YEP Letters: June 13

The revamped 1976 Hall in Leeds Kirkgate Market. PIC: Tony Johnson

You’ve ruined our market

Jonathan Chapman, Tingley

On Tuesday June 7 me and my dad went into Leeds city centre and were shocked to see the state of Leeds Kirkgate Market.

They have ruined the hertiage. Why did they have to do it? They could have left it alone.

I was shocked and upset by what I saw - one thing is you can’t put fish and meat together like that, they need to be separate.

In the old days of the market my great gran used to go out down to Leeds market and do her shopping with an array of differnt shops and now all that has gone .

Thanks Leeds you have really gone and done it now.

We could pay for 38 new hospitals!

Aled Jones, Bridlington

Amazing! In the time it took me to read the Leave.EU leaflet that came through my door the UK had paid over £58,000 to faceless bureaucrats in Brussels. Over a year, that’d be more than enough to pay for 38 state-of-the-art new hospitals. What better reason do we need to vote ‘leave’ at the upcoming election on EU membership? None!

Would you had over to them?

Peter Mills, by Email

Anyone still undecided about the wisdom of voting to Remain in the EU need only look at the advocates of ‘Brexit’ to see into the hidden agenda of the Leave campaign; Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Nigel Farage....notice anything? Yes, they are all so far to the right they make George Osborne seem like a moderate.

Immigration is the only issue on which the Leave campaign really has any traction yet it is a smokescreen which we should look behind - under the cover of people’s legitimate concerns and worries they are planning to smuggle in economic policies which would make the current ‘austerity’ seem like a golden age. Worker’s rights - that means you and I, not ‘the other guy’ - would go straight in the mincer, and the North of England in particular would be strangled, Scotland would walk and the English would be left open to the whim of a cabal of ultra-right wingers, implementing policies which, ironically, are entirely un-British.

Would you really be happy handing power to Johnson and Farage - the second of whom, lest we forget, still couldn’t get elected last May’s General Election despite having seemingly thousands of hours free airtime on TV and radio and miles of coverage in the press, out of all proportion to his actual status? UKIP have one - one - MP who is himself a Tory defector, yet Farage presents himself as if he alone speaks for the British. I’m pretty tired of it. The EU is a very long way from being perfect but the alternative is much worse, a dangerous ‘back to the future’ fantasy. So I say, Viva Europe!

There is no accountability

Barrie Crowther, Walton, Wakefield

IT seems extraordinary we know we send £55m a day to Europe but no one can tell us exactly the amount we get back.

A general consensus is we get around a third returned. There is no wonder EU accounts are never balanced or signed off, if simple payments and returns cannot be ratified.

We do not even know or have a say in how this supposed third is spent. Even the treasury appears in the dark. Control of yours and mine taxpayers money is paramount. The only way to do this is vote Leave,

All mod comms - and here to stay

Ernest Lundy, by email

Fashions, like commodities, come and go! But metaphorically certain items occasionally take pride of place in use throughout the world.

Over recent decades it is certain that one invention, figuratively speaking, ruled the world: The plastic garden chair! We still see them everywhere. From Spain to Germany and France, from the Argentina to Australia. Being reasonably priced and easily produced, few gardens are without them.

But now, many of these, reflecting the ravages of weather and time, lie unused, neglected, broken and forlorn. Although millions are still in use, new inventions are in the ascendency.

Take mobile phones, after advances in technology and subsequent versatility, it seems the use of modern versions has become almost obligatory, in a compulsive and obsessive way.

However one can but wonder if these marvels of inventiveness are really good for general consumption, particularly in the way some use them; in all places and conditions, to the exclusion of the world around them. I Rarely these days do we see lone individuals without a phone or tablet, demanding their full attention: either texting, scrolling, phoning or playing games. Meanwhile conversation for many is becoming a lost art.

I’m not interested in learning that the person next to me on bus or train is informing mother or partner that she will be home in 10 minutes; or indulging in other kinds of activity. I’d much rather be passing the time of day in meaningful conversation or alternatively, silence.

But I’m afraid that these electronic, iconic, masterpieces will be around for a long time yet, proliferating more. Meanwhile continue to use your plastic garden chairs wherever you are.

It’s a battle for Tory leadership

R Kimble, Hawksworth

It has become clear that the EU Referendum campaign has become nothing more than a Tory Party leadership campaign. Labour has virtually become invisible apart from people like Harriet Harman showboating with Tories at events which, as a Socialist, I find shameful on her part, given their lack of compassion to vulnerable people generally.

Corbyn completely lacks any presence and seems also to lack an alternative position (as other real Socialist groups have done). Cameron and him talk about reforming the EU if the “stay” vote wins (given the number of people who have not even registered, the outcome is a fantasy anyway) but politicians have been talking about doing this since before even Kinnock.

France, Germany and Belgium, just to mention three , have verbalised that there will be no reform, even modest ones. Merkel (ironically now the most powerful woman in the world ) has indicated that there will be no democratic processes when it comes to debt, for example. Juncker has said the same about democratic processes generally with regard to treaties. Good prospect.

Dumb blonds (not you ladies)

Jack and Sue Banner, Meanwood

I DO so hope that your lady readers will not take offence at the title of my latest contribution .

I can promise them that the dumb blonds I refer to are both masculine – Boris Johnson and Donald Trump!

How on earth can anyone support the political views of these morons?

If they are elected we are all doomed, surely our world deserves more than what these can offer ?

From a soldier to a Leeds lad

Mick Furbank, Leeds

FROM a soldier to a Leeds lad:

CAN you feel the dark winds sighing amidst the trees?

Twisting bough, scattering autumn leaves.