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Questions of politics over Blair's conversion
From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley. WHEN Tony Blair was PM, he championed women becoming MPs at Westminster. Now he joins the Roman Catholic Church which fully disbars females from attaining the office of ordained clergy (Yorkshire Post, December 24).
When PM, he promoted family values, children and education. Yet he joins a church which insists all their clergy cannot marry. Consequently, they cannot become parents, at least not legally.
Everything this man does is politically motivated.
Could this be a manoeuvre towards his path of even higher office?
There are many people who believe his goal is to aspire to be the first President of Europe. Becoming a Roman Catholic switches him into the largest church group in the expanded Europe, where Protestants are in a minority.
Thus his new-found allegiance endears him to the majority of countries who will vote when choosing the person for this high office.
From: Andrew Cooper, Ascot Avenue, Kimberley, Notts.
IT didn't surprise me in the least to learn of Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism.
What does surprise me is the fact that the Catholic church has accepted him with open arms.
Bearing in mind that he doesn't possess a single socialist principle, I think it is also fair to ask why the Labour Party also welcomed him with the same enthusiasm.
The journey on the road to Damascus was St Paul's defining moment. How many roads has Tony Blair travelled down?
Finally, I would like to know how an Anglican convert to Catholicism can possibly hope to have any credibility or influence in his role as Middle East ambassador? Perhaps the new leader of the Liberal Democrats would be a more sensible choice? After all, he has the guts to publicly state the fact that he is an atheist.
His honesty is quite refreshing and must be applauded.
Counting the cost of rising prices in Britain
From: DM Loxley, Hartoft, Pickering.
"SUPERMARKET prices cheaper than a decade ago" ran the headline (Yorkshire Post, December 29). Not in my experience.
I retired 13 years ago, and my wife and I have not changed our living pattern in that time. We have records going back many years and it was easy to compare our joint income and costs in 2007 with those of 1997.
We enjoy a state pension and an occupational pension and since 1997 our joint net income has increased at an average rate of 61 per cent per year. But only because we began to receive state pension during that time.
I costed council tax, heating costs, electricity, private transport, household shopping and mortgage. Then I made comparisons.
Overall, this group of costs has increased over the 10 years by an average of 67 per cent per year. In 1997, they represented 58 per cent of our income and in 2007 it was 62 per cent; without state pension it would have been 91 per cent.
We are, therefore, considerably out of pocket "in real (very real) terms".
This little exercise drove home just how very many other people must be much worse off.
Supermarket prices? Mainly "household costs", which have risen at a steady average of 85 per cent per year.
My figures and arithmetic are strictly empirical. I suspect that the British Retail Consortium must be vaguely aspirational.
Rail solution to Leeds's traffic chaos
From: Coun Elizabeth Nash, City and Hunslet ward, Leeds City Council.
I AM really surprised that the Post Office travel survey (Yorkshire Post, December 27) did not feature another reason workers prefer to work between Christmas and the New Year.
It is so much easier to travel to work at this time either by public transport or even in one's own car. There are plenty of seats on buses and trains, and the roads are traffic-free.
With nearly 40,000 vehicles coming into Leeds every normal working day, it is high time Leeds had a comprehensive rail system with more stations, more trains and more carriages on existing trains.
Power for the people
From: Matthew Shaw, Golcar, Huddersfield.
I AGREE with David Downs (Yorkshire Post, December 22), "Nuclear is the answer".
Wind power and all the other renewable energy sources rely on technologies still very much in their infancy, and for now they are only capable of generating a small amount of total energy demand.
As Mr Downs points out, given our hunger for ever more power in addition to a rapidly expanding population, we need a reliable, tried and tested power source.
We are painfully reliant on imported gas. The flow of North Sea oil will soon ebb. We need to act now because an energy crisis would
soon bring this country to its knees.
The new generation of nuclear reactors are part of the solution. Let's also remember that this country still sits on vast reserves of coal. New "clean-burn" coal power stations should also be built. What better way of regenerating former coal-mining areas?
Unfortunately, our short-sighted politicians are too busy trying to out-green each other with their wind-powered pie-in-the-sky nonsense.
It's clear that this country is sleep-walking towards the edge of a cliff.
From: Rick Sumner, Cliff Road, Hornsea, East Yorkshire.
I WRITE in response to the letter from David W Downs (Yorkshire Post, December 22). I was in complete agreement with him right up to the final paragraph.
He is absolutely correct to say that wind power is no answer to the growing need for electricity but nuclear power? Has he not read
about the current respite visit to Yorkshire by a group of dreadfully damaged children from Chernobyl?
It is now 21 years since the disaster took place there and still children are being born damaged.
Children in the Chernobyl area received a dose of radiation 40 times above the permissible level and the number of thyroid cancers is up 300 per cent. It is estimated that in the next 15 to 20 years more than 40,000 children will contract this terrible disease.
In case Mr Downs thinks this couldn't possibly happen here, it already has, though thankfully on a relatively small scale at Windscale, when a large area of Cumbria and the north Pennines was seriously contaminated.
Apart from the ever-present danger of accidents, the possibility of a terrorist attack is almost unthinkable. No, Mr Downs, nuclear is not the answer.
We should be continuing with the development of clean coal and in harnessing the absolutely reliable tidal power which surrounds our small group of islands.
'Honest appraisal' of the fox hunting issue
From: Ken Coote, South Parade, Settle.
HOW refreshing it was to read Bill Carmichael's forthright and humorously stated opinions on the fox hunting issue (Yorkshire Post, December 28).
Like him, I have no particular interest in hunting per se, nor any wish to harm animals. My wife, though not a hunter herself either, but a native Cumbrian who grew up with fox hunting as a way of life for many people in that county (who support it with a fervour which Yorkshiremen reserve for cricket), has, however, taken it all very personally.
We share Mr Carmichael's views on the banning by the state of any activity which many people enjoy and which does no harm to anybody else, and have often stated to our anti-hunting friends that in our view, banning hunting had nothing to do with cruelty to animals, but was entirely down to "political envy".
It is encouraging to see that Mr Carmichael appears to hold very similar views. So "Tally Ho" to you, too, Mr Carmichael, for such an honest appraisal.
From: PA Bates, Sheffield.
I HAVE always considered it somewhat perverse to describe fox hunting as a sport, it being rather one-sided in the manner of the Roman sport of throwing Christians to the lions.
I was not, then, concerned when the "sport" was banned although I recognise, as vermin, foxes require control.
I wonder, therefore, whether Bill Carmichael gave any thought as to why the Countryside Alliance's dire predictions have not come
to fruition.
Foxhound packs have not been decimated, and more people are riding to hounds because, I would suggest, killing is no longer involved.
Foxes are being culled much more successfully without the involvement of the hunt which leads me to conclude that, rather than being the disaster for the countryside that some suggested, the legislation has been quietly successful.
Democracy for Europe
From: Brian Hardy, All Hallowes Drive, Tickhill, Doncaster.
DON Burslam might be delighted to see the disappearance of Britain as a nation state to satisfy some faceless Eurocrats in Brussels ("Ambassadors for Europe", Yorkshire Post, December 13) but should not the British people have a say in such a decision?
I strongly suspect that even among moderate pro-Europeans there are not many who wish to be totally submerged into an undemocratic, monolithic superstate run by bankers and bureaucrats.
We need far more democracy both in Britain and Europe, not less, a Europe where national parliaments and voters have their rights restored and where democracy and representative government are re-established for the peoples and nations of the continent.
Council cuts under attack
From: Jason Smith, UK Independence Party Yorkshire Regional Secretary, Queensbury, Bradford.
SO Bradford Council has
given its street wardens their marching orders.
This is surely another nail in the coffin for what is left of Bradford's shopping area with shop owners and shoppers both agreeing that their presence made them feel safer. The council may have saved some money on wardens' salaries, but how much money will be lost by Bradford businesses, I wonder?
To me, this is all about priorities. Bradford's Conservatives have proved once again that crime is incredibly low if not totally off their radar. To me, having a safe city centre must be one of the most important issues. If there was money to be cut, I would slash some from the massively pointless "cultural budget".
Labour's list of shame
From: B Ellis, Crosby Road, Northallerton.
I WRITE about a letter by JP Jarvis (Yorkshire Post, December 20). I am sure that I must be in a different world and on another planet to him.
Was it not the present Labour Government that presided over record immigration, record crime levels, reduced law and order, record level of assistance to Northern Rock and prison overcrowding? The list is endless.
Mr Jarvis either is wearing rose-tinted glasses or he is seriously deluded if he believes he is better off under Labour.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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