Leave the EU and bring enlightened expertise to Parliament

THE letter from Mike Dalby (Yorkshire Post, December 16) has clearly highlighted the extravagance and bias of the BBC’s news coverage, but added to this questionable policy  there is the over-reaction and coverage to the recent commemoration of Nelson Mandela’s death which has been occupying the news channels daily for the past fortnight, ad nauseam, to the neglect of other home and overseas issues.

However, we are now being bombarded with the unsavoury antics of Nigella Lawson, the UK’s continuing nosying into conflicts in other countries and the over-generous aid which we are handing out even to countries such as China and India, plus the over-indulgence with overpaid footballers and “stars” who are all vastly overpaid and are simply entertainers and not “celebrities” as the media constantly tell us.

Finally, Edward McMillan-Scott MEP trots out his usual EU promotion (Yorkshire Post, December 16) in praising that discredited monolith for funding of UK universities etc – but it’s our money the EU is throwing about from the huge amounts we pay each day to keep Brussels bureaucrats in the lap of luxury and constant pen-pushing.

All in all we must be stupid to allow these examples of misuse of funds particularly by the EU but also closer to home by the UK government and agencies. It is time to get out of the EU and to install some enlightened expertise into Parliament by getting rid of the likes of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and hangers-on by giving Ukip an opportunity to get the UK back on track.

From: Phil Hanson, Beechmount Close, Baildon.

AS I see it Britain is in a serious situation, arguably worse than we have faced since the 1930s!

Two issues facing our country are linked by a common factor, that of seemingly irreversible.

First the ongoing influx of immigrants into a country where we are now seeing the capital and many other cities losing the British identity, cities where English is now displaced by a variety of other languages ranging from eastern European to Asian, where that creates both tension and a significant taxpayer burden, particularly in downmarket cities such as Bradford.

Secondly, the BBC is hell-bent on driving through an agenda that both alienates licence payers and also humiliates them with flagrant squandering of the licence fees on everything from payoffs, to obscene pay scales for so-called talent and overkill on the Nelson Mandela fiasco.

Anyone who has viewed the BBC last week (and it has been tough!) could not fail to observe that 120 journalists plus another 20 for the World Service took the opportunity to join the jamboree in South Africa, including that famous political refugee Peter Hain, the champagne socialist – how much did he get as a payment we wonder?

It is high time the subject of immigration was on the agenda.

Alas the people who do come here are adding to the housing shortage and this will continue to worsen until parties face up to what is a serious problem.

On the BBC, I feel it is high time to strip it back to basics, get some impartiality, nowhere to be seen in the Mandela fawning, and reduce the licence to say £25 per household. The growth and agenda of the BBC are only sustained by the fat unchallenged income that the licence affords through all economic climes, time it changed.

From: Keith Hardy, South Parade, Saxilby, Lincoln.

I HAVE been amazed to see the recent criticism of Look North in the Yorkshire Post which I find totally unjust.

The programme has a good mixture of news, sport and features from all round the region. That with the wit and humour used by the team in the latter part is what makes it Yorkshire’s most watched news programme.

I switched to this edition of Look North with my mother coming from York a number of years ago.

If Mr Dalby (Yorkshire Post, December 16) wants to see a biased news programme, he can turn to the East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire edition where 90 per cent of it is based in and around Hull.

From: RC Curry, Adel Grnage Ckose, Leeds.

WHEREAS many of your correspondents discourse sensibly there are some who seem to choose a route of personal attack and abuse which diminishes any point they wish to raise.

It should not matter a fig whether anyone in Parliament  or any form of office is of any alleged social class, domicile or place of education.

Further, whereas there  is long established acknowledgement of some perceived differences between the North and South of England, there is no need to treat anyone from south of Bawtry as if they have grown horns and are an alien nation.

It does not help that some  of the more flashy media  choose to exacerbate such imagined divisions, nor that  the BBC seem to think it is their duty to challenge almost any moves by the Government, instead of reporting news  without bias, which is their  duty to do.

Thankfully, the Yorkshire Post chooses a more educated route to discuss the various social and political issues. Reasoned debate based on facts, not prejudice, dislike or bigotry, will achieve far  more and be more likely to be heeded by those in positions of authority.