Wednesday's Letters: In praise of the railway workers who kept us on track

On Monday, November 29, my wife and I were booked on the 20.33 train from King's Cross to Leeds and then on to Brighouse. Due to the wintery weather, this service was delayed until 21.00. The train was full due to passengers for a cancelled service to Edinburgh joining the train at King's Cross.

During the journey, the train guard kept all the passengers informed about the delayed service and that the passengers for York, Newcastle and Edinburgh were to change at Doncaster where a train had been provided for their onward journey. In our case, due to our late arrival in Leeds, we made contact with station staff who managed to arrange a taxi to transport ourselves, plus a passenger for Bradford and one for Halifax, home.

We would like to thank both the staff on the train and the staff at Leeds station for the professional way they handled this situation, and thanks to the taxi driver for attempting a most hazardous journey in awful conditions.

From: Allan Wood, Moorside, Wellington Street, Cleckheaton.

From: John Eoin Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh.

THE almost complete stoppage of national life occasioned by the spattering of snow is scarcely believable. When I was a child, our schools were kept open by every janitor, able-bodied teacher and even the school dinner ladies being set to the task of digging out the playground with old fashioned shovels.

The same "all hands to the deck" attitude applied to airports where the general manager was to be seen setting an example with his spade alongside ground and cabin staff as well as pilots and navigators as they fought to keep runways clear.

Not only are we now far too reliant on often inadequate and unreliable mechanical means of snow removal, but the EU mandated adoption of the SI system of units has brought a touch of fatalism to how Britons regard low temperatures. Zero degrees Celsius is now seen as a sign that civilisation as we know it must be temporarily suspended whereas 32 degrees Fahrenheit never had that effect!

From: John Warren, Low Gate Lane, Sawley, Ripon.

THE poor service from the Royal Mail during the recent spell of bad weather makes me wonder whether the company has a death wish. Even though we live in a rural area, our milk was delivered daily and on time, coal and oil deliveries were made, parcels arrived by van... yet Royal Mail failed to make an appearance for nine days.

The mail was at the sorting office six miles away – we know because we had to collect it – and the roads were regularly gritted and navigable with care.

In times gone by, and in far worse weather conditions than we've just experienced, there would perhaps be the odd day when the post failed to arrive but you'd still be confident that Royal Mail would be making every effort to satisfy their customers.

Not so in 2010. Rather than sharpen up their act in the face of competition from private operators and the huge shift to on-line communications, it seems that Royal Mail has given up the ghost. A combination of reduced deliveries and collections, price increases and a worsening service will inevitably lead to a loss of customer confidence and the slow demise of this once-proud service.

From: John King, Thurgoland, Sheffield.

FOR over one week, we have not received any postal deliveries, well it must be due to the bad weather. It is amazing that we have had our newspapers and milk delivered every day. Perhaps the Royal Mail should only be paid when deliveries are made.

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

I do wish weather forecasters would accommodate old geezers like me and tell us in inches and feet how much snow to expect. Centimetres mean nothing to a 70-year-old and I am sure others of my age agree.

Anyway, giving out depths of snow in centimetres sound more horrifying than inches. There are fewer of the latter when I put my big foot in a couple of feet of snow, instead of tens of centimetres of the stuff.

Time to leave as turmoil hits Europe

From: Fred Bishop, Bridge Street, Lower Moor, Worcestershire.

IF the Government intended to leave the EU, now is the time. Europe is in financial turmoil and is far too busy to fight us.

The countries that joined the monetary union and adopted the euro would have great difficulty breaking away due to the problems of re-establishing their own currencies.

Most European citizens want to leave the EU to return to sovereign rule and would thank us for starting the trend. We could do it quite easily because we are not tied to their dangerous currency.

Even suppose that we wanted to stay in the EU, now is a perfect time to extract concessions and to repatriate powers that our former leaders gave away.

We are in a very powerful position.

If we threaten to leave at this time, the EU leadership would be terrified of the resultant fragmentation of their European dream. They would give us exactly what we demanded. Much the same as Britain has succumbed to the Scottish threat of breaking away from the UK and rewarded them with jobs, money, capital spending and virtual independence. They have been isolated from the destructive predations of the Government. What more could anyone want?

The fact that our coalition Government chooses not to use this power is all the proof that we need to realise that they are as besotted with the European dream as any in Brussels.

They will do anything not to rock the European boat at this time. They will even pay for the privilege with our 7bn, to bail out Ireland in order to sustain this corrupt European regime.

We need to vote anything but Lib-Lab-Con if we value our freedom.

Coalition's stupidity

From: Edwin Bateman, South Dyke, Great Salkeld, Penrith, Cumbria.

THE utter stupidity of the Cameron-Clegg so-called government in scrapping the Ark Royal and Harrier jump jets is a sign that the Falklands are again vulnerable.

The lie that they need to save 81bn over four years when a democratic vote on exit from the EU would save 125bn a year should be exposed. All the spending cuts can be scrapped if we exit the EU.

Why should all UK citizens be 2,000 a year worse off because of the EU membership that our politicians won't allow us a vote on? If UK MPs wish to keep their cushy jobs, they should be told that we need a vote on the EU exit now.

True facts over killers

From: Charlie Lawson, Halifax Road, Brighouse, West Yorks.

JOHN Wilson (Yorkshire Post, November 26) misunderstands the letter published a few years ago about convicted killers who have killed again. He quotes a figure of 111 murderers who have killed again since the abolition of capital punishment in 1965.

I am aware of 166 cases since 1965. Figures for the last 10 years are published by the Home Office in its annual crime statistics.

The following figures refer to the killers' first convictions. In 12 cases, the offence occurred before 1965. Of the 154 remaining cases, four were insane, in four cases the killer was under 18, one case of infanticide, one unfit to plead, 94 cases of manslaughter. Capital punishment did not apply to any of the above 116 cases.

In 13 cases from the remaining 50, I am not sure what offence the first conviction was for. That leaves 37 cases where a convicted murderer has killed again in England or Wales.

One of the results of the abolition of capital punishment was that unanimous verdicts were no longer required so some of the above convictions might have become acquittals as they were based on majority verdicts.

Most of the 37 further homicides committed by the murderers could have been avoided if a life sentence meant life without parole as few subsequent homicides have occurred in prisons.

If the subject is of interest your local library might have a copy of Yorkshire's Multiple Killers by Charles Rickell. It covers 24 Yorkshire killers who have killed again between 1915 and 2006.

Rigg's role to remember

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley.

READING Ian McMillan (Yorkshire Post, November 30) on Diana Rigg and her leather trousers, like many people, I liked Honor Blackman the original partner to John Steed in The Avengers, who if my memory serves, me correctly may have been completely fitted out in leather at times.

Diana Rigg was indeed from Doncaster but she was educated at the Moravian church school for girls at Fulneck in Pudsey, some years before I was a pupil of the boys' school. Later my youngest sister attended the girls' school and was taught by Mrs Greenwood who she heard Diana Rigg describe as an inspirational teacher on Parkinson, which led to not only Ian McMillan but many, many more to become fans of Emma Peel, or Diana Rigg, in The Avengers.

A new climate of fear over social housing

From: Kendal Wilson, Wharfebank Terrace, Tadcaster.

IT seemed alarmingly apparent to me when seeing tenants of social housing being interviewed on television that they are literally petrified of the impending changes. These were not folk living in the lap of luxury at taxpayers' expense but worried people as I haven't seen before, knowingly betrayed for the lack of some concerned voices in the form of any MPs who have actually ever been in the social housing situation. It has become a much neglected area of social life!

I believe this climate of fear is precisely what the three main political parties thrive on as I believe these new policies are not exclusive to this government alone.

To put in place a new two-year review agreement for incoming tenants is not going to help establish the roots of responsibility in the community, especially where after two years the new tenant is deemed to be doing too well to need their home and therefore will have to move on. In a recent poll of landlords, it was made clear that up to 88 per cent of them would not lower their rents – whether the new tenant was moving to a mortgage or a better quality rented home, the rents could be prohibitive and a sticking point in the light of the new housing benefit limit if the tenant should lose their employment. So where indeed is the safety net?

The social housing in the past by and large has provided very often social cohesive communities and it was in many ways New Labour's tick box criteria for allocation of social housing that dispersed some of the most troubled people throughout the land.

If the Blair government hadn't encouraged the speculator society, proper policies on social housing may have arisen.

Finally, is there anyone with knowledge of what happened to the five per cent of capital receipts from the sale of council homes on the right-to-buy schemes?

This I do believe was to have been used for new-build social housing in partnership with others.

Cash that's gone with the wind

From: John Browell, Moorlands Road, Birkenshaw, Bradford.

TONY Lodge, in his article about hydrogen as a fuel (Yorkshire Post, December 2), tells us that in May, National Grid paid 13,000 to Scottish Power not to run their wind generators.

This means that not only does the taxpayer pay a huge subsidy to wind farms, but the consumer at certain times pays them not to operate.

No wonder there's a clamour to build wind farms.

Power moves overseas

From: R Hanson, Swallow Lane, Golcar, Huddersfield.

IT is great that world engineering companies are investing in Britain to research wind power and more than likely build wind turbines, but wouldn't it be vastly better if at least one of them was British?

The right rate for the job

From: F Wyatt, Sherbuttgate Road South, Pocklington.

WOULD it be unkind to suggest that as reductions in costs need to be made, consideration could be given in some situations to reducing salaries of employees to equate to savings required rather than redundancies?

Any serious objections could be tested by placing the positions on the open labour market to ascertain what interest there would be at the revised rates.

Up for the cup

From: John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, New Road Side, Horsforth, Leeds.

MY congratulations to the England team on winning the World Cup vote. My sympathies to Russia. Better luck next time.