YP Letters: Paying price in grip of a bureaucracy

GIVEN the much publicised financial situation of the NHS, and in particular the alleged shortage of Government funding, it would be interesting to know from where the finances allowing the procession of court hearings being indulged in by doctors and bureaucrats at Great Ormond Street Hospital in respect of the Charlie Gard case derive.

Some of us dispute whether this should be a matter for the courts at all, let alone one financed by general NHS funds.

Is this not just another case of ‘we know best’ establishment types dictating in a most impersonal and inhumane fashion – a style of operation which is becoming ever more prevalent at all sorts of levels?

A style of operation where the bureaucrats and politicians demand that the general public do as they are told, and pay for the privilege too – oh and by the way, if you do not do as you are told, you will be fined into the bargain.

From emptying dustbins to car parking, from situations as in Sheffield where trades union legislation has been used to prevent individuals protesting about tree felling all over the city, to spending millions on cycle tracks which no-one wants and very few cyclists use.

Fifty years ago I spent some time behind the Iron Curtain, and have never forgotten the experience. There, bureaucracy ran supreme, and the general public had little or no say in anything.

In one (with the benefit of hindsight) amusing incident, I was refused entry into Czechoslovakia until I had my 1960s-style hair cut.

Thankfully that situation has long gone, but we seem in many ways to be heading down that same track here. If the Charlie Gard case results in his parents being finally over-ruled, the establishment should be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt very much that they will.

If our young people really wish to create a better country for themselves, they could do much worse than ensuring that the present hold that bureaucrats have on our way of life is strongly contested.

Macron a class act

From: Dai Woosnam, Woodrow Park, Scartho, Grimsby.

TRUE, this new Napoleon may well favour more and more centralisation of affairs in the EU and want to punish Britain, but that apart, one has to say that so far, Emmanuel Macron does not seem to have put a foot wrong.

I so appreciate his – and the French people’s – classy courteous reception of Donald Trump... what a contrast to here in Britain, where the out-of-control rabble have kept Trump away with threats of massive protests.

I also love the quality of Macron’s spoken English. We have had two German Chancellors who have had a wonderful command of English: Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt.

But I cannot think of a previous French President who spoke English so well.

Great divide over schools

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston super Mare.

CHILDREN’S success in education depends on where they live. England (north of the Wash) is at the bottom of the scale; ‘Saxland’ (the area south of the Wash) is in the middle; London is at the top, because it is rich and it is favoured.

For England to come up, there will have to be an English parliament in Leeds or Nottingham.

Saxland and England need their own devolved parliaments if they want to be represented in the Brexit negotiations alongside Scotland and Wales.

Degree of waste

From: Robert Holman, Marsden Court, Farsley.

WHAT a sorry state of affairs 
to read the story “Crackdown 
on Student Cheats” on 
students from the ex-polytechnics resorting to cheating to get what is a ‘worthless Mickey Mouse 
degree’ according to CBI members.

What a waste of young lives and our valuable resources.

Chance to end drug trade

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

DRUGS remain a problem in many if not all towns and cities, particular the affect they have on innocent victims of crimes committed by those high as a kite. So why, when British forces were in Afghanistan, didn’t they blitz the poppy fields, cutting off the supply? At least then they’d have been some benefit from this otherwise unnecessary military escapade.

Every right to be on roads

From: A Hague, Leeds.

A RECENT letter told us that cyclists use the same room as a car’s width, but did not say that motorists need more than two car widths sometimes for overtaking. A one metre-wide cycle lane would suffice – that is if nobody parked on it.

Also many cyclists also have a car and do pay road and other taxes. Cycles were on the roads long before cars. We now live in a selfish world, where driving a car is the status symbol of far too many people.

War report

From: Max Nottingham,St Faith’s Street, Lincoln.

KATE Adie was a very good TV reporter from troubled areas of the world.

I have just read her very good book called Fighting on the Home Front. It is about the legacy of women in World War One. It is an eye-opener, well written and well researched. A joy to read!