Thursday's Letters: Rude mobile phone users send a message of bad manners

THREE times in the space of just one day I experienced people talking on their mobile phone while being served.

The first of these incidents involved a man who was talking on his phone while standing in line in the bank so that everyone standing in line with him had no choice but to listen to his side of the conversation.

When his turn arrived, he continued talking on the phone, taking virtually no notice whatsoever of the teller who was serving him.

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Meanwhile, at the other end of the counter, a woman was doing exactly the same thing (and, no, they weren't talking on the phone to each other). Even to a casual observer, the rudeness of both situations

was unavoidable.

If the tellers had taken a call on their mobiles while serving those customers, they would no doubt have been outraged and rightly so, but courtesy and good manners was apparently a one-way street in this occasion.

And then I was sitting in a pharmacy waiting for my prescription when a man walked up to the counter and, just as he was being served, his mobile rang and so he proceeded to answer it and carry on a conversation while the assistant was trying to serve him. Unbelievable –yet again.

Why are people so obsessed these days with having to be in touch with the universe at all times? What did they do before mobile phones were invented? And why do they seem to think that their phone has to be answered the second it rings regardless of what else they may be doing at the time?

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We have signs clearly posted at the entrances to the churches of my parish asking people to switch off their phones when they come into church.

Needless to say, there is always someone who doesn't for the same reason they wouldn't think to switch off their phone in church in the first place. And so inevitably the phone rings in the middle of the service and, even more amazingly, the person will actually get up and leave in order to take the call rather than simply switching it off and making the caller wait.

I wonder whether my experience, three times in one day, of people talking on their phones while being served is a sign of the rudeness towards other people that seems to be increasingly endemic in our society? A sad thought.

From: Fr Neil McNicholas, St Hilda's Parish, Whitby.

Alternative to withdrawal of child benefit

From: Richard Bridge, Market Place, Snaith.

GEORGE Osborne is "tough but fair" by withdrawing child benefit from a single parent family earning 43,876 but retaining it for a family of two earning up to 87,748 (as long as neither are higher rate earners).

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The excuse for this is that it is much more simple administratively. Surely the solution is easy and at hand and would deal with a family's overall income (Yorkshire Post, October 5).

Child tax credit is, in effect, a means-tested benefit which is tiered away the more you earn, and is based on the lower of one's earnings in the previous tax year or the current tax year.

Child benefit could be abolished entirely and payments of the family element of child tax credit increased to compensate (this would need to reflect the number of children within a household). It could then be tiered away at a level to achieve the savings required. Could this not be the first step to a universal benefit/credit ?

The added bonus? Massive savings in administrative costs at HMRC.

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

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IT seems that George Osborne's speech has raised a lot of hackles across the country. I wonder why?

If people earning 40,000 per year can't afford to raise a family without a state subsidy, there is something amiss.

There will be a lot of households earning half that amount, probably in need of benefit, and doing the job successfully.

Has the cost of raising a child increased so much, in real terms, that the Government has to foot the bill?

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My mother raised four boys in the 1930s without any complaint. We were always well fed and well turned out. She wouldn't have put up with anything else. The previous two generations had even bigger families but, of course, there were no motor cars, no foreign holidays or similar luxuries. Every penny earned went into the welfare of the child.

I really do wonder how much of the present child benefit is put aside for the children and how much is propping up the cigarette and drinks industries or keeping our travel agents in business?

It makes you think.

Parents and parking

From: Stuart Galey, Hillcrest Avenue, Featherstone, West Yorkshire.

FOR a change, I see Bill Carmichael is on his soap box again. I am, of course, referring to his piece on the issue of school parking (Yorkshire Post, October 1) and his view that the actions by the South Yorkshire police force were a little over the top.

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Through my employment, I am more than aware of the parking problems caused by the school run and it is an issue that generates a great

deal of concern to those residents living in the vicinity of many educational establishments.

One of the more amusing comments by Mr Carmichael was his reference to the lack of police action over "anti-social behaviour".

Perhaps he should be considering the fact that the indiscriminate parking by many parents outside of schools is, in itself, a form of anti-social behaviour.

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Furthermore, the issuing of fixed penalty notices would also appear to indicate an illegal activity has taken place, questioning Mr Carmichael's description of these parents/guardians as "law- abiding citizens".

Not a week goes by when I do not receive a complaint from some resident or another aggrieved at the fact they can neither access their driveway, walk unobstructed along the footway (let's not forget footways are designed for pedestrians, not cars) or travel freely along the highway due to vehicles being parked on the school zig-zag entrance markings.

I can fully appreciate the need of children with disabilities but surely the emphasis should be on the school to provide adequate facilities for their pupils, which in turn would reduce the parking problems and ultimately negate the need for police action.

Until then, I wish more resources could be found to provide a greater level of parking enforcement everywhere to help assist the needs of all rather than the selfish minority.

Idiocy on Sutton Bank

From: David Bentley, Pickering.

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YOU warn us that Sutton Bank is to be closed for five weeks (Yorkshire Post, October 4) and report on the number of incidents that lead to the closing of this main road.

Caravans were prohibited from using this road years ago, yet we still find that idiots who know better insist on using it.

Similarly, huge lorries use it and when they come unstuck, law-abiding drivers suffer for their foolhardiness: recently, a herd of pigs made a bid for freedom on the hill.

Of all the closures, I am amazed that very few warrant prosecution of the persons responsible – why?

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And one for North Yorkshire County Council: should parking on the "caravan route" be suspended during times when the A170 is closed? Ampleforth is a nightmare.

Different role of the vole

From: Peter A Nuttall, Grove Avenue, Hemsworth, West Yorkshire.

I REFER to the recent column, "Year Of The Rat", by Gervase Phinn (Yorkshire Post, October 2). Natural history was obviously not Mr Phinn's forte when he was a practising teacher. In the article, he confuses the delightful water vole (arvicola terrestris) ie, Ratty, in Wind in the Willows, with the more repulsive and dangerous, common brown rat (rattus norvegicus).

The water vole is a delightful herbivore of clean waters and has recently become one of Britain's most protected species.

Terror truth

From: GJ Banks, Bessingby, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

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ONE of the most overworked words in Britain today is "terrorist". It implies that one should be terrified of any dissident group. Feeling that it boosted the ego of those involved, part of the British Army at one staged banned the use of the word.

It was quickly replaced in the ranks with alternatives such as thugs, cowards, hooligans, bullies and other unprintable names, all more descriptive and uplifting, and worthy of copying.

Royal thanks

From: Ken Cooke, Wheatley Road, Ilkley.

LIKE Mrs June Kilner (Yorkshire Post, October 2) after the war, I also received a thank you letter from King George VI "to you and all other boys and girls at school". It was dated June 8, 1946, and signed George RI (Rex, Imperator – King and Emperor).

Labour's mess

From: WJ Winterbottom, Pledwick Lane, Sandal, Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

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FOR well over 60 years, I have forecast that Labour and its leaders will foul their own midden. In the words of a well-known American: "You ain't seen nothing yet."

Difficult task for the leaders of local government

From: Austin Holroyd, Westwood Court, Dark Lane, Almondbury, Huddersfield.

FOLLOWING your thoughts on the salaries in local government, here are my own thoughts accumulated over the years (Yorkshire Post, October 4).

Criticising senior officers of our somewhat unwieldy metropolitan authority is not quite fair, as their situation is not really of their own making.

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In 1974, many people in Huddersfield could not understand why our reasonably well-run borough council should be drawn into that monolithic undertaking which was (literally) for want of a better name to become Kirklees. Officers, headed by the Town Clerk, the Borough Treasurer and the Medical Officer of Health, seemed to be sound men, who ran their departments well, knew their employees and were approachable by both councillors and ratepayers.

The new situation meant that these chaps, and all heads of departments, faced a dilemma. Lord Maud and Edward Heath's new plan meant that they were all going to lose their jobs.

What to do? The older and long-serving officers very sensibly took the money and retired. Some of them had never even been to Batley or Dewsbury unless they were followers of Fartown, never name run their affairs. They also realised that even with a tripling of salary they could not cope with the massive increase in responsibilities which would ensue.

The younger chaps, many with families, had a bigger problem, and simply had to apply for these new wonder jobs. Experience didn't come into it, as no one anywhere had had experience of jobs of this magnitude before, and obviously there was no one to teach them.

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The salaries, however, were huge, and it was interesting to see some of them jockeying for position. Of course, this was happening all over the country, and many bright young executives just had to take this leap into the dark.

Now comes the crunch. A higher salary and more employees doesn't suddenly make a more experienced executive in one fell swoop, and as far as I can see there's no one yet about with the experience to teach them.

Unfortunately, we can't turn the clock back, so we of this generation will just have to live with the fact that these guys and their female counterparts are doing their best, and in time there will evolve people who are steeped in the mysteries of running such huge undertakings. It won't happen overnight.