Letters: 'We pensioners seem to be the lowest form of life'

After one hour of waiting for a response from 101, someone did respond, as I understand it, only because another officer had seen my frustrated post on Facebook.

So, an hour and 20 minutes after the event, a lone officer attended, full of platitudes about Covid generations.

That makes it okay then.

No, there would be no-one at all in Stokesley on the following, Saturday night (after threats to return to put out my windows) as she was part time and “on a rest day”.

I am aware, that as a pensioner, I am currently the lowest of the low but the service we receive from the expensive North Yorkshire Police is shocking.

In my street, the average age must be 65 max.

Again, I reiterate, we pensioners seem to be the lowest form of life under the current regime.

But we are some of the highest tax payers.

L Marsay, Stokesley.

Smoking freedom

SIR Keir Starmer’s Britain has arrived.

We’re finally free from the ridiculous Conservative government and its plans to restrict people’s freedom to smoke.

We now live under a Labour regime with fresh ideas, elected on a manifesto of change, with plans to restrict people’s freedom to smoke.

Little wonder so many people don’t bother to vote.

The much-trailed smoking ban will supposedly apply to public spaces such as pub beer gardens.

It’s argued he’s doing this because of the cost of smoking to the NHS, which in England is £2.6bn annually.

Tobacco duties and VAT collectively yield the Treasury something like £12bn.

Not forgetting however much revenue the Treasury is taking from income taxes through jobs created by the tobacco industry. I’d say the financial benefits far outweigh the costs.

Has Mr Starmer considered the further cost to come when many members of the public inevitably stop frequenting their local pubs?

Eighteen pubs are already closing weekly, taking away all that employment – plus sense of community – with them.

Only one societal section will benefit from this; the black market.

When legal smoking becomes unaffordable, many will turn to cheaper alternatives.

As a non-smoker myself, I wouldn’t encourage any young person to take up smoking.

However, if they’re of a mindset to, I’d rather they did so under a legal, regulated market over an ungovernable, illegal one where they could be smoking anything.

Pubs have taken a hammering for decades.

The taxation they’re subjected to means a bottle of pale ale costs as little as £1 in a supermarket whilst the equivalent pint in a pub costs up to a fiver. These cradles of community and free speech need help, not harm.

After years of being fearful of contact with other humans, the government should really be encouraging people to break from their bubbles and start socialising once more.

Given we’re a nation that has a government, not the other way around, I dare the PM to hold a referendum on this issue.

I reckon the public would overwhelmingly keep smoking in public places.

Though given how badly Mr Starmer wanted the UK to remain in the rejected EU after he didn’t get the result he wanted, perhaps referendums aren’t his thing.

Joseph Lambert, East Cowton.

Winter fuel

SO, Commons Leader Lucy Powell is telling us that the axing of the Winter Fuel Allowance prevented a run on the pound, there was no alternative and the decision was needed to avoid an economic catastrophe.

What a load of tosh!

Does she think that will wash with the electorate? Even Labour voters are squirming with the lunacy of this statement.

If there was to be a run on the pound it would be due to the inflation-busting pay rises given to their union paymasters which must have created the majority of the alleged “black hole” in the country’s finances.

A more equitable solution to the Winter Fuel Allowance would have been to make it a taxable benefit so that the majority would have paid 20 per cent tax and the wealthier 40 per cent, or as suggested by Martin Lewis base it on Council Tax with Bands A to C only receiving the allowance.

Either of the above would eliminate Ms Powell’s fears of economic catastrophe for the pensioners of this country.

Brian Hick, Darlington.

Costs debate

THE debate around winter fuel costs and cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance as a universal benefit continues.

I suggest that CP Atkinson “Rising bills” (D&S Times letters, Aug 30) is wrong to say that £200 has been added to the winter cost.

His comparison is with the current price cap over the summer months when energy costs are much lower.

It is more reasonable to compare the new rates from October 2024 which are £117 less than in October 2023.

In addition, the state pension was increased by £900 in April 2024 giving pensioners a surplus of over £700 after removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance.

John Deacon, Stanley.

Total re-think needed

I THINK there needs to be a total shakedown of the governing machines in this country.

We need to get away from government departments and their associated agencies being run by naïve civil servants and ministers.

If the government want to really make savings or achieve value for money they should bring in people with the relevant experience from industry to run the government departments on a business basis. Examples of this are to employ people from the defence industry to run the Ministry of Defence. They would be responsible to the defence minister – this way you would not have the political defence minister who is more than likely to be susceptible to being blind-sided by a civil servant who may not fully understand the technicalities and procurement of defence equipment.

Another example would be in the case of the transport industry in relation to the construction of railways and roads.

Having qualified commercially experienced people running these departments would prevent overruns and reduce costs as they would look to get the job done right first time, within budget and fit for purpose.

These experienced managers from industry will know how long it takes to do various jobs and would challenge the status quo.

In a similar scenario, the tough questions could be asked as to why a task or project was not on schedule, without the usual excuses such as saying we need more staff.

This I suspect is why the previous government talked about making savings and improving productivity across government, sadly they were not given the opportunity and Labour is already making a hash of the economy by giving in to their paymaster unions.

We are going to end up with a low-quality, third-rate economy with the poor services of a third world country.

Colin Telfer, Darlington.

Over a barrel

WE’RE being held to ransom.

The message from the water industry is ‘’pay up or we’ll pump even more poo into England’s rivers and ecosystems’’.

Water UK’s lobbying for even higher bills proves privatisation has failed for all but the dividend-hungry foreign shareholders. Incidentally Water UK’s chair is the New Labour former minister, Ruth Kelly, so it’s another Establishment stitch-up.

Costs to the consumer have skyrocketed 40 per cent above inflation since Margaret Thatcher put it in private hands. The water companies bleat that if their begging bowl stays empty they will be ‘’unable to raise the new equity investment’’ which would hamper their ability to ‘’deliver the environmental and service improvements needed’’.

Let me translate.

Unless we give foreign profiteers what they want we won’t repair the infrastructure we didn’t build and we’ve allowed to go to wrack and ruin.

They even have the nerve to gripe that water regulator Ofwat has ‘prioritised low bills’ (yes really!) and moan about fines imposed after they pooped up the sea.

Make them face the music! They chose to pay £70bn in post-privatisation dividends rather than plug leaks.

If we give in to the corporate water industry it will add tens of millions to the cost-of-living crisis. Opinion polls show even Tory voters overwhelmingly support re-nationalisation. It’s a simple fix, but is Labour listening?

C Walker, Darlington.

20mph speed limits

TRANSPORT Secretary Louise Haigh encouraging councils to spend money they don’t have on 20mph speed limits makes her the minister for silly spending.

Some 80 per cent of Welsh people oppose and detest them and had the ridiculous re-routing of a cycle race imposed to avoid speed limits being broken.

Our underpaid, overworked, understaffed police don’t even have time to catch shoplifters or burglars, never mind catching speeding cars.

All Nimbys will be happy but wasting money on signs and paint and the time taken for installation is one idea our council would be wise to ignore.

It will cause road rage in impatient drivers – not to mention the fact that slow cars pollute more.

Will the next step be a return to people with flags walking in front of cars?

John Zimnoch, York.

Not fit for purpose

OFSTED inspectors descend on a school and subject pupils and staff to unnecessary stress and inconvenience.

They are not there to offer advice, support, encouragement, or praise but are there purely to find fault.

Their final report is a bureaucratic nightmare based on limited, and often outdated, statistical evidence, brief personal observation, and estimated grades in all subjects based on year nine SATs in English, maths and science.

There is little wonder why teaching recruitment and retention is causing concern, when many leave within five years and few stay longer than ten.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate was always a revered and respected politically independent body of professional expertise but the Ofsted regime adds credence to the old adage – those who can, do, those who can’t, teach, and those who can’t teach, become Ofsted inspectors.

P Holmes, Barnard Castle.