MAY I congratulate Barry John Langford for his excellent letter (“MPs must not have second homes on us” Examiner March 31) which summed up the feelings of so many of us about these political money-pinchers?

In another letter to a national newspaper the same day someone wrote: “The problem with many MPs is that they have never had what we ordinary mortals call a proper job.”

Oh, I’d love to be on the panel of the Colne Valley Labour Party when it selects a candidate from its female-only shortlist.

My first question would be: “What business experience have you had over the past 10 years and have you learned to spend money wisely?”

My second would be: “Would you propose employing your husband/partner from your parliamentary allowance?”

Suffice it to say that come the next General Election I, and I fancy many others, will now vote for the person rather than the party and here I must add that my X definitely won’t be for the current Conservative nominee and trust there will be a replacement as soon as possible.

M Noble

Brockholes

Question of selection

I READ with interest the letter from Cath Ingham (Monday March 30) stating it’s “nobody’s business but the members of the Labour Party who they choose to select.”

Really! So there are enough members of the Labour Party in the Colne Valley to ensure that their candidate will be elected in a first past the post contest?

What planet does she live on? Surely the idea is to pick a candidate who will “appeal” to as large a section of the voters as possible.

I for one don’t care about the gender, sexuality or ethnicity of the candidate. What I want is one who will work in the best interests of all the constituents in the Colne Valley.

Not one who takes a narrow party based attitude on every single issue, votes the party line regardless and is invisible for all but a couple of months prior to a general election.

Markham Weavill

Linthwaite

One of the best

THE letter from Barry John Langford must be one of the best letters printed in the Examiner – and all true.

Ian Staples

Marsden

Politicians reviled

THE political class are in the gutter again and do not want to accept they are so reviled due to their own behaviour.

Of course Barry Sheerman thinks he and his chums are hard done to and deserve every penny they can take from us.

But how can he defend the likes of McNulty and Smith who feather their own families nests.

One sponges off the taxpayer claiming to use his parents home, the other ... well where do we start!

Of course we could easily check where MPs are living or watching adult movies, use the powers to request mobile telephone records as introduced by these pumped-up little dictators.

When you can witness the empty House of Commons during serious debates you can see this bunch just need a salary, like the rest of us.

Let them put expense claims through the Inland Revenue on an equal footing with the electorate or through a panel of voters selected at random from the electoral roll.

Our MPs should be denied the opportunity to employ their relatives – it isn’t a family business – a strict two-term limit should be introduced so they do not become too complacent or comfortable and the salary should relate to attendance in the House and voting tally.

Also, since our MPs are happy to delegate so much legislation to Brussels and not even bother to debate bills or even touch the grubby rubber stamp, perhaps we need fewer MPs.

Sorry Barry, the gravy train has to be stopped. There is all this talk of blame the bankers, but defending the indefensible isn’t a vote winner in the current climate.

Gez Sharp

Huddersfield

More litter-spotting

IF the eagle-eyed council official who spotted a driver discarding a cigarette stub out of his car in Milnsbridge recently was to sit in his car any lunchtime near the Spotted Cow at Salendine Nook he would have a field day.

The amount of empty crisp packets, chocolate wrappers and polystyrene boxes would fill a bin liner.

The only difficult part of this exercise would be to obtain the names of the culprits creating this litter on their way back from the shopping centre to the nearby college and high school.

It is much less of a hassle just to jot down a car number plate than it is to approach these teenagers and ask them to pick up their litter or to ask them for their name and address.

The authorities could make enough in fines to help them complete St George’s Square.

W Blackburn

Lindley

A matter of pride

AS a sort of follow-up to my letter on Kirklees, it is true that the people of Huddersfield used to have many reasons to be proud of their town from producing the best worsted in the world to its world-class industries like ICI and David Brown gears and tractors (to mention but a few).

Very few if any of these remain – Huddersfield has been reduced to a very ordinary workaday town. But perhaps one still exists.

Huddersfield boasts some of the best choirs in the country as is well-known – but it may also have more choirs of all kinds; mixed, male, ladies’, childrens’, school, church and chapel choirs, than anywhere else in Britain.

Perhaps we might be able to put together some figures so that the people of the town may again have something to feel proud about?

Arthur Quarmby

Holmfirth

Tea is for danger

ON my way to work I gave way at a junction in Honley for a female driver, who did not bother to acknowledge my courtesy for giving way to her.

Because she was driving a posh car my first thoughts were she must be stuck up.

I realised that was not the case when I got a better view as she passed. I believe she would have waved had she been born with a third hand.

She had one hand on the steering wheel and a pot of tea in the other.

Pete

Honley

In lieu of values

REGARDING toilet paper in schools.

Which is better – to have to ask or find no usable paper? Not too difficult to answer.

Sixty years ago when the same situation arose we had to with good manners and ask: “Please may I go to the toilet with paper?”

The reason then was that there was a shortage of supply and limited resources.

Today’s young people live in the day of plenty (but for how long?) and we are in the third generation of free expression.

I can do what I like, and there is nothing you can do or say. The law of sowing and reaping is forgotten.

It is not the fault of the children or teachers, but solely the neglect of the parents of those children who don’t value anything.

(name and address supplied)

Do as I say

BEING a cleansing council worker I had to attend many meetings at the cleansing department on Vine Street.

To the entrance of the offices where the supervisors, managers and client inspectors work, there was a small container for cigarette butts, but sadly not many butts got there, they ended up strewed all round the entrance on the floor and everywhere in the yard.

Some may think this could be a case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’.

Vine Street employee