Responsibility is a two- way partnership and this Government has shown little inclination to listen

“Responsibility” is a two- way partnership and this Government has shown little inclination to listen. I have never known workers in the health service (at all levels) to be so fed up and demoralised. At last the worm has turned, and about time too!Yours faithfully,R L. ROTHWELL JACKSONKensworth,BedfordshireThe writer is a retired consultant surgeon.. From Mr Ahlam Akram and others

Sir: Israel’s recent seizure of another 131 acres of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem may well spell the death knell to an already discredited peace process, since it seeks to pre-empt resolution of Jerusalem’s final status in 1998. I am surprised that your leading article (17 May) should support this negative attitude.Both medical and nursing staff in the NHS have objected to local pay deals and given sound reasons for doing so. From Mr R L.

Rothwell Jackson

Sir: I feel that I must write in support of the Royal College of Nursing’s decision to ballot on changing their rule on taking industrial action.
Whenever governments try to impose unacceptable pay and conditions on people employed in public services, they engage in the moral blackmail of “you can’t take industrial action because this will harm the public”. If nurses really care what happens to patients, they must be prepared, if driven to it, to take industrial action, albeit modified, and the inevitable flak which will follow.Yours faithfully,DAPHNE FOXLewes,East Sussex17 May. As a nurse, I see little difference between industrial action by nurses or miners – reducing people’s ability to maintain their essential bodily comfort is not to be undertaken lightly by either and has similar effects – but the right to withdraw labour as a last-ditch action against an uncomprehending and ruthless employer is a basic right.Nurses will not benefit patients by submitting to emotional blackmail from the press or elsewhere – they will rather accelerate an already rapid decline in patient care. For nurses, flexibility can mean reapplying for a job one has done for years, having to accept more responsibility for less pay, and working with inexperienced and briefly trained colleagues. It especially means no acknowledgement of national standards and loss of collective pay bargaining. For patients, flexibility already means a reduction in human response and skilled care, minimum comfort and dangerously low staffing levels.Your leader says of nurses that they “would need to consult their consciences in a way that, for instance, miners would not”.

From Mrs Daphne Fox

Sir: In response to today’s leading article (“When being cross is not enough”, 17 May), which favours local pay bargaining between hospital and trusts to produce “the flexibility to offer the patient the best possible service”, I would wish to question what this “flexibility” actually means for the manager, nurse and patient.
Nurses know that “flexibility” for managers means the ability to employ fewer qualified staff and at lower pay grades than their experience would indicate. From Lord Walpole

Sir: As one of only to pig-tailed Lords I could not but take your illustration of “Lord Backwood” (“Should we change the rules of this club?”, 9 May) personally!
So, I would like to point out that although I do have some rare-breed sheep on my farm, sometimes drive an elderly Bristol motor car and possess a certain affection for Wodehouse, I am an active member of the Crossbenches, attend the House on a regular basis, have been a member of Committee and have spoken several times this year on a range of issues including training for the Probation Service, as well as moving several amendments to the Environment Bill and, most importantly, did not vote with Lady Thatcher as I am a committed European (and was at Eton, not Winchester).Of course the House needs reform and this is a serious question which must be addressed by all parties.Yours faithfully,WALPOLEManningtonNorfolk9 May. It wasn’t my beloved in the least but another gourmet blue cook entirely.No harm done The outing did me good and the dips were excellent.. Frank was followed by the lovely Marilyn (“Where’s my Frank? I know he’s here!”), Marilyn by Honest John and Honest John by Mrs Lamb.

Sitting outside, and imagining the disarray among the dips, I could hardly contain my mirth.Then I ran in and asked politely if anyone had been asking for me. “I know he’s here! I know you’ve been seeing him, you little trollop!”While accusation and counter accusation flew backwards and forwards between my beloved and her tradesman, Frankie Fraser ran through the door shouting “Where is she? I know she’s here! Be sensible!” – not an injunction Bournemouth’s “B list” had received hitherto from Frankie Fraser.You’ll have got the picture. The six of us drove down to Bournemouth and parked the car outside my beloved’s flat. First out of the traps was Isabelle, who ran through my beloved’s front door shouting the odds.”Where is he?” she screamed. Still less do you use your column as a conduit for your grief. You bottle it all up and, if the cork comes out, you do something very silly indeed.On Tuesday my cork popped with a violence that had me ricocheting round my front room for 20 minutes. I was talking to Michelle about her pal, the gourmet blue cook in Bournemouth and about the latter’s dips party later in the week, when it suddenly hit me (I needn’t tell you why) that the gourmet blue cook and the love of my life were one and the same.I might have done something really foolish; I might, for instance (having it in mind to play a joke on my beloved by running amok among the dips), have driven to Bournemouth with Isabelle, who’s eight months pregnant, with Frankie Fraser and the lovely Marilyn, with Honest John and Mrs Lamb.Which, on Thursday, is what I did.