Unfair way to treat volunteers

VOLUNTEERS perform an invaluable service to the community. Yet, a notable disadvantage is that by volunteering, citizens lose 
the right of appeal to the Ombudsman in any dispute 
with the organisation that “employs” them.

If the recruiting organisation has a Volunteers’ Charter equal to, or better than that recommended by Volunteer England, the lack of this basic right will be less severely felt.

Even so, it is odd that a right exercised by the majority of 
citizens is denied to the most deserving.

Offhand and off with their heads

From: Malcolm Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

YOUR Editorial “A Watchdog Stirs” (Yorkshire Post, June 13) raises yet again, the ineffectiveness of those charged with ensuring fair play and the public’s protection in the former state-owned industries.

Of-this, Of-that and the other regulators have been with us for decades. But hasn’t their consistent failure to challenge and act on the excesses of directors earned them the generic title “offhand” so far as the vast majority of us are concerned?

Perhaps we should ask “who are these people?” and perhaps we should also remind ourselves they were spawned by politicians?

So doesn’t the buck stop with them – or am I being hopelessly naïve?

Gender blender for a longer life

From: Peggy Lambert, Springfield Avenue, Ilkley.

ACCORDING to US authors (Yorkshire Post, June 11) “a spoonful of salad dressing is associated with 13 per cent lower chance of dying from any cause” – a pity it only applies to men!