A good writer. but certainly no economist

I love reading the Yorkshire Post on a Saturday. It provides an excellent local and regional slant on life, and has undoubtedly assisted my assimilation in Yorkshire over the past 12 years.

So much so that my visits back to Scotland become fewer each year and I now regard this wonderful county as “home”. Perhaps the only part of Mr Taylor’s Saturday essay I could therefore identify with was his description of, “driving over Staxton Hill and seeing the lights of Scarborough to welcome me home”.

The rest of his essay is simplistic, erroneous and misleading.

I see no statistics quoted to support any of his arguments and for me this is disappointing. Not that I expected him to proffer any in support of his views, but I am disappointed that the Yorkshire Post would print such unsubstantiated notions.

Mr Taylor makes the same mistake himself as many of our politicians do. He focuses on short term soundbite issues, many of which are not strategically thought through.

This lack of strategic thinking, perhaps resulting from a political system which does not facilitate long term continuity of leadership, results in poor quality decision making in time horizons which are unreasonable to effect change.

The issues facing our society are complex and structural, and will take many years to resolve. They cannot be resolved by adopting blunt, “jingoistic” nonsense.

The EC is not the source of our current woes. How do you know Mr Taylor that leaving Europe is desired by the majority in this country?

Please do not be so patronising. You know not a lot! Further, should you wish to leave Europe Mr Taylor, there are four other continents in which you can reside. We will not stand in your way.

I know he has been a man of the cloth as well as a policeman. He is certainly adept at transformation now that he has found his new calling as an author.

Please do not claim to be an economist Mr Taylor. Such a claim would be stretching our imagination too far this time.

Great legacy of Sir Alec

From: Arthur A Allott, Ottringham, East Yorkshire.

I WAS interested in reading the recent letters that mentioned the great influence of the late Sir Alec Clegg.

H Hellawell stated that his influence “not only had a big influence in the West Riding, but also the rest of Yorkshire”, might I suggest it went much further.

Sir Alec had a very strong influence in the development of creative subjects in schools, particularly primary schools.

He also believed that the environment was extremely important in the development of children in particular, also people generally

May I suggest that this is one reason why he was so keen that student teachers should enjoy living and learning in the environment of Bretton Hall.

Bretton was established as a college for students of specialists in music, art and drama.

Many went on to become teachers.

I was one of the very first students in 1949-50 who were fortunate to live and learn in such a beautiful house set in 500 acres of lakes and parkland.

I and many others grew up on a West Riding estate, so to live and work in such an inspiring environm ent was heaven! Of course the parkland went on to become the Sculpture Park.

Peter Murray, while a lecturer in art education at Bretton, was the one individual responsible for the founding of the park in 1977.

Sir Alec, like many of the older ex students, who had an emotional attachment to Bretton Hall ,would have been very sad, when a few years ago Leeds University bought and later sold the hall to a developer, to create a luxury spa hotel.

Railway improvement

From Graham Lund, Rydal, Cumbria.

Rail lobbyists are now proposing routing trains between Manchester Airport and Carlisle via Hellifield and Settle.

This would be on a limited basis to begin with and needs to be extended to run forward to Glasgow.We still desperately need more Anglo-Scottish through trains, yet Northern Rail and Scotrail seem disinterested.

“I want my trains back,” said a Northern manager. “Scotrail doesn’t run Anglo-Scottish trains.” said a Scotrail boss.

Transport Scotland say there is a need to increase cross border train use.

Anglo-Scottish passengers total 7.4 million annually against an Anglo-Welsh total of 8.6 million.

There is plenty to do improving our rail system.

School of thought

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

So the Government are to send out advice on how to be a good parent. Given the background of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chancellor, does that mean they’ll be telling people to send their children away from home – ie to boarding school as soon as they are old enough?