YEP letters: December 12

Osborne tells us: stop bickering!

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

WE in Yorkshire always resist anyone telling us what to do but George Osborne has made it quite clear that, unless the whole of Yorkshire stops bickering, we will not be given the money we need to expand our part of the Northern Powerhouse. (Osborne laments no Devo deal, YEP December 2)

Can we really afford to be so stubborn and let Lancashire streak ahead of us?

We must get our act together and quickly.

Negotiating trade deals will be complex

Alan Slomson, Grosvenor Park Gardens, Leeds

During the referendum campaign many Brexiteers made misleading statements about how straightforward it would be if we left the EU.

So it is no wonder that David Green (Your Say, December 3rd) is puzzled as it becomes more and more evident that things are much more complicated than he was led to believe.

Mr Green is correct to say that we spend more with the other EU countries than they do with us. But our trade with the EU makes up a much higher proportion of our total exports than their exports to us. One estimate is that about 40 per cent of all our trade is with other EU countries, but only 13 per cent of their exports come to us. So it is not true that “they need us more than we need them”.

To use Mr Green’s analogy, if I were to resign from a local club, I could not expect to go on using its bar and other facilities. They may sell a lot of beer to me and I may sell nothing to them, but the loss of one member would make little difference to the club, while the loss of its facilities would make a big difference to me. e.

Making new trade deals is a very complicated business.

Make us your resolution

Faith Sykes, Belgrave Mount, Wakefield

The Christmas Season has arrived, with all the attendant excitement, expectations and fun. For bereaved people however it can understandably be a bit of a problem.

My younger daughter died six year ago, she was a massive Christmas party person, leading up to her birthday which was New Year’s Day,

I personally find the festive season very emotional, and it is quite difficult for me to cope with.

This time last year my problems were compounded when I found myself in Pinderfields Hospital with acute appendicitis. In the early hours of morning the operating theatre staff arrived to take me for the for the operation, a porter and a nurse, trolleyed me away. Their conversation en route was about their plans for the Christmas period, they both, it transpired, had offered to work the main Christmas shifts so as to enable other staff members with young families to have time off to be with them. They had both opted to do this for more than the past 10 years.

How selfless, thoughtful and generous these people are, and there are so many others like them working in all the departments at Pinderfields.

My experience this time last year prompted me to contact the volunteer dept. at the hospital. I had read in the Wakefield Express volunteers were being recruited in various areas of the hospital.

I am now a regular volunteer and I really do enjoy it. I know that new volunteers are alway needed in all sorts of different rolls. Having enjoyed your Christmas you may thinking about New Year’s Resolution, you could join us?

Gluten free prescriptions

Mark Dyster, via email

Wakefield Clinical Commissioning Group has decided in its latest cost cutting idea to stop providing prescriptions to people with coeliac disease.

Coeliac disease is a long term health condition, which, if left untreated, can lead to serious health complications, such as osteoporosis, fertility problems and in rare cases, small bowel cancer. So, while small savings may be made now by cutting prescriptions for patients, there are likely to be long term financial implications resulting from this decision by the CCG. It is effectively a false economy.

The cost of gluten free products is three to four times the cost of gluten containing counterpart. So people on low income solely reply on their prescriptions to survive. By removing this prescription the annual food bill will increase by at least £400 per year. People on low incomes cannot afford this, so they will not be able to maintain their gluten free diet. Which will lead to serious health complications, such as osteoporosis, fertility problems and in rare cases, small bowel cancer. Wakefield CCG currently has a survey for people to participate in. Please fill out this survey stating that gluten free prescriptions should be protected. Find it at www.wakefieldccg.nhs.uk/prescribing-changes-engagement.

No calls please taxi drivers

Edna Levi, Stonegate Road, Leeds

There has recently been much publicity regarding penalties to be brought into force relating to use of mobile phones whilst driving cars. I hope this will also apply to taxi drivers for the same reasons.

Several times when a passenger, the driver[s] have been using earphones to converse and this has not been to their offices, as I see all their bookings appear on a machine. On a recent journey, I actually requested a driver to switch off and concentrate on driving instead of chatting to what appeared to be his Wife!

Breathtaking arrogance

Judy Goodwin, Altofts, West- Yorkshire

The newly elected Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) says her majority of 23,000 gives her the remit to try to stop Brexit. This is against 17.4 million who voted for it. With such breathtaking delusional arrogance I feel she will go far in the out-of-touch Westminster bubble.

Footing the cycle bill again

Paul Hainsworth, Park Crescent, Armley, Leeds

Surprise surprise, Leeds city council is planning to increase council tax by 3.99 per cent next April, the same council that wasted £29 million on a cycle lane from Leeds to Bradford.

Maybe everyone should still pay the same amount as this year , the council can’t jail everyone can they? Or how about a daily charge for users of the cycle lane?

A sad world without animals

R Kimble, Hawksworth

RECENT news reports are full of the fact that the giraffe population has dropped by 40 per cent in recent years. The same is true of other large animals that we rather take for granted are being conserved.

The Asian rhinoceros, snow leopard, tiger, orang utan and sadly, the black rhinoceros is now extinct is several African countries.

How about, as a change from the usual Christmas (or, indeed, birthday) presents readers take out a subscription with World Wildlife Fund, or organisations like the RSPB as plenty of British birds are under threat, or undertake to “adopt” an animal for their children, to instil a sense of global and local ecological care in the next generation?

They are the future, to use a cliche, and how sad would the world be without this wildlife

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Join the debate or start one of your own.

What should Yorkshire be doing to ensure we can get the most investment and the most improvements from the Northern Powerhouse? Do you have ideas for a New Year’s Resolution that would make a difference in Leeds in 2017? Email us at [email protected]