Common sense required

If I decide to emigrate to France or even southern Cyprus, where the local language is Greek, I would not expect the taxpayers of those countries to pay for me to learn to speak their language.

Dr Mohammed Ali castigates the Government for a 32 per cent cut in the funding of English for Speakers of Other Languages (Yorkshire Post, April 20).

My understanding is that the English Schools are not closing but that folk, irrespective of colour, class or creed, who wish to learn English, should bear all or part of the cost rather than burden the British taxpayer.

This is not an issue to raise fear or racism, just one that requires a common sense approach.

MPs must act on loan sharks

From: Adrian Byrne, Jessamine Avenue, Leeds.

IN a Parliamentary debate earlier this year, 426 MPs asked the new finance regulator to seriously explore placing legal caps that would limit the extortionate charges (legal) loan sharks can make. It would be good to hear in this newspaper from our local MPs about where they stand on this issue.

With the recession and poverty in our community, there will always be some desperate people with few choices who end up having to turn to the legal loan sharks.

I would therefore like to see protection for the most vulnerable put in place in the UK, as has already been done in the United States.

What does it do?

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley, Leeds.

WHY does Leeds City Council (Tom Richmond, Yorkshire Post, April 23) need an “asset management major projects” department? How much does it cost and what does it do?

Bringing sports events to Leeds should be self-financing, especially as Leeds will be bidding to stage Rugby League World Cup matches here in two years’ time.