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Wednesday's Letters: Ex-RSM appalled at the treatment of our Armed Forces
RECENTLY, I received a "sack cloth and ashes" letter from my local MP Mary Creagh, wailing about the disgusting behaviour of our MPs, but saying the show must go on and asking for support in the community. Well, I for one will not give her or her Government any support whatsoever.
This must be one of the most despicable and disgraceful governments ever to govern this country. They send our Armed Forces into wars, rightly or wrongly, and then turn their backs on them.
Our servicemen and women risk their lives every day in foreign
countries without question. All they ask for in recognition from their country is to be properly equipped and armed to meet the threat, and when the need arises, through injury, to be taken back into the bosom of their country and cared for.
The appalling situation of going to court to claw back compensation from our wounded servicemen and women is beyond all belief (Yorkshire Post, August 4). The pittance that these "heroes" receive both in pay and compensation pales into insignificance when it is balanced against the cost of these wars.
Indeed, the compensation pot for our Armed Forces seems very limited, unlike the well-funded expenses pot to fill the endless pit of greed of our so-called honourable Members of Parliament. For MPs there always seems to be enough cash to repair roofs, clean moats and fill bellies, etc but unfortunately not enough to mend the broken bodies and minds of our serving personnel.
I hear them all saying on radio and television how much they support our troops, but I never see or hear any of them denouncing their own government for its atrocious behaviour towards our Armed Forces. This is because they are not allowed to do so, and can only comment on what is the official party line.
There was a time (many years ago) when I believed MPs were individually minded and spoke for the people that they represented. What a joke – most of them are running scared of falling foul of their beloved party leaders and losing promotion or their jobs.
As an ex Warrant Officer Class 1 (Regimental Sergeant Major), I know some of the hardships our troops face. I would implore the people of Wakefield and of this country to get behind our Armed Forces and let the politicians really know how we feel.
To our servicemen and women, wherever you may be, you have my support, respect and best wishes for your safe return.
From: Ray Drew, Thornes Moor Drive, Wakefield.
From: T Scaife, Manor Drive, York.
LANCE Corporal Joe Glenton is a brave soldier, firstly, because he actually saw active service in Afghanistan and, secondly, for his courage to question the motives of our deceitful Government (Yorkshire Post, August 8).
His personal convictions are attacked by armchair warriors and some serving soldiers apparently. But his critics should realise there are some big issues to be resolved, one way or the other. The notion that blind obedience is expected when one "takes the Queen's shilling", denying any aspect of self-determination, belongs in the 18th and 19th centuries, from when the term derived, when Britain last waged unsuccessful wars in Afghanistan.
Not only Lance Corporal Glenton, but the UK voter, taxpayer and the military, deserve a proper justification of UK involvement in
Afghanistan. To this end, an opportunity should be taken, not for a court martial, but a public hearing to ascertain the reasons for this conflict.
For instance, is it merely coincidence that our soldiers are fighting in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar – the proposed route for the Caspian oil pipeline to Pakistan?
Five per cent of the global oil supply could travel by this route.
This should trouble our collective conscience, as almost 50 per cent of each 42-gallon barrel of crude oil goes into the petrol tanks of cars.
This leads to the question: are our soldiers dying and being mutilated just so that drivers can go out for a Sunday drive? Or is it right that the excesses of American motorists are dictating the UK's military policy?
The US represents four per cent of the global population yet uses 25 per cent of global oil supplies, of which half goes into their gas-guzzling cars.
Yorkshire MPs should demand that Lance Corporal Glenton is heard and Ministers be forced to testify under oath.
Human rights breached by fluoride
From: Miss P Johnson, Cross Flatts Green, Leeds.
"HOUSEHOLDS in region have fluoride added to their water" (Yorkshire Post, August 3) – this article raises the following questions.
Have these people been consulted? Have they been informed that fluoride was added to their water? Do they want it?
Sheffield City Council voted against fluoridation in 2005. Has it been informed or consulted? They are the people's elected representatives.
More than 56,000 people appear to have suffered mass medication without the knowledge or consent because they live in their part of Sheffield where the water is supplied by Severn Trent and not Yorkshire Water.
Surely this is against their human rights. If the Human Rights Act does not protect us from that sort of treatment, it needs to be re-drafted. It needs to protect honest citizens.
I hope that Bradford and Airedale and Kirklees PCTs are not hoping that they can slide it into the whole of Yorkshire and Humber because they want it.
The clause that has given power to the unelected, unaccountable
Strategic Health Authorities to force water companies to add fluoride to water supplies should be deleted from the Water Act. It is totally undemocratic.
From: Alan W Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
PEOPLE who live in the Sheffield area who have had their water supplies contaminated by adding fluoride (Yorkshire Post, August 3) should write to the council concerned to have it removed. As I have said in previous correspondence, the fluoride is added to halt tooth decay in children. This is the responsibility of the children's guardians, not the council.
Super tax for the parasites
From Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.
SURELY the time has come for Alistair Darling to impose a super high rate of tax on the spivs and parasites who can be found in more than just the higher echelons of the banking industry. They have clearly no intention of forgoing their exorbitant salaries and bonuses so our revered leaders should take direct action.
I suggest a rate of 95 per cent over a given figure of income. The tax thus raised might first be used to fund our parliamentarians' 25 per day allowance plus any other paltry expenses which pass scrutiny. The balance would offset the proposed sequestration of individuals'
property if and when they are no longer able to look after themselves and require full-time care.
On reflection, better make it 105 per cent to mitigate the effect of said parasites using creative accountants in an endeavour to achieve zero tax.
Blissful days but hard toil
From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.
FAR be it from me to criticise a type of farming in which several
friends of mine are employed but, having studied the pros and cons of organic farming, it is patently obvious, and without question, that if everybody went organic then half the world would starve.
According to the UN World Food Programme, it is going to be difficult enough, as it is, to feed the world on a conventional system of agriculture.
I can remember, after the war, when inorganic fertilisers and sprays were more plentiful and were made available to the British farmer. What a difference it made both to toil and production. Previous to that, of course, most of the farming was organic.
My farming life is now over but I certainly would not like to go back to pre-war days when, although life was more blissful, it was harder to make a living off the land.
How New Labour let down its working class roots
From: A Ogden, Oxford Road, Gomersal, West Yorkshire.
MY father died from cancer three years ago. He was a typical working class "salt of the earth" Old Labour voter. He worked for most of his life and paid his taxes without complaint. He fought for his country in the Second World War, and after carried on in the same job, as though nothing had happened in between. He never voted for any other party but Old Labour. Old Labour and the working class were one and the same,
in his eyes.
Dad, and his generation of working-class Labour voters, were cast aside when New Labour was born. He knew that he and his kind were no longer wanted by this new brand of socialism.
My dad had a "moral compass", too. He was honest and hard working, but he was let down and abandoned.
He was let down by a trendy clique of "movers and shakers", who thought they were being so very clever in changing everything that Labour once stood for.
Now, 12 years later, after virtually bankrupting the country, with the gap between rich and poor widening, those at the bottom of the pile remain at the bottom and have little prospect of escaping. And now, at the mercy of the bankers, and having sold out to Brussels, they are once again trying to ingratiate themselves – to those I say, shame on you.
On behalf of my dad and his kind, I say how dare you invoke your "moral compass" whenever it suits, for political expediency.
I say, you and your party are no longer fit to represent these people.
Waterhouse's pride of place
From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire.
There is no doubt that Keith Waterhouse, who hails from Hunslet, is a very humorous and funny man shaped by his upbringing in a "tough" part of Leeds (Yorkshire Post Magazine, August 1).
However, I believe that most of the local scenes that were shot for the film version of Billy Liar took place in Bradford, UNESCO's first city of film.
Certainly, the shot you showed of Tom Courtenay and Rodney Bowes (from Hull and Bingley) is of "the lads" in front of the cenotaph in Bradford.
Yearly slaughter
From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.
I NOTICED your front page wording, "Not so Glorious Twelfth" (Yorkshire Post, August 6). Personally, I think it is wrong that birds should be reared simply for people to kill. It's another bloodsport that, like fox hunting, doesn't really belong in a supposedly civilised country. There are many alternatives (for example, clay pigeon shooting) that those more concerned with accuracy than animal slaughter can take part in.
Out of office
From: Keith Crossland, Machin Drive, Manor Farm, Rawmarsh.
After reading Bill Carmichael (Yorkshire Post, August 7) I think that the House of Commons should be shut down and the key thrown away until we have an election. If we need them, we will send for them, otherwise keep it closed. They don't represent us.
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