The lone voice raised against 
Churchill

Exactly half a century ago, I was in the crowd at the Vetch Field in Swansea for an FA Cup 4th Round tie between Swansea Town (as they were then called) and Huddersfield.

The minute’s silence for Winston Churchill was punctuated by a local fan shouting “Murderer! Remember Tonypandy!” at the top of his voice. (It was a reference to the still unproven allegation that Churchill as Home Secretary had ordered troops to fire on striking Rhondda coal miners.)

The scandalised “hushing” noise from 99 per cent of the rest of us had to be heard to be believed.

Now, with the distance of fifty years, I cannot help admiring that lone voice for his bravery. How he got out of that stadium alive is still a mystery to me.

Only one way to
self-government

From: Ian Oglesby, Stamford Bridge, York.

The Conservatives who deposed the Eurosceptic Margaret Thatcher have been forced by Ukip to say that they “promise” a referendum if re-elected and after the hopeless delaying tactic of “renegotiation”.

Eurosceptic Conservatives have stated that they know the “promise” to be worthless. In the media, we see the confused sitting on the rails separating the “promise” from reality and when the demise of the Nation State is mentioned the Lib Dems and Labour politicians are not even at the races.

Only backing Ukip can move us towards regaining self-government, for those with the wit and honesty to acknowledge the massive disadvantages of our continued political involvement with the EU.

City’s costly cycle route

From: Mick Johnson, 
Scholes, Leeds.

Leeds City Council has published details of its City Connect Cycle Route. It is 14 miles from Bradford to Leeds and then to the Ring Road at Seacroft. The cost is a staggering £29m – that’s £2m per mile. Would someone like to justify this cost?

From Leeds to Seacroft it appears to be a mixture of cycle lanes (white line on road) and cycle ways (white line on footpath). For £2m per mile? The centre of Leeds is a mish-mash of routes which includes some 20mph zones.

I have nothing whatsoever against cyclists. It is just a huge amount of money for what is a small minority of the travelling public. When both Leeds and Bradford both have tens of thousands of people on housing waiting lists, this money would build in the region of 300 homes. And if someone says it is all in a different budget: Simple, change the budgets.

But then, as the BBC reported, some of the money would ‘go to resurface the Leeds and Liverpool Canal’. Now that could be expensive.

How to help
the regions

From: Jack Caley, East Newton, Aldbrough, Hull.

BERNARD Ingham (The Yorkshire Post, January 28) would wish us to stay as one nation. I agree with him.

However, in my view regional development and power 
have been lost for two major reasons.

One is that business rates go to the Government, thereby losing any incentive on the part of councils to plan new industry and development. The other is planning charges, a great disincentive.

Councillors have no incentive to stand up against the nimbys who would keep this nation in the dark age. In fact, what planning officers should be doing is assisting development, and I include financially.

Another view
over Jet2

From: Peter and Tricia Cressey, Hillam.

We were surprised to read David and Linda Greenwood’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, January 29). Without doubting the veracity of what they say, we must tell you that we take six or seven return flights per year with Jet2 and have done so each year for the past 10 years.

We have always left it to their automated system to allocate our seats and only on one occasion found we were we not together, but cabin staff soon found us adjacent seats.

We have also found, with the odd exception, cabin staff and crew efficient, helpful and pleasant. Maybe the Greenwoods have just been unlucky.

Shades of opinion

From: Jim Beck, Tickhill.

PAUL Morley is quite right to challenge (The Yorkshire Post, January 30) those who criticise Benedict Cumberbatch’s use of the word ‘coloured’ to describe non-whites.

When I was a boy the word ‘coloured’ was a polite alternative to black or even the despicable ‘n’ word, but the Hollywood actress Halle Berry now has to be called black when in fact she is a delicious shade of café au lait. Who decides these things?

If the word is so offensive, why are millions of Americans content to belong to The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?

The Liberal Fascists like nothing better than to take offence on behalf of those whom they believe to have been wronged.