The government has to listen – we can’t have a repeat of Grenfell

A “government source” has accused the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) of “betraying the British people” because they have correctly demanded that the Tory barge for asylum seekers, the Bibby Stockholm, be assessed for fire risks.

The government’s plans to keep refugees on the barge have been put on hold while a health and safety examination of the vessel is carried out.

We are only six years on from the Grenfell Tower fire which killed 72 people. That happened under another Tory administration which put money before human life. And now the government is pushing back against the FBU for demanding innocent asylum seekers are at least housed in safe conditions. The government has to listen.

I stand with the FBU, they speak for me and millions of others when they tell the Tories “everyone has the right to live in safe accommodation and we back the calls urging these plans (for the Bibby Stockholm) are abandoned immediately’’.

Sasha Simic

London

Rishi Sunak has repeated his claim that there is “light at the end of the tunnel“ when it comes to inflation. Whilst the percentage rate of inflation is currently falling it is of little consequence. As long as the increase in inflation exceeds the increase in wages more people will continue to become impoverished.

Inflation is one of many of tunnels Sunak and his party have led us down, from the energy crisis to the mortgage crisis to the NHS crisis, to name but a few.

As far as I can see, few of these problems have the bright light of resolution in the near distance.

Rejoining the EU has become an obvious and urgent requirement not least because the country, which is still a democracy, appears to have changed its mind since the widely discredited referendum of 2016. Whilst the general election is still an uncomfortably distant prospect, we should be asking which political parties are going to step up and end the self-harm. The public has the right to express their opinion on rejoining the EU, it could be the light we’re looking for.

David Nelmes

Newport

Yesterday marked Earth Overshoot Day, a day of reckoning, a day where we have taken our fair share of forests, cropland, pastures, or fisheries.

Our planet gives us so many renewable materials, yet society has become bound to a “take, make, waste” lifestyle, where single-use is too often the norm.

Plastic is the poster boy for this single-use mode of consumerism, and producing ever more of the stuff has a devastating carbon impact, causing rising temperatures on land and at sea.  The consequences to humanity are playing out vividly on our television screens each day. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Moving away from single-use plastic need not mean a life of less.  Alternative materials are available in abundance, and this means we can live without piles of toxic waste and without depleting nature or jeopardising its capacity to support human life.

We simply need to borrow them from nature, keeping products toxin- and plastic-free so they can go back to nature safely.

Following this symbolic day when we have run out of resources, I call on the creative industry to use their extraordinary powers to design plastic out of everyday life.  Only then can modern society live in harmony with its beautiful home, Earth.

Sian Sutherland

Co-Founder, PlasticFree and A Plastic Planet

I read Sean O’Grady’s recent column with interest.

On the one hand, I feel that it would be pretty cynical to resent our prime minister for what is a well-needed break, from being constantly upbeat and relentlessly enthusiastic about the parlous economic state of our country. On the other hand, O’Grady is correct, the optics are not great. We would all be “California Dreamin” if we were not assiduously watching every threatening black cloud and wondering if we’ll make it through this time.

Hey ho, I expect California is overrated anyway!

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk

Along with the vast majority of our the public I found the actions of Matt Hancock during the pandemic inexcusable. And I must state in the most robust terms possible, that even before the Covid outbreak, I would not have voted for him or his party for a plethora of reasons, including Brexit. However, on the subject of his harassment by an anti-vaxxer, he has my full unwavering support. These deluded dangerous individuals have been around literally since the days of Edward Jenner.

Unfortunately for us, this cult (there are no other words in my opinion) has been able to recruit copiously during the pandemic. They will plague us now for years to come and I struggle to see how we or other democratic nations could negate such a problem.

Robert Boston

Kent