I GET more than a little irritated when I read letters from such correspondents as Ms Learmont-Thom (Yorkshire Post, June 25) criticising people whose interests are different to their own, and about which they apparently know nothing.

She bemoans the fact that Bradford Council are proposing to let the moor for shooting on a very few days a year in order to generate funds for the moors' upkeep and maintenance.

She is disgusted that some people have nothing better to do with their time and money other than to shoot animals without regard for people such as herself who wish to enjoy the peace and quiet. Perhaps somebody should tell her that the very moors she walks over cost money to maintain, and that is the purpose of the council's idea.

Various shooting associations, such as the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. contribute very considerable sums of money and effort each year towards the upkeep and conservation of the very countryside that she purports to love. What does she, a walker contribute – nothing.

She goes on to say how much care she exercises to ensure that her dogs do not disturb the flora and fauna when running on the moor. How on earth she ensures that her dogs do not disturb nesting birds or birds and animals with young, which remain invisible to the average walker under the bracken, heather etc only five yards distant is beyond me.

May I suggest that Ms Learmont-Thom accepts that there are people who have different likes and dislikes to herself, forgoes the handful of proposed shooting days and continues to enjoy the moor for the rest of the year.

I am sure a contribution towards its upkeep would be graciously received by the council.

From: JH Hawkesworth,
Ben Rhydding.

EVE Learmont-Thom is entitled to express her views about grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor. In the final paragraph of her letter she did, however, repeat an inaccuracy that seems to run through the correspondence of those opposing the re-introduction of shooting on the Moor.

Ilkley Moor was not "gifted to the public" in 1893. It was, in fact, purchased then, along with the manorial rights from the Middleton family by the then newly formed Ilkley Urban District Council.

The Moor continued to be used for shooting until 1997 when the lease of the shooting rights was not renewed by Bradford Council, the successors of Ilkley Urban District Council.

I have lived within sight of the moor since 1949, and know that shooting took place from then right up to 1997.


Mean-spirited criticism of Mandela

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

NOT even Nelson Mandela should be beyond reproach but the criticism by Bernard Ingham (Yorkshire Post, June 25) and one or two of your recent letter-writers is mean-spirited and misguided.

There was no evidence that Mandela's
silence over Zimbabwe was a tacit acceptance
of Robert Mugabe's catastrophic regime: he
is reported to have no time for the obsessed tyrant.

He has been retired for some time and, unlike lesser leaders who lack the political integrity to hand over the reins totally, he has clearly made an unwritten pledge not to undermine the Mbeki administration. It is not his fault that his craven successor has been such a disappointment.

There has been a unity and consistency about Mandela's devotion to his own homeland. It is churlish and nit-picking to seek to devalue his legacy by challenging him over matters which are almost certainly beyond his control.

After all, the man is 90 years of age.


Misplaced comment

From: Linda McAvan, Labour Member of the European Parliament.

YOUR Editorial "Public protection" (Yorkshire Post, June 18) suggests that the Government is being
prevented from tightening
bail laws because of European Union law. This simply is not true.

As your own news pages make clear, the Government's concerns are the result of a decision of the European
Court of Human Rights –
which is nothing to do with the EU.

The Convention on Human Rights and associated court in Strasbourg are institutions
of the Council of Europe, which is an entirely separate organisation from the European Union.

Indeed, Britain has been a signatory to the Convention since 1950, long before joining the EU. The Convention and Court were established in the aftermath of the human rights atrocities of the Second World War, with much of the groundwork for their creation coming from the work of British lawyers.

Your comment about the Government's "abdication" of rights to Brussels is, therefore, misplaced.

Warm plea

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

ONLY recently, one so-called expert was predicting a scorching summer and the environmentalist lobby were frightening us all to death with the consequences of global warming.

As far as I am concerned at the moment, a little global warming would be most welcome.