Help autistic into work

I wanT to encourage our MP to support the National Autistic Society’s (NAS) Undiscovered Workforce campaign to help adults with autism into employment.

The campaign is calling upon MPs across the UK to work together with local authority services, as well as local businesses and employment providers, to improve job opportunities for people with autism in their own constituencies.

NAS research indicates that only 15 per cent of adults with autism are in full-time employment, despite the fact that 79 per cent of those claiming out-of-work benefits told us they want to work.

Research with university leavers has shown that 26 per cent of graduates with autism are unemployed, by far the highest rate of any disability group.

One in 100 people living in Yorkshire has autism and it is therefore vital that more is done locally to support these adults into work.

Stop fracking

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

It looks as though the company who were stopped last year in Lancashire from extracting trapped gases by “fracking” are to be allowed to resume.

This American-inspired procedure uses vast amounts of water forced into the rocks under great pressure, to crack and split the strata and thus release the natural gas.

When we are experiencing a drought in half our country, and water is such a vital and precious resource, is it sensible to continue like this ?

We need energy, and I favour more nuclear power and the extraction of “clean coal”, not fracking and renewables.

Lords in Leeds

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-super-Mare.

There is a proposal from Lord Adonis to move the Lords to Manchester when their lordships’ house becomes an elected chamber. From Roman times for hundreds of years the capital of the North was York.

York’s successor is Leeds. If government is to be moved to the North, it should be to Leeds, rather than to Manchester.