Editor’s Comment
IT IS great to see more pastoral support in the form of Sam Morgan from Safe With Safe being reinstated in The Chase School.
Half of all mental illness emerges before the age of 14 and 75 per cent before the age of 25 so it is a vital children are educated about how to deal with their emotions and the stresses and strains life brings.
Whilst it will not eradicate every mental health problem, especially those at the more severe end of the scale, it does provide our young people with a range of coping mechanisms to fall back on and eradicates stigma by making it normal to have conversations about mental health.
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AS CHRISTMAS rapidly approaches once more, let’s remind ourselves of the real reason for the Christmas season – it is to celebrate the birth of the babe of Bethlehem – the Lord Jesus Christ, the saviour of the world.
Let’s put ‘Xmas’ into the Pagan past and celebrate Christmas with an attitude of gratitude to God, for his great gift to all mankind, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Happy Christmas!
Tony Browne,
Malvern
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I WOULD like to comment on the letters in last week’s paper relating to the plan for a cable car in Malvern.
Sarah Evans is very typical of many people who, when asked for their reaction to a cable car, are cautious. Most people, after more thought and information, become supportive albeit subject to a number of quite understandable reservations.
The reality is that: A cable car will be an asset to the appearance of the Hills – an elegant modern structure.
It will not impinge on the beauty of the Hills – it will not be visible from most angles and will occupy a narrow route up Rushy Valley half hidden by trees.
The design figures have been well tested and are in the public domain. The estimate of 50 jobs is a deliberately low one and includes all the services enhanced by the increase in visitor numbers.
There is no practical alternative to getting people up the hill who would not make the journey otherwise.
No laws will be broken.
As already stressed, the Conservators do a good job and should be supported.
In our experience, the number of people who are not in favour is very small although everyone is waiting for our public consultation in the New Year.
Most commercial enterprises are looking forward to the opportunities
We hope that the project will be community based with Malvern people able to buy shares and/or sponsor cable cars and reap the rewards.
We are already making plans to involve the schools and include the project as part of their curriculum.
Councillor Smith’s letter is most welcome and we look forward to involving him in our planning meetings.
Mark Young
Marketing and Press Officer, High Street Malvern
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IN LAST week’s Observer, the letter ‘Promises, but no Results’ from R Knight makes many incorrect allegations. Its first sentence in fact, is a parroting of the ‘Big Lie’ mantra that ‘it’s all Labour’s fault’ trotted out by every coalition Government spokesperson at every opportunity. The coalition has indeed executed its example of Big Lie rather well.
However, this coalition’s use of Big Lie is a dark and dangerous exception to the norm that Big Lie is a technique of the totalitarian regime not elected government. To do the Big Lie propaganda method a powerful group just repeat again, again, again, again and then again a lie about their opponents or a group that they wish to persecute (it is, after all, usually extremists not democratically elected governments who use Big Lie). At first no one believes them, then they stop listening, but later still, so the theory goes, the lie becomes an undeniable part of the scenery silencing opposition and boxing-in political debate.
R Knight is well advised not to trot out the tired old coalition Big Lie for them. They are better at it. They’ve had a lot of practice after all. Better to read the very many better informed articles, (Ha-Joon Chang in the Guardian recently), and books (the BBC’s Robert Peston How Do We Get Out of this Mess) that point the blame for the economic position of the UK, and many other nations, at the aftermath of the global financial crisis and its effect on the world economy. In the UK, the resulting rise in unemployment and short-working, led on the one hand to an increase in government outgoings and on the other to a reduction in its income through lower tax receipts. That shortfall in income over outgoings is the Deficit and it is still with us.
The coalition’s austerity programme and the hike in VAT put family finances under pressure in particular, worsening the cost of living crisis for many who then had less to spend. That further shrank the economy, further reducing Government tax receipt making the deficit worse than it would otherwise have been.
Finally, the coalition hides behind Big Lie as it allows it to attack the very notion of public service and to dismantle what is left of the state, in the process trying to reduce our NHS to a chaotic collection of competing private entities working for profits and all funded by the taxpayer. They need to hide, because they know that none of the people who voted for them wanted that.
John Rye
Secretary West Worcestershire Constituency Labour Party
