Home   News   Opinion   Article

Bus services, devolution, bureaucracy and Trump's tough stance on immigration among topics in letters to KentOnline editor

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

‘Donald Trump is at least doing what he says he’s going to do - unlike our Prime Minister, who is full of rhetoric with little substance’. Picture: Gage Skidmore, via Wikicommons.
‘Donald Trump is at least doing what he says he’s going to do - unlike our Prime Minister, who is full of rhetoric with little substance’. Picture: Gage Skidmore, via Wikicommons.

Buses are only as reliable as our roads

It would be nice to report positive progress on our journey towards the "London-style bus services" we have been told so much about but, alas, it's the same old story of cutbacks, closures and allegations of "non-viability".

In Kent, bus ownership is more like operating a wrestling tag team than a free market in comprehensive bus services. First Stagecoach has a go at reducing its network and raising prices, then it’s Arriva's turn.

For all their talk about viability, you would have thought that there was no state funding, or an "enhanced partnership" with the county council to develop a pathway to these mythical London-style services.

It's a funny thing but with so many people working hard, and on a "24/7" basis in this country, you would expect things to be a lot better than they are.

Perhaps they are busy "learning lessons" or "setting priorities", to notice that things are rather rubbish, and that bus services in Kent are pretty poor and are becoming worse, not better.

My message to Arriva and Stagecoach is people will not travel on your buses if they continue to be unreliable, using old, buses or are non-existent.

Any bus service of less than an hourly frequency, running between the hours of 8am and 8pm, is a delusion and the state should not be funding these ghost services.

Where I think the bus companies do have a point is the congestion caused by constant roadworks and parked cars.

If a bus has difficulty negotiating a route because of these impediments, it also means that fire engines, ambulances and refuse trucks will also be held up, so KCC Highways needs to wake up and do something.

That is what an enhanced partnership means. The bus companies run reliable, meaningful bus services and KCC ensures that the roads are clear for those services to run reliably.

Richard Styles

Market caution is understandable

In his letter last week, Ralph A. Tebbutt laments that the money market rebels against any form of public investment and prevents governments from making needed investment.

However if you had already loaned the UK government £2,800,000,000,000 and it continued to rack up new debts of £150,000,000,000 every year, wouldn't you be nervous?

David Northcroft

Council revamp a tricky numbers game

Bob Britnell has graphically described the difficulty of creating unitary authorities in Kent that make sense geographically, especially if existing borough/district boundaries are to be used as the basis.

Government guidance says that each unitary authority should have a population of 500,00 or more. Mr Britnell’s suggested authorities in the west of the county would result in populations of 228,400 for Dartford/Gravesham, 471,000 for Medway/Maidstone and 373,500 for Sevenoaks/Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells, none of which conform to the government’s guidelines.

However, two unitary authorities based on Dartford/Gravesham/Medway (515,200) and Maidstone/Sevenoaks/Tonbridge & Malling/Tunbridge Wells (557,700) would comply. However, that would then be an issue in the east of the county with the remaining 824,100 population being either one or two unitary authorities. One authority would have a population greatly exceeding the government’s guidelines.

Perhaps Canterbury/Swale/Thanet (456,200) and Ashford/Dover, Folkestone & Hythe (367,900) with their smaller populations would be appropriate, as Mr Britnell suggests, given the geographically large areas to cover?

John R. Dean

Give voters a say on new-look local government

I cannot add any positive endorsement to the major changes to local government that you have reported.

Where do we, as the registered voters, get to say if we agree or not to the major changes as outlined?

Surely, the voting public must provide approval before any form of action is taken? It cannot be democratic or accountable to make these developments and decisions without recourse and acceptance of the voting public.

Your feature provided good information on what is proposed and going ahead, supposedly on or behalf. But, no detail has been received from our local council for consideration.

Judged by the mayoral and council structures already in place, particularly in London, it is difficult to support the new forms of government.

It will not provide more local democracy and better, cost-efficient services, just more oligarchy, autocratic and costly administration.

All we shall obtain will be big, bossy councils with even less thought and understanding for the electorate.

Yes, we need reduced state interference but what we want and urgently need is a complete move away from our current form of government which is led and controlled by lawyers and bureaucrats.

Mature and sensible individuals cry out for more freedom and responsibility, leading to greater prosperity and improved values. These developments are not the answer.

Harold Hoad

Housing budgets facing a crisis

A recent survey of councils across the country found that 90% of council housing budgets are under stress and 66% are on the brink of collapse.

The survey also found 61% of councils have already cancelled, paused or delayed council house building projects.

And more than one third of councils have cut back on repairs and maintenance of homes.

We all want to build more council homes. But years of financial strain and policy change has pushed England’s council housing into crisis.

I, along with councils across the country, am calling for the government’s upcoming housing strategy and spending review to save council housing.

We need to see: A new, sustainable financial model for council housing; a Green and Decent Homes Programme and enough money to buy new council homes.

I am certain the government wants to do more. Let’s hope they find a way.

Cllr Pip Hazelton

‘KCC should ensure that the roads are clear for our bus services to run reliably’
‘KCC should ensure that the roads are clear for our bus services to run reliably’

Fewer people trust democracy to solve our problems

I think those of us who care for the future of our democratic system of government here in Britain should be worried by the findings from a recent poll by the FGS Global Radar Report in which, of those aged between 18 and 45, 21% agreed that the best system was a strong leader without the need for an election.

Even 8% of the Second World War baby boomers, born between 1946 and ‘64, expressed support for a new anti-democratic direction in our political system.

Here in Britain, just as we have to face up to the fact that in Europe we no longer live in a post-war world but have moved into a pre-war one, we also have to acknowledge that our democratic system of government isn’t sacrosanct and that there are authoritarian forces waiting in the wings, if the opportunity presents itself, to seize the reins of power.

As a country, we are justly proud of our democratic system of government. However, we should avoid the mistake of thinking that it is guaranteed to last forever. We need to wake up, recognise the dangers and act in order to protect its longevity.

Last year, when the Biden government failed to control inflation, tackle immigration and pull out properly from Afghanistan, the American people voted for the more authoritarian Donald Trump. I hope that I am wrong, but I fear this has taken both the USA, Britain and the rest of the world in an immensely darker direction.

I don’t think that it’s being overdramatic to say that our Starmer-led government should recognise that there is a lot riding on them making a success of their policies if it is to prevent an increase in the number of our citizens supporting the idea of the imposition of an authoritarian government as a solution to our problems.

John Cooper

UK needs its own Donald Trump

Donald Trump, love him or hate him, is at least doing what he says he’s going to do - unlike our Prime Minister, who is full of rhetoric with little substance.

Thousands of American servicemen are now protecting the borders by backing up border enforcement and continue building the fence and arresting hundreds of illegal immigrants, building camps and putting them on military planes for deportation. This in itself will put the fear of god up those amassing at the Mexican border to chance their arm.

But still in the UK, thousands are coming into our country and being treated like honoured guests. For 14 years the Tories did absolutely nothing to stop the boats and the smuggling gangs, and once they did get the Rwandan scheme nearly up and running, Rishi Sunak bottles it and resigns, with the incoming Labour government stopping the flights on the first day in office.

Does that not tell you the public something, that this government has no intention whatsoever of stopping immigration. This is an utter disgrace and goes against the public, who want to see this stopped now.

We simply cannot be the Red Cross and Bread Basket of the world as it’s not sustainable and in the best interest of America and Europe.

Oh for a Donald Trump here in the UK.

Sid Anning

Paying the price for past failures

Keir Starmer has announced a public inquiry into the Southport murders in which a violent 17-year-old, already known to the police and security services to pose a significant danger to the public, stabbed to death three young girls.

We already know why this and countless other similar violent crimes have occurred in recent decades.

Failures, of course, at all levels by government, police, security and medical services. But all resulting from Margaret Thatcher’s insane (pun intended) decision to close many of our mental hospitals, in favour of what became known as ‘care in the community’, shifting responsibility for the mentally ill from the government to the families and local authorities.

Just as the responsibility for the appalling crisis that has seen increasing numbers of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants arriving on our shores from mainland Europe, is a direct result of Tony Blair’s decision to throw open our borders and lay down a red carpet for anyone in a cynical attempt to increase Labour Party support.

And just as the diabolical sexual exploitation of hundreds, possibly thousands, of underage girls, by predominantly Asian grooming gangs were allowed to continue for decades because the police and other authorities were terrified of being accused of racial prejudice.

We are, in almost every aspect of our lives, paying the price of the abject failure of successive governments to get to grips with major issues.

The trouble with politics today is that there are no statesmen/stateswomen. Our elected representatives are so busy spouting their political dogma and feathering their nests they have no time for, or just don’t give a damn, about the country and people they purport to serve.

Bob Readman

Army of bureaucrats control our lives

The people of this country are being encased in a bureaucratic straitjacket, which is making life increasingly difficult for anyone not subscribing fully to the demands of the politically correct and woke public servants.

One of the most egregious examples of this is GDPR, a product of the period under the domination of bureaucrats in Brussels, which should have been abolished the moment we left the EU, but which successive governments have preserved.

If one volunteers to administer benign organisations such as church rotas, sport teams, or hobby groups one is constantly faced with obstructions in merely communicating with others within the same club. Now we face even more interference from busybodies with legislation attacking what we may think, and dare to say, online.

This kind of activity, in which unelected functionaries limit the erstwhile legal pursuits of others, is a direct result of the vast numbers of bureaucrats who now direct matters in so many areas.

Quite apart from the impertinence of these people in dictating the actions of others, there are many instances where their dominance is immensely damaging, particularly in the NHS.

Every time more funding is provided the bureaucrats ensure that it is spent on meeting rooms, their bonuses, and increasing their little empires, rather than in helping patients. The utter failure of the political class to rein in these parasitic officials means there is no possibility of any attempted reform being successful.

More generally those businesses which actually create the country’s wealth are hamstrung by their own bureaucrats, in particular HR departments.

If we are ever to see prosperity and efficiency restored to our nation the latter and the army of other unproductive pen pushers, must be abolished, and the left-wing lawyers who support them ignored.

However, as the current PM is one of these there is not much chance of it happening.

Colin Bullen

Close This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.Learn More