Boris Johnson, King's Lynn Queen Elizabeth Hospital and burbot fish in Lynn News readers' letters Friday, May 27, 2022

He keeps visiting factories everywhere, when the most important to me would be the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) with the appalling conditions doctors, nurses, staff and patients are putting up with, with over 1,500 props holding it up in the departments.

Our local MP Mr Wild says he has told Boris about this but to my mind he is turning a blind eye.

Being a local resident I personally wrote to Boris about four months ago and he just passed the buck as usual.

To my mind Boris Johnson has no empathy for all those wonderful people doing the hard work. Shame on him.

I also read with interest the lovely letters Jo Rust writes which I totally agree with regarding the QEH. Keep up the good work Jo.

Mary Urry,

Reffley Lane, Lynn

FISH

I caught last burbot

I was very pleased to read how environmentalists are preparing to reintroduce fresh-water cod, the Burbot to the Great Ouse and The Wissey (Lynn News, May 20) but Eve Tawfick has repeated the error that the last one was seen in 1969. As an 11-year-old schoolboy in 1970 I caught the last one in the Relief Channel at Denver Sluice. An obsessive catcher of eels my line reeled in to reveal this large mottled wide-mouthed fish that none of my mates had ever seen. It looked like a prehistoric beast and we carried it in a bucket to Walter Lockey, the Sluice Lock Keeper, who checked a wall chart in his office and intoned “thass one o’ them Burbots booy". The rest is history, Walter got on the phone and the river authorities came down from head office, frogmen were despatched to view the river bed and experts from the Ichthyoligical Society and the British Museum visited me but no more were ever seen or caught. My poor fish sadly died from the ordeal but we understand he/she remains on view in the Natural History Museum, in a glass case, a triumph of the taxidermist’s art.

I’m glad there’s going to be an attempt to reintroduce this fish as its always been in the back of my mind that I’d inadvertently caused their extinction here in the UK. Even after 53 years I can still remember my first sight of it on that bright summer morning...and would really love to be there when these little tiddlers get their chance to thrive in the Wissey again.

Steve Mackinder,

Denver

• Poetic prediction

Re the recent press coverage of the extinction of the burbot (Lynn News, May 20). In the 17th century there was great misgivings about what would happen if the fens were drained.

There was a poem published at the time entitles “The Powte’s Complaint”, written as from the Powte’s point of view that the fenland draining would cause their demise. Sure enough, it may have taken 300 years of fenland drainage but the Powte (burbot) is extinct.

This is an extract from that ode. “Behold the great design, which they do now determine, Will make our bodies pint a prey to crows and vermin.

“For they do mean all Fens to drain and Waters over-master; All will be dry and we must die, cause Essex calves want pasture.”

Bryan Howling,

Terrington St Clement

HUNSTANTON

Why rush this plan now?

Why is the Hunstanton Neighbourhood Plan based upon 2011 census data when the new census data will be published (the first results from Census 2021) on Tuesday, June 28?

Why use data that’s 11 years out of date when the new data is about to be released?

Is this an oversight or is this a push to get the plan over the line before the new results are in use?

I can’t imagine this would be a good use of people’s time if the new census shows our town and community is now a different place than observed.

The referendum will be farcical if it goes ahead with this in mind.

Name and address supplied,

Hunstanton

PARTYGATE

PM has lied too much

Re: the Sue Gray report. The police are being questioned about how they handled the whole partygate fiasco, and now more pictures are made public about the parties and gatherings at number 10 during lockdown.

So three times we have been lied to. So three times he has lied to the House of Commons (possibly more). So three times he’s stood and apologised to the nation on TV. Countless times his party members have defended him, putting their own reputations on the line for him. Members of his own staff were thrown under the bus, so he can protect his own reputation. Has this man got no morals, does he have no shame? How many fines were handed out to other people who have attended these lockdown parties? 126 fines were issued, and our glorious leader himself received a fine, for attending one gathering when photographic evidence shows he was at three. Three definite illegal gatherings, and still he denied they were parties, while even standing there with a drink in his hand, with 30-plus people in the same room he has denied it. I know there are more important issues going on in the world. I don’t have to say what they are, but for our own Prime Minister, the first one to be involved in a police investigation, and to ultimately end up with a fine for breaking the very laws he enforced, and to then play dumb and refuse to answer any questions until the Sue Gray report was released, then again to refuse to answer any questions until the police investigation was complete, and now as it turns out a meeting was called and Sue Gray was asked to drop the very report that started all the whole “partygate” fiasco. This just goes to show the very contempt this Government has for their own policies.

It’s about time the members of the Conservative Party grew a spine and put in those letters of no confidence, and they should remember we the people put them in the positions that they are in, and we can easily bring them down from their ivory towers.

Noel Hammond,

Gaywood

CARE SYSTEM

Kinship care counts too

This week’s one-in-a-lifetime independent review of children’s social care marks a seismic change for kinship care. Finally, kinship carers – ‘the silent and unheard majority in the children’s social care system’ are being recognised and prioritised for the support they deserve. We’re delighted that the voices of the 150,000-plus grandparents, aunties, uncles, siblings and friends raising children in your area and across England have at last been heard. In times of crisis, kinship carers step up to provide children with a loving and stable home when their parents aren’t able to, benefitting families and society by preventing children going into the care system unnecessarily.

It makes sense to invest in kinship care. Financial support in particular will help make it possible for children to grow up and thrive within a well-supported family network. However, as well as guaranteeing comprehensive support for families to thrive in the future, thousands of kinship families desperately need our help today. The Government must act with urgency to deliver financial, practical and emotional support for all carers and their children. We’re committed to campaigning together with kinship carers to ensure today’s review becomes a springboard to a future in which kinship families are recognised, valued and supported.

If you’re a kinship carer make sure your voice is heard by visiting https://kinship.org.uk/care-review/share-your-views/

Lucy Peake,

Kinship, chief executive

• Record high now in care

At Barnardo’s, we know from our direct experience supporting children in care across Anglia that one of the greatest challenges they face is still instability. For far too many children, living in care can feel like being ‘bounced around’ a system, with frequent changes of home leaving them feeling endlessly unsettled.

Through the work of our regional family hubs, we know it is possible to help families to access crucial support before things reach crisis point. The key is early support. We want to see the Government provide more early support for the country’s most vulnerable families: so that children can have safer childhoods and more positive futures.

The number of children in care now sits at a record high of over 80,000 in England alone, and many of these young people carry burdens that young shoulders shouldn’t have to bear.

With the recent publication of the Government’s review of the children’s social care system in England, we now have a unique, once in a generation opportunity to give these children the same opportunities as we expect for our own children.

It cannot be right that children who experience the care system are more likely to become homeless or end up in prison. It cannot be right that, during their most unsettled moments, children in care can be passed from pillar to post. And it cannot be right that we, as a society, allow all this and more to happen without demanding change.

Lynn Perry,

Barnardo’s CEO