Friday's Letters: Britain has to overcome greed and stupidity

Within the community were clubs, organisations and societies which contributed much to the life within the community and St John

Ambulance, air raid patrols, churches, scouts and guides, and music groups, all to boost morale during the dark days of war. Pre-war discontent with pay and working conditions were put aside in the best interest of the nation.

If David Cameron means that everyone should pull together to fight the financial crisis in which we find ourselves – and there has been far too much living beyond means at both private and public/national level – he needs to bear this in mind. It was not the workers who privatised practically everything – including our manufacturing and utility base to foreign companies – neither did they raid their own pension funds – but they have been guilty of following the celebrity culture where obscene amounts of money are paid to those with ordinary talents.

Charitable events – marathons, half-marathons and red nose days show the generous spirit of people in helping those in need, but the fact is that those nursing cancer, dementia, terminally ill or handicapped patients from infants up to pensioners, have heavy caseloads as indeed do those involved in child protection. During the war, the enemy was clear – now the enemies are within, possessions and lifestyle matter more than the real value of each individual and in many ways we are no longer in charge of our own efforts.

At all levels, greed and stupidity must be superseded by respect and compassion with less competition and more co-operation. It is significant that after the war our empire became the Commonwealth and Corus Steel is now owned by an Indian company – while Forgemasters, which is still ours, has been refused an 80m loan.

From: JW Slack, Swinston Hill Road, Dinnington, Sheffield.

We can all help in battle with rubbish

From: Maureen Hunt, Woolley, near Wakefield.

WHEN I was litter picking on my road recently, I came across a round, blue plastic bucket with a perforated design on the side, together with a length of hosepipe.

As neither would fit into my bags and I didn't relish the idea of the bucket spewing forth its muddy contents into my car boot, I phoned Wakefield Council's Environment department at 11am the following day.

As always, the response was helpful and friendly, and I was assured that the Rapid Response Team would remove the offending items. At 4pm the same day I received a phone call from a member of the team asking for clarification as to the whereabouts of the hosepipe.

They were already searching for it, having picked up the bucket in the morning without receiving any instructions. How's that for a rapid response? They certainly deserve their name.

Perhaps householders could keep their pavements in front of their houses clear of litter. At one time, shopkeepers would sweep the area in front of their shop. Now people expect others to clean up for them.

It really wouldn't be difficult to keep our own patch clear of rubbish and it would enable the litter pickers to concentrate on the grass verges alongside our roads, which are often a disgrace. There certainly isn't the money now for councils to do it on their own. They need our help.

An MP who talks sense

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

AT last we have an MP that talks some sense, albeit a Tory one. Retired Colonel Bob Stewart calls for child-murdering paedophiles and police killers to be put to death. He also wants an end to immigration and all religious extremists to be deported forthwith.

He is spot on when he says that we Brits are being exploited by religious extremists who are allowed to march through our streets preaching hatred against our Armed Forces and our country. We are a tolerant society but we can only tolerate so much and that time when tolerance ends has now come.

Let's have more MPs like Colonel Bob Stewart, of whatever political persuasion, daring to tell it as it is and then we may just get something done about the situation we now find ourselves in regarding allowing "alien" practices to be carried out in our country.

Safety first, sense last

From: Phil Bland, Brooklands Lane, Menston, Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

GREGOR Woods of Kennedys Solicitors attempts to convince us that compensation culture is a figment of our imagination (Yorkshire Post, October 19). Well he would, wouldn't he, seeing the threat to a very lucrative fees gravy train from Lord Young's review of health and safety.

The answer to his theory is contained paradoxically only two pages further into the paper – "Safety Protocols hampered 7/7 rescue teams" – where your reporter Jack Blanchard describes the horror of the 7/7 attacks made all the worse by the reluctance of the emergency services and London Underground to move more quickly to save lives due to "safety concerns".

My wife is a doctors' receptionist who spends a great deal of her working life photocopying medical records at NHS expense to send to solicitors like Mr Woods. I suspect her surgery is not unique. Just imagine the amount of national NHS resources tied up in this nonsense.

If Lord Young succeeds in stopping this legal gravy train he will, for once, have done something useful in Government.

Dialogue for countryside

From: Ian Layton, rural youth worker and trainer for the Yorkshire and Humber Rural Network, Yorkshire and the Humber Forum, St Joseph's Well, Hanover Walk, Leeds.

YORKSHIRE and the Humber Forum's Rural Network shares many of the concerns raised in Mark Casci's report, "Rural poverty strikes blow to life prospects for children" (Yorkshire Post, October 12).

While it is undoubtedly true that rural Yorkshire has a great deal to offer children as they grow up, it would be a grave mistake to believe that our rural areas are some kind of pastoral idyll.

Yorkshire and the Humber Forum's Rural Network is deeply concerned about the migration of young people from our villages and the effect this has on individuals and their communities.

Mark Casci's piece rightly identifies the lack of affordable housing, the lack of meaningful employment and ineffective transport as key factors.

The answer may well lie in building a proper dialogue between rural young people and those planners and agencies trying to promote a "vibrant and sustainable" countryside. And with the Government's Big Society idea, this may place even more expectations upon communities to become more involved in addressing these issues.

The need for a dialogue between young people, village communities and regeneration agencies is becoming evermore urgent.

We owe a debt to engineers who made sewage pay

From: Graham Hall, Micklethwaite, Bingley, West Yorkshire.

I READ the article written by Chris Benfield regarding the Esholt Sewage Treatment Works with great interest (Yorkshire Post, October 14). Not only did my wife and I thoroughly enjoy a fascinating tour of the works about 18 months ago – I would urge everyone to experience it – but also the article brought up to date some research I carried out about three years ago into the works.

Perhaps some readers may not be fully aware of the importance of Esholt. It became almost unique as a profit-making sewage works – which seems crazy, but, indeed, it did. When Bradford's wool textile industry was booming, especially in the 1930s with 20 per cent of world wool production being dealt with by the city, Bradford Corporation had developed and patented numerous products developed from the wool grease which poured into the sewage system. Examples include Crujol which was a type of soap developed from grade "A" wool grease and used exclusively by British Rail.

By 1950, approximately 400 tons mixed in varying quantities with 600 tons of grade "A" grease per year were being used as axle grease on the entire fleet of railway wagons. Grade "B" recovered grease was used in a multitude of products including the manufacture of carbon paper and in the production of camouflage paint during the Second World War. There were many, many more products too numerous to mention.

A further comment regarding the construction of the outfall tunnel is perhaps worth mentioning which stands as a lasting memorial to the skill of the men who built it.

It took 23 years to complete the whole site but this included a total shutdown of construction during the First World War.

Work on the tunnel was eventually commenced from both ends beginning in 1920 with the final junction being made in July 1923. The greatest error in alignment was 3/8 of an inch. The tunnel was finally completed in the autumn of 1924 and it is lined with two-and-a-quarter million bricks. Men working on the tunnel laid as many as 860 bricks per man per eight hour shift.

As Chris's article pointed out, the Lord Mayor did indeed ride through the tunnel in a Jowett car. In fact, three Jowetts were used to carry engineers who had to make final inspections before declaring the work complete.

Bradford Corporation were pioneers in so many ways and certainly the Esholt works rank among the most significant undertakings they became involved with. We owe the engineers of that era a great debt.

Pitiful benefit for the carers

From: Liz Schofield, Park Fields, Halifax.

I JUST wondered if Jonathon Reed's article on welfare costs (Yorkshire Post, October 18) purposely left out carers' allowance from the cost of welfare, due to it being pitifully low and viewed with little importance attached to the benefit by all political parties?

Pitched at less than 10 per day, it must surely rank as the most unfair benefit of all. It is time the Government acknowledged that without the ever-growing army of carers giving up jobs, staying home from school to look after someone at home, this country would be bankrupt by the sheer amount it would cost to provide an equivalent service to those vulnerable people in our society.

Iain Duncan Smith needs to think very carefully before he makes changes to any benefit relating to our disabled community.

Disappearing garden birds

From: Mrs H Tucker, Hall Park, Heslington, York.

WITH reference to the letter from Peter Leigh (Yorkshire Post, October 12) regarding the loss of birds which, he says, is largely due to cats, since we came to live here more than 30 years ago, I have recorded more than 50 species of birds in our suburban garden. In the last couple of years I have seen very few except for sparrows, tits, pigeons and collared doves. And we have always had cats, who specialise in rodents.

There seem to be two reasons for this change: a) builders have moved in, destroying land and b) please note, Mr Leigh, we have a sparrowhawk.

A picture of complacency

From: Trevor Mumford, St Giles Close, Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

WHAT brilliant comedy photograph graces the front page (Yorkshire Post, October 20).

There sits the complacent, and in love with himself Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Rt Hon Danny Alexander, superciliously viewing the world through the window of his chauffeur-driven limousine blissfully unaware that the draft Comprehensive Spending Review on his knee is readable by anyone with a half decent camera.

It would be nice to think that the indicated 490,000 public sector jobs cut revealed by Mr Alexander's crass stupidity would be increased to 490,001 as this clown is clearly unfit for his elevated position in the Government, though, sadly, I won't hold my breath until that happens.