Readers' letters - April 26

It seems unreasonable that our present Government is catching all the blame for the Windrush affair when surely any blame for that rests with different governments and immigration authorities going back to 1948.Except for the distress caused to the original immigrants involved, which needs sorting immediately, it must puzzle many why establishing their legitimate citizenship should ever have been a problem.When the Windrush left the Caribbean, it would have a full passenger list, as required in maritime law for the obvious purpose of accounting for all passengers in the event of a disaster. Those records are definitely still available. When they disembarked with their landing cards, which we must assume were collected at the port, they were surely issued with some form of citizenship identity, either passports or other documents. If not, why not? If any such documents were issued but later expired or became lost over time, it is hard to believe there were no records to facilitate their renewal.If the landing cards were the only permanent records available, then whoever authorised their destruction without first checking the implications was guilty of gross incompetence.There should be no shortage of records for Windrush immigrants to establish their legitimate citizenship. It is nevertheless easy to imagine an individual needing access to that information would not get much help from the sort of tick-box officialdom we often encounter these days. On a final point for those interested, the Empire Windrush, to give her her full name, later sank in the Mediterranean in 1954 following a fire while serving as a troopship.Mike SmithAddress suppliedWhere are all the amenities? Re: 145 new homes planned at Wigan site (Wigan Post, April 24). I’d like to know, with all the extra houses being built (I’ve seen mention of over 500 at the planning permission stage already), what is being done to improve amenities? The roads are already at gridlock, 500 more houses equals probably 1,000 more cars. What about school places?These houses could mean at least another 1.000 more pupils. Schools are oversubscribed already!What about GP and NHS dentists?You cannot get a GP appointment on the day you need one. And hospitals? There is no mention of any of these services getting additional resources and so the overcrowding of the northern towns goes on. It makes it very depressing to live here.You just cannot get from A to B, the stress of trying to get a good school place, the inability to provide for your family’s health needs...There needs to be more in place rather than just keep giving permission for private developers to make money!Joanne Smithvia Wigan Post Facebook

Make time to seek truth

The point about all the claims and counterclaims over the alleged Douma attack, and any other issue, is that we ferociously seek the truth. We need to review the testimonies from people on the ground who visited Douma, we need to scrutinise the reports compiled by the organisations working in Syria, we need to listen to whistleblowers and evaluate what they claim, we need to compare government and media treatment of alleged atrocities from different parts of the world, and we need to ask a lot of questions and listen carefully to the answers. We could even make contact with the journalists, reporters, politicians, and other professionals involved. Passive spectating on events won’t do it. And if we don’t have the time, make time, even if this means spending one less hour each day holding the computer console or whatever other distraction of choice.Louis Shawcrossvia emailWars solve nothing at all

When will the people on planet Earth realise we all need each other – regardless of faith, religion, colour, or which part of this world we live in?Wars solve nothing.They only bring death and devastation to the whole populace, and we all suffer in one way or another, even if we live miles away from the conflict. So why do it? Is it greed, or egoists wanting it all at the expense of the rest of us?Who knows? It’s been going on since time immemorial. Nobody wins.EB Warris via email