Letters - Friday December 11 2020

Two weeks ago I attended a local garden centre.

It is a small venue which has a Christmas stall with food.

There were likely in excess of 300 people with no social distancing or control measures practised, but we had a nice time.

This week Lancashire FA announced the suspension of grassroots football in Lancashire. I cannot understand how meeting up with nine other men in an outdoors environment, in an area as large as a seven-a-side football pitch, carries a higher risk than the garden centre, which remains open?

I work as a physician associate in primary care, I see patients throughout the week who are suffering as a result of Covid – delayed diagnoses, mental health and financial struggles, relationship breakdowns, loneliness, drug and alcohol abuse.

Activities that carry minimal Covid risk should be encouraged, not postponed.

I would like to see the evidence this decision was based upon.

As far as I am aware, the highest risk for Covid is indoors, with close contact for extended periods, with outdoor spaces carrying almost negligible risk.

Activities such as outdoor football will help tackle weight loss, reduce anxiety and depression and promote all-round wellbeing, something which I consider crucial at this time. It has never been more imperative that we become healthy as a nation, with obesity being a significant risk factor for severe covid infections.

Yet by restricting outdoor activities, Lancashire FA has essentially informed us that our health and mental wellbeing come second, with a flawed excuse to postpone grassroots football for adults and children which lacks a scientific basis. I invite Lancashire FA to explain their decision with substantial scientific evidence, or otherwise I implore them to reverse this foolishness and allow safe activities that benefit society to resume.

Neil Sinclair

via email

Poem

Ode to Blackpool

Wrap your scarf secure and tight

for it is cold outside tonight.

Stroll along the promenade hand in hand

listening to a Christmas band.

Twinkle sparkle lights up above

celebrating the unsung heroes.

This year has been hard people in fear

but come to Blackpool for the Christmas cheer.

The 40-foot Christmas tree standing tall

lights wrapped around its green fern body.

The shops are open selling their wares

so together we can have fun without any cares.

V Maratzz

address supplied

roads

Rules for horses and cyclists

Please can someone inform us all of the rules surrounding horses and cyclists on the road.

I have noticed there has recently been a campaign to encourage vehicles to pass horses and cyclists carefully, giving them a two-metre

distance to keep them safe.

I believe I am a considerate driver but would like to know if horse riding or cycling in twos or more, side by side, is allowed on public roads as this makes it very difficult for vehicles to pass safely.

Also, are people allowed to use their mobile phones while riding horses or cycling?

I’ve also seen riders having a friendly scuffle while riding side by side and have seen cyclists riding through red lights, even hopping onto the pavement to avoid having to stop. I’m not quite sure if it’s just the drivers that are inconsiderate at times!

Anonymous

virus

Royal visit to Scotland

What a sour-puss Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, is, questioning whether or not the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge should visit Scotland in lieu of the fact that travelling is not allowed under her Covid rules.

I expect the people of Scotland will be pleased to see that this young future king and his wife care about them enough to listen to the problems the pandemic has brought them.

Hilary Andrews

via email

Politics

Truth is stranger than fiction

If a book had been published in January this year with a plot that envisaged the UK hit by a killer pandemic while being engaged in complex Brexit negotiations, negotiations that are still underway and threaten serious economic mayhem and disruption, it would have been placed under the category of Science Fiction in bookshops and libraries.

Yet that apparently farfetched plot has materialised, and how.

Currently, UK deaths from the Covid 19 virus exceed 61,000, a number greater than the number killed by hundreds of thousands of tons of Luftwaffe bombs in the Blitz from September 1940 to May 1941. UK Covid deaths are also exceed the total number of American soldiers killed in the savage and brutal Vietnam War, that lasted 11 years from 1964 to 1975.Always remember to set a place at the table of life for the unexpected guest.

Dr Barry Clayton

Thornton Cleveleys