A big thank you is due to young people for stepping up and getting the Covid-19 vaccine

I would like to express a huge thank you to all the 18 to 30 year-olds who have so cheerfully embraced the spirit of the vaccine programme. I have seen the pictures of them queuing for hours at the pop-up centres, with most saying they are doing this for the best of reasons: for their loved ones and society.

Perhaps now we could stop giving these youngsters such a bad press and instead admire and respect them for their community spirit.

Good on them all!

Patricia Alexander

Welcombe

You report that Conservative Party co-chair Amanda Milling has accused the Liberal Democrats of “duplicity” for opposing HS2 in the campaign although the party nationally supports it. She seems already to have forgotten that the previous Tory MP, Cheryl Gillan, did exactly the same thing.

An MP’s duty to their constituents is more important than loyalty to party policy. On HS2, that is the principle Cheryl Gillan followed, and the new MP Sarah Green has pledged to do the same. Once again, the Tories want one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

Simon Gamble

Brighton

It is in no way surprising that voters in Chesham and Amersham, intelligent people with a high moral compass, should have cast so many votes against a party led by Boris Johnson.

It is true that clowns are more popular than lawyers, but voters are really not amused by having a prime minister who does not take his responsibilities seriously. The Tory Party may well rue the day they said goodbye to John Bercow.

D Waddington

Ringwood

Shaun Lintern reports that hospital A&E departments are swamped, yet again.

My experience during the pandemic is that access to GP surgeries has been limited, with patients waiting outside, initial access by telephone triage and e-consult, and the primary objective has been to keep patients away from surgeries.

There has been a limited improvement in digital services, such as prescriptions being sent to direct to pharmacists, but there are many patients for whom digital access is unfamiliar and off-putting. The NHS App offers an incomplete information service, and different surgeries seem to have different levels of willingness or competence in providing digital support to their clients.

I have used both e-consult and A&E in the past year to access services that my GP surgery was unable to provide, as a result of its Covid-19 response. I have also used a private sector GP service for the same reason.

It seems to me that problems in the GP service have caused an increase in demand on A&E, and that they are likely to continue to do so.

Chris King

London

Patrick Cockburn’s article concerning medical staff in Britain from poor nations is wrong.

Many wealthy nations employ foreign-born medical staff. Certainly in the case of nurses and care assistants they train specifically with the intention of working abroad in order to improve the lives their families at home in the form of education, housing and medical care.

In the Philippines it is mandatory to work in that country for two years after completion of training before applying for work abroad.

Remittances from workers abroad, nurses, seamen and many others, is the biggest source of income for the Philippines, it is mutually beneficial.

Sandy Gordon

Address supplied

You report that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, are contemplating freezing pension increases to save much-needed money for the Exchequer. Could I suggest a better alternative would be to impose a windfall tax on “Big Pharma” and any other businesses (PPE providers, for example) that have disproportionately profited from the many billions of pounds spent by the state in dealing with the pandemic.

Perhaps the government could ask the British people what they think of the idea, and if they won’t I’m sure one of the other political parties will.

Colin Burke

Cartmel