YP Letters: Violence not down to TV's bad news

BASIL A Smith moots a possible connection between regular BBC and ITV coverage of violence in war zones and knife crime among impressionable youngsters (The Yorkshire Post, April 9).

Does he really believe that these disaffected boys really digest the TV news with their tea before going out to meet their pals? I doubt that they ever watch TV. Much more likely they are engaging in social media or other pursuits alien to us oldies.

Knowledge is always preferable to ignorance. Reporters sometimes risk their lives to keep us aware that horrible things, like Syria, are going on out there.

Your correspondent wants “some positive news for a change”. Good news is not usually big news.

I get angry when TV news occasionally leads with a sporting success or a Royal engagement when children are being murdered by chemical weapons abroad.

There is plenty of escapism to be found on TV and, to be fair, the newscasters do try to sign off with something light-hearted where possible.

Spy’s care on the NHS

From: Roger Backhouse, Upper Poppleton, York.

I CANNOT believe the small-minded, vindictive selfishness of some correspondents. Philip Crowther takes the biscuit for moaning about the cost of Sergei Skripal’s NHS treatment (The Yorkshire Post, April 6).

Sergei Skripal was undoubtedly a spy who provided secrets to Britain. The Government asked for him to be released from a Russian prison and sent to Britain as part of a spy swap. It is highly likely that Russians were involved in his poisoning.

Once can hardly expect the Government to allow him to die for lack of money. I do not begrudge the costs of treatment.

The funding crisis in the NHS and social care has been predicted for some time. Care needs are increasing and, as any NHS staff will tell you, budgets are increasingly unrealistic.Alas, small minds among us will always blame it on foreigners, and would probably do so even if there were no foreigners!

From: Anne-Marie Mook, Flaxton, York.

ISN’T it ironic? Our Government is prepared to wave a threatening fist at Russia over the poisoning of two people on UK soil, but they welcome with open arms the tax- exile global energy companies who have poisoned natural water sources in the US, Australia and Canada, and despoiled farmland and countryside.

Not only have they welcomed them in, but they have offered them police protection and made criminals of the citizens of this country who have been driven to make their opposition to this dirty fracking industry felt.

The Government cry for UK gas rings hollow when this gas is destined for plastic production and export.

From: Peter Bye, Park Crescent, Addingham.

MESSAGE to Jeremy Corbyn. If you want to talk to the Russians, you may do so. I will pay for your trip. However, if you come back with no acceptable deal, I will want my money back. Please buy your ticket. Now!

Echoes of Cuba crisis

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

FOR those of us who were around during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the two major superpowers, the USA and USSR, brought us close to World War Three, developments in Syria should be of concern to us all.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s murderous dictator, has committed horrific acts but Western leaders are responsible for the chaos across the region. We should make our voices clear – no bombing of Syria and no selling of arms to despotic regimes.

Leeds again in slow lane

From: Robert Mansfield, Old Lane, Bramhope.

WHILE Leeds City Region with a population of three million has a council whose answer to transport congestion is new cycleways, Cambridge, with a population of 125,000 people, is well advanced on its plan to create a new transport network involving 31 miles of new busways which will include four miles of tunnels.

Much of this will be in place in three years time. Surely it is time Leeds Council raised its game?

Orwellian apology

From John Senior, Skelmanthorpe.

IF, in 1949, George Orwell had written Two Thousand and Eighteen instead of 1984 and had depicted therein a fire chief apologising for speaking about a ‘five man crew’, what would have been our reaction? I do find that a ‘five man crew’ ‘slips’ off the tongue rather more easily than a ‘five person crew’.

View from the armchair

From: Jack Coley, Rotherham.

I FEEL I must take issue with Tom Richmond’s attack on “armchair experts” after the Brownlee brothers contested 
the triathlon at the Commonwealth Games (The Yorkshire Post, April 7). Many people like myself were unaware of their injuries.

From: Sam Townend, Otley.

WHY do the BBC think it is entertaining for former swimming champion Rebecca Adlington to offer views on track cycling at the Commonwealth Games? The Corporation’s coverage has, at times, been infantile and Clare Balding more irritating with each passing day. Do others agree?