Your letters and emails this week

In last week's issue, you included an article featuring the news that 10Radio is holding a Halloween party as a fundraiser. Alongside the article, there was a photograph of myself making announcements at an unrelated local event, which, from time to time, I am asked to do. As such, and as people who know me well will be happy to verify, I'm certainly not averse to people having fun and enjoying themselves. I am also happy to be associated with 10Radio, where I have presented several programmes over its 18-year history.

However, I should like to clarify that celebrating Halloween is not something which I would personally wish to endorse. This reflects my longstanding Christian conviction that our focus should be on matters of light, hope and joy rather than fear and darkness which so often dominate our world today. There are several opportunities being put on by the church in our area to enjoy the season and even to incorporate some of the commercialised traditions imported from America. For instance, on Saturday 31st October there will be "Treat or Treating" events at St Giles Church, Bradford-on-Tone between 4 - 5.30 pm and Cotford St Luke's centre from 5.30 - 6.30 pm, where you’re invited to bring along your little ones & come along to collect your treat and where there will be a chance to warm up with a hot chocolate. Everyone will be safe and have nothing to fear!

If you want to find out more about the origins of Halloween and/or the many services remembering loved ones no longer with us which are happening over the weekend 31st Oct/1st Nov, tune into “the Home service” which I present on a Wednesday morning at 11.00 am (repeated on Sunday at 10.00 am) on 10Radio on 105.3 FM or at 10Radio.org throughout the week on our “Listen Again” facility.

And, in whatever you choose to do so, may the joy in commemorating the lives who have been a shining example of love and peace to others, as All Hallows Eve (Halloween) was intended to be, be yours

Andrew Norris (Revd.) (aka the Rockin’ Reverend!)

* Editor's note: Sincere apologies for any offence caused. JG

The recent unrest in France over crumbling schools and the ever-rising cost of living may seem a world away from Britain. Yet beneath the differences in our political circumstances lies a familiar discontent: the growing sense that the political establishment fails ordinary people while asking them to bear the cost.

Since 2010, successive Conservative and Labour governments have accepted the logic of austerity: restrain public spending, defer investment and insist that public services must live within what the Treasury says the country can afford. The results speak for themselves.

Public services in decline, living standards squeezed, and economic insecurity a fact of life for many. Meanwhile, government debt has almost trebled, reaching £3 trillion this week. Austerity has failed and produced precisely the opposite of what its advocates promised. Our politicians need to question the economic assumptions that have dominated British politics since 1979: that markets know best, that private enterprise should take precedence over public provision, and that government spending must always be treated as a burden rather than an investment in our collective future.

Some economists have been challenging the notion that a government which issues its own currency must manage its finances like a household. They point out that governments need more intelligent tools than indiscriminate spending cuts or interest-rate rises. It doesn’t mean that money is unlimited or that inflation can be ignored. It means starting with the right questions.

What does our society need? What labour, skills, materials and productive capacity do we have? What investment is required to put those resources to work? Public spending should be guided by these considerations, with taxation and other policies used to manage inflation, distribute wealth fairly and release resources for public priorities.

Neither the Conservatives nor Labour have offered a convincing break with the prevailing orthodoxy. As faith in the established parties declines, it is hardly surprising that some people turn towards ReformUK and the populist right. But changing the political personnel without changing the underlying economic assumptions will not solve the problems that are fuelling the present discontent.

Britain needs a new economic settlement: one that puts decent housing, functioning public services, secure livelihoods, infrastructure and environmental sustainability ahead of an unquestioning faith in markets and arbitrary spending restraint.

The choice is not between limitless spending and perpetual austerity. It is between managing our real resources intelligently for the public good and continuing to let a failed economic doctrine dictate what our society can aspire to achieve. Austerity has not worked. It is time to build an economy around what people and communities actually need.

Tim Lomas, Wellington

Could you knit or crochet a little hope this festive season for people affected by bowel cancer?

Bowel Cancer UK is inviting stitchers to get sponsored to knit or crochet a star a day or do your own thing, every day in November. You can attempt our star, knit a Christmas jumper, crochet tea cosies, sew a special Star of Hope symbol or anything in between! If you can’t stitch every day, then you can choose a challenge that suits you.

Your donations could help save lives through earlier diagnosis, improve the quality of life of those affected by the disease and bring us one step closer to a future where nobody dies from bowel cancer.

Sign up today and receive your free online welcome pack including your knitting and crochet patterns: bowelcanceruk.org.uk/knitting

Genevieve Edwards, Chief Executive, Bowel Cancer UK

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