Is this any
way to run 
a railway?

regarding David Quarrie’s excellent letter “Rail farce hits the buffers” (Yorkshire Post, October 18), his comments hit the nail squarely on the head. The latest fiasco set to cost the British taxpayer at least £40m is another clear indication that our rail network should be in public ownership, it is after all a public service.

The East Coast Main Line alone was getting £9m in subsidy when the entire network was only getting £6.5m prior to privatisation. The EU set out how our rail network was to be privatised with one entity owning the tracks and infrastructure (the failed Railtrack), three other companies owning all the trains, and any number of others being allowed to run them. This is of course a recipe for huge fare increases, and a big increase in accidents as corners are cut because firms that don’t know what they are doing are employed to maintain the tracks and signalling. The East Coast Main Line, currently state-run, has contributed £200m profit to the Exchequer. This was on a subsidy of 0.5 pence per passenger mile, compared with a 3.6 pence per passenger mile paid to Virgin trains for running the West Coast Main Line. This makes state-run railways over seven times cheaper to run.

We are also in an energy crisis, with our stupid politicians believing that windmills can supply our power needs. Meanwhile our German “friends” are building new coal-fired power stations and at the same time instructing us via the EU to close down our coal-fired plants. With the British consumer being ripped off by mostly foreign-owned energy companies, the gas, electricity and water industries are public services which everyone needs. These companies were privatised by the foolish Mrs Thatcher at about a tenth of their true worth, and due to the greed of the people who were allowed to get control of these industries they are now in the hands of foreign companies.

Gas, electricity and water should, like the railways, be state-run. That way a fair price could be charged for their products with the profits going to the Exchequer and used for the general good of everyone, not just fat cats and their shareholders. Prior to privatisation, gas and electricity were 
producing over £300m each for the Exchequer, this despite supposedly being inefficient. In the early 1980s, £300m plus was a lot of money.

From: Barbara J. Cussons, Curly Hill, Ilkley.

David Reekie’s letter (Yorkshire Post, October 24) is so true. For some long time I have wondered whether your paper could provide a focus for collecting such comments in an effort to get improvement in the utility companies.

Unfortunately I have not seen the previous Saturday’s essay but, with two of my files cluttered up with sheaths of paper saying “npower nightmare”, I sympathise totally with Mr Reekie.

Papers are scrawled with notes – “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing”, apropos their telephone comments or written responses. Customer service departments are superfluous. The final insult is to get another letter from them promising action when the issue has been closed in another department.

An attempt to help a pensioner tenant who could get no satisfaction ended up, after navigating my way through umpteen menus, with the comment they could only talk to the tenant – data protection of course.

On reporting this to the pensioner concerned, she told me they had specifically told her to get the landlord to contact them. Meanwhile, desks pile high with threats of increased charges, despite higher profits.

How about cutting down their online bills from nine pieces of paper?

We don’t want a selling operation as part of our bill, nor do want estimates and repetitive guidance. We don’t want to pay up front for fuel we may or not use, either.

We just want the clock switched back to when our meters were read and a bill sent out which logically listed debits before taking off credits – unlike today’s mish-mash.

Most carers do excellent job

From: Mike Padgham, Chair of the Independent Care Group (York and North Yorkshire) and Chair of the UK Homecare Association, Eastway, Eastfield, Scarborough.

any lack of proper vetting of home care workers is unacceptable and the United Kingdom Homecare Association deplores any failure to do so.

Despite the outrage over people being able to provide care without complete Criminal Records Bureau checks in place, this represents a tiny minority in a workforce of over 300,000.

The overwhelming majority of home care providers ensure their staff are properly vetted before they come into any contact with clients.

People can be reassured that in this country standards of care are extremely high and that compliance with legal requirements is high.

Despite the Government failing to adequately fund social care, home care providers do an excellent job, around the clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year in challenging conditions.

Whilst condemning the providers and workers who don’t meet the highest standard we should never forget the many, many thousands who do.

Ploy to reap young votes

From: Cecil Hallas, Cubley Rise Road, Penistone, Sheffield.

THE Scottish Nationalist Party has announced its intention to give votes to 16-year-olds. So why do I have a feeling that they overestimate the “daft factor” of the general public? Of course, this is a ploy to reap more votes for “the cause”, the young so often being anti-establishment as I was when 16, 17, even 18.

And in a way Scotland’s been more than independent for some time, recently even providing simultaneously a Prime Minister and a Chancellor in the UK government.

On the other hand how many Englishmen or women can you name in the Scottish Parliament? Personally, I view separation as the idealism of the minority. However, democracy will decide – hopefully not just on the grounds of national bigotry.