YP Letters: We can't whitewash our history

From: David Collins, Scissett.
Sea cadet members at Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square - some campaigners have called for the statue to be removed.Sea cadet members at Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square - some campaigners have called for the statue to be removed.
Sea cadet members at Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square - some campaigners have called for the statue to be removed.

I VERY much applaud the lady who has found the names of 400 children who were buried in a common grave.

However this is nothing new and millions have over the years been buried in common graves with no memorial. To try to rewrite history, and apply our current standards to things that happened in the past, is pointless. People falling ill had only the religious houses to turn to.

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If you walk around church yards, how many gravestones are there to agricultural labourers or day workers? No, at best they would have had a wooden cross or no marker at all. I think they would have been grateful to have been buried in consecrated ground.

We seem to be obsessed with rewriting history to fit some modern idea which doesn’t allow for the nasty side of life. It is a major mistake to whitewash people out of history. Removing statues and renaming streets is a nonsense. We can learn from history if we open our ears and eyes, but not if all the nasty bits are unseen.

Divided by language

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

RE the Americanisation of English, at least we are not yet resorting to “faucet”, “sidewalk”, “line” (queue)”, “sedan”, “hood” and “trunk” (car bonnet and boot) “gasoline” etc. etc.

Sir Winston Churchill had a point when he said that we are two nations divided by a single language. My wife and I once got talking to an American couple and asked them where they were “making for” next. “Excuse me?” (itself the American for “I beg your pardon”) was the puzzled response. When we elaborated, the man’s face lit up: “Oh yeah, I get it, where are we heading?” You must admit that the way he put it would have been unambiguous either side of the Pond.

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My son, who has lived in the USA for over 30 years, whilst stubbornly retaining his northern English accent, always uses American vocabulary, even when over here. Unlike Barack Obama, who attracted criticism for his studied choice of “queue” instead of “line” on British TV, I guess – sorry, I imagine – they thought he was being disingenuous, patronising or even that he had been prompted.

City’s engines of the world

From: Geoffrey Hall, Alwoodley, Leeds.

THE other day, I watched India’s Frontier Railways on BBC4. There was an old shed on a rundown railway, full of rusting old steam locos. The last remaining veteran driver climbed up onto the footplate of one of the old engines, and there on the side was the works plate in all its glory “Hunslet Engine Co. Leeds”.

World-wide, there are many locomotives (with standard diesel) in museums, on preserved railways and in industry, that were built in Leeds. Some are over 100 years old. Famous names of builders include Hunslet, Kitson, Mammy Wardle and Hudswell Clark. Those that were exported really put the name of Leeds on the map.

Sadly all these firms have closed their doors many years ago. The last to leave Hunslet were the Class 323 Electric Multiple Units in the early 1990s. These are still in service in the Manchester and BIrmingham regions.

Field should join Tories

From: Steven McNamara, Middlesbrough.

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SORRY but I’m taking no lectures from staunch right wing ‘Labour’ MP Frank Field on his pro-Brexit stance (The Yorkshire Post, September 13).

His admiration for his great pal Margaret Thatcher, and refusal to challenge welfare cuts, sum the man up. He even said he hadn’t asked his constituents when he abstained on Tory welfare cuts – the man belongs in the Conservative Party.

Fracking put to the test

From: Coun Derek Chapman, Marsh Lane, Kirkbymoorside.

WITH regard to the ‘test frack’ at Kirby Misperton, we must collectively be vigilant in our monitoring and regulation to ensure that the hard-won planning consent is upheld.

This is a test of more than methane flowback; it’s also a test of community impact, liason, monitoring, regulation and enforcement. Key information that will underpin the viability, and true cost of full scale expansion.

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Also, no cumulative impact assessments for pollution, traffic, water management and public health have been calculated.

Poor planning of cycle lane

From: A Hague, Bellbrooke Grove, Leeds.

MORE cycle lanes were completed on Kirkstall Road, Leeds, where a cyclist was killed recently. This Sunday, when cycling home, I came across a bus shelter there. There was no sign saying “end of cycle lane”.

Why wasn’t it put on the inside of the path, like previous bus stops, which would allow the cycle path to continue a few more metres, completing the cycle lane? It would also have avoided cyclists cutting into the road, giving less room to motorists.

Forest loss fuels storms

From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York.

RE the claims that recent hurricanes are due to climate change, personally I blame the deforestation in the Philippines, Amazon, Central Africa and Himalayan Ranges, which would have soaked up the surplus water on land areas rather than allowing it to build up so violently over the oceans.