MacShane 
gets his just 
deserts

I WAS relieved, as I’m sure were many others, to find that The Yorkshire Post Editorial put the proper perspective on the pathetic bleatings of Denis MacShane about his prison experience (The Yorkshire Post, August 4). We are spared the task of indignantly writing in.

Just one thing amused me though, and that was his account of the prison cuisine. It sounded so like the kind of fare we were dished up as raw recruits for National Service in the early 1950s – only we hadn’t done anything wrong!

From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills, Keighley.

FOLLOWING the outburst from shamed MP Denis MacShane about his treatment while incarcerated for fiddling our money, it all goes to show what a wimp he is. Prison is the ultimate punishment for offenders.

From: Rhys Thomas, Leyburn.

SHOULDN’T proceeds from Denis MacShane’s prison diaries go to the Prison Service towards the cost of his upkeep? He shouldn’t be allowed to profit from his time behind bars.

Put an end to
Blair’s fiction

From: Jack Brown, Lamb Lane, Monk Bretton, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

THE “international community” – a fiction coined by Tony Blair – seeks authority in the Gaza conflict. “Community” was the latest English, educational panacea in the 1970s. I tired of attending seminars and weekend conferences where ephemeral specialists sought to impose the definition from which they made (not earned) a living.

There are those of us who are nostalgic for the Empire to which they travelled and who still feel “Commonwealth”. But how many of the teeming millions of every nation perceive they belong to anything other than their own village, town or region?

There is no such thing as the international community. The nearest thing is the United Nations. Let’s have an end to the pretence that deceived us into Iraq.

End of chapter
for our library

From: DS Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds.

THE library service in Leeds is very good. Like everything else, nothing stays the same, so the opening hours of certain branches need changing, but isn’t that better than them closing altogether?

People in our area lost their much loved little Broad Lane library.

But the comments from Leeds West (Labour) MP Rachel Reeves are so typical of that genre. When Broad Lane was under threat by decision of the controlling Labour Group on Leeds City Council, no objection. As soon as others need their hours changing, it’s the nasty coalition Government’s cuts.

Devolution’s
lesson for North

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

“ONE North” is a new consortium of major cities across the North who want to create an economic powerhouse (The Yorkshire Post, August 5).

Chancellor George Osborne says he backs the initiative. He wants the North to “fizz” with intellectual vigour.

He also speaks about the increased powers that will be devolved from Westminster to Edinburgh if Scotland votes to remain in the UK next 
month.

There is a lesson here from Scotland for the North, which is that the North needs its own devolved parliament in Leeds if it is to compete economically.

The spirit of 
the Games

From: WT Chinn, Escrick, York.

REGARDING the Commonwealth Games, I was rooted to both the cycling road races and congratulate all the competitors riding under appalling conditions. I was impressed the selflessness of Emma Pooley in her last race.

Otley’s Lizzie Armitstead (The Yorkshire Post, August 4) was a deserved winner, but what a missed opportunity to reinforce the “spirit of the Games”. I would have loved to see her take a tired Emma Pooley under her wing and help her home, even assist her over the line first. A recognition of the team spirit shown by Emma and gratitude for her devotion to the sport.

How English it would/could have been. “It matters not if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”. Old Fashioned? Probably.

Keeping their
memories alive

From: Malcolm Barker, Slingsby Walk, Harrogate.

I VERY much admired Jayne Dawson’s article (The Yorkshire Post Magazine, August 2). It was beautifully written and demonstrated how men from a workaday background went to war, showing courage, resilience and ultimately being sacrificed. I thought it as good a piece as any I have read about the Great War and I have read a lot.

It is not easy to decide which of the two men suffered the worse fate, Leonard who disappeared at Arras or James, who survived only to endure 24 years of pain and discomfort with his pre-war good years a mere memory.

Jayne did a great job in plucking them from anonymity.