Saturday's Letters: The countryside needs proper representation

History teaches that the "modern" period began in the 15th century, when European high society "rediscovered" classical Greek literature.

The consequence was the introduction of classical Greek ideas in philosophy, science, medicine, architecture, military organisation and literature. It was this which took Europe out of the Middle Ages.

The best classical Greek literature was written during the 200 years of the rise and decline of the Athenian democracy, and is inspired by the spirit of freedom and democracy.

It took several hundred years before British high society decided to put these ideals above their own personal interests, as they did in 1832, and the ancestors of Sir Thomas Ingilby and others can take credit for this.

Afterwards – until the mid-1960s – the aristocracy maintained a leading role in politics.

This was a period when the UK grew in prosperity and wealth was shared between all social strata as never before.

The influence of the landed gentry is now in steep decline. This may or may not be a good thing – depending on one's point of view – but it does have one important consequence.

The UK does not have anything like the US Senate. This is a democratically-elected body which is constituted in a way which ensures that the interests of country areas in the US are fully represented.

Our House of Lords, however imperfect, was also a place where the interests of the countryside could be given

due weight.

Now that even the residual power of the House of Lords has been effectively removed and its constitution changed, politicians of all political persuasions concentrate on winning the votes of the masses in the conurbations and the countryside is treated as second rate.

Clearly there is a failure to balance town and city against countryside.

By all means abolish the privileges of the aristocracy, but please do not leave the House of Lords only partly reformed.

If the peers in the House have to be replaced, this should by a system which gives the countryside full and proper representation.

Will there be a return to local councils?

From: James Anthony Bulmer, Horbury, Wakefield.

WILL the recent news be the beginning of the end for metropolitan district councils, and what would appear to have been the total mismanagement of finances and employment?

Although the Government has kept tight-lipped, the inevitable cuts in the public sector look set to decimate communities in West Yorkshire. Is this because money has been thrown at all the services with a total disregard for the economics?

Being economical surely does not mean the building of facades and spectacles in the hope they will attract visitors. This has been happening in a recession which, to the man in the street, has been evident over the last four or five years, with the borrow, boom and bust attitude. It just could not last.

Could this now mean the dissolution of the MDCs and a return to local councils, who may have a little more regard for people's needs?

Memories of coal strike

From: RW Bates, Scarborough Road, Rillington, Malton.

BERNARD Ingham's article (Yorkshire Post, March 3) revived memories of three matters which are forever in my mind. The first one is of my father, a retired miner at a village pit in South Yorkshire, often using the same phrase of "lions being led by a donkey".

Second, striking miners from out of the area banging on his front door demanding food for the families of those on strike. It frightened him and mum so much he wept over the phone to me and I drove down and fetched them both out of the village and eventually moved them out of the area altogether.

The third was driving down the motorway passing a slow procession of flying pickets each car with a roof rack carrying sleepers with nails driven through to be used to prevent traffic entering premises not involved in any strike action.

The strikers wanted to shut down the whole of industry and instead they shut down their own mining industry and it still suffers as a result.

Schooner's voyages

From: Elizabeth Hooper, Main Street, Cayton, Scarborough.

WHAT a great pleasure and delight it was for me to open up your newspaper and see the photograph of the Sail Training Association's

schooner, The Sir Winston Churchill, during her construction at Dunstan's Yard at Hessle in the 1960s (Yorkshire Post, March 2).

At that time, I was the Hon Secretary of the voluntary Hull and East Riding Committee for the Sail Training Association and, as such, our work covered obtaining parts for the schooner at competitive prices, persuading sponsors for portholes, bunks, etc,

together with arranging fundraising events.

The committee consisted of many of the leading businessmen in Hull at that time. We also had the dubious pleasure of helping to arrange the naming ceremony in King George Dock which was a big affair. Once The Sir Winston Churchill was built and doing the character training voyages, the committee then continued to raise funds and also sponsored youngsters to take part.

I was connected with the Hull Committee to a lesser degree right up to her being de-commissioned in 2000. I sailed on her three times as purser on girls voyages, the last one I did was in 1977 which culminated with a sensational arrival back into her home port of Hull, when the quayside was heaving with supporters, friends and members of the public.

No help for stuck hikers

From: Cheryl Armitage, Micheldever Road, London.

ON Sunday, my husband, daughter – who is at York University – and I braved the snow on the North York Moors for a walk. We had an excellent hike until we arrived at Hood Grange, Sutton Bank, where the footpath disappeared into a muddy field.

When we tried to cross a field, my daughter and I found ourselves sinking to our knees into a quagmire of mud and slurry. We were completely stuck and had no idea how to extricate ourselves. At that point, the farm staff came round a corner, stood and looked at us, laughed and went away. No offer of help, or inquiry about whether we were all right. Eventually my husband used a stick to find some solid ground and we pulled ourselves clear, but my daughter lost her boot and was forced to sit by the side of the road while we walked back to Sutton Bank to get our car.

Was this an example of the not-very kind spirit of Yorkshire people, or should I put it down to farmers hating hikers?

Market dogma has thrown away benefits of NHS

From: Nicholas Dennis, Worthy Lane, Winchester, Hampshire.

LAURA Brereton's analysis (Yorkshire Post, March 1) of why "marketisation" of the NHS since 1990 has failed to increase efficiency makes some relevant points. Its conclusion, recommending persistence with the internal market and further tuning in the hope of realising benefits, is, I believe, utterly misguided.

As a medical academic and hospital consultant, I was directly affected by the purchaser-provider split, and I have continued to follow its effects, and those of the so-called choice agenda, since my retirement in 2007. Almost all these effects have been negative. They include duplication of services, the need for a costly bureaucracy to monitor activity, disruption of doctor and nurse training, and difficulties in clinical data collection (important for public health) and in enforcing professional appraisal and development.

In markets, activity is good if it makes money for someone. In medicine, incentives to increase activity tend to lead to over-investigation, over-treatment and iatrogenic disease. This is the main reason why the United States spends vast amounts on healthcare but does not have a particularly healthy population. Our politicians seem determined to make us emulate them. A recent catchphrase "payment by results" really means payment by activity. In a fragmented system such as the one our politicians have created, there is no way of monitoring outcome quality in the detail required to assess "results".

There is now a national campaign, promoted by the NHS Consultants' Association and the British Medical Association, to reverse the commercialisation of healthcare and spurious "patient choice" initiatives.

The nationally planned and provided pre-1990 NHS was a very efficient system for providing high quality, consistent, evidence-based healthcare. Its benefits, which included incalculable goodwill on the part of its workers, have been tossed aside by the Thatcher government and by New Labour.

The dogma that markets can do everything more efficiently needs to be challenged. It doesn't work for healthcare, and further tuning will not make it work.

Changed stance over Europe

From: Coun Tony Woodhead, Holly Grove, Lindley, Huddersfield.

I HAVE just read the letter from Colin McNamee (Yorkshire Post, March 3). He comments on the approach of the different parties to the EU.

Remember the 1983 election when the Labour Party ran on a platform to take the UK out of the EU? Then the Conservative Party and the Liberals were in favour of the EU.

Nearly 30 years on, the Labour Party is in favour, the Liberal Democrats are in favour and the Conservatives are not sure. I cannot work that one out when both Harold Macmillan and Ted Heath worked so hard to get us to join the Common Market. Why did the Conservatives change their minds?

True face of Mandelson

From: Nicholas Irvine, North Marine Road, Scarborough.

YOUR correspondent JW Smith attempts to support the indefensible by claiming in a letter (Yorkshire Post, March 4) that Lord Mandelson told Andrew Marr that a story in Andrew Rawnsley's book was totally untrue.

If Mandelson claims anything is untrue, the opposite will ring certain bells of truth in the majority of clear-thinking people. The worst Chancellor and Prime Minister since the Second World War, aided for 13 years by his chief zealot Ed Balls, will be kicked into touch in only eight weeks time.

Look to past for packaging

From: Mrs Gillian Carter, Field End Crescent, Leeds.

IF the Government was serious about reducing packaging (Yorkshire Post,

March 4), then they would support milkmen and glass bottles and the establishment of independent shops selling fresh, local, loose fruit and vegetables that can be put in paper bags or even straight

into a shopping bag. We didn't have these problems in the past.

Fine portrait

From: Libby Mitchell, Springfield Road, Baildon, Shipley.

WHAT a stunning photograph of Deborah, Dowager

Duchess of Devonshire, on last Saturday's magazine cover (Yorkshire Post, February 27).

A truly remarkable, courageous and hard-working woman. An example to all us octo and nonagenarians.