YP Letters: Viewpoints on Orgreave

I REFER to your “Justice denied” editorial (The Yorkshire Post, May 11), along with the South Yorkshire Police crime commissioner saying that the police became an “instrument of the state” during the Miners’ Strike.

I was not at Orgreave and only worked while a serving police officer between August and December 1985, mainly having banter and mandatory scuffling when strike breakers were going to work in the Selby coalfield.

Some mornings I can remember being in a Ford Transit personnel carrier, in a line of similar vehicles full of officers, as far as the eye could stretch. Money was no problem – the then government bankrolled the entire operation.

I honestly think that if there was a world record for the largest collection of Ford Transits at any one time in the world, not the UK, it was somewhere in the Selby coalfield circa 1985.

From: Christopher Clapham, Shipley.

With regard to your story ‘Battle of Orgreave still open sore MP tells May’ (The Yorkshire Post, May 11), I would agree.

It must be an “open sore” among the police who were pelted with bricks, stones, glass bottles, spat at and so on. Some present were the usual rent-a-mob intent on bringing down a democratically-elected government.

Margaret Thatcher’s government responded, as Tom Richmond’s article (The Yorkshire Post, May 10) reminds us, by giving Chief Constable Peter Wright every support in his efforts to uphold the law.

From: Steve Oversby, Director, Barnardo’s East Region.

WHEN Barnardo’s founder Thomas Barnardo arrived in London in 1866, he was appalled to witness the suffering of street children – young people with nowhere to turn for help (Jayne Dowle, The Yorkshire Post, May 9).

He set out to give them a refuge, a place where they would be fed, cared for and given an education. Now, 150 years later, tens of thousands of children are fleeing from different conflict zones, often alone with no family members to turn to, making them hugely vulnerable.

Following Dr Barnardo’s example we welcome the government’s commitment to resettle Syrian refugee children from Europe. But it must now urgently work with local authorities to establish a plan on how these children will be resettled.

This plan should set out details of a dispersal mechanism, long-term funding and specialist support so that these children can recover from the trauma they have suffered and integrate into their new communities.

It is vital that this process is completed quickly to ensure the safety of these vulnerable children as soon as possible.

From: John Gladston Hildie, Brear Grove, Sandal, Wakefield.

I WISH to congratulate the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, for taking 12 Syrian Muslim families refugees back with him to the Vatican to start a new life. Pope Francis has shown all the world a true Christian spirit love by helping other people who are now in need of a new life, it would be nice if other world leaders were to follow the same pathway as the Pope has done and to love one another.

From: Doug Kemp and Martyn Thomas, Co-Chairs, North West Leeds Transport Forum.

SO, at last, we have a decision and it couldn’t be clearer (The Yorkshire Post, May 13). The inspector has accepted the evidence provided at the public inquiry and has concluded that the Leeds trolleybus scheme was flawed and, following further scrutiny by civil servants, Ministers have agreed with that assessment.

If a fraction of the time and money spent on developing and promoting the NGT scheme had been devoted to a serious consideration of its pros and cons, that money and effort could have been saved for more useful projects around the city.

Council leaders should draw a lesson from this: consult more widely and conduct unbiased analysis before embarking on ambitious plans to spend local money. Post devolution, they may not be able to rely on central Government and local expertise to stop them making expensive mistakes.

Leeds citizens will be pleased to learn that the £173m of DfT money which was to be spent on NGT is now available for more useful transport projects in our city.

From: Mrs June Wolfe, Sutherland Road, Lightcliffe, Halifax.

THE remark “never mention the war to a German” in The Yorkshire Post Voices (May 7) made me smile as it reminded me of the daughter of friends of ours who went to university in Germany.

There she met a German boy and they subsequently married. One evening at his home a war film came on TV and the boy stood up to turn it off (that’s what you had to do in those days!) But she told him to keep it on. He said: “You British are obsessed with the war and we like to forget it.”

“Aye, well you would,” she said. “You’ve lost two!” He still married her!