YP Letters: Back Sir Bernard and his first-hand view of EU's workings

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.
Sir Bernard Ingham's column on the EU has struck a chord.Sir Bernard Ingham's column on the EU has struck a chord.
Sir Bernard Ingham's column on the EU has struck a chord.

WELL done Sir Bernard Ingham, his column about the frailties of the EU in Brussels must strike fear into the hearts of all, who, like myself, want nothing more to do with it (The Yorkshire Post, January 27).

As Mrs Thatcher’s Press secretary, he accompanied her to a lot of summits and meetings so he must have a very good idea about it all worked . With this in mind, if he says the EU is undemocratic and protectionist, I am quite prepared to believe him.

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If I was a Europhile, it would upset me greatly if my country was going to be part of a United States of Europe. Have these people never heard of patriotism?

From: Frank McManus, Longfield Road, Todmorden.

GORDON Bray asks (The Yorkshire Post, January 23): “If we must adopt a hymn (as national anthem) why not choose Land of Hope and Glory?”

A quick answer is because it would be a sitting target for “Dope and Tory” parodies! More weightily, it would be too facile and somewhat arrogant to blinker ourselves to what is neither hopeful nor glorious about our land today – for example the extreme gap between poor and rich – even though it is a prouder and freer nation than many others nevertheless. I think the best hymn to adopt would be Robert Bridges’ Rejoice, O Land, in God Thy Might, but we aren’t worthy of its words as of now.

Shed light on council folly

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

THE news of a demand for 80 per cent of traffic lights to be removed (The Yorkshire Post, January 25) couldn’t be more welcome.

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But how long will it take for this to reach and convince North Yorkshire County Council? Their obsession with traffic lights is already as legendary as it is counter-productive – why install only two, when there’s room for five?

Regular visitors to Harrogate might wonder at the ever-increasing infestation. Of many bewildering examples, I recently spotted a Pelican crossing on a two lane road which, after years functioning with two light-columns had been “upgraded” to four. The ‘why’ was difficult to fathom; still less so, the fact that one of the new lanterns is totally obscured by a beautiful tree. I’ll say no more, lest NYCC rush round with a chain saw.

I’d like to think that no sentient being is involved in all this; but I can’t.

Parkinson and rail

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

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YOUR editorial tribute to the late Lord Parkinson and those of a number of political figures from the Prime Minister through to Lord Hague may have been be well-founded and well-intentioned (The Yorkshire 
Post, January 26).

After all, only those within the “corridors of power” of the Margaret Thatcher years would know him and his true value to the Conservative Party.

However, following 
the controversy concerning his private life, his image 
was further tarnished 
when he was Transport Secretary at the time of rail privatisation.

The then chairman of the Transport Select Committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody, after 
three disastrous train derailments, closely questioned him about the overall safety of the track and identified, on 
the basis of his responses, that the safety of passengers had 
been compromised in favour of profit.

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It was difficult to understand why the rail network had not been properly checked and ordered by him, the son of a railway worker.

Passing of an explorer

From: Dave Long, Horsforth, Leeds.

YOUR front page (The Yorkshire Post, January 26) stated that Henry Worsley, who nearly made history with the first solo crossing of Antarctica, died 
in an Argentinian hospital. 
Wrong, page five correctly 
states that he died in a Chilean hospital.

However, I congratulate you on your letter to the PM and the rest of this unfeeling government regarding the lack of action and aid for the flood victims in Calderdale, York and Leeds.

Keep up the good work.

Fears for our dairy industry

From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby.

THEY say that misfortune 
goes in threes. Politicians 
have allowed cheap foreign imports to destroy our coal mining industry, our steel mining industry and now it is painfully obvious to me that they are now about to destroy our dairy industry.

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Politicians who allow 
it to happen wouldn’t have 
a clue if they were asked to milk a herd of cows or to start a combine and mow a field of 
corn.

To walk or not to walk?

From: D Webb, Rothwell.

REGARDING Tom Richmond’s comments (The Yorkshire 
Post, January 23) on sportsmanship.

Being a young, naive, cricketer in the Yorkshire League of the 1950s, the first lesson I was taught by the more experienced was never to give yourself out – you can’t give yourself in.

Sometimes you get the 
rub of the green, sometimes you don’t.