I getting that they are not?

Unless someone can explain why this is, then it is wrong. It strikes me as being illegal to charge different groups different amounts for the same services.

And no I am not going to hold my breath until somebody tries to justify this what to my mind is a blatant RIP OFF. Yes, people will rabbit on about different properties being worth more than others.It’s all rubbish. and should not affect our rateable values. Just because someone paid more for their house than somebody else how does that effect the services they get? It doesn’t and it shouldn’t affect the council tax amounts.

DAVID COLLINS

Blake Crescent, Swindon

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Don’t miss this show

POLLY Stenham’s writing has the ability to jolt her audience into foreseeing so much more than what is witnessed within the moment.

Last week, Royal Wootton Bassett based Quirky Bird Theatre performed Stenham’s That Face, at Alma Theatre, Bristol, a play exploring the dysfunctional push-pull dance of a particular family dynamic, along with its brazen blurring of boundaries.

Anna Friend’s sensitive artistic direction is invaluable in giving genuine voice to the issues of abandonment, beliefs and values, the parental role and individual and collective accountability.

This is a deeply accurate portrayal of one family’s never-ending fight for secure attachment within a precariously imbalanced system.

Louise Thomas’s portrayal of tormented soul Martha is superb in its stark revelation that adulthood doesn’t always equate with maturity.

Henry, played by Jamie Carter, is no more than an extension of his mother, though he clings to the hope of a normal relationship, if only he knew what normal was.

Jamie plays this role believably. Louise and Jamie’s performances are the key force by which everything else is unlocked, like a well-oiled cog, driving the mechanics of the play smoothly towards its full expression.

It takes genuine talent to perform such a lack of control in a controlled way as to draw the audience into your world, one which evokes strong emotion and discussion that lasts way beyond the performance.

The supporting cast of Amie Olive (Mia), Rosie Walker (Izzy), Doug Kirby (Hugh) and Yazmin Priestner-Burton/Amy Field (Alice), each gave portrayals of the highest calibre.

This play is rawness magnified, yet delicately interspersed with tender moments and humour, that leave you hoping and wishing for more, especially a happy ending.

The use of minimal props and streamlined set changes is clever in that it enhances the emphasis on each individual performance.

My thanks go to the cast and crew, especially Anna Friend, David Jell, Pamela Giraud-Telme and everyone involved in this brave, wonderfully acted production. That Face will be at Swindon Arts Centre on July 7 and 8.

VANESSA C DENMAN

Crawford Close, Freshbrook, Swindon

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Royals don’t work hard

RE: ‘She’s done a good job’ ( Steve Thompson Adver 17/2/17).

He says: “if you were to write a job description for a constitutional monarch I don’t think the queen could have done a better job.”

But what job does she do? Without knowing that, how can Steve say she’s done a good job?

Her work has never been scrutinised, most of what she does is little more than shaking the right hands and saying the right words.

Nurses, teachers, manual workers, firemen, police officers, etc. work hard and do a good job, some essential, others risking lives: What about them?

The Queen and her pack are paid astronomical hourly rates for their “work” and yet accept none of the risks of redundancy or performance appraisals.

The truth is that they do very little. Prince Charles’s former press officer, Mark Bolland, was once quoted as saying “the Windsors are very good at working three days a week, five months of a year and making it look as though they work hard.” Straight from the horses’ mouth.

In 2009 for example,Prince Charles claimed to have undertaken 658 engagements. It sounds a lot, until we note that each engagement lasts about an hour or less, many of them being held at a palace or home where the royal is living. And 658 hours a year is about 12 and a half hours a week.

A few years ago I witnessed him visiting Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, an area of high unemployment. A small crowd had gathered. A Bentley drew up and out popped the sun-tanned, pampered prince. He remained barely minutes, perhaps five.

Then like a visiting god he waved goodbye and was off. What was the point?

But then, he is a man who, while proselytising the virtues of austerity for others, has always continued to live in a plutocratic way.

Given that the Windsors do not have to take decisions or be held accountable for their actions, don’t need to worry about mortgages, rising rent, losing their home, outrageous rising council taxes, heating bills, or have to face a long commute to work each morning, to suggest an average of 12 hours a week is “doing a good job” is deeply offensive to all those ordinary citizens who know what hard work really is every day. and every week, by the sweat of their brows to make this country what it is!

For Steve Thompson to mutter in one breath that the Queen does a good job and in the next advise that he is a Republican is both risible and offensive.

The institution is anti-democratic, riven with secrecy, and over-bloated expenses. He should know that as a republican, ( or rather claims to be!) that republicanism is all about seeking a fair, and democratic society, with a head of state that will actually do something for its citizens, not put its own interests first before the public’s!

It appears his republican zeal begins and ends with his grandchildren being instructed to “call me Steve,” as he hates titles.

Nowt so queer as folks, as they say!

J ADAMS

Bloomsbury, Swindon

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We must all fight

TWO former grandees of British and American politics stuck their heads above the parapet last week. One, former PM Tony Blair and the other, one-time presidential hopeful John McCain.

Blair tends to raise the hackles of anyone who opposed the Iraq war, but in this instance, it is the message not the messenger we should listen to. He said many things in his speech but the following stands out for me:

“How hideously, in this debate, is the mantle of patriotism abused. We do not argue for Britain in Europe because we are citizens of nowhere. We argue for it precisely because we are proud citizens of our country – Britain – who believe that in the 21st century, we should maintain our partnership with the biggest political union and largest commercial market on our doorstep; not in diminution of our national interest, but in satisfaction of it.”

We are, as a country, in danger of throwing the baby of our economic success, out with the bath water of all the things we think we loathe about Europe, much of which (straight bananas) we now know is not true.

Meanwhile, in Munich at the 2017 Security Conference, Senator McCain ended his speech with the following words:

“Even now, when the temptation to despair is greatest, I refuse to accept the end of the West. I refuse to accept the demise of our world order. I refuse to accept that our greatest triumphs cannot once again spring from our moments of greatest peril, as they have so many times before.

“I refuse to accept that our values are morally equivalent to those of our adversaries. I am a proud, unapologetic believer in the West, and I believe we must always, always stand up for it—for if we do not, who will?”

The common factors that brought these speeches together was hope, and that we must have the determination and courage to stand up for what we believe is right.

DR BRIAN MATHEW

Prospective Lib Dem MP for North Wiltshire

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Be a life saver

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Sign up today at www.bhf.org.uk/dechox

JAKE QUICKENDEN

X-Factor and I’m a Celebrity star