YP Letters: I'm driven to shouting over this decline

WITH apologies for dragging out this subject but in addition to Father McNicholls, I couldn’t agree more with Janet McCulloch and Keith Jarrett regarding English.

I had a wonderful English teacher at Whitby at an excellent secondary modern school (sorry Janet, I don’t agree that 
grammar schools are a necessity, despite many of them being superb!)

However, the special teacher I remember with much affection crosses my mind every time I am confronted by the way standards in English have dropped so very much, when I’m afraid I am driven to shouting at the TV, stupidly.

I so agree with Keith and think it’s appalling how “Oh my god” and similar phrases are used almost as swear words which really makes me cringe.

I also wonder why so many obviously intelligent young people aren’t advised not to stick the word “like” into their conversation all over the 
place, and just recently, instead of describing something on television or radio as “little” or “small” the description by 
people who should know 
better is “little small” or “small little”.

On a personal note I failed the 11-plus because of being somewhat hopeless at maths, a subject I hated, but that worked well because aged 14 I was allowed to go to typing and shorthand classes at night school where, strangely enough, the typing teacher recommended me for a job with a firm of accountants in which her husband was a partner, and where I couldn’t have been happier for ten years, eventually becoming a full-fledged shorthand typist.

In closing, I was amazed a few minutes ago to hear, on TV, an extremely well-educated barrister who has recently become quite famous, refer to “sister-in-laws”, instead, of course, “sisters-in-law”.

A slip of the tongue, perhaps? I wonder!

Mr Yorkshire’s great career

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe Middlesbrough.

YOU either love him or hate him, but there is no denying that cut open the body of one of English cricket’s greatest run machines and like the letterings in a stick of seaside rock there would be the letters ‘Yorkshire’.

Not surprising, for Geoffrey Boycott is undoubtedly the current Mr Yorkshire for all his latest alleged offensive racist comments concerning West Indian cricketers who, unlike him, have been knighted.

Whether Geoffrey eventually gets his shoulder tipped by the Queen’s sword or not, my take is that Yorkshire can be justly proud of his amazing contribution to White Rose cricket and especially so for being consistently loyal to the geographic make-up of the county, stretching as it does from the Tees to the Humber.

I saw Mr Boycott a number of times when the Tykes team 
played at Acklam Park, Middlesbrough, and I admired his insistence that my home team was indeed part of Yorkshire so much so that one of his great friends was the late football manager Brian Clough, who, like fellow Yorkshire and England cricketer Chris Old, 
were born and bred in Middlesbrough.

Geoffrey’s ability to hold an innings together is surely that which should be remembered above all else for many an international bowler will concede that bowling to the great man wasn’t something they enjoyed.

However, it was at Acklam Park that Boycott and the team were humiliated by Hampshire. Bob Cotton almost on his own claimed the bulk of the Yorkshire wickets over the two innings, a fact that has rightly entered the record books on Yorkshire cricket, but for all the wrong reasons.

Harder for the unemployed

From: Martin Vaughan, Stannington Road, Sheffield.

UNEMPLOYED people in Sheffield and across Yorkshire are required to do job applications, job seeking, form-filling and application for benefits online. People who cannot afford their own computer and internet at home will be reliant on libraries for completing job applications and applications for benefits online.

Many such applications are complicated and time-consuming, requiring many hours at a computer. Unemployed people in Sheffield are being hampered in their efforts to search for work online by our library service restricting use of library PCs to two hours a day, with library staff and volunteers unable to exercise common sense and allow more time even if PCs are sitting empty.

A Labour council should be doing more to help unemployed people, especially those reliant on the library service for internet access.

Spread word about country

From: Dennis Marshall, Harewood Road, Collingham.

Correspondent John Vessey (Letters, August 26) has referred to “God’s own county”. Throughout my 70 years, I have always known it as ‘God’s own country’.

Although Yorkshire is not an independent State (yet), the word ‘country’ equates to ‘region’. Proud Yorkshire folk, please take note and spread the gospel about the finest county in the land, ie God’s own country.