Saturday's Letters: Our leaders must listen to the voice of business

Yes, the Government needs to provide confidence and a suitable business environment, but it must not interfere with the day-to-day running of

a business.

Feedback from our members reveals that Government interference is actually prohibitive to growth. If the new Government is serious about delivering economic recovery, then it must let businesses get on with doing what they do best: creating the employment, wealth, investment and tax revenue that supports this country.

Businesses are fed up with increasing red tape and confusing initiatives. The new Government must start delivering what business actually needs, and not what bureaucrats in Whitehall think it needs. Businesses need simplicity and trust in order to deliver growth.

They need the knowledge that the Government is supporting them in practical ways. Commitment to continued investment in infrastructure and remembering that the public sector is a key customer for the private sector will go a long way to building stability and confidence.

Red tape is a major issue. We urge the new Government to work with organisations like the Chamber and our members to simplify compliance with regulation, while at the same time identify the areas where new regulation is actually needed. Introducing regulation which covers behaviour that good businesses are already practising is counter-productive.

The same applies to the up-skilling of employees and the recruitment of interns, apprentices and the long-term unemployed.

Businesses do not have the time to research and apply for various short-term confusing grants delivered by a multiplicity of agencies. It would be more effective to introduce simple fiscal incentives, which will switch more employers on to the skills agenda, by rewarding those that deliver rather than forcing those that don't.

At the Chamber we are already working with some Government departments to address these issues, but more must be done. The new Government must listen to and engage with business much better than has been done in the past.

From: Gary Williamson, chief executive, Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.

I did not cast my vote for this coalition

From: Barbara Lawrance, Charles Street, Otley.

I HAVE voted for Greg Mulholland in the last two elections. I thought he was a good constituency MP and liked what he said locally and in Westminster.

When the election was called, I was incensed to learn that David Cameron was targeting Leeds North West and was putting some of non-dom Lord Ashcroft's millions of pounds into ousting him.

I even put a poster up in my front garden to persuade passers-by to vote for Mr Mulholland. I believed his leaflets "Don't vote Labour you will let the Conservatives in" and "Only Lib Dems here can keep the Conservatives out".

I also believed Vince Cable when he said David Cameron's ideas on how to deal with the deficit were "utterly irresponsible". So I was delighted when he was re-elected with a vastly increased majority.

So what was that all about then? As soon as Nick Clegg got a whiff of power, he went into a coalition with the Tories. This means that Mr Mulholland helped to put David Cameron into No 10.

I did not vote for this, in fact, I actively campaigned against it.

I feel very let down by the Liberal Democrats and not a little foolish. I actually believed in what they said and what their policies were. I won't make that mistake again.

From: Richard Billups, East Avenue, Rawmarsh.

LIKE Dennis Johnson (Yorkshire Post, May 14), I have voted in every election for donkeys' years. At this election the Press have shown their true colours. Firstly, Nick Clegg was irrelevant so should be ignored. Then he was the devil for winning the first TV debate.

Then, with the hung Parliament fiasco, he was a saint because he was horse- trading with the Tories. Then he was the devil again because he was talking to the Labour Party.

Both are pie in the sky as the unelected president Rupert Murdoch does what he wants.

From: Frank McManus, Longfield Road, Todmorden.

HILARY Andrews asks (Yorkshire Post, May 10) what if Ukip voters had voted for "their natural allies", the Conservatives?

But why should they when all three big parties had ratted on their 2005 pledge of a referendum on the EU constitution treaty? The opportunity to hold one on May 6 on "should the UK abrogate the Lisbon Treaty?" was deliberately let pass. As for natural allies, it was Labour who in 1983 fought to rescind the 1972 European Communities Act.

What can the poor voter do but stick to Ukip when parties swap policies? Yet your correspondent must wonder, as I do, where are the socialists opposed to EU dictatorship in the tradition of Gaitskell, Castle, Foot, Benn, Varley and Shore, not to mention early Kinnock and Wilson?

From: Mrs M Trayte, St Mary's Court, Wilshaw, Holmfirth.

WE have been hearing of people being unable to vote because the polling stations closed at 10pm (Yorkshire Post, May 8). Most of them being students, is it not possible for arrangements to be made for them to vote on campus or, better still, by postal vote in the area where they have a permanent home?

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

NOW that the dust has almost settled on the double act of "we want power at any price" – aka "Posh" Dave and "Joke" Nick – they should now really be focusing some of their attention on the dreaded BNP whose share of the vote increased by 300 per cent since the 2005 election.

Or maybe that is one reason Nick Clegg no longer believes in Proportional Representation? He was quick to capitulate to his Tory masters when it came to the crunch, wasn't he?

From: William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.

WE have just witnessed the election of persons to positions of power and responsibility. Is it not equally important that those who exercise political power but who never face election are made accountable for their actions? I mean government officers at both central and local level.

There is an assumption that government officers are accountable to MPs and councillors, but that is not so in my experience.

There is an unwritten law that those who are elected protect those who are not elected, but upon whose expertise the elected ultimately

depend. The Sir Humphreys of this world are no fiction.

There are, of course, ombudsmen, but it is not generally understood that these appointees have a limited remit and, unlike the judiciary, are not concerned with injustice, but with "maladministration", a term unknown in law, and which is consequently an encouragement to arbitrary decisions.

In the case of local government ombudsmen, no more than 0.68 cases brought by residents ever give rise to a report. Local government officers may accept or reject the report.

Since compensation paid to these rare successful complainants is garnered from council tax, most councils accept the findings with a

smile and a shrug. Can't we do better than this?

Don't play politics with people's rights and lives

From: Dave Hansell, Ralph Ellis Drive, Stocksbridge, Sheffield.

CONSIDERING the events of the past week or so, I'm reminded of part of a speech Neil Kinnock made some years ago which could perhaps do with updating and which, sadly, reflects the current political situation:

"I'll tell you what happens with authoritarian tribalists. You start with a far-fetched series of policies designed to placate the Right-wing media, the unelected money markets and neo-Con interests.

"And these are then pickled into a rigid micro-managerialist dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, misplaced, outdated, irrelevant to the real needs.

"And you end in the grotesque spectacle of a Tory Government, a Tory Government, scuttling round Parliament and the country committing themselves to scrapping ID cards and a National Identity register of

its own people; outlawing the DNA fingerprinting of schoolchildren; stopping the retention of innocent people's DNA; restoring the rights to non-violent protest; defending trial by jury; reviewing the libel laws to protect freedom of speech; ending the detention of children for immigration purposes; further regulating CCTV cameras; doing away with the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences; restoring the state pension link to earnings; anti-civil rights policies and legislation, all of which were introduced by a Labour Government.

"I tell you – and you'll listen – you can't play politics with people's civil rights and people's pensions and people's lives."

Helping hands on holiday

From: Jeff Dale, Kirk Lane, Walkington, Beverley, East Yorkshire.

MY wife and I have just returned from a trip to India that was featured in a Reader Holiday advertisement last year.

The holiday was with Riviera Travel of Burton upon Trent. The tour was interesting, informative and very well managed by their tour manager. All the hotels and transport used were excellent.

Then came the volcano and many horror stories of people being abandoned at airports. Here Riviera really excelled. They put the whole group of 38 into the luxurious five star Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi at their expense and we stayed there for over a week as Riviera worked on getting us all home bit by bit.

Finally, Virgin Atlantic upgraded my wife and I to the front of the aircraft so we returned to Heathrow in full-length comfort.

So my thanks to the Yorkshire Post for advertising it, Riviera Travel for providing it, the Taj Palace Hotel for an enjoyable extra week and

Virgin Atlantic for ending it in such comfort.

Good deed pays dividends

From: Andrew Meskell, Oswald Close, Guiseley.

TWO years ago, while walking to Guiseley train station for the daily commute, I came across a laptop lying in the street.

I picked it up with the intention of handing it over to the police later that day, but by chance I noticed a female commuter with a travel

suitcase that was open. I approached the woman and asked if the laptop was hers.

She instantly recognised it and thanked me, telling me that if she had lost the computer, it would have ruined her whole week.

This weekend I was taking my mother to the same train station. When we arrived, we noticed that her suitcase which was a similar style to the female commuter's was also open. My mother checked the suitcase and found that her handbag was missing, so I retraced the journey.

Someone had found the handbag and had placed it on a nearby wall, the contents of the bag had not been touched, including my mother's camera. The saying "one good turn deserves another" is very true in this case.

Phone call

From: Alan Marsden, Pledwick Lane, Sandal, Wakefield.

WITH reference to the article about a mobile phone mast (Yorkshire Post, May 10), how many of the children's parents do not use mobile phones? Surely this is a case of nimbyism.