Tuesday's Letters: Church peddles system of beliefs long past its sell-by date

Fr McNicholas's views are very much what one would expect of a Roman Catholic priest, indeed very cogent, but he must expect his no doubt sincere views to be challenged by the vast majority of UK citizens who live secular lives and have no interest in, or respect for, organised religion.

Fr McNicholas's views on abortion aside, he makes much of the right to die via euthanasia or assisted suicide. Here I must take up cudgels against him as I hold diametrically opposite opinions – my own formed by a practical, life-changing experience.

Briefly, my late mother developed Alzheimer's disease some six years ago and I looked after – nursed – her at home for some five years until her admittance into a nursing home.

I watched her change over that period from a cheerful, smart, intelligent lady into a 93-year-old gibbering wreck.

If the law had allowed it – as it already does in qualified circumstances in the Netherlands and Belgium – I would certainly have had my mother's life terminated by whatever medical means possible.

Coloured by witnessing these events, I have recently made a living will and have left written instructions with my doctor that, should I show symptoms of dementia and the law has changed, I want to be allowed to die a peaceful and dignified death at a time of my own choosing.

Fr McNicholas and his colleagues are peddling a belief system long past its sell-by date, one which is ignored by the vast majority of the UK population. It is time for us to have an open, mature forum on the subject of euthanasia and assisted suicide in which the Christian churches may have their say, but not expect their views to prevail in a largely secular society which is no longer a slave to religious dogma.

We are no longer credulous medieval peasants and can nowadays think for ourselves!

From: PJ Gray, Shelley Grove, Sprotborough, Doncaster.

The lessons that matter for school pupils

From: Leo Winkley, Head Master, St Peter's School, Clifton, York.

I HAVE no real issue with the E-Bacc itself: I would fully endorse the value of a rounded education, the emphasis on academically serious core subjects and the desirability of a modern foreign language. However, any published league tables should enlighten and not confuse. They should also be fair (Yorkshire Post, January 13).

Aside from marvelling at the grotesque clumsiness of these tables, whose bogus terms present our 2010 pupils' 100 per cent five or more A*-C rate as 32 per cent, I cannot understand the narrowness of the Humanities subjects promoted in the E-Bacc. Geography and History make the grade but I am baffled that Religious Studies is not considered worthy.

At St Peter's, Religious Studies is one of our compulsory GCSE subjects, challenging young people to think for themselves and consider issues from religious, ethical and philosophical perspectives. On what grounds does the Government deem Religious Studies to be an outlying subject? If Religious Studies is not a Humanities subject, what is it?

From: John G Davies, Alma Terrace, East Morton, Keighley.

JOHN Roberts briefly passes over the question, is it the schools that are failing the pupils in Barnsley, Bradford and Hull or is it the pupils who are failing the schools? I would like to pose the question; is it the system that fails both of them (Yorkshire Post, January 13)?

Where there is an attitude of pass or fail, rather than culture of aiming for continual improvement; where there is an attitude of academic rigour rather than culture of relevance it is inevitable that some will fall by the wayside. Who is going to pick them up and help them to live a useful and fulfilling life?

Regarding the spreads of achievement between schools and between individuals OECD surveys consistently show that England has one of the greatest differences between the best and the worst. Could it be anything to do with the plethora of school types that we have here?

Starting with the most recent, there are free schools, academies, specialist colleges, comprehensives and so on with at least another half dozen types. These provide the smoke and very carefully arranged mirrors that protect the privileged private schools and allow Con Dem ministers to condemn schools and teachers providing further protection and camouflage for their iniquitous privileges.

Korea, Finland and Alberta, which perform highly overall, have much more liberal, egalitarian and homogenous systems in which private education is irrelevant. Michael Gove imports one irrelevant aspect, which suits his free market theology, from Sweden, which performs little better than us. What hope is there? Little, I fear – just when English education was beginning to recover from the straightjacket of Thatcherism, it is being incarcerated once more.

Compassion for savers

From: Brian Waddington, Dukes Wharf, Terry Avenue, York.

ONCE again, the Bank of England has maintained a base rate of 0.5 per cent for the 22nd month running (Yorkshire Post, January 14).

Reports published indicate that only one member of the Monetary Policy Committee ever supports an increase. So once again borrowers gain and savers lose.

The current inflation rate is 3.3 per cent and the RPI, which includes housing costs, is 4.7 per cent.

Yet, on looking at the table of best interest rates in Saturday's Yorkshire Post, excluding five year bonds, there is only one generally accessible account paying as much as three per cent, all the remainder being lower.

Furthermore, almost without exception, the accounts shown bear an astrisk after the rate quoted indicating that this includes an initial bonus. So, in every case, the value of savings diminish in real terms even if all the interest is reinvested. In many cases this is not a practicable proposition as income from savings is required to boost living expenses. Admittedly it is possible to obtain higher rates elsewhere but only by hazarding one's capital. It is a well known maxim that the higher the yield, the greater the risk.

At one time it was possible to safely beat inflation, albeit by a modest amount, by investing in National Savings Index Linked bonds. However some bright spark in the Treasury realised that this was costing the government money and the current issues were withdrawn from sale.

Surely it is now time to reinstate these, even if the rate has to be tied to the lower CPI rather than RPI as hitherto. This would be a popular gesture and show that the Government has some compassion for the ordinary saver as well as the big financial institutions which it continues to support.

From; Doug Laybourne, Waterlooville, Hampshire.

WITH respect to the letter from Tom Howley (Yorkshire Post, January 12), it's time to wake-up to the way we're persistently conned by government administrations.

The rest of the world that really took notice knew that Gordon Brown was the worst British Chancellor ever. He robbed the pension funds for a start, and sold our gold reserves at knock-down prices!

The resultant "fiat-money" involved in "rewarding" the bankers, is a pure scam and an encroachment upon the British taxpayers – he would have known that "bailing-out" the bankers with this money, would be a device to reward their greed and failure.

"Small" people's savings were not saved, by pumping millions of pounds into the banks' coffers. The banks subsequently offered pitiful interest rates on savings and even withheld loans to business in many cases.

Those "measures" (pumping money into banks) did not save millions of people's investments and pensions; it was simply a sleight of hand to give that impression.

Boiler leaves me cold

From; Chris Hinchcliffe, Sheffield.

FURTHER to recent letters regarding the difficulties with condensing boilers, I would like to know when the manufacturers are going to own up to a design fault? We had problems last winter even though our outside pipe was lagged so the installer replaced it with extra thick foam lagging. This winter, the problem has occurred again.

The installer then re-routed the pipe, bringing it back inside the house so that there is only a very short, vertical, well insulated pipe on the outside of the house. The pipe froze again. We now disconnet the pipe and use a bucket when the temperature gets below -5 degrees C. The internet is awash with people asking for a "long term solution" and we have been advised that an electric coil can be fitted, at some cost.

We have been told that the problem with our boiler (a top brand) is that the condensate only drips out, so freezes easily. The installer is at a loss, the installation has been checked by the boiler manufacturer and we have paid a lot of money and cannot leave the house when it is freezing.

If it was a small domestic appliance, I would have returned it as "not fit for use".

Asda profiting at expense of the dairy farmers

From: Kathleen Calvert, Paythorne, Clitheroe, Lancashire.

SUPERMARKET giant Asda insists that its price paid to farmers has increased to 26.25p a litre while its retail milk prices have not changed since last July (Yorkshire Post, January 7).

One of the main reasons for the FFA protests against Asda is the fact that Asda have not changed their retail milk prices since last July when they sparked the savage long-term retail price war which is causing immense damage to British Dairy Farming by devaluing a vital staple food like milk at a time when dairy farmers have had to face huge input cost increases.

What Asda also fail to mention is that they suddenly dropped many of their dedicated farmer suppliers with only three weeks' notice in April 2010, obtaining the lost supply from non-dedicated suppliers at a much cheaper price.

Asda also fail to mention that over the last 10 years they and other retailers have gradually managed to increase their share of the retail price of milk from 19.5 to 34.4 per cent while the percentage received by the farmer who produces the milk, has decreased.

While this case continues, Asda is free to continue to make good profits unhindered at the expense of British dairy farmers and the rural economy.

Executives you can bank on

From: Alan Carcas, Cornmill Lane, Liversedge, West Yorkshire.

IN the whole of the Palace of Westminster last Tuesday, the only person who spoke, and made sense, about banks and bankers' bonuses was Bob Diamond. Sadly, he was too polite. But then Americans are brought up that way.

Yes, we can cut bankers' bonuses and bank profits. Just stop borrowing and lending more, and more, money. Yes, banks should stop employing the best people. Simple!

Mind you, we won't have a banking system worth a damn, and as for industry and commerce, forget it. Let's just have a nice Soviet-style siege economy, so beloved of socialists the world over. Including, seemingly, those idiots, Tories as well, on the Treasury Select Committee.

Then you will have got rid of bankers' bonuses. And everything else too!

Time we started saving the savers

From: Jeffrey Stirke, The Arches, Newton-le-Willows, Bedale, North Yorkshire.

IF saving is the responsible action of individuals, why is it that savers at this moment are having to scrimp and scratch for a decent return, while the feckless spend money as if there's no tomorrow and large bonuses are being paid to so-called unreplaceable individuals?

It is time that Osborne and his team get out into the real world and see for themselves what effect their policies are having on responsible and innocent savers.

Immortality is a turn-off

From: Michael Green, Baghill Green, Tingley, Wakefield.

Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis from University College, London, says: "People who spend excessive amounts of time in front of a screen – primarily watching TV – are more likely to die of any cause" (Yorkshire Post, January 11).

So those of us who spend little time watching television must be less likely to die. Of any cause. Does this mean the good doctor has discovered the secret of eternal life?