Tuesday's Letters: Bradford emerges stronger and united

Having advocated a show of complete indifference to all incomers, I must compliment those citizens who went about their business normally as well as those who gathered on Infirmary Fields to show solidarity as citizens of the district.

The police did a fantastic job and I am confident that they will pursue those wreckers who attempted to wreak havoc and quickly bring them before the magistrates.

The district wide emergency planning teams, council officers and staff and especially Street Scene had returned the city to normality by early Sunday morning. Even the wild flowers in the urban garden were returning to life, cleansed by overnight showers. Led by the Dean the gathering at noon on Sunday then sealed the reclamation of the garden for Bradford's peaceful and harmonious enjoyment.

Proud to be a Bradfordian, I am especially thankful to the young Muslim men who, despite extreme provocation by the English Defence League and their continued demonisation since 2001, showed restraint and calm as they refused to react with violence. All credit to them, they won the day and the argument.

The catalyst to the peaceful campaign were the women of the city who used green ribbons to be worn by all with pride and which they used to designate a cordon sanitaire. Grateful thanks, ladies.

Well done Bradford, let us all now make sure that we consolidate this emerging strength and unity.

From: Coun Dale Smith, Wharfedale Ward, Bradford Council.

Contenders joined road to bankruptcy

From: Sarah Saunders, Harrogate Road, Leeds.

THE Institute for Fiscal Studies concluded that the biggest losers from the Budget measures announced by the Chancellor in June were low income households with children (Yorkshire Post, August 25).

This was followed by claims that the Government had not followed equality laws by consulting sufficiently widely on how its measures would affect ethnic minorities and such like.

Don't these people realise that this country is mired in debt, and the people to blame are the Labour leadership contenders who simply allowed Gordon Brown to virtually bankrupt Britain?

None of the five contenders have any credibility – and especially Ed Balls and Ed Miliband who worked so closely with Brown, and "held his hand" during his petulant final Downing Street sulk when he decided

to resign before the Tories and Lib Dems had had a chance to conclude their coalition talks.

Brothers' blunders

From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.

A WARNING for the future from Ed Miliband as to his delusional state of mind. He has called for the resignation of Nick Clegg before he will work a coalition deal with the Lib Dems.

Dear Ed, you haven't won the leadership race, and Labour are not in power. He says Nick's support for Tory cuts would make him hard to work with.

Ed, the coalition is like a motorcyclist and his pillion, riding down the rough road you, Brown and Co left.

If the rider leans into a bend and the pillion rider does not – crash is the result! To avoid the crash the pillion goes with the rider. He may not always agree with the rider's course, but he is in a position to shout into the rider's ear, metaphorically, his own ideas.

The result is compromise. A quality you have ably displayed you do not possess. Thanks for the warning.

As for your brother, David, Blair's warmonger understudy, don't get me started. He gleefully stated military action against Russia could not be ruled out. This over the incident Georgia initiated. He then desperately stated he could not rule out sending troops to Africa. Luckily his efforts were thwarted. Again, thanks for the warning.

Time for BBC to get smart

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.

THE Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson, enters our homes to deliver a lecture (Yorkshire Post, August 28). Surely he could have had the decency to wear a tie?

Or is slovenly tielessness the new uniform of the Corporation? It may seem so looking at the many top presenters and other minor chiefs who attended the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival, also in suits but no ties just as they now often appear on the TV? Did the latter pay their own expenses for the junket to the Scottish capital or was it another chunk out of the money paid by the taxpayers?

It is time the BBC gets real. The organisation is an employee of the people and should start giving good value for our cash, instead of constant repeats, foul language and poor entertainment from so-called comedians.

It should be given a Government shock and have the licence fee slashed. It could still manage by cutting the score of highly paid executives, presenters and "entertainers".

However, Mr Thompson should first smarten up himself, his organisation and his outlook towards the viewers and listeners or pack up his suit and go.

The signs of excess

From: ME Wright, Grove Road, Harrogate.

THOUGH your Editorial begs to differ (Yorkshire Post, August 27), Eric Pickles' and Philip Hammond's pleas for a reduction in street clutter are surely long overdue.

We need only one red light to tell us to stop at a pelican crossing; Harrogate Council provides a minimum of three, one less than two metres beyond the other. By their reckoning, a simple T-junction needs five poles carrying seven lanterns to control it – all this and others, installed and maintained from council tax and a source of bewilderment to the unfamiliar driver.

A pleasant Victorian terrace, about 100 metres long, has 15 unsightly, galvanised "parking" poles – plus lamp posts. Three of them have never had a sign attached. Are they perhaps just unpainted, unlovely and useless monuments to a culture which sees the sticking-up of assorted poles as a means of fending off predatory lawyers, at the expense of simple clear guidance and aesthetics?

You claim that culling is too expensive; but if the council would supply the angle-grinder, I would gladly supply the labour.

Engineers should ask for special treatment on cuts

From: Dr K Swann, Summerdale, Gomersal, Cleckheaton.

WE have a Government that says it wants to promote the value adding parts of the economy while it makes drastic cuts in public spending. We have also got something of a national distaste for reverting back to the kind of financial shenanigans and casino capitalism that brought the economy down.

As with a lot of journeys, we know where we want to end up, but we don't seem to have a much of a clue how to get there.

These thoughts were reflected in recent surveys of engineers regarding education cuts. As often happens with such surveys, you start off

asking straightforward questions but while you get some straight answers you also get an overall impression of a much broader and deeper level of concern.

Put simply, the concern that comes across in the latest Q&A is that engineering and technology education won't be safeguarded against taking a share of the pain if, as expected, university and overall education budgets are cut. For engineers that means a worry that the opportunity to put adding value at the top of the priority list for skills we want to develop could be missed. Engineers always seem very self-effacing about pushing for special pleading for their subject technologies and industries.

Why? If we truly believe that engineering is a good thing and a prime source of added value, why should it be shy about asking for special treatment?

We need mix of libraries

From: Michael Meadowcroft, Chair, The Leeds Library.

SARAH Freeman is right to draw attention to the need to broaden out the appeal of public libraries, ("Libraries on borrowed time while councils try to balance books", Yorkshire Post, August 26).

She focuses on public libraries but independent libraries also have a special role in complementing the public provision.

In the centre of Leeds, we have the oldest continuous library in

Britain, established in 1768. We make sure that it is neither an antique nor pickled in aspic but is a modern library with a great history.

We need a variety of provision – public and private.

The military solution

From: David W Wright, Uppleby, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

THE Government's latest pronouncement on the proposal to cut the defence budget is another panic measure and has not faced the realities of the situation.

The simple answer to the shortage of resources is to withdraw immediately from Afghanistan, close down the base in Germany and withdraw from the EU.

These measures alone would save millions of pounds and allow us to re-allocate the savings to improve the neglected Armed Forces which were starved of resources by the last governments.

Good result

From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon.

IT is a real treat to see so many happy, smiling faces as our students pick up their exam results.

They have worked hard and I am sure they would agree that their

teachers have done their best too.

It is pleasant to know that nowadays teachers exchange good teaching tips over the internet, so technology does help!

Cutting response

From: G Whitehead, Foresters Way, Bridlington.

THE people of Bridlington are not "taken in" by the condescending attitude made by the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, as has been reported (Yorkshire Post, August 23).

The fact is that it is merely a cost-cutting exercise followed by the usual excuses.