Monday's letters:Iraq inquiry will not lead to punishment for the guilty

This inquiry, constituted by No 10, using hand-picked Establishment cronies will allow the key witness, Tony Blair, is to give "evidence" in secret. This is not for British security but for what he might reveal about the Israelis.

Blair was doing as he was told but is now a disposable worried patsy and his recent media bluster makes him a danger to exposing the truth.

So does anyone believe this inquiry will supply justice for the war crime that resulted in the deaths, injuries and suffering of thousands of people? There is not a chance in hell.

If this inquiry was conducted by a people's court, we might get at the truth.

But our society is not democratic but run for the benefit of those with the most capital regardless of the country they support.

From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton, North Yorkshire.

SIR John Scarlett now wants to distance himself from the words used by Tony Blair as the reason to go to war in Iraq (Yorkshire Post, December 8).

In other words, Tony Blair "sexed-up" John Scarlett's words in order to rush us into war.

Surely that is exactly what was said by Dr Kelly (obviously truthfully) before he tragically died, after being left out on a limb by politicians and the like.

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen, First Lane, Anlaby, Hull.

I WRITE in response to Bernard Dineen's excellent article (Yorkshire Post, December 28). He is absolutely right. There is a culture of "lies" which puts our troops at a distinct disadvantage, when people such as the Marsh Arab woman can lay false allegations against them, only to later admit her allegations had all been lies.

It is not just in the Armed Forces where this "culture" persists. In our schools, frequently teachers – especially young graduates – are often accused of improper behaviour by wised-up pupils, who know

all about the methods to employ and have often ruined the status and career prospects of many good, young teachers.

That is not to say that some teachers, and some soldiers have not abused those in their care; the worry is that when these cases come to court, it is often an expensive and wasteful ordeal, which costs the taxpayer a fortune.

From: Fred Smith, Knaresborough.

CAN anyone explain why we were in Iraq, and now Afghanistan, when al-Qaida has set up terror training camps in Yemen? As your comment (Yorkshire Post, December 29) says, our politicians are, once again, playing catch-up.

What are the intelligence services doing?

I despair. I suppose we will be invading Yemen by the end of 2010, if past form is anything to go by.

TV debate will not reflect democracy

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

THE TV companies, ITV, BBC and Sky, claim to serve the UK. So why have they not included Scotland's Alex Salmond to join the debate. Or are they fearful of the Scots?

May I suggest to fellow Scots throughout Britain, that they now cancel their subscription to Sky, hold back their BBC licence fee – until the broadcasters become democratic and let the public hear the truth from the political leaders on their views of devolution in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well as the other political issues that affect all of us.

Also, we hope that the questions put to Brown, Cameron and Clegg (and Salmond) will not be asked by biased presenters but will contain questions from us, the public, and not made privy to the contestants beforehand.

Otherwise the whole exercise is corruptible. And that is nothing new.

From: Andrew Bristow, Park Avenue, Hull.

I AGREE with your columnist Mark Stuart (Yorkshire Post, December 23). Andrew Neil would be the ideal host of the televised debates because he can ask probing questions – without becoming the dominant personality. It's probably why he has been overlooked.

From: Jenny Meyers, Rawdon, Leeds.

WITH regard to the TV debates during the election, who will be the audience? My fear is that all three programmes will be broadcast in London, at the expense of the rest of the country.

Given the absence of common sense in the political process, can I respectfully suggest that one of the programmes is filmed here in Yorkshire – with the studio made up of contributors to the Yorkshire Post letters pages?

We will be able to spot any waffling a mile off. And we will be able to ask the pertinent questions that need answering on the economy and Afghanistan war.

Scargill's mistakes

From: John Abbott, Newland Avenue, Hull.

HH Greaves's view of the 1984 miners' strike (Yorkshire Post, December 26) is a flat distortion of 1980s history. We will pass over the fact that Bernard Ingham was Baroness Thatcher's press secretary during the strike, and might be expected to have been well informed at the time, and ask whether Arthur Scargill really did lose the miners' strike.

Not being confident of gaining the required majority in a national strike ballot, Scargill called the miners out region by region.

Not, you would have thought, the ideal way to secure unity among those on strike, especially when two miners challenged this course through the courts and won, and nor were the scenes of open rioting on TV every night and the violence used on those who refused to strike calculated to win general public support.

No. Arthur Scargill tried to cause a politically motivated uproar like the 1974 miners' strike and failed. His ideological fanaticism blinded him tosuch irrelevances as common sense. It was his errors of judgment that made the strike fail, not the actions of NCB management or the Government.

Costs of postage

From: Michael Green, East Side Court, Roker Lane, Pudsey, Leeds.

SO, Royal Mail are to put up the price of first and second class stamps again, by 2p in each case (Yorkshire Post, December 23). But they are not putting up the charges for mail from businesses (ie metered mail), even though these are already much lower.

So after the increase, first class domestic will be 41p against business 36p and second class 32p against 25p.

The only difference in handling costs for Royal Mail used to be that they didn't have to postmark business mail. But nowadays they usually don't bother with that for domestic mail either, hence their worry about people fraudulently re-using stamps.

So can Royal Mail tell us why domestic mail is so much more expensive than business mail? Because at the moment it looks as though we private letter writers are subsidising business!

Disgraceful double standards over extradition case

From: Barrie Frost, Watson's Lane, Reighton, Filey.

CHINA has executed Briton Akmal Shaikh, who was found guilty of smuggling heroin into the country, ignoring pleas for clemency from the British Government on the grounds of Shaikh's mental illness of bipolar disorder (Yorkshire Post, December 30).

Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, condemned the execution "in the strongest terms"and said he was appalled and disappointed.

Does this mean he will not now be supporting the extradition of our own countryman, Gary McKinnon, to the US to face charges of hacking into the Pentagon's computer system and a possible long jail sentence as Gary McKinnon, too, is suffering from a mental illness of Asperger's syndrome?

Or will Gordon Brown, once again, display disgraceful double standards which bring shame on our once great country?

What sickening hypocrisy that Britain's Government appeals to China to grant clemency to Akmal Shaikh due to his mental illness yet seems perfectly comfortable in ignoring the mental illness of Gary McKinnon.

Is there any wonder Britain's views are no longer deemed worthy?

From: John Rookes, Bramley, Rotherham.

I COULD not agree more with John Watson's letter (Yorkshire Post, December 30) about China's rebuttal of this Government's pressure not to execute a drug smuggler.

The British Government has no right to interfere with another sovereign state's judicial system. Four kilos of heroin, how much death and suffering would that have caused?

Our brave armed forces being slaughtered out in the hellhole of Afghanistan are charged with the task of trying to stop heroin being smuggled to Britain and the rest of Europe, why then are this Government trying to save such individuals? .

I think China has done the right thing, and should tell this Government to keep its nose out of their affairs.

From: JG Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate.

ACCORDING to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the UK is "opposed to the use of the death penalty in all circumstances". Why then did we allow ourselves to be complicit in the handing over by our coalition partners in Iraq of prisoners (most notably former president Saddam Hussein) to be executed by their political opponents?

We had the clear option of saying: "If you do that we're going home, now". Are we being any more scrupulous in Afghanistan?

Government objections to the death sentence in China are an irrelevance. What matters is what we do, or fail to do, where we are participants.

Articulating our view of the BBC

From: Michael Dennis, Laverton, Ripon.

WHILE acting as guest editor of the Today programme, PD James made the comment early in the broadcast that people are less articulate now than in previous years.

Well, she had a prime example of that when she interviewed Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, who tried, but failed miserably, to justify the obscene salaries at the BBC.

He stuttered and fumbled his way through the interview while PD James

was engaging, incisive and articulate.

I was about to suggest that PD James should go for the DG's job herself, but perhaps she could skip that role and opt for the Prime Minister's job instead.

Charge of the lights brigade

From: Geraldine Mathieson, Dene Road, Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

I HAVE read much about global warming; we are regularly told to reduce our carbon (dioxide) footprint, but low energy lightbulbs and wind turbines will apparently save us all from rising sea levels.

Can anyone tell me how many wind turbines it takes to power the relatively new fashion for domestic outdoor Christmas lighting?

Chequed out

From: Ken Hartford, Butt Lane, Beverley.

TO lose the use of cheques would be like losing white and red telephone boxes. And as for losing NHS hospitals, my car, my old-fashioned television – all the joys and pleasures of my first 40 years –

it just makes this second 44 years a catalogue of catastrophes. Must these things be done?