YP Letters: Selective view of Margaret Thatcher's achievements

BERNARD Ingham has only to make a passing reference to Margaret Thatcher before 
John G Davies (The Yorkshire Post, April 7) is up like a shot to spread his left-wing shrapnel 
to perforate the Thatcher 
image.

He enumerates record 12 per cent unemployment and 17.5 per cent interest rates as well as recession as evidence in demolishing what he regards as the Thatcher myth.

He doesn’t state that these failures occurred in the earlier part of her premiership when she had to battle with the legendary legacy of the Harold Wilson/James Callaghan administration that relegated the UK to “sick man of Europe” status.

Inflation was 14 per cent in 1979 when the Iron Lady came to power.

The 17.5 per cent interest rate was an essential measure in getting it down but of course it had the adverse effect of creating a recession.

The facts that Mr Davies offers can be seen as wonderful examples of selective argument. By 1990, unemployment was down to 5.7 per cent and during the same period unemployment in Germany, France and other EU countries rose catastrophically and continued at a high level – averaging 9.75 per cent from 1995-2018.

Her strategy of supply side economics and structural 
reform became a yardstick for many nations that were stuck in the mire of excessive 
government social and economic control.

Use your vote to protest

From: Robin Gissing, Sheffield.

I WOULD suggest to the people of Sheffield that they register a protest vote against the council in the upcoming local elections and show their displeasure at the tree felling programme that has decimated many of our old trees, and the criminalising of any person who has tried to stop the trees on their road being cut down for no good reason other than expedience.

Root solutions can often be overcome by raising pavement height to cover roots. The council say we will have more trees than we did before with replanting, but they don’t tell you it will be 40 years before those saplings achieve the same carbon absorption as the mature trees they are cutting down. This will, therefore, increase the air pollution in this city. Use your vote against the council, then maybe they will have to listen.

The NHS at its absolute best

From: David Craggs, Goldthorpe.

AT 80 years of age, I have just completed an eight-week, 16-session rehabilitation course following open heart surgery. The course is put on by the Barnsley Cardiac Rehabilitation Service, which is part of the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust at the Dorothy Hyman Sports Centre, Cudworth, just outside Barnsley.

The sessions take place in a fully equipped gym, the aim being to increase strength, stamina, self-confidence and hence wellbeing in the participant who could be in their 20s or in their 80s. And it has certainly worked for me.

The NHS no doubt has problems in certain areas, for example in A&E, but the service provided for me shows off the NHS at its absolute best.

A missed opportunity

From: Roger Backhouse, York.

GIVEN the distance to other court houses, Northallerton deserves to keep its magistrates’ court (The Yorkshire Post, March 10). But the same could be said for many other rural towns hit by court closures. The Ministry of Justice has had a rolling programme to shut down local courts, of which this is the latest installment.

Letting a bad policy go through and then moaning when it affects your constituency is sheer hypocrisy displayed by Kevin Hollinrake and his colleague Rishi Sunak. The right time to protest was when the Government first announced that they would shut courts. A concerted campaign by rural MPs, nearly all Conservatives, might have stopped the programme.

Like many measures carried out in the name of protecting the public finances, saving money in one area by closing courts merely transfers costs elsewhere.

Return plastic waste to shops

From: Terry Morrell, Willerby.

IT is reported that a considerable amount of plastic is generated by supermarket food wrappers etc when paper and unwrapped alternatives could be used. To encourage a change, we should return these items to the waste bins on the forecourt of the shop on our next visit.

An altogether healthier read

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

THE other day, I tripped and fell in my garden and had to go to hospital for an X-ray on my injured left shoulder. No bones broken, but the shoulder was twisted and badly bruised.

My doctor suggested that I keep the shoulder moving to keep it from stiffening up altogether. What a blessing The Yorkshire Post has been. Being a broadsheet newspaper, it requires considerable movement of arms and shoulder to open it and turn over the pages. How’s that for luck?

Irritating punditry

From: David Downs, Wakefield.

THERE have been many letters on the use of incorrect grammar by the media; in this context, I would plead with BBC and other radio and TV companies to educate their sports commentators, and pundits, on the use of the two words “them” and “those”.

I am getting irritated on hearing the expressions “them goals; them players; them fouls; them balls; them supporters and the like” instead of “those”.