Wider picture of welfare funding

From: Richard Bridge, Holgate Road, York.

WHILE it undoubtedly true local authorities could use the money for local welfare assistance schemes in better ways, the recent Children’s Society’s report Nowhere to Turn is sadly guilty of focusing on the micro rather than the wider policy picture. I have been similarly guilty in the past of criticising York City Council for cutting council tax support by 30 per cent.

However, the genius of these schemes is in diverting our focus away from the centrally imposed cuts by the coalition. If money for local welfare is cut in half, that is the real issue.

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If council tax support is cut by over 20 per cent for working age families, that is the real issue. The institutionalisation of discretionary and charitable emergency food provision is the real issue.

Oxfam has taken a brave decision in moving resources away from worthwhile local charities into campaigning against the diminution of rights-based social security. It remains to be seen how successful they will be. However, if charities do not speak out – which is difficult when reliant on state funding on a national or local level – the result will be a race to the bottom with a safety net torn to shreds.

From: S. Bretton, Manor Drive, Flockton, Wakefield.

I LISTENED with increasing disbelief to the attempt by Professor Nick Stone of Bradford Safeguarding Committee to attempt to whitewash the agencies responsible for allowing the death of Hamzah Khan.

He said it isn’t a whitewash. That is complete nonsense. It is a whitewash and he knows it. It follows on from many other murdered children where it is always the “system” that was to blame and never an individual.

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If one of these “blameless” agencies dares to say, in this or any other future case, that “lessons have been learned”, they should be jailed.

Tragedy in the Philippines

From: Leigh Daynes, Executive Director, Doctors of the World UK.

IN the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, at least 10,000 people are feared killed in the Philippines with millions more badly affected (Yorkshire Post, November 10).

Concerns are rising over the potential spread of diarrhoea, dengue fever and serious bacterial and respiratory infections. As I’ve seen first-hand from the tsunami in the region in 2004, if diseases are not contained quickly they can quickly spiral out of control.

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Doctors of the World – one of the few international health organisations already working in the Philippines – has sent a team of Filipino doctors to provide emergency care for survivors in the worst-affected areas.

We are calling on readers to act now, by supporting our emergency appeal so we can provide vital medical support to those in desperate need. You can donate at our website: doctorsoftheworld.org.uk/Philippines

From: Jane Collins, Ukip Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire, Main Road, Newport, East Yorkshire.

OUR hearts go out to the poor people in the Philippines. This is just the sort of disaster when we should help without reservation. So much better than buying planes and space programmes.

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Holgate, York.

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THE very strong typhoon that hit the Philippines a week ago was awful, tragic and caused almost unimaginable damage and distress.

The Philippines government do seem to be way short of the mark to help their own folk, but the devastation was immense.

Even when the EU flew in portable hospitals and many aid workers, it was impossible to move the equipment on from the airfields. America, Britain, Germany, Belgium, and Australia have tried their best to help, but no one can quickly move large ships, aircraft carriers, road clearing machinery, JCBs thousands of miles without several days delay.

Where is the help from the very rich like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, South Korea and the big powers like China, Russia, India and Japan?

The human cost of war

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From: David T Craggs, Shafton Gate, Goldthorpe, Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

I WONDER how many of your “hard copy” readers spotted the 14-line “Briefly” article (Yorkshire Post, November 7) at the very bottom of Page Six? Not all that many I suspect. And I wonder if anyone who read your paper on their laptop or state-of-the-art phone spotted it at all?

The article reported the death of yet another soldier in Afghanistan, the 446th death in the conflict, although the article didn’t state that. The soldier, Ian Fisher, from Barking in Essex was married with two sons. I got the impression, rightly or wrongly, that had there been a more “interesting” article, the tragic loss would not have been reported at all. It’s interesting to note that in the early years of the Afghan conflict such an article would have commanded half a page of space. Not now as the date of total withdrawal approaches.

The previous day you showed a picture of a young soldier cuddling his baby daughter, a picture that so impressed judges who were making choices for a 2014 calendar that they chose it.

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Perhaps they should also have chosen, by contrast, a picture showing a young mother, who had just lost her partner in the Afghan conflict, also cuddling her baby daughter, a child who would never know her father. The two pictures, possibly placed one after the other in the calendar, would bring home to those who eventually purchase it the true horror of war and the heartache it brings to ordinary families.

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