Let’s hear it for the Loony Party,
more taxes and why love is sad

In MetroTalk: Bringing back the stocks, politicians always cutting taxes and the glorification of romantic love.

In MetroTalk, a vote for the Official Monster Loony Party is considering reviving a policy straight from the 12th century. What do you think?

Meanwhile, readers are discussing tax cuts, global warming, and romantic love.

Do average British citizens really want these tax cuts Rishi Sunak promises? Should we confront the catastrophic implications of global warming presented by the Greens? And why is romantic love so glorified above all else?

Share your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments.

The Loony Party will bring back the stocks

In regards to Clark Cross (MetroTalk, Thu) talking about reintroducing the medieval stocks. This is a policy that the Official Monster Raving Loony Party have long championed.

There would be the old-style stocks in every town and village in the UK. Obviously this would give a huge boost to the country’s stock market.

Companies would be encouraged to design new versions of stocks and meet up with other companies to trade ideas at the stock exchange.

For more information about the only political party that can put a smile on your face at election time, go to Loony Party website. (Lord) Newt, OMRLP Member, Chessington.

Why are politicians obsessed with telling us they are going to cut taxes?

They have been spouting this nonsense for every election of my 50 years as a voter.

We can see the results – NHS unable to cope, public buildings falling apart from cheap construction and lack of maintenance, roads with more holes than a sieve, inadequate social care for all ages… The list is endless.

What we need is a fair tax system, simplified to reduce cost to government and business, with loopholes closed to stop avoidance by those who can afford to employ specialists. Alan, Watford

It’s not doomerism to talk about global warming

Mark Dawes talks about the ‘doomerism’ of ‘anti-scientific’ Green parties that reject the climate-saving opportunities of GMO foods and nuclear power (MetroTalk, Thu).

Successive governments have sold us a dream that technology will save us and while we’ve all been waiting for this dream, the planet has started to burn.

Look at how climate change is causing rising food prices, uninsurable homes, mass migration and so on to see that radical change is needed.

This is not ‘doomerism’. It’s a warning that we need a plan to keep us all alive – rather than just the wealthy who can hide in bunkers – when the lights finally go out! Gavin, Knebworth

Why is the world so couple-centric?

The article by Alice Wilson about how society wrongly values romantic love over friendship (Metro.co.uk) is so true. Practically from birth we are read fairy tales where the prince and princess live ‘happily ever after’ – although there is never any mention of them having children, which I realised years later probably accounted for my indifferent attitude towards childbirth.

Even from a very young age, blown away by these tales, I was hell-bent on finding The One or ‘Mr Right’.

Pop songs, films TV etc only fuelled this desire and yet at the same time, emphasised the intense sorrow experienced by one/both partners when a romantic relationship came to an end.

This did not fill me with confidence but with apprehension.

And even though being single doesn’t have the same stigma it once did, it seems the world is still very much couple-orientated.

I cannot help but wonder why it has to be like that – we are conditioned to think like this but the break-ups and the divorces makes the world seem a much sadder place somehow. CMF, via email

What is a feminine way of acting?

I was interested to read Jason Reid’s experiences as a ‘femme’ gay man who was shocked to hear his date tell him ‘this is where all the real men are’ while pointing at the ‘more masculine clientele’ inside a Soho bar (Metro, Wed).

Jason, I don’t want people to attack or hurt you and I do want you to feel loved, accepted and appreciated as a person – but I struggle as a woman with the whole ‘femme’ thing.

The sentence, ‘I tend to express myself in a typically feminine way by animated mannerisms’ is quite offensive.

Such strong, animated mannerisms are not typically ‘feminine’ at all and come across as caricature or a mockery of femininity. Terri, West Midlands

While I don’t agree with the methods of the activists who stuck a picture of Wallace and a damning comment about the RSPCA on the portrait of King Charles (Metro, Wed), I agree with their message.

Reports of systematic cruelty at under-monitored, RSPCA-approved farms are becoming more prevalent.

And as for His Maj making it clear he ‘is sensitive to the suffering of animals’, how does that sit well with his family’s tradition of hunting and shooting? Judi O’Regan, Longfield, Kent

Sun kind of wonderful?

Thousands of hectares of arable farmland have been taken out of production and turned into solar farms, reducing our capacity to grow food and making us more dependent upon foreign imports. Why not put solar panels on the roofs of buildings instead?

This would also reduce domestic and commercial energy bills, helping to lift people out of fuel poverty. How much money could the NHS save if it generated all or part of its energy needs? George, Durham