This is what you have been writing to us about this week.

To send your own letter, email bfpletters@london.newsquest.co.uk. Please note, any letters sent to the Bucks Free Press office are only being picked up periodically during lockdown.

Bus-top town tour needed for The Chairboys

Is it now time for Wycombe Wanderers to become Wycombe Wonderers? At the same time their nickname could be changed from the ‘Chairboys’ to the ‘Chairmen’.

After all they have now reached a new pinnacle in their history, 27 years after gaining football league status.

When Covid permits it would be wonderful if the town council could arrange a bus-top tour of the town followed by a civic reception. Oh but I forget. Thanks to hubris and to political manoeuvrings by Wycombe District Council before its demise in April, the town no longer has a local council.

Instead they took away over £100 million in reserves to deposit with the new Buckinghamshire Council in Aylesbury leaving High Wycombe leaderless and lacking direction.

It certainly can be said these entrenched local councillors knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing! But now at least football is putting us back on the map!

Willie Reid, Holmer Green

Wycombe MP’s care comments

Steve Baker’s letter in today’s print BFP (July 17) ‘pays tribute’ to: ‘all people who run and work in care homes in the constituency’ and goes on to say that in PMQ this week in Parliament the Prime Minister ‘was concerned health care workers might think he blamed them for deaths in the care sector’ (silly old care workers!).

Steve says: ‘the Government’ accepted ‘full responsibility for its response to the pandemic’ and believed it was due to the hard work of care staff that ‘Covid-19 incidents’ were at their lowest level since the crisis began.

I won’t quote lengthily from Baker’s letter but he suggests everybody was learning during the pandemic before thanking ‘everyone who has cared for others.’

What caused this concern on the part of Steve and the Prime Minister? Do you think it was because two weeks earlier the PM had explained why nearly half of Covid fatalities were in care homes by saying: “We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have …”

You may remember this was greeted with howls of execration, and demands for an apology, by care sector management and unions and others.

Andrew Lansley, a former Conservative health secretary openly blamed the government’s own handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused it of trying to blame the NHS for its own failings.

Another typical response was from Mark Adams, CEO of Community Integrated Care: ‘… brave people on minimum wage, often with no sickness cover… going into work … putting their own health and potentially lives at risk. And then to get … (the PM) blaming on them what has been an absolute travesty of leadership from the government, I just think it’s appalling.”

Realising he’d made a bad misjudgement, Johnson, and health secretary Matt Hancock, refused to apologise, insisting Johnson had been ‘misunderstood’.

Steve Baker avoids mention of the PM’s original remarks blaming care workers but has obviously written this in response to comments in the print BFP last week by Sarah Livadeas, CEO of the Freemantle Trust, which runs many care homes across Buckinghamshire – she said Johnson’s comments: “… made me very angry. One of the biggest challenges we faced was the constantly changing guidance …”

Possibly Tory Central Office has told MPs to write letters like this to their constituencies and Steve Baker is following orders, but I can’t help thinking that if he had kept silent people would have assumed Steve probably respected care workers, and was tactfully ignoring the fuss over Johnson’s words, but instead he has to reassure simple-minded care workers who: ‘… often feel they do a difficult job with little thanks’ before reassuring them ‘how much they are appreciated’.

His letter betrays the lack of genuine respect Tories have for essential workers – its tone and words suggest a grown-up reassuring a tearful child they are appreciated and everyone loves them.

Care workers are not stupid and Baker’s words simply reinforce those of Rachel Harrison of the GMB, which represents care staff, who said of Johnson’s comments: “I’m not sure quite how those comments could have been misinterpreted, to be honest.”

An ‘explanation’ like Steve Baker’s adds to the original insult – Steve should have shut up.

Lawrence Linehan, Wooburn Green

Full Covid inquiry is needed

WE should all hope that Bucks MPs join the increasing number in the Commons who want a full inquiry into the government's handling of the virus epidemic.

So many lives lost, so many left apparently permanently ill and countless jobs losses in a shattered economy. Too much muddle and dither.

Britain once proudly led the world in so many fields. Just after the start of the year we had the luxury of time to see the likely pandemic emerging in other countries first - but we still got so much mishandled when it arrived here. Germany, for instance, has done so much better.

Hindsight is always an easy thing and it is easy to criticise but surely so many steps by Boris and Co, and senior health advisors, are now seen as wonky.

There was the late start to lockdown, slow testing and tracking, allowing millions to arrive unchecked for virus through our airports, decisions to allow large gatherings at the end of winter, the awful muddle over the shortage of PPE for NHS and care staff, the bungled and hurried discharge of infected patients into care homes, the effectiveness of testing and tracing and the impact on children of the long closure of schools.

We have all seen some of the worst damaging blunders in our history. We do not want a long-winded delayed and long inquiry.

Just an examination of how things went so sadly wrong. Also, not another costly beanfeast for lawyers earning so much precious public money as inquiry hearings are held.

And maybe the epidemic is not close to ending yet. Are we about to see a second surge in cases?

Name and address withheld

The EU has improved over the years

The European Union has been better than that and it has improved. That is the further point I would like to make, in reply to Leo Duggan's letter on the 19th of June.

I regret my use of the word "nonsense" in my last reply. That is not the way to win over someone. Instead, I should have called Mr Duggan's view "overstated" and "outdated".

The European Commission has always done a careful job. Having been to Brussels, and met people who work in the Commission, I believe that they take their work seriously.

A young woman working as an MEP's assistant told me, "The number of checks for conflict of interest I've had to go through... There's no way there's any corruption here".

Yes, the Court of Auditors criticised the Commission in 1977-1978 for amounts "incorrectly classified on the balance sheet". But the EU's accounts have been "signed off" every year since 2007. This does not always mean that the projects were good value for money or achieved their goals.

Yes, the Common Agricultural Policy was a victim of its own success in the EEC days, with the famous wine lakes and butter mountains. Since then, the CAP has been reformed - and the UK government's 2012-2014 Balance of Competences Review (tinyurl.com/balcomp) found "the worst elements of the CAP had been removed".

Yes, there has been a wasteful practice of throwing fish overboard. That has been tackled with new rules. However, as the European Parliament's fisheries committee has noted, in its published study papers, the unpredictability of fish catches means that some flexibility is needed.

One of the things that impresses me about the EU is how much is available online. Catherine Bearder MEP said at the European Parliament that all MEPs get an iPad "which you need". The image of lorry loads of filing cabinets evoked by Mr Duggan is rather out of date.

Phil Jones, member of European Movement UK, Bourne End

What an achievement for Wanderers

Back in 1951 I played for the Spring Gardens football side when we won the district primary school football cup on Loakes Park, then the home of Wycombe Wanderers.

The wonderful news of the Wanderers promotion success brings back happy memories of that day nearly seventy years ago.

Many congratulations to Wycombe Wanderers from New Zealand.

Mike Jarman, New Zealand

Change starts at home

On July 13th, 2020 Wycombe Wanderers reached the Championship for the first time in the club’s history.

Thanks to a Joe Jacobson penalty, the Chairboys took the lead in the 79th minute and held on to break new ground for the club. Never before has the team played in the second tier of English football.

Wycombe’s ascension to the heady heights of championship football coincides with a time of change in our wider community, particularly when it comes to the movements promoting racial equality in the world today.

It seems appropriate that one of the club’s most recognisable stars has been outspoken on this topic: Adebayo Akinfenwa, the towering frontman nicknamed ‘The Beast’ for his domineering style of play and powerful build, was featured on a BBC article following the playoff semi-final where he described “racial abuse” coming from a “representative of the opposition”.

It seems almost unbelievable that such a disgusting occurrence could take place only weeks after the reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement, however, it reinforces the point that many British citizens, like myself, have been trying to get across: the UK has serious issues with racism too.

The vitriolic spread of racism seems more apparent with the increased attention on BAME issues in the media in recent times - as has always been the case throughout history, ignorant white people feel threatened by a minority group asking to be treated as equals.

These barbaric Neanderthals rear their ugly heads more frequently when they feel like their position atop the ladder of privilege is questioned.

Bigots of this nature can be easily identified when conversing on topics like racism: note a lack of empathy, jingoistic attitudes and an argument punctuated by the slogan ‘All Lives Matter’.

The cancerous spread of such viewpoints is suffocating for any advocate for equality - a real victory on this front appears unlikely. The football field has been one battleground for these growing racial tensions, evidenced by the inflammatory and downright benighted actions of Jake Hepple - the Burnley fan who organised a stunt whereby a plane flew over the Etihad bearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ banner.

This act, although only seen by those in East Manchester, has gone a long way in revealing the extent of racism throughout this country.

Comments on articles describing the event and its aftermath are largely supportive of Hepple. The question remains, for those of us with a conscience and any understanding of what ‘racial inequality’ means, what is to be done about those who refuse to recognise these issues?

Akinfenwa comments: “…if we are to make real and long-standing change then we must strive to educate each other about these issues.”

To some, it would appear that the times are changing. Protests across the globe continue, weeks after the death of George Floyd, as the global public heap unrelenting pressure on the systems that have created such injustice.

Premier League teams take a knee before every game, and social media feeds have been peppered with black squares and captions frequented by terms like ‘allyship’ and ‘unity’. Education, the thirty-eight-year-old striker continues, is “ultimately the key.”

“Taking a knee, supporting social media campaigns, and wearing a logo on our kits is a start, but it is not enough. We must all play our part."

So, if you want to make a change in the world, if you really want to be a part of the solution, think about what impact your actions will have on the issue. Using social media to spread awareness? Fine. But by now, who isn’t aware of the current state of the planet?

By posting on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat all you are really doing is trying to cover yourself. Proving to your peers that you support the movement. But your peers are not the ones who need convincing. The power lies in the hands of educators.

How many times did you learn about racism when you were in school? Once? Twice? If, like me, you are in your late teens, then at most you might have had a series of PSHE lessons where you discussed some issues to a minimal extent.

I know that racism is a topic that did not receive adequate attention in my scholastic career. I know many people who feel the same. Write to the school, college or sixth form you attended. Ask what is being done to ensure that issues surrounding race, inequality and colonial history are part of the syllabus.

Write to your local MP (for High Wycombe, this is Steve Baker - his email address is steve.baker.mp@parliament.uk) and demand that we see a change to the way these topics are covered in schools.

Follow through on any conversations you have. It is not enough to be assured that changes are being put in place. Get specifics. Request updates on progress. Hold these institutions to their word. Remember - change starts at home.

Jonah Sharma, address withheld