Greta Thunberg can be a catalyst for action on climate change – Yorkshire Post letters

FIDDLING while Rome burns appears to be the solution that Bill Carmichael offers to global warming in his critique of Greta Thunberg (The Yorkshire Post, April 26).

Bill Carmichael: Beware of the cult of Greta Thunberg

While the Government has taken some action in reducing pollution, it appears very reluctant to take really significant steps to tackle the problem.

The market economy cannot and will not address the problem, as shown by the Volkswagen emissions scandal. It is the responsibility of governments. The Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968 provide a textbook example of this in tackling the highly visible problem of smog and its obvious effects on the human respiratory system.

Currently, there is little incentive to abandon the highly polluting internal combustion engine and to replace it with electric vehicles. Subsidising an effective network of recharging points – and the purchase of electric vehicles – would create jobs and encourage a nascent industry.

Fortunately, many influential individuals are listening to Greta Thunberg’s pleas, as she repeats what climate scientists have been saying for years. Let us hope she manages to catalyse the change.

Pipe organ neglected

From: NG Walmsley, Pannal Ash Road, Harrogate.

I REFER to the piece (The Yorkshire Post, April 24) regarding the £8.5m spent on St George’s Hall in Bradford.

On the smaller of the two photos is shown a large black curtain at the back of the stage. I wonder how many music lovers realise what this is concealing? There lies a once fine pipe organ in a splendid case, but it has been neglected and unplayable for many years.

The first organ was installed for the opening of the hall in 1853 and there has been one ever since. The detailed story of the organs can be found in an article written by the late George Hankin who was the musical consultant to Bradford Corporation.

This appeared in the monthly publication The Organ in July 1954, and followed the rebuild in 1953 by the famous firm of Henry Willis & Sons Ltd in consultation with Mr Hankin.

Why have the authorities in Bradford allowed the disgraceful dereliction of this superb musical asset, also a handsome piece of furniture, when across the north of England can be found fine organs in concert halls with regular public 
recitals?

Just consider how marvellous it would be if there was money to restore the Willis organ to grace St George’s Hall as a valuable asset to enrich the city’s musical life?

Clinging to failures

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

AS Mike Obst observes, Leeds has been making all the right noises on carbon emissions (The Yorkshire Post, April 30).

Once again, these fail to translate into long-term effective action. The city’s latest public transport “transformation” involves yet more rolling acres of concrete and asphalt to segregate yet more diesel buses from other traffic.

Mike suggests looking into a light rail network. This was looked into and planned decades ago. £40m was spent on enabling works in Hunslet and City Square. For the third time, the then government (now Labour) reneged on funding and the (Labour) city council dutifully accepted this. They then wasted £70m and 10 years on a cut-price solution involving trolleybuses; predictably, this also failed.

It is both puzzling and worrying that, when it comes to public transport, a go-ahead city like Leeds has been wallowing in cut-price failure since the 1950s. Leeds is by far the largest city in Europe still clinging to nothing more progressive than diesel buses. No less worrying is the abject failure of MPs, in both the city and wider region, to lift a finger.

Green’s plan is unworkable

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen, First Lane, Anlaby.

DAMIAN Green’s proposals to increase National Insurance premiums by up to £300 for the over-50s to provide for care in later life are simply not workable and are a dishonest ruse to hoodwink and mislead society (The Yorkshire Post, April 30).

Workers are already paying into the state pension pot via National Insurance premiums and have been doing for years. These payments should have been properly invested to ensure a good return. Unless workers’ pay is increased substantially, this will merely be a drain on their already diminished incomes.

Since about 2009 and the introduction of the Minimum Wage, in general terms, wages have been depressed and reduced and the standard of living for many working people – including professionals – has seriously declined. Many have had to resort to food banks.

A divisive character

From: Mike Lacey, Elloughton.

ON President Donald Trump’s state visit, it is reported that Ian Blackford MP, the Westminster leader of the SNP, has said “it is unacceptable to invite a figure who promotes the poisonous politics of division and alienates communities”. Just who was he talking about? Surely not Nicola Sturgeon?

Peers with no purpose

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

WHAT a sorry state we are getting ourselves into when the ageing House of Lords expressed the view to get rid of TV licences and bus passes for older citizens. They would have been much better thinking about getting rid of themselves. Just what good are they and what do they do?