Hurrah. Someone is finally suggesting that working practices must change to accommodate family life, rather than the other way round (“Men and women struggle to get on at work and to find time for their families”, In Focus).
As things stand, there are three choices: work full time using full-time childcare if you can afford it; reduce your working hours for the sake of family life and suffer the career and financial consequences; or do what most parents do, muddle along with whatever childcare you can muster and work evenings and weekends to make up the work time.
Result: stress, exhaustion, broken relationships, unhealthy eating, increasing health problems and increasing numbers of children with mental health issues.
This is not being overdramatic. The results are plain for all to see, right across the country and not just in the more deprived areas. Richmond upon Thames, one of the wealthiest boroughs in the country, has reported in its most recent joint strategic needs assessment that the borough has the fourth highest rate of hospital admissions for self-harm of 10- to 24-year-olds in London and that its 15-year-olds reported wellbeing scores below the London average.
I have one suggestion: that the working hours of all parents with a child under five years be capped at 25 hours a week and 35 hours a week for parents of five- to 15-year-olds. Across the board, no exceptions. It is not just about more childcare, more money, more paternity leave or more flexible working – it is about time that is finite and the needs of children.
Daphne Cotton
70/30 Ambassador, WAVE Trust
Twickenham
Defining the president
Now that we face four years of Trumpery (“Bullying, aggressive, nationalist Trump sets out his stall”, Comment), may I draw your attention to the dictionary definition? According to my edition of the Concise Oxford, the noun means “worthless finery; rubbish; nonsense” and the adjective “showy but worthless, delusive, shallow”. The word originates from an Old French word related to tromper, “to deceive”. Say no more.
Dr David Bird
Guildford
Crops don’t grow everywhere
Your article “Scientists to push veggie makeover in the meat aisle” (News) misses the point that much of the land farmed in Britain is suitable only for grazing livestock and not for growing crops.
Therefore, the only way for such land to feed increasing numbers of us is for it to be grazed and for us then to eat the animals that have consumed the plants it grows.
In addition, many sites of high environmental value are in part managed by grazing, with traditional and native breeds of livestock such as my own red poll cattle, some of which can be found on the sand dunes near Southport during the winter.
The replacement of such animals would entail maintenance of many nature reserves being carried out by people using fossil fuel-powered machinery, thereby depleting oil reserves and increasing carbon emissions. Consumers can make a beneficial difference to their health and that of the environment by purchasing meat from livestock reared in this way.
Huw Rowlands
Mickle Trafford
Chester
Turning small towns red
Your article headlined “‘Theresa May’s speech was a body blow’… how one town is still arguing over Brexit” (In Focus) painted a mostly accurate picture of the people of East Herts and the political discourse taking place in our area.
However, rather than “haemorrhaging members”, as the Lib Dems may like people to believe, East Herts Labour membership and support has increased two- to three-fold over the last two to three years and hundreds have joined since the referendum.
It may sometimes seem to those living outside small commuter towns that such places can be viewed as having a binary political make-up between blue and yellow. However, there is much more at play and there is a resurgent red influence, addressing the concerns of local people of all types.
Valerie Cooke
Chair, Hertford and Stortford
constituency Labour party
Gove deserves better
What a thoroughly nasty piece by Stewart Lee about Michael Gove (“Beyond good and evil with Gove and Trump”, New Review). There is indeed much to deplore and mock about Mr Gove’s recent conduct, but this highly personalised attack is not the way to do it.
It’s not worthy of a newspaper that seeks to uphold civilised liberal values and it is counterproductive, as its gratuitously offensive language draws attention away from the underlying serious points.
Adam Rennie
Edinburgh
A train buff writes
Is the newly released T2 Trainspotting as big a disappointment to railway enthusiasts as the original film?
John Douglas
Edinburgh
