Your views on SW Norfolk MP Liz Truss, the demise of the swift and the D-Day anniversary
Here are the Lynn News letters from Tuesday, April 30, 2024…
People in SW Norfolk feel let down and frustrated
I am grateful to Cllr Tom Ryves for his mention of my campaign in last Tuesday's Lynn News (April 23).
His comments reflect what I am finding across the constituency.
It's been clear since I was selected as the Labour candidate for South West Norfolk that residents are desperate for a Member of Parliament that is interested in local issues and actively working to improve the quality of life for people in the constituency.
People feel let down and frustrated and are looking for someone they can place their trust in at the next election. Whether that be people feeling let down in relation to a lack of support from their MP with their objections to the Methwold 'mega-farm' proposal or the late arrival to the campaign to rebuild the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
I've very much enjoyed travelling around the constituency recently and look forward to introducing myself to more people and working to earn people's support over the coming months.
Terry Jermy
Labour candidate, South West Norfolk
Our current MP Liz Truss doesn’t seem to care one jot
I wonder whether the relentless denigration and mockery of the conspicuously absent Lizzie Truss in local press and social media ever impinges on her waking moments?
Do you think she ever wonders why we're so dismissive and ungrateful for her efforts as our parliamentary representative?
We clearly aren't happy with her tenure so does the fact that she never addresses these concerns or shows the slightest interest in remedying her obvious shortcomings suggest that her notable bumptious insouciance is her default setting?
Basically, she doesn't seem to care one jot!
Dan O'Connor's neatly forensic savaging of her flip-flopping Brexit track record in Friday's Lynn News was typical of the grass roots opinion in 'her' constituency and while there used to be a cohort dedicated to writing letters of support for Ms Truss, I note they seem to have dried up too.
In fact, 'dried up' probably epitomises her efforts as our constituency MP.
Any thoughts Swaffham Conservative Association?
Steve Mackinder
Denver
Swifts latest casualties of the house building trade
By now the first Swifts should be arriving to grace our skies over Norfolk, but are facing a continuing major threat, with the building industry taking most of the culpability, causing nesting sites to be lost on a large scale, leading me to come up with ineluctable conclusions.
They are dark, cigar shaped with arched wings and get their names from their speed of flying, living on a diet of flies and other small flying insects.
They often get mistaken for Swallows, also endangered. This species of bird flies to big heights and sleeps for brief periods in the air, only landing for nesting.
It is enchanting watching them on clear nights as silhouettes against a full moon.
The short claws of the Swift are two at the front and two at the rear, enabling them to grasp relatively rough walls. Last year a concerned neighbour thought she had found a dying Swift on the ground with my response being to throw it in the air and a rejuvenated bird started flying again with its familiar screeching sounds.
My town of Downham is historical, full of character with building roofs full of nooks and crannies in the eaves, conducive to Swifts nesting, but this is being replaced by modern developments.
These characteristics are now absent and brickwork is more level, making it hard for these birds to grip it and feed their offspring.
Consequently there has been a notable reduction in juvenile Swifts as reproduction has been hindered by bricks and mortar.
Latest figures show a 60% reduction in numbers over 30 years.
The builders have got a destructive record on the environment with dense deciduous woodland being chopped down, denying the elusive Nightingale its habitat for breeding, and in open grassland Skylarks are rarities, all because of modern housing developments, with Swifts now being casualties.
The materialism of this industry coupled with inept planning committees, oblivious to expertise, will continue unabated, so circumvention becomes the name of the game.
Householders can play their part by installing nest boxes with rough wood beneath their roofs, to give these birds a chance. Save the Swift from further swift decline.
David Fleming
Downham
Remembering ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’
As our nation commemorates the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, let’s remember that there wouldn’t have been a D -Day without the successful evacuation of Allied Forces from Dunkirk four years earlier.
At that time over 350,000 Allied troops were trapped across the Channel by the German Army and if they couldn’t be rescued, the UK would have been invaded.
Britain was on the verge of defeat. There could be no help from other European countries and America hadn’t even entered the War.
What happened next may seem strange to today’s generation, but to the people of Wartime Britain it was perfectly natural.
King George 6th broadcast an urgent message to the nation, declaring May 26 to be a special Day of National Prayer and urged everyone to pray for Divine Intervention.
In response to his call, millions of people attended special church services, pleading for deliverance.
At one point the response was so great that the queue of people trying to get into Westminster Abbey stretched for a quarter of a mile.
Two events occurred straight after this National Day of Prayer.
Firstly, a violent storm arose over the Dunkirk region, grounding the Luftwaffe which had been killing thousands on the beaches.
And then secondly, a great calm descended on the Channel, the like of which hadn’t been seen for a generation.
It was in fact this Channel calm, coming at that precise time, which permitted hundreds of tiny boats to sail across and help rescue 335,000 soldiers.
These two events happening when they did were so dramatic, that people named it ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’ and Sunday, June 9 was officially appointed as a Day of National Thanksgiving.
The Bishop of Chelmsford Dr H.A. Wilson wrote: “If ever a great nation was on the point of supreme and final disaster, and yet was saved and reinstated it was ourselves… it does not require an exceptionally religious mind to detect in all this the Hand of God.”
D-Day took place on June 6, 1944, exactly four years after Dunkirk.
Allied Forces were once again in France, this time with the aim of liberating Europe from Nazism.
As we commemorate this special 80th anniversary and reflect on lives lost to bring freedom, let us remember that it wouldn’t have happened without ‘The Miracle of Dunkirk’.
Rev J Willans
via email
