Fracking facts available from US experience

SURELY throughout the debate about fracking there has been enough experience gleaned about the process from America (Yorkshire Post, January 28).

In that country it appears to have brought great benefits. Are America sharing their experience with the UK operatives or are they all following their own agendas?

The benefits are apparent according to press reports. The Americans must have experienced problems. No new technology is without its setbacks but surely if these problems are known in advance then the UK authorities can factor them into their own decisions. We must not let this opportunity slip. It is no use asking Joe Public.

We don’t know the facts and are driven by Nimby attitudes. It is no use relying on planners, councils and MPs for the true pros and cons of this process because personal agendas, politics and lack of knowledge come into play.

No, the answer for the true picture lies with the Americans and the UK geologists.

From: Richard Billups, East Avenue, Rawmarsh, Rotherham.

EVERY time the powers-that-be want to dump something on us, the old “economic” or “economics” words are used.

Privatising water is economical, gas the same, electricity? It will be cheaper.

The courts have given HS2 the go-ahead and now fracking is apparently “economical”, and we should believe all we are told.

With fracking in Yorkshire, we have a fail-safe way of knowing if David Cameron is to be believed at last.

Let fracking begin first under Swinton Park Hotel in Masham, then this reader will believe it is safe.

Failure of the man in charge

From: John Swift, Gisbourne Road, Bradley, Huddersfield.

A BBC radio programe, File on 4, shone a little bit of light on the problem of food adulteration in the UK. The person whose responsibility it is to ensure that the Food Standards Agency and environmental health services are up to the mark would appear to be Owen Paterson, the Secretary of State.

Mr Paterson is quite obviously not up to the job and should be dismissed immediately.

This same person is also named as being responsible for not dealing with problems behind land drainage and flooding.

Instead of talking about stopping very rich socialists from smoking cigars in motor cars, taking the children to the continent for holidays or to a weekend at the races, why doesn’t he put the tax on aviation fuel, petrol and diesel on to a higher duty rate?

Language of Shakespeare

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

YOUR contributor, Mrs RM Pearson, starts an interesting debate on the misuse of English then suggests that a line should be drawn under the subject for fear of boring other readers (Yorkshire Post, January 29).

Oh dear, however am I going to fill my days?

John G Davies is right; language is a living dynamic, otherwise we might still be speaking Anglo-Saxon. What becomes acceptable in spoken usage eventually becomes acceptable in its written counterpart.

However, spoken English has the advantage of varied pitch, inflection, dynamics and modulation, whereas good written English only has punctuation.

Correct punctuation should be safeguarded. The misplacement of a comma or a full-stop can totally alter the meaning of a sentence.

Mr Davies reports that there are no moans about “you” being used in the singular instead of “thou”.

Why should there be? “You” has been used in the singular since at least as far back as Shakespeare when addressing a superior or a stranger – like the French “vous” . Iago addresses his master Othello as “you” whereas the Moor addresses his subordinate as “thee” (“tu” in French).

As for Barnsley, with its “tha knows” ; I’m not sure it is “the last bastion of correct English” but it does give us a clue as to how we spoke long ago.

From: Mrs Margaret M Whitaker, Harswell, East Yorkshire.

THERE is much I could say about grammar. I have always loved words and our English language and literature, and one thing we were taught was “language is always in a state of flux.” And 
also pronunciation, as “Blow, blow thou winter wind” 
rhymed with “unkind” in Shakespeare’s day.

My pet hate is the growing change on the accentuation of words in my lifetime; a “decade” (a span of ten years) being now pronounced “decayed” like teeth. Yesterday on Radio 4 I heard the noun “finance” spoken as the verb “finance”; “process” and “suspect” have gone the same way.

I tell myself I am only nit-picking, and try to forget my youth when all was straightforward, and apostrophes were never seen in plural nouns. And I rather enjoy mis-spellings as I go shopping for “naval oranges”.

However, I cannot imagine Shakespeare texting Anne Hathaway with “R u up 4 it LOL WS” or sending the Dark Lady a sonnet a day on Twitter. Sadly, our country churchyards of the 21st century are unlikely to contain any “mute inglorious Miltons”...

Unnecessary Tory shambles

From: John Ellwood, North Duffield, Selby.

I CAN’T understand why the Conservatives in Malton are making such a hash of choosing a candidate for the next election (Yorkshire Post, February 1).

Why can’t they do what we did in Selby prior to the last election? Put all the hats in the ring (including Anne McIntosh in their case). Call a meeting in which they all give a presentation and answer questions and then let the party members vote. Simple. It worked for us, what’s the problem? Am I missing something?