Dear Editor,

It was good to read the letters from Sandra Jones and India Hollow in last week’s Wellington Weekly News.

They were so right to highlight the disastrous consequences for our democratic country, if the far right ideologies of populism and nationalism which have taken hold in Europe, and are now foisted on our nation by the authoritarian leaders of the Reform party, at the bidding of the present US President.

We have to ask ourselves, protesters and politicians to remember the values we have cherished down the centuries, and which are being undermined by far right and far left hate filled fascist speeches.

Is that the future far right wing Tories want for our children and grandchildren.

Supporters of Reform love ‘keeping up appearances’ on our screens and in the media. But let us be patriotic, as we watched the success of the Red Roses winning their Rugby World Cup, and the last night of the Proms. Values of tolerance and welcome to the stranger, have come down to us from our history and heritage, with a Christian faith to love our neighbours from wherever they come and whoever they are, for everyone who believes in free speech, in liberty, in peace, in the rule of law and in racial harmony. Immigrants are not just numbers, many come here not to rely on the state or benefits, but to work in our NHS and contribute to desperately needed care in the community. We are all human beings created in the image of God.

Isabel Ward

via email

Dear Editor,

People will be disappointed that the Lib Dems running Somerset Council are proposing Sunday charges in our car parks here in Wellington.

The charges for this service should be set at cost for public benefit. The public has bought them in order to provide a service. The car parks are not a way to milk the public of money for any other purpose.

This may seem trivial but it is important that people have faith in local democracy. This faith is tested when localism is abandoned in favour of a "one size fits all" approach.

The justifications of "rationalisation" and "fairness" are so weak. Why, people might think, are the other areas not having Sunday charges removed instead? And by the same logic, all the charges should be identical across the whole of the UK!

The Lib Dems on Somerset Council could (but won't) devolve ownership of car parks to town councils. That shows that they regard car parks as a way of raising money from the public.

This decision is another failure of the merger of district councils. The different charges and policies across the county were set by them in response to local needs.

The financial difficulties of Somerset Council are for the electors of Wellington to decide on through the ballot box.

There is no obligation to “understand” that people in Wellington should be made to pay to use their own car parks on Sunday in order to prop up other services.

Yours sincerely,

Mike McGuffie

Secretary of Taunton and Wellington Labour party

Dear Editor,

I wish to respond to the letter from Joyce Dobby concerning unofficial flags displayed around Wellington.

Sadly, the writer seems rather naïve about why these flags are being put up and why the town council is rightly concerned. The reality is that there are troubling, divisive undertones behind the actions of those attaching them to lamp posts — intentions that go far beyond simple pride in being British (I wish that was just the case).

At a recent Wellington Town Council meeting, a member of the Friends of the Wellington Basins explained that when volunteers attempted to remove a hazardous structure erected on the duck house island covered in flags and posing a risk to wildlife, they were met with threats and abuse, and even accused of being unpatriotic. That behaviour is appalling. It is not British.

In truth, it is the volunteers of this town who inspire pride in our town, far more than those who stick flags onto lamp posts. By contrast, the flags displayed in Taunton to mark VJ Day were a fitting tribute to our country — professionally erected, dignified, and respectful. Meanwhile, the flags by Lidl are already slipping down their posts or hanging from broken cable ties, leaving the display looking shabby and diminishing both our national symbols and the town itself.

If residents truly wish to see our national flags flying permanently in Wellington, I would urge them to work with the town council. That way, they can be displayed properly and with pride — symbols of unity, not division.

Joyce Dobby should try seeing the wood for the trees.

C Booth

via email