Syria’s bitter divide brings bloodshed

GREAT piece from Bill Carmichael on Syria (Yorkshire Post, August 23). It should be compulsory reading for all our politicians, it might stop some of the nonsense emanating from Whitehall. It is certainly not our fault. I particularly agreed with his final paragraph regarding the vulnerable position of Israel.

As most modern conflicts have been sorted out round the table and some were very bitter indeed, it would seem to be the only way the Shia/Sunni dispute can ever be resolved as neither side can “win”, only by annihilating the other. These are the very people who would spread the conflict worldwide given the chance.

Thanks Bill, fancy the job of Foreign Minister?

From: Peter Neil Taylor, Magnolia Close, Driffield, East Yorkshire.

HOW many more hundreds of people must lose their lives before the situation in Syria is brought to an end?

The countries making up the UN membership seem to be totally incapable of dealing with the problem. With Russia and China taking up with President Assad on most matters and in particular with regard to objecting to the UN proposal to allow UN inspectors to enter Syria in order to investigate the possibility that chemical weapons have been used in Damascus.

Could it be that the veto applied to such proposals by Russia and supported by China is down to the fact that Russia has President Assad’s permission to access one of the Syrian ports which is of course situated at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea?

Less talk and more action by the UN powers seems to be required in order to sort out the problems created between the so-called rebels and the Assad governmental forces.

Success story of the show

From: Mrs N Hey, Priory Walk, Mirfield, West Yorkshire.

I WANT to clarify a point about the Mirfield Show (Yorkshire Post Magazine, August 10). It was restarted in 1995 by a very small group with no funds, but who wanted to organise an event for the whole family.

We were not a group of 60-70 year-olds, as quoted, most of us are only in our 70s now and some who were on the original committee are only 50 at this present time. Most of these people were parents and a few had grandchildren so I feel they probably had a good idea of what children enjoyed doing. Everyone was a local person and most were also in business within the local area.

The first few years were very hard work with the committee doing all the manual work in preparation over the weekend until more people began getting involved.

Right from the first year, it was a success with a profit being made to begin the “wet weather” pot that still exists to this day.

We have always had the competitive classes that still go ahead today for young and older alike as well as children’s entertainment to encourage local families as well as families from further afield to come and have an enjoyable day out.

Selection
and rejection

From: Rachel Maister, Priest Lane, Ripon.

I WOULD agree with David Wright in his letter (Yorkshire Post, August 22) that control over education by politicians should be limited, but the return to selection for grammar school would be a retrograde step.

The selection process for grammar school immediately rejects many pupils with engineering and artistic ability because the skills required in these subjects, ie the ability to see how things would look in different orientations, often causes reading and spelling problems.

This is because of the interference of reversed images from the non-dominant side of the brain.

Wales moved to comprehension in the 1960s and I remember a former grammar school headmaster thinking that comprehension was just putting the two schools together. He changed his mind when a boy from the former secondary modern school turned out to have an IQ of 140 and this was coupled with severe dyslexia.

Comprehensive education enables the pupil to advance to a high level in one subject even if very weak in another.

Silly season for politicians

From: David Collins, Lower Common Lane, Scissett, West Yorkshire.

OUR politicians seem to have really taken to the silly season.

Eric Pickles thinks we should ignore yellow lines when it 
suits some for business reasons. Why were they painted in the 
first place?

George Osborne thinks that staying home to raise children is a “lifestyle choice” but going out to work by both parents is not and is therefore worthy of funding.

Theresa May thinks that the police are solely involved in the holding of Guardian associates at an airport. Who do you think believes this? It is either the Home office or the security services.

Now Nick Clegg tells us that an official went to the Guardian to watch a hard drive being destroyed. How idiotic. Information is not held in one place in the 21st century. You might as well have printed it all out and then shredded it for the use it was. How out of date can you be?

David Cameron – I know it is the school holidays but you really shouldn’t leave the children at home alone, unsupervised.

Or maybe it is the scriptwriters who are on holiday.

It occurs to me that 
government is the only place where the CEOs of major businesses (ie Government departments, including the largest employer in the country – the NHS) are new recruits with 
no experience or knowledge of the job. No wonder these situations occur.