Supporting World Book Day 2020

Reading opened wide world portals for me in my own childhood. It allowed my imagination to soar and to travel to places beyond whatever situation I found myself in.

Reading is a great equaliser- it inspires us to meet our fellow humans, to understand, empathise and enter landscapes we could never dream of experiencing in one lifetime.

Reading contributes to a better quality of life, impacts on our health, spirit, educational opportunities and well being… it connects us to each other and our own humanity.

I have seen first-hand - through working with refugee children forced to travel and surviving alone, without family - what a transformational impact escaping into a book can have in helping them to keep hope alive in unimaginably unstable situations they should never have to face.

I want every child to be able to reach for that book that brings them light. That’s why this World Book Day (Thursday 5th March) I’m supporting Book Aid International. Their fundraising efforts mean more children and young people will have access to books. Every day I’m inspired by the stories children have to tell and being a part of World Book Day means we can spread the enjoyment of reading even further.

Just £2 helps send another book, giving children the opportunity to read, learn and have fun. The Book Aid International website (www.bookaid.org) has plenty of exciting World Book Day fundraising ideas for schools and parents.

Whether you host a Big Booky Breaktime, have a sponsored Read-A-Thon or run your own unique fundraising event, it will have a positive effect.

Sita Brahmachari, author

 

The care I received was excellent

I read Seema Jaswel’s letter with interest, compassion and I totally support the mission to deal with Meningitis.

Thanks to the excellence of the care at Wythenshawe Hospital, where I was in isolation for nine days, they helped me overcome bacterial Meningitis, Pneumonia, two heart attacks, an Epileptic seizure and six deep seated infections as a Diabetic with a rare blood type.

These are terrible conditions to face and not caused by the patient.

The professionalism of the care I received was outstanding and having “Do not resuscitate” in your file sums up the severity of the conditions our hospitals are dealing with.

As an experienced charity director and fundraiser any help to combat Meningitis will be so well received and will save lives.

Peter Booth, Hale

 

Jail errors

Just locking people up doesn’t work Some people feel terrorists should serve their full sentences.

They say do-gooders will hug terrorists etc and you wouldn’t like it if it were you etc.

The key error in this line of reasoning is that telling criminals just to do their time and leaving them to it leads inexorably to recidivism.

An enlightened criminal justice system includes the punitive but also a focus on rehabilitation and education.

Prison as a warehouse works only to further radicalise, and is an opportunity for young and vulnerable offenders to slip deeper into a life of crime.

Dr Jack Shepherd

 

Get real, EU

It would appear that it is not only the Labour Party that has not been listening.

The EU negotiating team, and Michel Barnier in particular, seem to be suffering from the same malady as the UK’s Lib Dem Party - unable to accept that the 2016 referendum actually happened, that it produced the result that it did, or that the general election of December 12 produced the result that it did.

The EU continues to think that the UK still has a Parliament dominated by MPs that are willing to use any means to avoid acknowledging the result.

As a prelude to the forthcoming trade talks, we can expect more of the badgering, bullying and blackmailing tactics from the EU that served them so well in the days of Mrs May.

Malcolm Glover, Address supplied