YP Letters: Who wants neighbours like the EU?

IF Don Burslam really considers that “our neighbours” (the EU presumably?) “consult, defer, respect... do us favours” (The Yorkshire Post, October 13), then he has been living in splendid isolation these last 30 or 40 years. If, in doubt, he needs to reflect on the neighbourliness shown towards Greece, never mind the UK.

I also want to draw attention to the remark about Gordon Brown’s generosity in the letter (October 13) from S Ellis on increases to State Pension and heating allowance. These need to be measured against his wilful “nationalisation” of both Railtrack and Northern Rock when shareholders received nothing for their investments. In both cases, the companies were not insolvent.

Similarly his 1997 raid on pension funds worth some £10bn annually, and ongoing, destroyed most private sector final salary pension schemes. This is the Chancellor who regularly described himself as being “prudent” at the Commons dispatch box. And how much was left in the kitty when Labour were voted out? Zero!

From: Robert Clarkson, Grosvenor Park, Leeds.

IT would seem to me that in the negotiations re the exit bill for the UK leaving the EU, we are not pressing for a detailed invoice to show exactly how this figure is achieved.

In view of the lack of audited accounts, how is it possible for any kind of figure to be put forward? Surely any firm of repute would be able to demonstrate a breakdown of any figure being presented?

Why are we not pressing for this?

From: John Marcus, Colville Gardens, Lightwater.

WHY all the talk about “Hard Brexit” and “Soft Brexit” and 50 shades of Brexit in between? Brexit means Brexit.

City needs a metro system

From: James Bovington, Church Grove, Horsforth, Leeds.

CONCENTRATION of all rail services at a revamped and much-improved Leeds Station is not the best way of promoting rail as the principal means of relieving this city’s gridlocked roads.

Given that a new chord will allow HS2 trains to use lengthened but existing platforms, a better use of the available funds would be a twin-track city centre tunnel, allowing direct rail access to underground stations at key points such as Leeds Town Hall and Eastgate in addition to City Square. Indeed the metro tunnel could also serve the new City Southbank developments directly. The new north-south platforms at Neville Street would then not be needed.

That said, I remain dubious about the whole philosophy of HS2 which can only benefit a really small number of frequent travellers. What is needed is a system which brings daily benefits to the whole of the community, and that is a metro system akin to what they have on Tyneside and Merseyside and epitomised by the new London Crossrail. Leeds needs its own Crossrail. And we need £100m for the Skipton-Colne link, not £56bn for HS2.

So you don’t even need to go to continental Europe to see efficient public transport. It exists in England. Liverpool, Newcastle, London are cities to emulate, although Zurich is a pretty good model too.

Excellent transport systems improving the status and environment of cities in a way that our leaver Transport Secretary Chris Grayling could never grasp.

Tories letting down elderly

From: Dick Lindley, Altofts.

IT was recently suggested by the Care Minister, Jackie Doyle-Price, that homes should not been seen as assets to be passed onto our kids, but should instead be used to pay for our residential care expenses in our twilight years.

Does she not understand that we have spent the vast majority of our working lives paying huge amounts of income tax and national insurance in order to fund our healthcare needs?

Is she really working for the Conservative Party or is she secretly helping the socialist party? It is the sort of rhetoric which one would expect for left- wing Corbynites, but coming from a Tory minister it makes me despair of the Tories.

The Tory party used to support hard-working people in their attempts to accumulate a few quid so that their kids would be better off than they were, when starting out on life’s journey.

It is a smack in the teeth for the hard-working people who have saved all their lives only to find that the main constituent of their wealth, their house, will be confiscated by the state, at the very time when, having supported the state throughout their working lives, they should be able to expect a bit of state support in their dotage.

Rather than confiscating valuable assets from the savings of elderly people, it would be a much better idea if the obscene amount of monies squandered by this Government in its foreign aid budget were spent looking after our old folks.

The Tories need to remember that charity begins at home if they want to be re-elected.

Moving show of sisterly love

From: Louise Cooper, Hull.

IT is wonderful to see all the big shows which will be coming to our “New Theatre” in Hull after the renovation, but amazing to see a small production at Hull Truck Theatre – He Ain’t Heavy – by ex-Hull schoolgirl Grania Pickard who now lives in Bristol.

This was a deeply moving production about her relationship with her brother who is autistic and suffers from epilepsy. With some audience participation, and Grania’s amazing dramatic aerial performance and storytelling, it shows her deep love for her brother who is now a man but has the mental age of a young child.

Breathtaking.