We don't need preaching to – enough is enough!

I SEE that Saros Kavina has been articulating again in the Derby Telegraph ("We should all do our bit to help those less fortunate than ourselves", February 13).

He and his friend have arrived back in the UK after having survived the tsunami on Phuket Island, Thailand, and has started "preaching the gospel according to Saros".

I and many more pensioners feel lucky to be able to afford a fortnight in Mablethorpe but he comes back and preaches to us about unfortunate people in other countries.

I wonder if I am in order to preach to Mr Kavina. The Bible states that, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven," or words to that effect. My interpretation may not be exact, but the gist is there.

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Just having come back from a vacation in the upmarket resort of Phuket, compared to my possible fortnight in Mablethorpe, is incomparable and is the example of the "haves", "have nots" and the "never will haves" – politicians, foreign-owned utility companies, plus David Cameron, who ring-fences overseas aid yet gives minimum amounts to his own pensioners, who have worked all their working lives and claimed nothing from the state.

A nine-hour day was the norm, seven days a week, working through bank holidays. At Easter, half the staff worked Good Friday and Saturday and half the staff worked Easter Sunday and Monday.

A similar scenario took place at Christmas.

This skeleton staff arrangement was enough to keep the works operating with the proviso that if anything major occurred, the staff who were not working could be called upon.

There was also a "no strike" agreement in operation. The industry supplied gas to hospitals and other essential services and had to operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year.

The rate of pay was the going rate for other tradesmen throughout the industry, except Christmas and Good Friday were double time, and the other days time-and-a-half. Even through the war, the industry never shut down. Many of the workers died at a young age due to the conditions.

I and many of the remaining survivors don't want Saros Kavina, politicians of any ilk, swindling bank executives or other do-gooders preaching to us – we've heard enough and suffered enough!

J Mellor

Westwick Street

Ilkeston