YEP Letters: June 3

Celebrities can’t speak for us

Terry Maunder, Kirkstall

Mylene Klass on single mothers as a TV choice for the day?

She claims she has been stigmatised ?

I doubt if she actually knows what the word means.

She has not got a clue in her ivory tower with the money she has.

Nor is there anything appropriate in her interviewing single mothers who are really struggling. The clothes she wears must cost a small fortune.

Have I mentioned her comments about mansion tax, which single out her real attitudes? Where also are the invisible single fathers ?

There is nothing more specious than “celebrities” trying to be empathetic.

Terry Maunder, Kirkstall

I BURST out laughing when I saw Midge Ure’s comment about the music business in your They Said column today.

Mediocrity ? “Vienna” has to be one of the most pompous, pretentious songs ever written, famously kept from the Number 1 slot by “Shaddup Your Face”, a classic of poignant song writing and perceptive lyrics.The best album by Ultravox (that is, their first eponymous one in 1977) doesn’t have him in the band anyway. Their albums with him never appear in those “100 Best Albums” or “1001 Albums You

Must Hear Before You Die” type lists or books.I agree that much modern “pop” music lacks imagination and that many songs by the likes of boy bands or Beyonce, Kia Ora and Alesha Dixon utterly lack any lyrical edge, with the same few words repeated over and over again. Don’t get me started on club music :

One of my neighbours treats us all to that horrible boom boom boom row every time he pulls up outside his house. For Mr Ure to state this as if he is somehow much better is just laughable. Stick with that first “Ultravox” album and the solo work of John Foxx, their first lead vocalist.

It’s hardly flaming June!

Frob Brooks FRmets, Farsley

To put the recent max of 12.2C in perspective in context with the depths of winter, there were 11 days in December and 4 in January warmer than today! Tomorrow won’t be any warmer and it’s June! However, it snowed in Buxton on the 1st June 1975! A cricket match was abandoned!

Could you be a Scout leader?

Ian Hill, County Commissioner for rhe Scout Association

This is Volunteers’ Week: The Big Celebration and what better time to recognise the incredible work of our 1,543 Scouting volunteers?

Today Scouting provides fun and adventure to almost 6,588 young people in Central Yorkshire. We build confidence, self-esteem and help girls and boys, young men and women aged 6-25 develop the skills and values they need to succeed in life.

But what does volunteering really mean? It’s about finding an organisation whose values align with your own. It’s about finding a cause you feel passionately about and which allows you to grow as a person. It’s about using your skills and learning new ones.

For our 6,588 volunteers, Scouting provides these opportunities. In Scouting, adults as well as young people make new friends, try new things and develop skills that they use in their everyday lives. Volunteering for Scouting is flexible and fits around work and volunteer commitments. We work especially hard to find roles that are matched to a person’s interests and talents.

Perhaps most importantly volunteering is about contributing something to the local community. From the Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, to the leader of the local Beaver Scout Colony, every one of our volunteers makes a promise to help other people.

This year Scouts are living their promise by making a positive impact in local communities through A Million Hands, a national campaign to support four key issues: improving the lives of those affected by dementia, improving the lives of the disabled, improving the mental well-being and resilience of families and ensuring everyone everywhere has access to clean water and sanitation. It’s about real, meaningful and sustainable action and it’s encouraging a new generation to really think about and support the people around them.

On behalf of 6,588 Scouts, may I say a very heartfelt thank you to our volunteers. And if you feel inspired by what you’ve read, whether you’re an adult or young person, we would welcome you to the Scouting family and support your development too.

People need the real facts

R Durant, by email

My deep concern is that the general public are not being told the true facts about the UK’s membership of the EU.

Disregarding whether or not we will be better or worse off staying in the EU, disregarding the statistics and arguments surrounding the economy in or out of the EU and disregarding whether you or anyone else will be voting in or out, the general public needs to be made aware, fully aware, of the long term goals and agenda of the EU.

Most people I speak to have no idea whatsoever that the EU wants to create a super-state, a united states of Europe.

They are not being told the fact that the people who run the EU want to effectively end the rights of the British government to make its own laws or to ever have control of its own borders.

They are not being told that they will never again have the power to elect or vote out governments they agree or disagree with.

They are not being told that the EU fully intends to become borderless within itself and they are not being told that the wish of the EU is to transform Great Britain from an independent sovereign nation into a dependant member state of a single country called Europe.

These are not ifs and maybes; they are hard facts about the EU and the referendum is about so much more than the economy.

These facts are being brushed aside or hidden by the government in favour of minor arguments about the economy. I think it is astonishing and astounding that the British masses are not being told about these very real consequences of EU membership, so much so that I believe it is tantamount to a criminal offence and that a criminal case should be made against the government.

The general public deserve to be told the truth and up to now, this is not happening. I know I am a very small voice on a very large playing field but I hope so very much that you, as a newspaper, will play a part in bringing these issues to the attention of the deserving British people.

Time for miners to know truth

Matthew Forth, by email.

I DISAGREE with Ron Firth’s letter about Orgreave (Monday, May 30) , never have I seen such nonsense! I may not have been around when the miners strikehappened, but I heard a lot and even read through the reports when the secret documents have been released in the papers after 30 years.

As for his claim the miners wanted revenge, you could say Thatcher was vindictive against the miners yes, they did out the last Tory government, but reports also show that she even considered sending in the army.

I’m glad the documents regarding Hillsborough were released and a verdict reached; the victims, their friends and families now have closure and can get on with their lives, because the way it had been dealt inthe past stank to high heaven and the same goes for Orgreave. I believe it is now time for the miners and their families to have closure.

As for calling it a “waste of tax payers money” it’s the most common – and weak - argument you hear from the right. I take it spending taxpayers’ money on taking military action in places we shouldn’t get involved in, or giving more tax cuts to millionaires, is value for money! It would appear to me that when documents from the Thatcher years are released, her supporters cry foul. But they shouldn’t worry, I await the Chilcot enquiry with anticipation.

The public has the right to closure; it’s not a privilege. Governments, regardless of colour, need to stop pulling the wool over our eyes by keeping certain events secret.