Councillor has shown himself to be very selfish

Richard Ingrams, former editor of Private Eye, 83; Jill St John, actress, 80; Billy J Kramer, Sixties pop star, 77; Bill Clinton (pictured), former US president, 74; John Deacon, rock musician, 69; Kevin Dillon, actor, 55; Matthew Perry (pictured), actor, 51; Erika Christensen, actress, 38.

I WOULD like to comment on Councillor Antony Smith’s blatant flouting of the restrictions that Kirklees is under at the moment. The restrictions state that you should not:

‘Socialise with people you do not live with in indoor public venues such as pubs, restaurants, cafes, shops, places of worship, community centres, leisure and entertainment venues or visitor attractions. You may attend these venues but should avoid interaction with individuals or groups from other households.’

To quote Professor Van Tam on someone’s earlier interpretation of the rules: “The rules are clear. The rules are for everyone. Everyone should obey the rules.”

Councillor Antony Smith says that he had been planning the celebration for a year.

There are many people who have been planning things, some for over a year who have had to abandon those plans.

There are also many people who have reached milestone birthdays who have had to cancel or postpone their plans.

Weddings that should have taken place, postponed to later dates, people in pain having operations postponed and having no idea of when things will start to get better for them, memorial services for funerals postponed, making the grieving process far more difficult, people in care homes being denied seeing their families, family holidays cancelled or postponed.

These are but a few of the things that have been impacted by Covid-19.

Councillor Smith has been shown to have a very selfish attitude, not giving a thought to what other people have postponed (or cancelled), but being determined that his birthday celebrations should go ahead regardless. He should be ashamed of himself as should any council officials who attended the event.

The photograph in the newspaper shows very little evidence of social distancing.

I hope the will continue to pursue this story.

Follow your advice Mr Williamson

THE Government’s motto would seem to be ‘Never apologise, never explain.’

That being the case, Gavin Williamson’s apology to the nation’s schoolchildren for the chaos and disruption of the last few months does therefore, really gives the lie to the educational calamity over which the Government has presided.

This has now been topped off by the A level results shambles. As one Tory MP who preferred not to be named, put it: ‘The risk is the kids are going to have their careers ruined, and they are going to feel the education system has let them down and their life chances have been reduced to roulette.”

We are clearly living through testing times, but I am afraid this Government is simply totally incompetent.

Williamson (also known as Pike following his stint at Defence) once told Russia to ‘Shut up and go away.’

We can only hope he now does the nation a favour and follows his own advice.

Enforce law or I’ll remove my custom

TODAY I went to Lindley as usual to get my bread and groceries.

I was surprised at the number of people going in and out of shops with no face mask. The shops did not seem to be not serving them. Worst example was a family of four who went into two shops with no masks.

I know that shops do need trade and don’t wish to police the law. However, if I return next week and they are still serving people without masks then I, and probably many others, will no longer be shopping with them.

I appreciate some folk cannot wear a mask for valid reasons but I doubt that 26 out of 40 fall into that sector.