Once again Peter Rickaby (Letters, March 25) displays his Conservative bias in berating Jeremy Corbyn for asking why the NHS is currently struggling with the pandemic. Yes this pandemic has taken over the world but scientists have been predicting such an event for some time now so the Government should have had contingency measures in place.

Surely the responsibility of any Government is risk planning for the future to protect citizens? From its inception in 1948 to 2010 the NHS has benefited from average increases to its budget of just over 4 per cent, indeed in the Blair/Brown era from 1997-2010 this was at times nearer to 7 per cent.Yet from 2010, under the Conservatives, the average increases have been just over one per cent.

This was all down to political dogma. We have one of the lowest percentages of intensive care beds per 1000 of population in Europe. You don’t have to be a genius to see why we are struggling. Our NHS staff are doing a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances and we must continue to support them but that must not rule out scrutiny of why they are under such pressure.

Malcolm Dove,

The Paddock, York

Corbyn was right about impact of austerity

Jeremy Corbyn blames ten years of Tory cuts and austerity for why the NHS is struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Not my words - I took them from a letter from Peter Rickaby (March 25), to whom we must all be grateful for giving them wider publicity.

Admittedly, Mr Rickaby only quoted what Mr Corbyn said in order to criticise him. But he didn’t say it wasn’t true. Nor could he in all conscience, because of course what Jeremy Corbyn said, and Peter Rickaby has so helpfully repeated, is absolutely right.

John Heawood,

Eastward Avenue, Fulford, York

We must get a grip on the food chain

I must add my voice to those calling for the government to get a grip on the food supply chain.

This was already going to be a problem with the foolish plans for a no deal Brexit; now even Dominic Raab knows that some 40 per cent of the UK’s food comes from the EU, much of that through the Channel Tunnel. How cavalier all that silly talk of ‘going it alone’ sounds now.

The British Retail Consortium has been warning for days that the ‘just-in-time’ food chain is under severe strain. Supermarkets no longer store food on the premises but ship it in as they need it. Food banks are facing difficulties coping with the rising demand from vulnerable families and the Federation of Wholesale Distributors has said that as much as £20 million of food with a shelf life of less than three months is sitting on shelves unused because hotels and restaurants are now closed.

Helping local authorities to keep school kitchens open safely so that they can produce cooked meals for vulnerable children and others would seem to be a sensible way of avoiding thousands of tonnes of catering packs of food going to waste.

Christian Vassie,

Blake Court, Wheldrake, York

Civil servants must deliver for NHS

Experience tells us that when civil servants are in charge of procurement for example at the Ministry of Defence - the goods ordered arrive on average two years late.

Let’s hope the civil servants procuring for the NHS are not of the same ilk.

Peter Rickaby,

West Park, Selby