Compared to Poland – I’m disappointed in England’s public health care | UK News

What was your first impression of the UK’s NHS?

It was the first of its kind to be available to all and free at the point of delivery, since then other countries have followed suit offering free health care to its residents.

In today’s MetroTalk, a reader recounts their elderly mother’s contrasting experiences of receiving emergency care in England and in Poland, where access to treatment is also free at the point of need.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

If we’re serious about climate change – invest in the buses

A variety of people wrote in last week regarding the prime minister’s plans to review 20mph speed limits and low-traffic neighbourhoods, with many describing excessive traffic where they live and talking about how this might be affected by any proposed changes.

What nobody seemed to mention, however, is the only real solution to the traffic problem: buses.

Buses kill two birds with one stone, reducing both congestion and pollution, and will be a vital part of our efforts to mitigate climate change.

The fact that so few people see them in that light is testament to just how inadequate our bus networks are, both in quantity and quality.

It’s a national disgrace.

If we’re going to get serious about traffic reduction – and climate change – then we have to get serious about buses. Rob Slater, Norfolk

What killed Wilko?

I was shocked to read that good old Wilko faces closure after 93 years, with 12,000 jobs at risk (Metro, Fri).

I blame it on the ‘online order’ culture. The writing was also on the wall when my branch replaced most of its staffed checkouts with one self-checkout for card-payments-only and one customer-service-counter-cum-cash-payment-checkout.

As most of their customers were oldies who pay only by cash and were not happy waiting at long queues at the one customer-service-cum-checkout, they left in droves. The store started to look as quiet as a pagoda. Modern times, modern technologies, online everything, eh? Paq, Birmingham

Steven (MetroTalk, Fri) questioned rail union Aslef’s commitment to LGBTQ+ rights because its members’ overtime ban meant operator GTR cancelled trains for Saturday’s Brighton Pride.

As a gay train driver who feels cared for, I would remind Steven that strike days have previously been called on days when a multitude of events were taking place. Josh, Train Driver, Sheffield

Steven says the failure of Aslef and GTR to ‘support’ Pride is ‘abhorrent’.

Steven, they are not singling out LGBTQ+ people – there are plenty of others who are affected by industrial action, such as those just trying to get to work! Chris, London

Something a bit dicky about Richard III fans

Christina Toubkin (MetroTalk, Fri) says Richard III’s reputation as a ‘Shakespearean baddie’ is ill-founded and that he didn’t kill the ‘princes in the tower’.

Well, by way of reply – Richard (before declaring himself the third) intercepted the young prince Edward on his way to be crowned, killed without trial his loyal supporters, coerced his petrified mother to hand over her other son on the pretext of having him attend the coronation (no preparations for this were made), had them locked in a high-security prison, made no effort to investigate their disappearance and yet, according to some, was innocent of murdering them.

Furthermore, despite what Christina says, the two princes
were in line to the throne – it was Richard who declared them to be illegitimate.

How can supporters of this murderer be so naive? I bet if he were in prison now, he’d be inundated with marriage offers (that’s right, he’d be free to do this, his wife having died mysteriously after he got sick of her!).

As they say, ‘If it walks like a duck…’ Yours Undelusionally, Maurice Lindores, Hertford

Ascension Island, Andrew Malkinson and not so intelligent MI6

The government is reportedly lining up Ascension Island as an alternative to Rwanda for housing small-boat asylum seekers.

The isolated island in the south Atlantic has a population of less than 900, with minimal tourist accommodation. It is a ridiculous suggestion to deport anyone there.

The impact to fauna, the increased water and food usage, and the environmental effect of unwanted people who are not otherwise contributing to the island is utter madness. Don Trower, Braintree

I’m glad they have changed the law so Andrew Malkinson no longer has to pay accommodation and food expenses for the 17 years he was wrongly in prison for a rape he did not commit (Metro, Mon).

The ones who should pay are the guilty – make them work for nothing. It will be one way of cutting down on costs, and that way they pay for the crime they committed. K Baker, West Midlands

If the head of MI6, Sir Richard Moore, wants to encourage Russians to spy for Britain, he should remember that if they are caught, it’s not a five-year stint like in a soft British prison with your family outside kept on state benefits.

In Russia it’s a 20-year sentence in harsh conditions, with your family made to suffer.

Now that Moore has revealed many Russians are doing this already, they will be looking for somebody – innocent or guilty – to make an example of.

I thought the ‘I’ in MI6 stood for ‘intelligence’. Peter, Bradford

MORE : Everything you need to know about Ascension Island as government considers migrant processing centre

MORE : Shocking AI images show how climate change could impact the UK

MORE : Full list of Wilko stores already closed as bargain retailer goes into administration

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.