Wednesday's letters round-up, including 'Are hats more important than horses' lives?'

Not racist to want leave the Euro zone
SIR – Following their election failure the Labour Party are still labelling Ukip supporters as racist. If they really cared about the working class people Labour claims to represent, they would be flagging up that our population is rising by over 300,000 every year because of immigration alone. They would be highlighting, as Ukip does, how this drives down wages, low skilled jobs harder to find, forces capable workers to fall back on benefits, creates housing shortages which push up prices, lengthens GP and hospital waiting lists and prevents children getting places at the school nearest to their home. It is blinkered, insulting and insane to say Ukip voters are racist because they care about these issues.
It is not racist to want to leave the anti-democratic, officious and financially incompetent EU, to want Britain to be a country that governs itself, to want to control our borders as some 200 other countries do, to want to take everyone on minimum wage out of tax, invest more money into the NHS, scrap levies on fuel bills, free small businesses from excess regulation, and so on. There is nothing racist at all about supporting a political party whose manifesto contains not a single racist policy.
What could be labelled “racist” is an immigration policy that discriminates against black and Asian people from India and Africa, by making them jump through hoops to get a passport to Britain, while offering an open door to mostly white Christians with blonde hair and blue eyes from the European Union. Yet this, as I understand it, is Labour’s current immigration policy. Where is the outrage?
M YOUNG
Worcester

Thanks to all the staff at hospital A&E
SIR – I would like to praise the staff in the A&E department at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital when I attended there with my husband who was unwell last Saturday morning, after he was advised to attend A&E following a call he made to the 111 NHS Helpline.
With the stories in the press about the increasing pressures on the A&E department and other departments at the hospital I was prepared for a long wait, but I cannot fault the time it took for him to be assessed and treated, which was just under two hours, even though it was very busy.
Thankfully it was nothing serious, but I reiterate again how lucky we are to be able to access healthcare when we need it and see a doctor at short notice when we need to.
I know that not everyone attending A&E has a positive experience, but we did and I would like to say thank you to the staff there for the care and attention they gave my husband last Saturday.
LISA VENTURA
Worcester

Not enough to cover the bill for those in jail
SIR – I recently read a somewhat worrying article about Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre. There has been a scathing report about the Centre. Activities for inmates include dress and juice making, a beauty salon, parties for Valentine’s Day and Shrove Tuesday, bingo, yoga, zumba, artefacts made there such as bracelets, photo frames, greetings cards, paper roses, T-shirts, woodcraft, dressmaking are sold for 50p and the money sent to charity. In the hairdressing salon Asian ladies prefer hair colouring whereas African ladies prefer extensions and manicures.
The Independent Monitoring Board, watchdog that checks conditions in prisons cites a shocking case in which a foreign criminal from China was held for 180 days then let go. It has been estimated that a place at the centre costs £30,000 per day – It costs British taxpayers £70,000. It was concerned by the type and mixture of people put there including pregnant women, mentally ill people and foreign criminals from inside the EU.
Yarl’s Wood has been dogged by controversy recently – two staff were suspended for calling inmates “animals”. The International Red Cross will try to persuade people to stay away from Europe because it is not El Dorado.
Nowhere is paved with gold and this centre has subject to protests and demonstrations. Yet it would seem that much some of what happens at this centre is far from imprisonment. Passing 50p to charity for so-called artefacts does not go far to help pay the bill.
WENDY HANDS
Upton-upon-Severn

You can install your own driveways
SIR – I think the public should be informed to the fact that WCC highways allow property owners to install their own driveways, this goes against other councils and their regulations as these properties do not install dropped kerbs and churn up the grass verges, they use anything from slabs and gravel to nothing, it is an offence to cross a public footpath per the highways acts yet get away with it in Worcestershire while other councils take a strict action in their area.
This is wrong in law using the words it’s safe, people are allowed to block them in due to no dropped kerb, when others jump on to this things will get out of hand like other issues lacking control.
The public needs to be informed as above to this fact.
JAMES JONES
Worcester

Why can’t the city hit right note for Elgar?
SIR  – I was recently on a coach trip to Scotland where we went to the Robbie Burns visitor centre, it was set in nice grounds and gardens. It was expensive to go into the museum and there were lots of visitors including four coaches.
I thought why couldn’t Worcester have one for Elgar. It would bring more tourists and jobs and extra money for the city.
ROGER WILLIAMS
Worcester