YEP Letters: May 9

Support for the junior doctors

Dawn Beck, Morley

I am appalled that the junior doctors have been driven to take such drastic action.

I have two long term serious health conditions and rely on the NHS to keep me as well as possible, both on a day to day basis and in emergencies.

Jeremy Hunt appears to have backed himself into a corner and is now unwilling to do anything to resolve the situation. I hope that he can learn that the junior doctors dispute is not just going to go away, that the majority of the public support them (after all we want a doctor who is awake and rested to help us, not one who is so tired they can’t think properly) and that he needs to think about what compromises he can make.

Fracking is about profit for companies

Paul Dainton, President of Residents against Toxic Scheme (RATS)

There are many people who believe in fracking despite the massive health and environmental problems seen in the USA.

Indeed the problems have been so bad that many European countries refuse to have fracking within their own borders.

Believers in fracking state that new regulations will protect our health, welfare and the environment.

Perhaps these people should take a look at the most regulated power industry in the world: the nuclear industry. Despite massive legislation in every country with nuclear power it has not stopped catastrophes in the USA, Russia and Japan.

Strange as it may seem there is no comprehensive list of nuclear accidents, escapes or leaks, to water, land, or air, held in the UK either by the government or the industry.

In fact, the industry and government do everything to prevent the public from finding out about and viewing such problems.

The nuclear industry is the most secretive power industry in the UK and makes massive profits with no solution as what to do in the long term with its waste,

The industry, just like the fracking industry, is about profit, any one who believes that domestic or industrial gas prices in the UK will fall to the level of the USA will be sadly disappointed.

Fracking is about one thing - profit for the investment companies. No amount of regulation will keep the environment safe, just as masses of regulation has failed to keep the nuclear industry clean and safe.

With dozens of companies drilling in every part of the country the industry will be able to keep secret any problems from the public, and the cheaper the costs the bigger the profits, the cheaper the costs the more dangerous the risks.You can make all the regulations you want, pass laws and have regulators but when things go wrong as it did in the USA, Russia, and in Japan’s nuclear industry, sorry will not be good enough. The health and welfare of us all, along with the environment, will be lost for a profit for the few

Consider all EU issues

Dr Martin Hemingway, Leeds 6