Tilting at windmills

Is it the power of the Press or just coincidence?

Since you published my letter regarding litter and the Big Society (Yorkshire Post, March 28) last week, lo and behold, a brand new litter bin has appeared alongside the Wetherby to Walshford footway at Kirk Deighton.

Nothing in it yet, and I still filled my sack but hey, it’s a start. On the downside, four sacks of general domestic waste and 15 sacks of wallpaper strippings have been dumped on the footway in the same time.

Am I wasting my time? Should I change my nickname from “Uncle Bulgaria” to “Don Quixote?”

Crimes and punishment

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

WHAT is wrong with our local magistrates these days when it comes to sentencing for serious crimes?

The Catholic priest who drove when more than three times the drink-drive limit was electronically tagged and given a curfew when he really deserved a short custodial sentence.

Driving with no insurance should carry a fine of at least the cost of insuring the vehicle and never be given “no separate” penalty, as happens in Bradford Magistrates Court.

The public rely on our Justices of the Peace to keep the peace by firm and sensible sentencing that properly punishes those who break the law.

More equal than others...

From: John Tranmer, Duchy Avenue, Harrogate.

On the Today radio programme on Tuesday, the social mobility tsar, Alan Milburn, gave a commitment to “equalise (sic) life chances”. May I be permitted, please, to become a banker, fail miserably and receive a multi-million pound pay-off?