MP has lost Tory party our votes

MY wife and I have been members of the Conservative Party for many years. My wife has played an active part in supporting local MPs wherever we lived in the country, during my military career.

My wife withdrew her party membership a few months ago. Anne McIntosh’s performance did not help to retain her loyalty to the party.

We both have been disappointed in her performance.

We both simply do not feel that she represents us and the Thirsk and Malton constituency adequately.

We do not rate her and will not vote Conservative in 2015 if she is the sitting member.

In our opinion she has concentrated on furthering her career at Westminster, at the expense of our constituency. We need a strong and active MP in our large and diverse area; for the next election could well be very close. We do not feel that Anne is able to fill this role.

Story of city’s money woes

From: Martin Drake, Ladythorpe, Fenwick, Doncaster.

AFTER last week’s announcement by Mayor Jones on the woeful state of Doncaster MBC’s finances, I feel that several things need to be stated.

The current financial problems of Doncaster MBC pre-date the Mayoral system and have not been improved under the two previous mayors.

Indeed the problems grew under Mayor Winter and were then compounded by Mayor Davies.

Winter was far too exuberant in the good times, in fairness a charge that can be levelled at many authorities. With Davies, there was a huge opportunity for change. Instead he put off all the difficult crucial decisions and lacked the nerve or knowledge to put in place long term strategies; the most obvious being the overhaul of children’s services that he delayed and then failed to employ new staff. In fact the Davies strategy was to starve departments of money instead of reform; this was too short-term to solve Doncaster’s problems.

Unfortunately Mayor Jones appears to have also adopted this strategy and with eight months into her term of office we have had no indication of the future direction of Doncaster. Could it be that the Labour administration does not have a vision clear of Doncaster and plan to get there?

Now is the time to revolutionise public sector provision in Doncaster. We can reinvigorate services. But blaming Mayor Jones is being disingenuous with the electorate at the same time as letting them down.

Costly even 
in opposition

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

HOW it would serve the British taxpayer and consumer well if Ed Miliband would think before opening his mouth. This is the experienced politician who spent money like water accumulating record debt as a key player in the last government, and who now has carried on costing the public while in opposition – which is some feat!

On energy pricing his threats have caused a knee-jerk rush to ratchet up prices across the energy suppliers, costing consumers many millions.

Then, to pour fuel on rising costs, he made threats to break up the banks resulting in £943m wiped off the value of our RBS and Lloyds – this is an absolute disgrace and he should be brought to task in the courts for his irresponsible behaviour, more akin to the rantings of a 1960s trade unionist than a leader of a political party.

I could never trust a middle- class fool who has never held what most people would see as a proper job and certainly is not a safe pair of hands. The thought of Mr Miliband, plus Mr and Mrs Ed Balls, in power makes me lose sleep at night.

Monarchy’s stabilising role

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

THE goings-on in France featuring President Hollande started me thinking and comparing systems of government. France seems to have been particularly unfortunate, first with revolving door governments then a procession of Presidential mediocrities, with only De Gaulle standing out.

We have had our share of duffers but we have in our recent history avoided the extremes of government including Fascism, Nazism, Communism, revolution and absolute monarchy.

The key factor in our history 
has been our monarchy, which 
of course is non-political and 
if you like, depoliticises our system.

Perhaps those who concentrate on the superficial aspects of the Royal Family should reflect on the debt we owe them for keeping the ship of state afloat in turbulent times.

Facing up to the end of life

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

CONGRATULATIONS to Jayne Dowle for her excellent article (Yorkshire Post, January 20). As we all get older, the end of life does bear some deep thinking. One has to feel for those who pioneer these matters and particularly those with terminal illnesses who are often left to carry on without any help or assistance. The law needs to be looked at and these matters not swept under the carpet.

Secondly what outstanding performances both David Neilson and Julie Hesmondhalgh gave in the Monday evening edition of Coronation Street. The episode should be used in the training of those entering the caring professions. It was wonderful to watch and observe the issues surrounding end of life. Well done to all.

Language barriers

From: Keith Jowett, Silkstone Common, Barnsley.

I REGARD the Yorkshire Post as a champion of the correct use of English and have enjoyed the space you have recently given to correspondents who have concerns about correct usage of our language. I was a little disappointed today to see the headline on the letters page (Yorkshire Post, January 21) “Why is an animal’s suffering so different to a human’s?”

At least you do not use the horrible American term “different than”, but I was always taught that it should be “different from”.

On a different linguistic theme, I was pleased to read Andrew Vine’s article deploring the increasing prevalence of the use of rising inflections which turn every sentence into a question: the so called “Australian Intonation Disease”. Of equal concern to me is the increasing prevalence of speakers prefacing their answer to a simple question such as “Will you be taking a holiday this year?” with “You know what?”. Too many questions!