Thursday's Letters: Public anger over these unnecessary cuts is no surprise

It was no surprise therefore when students rioted, as many will face years of grinding debt, a direct consequence of the hypocrites in government trebling university fees, while Ministers have enjoyed free university education.

Many years ago, I also predicted the return of the Poor Laws and workhouses by 2030. How else can one rationally analyse Iain Duncan Smith's benefit reforms? Housing benefit reforms will result in increased homelessness and cities and towns bereft of poorer people at their core.

Withdrawal of unemployment benefit to the so-called workshy will have the same effect and also lead to the children of the punished being taken into more expensive care.

Also, the 30-hour work-for- benefits scheme for the long- term unemployed has its direct raison d'etre in 19th century Poor Law legislation. If there is work for these people to perform, then pay them a decent wage for this work. Or are they merely to be used as slaves to do unpaid work formerly done by sacked council employees? Indeed, most unemployment benefit claimants are not workshy but victims of a rapidly failing capitalist system and economic crisis, caused by rich cavalier bankers.

From: Dr Glyn Powell, Bakersfield Drive, Kellington.

From: JM Johnston, Station Road, Poppleton, York.

THE public's outcry at the Government raising fees for students has now raised the question of how many students could reduce their outlay of university education by attending their local one. This obviously could not be done by all, but many degree courses are replicated.

Over the years, it has been traditional that students go away from home to study.

Accommodation, both on and off campus, is enormously expensive but, by living at home, money would be saved. I have travelled the world and found in many countries this is how, where possible, their students attend the local university.

If this culture was adopted here, with fewer students needing accommodation, universities could then be encouraged to build more rooms on campus, thus preventing large neighbourhoods near the campus becoming, in many cases, rundown ghettos for students.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Holme, Holmfirth.

STUDENT activist turned university lecturer Malcolm Povey makes a fine case (Yorkshire Post, November 16) for Yorkshire universities to be exempt from forthcoming cuts. But almost every other institution could make a similar case, and the fact remains that the country has been living beyond its means.

His protest that northern universities are to suffer far more than those in the South is merely part of the ongoing injustice which we in the North have to endure at the hands of ignorant southerners, and is a different problem altogether.

EU intentions were clear from outset

From: Michael Swaby, Hainton Avenue, Grimsby.

WHILE I understand Doreen Illingworth, who writes in support of other Eurosceptic contributors, a different picture emerges from even a cursory study of the issues she raises (Yorkshire Post, November 15).

Edward Heath is regularly vilified as the Prime Minister who took Britain into the then EEC. The word "traitor" is even used.

It should not be overlooked that earlier applications to join were made in July 1961 by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, and in May 1967 by the Harold Wilson Labour government.

I regret that Ms Illingworth feels that she "was conned by his Common Market". The Treaty of Rome's preamble refers to "an ever closer union", and public statements made by its creators clearly show that it was a political project. This material was available to those politicians who opposed British membership, such as the highly intelligent and articulate Enoch Powell. However, it lacked immediacy and seemed to be ignored by many voters at the time.

Ms Illingworth's geography won't attract many dissenters. For millennia, it has been accepted that the natural boundary between Europe and Asia is at the Hellespont. She will be reassured by reports that many people on the Continent are firmly opposed to Turkey's accession to the EU. On the other hand, I note that our Conservative party supports Turkish membership.

From: Edwin Bateman, Great Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria.

THE declared intention of the continental politician Jean Monnet, EU founding father, and former French president Francois Mitterand who set up the EU to act as a proxy was and is to take over the UK step by stealthy step.

In this endeavour the EU is a Trojan horse and UK Lib-Lab-Con politicians who stupidly believed in trade advantages are a fifth column. The only hope now is to exit the EU or the UK is finished. Only UKIP will allow a vote on it. We need to co-operate and be friendly with other European countries, not as an EU member but as an independent sovereign nation.

From: Eric Richards, Pinfold Close, Riccall, York.

WE recently got dragged into helping the EU bailout of the ramshackle Greek economy. I wonder how many voters will want to help out Ireland with massive cash injections in the far- from-impossible event that their economy goes down the pan too?

We are not even members of the eurozone which has been the prime cause of most of these problems!

Against this backcloth, our own rebates have been cut, MEP representation has fallen and we still wear the shackles imposed by Lisbon. We can leave at the stroke of a pen, and take on associate status like Norway, and it is time we did. And just as a matter of interest, Ireland has seen many billions of pounds flood into it from the EU – much of which was of course, funded by us.

From: June Warner, Kirk Deighton.

SO apparently, millions of EU funds have been frittered away on projects such as a hydrotherapy centre for dogs; a troupe to perform the "Smelly Foot Dance" and a "hip-hop laboratory" in Lyon to address the "lack of co-operation in European hip-hop".

Still. We don't mind, do we? After all, it's only our money being well spent. I love Brussels – as I am sure you do too.

From: Dick Lindley, Altofts, Normanton.

AT last we are beginning to see the end of the euro and hopefully the end of the United States of Europe which will also decline into oblivion, just as all previous idiotic enterprises aimed at the enslavement of the peoples of Europe have failed.

One day our children and their children may look back on this week with great happiness as the point when we began to reclaim our freedom, national dignity and sovereignty.

From: Geoffrey Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.

IT IS time that we left the EU. The people that say we would have a smaller export market seem to forget that we import more than we export. If the European countries refused to trade with Britain, just think of all the damage that the British could do if a ban was put on European manufactured goods, heavy trucks, cars, tractors and farm machinery, to name but a few. They could be manufactured here, helping employment in all forms of manufacture.

So, Mr Cameron, keep to your promise of a vote for the public on the EU and let's see if you have the backing of the majority of British people.

Learn from young carers

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

A REPORT has acknowledged that there are far more young carers than officially admitted. Maybe this is something the Government has deliberately concealed. After all, if it were admitted, they might have to fund more care and that would never do in a capitaist society. Carers are one of the most under-privileged and neglected section of society. Even prisoners and illegal immigrants get more consideration than them.

"Young carers" suggests an immediate vision of deprived childhoods, Victorian chimney sweeps, and Satanic mills with exhausted workers. But is this a correct interpretation?

Would not caring for a disabled parent or sibling instil far more value to a young mind than the capitalist-orientated education they are subjected to in today's world. Caring teaches love and values that are too rare in the modern world.

The immediate reaction is to throw money at the situation and then forget it, but this exactly what should not be done. What does need doing is to replace the unequal consumer capitalist society with a caring structure in which respect, love and care are the most valued characteristics.

Competition should be replaced with co-operation and a complete rethinking of the value of life and the way in which society is structured. But I know from experience that this story will be a one-day wonder and soon forgotten.

Selfishness is the most dominant human characteristic and is fed by greed and wealth.

Those who "have" protect it no matter what the cost to the less advantaged members of society. Such is the power of the Conservative Establishment, with the exception of a few philanthropists with a conscience.

Your carers will be deprived but not in the true value of life, but we are denying them equal rights to the fruits of life and it is this we must address.

Police chief sets an example by refusing bonus

From: Maurice Headland, Rowena Avenue, Edenthorpe, Doncaster.

WITHIN days of the coalition Government being formed, David Cameron declared an immediate freeze on police bonus payments. Alas, this has not happened, because of an agreement between the Police Federation and the previous Labour Government (Yorkshire Post, November 16).

Millions of pounds was paid out in South Yorkshire over a five-year period. Thank goodness at least one chief constable, namely Tim Hollis of the Humberside force, is adamantly against the system and has never paid bonuses for senior officers or himself.

The police are public servants; senior officers are well paid and should not receive performance-related enhancements. I would have thought senior officers would have set a better example than bankers, whom the public quite rightly decry.

From: Tom Legard, Masham.

I WAS interested to hear that the police top brass (Yorkshire Post, November 16) are surrendering their bonuses in an effort to keep bobbies on the beat. Perhaps they should consider reducing the number of officers attending accident scenes?

I was briefly held up the other evening by no less than nine emergency service vehicles, five of which were police cars (all 2009/ 2010 registered) dealing with a single car crash.

Can I be so bold as to suggest that reducing this level of over-reaction would be a very quick and simple way of getting bobbies out of their much-loved cars and back on the street?

From: Peter R Hyde, Kendale View, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

TIM Hollis, the Chief Constable of Humberside Police, rises in my estimation simply because of his refusal to take his bonus.

The system of bonuses for senior police officers was wrong in the first place. Police officers are paid to do a job, and paid very well indeed. So why was there ever a need for incentive bonuses?

Teachers who miss the mark

From: Phillip H Green, Radlyn Park, West End Avenue, Harrogate.

YOUR article "Poor teachers rarely face sack" (Yorkshire Post, November 13) reminds me of an occasion back in the 1970s when my wife was a teacher at Killinghall Primary School.

She had received a trainee teacher from the Ripon Training College who had come to do her "school prac". This teacher-in- training was absolutely hopeless, so my wife rang the college principal to advise her of her findings. The principal told my wife: "Mrs Green, we never fail anybody!"

If this was happening way back in the 1970s, how many unsuitable teachers were, and are, still allowed to be in charge of classes of children?

Big gamble

From: Richard Farnsworth, Barton-le-Street, Malton.

THE big off-course betting operators have moved their internet and telephone operations abroad, thereby avoiding paying statuary contributions to the UK racing industry. After failed negotiations, it is now in the hands of the Government to decide racing's future. If the Government does not close the loopholes, it will be remembered for ruining what was a great sport and a valuable asset to our economy.

They must never let these big corporations/public companies, with their interests in short-term profits, force racing down the same route as dog racing.

A veteran's plea

From: RD Leakey, Giggleswick, Settle.

NOW that we have done all the memorialising of the dead heroes of war, from a very battle- experienced war veteran now 96, whose brother won a Victoria Cross posthumously, the time has now come to abolish war and organised violence by enacting a law which says: "Anybody who orders other people to be killed or harmed, must be killed or harmed by whoever orders them." In reality we humans are all one species and should not be damaging each other just because of words like "nations" and "war."