Dear Editor,

I WOULD like to congratulate all those concerned in the swift removal of the ‘travellers’ from the green by Hoyles Road earlier this week.

It came as a real shock to residents and dog walkers when the barrier to the field was removed and they set up camp on Sunday.

Many living by the field are single people and it was quite intimidating for them to have these ‘travellers’ peering into their homes.

Their children were far from quiet and made themselves at home in the bushes and trees surrounding the green.

Many feared the ‘travellers’ might not be moved on until after the Bank Holiday.

So it was with great pleasure that all of them had moved on by mid-day on Wednesday following the presence of bailiffs and police.

It means we now have our field back which was only recently cut and had been looking at its best.

Congrats to all concerned.

Name and address supplied

Dear Editor,

People say they no longer listen to the news or read daily papers, too depressing, taking their information from social media, and other platforms.

Misinformation and untruths are trumpeted by the incumbent of the White House who uses social media to keep his Maga voters happy as they elected him as president. His contradictory rhetoric and lying, with his appeal to the hard left and hard right of political parties, have spread hatred, racism and violence around the globe. We now live in a dangerous and fractured world, with no end to the war he started against Iran. If that was not enough, the other warmongering elephant on the world stage is Putin’s war against Ukraine, which after four years he has yet to win.

Worrying in the UK, is the popularity of the Reform Party, led by the self opinionated billionaire Farage, now referred to the standards watchdog for accepting a £5-million gift for his personal security before his election. The Reform party sees itself as anti-establishment, but while posing to help voters, it is advancing its own interests on patronage networks, and cryptocurrency. A probe into Farage’s finances should make news.

Farage is a stable friend of the US president, claiming UK was wrong not to join the US in its war against Iran. A better description of these populists would be to call them cowboys, who start a fight against anyone opposing them. They go in to battle with all guns blazing, and when they have had enough, withdraw and leave others to sort out their mess.

When are supporters of the Reform party, going to wake up to the fact that their leader, who has never held an office of state, and been a member of parliament for only two years, could be our next Prime Minister?

Do his constituents ever see him, except on a platform open mouthed, ready with another salvo of gunfire to his opponents.

Look at Farage’s track record over the last 16 years. He was the loud mouthed voice behind Brexit, mass deportation of all immigrants, quoting figures for savings for the NHS if we left Europe, to become a sovereign country once again, and no longer subject to the European Court of Human Rights, which the UK had drafted years ago. Well, 16 years later, the majority of the electorate have woken up to the fact. What a disaster Brexit was.

Yet here we are with the popularity of the Reform party ready to lead the UK down that disastrous road again: hollowed out defence, parliamentary chaos, constitutional crises and little Englanders once again. And what about climate change, with Farage in No 10 lighting up his first cigarette, in decades. Forget democratic values.

Isabel Ward

Wellington

Dear Editor,

Once again, the issue of non-stun slaughter (such as halal and kosher) has hit the headlines – and again we’re missing the bigger picture.

The question is not whether animals should be stunned before they are killed, it’s why we’re killing them at all. The outcome is always the same: killing an individual who does not want to die. That is true regardless of the method or reason, whether it’s for food, entertainment, or animals used in laboratories.

There is also a double standard at play. While religious slaughter is singled out, routine cruelty escapes the same scrutiny. Is testing pharmaceuticals on animals not just as horrific as slaughter? What about the horses who die at the Grand National? Farms are also places of constant confinement, where mutilations, cannibalism and psychological suffering are rife – and that’s before reaching the slaughterhouse.

The debate about non-stun slaughter is merely distraction dressed up as a moral concern. If we’re truly a nation of animal lovers, we must question the whole system of owning, exploiting, and killing animals.

Readers can learn more about animal freedom at www.animalaid.org.uk/animalrights

Elizabeth Davenport

Senior campaign manager, Animal Aid