Long-on suits but short of style at Palace

LOOKING at the picture of the Yorkshire CCC team spread across the front page (The Yorkshire Post, October 17), I notice that all are wearing trousers that are too long and baggy. The only one properly dressed is the Duke of Edinburgh.

From: Margaret Auty, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

WHO let our winning team appear at Buckingham Palace in those dreadful suits with trousers at least five inches too long for most of the players ? In a county proud of its cloth and tailoring this should have never been allowed.

From: Donald Metcalfe, Annes Court, Southowram, Halifax.

I AM a Yorkshireman and proud of it. I am delighted with the performance of our County Cricket Club, but who allowed the team to be photographed in suits which were a disgrace? Did not any one think to check the length of the trousers? The Duke of Edinburgh was immaculate, the team were scruffs.

Please Yorkshire CCC, try to do better next time!

From: Judy Burdass, Octon, Driffield.

THE Yorkshire CCC team did indeed look very proud standing outside Buckingham Palace with their trophy. All 17 looked very smart from the thighs upwards! What a shame about the length of all their trousers – maybe their dressing room staff could give some advice – or maybe even provide a mirror?

From: David Robinson, Burton Leonard.

WHAT a sight to see Yorkshire cricketers at Buckingham Palace with HRH all dressed in matching suits. But I would suggest they change their tailor, there is more surplus material around most ankles that is required for an all-weather pitch.

Freud insult
more than slip

From: Richard Bridge, Holgate Road, York.

LORD Freud’s comments that some disabled people are ‘not worth’ the minimum wage (The Yorkshire Post, October 16) have been described in some quarters as a ‘gaffe’.

Having consulted my dictionary, a gaffe is an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to the originator. Whilst it may have caused some embarrassment not only to its originator, the comments could in no way be described as unintentional.

Freud’s shocking ableist perspective suggests that a disabled person is ‘worth’ less (in whatever sense of the word that word is used) than a non-disabled person and is reflective of the massive social barriers that disabled people encounter in all walks of life. Whilst an apology is welcome, it is not possible to repair the incalculable damage to the mindset of employers in addressing attitudinal and environmental obstacles in employing disabled people. As importantly, it inculcates in the minds of some disabled people that they are intrinsically worth less, denying them the dignity of equal opportunity in life.

Freud has form in making offensive comments – accusing people of choosing a ‘lifestyle’ on benefits amongst others - so whilst David Cameron may hide behind the chimera of compassionate conservatism and falsely argue coalition disability policy cannot be challenged due to his own personal experience, such political cross-dressing is sadly transparent and needs exposing for what it is.

Is HS2 really 
a done deal?

From: Paul Dainton, Altofts Lodge Drive, Altofts, Wakefield.

FURTHER to your article (The Yorkshire Post, October 14) about the plans for an ambitious city transformation in Leeds, I was bemused by the assumption contained within the plans that a new HS2 station is a done deal.

Are we to understand that whilst political leaders of all parties and their MPs are telling us that plans for HS2 are still at a consultation stage, Leeds City Council have been told that no matter what the consultation process reveals or what the general public feels about HS2, in truth is HS2 is “a done deal” and will go ahead no matter what?

If this is the case and the article is correct, why have the Government spent millions of pounds on a consultation exercise which is nothing more than a sop to the 85 per cent of the population who are opposed to the scheme,?

Have our MPs simply been lying to us in order to keep the peace before next year’s general election and then pronounce that the scheme will go ahead, no matter what the cost we the taxpayers will be expected to pay?

Will our Yorkshire MPs finally tell us the truth? At the moment, they consistently refuse to answer any questions regarding the “proposed” scheme.

Dig at miners
not deserved

From: Derek Dawson, Ryhill, Wakefield.

IN reply to William Snowden’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, October 11), he says: “Labour bought off the miners with a 35 per cent pay rise.”

Does he not think that the miners deserved a living wage for a dirty, dangerous job? After all before Arthur Scargill they were usually “awarded” a few pence per day until they fell down the wages league table. When mines such as the Royston Drift Mine, Barnsley (where I ended 25 years in the industry) were breaking world records in production, should they not have a share in that prosperity?

The Sun was calling the miners the salt of the earth. They soon changed that didn’t they? I wonder how much pay it would take to get such as Mr Snowden to work down a mine?