Letters

Lapping it up

Thursday, 22 July 2010 14:08 | Written by Rose Smith |

Lapping it up: Councillors make the most of "perks"

Visiting Lap-dancing Clubs is a perk no councillor is likely to resist, male members anyway.

I read that ten members of Cornwall Council's aptly named... Read full story

Deal or No Deal?

Sunday, 18 July 2010 19:06 | Written by Rose Smith |

UK Independence Party St Ives & The Isles of Scilly Branch

TO:

The Rt. Honourable David Cameron MP

Prime Minister

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A OAA

17^th July 2010

Dear Mr. Cameron,

Reuters reports that EU institutions are trying to strike a deal on the new architecture for financial supervision before the summer break.

Another trilogue - talks held between the EU, the EU Parliament and the various countries in Europe – apparently are taking place, ahead of the meeting of Economy and Finance Ministers in Brussels.

According to Bloomberg, these talks are negotiations likely to focus on what powers the European Banking Authority (EBA) should have over national authorities with regard to the supervision of cross-border banks.

The article notes that some countries - including the UK - disagree with the EP's proposals to give EBA powers to supervise banks directly and oversee a fund to help failing banks.

EU control over our banking systems is another part of our sovereignty given away to Brussels.

As you have publicly stated that no more will be given away, what are your intentions as regards maintaining our own control over our finances ?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Guppy

Chairman

Hypocrisy of windfarm industry now laid bare for all to see.

Thursday, 15 July 2010 15:59 | Written by Rose Smith |

Is new council structure ruining our democracy?

THE breathtaking hypocrisy of the windfarm industry is now laid bare for all to see.

The developers who want to despoil the area around Roughtor, one of Cornwall's most ecologically and archaeologically sensitive sites, show their concern for the environment by first planning to dig up a rare wildlife-rich peat bog and pour concrete into it for tunnels and foundations. They then propose to cut down thousands of trees at the site because they attract hundreds of thousands of starlings and other species on their migrations.

Anyone who has stood in awe watching the magnificent spectacle of these great flocks of birds swooping over the edge of Bodmin Moor will be speechless at such blatant disregard for the ecology of the area.

Community Windfarms Ltd hopes to allay criticism that birds will be killed and maimed by the turbines, which would, when built, be higher than Roughtor itself. Yet only last week a West Country school turned off its single, small turbine because the pupils were upset at the number of dead birds regularly found underneath it. If that is the result of one tiny turbine, it doesn't take a genius to work out the potential devastation caused by an entire wind factory positioned directly in the path of migrating flocks.

There are deep concerns about how planning permission was granted for this ecological vandalism. Local people were shocked when permission was passed without proper discussion and presentation of facts that opposed the project. The result was that nearly everyone believes the decision was taken before the members of the committee even entered the room. It is widely believed that the reason this was passed despite the overwhelming objections against it was because the committee was largely from the west of the county, and didn't really care as long as the turbines were not on their patch. This is an alarming situation, if true. It means that since the creation of a unitary authority local people have little or no say in what happens in their area, and democracy has become a sham.

Surely the people of Cornwall cannot tolerate such a situation. Can they stand by and allow an act of such desecration to take place in one of the last great wildernesses left? Roughtor, as a correspondent pointed out in a recent letter, is one of the spiritual heartlands of Cornwall, with its prehistoric stone circles, settlements and ruins of an ancient chapel to St Michael on its summit, all set in a landscape that has changed little in thousands of years. It is a place of profound tranquillity and inspiration for locals and visitors alike, which could soon, unless there is some sort of modern Cornish rebellion, become little more than a viewing platform for one of the county's biggest and most prominent industrial installations.

We have until July 22 to make our views known.

Paul Broadhurst

North Cornwall

GPs to be in charge of allocating NHS funds

Thursday, 15 July 2010 08:34 | Written by Alec Yates |

Letter in today's Daily Telegraph

SIR – I would like to congratulate the Coalition for bringing a whiff of privatisation into the beleaguered NHS. The fact that successive governments have undertaken what they call "substantial" changes to the NHS tells us that there is something fundamentally wrong with how we treat the ill in our country.

The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world, but as with all state monopolies, it is costly, inefficient and stuffed with bureaucrats. In Labour's NHS, for every nurse there is a manager, and vital workers, such as midwives, are falling in numbers. The problem, however, goes far deeper.

The NHS stifles competition, and as competition drives quality and choice, innovation and improvement are restricted. The longer the NHS is the "sacred cow" of politics, the longer the British people will suffer with a second-rate health service.

Paul Nuttall MEP (Ukip)
Bootle, Lancashire

Give a chance to get our lives back

Tuesday, 13 July 2010 16:35 | Written by Rose Smith |

Sir,

Did we really think that David Cameron, the P.M, would give us a vote on the referendum for staying in, or, opting out of the E.U." Gravy Train?"

What happened to all the talk that has been forgotten?

Now, instead of our cutbacks and terrible times ahead, let`s STOP Paying these huge sums of money to the Brussels

Gravy train and get back to being an indeoendent country where our rules are made by our M.P.s.

Let`s get our lives back!

The British people deserve better. We should be revolting en masse, not sitting back and letting it happen. We need someone with guts, not letting it all happen without a fight.

Now we have Nick Clegg, th Deputy P.M. pulling the strings for his pet project - proportional representation and everything else will be forgotten.

Did everyone forget the LibDems were BOTTOM of the 3 main parties at the Polls from the people of Britain?

Now let`s have some thought to what this country needs - Control on immigration so that British workers can have jobs. This means from Europe and not stopping well-qualified people from eleswhere. That won`t happen while we are tied to Brussels.

We want our fishing limits back! - 20 miles radius it was once! - not to be told what our fishing quotas are when our fishermen want to earn a living & feed the people, or, Brussels telling our farmers what pesticides they can or can`t use, when they are as careful as can be to get the best crops.

The temperatures in France and Spain means they don`y need anything to control mildrew, as we do for wheat and barley.

The rat population in Britain is increasing because of rubbish in the streets not being cllected weekly. Now Brussels says poison is not allowed to control them Do any of our MPS have a clue about these things? All they are thinking about is there perks.

We would not have a debt problem if Tony Blair and Gordon Brown hadn`t signed our lives away withut our permission. They should be held to account, not swanning aroun making millions and costing the taxpayers money for security.

Now this has to be changed for the good of our country and for our children`s future.

Pamela Aggett

Saltash

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