Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments
Is 150 hours of unpaid work enough of a punishment for fare dodger?
I’m sure serial fare dodger Charles Brohiri (Metro, Thu) was quaking in his boots when judge Nina Tempia handed out such a tough sentence to him for his criminal behaviour.
The 29-year-old former waiter admitted 112 offences – totalling around £3,600 in unpaid fares – but dodged jail and was given a three-month suspended sentence and told to do 150 hours of unpaid work.
The court heard he had some ‘insight’ into his crimes. Laughable. It’s a pity that the judge didn’t lose her ‘tempia’ and throw the book at him.
And I was wondering how he got home from the court. Did they pay for him to get a cab? Or did he just jump on an alternative train line from Govia Thameslink, which he’s now supposedly banned from? Dec, Essex
Yet another example of the failing justice system’, says reader
This is yet another example of failing justice in Britain. Why now bother to check tickets and catch fare dodgers if evaders simply walk away from courts?
Indeed, why would any rail traveller pay for tickets if everyone knows there is no real consequence? Mike, Surrey
Is children being friends with chatbots comparable to religion?
You report that one in three schoolchildren consider chatbots to be real friends (Metro, Wed). But are adults any better? More than half the population admit to a religious belief – but what’s ‘God’ if not having an imaginary friend that people fail to grow out of? Albert Beale, London
Glasgow city centre is a dangerous spot for pedestrians, says reader
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Can we quietly remind all drivers that pedestrians have right of way if you are turning into a road where the pedestrian is already crossing – particularly in Glasgow city centre, where I have had three near misses in the past few weeks.
Each time, the driver mistakenly believed they owned the road and we mere mortals walking had no business being there. Geedawg, Glasgow
If everyone had to have private medical insurance, we’d be suck in a ‘long queue for medical attention — just a different queue to the one we’re already in’
If, heaven forbid, we ever have a Reform government and have to have private health insurance, won’t we all then just be stuck in a long queue for medical attention – just a different queue to the one we’re already in? Lizzie, Liverpool
‘It is the children who are punished by the cap and they do not choose to be born’
I’ve seen a number of commentators within MetroTalk oppose the concept of providing welfare for third-born children and beyond.
To remind said commentators, it is the children who are punished by the cap and they do not choose to be born.
By this logic, should we also bar third-borns and beyond the right to NHS treatment, to police assistance or other public services because you deem them a burden to society by virtue of being born?
This isn’t the first time I have seen two-tier discrimination in recent times. The same argument is being made regarding those diagnosed with autism and ADHD, where people demand they take responsibility and take on labour but should be provided no benefit, both figuratively and literally. Gareth Hart, Retford
Warning over Heartland Institute
I agree with Mike (MetroTalk, Wed) about the insidious influence the Heartland Institute is having on our politics.
This US climate-sceptic think tank, funded by the fossil fuel industry and rich Republican donors, set up a UK/Europe branch in London in 2024 headed by ex-Ukip leader Lois Perry, who has described the climate emergency as ‘a scam’.
Nigel Farage, Liz Truss, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith and a motley crew of right-wing climate science deniers went to their launch event in December 2024 in a private Mayfair club.
Farage has adopted their ideas wholesale and Kemi Badenoch has since reversed the Conservative Party’s position on climate change and abandoned its net-zero targets.
We need to wake up and smell the stink of big oil money before it’s too late! Helen Elwes, Oxford
