Thursday's Letters: Does Miliband really understand the workers?

I read Ed Miliband's CV the other day and I wondered what it was going to mean for us, whether he remains in opposition or gains his

ultimate ambition.

What peeves me the most is that he has never left "school". His life has been spent behind a desk, reading what he wanted to.

As far as I can understand, he has never experienced having to start manual work at unearthly hours or clock on for a night shift. Then, when the weekend comes along, he finds his wages just enough to meet all the demands.

No doubt there must be many families who can empathise with this scenario.

So how can he or his compatriots have the knowledge of how a good percentage of the working-class have to live without the experience of living under a similar situation?

I recall Sir Michael Parkinson ridiculing a snooker match on television when the commentator remarked that the shot the player was taking was "a pressure shot". His comment was that it was far from a pressure shot because if he missed it would not matter.

He said that when his dad came home from the pit after a night shift to find his wife had been up half the night because the children were ill and the house was steamed up from wet washing and the kids were still crying and his wife was distraught, and he himself was tired out, then that is pressure.

Would Miliband and his cohorts understand?

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

I LAST voted Labour 36 years ago, and for the sake of the country, nothing would please me more than to see Ed Miliband become a successful PM and leader of the country.

The cards, however, are stacked against him – and us. Remember, it was the unions who put him over the top (Yorkshire Post, September 27).

Labour is the party of the mass unions and relies on keeping the public sector happy for its core vote.

It believes in control from the centre and one size fits all policies. Those policies are based on spending (and wasting) large quantities of taxpayers' money.

Did you see the enormous list of quangos, most of whom nobody has ever heard of? This is the inevitable result of turning on the taps of public expenditure and leaving them to run.

The Conservatives, too, have wasted money in the past but the emergency promises the hope of a government operating on the principle of value for money.

I hope that by the time Labour returns to office, they have learned some restraint, otherwise the slippery slope will become a precipice.

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

TO be fair, it was such a close call that the Miliband brothers might as well create a coalition between themselves.

They both seem devoid of sound and realistic ideas, but, at least, they could not possibly be worse than Messrs Blair and Brown.

In any event, I would have preferred Alan Johnson, who comes over as a much more human and down-to-earth man and is not short of political experience.

Quicker banking – but not for me

From: E Green, Albert Street, Swinton, Mexborough, South Yorkshire.

ABOUT eight weeks ago, Halifax Bank customers received a letter informing them how their banking was going to be made quicker, with cheques and so forth clearing faster.

Two weeks after this, on visiting my local branch, I was informed it was closing in early November, plus about 300 other so-called counter outlets. The lady cashiers informed me and other customers we would have to use Mexborough or Rotherham branches, one being two miles away, the other six miles away. They also said we would be able to use Post Office branches, but surely Post Offices are counter services, are they not?

Two weeks after being informed about the closures, the Halifax had the audacity to place a TV advert saying how they are making banking easier – nothing about having a car or bus ride to withdraw your money.

Then we find out through the media that chief executive Eric Daniels is to quit next year, with a 190,000 a year pension plus other perks which could include seven million shares.

All this from a bank saved by the taxpayer and which does not in my opinion give a damn about its customers. My bet is he will get away with it, even though he is one of Vince Cable's "spivs and gamblers".

Call for carbon budgets

From: Simon Bowens, Friends of the Earth – Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East, York Place, Leeds.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council (Yorkshire Post, September 16) is not the only council that is not doing enough to tackle climate change.

Global warming is one of the biggest challenges of our times, and every local council has a role to play in slashing emissions.

The good news is that measures such as insulating homes, installing renewable energy and improving alternatives are not only good for our planet, they will also cut householders bills and create local jobs.

Some Yorkshire authorities are leading the way. Councils in Harrogate, Leeds and York have pledged to cut emissions from their area by 40 per cent by 2020 because they recognise both their responsibility to tackle climate change and the benefits to their local area that this action will bring.

Friends of the Earth is calling for local carbon budgets to be set for every local authority. These would place a fair cap on emissions in each local authority area, and would make it easier for councils to lead and plan the local action needed.

The best places to live, work and travel in the future will be those that face up to the challenge of cutting carbon and involve local people in solutions that work best for communities and the environment.

Let's back this recycling idea

From: Lionel Kempster, Eccles.

I REFER to the article by Samantha Harding of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (Yorkshire Post, September 24).

The drinks industry saved billions by arbitrarily stopping returns, and now they are saying it will cost too much. If other countries find it acceptable to operate a deposit system, why is the UK holding out against it?

The deposit customers pay will need to be large enough to encourage a return.

The dairy industry is another case of thoughtless packaging. Plastic containers, used for mainly yoghurt products, are not bio-degradable and so there is a recycling problem. There are a couple of manufacturers who do use paper-based pots, so why don't the rest?

I am not holding my breath for any satisfactory result.

NHS should not pick up bill for over-indulgence

From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.

COLOSSAL sums of money are regularly quoted for the cost of keeping a criminal in prison for one year, with the amount of 150,000 being frequently mentioned.

The modern, comfortable prison environment does not seem to provide any worthwhile deterrent to reduce re-offending and when this occurs the taxpayer is once more called upon to continue this funding for seemingly indefinite periods.

It seems logical, therefore, and certainly very cost-effective to pay the criminal to abandon his chosen lifestyle and obey the laws of our land.

If a sum of, say, 20,000 per annum was to be offered and accepted, the savings to the hard-pressed taxpayer would be huge.

So, why has no-one yet suggested this policy? It follows similar logic to that being asked of the NHS, that people should be paid to eat healthily, do more exercise and to stop smoking as this would dramatically reduce the unaffordable amounts spent on their medical care.

It has not been suggested, because, like the proposed policy above, it is completely barmy.

Instead of "rewarding" those who have attracted the appalling physical condition years of excessive self- indulgence and complete disregard for their own health has brought, which is far beyond all acceptable levels of normal exuberance, any NHS treatment deemed essential, other than for those with a genuine medical condition, should have to be paid for.

The people affected will vociferously shout that they cannot afford to pay for such care, and anyway the health service is free for everyone, they will claim.

I do not believe that the NHS should be required to change into some kind of social club looking after the needs of those who refuse to help themselves.

As for the claims that they cannot afford or should not be required to pay for treatment, the amount of money they must have spent, over many, many years on buying mountains of junk food and drink or thousands of cigarettes, dwarfs any charges they may receive.

As for not receiving free treatment, any NHS advice or surgery can only help them make considerable savings in the future and thus must be a very worthwhile and essential investment in health and money for them.

MPs missing from 'perks' list

Dave Ede, Hallam Road, Rotherham.

WHEN Denis MacShane (Yorkshire Post, September 27) says that "the professional middle-classes look at the greed of bankers, London bosses, town clerks, BBC executives and quangocrats who have diverted taxpayers' hard-earned money into a cornucopia of pay, perks and pensions", he omits his own profession – namely Members

of Parliament.

Is this, I wonder, an error of omission, or does he really think that their perks and pensions at least are less than handsome?

Minster and the Lottery

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.

I cannot agree with York Minster getting 9.7m to help restore its Great East Window (Yorkshire Post, September 27).

To begin with, it is hardly a priority in these recession-hit times. Besides, why is the Church of England condoning gambling by putting in for Lottery funding in the first place? I mean, it isn't as if it doesn't have its own riches to draw on.

Salutary lesson

From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby, York, North Yorkshire.

THE dregs of society who put excrement through the letter

box of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg should be caught and, to teach them a salutary lesson, to put it mildly, have their damned noses rubbed in it.

Slapped down

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

SO, anti-social behaviour is not seen as crime (Yorkshire Post, September 23).

However, if you slapped a perpetrator of the torment you are suffering, no doubt that would be a crime.

Savers hit

From: Paul Rouse, Sutton upon Derwent, York.

BANK of England deputy governor, Charlie Bean, announced that its interest rate policies (Yorkshire Post, September 28) were intended

to force savers into spending their capital.

Have they forgotten how we got into this mess?