YEP Letters January 30

Check out today’s YEP letters
Leeds PlayhouseLeeds Playhouse
Leeds Playhouse

Enter the Leeds Bookhouse...

B Smith, Leeds

With some delight I welcomed the renaming of the Playhouse, as the Leeds Playhouse, in the eternal spirit of such founding Leeds fathers as Walter Newlyn, Bernard Atha and inspirational headteacher Charles Gardiner.

Happily I reflected on those pioneer days of repertory theatre and great productions of plays. Then I find that the winter 2019 season has opened with yet another dramatisation of yet another book. A good story, but a book.

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Old enough to remember ‘Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare’, I recommend it as a future project for the Leeds Bookhouse. There are some exciting projects for ’new and critically acclaimed’ dramatisations in that volume.

Exit: pursued by a play.

Lost faith in preservation of democracy

Michael Devlin, by email

I have voted in every General Election since coming of age in 1967 as I believe that the right to vote in a democracy is a hard fought for privilege.

I always accepted the outcome of the election even if I wasn’t happy with the result. The majority decision of the people in my book is the rule in which a democratic country should live by.

After a majority decision in the referendum to leave the EU two years ago, I expected our representatives from both sides of the house to respect the outcome and get to work to leave as quickly and smoothly as possible.

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Unfortunately MPs from both sides have instead decided to follow their own agendas and whilst the Remainers have tried to thwart Brexit at every turn and weaken our negotiating position, the so called pro Brexit MPs have lost any backbone they had and are falling into line with Theresa May’s watered down version of Brexit which most certainly isn’t what we voted for.

I am so disappointed and disgusted in the way our politicians have conducted themselves since the referendum that I have lost faith in their ability to preserve democracy.

So when we the people are asked to vote in the next general election I sincerely feel that I shall spoil my vote and I urge others to do so aswell.

Support for pension age changes

Ivan Kovacks, by email

I’ve seen in the YEP (January 26) yet another letter complaining about the raising of the retirement age for all and women in particular.

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This change has been extensively debated; argued and shouted about in every form of media since well before the initial legislation was passed. It has been changed at least once to reduce the impact on women since it came in so I’ve no idea how anyone can say they were ignorant of these changes.

Bearing in mind when the pension first came in people were expected to receive it for about five to ten years, whilst now people generally last for at least three times longer and many work well past 60, putting the age up for men and women is a logical and reasonable step.

As women tend to live longer than men, bringing the pension age up to that of men is fair and reasonable. I do think that the amount of the old age pension should be higher if only so all pensioners can pay for their own TV licence fee.

Speaking as a soon to be pensioner I am one of the men who has been affected, as I’ll have to wait til I’m 67 to collect my pension, after over 40 years of hard work.

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I must say that in this case I fully support what the government has done in making these pension changes.

Put the Great back into Britain

D Angood, by email

Before and since the referendum we have been inundated with facts and figures, positive, negative and downright misleading from both sides.

I have deduced there are only two certainties from all the rhetoric - the vote was to leave the EU and the amount of our contribution to the EU coffers.

These are the two facts that should have been at the forefront of all discussions, but all we have heard from our spineless politicians are their personal fears.

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There are too many people unwilling to put their faith in Britain and therefore fail to trust its people. The task before us all is to put the Great back into Britain.

We should have invoked Article 50 straight away and set about how the country was going to invest that money to alleviate any problems that might ensue from leaving. That to me would have been the sensible way and it would have afforded peace of mind to many.

No one denies there will be difficulties encountered along the way but instead of trying to nullify everything, or as in the case of remainers magnifying them, before we leave it would be a lot simpler to tackle them one at a time as they were met. All the ifs, buts and maybes beforehand would be a yes or no after.

All the fears expressed about a “no deal” scenario are speculation because no one can paint a true version of the facts until we leave and leave we must.

Food imports from Europe

TN Balmer, Sicklinghall

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Have the Brexit doom-mongers forecasting huge shortages of imported fruit and vegetables in the UK without a Brexit deal given any thought to what the European growers will do with their unwanted and rotting crops and what they will use for money to pay their thousands of workers?

At the end of the day commerce and industry on both sides of the Channel will do whatever they need to do, together if needs be, to protect their businesses and remain solvent.

Leave without any deal

Hilary Andrews, Leeds

WHAT a mess the country has got itself into over the issue of exiting the EU.

In 2016 the country voted to leave but, unfortunately, we have a Parliament and a Civil Service who are staunch Remainers. These individuals are not fulfilling the will of the people, and in many cases that of their constituents, as they feel they know better.

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I can’t be the only one who can see no way out of this impasse apart from leaving without any deal, and making our own way, as we have done many times in the past.

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