Picturing a cheaper option

WE have all been made aware that there is not enough money for hospitals, road repairs etc and we must all expect cutbacks, but this information seems to have eluded some of our MPs such as the taxpayers’ bill for MPs’ portraits (Yorkshire Post, January 14). Some of the costs of the portraits seem excessive. For example the cost of John Bercow’s portrait is £22,000 plus £15,000 for the frame.

I do a little painting myself and could do it much cheaper. I have the black tar paint and just need some feathers.

Crazy expense

From: David Cook, Parkside Close, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

IF a private individual was uncertain which of two cities he wished to live in, even though they were 300 miles apart and in different countries, he would be considered unusual to say the least.

If his solution to the problem was to live for a month in each and take all his valuables, at great expense, 12 times a year to his alternative accommodation, he would rightly be regarded as mad. Yet, this is exactly what happens in the EU with its Parliament’s monthly travels from Brussels to Strasbourg and back – at a cost of some £93m annually.

Perhaps we should be like Switzerland and Norway and prosper under our own management without any help from the EU.

Object lesson

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I AGREE with every word of Mrs RM Pearson’s letter on the use of English and its deterioration (Yorkshire Post, January 15).

However, Mrs Pearson is herself guilty of a grammatical error in her otherwise beautifully written piece. She asks “what or whom is to blame”. “Whom” is correct when used as the object of a verb or with a preposition such as “to” or “with”, neither of which is the case here. “What or who is to blame?” would be correct as would “what or whom are we to blame?”, “whom” being the object of the verb “blame”.