Readers' letters - July 18

Given the much publicised financial situation of the NHS, and in particular the alleged shortage of Government funding, it would be interesting to know where the finances allowing the court hearings indulged in by doctors and bureaucrats at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in respect of the Charlie Gard case, derive.

Some of us dispute whether this should be a matter for the courts at all, let alone one financed by general NHS funds.

Is this not just another case of ‘we know best’ establishment types dictating in a most impersonal and inhumane fashion – a style of operation which is becoming ever more prevalent at all sorts of levels?

A style of operation where the bureaucrats and politicians demand that the general public do as they are told, and pay for the privilege too. Oh, and by the way, if you do not do as you are told, you will be fined into the bargain.

Fifty years ago, I spent some time behind the Iron Curtain, and have never forgotten the experience.

There, bureaucracy ran supreme, and the general public had little or no say in anything.

In one (with the benefit of hindsight) amusing incident, I was refused entry into Czechoslovakia until I had my 1960s-style hair cut.

Thankfully that situation has long gone, but we seem in many ways to be heading down that same track here.

If the Charlie Gard case results in his parents being finally over-ruled, the establishment should be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt very much that they will. If our young people really wish to create a better country for themselves, they could do much worse than ensuring that the present hold that bureaucrats have on our way of life is strongly contested.

Christopher H Tyne

via email

politics

History of austerity

The history of austerity can be traced back to the 2008 financial crash.

Mild austerity would have followed had PM Gordon Brown dealt with financial matters prudently, but he chose to attempt to buy the next General Election for himself and the Labour Party.

Unluckily for the UK, Gordon Brown had 21 months to borrow on a massive scale, splashing funds on over generous welfare plus huge increases in many wasteful public sector jobs, 1.2 million extra staff under Labour.

The UK deficit, annual borrowing, rose to £157bn.

His great error was to spend the money on welfare and wages, and at 12 months, repeated funding was being required. Waste chasing waste.

Brown got potential voters, the country the bill.

The socialists always moan ‘why do the poor and public sector have to bear the brunt of cuts?’

It’s because Labour spent it recklessly on them until removed from power in 2010.

Labour increased UK borrowing for their supporters’ benefit, expecting the taxpayers to pay it off.

Spending the money of others can be summed up in two words – fundamental socialism!

Alan Chapman

via email

entertainment

Well worth seeing ‘Roy’

I recently went to see Barry Steele in the Roy Orbison Story at Preston Charter Theatre. For close on two hours, Barry Steele and a very talented cast of musicians treated the near sell-out audience to a tribute to the late great Roy Orbison, spanning his whole career.

He also paid tribute to ELO, George Harrison, Del Shannon and The Travelling Wilburys, who were all associated with Roy Orbison.

Barry Steele’s portrayal of Roy Orbison is so authentic and well worth going to see if you get the chance.

Stephen Briscoe

via email

architecture

Loss of many treasures

The Winter Gardens in Morecambe is marking its 120th anniversary.

What about the

Tower and the Royalty Theatre?

How quickly were they put into the ‘has been’ files?

The Royalty was equally as splendid as the Winter Gardens and was created the same year.

I am now 90 and remember each of these glorious buildings.

And what about our wonderful swimming stadium which was the largest in Europe?

Even the loss of all our cinemas, doomed by the rush to holiday in Spain, etc.

E Nicholson

Bolton-le-Sands

parking

System stops kind deeds

I heard that a mother of three has won her epic battle with a parking firm after she made a mistake in typing her car registration number into the payment machine.

It is a system designed to stop us doing kind deeds, and giving the space we have paid for away to a stranger, when we have to leave it early.

Forget the questionable legality of councils selling the same space twice, what really makes me sad is to wonder at the twisted mind of the genius who thought up this cunning ruse, and then imagine him going to some conference of local government leaders, and doing a presentation for them on “here is a nice little earner for you”.

It tells me how our country has lost its way in moral terms.

Dai Woosnam

Address

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INDUSTRY

We should use our own steel

The decision to source steel to build our warships from abroad beggars belief.

We can make the right steel in Scotland and yet, for some reason, our Tory Government has decided not to do so.

One has to wonder

why.

It smells wrong and without a doubt is wrong.

It seems that our

leaders are determined to ruin the steel industry of the UK.

Peter Hyde

via email

crime

Troops missed opportunity

Drugs remain a problem in many, if not all, towns and cities, in particular the effect they have on innocent victims of crimes committed by those high as a kite.

So why, when British forces were in Afghanistan, didn’t they blitz the poppy fields, cutting off the

supply?

At least then they’d have been some benefit from this otherwise unnecessary military escapade.

Tim Mickleburgh

Address

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