Raise a glass to real ales of Yorkshire

WHAT a beautiful day it was for the day of Pateley Bridge Show. I was there from early morning and thoroughly enjoyed looking round at the various exhibits, meeting different friends and colleagues from the past, including the show president John Fort who I served with in the police.

Just before lunch I went into the tent known as Pateley Pantry. Food of every description was there from all over the county.

In the end I settled for a pork pie from my friend Mr Voakes, the pie maker from Whixley. I then felt thirsty so decided in my mind to wash it down with a pint of good Yorkshire ale. I then searched round the showground, and found three different beer tents. No real Yorkshire ale there, only a keg beer and a keg lager with an Australian name, both produced at a large Dutch-owned beer factory in Tadcaster, formerly known as John Smith’s.

The following day I visited York and came across the Food and Drink Festival. My wife and I looked round some of the stalls looking and saw beautiful produce and food. When we got outside a large food marquee, my wife decided she needed something from a shop further in town. I told her I would have a look in the marquee in the meantime. I went inside and to my surprise looked to the left to see a counter with six different Yorkshire real ales on sale, my prayers and wait from the previous day had been answered.

I chose a golden real ale which is brewed in an old farm building in Bellerby, where I knew the previous owner had had to diversify after foot-and-mouth.

Surely these are the sort of people an agricultural society should be supporting, not the global beer giants. I found a seated area outside in the sun. My wife returned and apologised for being a long time. I said: “Don’t worry about me, I’ve just found the man crèche.”

Election and a power struggle

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

ED Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices smacks too much of a bribe to me. I remember Hugh Gaitskell promising not to raise taxes and I suspect the fate of the present leader will be the same. Apparently a freeze was tried in California which was followed by blackouts.

What Mr Miliband didn’t make clear was is he going to borrow a lot more or not? If he is, it seems highly inadvisable and if he isn’t, what’s the point of voting Labour?

The election looks pretty close with vast amounts spent on about 100 seats and millions of wasted votes elsewhere.

One thing is certain. The votes cast will not reflect accurately the seats gained. PR has been condemned for preventing a decisive result which is what we are going to get with first past the post!

As to Ukip, I don’t think it will materially affect the result.

Debt has soared under Tories

From: Coun Colin Challen, Labour councillor for Castle Ward, Scarborough Borough Council.

IF David Cameron believes, as you seem to, that he has a firm grip on reality, then a health check is definitely needed in No. 10. Any independent source of information – I looked at tradingeconomics.com – tells a different story.

Here we learn that in 1997, when Blair came to office, UK government debt as a proportion of GDP was 48.2 per cent.

By 2007, just before the world financial crisis began, that figure had dropped to 43.4 per cent under a Labour government, debt had come down. But the crisis took its toll through bank bail outs and lower tax receipts, and the debt rose to 73.9 per cent in 2010.

Now, after three years of Cameron’s benighted government, the debt has risen to 90.7 per cent. So I would like to know from any Tory or Lib Dem, or indeed the Yorkshire Post, how the billions of extra debt added between 2010 and today demonstrates that this government has the faintest clue what it is doing. Or perhaps they and you could tell me, if you dispute these UK debt to GDP figures, what yours are? Is UK government debt billions of pounds more now than in 2010? Yes or no?

Questionable standards

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

EVER since the days of the late Sir Robin Day as host of the BBC TV’s Question Time, I have been an avid follower and supporter of that programme, but those days are numbered now.

In my opinion the programme has got steadily worse, especially since the panel was increased to five, and David Dimbleby lets the panellists ramble on, often repeating themselves, for far too long. As a result of his weak chairmanship, the audience get fewer and fewer opportunities to speak and have their fair share of time.

Benefit cut 
is not a ‘tax’

From: Martin Fletcher, Savile Close, Emley, Huddersfield.

I AM getting sick and tired of newspapers, for their own ends calling the loss of unfair benefits a bedroom tax.

Why should I have to subsidise these people with my taxes?

I was an ordinary working man. I am now an OAP. I am not allowed by the council to have more than one bedroom, even with a disabled partner, but I am expected to pay for other people to keep their two or three-bed houses that they never needed or no longer need.

Only those who have a good reason like medical equipment round a bed, or a person staying who cares for them, need the extra room.

I get no benefits and am willing to pay for the two-bed apartment myself. So if you want an extra room, pay for it yourself and stop scrounging from others.