IF EVER there was a case for privatising the national health and education services in this country it is the threat of a strike by teachers and doctors.

Over what? No, not reductions in pay, longer working hours or wholesale redundancies. Just proposals to reform their unaffordable public-sector pensions.

How can they be taken seriously and treated like professionals if they threaten to behave like ‘trade’ workers – withdrawing their labour as a weapon during on-going negotiations. These are the tactics of the playground.

We treat these people with dignity and as taxpayers reward them with outstanding conditions of service and exceptional pay. In return we expect them to provide an excellent and uninterrupted service. We also anticipate they will act in a dignified manner.

In withdrawing their labour they have broken their contract with us. Children will be neglected and patients will be put at risk. This is totally unacceptable.

Roll on privatisation of these services when some realism will be introduced into the equation.

Allan Charlesworth, Old Earswick, York.

• I NOTE in your item headed “Take children to work, says PM’ (The Press, November 24) you report that “Senior Tory MP Richard Ottaway said strikes should be banned unless 50 per cent or more of a union’s members voted for it”.

This MP is the Member of Parliament for Croydon South, he holds one of the safest Tory seats in the country. In the 2010 General Election he polled 28,684 votes (50.9 per cent of votes cast). The constituency had 80,780 registered electors at the 2010 General Election, the percentage of those electors who voted for Richard Ottaway was 35.51 per cent. “Those who live in glass houses” springs to mind.

Incidentally, I wonder how many York councillors would still be elected if they had to obtain the support of 50 per cent or more of the electorate in local elections?

Peter Leadill, Keldale, Haxby.

• I AM appalled at the decision of the civil service unions to call a strike during these times of national crisis. It is estimated that it will cost the country half a billion pounds, which can only come directly from the pockets of taxpayers. Tremendous hardship will also be experienced as a result of services that are withdrawn.

I have no problem with employees striking if there is a just cause, but in this case the call for no change to the public service pensions is ludicrous. The pensions were set up in a time when we all believed that money and the Government were synonymous. This has proved to be dramatically wrong, and if only the public sector workers would realise that the general public is paying their pensions, at a much more generous rate that most private sector employees, perhaps they would stop asking questions like, “Is it fair that I have to work longer, pay more and get less pension?”

Yes, it IS fair, as it only brings the public sector a bit closer to the private sector.

Gideon Visser, Stonegrave.

• DURING last week’s BBC1 Question Time debate on public sector pensions, the Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan made the outrageous comment that the productive employees of this country were paying for the pensions of the unproductive public sector.

Absolutely scandalous; obviously he had no thoughts for our teachers and nurses and the incredible work that they all do, but then again why should he? Hannan probably has the funds to pay for a public school education and private health care. “I’m all right Jack’ Britain here we come.

G Flakes, Holgate, York.

• I HAVE sympathy with J Woodall’s comments (Letters, November 26) about the increased prices charged by travel companies during school holiday periods.

As a teacher, these are the only periods when I can take holidays as well. Regarding the time taken for training days, it is worthwhile remembering that these were originally five days a year taken from the teacher’s holiday period. Pupils today still receive 190 days of schooling per year, just as they did before training days were introduced.

My contract only pays me for these 195 days – there are no provisions for any holiday pay. While the holidays appear attractive, there are probably not many people who would extend their own holidays as unpaid leave.

The strike action is something that all parents should support if we want qualified and motivated people to teach our children. Teachers pay significant contributions towards their pension.

Successive governments have failed to invest this money as a fund and instead used the money as general taxation. How happy would someone paying into a private scheme feel if their employer spent their hard-earned contributions instead of saving against the day when they would need to start paying some of it back as a pension?

G James, York.

• ACCORDING to the Government, tomorrow’s one-day strike will bring the country to its knees, with untold damage to our image abroad and push us to the brink of recession from which we may be unable to return.

This, I understand, is to be spearheaded by two million ruthless Marxist/Leninist sleepers who have successfully infiltrated education, head teachers association, local government, transport, the border agency, the health service and even the upper reaches of the Whitehall civil service.

The Government response is to withdraw from negotiations which in turn will fuel more industrial action. The Government, with its divide and conquer policies, will then get the green light to introduce draconian employment law, removing all employees’ rights in all sectors.

We should ask ourselves who will benefit from such changes and why is this Government turning on ordinary hardworking, educated, taxpaying and often low-paid citizens. We need stability to encourage growth and recovery, not fear and insecurity in employment and housing or grand fake apprenticeship schemes in which the private sector is once again funded by tax payers.

I doff my cap for no one and the sooner we are rid of the Conservatives, the better, before we are plunged back into the dark ages.

J Stone, Southolme Drive, York.