Warning words over snooping

INTENDED Government tracking of personal e-mails and phone messages brings to mind Harry Truman’s comments regarding “wire tapping” during a period of threat in 1940s and 1950s America.

He quoted the dissenting Justice Brandeis who said: “For good or ill (the government) teaches by example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for the law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy, to declare that the end justifies the means... would bring terrible retribution.”

Truman later concluded: “Those who propose such a thing are more of a danger to the country than the ones they want to listen in on.”

TV’s daytime wasteland

From: Garth Tomlinson. The Roundway, Hull.

MANY thanks to Malcolm Barker for a most interesting article (Yorkshire Post, April 6). I also groan at the paucity of the sports coverage on the BBC and most of the “antique” programmes we have during the day.

Hopefully, when the new director-general takes over, the “seniors”, and there are a lot of us about, can lay siege to the DG’s door with our emails and hopefully make a difference to his/her thinking on what a lot of us really want.

Don’t lose your head...

From: RW Place, Cornfield Avenue, Huddersfield.

SO Trenton Oldfield finds it amusing scuppering the Boat Race, despite being nearly decapitated; perhaps he should try a similar stunt at Elland Road when United are on the verge of winning? The Leeds fans will help him to achieve his objective!