Terrorists are usually freedom fighters or have some cause which drives them to commit their acts of terror. Prominent non-violent freedom fighters are the Tibetans who would like the brutally oppressive Chinese to leave their country or at the very least stop destroying their culture.
The only accepted leader of the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama, is currently visiting this country (until June 3). Unfortunately, despite lobbying from many and varied sources, the Prime Minister is too busy to see him.
If the most famous non-violent freedom fighter in the world cannot get an audience, then the message is clear. If you want people to take notice, you have to kill people. What kind of message is this for our leader to be sending?

War and peace – the case for European union

From: James Bovington, chairman, European Movement, Church Grove, Horsforth, Leeds.
I am proud to support Britain's membership of an organisation which gives a political voice to our continent in a 21st-century world that will be dominated by the superpowers of North America, China and possibly India.
It is important that Europeans speak with one voice on the international stage to allow us better to defend our interests as others defend theirs.
Examples include how our combined pressure forced the Bush Administration to back down on steel tariffs last autumn – even Britain wasn't spared them, special relationship or not – and the "single skies" agreement coming in next year and EU driven will make air transport both cheaper and safer.
For Leeds really to develop its goal of being a leading European city, this city would benefit from the euro (We also need a metro system similar to those in our twin cities Lille and Dortmund). Meanwhile, I plead guilty to teaching my students that the key elements of our identities in this Europe of diversity are the languages we speak, the music we hear, the food we eat, the films we watch and the books we read.
As a languages teacher I am keen for this diversity to be strengthened rather than worrying unduly about symbols such as notes and coins, simply means to an end, so that young people feel proud of a common European heritage in which, for example, the works of Chaucer stand side by side with those of Cervantes.
I am also delighted that my stepson met other Europeans through cultural exchanges partly EU funded and learned about how our continent can be united in this social and cultural diversity rather than having to meet them on the battlefield as did previous generations, including my father's.
If that's betrayal of the UK, then I am proud to plead guilty. But, of course, it isn't – the real betrayal comes from head-in-the- sand Eurosceptics who feel more comfortable perpetuating the enmities of previous centuries rather than meeting the challenges of this new one. The mystery to me is why?

Loss of councils a price too great to pay
From: Frank Pedley, Wood Close, Gisburn Road, Hellifield, Skipton.
According to your advertisement section, the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly, based in Wakefield, seeks to appoint two "Policy Managers (Planning)" who will be members of the team co-ordinating the implementation of the Regional Strategy.
The Assembly is the indirectly elected "regional strategic partnership with members from local authorities and social, economic and environmental partners".
There is no time limit on the new posts and one has to assume that, if an elected regional council is formed following the autumn referendum, the staff of the Assembly will move smoothly into the new body, doing the same work but with slightly different employers.
Directly-elected authorities are, of course, always to be preferred in principle to indirectly elected ones. But that principle has to be tempered where, as in the case of the proposed Yorkshire region, there is little possibility of the ordinary voter (especially in more rural areas) being able to recognise, let alone influence, his councillor.
If to that is added the fact that the price to be paid for a regional council is the abolition of either the North Yorkshire County Council, or our local District Council, then that price is surely too great.
Off track
From: Stephen Leather, Wilsden Road, Harden, Bingley.
FURTHER to Andrew Shepherd's letter (May 19) on green lanes, one of my main concerns is that, once the strict confines of a trail become rutted, then traffic pushes ever wider. That is exactly what had happened on Cotter End, creating erosion over a wide area, forcing the traveller to in effect leave the road and commit a trespass. There was no area "slightly to the left... untouched by motorcycle tyres".
The unsolicited history lesson merely seeks to fudge the issue, but, in fact, clarifies the argument. If these roads could barely deal with the traffic of a by-gone age, then they most certainly cannot cope with the power of a modern motorcycle.
Mr Shepherd makes an unwarranted assumption when he suggests that I make "rare trips on unmetalled roads". I walk the Dales most weekends of the year and take my annual holidays walking in Northern England and Scotland. I have from experience learned to avoid those roads where I will meet vehicles and, if I'm honest, hordes of other walkers.
I am not against trail riders as such, but I am against the thoughtless and selfish use of the countryside by anyone and that includes walkers, paragliders, cyclists, motorist or whoever spoils other people's enjoyment of our lovely countryside.        
Fast and slow
From: Ian W Whitson, Wood End Close, Halifax.
The average motorist cannot tell the difference between 30mph and 34mph except by reference to the speedometer.
Consequently, the presence of a speed camera with its fixed fine regardless of the merits means that the motorist must continually divert his/her eyes from the road to the inside of the car to ensure the relevant limit is not being exceeded, with even more checks needed if the road has a downhill gradient.
While the driver is checking the speedometer the car travels at least 10-15 yards even at 30mph with the driver's eyes away from the road as it is not possible to see both road and speedometer at the same time.
Particularly on a road which may already be an accident blackspot, how can any device which forces a driver to spend less rather than more time looking at and concentrating on the road ahead be justified on safety grounds?

Game up for soccer hooligans
From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way, Acomb, York.
Thousands of UK football hooligans will be prevented from leaving England to visit Portugal in June 2004. The authorities have got it all wrong – they all should be allowed to go, but none should be allowed back in.
To kill two birds with one stone, each of these football fans should be forced to carry two paintings or sculptures or works of art that did not get burnt in the recent warehouse fire at the Brit Art gallery. This action would rid Britain of masses of junk and please millions of our population.
Foxed?
From: EW Beechey, Yorkshire Representative, League Against Cruel Sports, Eastfield Lane, Kellington, Goole.
Helen Capstick informs us (May 24) that "every dictionary tells you that foxes are vermin". Well, mine doesn't.
However, it does define the transitive verb "to fox" as "deceiving by cunning". Perhaps this was the real motive for Helen Capstick putting pen to paper in the first place.
Monopoly link
From: Victor Watson, Moat Field, Moor Lane, East Keswick, Leeds.
Your piece on the Hull edition of the game Monopoly contained a fundamental error when stating that no Yorkshire city has ever had its own Monopoly game.
In 1989, Waddington's produced a limited edition of 500 copies of the Leeds Monopoly.
It raised £18,000 for the charity supported by the Lord Mayor, Coun Les Carter. Copies are highly prized.

More readers respond to our Lives & Times series, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Yorkshire Post.

Watching as the first H-Bomb was exploded
From: Michael Collier, Garth Lane, Hook, Goole.
Regarding your article on Britain's H-bomb testing (May 11), on May 15, 1957 I was a National Service Able Seaman on the Despatch Vessel HMS Alert in the central Pacific. Alert was a platform for senior officers, scientists and VIPs, as well as the ship's company of 140 men, from which to observe Britain's first H-bomb detonation.
All on board were kitted out, head to toes, in anti-flash clothing and full overall suit.
When the RAF Valiant reached the drop zone over Malden Island we were ordered to turn, backs to the explosion, and to close and cover our eyes.
Some 20-30 seconds after detonation we turned, when ordered, to see a distant fireball (we were 20 miles away) and a rather elegant plume of smoke/condensation which appeared to move downwards from the explosion to the sea rather than being sucked up from the sea.
It was much less spectacular than the atomic bomb explosions that the Alert's crew had witnessed the year before at Monte Bello, North Western Australia.
But then the ship was only four miles from the explosion which was sited on land and not in the air. Our dress for the Monte Bello tests was shorts and sandals! For all the tests and afterwards we all wore a small radioactivity measuring device.
I did hear afterwards that they were simply collected and dumped. Years later, 1983, I was registered No. 478 in a survey by the Department of Social Medicine at the University of Birmingham.
I have read of some servicemen – and there were thousands of them in all three services involved in the various tests – suffering ill health and attributing it to their experiences. I must say I cannot complain on this score.
The photograph shows me and others dressed for the occasion before the blast and after.
The wispy cloud over my head is the H-bomb cloud some time after the explosion. The white "badge" on my front is the so-called safety badge to measure radioactivity.

Of feather beds and swimming in a stream
From: Mrs Adrianne Thomson, Askwith, Otley.
The kindness of my best friend's family enabled me to have many happy holidays with them at Arncliffe (Lives & Times, May 4). As it was war time and petrol rationing was in force, just getting to Arncliffe from Ilkley was an adventure.
We took the train to Skipton, yes we could do that before Beeching, and were met at Skipton by a farmer who had petrol coupons for his car to enable him to go to Skipton market at very infrequent intervals.
So the four of us, plus driver, bags of feed and the odd hen all then set off for Arncliffe which seemed to me a great distance.
We stayed at Bridge End where the Miller family made us all most welcome and where my friend and I slept in a feather bed and as we naturally rolled to the centre of it we put in a bolster pillow down the middle of the bed to keep us apart.
Our carefree days were spent roaming the village, paddling in the river, making bows from the willows growing by the surface, watching horses being shod in the smithy, swimming in a natural pool in the stream running alongside the Malham road, roaming the fells and appearing only for meals. I have many happy memories, not only of Arncliffe as a place, but also of the warm and accepting welcome given to us children.

Next Tuesday's Lives & Times: The Coronation.