YP Letters: To get results, you need to fund services '“ like Team GB

WHAT a fabulous Olympic Games for Team GB! We were 15th in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 so we can be justifiably proud of all our dedicated athletes.

Yet I am sure the athletes of 2008 were just as dedicated, so why were the results so outstanding for such a small island?

The answer is simple – money!

This has poured in from various sources, Government, lottery funding, private sector and funding reward systems. Much of this need stemmed from the toe-curling embarrassment in Atlanta in 1996.

Thus it has been addressed and we are bathed in success. Not so the predictions for the Rio Paralympics which are soon to follow – they seem to have been deemed a failure before they have begun.

I enjoy the Paralympics even more than the Olympics as people have overcome so much to become outstanding athletes. The answer is again money from sponsorships, government and lottery awards. On an even wider stage we see the same problem with our NHS as A&E units all over the country are combined or closed down. Councils are receiving less government money and services once taken for granted are being discarded leaving people – especially the elderly feeling helpless and disbanded.

Let’s hope that the kind of money channelled into the Rio games can be input into the Paralympics, the NHS and services for those who need them. Theresa May, you are planning a glorious reception for our magnificent athletes and rightly so. No doubt your thoughts are already being turned towards Tokyo and repeated success in the Japanese capital but this is four years hence and it is likely you will still be Prime Minister. So turn your attention now ìnto giving the money where it is so desperately needed!

From: Colin Barker, Wakefield Road, Pontefract.

ALISTAIR and Jonny Brownlee, how on earth have they done it? How have two lads from Yorkshire managed to progress to this level?

How did they start, what made them decide to enter this gruelling feat? I, for one, can’t wait for their second book on the triathlon.

Grammars block talent

From: R Maister, Priest Lane, Ripon.

I NOTE your heading (The Yorkshire Post, August 18), “Do grammar schools hold the key to opportunity for all?”

It must be realised, however, that selection for grammar schools immediately excludes our best potential engineers because the primary skill required for engineering –the ability to see how an object would look in different orientations – makes reading and spelling difficult, since, in reading one must only see letters in one orientation and must suppress the reversed images.

In France, there used to be selection for the Lycée with an arts orientation and selection for technical schools with engineering ability required. I do not know the situation now.

It is best to keep children in secondary schools where all options are catered for.

Grammar schools prevent opportunities for all.

Long road to seaside

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

THE Queen of the Yorkshire coast is difficult to reach.

Arthur Strickson, living as he does adjacent to the A170 Helmsley to Scarborough road, is well placed to comment on this largely single-carriageway road (The Yorkshire Post, August 18).

He correctly identifies it, along with the notorious A64 York to Scarborough, as something of a nightmare for or the motorist en route to the Yorkshire coast.

With the emphasis now on promoting our own resorts over foreign destinations, it is vital that highway links are upgraded and the sooner both the A170 and A64 are improved, the better for everyone.

As a frequent visitor to Scarborough to watch Yorkshire do battle at North Marine Road, the other route into the town from Guisborough and Whitby is not much better, which makes Scarborough less desirable to visit for those with motor cars who value their safety.

Candidates not fit to lead

From: Terry Wright, Bempton Lane, Flamborough, Bridlington.

FOLLOWING Jeremy Corbyn’s spat with Virgin East Coast, it is obvious this was a deliberate put up stunt by him and his team accompanying him. He obviously wants the railways to be re- nationalised, hence the fiasco of sitting on the floor when quite clearly there were plenty of seats available.

This was shown by the security video produced by Virgin, it was nothing more than a staged political stunt. He has not said where he will get the money from to renationalise and, when in state ownership, railways were typically a disaster – like most state-owned businesses.

As for the ongoing animosity between Mr Corbyn and 
Owen Smith, neither can be trusted to be PM. One is a republican, while the other disagrees with democracy regarding the referendum result on the EU.