PM’s mixed messages on Europe

DAVID Cameron, our Prime Minister, promised a referendum if we voted him into power. We voted him into power and all we’ve got is a promise that if we vote him into power again next time he will give us a referendum. Just how stupid does he think the British public are?

He says that if Europe votes for Jean-Claude Juncker for Head of the European Parliament, he will take Great Britain out of the EU immediately.

How come he takes eight years to get us out via a nonexistent referendum, but he can take us out immediately because he doesn’t like the bloke that is going to be head of Europe?

Either he can get us out, or he can’t. You decide who he is lying to.

From: Ken Cooke, Wheatley Road, Ilkley.

DAVID W Wright (The Yorkshire Post, June 11, 2014) may be right in identifying some of the symptoms of our current problems, but he is absolutely wrong in attributing them to our membership of the EU.

The “UK’s decline” – his term – is more properly related to the variety of economics practised on both sides of the Atlantic known as Anglo-Saxon Capitalism, or “Blow you Jack, I’m all right” and its repercussions on our everyday life.

This is the unfortunate successor of Thatcherism which ultimately produced the great banking disaster – a lasting burden on us all.

From: Ron Farley, Croftway, Camblesforth, Near Selby.

THANK you Mr V Platt for enlightening us on the loss of taste in Jersey Royal potatoes (The Yorkshire Post, June 9), but why has the EU banned the use of seaweed as a green manure? Have they applied this ban to other products too such as liquid fertilisers, food products etc?

Punishments to fit crime

From: Mrs B Cussons, Curly Hill, Ilkley.

EVERY day, we read your reports on criminal activity and in addition to our feelings of concern for the victim we have to cope with anger at the insignificant penalties handed out to the criminals, many of whom have committed many other crimes.

Last week a woman was in a critical condition after falling off her horse which was stoned by youths. Definite candidates for the birch.

Then there was the Lithuanian drug addict mugging a 69-year-old man as he lay on the ground. This man had previous convictions for theft, burglary and shoplifting. If he had faced the birch and/or hard labour after his first offence, this may not have happened. In addition, he should be deported. It is not our duty to take on the criminals of other nations which is happening all too often nowadays. Two weeks ago, we read of females who attacked the widow of a good man who had been murdered by two more even more evil beings.

Now it is time to protect the innocent and penalise the guilty – this should include capital punishment for the likes of the inhuman murderers of soldier Lee Rigby.

Sporting conduct

From: Don Booker MBE, Monk Bretton, Barnsley.

YOUR readers who are also golfers will be aware that they can carry only a limited number of clubs in their bag. Imagine my surprise when I joined three colleagues for a few holes at Silkstone Golf Club, Barnsley, and they had garden rakes sticking out of their bags. Thinking it might be a 
newly permitted club to get a ball out of the long grass, I said nothing. As we progressed, however, I saw them raking all the sand bunkers on the last nine holes because there had been a heavy storm overnight and the green keeping staff were having to spend more time on the fairways and greens.

Before making their shots they re-prepared every bunker. What a wonderful gesture. On occasions we think that British pride and sportsmanship are a thing of the past, but those few hours along the fairways made one think how lucky I was to be among such super chaps.

Demise of tech schools

From: Harold Laycock, Retired Lecturer / Examiner, Sunny Bank Avenue, Mirfield.

IN my opinion, one of the gravest mistakes over the past years has been the demise of secondary technical schools, together with the excellent vocational education which they provided (The Yorkshire Post, June 4).

Nigel Farage is mistaken in his demand for a grammar school in every major town. Not everyone is suited to a grammar school education, neither are their career prospects necessarily enhanced.

In the 1940s, Dewsbury Secondary Technical School offered a number of excellent pre-vocational courses. The one which I chose was a course in building. In addition to woodwork, brickwork, plumbing and painting and decorating, the curriculum covered English, history, geography, maths, building drawing and geometry, chemistry, physics and mechanics. My first class leaving certificate enabled me to be selected for an apprenticeship while in competition with ex-grammar school boys.