Wednesday's Letters: Management should not be left to 'enthusiastic amateurs'

If public expenditure is being mismanaged, why not sack the managers responsible and appoint people who will do a better job, starting at the top and working downwards? Or is it considered impossible to find sufficient top class managers prepared to work in the public sector?

Our public services are in a mess because the managers tasked with running these gigantic institutions were simply not good enough. To hand that problem over to a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs will probably have them running for help to the very people the Government wants to be rid of – the existing managers – because those people will know how things work at the moment, and they will be available.

If that happens, nothing will improve, and our surgeries, hospitals, and schools will have to do without those doctors and teachers who are away trying to be managers.

So, what's to be done?

In the short term, it is all hands to the pumps, which means getting some top class managers to mentor the doctors and schoolteachers on a voluntary basis, and help them to recruit the sort of managers they will need going forward. These mentors could be part-time secondments from business, or retired managers with the seniority and experience to provide guidance in key areas such as finance and procurement.

However, to sort things out in the longer term, we must improve the management skills of the nation as a whole by including management studies at an early stage of general education.

We must realise that everyone needs some level of management ability. Even running a home without getting into unmanageable debt, or making money as a sole trader, requires organisational skills, and a basic knowledge of finance. As for those who we elect to control our public finances, it is time that we introduced a qualification in the skills required, without which a person would be barred from holding public office.

From: Paul Rouse, Main Street, Sutton upon Derwent, York.

History lessons for Liberals

From: Rev PN Hayward, The Old Chapel, Allonby, Maryport, Cumbria.

Mr Ken Capstick (Yorkshire Post, January 20) highlights exactly what happens to the Liberal Party when it agrees to use its MPs to keep a minority government in power. History tells us.

At the 1923 General Election, there was a three way split, never since repeated – Conservative 258, Labour 191, Liberal 158. Labour took office for the first time, with general Liberal support, although without an official coalition. At the polls 10 months later, the 158 Liberal seats were reduced to 40.

The arrangement was repeated in 1929, the seats then being Labour 287, Conservative 260, and Liberal 59. Next time, in 1931, when the Liberal seats again declined, with no recovery in 1935, people began to say that the Liberal Party was dead. And indeed, at four of the earlier post-war elections only six Liberal MPs were returned.

A revival did come when the party name was changed to Liberal Democrats, and at the three 21st century general elections the seats rose to 52, 62 and 57 – all well under half the 1923 total of 158.

I was surprised last year that David Cameron did not do what Harold Wilson did in February 1974 – form a one-party government and face Parliament, with 301 seats against the Conservative 297. Edward Heath lost because the popular Enoch Powell campaigned against him. Wilson kept things going for most of the year, then called another General Election. But with no Powell issue this time, he got only a wafer-thin majority, not enough to prevent a Labour defeat in Parliament four years later.

With 306 seats, far more than anyone else, Cameron was in a stronger position than Wilson had been, even though if just six more seats had stayed with Brown we might have had a Lab-Lib coalition, something like 1923 and 1929. Perhaps he reckoned, based on the past, that a coalition would destroy Liberalism as an important political force. That, of course, will not happen if the electoral system is changed this year.

Shoppers' paradise

From: Colin Ella, Westgate Road, Belton, Doncaster.

DONCASTER Market rightly deserves its recognition as the finest in Britain. Thousands of people countrywide likely have happy memories of this wonderful centre for shopping at which bargains could always be found.

As a youngster and teenager in the 1940s I loved to make for this mecca of varied commerce and industry.

In those days the market was a shopper's paradise, gastronomic delight, theatre, circus, and entertainment delight all rolled into one. I went time and time again just for the fun of it. There were characters galore both amongst the sellers and buyers.

I most enjoyed the fellows who did things like selling toe nail clippers, carpet cleaners or floor polishers. Their wonderful demonstrations were sights to behold. Standup comedy came from the vendors on the stalls selling all kinds of things at literally knock-down prices.

The sales banter kept folk spellbound and in every case the starting price was greatly reduced and one wonders how these comics of trade ever made any profit at all.

The circus element was found in the huge cattle market packed with horses, sheep, pigs, and padded out with poultry, geese, pigeons and the like. The market had and still has one of the country's finest fish markets.

Sauntering around this colourful panorama of wonder was absolutely enthralling, a spectacle not to missed. And this world of wonder cost me nothing. I loved it!

Shortchanged over transport

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon, Shipley.

How right was your correspondent Dan Laythorpe (Yorkshire Post, January 27) to raise the issue of the aborted Leeds Supertram scheme, and particularly to point out how important this could still be in providing an integrated transport system for the benefit of the wider area.

There can be no doubt that the suggested trolley bus network would be a second rate replacement and, in my view, the city council should therefore dig in its heels until a Supertram system is eventually agreed. That this may take some time due to the shambolic economic climate left behind by the previous Labour Government has to be accepted, on the basis that, in the long run, Supertram can only be hugely beneficial to future generations.

That such systems have been allowed in various other cities, some of which it could be argued are nothing like as important as Leeds, is scandalous, and should not be allowed to go unchallenged. The city surely deserves nothing less?

As ever, this area is being short-changed on transport spending and this has to change. As soon as the financial climate improves, if not before, then we all have a right to expect new rail carriages, new stations, and ideally the completion of the suggested Bradford Cross Rail scheme. We really should no longer be willing to accept second rate stock and services in Yorkshire.

Land that time forgot

From: Philip Holmes, Lady Park Avenue, Bingley.

WHAT an excellent letter from Douglas Hartley regarding the mess that is Bradford City Centre (Yorkshire Post, January 26).

I fully endorse every point that Douglas makes. I seethe with anger and resentment to think that successive councils and their leaders have squandered our council taxes making payments to architects and others who "have a vision" including one of coaches and trains full of visitors coming to Bradford to contemplate the meaning of life in Gardens of Tranquility!

I seem to remember the same architect thought Barnsley could become the Venice of the North! No doubt the architect in question is a connoisseur of champagne and fine wines as well as art. My late grandfather always maintained that spending other people's money was the easiest thing in the world and our council leaders prove the point.

The only visitor attraction Bradford City Centre has is the National Media Museum. The last time I was there a party of schoolchildren was about to depart. Their teacher informed a group of them that their coach was outside as it was "time to leave the land that time had forgot". Bradford described in a nutshell.

Crossed wires over VAT rise on phone bill

From: David W Armitage, Oakwood Drive, Altofts, Normanton.

I REFER to your headline "Early VAT rise for phone users criticised" (Yorkshire Post, January 28).

This discrepancy was noted in my account submitted by the Post Office "for the bill period October 3 2010 to Jan 2 2011".

A note on the bill stated: "Also...just to remind you VAT has now been increased to 20 per cent" and "On January 4, 2011 the Government increased VAT to 20 per cent. All bills generated from this date have therefore been calculated using the new rate".

I telephoned the Post Office helpline to be informed: "A lot of calls have been received about this. Under its terms and conditions, the Post Office has decided that although part of the calls were made before the VAT increase, it will increase the (total) VAT, because the bill was created after 4 January, 2011."

Speaking with a gentleman from HM Customs later, they stated: "The Post Office is doing nothing wrong within the VAT rules. The Post Office made the choice for accountancy convenience."

He added: "the extra VAT goes to HM Revenue and Customs!"

I originally transferred my telephone account from BT to the Post Office, because at the time my local Post Office was fighting a campaign against national closures.

By their short-sighted and arrogant policy, the Post Office must have alienated many customers! I have now reverted my account to BT.

Setting the standard

From: Ann Clough, Spital Hill, Thirsk.

YOUR excellent leader (Yorkshire Post, January 25) could have mentioned the considerable impact on quality of the star rating system. It is easy to forget how before Visit Britain, the AA and others began assessing and grading properties that this country's tourist trade suffered from widespread poor standards.

Accreditation is largely responsible for changing that. As one who is regularly inspected, I am aware of the inspectors' diligence! As to TripAdvisor, we motored across Europe last year and identified on the Internet eight hotels that were easily accessible from our route for an overnight break. Not one had any comment within TripAdvisor. We chose one that was listed in a Michelin guide.

Wartime 'Sweethearts'

From: Sue Cuthbert, Church Row, Newton-on-Rawcliffe.

FOR some years, I have had in my possession a programme from a cinema in Cairo, dated January 27, 1944.

It's interesting as it is published in three languages – English, French and Arabic. The cinema is called the "Metro" and is described as "Pride of the Orient – Cairo's only air-conditioned cinema".

The film being advertised is Seven Sweethearts, an MGM picture, starring Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin and Marsha Hunt.

I wonder if it is still in existence? Perhaps some Yorkshire Post readers who were in Cairo in those wartime days might remember seeing films in the Metro 67 years ago?

Balancing the books at council

From: JD Brearley, Micklefield Lane, Rawdon, Leeds.

THE accounts of Leeds City Council for the year 2009-10 show that more than 650 employees were paid more than 50,000.

Councillors were paid allowances of more than 2m.

As there are 99 councillors, that is an average of more than 20,000 each.

There seems to be scope for cuts before any libraries need to be closed.