Wednesday's Letters: Accountability and cost deters police mergers

On page two, I read the article about mergers of police forces. That may come to pass but it takes more than a name change as John Whitaker Straw – referred to in your article as Jack Straw – will know.

The issue of mergers was not pursued by the Government primarily because of concerns on two fronts. Accountability and cost.

Readers may well remember that an editorial (Yorkshire Post, May 27, 2006) said: "A report by the influential Association of Chief Police Officers, and which has not been disputed by the Government, warns that 25,000 policing posts may have to be shed in order to finance the 600m that it would cost to implement the mergers, even though there is no guarantee that crime will be reduced."

A 2006 Home Office report stated that: "To amalgamate North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside is projected to cost around 39m."

So in these times of financial austerity what guarantees are there that the amalgamation process has now been properly costed and how will it be funded?

Perhaps if Mr Straw paid more attention to detail he might be less offensive and more factually based. But then again figures and detail aren't his strong points as we discovered during the MPs' expenses debacle when in a hand-written note to the Commons authorities he declared that "accountancy does not appear to be my strongest suit" despite being a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.

It is imperative that there is continuing reform of the police service and that this is carried out on a basis of service effectiveness not just financial efficiency. The public must be left with an improved, more effective force that is able to provide a better service.

Rather than going for soundbites, Mr Straw should remember the needs of the public and the welfare of both police officers and police staff. His latest comments do a great disservice to all of them.

From: Mark Botham, North Yorkshire Police Federation joint branch board chairman.

A rotten way to run a country

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

IN view of the desperate public spending situation, it would be timely to look at the way our country is run – although it's difficult to know where to start with such a rotten system.

Of course, urgent action to cut back is needed. The reality is that the capitalist system has been running out of steam for years.

Periodic devaluations of sterling have merely put off the evil day and worsened the eventual collapse. The creation of a false atmosphere of affluence by the City's casino culture has been exposed, and not before time.

At least the present crisis has given a Heaven-sent excuse to rein in the Government's profligacy. Now that economising has been forced on them, politicians who lie to the public using such discredited terms as investment, recovery and prosperity should now take the opportunity to tell the truth.

Efforts to lower voters' expectations all round would bring a dose of realism to the situation.

Politically, proportional representation would introduce much-needed fairness to choosing MPs and the Government. Cutting the size of the bloated Commons and an attack on the equally obese Civil Service would be universally popular.

Unfortunately, none of our leaders have the guts or the character to see these essential reforms through. After all, their careers have flourished under the very same set-up.

Island is wrong target

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

RICHARD Butt's letter (Yorkshire Post, December 26) is headed "Island neighbour has been cut off from NHS". The Manx are not just neighbours, they are family.

History may have set them apart from us, but they are no less a part of us and the Douglas war memorial is one of many testimonies to this.

Regrettably, this serenely beautiful island has become a magnet for those whose loyalty is for sale to the lowest bidder, tax-wise. We may safely assume that they will have a gold-plated route to the front of any healthcare queue and will not be affected by the UK government's mean-spirited, unilateral action in cancelling the reciprocal NHS agreement.

The losers will be ordinary UK and Manx folk passing between our two islands. If Gordon Brown regards this as a clamp down on tax havens, he is aiming at the wrong target. Tax dodging starts at home and perhaps he would do better to set his sights more firmly on the UK-based tax avoidance industry and all its many and murky facets.

I fully support Mr Butt's plea for us to contact our MPs and to any readers who have never been there, why not think about visiting the island in 2010?

Manifesto for change

From: David W Wright, Uppleby, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

WHAT a splendid start to the New Year that has been made by Barrie Frost (Yorkshire Post, January 1) who has clearly identified the problems facing this once great country and which has suffered over the past decade with awful governments and equally useless politicians who have led us into third world status.

However, there is now a dire need for a political party to take up the challenge for our next General Election this year, and for starters I suggest that the points made by Barrie Frost are adopted as a manifesto – but the worry is that there appears to be no hope that

any of the three major parties have the courage or foresight to adopt any or all of these essential policies.

Which leaves only the fringe parties to take up the challenge with a grand opportunity to inject into our current stagnant political scene some sense, hope and initiative.

Solution for drivers

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

How many people will have got out to their cars this week, having not touched them for a fortnight, and wondered why they won't turn over or start?

I wonder whom they will blame for that?

I bet all of the garages will have sold out of windscreen de-icer. Here's a hint – park your wiper blades straight up in front of the driver's seat, trap a three foot by two foot sheet of bubble-wrap between the blades, windscreen and use driver's door for the side.

The driver's side of the windscreen will be ice/frost free next morning.

I wonder who will be blamed for the lack of windscreen de-icer?

How many lightweight super-minis with not so super drivers and low profile tyres will be parked up trees, in hedges and down ditches etc?

I wonder whom they will blame for that?

Some people and businesses will have had a prosperous New Year, some people will have had an expensive return to work.

A merger we can't bank on

From: Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

LIKE many of your readers, my wife and I have investment accounts with the Yorkshire Building Society and are asked to vote on the proposed merger with the Chelsea Building Society.

While we like the idea of the Yorkshire institution being in the driving seat, and applaud the commitment to continuing mutuality, we are concerned that the Yorkshire may be "doing a Lloyds" in taking over an organisation that is in trouble. Surely this will weaken the Yorkshire?

I have never believed that bigger is necessarily better. We all have experience these days of dealing with over-sized organisations who can be a nightmare to deal with. I am also convinced that much of the impetus for the disastrous de-mutualisations (which my wife and I voted against, despite the bribes) was the ambitions of senior executives and I wonder if that is an element in this equation.

The privileged Labour few

From: Colin Cawthray, Elmete Drive, Roundhay, Leeds.

IN Gordon Brown's New Year message (Yorkshire Post, December 31), he warns against "a decade of austerity and unfairness where the majority lose out while the privileged few protect themselves".

Does he mean his predecessor Tony Blair who has made a few quid since he left office? Does he mean Mandelson (I do not recognise the Lord) who left two Cabinet jobs? He also looks to be quite comfortable property and cash-wise.

Or does he mean all the money grubbing snouts-in-the-trough MPs who at great expense to the taxpayer have protected themselves financially over the last few years?

If Mr Brown thinks he can play the "class war" ticket, he is not going to get very far. The majority of the electorate in this country are far too intelligent for that.

Turn down the TV music

From: Alan W Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.

I DON'T watch much television these days. There is so much rubbish being shown.

The programmes I do watch are some films, plays and documentaries but many of these are spoilt by the so-called background music.

Some of this music is so loud that it obscures what is being said and tends to increase between the dialogue. Consequently, I am viewing with the volume control in hand, adjusting the noise.

I am not alone in this. Practically everyone I speak to about it is in agreement.

I toast this battle to bring back proper pint pots

From: Peter Horton, Ripon, North Yorkshire.

I WAS delighted to read (Yorkshire Post, December 26) of the attempts to revive the use of the mug with a handle in some of the Leeds pubs. I was brought up with this type of beer glass, as my father always preferred this kind of mug; I do, and so does my son.

In a strange pub, I will always ask for a glass with a handle if it is available; otherwise I think it is the sign of a good landlord who knows his customers if I am offered a pint in a mug when I first go to the bar.

I have noticed that some pubs are down to just three or four mugs with handles, and licensees tell me that this type of glass is not manufactured any more. I hope this is not true, and perhaps your research into the subject could find out if these glasses will remain available.

From: Jane Harrison, Park Avenue, Hull.

FORGET beer mugs. I just want to be able to go into a pub where there's no likelihood of a glass being smashed by someone who can't take their drink – and becomes violent. Public safety has to be paramount. I'm sure that this sentiment is shared by the overwhelming majority of responsible drinkers, including the young.

We shouldn't go back to the past just to suit the whims of some old buffers.

From: Les Goodens, Colwall Avenue, Hull.

I MUCH prefer the ordinary straight glasses and not the dimple "goldfish bowls with handles".

There has never, as far as I am aware, been much of a tradition of the ones with handles in Hull and I would be surprised if there was much demand for a return to those in this city.