18th December 2013
Julian Brown, if you ever come to a pub in Bristol your money will be
no good, for I will be the one buying you drinks. Your letter last week
giving UKIP a well deserved bashing made my week. The likes of UKIP strut
these Opinion pages like they are political messiahs. There is nothing
messianic about building up on old hatreds and prejudices. People need
the welfare state more than ever yet UKIP chide the government to hack away at
it, instead of presenting ideas for making it more efficient for those who rely
on it.
UKIP talk about opening up more Grammar
Schools, ignoring the fact that many other countries vast perform us with
schools with integrated classes. UKIP promote the increased spending on
defence with little vision about what to do with this new power, or how we can
even afford it.
UKIP have very few new ideas. They are
all reheated leftovers from the putrid carcass of conservative ideology.
Stuart Eels can save his snarling. How can UKIP not be called a negative
party when it is promoting hatred against the needy, the foreign and the
foreign poor?
As for Nigel Farage he is much like a
creepy uncle at a wedding after party. I don’t want politicians to assure
me how like them they are by boasting how much they drink in their lunch
breaks. Integrity and policy is what I am looking for. So far UKIP
have delivered neither.
Wat Tyler
Bishopston, Bristol
23rd December 2013
I am sick and tired of all of this misdirected outrage over
the recent conviction of the Royal Marine who murdered an insurgent under his
charge in Afghanistan. Being at war is
not a mitigating circumstance for his behaviour. His colleagues seem to be able to do their
job and behave themselves, so what excuse does he have? Just because the Taliban fight without rules
does not mean we should follow suit. There has to be rules within war, and we are
all the more morally superior for fighting under them, and long may we do so.
The Marine
deserves to be named because he is a murderer, pure and simple. If you kill someone who is unarmed and has
surrendered, you are a murderer. If you
do it while you are in a uniform you are a disgrace to that uniform and by
extension the country you represent. There have already been too many crimes
throughout history carried out by those wearing uniforms. As for his family the shame he brings on them
is unfair and I hope the British public will treat them fairly. His reputation he has already sacrificed. So I say good riddance to him.
Regards
Wat Tyler
Bishopston, Bristol
