YP Letters: Why the elderly feel like a drain on the public purse

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.
The elderly feel they are being made guilty for being a drain on the NHS. Do you agree?The elderly feel they are being made guilty for being a drain on the NHS. Do you agree?
The elderly feel they are being made guilty for being a drain on the NHS. Do you agree?

NOW that I am in my 70s, for the first time in my life I feel I, and others of advancing years, are being made to feel we should not be alive and that we are a drain not only on the National Health Service, but many of the other public services.

I am sure one way to help to get rid of us would be to abolish the flu jabs provided by the NHS. I am sure this winter that would get rid of quite a lot of us Then, if bus passes were taken away, think of all the money going to help the obesity drive. The mind boggles.

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Closing public toilets is another facility being denied us all and we are soon not to have a library to go to, to get a book and have a chat with like-minded folk. Won’t be long, will it? When they get rid of us, they are bound to look at the over 50s.

From: Hilary Andrews, Leeds.

MORE care homes are closing. There must be some solution to the care of old people who are often lonely and living far away from their families. If they live in an university town, would it be a solution for them to take in a young person to keep them occupied?

This could possibly help a young person to stop building up debt and the old person would be less lonely and retain an interest in life, thereby preventing or slowing down the onset of dementia.

Numerous studies in Japan and the United States have shown that the old and young living together benefits both.

Realities of shale gas

From: Sue Cuthbert, Newton on Rawcliffe, Ryedale.

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IT is reported (The Yorkshire Post, September 27) that a large shipment of shale gas from the US will be arriving at Grangemouth, Scotland. The recipient of this gas is the giant Swiss-based petrochemical company Ineos.

This company extract ethane from shale gas for the production of plastics. Not for producing energy for households.

The fracking industry has brought permanent damage across the Pennsylvanian region and the taxpayers there will have to fund repairs.

Ineos has also said that it will not be involved with payments to householders living near fracking wells.

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As they have 15 PEDL licences in Yorkshire to explore for shale gas, this, in itself, is worrying.

Victoria in Australia has banned fracking because of all the adverse effects found in Queensland.

For every 10 jobs created in the fracking industry, 18 were lost in agriculture.

Yorkshire has a huge agricultural and tourism sector. Hundreds of ugly fracking wells will destroy these industries as well as everything that is beautiful in Yorkshire.

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Air pollution from fracking wells in the US has been found to blow hundreds of miles in 
any direction that the wind blows, so, in a small country such as ours, no-one will escape pollution from fracking wells – even London.

Memorial name error

From: Graham Wright, Danby Wiske, Northallerton.

MY grandfather Sapper Reginald Wright was killed in action and his name appears on the war memorial in Headingley – Sapper Reginald Wright, Service number 160393, 227th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Died 28th March 1918.

However the inscription is wrong in that at some point an extra but unnecessary second initial ‘A’ has been incorrectly added.

It could be that this was done at the time of the memorial being renovated in 1993.

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If anyone can recall who dealt with the restoration of the memorial nearly a quarter of a century ago, I would be glad to hear from them as I want to do all that I possibly can to correct this error.

As we approach the centenary of his death in our country’s service, I feel that having his name correctly inscribed on the war memorial is the least we can do for this man who made the supreme sacrifice on our behalf.

Does anyone recall anything about the 1993 renovation?

If so, would they kindly contact me in the first instance at [email protected]?

Parliament’s grand tour

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-Super-Mare.

ACCORDING to a survey by the pollster YouGov, the majority of Britons think Parliament should leave London while the Palace of Westminster is being renovated.

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There is no reason why both Houses should meet in the same city. In the spirit of fairness, the English should get one and the “Saxish” the other, probably the Lords in Leeds or Nottingham and the Commons in Bristol.

Unhealthy obsession

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

NO Paul Morley (The Yorkshire Post, September 26), you are not the only person in this country never to have watched The Great British Bake Off: you have kindred spirits in my wife and me. Nor do we watch Strictly, The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, 
The Apprentice, Ready Steady Cook, Big Brother, I’m A Celebrity, A Question of Sport (despite both of us being sports fans) or any other programmes which are, after all, only about celebrity.

Nor are they harmless. Surely it is not healthy to fuel the media obsession with celebrity nor helpful, in the case of Bake Off, to those who are struggling to control their sugar intake?

From: Laurence J Sowden, Far Lane, Kettlewell.

IF our MPs have so little to do over Brexit, they can hold committee meetings to question the goings on with Bake Off? It really is time we found them some work to do.