Steve Halden got a letter printed 4th August Swindon Advertiser
Title - Must do better in tacking the second wave
The death rate in Britain for Covid 19 has been one of the highest in the world but what is important now is how to stop the second wave from spreading across the country.
Most countries across Europe thought they had Covid 19 under control but almost everywhere the numbers are on the rise again.
The problem with lockdown is that it destroys the economy so it can only be used short term. Britain cannot afford another lockdown.
We must use what we have learned to deal with the virus from now on. In future we have to rely on social distancing, quarantine and wearing masks to keep us safe.
There is no point in digging into the past looking for mistakes. The important thing is the future. We now face the second wave. Britain must do better this time.
Steve Halden
Steve Halden got a letter printed 29th July Swindon Advertiser
CLOSE BORDERS TO COVID
15% of the people of the people who have caught Covid 19 in Britain have died.
This makes it far more dangerous than we have been led to believe.
It means that it is not a virus that we can live with like normal colds and flu because Covid 19 is a hundred times more dangerous than flu.
Britain must do all it can to stamp out this virus. Our borders need to be closed until this virus has been destroyed. Britain's borders need to be sealed indefinitely and this could be for many years.
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 9th July 2020
Black Lives Matter believe that the current shortage of houses and jobs is caused by racial discrimination.
But the housing shortage has a far deeper cause and is more closely linked to age discrimination.
The young generation in Britain face a shortage of 4 million houses, while the older wealthier baby boomer generation mostly own their own homes.
The current recession could cause the worst drop in GDP for 400 years with a corresponding huge loss of jobs in Britain.
Superficially this might appear to be a racial problem but the shortage of houses and jobs equally affects everyone in the younger generation.
This makes the problem much more difficult to solve because age discrimination affects almost everyone under the age of 45.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 27th June 2020
Homes for the young
Britain is short of 4 million houses at the present time. This is of particular concern to the young and families just starting out in life.
The young generation are the flower of the nation and the baby boomer generation should be helping them along as best they can, but in fact the opposite is the case.
The majority of baby boomers own their own houses, and a fifth own more than one house. The majority of people under 45 live in very expensive private rented accommodation and are paying rent to landlords.
Speaking as a baby boomer myself I can see we have let down the young generation. In my opinion this shift in wealth to the older generation started when Britain began selling off all the council houses at huge discounts.
Steve Halden
Letter by Steve Halden printed in the Advertiser 28th May 2020
Quarantine for two weeks is being considered for people entering Britain as a way to stop new infections of the corona virus getting into this country.
This seems a strange time to bring in such a restriction, now that the government has spent hundreds of billions of pounds financing the eight week lockdown of the economy.
The quarantine would have been much more effective had it been at the start of the pandemic.
If it had been done at the very start we could have kept the virus out of the country and avoided the vast expense of the eight week economic lockdown in Britain.
