It would have been worse with Corbyn
From: Martin Fletcher, Flanders Court, Thorpe Hesley.
I HAVE voted Tory since around 1975. And I lived in North London. So I am not a Yorkshire lifelong Labour supporter.
Those who voted Tory in this election up here will mostly wish they had not, but Jeremy Corbyn would have been worse.
I do not blame the Conservatives for the Covid-19 virus. No party would have done any better.
I do blame them for most of these other problems. Boris Johnson loyalists are no good if they are useless.
From: Bob Watson, Baildon.
IN a recent column, Dr Mohammed Ali said publicsector organisations should lead in increasing workforce diversity.
Government statistics show 33 per cent of Bradford district’s population is from an ethnic minority background.
However, Dr Ali tells us a recent survey shows the council has 28 per cent of its staff who identify as BAME.
I would have thought that to be a not unreasonable figure at all. Having said that, I really couldn’t care less about workforce diversity. All that should matter is for the best person to get the job. As a Bradford ratepayer, I would not want or expect it any other way.
From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.
I HAVE come to the conclusion Boris Johnson is merely a mouthpiece for Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief aide. To see and hear
Boris is almost akin to watching President Donald Trump.
Neither seems able to answer a question without waffling on, and both seem to do their best to blind the questioner with some science they know little about.
From: Dr David Strain, Co-chair, BMA medical academic staff committee.
FOR universities, student fees alone do not cover the cost of teaching doctors of the future.
With falls in other income since Covid-19, such as charitable research grants, medical schools find themselves under extreme financial pressure, leading to calls for voluntary redundancies and early retirement of staff.
We already have a shortage of senior medical academics and by increasing student places without the necessary support, inevitably quality of medical training will suffer.
This will be to the detriment of all students, who will be impacted by staff-to-student ratios, relationships and mentorship, as well as having implications on the future medical workforce. We know that having medical role models plays a significant part in the specialities students choose.
Add into the mix the challenges posed by Covid-19, such as attending work groups and lectures with physical distancing in place.
We need assurances that any lifting of a cap is matched with resources to help universities manage, to employ the necessary academic staff and to ensure quality and safety is maintained.
In the long term, we also need to address the decline in senior clinical academics by increased support for training and ensuring parity is maintained to retain clinical academics, particularly at mid-career.
We desperately need more doctors and want as many people who show the promise and determination to study medicine to be able to do so, whatever their background.
But we must have assurances that any decision to lift the cap on places is backed with support and funding and looks far beyond this current political crisis.
From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York.
ALL retired politicians should stay out of today’s politics.
They would not have retired in the first place if they still want to do things.
It’s all very well saying what they would do today – which they failed to do when they had the opportunity to do so.