THE officially unchallenged proposal of Post Office Ltd - the once revered but now privatised Royal Mail - to realise the value of the main York Post Office building (“MP slams closure plans for city centre post office”, The Press, October 13) and the Government’s permission granted to fracking companies for purely financial reasons to despoil the British countryside, illustrate how defenceless we the public are nowadays to protect cherished public assets from financial exploitation.

It is as if entrepreneurs, who by their nature are driven, self-confident and resourceful,with a keen eye to the main chance, are frail creatures that need governments and councils to cosset them.

Now that religious metaphors are no longer common currency, we need to remind lawmakers that it is the sheep that need care and protection, not the wolves.

Maurice Vassie,

Deighton, York

We must wake up to dangers of fracking

Publication of the UN climate change report last week demonstrates once again this Government’s environmental illiteracy.

Stark warnings of the dystopian consequences for the human inhabitants as well as for the flora and fauna of our planet contrast glaringly with the Government’s approval of Cuadrilla’s commencement of fracking, and its decision to reduce subsidies on electric and hybrid cars from November or earlier.

The launch of its Green GB Week this week is heavy with irony and redolent again of cognitive dissonance. James Hansen, “father of climate science”, has described the Tory fracking programme as aping Trump.

The science is crystal clear, we need to phase out fossil fuels starting with the most damaging, the “unconventional” fossil fuels, such as tar sands and “fracking”.

Wake up!

David Cragg-James,

Stonegrave, York