CONSIDERING we are in the midst of election fever I have decided to curtail my exit from hibernation because if recent results in local elections are an indicator of the final outcome it would appear clearing Beeches Brook in a National election may be a foregone conclusion.

However, as night follows day one can rest assured union barons are already planning a winter of discontent.

I remember the last one working alongside the armed forces in my capacity as police officer in London attending emergency calls with Green Goddesses so named acting as fire brigades, police vehicles utilised as ambulances and giving first aid including childbirth at the point of delivery.

Traffic gridlock due to public transport on strike and piles of domestic refuse left in open spaces with rats running amok.

Blackmail used in negotiations is not the answer. The ballot box is available to everyone. In any democratic society it is not the enemy without but the enemy within one must beware of.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York

Will turkeys vote for Christmas?

THERESA May’s Conservative Party had a landslide vote in the local elections.

Will voters vote the same way in the General Election? Will turkeys vote for Christmas?

We have seen the ‘austerity’ of the past few years under a Conservative Government. Will people vote for little chance of renting their own home, never mind owning one? Will they vote for more cuts to benefits, more zero hours contracts, the destruction of the NHS right in front of our eyes? Real falls in standards of living for the poorest in society and falls for the middle classes as austerity works its way up the pay scales? The very rich in society still enjoying increasing wealth on the backs of tax cuts just for them?

The media have done a very good job on demonising Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, with Labour supporters saying they wouldn’t vote for him. Perhaps they would vote for a party that would make them worse off.

With the Institute of Price Studies saying wages will stagnate and inequality will rise in the next five years, it’s not looking good.

Whichever way you vote, vote for the party whose policies look as though they might benefit you and your family and remember it’s not the leader of the party you’re voting for, it’s the policies and the MP who will represent you.

Chris Mangham, Lindsey Avenue, Acomb, York

Dual carriageway pledge can’t be kept

NICK EMMERSON castigated Julian Sturdy (Letters, May 6) for failing to deliver an election promise, to get the A1237 dualled.

Back in 2009, plans for spending £31 million of devolved Whitehall cash to dual nearly 8km of the road, were rejected by the subsequently abolished Yorkshire & Humber Regional Transport Board. Today, devolved Government cash is managed by the Local Enterprise Partnership, plus the West Yorkshire Transport Fund, which York will hopefully soon be joining.

It is “pie in the sky” for any politician to believe and promise that the present day cost of full dualling can ever be found.

Efforts are focusing more realistically, upon increasing capacity at the true “pinch points” ie the roundabout junctions. Complementary cyclist and pedestrian bridges or underpasses must accompany this, to mitigate the severance effect upon radial journeys by sustainable transport. City of York Council inherited this road from the Highways Agency, who in turn took it over from its original designers, North Yorkshire County Council.

York is wholly dependant upon external funding for any further significant changes.

Paul Hepworth, Windmill Rise, Holgate, York

Are we going back to workhouse days?

THE country’s most senior family judge has hit out at some care homes that separate elderly couples against their will, (Homes separation anger, The Press Thursday, May 11).

During the 1800s when the workhouses were built, families were separated, male and female were put in different blocks whether married or not so they could not breed any more children. In earlier times, married couples who became paupers would be sent back to the parish where they were born to be looked after, so many couples were separated, maybe forever.

I believed things had got better over the years but I sometimes wonder.

Maureen Robinson, Broadway, York