Underwhelmed by lack of replies to two money-saving ideas

IN the present dire economic climate of the EU and the grave recession Britain is experiencing, there are two policies that, to me, are wasting colossal amounts of money and which severely test my faith in the abilities of our leaders to find a solution to these problems.

Several weeks ago, the Yorkshire Post published a letter I wrote asking if any MP would, or could, justify the transferring of EU business from Brussels to Strasbourg each and every month for a period of one week, a practise which has been repeated for many decades, and the second query was to explain why British forces are still based in Germany.

I would like to say how overwhelmed I have been at the response to both questions; how my misunderstandings of the situations have been fully explained and totally satisfied and how dim I was to even doubt their relevance. I would like to say this, but I cannot. I cannot because there has been no response. Is this because they cannot be justified? Perhaps a staunch EU supporter can tell us why the Strasbourg move is an appropriate and proper way for European bureaucrats to spend such huge amounts of money?

Europe is wallowing in unmanageable debt with the whole eurozone in danger of collapsing and Britain is in a severe recession, so how can this expenditure be allowed to continue?

Is it a case that the authorities have simply become accustomed to this situation with both issues having become so routine that stopping them has never even been thought of?

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-super-Mare.

BY refusing to allow a referendum on the EU, David Cameron finds himself in another mess.

He and Nick Clegg will have to hang together now forever if they don’t want to hang separately.

Traditional Conservatives in the House of Commons, having formed themselves into the Eighty One Group, have Mr Cameron in a corner. He is now entirely dependent on the Liberal Democrats if he wants to hold on as leader.

Mr Clegg’s party is also skewered. If they left the Liberal Conservative coalition, the Lib Dems would be wiped out in a General Election and a party of traditional Conservatives would sweep to power under a eurosceptic leader.

We, English, need our English Parliament (perhaps in Leeds), as the English Democrats Party is demanding, to give us stable government in the tumultuous times which are coming at Westminster.

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, York.

DAVID Cameron gets told off by President Nicolas Sarkozy as he is fed up with the UK telling the eurozone/Europe what to do in this financial crisis.

Steady on, old chap – as the UK is either the second or third largest net contributor to the EU, has contributed to the bailout fund and is a reasonable percentage payer to the IMF, who in turn is funding a euro rescue package, then I think we have every right to make a few useful comments.

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

I WAS all in favour of a referendum on our membership of the EU.

The Government, having refused to see what the electorate thought, were immediately branded as being undemocratic by certain individuals but also, in very strong terms, by the media.

When the Greek government decided to have a referendum on what the other members of the eurozone have in store for them to try to solve the financial crisis, before reversing this policy, the idea has been rejected by most of the media who say that it is farcical and irresponsible.

So, who is right?

From: N Bywater, Airedale Terrace, Morley, Leeds.

CAROL Brown, (Yorkshire Post, November 2) is correct about the chasm between the rich and poor.

It increased under Tony Blair and it must be increasing even more under David Cameron.

The Conservatives want to scrap the 50 per cent income tax rate, while more and more companies benefit from tax havens.

The banking sector has the largest number of tax haven companies, with the big four UK banks – HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds – having a total of 1,649 offshore subsidiaries. Even Leeds United was benefiting from its owner being listed in a tax haven.

And of course the banks benefited very much from the printing of extra money with Quantitative Easing (QE), as can be seen by their recent profits. Back in 2010 Gordon Brown was saying that there should be a bank levy, but instead the banks prosper.

Perhaps the answer is the Robin Hood Tax – a tiny tax on the financial sector can generate £20bn every year.