Friday's Letters: What life is really like for a hard-working student

Contrary to the majority view that students are parasitic, drunken hoodlums, whose studying credentials go as far as a night on the tiles and subsequent visit to a grotty takeaway establishment, I would like to declare that, as a student, this negative generalisation is light years away from the truth.

Living in a one-bedroomed flat with my girlfriend, I very rarely get the chance to go out and experience the high-tempo nightlife that Leeds has to offer.

Ah, so I must be under the thumb? Actually, no. Having had one night out since December, I am resigned to the fact that my time at university will be spent with my head in my books or staring at my laptop screen.

With the little spare time I do have, evenings and weekends, I work 20 hours per week in order to pay for the bare essentials needed to survive.

Unlike some students in this country, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I come from a working-class background in Liverpool, and am the eldest of seven children.

I was taught from an early age to work for my money, as nothing in life is handed to you on a plate.

My parents cannot afford to fund me through university, therefore, the loans I receive are essential as without these I would not be able to afford accommodation in the city.

It galls me that while I work a 20-hour week and spend four days a week at university to try to make a better life for myself in the future, many of my peers need not work as they have the "Bank of Mum and Dad" at their disposal.

Sure, there are negative connotations surrounding most groups in our society today. Teenagers who wear "hoodies" are labelled as yobbish tear-aways, when the reality is that the vast majority are doing no harm and the wearing of the hood is simply a craze or fashion

statement.

Similarly, not all students are anti-social, drunken louts which

appears to be the widespread belief of the great British public.

I am proud of achieving a place at my chosen university and I refuse to be embarrassed to label myself as a student because of the minority who have spoilt it for us all.

Students should be praised for their academic achievements, not victimised because of a generalisation.

From: Michael Hoban, Victoria Road, Headingley, Leeds.

Radical look at 'after hours' GP service

From: D Birch, Smithy Lane, Cookridge, Leeds.

LISTENING to a senior member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, they are still not happy with the employment of the European General Practitioners and others coming to work in NHS Direct "after hours".

They and the NHS have the people who could cover the problem if they would use them and who speak English and who are trained by the NHS Trusts up and down the country.

The people who I am writing about are the medical students doing their final year. Surely at this stage of their training they are more than capable of handling the visits, which is where the problem is, and I think they would welcome the opportunity.

Should they come across something they are unsure about and are not capable of handling, phone calls could be made to the GPs in that area they are working in and who would be on a rota system, which would not be very many times even in a full year, if they all agreed to

participate.

They should be able to sort the diagnosis out and make the necessary recommendation. Failing that, a designated phone number to an A&E department at the nearest hospital could help.

It would make a final year for a student much more interesting and useful. Plus the fact they would be getting a fee, helping them to clear some of the debt they accumulate in their training.

The NHS could also add more "doctors" to do the job for most probably a little less money than they pay out for some of the less competent

people they use.

This does, of course, leave a problem as to prescribing the necessary drugs.

Our pharmacists in chemists that are, of course, privately owned, are well trained on practical medicine and should be invited into a scheme of this sort. They could ensure that a check is done with the student doctor, if necessary, of anything prescribed that may be questionable.

I appreciate that it is a bit radical since in the period of a student's last year he or she will not be qualified fully as a doctor. But the work he or she has done will be known by the trusts and the Royal College and can't do any more harm than is being done already.

As far as the general public is concerned, I am sure they would welcome the much better "after hours" service than the one currently offered.

Praise for hospital

From: Christine M Haigh, Barkisland, Halifax.

I HAVE been at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary for one week unexpectedly and, in view of the highlighted negatives in the NHS, I wish to write and tell of my experience.

I went to A&E, Halifax, one day at 5am and was sent off to Huddersfield by ambulance and registered in Ward 10, a lovely four-bed ward.

Throughout that week I cannot fault anything. The cleanliness has been most fastidious, the nurses have been immensely kind, helpful and diligent while I have been in their care, both in a medical sense as well as friendly and approachable.

I have had a team of doctors who have explained my condition and in no case was I to be discharged until they were satisfied.

Any food I ate during the latter stages of my internment was delicious and hot.

So thank you to all in the NHS – from doctors to cleaners and, of course, the nurses themselves, who must be trained to be patient and pleasant, regardless of how they are aggravated at times.

When one is not very well, kindness, cleanliness and efficiency is really appreciated.

Speaking out on city accents

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

MY wife and I fell about laughing at a Travelodge poll (Yorkshire Post, April 12) which named the sexiest city accents.

I can just see Rab C Nesbit preening himself on hearing that Glasgow came near the top. Geordies are apparently the most sexy speakers.

Would that be as demonstrated by Cheryl Cole or Jimmy Nail?

Bradfordians should boycott Travelodge forthwith. Inexplicably, their accent is deemed to be only surpassed in awfulness by Brummie and Wolverhampton-speak.

What a load of rubbish; West Yorkshire is the purest accent in Britain. JB Priestley, whose rich Bradford tones are recorded for posterity and Halifax's Wilfred Pickles, an excellent newsreader, must be spinning in their graves.

Brewery scam – and a happy ending for pub family

From: Frank Collins, Dog & Partridge Inn, Forest Hill Road, Holywell Green, Halifax.

THANK you for the interesting history of JM Appleyard concerning the Seth Senior Brewery (Yorkshire Post, April 12).

Bentley & Shaw, of Lockwood, Huddersfield, took Seth Seniors in 1946, and Hammonds took both 12 months later.

My late father, John William Collins, was a tenant of Seniors from 1932 to 1954. Through a relative of the Seniors, my father tried to buy the Grey Horse, but Bentley & Shaw would not sell it to him. I remember the price, 100,000, which Seniors sold out for.

In 1954, a scam was operating in Hammonds where the checker-in, draymen and some tenants were involved. The draymen would take 5 cash from a tenant and credit the tenant's returns (empties) to 15 – the tenant making 10 extra profit. My father was approached to participate in the fraud but refused.

However, during this period, Hammonds supplied bottled Double Diamond, but only one case per week/per pub. Father would sell these the same day and customers clamoured for more.

Through a bottler in Halifax (Buckland's) father bought Double Diamond – possibly five or six cases each week. Fortunately, father retained the invoices as proof – but this was invalidating his contract by buying from other sources.

Eventually, the scam was exposed because the brewery (on paper) was showing it had more bottles and cases than it had in stock. Several tenants were given their notice and the checker and draymen sacked.

If my father had returned the empties to Buckland as my mother recommended instead of returns to Hammonds, he would not have been accused of being in the scam.

However, Hammonds believed my father's denial of the scam but he had broken his contract and was given notice to quit the Grey Horse, in Birchencliffe.

This depressed my parents but did eventually lead to acquiring the Dog & Partridge, Sowood, which is still operating under myself and my niece.

Here's hoping it remains in the Collins' family for another 50 years or more.

Deadly risks in sport of kings

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

I AM no mindless sentimentalist over animals but I think it's time for a few home truths about horse racing.

The other day I saw some idiot on TV licking his lips over the depth of a ditch in the Grand National.

Personally, I think it is nauseating to force beautiful animals around a course which is literally a deadly risk for them.

It would be interesting to hear how many horses have had to be

destroyed since this race started. I'll bet the figures would be disturbing and even shocking.

Another fact that never seems to hit the headlines is what happens to those horses who fail to justify their owner's hopes by finishing down the field. There are no prizes for guessing the answer to that one.

Racing the sport of kings? I think not.

Tories are the team to back

From: Mrs Jennifer Jezewski, Beacon Brow, Bradford.

MY advice to everyone regarding the forthcoming General Election is not to listen to any more of Gordon Brown's "pie in the sky" promises.

Look instead at Labour's record concerning immigration, education, finances, Europe, the state of our hospitals, post offices, industry and employment – it is not a happy picture.

Then ask yourself can this country survive with another five years of our Prime Minister, spin doctors, a young, practically unknown Cabinet and some very silly women politicians?

The Conservatives have a fine, capable, intelligent team, with the ability to set this country back on its feet.

From: JF Taylor, Butterwick on the Wolds, Weaverthorpe, Malton.

I AGREE so much with GP Taylor's article (Yorkshire Post, April 10). Why does he not stand for Parliament as an independent and make his voice heard over a bigger area even than God's own county?

Just for the record, we are not related.

Sad retreat

From: Carol Rawson, Hallcroft Drive, Armthorpe, Doncaster.

WELL said to Michael Booth (Yorkshire Post, April 13) on the retreat by the MoD and Army chiefs on the use of structures allegedly resembling mosques on Bellerby Ranges, near Catterick. The majority in this country agree: yes, let's ban a lot of the current human rights legislation. Support our Armed Forces.