Have your say! Readers letters edition 1976 May 18 – 25

Mr Leapy you are as predictable as a, “cover it all newspaper Astrology page”. Can’t deny you have a bunch of fans out there. Don’t know why but there we are, no counting for human difference.

Speaking for myself I believe in the freedom to protest peacefully for you or less right-wing folk. The UK government don’t, and introduce legislation to curtail peaceful protest. Again I don’t know why but there we are.

I am old enough to remember the peaceful protest by Bertram Russell a great British philosopher, against nuclear arms in 1961. He was put in prison for a week or so and ended up getting massive publicity for CND. As a case in point, the anti-monarchists few in number are getting massive publicity even from king of Brexit David Davis MP and other top Tories because they realise this new legislation has not been thought out.

You talk of British values which have included the right to peaceful protests.

As a member of The Royal British Legion can I remind you thousands lost their lives defending freedom? Three members of my own family gave their health and wellbeing fighting in the Second World War to defend our freedom against such tyranny.

Are you clearly saying they were wrong. Freedom to express a fundamental difference to the status quo is our basic right.

Yours faithfully

Helen Hallam

Malaga

Ryanair stag-do riot runs dream holiday

I was on this flight! It was actually worse than described in your article. We had three female flight attendants, one of whom had been on the job for 2 days and admitted to me that she felt unsafe coming to work. The 20 or so men on the flight as part of ‘Ryan’s stag do’ (they all had personalised t-shirts) were visibly drunk when they boarded the plane.

The crew told me that the mistake was made by the ground staff who “shouldn’t have let them board the plane” and that all they could do was “manage the situation”. Three tiny female humans dealing with large volatile males of the species. And they sold more booze, again and again. They were shouting profanities from the beginning of the flight. Obscenities and obscene gestures, loud arguments, I made notes, there was nothing else to do, no escape from the awfulness of the experience.

Announcements were made that they would be met by police upon landing if they were drunk, vaping, or drinking their own alcohol – which they openly did when after three rounds of bar service a decision was broadcast that there would be no more sale of alcohol on the flight. We all saw them drinking from bottles they were handing around, and we all saw them openly vaping whilst walking around the cabin. Ryan Air’s response is predictably driven by greed – can there be another reason for abandoning their duty of care for passengers on the flight. It was a miracle that it didn’t get nastier.

Sasha Alevropoulos

Hi,

I’d like to reply to an article that caught my attention in Issue 1970 (6th-12th April) wrong context written by Bernard Butler, Éire is very much used in sending Postcards & Letters around the world & nationally too. I use Éire all the time myself. As an Irishman Bernard doesn’t know his Geography as Ballina is in County Mayo.

Regards,

James Looney