SIR – So, our city councillors have decided to give themselves their first pay rise in five years. How lucky for them. 
I wish my employers would use the Independent Pay Review Panel to review my pay, I haven’t had a pay rise since 2007. 
Both city and county councils are telling us that they have had to tighten their belts because Government has told them to do more with less – and how do our councillors react? By giving themselves an inflationary pay increase – and in some cases a hyper-inflationary pay rise.
Are councillors Hardman and Geraghty in a race to see how much they can milk from council taxpayers? Hardman was awarded more than £42K in allowances last year, and Geraghty looks set to pick up £40K in 2015. 
What is the average wage in Worcester again? According to one website, the average office administrator is on £15K, a teaching assistant, arguably far more important than our councillors, £10K. Here’s an idea, why not put our councillors on zero hour contracts – let them see what it’s like to live hand to mouth.
I wonder if a unitary authority could provide more services with fewer… councillors.
ROBYN NORFOLK
Warndon Villages


Churchill never wanted to be part of Europe
SIR – David Barlow’s letter (Worcester News, November 18) makes the oft-repeated Europhile error of painting Sir Winston Churchill as endorsing Britain’s membership of a United States of Europe. 
Churchill did state in Zurich in 1946 that “we must re-create the European family in a regional structure called… the United States of Europe”. By ‘we’ Churchill meant the victorious Western Allies. 
The Europhiles use their selective vision to overlook Churchill’s intention that the UK would not be a part of it. Like the quote Mr Barlow reproduced, Churchill was talking of uniting continental Europe. He was not including Great Britain, which still had its own strong global connections and influence. 
If Mr Barlow doubts this, I refer him to the final part of the same Zurich speech: “Great Britain, the British Commonwealth of Nations, mighty America, and I trust Soviet Russia… must be the friends and sponsors of the new Europe and must champion its right to live and shine”. A statement promoting UK support…from the outside.
Churchill knew that, as a powerful global trading nation, Britain had no need to tie itself down, a point he reinforced in later years: “We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not combined. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.”
Sir Winston could see, as indeed could French President Charles de Gaulle, that the UK’s best interests were linked to more distant horizons.
JAMES GOAD, 
UKIP Worcester

Where is all this economic success?
SIR – So Worcestershire’s economy is supposed to be among some of the best in the region. Then why can’t I get a job that I want? 
Despite repeated attempts and having qualifications for the role, I can’t get a job. 
Why the are there food banks in every town snowed under with people wanting food. 
Why are the County Council closing everything and leaving people to fend for themselves. Yes, there are jobs, but they are low skilled and unappetising. Nobody wants to train anybody. The government’s apprenticeship scheme is a waste of time.
NIGEL CRISP
Malvern


Any chance of an answer to question?
SIR – On the Today radio programme Harriet Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire, was interviewed about the sale of a block of Northern Rock mortgages, on behalf of the government, to a finance company.
Presumably her boss George Osborne would not allow her on air without having first set out in large capital letters what she was to say. She seemed to have memorised his words and repeated them, come what may. 
When asked whether they had been sold at a profit, a question that begs the answer Yes or No, she could not answer. She repeated what George had told her, and took so long about it listeners would have forgotten the original question. This had the added benefit of exhausting air time so she would not be asked another question for which she had no answer. This is the voice of Worcestershire in Parliament.
JOHN LUMSDON
Droitwich

It’s time to get on Shanks’s pony James
SIR – The GPS firm TomTom used to have an advertisement which said, 
“Don’t say you’re stuck in traffic; you are traffic!”
Your journalist, James Forrest, witters (17 November) about traffic jams as he drives from Hylton Road to City Walls.  James said it would be quicker to walk. He’s dead right! What planet is he on? Driving less than a mile in the city? Paying to park too? 
Your editorials and columns are constantly reporting obesity, congestion and air quality. Why do your journalists not practise what you preach?
GERRY TAGGART
Powick

Cyclists are a danger
SI R – I feel my safety is compromised by the increasing number of cyclists in the city using the pavement as a thoroughfare.
I visit many other towns and cities throughout the country and this rarely, if ever, occurs. Do the council or police intend to do anything about this stupid and illegal practice before someone is injured?
C D LEE
Worcester