October 14: Short-lived experiment of Attlee era

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

THE election of a Labour government immediately after the Second World War wasn’t that strange (Peter Hyde, The Yorkshire Post, October 5).

Clement Attlee was quite an intelligent, if unexciting bloke. He had been Deputy Prime Minister in the wartime coalition. Maybe the country wasn’t so much being ungrateful to Churchill as sympathetic to an elderly man who had worked himself almost into the ground to save his country from the Nazi menace.

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Whatever the reason voters decided to elect a Labour government in 1945, history records that after six years the country tired of their electoral experiment and reverted to their natural conservatism, ushering in a new era of stability and prosperity. So the message has to be “don’t worry, it probably won’t happen, but if it does, it won’t last”.

Good idea lost in the post

From: Olga Twist, Leeds.

YOUR paper has just reported that some kind people have decided to write letters to the elderly and lonely folk so that they can look out for the postman calling – a very good idea as I write to my friends and relatives instead of the phone. But now the Post Office has decided to up the price of postage.

I think it is a bad move as most folk will find it cheaper to keep on texting and using mobile phones. I think it will take some time for people to understand the new prices.

So evidently the Post Office is in no hurry for the scheme to flourish, so bang goes another good idea.

Factors in car pollution

From: David Tankard, Birkdale Avenue, Knaresborough.

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THE Which? consumer group asked car makers if they cheat. Naturally all who responded said they didn’t. No doubt VW would have said the same a few months ago and, one would hope, be able to answer no in the future.

But what about the Highways Agency? Fuel consumption on the smooth motorways of the Netherlands is always better than on the more roughly surfaced motorways in the UK. Noise levels are also less.

And what about the local authorities who impose 20mph limits not only at all times outside schools but on whole estates?

Some councils impose the 20mph limit when there are school pupils around but not at other times. Then there are the speed humps which are intended to reduce the severity of accidents but what is the effect on air pollution? I hope the Select Committee investigating the issue can come to a sensible conclusion, and not simply score political points by hounding one manufacturer which clearly deserves it, but is not alone.

Long distance call centres

From: Samuel Moore, Cornholme Terrace, Todmorden.

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THE last time I phoned British Gas, I was speaking to a man who told me he was in a centre in Cape Town and good luck to him for having found a job he can live from. Is that why we have so much unemployment?

In their scrabble to give customers the cheapest possible prices, UK companies exploit employment centres in cheaper economies as paying UK wages would make their running costs higher, hence the employment/wealth imbalances so very obvious in our populations.

Had the call centre been in Halifax, the dole queue would have shrunk by a few hundred. No wonder so many economies are irreparably damaged.

A gamble with society

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Grimsby.

ONE of the worst things that the Major government ever did was to introduce the National Lottery. For it helped to sanitise the whole business of gambling, bringing into the mainstream away from betting shops and the pools man.

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So today with the closure of specific National Lottery outlets we have stores selling lottery tickets at the till, among with other goods that everyone can by, including children. I thought that the Conservatives didn’t believe in the something-for-nothing society, but in this aspect it appears that I was very much mistaken.

Hunt has failed NHS

From: Terry Duncan, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

JEREMY Hunt was hopeless as a sports minister pre the 2012 Olympics when he lost control of security. Now, it turns out, he has lost control of the NHS (The Yorkshire Post, October 100.

Is the conclusion surely that Jeremy Hunt is just hopeless? And is it time for PM Cameron to sack him?

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

WORRYING news on the NHS deficits reveals that private sector agencies have been charging £3,500 per shift for doctors (The Yorkshire Post, October 10). Dare we hope that David Cameron will deal more effectively with this latest rip off than he has with the energy and transport vultures?