YEP Letters: March 1

Going digital won’t help care crisis

Robert Holman, Leeds 28

READING the headline (‘New campaign to tackle the city’s ‘digital divide’’, Yorkshire Evening Post, February 20) and listening to the BBC news, the increases in council tax will not stop further cuts in the ‘communities’ care homes in crisis, the NHS is at breaking point, warns the British Medical Association and OAPs are unable to feed or dress themselves.

How will going digital solve these council top of the list priorities?

Or am I being cynical, or negative, or living in the real world?

Dangers of irresponsible motorists

S Kavanagh, Morley

The article (‘Get tough with danger drivers’, YEP February 22) highlighted a growing trend of irresponsible drivers exceeding speed limits on every given occasion with a total disregard of the law or other people.

It might be that in east Leeds it is drivers of a certain age group i.e. the younger, but I would say it is not the case generally. Appreciating vehicles of today have quality braking systems etc, such systems are of little benefit when driven by inexperienced drivers.

Everyone thinks they are the best driver but that is not the case. Good driving is an art, with many drivers not having the skills. Coun Brian Selby talks of traffic calming measures being required. They will help but probably not deter the idiot element.

Driving is an ever learning skill, with the vehicle being a lethal weapon in the wrong hands yet some drivers, having passed a test, think they are a Lewis Hamilton and invincible. They’re not. All too often, bad driving can be witnessed every day with drivers cutting-up others, undertaking, leaving manoeuvres until the last minute and speeding unnecessarily. The best place to witness such bad/mad driving, often at speeds well in excess of the limit, is the 50mph stretch of the M621 motorway which passes the Leeds United football stadium. It is like a race track but never do you see a police patrol. Presumably due to more important needs or staffing issues.

Those drivers, like those in east Leeds and others, should be severely punished financially coupled with heavy disqualification, or imprisoned for more serious offending more so if repeated, and to the point of vehicles being seized and crushed. The only problem is having police officers “on the ground” and in a position to catch the offenders.

Time to listen to voter concerns

Jim Kirk, Middleton

The Labour Party is now in bigger crisis than the NHS. The very best they can say about the recent by-election results is that they could have been worse!

A round of applause to Jeremy Corbyn for stating the glaringly obvious that he took his “share” of responsibility for the Copeland defeat. Sadly Mr Corbyn failed to state clearly what constituted his share. Whatever happened to ‘the buck stops here’?

He concedes that Labour hasn’t done enough to rebuild trust with disillusioned voters. Why is there no trust? Why is there disillusionment?

He wants the Labour party to remain united in the belief in their movement. It’s the voters that need to believe, not the party! That’s the problem, they only want your vote and once they have it they are under no legal obligation to meet any of the election promises made.

Mr Corbyn’s recent speech to Scottish Labour in defence of the Copeland humiliation was so uninspiring Theresa May must have been doing the gonga.

“Now is not the time to retreat, to run away or give up” (when you’re standing on the edge of a cliff, not retreating isn’t the best option, run away and fight another day)

“Class, not identity is what still impacts most on people. It’s the class that they are born into that impacts on their life chances” (Life isn’t about chance, it’s what you make of it. Class is irrelevant we are all born equal, hardwork and determination are the tools that can break the barriers of a privileged advantage of birth.)

“Did the miners give up the fight?” ( The miners showed the unity the Labour party craves. They didn’t have the right to demand men to strike, who had previously stood shoulder to shoulder with them on pickets lines for a whole year while their marriages failed, their houses were repossessed and their children went without.)

Mr Corbyn wants to make our society, better, fairer, more just, see the homeless taken off the streets when the rest of us are punished for having a roof over our heads.

A five per cent increase in council tax for services that are constantly being reduced. ( how is that just?) How is it fair to demand from the lowest paid that they meet this increase when elected Labour councillors fail to pay the tax themselves, and have to be dragged before the courts.

Revenue raised and squandered on pointless projects by a council so inept they couldn’t make an ice cube without having a decade long conference on the recipe.

If Labour want to gain the trust of the voter once more, I suggest they try actually listening to concerns raised by them.

Memories of scooter clubs

Pete Davies, by email

in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s Yorkshire was home to more than a few scooter clubs and countless solo riders.

Does any remember the Aire Valley Vespa Club? How about the Barnsley All Italian Scooter Club, Calder Valley Scooter Club, Doncaster Lambretta Club, Huddersfield Scooter Club, Leeds Vespa Club, Leeds Lambretta Club, Sheffield Lambretta Club, Thorne Vespa Club and many more - in fact too may to list.

If you were a member of any of these or any other club for that matter or even if you were a solo rider during this period then I’d love to hear from you.

As well as being a dedicated Lambretta rider, I’m also an author working on a new book about scooter memories, whether that be why you bought a particular make or model, local/national/international events or trips, scooter dealers, scooter sport and scooter life in general. If you were riding during this period then I’d love to hear from you and if you have any photographs/memorabilia then I’d love to see those as well.

I doubt anyone has an old Lambretta propping up the wall in their shed/garage but if you do then let me know about that as well. I can be contacted via email at: [email protected] or via mail at Pete Davies, 95 Grove Road, Blaby, Leicester, LE8 4DH

Meaning not understood

Ivan Kovacks, by email

I would like to offer a response to the letter from Martha Hargrave (‘Hole in solution to problem’, YEP Letters February 25), where she makes some negative observations on my original letter.

Firstly can I thank her for her clear support for my comments and hope that others will do likewise.

Unfortunately, from then on and in order to make a joke of one of my suggestions, she has either clearly not read or fully understood what I wrote and has accused me of saying something that I never did. She points out that it would be a criminal act to photograph someone using a mobile phone whilst driving, on one’s own mobile phone also whilst driving. That is clearly true and if she had carefully read my letter this is something I never suggested.

What I talk of is carrying a camera (not a phone) to photograph these felons from the side of the road, also I and many others, have dashcams fitted that will record movie and still images of other drivers, which can be then saved and sent to the relevant authority from the safety of one’s own computer.

At no time would I advocate using a mobile phone whilst driving, even if it is to photograph another wrong doer.

Theatre visits are curtailed

A Dale, by email

Regarding the booking fees at the Leeds Grand Theatre, I used to visit the theatre about five times a year, but due to the new booking fees and the general hike in prices - usually £40+ to see a performance - I have had to curtail my visits to once or twice a year.

Very counterproductive as the theatre are missing out on revenue.