Words show contempt of Qatada lawyer

From: Charles Rushton, Pasture Close, Strensall, York.

YOUR front page (Yorkshire Post, April 25) reports the efforts of Mrs Theresa May to find a way through the legal morass created by the many lawyers with pecuniary interests in the Abu Qatada case.

A Mr John Cooper QC reported as saying “the only way this woman can succeed is etc. etc”. This is our Home Secretary he is referring to and the subject one of the right of this country to determine what is necessary for the protection of this country and its people.

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I think I understand that he would say he is doing his job 
but is it necessary to be so sneeringly derogatory at Mrs May’s efforts to break through the rigid self interests of the legal profession when her duty is surely to get this abominable creature and his kin, out of this land by whatever means are necessary.

I am certain that a mighty majority would applaud if he were on a plane tomorrow and hang the Euro lawyers. After all our French friends are past masters at it and never seem to be penalised for caring first about French interests.

From: Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire.

ONE can often glean much about certain people by the comments that they make, and which are quoted in the press.

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There was a good example of this in the headline story (Yorkshire Post, April 25) regarding the continuing farce about Abu Qatada and the Government’s rightful efforts to have him deported to Jordan.

Passing comment on the 
latest actions by Home 
Secretary Theresa May “leading human rights barrister” John Cooper QC said that “the only possible way that this woman can succeed is by getting the immigration courts right back to point one”.

Note that comment: “this woman” – not “the Home Secretary” or “Mrs May”, but “this woman”.

It would seem pretty obvious where this gentleman’s sympathies lie. Certainly not in line with the wishes of the vast majority of the people in the UK who are happy for everything possible to be done to finally get rid of this odious man.

From: Ryan Flint, Richmond, North Yorkshire.

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WHY don’t we have a referendum on local election day to see if 
the British public want Abu Qatada put on the first plane to Jordan?

I predict 99 per cent of the British population would vote yes and no court in the land would would be able to ride roughshod over public opinion.

Tax dodging is disgusting too

From: Jonathan Peters, Gray Street, York.

JAYNE Dowle in her opinion piece (Yorkshire Post, April 25) is right that the vast majority of people are “disgusted” by people who falsely claim benefits. But there her piece falls down, apart from being a draft for a Conservative political flyer. Let’s get things in to perspective; the DWP have said that last year 0.7 per cent of total benefit expenditure was overpaid due to fraud, equaling £1.2bn.

That’s obviously £1.2bn far too much, but compared to the (very conservative) estimate of government revenue lost to tax avoidance it is piddly – this is estimated at £5bn.

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The piece is another attempt to spin the benefits cuts story. Whether the cuts are right or wrong, the Government itself has admitted that they will push a further 200,000 more children into poverty. That is why Ed Miliband “doesn’t get it”, because these changes are not fully thought out, ideologically driven, by no means right for the country.

Jayne Dowle’s ‘views from the school gate’ sound rather far fetched, and I would love to hover around the school gates of some of Yorkshire’s public schools to perhaps overhear the talk of parents’ boasting how their accountants have managed to lower their tax bills for them. Would that disgust Jayne Dowle too? I get the feeling it would worry her less.

In defence of the women

From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston.

LETTER writer Jack Brown’s assertion that women writers are not as good as men requires some thought. Considering that until the 19th century, women were considered incapable of learning and only suitable for household tasks, I think we have caught up pretty well. Agatha Christie was not to everyone’s taste, but the Cadfael series by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was uniquely entertaining and must rank with the best.

Writers must write of what they know so the Brontë family wrote of Yorkshire and had to write under a male pseudonym in order to be published at all.

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Rumer Godden knew India and also the Catholic church and her novels were based on her experience. Rebecca West wrote a Booker Prize novel called the Thinking Straw which was about as interesting as the name implied. Pearl S Buck wrote a book about China which I was very excited about, but I couldn’t get into it. My all time best book written by RC Hutchinson is A Child Possessed which I challenge anyone to read without a feeling of pain and anguish. Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond series which gives a historical view of the European and Asian world at the time of Mary Queen of Scots is just as exciting as Tolstoy.