r/TinFish77, Reddit
Never forget
Thank you for featuring LGBTQ+ veterans this Remembrance Day. I am one of those veterans. I don’t talk about it very often and haven’t done until the Lord Etherton report, which I did the cover artwork for and also helped with designing the new Veteran LGBT+ pin. The ban has been a very big part of my life, hiding that I was a veteran for so long because of the pain that it had caused me. Still to this day, over 25 years later, I suffer with the trauma that will never leave. So thank you my friends, thank you.
David Tovey, Instagram
Cut it out
The proposals for benefit cuts for disabled people seem dehumanising and sorely unfair. My son has mental health issues and severe social anxiety. I cope every day with his meltdowns so I know any changes would send him spiralling into a self-harming episode. Ms Reeves has NO IDEA of the impact her cuts would cause to people like my son.
Elizabeth Burns, Margate
Skill bill
What an excellent special edition on housing [Issue 1639, 28 October-3 November] highlighting the issues and many of the solutions. Thank you for picking out skills for a special mention. Skills England offers many opportunities to tackle the skills challenges faced across the housing and construction sector. As you showed, across the UK there are many successful housing schemes being progressed by local and combined authorities. Likewise, for skills, we have a lot to learn from across the UK and Europe.
When you look across Europe the dual vocational training systems of Germany and Switzerland, the lifelong learning policies of Denmark and Finland, employer training through tax incentives in France and the Netherlands, and the sectoral funding approach in Belgium, they all have something we can learn from. Getting the UK-wide skills system is important for housing, for economic growth, and also for social equity. Perhaps Big Issue could have a special edition on skills next year?
Dr Michael Cross, Portsmouth
House rules
My family tried to build a small house on the site of a home that was bombed during WWII and has since only been garages. The rules were so limiting, we couldn’t build a house that would match the terrace next door. To comply, we’d have to build a strangely shaped building with an angled roof – even though a matching house would not have blocked any light.
We got planning permission, but then the council wanted an enormous amount of tax on top of planning fees for “infrastructure” levies, even though the site already had electricity and water and needed no infrastructure. So we just didn’t build the house.
This is why London has such a big housing problem. The authorities are difficult and greedy. It is expensive and restrictive to build anything.
r/Alarmarama, Reddit
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