Letters: Response to criticism of EU Working Time Directives
IN LAST WEEK’S PAPER Mark Martin made a number of allegations about me and my party which are totally wrong and misleading and need to be corrected. The Working Time Directive to which he refers is a European Union Directive. Already 80% of our laws come from the EU. Do we really need the EU to tell us how to employ people, run our businesses ands impose health and safety restrictions that may not be in the interests of the British employee and employer? We have a directly elected British government to do this. Just one example is our retained fire fighters. If we are not allowed to keep our opt-out, which was negotiated by the Conservative party in the 1980s, then these brave people who we rely on to work outside of normal hours will not be able to respond to emergencies because they fall outside of the 48 hours directive. Lives will be lost. Reducing the burden of red tape and bureaucracy on business is a good thing. It frees up small and medium sized businesses – and let’s not forget that these businesses are the backbone of West Yorkshire’s economy – to concentrate on growing their businesses, research and development and to try to get through this recession in one piece without redundancies.
(letter from Janice Small, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Batley and Spen to Batley & Birstall News 3.4.09) |
