Small firms
demand to be
free of EU

YOUR correspondent Philip Hutchinson declares in your paper (The Yorkshire Post, May 14) that our problem being Ukip members is that we are “small business people” as though, if true, this would disqualify us from the political debate.

Yes Philip! The new promotion is indeed simple and sophisticated, just what you would expect from business people who if elected will be far better qualified to manage our national affairs than the hopeless bunch of career politicians that are the alternative.

These little businessmen have some further quarrels with the content of your letter – one such is your assertion that their wish to leave the EU is to gain an unspecified benefit from ‘closing-off’ the UK market.

Not one of the Ukip members with whom I have discussed the eventual UK exit foresee any disadvantageous change in our trading (market) relationship with the rest of Europe – they perceive a trading arrangement, which might sensibly be called EFTA, as being much more vital to the remaining member states than it would be to us.

Furthermore, they look forward to the day when the UK is once more free to make mutually satisfactory trading deals with the rest of the world.

No Philip! The electorate who are being ‘taken-in’ by our Ukip campaign, are overwhelmingly concerned to free our country from the Franco-German nonsense that is the EU, and everything that stems from it.

Finally Philip, your use of the expression “nascent fascism” in the context of the subject matter of your letter is uncalled-for.

Unworkable
Labour plans

From: Mrs W Abbott, Boulsworth Avenue, Kingston Upon Hull.

JAYNE Dowle (The Yorkshire Post, May 12) is absolutely right when she says “Labour faces the biggest challenge” in the run up to the 2015 general election.

At the present time, Ed Miliband is swanning around the country with his pre-election proposals, some of which are unrealistic and unworkable.

Mr Miliband now claims that if he is elected, patients requiring an appointment with their doctor “will be guaranteed an appointment within 48 hours”.

We are fortunate that the receptionists at our GP surgery are very efficient, and will try their best to accommodate our requests.

However, it is not always possible to obtain an appointment within 48 hours if the doctor’s appointment slots are fully booked, and is not classified as an emergency. In these circumstances, the Labour leader’s proposals are unworkable. Mr Miliband would be better off concentrating his energies on putting together a manifesto which contains proposals that are realistic to achieve and adhere to the promises he makes which his party’s predecessors have failed to do in the past.

Brought to book on tax

From: Mr M Hey, Fairway Grove, Bradford.

THE British arm of internet retailer Amazon was revealed to have paid corporation tax of less than £10m last year despite sales of £4.3bn.

Consumers buy from the company’s British website and the items are delivered from warehouses across Britain, but the actual payments are mostly to a Luxembourg company called Amazon EU, so this allows Amazon to legitimately lower its tax bill.

It is taxed at the lower rate in Luxembourg and avoids much corporation tax in Britain where the rate is higher.

Amazon says it follows the tax rules in all countries where it operates, but Commons Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge has renewed her attack on the company saying it should pay its fair share of tax.

Speed limits not answer

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

WHILE I agree (and sympathise) with most of what Andrew Vine says (The Yorkshire Post, May 13), I do not regard the current headlong rush into urban 20mph speed limits as being a solution to careless pedestrians.

There are several reasons for my scepticism. Perception by pedestrians, particularly children and young people, that the road is a dangerous place where you will get hurt if you don’t keep your wits about you is reduced if the speed of traffic is lowered.

Kids will simply see the roads as not so dangerous anymore and take more risks.

Secondly, there are so many things a driver already has to consider when driving in a crowded urban environment 
that adding the need to continuously monitor and govern your speed to 20mph is one thing too many.

Drivers’ attention is drawn away from the road and more, not fewer accidents will result.

Lastly, a 20mph speed limit is just not enforceable and will therefore be widely ignored, particularly at those times of day when there is little traffic and few pedestrians around.

And, of course, the boy racers will ignore any limit anyway, in the knowledge that there are so few police around that they will get away with it.

No, the answer to road safety is care, courtesy and consideration. By all road users, including pedestrians.