HS2 will shatter our lives and the nation’s finances
It SEEMS the bungalow my wife Joan and I bought 28 years ago for our retirement is directly in the line of the HS2. Our plans are shattered.
While sticking-plaster solutions are applied to the crisis-torn NHS, social care, prison service, police service, rail network, and the rapidly deteriorating road network, it’s still proposed we spend £50 billion on a rail line for which all specialist committees and advisory bodies have stated categorically there is no business case.
Economically, it will have detrimental effects on the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, environmentally it will be a disaster, and as research into such train systems suggests, it will suck more business into the largest city in the network, in this case, London.
In 2004, we spent six days on the Yangtse in China. this was before completion of the three Gorges Dam project. the ultimate level of the river was indicated by a white line near the top of the river bank.
We went by village after deserted village. I felt sad for these displaced Chinese and took comfort from the fact that I lived in a democracy.
the high-handed manner in which HS2 is being imposed has left me empathetic with the Chinese.
I’ve written many letters of protest to various bodies and individuals, including ‘ Failing Grayling’, our incompetent transport Secretary, whose crocodile tears I can do without.
He passed my letter to one of his minions, who sent a standard reply summarising all of the premises on which the project is founded, none of which bore any relationship to the advice and guidance given.
I know thousands of people are equally affected by HS2. the psychological and emotional pressure generated will have a severe detrimental effect on the health of this group of people.
What is more, HS2’ s lack of economic success, which is more or less guaranteed, will bear heavily on succeeding generations. MALCOLM MARSH, Crofton, West Yorks.
VIPs first . . .
THE Government will provide more resources to enable the NHS to cope with the present crisis only when a member of the Government, the Royal Family, a major donor or one of their nearest and dearest suffers a traumatic experience in A&E.
Remember how stalking, which had blighted the lives of many, mainly women, for decades, was made a criminal offence only after a member of the Royal Family became a victim and the perpetrator was acquitted in the courts?
As long as evils are happening to others, it’s easy for those who are ‘all right, Jack’ to turn a blind eye. Nothing will happen to improve social care because these people have enough money to provide for themselves and their dependants.
But in the case of a motor accident (as in the case of the Princess of Wales) all the private health care in the world won’t save you.
You’ll end up in A&E like everyone else and even getting priority attention will only mitigate the effects of overworked staff, overcrowded wards, poor hygiene, MRSA, C.diff and other problems.
Statistically, this is surely bound to happen soon.
JACQUIE PEARCE, Cowes, IOW.
THE problem of bed-blocking in hospitals is a direct consequence of the decision to fund ‘care in the community’ via local councils, rather than the NHS.
this decision immediately created a conflict between the two. For every day a council can delay accepting a patient from hospital, it saves money. Of course it will do so — it would be daft not to.
Patients are being used as pawns in this battle.
the decision was fatally flawed, and the situation won’t be resolved until all care needs come under one organisation.
JOHN SMITH, Warrington, Cheshire.
OVERCROWDING in A&E is a simple matter of arithmetic. In the past 20 years, the UK population has increased by 10 per cent, while over the same period, the number of hospital beds has fallen by 10 per cent.
this decrease didn’t start 20 years ago, but under Mrs thatcher’s administration. What has exacerbated the overloaded A&E issue is the significant decrease in the number of hospital A&E units.
BERNARD RYAN, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
Head for freedom
The story of the dog with its head stuck in railings (Mail) shows that neither the RSPCA inspectors nor the firefighters were paying attention in their first-aid courses. there’s no need to ‘cut the metal bars’ or even delay until the cutting equipment arrives.
When a dog — or a child — gets their head stuck, the head has gone in forwards, narrow end first. When rescuers try to pull the head out backwards, the ears get stuck in the same way as the barb on a fishhook prevents the fish from escaping.
the solution is simple, if inelegant: turn the dog or child upside down. With feet in the air, the face is pointing at the railings and should come through narrow end first.
It might sometimes be possible to turn the dog or child onto their back and let them just sit up. Remember the advice given to airmen in the war: ‘If you get shot down, captured and put in a prison with bars rather than a grille, if you can get your head through the bars, you should be able to get the rest of your body through, too.’
BRIAN M. RUSSELL, Chadderton, Gtr Manchester.
Mum’s the word
AS A mother, I have a little sympathy for working mums (Mail), but please look at the issue from an employer’s point of view.
We pay salaries and benefits, provide training and holiday/sick pay, take risks setting up and running a business and pay large sums in corporation tax and VAT.
If we were to provide all employees with a work/home life balance (using Facebook, social media, personal phone calls and emails are standard nowadays) we would make no profit to pay bonuses.
All we ask is dedication to your duties between 9am and 5pm. BARBARA MARSHALL,
Helmdon, Northants.
Driven to distraction
VOLKSWAGEN has already settled out of court in the U.S. and is completing a settlement in Spain while our government is faced with heavy fines by the EU for failing to take action against the company.
But VW says it will defend any UK legal challenges over the false statements made about emissions.
What makes the UK a soft option for a company to fool its customers? I received my omissions recall from VW last week and with it a box containing a pen, a small umbrella, a VW key ring and, adding insult to injury, a VW lapel badge.
Owners in the U.S. and Spain are receiving thousands of dollars and euros while we get this.
Britain is turning into a dumping ground for third- rate products and is run by a spineless government afraid of confrontation of any description.
FRANK ADAMSON, Northampton. SINCE 2002, vehicle tax has been based on car levels of CO2 emissions. VW having falsified its figures, VW owners paid less than they should have for their car tax.
I can understand why the Government hasn’t tried to reclaim this underpayment: the admin costs are probably not worth the effort in terms of the extra money that might be raised.
But if the ‘class action’ lawsuit now underway is successful, there’s an opportunity for the Government to recover the lost tax at minimal cost. It could introduce a levy of, say, 25 per cent on all compensation awards.
BOB CUBITT, Daventry, Northants.
Slippery slope
LOOKING at the York family at their palatial chalet (Mail), I thank my lucky stars for the happy days in verbier in the late Fifties before the Royals and the ‘don’t-youknow- who- I- am?’ celebrities invaded that little bit of paradise.
Great skiing legends such as Jean- Claude Killy and Franz Klammer mixed with us locals, with no one alerting the media.
What wonderful memories, now ruined by the Yorks and vainglorious ‘celebrities’.
DANA PERRIS, Ticehurst, Sussex.