Thanks to Brexit, we get what we shop for!

Adam Forrest’s article regarding looming food shortages as a result of Brexit uses words and phrases such as charcuterie, Parma ham, deli, chorizo, salami... but isn’t that what we voted to get rid of?

The 1 per cent decided we were all finished with all things European... food, easy travel, cooperation (particularly students experiencing foreign ideas), so stop moaning and get used to a thoroughly British way of life. What’s wrong with spam?

Robert Murray

Nottingham

What a complete farce this policy of sending refugees back to Rwanda has become – more so now that four Rwandan citizens have been allowed to stay in this country because they may face consequences if they are sent home.

This is the “safe haven” the government has been suggesting it is safe to send people to, and is costing the British taxpayers’ millions? What an incompetent government we have. They are not fit to run a Tesco, let alone our great country.

When is it ever going to stop? One disaster after another. One policy failure after another. All the while the citizens of this country are suffering, trying to cope with the cost of living, the run-down health service, antiquated schools... the list goes on and on.

God help the next government.

Paul Atkins

Burntwood, Staffordshire

It was never going to happen. The British government in league with big business and the media were never going to let Scotland go. A second referendum is now a pipe dream. The result in 2014 was far too close for comfort. The UK cannot risk losing the Faslane submarine base, the RAF bases in the north of Scotland, access to oil and renewable energy, the tax take from the highly successful financial sector, the digital and technology sector and life sciences industry, let alone tourism and food and drink. Yet they will never admit this. To admit this would highlight just how successful an independent Scotland could be.

Starmer could win the next general election and Labour could win in Holyrood, but to beat the SNP does not mean the independence movement is finished. Labour will be presiding over a Scottish nation, half of whom do not want to be in the UK.

Stuart Smith

Aberdeen

In August of last year my elderly mother, who had been living independently in the family home, fell out of bed and had to be admitted to hospital. Dehydration and infection were swiftly controlled but she nevertheless remained there until late November while the various departments and agencies (doctors, physiotherapists, social services) debated and dithered as to what was the best course of action. She was transferred briefly to a local rehabilitation centre where she appeared to receive no obvious rehabilitation but instead contracted an infection that sent her straight back into hospital.

Now finally back in her own home, she is bedridden, incontinent and unable to feed herself without help. She relies on a team of (excellent) carers who visit four times a day, and a further carer who stays overnight. My brother and I are both frequent visitors – sometimes we manage a conversation with her but often we are unsure whether she is even aware of our presence.

During this entire process, every member of staff I met was caring and compassionate and wanted the best for my mum. I think I am justified in feeling, however, that the quality of life she used to enjoy has been trashed by a system that is well and truly broken. I have friends whose experience has been similar and who feel the same way. Is there nobody out there undertaking research into how and why the current system is failing our elderly population and what might be done to rectify it?

Alison Simmons

London