YP Letters: Stop telling us what to eat and drink

I AM writing this letter because I am fed up of these people who are telling us what we should or should not eat and drink. The latest is about children eating sugary food. This is the umpteenth time that this subject has come to light because if the public notices all these things are going around in a circle.

The silly thing is that this year a certain product is “bad for you” but when it is time for the product to come around again some expert will be saying that it is now good for you (in moderation).

I think that the medical profession are in a difficult situation. If someone visits the GP with a bad chest they soon jump to the conclusion that they have asthma. The GPs cannot be blamed because of the “let’s get him or her sued” because of a wrong diagnosis. I know that this is true because it has happened to me.

I was born in 1952 and things were still on ration after the war so there was not the food available like it is now. But the food which was available was good and not the sterilised pre- packed plastic rubbish which is filling the supermarket shelves nowadays. The trouble is now that the public hasn’t much choice but to buy it.

I am an old-fashioned Yorkshireman who was brought up on “fat meyt and bottled ale” which hasn’t done me much harm. I have just bought a new bread machine because now that the boffins have suggested that salt and sugar should no longer be put into bread it is no longer fit to eat (in my opinion).

I do not drink stout because after three pints of the good Irish brew it makes my nose bleed but I don’t expect that everybody should stop drinking it. Each person should have their own choice of what they do and do not eat or drink without listening to these so-called experts whom, I presume, are getting a nice bob or two put into their bank accounts.

I fear for our countryside

From: Anne Stewart, Helmsley.

THE countryside is being polluted, industrialised and destroyed, causing wildlife to disappear at an alarming rate. Am I bothered?

The fracking companies are lying to me. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they claim it is safe and we won’t know they are there. Am I bothered?

For instance, they said they would only be flattening green areas the size of one rugby pitch but then it turns out to be three times that size.

And that is just one well of the intended hundreds, without even mention of the necessary remaining infrastructure. Am I bothered ?

The Government keep moving the goalposts to suit their friends in the oil industries, the only ones who benefit from this destruction, determined to ignore people, wildlife and the countryside, come what may. Am I bothered?

Am I bothered ? Yes I am. Are you?

Culture offset by an eyesore

From: Fiona Lemmon, Clifton, Maltby, Rotherham.

I WENT to Hull, this year’s City of Culture, for a cultural afternoon recently. I enjoyed my time there and the Old Town, with its Museums Quarter, was well presented.

The Poppies: Weeping Window display is very beautiful and moving but the window must be weeping at the sight of the extensive and ugly upheaval in the nearby streets. What a shame that the city centre looks so dreadful!

The timing of the works is very, very bad indeed and is detracting from the efforts and successes of the museums and galleries.

I trust that any future City of Culture will avoid inflicting such an eyesore on residents and tourists.

Profits on tap for Singapore

From: John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Baildon, Shipley.

I WANT to see the country do well for all citizens, particularly the less well-off and especially in these uncertain times.

I will buy foreign produce when I can’t find suitable home-made alternatives, but it pains me that I have to make our balance of payments worse every time I turn on the tap and (excessive) profits and dividends flow abroad to foreign owners of my local water monopoly (Yorkshire Water).

What really pains me is that one of these owners is the government of Singapore.

Do remind me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t one of the reasons behind privatisation of the industry “to get rid of the dead hand of public ownership”?

Like our nuclear power now owned by the French state-owned Electricite de France, (EdF), it seems that public ownership is fine – so long as it is foreign governments doing the owning and raking in the profits. It’s a mad world!

Too early to test children

From: Jo Conway, Harrogate.

RE the story ‘Ministers plan to axe SATs for seven-year-olds’ by Alexandra Wood (The Yorkshire Post, April 1).

My published letter ‘Dangers of turning children off education at an early age’ (November 15, 2015) says it all.

I totally agree with Education Secretary Justine Greening’s plan to postpone formal assessments of seven-year-olds until a later date.

Informally assessing children’s knowledge, skills and understanding on entry to school should be the priority. Teachers need to know and understand children’s starting points and feel the freedom of addressing and fully supporting individual learning needs.

Giving teachers some autonomy and time to fully develop “growth mindsets” in our children is essential for later success.

Building up children’s confidence, self esteem and resilience is so important in these early years.