Vote for change

HOW refreshing to read the excellent letter from Jennifer Godschall Johnson (November 8, ‘Sink this ship’). I heartily agree with everything she says.

To echo just a few of the very important points she makes, the coming General Election is absolutely crucial to the future of our country in many ways. I fear, however, that many of us are perplexed as to how to vote — although vote we must in order to maintain the principle of democracy which we should never take for granted. Neither of the leaders of the two main parties is fit to lead us — what a pitiful choice we are presented with — but our electoral system is such that, for many of us a vote for change is like whistling into thin air as constituencies are sewn up by traditional allegiances.

But a vote for change is what is desperately needed. Yes, we do need to invest vast sums in the NHS, in social care, in education and other vital services. But more important and even more urgent than all of these is a rapid commitment to tackling the catastrophe of climate change and the destruction of our natural environment.

Our politicians have spent more than three years not figuring out what to do about Brexit; within that time there have been increasingly dire warnings of the consequences of ignoring the science and allowing the greed of big business and certain power hungry individuals to desecrate our world — and we have already been ignoring the warnings for the past 30 years.

There certainly are no easy answers but, however we vote, we must demand a commitment to immediate action on this because otherwise we may not have a choice next time.

Carolyn Coleman. Full address supplied.