YP Letters: Energy supply at mercy of foreign firm

Ferrybridge Power Station which closed last month.

IT is reported that EDF is delaying a final decision on going ahead with the projected Hinkley Point C nuclear plant until September.

Given this is the only meaningful reliable plant under consideration to replace the likes of Longannet, Ferrybridge, Eggborough and Fiddlers Ferry which have all been forced to close this year alone, this leaves the Government in an energy hole of its own digging.

Eggborough alone, with a capacity of more than half the eventual expected Hinkley C output, could have run for a further three years if the Government waived part of the proposed punitive carbon tax. The rest also had years of economic generation in them if freed from the tax burden.

That we have been left at the mercy of wobbly foreign masters in something so vital to our lifeblood simply beggars belief.

The good news is that at three times the cost of current supply, the project is generally accepted to be a huge mistake and our escape from it would be a blessing.

Low marks for our MPs

From: Dr Robert Heys, Bar Lane, Sowerby Bridge.

THE poor attendance record of Yorkshire MPs at the recent Parliamentary debate which branded the county’s schools as having “the worst exam results in the country” (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, April 23) disgraces both those present who failed to explain the adverse circumstances which doubtless underlie such statistics and those who absented themselves altogether from a debate so important for their constituents.

Their names should be published so that parents can take their damaging inaction into consideration when casting a vote in future elections.

Loyal to our monarchy

From: A Wyatt, Pocklington.

SHAME on you GP Taylor with your republican ideas (The Yorkshire Post, April 29). Would we see thousands of loyal subjects lining the streets in all weathers to cheer on a President? I think not. No contest?

Phone pest crackdown

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

AT long last, we are promised Government action on nuisance phone calls (The Yorkshire Post, April 25). These pests will be forced to display their numbers, enabling us to report them. To whom and by what means?

Some online rigmarole which ensures that most of us will give up? Terms such as “could investigate” and “can risk fines” don’t suggest an effectively robust approach.

The Telephone Preference Service is run by a telephone sales outfit – do poachers and gamekeepers spring to mind?

If Government is genuinely serious about this, could we please have a simple freephone number funded by the telephone sales industry and not by the taxpayer?

Heading into deep trouble

From: Malcolm Nicholson, Barwick-in-Elmet, Leeds.

MARINE Le Pen and Donald Trump are being demonised for their views about Muslims but surely the blame lies with the Left and its slavish adherence to equality of people and religions?

If we have no-go areas for white people in the UK and a police force unwilling to do anything about it for fear of being “racist”, we are in deep trouble. As the Muslim population grows, seemingly so does the problem.

Maybe it’s time for the EU and USA to wake up to the fact that we do have a problem before we have a religious war on our hands.

No figures on cyber crime

From: John Harris, Richmond.

I RECENTLY received a press release through the North Yorkshire Community Messaging Service, giving some good news about crime rates in North Yorkshire. I could find no mention of cyber crime as a separate category. The extent of online fraud, for example, is apparently unknown.

I would like to see North Yorkshire Police appoint a senior officer with responsibility for gathering information about cyber crime, and also to set up a contact address for the public.

The game of early learning

From: Jo Conway, Harrogate.

IN response to “Families fear their children not ready for school” by Lindsay Pantry (The Yorkshire Post, April 26).

There is a lot of rhetoric about educational standards, synthetic phonics and numeracy, but what we need is practical help.

“School ready” does not have to mean paper and pencil ready. Pre-school and nursery children can acquire knowledge and skills if they are provided with barrier-free learning resources that are knowledge-heavy but also provide lots of fun in a game or puzzle-like way.