Despite all its shortfalls, the NHS is a service we can be proud of

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The excellent article by James Moore superbly illustrates just how far-sighted our forefathers were. Additionally, it is a positive indictment of how caring the British people are for those who need help, short or long-term.

There are problems and shortfalls with our National Health Service, mainly caused by successive governments, but it continues to treat all those who are eligible under NHS rules and is still admired by the rest of the world. As it should be.

Because of the vision shown by politicians after the Second World War, Britain has a world renowned health system which has kept its people relatively free from major health scares for 70 years. It continues to invest in research to seek advances in treatment for all forms of illnesses. Regardless of social/financial standing, race or gender patients will receive treatment for their illness. This can’t be said for many other countries in the world.

Keith Poole
Address supplied

IT has only hindered our NHS access

Having been a committed supporter and user of the NHS for all of my 66 years, I needed an appointment at my local urology department. I duly got online with password and reference number to find it would only offer me one appointment and as I knew I could not make it I tried to change it.

As I couldn’t change it online I rang the phone number. As the hospital haven’t released anymore appointments I was told that was the only one available. Fine so far – a minor irritation, but then comes the stupid part.

As I was recognised by the booking system while I was online I now have to accept the booking otherwise I will be taken off the system and have to go through my GP and start again. Which of course means I have at some point in the future to cancel my appointment and rebook. I can only do that by keeping an eye on the website to find when my local hospital releases more appointments.

So much for IT improving the NHS. It’s a shame on its birthday.

Steve Ryan
Address supplied

With our politicians lying so often, how are we supposed to trust them?

Was it only a couple of weeks ago that Theresa May trumpeted the extra billions for the NHS would be financed by the “Brexit dividend”? It now appears that, in fact, the “dividend” will actually be a fuel and alcohol tax increase to pay the increased spending.

We are lied to so shamelessly on a daily basis by our politicians that it is exhausting to read the news simply looking for a crumb of truth. Examples abound, including that universal credit has been a success; the government has costed in detail the impact of Brexit; it’s not they but the EU that is holding up a settlement deal; that they really know what they are doing and as Theresa May has been saying since the referendum result, she has “a plan” for Brexit (apparently Brexit means Brexit) so that’s clear.

The only thing certain with this government is the tooth and claw determination of individuals to hold onto their positions and power, irrespective of the damage to the country. It is a shameful spectacle.

Kate Hall
Leeds

A cool idea

It can only be the scientifically illiterate or those with a financial interest in fossil fuels that continue to deny the warming effects of climate change (All time heat records have been set all over the world this week). Geoengineering solutions are not the answer long term, and some are decidedly risky, but one idea being successfully trialled in Los Angeles might buy us some time while international cooperation continues to move at the rate of the rapidly melting glaciers.

This is to paint all road surfaces white thus reflecting the sun’s rays and slightly, albeit temporarily, cooling the planet.

But why stop at roads? By including car parks, roofs of buildings, cars, trucks and trains, the surface area captured would be massive: and what a massive job creation programme that would be!

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire

A new verb

May I introduce a new verb to the English language: to Southgate.

Definition:

• To politely move aside the old guard
• To provide the time and space for new, young talent to be nurtured
• To avoid a reflex response to media-driven suggestions for cures
• To openly embrace failure, as an opportunity to learn and progress

As we celebrate 70 years, let us not forget that our “30 years of hurt” has now become 52.

Notwithstanding the willingness to promote “transformation” at board level, nothing will change while senior players are in control of the “locker room” of trusts. Rather than the habit of responding to short-term performance targets, by introducing change, a new culture of cooperation and mutual respect we will set and achieve our goals.

Peter Benett
Lytham St Annes

Boris’s call might help England win the World Cup

President Putin personally phones his football team before major matches, and it may indeed have helped them beat the odds. Our rib-tickling Boris could do even better, by relieving our players’ nerves. Give them a call, foreign secretary!

Andrew M Rosemarine
Salford

Why are our football commentators so pro-England?

There has been coverage in the Scottish media of what is cited as excessive pro-England bias from TV football commentators.

I watched the England-Colombia match in a bar in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, where a sizeable number supported Colombia – arguably highly excessively. And presumably on Saturday these impassioned Colombian fans will adore Sweden.

Is this simply good-natured, traditional rivalry with our closest neighbour or is it in part symptomatic of something newer and darker, fuelled by the SNP’s ceaselessly divisive narrative?

Martin Redfern
Edinburgh

Why are our high streets being stripped back?

The urban calamity wrought from short-sighted council mandarins and corrupt politicians favouring out-of-town retail malls was brought home in this heatwave trying in vain to buy a simple tub of Soft Scoop in Paisley’s town centre.

If I wanted tattoos, sunbed hire, e-cigarettes, discarded entertainments in retro formats from the perma-jumble sale charity shops, or a PO box for dubious internet shopping, I would be in seventh heaven – so long as I was happy to survive on greasy takeaways. Even the ubiquitous Asian grocer – the nation’s thin red line against corporate chain barbarity – has retreated to the margins.

Soon the expensive M&S will have a retail food monopoly in Paisley town centre – the two pound stores, their only meagre competition, both holding closing down sales. It may be pedestrianised, but the town aspiring to city status and a culture capital is as poor in the basics as it is rich in pretentiousness.

Fourteen miles away, the little village of Lochwinnoch has two central mini-marts – two more than Paisley with 29 times its population.

Mark Boyle
Renfrewshire