Martin Luther King's insistence that the freedom of his people must be won by non-violent means prevented what could easily have become a bloody conflict which would have smeared the reputation of America for ever.

This enduring principle, for which he paid a price of physical assault, imprisonment, and ultimately death, was eloquently and prophetically shown in his last address in Memphis, which still brings tears to my eyes.

"I have been to the mountain top, and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I know that we as a people will get there."

The next day he was dead.

But even his magnetic oratory would not have been enough to hold out against the Alabama guard without the support of President Lyndon B Johnson, a man not till then noted for his liberalism.

His claim to fame is that he recognised that the US had reached a crossroads in race relations, and that only federal intervention could avoid disaster. His civil rights legislation, following his military action, created the foundation of equality which, 40 years later,
has seen the triumph of equal rights.

His party has all those years paid the price for his action by the ostracism of the southern states, but history will surely show that this man gave his country the lead in righting a terrible wrong.


Let's have clever comedy, not vulgarity

From: Mrs S Thomas, Westbank Close, Coal Aston, Dronfield, Derbyshire.

REGARDING the letters and columns about Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross over recent weeks, I am fed up with this ridiculous mess.

The situation should have been nipped in the bud straightaway. Why hasn't Ross been sacked?

To suspend him and fine him £1m when it has been stated he would earn £18m for three years' work will not upset him.

Who said he was a comedian? I watched a repeat last week of Ronnie Barker, who showed excerpts from comedians he had admired, and who had inspired him.

All were clever comedians in their own field without resorting to vulgarity. Ross couldn't hold a candle to any of them.

It's high time the BBC cleaned up its programmes (and other stations) and stopped showing this rubbish.


Just the ticket for an encounter with the clampers

From: SB Oliver, Churchill Grove, Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire.

IAN Smith (Yorkshire Post, November 11) asks why Ann Cryer MP has waited so long before calling for a change in the law on car-clamping until Betty Boothroyd "suffered" at the hands of the Haworth clampers. While I have no truck with, or for, car clampers, my reading of the incident is slightly different.

First, Betty Boothroyd did not "suffer" (but was inconvenienced) as she was a passenger in her friend's car and so it was her friend that
got clamped. Second, her friend had placed the ticket upside-down so the stamped time was not visible. The driver has a responsibility to display tickets properly and I'm sure there will be notices that say so.

Therefore her friend is to blame for the oversight as they returned before their time expired and I can understand the car being clamped
because that is the posted consequence.

Clamping is an extreme solution to minor parking violations (or mistakes) – maybe fines would be more humane, with clamping as a final solution for extreme overstays. If the law is changed, I am quite sure that there will be no clause which says that an upside-down ticket will ever be acceptable, even if it is still within the expiry time.

An upside-down ticket, in itself, does not indicate either absent-mindedness or that it has not expired. It could be deliberate and expired.