Romanticised portrait of Ukip donor

I WAS dismayed by Pat Ward’s eulogy on Paul Sykes as well as your highly romanticised picture of the Yorkshire multi-millionaire (The Yorkshire Post, October 2). Since the Conservative Party had the integrity not to reciprocate his support, he has taken away his bat and ball to play with Ukip. If, as your correspondent asserts, Mr Sykes “proudly believes in preserving the traditions, values, stability and prosperity of this country”, he might have started with his native Barnsley, instead of paying council tax in prosperous North Yorkshire.

From: Les Arnott, Athelstan Road, Sheffield.

I HAD decided to give the Ukip conference a miss this year, but what with Douglas Carswell’s honourable defection and the prospects of a Ukip success in Clacton, I changed my mind.

I have twice before been to conferences and they smacked of a small party trying to punch way above its weight. No longer.

Something very professional has happened and so many questions were answered. It was inspirational as talented speaker followed talented speaker – each capturing the public mood and their varied concerns. The single issue party? Well, that was blasted out of the water.

Racist? The party conference where there was a small but significant number of non-white faces.

Ukip is going to become a very big player – the question is simply, how soon?

Media missed the joke

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I CAN’T believe the Yorkshire media reaction to David Cameron saying that his friend, William Hague, was “the greatest living Yorkshireman” (The Yorkshire Post, October 2).

Everyone in the conference hall, including Mr Hague himself, took it as a joke and a recognition of the friendship between the two men and the sterling work Mr Hague has done as our Foreign Secretary. Pity the media (and the sainted Geoff Boycott) can’t do the same!

From: Ruth Pickles, Hutton Road, Hutton Cranswick, Driffield.

CONTINUING the debate about the greatest living Yorkshireman, if we refer to the Oxford dictionary, we find the definition of ‘greatest’ to be ‘an extremely remarkable person’. Whilst I have no one in particular in mind, I do find Geoffrey Boycott’s assertion that the accolade should be given to himself rather pretentious. Surely any nomination should come from other people.

Limit access to alcohol

From: Ian Bolton, Knightsbridge Walk, Bradford.

MINIMUM pricing for alcohol will not save lives. It is access to drink which will save lives. Bring back licensing hours for all establishments selling alcohol particularly supermarkets and off-licences which sell 24/7.

Allow alcohol to be sold between the hours of 11am and 11pm Monday to Saturday and pubs only on Sundays between 11am and 3pm. and then 7pm and 10.30pm. Added to that, no alcohol to be sold on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day. I would increase the fines for drink-related driving offences to cars being confiscated and the offender having to retake his/her test.

Small wonder over strike

From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

SMALL wonder that our midwives are to go on strike. We are all in this together. Our revered Members of Parliament do not have to worry about their salaries, their cronies take care of that for them. Midwives are nothing like so precious, so way down the pecking order. Truly a case of, for those that hath plenty, ‘here is more’. For those that hath little, ‘tough’!

A matter of priorities

From: Jonathan Bishop, Pontypridd.

CAN I ask why the police took nearly a year having Peter Nunn convicted for trolling feminists (The Yorkshire Post Post, October 1), yet they can’t find time to prosecute the 25,000 paedophiles perpetuating organised child abuse online?

The technologies and experts used to collect and present computer forensics for both is the same. And the laws used to prosecute online sex predators are often the same used to prosecute trolls. Are the authorities seriously saying that cry-baby feminists are a higher priority than the protection of children?

Elephant in the room

From: John Fisher, Menwith Hill, Harrogate.

LISTENING to a recent interview, I heard the Prime Minister saying how losing Scotland would have broken his heart and, at the same time, damaged the UK.

He went on to denounce the use of ID cards as a threat to the British people. What was never mentioned during the interview was the elephant in the room: immigration. Without ID cards or a similar means of identity it will be almost impossible to identify who is here legally and who has legal access to our generous health and social services.