YEP Letters: January 25

The US voters will judge Trump

MK O’Sullivan, Allerton Bywater

CAST your mind back 12 months and the start of the 2016 primary campaigns and the sneering, dismissal and ridicule of Donald Trump by so many liberals here.

He can’t be elected, he is not suitable, everything about him is wrong, Hillary Clinton is the obvious choice. Inauguration day told a different tale. The Trump critics here forgot, still forget, it is the US voters who will judge President Trump, they alone in 2018 and 2020.

I wonder how many people on Question Time and other BBC programmes have forgotten this fact. Donald Trump has no need to bother with them.

Incredible LGI staff are life savers

Helen Porter, Holmfirth

I am writing to share my recent experience of the famous Leeds General Infirmary.

Yet again the incredible staff and professionalism has saved my granddaughter’s life for a second time.

She was nursed by staff on ward 42 Clarendon Wing before and after major surgery and ALL staff, doctors went above and beyond their call of duty.

Even returning from home and some nurses not seeing a break all day owing to children’s high dependency. Their humanity under such serious and complexed care was constant and beyond mere words.

It is my wish to also thank the PICU. (intensive care) unit for their diligence when looking after my grandchild when things took a turn for the worst. I could not have paid for better care. I thank God that I still live in a country where we have the NHS. How privileged we are today in the UK.

I realise that not all stories end in success, as ours almost did not. Thinking of families whose outcomes were not the same as ours, my tears and sadness go out to you all.

Eckersley House was a pillar that kept my daughter upright and she was able to have, on some nights, her toddler who was wondering where her ill seven-year-old sister was.

In conclusion, from smiling cleaners to top surgeons, all this would not be possible, we do not take your tremendous hard work and long hours for granted and hope that your working situations will improve as it’s no secret the hours and dedication that all care staff put in.

Thank you is not enough to express my family’s appreciation of a miraculous, compassionate team who are able to function when under life and death situations.

Council should preserve market

Tony Bell, Wakefield

Like Eileen Heaney’s memories of Seacroft Clock mine are of a similar nature.

As a child I lived in York and at least once a month I would be incarcerated in the back seat of a bone shaking Austin 7 or later sat on a lemonade crate in the rear of a Jowett Bradford estate van to undertake the adventure that was the shopping trip to Leeds to visit Kirkgate Market.

In those days reaching Coal Road laid the vista of the city ahead, however the view wasn’t quite what it is today, a heavy blanket of smog always laid like a blanket across the town in fact even the Town Hall clock could not be seen from this vantage point although the Seacroft Hospital clock could be seen unless it was raining or there was a pea-souper fog.

Travelling down to York Road, the next highlight would be a view of the trams, eager anticipation of the huge Feltham trams was more rewarding than the work-a-day smaller Horsfields as they glided down their protected track down the centre of the road to emerge at the junction of Cross Gates Road where Leeds Transport tried to welcome unwary motorists to their world by the use of the dreaded tram pinch.

Bending the rails toward the kerbs, capturing narrow tyres and overpowering flimsy steering in the grooved rails before veering off to their next private section of track would leave drivers struggling to maintain their correct direction of travel to the city centre whilst avoiding been chased or crushed by the electrical power levanthians who were the true residents of the tracks.

This memory in fact exhibits one of the reason that Leeds Council should try to preserve the Kirkgate Market. Yes things evolve, however markets of this type are the hub of cities.

They are a melting pot of cultures, the good sold, the smells, the sounds this should be the beating heart, identity and soul, any development should be treated cautiously and sympathetically major development could and will irreparably damage something that is intrinsically good.

Listen to the users and traders. They know what is best their living depends on success and decisions perhaps should be biased in the favour of the opinions those people not of developers who could ultimately lose out through their own greed.

Leeds Council is not on its own making dubious decisions regarding markets, other nearby councils have made similar mistakes and the penalties may be seen by empty shops in their main streets and short term business occupants.

No benefit in being on own

N Bywater, Morley

Darren Dunwell, (YEP Letters January 21), thinks that the “nauseating Bremoaners” are poor losers for wanting a second referendum.

It is not a matter of being a sore loser; will the bill to leave the EU get passed the 760 members sitting in the House of Lords?

They rightly threw out the bill which would adversely affect millions of tax credit payments to working families, and leaving the EU may also adversely affect the whole country.

Sterling is down, inflation is up, balance of trade worse, more hate crime and retail sales slumped in December.

I am quite happy to see us leave the EU, if that is what the majority of people want, but I don’t see any benefits in being ‘on our own’.

Theresa May has stated the obvious in her recent big speech, but she failed to say how being outside the EU will help her reduce immigration.

We have a poorly performing NHS, due to lack of funding and the failure to train enough doctors and nurses. We also have a construction sector, which is struggling due to a failure to train and recruit enough staff.

Political obscurity

Keith Brooks, Wakefield

Now that Brexit has to go to a parliamentary vote, I hope that people who voted for Brexit in the referendum send remainer MPs like Farron and Clegg into political obscurity at the next general election.

Unbelievable has happened

Jean Lorriman, Huddersfield

The unbelievable has happened and I have just watched Donald Trump become the 45th President of the United States of America.

Donald Trump appears to have not one American bone in his body.

His mother was pure Scots - Hebridean and Gaelic speaking. His father was born to German immigrants.

Not unlike the ancestry of our own Royal family “We are more alike my friends than we are unlike.”

Backing cancer drug campaign

Dawn Kent, Leeds 9

It is devastating to hear that Kadcyla – a crucial life-extending treatment for women with incurable secondary breast cancer – faces being withdrawn from the NHS, following the failure of NICE and the drug’s manufacturer, Roche, to reach an agreement.

Kadcyla can offer patients precious extra months – even years – of good quality time with their loved ones, with fewer side effects than other treatments. It is available in many other countries – including France, Germany and Australia – and unless NICE’s draft decision is overturned next month, this fantastic medical advance will bypass patients in England forever.

That’s why I’ve backed Breast Cancer Now’s campaign to #KeepKadcyla, which calls on NICE and Roche to urgently reach a deal to ensure patients in England are not denied this very effective treatment.

There is very little time left for this decision to be reversed and I urge NICE and Roche to do everything in their power to keep this drug available.