YEP Letters: April 19

Check out today's YEP letters
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Fond memories of the ‘Scootacar’

Raymond Dixon, by email

Your recent ‘Fact of the Week’ article about the Leeds-made fibreglass ‘Scootacar’ brought back memories for me.

The car was in fact made by the Hunslet Engine Co and was based on the chassis of the then popular scooter. I ran the printing department and printed the Scootacar handbook. When the car started to be made in different colours we did the books in the same colours. This was a problem, however, when it came to the handbook for the ‘white’ version. White ink on white paper just doesn’t work! It took much searching of paper merchants to find one who could supply the right weight and type of black paper, ready for printing in white ink.

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The printing unit was on the first floor and backed onto the engine boiler-renovating workshop. When the renovated boilers were tested and the fires were in full flow the whole of the roof space filled with the smoke – and so did my printroom. Thus it was a fairly regular thing for printing to shut down for a couple of hours until we could see across the room again!

Windrush child from Leeds denied passport

A child of the Windrush generation has told of his heartbreak at missing his daughter’s wedding due to an official failure to recognise him as British. Joseph Bravo left Jamaica for London in the early 1960s and moved to Leeds before the end of the decade playing in and coaching amateur football teams and working as an electrician - the son of parents who came to the UK to help rebuild a shattered country following the Second World War. But when the 62 year-old applied for a passport to attend his daughter Charmaine’s wedding in Australia the authorities told him he would first have to apply for British citizenship at a cost of hundreds of pounds. On April 4 the Chapel Allerton-resident ended up watching Charmaine approach the altar on FaceTime describing it as “fantastic” but admitting not being there “cut me up”. We asked YEP readers for their views and here’s what some of them said on social media..

Sue Fletcher

Dreadful. Feel ashamed of UK at times like this.

Janice Dean

Wrong on every level. This man and many others have been treated appallingly by a government so out of touch from its people. My heart broke for him when I saw him on the news tonight. I’m ashamed at how he’s been treated and denied his daughter’s special day celebrations. This country is a joke.

Pauline Gorman

Despicable treatment. The government should compensate this poor man and send him on holiday to see his daughter after missing her special day.

Kelly Walker

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How can someone who has lived here for 50+ years be denied citizenship? He is a British citizen in my eyes. It’s absolutely appalling that this is happening, yet the government are allowing EU citizens and other legal immigrants more power in Britain than people who have lived here longer than most of us have been alive.

Barbara Thomas

It’s shameful the treatment you are getting –I hope it’s all sorted very soon, and you are treated with the dignity you deserve.

Katie Finlay

This makes no sense at all. It’s their mess and they need to sort it.

These people were kids. They’ve got lives and jobs here, where else is home?

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Absolutely diabolical that the government can play with people’s lives like this.

Ernest Anthony Lundy

The ministers spend far too much time thinking about when they are going to retire and on how much per annum.

Teresa Ashman

I can’t believe it’s taken all this time and things weren’t put in place for these people. They have contributed to our society and help to build it up specifically in areas of skill shortage, it is so upsetting, I don’t think our Queen will particularly happy about this. It’s nothing to do with our government today, this should have been sorted out along time ago.

Liam Patsy Jnr Folan

I know this lad and he deserves to live here more than anything. He works hard and is such a gentleman. Need more like Joe in this world.

Kelly Shaw

Words fail me for this man and many like him.

Gem Thomas

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He has been in Leeds longer than I’ve been alive. He is as much Leeds as I am.

Duane Smith

Those who have been affected by this madness in any way should be compensated.

Elizabeth Pickard

This is appalling. Why aren’t the civil servants and politicians responsible showing their heads above the parapets, they are the ones who have caused this disaster for innocent, hard-working people. It isn’t the Caribbean leaders they should be apologising to, it is the people they have treated so badly.

Steve Ward

This needs sorting pronto and let these people get on with their lives without worry.

Support for siblings

Clare Finch, Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity

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To some, Siblings Day on April 10 may have seemed trivial. But for families caring for a seriously ill child, it can be an important reminder of the bond between brothers and sisters.

The last few years have been indescribably tough for my family after my eight-year old son Adam was diagnosed with a brain tumour and spinal cancer. Whilst it was horrendous trying to help him through all the treatment, one of my biggest worries was the effect Adam’s illness would have on my 12-year-old daughter Megan.

I watched as Megan become more and more distant, witnessing her brother in pain and trying to cope with the situation.

That’s when Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity stepped in and we met our Sibling Support Worker, Callie. As soon as she became part of Megan’s life, I saw my little girl again. She had someone to share her worries and fears with about Adam.

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We are now in a much stronger place and Adam, now aged 10, and Megan, 14, are closer than ever, which I know is thanks to Rainbow Trust. So to mark Siblings Day may I urge your readers to support this incredible charity by visiting rainbowtrust.org.uk