Only full debate will scotch EU myths
I AM chuffed Michael Foster, MP, rebelled and showed interest in those outside his constituency (Mailbag, March 26).
Along with Mr Foster, I, too, have no time for the Lib-Dems or the Tories, especially since Ted Heath took us into the EEC Customs Union on a lie, without our consent, and then stabbed Maggie in the back.
I especially distrust all party-line and whipped politicians who campaign one way and vote the other; who use scaremongery to perpetuate pro-EU myths and then surrender Britain's sovereignty to the EU without fully debating EU Treaties. There are very few left to admire.
The only way to scotch 'EU myths' is to make public the full text of the EU Constitution and hold a full public debate.
If Mr Foster sends me his copies of the rejected EU Constitution and the Treaty of Lisbon (aka EU Constitution), I'll happily highlight for him, in bright, fluorescent pink, all those facts, clearly printed in black and white, which he accuses me of calling 'myths'.
But, of course, that will not happen as: (a) he is not my MP; and (b) he will have to make public the truth which his boss fought so hard to hide from the British people by whipping his MPs against the debate and their promised Referendum. That is 'Democracy', President Mugabe style.
Parliament is no longer Sovereign. It cannot recover powers handed to the EU, especially now Labour have rejected Bill Cash's amendment to the EU Constitution.
True, a means by which Britain can negotiate - note, only negotiate - leaving the political EU is written into the EU Constitution (aka Lisbon Treaty!) but what Mr Foster failed to say was this negotiation is only possible if 67% of the 'peoples of Europe' (ie: MEPs!) agree and then, only if 67% of the EU Commission also agrees.
He also failed to say that his chums, Blair and Brown, have also given away Maggie's hard won EU rebate in return for a £1billion annual increase in our subs to Mr Foster's EU 'Tennis Club' (his phrase!); but then his chum 'Prudence' Brown did sell Britain's gold reserves at rock bottom price! I hope he charged VAT.
Like an automaton, Mr Foster repeats the biggest EU myth of all - we would be 'isolated' and our trade/economy would collapse if we left his political EU Tennis Club.
So infantile is this scaremongery, that his old boss, EU Commissioner, Neil Kinnock, publicly stated on the pro-EU BBC that Britain's trade would not be damaged in any way if we left the EU.
Why would it be? International trade is not governed by the EU but by the World Trade Organisation, to which the EU belongs.
That is why Japan, China, USA, New Zealand, all 'isolated' outside the EU, enjoy free trade with Britain and will continue to do so if we left! In fact, as we buy more from 'The EU' than we sell to them, Germany is hardly likely to stop selling us BMWs; or France, wine. The French will still buy Rye's fish.
EU membership has destroyed our farming and fishing industries and forced our manufacturing base to China, 'isolated' outside the EU! the EU will now destroy NATO.
'The battle to retain Imperial measurements' has not been won. The law making it a criminal offence to use or, from 1920, utter Imperial units in trade, remains on the statute book.
By failing to understand Imperial units, Mr Foster's grandchildren will be disadvantaged in international trade as Imperial measurements remain International Standards in shipping, aviation, plumbing and even computing!
Maggie Thatcher abandoned compulsory metrication in the interests of international trade, as have the Americans.
BARRY M. JONES
Bixley Lane, Beckley

Cleaning standards must be maintained
FOLLOWING the Government's insistence that all NHS hospitals should have been deep cleaned in the fight to eradicate hospital acquired infections by March 31, 2008, it has, this weekend, been announced that a huge percentage of hospitals will fail to meet the target.
However, it is encouraging to see that the Conquest Hospital in Hastings is noticeably cleaner than some 17 months ago when my husband died of MRSA, while in their care.
C.Difficile is a killing infection that is dirt related. However, MRSA is most commonly humanly carried and therefore personal attention to cleanliness can never be taken lightly.
What concerns me is that 'proper' deep cleaning is both an expensive process and very disruptive to patients and staff alike.
So how will the cleaning standards be maintained, bearing in mind that NHS Trusts have a limited budget for any cleaning!?
It is important that all visitors who enter the hospital be the 'EYES' for the Trust and should any person have any doubt that certain areas are not acceptable as clean standards within a hospital they should bring it to the attention of a member of staff and insist that the matter is attended to immediately. Look up, look down, look under beds, look everywhere!
However, the carriage of MRSA is an issue that every person who enters the hospital becomes responsible for. YOU could be a carrier of the infection.
Deep cleaning will fail to work once people re-enter the areas cleaned - unless each person takes responsibility. People do die from these infections and until it touches the lives of individuals, it might seem unimportant.
The MRSA Support Association conducted a laboratory experiment on a pair of patients slippers which had been in an area of deep cleaning.
After six months the MRSA culture had been grown on the dust taken from the slippers!
Complacency must not take over just because hospitals "look" cleaner.
Mrs MARION HAM
Staplehurst, Kent

Club for women to make contact
FEMALE readers may be interested in Henpals which is a club for women to make contact with other local women.
I know, from my own experience, that when you move to a new place it can be difficult to make friends, as well as at other times in life such as leaving work to have a baby, being widowed, newly retired or coming through a divorce.
The Henpals website means that women can find other members who live in their area to make friends and share interests together.
Among many other things, we have a Book Club with a monthly prize of a £10 book token.
Members can also send in photographs and news of current projects for our monthly news page - many members are very interested in various aspects of needlecrafts and lots of ideas are swapped in our forum section.
Annual membership of Henpals is £5 to cover running costs - we have kept this as low as possible so that it is open to all women. More information is available at www.henpals.com or do please email me at jenny@henpals.com if you have any queries. We look forward to welcoming you!
JENNY ROPER
Lymington, Hants

Always someone to listen and help
AS THIS year's Parkinson's awareness week runs from April 7-13, I would appreciate the opportunity to draw readers' attention to the work of the Parkinson's Disease Society (PDS), the only national charity working exclusively to support all people affected by Parkinson's.
The PDS provides support, advice and information to people with Parkinson's, their carers, families and friends.
The Society promotes and funds research into the cause, cure and prevention of Parkinson's and improving available treatment and care. It also provides education and training for health and social care professionals. In the UK, one in 500 people - around 120,000 individuals - have Parkinson's.
Although often perceived as an older person's condition, many are affected during their working life and of the 10,000 people diagnosed in the UK each year, one in 20 is aged under 40.
At the present time, there is no cure for Parkinson's Disease. The main treatment is drug therapy, which helps to control the symptoms.
Because no two people with this condition are exactly the same, this treatment has to be tailored to the individual and the timing of medication is as important as the dosage. Surgery is also sometimes used. Good management of the condition may also include physiotherapy, speech and occupational therapies and self help.
There are 300 branches and support groups across the UK. They are run by volunteers - often people who have Parkinson's - and are supported by PDS staff.
The Bexhill, Hastings and Rother Branch, whose members come from the Hastings and Rother Primary Care Trust area (including Rye), meets on the third Friday of each month between 2pm and 4 pm at St Michael's Church Hall, Glassenbury Drive, Bexhill.
We organise a range of activities and events throughout the year which are both fun and a great way to make new friends. There is always someone to listen and provide practical help and advice if needed. If you have been diagnosed with Parkinson's, are a carer or another family member, a quick call might make all the difference: Barbara Daniels on 214313 or Stuart Baker 754011.
STUART BAKER
Chairman
Bexhill, Hastings and Rother Branch
Parkinson's Disease Society

Thanks to sponsors
ON Sunday, March 16, my daughter, Debra Van Aalst, took part in the Hastings Half Marathon.
She completed the course in 02.37.01 - nearly 30 minutes less than she had anticipated - not bad for a first time effort!
Both Debra and I would like to thank everyone who sponsored her, mainly Playden Women's Institute, the ladies' darts teams of Icklesham, Playden and Rye Harbour, Bernie, landlord of 'William the Conqueror' and many friends and neighbours with whose help she raised £300 for the Sara Lee Trust.
Debra ran with two friends and between them, Debra, Amber and Amy, they made about £1,400 for the Trust. Our thanks to you all and very well done girls!
JEANNE ELIZABETH MELDRUM
Ferry Road, Rye

Understanding MP
I FEEL I cannot ignore the use of our local Observer for one Barry M. Jones to attempt, time and time again, to berate the Labour Party and particularly our elected MP, Michael Foster.
I am surprised the paper prints letter after letter of often misquoted allegations by Mr. Jones.
I do not know the age or political leanings of Mr Jones but he can't be very old as he knows it was Edward Heath who took us into the Common Market and surrendered much of our fishing rights and quotas many years ago as part of our payment for entry into the community.
I would also like to point out that it was a quote from my son, Russell Drew, about a level playing field with authorities in France and Spain turning a blind eye to cod catches, and not Michael Foster, MP, as suggested in the letter by Catherine Straker, UKIP, on the March 7 letters page.
I have had dealings with Mr Foster, MP, and have found him to be very understanding and helpful to the needs of the local fishing communities of Rye and Hastings and he does as much as is possible in his capacity as our elected representative, to support not only the local fishing community but, indeed, any legitimate activity in his constituency.
I feel now is the time he was given a pat on the back for representing us for the last decade and, hopefully, the next.
BILL DREW
Winchelsea

Moral cowardice
I WONDER how many readers are alive to the full implications of the lead story in last week's Battle Observer?
That the head of the successful local Community College is expressing publicly his fear for the physical safety of his staff and pupils is surely another and shocking illustration of just how far our society has descended into depravity as a direct consequence of Left liberal doctrine being imposed on education policy.
Our parents and grandparents would have been totally horrified to think the louts and thugs in our schools and the feckless adults in the homes from which they come, are not disclipined and punished appropriately but, at vast expense to the taxpayer, are cosseted by government-indoctrinated bureaucrats.
The consequent detriment suffered by those in our schools, pupils and staff, who are there for the serious business of learning, is self-evident.
The policy ordered by education bosses to which Mr Pitts rightly objects, illustrates the complete impracticality and moral cowardice of Left wing thinking on education.
It is, in each case, the equivalent of removing the rotten apple from the barrel only to put it straight back into another barrel of completely good apples with predictably disastrous consequences.
Mr Pitts may be head of teaching in one school only but, in making known the disgraceful policy to which he and others are subjected, he has a real lesson for us all.
P R BELCHAMBER
Whatlington Road, Battle

Critical care at Conquest
Wired up to a monitor
bleeping away
With stickers all stuck to my chest.
To answer the call of nature
I had a red button to press!

Bays were 'assorted',
Opposite me an old chap
Was heard to bemoan
'There's a woman in
here' he cried in despair
To his wife on the
end of the phone.

On a serious note, the level of care
I received was second to none.
Thanks to the
Conquest's 'Critical Nursing'
I am writing these
verses from home.

by Jan Roberts

I wrote this poem in praise of the excellent care I received recently, initially at Martin's Oak Surgery, Battle, then at Accident and Emergency and subsequently CCU/James Ward at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.
Mrs Janet Roberts
Battle Gates

Invitation to police reunion
COULD you possibly find a space to give a mention to the forthcoming reunion of the former East Sussex Constabulary.
The event is scheduled for Saturday, September 6, in the restaurant at Sussex Police Headquarters, Malling House, Lewes, from noon to 3pm.
There will be a buffet at a cost of only £12 per head and the bar will be open.
Cheques, payable to East Sussex Police Reunion, may be sent me me at Battle Police Station and all former members of the East Sussex Constabulary, whatever their function - and including widows and close relatives - will be welcome.
FRANK PERCHARD
London Road
Battle

Treat horse riders fairly and equally
WE respond to the article in the Hastings Observer (March 21 - 'Riders accuse council of double standards over ponies') as we do not feel our argument was accurately reflected and much information passed to the journalist was overlooked. First we congratulate HBC again on allowing the Exmoor ponies to graze on land at the country park. The Exmoor pony is one of the most endangered native species in this country. The ponies are well worth a visit and we hope they will become regular visitors.
The arguments presented by the unidentified officer from HBC that we have heard many times before are generally unjustifiable and we produced a document in response to that in November 2006, to which we were promised a written response, which has never arrived. This document is available on website www.harba.org.uk.
We would like to make it clear Hastings & Rother Bridleways do not wish to have access to glens and cliff areas and have made the council aware of that; these areas are not suitable for either horse-riding or cycling.
However the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, under which Fairlight Place Farm is managed, does actually encourage the provision of permissive bridleways, as well as disabled access and actually pays landowners to develop these. Elsewhere in the country landowners have embraced this scheme and indeed many SSSIs also include equestrian access.
HBC have consistently dismissed requests for improved off road access for horse riders which is extremely limited in this area. There are over 500 horses (and rising) around the eastern perimeters of Hastings, which HBC feels they can neglect because they are not actually within the borough.
However they feel it is okay to ignore the fact most of their owners live in Hastings, where they vote and pay their council tax. Indeed an HBC survey found 39% of residents wanted improved equestrian and cycling access.
The statistics and case studies we could provide to support the case for equestrian access and multi-user paths are overwhelming but HBC still feels it is justified to dismiss these.
All we ask is horse riders are treated fairly and equally with other non-motorised forms of transport - horse owners and riders vote too.
SARAH UPTON
On behalf of Hastings & Rother Bridleways Association

Worst piece of law for 50 years
WE HAVE been clobbered by the bins fiasco, the Post Office devastating closures, the decimation of our fishing industry and Council Tax increases above inflation - to name but a few of the repercussions emanating from EU legislation.
What has Council Tax got to do with the EU you may ask?
Well, if Britain hadn't got to pay over £30m every day to belong to the EU that money would be available to our government to help offset the Council Tax.
However now our residents in the South East are feeling the pinch from one of the latest EU blunders, that of the HIPs (Home Improvement Packs) legislation requiring all vendors of three-plus bedroom properties to pay for this unwanted bureaucratic paperwork.
The consumer survey group 'Which' has just completed its study which confirms the Governments MORI poll where 41% of buyers felt that the packs made purchasing a new home more difficult.
'Which' goes further, saying "it's the worst piece of consumer law for 50 years!"
They say that HIPs are confusing, are of little value and do not have the confidence of either the public or estate agents.
And yet, here we are in East Sussex, being hoodwinked that we are being ruled by Westminster when in fact most of our daily lives are being ruled by powers that include those that we thought we had defeated in the last two World Wars.
TONY SMITH
Brownbread Stud, Ashburnham