Sad loss of the words of a great book

WHAT a pleasure it was to read Malcolm Barker’s column which refers to the Book of Common Prayer (Yorkshire Post, February 7).

I am just in my 70th year as a church chorister and feel able to add my comments to Malcolm’s.

Over the years, I have watched the Church of England slowly move away from this great book. Many times I have thought of making a stand, and this stand finally came when the Lord’s Prayer was vandalised by the Church. My stand took the form of no longer attending the Eucharist service which uses this new form of the prayer. I now sing at Evensong only.

My standard is set on this matter by watching people who rarely visit churches and soldiers on the front line.

Without exception, they can all recite the normal form of the Lord’s Prayer. The Church cannot hope to alter this situation but should be grateful that this so called Christian society of ours can still use and mean one prayer.

From: Margaret Claxton, Arden Court, Northallerton.

Malcolm Barker is so right in his article about the Book of Common Prayer. Those of us who were brought up to say and hear its beautiful language do miss it.

In our church, you have to get up early once a month to hear it in the Communion service and that is the only one. I feel sorry for the generations that will grow up not conversant with its beautiful language.

Deadly impact of ‘blind spots’

From: Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Main Street, Scotton, North Yorkshire.

I HAVE received many letters and emails from constituents telling me how they or their loved ones have been affected by accidents involving lorry drivers who are quite simply unaware of other road users because of “blind spots”.

The shocking statistics are that around 2,000 cyclists die on roads in the EU each year as a result of “blind spots”. This is an issue to which I have a particular interest, as a former transport spokesman, but also as a cycling enthusiast.

I am urging my fellow MEPs to sign a European Parliament Declaration which calls for a renewed debate on how to improve the safety of heavy goods vehicles. It aims to address the problem of “blind spots” with the use of new technology, such as sensors and cameras, which would be fitted to HGVs. I am confident that advances in such technology mean that the costs involved wouldn’t be prohibitive and I hope that such an initiative can get the support it deserves so that we can save lives.

Tradition and tribute

From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills.

WHEN David Cameron became Prime Minister last May, I welcomed him with open arms in the belief that after the many years of lies from Blair and Brown we had at last got a man of common sense and integrity at the helm.

But, on the day that the 350th soldier killed in Afghanistan was repatriated – Martin Bell of Bradford (Yorkshire Post, February 4) – we heard that the RAF base at Lyneham in Wiltshire is to be closed within a few months time denying the people of Wootton Bassett the honour and privilege of welcoming home our dead soldiers.

I thought that Mr Cameron had more compassion and human decency about him than that because unfortunately the sight of corteges passing through Wootton Bassett has become a tradition of this sad day and age.

Negative images

From: Kathleen Calvert, Paythorne, Clitheroe.

Your correspondent Kendal Wilson (Yorkshire Post, February 3) writes of the portrayal of working classes in the TV show Shameless which does nothing to rebuild broken working class heartlands where desperation is humming like a swarm of bees.

More damaging still are the traditional soaps like EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale that portray everyday life.

Trendy writers have changed the time-honoured values of the working class beyond recognition, replacing them with the worst examples of continual negative behaviour, leading to this becoming the normal and acceptable behaviour of many.

So is there any wonder the working class feel broken and desperate when they are portrayed as constantly negative, and where is the fantastic dry northern humour that brightened our day and held far more prominence than it does in today’s soaps?