Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
'Ukraine are regaining hundreds of square kilometers of ground'
Your front page yesterday to mark four years since the Russian invasion looked tragic for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. However, the truth is his country is stepping up and regaining hundreds of square kilometres of ground on the front, despite being outnumbered seven to one.
Russia, on the other hand, is losing more men than it can replace and may soon start unpopular conscription.
Vladimir Putin’s economy is also crashing, along with his oil price. With super-high inflation and a pointless, failing war, the future for Russia looks much more bleak than for Ukraine. Sally Wilton, Bournemouth
‘It’s time to prohibit the use of neurodiversity as an excuse for criminal behaviour in court cases’, says reader
Regarding Leighton Ashby, 22, and Oakley Hollands, 20, beating a sheep to death then blowing up its body with explosives on the South Downs (Metro.co.uk).
Their defence lawyers cited their autism and undiagnosed ADHD respectively as mitigating factors.
It’s time to prohibit the use of neurodiversity as an excuse for criminal behaviour in court cases.
Most neurodiverse people are perfectly lovely and more than capable of understanding right from wrong.
Using neurodiversity as a ‘reason’ for bad behaviour is an insult to the neurodiverse. It implies they should all be mistrusted when nothing could be further from the truth. Theresa Smith, Horsham
Got a question about UK politics?
Send in yours and Metro’s Senior Politics Reporter Craig Munro will answer it in an upcoming edition of our weekly politics newsletter. Email alrightgov@metro.co.uk or submit your question here.
Would the public be able to afford private healthcare?
It’s getting more and more common for politicians, particularly Tories and those in Reform UK, to suggest we privatise the NHS and switch to an insurance-based health service.
The problems with this idea have been perfectly demonstrated by the recent death of James Van Der Beek in the US.
He was a famous actor and star of Dawson’s Creek yet, when diagnosed with colorectal cancer, he still couldn’t afford treatment in America’s private healthcare system.
Yes, most people in countries without free healthcare have insurance but a lot don’t – and those who do often find it’s not fully comprehensive and doesn’t cover the treatment they need.
And if a celebrity such as James Van Der Beek can’t afford it, the rest of us haven’t got a hope in hell.
It’s easy to criticise the NHS. It’s far from perfect. But it’s so much better than the alternative – and anyone who says otherwise is either a snake oil salesman or a fool. Sharon, Manchester
Do police have their priorities right?
One of the reasons the police haven’t got to grips with petty crime is because they’ve been forced to arrest people for harmlessly holding signs, as part of the government’s ridiculous attempt to ban the Palestine Action protest group under ‘terrorism’ laws.
Its members clearly aren’t terrorists but the government was determined to stamp out our basic rights to protest because of powerful lobbying from the arms industry.
The ban was ruled unlawful by the High Court this month.
As per usual, the government cared more about big business than the ordinary people they’re supposed to protect. They made the police do the arms companies’ dirty work of throwing activists in jail rather than going after the real criminals.
Enforcing the ban on Palestine Action cost the police £10million, which could have paid for more than 200 constables for a year.
It’s clear where our politicians’ priorities lie. They’re not using the police to keep us safe – they’re using them to crack down on their enemies. Caitlyn, Beeston
Reader says ‘councils have to use any reason they can find to fine people as much as they can’
I’ll tell you why Barbara Wheeler and Margaret Bull were threatened with £1,000 council fines for leaving bags of clothes outside their homes while trying to donate to charity (Metro, Fri).
It’s because councils have to use any reason they can find to fine people as much as they can. Virtually every local authority in the country is broke and many have declared bankruptcy – among them Birmingham, Croydon, Slough, Woking and Nottingham.
They need the power to tax wealthier homeowners. We need to spread what money there is to places that really need it. The government must reverse the Tory funding cuts so councils have enough money to work properly.
Otherwise they’ll have to keep swindling their own residents just to survive. Rob Slater, Norfolk
‘Social media journalists’ ruined Chinese New Year parade, reader says
Having waited patiently behind the barriers to watch the Chinese New Year parade on Tuesday last week, it was such a shame to see it ruined by so-called social media journalists infiltrating it.
The poor performers had to battle through them at one point because they refused to move for security. The police did nothing to prevent them blocking the parade route. Bex Lee, via email