WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?
Letter
Graphically Inaccurate
Dear HIP
Splashing a huge graph supplied by Electoral Calculus for the Ashdown & Conquest and Hastings by-election (By-Election Battle Looms in HIP 288) is pretty reckless. You’re claiming it’s a neck-and-neck race between Labour and Reform, and the graph is enforcing this.
But the data is not intended for local elections, and the potential prediction (based on national polling) is of how the ward would contribute to a General Election vote. Your buried caveat that actually this data may be widely inaccurate will have been lost on most readers.
It’s especially important considering that in recent by-elections across the UK the race has often been between Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats. It may be worth spending time polling or speaking to people in the area next time.
David Angell
Letter
MP’s Vote on Ban
Dear HIP
In regard to your report on local campaigner Gabriel Carlyle pleading not guilty to a charge under the Terrorism Act stemming from a protest in support of Palestine Action (Gaza Campaigner Pleads Not Guilty in HIP 288), it should be noted that the disastrous and authoritarian vote to ban the nonviolent protest group Palestine Action received overwhelming support from MPs, including Hastings MP Helena Dollimore and self-styled free speech warrior Nigel Farage.
In August, this decision, and the mass arrests stemming from it, led Amnesty International to launch its first ever urgent action regarding the right to protest in the UK.
Ms Dollimore should now disavow her vote to ban Palestine Action, acknowledge the findings of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others that Israeli actions in Gaza clearly fit the legal definition of genocide, and join other Labour MPs in signing Early Day Motion 1310 calling for the immediate suspension of all UK arms sales to Israel.
Andrea Needham
From our website
Pier Business
A major issue facing any group wanting to take over the pier is how to create enough income to run it. On top of management, insurance and security overheads, the structure requires constant maintenance and repair. At its restoration, the only proposed sources of income were a cafe amd outdoor events – both, considering our climate and seasonal trade, very unreliable.
Unfortunately, it seems no one looked at how the Victorians/Edwardians built and ran successful piers. It might have won an architectural prize, but didn’t deserve prizes for business sense.
Whoever is allowed to take over this precious public asset must provide a plan of how they expect to make it financially viable, long term. Or else we continue the cycle of collecting money from the well-meaning public in the form of private donations and public grants, and then sinking into administration and disillusion.
Patrick Burton
From our website
Sisterly Respect
With reference to Joanna Lumley’s reminiscence in HIP 288 – Promises Should Not be Broken – Sister Phyllis Ella was headmistress of the Junior School, providing guidance for us in our early years. Other nuns I fondly recall were dear old Sister Jessie, who went barefoot with sandals throughout the year, and dear Sister Jean; then there was Sister Barbara, who petrified most and ruled the senior school for the majority of my time there.
It beggars belief that these ladies’ remains have been treated so callously, particularly by the St Agnes Trust, who should have shown more respect to these nuns who devoted their lives to the church and educating generations of girls.
Rosemary Dunsford
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