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Gen Z health problems are due to screen time, says reader
Gen Z is beset with health problems despite lower rates of drinking, drug use and smoking (Metro, Mon.)
Could it have anything to do with them spending half their childhood glued to a screen?
I’m so glad I had my teenage years before the internet arrived – mind you, we did have television damaging our brains back then. Nick, London
Reader questions, does Starmer think through polices?
Why, when Labour bring out new policies, do they not think them through first?
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that the government will create 50,000 youth apprenticeship places over the next three years.
I think everyone would prefer young people to be learning a trade rather than be languishing idly out of work and on benefits.
However, thanks to chancellor Rachel Reeves increasing employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage, the job market has decreased. Who, then, will be providing these apprenticeships? Molly Neville, Sheffield
Is Angela Rayner ‘the best social mobility story this country has ever seen’?
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Keir Starmer describes Angela Rayner as ‘the best social mobility story this country has ever seen’ and partly blames misogyny as a reason for the criticism she has faced (Metro, Mon).
While one has to express admiration for the way the former deputy prime minister rose to such high office, given the very serious nature of her misdemeanour – ie failing to pay £40,000 in stamp duty having, it seems, neglected her solicitor’s recommendation that she seek proper tax advice in light of her family circumstances – is that not a bit of a slight upon countless others who have risen from very humble beginnings to a high position in society (John Major springs to mind)?
Is Starmer suggesting that a male in her position in government would not have faced the same level of criticism or is this just a cynical ploy to keep her onside and out of the clutches of potential rivals circling round him?
Also, if moving her main home from Greater Manchester all the way to Hove is the best example of social mobility, maybe someone should ask her local constituents in Ashton-under-Lyne what they think about it? Jeremy, London
Reader says Labour did not ‘bankrupt the country in 1979’
Denise (MetroTalk, Mon) is talking nonsense saying Labour ‘bankrupted the country’ in 1979.
Debt to GDP in 1979 was less than 50 per cent – it’s now around 100 per cent – and we owned all our own infrastructure.
That was before Margaret Thatcher flogged everything off to pay for her dole queues.
She also squandered the benefits of North Sea oil.
As for Labour also bankrupting us in 2010, I will bet you that none of the bankers who brought the country to its knees ever voted Labour.
I’m no fan of this government but the Tories left behind a shambles in 1964 and 1974. Des Platt, Liverpool
Another reader agrees, saying the worldwide crash was down to ‘greedy bankers’
Denise says Labour bankrupted the country in 2010. Using her logic, Labour were also responsible for making Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy go bust, among others.
The reason for that disastrous worldwide crash was greedy bankers in Britain, the US and a couple of other countries.
What a short memory some people have. George Curley, via email
This reader will be using Metro copies to wrap his Christmas presents…
I’ve always been encouraged to wrap my presents – what’s on the inside being a side issue – but this year my gifts will be embellished with saved up copies of my favourite free newspaper.
I will use the MetroTalk pages with my three published letters and this one, too, if the editor likes the loo of it!
Happy Christmas to one and all. I hope you like the wrapping idea – and go easy on the sprouts! Richard Panton, South-West London
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