Sponsored by
Why water power wouldn't be an eyesore
From: Michael Booth, The Birches, Bramhope, Leeds. YOUR correspondent Mark Gregory (Yorkshire Post, June 25) believes wind farms are a great idea and informs us that 80 per cent of the population supports wind power according to the polls.
I don't know where those figures come from as personally I have never been given the opportunity to enter such a poll, nor do I know of anyone else who has.
I think they are monstrosities, and they don't appear to me to be very efficient. Take the four windmills at Chelker Reservoir, near Bolton Abbey as an example. I pass them frequently, and during all the years I have done so I don't think that I have ever seen all four working. Either there was no wind so none was revolving or one or more of the rotors was on the ground, apparently under repair. Not very efficient
I suggest.
I have read various articles in your paper where the writer has said that windmills are unobtrusive. From the road near Leeds Bradford
Airport, I can count 23 of the things with the naked eye. They are situated near to Hebden Bridge, some 30 miles away. I call that very obtrusive.
Similarly, those at Chelker can be seen from all over Upper Wharfedale –real eyesores.
I'm all for "green" power, so why not use water? We are well endowed with rivers in Yorkshire. Indeed, I have lived and worked near the Wharfe for almost 40 years and have never known it to run dry.
Almost 200 years ago, Capelshaw Beck, a 10 feet wide stream now running into Thruscross reservoir, was harnessed to power four full-sized cotton mills, employing hundreds of people. Surely with the advent of hydro-electric turbines, we have made a little progress since those days.
The water would be diverted through a small goit off the river, through the turbine and back into the river to drive another one, or as many as you like further downstream. Nature properly harnessed and no waste whatever all year round. That is what I call efficient and thinking "green".
Let's have proper punishments, please
From; Paul Emsley, Hellifield, North Yorkshire.
A DOCTOR pinches other people's work and he gets a slap on the wrist. An MP pinches 140,000 expenses and gets banned from the House of Commons for 10 days. Naomi Campbell assaults a policeman and gets 200 hours' community service. Terrorists are found guilty in absentia and we pay for them to live in the UK. A Prime Minister has ultimate responsibility for over 100 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and gets a job as a peacemaker in the Middle East.
Does nobody get proper punishment today? A parent gets a 60 fine because her child drops "pigeon" food on the pavement; teachers lose their job for clipping an obnoxious kid round the ear; a pensioner goes to jail because they don't pay their council tax.
Has this country gone mad, or just the people running it? The sooner we get punishments applicable to the offence and not the lawyer that you can afford to defend you; the sooner we will get proper criminals being locked up for the whole of their sentence and murderers will get their just rewards for killing innocent people.
One day, the real people of this country will
re-establish the precedent of society over the individual and the rule of law. The day can't come too soon.Law gives no help to the little men
From: John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, Rodley Lane, Rodley, Leeds.
THERE has been an interesting array of stories recently from the legal world. First, the millionaire chucking money at lawyers to try to force a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. So the Government chuck lots at theirs, too. That seems fair enough. If you want to punch hard, you should expect some back.
But then we see the couple who challenged the speed cameras and ended up ordered to pay 15,000 costs – money that they have not got, or else presumably they would have spent it on lawyers of their own. Why should not people "have a go" by themselves in the courts without either lawyers or the fear of ruinous consequences?
Why did the authorities feel compelled to spend so much against such feeble opposition?
And, finally, we have the Chancellor responding to the excoriating report on the Government's loss of our data. The Government is a shambles, says the report. Don't worry, says the Chancellor, we have sorted it all out now.
The only problem is that at the time they dumped all the blame on a little man in the tax office, and, but for the inquiry, that is where it would have stayed.
The common thread seems to be that those in authority have no compunction in dumping on the little man when it suits them to cover any questioning of their actions. Meanwhile, my profession goes on about human rights for all sorts of exotic causes, and the man on the street never seems to get a look-in.
So who exactly is guarding the guardians nowadays?
People left in the cold
From: T Mason, Wakefield Road, Pontefract.
IT has been recently announced that the cost of our gas supplies is being increased by at least 40 per cent by the end of this year, in spite of astronomical profits made by the French and German owners of our gas supplies.
Many people in England will suffer increased hardship because of these criminal increases and will not be able to afford to heat their homes adequately, if at all in some cases.
This is in spite of the countless billions of pounds of our money being sent to maintain the inefficient and corrupt EU superstate and the billions of pounds wasted on the illegal war in Iraq and the equally dubious conflict in Afghanistan, not to mention even more billions of
pounds being thrown at the London Olympics, unwanted by the majority of people in England.
No doubt the country's politicians will be keeping warm and cosy in their public offices and their first and second homes.
In the interests of helping those who will be hardest hit by these devastating increases in fuel charges, the elderly, those on low incomes and the poor, perhaps such people should consider occupying public buildings which will no doubt be kept nice and warm.
Windfall for motorists
From: Neil Herron, York Street, London.
MAY I take the opportunity to congratulate the new leader of Sheffield City Council Paul Scriven for doing the decent thing by announcing that motorists unlawfully fined at the Hillsborough tram gates would be refunded.
Our parking appeals campaign has highlighted the failings of many councils across the country but the response we received from Sheffield's administration was a breath of fresh air which will undoubtedly impact on all other councils.
Sheffield man Alan Bangert, whose case led to the highlighting of the flawed restriction, has admirably pledged his refund to the Bluebell Woods Children's Hospice and we would encourage others who
benefit from this unexpected windfall to share their good fortune with a local charity of their choice.
It must be pointed out that any local authority which has been "unjustly enriched" has a duty to trace the motorists rather than waiting for those wrongly fined to get in touch.
What ordinary people don't understand about Europe
From: Cecil Hallas, Cubley Rise Road, Penistone, Sheffield.
SO the Irish people have given a "No" vote to the Lisbon Treaty. "Treaty" or "Constitution," take your pick, the Irish still said "No".
Of course, "No" is quite definitive. In rape cases in a court of law, how often do we hear the judge say to the defendant, "You must be aware that 'No' really does man 'No'."
However, that is British law as opposed to European, where previously the firm "No" vote from France and Holland was received by a stunned and unbelieving Brussels, then when they'd recovered and the implications realised, the name was changed and that was that, business as usual, how could it be otherwise?
Do we ordinary people understand what Europe really is about? Of course we don't. Do we really understand why our Grimsby fishermen are allowed to fish for no more than two days a week and then see French and Spanish trawlers selling their North Sea catch in the market there?
Every day on TV we see children starving, mostly in Africa while honest fishermen return tons of fish to the sea, fearing the inspector, clipboard at the ready waiting in harbour to impose a heavy fine if they exceed their quota.
Do we ordinary people understand why the Brussels circus has to "go on tour" to Strasbourg every month and why the European Union accounts haven't been approved by auditors for 13 years, and why the brave yet foolish "whistleblowers" have all been sacked?
And, of course, there is the comparatively new principle of "reward for failure". What we do understand is that Europe is a repository for certain failed politicians – and their families – a safe haven for government mavericks and troublemakers which governments want out of the way.
From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton.
GORDON Brown and his Government have shown their true colours.
They are determined to go ahead with implementing the EU Treaty (constitution) and ride roughshod over the will of the people.
He knows best, and just like the dictator before him, he will carry on to the bitter end, and the end they envisage would be very bitter indeed for us all, except maybe the implementers.
From: Brian Hardy, All Hallowes Drive, Tickhill.
FOR E Firth to bleat about the unfairness of a millionaire helping to finance the "No" campaign in the Irish referendum is truly laughable (Yorkshire Post, June 19).
On the "Yes" side was the government and most of the parliamentary opposition, the employers and farmers organisations, the trade union movement, the churches, the media and all the resources of the entire Irish state.
Yet, despite all this, the Irish rejected the undemocratic, unaccountable superstate they see emerging. And, given a referendum, so would we.
From: Don Crossley, Tower Avenue, Upton, Pontefract.
THE article by Richard Corbett MEP (Yorkshire Post, June 20), has a sub-heading which reads "A poor functioning EU, failing to deliver on behalf of its citizens, is in no-one's interest."
I couldn't have put it better myself, so why in heaven's name does he keep banging on about it?
How things got worse
From: Robert Bottamley, Thorn Road, Hedon.
IN the Yorkshire Post of June 21, Denis MacShane assessed the Prime Minister's first year performance under the heading, "One year on, why things can only get better for Brown".
Since the article was published, we have had the result of the Henley by-election. The candidate representing New Labour finished fifth – behind the Green Party and the BNP – with just 1,066 votes and (consequently) a lost deposit.
Is this the kind of upturn in fortune Mr Macshane was predicting – or has he already returned his crystal ball to the Fortune Teller's Department of the Ministry of Mindless Optimism?
Another line of action
From: AI Watkinson, Otley Road, Harrogate.
I WAS pleased to see the letter from Robert H Foster (Yorkshire Post, June 23), who points out what a terrible waste of money it would be to re-open the railway between Skipton and Colne.
A much better use for this former railway would be to convert most of it into a road which would bypass Colne. This would make a very much better road between the A59 and the M65 motorway.
A large amount of traffic from the North-East uses the A61 and A59 to Lancashire and both these roads need improving with a bypass for Killinghall.
Pay gap
From: AW Briglin, Sefton Street, Hull.
WHAT a cock-eyed world we live in when people like professional footballers are paid five figure sums each week for kicking a ball up and down on a football field and people like nurses, sewer workers, social workers, etc, people who keep the essential wheels of society turning, get pittances by comparison. Society can get along without the former group but would be hard-pressed without the latter groups.
Olympic cost
From: B Hill, National Avenue, Hull.
YOUR correspondent NR Francis (Yorkshire Post, June 26) wonders why the costs for the 2012 Olympics are rocketing. Very simple – the people in charge are not risking their own money, no one will get the sack for mismanagement, or if they do, it will be with a nice handout.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
