More jobs for the boys and girls

On a Sunday recently, I started the pre-winter tidying up of my front garden, when a lovely lady appeared with a bundle of brown envelopes.

I presumed it was another sales scam. Not at all. It was the delivery of letters to ensure we remained on the voters’ roll.

I asked the lady if she was a volunteer. She replied that she was paid 15p for every envelope delivered.

I wondered if it was a job to help her while unemployed. Her reply: “No, I work for the council at Bridlington Town Hall. Helps with the holiday fund.”

She then went on to reveal there was an army of ERYC employees doing the same deliveries. Not bad for extra pin money on top of a well-paid and secure job.

I can only feel that there are many hard-up folk – not only in Bridlington, but throughout the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area – who would have appreciated the opportunity to earn a few extra pounds.

Once again – jobs for the boys (or girls)!

Pay rises have to be earned

From: Phil Hanson, Beechmount Close, Baildon, Shipley.

I FIND it amazing, even astonishing in this day and age, that the likes of the NHS are still operating along the old civil service model of annual pay increases and automatic pay increases through age.

That went out in the 1970s with the likes of the GPO.

It is clear that there is a divide in the working population, a divide of those who put in, i.e. private sector employees who have to compete in the global environment against all-comers including the Far East etc, and the takers, whose numbers include the NHS, police and others such as firemen who retire early on a nice pension while having had enough spare time to run a business, as is often the case.

Private sector employees have to work very hard to stand still, let alone see pay increases, the term “annual pay increase” having been lost from widespread usage long ago.

Pay increases have to be earned, funded through productivity not price increases. So to all the NHS, civil servants and the BBC, take note and get into the real world. Your fellow taxpayers say no to bank-rolling you!

William should stay in Forces

From: Christine McDade, Morton on Swale, North Yorkshire.

Am I, and friends to whom I have spoken, the only members of the public to feel let down by Prince William’s decision to leave the Armed Forces and take a year to decide his future role?

He is second in line to the throne with Prince Charles in good health and able to step up to become King when that time arises. Hopefully, our wonderful Queen still has many years to reign.

Prince William is 31 and able to continue to serve in the Armed Forces for years to come instead of wanting to spend the next year thinking about how he would like to help the wildlife in Africa, amongst other things.

There are many more worthwhile causes in our own country.

I believe that I read in the paper that Prince George has a passport already so, no doubt, some exotic holiday is in the offing.

At 31 years of age, Prince William is not an immature young student taking a gap year before deciding on his future. He has known, always, where his future lies. I have been amazed at the lack of comment in the Press at his decision.

Harmful effects of slower speeds

From: Peter Horton, Sandy Lane, Ripon.

YOUR report (Yorkshire Post, October 3) tells me that Calderdale Council is to join the 20mph club, following “pressure from the public to do something about speeding drivers”.

I venture to suggest that  these speeding drivers are probably travelling well in  excess of the present 30mph  limit, as vehicles travelling at or below 30mph rarely attract attention or condemnation.

Therefore the introduction of a 20mph limit will not be an effective solution, and more thought should be given to better enforcement of the long-established 30mph limit.

The report gives the impression that there are pedestrians  lurking behind every lamp-post, just waiting to jump into the road, and this is plainly not the case.

The adverse effects of 20mph limits on both drivers and the general public are clearly not  fully appreciated.

To travel at a speed below 20mph any vehicle will need to maintain a lower gear which means higher engine revolutions per minute for a given road speed, and thus an increased level of harmful emissions.

Petrol and diesel are already vastly over-expensive and overtaxed and rapidly  becoming unaffordable to  many motorists, and this persistent crawling in low gear can only result in greatly increased consumption.

Pedantry with  a purpose

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I CAN no longer resist identifying myself as the reader who clearly “irritated” Gervase Phinn some years ago by picking him up for the alleged solecism of using  the word “aggravate” when he really meant “irritate”. His hilarious piece (Yorkshire Post, October 5) provides the second occasion he has alluded to my pedantry in his articles.

I am grateful to him for  striking a more conciliatory  note in this latter reference in which he even thanks me for pointing out something he  didn’t know. I would also like him to know that if I could write like him I wouldn’t be such an inveterate letter writer to newspapers.

I hold up my hands to being an insufferable pedant but my nit-picking has only ever been directed at professional communicators such as  writers, journalists and commentators who should  know better.

I have never sneered at people whose use of English is less than perfect because their talents  lie in other directions: I refer especially to sportsmen who are  a popular target for semi-educated snobs.