Lobby these MPs over unfair grant settlements to the North

THE present coalition Government will shortly be announcing its plans on by how much councils will be expected to cut their pubic expenditure in the forthcoming financial year.

This will also be applied elsewhere, eg to the police and fire services.

“We are all in it together,” they say. Like hell, I say. We already know that up to £180 per person has been cut in the North. This, when people in the South have had to “suffer” cuts of about £36 per head.

I understand that last year West Yorkshire Fire Authority lost 10 per cent of its grant. 
At the same time, Essex, Dorset and Hampshire got increases. But of course, “We are all in it together”, so obviously we are to be grateful.

In Westminster, about 10 months ago when this was put to the vote, Stuart Andrew and Alec Shelbrooke (Tory) and Greg Mulholland (Lib Dem) happily voted for this. And they are, all three of them, some of our local MPs. We are all in it together? I don’t think so. If all readers agreed to lobby these MPs to ensure they oppose further unfair grant settlements for us in the North, when these are published in late December this year, we might then perhaps be persuaded to admit “we are all in it together”.

From: Geoffrey Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.

THE former Lib Dem minister Sarah Teather (Yorkshire Post, November 19) has condemned a £500 weekly total for benefit payments as immoral.

The average weekly wage for a working man will be far less than that amount. The trouble with some MPs is they do not live in a real world, it is time they visited working class areas and talk to the people who get up in a morning to go to work and earn less than £500.

They should then pay a visit to the so-called deprived areas, they will see the unemployed smoking and drinking.

Sarah Teather and all the other do-gooders that say children suffer should be trying to get the system changed.

The only way to do this is to stop putting cash in the hands of the long-term unemployed and give them vouchers for food and clothes.

My fear is that workers have to pay for all including the long-term unemployed, and these people do not even pay attention.

From: TW Coxon, West Aukland Road, Darlington.

ONCE again our attention is drawn to the antics of our MPs by recent statements on TV news bulletins regarding Tory MP Nadine Dorries and her exploits in Australia.

It re-emphasises the amount of time our overpaid, underworked MPs take out of their working year.

In any other job this would 
not be tolerated and such people would quickly be given the sack.

Isn’t it time we viewed the absence of our paid representatives in the same fashion?

The more I hear and read of the exploits of our paid representatives, and the disdain that they have for the people they represent and the way they exploit their position in society, the less respect and regard I have for them.

David Cameron and George Osborne are often sneered at because of their wealth, but at least they cannot be accused of being politicians for what money they can get out of it.

Recent headlines regarding 
our politicians once again proves the point made so often: “Too many, too well paid, not enough to do.”

In my view the system has been fiddled for far too long 
and should immediately be stopped.

I wonder how many of your readers agree?