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Thursday's Letters: Yorkshire samaritans restored my faith in human nature
WHAT a heart-warming and inspiring contrast you Yorkshire people offer compared with certain others whom we are reading about daily in our newspapers.
To celebrate Father's Day, I drove one of our three daughters 120 miles from Cheshire to Sutton Bank to introduce her to a walk and reveal to her that beautiful view of the Vale of York.
We walked 12 miles, stopping on the way to admire the lovely scenery and enjoy a pot of tea thanks to the warm hospitality of a lady running a B&B in Boltby.
Only when we reached our car at 7pm, tired and hungry after six hours, did I discover I had lost the keys to my car and house. Locked inside the car was my mobile, and vital information about breakdown cover.
Not just one, but every one of seven people I approached over the next two hours waiting for help freely allowed me to use their mobile to call my wife at home about calling out the breakdown people.
One man, arriving for a late walk, handed me his brand new mobile and without even asking my name, told me to hide it where he could find it, if we had gone, and set off.
My 73-year-old wife, finding I had changed my insurance cover, but not knowing to which company, and drawing a blank with the AA, finally set off at 9pm with our son-in-law to retrieve us, bringing the
spare keys.
Meanwhile, daughter and I set off walking six miles to Thirsk to get a meal. After a couple of miles, a kind young woman in a Land-Rover stopped and generously drove us into the town. More kindness. But to cap it all, I must thank yet more Yorkshire people. The unknown ones who found my keys in Kilburn Woods and put them on a post. Matt Hillier and Louise who phoned Sutton Bank Tourist Information Centre, then handed them in. And staff at the centre such as Peter Reynolds, who responded with brilliant efficiency and helpfulness to an email from me next morning.
To all of you, thank you most sincerely.
I have felt for years that Yorkshire people still show the kindness, generosity and concern, that we once knew in more than 50 years
of walking in the Lakes. Suffocating crowds, and money-making
commercialism have ruined that for us.
Please, don't follow the path that the authorities in the Lakes and in Derbyshire are doing. Yorkshire's beauty is still natural.
Don't fossilise it. Keep it like your people. Honest, heart-warming and inspiring.
From: Don Briggs, Cheshire.
Emergency action forpet owners
From: Martin Barrett BVMS MRCVS, Cross Green Veterinary Centre, Cross Green, Otley.
REGARDING the letter from Janet Walsh (Yorkshire Post, June 19) headlined "City plight for sick pets", I couldn't agree more with this letter and sympathise with her plight.
All vets are obliged by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to provide 24-hour cover. Traditionally, all practices provided their own cover, but more recently many have arrangements where out of hours emergencies are covered by other practices such as the animal hospital at Morley.
Since all practices are privately run, there being no overall regional pet health authority, it is the responsibility of each individual practice to make their own arrangement.
Being a member of a practice providing our own out of hours cover for our patients, I am, when on call, very frequently contacted by distressed pet owners who cannot or feel they should not, due to distance involved, travel to their designated out of hours centre.
These cases often need very urgent attention, eg, road accidents, and this kind of situation is indeed unacceptable.
I would urge people to find out from their veterinary practice what out of hours provisions are made and if these are not acceptable they should register with a practice where they are.
From: June Frais, Cavendish Mews, Leeds.
I SYMPATHISE with the concerns of Janet Walsh expressing the plight of sick pets in an emergency in North Leeds, having had the same stressful experience of taking a sick animal all the way to Morley for urgent medical attention.
Provision more central to Leeds should be seriously considered by all veterinary practices, particularly to the north of the city.
PR's open questions
From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.
I WAS interested, if a bit surprised, that Coun Ralph Berry supports PR (Yorkshire Post, June 16). Perhaps Labour thinks there is something in this for them after all.
It isn't as though PR is a new, untried method. Scotland, Wales and the EU already use it and Germany as well, while Ireland has had it since 1921.
Most of the arguments are self-serving. It is said to lead to weak governments and if that means tempering extremist views on both sides of the aisle, what on earth is wrong with that?
It is a fact that few of our governments since the war have obtained majority support. Tony Blair was elected by just 22 per cent of those eligible to vote.
Mrs Thatcher put through the most divisive programme on a minority vote. It is amazing that supporters of first past the post like Halifax MP Linda Riordan (Yorkshire Post, June 11) should be happy with such a grossly distorted and unfair result.
The alternative vote method preserves the constituency connection. Ah, but what about the BNP? I hear you say. Despite all the furore, the influence of their two people will be nil and a threshold mechanism would limit the election of members from small parties.
I feel that PR will come but when is an open question.
A battle we cannot win
From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills, Keighley.
HOW many members of our Armed Forces are we going to lose in Afghanistan before our Prime Minister accepts and realises that it is a futile battle that we cannot win due to the terrain on which our men are fighting and the training of the Afghans?
Can the poor man not realise and understand that every one of our forces killed was some mother's son?
How many British services families are going to be destroyed before Mr Brown has the guts to pull the plug on our supply of rifle fodder to Afghanistan and bring all our troops home?
Jane deserves the accolades
From: Kevin Maguire, Hanover Street, Batley.
AS time goes by, one realises how important it was that Jane Tomlinson made the effort of running in races and pushing herself to the limit to ensure that money is raised to continue the fight against cancer and it is good to read of the general public's response to her cause.
Yes, she deserves all the accolades and how her family have been involved in this fight for life is just heartwarming.
For me, Yorkshire could drop the Yorkshire Day in preference for Jane's Day. I am sure there are many people who feel the same.
Parents deserve a better solution over schooling
From: Kerry Baines, Moorlands Road, Birkenshaw, Bradford.
I AM writing to you to express my deep concerns about the current proposals regarding the schools in East Bierley and Birkenshaw.
I moved back to Birkenshaw from Gomersal about three years ago because I wanted my children to follow the same educational path as I had done – East Bierley First School, Birkenshaw Middle School then on to Whitcliffe Mount.
I was initially apprehensive when I discovered that Kirklees had decided to discard the three-tier system and revert to a two-tier system but was quickly appeased by the proposal of a high school in Birkenshaw. This sounded fantastic: a smaller high school that my children could actually walk to.
Now we face a high school miles away on the edge of our catchment area. Okay, so there's the promise of fantastic improvements, extensive vocational courses not currently available in smaller schools but we haven't asked for this.
To add insult to injury, we are now faced with proposals to close East Bierley First School. Again, councillors try to offer a "better" alternative: namely a larger school at the Birkenshaw Middle School site. How convenient then that the school would no longer be available for a possible high school.
The angle the council is taking for the closure is about size. A local villager has already offered land so the school can be extended. Yes, this will be a difficult procedure as it involves common land but it was manageable when it involved a housing development.
The school will still be small but it has always been this way and has still achieved outstanding results from Ofsted. So why are the councillors so determined to take the heart and spirit of a village away when this is not our wish?
These proposals are very upsetting to parents. Isn't it time that our views were listened to?
I will not send my children to Howden Clough High School. I won't entertain sending my child to a first school in Birkenshaw. If these changes go ahead, as a family our only course of action will be to move back to Gomersal or out of Kirklees altogether.
We are decent citizens who pay our taxes to this council. We deserve a voice and we deserve a solution that is to the advantage of every Kirklees resident.
The MPs with sleepless nights
From: Ian R Bloomer, Darrington Road, East Hardwick, Pontefract.
I WONDER how many ex-MPs may be having sleepless nights?
Surely, if common criminals can be prosecuted after 20 years or more, the expenses of retired MPs could be checked, say over the last 10 years or so, and if found to have falsely claimed, be made to repay the monies the same way sitting MPs have done so.
Surely, this would be only simple justice for all.
From: JW Buckley, Aketon, Pontefract.
MIGHT I suggest that the Houses of Parliament instruct tour guides not to use the words, "widely accepted as a democratic example to the whole world" and that someone scrutinises all printed material, and
withdraws any containing similar words, otherwise the country is at risk of being sued for misdescription.
From: Arthur Quarmby, Holme, Holmfirth.
TONY Benn points out that when his father was in Parliament, MPs were not paid. And that when he himself joined, MPs had no pensions (Yorkshire Post, June 18).
During that time ,Honourable Members may not have done much for child poverty or old-age pensions, but they have certainly known how to look after themselves.
From: Martin D Stern, Hanover Gardens, Salford.
THE MPs' expenses scandal would appear to show that the word politics really is derived from the Greek "poly" – meaning many – and "ticks"– blood sucking parasites.
From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby, York.
FIDDLING MPs' photographs should appear on packets of cigarettes, with a warning: "This person could damage your wealth."
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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