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Your correspondent Mr Clark, (Examiner, February 21) engages in the same exercise (and falls into the same trap) as those, Christians among them, who take individual verses out of context, and consequently come to the wrong conclusions. Surely, even the most cursory knowledge of the teachings of Jesus, (love your enemies, love one another, as I have loved you, etc) his healings of the sick and suffering, must show that his mission was, and is, about compassion, forgiveness and love.

Jesus often used language we might well think extravagant, but it was always to hammer home an important point.

In the verses Mr Clark quotes, he is, of course, laying prior claim to the allegiance of his followers (we do, after all, believe in him as God made man) but also being realistic as to what this might lead to, and, indeed, warning against it.

Sadly, all too often both the church and individual Christians have proved him right.

No one can view the prospect of eternal damnation (which, today, we would think of as irrevocable separation from God, rather than medieval hell-fire) with anything other than horror, as I am sure Jesus does himself.

Nevertheless, it is an issue we cannot ignore, whilst maintaining our faith in a just and merciful God.

Incidentally, if Mr Clark cares to read the remainder of Ephesians 5, he will find that St Paul lays some pretty heavy responsibilities on the shoulders of the husband.

These are important issues, and there is much more to be said. If Mr Clark would like to discuss them further, I shall be pleased to meet with him.

Philip Frear (Rev), Douglas.

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In July 2016 the UK government reached an agreement with the BBC that over a three-year period beginning in 2018/19, the BBC would take over the cost of free over 75 TV licences.

The agreement was that in 2018/19 the BBC would fund one third of these licences, in 2019/20 they would fund two thirds and assume full responsibility for the cost of the licences in 2020/2021.

The agreement with the Isle of Man Government is that for the year 2017/2018 viewers will pay the full cost of licence and recoup the cost from Isle of Man social services department.

The letter from Treasury detailing the method of repayment implies that this agreement is ongoing with no mention of it only being until 2018/19.

If this interpretation of the agreement is correct it means that in order for Isle of Man over 75 TV viewers to have parity with UK viewers over 75 we should only in 2018/2019 be charged two thirds of the licence fee which would be refundable from social services, in 2019/2020 they should only be charged one third of licence fee and in 2020/2021 the BBC should assume full cost of such TV licences.

If the BBC is unwilling to fund licences in the Isle of Man in exactly the same way as licences in the UK, then the Isle of Man Government should respond by decriminalising non payment of TV licences, a measure that the UK government is considering.

In December 2016 I wrote to the Treasury thanking them for the letter explaining how the TV licences would be repaid and asked for confirmation that the BBC had accepted the same terms for accepting responsibility for over 75s TV licences in the Isle of Man as that concluded for UK viewers. To date I have not received any acknowledgement or reply.

J L Welsh, Silverburn Drive, Ballasalla.

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I am writing in reply to the recent letter (Examiner, February 14) by and article (Independent, February 23) about Samantha Ash regarding her ‘voluntary placement’ at a local care company.

I think further explanation is necessary.

Sam contacted me after I posted a video of our son Chris walking in a walking frame on my Facebook page.

Sam asked me what had happened to Chris and I explained he had been run over in 2006 and suffered a severe brain injury.

Sam told me she is taking a degree in psychology with counselling and wants to work in brain injury rehabilitation.

As Chris’s mum, I was happy for Sam to come along and sit in with Chris for a couple of ‘sessions’ to hear and learn what we do with him.

This was arranged and we picked Sam up and brought her to our home. Again, I arranged this as Chris’s mum, not as a care company.

However, Sam needed support herself and instead of the two carers working with Chris as is needed, one of them ended up having to support Sam, so this didn’t work out very well.

We tried this twice and realised that Sam had to have someone with her specifically to support her throughout the day.

We had a member of staff volunteer to be with Sam for a day on another occasion, so Sam did manage to spend time with Chris and learn about what we do.

However, when Sam told us that she wanted to come and work for the company as a carer we had to explain that this was not practical – without wishing to offend her we are a domiciliary care company and we provide support for people in their own homes.

How could we send Sam to provide personal care to someone when Sam would need a support worker herself to tell her what was needing to be done? How would she safely medicate a service user?

How would she navigate to their property to make them a meal? This would be her role, not the role of her support worker.

An inquiry with a specialist insurance company who insure disabled people to work as carers as to whether they could insure her (even though there was no job or voluntary placement on offer) raised two very salient points:

1. They were concerned about her ability to actually carry out the work safely

2, If there was a claim, who would be held responsible – Sam herself or the sighted person there to support her?

(I hadn’t mentioned her epilepsy to the insurers, only that she is blind.)

It also needs to be remembered that this is not Sam’s career choice, this is not a career she has yearned for. Sam says she wants a career in neuro rehab which is not something our domiciliary care company can offer.

The reality is, as a mum and not an employer, I tried my best to give Sam a flavour of what it is like for Chris to live with a brain injury in order to assist her with her degree. The offer of a job or a voluntary placement was all Sam’s idea, not mine, and we made it very clear that what she needed to do was concentrate on her degree and also discussed that to work in her chosen field she would probably need to go to the UK to gain experience as on-island the opportunities to gain such experience are limited.

I think it’s very misleading of her to say because an insurance company couldn’t insure her she ‘lost’ a placement which in reality didn’t exist.

Carole Walmsley, Unit KC, Harcourt Drive, Balthane, Ballasalla

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The recent budget included a new allowance that either rewards bravery or encourages foolhardiness.

It exempts from benefits tax the provision of a bicycle to an employee.

So far, so encouraging; but the highways between main centres on the island are among the narrowest in the world and many also have no pavements.

To superimpose motorists (travelling at 50mph), cyclists (at 12mph) and pedestrians (at 3mph) onto the same piece of tarmac is not the most sensible or even the most obvious way of solving this conundrum and yet that is what we do.

Rather than handing out tax breaks, the government might consider spending the same money on draining and surfacing our disused (and perhaps soon to be disused) railway lines.

These are wonderfully flat and could speed local enthusiasts and promote cycling tourism.

Mervyn Hills, Queen’s Road, Port St Mary.