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Stalking the humane way to cull deer
From: Bernard Robinson, Midland Terrace, Hellifield, Nr Skipton. REGARDING the letter from Aled Jones (Yorkshire Post, October 23) about Kate Middleton stalking deer, it is obvious he has no knowledge of wildlife.
Stalking is nothing to do with chasing deer. Has he never looked in the dictionary? Stalking means to approach 'game' without being seen.
If a wild deer saw the stalker, it would be gone, leaving the stalker no chance of a shot.
Wild deer have to be culled for the sake of both the habitat and the welfare of the deer.
Mr Jones states that deer should be humanely slaughtered – well, that is precisely what stalking is.
I am sure that Kate Middleton had to prove her marksmanship skills on targets before she was allowed to go stalking.
If Mr Jones thinks that wild deer can be rounded up and taken to an abattoir, he is living in cloud cuckoo land.
From: Robert Appleton, Lower Manor Lane, Burnley, Lancashire.
IN reference to the letter from Aled Jones, his epistle was totally bigoted, ignorant and ill-informed. The suggestion that one goes chasing deer over the moors with a rifle on your back is utterly stupid. Deer meat is useless after having been stressed.
The pleasure comes from using your wits paying diligence to wind, sound and appearance and the hard work of crawling with skinned elbows and knees to get within a shooting distance without the animal being aware of your presence.
This gentleman should vent his spleen on the men with running dogs who allow the dogs to rip the deer to pieces.
I think Mr Jones should mind his own business and let Kate Middleton get on and enjoy
her life.
BBC's jobs
for the boys
From: Eric Green, Albert Street, Swinton, Mexborough.
IF the BBC intends to cut costs (again), they should start by looking at sports coverage.
Football, tennis, snooker, horse racing, rugby, all commentated on by ex-players, or managers sacked or left by mutual agreement from their clubs. A football manager gets the push. Within hours, he is giving inter-match summaries on TV or radio.
Also, why do they have to have four or more ex-players sitting watching TV screens all Saturday afternoon, and still have more redundant players live at football matches?
Could they not use the same set of so-called pundits for both radio and TV? It appears to me that it's jobs for the boys and now girls. It must be nothing but a pension top-up fund for everyone, paid for by our licence fee.
Perfect timing on the railway
From: Miss M Garbett, The Link, Pontefract.
FOLLOWING the article by Mark Bradley and the subsequent letter from S Rose (Yorkshire Post, October 9), I should hate your readers to think that the whole rail network was in chaos. My recent experience was very different.
In August, I travelled from Wakefield to Bexhill on the
East Sussex coast. By pre-booking with GNER, my ticket cost a very reasonable 48 return, and that included
travel on the London Underground. I had to make
a quick change – seven
minutes to spare – at a small place called Hampden Park (not the Scottish football ground).
I left Wakefield at 11.17am and arrived in Bexhill exactly on time, at 4pm. The return
journey was equally trouble-free. The trains were clean, comfortable and punctual to the minute.
This was the first train journey that I had made for some years. After all the horror stories in the press, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Secrecy par for the course
From: Alan W Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
RICHARD Thomas, the Information Commissioner, is asking for more funds to combat a backlog of requests under the Freedom of Information Act. Some MPs are saying that by deliberately starving the Commissioner of funds, this Government is
taking the sting out of troublesome requests to delay action which Mr Thomas may wish to take.
This is the "open government" promised by Tony Blair before the 1997 election. Secrecy seems to be the guiding principle of this evasive administration. The recent example of this being the attempt to stifle public
scrutiny of the salaries, pensions and expenses claimed by MPs.
It is just another example of Labour's arrogance and contempt for the British nation.
New laws to curb politicians' lust for power
From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.
WHILE I sympathise with Bill Carmichael's cry from the heart (Yorkshire Post, October 19) for "a new law banning all new laws", I would like to plead for two more.
He might even approve, though Labour MP Caroline Flint (who originally asked for suggestions for new laws) would not.
The first is a law allowing politicians who lie to be prosecuted for it. At first, I was against this idea because how can it be proved? But it seems to me that we have to do something to curb politicians' propensity to deceive.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
The second is a law allowing any member of the public
to start a petition on any subject, worded as they
choose.
If the petitioners succeed in gaining, say, one million signatures, the Government would be obliged to run a national referendum, worded as the original petition.
If successful, the Government would be obliged to enact the petition, thereby creating a new law or, indeed, repealing an existing law.
Neither of these proposals is new and I did not originate them. The direct democracy of referenda works well in Switzerland and California. Both measures would help to curb politicians' lust for control over us.
Winners and losers in this sporting life
From: Diana M Priestley, Fixby Road, Huddersfield.
NOT everyone believes that school sport for two hours a week is a "privilege" (Yorkshire Post, October 16). To be offered sport as an extra activity would be a privilege; to be forced into two hours a week is a burden, which, year on year, embitters the unwilling victim.
You will never get a child who does not enjoy sport to move, so to think it will make a difference to obesity is nonsense. The effort to escape school sport, however, teaches you, as they used to say about being conscripted into the Army – never to volunteer for anything. I speak as one who took many years to recover from the negative lessons I learned in school PE.
The good sportsman does not necessarily escape this negativity either. My nephew was reported by his PE teacher as having "a bad attitude" and unlikely ever to do well at sport. This was because he went to a rugby school and was not a rugger-type. He went his own way and became an Oxford Blue.
Here's to the lucky 20 per cent excluded from this "privilege".
Continued pleasures of the Piece Hall
From: Diana M Priestley, Fixby Road, Huddersfield.
NOT everyone believes that school sport for two hours a week is a "privilege" (Yorkshire Post, October 16). To be offered sport as an extra activity would be a privilege; to be forced into two hours a week is a burden, which, year on year, embitters the unwilling victim.
You will never get a child who does not enjoy sport to move, so to think it will make a difference to obesity is nonsense. The effort to escape school sport, however, teaches you, as they used to say about being conscripted into the Army – never to volunteer for anything. I speak as one who took many years to recover from the negative lessons I learned in school PE.
The good sportsman does not necessarily escape this negativity either. My nephew was reported by his PE teacher as having "a bad attitude" and unlikely ever to do well at sport. This was because he went to a rugby school and was not a rugger-type. He went his own way and became an Oxford Blue.
Here's to the lucky 20 per cent excluded from this "privilege".
Our untrained politicians are a law unto themselves
From: Paul Rouse, Sutton on Derwent.
THE article by Dr Lee Rotherham about 101bn of Government waste appeared alongside a letter from Robin Wilkins bemoaning the poor quality of our politicians (Yorkshire Post, October 23).
I would suggest that there is
a strong link between those two issues, and that it is illustrated by the appointment of Alistair Darling as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Mr Darling studied law at university, and then worked as a solicitor before entering Parliament. Other than his government jobs, he does not seem to have had any education or experience in finance or management, yet we trust him to manage the finances of Great Britain plc.
If a lawyer, however talented, applied for the top finance post in a large public company, he would not get to the interview stage, let alone get the job.
Until we insist that those responsible for managing our money are qualified to do so, the waste will continue.
Gordon Brown has a degree in history, irrelevant to his former job as Chancellor, but at least it may help him to avoid the mistakes made by his predecessors in Number 10 – though I doubt it.
From: Vera Lloyd, Westfield Crescent, Kirkhamgate, Wakefield.
AS one of the old school, I entirely agree with David
Wright and CD Round (Yorkshire Post, October 19) that all politicians, and those dishing out authority to others, should have at least
10 years in the real world before being allowed to spend public money.
Briefly
A strange voting system
From: John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Baildon, Shipley.
IS it right that Tory backer Lord Ashcroft can try to influence relatively few voters in marginal constituencies to produce a Tory Government?
Is it right that trade union money should be used by Labour to sway similarly-based voters?
Is it right that a few hundred or thousand votes can override the choice of the majority of voters?
Why do some insist that we stick with a first pass the post voting system that does not produce governance according to the stated wishes of the majority?
A tart response
From: Kathleen N Hodgson, Gracefield Close, Newcastle upon Tyne.
WITH regard to the curd pie/tart debate (Yorkshire Post, October 20), neither is correct. They are Yorkshire Cheesecakes or Chissicks as our family called them.
My mother made the definitive version and luckily I have her recipe. Sadly, I can rarely lay my hands on any curd even when visiting my home town of Whitby.
Native state of mind
From; Janet Cavill, High Street, Wath-upon-Dearne.
I WAS very interested in Ian McMillan's column "Why Yorkshire is really a state of mind" (Yorkshire Post, October 23).
It reminded me of a woman I used to work with in Wath-upon-Dearne, but who had been born in Oxford, who used to say: "There are the British Isles, and South Yorkshire, you have to live there to understand it."
Fixed period for Parliament
From: M Swan, East Causeway Crescent, Adel, Leeds.
PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice has called for a fixed parliamentary period.
I fully agree with him.
If Parliament is allowed to continue under the present rules then, very likely, we could have a Burma or Zimbabwe situation.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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