A proliferation of politicians

From: Brian Ellis, Greenhill Bank Road, Holmfirth.

in view of the number of cutbacks and job losses announced, it seems surprising that the proliferation of politicians in recent years has been overlooked. Mention of constituency and ward boundaries being altered seem to have been shelved; and I now draw your attention to the following.

The number of national politicians in the United Kingdom consists of 650 MPs, 85 MEPs, 753 peers (plus 39 who are inactive for various reasons), and 279 politicians in the devolved assemblies. The population of the United Kingdom is 61.8 million.

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Compare this with the United States of America; Congress has 876 politicians for a population of 307 million people.

No expense spared at BBC

From: Dr John P Whiteley, Stonedale Close, Pool-in-Wharfedale.

The crisis in Egypt is rightfully at the top of the news agenda at the present time. Is it necessary for the BBC to fly out its news heavyweights to cover this story?

The expense must be enormous. The BBC has a Middle Eastern correspondent, Jeremy Bowen, who is quite capable of keeping the viewers informed.

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Once again, the BBC is playing fast and loose with public money. It just does not do austerity. The sooner it does the better, but I’m not holding my breath.

Bottom line over NHS

From: Allan Davies, Heathfield Court, Grimsby.

when Andrew Lansley introduced the Bill to reform the NHS, he said that it would bring about “an NHS organised from the bottom up”. Mr Andrew George, the Lib Dem member for St Ives, described it as “a race to the bottom”.

Is Mr Lansley proposing sending our GPs to France for re-training where they will learn to prescribe suppositories rather than pills and potions?

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