Letters August 28: Countries are blood brothers

From: John Wildie, Briar Grove, Sandal, Wakefield.

THOUSANDS of Polish immigrants who are now working and living in our country have adopted England as their homeland. Andrzej Kygielski from Kent has come up with the idea for all Polish people who can give blood in Britain to do so, a way to say thank you to our country for helping them out during the Second World War against the German army, many of our men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I was only a lad when the war was on, but I can remember my father saying that some Polish men flew our aeroplanes, the Spitfire and the Hurricane, because we could not train our own pilots up fast enough to prevent the Luftwaffe from trying to damage this country of ours. I wish to say thank you for coming up with the idea of giving blood and helping us.

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham.

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WITH reference to Sheila Ensley (The Yorkshire Post, August 17), I would think that most inhabitants of the Hebrides (and I know many) would utterly resent the invasion of a load of migrants and anyway, their current public serivces would be totally unable to cope with the demands and requirements of these pathetically sad, nomadic people.

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

IT’S about time we as a nation woke up to the fact that we are seen as both inept and gullible by foreigners when it comes to benefits and health care.

Until the Government starts clamping down, all the savings and austerity measures we are enduring are utterly worthless because billions seems to be seeping through legal loopholes like water through cracks in a dam. Come on David Cameron, do your job and let’s get Britain back on line, and not somewhere that migrants automatically head for because we are so soft.

A drink 
well-earned

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

AM I the only senior citizen who resents the negative publicity we older people get?

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We are now vilified for having a drink (The Yorkshire Post, August 24), along with ruining the NHS with our dementia and old age illnesses, flattening the economy because of our free bus passes and free TV licences when we reach 75 years.

Well, look around. We alone keep many institutions going such as Yorkshire Cricket Club (apart from a few young stragglers attending Twenty20), theatres and the arts. We staff charity shops, English Heritage and National Trust sites, clean churches, care for our partners and grandchildren without pay.

Most of us have worked hard and paid our taxes for 45 to 50 years, not relying on handouts from the Government. We manage our pensions well, cutting our coat to suit our cloth.

Give us a bit of respect, stop blaming us for all the ills of the country and leave us to enjoy our gin and tonics in peace!

Taking fight to the Tories

From: Mr J Penn, Holcroft Garth, Hedon, Hull.

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TONY Blair and Gordon Brown destroyed the Labour Party by dropping Clause Four – the cornerstone of socialism which gave us our welfare state and our wonderful NHS at the end of the Second World War.

The Tories and New Labour gave us the privatisation of utilities, the companies that tell us we can change suppliers whenever we like. But the electricity still comes to us in the same cable, from the same power stations. If you have any complaints, speaking to any of these companies on the telephone is a complete nightmare.

The manufacture of steel is on the way to collapse. Gas is in a similar state, as are the railway industries. Water may be OK, but it is a gift from God we pay for.

If Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership campaign and forms a coalition with the Scottish Nationalist Party, the Welsh Socialists and the Green Party, we could end up with a strong opposition to the rancid right wing Conservative Party, a party of the past.

Cruelty of suffering

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

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PLEASE let me respond to I M Asquith’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, August 24). My parents were not an inconvenience to me and I can assure everyone I would have travelled many more miles to be given the opportunity to see them live.

Watching my father suffer and twist and turn in pain caused myself, my mother and sister untold agonies. At that time, my mother made a statement that she would want to be helped to die rather than cause anyone else the suffering she went through.

Verdict on Iraq war

From: Trev Bromby, Hull.

RE the now mythical Chilcot report into Iraq which has cost £10m to produce no results. In 2009 they could have wrapped up and published a report in a day, “The killing of civilians and wilfully causing great suffering is a war crime” – Fourth Geneva Convention, 1949.

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