Politicians without answers

IT was so delightfully enjoyable to watch the three main parties deliver their excuses after their pathetic performances in the local elections. Yet again they prove how out of touch they are.

People are angry about soaring costs of living, declining services such as hospitals and schools, job insecurity, poverty pay, reduced work hours and rising rents. And they’re tired of politicians with no answers.

We got David Cameron’s lies, telling us the coalition had created one million new jobs. The Government’s Office of National Statistics show it to be closer to 300,000. We got the vacuous Nick Clegg telling us he’d put £600 in our pockets. Sorry Nick, my fuel bill alone soaked up that, then there’s my food bill and other costs, all up thanks to you.

Finally, we had the disappearing act done by Ed Miliband, who  will probably sneak into 10 Downing Street by the back door after a split vote on the Right.

I’ve little time for Ukip. In or out of the EU will not solve our problems. Yet politicians who don’t do their jobs should be punished. They got a good slapping because we can’t trust them to do their job properly. It’s that simple.

From: John Senior, Skelmanthorpe.

I CONSIDER myself to have average intelligence and yet I have no idea as to whether the lot of the ordinary people of this country would be better if we were out of the EU rather than in it as we are now.

Nor have I any idea how to  gain access to all the information that would be needed for me to make an informed decision. I thought that we elected our  MPs and paid them to make  such decisions for us, after considering the complex pros and cons of EU membership for UK citizens.

Referenda should be reserved for easily understood questions such as “should we allow hunting with dogs” or “gay marriage”. I wouldn’t have a problem with reaching a decision on such questions.

From: Rodney Atkinson. Stocksfield, Northumberland.

SOME claim that we cannot blame all our ills on the  European Union. But 80 per cent would not be far wrong. Indeed that was the percentage of German laws which the German Parliament asserted came from Brussels rather than German democracy – so it is equally true here.

Mass immigration is chiefly due to the right of free movement enshrined in European Treaties. The collapse of our economy is more than half due to the collapse of the Eurozone. The regulation burden on British industry is almost entirely Brussels inspired.

The nameless bomb heroes

From: John Bishop, Longswales Lane, Kirkby Malzeard.

WE remember the Dambusters raid of 70 years ago (Malcolm Barker, Yorkshire Post, May 16). Of course the valleys below the dams were just rural backwaters of no great significance, isolated farmsteads, tiny hamlets, little villages.

All I suppose being tended by women, children, grannies and granddads. The young men would have been away in the German forces. Then suddenly, in the night, the land was gone. That is war.

Eighteen or 20 years later one of the bombs was found sunk in an earthen bank, dirty, rusty, corroded, but still live. The area for some half mile round was evacuated.

Then two men, one British and one German, went in to deal with the devilish thing. First they had to remove several fuses, some buried under the device.

Then the explosive material itself, by then aging, decomposing and unreliable, had to be removed. I was told it took them 40 hours.

I admire their courage beyond all the others but we never hear their names.

Presenting  a poser

From: Andrew Gentles, Hollins Crescent, Harrogate.

PATRICIA Schofield rightly  refers to the Clare Balding  fatigue syndrome (Yorkshire Post, May 16).

I have escaped the more  severe symptoms, as I don’t follow horse racing, but  thanks to the BBC, for some time now I have been afflicted by a similar condition, which manifests itself when snooker, golf, and athletics are shown.

I would call it the Hazel  Irvine syndrome. She seems to have a monopoly in sport presentation.

Familiarity can breed  contempt, they say, and variety the spice of life.

All miles beyond the BBC’s horizon.

Looking stale on screen

From: Peter Knappett, Lode Pit Lane, Bingley.

I WOULD join with others in welcoming the apparent departure of Christa Ackroyd from BBC Look North (Yorkshire Post, May 16).

I have long felt how stale the show has become. Paul Hudson is an absolute and intelligent delight and should be retained at all costs.

The female presenters who have been filling in are a welcome change and a departure from the monotony.

The director and production team need a real kick in the pants or replacement.