Letters: delivery drivers are treated like slaves

Your article on the inhumane working conditions encountered by some of Britain’s numerous delivery drivers was shocking (“Driven to the edge: the hidden cost of our Christmas parcels”, Special report).

Expecting a person to use their work vehicle as a toilet or a place to eat (if they are lucky enough to have time to eat) is nothing short of modern-day slavery, not to mention unhygienic. Every working person, no matter what career choice they make, is entitled to basic employment rights. Multinational corporations, under the watchful eye of recent Conservative governments, have developed these cold-hearted working conditions that maximise profits and allow them to pay the minimum amount of corporation tax. One of the glaring realities of Brexit will be the continued undermining of unions like the GMB and the disregard for employment tribunal decisions that seek to protect workers’ rights.

As consumers, we are driving the online shopping trend, which is predicted to account for over 50% of the retail market within 10 years. Our politicians are not shy in condemning other countries that have little regard for worker rights, but conveniently look the other way when it’s happening in their own back yard. The next time a delivery driver knocks on your door, take a moment to think about their working conditions and don’t give out abuse to them if they are an hour or two late.
Stuart Carruthers
Lewes, East Sussex

Your report covers all the major problems encountered by the gig economy. Politicians, trade unions and church organisations have cited the evidence and argued the case for greater regulation of this sector demonstrated by Ken Loach’s recent film, Sorry We Missed You. However, despite a few court cases and tribunal victories, little actually changes. Perhaps this is because underpinning the willingness of so many to partake in these jobs is the still greater fear of unemployment and our punitive benefits system, where the phrase “hostile environment” is an accepted factor without mention.

High unemployment has always helped maintain a more compliant workforce. Now, with supposed full employment, we have an accepted harsh regime and ever diminishing level of unemployment benefits, which means workers in such industries are terrified of handing in their notice or of being dismissed. It is the level of benefits and punitive regime that needs to be addressed.
Trevor Hopper
Lewes, East Sussex

Pernicious pornography

What on earth is Eva Wiseman proposing or suggesting (“Consent and pleasure need to be addressed far more creatively”, Magazine)? Violence towards women is pornography’s home. There is so much fiction and fact about the violence against women and girls perpetrated by their husbands, partners and random men who beset them. Pornography is the vehicle that enables this violence against your sisters, Eva. Didn’t you know?
Jacqueline Darby
Twickenham, London

Perils of social media

Barbara Ellen is possibly guilty of rationalising the plight of millennials and their antisocial attitudes (“Millennials’ manners are a defence mechanism against a hostile world”, Comment). Rather than consciously seeking solace in the online world, it seems more likely that these young people have been deprived of the ability to empathise by their upbringing. With parents reduced to working all the hours God sends simply to keep their heads above water, children have perforce had recourse to screens as a kind of electronic nursemaid.

The result, as Ellen points out, is that millennials are becoming “dangerously detached” from the general social consensus and more concerned about trifling matters of social media etiquette. In a world in which people are being voluntarily microchipped in order to better facilitate their interaction with computers, this should be a cause for huge concern. Meanwhile, France’s blanket ban on social media in schools is one that this country could usefully emulate.
Steve Williams
Peacehaven, East Sussex

Gardens of delight? Not here

If Rowan Moore thinks Trafalgar Square is bad, he should come to Edinburgh city centre (“Britain’s great urban areas are made for celebrations. Let’s keep them special”, Comment). Here, the spectacular Princes Street Gardens, between the medieval old town and the Georgian new town, are being increasingly prostituted to trashy privatised tourism “attractions”, winter and summer. Scores of junk food joints, booze outlets and expensive sub-Blackpool fairground rides take over the gardens for months each year. And a consortium is leaning on Edinburgh council to build a large, permanent events venue that will be permitted to close the gardens to residents and visitors for long periods.

The council, which is responsible for the world heritage site, allows this pollution for minimal fees from the operators, who can’t believe their luck. One of the most beautiful cities in the world, with probably the world’s worst municipal administration. But if you’re touting tat, one of the most “affordable”.
John Jones
Edinburgh

Heroes of Haiti

It is not often that one comes across the name Dessalines in a Sunday newspaper (“Sick of corruption, Haiti looks back to its revolutionary hero for hope”, Dispatch). Your article about Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the rebel general who defeated French forces and founded the state of Haiti in 1804, reminded me of the vivid account of the liberation of the island in Heinrich von Kleist’s novella of 1811, The Betrothal in Santo Domingo. Kleist was once imprisoned in the Château de Joux, the same French fortress as Dessalines’s predecessor, Toussaint Louverture, who had already died a captive there in 1803.
Nicholas Jacobs
London NW5

So much for plucky Brits

Whilst applauding the French people for their robust stand on Macron’s pension reform (“Macron is not just after reform, but permanent change”, World), I cannot help but wonder about our own women who were born in the 1950s. They, too, have had their pensions reviewed by their government and, undoubtedly, will be much worse off as a result.

Where is their vigorous response? Are they content to lie down and be kicked in the teeth? Alas, I thought that we Brits were made of sterner stuff.
Mike Woodall
Kingswinford, West Midlands

They came from Scrooby, too

Mick Catmull writes that, despite the fact that Plymouth is the focus for the 400th anniversary celebrations of the Mayflower’s journey to America, none of the Pilgrims came from there (Letters). As he also mentions, the Separatists originally came from the East Midlands. That is where it all started and where the focus should be.

They came specifically from a small area in north Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, centred on Retford. The most important were William Brewster, from Scrooby, and William Bradford, from Austerfield, who wrote the definitive work Of Plimoth Plantation and was governor of the Plimoth colony for 30 years.
Christina Jones
Retford, Notts