So what did we learn from the extraordinary meeting called by Copeland Labour and their claims to be open, transparent and to be the standard-bearers for democracy?

First of all, they have had nothing to say about the anti-Semitic rant of a Labour councillor in full council other than he was confused or the appalling public Facebook post from his fellow councillor which word for word was as follows: “Which Jews the ones who shoot children and cripples or the ones with whom I have no argument whatsoever and agree with me the government of Israel is breaking and has broken International law for decades simply because their co-conspirators in the USA say it’s fine for them to do so.”

Surely if the councillors themselves don’t resign from the council, then Labour – if they are serious about rooting out antisemitism – should be expelling councillors from the party.

For openness and transparency could Copeland Labour let us know how they have dealt with the above?

On democracy, Copeland Labour feels the mayor – who won the election by a huge majority – should resign because he is now a member of the Conservative party; however, it’s fine and democratic for Labour to lead Cumbria County Council despite the fact the Conservatives gained more votes than both Labour and the Lib Dems put together (Conservatives had 25,000 more votes than Labour for the record).

Better still is democracy Egremont Labour style, where they have co-opted a former Labour councillor on to the town council: the same one who came last when she stood for election with less than half the votes of her nearest rival, co-opted in favour of other potential candidates. They will claim, and rightly so, that they adhered to process. But surely choosing a candidate who had been democratically rejected so emphatically by the people of Egremont is morally wrong?

The reality is that Labour just wants a different set of democratic rules for different candidates as long as they are in their favour and they can override the democratic will of the people whenever they choose to.

Cllr GED McGRATH

Copeland councillor, Black Combe & Scafell ward

Let’s think of others

It appears we are going from crisis to crisis as this coronavirus has put us in grave danger of getting out of control with no one at the front leading us out of danger.

A care worker has told me that they are issued one mask a day for 12 hours and some people from hospitals also work in care homes with no checks made if they are carriers. If this is true, no wonder care homes are so vulnerable to this virus and shame on the management for not being more in control – a bit like the government.

This is only one of the many problems in all areas we are now facing and with no help to clear up the mess. We are now in trouble of the virus coming back and maybe another lockdown.

What can we do? Take control of all our actions, think ahead, try to consider others who might be vulnerable to this virus as we all need to try harder and prevent the spread of corona before it’s too late.

We are not out of danger yet. We do not have a vaccine to control it or an answer to the many issues this virus has created but the longer we ignore the issue of prevention, the longer normal life will be on hold especially with Christmas just around the corner – we do not want to lose this special time of the year.

Let us all try and kill this virus by thinking not just of ourselves but others. Let us kill this virus, and not the virus kill us.

HERBERT CROSSMAN

By email

Profits or people

Worldwide there are now over 25 million people who have been infected with Covid 19 and around five per cent of all deaths have been British citizens, although we make up less than one per cent of the world’s population. Apparently four in 10 of UK deaths have been care home residents, so what happened to the “protective ring” government promised to put around them? New infections are running at an average of over 2,000 a day and increasing, while the “world beating” test and trace system promised by our Prime Minister seems as reliable as Del Boy’s van. Apparently people from Barrow have been told to go to Blackburn for a test, it takes days to get a result and the whole thing is run by firms like Serco NOT the NHS. Profit before people?

Our own communities in Copeland have seen numerous deaths, most people know someone who has been made sick or has died during this pandemic, so many businesses are in difficulty, jobs in jeopardy and people’s lives put on long-term hold. Despite the constant risk of another wave and the lack of any consistent policy to prevent it, people are being pressurised to go back to work while schools and universities are pushed into reopening.

Every week this government seems to announce a bizarre policy and then, when pressure mounts they perform a U-turn. This gives no confidence to people desperate for some leadership during a life or death crisis.

Now the new “Rule of Six” means even Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs couldn’t stay in the same house! Ministers take no responsibility for their failures, preferring to sack civil servants and officials (except of course the PM’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings to whom the rules apparently don’t apply).

Why is it we seem to quietly accept this shambles? Can it be that in comparison to the lunacy in the USA our situation doesn’t seem as bad? Well in terms of deaths it’s actually worse here – in the US one in 1,800 of the population have died, in the UK it’s one in 1,500. We elect governments to run the country in the best interests of its people, to protect and serve; when is this one going to show any sign that they can do that?

It is pretty clear the Johnson cabinet consists largely of wealthy men whose main qualification for office is not competence but simply that they agree with the PM, “nodding donkeys” as the civil service calls them. The main opposition, still reeling from the damage done by Corbyn and his failure to make Labour electable, aren’t yet seen as a credible alternative. In the meantime the country lurches from crisis to crisis with no apparent leadership and the voters are powerless to do anything about it until 2024.

TIM KNOWLES

Frizington

Where’s the evidence?

Radioactivity is detectable but it is not as dangerous as activist Marianne Birkby and media manager Duncan Flint think. The 30km exclusion zone created round the Chernobyl reactors is the best nature reserve in the whole world, because the fear of radioactivity has scared off human beings. Those few humans who refused evacuation have, for 30 years, led a healthy and happy life.

Sixty years ago the Windscale Pile scattered radioactivity over Cumbria and the alarmists thought that thousands would develop cancer, but they did not. Climate change due to the burning of Whitehaven coal is another alarmist myth from youngsters like Greta Thunberg and her friends but I have found nobody in Cumbria, Cambridge University, The Met Office in Exeter or the BBC TV gurus who can affirm by experiment that the climate is in any way influenced by the trace of CO2 in the atmosphere.

There is plenty of scientific evidence that the radiations from the sun are detrimental to your skin but there is no scientific evidence that CO2 is causing the changes in the climate.

PHIL HOLLAND

Bigrigg, Egremont