Miliband maybe inexperienced – but surely it would be better if he was given the chance rather than allow Brown to make an even greater mess of running this once proud country?

The sooner Brown goes, the better. His dismissal is crucial if confidence is going to be restored to the economy.

From: Sean Evans, Brough, near Hull.

GORDON Brown has no democratic mandate. He came to power without even submitting himself to a contest within the Labour Party when many of his weaknesses could have been exposed if a credible candidate had had the bottle to stand. He is totally discredited and we should get rid of him as soon as humanly possible. I never thought I would hear myself say "Come back Tony Blair, all is forgiven", but that is precisely how I feel right now.

From: Jane Matthews, Stradbroke Road, Sheffield.

HOW can David Cameron claim that he is on course to become the next Prime Minister when his party still has such a pitiful number of councillors in the great cities of the North? It was the people of Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and so on who delivered Margaret Thatcher three successive General Election victories. Cameron is nowhere near achieving the levels of support that he requires to be the PM.

Why doesn't he, and his team, start spending time in these areas? To me, the Tories remain the party of Notting Hill and the Home Counties. Do others agree?


Crowded train service off the rails

From: T Mercer, Oxford Road, Guiseley.

I MADE the mistake the other morning of travelling into Leeds by train rather than car. It is a mistake that I will not be repeating.

There must have been at least 60 people standing in the carriage because the train was so overcrowded. I cannot believe that Northern and Metro, the operators of the Wharfedale Line, were not in breach of health and safety rules.

I'll stick to the car in future. At least I have a seat. And the petrol and depreciation will cost considerably less than the £4.30 that I was charged for this miserable journey.

Metro and the Government talk about new railway carriages becoming available. Where are they?

I can only presume that
the railway company
directors, or local Leeds councillors, do not travel by train at peak time.

From: Simon Smith, Wellesley Avenue, Hull.

WHY is it that public transport is so friendly and accessible in Europe – and not here?

On the Continent, there are electronic signs at bus stops informing passengers when the next service is due.

They are not really needed because buses are invariably on time.

Yet, over here, you just stand in vandalised shelters waiting for a bus that might never come – and with no one to call for assistance.

Do bus and train operators not realise that they have an obligation to keep passengers informed at all times?

A voting shambles

From: Neil Earnshaw,
Plane Trees, Cuminestown.

DON'T be misled by the Electoral Reform Society's director of research's article (Yorkshire Post, April 21).

Most voters in Aberdeenshire thought the new system had been an utter shambles, not just that for the Scottish Parliament, as Lewis Baston suggests.

Holding parliamentary and council elections at the same time on two different forms confused polling-booth personnel as well as the electorate.

Many voters felt that their choice of candidate had been compromised and that the result of the local elections had been won by those who had been briefed beforehand on how to work the system to keep a rival candidate out, although, in fairness, a few of those giving advice only succeeded in misleading the voters themselves.

Perhaps the new system has its merits, theoretically. To claim that it was highly successful "north of the Tweed" is wrong for in practice it was a disaster.

There was no re-run and we just had to accept the outcome we got.

Prescription for change

From: Jamie Strachan, Melton Avenue, Leeds.

I AM writing to support Macmillan Cancer Support's campaign for free
prescriptions in England.
No one should be in a
position where they can't
afford to pay for their prescriptions, yet for one in 10 cancer patients aged 55 and under who have to pay for their prescriptions, this is exactly what happens.

The Government is due to publish a consultation to
review prescription charges soon, but they have already said they are not prepared to spend one extra penny on prescriptions.

This means that any reform will inevitably involve some patients losing out – in effect, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I am extremely concerned that this consultation will be nothing more than tinkering with an inherently unfair system and call on the Government to make prescriptions free in England.

Dangerous barrier

From: P Dransfield, Main Street, Great Heck, Selby.

I WRITE about the automatic half barrier crossing at Hensall on the road from Pontefract to Goole. On a number of occasions, it has been noted the lights show yellow for only one second. In that one second a driver has to stop dead or go over the crossing on red lights. I would suggest that, using Highway Code figures, the minimum amount of time the yellow lights need to be on is about four seconds for a vehicle travelling at 20mph.

A vehicle at 20mph travels 30 feet in one second. Thus a sensible time on yellow would be five seconds to allow normal braking at any speed up to 60mph at which speed a car travels 88 feet per second.

These times of one second yellow and three of red were clearly thought up in the days of horse and carts before camera-controlled crossings.

This crossing has been known to operate with no traffic lights showing. Trains do pass over the crossing 10 seconds after the lights start. That is dangerous.

Motive for invasion

From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton.

IN reply to Janet Berry "Tragedy of Zimbabwe" (Yorkshire Post, April 28), there is one huge difference between sending in troops to remove Robert Mugabe as we did in order to remove Saddam Hussein.

The pretence of weapons of mass destruction could be the same, but the objective (oil) is not there.