Letters to the editor

When working couples can attract substantial family credits while running cars, mobile phones, digital TV, continental holidays and not forgetting the "essential" fags and alcohol, and single mothers are hailing taxis from their mobile phones, it is about time the whole system was given a shake-up.

I agree that luxuries should not be the preserve of the rich, but I also maintain that those that enjoy them do not deserve hand-outs from the tax payer.

When single mothers exclaim to the world that they will bring up their child alone and will not name the father, they are in reality asking the hapless taxpayer to pay.

This removes any financial responsibility from their former partner, who is free to start a new breeding programme.

Of course there are many examples of deserving people who have fallen into low income through no fault of themselves. But there is widespread abuse.

No wonder every economic migrant in the world wants to join the country of milk and honey.

Nancy Shields, Moore Avenue, Wibsey.

SIR - Re the letter from Mr C E Clarke (January 20). I do know that the people of Bradford care about their architectural heritage. I was appalled to read of the fate of the land adjacent to Undercliffe Cemetery. I share Mr Clarke's concern that the opinion of the electorate counts for nothing in the eyes of the elected.

For proof that this is true, look no further than the demolition of Provincial House and the seeming fate of the Odeon/Gaumont/New Victoria. What was so wrong with transforming Provincial House into a truly Central Library, creating therein a community theatre to replace the long-lost Library Theatre, and transferring the archives into the same building?

Miss E M Holbrook, Bradford Road, Menston.

SIR - Let's put our beans on the table and work out who should really be entitled to have Safeway's.

Firstly we have the main contender and king of the buy-one-get-one-frees, Morrisons, who started it all in the first place and are the only genuine supermarket who needs Safeway's share of the trade.

Then we have Sainsbury's who claim they thought about it 12 months ago and until a decade ago was this country's most expensive supermarket, until the price wars started.

Then we come to Asda, with their smiley, roll-back-on-certain-items campaign, and are no cheaper really than either Morrisons or Tesco's and now owned by the giant American Wal-Mart Corporation, so, technically speaking, no longer British.

Now we come to Wal-Mart itself, who have the world's largest share of supermarkets and are just being plain greedy, and will get Safeway anyway if Asda wins.

So we come back to the only genuine food retailer worthy of their share of the market place, Morrisons, and Mr D Green (clothier) should stick to selling his clothes and forget about selling cabbages.

Michael David Crossley, Farm Hill Road, Bradford.

SIR - While the panjandrums of "culture" in this benighted city persist in throwing good money after bad, having wasted a million on the ludicrous Capital of Culture bid, their penny-pinching attitude to the actual cultural activities on the streets reveals the reality behind their grandiose posturing.

For some time there has been a poetry workshop at the library every month (next one March 1 at 10am) encouraged by Robert Walters, a library employee who did more than anyone else in Bradford to encourage the reading and writing of poetry.

But now he has gone, and the workshop is to be charged £5.60 a session. What bureaucratic philistine thought it was important to make such a charge, a drop in the ocean compared to the millions being wasted?

Of course, most poetic events now take place in pubs, like the Beehive, the Goldsborough, and the Melborn, whose licensees are only too happy to let us have performing space free of charge, because we pack the place with drinking customers.

How long before the Council out-sources all its library activities to the licensed trade?

Karl Dallas, Church Green, Bradford 8

SIR - I am a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher in Poland and have lived here for the last seven years. Originally born and raised in Bradford, I was brought up with the T&A.

Apart from myself using your excellent website students over here are regularly on-line too, reading and learning a lot from the T&A's daily news.

With your site I feel very close to home again. Thank you.

Nick Tkatschuk, Chelm, Poland

SIR - I cannot agree that the traffic on Netherlands Avenue is caused by drivers not wanting to use Manchester Road, as has been suggested.

Netherlands Avenue links Huddersfield Road and Halifax Road. Coming from Brighouse/Wyke if using Netherlands Avenue you can only turn left at the top into Halifax Road (opposite way to Manchester Road) and if you come down from Halifax Road all it does is make a short cut from having to go on to Odsal Top roundabout.

Manchester Road does not come into the equation. People using this access-only road are using it as a short cut as they have done for years.

David Turner, Besha Avenue, Low Moor

SIR - What a wonderful country we live in. Do your bit and fight for the country, and when you get older we will take you off the doctor's list and close old people's homes.

Fight against the country and we will put you on the National Health list and open three-star hotels and country homes to house you.

Just who do the Government run the country for? It is about time they began to take care of our own first, and let all the do-gooders crawl back into the woodwork.

Barry Wood, Upper Hird Street, Broomhill, Keighley.

SIR - Is there a bigger hypocrite than Tony Blair? He's telling the pubic to beware of terrorist threats and yet he's letting terrorists into this country under the guise of asylum seekers, where they are drawing public money while plotting to kill British citizens.

All asylum seekers should be banned till this whole sorry mess is sorted out and all police should be armed.

Michael Breen, Bolton Hall Road, Wrose.

SIR - This is the worst government I've known and I'm in my late 60s. Murders every other day, rapes, arson, muggings (mainly of old people).

Also it's obvious that the terrorists are getting into the country with asylum seekers. What are we going to do with the terrorists we have caught? Put them in prison and the public to pay for their keep?

It's a shocking state of affairs and it's going to get worse.

B Thorpe, Broadstone Way, Holme Wood.

SIR - How can the Education Secretary justify putting students into thousands of pounds-worth of debt before they even get a job? It doesn't necessarily follow that even a well-educated student will finish up with a well-paid job.

Anybody with a grain of sense can see that quite a lot of our university students will end up looking for subsidies elsewhere (prostitution, gambling, selling drugs, etc).

Trevor Williams-Berry, Bredon Avenue, Wrose, Shipley