YP Letters: Southerner columnist Liz Jones needs lessons in country life

I READ with some pleasure the recent personal article by CPRE member Jules Marley (The Yorkshire Post) concerning the earlier contribution about national newspaper columnist Liz Jones who moved from London to Yorkshire, and the various issues she encountered. How refreshing to hear the real and alternative view.

My own history is so similar, but so different. Way back in 1969, living in the former ‘Islington Workshouse’, and working for the GLC, I met a teacher from Yorkshire working in a very difficult school near King’s Cross. In 1970 we married in Leeds Parish Church and in 1973/4 we settled in North Yorkshire. I was employed at Tadcaster with the John Smith Brewery Hotel chain and she was employed by the local authority (then the North Riding) and we moved into an early Victorian house in the Malton area.

I was introduced, as a ‘southerner’ to the joys and delights of Yorkshire. The Dales, the Wolds and the Moors, including both National Parks and also the great industrial cities. Having been married in Leeds gave me that wonderful insight to what Yorkshire was, is now, and what it can become in the future.

We now operate an antique business from the wonderful Salts Mill at Saltaire and still live in the same house after 43 years.

Through all my years living in Yorkshire, I realised that involvement was the answer to everything. Everybody was welcoming and never, over 43 years, have we ever been upset by the animals (hedgehogs and squirrels have visited our garden) and we have always made efforts to find a local Waitrose and even a Booths as well as local bread and other local producers.

Your CPRE contact, whilst expressing a personal opinion, also reflects many, many others who have made the effort to move North and experience a real life. Now, as we have grown a little older, we can still continue our search for antique bargains but also venture out in every direction to enjoy the wonderful world of Yorkshire.

The move into this wonderful county was inspired by the love of old properties, and how right we were – slowly the secret of the “North’ is emerging. Maybe we should continue to keep quiet about it!

From: Trisha Lawty, Driffield.

THERE seems to be a lot of annoyance with Liz Jones.

Could we reach out to her and show her the other points of view of her articles and perhaps it may reach other people who do not know the countryside (not just the Dales)? It is so different to when I was young. I won’t go on about my childhood where, in the village where I lived, there were three dairy farms and the cows were walked through the village and everyone knew the farmers and saw the harvest being combined and the sheep in nearby fields being looked after.

Liz Jones may not realise that dogs running free in fields maul and kill a lot of sheep. No farmer wants to kill dogs. This is the last thing they want, but dogs do cause carnage among sheep and kill them. We could explain this and she could explain things she has seen to us.

I would imagine most of us do not know anything about writing newspaper articles,and Liz may not know anything about farming – but surely somewhere there is common ground. For example she likes animals. Farmers like animals. I bet a lot of people are fed up with slow broadband. Could we show her the other side to the Dales?

Just for the record I live on a farm, but not in the Dales.

Spiritual aid for loneliness

From: Chris Schorah, Gascoigne Avenue, Leeds.

GP Taylor’s heartfelt article on loneliness (The Yorkshire Post, September 28) sadly reflects a situation that many experience. It could easily have become mine when my wife died seven months ago. However, not only my family, but my church community, have been a constant source of support.

Yes, the gap left still aches as the ‘One Flesh’, which the Bible tells us a man and woman become in marriage, is torn apart by bereavement. But my Christian friends have done a tremendous job at overcoming its worst effects.

I’m so sorry that GP Taylor, as a one-time vicar, seems no longer to have such a community round him. Deep, lasting and effective relationships with God and our fellow believers and the sacrificial care of others should be at the heart of Christianity.

Too soon to judge Brexit

From: Don Burslam, Elm Road, Dewsbury Moor, Dewsbury.

LIKE death and taxes, Brexit is always with us. I should like to make a few points.

1. It is far too soon to forecast firmly how our economy will fare. Article 50 hasn’t even been invoked and it is quite absurd for senior Tory backbenchers to say we should just get up and go.

2. Of course the EU will be weakened with our impending departure but then so will we be impairing trade and other relationships.

3. The well-known standbys of QE (printing money) and devaluing the pound are no substitute for genuine growth or improvements in productivity. Devaluation boosts exports but increases the cost of living at home. It creates as many problems as it cures.

On immigration, who is going to staff the hospitals or do all the other jobs only foreigners seem prepared to do?

Minding our language

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

I SHARE my long-time fellow pedant Brian Sheridan’s view on language enrichment (The Yorkshire Post, September 26).

But, as many continue to rejoice in the reclamation of sovereignty from Brussels, it seems strange that very little is said about ceding the sovereignty of our most priceless treasure to a foreign power.