Readers discuss public perception of Starmer, the state of the police and post-Brexit UK (Picture: AP)
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Starmer is polling badly, reader points out....
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour have been in power for less than two years, yet according to an IPSOS poll at the weekend a massive 79 per cent of Britons are dissatisfied with the government. Furthermore, only 15 per cent are satisfied with the way Starmer is doing his job.
This is unprecedented – no PM going back to 1979 has ever recorded a figure this low at this stage of their premiership. Not even Rishi Sunak.
Cabinet reshuffles, regular U-turns and a blatant disregard for the problems of the regions and different social groups have not just brought the government to the brink of a rift but also deprived the Labour Party of the support of those who voted for them in 2024.
Less than 18 months later, Labour supporters are moving over to the opposition, including the Tories and Reform UK, as the latter offer open and shut changes.
Thus, it’s no surprise that against this background there are a rising number of rumours of discontent within the Labour Party itself.
The scandal of blocking Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election adds fuel to the flames and has only amplified the division within backbenchers.
The barely preserved unity of the UK is also at risk. Even high-ranking politicians such as Wales’ first minister Eluned Morgan have been talking in public about the threat of the break-up of the UK.
The upcoming by-election will become a real referendum on Starmer’s leadership and its results are unlikely to be favourable to Labour.
However, the self-destruct mechanism has already been triggered and there is now a major question – whether the party has enough strength and desire to stop it. Brian Dornan, Bangor
Was Brexit driven by people with ‘no formal qualifications’
This reader weighs in on Brexit (Picture: REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja)
I read an article suggesting that the Leave vote was mostly driven by people with no formal qualifications, dubbed ‘idiots’.
Ironic then that a politician of little intelligence, Edward Heath, took the UK into Europe with his dream of turning it into a white collar Utopia.
Heath seemed to consider industry as dirty and beneath his idealistic view of the UK, so he effectively agreed that UK industry would not compete with European industry and would not be helped to modernise.
This while European industry was being subsidised by Common Market grants and loans. As a result, a ship built in a new French yard in the 1970s was a third of the price of a British-built vessel – I know,I worked for a company that bought one!
People who would, traditionally, work in industry now have no skilled jobs – so is it really any wonder that they wanted us out of Europe?
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Our industrial heritage was sold for a handful of sterile beans and it will take billions of pounds of investment to bring back even a vestige of what it once was. William Dixon, Wirral
Deaf reader encourages empathy
With regards to TV presenter Ade Adepitan challenging people to ‘spend a week blindfolded or in a wheelchair to experience the accessibility issues faced by disabled people’ (Metro, Mon).
I feel he should also mention people try wearing earmuffs or ear defenders. Let them experience what it is like to not hear a single sound for a week.
Totally deaf people find it difficult to communicate with the general public and public transport staff. We communicate by using sign language or lip-reading.
Often, it’s not easy to lip-read those people who can hear. Plainly, we cannot hear the announcements.
We find it difficult to communicate with shopkeepers. We feel excluded when two or more hearing people talk to each other. We cannot follow the group’s conversation.
We need total access to all the information that is provided to the public. Neil Kaufman, London
Reader says landlord is being ‘ripped off’
This reader says landlords are being done dirty (Picture: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
If pub landlord Alan Davies (Metro, Mon) is paying ten per cent processing fees for taking card payments, he’s being ripped off – most providers charge fees of around 1.3 to two per cent.
Furthermore, the cost of cash is actually higher than a fixed card fee when all the costs are combined.
Costs include fees to deposit and take out cash, ‘hidden’ costs such as security (safe, CCTV etc on site and while taking money to the bank), losses through theft or fake notes and the time needed to cash up – plus there’s the delay in availability of funds to pay bills until it’s paid in.
I’m always wary of businesses preferring cash as you never know if it’s done for tax purposes. Lewis Gibson, Birmingham
Emmerdale has gone ‘downhill’, says reader
I’m totally in agreement with Paddy Cawkwell about TV show Emmerdale (MetroTalk, Mon). It’s definitely going downhill lately and where is the farming?
All we’re getting now is murder, people-trafficking/slavery and drug operations. Even the Dingles aren’t funny anymore!
The producers are copying EastEnders, methinks. Robert James, St Albans
Was the old way of policing the right way?
With a police force of 70,000 in 1959 you could be sure to be reprimanded by the local bobby for riding a bike on the pavement.
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Fast forward to today and with a police force of 145,000, folk are getting injured/killed by cyclists while walking on those same pavements.
Perhaps the police have more to do today. But the lonely beat bobby only had a truncheon back then while the modern copper ventures out in kit more akin to a paramilitary and with response teams at the touch of a button. Nick Broberg, Kent
This reader says the police are too lackluster now (Picture: Supplied)
Self-deprecating humour of our resident joker…
I asked my wife if I was the only one she had been with. She said, ‘Yes, all the others were nines and tens…’ Jeff, Nuneaton
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