'A perspective on crime, benefits and immigration' - your letters, plus a throwback picture of a Walsall club’s 1975 trip to Blackpool

From politics and football to loneliness and everyday frustrations, our letters page today feature personal reflections and opinions on issues that matter to you.

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Supporting image for story: 'A perspective on crime, benefits and immigration' - your letters, plus a throwback picture of a Walsall club’s 1975 trip to Blackpool
PICTURE FROM THE PAST: Bloxwich Memorial Club lived up to its boast of providing the biggest and best outings in the Midlands when it took 3,500 people on the annual seaside trip to Blackpool. The club hired 70 coaches and had to book an entire car park at Blackpool to accommodate them all IN 1975.
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We need to be able to speak

We are now living in a country where if you tell the truth and it is uncomfortable for some people to hear there is a tendency for certain people and certain groups to come together to condemn that person.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has spoken out about what he sees as the real situation in this country. 

He may have been a little clumsy in his choice of words but what he was putting forward for a great many people in this country is fundamentally correct. 

Everything is going wrong, for example wicked crimes are being carried out and ridiculously lenient sentences are being handed out.

We are facing a period of enormous tax rises and a lot of this money is being spent on totally the wrong thing. As far as Sir Jim's remarks on immigration nobody can argue he is right. The numbers are too high and that includes legal and illegal immigration.

He is also right about the welfare bill, we now have a country where so many people have chosen a life living on benefits. 

They have chosen this because benefits are so high in some cases people working are getting less than some people on benefits.

John Green, Sedgley

My poem about a lonely day

This is a poem written by myself describing what it's like to be lonely. It is called Day in the Life of a Pensioner:

Looking through windows,

Sat by the phone,

It never rings,

No message has flown,

People dogs and cars,

Go sailing by,

I sit here again,

And have a good cry,