YEP Letters: March 5

Fascinated by Orwell’s Leeds visit

DS Boyes, Leeds 13

I was fascinated to learn from the YEP (March 1) that my favourite author George Orwell, also known as Eric Blair, actually visited Bramley, although 13 years before I was born.

The old Cardigan Arms being at the corner of Hough Lane and Town Street. The BYB logo stands for Bentley’s Yorkshire Breweries, one of many lost by amalgamation with larger brands.

The yard to the left of the photo had the former Lido Cinema at its far end. This pub was later demolished and replaced by one called at different times The Beer Engine or Lord Cardigan, the site now used for housing. My first Orwell book read was Animal Farm, then 1984, although I later found The Road to Wigan Pier, Keep the Aspidistra Flying and Homage to Catalonia detailing Eric Blair’s experiences in the 1936 Spanish Civil War a bit heavy going as a teenager.

Lighter works e.g. Coming Up for Air r were much easier reading. I once bought a combined copy of 1984 and Animal Farm for just 60p and sent it to former Kirkstall Labour councillor Liz Minkin at the Civic Hall with a message to pass it round the Labour group to help them see where they were – in my opinion – going wrong.

Council rejected chance to boost PCSO funding

Councillor Andrew Carter CBE, Leader of the Conservative Group, Leeds City Council

I read with interest your recent article (PCSO numbers ‘may increase’ – YEP February 29) suggesting that somehow the administration had fought the good fight on PCSOs, sadly the opposite is true.

At the budget meeting last week I put forward a number of amendments to the council’s budget. One of these was to provide an additional £520,000 to ensure that each ward in the city received an extra PCSO in 2016/17.

The move to the 50/50 funding formula by the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) could see areas of the city with very little coverage in terms of PCSOs and my proposals would have boosted numbers and ensured that all areas received a balanced allocation of officers.

There has been no additional funding commitment, the funding remains the same as last year at £1.06m per year, and yes it looks like the PCC will also be increasing the amount he fully funds, but let’s be clear the council’s contribution remains the same and they rejected a good opportunity to increase funding for these vital officers, even though the extra cash for them would have been sourced from back office savings.

Your article seems to suggest that the administration is boosting its support for community safety and PCSO numbers, in fact the chance was provided to do just that, but it was rejected.

How can a reduction in five partnership funded PCSOs per ward to two or three such officers be painted as a success?

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Standing up to fascism

S A Jefford, Ireland Wood

‘Monday Retro’ was interesting on Professor Selig Brodetsky (YEP, February 29).

Brodetsky was indeed on the Nazi ‘Special Wanted List’ (Sonderfahnungsliste) in 1940, but was not the only Leeds resident to be so included. The other was A. M. Hurwitz of Chapeltown. He had been practising as a barrister in Leeds from the early 1920s, was active in Liberal politics in the city for years, and would continue his career in the law until 1970.

During the First World War, Brodetsky (1888-1954) had been engaged by a firm of optical manufacturers to carry out the necessary calculations for the construction of microscopes, and periscopes for submarines. His expertise was in theoretical aerodynamics, and he researched and wrote on questions of the motion and stability of the aeroplane, matters obviously crucial to its development.

He became Professor of Applied Mathematics in the University of Leeds in 1924, a post he held until his retirement in 1948. On arrival in Leeds he was feted as “one of the 10 men in the world who understood Einstein”!

It was achievements such as these, together with the great personal courage he demonstrated in standing up to fascism, that inspired me to suggest a Blue Plaque in his honour, not so long ago.

The Professor came face to face with Hitler’s propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1933, opposed Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement from 1937, and during World War II, continued to speak out against Nazism, denouncing the Third Reich as “the Kingdom of Satan” and its system as posing a threat to humanity “which would push it back two or three thousand years,” if Germany won.

He was actually taunted over the airwaves, at one point, by the traitorous broadcaster William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”).

He worked ceaselessly to assist victims of Nazi persecution. Happily, he did live to see Hitler defeated. Brodetsky’s only comment about his place on the Nazi Wanted List was that he was “rather proud to find myself in such good company, with Churchill [and] so many of the finest people in the land”!

Kammy says get behind the daff

Chris Kamara, former Leeds United player

As we head into March, many clubs are hoping they can end the season on a high in a few months’ time and Leeds United fans will be no different.

March is also a major month for the charity Marie Curie, which this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of its annual Great Daffodil Appeal.

The fundraising appeal encourages people to ‘get behind the daff’ by giving a donation and wearing the charity’s daffodil pin.

The appeal is backed by many in the football community with a number of Premier League and Football League managers also wearing a daffodil pin throughout March.

The appeal has raised more than £73 million since it launched in 1986 and the money raised from will help Marie Curie Nurses provide care and support to people living with a terminal illness and their loved ones.

As a long-time supporter of Marie Curie and a football man through and through, I would like to encourage Leeds United fans to support the appeal in any way they can this March.

I have first-hand experience of the unbelievable work Marie Curie Nurses do.

My mum was one of life’s characters; always out and about in the local social clubs, having a laugh.

About a year before she died, she became housebound and stopped going out.

That’s when the Marie Curie Nurses got involved, and took care of her during the day, often staying overnight to keep her company until the morning.

You can’t quantify that kind of care and it was a real comfort to mum and the rest of the family.

Mum died at home. She was 71 years old and Marie Curie Nurses made it possible for her to be at home until the end, the place where she wanted to be.

I know football fans are an unbelievably passionate bunch, so let’s put some of that energy to good use and get involved for Marie Curie.

I try to do anything I can to raise awareness and I am urging Leeds United fans to join me and ‘get behind the daff’.

To volunteer to collect for Marie Curie and support the Great Daffodil Appeal call 0845 601 3107 (local rate) or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/daffodil.

To donate £5 text DAFF to 70111 (texts cost £5 plus your standard network rate) or call 0800 716 146 and donate over the phone.

Keep an eye out and pick up a daffodil pin from the army of volunteers or in Superdrug, WH Smith, Marie Curie shops and Wyevale Garden Centres throughout March.

Thanks for playing your part and good luck for the rest of the season,

Different outside EU?

N Bywater, Morley

My Conservative MP, Andrea Jenkyns wants to leave the EU, so that the UK can “formulate an immigration policy that works”.

Perhaps she can explain why our policy is not working? The Conservatives immigration policy is to “aim to keep annual net migration in tens of thousands” yet last year they let in over 400,000 from outside the EU.

There is nothing stopping the Conservatives honouring that promise. They have not honoured the same election promise made for the 2010 election and they are not honouring their 2015 election promise.

Ms Jenkyns says that we are the fifth largest economy in the world, why are we suffering a teacher and doctor brain drain? The leader of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has said teacher shortages are a serious problem. Teachers and doctors are having their pay restricted, whilst MPs are getting another pay rise this year.

I may well vote to leave the EU myself, but I need to know if things will be any different outside the EU.