Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing letters@thekmgroup.co.uk

Working from home a snub to taxpayers

The recent publicity about town hall workers being absent was mirrored by own experience when I recently phoned my council with a minor parking enquiry.

My first surprise was when I rang at 9.40am on a Wednesday I was greeted with the message that everything was closed and that working hours were only 10am until 4pm, five days a week. When I redialled at 10.55am and pressed buttons to get through to the parking department, the message was that I was number 8 in the queue. I gave up and tried again the following day at 10.27am. This time I was 6th in the queue.

I would therefore suggest to provide a decent service to its clients (i.e. the local taxpayers), that councils extend their working day to what is the norm in the private sector, 9am to 5pm. By doing this it would obviously smooth out the spike in phone calls that build up presumably in all of its departments, during the day.

I have no idea how many of the staff in the parking department who eventually answer the phone are working from home, or even sitting on a beach. Perhaps they could also explain to those of us who are (or were) used to working at least to a 9am to 5pm schedule, why other town hall employees, many of whom are enjoying higher salaries and pensions than those in the private sector, are apparently unable to do so.

A.J. Groom

Shop thefts are getting out of hand

It concerns me greatly about the amount of theft and shoplifting that is going on in our country, which seems to be powerless to do anything about the matter, with the police at best useless. But by god, you do 5mph more than you should do in your car and there will be hordes of police descending upon you.

In America, shoplifting is rife and shops and department stores are closing their doors because of it. It would also appear that it’s left to the public to try to halt people stealing goods. There was one case whereby a masked thief was trying to get out of a store with a trolley load of goods and a bike when it was left to a 73-year-old lady to unmask this robber and hang onto the trolley. In the end the thief ran off leaving the trolley.

It says it all when the supermarkets have to put empty jars of coffee on the shelves, and put security tags on expensive items such as meat.

I have seen shoplifting with my own eyes where I informed the shop assistant that I had seen a bloke take a bottle of wine and walk out of the door, on which he just shrugged his shoulders.

Yes indeed, we do have a broken society and there is every likelihood that this will only get worse in the future. Roll on the next election and hopefully we can elect someone who has the backbone to tackle this problem head-on.

Sid Anning

Economy stifled by absent Eurostar

I am glad to see pressure is being put on Eurostar to restore services to Ebbsfleet and Ashford stations and agree with all John Loughlin wrote in his letter published last week. I am surprised that apart from a few well-chosen words from Ashford Conservative MP, Damian Green I have heard nothing else from the government. After all, it is about our physical link with Europe although perhaps they would rather we had our eyes and minds on the Far East and Australasia.

Perhaps this government wants us to quietly forget that literally millions of pounds were spent on converting St Pancras to take the long trains; also building Stratford International, a station at which no Eurostar has ever stopped, a station at Ebbsfleet and rebuilding Ashford station. The original terminus at Waterloo was then abandoned and remained derelict for a decade. Rather than leaving it to the public to put pressure on local councils to raise the matter, every MP through which the high-speed tracks run should be putting pressure on the government to remind Eurostar that its primary purpose is to run a railway for the benefit of passengers and not just their shareholders.

Brexit and the increased complexity of security is no excuse and should have been considered when we were offered regulatory alignment during negotiations, an offer our then Prime Minister rejected out of hand.

The company is more likely to get into profit if it encourages more passengers to travel from Ebbsfleet and Ashford. After all, the latter is a feeder from four directions, including Thanet and east Sussex. In any case why the company runs so few services to Brussels with numerous connections into the heart of Europe without leaving the station I do not know. It is certainly very unfair that all potential travellers from Kent and south London must go up to St Pancras to travel, thus retracing their steps and at considerable cost, especially for early morning departures.

The days when there was the prospect of extending the international service even further into Europe and Frankfurt seem now but a dream, or at least for the present. If this government is thinking about railways at all it is HS2, at enormous cost and questionable outcome. Meanwhile the economic prospects of East and North Kent remain stifled as a result.

Dr Hubert Pragnell

Sticking with cash is a sensible option

The article by Sam Lennon about still using cash shows him to be an eminently sensible person with certain preferences.

It is difficult to disagree with his conclusions, unlike the second half of the article where that chappy says about how if he loses his phone, he can cancel the cards immediately. He omits to mention what he would do in the meantime while the banks take their time over replacing his cards! Sam, no doubt, having lost a wallet with £100 in it, would put it down to experience, draw out some more cash (either from your bank or under the mattress at home!) and get on with his life.

I've tried using the RingGo app in car parks on a couple of occasions and have had trouble using it both times - user stupidity (hitting the wrong key!) and no signal. With regard to this, if you go elsewhere in the country, you will quite likely have to download a different app for parking, so if you are a seasoned traveller could end up with a phone clogged with parking apps!

Then, of course, there are the not infrequent power cuts and system crashes. Here in Folkestone there have been occasions when a power cut has forced many shops to close because their systems no longer work. Meanwhile, the small, independent traders using mainly cash carry on!

I am nearly 71 years old. I am not a technophobe, as I have worked with technology for both business and pleasure since 1978 - 45 years. My wife, however...!

Chris Kellers

Tougher action needed over catapult problem

I write regarding your article about the growing use of catapults.

I experienced this earlier a few months ago, the perpetrators were not young children but youths of between 16 and 18 years.

They had collected stones from outside a property and were about to shoot at birds in the trees. I confronted them and they hurled abuse at me including threatening to kill me.

Surprise surprise, when I reported it to the police they did nothing apart from phoning me and offering me help from victim support. I told them I didn’t need help from victim support I just wanted some action from the police.

Needless to say, I still had a text message from victim support and no evidence of the police attending the area. When are the police going to get back doing their job instead of hiding behind a desk?

Julia Allen

Time to scrap dated school uniforms

I would just like to ask, is it not outdated to expect children to wear shirts, ties and blazers (especially primary schools) when in the field of work, these days, it is all ‘dress down’.

As for children's initials embroidered on clothing - what’s that all about?

If your job needs you to wear suits and ties learn to wear it then like any employment uniform including protective clothing.

Let children move freely, and save parents expense when trousers and T-shirts can be purchased much cheaper in multipacks from local retailers.

Diane Daniels

Self-servers have hijacked the Tories

Recently, I have been listening to a podcast from Ed Balls and George Osborne; also I have been reading words of wisdom from another political duo, Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart.

Now, I know that Campbell was never an MP but he is in the politics arena and that is good enough. It is also noteworthy that I never voted for the other three at any election. The point is that these individuals were sensible, hard-working, competent politicians; albeit with flaws.

The Conservative government since 2016 has been on a downward trajectory caused by self-servers, the indolent, cranks and extremists. The only way we are going to turn things around in this country is to have politicians like the above, plus their female equivalents, on the front benches serving the people of this country. We cannot afford another lost seven years.

Robert Boston

Brits are quietly patriotic, unlike liberal left

As now happens with monotonous regularity, the traditional music on Last Night of the Proms is attacked by the liberal left as being unacceptable because of its unashamedly loyal sentiments, while some of those attending reject the Union Jack in favour of the circle of 12 stars.

While pride in their own culture, and history, expressed by peoples from around the world is rightly praised, any similar manifestation of patriotic feeling in Britain is condemned by those who hate their own country, and always seek to deride its achievements, while transferring their emotional allegiance to some other nation, or supranational entity. George Orwell identified this in his comments about those of his own time when he said “In intention, at any rate, the English intelligentsia are Europeanised. They take their cookery from Paris and their opinions from Moscow. In the general patriotism of the country they form a sort of island of dissident thought”. Then it was the uncritical support given to Stalin’s merciless dictatorship in the Soviet Union, while today it is largely hero worship of the EU. As it is an emotional reaction they cannot be persuaded by rational debate, no matter how many facts point to the utter failures of the object of their love.

The elites in this country have a horror of being identified in anyway with the views of those they regard as the hoi polloi, and, as they know that the average person is quietly patriotic, they determine that they will take an adverse view. To quote Orwell again “In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during ‘God save the King’ than of stealing from a poor box”.

Those waving the EU flag in the Royal Albert Hall, are in fact displaying its corporate logo as, despite denying it has any ambition to become a nation state, it is busy making itself into a United States of Europe with all the trappings of a nation, including a flag and parliament. They may as well be waving flags with the McDonald’s’ fast food sign on them!

To use the modern parlance, I self identify as a member of the patriotic hoi polloi, and I am sure that the vast majority of Britons agree with me in giving their allegiance to our nation, as represented by the Union Jack, not bowing to the symbol of the Brussels bureaucratic dictatorship.

Colin Bullen

Trying to avoid pit of despair

There does seem to be currently a plethora of grim news that feeds our senses whenever we access a newspaper or a TV news broadcast.

Whether it's an act of nature like an earthquake or flood or one caused by mankind such as the war in Ukraine in which death and destruction are a daily occurrence, the world situation is never wholesome but always in a state of flux and looming threat.

Here at home, we are troubled by an economic crisis, industrial discord and the thorny problem of solving the boats crossing the channel.

Bad news always eclipses any mention of positive reports and the imbalance only adds to the general feeling that matters will continue to make us anxious.

But we soldier on simply because defeat is not an option and we don't expect the world to transition overnight into a utopia.

There is an indomitable spirit that manages to keep us falling into a pit of despair in the face of so much negativity.

However much we dread to be informed as to what is happening on the world’s stage, we still nourish a belief that ultimately, things will get better.

M. Smith