Food for thought

Living as a child in Hull during and post World War 2, my parents could not afford the luxury of a traditional roast Sunday dinner – ‘lunch’ was not a term used by the local working class people of that time. Instead of roast beef, lamb or pork, we had animal offal, tripe and onions, a sheep or pig head boiled and the ‘meat’ scraped off to make a brawn.

Being the major fishing port in the country, fish was in plentiful supply and very cheap. In fact fish and chips was the only unrationed food during the war.

I agree with Monica that chicken was a luxury and only bought for special occasions. How the times have changed, when today chicken is cheaper than meat and fish. A 3d wartime haddock is now £4.50 in my local fish and chip shop.

As for ‘Dig for Victory’ Sheffield must have had more arable land and keener gardeners than Hull, because fruit and vegetables were still in short supply after the war, the only exception being the humble spud to go with the fish.

I really get annoyed with our past and present Governments when Monica comments that “the appalling thing is that there are people in our city who go hungry, relying on food banks to give their families a meal.

As I wrote in a previous letter to the Star, this problem could be eradicated or greatly reduced if the Government were to cut just 10 per cent from the annual current Foreign Aid budget of c £13 billion.

Dividing this saving among all the registered UK food banks would ensure an allocation of c £650000 for Sheffield. You can buy a lot of food for that.

Unfortunately the Government thinks that charity does not begin at home, and prefers to allocate monies to countries who do not really need any help eg China, India, North Korea.

Admittedly, monies are budgeted for poor third world countries but a lot of this does not reach the people in need, and lines the pockets of state officials,.

I fully agree with Monica that most people would prefer the money to be spent on making their lives better. It is a pity that our politicians of all parties in Parliament seem hell bent on saving the rest of the world, resulting in some of their own people having to rely on food banks for their daily bread.

Did Harold MacMillan envisage this is in 1957 when he told the country that we had never had it so good?

Cyril Olsen

Busk Meadow, Sheffield, S5

Tragedy for the workers

Carillion is tragic for the workers and families affected by the latest corporate mess both locally and nation-wide.

While the senior executives and the fat cat bosses rake in huge bonuses at our expense. They have left a trail of destruction with small and medium firms in every sector now floundering and put them and thousands of their workers on the brink of going under. Let’s hope the workers, both public and private, get financial support? The banks who were bailed out are pretty quiet.

There must be an independent public inquiry to leave no stone unturned. The corporates and the politicians should be held fully accountable for their actions and decisions. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has rightly attacked government policies and called Carillion a “watershed moment”.

In the wake of the collapse of the contractor Carillion, it is time to put an end to the rip-off privatisation policies that have done serious damage to our public services and fleeced the public of billions of pounds.

Politicians ignored the warnings for months. Some of these warnings were profit warnings which is meant to act as a red flag.

Were this Conservative government asleep on the job or simply stuffing the pockets of their friends while it was possible, legally possible I might add, to do so.

Over 25 years, under successive Governments they have had a love- in with these huge oligarch firms and sucked up to them. The political mantra was “public is bad and private greed is good”.

Major, Blair and Brown were the main culprits followed by Cameron and May. Blair ripped the soul out by ditching Clause 4 – which was the green light for privatisation of our public services in place of public ownership for the many. Much of our public sector has been hoovered up including local services, building contracts, railways, schools, public housing, prisons, school meals etc

Governments and local councils have ignored their own members and public to refrain from the folly of outsourcing and PFI contracts that are massively hiked up and like paying off your mortgage on the credit card. Their workforce and taxpayers are fleeced while those at the top get their pockets lined with telephone-figure salaries, bonuses for failure and other perks.

Politicians were told to change and implement public policies that fell on deaf ears.

A National Audit Office report now shows taxpayers will have to cough up a £199 billion bill for schemes under the flawed Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Its time our public services were all brought back under public control and not just pick up the tab to bail them out when they go bust.

We have seen the big rip- off by water and the utilities to the public.

Ged Dempsey

Wath upon Dearne, S63

Open goal for Corbyn

Corbyn actually did well in Question Time – usually it’s painful to watch him squirming but the boot was on the other foot.

Saint Theresa was wishing all the points he raised on Carillion would stop but he hung in. He’s seen an open goal, now he needs to keep it up.

Jayne Grayson

by email

I wonder why that is?

It’s fascinating to read and hear about people queuing up to be outraged at the latest sex scandal. Whereas the real scandal, sexual abuse of children in Rotherham, Sheffield, Rochdale, etc. rarely receives a mention.

I wonder why that is?

Sarah Champion tried to raise the issue recently but she was kicked into the long grass by that bastion of women’s rights, Jeremy Corbyn.

Where are the protest marches against FGM, honour killings and forced marriages?

J Bunting

Greenhill