YP Letters: Politicians fail to learn over education

WITH reference to your recent Editorial “Take politics out of schools”, I would like to express my full support for the article.

Successive governments have interfered with the education system with the result that standards continue to fall.

In doing this, they have made it all too easy for certain local councils to hide their own inadequacies and unpopular plans by laying the blame at the Government’s door.

I would cite the case of Graham School in Scarborough where, living close and having had my own children attend and now grandchildren, I have a personal knowledge.

From being a very successful and popular school back in the days of Milton Bowers (strong but fair), I have seen it progress through various phases, including the ill-fated merger with Raincliffe, enforced by North Yorkshire County Council, to the failing beast it is today.

No one doubts that the enforced merger, if managed carefully and sympathetically, could have been a great success for all concerned. What we have now however is so bad that one can be forgiven for thinking it is being encouraged to fail deliberately.

Green energy policy chaos

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

THE UK electricity generation market is failing because of EU and Labour / Tory / Lib Dem green ideology. When governments think they know best and hand out subsidies and taxes all over the place, there should be no surprise when businesses work for this Government money rather than their actual customers.

The distortion inherent in pursuing a policy of promoting wind and solar electricity generation is now endemic (Rishi Sunak, The Yorkshire Post, February 5). There was an old Soviet joke – “You pretend to pay us, and we’ll pretend to work” – partly reflecting the fact that when a political ideology fails in the real world, the politicians responsible are the last to know.

Everyone else knows, but EU and national politicians appear incapable of realising (or perhaps don’t care) that their green obsessions have crippled the electricity market and UK industry.

Good news on care quality

From: Alison Bedford, Registered Manager, Peregrine House, Upgang Lane, Whitby.

EVERYDAY we hear about poor care providers and inadequate reports from the Care Quality Commission. I am writing with some great news for our region.

Peregrine House is a residential care home based in Whitby. We care for and support 36 elderly residents.

We have recently been inspected by CQC and given a rating of “outstanding” in all areas. Not only are we the first in the region to achieve this, we are the first in England to achieve this. Currently there are less than one per cent of all care providers that have been awarded “outstanding”.

We hope you will find this worthy of reporting and let’s spread some great news about care in our region. It may even inspire others.

Ringing out glad tidings

From: Mike Welton, Easington.

I READ with great interest the story regarding the re-hanging of the bells at St Leonard’s Church, Wortley, in particular the cost of this exercise, some £27,000.

Here in the village of Easington, we have carried out a similar job on our bells, although there are only three of them and not eight. The main problem with the bells was that the supporting bell hangers were very badly corroded and deemed not really safe to ring.

One of the bells dates to around the 15th century, the other two from 1793. But undaunted, a small team of local men, we put our minds to it to renew the hangers and rehang the bells. All the materials were donated (the stainless steel bolts and high tensile hanger plates) and all the welding work carried out by an experienced welder.

We also renewed the bell ropes as they were in rather a sorry state, all the work was carried out with safety in mind and without a hitch. So the bells can now ring again. Total cost £22.50 and that was for the new bell ropes!

Ministers 
on the move

From: David Treacher, Hull.

MANY have stopped worshipping at their local church, but why do they leave? Many ministers have been at their church for 25 years or longer and have no intention of moving on.

Many will have heard the same or similar sermon over the years and get fed up and leave. Why does the church minister not move every five or 10 years to another parish?

Badger cull 
is humane

From: H Marjorie Gill, Menston.

ANIMAL rights campaigners are always eager to attack the culling of badgers suffering from TB. What they don’t appear to realise is that wild animals don’t have anybody to administer antibiotics. TB is a dreadful disease. Far from being cruel, it is vitally necessary to cull these animals to stop their suffering.