Give us a break!
I refer to Isabel Stabile’s letter (December 8).
At school I was taught how to debate. I feel sufficiently well-informed about the dominant subject so often occupying this space that I could easily argue for either side (while believing only one).
Of course, I have my own view (or views) about abortion and ‘women’s rights’, some of them perhaps based on personal experience.
I believe that most readers will be much the same.
My simple point is that this constant banging on about it is not going to change anybody’s opinion.
All that it really does is provide regular self-indulgence for the writers.
My other point would be that same-old arguments debase the Letters Page because, very often, there is nothing in it that we have not already read (often several times in the same week).
I would be perfectly content to see a page every week in which the pro and the anti elements could excite themselves with their tiresome arguments and that the rest of us could ignore.
But I would expect something better – and something different – in the Letters Page of a national newspaper.
I can only hope that readers would make better use of this forum to express other views on other subjects.
But I fear they may feel that, these days, there would not be room because of the space so regularly occupied by one subject alone.
This newspaper’s letters used to involve lively comment on current affairs (often provoking livelier comment online). But, recently, and, incidentally, while we are all living through a life-or-death situation, the half-page below the leader could have been renamed the Abortion Page.
It is not my wish to stifle anybody’s views but I honestly do not want to have them thrust before me more than once. And, certainly, not more than once a week.
The Maltese have a saying (I hear it less frequently, these days), something like imma biżżejjed, or simply basta.
In English, that would be “please... give us a break”.
Incidentally, dear Doctor Stabile, making so-called puns with people’s names is rarely original, certainly nothing new and hardly ever funny. In my (long) experience, only in Malta do they thrill writers confident in their own smug cleverness and egotistical sense of humour so much that they commit them to print. (And if you have to point them out, you have lost the plot.)
Revel Barker – Għajnsielem
Did they vote for this?
Jim Ratcliffe. Photo: AFPI refer to the article ‘Daimler sells French Smart factory to Britain’s Ineos’ (December 9).
The owner of Ineos is British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe who, despite being a Monaco tax exile, was a strong Brexiteer in the 2016 referendum and financed the ‘Leave’ campaign.
He promised to build the Land Rover Defender factory in Brigend, South Wales. Indeed, the Welsh government has spent a good £5 million enabling investments in anticipation of the car factory being built. This would have created a number of much needed jobs, which are now going to the EU.
Brigend voted ‘Leave’ by a majority of 54.6 per cent. Is this what the locals anticipated when they voted as they did?
Charles Gauci – Sannat
Right to life
As well as the letters and articles appearing on the current abortion debate in Times of Malta, many readers will be interested in the work of Right To Life UK.
Their website is already the most-viewed pro-life website in Europe and the fourth in the world.
Their new digital online news platform Right To Life News has recently been launched, providing a superbly professional viewer experience and pro-life stories from all over Europe and the world, which are not limited to what news editors in the UK media might choose to publish.
To access this online resource, go to Right To Life UK and click on ‘News’.
Education and information are of key importance in the debate currently going on in Malta and Right To life News has plenty of both.
Alan Cooke – Sliema
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@timesofmalta.com. Please include your full name, address and ID card number. The editor may disclose personal information to any person or entity seeking legal action on the basis of a published letter.