When jabs are bad medicine

IT is incredible that the decision to coerce parents into injecting their children can be right in a free society. MMR vaccinations are a preventative measure, in the opinion of some and the consent of parents should be paramount. As indeed it should be to any medical treatment which is not life threatening.

As I am free now from the constraints of party politics, I will speak out strongly and loudly against the dreadful encroachments by the state worthy of pre-war Germany or post-war Soviet Union.

In the slow lane

From: Rhys Thomas, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

IF the Highways Agency worked round-the-clock on repairs to the M1 in South Yorkshire (Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post, October 12), there might be a chance that it can bring forward the widening of the A1 through North Yorkshire. It makes me laugh when Ministers say they want infrastructure improvements to drive the economy recovery. They forget that it takes many years for anything to happen because bodies like the Highways Agency only operate at one speed – slow.

Ditch quango

From: William Doyle, Harrogate Road, Leeds.

I AGREE with your correspondent Andrew Mercer (Yorkshire Post, October 12) that Leeds should not need a marketing agency when there is so much expertise at Welcome to Yorkshire. Another points needs making: would Leeds and Partners be needed if Leeds City Council, and the LEP, had sufficient clout to fight to bring new investment to the city? We don’t need more quangos; we just need to utilise existing bodies more effectively in my opinion.

Tax the ebooks

From: Jane Walsh, Wellesley Avenue, Hull.

RE Jayne Dowle’s column (Yorkshire Post, October 14) on books, why not levy a tax on every ebook purchase – and use this money to help keep independent book shops open?