Our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent and beyond.

Some letters refer to past correspondence which can be found by clicking here. Join the debate by emailing letters@thekmgroup.co.uk

More stop and search would cut knife crime

There was a time when you saw cops on the beat which gave the public a sense of reassurance that there was a visible presence that could be relied upon to protect them.

Alas, this no longer applies to the situation we have at present, where the sighting of a police officer patrolling our streets is tantamount to a phenomenon.

I believe the current disturbing epidemic in knife crime and the proliferation of stabbings amongst mainly young people would be curtailed if we had community policing and supported them in implementing more stop and search procedures.

This would be an effective way to thwart the use of blades carried by those who have criminal or malicious intentions.

M. Smith

PM leading us on road to ruin

The assertion that Labour must ensure its policies work to prevent an authoritarian government taking its place absolutely beggars belief (John Cooper, letters last week).

Mr Cooper is obviously so besotted with this government that he is oblivious to the fact that it is already becoming the most authoritarian in my lifetime (I am 75).

For removal of doubt; we now have a Prime Minister, who within weeks of taking office, to further his own agenda, hijacked the judicial system, ordered the police to do his bidding, condemned all protestors as far-right extremists, and took the credit for getting many of them imprisoned within days, whilst victims of other far more serious crimes (some of whom have been waiting years) are still waiting for their cases to go to trial.

He then compounded that, by changing the rules to allow convicted criminals to be released back onto our streets, having served only 40% of their sentences, to make room for the people he wanted imprisoned!

Such behaviour emboldened him to go even further, by actively seeking to suppress free speech, which in his vocabulary is any view with which he does not agree. The public were told that he knew within a day that terrorist-related material had been found at the Southport murderer’s flat, but he and the Home Secretary withheld their knowledge of it from the public for three months!

That was a deliberate choice by the Prime Minister, because he as a lawyer knows how the law works.

Sir Keir Starmer (as evidenced by his plummeting personal ratings) is the worst Prime Minister of modern times, who with his dictatorial arrogance, is leading this country on the road to ruin.

C. Aichgy

We’re all to blame for state of politics

John Cooper is right to talk about democracy’s failure but also misses the main reason.

We have just come through the most disproportionate general election in our history - and have a government with an overwhelming majority based on just a third of the votes. Many can say we have an illegitimate government, and it would be hard to argue against that.

But these are not new issues - turnout and a broken voting system have been problems for decades but we carry on regardless. We vote for the same old faces, parties and policies - or, worse, do not vote at all - and then complain.

So who is to blame for the state of politics today? Each of us can answer the question by simply looking in the mirror.

Keith Nevols

Devolution is not democratic

It is a disgrace to plan to change the entire structure of local governance within our county without offering a referendum to all residents affected.

Democracy denied. The Labour Party seem to be aiming to gain a reputation for dictatorship, democracy becoming an empty word - something we say but not do.

It is a slippery slope to totalitarianism with no way back.

Nancy Doyle

No hope until next election

May I congratulate Colin Bullen on his excellent letter (‘Ruled by an army of bureaucrats’) which encapsulates many of the problems this country faces.

As he says the present government is ideologically opposed to a small state so not much will change until either the IMF arrives or we get to 2029.

John Atkins

Deluded view of dictatorships

There is something ironic in the fact that on the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, the results of a new poll of Generation Z (people aged 13-27) reveals that more than half believe life would be better under a dictatorship and one third would support a military junta.

They obviously have absolutely no idea of what life was, and is, like for the billions around the world who had and have first hand experience of living under such repressive, brutal regimes.

The results of this poll only serve to underline and reinforce the argument against the lowering of the voting age to 16.

If anything it might be a good argument for raising the voting age to 30 - by which time, hopefully, those taking part in elections will have learnt enough and had enough experience of life to be capable of making rational decisions.

Those who dream of living in a dictatorship (civilian or military) would soon live (if they survived at all) to regret it. They should be very careful what they wish for.

Bob Readman

Lunacy of drive for net zero

Dr Andrew Blewetts (letters last week) starts off quite correctly with the statement that the UK only generates less than 1% of greenhouse gas emissions.

He then goes on about farmers struggling with bad weather conditions and them not caring if its 1% or 90%, they just want something doing about it.

He then throws in the ultimate insult to all people who do not agree with him, of ‘climate change denier’.

We do not deny that the climate is changing, but we don’t know why or what percentage of it is man-made.

His first statement shows that if the UK magically went to carbon neutral overnight, it could not affect the UK weather.

It does not matter who wishes the climate to stay as it is for the next 10,000 years, who they pray to and which type of government is in power, the UK cannot physically make any difference.

Impoverishing our country and its population in an attempt to achieve an impossible goal is total lunacy. They should be working out what mitigating projects should be in place to counter the effects.

Larger sea walls to prevent flooding, a bigger Thames barrier to protect London, improved land drainage to prevent towns flooding, stopping building on flood planes, etc.

Alan Hardie-Storey

Green energy shouldn’t be for profit

Certainly bringing in new renewable tech to replace fossil-fueled ones will have its ups and downs financially, including sadly in the USA where their markets will be affected by the erroneous changes of President Trump.

That said, many even Republican-run cities and states have many jobs reliant on green businesses such as electric cars and the carbon capture facility in New Mexico et al.

But running these on a different basis, such as worker co-operatives and/or not-for-profit social enterprises, where all surpluses are reinvested alongside community dividends instead of syphoned out to the top echelons and their tax havens, would greatly help the transition.

Restoring our public services into arms-length versions of publicly owned companies may also be a better way forward than privatised greed for the few and debts for everyone else.

Ray Duff

Better public transport cuts car journeys

The concept of building more roads to handle increased traffic must be challenged.

Considerable sums of money are already being spent on maintaining roads. Parking takes up considerable urban land in towns, which could be put to better use.

The cost of road building would be better spent on improvements to health and social care facilities, and numerous other important, desirable projects.

Beyond this, I will simply mention the fact of climate change to which road transport contributes a large proportion of the carbon dioxide driving this change.

Need I also add the need for a vastly improved public transport system that would reverse the need for private motor vehicles?

Ralph A. Tebbutt

20mph limits cause frustration and pollution

I must disagree with Lauren Abbott’s article about how peaceful she found driving through London on a recent trip.

I recently had a trip to London, my first for three years or so and was really not impressed at being forced to drive in the 20mph zones.

My own experience was not one of peace but rather frustration. My journey into the centre of London took me from the Blackwall Tunnel through to the Swiss Cottage area with a subsequent return on the same route. In between the journeys in and out, my entire stay in the area was within this 20mph zone.

This meant that for four days, my entire driving experience was conducted in low gears and with a higher revving engine, thereby producing more pollution than previous trips.

The worst frustration was on the return journey where as well as getting caught in heavy traffic around Euston Station, the trip of seven miles took nearly an hour and a quarter before reaching more civilised speed limits.

Not what I would call a peaceful and enjoyable experience.

Clive Wren

Lives will be lost until smugglers are stopped

The article last week about senior coroner Patricia Harding's verdict of unlawful killing in the case of three migrants who drowned while attempting to cross the English Channel on 14 December 2022 makes interesting but sad reading.

The people smugglers who facilitate these crossings only care about the money they make from them. They have no regard for human life.

I have had the opportunity to look at one of the vessels (called a Taurus) that has been used for one such attempt, now housed in Falmouth Maritime Museum.

Although they are slightly more sturdy than I had previously imagined, they are still a very flimsy craft. I would not use one to negotiate a duck pond, let alone the world's busiest shipping lane. To put this into perspective, crossing the English Channel in a Taurus is akin to crossing the M25 on a tricycle.

The RNLI are often deployed to bring these illegal immigrants to the safety of our shores. This is time that could potentially be used to assist other persons in difficulty at sea. This is not to say that any human life is worth more or less than any other, but it does demonstrate one facet of this very problematic issue.

I wish I knew the answer as to how to stop the people smugglers' vile and evil trade. Until it is stopped, many more lives are going to be lost in our waters.

Mark Kennett

Sadness at cafe closures

I am very upset to hear about the closure of Sainsbury’s cafes.

My friend and I usually go every Tuesday to meet up for a chat and something to eat. We used to enjoy a mini cooked breakfast, which was discontinued last year.

Being pensioners, it was the only chance of having such a treat, as the regular one would be too much for us to eat and not something we would cook ourselves.

We would then do some shopping but will now have to find somewhere else, so they’ve lost our custom.

Gaynor Trevett