The worst barnet of all

John Parrot, immacuately dressed with a fantastic Scouse accent is groomed perfectly, poor old Steve Davis on the other hand has a problem!

For all their care and attention the make-up department cannot hide Mr Davis’s bald head no matter how they try.

Poor old Ronnie is made to look more like Stan Laurel at every tournament.

But the worst of all has to be the one and only Hazel Irvine whose hair appears to be the construction of a beehive that only moves when her head does.

Finally the worst barnet of all goes to last year’s Judd Trump, God knows who constructed that, must have been the same make-up artist who paints Mr Davis’s head?

John Vintin

by email

Join the campaign

It is devastating to hear that Kadcyla – a crucial life-extending treatment for women with incurable secondary breast cancer – faces being withdrawn from the NHS, after the failure of NICE and the drug’s manufacturer, Roche, to reach an agreement.

Kadcyla can offer patients precious extra months – even years – of good quality time with their loved ones, with fewer side- effects than other treatments.

It is available in many other countries – including France, Germany and Australia – and unless NICE’s draft decision is overturned next month, this fantastic medical advance will bypass patients in England forever.

That’s why I’ve backed Breast Cancer Now’s campaign to #KeepKadcyla, which calls on NICE and Roche to urgently reach a deal to ensure patients in England are not denied this very effective treatment.

There is very little time left for this decision to be reversed and I urge NICE and Roche to do everything in their power to keep this drug available.

Margaret Bryan

Retford Road, S13

You have to want to stop

Well I really think TV ads have hit an all-time low with the new “stop smoking ad”.

Fair enough, we all know the health risks associated with smoking but for Smokefree to show someone supposedly getting tobacco out of a pack who gets blood and gore all over his fingers instead of tobacco, then proceeds to roll a cigarette and smoke it only to get a lump of gore in his mouth is disgusting, especially when you are in the middle of an evening meal.

What next?

I hate to think how low they can go to try and get their point across.

I was a smoker and stopped more than 10 years ago and I don’t think these over-the-top ads and shock tactics would have made any difference to me.

If you want to stop you will – no amount of spearmint, sprays, patches, TV ads can stop you smoking, it’s down to wanting to stop and a great amount of will power. How this ad slipped through, I don’t know.

David Mitchell

by email

Patronising rubbish

Mr Blomfield is not my MP, however I hope he will forgive me if I point out that it isn’t his job to, “ensure that we remain a positive, tolerant, outward-looking country” – Letters, January, 21, 2017. His job is to represent all of his constituents, including the negative, intolerant inward-looking ones.

This sort of patronising guff is deeply offensive to those of us who voted for a free-trading, sovereign UK.

Mick Andrews

Doncaster OUT Group, DN2

No control over heating

In reply to Roy Mitchell’s letter regarding saloon heaters on buses. I would like to state that drivers have no control over heating inside a vehicle.

As drivers we rely on engineering to ensure the vehicle is warm. The only heat drivers get is from the demisters, there are no cab heaters.

If the demisters are cold after one hour then the vehicle gets sent back to depot.

There is no agreement for saloon heating.

Kevin

by email

Secretive contracts

The council has decided to end the Veolia waste contract which was based on building a new incinerator and continuing to feed it with enough waste.

The uncertain situation that Veolia staff now find themselves in is very concerning as they await a multiple tendering process.

A 30-year contract was signed by the Lib Dems in 2001 with a five year extension later signed by Labour. Greens said it would tie our hands in a rapidly-changing world of new recycling options. Our current 29 per cent recycling rate puts us in the bottom 10 per cent of local authorities.

The street trees campaign has shone a harsh light on secretive, undemocratic, inflexible and expensive PFI, (Private Finance Initiative), contracts.

The current council funding crisis is worse, due to fixed contract repayments taking an increasing share of the annual budget at a time of cuts to essential services like adult social care. Millions of taxpayers’ money will now be used to pay off Veolia in contract penalty clauses.

Greens welcome the aim to bring the customer services part of the contract back in-house. But an opportunity to take the entire service back in-house has been missed.

Sheffield City Council could have provided the services that people want and need, rather than profits for shareholders of those successful in the tendering bids. It would also have allowed the council to focus on a wider range of more imaginative ways to reduce waste. There was no incentive to do that under this current contract.

Coun Douglas Johnson

City ward Green Party

Shortage of cash for NHS

The NHS is in crisis with people dying due to a shortage of cash, we are told. My understanding is that we give £3.7 billion a year to the BBC, mainly via the £145.50 licence fee. That is the law forced on us by the Government.

Now, the NHS is in crisis to the tune of around £2.45bn. If we stopped paying to prop up a self-regulating, totally biased, unaccountable BBC and paid it to the NHS instead, the £3.7bn would clear the £2.45bn NHS deficit “at a stroke”. Also remember the NHS was created to serve a population of 45 million in 1948 not the 65 million, and rising, that we have today.

Would you rather let yourself and others die or allow the totally biased BBC to continue creating another load of Z list celebrities on massive salaries that we pay but the BBC will not disclose.

Oh! By-the-way, sorry but you haven’t a say in the matter.

Terry Palmer

Hoyland, Barnsley S74