Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Campaigners want alcolocks fitted to the cars of repeat drink-drivers as figures reveal hundreds have been caught over the limit on four occasions (Metro, Mon).
These devices require the driver to pass a breath test before they can start the engine.
This may be one way of getting this selfish minority to act more responsibly but could not unscrupulous mechanics disconnect or bypass the devices? Or a sober passenger start the vehicle for a driver who is over the limit?
Then there is the issue of drivers unfit to drive through the misuse of drugs. Can the alcolock detect the presence of drugs?
A simpler solution might be to give magistrates the power to order the crushing of repeat offenders’ vehicles. Two or three strikes and you are out.
Some might say this is draconian and would unfairly penalise the offender’s family, but what about the friends and family of those who have been injured and killed by impaired drivers? Geoff, Solihull
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Drink-driving is absolutely stupid but what about drug users? Nearly every day, cars pass me with the awful smell of weed wafting out of the driver’s window. Paul, Birmingham
Some MPs whinge about how little they are paid, hence their justification for taking donations.
I have an idea – how about we recruit MPs from abroad? There are lots of skilled politicians, especially from the former Soviet Union, who would be willing to come here and do the job for half the salary.
Our political class have been doing the same to us by encouraging mass migration from the EU and beyond to suppress pay rises. It’s about time we gave them a taste of their own medicine! Robert Kay, Leeds
The UK’s last coal-fired power plant – in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire – is closing (Metro, Tue). But China carries on burning a huge amount of coal to power its industry.
Some of that coal is Chinese and some imported. China’s increases in coal burning may undermine the global plans in the 2016 Paris Agreement for cutting carbon emissions.
When UK people buy stuff from China, we are giving it a cash reward for burning coal, which causes at least 14 per cent of total world carbon emissions. People such as Greta Thunberg and Just Stop Oil members never do anything about that.
That is something to ponder if we want China to cut its emissions. The latest UK flood or other extreme weather event may be due to coal that was burnt in China and that our shopping baskets indirectly paid for. Dan Hartley, Solihull
Monday’s article (‘Brace yourself for a first time-buyer boom’) mentions a survey that suggests 60 per cent of private landlords will exit the market in the next year as a result of the government’s Renters’ Rights Bill.
A cynical lawyer friend used to say the result of most government legislation was the opposite of what was intended – and this bill may prove him right once again.
With less than half the number of properties available to rent, it will be more difficult for prospective tenants to find somewhere, while supply and demand market forces mean rents for the few properties available will be higher.
That’s hardly the outcome tenants want. Mike, London
With its attack on Lebanon, it is clear Israel’s intention is to take over the Middle East by driving Arabs out, or starving them into submission (as is happening in Gaza). And this with the tacit acceptance of the West.
The government in Beirut says the death toll in Lebanon has exceeded 1,000, including many innocent women and children.
Israel can no longer claim to be acting in ‘self-defence’, since it instigated the aggression in Lebanon (no doubt as a pretext to invade the country).
The West can no longer stand by and allow this extremist Israeli government to carry on with its murderous aggression against innocent civilians and the destruction of their country. It should immediately stop supplying arms to them.
It is clear Israel has no respect for human rights or for world opinion. Its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be made to stand trial in The Hague for his actions in Gaza and Lebanon. J Smyth, via email
I’ve read Marx and Adam Smith but nothing so sensible as Nick (MetroTalk, Mon) who says the economic system isn’t working for us, the wider world or nature. Sadly, the grinding of that machine will not stop unless we make it.
A good start might be people’s parliaments set up to inform government policy.
I trust the likes of Nick over the influential owners of the machine that’s harming us all so much. Graham, Epsom
Parents have called for ‘dangerous and confusing’ road markings to be removed from outside two schools in Somerset (Metro, Mon). One said the shapes, painted by Frome town council to slow traffic, looked like a game of Twister.
If they’re causing drivers to slow down as they work out what they’re supposed to mean, surely they have achieved their purpose. Mike, via email
Further to the discussion about e-bikes (MetroTalk, Mon). I’m in my 70s and happily use my rather staid e-bike to help with hills, headwinds and heavy loads. However, my speed on the flat – about nine-12mph– is easily exceeded by a conventional cycle. Michelle Whitworth, Newcastle upon Tyne
A friend is in a band that have their first gig coming up. He’s worried he’ll look too pale under the spotlights so I suggested that, since Oasis always look so natural both on stage and in the studio, he should write to the Gallagher brothers and ask them what make-up they use when performing.
It’s been a while now and as yet he’s still received no reply, but I reckon Definitely Maybelline. Julian Self, Wolverton
