Boris should order another lockdown

WE need another national lockdown with shops remaining open but colleges, secondary schools and clubs closing again to slow the spread of the new coronavirus cases.

Boris is not doing anything for another lockdown. We need it immediately.

I would like the government to impose full lockdown to slow the spread and rid us of coronavirus fully.

They should also shut borders to keep the new variants out of the UK.

Do it now.

Jordan Welby

Westview Close,

York

Thanks to Brunswick - and Berwick!

I WOULD like to shout out for the sometimes forgotten venerable people in this pandemic - those with learning disabilities.

My son suffers greatly to understand the epidemic. He is lost, but the amazing support from Brunswick (the supported workplace for adults with learning disabilities) has been his life line, through calls, videos, doorstep deliveries and activities - I can't thank them enough.

Then also the panto - Berwick Kaler. Berwick calls to keep in touch which is so very kind.

We've got a long road ahead but it's good to know there are some amazing people around us.

Karen Greenheld,

Prospect Court, Tadcaster

Memories of power cuts in the 1970s

THE recent prolonged electricity power cuts in various parts of the country brought this memory flooding back.

Older readers will remember the miners strikes of the 1970s and the Government imposing power cuts to preserve coal stocks.

If memory serves me right the cuts started early evening and lasted about two to three hours. On the first evening the candles were lit and everything was dark and quiet. After five minutes of sitting in semi darkness, I shouted out: "Shall we put the telly on?"

Tony Furnandiz

Calf Close, Haxby, York

What a shambles England's batsmen are

I DON’T know where to begin. Apart from Joe Root, they’ve no heart, no fight and worse still, no idea how to bat in a test.

I can’t criticise the bowlers too much: they’ve done OK, although it is worrying that Anderson and Broad are still our best bowlers. As a group, they aren’t far behind the Aussies but our batsmen give them nothing to bowl at.

I do think the that part of the problem lies in our domestic season. We play our four-day cricket at the start and end of the season, often playing on pudding pitches that don’t prepare us for playing on the hard pitches which you get in the summer of the other test-playing nations.

Our summer months are taken up by quick cricket. Why do we need ‘The Hundred?’ There’s only 20 balls difference between that and T20.

One (or both, preferably) should go. I know people will say that Australia et al also play white-ball cricket but their summers are longer than ours and they can juggle their season and still play in decent conditions. They don’t get ‘snow stopped play’ as has happened over here in the past.

Until the powers that be, motivated by the cash which Mickey Mouse cricket brings, switch our season around, England are finished as a serious test-playing nation.

We’ll have a good session and a good day now and again, but we aren’t going to be able to compete against the best again. Don’t forget, this is not the best Aussie team ever but the contrast in both teams’ approaches make them look that.

W Martin,

Holgate, York