YP Letters: Mind your language in EU debate

YOUR encouraging strapline insists “English language still has a place in Europe” (The Yorkshire Post, May 15).

What are its chances in Britain? I ask following a recent trip on the 36 bus, in which a group of fellow passengers ‘entertained’ us with loud and mindless yapping.

This included the repeated use of ‘like’ as a bizarre form of punctuation. I became strangely fascinated by it and counted its misuse about 60 times between Leeds and Moortown.

I was tempted to interject “Please tell us; what do you like – New York in June or fish and chips perhaps? I like Brits who speak English rather than quasi-American”. However, at this point, they were supplemented by a mobile phone ‘yapoholic’, yelling in a language which I couldn’t identify.

The din went on as far as Pannal where, either they all ran out of steam, or I had become inured – a frightening thought. I left the bus at Harrogate and went for a relatively sobering drink.

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

AS a Europhile I find myself increasingly dismayed by the pathetic performance of EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker since Brexit. It is easy to overlook the fact that he is not French but Luxembourgian: I wonder what his German-speaking compatriots make of his petulant anti-British promotion of French as everyone’s second language.

As Tony Armitage points out (The Yorkshire Post, May 15), not only do a majority of the EU population have English as their second language but it is also the language for pilots and air-traffic controllers.

I would add that English is the lingua franca of the global sport of tennis: at all the international tournaments the umpires call the score in English as well as the language of the host country.

Don’t heed siren calls

From: Arthur Johnson, Kingsbridge, Devon.

AS the siren calls from our warmongering politicians continue to hysterically escalate, leading us on a path to war with Russia, I ask your readers to vote for peace. Not an easy task as all the political parties are badly implicated in the drive to war.

The dangerous policy of regime change has had disastrous results in the Ukraine and Syria, and potentially risks starting a global nuclear war.

The initiators of the regime change policy were Labour’s Tony Blair and President George W Bush; both gave out misinformation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Nurses put patients first

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby.

THE news that fewer than 15 per cent of nursing union members expressed their willingness to strike for more money, shows that, unlike junior doctors, most nurses prefer to put their patients’ needs before their own.

It seems to me that the RCN is straining at a gnat. In common with most trade unions, I notice that they don’t address the issue of exactly how any increased pay demanded is to be paid for.

Burial rights for families

From: Betty Henry, Larchfield Road, Doncaster.

NOT only Irish inhabitants have the right to be buried in old family graves (The Yorkshire Post, May 5). By contacting the cemetery where a family member has been interred, it is possible to discover who owns the right to be buried there.

In our case a grave purchased in 1932 was officially owned by my deceased father-in-law. It wasn’t included in his will, but his heirs, his six living children, were able to gain possession by proving their identity.

They then agreed one of them should inherit and signed the agreements demanded by the cemetery authorities that proved he alone was responsible for its upkeep.

Four previous burials meant this grave was full. However, any number of interments of ashes were allowed. Since then two more family members rest there.

There was a charge for each interment but it cost less than a new plot for ashes. We would willingly have paid more to keep our loved ones together.

No mandate for fracking

From: Steven White, Great Edstone, York.

WHEN fracking rears its head, it’s always worth checking the facts. Andrew Mercer’s bold claim that “all voters in North Yorkshire have elected pro-fracking councillors” (The Yorkshire Post, May 13) fails scrutiny.

The facts are that in Ryedale – North Yorkshire’s fracking hot spot – not a single candidate stood on a pro-fracking platform.

Of the 20 contenders, 17 made written statements opposing it, including one of the successful Conservatives. The other three remained strangely silent on the subject. In the electoral division of Malton which contains the first proposed fracking site, the anti-fracking candidate trebled her majority.

We can read the tea leaves of the local election results in many ways, but let’s not pretend they were any kind of endorsement for this divisive industry.

Too few roads, too many cars

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

THE motor industry is selling thousands and thousands of cars to UK citizens and they are being taxed and put on our already overcrowded roads. While it is natural that the buyers want to use them to their full advantage, one does wonder where it will all end up? Already small towns like ours are being congested simply because the streets were never designed to take the volume of vehicles that now exist.