Sold off for the few in spite of the many

From: Brian Ormondroyd, Stanhope Court, Leeds.

APPALLING news. Our Royal Mail has been sold, given away. This without the authority or benefit of the British people. Polls show, as with the rail privatisation, that the majority are against.

How long before the small “shareholders” sell off their interests to major hedge funds and similar? Note what happened to British Gas, water companies, British Airways and more. Many of these organisations now under foreign ownership and control.

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Little wonder then that the overwhelming mass of our population have given up on political parties. Political party membership is at an all-time low. Certainly less than a half a million in total.

One needs to be a City slicker to achieve success in Westminster. Little wonder that the Westminster politicians reward the City with the sell- off of our national assets. What next? The NHS, our schools and universities, our prisons and police?

The vultures are waiting. Bring what is British back under British public control. Now that would make Milliband come under attack from the Mail.

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

“ROYAL Mail shares soar in trading” (Yorkshire Post, October 12) and I dare say the welkin is ringing with the salivating squeals of covetous investors.

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Am I the only one who is putting money on the probability that this year’s skiing holidays for the few, will translate into next year’s price increases and service cuts for the many?

We’ve seen it all before, haven’t we?

From: Mike Smith, Birkby, Huddersfield.

I HAVE just received a two-page letter from npower and the opening paragraph is headed “making energy clearer for you”.

The two-page letter runs to 1,000 words. Also enclosed is a leaflet advising me of important changes to my terms and conditions for my electricity supply. The leaflet is 19 pages of tiny print. A quick count shows that to be around 20,000 words.

To put it in perspective, 21,000 words is getting on towards half the size of many small paperback novels.

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Speaking as an average domestic consumer of advanced years, am I expected to read and digest all that as part of a policy of “keeping the customer informed”, or is it simply a lawyers’ exercise in burying anything they feel like imposing on us in the future in the small print?

Not surprisingly, there are two lines prominent on the front sheet of the letter telling me I can save £90 a year if I buy gas from them as well as my electricity and if I pay for the lot by direct debit.

You have to wonder if they do engage lawyers and accountants for that sort of publicity material or if they use comedy writers.

From: Norma Bartle, Woodlands Grove, Cottingley.

I WRITE to ask fellow readers of the Yorkshire Post to give their opinions of the service they receive from British Telecom. I come to the point of opinion from a very disgruntled view of the worst possible service I have ever received from any major service industry.

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The history of my dissastifaction is so complex to be tedious and maybe boring. I have spent countless hours on phone and letter to strive to solve what I thought was possible but in fact impossible.

In my experience, BT’s bosses are not capable of sending out a reply. Instead, they gleefully sends out numerous missives requesting further usage of BT. Sitting here at my PC, I despair of the future of big organisations like BT and wonder how people like myself can ever get a resolution to what we consider ordinary problems.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

THERE is a wonderfully true saying from Yorkshire: “ If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

This should be applied to East Coast trains.

This public-owned, state-run railway is paying back money to the Government, and is popular with the paying public passengers.

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It is reliable, safe, fast, clean, comfortable and the staff are polite, helpful and appear happy in their work. Why on earth attempt to upset this good applecart?

It uses many trains first built in 1974 and first used in 1976, all nicely re-furbished and ideal for this East Coast route. It is so typical of a Conservative government, based mainly in London and the South East, to ignore common sense and logic, by wanting to privatise this line. Please leave well alone. Forget party dogma.

Take stand on women’s rights

From: John Fisher, Harrogate.

RECENT reports of British imams agreeing to marriage ceremonies involving a 14-year-old girl are in stark contrast to the aspirations 
of the young Pakistani girl 
Malala Yousafzai who is promoting the right of 32 million women worldwide to access education (Yorkshire Post, October 12).

It is time we dropped the political correctness that has left our politicians unable to prevent the abuse of women’s rights within our own country.

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Forced marriages which are a disgrace to our so called civilised society should be banned, and arranged marriages which appear to rely heavily on emotional blackmail should be strongly discouraged.

It is difficult to see how ethnic communities are to be integrated into our society whilst these practices continue.