Readers' letters - January 26

Meet new people, learn new skills and gain qualifications with youth charity Sea Cadets, which is encouraging young people and adults to see how they can get involved this February.

We are urging 10- to 17-year-olds seeking adventure and adults interested in volunteering to contact their local unit to find out more about the amazing opportunities available.

Young people at Sea Cadets enjoy a variety of activities, from dinghy sailing to catering, and have the opportunity to experience offshore voyages or to travel abroad to meet cadets from other countries.

But it doesn’t end there. Sea Cadets, an all-inclusive charity, is committed to ensuring young people have 
a bright future, and with us they develop life skills that sets them in good stead for whatever they choose to do in later life.

This would not be possible without our amazing 9,000 volunteers – but we need more like them.

You could make more of your free time by showing cadets how to sail, kayak or windsurf, we will even teach you how, or by managing finances and budgets or fundraising for your local unit.

You can find your nearest Sea Cadet unit at www.sea-cadets.org/find-your-nearest-unit

Captain Phil Russell RN

Captain Sea Cadets

health

You have to want to stop

Well, I really think TV ads have hit an all-time low with the new “stop smoking ad”.

Fair enough, we all know the health risks associated with smoking, but for Smokefree to show someone supposedly getting tobacco out of a pack, getting blood and gore all over his fingers instead of tobacco, then proceeding to roll a cigarette and smoke it only to get a lump of gore in his mouth is disgusting, especially when you are in the middle of an evening meal.

What next?

I hate to think how low they can go to try and get their point across.

I was a smoker and stopped more than 10 years ago and I don’t think these over-the-top ads and shock tactics would have made any difference to me.

If you want to stop you will – no amount of spearmint, sprays, patches, TV ads can stop you smoking, it’s down to wanting to stop and a great amount of will power.

How this ad slipped through, I don’t know.

David Mitchell

via email


politics

Thrust into PM role

Poor old Mrs Theresa May has been thrust into the honour of being Prime Minister of this once great nation.

She demonstrates her willingness to achieve.

She drags Liam Fox off to India to tout for trade from our erstwhile colonies.

She cuts a fine figure in her trouser suit among the robed figures of the sheiks of the oil rich countries.

The latest tyranny is, however, betrayed when she indulges in dismissive blame against all others and not her own failing Government.

Prison riots – there are too many prisoners and too few officers.

Rail strikes – employers introducing cut back schemes which workers are convinced will endanger the travelling public.

And – to cut a long story of failure short – she blames the failure of A&E departments on our GPs because they don’t work longer hours and precious weekends.

Robin Parker

Address supplied