Tuesday's Letters: Missed warning signs on Britain's road to ruin

I'm talking about the total absence of common sense (once one of our virtues), the political correctness gone stark raving mad, and the lack of any individual responsibility for what is happening to this once great country.

We have been guilty of either missing or ignoring the warning signs, that elements have been at work conspiring to undermine our society in order to turn it into something the vast majority of us clearly don't want and have never wanted. We have lost the will to fight back, we have become submissive and "becalmed" in the face of a political agenda, deliberate in its concept and ruthless in its goals.

The only way things will change for the better is for us, the people of this country, to stand up for ourselves and demand the changes we want.

Not when politicians, or lobby groups, or activists or do-gooding handwringers decide to change things for their own interest, but when we, the citizens, the ordinary put upon majority decide things must change. That time is rapidly approaching.

From: Alan Ogden, Oxford Road, Gomersal.

From: SR Dunkerley, Bishopsoil, Eastrington, Goole, East Yorkshire.

WITH reference to the letter from David W Wright (Yorkshire Post, February 13) I agree entirely with his comments, especially his final comment: "We must be mad to allow this charade to continue."

It is a well-known fact of life that a country begets the Government it deserves and, regrettably, the UK is not immune to this fact.

The Government obtained the vote of the British people on a number of occasions on pure, unadulterated spin, lies and deceit.

By so doing it has completely ruined the image of our beautiful country to the outside world.

The former Chancellor, "no more boom or bust Brown", has shown he was totally unaware of financial cycles, or of the old sayings, "beware of Greeks (bankers) bearing gifts (taxes)", the prime cause of the bankruptcy of the country.

The New Labour Party, with the Old Labour hangers-on, should be completely and utterly ashamed of this Government's actions and

spin and the destructive effect it has had on our country and the people.

To me, the only solution for New Labour to obtain and regain the

respect of the British people prior to the next General Election is to present the then Prime Minister, Chancellor, Foreign Secretary and Attorney General on charges of treason and put a stop to these charades.

Inhumanity in the war against terror

From: Eamonn Ward, Sheffield Green Party, Eskdale Road, Sheffield.

On February 10, the Court of Appeal finally ordered the publishing of seven paragraphs of a High Court judgment summarising the UK authorities' knowledge of Binyam Mohammed's torture while in US custody.

Government attempts to suppress this information were described by the Lord Chief Justice as "logically insupportable and therefore irrational".

One paragraph includes this sentence: "Although it is not necessary for us to categorise the treatment reported, it could readily be contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Binyam Mohammed by the United States authorities."

It is quite clear that, in the nine years of the "War on Terror", this Government has been complicit in the movement of so called "enemy combatants" around the world to be tortured.

The Sheffield Guantanamo campaign and other local groups around the region are to be congratulated on their continuing campaigns for

justice for detainees.

They have helped to obtain the release of innocent British citizens held in limbo for years without any evidence that will convict them in a proper court of law. They have exposed the hypocrisy of our Government who have sanctioned the inhumane acts that the War on Terror is supposed to be bringing to an end.

Villages going to the dogs

From: Judith Tappenden, School Lane, Denby Dale, Huddersfield.

I wonder if other villages in Yorkshire are suffering the same as Denby Dale.

We seem to be covered by a blanket of dog dirt. It is now almost impossible to visit the excellent selection of local shops without having to negotiate heaps of poo. A quick word with some of the proprietors and local residents confirmed that they, too, are finding the situation totally disgusting.

Once you leave the shopping area and go for a stroll around the local

streets, the situation gets even worse. When I take my grandson for an outing, the last thing I want is to have to clean dog mess from the pushchair wheels.

Denby Dale is a lovely place to bring up a family, but now we appear to be at risk of developing a serious health hazard. So can I put in a plea to the minority of dog owners in Denby Dale who do not pick up after their pet to take a plastic bag with them next time they go out.

It's the poor who suffer

From: Robert Cartlidge, Storth Lane, Wales, Sheffield.

THE capitalist ego uses stock phrases to maintain its status of super wealth – the class system. It's actually in the "salt mine" mentality where and when slavery existed under the Czar and the British owners; even relatively recent years.

Wealth was, and is, accumulated by enslaving the poor and the poorest. It was the Soviets who freed the grave injustices that existed under the capitalist flag.

After all, the Soviets were the workers themselves that overthrew the tyrant, private owners. Also, the fascist owners.

While the struggle persists, as in the land of the "free", America, we see the Wall Street collapse repeat itself with the depressing

recession, unemployment becomes rife with its knock-on effect – while the independent banks become "dependent" in need of a lifeline; the Government.

The banks are the mainstream of capitalist ideology. Control of banks should be the main source of Government.

Rookeries and cookery

From: Margaret Marsh, Water Hall Lane, Penistone.

ON the BBC Breakfast News a few days ago, presenter Bill Turnbull was aghast, astonished and amazed to hear of rook pie (which my mother made once annually).

Living in a village where two rookeries existed, when the young rooks had fledged it was a regular annual occasion – nothing whatever to do with wartime food shortage, and was likened to the more elite annual shoots of pheasant, grouse

and partridge.

My one last rook pie (breasts only used) was requested by an elderly fellow living alone in the very early 1950s.

Being now a nonagenarian but a typist throughout the Second World War for the Ministry of Food, I relish so much how I can tell you of this, just the same as that dear elderly man so relished my rook pie!

Our MPs just don't get the idea of common sense

From: David McKenna, Hall Gardens, Rawcliffe, Goole.

NOT content with seeing Alastair Campbell almost weeping for his colleague Teflon Tony on television, our Great Leader Gordon Brown opening up to prove, as Ed Balls once said, that he was "authentic",

we hear two MPs complaining that they can no longer travel first class and now, to cap it all, we have yet another pleading MP, Austin

Mitchell, bemoaning the fact that he has been made to look stupid by appearing on a reality television show.

His excuses for being made to look an utter plonker don't really hold up – as Nick Clegg discovered when he was asked about, and got wrong,

the amount of the basic state pension. Did Mitchell think he could compete with Katie Price?

Common sense seems to be in short supply at various points in the lives of our elected members.

After Gorgeous George Galloway dressed up in a cat suit on Celebrity Big Brother to much hilarity, and more MPs claimed "honest mistakes" in their fiddling of expenses, didn't Mitchell stop to think? After all,

he had once worked in television and ought to have known what his starring role might possibly lead to.

The whole episode once again illustrates quite clearly that we are, in fact, being led by donkeys.

Mitchell and his ilk are entrusted to run the country on our behalf,

are well paid for doing so, yet still they appear to be living on

planet Zog.

Talk about "not getting it", they don't even know what it is we hope they are trying to "get".

Dipping into sheep numbers

From: David Nortcliffe, Calderdale Heritage Walks.

JIM Beck (Yorkshire Post, February 17) mentions a dialect method of counting sheep and asked for further information.

I can offer a vocabulary up to 10 passed on some years ago by a man who'd been employed in farming in the Upper Wensleydale/Upper Swaledale area in 1930s. He thought it was actually a Lake District system then still used regularly in Borrowdale.

It went :

1 yan; 2 tyan; 3 tethera; 4 methera; 5 pimp; 6 sethera; 7 lethera; 8 hovera; 9 dovera; 10 dick.

I'm led to believe from another source that this is believed to show the continued influence of Celtic languages in remoter parts of England right into the 20th century.

From: Simon Wood, York.

Mr Beck inquires about counting sheep. My memory has it that the Westmorland numbers (but there are many regional variations) were: Yan, tan, tethera, methera, pimp; Sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera, dik; Yan-a-dik, tan-a-dik, tethera-dik, methera-dik, bumfit; Yan-a bumfit, tan-a bumfit, tethera-bumfit, methera-bumfit, giggot.

Duke's title

From: Stoker Devonshire, The Duke of Devonshire.

FURTHER to reports (Yorkshire Post, February 22), I would like to

clarify my position on the use of the Devonshire title. Should hereditary peers be removed from the House of Lords, I would indeed strongly consider dropping the public use of my title, as I believe that I would have to consider and respond to any future democratic mandate against hereditary peerage.

However, my principal duty will continue to be to preserve and enhance Chatsworth itself for future generations and I remain immensely respectful of my Devonshire predecessors who have bequeathed us this very special place.

Vote loser

From: Christopher W Fox, Fawcett Gardens, Driffield.

ON The Politics Show (February 14), Godfrey Bloom MEP called people

silly for objecting to his support for violence against those who disagree with his views, and even said "Up periscope" when asked to apologise for his original comments.

If the UK Independence Party do not get rid of him, they deserve to lose support.