LETTERS

‘Gold-plated’ pensions

I HAvE no objection to the cap being removed from public sector pay, providing they have to provide for their own pensions as we in the private sector must.

Under the chancellorship of gordon Brown, private sector pensions were decimated, while public sector ones flourished.

This has left a lot of low-paid people in the private sector with no pension, other than a measly state pension, while everyone in the public sector has a gold-plated version, paid for by the taxpayer. JOHNMcCORMICK, Allithwaite,Cumbria.

Hat’s entertainment

MAUrICE BLIgH is correct (Letters) when he says most screen villains in Hollywood films have English accents. But it’s not totally due to Anglophobia; it’s to spell out to U.s. filmgoers which character is the baddie.

In the days of silent movies this ploy couldn’t be used, hence in early cowboy films the good guy wore a white stetson and the baddie a black one, to ensure U.s. audiences could distinguish one from the other.

DAVEWILLIAMS, Hyde, Cheshire.

Austerity? Try wartime

wE COnsTAnTLY hear that we are now experiencing austerity. If this is the case, what was the poverty we all suffered during the war and ten years thereafter? A cheap cut of meat on a sunday, if you were lucky, for which you had queued two to three hours.

Dripping sandwiches for lunch every day and bread and jam most nights for ‘tea’; but we could have toast in the winter — if we had any coal for a fire.

Oh, mustn’t forget to mention the bombs falling, courtesy of the germans. And we still survived!

DAVIDBRITTON, FlyfordFlavell,Worcs.

Our blood on their hands

RE ‘ NHS Tainted Blood shame’ (Mail), I was infected with hepatitis C from a contaminated blood transfusion in 1986 and have battled with the debilitating effects ever since.

Articles in leading medical journals as far back as 1984 showed the virus could be screened from blood transfusions. Those infected do not get the information they need to have the best chance of survival — by avoiding environmental agents that can change the virus to fatal liver disease.

I am fighting for compensation through a lawyer and the government scheme and have got £24,500 so far. we have lost about £1 million in earnings and pensions. It has been a battle for survival against those who wish we were dead and forgotten. EDWARDPRIESTLEY,

Brighouse,W. Yorks.

The price of pacifism

WITH regard to Colonel richard Kemp’s article (Mail), george Orwell suggested Kipling neatly summed up the ‘one-eyed pacifism of the English’, in his verse: ‘ Makingmockofuniformsthatguardyouwhilstyousleep,/Is cheaperthanthoseuniformsand they’restarvationcheap.’ It seems that making mock of those uniforms may be ‘cheap’, but it can also be financially rewarding — so long as you are not wearing one. PETERDAVEY, Bournemouth.

Yarl’s Wood luxury?

I WAS pleased to see richard Littlejohn’s column (Mail) recommended the closure of Yarl’s wood Immigration removal Centre. I was less pleased with the rest of the column.

In his enthusiasm for the menu, he seemed to overlook the main cause of distress among the women: their detention and prospective removal, and alleged sexual abuse by staff. I suspect his imagined reader’s anticipation of a holiday at Yarl’s wood might be dampened by the above.

On a side note, I really hope his enthusiasm for the menu was just journalistic licence. If he’s really a fan of pizza, deep-fried cod, chips and cheese sandwiches, he’s staring down the barrel of diabetes. JONBEECH, Director, LeedsAsylum

Seekers’SupportNetwork. CAN anyone tell me how to get into Yarl’s wood? My husband and I are both 75, and have worked and paid taxes for more than 50 years.

we are not eligible for a local authority ‘retirement’ home, as we still own a property. The fact we have an interest-only mortgage to pay off imminently is of no interest to the council. nor is the fact that what little equity will be left after paying debts will mean we will be homeless.

we don’t tick the right boxes. we are not eligible for equity release, (too little equity), so have no choice but to sell and make ourselves homeless in order to be eligible.

I did suggest we went to Calais, and arrived by boat along with other ‘refugees’. But they were not amused.

Our taxes go to young, fit economic migrants who are here illegally and get free shelter, warmth and food.

After years working, and contributing to my area (voluntary school governor, school helper, voluntary parish councillor, active in running local organisations — voluntary, of course) it leaves a bitter taste.

Namesupplied, Devon.

Target fines

IT SEEMS utterly pointless to me to fine councils or charities for misdemeanours. It would be more effective to punish wrongdoing with a fine on the individual involved.

DAVIDWHITE, HerneBay, Kent.

Heroic cliche

WHY are so many people proclaiming that all firemen, nurses, policemen and paramedics are heroes? some are, but many are not.

It’s wrong for the Opposition ranks and its supporters to spray the label ‘hero’ on all emergency services’ personnel. Labour says that if there’s one hero in the fire brigade, they are

all ‘ heroes’; if there is one heroic nurse, all nurses are ‘heroes’; if one policeman is heroic, all officers are ‘heroes’.

Labour is using the word as a weapon to shame the Government into giving five million public servants an unwarranted pay rise. Because everybody is a ‘hero’ in the public domain, Labour says all civil servants deserve an immediate pay rise.

There do not seem to be any ‘heroes’ in the private sector. Mr Derek Arnott,

taunton, Somerset.

Silenced on Grenfell

I have not seen much in the media about Labour MP for Kensington and Chelsea, emma Dent Coad, concerning the Grenfell Tower fire.

Other Labour MPs have had plenty to say on Tv, yet she is the MP for the area. as a former local government councillor, she was on the housing Scrutiny Committee and also on the board of the Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation, although one must accept her comment that she had left by the time the Grenfell refurbishment started.

On her blog, she describes herself as a writer on building design and having an interest in public sector housing. Fair enough. My point is, had she been a Conservative MP with this background, would the BBC have left her alone and, indeed, would her resignation have been demanded by the Left, led by Jeremy Corbyn? Jill Jones, High Peak, Derbys.

Working for coppers?

Shadow Minister Louise haigh said morale among special constables had been hit by pay concerns. That’s odd. They have always been volunteers, and do not receive pay for working in their spare time. M. J. Ludlow, Peterborough, Cambs.