Letters to the Editor

SIR - Responding to your story about Martin Hare, from whom the Child Support Agency has demanded £42,000 despite a judge's ruling (T&A, November 28), a CSA spokesman said Mr Hare should contact his case worker.

In all the time I have had to deal with the CSA I have never heard of a case worker, let alone been assigned one. Indeed, at my wits' end once, I had to telephone the CSA and, having finally got through, found myself trying to converse with a man who was neither awake nor interested.

When (understandably) I lost the plot, I was passed to his supervisor who took great joy in ticking me off for going out of my mind over the phone.

This year alone I have been in contact with the CSA at least five times about a re-assessment and received five different reasons why they cannot proceed. I have the greatest sympathy for Mr Hare, who should be aware that not even the intervention of solicitors will be of any good as the CSA just ignores their letters.

He has a battle royal on his hands, with no rights as such; criminals are treated better. I wish him luck.

Martin John Petty, Haworth Road, Bradford.

Divine help

SIR - The way I stopped smoking within three days was rather wonderful. For about 40 years I smoked cigarettes, even when married with five children and constantly struggling to make ends meet. Once I gave up for a whole year, then lapsed.

Again and again I tried to stop. At 7.30am I would dump my last few cigarettes: "That's it. I've finished!". But at 11.30pm I'd be scouring Harrogate for a cigarette machine. This went on for years.

Finally, one night, I just said: "Jesus, I want to stop smoking but I can't. Please will you do it for me?" The next day was difficult but I got through. The second day was much easier. The third day I hardly gave it a thought.

Then I was in the clear, free from any desire to smoke. That was 23 years ago and it's been the same ever since.

Eddie O'Hara, North Avenue, Rhyl, North Wales.

Grateful parkers

SIR - We echo the sentiments of Mr P Fixter (Letters, November 28) about clamping at Haworth, in that the answer is simple: Read the notice in the car park and don't be late.

We regularly pick up our granddaughter from Haworth School and, like many other parents and grandparents, we are very grateful to car park owner Ted Evans for allowing us to park opposite the school for free.

We also note from the T&A that the fees for the Yorkshire Dales car parks are to be increased to £2 for two hours - much more than people are charged in Haworth.

D L Waite and Jean Waite, Blackmoor Road, Haworth.

Clamper foiled

SIR - On November 30 I parked at the Haworth car park but found I had no change; I asked the attendant if he could change a £5 note but he directed me to a shop, saying it would be OK.

When I looked out of the shop window I saw someone starting to clamp my car; I ran across the road, got in the car and drove off, leaving him standing and looking.

John Dowson, Stannage Lane, Shelf.

Valid contrast

SIR - One hundred years ago Rudyard Kipling wrote: "It's Tommy this and Tommy that, and chuck 'im out, the brute, but it's saviour of 'is country when the guns begin to shoot."

Reports a few years ago of disturbances in Colchester, Aldershot, Cyprus and elsewhere and more recently of conflict in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq show that Kipling's contrast between peacetime soldiering and active service remains valid.

These reports also show that military discipline is about making good soldiers, not good citizens. Thus the continuing demands in your pages for the reintroduction of national service to control hooliganism are misplaced.

How, for example, would the world cope with half a million bored young men trained to kill but with no targets in prospect? As far back as I can remember (1955) squaddies on the loose at home or abroad were not a welcome sight.

Short of starting wars just to keep them occupied, I fear the consequences of renewed selective conscription would be worse than the problem it is meant to solve.

Brian Holmans, Langley Close, Bingley.

USA's failures

SIR - Regarding correspondents supporting the USA (Letters, November 26) it is interesting to note that these people only remember the good things America has done.

Our "Greatest Ally" failed to support us in our last two wars (Suez and the Falklands) as well as invading part of the Commonwealth (Grenada). Now we rush headlong to their support.

They have murdered elected presidents (Allende) and supported tyrants (Pinochet). Israel is the major destination for their overseas "aid". The chance to defend Europe against Communism was turned down in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

Today our "major trading partner" has placed unfair tariffs on our steel exports, while insisting on the right to "free" trade in the developing world. The gross inconsistencies of American policies may explain why people were demonstrating against Mr Bush.

John Taylor, Beechwood Avenue, Shelf.

Bleeding us dry

SIR - All those demonstrating against Bush, leader of a country that is the best friend Britain has in the world, should have been demonstrating against Tony Blair, who is determined to hand us over to Europe without a referendum.

Europe will take away from us everything they can get their hands on. They are already talking about having our armed forces and our nuclear capability. France and Germany are trying to ensure that England does not exist as a country.

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

Bradford angels

SIR - Through the T&A, may I express my heartfelt gratitude for the help I received during my late wife's long illness.

She always expressed a wish that she could die at home and, without the dedicated and unstinting help she received from the district nurses, care workers, sitting service and Hospice at Home, I could not have coped to enable her wish to be granted.

In an organisation the size of the NHS, it is inevitable that things sometimes go wrong but from my experience, the good citizens of Bradford North can rest assured that, if necessary, they will be comforted and helped by a team of live angels of mercy. God bless them all.

Geoffrey Holmes, The Grove, Idle.

Tragic religions

SIR - Robert Hughes accused me of "complete ignorance of Papal powers" (Letters, November 25). Well, in my ignorance I thought that the Pope was Christ's vicar on earth and, as such, I presumed that Papal power was pretty absolute.

However, my real complaint is about his assertion that I "hate" Catholics and all religionists. On the contrary, I hate nobody. I am a humanist which means that I value humanity above all else, certainly above supernatural beings and all the superstitious baggage associated with them.

What I do hate, fervently, is what religions have done and are still doing to my fellow human beings. The misery, the agony, the centuries of unimaginable blood-letting, and all because of what? Differing versions of what atheists consider to be nothing more than myths, legends and superstitions. That is the pity and the tragedy of it all.

Peter Wilson, Thornhill Grove, Calverley.

Christmas treat

SIR - Reading about Toc H moving into the former Park Methodist Church in West Bowling (T&A, November 28) brought back fond memories.

Just days before Christmas 70 years ago, Toc H provided a meal for me and my schoolmate at Ecclesfield, Sheffield. There was bread, real butter, not margarine, a plate of boiled ham and I had two cream buns. This treat is still remembered 70 or more years later, so this is a late "thank you" and "good luck."

Harry Cooke, Stubley Farm Road, Heckmondwike.