Mike Tickner News Today

A Bracknell community pub has been awarded pub of the year for the second year in a row.

SIR – I have nothing but admiration for the work Dame Esther Rantzen has done in the name of protecting vulnerable children over her lifetime. But along with many others in the Parents for a Smartphone-free Childhood movement, I respectfully disagree with her response to a call for a ban on smartphones and social media for children (report, February 17). She says that children need smartphones to access help for their mental well-being. But children need mental-health services more than e...

SIR – An estimated 1,000 migrants have crossed the Channel illegally this year alone, but once again the Archbishop of Canterbury denounces the Government’s Rwanda plan (report, January 30) without offering any viable solution to break the business model of the people-smugglers.

SIR – Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, has been unveiling Labour’s plans to fix the NHS (report, December 2). They sound plausible enough – except for one detail.

Plus: Sunak emulating Blair; Natural England in a muddle; who pays for water company failure; a united Ireland; and a plucky apple tree

SIR – I left HSBC due to its moronic anti-Brexit advertisement. I am now forced to leave NatWest due to its treatment of Nigel Farage. Are there any non-political banks in the United Kingdom?

Plus:

A Bracknell pub has been commended for its top quality ale and crowned the winner of the 2023 Branch Pub of the Year.