YEP Letters November 21

Check out today's YEP letters
5th November 2018
Roundhay Park Bonfire 2018
Pictured the firework display at the bonfire
Picture by Gerard Binks Photography5th November 2018
Roundhay Park Bonfire 2018
Pictured the firework display at the bonfire
Picture by Gerard Binks Photography
5th November 2018 Roundhay Park Bonfire 2018 Pictured the firework display at the bonfire Picture by Gerard Binks Photography

Time to for a crackdown on fireworks? Your views

The Scottish Government is considering tightening controls around fireworks leading to calls for the English government to follow suit. A public consultation will begin in Scotland next year led by Community safety minister Ash Denham. The study will consider measures to reduce their misuse including restrictions on where and when fireworks can be used. This comes as more than 200k people across the UK have signed a petition calling for fireworks sales to be restricted and a licence system introduced. We asked YEP readers if our government should look at cracking down on fireworks too and here’s what some of them said on social media..

Carolyn Wildgoose

Organised, silent displays on 5 November only. When I was little, fireworks were only set off on 5 November: if the weather was too bad - no fireworks that year.

Sally Spencer

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Yes get rid of them unless it’s organised and make them apply for a licence for a certain date. Sick of them going off for weeks on end upsetting all the animals .

Brendon Bremner Sullivan

Yes, organised displays only, much more restriction needs to come in stop shops /supermarkets selling them aswell. Time for change.

Christian Grayson

Should look on cracking down on a lot more than just fireworks.

Phil Hanson

And put a stop to random fireworks through the rest of the year. Particlarly in summer when birds are nesting.

Jason Bancroft

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Let’s ban all pens and pencils because they are very pointy and a danger to stupid people too.

Michelle Karasiewicz

Yes still hearing them going off. Shops want fining for selling them. 
Bonfire Night has gone so why are they still being sold? 
Can’t people have a quiet night?

Katrina Slater

Should be a “window” of dates they are allowed or bring in the silent fireworks, it’s the actual display people look at.

Judy Sismey

Most definitely , organised events only!

Donna Marie Newell

Shouldn’t be sold to the public. I was parked in Leeds, a firework was let off towards me as I sat in my car.

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It caused alot of damage to the door, a massive dent and paintwork ruined. Had I had my window open and it hit me I would have been scarred or blinded.

Emma Goddard

Minority trying to ruin it for the majority

Kelly Lawson

Totally agree. Organised displays only. Explosives should not be available to Joe public.

Jar Teramano

Just ban their use outside of major displays and then eventually just ban them completely.

Jules Kelly

Only should be the 5th November. Seems like we have to keep up and compete with the rest of the world, with all the firework events around the year and then leading up to the events, then at least a week after.

Alison Tate

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Yes. Three weeks of fireworks is too much. Unfortunately many people have lost their common sense these days so they lob them at cars etc.

Sue Leggatt

November 5th only. That’s the only time fireworks were let off when I was a child.

Appeal for RAMC information

John Broom, by email

I would like to appeal to any readers who have family members who served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in the Second World War to get in touch with me if they have any memoirs, diaries or letters they would be able to share with me.

I am completing a book about the work of the RAMC which will be published in September 2019, and would be keen to access any information which could be transmitted by email or post.

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Any material used will be acknowledge and referenced in the book, which will be issued by Pen and Sword military publishers. Contact me at 12 Park Avenue, Penistone, Sheffield S36 6DN or email johnbroom@aol.com.

Grow a beard to help charity

Carl Hester, Olympic gold medallist for dressage

I’m calling on men to grow a beard this December and raise money for Bowel Cancer UK.

I’m thrilled to be supporting Decembeard, which is especially personal to me. I’ve had polyps removed from my bowel and now have annual check-ups, but the realisation that it could have developed into bowel cancer really hit me.

Taking part in Decembeard is simple. All you need to do is clean shave on 30 November and let your facial fuzz grow throughout the month.

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Already bearded? No problem. Dye, ditch or decorate your beard. Bowel cancer affects 1 in 14 men in the UK and is the third most common cancer in men, so it’s a really important cause.

Save lives this December. Grow a beard and raise funds to support vital services and lifesaving research: sign up at bowelcanceruk.org.uk/decembeard

What’s Blair’s agenda?

Shaun Kavanagh, Leeds.

Reading Tony Blair’s comments criticising Theresa May’s Brexit proposal and Jeremy Corbyn’s inability to lead Labour, does Tony Blair forget he himself was criticised from every direction during and after his stint as Prime Minister?

He is considered by many as one of the worst PMs the country has ever had and should remember, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. He was considered a failure by so many appears and appears to be continuing in the same vein.

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Mrs May has battled through an extremely difficult negotiating period in the UK’s history to try and deliver what the people voted for even though the outcome will never ever please everyone.

Perhaps she is not the “toughest cookie in the jar” but who would be coming up against the idiots in Brussels?

As for Blair wanting another referendum to try and reverse the people’s decision of Out then where would that lead to? If the outcome doesn’t please someone else is there to be yet another referendum, then another and another?

It’s ridiculous, the original decision should stand and the country should simply “get on with it”. Blair is clearly an EU supporter which became evident following his departure from No 10 so what is his agenda this time around? Perhaps he should just walk into the sunset and spend his millions – millions that those Labour voters he allegedly represented don’t, and never will have.

Alarming warning

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David Mitchell, National Chairman, the British Polio Fellowship.

Two years ago, the British Polio Fellowship commented on 107 US children left paralysed by a polio like disease.

Our concern then was this needed to be addressed quickly, so the fact cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) have spiked every two years since 2014 is alarming doctors. For our members, it brings back painful memories of dark times when the world was in the grip of a polio epidemic that killed indiscriminately and left thousands like myself with the lasting effects of the disease - Post Polio Syndrome (PPS).

We are monitoring the situation in the US closely and hope those with this neurological condition receive the correct treatment.

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Health workers are doing all they can to understand a virus which affects spinal fluid and the respiratory system. The last thing we need is a new polio when we stand on the brink of eradication of a disease that has blighted humanity since pharaonic times.

Only a handful of countries still face endemic polio; yet 120,000 in the UK still live with debilitating symptoms of PPS that develop years after the initial infection.

As we prepare to mark 80 years of British Polio on 29 January 2019, we continue to offer support and empowerment to those affected by it.

Visit www.britishpolio.org.uk or call us on 0800 043 1935.

Get in touch

THE Yorkshire Evening Post wants you to share your views with other readers. Whether you’re commenting on a local topic, a national story or international affairs, please join the debate. Email yep.newsdesk@ypn.co.uk or write to The Editor, Readers’ Letters, Yorkshire Evening Post, No 1 Leeds, 26 Whitehall Road, Leeds LS12 1BE. Please keep letters under 300 words.