Letters December 8: Informed on case against fracking

I HAVE a number of issues with Mick Day’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, December 3) on fracking. My son is an oilfield geologist, so I can claim to be able to look at fracking with a little knowledge of both viewpoints.

Has Mr Day asked himself why most of the anti-fracking letters come from within 20 miles of the proposed site? The answer is that it is those people who have had the motivation to do the necessary research.

With the prospect of a new and untried (in this country) industry landing on one’s doorstep, it is prudent to find out how it has conducted itself in other countries.

Even if it could clean up its act, fracking would not be desirable environmentally because of fugitive methane and the CO2 produced by burning the remainder. The most important issue, however, is the need to combat climate change. Fracking is a distraction from the pressing need to develop sustainable means of producing energy.

From Sue Scholes Cuthbert, Newton on Rawcliffe, North Yorkshire.

I’M afraid that Mr Day has got his facts wrong regarding people who oppose fracking. There is a very wide number of people in this country who do not wish fracking to go ahead. They are very knowledgeable about this process and now very well informed about all the risks involved.

My husband and I lived in the very industrialised area of Teesside, so know what it is like to live in such a place. We also lived in the Midlands until returning to live in Yorkshire 21 years ago. It was a green and pleasant land, Mr Day, but you and others would have it made into yet an another industrialised region.

Ryedale, where we live, is at the moment a beautiful place very popular with visitors from big cities. Yes, we need electricty, but renewables will give us this.

Many faces 
of hatred

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon.

THE article by Leeds imam Qari Asim, headed “Hatred at home plays into the hands of Daesh”, made much of “anti-Muslim prejudice” and physical assaults on Muslims (The Yorkshire Post, December 3).

What a pity therefore that he didn’t make more effort to also highlight attacks by Muslims on other communities, in particular that reported recently of an Asian man in Bradford assaulted after converting from Islam to Christianity. It would have been nice to see him specifically condemn that attack in the strongest terms.

While he did comment on bigotry of any kind, the article was far too slanted about attacks on the Muslim community alone.

From: Aled Jones, Bridlington.

IN the words of David Cameron, those against Syrian bombing are “terrorist sympathisers’” However, every missile we fire costs our recession-hit nation £800,000 and so for this reason alone I’m undecided about waging war in Syria. If my mind isn’t made up, am I still a terrorist sympathiser?

Why Labour crushed Ukip

From: Robert Craig, Priory Road, Weston-Super-Mare.

IN the Oldham West and Royton by-election last Thursday, Labour swept to a conclusive victory defeating the Ukip challenge with a massive majority in the first poll test of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.

Ukip has passed its sell-by date and is on its way out. It is a one trick pony and that trick has a fatal flaw which is revealed in its name, the United Kingdom independence party. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive largesse from the EU, the City of London depends on EU membership to convince overseas investors to trust it. It might be possible to cobble together a small majority to leave the EU within England, but not within the UK as a whole.

The English Democrats’ aim of extracting an independent England from the EU is just about achievable, Ukip’s aim of taking the UK out of the EU intact is not. That is why Ukip is fated to fail.

Elderly have paid their way

From: Mervyn Jackson, Belper, Derbyshire.

YOUR correspondent AW Clarke asked in a recent letter if other readers share his irritation at the elderly being portrayed by the BBC as responsible for “draining the NHS of its funds”.

Our feelings on the subject are much stronger than irritation. Whenever the topic arises, an expert will open his contribution with “we are an ageing population”, thereby giving the impression that we should feel guilty for staying alive.

The fact that many of us have paid tax and NI contributions for the best part of 50 years is forgotten. The drunken people in A&E referred to by AW Clarke should be made to pay for their treatment, along with the health tourists in their thousands.

Good old days

From: Philip Johnson, York.

SURELY The Good Old Days is not “cabaret” (Television listings, The Yorkshire Post, December 4)? Why not try to find a listings compiler who is old enough to remember Music Hall?