It is only fair to give Afghan refugees in Banbury support for their service to Britain
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
In reference to the article ‘Council defends £1,000 grants for Afghan refugees’ driving lessons in Banbury [‘Grants for refugees’ driving lessons' January 30] saying they are not paid by local taxpayers.
We cannot criticise our government for not getting enough of those Afghans that helped our armed services whilst we were an occupying force, out of the country before the Taliban came back and started summarily massacring those we left behind and then criticise it for helping the ones we did get out to integrate into the UK.
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Hide AdWhether or not we should have been in Afghanistan in the first place is a matter for a separate debate but we were, and had we not been these people we are helping now would have had no need and probably no desire to leave their own country.


Remember that the same laws that protect refugees (the Geneva convention) also protect our armed forces.
Staying in their own country would almost certainly have led to their death in the same way it did for those we left behind.
Driving is one job you can do in such dire circumstances to make yourself feel human again and give you back your pride, not to mention make you a contributor to the nation's wealth, as well as so grateful for the help you received in your darkest hour that any normal human being would be predisposed to love the country where they are exiled rather than feel completely isolated and hate it.
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Hide AdWe must show compassion to those adversely affected by our actions; that is a basic tenet, engraved upon my heart, of the country I love. I would gladly pay higher taxes to help genuine refugees. I only object to paying higher taxes to help invaders.
Anthony Cartwright via email
I find myself spending a lot of time in my retirement looking through old local newspapers, primarily editions of the ‘Banbury Guardian’ and the ‘Banbury Advertiser’ going back well over 100 years.
One thing I have noticed in them as a bit of an amateur historian, is that reports of council and other community meetings were very fulsome in the those days, with every detail of every speech and comment transcribed verbatim, and with considerable detail given of the interaction between personalities, adding great colour to the descriptions.
This is invaluable to historians, but is sadly a feature which appears to have waned dramatically in local newspapers from about 1950 on, to the point where it is a true rarity today.
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Hide AdHow refreshing it was then, to read Andy Mitchell’s report of the Shipston Ellen Badger Hospital meeting in last Thursday’s print edition [‘Ex-NHS chair threatened with ejection at meeting’ January 30 edition].
It was full of all the above features, and gave full details as to who said what and when, and details as to how each intervention was tackled by the chair of the meeting.
Mind, I know nothing of the issues and am not inclined to comment on the content of the meeting, but as a dispassionate reader of the article, I can only congratulate Andy on his achievement with this great piece of journalism, and I look forward to more such fulsome reporting of local council and community meetings in forthcoming issues; it is a wonderfully positive achievement that posterity will be so grateful for – and we need more of it!
Thanks, Andy and thanks, BG.
Steve Kilsby, Banbury
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