YP Letters: Most back talks over disarmament

Author Peter Walker, who died this week, remained unchanged by fame.

A major election issue needs to be the timid failure of Mrs May’s Government to take part in the new negotiations at the United Nations towards multilateral nuclear disarmament.

Unilateral moves may help but can’t suffice, and it was heartening to read on January 25 (in The Guardian) that defence secretary Michael Fallon had declared that “we share the vision of a world that is without nuclear weapons, achieved through multilateral disarmament”.

A YouGov poll of some 2000 UK adults showed that 75 per cent think we should be at the talks, lest we follow North Korea in refusing to discuss our hold on Trident etc. This figure rises to 79 per cent for both Labour and Tory voters. I urge your readers to ask their candidates views on what seems to be Mrs May’s poodling behind the erratic Donald Trump and to vote on whether and how they respond.

Why can’t we protect jobs?

From: J Hutchinson, Kirkbymoorside.

Surprise, surprise, Nestlé is taking its business to a cheaper country. Ever since they took over the York chocolate factory we have been expecting this to happen and now they can use Brexit as an excuse.

When will our Government stop letting foreign firms strip our businesses? This happens all too often but I understand that other countries are far more savvy and appear to have contingencies in place to stop the raping of their assets.

Why haven’t we?

From: Paul Brown, Bents Green Road, Sheffield.

The decision on jobs at our local chocolate manufacturer is regrettable but it is only the product of years of government policy by both Labour and Conservatives. Despite the upcoming election, our politicians’ failure to support the sort of jobs which once used to provide a lifetime of regular work is apparently not an issue for discussion.

Memories of author

From: Christine McDade, Morton on Swale.

I was saddened to read in this week’s The Yorkshire Post of the death of Peter Walker at the age of 80 years.

When I transferred from Reading Borough Police to the then North Riding Constabulary (my husband leaving the Army to work at Fylingdales) I was stationed at Malton, which covered several Country Beat areas, one of which was Ampleforth.

Peter was the Country Beat Officer using a small moped for transport (later featuring in his Constable books). I well remember him coming into the office one day with a huge smile on his face to inform us that he had bought a new car with the proceeds of many small articles in Readers Digest.

None of us realised what was to come when the success of his books tranferred to television.

He never changed during his police service, reaching the rank of inspector at police headquarters when I was a sergeant at Bedale, nor did the fame of his writing change him.

Grass always greener...

From: M E Wright, Harrogate.

David Behrens injects a semblance of sanity into the next seven weeks of endless wittering (The Yorkshire Post, April 22). Thanks for that. He makes a passing reference to his fellow near-Ilkley villagers’ preference for the “more appealing North Riding”.

No doubt David knows the old adage about ‘the grass on the other side of the fence’.

We compare our railway – mired in decades of promises, but still ramshackle – with your ageing, but vastly superior electric line.

Forty-odd years ago, West Riding Harrogate was forced into a marriage with Northallerton, as part of the new ‘North Yorkshire County Council.’

It was never a love-match, but the cracks have worsened greatly over the last 10 years, with the distance between the two measured in attitudes and commitments, rather than miles.

One memorably crass piece of PR involved a North Yorkshire councillor’s sneering dismissal of ‘aesthetic considerations’ when arbitrarily announcing the even more crass replacement of Harrogate’s Victorian street lamps. It emerged that he had never even visited the town.

Insurrection was on the cards, but they put him out to grass and then went steam-rollering ahead.

I regret to say that they got away with it. If Northallerton can’t make it to Harrogate, then a trip to Ilkley seems even more unlikely.

I suggest that David and his neighbours should beware of what they wish for.

Let down by cricket duo

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I was so looking forward to having Root and Bairstow back playing for us against Hampshire.

How disappointing their performance was.

I think we may be better with the cohesive team that we have without them. And I never thought I would ever say that.