Saturday's Letters: Pensioners should not suffer for bankers' greed

Previous to this, the news suggested that so-called middle-class benefits such as the winter fuel allowance might be curtailed, or that qualification for receiving it may be increased from 60 to 65 by 2020.

Firstly, there is a lot of water to go under the bridge in the next 10 years, and two more governments to come. This fuel allowance is incorrectly termed middle-class. For many elderly people, it is the "measure of the difference" between whether they freeze to death during the winter in misery, or enjoy some warmth and comfort.

Let us be quite clear. The water and energy companies, before Margaret Thatcher sold them off to her wealthy cronies and who reaped the harvest in terms of profits, used to be known as public utilities.

The "public", who collectively owned these industries, along with the railways, were robbed of them. This, to me, is what the Tory Party is all about. No amount of patronising rhetoric from Mr Cameron will convince me otherwise.

To rub acid into the wounds is when these companies blatantly publish their year-on-year profits and, at the same time, increase energy costs to the general public. Many pensioners face increasing fuel prices, the threat of VAT, which is to be increased next year, with no increase in their state pension.

So far, Mr Clegg has been very woolly about these cuts, and George Osborne has not spelled out just what and who is to be affected.

There are more over 50s living today and this trend is set to continue. To threaten the elderly with a reduction in their standard of living would be suicidal for any future Government. I suggest that some of the huge profits the banks have made can ease the situation for the elderly, and, as the last Government saw fit and found it necessary to nationalise some of these banks, then it would be a prudent move to give the utilities back to the people.

Cutting public services is a dishonest way of clawing back money, while

continuing the programme of privatisation, which, in my opinion, is the Government's hidden agenda.

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen, First Lane, Anlaby, Hull.

Commentary of gloom on the economy

From: RC Curry, Adel Grange Close, Leeds.

THE purveyors of news and commentary on television seem intent on making the worst of matters to do with the economy.

When there are positive items, they manage to give it a twist, pointing out a possible downside.

There may be ups and downs as the Government sorts out the mess left by its predecessor, but constantly dwelling on the down side will not help.

By contrast, the Yorkshire Post, while commenting on unfortunate matters, is good at mentioning the better items and presents a far more balanced opinion.

Open the business section and there are mainly enthusiastic stories of positive progress and good developments, especially as businesses see themselves being less strangled by red tape and pointless regulations. It is a pleasure to read about optimism instead of gloom and doom.

As a further observation about the broadcast media, is it really necessary for the BBC to employ so many editors or so called specialist commentators to stand outside public buildings or go on jollies around the world, and who frequently duplicate the comments of the previous know-all?

The time given to them frequently exceeds the amount given to the actual Minister who has dared to appear and be rudely interrupted in every sentence uttered.

A substantial cut in these people and of the ubiquitous, and almost unintelligible weather dollies, could save a fair bit of money from the licence fee.

The older generations

From: David Wood, Wetherby.

SARAH Freeman's interesting article (Yorkshire Post, August 10) about senior citizens becoming parents in their fifties, and in particular Rod Stewart, becoming a father at the age of 65 confirms that they are following in the footsteps of many of our illustrious ancestors.

My grandfather was born in Farsley, near Leeds, 103 years before Rod Stewart and for 53 years he was the proud and loving father of 14 children.

Sadly, his first two wives died comparatively young but at the age of 61 he married my grandmother who was then

21. The last of his six children was born when my grandfather was 75 – 10 years older than Rod Stewart will be next January.

My grandfather died at 77, leaving his 37-year-old widow not only to bring up their young children but to run his successful engineering company which she did for more than 40 years.

Today's older fathers are just following the family traditions of their forefathers.

Stamp of disapproval

From: Hilary Andrews, Wentworth Court, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

ON August 7 this month, I received a letter from the Inland Revenue posted in Glasgow on May 7, 2010, asking me to reply by June 5. I obviously couldn't and therefore had several embarrassing conversations on the phone with the Inland revenue and had to pay

interest on a small amount of money I owed.

I wrote to ask Royal Mail why a perfectly addressed letter with post code, town and even West Yorkshire had taken three months to arrive.

In reply, within their policy of answering in 10 days, I got a two-sided A4 form to fill in which asked such daft questions as which post

office the letter had been sent from, how much postage was paid etc.

All I wanted was an apology!

This mania for replying to a complaint within 10 days never, in my view, satisfies the customer as it never deals with the complaint.

The pensioners of this country should not be held to blame for the greedy, venal practices of bankers who seem to have caused all this financial chaos.

Don't forget plight of jobless

From: Max Nottingham, St Faiths Street, Lincoln.

THE tabloids, who are criticising benefit claimants and the unemployed, should take note of this tragic story.

Recently, a young woman killed herself after making 200 job applications and failing to get even a menial job.

This says a lot about the present job market in many areas. And before we rush to judgment on the unemployed, we should take the trouble to be well informed on unemployment and available jobs.

These remarks very much applied to people who are sick and jobless because employers are not interested in employing vulnerable people.

With coalition cuts, we should try and remain civilised, even if our Tory-led government is bashing poorer people.

From: G Ellison, Hawthorne Avenue, Dronfield.

UNEMPLOYMENT is not falling through the unemployed finding work – the new Government is manipulating the statistics more as previous governments did, but there are still some who believe it.

Callous act

From: Fay Vass, chief executive, British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

WE were saddened to read about the dead hedgehog that was painted over by council workers in Hartlepool (Yorkshire Post, August 13).

The lack of respect shown to this unfortunate creature is upsetting. It would have been so easy to simply move it aside into a hedgerow instead of treating it so callously. Some may take the view that it is "only a hedgehog", but such cold-hearted lack of concern and respect is a recognisable symptom of many serious problems in society.

Price rises

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

COULD the reason for the rise in the cost of living be partly due to the Tesco stores, like ours here in Bridlington, stealthily increasing its prices, but hiding them behind big banners egging people on to spend on so-called bargain items which are not normally put in customers' shopping baskets?

Bankrupt logic

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

I AM one of millions of Brits who are bemused by the Unite union's quest to bring Britain into financial ruin. They want to cripple a country bankrupted by bungler Gordon Brown.

Many just want to know why?