Fuel for thought A selfless hero

Region must be more strategic The OAP who tried to save Jo Cox

THE DEVOLUTION debate is even more significant because of Brexit. Though individuals have differing views on the opportunities and uncertainties that exist, Yorkshire cannot afford to be marginalised. Exports are vital to the future of the region’s economy while it is EU grants, as the IPPR North think-tank points out, that have helped to fuel the green energy industry and driven forward the regeneration of cities like Hull.

It’s all the more reason for Yorkshire to have the right leadership in place. This region’s agenda, and interests, needs to be championed with the BERNARD KENNY will always be remembered as the most unassuming of national heroes. Though the have-a-go pensioner won the world’s respect for the brave and courageous manner in which he risked his own life to confront the murderer of Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox outside Birstall Library, it was never lost on him that he came to public prominence in the most tragic of circumstances.

Yet his quiet dignity – he remained a private man who shunned the limelight – represented the very best of human decency. The family of the late Mrs vigour that the likes of Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham are demonstrating when it comes to London and Greater Manchester respectively. It’s the same with the devolved nations. The battle for infrastructure investment will be even more hard-fought in the years to come. And it’s also important that partnership opportunities here are developed. Could, for example, Sheffield’s pioneering work on advanced manufacturing assist Siemens in Hull? If anything, Brexit means Yorkshire will have to become even more strategic in its political outlook. Cox put it best of all – he was a “shining example of Yorkshire and British bravery”.

The fact that the former miner’s selflessness earned the George Medal for gallantry, the highest possible civilian honour, and that so many people took to social media to offer their own tributes to Mr Kenny, speaks volumes about the high esteem in which he was held.

Yorkshire is all the poorer for Mr Kenny’s passing at the age of 79, but such affectionate expressions of sympathy can only comfort his family as they come to terms with their loss. EU owes its very existence to Britain and Sir Winston From: AD Sutcliffe,

AFTER watching an excellent programme commemorating Passchendaele, what a waste of young lives. For what? We can only speculate how things would have turned out should Germany have been victorious in 1918.

Not so if Hitler had won in 1945. If you had been coloured, of certain religions, sexuality, or ancestry, I doubt your families would still be living in Continental Europe as we know it today.

Post-war it was proposed From: Dr John Puntis,

has done an excellent job in highlighting how Private Finance Initiative deals are crippling NHS hospitals

August 12). Despite examples such as the final bill for Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals being five times what they cost to build, rather than jeopardise their jobs by criticising Department of Health policy, chief executives will happily repeat the mantra that PFI is “good value for money”.

Far from providing state of the art facilities, PFI builders cut corners and then hold the NHS hostage over maintenance costs. Before the Grenfell Tower disaster, a number of PFI hospitals were identified as major fire risks, including Coventry and Peterborough.

PFI is a big part of the privatisation that is killing our NHS. According to HM Treasury, PFI costs at least twice as much as when projects are Government funded. In addition, public services end up no longer owned by or accountable to citizens. It is right to characterise these contracts as scandalous, with national spending on repayment and service charges now an eye-watering £3,700 every minute.

If the misjudgements of the past are not to be repeated, Government must be prepared to put money into public services. Instead, Ministers constantly mislead the public about the dire state of NHS funding, which according to NHS Clinical Commissioners is projected to fall £330m short of what is needed by 2020. From: Irene Wilde,

FRACKING could not only be a danger to our health but also lead to mass unemployment.

The North Yorkshire site is just one example of great concern.

I believe that it is proposed to dispose of the waste water from to create a Common Market in Europe, which we voted for. This is what the greatest modern European, Sir Winston Churchill, said at the time.

He wanted the countries of Continental Europe to come closer together in union and co-operation and if they wished it to the point of merging into a United States of Europe. Britain, he said, would be a friend and co-operator, but Britain, with its dominions and empire, would not – and could not – be part of that European close combination. To the EU

Starved of capital, trusts are left with no alternative but to resort to PFI for new building. The Tories are now implementing the Naylor report to sell off NHS assets and further expand borrowing and debt in another round of PFI-type deals. The public must say no to Naylor and demand from politicians an end to PFI, with existing contracts being renegotiated or taken over by the Treasury and the money saved put into patient care.

From: Peter Skuse,

THE current debate over PFI is long overdue. It is an appalling example of how politicians, civil servants and national agencies can combine to fool all of the people some of the time.

PFI originated as a dodge to keep borrowings for national and local infrastructure projects off the Government’s balance sheet. It was embraced enthusiastically by Messrs Blair and Brown as one of the best ways of funding overspending and is planned to continue – despite interest rates being at record lows.

Every PFI project should be examined immediately to see if it should be renegotiated as a matter of urgency. To spend £76m on Calderdale Hospital and now fracking in North Yorkshire using 300 lorries a day to transport the contaminated water to a treatment works in Leeds.

This has to be wrong on all levels, environmentally and socially, and of course increasing the congestion on the roads.

I also believe that the treatment works that could negotiators demanding that we pay huge amounts of money to leave the EU, I say you owe us your very existence.

From: John Fisher,

THE delays at EU borders drew the usual critical remarks and the farcical request for our instant departure from the EU. It would be wise to take some time to consider the following questions.

Where is the Prime Minister who introduced the referendum which created Brexit? Where is pay £26m a year is a criminal waste of taxpayers’ money.

Even worse, the deficit created by such a decision is now acknowledged to be the reason for the plan to leave an area as big as Kirklees with a 64 bed hospital.

Even worse than that, the new plans are to be financed by PFI “because there is no public money”. What sort of money makes the repayments? Martin Barkley, the chairman of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, is quoted by you as saying “for that money though, the local population and staff have the benefit of being served by two new, modern fit for purpose hospitals”. Tosh. What actually happened is that the construction costs of two necessary new hospitals were financed by terribly bad value deals which have never been reviewed because renegotiation might add to public borrowing figures.

Danny Boyle was right in 2012 to highlight the NHS as possibly Britain’s greatest invention of the 20th century. What a terrible shame that the dedication and commitment of medical staff is threatened by the incompetence of those politicians, civil servants and administrators. Do what everyone else does – renegotiate the mortgage quickly. Pinderfields Hospital was one of those built under the PFI scheme, and where costs are now hitting home. be used has, in the past, been unable to cope with current demand. Effluent has also been responsible for contaminating the river and poisoning fish.

Apart from the unknown effects which continuous pounding of the earth will bring and the chemicals used, I am concerned about the impact the former leader of Ukip who supported Brexit? Where is Ukip, the party who thrived on Brexit?

If Brexit was such a popular idea, it appears to have suffered a serious lack of support and this has now raised the prospect of a new political party to exit Brexit.

From: John Cole,

RECENT polls show that if there were a referendum today on EU membership the vote for “Remain” would be between 52 and 56 per cent. At the same time Have you taken a stunning photograph of everyday life in and around Yorkshire? For a chance to be featured, email your image, along with your contact details and a brief description of the image, to (Please label your email “My Picture Post”. Image format: Hi-res JPEGs only). From: Mrs S Abbott,

RE negative reports about Leeds Bradford Airport, I would like to say that for the first time recently I had to book special assistance for my husband.

The service provided by OCS was exemplary, my husband in his wheelchair being taken through check-in, passport control and security straight to a special lounge area.

He was then taken onto the aircraft in a special lift and the staff really looked after us which made our flight via Jet2 to Duesseldorf stress free. The same good service was provided on our return. Not such a good service I read from Heathrow and other airports. From: Gary Craig, THREE issues stand out from the campaign against modern slavery promoted by the National Crime Agency.

One is that, despite the increasing amount of information available, most people do not understand that slavery is widespread within the UK, or if they do, don’t know how to spot it.

Second, that modern slavery is found in every form of economic activity in the UK – food, shoes, clothing, social care, fishing, hotels, leisure and construction, for example. Third, that the requirements on companies to investigate and report on slavery in their supply chains is far too weak. It is still too easy for companies, directly or indirectly, to exploit vulnerable workers. upon the housing market. Who in their right mind would buy a house which is going to be fracked under? Indeed who would provide them with a mortgage? Therefore, who would build new homes near such sites if there was no market for them?

I, therefore, urge everyone to oppose fracking for all our sakes. another poll found that 70 per cent of respondents felt that the “Leave” outcome of June last year should be respected and enacted.

This can be explained by a number of “Remainers” feeling that going ahead with Brexit is somehow the democratic thing to do. Such thinking can be classed as generous and gracious. Alternatively it could be viewed as sentimental and sloppy-thinking.

For a variety of reasons (including the shed-load of lies coming from the “Leave” camp), the June 2016 result does not deserve to be respected. High Street, Calver, Derbyshire. Menwith “The Yorkshire Post will lay before the public information both exhaustive and precise.” Hill. Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon, Shipley. Feedback My Picture Post: A view from Sutton Bank, by Rose Habberley. Comments on The Yorkshire Post stories posted on our website, Twitter and Facebook.

Bernard Kenny was a hero, he personified the best of our country; risking his own safety to help others. Our thoughts and love are with his family.

So sad, he was a brave man. He and Jo Cox are badly missed. May they both rest in peace and the perpetrator get his just deserts.

Bless you sir. Would be a much better world if there were more like you.

RIP Bernard. As a Dewsbury lad, I’m proud of you as a fellow son of the heavy woollen valleys. Kenny. a hero. RIP.

RIP Bernard. hear this. Bernard. RIP. Bernard.

RIP. A hero. RIP Bernard So sad and what A real life hero. Airport took away stress Public must say no to PFI after scandal A true hero! So sad.

A truely good citizen. RIP. Melbourne Road, Wakefield. The Avenue, Roundhay, Leeds.

Sad to hear this. RIP. Condolences to his family. THE Yorkshire Post

Oh no, that’s awful. Bless him. (The Yorkshire Post,

A true hero. Park Drive, Huddersfield.

Hero in the true sense of the word.

RIP. Very sad to Rest in peace, Firms need to act on slavery Very sad news.

So sad, condolences to his family.

Emeritus Professor of Social Justice, University of York.

RIP Bernard.

RIP Sir, you will never be forgotten.

Top man. RIP mate. RIP

Greatly saddened. We need more citizens like you. What do you think? Let us know: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk @yorkshirepost facebook/yorkshirepost Horace & Doris NHS ALERT: PICTURE: SCOTT MERRYLEES Fracking would bring nothing but misery Slack Top, Heptonstall, West Yorkshire. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND US YOUR STORIES CONTACTS