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Monday's Letters: Reasons the BNP won votes from Labour
IN reply to Martin Stern (Yorkshire Post, June 19), figures published in the media stated that there was an increase of between 12 and 16 per cent of votes for the BNP in South Yorkshire, which includes Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham and Sheffield.
If Martin Stern thinks this area is not a Labour stronghold, I am afraid he is wrong. The residents in this part of Yorkshire still think Arthur Scargill is a god and Margaret Thatcher is the devil.
On the Wednesday after the results were published, I worked in South Yorkshire on a road repair.
As we had to wait for the go ahead to start, I spoke to some of the locals and the ones I spoke to quite openly said they voted for the BNP or UKIP. The people that I spoke to came up with the same reasons – why should immigrants have a job and not them? – with a few more reasons added.
Some of the letters which I have been reading in different publications are saying that the BNP should not have won the seats as there was a small turnout of voters.
If that is the case, the other parties should not count either. Some candidates were sore losers.
Losing your well paid job and only getting a few hundred pounds per week pension plus the handout of thousands to help get them started, life must be going to be hard for them.
The workers who have lost jobs through no fault of their own will struggle more than ex-MEPs.
From: Geoffrey Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.
We must not forget MPs' expenses
From: John Richmond, Harrogate Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire.
WHILE the MPs' expenses scandal will roll on, with attempts being made by MPs from all parties to give excuses as to why or how it happened, perhaps a full list should be produced as to which of the present MPs are standing down at the next election.
A year from now, I wonder how many of the general public will remember the details of the unbelievable claims made by the vast majority of MPs and especially the responses from MPs who obviously feel affronted when asked for their comments on claims for large quantities of horse manure, removal of moles (furry variety) and gardening requisites, not to mention
duck houses.
How strange that these were from the Conservatives mainly. By comparison it seems that the Labour members had the need for replacement toilet seats, numerous large televisions, new kitchens, plus bedroom fittings of a wide and wonderful variety.
How the "one man Party" of George Galloway can claim over 90,000 for "staff" is just as puzzling.
As if this isn't enough, Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight grilled one of the so-called "whistleblowers" for his part in helping to disclose the now extensive list of MPs' expenses to the extent of asking him if he was proud of what he had done... In my view, the man should have been included in the Birthday Honours' List for a knighthood.
From: Edwin Bateman, Sedbergh, Cumbria.
HAVE UK Members of Parliament been so busy covering their tracks on the expenses scandal that they have failed to notice that by approving the Lisbon Treaty, they have made their own jobs redundant?
From: AW Clarke, Wold Croft, Sutton on Derwent.
WHAT really depresses me about this expenses saga is that, in spite of all the publicity, the Jacqui Smiths and her ilk, even if they are sacked and unable to stand again, will still receive a very large pension and her wonderfully renovated home will still be hers to sell at a
vast profit, courtesy of the seething taxpayer. What price democracy?
Points of evidence
From: P Dransfield, Main Street, Great Heck, near Goole.
THE Yorkshire Post suggests that in the Potters Bar and Grayrigg derailments, the points were faulty because they had not been maintained (Yorkshire Post, June 19). The evidence suggests the opposite.
The points at Grayrigg had just been checked over but had been wrongly set at one end. That is not any sort of error. The points must have only just been set that way just prior to the accident or there would have been a derailment earlier when they were set.
The points at Potters Bar must have been in perfect working order if in the space of one second they were able to whizz across and then back again and over once more to alter the route of travel on the two axles and one bogie. The loose bolts on the points are a correct feature and are like that for a purpose. The points would not work if tightened.
Change and progress
From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle, North Yorkshire.
I REFER to your edition (Yorkshire Post, June 24) and in particular the excellent letter from Betty Marsden.
My pet hate with regard to the BBC is their quite arbitrary use of "alternatives". When used as a noun it is incorrect, alternative being a singular noun, the plural being options. How many times do we hear, "the alternatives are".
The alternative is, the options are. Come on BBC.
Our Government is not free from blame, though here I suspect their use of, "change" to cover each and every eventuality is doubtless deliberate.
When did you last hear reference to progress? The Oxford dictionary defines progress as, "forward or onward movement towards a destination: advance or development; improvement". Change on the other hand is, "the act or instance of becoming different".
Well, of course, they are in a sense quite correct, they do change things, invariably for the worse.
Still not convinced? Think back if your memory allows
to 1938 when Hitler and the Nazis started to devise the
Final Solution, involving for starters the extermination of six million Jews.
That was change with a vengeance though you would have to be of a warped mentality to glean any progress.
Against our inclinations
From: Arthur Quarmby, Holme, Holmfirth.
ARE other drivers as baffled as I am by the supposedly metric road gradient signs?
What does "10%" mean? Usually it means one tenth of 100 – but in this case is it 10 per cent of 90 degrees, ie, 9 degrees? Or even 10 per cent of 180 degrees, ie, 18 degrees? (Why does this keyboard not have a key to indicate degree?)
Whichever, it works the opposite way to our traditional gradient indicator, where the smaller the figure the steeper the road (right down to 1 in 2.5 (dammit – I want to say two and a half!) which if memory serves aright is Rosedale Chimney – like a house wall – whereas 1 in 10 is relatively gentle.
As this new, EU system is not metric, why did we need to adopt it, and abandon our own clearer and better system?
Good news as trolley buses get a return ticket
From: H Tasker, Headlands Grove, Ossett, West Yorkshire.
THANK you for the good news of trolley buses for Leeds (Yorkshire Post, June 19). I can remember riding the Bradford trolley buses and they were fine.
I also think that although most forms of city transport can have its ugly aspect – eg, rail lines dug into city streets – power lines above I can live with. I also used to think that the Bradford trolley bus had a heavy Victorian appearance which was probably right 50 years ago.
I'm only sorry that the new trolley buses will not be made in Britain.
After the build-up of hope and the vast delay of the city rail plans, it would be a real tragedy if this new scheme was played the fool with.
Perhaps efficient progress with the new trolley bus scheme would reduce a little of the nasty taste that the abandoned rail proposals left.
From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley.
I RATHER agree with Geoff North concerning trolley buses for Leeds (Yorkshire Post, June 23).
Part of my daily trek to school involved travelling between Bingley and Bradford.
Many people preferred to use the red 67 West Yorkshire buses which ran from Keighley to the Old Chester Street bus station rather than the blue Bradford City transport buses which ran from Crossflatts to Forster Square, even if they were alighting at the same stop en route.
Brown ignores his backyard
From: David W Wright, Little Lane, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.
IT was bad enough in Tony Blair's regime for the UK to get involved in conflicts and disputes all round the world, usually in cohort with his pal George Bush, but now Preacher Brown is following in his footsteps by his continued involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
There is another turn for the worst by Brown dabbling in the Iranian political arena plus the continuing generous Overseas Aid Programme to almost all and sundry at a time when the UK is broke.
Just what is Brown trying to do – bankrupt us and simultaneously poke our noses into every issue overseas while completely neglecting our own broken society and economy?
Families and our future
From: AW Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
IN March last year, I remember Bernard Dineen's comments about the high divorce rate and family break-ups, so by his reiteration of these subjects in his column (Yorkshire Post, June 22), he must be as concerned as I am, and many people are, about the future of this country.
One has only to view programmes like The Jeremy
Kyle Show on television to see what he means. For example, men with children by several women and who have no intention of working to support their children.
The irony is that they are encouraged to do this by the Government's present policy.
Two extremes
From: Jason Smith, UK Independence Party regional secretary, Queensbury, Bradford.
WITH reference to Michael Swaby's letter (Yorkshire Post, June 24), I think it fair to agree with his subtext that British National Party MEP Andrew Brons may reasonably be viewed as an extremist, but find it a strange sort of world where a man like Richard Corbett,
the former Labour MEP who toiled endlessly to remove
this nation's rights to self-determination, is not.
Shell shock
From: Robin Small, Nethergate, Nafferton, near Driffield, East Yorkshire.
STANDARDS of numeracy don't seem to have improved since 1936. Your museum egg (Yorkshire Post, June 24) is actually 73 years old and not 63.
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