Car exports to Britain will bring France to its senses in the ranks of fishermen

SIR – My wife and I, both retirees, live in a bungalow. Our council tax stands at almost £ 2,500 and will increase next year. Our heating is fuel oil, supported by a coal fire. Both are to be banned.

Our local bus service stopped a few years ago. There is no parking at our station a mile away. If there is an emergency at the nearby nuclear facility, we must stay indoors, with the doors and windows closed, and turn off the heat. If it’s really bad, we have to evacuate somewhere.

The sweeper arrives from time to time. The garbage collectors and Tesco delivery service are excellent. We have good neighbors. There is a local pub, which has just reopened, as well as some decent walks. And that’s about it.

Now the Cop26 crowd has arrived in Glasgow from all over the world with a procession of 85 vehicles to tell us how to live. It’s disgusting.

Ian squires
Beckermet, Cumbria

SIR – Much attention is paid to the carbon footprint of the aviation industry, the services of which most of us do not regularly use, but little or nothing is being done of another industry whose footprint carbon, about 3.7%, is comparable to this. aviation and increasingly – our use of the Internet and various devices.

As processors have gotten faster and memory cheaper, we have become more and more lavish in our use. We send large email attachments, stream videos, and store our lives in clouds that, unlike hard drives, we can’t turn off. Websites are more and more complex and filled with videos and graphics. All of these things increase our carbon footprint.

There are of course times when using computers is the best option. For example, an online meeting can save significant travel, and an email can save paper, printing, and postage. But we need to be more sober.

I would like to think that this subject will be discussed at Cop26, but I do not have much hope.

Jonathan mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall

SIR – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Business, November 1) says Britain needs next-generation nuclear reactors, but makes no mention of thorium power.

This has huge safety benefits because the reaction stops when you turn off the injected neutrons, its waste is less of a problem, and it can consume nuclear waste from old uranium reactors.

Henri webber
Oxted, Surrey

Smokers’ rights

SIR – Assuming the 500,000 smokers admitted to hospital each year smoked 20 cigarettes a day, they will have paid over £ 1 billion in duty and VAT to the Treasury each year, on top of their other payments. ‘taxes and national insurance. This should entitle them to treatment (Letters, November 1).

Those who are injured in dangerous sports pay nothing more but are still entitled to treatment.

Roger jackson
Stockport, Cheshire

Used classics

MONSIEUR – I’m on vacation with a big stack of books. Some are from authors I’ve never read before, like HE Bates, Geoffrey Moorhouse, and Simon Raven – all recommended in The Telegraph.

All books are used hardback editions, which I purchased from a well-known online retailer. All of them were cheaper than the new paperbacks and all of them were a great pleasure.

Tim oldfield
Wye, Kent

Soul Cake Night

SIR – In our part of Cheshire, the ancient tradition of souling is kept alive around the Day of the Dead (Letters, November 1).

Groups of soul-cakers visit pubs to perform their mummer-style piece, raising money for charity. Traditional words are memorized (quite a feat) but with clever current twists.

Soul-cakers visited homes, performed previews, and were rewarded with soul-cakes (a type of fruit cookie). It is believed that the tradition was exported to America, as the locals tried their luck there. He then returned as Hallowe’en – which lacks soul and soul wit.

Susan sinagola
Antrobus, Cheshire

SIR – Samhain (Letters, November 1) is the term for Halloween counterpart in Ireland, never used in Britain except presumably among Irish settlers of the Dark Ages in the far west.

The festival is not originally from Ireland, being almost certainly of common Celtic origin. Its native British (Welsh) name is Nos Calan Gaeaf: night of the first day of winter.

Popular rites and beliefs associated with the festival are widely recorded, including bonfires, divinations, expelling witches, etc. In some neighborhoods, children begged for ‘soulcakes’, but outside of this practice, nothing looked like a ‘candy or spell’, which everyone of a certain age will recall being introduced fairly recently from the States. -United.

Nikolai Tolstoy
Southmoor, Berkshire

See you too late

SIR – I was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. The prognosis is not good and may be only a few weeks.

We immediately promulgated the power of attorney that my son (a general practitioner) holds. I have some money at Barclays, so he approached the bank and explained the urgency to me. He was told he could not have an interview until next January.

Nationwide, on the other hand, immediately addressed the issue.

Phil Gilles
Emsworth, Hampshire

We will meet again

MONSIEUR – While walking my dog ​​yesterday, I met a stranger who was walking his and wished him good morning. He replied, “See you later. How to respond to such approval?

Simon chalwin
Shaftesbury, Dorset

How the dioceses monopolized parish funds

SIR – The relentless growth of bureaucracy in Church of England dioceses began over 40 years ago.

The bishops made their first takeover with the endowments and the 1976 Glebe measure, when all the goods of the Glebe parish were entrusted to the dioceses. This was to allow rich parishes to help the poorest keep their clergy. The assets were held as an endowment fund by the diocese and the investment income was earmarked for the payment of clergy allowances. So far, so good.

However, over the years, dioceses have found ways to quietly take some of these funds to pay for their own debauchery. Their last breath is to use an accounting trick called total return accounting to allow them to liquidate some of the capital gains on endowment investments and use them for whatever purpose they see fit.

In 2018 and 2019, the Diocese of Oxford transferred a total of £ 11.7million from its Diocesan Allocation Fund to its Diocesan Common Vision Fund and “Extra Income”. These are funds that could and should have been used to pay the parish clergy.

Stephen billyeald
Pangbourne, Berkshire

Letters to the Editor

We only accept couriers by courier, fax and e-mail. Please include name, address, work and home phone numbers.
ADDRESS: 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT
FAX: 020 7931 2878
E-MAIL: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
TO FOLLOW: Telegraph Letters on Twitter @LettersDesk