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

Problems on both sides of the Brexit debate

Your correspondent Adam Poole is a man of impeccable intellectual standing, possessing superior academic qualifications to anything I could ever ascribe to.

And yet in his latest rant against the decision of 17 million people to leave the EU he demonstrates that such educational excellence counts for very little when promoting an ideological belief.

It can best be described as a joyless invocation of cant and hypocrisy, laden with gloom and despair and full of cheap rhetoric, none of which does nothing for his cause.

His letter is a one-sided view of the EU referendum campaign, which he describes as a “crime against the British people”.

In Adam’s world the only people who did anything improper or inappropriate were those who campaigned to Leave. Following his logic, I suppose he thinks the Remain camp presented an honest, factual and unbiased account of the EU .

Adam and his friends who rail against the decision of the majority to leave the political construct of the EU, fail to recognise or accept that leaving has been made difficult as a result of the intransigence of the EU bureaucrats to ‘do a deal’ and the incredible negativity of those in Parliament who see a difficulty and shy away from confronting and surmounting it on the basis that to do so requires a degree of effort.

I’m not quite sure what relevance applies to his comment that “we are about to have our second unelected Prime Minister in a row” – the fact is that the PM is elected by members of a political party and the Parliamentary Party.

The UK does not vote for or elect the Prime Minister and never has, indeed Gordon Brown (Labour) was an unelected (by national vote) Prime Minister.

Finally, Adam calls for yet another referendum. Sadly, after re-reading some of his previous letters, I’m not persuaded he would accept any result other than one which suited his narrow narrative about the ability of this great country to stand on its own two feet in the world, and more importantly to thrive in doing so.

Des Morgan, Caraway Drive, Swindon

Bin day nightmare

I have just been reading the guide to waste recycling in Swindon.

On the heading - paper and card recycling, NO to metal wrapping paper and greeting cards. On the same heading - paper and card recycling, YES to greeting cards!

I am completely confused. I have to laugh at the clothing – shoes

As for glass recycling – I always thought that Pyrex was glass, along with drinking glasses and vases. I looked at this guide and wondered, surely this could be presented with more care? It makes me feel why bother – I hate rubbish day. It’s an OAP’s nightmare.

My orange bins are split, due to the refuse men throwing them on the ground. I need two new boxes as the lids no longer fit.

I have no food waste as my dog has what food is left. Do they mean peelings, rinds and un-cooked veg to go into the box or only cooked items?

As I do not have a car, how can I sensibly dispose of old batteries, light bulbs etc.?

Do I have to pay the council to send someone to collect the AA and AAA batteries from my remotes and put them in a bag to take away?

Janet Woodham, Scotby Avenue, Swindon

Out of date beer

Last Saturday, I bought 12 cans of lager from a shop in the area for £16.55. A friend came round and we opened two. On opening them they literally exploded releasing three quarters of the can upwards in both cases. We looked on the bottom of the cans and found them to be three months out of date.

We took them all back the shopkeeper apologised and offered us replacement drink. By our own inspection we found the three lots we picked up from the shelves of different makes were also out of date so we in the end settled for the best of a bad job and took some that were three weeks out of date.

The next day I emailed the Environmental Health department and reported all the out-of-date stock and on Monday received a reply saying nothing could be done as selling out of date goods isn’t illegal.

I replied and said although it isn’t against the law to sell out of date goods I always understood that if a shopkeeper was selling something past its sell by date it should be made clear to the consumer, thus giving the consumer the choice of buying out of date goods at a cheaper price or paying full price for goods in date.

If these council departments can do so very little when a member of the public has a complaint I really don’t see why we need them in the first place?

Steve Blanchard, Coleview, Swindon