SO what has changed?
MPs have voted to promote one of their bad apples who has a track record of ‘flipping’ and other expenses claims.
The new chief bankers are still being paid millions of pounds in salary. The bank bonus culture is alive and well used. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money (now we ‘own’ the banks) are still being spent on corporate ‘hospitality’ so that already wealthy people don’t have to spend their own money on luxuries.
At the top of the tree it is back to business as usual now we have offloaded responsibility and debt onto the gullible public.
At local Government level both the numbers and the pay of ‘executive’ civil servants – council workers – is on the increase, regardless of cost. The public purse is still squandered as departments struggle desperately to get rid of all their budget surplus so they can claim an even bigger slice next financial year.
Examples of this culture can be found in the Chinese pink granite scandal, the cardboard figurine cut-out and totally over-the-top speed camera swamp.
It is as well to remember that this latter splurge is to counteract the splurge on ‘road furniture improvements’ from the last budget clearance sale.
I am not sure that the usual “lessons have been learned” quote is believable, any more than it has been in the past.
Here, as in Iran, those who have the power cling on by their fingertips and hope that, as in the past, the public furore will eventually die down and apathy will once again be the order of the day. Anything but change is acceptable.
The only real losers over the last two years have been the public and their children whose future looks even more bleak given the amount of toxic debt the Government and the institutions have passed on to their shoulders.
John Langford
Huddersfield
Live longer ... in prison
BY heck! Life expectancy in the USA must be very high as the Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff has just been sentenced to 150 years in jail.
His age at present is 71 so he will be 221 years of age when he is released. How their justice system differs from ours? Over here he could have become an MP and given a Knighthood and claimed he did everything within the rules.
T MATTHEWS
Huddersfield
Anger over MPs’ plan
THE Labour MP for Batley, Mike Wood, is using children’s education for his own political gains.
He has no say in council decision making, but is proposing that the council move Birkenshaw Primary School from its present site to the Birkenshaw Middle School site.
The present primary school site would then be closed down.
This would stop any plans for a new Birkenshaw High School being built on the present Middle School site.
The decision on Birkenshaw High School has not been finalised yet. Playing politics with children’s education is downright disgraceful.
A Thompson
Birkenshaw
Square looks garish
HAVING spent a vast amount of taxpayers’ money on the ‘improvements’ in St George’s Square, is the council going to give it a chance to look its best on the August debut day or are they going to allow the garish and cheap-looking posters to remain in place on the former building society?
This impressive old building has been cheapened by the posters and made to look like a bazaar. While we are on the subject of the Square, I was under the impression that the station facade is a listed building, so how can there be any debate at all on alterations – especially ones that would deface it?
Is there anyone on the council with any town-pride these days?
Barry Chambers
Lockwood
Let’s clarify immigration
I AGREE with the comments of Dee Walsh (Mailbag 6 July) about immigration and the BNP.
We can all get a little careless about the use of language – ‘immigration’ as a topic is a matter for legitimate concern and debate.
On the other hand ‘immigrants’, as individual human beings, should not be targeted or seen as problematic. The debate should be at the policy, not personal, level.
It seems to me that the BNP deliberately conflates the two and this is, at the very least, irresponsible. To make matters worse, there is the appearance that the BNP reserves its major concerns for those immigrants who are visibly ‘different’.
Not to put too fine a point on it, those who are non-white. The BNP declares itself to be non-racist and, who knows, maybe it is. It certainly doesn’t seem to go out of its way to demonstrate this though, does it?
A final point on language. Anyone who was born here is not an immigrant, regardless of whence their parents came. They are British or, if they wish, English, Welsh, Irish or Scots as the case may be.
The BNP does not always seem to understand this. Unless, of course, some of their members do not understand ‘non-racist’.
Bill Armer
Deighton
No to fluoridation
ONCE again the issue of the fluoridation of water supplies rears its ugly head.
There are two points I wish to draw attention to in respect of this.
Firstly, the erosion of personal freedom which would result from the artificial fluoridation of public water supplies. Surely every citizen should have the right to decide what shall go into his or her body and what shall be kept out of them.
Fluoridation breaches this right and sets a dangerous precedent. Experts are clearly divided in their opinions on the safety of fluoridation of water supplies and for the Government and councils to accept just one side of the argument and then impose this substance on the public is unacceptable.
The second point is that even if fluoridation did prove beneficial to children’s teeth, mass medication of this type is not the answer.
We are told that it is mainly children of poorer households who suffer the most tooth decay and I agree with this.
However, all that fluoridation of water supplies will achieve is to possibly help improve their teeth while putting them (and everyone else) at risk from other effects of the substance.
It will not address the structural inequalities in society that make people poor in the first place. What is needed is action to address these inequalities, not a cheap one-size-fits-all ‘solution.’
Robert Nicholls
Kirkburton
Brilliant awards night
ATTENDING the Examiner Community Awards was an enjoyable and humbling experience.
At the Nerve Centre we were incredibly grateful to have been shortlisted for the Community Project of the Year Award and would like to thank everyone involved in making this happen and congratulations to the Safe Anchor Trust who won this category
To see so much hard work being carried out in the local area by such dedicated array of volunteers was incredibly inspiring, a balm to the soul in difficult times.
The task of choosing between all these worthy individuals and causes must have been difficult, and, on occasions, quite upsetting when hearing the stories which led many people to taking such an active role in their community.
I would like to thank all those involved in the event – the Examiner, those who provided the nominations, the staff at the Galpharm Stadium, the sponsors, and most importantly the individuals who are working tirelessly to making Huddersfield a great place to live.
Rikki Heppenstall
Administrative Assistant at the Nerve Centre Kirklees
Sad loss of meals to old
WHAT a tragedy to finish Meals on Wheels in Kirklees.
It is such a good service providing the elderly and vulnerable with a hot meal at lunchtime and a short chat with the person who delivers the meal.
Kirklees has been gradually closing the system down for a long time as there have been hardly any new people added to the lists during the last few years.
Is this a way of then saying that there are so few people on the books that Meals On Wheels is no longer needed.
MW
New Mill
Not supermarkets’ fault
WHEN will people get it into their heads it is not Tesco that has shut all the shops in the town centre.
It is out of town shopping centres with free parking; the recession that has hit big shops and small shops alike and Kirklees Council which still wants its pound of flesh in terms of high rents and high priced parking.
Tesco and Asda with their two hours free parking is a step in the right direction.
DC
Salendine Nook.
