In defence of dividends

MY heart goes out to the hard-pressed owners of the Yorkshire Bank, forced to close many southern branches and sack numerous staff in defence of the shareholders’ dividends. It seems they are “struggling to achieve decent returns” on their investments. Returns have been “unacceptable” and have not “reached critical mass”.

Well, neither have mine for years past, so I am able to sympathise, but unlike the Yorkshire Bank, there’s nowt I can do about it.

Available words

From: Carl Clayton, Deben Close, Chesterfield.

IAN Tomlinson writes a charming letter (Yorkshire Post, May 17), but he does Leeds Central Library a grave disservice.

When I looked in the catalogue I found 54 thesauri listed – that’s a whole herd – or should it be bevy, flock, gaggle or pack?

Some are children’s or student’s thesauri and others can be found in the branch libraries but I saw about six on the shelves of the lending library and three more in the reading room of the information service. Perhaps Mr Tomlinson could ask one of the friendly librarians next time he is looking for something?

Special bond

From: Mrs Norma McNichol, Lynwood Drive, Carlton, Barnsley.

I WRITE in answer to the somewhat facetious letter from SB Oliver (Yorkshire Post, May 17) concerning Mrs Coupe and her dog Trifle.

It is no use trying to explain to people like Mr Oliver the special bond between a dog and its owner because they do not understand and never will. A dog is part of your family so why would you want to leave part of your family out of your day to day living? My husband bought me a little badge which I have lost but I remember the message very well, it said: “The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.”