YP Letters: Coffee giants profit from gap in service

RE support for small, independent businesses. There were two excellent letters in your paper (The Yorkshire Post, August 9) regarding Pickering and Helmsley, from Elaine Fretwell-Munns and June Smith respectively, which show a deep sense of affection for two towns I know well. Both ladies are right to support the well-being of both towns and communities and businesses.

However, as a frequent visitor to Pickering, I recall one visit several years ago. I was one of many arrivals by push bike, late afternoon and in need of a meal and refreshment. Keen to support local tea shops I soon discovered, on just after 3.30pm, that I could only obtain a drink and not food, which is probably where the likes of Costa Coffee will score, being prepared to be open much later.

On the day in question I cycled on to Helmsley to find much the same situation in respect of the tea shops surrounding the market area. My visit was made all the more of a disappointment when I discovered, on the stroke of 4pm, that the toilets off the market parking area had closed!

Political failure on the buses

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

THE vexed question of bus passes has produced relevant and reasoned responses from several readers (The Yorkshire Post, August 11).

Successive governments have urged us to leave our cars at home and use public transport. I can’t quote numbers, but am confident that many, including me, have done that. Might not a change in the present arrangements have a most adverse effect on increasingly choked roads at a cost which is impossible to evaluate?

Bus passes are only one aspect of decades of gross underinvestment in the UK’s inadequate and expensive public transport. Your Editorial asks when the railways will recognise that they are supposed to be running a public service; but why only the railways? Isn’t this a question which should be demanded of Westminster who, in the end, are responsible for this poorly integrated, costly and often crumbling shambles?

From: B Murray, Sheffield.

I AM a pensioner – isn’t it time that we paid £1 for a bus ticket and £1 for a prescription?

Sport and spectacle

From: John Collins, Old Maltongate, Malton.

“OLYMPIC excess” – what a great summary from Neil McNicholas, of the baffling spectacle before our eyes, masquerading as a sporting event (The Yorkshire Post, August 10). The massive expenditure, dedicated amateurs battling against professionals, hobbies like rifle shooting presented as “sport”, diving and gymnastics assessed (subjectively, by whom?) for artistic merit... the list goes on.

Bless Clare Balding and her TV presenter colleagues for maintaining their enthusiasm for so many hours each day – I’m not sure how many of us share it.

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

IT is good to hear of British successes at the Olympic Games. However, many GB participants and supporters at the Games in their enthusiasm are waving the Union Flag incorrectly. A common misconception is that it is upside down when this happens. But it is back to front. Unless being flown on a flagpole, when the reverse of the flag will be shown at the front, upside down makes no difference to the correctness of the design. Try it!

Faith’s bloody evolution

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood, Brighouse.

HOW sad to read the details of the case of the murder of one Muslim by another in the shop in Glasgow (The Yorkshire Post, August 10). It made me think of the evolution of Christianity and how the 15th and 16th centuries produced a flurry of change, some of it terrible, such as the Spanish Inquisition.

There was also huge conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the various new Reformed churches.

Islam is now more or less 1,400 years old and splits within it are causing problems in many parts of the world. This murder in Glasgow is one sign; the other is the growth of fundamental Islam in the Middle East. What a pity that religions can’t develop and change on a peaceful basis.

Throwback to feudal times

From: Ian Laidlaw Wilson, UK Yorkshire Socialist Alliance Party, White Street, Selby.

THE Duke of Westminster is dead. He was a good fellow. He regenerated many areas.

However, whilst respect must be paid to the dead, he promoted ‘gated communities’, created ‘no-go’ areas and expressed elitist views. He represented the omnipotence of a lord in a feudal age. His unabashed love of wealth and protection of privilege has no place in the modern world.

Early warning

From: Peter M Burrow, Welham Road, Norton, Malton.

MY wife has recently died after 14 days in York Hospital. At York her gradual deterioration led to a CT scan which showed ovarian cancer had spread to her stomach and chest, and nothing could be done. For the sake of all women, could you highlight this?

The silent killer is deep seated with no symptoms until too late. More CT scans would be the answer.