Letters to the Editor

SIR - I have read the T&A report (August 16) on the Kurdish asylum seeker Warger Mirza. I am dismayed that he is still being treated in such an appalling manner. I have followed his case from the beginning and it is tragic that his position is still as perilous as ever.

He has contributed so much to Britain with his rare tailoring skills. He has paid tax and National Insurance contributions. He is not a threat to this country in anyway.

I have read that the pro-London bombing cleric, Omar Bakri, has finally been banned from returning to Britain. I feel that somebody openly campaigning to threaten national security had long overstayed his welcome. Allowing him to have remained so long in Britain is an insult to genuine asylum seekers and the British public, who fear terrorist attacks.

His pro-bomber wife and his family are being allowed to remain in Britain.

Why is it that a genuine asylum seeker who has been a key worker in British industry and is a man of peace is threatened to be sent back to a likely death at the hands of religious extremists; while a family of religious extremists, condoning terrorist bombs, is allowed to promote hate and fear in this country?

Simon Bailey, Birk Lea Street, West Bowling.

What is the plan?

SIR - I was interested to read Brian Holmans's criticism of my efforts to have longer opening hours for Shipley and Bingley police stations (T&A, August 12).

Call centre technology should allow these stations to be open longer without requiring extra police officers to sit behind a desk.

Indeed it is his Labour government which has done more than anyone to prevent sufficient bobbies from being on the beat due to the political correctness and extra paperwork they have inflicted on them.

I take it that Mr Holmans's letter means the local Labour party opposes increasing the opening hours of local police stations. I am sure the people of the Shipley constituency will be interested to know that.

Philip Davies MP (Con, Shipley), Hartlington Court, Baildon.

Generous country

SIR - There is no need for me to recant but reiterate that the IRA achieved nothing in all the years of their terrorist activities but hatred for themselves and their policies.

M Long (T&A, August 16) is either obtuse or being deliberately controversial by taking out of context a point made to justify my claim that the IRA have not gained any more power or respect after all their gratuitous force.

Indeed quite the opposite has happened until now they are having to compromise their position to try and halt the decline in the number of their supporters.

However if M Long thinks that destabilising Northern Ireland and wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers' money was anything but exploitation by the IRA, it is he who is naive.

I believe that dialogue will win the day and that the IRA's promise to decommission will inevitably materialise and vindicate my optimism.

And yes, we are a rich, prosperous and generous country. Ask the millions who have migrated and settled here, and the countless thousands more who will go to any lengths to reach our shores.

Ask the millions of desperate Third World people who have benefited from the billions of pounds willingly donated by the British Government and its empathetic electorate. Need I say more.

D Rhodes, Ashton House, Croscombe Walk, Bradford 5.

Posters a disgrace

SIR - The recent outpouring of condemnation of the London bombings by the Muslim leaders and community in Bradford has been tremendous and praiseworthy.

I would however ask in the light of this, why large colour posters glorifying the 9/11 attacks and calling Muslim women in Bradford to a meeting held in Birmingham on July 3 to establish their role in the West was left posted over five days on lamp-posts all over the Heaton and Manningham areas.

These were organised and put up by an extremist organisation known as Hizb-u-Tahrir.

Surely as opposed to terrorism as the Muslims of Bradford are, these should have been cut down immediately and binned or burned to show unity in the city.

I hope that in the future this is not allowed to take place, especially in an area which was torn apart by riots only a few years ago.

Jenny Sampson, Rossmore Drive, Allerton.

Pay off 'experts'

SIR - I have done my civic duty and written a letter to support the listing of the Odeon building, and I would have gone to the meeting to establish the Bradford Civic Trust, but I only found out about it a few hours before it took place.

Many letters to the Editor support the Odeon, and I would have written but most of the points were covered by other writers. I do feel the Council is at fault for paying for these so-called "experts" and after spending so much money they do not want to admit their mistakes.

I think they should show a little backbone and pay off Maud Marshall et al. We really need to rid ourselves of their "services"! It would be the best money spent by the Council in a long time.

Mrs Patricia R Ellis, St John's Crescent, Fairweather Green, Bradford.

Flawed thinking

SIR - Once again after reading the Bradford Council leaflets on unadopted roads, the word "pathetic" comes to mind. The thinking that these roads (1,500 in total) are a residents' problem is quite unbelievable. Their answer is that thousands of hard-working Bradfordians and pensioners cough up thousands of pounds to put the problem right.

This thinking has never worked in the last 100 years and if there was a remote chance of it ever working, it would take another 100 years to do it. My parents and grandparents lived on unadopted roads and the problem is still here today.

R Hall, Hollingwood Lane, Bradford 7

Sad state of affairs

SIR - I agree with people who have had difficulty over parking permits. My husband, who will be 80 next year, tried to get a blue badge so my son could drive him, and he was refused. He has angina, a pacemaker, only one eye and is profoundly deaf. He is all right on flat surfaces but when he has to go up hill he is gasping and has to use his inhaler.

So I think it is about time something was done. The authorities should take the word of GPs, who know the people who are applying.

Mrs N. Fairbairn, New Hey Road, East Bowling