Should the government be encouraging people to have more babies? What Metro readers think

Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.

I read your article about the man’s snatched phone ending up in China and that more than 52,000 phones were stolen in London last year (Metro, Tue).

I am appalled by the way the police ignore this type of crime. If, as your report also says, they know that phone crime is up by 47 per cent in Westminster on the year, why don’t they look at the CCTV and when they see people with faces covered on e-bikes go and arrest them.

I had my phone stolen recently and
I have seen people on bikes committing the same crime. What I never see are police on the beat. Martin, SE1

He was president when Isis was defeated but…

Kris (MetroTalk, Tue) urges critics to reflect on what they say about Donald Trump, noting that he was president when Isis was defeated.

And yet Trump’s inexperience in foreign policy destabilised the Middle East and strengthened Iran.

Far from promoting peace, Trump did the opposite. And Elon Musk uses X to incite division, manipulating algorithms under the guise of ‘free speech’. Like the Israel conflict, many fail to grasp the complex history and nuances, instead opting for simplistic, binary views.

Today, loud, baseless opinions thrive 
on social media, with little regard for facts or understanding. Kimberley, Putney

Covid cases are on the up

With regard to Ann Smith’s comments (MetroTalk, Wed) about the man being rude to her about Covid ‘going away’ while she was out shopping wearing a mask.

It’s amazing how many people think that Covid has just evaporated! If you Google ‘UKHSA Covid-19’ you’ll see that, as at August 2024, about 200 people in the UK are dying each week with Covid-19 on their death certificates, and there are more than 2,000 new cases per week.

If you pretend it’s not there anymore, you’re deceiving yourself.

My wife and I routinely sanitise our hands when out and about (since lots of people’s personal hygiene habits are really gross), and we mask up for two weeks before we go on holiday.

For us, it’s just a case of better safe than sorry but if you’re in a vulnerable group, it can easily (and literally) be a matter of life and death. Being snippy about other people taking reasonable steps is just ignorant and daft. Frank McCormack, Leeds

War is not a game

J Parkin (MetroTalk, Wed) says London compares unfavourably with Paris in terms of historic buildings because we didn’t surrender to the Nazis and so were heavily bombed.

I am little concerned his letter was overly simplistic and divisive.

War is not a game and people both from France, Britain and many other nations fought to defend the democracy we enjoy. T Skoczylas, Solihull

From ‘tram passes’ to ‘Erotica’ – Mondegreens are always better

Regarding Alan’s letter (MetroTalk, Tue) about ‘mondegreens’ – those misheard phrases that can be better than the original.
At school in the 1930s, one of my father’s mates beseeched the Lord to ‘Give us our tram passes’.

During World War II rationing Vera Lynn groaned about ‘whale meat again’. A few years later a song called People Will Say We’re In Love had a line rendered by mondegreenists as ‘Don’t throw bookends at me!’

Another case of domestic violence was ‘I’ve thrown a custard in her face’.
The Reverend Bluejeans was a popular if mythical clergyman in the 1960s and Terry Wogan always introduced Lucille’s ex bemoaning being left with ‘400 children’.

Beethoven’s ‘Erotica’, meanwhile, was more of a typist’s than a Freudian slip but the popular classical repertoire includes such gems as The Orange Juice Concerto (Concerto de Aranjuez), Smetana’s ‘Battered’ Bride and Elgar’s ‘Pump And Cyclestands’.

North Sea Ferries failed to see the possibilities of seasickness and mondegreenism when naming a vessel Norsea. And how did Farmer Suticle become a whole industry?

Yes, mondegreens are always better than their originals! David, Southport