Saturday's Letters: Stop bashing Mrs Thatcher and start facing the realities

Without examining the condition of Britain before the "infamous" Conservative premier came to power, these critics denounce, at random, everything she stood for and did. But to put the situation into some rational perspective, our country had become an industrial wasteland in 1979 of clapped-out industries: an over-manned, over-taxed, over-regulated, over-unionised, low productivity, strike-ridden economy; it was to modern industry what the Titanic was to a present-day cruise liner. No wonder the unemployment level rose to three million. Mrs Thatcher had to deal with all this and she did it with immense, if ruthless courage. Previous governments, with similar aims, had been sorely lacking in that vital element – courage. As for the pain rendered, you can't blame the dental surgeon, as Thatcher was, for removing decayed teeth as much of Britain's industry was.

And once again, after 13 years of Labour government, we're in a parlous and imperilled state; in the structural sense, probably, things are not so bad as the legacy left to Thatcher by the Callaghan government but from a fiscal aspect a far worse situation exists. Our immense deficit and threatening sovereign debt is overriding every policy of government.

The three million unemployed or more of Thatcher years, so often cited by her detractors, a few of whom make flat earth believers look like quantum theory physicists, is dwarfed by the eight million inactive persons of working age that represents the bequest left by Blair and Brown, the true level of unemployment skilfully camouflaged within that overall figure as the Labour government used all its guile to employ a variety of devious subterfuges to get the idle off the official statistics.

And de-industrialisation, occurring under her management, is another of the Thatcher-bashers' constant refrains but of significant interest is a recent report from an independent source that reveals manufacturing industry has declined twice as fast under Labour from 1997-2010, and not all of it junk.

Of course, many of the writers attacking Margaret Thatcher are

associated with the coalfields, which were traumatically hard-hit, during and after the NUM struggle, but it must be remembered that it was Arthur Scargill who acted undemocratically in calling for strike action.

His real interest was not in miners' welfare but crusading for his own socialist agenda, which aimed at confronting and defeating the elected government of this country and ultimately establishing some sort of maverick collective state. Mrs Thatcher fought this dangerous, if localised, revolution and won – and I realise she'll never be forgiven for that.

But critics of the Cameron Government should assess the administration's performance on its own flaws and merits and not on false misconceptions originating from a distant Thatcher era.

From: Gordon Lawrence, Stumperlowe View, Sheffield.

No degrees needed for capitalists

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

SO now graduates are going to have to pay a graduate tax! What next?

Maybe a birth tax. And that might not be a bad idea. It might deprive the capitalists of workers to exploit.

Already the elderly and disabled are paying health and care taxes in the form of means tested costs. The only people getting away with

taxes are the wealthy who have the means to escape and avoid taxes with accountancy dodges.

But if service users are to be charged directly for services used, can it work the other way and allow taxpayers to choose on what they want their taxes spent?

For example can we withdraw that proportion of our taxes used for, say, Trident, the Afghanistan war, foreign aid to nuclear powers, the monarchy, the Olympics and so on?

Somehow I don't think this will have much appeal to the Establishment whose whole purpose is to control, enslave and take every penny they can take from the workers during their working lives and then fleece them again when they retire and again on death.

The young should think very carefully before embarking on a university education. Our society is run on capitalism and you don't need a degree for that. Take a look at people like Branson and Sugar and other Establishment millionaire drones who accumulate wealth by exploiting those who spent years learning things they were to lazy to attempt. Money grabbing is their speciality.

The Lib Dems have much to answer for and their participation in this latest Establishment education tax con is one of the worse so far.

World's poor deserve help

From: Alan Duncan, Minister of State for International Development.

IT is quite wrong for Richard Hopwood to suggest that the Department for International Development (DFID) doesn't get aid to the people who need it most ("Cameron's Live Aid generation still wants to feed the world", Yorkshire Post, July 12).

Twenty-five years after Live Aid, I am proud of this Government's determination to help the world's poorest people. Well-spent aid works. UK funding has helped to eradicate smallpox, increase the number of people on vital anti-Aids drugs from 400,000 in 2003 to more than four million in 2008, and pays for five million children in developing countries to go to primary school every day. To suggest that our aid money props up corrupt dictators is as unworthy as is it inaccurate.

However, Richard Hopwood is right to say that British taxpayers will not tolerate waste. I completely agree. This is why we've announced a new independent aid watchdog, which will ensure that taxpayers get value for money from British Aid.

I'm clear that in difficult economic times, we won't balance the books on the backs of the world's poorest people.

The end of an ordeal

From: Mrs Lesley Skorupka, Rookery Dale, Boosbeck, Saltburn by the Sea, Cleveland.

I HEAR that the policeman "allegedly" shot in the face by Raoul Moat has been left blinded. We also must not forget that someone

was "allegedly" killed, but it is not by person or persons unknown, is it?

Two families are going through a hard time at the moment, how can we have any sympathy for an "alleged" murderer on Facebook. Maybe he did have mental problems but I can't believe there are people who try to defend his actions (Yorkshire Post, July 16).

I make no secret of the fact that I believe in a life for a life. Now let the residents of Rothbury try to get back to normal after their harrowing ordeal.

From: W Ruddlesdin, Upper Hoyland Road, Hoyland, Barnsley.

THE ongoing arguments about the expansive and expensive police

operation to apprehend Raoul Moat could probably have been solved

sooner by the deployment of an SAS Unit.

Response to abuse

From: Joe Froggatt, Stony Lane, Honley, Holmfirth.

I CANNOT confirm the statistic but am prepared to accept Teresa McCann's assertion (Yorkshire Post, July 14) that only three per cent of child abuse is committed by Roman Catholic clergy.

As a life-long Roman Catholic, however, I am particularly disappointed at the Church's response to the situations when proved.

It is particularly disappointing that at the present time the Diocese of Middlesbrough is still campaigning to avoid paying to victims 8m awarded by the court in November, claiming that any court order for damages should have been made against the De La Salle Order, another Catholic "agency".

More than 20 years have passed and (formerly) young people are still suffering the consequences of being abused.

The Pope has publicly articulated his extreme sorrow about the worldwide abuse by Catholic clergy but here, on our doorstep, various incidents are causing continuing distress of victims.

Improved management needed over flood threat

From: The Reverend Toddy Hoare, Holton, Oxford.

FURTHER to your front page report and Anne McIntosh's article on flooding (Yorkshire Post, July 14), I would like to remind you that, prior to the year Todmorden was flooded, so were the Hillside parishes (12 villages around Leake Church on the A19, Felixkirk, and Sutton -under-Whitestonecliffe) the year before (2004) while I was still parish priest.

Some 52 houses were flooded out and some were out of occupancy for a year, but because the area was cut off it never got the media cover.

What was evident was that better and coordinated river management was needed along with pools for run-off to hold surplus water against those dry periods we experience now when it could be used for crop

irrigation. What is done or not done in one place affects the whole, so I would suggest more joined up thinking and a look further back to what has previously happened.

As Anne McIntosh rightly says, the moors should not be drained, for

they are the sponge to hold water and release it slowly rather than allowing York to be engulfed. Water retention on the moors also encourages insect life that improves the prospects for newly hatched grouse. Another caveat is to ensure that developers do not economise on the culverts they lay but that what drainage is put in can handle sufficient volume when necessary.

Furthermore, when there were linkmen and their like, there was someone on the ground who knew a particular area and who could anticipate and respond to problems because they had a pride in their work.

Holland count their losses

From: David Atkinson, Chapel Street, Hillam, Leeds.

HOLLAND'S footballers lost a lot of friends by their bad behaviour in the World Cup Final. Football is not the only English sport which occupies the Dutch but cricket is still a minority interest.

Earlier this month, the Dutch cricket team lost by five wickets at Voorburg, Holland to of all opponents, Afghanistan.

I wonder how they treated the umpires who, incidentally, did not come from Rotherham?

New building

From: Mark Smitherman, Chief Fire Officer, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue, Eyre Street, Sheffield.

ROGER Haw suggests that the building of the new South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue headquarters was an example of our inefficiency (Yorkshire Post, July 15).

Perhaps he was unaware that the new, modern, environmentally efficient building was provided at no cost to the authority, as part of Sheffield's New Retail Quarter project.

Pudding treat

From: Mrs Joyce Irwing, Wolfe Close, Cottingham.

AFTER years of friends decrying my wonderful childhood memories of Yorkshire pudding served with Raspberry vinegar (Yorkshire Post, July 14), I was delighted to read that Yorkshire Day will be celebrated by Womersley fruit and herb vinegars having persuaded chefs to bring back this scrumptious dish. What a treat in store!