Legal bills for bad decisions fall on public

From: Rachel Henley, Moor View, Appleton-le-Street.

ON the award of pandemic-related contracts, I’m troubled by how the Government breaches the law so blatantly. I raised this with Kevin Hollinrake MP at a constituents’ meeting recently.

He believed the Government had not acted unlawfully. That same day the High Court ruled that Government was guilty of not meeting its legal obligations, by delaying to publish the details of contracts within a certain time frame.

The reason why such rules are in place is to prevent corruption. Government has racked up over £200,000 in legal costs failing to defend its actions.

The Government’s now facing another legal challenge over the award of huge PPE contracts to questionable firms with no previous experience of producing medical equipment.

The Government threatened to spend £1m on legal costs defending its actions. The court has now put a cap of £250,000 on this.

What is most disturbing, other than the poor planning and lack of transparency and accountability being demonstrated by this Government, is that it is using the public purse to cover the legal costs to defend its bad decisions.

Mr Hollinrake said the taxpayer will have to meet the costs of the pandemic. Yes, but public money should be spent wisely on society’s basic needs, and not on the Government’s legal expenses.

Besides, given that our current regressive and unfair system of taxation already causes inequality, repaying the costs of the pandemic might be felt more acutely by some more than others, so we should be paying close attention as to how the Government is mismanaging our public finances.

From: Graham Brown, Alverthorpe Road, Wakefield.

ON March 8, I will not be allowed to shop for clothes, get my hair cut, go to the pub or a restaurant or go to a gym or library.

However an uninvited person from a political party will be allowed to come to my door to canvass for the local elections.

How idiotic and potentially dangerous for the vulnerable. I will note who calls at my door and cross them off my voting preferences.

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

WE will all have our own views of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, and whether (or not) he is suitably effective in his current post. However, in her article (The Yorkshire Post, March 1) it was totally unnecessary for Jayne Dowle to state “with his illustrious pre-Westminster career as a fireplace salesman”, an uncalled for piece of sniping that demeaned her and her column.

From: Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby.

WHAT do John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May all have in common? A capacity to solve problems today which when in office eluded them. Hindsight is a wonder virtue, but hypocrisy can also shine bright.