Friday's Letters: In praise of BBC's religious programmes, on TV and radio

Thought for the Day is brief and to the point. It is not thrust in our faces, it is just five minutes of reflection and often quite humorous and inspirational, along the lines of "Hey, just a moment, why not look at it this way?"

It is not essentially meant, I am sure, for far-reaching intellectual analysis. Just for the simpler souls, like me, I am sure there are many!

If this little period offends, folk can use the time to let the cat out or switch over.

At least it gives the radio show hosts a chance to catch their breath, which must be therapeutic for them, and me!

Good Morning Sunday is a wonderful awakening, offering us an insight into other people's lives and beliefs, and is accepting of all who are striving to find an ideal in their lives through all denominations of the Church, or of any other creed.

Aled Jones is a great young man and plays his Christian part admirably. From the response to his programme it is quite apparent that many people are enjoying these two hours (I am sure they would run out of love songs if the next show had to start earlier).

Songs of Praise is delightful, beautifully presented has lots of variety, chat and insight into other people's way of life in villages and towns.

There is often lovely scenery around the location, with glimpses of fine churches, outside and in, with choirs and people congregated to sing with lusty manifestation of their faith. It is a breath of fresh air and I would miss it dreadfully if it was taken off our screens.

The laws of our country are based on the Ten Commandments. There is no denying that if they were heeded, life would be much smoother.

The "religion" in question takes up only a few hours on BBC Television. Would we have to endure yet another weary old episode of Only Fools and Horses or Dad's Army in its place? Leave the religion in its place, BBC, and give mortals, like me, a peaceful, reflective break!

From: Shirley Garnett, Sunnybank Road, Greetland, Halifax.

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme-on-Spalding Moor, Yorkshire.

TO spend 3m on establishing the "happiness factor" seems very extravagant of the new coalition Government (Yorkshire Post, November 26), especially as we are being told to tighten our belts.

I would have thought it would be fairly obvious to even the dimmest of those in power that happiness falls into three basic requirements – one being the security of a job with a reasonable income allowing one to have a roof over one's head, another the ability to afford energy costs without worrying about the bill and lastly the reassurance you will be able to retire without becoming poverty-stricken because of the mean offerings from a Government which knows little of the hardship created by the lowest pension in Europe.

The icing on the cake would be a more sensible approach to crime and punishment, a schools curriculum that would furnish our children with the skills to find a job when they leave school, and finally Government policies that show they are running the country on our behalf and not their own. Of course I forgot, it's the banks that run the country isn't it?

From: David Quarrie, Lynden Way. Holgate, York.

IN 2011 the Coalition Government is going to attempt a survey questionaire they think will indicate the amount of "happiness" felt by our population of 62 million.

Apart from the fact that this idea will cost the UK taxpayer 2m, which is a terrible waste of money, it is impossible to find out or to measure the depth of "happiness" or the "feelgood factor".

What questions will be asked, and to whom, and to how many citizens and on which days of the year? Different things motivate different people. Some folk feel much better on a Friday evening than they do on a Monday morning. Some people feel better after a football or cricket win by England, while others could not care less.

Things like health, holidays, new grandchildren, birthdays, bereavements, the weather, job security and umpteen other topics affect how good or bad folk feel. The entire project is a nonsense and a distraction and totally meaningless.

From: Janet Berry, Hambleton, North Yorkshire.

HOW bizarre to spend 2m on finding out what makes people happy. You only have to ask ten people to realise how diverse their opinions are.

A chap I spoke to today said he is happy because he loves his wife and children and has a happy home life.

My nearest and dearest says his grandchildren bring him much happiness and a holiday in Filey with them was superb. My son said how lucky he felt to be sitting eating his lunch at Scarborough overlooking the sea (two weeks ago).

Flowers bring me much happiness and I am always thrilled to receive them even though my garden may be full of them. I am happy because my son has recovered from open heart surgery.

Money certainly does not bring happiness and often people with great wealth are miserable and mean. I think if one has had kind and loving parents, as I had, this has a great deal to do with how you feel about yourself and life.

I think David Cameron could find a better use for spending this money!

Poverty's long history.

From: E.Raine, East Heslerton, North Yorkshire.

YOUR campaign to help the disadvantaged is, judged within the context of immediate charitable support, a worthy if slightly surprising one (Yorkshire Post, November 6): your initial story was one of shock that so many people in this region are on or well below the poverty line.

History tells us in graphic terms that the poor have always been with us, and, while the present thrust of Government policy continues, are always likely to be.

In a strictly practical way, members of this Government, and probably many members of previous Governments, have never shared life in the dirty, downbeat, dreary and blighted estates sprawling scarred and ugly on the perimeters of our industrial cities. And so we have the economically and socially unjoined thinking of Government and employers, remedied in part by enlightened men like Robert Owen and the Rowntree family.

The people who do live there have, in a metaphorical sense, been with us for a thousand years: as the permanently persecuted peasantry, the privation-afflicted and exploited poor of the industrial revolution, the doomed poor of the Irish famine and the property-robbed crofters of the Scottish clearances. Now, it seems, they're simply economic fodder, to be enlisted and discarded as events outside their control dictate: literally human resources.

A banker, a financial manager, a company director, the "wealth creators", take home 1m: a million who lose their earnings say: "Well it certainly wasn't created for me." And who could argue?

NHS a winner

From: The Rev David Clark, Dulverton Hall, Scarborough.

My wife and I returned in May this year to live in England after 17 years in Brittany. Just before moving we saw a television programme about hospital league tables, and Scarborough was near the bottom.

A couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday evening, I collapsed, and after excellent paramedic care was taken to the Coronary Care Unit at Scarborough Hospital. After a couple of days of tests, it was decided that I needed a pacemaker as soon as possible, and one was successfully fitted the following Monday morning.

The operation was a far more pleasant experience than I could have imagined because of the attitude and skill of the cardiologist, Dr Houghton, the surgeon and all the team involved. I returned home the following day.

I must praise every aspect of my care in hospital in spite of a shortage of nurses, and some elderly equipment.

It is easy to nit-pick, but I am sure every patient in that unit would agree whole-heartedly with what I have written.

From: Tony Lodge, research fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, Tufton Street, London.

Rail privatisation pays off, after a long journey

DAVID Wragg is wrong to say rail privatisation has not delivered enough tangible benefits to the rail network, albeit 17 long years since the 1993 Railways Act. (Yorkshire Post, November 29)

Yorkshire and the north east are benefitting hugely from the decision by John Major's Government to privatise British Rail. New "open access" rail operators like Grand Central have connected important towns and urban centres with London, thus creating or re-establishing long-lost fast and direct rail services.

Open access train operators are stand-alone businesses and rely solely upon the services they provide to rail customers, receiving no taxpayer subsidy.

Their quality of service is their main selling point and Grand Central received a 95 per cent passenger satisfaction rating last year, compared with 89 per cent for the nationalised East Coast operator.

British Rail was privatised for one simple reason; without private enterprise, private funding and private initiative, the monopolisitic railway was doomed to slow decline, whereas it needed competition, cash and modern management.

The benefits, at last, are becoming evident, and open access operators, operating particularly successfully in Yorkshire and the north east, are leading the way.

At a time of national financial austerity, the Government should encourage further open access operations and back those rail entrepreneurs who are prepared to take the financial risk and serve towns and communities long forgotten by the larger rail companies, where strong support exists for such services.