Friday's Letters: Forgotten casualties on our bloodstained roads

The hunt for crazed gunman Raoul Moat demanded officers from 16 police forces, armoured vehicles from London and Northern Ireland, and an RAF fighter plane. The primary aim of the hunt was to protect the public and, secondly, to stop Moat killing himself.

The Government would have us believe that for the public's safety, it was an absolute necessity, and the war in Afghanistan will ultimately make the UK safe from terrorists. The war is also aimed at crippling the drug trade, and educating its extremists in respect of a civilised and democratic way of life. The UK hasn't got a drug problem, is civilised and democratic?

Even if we succeed in eradicating terrorists, even if they didn't kill people, we would still have some eight people a day being killed on our roads with scores more being maimed and disabled.

Our roads are a battlefield stained with the blood of thousands and also a lifeline for the drug trade, are they not?

The tally of fatalities from people using guns, knives and violence in the UK to do "business" falls well short of that racked up by the less than civilised people driving motor vehicles.

Even the worst terrorist atrocity, the Twin Towers, with its 3,000 dead, fell short of the carnage of a year on UK roads. Since the Twin Towers, more than 20,000 lives have been claimed on UK roads.

Do we need more resources aimed at reducing the carnage on our roads or must we wait for the war in Afghanistan to end?

From: Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe, Manchester.

Decline and fall of the written word

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

HAVING been a prolific writer of many years, I still feel that for our younger ones the concept of adopting a career of writing and being recognised stands little or no chance in the modern materialistic world of publishing.

When my friend's young daughter was poorly, bedridden and bored, I wrote her a series of short adventure stories about a bunch of cats. They were well received and she shared them with her friends, who, to my delight, also enjoyed them.

More stories were requested so I went on to develop characters and plots and always included a moral to the tale. I have to date written well over 35 linked short stories and called them The Adventures of the Kit Kat Club.

Their parents enjoyed the stories, too, especially those who were cat owners. Many, many have asked why on earth the stories have not been published – especially as they appeal to both young and old. My answer, sadly, was that no agent or publisher appears even remotely interested in seeing them – let alone reading them!

This isn't because the stories are poor – on the contrary I and others have no doubt they would sell very well if published. However, the fact I am not recognised as an acclaimed author equates to over 50 rejection letters – I am an unknown... therefore to their thinking, probably not viable to earn millions.

As a result of my own failed efforts, I do fear for our youngsters who have a leaning towards the literary side of things – reading, enjoying and writing books is something we really need to encourage our children to do, otherwise they will lose out on imagination and knowledge.

Getting them to become accomplished writers is even harder, and the fact that agents and publishers seem only willing to take on known writers with the assurance of huge sales, will make their aspirations even harder.

If we are not careful, the enjoyment of the written word will become a thing of the past and the dreaded PlayStation and X-Box will become the norm.

Another risk on pavement

From: Norma McNichol, Lynwood Drive, Carlton, Barnsley.

I HAVE just read the article (Yorkshire Post, July 14) about the Barnsley man Philip Coates who wants to ride his Segway machine on the pavement.

I hope he does not succeed in his court case as we already have enough hazards to contend with. I always thought that pavements were for pedestrians.

However, we have to contend with mobility scooters and the ever present threat of the people who insist on riding bicycles on the footpaths.

No one seems to bother about this state of affairs, but it can make life difficult for people who want to walk to their destinations.

Prisoners should pay

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.

THE coalition Government must take this opportunity to cut back on wastage and operational costings as the degree of reluctant acceptance is unlikely to repeat itself again in our lifetime.

A hard hit now can always be relaxed in the future if felt desirable, but a later financial hit further on after a first time light approach would be met with nearly insuperable resistance.

In further savings to the taxpayer, all prisoners should be means-tested to help pay for their imprisonment and, as such, a charge be levied for hospital treatment on those who are admitted for self-inflicted problems. Cases, such as drink and drug abuses, with the injuries sustained from these should carry a heavy fine. Politicians should at least discuss the above.

Ringfencing foreign aid is ludicrous. Hundreds of millions of pounds to India, large donations to China who undercut our industries here in Britain, and over 50 years of aid to Africa where negligible benefits are on show. India and China are the world's largest emerging economies, so where is the logic in the UK's largesse?

Until our finances are stable, foreign aid can be slashed and reduced to emergency aid only, this then being sent to the troubled areas and not through the bureaucratic channels.

Very pricey protection

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lanes, Hull.

IT has been reported that Tony Blair's bodyguards are costing British taxpayers 250,000 a year. Knowing his economy with the truth, I think we can double that.

His office argues that this multi-jobbed, multi-millionaire spends most of his time doing unpaid work. Here's me thinking of him as a money-grabbing selfish warmonger, and all this time he has been doing charity work. A modest, unsung hero!

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty. He needs bodyguards because of his choice to declare war on Islam. He, and his accomplice Bush should, I believe, be given 24 hours a day protection for life – in a maximum security prison for war crimes, and afforded their respective cabinet members for company. As justice for his crimes is only a pipedream, let's have second prize and make him pay for his protection.

Our political masters still refuse to tell the truth

From: Tom Scaife, Manor Drive, York.

WELL, well, well. Can we really believe what we are told concerning falling unemployment in the York and North Yorkshire region (Yorkshire Post, July 15)?

Of course we can't – so much for the honest politics promised from the coalition of Con-Dems.

Our current crop of political masters are just like the last lot, they simply refuse to tell the truth. The facts are that any increase in employment is due to a good old massage – of the figures that is.

There is absolutely no comfort for the unemployed and those soon to be axed. More like a stranglehold that suffocates prospects for millions of unemployed.

The truth is that falling unemployment is because of a record rise in part-time work – almost eight million, or more than a quarter of the workforce.

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are being left on short courses to alleviate the 1.5 million 18 to 24-year-old "Neets" (not in education, employment or training) to further hide the truth from us sensitive souls.

Even government parameters for full employment are misleading, being considered the number in work to cover essential jobs only. It never has meant actual full employment where everyone has a job.

Our obsession with throwing billions at universal university education hinders real world job prospects. The money should instead be given to employers and entrepreneurs to take on apprentices.

Even teachers, police officers, doctors, nurses, lawyers could be apprenticed, bypassing the huge peripheral costs of universities including that to the students.

Why? A month from this Friday we could have pencilled-in a couple of million new apprenticeships with real future job prospects.

Importance of apostrophes

From: William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.

HAD the English teacher referred to by Gervase Phinn (Yorkshire Post, July 13) been a logician as well as a linguist, he might have admonished that tiresome pupil for the absurdity of his example of the use of the apostrophe.

Having transcribed several hundred 19th century letters written by educated persons, I have reached the conclusion that either there are no rules for the use of the apostrophe, or if there are, they are studiously ignored, which amounts to the same thing.

There are conventions which the meticulous will observe. The excuse for disfiguring a text with flyspecks is to render clear what might otherwise be unclear. This is rarely the case. A displaced apostrophe never yet brought a greengrocer to bankruptcy.

When enough is enough

From: Colin Ella, Westgate Road, Belton, Doncaster.

I THINK that the London primary school headteacher who has received well over 200,000 for one year has, indeed, been grossly overpaid.

I think his normal pay of around 82,000 is more than enough to reward him for whatever he may have done to pull his school around.

We are obsessed with a culture of payment by results seen across the board in numerous occupations.

Workers should be paid their normal agreed wage or salary without any trimmings added, other than perhaps a reasonable incentive bonus, based simply on the number of years in the job.

Welcome sites

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

IF Haworth becomes a world heritage site, Bradford, which often gets a bad press, will have two such sites within the metropolitan district, plus Ilkley Moor, Baildon Moor, Shipley Glen and the St Ives Estate, all within an authority which is, in fact, two-thirds rural (Yorkshire Post, July 8).

Financial ills

From: David Gillion, Dronfield.

GPs are trained doctors, not accountants (Yorkshire Post, July 13). I suspect many of them do not want to get involved in all that financial work and, anyway, they are busy enough. If they are given the extra work, it must affect the amount of time they have for patients.