Your letters on plans for a McDonald’s, why we don’t need mayors in Norfolk and mitigation at magistrates’ court

A defence is mounted for the McDonald’s fast food restaurant in this week’s Lynn News letters…Actually, we do not need a mayor at allRegarding Cllr Alexandra Kemp’s correspondence under the heading of ‘We need female deputy mayor for this year’. I read the contents with exasperation at the rhetoric of ‘inclusiveness’ and ‘equality’.

The lady’s call for a female in this post by necessity is out of the feminist songbook, very one-sided, opposition to be eschewed, and the term institutional bias applied by Alexandra can be construed as reverse discrimination against other groups of people.The essence in appointing mayors is on merit and performance-related work accordingly, regardless of class, colour or creed. An area where Norfolk councils default is they put tokenism at the vanguard of their thinking, rather than pragmatism underpinned with aptitude, and this is the core of my opposition to the councillor’s call.When I find fault in this column with Norfolk’s municipal authorities I come up with solutions and alternatives, yet again I will with this advocated obligatory female deputy mayor. My answer is the abolition of local mayoral systems. The post is a year of freeloading at public expense. A lunch at no cost is available on school visits, hospitality at a variety of events, and to whet one’s thirst, free drinks at receptions.We can do without this expendable civic culture and its appeal to hangers on, saving council taxpayers substantial sums of money, which could be redistributed to refuse collections, street lighting and potholes etc. David FlemingDownham‘Maccys’ is way better than some options Regarding your story about complaints over planning permission being given for a McDonald’s restaurant to open in Fakenham.Personally, having worked in a McDonald’s restaurant, yes, it’s quick and easy – but actually, if you look at the nutritional value and price, it’s way better than going to some other popular outlets.Everything in a ‘Maccys’ is freshly prepared on site, unlike other fast food chains that have it stored in freezers.Let the kids eat. Ben Huntvia emailThese excuses are just so hilariousOne of my favourite things on a Friday when my Lynn News lands is a trawl through the court pages and while there are clearly some nasty, dim-witted and just plain rotten scumbags lurking among us I’m more amazed at the calibre of the lawyers charged with defending these lowlifes. Classically feeble excuses for drunk drivers from defence lawyers, suggesting “my client decided to drive out for desperately needed nappies for his girlfriend’s new baby, and despite only having one glass of Prosecco”, was breathalysed at three times the legal limit. Another miscreant caught with a cannabis grinder was claimed by his solicitor to be using it for grinding garlic.I don’t know how much we’re paying these sub-par legal ‘wizards’ to come up with these truly pathetic excuses, wasting the court’s time and insulting their intelligence, but it has to stop… it’s making my sides ache too much.Steve MackinderDenver Not the best example of this attackThat the freedom of speech is seriously under attack is not something I would disagree with, but the example David Fleming gives (April 11) is poorly chosen.Livia Tossici-Bolt was demonstrating outside an abortion clinic defying an order imposed by the local council after previous picketing by anti-abortion groups had caused distress both to the women who were using the clinic and the staff who worked there.The judge in the case, Orla Austin, concluded that it was beyond reasonable doubt that Tossici-Bolt was engaging in an act of disapproval of abortion services and that “she lacks insight that her presence could have a detrimental effect on the women attending the clinic, their associates, staff and members of the public”. People using abortion services should be allowed to use them without being subject to harassment or distress, and the right to protest does not give people the right to harass others.David Fleming tries to compare Tossici-Bolt’s treatment (she was if fact given a conditional discharge) with what he calls “rioting by Hamas supporters”.I can only presume he is referring to the masses of always peaceful demonstrators against the Israeli Defence Force in Palestine.Can Mr Fleming give us dates and times when these riots were supposed to have taken place? Originally, the Metropolitan Police was very supportive in protecting people’s right to these peace demonstrations, even rebuffing Suella Braverman’s attempts to ban them. Recently however, they show signs of having been got at by reactionaries.It has always been the case that big marches traditionally were held on Saturdays: usually less people work on that day than other weekdays and the public transport is better than on Sundays.Recently though, the police have tried to ban marches on Saturdays on the pretext that it may interfere with people’s worship.The environmental movement too has been under attack with firms and public bodies taking out injunctions to try to prevent people exercising the democratic right to peaceful protest. A good example is the recently concluded case where Shell tried to claim $11million from Greenpeace for peacefully occupying one of their oil rigs. The good news is that we have now a widespread alliance across the peace and environmental movements to defend our democratic rights.As part of this Friends of the Earth are taking these current attacks to the European Court of Human Rights.Kevin WaddingtonSouth LynnFor once he acted like the man in chargePrime Minister Keir Starmer played to his parliamentary audience of MPs as he recalled them from their Easter break to sort out British Steel at Scunthorpe.I feel that for once he acted like the man in charge instead of preaching his usual ideological waffle, however, it should never have reached this stage in the first place.If Ed Miliband’s almost religious fervour for net zero emissions had been curtailed, we might still have had a coal mine in the UK to provide the coal required, instead of paying megabucks to have it shipped in.Or does my cynical mind say that Starmer has done this to appease the electorate, with local elections coming up next month?Should Farage and Badenoch set their differences to one side and canvas hard, those local elections could start the wind of change.Then there is the massive build up of domestic rubbish lining the streets of Birmingham, with the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner being just about snubbed by the bin men’s union over the latest pay offer placed on the table. Could be another set of votes “loaned” to Labour going down the ‘swannee’. However, alongside this is the fact that the Labour run Birmingham council has lost control over this awful litter of detritus lining their city’s streets.Does this government want the possibility of flea-infested rats on the streets coming into contact with the good citizens of Birmingham and causing an outbreak of bubonic plague?At the end of the day, the buck stops at his desk, he is Prime Minister and must act like one. He showed some political courage over British Steel, he must do the same again over Birmingham.Alan MudgePentneyPicture of the Week

John Elson’s cartoon