Letters to the Editor

Sir - Again the T&A is campaigning over another worthy cause. How lucky we are to have such a campaigning local newspaper.

Concerns about Bradford City Football Club, Bradford post offices and now abuse against NHS staff - to name but three recent campaigns - have all been raised. As a doctor I know at first hand about violence towards NHS staff and recognise how worthy is this latest campaign.

And yet the T&A is deafeningly silent on a fundamental issue underlying the health of our great city. No-one is prepared to tackle the problems of our transport infrastructure.

Leeds has taken seriously its transport needs, particularly rail. In Bradford we still pamper to the car, even though they are choking our city to death.

We need to campaign for a proper integrated bus and rail service and a cross-city rail link to bring us into the national network. Cars are like cancer cells: they multiply and eventually kill the body in which they grow.

The T&A's editor is well known for his enthusiasm for cars. Perhaps he should look further than his own windscreen.

Let's have a serious campaign to get people walking and cycling and on to an excellent integrated transport system.

Dr Chris Butler, Dallam Avenue, Shipley.

l EDITOR'S NOTE: We've been calling for an integrated transport policy for as long as I can remember but Bradford will always need the car to give its retail heart a chance to prosper and lead the city's regeneration.

Human animals

SIR - Referring to your headline "Keep these animals out" (T&A, September 22), I feel you do a disservice to animals of a non-human variety. Only human animals behave in the way written about.

So your headline should really have said 'Keep these yobs masquerading as part of the human race out'.

Standards of behaviour have worsened over the years and retribution to any wrong-doer who might be caught is laughable, so what can we expect?

S Pickup, Sulby Grove, Bradford.

Food for thought

SIR - The 'Big Brother' attitude of this present Government beggars belief.

Now we are being told how much chocolate we are allowed to eat and even which size bars we are allowed to purchase with what is left of our extremely, heavily-taxed income - our own money!. I suppose the government will receive more VAT from manufacturers producing smaller size chocolate bars.

A medical practitioner advised me to eat more chocolate to prevent me from becoming anaemic.

A large-size bar is more economical to buy than the smaller sizes, but now the government is penalising people who have to eat chocolate for their health's sake.

Incidentally, the following was displayed on a hoarding: 'War can't decide who is right - only who is left'. Food for thought for those who decided on the unjust Iraq war?

Ms M Young, Norwood Terrace, Shipley.

Crazy as Canute

SIR - Teflon Tony has recently declared that British troops will stay in Iraq until world terrorism has been defeated.

He shows little genuine concern for our fallen soldiers and civilians taken hostage and then executed because he and George Bush are not prepared to negotiate their release with those they refer to as terrorists. Lives could be saved by releasing two Iraqi women alleged to have been involved in chemical and biological warfare research.

However, the message from Blair and Bush is "carry on killing".

Only last week Blair was claiming that he has the knowledge that will stop the sea from rising seven metres. Surely he must be as crazy as King Canute.

When will our members of Parliament develop the courage to file a complaint about his megalomania, the thousands of deaths that he and Bush have caused and have him sectioned?

Dennis Edmondson, Duck Hill, Pecket Well, Hebden Bridge.

Hands off 4x4s

Sir - Just as New Labour stoked up prejudice against a minority group in the hunting debate, so too have top Liberal Democrats Matthew Taylor and Lord Razzel with their remarks about "Chelsea tractors".

In reality most people have no problem with either hunting or 4x4s, and a tolerance of the lifestyle preferences of others is a universally-admired characteristic of the British.

But of course not everyone is immune to a ploy to invent a bogeyman intended to stir up peer resentment.

The use of extreme rhetoric at the party conference - "children dying outside school gates", supposedly due to 4x4 drivers - is a deplorable attempt to build support for a drab policy which is unsubstantiated by any real data.

Indeed, with a superior view of the road ahead, and to the side, it is probable the 4x4 driver will anticipate the erratic movements of a child pedestrian earlier than other drivers can.

These conference histrionics illustrate the paucity of innovative and effective Liberal Democrat policy for energy, the environment, and for transport.

The Lib-Dems do a good job in Idle and Thackley, but as a national party they have nothing to differentiate them.

Denis Spence, Mitchell Close, Idle.

Special talent

SIR - All praise to both the staff and pupils at Haycliffe Special School for winning the National Charter Standard Awards from the Football Association (T&A, September 20).

This is certainly not the first award that this school has won. Others include the Sportsmark Gold, Artsmark, Investors in People and the 2003 School Achievement Award, and medal successes in the Special Olympics in athletics.

Having attended the leavers' assembly in July, the achievements of the students - many of whom have a severe learning disability - should be acknowledged in the same way as those schools who achieve the highest grades - yet we never seem to hear about it!

Staff in special education have a very difficult job and their commitment to the children is second to none. It's time we recognised the talent we have among these teachers before we lose them.

Coun Carol Beardmore, (Lib-Dem, Eccleshill), Reighton Croft, Greengates.