Whitehall does not know best when it comes to spending

From: Roger Backhouse, Orchard Road, Upper Poppleton, York.

SIR Bernard Ingham displays his historic “Whitehall knows best” mentality with a gratuitous attack on chief constables and snide reference to local authorities blaming central government for their wastefulness (The Yorkshire Post, October 25). Through working in local government before going to a charity, I realised that waste occurred when Whitehall insisted on set policies for local authorities. Often civil servants had no idea how councils worked nor how to save money.

For example, the Department for Education insisted on towncentre truant sweeps by council officers and the police one September. As any headteacher could have told them, that’s the month when truancy was least likely. An utter waste. Councils had little waste to cut. Instead they saved money in the only way possible by cutting services such as bin collections, social care, children’s services, libraries and parks.

Our pothole-ridden roads are a disgrace. You cannot cut money to councils as the Conservatives have done without damage. The Government’s interference in education with its academies programme is another classic waste with sky-high salaries for academy chiefs. No local democratic control at all, as we’ve seen in Wakefield. Sorry Sir Bernard, wrong again.

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

IN 2015 the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, argued that the 2008 financial disaster was a ‘banking crisis pure and simple’.

The Conservatives have continually blamed Gordon Brown and the Labour government for this in a desperate attempt to make political capital.

However George Osborne has now congratulated Mr Brown’s handling of the crisis, finally conceding it started in the US.

This nails the lie of blaming Labour’s spending.

From: Peter Fawcett, Cleckheaton.

SIR VINCE Cable’s words in regard to the EU are irrelevant. We, the people, of this country took part in a democratic vote. And we voted to leave the EU.

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen, First Lane, Anlaby.

IF the Tories believe Jacob ReesMogg would galvanize the votes of the young, they really are living in cloud-cuckoo land. He’s better suited to playing Bertie Wooster.