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Reply to these letters! -- Have a Story? Contact the Editor
Why ‘Women’s Hour’ at the town hall?
Letter of the week: John Jennings, Dewsbury
Dear Sir,
I am a resident of Dewsbury, a rate payer and I also pay the BBC licence fee.
I am I think what was known as a floating voter although, along with many others, I feel like a sinking voter.
Over many years one of the highlights of my TV political viewing week has been the BBC Question Time programme.
Over that time I found the programme objective and entertaining and I have enjoyed the many and varied speakers' contributions, regardless of their particular political loyalties.
Recently I have noticed what I think has been unfair bias in audience participation, and witch-hunts of particular members of the panel.
On Question Time last week Mr Dimbleby announced that the programme was being broadcast from Dewsbury.
My eyes lit up and I was reaching for a pen and paper for application details when he stated that the audience would consist of females only.
I was beside myself with anger. That night I lost a few hours sleep and it was mid-morning before I arrived at Dewsbury Town Hall.
I asked the officials there why they had allowed a public facility (ie our town hall) to be booked by a public service broadcasting company and to exclude the males of our town from what has always purported to be an open forum for all members of a community to air their views.
The officials told me that anyone could book the facilities and that that person, or organisation, could decide who attends, and on any subject matter they decided upon.
I was also told by the manager that he had not learned that it was restricted to females only until Mr Dimbleby had announced it the previous evening.
I pointed out to the staff that I felt they should cancel the booking because the BBC had excluded males in our publicly-owned town hall.
My anger has subsided. I have now begun to think who will make up the invited audience. I am presuming there will be a true cross-section of the local population as the programme always boasts.
The ‘Unlikely List’ in no particular order:
Mothers, wives, sisters and girlfriend of:
Drug addicts or drug pushers;
Benefit fraudsters;
Burglars;
Teachers, health workers and other public servants: frightened to death that they will lose their jobs for publicly speaking the truth.
Mothers, wives or daughters from traditional Asian religious communities with their faces covered – who’s going to frisk them in case they are men?
Wives, girlfriends of Eastern Europeans; they are unlikely to speak English;
Karen Matthews – isn't she still doing porridge, or will they let her out in time for the broadcast?
Mothers of our schoolchildren and sporting youth that bring credit to Dewsbury; they'll be busy getting their children’s kit ready for school or the weekend activities, or attending various committee meetings at schools and sporting clubs.
The ‘Likely List’, or what's left:
Middle aged, middle class ladies from the great and the good;
The ladies of various establishment organisations, eg Women's Institute, Churches Together and, perhaps, a few charity workers and do-gooders;
Organisations and members for whom I have a great deal of respect;
Councillors, I think we have only one;
Solicitors, they should be plentiful.
So, it looks like there will be plenty of empty places in the hall and the attendances will hardly be a cross-section of the community.
I have no doubt the BBC will be inviting carefully-selected imported members of the audience from outside our town to support the programme.
Well, I shall watch the programme when it is broadcast and that will be the last one I do until the BBC announce that they will be broadcasting another Question Time from Dewsbury for men only.
I am now beginning to think about the questions that will be asked.
Then again, I am playing golf early tomorrow morning and I do not intend to stay awake tonight.
I guess that’s a question of one’s priorities.
Spare a thought
From: Hazel M Byard, Mirfield
Dear Sir,
Although I am a resident of Mirfield, I do not know Barbara Harrison personally (Forum last week), but she seems to be a formidable and competent lady: a former town councillor, ward secretary and currently fundraiser for the Conservative Party in Mirfield living comfortably.
Has she ever given a thought about other pensioners who are not so fortunate or well informed?
Thousands of other people in our society, either through pride or lack of knowledge, do not claim the benefits to which they are entitled.
This can make a world of difference to someone struggling to survive in a global recession from which we are just emerging.
I think our MP Shahid Malik has done a great job with the Pensioners’ Day initiative, where hundreds of people got help in an informal, friendly atmosphere.
As a point of information, it is just not practicable to target those in need of help without a general mailshot to those in the age group concerned.
I did not need to visit the Pensioners’ Day, like Barbara Harrison, but hundreds did. I would say that was money well spent.
I have received unsolicited missives from Simon Reevell, saying almost nothing but platitudes from David Cameron with a huge photograph of himself with the simple message of ‘I will cut the deficit’ with no details on which services the axe will fall.
It seems to me that voting for anyone on such data is akin to ‘buying a pig in a poke’ as the old Yorkshire saying goes.
Bumpy ride
From: Name and address supplied
Dear Sir,
In last week’s article ‘Villager Gets The Hump’ you only told us part of the story, thereby leaving more questions than you answered.
Why is it that a council that can hardly afford to mend our disgusting roads appears always to have a bottomless pit of money for humps?
If we want potholes mended we must wait for years, but if we want humps we can have them next week.
Why is it that the same council tolerates women parking on both sides of the road when dropping ‘mummy’s little soldier’ at schools within walking distance?
This selfish behaviour reduces the width of a bus route to a single carriageway. I am not surprised parked cars get damaged.
Why do the same stupid women locate child safety seats on the offside of the car and then stand in the middle of the road with the offside rear door wide open while they unstrap their ‘little precious’ from the seat?
Surely it’s not rocket science to realise that it would be far safer and less selfish to unload them onto the pavement from a seat located on the nearside.
Why is it that cars have to be tested every 12 months when three years old but roads can go for years in a grossly unsatisfactory condition?
Why don’t we follow the example of the council and plead that lack of money prevents us from keeping our cars in acceptable condition?
As a newspaper providing us with answers, why not put these questions to the council and print their replies, preferably prior to an election?
A town in union
From: Peter Makin, Oakenshaw, formerly of Westtown
Dear Sir,
I was delighted to read new flagpoles will be installed as part of the refurbishment of Dewsbury Town Hall. Let us hope the Union flag flying from it will be big enough to be seen.
When I complained the present flag was too small, I was told the roof couldn’t take the weight of a bigger one.
I couldn’t understand what they were talking about at the time, but I’m prepared to let that one pass.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank councillors Paul Kane and Eric Firth for supporting my campaign to fly the national flag all year round, and I know I can trust them to make sure a bigger flag will soon be flying from our town hall, and not a postage stamp-sized one.
I also hope they will order a big search for the five flags they spent good money on, which supposedly went missing.
If they cannot find them, don’t forget that Eric Box funeral directors and myself offered to pay for a new, larger one. The offer still stands. There is a recession on and Kirklees are making cut-backs, so it would make sense for them to take us up on the offer.
A great deal of our heritage, pride, respect, culture and identity, and what we believe in and fight for, are fast disappearing, so please don’t let it happen to our national flag.
Let us hope that all the buildings in Kirklees will eventually be flying larger flags.
Excellent exhibition on a pioneering woman
From: Imelda Marsden, Mirfield
Dear Sir,
Well done again to the Red House Museum curator and staff for an informative and interesting exhibition into the life of Mary Taylor, an independent Yorkshirewoman with a lifetime of national and international achievement now on at the museum in Gomersal until April 18 – not to be missed. Mary Taylor was a school and lifelong friend and inspiration to Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte stayed at the family home of the Taylors, Red House, and depicted the family in her novel Shirley.
Mary Taylor was a woman who lived an unusually independent and adventurous life for a woman of her time, teaching English to boys in Germany. She was one of the early settlers in New Zealand and started a business.
She returned back to Gomersal after making a good living. She then led women’s mountaineering expeditions in Europe, wrote many magazine articles and also wrote a novel. Mary was an outstandingly brave woman and an equal to be remembered in her own right to Charlotte Bronte.
This year the Gaskell Society are to celebrate 200 years since writer Elizabeth Gaskell’s birth and her name is to be added to the poets’ corner in Westminster Abbey – which is long overdue.
She met Charlotte Bronte in 1850 and wrote her life story. Elizabeth wrote many novels and some have been serialised on television such as Cranford recently. She also lived an interesting life and is also one of the famous British women writers’ known worldwide.
Also this year it is 175 years since the death of Rev John Buckworth, vicar at Dewsbury Minster (then called All Saints’ Church), from 1806 to 1835 who was an outstanding vicar and Patrick Bronte was curate at the church to Rev Buckworth for two years from 1809 to 1811.
Stop the rot
From: Kevin Maguire, Batley
Dear Sir,
I was born and bred in Dewsbury and I am proud of this.
When one goes into the town you will find that it is soulless. What can the town Fathers do? The money must be found or else...
Lib Dems will let
public know the truth
From: Andrew Hutchinson, Lib Dem prospective Parliamentary candidate for Dewsbury and Mirfield
Dear Sir,
With regards to the abandonment of the cancer unit at Dewsbury District Hospital.
It is disappointing to say the least that the unit won’t be going ahead, particularly as some existing services were taken away from the hospital on the back of that “promise”.
I would now hope that we won’t see further transference of the services currently offered in Dewsbury.
We are “categorically” assured that Dewsbury hospital will not be closed but I do worry that the Trust intends to run services down.
The could mean eventually reducing the size of the hospital and offering a glorified clinic service with some operations undertaken there, but the majority going to Wakefield and Pontefract, which will be very detrimental to many patients and their families.
If I am chosen as the next MP, one of the very first things I will do is call a meeting with the Trust to find out exactly what their intentions are and I will let the public know the truth.
It goes without saying that I and the Lib Dems will fight any reduction in services.
Where would you cut?
From: Derek Cartwright, Batley
Dear Sir,
A few years ago I was opposed to having Batley Town Hall’s cash office moved to the library.
I would have preferred the service moved to the Post Office or elsewhere locally. Yet I would have sold off the Town Hall, because whilst reflecting the area’s heritage, I had to question if it filled a useful purpose today.
One sensible alternative was to move a public service from Huddersfield to Batley, but that’s not happened.
Now Kirklees are looking for cost savings and redundancies at the cash office are suggested. Many will be opposed to any cuts in public services, and argue to preserve services.
I find myself asking if public services are better today than they used to be? And I think not, fortnightly bin collections, poorer public parks, poorer public transport ... well, it is certainly more expensive.
So why cuts?
In 1976 there were 1.6m employed in the state sector of central and local government, in 1983, 1.5m ... Thatcher. Now after Blair/Brown ... wait for it! 7.2m in 2007.
Good grief, no room for cuts?
The positive of the time from 1976 to 2007, firstly there were 22.5m jobs, as opposed to 26.4m. Yes more jobs, you’ve just seen where some are.
Employment in the non-government sector was 20.1m in 1976 and was 19m in 2007, though in the last year or so it has shrunk, as we all know.
Manufacturing has declined from employing 7.2m in 1976 to 2.8m in 2007.
There has been an increase in employment in one sector and that has been in the service industries, more specifically in hotels, restaurants, and catering.
This area employed 2.7m and in 2007, employed 6.2m. It must be less pubs and more hotels and take-away outlets. You think who is likely to be employed there?
Exclude this sector and the Government from the figures and employment has gone from 16.5m in 1976 to 12.8m in 2007.
The public deficit is so huge, there has to be cuts and public sector pay restraints. There is also the public sector pension problem to be tackled.
So what would you cut in central and local government? We are where we are, not where we might all like to be!
Urgent action needed
From: Richard J Morris, Dewsbury
Dear Sir,
Following the plethora of letters regarding the atrocious condition of bollards on roads across the Dewsbury area, I had expected we would now be seeing improvements.
I’m sorry to say there still seems to be little change, with blackspots being Huddersfield Road (Ravensthorpe to Mirfield), Savile Road, Wakefield Road (out as far as the Ossett boundary) and Dunbottle Lane (Mirfield).
On a more positive note, I see new self-luminating bollards being put up along Savile Road, adjacent to Thornhill Lees Parish Church. However, the grime of recent weeks has now taken its toll as they require cleaning.
Finally, can I now ask Highways how long must we wait before Calder Road in Ravensthorpe is resurfaced?
Unless urgent repairs are carried out, I fear Kirklees will be bombarded with compensation claims from repairs to car suspensions and failed MOTs.
Do more, councillors
From: David Wells, Batley
Dear Sir,
I refer to the Batley News front page story of February 18 which urges everyone to donate £5 to save town centre shops.
Instead of asking us all the time for £5 or two per cent here or there, why don’t the councillors get off their backsides and do something?
The rent and rates are far too expensive for small businesses. They cannot compete with the likes of Tesco. Give them a chance.
All you councillors were rubbing your hands together when Tesco came to Batley. How many thousands do they pay to Kirklees in rates etc?
Sorry. Of course all that money goes to Huddersfield, not Batley.
Will someone ask the Asian community to shop in Batley town centre?
Come on, councillors. What about a Wilkinsons or B&M store where Woolworths used to be?
These two stores do well in Morley and are not far from Morrisons. If we get that then maybe we will get a butchers or a greengrocers back in Batley.
Councillors of Kirklees go to Morley town centre. It’s a lovely shopping centre and no cars. You may just learn something from Leeds Council.
Mayor of Mirfield David Pinder on civic life in the town
There have been numerous articles and items on the radio and TV recently concerning local councils and the 'spectre' of cuts and redundancies.
The initial temptation, I'm sure, is to laugh and say 'serves them right'. In many ways that is understandable but – as always – the real issue is more complicated.
Large councils are the ultimate bureaucracies. National governments do, at least occasionally, have to deal with problems which require instant and painful decisions – decisions which have obvious dire consequences if they are wrong.
Local councils operate in a much less dramatic arena. That is not to say that they are not important but they can get away with more in terms of mistakes and waste.
Few who work in them accept this but compared to the real world, they have it cushy!
However they do have large budgets and equally large responsibilities and they DO have thousands of hard-working employees.
However there are also huge pay disparities between the more senior executives and the 'coalface' workers – but where is the axe most likely to fall?
When I was running relatively-large organisations I used to say that the two most important people in the building were the person who cleaned the toilets and the receptionist – I could do without any other individual for weeks!
The most important people in a council are the people who actually deliver the services; the dustmen (or whatever they are called these days – residential environmental waste disposal operatives?), the library staff and the care workers for example.
There are far too many layers of managers managing managers. Too many office-bound planners and others whose job title tells you nothing about what they actually do!
If planned properly, there is no need for any truly essential council worker to lose their job or for any service to suffer.
But if any council says it can make savings and still deliver the same level of services, what they are actually saying is: ‘We were too idle and wasteful to be efficient before but now our backs are against the wall we've discovered we can do better!’
Bureaucracies are wonderful. Many years ago a chum was posted to the MOD. Finding his office a little spartan, he brought a large Persian rug from home and his wife bought four pot plants to brighten the place up a bit. Bad decision!
He was hauled in front of the general and told the civil servants had complained.
The general's aide explained that his level (lowly captain) and its civil service equivalent were entitled to only a small plain rug and ONE pot plant.
Civil servants would be confused if they walked into his office, as they might think him more senior than he actually was! The rug and three of the plants had to go!
Reply to these letters! -- Have a Story? Contact the Editor
Reply to these letters! -- Have a Story? Contact the Editor
Why ‘Women’s Hour’ at the town hall?
Letter of the week: John Jennings, Dewsbury
Dear Sir,
I am a resident of Dewsbury, a rate payer and I also pay the BBC licence fee.
I am I think what was known as a floating voter although, along with many others, I feel like a sinking voter.
Over many years one of the highlights of my TV political viewing week has been the BBC Question Time programme.
Over that time I found the programme objective and entertaining and I have enjoyed the many and varied speakers' contributions, regardless of their particular political loyalties.
Recently I have noticed what I think has been unfair bias in audience participation, and witch-hunts of particular members of the panel.
On Question Time last week Mr Dimbleby announced that the programme was being broadcast from Dewsbury.
My eyes lit up and I was reaching for a pen and paper for application details when he stated that the audience would consist of females only.
I was beside myself with anger. That night I lost a few hours sleep and it was mid-morning before I arrived at Dewsbury Town Hall.
I asked the officials there why they had allowed a public facility (ie our town hall) to be booked by a public service broadcasting company and to exclude the males of our town from what has always purported to be an open forum for all members of a community to air their views.
The officials told me that anyone could book the facilities and that that person, or organisation, could decide who attends, and on any subject matter they decided upon.
I was also told by the manager that he had not learned that it was restricted to females only until Mr Dimbleby had announced it the previous evening.
I pointed out to the staff that I felt they should cancel the booking because the BBC had excluded males in our publicly-owned town hall.
My anger has subsided. I have now begun to think who will make up the invited audience. I am presuming there will be a true cross-section of the local population as the programme always boasts.
The ‘Unlikely List’ in no particular order:
Mothers, wives, sisters and girlfriend of:
Drug addicts or drug pushers;
Benefit fraudsters;
Burglars;
Teachers, health workers and other public servants: frightened to death that they will lose their jobs for publicly speaking the truth.
Mothers, wives or daughters from traditional Asian religious communities with their faces covered – who’s going to frisk them in case they are men?
Wives, girlfriends of Eastern Europeans; they are unlikely to speak English;
Karen Matthews – isn't she still doing porridge, or will they let her out in time for the broadcast?
Mothers of our schoolchildren and sporting youth that bring credit to Dewsbury; they'll be busy getting their children’s kit ready for school or the weekend activities, or attending various committee meetings at schools and sporting clubs.
The ‘Likely List’, or what's left:
Middle aged, middle class ladies from the great and the good;
The ladies of various establishment organisations, eg Women's Institute, Churches Together and, perhaps, a few charity workers and do-gooders;
Organisations and members for whom I have a great deal of respect;
Councillors, I think we have only one;
Solicitors, they should be plentiful.
So, it looks like there will be plenty of empty places in the hall and the attendances will hardly be a cross-section of the community.
I have no doubt the BBC will be inviting carefully-selected imported members of the audience from outside our town to support the programme.
Well, I shall watch the programme when it is broadcast and that will be the last one I do until the BBC announce that they will be broadcasting another Question Time from Dewsbury for men only.
I am now beginning to think about the questions that will be asked.
Then again, I am playing golf early tomorrow morning and I do not intend to stay awake tonight.
I guess that’s a question of one’s priorities.
Spare a thought
From: Hazel M Byard, Mirfield
Dear Sir,
Although I am a resident of Mirfield, I do not know Barbara Harrison personally (Forum last week), but she seems to be a formidable and competent lady: a former town councillor, ward secretary and currently fundraiser for the Conservative Party in Mirfield living comfortably.
Has she ever given a thought about other pensioners who are not so fortunate or well informed?
Thousands of other people in our society, either through pride or lack of knowledge, do not claim the benefits to which they are entitled.
This can make a world of difference to someone struggling to survive in a global recession from which we are just emerging.
I think our MP Shahid Malik has done a great job with the Pensioners’ Day initiative, where hundreds of people got help in an informal, friendly atmosphere.
As a point of information, it is just not practicable to target those in need of help without a general mailshot to those in the age group concerned.
I did not need to visit the Pensioners’ Day, like Barbara Harrison, but hundreds did. I would say that was money well spent.
I have received unsolicited missives from Simon Reevell, saying almost nothing but platitudes from David Cameron with a huge photograph of himself with the simple message of ‘I will cut the deficit’ with no details on which services the axe will fall.
It seems to me that voting for anyone on such data is akin to ‘buying a pig in a poke’ as the old Yorkshire saying goes.
Bumpy ride
From: Name and address supplied
Dear Sir,
In last week’s article ‘Villager Gets The Hump’ you only told us part of the story, thereby leaving more questions than you answered.
Why is it that a council that can hardly afford to mend our disgusting roads appears always to have a bottomless pit of money for humps?
If we want potholes mended we must wait for years, but if we want humps we can have them next week.
Why is it that the same council tolerates women parking on both sides of the road when dropping ‘mummy’s little soldier’ at schools within walking distance?
This selfish behaviour reduces the width of a bus route to a single carriageway. I am not surprised parked cars get damaged.
Why do the same stupid women locate child safety seats on the offside of the car and then stand in the middle of the road with the offside rear door wide open while they unstrap their ‘little precious’ from the seat?
Surely it’s not rocket science to realise that it would be far safer and less selfish to unload them onto the pavement from a seat located on the nearside.
Why is it that cars have to be tested every 12 months when three years old but roads can go for years in a grossly unsatisfactory condition?
Why don’t we follow the example of the council and plead that lack of money prevents us from keeping our cars in acceptable condition?
As a newspaper providing us with answers, why not put these questions to the council and print their replies, preferably prior to an election?
A town in union
From: Peter Makin, Oakenshaw, formerly of Westtown
Dear Sir,
I was delighted to read new flagpoles will be installed as part of the refurbishment of Dewsbury Town Hall. Let us hope the Union flag flying from it will be big enough to be seen.
When I complained the present flag was too small, I was told the roof couldn’t take the weight of a bigger one.
I couldn’t understand what they were talking about at the time, but I’m prepared to let that one pass.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank councillors Paul Kane and Eric Firth for supporting my campaign to fly the national flag all year round, and I know I can trust them to make sure a bigger flag will soon be flying from our town hall, and not a postage stamp-sized one.
I also hope they will order a big search for the five flags they spent good money on, which supposedly went missing.
If they cannot find them, don’t forget that Eric Box funeral directors and myself offered to pay for a new, larger one. The offer still stands. There is a recession on and Kirklees are making cut-backs, so it would make sense for them to take us up on the offer.
A great deal of our heritage, pride, respect, culture and identity, and what we believe in and fight for, are fast disappearing, so please don’t let it happen to our national flag.
Let us hope that all the buildings in Kirklees will eventually be flying larger flags.
Excellent exhibition on a pioneering woman
From: Imelda Marsden, Mirfield
Dear Sir,
Well done again to the Red House Museum curator and staff for an informative and interesting exhibition into the life of Mary Taylor, an independent Yorkshirewoman with a lifetime of national and international achievement now on at the museum in Gomersal until April 18 – not to be missed. Mary Taylor was a school and lifelong friend and inspiration to Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte stayed at the family home of the Taylors, Red House, and depicted the family in her novel Shirley.
Mary Taylor was a woman who lived an unusually independent and adventurous life for a woman of her time, teaching English to boys in Germany. She was one of the early settlers in New Zealand and started a business.
She returned back to Gomersal after making a good living. She then led women’s mountaineering expeditions in Europe, wrote many magazine articles and also wrote a novel. Mary was an outstandingly brave woman and an equal to be remembered in her own right to Charlotte Bronte.
This year the Gaskell Society are to celebrate 200 years since writer Elizabeth Gaskell’s birth and her name is to be added to the poets’ corner in Westminster Abbey – which is long overdue.
She met Charlotte Bronte in 1850 and wrote her life story. Elizabeth wrote many novels and some have been serialised on television such as Cranford recently. She also lived an interesting life and is also one of the famous British women writers’ known worldwide.
Also this year it is 175 years since the death of Rev John Buckworth, vicar at Dewsbury Minster (then called All Saints’ Church), from 1806 to 1835 who was an outstanding vicar and Patrick Bronte was curate at the church to Rev Buckworth for two years from 1809 to 1811.
Stop the rot
From: Kevin Maguire, Batley
Dear Sir,
I was born and bred in Dewsbury and I am proud of this.
When one goes into the town you will find that it is soulless. What can the town Fathers do? The money must be found or else...
Lib Dems will let
public know the truth
From: Andrew Hutchinson, Lib Dem prospective Parliamentary candidate for Dewsbury and Mirfield
Dear Sir,
With regards to the abandonment of the cancer unit at Dewsbury District Hospital.
It is disappointing to say the least that the unit won’t be going ahead, particularly as some existing services were taken away from the hospital on the back of that “promise”.
I would now hope that we won’t see further transference of the services currently offered in Dewsbury.
We are “categorically” assured that Dewsbury hospital will not be closed but I do worry that the Trust intends to run services down.
The could mean eventually reducing the size of the hospital and offering a glorified clinic service with some operations undertaken there, but the majority going to Wakefield and Pontefract, which will be very detrimental to many patients and their families.
If I am chosen as the next MP, one of the very first things I will do is call a meeting with the Trust to find out exactly what their intentions are and I will let the public know the truth.
It goes without saying that I and the Lib Dems will fight any reduction in services.
Where would you cut?
From: Derek Cartwright, Batley
Dear Sir,
A few years ago I was opposed to having Batley Town Hall’s cash office moved to the library.
I would have preferred the service moved to the Post Office or elsewhere locally. Yet I would have sold off the Town Hall, because whilst reflecting the area’s heritage, I had to question if it filled a useful purpose today.
One sensible alternative was to move a public service from Huddersfield to Batley, but that’s not happened.
Now Kirklees are looking for cost savings and redundancies at the cash office are suggested. Many will be opposed to any cuts in public services, and argue to preserve services.
I find myself asking if public services are better today than they used to be? And I think not, fortnightly bin collections, poorer public parks, poorer public transport ... well, it is certainly more expensive.
So why cuts?
In 1976 there were 1.6m employed in the state sector of central and local government, in 1983, 1.5m ... Thatcher. Now after Blair/Brown ... wait for it! 7.2m in 2007.
Good grief, no room for cuts?
The positive of the time from 1976 to 2007, firstly there were 22.5m jobs, as opposed to 26.4m. Yes more jobs, you’ve just seen where some are.
Employment in the non-government sector was 20.1m in 1976 and was 19m in 2007, though in the last year or so it has shrunk, as we all know.
Manufacturing has declined from employing 7.2m in 1976 to 2.8m in 2007.
There has been an increase in employment in one sector and that has been in the service industries, more specifically in hotels, restaurants, and catering.
This area employed 2.7m and in 2007, employed 6.2m. It must be less pubs and more hotels and take-away outlets. You think who is likely to be employed there?
Exclude this sector and the Government from the figures and employment has gone from 16.5m in 1976 to 12.8m in 2007.
The public deficit is so huge, there has to be cuts and public sector pay restraints. There is also the public sector pension problem to be tackled.
So what would you cut in central and local government? We are where we are, not where we might all like to be!
Urgent action needed
From: Richard J Morris, Dewsbury
Dear Sir,
Following the plethora of letters regarding the atrocious condition of bollards on roads across the Dewsbury area, I had expected we would now be seeing improvements.
I’m sorry to say there still seems to be little change, with blackspots being Huddersfield Road (Ravensthorpe to Mirfield), Savile Road, Wakefield Road (out as far as the Ossett boundary) and Dunbottle Lane (Mirfield).
On a more positive note, I see new self-luminating bollards being put up along Savile Road, adjacent to Thornhill Lees Parish Church. However, the grime of recent weeks has now taken its toll as they require cleaning.
Finally, can I now ask Highways how long must we wait before Calder Road in Ravensthorpe is resurfaced?
Unless urgent repairs are carried out, I fear Kirklees will be bombarded with compensation claims from repairs to car suspensions and failed MOTs.
Do more, councillors
From: David Wells, Batley
Dear Sir,
I refer to the Batley News front page story of February 18 which urges everyone to donate £5 to save town centre shops.
Instead of asking us all the time for £5 or two per cent here or there, why don’t the councillors get off their backsides and do something?
The rent and rates are far too expensive for small businesses. They cannot compete with the likes of Tesco. Give them a chance.
All you councillors were rubbing your hands together when Tesco came to Batley. How many thousands do they pay to Kirklees in rates etc?
Sorry. Of course all that money goes to Huddersfield, not Batley.
Will someone ask the Asian community to shop in Batley town centre?
Come on, councillors. What about a Wilkinsons or B&M store where Woolworths used to be?
These two stores do well in Morley and are not far from Morrisons. If we get that then maybe we will get a butchers or a greengrocers back in Batley.
Councillors of Kirklees go to Morley town centre. It’s a lovely shopping centre and no cars. You may just learn something from Leeds Council.
Mayor of Mirfield David Pinder on civic life in the town
There have been numerous articles and items on the radio and TV recently concerning local councils and the 'spectre' of cuts and redundancies.
The initial temptation, I'm sure, is to laugh and say 'serves them right'. In many ways that is understandable but – as always – the real issue is more complicated.
Large councils are the ultimate bureaucracies. National governments do, at least occasionally, have to deal with problems which require instant and painful decisions – decisions which have obvious dire consequences if they are wrong.
Local councils operate in a much less dramatic arena. That is not to say that they are not important but they can get away with more in terms of mistakes and waste.
Few who work in them accept this but compared to the real world, they have it cushy!
However they do have large budgets and equally large responsibilities and they DO have thousands of hard-working employees.
However there are also huge pay disparities between the more senior executives and the 'coalface' workers – but where is the axe most likely to fall?
When I was running relatively-large organisations I used to say that the two most important people in the building were the person who cleaned the toilets and the receptionist – I could do without any other individual for weeks!
The most important people in a council are the people who actually deliver the services; the dustmen (or whatever they are called these days – residential environmental waste disposal operatives?), the library staff and the care workers for example.
There are far too many layers of managers managing managers. Too many office-bound planners and others whose job title tells you nothing about what they actually do!
If planned properly, there is no need for any truly essential council worker to lose their job or for any service to suffer.
But if any council says it can make savings and still deliver the same level of services, what they are actually saying is: ‘We were too idle and wasteful to be efficient before but now our backs are against the wall we've discovered we can do better!’
Bureaucracies are wonderful. Many years ago a chum was posted to the MOD. Finding his office a little spartan, he brought a large Persian rug from home and his wife bought four pot plants to brighten the place up a bit. Bad decision!
He was hauled in front of the general and told the civil servants had complained.
The general's aide explained that his level (lowly captain) and its civil service equivalent were entitled to only a small plain rug and ONE pot plant.
Civil servants would be confused if they walked into his office, as they might think him more senior than he actually was! The rug and three of the plants had to go!
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