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We are wrecking the finest postal system in the world
From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.
WITH reference to the takeover of the Post Office by the Dutch firm TNT (Yorkshire Post, December 18), those of us who can remember the Royal Mail before Blair and Brown complied with the instructions of their masters in Brussels will recall a service which was second to none. It was efficient and also profitable and among the best in the world.
The solution to all its problems are there for all to see – remove the cherry picking foreign companies (DHL etc) from the equation, re-instate the Royal Mail's monopoly, give them back all the assets they have been stripped of, cut the fat cat bosses' pay by at least 50 per cent, tell the EU to go to hell and the Post Office will soon be back to its best.
Having worked for a large British shipping company whose particular division was merged with the biggest Dutch shipping company, I have experienced Dutch inefficiency at its best. The last thing the Royal Mail needs is a Dutch firm running it. We may as well save the money and close the Royal Mail down now, before the Dutch ruin it completely – after all, are they not part of the EU who are hell bent on the destruction of our postal service for their own gain and our detriment?
I had to send a document to Rotterdam and was told by our Dutch personnel department to send it to DHL – it cost 50.48. The same service was provided by the Royal Mail for 7.50,
the only difference being the Royal Mail did not pick it up from the door.
From: Brian Hardy, All Hallowes Drive, Tickhill, Doncaster.
THE Hooper report into Royal Mail glibly states that Royal Mail has been less efficient than its competitors elsewhere.
But this ignores the Mail's statutory responsibility to deliver a comprehensive service at the same price to addresses throughout the United Kingdom. It does not have the luxury of cherry picking which mail to deliver, unlike the private sector. Market directives from the European Union have handed the most lucrative areas to privateers, leaving the rest to the public carrier. The proposal to involve the Dutch firm TNT as a partner to Royal Mail will sound the death knell for a universal service as we know it. Neither the Government nor the opposition has any mandate for this treacherous act.
Start organising now to oppose this deplorable scheme.
A bad example from Jeremy Clarkson
From: Mrs AM Baldwin, School Lane, Askham Richard, York.
I WAS appalled when watching a recent edition of Have I Got News For You to witness Jeremy Clarkson's infantile behaviour towards Ian Hislop by throwing a pen at him – which
drew blood on his cheek and could quite
easily have hit him in the eye, causing serious damage. What an example to any of the younger generation watching, I would expect better things of him.
Also, I recently heard Ruth Watson in the programme Country House Rescue use the 'F' word more than once. Does she think she is clever doing that? I thought the TV channels were supposed to be cleaning up their act in this respect, it certainly does not seem so, and I along with others, I am sure, am tired of hearing such filthy and irrelevant language.
From: AW Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
MAYBE I have a peculiar sense of humour but I am glad that Strictly Come Dancing on BBC TV has come to an end because I watched bits of these shows and was afraid that I would die of an uncontrollable bout of laughter.
To see these couples cavorting and
prancing about on the dance floor looks so ridiculous. Legs, arms and bodies flying about in all directions just seem utterly absurd. I am sure it would win, hands down, if it was entered for the funniest programme on TV.
Profligacy that has ruined a golden inheritance
From: William Snowden, Butterbowl Gardens, Farnley, Leeds.
ONE can appreciate why the Left loathe Margaret Thatcher (she vanquished British socialism); but to blame her for Britain's present economic malaise is to delve deep into the realms of idiocy.
T Scaife's letter (Yorkshire Post, December 22) was a case in point; an exercise in sophistry and fallacious syllogism, in which he sought to conflate success with "greed".
Greed, Mr Scaife, is a human frailty. Success is something that has to be strived for.
In 1979, Margaret Thatcher had the misfortune to inherit a bankrupt economy: heavily indebted to the IMF and ravaged by industrial anarchy.
But she possessed the requisite courage and conviction to rebuild the British economy – and in the teeth of a world recession. She laid solid economic foundations based on the principles of sound money and financial probity, and sustainable growth.
Nationalisation was consigned to the history books: sluggish industries were recapitalised and transformed into thriving, private enterprises.
She reduced the burden of taxation and encouraged entrepreneurs who, henceforth, would be rewarded rather than punished by harsh regulations and heavy taxes. And she promoted the concept of a property and share-owning democracy from which all could prosper.
And prosper we did! Britain rose from the bottom to the top of the European economic growth table. But, unlike Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher was not profligate. Public expenditure did rise, but proportionally (for example, NHS expenditure rose from 8bn to 36bn, during Margaret Thatcher's premiership) and was financed not by Government borrowing, but from the receipts that poured into the Exchequer. Indeed, such was Britain's economic success, that we actually began to repay the national debt. A remarkable transformation.
In 1997, when Gordon Brown became Chancellor of the Exchequer, a senior civil servant in the Treasury told him that he had had the good fortune to inherit a "solid gold bullion economy".
It has taken him 10 years to squander that golden legacy, but squander it he has – and to the ruination of all.Keep bicycles off precious Stray land
From: Mrs JM d'Arcy Thompson, The Stray Defence Association, East Parade, Harrogate.
THE Stray Defence Association believes the result of the cycling on the Stray consultation has most certainly not given our council a mandate from Harrogate's people to change the law to allow this.
Of 158,000 people in the Harrogate District, only 673 people voted in favour of cycling on Harrogate's
precious Stray.
That is 0.4238035264483627 per cent of the population.
Scarcely the "huge majority" claimed by some.
Also, the consultation was both brief and poorly publicised. Harrogate's main library was closed for most of the consultation period and not everyone has the internet or actively scanned the council's website for news of a consultation they were unaware of. Result? The majority of people knew nothing about it.
Consequently, there is considerable anger at the much vaunted "result".
Aside of this, we believe that changing bylaws protecting the Stray sets a dangerous precedent and that much of the "payback" land for that tarmaced would not be effective "Stray". This does
not bode well for the future of The Stray.
We have grave concerns about safety because of the statistics on incidents involving cyclists, currently unlicensed and largely uninsured. Any motorised collision with either pedestrian or animal brings appropriate compensation.
Worryingly, this would probably not be the case with an accident involving a cyclist. Harrogate Council say it is impossible to police the laws. How then would they police new ones?
Recent official figures from Health Minister Ben Bradshaw state: "In 2006-7, the latest figures available, 1,873 cyclists were injured after colliding with cars or vans and 129 were in accidents involving lorries and buses. Some 9,191 were injured in incidents involving no other vehicles and 518 hit stationary objects."
Almost 10,000 cyclists had accidents of that nature.
Are we not right to be worried that Harrogate's Council could subject other users of The Stray's peaceful paths to this sort of mayhem?
We believe the people of Harrogate deserve the right to a fully informed consultation about the real "cost" of allowing cycling on The Stray.
Canadian connection
From: John Goodchild, The John Goodchild Collection, Local History Study Centre, Drury Lane, Wakefield.
THE article "The Yorkshire Connection"(Yorkshire Post Magazine, December 27),
refers to the town of Wakefield in Canada and the fact that
no-one knows why it has this name.
It is worth remembering that for some years it was a Wakefield man who was Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada – in which the Canadian Wakefield lay.
Robert Shore Milnes was born in 1746, eldest son of an opulent Wakefield cloth merchant; he ultimately entered the Army and after a short period as Governor of Martinique, in 1799 he was appointed to run the government of Lower Canada. He was appointed a baronet in 1801, and subsequently returned to England where he lived in Nottinghamshire as a country gentleman until his death in 1837.
As a young man, Milnes was appointed one of the trustees of Westgate Chapel at Wakefield, whose congregation still flourishes here, and although obviously unable to attend the trustees' meetings, he remained a continuing trustee until
1812. The situation provides
a curious coincidence of place and name.
Attitudes and anomalies
From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.
ON too many occasions, I find it impossible to reconcile man's thought processes and cannot decide whether it's a lack of common sense, or hypocrisy, or just too little proper understanding.
Two examples clearly illustrate my confusion.
Firstly, a fair proportion of the population condemn the requested assistance in the suicide of a person who is terminally ill, in severe pain and with no quality of life, yet, we kill countless thousands of perfectly healthy embryos through abortion each year. This is judged to be legal and acceptable because it's the woman's body and her personal choice and responsibility.
Secondly, every report into road safety I have read states that using a mobile phone while driving is puny in comparison to drink driving, when logic says it should be greater.
MPs take extended holiday periods because they say there is insufficient work at Westminster. Is it too much to expect them to make time to debate such anomalies?
Nonsense job names
From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.
I AGREE wholeheartedly with your article (Yorkshire Post, December 31) regarding the Tax Payers' Alliance complaining about non-jobs in the public sector and the salaries that go with them.
You quote "head of participation and inclusion", a "community space challenger co-ordinator" and a "street football co-ordinator", not to mention a "public affairs manager".
Are we all going mad? Who is responsible for all this verbose gobbledegook?
Government of sophistry
From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon, East Yorkshire.
REPORTEDLY, the number
of fatal stabbings in England and Wales has risen to a record level of five per week (Yorkshire Post, December 30).
The Government responded to the announcement by taking the usual position it adopts in such circumstances; namely,
by insisting that the figures are misleading.
Apparently, the spokesman responsible for making this claim argues so on the grounds that not every victim who appears in the statistics was assaulted with a knife.
In living memory, have the people of this country ever suffered from a Government that was a greater exponent of mere sophistry and puerile semantics than this New Labour administration?
Destruction of industry
From: G Ellison, Hawthorne Avenue, Dronfield.
MORE power to Terry Palmer who often contributes to these pages. I agree with everything he says about "Thatcher the Destroyer" who decimated British industry.
This was payback time for when workers stuck together to end low pay in the winter of 1973 caused by Ted Heath's devaluation of our currency
with decimalisation when
the cost of living trebled but wages didn't, hence the three-
day week.
Tony Blair's toxic legacy
From: John Parker, Station Road, Baildon, Shipley.
I RECALL that Tony Blair was appointed Middle East peace envoy and I am saddened to see the escalation of violence between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza.
Is this another part of the toxic legacy of Blair's political career to add to the death, destruction and deceit for which we remember his 10 years as
Prime Minister?
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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