YP Letters: Education is a right not a privilege

BY saying “it is a real privilege for parents to be able to have free education for their children up to 18”, your columnist GP Taylor is adopting a consummerist morality. This is what caused the Tipton situation “If you don’t pay, you can’t have”.

A free education is not a privilege. On the contrary, it is a right. The Government’s duty in a democratic society is to provide an effective education for all its citizens, so they can participate effectively in that society.

Furthermore, opining that “too many years of unfettered immigration have put a massive strain on education budgets”, he is distorting the situation.

The chief cause is the Government refusing to fund education properly, under the banner of “austerity”, while it can afford to give tax breaks to the well-off and allow the rich to avoid paying their dues.

How many pencils and rubbers would Philip Green’s yacht buy?

A tide of nonsense

From: Bryan Burgess, Birch Drive, Willerby, Hull.

IN January 1967, Enoch Powell, then president of the Young Conservative Movement, said in a message to a Young Conservatives Conference at Carshalton that he felt he was watching the nation slowly suffocated with nonsense.

“The more obvious the nonsense, the greater the relish with which Ministers ladle it out – nonsense about prices, incomes, profits, productivity, investment.” Mr Powell, who was the then Shadow Defence Secretary, added: “Only this week I heard a Labour Minister tell a gathering of businessmen that although the national plan could not now be carried out, it was invaluable nonetheless.”

At the same time, Prime Minister Harold Wilson was visiting Paris to convince President de Gaulle, and to sweep aside doubts, of his own belief that he envisaged Britain’s future as a member of the European Economic Community.

Hasn’t changed much, has it?

Missed rail opportunity

From: Stewart Arnold, Leader, the Yorkshire Party, Meltham, Holmfirth.

I AM pleased to see the plans for a huge investment in the Yorkshire’s transport infrastructure announced by Transport for the North. We welcome the report.

We do feel though that this could have gone further. Rural bus services, for example, hardly feature. Also, one thing that we have been pressing for (that has been so successful in Scotland where they have control of their own transport matters) is the repopening of long-closed rail lines.

That the policy paper did not consider reopening the Hull to York line via Beverley, for example, was a disappointment.

Doorstep brainwave

From: Andrew Suter, Station Road, Ampleforth, York.

I REFER to the recent debate about the doorstep delivery of milk to households in the UK.

One of the reasons I stopped having milk delivered was due to the lack of refrigeration while it sits on the doorstep, even if screened in really hot weather.

Surely it isn’t beyond the wit of some entrepreneur to manufacture either a rechargeable or solar-powered mini fridge capable of accomodating three or four pints of milk at a reasonable price?

Test that saves lives

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

HAVING worked in Sexual Health for many years, I fully appreciate the need for women to take up cervical screening (The Yorkshire Post, January 22).

You suggest it is because of embarrassment. I found that many Muslim women felt that it was unseemly to be examined in an intimate area. Maybe this explains why there is such a low uptake in West Yorkshire.

A concerted effort should be made to address this problem as cervical cancer, if caught early, is completely curable.

Airport fails to take off

From: Michael Ross, Weeton Lane, Dunkeswick.

LEEDS Bradford Airport needs far more than a rebranding and a new logo (The Yorkshire Post, January 23). It needs an almost total re-think.

It has changed little from the toytown Yeadon Airport mentality it had when I flew to London on the BKS Airline DC3 in the 1950s.

Defence profligacy

From: JKM Krawiec, Station Road, North Thoresby.

THE pleas for more defence resources would have far more resonance if the Ministry of Defence got its procurement process in order. Its record of overspending on defence contracts has been abysmal.

If it had been even as half efficient as it should. it would have billions to spend elsewhere.

Mining for new energy

From: Betty Henry, Larchfield Road, Doncaster.

GOOD luck to the projected scheme in Caerau, South Wales, to extract ground heat from water in an old mine shaft (The Yorkshire Post, January 19).

If this works as hoped and becomes financially viable, we’ve a lot of disused mines in Yorkshire.