Thursday's Letters: Fresh era of change must work for us all

THE new Lib Dem/Conservative coalition is the best thing that could have happened in very many years for the good old UK. The centre and more tolerant ground of politics is one of the reasons that I am a member of the Liberal Democrats.

I joined the "middle" ground when the Gang of Four started the SDP. The extremes of politics are dangerous areas and best left to extremists such as communists and fascists and appropriately discouraged.

In my view, ideal political systems should tolerate business and labour working together for mutual benefit as well as the common good.

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Respect for one another is also a must, irrespective of political and/or religious beliefs. It is when such respects and beliefs impinge too far on other persons' ideals that brakes need to be applied.

Let us hope that this new found spirit of coalition will prosper for the benefit of all.

From: Jack Duckworth, Rossett Holt View, Harrogate.

From: Robert Reynolds, Dixon Terrace, Harrogate.

I ALWAYS tell my five-year-old daughter that she must clean up her own mess. It's a pity Labour have not been taught this lesson. They have left us with the worst deficit in our history. We are borrowing from foreigners to pay for our public sector services.

When the Tories start cutting to balance the books, Labour will howl with outrage and will return to Government via local councils.

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We, the electorate, should have made them clean up their own mess and when they failed, that grubby incompetent party would be finished for ever.

From: Coun James Alexander, Leader of City of York Council Labour Opposition Group, Holgate Road, Holgate, York.

THE Conservatives and Lib Dems are in bed together. On December 28, 2009, David Cameron said there was a "lot less disagreement than there used to be" between Conservatives and Lib Dems.

On March 11, 2010, Nick Clegg spoke of his admiration for Mrs Thatcher. As a candidate at the General Election, I warned voters that a vote for the Lib Dems could see a Conservative Government.

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Not only was I the only Left-wing candidate in York Outer, but the only one to rule out supporting a Conservative Government. Yet my Lib Dem opponent spent thousands on leaflets saying vote Lib Dem to stop the Tories. How disappointed must some Lib Dem voters now feel?

From: Coun Steve Radford, Liberal Party National Executive, Sutton Street, Tuebrook, Liverpool.

FROM even before 1857 and the formation of The National Liberal Federation, Liberals and Liberal and Radical Associations have always been locked in battle with a Tory Party representing privilege, wealth and elitist authority

For Nick Clegg to walk away from progressive coalition to join a Tory coalition, other than in wartime, is a betrayal of everything Liberals have stood for over decades in favour of naked political opportunism

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I urge every Liberal and radical left in the Liberal Democrats to resign, to rejoin the Liberal Party.

It is the right and duty of every Liberal to campaign for a more equal and democratic society with us against everything the Tory Party has stood for.

From: Dai Woosnam, Woodrow Park, Grimsby.

I WAS not unimpressed with David Cameron's words on the steps of 10 Downing Street. And coming from a highly sceptical individual like me, that is quite saying something (Yorkshire Post, May 12).

But he blotted his copybook by paying tribute to Gordon Brown's "30 years of public service".

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Can we please stop this Americanism "public service" from gaining any more of a treacherous foothold than it already has?

Let's get it clear: "public service" comes from the untold number of people in the UK who do totally unpaid work for their community.

Politicians who get seriously rich – and are occasionally unemployable elsewhere – are not such "public servants". Indeed, it is quite the other way around: the public serve them. And serves them big time.

From: David W Wright, Uppleby, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

HAVE you noticed that there is nothing to choose between the three main parties and our continued membership of the EU is not even mentioned?

From: Paul Rouse, Sutton- upon-Derwent, York.

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I AM becoming increasingly annoyed at the political power wielded in the UK by the minority interests of the Scots, Welsh, and now the Lib Dems. So let's have a referendum on political reform – to include an English Parliament.

From: Shaun Cohen, Church Close, Leeds.

IN many discussion held recently, there is a common misconception regarding our voting system, we do not elect the Prime Minister.

We elect individual MPs, from whom the person who may become Prime Minister emerges. I am not aware of any proposals from anywhere to alter this.

From: Steve Stonehouse, Brawby, Malton, North Yorkshire.

WHAT planet has Paul Andrews (Yorkshire Post, May 10) been on? For years Conservative shadow Chancellors have been saying an economy built on easy credit and rising house prices will end in tears, but they were criticised by the Government and media for planning massive spending cuts which are certain now. People felt better off when their houses were worth more but first-time buyers were priced out of the market.

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When Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979, the country was virtually a Banana Republic and we are not far off again.

Gordon Brown was the most devious of Chancellors and now his chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance and we will all suffer.

As for PR, you will be voting for a party list and if the people on the top are party apparatchicks with no experience of working in the real world we will really be done for. Well done for coming out for the Conservatives.

Most people in Yorkshire are Conservative with a small "c". Hard working, not flash with money, pay your way, look after your family and try to save a bit for your old age which, coincidentally, has not been encouraged.

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Littlefield Lane, Grimsby.

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SO we now have an unholy alliance between two public schoolboys, and another ex-Etonian as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Personally I can't see the coalition lasting, as the Liberal Democrats have traditionally positioned themselves as wanting to replace Labour as the progressive alternative.

Now however if things go wrong, the public know that the only anti-Government option is to vote Labour.

From: Michael Ellison, Knapping Hill, Harrogate.

HAVING witnessed Gordon Brown's desperate actions to remain as Prime Minister, I think he would be very successful in showbiz as an impersonator.

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Already he has demonstrated that he has two perfect impersonations in his repertoire

During the previous 12 months, instead of calling a General Election at an earlier date, Mr Brown was acting as the Dickens character Mr Micawber – waiting for something (positive) to turn up, which did not happen.

Then, after the election, he perfectly copied Robert Mugabe by desperately trying to cling to power despite the Labour Party not polling the most votes.

From: Mrs BJ Cussons, Curly Hill, Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

YOUR correspondent Dave Hansell (Yorkshire Post, May 10) makes a preposterous claim that the poor arrangements at some polling stations are a result of imposed efficiency savings when no party has attempted to start on that path yet reflects his contradictory views.

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One wonders where Liberty will get its money from to encourage legal applications?

No system is perfect and despite the large turnouts the ever-increasing number of postal votes should have left the polling stations able to do their job properly.

However, hasn't Mr Hansell noticed that all the legislation the Labour Government has introduced as a reaction to events simply imposes costs

and inconvenience to ordinary people?

I do agree with him about no rights (to vote) without responsibilities.

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Why then did Gordon Brown want to give the vote to prisoners?

Allowed unlimited immigration until the Conservatives and public opinion made him to do something only recently. And why did he want to give the vote to 16-year-olds?

Could it have been to get more votes?

Most responsible people recognise the need for taxation but not for the quangos and pathetic legislation and the cost of immigrant dependents that has been heaped on us by Labour and Europe.

Loss-making windfarms cannot be compared with discovery of North Sea oil

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From: Peter Atkins, Northumberland Avenue, Hornsea, East Yorkshire.

YOUR report (Yorkshire Post, May 1) on the proposed offshore wind power revolution in Yorkshire said much about the economic benefits,

comparing them with the discovery of North Sea oil, but nothing about what they achieve at the end of the day and at what cost to the taxpayer.

Firstly, I cannot see how they can compare with the discovery of North Sea oil. The oil was extracted by the large oil companies who stood on their own feet and drilled and obtained the oil for which every gallon was sold at a profit.

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In the case of the companies who supply and install the windfarms, if they stood on their own feet and sold the energy produced, they would lose a substantial amount of money on every unit of electricity that they sold and, therefore, no windfarms are built on this basis. It is only a large subsidy provided by the Government (and the taxpayer) that make them a proposition for their installation. We will always be losing money on the energy produced by windfarms but this seems to have been accepted by the Government as the best way, but not the only way to reduce our carbon emissions.

A very important feature of windfarms is to remember that when no wind blows they can produce no energy so they cannot contribute to our base load generating capacity and therefore all their massive capital cost is in addition to what we must spend anyway on conventional generation to keep our lights on. The Government's proposals to produce 15 per cent of our energy from windfarms by 2020 has been estimated to cost about 100bn.

The saving in carbon deposits in a world situation is a minute less than 0.1 per cent for this massive expenditure.

If we had a large surplus of capital available, it may or may not seem to be a proposition to invest in windfarms, but at the present time quite the reverse apparently applies and all our political parties have been talking about cuts in public services etc which must be made in the near future – with their associated redundancies and unemployment which would result. When it comes to the crunch and we have to make cuts, I hope we will get our priorities right.

Fine costs shops a customer

From: Ian Meharg, Church Farm Court, Aston, Oxon.

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ON my first visit to Leeds in many years, I parked at Crown Point Retail Park, managed by Excel Parking Services. There was a three-hour limit. I came back to my car after 90 minutes to find a parking ticket, alleging I had parked in a "restricted area". My colleague parked next to me was similarly ticketed but none of the cars around was.

He called Excel to be told that the ticket was issued because we had "left the car park".

So now you have it. If you walk out of the car park they will stiff you for 40. Never mind that we ate lunch there, did some shopping and spent money with the local businesses. I hope you make your readers aware of this, as well as the businesses at Crown Point. I won't be coming back so they might think they are gaining a parking fine, but they have lost my custom for good. I'm pleased to see that shops in Leeds can afford to treat customers this way.

Cinema credit

From: Kenneth A Webster, Abb Scott Lane, Bradford.

BUSINESS leaders from Leeds and Sheffield have produced a long list of the achievements of Yorkshire Forward (Yorkshire Post, May 1).

There is, however, one important item missing.

Yorkshire Forward have also left Bradford's beloved Odeon building to rot!