YP Letters: Let Theresa May get on with the job of leaving EU

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.
Did David Cameron misread the mood of the British public? (JPress).Did David Cameron misread the mood of the British public? (JPress).
Did David Cameron misread the mood of the British public? (JPress).

THE only advantage brought about by the decision to leave the EU has been to the newspapers. They have been able to fill pages and pages with the squabbling of both sides.

The leavers are trying to do their best to get the job done and the remoaners are doing their best to frustrate the best efforts of Theresa May and her Ministers.

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It’s about time that those who try to reverse the decision to leave accepted that it was the will of the electorate that lead us into the current position and stop their shenanigans.

Yes David Cameron misread the will of ordinary people and he has paid the price for his mistake.

Now let’s get the job done.

Hard look at student debt

From: Nigel Boddy, Fife Road, Darlington.

THE Labour Party met in Leeds to discuss many things, including tuition fees. The Government has again announced yet another review of tuition fees.

It is vital we understand exactly what the debt figure of £100bn represents. Only part of the debt owed to Student Loans Company is loans for fees. The rest is made up of loans students took out for living expenses.

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Is there a will to write off tuition fee loans, or is there a will to write off student debt?

A small proportion of the figure £100bn is owed in fact by foreign students.

Left in sidings by Labour

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

IN his recent visit to Leeds, Jeremy Corbyn announced “at least £10bn to bring a Crossrail for the North” (The Yorkshire Post, February 19).

Did council leader Judith Blake raise the awkward matter of a previous Labour government’s last-minute reneging on funding for a mass transit system for the city?

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Did she let him sample the city’s mid-20th century public transport?

If so, did Mr Corbyn express any sympathy for the seeming inability of the city’s councillors and MPs to move forward?

We all need housing help

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

I’M somewhat cynical that it is only now the exclusion of young middle-class professionals from affording housing that the issue has made the front pages.

For, thanks to continually rising prices, ordinary working people have been unable to get on the housing ladder for years.

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Still, concern is better later than never I suppose. And I think the major way forward is to get people to think homes are for living in, and not objects for investments.

Which is why we should clamp down on developers, who buy up the cheapest properties that otherwise might be affordable.

Councils also ought to be allowed greater scope to build good housing for rent, with the proviso that it can’t be sold off under any right to buy legislation.

Driven off the road

From: Neil Richardson, Kirkheaton.

THE Clipper initiative (Business Post, February 17) of providing driver training supported by simulators has attracted high demand from its warehouse staff.

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But why is there a shortage of drivers in the UK? If aspects of the job which have proved unpleasant in the past continue through the years ahead, will the next wave of new recruits also find they do not want to be in the driving seat for long?

Coincidentally, this appears to be an issue in the teaching profession.

Blame mink for decline

From: Margaret Handley, Boltby, Thirsk.

I LIVE in a small rural village where, until last summer, we had a thriving hedgehog population. However, mink have become an increasingly prominent feature here, with sightings and several attacks on cats.

I first encountered a mink nest here about 20 years ago on the bank of a stream.

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Years later I saw in daylight one crossing a bridge over a stream, less than a mile from the site of the mink nest.

In July 2013, one of my cats came home late one night with a broken front leg. The bone had been bitten through. The vet considered this to a be mink bite. Thereafter, several cats from the village disappeared.

Last year I had been feeding two hedgehogs on my driveway all summer. A friend in the village had also been regularly feeding five hedgehogs.

It was around August when my two hedgehogs stopped coming and the other five gradually disappeared.

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Then, in autumn, two more cats from the village were taken to the vet with mink bites.

As spring approaches, we can only hope our hedgehogs will return but their untimely disappearance leaves us in 
doubt.

In my opinion, mink have been overlooked as cause of hedgehog decline in rural areas, and I think the time has come for action to reduce the mink population.