Two letters in the Swindon Advertiser on December 16 referred to striking workers regarding wages and conditions.

I too support these workers and one letter referred to railway booking office closures. On a recent visit to Swindon Railway Station to purchase a ticket there were seven people queueing to buy their tickets from a machine.

I went straight to the booking office and was served by a pleasant lady. There was still a queue at the machine for tickets after my purchase.

The point I am making is, these people who would prefer to use a machine are playing into the hands of rail company management and helping to lose booking office staff their jobs. The same applies in supermarkets with self-service tills.

Richard Albrighton

Tamworth Drive

Shaw

Heartbreaking state of NHS after 12 years

We respond to the Adver front page and report 'We can't care for patients' Dec 16.

During the General Election campaign of 2010 the eventual PM David Cameron spoke relentlessly of the need for austerity and spending cuts and that public sector workers 'would have to do more for less'.

During that election campaign our late dad suffered a stroke at home. On phoning 999 an ambulance arrived within 20 minutes. Dad sadly passed away in March 2020 suffering from vascular dementia, brought on by the effects of the stroke.

Following his stroke he spent six weeks in GWH, two weeks of which were spent in the stroke rehabilitation unit. During his stay in rehab we spoke to numerous NHS staff who told us of their fears of what austerity and funding cuts would have on the NHS, eg, shortage of after care staff, paramedics and A&E services.

Twelve years on and successive Conservative governments continuing their obsession with austerity and funding cuts, the fears of those NHS staff have now become a reality.

The Government can find £220bn for the renewal of Trident nuclear system (sadly Keir Starmer also supports this policy), they can also find billions ofpounds to support/fund overseas wars eg, Ukraine and the Saudi Arabian government continual bombing of the Yemen.

But adequate funding for the NHS and a proper pay rise for its staff? Forget it. All they get is a pittance and a clap for heroes.

We remember the days when Cameron and ex-chancellor George Osborne announced another round of funding cuts and how the Conservative MPs clapped, cheered, back-slapped each other and punched the air in delight, messrs Buckland and Tomlinson included.

The culmination of twelve years of underfunding the NHS is to see the Royal College of Nursing staging its first ever strikes in its 106-year history.

It's a fact to say that Conservative governments would rather protect the wealth of the rich and super rich than protect the health and well-being of the rest of society.

To see the current state of the NHS is heartbreaking.

Mark and Martin Webb

Old Town

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