The Plymouth shooting is a symptom of Britain’s mental health crisis

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A candlelit vigil is held at North Down Crescent Park, Plymouth, on Friday for victims of the shooting (Getty)

The horrific killings in Plymouth the other day will presage a number of official inquiries and one can but hope that a clearer picture emerges and action taken.

At the moment four questions enter my mind: firstly, as a nation, why have mental health problems – pre-pandemic, I must underline – escalated so much and so quickly; and is it connected to the proliferation of crazy conspiracy theories?

Why are our mental health services so woeful? This is not just in the last few years, the cut-backs started in the Eighties. Since then it has all been pure tokenism.

Finally, why would the authorities even consider a shotgun licence for a single man, living in suburbia, working as a crane operator? Farmers need shotguns, and I support this fully, as I do for other land workers such as pest control, etc.

I shall attempt to remain cautiously optimistic regarding the above points, but in the middle of such internal chaos, I wonder if they will forever remain near the bottom of the “to do” list.

Robert Boston

Kingshill, Kent

Toxic whiff of Windrush

I read Adam Forrest’s column with no little concern for these EU citizens who appear yet again to be trapped in the Home Office virtual waiting room for deciding their immediate futures.

Of course the necessary procedures have to be adhered to, but yet again it has an all too familiar bureaucratic feel to it, that genuine EU citizens who have legitimately applied are being inconvenienced in this way, leading to many associated problems.

I sincerely hope that this hasn’t the toxic whiff of the Windrush scandal about it and that it is just a logistical nightmare. But that doesn’t help many men and women who are now struggling to authenticate themselves. If the Home Office cannot cope with the sheer numbers involved, they need to outsource to a reputable independent company that can be relied on to act swiftly, fairly and, most important, justly.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

Where’s the justice?

British justice patted itself on the back recently, when a 33-year-old fraudster was jailed for conning an elderly woman out of £140 for a fake vaccine. He was also given a seven-year criminal behaviour order to stop him targeting elderly victims in their homes.

In the true spirit of levelling up, I equally look forward to Matt Hancock being brought to justice for allowing his mates to profiteer from the pandemic to the tune of billions of pounds. I look forward to Dido Harding being banned from further “public service’” for her gross incompetence.

Also I wait with bated breath for Boris Johnson to be brought to book for fooling many thousands of people out of their actual time on earth because he didn’t give a crap about the pandemic until it was far too late.

Amanda Baker

Edinburgh

Cost of deportations

You report on the supposedly expensive cost of deporting migrants. The country needs to bear in mind, however, the exorbitant cost of keeping them when they are not deported. A far larger cost to hard-pressed British taxpayers, I believe?

Maggie Owen

Hockwold