‘Good luck in your election bid Tony of Old York Tea Room’

I WISH Tony Vickers every success in his bid to be an independent member of City of York Council.

We need more people elected who are not aligned to political parties but able to think for themselves and act accordingly.

We also need more entrepreneurs who actually know what it takes to start up a successful business and keep it running year on year in the face of choking bureaucracy and a burdensome regulatory regime imposed by both national and local government.

We need people who have experience of what being in business actually entails and the hurdles that have to be jumped over every day just to stay solvent and provide a livelihood for themselves and their employees. That real life experience and wisdom is sadly lacking in government decision making today.

The Old York Tea Room is a success because two brave people have invested all they have and worked their socks off to make a go of it.

Their social media postings show they are disillusioned with politics and have discovered Labour is no friend of small business; except of course their specially favoured enterprises who can repeatedly get “temporary” planning permission for any old iron in a conservation area on a council-owned site at a fraction of its true market value!

The self-employed have been the backbone of the British economy but are now the new working class. In many cases they are the ones who work the hardest but have no rights.

They create something people actually want, provide employment opportunities, stimulate economic growth and pay more than others into public coffers, while at the same time acting as unpaid tax collectors for the government. They are the ones who have created the wealth that benefits everyone and without them this nation would be much impoverished.

Good luck Mr Vickers.

Matthew Laverack,

Lord Mayors Walk,

York

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Britain in decline, sorry but this is old news!

DAVID Quarrie certainly cheers us all up for Christmas with his gloomy assessment that Britain’s been going downhill for 40 years. Sorry to spoil his rant but I have old news for him.

Back in my late 1960s’ sixth form you’d have heard my fellow students bemoan the state of Britain.

Lost an empire, unions striking, services at breaking point, immigration out of control, way behind the USA, yes they had a bleak world view nearly 60 years ago.

Some 100 years ago there were similar stories of Britain going downhill, and Victorian history tells us there was concern about Britain’s decline in the late 19th century .

Of course Britain has problems, but unfortunately many politicians talk them up hoping they will benefit at the ballot box. Once elected they’ll find that the problems are somehow intractable.

The good news is that my fellow sixth formers mostly went on to higher education and good jobs of the sort their parents only dreamt of. Not bad for pessimists.

Roger Backhouse,

Orchard Road,

Upper Poppleton

York

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In praise of Mr H

WHAT a delight to read Charles Hutchinson’s aptly purple prose about Purple Man, who died shockingly early recently.

His mastery of English prose was always a pleasure to read for this literature graduate and once English teacher.

Sometimes his reviews were nearly as good as watching a stage production, as I gradually went to see fewer.

Mr Hutchinson inhabits (metaphorically of course) another York purple patch, and ensured that we could revisit Stonegate and our memories of a cyclist permanently frozen in the wind, while we’re forever dashing around chasing illusory happiness.

Dot Nicholson,

Fishergate,

York