We should foster the volunteers

THE reason why “people who work for nothing feel undervalued” (GP Taylor, Yorkshire Post, February 12) is because they are undervalued. People are judged by the salary they can command, not by the value or quality of the work they perform.

This attitude needs to be challenged. Contrary to GP Taylor’s assertion, volunteers are unpaid employees. The common law of England does not recognise this, but reason does. The definition is just.

For a volunteer, it is galling to find oneself doing a job that others are paid to do. Even more exasperating is the knowledge that the professional, however indifferent in performance, not only enjoys greater popular esteem, but the protection of the law besides.

Officers of recruiting agencies are never tired of telling how rewarding it is to work for nothing, while regretfully having to draw a salary themselves. They never mention that as a volunteer you will have no legal rights, and will almost certainly be asked to sign an “agreement” acknowledging this fact.

GP Taylor suggests that the key might be to have volunteer politicians. That is exactly what we had for hundreds of years. It is observable that Britain’s industrial decline coincided with the advent of professional politicians.

Voluntary service, the willingness “to labour and not seek reward” is admirable. It is a Christian duty. It has a vital part to play in the economic life of this nation. If it is to be fostered, it merits not only praise, but legal recognition.

From: Duncan Anderson, Mill Lane, East Halton, Immingham.

BETWEEN 1980 and 2000, Immingham lost approximately one third of its volunteer run organisations. This wasn’t because people didn’t want to use them or because the funding wasn’t available. It was because the organisations couldn’t find the volunteers.

David Cameron now claims that he wants to endanger participants. This would leave organisers open to private prosecutions. Why not provide organisers with free help and guidance?

But this won’t overcome the other issue, that ordinary working people now have hectic and stressed lives and don’t feel as if they have the time to commit to volunteering. So why not give these volunteers five hours holiday per week and prevent them from being sacked by their bosses?

From: RC Curry, Adel Grange Close, Leeds.

THE peroration on the “Big Society” by GP Taylor rehearses a number of points but fails to address a problem at the heart of the matter. How much money and effort is wasted on what should not be required?

There has to be concern about cuts to any essential services for the genuinely needy, but the possibilities now paraded daily in the media do raise other issues.

The simple questions are: how many are essential, how many are useful, how many are just desirable, but most of all how many are just helping people dodge their responsibilities?

From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon.

I SUPPOSE it was the Second World War that made me feel really British. There were so many ways in which we helped each other.

The younger generation played a tremendous part. There was “Bob a Job Week”. The Scouts were always looking for the chance to earn another badge on their arms. The Guides knitted patchwork blankets. The WVS served meals and made tea. It was “The Big Society” although we never called it that. Nowadays nobody earns their pocket money, they demand it as a right.

Perhaps Mr Cameron should read his Baden Powell and make us feel we belong more.

From: Rev Tony Buglass, Calderdale Methodist Circuit, Mytholmroyd.

A HOMELESS charity in Cornwall has just been given five days by the council to come up with new business plans based on a budget cut of 40 per cent. If they fail to do so, Cornwall Council has threatened to use legal powers to tear up all contracts and cut all funding. “Big Society?”

Cameron’s “Big Society” is just a rebrand of Mrs Thatcher’s “Care in the Community” – that meant “someone else’s problem, someone else’s bill”. Her primary objective was to reduce the Government’s budget, so that she could reduce the rate of income tax – which of course primarily benefited rich Tory supporters, at the expense of the poor who depended on the services which were reduced or cut.

“Big Society?” Big con. Again.

Date for new holiday

From: Colin Challen, St Sepulchre Street, Scarborough.

ALL praise to Ian McMillan. I am sure he spent more time writing his article about the potential for new bank holidays (Yorkshire Post, February 11) than the Government did on its ideologically-driven proposal to scrap the May Day bank holiday in favour of something more amenable to their fellow travellers on the Right.

I am in favour of a new bank holiday, but it has to transcend party politics. My proposal is that a new bank holiday should follow Remembrance Sunday – it could become known as Veterans’ Day.

I hope to convince my colleagues in the Equality for Veterans Association that they should lend their support to this proposal, and I would welcome the views of Yorkshire Post readers on the subject at [email protected]

Lies from the politicians

From: Terry Marston, Acer Court, Lincoln.

HAVING studied statements made by coalition ministers and spokespersons in both national and local government office, I am drawn to a simple conclusion about them.

I can be sure that they are about to lie when they preface their apologia (for the dreadful consequences of their policies and decisions affecting others) with the words, “I didn’t come into politics to...” when that is exactly what they are doing.

If they didn’t come into politics for these outcomes – the exit is wide open. That they do not leave gives the lie to their protestations. Lies, damned lies and coalition excuses.