Not just the public sector

AS THE owner of a small construction company for 35 years and counting, I can readily attest to the failure of using taxpayer direct labour to maintain public buildings and the like.

The well-worn image of blokes leaning on shovels, drinking tea and having a fag was never far from the truth.

Had Mr M Ward (Postbag Sept 20) contented himself with specifics, the example provided perhaps, he would have retained my support.

Regrettably, however, he sought to use his annoyance over pensions to condemn the very notion of public service in general.

The list of accusations he provided was extraordinarily venomous and, as a reminder, needs to be repeated here.

“All areas of the public sector,” he wrote, “have shown they are either incompetent, liars, wasteful, uncaring, self-indulgent or many of the above and yet they constantly demand better terms and conditions than the majority of the UK workforce”.

How ironic, then that his vitriolic putdown of non-private sector workers everywhere, also managed to best describe our discredited banking industry, not to mention the spivs and wide boys in the city.

Ian Hoyle, Broom Valley Road, Rotherham