Rise in alcohol price will not deter young

IT is interesting that the present debate on alcohol abuse, particularly by young people, has prompted a call for the price of alcohol to be increased and that by doing so, it will somehow work the oracle and reduce consumption.

Recently a friend of mine almost suffered a severe case of apoplexy, when his son informed him that he was spending a long weekend away with his mates to check out the pubs in a well known resort on the west coast of England and asked if the £700 cash he was taking would be sufficient spending money.

I would suggest that any increase in the price of alcohol would not deter this set of lads, but it may effect the amount my good lady and I consume, as we try and erase the wholly bad news that the BBC seem to serve up from all four corners of the earth in the mid evening news bulletin.

As the debate rages on, I have yet to hear anyone suggest that the main reason for the increase in consumption, particularly by young people, maybe, just maybe, was due entirely to the legislation introduced in 2003 allowing public houses and other licensed premises to open for up to 24 hours a day.

Housing problems

From: C Metcalf, Sherburn in Elmet, Leeds.

YOUR article concerning 2,000 more houses for north east Leeds (Yorkshire Post, May 26) made very interesting reading, especially the comments made by Coun Rachel Porter (Con, Harewood).

Out here, only 15 miles east, we have the same scenario. At the present time three developers have applied for planning permission for approximately 700 new properties, in addition to about a couple of hundred built by two of them over the past three years or so.

These proposals would remove a considerable area of productive farm land which, once covered with housing, can never be returned to its former condition.

There are issues about the number of parking spaces, the density of the houses, the effect on the infrastructure and the quality of life for existing villagers over the seven to 10 years it will take to complete these works.

I am led to understand that improvements to the infrastructure may be undertaken later in the project rather than the outset, so in the meantime there will be demands on the present road system which has insufficient capacity to cope with such a development.

This number of properties is likely to add more than 2,000 more people to the village, an increase of about 30 per cent, and from past experience it is inevitable that more people mean more problems.

Senior moments

From: Fred Bishop, Bridge Street, Lower Moor, Worcestershire.

BEING 72 years old, I talk to a lot of the older generation. The most consistent comment that I hear when discussing our country is “Thank God I am 70 years old, I don’t want to be around to see it”. I am sure that lots of seniors will have had the same experience.

We are saying that we want to die rather than face a future that we allowed our politicians to sell for 30 pieces of silver.

We should not be proud of ourselves because we are the generation that allowed the gradual disintegration of our country by standing idle while governments deliberately dismantled our constitution and national values.

The process was gradual and it is only now that we are starting to appreciate that we are sliding into dictatorship.

People saw it happening in the 1930s and did nothing and those with a stake in the future of our country had better wake up as quickly as possible.

They will have to miss out a generation and take example from their grandparents who fought for a future that we have squandered.

Monopoly of power

From: Bob Holland, Skipton Road, Cononley.

AS supporters of free markets and competition, Conservative Ministers like Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove might have been concerned that the Murdoch empire uses monopoly power to make money (Yorkshire Post, June 1).

By buying monopoly rights to show live Premier League Football worldwide on TV, they make billions.

They sought in their BSkyB bid to increase the huge share of media in UK than they own already.

Yet James Murdoch was “furious” that Vince Cable referred the bid to the Competition Commission.

Hunt “could see no problem” with Murdoch gaining 100 per cent of BSkyB. Surely Murdoch and Conservative Ministers should campaign against monopolies – especially in the media whose control of information and comment is so critical in a democracy.

Or is monopoly all right for rich, powerful political allies but not for the rest?