Living beyond your means is not a right

From: Peter Smith, Poplar Terrace, Bentley, Doncaster.

I HAVE very little sympathy for the people who live within the Yorkshire “Golden Triangle”, who are described by the York Council leader as “vulnerable” to the proposal to limit housing benefit to £500 per week for rent (Yorkshire Post, July 4).

If they find it unaffordable, they must move to somewhere cheaper. Why not?

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I have never been able to earn as much as the national average wage, nevertheless, due to saving my money, careful housekeeping and living in a modest terraced house in South Yorkshire, I have been able to retire at 55 with two pensions and enough in the bank to ensure security for the rest of my life.

I resent still having to pay income tax so that these people can live in an area that is beyond their means.

Clearly they have no qualms about taking money from other people’s pockets. I also believe it is time that some of the money- grabbing landlords were given a reality check.

They would not be able to charge the exorbitant rents that they do, were it not for the current, much-abused system.

Thatcher was a true giant

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From: William Snowden, Butterbowl Gardens, Farnley Ring Road, Leeds.

your Editorial (Yorkshire Post, July 4) concluded with the impious refrain: “We must not repeat the mistakes of the 1980s.”

Under Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, the British economy was transformed: it rose from the bottom to the top of the European economic growth table.

Margaret Thatcher also restored Britain’s international reputation. She became a recognised world leader, who remains universally admired: a recent poll revealed her to be “the world’s most influential woman”.

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Contrary to your shallow pretensions, what Britain must not emulate is the decade of destruction: the 1970s, when the so-called Labour movement reaped socio-economic havoc in our industrial heartlands.

It was Margaret Thatcher who possessed the requisite courage and conviction to confront and vanquish the militants, and thereby lay the foundations for a strong and thriving economy.

She was a political giant in a world of pernicious pygmies – then and now.

Green myths backfire

From: Rodney Atkinson, Meadowfield Road, Stocksfield, Northumberland.

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A PAPER from the think-tank, Civitas, reveals that Government plans to cut carbon emissions could cost 600,000 jobs in the chemical industry, with many of the job losses concentrated in the North-East.

Extraordinarily many of the manufacturers who would be hit by the massive “green” taxes have an essential role in developing a low-carbon economy.

The man-made global warming myth is one of the greatest scams in politics – with enormous heating cost implications for the poor and the old and massive costs for the economy and the future of our energy industry.

The growth of wind farms will even raise carbon emissions (as it already has done for instance in Germany) because fossil fuel power plants will have to be kept running at (high carbon emitting) low load factors as a back up for when the wind drops.

What a disaster.

Decline of the coal age

From: Arthur Quarmby, Underhill, Holme, Holmfirth.

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AT the start of the 20th century, all human activity seemed to be powered by coal; railways, shipping, the whole of world industry, the generation of electricity and the production of gas.

Not to mention dye stuffs and pharmacological products. If anyone had said that demand for coal would disappear within one lifetime, he would have been thought mad.

In fact, the end of the life of oil as a major provider of power can far more readily be forecast now than the end of coal could then.

Unless some unknown propulsive force emerges shortly, the future must belong to electricity. It is by far the most convenient, versatile and effective form of energy; its only real drawback being the fact that we have not yet learned how to store it effectively and economically.

Hard to please all viewers

From: Roger S Tipping, Marlborough Road, Doncaster.

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KENNETH Radcliffe (Yorkshire Post, July 1) is clearly not a tennis fan. He does, however, have a point about broadcasting.

I have often wondered why matches involving Andy Murray (and Tim Henman before him) are switched to BBC1 when the BBC2 schedule is for tennis.

There must be a contractual reason but it seems pointless in the age of digital technology. Most people can view and record as they please.

Of course, he is correct to say that the news and regional news are important, but people can please themselves and have both if they wish. The problem may be knowing what to record.

What happened to the Antiques Roadshow when the Canadian Grand Prix was delayed? What happens when football matches go to extra time? Somebody is always unhappy.

The BBC cannot please everyone.