University a waste of time for many

OK – so our school kids have once again done well in this carefully manufactured business of somehow guaranteeing that most of them will get something (Yorkshire Post, August 26).

A good deal of it will no doubt be utterly useless in the matter of securing future employment. It is high time we looked afresh at the craze to send more and more kids to university as a good proportion of these are really only passing ill-spent time.

Our centres of higher learning should be just that, handling able and talented students aiming to be successful in meaningful and productive occupations.

Far more useful under this tier would be a huge new initiative in our schools promoting the direct programming and implementation of courses designed to feed students into commerce and industry, something which employers would find more helpful and beneficial all round.

The gap is growing, and unless we quickly do something about it, both universities and industry will suffer.

Power of music to communicate

From: Margaret Whitaker, Harswell, East Yorkshire.

I WAS so pleased to read your article about music therapy (Yorkshire Post, August 12). When training for my RMN at the Retreat in York I discovered the amazing response to music of the patients, as they were then called.

I am talking about the early 1970s in the days before alternative therapies had been discovered – pets, aroma and so on.

Luckily there was a piano on a ward where I often worked, and I soon put it to good use in an all-female ward that included all ages from 16 to 90. The young girl of 16 could play Fur Elise but nothing else!

On Sundays we had a hymn singing session much enjoyed by all, especially after I assembled a percussion band from Banks’s shop, finger cymbals, little bells, triangles, cymbals (always a fight over these) and tambourine. Moodey and Sankey got some stick! When Matron did her round she was thrilled!

Time to bin the current system

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

IN these days of easy travel abroad, we can readily learn from the way our neighbours run their local services.

For instance, take rubbish collection. It appears that Italy, from which I have just returned, has a system of billing specifically for this. Collection is weekly and there are five separate containers for recycling. The weaknesses of our council tax are well known. Ability to pay large sums on demand isn’t necessarily related to the value of the property we live in. Moreover, paying substantial amounts for unspecified purposes is a perfect recipe for waste and the diversion of funds to crackpot schemes such as we have seen recently in Doncaster and Sheffield.

If certain services such as rubbish collection were funded on a pay as you go basis, accounting would be far more precise and transparent.

As most of the money for local services comes from central government, I can see no reason why a local income tax cannot be introduced, which would be far fairer. Certain operations such as bin collection and libraries could become a “pay as you use” system. We are faced with years of austerity and it is vital that we ensure better value for money in local government. The present set-up has had its day.

Lack of faith in climate change

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

THERE must be few who are not aware of the message that an era of global warming is approaching. It will have a catastrophic effect on the life of the planet, and its coming is being accelerated by the industrial activity of we humans.

This dire message from certain climatologists should of course have been rigorously checked and examined straight away, but who was prepared to dispute an array of powerful computers? And when the doctrine was embraced by Senator Al Gore, several Hollywood stars, Prince Charles, the BBC and the church, what more could be said?

Bill Carmichael (Yorkshire Post, August 17) quotes phrases used such as “received wisdom” and “the science is settled”.

Those of us who, like Mr Carmichael, dare to have doubts are labelled not merely sceptics (once an honourable term) but disbelievers and even heretics.

So we have the bleak prospect of a proliferation of wind turbines, a depletion of industry, and continued dependence on unreliable foreign sources for our energy supplies. We already have “fuel poverty”. This is our chosen way of preserving the planet for our grandchildren. Somehow I doubt if our grandchildren will have cause for gratitude.

Immigration priorities

From: Mr SB Oliver, Churchill Grove, Heckmondwike.

THE Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced that “net immigration” increased in 2010, falling short of the Government’s target (whatever it was).

The reason given was that (and I paraphrase) “not enough people emigrated which inflated the net figure”.

The problem in the UK is the constant increase in our population mainly due to constant immigration.

Why doesn’t the Government completely ignore the figure of outward emigrants (and just look upon them as a bonus) and simply determine a much lower target figure for all immigrants?

Both the EU and human rights should come secondary to urgent, and very necessary, immigration regulations.