You only had to look out to see the snow

HOW mad can the BBC get? All the warnings being given out on Saturday about the bad weather, don’t go out unless it unavoidable etc. On the evening news, we find a live broadcast from Ainley Top, that will mean reporter, cameraman, soundman and maybe a producer or is it a director all sent out in atrocious conditions. For what? To show the viewers that it is snowing?

BBC, yes we only have to look out of the window to see the snow. And the cost of this two minutes to camera, I bet the BBC don’t even know, but then it not their money, its ours.

From: Duncan Anderson, Mill Lane, East Halton, Immingham.

In the North of the UK snow has been falling for more than a month, but northerners just get on with their lives. In the South there has been warnings, but drivers ignored them. So the first bit of snow and there is chaos, because the whinging, middle-class, soft southerners can’t tell the difference between the “black stuff” and the “white stuff”.

Then there is the attempt to blame both the local authorities and Highways Agency for motorists’ refusal to take any notice of weather warnings.

Every country in the world has a problem when snow first falls, this is because it usually falls at night, when there is limited traffic movement, which means the salt and grit doesn’t get worked into the snow and ice.

But do whinging, whining, middle-class, soft southern motorists take this into account?

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington.

MAY I pass on a message to all TV and radio channels that it also snows in East Yorkshire.

No problem with the driving because, being a native Highlander, I was taught as a boy by my late father, who had an Austin Seven, how to drive through snow which was then much deeper than the eight inches I experienced this Sunday.

By the way, why does the depth of snow often mentioned in reports use the old, and the best, imperial measures, and not the crazy metric? Yes, I am an old geezer, a war-baby, whose only qualifications were gained through the University of Life.

From: Dick Lindley, Altofts, Normanton.

YOU reported (Yorkshire Post, February 1) that severely cold weather conditions are raging across the whole of continental Europe with scores of people actually freezing to death in the streets.

I wonder if the fanatics in the green movement could tell us when the so-called global warming is going to begin, I sincerely hope it will not be too long coming before we, in this country also see people freezing to death in the winter months.

Help to make ends meet

From: Derek Smith, Maple Croft, Huby, York.

I FOLLOW on from Bill Carmichael’s column (Yorkshire Post, February 3) when he referred to the BBC website highlighting the plight of what he said was a typical family who will be hit by the proposed £26,000 benefit cap. I hope not too typical.

The person who he refers to was an unemployed father of seven who was shown how he could save £140 a week if he cut out the luxuries – namely mobile phone, Sky expensive movie package, cigarettes and cans of lager, leaving him enough for a night at the pub as he puts it.

Another BBC report highlighted a mother gaining a food parcel from the Salvation Army and said her food bill each week for her and her children was £160 per week.

There is an opportunity to learn how to cook with great local produce and provide great meals and therefore benefit by having a happy family for sure. There would be no need to choose between eating and heating.

Costing out joint benefits

From: James Hinchliffe, Highstead, Bingley.

MAY I be allowed to comment on the article “Dine in for days with the roast that lasts all week” (Life & Style, Yorkshire Post, February 1)?

While applauding the initiative by John Penny and the “quest for the best” campaign, I must take issue with Catherine Scott on one or two points.

Firstly who can afford to pay £40 for a joint of beef? Why pay sirloin prices for meat to use in cottage pie when good minced beef can be purchased for a fraction of the price?

Finally, beef dripping is hard and cannot be “rubbed” on.

My mother, although being a Lancastrian by birth, made fantastic Yorkshire puddings. She always said that the fat had to be almost burning not just “allowed to heat for a few minutes” before pouring in the batter mixture.