Saturday's Letters: Yorkshire Forward is a regional cornerstone

Yorkshire Forward is our regional development agency. It has an excellent record of bringing in investment, in boosting jobs in this region and enjoys support for its work across the business community.

It has created and protected thousands of jobs, whether by redeveloping former mining areas, stabilising the financial sector in the credit crunch or helping to bring "superfast broadband" to one million people, 540,000 homes and 40,000 businesses throughout South Yorkshire.

It has pioneered work to secure green jobs that capitalise on the region's natural assets and bring opportunities to our businesses, such as world-leading carbon capture projects and advanced engineering research centres.

As business leaders, we ask all the political parties to set aside their differences and agree to keep Yorkshire Forward as a cornerstone of our regional economic policy.

From: Lord Haskins, former chairman of Northern Foods; Nick Tovey, Leeds Chamber of Commerce; Ian Kelly, Hull Chamber of Commerce; Nigel Tomlinson, Sheffield Chamber of Commerce; Prof Keith Ridgeway, Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Park; Graham Honeyman, MD, Sheffield Forgemasters; Gordon Bridge, past Master Cutler, Sheffield; Keith Parkin, MD Davy Markham.

Learning the lesson of Brown's slip

From: RC Curry, Adel Grange Close, Leeds.

RATHER a long time ago, my father said to me that the private words of a person showed the true character hiding behind the facade of any public image.

He particularly included politicians. He has been proved right on more than one occasion.

Goodbye Gordon Brown. You have just proved what has been reported about you as being a bad-tempered misery.

Let us hope the rest have learned a salutary lesson.

From: Don Crossley, Tower Avenue, Upton, Pontefract.

AND still he doesn't get it! Mrs Duffy was articulating, in down-to-earth terms, what 80 per cent of people are also objecting to.

The constant and main problem with the country is not the NHS or education or the financial state of the country, but the level of uncontrolled immigration.

Well done Mrs Duffy.

From: Mrs D Petch, Burdale Close, Driffield.

GORDON Brown had the unbelievable cheek to tell Mrs Duffy that it was only right that her grandchildren and all students in England paid for their university education through top up fees. But his constituents in Scotland don't, do they?

They don't pay for eye and dental checks, or road and bridge tolls, or hospital parking and pay much less for prescriptions than Mrs Duffy's family. Soon their prescriptions will also be free.

The most astonishing part of Labour's campaign, is that Gordon Brown gets to elect a separate, national government to that of Mrs Duffy – so his domestic policies don't even apply to himself.

For those reasons, and more besides, you just can't get any more

bigoted than Gordon Brown himself and so by close association, the whole Labour Party.

From: D Birch, Smithy Lane, Cookridge, Leeds.

WE have now had all the sessions on TV from the three parties involved, plus very many hours of other TV and radio coverage.

Add to that the mailings, newspapers, polls by the hour, groups of non-voters, would-be voters, party comments etc, and we still have a few

days to make up our minds which party we are going to vote for. I emphasise party, because that is who we are voting for.

The party is where the substance is. Not the three individuals, who are trying to be the English Obama. We don't do presidents in the UK.

To date, there has not been any substance about the future of this country. Nothing positive that will put people back to work and give them some future to look forward to in the next few years, of what could be a turbulent Parliament, that may only last two years at most. That will be two more years wasted.

The Conservatives want change, political change and family change. Not a word about change that puts people to work. Or encouraging investment that will help to stabilise this country's future. Only their own.

The Liberals are obsessed with Trident and the cost to the country 15 years into the future. They don't like nuclear war. Who does? It ought to be compulsory the world over to show on TV what happens at the time and afterwards as a result of the bomb. As used on Japan to end the Second World War, and they were small compared to Trident.

The Labour Party has been in power through the period of great prosperity because of a lot of greed all round, not just the City.

But it is now election time. Billions have been spent and the debt is going to be very long term. Everyone knows that there is not going to be any quick fix. Labour has spent more and more money keeping the money in circulation via the public sector, so that the economy would stay stable. They also are the one party that is looking ahead and how to put people back into work via the future opportunity of energy/green and climate change. We do need more industry to bolster exports.

That's the Labour Party – not Gordon Brown. Like the others, he's just a figurehead. As the saying goes – better the devil you know.

From: C Giddings, Springwood Drive, Halifax.

REFERRING to Martin Smith's letter (Yorkshire Post, April 22) regarding X-Factor leadership debates, I very much doubt that he is alone in his despair at the over-hyped performance of the three party leaders.

Our lives are now seemingly ruled by television to the extent that we appear to be lead into making decisions based on televisual appearance rather than sound common sense judgments of the individual candidates and their policies, if they have any.

We have witnessed in recent weeks the constant verbal sniping between the parties and their leaders, almost in attempt to camouflage the real truth of Britain's desperate economic and financial situation.

Politicians of all parties need to emerge from the gutter, recognise the seriousness of our position and outline effective policies to clear up the mess New Labour has created.

From: Luke Charters-Reid, Flaxton, York.

I REMEMBER vividly a few months ago, David Cameron instating that the Conservatives were going to fight a "positive" campaign. Immediately after this statement of intent, the Conservatives revealed a poster proclaiming that "we can't go on like this".

Since then, the Conservatives have put up thousands of posters across the country, firstly showing a headstone, scaring people at the prospect of what they describe as a "death tax", a scare tactic used so successfully by the Republicans in America.

The next lot of posters exhibited the face of Gordon Brown, rather than that of David Cameron, again attacking opponents rather than highlighting their own vision for the country. Finally, repeatedly insisting that we live in a "broken society", in "Broken Britain" surely cannot be part of this "positive" mantra that David Cameron claimed his party would fight on at the beginning of the campaign?

Airlines must respect EU rules on flight delays

From: Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Main Street, Scotton, North Yorkshire.

NOW the recent air travel chaos seems to be subsiding, we need to look at lessons that can be learned.

Events were obviously the result of an unforeseen phenomenon, but I would question the response of the Government and the European authorities. Initially a safety first approach was the right course of action. However, the Government was slow to respond, the scientific information they used was too limited and, in the end, the length of the travel ban was perhaps disproportionate.

Firstly, we need to find a common approach to compensation for passengers who were stranded around the world. A huge amount of my constituents are writing to me now complaining that they weren't well cared for during their ordeals. European rules are in place and they provide adequate protection for passengers. These must be respected by the airlines.

Secondly, we have to deal with the situation the airlines find themselves in. They have been losing money at a time when many are already in dire financial straits. Airports have also lost out, and there must be measures in place that compensate them also. This has to come firstly from the Government, as the decision to impose the EU flight ban was taken by individual member states. We must be better prepared to prevent this level of disruption to the travelling public if such events ever happen again.

NHS opting out form lacking

From: James A Wilson, Sandmoor Close, Hull.

AS Bernard Dineen says (Yorkshire Post, April 26), we are required to opt out of the electronic NHS Summary Care Record if we wish to do so.

Why, therefore, does the NHS not send an opting out form with all the other material such as the form to apply for the information in other languages?

I rang the Care Records Service Information line and gave all the information they asked for in order to send me an opting out form. The last thing the man said to me was: "If you don't get the form within two weeks, ring us again."

What a way to run an organisation!

Missed opportunity

From: Colin Cawthray, Elmete Drive, Roundhay, Leeds.

IN Paul Kirby's letter about his visit to Nottingham and their

excellent tram system (Yorkshire Post, April 28), he states that Leeds missed the boat on public transport.

It is incredible that for the past 13 years we have had seven Labour

MPs in Leeds, and between them they could not do more to help the city with our public transport.

In fact, as a collective bunch, they do not seem to have done very much for Leeds at all.

They seem to have toed the party line, and indulged themselves on their expenses, at a cost to the electorate.

Wheelchair wonder

From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton, North Yorkshire.

HOW beautiful Camilla looks in her wheelchair (Yorkshire Post, April 22).

Her eyes sparkle and her smile beams. With her looks and sense of humour, she can compare favourably with much younger women.

Little wonder Prince Charles loves the socks off her.

Lack of respect

From: Mrs Susan Verity, St Albans Avenue, Skircoat Green, Halifax.

HOW I agree with your Comment (Yorkshire Post, April 26) about the lack of respect shown to the Roman Catholic Church. I am not a Catholic, but I felt deeply ashamed that anyone could even think about trying to suggest such things about the Pope's visit.

I do hope that the powers that be will be brought to book by the Government for allowing this to happen.