Letters, Tuesday September 29, 2020

This Prime Minister and his Government are, putting it bluntly, an absolute joke.

Forcing bars and restaurants across the UK to effectively stop serving alcohol at 9.30pm, yet they were going to allow bars in Parliament to serve until all hours.

This is a classic case of hypocrisy.

The old boys club have made a mockery out of the rule of law and their ‘rule of six’. They were simply showing two fingers to everyone else.

This is a slap in the face to the many law-abiding people who have, over the past six months, been unable to attend funerals, and have had to cancel their weddings and special occasions.

Families are worried about their children leaving home for university and possibly not being able to see them at Christmas time .

The ‘U-turns’ and haphazard decisions being made by this Government on a daily basis are like an embarrassing game of crazy golf.

Forced bar closures by 10pm is just not practical. It’s a difficult task for operators, licensees and the police.

Voters may have previously admired Boris Johnson’s populist style personality and his mild form of eccentricity.

Hypocrisy derives from the Greek term ‘actor’ which is what he is!

The Prime Minister and the President of the USA are both powerful and privileged men. They have both been wearing ‘masks’ long before the coronavirus pandemic.

In reality they are ‘pound shop’ politicians, pretending to be something they are not.

Stephen Pierre

Via email

Can anyone explain to me why the bar in the Houses of Parliament was failing to apply Government guidelines and was refusing to close at 10pm? Talk about one rule for the proletariat and one for the law-makers!

It beggars belief. Is it any wonder that sections of our community are being totally irresponsible and ignoring the lock down rules, putting us all at risk of infection?

Jim Oldcorn

address supplied

Planning

Praise to council for new building

After waiting so long, what a welcome addition to Talbot Square the new Premier Inn makes.

Congratulations to the architects, and the various contractors, but most of all thanks to own local planning department, who if my memory recalls correctly sent the original designs back until they got what they wanted.

Edward Andrew

Blackpool

Politics

The ramblings of a sixth former...

I was entertained by Blackpool South Conservative MP Scott Benton’s bizarre rant (Your Say, September 29).

Benton spent two lengthy columns berating a former Labour Candidate for another seat.

It was very much like the ramblings of a sixth former who is thinking of going into serious politics in a few years’ time. Amusing though he was, Mr Benton is surely lacking in the basic dignity one would expect from an incumbent MP.

Martin Mitchell

Councillor for Layton Ward

Politics

Channelled down a road of no return

In 2015 Conservative councillors voted to remove Wyre from combined authority negotiations.

Every year since has been a wasted opportunity to explore all the options and Wyre Labour have been critical of that approach, so when we heard this was coming back to council we were hopeful. That hope quickly turned to despair on reading the single option business case and combined authority report to Council by Wyre Leader, David Henderson.

Coun Henderson was okay stepping away from the negotiating table, yet suddenly without any formal scrutiny by Wyre Council or LCC he unilaterally wrote to Government putting his weight, and by implication Wyre Council’s weight, behind what looks like a gerrymandered single option unitary authority setup.

Normally, Wyre’s Labour Group would support exploring all available options. Sadly though, we’re not in normal times, and nor are councillors being given the opportunity to examine the merits of multiple options. Instead, councillors are being improperly channelled down a road of no return.

It’s clear Lancashire Conservatives are trying to pull a fast one under cover of a pandemic. Rather than concentrating on stopping a second wave, they’ve been busy dreaming up a fait accompli single option business case for a combined authority and three unitary authorities, trying to favour Conservative electoral chances.

It was wrong to walk away from the negotiation table, and it’s wrong to dive headlong into a predetermined outcome without validating that outcome or any alternatives.

A combined and unitary authority structure may bring benefits, eg additional powers and funds, but councillors must be allowed to determine whether the specific aims of improving democratic engagement and handing power back to people and places can be achieved by any of the available options. That’s the very least residents will expect and the very least Wyre Labour councillors do expect.

Coun Rob Fail & Coun Lorraine Beavers

Leader and Deputy Leader of Wyre Group Of Labour

Councillors