Democracy is gone as ‘flip-flopper’ Theresa May leads us nowhere – Yorkshire Post letters

From: Dr Roger Donaldson, France.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

I AM currently in France where I have a property and where people are astounded at the antics of the UK government. Why do they argue among themselves when they should be arguing with Brussels, they say! The rest of my time is spent in Roundhay and enjoying the Yorkshire Dales. France has nothing to compare with that.

Tom Richmond’s columns are excellent and hit hard. Yes, one wonders how an incompetent like Chris Grayling continues to survive (The Yorkshire Post, March 7), yet I do not think that I have ever seen a more incompetent PM or government.

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One had high hopes of Theresa May, but she has proved to be a “flip-flopper” and cannot give a straight answer to anything. The Home Secretary has spotted the fault line. Police numbers cut, cut and cut again by Mrs May, hence the current situation with crime. As a retired officer of 30-plus years, and a criminologist, one sees an absence of uniforms of the streets and police stations closed. The current chief officers are steeped in politics and have become nodding donkeys.

On Brexit, I think most have spotted the cynical running down of the clock by Mrs May, as she was a Remainer and is heading for a no deal. At the beginning of this week the A16 and A26 autoroutes leading to Dunkirk and Calais had seven kilometres of queues due to the “work to rule” of French customs. This is what the future holds.

Democracy seems to be gone. The people of this country voted to leave. Now we have a bunch of people almost unemployable outside Parliament who are saying they will decide what is to be done and ignore the will of the people. It is little wonder that a few voices are beginning to say “Can the other side (Labour) do better?”

Heaven help us if that happens when Jeremy Corbyn thought Venezuela was a beacon of socialism!

Keep it up please.

Thanks be to Lord Habgood

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From: The Rev Dr Keith Jones, Former deputy general secretary, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Gilstead, Bingley.

YOU had an excellent article by David Behrens on the late Lord Habgood, and you also included a comment in the Editorial 
column (The Yorkshire Post, March 8).

May I be permitted to refer to another much-valued aspect of Lord Habgood’s ministry when Archbishop of York?

He played a crucial role in the creation of new ecumenical instruments for the British Isles in the late 1980s and then chaired key meetings in the early years of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (CCBI). It was a delicate feat of ecumenical diplomacy to bring together a very wide range of churches, but Lord Habgood did it with 
wisdom and never-failing courtesy.

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He chaired the inaugural meeting of the CCBI in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and then led the procession down Hope Street to a service in the Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral.

He chaired the CCBI Church Leaders’ meeting helping those who had previously been outside the structures of the former British Council of Churches to find ways to contribute to the new way of ecumenical co-operation and mission.

He was also a key leader of the Northern Church Leaders’ meeting and chaired the annual meetings of the sponsoring churches of Christian Aid.

The questions from those who had lost their way in the whole ecumenical agenda were always addressed with responses from the chair marked for their clarity and sound judgement. Lord Habgood knew his stuff and how to deal expertly with everyone from Irish Cardinals to Welsh charismatics!

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The ecumenical community in these islands has much to be thankful to God for as we remember Lord Habgood.

Sky gambling with young

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

BRIAN Sheridan (The Yorkshire Post, March 7) is absolutely right to call for all gambling adverts to be banned, at least before 9pm.

No wonder there is such a huge gambling problem when these adverts are continually thrust upon us at all times.

Sky, of course, is the worst culprit, exemplified by its Gillette Soccer Saturday programme, broadcast from noon to 6pm, and watched by many impressionable young viewers, which has at least one gambling advert in every break. This really has to stop.

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It is surely also time to ban all ambulance-chasing adverts highlighting businesses all after the quick buck. There are already many so-called legal firms which appear to be pushing the increasingly unacceptable compensation culture.

Careful where you walk dogs

From: John Shooter, Fellbeck.

HOW sad that the welfare of the herd of Highland cattle grazing on moorland at Baslow Edge has been compromised by a thoughtless dog owner (The Yorkshire Post, March 9).

Maybe it’s time to limit public access where cattle and sheep graze and/or ban dogs from footpaths over farmland when lambs and calves are evident.

If that is not possible, then livestock owners must install signage to the effect that dogs, no matter how well-behaved, will draw the attention of cattle who have youngsters.

The footpaths people, walk organisers and the ANOB should also install more signage to the same effect.