SIR – Rishi Sunak’s proposal to expand the definition of extremism to include those who hate Britain (report, August 3) is both vague and impractical.
Diary of A Modern Gran | Lockdown Baby
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It’s a lovely bright day down on the seafront. But it’s the HAPPY BIRTHDAY balloons which grab my attention. Goodness, the lockdown baby is one-year-old today!
This time last year, a young couple who live locally, had their first baby. It was just when the world was about to change. I must admit that my heart went out to them. What a difficult time to have a little one. It’s hard enough (and sometimes scary) to cope with a newborn. But being pregnant and then giving birth during a pandemic is uncharted water.
Credit: pa/dominic lipinski
SIR – I fear that my cousin, Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England (Letters, February 19), is being disingenuous when he implies that NHS cancer treatment has been satisfactory during the pandemic.
The statistics he cites do not reflect the misery that thousands of patients have suffered as a result of their treatments being postponed. I should know. My own treatment for prostate cancer was delayed by six months and wasn’t completed until nine months after diagnosis.
The specialist hospital that provided my care was largely mothballed. Staff later told me they had spent months twiddling their thumbs, as they had not been needed to look after Covid-19 patients. I’m assured that my prognosis will not be affected by the delay – but many people’s will be.
SIR – I hope Vernon Bogdanor is right in saying that the Dunlop report on strengthening the Union, completed in 2019, is to be published at long last.
I was assured again and again in the Lords that it would appear before the end of 2020. Some recommendations, I was told, were being put into effect.
Why then the continuing secrecy on the part of a government that is supposed to be firmly committed to the Union? We have been cursed for too long by the policy of “devolve and forget”, as Professor Bogdanor says.
It is erroneous, however, to say that in the past “devolve and forget” in Northern Ireland “legitimised discrimination by a majority-ruled Stormont against the minority Catholic population”. Discrimination was practised, above all in housing, by both Unionist and nationalist local councils.
Diary of A Modern Gran | Granny Speaks to Other Grans
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But it isn’t.
This is the fifth time we’ve tried this morning. All I want to do is see my grandchildren on the screen as I can’t see them face to face.
But for some reason, it’s not working.
“Sorry, Mum,” says my daughter when she rings me. “We’ll just have to talk instead.”
But it’s difficult. Rose (5) and George (3) are very confused. Last week they could see us. This week they can’t.
It’s not just because of the lockdown. After all, I’m in their childcare bubble. It’s also because of my husband’s operation which means we have to self-isolate until the middle of the week. But it’s hard on my daughter who isn’t seeing anyone else because of her low immunity, and it’s hard on us.