Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.

‘Provide support, not penalties’
If the government is to ‘get Britain working again’, it needs to engage students and connect them with businesses – cutting benefits for those who decline training or apprenticeships is a blunt instrument.

What they need is support, not penalties. Successive governments have failed to act, including fixing the broken Apprenticeship Levy, with apprenticeship numbers falling by 40 per cent since 2017.

Traditional education is disengaging many students. Schools struggle with absenteeism and shrinking budgets, while transport costs block access to career-focused alternatives such as University Technical Colleges (UTCs). We need systemic change – more funding for education, accessible pathways like UTCs and better support for businesses and young people alike. Penalising the disadvantaged won’t solve our skills crisis – providing opportunities will. David Land, Trustee, North East STEM Foundation Chair, UTC South Durham

Public transport cuts are holding workers back

‘How can people earn a living when bus routes are cut?’
Do ministers not understand the common sense fact that people need public transport to get to work? Without transport, they will give up their jobs or get sacked.

In Calderdale, the No.590 (the main bus on the main road from Rochdale) was cut from every half hour to every hour. This has impacted many people.

How can people get on their feet and try to earn a living when buses on main bus routes are cut like this at the coldest time of the year? Angela Walker, via email

Why affordable housing feels like a distant dream

As a lifelong resident of Walthamstow in east London, I have been watching the building of housing developments Hepworth Place and Feature 17. I was interested to see the cost of a one-bed flat in the latter was £375,000 (Metro, Tue).

How can this government hope to solve the housing crisis when developers set prices beyond the wildest dreams of most people? The government can build millions of homes – the problem is not the number of homes, but the obscene cost.

Myself and millions of other working people can only watch in despair of ever owning a home of one’s own.

Walthamstow was traditionally a working-class area, but lifelong residents now feel they are not wanted. Sharon, Walthamstow Resident

Singing at the cinema won’t make you ‘popular’ with this reader

‘I’ve paid to see the film, not listen to the audience’
Sharan Dhaliwal (Metro.co.uk) misses the point with her article demanding that we tolerate loud people during screenings of Wicked and other musical films.

If I have chosen to attend a special singalong showing that a cinema has set up, then that’s fair enough – I’ve consciously volunteered to be among like-minded people and we can hoot and holler all the way though. I’ve taken my girlfriend out to karaoke nights for the Mamma Mia! film and we always have a wonderful time.

At a general public showing, however, it’s a neutral ground and different rules apply – it should be quiet for the broadest accommodation. I’ve paid to watch a film, not a performance and I’ve paid to listen to the soundtrack, not the audience.

I shouldn’t have to accept the drowning-out of the actual movie with audience members who are, frankly, just showing off and demanding attention on themselves – my ticket was paid to the cinema, not to them!
The loudmouths are being obnoxious and anti-social. Robert Frazer, Salford

Why dangerous drivers deserve tougher sentences

‘A two-year sentence isn’t enough for ruining a life’
I’ve just read about the car crash that paralysed Catherine Davies from the neck down (Metro, Wed). Driver George Taylor, 19, was filming himself steering with his knees when he hit her.

He should get more than the two years in jail he was sentenced and banned from driving permanently, not just 40 months. He will end up behind a steering wheel again and his memory of how he wrecked this poor woman’s life will fade. William Barklam, Erith

Taiwan, Tibet and the lies of modern imperialism

‘Claiming Taiwan is no different from Russia claiming Ukraine’
Robert Bucknor (MetroTalk, Mon) makes the surprising assertion that Tibet and Taiwan are an integral part of China and also that Northern Ireland endured a ‘civil war’ in the recent past.

He makes the first claim to warn against meddling in the affairs of Beijing and the second as part of his argument that we would not have welcomed other countries meddling in ours.

Neither are true. Tibet was conquered by revolutionary China in a violent invasion in the 1950s, reminiscent of Russia’s attack on Poland after the 1917 revolution.

Taiwan was the last hold out of the defeated nationalists in the Chinese civil war and never part of the Chinese communist party’s domain.

To make a claim on territory that the indigenous population rejects is old-fashioned imperialism and to swallow Chinese propaganda about Taiwan is the same as assuming Russia has a ‘claim’ to Ukraine. Both views amount to little more than appeasement of fascist countries intent on dominating Asia and Europe.

Sticking up for democratic, western-supporting countries and indeed individuals is not ‘interference in the internal affairs’ of Russia or China but instead showing support for peoples who reject a fascist future.
Northern Ireland did not endure a civil war, that took place further south in the 1920s. Instead there was a violent insurgency and brutal tribal conflict, which was eventually resolved with significant American input. Chris Shepherd, London