Thursday's Letters: Praise for police chief's honesty over public sector pay

This gentleman, for gentleman he is, is actually admitting that the public sector employees are paid too much and are not generating

wealth.

It is the staggering figures that beggar belief – 21.1 per cent of all workers are civil servants. More than six million people are employed in the public sector. He suggests freezing pay and pension entitlements incrementally – in three years' time, the debt burden will be

considerably reduced.

This is admirable when you consider that he does not think his pay is justified, although he runs a 427m operation with more than 10,000 staff. He states that the taxpayer would pay 163,000 plus 24 per cent pension contributions to replace him, which in the present day climate is unsustainable.

How can business people be expected to pay towards pensions for civil servants when they have had their own pensions cut considerably due to tax credits being withdrawn by our friend Gordon Brown?

How can businesses be sustained when business rates have increased dramatically, ours by about 80 per cent? What are we expected to do?

Drastic measures are needed. I am sending my friend Dave (Cameron) this article. If he read the Yorkshire Post, he would learn much about

common sense. Bernard Dineen, I think, should be elevated to the House of Lords and introduce some sensible debate.

It is unbelievable that John Prescott and Ruth Kelly should be allowed this elevation. Anyone mixed up with expenses should automatically be banned, but then John Bercow, one of the main culprits, is the Speaker, so what does that tell us?

Anyhow, congratulations to Sir Norman Bettison for being so honest. I admire him tremendously.

From: Janet Berry, Selby, Hambleton.

From: D Crossley, Tower Avenue, Upton, Pontefract.

AT last, an honest man in high places dares to speak out.

I will back Sir Norman Bettison in a practical way. If he can persuade those big money men to forfeit 50 per cent of their wage rise, I will forgo 100 per cent of my government rise this year.

I am an 85-year-old pensioner, and ex-wartime Lancaster crewman.

From: Edwin Schirn, Victoria Grove, Ilkley.

YOUR headline (Yorkshire Post, April 12) says top salaries "have spiralled out of control". In local government, too, many of those who are being paid the top salaries are also "out of control".

David Cameron needs to get a grip on this. Local government needs to be

shaken up, and made accountable to the elected councillors – and the councillors made accountable to the electors.

Just ticking a box at election time under the present out-of-date

system is not good enough.

From: Andrew Mercer, Oxford Road, Guiseley.

WHAT a shame that Sir Norman Bettison is not standing for election. This is the type of leader that we need in the House of Commons – rather than careerist politicians with no experience of the outside world.

It's time for fairness across the whole UK

From: DM Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering, North Yorkshire.

IN a televised speech this week, I saw Gordon Brown say "…building a future fair for all..." This was used 13 years ago and many times in the interim, during which time Gordon Brown has occupied the two most senior Cabinet ranks in the country.

Fairness. What do we mean by that word? How about "the same for everyone"?

We should have a United Kingdom. Instead, we have England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Of these, only England has been forbidden to try and go its own way.

First fairness: equal, 1 for 1, government spending per head of population and an end to the more for Scotland than for Northern Ireland than for Wales than for England.

Second fairness: equal treatment under what was the National Health Service – exactly the same drugs, the same facilities, the same procedures and the same "cradle-to-grave" care for all.

Third fairness: an end to "positive discrimination". It makes a mockery of statute law and creates the most hypocritical oxymoron one could wish to invent.

In those 13 years, the Government has done nothing but create and foster more division, discontent, cupidity and fear than we have at any time experienced.

On June 29, 2009, I wrote a letter, published, in which I predicted that the Labour Party would be returned with a majority of 28. I see little reason to greatly modify that depressing opinion.

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

THE latest report of the seven per cent pay increases awarded to NHS executives last year, while those at the bottom of the income scale were either losing jobs and pensions, is a manifestation of increasing inequality in this country.

Executives both in the private and public sector have never been wealthier, using the excuse that this is because they have talent and deserve more! Well, do they really? We have seen how incompetent bureaucrats and bankers are and how they reward themselves for

incompetence with pay-offs and pensions.

Those on the highest incomes, in both the public and private sector, are scooping up wealth under a so-called "Labour" Government.

Inequality is not benign. It deprives people of access to a quality of life that the wealthy enjoy. Stronger measures than taxation are necessary to correct this.

Labour introduced the minimum wage but all this has done is to hold pay down to its lowest level, legalise poverty pay and encourage

immigration.

Inequality could be managed by imposing a maximum income. This has been mooted recently with a suggested ratio of 20 times difference between the highest and lowest pay. But this is far too generous and will not make any real difference. A ratio of not more than seven should be a starting point to be progressively reduced in conjunction with increasing the minimum wage.

The value of each individual to society must be re-evaluated and there is enough that needs doing to the social fabric and infrastructure of this country to employ everyone many times over.

Our education system needs redirecting to the social needs and responsibilities of life and away from Establishment capitalism that is draining our moral and spiritual character.

From: RE Pattinson, Colne Road, Barnoldswick, Lancs.

AS a senior citizen, I, like many others, have been very concerned

about the economy of our country.

In 1997,the Labour Government inherited one of the most stable

economies since the war. By the year 2007, they had turned it into the worst economy in living memory. Basically, it is about the Government not having the strength to resist the temptation of creating wealth the easy way by converting inflation from housing into expenditure without a product.

From: Jeremy Kilner, Choppards Mill, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire.

IF National Insurance is increased, it will put up the cost of UK produced goods, but not the cost of the same things that are imported.

Surely an increase in VAT would be fairer? Why not put a tax on the fuel tank size of all vehicles coming into the UK – payable when the ticket is bought?

From: Arthur Marson, Mountjoy Road, Hudderfield.

IT'S time to call it a day, time to vote out the present MPs on May 6.

This plea is aimed at non-voters and those wavering on where to cast their vote. They must use their vote, because not do so only means someone unwanted is elected with fewer votes cast.

There are more than enough of these electors to bring the above call to fruition, if they respond as suggested.

We need to elect mature, honourable independent candidates who have been in industry and are capable of making decisions without being directed by party whips, rather than the claptrap graduates who have no experience, or existing members who have been tried and found wanting.

Citizens of Bradford deserve better from their leaders

From: Jane Gillette-Browning, Station Road, Norwood Green.

I READ Chris Bond's excellent feature on Bradford (Yorkshire Post, April 9). I could have wept. The complacency and incompetence of those handling Bradford's so-called regeneration has been breathtaking and continues to be so.

For Mike Cowlam, the Assistant Director of the regeneration, to blithely say that Bradford is "seven years into a 20-year plan" is an insult to those of us who walk round the "hole" and note the complete lack of activity. So there will be a pond. Big deal. The number of jobs that will come from the building of this useless addition is... what?

The pond will be closed after the first toddler falls in, and will immediately fall foul of any number of health and safety regulations. Totally useless and a waste of money.

Nobody seems to have any concrete ideas and, meanwhile, the heart of this wonderful and historic city has been torn out and left to rot. The buildings are glorious; the people generous and hardworking. They do not deserve the ineptitude of those in charge here.

Mr Cowlam says that he "hopes people can see what is beginning to happen here". Oh yes, Mr Cowlam. Sadly, they can.

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

THE article by Chris Bond about the stalled regeneration of Bradford city centre made interesting reading. Unfortunately, those responsible for the shambles continue to deny any responsibility and no one seems to be taken to account, which is totally unacceptable.

The council blames the recession for the current problems, but this excuse is simply not good enough. The old buildings were demolished six years ago, long before the recession took hold.

If the council had ensured that a proper, watertight agreement was in place for the new development at the outset, then the current

situation, a national joke, would not have happened.

Both the council and Yorkshire Forward have taken no account whatever of what the residents of Bradford want to see for their city, instead continuing with their "we know best" agendas.

In truth, there really should be a public inquiry into all these matters. At the moment, the culprits (Bradford Council, Yorkshire

Forward and the now defunct Bradford Regeneration Company) seem to be able to get off scot free, which is simply not good enough.

Painful truths from Powell

From: Gordon Rees, North Parade, West Park, Leeds.

JOHN A Martin (Yorkshire Post, April 6) in discussing the present problems of this country states that "only the late Enoch Powell foresaw what would happen". How very true.

Powell disturbed his opponents because he said the truth when nobody wanted to hear it.

It is true that the peace and stability of our country has been threatened by mass immigration; it is true that our national sovereignty is undermined by the EU; it is true that the Crown is the cornerstone of our political institutions together with the supreme power of Parliament.

Enoch Powell was a symbol of what we are now losing – the tradition of our law and politics, along with the religious, literary and artistic genius which justified our history, culture and language to the civilised world.

Losing interest in bank saving

From: Norman J Hazell, Woolgreaves Drive, Sandal, Wakefield.

AS my grandchildren have appeared over the past 27 years (and there are now 14 of them), I opened a building society account for each of them with 100, then encouraged them to save.

On Saturday, I received a pile of letters updating several of these accounts from Santander, which seems to have taken over both Abbey and Bradford & Bingley.

What a shock and to learn the children are benefiting by an interest rate of 0.01 per cent. One with an opening balance of 837 now can proudly add 75 pence to her total.

The children were being ripped off. I feel such a mug, letting the children lose money like this.

On behalf of my grandchildren, help!