YP Letters: Turn clock back to cure sick NHS

WHEN Tony Blair took office, he removed the requirement for doctors to cover ‘out of hours’ calls, leaving patients to either call 999 for an ambulance or go directly to A&E clogging up the system.

He then created NHS Trusts with boards of incompetent managers who in turn appointed more managers inside the hospital, all paid excessively high salaries from the income which the hospital receives for patients.

When these managers are unable to ‘balance the books’, they take the easy way to solving the problem with closing hospital wards, closing local hospitals, reducing nursing staff, closing A&E departments and putting patients’ lives at risk by making them travel further.

What is required is for politicians of all parties who already agree the NHS is in trouble to look at the causes of the problems the NHS is experiencing and accept that the changes made by Tony Blair’s government in the 1990s are not working, and that the NHS needs to revert back to how it was in the 1980s and 1990s when these problems did not exist.

There is a saying which goes: “Any fool can make a mistake but it takes a brave and wise man to admit it.” Politicians made a mistake in the 1990s. Now they need to admit they were wrong and put thing right while there is an NHS to save.

From: A Shipman, Harley Gardens, Leeds.

THERESA May’s threat to means test the Winter Fuel Payment, and scrap the triple lock, on future state pension increases, should the Tories be re-elected, is an unwarranted attack on our elderly, who are already struggling to live on what is the lowest state pension in Western Europe.

This is a shameful situation in what is one of the worlds’ leading economies.

If the Conservatives are in power, on June 9 and need to reduce the deficit, they may wish to end the Help to Buy scheme because, as a taxpayer, I resent having to subsidise someone else’s mortgage.

From: David Lloyd-Williams, Langton Road, Norton, Malton.

AS a pensioner for some eight years and having lived through a period of massive changes in technology, I am getting more and more concerned about the views expressed by party leaders.

I recently asked a graduate from York University how much debt she had accrued, as regards fees, over her four years at college.

She thought it was £54,000, but hoped to be able, over many years, to repay it. Her partner also had a similar figure to repay.

Maybe the idea of the State paying those fees up front could give students a less stressful way forward.

As a longstanding Liberal Democrat, I can support the need to examine the final results of the consultation process over our exit from Europe, especially as regards our farming industry.

However, I also felt that the coalition gave us all a breathing space from possible reckless decisions.

Maybe a return to some form of collective management of our futures might, in the long term, be a better alternative.

Further electoral reform is sorely needed.

From: Glyn Gibson, Woodlands, Doncaster.

JOHN Fisher, of Menwith Hill, claims in his recent letter that there are not a significant number of EU immigrants in Yorkshire. His use of the word “cursory” was unfortunate. The dictionary definition is “performed with haste and scant attention to detail”.

Harrogate with its expensive housing will not be a destination of choice for many EU migrants. Places like Doncaster appear to be very popular, however, and if John Fisher has the time, I could show him round the area.

From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon.

OUR thanks to Theresa May for providing an interesting diversion from the established General Election campaign.

Weeks before votes are cast, she has performed a complete ‘u-turn’ regarding the content of the Conservative Party manifesto – specifically, its proposals for social care.

Until now, prospective governments have preferred to achieve ballot-box success before they consign their manifesto promises to the waste-bin and begin – for the next four years – to do precisely as they please.

From: John W Marshall, Former Liberal Democrat councillor, Cold Bath Road, Harrogate.

YOUR article only told part of the story about what happened to the Liberal Democrats nationally in the recent council elections.

As mentioned, they did lose 28 seats but what the writer failed to mention, was that they gained or held 312 seats which gives a rather different picture I think.

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

WHEN the true history of this country comes to be written, it will present a melancholy picture.

The UK could have seized an influential role at the heart of Europe when the first stirrings of European unity occurred in the 1950s, but our deep-seated insularity prevented this and our uneasy relationship with our neighbours has continued ever since.

The referendum was of course a tragedy for the rest of the continent as well as us, and the blame for this rests entirely 
with the right wing of the Tory party.

Their unscrupulous activities have been disgraceful and the PM continues to pander to them.

One way to reduce Tory dominance will be to switch to a system of PR.

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

CALM down, Prime Minister! There is not even majority support for fox hunting in 
the countryside, let alone the Church of England.