Letters: Strikers undermine their cause by punishing the hard-pressed public

SIR – I wonder if striking workers ever give a second thought to those whose businesses they will destroy in pursuit of their selfish – and, in most cases, unrealistic – claims.

To co-ordinate strikes so as to cause maximum disruption around Christmas is punishing the public, not just employers. I also find it puzzling that employers don’t make more of the fact that today’s inflation rate is likely to fall next year. People and businesses being affected by the strikes should be out making their case. Unlike the public sector, they have to operate within their means.

Ian Phillips
London SW15

SIR – I have some sympathy with the public-sector workers and their pay demands. Both of my children work in this sector.

However, no one appears to mention the fact that these workers enjoy very generous pensions, holidays, job security and sickness benefits. Most people in the private sector can only dream of similar perks. The exceptionally well-paid trade union bosses (in some cases earning more than the Prime Minister) should consider this. Of course, they won’t.

Richard Swannack
Gamston, Nottinghamshire

SIR – There is something rather uncomfortable about the fact that the country is being held to ransom by workers who, in many cases, earn well in excess of the national average and had secure jobs during lockdown.

Nik Perfitt
Bristol

SIR – How ironic that the trade unions established to protect workers from the powerful have become the powerful themselves, from which the public now requires protection.

Dr David Slawson
Nairn

SIR – While various trade union leaders are pondering how to extend further the rolling strike action, they should reflect upon some of the fruits of militancy in the past.

They might like to recall what became of the London docks, shipbuilding, the motor industry and coal mining as a result of union actions, allied to poor management.

A O H Lewis
Peterborough

SIR – I write to defend the excellent service provided by Royal Mail (Letters, December 13).

On Monday, I received three packages (two of them tracked). As far as I could tell none had suffered any delay. Admittedly, one should have been delivered to my next-door neighbour, and the other two to another neighbour a few doors away.

Bob Griffiths
Abingdon, Oxfordshire

SIR – I have now posted all my Christmas cards wishing everyone a Happy Easter.

Simon Cox
Brixham, Devon

Snow overload

SIR – On Monday, in the wilds of Tunbridge Wells, all bin collections were cancelled because of the bad weather (no sign of any council gritting lorries, either). I did receive my Amazon delivery, though.

Ian Rennardson
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

SIR – A cheap alternative to draught excluders (Features, December 13) is to roll up a Daily Telegraph, wrap it in an old towel and secure the ends and centre with string or rubber bands.

Margaret Brooks
Bath, Somerset

SIR – Tim Wright (Letters, December 13) describes the fox terrier’s bed-warming qualities. When I was little, very cold nights were referred to as “two-dog nights”. But be warned: a five-stone Labrador is fine until it turns over and takes the duvet with it.

Jennifer Hammond
Broadstairs, Kent

The BBC’s role

SIR – Andrew Orlowski (“BBC acts as a gatekeeper to hold back British talent”, Business, December 11) misinterprets the director-general’s speech on the future of broadcasting – which has nothing to do with leaving critics behind, but everything to do with leaving no one behind.

He says on-demand platforms produce some excellent British content – this is true – but it doesn’t show they can do the job of public service broadcasters, which are more than on-demand films and television. For example, SAS Rogue Heroes had an audience of 6.5 million in its first seven days, compared with three million for episode one of The Crown; 32.5 million people came to the BBC for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II; and in the first week of the war in Ukraine, an estimated 280 million people from the UK and around the world came to the BBC’s online news. Nearly 90 per cent of adults and 81 per cent of those between the ages of 16 and 34 come to the BBC every week. We support more than 50,000 jobs, work with 14,000 suppliers and invest millions in Britain’s creative industries. All this, as Mr Orlowski says, when we’ve had “a 30 per cent real-terms cut in income”.

The BBC is not perfect. Nor are we complacent. We welcome the debate on future funding, but we must look at what kind of BBC we want at home and abroad. The director-general set out choices to consider.

Clare Sumner
Director, Policy, BBC
London W1

NHS staffing

SIR – When I was employed by an NHS Trust to look into the overuse of agency staff (Letters, December 13), I found time and again that the root cause was the refusal of the finance department to authorise adequate numbers of substantive roles in obviously understaffed areas.

This meant that holiday, training and sickness cover were non-existent within many front-line areas. The only alternative left to pressured front-line staff managers was to call in agency staff, often at up to four times the price of a permanent staff member.

Department heads were then pilloried for exceeding their budgets.

Michael Baker
Nawton, North Yorkshire

SIR – Two of the GPs who taught me when I was training died this year, both in their nineties.

Looking back 40 years, I know they sometimes said things they shouldn’t and may have prescribed antibiotics a little too freely. Also, to them, the hallowed corridors of the Royal College of General Practitioners were a foreign land.

But their practice was not dictated by the requirements of annual appraisals, Care Quality Commission inspections or Nice guidelines. They simply attempted to do their best for the patients under their care – and being both available and bothered was key.

What will doctors training today remember about their colleagues in 40 years’ time?

Dr Nick Summerton
Welton, East Yorkshire

Struggling businesses

SIR – With regard to the latest tax rises, energy price rises and general rises in the cost of living – not to mention the Government’s inability to do anything about them – is anyone sparing a thought for the fate of the small businesses that are the backbone of wealth creation in this country?

I recently visited North Yorkshire to purchase handmade pieces from a family of potters in the heart of the Dales. This wonderful little shop, which normally has an abundance of choice, appeared to be far less well-stocked than usual.

One of the owners apologised for the lack of choice. She said the pottery was full of items made and waiting to be fired, but that this process – which had previously cost about £30 – had risen to £160 per firing. She also told us that many of the area’s small businesses were having to close down because of the huge rise in running costs.

This country is being slowly asphyxiated by sheer lack of insight, incompetence and ignorance about what makes it unique.

Michele Burnley
Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Heaving by numbers

SIR – Bernard Walton (Letters, December 12) wonders whether the expression, “Two, six, heave”, was used outside the Royal Navy when moving heavy objects.

I’ve not heard it being used by civvies, but according to Geoffrey Wellum, author of First Light, “Two, six”, was in good voice in the RAF whenever the Erks put their backs into a task.

Lance Warrington
Cirencester, Gloucestershire

SIR – According to my brother, who worked on various P&O cargo and passenger ships in the late 1970s, rather than “Two, six, heave”, the practice was to call: “After three … Three!”

Simon J Gleaden
Retford, Nottinghamshire

The winter warmer best enjoyed on a hunt

SIR – Port (Letters, December 12) is best drunk at 11am on a hunting morning. Not only does it warm the cockles, but it also – unlike the accompanying sausage roll – reduces the size of hedges.

Charlie Bladonnt
Cattistock, Dorset

SIR – Many years ago, my late father-in-law grew concerned by the rapidly decreasing contents of the port decanter. An inquiry was held, and his six-year-old daughter (now my wife) confessed that she had a glass after school if she felt tired, “just as Daddy does when returning from hunting”. Old habits die hard.

S H Waters
Pebworth, Worcestershire

There’s no need to rename the Christmas party

SIR – As a diversity and inclusion consultant, I might be expected to concur fully with the decision by Civil Service managers to refer to Christmas parties as “festive celebrations” and to ban alcohol being served at them (report, December 10). In fact, the opposite is true.

When employers start saying that you can’t call a Christmas party a Christmas party, it creates division. Christmas is an important and meaningful part of British culture, but we can still celebrate it in an inclusive way. Providing non-alcoholic options for people who do not wish to drink would be an example.

Friends and associates who don’t celebrate Christmas can still enjoy a work party without worrying what it is called – or that they will be shunned because they won’t join in.

It is sensible to think inclusively, but employers shouldn’t fear using the C-word or start introducing blanket bans. Instead, consider other ways to make your celebrations attractive, such as introducing better timings of events (for those who have caring responsibilities), choosing a safe location (so that colleagues don’t feel vulnerable walking home alone), introducing a variety of food and drink choices (so that everyone can enjoy them, regardless of diet) and choosing activities that don’t prohibit those with disabilities from joining in.

Sometimes, by trying to cater to the needs of everybody, employers can trip themselves up and end up pleasing nobody. However, a few sensible and inclusive nudges can ensure that a good time is had by all.

Toby Mildon
Manchester

SIR – Jane Shilling (Comment, December 12) asks: “How old is too old for a Christmas stocking?”

My husband and I are in our seventies but we still keep up the tradition, filling the stockings with tubes of the sweets we enjoyed in childhood as well, of course, as a clementine and 
a silver sixpence. We are all children at heart.

Barbara Smith
Stafford

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