Chester Chronicle letters

Oct 29 2004

I THINK it would be a good idea to have a US-style television debate between the UK's three main party leaders, Blair, Howard and Kennedy.

The debate could be shown prime-time in the run-up to the next General Election, covering all the major issues on domestic and foreign policy.

The debate could be moderated by a leading political presenter such as David Dimbleby in a similar format to Question Time on BBC1.

The US television debates between President Bush and Senator Kerry were engaging and drew in large audiences. Bush was seen as muddled, confused and ignorant, while Kerry was clearly in control of the debates and more presidential in style and substance.

Tony Blair refuses to take part in a similar debate because he feels that Prime Minister's Question Time is sufficient. Yet I would argue that Prime Minister's Question Time is not sufficient at all because it is shown at noon on Wednesday. How many people see that?

A live prime-time television debate between the three party leaders would offer the electorate a chance to compare and contrast all the relevant policies without the theatre of Prime Minister's Question Time.

I feel it would be a useful tool in bringing politics into the mainstream and help to deal with the problems of voter apathy.
JONATHAN DERRY Fortree Avenue, Westminster Park, Chester

WHEN leaving the Countess of Chester Hospital car park recently, the barrier control had broken and parking fees were being collected by hand.

My offer to pay was refused on the grounds that I was displaying a disabled badge and I was told that on future occasions all I had to do was to take the badge to the office, where I would be issued with a token to raise the barrier. This procedure, I was told, had been so for years.

As one who complained bitterly about the parking charge when it was first introduced, I made a tour of the hospital car parks - I could not find a single sign which advises visitors of this concession.

The number of free parking spaces for the disabled has always been woefully inadequate and to find that one had been paying an unnecessary fee literally for years is infuriating. My wife recently spent a few days in the Countess, when I spent a total of £12 in parking charges. I wonder how much money has been raked in by the hospital under these false pretences.

I am advised by the hospital that this scheme was introduced in 2001 as a support mechanism for disabled drivers. At the time this was advertised within the media and through leaflets. I have never seen this scheme advertised anywhere and, if it was, I doubt that it was advertised in the outlying areas from which many patients attend.

To have to pay to visit the sick is immoral. To see a concession hidden from those who might benefit is simply loathsome.
PETER GASTON Overlea Drive, Hawarden

BY NOW Peter Mandelson should have his size 10s firmly entrenched under the table in one of the plush offices at the European Union HQ in Brussels.

This is the guy who was sacked from the Labour Government.

He will have been joined by Siim Kallas, Laszlo Kovacs and Mesdames Ingrida Udre, Dalia Grybauskaite and Danuta Hubner.

What have these five people in common? Well, apart from their unpronounceable names, they were all high-ranking members of the Communist Party in their respective Soviet Bloc countries.

So now they will all feel completely at home in their Brussels surroundings when they are making decisions behind closed doors without being answerable to the electorate. Just like the good old days of the Soviet surprise!

These are the people who will be making decisions that will affect the British people until and unless the United Kingdom leaves the EU.

The UK Independence Party has already made a lot of progress as more and more people are realising first what membership of the EU means and just how much it costs not only financially but also how it threatens to take away our freedoms.
PETER LOWE Vicars Cross

PUBLIC confidence in our political system has suffered another setback with the publication of MPs' pay and expense claims.

Members of the House of Lords have also had their daily attendance allowance increased well above any inflation rate that applies to pensioners.

MPs are also spending millions of pounds improving their own security at Westminster while our poorly equipped troops put their lives on the line every minute of the day in Iraq, and what do they get for that - about £13,000 a year, free mail home and the use of a phone.

There is something very wrong going on here, even though the cost of one year of the Iraq war is equivalent to seven years of benefits paid to pensioners.

Our soldiers and pensioners deserve better from these high-rolling MPs.
JOHN FERNYHOUGH Edwards Road, Chester

I WONDER if any of your readers could help me in my search for a family called Bland from the Carden area of Chester.

Herbert, John and James, about 1870-1940. Herbert moved to Rudheath, near Northwich, married and had six children - two girls and four boys. Percy and Cyril moved to Australia in about the 1920s and stayed there. Cyril married and had one child.

I would like to know about their earlier lives as they used to come to Antrobus to the reading room to play billiards and were friendly with one of my uncles. I would appreciate any information.

MRS D BURGESS Astley Close, Warrington