Wednesday's Letters: A politician who succeeded to the detriment of the nation

Thatcher was elected by her Right-wing followers to determine Right-wing policies and she was successful to the detriment of the nation.

Her mantra that "there is no such thing as society" brought out the greed and cruelty of the bankers who have driven the country to its knees.

Her government freed up the financial sector by taking off the restraints required to maintain economic order, now we we have chaos and misery.

Bernard Ingham must remember the times before Thatcher when it was difficult to borrow money to buy houses from banks and building societies. Applications for loans resulted in inquiries about the ability to repay the debts. A deposit of 25 per cent of the value of the property was required before an advance was made and only the family's main earner's salary was taken into consideration over a maximum 25-year period. We didn't see many repossessions under these safeguards.

Margaret Thatcher's policies allowed the banks and building societies to make long-term loans regardless of the suitability of applicants, the result was that house prices rocketed.

The Thatcher philosophy can be summed up by her senseless statement that "a man aged 25 years and still using public transport is a failure".

From: Tom Howley, Marston Way, Wetherby.

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From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

HAVING read Bernard Ingham's article, while it is difficult to pick the best post- war Prime Minister, it is far easier to pick the four worst, (probably ever?), they are Heath, Blair, Brown and Thatcher, the order is still difficult to decide so I have put them in no particular order, although I think Heath's treasonable crime of taking us into what is now the despicable EU must give him first place.

The reasons for my choices are Heath because of his deceit over the Common Market; Brown and Blair for reasons which should be obvious to everyone, but for anyone who is unsure here are just a few – Iraq, Afghanistan, mass immigration, the benefits society and the economy.

Mrs Thatcher, of course, is still surrounded by the myths spun by Sir Bernard and her other fans.

It is also overlooked that Mrs Thatcher's failure on foreign policy led to the Falklands war, and the loss of 250 of our brave service personnel, and if we had not won, it was highly unlikely she would even

have got a second term as Prime Minister.

All four are, of course, guilty of selling us out to the EU, even Mrs Thatcher who knew it was no good for Britain but did not have the courage to get us out. So yes, Sir Bernard, you were being biased.

From: Richard Billups, East Avenue, Rawmarsh, Rotherham.

IF you ask a Man Utd fan who is the best football team, he or she would say Man Utd, same if you ask a Chelsea fan, etc. So to ask a Tory who was the best PM, you are bound to get Maggie or Winston. Ask a Labour man or woman, and you will get Wilson or Blair. Ask me and I'll ask who was thrown out of No 10 by their own supporters – and who ever that was was the worst.

Then I'd ask who lasted the longest in No 10 and I'd say the best and grade accordingly. This is a fair and honest way of doing things instead of picking somebody who might have given you a job or a crumb from their table. We don't want creeps picking a list for us. The British public have had enough of political spin, and the point-scoring rubbish the Tories always descend to. My list would be unpolitical based on fact, not cheque book fiction.

From: David W Wright, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

IT comes as no surprise that Margaret Thatcher comes at the top of Bernard Ingham's list of post-war Premiers, with Brown and Blair at the bottom with Eden.

The conclusion one can make of this list is the dismal failure of the socialists to make any impact on our society other than to contribute towards its dumbing-down and decline over the past 20 years.

Jayne Dowle (Yorkshire Post, August 12) has touched on one area – education – where the politicians have effectively wrecked the university situation and the misguided policy to widen and dumb-down standards by giving a higher education for all irrespective of their abilities while only giving the students false expectations and huge debts.

The UK's current problems stem from weak liberal fake policies and the desire to please everyone hopefully, and yet failing to face up to the real problems of the age particularly to withdraw from the EU, profligate spending, bloated public sector, uncontrolled immigration – to name but a few issues which ought to have been faced years ago.

The worry now is that the Liberal Conservative coalition is not being more definite and forthright in its policies and attitudes as Margaret Thatcher so ably achieved, and the UK, meanwhile, continues on its downward spiral to Third World status.

Was there ever a golden age in British education?

From: Allan Davies, Heathfield Court, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.

MRS Jennifer Hunter's letter "Back to basics" (Yorkshire Post, August 7) is the most recent to express concerns about educational standards, with the implication that at some (unspecified) time in the past that they were higher than they are now.

I spent some 28 years teaching in further education. From time to time, I read pieces of the history of education in Britain (and with a decent background in statistics looked carefully for measured evidence on standards) but remain unconvinced that there was some "golden age" in education. What I did find is that there is a long trail of under-achievement at the bottom end of the scale, and in the specific field of vocational education and training in further education that the

UK lagged far behind much of Europe and had done so for decades.

I wish educational standards in Britain were higher, but they are, I suspect, higher than they were in the past. Course standards may well have fallen; standards of individual pupils and students are a different matter.

We should have vote on election reform

From: JW Smith, Sutton-on-Sea.

THERE has been a lot of comment since the General Election on issues which could be the subject of a referendum. Tom Richmond refers to some of these in his column (Yorkshire Post, August 7).

Included in this is the promised referendum on voting reform for general elections While I am totally against government by referenda, I am firmly convinced that any constitutional changes should be decided by the electorate.

With this in mind, I am of the opinion that the current proposal only relates to part of the subject. In addition to voting on the "first past the post" election, further changes being dictated by David Cameron which form part of the present system should also be included.

Although the Prime Minister has the choice when to call the next election, he is given that power by the people as is the process to call a vote of confidence. These are both

vital constitutional matters and the change to fixed term parliaments, including whether the electorate wants four or five-year terms as well as an increase in the parliamentary majority for a confidence vote, should not be decided by the Commons.

There was a great hue and cry over the European Treaty and we should be equally vociferous on these issues.

A princess to be proud of

From: Fr Neil McNicholas, St Hilda's Parish, Whitby.

I WOULD heartily endorse Malcolm Barker's comments about the Princess Royal (Yorkshire Post, August 14).

Some years ago, she came to open the new Mission to Seafarers Centre on the South Tees. At the time, I was the local parish priest as well as the Catholic port chaplain. Princess Anne was on a fairly tight schedule and was only supposed to have a brief chat with a handful of selected guests, but in the event she insisted on speaking with everyone there including some Polish seafarers who found themselves in the midst of the celebrations.

When she spoke with me, I was amazed at how considered her questions were (given that they were off-the-cuff) not only asking about my work with seafarers but also about the local community and my

parish ministry.

I was very impressed with how informed and interested she seemed to be, especially when you consider how many such occasions she is involved in every year and how run-of-the-mill they could become for her.

Enjoyment in store

From: Catherine Watson, Norman Road, Hatfield, Doncaster.

IN reference to Mrs JM Andrews's criticisms of supermarkets (Yorkshire Post, August 7) – children playing, shoppers parking their trolleys in aisles, people meeting and having a chat – what next?

You say that you pity the people "who have no alternative". Well, there are a lot of us that you pity and, contrary to your opinion, I have enjoyed the supermarket experience for a long time and surprisingly enough it is always a "pleasant sociable task".

For many years, I took two different elderly ladies to supermarkets in their wheelchairs and what happy outings they were, meeting

old friends, having time to look and decide which item they wanted, in warm and comfortable surroundings – and we often stopped for

a cup of tea in the store to finish the pleasant experience off.

Please think of young working families with restricted timetables and the elderly and make a point of being tolerant if you ever have to visit another supermarket – we supermarket shoppers are not all bad.

Safe seat for the Tories

From: Neil Hamilton, New Meadows, Rawmarsh, Rotherham.

IN your article (Yorkshire Post, August 7) on the Sitwell by-election in Rotherham, the ward was described as "marginal". It is not. Sitwell is the safest Tory ward in Rotherham. Even in the halcyon days when 65 of the 66 councillors were Labour, Michael Clark (a lovely man whose death sadly caused the by-election), held on to the ward for the Tories.

The significant point from the result was the performance of the Lib Dems. They only obtained 97 votes. This shows a clear message on the current support for that party.

House solution

From: P Dransfield, Main Street, Great Heck, near Goole.

I SEE that David Cameron is to offer (does he mean bribe?) councils to build more houses which will then be let at highly subsidised rents to people who can then buy them again at cut price in a few years' time.

If there is a housing shortage, the answer is to allow anyone to built and rent out suitable houses. At present, they cannot do so because of red tape and council strangleholds on such developments.