German market minus Germans

BEFORE Christmas, I paid a visit to the festive German market in Leeds.

I purchased something to eat from a stall and asked the assistant where in Germany she was from. I then discovered that she was from Romania, as was her colleague.

At another stall I purchased a mulled wine and I was served by a woman from Hungary.

As I stood drinking I saw a white van pull up alongside the market. The van was advertising a Leeds-based frozen food company and two men started delivering to stalls.

My observations suggest that there wasn’t anything authentically German about the market!

Little interest in long-lost ethics

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

IN his “jam tomorrow” article (Yorkshire Post, January 14), Neil McNicholas asks whether the loan companies have any moral misgivings; I suspect he knows the answer.

The ethics to which he refers were swiftly and eagerly abandoned in the 1980s, when Fred Goodwin et al were not only permitted, but exhorted to go feral. So far, no government has had the courage or decency to insist on the re-assertion of those ethics.

I dare say Father Neil is closer to this than most of us and wish him well.

Marks of a man

From: John Hill, Hirds Yard, Skipton.

I DISAGREE with some of Jayne Dowle’s comments regarding M&S menswear (Yorkshire Post, January 9). Shopping at the Pudsey store I enjoy the Blue Harbour range of men’s casualwear. Each season there are changes in style, colour and design. Co-ordinated shirts, trousers and jackets etc. No grey, beige etc for me.

My wife, of course, is my advisor/consultant! I try to stay with it (at 75).

Vote for birch

From: Steven Dickinson, Beeston Road, Leeds.

YOUR report about the firemen being attacked (Yorkshire Post, January 8) makes sombre reading. The answer is the birch! Let the country decide with a referendum.