YP Letters: Why Carillion had to be liquidated

From: Tony Armitage, Fulwith Road, Harrogate.
Who is to blame for Carillion's collapse?Who is to blame for Carillion's collapse?
Who is to blame for Carillion's collapse?

The long-awaited collapse of Carillion is a disgrace and a disaster for creditors and taxpayers alike but liquidation was the only way of stemming their losses.

Management and politicians, both past and present and in varying degrees, are responsible for the failure and should be made accountable.

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All creditors will sustain considerable losses, as will the taxpayer through Government obligations under statute or guarantees given on behalf of Carillion.

In respect of the directors, disqualification and personal liability for trading with the knowledge of insolvency are available remedies but, as with the banking crisis, they are unlikely to be imposed.

For the politicians, who knowingly granted contracts beyond the capabilities of Carillion and looked the other way over the pension deficit, there will be criticism from the political opposition but no penalties imposed on them.

Jeremy Corbyn and his fraternity will blame the failings of a market economy and make calls for unlimited socialist intervention.

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Lessons must be learned from yet another corporate disaster but, in seeking a solution, don’t overlook the fact that the market economy provides the Government with more taxation than debt otherwise there could be no public spending.

By law, the decision to make a winding-up order against Carillion required the Official Receiver, a civil servant, to become the liquidator.

That task was knowingly beyond the resource of the Official Receiver’s office who ironically has asked the court to appoint several Insolvency Practitioners as special managers from PWC to assist him in what is perhaps the largest ever liquidation in the UK.

Clearly, proof that the Government has neither the business skills nor funding to resolve the problems of just one large contractor – let alone all the Corbyn targets for nationalisation.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

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How could anyone have thought that a monster like Carillion – nationalisation in a light disguise – could ever have effectively run the myriad of contracts ranging from school dinners to motorway contracts and hospital construction?

As with nationalisation, its financial and practical collapse was quite inevitable to anyone with two-penn’orth of sense – which excludes those Government administrators who regarded the company as a very useful bin for anything difficult or embarrassing, and who reacted to profits warnings with even more massive expenditure.

From: Allen Jenkinson, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield.

Carillion will go down as another Government-inspired scandal along with the banks, dealt with in the same manner – privatise the profits and nationalise the debts – and it is a scandal.

Thousands of families will lose their livelihoods – while others will walk away with more £50 notes than they can carry – and at the end of the day it’s not the Government’s money, it’s our money.

Antibiotics not the cure

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

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I find it faintly alarming that elected representative Coun Paul Andrews does not seem to be aware that you can’t cure flu with antibiotics.

Flu will not get better by using them or worse by not using them. That is why doctors are “reluctant” to prescribe them.

In the vast majority of cases, however annoying a cough might be, having one is no reason at all to go to A&E.

It is nature’s way of removing excessive phlegm. It is not an accident, nor is it an emergency!

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In my opinion, it is ignorance of the kind displayed by Coun Andrews which lies at the heart of the so-called NHS crisis.

Patients need to learn who does what in the health service, what the role of GPs is and – I repeat – what A&E departments are there for. Perhaps then the NHS will not be swamped with people too ignorant or too lazy to use the service properly.

Man in van pays price

From: Diana Priestly, The Parkway, Darley Dale.

There will always be unscrupulous people who are guilty of fly-tipping, but what about the decent working man just earning a living?

Near to us is an excellent waste disposal site manned by really helpful staff. They take everything from newspapers 
and clothing to washing machines and hardcore.

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They don’t charge householders, but a “man in a van” is instantly classed as a business and charged £25.

So, our gardener, or anyone else doing a small job with rubbish to clear, always asks 
if we could take it, in a private vehicle.

Now if councils are serious about environmental damage, they should encourage all the small businesses to use the tip, in other words, make it free.

Most people would take advantage of this, to the benefit of both private and public landowners.

Otherwise, the temptation is to chuck it over a wall. Which is best?