WHILST one sympathises with Claire Gibson (“Graduate Blues”, Examiner, August 4) your article should be a warning to all potential university students and their families.
Thanks to the Labour Government’s ridiculous targets for the number of young people going to university, courses have been invented and advertised that will result in no realistic chance of the graduate obtaining a job related to their degree subject.
Claire has graduated in social psychology along with countless others, and has a very limited chance of finding work in a niche area.
In addition, an employer not familiar with her subject will take one look at her CV and put it in the bin alongside all the others professing achievement in media studies, criminology, peace studies and the like.
Young people should think long and hard before applying to university. Getting a place at university used to be difficult, whereas now it’s easy. It’s also easy to end up weighed down with debt, disillusioned, and out of work, particularly in the current climate.
I know plumbers, joiners and electricians that earn far more then university graduates. Furthermore, they have the option to move around the country or even the world with their work, or even become self-employed with their own businesses.
What’s more, they are in demand, unlike poor Claire.
Peter Smith
Fixby
Don’t hold your breath over waste
I READ with interest the article in the Examiner (July 31) regarding rubbish not collected by the striking binmen.
In this article Clr Pinnock states “Residents can request their excess waste to be collected by calling 01484 414700”.
However if you do, don’t hold your breath. This number also deals with requests for garden waste to be collected.
I rang on March 18 requesting that three bags of garden waste be collected. I was given a number and assured that it would be collected in the near future. Despite four more calls at regular intervals, I am still waiting for the waste to be collected. Needless to say there are now 12 bags of waste.
M Schofield
Huddersfield
Hip replacement and then this
I ARRIVED home from Calderdale Royal Hospital last week having had a total hip replacement at 77 years of age, only to find that our local bus has been withdrawn.
So could you please find out how we are going to manage a 20-minute walk to the nearest bus to get to any local facility?
D Robinson
Bradley
No fluoride in water, please
IT is reported the dental health chiefs are planning to add fluoride to half our water supplies.
It appears this is a secret Government plan. So has the Government completely lost their marbles, never mind their teeth? This crackpot idea rears its ugly head, again, again and again. Why? Is there some other hidden agenda?
I repeat, I repeat, I repeat. Children who are the main target could be given fluoride tablets or use fluoride toothpaste free of charge to protect their teeth.
Therefore, what is the problem? Critics have warned time and time again that this idea about fluoride rubbish in the water we drink is “mass medication without consent”.
It is quoted that the European Convention on Human Rights states: “Individuals have the right not to be medicated without their consent”.
So, enough said, it’s sorted. It’s human rights.
Brenda Holroyd
Netherthong
Praise where praise is due
I WAS delighted to see the picture and article on the “Allimpics” Holiday Bible Club run by Newsome South Methodist Church but was concerned to see that I had been named as organiser of the event.
If only I could produce such an excellent experience for these youngsters. In fact the organiser who achieved this marvellous feat was Judith Robinson who was aided by Jane Hancock. Together they spent weeks planning and preparing for the event. They organised the decoration of the church, produced the resources, arranged and presented music and generally led the rest of the team to enable a wonderful event to go ahead.
These two deserve an enormous thankyou from all who enjoyed the week and to be praised for their hard work and dedication, without which the event could not go ahead.
Carol Waters (a helper, but not an organiser)
Berry Brow
It’s a question of lifestyle
THE case of the 33-stone teenager from Wales, Georgia Davis, was one of many recent news stories to demonstrate a desperate need to provide increased support to families for healthier living.
The Government measures to inform parents if a child is clinically overweight indicate how desperately in need of this support families are.
Responding to our members’ request for advice and support for the whole family Slimming World opened groups to young people in January 2006. The Family Affair scheme aims to tackle the root cause of the problem by providing families with the education and support they need to adopt healthier lifestyles – and the scheme is free to children between the ages of 11 to 15 who attend with a paying parent or guardian.
To date more than 20,000 young people across the whole of the country and eight in Huddersfield have joined Slimming World. Families and young people who would like support and advice about how to lead healthier lives without giving up the things they love to eat and do can find out more at www.slimmingworld.com
Lynda Thwaites
Team Manager, Slimming World, Huddersfield
Pests in NHS hospitals
A CLEAN, safe environment in a hospital makes a big difference both to patients and to the NHS staff who work so hard to provide them with the care they need.
That’s why the figures I published on Wednesday are worrying. Some hospitals are clearly doing well at keeping pests such as mice, rats and cockroaches under control. But others admitted that they are facing huge problems.
Clearly, it is difficult for health service estates to maintain a completely pest-free environment. They are often made up of many buildings on large, disparate sites. And with the huge quantity of waste they create every day, it’s not hard to see how they can become an easy target for vermin. But the level and variety of these infestations is concerning.
It appears that there is a connection between problems with pests and hospital buildings being in a poor state of disrepair. Two of the NHS Trusts that experienced the most pest incidents over the past two years also have some of the biggest backlogs of routine maintenance that ought to have been carried out but haven’t been.
Labour need to take responsibility for their failure to tackle the backlog of repairs needed in our hospitals. The total value of this backlog now stands at nearly £4bn. In 2000, they made a specific promise to tackle this, but instead it has gone up by 20%.
It is particularly concerning that some of the problems we have identified with pests occurred in clinical or even sterile areas. I don’t want to exaggerate this – we only found such examples in a relatively small number of hospitals (about one in five, although this may be an underestimate as not all hospitals supplied this information).
But it is in clinical areas that pests cause patients the most distress and have the potential to be most harmful in spreading disease. That’s why it’s essential that those hospitals that have experienced problems place a renewed focus on wiping these pests out.
No-one has ever published statistics on problems with pests in the NHS before. We are not claiming there has been a sudden increase in this problem as records have not been previously kept.
But, for example, we do know that 20 years ago there were hardly any bed bugs to be found, even for research purposes, but we now see a quarter of hospitals reporting bed bugs in their wards.
Making this information public improves accountability and provides an incentive for poorly-performing hospitals to improve.
I firmly believe that patients need to have access to as much information as possible so that we can all make informed choices about which hospital we go to when we need care and treatment. That’s the way to drive up standards in the NHS.
Andrew Lansley MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
Not really the road to success
I LOOK forward to seeing the Kirklees Council road workers in the new season of Strictly Come Dancing as they have now perfected the Hokey Cokey.
Put the centre island in; take the centre island out; in, out; in, out ... etc.
I wonder how much it cost to remove the islands, widen the crossings etc outside Salendine Nook High School in the first place and now replace them when the crossings proved to be hazardous.
Perhaps the money would have been better spent on a proper road surface. Is there anyone at Kirklees Highways – or one of our local councillors – who knows the answer?
G Boothroyd
Huddersfield
