Political life depends on funding

I AM writing with concern at the increasing use in all media of the term “the political classes”.

I have noticed others also concerned and commenting upon this! It does seem that if one is interested in representing one’s fellow man or party it seems that no matter how talented the degree stream, if you are not backed well financially by another then there will be no door open to you!

Through my experiences over many years, I have decided that nearly every political party suffers from this, and I believe that many of the new policies we are seeing, especially the ones where there are disabled issues, are ill-informed and have a severe impact!

The impact upon the largely unrepresented working class is becoming more apparent, especially the lower salaried people.

Eventhe Socialist Party is keen to promote more middle-class members, according some time ago to the York branch secretary Linda Sheridan, so ultimately if no new organisations emerge with more ethical funding and representation, we must continue to believe what our masters tell us.

From: S Bretton, Manor Drive, Flockton Green, Wakefield.

LOOK at the political choices today. Labour encouraged immigration to try to buy themselves continued government and then kindly spent all our money and made the rest of us pay for it whether we liked it or not.

If we didn’t want a continued Labour government, and those of us who have two brain cells to rub together were delighted to see the back of them, we had generally two alternatives.

We had the Lib Dems – and if you sent the lot of them out to buy a packet of wine gums they would make a mess of it – and we have the Conservatives.

If we voted Conservative we got, God help us, such Ministers as Liam Fox and Theresa May. We also got the clown who filed his constituency correspondence in the nearest public waste paper basket.

I conclude that every one of the major political parties is in it for what they can personally get out of it and, oh boy, do they get something out of it.

So I’m sorry to disappoint anyone who has read thus far, if they expect answers. There are none. The “haves” have got it sewn up and they are not going to let go of the lifestyle they have carved out for themselves. I can only see one way out and most people won’t have the guts to do it.

We could refuse to vote for any sitting MP or councillor when they next seek election. That would put the fear of God into them. Anyone want to start an action group?

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

NO doubt the people at St Paul’s and elsewhere are well-intentioned but their protests are futile and even counter-productive. The fact of the matter is that the capitalist system at any rate in the West is slowly running down.

It is based on a flawed cycle of boom and bust which, despite the claims of Gordon Brown, is beyond governments, economists or business to control. Even the US which has hitherto been the best advert for the system is suffering through the same crisis.

As pioneers of the Industrial Revolution, we benefited from the lack of competition and the availability of cheap labour.

At some point the keen edge of competitiveness is blunted and artificial atmosphere of “prosperity” is substituted based on paper profits encouraged by speculators and foolish optimism.

Swingeing taxes on the banks may be popular but is highly unlikely to address the fundamental problem.

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

THE EU single market is often touted by British europhiles in view of the ongoing crises in the EU and the eurozone, as their last-ditch defence of the EU. So James Bovington (Yorkshire Post, November 5) thinks the Single Market “is surely worth protecting and developing”.

Well, the answer is no, as the EU itself admitted. In 2006 EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen stated that EU regulations cost £520bn (then 5.5 per cent of EU GDP). Even the EU only claimed 1.8 per cent GDP benefit as a result of the Single Market, or a derisory one third of the costs. In addition, unlike the genuine European free trade area (EFTA), the EU’s market is choked with bureaucracy and political posturing rather than being about straightforward trade.

Every excuse for the EU crumbles on close examination. As such, it is time we faced up to the fact that the EU has been a disaster for Europe.

It is time the politicians and europhiles who got us into this mess were held to account. The UK government must accept that a post-EU world looks increasingly likely and make plans for it.

‘Free’ power costs money

From: Gordon Bray, Grange Road, Golcar, Huddersfield.

I SEE that Leeds Council has decided to put on hold its plan to provide “free electricity” to some council tenants due to the Government’s reduction in the feed-in tariff for renewable energy.

Can I point out that there is no such thing as “free electricity”? If one takes into account the cost of production and installation of the proposed solar panels and the interest charged on the loan to finance this, then without a government subsidy, the cost of any electricity produced would be higher than electricity obtainable from conventional sources.

In other words the pay-back time would be infinite. Where does the money come from to pay the present feed-in tariff?

It comes from you and me and any other mug who either cannot afford to have these solar panels fitted, or their house faces the wrong way or they choose not to fit them, in the form of additional taxation. How can this be fair?