YEP Letters: December 7

Park permits for pro dog walkers?

Ivan Kovacks, by email

I’ve just got back from one of my regular walks and some of the things I saw got me thinking.

I always try to get regular walks in as often as possible and think we are so lucky to have so many great open parks in Leeds to walk in. They look good all through the year and despite all the cut backs in funding are well tended. As such I am very happy to pay my council tax and see some of it go to the parks department and the good works they do for Leeds. It is a pleasure to see many families out and new parents taking their youngsters for a play in the parks as opposed to sitting them at home in front of a TV. However, I’ve just seen three professional dog walkers in Farnley Park. Whilst they all kept the dogs under control and tidied up the mess, I thought I’m paying for this park and its upkeep and these people are making a profit on the back of my council tax. One wonders if dog walkers should have a permit to work in public parks, that others pay for and should these permits be paid for?

GP services at ‘crisis point’ in city: your views

GP services in Leeds have reached crisis point experts have warned as the YEP reveals the difficulties patients face to make a doctor’s appointment. This week we have been showcasing responses to our Big Cities survey and highlighting the issues that you’ve told us matter most to people living in Leeds - from public transport to social care. And a leading doctor in the city has today warned that GP services in the city have reached “crisis point” as we reveal the difficulties patients face to make a doctor’s appointment. Here’s how YEP readers have reacted to the news on social media..

Christine Bell

We can’t make free appointments but the government has found enough GPs to roll out its ‘see a doctor for £40 today’ scheme.

They are doing their best to destroy health care that is free at the point of use.

Sean Kettle Finlay

Fair point though in all honesty I haven’t been able to get in the doctors for a long while now got to book in advance and know what you’re going to be ill with about three weeks before.

Tony O’Connor

The majority have sat and allowed our government to under-fund and blame our proudest institution, if we 
don’t stand up we will lose the NHS.

Magi Buckton

My mother, she is 89 years old, she always has to wait between three to six weeks for an appointment, scandalous. When she does see a doctor they never listen to her, she’s given up on them.

Tracy Ambler

Maybe because doctors don’t listen or do what you ask on one appointment and end up having to go to three appointments instead when it’s not necessary.

Gary Hutchinson

New Labour’s chickens coming home to roost?

Darrel Lee Clayton

Or seven years of Conservative under-funding everywhere across the public sector, but sure, blame it on Labour.

Sam Walker

And it’s clearly got absolutely nothing to do with the growing numbers of GPs working part-time now has it? Something unheard of 20 years ago.

Elaine Ford

Rang doctors yesterday for an appointment and was told it was fully booked for two weeks!

Vote to leave EU, not Europe

D Angood, by email

Regarding Mr Bovington’s recent missives bemoaning the Brexit vote and how he despairs for the young he has been teaching.

He says the vote to leave has robbed the young people of the opportunity to be involved in future culturaland social activities.

One would ask the questions how one got involved before the EU and will our leaving alter those opportunities? He seems to be under the impression that if the referendum had included 16-17 year olds then the decision would have been reversed.

Is his opinion based upon what he has taught his students about Europe over the past decades? Is so, he must have skimmed over the many negatives that have resulted since we joined. As a teacher it is his job to impart the facts, all the facts, and let the student form his own opinion, which the student cannot truthfully do if certain facts are omitted.

The education system has failed many in different ways and some of the mistakes are being rectified by the provision of colleges where manual skills are being taught.

The future of Britain is going to be reliant upon rebuilding the manufacturing base which successive governments and the EU have virtually dismantled.

The country cannot survive solely on service industries which the education system has favoured for some time.

Mr Bovington wonders if his 30 years of teaching his students about Europe has been a waste of time, but that surely depends upon what his teachings have been.

The country voted leave to rid themselves of the yoke of a club where subscriptions far outweighed the benefits of membership, a club where decisions for millions are taken by six unelected committee members.

Did Mr Bovington impart that sort of knowledge to his students?

The country did not vote to leave Europe, which is what some remainers seem to think, just to leave the EU.

Brexit is a war of money

D Slater, Batley

I do hope that Theresa May does not return from Brussels waving a piece of paper claiming “Brexit in our time” like Neville Chamberlain did on his return from Hitler’s Germany in 1938.

It is quite clear that we are again at war, albeit a war of money, no less destructive to the well being of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and possibly the rest of Europe in the years to come seeing who is the dominant country.

Get a grip on London

Judy Goodwin, Altofts

An attempt to assassinate the Prime Minister, motorbike gangs robbing and maiming at will, children stabbing and murdering each other, someone needs to get a grip in London before 
it spreads to other towns.

All the mayor appears to be interested in is fining motorists and building gender sharing toilets.