Thursday's Letters: Do not make all drinkers pay to beat bingeing

What planet do these people live on? According to Labour MP Hilary Benn, binge drinking will be eradicated by imposing a minimum price for a unit of alcohol for all consumers. Or is this yet another stealth tax?

Pray, tell me how penalising all alcohol users will reduce the binge drinking and anti-social behaviour by a minority of people? I believe that the major problems of binge drinking in this area are within York's city walls and therefore fail to understand why I and other responsible people drinking in rural pubs and clubs should be discriminated against.

My personal view is that anyone who commits an arrestable offence while under the influence of alcohol should not be dealt with by the police as expediently as possible in an attempt to improve government-enforced performance targets.

They should be arrested and charged with the appropriate offence and automatically summonsed to appear before the magistrates' court.

If they plead guilty or are found guilty at a subsequent trial, the minimum penalty must be to repay the cost of all expenditure incurred by the taxpayer including court costs.

I am sick of this nanny state that persistently deals with law- breakers leniently at a cost to the taxpayer and then suggests imposing penalties on those who abide by the law, by in this case increasing the cost of a unit of alcohol.

From: John Wills, Riverside Close, Elvington, York.

Blinded by dogma of the free market

From: John G Davies, Alma Terrace, East Morton, Keighley.

BERNARD Dineen seems to have learned nothing from the current economic depression and he still seems to be blinded by free market dogma (Yorkshire Post, January 25).

Whatever happened to the hard-headed "professionals who could not be bamboozled" when they were running MFI and Woolworths, to name just two vanished private sector firms? Private firms can just vanish, public sector ones cannot; they have to survive because we all depend on them.

He unwittingly exposes some of the corrupt practices that occur in some businesses when he says "selling to the public sector is child's play". A responsible person would take more care knowing that a lot of people may be depending on their product, rather than milking the buyer for personal gain.

He should realise that banking is in effect a form of gambling. It is always a gamble whether you and I will pay back our debts, loans or mortgages. Bank charges reflect this uncertainty; we all pay for the toxic debts.

He should also know that gambling is both addictive and closely associated with corruption. Bankers have developed more and more sophisticated forms of gambling: like the "derivatives" which gamble on the outcomes of other gambles. London is popular with bankers because it is poorly regulated, so they can get away with all sorts of dodgy practices. Like Lloyd's names, they want their cake having eaten it. Those hard-headed "professionals who could not be bamboozled" lost their bets, they miscalculated the odds and effectively went bankrupt, but their twisted logic makes them think that they are irreplaceable and should be hugely rewarded. Ha!

My money is lodged in mutuals like the Co-op and the building society, their morality is rather better than banker's.

EU ruining Royal Mail

From: Douglas Hartley, Irving Terrace, Clayton, Bradford.

THE letter from MT Hill "Royal Mail fighting a losing battle" (Yorkshire Post, January 19) sets out Royal Mail's predicament

admirably, but how could he fail to mention the root cause?

The code numbers of the EU Postal Services Directives have appeared in these columns so many times. He writes: "The Government gave licenses to companies to also run a mail service". But the Government did this in its customary obedience to every EU directive. Competition was

EU-enforced.

Nor does MT Hill name the companies – Dutch TNT and German DHL – which have been allowed to invade Britain, stealing Royal Mail's lucrative bulk mail business. He is correct in saying that if Royal Mail loses its battle, its employees will no longer be there to deliver letters and small packets for its rivals, and then TNT and DHL will need to

operate and fund a full country-wide service.

Postage rates will rise greatly; some areas may never be covered.

In the event of a public outcry, would our stupid politicians, having killed the 300-year-old national postal service at the behest of Brussels, then offer to subsidise the European agencies?

Like MT Hill's, our faithful postman has been regular and on time through all the weeks of snow and ice.

Proud of Israel's role

From: Norman and Lola Cohen, Rehov HaGome, Gilo, Jerusalem.

AT a time when the media constantly criticises every move that Israel makes, attributes ulterior motives to its good deeds or totally ignores them, it was indeed heartwarming to read Bill Carmichael's

column "Mercy mission" (Yorkshire Post, January 22).

Those of us who live in Israel have been closely following the

successes in saving lives and alleviating suffering achieved by the Israeli rescue and medical teams in Haiti since the earthquake.

We are very proud of our expertise in disaster situations

(unfortunately garnered during the many terrorist attacks we have suffered) and also our medical prowess, therefore we are greatly

saddened that some sections of the media refuse to give credit where it is due, so thank you Bill Carmichael for publicly acknowledging the

facts.

From: Brian Hardy, All Hallowes Drive, Tickhill, Doncaster.

BILL Carmichael (Yorkshire Post, January 22) writes: "Thank God for Israel and the US – the world would be much poorer without them." He failed to add that the world would also be a lot safer without them.

Labour to blame for decline of UK manufacturing

From: MG Bisby, Kildale, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

AUSTIN Mitchell paints an accurate picture in his article about Britain's current desperate economic plight (Yorkshire Post, January 16) following the long-term neglect of its manufacturing base by successive governments.

By far the worst offender, however, has been the present Labour Government. Messrs Blair and Brown believed that Britain's economy could sail along indefinitely on a sea of easy credit with an economy based wholly on a multitude of service industries.

Our manufacturing base was allowed to wither away, helped considerably by bureaucratic red tape and EU regulations, additionally gold-plated by zealots in our own over-burgeoning Civil Service. Brown's damaging taxation policies have also helped to "put the boot in" over these last 13 years. The two factors that kept the illusion of an easy life of economic plenty alive until it became too late to avoid disaster were a plentiful supply of North Sea oil and gas and the "loads and loads" of easy money generated by the City – based on make-believe economics from inflated equity values and property prices. Austin Mitchell's observation that our neglected manufacturing base can no longer "pay the nation's way nor support the jobs and superstructures of an advanced society" is spot on.

However, I would remind Mr Mitchell that during every period of Labour Government the destruction of our manufacturing industries was helped in no small measure by greedy and short-sighted trade unions with their endless strikes and disputes – all condoned or appeased by gutless Labour politicians.

So, yes, Austin Mitchell – you are unfortunately correct when you point out Britain's current desperate plight – helped in large measure by the destruction of our manufacturing base.

But "think on" – it was your lot "what done it!"

Rates ruin for smaller firms

From: Robin Berry, Barfield, Hambleton.

WITH reference to the article about the business rates shake-up (Yorkshire Post, January 9), I have a small 1,300 sq ft business unit in Selby. The rateable value was 2,900. The new valuation from April 1, 2010, is 5,264, an alarming 2,364 increase.

Communities Minister Barbara Follett must be living on another planet. In most towns and cities, there are a large percentage of shop, office and business premises empty.

The last thing in a recession one would do is increase taxes. I have checked with other businesses near me and have not found one rateable value that has decreased.

We know who will pay for Mr Brown's fiscal incompetence and this will be small businesses.

We cannot appeal until April 1, because I have already tried. I would urge all businesses to appeal.

Winter chills are nothing new

From: Ken Voase, Brandesburton, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

AS a boy, I can just remember my father saying 1922 was the coldest winter he had known but that is not in the records, nor is 1927 when we had to trudge three miles to school through drifts and also in 1932 when our walk to school was five miles – somehow, anyhow.

The three early years of the war, 1939, 1940 and 1941, stick in my memory, only to be followed by the "big one" in 1947 and the coldest one in 1963 and several since which all leave this year's freeze as the baby of them all.

Do not despair

From: G Atkinson, Thirsk Road, Northallerton.

I THOUGHT I must comment on Ian McMillan's dismay at reaching 54 (Yorkshire Post, January 19). Tell him not to despair – here I am just 91 and looming not so far away is my 92nd birthday.

I cannot believe it and I actually say "thank you" to anybody who remarks "I thought you must be just in your eighties".

Long may I read his column.

On wrong road

From: Bill Marsh, Beadle Garth, Copmanthorpe,

York.

SURELY nobody can be surprised at the state of our roads when the Government has been taking 45bn each year in vehicle-related taxation and spending only 5bn in return?

Something had to give.