Letters to the Editor

SIR - Our condolences go to the people of England on the recent bombings and murders of innocent people.

It is 9/11 all over again. Honest working people going about their business, unaware that someone so sinister, without a care for human life, was planning the same horror that we had here in New York.

They, whoever they are, are living among us, whether they are on the same bus, train, or driving across the same bridge.

But their focus is on killing, not living and enjoying life. They have no family life, enjoying their children or grandchildren.

People will say, the bombers hit New York because of Iraq, well the forces were not even in Iraq, so what was the point they were trying to make?

But we will be strong for you, as you were for us, and we will not let them defeat us.

Diane Duguid, E.4th St, Deer Park, New York

Plug this loophole

SIR - Can I join with every civilised person in our country in expressing my horror at the barbarity of the bomb attacks in London.

London is home for people of more than 200 nationalities which makes this indiscriminate slaughter even more inhuman, particularly as Muslims were among those who were murdered.

These unspeakably evil, cowardly individuals, who misguidedly think they are following a holy calling, prove they have absolutely no regard for their fellow man and are totally lacking any form of civilised behaviour.

While I realise it is hardly the time to begin recriminations, I'm afraid it has to be said that our criminally incompetent Government is wholly to blame for this disaster.

After more than eight years of dithering they have allowed our borders to haemorrhage illegal immigrants like a leaking sieve.

By their own admission ministers have no idea how many people have surreptitiously flooded into our country or indeed who they are or where they might be hiding.

Until this loophole is plugged we cannot hope to be safe, but as our Government cannot control our own 12-year-old yobs, I see little hope of them controlling al Qaida.

Malcolm Wood, Westercroft View, Northowram

Appalling outrage

SIR - We are absolutely shocked and appalled by the bombings in London last week.

The indiscriminate attacks were an assault on people of every race and faith. There is no justification for such actions and we wholeheartedly oppose the killing of innocent people in this way.

We expect the government to bring the people responsible to justice.

Syed Lakhte Hassanain, Chairman, Muslim Hands, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham

Donation fears

SIR - It's rich coming from Pretoria and other members of the African Union that what Robert Mugabe is doing in Zimbabwe is an internal matter of that country and they cannot intervene.

Apartheid in South Africa was an internal matter but the ANC in opposition at the time wanted and rightfully received interference from the outside world.

This is one of the reasons why I am so tired of Geldof's pontification as though it is the colonial masters who are to blame for Africa's problems. It is all very noble to raise money for the poor but will Geldof and his egocentric friends ensure that it does not go into the pockets of the likes of Mugabe?

Any cash should go directly to the aid workers on the ground over there and not be channelled through our and other government agencies.

P E Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley.

It's phobia time!

SIR - If I read many more letters like Stuart Baker's (T&A, July 4) I think I will be having a phobia about Britain.

How can anyone believe that the corrupt organisations in Brussels and Strasbourg do anything good for Britain? All they are interested in is the gravy train,

If Tony Blair sacrifices our rebate we will be paying 15 times more than France, which is also a G8 member.

As for the jobs he says we will get, we have already lost to Europe. Our coal industry - we now buy cheap coal from Poland and electricity from France; our car industry - most Frenchmen buy French cars.

Our steel industry has gone, foreign steel is subsidised. Our fishing fleets are laid up while foreign fleets are Hoovering up our fishing grounds.

As for a German ally, he must be having a laugh!

N Brown, Peterborough Place, Undercliffe.

Fair trade plea

SIR - Few things are as black and white as they first appear. Mankind tends to be driven more by emotion than cold fact.

The crisis in Africa is a good example of mass self-deception.

Fact one: The Europeans and Americans profited from the extension of the African slave trade, but they didn't introduce it.

Fact two: One billion people exist on less than one dollar a day while £1 billion a day is spent propping up European and American farmers at the expense of those in Africa.

Fact three: For every dollar Africa receives in Western Aid, it costs the Africans four dollars for the privilege to trade with the West, by virtue of trade barriers and imposed tariffs.

In short, it could be reasonably concluded that the rich countries of the West have put the Africans in economic bondage and enjoy a material benefit from this continued enslavement to world markets.

Only the introduction of Fair Trade can truly help them.

Bill Forde, Nettleton Road, Mirfield.

Odeon's future

SIR - A few years ago the Alhambra's fate hung in the balance but after a couple of million pounds was spent updating its pseudo-Victorian splendour the investment soon paid off.

Now the New Vic (or Odeon to the young) faces the same uncertain future.

Come on, it only needs a bit of tarting up exterior wise, though I don't know what the interior is like.

Its future? As a cinema again but a cinema to make picture-going an experience in true art-deco surroundings, as originally, but with widescreen, cinemascope or Imax.

Also could not half the building be a theatre to provide a venue for all Bradford's struggling amateur dramatic societies?

Elaine Neale, Sherborne Road, Idle.

Derisory fine

SIR - In today's affluent society the £30 fixed penalty fine on motorists who use a mobile phone while driving is derisory - £300 is a more practical figure with a mandatory jail sentence for those caught at it again.

Any one of the 265 drivers who fell foul of the ban between January and May of this year (T&A, July 1) could have killed an innocent person but at least £79,500 would have been more appropriate than £7,950 for compensation purposes.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford.

Religious or not?

SIR - Having read on many occasions the unlightening thoughts of Mubarik Iqbal, I was pleased she was now explaining to T&A readers the aims and objectives of all religions, ie they teach love, respect and understanding.

Is she herself an atheist, as every letter of hers I have read has provided subject matter within them which has been the total opposite of the objectives of religion as she herself set out?

E Mills, Wrose Mount, Wrose.