Monday's letters: The missing British voters who make the largest minority

I HAVE looked at the statistics from the recent election results from a slightly different viewpoint. Of the entire electorate, the Conservatives won 23.5 per cent of the vote, Labour 18.9 per cent, the Lib Dems 15 per cent, others 7.7 per cent and none of the above 34.9 per cent.

The latter represents voters who, therefore, form the largest minority.

I have spoken to several people who say they didn't vote and generally thought all politicians were the same, or were in it to line their own pockets. None admitted to idleness as a reason for not voting.

If this group of the electorate can be persuaded to turn out, then what would that have done to the election results? Obviously no-one knows but it should be a priority for those considering electoral reform, as well as getting rid of the first past the post system.

A hung Parliament or a pact need not be a major problem, except for the policy makers who will have to persuade their fellow MPs rather than all following the party line like "whipped" sheep.

The above statistics do show however that only one in four of the electorate actually voted Conservative. Also that only four out of 10 voted for the parties in the Con-Lib Dem pact. Truly a minority Government. We live in interesting times.

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

BERNARD Ingham appears to want the new Liberal-Conservative government to fail (Yorkshire Post, May 12). Shame on him. He uses football parlance – only Americans call it soccer these days.

Bernard rails at Labour, who have been "relegated", the Tories, who "missed an open goal", the Liberal Democrats who, like a team on a fluky cup run "flattered to deceive" and the voters who "took their eye off the ball".

There is another football analogy. Any professional footballer will tell you that he loves it when he gets booed by the opposition supporters: it tells him he has made his mark. Nick Clegg should take heart from the opprobrium heaped on him by the Right wing.

Yes, he appeared to flirt with New Labour during the negotiations with David Cameron but any politician in his position would be expected to up the ante. In the final reckoning, he did not renege on his post-election promise to support the party with the

most votes.

Thankfully, your editorial (Yorkshire Post, May 12) was more open-minded than Bernard Ingham. At least let us grant these two men of destiny our goodwill in such daunting circumstances.

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.

IN signing up for the Tories' welfare agenda, I wonder if the Liberal Democrats are aware what it means when it comes to the jobless. For the Tories are talking, as per their manifesto, of making the long-term jobless do compulsory community work, without getting anything extra for this.

To me this goes against the concept of the minimum wage – yes, those on the dole should be working if there are jobs available, but not as a source of free Government labour.

Various other points need to be considered before any new scheme comes in. Will, for instance, those out of work be given time to do a job search? This needs to be done during the day when most firms are open for business, and when people can have access to computers: by their very

nature people on the dole often can't afford to have the internet at home.

Also, what about time for studying? A proper strategy to find work doesn't simply mean firing off CVs right, left and centre, but includes getting yourself more highly qualified in order to increase your chances of obtaining a

proper job.

Finally, what if you are like lots of other jobless people and already doing community work? It doesn't seem logical that you should be required to give this up in order to do other community work. But there again, if you're on the dole you are used to facing highly illogical situations.

From Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

WHAT has happened to the Lib-Con coalition pledge to make savings in costs and to the environment?

Within in a few days of taking over from Labour, all the newly appointed Ministers arrived separately in big cars at Buckingham Palace to receive their seals of office – as shown on TV news bulletins.

Could the new Government not have borrowed one of Boris's red buses so that they could all travel together and thus save us money and the air from pollution?

From: John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, New Road Side, Horsforth, Leeds.

I SUGGEST England and Germany should form a coalition to win the World Cup. It would be a new kind of football.

Success on cards for a family firm

From: Graham Hall, Bingley.

I WAS most interested to read the excellent article by Sheena Hastings regarding the beginnings of Hallmark Cards who first came to Britain in 1959 (Yorkshire Post, May 12).

Perhaps the only slight criticism is that there was no mention of an equally important British company who had the beautiful building constructed which is now the European headquarters of Hallmark.

The firm in question was WN Sharpe Ltd, famous for their "Classic Series" trade name printed on millions of

greetings cards.

The Sharpe company was founded in Bradford by Lincolnshire-born William Naylor Sharpe in 1874. However, poor old William died tragically at the all too young age of 43 in 1889. His son Harold finally took control of the business and made it into the huge international fine art printing company it eventually became.

The building now occupied by Hallmark was designed by the Bradford architects Chippendale & Edmondson and constructed in 1936. It ranks amongst the finest "garden factory" buildings in the country and almost resembles a stately home. When built, it had beautiful lawns and a large pond with houses for the chief engineer and gardener – a true "classic" of its day.

Hallmark took control of the Sharpe company in 1983 and eventually a massive redevelopment of the building took place in 2001. Fortunately, the beautiful facade with its ionic column entrance was retained but sadly the lawns and ponds disappeared under a huge car park. Having researched and written the history of the Sharpe concern – and assembled an extensive collection of early material printed by them – naturally I have a vested interest in the subject.

High pay in public sector

From: SB Oliver, Churchill Grove, Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

EVER since the recession started, we have been made more aware of the huge salaries, bonuses and expenses of bankers, business executives and both national and local public sector officials and politicians.

To read that the chief executive of Sheffield City Council is "forfeiting" his 20,000 returning officer fee, due to the chaos on polling day (Yorkshire Post, May 12) just adds to the anger and rage felt by the general public at the never-ending list of enormous payouts to these people which come from the taxes that we are forced to pay.

Not knowing what his large salary must be, why does he (or any other council chief executive) get 20,000 simply for overseeing polling during an election period? If it took him away from his normal duties, then his big salary should surely include any electoral duties.

Why should he be allowed a "fee" figure equivalent to about 11 months' pay of the national average wage just for extra work during a four week election period? I hope that our new "Ant and Dec" Government coalition will quickly turn their attention to substantial savings that should be made from cutting the obscene salaries paid (but not earned) to many top public sector officials.

Energy from turbines is costly and unpredictable

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

THE Yorkshire Post, as representing the region most closely affected, has opted to lavish support for an enterprise which is staggering in its extent and costs (Yorkshire Post,

May 1). This despite the newspaper's creditable history of sound reporting and good Yorkshire common sense.

Our very basic demand for electricity is met by the burning of fossil fuels (exhaustible) and from nuclear fission (regarded by many as somehow sinister and evil), so it is understandable that a means of supplementing our need by harnessing power from the wind by turbines should appeal to one of an idealistic, airy-fairy, green outlook, and equally to the hard-nosed businessman who sees the prospect of forests of wind turbines as a source of wondrous profit while it lasts.

The present project is prompted and strengthened by the theory put forward by certain of those in the climatology faculty that the earth's temperature is inexorably and rapidly warming due to an increase in CO2 which is the result of man's activity

Significant doubt is being expressed by other scientists as to the methods of their colleagues and the underlying concept on which the whole theory is based. But too late, as governments world-wide have accepted it with enthusiasm, for reasons which are murky and too involved to be considered here.

Electricity from wind turbines is a recent innovation and has proved very costly to the consumer, and to be unreliable as the weather conditions vary unpredictably.

The wind-sourced contribution to the grid is at best meagre and at worst non-existent, as in the recent windless bitterly cold spell when demands were at a high level.

The turbines thus have to be backed up by the continued availability of the conventional power stations, and can furthermore prove an embarrassment by feeding in power to the grid when not needed (as was discovered in an earlier Danish project).

Nevertheless, the existing array of turbines off the British North Sea coast is to be supplemented by some two or three thousand more, demanding astronomical costs in installation, maintenance and connection. Irrespective of the number of generating units, the output during unfavourable weather will still be around the zero mark.

Conversely, the unwelcome blips of power when it is not needed will be correspondingly more pronounced. And this at a time when the national debt has reached a level difficult to comprehend and demanding severe restraint from all sides.