Investigate other rights abuses too

From: Barrie Frost, Watson’s Lane, Reighton, Filey.

THE UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, has called for an investigation into the death of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

What a pity he didn’t demand an investigation into the appalling crimes he committed when he was alive.

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What a pity he doesn’t demand investigations into the sickening human rights abuses of Robert Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe; those of President Assad of Syria and the very many other evil dictators of many African countries, all of whom are still committing atrocious abuses against their own innocent peoples.

Stopping all of this would be very desirable and humane and far more worthwhile, but there doesn’t appear to be any effort to do so.

There is not the slightest doubt of the evil behaviour of Gaddafi.

He brutalised his own people in the 40 years of his cruel dictatorship, which saw the continual torture of men and women, the internment of innocent citizens in squalid hell-holes of prisons, and the murder of huge numbers of innocent people.

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How many thousands of people in Northern Ireland have been maimed and killed by this tyrant?

How many British soldiers never returned from duty because of his support for the terrorists and the sheer evil which resulted in the death of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher and all those blown out of the sky over Lockerbie?

However, Gaddafi’s death has saved us from the farce of a show case trial.

The trials of Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, and which will continue for a seemingly indefinite period, seem to mainly benefit the legal profession and would, I am sure, be very distasteful to those who have greatly suffered from the horrors inflicted by this human being.

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The Libyan people have endured 40 years of brutal repression and have never experienced the freedoms we take for granted and it is difficult to criticise their behaviour at the capture and killing of the man so clearly responsible for their suffering.

Pity the poor parents

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

FLICKING through a toy catalogue that came with the morning newspaper, I was absolutely amazed at the prices being asked for the items illustrated.

What we found, when our children were small, was that anything expensive or out of the ordinary usually entertained them for about a month after Christmas and was then put away and forgotten, except perhaps things mechanical which seemed to have a longer lifespan.

When we were children we used to make, with a little help, our own toys and they would give us as much pleasure as all the extravaganza seen in the shops today.

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Children have enormous spending power, but my sympathy nowadays is with the parents who are pressurised to spend beyond their means to keep them happy.

Energy policy at fault

From: Nick Martinek, Briarlyn Road, Huddersfield.

IT is all very well for Tony Lodge (Yorkshire Post, October 18) to plead the case for lower UK energy prices for our energy-intensive industries, but what about the rest of British industry and, indeed, householders who are also being penalised?

At the recent so-called summit with the big six energy companies, the Prime Minister made it plain that he had no better idea than blustering about “radical reforms” of the energy market itself.

Mr Cameron is merely playing politics.

He implies that people should blame the suppliers but the real reasons we have high energy prices are that the pound has lost 30 per cent of its value against the dollar since 2008 (oil and gas are priced in dollars) and the Government’s own flawed energy strategy.

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We cannot do much about the low pound since that is a consequence of the financial hole that the previous Labour government bequeathed us. But Mr Cameron could change his damaging energy policy.

Church silent on morality

From: Maureen Hunt, Woolley, Near Wakefield.

THE Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, wrote an article about the NHS (Yorkshire Post, October 8) and four days later the Right Rev Nick Baines, Bishop of Bradford, wrote exhorting students to study foreign languages.

However interesting and worthwhile these columns may have been, there is one thing about which I am convinced. Not one person would cross the threshold of a church, or even wish to explore the possibility that there may be a loving God, due to reading these articles.

The Church is essentially a spiritual domain. Twenty-six Anglican bishops sit in the House of Lords. It seems to me that temporal subjects have become a safer and easier option to discuss than spiritual ones. On matters of morality there is a deafening silence from the Church.

Poorest pay the price

From: Malcolm Naylor, Grange View, Otley.

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A REPORT, no doubt commissioned by ultra Right-wing Conservatives, is calling for the elderly to give up their family homes to release accommodation for the homeless.

Not surprisingly this report does not include using large buildings owned by the rich, the aristocracy, monarchy or the large houses of the wealthy?

Nor does it include the second homes that the rich enjoy or taking steps to limit population growth and immigration.

For example, how about opening up Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Sandringham, Harewood House etc and all the other large country residences that are underused to ease the housing shortage?

Why is always the poorest who have to make the sacrifices and never the rich?

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