Your letters - February 6

Driving force is the bottom line

AT the time of writing we are being warned of the perils of 'protectionism'.

I won't repeat what Gordon Brown said about British jobs and British workers or the lies he told to cover up. Nor David Cameron's quaint notion of capitalism and conscience.

The Yachtgate affair drives a coach and horses through all this electioneering drivel. Donations, bankers and billionaires. So much for jobs and consciences.

Meanwhile, jobs continue to fall off a cliff; and that's even before we come to the evil 'protectionism', which, we are told, will destroy trade - 'free' trade, of course - make us poor and - yes, you've guessed it - cost us our jobs.

And here's a curious thing. Those who are shouting the loudest about this dastardly 'protectionism' are those who are spending, and borrowing, billions of taxpayers' money to protect the auto industry (which is owned by multi-national corporations, a nice little earner for shareholders and chief executive officers), the banks and the financial 'system', and that monstrous fig leaf for corporate blundering - 'globalisation"

After nearly 30 years of state-protected 'globalisation' one third of the world's population lives in abject poverty.

Western 'growth', that obsession of neo-liberals everywhere, is a myth founded on mass consumption of goods produced by poverty-wage labour in developing countries.

To learn that bread baskets of the world like India and China can no longer feed themselves is to understand that globalisation and protectionism go hand-in-hand, crushing the life out of towns and villages and local communities all over the world.

Cities are becoming mega-slums as indifferent governments compete to fill the cheapest order books of the corporations. The land is being forgotten or concreted or ransacked.

Even here in the UK we are experiencing the social breakdown which is the concomitant of state-protected globalisation policies.

When governments fail to defend their people they abrogate the right to represent us.

Let's be clear what is happening. The rules, where they exist, as in the current 'foreign labour' dispute, are being exploited not for the benefit of the people but as a tool for corporate profit at the expense of the people.

That must be clear because certain minority parties will use it to stir up trouble. The driving force is commercial gain, the 'bottom line'.

The revolt against state-protected globalisation, of which the foreign labour dispute is just one of the many worldwide, has toppled many governments, notably in South America which has been a particular target of the corporations where pro-business governments had welcomed them.

In the UK it is no longer a question of if the Government is defeated but how the situation will appear after that defeat. The General Elections cannot come soon enough to put an end to the most disastrous period of modern times.

Stephen Jackson

Second Avenue

Information blackout

WHAT happened to cause the 14-hour power failure in the Penland Wood area from about 11.30am on Friday, January 30? Some residents were spared, others were not.

The recorded information from the power company was inaccurate and unhelpful.

After dark with no respite in view and without light or heat, it became a challenge to keep warm within one's own body heat.

Hot food and drink were out of the question for me and as a heart patient, hypothermia was staring me in the face.

The staff concerned with the failure could have all gone home for the weekend!

With the temperature near to zero, I have not been so cold as when sleeping in an unheated barrack room in my war service days in that bitter winter of 1940/41 that many of my generation will still remember.

The response from the power company, I suggest, called for much more than just a message on an answer phone, to the effect that they were aware of the power failure and that it would be restored as soon as possible.

The PR was dismal.

At the very least, the emergency line should have been manned by a member of staff so that those, like myself, in some distress could have accurate updated information.

A public statement and an apology from power authority would not go amiss.

Christopher J Hills

Sunningdale Close

Charity shop row?

SURVEYING the gaunt gaps of empty retail premises in Western Road, as pictured in your recent photo gallery, with the final closing of Woolworths, and undoubtedly more beleaguered outlets to come, as the slow motion tsunami of recession continues to gather strength, it might be tempting to pronounce the last rites over the town centre as a valid shopping or business area.Some might see it eventually reduced to a kind of 'Charity Shop Row' - however worthy the causes these initiatives serve with such goodwill '“ dotted with perhaps a few banks and other essential services clinging on for dear life.

In some way, the situation has been exacerbated by a kind of mindless self-mutilation, which has characterised Bexhill in the past few decades.

This started with the pulling down of fine vintage building, their replacement by Belmarsh High Security prison (ie Marina Court) and other newer visual monstrosities, and especially now, as many of your correspondents have sagely pointed out, in the domain of parking availability, highlighted (or should it be lowlighted) by the absurdity of the appalling Devonshire Square 'piazza' which could perhaps be renamed Tianamen Square 2 and decorated in honour of its Chinese counterpart with a giant portrait of the former Great Rother Helmsman Chairman Mao/Gubby tastefully located between the proposed black awnings of the Devonshire Hotel.

It is obvious that in a town covering a relatively large geographical area and with an ageing population forced to use their cars and now deprived of local post office outlets, the removal of the former parking area has become an added deterrent to coming into the town centre. It should be restored as soon as possible.

MICHAEL GREEN

Marina Arcade

Getting nowhere

I HAVE been reading through the articles and letters the Observer has published since September 2008 concerning the Next Wave and we do not seem to be getting anywhere.

The leader of the council and his advisory officers, together with his close colleagues in the cabinet, are still determined to go ahead with this proposal.

It is rumoured that he does not listen to adverse comments from fellow councillors or from electors.

In a matter of such importance to the town and the district this is an extraordinary reaction.

If I may refer to his remarks in your publication of September 5, 2008, I suppose that we can only expect a lack of appreciation and understanding of intelligent criticisms of his proposal.

It is clear that even some of his Tory colleagues and other councillors are denied the opportunity to discuss the proposal.

I will not repeat the criticisms already made though the most significant factors must surely be the totally unnecessary and wasteful expenditure based on grossly exorbitant estimates of the architects' plans.

I trust that some councillors will be responsible enough to point this out to him and persuade him that the only way to proceed now is to understand that what he has proposed is inoperable.

Furthermore, he must listen to criticism and not be beguiled by advice from council officers.

I am sure that John Cleese would agree that this parrot is now undeniably dead.

Basil R Streat

Cantelupe Road

Abandon madness

IT was with much interest that I read the Observer article on January 15 by our MP, Gregory Barker, demanding less talk and more action by the Government in relation to the proposed Bexhill by-pass, which he states is vital to the future of our local economy.

As the country is, or is on the verge of, being completely bankrupt, does it really make sense at this time to spend 100m-plus on a three-mile stretch of road across the last open countryside between Bexhill and Hastings and then cover the fields with houses no one can afford and factories for non-existent jobs?

To halt this madness may put an end to the damage being caused by contractors who have for many weeks now been trashing local farmers' land, turning grazing land into a sea of mud whilst drilling test bore holes etc, usually without any form of consent or concern for the property owner's feelings.

Bryan Hubble

Abbey View

Increase in lorries

I AM writing in support of C. Ogborn's letter entitled 'Short-sighted View', and I agree with it completely.

For the past three years living in Little Common overlooking the Barnhorn Road, we have noticed the volume of traffic has increased considerably. Not only more cars, but there is an substantial increase in heavy lorries.

The link road should definitely bypass Bexhill and Little Common, for all the traffic which is not actually serving this area, and should join up with the roundabout at Pevensey or further on.

There is the added disruption to nearby villages whenever traffic is diverted due to the closure of 'Barnhorn Road' which recently occurred due to several accidents

I would like to see more people writing in support of this issue, and to save Little Common from all this traffic, accidents, and pollution etc.

Jeanette Hunt

Little Common

Most inconvenient

I FEEL I should be given the opportunity to reply to the despairing letter by John Betts in last week's Observer.

The facts are that I, on several occasions, looked for doors that might be a toilet door and none was obvious, even enlisting other park users for their input - all of which could not determine any.

I realise notices will not be displayed until opening time but no doors look the part.

I repeat, there is no toilet sign for Egerton Park in 'The official guide to Bexhill-on-Sea'.

Today, February 2, I checked the area and Mr Porter, the Museum curator kindly showed me what will be the toilet doors. These looked like store cupboards in previous visits.

K G Beckett

Glyne Drive

Payzone boost

I AM delighted to discover the old post office on London Road has recently installed a new Payzone machine which will enable anyone fed up with queuing at our main Post Office to once again pay their Council Tax and utility bills, without the usual long wait! They also offer a good next-day parcels service at very competitive rates. The service is quick and friendly too.

Malcolm Holland

London Road

Bexhill in song

YOU report that Lorraine Bowen has added to the list of songs about places, a song about Bexhill. I claim to have been the first to do so.

While teaching at Bexhill High, in I think the late 1960s, noting the great songs on US places - Idaho, Chatanooga, San Francisco, Texas - I sat down to write my Ballad of Bexhill.

It was entitled Des and Linda - a story of how a couple on a motorbike undertake to beat the record time to travel on the A259 from Pevensey to The Lamb, and come upon disaster.

I wrote the words and music, and recorded the song to my guitar accompaniment.

I gave it to Cecily Elsworth, Head of Music, and soon found that she had used it to teach it to all the classes in the school.

It became very popular and there is a whole generation of ex-pupils in Bexhill who remember it with affection.

I once sang it on the stage at the De La Warr and, since it concerned The Lamb, I gave them a copy of the words and a tape-recording.

RALPH HILL

Willow Drive

Thanks for help

MONDAY morning, 8.30am, I was unable to drive my old Nissan bluebird up the slope in Ellerslie Lane on to the Little Common Road. Two very gallant gentlemen pushed from behind as we slithered to the top. I would like to thank them both very sincerely,

Sylvia Alexander

Amherst Road

TV lessons?

I UNDERSTAND why schools were closed during the inclement weather. The television stations could have broadcast lessons for one hour a day. I am sure that this would have appealed to children and helped their parents.

Mrs E Lubich

Marina Court