YP Letters: Amateurs of old had the Olympic spirit

I AGREE with every word of Mr Kirby’s recent letter on the Olympics and Lottery funding. I look back to the days of the true amateur and well remember the epic races under floodlights featuring Roger Bannister, Derek Ibbotson and Chris Chataway.

Athletes are apparently heavily subsidised by the Government, and from other sources, and there is a taint of commercialism hanging about the whole thing.

We have strayed from the Olympic ideal when volleyball and women’s boxing, as well as tennis and golf, are included.

We must not shed any tears, that’s it, it’s all over.

We don’t have to wait until Tokyo because the World Athletics Championships are due in London next year.

From: D Webb, Rothwell.

BRIAN Sheridan (The Yorkshire Post, August 29) once again repeats his bad habit of talking for others when expressing his own individual opinion.

Andy Murray is no “hero”, along with all the others who competed in a sports event called the Olympics.

I didn’t see them putting their lives in danger for the sake of others. Now, if they were part of the rescue team searching for survivors after the earthquake in Italy, it would be different. Given these people put their lives in danger for the sake of others and seek no glory for their efforts, the word hero would apply.

After all, sport is just a game or pastime involving physical activity.

From: A Hague, Bellbrooke Grove, Leeds.

SO that’s it for four years, an Olympics for us to be proud of, but now we must turn our eyes to spending some of those billions to prop up our failing Health Service where people are dying because we don’t employ enough staff to save them.

Surely life is more important than showing how fit we are to get a medal? Also I read that robots are being used to answer life or death phone calls. What a travesty of justice.

From: Shaun Kavanagh, Leeds.

RE the Leeds cycle superhighway and calls by Team GB cyclists for more money to be spent on cycle lanes.

All we seem to get from politicians, whether local or national, is excuse after excuse to justify their existence and inefficiencies for poorly thought-out projects – which involve vast amounts of money to benefit the minority rather than the majority.

Leeds Council needs to get its act together in more ways than one and, in the process, get real as to what Leeds really needs.

Listen to what sensible people are saying, instead of feeding people with the continual bureaucratic claptrap we keep reading and hearing.

Leave wild flowers alone

From: Joan Frost, Lymington Lane, Treeton, Rotherham.

REGARDING ragwort, I am puzzled as to why your correspondent Angela Holdsworth wants to have wild flowers growing by the wayside destroyed. They should be protected as a food source for many moths, butterflies and other insects, as well as the yellow splash of colour.

Perhaps the lady read an article years ago when a girl fed hay containing ragwort to her pony which died. Anyone buying hay should make sure of the quality. I lived for many years near a field in which cows grazed and later horses. One third of the field was covered in ragwort – the animals grazed around the plants but never ate it! But of course in hay they cannot recognise it.

In my opinion, these wild flowers should be left untouched – wild, by the wayside. Many plants are poisonous, but we would be crazy to eliminate them all from the countryside.

Bus journey to tedium

From: Ken Thorpe, Ebor Way, Upper Poppleton, York.

AFTER several interesting trails, we eagerly looked forward to viewing All Aboard! The Country Bus on BBC4.

This proved to be a very disappointing documentary of a coach journey through the very scenic Yorkshire Dales countryside, which at the time of filming was at its very best with hedgerows and trees in full bloom.

Admittedly some efforts were made with graphics pointing out places of interest, but they were gone by the time they were near enough to read.

Despite the fact that this programme received a very high rating, it proved to be a non-starter. It could and should have been a very interesting and enjoyable trip. The only thing I recognised was that the journey started at Richmond.

Pharmacies under threat

From: Greg Mulholland, Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West.

OUR community pharmacies provide a hugely valuable service to local residents, and it is highly concerning that up to 3,000 pharmacies could be affected by the £170m of cuts drawn up by this Conservative government.

I welcome the delay that was announced in July, and when Parliament resumes, I hope Ministers will finally listen to people across the country 
who have voiced their opposition to these plans, including around 250 constituents who have written to me.

Council’s odd standards

From: W Hobson, Broadgate Walk, Horsforth.

HOW can Leeds Council’s planning department give permission for a ‘swingers club’ to open in Armley, but refuse a hard-working young man to open a fishing academy for children in Rawdon? I would like to know.