YP Letters: My plea to EU over culture capital blow

FOLLOWING the recent rejection by the EU Commission of the candidacy to be European Capital of Culture by a number of UK cities, including Leeds, I have written the following letter to the EU Commission in London which your readers might find interesting:

“I write to you as one who has consistently championed UK engagement in the EU and who is absolutely devastated at the dystopian nightmare cultural desert future that my fellow citizens have apparently chosen by embracing the strident lies of those who want to leave the EU.

“I am a former Chair of Leeds in Europe and my commitment to Britain not just remaining in Europe but taking a leading role therein is both sincere and long-lasting. Hence I campaigned tirelessly for this country to join the Eurozone and subsequently to remain in the EU. I am not ashamed to say that on the morning of June 24, 2016, I shed tears along with some of my older students who were grief-stricken at that fact that their fellow citizens, including in many cases their grandparents, had robbed them of their European future.

“So these are my pro-EU credentials. Jean-Claude Juncker and his team have humiliated pro-Europeans like me by the unfair high-handed and spiteful manner in which the candidacy of the UK cities for the 2023 Capital of Culture has been summarily dismissed. The mean-spirited way in which this has been done will only strengthen the case of those who want to cut all ties including the cultural.

“I understand the pedantic bureaucratic reasoning behind this decision but it is unfair to punish cities like Leeds, which voted Remain, and which have so much to give in building a pan-European future. I know that the UK has not always been an easy partner but the vast majority of our citizens – over 62 per cent – did not vote for the lies of the leavers and Leeds voted Remain.

“Talk about an own goal. The Leave campaign couldn’t have done a better job. I, and other remainers who want to see this country change its mind and reverse the monumental error of June 23, feel really let down by this decision. Perhaps the truth is that the leavers are correct and you just don’t want us after all, in which case the 30 years that I have put into trying to bring young Europeans together really have been a waste of time?

“I ask that the EU commission in the UK does its utmost to reverse this nasty, short-sighted and incomprehensible decision.”

From: George Jardine, Mount Parade, York.

MY wife and I visited Hull last month. We had a great day out and the city really sparkled. We went because we wanted to experience and acknowledge the energy and creativity put in by the councillors, businesses and people.

So what does it matter if some Brussels politicos, in an act of spite, want to exclude UK cities from their own Capital of Culture competition? There is no reason why the competitors can’t still go ahead with their plans and we promise to visit the winning city to enjoy its unique environment, history and talent.

Potholes and potshots

From: Mike Bytheway, Oakwood.

I AM a regular reader of Tom Richmond’s column and, most of the time, find it interesting and to the point.

Last Saturday I feel he let himself down by describing an MP as a “lowly local from Herefordshire whose brief appears to cover potholes and bus stops” (The Yorkshire Post, November 25).

I moved from Herefordshire 20 years ago to a house in Victoria Road, Headingley and half the local shops on Otley Road were either empty or let short-term. This was due to the proposals for a tram system – which never arrived and is still under discussion. Perhaps local politicians in Yorkshire follow the same pattern!

I feel this bickering with all things South could be solved by common sense, or a discussion over a pint. I write this in the spirit of goodwill to all the people of Yorkshire and Herefordshire. Incidentally we could really do with a pothole filler in this area.

From: Paul Muller, Wakefield.

I HAVE just read Tom Richmond’s column (The Yorkshire Post, November 23) criticising the Budget. A bit here, a bit there. The country is bankrupt. There is no money left.

John F Kennedy once said: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” The Chancellor’s main purpose was to ask us to build more houses and that must include many affordable houses. The Government does not do building. He was also enthusiastic about education in maths and sciences. Proper apprenticeships are non-existent in this country.

Mugabe grabs the headlines

From: David Craggs, Goldthorpe.

IT puzzles me as to why so much media time has been devoted to the recent happenings in Zimbabwe. Here is a country that, since independence, has received from the UK millions, if not billions of pounds. in aid.

And yet it had a leader in Robert Mugabe who hates this country and all it stands for. By comparison, the recent German election, the result of which could play an important part in our Brexit negotiations, received little coverage.