YEP Letters November 12

‘Arrogance’ of former PM Cameron

Derrick Bond, Shadwell

How arrogant is David Cameron? He’ll be remembered for two things: appalling weakness when trying to renegotiate our terms with the EU, and then running away when he lost the referendum vote.

We certainly don’t need any more weakness in the Government, which is letting those who voted Brexit down.

May I suggest Cameron starts a new party with Blair and Brown to see how popular he is. Or he should stay in his garden shed.

What has happened to this country?

Terry Dunwell, Leeds

What has this country come to? Recent reports tell of an attack and robbery of a 78-year-old man, and fireworks being thrown at a blind woman and her dog.

Unfortunately if the perpetrators of these cowardly actions are apprehended some solicitor will come up with a feeble excuse and it will be “smacked wrist” time.

I was raised in the 40s in what was described by the Daily Express as the “worst slum in Britain”.

Yes the area was inhabited by criminals and brawlers but at least they had a code of ethics, unlike today, and if such attacks had been witnessed in those days retribution would have been swift.

Today people do not appear to have any morals. Where did it all go wrong?

Free TV licences for the over 75s

Ivan Kovacks, by email

I fully support the comments from Hilary Andrews (YEP letters November 9) condemning the possible removal of the free TV licence for the over 75s.

Whilst I’m not there yet I do understand how much pleasure the TV gives to many, especially, single people. As such I would strongly support the keeping of this perk.

I do think the small cost of the licence represents exceptional value for money for the service that the BBC provides.

However, I do also understand that the vast amount of income that it takes to maintain could be a drain on the company and I would rather the money was spent on the output of the BBC.

As, I believe, the free licences was forced on the BBC by the government, I think the government should pay for it. At the moment the total cost of the free licence is over £700 million, almost enough to pay for a decent train service to the Leeds airport.

Are we still ‘disability confident’?

David Mitchell, National Chairman, The British Polio Fellowship

November 2 was the anniversary of the Department for Work and Pensions ‘Disability Confident’ initiative.

The scheme offers employers guidance on employing people with disabilities but much more needs to be done to get those living with disabilities back into work. One of those chosen to spearhead the initiative is an accounting firm in a sector not renowned for disability inclusion.

Prejudice 50 years ago meant British Polio Fellowship Ambassador Colin Powell was forced to start his own accountancy business, when his wheelchair did not fit bowler hat and pinstripe suit perceptions of the times.

There are record numbers of disabled entrepreneurs like Colin now, but is this progress if borne out of necessity? They say things have changed in the last 50 years, but I wonder.

The difference in employment rates between disabled and non-disabled workers is 30 per cent - figures that haven’t changed in 10 years and invisible disabilities like Post Polio Syndrome are easily discriminated against. News that 2,300 disabled workers are being hired every week gives me hope business is rediscovering what the British Polio Fellowship proved decades ago; that people with disabilities can deliver business benefits. How many times must we prove our worth before the skills we bring to the economy achieve recognition? Call us on 0800 043 1935 or visit www.britishpolio.org.uk

Dismay over little library

Paul Carr, Outwood

I was dismayed to read that Wakefield Highways Department had objected to, and insisted on, the relocation of the Ledger Lane Little Library.

How shameful to object to a wonderful local initiative. The library is not an obstruction since it is more than a metre from the pavement edge. The time might be better spent tackling the daily obstruction caused by overspill parking at Outwood Railway Station, since this causes a genuine obstruction, which ironically extends down Ledger Lane. If Ledger Lane Little Library is at the top of the Highways Department agenda, then shame on you. Given the library closures in the area the local authority should be positively encouraging such initiatives. Well done Susan Thomas, I hope you find a suitable, alternative site if the Highway Departments intransigence prevails.

Brexit vote

Michael J Robinson, Huddersfield

A REPORT tells us that ‘hundreds of lawyers’ want a second referendum, quoted as saying “voters are entitled to know what they are voting for.”

I voted in favour of the UK joining the European Economic Community which we did on January 1, 1973. Only later did the country discover that as part of the price this nation paid for being granted membership of the EEC was the surrender of the UK’s fishing waters. Believe me, Edward Heath had not told any of us that he had agreed to sign away our fishing grounds as part of the deal for joining. From the very start of the UK’s commitment to becoming part of what was not at that stage the grandiose Federal ambitions of the likes of Jean-Paul Juncker and Donald Tusk, we voters were not told what we were voting for. But we certainly knew what we were voting for in June 2016 when we said ‘Leave’ this corruptly unaccountable out-of-touch liberal elite collection of third-tier politicians seeking to turn a trading organisation into a United States of Europe, following delusional leaders whose experience of being Prime Ministers of Luxembourg (pop. smaller than Bristol) and Poland (pop. smaller than Iraq) is surely nowhere near adequate qualification for such a job.