Thursday's Letters: Contrasting views over benefits of the monarchy

Oaths of allegiance in the UK are made to the Crown, because the monarchy is something which unites us all.

But Queen Elizabeth is more than this. Britain gave up our empire during her lifetime, and the Commonwealth took its place. As well as being the titular head of state of some Commonwealth countries, the Queen is Head of the Commonwealth. As such she and her family have worked tirelessly to keep it together, despite the many striking differences in culture between Commonwealth countries. It is largely because of this that the UK has retained much of its influence over world affairs long after the demise of our position as a great military and naval world power. Clearly this must have some benefit to us in terms of trade and industry.

The monarchy may seem to be a bit of an anachronism, but don't knock it. Without it we could all be a lot poorer – in real financial terms.

From: Paul Andrews, Great Habton, York.

From: Tim Brett, Kings Way, Welton, Lincolnshire.

I WRITE in response to Maureen Hunt (Yorkshire Post, July 20) in which she tells us what a wonderful job the Queen does and how hard she works.

However, the Queen and her family have never done a day's work in their lives and certainly don't rely on public transport for their

expeditions to red carpet functions, preferring instead to go

everywhere by huge cars, special train (first class, of course) and not forgetting that a small fleet of aircraft are at their disposal which is very handy for some members of her family to swan off to a distant golf course.

The Queen has never had to exist on a wage and everywhere she goes has been painted and specially prepared for the visit, plus she has an army of servants to see that she never has to even open a door.

I agree with the previous correspondent (Yorkshire Post, July 12) who said that he or indeed anyone could do the job and, like it or not, the reason there is high security around the G20 and G8 summits is that the politicians work and make decisions which have global implications, which is a far cry from pulling a cord to unveil a plaque.

'Green plugs' – or a white elephant?

From: Michael J Day, Rochdale Road, Greetland, Halifax.

I READ with great interest (Yorkshire Post, July 20) that Wakefield Council is trialling some "green plugs" in 70 council houses to assess the energy savings. I am intrigued to know how these work as in my book if you need 3kW of heat for your house, you need 3kW of energy to produce it and the only factor that can be varied (accepting the efficiency of the device is a constant) is the power factor.

So is this device some kind of power factor correction? Because if it is, it will not be very effective in the main household energy consuming devices, which because of their mainly resistive nature already have good power factors. Without getting too technical, the power factor is a measure by which the load distorts the electrical power supplying it, which results in losses.

The other thing I don't quite understand is that the mathematics of electricity are well understood and the variables can be measured

very accurately, so why do you need a trial?

Either the device is based on sound engineering principles, which can be quantified, or rather than being a "green plug" maybe it's a white elephant. I think the public would be a little concerned if when we built a power station the output was determined by a trial on

completion.

It would be nice if the gentleman who arranged this at Wakefield council could enlighten us on these facts, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Referendum on the burka

From: AB Collier, Burlington Court, Gordon Road, Bridlington.

HOW can Immigration Minister Damian Green go against what I would guess a large majority of the population would vote for – the banning of wearing the burka and niqab in public places? Let's have a referendum and ignore the human rights cronies.

He states that it would be un-British to impose a ban. It's the wearing of either that is un-British. Personally, I find them intimidating. France and Belgium and possibly Spain have voted for a ban.

The removal of crash helmets is required in many places. Why? To be recognisable. The burka and niqab cover more than a crash helmet. So where is the logic?

If a female visits an Arab country, she must cover her legs and shoulders. If a non-Muslim enters a mosque, they must remove their footwear. If a male wishes to visit the "Wailing Wall" in Jerusalem, he must wear a skull cap. When in Rome.

By not imposing a ban, Muslim women will prefer these shores where they can wear what they like. I sincerely hope MP Philip Hollobone is successful with his Private Member's bill.

A theatre to be proud of

From: John H Langley, Rosewood Close, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

RECENTLY, I had the opportunity to make a social visit to Scarborough and take a look at the new open air theatre in the resort. The new theatre is very impressive and is now a credit to Scarborough.

Several years ago, when the theatre had fallen into a dreadful state and had not seen a show for many years, I produced a video, including interviews with a number of people who were involved with the theatre from 1932 to 1968, including the musical director Leslie Sturdy.

I feel sure that today these people would be delighted at the finished result. It was also interesting to learn that people can visit, free of charge, to watch special events on the big screen.

Congratulations to the Tourism Department of Scarborough Borough Council.

The missing volunteers

From: Julia Marshall, Oulton, Leeds.

THERE is a lot of public discussion about the proposed policy of Prime Minister David Cameron to use volunteers to a greater extent (Yorkshire Post, July 19). I am a volunteer, taking no wage at all, with three organisations.

All three are desperate for new recruits, they are mainly peopled now by people in their fifties and over the age of 60, as well as a few younger ones who are very much in the minority.

As I go from one group to another, I meet the same faces, the same people volunteering in different fields, all getting older. All organisations are working to the limit on manpower, not to mention the financial stress due to the current situation. There isn't the spare capacity in the voluntary sector to take on much more.

Lack of investment the cause of East Coast rail woes

From: JW Smith, Sutton-on-Sea.

I FIND it difficult to understand the repeated emphasis, both in Comment and the article by Tom Palmer (Yorkshire Post, July 15), on the East Coast railway line being the only one being run by the Department of Transport. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with the problem.

This is a high density line but with severe bottlenecks in some places. Between Peterborough and King's Cross there are commuter services which normally run on separate lines but a bottleneck at Welwyn Garden City, where there is only one line in each direction, means that the four East Coast trains per hour have to share these lines with trains from Hull, King's Lynn and Cambridge as well as the commuter services.

There are frequent reports of signal cable thefts and wherever these take place 100 per cent of the services throughout the area are

affected and these delays cannot be made up.

Finally, to cite the 45-mile long train commuter line between London, Tilbury and Southend as an example is ludicrous. There is absolutely no comparison between them. The nearest service to compare is the West Coast, but this has benefited from massive investment and improvements, including new trains whereas the East Coast has received very little and many of its trains are about 30 years old.

Incidentally, the new Con-Dem Government has indicated it intends to

continue this practice when deciding the route of the new high speed line.

On a general note regarding continental trains, the basic reason is down to continued investment, starting as soon as possible after the Second World War and continuing even following government changes, because they realised they were building for the future.

Following the example set by the Germans with the autobahns, new lines were built more or less in straight lines and any objections were

simply ignored.

Contrast that with this country where, until the change in 1997, the railway had been subsidised but there was no investment. At least as a result of that change we still have railways to complain about.

Let coalition get on with the job

From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.

IT really is time to stop the constant moaning by those who complain about the recent political marriage of David Cameron and Nick Clegg, who are making every effort to bring this country back to some reasonable state.

After all, it is not the alliance that has got us all into this financial mess – as many seem to have conveniently forgotten. It was Gordon Brown and his incompetent cronies.

We should be backing Cameron and Clegg all the way and if cuts have to be made, then so be it.

It does prove one thing for sure: we should never have accumulated all the debt in the first instance. I say let the coalition get on with it.

Turning point for Bradford

From: Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

HOW inspiring it was to read the latest Bradford Council Community Pride newsletter headed "Building a Better Bradford".

There's the massive new distribution centre for Marks and Spencer all set for business, a new hotel together with headquarters for Provident Financial due to open in the city centre and other projects to enhance the city centre experience taking place, as well as the fine

restoration of Robert's Park in Saltaire.

All these things point towards what may be a turning point in the fortunes of Bradford.

Cat's tale

From: Alan Staniland, Drakehouse Lane, Beighton, Sheffield.

I HAD a little chuckle to myself regarding the article relating to the ashes of the Coronation Street cat being up for sale (Yorkshire Post, July 16). My mother never missed a programme and after watching it for about three years back in the 1960s, she said: "Isn't it incredible how they get that cat to come on at the start of every episode?" It still brings a smile to my face.

Hard to swallow

From: D Linley, Westfield Lane, South Milford, Leeds, West Yorkshire.

NORMALLY, when people are tightening strings, they start at home. Why does the Government subsidise their own in-house meals? Why should we keep the MPs going with cut-price food?