I WISH to oppose the hero worship of Harold Wilson going on in the Examiner.

Does he really need a statue at Westminster?

As someone who lived through the Wilson years let me give you my impression.

He was a very clever man who used the grammar school system to get a good education. As soon as he could he cut the rope beneath him to make it hard for ordinary folk to climb the slippery slope to success.

When Barbara Castle, no right winger, proposed to curb union power, Wilson let her proposals be watered down and it was Thatcher’s Conservatives who brought in the measures needed.

It could be said that the Wilson years were the height of social liberalism. Capital punishment was abolished, abortion was legalised and divorce was made easier.

Of course, Wilson was not personally responsible for every single piece of legislation – rather he epitomises a certain middle class laissez-faire decadence that was designed to change the culture of Britain for the worse.

One cannot talk about Wilson without remembering his famous devaluation broadcast. “The pound in your pocket or purse is not worth less today. Prices, however, will increase.”

He was the master of style over substance, a brilliant spin doctor even down to the fake Yorkshire accent.

I have been critical of Thatcher in the past but I know what she stood for. Can anyone really say the same of Wilson? Winning three elections is a brilliant achievement but then he was rather good at self promotion.

Bernard McGUIN

Marsh

Support for officer

IT’S the first time that I can remember being as disappointed with the Examiner as I became after reading about the cost of a trails officer.

Generally the Examiner sets out to help form public opinion not follow it and I believe this article does follow by the size of the no vote.

£3,535, even in today’s economic climate, is a paltry sum of money – not even pocket money for Kirklees Council and personally I would like not only for the council to give more money to the setting up of the fantastic Trans Pennine Trail which will be a tremendous leisure facility for many thousands of people but for it to plan to upgrade the bridleways that lead towards Woodhead where this trail can be joined when the economy picks up.

Doing this would give a mainly off-road route for hikers, horse riders and cyclists instead of just painting useless white lines on roads where the roads are wide but vanishing on narrow roads where they are most needed as well as the fact that many cars park on them and block them.

I am well aware that today’s public opinion has been formed by reading about the sometimes enormous sums of money that are spent by councils on things that the public know are going to be useless but the Trans Pennine Trail will be anything but and unless Huddersfield in the not too distant future has a high grade connection to it, it is going to badly miss out on a very good thing.

Examiner, please set about changing public opinion on this one.

R Hanson

Golcar

Feeble wind turbines

LOUISE Siraj’s letter (June 1) is given the lead title Time To Call A Halt On Wind Turbines.

Wrong. We, the general public, have well passed the time to halt the advance of these ugly and useless monstrosities.

Relative to gas and nuclear units, their power output is feeble (zero during winter’s still and freezing days) and their costs substantial – that’s why suppliers and their smartly-dressed sales-promotion teams need the benefit of public money. The industry can apparently afford to reward one MP £200,000 per year in pocket money for spreading good words about renewable energy.

MPs’ love affair with European Union unthinkingly led the country into this incredible mess – not least the promise of spending £100 billion on inadequate wind farms over the next eight years.

But a few Tory rebels and even that jolly green giant David Cameron are at last beginning to see how shale gas and established efficient sources of energy might be the way forward for future generations. Meanwhile, overseas, India has plans to build 450 new coal-fired stations. This would add more CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere every week than Britain does in a year.

Horlicks to the Climate Change Act. The world isn’t getting hotter but the hard-pressed British taxpayer facing rising fuel bills certainly ought to be.

TC

Huddersfield

Puzzle over lay-by

FOLLOWING Mr Read’s letter concerning the unused bus lay-by on Taylor Hill Road, I think there are many Taylor Hill/Lockwood residents who have been scratching their heads about this one.

Is it a bus lay-by? I don’t see a raised curb or double yellow lines so I take it, it isn’t. I think it was also very amusing that after may months and expense, a couple of weeks after completion a utility company came along and dug it all up!

So far, I have seen several vehicles actually parked on the wide pavement, including an HGV with a crane.

I would also mention that after heavy rain recently I noticed there is no drainage and the rainwater cascaded straight onto Woodhead Road.

I think everyone in the area would have preferred a small amount of this wasted money be spent on widening the road by a couple of feet at the bottom of Taylor Hill Road so that vehicles can pass safely.

Resident

Taylor Hill

A rubbish response

RETURNING home to find that the extra bin bags I had put out with my grey bin had been taken, I was so delighted I rang Kirklees refuse collection department to say a big thank you, but couldn’t believe the response I got.

I was told it wasn’t their job to take extra bags unless they have been booked in!

I replied: “I know which is why I’m ringing to say thank you.”

If this ‘jobsworth’ approach is the attitude of our council, what hope do we have of Huddersfield ever being anything more than a second rate northern town?

Surely we should be celebrating people who go over and above to do a good job?

I’m now concerned that I may have got the lovely person who collected my extra rubbish into trouble, just because I wanted to say ‘thank you’. I certainly hope not.

So, to whoever it was who took the three extra bags outside my house on Hall Bower Lane thank you – your customers appreciate you even if the council doesn’t.

Caroline Lee

Newsome