Historical facts stand inviolate

DAVID McKenna (Yorkshire Post, June 5) presumes to lecture me on the subject I used to teach. History may appear to be “complex and complicated” to the untutored eye, Mr McKenna, but it is not an abstruse subject. It is not the Hegelian dialectic!

On the contrary, history provides clarity. By researching primary and secondary source material, and through careful cross-referencing, the past is uncovered: we witness the revelations, see patterns emerge and events unfold.

Recorded history is inviolate. It is impervious to the obfuscations and sophistry of neo-Marxist revisionists.

It is not I, but you, Mr McKenna, who needs to “read round your subject”.

Commencing perhaps with the economic theories of Hayek (who influenced Margaret Thatcher), Keynes (who influenced Gordon Brown) and Marx (reinterpreted by Lenin and read by Arthur Scargill..... reputedly).

You might then begin to comprehend some of the powerful influences that are served to shape and re-shape the modern world.

Poorest are 
hit hardest

From: Dr Glyn Powell, Bakersfield Drive, Kellington.

PRIME Minister David Cameron wrongly claims that “we’re all in this together”, in relation to the pain endured in reducing the nation’s financial deficit.

In truth, it is the poor and disadvantaged who are being hit the hardest, as a consequence of savage benefit cuts and the iniquitous “bedroom tax”. Whereas the wealthy endure little or no pain through taking advantage of tax avoidance loopholes.

I, along with other Unite trade union members, have been campaigning against the aforementioned measures and have been horrified at the effects such measures are having on people who are already trying to exist on breadline incomes.

It is therefore a national disgrace that hundreds of thousands of people are only able to survive by receiving food handouts from charities. People live better than this in Bangladesh rather in so-called civilised 21st century Britain.

Labour risks big mistake

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby, Lincolnshire.

LABOUR’S move to support Tory welfare caps won’t gain them new votes, but will make millions of potential voters wonder what’s the point of voting for the party. For why support an Opposition who doesn’t plan to do things differently from the Government?

Looking at the details, that may not be the impression Ed Miliband wants to give. Yet that’s how his plans are coming over, much to the disgust of people like myself who think Labour is missing a valuable opportunity. For with 2.5 million jobless, of course the benefit bill is going to be high. So what’s needed is a pledge to bring back full employment, with the creation of many new jobs.

Incidentally, the biggest single element of welfare spending is money paid out to those of retirement age. So as the population ages, the natural tendency will be for the benefit bill to rise.

A health warning

From: Coun Nader Fekri, Labour & Co-op, Calder Ward, Hope House, Cheetham Street, Hebden Bridge.

THE Public Health England map uses a traffic light system to identify early death rates in local authorities, with red for worst and green best.

Two things stand out. First is the present and growing gap between North and South, and second is the health of the residents of our own Calderdale.

The figures show that people living in the worst performing area are more than twice as likely as people in the south of England, to die before the age of 75.

Overall premature deaths for the borough was nearly 4,500 for 2009–2011 ranking us 117th out of 150 local authorities. More worrying still is that we are ranked 15th out of 15 of similar local authorities.

The four main contributors to premature deaths are by cancer, lung, liver and heart disease and strokes which exact a cruelly high price.

Now that local authorities have joined the NHS in becoming responsible for healthier living, we can all do our bit to help by stopping smoking, eating a healthy balanced diet, staying physically active and sticking to a healthy weight.

Atrocities of the Mau Mau

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

JACK Kinsman is right (Yorkshire Post, June 11) when he writes about the compensation for the former Mau Mau.

It is nearly a year ago that I wrote about these people coming here seeking compensation for the mis-behaviour of our young troops trying to quell a rebellion by local tribesmen.I can remember the atrocities committed by these savages, probably some of the worst in our colonial history. Alas, our Government have again given in to the human rights brigade.

It makes me wonder how much the young wives and families got when their young husbands and fathers were brutally butchered in places like Malaya, Cyprus, Israel and Northern Ireland.

Our young men are returning home from Afghanistan either dead or limbless after trying to keep at bay an army of tribesmen whose religious fanaticism knows no bounds. I bet the families and fatherless children left behind get a pittance.