Common sense needed on bags

I REALLY appreciated the suggestion in the Editorial (Yorkshire Post, February 6) that there should be a Government Department of Common Sense. It was in the context of over complicating the proposal to charge 5p for all plastic carrier bags. Wouldn’t common sense be a requirement for them all to be biodegradable? Recruitment to such a department would be a real challenge since many politicians, the Pudsey MP excepted, seem to be more adept at polemic than the application of basic common sense.

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

BOB Watson asks if it is “getting too personal” to coin the word “fatlining” in connection with Ed Balls (Yorkshire Post, February 5). Yes, Bob, I’m afraid it is. On the same page as your gratuitous attack, several contributors argue persuasively against socialist policies without ever getting personal. And if I wanted to insult MPs’ appearances, I wouldn’t start with the Shadow Chancellor.

From: Robert Heys, Bar Lane, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge.

I WRITE in support of Ken Cooke’s deprecation of the increasing frequency of the mispronunciation of common words (Yorkshire Post, February 1) even by influential individuals such as announcers and pundits featured in prestigious BBC broadcasts. And to your correspondent’s list of pet aversions, I would add the pronunciation of ‘creating’ as ‘crating’ and the use of ‘amount’ instead of ‘number’ in descriptions of the size of attendances at public meetings.

From: Nigel Bywater, Oak Grove, Morley.

IT was reported in March 2012 in the Yorkshire Post that Leeds City Council’s debts stood at £1.6bn. So I was rather surprised when it was revealed this week that Leeds City Council has come to the aid of Leeds’s new contemporary art space “The Tetley” with a £190,000 loan. Surely the council should put its efforts and resources into essential services, not compete with the banks.