Slippery slope of a Northern Parliament

IN general, I agree with Robert Craig (Yorkshire Post, May 20) about the need for some devolution of powers.

I don’t, however, agree with his idea of a Northern Parliament. Once it was established, how could further parliaments in the North East, North West and the West etc, be resisted?

He points to the parliaments of Scotland and Wales but the analogy does not stand up. Scotland and Wales are separate nations and wield greater powers than would ever be permitted here. Already the term United Kingdom is something of a misnomer.

Despite this, I believe that comparable countries have a better balance of power and responsibility and we can follow suit. For instance there could be reform of allocation of finance.

I have a suggestion. I think a sort of bluebook for the regions could published annually 
under the auspices of the Government.

This would give chapter and verse of who gets what and so forth. At present this information is scattered among many sources! These facts would once and for all eliminate the evasive statements of Ministers.

Only those who prefer obscurity to transparency could possibly object to this.

Murders on
our streets

From: Paul Emsley, Hellifield, North Yorkshire.

SO what is the difference between a person being stabbed to death in Woolwich and one being killed in Birmingham or Belfast? Is it because it is in London, where all these uncontrolled people are roaming the streets, thanks to our politicians (do we remember Jacqui Smith?)

Soldiers and civilians were attacked and killed on the streets of Northern Ireland for years and the thugs were all set free under the Good Friday Agreement.

A retired cleric was murdered in one of our cities recently and it made three lines on page five of the papers.

Are we going to release the perpetrators of the crime in Woolwich, after their convictions; because it was an act of war because of our involvement in Iraq/Afghanistan/Libya?

At least Sky, CNN, the BBC and personal Facebook accounts are ensuring that the perpetrators are getting all the oxygen that they wanted from their “Holy War” action.

There will be no end to these murders of innocent people, until the death sentence, life imprisonment and deportation mean what they say and we permanently remove humans from our society who have no right to be here. We should all remember that it was John, now Lord, Reid who put all our troops into Afghanistan in 2003, in Blair’s Wars, anyway.

A very civil
proposal

From: JG Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

THE proposal to retain civil partnership and extend it as an option for heterosexual couples has been seen simply as a wrecking amendment. But the idea has considerable merit. The difference from marriage is symbolic, but this is a symbolism which some people may prefer.

The suggestion that having an alternative institution would weaken marriage does not sit well with a belief in marriage, choice or competition.

The symbolism intended in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 was to maintain the prestige of marriage and this is a role which it can still fulfil.

There is little doubt that the image of marriage has long been tarnished by the rise of divorce and of serial marriage.

It is hardly to be expected that the incidence of these among same-sex couples will be any less than it has been for heterosexuals.

Having civil partnership available would make it feasible for us to bar divorcées from remarriage if and when we feel the credibility of marriage needs to be restored.

The ‘rich’
pensioners

From: Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge.

AS a pensioner who has 
seen his small investment 
income decimated since 
1997, and whose small 
private pension has not received a discretionary increase in thirteen years, can somebody please tell me who these “rich” pensioners are that Labour say they are going to strip of their heating allowance, although they will have already paid for it in their taxes?

Despite my experience of the past 16 years, and I suspect that of many thousands of others in the same boat, we will be targeted once again. “Rich” is such a politically nasty, emotive, word these days, in the mouths of Labour politicians who use it to describe, in the main, those people who all their lives have done the right thing.

Is flirting with Ukip worth it, if we get such destructive people back in government again?

A lesson for
Mr Gove

From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Crosshills, Keighley.

NOW we know that all the Ministers in this Government and David Cameron are useless and unfit to govern in this country in allowing a disgraced teacher to return to the classroom in a Roman Catholic primary school and the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove proves that he is bad as the rest.

I would demand the opportunity to tell Mr Gove where he is going wrong in education.