Parole boards should think of public views

WE now learn we are to have Baby P’s mother released back into the community on parole (Yorkshire Post, October 9). It cannot be too long before we are treated to seeing little Hamzah’s mum popping into the off licence.

Do not the people who sit on the Parole Board have any remote idea of just how the general public feel about such issues? I strongly doubt it.

If, after all, the standard of supervision these people are placed under is anything like that which is supposed to prevent such things happening, then heaven help us all.

It really is time something was done where those faceless and nameless people should be forced to take into account the views of others, and what about the poor children who have so sadly lost their lives?

Give politicians the red card

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

DAVID M Adams (Yorkshire Post, October 8) is quite right in his criticism of BBC’s Question Time. But if each of the panellists was assured he would get his turn to hold forth without risk of being drowned out or interrupted this would lead to stodginess and pomposity, even to the danger of challenging the viewers’ fragile attention span.

The chairman David Dimbleby (whose name alone ensures an awed reverence) should allow a hint of slapstick and also insist on one or two simple rules.

To this end he should be equipped with two cards, coloured respectively yellow and red. Panellists, particularly those of the fairer sex, should take note, as the chairman’s decision would of course be utterly beyond challenge.

Let down by welfare state

From: R Smithson, Ennerdale Avenue, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

MY son, aged 48, returned home after 13 years in the USA where his wife worked. Following a divorce, then redundancy, he returned to his place of origin – Yorkshire.

Applying for rental support and Jobseeker’s Allowance he was declined, the reason being “he is classed as a habitual resident” yet he only returned once for our 50th anniversary.

My wife and I are both 80, and on a modest pension, but are having to allow him to sleep on our settee – and feed him.

So much for the welfare state – our Government treats immigrants more favourably than indigenous, UK-born residents.

Benefits of fracking

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

THE USA has adopted fracking in a big way, resulting in the average American being £750 a year better off due to lower energy prices and manufacturing costs. No protests apparently from “warmists” against this steep rise in the burning of non-renewable fossil fuels, not even from Senator Al Gore. Perhaps the planet is not doomed after all.

Meanwhile, over here we are stuck with the ever-growing costs of our thousands of ludicrous windmills, at least until their blades start dropping off.

No £750 bonuses for us, just the prospect of blackouts and the realisation, rather late in the day, that at some point we have been sadly misled.

Safety is all of our concern

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

A FEW years ago, I vowed never to write about or discuss the many issues surrounding road safety.

Mention the word “speeding” and fanatics crawl out of the undergrowth and rant about “speed freaks”, “boy racers” and “petrolheads” to such an extent that the actual facts about “speeding” and road accidents are made to seem almost irrelevant.

I decided that it was no longer possible to have an adult discussion on the subject and went on to simpler subjects like the economy.

However, I have been roused from my slumbers by the recent letter from Allan Ramsay (Yorkshire Post, October 9) which, apart from being convoluted (getting from breast cancer to speed freaks in one letter takes some doing !) was also biased against motorists so unfairly that it began to read like an extract from Animal Farm – instead of “two legs bad, four legs good” it transmuted into “two feet good, four wheels bad” – a hideous and unwarranted slur on the millions of good careful drivers on the road.

Surely the secret of road safety is not to demonise particular groups of road users, but for all of us – without exception – to use the roads with forethought, care and consideration?

We don’t really need speed limits, so-called “safety cameras” or even as many traffic police. We don’t need more and more regulation. Whatever kind of road users we are, it’s skill, awareness and sheer commonsense which will keep us – and those around us – safe. And that applies as much to pedestrians and cyclists as it does to motorists. To children as well as adults.

Two feet must try just as hard as four wheels, whatever size shoes they happen to be wearing. No-one is exempt.

Common goal

From: Gordon Bray, Grange Road, Golcar, Huddersfield.

QUESTION: What do David Cameron and Alex Salmond have in common?

Answer: Both are hell bent on getting their name into the history books.

Alex Salmond with obtaining Scottish independence and David Cameron by building the high speed rail link, neither of which will be of much use to the general population of the UK.