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

Railways are vital - not everyone wants to drive

A recent study by Oxford Economics for the Rail Industry Association determined that the railway industry adds £36bn to the UK economy (more than food drink and tobacco), employs 600,000 people - either directly or in connected jobs - and leads to £11bn in tax revenue.

Not bad for an industry that is hamstrung by the labyrinthine and dysfunctional system imposed by the major government.

Railways provide a more environmentally friendly and convenient way to travel - even to Europe, despite the lamentable failure to resume services from Kent stations.

It must be remembered, in this context, that not everybody can or wants to drive.

Now Mr Williamson (letters last week) might prefer it if Europe did not actually exist but recent events have shown clearly that this country will need much better and stronger links with our fellow European countries in the future.

Further to Mr Williamson's comment about the railway unions: The RMT, which is the largest of the three main rail unions, has not been affiliated to the Labour party since 2004, therefore has no representation on Labour's national executive so has no say whatsoever over Labour policy.

Steve Foulger

Support for Reform but where are the policies?

Simon Finlay spent some column inches writing about the Reform party and how well they have been doing in elections across Kent.

The article was suggesting Reform could soon be able to change the shape of political control all over Kent.

Well, they have achieved a measure of success in recent elections, to the extent that now some of their candidates are on council committees and others in parliament.

They are in position to be thinking and planning what they might be able to do in order to affect some improvements to all the issues they believe need change.

So far the Reform party has recruited voters who expect something from their representatives, maybe repairs to potholes in our roads, better pensions or better schools but their supporters have not seen any policy Reform would put in place to better our way of life if they were in power.

The next time Simon Finlay should find out what policies Reform hopes to effect in the near future.

If he does manage this he will have done better than the Fleet Street reporters, none of whom have so far suggested what their policies are or how they will affect the way we live.

Derek Munton

Is Farage a threat to NHS?

I've just benefitted from the most impressive medical care. Every last aspect was explained in order to make the patient an individual, not just an item for financial advantage.

Nigel Farage famously said that the NHS can't last forever and he was open to anything as regards its future.

So, with Reform in a coalition with the Tories, or Farage as PM after the next election, we might have to pay in advance for our health care or take out expensive insurance.

Is this what Reform voters really want for our health system? Private companies and Big Pharma, American style, using our illnesses, first and foremost, to extract yet more money for investors and billionaires?

Nigel had flown six times to the US between his election last July and mid-December. Cosying up to US business is more attractive than helping the man in the UK street, despite his pretence.

Jeremy Hall

Don’t punish the parents of criminal children

There is an ongoing argument that the parents of children who commit crimes, especially those of a horrific nature, should be prosecuted or, at the very least, be made to answer for their shortcomings as parents.

But parents cannot realistically monitor their child's behaviour 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

Besides, children from a young age are taught what is right and wrong and they alone must be held accountable for their own anti-social or criminal actions.

It would serve no logical purpose to heap the blame on the child's elders, who cannot control any outside influences that their offspring are subjected to - mainly the internet, interactions with other children and what they view on TV.

Fining parents or sending them on a course to improve their parenting skills would be ineffective.

There will always be bad parents who show little affection or care for their children, which is a recipe for their kids to go off the rails.

However, it is too simplistic an approach to the problem to criminalise the parent.

Michael Smith

Too many votes are being wasted

I am writing to express my frustration and anger at the continued failure of the Labour and Conservative leadership to support electoral reform in the UK.

It is outrageous that, in this day and age, we are still using an outdated and undemocratic First Past the Post system that fails to accurately represent our country.

Fifty eight per cent of voters at the last election do not have an MP of their choice in Parliament - a higher share than ever before.

The current system leads to millions of votes being wasted and allows parties to gain power with only a third of the popular vote. Something has to change but voters assume there's nothing they can personally do and many just shrug and say, "you can't beat the system."

It is time for the voices of all voters to be heard. The Labour and Conservative leadership must wake up and recognise the need for Proportional Representation. Their failure to support reform is a clear indication that they are more interested in maintaining their own power than in truly representing the people they were elected to serve.

I sense a grassroots shift but it's going to be a slow process to increase public awareness and support for change unless the media gets on board.

Anita Dow

Kent needs its own ULEZ measures

With the success of the 2023 expansion of ULEZ to the Outer London boroughs, it is clearly time to introduce the same air pollution-reducing measures in towns in Kent.

The recent report by the Greater London Authority, with findings reviewed by an independent, advising group of experts, concluded that London’s air quality had improved significantly and at a faster rate than the rest of the country.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the main driving force behind the expansion of ULEZ, said it has been crucial to protect the health of all Londoners.

Under ULEZ rules, polluting cars pay a £12.50 charge each day they are driven inside the ULEZ Zone and most petrol-driven cars under 19 years old and diesel cars under nine years old are exempt.

The statistics of success are impressive. Roadside hydrogen dioxide is down by 27% across London and small particle emissions from exhausts 31% lower in Outer London.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown of this success story is that 97% of vehicles in London are now compliant and don’t pay anything.

In Kent, in 2022, Friends of the Earth analysed air quality and found that large areas of Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham suffered much higher levels of air pollution than anywhere else in Kent and the South East.

Here, 43 of its neighbourhoods had pollution that was at least double World Health Organisation levels. Elsewhere in Kent, Gravesham had six neighbourhoods and Dartford had three.

Part of the problem in the Medway Towns is the fact that each town in turn carries part of the A2 corridor, with the attendant multiple sets of traffic lights, where stationary traffic with engines running is the cause of more pollution than moving traffic.

Surely now is the time to follow in London’s footsteps, introduce ULEZ and improve the air quality.

John Cooper

Facts ignored to suit political prejudice

I feel some weariness about having to write a response to the politically illiterate double-speak from those of your correspondents who insist that Nazism is “left-wing”.

This historical revisionist zombie propaganda seemingly won’t rest, despite how frequently it is debunked by scholars and historians. It is a phenomenon noted in the book When Prophecy Fails by Leon Festinger, in which he describes ‘belief perseverance’ where contradictory evidence strengthens a person’s belief rather than weakening it.

While this was first observed in a study of a millennial cult, it is notable how in current politics that people often align their beliefs with their political identity rather than objective facts.

The most generous interpretation of the intentions of those promulgating the idea that Nazism is left-wing is that they labour under a misunderstanding of the motives for the inclusion of the word Socialist in the formulation of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)’s name.

By the time Hitler took over the party, it was explicitly and violently opposed to socialism, Marxism, and communism, seeing them as threats to their nationalist and racial agenda. They immediately persecuted leftist groups, including socialists and communists, on taking power.

This deformation of consensus reality, the destruction of meaning in our shared understanding of the world, is something that should concern us all.

It is exactly this kind of manipulation of truth, be it either through wilful political naivety or perhaps through dishonesty, that leads people to believe that contemporary millionaire-backed political movements have their best interests at heart.

Dr. Hayden McDonald

PM’s spineless appeal to Trump’s vanity

Was I the only person disgusted at Keir Starmer’s spineless response to the journalist who, during the Prime Minister’s press conference at the White House, asked the PM for his thoughts on Trump’s attacks on Canada - threatening to make it the 51st State of the USA?

Starmer did not answer the question - instead accusing the journalist who posed the question of “trying to drive a wedge between us” (meaning the US and UK, of course).

Can our PM not see that Trump and his odious Vice President, Vance, have already driven a wedge between us and all decent, civilised democracies?

Even worse was the sickening sight of him offering a bribe, in the form of an invitation from the King (God help him - forced by the government to play host to America’s uncouth leader) for Trump make a State Visit to the UK. It was a direct appeal to his over-weening vanity, in the hope that Trump would go easy on us!

Our government is in dire need of backbone implants.

Bob Readman