Wednesday's Letters: Sentamu's vital work in fostering Christian charity

The shock of losing one's job, or adapting to a reduced salary, is going to be an unhappy challenge for many people's budgets very soon.

Standards of living will need to be reined in. For those at the bottom of the economic league, barely able to buy life's necessities, all help offered will be gratefully received.

England's churches used to be packed with many more souls, some found, some lost, but all joined in communal acts of devotion and prayerful listening.

I suspect that charity was more readily available, easier to seek, more spontaneous. Now, it is only within the confines of monastic

brotherhoods that property is shared on a reasonably large, exemplary scale.

The present internal strife concerning church leadership pales into insignificance when the needy go hungry, or cannot afford basic goods and services.

When people give to charity, they like to know where and how their money or goods are going to be offered to others. Hopefully, Acts 435 can add to the basic instincts of benevolent humanity, matching up local poverty with local goodwill. The church renewed as a valuable and vital social service.

Dr Sentamu is a colourful and engaging man used to patience and perseverance. He is interested in every person as an individual.

He is true to his faith and its encompassing vision of a corporate human body, to which we all contribute our idiosyncratic talents and gifts.

Moreover, as a regular spectator at warm and friendly little Bootham Crescent, he personifies that priceless commodity possessed by

all good churchmen – identity with the ordinary common man at play and

in the stand, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, ever supportive.

From: Keith Nunn, Burton Street, Farsley, Leeds.

Tories prove they have not changed

From: JW Smith, Sutton-on-Sea.

THOSE of us who remember the 18 years of Toryism will understand what I have always called first aid and sticking plaster politics – the short-termism referred to in your editorial comment (Yorkshire Post, July 6).

The only future Tories believe in is procreation of the species. Take the proposed new rules for Parliament. In order to get his referendum on voting reform, which David Cameron is against, Nick Clegg has been suckered into accepting the case for five-year fixed terms and changes to the rules for no confidence votes, also to constituency boundary changes which will guarantee and increase the number of Tory seats.

I wonder if perhaps fearful of losing his Sheffield seat he might look for a safe Tory seat for 2015. I think fixed term parliaments are a good idea, but should be for four years, in common with other countries with this arrangement. Even the United States has elections every four years.

Almost everything in the region which would be of benefit in the future has already been slashed or is under review. Your comment on July 5 said: "The future is in our classrooms, Yorkshire schools must not suffer." It appears Education Secretary Michael Gove's draconian attitude has already put about 100 schemes on hold.

Another scheme for the future would be the Humber ports' improvement which would greatly benefit the country as well as the region. They have agreed a 10m package for offshore wind turbines and, with the short distance from Sheffield, the Humber ports are ideally situated to handle these products.

If they had only looked to the future in respect of the Forgemasters loan, we could have led the world in producing and exporting the castings through the same ports.

For many years, I have said that forward planning were dirty words to the Conservatives. With their recent actions, they have proved that they have not changed.

Dance school to be proud of

From: Rev Steve Smith, All Hallows Vicarage, Regent Terrace, Hyde Park, Leeds.

LAST Friday, along with the Lord Mayor and others, I had the pleasure of attending this year's graduation performance at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Chapeltown, Leeds.

The students performed three pieces by guest choreographers plus a suite of four solo performances and afterwards Gurmit Hukam, principal and artistic director, presented the annual awards to this year's graduates who continue to be of excellent calibre.

From its outset the NSCD was all about giving talented youngsters from all walks of life the opportunity to train to be professional dancers and choreographers. Gurmit Hukam was one of the team which, under Nadine Senior, founded the NSCD and for the past eight years or so under his leadership the Northern School has gone from strength to strength.

It now offers vocational training up to post-graduate level and has produced many of today's leading dance artists.

At a time when the arts in particular are experiencing cuts, it is good to see someone like Gurmit – who himself grew up in Harehills – maintaining his drive and commitment to uphold the ethos of the school in providing inclusive training opportunities for young people regardless of their cultural or economic background. I felt privileged to be in the audience last Friday.

From what I saw and felt, the city should be proud of the Northern School and its principal.

Astonishing attack

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

I HAVE no interest in the workings of the Labour Party, but I was astonished to see David Miliband pulling to bits most of Gordon Brown's leadership. This man was Foreign Secretary and was responsible for a lot of what went on in the Government.

The Labour Party would be "clutching at straws" if they elected him as leader.

Whatever you may think of Gordon Brown, whose exit with his family from Downing Street after the election was both poignant and statesmanlike, he did not deserve one of his senior ministers turning against him to procure his own goal.

Surely, even he is entitled to expect loyalty from such individuals? I suggest that the Labour Party should let Miliband's hopes wither on the vine and elect somebody with more honourable credentials.

Another call for referendum on Britain leaving EU

From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

REGARDING the article by Michael McGowan (Yorkshire Post, July 6), with more than 60 per cent of the people in the country now in favour of Britain leaving the EU, why do our elected representatives still deny us a referendum on leaving this despicable dictatorship?

People like Mr McGowan are deluding themselves and trying to hoodwink us into believing that we can run Europe without being seen to do so, and for no other reason, hence all the secrecy and the taking of power by stealth and in the case of Britain it is with our elected Government's complicity.

William Hague would do well to ignore Mr McGowan's suggestion that Heath, Brittan and Patten built European co-operation. Heath just capitulated to the demands of the EU and should be

looked upon for what he was – a weak, useless incompetent who was promoted way above his abilities, and Leon Brittan and Chris Patten

were, like Mr McGowan, highly paid passengers on the EU gravy train.

In his article, Mr McGowan states that both Sheffield and Leeds have more people than Luxembourg and Yorkshire is larger than the Irish Republic. What he does not say is that both these countries have infinitely more clout in the EU than Yorkshire and probably more than Britain, too, while receiving far more in handouts than they pay in contributions. This is why Britain must leave the EU.

Britain is the only country in the EU that believes in free trade, Germany and France in particular use the EU to protect their industries while closing down ours, or just buying them. If the politicians at Westminster cannot run this country without instruction from their unelected masters in Brussels, then it is time that they all stood down and let us elect some who want to run the country themselves for an independent Britain and its people.

The euro is failing, the EU itself will follow it and the sooner, the better, let's get out now.