YP Letters: Jeremy Corbyn, how about promising us Christmas twice a year?

IN response to Professor Matthew Flinders (The Yorkshire Post, July 1), Jeremy Corbyn achieved success through employing a technique used by every popular demagogue since the day that more than three people gathered in one place.

He appealed to greed and self-interest. To the young (and their parents), he offered the prospect of someone else paying their tuition fees; to the public sector workers he offered ‘investment in public services’, otherwise known as pay rises all round; to the elderly he offered the prospect of state-funded care.

This left just enough people with memories of economic disasters by previous socialist administrations to keep him out of power. Next time it may be the promise of Christmas twice a year with free drinks all round.

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.

A RECENT conversation was trying to define poverty, a word we hear so often nowadays. One contribution was a family of seven who lived in a two-roomed house where the children slept on the floor with pillows of sorts and the treat was to get the sleeve of the overcoat thrown over them. This happened in living memory in this country!

Now there are so many benefits available that such poverty should be non-existent.

I remember the varied meals we had at home and “Toad in the Hole” was popular, especially if one got some of the crispy batter.

There will always be some genuine poverty, but not as much as is portrayed. Food parcels will be claimed by the greedy, those too idle to cook low-cost meals and those who’d rather spend on fags, booze and electronic gear. Benefits are there to help, not to provide a comfortable lifestyle.

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

THERESA May buying power with her £1bn DUP deal while nurses’ wages are being squeezed. With the disabled benefits being cut, the Tory “nasty party” is back.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

I FAIL to see how the Government can justify the cap on public sector pay, particularly nurses, when managers in the NHS are drawing massive salaries.

Clearly the whole NHS needs an overhaul. After a spell in hospital, and listening to nurses, there is a huge amount of waste in having to pay firms to provide locum doctors and bank nurses.