Thursday's Letters: Our troops need prompt supply of the right equipment

In a radio interview last year, a Government Minister appeared to give the impression that the high ranking army personnel involved in the request for, and the supply of, equipments are at fault in being in too much of a hurry to get it to our troops, whether it is complete and serviceable, or not.

Information available appears to show this is not the case. Due to the arduous conditions and terrain, breakdowns are inevitable and, therefore, the Government should put all its energies into ensuring that the contracts for supply of not only the major items, but even more importantly spares and their urgent availability, are properly supervised.

At the time of writing, there have been six Merlin helicopters delivered to theatre and more helicopters to come by 2013. How late is that? And will there be equal spares support for them?

Many of our members in the West Yorkshire Branch of the REME Association have been in similar situations and REME have always been at the forefront of helicopter, vehicle, armament and telecommunication equipment maintenance, but they can only be effective if spares are readily available and not repairing old, outdated and inadequate gear.

From: William Hayles, vice chairman, West Yorkshire Branch REME Association, Fieldhead Road, Guiseley, Leeds.

Parents fail to pass on the correct values

From: Simon Gott, Stirling Road, Burley in Wharfedale, Ilkley.

OVER the last 10 years, I have seen a growing trend towards anti-social and criminal behaviour among certain sections of today's youth ("The Lawless Generation", Yorkshire Post, January 9).

I would suggest that the primary cause of this epidemic is the increasing tendency of parents – whether separated or together – failing to teach their children appropriate values.

If children are not taught what is and is not acceptable, then is it not surprising that they think only of themselves and "I want" becomes "I have the right to"?

Some parents think only of their own pleasure and self-gratification, looking upon their children as social status symbols, or inconvenient by-products of attempts to gain emotional fulfilment or more government handouts by becoming parents. Such children grow up and mature in an atmosphere of indiscipline, aggression and neglect. They test the boundaries with minor infractions and find no-one condemns their behaviour, so move on to more serious crimes.

One boy I know repeatedly drove around in untaxed cars, until the police caught him. He lives with his mother, who works in a responsible position and would therefore be presumed to have some professional aspirations and values. Yet one would assume she had no qualms about her son breaking the law. With such an example, is it surprising that some young people grow up thinking they can do what they like?

Child victims

From: Stuart Hannah, social worker and child and adolescent psychotherapist, Leeds.

THE reference to children in foster and residential care as part of your "Lawless Generation" package left me frustrated and motivated to respond.

The 60,000 or so "looked after" children and young people in England and Wales are stigmatised, misunderstood and multiply disadvantaged more than lawless.

Of course, many of them are very troubled and troublesome but often as a consequence of neglect, trauma and abuse rather than a desire to be wilfully "anti-social". The "looked after" children I see as a social worker and psychotherapist have all too frequently been let down by both their birth parents and by the woefully inadequate "care system".

Old problems

From: RC Curry, Adel Grange Close, Leeds.

THE contributors to your major articles on the subject of youth crime (Yorkshire Post, January 9) do not really come up with anything new. The subject goes around in much the same way as it has done for well over half a century, indeed longer.

There are two major problems.

One is that the greatest majority of young offenders have some form of troubled home background, and that has been the case for generations. That can vary from genuine hardship, through virtually no home at all, or "father unknown", to casual enforced interest by a parent, or just the modern trend in an otherwise normal family to let officialdom take charge of life, including school attendance and education.

It should not need a primary school to teach a child how to write its name.

That is a parental duty, as is discipline and so many other things which are left to the ubiquitous "they". Until a greater sense of responsibility is restored to people, and not taken over by the state, there will be little change in that factor.

The second also lies with politicians. They need to retreat. A large number of those elected have no idea about the workings of the law and order process.

If the inept politicians are willing to surrender power and the people are willing to accept responsibility, the country might just get somewhere; but with a nation which can not even pick up a shovel to clear a path through the snow to its own front doors, we have a long way to go.

Home truths

From: Joan M Scargill, Kilham, near Driffield, East Yorkshire.

REGARDING the "lawless generation", is it not about time that Mr Brown spent his 37,000,000 here in Britain rather than in Yemen?

He could spend it on things like setting up boot camps operated by old-style sergeant majors to knock the "lawless ones" into shape, and it could also help towards repairing the winter-ravaged roads in the East Riding and elsewhere, which are already breaking up and are full of pot-holes. But no. He prefers to spend the money in Yemen where they can develop more infrastructure.

Proud record

From: Irene V Davies, East Neville Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire.

AFTER the article on youth crime, has the time come to give the same amount of publicity to the hundreds of law-abiding young citizens? I believe it is time they were not all tarred with the same brush. You will find the "silent majority" of young people who can make us proud.

Family toll

From: John Bolton, Gregory Springs Mount, Mirfield.

IAIN Duncan Smith, in his piece (Yorkshire Post, January 11), focuses on "dysfunctional families" and resulting issues for society as a whole.

Based on my experiences over 50 or more years, as a father of four children, a serviceman, policeman and probation officer, I would like to say I wholeheartedly agree.

We seem to have been heading in the same "knee-jerk" direction for so long and have achieved so little where these important issues are concerned and at a tremendous cost, financially and otherwise.

Perhaps there has been a lack of cohesion between social and penal policy? We have tended to focus on benefits at the expense of the human aspects.

Unfortunately, Baby P and similar cases will continue to shock and disgrace us unless a social justice approach becomes a priority. In my interpretation, the "justice" element should be directed towards the victims of crime and brutality and to society generally.

Cane scrutiny

From: E Witt, Wrenbury Grove, Leeds.

NOW that youth crime is spiralling out of control, we should all be very grateful to those responsible for banning physical punishment of any form on the grounds that it is ineffective. Just imagine what our youngsters would be capable of if they had received a slap from their parents or the cane at school for misbehaviour.

Paying the price

From: Chris Roberts, Gibson Drive, Whitkirk, Leeds.

IN response to your excellent feature regarding the "lawless generation", ask anyone about their solution to the issues featured. The overwhelming majority would say more severe punishments and that when they are passed down, they are served in full. Why is it that everyone knows and says what should be done but when it comes down to it, the do gooders who plead "human rights" etc get their way?

Minister stays silent over food supplies and EU

From: Keith Johnston, Eaton Hill, Baslow, Derbyshire.

THERE seems to be a silent conspiracy among our politicians at Westminster not to mention the European Union, although most of our laws and regulations come from it these days. A good example is the article by Hilary Benn (Yorkshire Post, January 6) in which he puts forward a new strategy – Food 2030 – but makes no mention of the EU.

He is concerned about our food security in the next 20 years, a very important subject, but surely that is also a primary concern of the EU with its Common Agricultural Policy. The Food and Agriculture part of his department must spend most of its time applying the rules and regulations of CAP to our food and our farmers, and we read all too often of the costly problems that arise.

One of Mr Benn's other concerns, shared I am sure by most of us, is for millions of people in deprived countries of the world who are starving.

Here CAP is part of the problem, by subsidising exports of surplus food and applying import duties on food from deprived countries. Again, Mr Benn makes no mention of CAP.

So does he see any chance of the EU backing off? Probably not. But it would be interesting if he told us how it will impact on his new strategy.

Deluge of news from the BBC

From: R Darrell Hind, Merchant Way, Copmanthorpe, York.

NOW that the "thaw" has started, can we expect the BBC to go into hysterical overdrive about the possibility of flooding throughout the county and country? Some questions have occurred to me. Will it be necessary for everyone to build their own Ark? Will the BBC stimulate panic buying of sandbags? Will they introduce a "wader allowance" for all their news personnel? Finally I wonder if they will alow the excellent local presenters to cover the "potential flooding" stories or will they despatch the cast of thousands, at huge cost, from HQ in London? I rather suspect the latter.

From: John Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh.

IT has been most gratifying to see the resolute way in which the BBC and other media have used the Celsius temperature scale in covering the inclement weather to the exclusion of degrees Fahrenheit. As degrees Celsius are largely incomprehensible to many older people, their inability to understand them, and thus heed urgent weather warnings, can only lead to the rapid extinction of these dinosaurs and go to alleviating the pensions crisis.

Tory reality

From: Geoff Taylor, Somersby Street, Grimsby.

I AM sure your readers, like myself, are sick of reading unjust attacks on the Labour Party and Gordon Brown by the Tory media (Yorkshire Post, January 2).

It is obvious you want change at any cost, but think of the poor sufferers – the public. Go back and study past Tory governments – high interest rates, high inflation, even higher unemployment and higher mortgages. Do the people of Britain really want this again?

Young heroes

From: Dennis Young, Burton Court, Clifton, York.

HOW far down the queue for honours are young Tom Daley and navigator Mike Perham? It is about time a new honour such as Queen's Award for outstanding achievement be introduced for such young people.