Private utilities are no improvement

I would thoroughly endorse the "Tips for frustrated customers" offered by Rita Barsby of Skipton, and would add three of my own:

1 Never, never, never use the freephone number offered on their correspondence.

2 Always, always, always write a letter detailing your complaint.

3 Involve Energywatch, the ombudsman.

Paring my case down to the barest bones: for five years, npower have been billing me on an incorrect reference number (they call it your mpan, prounounced em-pan).

Then three years ago, apparently, they erroneously transferred responsibility for my electricity to British Gas, but what they transferred was my correct mpan. British Gas claim to have tried to transfer this back, but could not persuade npower to take it. Meantime npower continued to take cash from us on the incorrect mpan. (It was 2311672630121 rather than 2311672630112, which of course, I instantly spotted five years ago - well, wouldn't anyone?)

Some months ago, British Gas woke up to this once again, and billed us for three years worth of supply, which seems now to be legitimate. npower eventually admitted - five weeks ago -that the error was theirs and that we were due a refund; we are still awaiting this.

Very early in this case I telephoned Energywatch and was swifly connected to an extremely helpful, knowledgeable, competent and clear-thinking person who advised me exactly how to proceed, to whom to address my complaints and the questions to which I should demand answers.

It was he who very early in our conversations stressed the importance of my first tip, which is never to expect the freephone call centres ever to sort things out if your problem involves any words with more than two syllables - like "electricity", for example. I cannot stress this too much; Energywatch are very very helpful; their number is in the book.

This sorry mess has made me very angry, particularly when I see the expensive television ads being flung at us on a daily basis. Does anyone, these days, really believe any more that our country's utilities, like its railways, are now better than under the "bad old days" of public-ownership?

Bryn Glover,

The Corncrake, Cracoe.

SIR - If you have 99p to spare, might I suggest that you drive carefully to Tesco and purchase 50g of their "finest" wild rocket.

"This bold, peppery flavoured salad herb" has been sprayed with water prior to being packed in a clear plastic bag so that it is truly "washed and ready to eat".

This delightfully wet herb has come all the way from Spain and costs a mere £19.80 a kilogram, or £9 per lb. for the unconverted. Alternatively, you might fancy 85g of watercress "Grown in pure flowing spring water. The dark green leaves are succulent with a natural peppery flavour." Also at 99p but this time for a whopping 85g which represents more value for your money since it has come all the way from the land of freedom and democracy before being sprayed with first class British water and plastic wrapped for Tesco.

This succulent bargain is only £11.76 a kilogram or £5.35 per pound in basic English.

How's this for Information Technology?

Charles Fox,

The Farmhouse,

Keighley Road, Skipton.

SIR - I'm writing to commend Mr Johnson on the beautiful job he's doing laying the hedge along Carleton Road, as featured in the Craven Herald of February 25.

I often walk from Carleton into Skipton along this road and look

forward to seeing how the hedge and its wildlife develop in the future.

If Craven District Council is paying for Mr Johnson to continue laying

the hedge up to Burnside, and it looks like it is, then I also commend

it for this.

Last year the Council was criticised for mechanically chopping - or vandalising - the hedge on the opposite side of Carleton Road and

it looks like it has taken this criticism on board.

Perhaps this hedge could be traditionally layed too, in the future.

Cressida Woodall,

Carleton

SIR - Following my query to you some weeks ago about 'a billion', I have finally got around to visiting the Skipton library. There I consulted the Oxford English Dictionary (each volume useful for weight training!).

Although the library's edition of the OED is the 1961 reprint I noted the following: "The French formed the word in the 16th century to denote the second power of a million, i.e. 1,000,000,000,000. It appears to have been adopted by England in the late 16th century. In the 17th century the application of the word was changed by French (my italics) arithmeticians, the figures being divided in numeration into groups of

threes instead of sixes so that the (French) billion, trillion were now denoted not as second and third powers of a million but as a thousand million and a thousand thousand million."

From another source I learned that USA adopted the French method in the mid 19th century.

So I was wrong in assuming that the Yanks had thrust their billion on us Brits. And in so doing I discover it was the French who did the deed.

The whole world, it seems, is

adopting the billion as 1,000,000,000 and the trillion as 1,000,000,000,000 simply to avoid confusion.

Confusingly, the OED still (well, in 1961 it did) asserts that the British billion is still 1,000,000,000,000 - but that it ain't used much nowadays.

So there you are.

My next quest is to try and discover why the phonetic alphabet has, since WWII, changed. I blame the Yanks (but I blame them for everything!) but I just may have got it wrong again.

T Hall,

Haw Park, Embsay

SIR - I was amazed and horrified at Mr Hoyle's suggestion (Craven Herald Letters March 4) not only to build an indoor market in Skipton but also to tarmac over the setts!

I do not understand why people want to change Skipton into a clone of every other town in the country. Why must we go down the road of shopping malls, multi storey car parks and indoor markets? Why can't we be individual and have our own identity?

It has been proven through recent research that Skipton market draws in the visitors - whilst some may not agree or like the market, it is nevertheless what visitors come for.

Maybe those who object to the position of the market would also like to see a decrease in visitors and, with that, boarded up shops instead.

We are under seige at the moment from the 'Skipton Renaissance' which is not being driven as most people believe by the Skipton Renaissance Market Town Team but by Craven District Council which is firmly in the driving seat, with decisions being made by CDC's Community Services and the team being just a 'talking shop'.

This is a council which does not know how to solve the real issues in Skipton like traffic management and parking without causing irrevocable damage to Skipton's future.

There is a saying that 'We all get what we deserve'. If we are not careful and watchful of Skipton's future, what we will get will not necessarily be what we want - but by then it will be too late.

Joan Evans

Upper Sackville Street, Skipton.

SIR - From the article in the Craven Herald of March 4, it is apparent that Craven District Council will need new offices at some point in the not too distant future.

What is not apparent is why those offices have to be in a new building on Coach Street car park. Another article in the Craven Herald, this time on February 4, described plans of 20 years ago which illustrated a refurbished Town Hall incorporating all the new office space required plus museum, art gallery, tourist information centre and parking for 100 vehicles.

If this option were pursued, the issue of parking could be treated independently as no spaces in Coach Street would be lost and the consequent rush to deck Cavendish Street removed.

A complete appraisal of parking could then be determined without any artificially imposed time limit. Discussion could then include the private sector, for example Tesco and British Rail, to ensure that a cohesive long term solution be found by considering all land available including that outside the Council's immediate control.

Tony Barrett

Chairman,

Skipton Chamber of Trade

SIR - As a researcher into the corruption and dangers of government (both national and international), I wish to comment on the plans for mandatory national ID cards.

I firmly believe that we should not risk surrendering our fundamental freedom and privacy to politicians and officials we cannot trust. They will happily take much of our most basic freedoms that allow us to function, and are openly using (and this is in their own words) 'convenient disasters' as a pretext to do so, as is shown by official sources at home and abroad.

It is claimed that ID cards will have advantages for citizens. They won't. Abroad they fail to combat crime, terrorism, or fraud. Those pushing the legislation must be fully aware of this. Yet the flaws are fully acceptable to them, perhaps because they have another agenda.

The 'Orwellian' ID card and more importantly, the related 'National Identity Register' database has nothing to do with personal security and everything to do with preparing the population to accept minute control of their lives, making dissent impossible. We cannot trust the Government with the power over our lives that it currently has, let alone anything more.

Before your readers lightly accept that being fingerprinted and tracked for the rest of their lives is 'for their own good' on Tony Blair's and Charles Clarke's say-so, I would beg them to read about the detail of the proposals and see what huge power they may be about to hand to any future Government.

Mr JR Skelton,

Wharfedale Close, Skipton.

Sir - Having children at Otley Street Nursery I read with concern your article in last week's paper referring to repeated vandalism there and at other schools in Skipton.

In the same week I was fortunate enough to be one of those who witnessed a fantastic, professional performance of Les Miserables by a group of Craven's young people at Skipton Town Hall (it would not have been out of place somewhere like the Palace Theatre in Manchester).

Not only was it a very polished, seamless performance, but the enjoyment on the actors/actresses faces showed just how much they were getting from the whole experience.

This shows what talent is possessed by the youth of this area, which through encouragement and application can be channelled into activities which benefit the whole community. Everyone involved in the production by the Little Saods should be proud of their achievement.

Carol Brewster,

Old Hall Croft, Threshfield

SIR - I write about the proliferation of apologies featured in the editorial (Craven Herald February 25), and the question arose of when this trend of apology by politicians commenced?

Apologia (Greek)- "to speak in one's defence", was originally used as a defence of one's opinions or actions and not an expression of guilt or remorse. The earliest written evidence of this can be seen in The Apology of Sir Thomas More 1533 Lord Chancellor of England. This original interpretation of apology may appear odd to us today, though the use in this sense is not yet entirely obsolete.

Its use then shifted away from one of expressing self-justification of ones actions towards the modern one of implying regret or guilt.

Until relatively recent we were somewhat puzzled at images of overt displays of apology by public figures in other cultures but now we commonly witness what may be seen as an almost Maoist display of public admission of fault by our senior public servants. This trend of apology gained inertia after The Macpherson Report into the murder of the black teenager Steven Lawrence. The report resulted in the Metropolitan Police Commissioner making an unprecedented public apology for the "institutionalised racism" in his organisation.

Since his splendidly PC example, all other police forces, the NHS, the fire service, the armed forces, and the prison service have all fallen over themselves to apologise too. Ron Atkinson, the football critic, was recently quoted as saying he was "apologised out" in his bid to redeem himself after his PC gaffe.

Disraeli's golden rule was; "never apologise, never explain", so why does apology appear to be so fashionable amongst politicians today?

The nature of apology by our senior politicians differs somewhat from the example of the public servants outlined above who may have been directed to apologise by senior politicians.

Senior politicians seem comfortable to proffer a collective apology (normally without a public consensus) for actions that took place in the recent or distant past of which they had no connection, but rarely do they apologise for actions that could be linked to matters in which they may have had, or shared, authority, and which may therefore be construed as incompetence or lack of judgement on their part.

Examples may include the decline of educational standards, soaring crime, fear of personal safety, inner-city decay, out of control immigration and asylum, decline of the traditional family unit, inflation, public transport, the Dome et al.

In other words, senior politicians are expedient with their apologies normally preferring to choose selective soft targets that may result in leaving themselves appear to be charitable and their political opponents appear as uncaring and at the same time shaping opinion to suit their own ends.

Apology, as we have said implies regret or guilt and our ever increasingly collectivist governing elites know how to use guilt to shape public perceptions. If you can change the way the public sees something you can change the way it thinks about it.

The doctrine of "Original Sin" (guilt) was used effectively by the Church to shape minds and control the masses. There is no better way to disarm man than through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. The principle of this doctrine was adapted by the Marxists and shaped as an instrument of control and if there wasn't enough guilt for total control then they would create some more.

Though economic Marxism is undeniably dead, cultural Marxism is present and flourishing through Political Correctness in every government body, in every workplace, and every aspect of our lives, it permeates our every thought, sometimes before we have even thought it.

Mr AJA Smith

Colne Road, Glusburn.

SIR - Whilst we seem to be in the rich vein of remembering and acknowledging historical wrong doings, may I add one more to the catalogue of shame. It is 20 years ago this month that British coal miners, spiritually unbowed, behind lodge banners, marched back to pits, condemned to closure.

Parallel to reactionary triumphalism, Prime Minister Thatcher was contemplating a second phase of the pernicious game of divide and rule by pitching British soldiers against British workers in future Tory orchestrated industrial disputes. She had the police in her pocket, who lining theirs, the media barons who were writing the script, and the army was next.

Fortunately, the upper echelons of the military warned her off, stressing, that rank and file British troops could not be trusted to dish out the same treatment to British workers as they had done, generously, to Irish workers, over the water.

It would have been her primrose path to the everlasting bonfires, with mass mutiny and desertion.

As we reflect on the brave struggle of our coal miners, during the 1984-5 strike, let us take on board the salutary lesson, that true democracy cannot be left to the care of the Tories, the police and the Rupert Murdochs of this world.

Brian Smith.

Keighley Road, Skipton.