YEP Letters: July 20

MPs can get sleeves rolled up

A Hague, LS9

For once I have to disagree with James Bovington (YEP Letters, June 20), when he said the EU is amajor factor for keeping war at bay. It’s our nuclear defence system that costs us billions that does the job, plus United Nations membership and our friend the US. We were tricked into the Common Market by Ted Heath and almost again by David Cameron but sense prevailed and now our members of parliament can now roll their sleeves up and do the job they are paid for.

Are obsolete wrecks worth the cash?

DS Boyes, LS13

The latest obsession of Labour councillors in Leeds seems to be squandering or money on rescuing wrecks of obsolete old buildings, the majority are well past their sell by date.

Branch Road chapel, as was, was a place of worship deconsecrated decades ago, and more recently Mike’s Carpets, is near the top of the list - but why? What good is it?

Others are Temple Works, that 19th century anachronism situated on Marshall 
Street, Holbeck and Hunslet Mill.

But aren’t these Victorian edifices just monuments to extreme exploitation of generations of workers who slaved away for a pitance with no health and safety, paid holidays, healthcare or pension, who existed in overcrowded slums?

The worker’s only future, if they didn’t die young from accident or of disease, was the dreaded workhouse.

My birthplace, St Mary’s Hospital, Armley Hill Top, was originaly built as a workhouse.

National records of birth, marriage and death only began in 1834.

I have traced my family back to 1837 and have seen the census returns for them and seen what work they did and how young theyoften died of diseases easily treatable by the NHS today.

Against the background of their suffering, I wonder just what is there celebrate by using scarce resources to renovate these old structures?

Spend money for our today and for our children and grandchildren’s tomorrows, not yesterday’s best forgotten.

Are you our lost car boot family?

Lisa Jones, by email

My husband recently found a pen drive at a car boot sale in Prestatyn, North Wales.

When looking on it, it appeared to have photos of children who could possibly be 18 and 13 now.

As I know from experience, photos are sentimental and cannot be replaced. I have done some research and found two boys by these names on Genes Reunited, born in Dewsbury on the year they may have been born.

The baby is called Luke Rhodes and the young lad Jake Rhodes. The couple in the photo I think are the parents and girl their sister. Please help me.

l Do you think the pictures the Jones family found are yours? Email [email protected] and we’ll put you in touch.

We’re masters of our destiny

Mrs D Best, by email

I am becoming increasingly annoyed by so called “remainers”, who persist in describing those who voted to leave the EU as people who did not know what they were voting for, then merely commenting, as John Collins has, that leaving will be “calamitous “without saying why.

Those of us who voted to leave are neither stupid nor are we racist.

The majority were dismayed by the sheer disdain that the entitled ruling elite showed ordinary Joe Public.

I know hardly anyone who did not vote leave and I and like minded people were delighted that we won through.

This is the best thing to happen to our country. New opportunities for trade outside the EU have already been realised, the predicted dire economic predictions have been confounded, our economy is strong and none of the big companies that threatened to relocate should we “ Brexit” has done so.

We can make our own decisions about tax and law without having to go cap in hand to the Brussels bureaucrats , we are now masters of our own destiny it’s a very exciting prospect!

Blair was a flawed PM

Don Burslam, Dewsbury

FOLLOWING the Chilcot Report there has rightly been concentration on the actions of Mr Blair. I think he was a flawed Prime Minister, ignorant of and disregarding the conventions of Cabinet Government.

It is at least possible that if he had consulted more, events might have taken a different turn. Even at the time there was much opposition both inside and outside Parliament.

We must not forget, however that the prime mover in all this was the President of the US. They had previously put pressure on us over Vietnam and thank goodness we resisted this. Unfortunately Mr Blair proved far more pliant than Mr Wilson.

The moral is that if a similar situation crops up again, we must firmly resist American efforts to involve us in any more of their expensive overseas adventures.

More to do for rural housing

Mervyn Jones, Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing.

Rural Housing Week (July 11–17) highlighted the importance of providing a range of homes, including affordable housing options, in rural areas.

It celebrates housing associations helping local people continue to live in rural areas and the role that the right mix of housing has in keeping amenities such as, schools, shops, post offices and pubs open.

However there is more to do – Yorkshire Housing is calling on the Government to offer more flexibility to housing associations with funding, so we can deliver the types of home that are needed.

We wholeheartedly support the Government’s efforts to encourage home ownership.

We know that high housing costs in many rural areas puts home ownership out of reach for a lot of people, and there is also a need for good quality affordable homes to rent.

We may see a downturn in the economy and a slowdown in housebuilding in the months ahead. Giving housing associations the freedom to build homes for rent will also keep construction workers in jobs and boost rural economies.

Concern should be future cold

N Pearson, Leeds.

THE latest burst of hysterical alarmism from the Government’s Climate Change Committee (“infrastructures destroyed”, “deaths from summer heat”, etc) remind one irresistibly of the increasingly wild and comical “Project Fear” warnings issued by the “Remain” camp during the EU referendum.

Three observations on this: Firstly, whatever happens to the climate, it can’t have any connection with human activity, since physics and the record prove that rising CO2 can’t ever cause more than slight, benevolent warming, easily overcome by the effect of other factors, principally, of course, the Sun.

Secondly, CO2 is, however, a valuable plant nutrient, historically at a fairly low level at present, and could do with being substantially increased to help the Earth’s plant life. Spending vast sums of money trying to remove it from the atmosphere is economically and environmentally potty. Thirdly, as we are historically, at the moment, around the end of an interglacial (i.e., a period between Ice Ages) and there has been a slight global cooling trend now for about twenty years, we should perhaps be more worried about future cold than future warming.

Well done for a great day out

Coun Robert Finningan, Morley

I was privileged to attend the Springfield Park community event in Morley on Saturday. It was an excellent event which brought the community together and all credit and my thanks goes to the Friends of Springfield Park for their work in putting on the gala. The weather stayed fine and everyone was clearly having a great time.