October 1: Libya collapse opened the floodgates

THE migrant / refugee crisis in Europe is a direct result of David Cameron and France’s unlawful intervention in Libya.

Gaddafi’s regime kept Libya from being a staging post, his removal literally opened the floodgates for mass exodus to Europe. This will eventually result in the Islamisation of great swathes of the EU.

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

IT’S all very well arguing that the manifestly able and intelligent young people who are seeking a better life in Europe should be staying at home to get their own country back on its feet, but whoever we are we only have one life on this earth. After all, it may be too late for them and their children when peace finally breaks out in their homelands.

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

IF America was infuriated when Britain voted against bombing IS targets (The Yorkshire Post, September 22), I wouldn’t have liked to be a fly on the wall when Harold Wilson refused to join their Vietnam venture... After Korea, it was once bitten, twice shy.

From: Ian Oglesby, Stamford Bridge, York.

IT is easy to find true population density figures for the countries of mainland Europe. It is more difficult to understand their acceptance of government, by an unelected permanent elite, so corrupt and wasteful of taxpayers’ funds, that it dares not to produce audited accounts.

In the likely event of a UK exit referendum result, politicians and others who find living with a restored Westminster, elected government so abhorrent can relocate across the English Channel where France, for example, has four times fewer people to the square mile than in this country.

Failure of privatised rail

From: Malcolm Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

AFTER 20 years of increased fares and double the subsidies paid to British Rail, the promised land of privatisation continues to deliver services well behind those of mainland Europe and at twice the cost. It isn’t hard to see why the Corbyn plan to take the railways back into some form of public ownership is becoming increasingly appealing, right across the political spectrum (The Yorkshire Post, September 28).

We visit France and Germany and find buses, trains, trams and tubes, properly integrated, very attractive and very affordable. How do they achieve, something which has eluded us for decades and continues to do so?

Perhaps they recognise that the real value of a public service is something more complex than total deference to an endless succession of bottom lines.

Perhaps they realise that delivery of these vital services requires something more cerebral than constant bleats of “competition” and little else.

Fears at loss of an industry

From: Mr E Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe.

I AM sure that all readers will join me in expressing concern that steel making at the SSI plant at Redcar on Teeside is to be mothballed (The Yorkshire Post, September 29).

For 160 years steel making has operated on Teesside and the loss of the industry would be the final blow to an area that has already suffered losing the other parts of its manufacturing base.

All of us who care for the wellbeing and future prospects of the workers at the plant will be watching for a successful outcome to any talks to rescue one of Britain’s last major manufacturing industries with a worldwide reputation for excellence, the Sydney Harbour Bridge being one such example.

Fighting flooding

From: John Goodman, Cottingham Flood Action Group, Grove Close, Beverley.

CONGRATULAIONS to the Ryedale Flood Research group (FLRG) and Durham University in working together to produce the Pickering Flood Defence Scheme (The Yorkshire Post, September 15).

The main design follows very similar proposals made by the Cottingham Flood Action Group (CFAG) for schemes in the Haltemprice area.

Regretfully CFAG did not have any back-up from local educational and political groups.

Once again congratulations to FLRG, but I wonder if anyone in the Environment Agency has been reprimanded for failing to produce a worthwhile scheme above Pickering and also for the deplorable state of River Hull drainage infrastructure.

Chinese whispers

From: S Skaff, Church Avenue, North Ferriby, East Yorkshire.

RE your article “Pupils take lessons in Mandarin”. It is absolutely right to teach children a language from the tender age of four to five years. But Chinese? Britain is in Europe, do we expect our children and grandchildren to communicate with the rest of Europe in Mandarin?

French, German and Spanish please.