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Royal baby overload

We are now into day three of the birth of a boy for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and everyone and his/her dog are still banging on about how wonderful it all is.

Yes, I quite agree every baby born healthy and hearty is a wonder but please stop ramming it down our throats. It’s everywhere you look – papers, TV, radio, magazines, hours of looped news broadcasts, quotes from Meghan’s dad in America no one is interested in.

I am sure Harry and Meghan are going to be wonderful parents just like every other parent – those wo will not be having round-the-clock nanny care. Other quips from the royals include: “Welcome to the no sleep club”. I don’t think so, do you?

Leave them alone. Both of the princes are, I’m sure, capable of bringing up their children so let’s not have an Armageddon story every time one of the royal children skins their knees in the playground. We all know it’s a boy - enough is enough.

John L Crook, Haydon Wick, Swindon

Health technology

Of course technology has a part to play in health care (as it has throughout history), but it can never replace the value of one-to-one contact between patient and clinician?

I am sure that the NEWS scheme of electronic gathering of a patient’s ‘vital signs’, as introduced by Dr Forsyth, the new medical director at GWH (Advertiser, May 6), is a valuable asset but the danger of relying on such gadgets is that the recording may not be seen, soon enough, by a clinician who knows what action needs to be taken – before it is too late.

The whole NHS, not just GWH, is suffering from a severe shortage of front-line clinical staff – who cannot be replaced by information technology. They are all working under persistent pressure – hence the long waiting times. Their ‘terms and conditions’ of work leave a lot to be desired. This causes some of them to leave the NHS for a less stressful life. Hence the problem of ‘retention and recruitment’.

Politicians can no longer turn a blind eye; they must act now.

Malcolm Morrison, Retired orthopaedic surgeon, Prospect Hill, Swindon

Tilting at windmills

What a strange view of reality Bill Williams has (Letters, May 7). I can’t recall one example of the BBC supporting any collective struggle of working people.

All strikes are equally placed somewhere, by the BBC, on a spectrum from violently dangerous through to simply pointless. Mass demonstrations in defence of the NHS are routinely ignored. Yet for Bill the BBC is a ‘Bolshevik’ organisation.

Bill thinks the Brexit issue is about a “battle to save our right to make political choices”. In my view Bill is nearly half right as the EU is an organisation dedicated to “business-friendly” policies. It has forced austerity policies on working people across Europe. But it should cause us to pause for thought when the mainstream Brexit forces in the UK have long been champions of the same pro-big business, pro-austerity policies here. The Rees-Moggs and Boris Johnsons have gleefully supported all the policies which lead to underfunded schools and NHS, growing inequality, stagnant wages, growing child poverty and a layer of rich people riding it all who have never had it so good. But all they need to do is wave a national flag and Bill has them down as champions of democracy.

Democracy for working people has always been pretty stunted and we won’t improve it by tilting at windmills, or lining up with its enemies.

Peter Smith, Woodside Avenue, Swindon