First, 4x4 vehicles, sometimes described as "Chelsea tractors", are once again singled out for punitive taxation despite the fact that this general category of vehicle covers a wide spectrum of engine sizes, weights and physical dimensions from a small lightweight, such as a Freelander, up to the gigantic American Hummer.
This emotive prejudice against the 4x4 in general also fails to recognise that this type of vehicle is an essential tool for many farmers and country-dwellers – a group of people who already pay the highest fuel prices out in remote areas, and also the same people who seem to count for nothing with this urban-based government.
Unbelievably, the EAC also talks about lowering the motorway speed limit, despite the fact that many organisations, including some sections of the police, recognise that the current 70mph limit needs to be raised to at least 80mph to be more compatible with actual vehicle speeds in the real world.
The Yorkshire Post has reported that motoring organisations have given a guarded welcome to the idea of road tolls. Clearly such organisations are quite divorced from the interests of their subscribers if they are not prepared to state very loudly that motorists already pay heavily for every mile travelled, in the form of fuel duty and VAT.
The advocates of congestion charging deliberately fail to recognise that people only drive in congested conditions, rush hours and so on, because they have to for their work.
It has been said that road congestion costs British business £20bn a year, and every business strives to cut this cost in many ways and does not need additional impositions which merely increase costs and produce no benefits.

From: Coun Mark Harris, Lib Dem leader of Leeds City Council, City Hall, Leeds.
DOUGLAS Alexander, the Transport Secretary, wants Parliament to award him new powers to impose road charging systems upon any city he chooses, whether or not the people living there want such a scheme.
His justification for this is that he thinks it would be less confusing for people travelling from one city to another if there was a charge everywhere.
Perhaps, while he seeks to make life less confusing for us all, Mr Alexander could also explain why some cities are deemed worthy of light rail systems, and others like Leeds are left with hopelessly inadequate public transport systems.
How on earth can drivers to be expected to pay the same charge to drive in Leeds (which has no decent public transport alternative to the car) as they would in Manchester, Sheffield, Newcastle or Nottingham (all of which have light rail)?

YCCC's dismal failure to control drinking

From: Sandra Tinker, Harrogate.
I ATTENDED the Headingley Test last Friday and I found the behaviour of quite a number of so-called fans in the West Stand and North Stand (where I was sitting) to be disgusting.
I read in the Yorkshire Post that alcohol was banned from being brought into the ground so that Yorkshire County Cricket Club could monitor the amount of alcohol consumed. You must be joking.
I would imagine that it encouraged more binge drinking. Our party of 10 left early as the behaviour was deteriorating further.
I feel that this reflects very badly on, not only YCCC, but also on the county itself.

From: John Naylor, Silcoates Lane, Wrenthorpe, Wakefield.
IN response to why Headingley is no longer a Test attraction, I can only agree with the remarks about shabby treatment from stewards. I stopped going to Tests five years ago after being interrogated over the fact that I had eight cans of lager in my bag.
On explaining that four were for me and the others for my wife, the steward wanted to know if my wife did indeed drink and were they for her. At that time we were allowed four cans per person so he had no need to query it. Since then, we have never attended a Test at Leeds.

When the law is an ass

From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.
A MOTORIST, who lost control of his car which had three defective tyres and killed four cyclists, is fined £180. Clearly, driving a car with three defective tyres is not considered by the law to be dangerous driving (Yorkshire Post, August 4).
A woman, said to have been subjected to a relentless campaign of mean and spiteful behaviour by her work colleagues, is awarded compensation of £817,000, an amount almost eight times greater than the award Martine Wright received for having both her legs blown off in the Aldgate Tube blast.
Only a few months ago, a pensioner was jailed for refusing to pay the above- inflation part of her council tax bill.
Yet, there are still those who spring to the defence of our justice system stating that criticism is totally unfair, completely out-of-order and even evil.
If I was a member of the legal profession I'd be ashamed of such judgments. I would also question if the senior law lords are comfortable with such frequent grave anomalies and, if not, what actions they are going to take. Would it be unfair, unjust or evil to say our justice system is rotten?

From: AJ Wallace, Bents Crescent, Dronfield.
REGARDING the £180 fine for the cycle death driver, I have always thought that a person driving a car is in control and is required to drive safely with due care and attention.
The message this case sends out is that we cannot be blamed for this type of accident if roads are icy, and so long as we drive within the official speed limit.
It seems that the motor car is king of the road, and we just accept that casualties are inevitable, and the cyclists killed are just another addition to the statistics.

Position on abortion

From: B Henry, Arden Gate, Balby, Doncaster.
"INFANTS... being coaxed to life by dedicated doctors and nurses..." ( Bernard Dineen, Yorkshire Post, August 7).
For how much longer though? If the Government has its way, doctors and nurses will no longer be able to use the conscience clause to avoid procuring or performing abortions. They will be forced to refer the abortion seeker to a pro-abortion doctor.
But if doctors and nurses honestly believe that abortion kills an innocent human being, how can they just pass her on? After all, if you find someone to kill a born person, the law will judge you equally guilty. Many doctors and nurses would rather leave the profession than face this dilemma.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt may say the Government is neutral on abortion: its actions say the opposite.

Flaws in fluoridation

From: Coun Richard Hall, Aspin Way, Knaresborough.
I FIND it surprising that dental officers seem to be still pursuing this discredited effort to medically treat people without their informed consent through the water supply (Yorkshire Post, July 22). There are a number of issues of concern that have not been mentioned in your article:
1. Cost – I find it still very difficult to get from the health authorities just what the costs of installing this plant and also running the fluoridation system will be throughout the whole of North Yorkshire.
2. Effective – the Dental Officer mentioned appears to be not aware of the review that was commissioned by the Government in 2002 by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, which was hardly a ringing endorsement of fluoridation.
3. Ethical – It is clearly a medical treatment without informed consent. How can the dental profession claim that it is not a medical treatment baffles me.
4. Safety – It is proposed to transport thousands of gallons of concentrated sodium fluoride to water treatment plants throughout the county and throughout the country. This is one of the most corrosive acids known to man, impossible to transport in glass and steel, it just goes straight through it. And has to be transported in specially constructed plastic lined material. I dread to think what would happen should an accident occur when one of these tankers is in collision.
This is all for a doubtful medical treatment of considerable risk.
I would urge all your readers to write expressing their deep concern about any of these proposals to the health authorities concerned, and hope the Yorkshire Post will take up this as an issue of public interest.

Points

Just champion

From: A Clegg, Elgar Avenue, Surbiton.
JAYNE Dowle's article ("The new champions of a proud Yorkshire", Yorkshire Post, July 27) calls to mind for me, not today's young professional, but a former one. Wilfred Pickles was a Yorkshire thespian who himself made his own contribution to the cause.
In addition to his acting capabilities, he was a very clearly spoken announcer on radio. In 1942, he was radio news reader not only on the North region but also on the national programme (no TV then).
Broadcasting ceased at midnight with the announcer wishing "everybody a peaceful and very good night". Then Pickles added the unscripted bit. "And to all in the North of England – Gud Neet!"

Truth hurts

From: DS Boyes, Rodley Lane, Bramley, Leeds.
WHAT an enormous debt of gratitude we owe to the Countess Mar, whose resignation from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has exposed the many lies repeatedly told by the Government (Yorkshire Post, August 2).
Unlike many cowardly politicians of today whose words are tempered by a desperate need to retain the ethnic vote in their constituencies for the next election, she has simply told the truth, which always hurts.

Ideas for change

From: Bob Paddison, Lumby Hill, Monk Fryston, near Leeds.
IN "Cathedral's future" (Yorkshire Post, August 5), Ron Carbutt advocates the cathedral be part of Wakefield's renaissance. How exactly? He also states that the cathedral authorities "recognise they are in an ever more competitive market". With whom or what precisely?
He considers the cathedral "a vibrant community asset". But, he adds: "The challenge is... increasing the 'usability' and flexibility of the church's buildings." Why and how? If he could produce ideas instead of platitudes, we may debate the desirability for change at the cathedral.

On the fence

From: John Holland, Lindeth Road, Silverdale.
FURTHER to your criticism of the Health Secretary being sat on the fence over cottage hospitals (Yorkshire Post, August 7), Patricia Hewitt has made her own silly decisions and is therefore sitting on the fence. No one sat her there.

Smokescreen of cigar-smoking on stage

From: Jean Evans, Norton, Malton.
WHY all the fuss about Mel Smith and the cigar smoking of Churchill, as presented on stage at the Edinburgh Festival?
It was the presence of the cigar, not the actual smoking of it – the angle at which the cigar was firmly clapped and the jaw jutted forward – which conveyed a defiance of the "fight on the beaches" speech which ended "we shall never give in."
That was the important message, not the actual smoking of the cigar. Can Mel Smith not act well enough to convey that message?
No doubt the free media coverage will have given welcome publicity to the show, but perhaps a little overdone.

Big business dictates over sugar beet closure

From: FR Henley, Seaton Ross, York.
AFTER attending the beet meeting at York, I came to the conclusion that British Sugar intends to stop producing any sugar at all in the UK (Yorkshire Post, August 4).
Even without closing factories, the price they are offering for beet is below production cost, and they are trying to get away with paying as little compensation as possible to those who have made large investments to grow beet.
Someone at the meeting suggested boycotting products and services of AB Foods, the parent company.
A quick look on the internet reveals that they supply animal feed, market crops and livestock and are involved in many other farming related areas.
Also, they make and supply many products to the food industry (retailers, caterers, etc) so this may be a direction to take. It is once again big business dictating to small producers everywhere.

From: G Falkingham, Wressle, Selby.
AS a sugar beet grower, I feel that British Sugar is abusing its power as a monopoly by closing two factories and paying only the minimum EU price for sugar beet.

From: IG Simpson, Moorbank Court, Shire Oak Road, Leeds.
THE closure next year of the York sugar beet factory is clearly bad news for its supplying farmers and for the factory employees.
However, if British Sugar remains determined on this, should consideration be given to the possibility of sending beet by barge to the Newark factory along the Ouse and Trent?
The beet would need to be delivered to assembly points on the Ouse for the weighing and sampling of farmers' deliveries.
I think that a preliminary feasibility study would be justified.

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