Readers' letters - January 5

On behalf of pet wellbeing charity PDSA, I’d like to say a huge thank you to players of People’s Postcode Lottery.We have received fantastic support from players this year, which has helped to secure a better future for thousands of pets, as well as providing emergency care and life-saving equipment.In 2017, the funding has helped us to:See 71,000 pets brought to us with emergency conditions requiring immediate veterinary help. Purchase 34 items through a National Emergency Equipment Fund to repair or replace old clinical equipment.Host 52 pet first aid courses across the UK, which have equipped hundreds of people with potentially life-saving skills.Promote PDSA’s online symptom checker, which has been used over 128,000 times. The free tool has helped owners with queries about their pets’ health.Just like people, pets can suddenly fall ill, or sustain an unexpected injury. Whatever the cause, the emergency care we provide is vital. For some pets, immediate assessment and diagnosis can be the difference between life and death. PDSA is home to the UK’s busiest pet A&E service, so this funding helps us provide a vital lifeline for pets in need.A total of £255m has been raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery for good causes across Great Britain since the lottery launched – an incredible achievement. On behalf of us here at PDSA, and all the pets we treat, well done and thank you.Rebecca AshmanPDSA Senior Vet

So much for UK democracy A note to the shouty Brexiteers who were sold a pup by liars and confidence tricksters ...oh, and now it seems, Russian interference, too! Still, they can’t possibly admit to that, so we’ll all have to persist in this spiteful train crash. Oh, I forgot, we’re not allowed to query anything, regardless of the fact that every five years we ARE permitted to change our minds about who governs us. Brexiteers must never be questioned. That is the New Religion. They have a point: one single point. There are too many people in UK already. We need fewer, not more. That aside, politically, they tell us we’re going to “take back control”. That must be from the ELECTED European Parliament I suppose. We’re going to recover our ‘Beautiful British Democracy’.Ah yes, that would be the democracy in which:The fundamental idea is superior position by heredity (royalty and aristocracy).And we have: An elected House in which huge numbers of voters are ignored because their parties achieve only a miniscule number of seats.A voting system which ensures the rigid continuation of vested interests (Big Money, Big Banks, Big Business, and Big Unions who resist any change that discomforts their members). All at the expense of anyone trying to advance reform, justice and fairness.Government by QUANGOs, the leaders of which are nearly all the result of patronage. Nobody has heard of them, they usually keep a low profile, probably because they are overpaid and ineffectual.A sort of ‘Senate’ (House of Lords), which is vastly overpopulated by political placemen appointees and jobsworths, plus some hereditary peers and bishops of the ‘official’ state religion.A democracy in which only about half the electorate bothers to vote. Hence a minority of activists achieve the right to impose their will on the whole nation. We can do much better, I think. We have always had the power to restrict immigration from all but EU citizens, i.e. the majority of immigrants, but have never done so. We have always had the ability to police our borders but have never properly done so.We have always had the ability to control our own money, and reject the euro. A fine job we’ve made of it too! The euro continues to prosper, the pound continues to decline. We’ve always had the power to upgrade our educational achievements to match competitors, but we still trail badly. Why should it change now that we’re going to insulate ourselves from ideas from our neighbours? We’ve had well over 200 years to recognise:The superiority of the US constitution in many things, which was written by ex-Brits.The superiority of many of the ideas of the French Revolution.We’ve had over 70 years to recognise the superiority of the German constitution.We’ve done none of those things. No, we’re Superior Britain, say the Brexiteers...In Brexiteer Land, nobody has any ideas to cause us to think. Just more of the same old, same old.Nigel Taylorvia email

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