Letters to the Editor

SIR - I work as a bus driver for Keighley and District Travel, who operate the 662 Shuttle service between Keighley and Bradford.

This service operates along the full length of the bus lanes between Keighley and Bradford in both directions.

Before any considerations are given to extending the times the bus lanes operate, I would like to remind the powers-that-be of the present-day problems.

The bus lanes are constantly blocked by car drivers, parked cars and delivery vehicles. It's just not good enough to have the police do a purge every six months as a week later it's back to square one.

At Keighley and District the investment and commitment in public transport has been made! We now need the same from the powers-that-be. Please don't let these new buses just be a nice place to sit while you're stuck in traffic.

They say "if it's not broken don't fix it". Well believe me, it's broken and needs fixing. Metro, Bradford Council, Highways Agency and the police, do your bit we're doing ours.

Mel Wright, Wightman Street, Undercliffe.

Just irresponsible

SIR - There have been quite a few letters recently about dog owners allowing their animals to foul public places and not cleaning up after them.

I am a dog owner and always clean up after my dog, as do all my friends and associates, although I do admit that there are a few owners who do not follow this rule and are therefore liable for the penalties involved.

However, my main contention is that there has been no mention of the people who do not take their dogs out, but merely allow them to roam as they please fouling wherever they like.

Surely the main target should be these irresponsible owners who not only allow their dogs to foul at will but aren't even concerned what else they are getting up to.

I was speaking to a warden last year during my walk round the local park and asked what happened to these dogs if they were caught fouling the park area. I was advised that there is nothing they can do about it because it would be too much of a problem to contact the owners.

What an incentive to take responsibility for your own animals.

Mrs P Howe, Summerlands Grove, Bradford.

Election solution

SIR - The answer to E Firth's questions, woolly logic and bizarre reflection on American ethnic politics (T&A, February 9) is that the majority elect the party they feel most capable of forming a stable government, however much they disagree with much of its "manifesto".

When, as in the UK until very recently, all the major parties agreed on a pro-EU line, the wishes of the electorate counted for nothing. Single issue "protest" movements inevitably achieved single-figure results.

Even UKIP, the most successful such challenger to the system, had to broaden its appeal by stealing the BNP's clothes on immigration control and combating crime.

The demand for a referendum is perfectly intelligible and the result likely to be 'no' to the EU but, as in the case of the French and Dutch rejection of the Constitution, the practical consequences of such an exercise would be nil, as the empire-builders of Brussels would simply ignore the results and implement what is essentially a "done deal".

The only solution is to elect a government with the willpower to walk away rather than simply make noises the electorate wants to hear once every five years.

Coun James Lewthwaite, (BNP, Wyke), City Hall, Bradford.

The wrong image

SIR - I loved your cartoon of all of us demonstrating outside the Alhambra Theatre against the musical Jerry Springer: The Opera (T&A, February 14).

Congratulations to your cartoonists - it's good to laugh at yourself!

On a point of fact though, our church congregations here in Bradford are quite different from the rather old-fashioned characters in your cartoon.

Our own church has people attending of all ages and you are as likely to see people in baseball caps and bling as twin set and pearls!

People ask: 'Will you be protesting outside the theatre with placards?' My answer is I'm hoping and praying that the show won't be on. We shall have to wait and see.

Nick Jones, Vicar, St John's Church, Great Horton.

Powerful women

SIR - We have two very powerful women in Bradford.

First, Margaret Eaton: I have never spoken to any ratepayer who is in favour of a rat-infested lake in the middle of our city, so listen to the people before you make a terrible mistake, Ms Eaton.

Second, Geraldine Howley: Most tenants in South Area Trust are happy that at last they have a say in the way their estate is managed. The staff in South are tenant-friendly.

It is about time the Trust House staff started to listen to the tenants. Merging all the areas is not in the best interest of the tenants of South Bradford.

J Tyne, Mayfield Rise, Wyke.

A kind gesture

SIR - While driving in an unfamiliar area of Bradford on Monday evening I found myself horribly lost and very late for an appointment.

After driving round in circles I pulled in and tried to make sense of the directions I had been given. I must have looked very confused and bewildered when all of a sudden I heard a voice shout "Are you all right mate?"

I turned around to see a young Asian man in a white van had pulled up next to me. I was a little taken aback but told him my problem and to my delight he said "Follow me, I'll take you there."

I know he went well out of his way to do this and I never got the opportunity to thank him properly for what he did.

Young Asian men don't get a lot of good press these days so I thought that through the T&A I would just say how much his kindness was appreciated.

A Robinson, Moorside Cottages, Ilkley Road, Riddlesden.

Freedom fighters?

SIR - I was one of 25 Moravian Church members who have just returned from the Holy Land and Palestine to hear that the Anglican Church is considering disposing of its investments in the American company Caterpillar because the Israeli Army use CAT Bulldozers to destroy homes of Arab families in the refugee camps.

Our guide had not worked for almost two years and agreed the tourist trade to Israel was "not good".

I suggested that maybe if the Jews did not punish the families, mothers, father, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters of the suicide bombers so badly then their image around the world could improve and the desperately-weak trade pick up.

The Oslo agreement intended that Israel would keep 60 per cent of the land and Palestinians 40 per cent. This is now 78 per cent and 22 per cent and when the wall is finished could be more unbalanced.

Would it be fairer to label the suicide bombers "freedom fighters" in an occupied land, just as the Jews were when fighting the British not many years ago?

Alan Holdsworth, Wellhouse, Mirfield.

A shameful war

SIR - Our young people sign up to the British defence force, not the British offence forces.

They are expected, by the British public, to fight only legal, just wars not an illegal, cruel, shameful one against a mostly civilian and created enemy.

And they are most certainly not paid by the British taxpayer to fight a war created by just two men and for the benefit of a handful of obscenely wealthy, dangerously powerful, mostly US men.

This war has brought nothing but shame to this country and its people. I'm ashamed to be British, proud to be European and loathe our unbalanced relationship with the United States of America.

Eric Firth, Wellington Street, Wilsden.

Name important

SIR - We may not have a football team playing in Europe but we have an airport, even if it is shared. If the Council decides to sell our share in the airport to a private investor, will it continue to be called Leeds Bradford? I think it is important to us.

Iain Morris, Caroline Street, Saltaire.