Wednesday's Letters: Never mind BP, how about repaying the bankers' damage?

IN the same way that American President Barack Obama is squeezing BP for adequate recompense for the vast amount of damage caused to his country, should not the Prime Minister compel the banks to delay all bonuses above a certain limit until those same banks have repaid the damage they have caused to this country and its economy?

Similarly, is there a conspiracy to keep interest rates at a grotesquely low level (I know the Bank of England has a free hand to regulate these) which penalises savers?

From: Donald Leach, Shaw Street, Holywell Green, Halifax.

IS there no end to the arrogance of the President Obama? His vindictive response to the BP oil spill is both immature and smacks of a man who is anti-British.

Oil is a god as far as America is concerned as the illegal war in Iraq proved and Britain, which was represented at that time by poodle Tony Blair, only goes to prove my theory.

All Obama is bothered about, along with his own grandstanding politicians, is savaging BPs reputation over the oil spill to score political points, win favour with the American public and make out that BP is a foreign company.

BP is a worldwide company, incidentally one that purchased Amoco – American Oil Company, who happens to have its headquarters in Britain. All oil spills are a disaster and none more so than the Exxon Valdez supertanker in 1989 which was considered to be the worst maritime environmental disaster in history until the Gulf spillage so once again the same rhetoric applies (ie people in glass houses). Obama's ranting and inflammatory remarks of "I know whose ass to kick" and "our job is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum" are unmerited. This has helped to drive BP's share price to its lowest level since 1997 which significantly impacts British pensions and therefore we the taxpayer get yet another bill we can ill afford.

America has plunged relations with Britain to a low as they have also tended to side with the Latin Americans over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. As for our special relations with our American allies, I am afraid that seems to only apply when it suits the Americans.

I would also like to think that David Cameron is a better diplomat than Obama and not the "lightweight" Obama has described him as. Cameron should make no bones about his defence of our citizens and this country, and should remind the US that BP is only one of three major companies involved. It is being persecuted because the B in BP stands for British. We must not stand for that.

From: Matthew Shaw, Golcar, Huddersfield.

THE ruptured deep water oil leak a mile down in the Gulf of Mexico is profoundly depressing. Man's unquenchable demand for fuel at whatever cost.

It's a shame that President Obama, in an attempt to appease public disquiet, has rounded on BP, a truly multi-national corporation with the unfortunate label of appearing "British".

Americans are demanding action from a leader who was swept to power on the back of impossible expectations, as if all that could be done to manage the crisis wasn't already being done. To blame a "foreign" company is a cheap shot since gulf crude is for the home market. But I guess, as consumers, we are all to blame for the disaster, especially those of us who drive cars.

From: Ross Taggart, The Avenue, Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees.

YOUR regular columnist Tom Richmond made a remark (Yorkshire Post, May 28) to the effect that we should boycott BP products, because BP as a company was not doing enough to stop the Gulf oil spill.

I would suggest that the reverse is true. It is obvious that BP is doing everything possible in the face of a frenzied hate campaign conducted by the American media. If as a result of this, obviously politically-inspired campaign, BP is broken as a company, then the fragile British economy would be dealt a hammer blow. We would be immediately and quite needlessly plunged back into a recession that could easily last a generation.

Whatever the perceived faults of the previous American President, I believe he was a friend of this country. I am very much afraid that the present holder of that office is not.

From: D Smith, Harrogate.

THE ongoing furore regarding the BP oil company's involvement in the Gulf oil incident fails to point out that BP owns only 65 per cent of this drilling operation, and gives no indication of which company or country owns the other third. What political skulduggery is afoot here, I wonder

Presenter Chiles fails to play game

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I AM just beginning to understand the popularity of Adrian Chiles. The talentless co-presenter of BBC TV's unremarkable One-Show has secured a lucrative contract with ITV including the anchor role in the channel's coverage of the World Cup.

His appeal is like that of the more egregious of the tabloid press. The Sun newspaper would have admired how, in the build-up to the Germany- Australia game, he sought to ridicule foreign supporters and officials. To the embarrassment of his excellent pundits, he persisted with the angle of Germany and Australia, with France, as the nations we like to see lose.

Edgar Davids was much too intelligent to be drawn into a display of Dutch aversion to the Germans, stating that he just wanted to be entertained.

Fluent German-speaker Kevin Keegan and impressive Anglophile Patrick Vieira also treated the xenophobic innuendo with the contempt it deserved.

Much more of Chiles and I will end up not caring whether England win or lose.

From: Max Nottingham, St Faith's Street, Lincoln.

SO Wayne Rooney has been given "20 swear words" he must not shout at referees.

I have been about a bit, and I could only think of 14.

What about substitute swear words? I used to work on a chicken farm. Would Master Rooney get away with "that was a clucking bad decision, ref"?

In memory of RAF sacrifice

From: Betty Marsden, Keeling Street, North Somercotes, Louth, Lincolnshire.

I WAS pleased to read Philip Welch's letter (Yorkshire Post, June 4) about the RAF memorial to the Bomber Command air crews of 158 Squadron at RAF Lissett, near Bridlington.

What a lovely surprise he must have had to come across it, by chance, on that quiet country lane. He said how moved he was at the site (the Yorkshire Post published a picture of the planned memorial last year).

My friend and I have visited the memorial four times in the last two years, for family research. My friend's uncle was a pilot in Squadron 158 at Lissett, in the Second World War and was awarded the DFC and DFM. On our latest visit, in May this year, we saw a new addition – a plaque displaying photographs and information of the airmen of 158 Squadron.

Most of these young airmen were teenagers, who sacrificed much to protect us, in some cases their lives, without seeking reward. I was not only moved, but emotional.

I compared these young men with today's greedy, grasping, selfish, deceitful people, who are interested only in themselves. We should never forget the efforts made by those brave service people.

My husband volunteered to serve our country in the Second World War, when he was 17 years old and served five years.

Thanks to help from my family historian friend in Stillingfleet, I was able to contact the RAF Association chairman, Eddie Fell, who invited us to meet him at his home in Driffield. Eddie escorted us around where the airfield had been, showed us the barracks, the station and gave us a running

commentary.

Then, he took us back to his home and showed us valuable information on his computer, his files and general conversation.

Eddie had information also about my Canadian cousin, who was a pilot in England in the Second World War, awarded the DFM.

Sadly, Eddie died in October 2009, but his help has been invaluable. Without our armed forces, our future could have been very different.

The three reasons why Labour lost core supporters

From: George Heppell, Rawcliffe Lane, York.

I HAVE read with interest Rachel Reeves' article (Yorkshire Post, June 10), her intention to support Ed Milliband and her views as to why New Labour lost the election. Nowhere in her article did I see any reference to England, Iraq or socialism, in my view the main reasons Labour lost their core supporters.

I was abroad in the Army when a Labour government was elected in 1945 and have watched with increasing despair the irreparable changes to my country. It has been admitted that the last Labour government deliberately increased immigration to change the structure of England – and this by a Cabinet dominated by Scots. The Scots are proud of their heritage and have their own Parliament, as have the Welsh. We English are told that we are British and denied our own Parliament.

Large parts of Yorkshire are like Mumbai. We were taken into an illegal invasion of Iraq by lies, with the consequent death and destruction of that country and the enmity of the Arab world. All the candidates for the Labour leadership were members of the Government at that time.

The founders of the Labour Party were socialists whose object was to look after the interests of the working classes; many MPs were from that background, whereas New Labour were champagne socialists with few, if any, having had a manual job or little idea of the problems of ordinary families in keeping afloat, much less improving their position in society. There should be an emphasis on re-establishing our manufacturing industries and providing jobs or apprenticeships for all school leavers, something the last government significantly failed to do

Although it might not be popular with the Americans, we should withdraw our troops from Afghanistan immediately to bring an end to the deaths of British servicemen and women from IEDs. I know from experience that it is not possible to prevent them from being laid and not all can be detected.