9 minute read
Letters
Memories of Wellington the goat
I was sad to read in The New Blackmore Vale edition 45 that Bruton School for Girls is to close.
I wonder if any ‘old girls’, now in their 60s, remember the head gardener keeping goats?
I bought a kid from him in about 1970 to help me tame a wild patch overgrown with brambles and tall grasses, beside my 300-year old cottage in Higher Chillington.
Wellington, as he was christened, had a huge crate – used to deliver aircraft engines – as his house, and I divided the field with glider towing wire, to which he was clipped. In about two months, he had reduced the area, of about two tennis courts, to a pleasant meadow.
He would accompany us on dog walks, never straying more than five metres from us.
He loved to head-butt a football back to us and he was also very fond of the mint with a hole in it.
Vernon Phillips Mere
I brought my scattered family to the Friday afternoon Platinum Jubilee Wincanton Town Festival. A great event which adults and children thoroughly enjoyed. My grateful thanks to all involved with its organisation.
The Town and Black Dog Blues Band combined to deliver that special ‘70 years celebration’ spectacular.
As the leader announced the last song of their set was from ZZ Top:
The first thrash of guitar.
A brilliant flash of lightning across the sky.
Immediate deafening clap of thunder.
“Somebody likes it then!” he quipped, and they rocked on.
Her Majesty would surely have been delighted witnessing Somerset’s version of rock band pyrotechnics. Pity she was otherwise engaged.
Alan Webber Pen Selwood
Vladimir Putin has a habit of misunderstanding history. I noticed he had a portrait of Peter the Great hung in his office.
The Russian president is obsessed with the past and the shaping of his nation’s narrative. He boasts of his admiration for the ruler credited with launching Moscow’s expansionist empire during a remarkable 42-year reign 350 years ago.
Both share the characteristics of being capable of great cruelty and being chillingly ruthless in pursuit of their goals.
So, what an irony that Putin’s botched invasion of Ukraine has sabotaged the legacy of Putin’s hero. Far from demonstrating Russia’s strength and status as a great power, the Kremlin’s failure to seize Kyiv and impose a puppet regime has only underscored weakness and diminished its global standing.
Peter was driven by fervent desire to engage with Europe, modernise his nation and attempted to eliminate corruption.
In contrast, Putin has turned Russia into a pariah state and done little to develop the country while funnelling vast resources into the pockets of wealthy billionaire cronies to the detriment of his citizens.
Peter was also a great military leader and some of his tactics are used in today’s modern warfare. An oft-repeated military adage is that amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics, by concentrating a significant proportion of their war effort on destroying and interrupting the capacity to move equipment and supplies.
In contrast, Putin has displayed military incompetence and logistical ineptitude which must have Peter the Great turning in his grave.
Now the floundering president, who has been defeated in battles for Kyiv and Kharkiv by a nation whose existence he denies, has turned his four-to-one advantage in army size, on taking the Donbas region. The big dog may have a big bite but the little dog is all bite.
Putin deserves to be crushed for the sake of his continent and his country’s citizens, who should be asking themselves why does everyone else bordering them talk about enjoying life and having improved living standards. The Kremlin-run media peddles propaganda, war and destruction constantly which is of no value to ordinary people.
And as a direct result, the Russian public doesn’t know that it has lost thousands of young soldiers and further thousands are left with life-changing injuries.
I wouldn’t want to be in Putin’s shoes when they find out.
Mike Fry via email
It has been my great pleasure to represent Bruton, Wincanton, Pen Selwood, Charlton Musgrove, Bayford and Stoke Trister, Pitcombe Shepton Montague, Brewham and Cucklington, and all of you as a parish, district and county councillor for over 20 years.
I wanted to thank you all so much for your support and friendship.
My new task is trying to help the trustees and volunteers at Bruton Library to raise funds to bring the facility up to today’s standards.
I hope many of you will feel it is really important to keep and support this wonderful building and service in our community.
Anna Groskop Bruton
In defence of David Warburton MP, David Norris asks ‘was the article in the Sunday Times true?’, to which the obvious response is: if it wasn’t true, why doesn’t Mr Warburton sue the newspaper for libel?
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
Steve Veness via email
Simon Hoare is chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee. He is an arch Remainer who, I believe, represents a strong pro-Brexit constituency.
Before and since the vote on leaving, he has frustrated every move to implement the democratic wish of the electorate. This included blocking a ‘no deal’ exit. Unfortunately, it would
Danger to dogs and children
These fishing hooks are what our dog Lilly the cockapoo had hooked in her belly and paw after swimming and paddling in the River Stour opposite the railway arches. One of the hooks was removed from Lilly’s belly in an out-of-hours vet appointment.
The danger to children and dogs paddling in the river is very concerning. I doubt that licensed fisherman would leave hooks like lying around the river bank or river bed like this because of the danger it poses.
People who use the Meadows in Blandford should beware.
Brian and Lynda Bates via email
appear many of his parliamentary colleagues, on all sides of the House, support his stand. He is, yet again, vociferous in the Press on addressing the NI protocol, taking a stand against the Government view.
I suspect he also opposes the policy on sending illegal, and in many cases clearly economic migrants, to Rwanda. Since he rarely answers emails, I cannot be sure of this but I would welcome his clarification on this essential policy, similar to several other countries with the same problem.
It is disgraceful, given his views, that he remains chairman of the NI committee. He would appear to do nothing except enhance support for the Irish and EU approach to changing the protocol, even if that is in a passive way. We need a Brexiteer in this role.
The PM did not get Brexit done. He signed the protocol as it was. Albeit, his hands were tied to some extent by the actions of Mr Hoare and his cohorts. Since then he has done nothing to implement the advantages of Brexit.
Mr Hoare does not, in my opinion, represent nor promote the views of most of his constituents. We need someone like Lord Frost to get us out of this mess.
Jeremy Bloomfield Gillingham
I learnt when listening to the Today programme on Radio 4 that there is a Minister for Women’s Health. Looking online I found this document: https://www.gov. uk/government/publications/ our-vision-for-the-womens-healthstrategy-for-england Last week it was announced that Dame Lesley Regan has been appointed by the Government as the first women’s health ambassador with her remit to include supporting the Government-led women’s health strategy. I searched for information on a Minister for Men’s Health without success. Further, while there is a newly published Health Strategy for Women, I could not find one planned or published for men. Given my understanding that one in eight men suffer from prostate cancer, that men are 67 per cent more likely to die of ‘common to both sex’ cancers than women, that the average life expectancy for men is 79 years and 83 years for women, and that the suicide rate is higher for men than women, I found this surprising.
Nick Fletcher MP has said that men are dying so much younger than they should and has asked in PM Questions if the PM will meet with him to discuss the merits of having a minister for men, and the benefits of a men’s health strategy.
I have written to Simon Hoare, MP for North Dorset, regarding this situation and he replied: “I think you raise an interesting point and I wanted to let you know that I have raised this directly with the Secretary of State for Health.”
I have found a Men’s Health Forum at: https://www. menshealthforum.org.uk/petitionmens-health-strategy It declares that: “A National Men’s Health Strategy – not just for England but also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – will enable the many challenges around prevention, care and outcomes in both the physical and mental health of men and boys to be addressed in a comprehensive and systematic way.
Men’s health policies and strategies already work effectively in a number of countries including Ireland and Australia. Current supporters include the Men’s Health Forum, UK Men’s Sheds Association, the Men & Boys Coalition, CHAPS, Mengage, Black Men’s Consortium and the ManKind Initiative.”
My question is simply this – when will the Government give equal priority to men and women’s health by appointing a Minister for Men’s Health and when will we see a Men’s Health Strategy?
Ian Condie via email
Nick Smith commented (New Blackmore Vale, 10 June) that more councils were installing car park ticket machines that would not accept cash.
I agree that this can cause problems.
Dorset seems to be an exception, as it continues to make it possible to pay by cash – rather than mobile phone – in all the car-parks in the unitary authority I have visited over the last couple of months – including places where new machines have been installed.
I have also recently renewed my short-stay car park (Shoppers) permit.
I do not use permits bought online to operate via a smartphone or mobile phone, so I approached Dorset Parking Services for an alternative.
I now have a physical time-clock permit, which I can use without needing a phone.
The current permit is more expensive – at £78 – than the one I had last year but covers many short-stay car-parks throughout the unitary authority, rather than being limited to West Dorset.
Sandra Cooper Hazelbury Bryan
