What type of society do we really want to live in? - Yorkshire Post Letters

SO, what sort of government do we and our political representatives really want?

One responsive to informed majority thinking or one ready to sacrifice democracy to dogma?

One that will promote the democratic, or one that will destroy it? One that recognises the desire to protect and fund our health and social care services or one ready to identify altruism with profit?

One that cares for the needy in our society and world (Mike Padgham, The Yorkshire Post, March 23), or one happy to offer them up to benefit the few?

One ready to support and improve our schools and educators or one that believes heaven favours a meritocracy?

One that welcomes the stranger or one that ultimately rejects her?

One that will act with integrity to protect our wonderful planet, its peoples, 
its climate and its resources, or one that will further its destruction by the anonymous and selfish power of big business?

One whose policies are spontaneously based on truth, love, service and the common good, or one whose policies are relative, an after-thought, a reaction to anger and discontent?

One whose care is for the people or one beholden to the wealth-makers for its power?

One for which the material advancement of UK society is only achievable through co-operation with all, at home and abroad, or one for which this is an absolute, achievable by whatever means?

One that takes (even partial) responsibility for the ills of our society, or one ready to attribute them wholly to the evil in man?

If the latter in every case, no need to think further, just give our Prime Minister her mandate for untrammelled authority. Or go for the utopian: the dystopian is only too easily achievable.

From: Paul Morley, Ribblesdale Estate, Long Preston, Skipton.

When I switch my computer on, the screen shows random pictures of places around the world.

One recent image was of the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament with the caption ‘once a royal residence, now a modern seat of democracy’. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that and my mind went back over 160 years to the Great Stink when the Thames was a smelly open sewer and MPs were complaining that they couldn’t work in Parliament for the stench.

Step forward Sir Joseph Bazelgette, who designed an innovative sewerage system that cured the problem. Things now seem to have gone full circle, but this time the Thames is pure and clean and the ‘seat of democracy’ stinks as it becomes a morally degenerate sewer. Is there a modern-day Bazelgette who can clean this failing institution up?

From: Richard Wood, Farnley Tyas.

WE have tried to make an agreement work, but it isn’t happening and so, from April 1, we should trade with the EU on WTO terms. In doing so, we will save the £39bn which we can use to help our own businesses.

Will it happen? On current performance, regrettably not. However, come the next election...?

From: Alison Ramage Patterson, Menorca.

YOUR American correspondent claimed that Margaret Thatcher was a true patriot (Alan Hartlein, The Yorkshire Post, March 22). As I was born and brought up in Sheffield, he has forgotten or is unaware of the fact that the UK began to lose its sovereignty under her government.

Does a true patriot really hand over their country’s sovereignty to petty, unelected dictators?

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

WHY are our political masters so anxious to keep us in the dark? So that they can thrust their choice upon us?

From: Colin McNamee, Ella Street, Hull.

In offering Mrs May a conditional extension of time to April 12 for the implementation of Article 50, the European Union Council of Ministers at least got half of the date right.

Given Mrs May’s leadership and negotiation competencies, a more appropriate date would have been April 1.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

IS it so suprising that the use of mobile phones in cars (The Yorkshire Post, March 21) is once again on the increase? Police cutbacks make the odds very favourable.

Even if caught, this boorish minority know that at worst, they’ll suffer a financial slap on the wrist and a few points.

On the previous day, you reported that the law permits David Beckham and presumably others, to flaunt their disdain for tiresome road safety rules still further, by not apearing in court.

These are not regretable errors of judgement; they are arrogant, wilful two fingers up to the law and to the rest of us.Why doesn’t the law treat their licences in a similar manner, followed by an extended driving test, to ensure that they’ve got the message?

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

OF course taking children out of school for a holiday during term time is wrong (The Yorkshire Post, March 22), but the holiday firms are really to blame.

They should keep their prices the same for all and not punish parents, many of whom have to take their holiday leave when allowed by their employers.