Your letters: Buses, school holidays, rising bills and more – plus a 1967 shopping scene
Our readers tackle the issues making the headlines, from school holiday mischief and bus changes to sentencing, rising bills and memories of The Crown at Hasbury
Keep children out of mischief
Given that the red and amber warning heatwave conditions are now the norm in the UK, I find it most disturbing that there is a social media trend circulating amongst children and young teenagers that is a “challenge” to set fire to as many things as possible.
The recent wildfires in Stourbridge and other parts of the Midlands saw multiple families lose their homes and everything in it - whole lifetimes and multiple generations of photographs, artefacts, sentimental items and memories reduced to a pile of black ash in minutes.
While many fires we have seen are accidental, I also can’t imagine how angry some of these homeowners and families must feel knowing about the dangerous online “craze” to deliberately start fires.
I blame the lack of parental supervision and six weeks away from school combined; for some of these young people, both of their parents are having to go to work full time, leaving them with little to no input from both parents; the children are starting deliberate fires, putting themselves and others at risk of burns and smoke inhalation because they are bored and lack any meaningful structure to their days away from school.
Why don’t schools stay partially open for four to five hours on weekdays in the school holidays to facilitate holiday clubs and activities sessions in a familiar, safe setting so that these young people are kept away from temptation?
Vicky Bartlett, Wolverhampton
What colour will our buses be?
Mayor Parker has announced the takeover of West Midlands buses. He was pleased, allegedly: it's difficult to tell if he is smiling or not.
To avoid the nightmare of driving inside the Ring Road I sometimes dig out my fogey pass and use the bus. When this much lauded takeover is complete will there be a change to the vehicle livery? If so, please don't let Phil Bateman anywhere near it. He was the councillor with an obsession with the buses. He did manage one momentous achievement: he changed the name from West Midlands Travel to... Travel West Midlands!
Trevor Howard, Wolverhampton
Sentence was a real disgrace
A domestic abuser who punched his ex-partner, smashed up her belongings and threatened to send intimate images of the victim to her mother…and who had five previous convictions for six offences, has been 'spared an immediate prison sentence'.
That tells you all you need to know about the criminal 'justice' system.
Protecting women and girls, in fact protecting anyone?
Dream on.
Mike Crump, Bridgnorth
The Crown was my Camelot
In my mind now, The Crown has become a kind of Camelot;
In that it is a legend in my life;
I always recall the lounge as dimly lit
And large enough to be a world within itself – oaken beams or faux oak? I know not
But they framed familiar faces in my fancied Camelot;
And DJ Turton would turn the tables on Wednesdays when we would attempt to woo the courtly ladies of the MEB.
Yes, The Rose and Crown at Hasbury, as it used to be;
That time, transposed to fable
For me a kind of Camelot, nights of rounds around our table.
Alan Jones, Halesowen
John’s no better than Rachel
Looks to me as if John Healey is no better at being Chancellor than Rachel from accounts was.
He promises to protect us from 'price gouging' by supermarkets - when UK has the lowest food prices in EU and probably the world (certainly lower than America).
He promises to protect motorists from unfair fuel prices, when 65 per cent of the price of every litre is taken by the government anyway. Looks to me that as usual the Labour talent pool is shallower than a puddle on a supermarket car park.
Chris Smith, Shropshire
Bill shows how times change
As an example of how much things have gone up over the years, I kept an electricity bill from 1968, which was for £4-14 -11d, the quarterly charge, 12 weeks of pretty well unlimited power, as we kept an immersion heater on all the time in those days.
That was around £19 per year, and now, thanks to Ed Miliband's "green energy", our bill is nearly £2,000 – a hundred times as much as in 1968 – and we use as little electricity as possible now, no more leaving the water heater on 24/7 any more!
W F Kerswell, Picklescott
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