YP Letters: Working at a food bank is an eye-opener

From: Mick Webb, Leeds.
Food banks have an important role to play in supporting the vulnerable.Food banks have an important role to play in supporting the vulnerable.
Food banks have an important role to play in supporting the vulnerable.

In response to Peter Hyde (The Yorkshire Post, August 29), I would list benefit cuts and the increase in the cost of living as being the reasons for the increase in the use of food banks. Smoking, drinking and gambling will play a small part; these addictions affect both rich and poor.

Regarding huge televisions and the latest mobile phone, I am afraid you have been brainwashed by an ex-Chancellor. When the TV signal changed to digital, I helped 23 people change their 1980s and 1990s TVs with the use of a £9.89 converter from Argos, and the majority of these TVs are still in operation. Regarding mobile phones, a lot don’t have one and if they do, it is a very basic one.

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If Mr Hyde went and helped out at a food bank, he wouldn’t have to wonder, he would know and his eyes would be opened. We now it seems have school uniform banks.

It’s obvious who is paying the price of austerity, it is the vulnerable and the poor. The rich bankers and company, who caused the problems in the first place, get away with it but the world is never a fair place. I just want to say a big thank you to those who care about others.

Texts sense for GP dates

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

During the past weeks, I have had to make visits to various parts of the NHS; hospital, consultants and GP practice. On each occasion, I have been reminded of my visits weeks, days and the day before by text on my mobile phone. An excellent idea and service.

What I would now like to ask and discover has this improved the attendance by the patient to hospital and GP? One would seriously hope so. If appointments are still ignored is it not time a financial penalty was imposed on those who fail to attend or not notify?

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It really is the time that this dreadful waste of resources was tackled and people who continue to abuse the system were taken off all lists.

Not everyone has computer

From: Bob Stone, Clyde Gardens, Leeds.

Why does every offer, anyone who wants contacting, every news item you want to know about or place you want to visit always have and display a ‘www.’’, ‘‘.com’’, etc, etc?

What about those of us who do not own a computer or smartphone who want to take advantage of offers? Ninety per cent don’t carry a contact telephone number or the name of a contact person so even if we know something about the person or place to be contacted or visited, our lack of technology prevents us from making any further progress.

Please remember not everybody has a computer.

Yes, we still send letters

From: Dianne Fielding, Trimmingham, Halifax.

I’ve just read Christa Ackroyd’s column (The Yorkshire Post, August 29) in which she asks, “Who writes letters any more?” I do! I wrote one this morning to my brother who lives in Suffolk, he says they make him laugh. I regularly write to my son who lives in London.

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Christa also says, “When was the last time you sent a postcard?” My answer is, “Two days ago”, at the end of our Bank Holiday weekend in North Wales. When I said goodbye to my son earlier in the summer before going abroad I said I might send a postcard to which he replied, “Do – we love getting postcards.”

So I sent him one each day from our week in Austria. So please remind Christa it’s a joy to write them and a thrill to receive them. I know there are more modern ways of communicating and I use those too, but just as a book beats a Kindle, so a piece of paper and a pen beats a keypad. This is the proof!

Action needed in social care

From: Scott Sinclair, Head of Policy & Public Affairs for England at Marie Curie

The findings from the Lancet Public Health Study on elderly people needing round-the-clock care rising by a third (The Yorkshire Post, August 31) show that action is urgently needed to ensure that the most vulnerable people are rightly and fairly supported in the UK.

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At Marie Curie, we care for people living with a terminal illness and we know that for people approaching the end of life, social care is an essential part of ensuring that they can be cared for in their own home or communities, if that is where they want to be. This is also crucial in helping to reduce unnecessary emergency hospital admissions. For too long the Government has failed to act on social care. It can no longer afford to bury its head in the sand. Social care must be given the adequate resources it needs to cope with rising demand; the quality of life and dignity of people with terminal illnesses is at stake.

Lose bike lanes

From: Tarquin Holman, Marsden Court, Farsley.

Re Alex Sobel MP on solutions needed to tackle air pollution (The Yorkshire Post, August 27), my simple solution is to stop traffic hold-ups by getting rid out of outdated cycle lanes, making dual carriageways from them.

EU dictators

From: Ann Foster, Wetherby Road, York.

The Brussels set-up with unelected leaders is redolent of a dictatorship. Dictators do not stoop to negotiate and the intransigence shown in the last two years was to be expected. We must be eternally thankful for the clear vote to leave the EU.