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Monday's Letters: Brown's spending dream turns into nightmare
LORD Haskins (Yorkshire Post, June 16) identifies many of the underlying factors which have contributed to the economic meltdown, but clearly implies that corporate greed was the prime cause.
It is too facile for Labour supporters like Lord Haskins to allocate most of the blame to the banks when it is clear that the political ambition of New Labour to increase public expenditure has led to our plight.
Realising that tax revenues from manufacturing and the oil industry had begun to decline, Gordon Brown was only too keen to foster the growth of financial services as an alternative, fuelled by unprecedented
levels of consumer credit.
His determination to use tax revenues from the profits and bonuses of the financial services sector to fund increased public expenditure caused him to throw caution to the winds. In consequence, he failed to intervene to damp down the speculation in the property market that was the predictable result.
Despite using every available means to raise additional taxation, he was unable to
fully fund the bill for government expenditure and had to resort to increasing levels of debt.
The inevitable collapse of the property balloon has left us not only with the massive bill to save the banks from collapse, but also the costs of a bloated government machine.
In common with all socialist parties, New Labour believed that increased public expenditure was a good thing in itself, a dream that Gordon Brown has sought to turn to reality.
The dream has turned to a nightmare, and the overweening ambition of politicians has left Britain with a heavy tax burden to bear and the task of cutting back government costs to a sustainable level.
From: D Neil, Church Lane, Harrogate.
Debt has got us into this terrible mess
From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.
WHENEVER I read a letter from John Riseley, I end up wishing I could have written it myself. Such was his latest contribution "Price paid for scrapped cars" (Yorkshire Post, June 19).
Surely it makes more sense to keep cars on the road to provide skilled work for small businesses than to scrap perfectly serviceable vehicles to keep salesmen and credit brokers happy?
Waste and debt are dirty words to people like me who grew up during the early post war years. Yes, government slogans such as "waste not want not" and "don't be bitten by the squander bug" were the voice of an austere age, as were cliches of the time like "it will last you if you look after it" but they were intrinsically wise.
Latter day "experts" will smile in patronising disagreement but it seems to me that debt, fuelled by the throw-away society, has got us into this mess. The idea that the solution lies in more waste and borrowing seems about as logical as the "hair of the dog" remedy for a hangover.
Life on Planet Gordon
From; Michelle Catherall, Church Lane, Fylingthorpe, Whitby.
REGARDING Tom Richmond's article (Yorkshire Post, June 8), he states that Gordon Brown has breached Commons rules and has stealthily repaid a sum of money for claiming expenses on two houses simultaneously.
If this is so, how can he seriously claim he wants to clean up Parliament and the MPs expense scandal when he himself is part of it?
Living on Planet Gordon he seems totally oblivious to the fact that the majority of people in this country want a General Election as soon as possible.
To add insult to injury, he is making that notorious freeloader Glenys Kinnock Minister for Europe. Not straight away, however, apparently she is delaying her departure from Brussels so as to maximise her gold-plated pension.
Priorities for government
From: Emyr Davies, Bryn-Y-Wern, Smelt, Coedpoeth, Wrexham.
IT would be entirely wrong to state that New Labour has done nothing for the people but compared with Old Labour it's certainly struggling.
Any new government, Labour/Tory or coalition must do three things:
Retain the winter fuel allowance.
Preserve for posterity the minimum wage which was a Liberal Party concept, devised by Asquith and Lloyd George in the early 1900s and resurrected by Labour in recent times.
Introduce legislation to provide free TV licences for everyone aged 65 and over.
Incidentally, if they do want people on benefits who are able-bodied and can work, they should utilise them in hospitals and local government. Money doesn't go far!
They should be allocated bus passes and luncheon vouchers. Everyone wants to eat.
On the ball at Wimbledon
From: Dr K Swann, Summerdale, Gomersal, Cleckheaton.
THERE is no doubting the viewing figures of programmes such as Britain's Got Talent and American Idol – high interest programmes revealing a very wide level of talent in the entertainment industry.
Just a sad note concerns the limited recognition of talent
in the UK where we do not give an adequate and wider appreciation for the demonstration of skills across other activities.
A wonderful example of this was the approach adopted to ensuring that spectators at Wimbledon at the forthcoming competition would never have to suffer the problems of the weather.
The details record an example of the talent, skills and application resulting and approach to such an extremely highly well construction. Britain certainly has exhibited a high level of talent and skill to ensure a fulfilment to the satisfaction of thousands of tennis fans.
Such a response to the vagaries of the British climate will be well appreciated by spectators who no doubt would agree that those involved in the construction should at least be applauded.
Planning battlefield
From: Ted Hutchinson,
Mill Close, Driffield.
YOUR latest article on Battlefield Stud by Paul Jeeves (Yorkshire Post, June 9),
again highlights a case of the stifling of needed enterprise
in these recessionary years – and for what?
It could be to satisfy Sam Smith's Brewery's ideas
about no development on "green belt land" which
other people see as erroneous when sensible thinking is applied.
The plain fact of the matter is this; had this barn been erected for any agricultural purpose then nothing would have been said, but Sam Smith's object on the mere technicality that to maintain or rear thoroughbred horses would despoil the "green belt."
How can it be so when horses need to graze, thereby keeping status quo?
Prejudicial or not, the facts speak for themselves, which the Government inspectors rightly see when rejecting the objection.
There is an alternative to monstrous wind farms
From: Dorothy Cope, Beckwithshaw, Harrogate.
REFERRING to RD Wolstenholme's letter, I wonder if anyone has been responsible for the research into the productivity of these monstrous and unsightly wind farms (Yorkshire Post, June 11).
The time and money spent on obtaining planning permission, the cost of building and maintaining and paying compensation to land owners for a pathetic amount of electricity makes it perfectly clear they are not financially viable (except to the companies involved in the construction!).
Scotland was using hydro-electric power half a century ago. The UK has plenty of fast flowing rivers and wave power to provide a much less intrusive supply and the sooner we build a couple of nuclear plants, preferably underground, the better.
The number of foreign visitors who come to this country especially to see our wonderful scenery certainly won't flock here to see our blotted out landscapes. It seems no-one has observed what an easy target these wind farms would be for any terrorist group, who at a stroke could put swathes of our country into "blackout," affecting communications, hospitals and transport etc.
What hope would there be of restoring power quickly?
Lincoln's words of wisdom
From: P Lambert, Ilkley.
I THINK our politicians would do well to study a speech by Abraham Lincoln: "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
"You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the
wage payer. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
"You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
Written and spoken in the 19th century – much is still appropriate.
Lost honour
From: AW Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
YOU ask "Should the honours system be scrapped?" I would say "yes". When I think of some of the scoundrels who have received knighthoods or other honours purely at the behest of the Prime Minister of the day, they need to be scrapped (Yorkshire Post, June 13).
Lloyd George was notorious for handing out honours to disreputable people and more recently, Harold Wilson.
The only honours I would agree to are the Order of Merit and the Companion of Honour which, I believe, are purely in the gift of the Queen.
Broadband tax
From: Anthea Shenton, Throstle Nest Drive, Harrogate.
MY aged aunt and uncle have a fixed land line telephone and very limited income. They will never use broadband connection because they have no inclination or desire so to do (Yorkshire Post, June 17).
Two of my adult children have only mobile phone/Blackberry technology. They use broadband connections all the time. Just where is the fairness in that?
This is another dodgy tax idea produced by people who are incapable of joined-up thinking, and whose knees jerk all the time!
Ticket to ride
From: Nick Rose, Litherop Lane, Clayton West, Huddersfield.
REGARDING your article on missing students (Yorkshire Post, June 13), in 1962, I queued to enrol as a student in the engineering department at Bradford CAT (which became the university) and I chatted to my neighbour in the queue who was of Asian origin. I never saw him again until, about three months later, I got on a trolley bus and he was the conductor.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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