THE banks have proven they can get away with murder and, as usual with this kind of thing, we believe we simply have to accept it.

But we don’t. If your bank has been in the media for being naughty then move accounts to another bank – one which hasn’t been ‘had up’.

I understand that direct debits etc can be carried across easily. If enough people did it, the shareholders would soon get ants in their pants.

It is called voting with your feet and, in these days of Facebook and Twitter, we have the power to change things.

Anthony Redman

Dalton

Sad state of politics

WHAT a world we live in! Politicians of every rank and hue make decisions which they claim are in our interests but in reality serve only themselves.

The latest examples include the squabble over who investigates the bankers.

Our leader, David Cameron, believes it should be other politicians who, until recently, were the lowest of the low but now of course they have found others who are even more venal, namely bankers.

Yet it is politicians who have allowed the situation in which we find ourselves to develop in the first place. Why should we trust them to reach an impartial decision? They know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

Then, of course, there is the scandalous decision to close the children’s heart surgery unit at Leeds General Infirmary.

We are told that the decision was made for our benefit.

How can it be that closing such a centre of excellence benefits the people of West Yorkshire? I understood that the NHS was to serve need, not ego and politics. Why aren’t our councillors and MPs up in arms and protesting about this?

Do they really think that we believe them anymore?

Trevor Woolley

Linthwaite

Royal family in the money

I SEE that despite austerity the cost of the family of Prince Charles to the taxpayer increased 10% over the last financial year and with a vast increase of grant aids from the government from £1,962,000 to £2,194,000.

These are government grants to a family which is already billionaires, owns vast tracts of land in the country and nets £12,000 per year in rents from the Prison Service and Ministry of Defence alone, not to mention a fortune in private rents.

Not only does this make a mockery of all those ordinary people who have endured wage cuts and job losses, it just goes to show that this government is intent on punishing ordinary people to pay for the pleasures of the idle rich.

Ian Brooke

Springwood

Sorting the potholes

OVER the past few months a group of tiny potholes caused by the winter frosts on our housing estate in Meltham had grown in size due to constant use and had become a problem.

Drivers, including myself, were taking avoiding action to keep clear of them.

On Friday evening I decided to email one of our Independent Kirklees councillors in order to bring the matter to his attention and to try and get the roads reinstated.

Our councillor immediately responded to the appropriate Kirklees Council officer and communications continued over the weekend.

On Monday morning the road repairs team arrived on site and fixed a total of eight potholes.

I just felt this was a superb result of excellent teamwork between a member of the public, a Kirklees councillor, Kirklees officers and

Kirklees staff.

On behalf of all our residents, thank you!

Melvyn Gibson

Meltham

I swear it was good

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed reading Denis Kilcommons’ article ‘Let’s fine the foul-mouthed’ (Examiner, June 18).

It was delightfully factual and witty. And yes, I agree with the writer, bad language in public used to be an offence and so was playing loud music while driving and spitting on the ground.

Although I have paid a visit to Effingham once or twice myself, it has been inside my house and never in public.

It’s about having self-respect and not just respecting members of the public.

NASRIN HENDERSON

Huddersfield

Very second class

I WAS delighted to read in Tuesday’s Examiner (July 3) Ann Walker’s letter regarding First Class Service.

I would like to respond to this by my not so First Class Service of a letter posted in Birmingham early in the morning on Friday, June 15 and arriving through my letterbox on Thursday, June 26.

This caused great consternation as Father’s Day was not quite as happy as the sender intended it to be.

J M Kaye

Huddersfield

POW camp at Oakes

I WAS interested to read Brian Charlton’s letter regarding the POW camp at Crosland Road, Oakes. He is quite right in thinking that it housed Italian POWs.

From 1944 until call-up for National Service in 1948 I worked as a telegraph messenger at the GPO. There was also a POW camp at Old Fieldhouse Lane on Leeds Road. This housed Germans and there was also a third camp at Stirley Hill but this was outside the Huddersfield delivery area.

On a number of occasions I delivered telegrams to both the Crosland Road and the Leeds Road camps. In those days if one wore a uniform it was considered genuine and would get one past the sentry at the gate.

On one occasion I had a telegram addressed to someone in the cook-house at the Crosland Road camp. Working in the cook-house were a few Italians supervised by one of our soldiers who happened to be the addressee of the telegram. I waited while he read the telegram to see if there was a reply and he then he said something to one of the prisoners who proceeded to hand me one of the pastry horns filled with ice-cream which he was making.

This was a real treat because during the war the making of ice-cream was prohibited as it was considered a waste of essential resources.

The final repatriation of POWs did not take place until 1949.

G HODGSON

Moldgreen

Remembering Tony

WE were both saddened to hear that local artist Tony Haigh had passed away.

We had known Tony for about 14 years and in that time he had done quite a few commissions for us here at The Wappy Spring.

Tony was a lovely bloke, his stories were always hilarious and his local knowledge immense.

We once asked Tony for a painting of a Huddersfield trolleybus. Tony arrived with five, all of which we bought after some negotiation and all now have pride of place along with another dozen or so of his paintings.

He will genuinely be sadly missed.

Austin Wylie and Trevor Simpkins

The Wappy Spring Inn, Lindley Moor Road

Tougher dog laws

THE tightening of dog laws in our parks and play areas can only be applauded. Some dogs are viscous and must not be allowed to run about where children are present.

Too many dogs are causing life-maiming injuries to young children and should definitely be kept on a lead in public places.

We owned a family dog and he bit someone, to our surprise. This came out of the blue and he was always kept on a lead thereafter.

Sad to say it is only the badly kept dogs that make the headlines as most are well behaved with caring owners.

DOG OWNER

Honley

Happy digging memory

JUST reading about the digs at Castle Hill. They were digging there when I was 10 years old and my brother, who was older, took me there and we helped to dig for a while and I got my name in the paper.

I think the headline was “Ten-year-old finds needle in the haystack.”

I was very proud when I saw it.

I had the cutting but sadly lost it. I’m 82 now but I still remember it. It was very interesting finding pieces of history.

HAPPY MEMORIES

Linthwaite