August 21: British Rail not fondly remembered

THOSE who call for re-nationalisation of the railways (The Yorkshire Post, August 18) seem to look back through rose-coloured spectacles to the days of British Rail. I seem to recall dirty trains, careworn stock, dilapidated stations and rude or at best indifferent staff, and a timetable which appeared almost random in nature.

Even the BR manager Sir Peter Parker complained of “the crumbling edge of quality” on our secondary limes. The direct line south from Teesside boasted three passenger services per day – a commuter service to York, an inter-city service and an overnight sleeper to King’s Cross, all of which were eventually axed by BR. All other journeys involved changing at Darlington.

The dead hand of the Treasury denied the system the investment it needed just as much then as now. Now we have an hourly service to York, Leeds and Manchester and four trains a day to London in comfortable modern stock with smart staff and on-board catering.

Yes, we have the dreaded Pacers locally – but they were in fact inherited from British Rail, and the shortcomings of the infrastructure are down to Network Rail which is, in effect, a nationalised company.

Shadow of the bomb

From: John Fisher, Menwith Hill, Harrogate.

A RECENT letter regarding the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was likened to actions taken by Hitler (The Yorkshire Post, August 15). Any of the ten of thousands of Allied prisoners who were subjected to years of brutal treatment by the Japanese on the Burma Railway and other locations would no doubt view the act that brought a swift end to their suffering as a blessing.

The use of these atomic bombs were also a stark warning of what could happen in any future world war.

Two previous world wars had resulted in the death of many millions of soldiers and civilians using conventional weapons. The potential use of nuclear weapons created a situation where every person involved in a future world war regardless of civilian or military status and regardless of geographical location could perish. Any land fought over could be contaminated by nuclear weapons and be unfit for habitation for many years.

To date no nation – even those with a large military capability –appear prepared to risk a military strategy which could lead to the possible use of nuclear weapons. We now rely on the use of international communication wherever possible to resolve potential conflict between nations.

However the possibility of the nuclear option which appears 
to have discouraged potential world war falling into the 
hands of extremists, such as IS, who appear to embrace death must be taken very seriously indeed.

Open door on mosques

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

LIKE many people I am very disturbed at the number of young people being drawn into the radicalisation of Muslims in this country.

Your front page article and Editorial (The Yorkshire Post, August 17) painted a very sad picture of what is going on “under our noses”.

As I have written before, surely the Government could make it enforceable for all mosques and all other places of worship to be made to be open to the public, as are all places of worship belonging to the Church of England?

Some check could then be made on the teachings in those buildings, just as checks can be made on sermons etc in the Church of England.

Labour in the wilderness

From: Paul Hill, Fulwood Drive, Morecambe, Lancaster.

FORGET about the Labour leadership election, the party’s present problems started with the election of Ed Miliband in 2010. I believe the party was just about electable if his brother David had been elected. The party is now in a whole new ball game, it couldn’t be in a worse place even if it had tried.

All the political chatter about the present leadership race is of no consequence, it’s all about statistics and I believe that Labour would have to gain 106 seats for a majority of one. A majority of one is not enough to govern with, they would require one hell of a lot of Tory voters to vote Labour, this isn’t going to happen.

I can’t see Labour gaining power in the next 20 years.

Don’t blank the beggars

From: Max Nottingham, St Faiths Street, Lincoln.

MOST people blank beggars as they walk past them. It does not take much imagination to understand how misery making it must be to be either skint or homeless.

You don’t have to give money. You can give sandwiches, chocolate or a beaker of coffee. I do realise there are organisations trying to help those at rock bottom, But there is always someone who falls outside the charity net. We must not put compassion on the ration. The Government excel at that.

Years ago, I spent three nights sleeping on Waterloo station. It was not much fun.