Now give all NHS staff a decent wage, Boris Johnson, while we clap for them

I ASK whether all those (including our shambolic Prime Minister) who stand on their doorsteps and streets clapping and banging pan lids in support of our NHS each Thursday would not be better instead diverting their energy into lobbying their MPs, and the Government, to pay the NHS workers a decent wage?

Yes, we do have a first-class emergency on our hands at present. It’s all very well the Government dangling juicy carrots in front of the cameras each day and promising the NHS that it will provide the NHS with all it needs in in terms of finance and PPE. But I wonder what will happen once we are able to resume more normality. Will the NHS resume to its ‘normality’ of being strapped for cash and having to scratch around in order to fund the means to function effectively and efficiently?

The NHS would not be in the situation it presently finds itself today if successive governments had not withdrawn millions of pounds of funding over time. It is nothing short of an utter disgrace.

So, let the clappers continue to clap on Thursday evenings if they wish. But start petitioning and lobbying the Government for a secure and sustained financial guarantee to enable the NHS to function properly, and enable it to provide the care it is designed to do.

From: Sue Hanson, Dudwell Lane, Skircoat Green, Halifax.

I READ Christa Ackroyd’s article on how much she is missing the hugs with her grandchildren and I couldn’t agree more.

However, there is something else that I find I am missing as well. Something that I have always taken for granted living in Yorkshire all my life.

The easy friendliness we always have with others, the chats with people we barely know – at a bus stop, in a shop, walking the dog etc. Now, while some people happily say “good morning”, others look at you with suspicion and some cross the road to avoid you. Conversations, at the moment, are few and far between. I really miss this facet of everyday life.

Thank goodness neighbours meet for the weekly clap of gratitude for the NHS and all key workers.

I personally know people who have sadly lost their lives due to this virus and fully appreciate the need for social distancing.

I just hope that, after this very uncertain and extremely worrying period of time passes, our very special county, usually full of friendly, smiling, chatting people, will quickly recover.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

RICHARD Wimpenny (The Yorkshire Post, May 19) should not be surprised at the media and the public ‘carping’ over Boris Johnson. For 10 years, the Tory government has been squeezing the NHS and other essential services. Remember ‘austerity’?

From: RA Jackson, Goodwell Lea, Brancepeth.

WHAT a pleasure to read Mr Wimpenny’s letter. Certainly the wide spectrum of people I talk with on a daily basis share his views to the letter. The BBC thinks it is beyond reproach; it is not.

I have stopped watching the news, preferring instead to take the messages directly from the “horse’s mouth” at the daily news conference at 5pm rather than the dreadful interpretation later broadcast by BBC reporters.

From: Anita Howard, Ridding Gate, Otley. 

I AGREE with almost every word Mr Wimpenny has written, the constant negative narrative is morale sapping.  I never knew that this country had so many  armchair epidemiologists, public health specialists and statisticians, none of whom appeared to have anymore foresight than the Government, but seemly are overly blessed with hindsight.

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James Mitchinson