ROBERT Walker (‘Grant graduates should pay it back’, Mailbag, October 20) says that graduates are to blame ‘for the mess’ we are in. This is totally wrong-headed.
The bankers precipitated this when their latest financial bubble burst. More fundamentally, boom and bust is the nature of capitalism – that is why it is such a flawed system from which to build a fair and democratic society.
Notice that the bankers who contributed so much to the ‘mess’ continue to pay them selves big fat bonuses out of our money!
In this time of recession, the rich have grown richer and the poor, poorer.
But the deficit is only half what it was after the Second World War. Then, governments chose to grow their way out of it.
Jobs were created, council houses were built, and the Welfare State was established.
Cuts are likely to make things worse and could cause a double dip recession. But the Tories are doing what they have been longing to do for decades.
Under the cover of the cuts, they are going for the Welfare State.
Why should they spend a penny more than is necessary on the working class?
Notice how much fear they are constantly pumping into the population – blaming anyone but themselves.
The lazy poor are to blame, graduates (if Robert Walker is to be believed).
This is hysterical nonsense. It is the usual divide and rule tactics used by the rich and their political representatives.
We should have none of it! We should collectively demand job creation to tackle global warming, build affordable homes and so on, free higher education for anyone who wants it, smaller class sizes, properly funded apprenticeships and training opportunities, decent pensions with retirement age as low as possible to enable young people to enter employment, and a health service free at the point of delivery.
This is not an impossible dream but each and everyone of us will have to fight for it. The alternative is descent into barbarism.
June Jones
Kirklees Save Our Services and Right To Work Campaign
Cost cutting
I KNOW how to cut the cost of my Kirklees Together magazine by 50%. Deliver me only one copy.
Smart Alec
Thongsbridge
Whatever next?
WHAT will our council come up with next?
The council have neglected the roads so much that they are now looking at another mode of transport – a cable car – as the roads are too costly to maintain.
Is it perhaps the same person who has come up with this idea that was responsible for the St George’s Square fiasco?
Can you imagine on a football match day with 18 or so fans packed into a gondola complete with beer cans floating over Huddersfield?
Our council’s ideas really do beggar belief. Surely they would be better spending our hard earned council tax on laying new roads than on yet another hare-brained scheme?
If they want some extra cash why not sell off some of the many unnecessary sets of traffic lights that contribute so much to town centre traffic jams?
D Jagger
Golcar
Life chances
I HAVE never written a letter to a newspaper but feel that after reading about the sacrificing of 17 youth workers by Kirklees Council I must put pen to paper.
From what I understand these adults work with some of the most vulnerable young people we have here in Kirklees with wide ranging issues but Kirklees Council see fit to decimate the whole of that team.
Can I ask who is going to be working with these young people? Isn’t Kirklees’ priority life chances for young people?
From reading the article in the Examiner these people seem to go that extra mile, something you don’t see much of nowadays, too many jobsworths.
I am at a loss to the reasoning behind making all these people redundant.
I understand there need to be cuts but surely the cuts could have been more evenly spread throughout, thus leaving some of them still there to carry on the good work.
I personally see the cost to Kirklees and society been far bigger than the small immediate saving they are going to make.
Kirklees really should think again about these cuts and look to save some of this workforce.
T Jackson
Mirfield
Seeing the lights
WALKING along town with some friends recently, one said how ludicrous it was to put the Christmas lights up in the middle of October.
We then remembered Labour control the council.
John
Marsh
Well attended
I MUST thank all who were responsible for the recent article you ran to highlight our event ‘Get Online’ that we held at the Huddersfield Methodist Mission.
It was very well attended and nearly all the attendees said that they had read it in The Examiner, in the evaluation sheet that we hand out, so again thank you.
Diane Gledhill
CWU Northeast Regional Learning Secretary, Bradford and District Amal Branch
Classifying crime
MARK Burns-Williams (‘Police Authority defence’ Mailbag, October 19) responds to criticism of the Police Authority in a way one can expect from any politician, whether local or national.
The usual cliches of ‘managed performance’, ‘agreed priorities’ and ‘maximising resources’ come forth.
He fails to say that on some nights there is one police officer covering from Kirkburton to Moldgreen, including all the surrounding areas.
He fails to say that there may be only one or two officers covering the town centre of Huddersfield, other than at weekends – and this applies to Dewsbury also.
Clr Burns-Williams wraps up most crime as anti-social behaviour.
Robbery is now classed as a less serious crime, theft is now considered as, ‘not worth investigating’ by the police and, I assume, the Police Authority.
Perhaps Mr Burns-Williams can tell us all what crimes are classed as being ‘anti-social behaviour’.
In my book every crime, including murder and rape down to minor criminal damage is anti-social and therefore he and his ilk should start classing everything as criminal, as we used to do.
He claims there has been an increase in the number of police on the streets. This is a myth and he knows it. The police ride round in vans and rarely walk. Report a crime and someone from Dewsbury deals with it, and it is pot luck as to when and if they attend.
I’m sorry Clr Burns-Williams, but you are wrong. In my view, more people are angry than happy with the police.
Hard Up and Fed Up
Huddersfield
Defence cuts
IT never fails to amaze me that some people get educated at public schools and at university and yet they have not learned anything.
The present Government Front Bench seem to be in that category.
In the 1930s despite being warned for years of the German rearmament they continued to cut defence spending to the bone, so much so that the Conservative Prime Minister had to crawl to Adolf Hitler for some sort of peace.
The outcome of this stupid action by the Conservative Government was World War Two.
It cost this country half a million lives, and worldwide it cost millions of lives.
It now seems that a new Conservative Government is taking the same line. It thinks that no other country will want or try to attack us.
That’s what the Conservative Government thought in the 1980s.That tactic cost this country more than 200 lives.
So Mr Cameron I hope for the sake of the people of this country that you are right (over defence cuts).
If not, I wouldn’t be in your shoes for all the tea in China.
I will not wish you luck even though you will need a lot of it.
WW2 veteran
Almondbury
Saving money
IN the light of the forthcoming spending cuts, could I suggest a sure way that money could be saved?
It seems that a lot of MPs and government officials spend a great deal of time and money in London hotel accommodation, to attend conferences andŠ whatever.
Why not, after 2012, utilise the Olympic village and use it as a Government B&B?
Charge £30 a night and make any official using the facility pay for it.
The transport infrastructure will be in place (so we are told), it would be close to their places of employment, would incur fewer travel costs and they would arrive at work fresh and ready to face the day ahead.
And why not build a glass domed viewing area for them, so that they could watch the pigs flying over each morning?
Bryan Spencer
Crosland Moor
