Tuesday's Letters: If financiers are satisfied, we will pull through

It seems to have escaped notice that there are basically two kinds of cuts.

First, there is the one-off variety, ie if you cancel a piece of military hardware, that is a non-recurring economy. If, however, you cut a quango or reduce the Civil Service, this represents a saving which recurs on a year-by-year basis although there is a downside with redundancy and pension payments.

Clearly, the more economies that can be made in the latter category, the better. With inflation, the amount saved would look very impressive projected over several years. There is clearly scope for party propaganda here.

Despite figures being bandied about, it will probably be impossible to quantify actual savings even by financial gurus. As long as those who control the purse strings and the credit ratings are satisfied that the Government means business the country will pull through.

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

From: CD Round, Lee Lane East, Horsforth, Leeds.

THE last time we saw cuts in defence expenditure on the scale now being talked about in the Press was in 1931 under the "Geddes" axe. The result – an ill equipped army was sent to France in 1939, the Navy's ships were unmodernised and left very vulnerable and the dedicated aircrews of the Battle of Britain depended on the Hurricane and Spitfire, the original development of which was started off by private investment.

The next war will be very different but there are enough maverick

rulers in the world to have a go at us if they think they can get away with it and we need to be ready.

We cannot depend on Nato and the United States. Could we defend ourselves against a rogue attack with hijacked aircraft from the

continent like the attack on the US on 9/11?

The Americans were in chaos that day and we are much more vulnerable from the Continent. Defence spending needs to go up, not down.

From: Terry Palmer, South Lea Avenue, Hoyland, Barnsley.

IT was very interesting listening to Tory Prime Minister David Cameron blaming everything for this country's mess on Labour. His conference speech was almost parrot fashion to Tony Blair's in 1997 (Yorkshire Post, October 7).

He even suggested that Labour should have regulated the City and the banks more. What he forgot to mention was that it was his Tory party, under Margaret Thatcher, that said greed is good and "there is no such thing as society" as she de-regulated those yuppie morons and gave them free rein in the first place to almost bankrupt our country.

Let's stick to our present daylight hours

From: John Turley, Dronfield, Derbyshire.

EVERY year as we approach the end of October, there are calls not to

put the clocks back one hour from British Summer Time (BST), on to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (Yorkshire Post, October 15).

However, this year, Greg Knight MP has come up with the ridiculous idea of Scotland being on a different time zone, implying that the vast majority of English people favour the change, and it is only opposed by a handful of Scots, imposing their will on the rest of the country.

This is far from being the case, keeping BST throughout the year was tried for a three year period in the 1970s, and proved not to be popular with the vast majority of people (not just the Scots), hence we returned to the current situation.

I suspect there is also some confusion between being on BST throughout the year, and being on European Central Time, which was recently being proposed. The two are not the same, the latter is actually GMT plus one hour in winter (same as BST), and GMT plus two hours in summer (BST plus one hour), and would still involve putting the clocks backwards and forwards around the same time as at present, except that we would always be one hour further ahead.

This latter proposal would be even worse and would result in many people, including myself, having to get up in the dark on workdays from the beginning of September right through to the end of April, and staying light until nearly midnight in June and July, not the best use of daylight hours.

One of the supposed advantages of the change is claimed to be the safety of children travelling to and from school, however I totally fail to understand why it should be safer to have the morning school run in the dark (imagine this on icy mornings), when at present the majority of schoolchildren travel home before it gets dark even in December.

Speed is not the only riskFrom: Paul Buckley, Haigh, Barnsley.

IN reply to the letter of SB Oliver (Yorkshire Post, October 5), the disregard of "laws and rules" is probably due to safe and experienced drivers knowing that the speed limits are badly set.

Before 2006, the speed limits on our roads were based on the 85th

percentile speed – the speed not exceeded by 85 per cent of drivers, an internationally recognised method of setting speed limits which minimises crash risk.

After 2006, average speed is used to determine limits, which if

logically followed will lead to ever decreasing speed limits.

There has been a gross over-statement of the number of accidents caused by exceeding the speed limit by those campaigning for speed cameras. According to the Department of Transport, the number of accidents

caused by exceeding the speed limit was five per cent.

The most significant cause of accidents, which speed cameras are

useless in combating, is failing to look properly at 37 per cent.

Recycling? It's in the bag

From: Aled Jones, Mount Crescent, Bridlington.

I'M all for reusing plastic carrier bags, but isn't this taking the green recycling thing too far? On a visit to a big-name supermarket in my locality, I went to purchase some items at the cigarette kiosk.

The sales assistant asked me if I would like a bag. Yes please, I replied, only to be handed a tatty looking carrier from a major rival just down the road. Seeing my astonishment, the sales assistant said: "Oh, it's all part of our in-store recycling policy."

Is this the same country-wide, I wonder? Or is it simply my own local store that wants its customers to carry goods out in competitor branded bags? Talk about knocking theft reduction on the head!

Premier let down nation

From: George Senior, Spa Well Lane, West Cowick, Goole.

"POWER to the people", David Cameron (Yorkshire Post, October 6). What a load of tripe coming from the third consecutive British Prime Minister to do a u-turn on an EU referendum promise.

If only Churchill could come back. It would break the brave man's heart to learn that the last three British Prime Ministers have all gone flat

out to form a European superstate.

From: Terry Morrell, Willerby, East Yorkshire.

I READ so many letters telling us how much the EU is taking from us and how it is to increase but can someone please tell me how much we get back either in cash or kind?

It is also interesting to note that political TV and radio programmes never manage to find a questioner asking about the validity of the EU unless a UKIP spokesman is on the show.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I HAVE recently returned from a trip to New York. While there, I

watched David Cameron on TV at the Tory conference. He was inspiring and telling us to be proud of our country. May I suggest that we have the UK flag on all our buildings as they do in the United States. It certainly seems to add pride to the US citizens.

Wind turbines are symbols of lethargy and stupidity

From: Dave Haskell, Newchapel Road, Boncath, Pembrokeshire.

IT is a dreadful thought that if Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne gets his way, before very long, when folk journey across the oceans to visit our shores, the first thing their eyes will fall upon will be arrays of very tall wind generators.

In other words, the first and last sightings of the UK will be emblems to our collective indifference, lethargy and stupidity. Indeed totems, for surely that is what a 400ft wind generator visually projects – some would say, just useless sentinels to the Gods of the Ridiculous, which are totally at the mercy of the wind for any meaningful output – a very expensive means of power generation that demands an iniquitous subsidy – is this to be our sorry legacy to future generations?

Even more foolishness, whereby the media insist on referring to these limited machines as turbines. This is no more than "slight of hand" and Charles Parsons, the English inventor of the Parson's Steam Turbine, must truly be turning in his grave (pun intended) at the misuse of this engineering term.

Even more disturbingly this misuse encourages, and will mislead folk into mistakenly accepting wind generators as superior technology-engineering, when in fact these fraudulent machines are fundamentally no more sophisticated than an electrical generator being driven by a large propeller, or aerofoil if you prefer. To be sure, obtaining energy from the wind to drive machinery goes back to the Greeks of the 1st century – and as for wind farms, the mind just boggles – so it is time to call a stop to all this nonsense, which to reiterate, every household in the UK pays for in their electricity bill by means of the subsidy – we must be mad to tolerate it all.

We must have rent fairness

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

CHARITIES have urged the Government to rethink cuts to housing benefit. The Department for Work and Pensions says benefits have spiralled out of control.

No! It is the rents that have spiralled out of control. Council and private landlords are sucking people dry with exorbitant rents. That which needs tackling is not housing benefit, but the rent gravy train itself.

Councils employ fair rent officers, who invariably access rent lower than the landlord is asking, the claimant has to pay the balance. So, the Government is aware rents are too high, but rather than bring council / private owner to book, they hit the most vulnerable, as is their norm.

Lucky break for parents

From: R Brook, Green Lane, Lofthouse, Wakefield.

HOW can independent adult children think that it's acceptable to expect their parents to mind their grandchildren every other weekend to give themselves "a break"? What a luxury!

At the same time, the said parents are admirably caring for their

elderly parent(s) (Yorkshire Post, October 13).

This certainly isn't the first time that I've heard of this

arrangement – sometimes every weekend. And the "guilt hook" – well, after all they are your grandchildren. Enough said.

Chiles labour

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

THERE is a lot being written about the failure of ITV's Daybreak programme to attract viewers.

It is not Christine Bleakley who should be thinking about leaving.

ITV should give the heave to Adrian Chiles – that dour, unsmiling and untidy bloke who appears on our screen every weekday morning.

Nobody wants to go to work after looking at his scowling face.

However, chirpy Christine is a tonic on a morning.

Caine scrutiny

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Bradford.

WITH regard to Words of the Week (Yorkshire Post, October 9), Michael Caine says: "I am of the Groucho Marx school that anyone who sees a psychiatrist needs his head examined."

He is lucky enough not to suffer with a mental illness.