Your letters on dogs in eateries, West Norfolk’s phone signals, politics and immigration
Here are the Lynn News letters from Friday, January 17, 2025…
Why are dogs so welcome in eateries?
My wife and I are fortunate enough to be able to dine out regularly, but here in West Norfolk find in increasingly difficult for one reason.
The trend for every hotel, restaurant and public house is to accept dogs, and more and more seem to be following this trend.
Dogs welcome, happy paws, treats for dogs - why?
Let me stress I have nothing against dogs - all my family are dog owners - but they would never dream of taking them anywhere that food and drink is served.
Why owners want to drag dogs into these places is beyond me. They snuffle about, most don’t settle, if wet they smell awful, and I find their presence unhygienic.
I am sure I am not alone, but my search for dog-free eateries is proving very difficult.
Am I alone? Do others share by frustration? It would be interesting to know.
Geoff Harris
Holme-next-the-Sea
Options are not great without a landline
The latest phone signal survey by Streetwave reveals just how much of our region has poor to zero coverage.
We all knew this already but the recent spate of power cuts, trees down and other emergencies highlights the utterly ridiculous peril the Government is placing us in now that telephone landlines are being phased out.
One blackout will immediately isolate you from contact with the outside world especially in Norfolk where this pitiful cell phone signal exists everywhere.
No mobile, no internet, no texts, no WhatsApp and no email... no ability to communicate except with semaphore. It's almost laughable.
How have we allowed this to be inflicted upon us with barely a squeak of protest? Once upon a time you taught your children how to dial 999 if mummy was to fall down the stairs or some other household emergency... what would a terrified child do now?
Even if Mummy's phone has a signal how would a child access it without the pin or a fingerprint?
Some will say I'm describing a fanciful scenario... as you sit through your next blackout just consider your options once your landline phone is defunct. Not great are they?
Steve Mackinder
Denver
Labour must be much more sympathetic
On listening to the news recently, to my mind the Government are out for themselves these days.
They are not out to help pensioners, farmers, the NHS, teachers and many more .
I can foresee many shops will close during 2025 which will be a total disaster if Labour does not change its ways.
Mary Urry
Lynn
We should enjoy benefits of immigration
The migration issue…we have a unique opportunity.
This has been puffed up by certain parts of the media to be a major problem issue and we can all expect Reform to milk this for all it is worth come May time, and for them to continue to demonise migrants.
Firstly some facts. Two main factors have been exploited by those expressing a concern about immigration.
Firstly, immigration was unusually high in the year ending June 2024, driven primarily by high demand for workers in the health and care sector and an increase in international student numbers, when an estimated 1.2m immigrants outnumbered emigrants (480,000) to give a record net migration figure of around 730,000. So we sought a high level of migration, and at the same time failed to provide accommodation for these volumes.
Secondly, we need to understand that highly visible boat crossings are not material within the context of migration flows. Between 2018 and September 2023, around 148,000 people arrived in small boats, an average of just 30,000-a-year, or 2.5% of the 1.2m legal immigrants of 2024.
Finally, let us look at the situation in Norfolk, which has an ageing population.
Norfolk’s ethnic make-up in the Census 2021 is characterised by a predominantly white population of 94.7%, compared with 81.0% for England.
In other words, Norfolk is aging and will need the support of an influx of people of working age to support our healthcare needs, and in fact in spite of heavy employment of migrants in agriculture and healthcare has very small numbers of migrants.
The facts are that the high level of migration in 2024 was associated with an assertion that migrants come here to enjoy the high level of benefits, and a focus on the costs of maintaining illegal migrants in detention centres.
The vast majority contribute greatly to our wellbeing, and given the chance integrate well.
As an aging society we benefit from large numbers of young people of working age and a better solution is to recognise these as a valuable resource – this is especially so where it is increasingly necessary to address the failures of underinvestment in infrastructure over the last 10 years.
So a better solution will be to welcome such migrants into the workforce rather than isolate them at public expense and to grant limited residential rights to all who have already arrived here.
At the same time we need our government to introduce an effective solution to ensure that future migration is managed so that the system is fair for all applicants.
And this means working effectively with the French and recognising that uncontrolled migration is a shared issue.
As part of a future solution a necessary resource may well be the threat of deportation for those who chose to push themselves to the front of the queue at the expense of others.
Bluntly, we want to take inflationary pressures out of the economy whilst keeping demand stable and this is a resource that allows us to do this.
To those who seek to create fear and hatred, I speak for the many who abhor the politics of dishonesty. So much more intelligent to enjoy the benefits of immigration and recognise how we are all better off where we embed immigrants into our economy.
Cllr Tom Ryves
Methwold
The public gets Government it deserves
Labour enjoys reminding voters of its view that former PM Liz Truss crashed the economy with chancellor Rachel Reeves being accused of doing the same by the Tories now, and the markets are snubbing her also. On the face of it there appears to be common ground for both of them.
There doesn't have to be any kind of a grand plot against a politician for them to take a dislike to the Government's economic agenda.
They simply do not resonate with the current one. Their verdict isn't some ideological rebuke or any particular philosophy.
Rather it's an indication that the numbers in Ms Reeves’ budget are not adding up.
If anything, this latest crisis mirrors 2022 more than anything that either Ms Truss or the Chancellor would admit in both cases.
They erroneously insisted that their plans to borrow and spend were responsible in both instances and the markets decided they were not.
The pound currently struggling evokes memories of September 16, 1992 when the Conservative Government was forced to withdraw Sterling from the European Exchange Mechanism.
It was Margaret Thatcher as prime minister who said: “You can't buck the market,” in the realisation that you cannot go against it.
It is too powerful and its players too wily, as Liz and Rachel have discovered painfully.
At the last general election, the voters had a 'Hobson's Choice' between an inept Conservative government which failed abysmally and a Labour alternative which is hitherto underperforming.
The public gets the Government it deserves.
David Fleming
Downham
