As a cancer patient, we need to do more to stop smoking near hospitals

Good luck with banning vaping on hospital grounds while smoking is still rife.

As a cancer patient I regularly attend a major south London hospital. In spite of signs and messages being broadcast on loudspeakers, patients (often with IV stands in tow) still smoke right outside the entrance. Moreover, patients regularly smoke in the enclosed garden areas.

The security staff try their best, but I’ve also witnessed racial abuse when they ask people to stop smoking. I’ve been receiving treatment for four years and haven’t noticed any decline in the numbers of smokers.

I’m doing my utmost to stay alive and find it deeply upsetting that these smokers take so little care of their own health while accessing free NHS treatment.

KM Sharp

Address supplied

I thought I heard it wrong during the vice-presidential debate, so I waited to review the transcript. Vance actually said: “I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country. ... And it’s Kamala Harris saying that ... she’d like to censor people who engage in misinformation.”

I knew that former president Trump and JD Vance didn’t like having anyone correct them when they lied to us about Haitians eating neighbours’ dogs, massive election fraud, and a slew of other demonstrably false conspiracy theories.

What I didn’t know was that they considered lying to us to be their God-given right. I should have suspected it when Vance declared last month, “If I have to create stories … that’s what I’m going to do!”

Maybe we should remember Jean-Paul Sartre this November when we step into the voting booth: “We are our choices.”

Mike Barrett

Address supplied

Two themes overlap in your articles today: investing in Britain’s future and the risk to energy supplies from conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

What we desperately need is a secure, homegrown energy base. A combination of renewables, ie wind, solar, wave/tide, with modern dispersed small-scale nuclear could free us from the tyranny of world markets and the greed of fossil fuel companies, while providing jobs and futures for many. It would also take us nearer net zero while increasing our independence.

What’s not to like?

Mike Margetts

Kilsby

Actually Mr Coogan, I watched Bullseye back in the day and I am just over three decades under 100 years old! So don’t be too disparaging about this vintage programme.

I take the point that maybe it has passed its sell-by date, but if Freddie Flintoff is involved it gets my attention. That man has charisma and relatability written all through him like a stick of rock. So let’s give it a whirl – right now we could all do with a dose of retro comfort. Especially as it might be a frugal Christmas!

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk