Aaah, the Express and Echo letters page. Home to the maddest and baddest of Exeter's correspondents. To be honest, I've given up the letters page over the past few months, but felt that it was ripe for the picking in an occasional new series here on SYi2.
The inaugral prime cut comes from a letter (or most probably email) sent from the good ol' US of A. Ex-pat Nick Spicer writes in response to an E&E story about some judge who is going to clamp down on crime:
SUPPORT FOR THE JUDGE, FROM USA
I write regarding Judge ready to get tough, Echo, November 29. I left Exeter in 1966 to emigrate to the USA.
I would love to bring my family to see my home town, but the streets are no longer safe.
I applaud the judge's actions.
Nick J Spicer
Florida
United States of America
So Nick doesn't want to bring his family home becase "the streets are no longer safe". Um, now I have lived for a few years in Exeter, and I can't say I've ever felt particularly threatened - but maybe I've just been lucky and potential ruffians have been put off by my rugged physique and menacing looks. Let's get some cold hard figures in to see how much more dangerous the "mean streets" of Exeter are than peaceful "Trumpton" Florida.
Since 2003, Exeter has experienced 1 murder. Devon and Cornwall combined have had 43. Pretty rough. Florida, in the first 6-months of this year, has had 408, which is going to work out at about 1650 for the same time period. Even taking into account the differences in population, you're nearly 5 times more likely to be murdered in Florida than in Devon and Cornwall. And let's not even bother with armed robbery and violent assault.
Now it maybe unfair to use statistics to rubbish what is already a poor letter, but come on, the man's an idiot. He's just covering up for the fact that his kids are desperate to go to Crealy Park and he ain't willing to shell out the money to take them.
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