'I ask readers to cast their minds back...' - Your Letters: April 18
PICTURE FROM THE ARCHIVE: A replica of Richard Trevithick's 1802 steam engine, the world's first steam railway locomotive runs on a track near the Ironbridge power station. The full scale loco was built at GKN Sankey in Telford by a team of nine apprentices to Trevithick's original designs with some minor changes to meet current safety requirements.
DECLINE DATES BACK DECADES
I ask readers to cast their minds back to the halcyon days of 3 July 2024:
NHS waiting lists, national debt, and child poverty were at an all-time low; standard of living and GDP were at an all-time high; our lakes and rivers were pristine; the structural integrity of our schools and roads was the envy of the world; and the global respect for our government was at a level not seen since the height of empire.
Or at least, this is how an alarming number of correspondents to this paper seem to remember it.
While I disagree with many of Starmer's decisions since the 2024 election, to claim 'Labour have ruined Britain' as so many do is at best a desperate cope (as the kids say) and at worst delusional. To cut a long story short, the current state of Britain is down to 40 years of Tory privatisation, 14 years of Tory austerity, and eight years of Tory Brexit.
