YEP Letters: May 14

Check out today's YEP letters

Remembering the city’s cinemas

M Whitehead, Leeds 7

IN the recent article regarding cinemas in the city centre, the “Tatler” I remember was on the corner of Park Row and Boar Lane.

I’ve queued there many a time, and the film that stuck in my mind was “The Way to the Stars”. It must have been 1948/49 or thereabouts. Later it took to showing foreign films and I remember seeing “The Seven Samurai”, which was later adapted by Hollywood into “The Magnificent Seven”. The News Theatre was next to the entrance to the City Station and the Queens Hotel.

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How different it all was back in those days - queuing at the Majestic to see the latest Danny Kaye film, and the first James Bond “Dr No” at the Tower. Seems like another world.

Poor air quality due to ‘excessive human activity’

DS Boyes, Leeds.

Concerns by some at Westminster over the targeting of only road vehicles – cars, vans, buses and HGVs – as the main cause of air pollution are well founded.

The reality is that many more devices not subject to any statutory controls or testing are creating emissions.

These include railway locomotives, static and mobile construction machinery, heating and cooking appliances, diesel generators supplying the National Grid at peak demand, plus of course jet aircraft, the most polluting of all.

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The real reason for declining air quality is excessive human activity. This is contributed to by over-population.

Central Leeds, not many years ago, was mainly retail and offices on limited opening hours – not open on Sunday or bank holidays as today, and unlike now, few actually lived there.

Pubs shut at 10pm with only a few other leisure venues such as cinemas or theatres – unlike today with 24/7 mayhem and thousands of private hire or taxi journeys. Tourism is now also identified as a major cause of pollution, with low cost air travel a major factor.

Sadly motor vehicles are the only group subject to regulation or taxes, thus making them an easy target for politicians.

Lords meddle at own risk

Valerie Wilkes, Barwick-in-Elmet

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I WRITE to express my disgust at the House of Lords. Their interference in the bill to exit the EU is nothing short of scandalous. Their suggestion that they are only trying to improve the bill is laughable.

It is quite clear from all their amendments they seek to keep us in the EU which would mean accepting the four freedoms – all of which were rejected by the vote to leave.

It will in no way help to improve any deal offered by Mr Barnier. He is just sitting back waiting for them to do his work for him. We pay £300 per day for these Lords just to turn up. It is time for the House of Lords to be scrapped.

Also I would like to point out to the likes of Nicky Morgan and Anna Soubry that their manifesto promise was to leave both the Single Market and the Customs Union.

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People like Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson are trying to hold the Conservatives to that promise. It is the Remoaners in this party that are stamping their feet because they didn’t get the result they wanted, not the Brexiteers.

Ticket split saves fares

Norman J Hazell MBE, Wakefield

THE MEDIA is buzzing with stories of a way to reduce the cost of buying several tickets to travel on the railway, as though this is an exciting new way to reduce cost. How ridiculous!

Fifteen years ago, I developed a fascination for supporting ‘The Clarets’, (Burnley Football Club) travelling not just to Turf Moor, but all over the country, for their brand of the great game.

I was soon introduced to a great way to reduce cost of travel by train simply by splitting my tickets. So, travel to Birmingham, involved tickets to Barnsley, then Sheffield and Derby, saving me about 40 per cent of a ‘through’ ticket. I passed on this legitimate process to friends and have taken advantage ever since.

Drawn into the US’s wars

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Dr David Hill, CEO, World Innovation Foundation, Huddersfield.

ARE WE right or wrong to continually follow the US’s lead into perpetual wars?

Every conflict that the US has become engaged with, the UK has followed.

It is little known, but the UK even advised South Vietnamese President Diem through the British Advisory Mission to South Vietnam (BRIAM) in September 1961, with Robert Thompson as one of Diem’s chief advisers, who had gained tremendous experience in the 12-year-long anti-guerrilla-warfare in Malaya.

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Therefore the UK has, if not with boots on the ground, supported the US in its military expeditions in every major 
war.

On the global stage the UK has backed the US in every major war since they became the dominant power in the world. The killing and injury statistics for Vietnam were inhuman and the numbers are numbing. According to a study by Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington, there were 3.8 million violent war deaths, of which two million were civilians.

If anyone has ever been to Vietnam – and I have been five times – you just cannot see how America could have bombed them, as they are a peaceful nation and highly respectful.

So are we doing the right thing in always following the US lead, when in recent years, more than one million Iraqis were killed with over six million displaced fleeing to other regions (mainly Europe), 600,000 Syrians killed with over seven million displaced to other regions (mainly to 
Europe again) and 500,000 Libyans displaced to other regions (mainly to Europe again)?

Memories of Oastler House

A Hague, Leeds 9

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READING Neil Hudson’s piece about Richard Oastler, who helped reduce the working day for young children (YEP April 30) reminded me of when Quarry Hill flats had an Oastler House section, where my grandad (who was boxing champion of Northern England) once lived and three more relatives and an ex-girlfriend.

Those were the days.

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