Clegg has failed party and must go

From: Jack Duckworth, Rossett Holt View, Harrogate.

I REFER to your Editorial (Yorkshire Post, September 3) about Nick Clegg.

As a Liberal Democrat founding member, I think that Nick Clegg has failed the Party. Not because of the coalition but because he has allowed himself to be led by the nose by the Tory Party.

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He has allowed their attacks on the poorest in our society to be delivered without let or hindrance. The grind-them-down philosophy against the working class has reached new depths and Nick has stood idly by and let it happen. The Liberal Democrat Party has been severely tarnished.

The reason why I am a member of the Lib Dems is because I believe all sides of society have a fair and equal chance of contributing to the common good. The excesses of capitalism have failed, which is why this country, Europe and a large part of the world are now in financial difficulties. Having said that, it seems also that Communism fared little better. China appears to be an exception.

I am however retaining my Lib Dem membership in order to help to vote in a new leader.

From: Beryl Williams, Wharfedale Avenue, Harrogate.

SO Tony Blair’s justification for invading Iraq, in response to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s decision to have no truck with a warmonger, is that it was necessary to “remove 
Saddam” (nicely sanitised expression).

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He may be interested to 
know what was on US television news on the eve of the invasion of Iraq a Senator saying – and I quote verbatim, having seen 
it in Los Angeles at the time: “I don’t know why they bother going into Baghdad. They 
should go straight for the oilfields.”

So there we have it. The invasion of Iraq was a shamelessly oil-greed-driven criminal act whose perpetrators should face justice.

Yet Blair himself is now 
allowed to hold office as 
“peace envoy”.

An old saying comes to mind: “If a lion bites your head off, don’t go to the lion and ask him to sew it back on.”

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If the world wants peace, it had better look elsewhere. To put it mildly, Mr Blair holds no qualification in such regard.

Crime and punishment

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon.

JUDGE Peter Benson, when sentencing a gang of burglars at Bradford Crown Court who had stolen more than £450,000 of top-of-the-range luxury vehicles (Yorkshire Post, August 31), said that these were serious offences that must attract a significant sentence. He then went on to jail the main culprits for terms of between four and a half and five years.

However, bearing in mind that none of these miscreants will serve more than half their jail terms at most, I’m afraid that my view of a “significant sentence” and that of Judge Benson are poles apart.

One more reason why so 
many of us despair that our justice system will ever be fit for purpose.

Boycotting halal meat

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From: Jennifer Wiles, Four Acre Close, Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire.

I WAS very interested in Barrie Frost’s letter regarding halal meat (Yorkshire Post, August 28). I refuse to eat it and no longer dine in Indian or Turkish 
restaurants. I recently flew with United Arab Emirates, a long journey on which I hardly ate anything except bread and crackers.

When shopping now, I frequently ask if meat is slaughtered halal and am 
pleased to say that a young lady in a large frozen food chain when asked, went off to get the manager who was very pleased to tell me that even food described as “Indian style” was just that – flavoured with spices but not ritually slaughtered, so I will continue to shop there. By the way, is this meat served in the Houses of Parliament? Does anyone know?

System failing our pupils

From: David Jackson, Brayton, Selby.

I AM not an academic, just a simple soul, but I wonder how on earth we can expect our young ones to gain a good education when the people checking standards in schools say that when they rate a school as satisfactory it is, in fact, unsatisfactory?

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Also the people who look at exam results. How can a student get a grade C in January and a grade D in the summer 
when their results are nearly identical?

How can the good people of this country feel proud of our education system when teachers and pupils are governed by such a bunch of idiots?