DON’T you just love election time? As reported in the Examiner on Tuesday, three candidates of various parties ‘jumped the gun’ in putting up campaign posters on lamp standards.

Jason McCartney (Conservative) and Nicola Turner (Lib-Dem) are running for Parliament and Terry Lyons (Independent) is running for Kirklees Council.

This does not bode well for New Labour (slightly tarnished and second hand by now) hitting out at the other parties to distract from its own shortcomings.

Strange how it was Debbie Abrahams (Labour) who complained to a Labour-controlled council.

Then there was the indecent haste with which action was taken.

Shame more important complaints and requests do not receive the same priority treatment.

I’ve just had another thought. Was the ‘complaint’ because the other candidates had ‘jumped the gun’?

Or was it because all the best lamp standards had been taken?

Chris Woolnough

Linthwaite

Legal aid for MPs

HOW important and how good of the New Labour candidate to worry us with the matter of posters being put up before they should be.

I doubt anyone (the electorate – not the candidates) was worried over this small matter.

The lady should be more worried over how the electorate view MPs being allowed legal aid when the hard-working, harassed tax payer does not get access to the same should they need it.

I would add this concern should apply to the candidates for the three main parties.

It’s no use wringing hands and saying it shouldn’t happen, in that typically establishment manner.

Let them use their own bank accounts to fund their legal representation, just as we would have to do.

Very quietly (you’ll miss it if not vigilant), the parties are speaking of party funding by the taxpayer to help clean up their sleaze.

If they want this then please allow us a box to tick saying which party we want to fund and if we say none then it means none. A box to tick – Gordon’s getting excited already.

As for the flyers, posters and the mind numbingly pointless leaflet drops through the letter box, can we have a legal requirement on these parties to remove their rubbish from the streets on the Friday after polling day?

Gez Sharp

Huddersfield

One rule for all?

I READ with interest your Examiner article re election posters being put up too early, breaking Kirklees rules.

I live in Netherton and had been surprised how early and how many had appeared like mushrooms on Meltham Road. Why we need to see half a dozen exactly the same in 100yds I don’t know.

Debbie Abrahams the Labour candidate had apparently reported her opponents and, rightly, their signs have been removed.

Interestingly now only three signs remain, not on lamp posts but staked into the ground.

The name on them? Why, Debbie Abrahams, would you believe?

Is this another example of the MPs citing one rule for some and another for themselves, I wonder.

Martin Burgess

Netherton

Life’s ups and downs

ONE week into the election campaign and already the prospective MPs are breaking the rules (election posters up too soon).

How on earth are we supposed to trust them in government when they cannot even get the basics right.

They just don’t get it, do they?

Clr Nicola Turner even told the Examiner that all the posters were taken down last Monday.

But posters are still littering the lampposts in the Colne Valley.

Is there anyone trustworthy that we can vote for?

Nigel Lumb

Slaithwaite

The way we voted

CONSERVATIVE Euro MP Timothy Kirkhope recently wrote in regarding my voting history.

I am only too happy to be judged on my voting record but I wonder if voters will feel Mr Kirkhope can say the same?

In 2010 he has led Tory MEPs to vote against a guarantee of women’s rights, against European co-operation to crack down on tax havens, and against proposals for a tax on risky speculative banking transactions – money that would help to claw back some of taxpayers’ money spent supporting the banks and the economy and that could be used to support investment in jobs and public services.

I can confirm that I, along with other Labour MEPs, voted for each.

Linda McAvan

Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber

Victims’ compensation

VERY soon after being selected as Parliamentary candidate for Calder Valley three years ago I started to lobby for justice for the victims of the Equitable Life scandal.

On a recent visit to Calder Valley, James Clappison, Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions, met a number of people who have been significantly affected by the Equitable Life scandal.

As a result of the pressure from the Conservatives, I am absolutely delighted that the Conservative Party have stated if they win they election they will compensate Equitable Life victims.

For far too long this Labour Government has used every trick in the book to avoid its responsibility and doing what is morally the right thing. So many policy holders have not seen justice, something the Conservatives have committed to deliver.

Craig Whittaker

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Calder Valley

Animal welfare

AT present we are constantly being bombarded with information on what the political parties intend doing if elected. I personally have not noticed anything to do with animal welfare.

In fact, I have heard that the Tories or Liberal Democrats, if elected, intend carrying out the culling of badgers because they believe that they are spreading bovine TB and they will get rid of the Hunting Act, which means we will be back to all the cruelty of hunting with hounds.

So I would suggest those of us who do not want these to happen should ask their local candidates about these two issues and/or bear this in mind when voting.

Rosemarie F Wike

Wooldale

What electors want

IN answer to Richard Bulloch’s letter (Mailbag, April 6) the only party for you to vote for is UKIP.

Their website says they are against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they will hold a referendum to come out of the EU, they will get tough on crime and they will stop this out-of-control immigration where we taxpayers are paying for all these migrants to live here.

Conservative lose votes to UKIP and Labour lose out to BNP because neither party will accept the policies the electors want. It’s just more of the same.

The interest the Government is paying out for the money given to bankers so they could keep getting their bonuses is more than the amount given to Scotland to run their country for a year.

Lastly, we cannot vote for the Liberals as the lack of punishment for criminals and spoiling prisoners with home comforts is down to them. No one looks out for the victims.

Hazel Spencer

Independent candidate, Newsome Ward

Political diversity

I WAS most disappointed by the limited list of candidates for Huddersfield.

Where are the representatives of other parties such as UKIP, English Democrats, even the dreaded BNP? Give us a choice that will reflect a more diverse electorate instead of the defeatist ‘Labour has such a big majority, so why bother?’ attitude.

Mrs N Clarke

Almondbury

Hedged bets

NICOLA Turner is hedging her bets on May 6 by standing as both a local and parliamentary candidate.

What does this say about her commitment to the local council?

Will she resign from Kirklees if she becomes an MP or hold both.

And what about her own company?

The electorate needs to know.

Cynic

Colne Valley